On the Folk Custom of Spending Money

The so-called coin folk custom refers to all kinds of folk customs which are created and gradually improved in people's long-term life practice, and are dominated by or associated with coins. As soon as China coins were produced, they had an indissoluble bond with folk customs. Kitamoto, the earliest currency in China, is an ornament that people generally love and wear. As a typical folk product, it is gradually transformed into currency because of its good monetary performance.

Throughout thousands of years of China society, no matter the upper dignitaries or the lower ordinary people, there are all kinds of folk customs that can use coins. Among them, life etiquette, entertainment and sacrifice are the most typical coin folk customs.

First, life etiquette? This coin folk custom is mainly reflected in the following eight aspects:

(a), wear? Mainly used for decoration, such as "lucky money". According to the Record of Idle Residence: "Women's jewelry is worn with gold and silver as small money, which is called spring money." Li He, a poet in the Tang Dynasty, wrote "The water is bright, the Lanze leaves are heavy, and the scissors are poor in money", which is a description of the concubines in the government decorated with money. Even before liberation, women still wore small silver coins as earrings or brooches. Wang Mang's "cloth right" money is called a man's money. It is said that a woman can raise a boy, so "privately taking a man's money to raise a low temple" has become an enduring folk custom. In addition, according to the biography of Han Shu-Wang Mang, the "Buquan" Qian Ceng was worn by people as a voucher for entering and leaving the forbidden city. Of course, most people wear money to win, such as "peace, peace", "long life and wealth" given by their elders when their children are born; Scholars who are eager to take the exam will admire "the first scholar, the first product" and "the three yuan in the company and the official position". Merchants admire "smooth sailing" and "returning home with a full load".

(2), commitment? The custom of taking money as a token of love is widely spread among the people, such as a kind of "arhat money" cast in Kangxi period of Qing Dynasty. Because of its huge size, shining golden light and exquisite appearance, young men and women in southeast provinces often give it to each other as a treasure of love to show their desire to tie the knot. This is the custom that there are still young people with "arhat money" in their mouths in rural Shanxi today.

(3) marriage? Folk wedding ceremonies generally use money, and the most common one is gift money, which is the money used for the ceremony. Yuan Meng wrote in "A Dream in Tokyo-Marrying a Woman": "In the old wedding, the husband and wife worshipped and sat on the edge of the bed, and the woman scattered money and fruits." This is the account. This custom continued in many areas of our country until the eve of liberation. Generally speaking, the ceremony of issuing hukou is presided over by elders, who recite the words of issuing hukou while handing out money, mostly to wish the newlyweds a long life and a full house of children and grandchildren. In addition, the money used in the wedding ceremony is also used to grab the blessing money, press the blessing money and so on.

(4) There are many traditional festivals in China, and most of them have special savings. Take the Spring Festival as an example. There are lucky money and delicious food. It is said that lucky money began in the Song Dynasty and gradually developed into a common custom. It's just that the ancient lucky money was made of ordinary copper coins, and now it's wrapped in red paper as the end of the year. The so-called delicious money is the coins put in jiaozi (glutinous rice balls). Generally speaking, there is only one kind of jiaozi (Tangyuan). If someone eats it, it means it will be prosperous in the new year.

(5) Birthday? There is a saying that "arhat money" in Kangxi period was specially cast to celebrate the 60th birthday of Emperor Kangxi, and other common folk coins such as "Happy as the East China Sea", "Longevity as the South Mountain", "Expensive Life Test" and "Shoukangning" were all used for birthday celebration. In particular, before liberation, Ding and other predecessors in the coin industry formed the Shouquan Society to celebrate the birthday of all friends. For each member's birthday, they compiled a series of birthday greetings, which can be used to celebrate birthdays, discuss spring affairs and leave valuable information for later research. This kind of birthday celebration has always been a beautiful talk in the spring community.

(6) Laying foundation stones and setting beams? When building a new house, the folk custom of laying the foundation stone and paying the money is often used. Base money, that is, coins placed at the four corners of a new house when it is first built, usually uses some currency in circulation, which means "Shunzhi Bao Tong", "Jiaqing Bao Tong" and peace, smoothness and prosperity. Liang Qian, that is, the coin hung on the main beam of a new house after its completion, is also used in circulation and has auspicious meaning. If it is a big family, use special Liang Qian, such as "Jinliang Daji" and "Ping 'an Town House". In addition, there is a folk saying in Shangliang that the money on the beam is mostly five, seven and nine. ?

(7) treating diseases? There are many folk legends about using ancient money to cure diseases. The most popular one is that Zhu Yuanzhang Bao Tong can cure malaria and give birth. Wang's "Qiu Guang" contains: "At the beginning of Shunzhi, Xiaogan was ill, but he still picked up a piece of Zhu Yuanzhang's Bao Tong from the ancient money and soon recovered." Zhou Lianggong's Book Shadow also said: "Women can cure dystocia with this money." Of course, these are all postscript. The reason may be related to the fact that "Zhu Yuanzhang Bao Tong" was made of bronze destroyed by the Buddha statue in Chai Rong, Zhou Shizong. However, most ancient coins contain many elements, which can really cure some diseases. This point is discussed in detail in Li Shizhen's Compendium of Materia Medica, which is also proved by modern medicine.

(8), martyrdom? As a symbol of wealth, money has long been used as a funerary object in China. This is the custom of burning paper money after death in some areas. It is said that it originated from the story of a businessman who burned his dead wife with jiaozi in the Song Dynasty. Sacrificial coins, commonly called Qian Ming, have various textures, such as gold, silver, copper, iron, lead pottery, etc., and their styles are even more strange.

Two? Enjoy entertainment? This coin folk custom is mainly reflected in the following seven aspects:

(1) drinkers' wager game, people often use some special coins to guess the order between banquets. This kind of money is wine money. 1968, a set of Western Han wine money was unearthed from No.2 Han Tomb in Lingshan, Mancheng, Hebei Province. The square hole has no outline, the surface is embossed, the back is plain, and the diameter is 3.3 cm. Qian Wen has, first, God bless; Second, get Jiashi; Third, it is often embarrassing; Fourth, arrogance; 5. Treasures; Sixth, the five grains become; Seven, money drag; 8. Zhu Yuhang; Nine, your rich life; Ten, life is not sick; Eleven, all the people; Twelve, the world is safe; XIII. Starting wine; Fourteen, worry-free; Fifteen, drinking songs; Sixteen, drink it; Seventeen, abstinence; Eighteen, music is the beginning; 19. Tian Tian's wife is contemptuous; Twenty, Shoufu Empress Dowager.

(2) chess? The folk custom of taking money as chess pieces is very popular, and the most famous one is playing nuke's game. This kind of horse-beating game prevailed in the Song Dynasty. Li Qingzhao, a famous poetess, said in the poem "Beating a Horse": "Beating a horse is an elegant play of a boudoir, so it will be abandoned and the path will flow upward." This also shows that horse racing was quite popular with women at that time. However, because the rules are too complicated, they have not been circulated so far. At present, the common "generals" handed down are Yi, Po, Wei Wuqi, Qi and Chao. "Horses" include Qinger, Huang Qu, Huanglu, Fei Huang Ma, Red Riding Horse, Super Wheel, Red Rabbit, Sweat and Blood, Huaxiang, Bai Yi, Dragon Pony, Miracle, in the clouds, day by day, riding the wind, chasing electricity and so on. ?

(3) reward? There are stories about giving money as gifts, especially precious metal coins such as gold and silver. For example, in the Northern Song Dynasty's "Xuanhe Record", it was written: "Going to the Huangge is divided into forty money and eighty silver money. The emperor's pavilion is divided into twenty pieces and forty pieces. The queen's pavilion is divided into ten dollars and twenty-two silver dollars. " These gold, silver and money are used as rewards. Not only that, sometimes coins are used as medals. For example, at the end of the Ming Dynasty, when Zhang Uprising built the Great Western Country, there were three kinds of heavy gold, silver and bronze, which were specially cast to reward soldiers with outstanding military achievements.

(4) Gambling, people have a habit of using money as a gambling tool. The simplest thing is to guess the advantages and disadvantages of ordinary money in order to win or lose. Otherwise, choosing fairy money is a special gambling tool, which began in the Northern Song Dynasty. The gambling method is to use dice to compare colors, first scatter immortals, then ascend the cave, and gradually reach the Queen Mother Penglai. Where there are too many dice, "two, five" is merit, "three, six" is talent, and "four" is virtue. Those who pass the exam can only be downgraded if they encounter virtue again. The common ways to choose fairy money are poetry fairy, drunken fairy, chess fairy, piano fairy, scattered fairy, queen mother, Manqian and Shuangcheng.

(5) Dark drama, the most common is "romantic" money, with the word "romantic" on the front and a simple picture of men and women having sex on the back. It is said that this kind of money is given to young men and women by elders on their wedding night, in order to have children earlier. ?

(6) In divination and Shang Dynasty, people used herbs and tortoise shells to divination, but later generations found it troublesome to count herbs and the plan was simple, so they gradually replaced herbs with money. In the Ming Dynasty, Lu Rong wrote "Garden Miscellanies" and said, "It has been a long time since fortune tellers used money. In the past, no word was Yang, and one word was Yin. On the contrary, Zhu Wengong takes the word as the yang and the word as the back. " Thus, as early as Song and Zhu (1 130- 1200), divination with money was a popular custom among the people. Generally, one, three or six coins with auspicious characters are used for money divination, such as "Taiping Bao Tong" and "Qianlong Bao Tong", and good or bad luck is divined according to the sixty-four or thirty-two hexagrams. This kind of divination money is also called "divination money". ?

(7) daily enjoyment? Coins that people use for daily enjoyment are very common. It is mainly divided into four schools: Jitu, character story, poetry and zodiac. Auspicious language Auspicious language refers to words of blessing and kindness, such as typical words of "perfection", "one book is full of benefits", "two people are one", "three seasons are safe", "six rivers are in the same spring", "seven sons are reunited", "eight immortals live long", "nine generations live together" and "perfection and wealth". There are many kinds of auspicious pictures, most of which are intended to convey meanings and homophones, such as bats are blessed, deer is lucky, turtles, cranes, pines, stones and peaches are longevity, lotus is lotus, fish is surplus, bottles are flat and halberds are luck. People's Story Money is cast on coins with some people and things that people like to see and hear, such as "Seven Immortals", "Eight Immortals", "Twenty-four Filial Pieties", "Cowherd and Weaver Girl" and "jiaozi on weekends". Poetry money is to cast some familiar words on money. The same is true of money in the zodiac.

Three? Faith worship?

(1) Buddha? Buddhism was introduced into China from the Western Han Dynasty, which had a long and profound influence among the people. Naturally, some coins reflecting Buddhist beliefs were produced. Common temples are Dijue Temple, Daanfu Temple, Dapuqing Temple, and Guanyin Bodhisattva, Buddhist Tathagata and Zhu Bao Bodhisattva. And there are also "donations", that is, the money donated by the temple itself to the Buddha or the funds given by the state to the temple. The most famous is 1988, a batch of "Chunhua Yuanbao" unearthed from Wutai Mountain, a Buddhist holy place. In addition, Buddhist money also includes "incense money" and "mantra money".

(2) Taoism, as a local religion in China, has also produced many beliefs offering sacrifices to Taoism and money. Common ones are Guan Gong Qian, such as Taiyi, Yu Xu, Wanshou and Tianbao. Money "such as Taishang Laojun, Dafeng Zushi, etc. In addition, there are "Tai Chi Money", "Gossip Money", "Magic Money" and so on.

China's coin culture and folk culture have a long history and are spectacular. As a cross field between the two, coin folklore needs our further study.