In fact, the most important impact of the appearance of this balance bar in the Western Han Dynasty is not to prove that the Chinese people have used the balance in BC.

There is no need to prove this, there have been balances unearthed in the Warring States period and the Qin and Han dynasties long ago.

The important thing is the text engraved on this sky balance bar!

None of the previous introductions are really the point.

The focus is on the last sentence on the back: "Dare to choose the weight and use of the Buddha, impeachment and punishment, and ten days in the family." ”

And the "X Yellow Rule" on the side of the weighing rod that is no longer visible!

Clearly, this is a law!

And it's not a law written in the surviving Han law!

"This law is likely to be the legal law of Qian Heng when Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty was called." Kong Jianwen pointed to the seal script on the picture, and patiently explained to Chen Han:

"Historical Records: Chronology of Famous Ministers since the Han Dynasty" Emperor Wen in the fifth year of Tiaoyun: "In addition to the law of money, the people have to mint money."

"Hanshu Wendi Ji" cloud: "In addition to the theft of money, but also the minting of four baht coins."

"From this, it can be seen that five years before Emperor Wen, the state had laws and regulations on the coinage industry."

However, since Emperor Wen abolished the law of stealing money in the fifth year and made the people release the coinage, according to historical records, "those who abandon donations and mine copper in agriculture are getting richer, releasing their unsmelted charcoal, and making more money." ”

"After the release of private coinage, whether it is farmers, merchants, handicraftsmen, or the official are minting currency, the result is that the county currency system is different, light or heavy, or the copper content is different, resulting in currency chaos, and at the same time there are all kinds of four-baht and three-baht coins flying all over the sky."

"The weight of the currency and the copper content cannot be unified, which has caused the disorder of the market and the currency system, which is the crux of the abolition of the "Money Law".

"Faced with this situation, Jia Yi once wrote to Emperor Wen, asking the central government to mint currency, or to stipulate the alloy composition of private coinage."

"Although Emperor Wen did not immediately adopt Jia Yi's advice at that time, he must have taken some measures to manage the currency and the market in the later part of Emperor Wen's reign."

"This time, the weighing money pole unearthed from the No. 168 tomb of Phoenix Mountain is a proof."

On this "weighing rod", there is a clear record of the legal provisions on the use of money as a measure. ”

Chen Han listened very carefully.

For most people who have not studied history in depth, they may feel that the laws used in the Han Dynasty have been preserved.

After all, the history of the Han Dynasty is very complete, and the lives of famous ministers and generals, princes and nobles are also very complete.

The law of the Han Dynasty and the Han Dynasty, which has been practiced for 400 years, must have been completely inherited.

But in reality, no.

The law of the Western Han Dynasty was inherited from the Qin law, and it has been continuously deleted and modified since then.

Although it is true that many legal provisions of the Han Dynasty have been recorded in the history books, it is unrealistic to say that the entire "Han Law" has been handed down.

In fact, the existing records of Han law may be less than half of that time.

After all, most of the laws recorded in the history books are commonly used, and when some big people who violated the Han law and were convicted, they wrote down what crimes they committed by the way.

Not to mention, as a feudal country, when the imperial power is supreme, each generation of emperors will also issue some temporary laws, which have not been handed down.

There are a lot of laws that are not used very much, and they have long since been lost in history.

For example, the "X Yellow Law" recorded on the "Heavenly Balance Pole" unearthed this time is a law that was used to maintain the normal flow of money during the Wendi period.

"Dare to choose the weight and use, impeachment and punishment, ten days."

"Impeachment" means to denounce and report.

The meaning of the whole sentence translates is: If you dare to arbitrarily choose to weigh Qian Heng that does not comply with the regulations, or do not use the official regulations to weigh Qian Heng, report it immediately! The offender needs to go to the house of the chief official to serve ten days of labor and set off!

Obviously, this was to maintain the standard weight of four baht and a half taels newly established by Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty, that is, to maintain the minting and prevailing laws of the currency system at that time.

It should be a law issued by Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty after the implementation of four baht and a half taels.

This is also a law that is not recorded in the history books of the Han Dynasty, such as the "Records of the Historians" and the "Book of Han".

This is an extremely important material material for studying the political and economic policies of the early Western Han Dynasty!

For example, in this law, the punishment after breaking the law is to let the prisoner go to Lizheng's house to serve ten days of hard labor!

This is a very useful clue to study the power of the official in the Han Dynasty.

Li Zheng is basically equivalent to the current village head, managing dozens of households in a mile.

In the past, historians generally believed that as the most basic official in the Han Dynasty bureaucracy, Li Zheng had little power.

is mainly responsible for managing the household registration and paying taxes, and cooperates with the officials to collect taxes every quarter, but there are no privileges in daily life.

But now it's different.

After the people broke the law, the punishment method was to go to the Li Zheng family as a laborer!

It's a comfortable little day there.

"Xiao Chen, do you remember those round iron rings unearthed with this balance bar?"

Kong Jianwen said with a smile: "We have never been able to figure out what those round iron rings are used for. ”

"But when the balance bar appeared, everything was clear."

"Those rings weigh 10.75 grams each, which is about 16 baht in the Chinese system."

"This should be the weight used to weigh money at that time, that is, magic money."

"But why these coins are not the shape of standard coins, let alone made of copper, and are completely different from the coins unearthed before, there is really no way to answer."

Chen Han frowned, also confused.

Fiat money, as the name suggests, is a legal tender coin, which is a type of coinage that meets legal standards, similar to a coin model.

Since the balance unearthed in the tomb is a money scale, it must be matched by standard money.

It's just that these rings weighing 16 baht obviously have nothing to do with "money".

"Maybe this Qian Heng, in Mr. Sui's hands, is not used to weigh money, but to call something else?" Chen Han asked uncertainly.

Although this balance is called the money balance, it can not only be used to weigh money, as long as there is a weight, it can be used to weigh anything.

Kong Jianwen shrugged: "Then it's not clear, archaeology is not omnipotent, everything can be explained clearly." ”

"At least the law recorded by Qian Heng is true, as for what the owner of the tomb used it for at that time, I'm afraid only Mr. Sui himself who was lying in the Jingzhou Biological Institute knows."

Kong Jianwen shook his head, put down his mobile phone, and said to Chen Han in a serious tone: "Xiao Chen, this time we are in charge of the Wenfeng Pagoda tomb group. ”

"The SZ City archaeological team has carried out preliminary exploration, and it can be determined that this is a group of aristocratic tombs from the Western Zhou Dynasty."

"Your Ph.D. study direction coincides with the Xia, Shang and Zhou periods, and you have to be energetic for this excavation work."

"If nothing else, your doctoral dissertation will depend on this excavation project."

Chen Han is a direct doctorate, that is, he will continue to study for 4-5 years after graduating from his bachelor's degree, and if he successfully graduates, he will directly get a doctorate, skipping a master's degree.

Of course, if you don't go well, you can also transfer to master's training.

However, Kong Jianwen is still very optimistic about Chen Han, and he doesn't think he will be able to graduate with a doctorate.

Generally speaking, in the first year of a PhD, you need to find the direction of your doctoral research.

After that, the second and third Ph.D. students will start to conduct research and thesis formulation around the identified topics.

If you want to graduate with a doctorate, you must need a large thesis, plus a number of subdivided papers, to be able to pass the dissertation defense.

It just so happens that now there is a large-scale project of the Wenfeng Pagoda tomb group.

Han Chen is very suitable for this project as his doctoral project!

Most of the tombs in the Wenfeng Pagoda tomb group are concentrated in the Spring and Autumn Period to the Warring States Period, which belongs to the archaeological field of the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties.

In addition, there are many tombs in this tomb group, and there are 66 of them that have been proven now.

Although not all of them will be excavated, the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences estimates that it will take a year or two to excavate six or seven graves.

As long as Chen Han actively participates in the excavation work and sorts out a general outline of the Wenfeng Pagoda tomb group, and a number of subdivision papers on different tombs, it should be no problem.

Kong Jianwen's guidance is naturally very suitable for Chen Han.

He actually had this idea himself.

"Teacher, I understand!"

Chen Han smiled and nodded: "I will go all out for the excavation project of the Wenfeng Pagoda tomb group this time!" ”