The li ( zh, t=釐, s=厘 , p=lí) in
Mandarin
Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to:
Language
* Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country
** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China
** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...
, or ''lei'' in
Cantonese
Cantonese is the traditional prestige variety of Yue Chinese, a Sinitic language belonging to the Sino-Tibetan language family. It originated in the city of Guangzhou (formerly known as Canton) and its surrounding Pearl River Delta. While th ...
, is a traditional Chinese unit of length. One ''li'' equals 10 ''
hao'', 1/10 of a ''
fen
A fen is a type of peat-accumulating wetland fed by mineral-rich ground or surface water. It is one of the main types of wetland along with marshes, swamps, and bogs. Bogs and fens, both peat-forming ecosystems, are also known as mires ...
'', 1/1000 of a ''
chi'', or 1/3 mm in China.
Chinese length units promulgated in 1915
Present law on Chinese length units
This law of length measurement was issued by the Chinese government in 1929, and has been effective since 1 January 1930. The base unit ''chi'' is defined to be 1/3 meter.
Chinese length units in engineering
These units are based on the metric system. The Chinese word for
metre
The metre (or meter in US spelling; symbol: m) is the base unit of length in the International System of Units (SI). Since 2019, the metre has been defined as the length of the path travelled by light in vacuum during a time interval of of ...
is ''mǐ'', which can take the
Chinese standard SI prefixes (for "kilo-", "centi-", etc.). A
kilometre
The kilometre (SI symbol: km; or ), spelt kilometer in American English, American and Philippine English, is a unit of length in the International System of Units (SI), equal to one thousand metres (kilo- being the SI prefix for ). It is the ...
, however, may also be called ''gōnglǐ'', i.e. a metric ''
lǐ''.
In the engineering field, traditional units are rounded up to metric units.
[1981 Gazette of the State Council of the People's Republic of China]
No. 365
, page 575, Table 7: SI prefixes
Compounds
*
差之毫釐，謬以千里 (chāzhīháolí, miùyǐqiānlǐ)
See also
*
Li (length)
*
Fen (length)
*
Chinese units of measurement
Chinese units of measurement, known in Chinese as the ''shìzhì'' ("market system"), are the traditional units of measurement of the Han Chinese. Although Chinese numerals have been decimal (base-10) since the Shang dynasty, Shang, several Chine ...
References
{{systems of measurement
History of science and technology in China
Units of length
Customary units of measurement