The legend of grimace money

According to legend, this bronze shell was made by Sun Shuai, the minister of Chu in the Spring and Autumn Period, and the words on it imitated the shape of the shell. Sun Shuai was a thinker in the Spring and Autumn Period (770-476 BC), a statesman, strategist and hydraulic scientist at that time. Legend has it that Sun Shuai is ugly. According to legend, he is short and bald, with a long left hand and a short right hand. According to Records of the Historian Biography of Officials, King Zhuang suspected that the copper shell ("grimace money") was too light and ordered the small coins to be cast into large coins. However, ordinary people find it inconvenient, especially businessmen who have suffered huge losses and abandoned their business operations one after another, and the market is very depressed. What's more, citizens are unwilling to live and make a living in cities, which affects social stability. As soon as Sun Shuai knew this, he went to see Zhuang Wang and asked him to restore the original monetary system. Zhuang Wang agreed, and three days later, the market resumed its original prosperity.