 It began with the need to contend with the changing intellectual climate and was initiated by the Yongjia scholars such as Zhou Xingji and Xue Jixuan.It was further promoted by the materialist thinkers Ye Shi and Chenliang, who elevated the social status of those people who engaged in commercial and merchant activities.Ye Shi is noted for amending the mainstream Confucian ideology by focusing more on business, rejecting the ideas such as the giving of high priority to justice and low priority to profit.