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THE  CHINESE  EMPIRE
from  time  to  time,  until  we  come  to  the  Golden  Age  of
China—the  Tang  Dynasty,  a.d.  618.  Then  began  the  issue
of  the  coins  inscribed  in  square  modem  character  Kai-yuan.
Coins  with  this  inscription  are  recorded  as  having  been
issued  by  the  first  Tang  Emperor  (a.d.  618-627),  by  t  e
Emperor  who  took  those  characters  (Kai-yuan)  for  his  reign
title  (a.d.713-742),by  the  Emperor  TehTsung  (a.d.780-7  5),
and  by  the  Emperor  Wu  Tsung  (a.d.  841-847),  a  °
fifty-three  years.  The  first  coins  to  be  inscribed  with  t  e
title  of  the  reigning  Emperor,  thus  giving  an  exact  date,
were  issued  in  the  reign  of  Kienfeng  (a.d.  666-668).  T  is
new  currency,  introduced  by  a  strong  and  wise  governmen
in  sufficient  quantities  for  the  needs  of  the  people,  supp  ie
a  type  which  has  endured  to  this  day.  With  a  diameter  j
of  o - 95  inch,  they  were  of  the  same  dimensions  and  weig
as  the  coins  which,  until  the  great  melting  down  of  the  pas  ¡
twenty  years,  constituted  the  chih-tsien  or  standard  coinage
of  the  Empire  ;  and  thirty  years  ago,  searching  critica  y
through  hundreds  of  strings  of  cash  in  everyday  circulation,
I  found  among  them  not  a  few  of  these  coins  which  ha
formed  part  of  the  ordinary  currency  of  the  people  or
eleven  to  thirteen  centuries,  minted  before  the  time  o
Alfred  of  England,  before  Charlemagne  was  crowned  at  Rome,
and  long  before  a  King  of  France  reigned  in  Paris.  T  ie
type  persisted  through  the  Sung  Dynasty  (a.d.  960-1126),
varied  by  occasional  issues  of  coins  of  larger  size,  but  generally ­
  were  of  standard  size.  These  issues  also  were  made  in
sufficient  quantities  for  the  needs  of  the  people,  and  these,
too,  I  have  found  among  coins  in  present  circulation.
Speaking  of  thirty  years  ago,  in  every  thousand  coins  there
would  be  two  or  three  of  the  Tang  and  ten  or  twelve  of
the  Sung  mintage.  The  Golden  Dynasty  of  Nfichen  Tartars
(a.d.  1115-1234)  and  their  contemporaries  the  Southern
Sung  (a.d.  1127-1280)  issued  few  coins  ;  and  the  Mongols,
the  Yuan  Dynasty  (a.d.  1260-1368),  ruling  the  China  that
Marco  Polo  knew,  issued  still  smaller  quantities,  subsisting
as  it  did  mainly  on  fiduciary  issues  of  paper  money.  The
Ming  Dynasty  then  came  in  (a.d.  1368-1642),and  found  itself