EVERYDAY LIFE · SHANG TO QING
Stories
Small questions open a window onto a different world.
No Slot in the Roster: How the Idle Men of Hangzhou Made a Living
Two Hangzhou guidebooks keep a chapter on 闲人, men with no trade who lived off the rich: lettered hangers-on, bird handlers, barbers who brokered deals, and men who sold a greeting.
One Hundred and Twenty Coins: Fame and Price in a Song City
A bowl of gourd soup cost 120 full coins beside the emperor's viewing stand and ten in an ordinary shop. What the gap measures, and how a fish-soup seller grew rich.
The Wedding Was Rented: Hiring a Banquet in Song China
A Song city household could stage a wedding without owning the chairs, the wine cups or the cooks. The rental lists show a service economy built on things returned the next day.
The Basin of Coins: Gambling for Goods in Song Kaifeng
In Northern Song Kaifeng, guanpu sold goods by gambling: three days at the New Year, a month at the imperial pond, coins tossed into a basin, and odds up to thirty to one.
The Register Came First: Earning a Living in Tang China
Tang statutes fixed what a load, a day and a year were worth, before the register decided who could do which work. What the state priced, and what it left out.