In which era did the earliest coins appear in China? (It is best to have literature or physical data records)

Coin culture is a treasure of traditional Chinese culture. The following according to the relevant topics of study, reference to the Shanghai Museum of History Mr. Fu Weigun "illustrated Chinese coins" and Mr. Zhou Xiang lectures, integration of information into the text. Trial by the monetary history and culture of ancient China's economic, political and social landscape, in order to enrich the connotation of historical learning. This article is the first involved in numismatics, for reference only, not for correction.

One, the origin of ancient coins and the origin

Money is the product of commodity exchange. At the end of primitive society, the earliest currency is physical money. Generally speaking, the nomadic people to livestock, animal skins to realize the function of money, while the agricultural people to grain, cloth and silk, agricultural tools, pottery, sea shells, beads and jade as the earliest physical currency. According to archaeological excavations of the late Neolithic era sites such as half slope unearthed a large number of pots as a martyrdom; Dawenkou culture buried a large number of pig head and jawbone, indicating that the pig and pottery in the late primitive society had played the function of monetary wealth. However, as we all know, the circulation of the wider ancient physical currency for the "shell". Because as a physical currency, cattle, sheep, pigs and other livestock can not be divided, grains will rot, too few jewels, knives and shovels are bulky, so the final focus on the sea shells of physical currency. Sea shells can be used as neck ornaments, have a use value, easy to carry and count, so in the long-term commodity exchange was chosen as the main currency. In archaeological excavations, the Xia Dynasty, Shang Dynasty sites have unearthed a large number of natural shells, shellfish as physical currency has been used until the Spring and Autumn Period. Therefore, most of the Chinese characters related to wealth and value are related to the character "贝". For example, the Chinese characters for wealth and value are mostly related to the word "shell".

China was the first country in the world to use minted coins. Three thousand years ago, the late Yin and Shang tombs unearthed a lot of "no text copper shell", the most primitive metal currency. To the late Western Zhou in addition to shellfish also circulated some of the loose copper without a certain shape, copper dregs, copper ingots and other metal weighing currency, which has also been unearthed in archaeological excavations.

In summary, the late primitive society to the Xia, Shang, Zhou era, the main form of money is the physical currency, the circulation of the wider is the natural shell. Later, a small amount of metal weighing currency, coins, is the germination of money and the formation of the period.

Two, pre-Qin currency exploration

Spring and Autumn and Warring States period, with the development of the commodity economy, so that the circulation to be divided and identification of the color of the metal weighing currency is gradually not adapted to be replaced by the metal minting.

From the Spring and Autumn period into the metal minting stage to the Warring States period has been established cloth, knife goods, ant nose money, ring money four major currency system, the following introduction.

1, the Central Plains, namely, Zhao, Han, Wei and the Zhou royal family and other places, mainly popular cloth coins. Cloth coins from the bronze shovel-shaped agricultural tools "" and "cloth" homophonic loan. During the Spring and Autumn Period, the cloth coins were mainly hollow axe with a handle. And the warring states period of cloth coin is mainly flat head cloth, that is, relative to the "empty head cloth", there is no handle hollow axe, and shaped like a shovel-shaped piece of copper, cloth coin form roughly divided into flat shoulder, shrugged shoulder, round shoulder and square foot, pointed foot, round foot, etc., the most general from the flat shoulder and flat foot or flat shoulder and flat foot to shrugged shoulder and pointed foot cloth, round shoulder and round foot cloth, the region after the expansion of the Chu and Yan and other places.

2, the east of qi and the north of yan mainly use knife coin. Knife coins are divided into "Yan Ming knife" and "Qi knife" two major types. The shape of the knife coins resembles the Shanrong, northern Di and other northern nomads fishing and hunting with the knife tools. Because of the Qi knife face has "chemical" character and called "knife". Knife goods shape knife back arc back, folding back, straight back, the head of the knife has a flat head, pointed head of the points, is also a kind of early bronze coins in China.

3, northwestern qin alone with ring coins, the shape of the elephant in the spinning wheel or jade wall evolution. Ring coin round hole and square hole two kinds. The warring states period that the earlier casting is a round hole, after the king of qin huiwen, qin shihuang cast round square hole "half two" money. Circular ring money is the original state of the square hole money.

4, southern chu minted copper shell called ant nose money, evolved from the shell money. Copper shell money "" shaped like a ghost face, for the "shellfish" combination of two words. Ant nose is a metaphor for small, meaning small money. Chu state has the text of copper shell minted coins commonly known as "ghost face money", "ant nose money". In addition to the ant-nose money, Chu also has gold weighing currency, is the only country in the Warring States period with gold as the circulation of money.

In short, the Spring and Autumn and Warring States period of the four major currency system by the knife, shovel, spinning wheel and other tools of labor and production evolution, which can be seen around the time of the conquest, fishing and hunting, pottery, textiles and trade transactions, such as the economic life of the regional characteristics and social landscape. At the same time the formation of the four major currency areas is also the product of the vassal division. With the development of the economy and commodity trading. Currencies circulate each other, and accordingly promote the unity of the coinage system and standardization trend.

Three, dynasties outline money history

Outline money refers to the state or local authorities issued by law a type of money. From a different version of the outline of the money derived from the "eye money". This is the system of coins, which is the main system of coins. Taking the outline money as a clue, we can understand the history of currency; taking the eye money as a clue, we can get involved in the appreciation of ancient coins and archaeology. The following article is an explanation of the political, economic, and historical changes associated with the evolution of money in ancient times.

The system of mimeo can be divided into two major stages from the Qin and Han dynasties to the Ming and Qing dynasties. The first stage: the Qin, Han and Sui and Tang dynasties to copper coins, is the Qin "half two money" and Han "five baht money" as the main dry baht two system stage. The second stage of the Tang and Song dynasty to the Ming and Qing dynasties, in addition to the emergence of coins minted in the year, Bao Wen system is different from the former baht system, but also the emergence of paper money and the silver standard system, the next sub narrative.

(a) the Qin and Han "half-two money"

Qin united the six countries, political unity requires economic unity as the basis, Qin Shihuang conformed to the development trend of history, in the unification of the written word, weights and measures at the same time, but also the unification of the currency. It was stipulated that "gold" would be the upper coin, with 20 taels as the unit, and round copper coins with square holes would be the lower coin, with half a taels as the unit. The "half a tael" corresponded to the actual weight of the money, and this square-hole round coin has been the main form of Chinese currency for more than 2,000 years. Why take this form? Mainly ring-shaped easy to carry, and square holes through the rope copper money is not easy to rotate, can prevent wear and tear. It is also believed that this form of expression of the ancients of the cosmic concept of the circle of heaven and earth. Qin Dynasty square hole round money is the world's first by the government legal tender.

The identification of the Warring States and Qin Dynasty "half-two coins" can start from the calligraphy. The Warring States coins are written in the Big Seal Script, while the Qin Dynasty coins are written in the Small Seal Script. It is said that the Qin coins were written by Li Si, the prime minister of Qin. Probably due to this influence, most of the coins after the Qin Dynasty were written by the nobility or famous calligraphers. In the Song Dynasty, there were also coins written by the emperor. One of the differences between ancient Chinese coins and Western currencies is that the Chinese ancient money layout is mainly written on the money, and very few circulating coins have designs, while Western currencies have designs of plants, animals, people, etc. The art of calligraphy on ancient coins is a very important part of the Chinese culture. Calligraphy on ancient money for another topic when a different argument.

It is said that the first emperor of Qin Shi Huang to prevent people from rebelling to collect the world's weapons cast twelve gold people. This is bound to affect the amount of copper money cast. Because the price of copper is very high, the currency circulation is insufficient, so the value of the Qin half-two money is very high. In the early Han Dynasty, the problem of "heavy Qin money (high price) is difficult to use" occurred. Han inherited the Qin system and used the half-two coins, but when Liu Bang became the emperor, the country was very poor, so he changed to cast many small coins, and successively appeared "Yu pod half-two coins, eight baht half-two coins, four baht half-two coins, etc. One tael was twenty-four baht. One half-tael is 24 baht, because of the Qin half-tael is greatly reduced in weight, "half-tael" name does not match the reality. Especially a small half-two, shaped like elm tree fruit and called "elm pod half-two" weighing less than 1 gram, less than 1 cm in diameter. Han also allowed the private casting of coins and county minting of coins, resulting in coinage disorders and inflation, until Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty changed the coinage system.

(2) Han "five baht money" and the history

1. Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty created "five baht money".

After his accession to the throne, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was in urgent need of financial resources to deal with the four barbarians outside and to make profits inside. At the same time, the free minting of money by the counties caused confusion in the coinage system, and prices rose, threatening the central government's finances. Therefore, Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty ordered to abolish the right of the county states to make coins in the beginning of Han Dynasty in 118 BC, and to unify the central government to make coins instead. The "Three Officials of Shanglin", i.e. Zhong Guan (in charge of minting money), Tong Guan (in charge of raw materials), and Jun Liao (in charge of making models), were set up to form the centralized minting organization in charge of minting the five-baht coins, which were also known as the Shanglin money and the Three Officials' coins. The high quality of the five-baht coins changed the phenomenon of monetary chaos and was conducive to centralization and economic development. It was used for more than seven hundred years from Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty through Western Han Dynasty, New Mang Dynasty, Eastern Han Dynasty, Wei Dynasty, Jin Dynasty, Northern and Southern Dynasties to Sui Dynasty and Tang Dynasty***. The five baht has long been the legal tender of successive dynasties. Because of the lightness and weight of the five iron coins, the Chinese square-hole round coins with "five baht" as the main form also influenced Japan, Annam, Korea and other countries. Thailand's current monetary unit is still called "baht" and this is not unrelated.

2, the Xinmang coinage system chaos and casting money fine.

Late Western Han Dynasty, Wang Mang built a new dynasty, to change the system of ancient, indiscriminate issuance of money. For example: "Daquan fifty" is Wang Mang came to power in order to solve the economic crisis and the casting of a kind of big money. "Quan" is a borrowing of the word "money". Wang Mang believed in the doctrine of wei, after he took over the world of Liu, in order to avoid the word "Liu", the character of Liu was composed of three characters, namely, Mao, Jin, and knife, so the word "Jin" was not used in the money, but "Quan" was used instead. The weight of a "Daquan 50" was only two and a half times that of a Western Han five-baht coin, but it was used as 50 five-baht coins. This meant that every time a large coin was issued, forty-seven and a half five-baht coins were taken away from the people's hands, which inevitably caused dissatisfaction among the people, who continued to use five-baht coins in their transactions. For this reason, Wang Mang made it a rule that anyone who dared to hide five-baht coins would be sentenced to military service as a prisoner. The chaos of the coinage system showed that Wang Mang's rule was unpopular and was bound to collapse. In addition, there was also a large coin called "刀平五千" which means that one large coin was equivalent to 5,000 five-baht coins. Such a large amount of money must be someone risked his life to forge. In order to prevent theft and minting of private money, in addition to the enactment of the penal code, a new form of coinage was created, i.e., the combination of the ancient knife coinage and the round coinage, creating the world's first two-color metal coinage. In order to prevent the fake private casting and make the "big spring fifty", "knife flat five thousand" and other official coins "exquisite workmanship", this distortion of style also make the descendants of a thousand years sigh.

The Eastern Han Dynasty resumed the five-baht coinage system since the Western Han Dynasty, and at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Dong Zhuo came to the capital to destroy the five-baht coinage, and even cast a small amount of money, which led to inflation, and the monetary system fell into disarray again.

3, "six dynasties five baht" bad money

Wei-Jin and North-South Dynasties is a period of division in China, frequent wars, political unrest, social and economic devastation, the history of this time, "money law is very bad". In order to save copper, the five baht money more and more small, there are "googly eyes", "chicken eye" of the name, and more cut the edge of the circle, called the cut edge five baht, a money to change two, but the denomination is large, a hundred as a thousand with. The numismatic community collectively referred to this period of five baht as the "Six Dynasties five baht". The six dynasties were Wu of the Three Kingdoms, Jin of the East, Song of the South, Qi, Liang and Chen, all of which had their capitals in Nanjing. During this period, the five-baht coins were not only shoddily cast, but also had a high rate of writing and incomplete strokes. There are those who wrote "five baht" as "five gold" and those who wrote "five baht" as the opposite. But during the five-baht coins there are individual exceptions, such as the Northern Wei Dynasty "Taihe five-baht", "Yongan five-baht", known as "heavy as its text", the quality is excellent, not only make people think of the Northern Wei Dynasty Emperor Xiaowen's A series of successful reforms.

4, sui dynasty "five baht" and rumors.

Sui dynasty, Sui Wen Di casting "Kai Huang five baht" to end the end of the Han since the end of more than three hundred years of the money system, which is also the last use of five baht money of the dynasty. Emperor Yang's tyranny, some people argue that Sui "five baht" five baht "five" that is "X" word on the left plus vertical | for "|X "|X", put down seems to be the word "evil". So some people say is Sui's bad omen, foretelling its demise is not far away. Therefore, the Sui dynasty "five baht money" better recognized. In fact, this kind of writing in the Northern Wei Dynasty also had, this is just the people use to curse the Sui tyranny only.

(3) the Tang dynasty from the square hole round money from the baht two system into the "text" as the unit of the year, the treasure text system, along the evolution of the two Song dynasty to the Qing dynasty, this is the second stage of monetary development.

1, Tang Gaozu first "Bao Wen" "year money"

Tang Dynasty is a strong economic and cultural development of the dynasty. According to the test Tang Gaozu Wude year 621 years minted "Kaiyuan Tongbao" money, the end of the Qin and Han dynasty since the weight of the baht and two named coinage system, and created the Tang and Song dynasty after the "text" as the unit of the year, Bao Wen system of copper coins. "Kaiyuan" has the meaning of founding, the first, "Tongbao" that is, the circulation of the treasure goods. There is a big breakthrough in the weight unit, the ancient weighing method of 24 baht for one tael. "Kaiyuan Tongbao" to create a decimal system, each weighing two baht four for a penny, the accumulation of ten pennies weighing one or two, that is, ten pennies one or two "to money instead of baht". Kaiyuan Tongbao was minted in the Tang Dynasty for more than 200 years, which made the coinage system stable for a long time. Tang to "text" counting, to money two for the weight unit of the Bao Wen money system inherited to the Qing Dynasty lasted a thousand years. It is also rumored that the "Kaiyuan Tongbao" minted by Tang Emperor Gaozu was written by Ouyang Ma, a great calligrapher of the early Tang Dynasty, to increase the elegance of writing, and was praised as a calligraphy coin.

After the Anshi Rebellion, Emperor Suzong of the Tang Dynasty minted a large amount of money to cope with financial difficulties, which was called "Qianyuan Heavy Treasure". This is the earliest said "heavy treasure" money, a heavy treasure when the Kaiyuan money ten, caused by the devaluation of currency, prices soaring, serious theft and casting, people's hearts and minds. To the late Tang Tang Wuzong abolished the Buddha, take the Buddha copper cast a large number of "Huichang Kaiyuan" money, so that the continuation of half a century of deflation phenomenon has eased. "Qianyuan", "Huichang" are for the year.

The Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms was a period of war and division between the warlords, due to the various regimes, a variety of currencies, is a period of monetary chaos. Coin material in addition to copper and tin, iron and so on. Large amount of money when ten as a hundred, or even when a thousand as ten thousand popular. The confusion and complexity of the money system reflected the economic deterioration brought about by the war of division.

In summary, the copper coins square hole round money from the baht two system into the year, the treasure text system for the development of the currency of a major turning point.

(4) two Song to the Ming and Qing dynasties in addition to copper coins, but also produced paper money and silver system for the development of currency for another turning point.

1, the two Song dynasty "year money", "imperial coins" and "paper money"

The two Song dynasty copper coins to the use of the year as a distinctive feature. According to the evidence, the first year number was created by Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty, and the "year number money" began with the "Hanxing money" of Li Shou of Chengdu, Sichuan Province in the 16th Dynasty. The last year of money for Yuan Shikai restoration of the imperial system cast "Hong Xian yuan year, when ten copper dollars." This coin existed for less than four months after the fall of Yuan Shikai. "Year number money" because of the casting of the year, marking the minting time, so that people in the verification of the age of the ancient coins can be clear at a glance, which in the development of the form of coins is a progress. In the Song, Ming and Qing dynasties, the coins are the easiest to collect.

Additionally, the Song Dynasty is famous for its calligraphy. According to legend, the Yuanfeng coins minted during the Yuanfeng reign of Emperor Shenzong of the Song Dynasty were written in four styles: seal script, official script, regular script, and cursive script, among which the official script of Su Dongpo's handwriting was so calm and bold that it was called "Dongpo Yuanfeng". During the reign of Emperor Zhezong of the Song Dynasty, Sima Guang and Su Dongpo wrote a pair of coins called "Yuan Yu Tong Bao" in both seal script and running script. This made the pair of coins popular in the Song Dynasty. The emperor who was good at calligraphy couldn't stand the loneliness, and often showed his skills on the money. Written by the emperor of the "imperial book money", according to evidence that the first person for the Song Taizong Zhao Gui, and successive emperors in the highest calligraphic achievement for the Song Huizong Zhao Ji. He was incompetent in ruling the country, and was captured by the Jin soldiers along with his son, Emperor Qinzong, during the "Shame of Jingkang". However, he had a fondness for Chinese calligraphy and chess, especially the "thin gold style" of calligraphy, which was unique in its iron painting and silver hooks. Song dynasty calligraphy coins see famous and the emperor's physical promotion is not unrelated, especially the popularity of the year of the imperial book money. This money style to the Ming Dynasty has changed. The middle of the Ming dynasty began to money from the hands of craftsmen, the font is dull, do not talk about the layout of the structure, can not talk about the art of calligraphy.

The two Song dynasty minted copper and iron money in parallel, due to the copper than the value of copper, there is the phenomenon of the destruction of money casting, less copper and iron money. In addition, with the economic center of gravity to the south, the expansion of currency circulation, the two Song dynasty produced paper money is the world's first paper money. This paper money is a kind of symbolic currency, it is the product of the development of social commodity economy to a certain stage, at the same time with the progress of paper making and printing technology is also related. In the Northern Song Dynasty, there were mainly jiaozi (交子) and in the Southern Song Dynasty, there were huizi (会子) and guanzi (关子). Jiaozi and guanzi are the common names for bills, securities and exchange coupons. The stability of the currency value has become a barometer of the economic and financial situation.

Liao, Song, Xixia and other northern minority regimes, in interaction with the Han Chinese by the economic and cultural impact of the Central Plains, in addition to the use of the Tang and Song dynasty copper coins, also issued by the national text and the Chinese class of copper coins.

2, the yuan dynasty coinage system to paper money

The yuan dynasty had minted a small amount of copper, but the currency mainly circulating paper money. This is more prominent in ancient China. Yuan dynasty paper money called banknotes. The original banknote is not allowed to misappropriation, banknote issuance is strictly limited. But the end of the Yuan political corruption, royal extravagance, military expenditure is huge, the financial inability to make ends meet, the government had to rely on the indiscriminate issuance of banknotes to make up for, causing prices to soar. Coupled with the Yellow River diversion flooding, natural and man-made disasters, it is said that "open the river into the root cause of the scourge of money", it can be seen that the indiscriminate issuance of banknotes and the Yuan Dynasty is very relevant to the demise of the Yuan Dynasty.

3, the Ming dynasty by the paper money policy to silver-based, money as a complementary system.

The issuance of paper money in the history of money is a progress, but successive rulers have not failed to use it to exploit, plunder the people and make the paper money paper policy collapse. Such as the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang on the implementation of paper money policy, the issue of "Daming Baozhi" and copper money and use. But the Ming dynasty banknotes do not issue limit, no reserve, soon lead to inflation, so the middle of the Ming dynasty after the Jiajing years, the banknotes have not been able to pass, the people mainly use silver and copper money. Such as the Ming dynasty "class craftsman" to silver instead of service, hired labor wages, the rich and powerful accumulation of family assets, etc. are mainly with the amount of silver. The amount of silver was cast as a certain standard silver ingot from the yuan dynasty, from the yuan dynasty to the beginning of the year, the silver ingot since the name of "yuanbao", which is China's silver ingot for the "yuanbao" of the beginning. At the same time, the popularity of copper money, the quality of material from bronze to brass, casting to the number of the year as the number of Tongbao money.

4, the qing dynasty copper money, paper money and mechanism

Qing dynasty copper money follows the system of the ming dynasty, mainly casting small flat money. Qing dynasty copper money to Xianfeng money is the most complex, the money text has Tongbao, Chongbao and Yuanbao points, the face value is different, the money bureau is different. Qing Dynasty folk business large numbers with silver, small money with money, money, silver parallel.

The first one hundred years of the Qing dynasty to silver ingots as the main currency, tax more than one or two must be collected silver, the Qing dynasty states and counties every year in summer, autumn and two seasons to collect the field levy, finished grain must be full of silver. Because the central not cast a unified circulation of silver, civil use of silver may not be silver, silver ingots around the form, color, flat code is different, so every tax before the silversmiths and silver store will be civil silver melting and casting into silver when the silver. Some silversmiths colluded with officials to take advantage of the opportunity in the silver color, the amount of harsh people, resulting in many complex social problems.

The late Qing Dynasty silver ingots began to silver dollars. Since the middle of the Ming Dynasty, foreign merchants in foreign trade with their silver dollars to buy Chinese silk, tea, porcelain, etc., so that a variety of foreign silver dollars began to popular in China. To the Qing dynasty during the Daoguang years, from the signing of the unequal "nanjing treaty", compensation with the silver dollar are "foreign money", when China's own silver dollar. The stock of foreign money was not enough to offset the dramatic increase in the number of foreign reparations, so the late Qing government was forced to start casting their own silver dollars. China's earliest mechanism of foreign-style silver dollar for the Guangxu years of the "Guangxu Yuanbao", commonly known as the "Dragon Yang", because the back of the silver dollar is generally cast with a dragon pattern and named. At the same time the mechanism of copper yuan, also known as "copper plate". Mechanism of silver coins and the emergence of copper yuan on the traditional Chinese silver currency and square holes round-shaped copper system is a huge impact.

The varieties of banknotes issued in the Qing Dynasty were complex, with official banknotes and private banknotes, official banknotes issued by the government financial institutions, private banknotes issued by private financial institutions, banknotes can be divided into four kinds of copper coin tickets (convertible square hole copper), copper dollar tickets (convertible copper yuan), silver two tickets (convertible silver), silver dollar tickets (convertible silver yuan). Issue of banknotes began to have the treasury silver reserves, banknotes and vouchers.

In summary, from the Song dynasty to the Ming and Qing dynasties, the production and circulation of banknotes, silver currency status is increasing and the Ming and Qing dynasties began to establish the silver standard system of banknotes, the late Qing dynasty mechanism of the coinage system appeared for the development of China's monetary history of the second stage of the late situation.

The above is listed as the circulation of money history, the numismatic world there are many non-circulating currencies, such as the pressure of the evil with the pressure of the money, pray for blessings to avoid the evil of the money and commemorate the major historical events and history of the outstanding figures of the commemorative coins and so on this is not to be listed. These coins are commonly known as "spend money", in the currency circulation is insignificant, but the study of folklore can provide valuable historical materials.

In short, numismatics is a discipline, combined with history teaching activities in ancient coins knowledge, for the comprehension and interpretation of ancient China's historical changes to open up historical horizons help, I hope that this article has inspired you and draw on, for correction.