The Numismatic Chronicle 171 Offprint - Royal Numismatic Society

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370 FRANÇOIS THIERRY A detailed study of the moral maxims in the light of the practice of taboo characters (Ch. hui; Viet. húy 諱) explains the removal of particular types during particular reigns. For example, four types of inscriptions found on coins of the Minh Mạng era contained taboo characters and were thus discontinued. It was an old tradition in the sinicised world not to use a character which was present in the personal or offi cial name of the emperor, the empress or an imperial ancestor. A taboo character would be replaced with a homonym or a non-orthodox version of that character. 16 Particular respect was paid to the custom of taboo characters during the Nguyễn dynasty. In an ordinance of the third moon of the second year of Gia Long (1803), the emperor ordered the Ministry of Rites to distribute information about taboo characters throughout the empire; all personal or place names which were similar to a taboo character were to be modifi ed, and replacement characters appropriate to the context were to be used. 17 Type 28 was discontinued in the Thiệu Trị era because the character Hoa 華 was declared a taboo character in the ordinance of the second moon of the fi rst year of Thiệu Trị, on the grounds that it appeared in the personal name of the emperor’s mother, Hồ Thị Hoa 胡氏華 (1790–1806). 18 Reminders that this was a taboo character were made several times during the Thiệu Trị era and in the ordinance of the 14th year of the Tự Đức era. 19 Types 27 and 36 were also absent from the 1871 issue, because the character an 安 had been declared taboo in 1861 (the 14th year of the Tự Đức era). In that year, the emperor noticed in a petition the name of a certain Lê Tiền Hoàng written with the character Hoàng 潢, which showed that the taboo on characters in the personal names of imperial ancestors was not being strictly applied, the imperial ancestor’s name in this case being Nguyễn Hoàng 潢. It was thus ordered that a list should be drawn up of all the characters that were taboo, or that should be taboo, with the intention of making them known in a special ordinance. In this way, 47 characters were declared taboo, of which 17 were new, including the character An 安, which was the family name of the mother of Nguyễn Phúc Tần (1648–87). 20 Type 47 was dropped for similar reasons during the Tự Đức era, as it contained the character thì 時. At his accession to the throne at the end of the Thiệu Trị era, Prince Nguyễn Hồng Nậm was given the offi cial name Thì, and this character immediately became taboo in an ordinance of the tenth moon of the seventh year of the Thiệu Trị era. The ordinance specifi ed that ‘thì in terms such as Thì khắc, is to be replaced with 16 We know that the character bang 邦, which means ‘country’ or ‘state’, and which is the personal name of the founder of the Han dynasty, Liu Bang (ruled 206–195 BC), was replaced in contemporary Chinese texts by guo 國 which has a similar meaning. The characters shi 世 and min 民, which were part of the personal name of Li Shimin, Emperor Taizong of the Tang dynasty (627–49) and which were frequently used, were also modifi ed so that they could be written without contravening the ritual, see Li ZG, p. 5, and Soymié, ‘Observations sur les caractères interdits’, pp. 388–90. 17 Đại Nam thực lục, Chính biên, quoted by Ngô DT, p. 325. 18 The daughter of a military man, she was selected as the fi rst wife of the second grade by Đảm (future emperor Thánh Tổ, Minh Mạng era), but died at the age of seventeen, thirteen days after giving birth to the future emperor Hiến Tổ, of the Thiệu Trị era. 19 Ngô DT, pp. 348, 350, 357, 365–6. 20 Ngô DT, pp. 365–6.
THE CONFUCIAN MESSAGE ON VIETNAMESE COINS 371 another character, the choice of which is to be dictated by the context, and which is to preserve the coherence of the sentence. One must proceed in the same way in other cases, because the character thì 時 has a very extensive usage’. 21 We know, for example, that in the expression Tứ thì 四時 (‘four seasons’), thì 時 was replaced with thần 辰, to give Tứ thần 四辰. 22 Finally, it will be noted that on the Minh Mạng thông bảo and Thiệu Trị thông bảo coins, the character bảo 寶 is written in the form known as 缶寶 (Ch. fou bao), with the element 缶 on the right under the roof 宀, while on the Tự Đức thông bảo 嗣德通寶 coins, the character bảo 寳 is written in the form known as 尔寳 (Ch. er bao), with the element 尔 on the right. 23 The moral maxims on these coins conveyed Confucian messages, and thus served as state propaganda during the Nguyễn dynasty. In addition to their ideological role, these coins also played a role in monetary circulation, as two convincing pieces of evidence show. First, in the eleventh moon of the 18th year of Minh Mạng (December 1837), a decree was issued which fi xed the face value of these large coins at 1 mạch, which was one-tenth of a string of zinc coins, in other words, 60 coins. 24 Second, the contents of a money-changer’s cash-box in the Paris Mint clearly shows that these coins were in circulation. 25 The French army operating in the province of Bình Định had confi scated this cash-box in about 1884. In addition to zinc cash, Chinese and Vietnamese brass cash, large 60 văn coins and a large 2 mạch coin, it contained fi ve strings of 10 large coins with moral maxims. The types were: Minh Mạng types 1 string of coins of type 8 (AMM: V60–69) 3 coins of type 26 (AMM: V70–72) 3 coins of type 31 (AMM: V73–75) 3 coins of type 42 (AMM: V76–78) Thiệu Trị types 1 coin of type 5 (AMM: V142) 2 coins of type 9 (AMM: V143–144) 1 string of coins of type 34 (AMM: V132–141) 2 coins of type 46 (AMM: V145–146) Tự Đức types 1 string of coins of type 18 (AMM: 216–225) 1 coin of type 39 (AMM: V215) 4 coins of type 43 (AMM: V211–214) 1 coin of type 51 (AMM: V210). The composition of the contents of this money-changer’s cash-box represents the different currencies that were in circulation at that time, as used by the Vietnamese population for their daily needs. 21 Ngô DT, pp. 358–60. 22 ACV, nos 70–71. 23 This particularity can be considered as a crude Minh Mạng thông bảo coin of type 7 (Tứ phương vi tắc) written with the er bao (CMV no. 1521); it is a later fake. 24 DNTL, XIX, p. 294; CMV, p. 83. 25 AMM, II, pp. 74–5, V325–328, Dépôt de l’Offi ce Colonial 1916.
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Page 18 and 19: 382 FRANÇOIS THIERRY Huizong (1101
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Page 24 and 25: 388 FRANÇOIS THIERRY 31. 至公至
Page 26 and 27: 390 FRANÇOIS THIERRY ‘year of gr
Page 28 and 29: 392 FRANÇOIS THIERRY 川之方至,
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Page 32 and 33: 396 FRANÇOIS THIERRY 48. 一人有
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Page 40 and 41: 404 FRANÇOIS THIERRY Duan-Tian-Wen
Page 42: 406 FRANÇOIS THIERRY Zhongyong Zis

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