Dou Zhao’s ancestors began with a peddler who owned no property. By chance, he married a maid from a merchant family in town. Using his wife’s dowry of ten taels of silver, he bought 1.2 mu1 of land in Beilou Village of Zhending, where he settled down and raised his family.
This was the origin of the later prominent Beilou Dou clan.
Dou Zhao’s great-grandfather became an apprentice at his mother’s former employer’s silk shop at age ten. He became a full craftsman at fourteen, and by twenty, he was the second manager of the fabric store. The owner wanted to marry his daughter’s personal maid to him, but he didn’t want his descendants to forever revolve around the owner’s family. Instead, he wanted to marry Miss Hao, daughter of a poor scholar from the west of town.
At twenty-one, he used eight taels of silver he had saved through frugal living as betrothal gifts to marry Miss Hao, losing his position as second manager.
He brought Miss Hao back to Beilou Village and took over his father’s carrying pole and thirty mu of good fields his father had accumulated through a lifetime of hard work. He farmed during busy seasons and peddled goods during off-seasons.
The following summer, Miss Hao gave birth to a chubby boy.
He met a cotton merchant at the village entrance.
Zhending Prefecture grew cotton.
The cotton merchant wanted someone familiar with local farmers to help collect cotton.
The father recommended himself. With skills honed at the silk shop, he could tell at a glance if cotton was authentic, know its weight with one lift, and was skilled with the abacus and bookkeeping.
After summer passed, besides the agreed payment, the cotton merchant rewarded Dou Zhao’s great-grandfather with ten extra taels of silver and arranged to hire him again the following year.
By winter, Dou Zhao’s great-grandfather had traveled throughout Zhending County. By the next summer, he knew clearly which families grew how much cotton, its quality, and which cotton households were easy to deal with. He handled collection, weighing, accounting, storage, and bookkeeping without error. The merchant only needed to sit in the shade, fan himself, and drink tea.
“It seems things run the same with or without me here, and I still have to pay for lodging and food,” the merchant smiled and discussed with Dou Zhao’s great-grandfather, “I have an idea. I’ll advance you some money, you collect the cotton yourself, then send it to me, and we’ll settle accounts based on the cotton’s quality. What do you think?”
This was how the Dou family built their fortune through cotton trading.
By the time of Dou Zhao’s great-great-grandfather, the Dou family was collecting cotton from Zhending, Huolu, Yuanji, Pingshan, and Xingtang counties, selling it to Jiangnan in exchange for silk to sell to Sichuan, then taking Sichuan medicines to the capital to exchange for silver, which they used to make modern jewelry to sell to Zhending Prefecture’s elite.
Dou Zhao’s great-great-grandfather only needed to focus on studying and taking imperial examinations.
However, despite his diligent studying, he only achieved the status of xiucai (scholar).
But this didn’t prevent him from marrying the daughter of Scholar Zhao from Anxiang Village in neighboring Xingtang County.
The Zhao family was different from the Dou family!
They had a family genealogy.
Though they only owned 120 mu of land, their ancestors could be traced back to the time of King Mu of Zhou. Moreover, “Zhao” was the royal surname of the previous dynasty, and the Zhao family had moved here from the old capital of Bianking during the dynasty change.
The Zhao clan of Anxiang was also Dou Zhao’s maternal family.
After Dou Zhao’s great-great-grandfather married into the Zhao family, they had two sons. The elder was Dou Huancheng, and the younger was Dou Yaocheng.
The brothers were both intelligent from a young age, studying under their maternal grandfather Scholar Zhao. When they came of age, they were sent to the Imperial Academy in the capital to study.
In the thirteenth year of Zhide, both brothers achieved success in the imperial examinations.
The elder brother ranked third in the second class, while the younger brother ranked thirty-seventh in the second class.
From this point, the Dou family truly became wealthy and prestigious.
Later, the elder brother became a Hanlin Academy scholar and served in the Court of State Ceremonials. The younger brother was assigned as a county deputy magistrate in Jinxian County of Nanchang Prefecture.
Dou Zhao’s great-great-grandfather had shallow fortune and passed away after only a few years of glory.
Neither brother was by his side when he died.
The brothers returned home to observe the mourning period, and after it ended, they returned to the capital to await appointments.
The elder brother, being a Hanlin scholar who had served in the Court of State Ceremonials, quickly secured a position as Censor in the Censorate. The younger brother struggled for half a year before finally obtaining a position as Administrative Officer in the Yunnan Provincial Surveillance Commission through his brother’s arrangements.
In the younger brother’s impression, Yunnan was a place of poor mountains and treacherous waters, with miasma and barbaric customs. Some officials had died from sudden illness on their way to take office—it was no place for people to live.
If he continued to wait for a position in the capital, firstly, as they were both new to official careers, good positions might not be available. Secondly, court officials were promoted every three years, and by the time he secured a good position, his brother would likely have already been promoted to sixth rank.
The more he thought about it, the less appealing it seemed, so he resigned and returned to Zhending County.
Lady Zhao lived a dignified and comfortable life, but if there was anything lacking, it was that both her sons served as officials away from home. She feared she would die like her husband, without sons to attend her funeral.
When Dou Yaocheng returned home, she was naturally more than willing.
After all, her elder son had a smooth official career, and with her younger son back, he could fulfill his filial duties and help manage household affairs.
With the prestige of being a jinshi graduate, Dou Yaocheng’s business dealings were naturally far superior to those of his ancestors.
The silver exchanged in the capital was no longer used for jewelry, but as high-interest loans, either to poor Hanlin scholars; or to newly appointed seventh-rank officials who needed large sums for social obligations and official equipment; or to frontier governors returning to the capital for audience who needed money for gifts and entertainment. Later, as these officials were promoted or dismissed, the Dou family began to deal in river works stone materials, frontier grain supplies, and southern salt licenses…
Silver poured in like water, making Lady Zhao and Dou Huancheng dizzy with worry.
Dou Huancheng, now Right Assistant Censor-in-Chief of the Censorate, repeatedly warned his brother: “The full moon wanes, full waters overflow. You should be more modest.”
Dou Yaocheng dismissed this: “The bold get rich, the timid starve. I’m just borrowing your influence. When you retire, I’ll stop this business.”
But Dou Huancheng felt the money wasn’t clean: “Trading goods between south and north, at least the profit is from honest labor. What you’re doing is collusion between officials and merchants! You’re profiting from national difficulties!”
Dou Yaocheng sneered: “Now big brother thinks the money is dirty? You didn’t think it was dirty when buying rare Song Dynasty books? Or when helping colleagues’ orphans?”
“You!” Dou Huancheng’s lips trembled with anger.
The brothers parted on bad terms.
Lady Zhao was distressed seeing this and advised Dou Yaocheng: “Just listen to your brother! He works in the Censorate, supervising all departments, he sees much. He won’t harm you.”
Dou Yaocheng didn’t want his mother to worry but also didn’t want to yield to his elder brother, so he casually said: “Look at those officials, they all compete to curry favor! Without even asking, people send food, drinks, and silver, afraid we won’t accept. I’m different from big brother, if I don’t earn silver for one day, I won’t have food to eat.”
Lady Zhao took this to heart. She chuckled, “You think your mother is senile.” But she thought about how her elder son only had his official salary, yet every time he returned he brought her ginseng, bird’s nest, jewelry, and jade. His wife and children had new clothes and ornaments every season, showing they lived quite well. Her elder son’s words made sense, but her younger son’s business wasn’t easy either. Last time in Songjiang Prefecture, he drank so much entertaining officials that he felt sick at the mere smell of alcohol. Even so, her younger son never kept money for himself, putting everything into the common fund, sharing all profits equally with his elder brother.
Thinking this way, she felt sympathy for her younger son.
Having official status was indeed different from not having it.
Why else would people rack their brains to become officials?
The old lady’s heart leaned toward this younger son who attended to her needs daily.
As Dou Yaocheng had abandoned his official career, and with capable managers helping with the business, it grew increasingly prosperous. He gradually turned his attention to pleasure.
It started with gathering friends for drinking and conversation, then progressed to watching opera and riding horses at pleasure quarters.
When Lady Zhao learned of this, she advised her younger son: “You are a person of status, how can you drink at the same table as common merchants’ women? Why not buy some clever young maids, invite famous performers from Zhending Prefecture to train them, and maintain your own opera troupe? It would be respectable, entertaining, and could enliven festivals and celebrations.”
With his mother’s approval, what more did Dou Yaocheng have to worry about?
He became increasingly dissolute.
The divide between the brothers grew deeper.
Lady Zhao saw this wouldn’t do and asked her brother for advice.
Uncle Zhao thought for a while and said: “Brothers should keep clear accounts. Why not divide the family while you’re still here? Let everyone live their own lives, then there’ll be nothing to argue about.”
Lady Zhao pondered long and hard before making a painful decision: “Better than having disputes over inheritance after I die. I’ll bear the blame for dividing the family. I’m already half in the grave anyway.” Then she called her elder son back: “…Stop quarreling over these trivial matters!”
“Mother, these aren’t trivial matters,” Dou Huancheng opposed the family division, trying to convince his mother. “Official careers may bring temporary glory, and scholarship lasting merit. But a family’s foundation isn’t just in academic success, family dignity must not be lacking. With academic success but no family dignity, it’s fine if one can maintain integrity and not be corrupted by luxury, but if not, when good fortune suddenly collapses, it’s more miserable than common families. With family dignity but no academic success, acting righteously and living honestly, evil influences dare not encroach, and good fortune naturally follows. Uncle’s family is like this…”
“I know, I know,” Lady Zhao placated him, “It’s my wish to divide the family. I don’t want to watch you continue fighting like this. Especially your brother, after ten years of hard study, ending up like this. You’re brothers, if you don’t look after him, who will? But brotherhood is like marriage, day after day, year after year, resentment builds, even the best feelings can’t withstand it. Consider it as being filial to me, divide this family.”
Dou Huancheng swore before his mother: “I will definitely take good care of my brother. There’s no need to divide the family…”
Lady Zhao shook her head: “Listen to me. Although your father left behind vast wealth, it’s not even a third of what the Dou family has now. I want to divide the family property into three parts, one for me, one for you, one for your brother. I’ll live with your brother, and when I’m gone, my share will go to him…”
Was this dividing the family? Or just dividing property?
Was this mother’s wish? Or brother’s?
Dou Huancheng dared not think too much, he nodded.
Lady Zhao invited Uncle Zhao, the current Zhending County magistrate, and the families of both daughters-in-law to serve as mediators and divided the family.
Since mother would live with his brother, Dou Huancheng gave up the main mansion in Zhending County and built a five-courtyard house with blue bricks and tiles on the east side of town.
From then on, the Dou family split in two.
Dou Huancheng’s branch, living in the east, became known as the “East Dou,” while Dou Yaocheng’s branch, living in the west, became known as the “West Dou.”
Dou Yaocheng was Dou Zhao’s great-grandfather.
As Dou Huancheng had worried, within a few years, Dou Yaocheng’s wives and concubines fought for favor, resulting in a death and revealing many inner chamber scandals. Though suppressed, the West Dou branch was severely weakened. Dou Yaocheng died before forty, his descendants dwindled, leaving only Dou Zhao’s grandfather, Dou Duo.
The “East Dou” flourished.
Dou Huancheng had two sons and three daughters. Nine grandsons, three granddaughters, eleven maternal grandsons, nine maternal granddaughters, among whom two sons and one son-in-law successively passed the imperial examinations.
He didn’t forget his promise to his mother and always looked after Dou Yaocheng’s branch.
After Dou Yaocheng’s death, Dou Huancheng took young Dou Duo under his wing, helped manage his assets, personally taught him to study, watched him establish his family, and then returned his assets without missing a penny. Before death, he left instructions: “East and West Dou are one family, separated in residence but not in ancestry.”
Dou Duo’s impression of his uncle was deeper than of his father. He regarded Dou Huancheng as his own father and treated his cousins like real brothers. When his son Dou Shiying was born, he was ranked in sequence with the “Shi” generation brothers of the East mansion to show that the two families were as one, never to be separated.
That’s why Dou Zhao’s father, though an only child, was called Seventh Master.
And the one called Third Master was Dou Shibang, the eldest son of Dou Zhao’s second great-uncle.
- A unit of measurement used in China; roughly 1/15 hectares. ↩︎
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