At the end of the Yuan dynasty, he moved with his father to Zhouzhuang and made his start through farming. He helped the merchant Lu Daoyuan manage his finances and amassed a great fortune. He then devoted himself to trade, swiftly becoming Jiangnan's richest man, with “wealth beyond measure and more farmland than anywhere in Wu.” He lived in Nanjing, Suzhou, Wujiang, and other places, and his fame spread throughout the land.
