四川藏元铸造历史及帝王像辨正

The History of Casting the Sichuan Tibetan Rupee and A Study on the “Emperor” Portrait on It

四川藏元是中国封建王朝反抗外国贸易侵略,维护国家领土主权完整的产物,在中国封建货币史中具有重要的研究意义。四川藏元的铸行经历了酝酿、试铸、朝廷批准铸造等阶段,因政权更替、社会动荡、地方势力等原因造就了诸多版式。四川藏元的铸造是将印度卢比正面的英国女皇像换为清朝男子像,将背面的英文换为汉字,但是在流通过程中,其正面清朝男子像被传为光绪帝像,并逐渐得到认可。通过对四川藏元从最初铸造到最后退出流通的过程进行梳理,厘清了四川藏元的铸行历史,辨明四川藏元正面清朝男子像并非帝王像。

In the late 19th century,the regional monetary system of Tibet collapsed. Therewas a terrible shortage of metal currency,and thesupply of metal currency lagged far behind the development of the social productive forces of Tibet.This created a huge demand for metal money by thepublic. Within the context of this background,Britain initiated their aggressive trade in Tibetthrough the use of the Indian Rupee made by theEast India Company.First, Britain smuggled Indian Rupees into Tibet. After the British invasion of Tibet in 1888,Britain established commercial ports,and,the Indian Rupee was subsequently imported into Tibetin large numbers. Within a short period of time,itbecame the main currency in Tibet. However,theprice of the Indian Rupee was much higher than itsmonetary value and that strongly impacted the currency system of Tibet where both the silver tael andissued currency were used in parallel. The SichuanRupee appeared within this historical context,and was in circulation for more than 50 years in theKang district of Sichuan （ mainly in present GanziTibetan Autonomous Prefecture） .I. The origin of Sichuan Tibetan RupeeThe casting of the Sichuan Rupee wentthrough several stages,for example,preparation,tentatively casting and then casting formally aftergetting the imperial courts approval - the wholeprocess went against the topdown coincasting tradition in feudal China. The casting and circulationof the Sichuan Rupee was a bottomup process;itrose from the folk wisdom,and was eventually recognized by the central government.According to textual research,the SichuanRupee was test casted in 1902,and was officiallyapproved in 1906. It became a kind of official currency that circulated in the Kang district of Sichuan.II. The portrait on Sichuan RupeeIn its early stage of circulation,the portrait onthe front side of Sichuan Rupee was widely regarded to be the emperor,and many scholars assertthat it is the portrait of Emperor Guangxu. In modern times,many researchers believe that the Sichuan Rupee is “ the only silver coin embossedwith the portrait of the head of an emperor in China ” . However,no literary evidence has beenfound to prove definitively that it was the portrait ofEmperor Guangxu.If we look at clothing from the Chinese dynasties,the clothing in the Qing dynasty is the mostrich and complicated,and its regulations werestricter than in other dynasties. The emperor wasthe supreme ruler of the feudal dynasty,and theportrait of the emperor represented the imperialpower. Therefore,all things related to the supremeruler must be reported to the imperial court for approval.There was a strict hierarchy in wearing of hatsin the Qing dynasty,and even rules on wearing theproper style of hat in different occasions. If welook at the kind of hat worn by the person depictedon the Sichuan Rupee,we can determine that it isa winter hat of the jifuguan （ the clothing and hatwore by the emperor and officials） . The different decorations found on hats symbolize the identity ofan emperor and different ranks of officials. As suchwe can see that there is a big difference betweenthe hat worn by the person depicted on the SichuanRupee and that of an emperor. In fact,the hatlooks more like the hat of officials.In addition,the royal clothing of the emperorin the Qing dynasty was also strictly regulated,andthe patterns and designs on the royal clothing alsohad a fixed arrangement. According to the etiquette of the Qing dynasty,the emperor wore different clothes on different occasions. However,theclothing worn by the figure on the Sichuan Rupeeis the same as the clothing worn by the portrait ofQueen Victoria found on the Indian Rupee. Thissuggests that the original intention for making thisdesign is not the portrait of Emperor Guangxu.From a specimen of a copper coin of SichuanRupee,it is possible for us to uncover the original intention of the design of the Sichuan Tibetan Rupee. First,we observe that the portrait of theBritish Queen on Indian Rupee was replaced by amale image in the Qing dynasty. However,theEnglish words “ EMPRESS VICTORIA”were stillthere,and there were only a slight difference inthe pattern of flower vines and the patterns on thecostume of the portraits. Those differences werenot made on purpose by the designer,but were errors created due to poor technical conditions. However,these differences did not affect the issuanceof the Sichuan Tibetan Rupee within the context ofthe currency wars. If we analyze the basic purposeof the Sichuan Tibetan Rupee,we can understandthat the reason for issuing the Sichuan Tibetan Rupee at that time was to solve a very real problem,namely,to eliminate the Indian Rupee as soon aspossible. Therefore,the simplest way to do thiswas to change the portrait of the British monarch onthe front side of the coin to a Chinese portrait,and the words in English to Chinese on the other side.However,in the process of the coins circulation,the male Qing Dynasty image found on the SichuanTibetan Rupee was unexpectedly “ promoted”as the Guangxu emperor.III. The circulation andwithdrawal of the Sichuan RupeeThe SichuanTibetan Rupee cast in the earlyperiod contained more than 90% silver. As timewent on,and with the change of the political andeconomic environment,the quality of the SichuanTibetan Rupee caste in the later period worsenedgreatly. During the period of the Republic of China,the local warlords in Xikang produced a largeamount of Sichuan Tibetan Rupees in order to solvetheir financial problems. However,the castingtechnique was very crude,and the figures on thecoin were ugly and unrefined. Moreover,the quality of the coin was greatly reduced;some coinscontained less than 10% silver. This resulted inthe devaluation of the Sichuan Tibetan Rupee,andchaos in the local currency market. The SichuanTibetan Rupees were caste and circulated,during a period of sociopolitical turmoil,and differentforces were intertwined. As a result,many formatsof the Sichuan Tibetan Rupee existed. These different kinds of Sichuan Tibetan Rupees had obvious differences,representing the changes of thetime and society,and they have become valuablehistorical materials for the study of the social historical development of the Kang district.As an official currency emerging from a bottomup process in ethnic minority areas within thehistorical context of the ChinaBritain currencywar,the Sichuan Tibetan Rupee has a special significance in the monetary history of China. The existence of the Sichuan Tibetan Rupee has an irreplaceable role to play in the study of the history ofthe development of Chinas currency,ethnic communications and the war against aggression. Fromthe perspective of politics,the Sichuan TibetanRupee reflects the specific measures of the Qing government to rule and manage the ethnic minority areas,to resist the aggression,and to safeguardterritorial sovereignty. From the perspective of theeconomics,the Sichuan Tibetan Rupee resisted theIndian Rupee＇s trade aggression,maintained the integrity of the monetary system of China,and laidthe economic foundation for the social and economic development of the Kang district. In terms ofculture,the Sichuan Tibetan Rupee promoted cultural exchanges between the hinterland and ethnicminority areas of China,strengthened the centripetal force of the Chinese nation and deepened thesense of identity of the Chinese nation. The emergence of the Sichuan Tibetan Rupee was a positiveresponse of feudal power to foreign aggression.This article clarifies the history of the Sichuan Tibetan Rupee,and especially provides a new interpretation of the portrait casted on the Sichuan Tibetan Rupee. This,in turn,further strengthensthe foundation for the study of the Sichuan Tibetan Rupee.