It can be said that the status of businessmen has been questioned since ancient times. People generally think that businessmen are "mercenary" and "unscrupulous businessmen", so their political status is naturally nowhere to talk about. It was not until the Westernization Movement in the late Qing Dynasty that the social status of businessmen began to undergo a great change, and thus a red-topped businessman like Sheng Xuanhuai appeared. As an outstanding official and businessman, the name Sheng Xuanhuai became synonymous with bureaucratic comprador capitalists. He also created many firsts in China in his life and was praised as "the father of Chinese businessmen" by later generations. However, he is not only the pioneer and founder of modern national industry and Westernization Movement in China, but also the epitome of modern industrial history and Westernization Movement in China.
Sheng Xuanhuai was born in Shengxing, and his ancestral home is Jiangyin, Jiangsu, and his ancestral home is Changzhou, Jiangsu. His ancestors were officials. Grandpa Shenglong was born in the Qing Dynasty as a juren, and was once known in Haining, Zhejiang. Father Kang Sheng is a scholar, who served as the magistrate of Luzhou and Ningguo. Sheng Xuanhuai, who was born in a scholarly family, should have been familiar with the Four Books and Five Classics to gain fame and fortune, and stepped into the official career step by step, but it backfired. He tried many times in the examination room, but he failed to get a candidate in the exam. In the end, Sheng Xuanhuai and his son were disheartened by their failure in the imperial examination. Fortunately, Shenglong had a friendship with Li Hongzhang, a powerful minister in the late Qing Dynasty. On the recommendation of his father, 26-year-old Sheng Xuanhuai joined Li Hongzhang's door to help him do westernization.
In the ninth year of Tongzhi (1870), Li Hongzhang, the governor of Huguang, "suppressed" the * * * uprising in Shaanxi and other places, and Sheng Xuanhuai, the secretary of Li Hongzhang, began to emerge. History shows that he is very diligent, "in the midsummer heat, he gallops hundreds of miles every day", and he is not afraid of hard work and has the ability to draft a manuscript with "instant words". Appreciated by Li Hongzhang, Li Hongzhang gave Sheng Xuanhuai the opportunity to buy new military equipment in coastal Tianjin and Shanghai, and it was this opportunity of in-depth contact with foreigners that made young Sheng Xuanhuai finally find his own direction in life. Among the huge undertakings controlled by Li Hongzhang, Sheng Xuanhuai participated in organizing westernization enterprises and foreign affairs the most.
In the 12th year of Tongzhi (1873), China merchants, the first shipping company in China, was formally established, and Sheng Xuanhuai was appointed by Li Hongzhang to operate. From then on, he officially became one of the core figures of the Westernization Movement in the late Qing Dynasty and established his huge business empire. Later, in the more than 30 years of Westernization, Sheng Xuanhuai helped Li Hongzhang and Zhang Zhidong "manage" Westernization, and was awarded senior titles such as Minister of Commerce, Minister of Postal Communications, etc., and mastered important industries such as shipping, railways, mining, telegraphy, banking, postal services, textiles, etc. at that time, and almost monopolized many Westernization enterprises related to China's economic lifeline. His personal wealth is also more than 10 million, and he is known as a westernization businessman who "catches sixteen pearls in one hand".
As a member of the Westernization Movement, Sheng Xuanhuai was an official and businessman all his life. He was also a native of China and a foreigner. He created more than ten "firsts" in the history of China's Westernization (namely, the first telegraph company, the first China Bank, the first regular university, etc. ), greatly influenced the development of industry and commerce, education and culture in modern China, and trained a large number of key talents for later generations. In the fifth year of the Republic of China (19 16), Sheng Xuanhuai died in Shanghai. His last wish is to donate half of his property to charity fund for free to help poor families. After Sheng Xuanhuai's death, his grand funeral was comparable to a state funeral, with a total cost of nearly 300,000 taels of silver, which sensationalized the whole Shanghai beach. The funeral procession went from Xie Qiao Lane (Wujiang Road) to the Bund, so the concession authorities carried out temporary traffic control.
As the richest man in the late Qing Dynasty and even the early Republic of China, Sheng Xuanhuai was a symbol of wealth at that time. After his death, he left enough money for his children to buy thousands of quadrangles in Beijing. Sheng Xuanhuai has eight sons and eight daughters. They are either beautiful and gentle, charming or affectionate, leaving many interesting stories on themselves. And these children are centered on the prosperous family, and the powerful and powerful are attached to each other, forming a typical marriage politics from the imperial court to the gentry in the south of the Yangtze River. Not only that, but even the servants of the Sheng Xuanhuai family have the opportunity to marry into a rich family. It is said that Sheng Xuanhuai is very kind to the maids. When the servant girl gets married, the Sheng family will pay some dowry and marry like a daughter.
Unlike other families who choose maids, most of Sheng Xuanhuai's maids choose the best among the best, and many of them are knowledgeable and courteous. Sheng Xuanhuai also takes care of his servants. When these maids are old enough to get married, Sheng Xuanhuai will introduce them to her husband, and they are all famous people. Two of them are very famous, one is Lu Baozhen and the other is Ni. After marriage, both of them became the most prominent families in the history of the Republic of China. The children they gave birth to were not simple, and the son-in-law was even more remarkable.
Lv Baozhen is Sheng Xuanhuai's maid. She looks very handsome. When she is married, Sheng Xuanhuai, the head of the household, will find her a husband with excellent family background and looks. After selection, Sheng Xuanhuai betrothed it to his old subordinate, Zhao Qinghua, the second minister of the Ministry of Communications. Of course, Lu Baozhen, a servant, could not be a wife in front of feudal ethics at that time, even if she was beautiful. Besides, Zhao Qinghua had a married woman at the age of 38, and Lu Baozhen could only be Zhao Qinghua's concubine when she got married. Although Lu Baozhen is humble, she is gentle and quiet, and does not argue with others, so she has won the respect of Zhao Qinghua's family and helpers.
After Lu Baozhen married Zhao Jia, she gave birth to four sons and three daughters for Zhao Qinghua, including the famous Zhao Yidi (Miss Zhao Si). According to legend, when she was born, there was a magnificent rosy cloud at the junction of the sea and the sky, so Minister Zhao named her daughter Qixia. Zhao Qinghua was familiar with the Four Books and Five Classics since childhood, and was deeply influenced by feudal thoughts. Although he concubines himself, he strongly opposes his daughter's filial piety. Later, when she fell in love with Zhang Xueliang, Zhao Qinghua couldn't accept her daughter's marriage to the Zhang family, so she angrily cut off all contacts with him and made a public disclosure. Zhao Qinghua opposed her daughter to be a concubine, but Lu Baozhen sympathized with her daughter's experience and secretly supported her, which made Zhao Qinghua angry and alienated Lu Baozhen. In his later years, Lu Baozhen lived with his son for a long time until his death in 1953.
Compared with Liu Baozhen, Ni, another maid of Sheng Xuanhuai's family, is more famous. She used to be the foster mother of Shengjia, a profession between governess, wet nurse and servant. Ni was born in a scholarly family and graduated from Shanghai Girls' Middle School. She is good at math and piano, so she stays in school to teach. The time when Ni worked as a servant girl in Sheng Xuanhuai is unknown. A woman with western education like her was rare in China more than 100 years ago. Maybe Ni Zaisheng's job is just a temporary domestic helper. Later, Ni married a priest named Song and gave birth to six children, namely, Soong Ching Ling,,, and other outstanding figures.
As a mother, Ni Guizhen treats her six children equally, takes care of them and shares knowledge. The average family is "strict father's loving mother", but in the Song family, it is just the opposite. Ni's education of children is very strict. As the saying goes, "it's wrong to raise a godfather instead of a godfather", but Ni Guizhen often says that "it's also the mother's fault to raise a godfather instead of a godfather". Later, under the influence of his mother Ni, the Song sisters kept their hair. Ni, who is spreading western learning to the east, doesn't believe in Confucius and Mencius. She believes that girls, like boys, have the right to receive equal education. Finally, under Ni's enlightenment education, most Song children went to the United States for further study and became outstanding representatives in the Republic of China. It can be said that among the four families of Confucius and Chen in the Republic of China, Jiang, Song and Kong were all her sons or daughters and son-in-law.
Finally, looking at the life of Sheng Xuanhuai, the richest man in the late Qing Dynasty, there is indeed something extraordinary. As a generation of businessmen, Sheng Xuanhuai has made great achievements and founded many pioneering undertakings. In his later years, he was keen on public welfare, actively rescued disasters, and creatively dredged Xiaoqing River in Shandong by means of work instead of relief, which had a great influence. Treating friends and relatives around him, he also spared no effort to cultivate his own people, even the maids around him. Li Hongzhang, the powerful minister, called him: "Be determined to set things right, be tenacious, do whatever you want, and you will be sensitive and know it. One hand official seal, one hand abacus, official and business, both sides meet the source. " Empress Dowager Cixi even praised: "Sheng Xuanhuai is an indispensable person."
The Qing Dynasty perished. As an important official of the Qing Dynasty, he was not killed, but kept his property, which was also the result of Sheng Xuanhuai's success. (According to historical records, after the outbreak of Wuchang Uprising, Sheng Xuanhuai invited the lean Yuan Shikai to take charge of the overall situation. ) Later, Sheng Canon was still all-powerful in Shanghai, mostly because of the care of two maids and Jiang Jia and Song Jia!