Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-p9bg8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T09:40:45.167Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Managing a Multicurrency System in Tang China: The View from the Centre

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 July 2013

CHANG XU  and
HELEN WANG
CHANG XU
Affiliation:
Peking University
HELEN WANG
Affiliation:
Peking University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

When the Tang dynasty took power in 618, it inherited the multicurrency system of earlier dynasties. The zuyongdiao tax system, in effect from the start of the dynasty, required each taxpayer to submit taxes in grain, labour and cloth. At the same time, the government also minted coins, which constituted some 10 per cent of the total money supply. A persistent shortage of copper limited the number of minted coins the government could issue. Accordingly, officials tried to ensure that sufficient coins and textiles circulated so that both forms of money remained in use. They displayed no consistent preference for one form of money over the other but devised policies to encourage the use of whichever form was then in short supply.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 23 , Issue 2: Textiles as Money on the Silk Road , April 2013 , pp. 223 - 244
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Obviously the conditions of the Han and Song dynasties also differed. In the Han dynasty many exchanges in daily life employed grain and textiles, while in the Song there was less exchange of actual goods.

2 Li Yan 李埏, “Lüelun Tangdai de ‘qian bo jianxing’” 略論唐代的“ 錢帛兼行 [A study and discussion of the “concurrent circulation of coins and textiles”], first published in Lishi yanjiu 歷史研究 (1964,) No. 1 pp. 169–190, with a revised version in his collected works entitled Buzi xiaozhai wencun不自小斋文存 (Kunming, 2001), pp. 236–272. Also available at: http://www.guoxue.com/wk/000426.htm.

3 Li Linfu et al. 李林甫 [Tang dynasty]; Zhongfu, Chen 陳仲夫 (ed.), Tang Liudian 唐六典 [Compendium of administrative law of the six divisions of the Tang bureaucracy, (Beijing, 1992), 3.82Google Scholar.

4 Zheng, Wei 魏徵 (580–643), Sui shu 隋書 [Sui history] (Beijing, 1973), 24.689Google Scholar.

5 Xu, Liu 劉昫 (887–946), Jiu Tangshu 旧唐書 [Old Tang history] (Beijing, 1975), 48.2094Google Scholar.

6 Du You 杜佑 (735–812), Wenjin, Wang 王文錦 et al. (eds) Tongdian 通典 [Encyclopaedic history of institutions] (Beijing, 1988), 9.203Google Scholar.

7 Dongsheng, Xu 徐东升, “Tangdai zhuqian sanlun” 唐代铸钱散论 [Notes on minting coins in the Tang period), Zhongguo shehui jingjishi yanjiu (2007) Vol. 2, pp. 13–19 Google Scholar.

8 Gao, Dong 董誥 (1740–1818) Quan Tangwen 全唐文 [Complete writings of the Tang] (Beijing, 1983), 211.2134Google Scholar.

9 For two important exceptions, see Xu Dongsheng, “Tangdai zhuqian sanlun”; also Xinglong, Zhong 钟兴龙, “Tangdai zhubi liangkao” 唐代铸币量考 [A study of the quantity of coins minted in the Tang period], Zhongguo jingjishi yanjiu (2010) Vol. 3, pp. 76–81 Google Scholar.

10 Xiu, Ouyang 歐陽修 (1007–1072), Xin Tangshu 新唐書 [New Tang history] (Beijing, 1975), 52.1360Google Scholar.

11 The modern places given in brackets are for the convenience of the western reader who may not know the locations of these various prefectures in the Tang period. They are only approximate since there is not a one-to-one correspondence between modern and historical place names. The modern equivalent given here is the prefectural seat, yet the area of many of these prefectures was quite large.

12 Xin Tangshu, 54.1386.

13 Xin Tangshu, 54.1389.

14 Yang Wuling's memorial as quoted in Xin Tangshu 52.1360.

15 Xiaqing, Lü 呂夏卿 (1015–1068), Tangshu zhibi 唐書直筆[Notes on the Tang history], Wenyuan ge Siku quanshu edition (Taipei, 1986), 4.685,737Google Scholar; Zhong Xinglong, “Tangdai zhubi liangkao”, p. 80.

16 Tang Liudian, 22.576.

17 Tongdian, 6.108.

18 Tang Liudian, 22.576; compare Twitchett, Denis, Financial Administration under the T'ang Dynasty (Cambridge, 1970), p. 140 Google Scholar.

19 Tang Liudian, 20.541. See also the table “Tang military expenditures by region (according to Du You)” in Masaharu Arakawa's 荒川正晴 article in this issue.

20 Junwen, Liu 劉俊文, Tanglü shuyi jianjie 唐律疏議笺解 [An annotated edition of the Tang Code] (Beijing, 1996) 26.1860Google Scholar. Johnson, Compare Wallace, The Tang Code volume II, Specific Articles (Princeton, 1997) 26.480Google Scholar.

21 Yamamoto, T. et al. (eds), Tun-huang and Turfan Documents Concerning Social and Economic History, Supplement, I Legal Texts (Tokyo, 1978)Google Scholar, (A), p. 35; (B), p. 69; also Junwen, Liu 劉俊文, Dunhuang Tulufan Tangdai fazhi wenshu kaoshi 敦煌吐魯番唐代法制文書考釋 (Beijing, 1989), pp. 253–254 Google Scholar.

22 Quan Tangwen, 26.300.

23 Quan Tangwen, 26.300.

24 Xin Tangshu 51.1342–1343. See also Twitchett's comprehensive investigation of this system in his Financial Administration Under the T'ang Dynasty, pp. 24–25, and his translation of a related statute on pp. 140–141.

25 For further information about the zi and ke taxes, see Chunrun, Li 李春润, “Lüelun Tangdai de zike” 略論唐代的資課 [A discussion of the zi and ke taxes of the Tang dynasty] ，Zhonghua wenshi luncong no. 2 (1983) pp. 66–76 Google Scholar; Zexian, Zhang 张泽咸, Tang Wudai fuyi shicao 唐五代赋役史草 [Draft history of the taxation and corvée system of the Tang dynasty and Five Dynasties)] (Beijing, 1986), pp. 100–104, 361–364Google Scholar.

26 Tang Liudian, 3.80.

27 Xin Tangshu, 51.1342.

28 This document, Ōtani #2597, is transcribed in Tōru, Ōtsu 大津透, “Tō ritsuryō kokka no yosan ni tsuite: Gihō sannen takushi sōshō Yonen kinbu shifu shishaku”[唐律令国家の予算について – 唐儀鳳三年度支奏抄·四年金部旨符試 釈 –][The Tang code state budget: study of a copy of a memorial dated the third year of the Yifeng period of the Tang – a Finance Bureau tally of the fourth year], Shigaku zasshi [史学 雑誌] Vol. 95, No. 12 (1986), pp. 10–11 Google Scholar; Yoshihisa, Oda (ed.) 小田義久責任編集, Ōtani Monjo Shūsei [大谷文書集成][Collected Ōtani documents] (Kyoto, 1984–2003), vol. 1, p. 98, fig. 25Google Scholar. Chinese translation in Junwen, Liu 刘俊文 (ed.-in-chief), Riben zhongqingnian xuezhe lun Zhongguo shi (Liuchao SuiTang juan) 日本中青年学者论中国史（六朝隋唐卷）(Shanghai, 1995), pp. 433–449 Google Scholar.

29 Kaisaburō, Hino日野开三郎, Tōdai sochōyō no kenkyū, Part I, Shikigaku hen 唐代租调庸の研究I色额篇 [Study of the zuyongdiao of the Tang period, Part I, various quotas] (Kurume, published by the author, 1974), pp. 443–462 Google Scholar.

30 Jinxiu, Li 李锦绣, Tangdai caizheng shigao 唐代财政史稿 [Draft history of Tang finance] (Beijing, 1995), vol.1, p. 435 Google Scholar.

31 Du You, Tongdian, 6.110–111; Twitchett, Financial Administration, pp. 153–156 translates and explicates the document.

32 Tongdian 通典, 6.108.

33 Li Jinxiu, Tangdai caizheng shigao, Vol. 1, pp. 424–428.

34 Xin Tangshu, 54.1382.

35 Quan Tangwen, 284.2881–2882.

36 Xin Tangshu 54.1385; Xu Dongsheng, “Tangdai zhuqian sanlun”, p. 16.

37 Tongdian, 9.201.

38 Qiandao is a general historical term meaning “coin”.

39 Quan Tangwen, 35.386.

40 Quan Tangwen, 380.3860.

41 Ke, Ning 宁可, Zhonghuo jingji tongshi – Sui Tang Wudai jingji juan 中国经济通史· 隋唐五代经济 [A survey of Chinese economic history: the economy of the Sui and Tang dynasties and the Five Dynasties period] (Beijing, Jing ribao, 1998), pp. 477–482 Google Scholar.

42 Jiu Tangshu, 48.2102.

43 Coins issued during the Dali reign period probably had Kaiyuan or Qianyuan inscriptions, not the Dali inscriptions which were used only in Xinjiang.

44 Zhong Xinglong, “Tangdai zhubi liangkao”, p. 78.

45 Quan Tangwen, 465.4748.

46 Scholars call this the second monetisation of taxation in China; the first being the Reckoned Contribution, Mouth Cash and Reckoned String Taxes of the Qin and Han dynasties. Xinwei, Peng 彭信威, Zhongguo huobi shi 中國貨幣史 (Shanghai, 1965) p. 346 Google Scholar; Xinwei, Peng, A Monetary History of China, translated by Kaplan, Edward H. (Bellingham, 1994), p. 293 Google Scholar.

47 Quan Tangwen, 465.4748.

48 Xin Tangshu, 52.1358.

49 Quan Tangwen, 670.6833.

50 Quan Tangwen, 549.5561–5562.

51 Tongdian, 8.167–168.

52 Xin Tangshu, 52.1360.

53 For the measure passed in 804, see Xin Tangshu, 54.1385; in 811, Pu, Wang 王溥 (922–982), Tang Huiyao 唐會要 [Important documents of the Tang] (Shanghai, 1991), 83.1821–1823, 89.1933–1934Google Scholar; in 813 and 816, Tang huiyao 83.1823; in 817, Jiu Tangshu, 48.2103; in 822, Xin Tangshu, 52.1358; in 830, Xin Tangshu 54.1387.

54 Tang Huiyao, 83.1539.

55 Jiu Tangshu 48.2103.

56 Quan Tangwen, 651.6621.

57 Wang Pu, Tang huiyao, 59.1194.

58 Zhao, Li, 李肇 (fl. 806–820), Tang guo shi bu 唐國史補 (Shanghai, 1979), 1.24–25Google Scholar.

59 Feng Zhi, Yunxian zaji, 4.27.

60 These coins are known as Huichang Kaiyuan.

61 Zhuang, Wei 韋庄, “Qinfu yin” 秦婦吟, in Anfu, Nie (ed.) 聶安福, Wei Zhuang ji jianzhu 韋庄集箋注 [The collected papers of Wei Zhuang, with annotations] (Shanghai, 2002), p. 317 Google Scholar.