I have visited the Huizhou area twice. In addition to marveling at the paradise of southern Anhui and the antique Huizhou culture, I am also impressed by the wealth of this land, which can be seen from the ancient high-rise mansions and carved beams and painted buildings. This prosperous atmosphere continues to this day and is inextricably related to Huizhou merchants.
Huizhou merchants come from Huizhou, which is the ancient Xin'an County, including six counties: She, Xiuning, Wuyuan, Qimen, Yi, and Jixi, collectively known as "One Prefecture and Six Counties". It is an important economic and cultural place in history. development areas. The unique geographical and humanistic conditions prompted the creation of a caravan that affected the entire China.
The income is very small, and most of them can't pay tithe at the age of one. The small people are mostly skilled in crafts, or they sell their burdens to other counties, often in the "Nineteenth" area of ??Huizhou, "at the head of Wu and the tail of Chu". The mountains are high, the forests are dense, and the terrain is undulating and changeable. It is known as "eight mountains, half water, half fields, and one half roads and manors." At the end of the Jin Dynasty, the end of the Song Dynasty, the end of the Tang Dynasty and the three other waves of immigration in Chinese history, a large number of people migrated from the north to Huizhou. Huizhou, which already had little land, was overwhelmed. The mountains were barren and there was little arable land. It was forced to go out for business. "I didn't practice cultivation in my previous life. I was born in Huizhou and threw it away when I was thirteen or fourteen years old." This proverb truly describes the Huizhou people's business tradition.
Although Huizhou, located in an area surrounded by mountains, is not conducive to the growth of food crops, it is very conducive to the growth of cash crops such as wood, bamboo, and tea. Huizhou people adapt to local conditions and make full use of these mountainous resources to embark on the journey. The path to business. Kangxi's "Huizhou Prefecture Chronicles" recorded that "the people of Heaven place their lives on agriculture, and the people of Huizhou place their lives on business." In addition, the dense water network provided excellent conditions for the transportation and communication of Huizhou merchants, paving the way for Huizhou merchants to spread across the country.
History chose Huizhou, and Huizhou merchants dominated the world, which is closely related to his culture. The Huizhou area has a strong cultural and historical atmosphere, with a prosperous literary style of "a village of ten households, never abandoning recitation", and "although a Jia is a Jia, he is close to the scholarly style". In history, Jia and Confucianism were closely linked and became the Huizhou business gang. A major feature.
In the fiercely competitive market, the relationship between supply and demand is constantly changing. To grasp the market conditions, you must have certain business knowledge. When the industry expands, management skills will also be needed, which requires businessmen's knowledge. In addition, once Huizhou merchants abroad became successful and returned to their hometowns, they began to build buildings, ancestral halls, roads, bridges, and guild halls. They were especially keen on opening schools and test centers, which provided a stable supply of talents for the development of Huizhou merchants.
"If you have a solid warehouse, you will know etiquette; if you have enough food and clothing, you will know honor and disgrace." After becoming rich in business, Huizhou merchants did not forget to pursue their own cultural and spiritual life.
Neo-Confucianism in the Song and Ming dynasties pushed Confucianism to a new stage of development. "Wuyuan had Zhu Zi, just as Zou had Mencius, and Qufu had Confucius." Zhu Xi and his Neo-Confucianism, whose hometown was Huizhou, had great influence on Huizhou has far-reaching local influence. After the development of the Yuan Dynasty, the New An Neo-Confucian school was formed. "Although Zhu Xi's teachings are spread all over the world, only the scholars of Xin'an can explain them well, explain them in detail, and adhere to them firmly." Huizhou became a model for practicing Neo-Confucianism. Subtly, Confucian thoughts and ethics have become the guide for Huizhou merchants to act on their own terms and serve as businessmen. The Confucian "benevolence, justice, etiquette, wisdom, and trustworthiness" are reflected in all aspects of doing business.
The more than 300 years from the mid-Ming Dynasty to the end of Qianlong's reign in the Qing Dynasty was the golden age of Huizhou merchants' development. Regardless of the number of business people, scope of activities, business industries and capital, they ranked first among all merchant groups in the country. In particular, the development of the commodity economy after the mid-Ming Dynasty, the formation of a national market, and the emergence of new production relations greatly promoted the development of Huizhou merchants. From the inland Central Plains to the overseas frontiers, Huizhou merchants have their footprints all over Yunei. "Those who rule the roost among rich families will be in Xin'an in the south of the Yangtze River, and in Shanyou in the north of the Yangtze River. The big merchants in Xin'an, whose business is fish and salt, have up to one million treasures, and the other two to three hundred thousand are among the merchants." In the salt industry, In the pawn industry, Huizhou merchants even have a monopoly position.
In that era, a number of successful Huizhou merchants were created. Today, these time-honored Huizhou merchants are still active in the market and are well known to people.
A century of Hu Yumei:
? In the 10th year of Daoguang reign of the Qing Dynasty, a Hu family moved to Anqing from Wuyuan, Huizhou (now part of Jiangxi), and a man named Hu Zhaoxiang began to walk around the local streets. In the alley, he sold soy sauce products shoulder to shoulder, and then opened "Simei" soy sauce garden and "Yucheng" soy sauce garden. Later, he founded "Hu Yumei" soy sauce garden on the fourth archway of Anqing Commercial Center ("Yumei" is the store name, which is based on the ambition of his predecessors to start the business. (Hardship, which also means "improving beauty"). In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with the needs of business development, "Hu Yumei" not only set up many branches in this city, but also in Shanghai, Nanjing, Hankou and other places. Branches or distribution offices were set up, and the Jinpu, Shanghai-Nanjing and Pinghan canals were gradually opened, and the business became increasingly developed. The products are also constantly increasing, including canned drinks, cold drinks, cakes, medicinal wine and other new varieties, especially the long-standing broad bean chili sauce, shrimp roe soy sauce and other more distinctive features. It has been 180 years now and is a prestigious "Chinese time-honored brand" enterprise.
Zhang Xiaoquan scissors:
? The Zhang Xiaoquan brand became famous in 1628 (the first year of Chongzhen in the Ming Dynasty). It is a time-honored Chinese brand and the only well-known Chinese trademark in the knife and scissors industry. For more than 300 years, Zhang Xiaoquan's successors have always adhered to the ancestral motto of "making fine steel and making fine steel" and performed their work well. Traditional civilian scissors are Zhang Xiaoquan's first product. They have five types: "Xinhua, Shanlang, Wuhu, round head, and long head". They rely on uniform steel inlay, clear steel, fine grinding, sharp edges, firm pins, The ten characteristics of smooth opening and closing, exquisite style, novel engraving, durability, high quality and low price dominate the scissors industry.
Xieyu Tea Shop:
? Xieyuda is a famous Huangshan Maofeng brand in Anhui and is the quality and symbol of Huangshan Maofeng. Xieyu Tea Co., Ltd. is committed to the research and development and sales of famous teas of origin. At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, Xieyu Tea Shop spread all over Kyushu, and sold tea to the Far East and Western Europe through foreign merchants. It has the reputation of being "famous in Europe for four to five years". Zhang Zhidong, an important foreign affairs minister in the late Qing Dynasty, admired his concept of honest management and wrote in his own handwriting "We sincerely invite customers from all over the world, and the Xie Gong Building is famous"; later Huang Binhong, a master of the Xin'an School of Painting, praised Xie Yuda as "the first Maofeng restaurant in Huangshan" ". Xie Yu Tea Shop is actually one of the top time-honored tea shops in China.
Hu Qingyutang:
? Hu Qingyutang was built in the 13th year of Tongzhi in the Qing Dynasty (1874). Hu Xueyan, a "red-top businessman" in the late Qing Dynasty, started to prepare for the construction of Hu Xueyan Qingqing Hall in order to "help the world and the people". The name of Yutang Medicine was built and officially opened in a shop house in Dajing Lane in the fourth year of Guangxu Period. Based on the Royal Pharmacopoeia of the Song Dynasty, "Taiping Huimin and Ji Yao Bureau Prescriptions", Hu Qingyutang collected various ancient, proven and secret recipes, and combined with clinical practice experience, carefully prepared Qingyu pills, powders, ointments, pills, glue, dew, There are more than 400 kinds of oil and medicinal wine recipes, and he has written a special book "The Complete Works of Hu Qingyutang Xueji Pills" handed down to the world. To this day, it still inherits ancestral prescriptions and traditional pharmaceutical techniques, and retains a large number of traditional brand-name products.