Item number: X51

Year: AD 735

Material: Silver

Size: 34.6 x 7 x 0.6 cm

Weight: 1,130 g

Provenance: Fuchin Coin 2010

This is a Tang-dynasty hu-form silver ingot, used as yongdiao silver, that is, produced by commutation of tax obligations and prepared for submission.

On the obverse, an inscription was cut with a knife and chisel reading Kaiyuan twenty-third year, Yongyang, yongdiao silver, weight forty liang, character number twenty-nine, recording information such as the date, the category of silver, and the weight. Some ingots also carry notes on the casting office, personnel, officials’ titles and names, and the names of craftsmen. Yongyang refers to Yongyang County of Chuzhou in the Huainan Circuit during the Tang, located roughly around the present-day boundary between Chuzhou in Anhui Province and Nanjing in Jiangsu Province. The term yongdiao silver indicates that the ingot derived from the commutation of yong and diao and thus belonged to fiscal silver used for taxes. Other categories of fiscal silver included merchant-tax silver, mine silver, and market-purchase silver. The numeral forty is written with the variant character xi, formed by two instances of the character for twenty placed side by side. The phrase character number twenty-nine appears to be a serial mark and is relatively uncommon among excavated ingots. The character for two is written in a variant form without the shell radical, functioning as the financial, anti-tampering form used to prevent alteration by adding or deleting strokes.

Following Sui precedents, the Tang implemented the zu–yong–diao system, comprising a land tax primarily collected in agricultural produce, a labour service levy, and a household levy primarily collected in local products. Under the Sui and in the early Tang, this system relied chiefly on in-kind taxation.

From the early Tang onwards, social stabilisation and the recovery of commerce and handicrafts led to the gradual spread of silver as a principal medium for large-scale trade payments. Shortages of copper materials and the resulting insufficiency of small change further encouraged the wider use of silver.

In the second year of Wude under Emperor Gaozu, the Zu–yong–diao regulations stipulated that the household levy should be paid according to local produce, with annual deliveries of silk, fine silk, cloth, floss silk, or hemp; in regions without sericulture, fourteen liang of silver were to be paid instead. Moreover, for non-Han groups who had submitted and been incorporated, only the adult-male tax was collected, in the form of silver or cash. Although these were special provisions, in practice they opened a precedent for officially sanctioned fiscal use of silver.

The modern recovery of Tang fiscal silver from archaeological contexts demonstrates both the gradual disintegration of the zu–yong–diao system and the shift in taxation from in-kind collection towards a monetised economy. The Tang administrative compendium, the Tang Liudian, records Chuzhou’s assigned taxes as hemp and taxed cloth, rather than the tribute of silver typical of places associated with silver production such as Jiangzhou and Ezhou. It follows that the Yongyang ingots were produced after local authorities had collected taxes in goods and money, then commuted and recast them into ingots or silver cakes that were more convenient for transport before submitting them to the central government. Frequent conversions between in-kind and monetary forms created opportunities for officials to expropriate private wealth, a problem that later reforms, including the Two-Tax Law, sought to eliminate.

Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang, Li Longji (AD 685–762), was the third son of Emperor Ruizong, Li Dan. Born amid the late Wu Zhou period of political upheaval, he witnessed intense court संघर्ष in his youth. After the restoration of the Tang following the Shenlong coup, he gradually accumulated networks and military–administrative resources within the imperial clan. From the late Jinglong era to the early Xiantian era, approximately AD 710–713, after Emperor Zhongzong’s death the political arena was dominated by Empress Wei and Princess Anle. Li Longji, allied with forces including Princess Taiping, launched a coup that eliminated the Empress Wei faction, restored governmental order, and installed his father Li Dan as emperor. In the second year of Xiantian (AD 713), he then removed the Princess Taiping group, consolidated imperial authority, and inaugurated the Kaiyuan reign. In the early phase of his rule, with chancellors such as Yao Chong and Song Jing, he promoted measures to reduce bureaucratic excess, rectify officialdom, lighten corvée burdens, restore land and fiscal-service arrangements, and regularise transport and finance; combined with frontier strategy and military preparedness, these policies made the so-called governance of Kaiyuan one of the Tang’s political and economic high points. He also emphasised cultural instruction and ritual–music institutions, encouraged literature and the arts, and presided over a flourishing of court music, dance, and poetic culture. After the Tianbao era began (AD 742–756), however, governance increasingly fell under dominant ministers such as Li Linfu; recruitment and promotion became more conservative and factionalised, regional military governors expanded their power, and the central balance over local military and administration progressively weakened. In his later years Xuanzong became absorbed in luxury and personal pleasures, favoured Lady Yang, and the Yang family, together with the powerful minister Yang Guozhong, came to dominate politics, deepening tensions within court and realm. In the fourteenth year of Tianbao (AD 755), An Lushan rebelled, triggering the An Lushan Rebellion; Chang’an and Luoyang fell in succession, and Xuanzong fled towards Sichuan. At Mawei Station the imperial guards mutinied, forcing the execution of Yang Guozhong and the death of Lady Yang to placate the troops. In the following year (AD 756), amid the emergence of the Lingwu regime, Xuanzong was compelled to abdicate in favour of the crown prince Li Heng, later Emperor Suzong. After returning to the capital he was largely revered without holding substantive power, lived in seclusion within the palace in his final years, and died in the first year of Baoying (AD 762), having witnessed the empire’s dramatic turn from peak prosperity to profound crisis.

物件編號: X51

年代: 公元 735 年

材質: 銀

尺寸: 34.6 x 7 x 0.6 cm

重量: 1,130 g

來源: 福君錢幣 2010

這是一枚唐代的笏形銀鋌，用途為庸調銀，即為折變稅賦而製奉而成。

銀鋌正面以刀鑿刻銘文「開元二十三年永陽庸調銀 重卌兩 第貳拾玖字」，註記年份、白銀來源、重量等資訊。另有些銀鋌還會注有鑄造部門、人員、官員職務姓名、工匠名等。「永陽」為唐代淮南道滁州永陽縣，大約位於今安徽省滁州市與江蘇省南京市交界。「庸調銀」則表示該銀鋌為庸調折變而來，屬於賦稅用銀。賦稅用銀另有稅商銀、礦山銀、和市銀等。「卌」寫為呈兩個「廿」字並列的異體字，意同為「四十」。「第貳拾玖字」似乎為流水號，於已出土的銀鋌中較為少見。「貳」寫為無「貝」旁的異體字，意同「二」，為中文數字的大寫寫法，作防止增刪筆劃以竄改數據之用。

唐從隋制，行租庸調制。即以徵收農作物為主的田租，以徵集人力為主的庸役，以及以徵收地方物產為主的戶調。隋時及初唐的租庸調制以實物徵收為主要的賦稅手段。

唐初以降，社會穩定，工商業恢復，使得作為大宗貿易支付手段的白銀逐漸普及。銅材的缺乏造成的通貨不足，更促進了白銀的廣泛使用。

唐高祖武德二年的《租庸調法》中，便規定了戶調「隨鄉所出，歲輸絹、綾、布、綿、麻。非蠶鄉則輸銀十四兩。」此外，對於蕃胡內附者，僅收丁稅，以銀錢為形式。以上雖為特例，但實際上開官制用銀的先河。

隨著近代唐代稅賦用銀的出土，可知當時租庸調制的逐漸崩壞，以及稅制從實物徵收到貨幣經濟的轉變。《唐六典》中紀錄滁州厥賦麻、貲布，並非如銀礦所在地的江州、鄂州一般進奉白銀，因此可知永陽所貢銀鋌，為徵集作為稅賦的實物、錢財後，折變並製成為利於運輸的銀鋌或銀餅，再進貢中央。稅賦在實物與貨幣間的頻繁轉換，給予了官吏掠奪民財的空間，後乃有兩稅法，冀除此弊。

唐玄宗李隆基(公元685至762年)為唐睿宗李旦第三子，生於武周晚期的權力更迭之中，少年時即目睹宮廷政治的劇烈鬥爭；神龍政變後唐室復辟，他在宗室內逐步累積人脈與軍政資源。景龍末至先天初(約公元710至713年)間，唐中宗死後政局由韋后與安樂公主把持，李隆基聯合太平公主等勢力發動政變，誅韋后勢力以重整朝廷，並扶立其父李旦復位為睿宗；其後又在先天二年(公元713年)清除太平公主集團，鞏固皇權，改元開元。玄宗在位前期以姚崇、宋璟等為相，推行裁冗省費、整飭吏治、減輕徭役、修復均田與賦役秩序、整頓漕運與財政等措施，配合邊防經略與軍事整備，使「開元之治」成為唐代政治與經濟的高峰之一；同時他重視文化教化與禮樂制度，提倡文學藝術，宮廷樂舞與詩歌風尚亦在其時極盛。然至天寶年間(公元742至756年)後，朝政漸由李林甫等權相專斷，官僚用人趨於保守與朋黨化，邊鎮節度使權力膨脹，中央對地方軍政的制衡日益失衡；玄宗晚年亦沉溺聲色，寵愛楊貴妃，楊氏家族與權臣楊國忠擅權，朝廷內外矛盾加深。天寶十四載(公元755年)安祿山起兵反叛，引發安史之亂，長安、洛陽相繼失守，玄宗出逃入蜀，途經馬嵬驛時禁軍譁變，迫使楊國忠被誅、楊貴妃自盡，以平眾怒；翌年(公元756年)玄宗在靈武政權已成的局勢下被迫傳位於太子李亨，即唐肅宗，其後返京後多處於被尊奉而實權不在的境地，晚歲幽居宮中，親歷帝國秩序由盛轉衰的巨大落差，終於寶應元年(公元762年)去世。