[citation needed] Local applications have varied, but the Chinese dynasties usually proclaimed standard measurements and recorded their predecessor's systems in their histories.

Taiwan, like Korea, saw its traditional units standardized to Japanese values and their conversion to a metric basis, such as the Taiwanese ping of about 3.306 m2 based on the square ken.

For instance, the Hong Kong catty is precisely 604.78982 g. Note: The names lí (釐 or 厘) and fēn (分) for small units are the same for length, area, and mass; however, they refer to different kinds of measurements.

According to the Records of the Grand Historian, these human body units caused inconsistency, and Yu the Great, another legendary figure, unified the length measurements.

After the Warring States period, Qin Shi Huang unified China, and later standardized measurement units.

Astronomical instruments show little change of the length of chi in the following centuries, since the calendar needed to be consistent.

[3] The Government of the People's Republic of China continued using the market system along with metric system, as decreed by the State Council of the People's Republic of China on 25 June 1959, but 1 catty being 500 grams, would become divided into 10 (new) taels, instead of 16 (old) taels, to be converted from province to province, while exempting Chinese prescription drugs from the conversion to prevent errors.

[4] On 27 February 1984, the State Council of the People's Republic of China decreed the market system to remain acceptable until the end of 1990 and ordered the transition to the national legal measures by that time, but farmland measures would be exempt from this mandatory metrication until further investigation and study.

The editions of Wu Chenglou's 1937 History of Chinese Measurement[17] were the usual standard up to the 1980s or so, but rely mostly on surviving literary accounts.

[18] Qiu Guangming & Zhang Yanming's 2005 bilingual Concise History of Ancient Chinese Measures and Weights summarizes these findings.

[19] A relatively recent and comprehensive bibliography, organized by period studied, has been compiled in 2012 by Cao & al.;[20] for a shorter list, see Wilkinson's year 2000 Chinese History.