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卷九十一貨殖傳第六十一
Volume 91: Treatise on Money-Making (the sixty-first chapter).
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昔先王之制，自天子、公、侯、卿、大夫、士至於皂隸、抱關、擊还者，其爵祿、奉養、宮室、車服、棺槨、祭祀、死生之制各有差品，小不得僭大，賤不得逾貴。 夫然，故上下序而民志定。 於是辯其土地、川澤、丘陵、衍沃、原隰之宜，教民種樹畜養； 五穀六畜及至魚鱉、鳥獸、雚蒲、材干、器械之資，所以養生送終之具，靡不皆育。 育之以時，而用之有節。 草木未落，斧斤不入於山林； 豺獺未祭，罝網不佈於野澤； 鷹隼未擊，矰弋不施於徯隧。 既順時而取物，然猶山不茬薛，澤不伐夭，蟓魚麛卵，咸有常禁。 所以順時宣氣，蕃阜庶物，蓄足功用，如此之備也。 然後四民因其土宜，各任智力，夙興夜寐，以治其業，相與通功易事，交利而俱贍，非有征發期會，而遠近咸足。 故《易》曰「後以財成輔相天地之宜，以左右民」，「備物致用，立成器以為天下利，莫大乎聖人」。 此之謂也《管子》雲古之四民不得雜處。 士相與言仁誼於閒宴，工相與議技巧於官府，商相與語財利於市井，農相與謀稼穡於田野，朝夕從事，不見異物而遷焉。 故其父兄之教不肅而成，子弟之學不勞而能，各安其居而樂其業，甘其食而美其服，雖見奇麗紛華，非其所習，辟猶戎翟之與於越，不相入矣。 是以欲寡而事節，財足而不爭。 於是在民上者，道之以德，齊之以禮，故民有恥而且敬，貴誼而賤利。 此三代之所以直道而行，不嚴而治之大略也。
Under the institutions of the ancient kings, everyone from the Son of Heaven through the nobility and officials down to the meanest servants and watchmen had fixed grades of rank, income, housing, transport, burial, sacrifice, and every stage of life; the lowly could not encroach on the high, nor the humble pretend to the privileges of their betters. In that way superiors and inferiors kept their proper order, and the people's minds stayed fixed on their duties. They then sorted out which terrain—upland, marsh, hill, rich bottomland, or fen—suited which use, and taught people how to farm, forest, and herd. Grain and livestock, game and fish, plants for fiber and wood for tools—everything needed to live out one's years and bury one's dead was brought forth in abundance. Things were produced in season and consumed with measure. No one took an axe into the hills until the leaves had fallen. Fowlers did not set fine nets in the wetlands until the otters and wild dogs had finished their autumn hunts. No one loosed a fowler's bolt along the migration lanes until the hawks had begun their season. Even when harvests followed the calendar, the law still forbade stripping hills bare, cutting young growth in the fens, and taking spawn and fawns; fixed rules guarded every niche of the wild. That was how they let seasonal qi move freely, let every creature multiply, and stockpiled enough for every human need—nothing was left out. Then farmers, artisans, merchants, and laborers, each on ground that suited them, threw their wits and muscle into honest trades, swapped work and wares, and spread the gain until everyone was fed—without conscription rosters or forced musters, the realm stayed full from border to border. The Book of Changes praises the sage who marshals goods to harmonize heaven and earth for the people's sake, and who devises tools so the whole world may profit—no virtue ranks higher. That is the point the Guanzi makes when it says the four orders of society were never allowed to live jumbled together. Scholars debated virtue over quiet meals, craftsmen compared techniques in the state yards, traders talked price in the bazaars, and tillers swapped field lore on the furrows; each group kept to its own round from dawn to dusk and never wandered after alien pursuits. Elders could train the young without harshness, apprentices picked up a trade without strain; everyone stayed content with home, craft, plain food, and simple dress, and flashy novelty from another walk of life seemed as alien as a northern nomad trying on southern silks—it simply did not take. Want stayed small, work stayed steady, stores stayed full, and quarrels over goods rarely arose. Rulers who led by moral example and ritual propriety bred a people who blushed at wrongdoing, showed true respect, and honored duty ahead of cash. That, in broad strokes, is how the Xia, Shang, and Zhou kept to the high road and ruled without constant crackdowns.
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及周室衰，禮法墮，諸侯刻桷丹楹，大夫山節藻棁，八佾舞於庭，《雍》徹於堂。 其流至乎士庶人，莫不離制而棄本，稼穡之民少，商旅之民多，谷不足而貨有餘。
As Zhou authority faded, sumptuary law collapsed: petty kings painted palace timbers like emperors, ministers staged royal music in their own halls, and hymns reserved for the Son of Heaven echoed in usurpers' dining rooms. The rot spread down to every rank: people shrugged off the old rules, deserted the plow for the counting-house, and left granaries thin while warehouses bulged with merchandise.
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陵夷至乎桓、文之後，禮誼大壞，上下相冒，國異政，家殊俗，嗜欲不制，僭差亡極。 於是商通難得之貨，工作亡用之器，士設反道之行，以追時好而取世資。 偽民背實而要名，姦夫犯害而求利，篡弒取國者為王公，圉奪成家者為雄桀。 禮誼不足以拘君子，刑戮不足以威小人。 富者木土被文錦，犬馬余肉粟，而貧者短褐不完，含菽飲水。 其為編戶齊民，同列而以財力相君，雖為僕虜，猶亡慍色。 故夫飾變詐為奸軌者，自足乎一世之間； 守道循理者，不免於饑寒之患。 其教自上興，由法度之無限也。 故列其行事，以傳世變雲。
By the generations after Duke Huan of Qi and Duke Wen of Jin, decency had frayed beyond repair: rulers and subjects poached on one another's roles, every state wrote its own rules, every clan chased its own fashion, desire ran wild, and no one could remember his proper station. Merchants peddled luxuries, craftsmen turned out gewgaws, and even scholars peddled scandalous schemes—all scrambling after the latest fad and a share of the floating wealth. Hypocrites chased empty fame, thugs chased fat profits, regicides crowned themselves kings, and bandits who looted whole neighborhoods passed for bold captains. Courtesy could no longer shame the great families, and the executioner's axe no longer frightened the streets. Mansion beams wore brocade while curs feasted on grain, yet the poor shivered in rags and chewed raw beans for supper. Neighbors listed on the same tax roll let coin decide who bowed to whom, and men accepted servitude to the rich without a flicker of shame. So the trickster who lived by fraud could swagger through his whole career unmolested; while the man who kept faith with the old virtues still went to bed hungry. The rot started at the top, for the law no longer drew a hard line between what was allowed and what was not. I therefore set out these lives so later ages can read how the world turned.
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昔粵王勾踐困於會稽之上，乃用蕩蠡、計然。 計然曰：「知斗則修備，時用則知物，二者形則萬貨之情可得見矣。 故旱則資舟，水則資車，物之理也。 」推此類而修之，十年國富，厚賂戰士，遂報強吳，刷會稽之恥。 范蠡歎曰：「計然之策，十用其五而得意。 既以施國，吾欲施之家。 」乃乘扁舟，浮江湖，變名姓，適齊為鴟夷子皮，之陶為硃公。 以為陶天下之中，諸侯四通，貨物所交易也，乃治產積居，與時逐而不責於人。 故善治產者，能擇人而任時。 十九年之間三致千金，再散分與貧友昆弟。 後年衰老，聽子孫修業而息之，遂至巨萬。 故言富者稱陶硃。
Long ago, when King Goujian of Yue was besieged on Mount Kuaiji, he turned to Fan Li and the adviser Ji Ran. Ji Ran said, "Watch the granaries and you know what to stockpile; watch how demand shifts with the seasons and you know what to buy. Master those two lenses and the whole market opens to you." So hoard boats when the skies stay clear and carts when the rivers rise—that is simply how goods work. Acting on that principle for a decade, Yue grew rich, paid its soldiers handsomely, crushed powerful Wu, and washed away the humiliation of Kuaiji. Fan Li said with a sigh, "I deployed only half of Ji Ran's playbook and already won the kingdom. Now I mean to turn the rest on my private fortune." With that he boarded a light boat, vanished into the great rivers and lakes under an alias, appeared in Qi as Chiyi Zipi, and settled in Tao as the merchant Lord Zhu. He chose Tao because it sat at the hub where every road met, set up warehousing and timed every sale to the market's pulse, and never blamed partners when a deal soured. A master of estate-building picks the right agents and rides the market's seasons instead of fighting them. In nineteen years he built three fortunes of a thousand gold pieces and twice gave them away to kinsmen and friends in need. In old age he handed operations to his heirs, lived off the income, and still left an estate counted in the tens of millions. Henceforth, when people say "the very rich," they mean Tao Zhu.
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子贛既學於仲尼，退而仕衛，發貯鬻財曹、魯之間。 七十子之徒，賜最為饒，而顏淵簞食瓢飲，在於陋巷。 子贛結駟連騎，束帛之幣聘享諸侯，所至，國君無不分庭與之抗禮。 然孔子賢顏淵而譏子贛，曰：「回也其庶乎，屢空。 賜不受命，而貨殖焉，意則屢中。」
After studying with Confucius, Zigong left to serve Wei and made a fortune buying cheap and selling dear between Cao and Lu. Of the Master's seventy followers, Zigong alone grew truly rich, while Yan Hui lived on a bowl of grain and a dipper of water down a shabby alley. Zigong rolled up to court in matched chariots, bearing silk gifts for every prince he called on, and each ruler stepped down to the courtyard to greet him as an equal. Yet the Master praised Yan Hui and chided Zigong: "Hui is nearly perfect—always broke, yet never sour." Zigong ignores what fate allots and chases profit—yet his market calls are uncannily right."
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白圭，周人也。 當魏文侯時，李史務盡地力，而白圭樂觀時變，故人棄我取，人取我予。 能薄飲食，忍嗜欲，節衣服，與用事僮僕同苦樂，趨時若猛獸摯鳥之發。 故曰：「吾治生猶伊尹、呂尚之謀，孫、吳用兵，商鞅行法是也。 故智不足與權變，勇不足以決斷，仁不能以取予，強不能以有守，雖欲學吾術，終不告也。 」蓋天下言治生者祖白圭。
Bai Gui came from the Zhou heartland. Under Marquis Wen of Wei, Li Kui (the text reads Li Shi) worked every field for its utmost yield, while Bai Gui thrived on contrarian timing—buying what the market dumped and selling into every rush. He ate plainly, smothered appetite, dressed simply, sweated beside his foremen, and when a window opened he struck as fast as a hawk stooping on prey. He liked to say, "Building a fortune takes the cunning of Yi Yin or Lü Wang, the timing of Sun Wu's generals, and the ruthlessness of Shang Yang's code." If you lack wit to pivot, nerve to cut a loss, generosity to share the upside, and grit to hold a line, do not ask for my methods—I will not teach you. Small wonder later ages treated Bai Gui as the patron saint of every fortune-hunter.
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猗頓用盬鹽起，邯鄲郭縱以鑄冶成業，與王者埒富。
Yi Dun built an empire on lake-bed salt; Guo Zong of Handan smelted his way to wealth that matched a king's treasury.
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烏氏蠃畜牧，及眾，斥賣，求奇繒物，間獻戎王。 戎王十倍其償，予畜，畜至用谷量牛馬。 秦始皇令蠃比封君，以時與列臣朝請。
Luo of Wushi ran vast herds, sold them for cash, bought exotic silks, and smuggled the bundles to the barbarian king as tribute. The king paid him back tenfold in animals until Luo had to count his oxen and horses by the ravine-load. The First Emperor ranked Luo with titled nobles and summoned him to court on the same roster as great officials.
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巴寡婦清，其先得丹穴，而擅其利數世，家亦不訾。 清寡婦能守其業，用財自衛，人不敢犯。 始皇以為貞婦而客之，為築女懷清台。
Widow Qing of Ba inherited a cinnabar mine that had made her clan rich for generations; no ledger could cap her fortune. She held the business with an iron grip, hired enough guards to buy safety, and no local bully dared touch her. The First Emperor honored her virtue, received her as an honored guest, and raised the Nü Huai Qing terrace in her name.
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秦漢之制，列侯封君食租稅，歲率戶二百。 千戶之君則二十萬，朝覲聘享出其中。 庶民農工商賈，率亦歲萬息二千，百萬之家即二十萬，而更徭租賦出其中，衣食好美矣。 故曰陸地牧馬二百蹄，牛千蹄角，千足羊，澤中千足彘，水居千石魚波，山居千章之萩。 安邑千樹棗； 燕、秦千樹栗； 蜀、漢、江陵千樹橘； 淮北滎南河濟之間千樹萩； 陳、夏千畝漆； 齊、魯千畝桑麻； 渭川千畝竹； 及名國萬家之城，帶郭千畝畝鐘之田，若千畝卮茜，千畦姜韭：此其人皆與千戶侯等。
Qin and Han law let titled lords live off land tax, typically two hundred cash per registered household each year. A thousand-household fief yielded two hundred thousand a year—enough to cover audiences at court and diplomatic gifts. Farmers, craftsmen, and traders who kept a million in working capital cleared about two hundred thousand a year after corvée and taxes—enough for fine clothes and a rich table. The rule of thumb was: fifty horses, a hundred oxen, two hundred sheep, two hundred hogs wallowing in the fens, a thousand piculs of fish in managed pools, or a thousand lengths of mountain timber—each portfolio matched a thousand-household stipend. A thousand jujube trees around Anyi; a thousand chestnut groves in Yan and Qin; a thousand orange trees in Shu, Han, and Jiangling; a thousand qiu trees between the Huai, the Ying basin, the Yellow River, and the Ji; a thousand mu of lacquer trees in Chen and Xia; a thousand mu of mulberry and hemp in Qi and Lu; a thousand mu of bamboo along the Wei; Or take a great city of ten thousand hearths: a thousand mu of suburban land yielding a full measure per mu, a thousand mu of madder and lacquer plants, a thousand beds of ginger and chives—any of those estates pays like a thousand-household marquis.
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諺曰：「以貧求富，農不如工，工不如商，刺繡文不如倚市門。 」此言末業，貧者之資也。 通邑大都酤一歲千釀，醯醬千瓨，漿千儋，屠牛、羊、彘千皮，谷糴千鐘，薪槁千車，舩長千丈，木千章，竹竿萬個，軺車百乘，牛車千兩； 木器漆者千枚，銅器千鈞，素木鐵器若卮茜千石，馬蹄噭千，牛千足，羊、彘千雙，童手指千，筋角丹沙千斤，其帛絮細布千鈞，文采千匹，答布皮革千石，漆千大鬥，薛曲鹽豉千合，鮐鮆千斤，鮿鮑千鈞，棗栗千石者三之，狐貂裘千皮，羔羊裘千石，旃席千具，它果采千種，子貸金錢千貫，節駔儈，貪賈三之，廉賈五之，亦比千乘之家，此其大率也。
The proverb runs: "To climb from poverty toward wealth, farming cannot match a trade, a trade cannot match commerce, and the finest embroidery never pays like a booth by the market gate." That is why petty commerce, despised though it is, remains the poor man's ladder. In a great market town a vintner who turns a thousand batches a year, a thousand jars of pickles and sauces, a thousand jars of drink, a thousand dressed hides, a thousand zhong of grain traded in, a thousand cartloads of fuel, a fleet a thousand zhang long, a thousand logs, ten thousand bamboo poles, a hundred light wagons, and a thousand oxcarts—all spell money. Add a thousand lacquered bowls, a thousand jun of bronze, plain ironware and dye crops by the thousand shi, herds counted by the thousand hoof, flocks by the thousand pair, a hundred house slaves, aromatics and hides by the ton, silk floss and fine cloth by the thousand jun, brocade by the bolt, rough cloth and leather by the stone, lacquer by the vat, pickles and bean paste by the thousand jar, smoked fish and dried shellfish by the hundredweight, jujubes and chestnuts three deep, furs and felt by the rack, every orchard crop you can name, and a thousand strings out on loan at brokered interest—triple the return for a sharp dealer, quintuple for an honest one—and you are looking at the income of a noble who fields a thousand chariots. Such is the rough reckoning.
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蜀卓氏之先，趙人也，用鐵冶富。 秦破趙，遷卓氏之蜀，夫妻推輦行。 諸遷虜少有餘財，急與吏，求近處，處葭萌。 唯卓氏曰：「此地狹薄。 吾聞崏山之下沃野，下有踆鴟，至死不饑。 民工作布，易賈。 」乃求遠遷。 致之臨邛，大喜，即鐵山鼓鑄，運籌算，賈滇、蜀民，富至童八百人，田池射獵之樂擬於人君。
The Shu magnates surnamed Zhuo began as Zhao ironmasters who smelted their way to a fortune. When Qin conquered Zhao, the Zhuos were marched west to Shu, husband and wife trudging behind a handcart with all they owned. Fellow exiles who still had a few coins bribed the escorts for the shortest march and ended up dumped at Jiameng. Only the Zhuos replied, "That strip of land is too thin to live on." Word is the Min basin holds fat soil and the tuber people call the crouching owl—live on that and you never go hungry. The locals weave for a living, so cloth always finds a buyer. With that argument they paid for the longer march inland. Dropped at Linqiong, they were delighted: they fired the iron hills, kept the ledgers themselves, retailed metalware across Dian and Shu, hired eight hundred hands, and hunted and feasted like petty kings.
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程鄭，山東遷虜也，亦冶鑄，賈魋結民，富埒卓氏。
Cheng Zheng, another Shandong exile, ran the same furnaces and retailed iron to the Dian tribes in their chignons until he stood level with the Zhuos.
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程、卓既衰，至成、哀間，成都羅裒訾至巨萬。 初，裒賈京師，隨身數十百萬，為平陵石氏持錢。 其人強力。 石氏訾次如、苴，親信，厚資遣之，令往來巴、蜀，數年間致千餘萬。 裒舉其半賂遺曲陽、定陵侯，依其權力，賒貸郡國，人莫敢負。 擅鹽井之利，期年所得自倍，遂殖其貨。
Long after the Cheng and Zhuo fortunes faded, during Chengdi and Aidi a Chengdu broker named Luo Pou piled up tens of millions. Luo Pou opened shop in Chang'an with a few hundred thousand in his satchel and worked as cashier for the powerful Shi family of Pingling. He was a bruiser who brooked no nonsense. The Shis sent two trusted stewards, Ru and Ju, into Ba and Shu with a heavy stake, and inside a few years the pair had turned it into more than ten million cash. Luo Pou funneled half his profits as gifts to the Quyang and Dingling marquises, then used their protection to float loans across the empire—no debtor dared stiff him. He cornered the salt wells, doubled his stake in a single year, and kept compounding the hoard.
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宛孔氏之先，梁人也，用鐵冶為業。 秦滅魏，遷孔氏南陽，大鼓鑄，規陂田，連騎游諸侯，因通商賈之利，有游閒公子之名。 然其贏得過當，愈於孅嗇，家致數千金，故南陽行賈盡法孔氏之雍容。
The Kongs of Nanyang began as Liang ironmasters. When Qin swallowed Wei, the Kongs were resettled at Nanyang, where they blasted furnaces, reclaimed polder, toured the lords in cavalcades, and traded their way into the reputation of polished playboys. Their margins beat the tightest miser, their vaults stacked up thousands of gold pieces, and every Nanyang trader copied the Kongs' unhurried polish.
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魯人俗儉嗇，而丙氏尤甚，以鐵冶起，富至巨萬。 然家自父兄子弟約，俯有拾，仰有取，貰貸行賈遍郡國。 鄒、魯以其故，多去文學而趨利。
Lu natives were born tight-fisted, yet the Bings out-misered them all, smelting iron until their fortune hit eight figures. Every male in the house swore the same rule—scavenge every coin that falls, grab every profit that hangs—and their pawnshops and caravans webbed the empire. Little wonder Zou and Lu scholars traded their classics for ledgers.
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齊俗賤奴虜，而刀間獨愛貴之。 桀黠奴，人之所患，唯刀間收取，使之逐魚鹽商賈之利，或連車騎交守相，然愈益任之，終得其力，起數千萬。 故曰「寧爵無刀」，言能使豪奴自饒，而盡其力也。 刀間既衰，至成、哀間，臨淄姓偉訾五千萬。
Qi folk scorned bondservants, yet Dao Jian alone prized them like talent. Everyone feared clever, vicious slaves; Dao Jian bought them up, set them to squeeze the fish-and-salt trade, even let them ride with magistrates—and the more rope he gave, the harder they worked until he sat on tens of millions. Hence the proverb, "Men would sooner give up a noble stipend than quit Dao Jian": his bondsmen grew rich on his errands yet still drove themselves to the bone for him. When Dao Jian's star faded, a Linzi magnate surnamed Wei, in the reigns of Cheng and Ai, sat on fifty million cash.
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周人既孅，而師史尤甚，轉轂百數，賈郡國，無所不至。 雒陽街居在齊、秦、楚、趙之中，富家相矜以久賈，過邑不入門。 設用此等，故師史能致十千萬。
Zhou folk were tight by nature, yet the broker Shi Shi outdid them all: he ran hundreds of wagons and peddled into every province on the map. Luoyang sat where four great regions met, so merchant clans bragged of caravans that rolled past walled towns without stopping for a night's rest. That kind of operation let Shi Shi pile up a nine-figure fortune.
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師史既衰，至成、哀、王莽時，雒陽張長叔、薛子促訾亦十千萬。 莽皆以為納言士，欲法武帝，然不能得其利。
When Shi's house waned, Luoyang partners Zhang Changshu and Xue Zicu—through Cheng, Ai, and into Wang Mang's day—matched his nine-figure hoard. Wang Mang named them court remonstrance officers and tried to copy Emperor Wu's patronage of merchants, but the treasury never saw a copper of their skill.
21
宣曲任氏，其先為督道倉吏。 秦之敗也，豪桀爭取金玉，任氏獨窖倉粟。 楚、漢相距滎陽，民不得耕種，米石至萬，而豪桀金玉盡歸任氏，任氏以此起富。 富人奢侈，而任氏折節為力田畜。 人爭取賤賈，任氏獨取貴善，富者數世。 然任公家約，非田畜所生不衣食，公事不畢則不得飲酒食肉。 以此為閭里率，故富而主上重之。
The Ren family of Xuancu began as lowly clerks who kept the imperial granaries along the supply routes. When Qin collapsed, every warlord grabbed bullion, yet the Rens quietly walled up wagonloads of millet. While Chu and Han locked horns at Xingyang and fields lay idle, grain soared to ten thousand cash a shi; desperate lords traded heirlooms to the Rens for food, and that is how the family bought its first fortune. Other magnates flaunted silk while the Rens swallowed pride and plowed like yeomen. When neighbors panic-sold at giveaway prices, the Rens paid top coin for prime stock and stayed rich for generations. Patriarch Ren ruled the clan: spend only what the farm earned, and skip wine and meat until every corvée duty was done. Their village took them as the standard of thrift, so they stayed flush while the throne singled them out for praise.
22
塞之斥也，唯橋桃以致馬千匹，牛倍之，羊萬，粟以萬鐘計。
When the northern marches were opened to settlers, only Qiao Tao—as the received text spells the name—mobilized a thousand horses, twice as many oxen, ten thousand sheep, and grain counted in myriad zhong.
23
吳、楚兵之起，長安中列侯封君行從軍旅，繼貣子錢家，子錢家以為關東成敗未決，莫肯予。 唯毋鹽氏出捐千金貸，其息十之。 三月，吳、楚平。 一歲之中，則毋鹽氏息十倍，用此富關中。
When the Rebellion of Seven States erupted, Chang'an nobles marching east kept pledging their credit to pawnbrokers, who refused every note while the outcome beyond the pass still hung in doubt. Only the Wuyan house floated a thousand gold at ruinous interest—ten parts on the principal. By the third month the Wu and Chu armies had been crushed. Inside a single year the Wuyans collected tenfold on the loan and bought their way into the first rank of Guanzhong magnates.
24
關中富商大賈，大氐盡諸田，田牆、田蘭。 韋家栗氏、安陵杜氏亦巨萬。 前富者既衰，自元、成訖王莽，京師富人杜陵樊嘉，茂陵摯網，平陵如氏、苴氏，長安丹王君房，豉樊少翁、王孫大卿，為天下高訾。 樊嘉五千萬，其餘皆巨萬矣。 王孫卿以財養士，與雄桀交，王莽以為京司市師，漢司東市令也。
Guanzhong's merchant princes were almost all members of the Tian clan—Tian Qiang and Tian Lan chief among them. The Lis of Weijia and the Dus of Anling stacked up comparable eight-figure fortunes. Once the old houses faded, from Yuandi through Chengdi into Wang Mang's coup, Chang'an's wealthiest were Fan Jia of Duling, Zhi Gang of Maoling, the Ru and Ju families of Pingling, the cinnabar magnate Wang Junfang, the pickle king Fan Shaoweng, and Wangsun Daqing—each counted among the empire's heaviest purses. Fan Jia alone was worth fifty million cash; every other name on the list still cleared eight figures. Wangsun Qing bankrolled swordsmen and courted bold spirits until Wang Mang named him chief of the capital markets—the old Han post that oversaw Chang'an's eastern bazaar.
25
此其章章尤著者也。 其餘郡國富民兼業顓利，以貨賂自行，取重於鄉里者，不可勝數。 故秦楊以田農而甲一州，翁伯以販脂而傾縣邑，張氏以賣醬而隃侈，質氏以灑削而鼎食，濁氏以胃脯而連騎，張裡以馬醫而擊鐘，皆越法矣。 然常循守事業，積累贏利，漸有所起。 至於蜀卓，宛孔，齊之刀間，公擅山川銅鐵魚鹽市井之入，運其籌策，上爭王者之利，下錮齊民之業，皆陷不軌奢僭之惡。 又況掘塚搏掩，犯奸成富，曲叔、稽發、雍樂成之徒，猶夏齒列，傷化敗俗，大亂之道也。
Those are the names history remembers in boldest ink. Beyond them stretch legions of provincial plutocrats who diversified trades, cornered margins, bought influence, and bullied their townships—too many to tally. Think of Qin Yang, who farmed his way to the top tax bracket in the province; Weng Bo, who greased every county seat; the Zhangs, who sold soy paste into a fortune; the Zhis, who sharpened blades for clients who feasted them; the Zhuos, who peddled dried tripe from chariot trains; Zhang Li, who started as a farrier yet tolled a mansion bell—each climbed by trades the statutes never meant to crown kings. Still, they mostly stuck to one line of work, compounded the margin, and inched upward year by year. But houses like the Zhuos of Shu, the Kongs of Nanyang, or Qi Dao Jian seized rivers, mines, salt flats, and city tolls, spun private cartels that rivaled royal monopolies, and squeezed ordinary trades flat—open rebellion against both law and sumptuary decency. Far worse were tomb-robbers and street-corner sharpers—Qushu, Jifa, Yong Lecheng—who built fortunes on crime yet still bought a place in polite company; they poisoned public morals and pointed straight toward anarchy.