Series Reports on Jiangnan Culture ⑧ Why can Kong Yiji keep crediting?

Wang Zhan, chief reporter of qianjiang evening news-Hour News

Correspondent Wang Qiu

According to the Records of Hangzhou in Gan Long compiled by Zheng Mianxiu, a juren in Qing Dynasty, 1699, when Emperor Kangxi of Qing Dynasty visited Jiangnan once, he lamented on the way that all the silk supplies and sericulture places in the world were in Jiangnan, praising the silk trade in Jiangnan at that time.

Yu Lianxiang, a professor at Huzhou Normal University, said that during the Ming and Qing Dynasties, businesses in the south of the Yangtze River gradually flourished, and farmers pursued commercial interests and turned their attention to planting mulberry and raising silkworms with higher economic benefits, resulting in the phenomenon that rice fields turned into mulberry fields and even grain needed to be purchased from other places.

In addition, the development of Jiangnan commerce has also improved the social status of businessmen and formed many Jiangnan customs. "You may not know that our common credit appeared at that time." Yu Lianxiang said with a smile.

The phenomenon of hiring people to weave silk first appeared in Jiaxing, Zhejiang and other places.

The germination of capitalism first appeared in Jiangnan.

"At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, after Zheng He went to the Western Ocean, the Maritime Silk Road reached its peak." Yu Lianxiang, a professor at Huzhou Normal University, said that, therefore, sericulture silk in the south of the Yangtze River has become an international commodity, and Nanxun and Wuzhen in Zhejiang Province have become the hometown of professional silk, and there is a saying that "there is no town without silk".

In the mid-Ming Dynasty, the phenomenon of hiring people to weave silk (cloth) first appeared in towns with developed silk weaving industry, such as Puyuan (now Tongxiang City, Jiaxing City, Zhejiang Province). Yu Lianxiang explained that the employment relationship between capitalists and workers was capitalist, and Jiangnan became the first area where capitalism sprouted in China.

At the end of Ming and the beginning of Qing Dynasty, Zhang Lvxiang drew a conclusion through calculation in the Book of Supplementing Agriculture that the same piece of land was used for mulberry and sericulture, which was four or five times or even ten times higher than that for rice and wheat. The production cycle of sericulture is short and the results are great. As the saying goes, "forty-five days of cocoon white."

In fact, since the Ming Dynasty, many farmers in the south of the Yangtze River really destroyed grain and turned to mulberry fields, and spent all their prime time growing rice on sericulture in spring and summer and planting rice in autumn and winter.

This is also why in the Qing Dynasty's "Ganlong Zhu Pi Memorial", it was recorded that "Hangjiahu and other genera, with many people and few fields, were all helped by Lai Kemi". In other words, silkworm farmers often buy rice with the money from selling cocoons or silk to spend the spring and summer seasons.

Yu Lianxiang believes that all these behaviors show the strengthening of Jiangnan people's business awareness.

"Because of the need to buy rice, it also promoted the formation of a professional rice market." Yu Lianxiang introduced that the expression "Dongmen cuisine, Ximenshui, Nanmenchai and Beimenmi" refers to the distribution of professional markets in Lin 'an, the capital of the Southern Song Dynasty. Now the location of Wulinmen (north and west) in Hangzhou is the location of the professional rice market in the north of the city at that time.

Changes in the image of businessmen in Jiangnan

From fickle profiteers to industrious wisdom

Yu Lianxiang introduced that in China's traditional concept, the ranking of all classes is "scholar, agriculture, industry and commerce", while those who study as officials have the highest status and businessmen have the lowest status.

According to Records of the Historian, Liu Bang, the founding emperor of the Han Dynasty, issued the "Cheap Business Order", which stipulated that businessmen could not wear gorgeous clothes made of silk and travel by car. The selection of history in the Song Dynasty shows that the imperial examination system in the early Song Dynasty listed businessmen and disobedient and unfilial people as groups that were forbidden to participate in the imperial examination.

"But the emergence of capitalism in the south of the Yangtze River in the Ming and Qing Dynasties and the rapid development of towns as commodity exchange centers have improved the status of businessmen." Yu Lianxiang said that after the status of businessmen in the Ming and Qing Dynasties was upgraded, they began to play an important role in various fields.

Yu Lianxiang told a short story recorded in the local chronicles "Records of Jinyun County":

In the 16th year of Jiaqing in Qing Dynasty, a drought occurred in Jinyun, Zhejiang Province. Lv Zaiyang, a local businessman, couldn't bear to see the people suffer from drought, so he bought food from other places to help the victims and saved many people who were starving to death.

However, Yu Lianxiang added that in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, in addition to charity, businessmen also tried to get involved in the political field. They joined the ruling class by donating money to the government and educating their children to go to school, which led to the social atmosphere of businessmen participating in politics as officials. The status and role of businessmen attracted the attention of the society at that time.

The change of businessmen's status is also reflected in literary works. Yu Lianxiang said: "In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the image of businessmen in literary works changed from the negative image of' fickle profiteers' to the image of hardworking and intelligent successful businessmen."

Feng Menglong, a novelist in the Ming Dynasty, once mentioned the Shi Fu couple in shengze town, Wujiang County, Jiangsu Province during Jiajing period. The color of the silks and satins knitted by the couple is wet, which attracts buyers to pay higher prices. In a few years, they saved money to buy two or three big houses and thirty or forty looms. Feng Menglong, the author, praised them in the novel for "cleaning up their family business perfectly".

Kong Yiji can get credit.

Because Jiangnan has the custom of "settling accounts in three seasons"

Kong Yiji, a novel character written by Lu Xun, is a frequent visitor to Shaoxing Xianheng Hotel. When he drinks without cash, he writes his name on the "chalk board" of the hotel, and then erases his name when paying for the drinks.

"The small towns in the south of the Yangtze River during the Republic of China were basically acquaintances. Between shops and customers, between shops and shops, credit is often available. Because Kong Yiji has a good credit in the hotel,' he has never owed money for drinks', so he can always drink. " Yu Lianxiang said.

In Yu Lianxiang's view, this is related to the commercial custom of "three-season settlement" in Jiangnan. Every year, during the Dragon Boat Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival and the end of the year, shops will clean up accounts with each other. You can be sloppy during the Dragon Boat Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival, but you must carefully clean up the accounts at the end of the year.

"According to custom, the deadline for collection is New Year's Eve. Generally, the accounts will not be collected after dawn on New Year's Day. " Yu Lianxiang said: "Because in the customs of Jiangnan people, it is unlucky to always collect accounts on the New Year's Eve."

Feng Zikai wrote the story of "eating strings" when he settled accounts at the end of his childhood in "Chinese New Year":

At dusk, people bring lanterns to collect bills one after another. We are busy eating kebabs. Sounds like "eating vegetables". In fact, it is to untie the rope of every 100 copper coin and take out three or four, leaving only 967, or even 923, as one hundred. The string we eat is pocket money for our brothers and sisters. We paid off the account with this money, but the account we received was also a bunch of money.

Yu Lianxiang speculated that the store probably wanted to cultivate children's business awareness by "eating skewers". Shops usually ask children for help, and the "eating skewers" at the end of the year can also be regarded as a reward for helping.

From these customs, Yu Lianxiang thinks that Jiangnan attaches importance to business.

Yu Lianxiang, Professor of College of Literature, Huzhou Normal University. Executive director of China Mao Dun Research Association, vice president of Zhejiang China Modern Literature Research Association, and vice president of Zhejiang Lu Xun Research Association. He presided over 2 national social science funds and 4 provincial and ministerial-level projects, and published 7 works, including Modern Jiangnan Town Literature Research, Feng Zikai Aesthetic Thought Research and Lu Xun Painting Biography, and published more than 50 academic papers. His achievements won the provincial people's * * * award and five one-project awards.

Merchants (6) Jiangnan (3) Customs (2)