What is the legend of the origin of scales?

According to legend, Fan Li found in business that when people buy and sell things in the market, they all use their eyes to estimate the pile, so it is difficult to achieve fair trade, so he came up with the idea of creating a tool to measure the weight of goods. ?

One day, on his way home from work, Fan Li happened to see a farmer pumping water from a well. The method is very clever: erect a tall wooden stake at the well side, and then tie a crossbar at the top of the wooden stake; One end of the crossbar is hung with a bucket and the other end is tied with a stone, which is light and labor-saving.

Inspired, Van Litton hurried home to imitate: he drilled a small hole with a thin straight wooden stick, tied a hemp rope to the hole and weighed it with his hand; One end of joiner is tied with a hanging tray for loading goods, and the other end is tied with a pebble as a heavy object; The farther the pebbles are from the rope, the more goods can be lifted.

So he thought: how much goods to hang at one end and how far the other pebble has to move to keep balance, it is necessary to carve a mark on the fine wood. But what should I use to mark it? Fan Li thought hard for months, but still missed the point.

One night, Fan Li went out for a nap. When he looked up and saw the stars in the sky, he had a whim and decided to use the six stars in Nandou and the Big Dipper as markers. One star represents one or two, and ten Samsung represents one catty. Since then, a unified measuring tool-scale has appeared in the market.

However, after a long time, Fan Li found that some unscrupulous businessmen were short of weight when selling things and deducted people. He thought, how to increase the scale and put an end to the evil deeds of profiteers? Finally, he came up with an idea to change the white wood carving black star into a mahogany inlaid metal star, and besides the six stars of Nandou and Beidou, plus the three stars of Fu, Lu and Shou, it weighs 16 liang.

The purpose is to warn colleagues: as a businessman, you must be aboveboard and don't make black-hearted money. And said: "If a businessman cheats one or two people, he will lose his blessing and happiness;" Deceive two or two people, then future generations will never get a' salary' (can't be an official); If you lie in twos and threes, you will lose your' longevity' (short life)! "

In this way, the scale, a measuring tool, has been handed down from generation to generation for more than two thousand years until today.

In order to determine the weight of an object, people use a "scale" as a detection tool, and use "Jin" to represent the weight unit of the detected object, and determine the actual weight of commodity exchange for pricing. Weighing plays an important role in the process of fair trade. The use of weighing scale is a great progress of social civilization.

In our country, as early as the Warring States period, the technology of weighing with weight was quite mature and widely used in regulation. The scale of Chu State is 16 Liang per catty, which is equivalent to 250 grams, and that of Qin State is also 16 Liang per catty, which is equivalent to 249 grams. This 16% to 20% scale gold has gone through several dynasties. Although the weight of gold changed in each dynasty, 16% to 20% of gold did not change.

After the demise of the Qing Dynasty and the extension of the Qing Dynasty in the Republic of China, the weight of 16 Liang was still "Jin", equivalent to 596.8 grams. Jincheng culture is an ancient topic, and many words in later generations are related to Jincheng.

China's hexadecimal weighing culture is unique and rich in connotation, which was formed in long-term social practice. As early as in Oracle Bone Inscriptions, there was a prototype of the scale, and after continuous improvement, it became a modern wooden pole scale with shining stars.

The setting of "gold" is more colorful. According to the "pre-Han calendar", "Jin is also clear. 384 baht. The two chapters of Yi are images of changes of Yin and Yang. Weigh sixteen and two, and take the image of the quartet at four o'clock. "

A small scale, big enough to become a sacred object, is of great significance. The sixteen stars on the scale, as the weight of sixteen "twos", are interdependent with gold and complement each other.

The copper nail on the wooden pole is called "star". According to legend, Libra is the star in the sky. From the scale head to the scale tail, the first star is called the fixed disk star, which does not represent the weight. When not weighing, the weight is placed at the fixed star position, and the hanging beam of the hanging scale keeps balance, commonly known as "the balance is full". These sixteen stars are six stars in Nandou in turn, the Big Dipper and the three stars of Fu Lushou, representing sixteen "twos". big

The general meaning is: the fixed star indicates the orientation of justice and conscience, and the transaction should be fair, which is the starting point of the transaction. The other stars are motionless, indicating eternity. The scale in your hand is the same as that in your heart. Fair trade is not an act of "short weight and short weight". Weigh the stars-the eyes in the sky, and monitor the good and evil on earth. Although the legend is not enough to prove it, it also belongs to the oral literature of weighing culture.

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