Liang (Chinese) (liang)

ChineseTraditional unit (still used in some regions)

Exactly 50 g in the modern Chinese market system, called the tael in English; one tenth of the modern jin (it was a sixteenth of the old jin).

1 liang (Chinese) = 0.05 kilograms (exactly).

About the liang (Chinese)

English speakers know this unit as the tael, a word that came through Portuguese from the Malay tahil, meaning weight. In China the liang measured gold, silver and medicines, and it doubled as a unit of money when a liang of silver served as a unit of account. Foreign trade at Canton and Hong Kong carried the term around the world, and the name is still used for bullion weights.

For most of Chinese history the liang was one sixteenth of a jin, which is why people still speak of half a jin being eight liang in older sources. The Republic kept that ratio from 1930 with a liang of 31.25 g, but the People's Republic changed it in 1959 to one tenth of a jin. The figure used here is that mainland value of 50 g. Hong Kong's tael is about 37.8 g, while Taiwan uses 37.5 g.

Sources: Wikipedia: Tael; Wikipedia: Jin (unit); Wikipedia: Chinese units of measurement

Liang (Chinese) conversion chart

1 liang (Chinese) expressed in every other weight & mass unit:

More Chinese units

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

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