picul

The picul , shi (), dan or tam, is a traditional Asian unit of weight, defined as "as much as a man can carry on a shoulder-pole". Throughout most of Chinese history, it was defined as equivalent to 120 catties. Some later definitions (British Hong Kong, Chinese market-use system) define it as 100 catties. It is most commonly used in southern China and Maritime Southeast Asia.

History

The unit originated in China during the Qin dynasty (221–206 BC), where it was known as the ''shi'' (石 "stone"). During the Han dynasty, one stone was equal to 120 catties. Government officials were paid in grain, counted in stones, with top ranked ministers being paid 2000 stones.

As a unit of measurement, the word ''shi'' (石) can also be pronounced ''dan''. To avoid confusion, the character is sometimes changed to 擔 (''dàn''), meaning "burden" or "load". Likewise, in Cantonese the word is pronounced ''sek'' (石) or ''daam'' (擔), and in Hakka it is pronounced ''tam'' (擔).

The word ''picul'' appeared as early as the mid 9th century in Javanese. In modern Malay, ''pikul'' is also a verb meaning 'to carry on the shoulder'.

In the early days of Hong Kong as a British colony, the stone (石, with a Cantonese pronunciation given as ''shik'') was used as a measurement of weight equal to 120 catties or , alongside the picul of 100 catties. It was made obsolete by subsequent overriding legislation in 1885, which included the picul but not the stone, to avoid confusion with European-origin measures that are similarly called stone.

Following Spanish, Portuguese, British and most especially the Dutch colonial maritime trade, the term ''picul'' was both a convenient unit, and a lingua franca unit that was widely understood and employed by other Austronesians (in modern Malaysia and the Philippines) and their centuries-old trading relations with Indians, Chinese and Arabs. It remained a convenient reference unit for many commercial trade journals in the 19th century. One example is ''Hunts Merchant Magazine'' of 1859 giving detailed tables of expected prices of various commodities, such as coffee, e.g. one picul of Javanese coffee could be expected to be bought from 8 to 8.50 Spanish dollars in Batavia and Singapore.

Definitions

As for any traditional measurement unit, the exact definition of the picul varied historically and regionally.
In imperial China and later, the unit shi/dan (picul) was used for a measure equivalent to 120 catties. This conversion was kept until the 1930 Chinese unit reform, which defined a market-catty of exactly 0.5 kilograms and a market-picul of exactly 50 kilograms. See Chinese units of measurement#Mass units in the Republic of China since 1930.

In 1831, the Dutch East Indies authorities acknowledged local variances in the definition of the pikul.

In Hong Kong, one picul was defined in ''Ordinance No. 22 of 1844'' as avoirdupois pounds, exactly 100 catties.Weights and Measures – Ordinance No. 22 of 1844
Historical Laws of Hong Kong Online. The modern definition is exactly 60.478982 kilograms.

The measure was and remains used on occasion in Taiwan where it is defined as 60 kg. The last, a measure of rice, was 20 picul, or 1,200 kg.

See also

* Dan (volume)

References

{{reflist

Chinese units in Hong Kong
Units of mass
Human-based units of measurement