木商与明清清水江流域宗祠文化

Timber Merchants and the Ancestral Hall Culture along the Qingshui River in Ming and Qing Dynasties

明清两朝在贵州黔东南清水江流域云集了大片宗祠建筑群,尤以天柱、锦屏两县居多。两县在明清时期均为木材贸易繁盛地,两县木商从木材贸易中获得较多的银两,为修建宗祠提供了经济条件;同时,清水江流域各县历来有重教传统,人们普遍恪守"有子不教子孙愚"的古训,所以,作为教育族人重要场所的宗祠,普遍受到以木商为代表的当地民众的重视。

A great number of ancestral hall buildings stretched along the Qingshui River in Qiandongnan of Guizhou Province in Ming and Qing Dynasties, especially in Tianzhu and Jinping Counties, where timber trade was prosperous then. The timber merchants in these two counties earned good money from timber trade, which supplied the fund for the construction of ancestral halls; meanwhile, attention has long been paid to education in the counties along the Qingshui River, and the ancient precept that ＂he who has children but do not educate them will leave them ignorant＂ has been widely observed. As the important place for educators, ancestral halls draw wide attention from the local people represented by timber merchants.