Page 341 - The Golden Age of Chinese Archaeology: Celebrated Discoveries from the People’s Republic of China

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Bronze Ejun Qi jie tally may have been either at present-day Wuhan — at
the confluence of the Yangzi and the Han Rivers —
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Height 31 (12 V*), width 7.3 (2 A)
or further to the north, near Dengxian in south-
Middle Warring States Period,
western Henan province. The tallies recorded the
late fourth century BCE
royal privilege for official trading activities adminis-
From Qiujiahuayuan, Shouxian, Anhui Province
tered by Ejun Qi. Their royal origin and the high
The National Museum of Chinese History, Beijing status of the beneficiary no doubt account for their
luxurious execution. Whether the merchants were
1
This bronze tally (jinjie) exempted merchants from themselves government officials or private individu-
road tolls or excise along certain explicitly defined als who conducted their business under some
trading routes within the Chu kingdom. Issued at arrangement with Ejun Qi's administration is un-
the royal capital and renewed annually they were clear; in any case, the tally inscriptions explicitly
to be shown to local representatives of the Chu state that the merchants were not to be lodged and
government. Similar documents made for persons fed at government expense — presumably in con-
of lower rank than the beneficiary of this tally trast to traveling administrators.
2
were probably engraved on bamboo, and the The reconstruction of the routes described in
vaulted shape of the bronze tablets, with a "node" the inscriptions (see fig. 3) is tentative because all
in the center mimics that of bamboo tablets. Their places mentioned have not been securely iden-
cast inscriptions, inlaid in gold, are to be read in tified. Some place names are still in use today
eight vertical lines starting in the upper right, (as are most of the river names), but they may
ignoring the "node." Their lengths differ according not designate the same locations as they did in
to that of the inscribed text, but all the tallies are antiquity. What does seem clear is that the trade
equal in width. They were almost certainly manu- routes for both boats and wagons led Ejun Qi's
factured in sets of five; when joined together, the merchants to the outermost reaches of the Chu
five tallies would have formed a complete cylinder state. Conducted under government auspices,
(fig. i). these expeditions may well have had the character
The tallies found at Qiujiahuayuan comprise two of inspection tours. Moreover, the fact that both
"boat tallies" and two "wagon tallies," which proba- boat and wagon expeditions were to end at the Chu
bly came from two distinct sets (see fig. 2). Their capital of Ying, near present-day Jiangling (Hubei
inscriptions refer, respectively, to trading expedi- province), suggests that one purpose of these far-
tions along water and land routes. The texts refer to flung commercial operations may have been to
boats and wagons in groups of fifty (with the under- supply the royal court.
standing that clearly specified equivalents could The boats of Ejun Qi's merchants traveled all
substitute for one standard-size "boat" or "wagon"), over the Middle Yangzi basin. A northwesterly route
and each tally in a set of five may have covered ten took them up the Han River, across central Hubei
boats or wagons moving together; groups often may into southern Shaanxi. An easterly route then led
have been more manageable than flotillas of fifty them down the Yangzi, past Lake Poyang into
boats or convoys of fifty wagons. The goods that Jiangxi and to southern Anhui. A southern route
were transported are not specified, though they went up the Xiang River deep into the interior of
seem to have included livestock, at least on the boat Hunan, an area into which Chu had only recently
expeditions. begun to penetrate; the inscription mentions five
The person to whom these tallies were issued, rivers without giving names of settlements, proba-
Ejun Qi ("Qi, Lord of E"), was not himself a mer- bly indicating that no Chu administrative centers
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chant but a high-ranking Chu administrator. The had yet been set up here. Finally, the boats pro-
location of E, his place of residence, is uncertain; it ceeded up the Yangzi to the Chu capital.

34O | CHU AND OTHE R C U L T U R E S