In the first story of Ling Mengchu’s collection Slapping the Table in Amazement, Chinese merchants reach a foreign port and are received by a Persian merchant. “By old custom, when a sea ship arrived, the host first gave this banquet, and only then were the goods unloaded and prices discussed.”
The host asks to see each guest’s list of goods, “so as to fix the seating.” Those with treasures worth ten thousand take the first seats, and the rest sit by the value of their goods, “regardless of age, regardless of rank.” Wen Ruoxu, who has silver but has bought no goods, is given the last seat, “his face full of shame.”