Gold-Washing Administration Set Up at Jiankang, 1281 CE

Date and content

In 1281 CE, the eighteenth year of the Zhiyuan era, the Yuan court set up a gold-washing administration at Jiankang and made five thousand Lishui households into gold-washing households. The gazetteer records:

元世祖至元十八年辛巳，立淘金总管于建康，以溧水民户五千充淘金户，公私苛取，民甚患之。

Translated: In the eighteenth year of the Zhiyuan era a gold-washing administration was established at Jiankang, and five thousand households of Lishui were made gold-washing households; officials and middlemen alike squeezed them, and the people suffered greatly from it. This is a translation, not the words of the original.

The words "officials and middlemen alike squeezed them, and the people suffered greatly" are the gazetteer's own comment on the levy. The gazetteer gives no reason for setting the administration up.

The record of the History of Yuan

The History of Yuan records the Jiankang gold-washing affairs differently, and may serve as a second source; the two must be set side by side.

Juan 12, "Basic Annals of Shizu IX", records under the nineteenth year of Zhiyuan, 1282:

以建康淘金总管府隶建康路。

Translated: The Jiankang gold-washing administration was subordinated to Jiankang Circuit. This is a translation, not the words of the original.

This shows that a gold-washing administration (zongguanfu) did exist at Jiankang and was still in existence in 1282, subordinate to Jiankang Circuit, in agreement with the gazetteer's "a gold-washing administration set up at Jiankang"; but the annals record the year in which it was subordinated to the circuit, not the year it was first set up.

The History of Yuan's "Treatise on Food and Money", section on annual taxes, under the gold levy, records its households and its end:

在江浙者，至元二十四年，立提举司，以建康等处淘金夫凡七千三百六十五户隶之，所辖金场凡七十余所。未几以建康无金，革提举司，罢淘金户。

Translated: In the Jiangzhe province, in the twenty-fourth year of Zhiyuan, a superintendency was set up, to which the gold-washing men of Jiankang and elsewhere, 7,365 households in all, were subordinated, with more than seventy gold workings under it. Before long, as there was no gold at Jiankang, the superintendency was abolished and the gold-washing households were released. This is a translation, not the words of the original.

Three points follow. First, Jiankang did have an office devoted to gold washing (an administration, then a superintendency), with more than seventy workings under it. Second, the number of households made over to gold washing is given as 7,365 in the History of Yuan, against the gazetteer's "five thousand Lishui households". Third, the abolition is dated in the History of Yuan to shortly after the setting up of the superintendency in the twenty-fourth year of Zhiyuan, which agrees broadly with the gazetteer's "in the twenty-fourth year the gold-washing household service was abolished".

The burden on the households

The assignment of five thousand Lishui households as gold-washing households is one of the specialised service levies on the county recorded in the gazetteer. The History of Yuan gives 7,365 gold-washing men of Jiankang and elsewhere, with more than seventy workings, a larger figure than the gazetteer's; where the washing was done, what the quota was, and whether the five thousand were all households or only those liable to service are recorded by neither source.

Consequences

Under 1287, the twenty-fourth year of the same era, the gazetteer records that the gold-washing household service was abolished, seven years after it began. The History of Yuan's "Treatise on Food and Money" records the setting up of the superintendency in that year and its abolition "before long, as there was no gold at Jiankang", so the two agree broadly on the year of abolition. The gazetteer gives no reason for the abolition and no account of the aftermath; the History of Yuan states the reason as the absence of gold at Jiankang. Under 1286 the gazetteer also records that a "household-registering officer for the Khara-people of Jiankang and elsewhere" was appointed at Lishui; whether that had any connection with the gold-washing levy is not stated.

Uncertainties

First, as to the name of the office and the year it was first set up: the gazetteer has "a gold-washing administration set up at Jiankang" in 1281, the History of Yuan's Basic Annals has the Jiankang gold-washing administration subordinated to Jiankang Circuit in 1282, and its Treatise on Food and Money has a superintendency set up in 1287. The three refer to an administration and a superintendency at different levels, and the years differ; this entry sets them out side by side without identifying them.

Second, as to the number of gold-washing households, the gazetteer has "five thousand households of Lishui" and the History of Yuan has "7,365 gold-washing men of Jiankang and elsewhere", one a county figure and the other a figure for Jiankang and elsewhere; the ranges differ, and the two are set out side by side without concluding how many gold-washing households Lishui alone had.

Third, the rank and subordination of the gold-washing administration and superintendency, the quantity of gold obtained and where it went are recorded by neither source, and this entry does not supply them; the "more than seventy workings" of the History of Yuan is a total for Jiankang and elsewhere, not a figure for Lishui county.