Stone (Chinese: 石) is the English transliteration of a historical Chinese unit of mass, either pronounced as shek (Cantonese: sek6) or dan (pinyin: dàn) depending on context.
Historically, during the Qin and Han dynasties, the stone (dàn）was used as a unit of measurement. One stone was equal to 120 catties. Government officials at the time were paid in grains, counted in stones. The amount of salary in weight was then used as a ranking system for officials, with the top ministers being paid 2000 stones.[1]
In the early days of Hong Kong as a British colony, the "shek" was used as a measurement of weight. One stone equals 120 catty[2], which is about 72.5747784 kilograms. It was made obsolete due to a subsequent overriding legislation in 1885, which made no reference to this unit. [3]
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