Sixth Century BCE to Seventeenth Century
Page 59
Second, the other aspect is that commercial wealth created or at least consid-
erably expanded the cultural and social space for the educated elite to develop
and carry out a variety of proj ects. Specifi cally related to Confucius in the age of
Wang Yangming, I may mention the founding of academies, the organ ization
of “Lecture” meetings, the printing of books, etc. All of these activities, needless
to say, required funding, and in numerous cases, the money can be shown to
have come, directly or indirectly, from the market. For instance, patrons of
academies are often listed as “scholars” ( shi), “commoners” ( min), “local gentry”
( xiangshen
), or “gradu ate students of the Imperial Acad emy” ( jiansheng
). We know for certain from the above discussion, however, that people of
any of these categories could also have come from families engaged in commer-
cial pursuits.70 Allow me to give just one illustrative example: Ge Jian
, who
was from a rich salt merchant family of Yangzhou, was sent by his widowed
mother to study under the famous Zhan Ruoshui
(1466–1560). Later,
when Zhan had a funding prob lem with the building of his Ganquan Acad emy
(
), Ge Jian turned to his mother for help. Considering it a very worthy
298 r e or i e n tat ion of c on f uc i a n so c i a l t hou gh t
cause or, in her own language, “a righ teous thing” ( yishi
), she contributed
several hundred taels of silver to the proj ect.71
I must add that the public- spiritedness of the merchant class as shown in
this case was already so widely known by the sixteenth century that it found its
way into the popu lar semireligious tracts called shanshu (
, morality books).
Some of the authors made it quite a point to encourage merchants to be gener-
ous with their money for charities and public works.72
Thus, we see that as a result of the growing prosperity of the market, Ming
society became increasingly dynamic. It was this new social dynamism vis- à- vis
the stubbornness of the despotic system that pushed Wang Yangming, step by
step, to turn away from the state above and toward the society below in his life-
time quest for “bringing Dao to the world.” Eventually, it led to his fundamen-
tal revision of the Confucian proj ect. Toward the end of the last section, I al-
ready pointed out that Wang Yangming’s revised Confucian proj
ect was
translated into social practice mainly by Wang Gen and members of his Taizhou
school. Now I wish to take a further step by fi nding out exactly how some of the
most infl uential leaders of the school tried to relate the proj ect to the non- elite
masses in general and merchants in par tic u lar.
Let me begin with Wang Gen, the founder of the school. His early life as a
small trader has already been noted in the second section above. In later years,
however, he continued to keep close com pany with merchants either in his
teaching career or in connection with his social activities. According to the eye-
witness account of Li Chunfang
(1511–1585), who stayed in his home for
more than a month, farmers and merchants often came to his residence in
groups for moral instruction during eve nings.73 This is a very valuable piece of
evidence showing beyond a shadow of doubt that he did indeed make serious
eff orts to spread his new version of the Confucian teaching to the non- elite. In
light of Li Chunfang’s testimony, we can now fully understand why his famous
disciple Wang Dong
(ca.1503– ca.1581) claimed that it was actually Wang Gen
who rediscovered the true meanings of the sagely learning of Confucius and
Mencius and then passed it on to enlighten “the simple man and uncouth fel-
low as well as the absolute illiterate.”74 On the other hand, out of a deep concern
for the impoverished and the unfortunate, Wang Gen often turned to mer-
chants for aid in his philanthropic undertakings. In the summer of 1523, for
instance, a great famine occurred around his hometown near Yangzhou. For
relief, he managed to get two thousand bushels of rice from a rich merchant
named Wang of Zhenzhou (in Jiangsu), who always admired and respected
him. Wang Gen did it again in the winter of 1535, this time with the help of local
families of wealth, especially a certain Lu Cheng
, who alone contributed
one thousand bushels of soybean and barley. In appreciation, he agreed to the
marriage proposal between Lu’s son and his grand daughter.75 Clearly, here
Wang Gen was continuing his teacher’s proj ect but on a gigantic scale.
r e or i e n tat ion of c on f uc i a n so c i a l t hou gh t 299
In this connection, the case of his disciple Han Zhen
(1509–1585) may
be briefl y examined. Han came from a family engaged in pottery for genera-
tions. In 1527, mourning for his parents fi rst led him to Buddhist beliefs, but he
was soon attracted through lectures to the Confucian teachings of Zhu Shu
(courtesy name Guangxin
), a woodcutter by trade who had become an ac-
tive member of the Taizhou school. Then he started his elementary education
under Zhu’s guidance in the Xiaojing
(Classic of Filial Piety) as a text.
Impressed by his devotion to learning and moral practice, Zhu, in 1533, brought
him to meet Wang Gen in the latter’s hometown, Anfengchang
(in
Jiangsu), where he stayed until the spring of 1535. During this period, due to the
fact that he was still a beginner in Confucian learning, Wang Gen made his
young son Wang Bi
(1511–1587) do the actual instruction but always kept a
watchful eye on his spiritual development. At one point, Wang Gen is reported
to have made this remark to his son: “This young fellow Han seems to be the
only person capable of carry ing on our Dao!” At any rate, after returning home,
Han Zhen did take it to be his calling to teach the ignorant, with a view to trans-
forming society for the better.76 His work thereafter has been described by his
biographers roughly as follows: “Whenever an occasion allowed him, he would
seize upon it to enlighten people. Thousands of them, including artisans, mer-
chants, farmhands, and even bond servants, followed him. In the autumn, when
farmers were at leisure, he would gather disciples for lectures, going from one
village to another, as he sang and others responded, so that the voice of songs
fi lled the countryside.”77 The above two cases, Wang Gen and Han Zhen, to-
gether give us a vivid picture as to how Wang Yangming’s bottom- to- top proj ect
eventually evolved into a power ful popu lar movement in sixteenth- century
China.
Next, He Xinyin (1517–1579), a highly infl uential leader of the Taizhou school,
provides us with a wholly diff er ent but no less illuminating case. He does not
seem to have had any merchant background, nor is there any evidence that he
had direct dealings with merchants. Nevertheless, he alone among his contem-
poraries showed a fi rm grasp of the signifi cance of the profound social change
arising from the “scholar-
turned- merchant” movement as well as the mecha-
nism of the new market. In an essay on “Self- Mastery” ( zuozhu
), he said:
“Merchants are greater than farmers and artisans; scholars are greater than
merchants.” To elaborate this point, he further wrote: “Farmers and artisans
would like to be their own masters, yet they cannot but let themselves be di-
rected by merchants. Merchants would like to be their own masters, yet they
cannot but let themselves be directed by scholars. In any case, the greatness of
merchants and scholars are vis i ble to every one.”78 I consider the above quota-
tion a remarkable piece of evidence regarding the elevated social status of the
late Ming merchant. A closer analy sis clearly shows that the traditional concep-
tion of the so- called Four Categories of People ( simin), namely, scholar, farmer,
300 r e or i e n tat ion of c on f uc i a n so c i a l t hou gh t
artisan, and merchant, was no longer valid. Instead, they had to be realistically
rearranged in the descending order of scholar, merchant, farmer, and artisan.
It is also signifi cant that the four categories were further subsumed under two
broad divisions, with “scholar” and “merchant” characterized as “ great” ( da )
on the top, and “farmer” and “artisan” placed together at the bottom. Though
perhaps wholly unintended on the part of its author, this little piece of writing
can nevertheless be read as a candid refl ection of the changing social real ity of
its time.79
He Xinyin’s deep knowledge of the market is fully revealed in the following
anecdote told by Gu Xiancheng
(1550–1612) the leader of the famous
Donglin
school:
It is because of their total immersion in greed and covetousness, He Xinyin
and his kind can manage to incite people. Nevertheless, he does have one
kind of intelligence that is beyond the reach of others. Minister of Revenue
Geng [Dingxiang] once picked up four of his servants and gave each two
hundred taels of silver, asking them to engage in commercial pursuits.
One of them sought advice from Xinyin, who taught him the tricks of the
trade in six words, “one bit bought, one bit sold,” and another formula in
four words, “buy wholesale, sell retail.” The servant followed his instruc-
tions and eventually made a fortune amounting to tens of thousands.80
The two formulas taken together fi t in perfectly well with what Max Weber calls
“the princi ple of low prices and large turnover”;81 as the embodiment of market
rationality, this was widely practiced in Ming- Qing China. This anecdote also
betrays Geng Dingxiang’s involvement with the business world despite his be-
ing a high- ranking offi
cial. I may further point out, family background may
well have made Gu Xiancheng so readily appreciative of He’s two formulas
because his father and two elder brothers were all successful businessmen. Be-
ing a younger con temporary as well as a very serious author, Gu’s story seems
trustworthy, at least in its general outlines.82
Lastly, let me end with a brief note on Li Zhi
(1527–1602). In a letter to
Jiao Hong
(1540–1620), after having sharply criticized Confucian hypo-
crites of his day as “outwardly sages but inwardly merchants,” he had the follow-
ing to say about merchants:
On what pos si ble ground are we justifi ed to hold merchants in contempt?
As a rule, carry ing several tens of thousands worth of silver taels, they
travel through perilous roads and stormy waters, endure many humilia-
tions from tax collectors and swallow insults in the market place. They
work extremely hard with a huge investment but only a small gain. And
yet they would not be able to make profi t and avoid harm unless they had
succeeded in entering into collusion with power ful offi
cials.83
r e or i e n tat ion of c on f uc i a n so c i a l t hou gh t 301
This compassionate expression of sympathy for merchants on Li Zhi’s part
ought to be understood in the context of the gradual stretching of despotism’s
long arm to the market during the late sixteenth century. Earlier in the longqing
period (1567–1572), traveling merchants had already been heavi ly taxed along
the roads and rivers by local offi
cials without the authorization of the Ministry
of Revenue. Emperor Shenzong (r. 1572–1620) was enthroned before turning
ten and when he came fully of age a de cade or so later, he became particularly
known for “avariciousness” ( shili
). This is because he personally appointed
his trusted eunuchs as commissioners in charge of collection of commercial
taxes from merchants on the road as well as in market places, a practice that
eventually evolved into an empirewide system in 1598.84 As vividly described by
a memorialist in 1615, “over- twenty years, resident merchants have been dis-
tressed in market places while traveling ones worried about their trips.” 85 This
may well have been what are referred to as “humiliations” and “insults” in the
above- quoted letter. Moreover, Li Zhi’s remark about the relationship between
merchants and offi
cials is also fully borne out by late Ming handbooks written
primarily for merchants. For instance, almost all of them contain a warning
called “Be Respectful to All Offi
cials,” which reads, in part, as follows: “ Whether
high- ranking or low, an offi
cial is an appointed representative of the imperial
court, and his power is suffi
cient to harass people. We cannot be disrespectful
and imprudent simply because his rank is low, for while he may not be able to
bring us honor, it is within his capacity to humiliate us if we provoke him to
anger.” 86 Like He Xinyin whom he very much admired, Li Zhi kept a constant
and close watch over activities in the growing market of his day. Obviously, in
their lifetime eff orts to put the Dao into social practice, both men were follow-
ing Wang Gen’s new teaching that “Dao consists in the daily activity of the
common people.”
Because of the nature of our sources, we know a great deal more about how
Wang Yangming, Wang Gen, and their disciples tried in vari ous ways to in-
volve the non- elite, especially merchants, in implementing their new Confu-
cian proj ect. However, this tendency in the written rec ord must not be taken to
mean that the common people were all passively led by the educated elite as far
as the quest for Dao was concerned. Earlier, we have already quoted the state-
ment of Wang Xian, a Shanxi merchant, that “merchants and scholars pursue
diff er ent occupations but share the same mind.” Just a moment ago, we have
again seen that farmers as well as merchants came to Wang Gen “in groups”
seeking his instructions. There seems little doubt that individuals from among
the non- elite also actively participated in the proj ect each in his own way. To
further illustrate my point, I would like to give as evidence a few examples
showing merchants’ enthusiasm for the Confucian philosophical ideas current
in the age of Wang Yangming.
Allow me to begin with a newly discovered case. Xin-an mingzu zhi
(Rec ords of Famous Clans in Xin- an; 1551) contains the following entry: “Huang
302 r e or i e n tat ion of c on f uc i a n so c i a l t hou gh t
Shou
from Tandu
, village of She
County, also named Shuangquan
, abandoned his commercial pursuits and devoted himself wholeheartedly
to the Learning of Mind ( xinxue
). He went to study under Master Wang
Yangming and Master Zou Shouyi
(1491–1562). He styled himself
Weizhai (
, “Studio of Fearfulness”) and wrote a work entitled ‘Weizhai
yulu’
(Recorded Sayings of Weizhai).” 87 Brief and simple as it is, the
importance of this biographical account of Huang Shou cannot be exaggerated.
Allow me to make three observations. In the fi rst place, this is the fi rst, and
thus far, the only piece of evidence that there was a merchant among the disci-
ples of Wang Yangming and Zou Shouyi. In the second place, it is highly sig-
nifi cant that a Huizhou merchant was willing to take a long journey to study
under Wang Yangming and Zou Shouyi. As we all know, during the Ming and
Qing times, people in Huizhou, including merchants, generally held Zhu Xi in
special veneration; after all, he was their most illustrious native “sage.” Huang
Shou’s case is an unmistakable indication that by the sixteenth century, Wang
Yangming’s doctrine of “innate knowledge” had already become power
ful
enough to challenge the Neo- Confucian orthodoxy of Zhu Xi even in the lat-
ter’s homeland. As Rec ords of Famous Clans in Xin- an further shows, in addition
to Huang Shou, there were also many others in Huizhou who admired or fol-
lowed Wang Yangming and his leading disciples such as Zou Shouyi and Wang
Gen.88 In the third place, Huang Shou’s adoption of the concept of wei ( fear-
fulness) as the name of his studio strongly suggests that he was prob ably more
inspired by Zou Shouyi, who developed “innate knowledge” by way of a type of
moral cultivation called jing (
reverence). The operation of “reverence,” ac-
cording to Zou, always requires the presence of “caution and dread” ( jieshen
kongju