The Research On Southern Shanxi Merchant Family In Qing Dynasty

During the Ming and Qing Dynasties,the southern Shanxi developed commercial,social and economic prosperity.The family of merchants represented by Family Xing from Quwo inherited the ranks of the gentry by making donations and obtaining official positions and seals.Xing Youchen,the member of Family Xing had become officials for more than two decades through donations.Xing Youren,Xing Youchen's younger brother,he succeeded as an official by waiting 19 years and died after 4 years.In the southern Shanxi,most of the donors are similar to Xing Youren's countparts.They wait for decades before they get an official,and some even fail to serve as official for whole life.In spite of unequal pay and returns,businessmen are expected to use this to get rid of last-gen status because the donation system breaks down the class gap that has been difficult to overcome for thousands of years.Therefore,businessmen in the southern Shanxi are still clamoring for donations.While pursuing their identities and interests,businessmen will also be affected by their family and matrimonial life.The first is the increase in spouse status.The clansmen of Family Xing succeeded in doing business,and the spouse's choices were mostly from the scholarship or bureaucratic home.The second is the deformity of marriage forms and the existence of women short-life phenomena.The clansmen of Family Xing go out to do business and their wives are prolonged and independent.The professed women are afflicted both physically and psychologically,and are easily short-lived.The third is common to have no children and adopters.The genealogy of the Family Xing records that 69 people have no children,and 65 of them chose to follow the child through the different surnames,adopted within the group,and adopted concurrently.Marriage and family form of Family Xing are the epitome of the southern Shanxi merchant family.The payment of merchant women in southern Shanxi made men not tired of home and concentrated on doing business,which promoted the development of the southern Shanxi business.In the disaster year,the members of Family Xing provided money,food to relife disaster;they also build bridges for the convenience of their neighbors;they set upcharities for the education of their children.Such charitable acts can both benefit hometowns and gain a good reputation,which indirectly helps the development of the business.Therefore,the merchant family in the southern Shanxi is also highly respected for such charitable acts.The Family Xing's business involves pawn,groceries,and the tea industry.Most of them are located in Shandong Province and the southern Shanxi Province,with a small amount of involvement in Hebei.The southern Shanxi merchants have roughly the same business.Salt industry,pawn industry,grocery industry,and tea industry are the main business engaged by businessmen in southern Shanxi in the Qing Dynasty.