The Study Of Capacity Systems Of Eastern Zhou Dynasty

"Capacity System" is an important part of Chinese ancient measuring system.In the political and economic life of the country,complete capacity system played an important role in safeguarding state power and promoting economic development.The Eastern Zhou Dynasty was an important stage of development of Chinese ancient capacity system.In that period,various feudatory states and regions had established their own capacity systems.And there had both differences and similarities in different capacity systems,which became the main feature of this period.On the one hand,in the social background of division,the capacity systems in different areas were not same and presented an obvious regional feature.On the other hand,with the increase of economic and cultural exchanges,the standard suitable for many feudatory states and regions established gradually.On the basis of existing literature and physical materials,this paper focuses on the capacity systems of ten Eastern Zhou feudatory states,including Qi,Zhu,Qin,Han,Zhao,Wei,DongZhou,Yan,Zhongshan and Chu.After comparison,they are divided into four bigger capacity systems,which spectively are Qi System(including Qi and Zhu),Qin System(including Qin),Jin System(including Han,Zhao,Wei,DongZhou,Yan and Zhongshan),Chu System(including Chu).In Qi System,the capacity system of Qi played an leading role and it formed Zhu's capacity system directly or indirectly.The Qi System had developed from Jiangqi stage to Tianqi stage,when the base units Sheng,Dou,Dou,Ou,Fu,Zhong having different numerical value were changed.The base units of Qin System were Sheng,Dou,Yong(or Tong),Dan.In Jin System,the capacity systems of Han,Zhao and Wei were dominant,which might have affected DongZhou's,Yan's and Zhongshan's capacity system to some extent.The base units of Jin System were Yi,Dou,Ding,Yu and so on,some of which had two kinds of different numerical value.Chu System had base units like Yanshou,Shao,Xiao,etc.Among four capacity systems,Qi System,Qin System and Jin System seemed to have a closer relationship,for specific performance like shared base units or numerical value.But Chu System had a big difference to other three.This phenomenon might reflect the difference between the capacity systems of southern area and northern area of ancient China.