Historically, money has been cast from generation to generation.
First of all, talk about the types of money.
Literally, there are only two kinds of money in a thousand years, Qidan and Han. The Khitan is a thousand years' money, with the style of Gu Zhuo and the charm of official seal. The word "Wan" is mostly simplified and the word "Sui" is vulgar. Han is a thousand years' money, that is, official documents alternate. tang style has a strong Han money, because it is so different from the recognized Liao money, Qidan and Qian Wen. These objects prove that this kind of China coins with alternate official script is not only in style, but also in style and charm.
Judging from the styles, styles and shapes of all kinds of coins in China, no other coins with the characteristics of Yan and Chu money have been found, which can prove that they were cast by Liu Rengong or Chu Mayin in Youzhou. The reason why money can appear in areas thousands of miles away can only show that the Liao Dynasty had close ties with these areas. These long-lived money are either tribute money, employment money or "transaction" money.
Long live coins are classified by shape, from ultra-small to ultra-large; From Xiaoping, Fold 2, Fold 3, Fold 5, Fold 10 to Dangbai, Current and Dangwan. It fully shows the characteristics of coinage in the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms and the Song and Liao Dynasties.
From the production point of view, there are money with bare back, money with tattooed back, money with folded back, and money in money. Obviously, the idea of minting coins in Liao Dynasty was relatively liberated, and the design of Liao coins was novel and ingenious.
From the modeling point of view, the Millennium money has both square hole and round money, as well as various shapes of money. It shows that Liao rulers not only paid attention to the monetary function of coins, but also paid more attention to their political propaganda and enlightenment functions. It was the Khitans who first combined politics and money in all directions to serve the most important political task of consolidating political power.
From the perspective of use, the largest amount of money in the world is folk money (also known as "money aversion"). This is a special measure taken by the Liao Dynasty under special circumstances, and it is an extraordinary measure to consolidate the throne of Yeleshi and his descendants. The second largest amount is real money. The money used in the bank is bare-backed, with a small amount of moon stripes, mainly Xiaoping, and the bigger money is folded by a little more than two yuan. Once again, the amount of employment and payment. Many long-lived money discovered by Yan, Chu, Nantang, wuyue, Nanhan and Five Dynasties in the Central Plains should have been paid by the Khitan messengers. It shows that the rulers of Liao Dynasty attached great importance to diplomatic activities, and spread the cultural and political image of Liao Dynasty to various places conveniently through the important tool of diplomatic activities, so as to improve the "international" status of Liao Dynasty. A few are court coins engraved with various back patterns, such as the sun, the moon, bats, dragons, phoenixes and figures. , the performance of life in the imperial palace in the Liao Dynasty, such as giving money to the empress dowager and giving money; Festival celebration money; Money for marriage, childbirth and child care; Daily use of hanging money, lamp money and so on. The customs, religious beliefs, customs and habits of the Qidan nationality are vividly displayed. The least amount is the money used by the money casting institution (which can refer to official money). Such as: carved Niang, model Niang, iron Niang, sample money, basically very few, very few, very few. Others, such as turning on the furnace, are rare in town.
Long live money. The first is to talk about why this money is called "Long live the Millennium" as Qian Wen. At this point, Yiquan and Mr. Jia Kejia have explained the superficial phenomenon, but failed to further elaborate the psychology of Emperor Baoji hidden behind the coins. In 907, Baoji took the throne from the Yao Emperor family. In front of him are the fetters of the old system, the peep of hostile forces on the throne, and the difficult problem of how to spread the throne he just sat on in the hands of himself and his descendants forever, so as to make China permanent. He knows that he can only achieve his goal by doing two things well. On the one hand, do our best to make material and military preparations to destroy hostile forces. On the other hand, he tried his best to create political public opinion, so that all subjects in the world knew that "the imperial power was granted by God" and that "the emperor was the son of God". The emperor is not only a secular ruler, but also the leader and soul of various religions. His power comes from the Heaven Emperor, and any idea of seizing power from the Heaven Emperor is against God's will and will be condemned by the Heaven Emperor. Smart and wise Bao Ji immediately thought of coins, the symbol of all previous dynasties. Because coins should be circulated everywhere and spread all over the world, all walks of life worship them equally. If the political information of consolidating political power is cast on coins, subjects from all walks of life in China can understand it and get spiritual training, thus revealing the legitimacy of the emperor's policies with the help of coins. How to give Liao money, the symbol of China, is engraved with the inscription that best embodies the legitimacy of Bao Ji and his descendants' rule. Bao Ji and his advisers should have worked hard. Long live the Millennium was chosen because it was the most respected language of the Tang Dynasty by the Khitans. The eulogy of "Long live two reasons" can best express Bao Ji's psychology. The original meaning of "Long live the Millennium" refers to the longevity of things, so it is very useful as a birthday greeting and a taboo word for death. The inscription on the Chinese currency, Long live the Millennium, not only can express the longevity of the sacred object itself, but also because it is a symbol of China, and it will be circulated for thousands of years, proclaiming the endless life of China. The profound political connotation of the inscription "Long live the Millennium" most thoroughly expresses Bao Ji's psychology and lofty aspirations. Based on this, the rulers of Liao Dynasty learned from the experience and lessons of Bao Tong in Kaiyuan of Tang Dynasty and made two shocking decisions. First, this money will always be China's money and will continue to be cast forever; Second, the Nianhao money in Liao Dynasty was only used as a symbol of emperors in previous dynasties, and was dedicated to activities such as hiring, enjoying and appreciating. The function of money is mainly to give money to future generations. These two decisions are the fundamental reasons for the largest number and variety of currencies in Liao Dynasty.
There are three evidences to prove that the Millennium money was cast in the Liao Dynasty:
1. Long live the Millennium The change of Qian Qian's own style shows that it was not cast in one generation. For example, before and after the promulgation of the Khitan script, the style of the Khitan script was completely different. In fact, the early Qidan characters should be called vulgar characters in Liaoning. It's basically Chinese characters, but it's variation, reduced strokes and vulgarity. Five years later, except for a few directly borrowed Chinese characters, any Qidan characters are completely different from Chinese characters. Facts have proved that the lower limit of early Khitan language use is five years in the Book of God, and the upper limit should be before or after the birth of the distant khanate. However, the only foundry of the early Khitan currency can only be the security machine that Emperor Tiandi ascended the throne in 907. Because only he has the need and ability to make this political coin. The emperors of Liao Dynasty who used the Khitan script in the later period also standardized the Khitan script on coins, which made the form of the Khitan script with a thousand years' worth become three typical characteristics: random (so-called random, which can be reduced and changed at will), regular (so-called regular refers to writing in strict accordance with the promulgated Khitan script) and standard (standard refers to reducing the illegible Khitan script into Chinese characters for people to identify). The period from the first year of Liao Taizu (907) to the fifth year of Shenshu (920) should be random. The period from the fifth year of Shenshu (926) to the first year of Liaobaoning (969) should be a regular period. From the first year of Jing Zong Baoning to the fifth year of Tianzuo Dibao, the standard period is. This inference can be proved by comparing the long-lived money of Qidan. China's money also had such a development process, from the late Tang Dynasty, it gradually formed a rough and bold calligraphy style, with a unique grassland national writing style.
The second is a kind of money with a clear date, which proves that after Taizong, Taizong also made money for 1000 years. This kind of money is an unprecedented kind of money, that is, a big money center in Qidanwen is embedded with a small flat money of a fairy Bao Tong. This money should be a commemorative coin to celebrate Emperor Taizong's accession to the throne, and the casting time should be two years. At this time, the four Khitan characters are obviously different from the application five years ago. They are not vulgar characters in Chinese, but genuine Khitan characters.
Third, Li Xiaomei, a numismatist in the Northern Song Dynasty (Song Shaosheng is a local), said in Shou Chang for four years (1098) that "it is easy to get an ear when you are old." . ② It has been 19 1 year since the first year of Emperor Taizong of Liao Dynasty, and 17 1 year since Emperor Taizong of Liao Dynasty ascended the throne in 927. At this time, it is relatively easy to get money for a long time through Boyi, which shows that it is really a huge sum of money.
In the category of money, it has been explained that the family does have commemorative coins for the birthdays of emperors and queens, and that there is not only one emperor in Shengzong, but all the commemorative coins for the birthdays of emperors in Liao Dynasty may be among them. Two points need to be pointed out here: First, the birthday commemorative coins are made in our own country, while the tribute coins are made in foreign countries, so they cannot be equated. Second, in the Liao Dynasty, no one except the state, including the king, had the right to get their hands on coins. Coins in the Liao Dynasty, including tourism money, palace money, celebration money, employment money, and even folk money (except temple money, which is privileged in the Liao Dynasty), are all monopolized by the state.
Long live Qian Qiu's lines and images are rich in content and varied in forms. At present, we can probably see the following: ① Most of the back words are greetings such as Yong 'an, Fude Longevity, Guo Ping and Peace in the World. Most of these money are medium and large coins, which are used as diplomatic envoys to serve and enjoy in the Central Plains and southern countries. Long live the motherland Yong 'an, which was specially forged for the later Jin Dynasty. Liao and Jin are known as father and son countries, and the two countries are really one. Peace with the country and homeland forever should be the common wish of the father and son of the two countries and the emperor. Long live a thousand years. The birthday gift money was brought out in the fifth year of the book of gods (92 1) when Po sent an envoy to Chu to ask about the timing. It was Chumayin's seventieth birthday, so he used Fushou to express his congratulations. At the same time, I also brought two special tribute coins: the long-lived large-scale dry-sealed spring treasure, the dry ingot of Yi Long Yifeng, and the heavy gold-plated money with bare back. Long live an, Tairen (Min) an, Tianxia Taiping and other money were hired to ask the envoys about the amount of money they carried with them, and a lot of money was paid in Nantang, wuyue, Wu, Jing, Fujian, Nanhan, Beihan and other parts of the country, indicating that Liao envoys traveled all over China. (2) Recite the image class of characters. There are only two kinds of round coins found. One is a high-relief full-length portrait of a man (left) and a woman (right). The male image should be the machine of Emperor Po, and the female image should be Jie Luping, the queen of the earth. The political significance of this kind of money is self-evident as a commemorative coin when the emperor ascended the throne. This is the first time that China has cast the images of the emperor and queen on a round coin with a square hole. The images of the emperor and queen appear on coins, which shows the legitimacy of the succession to the throne and most widely announces the authority of the queen to the public. Although the carving on the money is the true face of the Taizu couple, we can't tell. However, according to the concept of shamanism, the statue reflects the "holy body" of the queen, not the secular body. The other is to play for five men and two women and ask for money for the birth of their children. This kind of money is as rare as the dragon and phoenix used in the wedding in the palace. In addition, there are two kinds of such figures in the Millennium. Image and meaning are different. (3) carrying a single dragon. Long live Chinese. Small flat money first appeared, and later appeared on 30%, 50%, 10% and qidan money. The image is a dragon playing with pearls. The dragon in the image is Donghu Dragon, the shamanism god, the sun god who dominates the sky and water. The image of "Mouddour" is the only god who can communicate land, sea and heaven. This single dragon tattoo is to declare that Baoji is a real dragon emperor, a wise and brave sun god and a shaman wizard. In such an era of "ups and downs come and go in me" (Abao machine language), under the rule of the Great Immortal Emperor, the Khitan naturally had a "thousand years of long life". 4 carrying dragons and phoenixes. The meaning is clear, it is the image of the emperor. But the Khitan people's understanding of dragons and phoenixes also has the meaning of yin and yang intercourse. Therefore, the dragon and phoenix tattooed on the back is a symbol of reproductive worship and a special celebration money for getting married and having children. (5) the back, the sun and the moon. This kind of money is more complicated, and there are three forms: one is monthly and the other is monthly. Quan Yi and Mr Jia Kejia think that "the moon is the image of the sun and a symbol of women". It is said that the map on the back of the moon "is a special gift to several autocratic queens in Liao Dynasty." These are all correct. However, it is not simple to analyze the symbolic meaning of the moon pattern. The root of not shaking may lie in not understanding the beliefs of the Khitans. The Khitans believe in Shamanism, a primitive religion, and worship the sun, the moon and the earth. The sun and the moon are the "immortals" in Shamanism (Meng and Tengger) and the supreme gods. The Khitan people are very devout in their worship of heaven, earth, sun and moon. They live in the east, looking forward to the sun and worshiping, and even the mausoleum will rise in the direction. Sacrifice to Yue Bai everywhere. The emperor of Liao Dynasty was called the Emperor of Heaven, and the empress was called the Empress of Earth, which shows the supreme position of heaven, earth, sun and moon in the eyes of Qidan people. The Khitan people's worship of the sun and the moon can be seen in many cultural relics unearthed in Liao Dynasty. For example, Aohan woodcut "Eagle Army Map" holds high a flag with a pattern of the sun and the moon, and the mural of Liao tomb in the People's Liberation Army camp in Wengniute Banner also depicts a flag embroidered with a crescent moon.