Cloth money - sticky note

Bronze coins from the Spring and Autumn Period and Warring States Period in China, modeled after farming tools. The prototype of cloth coins is thought to have been iron farming tools, and cloth coins and cloth notes have the same meaning. Some coins are called hollow-necked cloth, with the part where the handle is attached remaining hollow. Many coins were minted with city names, many of which belong to the dynasties of Han, Wei, and Zhao. There are two types of cloth coins: the Rai-style double-footed cloth and the Shi-style curved-footed cloth. The oldest type of double-footed cloth is called pointed-shouldered pointed-footed empty-necked cloth, with pointed shoulders and feet. As time went on, the shoulders and feet became square-shaped square-shouldered square-footed cloth, and finally changed to the rounded round-shouldered round-footed cloth. The oldest form of curved foot cloth is the square shoulder curved foot empty neck cloth, and the newer ones are the slanted shoulder curved foot cloth and the square shoulder curved foot flat neck cloth. After the liberation of China, a large amount of cloth coins were excavated in various places, mainly in northern and central China. This made it known that each type of cloth coin had a wide circulation area regardless of national borders.

[Takeji Iijima]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

耕具の形を模した、中国、春秋戦国時代の青銅貨幣。布銭の原型は、鉄製の耕作具であったと考えられ、布貨、布幣も同じ意味であり、柄(え)をすげる部分が中空のままの空首(くうしゅ)布とよばれるものも存在する。都市名を鋳造したものも多く、それらの都市名には韓(かん)、魏(ぎ)、趙(ちょう)に属するものが多い。布銭には耒(らい)系の両足(りょうそく)布と、耜(し)系の彎足(わんそく)布が存在する。両足布のもっとも古い形は尖肩(せんけん)尖足空首布とよばれるもので、肩と足が尖(とが)っている。年代が下ると、肩と足が方形の方肩方足布となり、最後は円みのある円肩円足布へと変化している。彎足布のもっとも古い形は方肩彎足空首布で、新しいものとしては斜肩彎足布や方肩彎足平首(へいしゅ)布がある。中国では解放後、華北、華中を中心に各地で布銭が大量に出土している。このことによって、各型式の布銭が国境に関係なく広い流通圏をもっていたことが知られるようになった。

［飯島武次］

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