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preface
There has been great debate in the academic circles about whether Yin Shang and Zhou dynasties used bronzes in large quantities.
Opponents argue that although some bronzes from the Yin Shang period have been found, fewer bronzes have been found, much less than stone tools, bones and other tools of the same period, and bronze is a rare material that should be forged into ceremonial and weapons.
In addition, from the perspective of the mechanical properties of bronze and the soil conditions of the Central Plains, bronze does not have much effect on agricultural production.
The group in favor of the large use of bronze agricultural tools believes that although the number of bronze agricultural tools is not large, its geographical distribution is very wide, and the unearthing of bronze agricultural tools and a batch of agricultural tools proves the maturity of bronze agricultural tools.
The point of contention is that bronze is produced much more than other tools, but higher production is needed to make bronze cheaper.
In this high-quality and inexpensive environment, if you want to use bronze in large quantities, you must not only have excellent functions, but also have low prices.
So, according to the economic situation of Shang Zhou at that time, can bronze agricultural tools be vigorously promoted?
First, the amount of bronze required for bronze agricultural tools
According to Yan Jingping's record in "Bronze Axe Chisel Unearthed from Baoji", the shape of this axe is a small axe, with a blade width of 48 cm, a length of 39 cm, a weight of 188 kg, a large axe, a length of 118, a blade width of 54, a rectangular axe of 51 cm, and a weight of 408 kg.
In order to ensure the uniformity of weighing, the article takes "jin" as the standard for weighing and 250 grams as one kilogram.
Zhao Xiaojun believes that the unit of measurement "jin" evolved from the two entities "axe" and "kilogram", and in trade exchanges, some relatively small copper axes became a special scale used to measure the weight of other items.
According to Yan Jingping's investigation, it can be known that small axes weigh about one pound and large axes weigh about two pounds.
According to Yan Jingping, a small stone tool, 87 cm long, 31 cm wide blade, 32 cm square, 32 cm long, and 112 g in weight, this is a large stone tool, one hundred and twenty meters long, thirty-eight meters wide, thirty-six meters long, and weighs two hundred and fifty-six grams.
It can be seen that the weight of the small chisel is one kilogram, the weight of the large chisel is one kilogram, and the study of other bronze tools other than stone axes is based on a paper by Chen Zhenzhong.
Regarding the shape of agricultural tools, Chen Zhenzhong has published a number of papers and made more detailed discussions.
Chen Zhenzhong proposed in his "Discussion on Tools for Ancient Chinese Bronze Production":
"Among the thick and long strip-like blades excavated, there is a ribbon-shaped blade, which is most likely a blade."
In addition, the shapes of two flat blade sleeves are introduced, one is 220 long with a blade width of 47×17 mm, and the other is 212 long with a blade width of 47×17 mm.
In the empty head strip end blade, a width of more than 8 cm may also be a blade sleeve, and a cyan blade sleeve is given, a length of 275, blade width 88, trapezoidal white 96×37 mm, single beveled blade.
Although their weight is not stated, judging from their shape, the tools they use should exceed two pounds.
In his article "Bronze Agricultural Tools - Plutonium", Chen Zhenzhong put forward the concepts of "before the Western Zhou Dynasty", that is, "copper tools" and "hoes"; From the late Tang Dynasty to the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, it was mainly based on shovels.
Chen Zhenzhong introduced the shapes of many weapons, including two shovels with long handles, one 95 cm long and 40 cm wide, with a blade of 55 cm and a thickness of 2 cm.
A handle 94 long, 50 wide at the top, 30 wide at the bottom, 50 blade wide and 2 mm thick, a cyclical shovel from the Western Zhou Dynasty, unearthed in a tomb of the Yu Kingdom, rectangular in shape, rectangular in shape, 86 cm high and 80 cm wide with a blade width.
Two pieces: one 80 with a blade width of 84 and a blade thickness of 11 mm, and a blade 80 degrees high, 70 degrees wide and 12 mm thick.
During the Western Zhou Dynasty, there were sharp sickles. In shape, this bronze piece weighs about two kilograms.
On this basis, a rough estimate of the weight of the bronze was made.
The weight of a bronze axe and a pickaxe is about two kilograms, the weight of a bronze axe and money is about one kilogram, and the weight of a stone tool is between one kilogram and two kilograms, if you look at the pipe saying, "The cultivator will have a plough, if he stands".
A hoe, a plow, a hoe, a rake, a copper tool, at least five catties or more.
Second, the value of bronzes in the Western Zhou Dynasty
Although there is not much information about the Western Zhou Dynasty, the information obtained from Jin Wen is extremely important, and the "Changhu Dingming" says: "Buy five husbands, a hundred copper coins." ”
The meaning of a hundred words, that is, a hundred-footed worm, one foot has five kilograms, from the exchange of Jinwen, the value of "five husbands" is equivalent to a hundred bronzes.
Based on Kunqi's research methods on slavery in the Qin Dynasty, a detailed analysis of slavery in the Western Zhou Dynasty is carried out.
The daily grain price of the laborers of the Qin State is eight stone, and after deducting the meal money, there are still six copper plates left, and the "Qin Law Sikong Law" says:
"The people have mothers and children, and they are slaves and may not be beaten, but if they are for five years, they shall not be rewarded and shall not be slaves. Those who want a ransom, Nichihachibun. ”
According to this, in the Qin Kingdom, the value of a slave was five years of labor, and if it was calculated according to the income of six wen per day, it was 1,950 wen.
Referring to Qin Nu's analysis of prices, we can assume that the price of Westerners is equivalent to the salary of a husband and wife for five years, that is, one or two copper coins, which is equivalent to the net income of a strong man for three months.
According to the study of slavery and small-scale farming in the Qin and Han dynasties, the annual net income of a slave is equal to twice the annual net income of a small farmer.
This means that the value of a bronze object is almost half of the year's earnings.
A bronze weapon is worth twice as much, then it is equivalent to the annual salary of an ordinary civilian, a price that is simply too high to be popularized among free people.
Will this be the case on the territory of those nobles? Qiu Weiyu has a sentence:
"Rich eighty people, at the expense of Yujia, exchange for ten fields."
As production expanded, bronze tools were owned by the nobility, dealt in and distributed by them, and their use would increase.
In addition, with the expansion of farmland management scale, it will involve the need for a variety of tools such as uneven farmland size, land reclamation, nursery management, etc., at this time, you can use bronze agricultural tools according to your own technical characteristics.
And one person is equivalent to twenty cattle, at the expense of one person and one for ten cattle, if bronze has some kind of productivity superiority and can save labor, it can be seen that these tools should be very common in the land of the nobility.
Third, the value comparison of bronzes from the Western Zhou and Qin and Han periods
And according to the words of "Changhu Dingming":
"I have bought and waited, and the five husbands follow the father's example, and bind one horse and one satin."
"Five husbands are equivalent to a horse bundle of silk, and after examination, one horse bundle of silk is equivalent to two horses, so "five husbands are equivalent to two horses."
In addition, according to the comparison with the Western Han Dynasty, the value of Han horses also fluctuates greatly, we set the value of each horse at about 25,000 pounds, and now the currency of Daqin is five baht, which is equivalent to one hundred and thirty copper coins, which shows that the value of Daqin currency is not very high.
From the Zhou Dynasty to the Spring and Autumn Period of the Qin and Han Dynasties, the value of bronzes continued to decline, and its purchasing power was only about 1/3 of that of the Western Zhou Dynasty.
Compared to the Western Zhou era, bronzes from the Qin era had a higher price, which made bronzes increasingly popular and affordable as long as they had enough financial resources.
The field system of the Western Han Dynasty was inherited from the 240 acres of land in the Qin State, while the Western Zhou was based on 100 zhang as an acre, according to the Western Zhou field system, an acre of land in the Western Han Dynasty was about 400 wen.
A piece of land is equivalent to two hundred taels of silver in the Western Han Dynasty, and compared with it, the land price of ten taels per mu is simply a world of difference, which also shows that on this continent, land is not worth much.
From the comparison of serfs and land rent in the Zhou Dynasty and the Qin Dynasty, the serfs and land rent in the Western Dynasty are equivalent to two fields, while the serfs of the Zhou Dynasty and the Qin Dynasty should be equivalent to one field and serfs.
Because of the increasing population and the growing land price, the price of soil and land rises, while the price of labor falls.
The slaves of the Western Zhou Dynasty, because of their relatively high value, in their land, they could use bronze to increase their productivity, thereby reducing their labor, upgrading their scientific and technological level, and thus obtaining greater benefits.
This further confirms that the application of bronze should be relatively common in the princely lands of the Western Zhou Dynasty, and because of the large number of staff, it is not conducive to better use of better production tools, thereby improving the productivity of the labor force.
On the whole, from the Western Zhou Dynasty to the Spring and Autumn Warring States, the application range of bronze tools has expanded, and with the emergence of iron tools in the Spring and Autumn Era, bronze tools have gradually replaced them by cheap iron tools.
Since trade records from the Shang and Zhou dynasties are extremely rare, some clues about the value of bronzes in the Western Zhou Jin texts are used to infer the use and popularity of bronze agricultural tools at that time.
Because the value of bronzes in the Western Zhou period was too high, these bronzes were not widely used among the common people, let alone largely replaced non-metals.
As many scholars have said, non-metallic agricultural tools are still mainly used in society, but the number of bronzes in the Western Zhou Dynasty is also considerable.
From the perspective of scale efficiency and output efficiency, the large-scale promotion of bronze tools in the land of the princes has certain practical significance, and the application of bronze is not limited to the scope of ritual and weapons.
epilogue
Through the comparison of the commodity values of the two countries, it can be seen that the cost of copper money at that time was constantly declining, and the copper money at that time was characterized by higher cost performance, thus promoting the circulation of copper money at that time.
In the western region, because the land was fertile and the value of slaves was relatively high, bronze tools were used to increase the use of slaves to save labor.
In addition, compared with bronze, the performance of steel agricultural tools in the Western Han Dynasty has also been greatly improved.
However, even so, iron tools did not completely replace gold, which also shows that bronze ware in the Yin Shang period was not promoted on a large scale.
[References]
[1] Yan Jingping.Bronze axe chisel unearthed in Baoji[J]. Chinese Comist Money, 2003(2).
[2] ZHAO Xiaojun. Research on the system of weights and measures in ancient China[D].University of Science and Technology of China,2007.