In first-century China, emperor Wang Mang standardized weights and measures in his newly established dynasty. Noa Hegesh tells the story of sound as the basis for this standardization.
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References
The History of the Former Han (Han shu 漢書) (Zhonghua, 1964).
Loewe, M. Problems of Han Administration: Ancestral Rites, Weights and Measures, and the Means of Protest (Brill, 2016).
Tsai, M.-F. (ed.) Splendid Treasures:A Hundred Masterpieces of the National Palace Museum on Parade (Jingcai yibai guobao zongdongyuan te zhan 精彩一百國寶總動員特展) (National Palace Museum, 2011).
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Hegesh, N. The sound of weights and measures. Nat. Phys. 16, 1166 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-020-01077-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-020-01077-z
