Taxonomy of meanings for 里:　　

  • lǐ (OC: ɡ-rɯʔ MC: lɨ) 良士切 上 廣韻：【周禮五家爲鄰五鄰爲里風俗通云五家爲軌十軌爲里里者止也五十家共居止也又姓左傳晉大夫里克又漢複姓有相里氏良士切十 】
    • VILLAGE
      • nSHI 76: small village (fengsutong: 50 families); small neighbourhood in a city, neighbourhood; hamlet; home village; occasionally: every village (five of these are ideally said to make up one xiang 鄉
      • part of> HUT
        • nhut
        • associated action> DWELL
          • vtoNmake one's home in
      • abstract> LENGTH MEASURES
        • nthree hundred double paces
        • nadVat a distance of one li
        • n{PRED}be so-and-so many leagues in sizeCH
        • vimove (up) so-and-so-many leaguesCH
        • n{PRED}post-N.adSN=quantityafter a distance of N liDS
        • derived> AREA MEASURES
          • nexpression "n 里" refers to the square with the side of n 里
          • npostadVV over an area of so-and-so many leaguesCH
          • viextend over so-and-so-many leagues (in any direction)CH
          • ncpost-V{NUM}area of V x V square leaguesLZ
          • ncpost-V{NUM}. NN of the area V x V square leaguesLZ

    Additional information about 里

    說文解字: 【里】，居也。从田、从士。 〔小徐本作「從田、從土。一曰：士聲也。」〕 凡里之屬皆从里。 【良止切】

      Criteria
    • VILLAGE

      1. The current general word for a village of any kind is lǐ 里. But note that this word even more often refers to city neighbourhoods.

      2. Xiāng 鄉 as an administrative term refers to a fairly non-urban neighbourhood area which will normally include several lǐ 里. ZHOULI and Han commentators arbitrarily define this as containing 12 500 families; when used informally, the term refers to a person's home or the vicinity where he lives, as in xiāng rén 鄉人.

      3. Lu �閭 refers generally to a narrowly defined neighbourhood area in the countryside, or a small neighbourhood in a conurbation. Han commentators do not quantify the number of inhabitants.

      4. Lín 鄰 refers to the administrative unit of a "neighbourhood". Traditionally, this was quantified as containing five or eight families.

      Word relations
    • Assoc: (VILLAGE)鄉/VILLAGE Xiāng 鄉 as an administrative term refers to a fairly non-urban neighbourhood area which will normally include several lǐ 里. ZHOULI and Han commentators arbitrarily define this as containing 12 500 families; when used informally, the term refers to a person's home or the vicinity where he lives, as in xiāng rén 鄉人.
    • Assoc: (LENGTH MEASURES)千/THOUSAND