Eastern Merchant

This film (drama)Also known as东方商人，is aMainland ChinaProducerbeauty live，At1995Released in year 。The dialogue language isMandarin Chinese，Current Douban rating7.9(For reference only)。

The story takes place in the hometown of the Confucian sage Mencius—Shandong Province. Meng Lechuan, the 68th descendant of Mencius, has little interest in studying hard for the imperial examinations and, with his mother’s support, establishes the Ruifuxiang silk shop. His cousin, Gao Xianyáng, also abandons his studies to engage in business, following the Japanese merchant Taiye Ichirō, ultimately becoming Meng Lechuan's rival. Ruifuxiang faces pressure from local officials and foreign merchant intermediaries, forcing him to seek backers and painfully offering his daughter Dongmei to Yuan Shikai. Due to his contributions to flood control, he earns a prestigious "Charitable and Generous" stone arch from the emperor, but he cannot buy a grave plot for his father and himself in the sacred site of his ancestors, Menglin. Gao Xianyáng is determined to drive Ruifuxiang out of business. The Eight-Nation Alliance invades Beijing, and Ruifuxiang is reduced to ashes. In despair, Meng Lechuan seeks help from Sai Jinhua, and Ruifuxiang makes a comeback in Beijing, only to have his mother kidnapped by bandits… The story realistically displays the awkward predicament of national commerce in late 19th-century China.