10 Yuan Minorities - Madame She Xiang reading scroll

She Xiang was a real historical figure — a tribal leader's wife from the Tujia people who governed alongside her husband in the Hunan-Hubei border region during the Northern Song dynasty, around the mid-10th century. The Chinese state later elevated her to near-legendary status, crediting her with military defense of the territory against rival forces. This coin belongs to a long-running silver series celebrating China's 56 officially recognized ethnic minorities, issued across the 1990s and into the 2000s, each denomination pairing a specific figure or cultural scene with a particular group.

The Tujia were not formally classified as a distinct minority until 1957, following post-revolutionary ethnographic surveys that redrew the country's entire ethnic taxonomy.