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Pingyao Historic City and Qiao Family Courtyard Zhang

Qiao Family attached great importance the compound and build a school” and tore
to education, although they only advocated down several halls and wing rooms.
“learning for application” (学以致用) rather Fortunately, the damage was small. In 1986,
than “learning for officialdom” (学以致仕). Qiao Family Compound was converted into a
Its private school always hired famous folk museum [17] .
teachers. With their generous pay, the well- The massive Qiao family enterprise was
educated teachers often made their greatest forced to be cleared up in 1951‒1953. At the
efforts in instilling knowledge in the students time, Qiao Jian (乔健) and Qiao Ji (乔仡), the
so that the children of Qiao Family had a high last generation in charge of Qiao family
level of cultural accomplishments, albeit they business, did not forget the benevolent rules
did not take the exam to become officials. of their ancestors to treat employees favorably.
Instead, they conducted business and enjoyed They split the cash into two parts, and took
wealth and honor. only half for themselves. The other half was
Qiao family wealth was inevitably distributed to the employees for their
weakened due to the family division (分家). livelihoods. Thousands of rooms and over
There had been serious disagreement about 300 acres of wetland were given to the
whether to maintain the big family. Qiao shopkeepers. After the Qiao Family made this
Yingxia (乔 映 霞 ), the first grandson and last curtain call in Baotou, they finally
successor of Qiao Zhiyong, could not bear to withdrew from history. Although Qiao family
divide his grandfather’s vast legacy in his business has ended, the family spirit of
hands. However, those who did not want to be cherishing “Integrity and Loyalty” (诚信忠义)
restrained by him strongly advocated division. has continued [17] .
After years of stalemate between the two Qiao Family has now passed down to the
forces, the fashionable young man Qiao Jian ninth generation, most of whom belong to the
(乔健) returned to Qiaojiapu and supported working class but still attach great importance
division. Qiao Yingxia agreed to it. Thus, in to education. There are over 70 family
1930, the Qiao Family who had sustained a members, none of them has committed to
unification for over 100 years, carried out a crime. Among the 20 descendants, two have
property division. Subsequently, the Middle doctorates, three have master’s degrees, and
Hall lost its former function as the family hub, 12 have university undergraduate degrees.
and when there was a big investment They mostly live in Beijing. Every few years,
opportunity, the family could not pull their they would go to Qiao Family Courtyard to
[16]
revenues together, which had negatively meet and commemorate their ancestors .
impacted the continued development of the
family business [5, 15, 17] . 5. DISCUSSION
When the Japanese invaded China in In China, there was a widespread belief that
1937 and conquered Qi County in 1938, the “no businessman is not a profiteer” (无商不
Qiao Family felt unsafe to stay in Shanxi and 奸). However, Shanxi shangren demonstrated
left the compound. In the early 1940s, they noble business ethics and superb wisdom with
returned briefly but eventually left again and their outstanding practices of morality and
never came back. Since the founding of the justice. The kernel of Shanxi merchant culture
People’s Republic of China in 1949, Qiao can be summarized in three words: honesty
Family Compound became Qi County (诚), trustworthiness (信), and righteousness
Government Office. Later, it was used as the ( 义 ). It was Confucian business culture
People’s Hospital and a grain warehouse, and endowed with the spirit of time that had
then occupied by the Party School of contributed to their success. It was the energy
Jinzhong Prefecture Committee. During the of this cultural core that had launched an
Cultural Revolution (1966‒1976), some unprecedented phenomenon of Shanxi
revolutionary cadres planned to “dismantle

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