What is the cultural mystery behind the ancient pole scale? The invention of the "pole scale" contains a philosophy!

Here's a look at the mystery behind the pole scale.

The pole scale is a great invention of the Chinese, reflecting the wisdom of the Chinese people, and is called the "national treasure". The pole scale consists of several parts: one is the scale pole, which has a weighing hair on the thick end and a weighing star on the whole pole; the second is the weighing weight; and the third is the weighing plate.

The scale is also called "right", it is made according to the Regulus constellation ideogram, belongs to the star, is the main thunderstorm God. The pole of the scale is called "Heng", symbolizing the constellation of Ziwei, from which the term "weighing the weights" is derived.

And the ancient weighing equipment in the specifications and modern different, the ancient use of "iron pile scales" to sixteen two for a catty, half a catty is equal to eight.

Why did our ancestors specify the weight unit? What are the mysteries involved?

There is a well-known story about this "sixteen taels" as a catty. But this time the question came, let how many two equal a catty is more appropriate? Li Si was in a tangle, because since the unit of two has been set down, the conversion seems to be a little bit arbitrary and no problem, but too arbitrary and lose the examination.

The uncertainty of Li Si went to ask the Qin Emperor, who did not say anything, wrote down a few small seal scripts: the world is fair. Li Si was still a bit puzzled, but he had a bright idea, counted the strokes of these words, and gladly decided to use sixteen taels as a catty.

Although that's where the story comes from, this little historical anecdote clearly has elements of later codification in it, and has little scientific basis to be examined.

In fact, to explore this issue, we have to talk about two aspects, one is the traditional culture, and the other is the actual historical background.

First of all, culturally, the old ancestors of these things, must be full of philosophical wisdom of the explanation. The ancients believed that a person's life, from birth to death, if he is blessed with prosperity and longevity, it means that life is complete.

They used astrology as a means of measuring fate and prying into the heavens, and astrology influenced our ancient Chinese culture to a certain extent.

The ancients regarded the "Big Dipper" as the star of the emperor, the main life and death, life and death; the "Big Dipper" as the star of life, the main spirit, the right way; the "three stars of happiness" as the star of blessing, the main blessing, life and death; the "three stars of happiness" as the star of life, the main blessing, life and death. The "Three Stars of Fortune" is the star of blessing, the main life, and the execution of good and bad luck.

The total number of these three major astrological "sixteen", so the ancients will be "sixteen" as the basic unit of measurement of objects. As the so-called: "raise your head three feet have God".

Ancient people will symbolize the "life and death, righteousness, good or bad" number engraved on the scale, in order to warn those who are not right-minded businessman, life and death, righteousness and evil are all in a thought, do not want to covet a little petty profit and abandon the principle of being a human being.

Less weighing of one or two goods, Fukushima will subtract a bit of your blessing; less weighing of two goods, Shouxing will subtract a bit of your life.

So in the past, there are folklore "scale loss of heart loss of life, the scale is full of good people," said.

The traditional Chinese culture warns us to buy and sell fairly, and to make money in the right way. Therefore, the scale in people's minds is considered to be a symbol of uprightness and impartiality, brightness and openness. Three Kingdoms period, Zhuge Liang once said: "my heart as a scale, can not be low with people," and this statement has transcended the business market trading, sublimated to the height of the personality, character. So I advise all businessmen to take sincerity as the basis, righteousness as the first, more accumulation of virtue, less take advantage of.

Ancient people believe that the North Pole is the main life, the South Pole is the main death, the North Star in the sky to guide the direction, therefore, the fixed disk star is on behalf of the North Star, the sixteen two of the star represents the Big Dipper seven stars, the South Dipper six stars, plus the three stars of Fortune, Luck and Longevity **** sixteen stars, and requires businessmen to be fair trade, if less to give people one or two, it means that the pitcher is not blessed, less to give people two less Luck, less to give people three is short life.

Eight taels is half a catty, so people often say "half a catty eight taels" to describe two people almost.

Of course, the wisdom of the ancients was not just a simple matter of observing the stars, but also related to the production conditions and systems at that time.

First of all, the standard reference at that time, a catty is sixteen taels.

According to the Han Book of Food and Wine, Qin used gold as a unit to weigh objects. As an analogy, Qin Shi Huang stipulated that a foot is 23 centimeters, so an inch is 2.3 centimeters.

"Han Book of Food and Wine" said "gold square inch for jin", square is a foot, that is, 23 cm, inch is 2.3 cm. With gold to play a 23 cm long, 2.3 cm wide cube, the measured weight is equal to sixteen two, that is, the ancients said a catty. However, the ancient "grams" and modern different, so the ancient catty is equivalent to the current half a catty.

"Romance of the Three Kingdoms" in Guan Yu used the cold saw 82 pounds, in fact, only 41 pounds, or less than 50 pounds. During the Republic of China (ROC) period, the ROC *** extended the sixteen-two system, but set one tael at 31.2g and one catty at 500 grams.

It was not until 1959 that China used the "ten-two system", which is the weighing unit we use now.

The deeper reason behind this is that it involves a binary problem, in the ancient production conditions, in the scales with binary is obviously better than decimal. Think about it: is it better to make a ten- or sixteen-percent scale on a scale pole?

Here some friends will probably say that it is ten equal parts, but in fact it is sixteen equal parts. Because in the ancient situation of the lack of engraved measuring tools, want to do equal parts is a more difficult thing. The simplest is to fold, which is a prototype of binary. Since it is folded that can only be two, four, eight, sixteen such, so there is a sixteen equal parts.

In the pre-Qin period, both technology and productivity were far worse than today, and the scale was not popularized, and the people used simple balances to weigh more.

As long as there is a one-pound weight (that is, "right"), the use of the balance principle, with the weight of the same weight object is a catty; if the object is relatively light, the weight in half, it is exactly half a catty; if the object is still light, continue to equalize, is a quarter of a catty. So step by step.

If the decimal system, to a quarter of a pound here is not a whole number, to determine the difficulty of temporary weights rise. Therefore, the conversion of pounds and pounds of the system using the second power of the number is the most convenient.

If it is not so, certainly have long used the decimal system, after all, good conversion.