Wu Zhu

The majority of the Shang Lin San Guan Wu Zhu's contain a raised line above the square center hole on the obverse side of the coin.

[10][11] After Wang Mang had overthrown the Han dynasty with his own Xin dynasty he wished to displace the Wu Zhu currency of the Western Han dynasty,[12] owing, it is said, to his prejudice to the "Jin" (Chinese: 金; pinyin: jīn; literally: "gold") radical (釒) in the character zhu (Chinese: 銖; pinyin: zhū) of this inscription, which was also a component part of the character Liu (劉), the family name of the rulers of the House of Han, whose descendant Wang Mang had just dethroned.

This ridiculed the tokens of Wang Mang and the iron coins of Gongsun Shu, which were withdrawn by the Eastern Han Emperor Guangwu in the 16th year of Jian Wu (AD 40).

After the restoration of the Han dynasty the production of Wu Zhu cash coins was first resumed under Emperor Guangwu who reigned from the year 25 until 56 AD.

[18] The Kingdom of Shu Han was founded after Liu Bei seized control of the city of Chengdu, immediately after the city was taken Liu Bei had discovered that the treasury was completely empty which meant that he didn't have the funds for his military expenses, this was paired with a severe shortage of copper, this severe lack of copper was so bad that it is said that in order to manufacture cash coins even the hooks which were used to hang bed curtains were melted as the government desperately needed the metal.

Unlike the earlier coinage of the Xin dynasty which disastrously failed due to the extreme disparage between the nominal and intrinsic values the coins of the Kingdom of Shu Han weren't as badly received due to the fact that the Wu Zhu cash coins produced by Dong Zhuo only weighed around a single gram, previously a cycle plagued Chinese governments trying to set of a fiat coinage system where first the government issued new (fiduciary) cash coins, then the government would set values, usually the people don't accept these set values, and then finally the currency doesn't trade which causes inflation to set in and counterfeiting becomes a prominent problem.

[19] It is also believed that the Kingdom of Shu Han under the reign of Liu Bei cast a variant of the Wu Zhu cash coin which had a rim around the square hole that is 21.7 millimetres in diameter and has a weight of around 2.3 grams and due to this associated is known as the "Shu Wu Zhu" (蜀五銖, shǔ wǔ zhū) cash coins, but due to later archeological findings this isn't taken with absolute certainty.

The Chinese economy improved under Jin rule and although no historical records mention the production of coinage under the Jin as the quantity of old Wu Zhu cash coins from the Han dynasty that were still in circulation would not have been sufficient it is likely that the government would've had to cast a large number of cash coins in order to need the demand coming from the market.

The Great Dictionary of Chinese Numismatics claims that Wu Zhu cash coins were being cast in the city of Chengdu in the Shu region of the Western Jin dynasty (which lies in modern-day Sichuan).

[9][22] Peng Xinwei mentions a man called Gu Xuan of the Liang dynasty that was one of the first to write about Chinese numismatics.

[9] In 552 under the reign of Emperor Yuan the capital city was moved to the city of Jiangling, the Jiangling Mint issued Wu Zhu cash coins which had two "stars" (a term used to refer to dots on cash coins) on the obverse of the Wu Zhu, one "star" was situated above the square center hole and one below and for this reason are commonly known as "Two Pillar Wu Zhu cash coins" (兩柱五銖錢, liǎng zhù wǔ zhū qián).

[9] Another variant of these "Four Pillar Wu Zhu cash coins" had the "stars" on the left and right sides of the square center hole.

[9] Today "Four Pillar Wu Zhu cash coins" are extremely rare with those that have the "stars" above and below the square center hole being the rarest.

As Wu Zhu cash coins also fitting this description have been dug up in Guanzhong, Shaanxi it has been proposed that they might've been produced by the Northern Zhou dynasty.

Under the reign of Emperor Xuan in 579 the Taihuo Liuzhu (太貨六銖, tài huò liù zhū) cash coins were cast which originally had a nominal value of 10 Wu Zhu's but due to the fact that this fact accepted by the populace its nominal value was decreased to be equal to the Wu Zhu.

Taihuo Liuzhu cash coins considered to be the "crown jewel" of Southern dynasty coinage due to the quality of its calligraphy.

As the seal script version of the Hanzi character for "six" (六, liù) looked similar to a human being standing akimbo which inspired the contemporary saying that this symbolised the general people standing in this position before the Emperor and exclaiming that the nominal value of the Taihuo Liuzhu was too high.

[9] During this period Emperor Xiaowen ordered the issuance of the Taihe Wuzhu (太和五銖, tài hé wǔ zhū) as part of this Sinicisation process.

[25] The Taihe Wuzhu cash coins only circulated in the areas around Luoyang and never became the national currency for the entire Northern Wei dynasty as a whole leading to them becoming relatively scarce.

After Emperor Xiaowu was forced to flee from Luoyang in the year 534 the country split into the Western Wei dynasty and the Eastern Wei dynasty, and despite the fact that neither country existed for a long period of time they both continued issuing Yongan Wuzhu cash coins to the point that both large quantities and a large number of varieties exist, as well as the fact that Yongan Wuzhu cash coins are still extremely common today.

[9] The nickname would then be derived from the fact that the square center hole resembles the Hanzi character "口" and as the "土" would be above it they together would look like "吉" meaning "auspicious".

[9] The "star" in this particular case can also be referred to as a "pillar" (株) because it is cylindrically shaped and appears to rise up from the surface (肉) of the Yongan Wuzhu cash coin.

[9] There were other cash coins in this era which also had descriptive nicknames assigned to them such as "Yongzhou Green-Red" (雍州青赤, yōng zhōu qīng chì), "Liangzhou Born Thick" (梁州生厚, liáng zhōu shēng hòu), "Tight Cash" (緊錢, jǐn qián), and "Red Halter" (赤牽, chì qiān).

[9] The Western Wei dynasty existed briefly from the year 535 until 556, historical records mention that an Wu Zhu cash coin was cast during the Datong period (535–551) which had a calligraphic style akin to that of the earlier Yongan Wuzhu cash coins as well as those of the Sui Wu Zhu's.

A defining characteristic of these "Datong Wu Zhu cash coins" (大統五銖錢, dà tǒng wǔ zhū qián) is the fact that they have a broad outer rim with an inner rim only by the "Wu" (五) character to the right side of the square center hole.

[28] Among the varieties of the Sui dynasty era Wu Zhu is one which is particularly well-made composed of what the Chinese call "white copper" (白銅, bái tóng) and are therefore known as "Bai Qian Wu Zhu" (白錢五銖, bái qián wǔ zhū) cash coins and are believed to have been manufactured in the Jiangnan region.

[36] Cash coins without any inscription cast in this region are generally believed to have been produced between the years 265 and 589, the first variant of these cash coins are round in shape and have a rim around the square centre hole on one side while the other side is rimless, they tend to thin on the outside while they're thick on the inside and weigh between 0.4 grams 1.7 grams, and have a diameter of 9 to 18 millimetres.

[9] Wu Zhu cash coins played a central role in the emergence of Chinese numismatic charms,[37][38] as the Wu Zhu cash coins were cast in enormous quantities during both the Western Han dynasty and the subsequent seven hundred years of its usage not all variants can be directly attributed to every ruler, however "auspicious" symbols such as stars (dots), suns (circles), moons (crescents), numbers, rod numerals, Hanzi characters, lines, and others started to be used after the Eastern Han dynasty, the reason for the earlier uniformity was the usage of bronze moulds which last for a long time, these moulds continued to be used over and over again by subsequent dynasties.

[47][48] Wu Zhu cash coins are sometimes Integrated into other types of charms and amulets, as there is a variant Daruma doll which features Bodhidharma, the founder of Zen Buddhism, holding a Northern Wei dynasty period Taihe Wuzhu cash coin.