The Rise of the Cold Gate in the Eastern Jin Dynasty

Chapter 172 The Merchant's Suppression

In ancient times, the social status of scholars, peasants, businessmen, and merchants was the lowest. There is no doubt about this. All dynasties and dynasties have always believed this way. The reasons may be as follows.

First, the feudal society was based on agriculture. Farmers relied on farming to survive, relying on physical labor. Even if they could not support themselves, they had to support the nobles and made outstanding contributions to society, while merchants moved goods and earned the difference. , do not directly participate in labor, but the benefits earned are much higher than those of farmers.

In the eyes of the ancients, this is extremely unreasonable. If the status of merchants is not suppressed, in the long run, farmers will stop farming and go to business, and insufficient food will cause social unrest.

Second, from the perspective of human nature, when a person has money, the next step is to seek power, because money can enrich oneself, but cannot protect oneself. Sometimes, even if there is too much money, there is no ability to protect it It will lead to death, which is not a blessing but a disaster. Therefore, after a businessman has money, it becomes a matter of course to seek power and protect his life.

In ancient times, the territory was vast, communication was inconvenient, and there were problems in the local area. The court could not know in time. Once the merchants had money and power, they could recruit troops and buy horse-drawn banners. It is absolutely intolerable, and the status of businessmen must be suppressed.

Thirdly, the impression left by merchants as a group is too bad. The first impression people think of merchants is that they are "obedient to profit", and they can trample on social morality for the sake of profit. Let me give an example to illustrate.

During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, there was a wealthy businessman named Yi Dun. This man had a good personal relationship with Qin Prime Minister Zhang Yi. He was engaged in the business of selling arms, and the seven countries were all his business partners. When Qin needed weapons, he sold them to Qin. When Chu needed supplies, he would sell them to Chu. Even if the two countries were about to go to war, his arms business would still be done, and the more wars broke out, the more prosperous his business would be.

In the era of great unification, merchants were also uneasy, especially at the end of the dynasty, merchants were the most uneasy group. At the end of Ming Dynasty, Wu Sangui opened Shanhaiguan to welcome the Qing army, and Emperor Chongzhen committed suicide. For the banquet, eight Shanxi merchants were invited. How could these eight merchants be allowed to be entertained by the emperor?
They are the famous eight imperial merchants. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the Jurchen tribe in the Northeast had more and more ambitions to establish the Houjin. However, compared with the Central Plains, the Northeast was relatively scarce in supplies, and the military and living supplies they needed had to pass through Zhangjiakou. Obtained in the trade market.

At the key point of national turmoil, Shanxi merchants secretly smuggled arms and food to the Qing army, and provided various military and defense intelligence inside and outside the pass, in addition to normal trade. Their behavior was no different from treason.

Even in modern society, there are still many businessmen who disregard national interests and secretly submit information to foreign countries for their own selfishness.

A group cannot be beaten to death with a single stick, there are good and bad, but there is another saying that "a rat droppings ruins a pot of porridge". It is precisely these unscrupulous businessmen who have ruined the overall reputation of the group of businessmen.

These businessmen's behavior of "seeking profit" runs counter to traditional Confucianism. Due to various factors, over time, one result is that successive dynasties have severely suppressed businessmen from both ideological and practical aspects.

The author has exhausted his thoughts. In the past dynasties of China, none of the founding kings was a merchant. It seems that at the end of the Tang Dynasty, there was a private salt dealer named Huang Chao. success.

So far, this policy is still implemented. Businessmen can be rich, but if they want to get their hands on power, they will be the first to kill you. There is no discussion, so rich businessmen have gone abroad. In a capitalist society, the rich are the masters. They You can't be an uncle in our country, you can only condescend to go abroad to be a second-class uncle.

But then again, if a rich businessman enjoys his life in peace and never does anything, who will trouble you for no reason?
So why do they go abroad?

This question is worth pondering.

After talking so much, back to this book, the Jin Dynasty suppressed merchants the most in any dynasty. Huang Chao, a private salt dealer, can still participate in the imperial examination, but in the Jin Dynasty, don't think about it.

First of all, merchants register independently. If there is a merchant in the family, the whole family is prohibited from being in politics. I can't stop checking.

In the Jin Dynasty, merchants could not even sit at the same table with farmers, let alone nobles, so Xiao Qinzhi invited Zhao Yunfei and brother Zhao Yunfei to sit at the same table, which made Zhao Yunlong very excited. Talk back.

In terms of daily clothing, merchants also have special requirements. The clothes they wear are limited to a few colors. The clothes should not be expensive, and they cannot wear luxurious ornaments. The grip was very strict, and then gradually relaxed in the later stage.

Xiao Qinzhi is now very famous, everywhere, few people do not know, in Jiankang, Xiao Qinzhi and Diao Cheng went to a private club to learn foreign languages ​​and were discovered, and everyone would only say that this son is a young man, not a big deal, but If someone finds out that you are in business, you will be scolded by poking your spine.

Therefore, the importance of Xu Miao is reflected. First of all, Xu Miao can be trusted. Secondly, Xu Miao is not well-known at present, and his actions are not eye-catching. Unlike Xiao Qinzhi, where he reported his name, he immediately gathered together The brainless fans are blocked and want to look up at the face.

Therefore, Xu Miao could be used to contact the gang of merchants in Jiangzuo for this matter. Strictly speaking, Xu Miao told Zhao Yunfei, Zhao Yunfei told Zhao Yunlong, and then Zhao Yunlong spontaneously organized a group of merchants to come to Lanling. By various chances and coincidences, this matter was done.

Hypocrisy, in fact, is so hypocritical.

These famous families in the Eastern Jin Dynasty all did the job of being bitches and erecting memorial archways. They were very hypocritical. If you don’t believe me, you open the history books and remove the majestic mask of justice, and the rest are all hypocritical reality.

While enjoying the comfort brought by hypocrisy, they scolded hypocrisy at the same time, and then the people they scolded were labeled as hypocrisy, written into the history books by themselves, and they would never stand up again, and the scolders naturally became noble. Those who are admired by later generations.

But they forget that what is false often cannot withstand scrutiny. Sometimes, the biggest flaw is the flawless fabrication, just like a person saying that he has no flaws, this is the biggest flaw.

Open the history books at will, and there are such "perfect" flaws everywhere, flaws that show the lower limit of IQ, such as the strict laws of the Qin Dynasty, and the tyranny of Qin Shihuang, which led to public resentment and desperation, so there was an uprising of Chen Sheng, Wu Guangze, and Qin II. Death.

In the author's opinion, Qin Shihuang's hat of a tyrant will probably never be taken off, but the author is very suspicious, why would the first emperor of Qin Shihuang fail to realize the shortcomings of Qin?
Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was able to wake up from the scourge of witchcraft in the later period, and issued an edict of guilt. How could the first emperor, who was the first in China, not realize it?

Since the Qin Dynasty implemented tyranny, then the Han Dynasty completely inherited Qin law, so how could it not be a tyranny?
Today, the truth of the facts can no longer be verified, but this is how it is recorded in history books. We can only infer the truth from the few words recorded by the ancients with difficulty, and thus obtain an incomplete fact.

Later, I realized that what we can see now is probably just what some people want us to see.

It's getting too far, so I won't talk about it in the next chapter.

(End of this chapter)