A Social Network Analysis of Shanxi Merchant Communities in Guihua City during the Qing Dynasty.

Unlike during the Ming dynasty, the political situation in northern Asia became comparatively stable during the Qing dynasty, leading to the development of a considerable commercial network, with Guihua City being an important node of this network. Within the city, guilds, called hang or she and organized by Shanxi merchants, formed the core of local society. Previous research has largely depended on local gazetteers or oral records to analyze these merchants, and has only been able to provide a piece of the complete picture. However, utilizing the inscriptions on stone tablets found within the city, my research reexamines the relationships between these guilds through social network analysis. This article is comprised of three parts. The first clarifies the characteristics of hang and she, as well as how these guilds encompassed religious activities. Second, I reestablish the social networks between these groups and evaluate merchant donations to temples, placing these practices into observable, quantifiable conceptions such as "religious groups" or "interactional points". In the final section, I present the shifts in commercial activities in Guihua City by comparing the interactions between these guilds in different time periods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]