Zhan Xing, the Museum of Money and Securities of Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, believes that Chengdu
The Second Railway Survey and Design Institute (hereinafter referred to as China Railway Second Hospital) was the place where "Jiaozi" was made at that time. "China Railway Second Hospital" was actually a temple in the Northern Song Dynasty. Why do money-making factories choose temples?
The birthplace of jiaozi has been a mystery for 900 years.
According to experts' research, "Jiaozi" first appeared in the form of folk circulation, so it is also called "Private Jiaozi". Liu, a well-known expert in economic history and director of the Currency and Securities Museum of Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, said that in the early Northern Song Dynasty, Chengdu's commerce was very developed and the currency was tight, but the circulation of iron money was not smooth, so 16 local rich households began to privately print a coupon made of paper bark instead of coins, which was later called "Jiaozi". The local government initially wanted to ban this "new currency", but the role of this "new currency" in economic circulation was very obvious, so it decided to use official seal instead.
However, the birthplaces of these two "jiaozi" have never been discovered. Zhan Xing, a coin collector and participant in this excavation, said: "As a coin collector, every time I go out for academic exchanges, foreign colleagues and friends will ask me the birthplace of my friends when they hear that I am from Chengdu. Every time I can only prevaricate, sometimes it's embarrassing! " Fu Xianqing, another coin collector, also expressed the same feeling: "Some time ago, a scholar in a coastal city claimed that Jiaozi should not be born in Chengdu, but should be born locally, which made our coin experts in Chengdu particularly angry, but also very helpless, because they could not produce strong evidence to refute it!" Some local experts, scholars and research institutions also hope to solve the mystery of Jiaozi's birthplace as soon as possible, so they began an organized investigation and excavation.
According to historical research, "Jiaozi" was first printed in Chengdu Wanfo Temple.
In the past, researchers thought that Jiaozi Street in the East Gate of Chengdu should be the place where Jiaozi was officially printed. Because "Textual Research on Fangcheng Monument in Chengdu" has such an explanation for Jiaozi Street in the East Gate of Chengdu, "When the street is called Jiaozi, it is a matter of tasting Jiaozi in the Song Dynasty."
However, local coin collectors questioned this statement, because according to the words in Chengdu Finance, "Yizhou Jiaozipu was the earliest monetary and financial institution in Sichuan history in the Northern Song Dynasty, and Yizhou Jiaozipu was the earliest banknote issuer approved by the state." Obviously, there is no basis to say that the printing institutions are printing money. In other words, there is no direct evidence that Jiaozi Street is the birthplace of Jiaozi. Since it has been more than 900 years since Jiaozi was born, there is no specific textual research, so we can only look it up in the literature.
As early as three years ago, Zhan Xing of the Currency Museum began to look for the birthplace of "Jiaozi" from historical classics. He found a passage in the book Coins of the Yuan Dynasty from the library: "In the first year of Yuanfeng (A.D. 1078), the number of employees was increased 1 person; There are 10 people in charge of scriptures, 69 people in charge of pasting books, 8 people in charge of printing, 6 people in charge of carving, 2 people in charge of casting and 12 people in charge of handyman. The paper I used was set up by myself at first and handed over to the clerk for collection. After considering its shortcomings, it is decided by other officials. In the first year of Longxing (A.D. 1 163), a special official was sent to move to Jingzhong Temple in the west of the city. "
This shows that the official "Jiaozi" was printed in Jingzhong Temple in the west of the city, but more than 900 years have passed, and now there is no Jingzhong Temple in Chengdu. How to find it? Later, with the help of Ding Zuchun, a scholar in Nanchong City, Sichuan Province, Zhan Xing's verification went further. Originally, Jingzhong Temple was built in the Yan Xi period of the Eastern Han Dynasty. It was named Anpu Temple in the Six Dynasties, Jingzhong Temple in the Tang Dynasty, and renamed Silent Temple in the Song Dynasty. It was renamed Wanfo Temple at the end of Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of Ming Dynasty. After Zhang entered Sichuan in the late Ming Dynasty, he was destroyed by war. Rebuilt in the early years of Qing Emperor Kangxi, it is still called Wanfo Temple, and its address is in Jinhua, West Gate.
According to the map, "China Railway Second Hospital" is the site of "Wanfo Temple" in Qing Dynasty.
But now there is still no place like Wanfo Temple in Chengdu, and I don't know where it is. The search is temporarily in trouble. Confused, Jiang Yide, former director of Chengdu jinniu district Cultural Management Institute, learned that the Wanfo Temple was destroyed in the 1950s near the Wangfu River outside Ximen and the Jintong Bridge. Sichuan University Museum has collected some exquisite cultural relics, and the current "China Railway Second Hospital" is the former site of Wanfo Temple.
Later, Zhang Shanxi, a coin research expert, provided the "Chengdu City Defense Map" in the fifth year of Guangxu in Qing Dynasty. According to the current "Chengdu Map", today's "China Railway Second Hospital" is the former site of the "Wanfo Temple" in Qing Dynasty.
At the same time, another coin collector, Fu Xianqing, also grew up beside the Wanfo Temple. Fu Lao recalled: "My home is not far from the Golden Boy Bridge, just next to the Wanfo Temple. There are towering old trees around the temple, surrounded by a stream. A tall waterwheel was installed in the upper reaches of the stream. The waterwheel kept spinning, bringing the stream to the shore and flowing to the temple for use. Not far from the temple, there is also a water mill, which is specially used to roll paper raw materials. When I was a child, I often went to the land temple in front of the temple to play and chat with the old monk. During the Anti-Japanese War, Shude Middle School was evacuated here. 1947 was transformed into Chengdu Institute of Science and merged into Sichuan University after liberation. In the 1950s, China Railway Second Bureau and China Railway Second Hospital settled in Tongjinqiao and Majia Garden, and Wanfo Temple was occupied. "
According to written records, the official "Jiaozi" is the national legal tender.
In the process of textual research on the birthplace of Jiaozi, Lao Fu Man Xianqing drew a map of the original buildings around the Wanfo Temple based on his old memories, and compared it with the Wanfo Temple marked in the "Chengdu City Defense Map" provided by Zhang Shanxi in the fifth year of Guangxu, Qing Dynasty, and found that it was completely consistent with the location of the Wanfo Temple.
But later, due to urban construction and other reasons, the Wanfo Temple was demolished. Liu told reporters that in the 1950s, because of railway construction, the Wanfo Temple was occupied by a design institute of China Railway Second Bureau, and the temple was completely demolished. After half a century, it has now become a prosperous central city. No wonder it is difficult to find its trace on the map of Chengdu.
But what is certain is that the birthplace of "Guanjiaozi" is the location of Chengdu China Railway Second Hospital. At the same time, experts who participated in textual research also stressed that "personal friends" were born earlier than "official friends", but "official friends" are national legal tender and have the complete function of money. However, the earliest "personal friends" only have part of the functions of money and do not belong to credit money. In the opening title of Money Manual, the disadvantages of Personal Friends in circulation are stated. Although "personal friend" is the source of the world's paper money, it is impossible to verify it because of the lack of physical objects and documents to record its printing place. The written record printed by "Guanjiaozi" is very clear, and there is nothing wrong with calling it "the world's first paper money".
Background knowledge: There is a scientific basis for temples to make money.
Paper money is made of paper, but why choose a temple?
Chen Enyuan, a former professor of history at Sichuan University, believes that the most important thing to be a "jiaozi" is paper. Its production method is to soak the bark of Broussonetia papyrifera in lime water for many days to soften and bleach it, and then soak it in clear water and roll it into paper pulp. At the same time, papermaking needs a lot of water and sewage discharge, and the produced paper needs to be dried. So the paper workshop must be built in a spacious place with natural water. Wanfosi area just meets these conditions, with lush trees, surrounded by streams and convenient water intake and sewage disposal.