Chapter 8 People who are "good at carrying things"

Zhejiang, China. Standing in front of a large-scale map of the People's Republic of China, looking from a distance, Zhejiang is in the front abdomen of this singing golden rooster, bordering Shanghai and the Soviet Union to the north, Fujian and Guangdong to the south, Jiangxi and Anhui to the west, and the sea to the east , a gentle Qiantang River flows out from the lotus point on the border of Zhejiang, Anhui and Jiangxi in a zigzag shape, winding 400 kilometers, passing through the province.Every autumn, the spring tide at the mouth of the Qiantang River is known all over the world for its turbulence and grandeur.

"Those who follow it will prosper, and those who go against it will perish." Sun Yat-sen talked about the general trend of the world and wrote about the tide of the Qianjiang River. Here, since ancient times, it has been a country of cultural relics, a land of fish and rice, and a home of silk. One side of water and soil supports one side of people. What kind of people live in this moist and rich Jiangnan water and soil? Let's try to see Zhejiang people through the "second eyes" of a foreigner. In 1861, the twentieth year after the Opium War, the ancient and heavy gate of the country had just opened.A German with a flame-like red beard is walking curiously on the land of China.

This German doctor named Lichthofen was a frustrated geologist. This year, he was sponsored by the British Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai and started a humanistic investigation that had little to do with geology. At that time, he accepted this kind of investigation work only to raise a sum of money for traveling in China.But when he conducted seven field trips in the interior and traveled to more than twenty provinces, he suddenly became interested in the Chinese people, so he wrote a wonderful book: "China——Personal Travel and Experience The results of this research". In this book, Dr. Lichthofen described in detail the character traits of the people in 19 provinces of China with the sensitivity of his geologist.And the first group of people he described were "Zhejiang people".

It was an impressionistic sketch with many complexities: "Zhejiang people are composed of a variety of people, and they have only obeyed the rule of the imperial court in the past few hundred years. The mountains and climates are different, and the coast is relatively tidy. The general Zhejiang people have a soft personality, which makes them feel good. "...There are special races along the coast, such as Ningbo people. Ningbo people are more outstanding in terms of diligence, hard work, enthusiasm for big undertakings and great entrepreneurial spirit. "...the inhabitants are capable and good at carrying things, and the women work, boat, and trade just as well as the men.

"...In China, the power of Zhejiang is more manifested in the buyers and sellers, especially the Ningbo people in business, who are completely comparable to the Jews. As big merchants, Cantonese merchants demand the same price as Europeans, while Zhejiang merchants value more Small, piecemeal profits." "Good at carrying things." In Dr. Lichthofen's description of the Zhejiang people, this is the most appalling but also the most expressive stroke. What are you carrying?It must be going out, must transport things to somewhere, or sell, or exchange, in short, it is the beginning of a commercial act.

He is also a German, but he is very famous. Hegel is the master of philosophy. He once made a very subtle exposition on coastal culture.In his view, when human beings face the boundless sea, they will feel that their own power is also boundless, and they will be able to muster up the courage to explore the unknown world.Thus, Hegel draws cultural inferences about the symbiosis of commerce and seafaring in coastal areas. Coincidentally, Zhejiang is exactly the coastal area described by Hegel.However, the business talents of Zhejiang people did not come into play in sailing, but turned to the mainland to seek their own business opportunities in the unknown "sea of ​​land".

The "commercial lineage" of Zhejiang people can be traced back to the Liangzhu culture of the Neolithic Age 5,000 years ago.Liangzhu people can produce sandy black pottery and linen fabrics with a high level of craftsmanship.At that time, there were signs of the exchange of everything between the tribes. Since ancient times, Fan Li in the Spring and Autumn Period has been recognized as the originator of Chinese merchants. He assisted King Goujian of Yue to destroy the Wu Kingdom, and after achieving hegemony, he brought the most beautiful woman in the world, Xixuan, to abandon his official position and go into business.Throughout his life, he was mostly active in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and later became rich in silk business.

During the Wei and Jin Dynasties, "merchants in Zhejiang have reached Qing and Xu in the north, and Jiao and Guang in the south."In the Tang Dynasty, Ningbo and Wenzhou were established as trading ports, "going to and from the city and reaching overseas". There are more than a dozen famous businessmen with surnames in the history books, including Li Linde, Zhang Zhixin, and Li Churen. During the two hundred years since the Southern Song Dynasty, due to the southward shift of the political and cultural center, Zhejiang once became the "heart of the dynasty". "Jiangnan is rich and endowed, Jiangsu and Zhejiang are rich in culture." At that time, there were 40 prosperous metropolises in the country, and the two Zhejiang provinces accounted for 23. Hangzhou even became the largest city in the country with "a hundred thousand people".

Since the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Huizhou people in Anhui and Ningbo people in Zhejiang were the most merchant-like people at that time. The proverb "You can't make a town without an emblem, and you can't make a city without peace" has been passed down to this day.History since the Ming Dynasty: There have been so-called "Top Ten Business Gangs", and Zhejiang people have two seats: the Ningbo Gang and the Wenzhou Gang. What is particularly rare is that Zhejiang people not only focus on business and prosperity in behavior, but also have a unique and traditional way of thinking, becoming an "outlier" outside the authentic Central Plains culture.

In the Song Dynasty, Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism, which suppressed business and emphasized agriculture, reached its peak in popularization among officials and folks.However, the Yongjia School, headed by Ye Shi, vigorously advocated the idea of ​​"commercial benefits for industry" and equal emphasis on righteousness and benefit in the southeast corner, and proposed that "there is no utilitarianism, and morality is just an empty talk." This school had a great influence on later generations. In the middle of the Ming Dynasty, the Zhedong School represented by Wang Yangming and Huang Zongxi developed. On this basis, the "personal practice" triggered the first humanistic enlightenment movement with a strong secular color in Chinese history.

It was also during that period that the earliest germination of capitalism in China was cultivated in the rural areas of Jiangsu and Zhejiang.With the development of agricultural production, the division of labor continued to expand, and the factors of commercialization of production increased significantly, which changed the self-sufficiency economy in the state of small production.In many places, the phenomenon of hiring labor has become quite common, and the commercial economy represented by the silk weaving industry is booming.According to historical records, "After the Ming Dynasty, there were dozens of towns in Hangzhou, Huzhou, Wenzhou, etc. The big ones were home to tens of thousands of families, and the small ones were dry households. They became gathering places for commerce and handicrafts." In modern times, Zhejiang merchants were the first to gain popularity.Sun Yat-sen once commented on the people of Zhejiang in this way: they have rich experience in business management... they are known to be good at doing business and have strong courage. It was on this fertile soil of practice and thought that Zhejiang people walked into the 1980s.