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Chinese Units
Chinese units of measurement, known in Chinese as the ''shìzhì'' ("market system"), 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. In the present day, the People's Republic of China maintains some customary units based upon the market units but standardized to round values in the metric system, for example the common ''jin'' or catty of exactly 500 g. The Chinese name for most metric units is based on that of the closest traditional unit; when confusion might arise, the word "market" (, ''shì'') is used to specify the traditional unit and "common" or "public" (, ''gōng'') is used for the metric value. Taiwan, like Korea, saw Taiwanese units of measurement, its traditional units stand ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Catty (unit)
The catty, kati or , pronounced as jin in Mandarin and gan in Cantonese, is a traditional Chinese unit of mass used across East and Southeast Asia, notably for weighing food and other groceries in some wet markets, street markets, and shops. Related units include the picul, equal to 100 catties, and the tael (also spelled ''tahil'', in Malay/Indonesian), which is of a catty. A stone is a former unit used in Hong Kong equal to 120 catties and a ''gwan'' (鈞) is 30 catties. Catty or ''kati'' is still used in Southeast Asia as a unit of measurement in some contexts especially by the significant Overseas Chinese populations across the region, particularly in Malaysia and Singapore. The catty is traditionally equivalent to around pound avoirdupois, formalised as 604.78982 grams in Hong Kong, 604.79 grams in Malaysia and 604.8 grams in Singapore. In some countries, the weight has been rounded to 600 grams (Taiwan, Japan, Korea and Thailand). In mainland China, the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mainland China
"Mainland China" is a geopolitical term defined as the territory governed by the People's Republic of China (including islands like Hainan or Chongming), excluding dependent territories of the PRC, and other territories within Greater China. By convention, the territories that fall outside of the Chinese mainland include: * Hong Kong, a quasi-dependent territory under PRC rule that is officially designated a " Special Administrative Region of the PRC" (formerly a British colony) * Macau, a quasi-dependent territory under PRC rule that is officially designated a "Special Administrative Region of the PRC" (formerly a Portuguese colony) * Territories ruled by the Republic of China (ROC, commonly referred to as Taiwan), including the island of Taiwan, the Penghu (Pescadores) islands in the Taiwan Strait, and the islands Kinmen, Matsu, and Wuqiu (Kinmen) offshore of Fujian. Overseas Chinese, especially Malaysian Chinese and Chinese Singaporeans, use this term to describe p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Korean Units
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. History Ancient Korea Customary Korean units are a local adaption of the traditional Chinese system, which was adopted at a very early date. They were imposed and adjusted at various times by royal statutes. The details of the system have varied over time and location in Korea's histor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zhou Dynasty
The Zhou dynasty ( ; Old Chinese ( B&S): *''tiw'') was a royal dynasty of China that followed the Shang dynasty. Having lasted 789 years, the Zhou dynasty was the longest dynastic regime in Chinese history. The military control of China by the royal house, surnamed Ji, lasted initially from 1046 until 771 BC for a period known as the Western Zhou, and the political sphere of influence it created continued well into the Eastern Zhou period for another 500 years. The establishment date of 1046 BC is supported by the Xia–Shang–Zhou Chronology Project and David Pankenier, but David Nivison and Edward L. Shaughnessy date the establishment to 1045 BC. During the Zhou dynasty, centralized power decreased throughout the Spring and Autumn period until the Warring States period in the last two centuries of the dynasty. In the latter period, the Zhou court had little control over its constituent states that were at war with each other until the Qin state consolidated power and forme ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ruler
A ruler, sometimes called a rule, line gauge, or scale, is a device used in geometry and technical drawing, as well as the engineering and construction industries, to measure distances or draw straight lines. Variants Rulers have long been made from different materials and in multiple sizes. Some are wooden. Plastics have also been used since they were invented; they can be molded with length markings instead of being scribed. Metal is used for more durable rulers for use in the workshop; sometimes a metal edge is embedded into a wooden desk ruler to preserve the edge when used for straight-line cutting. in length is useful for a ruler to be kept on a desk to help in drawing. Shorter rulers are convenient for keeping in a pocket. Longer rulers, e.g., , are necessary in some cases. Rigid wooden or plastic yardsticks, 1 yard long, and meter sticks, 1 meter long, are also used. Classically, long measuring rods were used for larger projects, now superseded by ta ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yu The Great
Yu the Great (大禹) was a legendary king in ancient China who was famed for his introduction of flood control, his establishment of the Xia dynasty which inaugurated dynastic rule in China, and his upright moral character. He figures prominently in the Chinese legend of "Great Yu Who Controlled the Waters" (). The dates which have been proposed for Yu's reign predate the oldest-known written records in China, the oracle bones of the late Shang dynasty, by nearly a millennium. Yu's name was not inscribed on any artifacts which were produced during the proposed era in which he lived, nor was it inscribed on the later oracle bones; his name was first inscribed on vessels which date back to the Western Zhou period (c. 1045–771 BC). The lack of substantial contemporary documentary evidence has caused some controversy over Yu's historicity. Thus, proponents of his existence theorize that stories about his life and reign were orally transmitted in various areas of China until the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Records Of The Grand Historian
''Records of the Grand Historian'', also known by its Chinese name ''Shiji'', is a monumental history of China that is the first of China's 24 dynastic histories. The ''Records'' was written in the early 1st century by the ancient Chinese historian Sima Qian, whose father Sima Tan had begun it several decades earlier. The work covers a 2,500-year period from the age of the legendary Yellow Emperor to the reign of Emperor Wu of Han in the author's own time, and describes the world as it was known to the Chinese of the Western Han dynasty. The ''Records'' has been called a "foundational text in Chinese civilization". After Confucius and the First Emperor of Qin, "Sima Qian was one of the creators of Imperial China, not least because by providing definitive biographies, he virtually created the two earlier figures." The ''Records'' set the model for all subsequent dynastic histories of China. In contrast to Western historical works, the ''Records'' do not treat history as "a cont ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kongzi Jiayu
The ''Kongzi Jiayu'' (), translated as ''The School Sayings of Confucius'' or ''Family Sayings of Confucius'', is a collection of sayings of Confucius (Kongzi), written as a supplement to the '' Analects'' (''Lunyu''). A book by the title had existed since at least the early Han dynasty (206 BC – 220 AD), and was listed in the 1st-century imperial bibliography ''Yiwenzhi'' with 27 scrolls. The extant version, however, was compiled by the Cao Wei official-scholar Wang Su (195–256 AD), and contains 10 scrolls and 44 sections. Chinese scholars had long concluded that the received text was a 3rd-century forgery by Wang Su that had nothing to do with the original text of the same title, but this verdict has been overturned by archaeological discoveries of Western Han dynasty tombs at Dingzhou (55 BC) and Shuanggudui (165 BC). Contents In the postface to the ''Kongzi Jiayu'', its author describes the collection as discussions Confucius had with his disciples and others, record ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Xiao Erya
The ''Xiao Erya'' (; "Little ra") was an early Chinese dictionary that supplements the ''Erya''. It was supposedly compiled in the early Han Dynasty by Kong Fu ( 264?-208 BCE), a descendant of Confucius. However, the received ''Xiao Erya'' text was included in a Confucianist collection of debates, the ''Kongcongzi'' (; ''K'ung-ts'ung-tzu''; "The Kong Family Master's Anthology"), which contains fabrications that its first editor Wang Su (, 195-256 CE) added to win his arguments with Zheng Xuan (, 127-200CE). The Qing Dynasty scholar Hu Chenggong (, 1776–1832), who wrote the ''Xiao Erya yizheng'' ( "Exegesis and Proof for the ''Xiao Erya''"), accepted Kong Fu as the author. Liu concludes the ''Xiao Erya'' reliably dates from the Western Han Dynasty and suggests its compiler was from the southern state of Chu. The ''Xiao Erya'' has 374 entries, far less than the ''Erya'' with 2091. It simplifies the ''Eryas 19 semantically-based chapter divisions into 13, and entitles them with ' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yellow Emperor
The Yellow Emperor, also known as the Yellow Thearch or by his Chinese name Huangdi (), is a deity ('' shen'') in Chinese religion, one of the legendary Chinese sovereigns and culture heroes included among the mytho-historical Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors and cosmological Five Regions' Highest Deities (). Calculated by Jesuit missionaries on the basis of Chinese chronicles and later accepted by the twentieth-century promoters of a universal calendar starting with the Yellow Emperor, Huangdi's traditional reign dates are 2697–2597 or 2698–2598 BC. Huangdi's cult became prominent in the late Warring States and early Han dynasty, when he was portrayed as the originator of the centralized state, as a cosmic ruler, and as a patron of esoteric arts. A large number of texts – such as the ''Huangdi Neijing'', a medical classic, and the '' Huangdi Sijing'', a group of political treatises – were thus attributed to him. Having waned in influence during most of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Liji
The ''Book of Rites'', also known as the ''Liji'', is a collection of texts describing the social forms, administration, and ceremonial rites of the Zhou dynasty as they were understood in the Warring States and the early Han periods. The ''Book of Rites'', along with the '' Rites of Zhou'' (''Zhōulǐ'') and the '' Book of Etiquette and Rites'' (''Yílǐ''), which are together known as the "Three Li (''Sānlǐ'')," constitute the ritual ('' lǐ'') section of the Five Classics which lay at the core of the traditional Confucian canon (each of the "five" classics is a group of works rather than a single text). As a core text of the Confucian canon, it is also known as the ''Classic of Rites'' or ''Lijing'', which some scholars believe was the original title before it was changed by Dai Sheng. History The ''Book of Rites'' is a diverse collection of texts of uncertain origin and date that lacks the overall structure found in the other "rites" texts (the '' Rites of Zhou'' and the '' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bronze Ruler
Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals, such as phosphorus, or metalloids such as arsenic or silicon. These additions produce a range of alloys that may be harder than copper alone, or have other useful properties, such as strength, ductility, or machinability. The archaeological period in which bronze was the hardest metal in widespread use is known as the Bronze Age. The beginning of the Bronze Age in western Eurasia and India is conventionally dated to the mid-4th millennium BCE (~3500 BCE), and to the early 2nd millennium BCE in China; elsewhere it gradually spread across regions. The Bronze Age was followed by the Iron Age starting from about 1300 BCE and reaching most of Eurasia by about 500 BCE, although bronze continued to be much more widely used than it is in modern times. Because historical artworks were ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
