"The Ideological Underpinnings of Private Trade in East Asia, Ca. 800
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九州大学学術情報リポジトリ Kyushu University Institutional Repository The Ideological Underpinnings of Private Trade in East Asia, ca. 800–1127 SATTLER, GREGORY University of California, Los Angeles: PhD Student, Department of History https://doi.org/10.5109/4377706 出版情報：Journal of Asian Humanities at Kyushu University. 6, pp.41-60, 2021-03. 九州大学文学 部大学院人文科学府大学院人文科学研究院 バージョン： 権利関係： The Ideological Underpinnings of Private Trade in East Asia, ca. 800–1127 GREGORY SATTLER Introduction merchants of the Tang 唐 dynasty (618–907), though in fact we may find similar points of view in the he image of the merchant, both from our present- official histories of earlier and later Chinese dynasties day conceptions and as depicted in some of the as well. More recently, scholars have come to suspect writings of premodern East Asian scholars, may that officials throughout East Asia were involved in Trequire some reinterpretation. In particular, the idea of commerce to a much greater extent than most court an irreconcilable divide between the social positions of documents suggest, and a growing body of evidence is the merchant and the official has dominated discourse highlighting a closer interplay between merchants and on the economic, trade, social, and intellectual history officials than was previously believed. Nevertheless, in of this region to the point that the separation of these our attempts to reconstruct the conditions of the past, two roles is often seen as a fundamental characteristic a common conception persists that the place of the of traditional Chinese—and by extension East Asian— merchant was one that gradually realized a favorable culture. In this dichotomy, the merchant is usually progression over time, or that merchants were by and depicted in a negative light: as greedy, petty, or of less large a disenfranchised group kept under the thumb of importance to the overall functionality of society. This a dominant scholar-bureaucracy. view, as historian Denis Twitchett has pointed out, was The disapproving depiction of the merchant is promoted by the writers of China’s official histories, often regarded as originating in antiquity (generally who gave the misleading impression that the merchant considered as the earliest periods of Chinese history “played no active role in politics or government, and until the consolidation of the Qin 秦 empire in 221 appears in the histories only as the passive object of BCE), though it has been reinforced by the prioritization official policy, or as an offender against the authority of the State.”1 Such a statement was made in regard to 1 Twitchett, “Merchants, Trade and Government in Late T’ang,” p. 64. Joseph McDermott has pointed out that this view was rein- This essay has benefited from the advice of Ellen Van Goethem, forced and promoted by Max Weber in The Religion of China: Ashton Lazarus, Joseph P. McDermott, Richard von Glahn, and Confucianism and Taoism, which in turn significantly influenced Beverly Bossler. I am grateful for their thoughtful comments and Western perceptions. See McDermott, “Merchants in Late Impe- suggestions. rial China: Obstacles and Solutions.” 41 of the study of Chinese laws in the decades following through tribute, private and semi-private trade,5 or the the Second World War. Yet as research has advanced bestowal of gifts on a personal basis, the philosophies in recent years, we have come to learn that these laws on exchange were varied and depended primarily on were not always adhered to or enforced, and that they the dynamics in place between each party involved. did not necessarily reflect the views of the majority And of those who provide the greatest degree of insight of any given society, or even of the scholar-officials on the merchant-official dynamic, we are perhaps best themselves.2 served by observing the maritime traders who sailed Social distinctions between merchant and official between the various states across East Asia. Due to the have also led scholars to regard diplomatic trade and prestige goods and high-value commodities that they private trade as entirely separate concepts, even though carried, these merchants frequently interacted with no- interstate exchange was not always so clearly defined table historical figures, and thus had information about in the extant sources. This view is evident in historian themselves preserved in journals, records, and official John K. Fairbank’s assessment that “foreign trade” histories. We may draw a considerable amount of in- (private trade) was subordinate to tribute: “No doubt, formation from the interactions and activities of these this quixotic doctrine reflected the anti-commercial individuals during the span of the ninth to the early nature of the Confucian state, where the merchant twelfth century, most notably in how commerce and its was low in the social scale and nominally beneath participants therein were regarded in the societies that both the farmer and the bureaucrat, who lived off the they traveled to. In particular, a look at their activities produce of the land.”3 Indeed, it was the case that the may provide ample evidence for a reassessment of the merchant ranked the lowest of the four occupational “Confucian” philosophies on commerce, the distinct groups (si min 四民, the other three being officials, separation between private and tributary trade, and the farmers, and craftsmen), yet as this system belonged to place of the merchant in East Asian societies. Yet before the idealized perception of antiquity, it could also be we begin to examine these individuals, I will provide seen as a legitimation of the merchant’s position. Even a general overview of the traditional conceptions of in some of the most challenging times, merchants were merchants in Chinese society, so as to establish a basis generally accepted by officials as a necessary evil, if not for understanding how they were perceived in their re- as an integral institution of the Sage Kings.4 And as spective times and places. for the value of tributary exchange over private trade, this is clearly a matter that needs to be considered in the context of time and space—even more so as we The Place of the Merchant in Chinese contemplate the past views of the inhabitants of polities Society: From Early Conceptions to the Fall located near the borders of Chinese states. of the Northern Song As we shall see, the relationship between commerce and what we now regard as Confucian thought was In order to understand how merchants were regarded not always one of diametrical opposition. Whether throughout East Asia from the ninth to the twelfth century, we must first consider how they were treated in the Chinese sources both prior to and during this time in question. This is necessary for two reasons. 2 Given the importance of such laws and their availability in vari- First, the traditional conceptions of merchants, at least ous sources, the early emphasis on legal history as a means to among the scholar-officials who wrote about them, conceptualize social circumstances is quite understandable. For laws directed at merchants and commercial activity, see Twitch- ett, “A Confucian’s View of the Taxation of Commerce”; Twitchett, “Merchants, Trade and Government in Late T’ang”; and Twitchett, 5 Semi-private trade should be considered as trade between “The T’ang Market System.” For the view that earlier historians private merchants and state representatives, which was common overestimated the degree of suppression that the Tang state throughout East Asia from the ninth to the twelfth century. In this exerted on merchants, see Twitchett, “The T’ang Market System,” essay I will refer to both private trade and semi-private trade sim- p. 241. ply as “private trade” to emphasize the involvement of non-state 3 Fairbank, Trade and Diplomacy on the China Coast, p. 33. actors, and to distinguish this form of commercial activity from 4 Twitchett, “A Confucian’s View of the Taxation of Commerce,” p. the exchange of goods between state representatives. Unless 438. The Sage Kings were mythical sovereigns who were said to otherwise noted, all references to private traders will indicate rule over China prior to the advent of writing. merchants who were not engaged in trade on behalf of a state. 42 JOURNAL OF ASIAN HUMANITIES AT KYUSHU UNIVERSITY VOLUME 6 were established mainly from the Warring States issue was a concern that merchants were engaging in (Zhanguo 戰國) period (475–221 BCE) to the end of the grain speculation and hoarding, a practice that had Later Han (Hou Han 後漢) dynasty (25–220). Second, a devastating effect on towns and cities in desperate these perspectives spread to various East Asian polities times. Yet it is abundantly clear in this chapter that civil along with literacy and Chinese texts, and endured over bureaucrats felt their authority was also under threat by the span of many centuries.6 By the time an interstate the wealth of merchants, who were much harder to tax system of private trade was established across East than farmers and able to exert influence on both local Asia in the early ninth century, the basis for how society and state government.10 To offset their influence government officials were to conceptualize merchants and ability to conceal assets, merchants were at various was already rooted in their education. times restricted from holding office, charged higher The most common misconception regarding the rates of tax than farmers, and policies and statements merchant in early Chinese history is that from Chinese were put forward that promoted agriculture over trade antiquity onward, agriculture was prized first and in a style that harkened back to the writings of Shang foremost among state planners and thus the place of the Yang. Underlying this rhetoric was the model from merchant was unnecessary or of secondary importance.