Digital museum showcasing the collection of worldwide legends over the years! 千古不朽博物館展示多年來收藏的世界傳奇故事!
Warring States period
Ying Yuan
State of Chu
戰國時期
郢爰
楚國造
Item number: A3294
Year: 447-223 BC
Material: Gold (>ca.900)
Size: 18.0 x 14.0 mm
Weight: 13 g
Manufactured by: Ying Mint
Provenance: Da Chen Stamps and Coins Collection 2015
This is a gold currency piece known as Ying Yuan, issued by the state of Chu during the Warring States period.
The Ying Yuan is rectangular in shape and bears an intaglio square seal on its obverse, inscribed with the large seal script characters “郢爰”, read from right to left. The character “郢” is rendered in a reversed form, resembling “阝呈”. Interpretations of “爰” vary, with alternative readings including “寽”, “爯”, and “布”. The impression of the seal results in a sunken centre with raised edges. A square frame is engraved along the border, and a raised frame remains along the outer edge. Multiple chisel marks appear in the lower left corner, possibly intended to adjust the weight. The reverse bears numerous irregular scratches, the origin of which is uncertain. It is unclear whether they align with the account in Dream Pool Essays (Mengxi Bitan), which states, “The reverse bears marks of five fingers and a palm, the lines clearly visible. It is said to be the transformation of clay, the handprints as if from grasping the clay.”
The Ying Yuan functioned as a weighed currency, its value determined through balancing scales and standard weights. The stamped seal represented the Chu state’s official guarantee of the gold’s purity. Analyses of extant specimens suggest that the gold content typically exceeded 90%, with some reaching up to 99%. As early as the late Spring and Autumn period, round gold discs with stamps were already in circulation in Chu territory. These gradually evolved into turtle-shaped, tile-shaped, and eventually rectangular formats. The development trend included an increase in the number of seals, moving from few to many; the progression from preserving complete seals with blank margins to densely filling the surface even at the expense of destroying earlier impressions; a reduction in spacing between seals; and a transformation from thick and uneven plates to thinner and more uniform ones. Based on the seal’s structural features, this specimen corresponds to Type II “Ying Yuan” gold plates unearthed in 1979 from Tomb No. 6 in Shou County, Anhui Province. Similar forms of gold currency have been found across the territories once held by the Seven Warring States. According to historical records, such currency continued to circulate until AD 95 (the second year of Emperor Wu of Han’s Taishi reign), when the introduction of linzhi and matijin standardised the form of gold coinage.
The name “Ying Yuan” does not appear in historical texts. The earliest known reference to the physical currency may date to the Eastern Jin dynasty. In AD 345 (the first year of Yonghe under Emperor Mu of Jin), the Grand Administrator of Lujiang, Lu Yong, reported finding a gold object resembling a seal along the northern shore of the Chonggu River, and had it delivered by his secretary Li Mai. During the Northern Song period, Shen Kuo recorded in Dream Pool Essays that small gold discs inscribed with seal script “Liu Zhu” were frequently discovered in the soil and streams around Bagong Mountain in Shouzhou. These were popularly known as “seal gold” and were believed to be “alchemical gold” produced by Liu An, the Prince of Huainan, in the Han dynasty. This account was later echoed in the Gazetteer of Fengtai County by Li Zhaoluo in the Qing dynasty, although the inscription was misread as “Zhu Liu”.
It was not until the late Qing that Fang Junyi and his son were the first to interpret the seal characters as “Ying Yuan”, with “Yuan” being a variant of “Huan”, meaning money. Wu Dacheng, in his Experiments on Weights and Measures, was the first to explain “Yuan” as an abbreviated form of the weight unit huan, equivalent to six liang (approximately 93.6 grams today). In History of the Warring States, Yang Kuan interpreted “Yuan” as “Lu”, an abbreviation of lüe, equal to half a liang (roughly 7.8 grams). Japanese scholar Hayashi Kinami, in his article “Weight Units in the Warring States Period”, interpreted the term as “cheng”, also a weight unit. Han Shumao, alternatively, interpreted it as “bu”.
In the early Spring and Autumn period, in 689 BC, King Wen of Chu (Xiong Zi) ascended the throne in Ying, marking the relocation of the capital from Danyang to Ying (modern-day Yicheng in Xiangyang City, Hubei Province). In 506 BC, the Wu state invaded Ying, forcing King Zhao of Chu to flee; even after returning, warfare continued. In 504 BC, King Zhao moved the capital to Ruo (also within modern Yicheng), renaming the city Ying—though some sources refer to it as Yan-Ying. A few years later, the capital was moved to Jiangling, also known as Jinan City (modern Jingzhou District, Jingzhou City, Hubei Province), or Ji-Ying. In 447 BC, Chu annexed the state of Cai. In 241 BC, during the twenty-second year of King Kaolie of Chu’s reign, the capital moved east to Shouchun—originally part of Xia Cai territory—and was again named Ying. Later generations referred to it as Shou-Ying. In 223 BC, Qin forces captured Shou-Ying, bringing an end to the Chu state.
From the Warring States period onward, increasing frequency of transport and trade facilitated the use of gold bullion currency in international trade, marking the first instance in Chinese history of a unified market across northern China. Due to its extensive production, widespread circulation, and broad acceptance among merchants and commoners, Yuan Jin became one of the most representative forms of gold currency.