Chapter 61: The Fan Family

Zhangjiakou Fort lies to the northwest of Xuanfu Town, with the Great Wall pass directly to its north and Wanquan Right Guard stationed to its west. Since the fort was built during the Xuande era to trade with Mongol tribes at the frontier market, nearly two hundred years of development have seen Zhangjiakou Fort gradually expand, evolving from a small periodic market into the large commercial town it is today. Over a dozen crisscrossing wide streets and narrow alleys connect within the fort, shops lining the roads with banners of various merchant houses fluttering in the wind. Silks, rice and flour, tea, porcelain, saddles, and copper and iron implements fill the shelves of every shop. The traders are mostly Mongols, with a scattering of Semu people from the Western Regions; their goods consist mainly of horses, cattle, camels, sheep, hides, felt rugs, and precious medicines such as deer antler, musk, wine, and spices.

After Zhangjiakou Fort grew into a large commercial town, wealthy merchants from all over the Great Ming built dozens of sprawling compounds. Due to geographical constraints, these great mansions, though vast in area with rows of buildings and carved beams and painted rafters, lack the refinement and elegance of Jiangnan gardens, displaying instead an unmistakable air of nouveau riche ostentation.

The Fan residence at the center of the fort is bustling with activity. Today marks the sixtieth birthday of old Master Fan Ming, and merchants great and small arrive in an endless stream to offer congratulations, along with even a few envoys sent by Mongol tribes. This is all thanks to the connections accumulated over many years by the Fan family's eldest son, Fan Yongdou. A generous and righteous man, Fan Yongdou commands the deep respect of all who do business with him for his integrity and sharp business acumen.

As early as the early Xuande years, the Fan family was already trading between Zhangjiakou and the Mongol territories. Through seven generations they had accumulated considerable savings, yet they never ranked among the top merchant houses in Zhangjiakou Fort. Not until Fan Yongdou took over the family business did things change. Within less than ten years, the Fan business grew larger and larger, its scope ever wider—expanding from the original tea and porcelain trade into grain, medicines, cloth, silks, furs, and more. Even ironware, which the court had forbidden, was being secretly trafficked by the Fan family. In a decade, the family fortune multiplied severalfold. Real gold and silver are the hard truth—now Fan Yongdou is not only the head of the Fan family but has quietly become the leader of Zhangjiakou Fort's commercial world.

The Fan residence's great gates stand wide open today. Fan Yongdou, brimming with confidence, stands on the steps receiving guests, his plain, honest face wreathed in smiles as he exchanges greetings with the stream of visitors. Inside the gates, a long table has been set up where several literate Fan family shop managers stand behind, taking the gift registers from congratulating guests and loudly announcing each visitor's name along with the types and quantities of their congratulatory gifts. Once the announcement is finished, the items on the register are carried by porters with shoulder poles, led by Fan household servants through the side gate directly to the storehouse.

The gifts from small merchants are mostly items of little value—silks, cloth, tea, writing brushes and ink, and the like. But the thought counts more than the gift, and besides, the Fan family doesn't lack for such things; what they want is the show of support. As long as a guest comes, even empty-handed, they receive warm hospitality. Such is the Fan household's way—low-key and plain, warm and welcoming.

The gifts from the great merchants are a different matter entirely. Some, knowing the old master is a devout Buddhist, present a golden Buddha statue meticulously cast by skilled craftsmen from the interior. Others also give Buddhist images—a Guanyin Bodhisattva carved from white jade, her facial expression so lifelike it seems real, also worth a small fortune. Some offer beautiful maidservants, while those with close ties simply send silver as congratulations—the great merchant Wang Dengku and others, for instance, gave five thousand taels of silver as their gift.

By near noon, the guests have essentially all arrived. Fan Yongdou orders the banquet to begin, and the Fan household's maids and servants carry fine dishes and fine wine, moving like flowing water between the various courtyards where tables have been laid. As the wine and delicacies go down, the entire Fan residence erupts in clamor. Merchants familiar or strange sit together at tables, eating and drinking while sounding each other out for business intelligence. You toast me, I toast you—everyone uses this occasion to make as many friends as possible and gather as much information as they can. A seemingly insignificant bit of news from someone else's lips might just transform into a business opportunity of one size or another.

Seated at the seat of honor in the Fan residence's flower hall are seven renowned great merchants: Wang Dengku, Jin Liangyu, Wang Dayu, Liang Jiabin, Tian Shenglan, Zhai Tang, and Huang Yongfa. Fan Yongdou keeps them company from the host's seat. Old Master Fan Ming, after offering a toast, excuses himself citing fatigue and retires to the inner quarters, yielding the host's place to his eldest son.

The huanghuali rosewood octagonal table is laden with an array of cold and hot delicacies. To prepare for this birthday feast, the Fan household, besides its own cooks, specially hired the finest chefs from the most famous restaurants in Xuanfu and Datong to provide the guests with exquisite cuisine.

Fan Yongdou raises his wine cup, his face beaming with spring breeze as he says: "Today, all you elder brothers and younger worthies have come in person to wish my father a happy birthday. My heart is truly warmed. We brothers have dealt with each other for years, supporting one another in both business and personal matters. It's rare that we can all gather together like this, so I offer a toast to you all—bottoms up!" With that, he tips his head back and drains the cup in one go, then turns the cup upside down to show it is truly empty—a gesture of respect toward his guests.

The others all raise their cups and drink in turn. Fan Yongdou beckons: "Come, come, everyone pick up your chopsticks and taste what the head chef of Xuanfu's Zhuangyuan Restaurant can do!"

Everyone picks up their chopsticks and takes a bite of food to temper the wine. For merchants of this caliber, what fine wine and delicacies haven't they tasted? So each samples a little before setting down their chopsticks.

Seated shoulder to shoulder with Fan Yongdou is Wang Dengku, the eldest of the eight, already past fifty. Thanks to his skillful management, he also has the deepest coffers. His business centers on grain. In recent years the northwest has suffered continuous drought, driving the price of each shi of grain up to three taels. Relying on his keen nose, Wang Dengku had stockpiled vast quantities of grain years earlier, and with the price rises these past few years, the Wang family has raked in silver by the bucketful.

He picks up a piece of bear paw and puts it in his mouth, setting down his chopsticks to savor it slowly. He sighs: "When it comes to preparing bear paw, if the Zhuangyuan Restaurant claims second, no one dares claim first. Rich and mellow in flavor, melting on the tongue, with a sweet aftertaste—this chef is truly something else!"

Fan Yongdou laughs: "That's simple enough. Since you, elder brother, like it so much, I'll buy the chef and send him to your residence shortly. From now on, whenever you want it, brother, just give the word!"

The others watch the two of them with grins. For men like these, silver is the last thing they lack—if you fancy something, you just buy it. A chef is nothing.

Wang Dengku swallows the bear paw in his mouth, takes a sip of tea, and says: "I appreciate your sentiment, younger brother, but I think we'll skip this one. The Zhuangyuan Restaurant relies on that signature dish to draw in customers. Buying away that chef would be smashing their signboard. Cutting off a man's livelihood is something we must not do."

Jin Liangyu, seated across the table and a few years younger than Wang Dengku, raises his cup for a sip, then sets it down with a laugh: "Elder Brother Wang, those words don't sound like you! Didn't you buy up the top courtesan of Datong's Meixian House? She was a sixteen-year-old untouched virgin—back then you didn't care whether she was Meixian House's money tree, and you shelled out a full ten thousand taels of silver for her. Now you're suddenly so principled? Who knows what schemes you're really up to that we don't know about!"

Everyone roars with laughter. Wang Dengku's lifelong passions are fine food and beautiful women—especially beautiful women. Once he sets his eyes on one, whether she's of the demimonde or a respectable girl, he'll spend whatever it takes to have her. Past fifty now, he still keeps over twenty concubines. Heaven knows how his old bones manage to bear it.

Wang Dengku, seeing everyone laughing, is not in the least put out. Instead he grins smugly: "What do you know? If a man hasn't bedded a few dozen stunning beauties in his life, hasn't he just lived in vain? With all this silver earned, if you don't enjoy it, how are you any different from a clod of dirt? Little Jin, you're the stingiest of all—family fortune of a million, yet you still sneak off to back-alley brothels to find a woman. Aren't you afraid people will laugh at you!"

Jin Liangyu's face immediately flushes with embarrassment. His original surname was Zhang, his family farmers for generations. With five brothers in the household, they could barely fill their bellies on ordinary days. In his teens he entered a trading firm as an apprentice clerk. Being clever and hardworking, he won his employer's favor. After a few years, the master betrothed his daughter to him. The employer had only this one child, so his sole condition was that Jin Liangyu marry into the family as a son-in-law. In those days this was extremely hard to accept, because any children born would take the wife's family name. Marrying into the bride's family would invite the neighbors' scorn and bring shame upon one's own family. But Jin Liangyu had no intention of letting this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity slip away. Ignoring his family's fierce opposition, he resolutely chose to marry in. His father went to the yamen to sever relations with him over it, and he took the Jin surname of his wife's family.

After marrying in, Jin Liangyu took over the Jin family business. With his flexible mind and keen eye, within a few years he had built the original business into a thriving concern. Later he branched into the tea trade, personally leading pack horses loaded with tea deep into the grasslands, and on the return trip bringing back horses, flocks of sheep, and oxhide and other goods acquired in trade, which he sold to merchants from the interior. A single round trip netted him several thousand taels of silver and blazed a golden road. The Jin family stepped up from a comfortably well-off household into the circle of middle-ranking merchants. Later, through a chance encounter, he came to know Fan Yongdou and the others. After several mutually profitable transactions, they discovered they were kindred spirits, so they began exchanging goods and expanding their scope and scale of operations. After years of accumulation, Jin Liangyu could now truly be called a wealthy man.

Though he now has more silver than he can spend, Jin Liangyu has always treated his wife's family with the utmost respect and affection. He and the Jin family's young miss have one son and one daughter. The daughter married the second son of Tian Shenglan, another wealthy merchant present at the table, and his sixteen-year-old son is currently learning the trade under him. His father-in-law, thinking he has too few offspring, urges him to take a concubine and sire more children. Jin Liangyu absolutely refuses. To this day he still calls his wife "Miss." He can never forget the kindness of his in-laws' family—that a young lady would marry him, a poor lad, is what gave him the wonderful life he has today.

His in-law Tian Shenglan clears his throat and speaks up: "People are different from one another. Elder Brother Wang, why don't you just tell us why you don't want this chef—is there some trick to it?"