The Secret World of Ancient Chinese Savings

Long before modern banking systems and digital wallets, ancient Chinese people had to rely on their ingenuity to store and protect their wealth. In a society where flaunting riches could invite disaster—summed up in the proverb “Cái bù wài lù” (wealth should not be exposed)—people developed remarkably creative and layered methods for safeguarding their savings. From coins dangling from rafters to hidden underground money cellars, the ancient savings system was an entire world of stealth, superstition, and sometimes, unintended treasure hunts.

Let’s journey into the money-stashing techniques of ancient China and uncover the fascinating culture behind a world where every copper coin counted and every hiding place had a story.

Humble Homes, Hanging Coins

In ordinary households, where savings were modest, families often tied strings of copper coins and hung them from the beams of their homes. This was a practical solution: accessible for daily needs, and in a time without safes or locks, still relatively secure—at least in their eyes.

But this also led to a curious phenomenon in the criminal underworld. Thieves became known as “liáng shàng jūn zǐ” (gentlemen on the beam), a sarcastic nod to their habit of sneaking along rafters in search of dangling wealth. A high place was the low-hanging fruit of ancient burglary.

The Early Piggy Bank: The “Puman”

Among the middle classes, an object called the “puman” (扑满) became a household staple. These were small, jar-like containers typically made of ceramic or porcelain, resembling modern piggy banks in both function and form. The puman often lacked a spout or handle, looking like a teapot with no mouth. Coins were inserted through a narrow slit at the top, and some designs included a loop to hang them from beams, keeping them out of reach of curious children—or thieves.

The most poetic part of the puman is its name. “扑满” literally translates to “smash when full”—and that’s exactly how it worked. Once filled, the puman was broken open to retrieve the money. These coin banks date back as early as the Qin Dynasty (221–206 BCE) and were particularly popular during the Han and Tang dynasties.

Interestingly, the term still lives on in parts of modern China. In Taiwan, “puman” is still used for piggy banks, even finding its way into pop culture, such as in the lyrics of the song “Lonely in the Northern Hemisphere”, where the singer recalls, “remember to store your thoughts in the puman.”

Jars Beneath the Earth: Saving for a Rainy Decade

For wealthier families, a single puman wouldn’t suffice. Enter the money storage jar, essentially an upsized puman. These large clay jars served as ancient “term deposits,” sealed and buried discreetly in courtyards or gardens, often under elaborate disguises.

Some even took the ironic route of placing a wooden sign above the buried jar reading: “There are no 300 taels of silver here.” This saying later became a byword for trying to cover up a truth and only making it more obvious.

Others practiced the “multi-layer burial” method: burying a jar with a small amount of money in a shallow layer to distract would-be looters, while the real treasure lay deeper. A well-documented case occurred during the Republican Era (early 20th century), involving Shanghai’s famous physician Chen Cunren. His family was known to have buried 20 jars of silver during a property division. Initially, only 8 jars were found. It was only after persistent digging and the advice of an elder that the remaining 12 were discovered—hidden deeper underground.

The moral? If you’re digging for treasure, dig deep—quite literally.

The Ultimate Stash: The Money Cellar

For truly wealthy households—landed gentry, merchants, and officials—even jars weren’t enough. They turned to money cellars, secret underground vaults built into the safest corners of their homes. These underground chambers, much like wine cellars, were often large enough to store tons of copper coins.

A famous discovery in Huaxian, Shaanxi Province in 2010 revealed a Song Dynasty (960–1279) money cellar containing several tons of copper coins. Why was this massive stash forgotten? Likely due to the Jin invasion of the 12th century, when families had to flee so quickly that they left behind their fortunes—fortunes swallowed by time and soil.

Such abandoned wealth wasn’t rare. Political upheaval, war, and family collapse often meant secret stashes never reclaimed. As history shows, many of these treasures lay untouched for centuries until construction or demolition finally brought them to light.

Fortunes in the Walls

Aside from floorboards and cellars, ancient savers also took to the walls of their homes. Wall cavities provided excellent hiding spots—safe, dry, and relatively inconspicuous. One precedent comes from a famous episode in the Han Dynasty, when followers of Confucius hid precious texts in the walls of his old home during the infamous book burnings of the Qin Dynasty. If knowledge could be hidden in walls, why not wealth?

This technique persisted well into the Qing Dynasty and even the Republican Era. Some Shanxi merchants were even known to melt silver and pour it into floorboards—a highly secure, albeit irreversible, method of saving.

Modern-Day Discoveries: Treasure in the Ruins

Recent years have seen multiple real-life cases where ancient hiding spots turned up unexpected fortunes.

  • In 2014, a typhoon collapsed an old ancestral home in Leizhou, Guangdong. During cleanup, 29 silver coins from the late Qing and early Republic periods were found hidden within the broken wall—later valued in the millions.
  • In 2016, another demolition in Shandong revealed a massive hoard of copper coins tucked into wall spaces, estimated to be worth over 10 million RMB.

Clearly, the adage “old walls have ears” might also be reworded as “old walls have riches.”

A House That Pays You Back

All of this culminates in one intriguing historical practice: “house prospecting.” In ancient Luoyang, so many people found buried money when purchasing homes that sellers began charging a “digging fee” or “jué wū qián”—an extra payment for the chance of uncovering forgotten treasure. Historical records note, “The land contains many long-hidden caches; any estate not yet excavated requires a digging fee.”

Imagine buying a home today and being told, “Oh, and by the way, there might be a treasure chest under the kitchen—please pay extra.”

Conclusion: Lessons from Ancient Ingenuity

What can we learn from these ancient methods of saving and storing wealth?

Certainly, it speaks to the resourcefulness and caution of past generations, living in times when a lost fortune was truly lost forever. There was no PIN code recovery, no insurance claim, no “forgot password” for a buried jar. You either remembered—or history reclaimed your wealth.

In a world increasingly shaped by virtual finance, blockchain, and biometric locks, these age-old tactics remind us that the urge to protect one’s savings is universal and eternal. From rafters to rooftops, from cellars to wall cavities, ancient Chinese people left a legacy not just of wealth—but of wits, wisdom, and the occasional lucky homeowner who, centuries later, struck gold by accident.

So next time you pass an old house with creaky beams or crumbling plaster, you might pause and wonder—what secrets lie hidden within?

And maybe, just maybe, get out your shovel.