Li (unit)
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This article is about two traditional Chinese units of length. For other uses of li, including the Confucian virtue, see li (disambiguation).
The li (里, lǐ) is a traditional Chinese unit of distance, which has varied considerably over time but now has a standardized length of 500 meters or half a kilometer (c. 1640 feet). A modern li consists of 1,500 Chinese "feet" or chi and, in the past, was often translated as a "mile." Since the li has generally been only about a third as long as the mile, translating the character as "Chinese mile" or simply "li" is much less likely to produce confusion or error.
The character 里 combines the characters for "field" (田, tián) and "earth" (土, tǔ), since it was considered to be about the length of a single village. In Chinese, li is sometimes prefaced by the character shi (市, shì) to distinguish it from the kilometer proper or gongli (公里, gōnglǐ).
There is also another li (Traditional: 釐, Simplified: 厘, lí) that indicates a unit of length 1/1000th of a chi, but it is used much less commonly. This li is used in the People's Republic of China as the equivalent of the centi- prefix in metric units, thus limi (厘米, límǐ) for centimeter. The tonal difference makes it distinguishable to speakers of Chinese, but unless specifically noted otherwise, any reference to "li" will always refer to the longer traditional unit and not to either the shorter unit or the kilometer. This traditional unit, in terms of historical usage and distance proportion, can be considered the East Asian counterpart to the Western league unit.
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[edit] Changing Values
- For a full history of traditional Chinese units over time, see Chinese units
Like most traditional Chinese measurements, the li is reputed to have been established by the Yellow Emperor at the founding of the Chinese civilization around 2600 BC and standardized by Yu the Great of the Xia Dynasty six hundred years later. Although the value varied from state to state during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, historians give a general value to the li of 405 meters prior to the Qin Dynasty imposition of its standard in the 3rd century BC.
The basic Chinese traditional unit of distance was the chi. As its value changed over time, so did the li’s. In addition, the number of chi per li was sometimes altered. To add further complexity, under the Qin Dynasty, the li was set at 360 "paces" (步, bù), but the number of chi per bu was subsequently changed from 6 to 5, shortening the li by 1/6. Thus the Qin li of about 576 meters became with other changes the Han li, which was standardized at 415.8 meters.
During the AD 4th century, the kingdoms of Wei and Western Qin apparently used a li as short as 77 meters. The History of Liang Dynasty from AD 635 describes the state of Wa (Japan) as being 2,000 li across the sea from the Korean Peninsula. The Tsushima Strait is only 97 kilometers wide, which would indicate a li of 48.5 meters, but this is likely simply an erroneous figure and the measurement of distance at sea was notoriously difficult before the invention of reliable clocks (For more information, see longitude).
Under the Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907), the li was approximately 323 meters.
In the late Manchu or Qing Dynasty, the number of chi was increased from 1,500 per li to 1,800. This had a value of 2115 feet or 644.65 meters. In addition, the Qing added a longer unit called the tu, which was equal to 150 li (161.13 km, 100.14 miles).
These changes were undone by the Republic of China of Chiang Kai-shek, who adopted the metric system in 1928; but the People's Republic of China under Mao Zedong reinstituted the traditional units as a measure of anti-imperialism and cultural pride.
In 1984, the PRC officially adopted the metric system, but found a place within it for the traditional units, which were restandardized to metric values. In the People's Republic, a li is now exactly half a kilometer, or 500 meters. The Republic of China (also known as Taiwan) does not use the li at all, but only the gongli or kilometer.
However, although "li" still refers to the traditional unit and one must say "gongli" to mean kilometer, with the conversion to metric, the kilometer has become the basic unit of long distances even within the PRC. This is in counter-distinction to weight, where the traditional jin (0.5 kg) is still frequently preferred in daily use the metric kilogram or gongjin.
[edit] Cultural Use
As one might expect for the equivalent of "mile," li appears in many Chinese sayings, locations, and proverbs as an indicator of great distances or the exotic:
- The Chinese name for the Great Wall is "the Ten Thousand Li Wall" (万里长城, Wàn Lǐ Chángchéng). As in Greek, the number "ten thousand" is used figuratively in Chinese to mean any "infinite" or "immeasurable" value, and this title did not provide a literal distance. Ironically, the actual length of the final Great Wall is roughly 13,000 modern li – or 3,000 li longer than its name's proverbially "infinite" length.
- The Chinese proverb commonly rendered "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step" originally discussed travelling one thousand li (千里之行，始于足下, "Qiān lǐ zhī háng, shǐ yú zú xià"), diminishing the distance intended by about two-thirds.
- The greatest horses of Chinese history are all referred to as "thousand li horses" (千里马, qiān lǐ mǎ), since they could supposedly travel a thousand li in a single day. Examples include Red Hare and Hua Liu.
[edit] Other Cultures
The long Chinese li was the source of the ri in Korea (리, ri) and Japan (where it is still written 里). Although the Chinese units had been unofficially used since the Zhou Dynasty, it was the values of the Tang Dynasty that were adopted by the Japanese emperor in 701. The ri still used in Japan and North Korea is 3927.2 m or about 2.44 miles.
In South Korea, however, the ri currently in use is a unit taken from the smaller Chinese li. It has a value of 10/33 millimeter.
[edit] See also
- League (unit) for a general discussion of league-style units
- Chinese traditional units
- Japanese traditional units
- Korean traditional units
[edit] References
- Hill, John E. 2003. "Annotated Translation of the Chapter on the Western Regions according to the Hou Hanshu." 2nd Draft Edition. See under "Measurements" at: [1]
- Hulsewé, A. F. P. 1961. "Han measures." T'oung pao Archives, Vol. XLIX, Livre 3, pp. 206-207.
