Page 182 - Ming_China_Courts_and_Contacts_1400_1450 Craig lunas

Plate 19.2 The same concepts
of money seen on Ming coins
and paper money: Hongwu
tongbao 洪武通寶 coin and Da
Ming tongxing baochao
大明通行寶鈔. British Museum,
London, 1870,0507.14712.154;
and CIB,EA.263

first issued in 1375 and were more or less abandoned by the ingots; jiao (‘exchange’) to the function; and chao, again, to
1430s owing to the discrepancy between their transactional the paper note. These names developed out of earlier terms
value and their face value. However, all surviving notes have for paper money: for example, baoquan (‘treasure voucher’)
inscriptions giving the Hongwu reign period, including printed on Jin dynasty (1115–1234) notes, and jiao and chao,
posthumous issues; and the year, month and day are never both associated with paper money since the Song dynasty
filled in. (960–1279).
The notes have the name printed in large characters Although Ming notes were issued in several
across the top: Da Ming tongxing baochao 大明通行寶鈔 (‘Great denominations (100-, 200-, 300-, 400-, 500-wen and 1-guan
Ming Circulating Treasure Certificate’). The notes are often notes were issued from 1375 onwards; and 10-, 20-, 30-, 40-,
referred to simply as baochao 寶鈔 (‘treasure certificate’), 50-wen notes from 1389), almost all of the surviving notes are
where bao 寶 conveys the notion of ‘treasure’ and chao 鈔 is for 1-guan and depict a string of 1,000 coins, in ten groups of
the physical paper note. The term tongxing baochao 通行寶鈔 100 coins. This image is misleading, however, as the notes
on the notes corresponds with the tongbao 通寶 found on the were not convertible, and when it came to exchanging
Hongwu tongbao 洪武通寶 coins (Pl. 19.2), and Da Ming different forms of money (for instance, for paying taxes in the
大明 was widely used as the dynasty’s name, for example in form specified by the state), the value of the guan was
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inscriptions on ceramics. determined by the current rate of exchange.
Many of the features of Ming notes clearly derive from The vertical panels on either side of the denomination on
the paper money of earlier dynasties. They have a similar Ming notes each present four characters written in a stylised
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height to width ratio, and the essential elements (e.g. name, nine-fold seal script (jiudiezhuan 九叠篆 / jiudiewen 九叠文).
denomination, seal-script panels, information and date) are The panel on the right reads Da Ming baochao 大明寶鈔
all present, though occasionally arranged in different (‘Great Ming treasure certificate’); and the one on the left
positions. Even the string of coins presented as an image (of reads Tianxia tongxing 天下通行 (‘to circulate under heaven’).
1,000 coins arranged in ten groups of 100) at the centre of the While we can think of the ninefold seal script in the context
Ming notes has its origins in the design of Jin dynasty of official seals of the Ming dynasty, its use on paper money
(1115–1234) paper money. In the Zhenyou baoquan 貞祐寶券 clearly derives from the seal script panels on earlier Jin notes
note for 50 strings in the Shanxi Museum collection, the and the ’Phags-pa script panels on the Yuan notes.
denomination is given as 50 strings, and five bundles of ten On the Ming notes, the instructions for use, in the large
strings are depicted at the very top of the note (Pl. 19.3). box in the lower half of the note, read in columns from right
The name of the Ming notes follows that of the Zhiyuan to left. On the far right is the name of the issuing office. This
tongxing baochao 至元通行寶鈔 notes issued by the Yuan is important as it provides one of the few ways of dating
emperor Qubilai (r. 1260–94) in 1287 (Pl. 19.4), but replaces Ming notes. Between 1375 and 1380, Ming notes were issued
the reign period with the name of the Ming dynasty. The by the Secretariat (Zhongshusheng 中書省), and thereafter by
Zhiyuan tongxing baochao was Qubilai’s second note, its name the Ministry of Revenue (Hubu 戶部). Almost all of the notes
being a development of his first – the Zhongtong yuanbao surviving today were issued by the latter. A few notes issued
jiaochao issued in 1260. Zhiyuan refers to the reign period by the Secretariat have been excavated from tombs near
(1264–94); yuanbao (‘primordial treasure’) refers to silver Jiangyin, in Jiangsu province: two from a tomb in Luqiao,

172 | Ming China: Courts and Contacts 1400–1450