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Liang (mass)

Traditional Chinese unit for weight From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Liang (mass)
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Liang (simplified Chinese: ; traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: liǎng), or leung in Cantonese, also called "Chinese ounce" or "tael",[a] is a traditional Chinese unit for weight measurement. It originated in China before being introduced to neighboring countries in East and Southeast Asia. Nowaday, the mass of 1 liang equals 1/10 jin or 50 grams in mainland China,[2] 37.5 grams in Taiwan, Korea and Thailand,[3][4] 37.799 grams in Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia,[5][6][7] and 37.8 grams in Vietnam.[8]

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A spring scale in Hong Kong shows conversions between metric system (in red), traditional Chinese unit (in green) and British Imperial Units (in blue)

Liang is mostly used in the traditional markets, and famous for measuring gold, silver and Chinese medicines.[2][4]

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China Mainland

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Chinese mass units promulgated in 1915

On 7 January 1915, the Beiyang government promulgated a measurement law to use not only metric system as the standard but also a set of Chinese-style measures based directly on the Qing dynasty definitions (营造尺库平制).[9]

More information Pinyin, Character ...

where liang is the base unit equal to 37.301 grams.

Mass units in the Republic of China since 1930

On 16 February 1929, the Nationalist government adopted and promulgated The Weights and Measures Act[10] to adopt the metric system as the official standard and to limit the newer Chinese units of measurement to private sales and trade, effective on 1 January 1930. These newer "market" units are based on rounded metric numbers. And jin became the base unit.[11]

More information Pinyin, Character ...

where one liang is equal to 1/16 of a jin, or 31.25 grams.

Mass units in the People's Republic of China since 1959

On June 25, 1959, the State Council of the People's Republic of China issued the "Order on the Unified Measurement System", retaining the market measure system, with the statement of "The market system originally stated that sixteen liangs are equal to one jin. Due to the trouble of conversion, it should be changed to ten liangs per jin."[12]

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Legally, 1 jin equals 500 grams, and 10 liangs equals 1 jin (that is, 1 liang equals 50 grams). The traditional Chinese medicine measurement system remains unchanged.[2]

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Taiwan

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In 1895, Taiwan was ceded to Japan from China. The Japanese implemented the metric system, but the Taiwanese still followed their own habits and continued to use the old weights and measures of the Qing Dynasty. 1 Taiwan liang is equal to 37.5 grams, or 1/16 Taiwan jin.[14]

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where liang is the base unit.

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Hong Kong and Macau

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Hong Kong and Macau mass units

Currently, Hong Kong law stipulates that one liang is equal to 1/16 jin, which is 37.79936375 grams.[5]

More information Jyutping, Character ...

Similarly, Singapore law stipulates that one jin is also equal to sixteen liangs or 0.6048 kilograms, and one liang equals to 37.799 g.[6] Malaysia has the same regulations as it is a former British colony.

Hong Kong troy units

These are used for trading precious metals such as gold and silver.

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Korea

The base unit of Korean weight is the gwan.[17] One liang (兩, Korean ounce) is 1/100 of a gwan, or 37.5 g (1.32 oz).

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Vietnam

In Vietnam, the unit of liang is called "lang": 1 lang is equal to 37.8 grams by traditional value, and 100 grams by modern value.[8]

More information Name in Chữ Quốc ngữ, Hán/Nôm name ...

For more information on the Chinese mass measurement system, please see article Jin (mass).

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Compounds

See also

Notes

  1. "tael" is a borrowing from the Portuguese translation of Chinese measure unit word "兩", before Pinyin and Jyutping Romanizations were available.[1]

References

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