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The Chinese sheng (Chinese: 升; pinyin: shēng), called sho in Japan and seung in Korea, also called Chinese liter, is a traditional unit of volume in East Asia. It originated from China and later spread to Japan, the Korean Peninsula, Vietnam and other places.[1] One sheng equals 10 ge or 1/10 dou, though its specific capacity has varied by times and regions. Nowadays, 1 sheng is 1 liter in China,[2][3] 1.8039 liters in Japan[4] and 1.8 liters in Korea.[5]
Sheng is a traditional measure for cereal grains. Now, like "liter", sheng is more often used to measure liquid or gas.[6][7]
Ancient systems
Liangzhao Bronze cubic sheng is a standard measuring instrument issued by the Qin Dynasty. On both sides are engraved the imperial edicts of the 26th year of the First Emperor and the first year of Qin II.
As a unit of volume, sheng appeared in the Warring States Period (c. 475 to 221 BC) of China and has remained in use ever since.
[7][8]
History of volume measurement systems in China [8][9]
The following table is based on the "Weights and Measures Acts" of the 18th year of the Republic of China (1929), which came into effect on January 1, 1930. The Chinese volume units listed in the "Chinese Name Plan for Unified Metric Units of Measurement" of the People's Republic of China in 1959 are Chinese dan, dou, sheng, and ge.
The basic unit remains sheng, and one sheng is equal to one liter. The Chinese sheng is also called "市升" ("market sheng" or "market liter") to distinguish from the Chinese translation of "liter", which is called "公升", ("common sheng" or "common liter").
[2][11]
Table of Chinese volume units effective since 1930[2][11]
Nowadays, like the unit of "liter", sheng is more often used to measure liquid or gas.[7]
Japan
The base unit of volume in Japan is shō (升), i.e., the Japanese sheng. One sho equals 1.804 liters. Sake and shochu are both commonly sold in large 1800mL bottles known as isshōbin (一升瓶), literally "one shō bottle".[12]
The English "liter" is also called sheng (升) in China. In the cases where distinguishing is needed, word "liter" is translated into 公升 ("common sheng", or "common liter"), and the traditional Chinese sheng is called 市升 ("market sheng", or "market liter"), because it is more frequently used in the market.[10][3]
The shengs can also be distinguished by the regions they were defined, such as the "Chinese sheng", "Japanese shō", "Korean seung", "British liter", etc.
In China, one sheng is equal to one liter. Since the two units are of the same size, they are both called sheng in Chinese or "liter" in English for short when distinction is not necessary.
In addition, the Chinese standard SI prefixes may be added to 升 (shēng) to form more units, such as 分升(fensheng, deciliter, dl), 厘升 (lisheng, centiliter, cl), 毫升 (haosheng, milliliter, cl).
[11][3]
^ abc"權度法 [Quándù Fǎ]", 政府公報 [Zhèngfǔ Gōngbào, Government Gazette], vol. 957, Beijing: Office of the President, 7 January 1915, pp. 85–94[permanent dead link]. (in Chinese)
