Imperial Edition of the Siku Quanshu

Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art, Volume 1

Annotated by Liu Hui of the Jin Dynasty

Commentary by Li Chunfeng of the Tang Dynasty

Field Measurement for Managing Land Boundaries

Suppose there is a field 15 paces wide and 16 paces long. How much is the area of the field?
Answer: 1 mu a unit of land area, equivalent to 240 square paces.

Suppose there is another field 12 paces wide and 14 paces long. How much is the area of the field?
Answer: 168 square paces.

The method for square fields is: multiply the number of paces in width and length to obtain the accumulated square paces.