Wu Zhu

Western Han dynasty "Wu" means "five" and zhu was an ancient Chinese unit of weight equal to 100 grains of millet. A "five zhu" cash coin would weigh about 4 grams ( ounce). Originally Ban Liang cash weighed 12 Zhu as a Liang (tael) was 24 Zhu, however over time the weight of Ban Liang cash coins gradually decreased so the Wu Zhu cash coins were introduced as a new standard unit (after the earlier San Zhu, or "3 Zhu" cash coins) under the reign of Emperor Emperor Wu. The introduction of the Wu Zhu also fixed the standard exchange between bronze coins and gold as 10,000 bronze Wu Zhu cash coins would be worth 1 Jin of gold. The first Wu Zhu cash coins had unfiled edges, but the second series issued under the reign of Emperor Wu were filed. In 118 BC the central government of the Han dynasty ordered both the Commanderies () and the Principalities () to cast Wu Zhu coins, so these Wu Zhu coins are referred to as coins which at most have a diameter 33.3 millimetres and a weight of 5.8 grams. A notable feature of Jun Guo Wu Zhu coins is that they have a rim around the square center hole of the reverse side. These rims were added to prevent people from scraping metal off the coins, which would reduce their value. Another notable feature of these early Wu Zhu coins is that they tend to have edges which are unfiled, making these cash coins have rough edges; they are notably also heavier than later cast Wu Zhu coins. In 115 BC Emperor Wu decreed that all Wu Zhu cash coins should be cast with a value of 5 cash coins. These coins are known as or because as they were filed, they gained "red" or "purple" edges that showed as the copper became visible. Another feature of these cash coins is that the "Wu" () character tends to be composed of some rather straight lines. Starting from the year 113 BC, the central government regained the exclusive authority to manufacture coinage. From this point Wu Zhu cash coins started being produced by the Three Offices of Shang Lin (). These Wu Zhu coins had a nominal value of one coin as opposed to the Chi Ze Wu Zhus, which had an unrealistic nominal value of five. The majority of the Shang Lin San Guan Wu Zhus contain a raised line above the square center hole on the obverse side of the coin. Under the reign of Emperor Xuan, which lasted from 73 BC until 49 BC, the Wu characters were small in size and notably written with slightly crooked strokes that didn't extend to the horizontal lines of the top and bottom ends. A number of these Western Han dynasty Wu Zhu cash coins also displayed dots, which represent "stars", and crescents, which represent the moon, on the interior rim of the coin as well as other symbols which were considered to be auspicious. These became some of the earliest examples of cash coins used as Chinese amulets and charms. In the 123 years after 118 BCE, when Wu Zhu cash coins were initially introduced, over 28 billion coins were cast for circulation. Xin dynasty After Wang Mang had overthrown the Han dynasty with his own Xin dynasty, he wished to displace the Wu Zhu currency of the Western Han dynasty. This is believed to be part of his prejudice against the "Jin" () radical () in the character of this inscription, which was also a component part of the character Liu (), the family name of the rulers of the House of Han— whose descendant Wang Mang had just dethroned. He introduced a number of currency reforms which met with varying degrees of success. The first reform, in AD 7, retained the Wu Zhu coin, but reintroduced two versions of knife money. During a later reform the Wu Zhu cash coins were completely abolished, and Wang Mang placed the death penalty on anyone who dared to circulate any Wu Zhu cash coins. However, as the new currency system introduced by Wang Mang was chaotic and confusing, Wu Zhu cash coins kept secretly circulating. Chengjia The Iron Wu Zhus of Chengjia, which resemble the Western Han dynasty Wu Zhu coin, is attributed to Gongsun Shu, who rebelled in Sichuan in AD 25, and issued iron coins, two being equal to one Jian Wu Wu Zhu (). These had the head of the zhu component rounded, typical of Eastern Han Wu Zhus. In AD 30, a ditty was sung by the youths of Sichuan: "The yellow bull! the white belly! Let Wu Zhu cash coins return". This ridiculed the tokens of Wang Mang and the iron coins of Gongsun Shu, which were withdrawn by the Eastern Han Emperor Guangwu in the 16th year of Jian Wu (AD 40). The Emperor was advised that the foundation of the wealth of a country depends on a good political economy, which was found in the Wu Zhu coinage, and so reissued the Wu Zhu cash coins. Eastern Han dynasty . After the fall of the Xin dynasty, the production of Wu Zhu cash coins was resumed under Emperor Guangwu who reigned from the year 25 until 56 AD. Under the reign of the warlord Dong Zhuo (), the capital of the Han dynasty was moved from Luoyang to the city of Chang'an (modern day Xi'an). There, he ordered that the large Qin dynasty era bronze statues dating back to the reign of Emperor Qin Shi Huang be melted down to make small cash coins. A large quantity of these Wu Zhu coins were so small that they were commonly referred to as "goose eye coins" () or "chicken eye coins" () by the people. As these cash coins were so diminutive in size, only left half of the wu () Chinese character and the right half of the Chinese character fit on these coins. It is also pivotal to clarify that these cash coins are not "chiselled rim coins" (), where regular-size Wu Zhu cash coins had their insides cut out so as to form two separate cash coins. Goose eye/chicken eye coins were actually cast in this diminutive manner, as evidenced by the remnants of the metal sprue from the casting process on their rim's five o'clock position. The Kingdom of Shu Han was founded after Liu Bei seized control of the city of Chengdu. Immediately after the city was taken, Liu Bei had discovered that the treasury was completely empty, which meant that he didn't have the funds for his military expenses. This was paired with a severe shortage of copper, this severe lack of copper was so bad that it is said that in order to manufacture cash coins even the hooks which were used to hang bed curtains were melted as the government desperately needed the metal. To cover the state's expenses, Liu Bei ordered the creation of cash coins which had a nominal value or one hundred regular cash coins. Unlike the earlier coinage of the Xin dynasty, which disastrously failed due to the extreme disparity between the nominal and intrinsic values, the coins of the Kingdom of Shu Han weren't as badly received. These Wu Zhu cash coins produced by Dong Zhuo only weighed around a single gram, previously a cycle plagued Chinese governments trying to set of a fiat coinage system where first the government issued new (fiduciary) cash coins, then the government would set values, usually the people don't accept these set values, and then finally the currency doesn't trade which causes inflation to set in and counterfeiting becomes a prominent problem. Zhi Bai Wu Zhus are usually divided into "thin" and "thick" types depending on the thickness of the cash coin. It is also believed that the Kingdom of Shu Han under the reign of Liu Bei cast a variant of the Wu Zhu cash coin which had a rim around the square hole that is 21.7 millimetres in diameter and has a weight of around 2.3 grams. Due to this association, they are known as the cash coins, but due to later archeological findings this isn't taken with absolute certainty. Jin dynasty and the 16 Kingdoms Under Sima Yan, China was reunited for a short period of time under the rule of the Western Jin dynasty ruled from Luoyang. The Chinese economy improved under Jin rule, and although no historical records mention the production of coinage under the Jin, since the quantity of old Wu Zhu cash coins that were still in circulation would not have been sufficient, it is likely that the government would've had to cast a large number of cash coins in order to need the demand coming from the market. The Great Dictionary of Chinese Numismatics claims that Wu Zhu cash coins were being cast in the city of Chengdu in the Shu region of the Western Jin dynasty (which lies in modern-day Sichuan). After a family struggle within the Sima family caused a devastating civil war, China was so weakened that the "five barbarian tribes" from the north started conquering territories in China and established their own states starting the sixteen kingdoms period. Former Liang Kingdom The Kingdom of Former Liang started casting Wu Zhu cash coins, which have traditionally been attributed to the Kingdom of Shu known as "Shu Wu Zhu" cash coins. Some of these Wu Zhus have been discovered in the Hexi Corridor (in current day Gansu province), which lead archaeologists to believe that they may have been cast under the reign of Zhang Gui. Peng Xinwei mentions a man called Gu Xuan of the Liang dynasty that was one of the first to write about Chinese numismatics. Gu Xuan wrote about the circulating cash coins of the period, but did not mention any Qi dynasty cash coins. Peng takes this as evidence that the Qi dynasty did not mint any of its own cash coins. Larger specimens are typically about 2.5 centimeters in diameter and weigh about 3 grams. Chinese numismatic researcher Peng Xinwei believed that the Sui dynasty period Wu Zhu was adopted from the Western Wei, because it is said in the history of the Sui, that Wu Zhus already circulated in the first year of the Sui, and that additional new cash coins were minted at the same time. Among the varieties of the Sui dynasty era Wu Zhu is one which is particularly well-made composed of what the Chinese call "white copper" () and are therefore known as "Bai Qian Wu Zhu" () cash coins and are believed to have been manufactured in the Jiangnan region. The Chinese character "Wu" () on these coins is slightly more curved where the lines cross. Wu Zhu cash coins from the Sui dynasty are known to be produced in both larger and smaller sizes, the smaller and lighter Wu Zhus were produced later as the country was facing higher expenditures and debased the coinage, the last Wu Zhu cash coins of the Sui dynasty circulated alongside improvised currency such as scraps of iron, paper, and leather. == Kingdom of Kucha ==

The Kingdom of Kucha was a Buddhist state located in present-day Kucha County, Xinjiang. It was first recorded during the Han dynasty and was later annexed by the Tang. During its time it was a prominent player on the silk road. From around the third or fourth century, the Kingdom of Kucha began the manufacture of Wu Zhu cash coins, inspired by the diminutive and devalued Wu Zhus of the post-Han dynasty era in Chinese history. There are five known types of Kucha cash coins based on the Chinese Wu Zhus which are usually characterised by the fact that they're diminutive in size, very thin, and tend to have both weak and irregular inscriptions while four of these types tend to have no inscriptions at all. One type of Kucha Wu Zhu cash coin is the "Han Gui bilingual Wu Zhu coin" () which are characterised by the fact that the obverse side resembles Chinese Wu Zhu coins while the reverse sides feature a local Kucha script above and below the square center hole. As the language of the Kingdom of Kucha isn't well preserved in the modern era many hypotheses have been suggested about its meaning including that it is simply a translation of "Wu Zhu" or feature the name of the Kingdom of Kucha in the Kuśiññe language. Cash coins without any inscription cast in this region are generally believed to have been produced between the years 265 and 589, the first variant of these cash coins are round in shape and have a rim around the square centre hole on one side while the other side is rimless, they tend to thin on the outside while they're thick on the inside and weigh between 0.4 grams 1.7 grams, and have a diameter of 9 to 18 millimetres. The second type can be described as similar to the aforementioned type but have no inner rim, these cash coins generally from 8 to 13 millimetres in diameter and have a weight of 0.2 to 0.4 grams. The third type of these cash coins are also completely without rim but are square in shape and have a square centre hole, they tend to be very thin with diameters between 8 and 11 millimetres and weigh between 0.2 and 0.5 grams. The final variant are irregularly shaped, diminutive in size, thin, and are cast of poor workmanship. Some are merely five millimetres in diameter and weigh as little as 0.2 grams. The Buddhist monk Xuanzang describes that there are "small bronze coins" in the city of Kucha while he visited there in the year 630 which is mentioned in his work "Great Tang Records on the Western Regions" during the Tang dynasty. These cash coins are likely to have been the "Han Gui bilingual Wu Zhu coin". == Wu Zhu coins and the emergence of Chinese charms ==

Wu Zhu cash coins played a central role in the emergence of Chinese numismatic charms, as the Wu Zhu cash coins were cast in enormous quantities during both the Western Han dynasty and the subsequent seven hundred years of its usage not all variants can be directly attributed to every ruler, however "auspicious" symbols such as stars (dots), suns (circles), moons (crescents), numbers, rod numerals, Hanzi characters, lines, and others started to be used after the Eastern Han dynasty, the reason for the earlier uniformity was the usage of bronze moulds which last for a long time, these moulds continued to be used over and over again by subsequent dynasties. However, as other techniques such as mother coins started to be used some mints started adding these "auspicious" symbols which became the inspiration for later Chinese charms and amulets. Although the usage of some these symbols were already used on the earlier Ban Liang cash coins, they became more common on the Wu Zhu. It unclear why exactly these symbols started being added in large quantities during the Eastern Han dynasty and later but the first Chinese charms and amulets started emulating their design. Some of these early Wu Zhu coins also had the precursors to the "flower" or "rosette" holes found on later cash coins as such coins were discussed in an article in the 1987 (7th issue) of the Chinese periodical "Shaanxi Finance" () which shows rubbings of several Wu Zhu cash coins with unusual center holes found in a hoard. Wu Zhu charms Chinese numismatic charms based on Wu Zhu cash coins tend to feature the same "auspicious symbolism" as contemporary Wu Zhu cash coins had themselves including crescents representing the moon, circles representing the sun, and dots representing the stars, in fact to an untrained eye Wu Zhu charms can be interchangeable with regular Wu Zhu coins. Other than these features it's also not uncommon for Wu Zhu charms to feature wholly original iconography from various aspects of Chinese culture such as a dragon and a fisherman. Other than simply having the inscription "Wu Zhu" some Wu Zhu charms are also based on other variants of the Wu Zhu cash coins with four character inscriptions that incorporate the legend "Wu Zhu". Wu Zhu cash coins are sometimes Integrated into other types of charms and amulets, as there is a variant Daruma doll which features Bodhidharma, the founder of Zen Buddhism, holding a Northern Wei dynasty period Taihe Wuzhu cash coin. == Wu Zhu coin moulds (gallery) ==

Image:Bronze wushu coin mould, Han Dynasty.JPG|Photograph by Professor Gary Lee Todd (Professor of History, SIAS International University, Xinzheng, Henan, China) Image:Coin Mould in Shanghai Museum 03 2014-07.JPG|Shanghai Museum. Image:Coin Mould in Shanghai Museum 04 2014-07.JPG|Shanghai Museum. Image:Coin Mould in Shanghai Museum 05 2014-07.JPG|Shanghai Museum. Image:Coin Mould in Shanghai Museum 06 2014-07.JPG|Shanghai Museum. == Hoards of Wu Zhu cash coins ==

In the modern era hoards of Wu Zhu cash coins tend to be very common in China as these coins were produced in large quantities. • In 1980, a golden Wu Zhu cash coin was unearthed in the prefecture-level city of Xianyang in province of Shaanxi. This golden cash coin is 2.6 cm in diameter and was cast during the Western Han dynasty period. • In January 2006 during the construction of a plaza in Pingli County, Shaanxi a Han dynasty era tomb was uncovered, during its excavation archeologists found 259 Wu Zhu cash coins, 1 tripod made from iron, a pottery kitchen range as well as 3 pottery urns. • On 16 July 2012 a large cache of 14,000 ancient Chinese coins was found in Kuqa, Xinjiang which included Han dynasty era Wu Zhu () and "Chiseled rim Wu Zhu" () cash coins, Xin dynasty era Huo Quan () and Daquan Wushi () cash coins, a Three Kingdoms period Taiping Baiqian () cash coins, as well as native cash coins. Alongside the cash coins were shards of pottery as well as fragments of human bones which lead the archeologists believe that this was an old cemetery. • In August 2012 a large hoard of Wu Zhu cash coins and Xin dynasty era cash coins was found in the city of Huoluochaideng, Inner Mongolia. The hoard included 3500 kg of Chinese cash coins and around 150 clay moulds used to manufacture coins from the Xin dynasty. According to archeologists the site might've been a mint that was in operation since the reign of Emperor Wu until Emperor Wang Mang. • In 2015 Chinese archeologists uncovered 10 tonnes of bronze Wu Zhu cash coins from the Western Han dynasty (or around 2 million coins) alongside over ten thousand of other iron, bronze, and gold items in the Haihunhou cemetery near Nanchang, Jiangxi, among the other uncovered items were bamboo slips, wood tablets, as well as jade objects. As these Wu Zhu cash coins were strung in strings of 1000 pieces this proved that the practice of stringing cash coins per 1000 didn't first happen during the Tang dynasty as was previously thought but actually six hundred years earlier. • In 2018 in South Korea 26 Wu Zhu cash coins were unearthed in a tomb in Kyongsan, North Gyeongsang. == See also ==