Text: Xiao Peng's brilliant notes
Editor|Xiao Peng's brilliant notes
[Preface]
Influenced by the traditional concept of valuing righteousness over profit, merchants at the end of the four people not only had a low status, but also were often discriminated against.
During the Mongol and Yuan dynasties, the rulers were not deeply influenced by Confucian culture, were open to business practices, and took protective measures against commerce and merchants.
The merchant group expanded, and their status improved to a certain extent compared to the previous dynasties, when the orthodox position of Confucianism was subverted and marginalized.
The marginalization of Confucianism made it difficult for scholars to advance in the ranks, but it also objectively promoted the diversification of career choices, and some Confucian scholars turned to business in order to make a living.
Some merchants, still influenced by traditional concepts, made friends with scholars, leading to the emergence of the phenomenon of "Confucian merchants".
What was the phenomenon of "Confucian merchants" like, and what impact did this situation have on the economic development and social activities of the Yuan Dynasty?
[Background of the appearance of "Confucian Jewelers"]
The Han Dynasty has always implemented the policy of "heavy agriculture and suppressing business", and commerce was regarded as the last industry, until the Song Dynasty This situation has changed...... These four are the people's business. ”
The recognition of the status of commerce as a profession indicates that some scholars have realized the importance of commerce and their attitudes towards merchants have changed.
After the unification of the Yuan Dynasty, the barriers between the regions were broken down and the ties between them became closer, which facilitated the development of commercial trade.
The imperial court gave preferential treatment and care to merchants, and local officials protected the safety of merchants, "thieves haunted the lakes and lakes, plundered the goods and wealth of merchants and travelers, and Hara Hasun sent troops to kill them, and the road by land and water was uninterrupted."
The government decree also stipulates that "where the business travels to it, the officials shall provide food and drink, and send troops to defend it" and that "those who do not get the theft from the prefecture or county shall be compensated with official property." He even enjoyed some privileges of "holding a seal, wearing a tiger talisman, and riding a stagecoach", which was unimaginable in the previous dynasty.
Supported by this, a large number of businessmen became active, some of them have a wealth of 10,000 yuan, and their reputation is far and great, such as Shen Wanshan, who is hugely rich in Wujiang, "rich in the world", Xia Rongda, a man from the Four Ming Dynasty, was originally a destitute person, and after several years of business, "the spring is more than the library, and the Su is more than the house".
The Yuan Dynasty was a multicultural dynasty, and the hegemony established by Confucianism since the Han Dynasty no longer existed, and it was increasingly marginalized.
In addition, in order to make a living, they "either Xi the sword and pen as a bureaucrat, or as a servant as a bureaucrat, or as a skilled peddler as a craftsman and merchant", abandoning literature and becoming a merchant became a choice for them.
The implementation of the mercantile policy of the Yuan Dynasty and the abundance of material wealth of the merchants provided an environment for Confucian scholars to do business, and the change in the circumstances of Confucian scholars forced many of them to turn to the merchant industry.
Many literati in the Yuan Dynasty no longer held a negative and contemptuous attitude towards merchants, and Cheng Jufu recognized the Henan merchant Yao Zhongshi, believing that in history, the drama Meng, Guo Jie, Bai Gui and Yidun were inferior to him:
"The drama Meng and Guo Xie are very righteous and unscrupulous, and Bai Gui and Yidunshu can be rich but not dissipated. If the elder is a person, the name is moving, and the sound flows in all directions, and it is called in the future generations. Don't you follow the path with good righteousness, and accumulate and disperse! Wuhu, virtuous!" praised him for both gathering wealth and dispersing wealth.
Zhu Daoshan, a maritime merchant in Quanzhou, traveled to and from the sea with treasures, and Wang Yi believed that he "had faith and righteousness, so all those who were businessmen at home and abroad were recommended as teachers." There is also Bao Xiaozi, who turned to business with Confucianism, and Yang Weizhen gave him the appreciation of "Bao Xiaozhi's transformation, I know its benevolence".
The literati doctor showed more at this time, a kind of tribute to the profession of the merchant.
Yang Weizhen and his disciple Yuan Hua not only denied that commerce is the last industry, "the chest is not cured of hunger, and it is said that industry and commerce are the last art", but also revised the order of the traditional four peoples, "the ancients and the four people have their own place, the scholars are idle, the government is in the government, the business is in the market, and the agriculture is in the field", but also believes that business is a noble profession with the four virtues of "benevolence, wisdom, courage, and judgment".
Wang Jie also affirmed the role of merchants in life, "The people of the city are many kinds of industry and commerce, work tools, commercial currency, and wealth, which are also necessary things in life, and the people eat them." ”
It can be seen that the literati of the Yuan Dynasty had a great understanding of merchants and their professions compared with the past, and gave them a certain degree of recognition, which further strengthened the determination and belief of Confucian scholars to engage in business.
The reasons for the Confucian scholars in the Yuan Dynasty to engage in business were none other than the following: first, the change in people's concept of "business" enabled Confucian scholars to be at ease in business; second, the difficulties in their careers forced some Confucian scholars to turn to business; and third, the success of merchants tempted Confucian scholars to engage in business.
This is basically the same as Yu Yingshi's belief that a large number of Confucian scholars in the Ming and Qing dynasties "abandoned Confucianism and became Jia", and the obvious difference between the two is that in the Yuan Dynasty, due to the marginalization of Confucianism and the government's mercantile policy, there was the possibility of "scholars" and "merchants" being intimate.
However, the traditional Confucian concept of emphasizing righteousness over profit, such as Confucius's "a gentleman is a metaphor for righteousness, a villain is a metaphor for profit", and Mencius's ideas such as "why bother to speak of profit" are deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, and have constituted a negation of businessmen in the depths of morality.
The social rhetoric of "no business, no traitor" has hurt the self-esteem of businessmen, and they still do not fully recognize their identity.
Even if the businessmen have a lot of money, they still feel that it is not decent to do business, and they still envy the scholars who "everything is inferior, only the study is high".
[Types of "Confucian ornaments" in the Yuan Dynasty]
The essence of "Confucian ornament merchants" is that although the businessman admits his identity, he does not fundamentally recognize himself.
Although the environment of merchants in the Yuan Dynasty has changed greatly, the tradition of emphasizing righteousness over profit in Confucian culture often makes merchants feel that they are undignified and inferior in doing business for profit, and in order to make up for the balance of mentality, merchants want to decorate with "Confucianism".
First of all, Confucianism is mostly forced by the times to do business, such as Bao Xing of Zouping, Shandong Province, who once took reading and learning as his business, "to the middle of the day, with his father's eunuch in Zhejiang, the mutiny, the difficulty in Song, then the name of the strange name, the time to turn the goods." ”
There is also Xiao Leilong, a businessman in Jishui, who has never tired of learning since he was a child, and has grown up in his career, and the Song Society has nothing to try, and after the unification of the Yuan Dynasty, he traveled everywhere to seek advancement, and he also held some positions in the middle, but he was not satisfied.
"So I was absolutely determined to go in...... It is to break the knots to govern the goods", from the "beverage" can be seen to be reluctant to engage in business, and more Confucian scholars use business as a means of making a living.
Moreover, after the merchants became rich, they often befriended the literati or provided for their children to study.
In addition, the descendants cultivated by merchants also did more righteous deeds, such as Zhang Yanming's father, who was a businessman and helped the poor in the villagers.
He Xi Confucianism at an early age, took the road of imperial examinations to enter the scholars, abolished the Xi officials, continued to study, and donated books to his hometown, "returning home, buying 80,000 volumes of books, and sending 10,000 volumes to Jinan Prefecture to support scholars." ”
[The influence of "Confucian ornaments"]
It can be seen that they shine with the virtues advocated by Confucian culture, especially "benevolence" and "righteousness", "benevolence" and "righteousness" are the requirements of Confucian culture for ethics and morality, and to a certain extent, they also reveal the connotation of Confucian spirit.
Regarding "benevolence", there are two meanings, the broad sense is "the benevolent, the person is also", and the narrow sense refers to the heart of loving others.
At that time, merchants were very benevolent, and they gave money to help their neighbors and clans, such as Xiao Leilong, a merchant who delivered food to the poor people in the clan who could not open the pot on rainy and snowy days.
Their assistance is not only limited to acquaintances, but also to strangers, just as Lu Wengui's evaluation of the businessman Rong Jie, "who is hungry and crying, give Su Ru feeding", they have a benevolent heart for everything around them, which fully embodies the connotation of benevolence and love for others.
"Righteousness" as a moral criterion, under the Confucian concept of "emphasizing righteousness over profit", businessmen have always been looked down upon by Confucian scholars because of their profit-seeking nature.
But in the image of the Confucian "ornament merchant" has been improved, such as Qin Shilong of Yuan County on Jiqing Road, who occasionally did business with a giant merchant in Jianghuai, and the giant merchant left his gold, and he "picked it up and hid it, and the tomb was ...... and return immediately", Hou Jushang asked for one-third of his report, but he refused.
Li Shi, the old man of Dongtang in the Yuan miscellaneous drama "Dongtang Lao", was not insatiable, and took advantage of the opportunity of Yangzhou slaves not wanting to make progress and squandering and wasting to occupy his family property, on the contrary, he lived up to the trust of his friends, secretly helped Yangzhou slaves reorganize their family business, and finally returned all the huge family property in public.
In them, it is clear that Billy's more important Confucian concept of "Xinyi" is manifested, and although Confucianism in the Yuan Dynasty is in the predicament of marginalization, it does not mean that Confucian culture is not valued.
On the contrary, Confucian culture deeply influenced the Yuan dynasty, including the merchants, who clearly shone with the ethical virtues of Confucian "benevolence and righteousness".
The emergence of the phenomenon of "Confucian merchants" shows the merchants' yearning for the Confucian life, and also shows that the moral system advocated by Confucianism was continued in the Yuan Dynasty, and it still restricts the behavior of the vast majority of people.
The Confucian scholars engaged in business and the merchants Mu Ru generally improved the cultural quality and moral cultivation of the merchant class, thus purifying their atmosphere of "interests first".
The appearance of this group and their actions show the influence of Confucian culture on them, elevating the overall image of the merchant community, which helps to break down the inherent prejudice of the world against merchants.
In addition, in the Yuan Dynasty, due to the difficulty of entering the ranks, scholars began to turn to pragmatic business to make a living, while the wealthy merchants mostly made friends with scholars and literati.
This made the two sides have more understanding, especially the scholars' understanding of the merchants provided the possibility for the penetration of the concept of scholars and merchants, which was objectively conducive to the trend of the dilution of the boundary between scholars and merchants, which seemed to be the precursor of the interaction between scholars and merchants in the late Ming Dynasty.
In short, although the influence of Confucian ornaments is greater, it still cannot hide the original intention and motivation of merchants to decorate Confucianism.
After becoming rich, businessmen engage in various public welfare and charitable activities, aiming to turn their business activities into a socially meaningful behavior, hoping to compensate for the "vulgarity" of the end industry through "righteous deeds", so as to pursue social recognition of their value.
The phenomenon of "Confucian merchants" emerged under the dual influence of the marginalization of Confucianism in the Yuan Dynasty and the government's implementation of mercantilistic policies.
At the same time, it pays attention to cultivating future generations of Xi Confucianism, and these businessmen are somewhat influenced by Confucian culture and engage in a variety of public welfare charitable activities.
The emergence of this group and its actions show that the value system advocated by Confucianism is still rooted in people's hearts, influencing and restricting people's behavior.
Even in the Yuan Dynasty, the status of Confucianism was under unprecedented shock, but Confucian culture was still tenaciously preserved.
Of course, the actions of this group reversed the traditional prejudice of the world against merchants, and at the same time, the friendship between merchants and literati was conducive to the penetration of the concept of scholars and merchants, which objectively promoted the integration of scholars and merchants, and laid the foundation for the interaction between scholars and merchants in the late Ming Dynasty.