Fountain of Fortune: Money and Monetary Policy in China, 1000-1700
The most striking feature of Wutong, the preeminent God of Wealth in late imperial China, was the deity’s diabolical character. Wutong was perceived not as a heroic figure or paragon but rather as an embodiment of greed and lust, a maleficent demon who preyed on the weak and vulnerable. In The Sinister Way, Richard von Glahn examines the emergence and evolution of the Wutong cult within the larger framework of the historical development of Chinese popular or vernacular religion—as opposed to institutional religions such as Buddhism or Daoism. Von Glahn’s study, spanning three millennia, gives due recognition to the morally ambivalent and demonic aspects of divine power within the common Chinese religious culture.
Surveying Chinese religion from 1000 BCE to the beginning of the twentieth century, The Sinister Way views the Wutong cult as by no means an aberration. In Von Glahn’s work we see how, from earliest times, the Chinese imagined an enchanted world populated by fiendish fairies and goblins, ancient stones and trees that spring suddenly to life, ghosts of the unshriven dead, and the blood-eating spirits of the mountains and forests. From earliest times, too, we find in Chinese religious culture an abiding tension between two fundamental orientations: on one hand, belief in the power of sacrifice and exorcism to win blessings and avert calamity through direct appeal to a multitude of gods; on the other, faith in an all-encompassing moral equilibrium inhering in the cosmos. |
Contents
THE FUNDAMENTALS OF CLASSICAL CHINESE MONETARY ANALYSIS
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13 |
Typology of Money
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16 |
Origins and Nature of Money in Early Chinese Thought
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21 |
Doctrines in the Guanzi
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26 |
The Classical Synthesis of Monetary Analysis
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31 |
Paper Money and Classical Monetary Analysis
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41 |
TRANSITION TO THE SILVER ECONOMY 10001435
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46 |
Erosion of the Bronze Coin Monetary Standard
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47 |
The Second Wanli Coinage Offensive
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159 |
The Sovereignty of the Market
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164 |
THE GREAT DEBASEMENTS THE TIANQI AND CHONGZHEN REIGNS 16201645
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171 |
Fiscal Crisis and Monetary Expansion
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173 |
Operation of the Ministry of Revenue Mints
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176 |
Fiscal Distress and Monetary Retrenchment
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183 |
Deterioration of Coin in the Chongzhen Period
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185 |
The Campaign to Restore Paper Currency
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195 |
The Yuan Regime of Paper Money
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54 |
The Demise of Paper Money in the Early Ming Dynasty
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68 |
COINAGE IN THE DAWNING AGE 14351570
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81 |
The Rise of Private Coinage
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82 |
Chinese Coin and the Japanese Monetary System
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86 |
The Retreat of Coin
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95 |
In the Later Jiajing Period
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102 |
FOREIGN SILVER AND CHINAS SILVER CENTURY 15501650
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111 |
The Circulation of Specie in East Asia During the Silver Century
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123 |
Quantitative Estimates of Silver Imports in Late Ming China
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131 |
COIN VS SILVER EXPANSIONARY POLICIES OF THE WANLI REIGN 15701620
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140 |
Inadequacy of Silver as the Monetary Standard
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141 |
Monetary Policies of Zhang Juzheng
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143 |
Postmortems on Zhang Juzhengs Monetary Offensive
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150 |
Rising Value of Coin
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155 |
THE MONETARY CRISIS OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY
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205 |
Early Qing Currency Policy
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206 |
Depression and Deflation in the Early Kangxi Period
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209 |
Bullionism vs Economic Autarky
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213 |
Bullion Movements in the Late Seventeenth Century
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222 |
New World Silver and the European Price Revolution
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231 |
The SeventeenthCentury Crisis Hypothesis
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235 |
CONCLUSION
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244 |
List of Abbreviations
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257 |
Notes
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259 |
Glossary
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301 |
Bibliography
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309 |
Index
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327 |
Other editions - View all
Fountain of Fortune: Money and Monetary Policy in China, 1000-1700 Richard von Glahn Limited preview - 2023 |
Fountain of Fortune: Money and Monetary Policy in China, 1000-1700 Richard Von Glahn No preview available - 1996 |
Common terms and phrases
baochao Baoquanju Beijing bronze coin capital Chen China Chinese monetary Chongzhen circulation coinage commercial commodities copper court currency system debased coin demand dynasty DZZY early emperor exchange ratio exchange value exports fiat currency fiscal foreign silver form of money Fujian full-bodied coin gold grain guan Guanzi Hangzhou Huang Huizhou inflation issued Japan Japanese Jiajing Jiangnan Jiangxi liang means of exchange measure of value merchants Ming dynasty Ministry of Revenue minting coin mints monetary policy monetary standard monetary system MSL Shenzong Nanjing official old coins output paper currency paper money payments percent period Portuguese precious metals price revolution private coin produced provinces qianfa Qing quantity ruler seigniorage seigniorage revenue seventeenth century Shaanxi Shenzong Shizong silver economy silver imports standard coin state's store of value supply taels Tianqi value of coin Wang wealth Yongle Yuan Zhang Zhang Juzheng Zhejiang Zheng