Chapter 25 Section 1 Liao (Khitan) coins

The Liao Kingdom, also known as Khitan, is a country established by the Khitan people living in Northeast China. It formed a three-nation situation with the Northern Song Dynasty and Xixia at the same time.Since the founding of the country by Taizu Abaoji in 916 AD, it has gone through the Five Dynasties, the Northern Song Dynasty, and a total of 294 years including the Northern Liao Dynasty and the Western Liao Dynasty.Khitan has a lot of copper. Some people say that some ancient coins are the early coins of Khitan, such as "Tongxingquanhuo", "Kaidan Shengbao", "Dan Xun Tie Bao", "Hundred Tie Treasures", "Xun Tie Thousand Treasures" , "Daquan Wuzhu", "Long Live Qianqiu", etc., have different shapes and sizes, and different calligraphy styles.In the first year of Taizu Tianzan (922 A.D.), "Tianzan Tongbao" coins were cast. There are three types: regular script with a flat back, 2.4 cm in diameter and 2.9 grams in weight; official script with moon patterns on the back, 2.3 cm in diameter and 2.65 grams in weight; Another kind of ancient seal script.From then on to Emperor Tianzuo, a total of eight generations cast 23 kinds of coins for the year.Emperor Taizong Yelu Deguang set up Wuye Taishi to collect money and iron from all directions. In the second year of Tianxian (AD 927), he cast "Tianxian Tongbao", with a flat back, a diameter of 2.4 cm, and a weight of 2.7 grams.Tianxian and Tianzan coins later became the unified form of Liao coins.Mu Zong cast "Yingli Tongbao" and iron coins.Jing Zong cast "Baoning Tongbao" and "Qianheng Yuanbao", and set up a money casting institute to cast more new money to make up for the shortage of old money.Shengzong cast "Tonghe Yuanbao", "Kaitai Yuanbao", "Taiping Yuanbao", "Taiping Tongbao", "Taiping Xingbao" and other coins.Xingzong cast "Chongxi Tongbao", and set up a money and silk department in Changchun Zhuzhou to take charge of it.Daozong forbids folks to sell and transport money out of the country, and casts "Qingning Tongbao", "Qingning Yuanbao" as ten coins, "Xianyong Tongbao" Xiaoping folds two and three, "Dakang Yuanbao", "Dakang Tongbao", "Da'an Yuanbao", "Shouchang Yuanbao" and other money.Emperor Tianzuo cast "Qiantong Yuanbao", "Tianqing Yuanbao", "Tianqing Tongbao" and "Daliao Tianqing" as ten coins.The above Liao coins are in Khitan script except Daquan Wuzhu, and the rest are in Chinese official script and regular script.Most of them are Xiaoping.The shape is unified and stable.Cast 500 guan at the age of one.The casting is rough, the back of the money is often wrong, and the calligraphy of the money is also poor.The economic development of various parts of the Liao Kingdom is uneven, and some still trade in kind, using livestock, cloth and silk, and official salaries to distribute cattle and sheep.At the end of the Song Dynasty, during the attack between the north and the south of the Song Dynasty and the Jin Dynasty, the treasury was exhausted, and the currency system collapsed along with the regime.