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How the Residents of Turfan used Textiles as Money, 273–796 ce

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 July 2013

VALERIE HANSEN  and
XINJIANG RONG
VALERIE HANSEN
Affiliation:
Yale University
XINJIANG RONG
Affiliation:
Peking University
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Extract

Textiles, grain, coins; people living in the Silk Road oasis of Turfan, 160 km south-east of Urumqi in today's Xinjiang, used all three items as money between 273 and 769. The city of Gaochang (some 40 km east of today's Turfan) was one of the most important cities on the northern route around the Taklamakan Desert, and many of its inhabitants were buried in the adjacent Astana and Karakhoja graveyards. The region's dry climate has preserved an extensive group of paper documents dating to before, and after, the Tang conquest of the city in 640. The residents of Turfan buried their dead with shoes, belts, hats and clothing made from recycled paper with writing on it. These records offer an unparalleled glimpse of how people living along the Silk Road used textiles as currency.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 23 , Issue 2: Textiles as Money on the Silk Road , April 2013 , pp. 281 - 305
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 2013 

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References

1 For a detailed survey of coins see Wang, Helen, Money on the Silk Road: the Evidence from Eastern Central Asia to c. AD 800 (London, 2004)Google Scholar.

2 Hansen, Valerie, Negotiating Daily Life in Traditional China: How Ordinary People Used Contracts, 600–1400 (London, 1995)Google Scholar.

3 In addition to giving titles for 499 contracts, Yamamoto and Ikeda transcribe them and divide them into categories. Tatsuro, Yamamoto and On, Ikeda, Tun-huang and Turfan Documents Concerning Social and Economic History III Contracts (A) Introduction and Texts (Tokyo, 1987 Google Scholar).

4 Dien, Albert E., “The Inventory Lists of Tomb 86TAM386 at Astana, Turfan”, Journal of East Asian Archaeology (2002a) Vol. 4, pp. 183–200 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, number of surviving inventories on p. 188; Dien, , “Turfan Funereal Statements”, Journal of Chinese Religions Vol. 30 (2002b), pp. 23–48 Google Scholar.

5 Dien, “The Inventory Lists”, “Turfan Funereal Statements.”

6 The best explanation of this system in English remains that of Twitchett, D. C., Financial Administration Under the T'ang Dynasty, 2nd edition (Cambridge, 1970), pp. 24–48 Google Scholar, particularly pp. 24–25.

7 Jonathan Karam Skaff, “Sasanian and Arab-Sasanian Silver Coins from Turfan: Their Relationship to International Trade and the Local Economy”, Asia Major, 3rd series XI.2 (1998), pp. 67–115.

8 66TAM53:9, Yamamoto and Ikeda, Tun-huang and Turfan Documents, p. 3, #1.

9 Trombert, Éric and de la Vaissière, Étienne, “Le prix de denrées sur le marché de Turfan en 743”, in Drège, Jean-Pierre et al. (eds), Études de Dunhuang et Turfan, (Paris, 2007), pp. 1–52, reference on p. 29Google Scholar.

10 VH conversation with Wu Zhen, 29 March 2006, in Urumqi.

11 Guangda, Zhang and Xinjiang, Rong, “A Concise History of the Turfan Oasis and its Exploration”, Asia Major, 3rd series 11.2 (1998) Vol. 11, No. 2, pp. 13–36 Google Scholar, especially pp. 14–15; see also Su, Wang, Gaochang Shigao tongzhi bian [Draft history of the Gaochang Kingdom, section on governance] (Beijing, 1998)Google Scholar which provides valuable information about the fifth century not in the Zhang and Rong article.

12 65TAM39:20; photograph and transcription in Zhangru, Tang et al. (eds), Tulufan chutu wenshu (Beijing, 1992–1996) volume I, p. 2 Google Scholar. The notes cite the four-volume set of Turfan documents and photographs, which is more reliable than the earlier ten-volume set.

13 Hansen, Valerie, “The Place of Coins – and their Alternatives – in the Silk Road Trade”, in Bowuguan, Shanghai (ed.), Sichou zhilu guguo qianbi ji silu wenhua guoji xueshu taolunhui wenji/Proceedings of the Symposium on Ancient Coins and the Culture of the Silk Road (Shanghai, 2011), pp. 83–113 Google Scholar.

14 The amount of the payment is not legible. 66TAM59:4/1(b), transcribed and photographed in Tulufan chutu wenshu vol. I, p. 16; Wang, Money on the Silk Road, pp. 78, 86.

15 66TAM59:2, Tulufan chutu wenshu, I.12.

16 63TAM2:1, Tulufan chutu wenshu, I.85. Earlier inventories exist, but they do not mention bolts of cloth.

17 “Tulufan BeiLiang Wuxuan Wang Juqu Mengxun furen Pengshi mu” 吐 魯 番 北 涼 武 宣 王 沮 渠 蒙 遜夫人鵬氏墓 [Tomb of Lady Peng, wife of Juqu Mengxun, the Wuxuan king of the Northern Liang in Turfan], (Wenwu 1994) Vol. 4, pp. 75–81.

18 For the history of Turfan between 439 and 460, see Xinjiang, Rong, “Juqu Anzhou's Inscription and the Daliang Kingdom in Turfan”, in Durkin-Meisterernst, D. et al. (eds), Turfan Revisited – The First Century of Research into the Art and Cultures of the Silk Road, (Berlin, 2004), pp. 268–275 and plates 1–3, figures 1 and 2Google Scholar.

19 Yanshou, Li, Beishi [History of the northern dynasties] (Beijing, 1974), 97:3213Google Scholar.

20 The people living under the Northern Wei regarded Gaochang as part of Rouran. In the epitaph of Lü Bosheng who was buried in the 10th month of the second year of Xinghe era of Eastern Wei, it is recorded that “his grandfather was the second son of the ruler of Ruru, who after surrendering, succeeded to the rank of king of Gaochang and his office in government reached as high as Situgong”. See Wanli, Zhao 趙萬里, Hanwei Nanbeichao muzhi jishi 漢魏南北朝墓誌集釋 [Collected and annotated tomb epitaphs from the Han, Wei, Northern, and Southern dynasties] (Beijing, Kexue chubanshe, 1956), plate 591Google Scholar; History Institute of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences史料編纂組 (ed.), Rouran ziliao jilu 柔然資料輯錄 [Materials about the Rouran] (Beijing, Zhonghua shuju, 1962), p. 54 Google Scholar. The fact that the court of Northern Wei gave the title of king of Gaochang to the son of a Rouran ruler demonstrates this point.

21 Zhang Guangda and Rong Xinjiang, “A Concise History”, pp. 16–17. At the time of writing, consensus had not yet been reached among scholars on the time of the end of the Kan family rule in Gaochang and the westward migration of Afuzhiluo of Gaoju because materials conflicted with each other. Here we follow Wang Su and adopt the most widely believed date for the migration of Gaoju and for the end of Gaochang under the Kan family. See Wang Su, Gaochang shigao, tongzhibian, pp. 270–275.

22 97TSM1:5, transcribed and photographed in Xinjiang, Rong et al. (eds), Xinhuo Tulufan chutu wenshu (Beijing, 2007) I.125Google Scholar.

23 Trombert, Éric, “Une trajectoire d'ouest en est sur la route de la soie: La diffusion du cotton dans l'Asie centrale sinisée”, in La Persia e l'Asia Centrale: Da Alessandro al X secolo (Rome, 1996), p. 212 Google Scholar, notes 25 and 27; Fang, Li (ed.), Taiping yulan 太平禦覽 [Imperially reviewed encyclopedia of the Taiping Tianguo reign (976–983)] (Beijing, 1960), 820.3652–3653 Google Scholar, entry for “baidie” (cotton).

24 Two personal names, Zuo Shouxing 左首興 and Deqian 得錢, also appear in another account book of taxes and labour in the Yongkang era, discovered in tomb No. 1 of Yanghai graveyard, east of Gaochang city in 1997 (97TSYM1). Xinjiang, Rong et al., Xinhuo Tulufan chutu wenxian [Newly discovered Turfan documents] 新獲吐魯番出土文獻 (Beijing, 2008), I.129–145 Google Scholar. For Zuo Shouxing, see pp. 130 and 139; for Deqian, pp.130, 140.

25 See Xin, Luo 羅新, “Gaochang wenshu zhong de Rouran zhengzhi minghao” 高昌文書中的柔然政治名號 [On several political terms of the Rouran tribe found in the Gaochang documents], Tulufanxue yanjiu 吐魯番學研究 (2008) No. 1, pp. 38–41 Google Scholar.

26 75TKM90:20(a), 20(b), Tulufan chutu wenshu I.122–123.

27 For example, 97TSYM1:10–1, and other fragments, photographed and transcribed in Rong Xinhuo Tulufan, I.146–149.

28 Transcribed in Yamamoto and Ikeda, 1987, p. 2, cankao #10; translation, Hansen, Negotiating Daily Life, pp. 26.

29 Transcribed in Yamamoto and Ikeda, 1987, p. 2, cankao #11; translation, Hansen, Negotiating Daily Life, pp. 26–27.

30 72TAM179, Tulufan chutu wenshu, I.143; Thierry, François, “Entre Iran et Chine, la circulation monétaire en Sérinde de 1er au IXe siècle”, in La Serinde, terre d'échanges: Art, religion commerce du Ier au Xe siècle. XIVes Rencontres de l'Ecole du Louvre (Paris, 2000) pp. 121–147 Google Scholar, especially p. 128.

31 75TKM88:1(b), Tulufan chutu wenshu, I.89.

32 75TKM99:6(b), Tulufan chutu wenshu, I.94–95.

33 75TKM99:6(a), Tulufan chutu wenshu, I.92–93.

34 60TAM326:014, Tulufan chutu wenshu, II.249. These three contracts are also transcribed in Yamamoto and Ikeda, 1987, pp. 15–16 (#36, 37, 38) (we follow their dating here). They are summarised in Wang, Money on the Silk Road, p. 79, Table 32.

35 Zhangru, Tang (ed.), Tulufan chutu wenshu 吐魯番出土文書, II (Beijing, 1992), pp. 1, 3Google Scholar.

36 Kaiwan, Lu 盧開萬, “Shilun Qushi Gaochang shiqi de fuyi zhidu” 試論麴氏高昌時期的賦役制度 [On the taxes and corvée in the period of the Gaochang kingdom under the Qu family], in Zhangru, Tang (ed.), Dunhuang Tulufan wenshu chutan 敦煌吐魯番文書初探 [Preliminary studies on Turfan and Dunhuang documents] (Wuhan, 1983), p. 97 Google Scholar.

37 Xuemeng, Zheng 鄭學檬, “Shiliu guo zhi Qushi wangchao shiqi Gaochang shiyong yinqian de qingkuang yanjiu” 十六國至麴氏王朝時期高昌使用銀錢的情況研究 [Studies in the use of silver coins in Gaochang from the Sixteen Kingdoms to the Gaochang kingdom under Qu family rule), in Guopan, Han (ed.) 韓國磐, Dunhuang Tulufan chutu jingji wenshu yanjiu 敦煌吐魯番出土經濟文書研究 (Xiamen, 1986), p. 301 Google Scholar.

38 Document 60TAM337:11/37, discussed in Boqin, Jiang 姜伯勤, Dunhuang Tulufan wenshu yu Sichou zhilu 敦煌吐魯番文書與絲綢之路 [Dunhuang–Turfan documents and the Silk Road] (Beijing, 1994), p. 182 Google Scholar.

39 Lei, Zhu 朱雷, “Qushi Gaochang wangguo de ‘chengjiaqian’” 麴氏高昌王國的“稱價錢” [Scale fees in the Gaochang kingdom under the Qu family], in his Dunhuang Tulufan wenshu luncong 敦煌吐魯番文書論叢, (Lanzhou, 2000), p. 81 Google Scholar; Jiang Boqin, Dunhuang Tulufan wenshu, pp. 181–182; É. Vaissiere, de la, Sogdian Traders. A History, translated by Ward, James (Leiden, 2005), pp. 133–134 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

40 The second character in the name is not clear.

41 Xiangqian, Lu 盧向前, “Lun Qushi Gaochang zangqian” 論麴氏高昌臧錢 [On the illicit money in the Gaochang kingdom], Beijing daxue xuebao, (1991) No. 5, pp. 83–90 Google Scholar; also in his Dunhuang Tulufan wenshu lungao 敦煌吐魯番文書論稿 (Nanchang, 1992), pp. 201–216.

42 On the people from Yanqi in Turfan, see Xinjiang, Rong, “Longjia kao” 龍家考 [On the Longjia tribe from Karashar], Zhongya xuekan, 4 (1995), pp. 145–146 Google Scholar.

43 See Table 33, in Wang, Money on the Silk Road, pp. 83–85.

44 See Table 34, in Wang, Money on the Silk Road, pp. 86.

45 Huili 慧立, A Biography of the Tripitaka Master of the the Great Ci'en Monastery of the Great Tang Dynasty. Translated by Li Rongxi. (BDK English Tripitaka 77, Berkeley, 1995) p. 33; Da Ci'en si Sanzang Fashi zhuan 大慈恩寺三藏法师专 [Biography of the Tripitaka master from the Great Ci'en Monastery] (Beijing, 2000) p. 21.

46 Skaff, “Sasanian and Arab-Sasanian Silver Coins from Turfan”, pp. 67–155.

47 Yutaka, Yoshida, “Appendix: Translation of the Contract for the Purchase of a Slave Girl Found at Turfan and Dated 639”, T'oung Pao (2003) No. 89, pp. 159–161 Google Scholar.

48 Etsuko, Kageyama, “Use and Production of Silks in Sogdiana”, in Compareti, Matteo, Raffetta, Paola, Scarcia, Gianroberto (eds), Ēran ud Anērān: Studies presented to Boris Ilich Marshak on the Occasion of His 70th Birthday (Venice, 2006)Google Scholar. Available on-line at: http://www.transoxiana.org/Eran/ (accessed 23/11/10).

49 Étienne de la Vaissère, Sogdian Traders, pp. 268–271; Trombert and de la Vaissière, “Le Marché de Turfan”, pp. 29–32 offer a tentative analysis of prices for certain commodities in Turfan, Dunhuang and Sogdiana in the eighth century.

50 Pu, Wang, Tang huiyao [Important documents of the Tang] (Beijing, 1955) 89.1627 Google Scholar; Trombert and de la Vaissière, “Le Marché de Turfan”, p. 29.

51 Zuo's tomb is 64TAM4, and all the documents recovered from it are in Tang, Tulufan chutu wenshu, III.208–229. They appear in Wang's Money on the Silk Road, Charts 31, 32 and 33. For more about this tomb, see Hansen, 1995, pp. 33–39, and “Why Bury Contracts in Tombs?”, Cahiers d'Extrême-Asie, (1995) No. 8, pp. 59–66.

52 On the place name, see Xinjiang, Rong, “The Name of So-called ‘Tumshuqese’”, Bulletin of the Asia Institute, new series, (Iranian and Zoroastrian Studies in Honor of Prods Oktor Skjaervo), 2005 Vol.19 (published 2009), pp. 119–127 Google Scholar.

53 On the last two place names, see Pelliot, P., “Notes sur les anciens noms de Kučā, d'Aqsu et d'Uč-Turfan”, T'oung Pao XXII (1923) pp. 126–132 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

54 See Xinjiang, Rong, “Xinchu Tulufan wenshu suojian Xiyu shi erti” 新 出 吐 鲁 番 文 书 所 见 西 域 史二题 [Two events in the Western Region based on the newly discovered Turfan documents], Dunhuang Tulufan wenxian yanjiu lunji 敦煌吐鲁番文献研究论集 Vol. 5 (Beijing, 1990), pp. 339–354 Google Scholar.

55 Skaff, “Sasanian and Arab-Sasanian Silver Coins from Turfan.”

56 Hansen, “Why Bury Contracts in Tombs?”

57 The second contract uses the term bolian 帛練 for degummed silk. The word “bo” may mean “white” in this context. Wang Le, personal communication, 5 December 2010.

58 Document no. 64TAM35:28, in Tang Zhangru (ed.), Tulufan chutu wenshu, III.517.

59 Document no. 73TAM214:148(a), in Tang Zhangru (ed.), Tulufan chutu wenshu, III.163.

60 Since the same personal names often reappear, we can expand some abbreviated names.

61 Guopan, Han, “Supplement to the Relations between Coins and Silk from Gaochang Kingdom to Xizhou Prefecture” 高昌西州四百年貨幣關係補缺, in Lei, Zhu (ed.), Tangdai de lishi yu shehui. Zhongguo Tangshi xuehui diliujie nianhui ji guoji Tangshi xuehui yantaohui lunwen xuanji 唐代的歷史與社會——中國唐史學會第六屆年會暨國際唐史學會研討會論文選集 (Wuhan, 1997), pp. 320–325 Google Scholar.

62 Lou, Huang 黃樓, “Studies in the Documents Concerning yueliao, chengliao, and keshi tingliao ” 吐魯番所出唐代月料、程料、客使停料文書初探——以吐魯番阿斯塔那506號 墓 開 元 十九 年料錢文書為中心, Dunhuang Tulufan yanjiu 敦煌吐魯番研究 11, (Shanghai, 2008 [published 2009]), pp. 249–267 Google Scholar.

63 Xiaojie, Lin 林曉潔, “Time and Space in the Daily Life of Officials in Xizhou Prefecture under Tang” 唐代西州官吏日常生活的時與空, Xiyu yanjiu 西域研究, (2008), No. 1, pp. 79–82 Google Scholar.

64 Ikeda On ordered and transcribed the document in Chūgoku kodai sekichō kenkyū [Studies in ancient Chinese household registers) (Tokyo, 1979), pp. 447–462; Trombert and de la Vaissière, “Le Marché de Turfan”; Trombert, Éric, “Produits Médicaux, aromates et teintures sur la marché de Turfan en 743”, in Catherine Despeux (ed.), Médecine, religion et société dans la Chine Médiévale: etude de manuscrits chinois de Dunhuang et de Turfan, Vol. II (Paris, 2010)Google Scholar.

65 See for example, the dispute between Li Shaojin and Cao Lushan over the loan of 275 bolts. (Tulufan chutu wenshu (photos) 3.242–247). For a discussion and partial translation of this document, see my article, “How Business was Conducted on the Chinese Silk Road during the Tang Dynasty”, in Goetzmann, William (ed.), Origins of Value (Oxford, 2005), pp. 43–64 Google Scholar.

66 Zhang Jiuling, Tang Chengxian Qu Jiangzhang xianshen wenji, (Sibu congkan edition) 12.72a; Gao, Dong 董诰 (ed.), Quan Tangwen 全唐文 [Complete writings of the Tang] (Beijing, 1983) 287.2909 Google Scholar.

67 Cartier, Michel, “Sapèques et Tissus à l'époque des T'ang (618–906): remarques sur la circulation monétaire dans lat Chine médiévale”, Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, Vol. 19, No. 3 (1976), p. 338 Google Scholar; Du You, Tongdian, 6.110–111; Twitchett, Financial Administration, pp. 153–156 translates and explicates the document.

68 Cartier, “Sapèques et tissus”, pp. 323–344, charts on pp. 327, 340.

69 Éric Trombert, “Textiles et tissus sur la Route de la soie”, in La Serinde, terre d'échanges, pp. 107–120, reference on p. 108.

70 “Gaochang zhubu Zhang Wan deng chuangong zhang” 高昌主簿張綰等傳供帳 (75TKM90：20(a) ，20(b)), Zhangru, Tang 唐長孺 (ed.), Tulufan chutu wenshu 吐魯番出土文書, I, [Excavated documents from Turfan] (Beijing, 1992), pp. 122–123 Google Scholar. The character 緤 die can also be read as xie; see Eric Trombert's article in this issue, especially fn 22 and 25.

71 “Gaochang tiaolie chu zangqian wenshu canzou” 高昌條列出臧錢文數殘奏 (67TAM84:20), Tang, Tulufan chutu wenshu, II.2.

72 “Tang zhiyong qianlian zhang 1” 唐支用錢練帳一 (64TAM4:46/1), Tang, Tulufan chutu wenshu, III.225–226.

73 “Tang zhiyong qianlian zhang II” 唐支用錢練帳二 (64TAM4:47, 49, 48), Tang, Tulufan chutu wenshu, III.227.

74 “Tang Kaiyuan shijiunian Kang Fu deng ling yongchongliaoqianwu deng chao” 唐開元十九年康福等領用充料錢物等抄 (73TAM506:4/11(1–7)), Tang, Tulufan chutu wenshu, IV.402–408.

75 We use a smaller font in our translation to indicate that the original had smaller characters.

76 For the Sogdian signature, see Yoshida, Y., “Sino-Iranica”, Bulletin of the Society for Western and Southern Asiatic Studies, Kyoto University, 48 (1998), pp. 38–39 Google Scholar.

77 “Su” 蘇 sometimes refers to a plant (Perilla), but this usage is rare (Eric Trombert, email, 8 February 2011).

78 “Tang Kaiyuan shijiunian Jiang Xuanqi deng ling qianlian chao” 唐開元十九年蔣玄其等領錢練抄 (73TAM506:4/12), Tang, Tulufan chutu wenshu, IV.409–411.