Guozhong's and the Duchess o f Guo's in Xuanyang fang and A n Lushan's mansion in Qinren fang. Chang'an zhi 8/4-7.
5 Business: Market
class of free men, were found in greater number in the western part of the city. Hence the shifting of business activities and prosperity to the Western Market which was set in a more plebeian and populous environment39
Another salient feature of the Western Market was the presence of a great number of foreign merchants, which gave it a more exotic flavour than its eastern counterpart40
Business Activities o f Chang'an in- and outside the Market
The Eastern and Western Markets of Chang’an were the business centres of the city. The basic business unit was si (shop). A number of shops of the same trade were grouped in hang, literally meaning "row”, which is identified by Katö Shigeshi as a kind of trade association not unlike the "guild" in the W est41 But the evidence he gathers does not seem to stand up well. In one of the two passages he cites from the Jiu Tang shu to support his argument, it is recorded that in 780, hang ren were assigned relief grain for sale to the public. It seems that these hang ren (hang people) acted more like government agents who were responsible for disposing of the grain at a reasonable price. The other example given by Katö Shigeshi concerns the usage of the expression hang tou or hang leader. In 809, these hang tou were charged with the duty of securing sales tax in business transactions. This by no means suggests that the hang tou were the leaders of some trade association, but rather they were called upon to act for the central government42. He provides another example which indicates the hang's religious activities. I translate the passage taken from the Taiping guang ji as follows:
In the spring of the yi chou year, there was a headman (or there were headmen) of the gold- and silversmiths' hang who gathered his (or their) followers, holding the silk drawing of a beauty and a hu qin (foreign zither), to join the sacrificial ceremonies 43
But the context does not clearly suggest that hang at that time already functioned as a guild or trade association.
39 40 41 42 43 Chang’an zhi 8/15, 10/9.
See Schafer Golden/20. Katö Shigeshi "Kö"/433. Katö Shigeshi "Kö 7433,436.
See Katö Shigeshi "Kö"/427. Cf. Taiping guang j i 280/2235-6.
This event seems to have taken place somewhere between the second half,of the 8th and the first half of the 9th centuries, because the same story makes reference to the Tibetan occupation of the Northwest (^5J'^ 7^ && l|&). On Tibetan occupation, see Cen Zhongmian/286-7.
5 Business: Market
Quan Hansheng in an earlier study published in 1934, besides quoting all the above-listed passages, gives more evidence what would support the "guild argument" for hangM One passage he quotes from chapter 86 of the Tang hui yao, records an edict aiming at punishing those from various hang who were engaged in illegal trade activities. The other one taken from chapter 9 of the Jiading Zhenjiang zhi45 where hang ren (hang people) are mentioned as victims of exorbitant tax. But they do not seem to link hang with guild either.
There is no evidence to suggest that during the Tang dynasty, hang when related to business activities means anything other than lie or "row". In commenting on the phrase zuo lie fan m a fö (sitting in rows while peddling their goods) from shi huo zhi of the Han shu , Yan Shigu, who lived in the Sui and Early Tang period, says that the lie in the Han shu is the same as the hang in the market of his times.47 This indicates hang and lie were interchangeable in meaning in Tang times.
As to the hang tou and hang shou (hang leader) mentioned above, they may well have been merchants hand-picked by the authorities to exercise temporary control of the market activities of a small geographical area called hang or "row". The Tang commentator of the Zhou li Jia Gongyan understands the hang tou to be the equivalent of si zhang48 "si director" of ancient times. Si was the smallest administrative and geographical unit of market. Si zhang was an market officer whose duty was to implement government market regulations and ensuring fairness between buyer and seller.49
In a word, whether hang evolved into the prototype of "guild" in the latter part of the Tang dynasty remains to be proved. At this stage, it would be safer to regard hang as an administrative and geographical term.50
Although the Chang'an zhi records the number of hang at the Eastern Market to be 220, the real figure may have been 120. Each hang was crowded with shops and houses, as is testified by the well-quoted passage from Ennin's diary:
The Eastern Market was set on fire, consuming over 4000 households in the twelve hang west of the entrance to the Market Administration.51
44. 45’ 46 47 48 49 50 51 _
See Quan Hansheng: Zhongguo hang hui zhi du shi 3/37.
äfeflJKf
H onshu 24a/l 132 text and commentary. Zhou li 15/5 text and commentary.
For a more recent study o f hang in Tang China, see Satö Taketoshi 'Tödai"/48-52. Satö Taketoshi, however, takes the same conventional yet questionable view about hang as is advocated by Quan Hansheng and Katö Shigeshi.
5Business: Market
The Statement that over 4000 households in 12 hang seems quite unbelievable. Katö Shigeshi casts his doubts, so does Twitchett. Hino Kaisaburo suggests that the real number of hang should have been 112, basing his argument on the calculation of 30-40 households per hang.52
The names of hang well reflected the types of business practiced in Chang'an markets. Those that are named in existing sources include:
butcher's ironmongery coat seller's saddler's
steelyard (weights and measures) silk (textiles) trader's
pharmacist's53
wheat bran vendor's.54
The business found in a hang was no necessarily confined by the its name as was in the case of Mr.Fan, the diviner who operated his fortune-telling business in the iron hang of the Eastern Market.55 Sometimes a hang served as a geographical name. For example, Dou Yi is recorded to have built his hotel south of the steelyard
h a n g 56 But the name of any given hang must have been originally derived from the
dominant trade of that particular row of shops. In 644, when the great Buddhist pilgrim and translator Xuan Zang57 was dead, the silk hang of the Eastern Market contributed 3000 bolts of silk cloth in a variety of colours to decorate the nirvana hearse. This was declined by Xuan Zang's disciples on the grounds that such ostentation might run counter to the simple life style advocated by their deceased guru.58
52. See Katö Shigeshi "K5 7 425; Twitchett "Market"/209-10; Hino Kaisaburö Teiten vol.1/368-10. In Ono
Katsutoshi's study, "4000" is changed to "40". On the number o f hang in a market, there are
differing opinions. According to Quan Hansheng the 220 hang in the East Market recorded by the Chang'an zhi suggests an increment o f hang number in a market from Sui to Tang, while accepting
the record o f "4000 households in 12 hang" as an indicator of the rapid growth o f each hang in size. See
Quan Hansheng Zhongguo hang hui zhi du shi 3/31-2.
53. See Katö Shigeshi "Kö"423-32 for the above listed.
54. The Western Market is documented to have hadfu hang ££ fy .
According to Sato Taketoshi's research, around 40 hang are recorded in primary sources to have existed
throughout Tang China, dealing in fruit, rice, wheat, vegetable, dyeing, charcoal, raw silk cloth, pu tou
hat, oil, water-mill, boot, grocery etc. I believe m ost o f them were also to be found in Chang'an. See
Taiping guangji 436/3548.