Qián Tōng 錢通
Comprehensive Treatise on Money by 胡我琨 (撰)
About the work
A late-Míng comprehensive treatise on Chinese coinage by Hú Wǒkūn 胡我琨 (zì Zìyù 自玉), a late-Míng numismatist whose biography is not transmitted. 32 juǎn (catalog meta) divided into thirteen gates: Zhèngshuò yītǒng (legitimate succession), Yuán (origin), Zhì (system), Xiàng (form/iconography), Yòng (use), Cái (material), Xíng (circulation), Cāo (operation), Jié (regulation), Fēn (denomination), Yì (anomalies), Bì (defects), Wén (inscriptions), Rùn (intercalary). Treats Míng coinage primarily but extends to ancient and foreign-origin coinage; supplements the standard Sòngshǐ / Míngshǐ monetary treatises with rare numismatic details. Probably composed in the late Wànlì or TiānqǐChóngzhēn period.
Tiyao
By Hú Wǒkūn of the Míng. Wǒkūn, zì Zìyù 自玉; rank and place unknown. From the events and dates recorded in the work, he was a late-Míng man. The book treats Míng coinage primarily, with discussions of ancient systems where relevant. Headings: Zhèngshuò yītǒng, Yuán (origin), Zhì (system), Xiàng (form), Yòng (use), Cái (material), Xíng (circulation), Cāo (operation), Jié (regulation), Fēn (denomination), Yì (anomalies), Bì (defects), Wén (inscriptions), Rùn (intercalary)—thirteen gates in all, each with sub-headings.
The Míng-system record runs from HóngwǔYǒnglè to Wànlì, citing standard-history annals, treatises, biographies, and various biji and prose collections—the citations are quite comprehensive. On Míng coinage history it lays out the changes thread by thread, with detail unavailable in the Míng shǐ Shíhuò zhì, the Míng huìdiǎn, or the Míng diǎnhuì.
For ancient systems: he cites the Guìhǎi yúhéng zhì on the copper of Yòujiāng; the Sòng huìdiǎn on the coin-counts of the Lìzhōu mints—useful supplements to the Táng and Sòng standard histories. Other matters such as the Qián xiàng (form-and-iconography) gate’s Yellow-River-coin and Tóuhé guó coin types, not in the old numismatic pǔ of Dǒng Yōu, Hóng Zūn, Lǐ Xiàoměi, or Gù Xuān, are likewise valuable for textual research.
The book includes some genuinely odd things—Liú Réngōng’s “Nine-Earths Coins” was an absurd manufacture, but it is illustrated here, mixing the serious with the trivial. Yet the principle is comprehensive coverage; one cannot fault him for collecting both major and minor.
Abstract
A specialist late-Míng numismatic treatise of unusual scope. Hú Wǒkūn’s biography is unrecorded; the dating bracket here (1620–1644) reflects late-Wànlì through end-of-Míng compilation. The catalog meta gives the title as Qián tōng and the extent as 32 juǎn, both consistent with the Sìkù tíyào.
The work is the most comprehensive surviving pre-Qīng Chinese numismatic monograph and a key source for modern Chinese numismatic studies. Joe Cribb’s A Catalogue of Sycee in the British Museum (BM Press, 1992) and Wang Yu-Quan, Early Chinese Coinage (American Numismatic Society, 1951) both draw on it. The principal modern Chinese reference for Chinese numismatics is Péng Xìnwēi 彭信威, Zhōngguó huòbì shǐ 中國貨幣史 (rev. ed. 2007), which uses the Qián tōng as one principal source.
Translations and replicates
Standard editions: Wényuāngé Sìkù. No specialist Western treatment of the work specifically; it is used as a primary source. Chinese: Liú Sēn 劉森, Sòng-Míng huò-bì zhì-dù yán-jiū 宋明貨幣制度研究 (Zhōng-yāng mín-zú dà-xué chū-bǎn-shè, 2003), uses the work as primary source on late-Míng monetary practice.
Other points of interest
The inclusion of the deliberately absurd “Nine-Earths Coins” of Liú Réngōng (the late-Táng warlord who briefly issued mud and clay coinage as he ran out of metal) shows Hú Wǒkūn’s commitment to documentary completeness over polemical curation—a principle the Sìkù editors approve.