Dynasties
Explore life in Han & Xin
Daily Life
Food, homes & daily routines
Money & Society
Work, trade & social life
Cities & Technology
Markets, travel & inventions
AI illustration · interpretive reconstruction
Stories
Browse all stories →
Han & Xin · Money & Society
A Clamp on the Left Foot: Why the Han State Took Salt and Iron
Han salt and iron made merchants as rich as kings; under Emperor Wu the state appointed the magnates as officials, issued the boiling pans, and clamped the left foot of anyone who boiled salt privately.
Han & Xin · Daily Life
Three Shi, Three Dou, Three Sheng: A Ration Register from the Han Frontier
One 4.66-gram wooden slip from a Han frontier post records fifteen men, their grain ration of three shi three dou three sheng, and the month each collected it himself.
Han & Xin · Money & Society
A Deer Hide Worth 400,000 Coins: Han China's Money Experiments
A foot-square of white deer hide priced at 400,000 coins and required at court; silver pieces valued at 3,000, 500 and 300 by their designs; a red-edged coin passing for five. All of it failed.