Liang Renzhi: The significance and path of deepening the study of modern emblem merchants

Author: Liang Renzhi

Source: Guangming Daily (March 28, 2022, 14th edition)

Mr. Zhang Haipeng pointed out that the research topic of Huixue is often "closely related to Huishang, in a sense, Huishang is its yeast" ("Selected Materials of Huishang in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Preface", Huangshan Book Society, 1985 edition). Knowing Huishang is undoubtedly a key to knowing Huizhou and Huizhou culture. What is the transformation and development of Ming and Qing emblem merchants in modern times? This issue is not only related to the complete investigation of the development of Huishang, but also to the thinking of China's traditional merchant gangs and even the modern transformation of Chinese society.

Objectively understand the development of modern emblem merchants

In the face of the "great changes that have not occurred in thousands of years" in modern China, Huishang merchants have not waited to die, they have either entered new industries, or devoted themselves to new occupations, or implemented new systems, or adopted new machines, such as a large number of Huishang merchants in modern times to devote themselves to the banking and financial industry, real estate industry, electricity industry and Western medicine and Western medicine. In the early years of the Republic of China, Sun Shouchu, manager of Hankou Huangpi Bank, Fan Zhemen, manager of Yukang Bank, and Sun Xiangqi, director of Fancheng Guanqian Bureau, were all from Yixian County; during the Republic of China period, "Hangzhou Zhongnan (Bank) and China Agricultural Workers (Bank), the managers were all Huiren" (Traffic and Communications, No. 1, 1934). Cheng Jinxuan, a modern Shexian Huishang merchant, is one of the most tycoons in Shanghai, with a real estate value of 10 million silver and a monthly rent of tens of thousands of yuan ("Modern Merchants And Preface", Huangshan Book Club, 1996 edition). In the last year of Guangxu, Wu Xingzhou, a merchant of Jixi Hui, and his fellow villagers jointly raised funds to raise 120,000 taels of shares to establish Anhui's first national capital power enterprise, Mingyuan Electric Light Co., Ltd. in Wuhu. Yixian Huishang Cheng Hongbi co-founded Shanghai Zhongxi Pharmacy is the first national capital of Western medicine in Shanghai; wang Tiyu, a famous tea merchant in Huizhou in modern times, has made outstanding contributions to the creation of China's Western medicine industry and is known as the "father of Chinese Western medicine". After the Opium War, a group of Hui merchants began to serve as compradors, and the Jixi hu jimei family was a typical bank comprador family. Modern Huishang also founded a number of new joint-stock companies, this joint-stock system and the Ming and Qing Huishang often used the partnership system, but as a new system, it completely broke through the shackles of blood and geography, the so-called "shareholders" rights and responsibilities are also quite different. The articles of association of Dachang Match Co., Ltd., founded by Jixi Hui merchant Wu Xingzhou in Wuhu in July 1920, clearly stipulates the shares, shareholders' meeting, board of directors, supervisors, etc., and in actual operation, the identity of the company's shareholders almost completely breaks through the restrictions of family and hometown. In modern times, Huishang has adopted a large number of new machines in the grain processing industry, weaving industry and tea making industry. Therefore, after modern times, Huishang merchants have not only not "completely" declined or "almost completely withdrawn from the commercial stage" as some scholars said, but have achieved new development with the times, and their number is still relatively large.

Re-understand the modern transformation of Huishang

In the past, Huishang researchers paid less attention to modern Huishang, and some scholars even believed that Huishang "almost completely withdrew from the commercial stage" after modern times, the root cause of which was that these scholars regarded Huishang as a "traditional" "Huizhou Shang Gang", and did not refer to "modern" Huishang or individual Huizhou merchants. They are separated from the Modern Emblem Merchants and the Ming and Qing Emblem Merchants, and the implication is that the part of the Emblem Merchants who have "kept up with the pace of the times" have achieved "modern transformation" and become modern Emblem Merchants, and they have little to do with the traditional Emblem Merchants, as the traditional Emblem Merchants of the Shang Gang Group have "withdrawn from the commercial stage", and only the individual merchants of modern Huizhou who continue to work in the shopping mall are individuals of modern Huizhou.

However, in fact, whether it is entering the new industry, implementing a new system, adopting a new machine, or changing in other aspects, in fact, it is mainly achieved on the basis of relying on or inheriting tradition. In modern times, huishang has made a big move into the new industries such as banking and finance, real estate, electricity and Western medicine and western medicine: First, it has promoted the transformation of the traditional industries they operate into new industries. For example, the transformation of Huishang Qianzhuang into a bank is a typical example. In 1933, Fuyuan Qianzhuang, run by the Cheng family in Suzhou, which was originally from Huizhou, expanded the "ordinary general banking" business while retaining the Qianzhuang business, thus transforming the traditional Qianzhuang into a modern bank (Nanqiao: "Fuyuan Qianzhuang", Haiguang, No. 3, 1933). During the Republic of China period, Huishang Zhou Zongliang opened Hengfu Qianzhuang in Ningbo and Cheng Linsheng opened Hengji Qianzhuang in Shanghai, both of which were later transformed into banks (Shexian Zhi, Zhonghua Bookstore, 1995 edition). The second is to cultivate "new industries" in the "old field". For example, the Ming and Qing Huishang merchants have long been engaged in the pharmaceutical industry, "Xin'an Medicine" is well-known, and the modern Huishang merchants have entered the Western medicine and Western pharmaceutical industry, in fact, they are still operating in the traditional advantageous areas they are familiar with. Modern Huishang also relies on traditional industries to implement a new system, such as a partnership system similar to the prototype of the joint-stock system has been widely adopted by Huishang in the Ming and Qing dynasties, but at that time, the partnership shop, the shareholder composition has a strong family nature. After modern times, the Huishang partnership system began to transform into a joint-stock operation, and in addition to directly establishing a new type of large joint-stock company, this transformation was more of a joint-stock system in the traditional small industries that were originally operated. For example, in modern Times, Jingdezhen Huishang "stores jointly operated by merchants have shareholders' meetings, but all shareholders can only understand the business and make suggestions at the annual meeting of shareholders, and may not interfere with the manager (the agent of the shopkeeper) in exercising his powers, so that the manager can take full control and manage the store affairs, and concentrate on doing a good job in operation and management" (Cheng Zhenwu: "Jingdezhen Emblem Gang", in Jingdezhen Literature and History Materials, Vol. 9, 1993 edition). In modern times, the industries that are more common in huishang to adopt new machines are also mainly concentrated in traditional industries such as grain processing, weaving, and tea making. Mr. Xiao Gongqin once pointed out: "Huizhou tea merchants did not abandon all the traditional factors when adapting to the impact of the modernized market. They are only factors that innovation does not adapt to the development of modernization, and at the same time make good use of the strengths of traditional factors" (Xiao Gongqin et al., "Inheritance and Change: A Historical Investigation of the Modern Transformation of Tea Merchants in Huizhou, Shanghai during the Republic of China Period", Journal of Jiangxi University of Finance and Economics, No. 4, 2012). In summary, it can be seen that the so-called "modern transformation" of Huishang is not a simple separation of its own traditions, but an innovation and development on the basis of tradition, and modern Huishang and traditional Huishang are not completely separated. It should be said that changing in the middle of the guard and keeping in the change is the real background of this group. It is precisely in the process of keeping with the chaos of harmony that modern Huishang has not only realized the advancement of the times, development and innovation, but also realized the inheritance of tradition, so that the cause of Huishang and the spirit of Huishang have been passed on from generation to generation.

Attach importance to global historical outlook and problem awareness

The business region and commercial influence of modern Huishang merchants have reflected the changes under economic globalization. For example, Zhang Youshen, a Hui merchant from Shexian County, who was engaged in business in Japan, later became a leader of overseas Chinese living in Osaka, Japan, and his father Zhang Guoying went to Nagasaki, Japan, about June 1875 to open the "Shunji", and in 1883, merchants from Jiangnan, Jiangxi, and Zhejiang built the Sanjiang Office in Nagasaki, and Zhang Guoying served as the person in charge of the "Sanjiang Clubhouse" (Jiang Haibo: "A Study of Zhang Youshen, Overseas Chinese in Japan in Shexian County", Vol. 4 of Huixue, Anhui University Press, 2006 edition). Other places such as Russia, Britain, the Korean Peninsula and even Spain have found historical materials of Huishang operations. In modern times, the business ideas and business methods of Huishang merchants have also begun to undergo new changes. Modern Huizhou tea merchants in the long-term international tea trade continue to broaden their horizons, accepted the influence of some Western business concepts, some Huizhou merchants when they were young to study abroad, especially in the United States, Japan and other countries, deeply influenced by Western ideas, such as Xiuning Huishang Zhou Yichun, who was the president of Tsinghua University, studied at Yale University in the United States, and founded the Renli Partnership Store in Beijing after returning to China; Wang Tiyu, a famous modern Huizhou tea merchant, opened a clinic in Shanghai and founded a medical school and hospital after returning home. They all boldly adopt a new way of operating their own businesses, so they must put modern Emblem Merchants under the perspective of global history in order to understand and understand them more clearly, and take modern Emblem Merchants as the starting point to more deeply reveal how merchants and commerce have influenced modern China.

In addition, Mr. Li Jianming believes: "Studying a problem, using certain materials and methods, is ultimately to construct a new historical interpretation. (Li Jianming: The Cultivation and Skills of Historians, Shanghai Sanlian Bookstore, 2007) The real way out of the study of modern Emblem Merchants should also depend on the raising of new and valuable questions. As a shang gang group that is always in the most turbulent era change, the interaction relationship with social upheaval has become the most important proposition put forward by the special era of "modern times" for the study of modern Huishang. In order to make a breakthrough in the study of modern Huishang, it is necessary to explain clearly such important issues as the interaction between modern Huishang and modern social upheavals, what is the basic mechanism and context of the modern transformation of Huishang, the relationship between modern Huishang and Ming and Qing Huishang and what are the similarities and differences, and what are the similarities and differences between Other Regional Merchants such as Huishang and Jinshang in the modern transformation.

Objectively understanding the development of modern emblem merchants, re-understanding the modern transformation of emblem merchants, and attaching importance to global historical views and problem awareness not only reflect the important significance of deepening the research of modern emblem merchants, but also a specific path. Without an objective understanding of the development of modern emblem merchants, it is impossible to systematically reveal the overall context and law of the development of emblem merchants; without rethinking the problem of modern transformation of emblem merchants, it is impossible to explain the relationship between traditional emblem merchants and modern emblem merchants, or even the relationship between traditional China and modern China; without attaching importance to the global historical view and problem awareness, the research of modern emblem merchants cannot make real breakthroughs. Of course, in addition to this, the study of modern Emblem Merchants must also pay attention to the reference of multidisciplinary theories and methods, and at the same time strengthen the collection and collation of modern newspapers and periodicals, hui chambers of commerce records and credit records, as well as relevant materials in Huizhou fangzhi, genealogy, and contract documents.

The author is Liang Renzhi, a professor at the School of History and Society of Anhui Normal University

Editor: Xiang Yu

Proofreader: Water Life

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