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A painting of a gentry scholar with two courtesans, by Tang Yin, c. 1500. The four occupations (simplified Chinese: 士农工商; traditional Chinese: 士農工商; pinyin: Shì nóng gōng shāng), or "four categories of the people" (Chinese: 四民; pinyin: sì mín), [1] [2] was an occupation classification used in ancient China by either Confucian or Legalist scholars as far back as the ...
Shanxi merchants were among the earliest Chinese businessmen and their history could be traced back to the Spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period.Southern Shanxi first came into commercial prominence due to its proximity to the political and cultural centers of ancient China.
The Ten Great Merchant Guilds (simplified Chinese: 十大商帮; traditional Chinese: 十大商幫; pinyin: Shí Dà Shāngbāng) were the variously influential groups of merchants and businessmen in Chinese history. They were: [1] Shanxi Merchants (晉商) - also known as Jin merchants; Huizhou Merchants - based in modern Huangshan, Anhui
A merchant who owned property worth a thousand catties of gold—equivalent to ten million cash coins—was considered a great merchant. [77] Such a fortune was one hundred times larger than the average income of a middle class landowner-cultivator and dwarfed the annual 200,000 cash-coin income of a marquess who collected taxes from a thousand ...
The economy of the Han dynasty (206 BC – 220 AD) of ancient China experienced upward and downward movements in its economic cycle, periods of economic prosperity and decline. It is normally divided into three periods: Western Han (206 BC – 9 AD), the Xin dynasty (9–23 AD), and Eastern Han (25–220 AD).
Confucian or Legalist scholars in ancient China—perhaps as far back as the late Zhou dynasty (c. 1046–256 BC)—categorized all socioeconomic groups into four broad and hierarchical occupations (in descending order): the shi (scholars, or gentry), the nong (peasant farmers), the gong (artisans and craftsmen), and the shang (merchants). [1]
Located in the southern fringe of China, far away from center of power, adjacent to Hong Kong and Macau, Cantonese merchants were the first to open up the market to Western European commerce and to accept economic and cultural exchange with Southeast Asia. As a result, a unique business culture emerged.
They also encouraged foreign merchants to travel to China and import goods, and built numerous hotels to house them. [106] The Sui continued to use the equal-field system introduced by Northern Wei. Every able-bodied male received 40 mou of freehold land and a lifetime lease of 80 mou of land, which was returned to the state when the recipient ...