Home › Ancient
Chinese grain measures, from the sheng to the dan. Part of the Ancient Measures collection.
Every unit converts through liters: sheng = 1 L, dou = 10 sheng, dan = 10 dou. Worked example: a porter’s dan of rice, 100 L at ~0.5 kg/L bulk density ≈ 50 kg — the load a man was expected to carry. Like the chi, these units drifted by dynasty; the table uses the modern standard of 1929.
100 L (10 dou) — and by the same token 50 kg of rice. ‘Dan’ named the porter’s full load; it survives in the English ‘picul’ of the treaty ports.
The dou and dan: imperial granaries accounted harvests and taxes in dan of grain, and famine relief was doled out by the sheng.
The sheng and dou survive as everyday market measures in Taiwan and parts of Southeast Asia — ask for a dou of rice in a Taipei market and you’ll get 10 liters.
Chinese Length Chinese Weight Japanese Volume Persian Volume Russian Volume