Socio-spatial Structure and Clan Organization of Lu Merchant Settlements in Southeastern Shanxi

Wenhao Guo; Siyu Ren

Authors

Wenhao Guo School of Architecture, Taiyuan University of Technology, Taiyuan 030024, China Author
Siyu Ren Institute of History, Shanxi University, Taiyuan 030006, China Author

Keywords:

Lu merchants, merchant settlements, socio-spatial structure, clan organization, southeastern Shanxi

Abstract

Lu merchant settlements in southeastern Shanxi provide an important lens through which to understand the interaction of commerce, kinship and local governance in late imperial China. This paper analyzes their socio-spatial structure and the role of clan organization, arguing that such settlements cannot be reduced to architectural form alone. They were composite social spaces in which streets, courtyard compounds, ancestral halls, temples, markets and guild-related institutions worked together to organize both everyday life and mercantile activity. Combining insights from historical geography, Chinese social history and settlement studies, the paper shows that kinship organization was not merely a moral or ritual framework; it was also a mechanism for property management, trust formation, dispute mediation and the reproduction of commercial networks. The study further argues that the spatial form of Lu merchant settlements reflected this multi-layered social order. A fuller understanding of these settlements therefore requires moving from isolated building description to a relational analysis of commerce, lineage, public life and territorial organization.

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