On The School Funding Activities And The Resistance To Taxes On Education Of Huizhou Merchants In The Late Qing Dynasty

The funding of the new style education in the late Qing Dynasty was raised by local governments. In the process, the donation of local gentry and rich family, levy taxes on people became important sources of funds which were used to run schools by local officials and gentry. In this fundraising environment, Huizhou merchants were inevitably involved in fundraising campaign, as the main object of taxation and the fund raising. Huizhou merchants and Huizhou education in the late Qing Dynasty were closely related with the financing. Under the influence of the historical and cultural tradition, the social environment at that time and the new education system in Huizhou, the local merchants chose to donate to the education or refuse to pay taxes for education.Huizhou merchants’ ways of running schools were based on the blood relationship, geopolitical relationship and business relationship. It was not only because the comprehensive influences of tradition of valuing education, clan ideology and native consciousness, but also the needs of their own development in the new historical conditions. The new style education of Huizhou in the late Qing Dynasty had widespread abuses. Exorbitant taxes and levies caused economic damage to Huizhou merchants. They overwhelmed by the heavy taxes, so some of them refused to pay tax on Pearl Orchid and tinfoil. The behavior of safeguarding their own rights and interests stemmed from their doubts about the gentry and the new style education.In social transition period, the school funding activities and resistance to taxes on education were seemingly contradictory; however, it was actually not. They can reflect the modernization transformation of Huizhou merchants, the relationship of the merchants, government and gentry and the reason why the new style education was beset with difficulties. Also the school funding activities and the resistance to taxes on education by Huizhou merchants can reflect many aspects of Huizhou and Chinese society in the late Qing Dynasty.