Today, let's talk about an ancient currency, the cloth coin. Saying that it is a cloth coin, it actually looks like a small shovel!
Is this for the convenience of mining?
Image source: Selected from "The History of China in Currency"
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This cloth is not a cloth
Looking at the name, you know that it is made of sea shells, so is the cloth coin made of cloth?
No, the cloth coins were minted in bronze.
So why is it called cloth money?
Scholars speculate that it first evolved from the shovel-shaped bronze agricultural tool "bó". In ancient times, "cloth" and "plutonium" were homophonous and could be borrowed from each other, and gradually people preferred to refer to this currency with the simple word "cloth". This does save a lot of strokes...
From the early Spring and Autumn Period onwards, the Eastern Zhou Dynasty (jī) (the area directly administered by the King of Zhou, in present-day Luoyang) and many princely states in the Central Plains adopted cloth coins, including Zheng, Wei, Song, Chen, Cai, etc., along with the Northern Jin State, but there was no unified form of cloth coins in various countries. Over the next five hundred years, many types of cloth coins evolved, and the size and shape system varied greatly.
Schematic diagram of the area where money is in circulation
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From "empty head" to "flat head"
Early cloth coins, very similar to practical agricultural tools, are even difficult to distinguish: the "shovel" is close to the size of a palm, the bottom end is flattened into two forks (called "feet"), and the top is thickened and raised into a hollow sleeve (usually square) with a wooden handle, called "qióng". This early cloth coin with a top of the brass is called "empty first cloth".
However, as a coin, the empty first cloth is not easy to use: first, it is bulky and inconvenient to carry (weighing 15 to 40 grams); secondly, it is large and thin, and it is easy to break.
What is the concept of this weight, which is slightly lighter than an egg. But that's just an empty cloth weight feed! If you want to go out and show off your wealth or something, you need some physical strength.
So from the late Spring and Autumn period onwards, the empty cloth became lighter and smaller. As commerce led to a surge in demand for money and wars became more frequent, it was clear that large, unruly empty cloths were a waste of metal. After entering the Warring States, especially after the division of the three families of Zhao, Wei, and Han, the empty shoubu was eventually improved into "flat shoubu" - the top brass disappeared and became flat, and the entire coin was on a flat surface, like...
A pair of squashed pants.
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Each is different
Although cloth coins first appeared in the surrounding countries of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty in the Central Plains, their circulation range is far more than this. Throughout the ages, cloth coins have been unearthed in the homeland of the Eastern Zhou dynasty, and even in the remote areas of Inner Mongolia and Jilin.
In the summer of 2021, the Zhengzhou University archaeological team published the results of excavations at the Guanzhuang site in Xingyang, Henan Province, the world's oldest known minting workshop. The EMPTY cloth of SP-1 found in the middle of this period is 14.3 cm long and 6.35 cm wide, and is shaped like shrugs and pointed feet.
Archaeological studies have shown that many of the Eastern Zhou states that used other currencies also minted cloth coins at the same time. For example, the Chu state, which uses ant-nose money, has two kinds of cloth coins in parallel for bulk trading and international trade.
Countries with special cloth coins will issue cloth coins with different shapes and denominations to facilitate circulation and exchange. For example, Zhao Guo issued two kinds of cloth coins at the same time, "one 釿 (jīn)" and "half-plumbing" (釿 is a unit of metal weight, theoretically 1 tael is equal to about 15 grams), and the former is exchanged for the latter twice. The Wei guobu coin has three kinds of currency values: "two bows", "one bow" and "half a bow", of course, its shape and size are proportional to the face value.
Cloth coins are widely circulated and issued in huge quantities. However, its minting efficiency is not high: unlike the minting method of ant-nose coins, cloth coins can only be minted one at a time. Therefore, in terms of overall quantity, cloth coins are not as unearthed as ant-nose money. However, the weight and value of ant-nose money are too small, and in terms of metal usage and purchasing power, cloth coins are all one for ten and one for hundred. And it is precisely because of one model and one money that there are many cloth coin forms and the most complex categories. The inscriptions on it are also extremely rich in content, mostly place names, numbers and weights, as well as the name of the monarch, the dry branch (year), the Ji language and so on.
With the annihilation of the six kingdoms and the unification of the currency, the cloth coin withdrew from the stage of history. However, due to the closest connection with Chinese agricultural civilization, cloth coins still often become the image endorsement of "Chinese currency". For example Chinese min Bank logo is a "human" glyph composed of three cloth coins.
Chinese Bank is the central bank of the mainland, and its symbol is a "human" glyph composed of three cloth coins.
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A wide variety of cloth coins
Many people may never have seen the cloth coin, and even if they did, they would not recognize it. Taking advantage of this good opportunity today, I will take you to see and see a variety of cloth coins.
The head of the cloth coin can be divided into empty head and flat head; the shoulder can be divided into flat shoulder, oblique shoulder, shrugged shoulder, round shoulder; the crotch can be divided into flat crotch, pointed crotch, square crotch, round crotch; the foot can be divided into pointed foot, square foot, round foot, curved foot and bridge foot (square foot round crotch such as a bridge). (The first three types of the figure below are empty first cloths, and the last six are flat first cloths)
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Flat shoulder curved foot empty first cloth
The Zhou WangQi was excavated, and the inscription is "Eastern Zhou". This kind of empty cloth can be divided into 5 types according to size, and there are more than 200 kinds of face text, of which large and medium-sized cloths are mostly excavated in the Luoyang area.
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Slanted shoulder curved foot empty first cloth
Coinage of Korea during the Warring States period. The inscription "Lu Shi", that is, present-day Lu Shi County, Henan, was owned by the Han clan of the Jin Dynasty during the Spring and Autumn Period, and belonged to Korea during the Warring States period.
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Shrugging the pointed foot empty first cloth
Square crotch or round crotch, divided into large, medium and small, mostly unearthed in Shanxi and Henan provinces, mainly cast by the Jin and Wei states. There is no text in this cloth.
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Pointed foot cloth
The currency of the Zhao state in the early and middle warring states evolved from the shrugging of the shoulders and the foot empty first cloth. There are two kinds of sizes, the large one is "one cloth", and the small one is "half cloth". The face text is all place names, about 50 kinds, and the picture is "Ping zhou".
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Square foot cloth
Among all the cloth coins, the square foot cloth has the largest number of categories. Shoulders flat or slightly shrugged, square crotch, square feet. There are more than 100 kinds of coins, most of which are place names of the Three Jins. The inscription "Zhaiyang" was a Korean place name during the Warring States period.
06
Bridge foot cloth
The currency of the State of Wei in the middle and late Warring States period. Square feet and round crotches form the shape of the bridge hole, so it is called "bridge foot". There are two types of round shoulders and flat shoulders. Most of these cloth coin inscriptions have three kinds of currency scales: "two bows", "one bow" and "half a bow". The text in the picture is "An Yi Er Jie".
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Sharp foot cloth
The cloth head has a protruding sharp angle at each end, flat head, flat shoulders, and square feet. In the past 50 years, it has been excavated in Hui County, Shaanxi County, Xinzheng and other places in Henan. Divided into two categories of flat crotch and pointed crotch, this cloth belongs to the flat file, which should be the Korean currency of the Warring States period, and the inscription is "Lu Shi Bai Ne".
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Round foot cloth
Round head, round shoulders, round feet. During the Warring States period, the currency of the Zhao State was minted less and did not exist much. The inscription on the canvas is the place name of the Zhao Kingdom "Li Shi".
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Three-hole cloth
The three-hole cloth is the rarest of the Warring States cloth coins. Its shape is similar to that of round foot cloth, but it has three more round holes in the head and two feet. Some people think that this is to increase the difficulty of coinage and prevent civil counterfeiting. Concentrated in Shanxi and Hebei, Sankongbu is believed to be the currency of the Zhongshan State or the Late Zhao State (Zhongshan was destroyed by Zhao in 296 BC). The back of the three-hole cloth has the words "two" and "twelve Zhu (baht)", and "two" and "baht" are both units of metal weighing currency in the pre-Qin period.
After talking so much, the next time you see the cloth coin, you can recognize it, right? Don't skip it anymore, it's money after all, look at it twice!!
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