Sichuan Foundry "Three Big Money" in Southern Song Dynasty

In the history of our country, the Song Dynasty was a dynasty with a very prosperous economy. Sichuan in the west and Jiangsu and Zhejiang in the southeast were two shining pearls embedded in the economic development history of the Song Dynasty. After the Song Dynasty moved south, Sichuan's economy was still developing steadily. Later, in the Yuan Dynasty, because Sichuan could not capture Mengshan City for a long time and it was difficult to pacify Sichuan, the Yuan Army had to change its initial strategy of "taking Shu to destroy Song". From the seventh year of Xianchun (127 1), it moved to Jingxiang area and crossed the river from Hanshui to destroy the Southern Song Dynasty. Sichuan is far away from the war in the Central Plains, with steady economic development and relatively stable society. During the Song Dynasty, Sichuan was always an iron money area, but the big copper coins cast in Sichuan were very famous during the Spring Festival. Jiading Yuanbao 10 yuan, Bao Tong of Dasong, Bao Tong of Chunyou 100 yuan successively. These three kinds of bills are elegant in Qian Wen's calligraphy, and the shape of money is magnificent, which is the best in the Song Dynasty. After the failure of the Northern Expedition led by Han Yazhou, the prime minister of Ningzong Dynasty in the Southern Song Dynasty, the main peace faction gained power, and the Southern Song Dynasty reached a humiliating peace talks with Jin, which was called "Jiading Peace Talks" in history. After that, Ningzong was content with temporary stability and lazy in politics. Shi is the prime minister and has long been good at politics. His officialdom is corrupt and extravagant, and his politics is even darker. At the same time, the Mongol khanate in Mobei rose, and Genghis Khan invaded the south on a large scale and plundered Xu Jinguo. With the advance of Mongolian army, Jin had to move his capital from Zhongdu (now Beijing) to Bianjing (now Kaifeng). After moving to the south, due to the shrinking territory, insufficient national use and financial distress, Jin adopted the method of expanding from north to south and began to invade the Southern Song Dynasty. In the tenth year of Jiading (A.D. 12 17), Jin attacked and was countered by Song Jun. At the beginning of the war, Ningzong was puzzled by the battle for peace and war, and looked back and forth, afraid of repeating the same mistakes, and did not dare to declare war on Jin. Later, when I saw Enemy at the Gates in the border area, I won many battles, and various anti-Jin rebels surged in succession, so I ordered the cutting of gold and started the Song-Jin War that lasted for six years. Since the Jubilee and Jiading, the financial crisis caused by huge military expenditure and reparations has become increasingly serious, and the court gradually abandoned the prudent monetary policy. In addition to issuing a large number of coins, it also extensively minted copper coins and iron coins to meet the needs of the market. Its currency system includes Xiaoping, Discount 2, Discount 3, Discount 5, Discount10; Qian Wen has Bao Tong, Yuanbao and Chongbao, especially the "Jiading Gem" cast by Lu Chuan, and there are more than a dozen names in Bowen. Jiading Yuanbao clinched a deal 3 1.200 yuan. Among all kinds of Jiading Yuanbao coins, one kind of money is very unique, that is, "10% off the back of Jiading Yuanbao", with a diameter of about 5.3 cm and a weight of more than 40 grams. This money is handsome and beautiful, and it is perfectly cast. It can be called one of the representatives of beautiful books in the Southern Song Dynasty. In the seventeenth year of Jiading (1224), Bao Tong in the Song Dynasty received a lot of money, and Zhao Kuang died. Stone and Queen Yang falsely passed on Ningzong's suicide note, deposed Prince Ji as King Ji, made Zhao Guicheng the new emperor, and changed Zhao Yunwei to Yuan Dynasty. In the first decade of his succession, Zhao Yun was held hostage by the powerful minister Shi. He didn't ask about government affairs at all, but praised Neo-Confucianism and indulged in debauchery until he died six years later (1233). At the beginning of the pro-government, he was determined to rejuvenate the country, and took reform measures such as ousting the historical party, remonstrating Taiwan Province, cleaning up the bureaucracy and rectifying the finances, which was called "starting from the ground" in history. In the first year of Duanping (1234), troops joined forces to destroy gold. In May, 2007, when Bao Tong received a large amount of money in the Song Dynasty, it was cast after July of the first year of Baoqing when Li Zong ascended the throne in the Southern Song Dynasty (1225). At that time, it was "Yuan Bao of the Great Song Dynasty", and "Tongbao of the Great Song Dynasty" only had small iron coins. Copper men only see one kind of "back" when they pick up "big money" Very little finishing. When you pick up a big bill, its diameter is one inch and six minutes (5.2 cm) and it weighs 30 to 35 grams. Qian Wen is characterized by his straight handwriting and beautiful handwriting. According to the shape of Qian Wen, it can be divided into two types: thin-book small characters and thick-stroke big characters, of which thin-book is the best. When I received a lot of money for casting in Sichuan, it was the same as Jiading. There's no way to know how much you voted. It has become a rare coin treasure in the world, with only more than ten pieces. Yu Jie (1199 65438+1October 6-1253), whose real name was Yi Fu, was a famous soldier in the Southern Song Dynasty. In the first year of Chunyou (124 1), Song Lizong was appointed as Sichuan appeasement ambassador, Sichuan general manager and Kuizhou road transport ambassador. During the Shu period, in order to fight against the Mongolian army, a mountain city defense system was built. From the third year of Chunyou (1243) to the fourth year of Chunyou (1244), Yu Jie fought with the Mongolian army for 36 times, with remarkable results. Later, he led the army to attack Xingyuan House in the north, and also repelled the Mongolian army that disturbed Chengdu and Jiading. Yu Jie was entrusted with an important task at the time of crisis in the Southern Song Dynasty, devoted himself to the management of Bashu, and made outstanding contributions to supporting half of the Southern Song Dynasty. In the first year of Baoyu (1253), Song Lizong listened to rumors and called Yujie back to Korea. Yu Jie was disturbed by the news and died suddenly in Sichuan. Li Zong regarded his five senses as a special gift for withdrawing from the dynasty. When Yu Jie first entered Sichuan, he encountered a serious shortage of funds, that is, lack of money. At the same time, in the process of promoting a series of anti-yuan strategies such as "based on mountains, setting up dangers to defend Shu" and "stationing troops to move to cities", a large amount of military expenditure is needed. At that time, there were few copper coins with real purchasing power in the hands of the Southern Song government, and the financial deficit problem became more and more serious. So, hoping for the helplessness of the Southern Song Dynasty court, Yu Jie faced the contradiction between the extremely tight financial situation and the expenditure of Pang Xiong's teacher fees to resist the Yuan Dynasty, so he opened the furnace to cast Chunyou Bao Tong copper coins. However, it was not long before the sample coins of Bao Tong for a spring outing were cast, including two yuan, San Qian and ten yuan (ten yuan is equivalent to the value of ten pennies, and so on), or because of the need of war, they broke down immediately, and all the coins were cast into "hundred yuan". A spring outing in Bao Tong is equivalent to the above 100 spring outing in Bao Tong. It can be seen that a spring outing to Bao Tong is a typical virtual currency. Bao Tong, a spring friend, clinched a deal for 8400 yuan, which lasted for 100 days. Bao Tong Qian Wen's calligraphy is dignified and generous. There are two kinds of calligraphy, the big one is about 52 mm in diameter, which should be cast at the beginning, and the small one is about 36 mm, which is used for weight loss in the later stage. Objectively speaking, Yu Jie's spring trip to Bao Tong in Sichuan was worth a lot of money, and the inflation it brought at that time simply aggravated the disaster of the cause of benefiting the old and the people. However, on the other hand, it actually increased the sources of military expenditure for military construction and the construction of a large number of mountain fortress defense systems such as Hechuan Fishing City and Fushun Hutou City, which can be said to be a vigorous anti-yuan measure under the special political, economic and military environment at that time. Author: Luoyang scholar Tang special contributor