从布帛到黄金:试论古代东亚的国际货币

From Silk to Gold:A Study of Ancient International Currency in East Asia

日本遣唐使入唐后获得书籍的途径多种多样,等价购书是其中之一。长期以来,东亚古代货币史一直是备受国内外学术界关注的领域。虽然国别货币史研究已有丰赡的学术成果积累,但有关东亚各国通用的国际货币研究则主要集中在宋明时期中国货币的域外流通,很少有人论及隋唐时代东亚朝贡贸易圈内的通用货币问题。日本学术界流行一种说法:从8世纪开始,遣唐使就携带大量黄金到中国消费,给唐人造成日本盛产黄金的印象,这一印象又通过唐人传给伊斯兰商人,从而促使9世纪黄金之国"外克瓦克(al-Wāqwāq)"传说在亚洲的流行。事实上,日本到8世纪中叶才首次发现黄金,之前百余年的黄金消费完全依赖进口,之后约半个世纪所产黄金仅供内需。公元804年派往中国的第18次遣唐使首次携带黄金在中国作为货币使用,而整个8世纪东亚流通的货币是布帛,这与朝鲜半岛、日本列岛引进中国的"租庸调"制度密切相关。

The research on the history of East Asian ancient currencies has been long receivingattention from domestic and overseas scholars.The studies of the history of the currency in individual countries of the East Asian region have attained a great amount of achievements,while the studies of the international currency among countries in East Asian mainly focus on the overseas distribution of Chinese currency during the Song and Ming dynasties;there is very few studies that discuss the common currency in the East Asian region during the Sui and Tang dynasties.In the period of Sui and Tang dynasties,the East Asian Community,which was built on the interaction of tribute and investiture between imperial dynasty and other peripheral countries,on the one hand exhibited its distinguished political or diplomatic feature;on the other hand it possessed a strong aspect of cultural exchange. What＇s more,it also showed a marked characteristic of official trade.As far as envoys dispatched from Imperial China to foreign countries and missions between Bohai,Silla and Japan are concerned,which kind of currency was used to facilitate trading？The answers to this question provided by the previous studies are unconvincing.A popular view in the academia of Japan is：since the beginning of the 8th century,the Japanese envoys to Tang China had already brought gold on them as currency to consume in Imperial China,and it hence left the impression on the Tang Dynasty people that Japan had large gold reserves.Even,this impression was passed on to the Islamic businessmen by Tang People,and caused the prevalence of the saying″al-Wāqwāq″（the country of gold）in Asian in the 9th Century.Was Japan rich in gold in ancient time？Was Gold the common currency in the East Asian Region back to the 8th century？The answers to these questions remain unclear.Firstly,it is until 749 A.D.that gold reserve was first discovered in Mutsu,Japan.Emperor Shomu stated clearly in imperial edicts that gold came from other countries since the creation of the world,and Japan never produced gold.Therefore,it is impossible that the Japanese missions to Tang China carried gold.On the contrary,Japanese envoys to Tang China even undertook the task of buying gold.Secondly,according to the records of the Jiu Tangshu,Zhang Zhuo was a prestigious literate,the embassies from Japan and Silla to Tang China would purchase his works with″gold″every time when they were in China.It needs to note that″gold″here is not merely the gold currency;rather,″gold″should be interpreted as the general name of all forms of currency.Back then,there was no gold production in Japan,and the money given by the Silla court to Silla students in Tang China to buy books was called″book-purchasing silver.″Half century after the discovery of gold in Japan,the production in Mutsu could barely meet Japan＇s domestic demand hence it could not be employed as currency in international trading.For the whole 8th century,the common currency in East Asian was″silk.″Engishiki documents the currency given by the Japanese court to the envoys to Tang China,Bohai and Silla is″silk,″which includes″shi（）″″mian（绵）″and″bu（布）.″The fact that silk was the international currency form used in East Asian can be attributed to the threefold tax system of grain,cloth and corvee labour,which was held by Tang Empire and adapted by Japan and Silla.Silk had been used as the common currency in East Asian countries for a long time.However,the drawback of this form of currency is apparent：the size of silk is large,and it is inconvenient to handle.In 804 A.D.,for the first time the Japanese envoys to Tang China used gold rather than silk as currency in China.This replacement is of milestone significance in the history of East Asian international currency.With small size and high value,and with production growing year by year in Japan,gold was brought by envoys,monks and merchants as travelling money for the century afterwards.The image of″the country of gold″of Japan was then formed.