Up the Social Ladder: How Chinese Merchants Excelled under the New Values of Ming-Qing China

Authors

James B. Townsend, University of Tennessee at ChattanoogaFollow

Abstract

Ming China was a socially volatile period of Chinese history. Social distinctions were blurred as the merchant class rose to power to challenge old Confucian ideals in a commerce-based society. This paper examines what paved the road for the merchant class to rise, and how the non-elite empowerment shifted China's attitudes towards consumption and commerce.

First Page

24

Last Page

33

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

Recommended Citation

Townsend, James B. (2023) "Up the Social Ladder: How Chinese Merchants Excelled under the New Values of Ming-Qing China," Armstrong Undergraduate Journal of History: Vol. 13: Iss. 2, Article 3.
DOI: 10.20429/aujh.2023.130203
Available at: https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/aujh/vol13/iss2/3