Revelation 1: Out-of-control population will definitely drag down development.
Huizhou civilization came much later than the Central Plains. After the Tang Dynasty, the Han people in the Central Plains rebelled and ruled Huizhou. The southward migration of northerners led to a sharp increase in the population of Huizhou. During the Sui Dynasty, there were 6 164 households in Huizhou with a population of less than 30,000 (Sui Shu, Volume 3 1). By the time of Tang Tianbao, it had increased to 38,330 households with a population of about 270,000 (Book of Old Tang Dynasty, Volume 40). Xin 'an Annals has been published again and again. Before Shaoxing in the Song Dynasty, there were 16 1 and 147 households in six counties of Huizhou, which was more than four times higher than that in the Tang Tianbao period. From Sui Dynasty to Song Dynasty, the population of ancient Huizhou expanded rapidly from less than 30,000 to more than one million. The rapid growth of population has greatly reduced the per capita area. The statistical data of Ming and Qing dynasties show that the per capita cultivated land area in Huizhou is always lower than the national average. The shortage of cultivated land, coupled with drought and flood disasters, led to the difficulty of grain supply in ancient Huizhou. As early as the Tang Dynasty, the Hui people could not support themselves. "Zi Tong Zhi Jian" (Volume 237) records a passage made by Lu Tan by observation: "Jessica Hester Hsuan is a small place with a narrow population, and people are looked up on all sides." Farmers have to rely on food from other places to survive, and the living conditions of Hui people can be seen. According to Yao, in order to get rid of the entanglement of overpopulation, mattress killing (that is, killing children) was once popular in Huizhou.
In order to get rid of the population pressure, Huizhou rose in the business world, but sank in the business world. The initial motivation of many major choices is actually an effort to get rid of population pressure. However, the expanding population has always been a drag on Huizhou merchants and Huizhou commercial civilization.
Revelation 2: Development should be conscious.
According to historical records, there are three main reasons why younger Huizhou people embark on the road of doing business: first, they are driven by poverty; The second is to be filial and obey orders; Third, it is influenced by the customary requirements of the surrounding, especially the clan. The article "Cheng Guangfu" in Volume 23 of Wuyuan County Records (Daoguang period) said: "If you are poor, you will serve the Soviet Union. I sent my second brother and third brother to the Soviet Union for trade, handed over the business to my brother's manager, returned home and went to the nearest tea shop. " Daoguang's "Broken Yuan County Records" Volume 20 "National Praise" contains: "The weak crown is ordered by Jia's father to support more than ten people." All of the above are examples of doing business in the sea driven by poverty, or for filial piety and respect for parents' lives. This situation is recorded in the county annals of Huizhou counties. As for the third business, driven by herd mentality, many villages and clans have formed a tradition of doing business, and all ethnic groups in the villages are scrambling to get to the same place. For a typical example, see the article "Nagato Creek Newly Built in Qimen County" in Quantang Wen (Volume 802): Qimen County "Within a thousand miles, there are seven or eight people engaged in tea business." In other words, 70% to 80% of the residents in Qimen are engaged in tea processing and sales. What's more, many clans have taken business as a means to maintain their social prestige, and used the power of patriarchal clan system to catch up with their young able-bodied men on the road of business travel, so that in the case of very scarce land, there are still some fertile fields that are abandoned and idle because of the lack of labor for farming.
These three reasons have a common feature: lack of conscious management consciousness. Positive and negative, active and passive, conscious and unconscious, fundamentally reflect the differences in cultural forms. Huizhou merchants and their successors entered the field of commercial activities in the early stage under the domination of agricultural cultural concepts with strong patriarchal clan system. In a certain historical period and specific external conditions, this cultural concept may strengthen the prosperity of commerce, but with the progress of society and the increase of social commodity economy factors, the conservatism and backwardness of the above cultural concept will certainly inhibit the competitiveness of Huizhou merchants. In the subsequent exchanges and competitions with merchants in Guangdong, Shanghai, Jiangsu and other places, Huizhou merchants were defeated repeatedly and eventually declined. The reason is not difficult to understand.
Revelation 3: Resource advantage should become development advantage.
Huizhou has extremely rich resource advantages, especially wood and tea. Huizhou Cunninghamia lanceolata enjoys a high reputation throughout the country. It can not only be used as building materials, but also be used to make ink, paint, paper and so on. It has always been the largest export commodity. Tea is another trump card for the prosperity of Huizhou merchants. Superior natural conditions, such as mountains and clouds, make Huizhou's tea quality unique and unique. Huizhou merchants mainly engaged in timber, tea, salt and pawn. According to the data of Wanli period, the salt production in salt areas controlled by Huizhou merchants accounts for 45% of the national total. Because of the good salt quality, high price and dense population in the sales area, the profit of salt in two Huai provinces ranks first in the country. It is on the basis of these resource advantages that brilliant ancient Huizhou culture was created. Huizhou cuisine, Huizhou Four Treasures of the Study and Huizhou architecture are all its representatives, but they all have the same characteristics, and most of them belong to resource-consuming culture.
Take Anhui cuisine as an example: Anhui cuisine is one of the eight famous dishes in China. With the rise of Huizhou merchants, a large family gradually formed and spread in all directions with the footprints of Huizhou merchants. Authentic Anhui cuisine usually chooses Huizhou delicacies and game as raw materials. Such as pheasants, turtledoves, rabbits, civets, turtles, mushrooms and so on. Cooked with heavy oil. However, food and game are not inexhaustible resources. In today's Huangshan City (renamed from Huizhou), it has long been difficult to eat authentic Huizhou cuisine. Why can't Anhui cuisine go to the whole country and why can't Anhui cuisine culture be carried forward? The answer is self-evident.
Revelation 4: The concept of development should be updated in time.
Huizhou merchants once tasted the sweetness of updating their ideas, but later they suffered because they could not continue to update their ideas and keep pace with the times. Huizhou merchants once changed the image of merchants, and also made the society change the evaluation of traditional merchants. The ungrateful man in the Book of Songs who is heartless to protect himself is a businessman. In the Han dynasty, there was a system of selecting sons to be officials, except for the sons of businessmen. It also stipulates that officials can be bought with assets, and businessmen are excluded. "Whoever pried open the money first, accidentally dumped her", businessmen "forgot their righteousness", and society was classified by scholars, and agriculture, industry and commerce and businessmen ranked last. However, economy determines culture. The strong development of Huizhou's business has mercilessly impacted the old local consciousness, which has made some changes in people's business concepts.
In the thirty-fifth volume of Guangxu's Wuyuan County Records, Huizhou merchant Zhu Wenchi "posted the Pearl River and bought and sold documents during the market period, he must write the word" Chen Tea "to show that he did not bully. Tooth tooth urges replacement and insists. " It shows the ancient moral custom of Huizhou merchants taking righteousness and relics. Huizhou people think that "money comes from the Tao and benefits from righteousness" is certainly desirable, but tea merchants "deal with people, promise 1000, and there is no contract." Cheng Shiyan, a tea merchant, is generous. Guangdong vegetarian tea. I borrowed 1,420 taels of silver, and my mother and son left Yangcheng at a loss. Strictly don't blame the loan, return the goods. "(Wuyuan County Records of the Republic of China, Volume 33,41) There are many such records in Huizhou historical records. The concept of justice and benefit of Huizhou merchants is actually a dilution and indifference to commercial efficiency. Zhu Wenchi, a tea merchant, "stayed in Guangdong for more than 20 years, lost tens of thousands of gold, and died without regret" (Guangxu Wuyuan County Records, Volume 35). Such a thing is specially recorded in the history books, and Huizhou people are proud of it, which runs counter to the business spirit and principles. Especially in the late Qing Dynasty, capitalism sprouted and bred in China for at least 300 years. At this time, Huizhou merchants are still pregnant with the wind of ancient gentlemen's sacrifice for righteousness, and it is inevitable to retreat one after another. Zhu Cheng's three ancestors were all from Huizhou, and Huizhou has a fertile ground for Neo-Confucianism. Neo-Confucianism has repeatedly advised people to keep justice and destroy human desires, which will undoubtedly have a certain impact on the concept of justice and benefit of Huizhou merchants. In this soil, if we can't keep pace with the times, it will definitely delay development. This is a lesson left by the decline of Huizhou merchants to future generations.