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{{family name hatnote|[[Ye (surname)|Ye]]|lang=Chinese}}
'''Ye Chunji''' ({{zh|c=葉春及}}; 1532–1595), [[courtesy name]] '''Huafu''' (化甫), [[art name]] '''Jiongzhai''' (絅齋), was a [[Counties of the People's Republic of China#History|Chinese county official]] and scholar during the [[Ming dynasty]] (1368–1644) of [[China]].

==Life and career==
He was a native of [[Guangdong]] province and served as a county official of [[Huian County]] in [[Fujian]] province.<ref name="brook 15 199">Brook, 15, 199.</ref> Although [[Topography|topographic]] features were part of [[History of cartography#China|maps in China for centuries]], Ye was the first to base county maps on on-site topographical [[surveying]] and observations.<ref name="brook 15">Brook, 15.</ref> His career was sidelined for seventeen years after he became a victim of political vengeance.<ref name="brook 15"/> He came up with a model of county commerce with goods of greatest, great, and lesser importance—the latter being non-subsistence surplus goods that could be traded out of the county for commercial profit.

He issued an order to limit wedding expenses in the 1570s, stating "The frugal man with only one bar of silver currency can have something left over, whereas the extravagant man with a thousand can still not have enough".<ref name="brook 208">Brook, 208.</ref> However, the elites of Huian county and others did not care much for fiscally conservative warnings such as this, and flaunted their wealth in silver.<ref name="brook 208"/>

==Model of county commerce==
Ye Chunji came up with a ranking model for consumptionary products on the local level that could be applied to his county and many others in the empire.<ref name="brook 199">Brook, 199.</ref> At the top of this pyramid was the "greatest" (''zui'') product, which was grain; this vital item of subsistence was not traded out of the county as a commercial item.<ref name="brook 199"/> Taxes were paid in grain throughout the Ming dynasty, but as early as 1436 a portion of the grain tax was commuted to payments of silver instead;<ref name="brook xx">Brook, xx.</ref> the 1581 Single whip reform of [[Zhang Juzheng]] finally assessed land taxes entirely in silver and not in grain.<ref>Brook, xxi, 89.</ref> The middle level of importance in Ye's pyramid of county-level consumptionary goods were so-called "great" (''zhong'') products, which were [[mulberry]], [[cotton]], [[hemp]], and [[ramie]], the essential raw materials for local textile production.<ref name="brook 199"/> The lowest level in Ye's pyramid of goods were the "lesser" (''ci'') products, which were salt, cloth, vegetable oil, lumber, sugar, fruit, vegetables, fish, and livestock—all of which were traded out of the county by peddlers, itinerant retailers, or merchant wholesalers shipping large amounts of commercial goods.<ref name="brook 199"/>

Ye Chunji noted that most of these goods from his county made their way to the nearby [[Prefecture (China)|prefectural]] capital at [[Quanzhou]].<ref name="brook 199"/> He also noted that outsiders handled the trade in his county and many other Fujian county, which often led to profits being repatriated out of the local county.<ref name="brook 199 200">Brook, 199–200.</ref> He did note, however, that linen produced from the county's production of hemp did generate profit that entered the county from outside.<ref name="brook 200">Brook, 200.</ref> Historian [[Timothy Brook (historian)|Timothy Brook]] writes that Ye's description of his county gives the impression that most counties in the Ming dynasty relied on self-sufficient agriculture and textile production while they were largely unaffected by and disengaged with regional commodity networks between large urban markets.<ref name="brook 200"/>

==Notes==
{{reflist|3}}

==References==
*[[Timothy Brook (historian)|Brook, Timothy]]. (1998). ''[[The Confusions of Pleasure: Commerce and Culture in Ming China]]''. Berkeley: University of California Press. {{ISBN|0-520-22154-0}} (Paperback).
*The College Board 2006 AP World History Free Response Questions.
{{Ming Dynasty scholars}}

{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ye, Chunji}}
[[Category:Chinese cartographers]]
[[Category:16th-century Chinese scholars]]
[[Category:1532 births]]
[[Category:1595 deaths]]
[[Category:Ming dynasty government officials]]
[[Category:Ming dynasty essayists]]
[[Category:Politicians from Huizhou]]
[[Category:Writers from Huizhou]]
[[Category:Scientists from Guangdong]]
[[Category:16th-century cartographers]]
[[Category:Hakka scientists ]]

Ye Chunji - Revision history

imported>Smasongarrison: Moving from Category:Ming dynasty scholars to Category:16th-century Chinese scholars Diffusing per WP:DIFFUSE and/or WP:ALLINCLUDED using Cat-a-lot