都按四十文一斤买进
“at 40 wen a catty regardless of the season.”
THE DIALOGUE REEL
无论淡旺季
“we used to buy it”
都按四十文一斤买进
“at 40 wen a catty regardless of the season.”
如今肉价贵
“With today's high meat prices”
Direct spoken expression in this communicative setting.
'Wen' (文) refers to individual copper cash coins used in imperial China, while 'Jin' (斤) is the standard traditional Chinese unit of mass (approx. 500 grams).
LEARNING CHUNKS & PARTICLES
to buy or purchase at the rate of...
Use this structure when specifying purchasing rates or calculation criteria in business contexts.
forty copper coins per catty (jin)
A historical commercial phrasing for expressing unit prices in pre-modern markets.
Parallel Spoken Cinema Scenes (语义近邻切片)
“it's 30 mace a jin.”
“They sell it by the gram. One bowl costs over 100 yuan.”
“(calculating their value down to every last detail.)”
“It's nearly a kilo. It was over thirteen this morning, but I'll give it to you for ten.”
“We can't sell it by weight, right?”
“Raw materials are so expensive now. How much could they even put in these?”