|
Education and close relation with bureaucracy
Education was thought highly of in the Huizhou area, which provided a large number of well-educated businessmen. And those businessmen attached importance to education when they became successful in return. So generation by generation, education became a deeply rooted practice of Huizhou people.
The well-educated Hui merchants tended to analyze the supply and demand of the market in a more sober and scientific way. In the Qing Dyansty (1644-1911), educational background was one of the two qualifications when the government tried to select a candidate as the general director of salt trade. (The salt trade in ancient China was a government monopoly.)
The resourceful Huizhou merchants were well versed in the expertise of obtaining a position so as to attach themselves to the court. 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." Therefore, politics and commerce were closely related among Huizhou merchants.
After gaining fame and fortune, many Huizhou merchants returned home in all their glory and undertook large-scale construction, building mansions, ancestraltemples, guildhalls, roads, and bridges to honor their ancestors and to extend their clan's influence. They were bent on establishing academies, schools, and examination centers and cultivating feudal intellectuals to consolidate the patriarchal clan system.
In the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties, 2,108 people from five counties, including Shexian, Yixian, Qimen and Jixi, were granted the title of "Jinshi" (
successful candidate in the highest imperial examinations) after they passed the final imperial examinations, which were held every three years and presided over by the emperor.
Also during the above mentioned dynasties, the literary works of 343 people from Shexian county alone were included in the Best Poems or Best Essays. There are stories about "three successive jinshis from one place and four hanlina (members of the Imperial Academy) within ten li (nearly 3.3 miles or 5.3 kilometers)," "both father and son as ministers," "both brothers as prime ministers," and "three generations of imperially-honored courtiers."
With academic studies and etiquette greatly advocated, Huizhou was a cradle for talented scholars who made achievements in various domains. Huizhou culture, enriched with these achievements, displayed a splendid view of liberal arts and history.
But the Hui merchant group faded as the Qing Dynasty came to an end. The main body of Hui merchant group had been salt traders. Since salt was a monopoly of the government, the salt traders were carefully protected against competition. So when the monopoly was abandoned, the franchises disappeared.
|
