For most of human history, China was one of the richest countries in the world. When Marco Polo visited the Yuan dynasty in his late 13th century, he was impressed by its military power, social structure, and above all its obscene wealth. Traveling along the Jinghang Channel, to this day the longest canal on earth, he finds no shortage of “very great merchants” selling “incalculable silks” and “the most beautiful porcelain vessels, large and small.” did.
Each city entered by the Merchant of Venice was more remarkable than the last. Fuzhou, in Fujian province, was “a commercial center for pearls and precious stones (…) with all the facilities so well-equipped, it was just amazing”, while nearby Quanzhou was “one of the two largest ports in the world”. It was one of the. Product flow. ” His personal favorite was Hangzhou, which he called “the greatest city in the world.” At the time of Mr. Polo's visit, there were already 1.5 million residents. By contrast, his hometown of Venice had only about 70,000 people.
Of course, China's economy has also experienced stagnation, especially in the past few centuries. Remember Mao Zedong's Great Leap Forward? In this cultural and financial campaign, which lasted from 1958 until his 1962, the Communist Party sought to transform China's largely agricultural society into a fully industrialized society comparable to countries in Western Europe and the United States. . Peasants were collectivized and factories sprang up out of nowhere. But as the agricultural sector shrank, so did the food supply, creating shortages that killed tens of millions of Chinese people, perhaps more.
In recent years, memories of the Great Leap Forward have been offset by much different and more fruitful economic policy outcomes. Mao's successors gradually opened the country to private enterprise and succeeded in striking a careful balance between communism and capitalism, resulting in sustained economic growth. Between 2010 and his 2022, China's GDP has increased more than twice as much as hers, overtaking the United States. As GDP changed, so did living standards. That being said, the modern Chinese upper class lives a completely different life than the former Chinese upper class, just as their lifestyle was different compared to previous dynasties.
1 AD: Han Dynasty
China's Han Dynasty was founded by Liu Bang in 206 BC. Liu Bang rose from a peasant to a law enforcement officer during the Qin Dynasty, and when the Qin Dynasty began to fall, he became a revolutionary. Despite a rocky start, the Han Dynasty proved to be one of the longest and most stable dynasties in Chinese history, leading to population growth, urbanization, and scientific inventions such as the seismograph. These developments were made possible by the Han economic policies that laid the foundations of the Han dynasty. Luxury encountered by Marco Polo on the Silk Road and a thousand years later.
China during the Han Dynasty was a class system, with the emperor ruling over wealthy and influential families, and the emperor ruling over a working class of free peasants who gave up a portion of their harvest as taxes. This was a system that the Han inherited from the Qin, but it became more stratified under Han rule. Nobles were given titles such as “marquis,'' which was equivalent to “marquis'' in Europe. They owned the land, managed the farmers, provided the military, and supported the emperor's many intensive responsibilities, including regulating the Han Chinese's largest markets, salt and silk.
Although there are not many written sources from this period detailing the daily lives of people of various classes, the artifacts offer a glimpse into what life was like for the wealthy during the Han Dynasty. The elite possessed a variety of elaborately crafted animal masks that decorated everything from doors to coffins. During the Han Dynasty, belief in the afterlife was so strong that famous figures were buried with terracotta warriors and piles of jade. Jade, which was more valuable than gold at the time, was also made into containers for storing fermented grains and alcohol, and remains a popular delicacy in China today.
Although the Han emperors had near-absolute power and personal control over many aspects of society, their private lives were relatively luxurious and comfortable, but not necessarily as extravagant as you might think. was. At least, this was the example set by Wendy, the fifth ruler of the dynasty, who ruled from 180 BC until his death in 157 BC. Wendy wore coarse silk robes designed in the same style as his consort, and it is believed that she continued to decline his proposals to expand her already impressive palace. He is remembered for reducing the number of emperors' retinue, insisting that they be buried without precious metals, and forgiving tax debts when necessary.
1000 AD: Song Dynasty
The Song Dynasty was founded by a general named Zhao Guangyin. According to legend, Zhao Guangyin was so popular with his army that he was persuaded to overthrow the current emperor and claim the throne for himself. His new government lasted from 960 AD until 1279, when he reunited the Ten Kingdoms of China into his one organization. Unification enabled economic reform, and the Song dynasty moved away from the top-down command economy of the previous Tang dynasty in favor of free markets. Under the control of the Song Dynasty, China grew three times richer than her 12th century European counterpart.
Chinese historians look back on the transition from the Tang to the Song dynasty and the Song economic revolution as defining moments in China's past. Rice production in the Yangtze River basin overtook traditional agriculture in the Central Plains to become the driving force of China's economy, while Confucianism was revived as the state religion, replacing Buddhism. During the Han Dynasty, state-controlled land ownership was privatized, and the Song Dynasty adopted a progressive tax system to balance the rural poor and the urban rich, allowing the former to acquire capital on their own. and made it possible to invest.
Emperor Shenzong, the dynasty's sixth emperor, was the complete opposite of Emperor Wen. Reigning from 1067 until his death in 1085 AD, he was one of the richest rulers of all time, and the African king Mansa gave gold to his Muses. With wealth estimated at around $30 trillion, Shenzong's lavish spending habits have set the standard for China's elite, who spend much of their free time in social clubs. One of his documents from 1235 mentions, among others, the West Lake Poetry Club, the Buddhist Tea Society, the Horse Lovers' Club, the Physical Fitness Club, and the Plant and Fruit Club.
This assortment of entertainment is rivaled only by the variety of food and drinks. Before the Yangtze River Valley was developed, the Chinese people mainly ate wheat and drank wine. In addition to rice and tea, China's staple foods that originated in the Song Dynasty, the upper class also snacked on a variety of exotic dishes, such as bai-flavored soup, milk-steamed lamb, and oven-roasted rabbit. Previously rare ingredients have become so popular and easily available that Chinese chefs have discovered that even if they don't want to eat a particular animal, people still enjoy cooking with it. We started offering “imitation food” for this purpose.
2000 AD: People's Republic
China's economic boom, in which China's economy grew at a record average annual rate of 10% from 1990 to 2004, began on December 18, 1987, when followers of President Deng Xiaoping decided to do what Mao Zedong would do. That's when I decided. I have never forgiven myself. Under the motto of “reform and opening up,” it announced a series of reforms, reversing the collectivization of agriculture and moving from a top-down command economy to a free market, as the Song had previously done. (It's not completely free, but it's freer than it has been since the communists came to power.)
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In just a few decades, Chinese society has changed beyond recognition. While household spending on food fell, spending on luxury items rose, reviving the country's long-lost tradition of frequent gift-giving. Urban workers quit government jobs to try their luck as entrepreneurs. Research shows that when people start running their own businesses and take responsibility for their own financial successes and failures, they become more productive. This trend continues to this day, with many middle-class and upper-middle-class citizens working so-called 996-hour shifts. Schedule: 9am to 9pm, 6 days a week.
The Chinese government has spent so much time persecuting wealth and redistributing income, so it's no surprise that the country's modern elites would want to enjoy and flaunt their wealth in the same way as their Western counterparts. It is no longer unthinkable to walk through the best neighborhoods of Beijing or Shanghai and see people driving around in luxury cars, wearing Rolexes, or sending their children to expensive foreign schools. Not. China is now one of the largest markets for private planes and yachts, with the number of luxury cruise ships at anchor increasing from 1,000 in 2010 to 100,000 in 2020.
But while China's workers are getting richer, the country remains communist. Economic success is a double-edged sword for President Xi Jinping, making the country stronger while also making it more difficult to control. In recent years, the Chinese Communist Party has cracked down, if not on wealth, then at least on the public display of that wealth. Social media users who post photos of expensive meals and clothes are subject to censorship, advertising of luxury goods is banned, and some companies are asking employees to stop flying business class, which has led to many This measure is motivating wealthy Chinese people to live abroad.
