In the Qin Dynasty more than two thousand years ago, who was the richest except Qin Shihuang Ying Zheng? If we come to a list of the rich at that time, I'm afraid that the person who won the title of "the richest man in Daqin" was not the royalty, but the long-lived woman Ba Qing in Chongqing (known as "Ba Widow Qing" in history books).
This single woman who lives in the mountains all the year round, with her superb alchemy technology and extraordinary business mind, broke through the obstacles in the mountains and valleys and single-handedly promoted the family business to become a business empire that monopolized the national cinnabar and water banking industry, with "enterprise employees" reaching 10,000; She spent a lot of money to help Qin Shihuang build the Great Wall and provided a lot of mercury for Qin Shihuang to build his mausoleum. In his later years, he was named a "virgin" by Qin Shihuang. In the Qin dynasty, she used money to defend herself and had private armed forces. After her death, Qin Shihuang specially ordered the construction of "Huaiqing Terrace" to show his praise.
Her husband died young and took charge of the family business.
Ba Qing was born in Ba County (now Changshou District of Chongqing) in Qin Dynasty, and "Qing" is her name. In ancient China, when a woman got married, she usually abandoned her maiden name, so the real name of "Qing" could not be verified, so she had to put a place name before her name, calling it "Ba Qing". Because of her husband's early death, people also called her "widow Qing".
It is said that Baqing was born in poverty. As a teenager, he studied poetry with his father. Because of his outstanding appearance and temperament, he married a local "young entrepreneur". Unfortunately, her husband, who had a successful career, died young, and Ba Qing, regardless of secular prejudice, resolutely stepped forward and took charge of her husband's family business-the thriving mercury alchemy industry at that time, which was called "the earliest female entrepreneur in China" by modern historians and economists.
In ancient times, cinnabar was not only used as a pigment for writing and painting, but also used in medicine and mercury extraction.
Cinnabar is also an important material for ancient alchemy. Since the Western Zhou Dynasty, taking Dan as an alchemist has become a social fashion, which was pushed to a climax by Qin Shihuang's diligent pursuit of "elixir of life". Therefore, the sales of cinnabar and refined mercury produced by Baqing family were very considerable at that time.
While upgrading his ancestral alchemy skills, Baqing took a series of measures and soon became the largest "industrialist" in China at that time. How rich is her family? According to historical records and archaeological excavations, she has thousands of domestic servants and tens of thousands of farmers attached to her. At that time, the population of Zhi Zhi County was only 40,000 to 50,000.
Rich and heavily armed
For more than 2,000 years, the clearest and detailed records of Baqing are Sima Qian's Historical Records and Biographies of Huo Zhi: "The widow of Baqing is clear, and she gets the Danxue first, but she is good at benefiting for generations, and her family is not humiliated." Qing, a widow, can keep her job and defend herself with money from being invaded. Qin Shihuang thought the Virgin was a guest in order to build a clear platform for his daughter. "
What do you mean, "defend yourself with money, without infringement"? This means that Baqing has a huge private armed force to protect its commercial network all over the country. In this regard, archaeologists discovered a special warehouse in Chongqing where Baqing stored weapons.
During the Qin Shihuang period, all kinds of weapons were available in the world, so it was unthinkable to have private armed forces. "Historical Records of Qin Shihuang" said that after Qin Shihuang unified the six countries, he immediately confiscated all the weapons in the world and transported them to Xianyang for melting. This shows that Qin Shihuang had a deep taboo on civilian armed forces.
There is also a clear stipulation in the Qin Law that weapons are not allowed to be hidden in the world. In an era when private possession of weapons is prohibited, Baqing has its own armed forces, which shows its powerful power.
It has been assumed that if the size of Baqing family soldiers is conservatively set at 2,500, then the daily living expenses of 2,500 people are 6,543,8+0.5 million yuan, with a monthly expenditure of 450,000 yuan and an annual expenditure of 5.4 million yuan. According to the average monthly salary of 800 yuan, 2,500 people earn 2 million yuan a month and 24 million yuan a year.
Donate huge sums of money to build the Great Wall.
In the Qin dynasty, which was famous for its autocracy, there was a businesswoman with a huge private armed force. Not only was she not punished, but she was repeatedly commended by Qin Shihuang. Why?
Qin Shihuang's crazy love for immortality is very prominent among the emperors in China. According to Records of the Historian, Qin Shihuang became fascinated with the elixir of life when he was in his twenties. In order to achieve the purpose of cultivating immortals, he even moved the palace into Xianyang underground palace at the instigation of alchemist Lu Sheng and others, and read the paper inside, while "receiving" the immortals and forbidding outsiders to disturb him.
At that time, alchemists generally used cinnabar as one of the main raw materials for alchemy, and Baqing's enterprise, as the largest cinnabar production enterprise in China, undoubtedly played a great role in Qin Shihuang's alchemy.
According to Longevity County Records, Qin Shihuang invited Baqing to visit Xianyang. During this visit, Baqing donated huge sums of money to the imperial court to support the construction of the Great Wall. Although the specific amount of Baqing's donation is not recorded in detail in historical materials, it can be inferred from sporadic records that this donation is enough to stir up the whole country.
In addition to providing cinnabar alchemy and donating money to build the Great Wall, Baqing also made great contributions to the restoration and establishment of the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor. Sima Qian said in Historical Records that the underground palace of Qin Shihuang's mausoleum used a lot of mercury. In 2003, archaeologists used modern technology to explore the mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor, and found that its mercury content was very high, which was conservatively estimated to be at least 100 tons.
100 ton of mercury is a huge number today. Where does this mercury come from? It was provided by Baqing. Baqing made such a great contribution to Qin Shihuang. No wonder Qin Shihuang always favored her.
According to Historical Records, Baqing was buried in the "Qingtai Mountain" after his death. Qingshan Mountain, commonly known as Zhennv Mountain, is located in Longshanzhai Village, Jiangnan Town, Changshou District, Chongqing, and Huaiqingtai is also built here.