五铢钱恢复 / Wuzhu Coin Restoration

Definition

Wuzhu coin restoration / 五铢钱恢复 is the Guangwu-era monetary-policy act in which 刘秀 restores the five-zhu coin after 马援 recommends it as a familiar and convenient currency for common use.

Current Synthesis

Hanji 718 gives the current wiki’s first direct Eastern Han five-zhu restoration layer. Ma Yuan submits a memorial arguing that five-zhu coins are convenient for the people, and Liu Xiu adopts the recommendation. The note sits beside bandit pacification, Jiaozhi revolt, land-and-grain fraud punishment, and frontier diplomacy, so monetary restoration appears as one part of wider postwar normalization.

The concept’s current claim is intentionally narrow. It does not yet reconstruct Han currency history, minting volume, metallurgical standard, or market effects. It records a governance judgment: after disruptive regimes and frontier disorder, restoring a familiar coinage is presented as a way to make exchange more ordinary and administratively legible.

Key Claims

• Monetary restoration is treated as practical stabilization, not only fiscal symbolism.
• Ma Yuan appears as a policy adviser, not only a frontier general, in this episode.
• Liu Xiu’s adoption of the recommendation fits the broader 40 CE normalization sequence.
• The source grounds the decision in convenience for common use.

Evidence

• Recommendation: Hanji 718 says Ma Yuan submits a memorial recommending restoration of five-zhu coins.
• Adoption: Hanji 718 says Liu Xiu adopts the recommendation.
• Practical rationale: Hanji 718 frames five-zhu money as convenient for ordinary people.

Counterevidence & Qualifications

The source gives a policy notice rather than an economic assessment. It does not establish how quickly the restored coins circulated, whether counterfeiting or debasement changed, how the decision related to Wang Mang’s currency reforms, or what regional variation followed. Those claims remain outside the current evidence.

What Changed

• Created the monetary-policy concept from Ma Yuan’s memorial and Liu Xiu’s adoption in Hanji 718.

Related Concepts

• 马援 - adviser whose memorial recommends restoring the coin.
• 光武帝刘秀 - emperor who adopts the recommendation.
• 群盗互纠式平乱 - parallel 40 CE stabilization policy in the same source.
• 民心型政治安全 - broader governance frame because familiar currency is treated as part of making ordinary life workable.
• 王莽改制 - background contrast for disruptive institutional experimentation before Eastern Han restoration.