Cun (Chinese) (cun)

ChineseTraditional unit (still used in some regions)

The Chinese inch, 1/30 m (about 3.33 cm) in the modern market system. Also used in acupuncture, where a 'body cun' is proportional to the patient.

1 cun (Chinese) = 0.03333333333 meters (approximately).

About the cun (Chinese)

Hand anatomy gave the cun its role. The traditional definition is the width of a person's thumb at the knuckle, and the unit is commonly translated as the Chinese inch. That human scale is the reason acupuncture still uses a body cun, which is proportional to the patient and is not a fixed number of millimeters. Two forefingers side by side are counted as 1.5 cun, and four fingers together as 3 cun.

As a measure of ordinary objects, the cun is one tenth of a chi and ten times a fen. Under the modern market system it equals 10/3 centimeters, roughly 3.33 cm. Hong Kong kept a British-influenced standard in which the cun is about 3.715 cm, and Japan's related sun is about 3.03 cm, so the same character covers several different sizes in different places. The phrase chi cun, literally foot and inch, also became the everyday Chinese word for dimensions.

Sources: Wikipedia: Cun (unit); Wikipedia: Chi (unit)

Cun (Chinese) conversion chart

1 cun (Chinese) expressed in every other length unit:

More Chinese units

• fen (Chinese) (length)
• chi (Chinese) (length)
• zhang (Chinese) (length)
• li (Chinese) (length)
• qian (Chinese) (weight & mass)
• liang (Chinese) (weight & mass)
• jin (Chinese) (weight & mass)
• dan (Chinese) (weight & mass)
• catty (Hong Kong) (weight & mass)
• tael (Hong Kong) (weight & mass)
• mu (Chinese) (area)
• qing (Chinese) (area)
• shichen (time)
• yi / oku (East Asian) (counting & quantity)

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