Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 160 Adjustment of Weights and Measures

After determining the metric system, the metric system of weights and measures can be determined.

As a complete system, the meters, kilograms, and liters of the metric system are far from being comparable to the feet, kilograms, and liters that are difficult to convert.

The relationship between decimeters, cubic decimeters, liters and kilograms completely links the three weights and measures of length, container and weight, and they no longer work alone.

Under the relationship between the three, any deviation in one will affect the other two. Weights and measures have since been completely fixed and difficult to change——

For example, the length of a foot increased from more than 20 centimeters in the Qin and Han Dynasties to more than 30 centimeters, and the capacity of one liter was equivalent to five times that of the Qin and Han Dynasties. Such things will never happen again in the future.

What’s more, there will be no such thing as “one penny in ancient times and one penny in modern times”, causing confusion in the dosage of medicines.

Thinking of this matter, Zhu Youjian didn't know how to evaluate it.

After the Tai Hospital was included in the inner court, Zhu Youjian paid special attention to it and asked doctors from the Tai Hospital to treat several intrauterine patients to evaluate their level.

But before the level of these doctors could be tested, Zhu Youjian himself collapsed.

Because he saw the words on the prescription, not to mention that the dosage was calculated based on money. This made Zhu Youjian, who was accustomed to printing prescriptions and taking medicines by the gram in later generations, very speechless.

Especially when he heard those people quoting the "Compendium of Materia Medica" and saying that it said "One tael in ancient times, one penny today", Zhu Youjian was speechless and didn't know where to start.

These doctors don't bother to research the origin of this statement. Some people are simply ignorant and simply prescribe a tael of ancient prescriptions as a dollar.

This made Zhu Youjian very doubtful about their level, and there was no need to continue the inspection——

First, the weight needs to be determined, and the medical books and prescriptions need to be sorted out.

This is also the reason why Zhu Youjian urgently needs to determine the metric system, because it is related to his own safety.

Doctors cannot be allowed to prescribe medicine randomly without knowing the dosage.

The Imperial Hospital had treated so many emperors to death, so efforts must be made to rectify the situation.

There are ways to determine the weights and measures of the Han and Tang dynasties, because they are related to the weight of coins.

The five-baht coins of the Han Dynasty should be preserved among the people, especially tomb robbers who like to find things in the ground, and they will dig out the five-baht coins. As long as the weight of five baht is determined, we can roughly determine the weight of two baht in the late Han Dynasty and the Three Kingdoms. Use the unit of grams to revise Zhang Zhongjing's medical book.

Money in the Tang Dynasty was even simpler. The weight of a coin was about one qian. Therefore, the Jinliang coins after the Tang Dynasty actually did not change much, because the coins minted were of similar weight, so the difference in Jinliang coins was certainly not too big. The errors between dynasties are barely acceptable.

Only the Han Dynasty still used one tael and twenty-four baht. The weight of a tael in the Han Dynasty was very different from that in the Ming Dynasty. Prescriptions in Han Dynasty medical books had to be re-dosed.

This matter is related to his own safety, and Zhu Youjian certainly takes it very seriously. From that time on, he planned to introduce new weights and measures. Now that the Jiajing tooth ruler has established the metric system, he plans to use the metric system as the basis to determine the metric system of weights and measures.

The volume of one cubic decimeter is one liter, and the weight of one liter of water is one kilogram. The temperature of this water must be four degrees, and the temperature system must be determined using the ice-water mixture and the boiling point of water.

Considering that Jinliangqian is widely used among the people and has not changed much since the Tang Dynasty, Zhu Youjian did not define one kilogram as one kilogram. It is just called kilogram, not related to jin, to avoid confusion among the people.

In order to facilitate conversion, the weight of one kilogram was determined by Zhu Youjian to be 600 grams.

One pound is sixteen taels, and one tael is naturally 37.5 grams.

One tael is ten cents, and the weight of one cent is 3.75 grams.

In the future, medical books and prescriptions will indicate the weight in two systems: kilograms and grams. People in hospitals should be prevented from changing the dosage at will according to "one tael in ancient times and one penny today".

At the same time, in terms of coining, Zhu Youjian also planned to set the weight of Chongzhen Tongbao's Xiaoping coins at 3.75 grams.

Then determine the weight of two coins, five coins, and ten coins, and reduce them appropriately to obtain coinage benefits.

Precisely because the weight of a pound is closely related to the dosage of medicine and the weight of coins, Zhu Youjian did not make major changes and did not adopt the market system of later generations. Just connect it with grams to determine the conversion between the two.

After the weight, capacity, and length are determined, the entire weights and measures system is basically determined. Zhu Youjian started from length and expanded this system.

First of all, one meter is three feet, and one mile is fifteen hundred feet, which is five hundred meters. Zhu Youjian asked the Qin Tianjian officials:

"You all do the math. How big is the difference between the length of five hundred meters and three hundred steps and the original length?" "In terms of meters, what is the difference in length?"

The officials of the Qintian Prison did the math, and the supervisor Ye Zhenchun said:

"According to the Jiajing tooth ruler, one foot is thirty-two centimeters. The original mile is three hundred and sixty steps. Calculated based on five feet per step, that is 1,800 feet, about 576 meters."

"The Jiajing dental ruler is actually slightly longer, and the standard construction ruler is slightly shorter than it by one millimeter. Your Majesty can definitely measure the treasure banknotes."

After Zhu Youjian heard this, he took the Jiajing dental ruler and measured the treasure note. Sure enough, it was slightly longer than the ink edge, about one millimeter.

Based on this calculation, the original mile is approximately 574 meters.

After changing the length of one mile to three hundred steps and the feet to one meter and three feet, one mile is now five hundred meters.

The difference between the two is 74 meters, which is a bit big.

There was some embarrassment about this, but Zhu Youjian didn't want to keep the original length like one pound equals 600 grams. Because he knew that based on the length of one mile and 500 meters, the Meridian Circle is about 80,000 miles.

If it were converted into a mile length of 574 meters, it would be difficult to calculate. It is not conducive for him to use longitude and latitude lines to determine the area of ​​​​the fiefdom, and it may be concealed.

Besides, after the mileage is shortened, the area of ​​​​the fiefdom given to the hero will be reduced. It can divide the original area into more square meters and distribute it to more people.

So Zhu Youjian decided that one mile is five hundred meters. The length of the equator and meridian circle is approximately 80,000 miles.

As for the length of the ruler, he used one meter and three feet to determine thirty-three and one-third centimeters as the standard ruler.

This length is between the construction ruler and the tailoring ruler, and is close to the floor ruler.

Because there is no change in the two hundred and forty steps per acre, if calculated based on the previous land measurement scale, the area of ​​​​the old acre is about 96% of the new acre. This gap is not too big and will not cause many disputes.

In fact, because the lengths of measuring rulers vary from place to place, some places use small rulers and calculate according to six feet in one step. The standard ruler under Zhu You's test is at most a modified ruler. Before the whole country is not ready to clear it, it will not be a momentum ruler.

Zhu Youjian now has no ability to change the measuring tapes of various places, and he does not dare to change them randomly. Zhu Youjian was so excited when he saw the complex system of large acres, small acres, and broken acres reported by the Ministry of Household Affairs that he didn't dare to touch it lightly.

It is better to draw on a piece of white paper outside the customs, so just use the square inside. And after changing the inner length, the ruler there also uses a standard ruler.

Based on the calculation of three hundred paces per mile and two hundred and forty paces per acre, three hundred times three hundred divided by two hundred and forty paces is 375 acres.

Calculated based on one meter and three feet, one step and five feet, and one acre and 240 steps, the area of ​​one acre is 666 and two-thirds square meters, which is equivalent to the city acres in later generations.

Calculated based on the calculation of 500 meters per mile, one mile is 250,000 square meters. It is 375 times the area of ​​one acre. It can be said that the conversion of square miles and acres is very accurate without any error.

At the same time, in order to facilitate the measurement of land with meters, Zhu Youjian imitated the hectares and acres of later generations and defined 10,000 square meters as one Wan and 100 square meters as one mo. It is convenient for land owners to use meters to measure and allocate land to tenants. A Wan is fifteen acres, which is roughly equivalent to a piece of land in the Northeast.

Because there is a gap between Wan and Mo, Zhu Youjian also defined one thousand square meters as one Qian. These three were connected and used as the metric area system and used together with the mu system.

In short, Zhu Youjian referred to the metric system of weights and measures of later generations, and with the help of Qin Tianjian, completely determined the new weights and measures system.

In order to fix this kind of weights and measures, Zhu Youjian ordered people to make rice prototypes from gold, ceramics and other materials to see which one was more stable. In the future, he would choose one as the standard meter to avoid errors as much as possible.

Then, using standard meters and standard rulers, measuring tools such as rulers, tape measures, and set squares were made to facilitate the measurement of land.

At the same time, he also asked Qin Tianjian to improve the tools for measuring longitude and latitude, and determine the distance between each longitude and latitude, so as to facilitate the drawing of maps and the subsequent division of well fields.

It can be said that Zhu Youjian adjusted the weights and measures in the name of enfeoffing the mine fields. Integrate the metric system of weights and measures you want to adopt into the well field system——

Under the banner of the well-field system, the reform of weights and measures was realized.

After the weights and measures are determined, the Ming Dynasty's utensil manufacturing will become more accurate. Both standardization and assembly line production can be tried.

Zhu Youjian planned to use stronger productivity, create better weapons, and use Ming Dynasty's massive supplies to kill Jin Jianlu.

Obstacles to industrial development will also be gradually cleared in this process. Ming Dynasty may take the lead in launching the industrial revolution and lead the human world.

(End of this chapter)