A Study On The Prices Seen In Xuanquan Bamboo Slips

The Juyan bamboo slips,Jianshui Jinguan bamboo slips and other Han slips from Hexi area of the Han Dynasty provide a large amount of first-hand information about the economic life of the people in the Hexi area of the Han Dynasty,and therefore have attracted widespread attention from the academic circle.As an important part of the northwestern Han dynasty database,the Xuanquan bamboo slips were excavated at the Xuanquan site between Dunhuang and Guazhou in the Han dynasty.The content of the Xuanquan bamboo slips is diverse and multifaceted,covering many aspects of social and economic affairs,including prices,markets,and the economic activities of local people.The Gansu Museum of Chinese Documents,the Gansu Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and other research institute are together planning to publish the collated Xuanquan bamboo slips in eight series,and the first two have been published by Zhongxi Shuju,namely,Xuanquan Hanjian(I)and Xuanquan Hanjian(II).This article attempts to crawl through the price information of the various items involved in this series,and initially analyze and explore their significance in regional economic history.The article consists of the following sections:Chapters 1 to 4 are devoted to systematically sorting out the prices of food and drink,textiles,forage,and artifacts presented in the Xuanquan Hanjian(I)and Xuanquan Hanjian(II).Food items include corn,rice,millet,meat,wine,etc.;textiles mainly include cloth,silk,brocade,practice,clothing,etc.;forage items are mainly alfalfa and Zizania;and artifacts include axes,farming implements,goblets,etc.Based on the systematic sorting of prices in the previous four chapters,Chapter 5tries to reveal the price changes in the western region from the middle of the Western Han Dynasty to the beginning of the Eastern Han Dynasty by comparing and analyzing the price information in the authentic historical documents and other bamboo slips.The comparison shows that the prices of goods in the Hexi region after the middle of the Western Han Dynasty did not go up all the time,but fluctuated from time to time.The price of wine in the western region was significantly higher than that in the mainland,and the price of forage reached its lowest point during the reign of Emperor Cheng.Chapter 6 examines the regional socioeconomic-historical significance of the prices contained in the first two series of Xuanquan bamboo slips.From the middle of the Western Han Dynasty to the beginning of the Eastern Han Dynasty,the people of the Hexi region had a richer variety of food and drink,with meat and wine accounting for an increasing proportion of daily consumption.The variety of people’s clothing reflects the more developed textile industry in the Hexi region.The prosperity of the forage trade to some extent reflects the important role of the Xuanquan Zhi as an important node along the Silk Road of the Han Dynasty.In addition,the variety of artifacts in the Hexi region during this period is rich,low-priced and mostly related to agricultural production activities.