Often hear people say half a catty, half a catty now means that both sides are evenly matched. But in ancient times, half a catty is eight taels, because the weight of a catty in ancient times is 16 amount, with the current conversion is different, is not a catty ten taels is not a better calculation?
We all know that before the unification of the Qin Dynasty, each country's unit of measurement is not uniform, each country has its own unit of measurement, in fact, this is also very normal, how to use in their own country can be, but the country will also have trade between countries, different units of measurement to trade up to the more troublesome, the same weight in the country is a catty in the other countries may be a catty two, and currency is also different, so trading up to the more troublesome, the same weight in the country is a catty in other countries may be a catty two. And the currencies are also different, so it is very troublesome to trade.
After Qin Shi Huang united the six countries, the unification of weights and measures was imminent, no matter which country they were from before, the unification is a country, naturally, they can no longer use their own units of measurement, and a catty would need to be reset.
It is said that the first emperor of Qin Shi Huang gave this task to Li Si, Li Si could not decide how much to put a small amount for a catty, went to the first emperor of Qin Shi Huang, the emperor of Qin Shi Huang wrote him four words, the world's fairness, Li Si thought before and after, had to count the strokes of this four words and found that there are sixteen strokes in a ****, and so a catty was set to sixteen taels.
Is not so we have nowhere to check, these are also legends, in addition to this version there is another version, in ancient times, the six stars of the Big Dipper represents the sky, and the seven stars of the Big Dipper represents the earth. Ancient people on the vastness of the starry sky is very well studied, that no matter what people do on the ground in the sky God will see, do business if the lack of catty is treacherous, made such a thing in the sky God will see the sky will be retaliated against.
So there is a catty sixteen two units of measurement, but also to remind businessmen to do business in good faith, can not lack of catty, or lose the credibility of the foundation. Sixteen taels for a catty unit of measurement has been to the eighties of the last century completely out of the stage of history.