The earliest currency in China was seashells. Shells are commonly found in prehistoric Yangshao culture, Longshan culture and Dawenkou cultural sites, Erlitou cultural sites in Xia Dynasty and Shang and Zhou tombs. There were also imitation copper shells without words in the late Shang Dynasty and the Western Zhou Dynasty. By the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, it developed into a bronze shell ant nose coin with inscriptions, forming a formal metal coin, which was mainly circulated in the southern Chu area.
During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, Beibi completely withdrew from the historical stage, and different currencies were formed in different regions due to social conditions and cultural differences. There are mainly: ant nose money in Chu area, cloth money in the Yellow River basin, knife money in Qiyan area and ring money in Sanjin and Shanxi provinces.
Second, the Qin Dynasty: Qin Banliang.
After the unification of the six countries, Qin Shihuang decided to unify the laws, weights and measures, currency and writing, abolish the old coins of the six countries at the end of the Warring States period, and improve them on the basis of Qin Banliang's money in the Warring States period. Qin Banliang's round square hole coins swept the country, ending the chaotic state of different shapes and weights of money in ancient China.
Third, the Han Dynasty: five baht.
In the fourth year of Ding Yuan (before 1 13), Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty ordered the counties and states to ban the casting of money, transported privately-cast coins from all over the country to the capital for destruction, and returned the power of casting money to the central government.
The central government has set up a special coinage institution, that is, the subordinate officials of Captain Shuiheng (Guan Zhong, Tong Bian and Guan Shu) are responsible for coinage. Guan Zhong is in charge of casting, Jian Tong is in charge of checking the quality and fineness of copper, and skillful hands are in charge of carving. Money with the word "five baht" was first minted in the fifth year of Emperor founding ceremony (BC 1 18), which is as heavy as the text, and is called five baht money.
Fourth, the Tang Dynasty: Kaiyuan Bao Tong.
Tang Gaozu Wude spent five baht in the fourth year (62 1) and began to cast Kaiyuan Bao Tong, with the words "Kaiyuan Bao Tong" on the top, bottom, right and left. "Kaiyuan" means to open a new era, and "Bao Tong" means to inherit treasures. Some people read it clockwise as "opening an ingot", which became the origin of the naming of copper coins with "Bao Tong" or "ingot" in later generations.
Fifth, the Northern Song Dynasty: paper money.
In the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty, Sichuan used iron coins, which were light in weight. 1 0,000 coins weigh 25 Jin, and it took 90 Jin to several hundred Jin to buy 1 piece of silk. It is inconvenient to circulate. So, the merchant issued a kind of paper money called Jiaozi instead of iron money. The initial jiaozi was freely issued by businessmen. In the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty, there was a "cross-store" in Chengdu, which specialized in cash custody business for businessmen carrying huge sums of money.
Verb (abbreviation of verb) Ming dynasty: silver and Daming treasures.
Silver became the legal tender in circulation in the Ming Dynasty. Silver was mostly used for large transactions, while paper money or coins were used for small transactions.
Because Zhu Yuanzhang implemented the paper money policy in the early Ming Dynasty, he issued "Daming Bao Paper", which was used together with copper coins. However, Daming's paper money had no fixed issue quota and no reserve, which soon led to inflation. Therefore, after Ye Jiajing's rule in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, paper money was no longer accessible, and people mainly used silver and copper coins.
Extended data
Characteristics of ancient coins in China
The ancient coins in China have strong cultural attributes. Coins run through the long history of ancient China, reflecting the continuity, stages and inheritance of culture in its development, and bearing and covering the cultural information in the historical process of Chinese civilization in an all-round way.
Formally, it inherits the concept of jade cong, which is a round square hole. It contains China's cosmology and philosophy of ancient heaven and earth, and it is the concrete embodiment of the ancient theory of Yin and Yang gossip. This philosophy of "the outer circle is the inner side" and "the harmony between man and nature" is an important element of ancient culture in China, which has had a far-reaching impact on the principles and codes of conduct of ancient people in China, as well as the architectural structure and geomantic customs in ancient China.
In terms of units, in the early days, it was cast at face value, which was the weighing currency, with _, _, Thai baht and second class as units, such as Qin Banliang and Han Wuzhu. When casting Kaiyuan Bao Tong coins in the Tang Dynasty, it was stipulated that every ten Kaiyuan coins weighed one or two, and each Kaiyuan coin was called one coin, so ten coins were one or two. This is the origin of the weight unit "money".
In the picture decoration, it is not for people or animals, but specially designed for words. The characters on the coins used to be the so-called big seal before Qin, the small seal after Qin, the vertical seal used by Mangquan, the leaf seal used by Liu, and the jade seal used by Buquan in the Northern Zhou Dynasty. These are all variants of Xiao Zhuan. After the Six Dynasties, the official script was widely used, and the word "white" in Shu Han was the official script, which was the earliest official script on coins in China.
Technically, Zhu Fan used it in the pre-Qin period. In the early days, it was clay sculpture, basically money sculpture. Later, Fan Tao, Fan Shi and metal fans were used, and the stacking casting technology was adopted in the Six Dynasties. In the Tang Dynasty, it developed into casting. In the Han Dynasty, foreign coins were minted from five baht. The adoption of this technology is easy to protect Qian Wen and reduce wear, which is obviously more advanced than the European coinage technology in the same period.
No matter in form, unit, picture decoration, casting or printing technology, or even in foreign cultural exchanges, coins are the concentrated and typical embodiment of the connotation and characteristics of China's ancient culture, and are the important carrier of China's ancient culture and the physical witness of the historical process.
Baidu Encyclopedia-China Ancient Currency
China News Network-Expert: The "outer circle and inner side" shape of ancient coins in China originated from the ritual jade cong.