The Early Foundation of China's Contract Civilization
——The Western Zhou Quality Deed｜Financial Humanities

Article / Associate Professor Zhang Huaxi from Nankai University School of Finance

The pledge system originated from the “pledge” buying and selling contracts in Western Zhou, making it China’s earliest recorded commercial credit document. It clarifies the rights and obligations of both parties in a transaction. Pledges are divided into “Zhi” (long-term certificates for large transactions) and “Ji” (short-term certificates for small transactions), following the principle of “detailed for large markets, brief for small markets,” and use a “separate voucher” format. During Western Zhou, there were also officials called “pledge officers” responsible for supervision, verifying contracts, standardizing weights and measures, and inspecting and punishing violations. Overall, the pledge and pledge officer systems formed a “ritual and legal combined governance” model, providing insights for modern transactions.

Origin of the Zhou Pledge System

As early as the Western Zhou period, commercial activities gradually emerged, and contract systems began to take shape. Among them, more mature buying and selling contracts such as “pledge” and “fubie” started to appear.

Primitive barter in early society was highly accidental: on one hand, the types of exchangeable goods were limited by production conditions. As Marx explained in his discussion of “buying and selling”: “Buy and sell not only incorporate surplus products into their own scope but also include necessary daily items, and various production conditions themselves enter the life process as commodities through buying and selling.” On the other hand, the valuation of goods was also imprecise. As society developed, transactions required more standardized methods, and the emergence of “contracts” met this need. These contracts were unrestricted by identity, ethnicity, or region, ensuring fair and equivalent exchanges between parties.

The “pledge” was an officially certified buying and selling contract in Western Zhou, and the earliest Chinese commercial credit document recorded in writing. Its main function was to establish the rights and obligations of both parties. Although such pledges are rare today from the Shang and Zhou periods, evidence of their use can still be found in Han dynasty bamboo slips unearthed from Han sites. For example, the “Li Zigong Selling Goji Voucher” from the Western Han Dynasty records: Li Zigong sold a bag of goji berries to Wang Jushu for 1,000 coins, with payment due in twenty days. When the due date arrived, Wang Jushu was required to deliver 1,000 coins to Guofu’s residence, paying the debt to Li Zigong. If Wang Jushu failed to pay on time, he would be fined with four to five dou of wine and five jin of meat, and bear an additional debt of forty coins. Additionally, he needed to spend seventy coins to buy two dou of wine and food to thank passersby.

This small transaction valued at a thousand coins seems ordinary but indicates that contracts like pledges were involved in commercial activities at the time. Because the parties agreed to settle the payment in twenty days, there was a deferred payment clause, and thus a buying and selling voucher was established. This reflects that, even then, such contracts played a significant role in regulating trade behavior and protecting the rights of both parties. The “selling voucher” in the story not only clarified rights and responsibilities but also included details on payment timing, amount, and penalties for breach, effectively preventing disputes and demonstrating the early importance placed on contractual spirit in commercial activities.

Classification and Process of Pledge Contracts

Pledge contracts can be divided into “Zhi” (long-term certificates, for slave and cattle transactions) and “Ji” (short-term certificates, for weapons and rare goods). According to “Zhouli · Diguanguan · Pledge Officers,” “Large markets use pledges, small markets use vouchers,” clearly dividing contracts into “Zhi” (long certificates) and “Ji” (short certificates). “Zhi” was used for large transactions like slaves and cattle, while “Ji” was used for small transactions such as weapons and rare items. This classification was reflected not only in the length of the contract documents but also in the level of detail regarding rights and obligations: long certificates recorded the characteristics of the traded items, delivery times, and penalty clauses for breach, whereas short certificates only included core terms, embodying the practical principle of “detailed for large markets, brief for small markets.”

Pledge contracts are not only categorized by transaction type but also have a unique completion process: pledge officers issued bamboo or wooden contract slips using a “divided voucher” format—writing the same content on both sides of a single slip. After the transaction, the slip was split in half, with each party holding one half. When combined, the halves verified the full contract. This method endowed the slips with inherent anti-counterfeiting and verifiability features; the halves functioned like puzzle pieces, only fitting together to restore the complete transaction information, greatly reducing fraud and breach risks…

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Source | “Tsinghua Financial Review,” March 2026, Issue 148

Editor | Zhou Mingyi

Reviewer | Qin Ting

Chief Editor | Lan Yanfan