Chapter 6 Rural China Weights and Measures

Rural China Weights and Measures Weights and measures are things that human beings like. When I was a child, I used popsicle sticks to make steelyards, used popsicle sticks to make scale beams, used the lids of Huoxiang Zhengqi pills to make weighing pans, and used a small tumbler lock for locking boxes as weights.Of course, the scales of catties, half catties, and taels have to be engraved on the popsicle sticks. It is hard to believe that some secular games can be played without scales. Now the toy factory does everything, depriving children of their creativity. After reading the general preface of "Research on Farmhouse Economics in Southern Jiangsu in Old China" (written by Cao Xingsui), when I turned to the table of contents, I couldn't help but turn to the chapter "Weights and Measures of the Old System of Farmhouses in Southern Jiangsu". For the Chinese countryside, weights and measures are too interesting , I also think that weights and measures are tools related to civilization. When I was young in my hometown in the countryside of southern Jiangxi, I got acquainted with all kinds of weights and measures.What impressed me the most was the bedroom where my grandma and I lived. There was an old scale pole leaning against the corner of the wall. Historical old scales.Counting, we also have a lot of weights and measures in our family. We have one scale for the ten-two system and one for the sixteen-two system. What surprised me is that the weight of the steelyard for the sixteen-two system is made of stone, a pear-shaped granite, and the upper end is a stone. There is an iron earring. Over the years, the iron earring is broken. My uncle is determined to repair it. He went to make a new iron earring. However, the root of the old iron earring is corroded in the stone weight and cannot be removed at all. My uncle put a piece of sea salt on it. He thought that salt was corrosive to iron, so he wanted to use the corrosive power of salt to rust off the root of the iron earring, and then install a new iron earring.I see that my uncle often takes out the stone weight to check whether the salt has corroded the root of the iron earring, and the corrosion ability of the salt is too poor.My uncle also has a bone scale, which he called "Waipan", which is a product of a medicine shop. My uncle opened a Chinese medicine shop for a while. The beam of "Waiting Pan" is made of bone, and the weighing pan is made of brass.My uncle habitually raises his little finger when he weighs medicine with a "waiting plate".Our family has a brass ruler, which is very heavy, with clear outlines and clear scales. It is a professional ruler used by my grandfather as a tailor.I have seen my uncle make Mi Dachi, which is actually a meter. It is made of two-layer bamboo strips, and the second-layer bamboo strips are of course the best bamboo strips.My uncle borrowed a mida ruler (also called a steel tape measure) and made the strips according to its width and length. The strips are really tough. My uncle put the strips in a bowl, poured oil into it and rubbed it repeatedly. Steamed, so steamed into yellow and orange strips.After fine grinding, draw the scale. At that time, my uncle went to work as a lumberjack. When the inspector who checked and accepted the wood buckled the size, he took out his strip ruler to measure it, so that he could not submit it.

Regarding the weights and measures in the countryside of southern Jiangxi, my hometown, I have to talk about the liter. The liter is relatively expensive. It is a bamboo product. Measure rice.It seems that there is no strict standard, and each family may borrow others' bamboo as a frame of reference when making their own, and there is a possibility of deviation, but the size of each family's bamboo in the village is generally known.Our steamed rice uses three liters of rice a day, with some dried shredded sweet potatoes, and other families do the same.The discussion that triggered Sheng was usually about borrowing rice, because there was always a sudden shortage of cooking in the neighbors, and it took time to process the stored grain into rice.Some people use double liters to borrow rice, that is, they use smaller liters when lending out, and use larger liters when returning rice. This process is interesting, because the borrower also uses the liter amount when returning home.However, when she returns the rice, she must prepare some more rice, in case the lender uses Dasheng to inspect the rice.There are not many such people, but they are very willing to lend, and rice borrowers are also willing to borrow rice from such people. Do they consider it as interest?My grandma shook her head at this.In my impression, there are horns that are smaller than liters. A triangle is one liter, three liters is a bucket, and three buckets is a stone. It is a ternary system.

The "Old" introduced that the weights and measures in southern Jiangsu were also chaotic, and this chaos was also an obstacle to the circulation of commodities in the rural areas of old China and the communication between urban and rural areas.Therefore, in February 1929, the Nanjing National Government formulated the measurement method with reference to the international metric system and the usage habits of weights and measures in various parts of China. In January 1932, the government of the Republic of China announced that the use of all old systems of measurement and measurement units was prohibited, and all units were replaced by the international metric system and the standard city system.Since then, cities and central towns have gradually adopted the standard municipal system, while rural areas usually still use the old system of measurement units, and there are differences between villages.The basic unit of measuring length in southern Jiangsu farmers is the old chi, which is shorter than the city chi. In addition, there are "plus one chi" and "plus zero five chi" specially used to measure cloth, which are one inch and five feet longer than the old chi point.The "nine-five-foot" used by vendors is five cents shorter than the old ruler, and the length of the "Zaozhuo ruler" used by craftsmen is equivalent to seven inches of the old ruler.The unit of area in rural areas in southern Jiangsu is the mu, and the calculation method for the mu is different. In Jinsha Township, Nantong County, the mu is counted by "steps". It is equivalent to 1.84 meters, and every 250 square steps is one mu.In the rural areas around Taihu Lake, each rice is counted as an acre. When harvesting rice, six rice stalks are used as a handful, and six bundles are used as "one rice". About 400 rice is one mu.The usual distance between plants and rows for local transplanting is: 0.5 feet x 0.8 feet.The measurement of mu is the basis for land transfer, sale, lease, pledge or payment of land rent.

As usual, units of capacity are commonly used in southern Jiangsu, and the unit for measuring grain is Laodou.The volume of Laodou is larger than Shidou, generally between 1:1.37-1.61.There is a great deal of uncertainty in the bucket, and there are also "cao bucket", "beach bucket" and "hexia bucket", which are special buckets for paying imperial grain.Most of the buckets in southern Jiangsu are in decimal, and there are three types: stone, bucket, and rising.The weighing unit is mostly the catty, and the sixteen-two system is divided into Tian Scale, Cao Scale and Kangping. One old catty is equivalent to 1.18 city catties.There is a kind of scale dedicated to weighing cotton, called the Sima scale, which is equivalent to 1.16 old catties.I especially like this "one old catty". When selling wine and weighing cooked beef, there is a sentence like this: one old catty is Erguotou, two old catties are stewed beef, and three old catties are stewed and boiled.According to the "Old", there are eighteen scales in southern Jiangsu, twenty-two scales in twentieth, forty-two scales, double catty scales, Sufa scales, etc., which are rarely used. 100 catties is carried as a burden.

Conversion of physical volume and weight in Dacang County, southern Jiangsu: Rice: 1 Shishi = 160 Shijin Wheat: 1 Shishi = 145 Shijin Soybeans: 1 Shishi = 140 Shijin Broad beans: 1 Shishi = 125 Jin Yuan wheat: 1 Shishi = 125 Shijin It seems that the measurement systems usually used in the countryside have their own histories and their own opinions. I prefer the hexadecimal steelyard, and there is an old catty.