Fen (Chinese) (fen)

ChineseTraditional unit (still used in some regions)

One tenth of a cun in the modern market system, 1/300 m (about 3.3 mm).

1 fen (Chinese) = 0.003333333333 meters (approximately).

About the fen (Chinese)

Smallest of the everyday Chinese length units, the fen shares its character with the ordinary word for a part or a share, which suits a unit defined as one hundredth of a chi. Older descriptions tie its size to the width of a grain of millet, so it was never a fixed physical quantity in antiquity. It had little use for long distances and appeared mainly in carpentry, tailoring and the fine measurements of craftsmen.

In the modern market system the chi is exactly one third of a meter, which makes the fen one three hundredth of a meter, about 3.33 millimeters. It sits below the cun, and ten fen make one cun. Because ancient chi were far shorter than today's, ancient fen were correspondingly smaller. A separate Chinese fen also exists as a mass unit, and the same word was borrowed for fractions of other quantities, so context matters when the term appears.

Sources: Wikipedia: Chinese units of measurement; Wikipedia: Cun (unit)

Fen (Chinese) conversion chart

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

More Chinese units

• cun (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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