Preface
In ancient times, before the invention of the scale, if people wanted to weigh, what would they do, after all, today, people are more and more dependent on electronic scales, and they always feel that in addition to this method, there is no way to accurately know the weight.
But if you think so, you are wrong, the wisdom of the ancients often breaks through the imagination of modern people, although they do not have electronic scales, but they can accurately understand the weight through other methods.
Cao Chong's method of weighing
When it comes to the method of weighing the ancients, the first example that has been widely disseminated by the public should be Cao Chong's weighing of elephants, what kind of story is this?
At that time, Sun Quan gave Cao Cao an elephant, and while Cao Cao showed it to everyone, he also raised a difficult question, that is, to ask the civil and military officials present how to know the weight of the elephant.
Seeing that the elephant is so tall, many people have a difficulty in their hearts, and they need the exact weight of the elephant, and they can't kill the elephant and chop it into pieces and weigh two catties, so what should be done?
At this time, Cao Cao's son put forward his own opinion, this is Cao Chong, he was only five or six years old at this time, he stood up confidently and said that he had a way.
Anyway, it was his own son, so Cao Cao let Cao Chong give it a try, Cao Chong first chose a very large ship, and recorded the position of the waterline when the boat was empty.
Then the elephant was pulled to the top of the boat, and this time the boat would definitely sink, and Cao Chong recorded the position of the boat's waterline again.
When both positions were marked at the same time, Cao Chong began the next step, and he had people start adding stones to the ship, of course, the weight of which was known beforehand.
Stones were placed on the boat, and the boat was affected by gravity, and its position slowly sank until it reached the same draft height as when the boat had been loaded with elephants.
The next step is very simple, just add up the stones of known weight to get the exact weight of the elephant.
Although this method seems to be a little time-consuming, it has to be said that the calculation is also accurate, Cao Chong's method was praised by Cao Cao at the time, and it also made the civil and military officials look at this child with admiration.
Why do people weigh themselves?
So why do people need to weigh themselves, in fact, there is also a small historical story behind this matter, which is related to Liu Chan.
At that time, Liu Bei and Sun Quan's sister got married, and after getting married, they wanted to hand over Liu Chan to Sun Quan's sister to raise, but at that time, the two lived separately, and it was not convenient to send someone over.
Therefore, Liu Bei sent a lot of gifts to Sun Quan's sister who lived in his mother's house at that time, and in order to ensure the safety of the gifts, he let his subordinate Zhao Yun escort them over.
It was also when he was giving gifts that he arranged for Zhao Yun to bring Liu Chan over, and when Sun Quan's sister saw Liu Chan for the first time, a thousand thoughts suddenly surged in her mind.
Everyone knows that it is too difficult to be a stepmother, whether she does it well or not, some people may gossip, and Liu Bei is not by her side, in case someone says that she abuses Liu Chan, it is not good.
Therefore, at that time, Sun Quan's sister came up with a foolproof strategy at the moment, that is, to let Liu Chan be called, in front of Zhao Yun, to use her weight as a reference to see if Liu Chan is doing well in the future.
This can be regarded as an objective measure, and it also avoids others gossiping in front of Liu Bei, so that every time Liu Chan gains weight, Sun Quan's sister can still invite credit, you see how well I raised your children.
When Zhao Yun returned to Liu Bei's side, he told Liu Bei about Sun Quan's sister's series of behaviors, and Liu Bei felt that this woman was too smart after hearing it, and couldn't help but look up to her.
Later, every year when it came to Lixia, Sun Quan's sister would take Liu Chan to weigh herself, and then report to Liu Bei, on the one hand, to ensure safety, and on the other hand, to say that she was raising Liu Chan well.
It was also from this time that there was a Xi of weighing children every time they were in the summer, and it slowly spread among the people.
Of course, these are historical stories, and over time, there will be different versions, which are said in another version.
At that time, it was Zhuge Liang who explained to Meng Shu beside him, telling him that no matter what happened in the future, he had to go to see Liu Chan, which was an agreement between Meng Shu and Zhuge Liang.
And when Meng Shu went to visit Liu Chan, it happened to be later in Lixia, even after Shu was destroyed by other countries, Meng Shu would still go to Luoyang to visit Liu Chan in Lixia.
At this time, Liu Chan had actually become a captive, and in order to ensure his quality of life and not be starved and frozen, Meng Shu would weigh Liu Chan every time he visited him.
This was a threat to Emperor Wu of Jin at that time, and Meng Shu's meaning was also very clear, although Emperor Wu of Jin was now more powerful, making Liu Chan a prisoner, but it did not mean that he could be treated badly.
If it is found that Liu Chan has been treated badly, even if he has exhausted all his strength, Meng Shu must get justice for Liu Chan.
But no matter which version of the real history is, anyway, the Xi of weighing yourself at the beginning of summer has been implemented and widely spread among the people.
Even in the Qing Dynasty, the common people would still weigh themselves on the day of the beginning of summer to see how they were doing this year, and they would weigh themselves again at the beginning of autumn to see how they had changed.
Moreover, when weighing weight, it is also necessary to say some auspicious words, especially for the elderly who weigh them, they must say a sentence to wish each other a long life.
At that time, the weight could not be rounded off, and the weight needed to be strictly recorded, so as to facilitate later examinations.
Tools for weighing
As for the weighing tool, in fact, it has been invented in the Qin Dynasty, when Qin Shi Huang unified the six countries, in order to unify weights and measures, this weighing tool was announced.
This invention dates back to 700 B.C., when the equipment used to weigh people was very elaborate, with weighing pans, weighing rods, and weights of various sizes.
About the origin of this pole, there is also such a legend in history, this story is related to Tao Zhu Gong Fan Li, in the rumors said that Tao Zhu Gong Fan Li was originally a very shrewd businessman.
One of the biggest skills in his life was to be able to clearly understand the weight of objects, in fact, the vast majority of businessmen at that time looked at catties with the naked eye.
It's just that after a long time, Tao Zhugong Fan Li felt that such a calculation method was inevitably a little unreliable, and whether it was a shortage of catties or two depended entirely on whether the merchant was conscious, so he decided to invent a tool that could be weighed.
At that time, when Tao Zhugong Fan Li saw someone drawing water in the well, he felt that a wooden pole could be used for many schemes, and it could be used for weighing.
Later, when Tao Zhugong Fan Lizi observed the celestial phenomena, he found that the stars in the sky could be used as markers, for example, one star represents one or two, and one catty needs thirteen stars.
As a result, the basic tool for weighing weight was invented, which is also the most basic version, and later Tao Zhugong Fan Li found that there are many people who will do hands and feet on the lever, so he improved the scale.
This time, one catty represents sixteen taels, and the three taels added in this are on behalf of the three meanings of blessing, Lu and longevity.
In the end, after repeated measurements and calculations by businessmen, a rod scale suitable for the common people was finally invented, and it was relatively fair.
epilogue
In ancient China, the method used to weigh catties was generally used in this most primitive balance method, which was also the most widely spread.
Through the number of grams on the scale, you can also get the weight of the object, these tips, all contain the wisdom of the ancients, which is impressive.