Dou Zhao's ancestor was a peddler with no permanent property. By chance, he married a maid from a merchant family in the town. He used the ten taels of silver his wife gave as a dowry to buy one mu and two mu of land in Beilou Village in Zhending, and from then on he settled down in Beilou Village and multiplied.

This is the origin of the later famous Beilou Dou family.

Dou Zhao's great grandfather was an apprentice in the silk shop of his mother's former employer at the age of ten. He became a master at the age of fourteen and became the second in command at the age of twenty. The employer wanted to marry his daughter's personal maid to him. He didn't want his descendants to work for the same employer all their lives, so he wanted to marry Hao, the daughter of a poor scholar from the west of the town.

At the age of twenty-one, he used eight taels of silver that he had saved from his frugal life as a betrothal gift to marry Hao, and gave up his job as second in-house clerk.

He took Hao back to Beilou Village and took over his father's shoulder pole and the thirty mu of fertile land that his father had worked hard to buy. He farmed during the busy farming season and visited households in the countryside during the idle season.

The following summer, Mrs. Hao gave birth to a big fat boy for him.

He met a cotton collector at the entrance of the village.

Cotton is grown in Zhending Prefecture.

The cotton collector wanted to find someone who was familiar with the local farmers to help him harvest cotton.

My father recommended me. With the skills he had learned in the silk shop, he could tell whether the cotton was adulterated with just a glance, and how much cotton weighed with just a pick. He could also use an abacus and keep accounts.

When the summer came, in addition to the agreed-upon reward, the cotton merchant gave Dou Zhao's great-grandfather an additional ten taels of silver and agreed with him that he would be asked to help again at this time next year.

In winter, Dou Zhao's great grandfather traveled all over Zhending County. In the next summer, he knew exactly which family had planted how much cotton, whether the cotton was good or bad, and whether the cotton farmers were easy to deal with. He knew everything about cotton collection, weighing, accounting, storage, and accounting. All the merchants had to do was sit under the shade of a tree, fan themselves, and drink tea.

"It seems that it doesn't matter whether I'm here or not. I still have to pay for accommodation and meals here." The merchant laughed and discussed with Dou Zhao's great grandfather, "I have an idea. I will advance you part of the money first, and you can harvest cotton by yourself, and then send the harvested Jinhua to me. We will settle the bill based on the quality of the cotton. What do you think?"

This is how the Dou family came to be, they made their fortune by collecting cotton.

When it came into the hands of Dou Zhao's great-grandfather, the Dou family sold the cotton received from Zhending, Huolu, Yuanji, Pingshan, Xingtang and other counties to Jiangnan, exchanged it for silk from Jiangnan and sold it to Sichuan, and then transported Sichuan's medicinal materials to the capital, turned them into silver, and made new jewelry to sell to the dignitaries of Zhending Prefecture.

Dou Zhao's great-grandfather only needed to study peacefully and pass the imperial examinations.

But despite his hard work, he only passed the exam and became a scholar.

But this did not prevent him from marrying the daughter of Zhao Juren from Anxiang Village in the neighboring Xingtang County.

The Zhao family and the Dou family are different!

They have a family tree.

Although the family only has 120 mu of land, their ancestors can be traced back to the reign of King Mu of Zhou. Moreover, "Zhao" was the surname of the previous dynasty. The ancestors of the Zhao family moved here from the old capital Bianjing when the dynasty changed.

The Zhao family of Anxiang is also Dou Zhao's maternal family.

After Dou Zhao's great-grandfather married Zhao, they had two sons: the eldest son Dou Huancheng and the second son Dou Yaocheng.

The two brothers were extremely intelligent since childhood. They studied with their grandfather Zhao Juren. When they grew up, they were sent to study at the Imperial College in Kyoto.

In the 13th year of Zhide, the two brothers were both admitted to the imperial examinations.

The older brother ranked third in the second class, and the younger brother ranked thirty-seventh in the second class.

The Dou family became truly wealthy at this point.

Later, the elder brother passed the imperial examination and became a scholar-official, and stayed in the Hanlin Academy, observing government affairs in the Ministry of Rites, while the younger brother was sent to Jinxian County in Nanchang Prefecture to become a county magistrate.

Dou Zhao's great-grandfather was not blessed with much fortune. He enjoyed only a few years of prosperity before he passed away.

When he died, neither of his brothers was by his side.

The two brothers returned to their hometown to observe mourning, and after the mourning period was over, they returned to Beijing to wait for vacancies.

The elder brother was a scholar-official who had worked in the Ministry of Personnel and soon got a job as a censor in the Metropolitan Procuratorate. The younger brother wasted half a year before, with the help of his elder brother, he got a job as an officer in the Yunnan Provincial Procuratorate.

In my brother's impression, Yunnan is a place with poor mountains, bad water, miasma, and wild smoke. Some officials died of sudden illness on the way to their posts. It is not a place for people to stay.

If they continued to stay in Kyoto waiting for a vacancy, firstly, the two brothers were new to officialdom and might not be able to get a good job. Secondly, court officials were promoted every three years. By the time he got a good job, his elder brother would probably have been promoted to the sixth rank.

The more he thought about it, the more boring it seemed to him, so he simply resigned and returned to Zhending County.

Mrs. Zhao lived a decent and comfortable life. If there was any good thing about her, it was that her two sons were serving as officials away from home. She was afraid that when she died, she would be like her old man, without a son to see her off.

Of course, she was very happy for Dou Yaocheng to return to his hometown.

Anyway, the eldest son had a successful career, and the second son's return would be a good opportunity for him to show his filial piety to her and help with household affairs.

Dou Yaocheng, who had the halo of a successful Jinshi, was naturally very different from the ancestors of the Dou family when it came to doing business.

The silver exchanged in Kyoto was no longer used to sell jewelry, but as loan sharks, or to poor Hanlin scholars; or to officials of the seventh rank who had just been assigned to a job and needed a large sum of money for socializing and buying official carriages and official uniforms; or to frontier officials who needed to entertain guests and give gifts when they returned to Beijing to report on their work. Later, as these officials were promoted or dismissed, the Dou family began to intervene in the stone materials of the river, the grain and grass of the nine borders, and the salt diversion of the Nanjiang River...

The money poured in like water, making Zhao and Dou Huan dizzy and frightened.

Dou Huancheng, who was now the Right Assistant of the Censorate, warned his brother more than once: "When the moon is full, it will be empty; when the water is full, it will overflow. You should hide your shortcomings."

Dou Yaocheng didn't care: "The brave ones will die of their courage, and the timid ones will die of hunger. I am just taking advantage of the power of others. If you retire, I will not do this business anymore."

Dou Huancheng, however, felt that the money was not earned cleanly: "Selling goods from the south to the north, the money earned is hard-earned. What you are doing is collusion between officials and businessmen! You are profiting from the country's misfortune!"

Dou Yaocheng sneered: "Brother, do you think money is dirty now? Why didn't you think money is dirty when I wanted to buy a rare Song Dynasty edition? Why didn't you think money is dirty when you wanted to help your colleague's orphan..."

"You!" Dou Huancheng's lips trembled with anger.

The two brothers parted on bad terms.

Zhao felt sad and advised Dou Yaocheng: "Just listen to your brother! He works in the Censorate and has seen a lot of things. He won't harm you."

Dou Yaocheng didn't want his mother to worry, but he didn't want to bow to his elder brother, so he said casually: "Look at those officials, who doesn't compete to curry favor with them? You don't have to ask for anything, people will give you food, drinks and money, and you're afraid that they won't accept it. I'm different from my elder brother. If I don't make money, I won't have anything to eat."

Zhao listened and went in. She laughed and said, "You think I'm old and confused." In her heart, she thought that the eldest son only had that little salary, and every time he came back, he either gave her ginseng and bird's nests or jewelry and jade. The eldest son's wife, grandsons and granddaughters had new clothes and jewelry for all seasons every year, which showed that they were indeed living a very good life. The eldest son's words made sense, but the younger son's business was not easy. Last time he went to Songjiang Prefecture, in order to entertain those officials, he drank so much that he couldn't feel comfortable even at the smell of alcohol. That's how the younger son never kept the money he disliked, and all of it was handed over to the public, and all the profits were shared equally with the eldest son.

Thinking of this, I began to feel sorry for my younger son.

There is a difference between having an official position and not having an official position.

Otherwise, why would people in this world try so hard to become officials?

The old lady's heart was inclined towards her young son who always cared about her every day.

Dou Yaocheng's official career was interrupted, and with the help of a capable manager, his business grew bigger and more prosperous, and his mind gradually turned to enjoying life.

At first, he just called friends together and had a drink and chatted, but later he started to go to the Liyuan Opera and practice horse riding at the Zhangtai Theatre.

When Lady Zhao found out, she advised her son, "You are a man of status. How can you drink at the same table with the wives of peddlers and hawkers? Why not buy a few smart and clever little girls and invite famous actors from Zhending Prefecture to train them? Then you can raise a troupe of your own. This will not only bring you face, but also help you relieve boredom and make for a lively occasion during festivals."

With his mother's words, what else does Dou Yaocheng have to worry about?

His play became more and more absurd.

The differences between the two brothers became deeper and deeper.

Zhao saw that this was not going to work, so she asked her brother from her natal family for advice.

Uncle Zhao thought for a moment and said, "Brothers, let's settle accounts clearly. It's better to divide the family while you are still here. Then everyone can live their own lives and there will be nothing to talk about."

Zhao pondered for a long time and made up his mind: "It's better than being laughed at for the uneven distribution of the inheritance after my death. I will bear the stigma of the division of the family. Anyway, I am already half buried in the ground." Then he called his eldest son back: "... Stop arguing about these trivial matters!"

"Mother, this is not a trivial matter." Dou Huancheng disagreed with the division of the family and tried to persuade his mother, "Official career is glorious for a while, and writing is good. The foundation of a family is not entirely in business, and family style is indispensable. There is a business but no family style, and it is good to keep your original heart and not be tempted by the decadence of money. If you can't keep it, and you are used to a good life and suddenly collapse, it will be more miserable than those ordinary people; there is family style but no business, and you act uprightly and live a clean life, and evil tendencies dare not penetrate, and you will have good fortune. This is the case with my uncle's family..."

"I know, I know." Zhao said perfunctorily, "I want to divide the family. I don't want to see you guys making such a fuss anymore. Especially your brother, who studied hard for ten years and ended up like this. You are brothers, if you don't take care of him, who will? But brothers are like husband and wife, and they will get hurt day after day and year after year. Even the best relationship can't stand it. Just think of it as filial piety and divide the family."

Dou Huancheng swore in front of his mother: "I will definitely take good care of my brother. There is no need to divide the family..."

Zhao shook her head: "Listen to me. Although your father left behind a fortune of ten thousand li, it is not even one-third of the Dou family's current wealth. I want to divide the family property into three parts, one for me, one for you, and one for your brother. I will live with your brother, and when I die, my share will be left to your brother..."

Is this about dividing the family or the property?

Was this my mother's idea or my brother's?

Dou Huancheng didn't dare to think too much and just nodded.

Zhao asked his uncle, the then magistrate of Zhending County, and the families of his two daughters-in-law to act as middlemen to divide the family property.

Since his mother followed his younger brother, Dou Huancheng gave up the large house in Zhending County and built a five-story green brick and tile house on the east side of the county seat.

From then on, the Dou family was divided into two.

Dou Huancheng's branch was called "Dong Dou" because they lived in the east of the city, and Dou Yaocheng's branch was called "Xi Dou" because they lived in the west of the city.

Dou Yaocheng is Dou Zhao’s great-grandfather.

Just as Dou Huancheng worried, within a few years, Dou Yaocheng's wives and concubines competed for his favor, causing a murder case and bringing out many internal court scandals. Although suppressed, the Western Dou branch suffered a loss of vitality. Dou Yaocheng died of illness before he was forty, and his descendants were all gone, with only Dou Zhao's grandfather Dou Duo surviving.

"Dongdou" however has a prosperous population.

Dou Huancheng had two sons and three daughters, nine grandsons, three granddaughters, eleven grandsons-in-law, and nine granddaughters-in-law. Among them, two sons and one son-in-law successively passed the imperial examinations.

He never forgot the promise he made to his mother and always took good care of Dou Yaocheng's family.

After Dou Yaocheng passed away, Dou Huancheng took the young Dou Duo to live with him, helped Dou Duo manage the family property, taught him to read and go to school, and after watching him get married and start a family, he handed over all the family property to Dou Duo without any loss. After his death, he left a will: "The two Dous in the east and west are one family, and they can live separately but not separately."

Dou Duo had a deeper impression of his uncle than his father. He regarded Dou Huancheng as his own father and several cousins ​​as brothers. After his son Dou Shiying was born, he was ranked together with the brothers of the Dongfu Dou family with the character "Shi" to show that the two families were like one family and would never be separated from each other.

Therefore, although Dou Zhao's father was an only son, he was called the Seventh Master.

The one who was called the Third Master was Dou Shibang, the eldest son of Dou Zhao's second great-uncle.