The ancestors of Dou Zhao were peddlers without fixed property. By a stroke of luck, one married a maid from a merchant family in town. Using the ten taels of silver from his wife’s dowry, he bought one and a half mu of land in Beilou Village, Zhending. There, they settled and flourished.
This marked the origin of the later renowned Beilou Dou clan.
Dou Zhao’s great-grandfather began apprenticing at his mother’s former employer’s silk shop at ten. By fourteen, he completed his training, and at twenty, he became the shop’s second manager. The owner wanted to marry his daughter’s maid to him, but he aspired for his descendants to break free from serving others. Instead, he sought to marry Hao, the daughter of a poor scholar from the west of town.
At twenty-one, he used eight taels of silver, saved through frugal living, as a betrothal gift to marry Hao, consequently losing his position as second manager.
He returned to Beilou Village with Hao, taking over his father’s peddling pole and the thirty mu of good farmland his father had acquired through a lifetime of hard work. He farmed during busy seasons and peddled during slack times.
The following summer, Hao bore him a healthy son.
At the village entrance, he encountered a cotton merchant.
Zhending Prefecture grew cotton.
The merchant sought someone familiar with local farmers to help collect cotton.
The father volunteered. Drawing on skills honed at the silk shop, he could assess cotton quality at a glance, estimate weight with a lift, and was proficient with an abacus and bookkeeping.
As summer ended, besides the agreed payment, the cotton merchant rewarded Dou Zhao’s great-grandfather with an extra ten taels of silver, promising to seek his help again the following year.
By winter, Dou Zhao’s great-grandfather had traversed Zhending County’s surrounding areas. Come next summer, he knew precisely which households grew how much cotton, its quality, and the farmers’ dispositions. He managed cotton collection, weighing, accounting, storage, and bookkeeping flawlessly. The merchant could simply relax in the shade, sipping tea.
“It seems my presence is unnecessary, and I’m incurring lodging and meal expenses,” the merchant mused to Dou Zhao’s great-grandfather. “I have an idea. I’ll advance you some money, and you can collect the cotton yourself. Then, deliver the fine cotton to me, and we’ll settle based on its quality. What do you think?”
Thus, the Dou family built their fortune on cotton collection.
By the time of Dou Zhao’s great-great-grandfather, the Dous were trading cotton from Zhending, Huolu, Yuanji, Pingshan, and Xingtang counties for silk in Jiangnan. They then sold the silk in Sichuan, transported Sichuan’s medicinal herbs to the capital, converted them to silver, and crafted modern jewelry for Zhending’s elite.
Dou Zhao’s great-great-grandfather could focus solely on his studies and pursuing an official career.
Despite his diligence, he only managed to attain the rank of xiucai.
Nevertheless, this didn’t prevent him from marrying the daughter of Zhao, a juren from Anxiang Village in neighboring Xingtang County.
The Zhao family was quite different from the Dous!
They possessed a family genealogy.
Though they owned only 120 mu of land, their ancestors could be traced back to the time of King Mu of Zhou. Moreover, “Zhao” was the imperial surname of the previous dynasty. The Zhao family had relocated from the old capital, Bianjiang, during the dynastic change.
The Zhao clan of Anxiang was also Dou Zhao’s maternal family.
After marrying into the Zhao family, Dou Zhao’s great-great-grandfather had two sons: the elder Dou Huancheng and the younger Dou Yaocheng.
Both brothers showed exceptional intelligence from a young age. They studied under their maternal grandfather, Zhao, and later attended the Imperial Academy in the capital.
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 ranked thirty-seventh in the second class.
From this point, the Dou family truly rose to prominence.
Subsequently, the elder brother passed the examination for Hanlin Academy scholars and remained at the Hanlin Academy, observing government affairs in the Xingren Department. The younger brother was assigned as a county deputy magistrate in Jinxian County, Nanchang Prefecture.
Dou Zhao’s great-great-grandfather’s fortune was short-lived. He passed away after only a few years of glory.
Neither brother was by his side at his death.
The brothers returned home to observe the mourning period. After it ended, they returned to the capital to await new appointments.
The elder brother, being a Hanlin scholar with experience in the Xingren Department, quickly secured a position as a censor in the Censorate. The younger brother struggled for half a year before obtaining a position as a clerk in the Yunnan Provincial Surveillance Commission, thanks to his brother’s efforts.
In the younger brother’s mind, Yunnan was a land of treacherous mountains and miasmic jungles. Some officials had died from sudden illness en route to their posts there. It was no place for a man to live.
If he continued to wait for a position in the capital, firstly, as a newcomer to officialdom, they might not secure good positions. Secondly, with court officials being promoted every three years, by the time he found a good position, his elder brother would likely have already risen to the sixth rank.
The more he pondered, the less appealing it seemed. He decided to resign and return to Zhending County.
Lady Zhao lived a comfortable and respectable life. Her only concern was that both her sons were serving as officials away from home. She feared dying without her sons by her side, as had happened to her husband.
Naturally, she was delighted when Dou Yaocheng returned home.
With her elder son’s career progressing smoothly, having her younger son back allowed him to fulfill his filial duties and help manage household affairs.
Dou Yaocheng, with the prestige of a jinshi degree, conducted business quite differently from his ancestors.
The silver exchanged in the capital was no longer used for jewelry but as high-interest loans. These were given to impoverished Hanlin scholars, newly appointed seventh-rank officials needing funds for gifts and official attire, or high-ranking officials returning to the capital for performance reviews and requiring money for entertaining and gift-giving. As these officials were promoted or demoted, the Dou family began to involve themselves in river engineering materials, frontier grain supplies, and salt monopoly licenses in the southern rivers.
Silver poured in like water, dazzling and frightening Lady Zhao and Dou Huancheng.
Dou Huancheng, now a Right Deputy Censor in the Censorate, repeatedly warned his brother, “The full moon wanes, overflowing water spills. You should be more discreet.”
Dou Yaocheng dismissed this: “The bold thrive, the timid starve. I’m merely borrowing your influence. When you retire, I’ll stop this business.”
Dou Huancheng felt the money was tainted: “Selling southern goods in the north is honest, hard-earned money. What you’re doing is collusion between officials and merchants! You’re profiting from national hardship!”
Dou Yaocheng scoffed, “Now brother finds the money dirty? You didn’t mind when buying rare Song Dynasty books or supporting the orphans of colleagues…”
“You!” Dou Huancheng’s lips trembled with anger.
The brothers parted on bad terms.
Lady Zhao, distressed by this, advised Dou Yaocheng, “Listen to your elder brother. He works in the Censorate, overseeing all departments. He’s seen much and won’t harm you.”
Dou Yaocheng, not wanting to worry his mother but unwilling to yield to his elder brother, casually replied, “Look at those officials. They all scramble for favors. Without asking, people offer food, drinks, and silver, fearing refusal. I’m different from my elder brother. If I don’t earn silver for a day, I have nothing to eat.”
Lady Zhao saw through this. She chuckled, “You think your mother is senile.” But inwardly, she considered that her elder son had only his salary, yet every visit home brought ginseng, bird’s nest, jewelry, or jade for her. His wife and children always had new clothes and accessories each season, indicating they lived well. While her elder son’s words made sense, her younger son’s business wasn’t easy either. On his last trip to Songjiang Prefecture, he drank so much to entertain officials that he became nauseated at the mere smell of alcohol. Despite this, her younger son never kept any earnings for himself, contributing everything to the family and sharing all profits equally with his elder brother.