Study On The Ship Owners Of The Beijing Hangzhou Canal In The Ming And Qing Dynasties

As a professional household,the boatman of the Beijing Hangzhou canal in the Ming and Qing Dynasties was subordinate to the civilian household in the yellow book system of taxes and servitude in the Ming Dynasty,providing labor for the imperial court;After the mid Ming Dynasty,with the existence of the household service system in name and in reality,and people with non ship owner identity and functions could also join it.They became people employed by the government or merchants to carry out water passenger and cargo transportation to earn commissions,and engaged in grain transportation or commercial transportation,which ensured the grain transportation from the south to the north to a certain extent and promoted the long-distance transportation Cross regional business development.This paper takes the boatman on the Beijing Hangzhou canal as the research subject,uses a large number of official history and folk literature to restore the survival and lifestyle of this group,and then discusses the impact of water transport system and commercial development in the Ming and Qing Dynasties on ordinary people and regional society and its interactive mechanism.According to the different nature of goods transported by shippers,the paper divides shippers into "water transport shippers" and "commercial transport shippers".The former mainly discusses the functions and characteristics of "water transport ship owners" : they are mainly responsible for white grain transportation,ship stripping transportation and rescue when the water transport ship encounters wind and fire accidents,which makes up for the deficiency of the function of official water transport and plays an extremely important role in ensuring the water transport of grain;At the same time,the paper also analyzes the functional differences of water transport shippers in the Ming and Qing Dynasties.The latter,with the main body of "commercial shippers",combed the materials transported by shippers and classified them in detail.It believed that private salt,Yunnan copper,bricks and tiles,letters and business travel were the main contents of its transportation.Shippers also formed the transportation characteristics of "flexible transshipment" and "suitable for both passengers and goods" in the process of the canal,which facilitated the circulation of folk goods and business travel,It promoted the social and economic development of the Ming and Qing Dynasties.Relying on the canal,canal boat owners have also formed special survival skills and lifestyles in the long-term sailing process,such as boating experience,boating taboos,boatman beliefs and so on.Boat owners have a low status,for the purpose of profit,and their life presents the characteristics of instability.They have the duality of exploitation and being exploited in the social relationship network,and form the fact of bullying and being bullied with officials and people.The main purpose of this paper is to present the real life state of the boatman group in the Ming and Qing Dynasties in the function of transporting grain and goods and the resulting survival and lifestyle,and to clarify the development context of the boatman and water transport system in the Beijing Hangzhou canal in the Ming and Qing Dynasties,in order to deepen the boatman research and be beneficial to the cultural protection of boatman.