A question about the word "頃" meaning qing

Japanese
#1

I learned this word as part of the bunpro N2 deck. Usually JLPT vocabulary items are plausible enough that I don’t doubt their reason for being listed, but this is the first time I’ve thought, “Is this really meant to be here?”

The word 頃, read as kei, is listed as having one meaning - qing (Chinese unit of land area equal to 100 mu). If you’re wondering, by the way, that’s 6 and two third hectares. Despite saying “rare term” directly underneath the definition, it’s also listed under frequency as “general top 300,” which I can only assume is because it is being mistaken for a word using the same kanji but with the reading of “goro.”

On the other hand, am I crazy? Even jisho lists this word as JLPT N1 (though not N2 like bunpro). Are discussions of traditional Chinese land measurements truly so common in Japanese?
I’m so curious about this word and how it came to be in this deck. Is it actually common? Why is it in JLPT? Do I truly need to know what a qing is? I don’t even know what a mu is!
If anyone knows, please tell me!

ETA: along those lines, I’m also curious about this word

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#2

BCCWJ has the frequency of that one as 23,452 and JPDB has it at 37,323 so that one’s fairly common. Neither have an entry for 頃[けい], however.

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#3

With the JLPT thing it probably appeared in an N1 reading text one time with an annotation about the meaning. Whoever tags these things just saw that and assigned it as a general N1 word as if it appears frequently which it definitely doesn’t. It happens a lot especially in old N1 vocab lists which what I assume jisho references.

Although these old measurements are weird you will definitely encounter them in older books or books about historical eras etc. Think koku which means a particular measurement of rice that was used as payment.

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#4

It is very uncommon as you mentioned. However, as @Beghaus brought up, older measurements are something that you will definitely see from time to time, especially if you watch period dramas, which Japan has a lot of.

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#5

Funnily enough, Bunpro itself puts this best:

image
image1667×183 27.1 KB

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#6

wut :smiley:
image

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#7

The frequencies of けい and ころ are identical, so that’s definitely a bug.

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#8

Regarding your query about the character 尉 。。。

With the reading じょう, as given in Bunpro, it means ① old man; in Noh, in addition to the role of an old man, it can also refer to the mask of an old man; and ② white ash (Nihon kokugo daijiten 日本国語大辞典)

It can also be read い with various meanings. Here’s the entry from Shinsen Kanwa jiten Web-han 新選漢和辞典 Web版 (in JapanKnowledge database)

①官名。

（ア）刑罰者をおさえる地方官。

（イ）軍事をつかさどる官。「軍尉（ぐんい）」

②慰める。やすんじる。＝慰

③布のしわをのばす。火斗（ひのし）。＝熨

④姓。

:woman_shrugging:t2: You asked! :blush:

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#9

no way… life imitates bunpro…

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#10

Interesting! I’m now realising I misread “old man; In Noh” as “old man in Noh” which is why I guess I thought it was particularly niche

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