2 - Ancestral Halls and Credit

Summary

In exploring how Huizhou men created and used village institutions for their commercial and financial benefit, Chapter 2 analyzes the ascendance of a venerable Confucian institution, the ancestral hall, in the villages of Huizhou and much of southeast China from the late fifteenth through the sixteenth centuries. It won widespread acceptance in Huizhou villages not only as a center of ancestral worship but also as a credit association or proto-bank. In general, it issued two kinds of loan, one at high interest rates to non-hall members to build up the hall’s assets for eventual construction and repair, and another at reduced rates of interest to hall members to provide them with cheap capital. This chapter will investigate the links between ancestral hall finances, ancestral worship ritual, and “grassroots capitalism.”