EVERYDAY LIFE · SHANG TO QING
Money & Society
Work, trade & social life
Seven Fen Five Li for Fifteen Brooms: A County Ledger from Wanli Beijing
A Wanping magistrate recorded what one county bought for its altars, tombs and processions, down to the fen and li — and the levies that paid for it. Procurement prices, not retail; a register, not a population.
Five Dou of Rent, Fourteen Years: A Land Case from Southern Song
Two deeds for one field, a rent of five dou a year, and fourteen years in court. A Southern Song judgment lays out the deeds and then turns its anger on a county school that accepted land already sold.
One Coin, One Bolt of Cloth, One Money Jar: How Qin Law Policed a Market
A single Qin statute on market payments survives: the clerk must drop the coins into a money jar while the payer watches, or be fined a suit of armour. Around it, the cloth standard, the exchange rate and the price tags.
A Contract Split in Three: Land and Tax in the Wu Slips
In 1996 a well in Changsha yielded over 100,000 Three Kingdoms Wu slips; about 2,200 of them are land-tax contracts, each cut into three matching pieces for the office, the supervisor and the farmer.
A Brick at the Granary Door: How Sui and Tang China Stored Grain
A 33-centimetre brick records rice from Suzhou, 13,000 shi, the year of collection under Empress Wu, the day it entered a Luoyang granary pit — and the signatures of eight officials.
Six Mu and Nine Islands: Raising Carp in Northern Wei
A Northern Wei farming manual copies an old fish-pond recipe: six mu of water with nine islands, twenty carp in February, turtles to keep the fish, and a promise of a million and a quarter cash.
Kumiss's Slave and the Coin-in-the-Box Teahouse: Tea in Tang Cities
In Northern Wei Luoyang tea was mockingly called 'kumiss's slave'; two centuries later a Tang writer records city shops boiling tea and selling it to anyone who dropped in a coin.
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.
Rain Had to Be Reported: The Registered Farmer of Warring States Qin
In late Warring States Qin, statutes required rain, ripening millet, newly broken land and crop damage to be reported in writing by the qing; fodder was levied on allocated land and missed corvée fined in armour.