From ancient times to the present, gold is a representative of "hard currency", a symbol of wealth and wealth, and is highly respected by people. An important use of ancient gold was that the emperor used it to reward civilian generals. This point is reflected in many costume dramas, whenever the courtier makes a great contribution, the emperor will always be very happy, a big hand waved: "Reward gold ten thousand two!" "Whenever I see such a plot, I am always full of envy, ten thousand two gold, what a huge fortune this must be!"
In fact, the actual weight of the ancient "two" unit is changing, unlike the current one two equal to 50 grams. From Qin to Sui, one or two averages about 20 grams, and from Tang to Qing, one or two is about 40 grams. However, even if one or two represent 20 grams, ten thousand two gold is 200,000 grams, that is, the current 400 pounds of gold. Even so, wanliang gold is also a huge wealth, with the ancient productivity, is the emperor really so generous?
In fact, the so-called "rewarding gold" is more often just a "routine" of ancient emperors! Gold is not turnip cabbage, the pure gold in nature is very small, generally with silver, copper, iron, palladium and other elements associated, this thing is the need to go through mining and complex smelting to get, in the ancient backward production conditions, the yield has not been high. Therefore, gold was mainly concentrated in the hands of the magnates and even the emperors.
In the pre-Qin period, limited to smelting technology was not very developed, gold was particularly small, and under normal circumstances, gold mostly referred to copper and tin. In the Qin Dynasty, metallurgical technology gradually matured, and gold began to increase. But the gold at that time was not full gold, but gold mixed with many other metals. After Qin Shi Huang unified the Six Kingdoms, he began to promote round square hole money, so the reward of "golden ten thousand two" was basically replaced by copper coins.
During the Han and Tang dynasties, gold production began to increase, and the Book of Han and Food Goods Also said that after the unification of the Qin, gold was set as the upper coin, and the gold here refers to real gold. The gold reserves of the Han Dynasty were once very amazing, and the "History of the Chen Ping Family" made it clear that Liu Bang gave him "40,000 catties of gold"; Emperor Wu of han rewarded the great general Wei Qing with 200,000 catties of gold at a time; Wang Mang's era was crazy to accumulate wealth, and the total amount of gold stored in the state treasury reached 600,000 catties.
"Gold is on the coin, followed by copper coins", but the Han Dynasty referred to gold, silver, and bronze as "gold", so it caused a feeling: the gold of the Han Dynasty actually referred to brass. In fact, in the Han Dynasty, gold and copper were basically not mixed, gold was gold, and copper was copper. Gold was already legal tender in the Han Dynasty, because the value of the currency was too large, generally not direct circulation, mainly copper coins. The "Book of Han and Food Goods" says: Gold weighs one pound, and the straight money is ten thousand (worth ten thousand copper coins).
However, a pound of the Han Dynasty, equivalent to today's 258.24 grams, a pound of 16 two, one or two equals 16.14 grams, ten thousand two gold is equivalent to about 300 pounds today, for the "gold full warehouse" of the Han Dynasty emperor, it is simply drizzle. Therefore, the Han Dynasty emperor's "reward for gold and ten thousand taels" is generally given to real gold. However, after the Han Dynasty, the "golden reward" slowly changed its taste.
After the Han Dynasty, gold seems to have experienced a "break period", the Central Plains seem to have no gold at once, the huge amount of gold in the Han Dynasty has disappeared, where has the gold gone? The Han Dynasty practiced thick burials, such as the tomb of the Marquis of Haidu, which unearthed a large amount of gold. During the Three Kingdoms period at the end of the Han Dynasty, Cao Cao stole the tomb of Liu Wu, the younger brother of Emperor Jing of Han, the Prince of Liang, and this tomb alone "collected tens of thousands of jinbao" - "Water Commentary", and the treasure obtained was raised for more than ten years.
After the return of the Three Kingdoms to the Jin Dynasty, the Central Plains experienced hundreds of years of super turmoil, five chaotic Hua, foreign invasions, and various forces took turns to appear and frantically amass wealth. During the war, there were only two types of hard currency: gold and grain. Most of the treasures in the Central Plains were plundered, and in order to keep the gold, most of these people would choose to bury or bring it to the mausoleum. After the war, the gold was buried in the ground and in the graves, and gradually forgotten.
The mining speed and reserves of gold are far less than that of silver, so they are becoming more and more valuable. According to the records of the Food and Goods Chronicle of the History of the Dynasties, one kilogram of gold in the Western Han Dynasty can be exchanged for three kilograms of silver; one kilogram of gold in the Wei and Jin Dynasties can be exchanged for ten kilograms of silver; one kilogram of gold in the Northern Song Dynasty can be exchanged for thirteen kilograms of silver; on the eve of the Opium War, one kilogram of gold can already be exchanged for thirty kilograms of silver.
But even so, China's gold-silver ratio has been lower than the international price. At least from the Beginning of the Ming Dynasty, a large number of foreigners began to transport silver to China, and then exchanged it for gold, so that the price of silver in China became lower and lower, and the price of gold became higher and higher because of its scarcity.
Therefore, in the various dynasties after the Han Dynasty, the emperor gave the minister "Golden Ten Thousand Two" slowly became a gimmick, mostly replaced by silver, copper plates, and physical objects, even if it was a reward for gold, it was no longer "Ten Thousand Two", but "Thousand Two" and "One Hundred Two". "Golden Wanliang" has even become a symbolic item in some periods, referring to a large hollow gold dollar treasure engraved with the word "Wanliang", similar to today's awards, pennants, and trophies! In this case, the minister was also helpless!
(References: "Records of History", "Hanshu And Food Goods", "Water Commentary", etc.)