Money, as a heavy weapon of the country since ancient times, is not only related to economic development, but also to the rise and fall of dynasties, and has always been valued by dynasties. What are the different perspectives of studying the history of China through money? Looking at China through the square hole, what surprises will you find? What regret? The book China History in Currency: The Origin and Interpretation of Coins in Past Dynasties (AR High-dimensional Edition) (hereinafter referred to as "China History in Currency") combs the thread of China's currency development and the important nodes in China's currency development history, shows another style of history from the side, reveals the mystery of the rise and fall of dynasties, and provides a unique perspective for us to understand and study the history of China. Daguan Bao Tong is the annual money cast by Zhao Ji, Huizong of the Northern Song Dynasty, during Daguan years (A.D. 1 107 to1110), and Qian Wen is thin gold. The regret of numismatics in China entered the study room: Ancient numismatics is an ancient discipline. As early as in ancient Greece, ancient coins were collected and studied. So when did China begin to study ancient currency? Ren Shuangwei (author of History of Chinese Currency): In China, ancient currency was systematically studied and collected in the Southern and Northern Dynasties, and it was written and handed down to later generations. Today, we can still see the preservation of ancient money works before the Tang Dynasty in Hongzun's works of the Song Dynasty. The study of numerology in a truly modern sense began in the late Qing Dynasty. Why do you say that? First, because of the rise of textual research. In the past, most coin collectors generally collected and watched, and few people really studied it, let alone a science. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, because of the rise of textual research, people's understanding and mastery of coin characters entered a new realm, and gradually began to realize the research value of coins. Second, due to the spread of western learning to the east, western scientific concepts were slowly introduced into China. Leopold von Ranke, the father of modern objectivism historical school, advocated that historical research should be objective and fair, and attach importance to the importance of original materials. Under the influence of this historical concept, China's coin research has really become scientific, and it has also developed from the previous coin collection and coin research into a discipline-numerology. Shangshu: How did China's numerology develop after that? Ren Shuangwei: I personally think that numerology has had three peaks in China since the Ming and Qing Dynasties: the first time, from the Ganjia period to the end of the Qing Dynasty, the poor classics of Wu Pai and Huizhou School led to the study of famous things, and a group of numerologists such as Liang, Jiang Deliang and Weng Shupei appeared, who clarified the general evolution and classification of ancient coins; The second time was during the Republic of China. Under the dual influence of Pu Xue and western historiography, the May 4th historians, represented by Liang Qichao, put unearthed cultural relics in an extremely important position. Based on western historiography and social science theory, Yang Liansheng and Peng Xinwei made contributions to the scientization of numismatics, making numismatics stand in the academic forest. Fang Ruo, Ding and others also supplemented and developed the theory of coins in Qing Dynasty according to the methods of Qing Dynasty and westerners. For the third time, after the founding of New China, under the influence of the aftermath of the May 4th Historiography, the Coin Society, universities and folk collectors, based on the huge amount of coins unearthed, systematically detected, analyzed and judged China coins with the help of modern technical means, and gradually moved towards refinement and specialization. Kaiyuan Bao Tong: In the fourth year of Wude in Tang Gaozu, in order to rectify the chaotic monetary system, abolish Sui money, imitate the strict norms of the Western Han Dynasty, and create "Kaiyuan Bao Tong" to replace the remaining five baht in society. The original "Kaiyuan Bao Tong" was inscribed by calligrapher Ou Yangxun. Study room: The development of numerology in China is slow and fast, so it is difficult to make a simple evaluation. In your opinion, it is a pity that the current research on numismatics focuses on the formation of money spectrum and other fine paths, but fails to see the strong interest and large-scale consultation of social sciences such as history and economics in numismatics. Ren Shuangwei: That's true. Since ancient times, the currency circle has been a relatively closed circle. People in this circle mainly do two things, one is to collect ancient coins, and the other is to form a money spectrum by rubbing. What they mainly pursue is the market value and artistic value of coins. As far as numerology is concerned, as early as 1500 years ago in Nanliang, China appeared Gu Xuan's Champ, that is, an academic activity with historical objects as the collection and research object, much earlier than the western world. However, for a long time, the coin circle in China was limited to the collection and research of coins themselves, and did not develop into a real science. It was not until the late Qing Dynasty that the situation changed. Even now, there are some regrets: as we all know, numerology is a branch of archaeology, which I call "the vassal of history". It was not until recent years that numerology became a special discipline with a doctorate. But I personally think that numerology may lead to a state of "hiding in a small building and becoming unified", gradually separating from history and forgetting its origin. As for economics, coin collection is completely divorced from it. On the one hand, coin collectors and researchers generally lack the theoretical basis and analytical thinking of economics. On the other hand, most economists are in a state of heroes and dragons, and know nothing about the identification of ancient coins. Unfortunately, numerology is divorced from social disciplines such as history and economy. "The ideological value of money is the most important": In your opinion, the value of numerology has not been fully recognized and recognized by the public. So what is the value of coin research? Ren Shuangwei: The value of money is first reflected in the sense of history and economics. It provides historical data and evidence for the study of history and economics, and is their auxiliary tool. In my opinion, the most important value of money should be ideological value. Money has influenced our thinking for a long time, and then influenced history and the whole human society. For example, Thomas Aquinas said, "Charity is the mother of all virtues, and all virtues are bred by charity. In the past, charity needed to be expressed by providing specific items and behaviors such as food and clothes, but the appearance of money made charity convenient. On the other hand, money is incompatible with fraternity, which makes people more inclined to wealth and interests and makes human beings more greedy. For another example, shell is a world currency. Until the beginning of the 20th century, there were still countries and regions using shell coins. Why? Because shells are closely related to reproductive worship in matriarchal society. The same principle also exists in China's round square hole money. The form of round square hole money is closely related to China's traditional concept of "the sky is round and the place is round". Ant nose money is a kind of copper shell used by Chu State in China during the Warring States Period. This is a kind of coin. It has characters on its surface and is shaped like a shell. There are obvious differences between the bronzes of Chu State and those of Shang and Zhou Dynasties without words. The bronze shell of Chu has many nicknames, such as face money and ant nose money. Shangshuzi: Aside from the macro-level significance, it must be a lot of fun to observe the history, economy and society at that time through Qian Yaner. Ren Shuangwei: There is a story behind every coin, reflecting an era. Through ancient coins, through history, find value. This is the fun of monetary research. Take Song Qian as an example, it is one of the most common ancient coins in the market. People who collect and own it may not know that there are many little-known stories behind the fragments of Song Qian: generally speaking, the older the antiquities, the rarer they are, but they are not in the ancient money circle. The collection value and market value of the older Song coins are not as good as that of Qing coins, because there are too many Song coins on the market. The Song Dynasty was nicknamed "Fu Song". During the Yuanfeng period in Song Shenzong, the amount of coins minted each year was as high as 5 million pieces, exceeding the sum of the whole Ming Dynasty. It was in such a "rich Song Dynasty" that there was a money shortage. Why? First, the government imposed heavy taxes, second, the trend of private possession, third, the people destroyed the coin casting machine, and fourth, the outflow of copper coins. Exquisite Song money was widely circulated in Jin, Liao, Japan, Korea, Java and other places ... Just when the Song Dynasty was short of money, it created an "able man"-Qin Gui to alleviate the money shortage. Yes, it was the treacherous court official Qin Gui who killed Yue Fei. With great fanfare, he asked the officers to grab a pair of tweezers (hairdressers) and comb (cut their hair) themselves. Finally, Qin Gui gave tweezers five thousand dollars as two dollars, and told him to spend it quickly, saying that it was a secret message from the palace that the money would be wasted in a few days. When Mr. tweezers heard about it, he quickly bought a large number of items, which alarmed everyone. People who usually hide money and refuse to spend it have also joined the ranks of snapping up. "The capital is open to money" has alleviated the "money shortage". This history is also interesting to study until now. Open a door for more people: In the book History of Chinese Currency, you use more than 500 photos of coins and 14 charts to systematically and intuitively show the origin and historical evolution of currency from pre-Qin to late Qing Dynasty. In the process of writing, how did you choose these important nodes in the history of China's ancient currency development? Ren Shuangwei: Looking back at the history of currency development, I think there are four major changes: from bartering to having a universal equivalent-Beibi, which marks the birth of currency, which is the first historic change; Later, people found that metals such as copper were more stable and easier to carry than shells, so there was a change from natural currency to casting currency, which was the second important change; The third important change in the history of currency is that the well-known round hole currency has become a common currency. After Qin Shihuang unified the six countries, he also unified the currency, that is, the round square hole money that embodies China's traditional world view of "the sky is round and the earth is round"; Round square-hole coins were used for thousands of years, until the emergence of silver coins, copper coins and modern paper money in the late Qing Dynasty, which not only changed the material of the currency, but also changed the casting process. This was the fourth great change in the history of ancient currency in China. In the book "History of Chinese Currency", I only selected 12 representative currency introductions, because they covered almost all the casting techniques and conversion nodes of ancient currency in China. Taking the first four chapters of the book as an example, Sanjin and Cloth, Chu Coin Won the Championship, Knife Makes Qi Yan, and Ten Thousand Yuan Ancestor not only show the political history of Qin kings who broke the boundaries of seven countries, merged China into one, and fought it out with Xiongnu, Baiyue and other nationalities, but also paid half a penny in Bei coins, cloth coins, knife coins, etc., and finally returned to Qin in the world, and half a penny crossed the country. Taihe Chongbao is superior in copper, vigorous in posture and exquisite in production. Write "Taihe Chongbao" on the face as a jade rib seal, and read it directly. This is written by a great writer of literature and calligraphy. The font is pure and elegant, beautiful and generous. Upper study room: The History of Currency China is one of the few bestsellers in numerology books in recent years. What is the purpose of writing such a book? Ren Shuangwei: Apart from my love for the selfishness of ancient coins, there are two ways to write this book. One is to illustrate the almost lost historical tradition of numerology, that is, coins serve history, the nation and the country. Second, I hope more and more people are interested in coins. The republished History of China in Currency: Origin and Illustration of Coins in Past Dynasties (AR High-dimensional Edition) combines traditional publishing with AR technology. As long as readers turn on their mobile phones, open any page in the book and aim at the photos of ancient coins, they can instantly present a more realistic and emotional 360-degree AR image of ancient coins than photos. This is a popular book, and its historical narrative is not adhering to tradition, but biased towards culturalism. I am well aware of its shortcomings and immaturity, and I have never dared to take it as an academic. Just a door. You open it, see it, appreciate it, and then start farming. Shangshu: Maybe you want to break down the barrier not only between the public and numerology, but also between coin collectors and researchers? Ren Shuangwei: You can say that. " "Quanyou" is a mutual name for collectors of ancient coins, and people who buy and sell ancient coins are called "Quanshang". According to Zhou Li, the coin storage institution is a "spring house". In the Han Dynasty, Wang Mang, who worshiped Confucianism, changed the currency system four times, and once issued Junichiro Koizumi, which replaced the original currency, and Daquan50, which could be exchanged for 50 Junichiro Koizumi. Therefore, "spring" has become synonymous with coins, which sounds quite elegant and lacks the taste of copper coins. In fact, due to the low price and huge quantity of ordinary ancient coins, the collection of ancient coins has always been a low-threshold collection category, resulting in many friends. The collection circle of ancient coins is a relatively closed circle. Different collection fields of Spring Friends are different, and they are divided very finely: some specialize in collecting coins, some specialize in collecting pre-Qin coins, some specialize in collecting coins issued when an emperor was in office, and some only collect a certain currency, such as five baht and a half ... Different from collectors in other collection fields, in the coin collection circle, there is a state of "well water does not interfere with river water" among friends with different collections. They may know a lot about the number of coins they collect, the market price, the geometry of artistic value and so on, but they don't know much about their inheritance and historical value, but they don't know why. To really develop numerology, it is necessary to break down the barriers among friends, collectors and researchers, so that more and more people can truly become experts in numerology research. Study room: Your book "History of Chinese Currency" not only won many honors such as "20 18 China Good Book", but also was strongly recommended by numismatics and collectors such as Dai Zhiqiang, Du Weishan and Ma Weidou. However, to the surprise of many readers, as a senior friend, you are a 27-year-old "post-90 s". What have you learned about coin collection and research? Ren Shuangwei: The collection concept of "doing what you can", the values of "I am not for things" and the outlook on life of "Lotte know life" are my three views on collection. The collection concept, values and outlook on life here is a process, which is accompanied by the beginning and evolution of the collection career. They complement each other with the collection. Together, they will be beautiful, but apart, they will hurt. The History of China in Currency: Origin and Illustration of Coins in Past Dynasties (AR High-dimensional Edition) Ren Shuangwei World Book Publishing Co., Ltd. Editor-in-Chief: Gu Title Source: Text Picture Provided by Respondents Title Picture Provided by Respondents: Spending Money on the Back. Qin Long Bao Tongzhong 1.3 USD, with gold and wax on the back. Zhu Zaihou, emperor of Mu Zong in Ming Dynasty, started casting in Qin Long in the fourth year (1570). All of them are small flat coins, with real books on the front, correct handwriting, exquisite casting and no words on the back.