The story of Ximen Qing! ! ! Yes, yes
Pan Jinlian showed her love for Wu Song when she saw Wu Song's handsome appearance. One day, Wu Song will go to Beijing for business and come home to say goodbye to his brother. Pan Jinlian took the opportunity to tease Wu Song, but Wu Song was upright and scolded her sternly when he saw this. Pan Jinlian became angry and kicked Wu Song out of the house. Not long after, Wu Da came back. Wu Song told his brother that after he left, he should stay at home more and go out less. He should also be patient with his sister-in-law's words and wait until he came back to argue with her. One day, Pan Jinlian accidentally picked up the curtain and hit Ximen Qing on the head with a bamboo pole. Ximen Qingnai was a bully in Yanggu County. When he saw Pan Jinlian's beauty, he made a plan to seduce Pan Jinlian, his neighbor to the west. Soon, the hawker Yun Ge learned about the incident and informed Wu Da. Wu Da rushed to Wang's house, but Ximen Qing kicked Wu Da and poisoned Wu Da to death. Taking advantage of the situation, Ximen Qing ordered Uncle He Jiu, who was responsible for the burial, to incinerate Wu Da's body. When Wu Song came back from business, he saw the flaw and specially prepared water and wine to invite relatives and neighbors for questioning. He found out the true story and complained to the government. However, the county magistrate accepted Ximen Qing's bribe and beat him 40 times. Wu Song was so angry that he rushed to the Lion House to kill Ximen Qing. When he returned home, he killed Pan Jinlian and avenged his brother.
As a businessman, Ximen Qing, from the age of 27 when he appeared on the scene to the age of 33 when he died, in just six or seven years, through transportation officials' clever plundering, relying on rich women to gain both wealth and wealth, and expand capital By strengthening circulation and other means, he became a well-known "nouveau riche" and accumulated a huge wealth of nearly one hundred thousand taels of silver. These were only the real estate calculated from his "will". In addition to using part of Ximen Qing's wealth to expand reproduction, it was mainly used for three purposes: entertaining guests and giving gifts to make friends with gangs, bribing powerful people to gain political capital, and chasing women for sexual pleasure. This made Ximen Qing a local bully, a bureaucrat, and a pervert. , without exception, accelerates the demise of capital and the demise of businessmen’s characteristics. While criticizing Ximen Qing, the author of "Jin Ping Mei" also reflected on the social atmosphere of the late Ming Dynasty and the historical fate of emerging businessmen. From the perspective of literature and art, he vividly explained the tragic ending of emerging businessmen in China's feudal society, and also From the perspective of the continuous loss of businessmen's subjectivity, it objectively reveals the reason why although the buds of capitalist production relations appeared during the Ming and Qing Dynasties, they ultimately failed to embark on the path of capitalism.
As a prostitute, Ximen Qing was not satisfied with having eight wives and concubines. He also had affairs with numerous maids and servants, made fun of prostitutes, and committed adultery with noble ladies. In addition, he also had sex with book boys, and was still obsessed with He Qianhu's wife Lan and Wang Sanguan's wife Huang until his death. Regardless of beauty or ugliness, be eclectic. The number of people involved in promiscuity, the viciousness of his methods, and the ugliness of his mentality can be said to be unparalleled among literary works before the publication of "Jin Ping Mei".
The result of the crazy pursuit of sexual happiness has turned sex into a weapon that can destroy life. In the author's writing, Ximen Qing is an evil person, but he is not so evil that he is useless. To be fair, Ximen Qing is not a villain. He is also relatively generous and open-minded and generous in dealing with issues of friendship: he never establishes a written document when borrowing money from Chang Zhijie. Go) and Li Ping'er were just beaten with a horse whip. The work reveals all aspects of an emerging businessman in a society where people are greedy for material things, revealing his tragic fate. It can be said that the tragedy of Ximen Qing is not only a tragedy of businessmen and society, but also a tragedy of human nature. It is a tragedy of how the expansion of human desires leads to destruction.
Ximen Qing’s original story He was not rich in capital. He was born into "a well-to-do family in Qinghe County." His father, Ximenda, ran a herbal medicine shop. However, after Ximen Qing's short-term operation, capital increased sharply and economic strength expanded rapidly, which not only had a great impact on the business world, but also had a great repercussions on the political world. He once boastfully told Wu Yueniang that even if he abducted Xu Feiqiong and robbed the Queen Mother, his wealth would not be reduced.
How did Ximen Qing become rich? First, let’s look at his accumulation of original capital. The first chapter of "Jin Ping Mei" says that he "has a very treacherous motive, and he also releases official debts... He specializes in taking care of official affairs in the county, and negotiates with others to pay money." Here, "releasing official debts" means taking state property. They go out to lend money and collect interest; to "golalan talk things over money" means to litigate for others, intercede or do things for others, and collect others' gratitude fees. It is not difficult to see that Ximen Qing's social activity ability is quite large, and "releasing official debts" is also quite risky. But because of his "deep work ethic", it has always been smooth.
These small tricks alone cannot satisfy Ximen Qing's desire to make money. Obtaining large sums of dowry through marriage is Ximen Qing's main method of accumulating capital. For example, he defrauded the wealthy widow Meng Yulou and the eunuch's niece Li Ping'er. The arrival of the two concubines brought him huge wealth. Only the dowry brought by Meng Yulou included:...clothes for all seasons, flowered robes that couldn't be put in the hands, and four or five boxes; bead hoops, bead hoops, gold and gem heads and faces, gold and silver necklaces, needless to say; He also has thousands of taels of silver, and three to two hundred barrels of good three-stripe cloth.
As for the wealth Li Ping'er brought him, it is even more impressive. So much so that when Li Ping'er passed away, Ximen Qing, who had always been emotionless, burst into tears! The family slave Daian revealed the secret in one sentence:
When I, Liu Niang, marry my father...how many leaders should I bring? Others don't know, but I know: forget about silver, just play with gold and beads, and I don't know how many jade belts, ribbon rings, hair buns, and valuable gems there are. Why does my father feel so sad? It’s not about hurting people, it’s about hurting money! ...No one in this family would lend money to him, they would only lend it out but not return it...
In addition, Ximen Qing knew very well that "a horse cannot be fat without grass, and a man cannot be rich without foreign wealth." In the process of accumulating capital, he paid special attention to the plunder of foreign wealth. For example, son-in-law Chen Jingji transferred the family property to his father-in-law Ximen Qing's family for preservation because of the incident involving his father Chen Hongdong. In the end, Ximen Qing also took possession of it as his own.
It should be admitted that the accumulation of any kind of primitive capital has a predatory nature, such as the "enclosure movement" in the West. For Ximen Qing, his methods of amassing money all bear the characteristics of the nascent period of capitalism in the late Ming Dynasty. In the late Ming Dynasty, due to the advocating individualism, it became fashionable to seize wealth through personal struggle and hard work. However, compared with the large-scale operation method of the "Enclosure Movement", the commodity economy in the late Ming Dynasty took on a personal flavor. Whether Ximen Qing is involved in litigation, seeking foreign wealth, or defrauding dowry, he has brought his personal touch of skill, which is the so-called "deep and cunning intention of doing things", which still belongs to the traditional category of "strange and obscene skills" within.
In today's socialist market economy, the "Ximen Qing-style" way of accumulating money still exists, especially in small private enterprises. There are many cases of people using their power or personal connections to lend out official debts or take care of lawsuits for others. There are also many people who use their looks to defraud dowries. In a word, the development of a market economy will inevitably bring about negative behaviors such as opportunism, which is particularly prominent when the market system is not yet fully developed.
2. The magic weapon for success: personal shrewdness and unfair competition
Ximen Qing is a shrewd businessman, but what makes him far ahead among his peers lies entirely in the skills he uses unfair competition!
Colluding with the government to obtain preferential business conditions is his usual method. For example, Cai Yiquan, the number one scholar in the new school, passed through Qinghe County when he returned to his hometown to visit relatives. He was invited to Ximen's house for a summer vacation. Later, Cai Yiquan was appointed as the salt inspector of Huaihe River and Huaihe River, and introduced Song Qiaonian, the inspector of Shandong Province, to Ximen Qing, which gave Ximen Qing more ways to collude with the government. Later, Ximen Qing sold salt and ran the salt transportation industry. Cai Zhuangyuan exercised his power to transport salt from the Huaihe River to Huaihe River and allowed Ximen Qing to grab the salt one month earlier than other salt merchants. This made it easy for Ximen Qing to obtain the salt in just one month. A huge profit of twenty thousand taels of silver! Other salt merchants could only stare blankly, watching as others took their money. Because Ximen Qing bribed Song Qiaonian, the governor of Shandong, from time to time, he was able to use the power of Song to monopolize the 20,000 taels of ancient artifacts business sent by the imperial court. How much profit was there! Colluding with the government to obtain business privileges is Ximen Qing's main method of obtaining huge profits.
Striving for monopoly and attacking peers are also Ximen Qing’s successful experiences in doing business. Monopoly means huge profits, and Ximen Qing knows this very well. Originally, there was only one pharmacy in Ximenqing in Qinghe County. Later, doctor Jiang Zhushan also opened a traditional Chinese medicine store with the help of Li Ping'er. Logically speaking, Jiang Zhushan is both a doctor and a pharmacy operator, and he is also kind and kind. He will undoubtedly attract many customers and the business will be prosperous. . The appearance of two pharmacies in a county is like the appearance of two suns in the sky, which is absolutely unacceptable to Ximen Qing. So he instigated local gangsters to make trouble in Jiang Zhushan's drug store many times. They also forged bills and accused him of not paying back the debt and sued the government. He beat Jiang Zhushan half to death and forced him to demolish the drug store. In this way, Ximenqing's pharmacy business is still booming.
This kind of unfair competition is also reflected in other aspects. For example, he is good at opening up joints, paying off money and principals, and evading taxes on a large scale; for another example, from the perspective of Ximen Qing’s business methods, he His business activities mainly rely on family members, slaves, or in partnership with others, or in the name of others, while he hides behind the scenes and operates, so it is difficult for others to catch his illegal business.
It is undeniable that Ximen Qing also has a "way" in doing business. When he analyzed money for the Count, he said, "That thing is very active and restless, so how can it be buried in one place? It is also designed to be used by humans." Marx once said, "Capital, as a kind of increasing value,... it It is a kind of movement” and “cannot be understood as a static object” (Volume 2 of Capital). There are surprising similarities between the two understandings of capital. In other words, Ximen Qing knows how to make money with money. He is good at expanding reproduction. For example, in the satin shop he opened with Mr. Qiao, the initial capital investment was only one thousand taels. Later, with the money he earned from selling salt, he imported more than 10,000 taels of goods from Hangzhou and Nanjing. The satin shop sold out soon after it was opened. Six thousand taels of silver were earned, which were purely altruistic and used to purchase goods from Huzhou and Songjiang respectively. In this way, the profits are getting bigger and bigger. By the time Ximen Qing died, the satin shop had "a capital of fifty thousand taels of silver."
Not only did he expand reproduction, he was also good at seizing opportunities and dared to purchase unsalable goods from foreign customers for future profits. He was also good at diversifying businesses, lending usury, opening pawn shops and various satin shops. At the same time, he sailed on the rivers and lakes, combining shop operations with long-distance trafficking, so the scale of his business became larger and larger.
Ximen Qing’s business has many similarities with many modern people’s business. Sectors such as television and telecommunications would not be able to achieve higher profits if they did not rely on market monopoly. Another example is the celebrity business that is popular nowadays. If the celebrity effect is not used to open up joints, it would be very difficult. Just imagine, if we stand on the same starting line, Liu Xiaoqing may not be more successful in business than all of us. Without unfair competition and tax evasion, many companies would go bankrupt, and Xiamen's Lai Changxing would not be so arrogant. If you examine carefully, nine out of ten celebrities engage in illegal activities when doing business. This is a fact that has been confirmed by the media in the past.
3. Failed: Money is important, but beauty is even more important
Ximen Qing is a shrewd businessman, but he is a businessman with Chinese characteristics. He lacks the spirit promoted during the rise of Western capitalism. The "capitalist spirit" was later attributed by Franklin, Weber and others to virtues such as "diligence, thrift, honesty, credibility" and other virtues. What is particularly important is that a businessman's life must be aimed at making money, and making money should become the "bound duty" of businessmen's activities. However, Ximen Qing's making money is just a means, and ultimately he wants to complete his possession of beauty.
Illegal business operations prevent Ximen Qing from finding a sense of accomplishment, a sense of accomplishment in realizing self-worth. When he was playing with Li Ping'er, his slave Dai'an reported that there were guests from Sichuan and Guangzhou waiting for him to discuss business. He actually delayed it again and again, saying, "My shop is big and I ship a lot. If you ask me how much, I'm not afraid that he won't come to see me." " (Chapter 16), until Li Ping'er advised him to put his career first and not let women ruin his career, he went to deal with the problem unhappily. That is to say, making money is not Ximen Qing's ultimate goal. His ultimate goal is to complete his crazy possession of women. In the end, the candle of his life was finally extinguished at Pan Jinlian's navel, and the assets he had carefully gathered were also reduced to ashes!
Needless to say, under the impact of the market economy, many young and promising entrepreneurs who have made great achievements or are young and powerful entrepreneurs are not crushed by the market in the end, but fall into the decadent life of drunkenness and wealth and cannot achieve success. To extricate themselves, are they the same as Ximen Qing?