Jews Assists Ancient Chinese to Make Earliest Paper Money: Expert

People's Daily Online ^ | Friday, December 15, 2000 | unattributed

[SunkenCiv]

It is well known that "jiaozi," world's earliest paper money, originated in China some 800 years ago. But latest research indicate that Jews used to assist ancient China in doing this might surprise most people. "Jiaozi," also named "jiaochao," appeared in China in 1154 during the reign of the Jin regime (1115-1234). It was believed in the past that Jin regime hired coining workers of Song (960-1279), Jin's preceding dynasty, to make the paper notes. But Qiu Shiyu, researcher of the Harbin Academy of Sciences and expert of Jin history, concluded that Jews used to take part in the work of designing "jiaozi," based on his study of a copper printing plate left behind from the Jin regime. Made of coarse jute paper, "jiaozi" was too hard to be preserved and not a piece of such paper has been discovered so far. The copper printing plate used during the Zhenyou period (1213- 1217) of the Jin dynasty is kept in the Museum of the Chinese History now, has become the only proof to tell the identity of " jiaozi."

[SunkenCiv]

Legends of the Chinese Jews of Kaifeng by Xin Xu tr by Beverly Friend illus by Ting Cheng reviewed	The Itinerary of Benjamin of Tudela: Travels in the Middle Ages by Benjamin of Tudela	Quest For The Lost Tribes by Simcha Jacobovici

[SunkenCiv]

Interesting, from 2000.

To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. Thanks.

Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on or off the
"Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list or GGG weekly digest
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[Always Right]

So those evil Joooos were creating fiat money a long time ago. Wonder what role the neocons played.

[sono]

Another Joos and Money story?

[wildbill]

Wonder what the Chinese stereotypical pictograph in their writing system is for the Jooos? A grasping hand? Moneybag?
A circumcized penis? (I wonder whatever pictograph they use for penis? Surely they have one, if only for bathroom wall jokes.)

[Quix]

Thanks.

[blam]

The oldest paper ever found was found with the, 2000BC, Caucasian mummies found in China a few years back. The paper had Tocharian A written on it... Not Chinese, not Hebrew.- Tocharian is an Indo-European language that is at least as old as Hittite...maybe older.

[blam]

[blam]

The Ghosts of Shanghai

"Jewish history in China dates to at least the 8th century, when West Asian traders roamed the Silk Road. A Jewish settlement was established in the city of Kaifeng, in what is now Henan province, where a synagogue was built in 1163 and thousands of Jews worshiped openly. Kaifeng today boasts some Hebrew writing on tombstones, but no living link to its Jewish past (although some residents claim Jewish blood). By the 20th century, the community in Kaifeng was eclipsed by cities like Harbin, Ningbo and Tianjin, which all had sizable Jewish settlements."

[lesser_satan]

Well this certainly won’t help dispel any negative stereotypes.

[SunkenCiv]

In that “Quest” video above, Simcha (same guy as the Jesus Tomb, etc), with the help of a local guy who knows where people are (probably a gov’t agent), tracks down one of the Jewish residents of whatever city he’s in. The subject (who looks Chinese of course) tells him that the synagogue burned down 300 years earlier and that the congregation thereby lost its rabbi and eventually became non-practicing. Yet on his identity papers, he’s still identified as a Jew. Kinda cool.

[Ptarmigan]

Interesting. I know there was a Jewish population in China.

[SunkenCiv]

thanks to Cronos for most of these cool graphics:

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[SunkenCiv]

I don’t recall that. I remember something about the oldest *blank* writing paper being found in one of the Central Asian sites.

Here’s something you’ll really like:

MOTHER TONGUE
Newsletter of the Association for the Study of Language In Prehistory
Issue 26 · Spring 1996
http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~witzel/mt26i.html

some Tocharian stuff:

http://www.ancientscripts.com/tocharian.html

http://www.oxuscom.com/eyawtkat.htm

this is interesting, just as a sidebar:

http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/000208.html
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/000209.html

[SunkenCiv]

tocharian paper

Google

[Clemenza]

Used to buy egg rolls on Christmas. :-)

[SunkenCiv]

thanks to Carrot-and-Stick for this one:

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[SunkenCiv]

...or Hannukah maybe... ;’)

[SunkenCiv]

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[Clemenza]

Its a reference to a popular tradition among Jews in the NY/NJ area: Chinese food and a movie.