Chinese burial money () a.k.a. dark coins ()Asian Art – Providing for the Afterlife: "Brilliant Artifacts" from Shandong. Banliang coins – Han dynasty (206 BCE–220 CE) – Bronze – Diam. (average) 2.3 cm – Collection of Shandong Provincial Museum (cat. #18A). Retrieved: 15 May 2018. are Chinese imitations of currency that are placed in the grave of a person that is to be buried. The practice dates to the Shang dynasty when cowrie shells were used, in the belief that the money would be used in the afterlife as a bribe to Yan Wang (also known as Yama) for a more favourable spiritual destination. The practice changed to replica currency to deter grave robbers,Ann Paludan – Chinese Tomb Figurines (Images of Asia) – , . and these coins and other imitation currencies were referred to as clay money () or earthenware money ().Nations Online Joss Paper. Joss Paper, also known as ghost or spirit money, are sheets of paper that are burned in traditional Chinese deity or ancestor worship ceremonies during special holidays. Joss paper is also burned in traditional Chinese funerals. Retrieved: 15 May 2018.
Chinese burial money has been discovered dating as far back as 1300 BCE and remained popular throughout Chinese history until the advent of joss paper and hell money during the late 19th century CE.
History
Burial money was modeled after the many different types of ancient Chinese coinages, and earlier forms of burial money tended to be actual money. Graves that were dated to the Shang dynasty period have been discovered that contain thousands of cowrie shells, for example, the Fu Hao-mu, dating to about the year 1200 BCE, was discovered containing 6,900 cowry shells. Chinese graves dating to the Warring States period are found containing contemporary coinages buried as funerary objects such as spade money, knife money, ring-shaped coins, ant-nose coins, and Ban Liang cash coins. But as the presence of real money and other objects of value would attract the attention of potential grave robbers, the Chinese started to manufacture clay imitations of real money. This was done as the contemporary Chinese believed that if the grave was robbed then the spirit of the deceased person who laid inside of the tomb was disturbed by these robbers and the money that was formerly located in the grave that was meant to ensure his or her comfort in the afterlife was now gone, making their afterlife less comfortable.Poo Mu-chou, In Search of Personal Welfare: A View of Ancient Chinese Religion (Albany: SUNY Press, 1998), p. 170. Also see Anna Seidel, "Tokens of Immortality in Han Graves," Numen 29 (1982), p. 111.
Chinese burial money has been discovered made from stones and bones (along with cowrie shells) in the earliest forms, later forms include thin metallic imitations of circulation currency during the Spring and Autumn period. The imitation metal money found in these ancient tombs ended to be thin and fragile, and were typically made of lead and bronze. Initially archaeologists believed that imitations of currencies were only used by the poor, but the discovery of imitation money in the tombs of the wealthy had changed this view.
The Chinese custom of burying the deceased with coins can be compared to the ancient Greek and Roman customs of burying people with a coin to pay with a passage to the underworld. In the Chinese afterlife burial coins could be used to purchase either less or no punishment for bad karma, or even for the purchase of luxury items.
"Laid to Rest" burial charms
Chinese "Laid to Rest" burial charms are bronze funerary charms or coins usually found in graves. They measure from in diameter with a thickness of and they contain the obverse inscription which means "to be laid to rest", while the reverse is blank. These coins were mostly found in graves dating from the late Qing dynasty period, though one was found in a coin hoard of Northern Song dynasty coins. The wéi is written using a simplified Chinese character () rather than the traditional Chinese version of the character (). These coins are often excluded from numismatic reference books on Chinese coinage or talismans due to many taboos, as they were placed in the mouths of dead people and are considered unlucky and disturbing, and are undesired by most collectors.Jibi.net [http://www.jibi.net/News/zpsx/8_30_21_768.html : Retrieved: 15 May 2018. (in Mandarin Chinese using Simplified Chinese characters)997788 入土为安 。 成交时间： 27 December 2015 09:38:41. Retrieved: 15 May 2018. (in Mandarin Chinese using Simplified Chinese characters) 。 2015-05-24 14:16:29 Retrieved: 15 May 2018. (in Mandarin Chinese using Simplified Chinese characters)
These existed some controversy to the attribution of this Chinese burial coin, this is because the wei is written using the simplified Chinese character instead of the traditional Chinese variant . The argument used to dispute its typical attribution to the Manchu Qing dynasty period was that because simplified Chinese characters did not exist in a standardised form prior to their introduction by the Communist government of the People's Republic of China in the year 1956. This hypothesis has been debunked as research into the simplified form of this particular Chinese character has shown, however, that the simplified variant of it has existed at least from the time of the Ming dynasty period ending the controversy surrounding its origins.
Clay burial money
Clay money (), or earthenware money (), was a special type of Chinese burial money that started appearing sometime during the Han dynasty period. Clay money was created as an alternative to burying actual money with the deceased in the hopes of preventing the grave to be "disturbed" by graverobbers.
In the book Han Material Culture written by the Sinologist Sophia-Karin Psarras it is stated that any representation of real life currency was considered legal tender that could be used as a medium of exchange in the afterlife. This belief helped the transition of using real bronze, silver, and / or gold money in Chinese graves with surrogate forms of money made of clay. As these imitations of money made from clay had no actual value in "the world of the living" they would deter grave robbers from breaking in and "disturbing" the dead. Because clay money is so cheap to produce it was used by both the wealthy and impoverished, as the poor could afford to buy these clay imitations of actual coins to bury with their deceased relatives.
Clay money for funerary uses could be based on "low money" or "low currency" (), such as copper-alloy cash coins, or on "high money" or "high currency" (). "High currency" is a term that referred to silver and gold currencies that were produced during the Warring States, Qin dynasty, and Han dynasty periods. While initially the aristocracy tended to buried with genuine specimens of "high currency", later clay versions of these coinages were also produced.
Clay cowrie shell money
Clay cowrie shell money () is often found the graves of the wealthy, sometimes alongside real money. Clay cowrie shell money are inspired by the earliest money in the monetary history of China.
Clay versions of State of Chu gold plate money
Clay versions of the Warring States era Kingdom of Chu gold plate money () are sometimes found buried in tombs of the late Zhou dynasty era, known as the Warring States period and even during later periods such as the Han dynasty. At the Mawangdui archaeological site over 300 pieces of this clay replicas of Ying Yuan were discovered.
Clay cash coins
Cash coins had a special significance for the ancient Chinese in reference to their concept of the afterlife. The ancient Chinese believed that cash coins served as a sort of cosmic map for the deceased to ascent to the heavens. In the ancient Chinese world view the earth was square while the heavens were round. Because of these beliefs cash coin themed objects are commonly found in tombs dating to the Han dynasty period as well as bronze trees which are laden with either real or imitations of Wu Zhu cash coins, which are sometimes known as shengxianshu ("immortal ascension trees"),Zhang Maohua, "Money Trees Explained," China Archaeology and Art Digest 4, no. 4 (April–May 2002), pp. 20–21. and cash coin patterns are also found in the clay directional tiles of tombs.
Clay cash coins are also referred to as Tuqian () meaning "dirt cash".
Clay Ban Liang cash coins
Specimens of clay Ban Liang () cash coins were uncovered at the Mawangdui site located in Changsha, Hunan. The Mawangdui site dates to the early Han dynasty period and the clay Ban Liang cash coins were discovered strung together. At Tomb No. 1, which is the resting place of Xin Zhui (the Marquise of Dai), around 100,000 clay Ban Liang cash coins were recovered from the site. These clay Ban Liang cash coins were located in 40 different containers with each container holding between approximately 2500 and 3000 imitation coins.Hunan sheng bowuguan et al., Changsha Mawangdui yihao mu, vol. 1, p. 126; and ibid., vol. 2, p. 198, plate 226 (banliang); p. 220, plate 254 (banliang); p. 197, plate 227 (yingcheng); and p. 220, plate 255 (yingcheng). (in Mandarin Chinese).
The burial of clay Ban Liang cash coins followed that closely of earlier burials of real circulation coins, as around 100,000 Ban Liang cash coins were discovered inside of the tomb of Liu Fei, Prince of Jiangdu.
Clay Wu Zhu cash coins
Clay Wu Zhu () cash coins are sometimes discovered in graves and other burial sites which date from the Han dynasty onwards throughout the 700 years that cash coins with this legend (or inscription) were produced. Clay Wu Zhu cash coins are quite frequently discovered in Han dynasty period graves, for example a Han dynasty period burial site located near the city of Shanghai's Fuquanshan () site was discovered containing several hundreds of clay Wu Zhu cash coins inside of it.
According to the American art historian Susan Erickson (of the Department of Art History, University of Michigan) in her 1994 article "Money Trees of the Eastern Han Dynasty", the Wu Zhu cash coin had special significance for the dead in China, as the Hanzi character "Zhu" () could in this context also refer to the trunk of the 300 li (around ) tall fusang tree which in ancient Chinese mythology is considered to be an auspicious symbol that helps to guide the deceased on their journey to the heavens and eventually immortality in the afterlife.Erickson, Susan N., "Money Trees of the Eastern Han Dynasty," pp. 31–32.
Over time the Chinese view of what Wu Zhu cash coins meant for the deceased evolved. Over time the Wu Zhu cash coins began to play a more down-to-earth role as the way that the Chinese saw the afterlife also changed, the Chinese began to believe that the afterlife was very similar to the realm of the living and that the deceased would also have a need for money. The clay imitations of money that were placed inside of the tombs could therefore be used by the dead to pay debts and taxes that are owed to the otherworldly (or "hell") government in the afterlife.