Shizhen Businessman Biographical Research

Wang shi-zhen was an influential writer in the middle period of the Ming Dynasty. His collected works "Yan-Zhou Si Bu Gao " and"Ynn-Zhou Xu Gao " obtains 316 biographies, 64 of which are written for businessmen. Such literary and cultural phenomenon deserves our attention. This paper makes a study of Wang shi-zhen' biographies of businessmen.Chapter 1 is "Family, Native Place. Friends", examining the background of the regional culture. Influenced by his family. Yang-ming' theory, Wang-gen' theory and businessmen of his time, Wang shi-zhen had respect for moral businessmen. This was the theoretic basis of Wang shi-zhen' biographies of businessmen. Wang shi-zhen lived in Suzhou. Suzhou, a business boom city. Suzhou merchants were full of vigour. This was the society basis of Wang shi-zhen' biographies of businessmen. Because Wang shi-zhen was a man of mark, many merchant offsprings asked for his works about their parent and their grandparent. Wang shi-zhen was willing to do this.Chapter 2 is "Paradoxical Thought", focusing on ideological tendency. There are some conflicting phenomena in Wang shi-zhen' merchant biographies. From the viewpoint of the scholars and the merchants, on the one hand, he praised the merchants in the reality, scolded the scholars in the reality, affirmed the merchants' value in the reality more than the scholar's; on the other hand, he thought ideal scholars' value more than ideal merchants', Confucianism value more than commerce's.He comed up with the ideas of confucianist matching mearchant. From the viewpoint of righteousness and behalf.he not only emphasecl conflict of righteousness and behalf, but also affirmed their unity. From the viewpoint of women , he admired a woman for her moral trait while praising her talent.Chapter 3 is "Studying Classical Prose and Creation", analyzing the literary value of Wang shi-zhen merchant biographies from four aspects: choosing themes ,creating images expressing emotion and using language.Chapter 4 compares Wang shi-zheif s merchant biographies with the last Ming Dynasty's, discussing the developing trend of the last Ming Dynasty merchant biographies.