從銅“元寶”到銀“元寶”──讀《博異志‧岑文本》、《稼村類稿‧金少翁》札記

In the late Tang Dynasty’ literature Yi Zhi-CEN Wenben, copper cash was referred as an ingot, while in the Yuan Dynasty’ literature Jia Cun Lei Gao-JIN Shaoweng, silver was termed an ingot. The two pieces of literature relate stories about copper ingots and silver ingots as currency. It clearly demonstrates how, from late Tang, Song, Jin Dynasties to Yuan Dynasty, copper went through a period of thriving to declining and eventually was discarded, then the depreciation of paper currency, and eventually silver ingots emerged as the sole currency in the world. It shows that traditional Chinese currency by then had completed a major shift from using copper as a basic currency to instead using silver thus primarily realizing the silverization of currency.