THE MEASURE YOU NEED TO GET THROUGH LIFE

Pursuant a discussion of the bizarre measuring schemes used in the United States -- inches, feet, hands, spans, and weird shiznit like stones, wool bales, hogsheads, and the standard American cup everyone is obligated to purchase when they learn about fire and kitchens -- I made mention of something similar.


Specifically:

Taels to the catty. Ten 錢 ('chin') equals one 兩 ('leung') which is equivalent to one sixteenth of a 斤 ('gan')，of which there are thirty in a 鈞 ('kwan')， four of which make up a 石 ('daam')。Everybody should know this.

[NOTE: 石 is in all other cases pronounced 'sek'.]

These are legal weights in Taiwan, Hong Kong, formerly on the mainland, and in Indochina, and Malaya. Mace, Tael, Catty, Kwan, and Picul. And note that 鈞 is also written 銞 showing a held (勹 'baau') utterance, statement, or quote (曰 'yuet') placed over gold or more generally metal (金 'gam').
鈞 with 匀 ('wan'; "equal") on the right is, however, standard.


銞

This is important information, folks,
And there will be a test.


Now please note that in the United States tobacco is commonly sold in two ounce measurements, more or less equivalent to fifty six point six grammes (a tin or pouch), whereas in Europe it is available as 1.76 ounces, which also makes no buggery sense whatsoever.
Two taels of good pipe tobacco are approximately one and half of a European tin, or seven ninths of an American tin. More or less.
Which should last you for eight to ten days.
But longer when it's raining.



No one sensible uses Akbar weights.




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