TUNXI. CAPITAL OF HUANGSHAN CITY
Tunxi has been one of the most important towns in southern Anhui since
ancient times. It lies in the upper reaches of the Xin'an River on the vital
communications line linking up the provinces of Anhui, Jiangxi and Zhejiang. From Tunxi
highways extend to all parts of the country, the Anhui--Jiangxi Railway stretches
westward, and airlines lead to Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Hefei, Hangzhou and other
coastal cities. With all the facilities for travel, Tunxi is also a service center of the
Huangshan Tourist Zone. |
The Ancient Tunxi Street is so antique and quaint that it has been
referred to as The Town of the Song Dynasty . And as the street scenes are good for
shooting films of ancient stories, Tunxi Town is also regarded as an ideal Film and
TV Town . The Song Dynasty (1127--1279), began to develop between the Late Yuan (1271--1368)
and the early Ming Dynasty (1368--1644), formed a power around mid-Ming, flourished during
Jiajing's reign (1522--1567), reached their culmination during
Qianlong's reign
(1736--1796), and then declined during Jiajing's and Daoguang's reigns (1796--1851).
The history of Huizhou merchants covers about 600 years, and for 300 years they dominated
the region. They occupy a significant place in the history of Chinese commerce. In the
Southern Song Dynasty, as the capital was moved from Kaifeng to Lin' an (now Hangzhou),
the political and economic center shifted to the South. This stimulated the economy of the
neighboring areas to develop, and then the Central Plains culture was introduced to the
South. Huizhou was situated in an important place between Jiangsu and Zhejiang Provinces.
It was significant to the economy of southeastern China as a communication hub between the
South and the North. As a result of Huizhou' s particular geographical conditions and the
need to develop economically, landowners began to take up business. At the beginning of
the Southern Song Dynasty, according to records, Huizhou people were engaged in
trade everywhere , selling tea, ink, paper and wood. After JiaJing' s reign in the Ming
Dynasty, the number of traders amounted to 70% of the total Huizhou population. As the
saying goes, It is a Huizhou practice that thirteen year-olds start their career in
town and at seventeen they do business all over the country . Usually at the age of 1 2 or
1 3, Huizhou children began to work as apprentices in town. The shortage of land and the
superfluity of manpower drove the farmers away from farming. The Ming Dynasty Anhui
Chronicle comments, Many Huizhou people take up business, because they have no other
choice . Generally they did a small trade, and most of them were under the control of a
big business. They were not born merchants. Their success was an outcome of various social
factors and their painstaking efforts. The  Huizhou Chronicle of the Jiaqing years (1796-1821) describes them as properly dressed, well-spoken , fully aware of
prices, knowing when to buy and when to sell, and gaining extra profits from selling local
goods at other places . The earliest people who left Huizhou to make a living away
from home never suspected that a flourishing Huizhou business would spread
almost all over the country , and that Huizhou merchants would gain a national fame
. The Huizhou business was almost all-embracing-tea, grain, salt, silk, cloth, wood,
paint, paper, ink, pottery, etc., simply anything profitable. They opened teahouses,
restaurants, hotels and pawnshops. The salt trade and pawnbroking, however, were the most
prosperous. It is recorded in Shexian Chronicle-Local Conditions that of all the
trades in Shexian, salt, pawnbroking, tea and wood are most prosperous, though salt
prevailed in the past . The pawnbroking in those days was actually usury. Wei Chaofeng, a
Huizhou pawnbroker depicted in Fantastic Stories, deprived a scholar of his real estate in
three years' time by way of exorbitant rates of interest. By the years of
Guangxu's
reign (1875-1909), one could hardly find a pawnbroker who was not from Huizhou. There was
no place too far for Huizhou merchants to expand . They pressed eastward to the
north of Jiangsu, westward to Yunnan, Guizhou, and Gansu, northward to the east and south
of Liaoning, and southward to Fujian and Guangdong, and further south they sailed to
Japan, Thailand, and other Southeast Asian countries --their footmarks left on
almost half of the globe . The resourceful Huizhou merchants were well versed in
the expertise of obtaining a position so as to attach themselves to the court. Their
strategy was to "provide funds for academic pursuits with business profits, get
political positions through academic pursuits, and ensure business profits from the
political positions" . Therefore, politics and commerce were closely related in Huizhou
merchants. Having gained fame and fortune, they returned home in all their glory and went
in for large-scale construction, building mansions, ancestral temples, guild-halls, roads
and bridges to honor their ancestors and to extend the influence of the clan. They were
bent on establishing academies, schools, and examination centers and cultivating feudal
intellectuals to consolidate the patriarchal clan system. In the Ming and Qing Dynasties,
famous officials and talented scholars came forth in large numbers. According to
statistics, between the Song and Qing Dynasties (960 - 1911), 2, 018 people from five
counties (Shexian, Yixian, Xiuning, Qimen, Jixi) were granted the title of jinshi after
they passed final imperial examinations, which were held every three years and presided
over by the emperor; and during the Ming and Qing Dynasties (1368-1911), the literary
works of 343 people from Shexian County alone were included in Best Poems or Best Essays.
There are stories about three successive
Jinshis from one place, four Hanlins
(members of the Imperial Academy) within ten li , "father and son both ministers" ,
"brothers both prime ministers , and
three generations of imperially-honored
courtiers" . With academic studies and etiquette greatly advocated, Huizhou was a cradle
for talented scholars who made achievements in various domains. Huizhou culture, enriched
with these achievements, displays a splendid view of liberal arts and history.
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