The showcase at the American Numismatic Association World’s Fair of Money in Oklahoma City is filled with money from around the world, including old coins from China. One coin in particular stood out due to its condition. An auctioneer’s label on it described the coin as VF, but it shows no apparent wear on its surfaces.
“It was passed on at auction, so I took it back, and you can buy it for less than the reserve was,” the coin dealer tells me.
It’s a Qing Dynasty 10 cash coin from the time of Emperor Xian Feng in the mid-1800s. His decade of rule is notable for several reasons, among them the inflation that resulted in 5 cash coins being melted down and being recast as 10 cash coins. Behind that problem was the Taiping Rebellion that deprived the imperial treasury of revenues from the rebel areas.
Secondly, the emperor conceived a son with a concubine, named Cixi. When the child was six years old, he assumed the throne in 1861 upon the death of his father. Cixi deftly maneuvered to eventually become the effective ruler of China until her death in 1908.
All this history was implied in the beautiful coin before me. I bought it.
A Complicated Tale
The history of China often involves wars for domination between southern and northern groups. When the Song Dynasty capital in Bianjing fell in 1115 A.D., much of the northern part of the country came under the rule of the Great Jin (or gold) Dynasty, a group originally from Outer Manchuria. A little more than a century later, the Great Jin fell to Mongolian invaders who established the Yuan Dynasty. The Mongols swept through all of China, and their rule continued until 1368, when southern-based groups defeated them to establish the Ming Dynasty.
The Ming Dynasty lasted until 1644 when, through complex circumstances, it was replaced by peoples related to the Great Jin Dynasty. These took on the name of the Qing Dynasty. Their second emperor, Xuanye, was born in 1654. With his story, the roots of one of China’s greatest works of literature were set down. As a child, Xuanye was cared for by a wet nurse who had a son of her own about the same age as the royal child. His name was Cao Yin, and he and the future emperor became playmates and friends.
When Xuanye was just seven years old, his father died, and the young boy assumed the throne. He became known as the Kangxi Emperor. For the next 61 years, he would rule China. The emperor and Cao Yin remained friends, and Cao Yin proved to be quite talented as both an expert horseman and as a poet, both traits much admired in the Qing court. Cao Yin benefited from this connection in many ways. In time, the emperor appointed him as the commissioner of imperial textiles.
Ci (pronounced like “shhh”) poetry is a style of lyric poetry that mixes aspects of classical Chinese poetry with folk traditions. It was favored by some of China’s greatest poets during the Song Dynasty, including poet Li Qingzhao. In 1705, the emperor decided that a complete compilation of Ci poetry was needed. Cao Yin (Cao is pronounced like a “sow”) was placed in charge of the project and sent to the old Southern Song capital city of Nanjing.
Despite the wealth and prestige that he achieved, Cao Yin understood that his success depended on the whims and health of one man. Someday it could shatter like a fallen vase. He told his family, “When the tree falls, the monkeys will scatter.” Things were still good for the family when Cao Yin’s grandson, Cao Xueqin, was born around 1715. Attended by hundreds of servants, the boy was brought up in luxury.
The monkeys scattered in 1727. The Kangxi Emperor passed away and was replaced by his 11th son, the Yongzheng Emperor. The new emperor did not approve of the Cao family. Troops seized all their worldly possessions, and their servants were detained for questioning. The now-penniless family fled Nanjing for Beijing. The events must have profoundly shocked the 13-year-old Xueqin, who was suddenly forced to learn to survive on the streets of the capital city.
The Legacy of Cao Xueqin
Although no samples survive, Cao Xueqin must have been talented with a brush as well as with words. He developed a clientele for his artwork and calligraphy. Although his current status in life was low, his gift for language gained him entry to literary circles. There, his early education and understanding of the social graces created opportunities to find work as a tutor to the children of wealthy families. Unfortunately, this source of income ended due to a scandal with a woman servant. This was part of a lifelong pattern; Cao Xueqin never succeeded in finding a good job. Instead, he wrote a novel in bits and pieces, one chapter at a time, called The Dream of Red Mansions, or Dream of the Red Chamber.
Some authors write tales of adventures and quests. Others find gripping drama beneath the surface of a quiet day. Cao Xueqin’s was inspired to vividly describe scenes of Qing Dynasty life that he recalled from his youth, like this passage about a garden party, “It is about this time that the blossom begins to fall; and tradition has it that the flower-spirits, their work now completed, go away on this day and do not return until the following year […] Soon every plant and tree was decorated […] Moving about in the midst of it all, the girls in their brilliant summer dresses, beside which the most vivid hues of plant and plumage became faint with envy, added the final touch of brightness to a scene of indescribable gaiety and color.”
The writer basically invented the modern Chinese novel out of necessity. For all his personal disasters, he eventually found a refuge – a spartan cottage on the outskirts of Beijing. Arranged by a family friend, it was far from the central city. “The reminders of my poverty are all around me,” he despaired. In this semi-seclusion, Cao Xueqin could reflect on life, and there, out of contemplation and need, an idea for a grand story was born.
Like any good serial, his tale kept readers in suspense as they longed to read the next chapter. Cao Xueqin traded peeks at his new manuscript for food, drink, or perhaps coins. Over time, he would fully set down on paper 80 chapters and, although there’s some controversy about this, notes for 40 more.
The writer dedicated the book to the women he had known, “In this busy, dusty world, having accomplished nothing, I suddenly recalled all the girls I had known, considering each in turn, and it dawned on me that all of them surpassed me in behavior and understanding... But no matter how unforgivable my crimes, I must not let all the lovely girls I have known pass into oblivion without a memorial.”
“…You Still Don't Understand”
The book title itself, A Dream of Red Mansions, comes from a set of fairy songs. In it, Cao writes about a boy named Jia Baoyu who is born into a noble family. Inside the infant’s mouth rests a mystical piece of jade. Years later, the fairy songs in the title come to Jia Baoyu in a dream. He never realizes that they foreshadow the fates of all those he cares about. The Goddess of Disenchantment watches and laments, “Silly boy, you still don’t understand.”
Jia Baoyu grows up as the sensitive son of a fiercely demanding father. The boy is gifted in the arts, but uninterested in the scholastic skills that society prizes — like an apathetic child whose dad is determined to raise a star athlete. Neither father nor son can ever accept one another for who they are. Is this Cao Xueqin himself?
Another main character is Lin Daiyu. She is a flower that Jia Baoyu waters and magically comes to life to repay her “debt of tears.” Baoyu and Daiyu are the book’s only characters with a mystical connection. Beautiful, well-educated, and prone to melancholy, the blossoming of her relationship with Baoyu, children who grew up side-by-side, is a central part of the novel’s plot. Their tale captures all the excruciating awkwardness of adolescence. Who does not know this pain? “In fact, to start with, their two hearts were one, but each of them was so hyper-sensitive that their longing to be close ended in estrangement.”
The third character in a love triangle is Xue Baochai. Extremely beautiful, socially graceful, and always composed, she is what Lin Daiyu is not. The marriage of Jia Baoyu and Xue Baochai is tragic because Baoyu can never forget Daiyu.
In all, A Dream of Red Mansions introduces more than 400 characters whose lives and fortunes cross. In the end, as predicted, the fortunes of the noble house dim. Lin Daiyu dies of a broken heart as Jia Baoyu is tricked by his family into marrying Xue Baochai. Baoyu can never forget his lost love and ultimately vanishes from this world, just as Cao Xueqin did after writing this book.
Two centuries after the publication of A Dream of Red Mansions, we are left with China’s greatest novel and a mystery. How, in his circumstances, did Cao Xueqin produce this masterpiece? “You can know a man’s face but not his heart,” Baoyu’s friend Xifeng muses. Pushed to his limit, Cao Xueqin shows us his heart. A teacher once told me that when a tree is dying, it will bloom magnificently one last time before it goes. A Dream of Red Mansions is the final bloom of genius that still glows today with passion from time immemorial.
For numismatic fans, images of some of the more important personalities can be found on a series of colored coins that China released in 2000, 2002, and 2003. For each year a halfounce .999-fine gold coin, a 5-ounce .999-fine silver coin, and four 1-ounce .999-fine silver coins were released. All coins display a representation of the author, Cao Xueqin, on the obverse together with the date of the coin. The three 5-ounce silver coins released are shaped like fans, and a full set forms a circle. All three years of gold are octagonal in shape and have a circular diameter of 27 millimeters. The engraving on the reverse faces is credited to PAMP, Switzerland. The 1-ounce silver coins are octagons, too.
The 2000 50 Yuan coin’s reverse portrays Baoyu Writing a Poem. Its mintage is 8,800. There is no coin for 2001, but the 2002 half-ounce gold coin has a denomination of 200 yuan and a mintage of 8,000. The reverse of this coin features an image of Xiangyun Sleeping Drunkenly on it. The 2003 200 yuan gold coin reverse displays Daiyu Winning the First Prize. Its mintage is also 8,000.
Although Cao Xueqin did not live to see his masterpiece published, A Dream of Red Mansions remains among the most popular Chinese novels 250 years after it was authored. The numismatic tributes to the author are a testament to greatness.