DIAOMU AND MOTHER MONEY

Diaomu was also called ancestor money. It was made of copper, lead, ivory, wood and stone, etc. Diaomu in Qing Dynasty was mainly made of copper, and many still exist today, money made of ivory included XianFeng and GuangXu money, while that carved from lead included GuangXu Diaomu. Recently in China , lead dayuan guobao Diaomu sample money was discovered （Yang Chengqi, China Money, 1983, the first issue）（Figure. 9）. Besides, there were JiaJing Tongbao equivalent to ten palace coins of Ming Dynasty （Zhang Xuhua, China Money, 1984, Issue 3）（Figure. 10）. The “dayuan Tongbao” of Yuan Dynasty mentioned above are 4.6 cm in diameter, and weigh 53.3 g . “JiaJing Tongbao” equivalent to ten copper Diaomu, is made of brass, golden in color and refi ned in craftsmanship. It weigh 23.6 g , is 4.5 cm in diameter and 0.2 cm thick. It was also said by Mr. Zhang Xuhua said,“What exists today is just a few, including “WanLi Tongbao” and “ChongZhen Tongbao” of Ming Dynasty and ShunZhi Diaomu and tin KangXi Diaomu in Qing Dynasty”. And Yang Chengqi said, “There were only a few in WanLi, TianQi and ChongZhen periods”. It is unknown where they got the information.

Then, Zhang Xuhua made the following conclusion: there were two kinds of mother money, Diaomu and ZhuMu. Diaomu was made out of a piece of copper, tin, wood or wax with characters and samples carved in it by carvers with blades. This is the earliest sample money, commonly called ancestor money or Diaomu money. According to historical recordings, mother money was used to make money from the latter part of Six Dynasties The sand-casting technique was quite mature in the beginning years of Tang Dynasty.

As regard to mother money of Song Dynasty, a lot of information was recorded in a book by Ding, especially on iron mother money. In recent years, Gao Guiyun published a Taihe Zhongbao, which could be called a mother money in China Money （1983, the first issue）（Figure. 11）. The money is 4.5 cm in diameter and weighs 0.3 cm . According to Mr. Yang Chengqi, more than a hundred of taihe Zhongbao money with seal characters seen in Shanghai Museum can not be compared in beauty with this Taihe Zhongbao money with seal characters. There are many recordings about mother money, but how are they made, by sand-casting or wax-losing? This is a big question.

The magazine Quanbi（year 1944）once published two YongZheng Tongbao Diaomu money（Figure.12）,but Diaomu was recorded in the largest number in Recording of Qing Money in the Palace Museum by Huang Pengxiao.Previously,almost no Diaomu could be seen in Los Angles, then, Chen Jingyuan found two and I encountered several Diaomu by luck （Figure. 13）. It was since then that some knowledge was accumulated on Diaomu. Figures 14 to 17 are their photos （taken by Mr. Li Jiaju on my behalf）, and table 1 is about their weight, thickness and diameter. Gains and losses in the reform of money system in Qing Dynasty can be seen from table 3. Unlike what was said in Tongdian that ancestor money was 10.9g, QianLong Tongbao in Figure 14 weighed 10.15g, DaoGuang Tongbao in Figure 15 weighed 7.7g, while GuangXu Tongbao was only 4.11g. Judged from craftsmanship, QianLong Tongbao was the most delicate and most refi ned in structure, whereas GuangXu Tongbao was just the opposite. It can be seen from Figures 14 to 17 and Figure 18 that strokes of characters in QianLong Diaomu was imposing and bold, the rou was plain and smooth , and the rim round and regular, while in DaoGuang's and GuangXu's period swfaco of money, the shape of money was arc and its characters were not quite neat. Apart from that, the Diaomu I have looked at, more than twenty of them, were all made of brass, instead of purple copper. Why? The reason is that purple copper tends to get rusted easier than brass. Then, if we look at the GuangXu Tongbao in fugure 17 carefully, when carving the money, the carvers decided the inner diameter, inner outline and outer outline using a compass （Figure, 19）, and made the strokes. According to dayuan Tulu by Bao Kang, if money could be used to make money only after the gold mouth was opened, and the god mouths of QianLong Tongbao and GuangXu Tongbao were not opened （no hole through）, so they were sample Diaomu which were not used to make mother money. It is not sure if this is the right answer.

Figure 20 are two identical DaoGuang Tongbao mother money and one regular money of diff erent mold. If studied carefully, the two mother coins are almost as beautiful as an ancestor coin, only the swface of money is not very smooth, but the sand holes are less than those of regular coins. The doubt is that the method of making mother money using ancestor money and the method of making regular money with mother money by sand casting are diff erent with each other. I am quite certain that their making procedures are different. Now it is impossible to decide whether mother money was made with ancestor money by a special sand-casting method or the wax-losing method. I believe that it is probably the latter. I have done an experiment on making money by wax-losing. Of course, the money must be beautiful when it is made after ancestor money （Diaomu）by the wax-losing method. I made money after mother money by wax-losing （Figure. 21）, it was beautiful when it was made and polished. Then, I made money after the son money （made after the mother money）. The money resulted （I called it grandson money）was beautiful too, and remained beautiful after polishing. In a word, it was a lot more beautiful than the regular. What is said above is the strongest evidence that mother money was made after ancestor money by wax-losing and I hope to get ideas from quan pals.

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Figure14 Figure15

Figure16 Figure17

Table 3

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