Indian Antiquary Vol 27

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 36

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32
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[FEBRUARY, 1898.
Again, us regards the introduction of the Chinese decimal scale, it appears in full swing in the days of Marco Polo and the mediæral travellers, as recorded in two of Yule's great works, Marco Polo and Cathay and the Way Thither, i. e., during the Mongol sway in the XIIIth and XIV th Centuries A. D. But the money then found was almost entirely of paper, in which tale and not measure or weight is the essential point in denominations. And it is to be noticed that Marco Polo and his successors sometimes speak of money in the terms employed for enumerating the Army. This makes one inclined to hazard the conjecture that the Mongols introduced the decimal division of the coinage, basing it on the ancient decimal division of the Army, which can be seen from the following terms:
onbashi97 decurion (on, ten) yüzbishi centurion (yüz, hundred) bing-(ming)bàshi chiliarch (bing, ming, thousand)
tumin-aghassi chief of a legion (túman, ten thousand men) Now the notes of Marco Polo's time (Vol. I. p. 378 ff.) were those of Kublai Khan's first issue (1260-1287 A.D.), whose denominations were stated in terms of
(1) tens of cash (tsien)29 (2) handreds of cash (3) thousands of cash (strings)30
26 Marco Polo (1275.92): Vol. I. p. 878 fl.; Vol. II. p. 88. Wassaf (1800): Marco Polo, Vol. II. p. 160. Friar Odoric (1920-30): Cathay, Vol. I. p. 115. Archbishop of Soltania, (P) John de Cora (c. 1330): Cathay, Vol. I. p. 245.' Pegolotti (1330-10): Cathay, Vol. II. PP. 289, 294. Ibn Batuta (1348): Cathay, Vol. II. p.
Marco Polo has many local notices of the use of paper money always introduced with the formula :-"The people are Idolators, burn their dead, use paper money and are subjects of the Great Kean (Kublai):" Vol. II. pp. 103, 115, 116, 132, 140, 143, 175. But see also ante, Vol. XXVI. p. 291 f., in Chapter I. of this work, section on paper money.
With reference to Yule's specimen of a note of the Ming Dynasty in his Marco Polo, Vol. L p. 378, I bought some years ago a number of beautiful French plates relating to China from a Parisian dealer, evidently meant to illustrate some (? folio) book, though they have never been bound into one. No. 65 is superseribed, like the rest, "Descript, gen. de la Chine," and is a plate of coins and currency. Some French hand has dated many of these plates " 1785," but among the curious illustrations of "Monroyes anciennes nommées Pou et Tao, Monnoyes incertaines ou étrangéres dont on ignore le temps, et qui ont eu cours à la Chine, Monnoy es auxquelles dans la suite des temps le Peuples à attaché des idées mêlées de Saperstitions, et Monnoyes d'argent du Tibet fi.e., Nepalese rupees)" we find "Monnoyes de differentes Dynasties," which are illustrations of cash, commencing with the "Dynastie des Tcheon," and winding up "De Chun tchi fondateur de la Dyn, regnante, Du feu Empr. Cang hi,
og tching Empr. regnant." This gives the true date, for it refers to the Te'ing Dynasty and to the Nien Hao or titles of reigns of Shun Che, 1644-62, Klang Hi, 1662-1728, Yung Cheng, 1723-36; see Mayer, Chinese Reader's Manual, p. 387 f. So perhaps the plates refer to what Terrien de la Couperie has called (Cat. Chinese Coins, P. vii, n.) "the great work of P. E. Souciet, Observations Mathematiques, Astronomiques, Géographiques, et Physi. ques, tirées des Anciens Livres Chinois, 3 vols., 1729-82," which I have not seen. At any rate the work is that of a complete Chinese scholar, for, in addition to the other matters, there is an illustration of the very rare 1,000 cash note of the Ming Dynasty of the identtcal issue of that given by Yule, character for character and seal for seal, Every character is transcribed and translated into French.
17 I have here used d for the sound of or in awful.
* See Yalo, Marco Polo, Vol. I. pp. 228 f., 231. Also ante, Vol. XI. pp. 189 f., 198 f., where an account of the military arrangements of Chinghiz Khan, under date c. 1206 A. D. is given, based on the authority of the Yuanch'ao-pi-shi (1240 A, D.), anto, Vol. IX. p. 89, and of Abu'l-Ghazi (1663 A. D.). Also Redhouse, Turkish Dict. 8. v.: Shaw, Sketch of the Turki Language, 8. v. See also Ain Akbari, Bloohmann's Ed. p. 233 ff., where the divisions (nominal) of Akbar's Army (18th Cent.) bear a remarkable likeness to the denominations of Kublai's note curreney (13th Century) as recorded in Yule's Marco Polo, Yol. I. p. 378 .
# Won at VOL. II. p. 59.
80 By the way, all Yule's valuations at p. 381 ff, of the paper money in Marco Polo's time are based on the assumption that a "string" =liang-taol 802., but from what Terrien de la Couperio tells us us to the lang up to 620 A, D, being a sixth of the modern liang of c. 80d., it would follow that the liang of 1960-1800 A. D. might be anything between 18d. and 80d. This conajderation might reduce Yule's enormous figures as to the value of Kublai's note ourrency to more manageable amounte.