宋代的商業活動日益熱絡，不少士大夫開始經商治生，士人與商人之間的往來也漸漸頻繁。然而，在士商關係日益緊密的同時，卻極少有商賈的墓誌銘傳世。這些少數的商賈墓誌銘，可以反應出宋代士人對商賈的態度。一方面，我們可以發現商賈墓誌銘很少描述到商業行為，也很少敘述他們致富的方法。另一方面，士商兩棲的家族對於家族的經商行為，也採取較為隱晦的態度，反應出士人對於從逐利的商業活動，仍然不認為是值得贊揚的事。此外，在商賈墓誌銘中，我們可以發現墓誌的作者不約而共的以「義」貫穿其中，成為商賈共通的德性。他們不斷贊揚墓金的「義行」「義方」「義舉」等行為，同時透過貶斥一般商賈嗜利的行為，來突顯墓主之「義」。此外，商賈之所以能留下墓誌銘，最重要的便是與士人的交遊往來。他們以本身的財富為後盾，透過延師聚書、園林宴遊、捐貲入官、婚姻結親等方式，與士人建立關係網絡，更有助於子弟轉換身份，由商入儒。值得注意的是，這些商賈墓誌銘中的商賈，只代表極少數試圖進入士人文化的商賈，並非宋代商賈的全貌。

Commercial activities are very prosperous in Sung Dynasty. There are many literati engaged in commercial activities, and socialized with merchants. Supposedly there should be a lot of epitaphs (墓誌 Mu-zi) for merchants written by those literati; however, such epitaphs are difficult to find. In those few found, it is obvious that those literati didn’t really appreciate commercial activities. They hardly referred to commerce in the epitaphs and even if they did, the words they used are almost as simple as possible. Most literati praised merchants for being Yi (義) or righteousness and criticized others of being Li (利) or profit. Those merchants depended on their wealth to socialize with literati, including hiring teachers, collecting lots of books, giving feasts, buying official positions and getting married. It is worth noting that they couldn’t represent all of merchants, because they were only a minority of merchants who tried to become literati.