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Art.XII.—The Metallic Cowries of Ancient China (600 b.c.)
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2011
Extract
1. Several of the collections of coins made in their own country by intelligent and enthusiastic Chinese Numismatists contain specimens of a curiously-shaped scarab-like copper currency. They are various called Y-pi tsien or ‘Ant's nose metallic currency;’ kuei-tou or ‘Ghosts’ heads,' and finally Ho-pei tsien or ‘Cowries Metallic currency.’
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- Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1888
References
page 429 note 1 A list of them is given in the introduction to my Historical Catalogue of Chinese Money, from the collections of the British Museum and other sources (4to. numerously illustrated), vol. i.
page 429 note 2 The 
Tsien Pu, by 
Ku yuen, who lived during the Liang dynasty (A.D. 502–557), often quotes in the description of curious and rare specimens an older work, the 
Tsien tche, by 
Liu-she, a work now lost and of unknown date. Vid. 
Li Tso-hien, 
Ku tsiuen huei, K. iii. f. 1.
page 430 note 1 Richthofen, F. v., in his China, vol. i. p. 150.Google Scholar
page 430 note 2 Their attribution to Yao rests on this simple-minded Chinese reasoning, that as Ping-yang was the capital of Yao, all the antiquities found there are remnants of his time.
page 431 note 1 Vid. the reprint of the numismatical part, Kin ting tsien luh, K. xv. f. 14v.
page 431 note 2 This statement has perhaps some relation to the following § 23, bk. ii. sec. i. pt. ii. of the Li-ki, Sacred Books of the East, vol. xxvii. p. 140:Google Scholar “At the mourning of Tze-chang Kung-ming, I made the ornaments of commemoration. There was a tent-like pall, made of plain silk of a carnation colour, with clusters of ants at the four corners, (as if he had been) an officer of Yin.”
page 432 note 1 Li-ki, Than Kung, sect. i. pt. iii. § 3, Sacred Books of the East, vol. xxvii. p. 148.Google Scholar This passage is not to be found in the Liki as published and translated by Callery, J. M., Li-ki ou Mémorial des rites traduit.… Turin, 1853,Google Scholar 4to. The text is the abridgment made by Fan, a renowned Chinese scholar. Sham objects, like carriages of clay and human figures of straw (substitute of living people), were not always that which was put in tombs. For instance, the following case (Li-ki, Than Kung, sect. I. pt. iii. §19): “At the burial of his wife, Duke Siang of Sung (d. B.C. 637) placed in the grave a hundred jars of vinegar and pickles.”
page 432 note 2 Dennys, N. B., The Folk-lore of China (Hong-Kong, 1876, 8vo.), pp. 72, 51.Google Scholar
page 432 note 3 Sham objects have been buried with the dead also in the West at the time of the stone period. Cf. below, §§ 11, 17.
page 432 note 4 
name given to them in the Topography of Ku-shé hien 
where many were found.
page 432 note 5 
page 432 note 6 
page 433 note 1 
bk.iv.fol. 16–18.
page 433 note 2 
Tchu-fung kin-yin his 
ku kin tai wen suh luh. They were described by 
Hung tsun in his 
Tsiuen tche published in 1149.
page 433 note 3 Quoting the 
Ku-shé hien tche, or ‘Topography of the Ku-shé district’.
page 433 note 4 
in Ku-Shé hien. The latter is situated by lat. 32” 18’ and long. 115° 37’, according to Playfair, G., The Cities and Towns of China, No. 3632.Google Scholar
page 433 note 5 According to the Kih kin so kien luh 
in 18 books; Ho pu wen tze kao, bk. iv. f. 17v.
page 433 note 6 
page 433 note 7 Besides the Ku tsiuen huei, tcheng iii. f. 15, the Ho pu wen-tze kao, bk. iv. ff. 16–18, already quoted, cf. also the 
Tsiuen sheh t'u, bk. xxiv. f. 2, in the Tchun tsao tang tsih collection, 1842;Google Scholar the 
Tsiuen she, 1834, bk. i. f. 19.
page 434 note 1 The 
kin ting tsien luh (1787),Google Scholar bk. xv. f. 14v, simply refers to the description in the Tsiuen tche by Hung tsun. This work, which is not good, is a reprint of the numismatical part of the great Catalogue of the Museum of the Emperor lung, Kien, Kin ting sze tsing ku kian, in 42 vols. gr. fol. published in 1751.Google Scholar The illustrations of the Kin ting tsien luh are imaginary and very bad, as they were not made from rubbings of the coins, but simply from the descriptions. In the 
Tsien tche sin pien, by Tchang Ts'ung-y, published in 1826, bk. xx. f. 7, the description of the Y-pi tsien only is given, accompanied with four illustratious An abridged translation of this work, which is rather uncritical and inexact, has been published under the title of Chinese Coinage, by MrHillier, C. B., in the Transactions of the China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, part ii. 1848–1850 (Hong Kong, 1852), pp. 1–162,Google Scholar with 329 woodcuts similar to those of the original. See p. 156.Google Scholar Dr. S. W. Bushell says that it is one of the smaller and less trustworthy works, cf. his article Chinese Authors on Numismatics, pp. 62–64Google Scholar of The Chinese Recorder and Missionary Journal, vol. iv. Foochow, 08, 1871.Google Scholar
page 435 note 1 The unsuccessful issue of his expedition (reported in a few words only in the Tehuh shu ki nien or Annals of the Bamboo Books, part iii. 1, and Sze-ma Tsien She ki, bk. ii. f. 14), was so complete that the body of Yü could not be brought back, and a century and a half elapsed before the possibility for a descendant of Yü to penetrate in disguise into the country, in order to pay the required honour to the tomb of the great engineer (She ki, bk. 41. f. 1).
page 435 note 2 
quoted in the Tsien sheh t' u, bk. xxiv. f. 2z.
page 435 note 3 
also 
His work was commented upon by Li kuy, of the Han dynasty. It is noticed in DrBretschneider's, E.’ bibliography, Botanicum Sinicum,Google Scholar No. 784. And a short biography of him is found in Mayers, W. F.' Chinese Readers' Manual, vol. i. p. 322.Google Scholar
page 435 note 4 
His biography was written by Sze-ma Tsien, She ki, bk. cxix.
page 436 note 1 The story is told at length in his biography, O.C. ff. 1–2; it has been reproduced in a shortened form by Ma Twanlin, in his Wen hien t'ung k'ao, and inexactly reported by him. The king wanted to make the money light 
but Ma Twanlin has erroneously substituted 
tchung ‘heavy’ for the character 
king ‘light,’ therefore implying the reverse of the King's intention. Besides, the passage appears in DrVissering's, W.Chinese Currency, p. 23,Google Scholar who has blindly followed Ma Twanlin, as relating to a King of the Ts’in principality in the third century B.C, while it referred to a King of Ts'u 350 years previously. As a rule the monetary and the geographical sections in Ma Twanlin are very defective.
page 436 note 2 In 771 the King of the Tchou dynasty, then ruling over the whole of the Chinese dominion, had been killed by the non-Chinese and independent Jung tribes (cf. The Languages of China before the Chinese, § 206). His successor removed the capital from Tchang-ngan (mod. Singanfu in Shensi) to Loh (near Honanfu, Honan), but the power of the dynasty never recovered its former greatness and prestige. The various rulers of the principalities over which the suzerainty of the Tchou had hitherto been effective, made themselves more and more independent; but it happened that by le droit du plus fort, the most powerful of these principalities assumed the leadership 
pa for the time being. The princes of Ts'i, Sung, Tsin, Ts'in, and Ts'u were successively leaders of the princes between the years B.C. 681 and 591; and these years are sometimes called the period of the five pa.
page 437 note 1 Playfair, G., The Cities and Towns of China, No. 3632.Google Scholar
page 437 note 2 
Cf. Tso tchuen, Duke Wen, year vi. § 6.
page 437 note 3 Some sort of reorganization of the taxes, etc., took place in the state of Ts'u in 547 B.C. Cf. Tso tchuen, Duke Siang, year xxv. 9; in Legge, J., Chinese Classics, vol. v. p. 517.Google Scholar
page 437 note 4 Tso tchuen, Duke Siang, year xxiv. 3.
page 437 note 5 Sze-ma Tsien, She ki, Ts'u she kia, bk. 40. Cf. Terrien de Lacouperie, The Languages of China before the Chinese, § 192.Google Scholar
page 438 note 1 Some more information has been given in my notice on Chinese and Japanese money, pp. 190–197–235 of Coins and Medals, their Place in History and Art, by the authors of the British Museum Official Catalogue (London, Elliot Stock, 1885).Google Scholar
page 438 note 2 They were not known in N. India in ancient times, at least they are not mentioned in the Code of Manu, nor in that of Yájnavalkya (about the Christian era). Cf. Thomas, Edward, Ancient Indian Weights (Marsden's Numismata Orientalia, new edit, part i.), p. 20.Google Scholar When the Muhammadans conquered Bengal early in the thirteenth century, they found the ordinary currency composed exclusively of cowries. Cf. the references in Colonel Yule's, H.Glossary, p. 209.Google Scholar
page 439 note 1 Sin “Wang Mang, usurper (A.D. 9–22), at the end of the First Han dynasty, endeavoured, without success, to revive the circulation of cowries and shells. Cf. his enactments in my Historical Catalogue of Chinese Money, vol. i. pp. 381–383.Google Scholar
page 439 note 2 DrHunter, W. W., Imperial Gazetteer of India.Google Scholar Col. H. Yule. Burnell, A. C., Glossary of Anglo-Indian Words, pp. 208–209.Google Scholar
page 439 note 3 Some also were found formerly on the shores of the Shantung peninsula. Cf. Fauvel, A., Trip of a Naturalist to the Chinese Far East, in China Review, 1876, vol. iv. p. 353.Google ScholarAt the International Fisheries Exhibition, London, 1883,Google Scholar the Pescadores and Lambay Island sent 44 species of cowries. Cf. Chinese Catalogue, pp. 29, 63–65.Google Scholar They are found in abundance on the shores of the Laccadives and Maldive Islands, Airican coast of Zanzibar, etc., the Sulu Islands, etc. Cf. Balfour, Ed., The Encyclopedia of India, s.v.Google Scholar