Hi everyone, this is Klaus.
In November 2020, Xi Jinping visited Jiangsu and went to Nantong Museum.
He visited the exhibition of Zhang Jian, a famous industrialist in the late Qing Dynasty in China,
praised Zhang Jian for being an advanced model of Chinese private entrepreneurs,
and called on Chinese entrepreneurs to actively love their country and give back to society,
saying that businessmen should put national interests above commercial interests.
But what Xi Jinping didn’t mention was Zhang Jian’s tragic ending.
Not only did he die destitute, but many years later,
his tomb was also destroyed as the "Four Olds" by Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution.
In today’s video, we will tell the story of Zhang Jian,
the ups and downs of his life in a changing era.
I hope you enjoy this video.
In July 1894, the first Sino-Japanese War broke out.
Empress Dowager Cixi moved from the Summer Palace to the Forbidden City.
The officials went out of the city to greet Cixi.
On that day, there was a rainstorm.
All the officials were crawling on the roadside, their clothes and hats wet, their knees soaked in water,
the heavy rain sluicing the red tassel on their hats.
One of the officials was Zhang Zhiwan, the cousin of the prominent late Qing politician Zhang Zhidong.
He was over 80. He kneeled for far too long and in the end had trouble standing up.
However, when Cixi passed by the officials in a sedan chair, she didn't even lift her head,
as if there was nothing in sight.
Among the hundreds of officials, one person saw this scene and was disheartened.
Many years later, he said, "The dream I had had for thirty years ended there."
This person was Zhang Jian.
In fact, out of all the government officials, he should have been the last person to have such an idea.
Because he had just come top in the imperial exam three months ago.
One year later, he officially announced his resignation,
and became a businessman.
This had never happened before in the Middle Kingdom's hundreds of years of history.
The imperial examination started in the Sui and Tang Dynasties and had existed for over a millennium.
Ranking top in the exam was considered the highest honor for a scholar.
Top-ranking candidates would start working in the government and enjoy endless glory and wealth.
Therefore, Zhang Jian was the first to abandon his political career and become a businessman.
But Zhang Jian’s decision was not a reckless one.
Zhang Jian was already 41 years old when ranking first in the imperial exam.
He was born in Nantong, Jiangsu, and his family had been farming for generations.
During his decades-long and torturous student years,
he also worked as an aide to a big warlord, and even went to North Korea with the army.
As a middle-aged man, no longer young or frivolous, he deeply realized
that the foundation of enriching the people and strengthening the country lies in Chinese industry.
Jiangnan had been the home of silk since ancient times, and the textile industry was highly developed.
Zhang Jian wanted to set up a cotton mill,
which he named "Dasheng", a homage to the Book of Change, “The great virtue of heaven and earth is life.”
At that time, Japanese businessmen were allowed to open cotton mills in Shanghai.
Zhang Jian was quite interested in competing with the Japanese.
A top-ranking imperial exam candidate setting up a mill might sound promising, but it was hard.
His venture capital was only 2,000 taels of silver,
and 700 of them were borrowed from friends.
In terms of his social status, his title was just "editor of the Imperial Academy".
He held no political power.
Therefore, Dasheng Cotton Mill resembled a modern corporate right from the beginning.
He started a public fundraising campaign with a goal of 600,000 taels,
which were to be divided into 6,000 shares. That would be 100 taels per share.
It was estimated that 22 taels per share could be made in profits every year.
He hoped to achieve the fundraising goal in 2 months,
attracting subscribers in Shanghai, Nantong and Haimen.
However, despite the attractive return on investment
and the fact that Zhang Jian was a public figure with a top imperial exam candidate's title,
the fundraising campaign was far from successful.
Many people didn’t trust this scholar who had never been in business.
He went to Shanghai for IPO, but his efforts were fruitless for several months.
Having spent all the money in his pocket,
he had to set up a stall to sell his calligraphy, to earn some money to travel back to Nantong.
Zhang Jian even accepted money from monasteries and Taoist temples,
even if it was just half a share.
The smallest sum was only 37 taels. His fundraising journey was incredibly difficult.
After a year and a half, even some of his 6 initial business partners left.
He only managed to raise less than 80,000 taels.
It was not until the summer of 1899 that
enough funds were raised for Dasheng Cotton Mill to start up.
On May 23, the first batch of "Kuixing" brand white cotton yarn came out of the mill.
The quality was excellent, so the mill made 26,000 taels of silver in profits in the first half year.
Zhang Jian was a gifted business manager.
At the beginning of Dasheng’s founding, he personally wrote the "Factory Agreement",
made clear the responsibilities of himself and several directors,
reward and punishment measures, and profit distribution methods, etc.
Every day at 2 pm, each department head held a regular meeting,
where any problems would be discussed and solved.
The "Factory Agreement" was very detailed, including even how many dishes guests would be served.
In addition to the "Factory Agreement", there were 25 regulations with 195 rules.
At the time, this was probably the highest level that Chinese self-run enterprises could achieve.
Dasheng’s growth was almost entirely dependent on Zhang Jian’s talents in business management.
After the mill was established, in order to reduce the purchase cost of cotton,
Zhang Jian founded Tonghai Reclamation and Animal Husbandry Company to grow his own cotton.
He founded an oil plant, so that cottonseeds unfit for yarn production wouldn't go to waste.
He founded Dalong Soap Factory, so that the oil factory's waste oil could be useful.
To make good use of cotton stalks, he founded Dachang Paper Mill,
which could, at the same time, produce packaging paper for Dasheng Cotton Mill.
Later, he founded his own shipping company to improve shipping efficiency.
In order to produce equipment such as weaving machines, he founded Zisheng Iron Factory.
Such a complete, integrated and sophisticated industrial chain
could be seen as a precursor of modern large-scale industrial manufacturing.
It was unique in China at that time.
Even today it is still a widely used business strategy.
Another special feature of Zhang Jian’s cotton mill was the separation of funds and management.
Shareholders only shared profits, but could not interfere with factory affairs.
Zhang Jian never let the government intervene in the enterprise in his entire life.
Another great thing about Zhang Jian was that
while his career was booming, he did not take advantage of his own authority
to slowly make the business his own property.
He could have easily done it in those days.
Zhang Jian’s business had a huge impact on society back then.
Under his influence, two years later,
Lu Runxiang, another top-ranking imperial exam candidate, announced his decision to set up a mill.
An old top-ranking candidate from the Xianfeng Dynasty ordered his two sons
to set up the country's first mechanical flour mill, Shanghai-Fufeng Flour Mill.
After that, countless gentry members became a driving force of China’s industrial growth.
The burgeoning middle class grew and grew.
The emergence of the middle class, in the turbulent years that followed,
played an important role in promoting social changes in China.
The Boxer Movement broke out in northern China in 1900.
They put forward a slogan, "Help the Qing Dynasty Exterminate the Foreign",
and began to slaughter foreigners and destroy everything that was new,
including railways, trains, wires, and even matchsticks.
They also declared that they were "invulnerable".
The foolish empress dowager Cixi actually believed it,
and used the Boxers to wage war on all Western countries.
But a month later, 20,000 troops from the Eight-Power Allied Forces captured Beijing.
Cixi fled to western China in a hurry, also known as the "Gengzi National Change" in history.
While Beijing was looted,
warships from various countries were cruising aggressively in Shanghai Port and Guangzhou Port,
and along the Yangtze River. Disaster was about to descend on China's commercially affluent south.
At this time, Zhang Jian persuaded Governor Liu Kunyi to take part in "Southeast Mutual Protection",
where southeastern provinces in China disobeyed the imperial order to wage war against foreigners.
At the time, disobeying the imperial order was punishable by death.
"Southeast Mutual Protection" ensured peace between Southeast China and foreign countries.
"Southeast Mutual Protection" was a landmark event in Chinese political history.
The imperial edict was disregarded.
It meant that the supreme authority of the central government had collapsed.
The end of imperial power seemed to be a matter of time and method.
After doing his best in "Southeast Mutual Protection",
Zhang Jian then drafted a "Policy on Reforms",
and put forward 42 specific reform opinions.
He submitted his draft to the central government, and never heard any responses.
Disappointed, he decided to use industry and education
to transform Chinese society by enlightening the people.
In the spring of 1903, Zhang Jian founded a school in Nantong.
At that time, "school" was a very advanced notion.
10 Years later, the Ministry of Education in the Republic of China adpoted the term “school”.
Later, he established in Nantong a series of universities, libraries, museums, theaters,
clubs, banks and various other public facilities.
He transformed Nantong from a small county into a modern big city.
Liang Qichao visited Nantong, and called it "China's most progressive city".
As a lifelong entrepreneur, Zhang Jian accumulated immeasurable wealth.
He used most of his wealth to better education and local construction.
His personal life was frugal. Every meal was simple.
There would be no chicken or duck meat on the table unless he had special guests.
The Qing Dynasty ended in 1912, and the Republic of China was established.
Zhang Jian was appointed as the first industrial chief of the ROC government,
and named Chief of Agriculture and Commerce in 1915.
During his tenure, he continued to fight for his ideals,
protecting private enterprises from bureaucracy.
He suffered a lot of persecution by bureaucrats during his business career.
Thus, he always believed government intervention would only undermine the freedom of enterprises.
Competing with the people for profits would inevitably lead to the failure of the enterprise.
After he took office as the chief of agricultural and commercial affairs, he announced, "Starting today,
all state-run enterprises affiliated with this office will be closed and replaced with investment promotion.
As for some large industries
that cannot be operated by one or two private companies,
an official plan can be made first
to pique the interest of the people, and then the private contractors can take over.
His thinking was so advanced that even today's Chinese government should learn from it.
In his later years, Zhang Jian devoted a lot of energy to political affairs
and the building of Nantong Model City, and focused less on the management of Dasheng Enterprise.
From 1914 to 1918, World War I broke out in Europe.
The Western countries were distracted and had no time for the Chinese market.
This period was the most glorious moment in the history of Chinese private enterprises.
After 1919, westerners began to compete for the Chinese market again.
Domestic warlords melee and natural and man-made disasters made things worse for private enterprises.
In 1920, the price of cotton rose sharply.
As a result, Dasheng Cotton Mill began to lose money.
By 1925, Dasheng Group was already insolvent and handed over to creditors.
Zhang Jian suffered greatly in his later years.
In the last month of his life, he went to inspect the river embankment,
devoting his last days to the business of agriculture.
He developed a high fever due to work overload.
On July 17, 1926, a great top-ranking-scholar-turned entrepreneur
tragically passed away in infinite loneliness.
The Cultural Revolution broke out in 1966.
On August 24, Zhang’s tomb was destroyed by the Red Guards.
His granddaughter Zhang Rouwu witnessed the burial vault.
His funeral items were a hat, a pair of glasses, and a folding fan.
There was also a pair of small metal boxes, containing a tooth and a lock of fetal hair.
Those past glorious days are forever lost in history.
Zhang Jian’s bankruptcy and death signaled the end of the era of scholars and merchants.
Since then, there has never been another Chinese entrepreneur like Zhang.
Hu Shi wrote a preface to his biography,
calling him "a great failed hero in modern Chinese history".
OK. Time to hear your comments on my last video.
In our last episode, we talked about the origin of Christmas,
and discussed the reasons behind China’s boycott of foreign festivals.
Netizen MICHAELKELLY said,
"To completely boycott foreign festivals, China should then boycott
New Year’s Day, March 8th, and Labor day too.
Also, the summer and winter vacations of students should be cancelled."
Netizen Cai Chenghong said,
"If Christmas is boycotted for being a religious festival, then China should not have Sundays.
People would have to work on Sundays."
Netizen Ziyang Zhenren said,
"China should first boycott Marxism, which is also from the west."
Netizen Zhang Xiaofeng said,
"What about Roman Pinyin? That is also foreign culture, right?"
The netizen said,
"Wearing a suit should be banned too. XI and high-ranking officials, please take off your suits."
Netizen H Ling said, "It’s just about inciting nationalism.
Why don’t the CCP government officials boycott foreign green cards?"
Netizen Kang Wang said, "There is also an implicit meaning.
December 25 was also the day when the Ceausescu couple were executed.
It’s also the day when the Soviet Communist Party, father of the CCP, collapsed.
So how could the CCP let us ordinary folks celebrate on this day?"
Okay, that's all for this video.
Please like, subscribe, comment and share.
This is Klaus. See you next time.