The Study On Huizhou Merchants’"Two Separated Families" In Ming And Qing Dynasties

After the middle of Ming dynasty, with the development of economy ofcommodity currency, business was booming gradually. During Ming and Qingdynasties, the prosperity of business was performed in three aspects: pervading ofmercantilist ethos in whole society, rising of the new towns and cities, promoting ofmerchants’ social status. As one of ten biggest regional business cartels in Ming andQing dynasties, Hui merchants were under pressure to survive, so they devotedthemselves into trade of salt, tea, pawn and wood. The cover of business extended overthe whole country, and the merchants got enormous amount of wealth, and left greatinfluence on society.Hui merchants got married when they were very young in their hometown. Thenthey went out to involve in business all around and left their families. Because of theneed of trading, there were many early marriages in Hui Zhou area during Ming andQing dynasties, which were formed by social realities. Stay-at-home wives supportedtheir husbands to trade firmly no matter in minds or acts, they not only persuaded theirhusbands to go into business and educated their children to follow their ancestors, butalso devoted their personal properties to their husbands as the initial capital. It was nodoubt that the wives of Hui merchants sacrificed a lot, they bear the loneliness ofwithout husbands, lived toughly. It is more important that the wives of Hui merchantsgot the responsibilities of rearing families through physical labor such as spinning,embroidery, tea plucking etc. As the merchants, Hui merchants valued the wealth,while, most of Hui merchants had deep emotions for their families and thestay-at-home wives.“Two separated families” as a common phenomenon in Hui commercial groups inMing and Qing dynasties born after experiencing many risks, failures, great pressures,long-time managing and becoming successful in business. The rich Hui merchants notonly lived a luxurious life, but also pursued beauties with huge money. The desires ofHui merchants made Thin House famous in Yang Zhou. It was undeniable that therewere many reasonable reasons for Hui merchants founding families outside, but the attitude of ancestors, parents and stay-at-home wives in their hometown were complex.As a sentient female, the wives did not want their husbands being fickle in love, as aweak social group living in the society of Cheng and Zhu’s Neo-Confucianismprevailing, keeping Zhu Zi’s Family Rites generation by generation, they wereunwilling without other alternatives.The two families were “equal” seemingly, they were families with strict statusamong plural wives in essence, so the law status of two different families were unequal.As for gain and loss, the family in hometown was miserable, while the other one washappy. In addition, the two families played different function on the business of Huimerchants, the first one was major, the other was minor.There were different reasons for forming the phenomenon of “Two separatedfamilies”, first, it was the developing results of commercial economy, then, it was thehistorical regime and culture which gave the rights for Hui merchants to marry againand again, last, it was the integration of Neo-Confucianism by Hui merchants. Besides,the disgusting nature and traffic gave a chance for beginning of it. All what have beensaid were the reasonable explanations for the phenomenon of “Two separated families”.No matter how flourish it used to be in Ming and Qing dynasties, as the socialphenomenon of specific conditions, it just was a historical phenomenon finally.