Tael, or liang, also known as the tahil and by other names, can refer to any one of several weight measures used in East and Southeast Asia. It usually refers to the Chinese tael, a part of the Chinese system of weights and currency. The Chinese tael was standardized to 50 grams in 1959.
Chinese units of measurement, known in Chinese as the shìzhì, are the traditional units of measurement of the Han Chinese. Although Chinese numerals have been decimal (base-10) since the Shang, several Chinese measures use hexadecimal (base-16). Local applications have varied, but the Chinese dynasties usually proclaimed standard measurements and recorded their predecessor's systems in their histories.
The foot is a unit of length in the British imperial and United States customary systems of measurement. The prime symbol, ′, is commonly used to represent the foot. In both customary and imperial units, one foot comprises 12 inches, and one yard comprises three feet. Since an international agreement in 1959, the foot is defined as equal to exactly 0.3048 meters.
The koku (斛) is a Chinese-based Japanese unit of volume. 1 koku is equivalent to 10 to or approximately 180 litres, or about 150 kilograms (330 lb) of rice. It converts, in turn, to 100 shō and 1000 gō. One gō is the traditional volume of a single serving of rice, used to this day for the plastic measuring cup that is supplied with commercial Japanese rice cookers.
Shaku or Japanese foot is a Japanese unit of length derived from the Chinese chi, originally based upon the distance measured by a human hand from the tip of the thumb to the tip of the forefinger. Traditionally, the length varied by location or use, but it is now standardized as 10/33 m, or approximately 30.3 centimeters (11.9 in).
Li, also known as the Chinese mile, is a traditional Chinese unit of distance. The li has varied considerably over time but was usually about one third of an English mile and now has a standardized length of a half-kilometer. This is then divided into 1,500 chi or "Chinese feet".
The palm is an obsolete anthropic unit of length, originally based on the width of the human palm and then variously standardized. The same name is also used for a second, rather larger unit based on the length of the human hand.
The ge is a traditional Chinese unit of volume equal to 1/10 sheng. Its Korean equivalent is the hob or hop and its Japanese equivalent is the gō.
Traditional Japanese units of measurement or the shakkanhō (尺貫法) is the traditional system of measurement used by the people of the Japanese archipelago. It is largely based on the Chinese system, which spread to Japan and the rest of the Sinosphere in antiquity. It has remained mostly unaltered since the adoption of the measures of the Tang dynasty in 701. Following the 1868 Meiji Restoration, Imperial Japan adopted the metric system and defined the traditional units in metric terms on the basis of a prototype metre and kilogram. The present values of most Korean and Taiwanese units of measurement derive from these values as well.
A cun, often glossed as the Chinese inch, is a traditional Chinese unit of length. Its traditional measure is the width of a person's thumb at the knuckle, whereas the width of the two forefingers denotes 1.5 cun and the width of four fingers side-by-side is 3 cuns. It continues to be used to chart acupuncture points on the human body, and, in various uses for traditional Chinese medicine.
A picul, dan or tam, is a traditional Asian unit of weight, defined as "as much as a man can carry on a shoulder-pole". Historically, it was defined as equivalent to 100 or 120 catties, depending on time and region. The picul is most commonly used in southern China and Maritime Southeast Asia.
Taiwanese units of measurement are the customary and traditional units of measure used in Taiwan. The Taiwanese units formed in the 1900s when Taiwan was under Japanese rule. The system mainly refers to Japanese system. The measurement refers to the traditional size of a Japanese flooring mat called a Tatami mat which were positioned to completely cover the floor of traditional Japanese homes, therefore it became a convenient measurement tool as mat area was standardised hundreds of years ago. In Taiwan the measurement units were pronounced in Taiwanese Hokkien and Hakka before World War II and adopted by the Mandarin-speaking immigrants from China in 1949. Today, the Taiwanese units are used exclusively, in some cases alongside official SI units, and in other cases they have been replaced by SI.
Hong Kong has three main systems of units of measurement in current use:
A hu is a flat scepter originating from China, where they were originally used as narrow tablets for recording notes and orders. They were historically used by officials throughout East Asia, including Japan, Korea, Ryukyu, and Vietnam. They are known as shaku in Japan, and are worn as part of the sokutai ceremonial outfit. They continue to be used in Daoist and Shinto ritual contexts in some parts of East Asia.
The zhang is a customary Chinese unit of length equal to 10 chi. Its value varied over time and place with different values of the chi, although it was occasionally standardized. In 1915, the Republic of China set it equal to about 3.2 meters or 3.50 yards. In 1930, this was revised to an exact value of 3⅓ meters.
Vietnamese units of measurement are the largely decimal units of measurement traditionally used in Vietnam until metrication. The base unit of length is the thước or xích. Some of the traditional unit names have been repurposed for metric units, such as thước for the metre, while other traditional names remain in translations of imperial units, such as dặm Anh for the mile.
Korean units of measurement, called cheokgwan-beop or cheokgeun-beop in Korean, is the traditional system of measurement used by the people of the Korean peninsula. It is largely based on the Chinese system, with influence from Japanese standards imposed following its annexation of the Korean Empire in 1910. Both North and South Korea currently employ the metric system. Since 2007, South Korea has criminalized the use of Korean units in commercial contexts, but informal use continues, especially of the pyeong as a measure of residential and commercial floorspace. North Korea continues to use the traditional units, although their standards are now derived from metric conversions.
Jin, or gan in Cantonese, also called "Chinese pound" or "catty", is a traditional Chinese unit for weight measurement in East Asia. It originated in China mainland before being introduced to neighboring countries. Nowaday, the mass of 1 jin ranges between 500 to 610 grams in different places: 500 grams in mainland China, 600 grams in Taiwan, Japan, Korea and Thailand, 604.78982 grams in Hong Kong, and 604.8 grams in Singapore and Malaysia. The Jin system is mostly used in the traditional markets, and famous for measuring gold, silver and Chinese medicines.
The Chinese sheng, called sho in Japan and seung in Korea, also called Chinese liter, is a traditional unit of volume in East Asia. It originated from China and later spread to Japan, the Korean Peninsula, Vietnam and other places. One sheng equals 10 ge or 1/10 dou, though its specific capacity has varied by times and regions. Nowadays, 1 sheng is 1 liter in China, 1.8039 liters in Japan and 1.8 liters in Korea.
The fen in Mandarin, fan in Cantonese or hun in Taiwanese, is a traditional Chinese unit of length. One fen equals 1/10 of a cun or 1/100 of a chi. It is 3+1⁄3 mm in China mainland, 3.71475 mm in Hong Kong and 3.030 mm in Taiwan.
