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16 taels, 15.55 taels, 15.41 taels, 14.4 taels, and 13.8 taels, according as it was used by different tradesmen. At Canton, the value of a catty ranges from 14 to 16 taels, but shopkeepers are in the habit of keeping the apparent price per catty the same, and diminishing its weight; there is, however, no deception in this reduction, for the usage has come to be well understood. It imposes upon parties to a contract, however, thẹ constant necessity of settling their standards, and opens the way to continual disputes. At Tientsin, catties of only 12 taels are recognized in some articles; while at Hankau, one sort of catty-weight is used equal to 16 taels 8 mace.

At Macao, the former custom of trading in some articles by three different piculs, severally weighing 100, 111.15, and 150 catties, has altogether gone out of use, and everything is now bought and sold by the same standard as at Canton. The Chinese authorities do not interfere with the usages and short weights of traders, like the Turks and Persians, but allow the evils and tricks in the markets to rectify and neutralize themselves. The people deal in commodities by weight more than is usual in the West, weighing such things as spirits, oil, fire-wood, fowls, cotton cloth, silk, grain, &c.; so that it has been said, "everything at Canton is sold by weight, except eggs and children."

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Of these thirteen measures, only four are in actual use, the others are

now nominal; these four, which are used in retailing rice, peas, and other grains, are the koh, shing, half shing, and tau; the first three are usually made in southern China of bamboo joints. The practice of the people of selling almost every article by weight, leads to endless diversity in the size of the measures, inasmuch as the dealers calculate what measure of grain they can afford at so much a picul. The shing of rice is commonly reckoned to weigh a catty, but it varies in different places from 12 to 22 taels; at Macao it measures 30.43415 cubic inches, or a trifle less than a pint. The tau is made of wood, in shape the frustrum of a pyramid, with a handle across the top. One size called shi tau 市斗 or market peck, or shih-kin tau +, holds just ten catties of dry cleaned rice, and measures 316 cubic tsun according to government measure; the shing in this proportion measuring 31.6 tsun or

1.73 pint (the chih estimated at 12.4 inches), and the tau 1.63 gallon. But this measure is not very general.

The tsáng tau 倉斗 or granary peck, is in common use, and holds

6 catties; it measures 309.57148 cubic inches, or about 1.13 gallon. There is a round tub used containing 13 catties, called sometimes shwang tau 雙斗 or double peck. In 1846, M. Rondot measured the shing at Canton, and found two which measured 1.72 pint and 0.919 pint, while one obtained at Shanghai held 1.85 pint, and another sent him by Sir John Davis held rather more than this. In 1810, a shing of cleaned rice weighed 1 catty, and a shing of paddy 1 catty 1.7 taels, showing that the size was about the same fifty years ago. Dr Medhurst says the ordinary tau contains 476.2638 cubic tsun; this was perhaps like the double peck of Canton, as it would hold about three gallons. At Shanghai, the koh used to measure rice was found by Mr Wylie to hold 2.05 pints, and that by which peas are sold held 1.86 pints; the shing measured 1.33 pint, and the half shing 0.6 pint.

52

The dimensions given in official books of 316 cubic tsun for the tau, proves that the Chinese have attempted to regulate measures by a given standard; if we could ascertain the length of the tsun, the capacity of the tau would be known. M. Rondot takes the ancient chih of the Tang dynasty, and estimates the shing to contain 1.815 pint, and the tau, 18.15 pints, or 1.13 peck. He notices an interesting coincidence between the measure of the ancient Egyptians called cadáa, and the shing of the Hiá dynasty, each of them being ths of a litre. The shih of ten tau is now disused altogether, the shih being applied to a weight of an uncertain number of catties. In fact, the measures in use throughout China differ so greatly that it is nearly lost labor to ascertain their standards and dimensions; for sales by measures are rather a matter of convenience at any place in order to facilitate sales there by retail. Measures are used in retailing spirits and oil which contain a certain weight; those holding 1, 2, 4, and 8 taels respectively, are the common sizes. Coarse earthen jars holding 15, 30, or 60 catties of these liquids are used by the manufacturers; and are so uniform in size that their contents are sold by measure, though the weight is less than the standard.

Section 5.

MEASURES OF LENGTH.

THE unit of these is the chih, usually called a covid or cobre, or cubit, or Chinese foot. The table begins with kernels of grain, somewhat like the English table, "3 barley corns make one inch;" but the Chinese are not certain what grain was used, nor how it was laid:

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The present decimal division of the chih was not adopted by the Emperor Hwangti, who divided it into 9 tsun, and each tsun into 9 fun, according to authors who speak of its origin about the year B.C. 2600. The emperor Shun, about B. c. 2284, divided it into 10 tsun and 100 fun, which was maintained during the three following dynasties; but during the Han, about the time of Christ, the chih measured 9 tsun, and each tsun had 10 fun. The Tang restored the decimal arrangement; but the Sung (A.D. 900) went back to the division of 9 tsun and 81 fun, since which the decimal system has prevailed.

In estimating lengths, decimals are used for parts below a fun, and the chang is the highest measure for articles. The length of the chih has varied in different dynasties, and not a little during the same dynasty. M. Rondot, who has examined this subject with great care and industry, gives the following valuations of it during several dynasties :-chih of Hwangti, 10.0592 ins.; of the Shang dynasty, 128.541 ins.; of the Chau, 8.04739 ins.; of the Han, 11.17707 ins.; long chih of the Tang, 12.58415 ins. ; short chih of the Tang, and that of the Sung, 10.05924 ins.; the cháu-chih of the Ming, 13.422 ins., the tong-chih of the Ming, 12.8754 ins.; and the kioh-chih of the Ming, 12.58415 ins. The ancient books also give the following values to the chih:-in the Chau, it was 8.189 ins., 8.8978 ins., and 8.9765 ins.; in the Han, it was 9.1734 ins.; in the Sung, 10.828 ins.; and the official chih of the present Tsing dynasty is the same as that of the Shang, 12.58415 ins., equal to 12 tsun of the Hia. The Hwui-tien observes, "the ancient chih was equivalent to 8 tsun of the modern" but a standard measure received from the officials at Shanghai by Capt. Balfour in 1844 was only 12.5238 ins.-so that the standards themselves vary.

Sir H. Pottinger and Kíying in 1842 fixed upon the chih in use in the Customs at Canton as the standard, and this has been adopted in the tariff of 1858. It makes the chih 14 in. English, or 0.3581 metres French; and actually differs very little from the length furnished the English at Amoy in 1734 to measure their ships. It is not unlikely that the use of this chih of 14 inches at all the ports will gradually make it the standard throughout the empire. The Prussian treaty makes the chih equal to 13 inches 7 lines, or 355 millimetres French; and the chang equal to 11 feet, 3 inches, 9 lines Prussian.

The chih differs according to the province and the prefecture, the city and the ward, the craft and the usage; a result of the wide expanse of the empire, and the disregard or ignorance of the laws among its people. Some of these are derived from ancient official chih, but the majority seem rather to be the caprice of custom in the region where they are found.

The following values of the chih at different places will show its variations; they are furnished by M. Rondot.

Canton. Tailor's chih, called pai-tsien chih is

Mercer's measure for buying wholesale,

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inches & dec.

14.685

14.724 to 14.66

14.37 to 14.56

14.212

14.64

12.7

14.685 to 14.64
14.66
14.586

14.4 to 14.212
13.94
13.94 to 13.46
12.4

12.24 to 12.08

11.832

11.832

11.26

11.674

chik,

14.035

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13.75

12.24

12.10

11.793

11.674

11.388

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Chihma, between Changchau and Amoy. Custom-house chih,

Fuhchau. The mong-king chih,

Tailor's measure, tsai-fung chih,

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11.1 to 11

12.71

16.85 in.

15.0

13.7 to 13.4

12.75

12.3 to 12.24

Cloth dealer's, called kang-kiáu chih,
Stonecutter's, called lu- án chih,

The measure called tien chih,

Another called tang tien chih varies from,
Chinhai, near Ningpo. Tailor and trader's,

Artisan's measure, called Funkien i-chih, .
Stonecutter's, or lú-ján chih,

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12.

11.93 to 11.83

11.83 to 11.79

11.18

11.55 to 10.748

13.7

12.44

10.9 15.079

14.37

14.098

13.75

13.92 to 13.7

13.75

13.7

12.7

11.93

10.99 to 10.95

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In each of these places there is one measure which takes the precedence as approaching the standard, but their extreme differences range more than six inches. The chih measures are usually made of bamboo, and no one will be surprised at their inequalities who watches their manufacture. Shopkeepers usually keep two sticks on their counters, varying 2 to 4 lines, and even more; the shorter for retail, the longer for wholesale; they rate the cloth at the same price per chih, but measuring by the longer gives a profit, when selling by the shorter, of 3 to 6 per cent. This usage is very general and well understood.

By the Commercial Regulations, an English yard is fixed at 2 chih 5 tsun, 5.5 fun, by making the chih to be 14 inches. But a yard at Canton is reckoned at 2 chih 4 tsun, and at Shanghai at 2 chih 5 tsun, differences corresponding to the values of the chih. The treaties fix the chang at 141 inches, or 3 yds., but its actual length depends on the chih used as the unit. Thus, its length by the tariff is 141 inches; by the pai-tsun chih of Canton it is 146 inches; at Amoy, 121 inches; at Fuhchau, by the kang-kiáu chih, 118 inches; at Ningpo, by the kwántsai chih, 137 inches; and at Shanghai, it varies from 139 to 125 inches. At Peking, Tientsin, and elsewhere in the north of China, the carpenter's and mercer's foot measures of 12.35 ins. and 13.7 ins., are the two in common use. It is a pity that the progress of foreign trade in China should tend to introduce the perplexing, immethodical, arbitrary system of British weights and measures, rather than the scientific French decimal system."

C.G. 38

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