Digital Value-Added Website of Technological Artifacts, NSTM Collections (Home)

Measurement of length

The unit of this bamboo ruler is a folk unit: "Chi", temporarily used in the early years of the Republic of China. Brought to Taiwan by the relatives and friends of Xiaoru Liu, a researcher of the Academia Sinica when the KMT relocated to Taiwan in 1949, it is supposed to have been made in the 1940s. "Chi" is a unit of length of the "market unit system", a system defined in the metrological law instituted on February 2, 1929 and formally promulgated on February 16th of the same year by the R.O.C. Government. On January 1, 1930, the metrological law came into force. Its second clause proclaims, "the Republic of China adopts the international metric system as the standard system, and the 'market unit system' for temporary use." In the fifth clause, it defines, "for the market unit system, the unit of length is Shichi (Chi) which is one third of a meter; the unit of weight is Shijin (Jin) which is one half of a kilogram; the unit of volume is Shisheng (Sheng) which is equal to one liter; one Jin is equal to 16 Liangs; 1500 Chis is one Li; 6000 square Chis is one Mu; the other parts of the system are decimal." The eleventh clause of it regulates, "Except for personal trading which is allowed to use the market unit system, other affairs related to metrology shall follow the standard system." The workmanship of this bamboo ruler is delicate; tiny beads are inlaid on its face, representing the scale; even on the center line of the ruler, two words "shi-chi" are also inlaid with tiny beads. On the back side of it, there are four engraved words; one of them is "gong (公)", but the others have already become illegible.

L:33.50 cm X W:2.00 cm X H:0.20 cm

Metrology