Organizer: Yonglin Jiang, Grand Valley State University
Chair: Edward L. Farmer, University of Minnesota
Discussant: Timothy Brook, Stanford University
Commercial activities had increasingly become an essential part of people’s everyday life in Ming China. This panel explores the social impact of commercialization at the grassroots level. The central question this panel asks is to what extent and in what ways did commercialization affect people’s social life? The papers illuminate the social impact of commercialization on four different social groups—officials, scholars, peasants, and merchants—in both north and south.
Yonglin Jiang’s paper focuses on the magistrate’s handling of criminal cases regarding commercial transactions in a northern community—Xunxian. He finds that while the local officials tried to defend the social order that was laid out in the dynastic law codes, they also had to reinterpret or even invent rules to protect commerce. Zhao Jie examines the tensions scholars faced in the marketplace in Jiangnan, arguing that commercialization forced them to reconcile their new economic opportunities with traditional intellectual commitments. Also looking at Jiangnan, Pan Ming-Te provides a different perspective on the impact of commercialization—caloric consumption of peasants in the Yangzi delta. He concludes that commercialization made it possible for peasants to maintain a relatively high level of livelihood despite population growth. Kathy Lowry examines the impact of commercialization on publishers—how readership was redefined to cut across boundaries of class and degrees of literacy. Timothy Brook’s recent works on commerce in the Ming give him the broad perspective necessary to comment on all the issues raised by this panel.
Commercialization and Law Enforcement in a Northern Community in Late Ming China
Yonglin Jiang, Grand Valley State University
In late imperial China, while commercialization deeply affected people’s everyday lives in Jiangnan area, it also changed the northern societies in a variety of ways. This paper will examine the ways in which the local magistrate handled criminal cases regarding commercial transactions at a northern district—Xunxian, Beizhili—in late Ming China.
This paper will first survey the general commercial activities at Xunxian and its surrounding areas. It will show that, like many places in the south, commerce was also an essential part of people’s daily life in this northern community. Farmers as well as merchants engaged in transactions concerning land, labor, contract, partnership, and credit. Periodical markets and inter-regional trade became popular among the general populace.
Active commercial transactions caused tremendous social tensions; yet the dynastic law codes provided little regulations on how to deal with commercial activities. In his efforts to build a harmonious society, the magistrate Zhang Kentang on the one hand tried to urge local people to maintain traditional values as reflected in the Great Ming Code, but on the other hand, he adjusted the Code to changing social conditions to protect commerce. On certain occasions where there were no legal regulations, he even relied on local proverbs to punish those who broke contracts. In sum, under new commercial conditions, this magistrate became obliged to reconcile the imperial rules with ordinary people’s economic interests of the time, which in turn made this local community look more "un-Confucian."
Scholars in the Marketplace: Temptations and Misgivings
Jie Zhao, University of Southern Maine
The robust market-oriented economy in the Jiangnan region during the 16th century provided people with immense material incentives to go after profit, and its impact permeated almost every sector of Jiangnan society. Not surprisingly, scholars could not resist temptation and participated in this vigorous process of profit seeking. Their knowledge and talent were turned into commodities, sometimes very attractive and expensive ones, and their customers were mainly merchants. For example, Dong Qichang was approached by a crowd of rich merchants who bid against each other for his paintings, and the merchants who purchased his paintings counted on the solid resale value of this commodity. Scholars, however, did not always feel comfortable with the robust economic activities in which they played a part.
The business transactions between them and the merchants obviously contradicted the Confucian distaste for profit; the idea of selling out was disturbing for many of them; and they found the wealthy merchants’ ability to manipulate them to produce "commodities" to be agonizing. To balance their own emotions, some scholars turned to Sima Qian’s rather liberal views on profit to justify their own behavior, and some set up limits which enabled them to preserve their intellectual integrity from the taint of commercialization. A few scholars even acted out their frustration by relentlessly mocking both themselves and their indispensable customers, the rich merchants.
This paper will explore the range of ways in which scholars sought to reconcile their economic involvement with their intellectual commitment.
Commercialization and Consumption in Ming Jiangnan
Ming-Te Pan, SUNY, Oswego
This study examines how did commercialization affect the consumption of Yangzi delta (Jiangnan) from the sixteenth to the middle of the seventeenth centuries. As late as the 12th century, Jiangnan has become one of the most, if not the most, affluent areas in China. This area also witnessed the deepening of commercialization no later than the middle of the fifteenth century. The debate over whether commercialization actually benefited the population in the area is yet to be settled. This study will show from the perspective of consumption that peasants were better off than they would have otherwise been. Despite significant population increase, commercialization did not jeopardize peasants’ consumption in terms of their energy intake; instead, it increased peasants’ income, which made it possible for them to purchase significant amounts of grains and other types of foods. Indeed, the average 2,500–3,000 kcal daily intake was among one of the highest in the world in the same time period.
Selling Reading to Late-Ming Audiences
Kathryn Lowry, University of California, Santa Barbara
Recent studies show that Fujian printing firms sustained themselves by printing for profit from the Northern Song through the Ming dynasty. Much of their output could be termed "commercial" well before the Ming. However, late-Ming books reflect the impact of commercialization in changing the content, presentation and readership of publications. Printers emphasize the value of books as a time-saver and a necessity for the conduct of daily life. Prefaces and front matter stress their use as reference "for the man who wishes to refine his diction, but has no time to consult numerous works or knit his brow in thought." Further, book titles construct a readership inclusive of "the four classes" (simin), "gentry and commoner" (shimin), or "refined and common" (yasu) alike. What interests me in particular is precisely the construction of a readership that cuts across boundaries of social class and literacy, which strikes me as characteristic of a print culture in which firms encouraged new readers to rely on print. This was a printer’s strategy, a fiction that buying books was essential for individual expression and fulfillment. Yet it accords with other evidence of expanding literacy in the period. Late-Ming books reflect the increasing textualization of social intercourse and changes in readership.
This paper examines household encyclopedias, miscellanies, and epistolary guides from the 14th to 17th centuries, considering the changing contents, format, and intended readerships of such works and what role commercialization played in that change.