The Yin-Yang Merchant

Take money from the living, handle affairs for the dead!

It's a peculiar profession: doing business with the dead.

Would you believe me if I told you that Hu Xueyan, the Qing dynasty's foremost red-topped merchant, built his fortune by doing business with the dead?

Fan Li, known as Tao Zhu Gong, and Shen Wansan, the fabulously wealthy merchant of the early Ming dynasty: do you really think they simply made their fortunes from nothing?

Do you really believe Shen Wansan was persecuted by Zhu Yuanzhang just because he helped build the Great Wall?

This profession has existed for a thousand years, but its secrets have kept it hidden from the world. Now it's time to tell the story of people like us.