Huizhou Merchants

The success of Huizhou merchants no doubt played a fundamental role in the emergence and growth of Huizhou culture. The term "Huizhou merchants" generally refers to businessmen from the six counties under the broader title of the Huizhou Prefecture-- Shexian, Xiuning, Qimen, Yixian, Jixi and Wuyuan. Researchers generally believe that the Huizhou merchants have origins in the southern Song Dynasty (1127~1279), began preliminary development between the late Yuan Dynasty (1271~1368) and the early Ming Dynasty (1368~1644), to solidify power around mid-Ming period. The merchants flourished during the reign of Jiajing (1522~1567), culminating in power and influence while Qianlong sat on the throne (1736~1796). The turn of the 19th Century saw the beginning of the end for the Huizhou merchants, their power finally dwindling under Jiajing and Daoguang (1796~1851).

The history of the Huizhou merchants spans a period of about 600 years, 300 of which they dominated the region, deservedly occupying a significant place in the history of Chinese commerce. In the Southern Song Dynasty, as the capital was moved from Kaifeng to Lin'an (now Hangzhou), the political and economic centre of the Empire shifted south. This stimulated the economy of neighboring areas and opened China’s southern regions to the introduction of Central Plains culture. Huizhou, conveniently situated between Dingus and Zhejiang Provinces, was significant to the economy of southeastern China as a communication hub between the South and the North. As a result of Huizhou's particular geographic assets and the need for economic development, landowners saw their opportunity and began to take up business.

According to records, by the beginning of the Southern Song Dynasty, the Huizhou people were "engaged in trade every where", selling tea, ink, paper and wood. This is a reasonable claim, as, after Ming Dynasty Emperor Jiajing assumed the throne, the number of merchants amounted to 70% of Huizhou’s population. In fact, there is saying commonly heard throughout China attesting to Huizhou trading acumen: "It is a Huizhou practice that thirteen year-olds start their career in town and at seventeen they do business all over the country". At the young age of 12 or 13, a Huizhou child could expect to begin work as an apprentice in town and not as a farmhand on his father’s property. As a result of a land shortage and a superfluity of manpower, farmers were driven away from their rural lifestyles centered around agriculture, and into more urban forms of making a living. As the Ming Dynasty Anhui Chronicle commented, "Many Huizhou people take up business, because they have no other choice". Generally speaking, Huizhou merchants operated on a small scale, engaging in minor trades, and most of them were under the control of a larger business. They were not born merchants.; their success was a result of various social factors and painstaking efforts to climb a ladder of ambition. The Huizhou Chronicle, of the Jiaqing years (1796~1821), describes Huizhou citizens as "properly dressed, well-spoken... fully aware of prices, knowing when to buy and sell, and gaining extra profits from selling local goods at other places." Despite their overwhelming achievements, the earliest people who left Huizhou to "make a living away from home" never suspected that a flourishing Huizhou business would "spread almost all over the country", and that Huizhou merchants would "gain a national fame".

Huizhou’s grip on trade was all encompassing, selling tea, grain, salt, silk, cloth, wood, paint, paper, ink, pottery, and simply anything else that proved to be profitable. Through some merchants opened teahouses, restaurants and hotels, the salt trade and pawn-broking businesses were the most lucrative of their endeavors. Pawn- broking, in those days, was actually a form of usury. Wei Chaofeng, a Huizhou pawnbroker depicted in fantastic stories, deprived a scholar of his real estate in three years' time by changing him exorbitant interest rates. By the late 19th Century, one could hardly find a pawnbroker who was not from Huizhou, for there was "no place too far for Huizhou merchants to expand". They pressed eastward to the north of Jiangsu, went west to Yunnan, Guizhou, and Gansu, north to the surrounding areas of Liaoning, and south, to Fujian and Guangdong. In even further bursts of expansion, they sailed to Japan, Thailand and other Southeast Asian countries, their footmarks left on "almost half of the globe".

The resourceful Huizhou merchants were well versed in the principles of trade, fully recognizing from what body came the hand that fed them. By maintaining close friendships with the ruling party and firmly aligning themselves with the court, these businessmen occupied a position of the utmost power and influence. Their strategy was to "provide funds for academic pursuits with business profits, get political positions through academic pursuits and ensure business profits from the political positions," thus illustrating the close link between education, politics, and power during this era. Bent on establishing academies, schools, examination centers, and cultivating feudal intellectuals to consolidate the patriarchal clan system, the five counties of Shexian, Xiuning, Yixian, Qimen, and Jixi managed to produce an incredible 2,108 "Jinshis," or people who passed the final imperial examination. The exams were held every three years and presided over by the emperor, who then selected a successful few for title holding. Later, during the Ming and Qing Dynasties (1368~1911), the literary works of 343 people from Shexian County alone were included in Best Poems or Best Essays. There are stories about "three successive Jinshis from one place, four Hanlina (members of the Imperial Academy) within ten li", "father and son both ministers", "brothers both prime ministers" and "three generations of imperially-honored courtiers." Academic studies and etiquette both greatly advocated, Huizhou was a cradle for talented scholars with achievements in various domains. Huizhou culture, enriched through these achievements, welcomes visitors from far and wide with splendid displays of arts and a wide range of interesting history.

The above words are quoted from the official website of Mt.Huangshan.