Master Archaeologist

Chapter 95 Doctoral Topics
The appearance of this balance pole in the Western Han Dynasty, in fact, the most important impact is not to prove that the Chinese people had already used balances before BC.

There is no need to prove this anymore. The scales of the Warring States Period and the Qin and Han Dynasties have been unearthed long ago.

What matters is the inscription on the balance pole of this day!
The previous introductions are actually not the point.

The key point is the last sentence on the back: "Dare to choose the weight and balance and use it, impeach and punish you, and stay at home for ten days."

And the invisible "X yellow law" on the side of the balance pole!
Obviously, this is a law!
And it's not a law recorded in the surviving Han laws!
"This law is likely to be the legal regulation of Qian Heng when Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty was called." Kong Jianwen pointed to the seal script on the picture, and patiently explained to Chen Han:
""Historical Records Chronology of Generals and Famous Ministers Since Hanxing" said in the fifth year of Emperor Wen: "In addition to the law of money, the people have to make money. "

""Han Shu Wendi Ji" says: "In addition to stealing coins, four baht coins are cast. "

"From this, it can be seen that five years before Emperor Wen, the country had legal regulations on the coin casting industry."

"However, since Emperor Wen abolished the law of stealing and casting money in the fifth year and made the people release the casting, according to historical records, "the Japanese who abandoned donations for farming and picked copper were Japanese, and they released their unborn, smelted cooking charcoal, and the amount of treacherous money increased day by day. "

"After letting go of private coinage, whether farmers, merchants, handicraftsmen, or officials are minting currency, the result is that county currency systems are different, either light or heavy, or copper content is different, leading to currency confusion. All kinds of four-baht and three-baht coins are flying all over the place."

"The weight of currency and copper content cannot be unified, which has caused disorder in the market and the currency system. This is the crux of the abolition of the "Qian Law"."

"Faced with this situation, Jia Yi once wrote to Emperor Wen, asking the central government to exclusively mint currency, or to stipulate the alloy composition of mint currency."

"Although Emperor Wen did not immediately adopt Jia Yi's suggestion at that time, he must have taken some measures to manage the currency and market in the later period of Emperor Wen's reign."

"The Qianheng rod unearthed from Tomb No. 168 in Fenghuang Mountain this time is a proof."

"On this "weighing rod for weighing money", there is a clear record of a legal regulation on using money as a measurement standard."

Chen Han listened very seriously.

For most people who have not studied history in depth, it may feel that the laws used in the Han Dynasty have been preserved.

After all, the history of the Han Dynasty is very complete, and the life records of famous ministers, princes and nobles are also very complete.

The laws of the Han Dynasty that have been practiced for 400 years must have been completely passed down.

But actually, no.

The law of the Western Han Dynasty was inherited from the Qin law, and it has been continuously deleted and revised since then.

Although there are indeed many legal provisions recorded in the history books of the Han Dynasty, it is unrealistic to say that the entire "Han Law" has been handed down.

In fact, the existing Han law records may not be half of what they were at that time.

After all, most of the laws recorded in the history books are commonly used, and when recording some important people who violated the Han law and were convicted, they wrote down the crimes they committed.

Not to mention, as a feudal country, when the imperial power is supreme, each generation of emperors will promulgate some temporary laws, and they have not been handed down.

There are a large number of laws that are not used very much, and have long been lost in the long river of history.

Like the "X Huang Law" recorded on the "Tian Balance Pole" unearthed this time, it is a law to maintain the normal flow of money during the Emperor Wen's period.

"Dare to choose the weight and balance and use it, impeach and punish you, and stay at home for ten days."

"Impeachment" means to report and report.

The translated meaning of the whole sentence is: If you dare to arbitrarily choose a scale that does not conform to the regulations, or do not use the official scale, report it immediately!Offenders need to go to Li Zhengguan's house to serve ten days of hard labor and set off!

Obviously, this is a law to maintain the standard weight of four baht and a half taels newly stipulated by Emperor Hanwen, that is, to maintain the casting and circulation of the currency system at that time.

It should be a supplementary law issued by Emperor Wenwen of the Han Dynasty after the implementation of the four baht and a half.

This is also a law that is not recorded in the history books of the Han Dynasty such as "Historical Records" and "Hanshu".

This is an extremely important material for the study of political and economic policies in the early Western Han Dynasty!

For example, in this law, the penalty after breaking the law is to send the prisoner to Lizheng's house for ten days of hard labor!
This is a very useful clue for studying the authority of official officials in the Han Dynasty.

Lizheng is basically equivalent to the current village head, managing dozens of households in one mile.

In the past, the historians generally believed that as the lowest official in the bureaucratic system of the Han Dynasty, Lizheng had little power.

Mainly in charge of household registration and tax payment, and cooperating with the Shangguan to collect taxes every quarter, there are actually no special privileges in daily life.

But it is different now.

After the people break the law, the way of punishment is to work for Li Zheng's family!
It's a comfortable day there.

"Xiao Chen, do you still remember those round iron rings that were unearthed with this balance pole?"

Kong Jianwen said with a smile: "Before we hadn't figured out what those round iron rings were for."

"But after the appearance of this balance pole, everything became clear."

"Those rings weigh 10.75 grams each, which is about 16 baht made in Han Dynasty."

"This should be the weight used to weigh money at that time, that is, French money."

"But why these French coins are not in the shape of standard coins, let alone made of copper, and completely different from the previously unearthed French coins, there is really no way to answer."

Chen Han frowned, also in confusion.

Legal money, as the name suggests, is legal currency, which is a minted coin that meets legal standards, similar to a model coin.

Since the balance unearthed from the tomb is a weighing scale, it must have been matched with standard legal money.

It's just that these rings weighing 16 baht obviously have nothing to do with "money".

"Perhaps this scale of money, in the hands of Mr. Sui, is not used to weigh money, but to weigh something else?" Chen Han asked uncertainly.

Although this balance is called Qian Heng, it is not only used to weigh money, as long as it has weights, it can be used to weigh anything.

Kong Jianwen shrugged: "That's not clear. Archaeology is not a panacea. It can explain everything clearly."

"At least the law recorded by Qian Heng is true. As for what the owner of the tomb did with it at that time, I am afraid that only Mr. Sui, who is lying in the Jingzhou Institute of Biology, knows."

Kong Jianwen shook his head, put down his phone, and said to Chen Han earnestly, "Xiao Chen, this time we are in charge of the Wenfeng Pagoda tomb group."

"The Suizhou archaeological team has conducted preliminary exploration, and it can be confirmed that this is a group of noble tombs from the Western Zhou Dynasty."

"The direction of your Ph.D. study happened to be during the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties, so you have to cheer up for this excavation work."

"I think your doctoral topic should be chosen from the Wenfeng Pagoda tomb group project."

Chen Han is a direct Ph.D. student, that is, he will continue his studies for 4-5 years after graduation. If he successfully graduates, he will directly get a doctorate degree and skip the master degree.

Of course, if you really do not go well, you can also transfer to graduate training.

However, Kong Jianwen is still very optimistic about Chen Han, and he doesn't think he will fail to graduate with a doctorate.

Generally speaking, in the first year of direct Ph.D., you need to find the direction of your doctoral research.

After that, the second and third Ph.D. students will start to conduct research and draft papers around the identified topics.

If you want to graduate with a Ph.D., you definitely need a big thesis, plus multiple subdivided thesis, to be able to pass the thesis defense.

Coincidentally, the large-scale project of Wenfeng Pagoda tombs has appeared now.

Chen Han is very suitable to take this project as his doctoral topic!

Most of the tombs in the Wenfeng Pagoda tomb group are concentrated in the Spring and Autumn Period to the Warring States Period, which belongs to the archaeological field of the Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties.

In addition, there are many tombs in this tomb group, and there are 66 of them that have been proven.

Although not all of them will be excavated, the Institute of Archeology of the Academy of Social Sciences estimates that it will take a year or two to excavate six or seven tombs.

If this tomb group is the noble tomb group of "Zeng Guo", then Chen Han can choose "Zeng Guo" as his doctoral research topic.

As long as you actively participate in the excavation work and sort out a large paper on the Wenfeng Pagoda tomb group, as well as multiple papers on the subdivision of different tombs, it should be fine.

Kong Jianwen's suggestion is naturally very suitable for Chen Han.

"Teacher, I understand!"

Chen Han himself actually had this idea in his heart.

He nodded with a smile and said, "I will do my best for the excavation project of the Wenfeng Pagoda tomb group!"

　Chen Han is about to take his first step to become an archaeologist~
　　
　
(End of this chapter)