再论元代至明初小说戏曲中货币的使用

元代至明初,朝廷明令推行纸币,禁止白银作为货币流通.然而,在这一时期的小说戏曲中,白银在日常生活和交易中的使用却随处可见.这是当时社会生活的生动反映,表明朝廷禁令对官民的实际约束力相当有限.由此可见,以小说情节中人们广泛使用白银来证明《水浒传》成书于嘉靖初年,未必可靠.而注意朝廷律令与实际生活的差距,更值得研究者进一步重视.

A Further Discussion on the Use of Currency in the Operas of the Yuan and Early Ming Dynasties

In the Yuan and early Ming Dynasties,the imperial governments issued banknotes and forbade the circulation of silver as currency by official order.However,in the novels and operas of this time,silver was seen in the circulation in the daily life.It is a vivid reflection of the real life of the time,which shows the controlling of the governments about the forbiddance was fairly limited.Henceforth,it is not necessarily safe to determine that The Water Margins was published in the early Jiajing Regime on the basis of the fact that silver was widely used in the novels.The disagreement between the governments' law and the real life is worthwhile for the researchers to make a further study on.