Shanxi merchants are the earliest merchants in China, and their history can be traced back to the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. The Ming and Qing Dynasties were the heyday of Shanxi merchants. During this period, Shanxi merchants dominated domestic commerce for 500 years. Shanxi merchants are very famous in history, and they can be said to have come out of the west entrance. It was the middle and late Ming Dynasty, and most areas of Shanxi were hit by disasters. Shanxi people were forced to make a living, so they fled the famine and begged for food and headed west.
There are roughly two routes, one goes west and enters Baotou, Inner Mongolia; the other goes east and enters Zhangjiakou, Hebei. The former refers to the westward expansion in a narrow sense, and some Shanxi people make a living by selling beans. The latter is also called the East Exit, and the two together are called the West Exit, which is the broad sense of the West Exit. And the one who took the hole ended up making Shanxi merchants famous and successful. Jiexiu Jia Fan, the leader of famous Hui merchants in the Qing Dynasty, can be said to be the epitome of Shanxi merchants. Fan was the most prosperous in Fan Yubin's era.
Fan Yubin’s grandfather Fan lived in the year of great disaster. Fan didn't know whether he should go west, but at night he dreamed that he was dragged by a cloud to Mianshan Mountain southeast of Jiexiu City, and then walked in this fairyland-like landscape. Just when he was fascinated by the scenery of this paradise, he was at a crossroads and at a loss. At this moment, a golden frog ran out of nowhere and headed straight to the west. Fan was curious and chased after him. But Chai Frog disappeared and became brighter and brighter... He knew that Guan Gong was guiding him, so he decided to trade Zhangjiakou and travel in and out of Liaodong. Before leaving, he took his family to Mianshan to visit Guan Gong, and then took his son Fan Sanba and several assistants to Zhangjiakou.
At that time, Zhangjiakou, especially Fu Xuan Town (today’s Xuanhua, Zhangjiakou), was an important military town guarding the border. Xuanhua was known as the enemy of Fu Xuan from nine sides. Thousands of troops are stationed here all year round, ranging from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands. Food and clothing for so many non-commissioned officers is a big problem. Moreover, the army had scarce salt (salt was controlled and monopolized at that time). They took the trouble to sell grain and cloth from Henan and Shandong, and exchanged salt with the garrison to start the military trade business. After entering the Pass, Emperor Shunzhi learned of Dou Yong's name, summoned him and granted him an official position. He didn't understand the people, so he sent a letter to Zhangjiakou's real estate, transferred it to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and still blocked it from other markets.
Every year, Fan had to pay a certain fee from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and he embarked on the road to imperial business. With the establishment of the Qing Dynasty's ruling power across the country, Fan, with the help of his son Sanba, relied on the authority of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the privileges and conveniences granted by the Qing Dynasty to greatly expand his business scope. Fan was also a big copper merchant and a big salt merchant. During the Kangxi period, there was a serious shortage of copper jins in the country, so merchants were allowed to go to Japan to buy copper jins. The people who handled this business at that time were called foreign copper merchants. Fan was invited by the Ministry of Internal Affairs to take over part of the business of trafficking foreign copper, and occupied a considerable proportion of this business.
He often owned six or seven foreign copper ships and became a major foreign copper merchant, earning huge profits from them. Since the Fan family went to Xikou, every New Year's Eve, the Fan family would go to Mianshan, Shanxi to pay homage to Guan Gong, the God of Wealth. Every time there was a big business, representatives would come to pay homage. Later, when fans learned that Mianshan is a treasure land of spiritual energy, they repaired temples such as Sanguan Temple, Doumu Temple, Sanqing Temple, Xingxiu Temple, Lingxiao Temple, Jiuyao Xingjun Temple, and Wangyao Temple. and renovations.
Speaking of Shanxi merchants and their journey to the west, people will think of the Qiao Family Courtyard, the Wang Family Courtyard, and the ancient city of Pingyao, but few people think of Mianshan, Shanxi. There are three reasons for being familiar with Mianshan and Shanxi merchants. Faced with dead wood and smoke, Duke Wen of Jin was very distressed, so he called Mianshan Jieshan, which means the place where Jiezi rested here. He also ordered that the day when Jie Zitui was burned to death be designated as the Cold Food Festival. From now on, on this day every year, no fire is allowed to cook, and cold food must be eaten to commemorate Jie Zitui.
Since then, this custom has spread from Shanxi to the whole country. Before the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the main items of the Cold Food Festival were that every household was prohibited from smoking and eating cold food, and the time was set in the cold winter. The Qingming Festival in this period only refers to one of the twenty-four solar terms that distinguishes seasonal changes and farming operations. At that time, Qingming Festival and Cold Food Festival could be said to be unrelated. During the Sui, Tang and Five Dynasties, the Cold Food Festival was finally determined to be in the 150-year planning period after the winter solstice. With the improvement of various living environments and the promotion of official participation in the Tang Dynasty, especially after the Kaiyuan imperial edict promulgated by Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty added the content of visiting graves during the Cold Food Festival, it became more and more common that it was appropriate to visit graves and perform sacrifices and sweeps. Tomb-sweeping activities during the Cold Food Festival have gradually become popular.
During this period, although there were many activities during the Cold Food Festival and lasted for a long time, and many of the activities took place during the Qingming Festival, in the process of expression, the Chinese people, whether it was official documents, literature The work is still a folk title, and the term Cold Food Festival is still used. During the Song, Yuan, Jin and Liao dynasties, some of the grand events of the Chinese Cold Food Festival surpassed those of the Tang Dynasty, such as official organization of poetry recitation, gift-giving, flower viewing, mausoleum worship, extended holidays, etc.
The main activities of the Cold Food Festival gradually changed from tomb sweeping to outings and other entertainment activities. The activities of the Cold Food Festival at this time are sometimes called Cold Food and sometimes called Qingming. Cold Food Festival and Qingming Festival are in a strange period when you and I are mixed with each other. During the Cold Food Festival of Qingming Festival, Zhang Guan is often Dai Li, and vice versa. For example, the famous peonies bloom all over the garden in spring, blooming immediately after the Qingming Festival, also known as the fifteen thousand-leaf peonies and the cold-food peonies. With the passage of time, as the main items of the Cold Food Festival, not smoking and eating cold food, have been gradually downplayed, and the name of Cold Food Festival has greatly replaced Qingming Festival.
By the Qing Dynasty, some popular items of the Cold Food Festival were no longer popular, and folk tomb sweeping, official altars, and royal mausoleums became the main activities of the festival. During this period, although the name Hanshi appeared from time to time in some documents, local chronicles and literary works, it has become a universally recognized fact that it is generally called Qingming. With the development of history to this day, some people find it incredible that Fu Chadunchong, a Qing Dynasty folklorist in the "Kaiyuan Rites", said that Qingming is a cold food. In fact, they don’t understand the historical process of the Cold Food Festival evolving into Qingming Festival.