In the Ming Dynasty, commerce was highly developed. Since Jiajing, industry and commerce have flourished, and many people have made a fortune. At that time, Huizhou merchants all made fish and salt, and there were millions of silver at home, but there were very few small and medium-sized businessmen with wealth of 200 thousand to 300 thousand. At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, frugality gradually faded, and the rich began to enjoy and show off their lives. Gu comments: Since the American rule, there have been more and more inferior products, the prestige of this country has been weak, and the American people's heart has been bad. This situation has lasted for decades. The drama theorists in Jiajing period remember that there were only five fruits and five dishes before the banquet in Songjiang House. Only when guests come or newly-married in-laws visit will three or four shrimps, crabs and clams be added, but only once or twice a year. At that time, ordinary banquets not only doubled the number of dishes, but also had to find ingots to surpass others. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, a gentleman gave a banquet in honor of the local commander. At the banquet, a pair of chickens and geese were used as pots, and the fruit was six or seven feet high. Children aged three or four can walk downstairs under the sugarcane sign. At that time, the rich people were full of suspense tricks, taking pleasure in bitter He Shuang. For example, roast duck, wrapped in iron, roasted with fire and dipped in Chili sauce. Its hair fell off and the meat was cooked before it died. When you eat mutton and donkey meat, you can I can't bear to watch it. Li Yu, a scholar in the late Ming Dynasty, recorded a way to eat geese in his spare time. At that time, he put a live goose's paw in boiling oil and then threw it into a pool to make it jump. After several times, the goose's paws are fat and sweet. These methods are available to local tyrants and are no worse than others. People say that today the house is rich, the poor mountains are expensive, the oyster house is exhausted in the south, the bear's paw is in the north, the barbecue is in the East China Sea, and the milk in the western regions of Malaysia is so-called "enriching the people all over the world". You also need to have jade musical instruments, dance accompaniment and mixed vocal music. The cost of such a banquet is enough to bankrupt a middle-class family. In addition to food and drink, rich families also compare with each other in rooms and clothes. Recorded in 2000, rich people built palaces and kept concubines, and their food and clothing were no different from those of nobles, while women lived in idleness, and their beauty remained unchanged. They skillfully used makeup, carved gold and jade as jewelry, bejeweled with jewels and embroidered clothes and bare clothes, all of which were pure beauty. According to the regulations, jade beads and dragon and phoenix costumes can only be worn by queens and princesses, but by the late Ming Dynasty, rich women had no scruples. Household appliances have also become exquisite and luxurious at this time. It can be seen that the richest man in Jiangnan at that time was the Qinhuai River in Nanjing. The rich family has an original boat, surrounded by fences carved, decorated with jade gauze, and Yang Jiaodeng with tassels hanging on both sides. There are more than 20 young musicians on each boat, who are singing and dancing while decorating. Those rich people in the south of the Yangtze River who are arty and expensive soon turned their eyes from food and daily life to antiques, flaunting their elegance with paintings and antiques. They are rich and often spend money lavishly. At that time, wealthy businessman Wu Boju was doing business in Yangzhou. Encountered a famous calligraphy and painting, Zhong Ding Dunyi tried his best to buy it, with a value of 1000 yuan. Ning Xiufu took Wu Yongliang out of Wuhui, made friends with famous artists and bought antique paintings. Once he likes them, he pays ten times the price. As the rich like to collect, the prices of paintings and antiques have gone up. At that time, the price of calligraphy in Mi Fei and Huai Su was often more than 2,200 silver, and some even exceeded 2,200 silver, which was equivalent to the total income of an ordinary family in the late Ming Dynasty. On Saturday, in order to celebrate his mother's 90th birthday, Kunshan Regal invited the painter Chou Ying to his home to draw a Du Jiang county chronicle for his mother. With his daughter as a reward, he provided more food and drink than the imperial court. Every month, he lights a lamp for him and invites actresses to hav.
In Songjiang, a clever antique dealer compiled a manual of ancient masters, called "The Forest Map of Zixu", which was full of fakes by Gu Kaizhi, Zhan Ziqian, Zhang Monk Friends and others. And lured local tyrants to spend a lot of money on it. Officialdom is the real local tyrant. However, compared with officials, the life of local tyrants in the south of the Yangtze River is still dwarfed. The extravagance of officials at that time was an example for local tyrants to follow. Needless to say, the royal luxury. When Jin Jia was in power, the American family in Yan Song was also very rich. Yan Shifan's son spat and was picked up by a beautiful young maid, called a fragrant spittoon. When Yan Song was looted, there were three hundred and two thousand gold and two hundred and two thousand silver in the house. There are thousands of famous calligraphy and paintings, precious ancient books and more than 600 precious beds here. Wang Shizhen, the minister of punishments, built a garden in his hometown, with a rockery three feet high. In order to transport it to the city, he did not hesitate to tear down the gate. And wine, very rich. The house at home is like a palace, and the garden is 100 mu wide. He bought a stone ten feet high and three feet wide as the peak of the rockery and sank into Taihu Lake during transportation. In order to retrieve the stone, a weir was built to stop the water, and hundreds of water trucks were used to drain the water. At that time, an official named Xie Rushao visited the eunuch. This is our home. There are only three guests. The kitchen has prepared 18 geese, 72 chickens and 150 Jin of pork. There is also a meal 130 more chickens, only eating the heads of chickens. There are some ridiculous and extravagant methods, which are almost nonsense: break the eggs of chickens, ducks and geese, separate the yolk, and steam it with cow bladder, which is called ostrich eggs; Make big steamed buns and break them at the banquet. There are more than 200 steamed buns in it. Corresponding to the extravagance of officialdom, it is the atmosphere of corruption. According to Wanli local chronicles, before Zheng De and Jiajing, officials retired empty-handed, and people in the village went to comfort and praise him. If you go back to China, you won't associate with them. When the official returned to Qin Long, the village didn't ask him about his character, only how much money he earned. If he has no money, laugh at him as a crazy shepherd. At that time, some people proposed to curb the extravagance of the rich and asked officials and scholars to set an example. Wang Shizhen is worried that scholars don't know how to be thrifty, saying that nowadays scholars are admitted to Jinshi, often entertain each other and like fur and horse ornaments. If they don't, if they don't know how to be frugal, how can they be as honest as officials in the future? Yes, he is the Wang Shizhen who tore down the city gate to repair his own garden.