Imperial Tallies (Daxia)
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The Imperial Tallies were a set of large scrolls that detailed the amount of tribute owed to Imperial Daxia by its tributary nations. The tallies had no set number, how many were in use depended on the number of peoples subject to the Daxians at any point in time. When a particular nation was not paying proper obedience or was at war with Daxia, its scroll was covered with black silk until such a time it returned to obeisance. The tallies were housed in the Hall of the Tributaries inside Daguo's Palace of Columns, where foreign delegations traveled to consult them at the start of the year in order to prepare the required tribute.
The existence of the tallies dates back to the Xie dynasty who created the first set, and each subsequent dynasty created its own (old sets were preserved as a 'paper trail' to keep track of who owed what to the new dynasty). The imperial tallies were one of the centerpieces of the Daxian tributary system, as what was written in the scrolls determined much of the relations with specific tributary nations.
Physical description
References in extant Imperial bibliography provide a description of the tallies: The scrolls were fashioned of durable paper made from the bark of mulberry trees, which is resistant to mold, moth, creasing and corrosion. The scrolls were approximately five meters high and two and a half across, with two handles of worked bronze or copper at either end. Each scroll was housed between two columns, in a niche dedicated to a specific nation.
History
When a nation of lesser status lost a war with Daxia it was typical for it to enter into a tributary arrangement with the Daxian dynasty in charge. The defeated ruler was forced to travel to the Daxian capital and appear before a group of imperial bureaucrats and there, he would have to engage in a negotiation to determine what goods and in which quantities he would have to submit as tribute in order to keep his crown. From surviving sources, the format of the negotiation was not very formal and rulers were encouraged to haggle (as a form of ritual humilliation) and try to get better terms (as a form of ritual humilliation), something which rarely happened. The terms of the negotiation (which never were disadvantageous to Daxia) were then written down on the scrolls and sent to the Hall of Tributaries to make the relationship official.
At the start of the year all of the subject peoples and nations would send small delegations to Daguo. The delegates would ritually prostrate themselves and submit gifts to the Imperial court, then they would ask permission to review their obligations on the imperial tallies. Each nation had its own personalized scroll and a scribe that would read it to the delegation to the accompaniment of music. The tallies were updated annually even if a tributary was in open rebellion, so that when they were forced back into the imperial fold they returned in arrears. If a tributary acquired new territories, a team of auditors was sent to inspect what new materials and industries would be added to the tallies for the next year. Earlier dynasties like the Xie and Shang took their tribute in goods ranging from horses, jugs of wine and milk to forged weapons and slaves, seeing offerings of coin as vulgar. The Qian dynasty however only accepted tribute in coins made of precious metals or in high value goods such as gems and spices.
All of the imperial tallies are believed to have been destroyed during the Glorious Revolt by the soldiers of Dai Hanjian who saw them as symbols of imperial arrogance and excess.