The author considers both the historical literature and archaeological finds and advances the "weight theory" for the origin of bronze coinage in china. There are two basic points to this theory. (1) During the Chinese bronze age, and enormous number of elaborate bronze vessels were produced, and it was against this background that bronze became the precious metal, and that the concept of value in term of bronze developed. This contrasts with the concept of value in terme of gold or silver, which developed in the West. (2) The origins of chinese bronze coinage lie with pieces of bronze of controlled weight. During the first stages of its development, bronze in any form could be used as currency. The four shapes of cast bronze money current in the pre-Ch'in period (pre-221 BC) (spade money, knife money, round money and imitation cowry "ant-nose" money) all originated from the "controlled weight" bronze currency. The shaped money was developed out of the desire to adopt easily recognizable shapes of fixed weights, which would be convenient for use in payment and fox exchange. The author argues that there was no evolutional development between functional tools and monetary pieces of the same shape.
