title: [Exploration on containers for medicinal measurement].
abstract: Containers for measuring medicines, including Qian bi (coin dagger) . dao gui (knife dagger), san fen bi (3 - fen dagger) . wu fen bi (5 - fen dagger) and fang cun bi (square - ital dagger) are discussed on the basis of ancient literature records and unearthed relics. It is claimed that besides applied as a 5 - zhu coin, coin dagger can also be interpreted as the weight of 1 coin dagger. Knife dagger is a measuring container with a volume of 0.5 ml. Based on the fact that "1 - fen copper volume" measures 1.2 mil, it is suggested that a 3 - fen dagger equals 3.6 ml; while 5 - fen dagger, 6 ml. Being a flattened spoon, concave at its center, a square - cun dagger measures approximately 10 or approximately 18 ml.
authors.affiliation: Shanghai University of TCM, Shanghai 200032.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Cheng
mesh_terms: D002681:China; D004349:Drug Packaging / Q000266:history*; D049690:History, Ancient; D013678:Technology, Pharmaceutical / Q000266:history*