174  THE  CHINESE  EMPIRE
siderably.  By  Chinese  reckoning,  if  it  is  50  li  to  the  top  of
Mount  Washington,  returning  by  the  same  road  to  the  same
point  the  distance  may  be  25  li  ;  and  similarly  a  mountain
may  be  spoken  of  as  100  miles  high—by  road.
Area
The  table  of  area  is  purely  decimal,  the  unit,  the  mow,
being  divided  down  to  the  ^¿¡¡»th  P art  ;  100
make  a  ching.  In  the  calculation  of  the  mow  occuis
second  of  the  two  departures  from  the  decimal  system  m
China:  it  is  240  square  “paces”  or  “bows,  each  oW
being  5  feet  long,  and  is  therefore  6,000  square  land  ee  ^
but  as  the  land  foot  varies,  so  does  the  mow  vary.  ie
“  customary  ”  mow  at  Shanghai  is  exactly  one-sixth  o  an
English  acre  (7,260  square  feet,  English)  ;  but  thoug  ou
the  Empire  the  mow  varies  from  3,840  to  9,964,  wit  1  one
standard  of  18,148  English  square  feet.
To  give  further  details  of  all  the  vagaries  of  the  measures
of  China  would  take  a  volume,  but  enough  has  been  written
to  indicate  in  some  degree  the  variability  of  what  are  he
to  be  standards,  and  the  mental  attitude  of  those  on  whom
it  is  sought  to  impose  uniformity.  The  example  ol  othei
countries  may  be  cited,  where  order  has  been  evolved  h  om
chaos  and  uniformity  from  diversity,  but  it  must  be  re
membered  that  China  is  not  one  country,  it  is  a  dozen  ,1
is  a  continent,  with  the  population  and  the  diversity  of  a
continent,  with  the  inborn  habit  of  centuries  to  stereotype
the  minds  of  the  people,  and  with  the  natural  stubbornness
of  an  old  civilisation  to  resist  all  change.