Zhang (Chinese) (zhang)

ChineseTraditional unit (still used in some regions)

Ten chi, 10/3 m (about 3.33 m) in the modern market system.

1 zhang (Chinese) = 3.333333333 meters (approximately).

About the zhang (Chinese)

Ten chi made one zhang, so the unit was always a measure of the human scale of buildings and cloth rather than of personal reach. It turns up in Chinese architecture as a way to describe the width of a bay and the height of walls and pillars. Since the chi itself changed from dynasty to dynasty, the zhang changed in step with it and had no independent standard.

Republican law fixed it twice. In 1915 the Republic of China set it at about 3.2 m, and in 1930 the figure was revised to exactly 10/3 m, about 3.33 m, which is the value used here. Mainland China uses it rarely today, and everyday speech tends toward meters. The Japanese jo is built the same way from ten shaku, giving about 3.03 m, which shows how a shared structure produced different lengths.

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

Zhang (Chinese) conversion chart

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

More Chinese units

• fen (Chinese) (length)
• cun (Chinese) (length)
• chi (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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