In modern colloquialism, we often use the two sayings of "half hanging (tone)" and "two hundred and five" to describe some people who do things carefully and have a beginning and an end; they speak casually, regardless of the occasion, behave unsettled, and are unreliable.
However, few people know that "half-hanging" and "two hundred and five" are actually related to the ancient monetary system, which is also a colloquial language of the ancients when using copper coins, and this colloquial language is gradually internalized into the common language of ordinary daily language.
To understand the meaning of these two sayings, we must first understand how the ancient Chinese monetary system evolved.
As early as the beginning of the invention of Chinese coins, in the beginning, the unit of money was calculated in terms of "weight", which was called this monetary system
"Heavy Money"
。 Simply put, the weight of the money itself is equal to the value of the money, the heavier the money the larger the denomination, and the lighter the money the smaller the denomination. This is why the money of the Qin Dynasty was called "half two" and the money of the Han Dynasty was called "five baht".
Qin half two
Half two and five baht are units of weight, which were emphasized when minting coins in the Qin and Han dynasties
"As heavy as the text"
And the meaning of this sentence is: "The weight of the coin is the word (qianwen) minted on the coin, and it is not deceived." ”
Although the Qin and Han dynasties have emphasized that the coins issued by the state are "as heavy as their text", in fact, this is not necessarily the case, because the ancient bronze minting technology is not exquisite, coupled with sometimes cutting corners, what is worse is that there are always people who want to drill loopholes to secretly mint money to make a small fortune (privately minted money), so the weight of Qin half two and Han five baht may not really be able to maintain "heavy as its text". This also led to the bankruptcy of the credit of half two dollars and five baht money in the end, resulting in inflation, soaring prices, and people's livelihood.
The five-baht coin was passed until the Sui Dynasty, but due to the serious discrepancy in the value (weight) of the currency, inflation was serious, and at this time this weight money had reached the end of the crossbow. In the Tang Dynasty, Tang Gaozu Li Yuan finally couldn't bear it anymore, and in the fourth year of Wude (621 AD), he ordered the abolition of the five-baht coin and the issuance of the famous "Kaiyuan Tongbao" to become legal tender.
The biggest difference between Kaiyuan Tongbao and the five-baht coin is that the text on the coin no longer states the weight, but is replaced by the four words "Kaiyuan Tongbao"
。
As for the specifications of the coin itself, the Tang Dynasty stipulated:
In July of the fourth year of Wu De (621), five baht coins were abolished, and the Kaiyuan Tongbao money was abolished, the diameter was eight points, the weight of two baht and four silks, and the accumulation of ten yuan weighed one or two. A thousand wen weighs six pounds and four two.
- Old Book of Tang? Food Chronicles》
Each coin is eight minutes in diameter (about 24 mm), weighs 2 baht and 4 reeds (pronounced "tired", ten koan is equal to one baht), one coin is one coin, and ten is one or two.
Since then, the terms "money" and "two" have finally taken shape and become 10-digit legal tender units.
After the "Kaiyuan Tongbao" of the Tang Dynasty, China's coins were restructured into the "Tongbao Coin System".
This is the reason why the coins of subsequent dynasties were called "Tongbao" or "Yuanbao". The conversion method of the 10-digit method has therefore been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people and has become a habitual calculation method for everyone.
However, because ancient Chinese coins are all cast in bronze, they are very heavy. Take Kaiyuan Tongbao as an example, it is about equal to today's 3.6 grams (the average weight of the early Tang Dynasty Kaiyuan even averaged 4.5 grams), so if there is a lot of money, it is not only considerable weight, but also inconvenient to carry.
Therefore, as early as the era of round hole round money in the pre-Qin Dynasty, people already had the collection habit of stringing money together with a rope, and the hole in the middle of the coin was a practical invention for stringing up money.
Before the Tang Dynasty, we are not sure how many coins the ancients would string together into a string, but we are very sure that people after the Tang Dynasty were very accustomed to stringing 1,000 copper coins into a unit because they had copper coins calculated by the 10-digit method, and this unit was called
"Through"
。 The word "consistent money" originally meant to wear the rope used for money, but later this word became a unit of currency, and the so-called "consistent money" before the Ming Dynasty referred to 1,000 copper coins.
However, after the middle of the Ming Dynasty, the word "Guan" was no longer used, but was used instead
"Hanging"
to replace.
Therefore, the "one hanging money" of the Ming Dynasty is the "consistent money" (1,000 copper coins) mentioned in the past.
As for why the coherent was abolished and the hanging was used instead? In fact, this is related to the "treasure banknote system" implemented in the early Ming Dynasty, because the words on the banknotes issued in the early Ming Dynasty are printed with the word "Guan", and the original intention was to borrow "1000 copper coins equal to 1 guan" as a denomination for calculating the banknotes. However, due to the large number of paper banknotes issued by the Ming court, which led to the bankruptcy of paper banknote credit, the common people switched to copper coins after the middle of the Ming Dynasty. However, the word "guan" has been printed on paper money, and the use of "guan" in the Ming Dynasty will confuse paper money with copper coins, so the people simply no longer use guan, but replace it with the colloquial "hanging".
Both the Ming and Qing dynasties used the word "hanging" as the unit of calculation for copper coins, so the "Golden Bottle Plum" written in the Wanli period and the "Dream of the Red Chamber" in the Qianlong period all talked about the word "hanging".
In the case of "Dream of the Red Chamber", it is said that the Ya ring in Jia Fu is divided into 3 grades, the big yahuan is 1 silver per month "monthly money" (salary), the second-class yahuan is 1 hanging money per month, and the third-class Yahuan is 500 yuan per month.
In the Qianlong period, 1 two pieces of silver was about equal to 1500 copper coins, while 1 hanging was 1000 copper coins, and the little mane was actually led to 500 copper coins. Therefore, the salary of Jia Fu Yahuan is multiplied by 500 as a step distance.
For units below 500, people in the Ming and Qing dynasties seem to treat it as change, and they arbitrarily string it together, calling it "a string of money".
Some historians believe that "a string of money" refers to 100 copper coins, but this claim has not yet been confirmed.
"A string of money": The total number of copper coins tied with rope is 140, not even "two hundred and five", which is only pocket change for the ancients
The most widely accepted statement is:
A string of money is just a description of change that does not need to be deliberately calculated
Therefore, the original meaning of "half hanging" (500 copper coins) refers to: "not half of a hanging coin." And "two hundred and five" is the change in the pocket, just a random string of strings, not a number at all.
The colloquial "half-hanging" and "two hundred and five" developed by the units that calculated copper coins eventually became synonymous with "people who are not rich in knowledge, unskilled in technology, and untruthful", and are still used in modern times.