Tang Dynasty Crossing Guide: Chang'an and People's Life Manual

Chapter 14 Do as the Romans do, you must have basic life knowledge (4)
If you want to buy ready-made clothes, they are more expensive. A good cloth shirt costs 1000 Wen, and a half-arm (shoulder) also costs 400 Wen.Silk headdresses (wrapped headscarves) cost 100 renminbi each, and refined shoes cost 100 renminbi each... You can buy yourself a good outfit like this, and just wear it when you go out.People in the Tang Dynasty were still more accustomed to buying cloth to make clothes by themselves.

Good-quality silk costs about 500 Wen a piece, and a piece of coarse cloth for servants can be bought for 100 Wen.One horse is [-] feet wide and [-] feet long. It should be no problem to make two sets of clothes.

However, if you don’t have a woman in your family, if you ask male slaves to sew clothes, it is estimated that the two people will be under a lot of pressure, so take the silk cloth and find a tailor outside to do it. A men’s gown can be done for about 500 yuan.

Sixth, means of transportation for going out.The ox cart you bought or hired earlier is for transporting goods. If you are going to Pingkangfang to pick up girls or make friends in high society, you have to get a horse to ride. Male slaves can ride in front of your horse After walking.

The official price for a horse in the early Tang Dynasty was 25 guan, or 2.5 Wen.Of course, if you want to buy a BMW like "Zhaoling Six Horses" with less than 5 taels of gold, you will definitely be kicked out by others.It's not surprising that a real good horse is priced at a thousand gold, so don't join in the fun with your 100 taels of gold.

A pair of saddles costs 80 Wen, a set of bits and reins costs 500 Wen, and a whip costs 50 Wen.

The horse needs to eat grass, but also food (grain). The horse has to pay 3 stones of millet and 1300 yards of grass every month, and also needs to get some salt. (Stop complaining about gas prices, really...)
When riding a horse, it looks good with a Tang knife in your waist. A good iron horizontal knife costs 2000 Wen, so pay for it.

Seventh, make up for your homework quickly.Read more Tang Dynasty books, practice brush calligraphy (otherwise you can’t show others to read a note), and be familiar with the allusions commonly used by people at that time, so that you can pretend to be a cultural person to visit the brothels in Beili.

Tuition fees are very expensive. For books like Buddhist scriptures, the price of one book is not much.A hundred sheets of blank paper cost 1 Wen, and a piece of better paper costs 60 Wen.A brush costs 3 Wen and a tube, and ink costs 20 Wen and 15 tael.

Eighth, officially start picking up girls!When visiting White Lotus, don’t forget to bring some small gifts. A pair of bracelets costs 40 Wen, a piece of light powder costs 18 Wen, a bronze mirror costs 2000 Wen, a piece of musk costs 110 Wen, and a piece of agarwood costs 60 Wen...

You drank enough of the ten cups of wine in the hotel, went out to buy slaves, hired a car, and was scavenging in the market to buy other goods, when you suddenly heard soldiers shouting, a servant hurriedly pulled You step aside.

I saw a row of two rows of people marching forward. The people in front were riding horses, holding up flags of unknown brands, and behind them were more than a dozen porters who picked up seven or eight loads of silk and satin of various colors and lined up. Walking forward, there are people beating gongs and drums next to it, which is really lively.

Some people commented on the crowd, saying that this is another reward from the emperor to Secretary Wei, right?Duke Wei dared to speak boldly. A few days ago, the sage gave [-] bolts of silk, last month there was a reward of [-] bolts of silk, and there was another time last year when I remembered that he was rewarded with [-] bolts of silk...

"Does Secretary Wei's family run a cloth shop? What's the use of rewarding so much silk cloth?" You were dizzy, and couldn't help muttering, and the servant who just bought next to you hurriedly stopped you: "Ah Lang, don't talk, Wei Mijian was born in a famous family in Hebei, how can he accuse him of being a first-class businessman?"

Well, knowing that ancient times discriminated against merchants, I will not talk too much.But really, why did the emperor reward ministers with so much silk?

Just now we know that the Tang Dynasty cannot directly use silver to buy things, but gold can be used for large transactions, and copper coins are the most commonly used. Then there is another common currency that is commonly used for medium-value transactions, which is the silk.

You know that the ancient technology of mining and smelting copper ore, tin ore and minting coins is very backward, right?The amount of newly minted copper coins each year is said to be quite a lot, but it is still far from meeting the needs of private commercial activities.So from the beginning of the Tang Dynasty, the government clearly stipulated that private transactions should be "both money and silk", and even stipulated that if the transaction amount exceeds 10 guan, silk cloth must be used to pay.

So how much is a piece of silk equivalent to?As mentioned above, the normal price is about 500 Wen, half a penny.However, this thing is also different from the times, and it has changed a lot. It is also related to the quality of the silk cloth. Silk, Luo, silk, satin, silk, silk, silk, silk... all kinds of fabrics have different prices under various circumstances.Silk is still the main item that is taken out for shopping.

Therefore, the emperor's gift of silk to ministers is actually tantamount to giving money directly.The servants of the minister's family can pull a cart of silk to the street, and use silk to buy grain and utensils directly while walking.As for you, you can also take a bunch of silk and silk to Pingkangfang to find your confidante White Lotus. (Hey, don’t memorize it by yourself, what did those two servants buy it for?)

When you arrive at Bai Lianhua's house, you will understand that many of the princes and grandchildren who came to enjoy her performances brought silk.When the white lotus was singing and dancing in the hall, these gentlemen kept sending silk, saying that it was used for "wrapping the head of the lady".

Many years later, Bai Lianhua was bought by a wealthy businessman and brought to Jiangzhou for resettlement.The husband-in-law is doing business outside all the year round, and Bai Lianhua guards an empty boat, bored, playing the pipa every night to recall bitterness and sweetness.One day, an official from Jiangzhou, also surnamed Bai, heard her playing the pipa and asked to come over for a chat. Bai Lianhua recalled her youthful beauty and sang like this:
Thirteen learns to become a pipa, the name belongs to the first part of Jiaofang.

Qu Ba once taught good talents, and every time he made up, he was jealous of Qiu Niang.

Wuling was young and quarreled with each other, and there was an unknown number of red silk...

References & in-depth understanding recommendations for this article:
The article on currency is more complicated, so there should be more explanations and notes. Students who want to time travel should read the following before questioning.

[-]. The prices of all the items mentioned in this article, such as gold, silver, money, grain, silk cloth, chariots and horses, houses, slaves and maidservants... There are a lot of different records in the materials, and the prices vary greatly.The author’s price index is either believed to be credible by experts and scholars after research and comparison, or he has taken an intermediate value among different values ​​that he thinks is more appropriate, and only guarantees the accuracy of the order of magnitude.If you change the time, place, and environment, the prices of these things may change greatly.

[-]. The main reference materials for this article are "History of Chinese Currency" (written by Peng Xinwei) and "Research on Gold and Silver in the Tang and Song Dynasties—Centering on the Currency Function of Gold and Silver" (written by Kato Shigeru) about currency and gold and silver , about the conversion of ancient and modern weights and measures is "China's Weights and Measures from the Third to the Fourteenth Century" (written by Guo Zhengzhong), about various prices are "Gold Mud and Jade Scraps" (written by Wang Zhongluo, compiled by Zheng Yixiu) and "China A Textual Research on Price Issues in Past Dynasties" (edited by Huang Miantang).

[-]. When did silver and gold become currency in China, it has always been a hotly debated issue (some people think that silver did not become a legal tender until the silver dollar was issued in the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China. Before that, it was only a barter in the Ming and Qing Dynasties).Scholars also have different opinions on whether silver in the Tang Dynasty can be used to buy things directly. The views in Kato’s reference book are different from those in this article.This topic is too complicated to talk about, so I won't drop my book bag.

[-]. A large number of "gifting gold" in the Han Dynasty. Modern scholars believe that it is very likely that the bestowing is brass, and the ones that are clearly expressed as "giving gold XX" are gold.Moreover, sometimes "how much money is given" only represents a measure of value, that is, it is announced that it is gold or copper, but in fact, what is given to the recipient is copper coins or objects of equal value.This phenomenon also existed in the Tang Dynasty.

汉代不说明数量级的“赐金500”“赐金800”，一般指“500斤”“800斤”，但到了魏晋南北朝以后，不说明数量级的“赐金500”“赐金800”就变成了“500两”“800两”。当然，唐两比汉两大得多。

1. In the Tang Dynasty, 1000 guanqian = 1 copper coins, which is the official legal value, but in fact, because of the serious shortage of money, the phenomenon of "short street" among the people is very common, that is, there may be only seven or eight hundred in 1 guanqian Wenqian, but everyone still admits that it has the purchasing power of 1 yuan, and it can be used to buy things, but it is very disadvantageous when paying taxes to the government. The government usually requires taxpayers to top up the less money.Therefore, the weight of [-] penny mentioned in the text may actually be [-]% off or [-]% off.

[-]. The background of the story in the text is Chang'an City in Tang Dynasty, and the prices mentioned are also recorded in Chang'an City or the mainland as much as possible.However, many of these records come from literati's notebook novels, which are exaggerated and curious in nature, and many of them are unreliable.The more reliable ones are the accounting documents of the Tang Dynasty unearthed in Dunhuang and Turpan, but that place is too far away from Chang'an City. Even today, with convenient transportation, there is a certain gap between the prices of Xinjiang and Xi'an, so the various prices in the article are The information of the two places has been synthesized, and for the sake of smooth writing, it is no longer necessary to explain which price is which.

500. In the text, according to the needs of the structure, there is a text that uses gold as an equivalent to calculate the price comparison between Tang Dynasty copper coins and modern RMB [a house with a good location must be sold for at least 100 yuan (RMB 1 million), and the three masters and servants live in Chang’an One month’s stay is only 2000 penny (RMB [-])].This calculation method, if you can really travel back and forth with gold, it can also be established.But this method is inaccurate if you are unsuccessful in crossing.

Because from ancient times to modern times, the production technology of other items has improved rapidly, while the mining of gold has progressed relatively slowly, so the value of gold in modern times is much higher than in ancient times.For example, the price ratio between gold and silver has reached about 1:40 in modern times, but only 1:5 in Han and Tang Dynasties. Modern gold is much more valuable than Han and Tang gold. Students should never buy gold belts from modern times. Traveling to ancient times on the body to sell, it will be a loss to the dead.

A more scientific currency conversion method that can correctly reflect productivity and people's living standards is to use rice as an equivalent.That is, in the Tang Dynasty, how much rice was bought with 1 string of money, and this part of the rice was taken across the country.Cough, it is to use RMB to buy rice of the same weight in modern times, and then calculate the price comparison between these RMB and the 1 Guan coin of Tang Dynasty.

Based on the current calculation of 2 yuan per catty of shelled rice, a Kaiyuan Tongbao before the Anshi Rebellion can buy about 0.57 catties of rice.After the Anshi Rebellion, 1 penny was approximately equal to 1 jiao of RMB, and 1 guanqian = 1000 yuan.

Shangshu Province will introduce policies to curb the rapid rise of housing prices in Chang'an

住宅
Friends, do you want to get rich overnight?Do you want to be the protagonist of the capital myth?Do you want to catch up with the last surge in the real estate industry in Chang'an, Tang Dynasty?Welcome to sign up for the Tang Chuan Real Estate Speculation Group!The group specially invites Ms. Lu Zhiyi, a senior person in the real estate industry in Chang'an, a famous scholar, and a public intellectual, as a tour guide consultant.She will lead you to visit various types and grades of residences in Chang'an City. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask them.

What do you ask sir? "Cen busy playing Meng Gong give me a copy or not?" I'm sorry, can you speak Mandarin, please? "May I ask how many banknotes per square meter of Daming Palace?"

I thank you, the imperial palace and government offices do not enter the real estate market, why don't you buy the Forbidden City in Beijing?The most high-end residence we can visit, that is, the prime minister's mansion, has to be a prime minister's mansion that has been demolished and sold by the government, so that it can be left empty and unattended, and we can go in and see it.

Let's go, everyone, please follow me to the northeast.

Why go northeast?Because the three major imperial palace areas in Chang'an City are all in the North City, and the most important Daming Palace is in the northeast corner, so the surrounding area has been driven to become the most expensive and most prominent residential area in the city.Think about it, high-ranking officials and dignitaries often go to the palace to see the emperor as a way to show off their capital. Chang'an City is so big, and there were no helicopters, luxury sports cars, subways at that time... If the residence is far from the palace, it would be exhausting to enter the palace once. what.

Therefore, if Chang’an people divide their characteristics by their place of residence, it should be said that they are "the rich in the east, the rich in the west (there are many Hu merchants living in the western half of the city), and the poor and humble in the south."What about North?The emperor's family lives in the north, thank you...

Now we have come to Chongrenfang, there is the gate of the square... Hey, don't wander around, the group members, the gate of the house to be visited is here.

You ask why you don't enter the Fangmen?Aren’t the houses in Chang’an City surrounded by individual workshops, so you have to enter the workshops first, and then enter the houses?Well, praise, this group member obviously knows the cities and residences of the Tang Dynasty very well, but you only know one and don't know the other.As I said earlier, the first house we are going to visit today was once the residence of a prime minister.The Tang system stipulated that princes, nobles, relatives and senior officials above the third rank could open the gate on the wall of the square in their own homes, and enter and exit by themselves without going through the gate.So we can directly enter the gate of the house from the main road in the city.

Come, come, this is the outer gate of the Prime Minister's Mansion.What's the matter, everyone?Why is everyone so disappointed?

Do you think this door is not grand enough?The fence is also too earthy, like a rural landlord's compound.Haha, don't worry, just keep following me.

The outer wall you see now is made of loess rammed layer by layer, without any paint, it is the true color of rammed earth.This kind of outer wall usually surrounds the house and encloses the whole mansion as a kind of protection and boundary division.Although the wall is simple and crude, the inside of the wall is the private domain of the Prime Minister's family, anyone who breaks into it will be beaten to death.

Let’s take a look at the Wutoumen in the middle of the earthen wall. It is indeed relatively simple. It consists of three wooden pillars built horizontally and vertically, like a cursive character “草”. Among them, the two capitals protruding from the beam usually need to be carved. It is painted black, so it is called Wutoumen.

Everyone, go forward and come in with me.Looking forward, do you see the magnificent white wall and red gate of the magnificent building with heavy eaves and heavy eaves?That is the main entrance of the prime minister's house, we just entered the outer door.Be deceived, haha.

Don't rush to the main entrance, everyone first look at our left hand.There is a rather large living room here, which was originally called the "Gushi", which is the accommodation and duty room of the prime minister's guard.When the prime minister was in power, anyone who wanted to visit had to come here to report first.

Behind the "Yangshi", sandwiched between the outer wall and the house wall, is a large yard, usually used as a stable.There were no high-ranking officials in the Tang Dynasty who did not raise horses at home. They were means of transportation, just like modern dignitaries buying luxury sports cars.If the yard is particularly large, in addition to the stables, a warehouse or even a vegetable garden may also be built here, and then the groom and other servants will also build a grass shed to live here.

Well, let's go back and enter the main entrance.

That guy was a little out of breath after walking, the space between the outer door and the main door is indeed relatively large.There is also a reason for this. When the prime minister was at the height of his power, there was an endless stream of people of all colors who came to see him every day.Most of them came with their servants on horseback. After the master informed them, they were let into the main entrance, and his servants and horses had to wait in the open space outside the main entrance.It is said that the most exaggerated situation is that such a large open space is so full that even a needle can't be found. People who come late can only retreat outside Wutoumen and wait.

Now what we see is the situation after the prime minister was ransacked and defeated, and the open space is already covered with weeds.The road from the outer gate to the main gate was originally paved with bricks and stones, but now it is also a mess of bricks and rubble, and the shape can only be seen barely.

Everyone pay attention to this. On the ground outside the main entrance, there is a row of long pits here, and there are also symmetrical positions on the other side of the gate.This is the place where the "halberd frame" is placed, and it is also the testimony of the status of the prime minister.

(End of this chapter)