{{Short description|Traditional Chinese unit of distance}} {{hatnote|Li may also refer to a Chinese unit of weight; see Cash (unit).}} {{italic title}} {{more citations needed|date=September 2011}} [[File:Guang Yutu 1588 Vol 2 Pg 107 Eastern South Sea 1.jpg|thumb|Map of the eastern South China Sea from 1588; each grid square is 400 ''li'' (about 133 km or 80 miles).]] '''''Li''''' or '''ri''' ({{zh|{{linktext|里}}}}, ''lǐ'', or {{lang|zh|{{linktext|市里}}}}, ''shìlǐ''), also known as the '''Chinese mile''',{{Citation needed|date=February 2023}} is a traditional Chinese unit of distance. The ''li'' has varied considerably over time but was usually about one third of an English mile and now has a standardized length of a half-kilometer ({{convert|500|m|ft mi|sp=us|lk=on|sigfig=3|disp=or|abbr=off}}). This is then divided into 1,500 chi, or "Chinese feet".
The character 里 combines the characters for "field" (田, ''tián'') and "earth" (土, ''tǔ''), since it was considered to be about the length of a single village. As late as the 1940s, a "li" did not represent a fixed measure but could be longer or shorter depending on the ''effort'' required to cover the distance.<ref name="Winborn1994">{{cite book|author=Byron R. Winborn|title=Wen Bon: a Naval Air Intelligence Officer behind Japanese lines in China|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TD-x0Heq0uEC&pg=PA63|year=1994|publisher=University of North Texas Press|isbn=978-0-929398-77-8|page=63}}</ref> This traditional unit, in terms of historical usage and distance proportion, can be considered{{cn|date=June 2025}} the East Asian counterpart to the Western league unit. However, in English ''league'' commonly means "3 miles."
There is also another ''li'' (Traditional: 釐, Simplified: 厘, ''lí'') that indicates a unit of length {{Fraction|1000}} of a ''chi'', but it is used much less commonly. This ''li'' is used in the People's Republic of China as the equivalent of the ''centi-'' prefix in metric units, thus ''limi'' (厘米, ''límǐ'') for centimeter. The tonal difference makes it distinguishable to speakers of Chinese, but unless specifically noted otherwise, any reference to ''li'' will always refer to the longer traditional unit and not to either the shorter unit or the kilometer.
==Changing values== {{See also|Chinese units}} Like most traditional Chinese measurements, the ''li'' was reputed to have been established by the Yellow Emperor at the founding of Chinese civilization around 2600 BC and standardized by Yu the Great of the Xia dynasty six hundred years later. Although the value varied from state to state during the Spring and Autumn period and Warring States periods, historians give a general value to the ''li'' of 405 meters prior to the Qin dynasty imposition of its standard in the 3rd century BC.{{citation needed|date=September 2011}}
The basic Chinese traditional unit of distance was the ''chi''. As its value changed over time, so did the ''li''{{'}}s. In addition, the number of ''chi'' per ''li'' was sometimes altered. To add further complexity, under the Qin dynasty, the ''li'' was set at 360 "paces" ({{lang|zh|{{linktext|步}}}}, ''bù'') but the number of ''chi'' per ''bu'' was subsequently changed from 6 to 5, shortening the ''li'' by {{frac|1|6}}. Thus, the Qin ''li'' of about 576 meters became (with other changes) the Han ''li'', which was standardized at 415.8 meters.
The basic units of measurement remained stable over the Qin and Han periods. A bronze imperial standard measure, dated AD 9, had been preserved at the Imperial Palace in Beijing and came to light in 1924. This has allowed very accurate conversions to modern measurements, which has provided a new and extremely useful additional tool in the identification of place names and routes. These measurements have been confirmed in many ways including the discovery of a number of rulers found at archaeological sites, and careful measurements of distances between known points.<ref name="Hulsewé 1961, pp. 206–207">Hulsewé (1961), pp. 206–207.</ref> The Han ''li'' was calculated by Dubs to be 415.8 metres<ref>Dubs (1938), pp. 276–280; (1955), p. 160, n. 7,</ref> and all indications are that this is a precise and reliable determination.<ref name="Hulsewé 1961, pp. 206–207"/>
{| class="wikitable" |+ '''Evolving values of the ''li''{{citation needed|date=September 2011}}'''
|- ! Dynasty ! Period ! SI length
|- | Xia | 2100–1600 BCE | 405 m
|- | Western Zhou | 1045–771 BCE | 358 m
|- | Eastern Zhou | 770–250 BCE | 416 m
|- | Qin | 221–206 BCE | 415.8 m
|- | Han | 205 BCE – 220 CE | 415.8 m
|- | Tang | 618–907 CE | 323 m
|- | Qing | 1644–1911 CE | 537–645 m
|- | ROC | 1911–1984 | 500–545 m
|- | PRC | 1984–present | 500 m
|}
Under the Tang dynasty (AD 618–907), the ''li'' was approximately 323 meters.{{Citation needed|date=June 2011}}
In the late Manchu or Qing dynasty, the number of ''chi'' was increased from 1,500 per ''li'' to 1,800. This had a value of 2115 feet or 644.6 meters. In addition, the Qing added a longer unit called the '''tu''', which was equal to 150 ''li'' (96.7 km).
These changes were undone by the Republic of China of Chiang Kai-shek, who adopted the metric system in 1928. The Republic of China (now also known as Taiwan) continues not to use the ''li'' at all but only the kilometer (Mandarin: {{lang|zh|{{linktext|公里}}}}, ''gōnglǐ'', <small>lit.</small> "common li").
Under Mao Zedong, the People's Republic of China reinstituted the traditional units as a measure of anti-imperialism and cultural pride before officially adopting the metric system in 1984. A place was made within this for the traditional units, which were restandardized to metric values. A modern ''li'' is thus set at exactly half a kilometer (500 meters). However, unlike the ''jin'' which is still frequently preferred in daily use over the kilogram, the ''li'' is almost never used. Nonetheless, its appearance in many phrases and sayings means that "kilometer" must always be specified by saying ''gōnglǐ'' in full.
==Cultural use== [[File:Anping Bridge - west-central part - looking west - DSCF9094.JPG|thumb|A section of the Song-era Anping Bridge in Fujian. The bridge is commonly known as the "Five-Li Bridge" due to its length.]]
As one might expect for the equivalent of "mile", ''li'' appears in many Chinese sayings, locations, and proverbs as an indicator of great distances or the exotic:
* One Chinese name for the Great Wall is the "Ten-Thousand-Li Long Wall" ({{lang-zh|t=萬里長城|s=万里长城|p=Wànlǐchángchéng|first=t}}). As in Greek, the number "ten thousand" is used figuratively in Chinese to mean any "immeasurable" value and this title has never provided a literal distance of 10,000 ''li'' ({{convert|{{#expr:10000*0.5}}|km|mi|abbr=on|disp=or}}). The actual length of the modern Great Wall is around 42,000 ''li'' ({{convert|{{#expr:42000*0.5}}|km|mi|abbr=on|disp=or}}), over 4 times the name's proverbially "immeasurable" length.{{Citation needed|date=June 2022|reason=Why?}} * The Chinese proverb appearing in chapter 64 of the ''Tao Te Ching'' and commonly rendered as "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step" in fact refers to a thousand ''li'': 千里之行，始於足下 (''Qiānlǐzhīxíng, shǐyúzúxià''). * The greatest horses of Chinese history {{ndash}} including Red Hare and Hualiu (驊騮) {{ndash}} are all referred to as "thousand-''li'' horses" ({{linktext|千里馬}}, ''qiānlǐmǎ''), since they could supposedly travel a thousand ''li'' ({{convert|{{#expr:1000*0.5}}|km|mi|abbr=on|disp=or}}) in a single day. * ''Li'' is sometimes used in location names, for example: Wulipu (Chinese: 五里铺镇), Hubei; Ankang Wulipu Airport (Chinese: 安康五里铺机场), Shaanxi. Sanlitun ({{zh|s=三里屯|t=三里屯|p=Sānlǐtún|l=three li village}}) is an area in Beijing. * In ''Journey to the West'', Sun Wukong is said to be able to travel 108,000 ''li'' in a single somersault. {{anchor|Korea}}<!--linked-->
==Ri in Japan and Korea== <!-- linked from RI --> {{Further information|Japanese units of measurement|Korean units of measurement}}
The present day Korean ''ri/li'' (리, 里) and Japanese ''ri'' (里) are units of measurement that can be traced back to the Chinese ''li'' (里).
Although the Chinese unit was unofficially used in Japan since the Zhou dynasty{{Citation needed|date=January 2026}}, the countries officially adopted the measurement used by the Tang dynasty (618–907 AD). The ''ri'' of an earlier era in Japan was thus true to Chinese length, corresponding to six chō ({{circa}} 500–600 m), but later evolved to denote the distance that a person carrying a load would aim to cover on mountain roads in one hour. Thus, there had been various ''ri'' of 36, 40, and 48 chō. In the Edo period, the Tokugawa shogunate defined 1 ''ri'' as 36 chō, allowing other variants, and the Japanese government adopted this last definition in 1891. The Japanese ''ri'' was, at that time, fixed to the metric system, {{Fraction|216|55}} ≈ 3.93 kilometres or about 2.44 miles. Therefore, one must be careful about the correspondence between chō and ''ri''. See Kujūkuri Beach (99-''ri'' beach) for a case.
삼천리 (三千里) ''Samcheon-ri'', meaning "Three thousand li", is a traditional, poetic name used to refer to the entire Korean peninsula, as that is the approximate distance from the northern to southern end of Korea;<ref>{{Cite web |date=2016-11-06 |title=삼천리의 의미는 |url=https://www.joongang.co.kr/article/20827521 |access-date=2025-12-30 |website=중앙일보 |language=ko}}</ref> 3000 ''ri'' corresponds roughly to 1,200 km.
In South Korea, the ''ri'' unit currently in use is taken from the Han dynasty (206 BC–220 AD) ''li''. It has a value of approximately 392.72 meters, or one tenth of the ''ri''<!-- please clarify, this portion says ri is 1/10th of a ri -->. The Aegukga, the national anthem of South Korea, mentions 3,000 ''ri.''
The Aegukka, the national anthem of North Korea, also mentioned 3,000 ''ri'' from 1947 until 2024, when the reference was removed amidst souring inter-Korean relations and a shift in North Korean policy away from Korean reunification.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-02-15 |title=北, 국가 가사에서 한반도 지칭 '삼천리' 삭제 |url=https://www.mk.co.kr/news/politics/10943900 |access-date=2025-12-30 |website=매일경제 |language=ko}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Reddy |first=Shreyas |date=2024-02-16 |title=North Korea’s national anthem drops unification reference amid ongoing purge {{!}} NK News |url=https://www.nknews.org/2024/02/north-koreas-national-anthem-drops-unification-reference-amid-ongoing-purge/ |access-date=2025-12-30 |website=NK News - North Korea News |language=en-US}}</ref> Also in North Korea, the Chollima Movement, a campaign aimed at improving labour productivity, gets its name from ''Chŏllima'', a mythical horse capable of traveling 1000 ''ri'' in a single day (''chŏn + ri + ma'' in North Korean Romanization).
The Korean traditional song "Arirang" mentions one travelling 10 ''ri.''<ref>{{Cite web |title=Arirang "Korean representative traditional folk song" |url=https://www.une.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0006/65049/Traditional-music_2.pdf |access-date= |website=University of New England}}</ref>
==See also== * Chinese units of measurement * Japanese units of measurement * Korean units of measurement * League (unit) for a general discussion of league-style units * Qianlima for more on "thousand-li horse" including North Korean Chollima * Li (short)
== References ==
=== Citations === {{Reflist}}
=== Sources === {{refbegin}} * Homer H. Dubs (1938): ''The History of the Former Han Dynasty by Pan Ku''. Vol. One. Translator and editor: Homer H. Dubs. Baltimore. Waverly Press, Inc. * Homer H. Dubs (1955): ''The History of the Former Han Dynasty by Pan Ku''. Vol. Three. Translator and editor: Homer H. Dubs. Ithaca, New York. Spoken Languages Services, Inc. * Hulsewé, A. F. P. (1961). "Han measures". A. F. P. Hulsewé, ''T'oung pao Archives'', Vol. XLIX, Livre 3, pp. 206–207. * Needham, Joseph. (1986). ''Science and Civilization in China: Volume 4, Physics and Physical Technology, Part 3, Civil Engineering and Nautics''. Taipei: Caves Books Ltd. {{refend}}
{{systems of measurement}}
Category:History of science and technology in China Category:Units of length Category:Chinese units of measurement