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Online Layout of The Shanxi Guild Hall (English Version)
Online Shanxi Guild Hall
The Online Shanxi Guild Hall replicates and innovates the operating mode of the Shanxi Guild Hall in the Ming and Tsing Dynasties through the use of network technology. It attempts to provide an online guild platform for the development of Shanxi merchants. The Online Shanxi Guild Hall serves as an online communication platform for the people of Shanxi, as well as a publicity platform for Shanxi culture and Shanxi merchants. It will function as an online capital operation center for all Shanxi merchants.
The Shanxi Guild refers to the sites for gathering, relaxation, and discussion established through donations from various Shanxi merchants across the nation between the Ming and the Tsing Dynasties. All Shanxi Guilds were commonly featured with: first, the worship of Guan Yu, the representative of loyalty to brotherhood, by having a Guan Yu Temple or Guan Yu Palace; second, holding theatrical performances. The Shanxi Guild Hall was a typical representative of Chinese merchants’ guild halls during the Ming and Tsing Dynasties, and its business assembly and capital operation mechanism are of great referential significance for modern chambers of commerce and merchant guild halls.
We hope that more Shanxi merchants will join with us to make the Online Shanxi Guild Hall Online a brand new “Shanxi Guild Hall” which is representative of the modern age. Let’s gather together and help to restore the great Shanxi merchant culture.
The Shanxi merchants are the one of the best examples of Chinese commercial civilization and culture. Shanxi merchants, Jewish merchants, and Venetian merchants were honored as the World Top 3 Historical Merchant Groups. Throughout the 5 centuries of the Ming and Tsing Dynasties, Shanxi merchants, based on their more than 500 guild halls around the nation, have been ranked first among the ten historical Chinese merchant groups. In 1656, Shanxi merchants built their first guild hall in Bozhou, Anhui Province, which was also the first within the Ming and Tsing Dynasties. They named this facility the Anhui Bozhou Shanshaan Guild Hall. Then, in 1756, Shanxi merchants established the historic “World No.1 Guild Hall” in Nanyang, Henan Province. This was named the Henan Sheqi Shanshaan Guild Hall. Finally, in 1888, Shanxi merchants set up the last Shanxi merchant guild hall of the Ming and Tsing Dynasties in Xining, Qinghai Province. This was called the Qinghai Xining Shanshaan Guild Hall.
Guild Hall Restoration Plan
One Opportunity for Four Centuries: Fundraising Efforts to Revive the Shanxi Guild Hall
Through their impressive efforts over five centuries, elder generations of Shanxi merchants have left us with more than 600 Shanxi Guild Halls across China. These have become an important part of Shanxi Merchant Culture, similar to the famous Shanxi merchants’ courtyards. However, today these guild halls are either left unattended or occupied for other uses. As the direct descendants of the Shanxi, we should no longer remain indifferent. Now is the time to act!
We are currently looking for 10000 Shanxi natives to help raise funds, restore, and operate the Old Shanxi Guild Hall at Beijing Qianmen.
Beijing Pingyao Pigment Guild Hall
Age: Circa 1573 to 1620 during the Ming Dynasty?? Site Location: Outside Beijing Qianmen
Founders: Pigment and tung oil merchants from Shanxi Province
Background:
In Shanxi at the time, Linfen, Xiangling and Pingyao were famous for producing pigments, of which Pingyao enjoyed the best reputation. Due to the fact that the repair of palaces in the Forbidden City required paints and color decorations, the royal family was in urgent need of quality pigments. During Wanli’s Reign during the Ming Dynasty, there was a boom in demand for pigment in Beijing. Part of the mineral pigments supplied here were from Shanxi, so more and more pigment merchants from Pingyao gathered in this area. With a greater concentration of wealth, demand for development increased. Pigment merchants from Pingyao contributed to help set up the pigment guild hall.
Statistics show that at the height of success, there were 71 Shanxi merchant guild halls in Beijing. These were mainly distributed in the former Xuanwu District and the Chongwen District.
Over the past few years, several guild halls established by Shanxi natives have been excavated in Qianmen—
Beijing Pingyang Guild Hall was restored in 2008. In 1802, the hall was co-funded and established by merchants from Pingyang, Shanxi, and more than 20 other surrounding counties. It’s now used by The Laogen Liu Stage, a showbiz company. ◎Jinyi Guild Hall, dating from 1773, was funded by the Yicheng merchants from Shanxi Province. The hall was an “immovable cultural relic”. In 2011, it was altered into a private club, and was accused of altering the original appearance after being restored. These historically inaccurate alterations included the roof mounted by an awning and an indoor swimming pool. The Beijing Municipal Administration of Cultural Heritage investigated these claims but came to no formal conclusions. ◎In late 2010, in the Qianmen area, another historic guild hall of the Shanxi people was restored. Institutions with various backgrounds have been vying for it, with no definitive results. As modern Shanxi natives, we have had our eyes set on this prize, hoping to inherit it and hand it down to the next generation
Shanxi merchants, the former No. 1 merchant group in the world.
Shanxi merchants plied their trade during the middle of the Ming Dynasty, and were once the world’s most wealthy and influential merchant group.
If you travel in Shanxi or even simply take an interest in Shanxi merchants, you should know that the Shanxi merchant’s courtyard, comparable to a royal palace, was once just a private mansion of a Shanxi merchant’s family. The guild halls spread widely around all of China were once the authentic centers of the commercial empire of Shanxi merchants. They were also the foundation upon which the Shanxi merchants were able to achieve their marvelous business successes.
During the more than 400 years from the 16th to the 19th century, by the use of major business activities like foreign trade of tea and exchange centers, nearly 1/3 or the world’s silver flowed through the businesses of Shanxi merchants. At that time, Shanxi was the wealthiest province in all of China, and some suspect even around the entire world! In late Tsing Dynasty, more than half of the indemnities offered by the Tsing government were actually paid by Shanxi merchants. Until early 20th century, Shanxi was still the undisputed financial center in China. Major financial institutions in cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Wuhan had most of their headquarters established on the average streets of Pingyao County and Taigu County in Shanxi Province. These cities, however, were just minor and insignificant locations where the wealthy Shanxi merchants had set up casual endeavors.
The Guild hall, the key to the sustained success of the Shanxi merchant group
A Shanxi merchant guild hall was co-funded and established by the Shanxi merchants themselves. As a commercial association with a history dating more than 400 years, it has been distributed to major trading ports in China and East Asia. Their influence even reached as far as major cities in France, England and Japan. There is an old saying which says "Where there is business, there is Shanxi merchant guild hall." The thousands of guild halls throughout China endeavored to protect the overall interests of the Shanxi merchants by raising appreciation for the hometown, consolidating friendships and uniting all townspeople. At these halls they gathered for discussions and exchanged information. This in turn helped with the coordination of financing, inter-bank lending and mergers, and for helping official-merchants to hold charities. Over time, these practices helped to gradually increase the business scale of Shanxi merchants.
A Shanxi merchant guild hall was also a place of faith and belief. Each guild hall had a Guan Yu Temple, where the statue of Guan Yu was worshiped. This deity was hoped to instill all of the Shanxi merchants with his spirit of “loyalty, justice, kindness and courage”. It was also hoped that an atmosphere of self-discipline would be fostered in all of the members. This way, both short-term and long-term interests could be guaranteed.
It was always because of their co-operative spirit, as opposed to inconsiderate self interest, that Shanxi merchants could rapidly control the situation immediately upon arriving at a new location. Shanxi merchant workers combined to form a power-group of exchange and mutual benefit one after the other. They spread in such a proud manner that they cooperated with others rather than imposed their will. This created a grand commercial environment indeed! There was a saying that “All Shanxi merchants are a family”. While competing with local authorities and other commercial groups, Shanxi merchants always showed amazing and respectable unification.
Shanxi merchant guild halls united Shanxi merchants in the new and strange lands they travelled and achieved nationwide network of goods and exchange. Furthermore, their practices allowed for a worldwide dissemination of the Shanxi merchant spirit and culture, thus allowing for the existence of Shanxi merchants around the world till today.
400 years of Shanxi merchant civilization were recorded in a single book
However grand something may be, it can never truly withstand the erosion of time. In the last century or so, China has demonstrated some drastic changes and guild halls have been in decline. Owners have left and members have moved on to other projects.. Today, in the face of China’s often destructive construction projects, more relic-level guild halls are dying? out faster and faster, and those which remain leftover are perched on the edge of extinction.
The author Rong Lang, a descendent of Shanxi merchants, is a young photographer. Over 3 years, he went through many types of extreme hardships in order to travel around China and take pictures of these precious guild halls. “Shanxi Merchant Guild Hall” recorded his feelings on all of his visits, and demonstrated the delicacy of buildings in the halls with both pictures and accompanying essays. Each also has an account of the epic business experience of the Shanxi merchants in the past
Through his pictures, we seem to experience the past glory and honor of the Shanxi merchants. As an important legacy of the Shanxi merchant civilization, the guild hall, still standing majestically despite a century of neglect, gives off the same unique charm as it has for centuries. Each one tempts people to yearn and to pursue.
The Original Best-selling Novel for the Movie “Empire Silver”
Shanxi merchants, operating between the Ming and Tsing Dynasties, over the course of about 500 years, managed to spread their business domain around China and even reached Europe and the entirety of all of Asia. Unfortunately, according to Chinese traditional feudalist culture, the ranking sequence for people consisted of: scholar, farmer, artisan and merchant. This meant that merchants were considered the most inferior people in all of society. Despite their extreme wealth, they were considered to be of low social status and for this reason they were rarely mentioned in the history books. However, their legendary wealth was often spoken of amongst the population.. In addition, tales of these merchants passed by word of mouth, and the grandiose-sized and palace-like courtyards built by some of the wealthiest merchants remain even today. These factors help to confirm their past splendor.
The book “Silver Valley” is set in some of the exchange shops belonging to Shanxi merchants. Shanxi native writer Cheng Yi, spent more than 16 years creating the book, and Taiwanese billionaire Terry Guo, himself a native of Shanxi, invested to help and adapt the novel into a screenplay for the movie “Empire Silver”. This movie is now available for a world audience.
In the book, the wisdom and hardships carved out by our ancestors and inherited by the younger generations were recorded in detail. The book evolves into a grand commercial epic viewed through the words and deeds of the hero. Reading the book is like experiencing the scene for yourself in real life. It truly makes your blood boil!
A classic work of literature about the Shanxi merchants
With its interpretation of Shanxi merchants, this novel has achieved perfection from the perspective of both literature and historical study. Therefore, the author Cheng Yi, served as the deputy CPC secretary in Qixian, Shanxi for during his years of research. This is the type of dedication that is rarely seen amongst today's modern Chinese writers.
The Shanxi merchants in the book perfectly represent the traits demonstrated by merchants at that time. Stories in the novel reflect authentic past business practices, without using incorrect “fabrication” or “fiction”. Due to this exquisite interpretation of the Shanxi merchant stories, the book is a wonderfully enlightening read.
The optimal interpretation of the Shanxi merchant philosophy
The book is condensed and contains a great many stories about Shanxi merchants. This makes it a must-read book for anyone hoping to gain a better understanding Shanxi merchant culture.
Exactly what kind of merchant group did the Shanxi merchants from? If you want to have an overview of the commercial philosophy and wisdom of the Shanxi merchants’ operation and management, the novel “Silver Valley” should be your No.1 choice.
How did they select they right person for the right job? How did they select the right business? Both of these questions are answered with expert precision and elaborated very well within the novel. The first section of the novel advocated the notion “never learn from Hu Xueyan (a famous official-merchant in late Tsing Dynasty”. This was a typical mindset which was constantly demonstrated in the Shanxi merchant philosophy.
To Facilitate the Transformation of Shanxi Based on a Global Vision
“Shanxi Merchant Inside” is a research report that provides references on the decision making process of the Shanxi merchants in terms of: transformation, investment, capital operation, and enterprise management. It was first published in March 2011. “Shanxi Merchant Inside” is currently enjoying wide popularity and profound brand influence among Shanxi political and commercial circles. It has also reached Shanxi entrepreneurs nationwide.
Major-General Yang Chunchang, Head of Army Building at the Chinese Academy of Military Sciences; Qu Runhai, formerly the Head of Art Administration at the Ministry of Culture and now Head of the Shanxi Provincial Department of Culture; and Ai Lan, a famous domestic planner, each served as consultants with “Shanxi Merchant Inside”. Meanwhile, “Shanxi Merchant Inside” has cooperated with institutions like the Guanghua Think Tank at the Guanghua School of Management, Peking University, School of Government, Peking University, the Shanxi Alumni Association of Peking University, Yuncheng Alumni Association at Peking University, the Capital Shanxi Merchant Development Forum, the Shanxi Merchant Brand Development League, and the Duolun New Shanxi Merchant Culture Seminar.
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