Western Han Dynasty: Wu Zhu of Emperor Wu Di (141 BCE - 87 BCE)

Western Han Dynasty
Emperor Wu Di (141-87 BCE)
Ae. Wu Zhu (5 Zhus)
Hartill # 8.10

This is my second Wu Zhu and my first from someone other than Wang Mang. Emperor Wu Di was a great man. He ruled for 54 years as Emperor, a record that would not be broken for 1,800 years. During his reign, he conquered the south of China and even conquered large parts of what today is Vietnam. He also conquered half of Korea and parts of the steppes.

He was also a brilliant reformer, adopting Confucianism as the state ethic, and set up schools to train future administrators in Confucian classics, a reform that would have a great impact on Chinese Civilization for nearly two millennia.



Unfortunately, this great ruler had a small downside to him. He was bat **** crazy. And I mean the type of crazy that needs to be heavily medicated and in a padded room. But that's just a tiny detail. It's not like it became a major issue during his 54-year rule....except that it did.

Ok, so he was known for summarily executing his officials from time to time. But it's not like his officials weren't corrupt, so one can understand. Surely he never executed anyone that was obviously innocent....except that he sort of did that too, even when presented with clear proof of an official's innocence, and he did it often!

But hey, it's not like his craziness affected the general population. Well, maybe just a tiny bit. He did tax the peasants into oblivion, and when the poor couldn't bear to pay anything more because they had nothing to give, he did declare them traitors and sort of cut off a few heads....ok, a few hundred (of thousands). And then he proceeded to kill the officials whose job was to suppress peasant unrest if they dared to report that there was any peasant unrest at all, which meant the poor court officials had to cover up any revolts and unrest in order to keep their heads on their shoulders.

At least he did make it a capital crime to falsify any coinage, so it's all good.

But you know, it's not like he went to sleep, had a dream, and then woke up in a state of paranoia and ordered the deaths of people based on what they had done in the Emperor's dreams. Well, he certainly didn't do that...except for that one time he executed a few thousand over a bad dream he had.

But at least he was a family man. His craziness didn't affect his family life, if you disregard the small matters of the execution of his wife, and going paranoid over the belief his son was a witch and ordering his death (which forced the son to revolt and eventually be captured and executed).

With all of that said, he is highly regarded in China as a strong and effective ruler. It seems the Chinese don't care too much about the mass killings, paranoia, and mental insanity as long as the ruler conquered a lot and left the empire bigger before dropping dead. So if the Chinese can disregard the insanity fueled mass murder, you can too, and enjoy the wonderful accomplishments of this amazing Western Han Emperor.

 

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Family executions, killing of innocents... he sounds a little like the Chinese version of Constantine don't ya think?

 

Well, when you put it like that, maybe Constantine wasn't so bad after all...maybe!

PS: I have more ancient Chinese treasures their way from a dealer that was highly recommended to me from HK, but I won't post anything as I don't want to jinx such a delivery. Let's just say this....MORE WANG MANG!!! And even some Chinese proto-money circa 1000 BCE.

 

You have a lovely specimen. Sharp characters and a nice even patina. She's a keeper for sureM

I can just imagine what one of the officials would say:

"Oh yeah, everything is fine over in my province. Yeah, nothing to see there. No revolts or riots or anything of the sort. There is no dissent from not having anything after taxes. In fact everybody is pooping rainbows and singing Kumbaya because of their happiness for paying taxes. The whole sector is prospering and happy. Did I mention that everything is all hunky dory? There is absolutely no reason to go see the province for yourself. You can tell everything is fine. Heh heh... Right?"

As for the Wu Zhu's, I have way too bloody many of them. This is only about a third of them, and these are only the Western Han ones. But at less than $0.50 apiece, I can afford to hoard.

 

Nice, I just bought some fish money too. LOL. Got any of those or any additional info on them other than it's proto-money?

 

I do not have any fish money. It will eventually happen, but I am focusing on actual coins at the moment.

From what I have read, fish and bridge money were most likely burial items and funerary money rather than actual money. But who knows. There is very little scholarship on them, and I have not read that much about them.

 

You would think so, but then they have also been found in strings pretty much like coins would later be strung up. In the absence of any additional evidence then, one would have to conclude it was also used as proto-money...and if not, maybe as some form of heavenly money for the dead? You know, the ancient equivalent of modern Chinese Hell Money? No one really knows.

PS: What about cowry shells? Proto money? I'm talking about stone and bone ones

 

Sallent => congrats on more Chinese winnas

 

Wait till you see my hands on review on one of these babies this weekend. (Might be this one or a different one, not sure.)

 

winna-winna, salmon dinner!!?

 

More or less...it's the poorly understood Chinese Fish Money. It's either proto-money, or the ancient version of hell money, or a mixture of both.

Don't worry though, I have a high end Roman coin coming my way soon, the kind I know people here will like. It all can't be Chinese, you know.

 

that's a nice cash of ol' Wu Zhu..he was not prejudice..he killed everyone equally.. i've a few of him and others of this type coin. it was used for over 500 years by other emperors also..yeah, he rose thru the ranks and disposed of the reigning emperor and co., then got freaked out everyone was gonna do the same to him too.
wu zhu or chu 200bc-25ad coins + one i have marked as being from the han dynasty.

 

that's kool big O, but i think supin fishys goin' on here><. i don't have any of those..yet.

 

Actual shells were used as money, decoration, and burial money. The imitations are less clear. They could have been used as money (the bronze ones in particular), but they are mostly found in tombs. A lot of the bone cowries are green because they were in a bronze vessel, which were often placed in tombs.

Some theories suggest a sudden shortage of cowries where improvisations had to be made, or that lower-class individuals wanted in on the valuable shells, so they made some themselves.

In the early Zhou Dynasty, cowries were extremely valuable because they were scarce and pretty (my research says that a cowrie was worth equal to a slave). The borders of the early Zhou were hundreds of miles from any areas that produced cowries, which resulted in their scarcity. As the Zhou conquered more area, cowries became more accessible and less valuable. This is seen on inscribed bronze vessels as later ones speak of rewards and purchases of larger amounts of cowries.

I don't know. It is certainly possible that they were used as money. I have not focuesed my attention on proto-money yet, so I am regrettably lacking in information.

 

Hey, cool! I am going to use my Zhou cowries and buy some slaves!!!

 

Well, whatever monetary purpose they had (be it for the living, dead, or both) I still think bridge money, fish money, stone cowries, bone cowries, and bronze cowries are neat.

I'm not going to go crazy on them, but I'd definitely love a sample of each type. Whether they be coin, proto-money, or artifacts, they still do something to this numismatist in the same way a cool Eye of Ra pendant, a Roman statue or piece of pottery, or other neat ancient artifacts would elicit an emotional response.

 

I'm going to hell for liking your post. LOL.

 

LOL

 

i have one as well!



interesting write up sallent!

 

Emperor Wu Di has just awoken from another of his homicidal dreams. Time to get to work.

Wu Di: What's that? @chrsmat71 has a coin like mine? Witch! Off with his head!

Court Official: But sir, you issued that coin for circulation. We released millions of them to the general public.

Wu Di: Witch! Off with your head too! While I'm at it, guards, off with every peasant's head that you find within 5 miles of the palace. That will teach the deadbeats not to complain about paying my generous 100% tax rate. Let them eat hay.

[1 MINUTE LATER]

Wu Di: Well, that was a hard day's work. Time to go back to sleep.