Our professor assigned us a term paper but it's up us to decide on what to write about. I'm really horrible with coming up with a SPECIFIC topics. We've covered both countries' histories so far up to WWII. Being a research paper, the topic also needs to be not so obscure that I can't find any books to provide references.
If you just throw a few ideas my way I would be most appreciative.What is good research essay topic to write about concerning the history of China or Japan?
Shell Money before Qin Dynasty:
China led the ancient world by introducing shells as a medium of exchange and unit of account in commerce. Like many of their counterparts, our forebears at the end of the Neolithic Age used shells as money. Shells are durable and easy to carry and count so it was used as the universal equivalent. The unit of shell money is peng, which has evolved to mean "friend". Friend is our fortune indeed! There is no agreement on how many clustered shells a peng include. A cluster of 10 shells makes one peng, the commonly held standard unit.
At the end of the Shang Dynasty, northerners in China found it was hard to find enough shells from the south, so they used other materials like pottery, stone, bone, jade, bronze and gold to make shell-shaped money. The bronze shell-shaped coins heralded the mintage of Chinese coin. It was a great leap in the evolution of Chinese currency. Featuring the comparatively unified size, weight and value, the bronze shell-shaped coin entered the circulation smoothly.
After the Spring and Autumn Period, Chu State (present-day Hubei and Hunan) minted coins with Chinese characters. Some of them looked like ants climbing along a nose and some like the face of ghosts. In north China, gold shell, silver shell and gold-plating bronze shell appeared.
Spade-shaped and knife-shaped coins were also popular in northern China. The influence of shell did not fade though it staged out as a currency with the social and economic development.
Shell (bei) is an important character component in Chinese. Almost all things or acts concerning money have the component of shell, such as fortune, poverty, goods, trade, businessman, tribute, greed, expense, compensation, ransom, expensive (as well as noble), and cheap (as well as humble). People like to call their dear children or pets bao bei, or more sweetly bao bao or bei bei, which literally means treasure, and implies to honey or darling.
http://www.travelchinaguide.com/intro/fo鈥?/a>
Ancient Coins in China:
The currency is a medium for the exchange of commodities; it was the inevitable outcome of such exchanges. In ancient China the currency came in different forms and was made variously from shells, jade, gold, silver, and paper. The following is a brief introduction to ancient coins in China.
Shell money. Shell money was the oldest form of currency in ancient China. As the shells were small and hard in texture, they came in handy as money. By the Shang and Zhou dynasties the use of shell money reached its zenith, and shell money became a symbol of wealth. Even today the Chinese like to call their most valuable objects, 隆掳baobei隆卤, which is derived from the name of the Chinese shell money. In ancient China it was not uncommon to use shell money as burial objects.
Hoe-like Money. The hoe-like money was evolved from an ancient Chinese farming toll. In the early days it bore close resemblance to a hoe. Because the hoe is similar to the shovel. This is why the hoe-like money is also known as 隆掳shovel money隆卤.
Bronze money in the design of seashells. With the development of commodity exchange, the supply of natural shells as the currency ran out of supply. Imitation shell money made from stone, bone, ceramics and bronze was thus invented to make up for the shortage. But eventually it was bronze shell-shaped money that replaced natural shells. It was nor until Qinshihuang unified the currency in 221 B.C. that shells finally were withdrawn from commodity circulation.
Knife-shaped money. Cast of bronze during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, the money隆炉s knife-like shape was derived from a certain weapon from old days.
Bronze coin with a square hole in the centre. In the late Warring States Period, Bronze coins with a round hole in the centre first appeared in China. The hole made it convenient to string the coins together. When Qinshihuang unified the nation and the currency, he had the round hole in the bronze coins changed into a square, as the round coin and its square hole is regarded as a reflection of the ancient theory that 隆掳heaven is round and earth square.隆卤 Feudalism lasted for more than 2,000 years, however, despite the changed of times and the currency, the round bronze coins with a square hole in the centre was in use for roughly the same duration. It was after the demise of the Qing Dynasty that they were gradually replaced with paper money.
http://www.chinainfoonline.com/AncientRe鈥?/a>
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