Only a detailed study of the history of the Yuan dynasty using a long-term comparative perspective is able to clarify the mechanisms of changes in Chinese history from the 13th to 14th century, connect the Tang-Song and Ming-Qing periods, and establish a coherent understanding of the latter half of imperial China. Using this line of thought, the present article is a case study concerning the practices of government lending. Historical sources indicate that government lending during the Yuan dynasty was divided into two forms: “ortoq money,” specifically for ortoq merchants, and guiyun, namely the operations of general government institutions. However, from the perspective of how these monies and forms of lending were utilized, ortoq money and funds that sponsored royal Buddhist temples—falling under guiyun—served the imperial household, while the loans of other government offices at all levels were largely used for the expenditures of government institutions and social undertakings or services. In short, their social functions are decidedly different. As part of the bureaucratic system, government lending in the Tang and Song dynasties gradually developed to support government affairs and people’s livelihood, and by the Song dynasty, specialized operating institutions and relatively complete policies had been formed. Government lending during the Yuan dynasty, however, shows an unbalanced combination of “Mongol-Han duality.” The scales of ortoq money and money sponsoring royal Buddhist temples, which originated from nomadic business and trade as well as religious traditions, expanded to a rather extreme degree; but at the same time, the government lending inclined towards supporting government affairs and people’s livelihood shriveled and presented a “comprehensively unorganized” appearance, thanks in part to the negativity of the Yuan government regarding institutional supply. Entering into the early Ming dynasty, under the contexts of political reform and cultural restoration, government lending practices and activities were completely eliminated from the formal state system. But in the Qing dynasty, influenced by early Manchurian social traditions, government lending once again became active. In this way, several cultural elements shared between the early Manchus and the early Mongols prompted the government lending practices of the Qing and Yuan dynasties to demonstrate quite common characteristics.
government lending; ortoq; guiyun; long-term perspective; Mongol-Han duality
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