How many catties of one stone in the Ming Dynasty was equivalent to the Ming Dynasty, and how many catties are equivalent to today? MANY ARTICLES, INCLUDING INDIVIDUAL MONOGRAPHS, CLAIM THAT ONE STONE IN THE MING DYNASTY WAS EQUAL TO 94.4 KG, OR SIMPLY SIMPLIFIED TO A BUCKET OF 20 CATTIES. However, some other articles have questioned this judgment, such as the theory that one stone is 107 catties or 153 catties, and other data do not support it. Because if this number is used to calculate the yield per mu, the unit yield per mu in some areas of the Ming Dynasty is frighteningly high, and individual data have been put on satellites, so this issue has been greatly debated in the historical circles.

Hibiki believes that there are many reasons for this controversy.

1. Because of "stone", in the Ming Dynasty, it referred to both the unit of volume (10 buckets) and the unit of weight (100 catties), which led to confusion in later generations. Zhu Zaiyu, a scholar of the country, clearly recorded the ratio between the copper ruler (measuring ruler) of the Baoyuan Bureau and the size of the treasure banknote in his book, because the treasure banknote circulated in kind, so this became the basis for later generations to calculate the area of the field and the volume of the Dendrobium (HU) in the Ming Dynasty, and provided a partial basis for the calculation of the problem of how many stones in the Ming Dynasty. After calculations and measurements of some cultural relics, the volume of a stone in the Ming Dynasty was about 0.107 (and 0.102 and 0.096 are only said) cubic meters.

2. The misuse of the volume unit "stone". In the Ming Dynasty, it was used as a unit of volume, the "stone", which was mainly used to measure grain, not other bulk commodities. For example, the units used for salt are "lead" and "catty". Why is the volume unit "stone" mainly used to measure grain? The reason is simple, because it is much more convenient to measure the volume of grain than to measure the weight of grain (too lazy to explain). This brings another problem, that is, the volume and weight of the same variety will vary greatly depending on the state of the measured grain. For example, one stone of rice is by no means the same as one stone of polished rice, and one stone of rice is much lighter than one stone of polished rice; One stone of dry rice is also in no way the same as one stone of wet rice, and one stone of dry rice is much lighter than one stone of wet rice (with different water content)!

In modern storage, one cubic meter of paddy is about 450-600 kg (i.e. bulk density) depending on the variety, and generally between 550-600 kg. The quality of rice in the Ming Dynasty was obviously not up to modern level, so it was more appropriate to set an upper limit of 550kg per cubic meter. Therefore, according to this calculation, the weight of one stone is only 58.85kg. Using the existing Ming Dynasty weights, a pound in the Ming Dynasty was 593.1 grams. Converted into Ming Jin, one stone in the Ming Dynasty is exactly 99.22441 Ming Jin! The error between volumetric measurement and gravimetric measurement is less than 1%!

I believe that book lovers read this, and the truth is about to come out!

Why do so many self-proclaimed experts write so many monographs and make such low-level mistakes, and these mistakes are still so widely circulated?

Hibiki thinks that the first is to subjectively despise the ancients. Chinese have used the unit of "stone" for thousands of years, measuring both volume and weight, both are universal, then there must be its reasonableness, and the measurement error between the two must be within the generally acceptable range! As the saying goes, "to exist is to be reasonable". Second, some scholars in later generations were not strict in their studies, divorced themselves from the reality of social life, and took it for granted that one stone of grain was equivalent to one stone of polished rice or brown rice, which made a super joke. They did not know that rice, once processed into rice, could not be preserved for a long time under natural conditions. Even under today's technological conditions, without vacuum packaging, rice is still stored, not rice. Those who do not believe can apply to visit the warehouse where the grain is stored.