Stone (Chinese: 石) is the English word for a historical Chinese unit of mass. While the character "石" is normally pronounced shí (pinyin: shí; Cantonese: sek6), as a unit of measure it is pronounced dàn (pinyin: dàn; Cantonese: daam3).
Historically, during the Qin and Han dynasties, the stone was used as a unit of measurement. One stone was equal to 120 catties. Government officials at the time were paid in grains, counted in stones. The amount of salary in weight was then used as a ranking system for officials, with the top ministers being paid 2000 stones.[1]
In the early days of Hong Kong as a British colony, the stone (with its Chinese pronunciation listed was shik) was used as a measurement of weight. One stone equals 120 catty,[2] which is about 72.6 kilograms (160 lb). It was made obsolete due to a subsequent overriding legislation in 1885, which made no reference to this unit.[3]