Introduction of Chinese Business

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China is an ethnically and culturally diverse country.Its dominant cultural tradition has been heavily influenced by Confucianism and Daoism.

The idea of Righteousness of Confucianism dominated the Chinese business.And the farming economy was the mainstream in the development of Chinese business.

Chinese merchants，Chinese business and Chinese business culture originated in the central plain.It is proved that the character“shang”was the name of a primitive tribe in the south of Shangqiu of Henan Province.Wang Hai ，the forefather of Chinese business，was the fourth genenration of the tribe.He was the first to carry goods by cowcart for business in the Shang Dynasty.Thus those engaged in business were called“shangren”Zi Gong ，one of Confucian students，born in Shandong，was good at business besides politics.Fan Li Sage of Chinese business，was a Nanyang native.He swicthed from the royal court to business.In the West Zhou there appeared the first professional merchants in Luoyang .In the Spring and Autumn and Warring Period Shangqiu had the first institute to collect the tariff.The first international big city was Kaifeng in the Song Dynasty，with a population of more than 150 million，vividly described in the Riverside Scene at Qingmng by Zhang Zeduan.

It is generally accepted that Chinese business went through three stages:the Qin and Han Dynasties；the Tang and Song Dynasties and the Ming and Qing Dynasties.

However，Chinese business hasn’t developed as the western business.One factor is that Chinese business is typical of farming economy.Large land and rich resourcces surply enough to the people.Farming civilization is a conservative，stable and peaceful life style.The idea”Put farming before business”restrains the development of business.The other fac-tor is the influence of Confucianism.The idea”Learn and learnbest and then be officials”strengthens the central government but weakens the business.The brilliant learners refuse to enter the business.

However，there are still some clans like the Kang Family in Gongyi in the Qing Dynasty who created the business myths”having remained to be rich more than 20 generations and to be successful more than 400 years”.The busuness culture in the central plain plays an important role in the Chinese culture.