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126-471: Qian may refer to: Cash (Chinese coin) , a circular copper coin with a square hole in the center used from the 4th century BCE to the 20th century CE Guizhou , abbreviated as Qián (黔), province of China Mace (unit) , or Qian, one of the Chinese units of measurement, equal to 5g Qian (hexagram) , the first hexagram of the I Ching Qian (surname) ,

252-408: A chuàn (串) or diào (吊) and were accepted by traders and merchants per string because counting the individual coins would cost too much time. Because the strings were often accepted without being checked for damaged coins and coins of inferior quality and copper-alloys these strings would eventually be accepted based on their nominal value rather than their weight, this system is comparable to that of

378-463: A fiat currency . Because the counting and stringing together of cash coins was such a time consuming task people known as qiánpù (錢鋪) would string cash coins together in strings of 100 coins of which ten would form a single chuàn . The qiánpù would receive payment for their services in the form of taking a few cash coins from every string they composed, because of this a chuàn was more likely to consist of 990 coins rather than 1000 coins and because

504-423: A flux . The mother coins were placed on the sand, and another pear wood frame would be placed upon the mother coin. The molten metal was poured in through a separate entrance formed by placing a rod in the mould. This process would be repeated 15 times and then molten metal would be poured in. After the metal had cooled down, the "coin tree" ( qián shù 錢樹) was extracted from the mould (which would be destroyed due to

630-400: A string of cash ( simplified Chinese : 一贯钱 ; traditional Chinese : 一貫錢 ; pinyin : yīguànqián ) varied over time and place but was nominally 1000. A tael of pure silver in sycee form traded for a fluctuating price of approximately 1000 cash. A string of cash was divided into ten sections of 100 cash each. Local custom allowed the person who put the string together to take

756-454: A "coin tree" (錢樹) where they had to be broken off, all excess copper-alloy had to be manually chiseled or filed off from the central holes. It is suspected that the "flower holes" and "turtle shell holes" were produced during chiseling process, presumably while the employee of the manufacturing mint was doing the final details of the cash coins. As manually filing and chiseling cash coins was both an additional expense as well as time-consuming it

882-687: A Chinese surname (钱 / 錢) Qian County , in Xianyang, Shaanxi, China Qian Mountains , mountain range in Northeast China Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Qian . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Qian&oldid=1221963848 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description

1008-455: A cash or a few from each hundred for his effort (one, two, three or even four in some places). Thus a string of cash could contain 970 coins in one city and 990 in the next. In some places in the North of China short of currency the custom counted one cash as two and fewer than 500 cash would be exchanged for an ounce of silver. A string of cash weighed over ten pounds and was generally carried over

1134-592: A central place in feng shui where they are associated with an abundance of resources, personal wealth, money, and prosperity. Cash coins are featured on the logos of the Bank of China , and the China Construction Bank . A common superstitious belief involving Chinese cash coins specifically based on their inscriptions are "the five emperor coins" (traditional Chinese: 五帝錢 ; simplified Chinese: 五帝钱 ; pinyin: wǔ dì qián ), this refers to

1260-481: A descendant of Confucius, described the alchemists as Confucianists and entwined the martyrs' legend with his story of discovering the lost Confucian books behind a demolished wall in his ancestral house. Qin Shi Huang also followed the theory of the five elements : fire, water, earth, wood, and metal. It was believed that the royal house of the previous Zhou dynasty had ruled by the power of fire, associated with

1386-475: A larger group descended from a prominent ancestor , usually said to have lived during the time of the legendary Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors , and the clan name ( 氏 ) comprised a smaller group that showed a branch's current fief or recent title. The ancient practice was to list men's names separately— Sima Qian 's "Basic Annals of the First Emperor of Qin" introduces him as "given the name Zheng and

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1512-788: A person's auris externa , brass cash coins are often desired for their high zinc contents. And Vietnamese cash coins , which have the highest levels of zinc of any cash coins, were ground up into zinc powder that was mixed into either an aqueous solution or a type of ointment. The "tea" produced from these zinc cash coins would then for the treatment of the eyes, ears, and haemorrhoids or for topical use. In modern times though no longer issued by any government, cash coins are believed to be symbols of good fortune and are considered good luck charms , for this reason some businesses hang Chinese cash coins as store signs for good luck and to allegedly avoid misfortune similar to how images of Caishen (the Chinese god of wealth) are used. Cash coins also hold

1638-554: A set of Chinese cash coins issued by the first five emperors of the Qing dynasty (following their conquest of China in 1644). These cash coins are believed to have the power to ensure prosperity and to give protection from evil spirits because during the reign of these five emperors China was powerful and prosperous. Furthermore, the term "five emperors" (五帝) also alludes to the " Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors ". A full set of " five emperor coins " consists of Chinese cash coins with

1764-491: A signal, the muscular assassin hurled the cone at the first carriage and shattered it. However, the emperor was travelling with two identical carriages to baffle attackers, and he was actually in the second carriage. Thus the attempt failed, though both men were able to escape the subsequent manhunt. Numerous state walls had been built during the previous four centuries, many of them closing gaps between river defences and impassable cliffs. To impose centralized rule and prevent

1890-657: A slab of lead, and Gao Jianli swung it at the king but missed. The second assassination attempt had failed; Gao was executed shortly after. In 230 BC, King Zheng began the final campaigns of the Warring States period , setting out to conquer the remaining six major Chinese states and bring China under unified Qin control. The state of Han , the weakest of the Warring States, was the first to fall in 230 BC. In 229, Qin armies invaded Zhao , which had been severely weakened by natural disasters, and captured

2016-739: A span of 736 years, which is the longest for any coin in human history . The Tang dynasty introduced the Kaiyuan Tongbao , which would influence the inscriptions of cash coins, both inside and outside of China, minted from this period onwards. The Koreans, Japanese, Ryukyuans , and Vietnamese all cast their own copper cash in the latter part of the second millennium similar to those used by China. Chinese cash coins were usually made from copper-alloys throughout most of Chinese history, before 1505 they were typically made from bronze and from 1505 onwards they were mostly made from brass . Chinese historian Peng Xinwei stated that in

2142-569: A type of Chinese cash coin with an octagonal hole as opposed to a square one, they have a very long history possibly dating back to the first Ban Liang cash coins cast under the State of Qin or the Han dynasty. Although Chinese cash coins kept their round shape with a square hole from the Warring States period until the early years of the Republic of China, under the various regimes that ruled during

2268-677: A year or period of the year or possibly a location where a cash coin was produced. Only a few cash coins produced by the Jurchen -led Jin dynasty are known to have "flower holes". During the Ming dynasty period "flower holes" were still (rarely) recoded in Hongwu Tongbao (洪武通寶) and Yongle Tongbao (永樂通寶) cash coins, with the Chongzhen Tongbao (崇禎通寶) series being the last recorded known cash coins to have "flower holes". It

2394-456: Is a Mandarin Chinese homophonic pun with "qián" (錢) meaning "money", and "Jiaqing" (嘉慶) translates into English as "good and celebrate". Because of an archeological hoard of where Song dynasty cash coins were found in a Ming dynasty period tomb, it has been speculated by some archeologists that people during the Ming dynasty might have held similar beliefs with Song dynasty cash coins. Another type of supernatural belief involving cash coins

2520-635: Is also a weight-derived currency denomination in China; it is called mace in English. Chinese cash coins originated from the barter of farming tools and agricultural surpluses. Around 1200 BC, smaller token spades , hoes , and knives began to be used to conduct smaller exchanges with the tokens later melted down to produce real farm implements. These tokens came to be used as media of exchange themselves and were known as spade money and knife money . As standard circular coins were developed following

2646-478: Is also possible that these "flower holes" and "turtle shell holes" functioned as Chinese numismatic charms , this is because the number 8 (八, bā ) is a homophonic pun in Mandarin Chinese with "to prosper" or "wealth" (發財, fā cái ), while the number 6 (六, liù ) is a Mandarin Chinese homophonic pun with "prosperity" (祿, lù ). Concurrently the Mandarin Chinese word for as "chestnut" (栗子, lì zi ) as in

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2772-472: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Cash (Chinese coin) In the modern era, these coins are considered to be Chinese "good luck coins"; they are hung on strings and round the necks of children, or over the beds of sick people. They hold a place in various traditional Chinese techniques, such as Yijing divination, as well as traditional Chinese medicine , and feng shui . Currencies based on

2898-418: Is likely that the creation of "flower holes" and "turtle shell holes" was ordered by the manufacturer. However, as the quality of Tang and Song dynasty coinages was quite high it's unlikely that the supervisors would have allowed for a large number of these variant coins to be produced, pass quality control or be allowed to enter circulation. Cash coins with "flower holes" were produced in significant numbers by

3024-497: Is to have them buried with a corpse for good luck as well as to provide protection to the grave or tomb from evil spirits, although this tradition doesn't exclusively involve cash coins as early 20th century silver coins bearing the face of Yuan Shikai , known outside of China as "Fatman" dollars (袁大頭, yuán dà tóu ), have also been used for this purpose. In Bali it is believed that dolls made from cash coins (or Uang kèpèng ) strung together by cotton threads would guarantee that all

3150-520: The Classic of Poetry or the Book of Documents was to be punished especially severely. According to the later Shiji , the following year Qin Shi Huang had some 460 scholars buried alive for possessing the forbidden books. The emperor's oldest son Fusu criticised him for this act. The emperor's own library did retain copies of the forbidden books, but most of these were destroyed when Xiang Yu burned

3276-502: The Shiji written by Sima Qian during the Han dynasty, the first emperor was the eldest son of the Qin prince Yiren, who later became King Zhuangxiang of Qin . Prince Yiren at that time was residing at the court of Zhao , serving as a hostage to guarantee the armistice between Qin and Zhao. Prince Yiren had fallen in love at first sight with a concubine of Lü Buwei , a rich merchant from

3402-552: The Twelve Metal Colossi , which he used to adorn his Palace. Each statue was said to be 5 zhang [11.5 meters] in height, and weighing about 1000 dan [about 70 tons]. Sima Qian considered this as one of the great achievements of the Emperor, on a par with the "unification of the law, weights and measurements, standardization of the axle width of carriages, and standardization of the writing system". During 600 years,

3528-528: The Han dynasty that succeeded the Qin. Since the mid-20th century, scholars have begun questioning this evaluation, inciting considerable discussion on the actual nature of his policies and reforms. According to the sinologist Michael Loewe "few would contest the view that the achievements of his reign have exercised a paramount influence on the whole of China's subsequent history, marking the start of an epoch that closed in 1911 ". Modern Chinese sources often give

3654-734: The Jiaqing Emperor ordered that 10% of all cash coins cast in Xinjiang should bear the inscription "Qianlong Tongbao" the majority of "red cash coins" with this inscription were actually produced after the Qianlong era as their production lasted until the fall of the Qing dynasty in 1911 making many of them hard to attribute. During most of their history the cast cash coins of China were predominantly made from bronze or other copper-alloys such as brass . However, other materials had at different times in Chinese history also been used for

3780-657: The Kai Yuan Tong Bao was most preferred, and preferences were given for some specific coins for certain ailments E.g. the Zhou Yuan Tong Bao (周元通寶) was used against miscarriages . In traditional Chinese medicine, several medicinal teas incorporate cash coins as ingredients. This usage of cash coins has been documented as early as the Eastern Jin dynasty , in China's first emergency medicine manual. Bronze cash coins are typically used to treat

3906-447: The Khải Định Thông Bảo (啓定通寶). The earliest standard denominations of cash coins were theoretically based on the weight of the coin and were as follows: The most common denominations were the ½ tael (Chinese: 半兩 ; pinyin: bànliǎng ) and the 5 zhū (Chinese: 五銖 ; pinyin: wǔ zhū ) coins, the latter being the most common coin denomination in Chinese history. From

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4032-700: The Northern Song dynasty , Southern Song dynasty , and Khitan Liao dynasty . Until 1180 the Northern Song dynasty produced "matched cash coins" (對錢, duì qián ) which were cash coins with identical inscriptions written in different styles of Chinese calligraphy , after these coins were superseded by cash coins that included the year of production on their reverse sides the practice of casting cash coins with "flower holes" also seems to have drastically decreased. Due to this one hypothesis states that "flower holes" were added to Chinese cash coins to signify

4158-528: The Ordos Plateau from the nomadic Xiongnu , although the Xiongnu later rallied under Modu Chanyu . Qin Shi Huang also worked with his minister Li Si to enact major economic and political reforms aimed at the standardization of the diverse practices among earlier Chinese states . He is traditionally said to have banned and burned many books and executed scholars . His public works projects included

4284-471: The Qing dynasty , the mother coins were no longer carved separately but derived from "ancestor coins" ( zǔ qián 祖錢). Eventually this resulted in greater uniformity among cast Chinese coinage from that period onwards. A single ancestor coin would be used to produce tens of thousands of mother coins; each of these in turn was used to manufacture tens of thousands of cash coins. During the late Qing dynasty under

4410-516: The Zhou to the Tang dynasty the word quán (泉) was commonly used to refer to cash coins however this was not a real monetary unit but did appear in the inscriptions of several cash coins, in the State of Yan their cash coins were denominated in either huà (化) or huò (貨) with the Chinese character "化" being a simplified form of "貨" without the "貝". This character was often mistaken for dāo (刀) due to

4536-429: The Zhou dynasty period, the method for casting coins consisted of first carving the individual characters of a coin together with its general outline into a mould made of either soapstone or clay. The casting process in these early moulds worked in a way that two mould-sections were placed together, then the core of the mould was placed into the top area, then the bronze smiths would pour molten metal into an opening that

4662-403: The monetary history of China is comparable to that of Western Europe's tiered currency systems used prior to the steam-powered mints, struck coinage , and territorial nation-state currencies between the 13th and 18th century. Helen Dunstan argues that the late-Imperial Chinese polity was much more preoccupied with maintaining national grain reserves and making the price of grain affordable to

4788-503: The qiánpù would often search for older and rarer coins to sell these to coin collectors at a higher price. Prior to the Song dynasty strings of cash coins were called guàn (貫), suǒ (索), or mín (緡), while during the Ming and Qing dynasties they were called chuàn (串) or diào (吊). Chinese cash coins with flower (rosette) holes ( traditional Chinese : 花穿錢 ; simplified Chinese : 花穿钱 ; pinyin : huā chuān qián ) are

4914-530: The state of Wey . Lü consented for her to be Yiren's wife, who then became known as Lady Zhao after the state of Zhao. He was given the name Zhao Zheng, the name Zheng ( 正 ) came from his month of birth Zhengyue , the first month of the Chinese lunar calendar ; the clan name of Zhao came from his father's lineage and was unrelated to either his mother's name or the location of his birth. ( Song Zhong  [ zh ] says that his birthday, significantly,

5040-478: The weights and measurements . Wagon axles were prescribed a standard length to facilitate road transport. The emperor also developed an extensive network of roads and canals for trade and communication. The currencies of the different states were standardized to the Ban Liang coin. The forms of Chinese characters were unified. Under Li Si, the seal script of the state of Qin became the official standard, and

5166-606: The "red cash coins" were considered equal in value as the standard cash coins that circulated there. The areas where the Dzungar pūls had most circulated such as Yarkant , Hotan , and Kashgar were the sites of mints operated by the Qing government, as the official mint of the Dzungar Khanate was in the city of Yarkent the Qing used this mint to cast the new "red cash coins" and new mints were established in Aksu and Ili . As

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5292-714: The Chinese cash coins include the Japanese mon , Korean mun , Ryukyuan mon , and Vietnamese văn . The English term cash , referring to the coin, comes from the Portuguese caixa which was derived from the Tamil kāsu, a South Indian monetary unit derived from the Sanskrit silver and gold weight unit karsa . The English name was used for small copper coins issued in British India , and also came to be used for

5418-517: The Chinese people and the attention of the government of the Qing dynasty to the exchange rate of copper and silver would have to be viewed in this light. The last Chinese cash coins were struck, not cast, during the reigns of the Qing Guangxu and Xuantong Emperors shortly before the fall of the Empire in 1911, though even after the fall of the Qing dynasty production briefly continued under

5544-412: The Emperor, to cover the foul smell of his body decomposing in the summer heat. Pretending he was alive behind the wagon's shade, they changed his clothes daily, brought food, and pretended to carry messages to and from him. After they reached Xianyang, the death of the Emperor was announced. Qin Shi Huang had not liked to talk about his death and had never written a will. Although his eldest son Fusu

5670-698: The First Emperor, creating the title which would be used as the title of the Chinese sovereign for the next two millennia. Qin Shi Huang also ordered the Heshibi to be crafted into the Heirloom Seal of the Realm , which would serve as a physical symbol of the Mandate of Heaven , and would be passed from emperor to emperor until its loss in the 10th century. During 215 BC, in an attempt to expand Qin territory, Qin Shi Huang ordered military campaigns against

5796-468: The First Emperor. However, a number of modern scholars have doubted this account of his birth. Sinologist Derk Bodde wrote: "There is good reason for believing that the sentence describing this unusual pregnancy is an interpolation added to the Shiji by an unknown person in order to slander the First Emperor and indicate his political as well as natal illegitimacy". John Knoblock and Jeffrey Riegel, in their translation of Lü Buwei's Lüshi Chunqiu , call

5922-466: The Qin script itself was simplified through removal of variant forms. This did away with all the regional scripts to form a universal written language for all of China, despite the diversity of spoken dialects. According to Chinese records, after unifying the country in 221 BC, Qin Shuhuang confiscated all the bronze weapons of the conquered countries, and cast them into twelve monumental statues,

6048-503: The Republic of China. After the fall of the Qing empire, local production of cash coins continued, including the " Minguo Tongbao  [ zh ] " (民國通寶) coins in 1912, but were phased out in favour of the new Yuan -based coins. During Yuan Shikai 's brief attempt at monarchy as the Empire of China , trial cash coins are reported to have been minted as part of the "Hong Xiang Tong Bao" (洪憲通寶) series in 1916 but not circulated. During

6174-682: The Republican period cash coins with the inscription Fujian Tongbao (福建通寶) were produced in Fujian , these had the denominations of 1 wén and 2 wén . Trial coins with Fujian Sheng Zao ( Chinese : 福建省造 ), Min Sheng Tong Yong ( traditional Chinese : 閩省通用 ; simplified Chinese : 闽省通用 ), and a Fujian Tong Bao with a reverse inscribed with Er Wen Sheng Zao ( Chinese : 二文省造 ) were also cast, but never circulated. The coin continued to be used unofficially in China until

6300-625: The Tlingit armour" - however this may speak to the inaccuracy of contemporary Russian smoothbore muskets than to the body armour and the Chinese cash coins sewn into the Tlingit armour. Other than for military purposes the Tlingit used Chinese cash coins on ceremonial robes. The square hole in the middle of cash coins served to allow for them to be strung together in strings of 1000 cash coins and valued at 1 tael of silver (but variants of regional standards as low as 500 cash coins per string also existed), 1000 coins strung together were referred to as

6426-573: The Xiongnu nomads in the North. Led by General Meng Tian , Qin armies successfully routed the Xiongnu from the Ordos Plateau , setting the ancient foundations for the construction of the Great Wall of China . In the South, Qin Shi Huang also ordered several military campaigns against the Yue tribes , which annexed various regions in modern Guangdong and Vietnam. In an attempt to avoid a recurrence of

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6552-516: The Yan army, along with King Xi of Yan , were able to retreat to the Liaodong Peninsula . After Qin besieged and flooded their capital of Daliang , the state of Wei surrendered in 225 BC. Around this time, as a precautionary measure, Qin seized ten cities from Chu, the largest and most powerful of the other Warring States. In 224, Qin launched a full-scale invasion of Chu, capturing

6678-443: The ancient jade circles (璧環) which symbolised the supposed round shape of the sky, while the centre hole in this analogy is said to represent the planet earth (天圓地方). The body of these early round coins was called their "flesh" (肉) and the central hole was known as "the good" (好). The hole enabled the coins to be strung together to create higher denominations, as was frequently done due to the coin's low value. The number of coins in

6804-464: The baby was born after an unusually long period of pregnancy. According to translations of the Lüshi Chunqiu , Zhao Ji gave birth to the future emperor in the city of Handan in 259 BC, the first month of the 48th year of King Zhaoxiang of Qin . The idea that the emperor was an illegitimate child, widely believed throughout Chinese history, contributed to the generally negative view of

6930-402: The basis for other cash moulds. From the 6th century AD and later, new "mother coins" ( mǔ qián 母錢) were cast as the basis for coin production. These were engraved in generally easily manipulated metals such as tin. Coins were cast in sand moulds. Fine wet sand was placed in rectangles made from pear wood , and small amounts of coal and charcoal dust were added to refine the process, acting as

7056-497: The capital of Handan in 228. Prince Jia of Zhao managed to escape with the remnants of the Zhao army and established the short-lived state of Dai , proclaiming himself king. In 227 BC, fearing a Qin invasion, Crown Prince Dan of Yan ordered a failed assassination attempt on King Zheng. This provided casus belli for Zheng to invade Yan in 226, capturing the capital of Ji (modern Beijing ) that same year. The remnants of

7182-480: The capital of Shouchun in 223. In 222, Qin armies extinguished the last Yan remnants in Liaodong and the Zhao rump state of Dai. In 221, Qin armies invaded the state of Qi and captured King Jian of Qi without much resistance, bringing an end to the Warring States period . By 221 BC, all Chinese lands had been unified under the Qin. To elevate himself above the feudal Zhou kings, King Zheng proclaimed himself

7308-407: The capital, Lao Ai successfully fled the battlefield. A price of 1 million copper coins was placed on Lao Ai's head if he was taken alive or half a million if dead. Lao Ai's supporters were captured and beheaded; then Lao Ai was tied up and torn to five pieces by horse carriages, while his entire family was executed to the third degree. The two hidden sons were also killed, while the mother Zhao Ji

7434-551: The casting technique is often inaccurate or the inscriptions on them seemed deformed. At the introduction of red cash system in Southern Xinjiang in 1760, the exchange rate of standard cash (or "yellow cash") and "red cash" was set at 10 standard cash coins were worth 1 "red cash coin". During two or three subsequent years this exchange rate was decreased to 5:1. When used in the Northern or Eastern circuits of Xinjiang,

7560-651: The centuries. In 214 BC the Emperor began the project of a major canal allowing water transport between north and south China, originally for military supplies. The canal, 34 kilometres in length, links two of China's major waterways, the Xiang River flowing into the Yangtze and the Lijiang River , flowing into the Pearl River . The canal aided Qin's expansion to the south-west. It is considered one of

7686-563: The coins a yellowish tint. Another effect of the contemporary copper shortages was that the Qing government started importing Korean 5 fun coins and overstruck them with "10 cash". The production of machine-struck cash coins in Qing China ran contemporary with the production of machine-struck French Indochinese Nguyễn cash coins, but unlike in China milled cash coinage would eventually become popular in French Indochina with

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7812-476: The colour red. The new Qin dynasty must be ruled by the next element on the list, which is water, Zhao Zheng's birth element. Water was represented by the colour black, and black became the preferred colour for Qin garments, flags, and pennants. Other associations include north as the cardinal direction , the winter season and the number six. Tallies and official hats were 15 centimetres (5.9 inches) long, carriages two metres (6.6 feet) wide, one pace ( 步 ; bù )

7938-466: The current Great Wall of China . Transporting building materials was difficult, so builders always tried to use local materials: rock over mountain ranges, rammed earth over the plains. "Build and move on" was a guiding principle, implying that the Wall was not a permanently fixed border. There are no surviving records specifying the length and course of the Qin walls, which have largely eroded away over

8064-452: The dagger unrolled from the map, the king leapt to his feet and struggled to draw his sword – none of his courtiers were allowed to carry arms in his presence. Jing stabbed at the king but missed, and King Zheng slashed Jing's thigh. In desperation, Jing Ke threw the dagger but missed again. He surrendered after a brief fight in which he was further injured. The Yan state was conquered in its entirety five years later. Gao Jianli

8190-578: The emperor's personal name written as Ying Zheng, using the ancestral name of the House of Ying . The rulers of the state of Qin had styled themselves kings from the time of King Huiwen in 325 BC. Upon his ascension, Zheng became known as the King of Qin or King Zheng of Qin. This title made him the nominal equal of the rulers of Shang and Zhou , the last of whose kings had been deposed by King Zhaoxiang of Qin in 256 BC. Following

8316-608: The fact that this early version of the character resembles it and knife money was used in Yan, however the origin of the term huò as a currency unit is because it means "to exchange" and could be interpreted as exchanging money for goods and services . From the Jin until the Tang dynasty the term wén (文), however the term wén which is often translated into English as cash kept being used as an accounting unit for banknotes and later on larger copper coins to measure how many cash coins it

8442-561: The first emperor of China . Rather than maintain the title of " king " ( wáng 王 ) borne by the previous Shang and Zhou rulers, he assumed the invented title of "emperor" ( huángdì 皇帝 ), which would see continuous use by monarchs in China for the next two millennia. Born in Handan, the capital of Zhao , as Ying Zheng ( 嬴政 ) or Zhao Zheng ( 趙政 ), his parents were King Zhuangxiang of Qin and Lady Zhao . The wealthy merchant Lü Buwei assisted him in succeeding his father as

8568-681: The generations. (In fact, the scheme lasted only as long as his immediate heir, the Second Emperor .) The new title carried religious overtones. For that reason, sinologists starting with Peter A. Boodberg or Edward H. Schafer —sometimes translate it as "thearch" and the First Emperor as the First ;Thearch. The First Emperor intended that his realm would remain intact through the ages but, following its overthrow and replacement by Han after his death, it became customary to prefix his title with Qin. Thus: As early as Sima Qian, it

8694-433: The incorporation of diverse state walls into a single Great Wall of China and a massive new national road system, as well as his city-sized mausoleum guarded by a life-sized Terracotta Army . He ruled until his death in 210 BC, during his fifth tour of eastern China . Qin Shi Huang has often been portrayed as a tyrant and strict Legalist —characterizations that stem partly from the scathing assessments made during

8820-448: The inscriptions Shunzhi Tongbao (順治通寶), Kangxi Tongbao (康熙通寶), Yongzheng Tongbao (雍正通寶), Qianlong Tongbao (乾隆通寶), and Jiaqing Tongbao (嘉慶通寶). These inscriptions are further seen as auspicious because "Shunzhi" (順治) translates into English "to rule smoothly", "Kangxi" (康熙) translates into English as "Healthy and prosperous", "Yongzheng" (雍正) translates into "harmony and upright", the first Chinese character "qián" (乾) from "Qianlong" (乾隆)

8946-554: The issuing emperor's era name and a phrases such as tongbao (Chinese: 通寶 ; pinyin: tōngbǎo ; lit. 'general currency') or zhongbao (Chinese: 重寶 ; pinyin: zhòngbǎo ; lit. 'heavy currency'). Coins of the Qing Dynasty (1644–1911) generally carried the era name of the emperor and tongbao on the obverse and the mint location where the coins were cast in Manchu and Chinese on

9072-597: The king of Qin , after which he became King Zheng of Qin . By 221 BC, he had conquered all the other warring states and unified all of China , and he ascended the throne as China's first emperor. During his reign, his generals greatly expanded the size of the Chinese state: campaigns south of Chu permanently added the Yue lands of Hunan and Guangdong to the Sinosphere , and campaigns in Inner Asia conquered

9198-540: The long history of China the square hole in the middle experienced only minor modifications such as being slightly bigger, smaller, more elongated, shaped incorrectly, or sometimes being filled with a bit of excess metal left over from the casting process. However, for over 2000 years Chinese cash coins mostly kept their distinctive shape. During this period a relatively small number of Chinese cash coins were minted with what are termed "flower holes", "chestnut holes" or "rosette holes", these holes were octagonal but resembled

9324-666: The lower reaches of the Yellow River , and someone inscribed the seditious words "The First Emperor will die and his land will be divided" ( 始皇死而地分 ). The Emperor sent an imperial secretary to investigate this prophecy. No one would confess to the deed, so all living nearby were put to death, and the stone was pulverized. During his fifth tour of eastern China, the Emperor became seriously ill in Pingyuanjin ( Pingyuan County, Shandong ), and died in July or August of 210 BC, at

9450-467: The mandatory ideology of the Qin dynasty. Beginning in 213 BC, at the instigation of Li Si and to avoid scholars' comparisons of his reign with the past, Qin Shi Huang ordered most existing books to be burned , with the exception of those on astrology, agriculture, medicine, divination, and the history of the state of Qin . This would also serve to further the ongoing reformation of the writing system by removing examples of obsolete scripts. Owning

9576-476: The manufacture of cash coins such as iron (see Tieqian ), lead, silver, and gold. While silver and gold were also used for other currencies in Chinese history, as it has in most other cultures around the world, but also cowry shells, clay , bone , jade , iron, lead, tin , and bamboo (see Bamboo tally ) were also materials that have been used for money at various points in Chinese history. Iron cash coins and lead cash coins were often used in cases when there

9702-640: The mid-20th century. Vietnamese cash coins continued to be cast up until the early 1940s . The last Chinese cash coins in Indonesia circulated in Bali until 1970 and are still used for most Hindu rituals today. Traditionally, Chinese cash coins were cast in copper, brass or iron. In the mid-19th century, the coins were made of 3 parts copper and 2 parts lead. Cast silver coins were periodically produced but considerably more rare. Cast gold coins are also known to exist but are extremely rare. During

9828-492: The middle on both sides of the coin, comparatively their legends are usually as defined as they appear on "normal cash coins", for this reason the hypothesis that they were accidentally added is disproven. All sides of these coins (either octagonal with "flower holes" or hexagonal with "turtle shell holes") are clearly contained inside of the cash coin's central rim. After the casting of cash coins had shifted to using bronze moulds these coins would appear as if they were branches of

9954-467: The minds of the best scholars on the Emperor's quest. Some of those buried alive were alchemists, and this could have been a means of testing their death-defying abilities. The emperor built a system of tunnels and passageways to each of his over 200 palaces, because traveling unseen would supposedly keep him safe from evil spirits. In 211 BC, a large meteor is said to have fallen in Dongjun in

10080-509: The mission in 227 BC. The assassins gained access to King Zheng by pretending a diplomatic gifting of goodwill: a map of Dukang and the severed head of Fan Wuji . Qin Wuyang stepped forward first to present the map case but was overcome by fear. Jing Ke then advanced with both gifts, while explaining that his partner was trembling because "[he] had never set eyes on the Son of Heaven ". When

10206-436: The mystical Mount Penglai . They sought Anqi Sheng , a thousand-year-old magician who had supposedly invited Qin Shi Huang during a chance meeting during his travels. The expedition never returned, perhaps for fear of the consequences of failure. Legends claim that they reached Japan and colonized it. It is also possible that the Emperor's book burning, which exempted alchemical works, could be seen as an attempt to focus

10332-399: The news could trigger a general uprising during the two months' travel for the imperial entourage to return to the capital Xianyang. Li Si decided to hide the emperor's death: the only members of the entourage to be informed were a younger son, Ying Huhai , the eunuch Zhao Gao , and five or six favourite eunuchs. Li Si ordered carts of rotten fish to be carried before and behind the wagon of

10458-533: The old Dzungar pūl coins were melted down to make Qianlong Tongbao (乾隆通寶) cash coins, as pūl coins were usually around 98% copper they tended to be very red in colour which gave the cash coins based on the pūl coins the nickname "red cash coins". In July 1759 General Zhao Hui petitioned to the Qianlong Emperor to reclaim the old pūl coins and using them as scrap for the production of new cash coins, these "red cash coins" had an official exchange rate with

10584-607: The organs and body parts of the deceased will be in the right place during their reincarnation . In North America, the Tlingit people of the Pacific Northwest (present-day Alaska and Canada) used Chinese cash coins for their body armour , which they believed would protect them from knife attacks and bullets. One contemporary Russian account from a battle with the Tlingits in 1792 states "bullets were useless against

10710-484: The palace in Shaqiu prefecture , about two months travel from Xianyang, at the age of 49. The cause of Qin Shi Huang's death remains unknown, though he had been worn down by his many years of rule. One hypothesis holds that he was poisoned by an elixir containing mercury , given to him by his court alchemists and physicians in his quest for immortality. Upon witnessing the Emperor's death, Chancellor Li Si feared

10836-514: The palaces of Xianyang in 206 BC. Recent research suggests that this "burying Confucian scholars alive" is a Confucian martyrs' legend. More probably, the emperor ordered the execution of a group of alchemists who had deceived him. In the subsequent Han dynasty, the Confucian scholars, who had served the Qin loyally, used this incident to distance themselves from the failed regime. Kong Anguo ( c.  165  – c.  74 BC ),

10962-408: The personal name of Qin Shi Huang as Ying Zheng, with Yíng ( 嬴 ) taken as the surname and Zheng ( 政 ) the given name. However, in ancient China, the naming convention differed, and the clan name Zhao ( 趙 ), the place where he was born and raised, may be used as the surname. Unlike modern Chinese names , the nobility of ancient China had two distinct surnames: the ancestral name ( 姓 ) comprised

11088-689: The political chaos of the Warring States period , Qin Shi Huang and Li Si worked to completely abolish the feudal system of loose alliances and federations. They organized the empire into administrative units and subunits: first 36 (later 40) commanderies , then counties , townships, and hundred-family units (里, Li , roughly corresponding to modern-day subdistricts and communities ). People assigned to these units would no longer be identified by their native region or former feudal state, for example "Chu person" (楚人, Chu rén ). Appointments were to be based on merit instead of hereditary right. Qin Shi Huang and Li Si unified China economically by standardizing

11214-426: The process). The coins would be taken off the tree and placed on long square rods to have their edges rounded off, often for hundreds of coins simultaneously. After this process, the coins were strung together and brought into circulation. In Korea cash coins are known as yeopjeon (葉錢, "leaf coins") because of the way that they resemble leaves on a branch when they were being cast in the mould. From 1730 during

11340-415: The profession of qiánpù had become a universally accepted practice these chuàns were often still nominally valued at 1000 cash coins. The number of coins in a single string was locally determined as in one district a string could consist of 980 cash coins, while in another district this could only be 965 cash coins, these numbers were based on the local salaries of the qiánpù . During the Qing dynasty

11466-424: The pūl coins that remained in circulation of 1 "red cash" for 2 pūl coins. As Zhao Hui wanted the new can coins to have the same weight as pūl coins they weighed 2 qián and had both a higher width and thickness than regular cash coins. Red cash coins are also generally marked by their rather crude craftsmanship when compared to the cash coins of China proper. The edges of these coins are often not filed completely and

11592-408: The queen dowager. He found a man named Lao Ai . According to The Record of Grand Historian , Lao Ai was disguised as a eunuch by plucking his beard. Later Lao Ai and queen Zhao Ji got along so well that they secretly had two sons together. Lao Ai was ennobled as Marquis, and was showered with riches. Lao Ai had been planning to replace King Zheng with one of his own sons, but during a dinner party he

11718-607: The reign of the Guangxu Emperor in the mid 19th century the first machine-struck cash coins were produced, from 1889 a machine operated mint in Guangzhou , Guangdong opened where the majority of the machine-struck cash would be produced. Machine-made cash coins tend to be made from brass rather than from more pure copper as cast coins often were, and later the copper content of the alloy decreased while cheaper metals like lead and tin were used in larger quantities giving

11844-461: The resurgence of feudal lords, the Emperor ordered the destruction of walls between the former states, which were now internal walls dividing the empire. However, to defend against the northern Xiongnu nomads, who had beaten back repeated campaigns against them, he ordered new walls to connect the fortifications along the empire's northern frontier. Hundreds of thousands of workers were mobilized, and an unknown number died, to build this precursor to

11970-486: The reverse. List of calligraphic styles and scripts on Chinese cash coins: In imperial China cash coins were used for fortune telling , or divination , this would be done by first lighting incense to the effigy of a Chinese deity , and then casting three cash coins into a tortoise shell . The Chinese fortune telling process using cash coins involved the fortune teller counted the number of coins lying on their obverse or reverse sides, and how these coins scratched

12096-416: The same father but from a different mother. After Zhao Zheng inherited the throne, Chengjiao rebelled at Tunliu and surrendered to the state of Zhao. Chengjiao's remaining retainers and families were executed by Zhao Zheng. As King Zheng grew older, Lü Buwei became fearful that the boy king would discover his liaison with his mother, Lady Zhao . He decided to distance himself and look for a replacement for

12222-438: The shape of flowers. If the shape of these holes were only hexagonal then they were referred to as "turtle shell hole coins" (龜甲穿錢), in some occidental sources they may be called "star holes" because they resemble stars . The exact origin and purpose of these variant holes is currently unknown but several hypotheses have been proposed by Chinese scholars. The traditional explanation for why these "flower holes" started appearing

12348-546: The shell, this process was repeated three or six times. After this a very intricate system based on the position of the coins with Bagua , and the five elements was used for divination, the Tang dynasty Kai Yuan Tong Bao (開元通寶) coin was the most preferred for this usage. Contemporary Chinese intelligentsia found the usage of cash coins for fortune-telling to be superior to any other methods. Cash coins were also believed to hold "curing powers" in traditional Chinese medicine , one method of using cash coins for "medicine"

12474-652: The shoulder. (See Hosea Morse's "Trade and Administration of the Chinese Empire" p. 130 ff.) Paper money equivalents known as flying cash sometimes showed pictures of the appropriate number of cash coins strung together. Following the Ban Liang cash coins the Han dynasty introduced the San Zhu cash coins which in the year 118 BC were replaced by the Wu Zhu cash coins. The production of Wu Zhu cash coins

12600-461: The similarly small value copper coins of China. The English word cash meaning "tangible currency" is an older, unrelated word, derived from the Middle French caisse, meaning "money box." There are a variety of Chinese terms for cash coins, usually descriptive and most commonly including the character qián ( Chinese : 錢 ; pinyin : qián ) meaning "money". Chinese qián

12726-522: The statues were commented upon and moved around from palace to palace, until they were finally destroyed in the 4th century AD, but no illustration has remained. While the previous Warring States era was one of constant warfare, it was also considered the golden age of free thought. Qin Shi Huang eliminated the Hundred Schools of Thought , which included Confucianism and other philosophies. With all other philosophies banned, Legalism became

12852-428: The story "patently false, meant both to libel Lü and to cast aspersions on the First Emperor". Claiming Lü Buwei—a merchant—as the First Emperor's biological father was meant to be especially disparaging, since later Confucian society regarded merchants as the lowest social class . In 246 BC, when King Zhuangxiang died after a short reign of just three years, he was succeeded on the throne by his 13-year-old son. At

12978-418: The surname Zhao " —or to combine the clan surname with the personal name: Sima's account of Chu describes the sixteenth year of the reign of King Kaolie as "the time when Zhao Zheng was enthroned as King of Qin". However, since modern Chinese surnames (despite usually descending from clan names) use the same character as the old ancestral names, it is much more common in modern Chinese sources to see

13104-425: The surrender of Qi in 221 BC, King Zheng reunited all of the lands of the former Kingdom of Zhou . Rather than maintain his rank as king, however, he created a new title of huángdì ( emperor ) for himself. This new title combined two titles— huáng of the mythical Three Sovereigns ( 三皇 , Sān huáng ) and the dì of the legendary Five Emperors ( 五帝 , Wŭ Dì ) of Chinese prehistory . The title

13230-473: The term "chestnut holes" could be a homophonic pun in Mandarin Chinese with the phrase "establishing sons" (立子, lì zi ), which expresses a desire to produce male offspring . The practice of creating cash coins with "flower holes" and "turtle shell holes" was also adopted by Japan, Korea, and Vietnam, however cash coins with these features are extremely rare in these countries despite using the same production techniques which further indicates that their addition

13356-631: The three great feats of ancient Chinese engineering, along with the Great Wall and the Sichuan Dujiangyan Irrigation System . As he grew old, Qin Shi Huang desperately sought the fabled elixir of life which supposedly confers immortality. In his obsessive quest, he fell prey to many fraudulent elixirs. He visited Zhifu Island three times in his search. In one case he sent Xu Fu , a Zhifu islander, with ships carrying hundreds of young men and women in search of

13482-521: The time, Zhao Zheng was still young, so Lü Buwei acted as the regent prime minister of the State of Qin, which was still waging war against the other six states . Nine years later, in 235 BC, Zhao Zheng assumed full power after Lü Buwei was banished for his involvement in a scandal with Queen Dowager Zhao. Zhao Chengjiao , the Lord Chang'an ( 长安君 ), was Zhao Zheng's legitimate half-brother, by

13608-432: The unification of China by Qin Shi Huang , the most common formation was the round-shaped copper coin with a square or circular hole in the center, the prototypical cash. The early Ban Liang cash coins were said to have been made in the shape of wheels, similar to other Ancient Chinese forms of coinage resembling agricultural tools. It is commonly believed that the early round coins of the Warring States period resembled

13734-426: The year 1900 traditional cast copper-alloy cash coins only made up 17.78% of the total Chinese currency stock, privately-produced banknotes made up only 3%, and foreign trade dollars circulating in China (which mostly included the silver Mexican peso ) made up 25% of the total Chinese currency stock by the 1900s. The context of traditional Chinese cash coins in the Chinese economy during the 1900s and its late stage in

13860-436: Was 1.4 m (4.6 ft). In 230 BC, the state of Qin had defeated the state of Han . In 218, a former Han aristocrat named Zhang Liang swore revenge on Qin Shi Huang. He sold his valuables and hired a strongman assassin, building a heavy metal cone weighing 120 catties (roughly 160 lb or 97 kg). The two men hid among the bushes along the emperor's route over a mountain during his third imperial tour. At

13986-405: Was a close friend of Jing Ke, and wanted to avenge his death. As a famous zhu player, he was summoned to play for King Zheng. Someone in the palace recognized him and guessed his plans. Reluctant to kill such a skilled musician, the king ordered his eyes put out, and then proceeded with the performance. The king praised Gao's playing and even allowed him closer. The zhu had been weighted with

14112-463: Was accidental shifts of two halves of a prototype cash coin in clay, bronze, and stone moulds, these shifts would then produce the shape of the square hole to resemble multiple square holes placed on top of each other when the metal was poured in. A common criticism of this hypothesis is that if this were to happen then the inscription on the coin would also have to appear distorted, as well as any other marks that appeared on these cash coins, however this

14238-535: Was an insufficient supply of copper. 2 iron cash coins were usually worth only a single bronze cash coin. Because of oxidation , iron cash coins are rarely in very good condition today, especially if they were excavated. Qin Shi Huang Qin Shi Huang ( Chinese : 秦始皇 , pronunciation ; February 259  – 12 July 210 BC) was the founder of the Qin dynasty and

14364-479: Was boiling them in water and letting the patient consume that water. Other than that they were also used as "medical tools" particularly in the guāshā (刮痧) method, which was used against diseases like cholera ; this required the healer to scrape the patient's skin with cash coins as they believed that the pathogen remained stagnant underneath the patient's skin in a process called "coining". Though in general any cash coin could be used in traditional Chinese medicine,

14490-508: Was briefly suspended by Wang Mang during the Xin dynasty but after the reestablishment of the Han dynasty, the production of Wu Zhu cash coins resumed, and continued to be manufactured long after the fall of the Eastern Han dynasty for another 500 years. Minting was definitively ended in 618 with the establishment of the Tang dynasty . Wu Zhu cash coins were cast from 118 BC to 618 AD having

14616-652: Was common to shorten the resulting four-character Qin Shi Huangdi to 秦始皇 , variously transcribed as Qin Shihuang or Qin Shi Huang. Following his elevation as emperor, both Zheng's personal name 政 and possibly its homophone 正 became taboo . The First Emperor also arrogated the first-person pronoun 朕 for his exclusive use, and in 212 BC began calling himself The Immortal ( 真人 , Others were to address him as "Your Majesty" ( 陛下 , in person and "Your Highness" ( 上 ) in writing. According to

14742-419: Was first in line to succeed him as emperor, Li Si and the chief eunuch Zhao Gao conspired to kill Fusu, who was in league with their enemy, general Meng Tian . Meng Tian's brother Meng Yi , a senior minister, had once punished Zhao Gao. Li Si and Zhao Gao forged a letter from Qin Shi Huang commanding Fusu and General Meng to commit suicide. The plan worked, and the younger son Hu Hai started his brief reign as

14868-409: Was formed by a cavity that was located in its centre. As this was done without using a prior model, early Chinese coinage tends to look very diverse, even from the same series of coins as these all were cast from different (and unrelated) moulds bearing the same inscriptions. During the Han dynasty , to gain consistency in the circulating coinage, master bronze moulds were manufactured to be used as

14994-430: Was heard bragging about being the young king's stepfather. In 238 BC, while the king was travelling to the former capital, Yong ( 雍 ), Lao Ai seized the queen mother's seal and mobilized an army in an attempted coup d'état . When notified of the rebellion, King Zheng ordered Lü Buwei to let Lord Changping and Lord Changwen  [ zh ] attack Lao Ai. Although the royal army killed hundreds of rebels at

15120-502: Was intended to appropriate some of the prestige of the Yellow Emperor , whose cult was popular in the later Warring States period and who was considered to be a founder of the Chinese people. King Zheng chose the new regnal name of First Emperor ( Shǐ Huángdì , Wade-Giles Shih Huang-ti) on the understanding that his successors would be successively titled the "Second Emperor", "Third Emperor", and so on through

15246-416: Was not the case and the "flower holes" are equally distinctive as the square ones. Under Wang Mang 's Xin dynasty other than cash coins with "flower holes" also spade money with "flower holes" were cast. Under the reign of the Tang dynasty the number of Chinese cash coins with "flower holes" started to increase and circulated throughout the entire empire, concurrently the casting of Chinese cash coins

15372-462: Was on the first day of Zhengyue . ) Lü Buwei's machinations later helped Yiren become King Zhuangxiang of Qin in 250 BC. However, the Shiji also claimed that the first emperor was not the actual son of Prince Yiren but that of Lü Buwei. According to this account, when Lü Buwei introduced the dancing girl to the prince, she was Lü Buwei's concubine and had already become pregnant by him, and

15498-591: Was placed under house arrest until her death many years later. Lü Buwei drank a cup of poisoned wine and committed suicide in 235 BC. Ying Zheng then assumed full power as the King of the Qin state. Replacing Lü Buwei, Li Si became the new chancellor . King Zheng and his troops continued their conquest of the neighbouring states. The state of Yan was no match for the Qin states: small and weak, it had already been harassed frequently by Qin soldiers. Crown Prince Dan of Yan plotted an assassination attempt against King Zheng, recruiting Jing Ke and Qin Wuyang for

15624-472: Was switched from using clay moulds to using bronze ones, however the earliest Kaiyuan Tongbao cash coins were still cast with clay moulds so the mould type alone cannot explain why these "flower holes" became increasingly common. As mother coins (母錢) were used to cast these coins which were always exact it indicates that these "flower holes" were added post-casting, the largest amount of known cash coins with "flower holes" have very prominent octagonal holes in

15750-646: Was wholly intentional. "Red cash coins" ( Traditional Chinese : 紅錢) are the cash coins produced in Xinjiang under Qing rule following the conquest of the Dzungar Khanate by the Manchus in 1757. While in Northern Xinjiang the monetary system of China proper was adopted in Southern Xinjiang where the pūl (ﭘول) coins of Dzungaria circulated earlier the pūl-system was continued but some of

15876-511: Was worth. In AD 666, a new system of weights came into effect with the zhū being replaced by the mace ( qián ) with 10 mace equal to one tael. The mace denominations were so ubiquitous that the Chinese word qián came to be used as the generic word for money. Other traditional Chinese units of measurement , smaller subdivisions of the tael, were also used as currency denominations for cash coins. A great majority of cash coins had no denomination specifically designated but instead carried

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