Da Shu coinage

Quick Facts: Who was Da Shu coinage?

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Da Shu coinage

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The coinage of the Great Shu Kingdom, produced during a major peasant revolt in 10th-century Sichuan.

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Origins & Early Life

The coinage of the Great Shu Kingdom (Traditional Chinese: 大蜀貨幣 / 大蜀起義軍鑄) is the earliest known coinage produced by a peasant revolt in the history of China, the revolt lasted from 993 until 995 and during this period a small number of cash coins were produced by the peasant rebellion using the era names of the rebel leader Li Shun. It was only with the strongest military efforts that the Song dynasty was able to suppress the rebellion and restore their rule over the Shu region. The coinage produced by the Da Shu Kingdom is often rather roughly produced and as the rebellion only lasted a few years not many cash coins were produced leading to them being extremely rare today. The first two inscriptions were produced for five months under King Li Shun while after his death the remaining rebels introduced a new inscription which was produced for a year until the rebellion was finally put down. Three decades after the Song dynasty was founded its government still had issues consolidating its power and rule over China and didn't properly address the most important social issues that plagued the population.

Pivotal Works & Achievements

The economy of the Song dynasty was in a bad shape during this period and around the country peasants were forming their own armies to rebel against the government and started killing corrupt government officials. The largest of these peasant revolts was organised by tea farmers and landless tenant farmers (旁戶, páng hù) in the Shu region (蜀, the modern day province of Sichuan) where these peasants were protesting exploitation by rich landowners of the Sichuan Basin and the Song government's state monopoly on the purchasing of tea (均貧富, bó mǎi wù), this monopoly prevented the tea farmers from obtaining a reasonable income to live off. Another contributing factor to the bad living conditions of the peasantry at the time was a severe drought that devastated the country while the Song dynasty was suffering heavy losses against both the Khitans and the Tanguts. By the year 993 the number of participants of the uprising in Sichuan had reached several hundred thousand farmers. The revolt adopted the motto "equalise the income of the rich and poor" (均貧富, jūn pín fù) and under the leadership of Wang Xiaobo (王小波) were able to beat the government's military forces stationed in Sichuan and after taking over state granaries distributed the grain that was present among themselves.

Enduring Legacy & Impact

After Wang Xiaobo was killed in action, his brother-in-law Li Shun (李顺) took over his position and managed to take the city of Chengdu. After this victory Li Shun crowned himself as the "King of Great Shu" (大蜀王, dà shǔ wáng) in the year 994 and proclaimed the period title of "Yingyun" (應運, yìng yùn). From the year 994 Li Shun began the production of both bronze and iron cash coins with the legends Yingyun Tongbao (應運通寶) and Yingyun Yuanbao (應運元寶), these inscriptions are read in a clockwise manner (旋讀, xuán dú) and the type of Chinese calligraphy used on them is Bafen script (八分書, bā fēn shū) which is a conservative type of clerical script (隸書, lì shū). These cash coins notably resemble the older cash coins produced by the kingdoms of Former Shu and Later Shu during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, both of these states were situated in the same region as the Da Shu Kingdom and shared the same capital city. However, as Li Shun was killed and as he only ruled over the newly proclaimed Kingdom of Da Shu for five months his former subordinates began casting both bronze and iron cash coins with the legend Yinggan Tongbao (應感通寶) after his death.

Historical Fact-Check Quiz: Da Shu coinage

True or False: “Did the Da Shu coinage circulate widely across all of China due to its high artistic quality?”

Answer (FALSE ❌): The coins circulated only in a very small area because transporting them across the Shu region was logistically troublesome.

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