Qīndìng Qiánlù 欽定錢錄
Imperially Authorized Catalogue of Coinage by 梁詩正 (Liáng Shīzhèng, 奉敕撰) and 蔣溥 (Jiǎng Pǔ, 奉敕撰), with Wāng Yóudūn 汪由敦, Jī Huáng 嵇璜, Guān Bǎo 觀保, Qiú Yuēxiū 裘曰修, Dǒng Bāngdá 董邦達, Jīn Déyīng 金德瑛, Qián Wéichéng 錢維城, 于敏中 (collaborators)
About the work
A sixteen-juàn imperial Qing numismatic catalogue, the most authoritative pre-modern Chinese work on coinage. Begun in the winter of Qiánlóng gēngwǔ (1750) on imperial command and completed in the summer of Qiánlóng xīnwèi (1751); composed in the format of a chronologically-arranged illustrated catalogue of 567 specific coins from the Qing imperial collection. The arrangement: juàn 1–13 by reign, from Fúxī down to Míng Chóngzhēn; juàn 14 foreign coinages (外域諸品); juàn 15 auspicious-inscribed coins, marriage-gift coins (sǎzhàng 撒帳), strange coins (異錢); juàn 16 amulets and exorcism coins (yànshèng 厭勝).
Tiyao
We submit that the Qīndìng Qiánlù is in sixteen juàn. In Qiánlóng 15 (1750) it was composed by imperial command. Juàn 1 through 13 list in detail the coinages-and-spades of successive ages, from Fúxī to Míng Chóngzhēn, in chronological-year order. Juàn 14 lists the foreign-domain coinages; juàn 15 and 16 are concluded by the auspicious-inscribed coins, strange coins, and amulet coins. Investigating: the Qiánpǔ first appears in the Suí [bibliographic] zhì with no author named; that work is no longer transmitted. The various authorities from Táng Fēng Yǎn 封演 onwards — their recorded coinages are also no longer transmitted. The principal extant transmitter is the Sòng Hóng Zūn 洪遵 Quánzhì 泉志, which is the oldest — and is reprinted by the Máo family of the Jígǔgé 汲古閣. However its classification — zhèngpǐn (genuine) versus wěipǐn (counterfeit) — does not specify dates; further it has the categories qípǐn (strange) and shénpǐn (divine) which suffer from confusion. For the most part Hóng Zūn did not see the actual objects but drew his illustrations from what he found in the various books, imagining-the-form — as Niè Chóngyì 聶崇義 illustrated the Sānlǐ — and where a book gave only a name without describing form or inscription, he simply rendered it as the standard “outside-round, inside-square” rim-form: how could this kind of illustration have value? His glossing-and-explanation likewise tends to speculation and offers little reliable conclusion.
The present compilation records only what is present in the imperial inner-court storage and witnessed at the source — hence not only do the inscriptions-and-decorations match the originals point-by-point, but the diameter-measurements in tenths-and-hundredths, and the colorations in red-yellow-blue-green, all faithfully reproduce the appearances. Verification of differences-and-similarities and discrimination of genuine-from-counterfeit are everywhere grounded in classical-citations, with not a single empty word. Even the smallest object reveals the way of accountability-to-reality and the meaning of consulting-antiquity. As to observing weight-and-thickness to determine whether the [coinage] policy was workable, observing fineness-and-coarseness to know whether the government was effective — the merits and defects of the coinage of all ages can be seen at a glance. The work is therefore not merely a resource for broad-learning. Submitted Qiánlóng 52 month 10 (1787).
Abstract
The work is the apex of Qing numismatic scholarship and the standard pre-modern reference for Chinese coinage history. It is the most directly evidentiary of the imperial Qing-period catalogues (more so than the Xīqīng yànpǔ KR3i0009 and the Xīqīng gǔjiàn KR3a ritual-bronze catalogues), because every coin illustrated is one actually held in the imperial collection, traced from the object rather than imagined from textual description. The principal predecessor work, Hóng Zūn’s Sòng-period Quánzhì 泉志, is severely criticized as drawn from text rather than object — and as muddling chronology by category-driven (rather than time-driven) arrangement.
The work’s chronological arrangement — strict by reign and year — established the modern conventions for Chinese numismatic classification: each coin tied to a specific regnal-issue date. The work also includes many coins not previously recorded: the jūnshǒu yīngtiānyuánbǎo 君守應天元寶 of Liú Shǒuguāng’s short-lived Yan kingdom (911–913); the Liáo-Jīn-Yuán-period non-Han issues; the late Míng rebel coinages; and the foreign-domain coinages of Japan, Korea, Vietnam, the Liúqiú, and Inner-Asian Islamic mints (Mughal, Persian, Central-Asian si-mò-ǎn and cāhétái issues).
The collaboration was unusually large: ten signatories to the preface, including the principal high-Qing court scholars Liáng Shīzhèng, Jiǎng Pǔ, Wāng Yóudūn, Jī Huáng, Dǒng Bāngdá (the famous painter), Qián Wéichéng (the famous painter and huìyuán of 1745), and Yú Mǐnzhōng — a roster comparable to that of the Sìkù project itself. The work is a major monument of mid-Qiánlóng imperial scholarship.
Translations and research
- Wáng Yùxián 王毓銓. 1957. Wǒ-guó gǔ-dài huò-bì de qǐ-yuán hé fā-zhǎn 我國古代貨幣的起源和發展. Běijīng: Kē-xué chū-bǎn-shè. The standard modern history of Chinese coinage; treats the Qián-lù as principal source.
- Thierry, François. 1997. Monnaies de Chine. Paris: Bibliothèque nationale de France (in French; the standard modern Western catalogue of Chinese coins). Cites the Qián-lù throughout.
- Hartill, David. 2005. Cast Chinese Coins. Trafford. The standard English-language reference, drawing heavily on the Qián-lù.
Other points of interest
The numismatic yànshèng 厭勝 (amulet) coins of juàn 16 are a major source for popular religion and material-culture in late imperial China, including marriage-amulets, longevity-amulets, exorcism coins (yāshèng 壓勝), and astrological coins. The work also documents the zǐmǔ qián 子母錢 phenomenon, the gōuyú qián 鉤魚錢, and the famous Tàipíng tōngbǎo 太平通寶 / Tàipíng yǐbǎo 太平易寶 anomalies of the Northern Sòng.