从原始计量到度量衡制度的形成

FROM PRIMITIVE MEASURES TO THE FORMATION OF LENGTH-CAPACITY-WEIGHT SYSTEMS

度量衡制度和文字一样,是所谓"城市革命"时期社会飞跃发展的产物,是人类步入文明的标志之一。而在此以前,由于生产和生活的需要,人类早有了长短、大小和轻重的概念,并会应用当时所掌握的简单数学知识进行粗略的计量。当然,与后世以专用度量衡器具为主要标志的一套度量衡制度比较,原始人类所用的各种计量方法非常简单,极不精确,可统称为原始计量方法。然而文明社会的度量衡制度,正是由这里引导出来的。原始计量差不多和人类自身一样古老。人类若不掌握粗略的计算长度的方法,就不可能建成一座即使是非常简陋的风篱和茅屋,不可能从事编织和纺织,更不用想制造捕机、弓箭等复杂的器物或在器物上施以节奏匀称的花纹图案了。人类若不具备初步计算容量的方法,在从事粗放农业时就不能掌握应撒的籽种的数量;人类若不具有简单的度量衡概念,一切交换(即使是原始的实物交换)都是无法进行的。

On the basis of the information gathered from primitive .measures now still used in backward minority nationalities as well as from ancient documents and oracle-bone and bronze inscriptions, the present article comes to the conclusion that before the formation of length-capacity-weight systems, there had been a long, long evolution of primitive measures from which late measuring systems were gradually developed. The three elements of measurement, namely length, capacity and weight, were net devised and developed simuhaneously. Generally speaking, length-measuring came first into being and was followed by the appearance of capacity and weight measurements. Primitive people length-measured what should have been measured by capacity or weight before ways for such measurements were found. The earliest units of measurement were associated with various parts of the human body. For example, the ancient standard units of length are the lengths of some of the human body parts or the distances between others of them. Certain standard units of volume were derived from the holding capacity of the human palm and, similarly, some units of weight were first derived from the weight an average man could carry on the shoulder or in the hand. As these parts of the human body are limited in size or strength, the units of length, capacity and weight based on them cannot be large; however, most of them were in common use in later periods. All the multitudinous larger and smaller units were added to the basical ones one by one as time went on. Some special small units of weight that appeared early in Chinese historical times such as the lue (寽) and shu (铢) (equal to six liang and 1/24 of one liang respectively; the liang is the Chinese weight unit corresponding to the British ounce) were created to meet the need to weigh precious metals and things such as gold, silver, etc. On the other hand, as the primitive units of measurement are based on various parts of the human body, they had no fixed proportion one to another; moreover, in ancient times there were no specially designed devices for measurement. With the development of exchanges, some fixed measuring devices came into being; after the emergence of the state, government-established legal instruments for length, capacity and weight measurement were finally introduced.