Wealthy merchants of antiquity often patronized scholars.
Tips
history
From 《史记·货殖列传》 (Sima Qian's Records of the Grand Historian, Biographies of Money-makers): once the Han unified China and lifted trade barriers, 富商大贾周流天下 - wealthy merchants flowed freely across the realm. The phrase still carries that classical commercial-empire flavor.
mistakes
Note 贾 reads gǔ here ('merchant'), NOT jiǎ. 贾 = jiǎ only as a surname (e.g. 贾宝玉, Jia Baoyu in 《红楼梦》); in any commercial context like 商贾 or 富商大贾 it is gǔ.
