Merchant Narratives in Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio from the Perspective of Commodity Economy in the Ming-Qing Dynasties

Abstract

The Ming‑Qing dynasties witnessed unprecedented prosperity of China’s commodity economy. The commercial boom broke the traditional social structure of “scholar-farmer-artisan-merchant”, shook the orthodox Confucian values of “valuing righteousness over profit”, and spawned a large number of merchant-themed literary works. As a classic collection of zhiguai stories in the Qing Dynasty, Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio not only inherits the traditional ghost and fairy narrative tradition but also vividly records the commercial landscape, merchant survival status and social value changes under the development of commodity economy. This paper takes the merchant narratives in Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio as the research object, combing the development context of commodity economy in the Ming‑Qing dynasties, analyzing the diversified merchant images, commercial operation scenarios and profit-righteousness value conflicts in the works. It further explores how Pu Songling integrated real commercial social phenomena into fictional ghost and fairy stories, reflected the social changes, spiritual confusion and value reconstruction of the late feudal society, and reveals the unique literary value and historical significance of merchant narratives in the context of traditional Chinese commercial civilization.