What did it mean to be the son of a merchant in Ming China?

Cheng Shigang (1442-1519) was lucky enough to be born into a wealthy family in Huizhou, a hilly prefecture that nurtured the renowned Huizhou merchants that would dominate long-distance trade for the centuries to come. The family history of the Chengs mirrored that of the Huizhou merchants as a group. Like many Huizhou families, the Chengs seemed to be extremely small in the mid-fourteenth century, as it had only five male members on the 47th generation, including Shigang’s great-grandfather. This number increased to 46 to Shigang’s generation (the 50th) and 101 to the next (51st) generation at the turn of the sixteenth century. Shigang’s father (b. 1413) seemed to be the first member of the family to engage in commerce and proved to be quite successful.

Shigang was unlucky enough to be the son of a missing merchant who was “too satisfied with the life in Henan province” and never returned since Shigang was eleven sui (10 years old). Worse still, Shishang’s elder brother passed away prematurely two years later, when Shigang was thirteen sui (12 years old). Therefore, Shishang was “especially independent.” As the only heir, he had to singlehandedly shoulder the task of managing the properties that his father left at home to the young brothers. The bright side was that the properties he automatically inherited after his father’s disappearance and his brother’s premature death were massive. Although the biographer used the term “shoucheng” (to maintain the properties) not “tuoye” (to expand the properties) to describe what Shigang was expected to do, Shigang did much better. He managed to “fulfil the tax obligations and resist the bullies.”

After building his own family, Shigang sent his son to Henan, in search of his missing father. We do not know how it could be possible for his son to find someone whom he had never met. Finally, Shigang admitted that he would never be able to find his father, and “solicited” his father’s soul to the tomb Shishang built for him.

Shigang spent his remaining days urging and helping his grandsons to pursue the profession of “poetry and the book.” He once said, “only poetry and the book can establish yourselves.” Ultimately, one of his eighteen grandsons became the student in stipend of the prefectural school, entering the gentry class.