Text|Editor: Zhang Qingfeng
Saving money is a course that even elementary school mathematics will teach, and in the hearts of most thrifty Chinese, the days when there are deposits in the bank account are good days.
Since saving money is a traditional skill that has been passed down since ancient times, the Chinese in ancient times must have had the Xi of saving money, but they did not use bank accounts.
After all, saving money is a big deal, you have to have money to save, you have to have a place to save, and finally you have to be able to take it out, and every link in this must not be sloppy.
So where did the ancients keep their money in the absence of banks?
There is no bank, and it is up to each person to save money
In ancient times, there were no banks and no Internet, let alone any electronic payment, so the ancients paid attention to saving money and showed their magic across the sea with eight immortals.
First of all, the small people who can't earn much money all year round, they are busy every day, and there is not much left after paying all kinds of harsh taxes and miscellaneous taxes, and it is a good thing that some copper plates can be left in their hands.
This money is not easy to come by, but you have to find a place to put it properly, after all, it is all about buying seeds and raising chickens and ducks in the spring of the next year, so the people like to put the money close to home and easy to check.
The corners that are not easy to be remembered by thieves are a good choice, so people put their money under pillows and in the mezzanine of cabinets, which they can touch every day.
In the long winter nights, the poor family comes back from work during the day, and before going to bed at night, touch the copper plate in the corner of the clay pot that just covers the bottom of the jar, count and add a few more to it, and you can have a dream of a good harvest in the coming year.
Even in order to restrain themselves from saving money, the ancient working people also specially burned a kind of clay pot that could only enter but not exit, which was used to set a "small goal" for themselves.
This is the prototype of the piggy bank we use today, except that at that time it had a cute name "puff full", which means "pounce on it", as long as the jar is full, it will be broken open and the money will be taken out.
To this day, this adorable little gadget is still useful as a gift from parents and friends, giving many children their first childhood money lessons.
However, although the common people in ancient times were very poor, there were still people who could save a little money, and at this time they would tidy up the copper plates and put them in the safest place they felt - the beams of the house.
After all, the beams are very high, and ordinary people not only can't look up, but they can't even touch them when they see them, so the working people wrap the copper coins and wrap them in cloth and put them on their own beams.
Until now, there is still a Xi in some places where there is a custom of hanging baskets on the beams of the house to put important items, which evolved from this Xi of the ancients.
But thieves are not idle people, after all, they have no other skills but only steal, and they have become familiar with the Xi of hiding money in small households, and deliberately climb to the beam to steal, and the "gentleman on the beam" came into being.
However, this is the Xi of small households, and large households have more money, which has also produced new ways to save money.
It's a little money, and it's hidden in the walls of the temple
The big families are really good at playing, but the first thing they use is the simplest idea, which is to hide it at home, digging a cellar to hide their money.
Not only did they dig the cellar, but in order to prevent the thieves from approaching, they even "enchanted" the cellar and covered the latrine and pigsty on the cellar, hoping to smoke the thieves away so that the other party would not dare to approach.
But there is a good saying that "thieves do not die", and seeing that thieves are not afraid of danger and steal, the big families have come up with a new way: hide the money in the wall.
Some families will put a wall in the wall when building a house, and hide the money in the cracks of the wall, which is also the source of the routine of knocking on the wall and suddenly getting rich in costume dramas.
But just like a squirrel forgets the pine cones they hid the previous year, some people build a house and hide the money, but when they move, they forget to take it with them, and the new movers may be a little surprised to find it!
So does this money go to the former or the latter? Unexpectedly, the ancients also said about this matter!
In order to prevent conflicts between the two families who buy and sell the house, there is also a deposit called "digging money", and after paying this deposit, the buyer has nothing to do with the seller no matter what good things he digs up in the house.
However, in ancient times, the rich people did not only have the means to hide money in the house, they also had other ambitions, so the possibility of keeping the money outside the house also appeared, that is, saving money in the temple.
When they heard this, many people wondered, can they still get money back if they saved it in the temple? They have only heard of those who make offerings to the temple, but they have never heard of those who take money from the temple!
Yes, that's how ancient people played. In ancient times, people saved money in the temple, in fact, it was also supported by the social background and system at that time.
First of all, the ancient temples were not controlled, and the ancient emperors were originally the culminators of feudalism and superstition, and they had to rely on the lies of the true dragon emperor to deceive people, so they naturally did not dare to attack the temple.
Therefore, the ancient temples were very free, not only could they rent their own land to the people to plant, collect grain rent from the people, and even raise soldiers, and even the act of lending money to make money was allowed.
Moreover, the main business of the ancient temple was to collect incense money, which was simply God sending money to them to spend, so that their food and money and materials were always relatively sufficient.
And why the temple can think of the trick of lending, it is because the ancient people were really superstitious, and they did not dare not repay the money borrowed from the monks, which also ensured that the loan recovery would not encounter any problems.
So in addition to incense, some ancients would also send their own money into the temple, let the monk lend money for themselves, and do business under the Buddhist hall.
In troubled times, these wealthy nobles would build temples on a large scale, apparently to honor the gods, but in fact they were just a means of hiding money.
The temples built by wealthy nobles for private wealth are similar to the pigsty and even latrines built on the cellars in the first place, which can be said to have the same effect as preventing thieves and thefts.
However, the temple is still much safer than the pigsty, after all, the thief dares to drill into the pigsty, and the temple is due to the power of feudal superstition, but the emperor does not dare to make a mistake in it.
The appearance of money houses and cabinet shops has unveiled the fig leaf of ancient temples to make money with money.
The emergence and evolution of the cabinet shop
In the Tang Dynasty, in fact, the ancestor of the bank, the "cabinet workshop", had already appeared, but at that time, the cabinet workshop did not have many functions, and people did not realize its benefits.
The earliest cabinets were actually opened by some merchants themselves, who promised to save money and were willing to lend money for others, so after a long time, the common people were also willing to save money in the cabinets.
As soon as the cabinet appeared, the circulation of money became easier, and in the past, if you wanted to go to other places to do errands, you had to carry money on your back, and you were afraid along the way, but now it is different.
You only need to keep the money in the cabinet, wait for yourself to travel all the way to the destination, and then go to the local cabinet to take out the money, which is much safer.
In the Ming and Qing dynasties, with the development of the economy, the cabinet also had its own new name "Qianzhuang" and "ticket number", and their functions were also more, becoming an indispensable part of people's lives.
And the good Xi of saving money has also evolved over the years.
The ancients hid money in a variety of ways, and the good Xi of saving money has always been throughout.
In the matter of saving money, it is also the crystallization of a lot of wisdom.
Although we don't even use paper money much these days, the risk of losing money is greatly reduced.
However, the ingenuity of the ancients to save money still has a certain reference significance.