What are the Six Dynasties?

The Six Dynasties were Sun Wu (or Dongwu, Three Kingdoms Wu), Eastern Jin, Southern Song (or), Southern Qi (or), Southern Liang (or) and Southern Chen.

The Six Dynasties inherited the Han Dynasty and started the Tang Dynasty, creating a splendid "Six Dynasties Civilization". Literature and conversation, painting and calligraphy, tomb stone carving art and science and technology in the Six Dynasties constitute the classics of China traditional culture. The Southern Dynasties culture represented by Jiankang and the western ancient Roman culture in the same period are regarded as the two centers of human classical civilization.

The similarity of these six dynasties is that Nanjing is the capital, so Nanjing is called "the ancient capital of the Six Dynasties". During the Six Dynasties, Nanjing was the first city in the world with a population of more than one million, and it was called "the two centers of world classical civilization" together with ancient Rome, which had a far-reaching influence in human history. Waai, a native of the Tang Dynasty, recorded these six dynasties in the book Jian Kang Zhi, hence the name.

Economic development during the Six Dynasties;

The Six Dynasties was a period of great turmoil in China's history, which was reflected in the monetary system, characterized by chaotic coinage, various currencies and endless new products. Four baht money was cast under this background.

Four baht money was first cast in Liu and Song Dynasties in the Southern Dynasties. According to historical records, Liu, Yuan Jia set up a money department in Jiankang in October of the seventh year (430), casting "four baht" money. The opening of copper coins ended the abnormal situation that the court did not cast money for about one and a half centuries since the Western Jin Dynasty.

The four-baht currency model imitates the five-baht currency, which is a breakthrough to the traditional monetary system named "five baht" for a long time and embodies the pioneering and innovative spirit in the monetary system in the Six Dynasties.

In addition to the regime in the Southern Dynasties, the Northern Wei and Northern Qi regimes in the Northern Dynasties also used four Zhu coins. According to the archaeological findings of four Zhu coins in the Northern Dynasties, the characters of coins are generally four Zhu characters plus geographical characters, such as four Zhu characters of Prime Minister, four Zhu characters of Yang Qiu and four Zhu characters of East Asia.

Baidu Encyclopedia-Six Dynasties