The Study On Commerce In Yuan Dynasty As Seen In Yuan Poetry

The poets of the Yuan dynasty paid much attention to the commercial activities and wrote a large number of poems related to the business,which is of big historical value to the study of the commercial history of the Yuan dynasty.On the whole,they can reflect the basic features and vicissitudes of commercial development in Yuan dynasty.In some poems,we can often see some details of the commercial development of the Yuan dynasty that cannot be expressed in other types of historical materials.In the Yuan dynasty,the urban commerce showed a prosperous scene,which was embodied in three aspects:First,the city market scale was constantly expanding.From large commercial city to ordinary states,counties,towns and other levels of the market have developed.The circulation of commodities is large,there are many kinds of goods.Second,market types are becoming increasingly diversified.The professional market is getting more and more specialized,the service market,the cultural market and the entertainment market are developing,and the commercial flavor of festival activities is very strong.Third,Business is becoming more diversified.In some cities,shops are scattered all over the place,shopkeepers go from street to street,credit sales and pawn sales are frequent.In addition to showing the prosperity of various kinds of urban commerce and its rise and fall,as well as market fluctuations,Yuan poetry is particularly vivid in describing the details of commercial development,which is often exceeds other types of historical material.The rural market flourished in the Yuan dynasty.In the poems of Yuan dynasty,we can see that there are various types of commodities in the market on the countryside.The opening time of the market is constantly extended and the market period is greatly shortened.The countryside serves as the base of urban commodity supply,which makes the connection between urban and rural areas closer.The development of rural commerce varies greatly from place to place,and there are many descriptions of bleak rural scenes in Yuan poems.The overseas trade of the yuan dynasty was more prosperous than that of the previous dynasties.Large foreign trade port cities such as Quanzhou and Guangzhou rose up in the southeast coast.Poets sang about their prosperity,paid special attention to various rare treasures in the central plains,and praised the active Chinese and foreign maritime merchants.Poetry is the poet's subjective expression,which has its own value as historical data,but also has obvious deficiency.Compared with Zaju of Yuan dynasty,the poem of Yuan dynasty can reflect the overall appearance of commercial development.But in the details of the business operation and the psychological world of the merchant's life,the poetry is not as good as the Zaju.The value of the documentary poetry that records the time and place is the highest,while the value of other poems should be analyzed concretely,not generalized.