Metrology is also called measurement in nowadays. In ancient times, there were quite a few Chinese characters indicating weights and measures and the most commonly seen ones include unit of length such as  ( Zhang ),  ( Chi ), ( Cun ),  ( Fen ),  ( Li ) and  ( Hao ), etc; unit of weight such as ( Shi ),  ( Dou ), ( Sheng ), ( Jin ), ( Liang ) and  ( Qian ), etc; unit of acreage such as  ( Qing ),  ( Mu ) and ( Li ), etc.

Among these characters of measurement, some changed a lot in meaning. For example, the character ( Jin ), it meant 16 ( Liang ) in ancient times, but nowadays it means 10 Liang .

Besides above-mentioned ones, there were many other characters indicating measurement and they mainly fall into seven categories:

Unit of length: ( Si ), ( Hu ), ( Xun ), ( Chang ), ( Ren ),  ( Chi ), ( Suo ), ( Zhou ) and so on.

Unit of textile goods:  ( Pi ),  ( Duan ), ( Zhong ),  ( Zhang ), ( Liang ), ( Xun ), ( Chang ),  ( Mo ) and so on.

Unit of capacity:  ( Hu ),  ( Yue ), ( He ),  ( Shao ),  ( Chao ) and so on.

Unit of weight:  ( Dan ), ( Jun ),  ( Zhu ),  ( Yue , equal to six Liang ),  ( Gu ) and so on.

Unit of land and mileage:  ( Bu ),  ( Zhou ),  ( Gong ),  ( Yin ),  ( Xiang ),  ( Fang ) and so on.

Unit for measurement of crops:  ( Bing , a handful of crops),  ( Yu , a granary),  ( Zi , ten thousand milliard),  ( Fou ) and so on.

Unit of time:  (hour),  (quarter),  (minute),  (second) and so on.

Among these characters indicating units of weights and measures, quite a part are symbolic signs such as  ( He ) and ( Mi ), some are names of body parts such as ( Zhou , elbow) and  ( Zhi , finger) and others are containers such as  ( Gong , equal to 5 Chi ) and ( Hu , a container of grain).