The Roman Emperor Elagabalus was also known under the name of Heliogabalus. He ruled the empire in the period between 218 and 222. He was born in 205 in Emesa, a town located in Syria. Parents named him Varius Avitus. His father was Sextus Varius Marcellus, Roman Senator and his mother was Julia Soaemias Bassiana. After Emperor Caracalla was murdered in 217, the grandmother of Varius, Julia Maesa, and his aunt decided to leave Rome and settled in Emesa, being accompanied by Varius and Severus Alexander. Despite the fact that Varius was very young at that time, he was proclaimed high priest of Elagabalus, the Syrian god of sun.

The beauty of Varius and the ceremonials in which he participated, served well for him, making Varius popular among the troops that settled in that part of the country. Julia Maesa provided a significant help in raising the popularity of Varius. She spread reports that he was in fact the illegitimate son of former Roman Emperor Caracalla.

China was the first country to start using currency for exchanging goods, leaving the barter exchange system behind. The Chinese started using shells, which represented a unit of account in trade. A simpler explanation would be that shells were considered the first money. The reason why shells were chosen to be universal currency throughout China is that they were durable, plus people could carry and count them with ease.

One unit of shell money was called "peng", a term that evolved to be translated as "friend". Usually a cluster consisting of ten shells made one peng, however, there was no agreement regarding the number of clustered shells that made one peng.

The paper money in China flourished during the period of the Yuan Dynasty domination. During the time of the Yuan paper money was widely used in China, the monetary system of which was perfectly developed. After the Yuan Dynasty issued its paper notes, the neighbors, including Japan, India and Korea followed the same path and started issuing their own paper money.

During the same period, the Chinese mints continued striking coins, which were of different weight and quality if compared to the coins minted during the Song Dynasty. The term "yuan bao" was for the first time used during the Yuan Dynasty. The name yuan bao has the meaning of "treasure of the Yuan". It was afterwards used to describe money made of gold and silver. Despite the fact that gold and silver ingots were taken out of circulation, their imitations could still be spotted.

The first paper money was issued in China during the Song dynasty in the 10th century. The name of the note was jiao zi. For the first time it was issued liberally among the people of China. Thus it was able to take the place of coins that till then were widely used in circulation. After its decline the jiao zi could not be used for trading. Such situation led to social chaos. The government of Song decided to establish an office in Chengdu in 1023. The goal was to handle the introduction of jiao zi. The following year stately paper money was introduced.

When the paper money was introduced, its face value was written. Some time later the face value was printed and 2 official seals were included in order to avoid counterfeiting. In addition, the government prohibited any issuance of private notes. Newly printed paper money, were issued at the end of each period, one period lasting two years. After the extension of one issuance term to 2 terms and the doubling of issued paper money, jiao zi depreciated.

Song Dynasty was historically divided into Northern and Southern Song. The former was the first part of the Dynasty. In 960 AD China was reunified under the rule of Chao K'uang-yin, a general of the previous ruling Tang Dynasty. After taking over the leadership in China, he renamed himself into Sung T'ai Tsu. As a leader he showed strong character and managed to keep the entire army strictly under his control but after his death, there was no successor who was able to maintain the army and the empire had its defenses weakened. The territory controlled by the Sung Dynasty was not as big as the lands that the Tang Dynasty had under its control.

During the period of immense northern offensives of Zhuge Liang, Wu was a state that tried to defend itself against the invading troops coming from the north. Following the Battle of Red Cliffs, Wei continuously pressured the lands around Hefei.

The battles were so severe that many people decided to leave the area and settle on the southern part of river Yangzi. When Zhuge Liang died, the assaults continued and though these assaults became more intense, Wei was not able to pass though the line of Yangzi River defenses constructed by Wu. It's worth mentioning that the defenses also featured the Ruxu fortress.

Wang Mang, who ruled in the period between 8 AD and 22 BC, had to face all the mistakes of previous and later emperors. His contemporaries considered that he was the one guilty of all faults. In addition, all the reforms performed by the emperor in regard to the administration of state monopolies on such goods as salt, iron and liquor, were not able to dodge the situation where salt traders exploited their customers.

It is believed that an economical chaos during this period was caused by the peasantry, the issue of new Chinese coins and the prohibition of private coin striking. Chinese people refused to accept new coins. It's worth mentioning that the majority of reforms performed by Wang Mang, did not represent real revolutions. Most of then had other names, like for instance the term "slaves" was changed into "private belongings".

By the time the Western Han Dynasty started ruling China, the empire had its monetary economy already developed. People of China paid in coins taxes, fees and salaries. The empire was already issuing about 220 million coins each year. The History of Han states that the period of Western Han Dynasty domination proved to be a wealthy one:

"The granaries in the cities and the countryside were full and the government treasuries were running over with wealth. In the capital the strings of cash had been stacked up by the hundreds of millions until the cords that bound them had rotted away and they could no longer be counted."