The year I was born, my father flipped through the dictionary and named me, Technetium.
"Ke" (ke) reads the fourth sound, a strange word, the basic definition in the dictionary: 锞子, a small piece of gold and silver ingots used as currency in the old days.
When I was young, I was full of infinite imagination of this word, what does "hammer" look like?
This question has always been with me in my childhood, and countless images have been filtered through my mind.
It wasn't until I came of age once, when I was visiting a museum, that I came across this artifact with the same name as myself.
It appeared in front of my eyes, the shape of the bun, the bottom of the heart, shining, the original ancient "I" was so small and delicate.
▲ Museum relics Silver hammer
Maybe it was the fate of the name I was born, but when I grew up, I had the privilege of working in a small coin museum donated by celebrities.
A county and municipal coin museum has exhibited more than 5,000 coins, from the earliest shell coins in ancient China to the fifth set of renminbi in circulation at present, each small coin has undergone years of polishing, shining in the three thousand years of culture, and is a witness to history.
Looking at the pulp and wear marks on each coin, you seem to be able to see its circulation in the long river of history, and see the traces left by countless literati and scholars.
Qian, this modern person looks at the special "things" but can record the rise and fall of historical civilizations and dynasties.
Once when sorting out the cultural relics in the warehouse to take stock of the collection, I found a box of ancient coins printed with animal patterns on the Western Regions of the Silk Road, and my eyes lit up, some of which were still to be examined, which stimulated my unlimited desire to explore.
▲Numismatic Museum Treasury Collection Of Animal Motifs Silk Road Western Ancient Coins
▲Numismatic Museum Exhibition Hall Ancient Silk Road Plate
From ancient times to the present, whether it is geographical obstacles or cultural differences, the road of human exploration has never stopped. The formation of the Silk Road has been more than two thousand years ago, and time and wind and sand have worn away many carriers of memory, but left behind ancient coins in the western region. We understand the story behind it and find that it reflects the changes of history and the fusion of cultures.
The Silk Road, or Silk Road for short, was first proposed by the German geogeographer Richthofen in 1877 in the book "China - Personal Travel and Research Results", mainly referring to the silk-based communication route between China and Central Asia and between China and India between 114 BC and 127 AD.
In fact, the economic and cultural exchanges between China and the West existed before the Han Dynasty, and we know that the Chinese word "China" originated from Cina, which was the earliest name for China in South Asia, West Asia and western countries, and was actually a transliteration of "Qin" - which shows that before the Han Dynasty, Westerners already knew about distant China.
For a long time, the most popular of the goods exported by China was silk, and the ancient Greeks and Romans transliterated the word "silk" as "Ser" and China as "Seres", which translated as "silk country".
▲ Ancient Silk Road Road Map
The original role of the Silk Road was to transport all kinds of commodities represented by silk produced in ancient China, and at the same time as a channel and bridge for exchanges between the East and the West in the political, economic, cultural and military fields.
The core of trade is commodity exchange, and with commodity exchange, coins slowly evolved.
Discovery of mysterious coins
The British explorer Sir Douglas Forsyth Commissioned by the British government to lead a delegation into Xinjiang, China in 1870 and 1873, D. Forsyth accidentally collected two mysterious ancient coins in the Yarkand (present-day Shache) area.
Forsyth was a British Indian government official born in 1827 in Birkenhead, near Liverpool, England, and graduated in 1847 from Haileibury College, where the British East India Company trained self-employed talent.
After that, Forsyth worked in British India for a long time, and in 1860, because of his participation in the suppression of the Great Indian National Uprising, he was appointed Commissioner of Punjab Province, and 10 years later, why was he in China again?
We turn our attention to the Kashgar region of Xinjiang in the last years of the Qing Dynasty, which is related to an invasion by a foreign enemy that caused a fierce competition between Britain and Russia in Xinjiang.
Time followed in 1865 during the reign of the Qing Dynasty, after the warlord Agubai of the Kokand Khanate (in present-day Uzbekistan) took advantage of the civil strife in Xinjiang and occupied southern Xinjiang, Russia also took the opportunity to send troops to invade the Ili region from the Ili Sultan who overthrew the Qing Dynasty, which caused strong uneasiness in Britain, which competed with Russia in Central Asia.
In order to curb Russia's further expansion into the south, the British appointed the British Indian government to try to enter China to find opportunities to cooperate with Agubai to jointly resist Russia's southward expansion, and the negotiator appointed by the British Indian government happened to be Sir Douglas Forsyth, who did not complete his diplomatic mission, but he was famous for finding two mysterious coins. It is not difficult to understand why he appeared in Xinjiang 10 years later.
Sir Forsyth was curious about the patterns and text on them when he first discovered the two coins, and after repeated deliberations, he finally had a preliminary speculation. When he published the two coins in 1876 at the Royal Geographical Society, the report believed that the two coins were the currency of the ancient Bactrian kingdom (near present-day Stan balkh, Afghanistan), and even mistook the material and mistaken it for iron coins, but in fact did not know their origin and historical and cultural value.
In the 16 years since the date of publication, there has been no more news, and the clues of the mysterious coin have suddenly been broken...
Until 1892, the French Dutrey expedition found 4 similar coins in the Hotan region of Xinjiang, and published the data in 1898, but the whereabouts of the coins were not recorded.
And 3 years later, a new wave of mysterious coins suddenly ushered in the climax of excavation!
In 1901, herrhleigh of England published more than 120 coins of the same kind, which he had initiated and collected by the British consulate in Kashgar, Xinjiang, which were later housed in the British Museum and the Indian Government Library.
Between 1902 and 1914, Tani Kōrui, the elder of Nishi Hongan-ji Temple, organized three expeditions to Central Asia, and found 11 mysterious coins of the same kind in the Hotan region of Xinjiang, and later sold all 11 coins to the Lushun Museum due to the shortage of funds for the expedition.
Later, the Russian Consul General in Kashgar Petrovsky and the expedition leader Oldenburg also collected 21 similar mysterious coins during their expedition to Xinjiang, which were collected in the Hermitage Museum in Petersburg.
According to statistics, the largest collection of this mysterious coin is the British Portuguese Stein, who excavated three times in the Tarim Basin from 1900 to 1916, collecting a total of 187 pieces, all in the British Museum.
When we participated in the northwest China Scientific Expedition in 1929, we only collected one similar mysterious coin, and in the following decades, new discoveries were made in Hotan and its neighboring areas.
There are about 350 pieces that have been publicly reported, of which only more than a dozen have been preserved in the domestic cultural and archaeological departments, and most of the others have been lost overseas due to the current situation.
After repeated comparative studies by experts and scholars, it was found that this series of similar mysterious coins was irregularly round, with no holes in the middle and no edges, and was pressed on both sides of red copper, divided into two sizes: large money and small money.
The large coin weighs about 14.14 grams, 36 mm in diameter and 4.5 mm thick; the small coin weighs about 6.5 grams, has a diameter of 25 mm and is 2 mm thick.
▲Large coin Back central horse pattern
▲ Small coin Back central camel pattern
Whether it is a large coin or a small money, there are inscriptions on the front and back that cannot be distinguished at that time, the only thing that can be clearly identified is that the center of the back of the big money is a walking horse pattern, the right leg is raised, the posture is vivid and vivid, and the back of the small money is a Bactrian camel pattern, striding with its head held high, and the shape and spirit are both.
The coins found in Xinjiang, China, have horses and camels, so mysterious, what is the story behind it?
In the more than 100 years since its discovery, why has no one been able to dig out the mystery of its origins?
Crack the mysterious coin
The qū two-body money was introduced
Because this newly discovered mysterious coin is collected in the desert ancient ruins, rather than cellaring or burial, so there are basically no other cultural relics at the time of discovery, which makes researchers have almost no other information to learn from and reference, completely through the coin itself to crack it, need to use numismatic knowledge, from the coin inscription, pattern decoration and casting technology and other aspects to excavate the cultural information behind it.
Because of its unique charm, once it was launched, it immediately attracted the attention of the international numismatic community, and after unremitting efforts, finally Mr. Xia Nai, former director of the Institute of Archaeology of the Mainland Academy of Social Sciences, Mr. Lin Meicun, professor of the School of Archaeology of Peking University, Mr. Klib of the Numismatic Department of the British Museum, Mr. Gemmar of the Hermitage Museum in Russia, Xia Yixiong of Japan and many other archaeologists at home and abroad worked together to study, and the origin of the mysterious coin gradually surfaced.
In 1962, the mysterious coin was officially named "qū two-body coin" by the academic community, which was the academic name given to it by Mr. Xia Nai, which translates into English as Sino-Kharosthi Coin.
▲ Han Yu two-body money big money front
▲ Han Yu two-body money On the back of the big money
This name very accurately summarizes one of the biggest features of this coin, that is, the coin is printed with two inscriptions, one in Chinese and the other in The Lu script.
Chinese is easier for everyone to understand, so what kind of script is Lulu?
How could it appear on such coins along with the Chinese language?
Deciphering the text of the Han Andronal Money
"Pyrrhu" is an ancient script that was once popular in the northwestern region of ancient India, appearing around the fifth century BC during the Persian rule of northwest india, a script derived from the Aramaic alphabet, mainly used to write Indian colloquialisms, in parallel with the Sanskrit language called Ya. Later replaced by another Indian Brahmi script, the Galux script was gradually abandoned and became a dead script, which is now even less well known.
The Pyrrum text reached the ancient Hotan region around the middle of the 2nd century.
In addition to the "Han and Lu two-body money", archaeologists have also found a large number of wooden documents written in the Bailu script in Xinjiang's Shanshan and Niya areas.
▲ Lu Wen Mu Mu
This suggests that at the southern edge of the ancient Tarim Basin, the Baloo script was once widely used by local residents.
Looking back at the meaning of the "Han Lu Lu Two-Body Coin", it is actually the name of the king who made the coin at that time, which shows that the official script used at that time was 佉鲁文, which was obviously influenced by India.
In addition, the practice of crowning the king's name with honorific titles such as "Great King", "King of Kings", "King of Kings", and printing it on coins together with the king's name first appeared in the Hellenistic period of the Sabbath State, which reflects the traces of the influence of "Han and Yu two-body money" by Western monetary culture.
The large coin with a horse pattern on the back of the "Han Lu Two-Body Coin" is surrounded by six Chinese character inscriptions of the seal book, that is, "heavy twenty-four baht copper coin", which can also be read as "copper coin weighing twenty-four baht"; the small coin with camel pattern on the back is surrounded by only three seal Chinese character inscriptions, that is, "six baht money", of which "six" has several obvious different writings, but all of them are clearly drawn and easy to identify.
▲ Han Yu two-body money Big money weighs twenty-four baht
▲ Han Yu two-body money Small money weighs six baht
Regardless of whether the big money or small money is based on the "baht" as the monetary unit, looking at the monetary history of the mainland, in 221 BC, after the Unification of the Six Kingdoms by the Qin Dynasty, the round square hole money with heavy "half two" was determined as the standard circulating currency, and the monetary unit was called "two".
In the Han Dynasty, the Half Two Coins of the Qin Dynasty were used, until 118 BC, When Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty abolished the Half Two Coins and re-minted the Five Baht Coins, officially using "Baht" as the monetary unit.
In the Western Regions, in 60 BC, Emperor Xuan of Han set up the Western Regions Capital Protectorate, after which the Western Regions maintained political, economic and cultural ties with the Interior of the Central Plains.
▲During the Western Han Dynasty, the Western Regions Capital Protectorate was established
In 1977, Xinjiang archaeologists excavated 45 kilograms of Han Dynasty five-baht coins in a cellar at the Mailike Awati site in Hotan County, indicating that the official currency of the Han Dynasty at that time had been transmitted to the Western Regions with the establishment of the Western Regions Capital Protectorate, and then compared with the currency units on the "Han And Lu Two-Body Money", reflecting that the "Han Li Lu Two-Body Money" was deeply influenced by the oriental monetary culture in minting.
▲ Western Han Dynasty five baht money
Why do coins from more than two thousand years ago reflect the fusion of the two cultures?
"Han Yu Two Body Money"
Witnessed the collision of Chinese and Western cultures thousands of years ago
During the reign of Emperor Wu of Han in 139 BC, Zhang Qian was recruited to envoy to the Western Regions, and after thirteen years of hardship, he returned to Chang'an in 126 BC and wrote a report to Emperor Wu of Han on the Western Regions.
Although this report has not been preserved, the main contents of the report are recorded in Sima Qian's "History of Dawan Biography": "With silver as money, money is like his king's face, and the king's death is more money, and the king's face is served." "This is the earliest personal experience of the ancient Chinese in the Western Regions.
Zhang Qian specifically mentioned in the report that the currency used by the Sabbath countries located in today's northeastern Iran and southeast of the Caspian Sea was made of silver, with the head of the king printed on it, and when the old king died, the newly made silver coin was replaced with a new crowned king's head.
▲ Sabbath coin
Therefore, Zhang Qian was not only the first person in ancient China to understand the Western currency, but also the first person to leave a record.
▲ Zhang Qian sent an envoy to the Western Regions
This round, non-porous silver coin made by the pressing method is completely different from the round square hole copper coin cast by the ancient Chinese coin fan, which originates from the monetary culture of ancient Greece and belongs to the Western monetary system.
In 334 BC, Alexander the Great's crusade began, and Greek culture began to gradually penetrate Central Asia.
▲ Alexander the Great
With the further development of Silk Road trade, different civilizations reached exchanges, and the two monetary cultures of China and the West also achieved convergence and integration, and the "Han and Han two-body money" is a typical representative of this process.
The "Han and Han two-body money" is different from the Central Plains coinage with money fan casting, but adopts the suppression method derived from ancient Greece, and is also different from the tradition of only writing on the central plains circulation coins, adding the image elements of horses and camels in the local culture of the Western Regions.
It was the Greek culture that was introduced to Hotan through India and combined with Chinese culture to produce this "mixed-race currency".
Due to the discovery of the "Han Andi-Body Coin", there are only a few coins with camel patterns in the center of the back of the coin, mostly coins with horse patterns, and most of them were found in the ancient Khotanese kingdom (present-day Hotan region of Xinjiang), so it is also called "Hetian horse money".
As a local currency made in the hotan region of ancient Xinjiang in the 1st-3rd centuries AD, the "Han Andi Two-Body Coin" is the earliest self-minted currency in the history of the Xinjiang region known.
Whether it is the Han and Tang Dynasty's Gaochang Jili coins, or various Sogdian bronze coins, what they embody is that under the premise of maintaining the foundation of local culture, through the abandonment of foreign cultures, the self-generated culture is more perfect, and eventually the Silk Road culture characterized by pluralism, integration and openness is formed.
This coin has horses on it, and camels... It is a historical product of the cultural exchange between the East and the West on the Silk Road, and it is also the earliest trade certificate of ancient China to open up to the outside world.
When we brush away the dust on the money buried deep in the desert, it seems to have polished a great trade route through China and the West, as if we saw the scene of the intersection of the Chinese and Western merchants and camel caravans at the oasis on the edge of the desert more than 2,000 years ago, recreating the prosperity of the merchants and travelers on the ancient Silk Road.
bibliography:
[1] Wang Yongsheng, "Who Coined Coins for Three Thousand Years"
[2] Du Weishan's "Coins of the Ancient Countries of the Silk Road"
[3] Sima Qian's Biography of Dawan
[4] History of Xinjiang, Episode 5: The Silk Road
[5] Ding Chengcheng, "What Money was Used for Trading on the Ancient Silk Road"
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This article is originally written by "I came from Xinjiang", welcome to pay attention to, take you to understand the familiar and unfamiliar Xinjiang!