During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the art patronage of Hui merchants contributed to the flourishing of artistic schools such as the Xin'an Painting School and the Yangzhou Painting School, making it an important case for the study of art production and cultural industry. The role of Hui merchants in the calligraphy and painting market during these periods was multifaceted, with significant historical and contemporary value. The unique identity of scholar-merchant of Hui merchants facilitated their association with literati. Meanwhile, their multifaceted social identity, which integrated art practice, appreciation, investment, consumption, and collection, played a crucial role in the flourishing of the Jiangnan art market and the enhancement of the region's artistic standards. Most Hui merchants originated from wealthy scholarly families. The family traditions of farming and reading, along with the teachings of poetry, books, and etiquette, endowed them with a profound cultural heritage and substantial family assets. Their passion for calligraphy and painting led them to actively engage in artistic endeavors. Their interactions with literati, scholar-merchants, and other social strata facilitated the advancement of commercial activities. The art patronage of Hui merchants effectively combined commercial and non-commercial behaviors, improving the calligraphy and painting environment in Jiangnan, while creating a distinctive cultural space of calligraphy and painting in Jiangnan during the Ming and Qing dynasties. The effectiveness of Hui merchants' art patronage was inseparable from the rich diversity of their art activity modalities, mainly encompassing making friends and forming associations, cultural patronage, transaction and collection, and even the forms of calligraphy and painting art activities with the characteristics of the times such as rewarding guests and giving presents, expressing emotions through female entertainers, and elegant bribery by politicians. The patronage of Hui merchants can be classified into various levels. In terms of acquisition methods, it mainly included the acquisition of embodied cultural capital and institutional cultural capital. From an operational standpoint, it mainly encompassed compensating artists to create works, purchasing antique masterpieces, investing in the works of contemporary renowned artists, providing for the livelihood of artists, and becoming their art patrons. Through the analysis of cultural capital theory, it is found that the Hui merchants' enthusiastic consumption of artworks such as calligraphy and painting demonstrates their strategy of cultural capital accumulation as a marker of social stratification. By engaging with materialized, embodied, and institutionalized cultural capital, the Hui merchants not only fostered the prosperity of Jiangnan art market but also elevated the local artistic aesthetic standards, thereby driving the development of culture and art. Furthermore, their art patronage facilitated the reproduction of cultural capital and formed a cultural production community with the literati class, profoundly transforming the cultural production space in Jiangnan and nurturing artistic schools like the Xin'an Painting School and the Yangzhou Painting School. The research indicates that the strategic investment and consumption of the Hui merchants in the field of culture and art played a crucial role in promoting the healthy development of the cultural ecology in Jiangnan during the Ming and Qing dynasties. This provides valuable insights for the formulation of cultural and artistic policies and the development of cultural industries in China.