货殖列传

貨殖列傳
Huòzhí lièzhuàn
proper noun

Meanings

  1. 1 Biographies of the Money-makers, the chapter of the Records of the Grand Historian on merchants and trade

Examples

HSK 7-9
Sīmǎ Qiān zài 《 Shǐjì · Huòzhí lièzhuàn 》 lǐ, zhuānmén wèi shāngrén xiě le zhuànjì.
In the Biographies of the Money-makers, Sima Qian wrote biographies devoted to merchants.

Tips

history
货殖 means 'to make goods multiply', that is, to grow rich by trade. Sima Qian treats the pursuit of wealth as human nature rather than a vice: 天下熙熙,皆为利来;天下攘攘,皆为利往 'the whole world bustles, all coming for profit; the whole world jostles, all going for profit'.
culture
Its merchants include 范蠡, who left the court of Yue to grow rich in trade, and Confucius's disciple 子贡, so wealthy that the rulers he visited received him as an equal, the source of 分庭抗礼.

Stroke Order

货 huò
殖 zhí
列 liè
传 chuán