Shànggāo

Shanggao was a county of Ruizhou in western Jiangxi, where the Jin River ran between the county town and surrounding hills. Established in 952, it remained under Ruizhou through the Yuan, Ming and Qing, even as that superior administration changed from a circuit to a prefecture. South of the town, Mengshan gave the county an unusually valuable industry: silver and lead mining. A silver works was established there in 1200, and production expanded under the Yuan.

By 1337 Mengshan's richest phase was already passing. Its special supervisory office had been abolished in 1325, placing the works directly under Ruizhou. Silver ingots dated 1335 and 1350 bear the words 'Mengshan silver tax' and record the officials, furnace households and silversmiths responsible for them. These inscriptions reveal the many hands involved in turning ore into imperial revenue. A mine collapse brought another closure in 1350. Later attempts to revive production encountered depleted deposits. The abandoned workings and great accumulations of slag marked a countryside whose history included difficult underground labor as well as the fields and waterways of Jiangxi.