What is the relationship between Huizhou merchants and Yangzhou?

Huizhou merchants and intellectuals depended on each other and needed each other in a specific historical period, which directly promoted the cultural prosperity of Yangzhou. It should be said that the unique conditions in Yangzhou enabled Huizhou merchants to acquire a great deal of wealth, which was an important basis for the literati to gather in Yangzhou. Salt merchants are "rich and eager to learn", cherish the thoughts and actions of talents, recruit, introduce, cultivate and help talents. Under their guidance, literati from all over the world flocked to Yangzhou like fish, like birds returning to the forest, and they gathered in Yangzhou, making Yangzhou a highland for attracting talents and creating a rich humanistic environment for cultural development, which undoubtedly played a certain role in the prosperity and development of Yangzhou culture in the Qing Dynasty.

At the same time, quite a few salt merchants also have profound cultural foundation, certain academic attainments and certain artistic self-restraint, which is why the communication between salt merchants and literati is not purely utilitarian, but also includes certain academic exchanges, and the active participation of Yangzhou salt officials in this cultural activity has also played an important role.

The most typical reflection of this relationship is the relationship between Yangzhou intellectuals and salt merchants and salt officials, which indirectly reflects the economic tension after the prosperity of various cultures. Huizhou culture and Yangzhou culture are rooted in the fertile soil of Chinese culture, and the accumulation of Chinese culture is the gene of the cultures of the two places. The unique cultural factors of the two places have formed rich cultural connotations of the two places. The "yeast" of commerce has promoted the cultural development of the two places, and commerce is the fulcrum of the historical and cultural height of the two places.

Huizhou merchants are good at Confucianism, which leads them to pay attention to the overall investment in culture. The cultivation of a large number of talents not only promotes the all-round development of culture, but also bears the fruit of mutual assistance between officials and businessmen, that is, "taking Confucianism as an official and protecting Jia with officials." This is also a highlight of Huizhou culture and Yangzhou culture, that is, the characteristics of elegant and popular culture and art, and it is also closely related to the characteristics of Huizhou merchants at the junction of upper-class culture and mass culture.