Chapter 129 Doubts of Shanxi Merchants: Can the spirit of this "Shanxi Merchants" and that "Shanxi Merchants" be passed on from generation to generation?

"Shanxi Coal Boss" is a general term for those who gain benefits in Shanxi coal production and operation.At this point, some people will have such a question, whether the spirit of Shanxi merchants can be "passed on from generation to generation" between "Shanxi merchants" and "Shanxi merchants"?How should we answer such a serious and important question? Others believe that one "Shanxi merchant" should not be confused with another "Shanxi merchant", because it is easy for people to use the standard of lack of morality to evaluate coal bosses.Even in some people's minds, coal bosses in Shanxi have become "upstarts" crazily grabbing the country's coal resources, rather than respectable "entrepreneurs."

We know that Shanxi merchants in history were famous for their diligence and simplicity in their business life. We remember that some scholars in the Qing Dynasty once commented that Shanxi merchants were "simple and honest, with the style of ancient pottery and Tang Dynasty".The history books also praised them: "The Liao Dynasty enshrined six hundred cities in Mongolia and Russia, surrounded by gold, silver and treasures." According to historical records, Shanxi merchants in the past always returned the money earned in hundreds of cities to their villages. In the minds of today's Shanxi people, yesterday's Shanxi merchants brought them more spiritual pride and glory.Hundreds of years later, their descendants, the so-called "new merchants", got rich overnight by digging coal in their own homes (underground), and then threw a lot of money outside.When the miners returned to Gansu and Sichuan with their hard-earned money, the coal bosses came to Beijing and Shanghai to spend their money recklessly and recklessly with their bloody money.What the thousands of Shanxi people have obtained is only the "ridden" barren land in front of them.

Today, an ironic reality is before us: One is to reinvest the money earned from other provinces or even foreign countries into the hometown. The other is to "invest" the huge amount of money earned from the crazy mining of coal resources in my hometown to other places! This is the "essential" difference between Jin merchants and "new Jin merchants". In a certain sense, the Shanxi merchants back then were rich and wealthy, relying on their own wisdom and hard work, which was sunshine wealth, so they dared to show their life value in front of their hometown.In contrast, the so-called "newly promoted merchants" have become rich all over the world, but in their golden mountains and silver valleys, the blood and sweat of thousands of poor miners flow.The resulting environmental pollution has plagued the fathers and villagers who once gave birth to themselves year after year.

So far, there seems to be no answer to the question "Can the long-lost Shanxi merchant spirit be passed on from generation to generation?" We can answer from another angle, Shanxi Coal Boss has a relatively short history of prosperity. It has only been a decade or so since they really accumulated a huge amount of capital. The vicissitudes of life, just ten years, is just a wave in the long river of history. Can this be compared with the "Great Shanxi Merchants" praised by history books for "ruling China for hundreds of years and stretching across Europe and Asia for tens of thousands of miles"!