Li (Chinese unit)

''Li'' or ri (, ''lǐ'', or , ''shìlǐ''), also known as the Chinese mile, is a traditional Chinese unit of distance. The ''li'' has varied considerably over time but was usually about one third of an English mile and now has a standardized length of a half-kilometer (). This is then divided into 1,500 chi or "Chinese feet".

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. As late as the 1940s, a "li" did not represent a fixed measure but could be longer or shorter depending on the ''effort'' required to cover the distance. This traditional unit, in terms of historical usage and distance proportion, can be considered the East Asian counterpart to the Western league unit. However, in English '' league'' commonly means "3 miles."

There is also another '' li'' (Traditional: 釐, Simplified: 厘, ''lí'') that indicates a unit of length 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.

Changing values

Like most traditional Chinese measurements, the ''li'' was reputed to have been established by the Yellow Emperor at the founding of 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 period 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" (, ''bù'') but the number of ''chi'' per ''bu'' was subsequently changed from 6 to 5, shortening the ''li'' by . Thus, the Qin ''li'' of about 576 meters became (with other changes) the Han ''li'', which was standardized at 415.8 meters.

The basic units of measurement remained stable over the Qin and Han periods. A bronze imperial standard measure, dated AD 9, had been preserved at the Imperial Palace in Beijing and came to light in 1924. This has allowed very accurate conversions to modern measurements, which has provided a new and extremely useful additional tool in the identification of place names and routes. These measurements have been confirmed in many ways including the discovery of a number of rulers found at archaeological sites, and careful measurements of distances between known points.Hulsewé (1961), pp. 206–207. The Han ''li'' was calculated by Dubs to be 415.8 metres and all indications are that this is a precise and reliable determination.

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 644.6 meters. In addition, the Qing added a longer unit called the tu, which was equal to 150 ''li'' (96.7 km).

These changes were undone by the Republic of China of Chiang Kai-shek, who adopted the metric system in 1928. The Republic of China (now also known as Taiwan) continues not to use the ''li'' at all but only the kilometer (Mandarin: , ''gōnglǐ'', lit. "common li").

Under Mao Zedong, the People's Republic of China reinstituted the traditional units as a measure of anti-imperialism and cultural pride before officially adopting the metric system in 1984. A place was made within this for the traditional units, which were restandardized to metric values. A modern ''li'' is thus set at exactly half a kilometer (500 meters). However, unlike the '' jin'' which is still frequently preferred in daily use over the kilogram, the ''li'' is almost never used. Nonetheless, its appearance in many phrases and sayings means that "kilometer" must always be specified by saying ''gōnglǐ'' in full.

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:

* One Chinese name for the Great Wall is the "Ten-Thousand-Li Long Wall" ( zh, t=萬里長城, s=万里长城, p=Wànlǐchángchéng, first=t). As in Greek, the number "ten thousand" is used figuratively in Chinese to mean any "immeasurable" value and this title has never provided a literal distance of 10,000 ''li'' (). The actual length of the modern Great Wall is around 42,000 ''li'' (), over 4 times the name's proverbially "immeasurable" length.
* The Chinese proverb appearing in chapter 64 of the ''Tao Te Ching'' and commonly rendered as "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step" in fact refers to a thousand ''li'': 千里之行，始於足下 (''Qiānlǐzhīxíng, shǐyúzúxià'').
* The greatest horses of Chinese history including Red Hare and Hualiu (驊騮) are all referred to as " thousand-''li'' horses" (, ''qiānlǐmǎ''), since they could supposedly travel a thousand ''li'' () in a single day.
* ''Li'' is sometimes used in location names, for example: Wulipu (Chinese: 五里铺镇), Hubei; Ankang Wulipu Airport (Chinese: 安康五里铺机场), Shaanxi. Sanlitun () is an area in Beijing.
* In ''Journey to the West'', Sun Wukong is said to be able to travel 108,000 ''li'' in a single somersault.

Ri in Japan and Korea

The present day Korean ''ri'' (리, 里) and Japanese ''ri'' (里) are units of measurements that can be traced back to the Chinese ''li'' (里).

Although the Chinese unit was unofficially used in Japan since the Zhou dynasty, the countries officially adopted the measurement used by the Tang dynasty (618–907 AD). The ''ri'' of an earlier era in Japan was thus true to Chinese length, corresponding to six chō ( 500–600 m), but later evolved to denote the distance that a person carrying a load would aim to cover on mountain roads in one hour. Thus, there had been various ''ri'' of 36, 40, and 48 chō. In the Edo period, the Tokugawa shogunate defined 1 ''ri'' as 36 chō, allowing other variants, and the Japanese government adopted this last definition in 1891. The Japanese ''ri'' was, at that time, fixed to the metric system, ≈ 3.93 kilometres or about 2.44 miles. Therefore, one must be careful about the correspondence between chō and ''ri''. See Kujūkuri Beach (99-''ri'' beach) for a case.

In South Korea, the ''ri'' currently in use is a unit taken from the Han dynasty (206 BC–220 AD) ''li''. It has a value of approximately 392.72 meters, or one tenth of the ''ri''. The Aegukga, the national anthem of South Korea, mentions 3,000 ''ri'', which roughly corresponds to 1,200 km, the approximate longitudinal span of the Korean peninsula.

In North Korea the Chollima Movement, a campaign aimed at improving labour productivity along the lines of the earlier Soviet Stakhanovite movement, gets its name from the word "chollima" which refers to a thousand-''ri'' horse (''chŏn + ri + ma'' in North Korean Romanization).

The Korean traditional song "Arirang" mentions one travelling 10 ''ri.''

See also

* Chinese units of measurement
* Japanese units of measurement
* Korean units of measurement
* League (unit) for a general discussion of league-style units
* Qianlima for more on "thousand-li horse" including North Korean Chollima
* Li (short)

References

Citations

Sources

* Homer H. Dubs (1938): ''The History of the Former Han Dynasty by Pan Ku''. Vol. One. Translator and editor: Homer H. Dubs. Baltimore. Waverly Press, Inc.
* Homer H. Dubs (1955): ''The History of the Former Han Dynasty by Pan Ku''. Vol. Three. Translator and editor: Homer H. Dubs. Ithaca, New York. Spoken Languages Services, Inc.
* Hulsewé, A. F. P. (1961). "Han measures". A. F. P. Hulsewé, ''T'oung pao Archives'', Vol. XLIX, Livre 3, pp. 206–207.
* Needham, Joseph. (1986). ''Science and Civilization in China: Volume 4, Physics and Physical Technology, Part 3, Civil Engineering and Nautics''. Taipei: Caves Books Ltd.

{{systems of measurement

History of science and technology in China
Units of length