WEIGHTS AND MEASURES

dan : a measure of weight equal to 100 jin , with local variation.

jin (or catty): a measure of weight, normally equal to 1.3 pounds, with local variation.

mu : a measure of area equal to 0.1647 acre or 0.0666 hectare, with local variation.

shi : a measure of volume for grain (1 shi of milled rice weighed approximately 175–195 pounds); also used interchangeably with dan as a measure of weight, with local variation. Gansu granaries recorded stocks in jingshi , a measure of volume seven-tenths as large as the cangshi , the standard granary measure used elsewhere in China. In Wuxi, shi was used to denote a weight of approximately 150 jin .

tael (or liang ): the Chinese ounce, a measure of weight equal to one-sixteenth of a jin ; also one of numerous units of account for uncoined silver money employed in China before 1932.

yuan (or dollar): refers to silver coinage issued in China from the late nineteenth century and to fiat money of the Republic of China following the demonetization of silver in 1935.

SOURCES: Han-sheng Chuan and Richard A. Kraus, Mid-Ch'ing Rice Markets and Trade: An Essay in Price History (Cambridge, 1975), pp. 79–98; Thomas G. Rawski, Economic Growth in Prewar China (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1989), p. xv.