The Numismatic Chronicle 171 Offprint - Royal Numismatic Society

376
FRANÇOIS THIERRY
Inscription found on coins of the Minh Mạng, 55 Thiệu Trị 56 and Tự Đức 57 eras.
These four characters form a fi xed syntagm that is found in many texts. They appear
in the Xinyu 新語 by Lu Jia 陸賈 , 58 a Confucian text from the beginning of the
second century BC, which says that as a result of the policies of all the old, wise
rulers of antiquity: ‘the empire is at peace, the families are well provided for and the
people have suffi cient’ (tianxia heping, jia ji ren zu 天下和平,家給人足). 59 The
Huainanzi gives the following version: ‘when there is an abundance of clothes and
food, the families are well provided for and the people have suffi cient’ (yi she you yu,
jia ji ren zu 衣食有餘,家給人足). 60 This expression also appears in the biography
of Shang Yang 商鞅 in the Shiji. After Shang Yang’s reforms, the people of the Qin
state grumbled at fi rst, but then ‘(the new laws) having been in force for ten years,
the people of Qin rejoiced because one could leave something on the road without it
being stolen, the mountains sheltered neither robbers or brigands, familes were well
provided for and the people had suffi cient’ (xing zhi shi nian, Qin min da shuo, dao
bu shiyi, shan wu daoze, jia ji ren zu 行之十年,秦民大說,道不拾遺,山無盜
賊,家給人足). 61 In the Discourse on Salt and Iron (Yantie lun 鹽鐵論), the Grand
Secretary Sang Hongyang 桑弘羊 says in 81 BC: ‘The ruler stores up food, and
controls its use. He guards against excess, and provides when there is shortage. He
prohibits wastage, and reduces profi teering. Thus, the families are well provided for
and the people have suffi cient (gu ren zhu ji qi shi, shou qi yong, zhi qi you yu, diao
qi bu zu, jin yi xian, ranhou baixing ke jia ji ren zu 故人主積其食,守其用,制
其有餘,調其不足,禁溢羨,厄利塗,然後百姓可家給人足). 62 The expression
appears again in Gong Yu’s 貢禹 memorial to Emperor Yuandi 元帝 (49–33 BC),
which is recorded in the Hanshu. It concerns the frugality of the former princes
and the equity of taxes: ‘so the families were well provided for and the people had
suffi cient; there was praise and acclaim in equal measure’ (gu Tianxia jia ji ren zu,
song sheng bing zuo 故天下家給人足,頌聲並作). 63 The same expression, but
55 Lacroix, Numismatique annamite, no. 406; Schroeder, no. 159; CMV, no. 1524; Barker, Historical
cash coins of Viêt Nam, no. 166.
56 AMM, no. V143; Barker, Historical cash coins of Viêt Nam, no. 181.
57 Lacroix, Numismatique annamite, no. 458; CMV , no. 1784; Barker, Historical cash coins of Viêt
Nam, no. 198.
58 Lu Jia (c.228–140 BC) was an educated man from the very beginning of the Western Han, who
prepared for the new emperor Liu Bang (206–195 BC) a philosophical essay called the Xinyu, in which
he tried to explain the reasons for the failure of the Qin to establish a stable and durable empire. He
wrote in defence of, and to illustrate, Confucian principles.
59 Xinyu, VI-7.
60 Huainanzi, VIII, p. 123.
61 Shiji, LXVIII, p. 2231.
62 Yantie lun, IV, p. 5. The same Sang Hongyang (152–80 BC), taking a pragmatic line which instilled
a dose of Legalism in Confucianism, said the same thing using almost the same words: ‘In the regions
of Song, Wei, Han and Liang where there is a long tradition of planting and harvesting, even among
the most ordinary people, there is not one family that is not well provided for or that does not have
suffi cient for its needs’ (Song Wei Han Liang, hao ben jia si, bianhu qimin, wubu jia yan ren ji 宋衛韓
梁,好本稼穡, 編戶齊民,無不家衍人給), see Yantie lun, III, p. 4.
63 Hanshu, LXXII, p. 3069. Gong Yu (127–44 BC) was a famous Confucian literatus of the Western
Han who served as privy councillor (Guanglu dafu 光祿大夫) under Yuandi, then as Censor-in-chief