The Numismatic Chronicle 171 Offprint - Royal Numismatic Society

380
FRANÇOIS THIERRY
3. The four-character moral maxims on coins of the Tự Đức era
18. 九功惟敘 Cửu công duy tự
Ch. Jiu gong wei xu // The Nine Meritorious Acts must be carried out in order.
Inscription found on coins of the Tự Đức87 era.
These four characters are taken from The Counsels of Yu the Great. 88 The ‘Nine
Actions’ or ‘Nine Meritorious Acts’ (Ch. Jiu gong 九功) are the good administration
of the Six Treasuries, (Ch. Liu fu 六府: water, fi re, metal, wood, earth and grain) and
the realisation of the Three Occupations (Ch. San shi 三事: acquiring the necessary
goods, assuring the well-being of the people, and maintaining virtue). See also types
12 and 30.
19. 經綸天下 Kinh luân thiên hạ
Ch. Jing lun tian xia // To weave (the immutable law) across the empire.
Inscription found on coins of the Tự Đức89era. (Fig. 5).
These four characters are taken from The Doctrine of the Mean: ‘Only when there
is someone in the empire with the utmost sincerity, can he weave the immutable law
across the empire’, (Wei Tianxia zhi cheng, wei neng jinglun Tianxia zhi dajing 唯天
下至誠,為能經綸天下之大經). 90
Fig. 5: Type 19, Tự Đức thông bảo, diameter 52 mm, 35.49 g., BnF, CMV no. 1778
20. Trị công đỉnh thịnh 治功鼎盛
Ch. Zhi gong ding sheng // Rule according to the [Nine] Meritorious Acts, and
imperial power will fl ourish.
87 Schroeder, Annam. Etudes numismatiques, no. 319; AMM, no. V216; CMV, no. 1787.
88 Shujing, I-3, p. 35.
89 AS, III, p. 22; CMV, no. 1772.
90 Zhongyong, XXXII, p. 64. Legge (Four Books, p. 420) translates this as ‘It is only the individual
possessed of the most entire sincerity that can exist under heaven, who can adjust the great invariable
relations of mankind.’