What is the culture of Shanxi merchants?

The enterprising spirit of Shanxi merchants is also manifested in the strong pioneering spirit. The so-called "Heaven is healthy, and gentlemen are constantly striving for self-improvement." Many Shanxi businessmen have made great achievements from scratch by relying on this spirit of self-improvement. For example, Wang Xiangqing, one of the founders of the famous Dasheng Kuixing, a native of Taigu, Shanxi, was born in a poor family since childhood and was forced by life. He used to be a domestic helper, working as a cook and handyman in Yang Fei's ancient department of the Qing army. Later, he traded with Jason and Shi University in Qixian County, Shanxi Province. First, he picked up the burden and pulled the camel. Later, he opened the "Jishengtang" office in Uryasutai and Cobdo, and later renamed it "Jishengtang".

The enterprising spirit of Shanxi merchants is also manifested in taking risks. They dragged camels, trekked thousands of miles in the desert, braved the snow, broke through many obstacles and went north to the Mongolian-Tibetan border; Crossing waves, crossing Japan in the east and Nanyang in the south. This fully shows their indomitable spirit. For example, in the Qing Dynasty, Shanxi merchants opened up international trade routes with Shanxi and Hebei as hubs, and the Great Wall, Mongolian Gobi, Russia's Kulun, Chaktu, Siberia, and the hinterland of Europe, Petersburg and Moscow in the north. This is another land-based international trade route that emerged in the Qing Dynasty after the decline of the ancient Silk Road in China. Ili, Talbahatai and other places in the northwest of Xinjiang are also places where Shanxi businessmen are active, and then "go to rest in peace" (now Iran). Shanxi businessmen have been doing business in Japan since the Ming Dynasty. Fan, a Shanxi businessman, was the largest marine copper merchant who traded in Japan during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty. In the late Qing Dynasty, Shanxi merchants opened banks in Korea and Japan. Without great courage and courage, these undertakings are impossible to succeed. Doing business is like fighting a war. It is common to be in danger. They not only have to experience the risks of weather and environment, but also often encounter the risk of being robbed by thieves or even losing their lives. For example, Qin Bizhong, a native of Yuci, grew up in business, and his courage was abnormal. At the beginning of Jiaqing in the Qing Dynasty, northerners went to the southern provinces to deal in tea, and the ship storm was regarded as a fear of the road. Qin Bizhong took his time, no doubt, and returned after many years, all earning huge profits. Shanxi businessmen want to do business in Baotou, killing the tiger's mouth is the only way. There is a folk song that says, "Kill the tiger's mouth, kill the tiger's mouth, and you will be sad if you have no money." Either lose money or behead with a knife, and you are still shaking after passing the tiger's mouth. " However, Shanxi merchants in Mongolia did not shrink back, but more and more, like a flood. In order to adapt to social unrest, some Shanxi businessmen practice martial arts by themselves. During the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, in order to prevent the invasion of the Japanese, 500 Shanxi salt merchants who were good at shooting and brave once formed a merchant soldier to guard the city. Suzhou is an active port for Shanxi merchants. "There are twenty or thirty Shanxi merchants who are good at shooting". From the above, it can be seen that pioneering and enterprising, self-improvement, not afraid of hardship, and daring to take risks are important factors for the success of Shanxi merchants in Ming and Qing Dynasties.

Second, professionalism.

The professionalism of Shanxi businessmen is often praised. Respect was originally a basic category of Confucian philosophy. Confucius advocated that people should always be diligent and diligent in keeping their homes and do their best for their careers. He said things like "to the deacon", "to the thing" and "to himself". Cheng Yi in the Northern Song Dynasty further said: "The so-called worshippers are one of the masters; The so-called one, uncomfortable (not outgoing) is called one. " It can be seen that respect refers to the undivided and undivided mental state. Dedication is the traditional virtue of China people.

In feudal society, the traditional concept is to value Confucianism over business, so among the four people, scholars are the first and business is the last. But Shanxi merchants in Ming and Qing dynasties did not see it that way. They believe that businessmen and scholars, farmers and workers are equally important undertakings, both of which are their own undertakings and should be respected. Jin people abandoned the old manners and customs, praised merchants and praised Jia, and were proud of doing business. Yuci was a wealthy businessman, and the Qing Dynasty was always in the imperial examination, but he never despised business. He put all the best children in his family into business. There are many children of Chang family who abandon Confucianism, officialdom and businessmen. For example, Chang Weifeng, the 13th, studied as a teacher when he was a child, and his poems and essays were beautiful and valued by people he knew. When I grew up, I gave up the imperial examination and went to Zhangjiakou to do business. Weifeng is brilliant and capable, especially good at employing people and changing tactics. Once everything is judged, he will make a decision immediately, which is beyond the reach of his colleagues. Fourteenth juror in the late Qing Dynasty, member of the Legal Department in the late Qing Dynasty, and a famous calligrapher in Sanjin. He is also good at poetry. At that time, he was called "calligrapher Li Beihai and poet Wang Yuyang". But his passion is business. It is often changed from "learning to be an official" to "learning to be an official", which can concentrate outstanding talents on business from generation to generation, thus forming a group of well-educated businessmen. Because they introduced the integrity, benevolence, loyalty and forgiveness of Confucian education into the business world, Chang's business is booming. It can be seen that taking business as a lofty career in life is an important factor for Shanxi businessmen to succeed in business.

Dedication: it is the source of career success, and the style of diligence, assiduousness and prudence is the concrete embodiment of the idea of dedication in practice.

Diligence: This is the good character of most Shanxi businessmen. For example, Xing Jiuru, Dingxiang, Shanxi, said, "A little poor, lost love at the age of fourteen ... Two years later, his eldest father died and his family was in trouble. The boys and girls are young and have no money, so they have to give up their studies and go into business. They are just weak and serve Jia in Chifeng County ... They have worked hard for more than 40 years, but their families are very rich. " Li Zhichun, a native of Yuci, said: "I was born in poverty, and my young parents died. My brother was a helper and my brother was a martyr. So I learned business in a cloth shop in Shunde, Zhili. I worked hard for decades and was valued by the deacons. I accumulated more money. I am married to Wang ... My three sons have all been established. I grew up in Chicheng, followed by my second son and third son, and my family has gradually risen. " Zhao Jun, a native of Yongji, is "a rich man in the south of the Yangtze River, diligent and knowledgeable".

Hardworking: Not afraid of hardship and fatigue is also a good character of most Shanxi businessmen. A Qing dynasty man Nalan Chang 'an said: "Businessmen are nearby, and many people in Xuanhua, Datong and Shuoping are willing to work hard." Merchants in Taigu County are one of the three major gangs of Shanxi Bank. They do business "on Wan Li Road with normal rates". Nine years after the publication of Ganlong's "Records of Qixian County", Qixian County strictly "strives to prepare for the future".

Caution: Shanxi businessmen are famous for their caution in doing business. This is not to say that they are afraid to run big enterprises. On the contrary, they are very tight-lipped about big business. However, they don't take risks easily and fight unprepared battles. On the contrary, they must make a decision on the basis of full investigation and understanding of the situation to avoid unnecessary losses. As far as lending is concerned, this is an important business of Shanxi draft bank, but it is also risky. They must make a detailed investigation of each other's assets, the purpose of using money, repayment ability and financial situation before deciding whether to lend. Some banks also clearly stipulate the overdraft limit of users: the upper-level households shall not exceed 32,000, the upper-level households shall not exceed 5,000 to 1 0,000, the middle-level households shall not exceed 3,200, and the lower-level households shall not be associated with them. This provision is for the purpose of caution.

Third, team spirit.

Shanxi merchants attach great importance to exerting group strength in their business activities. In the patriarchal society, they unite with each other by the friendship of the village community, maintain the guild hall, worship the gods to enhance mutual understanding, help coordinate the relationship between business firms with loyalty and harmony, eliminate interpersonal discord, and form large and small business groups.

The group spirit of Shanxi merchants comes from filial piety and family harmony. For example, Mingxing Li, a native of Quwo in Ming Dynasty, is often lamented by young people: "My husband is a disciple and can't work hard. Will he sit and eat his father and brother? " So, he became rich because he was "shrewd and calculating" in the market place, and he was "good at Shen Zhou and filial to his father and brother". Brother Zhong died and had no children, so his second son was the next. The family is very strict, and clan A pays too much and collects interest. If it is called, it will be blamed and its credentials will be cracked manually. "Qiao Chengtong was born in Xiangling, Ming Dynasty." His father Zhong You died in Yangzhou, so he abandoned Confucianism as Jia. Yang Duhuai, the internal supervisor, and Cheng Tong's younger brother offended Yang and fled. Yang was eager to catch him, and Cheng Tong stepped forward and went to prison. He was punished with five poisons, but he didn't say where his brother was. He was released for bribing his daughter. When my brother comes home, he will give him half of his wealth. "When Mrs Matthew was in charge of the housework," hundreds of people who stayed in the neighborhood to make a fire were sponsored by Mrs Tai "and" they were very kind, so they were willing to do their best ". When Joe in Qixian county was a housekeeper, he called the brothers together and asked the nine brothers who practiced martial arts to break a pair of chopsticks first, and then let them break nine pairs of chopsticks at a time. Therefore, they keep breaking down, reflecting Xia's metaphor, and making all brothers unite and help each other. While carrying forward the spirit of the group, Shanxi merchants also pay attention to the use of quantity and do what they can. Xue Lun, a native of Datong, Shanxi Province in the Ming Dynasty, said, "His family is a farmer and his brother is a farmer. "Wang Mian, a native of Zhou Pu in the Ming Dynasty," died young, leaving two orphans and no servant to answer the door. Wang Mian's wife, Zhang, takes care of orphans and vows to be faithful. The second son grew up and asked the eldest son to serve Jia. "。 Yue: Lonely and helpless, it depends on the portal; Giving the second son a Confucian career means that the lover is ambitious and fails, and his load is also there. Later, he grew up before Ketuo's death, and his second son took Mingjing as his life and died. "

Secondly, team spirit is the need of business development and business competition in business activities. With the expansion of Shanxi merchants' activity area and business scope, business competition is becoming more and more fierce, and Shanxi merchants have gradually formed a group of "helping each other in the same boat" from family to village. For example, in the Ming Dynasty, Wang said, "My children, the cashier, live in the county with coupons, shoulder to shoulder." It can be seen that there are also many children who have received financial support from Wang. During the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, our family, Wang Chonggu family and Ma family were all big merchant families, and they were related by marriage. University of Dongge is the minister of rites and the engineer of local ginseng, Wang Chonggu is the governor of Xuanda and the minister of war, and Ma is the minister of rites. The marriage of these three companies has enhanced their commercial competitiveness. Wang Chonggu is doing salt business in Hedong, and Zhang Siwei's father is a big salt merchant in Luchang, and has accumulated tens of millions of dollars. Zhang and Wang joined hands to form a salt merchant gang to control the salt interests in Hedong and other places, which has a certain monopoly. On the basis of blood group, Shanxi merchants gradually developed into geographical organizations. In the late Qianlong period of Qing Dynasty, the so-called "Huizhou merchants are all in the south of the Yangtze River" appeared in the pawnbroking industry. To the north of the river are Jin people, who say "Jin merchants". The appearance of the name "Shanxi merchants" shows that Shanxi merchants in Qing Dynasty have gradually formed a regional business gang. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, Shanxi draft bank set up semicolons in more than 80 cities across the country, forming a remittance network connecting the world, and it was also a Shanxi merchant group with villagers as the main body.

The group spirit of Shanxi merchants has three forms in enterprise management:

One is from joint venture to partnership. This is the original form of group cooperation. A joint venture between friends means that one party contributes and the other party contributes, regardless of whether there is common capital or not, and work and rest are combined. Moreover, the partnership is a one-person venture, and many partners cooperate with the merchants, that is, financiers and buddies. The difference between it and the partnership system is that a financier can have many buddies, so "estimate the manufacturer, but calculate the size of the buddies, then tens of millions of products can be counted." Obviously, the friend system is bigger than the friend system, and the friend system is developed on the basis of the friend system. As far as its scale organization is concerned, this system is unprecedented in the commercial history of China. But whether friends or buddies, or a relatively loose group of businessmen.

The second is to form business gangs by region. This form is a group formed by local villagers on the basis of mutual benefit and partnership. The guild halls established by Shanxi merchants in various places are an important symbol of the formation of local business gangs. For Shanxi merchants, this kind of regional gang is unified into Shanxi merchants' gang. However, in Shanxi, different business gangs have been formed according to different regions in the province, such as Luze Gang, Linxiang Gang, Taiyuan Gang and Fenzhou Gang. The rise of draft banks in the Qing Dynasty formed three major draft merchants: Pingyao, Qixian and Taigu.

The third is to form a group organization with joint number system and share-sharing system. Joint-name system means that a large firm is responsible for some small firms, similar to the parent company in the west, thus playing a group role in business activities. Joint-stock system is a unique form of labor organization founded by Shanxi merchants in their business activities.

The implementation of the joint-stock system can benefit both employers and employees, greatly arouse the enthusiasm of all employees and give full play to the role of the group in the operation of commercial enterprises.