EVERYDAY LIFE · SHANG TO QING
Stories
Small questions open a window onto a different world.
Seven Pieces of Silk, Forty-Nine Grams: Cutting a Han Robe
Two gauze robes from Mawangdui weigh 49 and 48 grams; one is cut from seven pieces of cloth. Their weave can be measured, and the Han cap-and-ribbon regulations show how cloth was counted into rank. No price, no hours.
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.
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.
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.