Financier says monetary history | Dr. Shi Junzhi talks about the "mina" of Darius and the "two benefits" of King Chuping

Guide

Darius' Mina weight system influenced later generations; the Chu state's Yiba weight system also affected future generations. The ancient Chinese weight unit "Liangyi" is the same as the weight unit "Mina" in the Persian Empire. The smaller unit of weight than "benefit", the most basic unit of the monetary weight system, was "Shekel" in the Persian Empire; in ancient China it was "half two". However, there are differences between these two most basic units of monetary weight.

Source | Contemporary Financier Magazine, Issue 11, 2021

Darius, the king of the Persian Empire, was a famous usurper in history, who killed his cousin Bardia and was rebelled by all his vassal states, triggering a massive war. At the same time, the Chu state in southern China was also usurping power by the emperor. King Chuping murdered his brother and seized the throne, but the Chu people did not object, and only one Wu Zixu took Crown Prince Jian out of the country and waited for the opportunity to resist. The balance of the Persian Empire originated in the Two Rivers Valley, and the unit of weight was the MINA. Darius made a stone carved Fama from the legal weight standard, 1 mina weighed 500 grams, which is the weight of two bunches of barley. The weight unit of the Chu State is "Yi", the legal weight standard is made of copper ring rights, the number of excavations is large, and the weight of liangyi is also 500 grams, which is the weight of two bunches of millet.

1

Mina system

The Persian unit of weight originated from the weight of holding a grain of wheat by hand. The maximum amount of wheat grains held by hand can reach 250 grams. The weight of two bunches of wheat grains is 500 grams, which is the origin of the Persian weight unit "Mina".

The establishment of the mina as a weight unit can be traced back to the Third Dynasty of your in the Two Rivers Valley in the 21st century BC. From 2096 BC to 2047 BC, Shulgi, king of the Third Dynasty of your, established the Mina weight standard on the basis of the Sumerian weight system. Between 605 BC and 562 BC, Nebuchadnezzar, the king of the Neo-Babylonian kingdom, found a Shurky two-mina stone weight and copied it, determining it as the weight standard for the Neo-Babylonian kingdom. In 539 BC, Cyrus destroyed the Neo-Babylonian kingdom and inherited the Neo-Babylonian standard of weight. According to the excavations, a stone weight called "Darius Palace" indicates that the weight standard used by the Persian king Darius from 522 BC to 486 BC is equivalent to 500.2 grams in modern times.

Mina is divided into 60 SHEKELs, each weighing 8.33 grams. Shekel was the basic unit of the weight system during the time of the Persian king Darius. Darius, the King of Persia, made darius gold coins (DARIC) based on the standard weight of Shekele.

Mina can be used to weigh gold and can also be used to weigh grain. Of course, people also need to have larger units of weight to weigh food. Thus, 60 Mina is 1 HE HE GOT (TALENT), and 1 He Lian de 1 is equivalent to the modern 30,000 g.

Shekeller is the basic unit of the gold weight system. The smaller unit of the gold weight system is "color" (SE), which is the weight of 1 grain of wheat, that is, 0.0463 grams. 1 Shekel can be divided into 180 colors. However, the ancient Persians preferred to use the number 360, probably because considering that the grain harvest was associated with 360 days and nights in 1 year. Thus, in the Persian Empire, 1 shekel was divided into 360 "half-colors".

2

The Yi baht system

In 522 BC, the Persian Empire's Darius usurped power and established himself as king. Almost at the same time, in 529 BC, the prince xiong of the chu state in southern China abandoned his illness, usurped power, and established himself as king.

King Chuping was the fifth son of King Gong of Chu. After the eldest brother King Chu Kang fell ill and died, the second brother killed his nephew who had just ascended the throne and established himself as king, as king of Chu Ling. King Chu Ling acted perversely, the people's hearts turned their backs, and when he led his army out on the expedition, there was a coup d'état in the country. As a result, the Chu army that had set out for the expedition collapsed, and King Chu Ling was starved to death on the way, and the third brother of King ChuPing succeeded to the throne as King Chu of Chu. In 529 BC, King Chuping plotted to kill his third brother King Chu and fourth brother Ling Yin Zixi, and established himself as king. A few years later, King Chuping snatched his son Crown Prince Jian's fiancée, Princess Meng Wei of the Qin State. As a result, Wu Zixu fled with Prince Jian. After the death of King Chuping, Wu Zixu led the Wu army into the State of Chu and exhumed the body of King Chuping from the tomb and whipped it, which is a well-known story.

The balance system of the Chu state adopted the system of benefit baht, and the statutory weight standard was made into a copper ring right, that is, a copper ring weight. Before and after the reign of King Chu Ping, the State of Chu had the right to a copper ring, and it has been excavated. Four copper ring rights were excavated from the Chu tomb in the middle of the Spring and Autumn Period at No. 410 Yutaishan in Jiangling, Hubei Province, indicating that the Chu State had used the copper ring right as a legal standard for measurement in the middle of the Spring and Autumn Period. King Ping of Chu was the monarch of the State of Chu in the late Spring and Autumn Period. In the Warring States period, the copper ring power of the Chu state was more perfect. The suburbs of Changsha unearthed 10 bronze ring rights of the Chu state during the Warring States period, with a total weight and two benefits, and the actual measurement was nearly 500 grams.

Based on the physical measurements unearthed, we infer that the benefit of the Chu state balance system 1 is 250 grams, which is equal to 16 two; 1 two is 15.63 grams, which is equal to 24 baht, and according to this list.

According to the putative weight unit and theoretical weight, compared with the measured weight, the error is less than 1% 5 pieces; the error is more than 1%, 3.04% or less 4 pieces; only 1 piece of error is 6.15%, that is, 1 baht copper ring weight, the measured error is only 0.04 grams, the total difference between 10 copper ring weights is 1.11 grams, and the total error range is 0.22%, which should be the result of bronze oxidation for two thousand years.

In the State of Chu during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the concept of yi and jin was equivalent. In the Han Dynasty, people no longer used yi as a unit of weight, but mainly used jin as a unit of weight.

3

Institutional comparison

Darius' Mina weight system influenced later generations; the Chu state's Yiba weight system also affected future generations. In the last year of the Qin Dynasty, Chen Sheng and Wu Guang revolted, and Liu Bang and Xiang Yu made Xiong Xin the King of Chu huai and overthrew the tyrannical Qin. Liu Bang established the Western Han Dynasty and used the Chu state system: 1 pound 250 grams, equal to 16 two; 1 two 15.63 grams, equal to 24 baht; 1 baht 0.651 grams.

As in the case of the Persian Empire, ancient China also used the amount of grain held by hand as a criterion for units of weight. "Xiao Erya" said: "The grandeur of one hand is overflowing, and the two hands are said to be overflowing." ”

The maximum amount of barley held by the Persians in both hands was 250 grams; the maximum amount of millet held by the ancient Chinese with two hands was also 250 grams. Millet density is greater than barley density, however, the volume of barley held in both hands is greater than the volume of millet, because the top of millet is easy to slip off. Therefore, the maximum amount of two different grains held with two hands is very close.

The Persians weighed grain in a larger unit of weight—he was even, equal to 60 mina, weighing 30,000 grams. The ancient Chinese also used a larger unit of weight, the stone, to weigh grain, which is equal to 120 benefits and weighs 30,000 grams.

The Persian weighing currency used a smaller unit of weight, the shekel, equal to 1/60 mina, and weighed 8.33 grams. The ancient Chinese weighed currency also adopted a smaller unit of weight - half two, weighing 7.8125 grams.

In ancient China, gold was rarely used, but copper coins were used. Therefore, the use of the ancient Chinese currency weight system was mostly used to weigh bronze. The ancient Chinese liked to use "two" to calculate the quantity, two units are 1 two, and 1 unit is half two. Therefore, half two is the most basic unit of monetary weight in ancient China. The copper coins used in the Qin Dynasty and the early Western Han Dynasty have the inscription "Half Two", which is called "Qin Half Two" in later generations.

Half two is the basic unit of the ancient Chinese monetary weight system, and the smaller unit of the monetary weight system is baht, which is the weight of 100 millet. Half two is 12 baht, which is the weight of 1200 millet. The theoretical weight of 1 millet is 0.00651 g, compared with the weight of 0.0463 grains of barley in the Two Rivers Basin, the weight of 1 grain of barley is equal to 7.11 millet.

The ancient Chinese weight unit "stone" weighs the same as the Persian Empire's weight unit "Heliande"; the ancient Chinese weight unit "Liangyi" weighs the same as the Persian Empire's weight unit "Mina". A smaller unit of weight than "yi", the most basic unit of the monetary weight system, was "Shekel" in the Persian Empire and "half two" in ancient China. However, there are differences between these two most basic units of monetary weight.

Why is there a difference in weight between the two? The reason is that the Chinese ancients used 2 decimal, while the Persians used 60.

The ancient Chinese used the binary system, and the weight unit decreased in half grades, in order: 1 benefit (16 two), 8 two, 4 two, 2 two, 1 two, half two, 1 point. Therefore, the ancient Chinese 1 benefit is divided into 32 and a half halves. Half-two became the most basic unit of the ancient Chinese monetary weight system. 1 benefit 250 grams, half two is 7.8125 grams.

The Persians used the 60 decimal system, and the weight unit decreased in multiples of 60, in order: 1 Talian was divided into 60 Minas, and 1 Mina was divided into 60 Shekelas. Ban Mina is equivalent to the ancient Chinese 1 benefit and is divided into 30 Shekels instead of 32 Shekkels. Shekel was the most basic unit of the Persian Empire's monetary weight system. Half Mina 250 grams, 1 Shekel is 8.33 grams.

Therefore, we compare the most basic unit of the Persian Empire's monetary weight system, "Shekel", with the most basic unit of the ancient Chinese monetary weight system, "half two", and the weight difference between the two is 0.5175 grams.