CHAPTER VII. The Weight Systems of China and Further Asia.

under the form of knives, which were 135 millimetres (5⅖ in.) in length, bearing on the blade the character minh, and furnished with a ring at the end of the handle for stringing them. Under the ninth dynasty (479-501 A.D.) they used knives of the same form and metal, but 180 millim. (7⅕ in.) in length, furnished with a large ring at the end of the handle and inscribed with the characters Tsy Kú-u Hoa. Next the form of the knife was modified, the handle disappeared, and the ring was attached directly to the blade, but now as weight was regarded of importance, its thickness was increased to preserve the full amount of metal, and the ring became a flat round plate pierced with a hole for the string¹. Later on these knives became really a conventional currency, and for convenience the blade was got rid of, and all that was now left of the original knife was the ring in the shape of a round plate pierced with a square hole. This is a brief history of the sapec (more commonly known to us as cash) the only native coin of China, and which is found everywhere from Malaysia to Japan².