It was once said that China was the first to have a national light industry, and don't forget Zhang Jian in Nantong.
Zhang Jian founded more than 40 enterprises in his lifetime, involving many industries, and is known as the father of industry, and is a veritable industrialist.
He is a pioneer of social and cultural undertakings, and he is also an educator and social reformer.
He drafted the edict of the abdication of the Qing emperor and maintained the great unification, and he was still a politician.
What kind of person is Zhang Jian, who has such a wealth of experience?
Zhang Jian. The dream of saving the country through industry at the end of the Qing Dynasty.
Zhang Jian was born in 1853 in Changle Town, Haimen, Jiangsu, and his father and grandfather had been farmers and merchants for several generations. This kind of family background enabled Zhang Jian to live in the lower strata of society since he was a child, and he had a deep understanding of the people's suffering, thus cultivating his people-oriented consciousness. In order to change the fate Xi of his family, he was sent to a private school by his father when he was a child, hoping to embark on a path from studying to career. When he was 12 years old, the teacher went out of Shanglian to "ride a white horse to the door", and he immediately said to him, "I stepped on the Jinao Sea". Because of the neatness of the battle and the extraordinary tone, it was rumored to be a good story for a while, and it was considered to be the harbinger of the champion.
In 1894 (the twentieth year of Guangxu), the Qing Dynasty ** set up a special "Enke" examination for Cixi's birthday. Zhang Jian obeyed his father's orders, went to Beijing to take the exam, and won the first place in the first class in the palace examination, and was the champion in high school.
In 1895, the Qing Dynasty signed the "Treaty of Shimonoseki" with Japan, which caused great indignation and anxiety to Zhang Jian, who believed that only by developing national industry could he resist imperialist aggression, and that scholars had an unshirkable responsibility.
The former site of the Dasheng Yarn Factory. (*Nantong News Network).
In the same year, with the support of Zhang Zhidong, the governor of Huguang, he set up the Dasheng Yarn Factory in his hometown of Tongzhou and began the practice of "industry to save the country". Zhang Jian criticized the popular idea of "commercial warfare" at that time, and he believed that this was a superficial theory, and that the foundation of the prosperity and power of the Western countries lies in industry, stressing style, chemistry, using machines, fine manufacturing, turning the coarse into fine, turning less into more, and turning the cheap into expensive. He pointed out that the key to Japan's strength lies in industrial development, and industry drives commerce.
In 1913, Zhang Jian became the head of Beiyang ** Agricultural and Commercial Bureau and the president of the Water Conservancy Bureau in order to realize his long-thinking principles and policies of strengthening the country and reassuring the people and the "cotton-iron doctrine" he dreamed of. In the past two years, Zhang Jian presided over the national agriculture, forestry, industry and commerce affairs, and compiled and promulgated more than 20 laws and regulations related to industry and commerce, mining, agriculture, forestry and water conservancy, fishery and animal husbandry, weights and measures, banking, and the introduction of foreign capital, which played a positive role in promoting the development of China's national capitalist industry and commerce.
Special exhibition to commemorate the 160th anniversary of Zhang Jian's birth. (*Visual China).
In the process of running an industry, Zhang Jian fully realized that "the founding of the country is due to talents, and talents come from the establishment of education", and on the basis of a certain accumulation in the development of industry, he vigorously started the cause of education, and began to form his idea of "educating the father and enriching the people by the mother". Based in Nantong, he carried out systematic ideas and practices in the form of local autonomy, and hoped to extend it to Jiangsu and even the whole country.
Zhang Jian's special exhibition of "Serving the Country with Industry and Rejuvenating the Country through Education". (*Visual China).
Build a strong China with national peace and security.
Zhang Jian has made many wonderful appearances on the political stage. Zhang Jian's political goal is to build a strong China with clear politics and national peace and security.
In 1903, Zhang Jian was invited to visit the Fifth Domestic Industry Exposition in Japan, and conducted more than 70 days of field investigation of Japanese industry, agriculture and education, and experienced first-hand the great changes brought by the Meiji Restoration to Japanese society. After returning to China, he actively participated in the constitutional movement and became a leading figure in the constitutionalism.
In 1911, Sun Yat-sen led the Xinhai Revolution, and Zhang Jian followed the trend of history and resolutely turned to support the republic.
"Great unification" and "republic" are the "sects" of Zhang Jian's political propositions. The so-called "great unification" is the great unification based on the entire Chinese nation and the establishment of national unity.
1. A modern country with national independence.
On February 12, 1912, the Qing Dynasty issued the "Edict of the Abdication of the Qing Emperor", announcing the abdication of the Qing Emperor, and the edict was drafted by Zhang Jian. Zhang Jian clearly stated in the edict that "the complete territory of the Manchu, Han, Mongolian, Hui and Tibetan ethnic groups is still one China", and later Mr. Sun Yat-sen officially put forward the slogan of "the republic of the five ethnic groups".
Zhang Jian had a process of transformation from constitutionalism to republicanism, and when he felt that constitutionalism could not achieve the goal of a strong and unified country, he turned to the republicWhen he saw that there were signs of ** in China, he advocated reunification and supported Yuan Shikai;When Yuan Shikai wanted to claim the title of emperor and turn his back on the republic, he was clearly opposed.
On the surface, Zhang Jian's political propositions have changed from one place to another, but they have never deviated from their roots: Whoever opposes China's reunification will fight with whomever he wants, and the republican form of government and great unification are Zhang Jian's political bottom line and principle.
Nantong Model", Zhang Jian's "Prototype of the New World".
In 1915, Yuan Shikai claimed that the emperor's conspiracy was exposed, and Zhang Jian's persuasion was ineffective, so he resigned in anger. Since then, he has devoted all his energy to the comprehensive construction of his hometown Nantong. Under his painstaking management, Nantong, which was originally isolated and backward, underwent earth-shaking changes and became a model city in China at that time. And all this is done on its own strength without ** financial support. Zhang Jian's comprehensive management of Nantong is to build a "prototype of a new world" with his own efforts, and thus promote it to the whole country, so that the country can embark on the road of prosperity and strength.
Zhang Jian pays attention to people's livelihood, he wants to enrich the people through industry and solve the most basic problems of people's livelihood. Starting from his hometown, he strives to create an ideal society of abundance, stability and harmony, which he calls "the prototype of a new world". Hu Shi commented, "He has independently opened up countless new roads, been a pioneer for 30 years, fed millions of people, benefited one party, and affected the whole country." "Zhang Jian's ideal has never been to build a business empire, but to build an ideal society.
Zhang Jian carried out a lot of social reforms in Nantong, all in order to build such an ideal society. Nantong has been a model county for a long time, and the core of the Nantong model is harmony. The harmonious coexistence between man and nature, man and man, and man and society is the basic characteristic of the model society of Nantong in modern times.
The people-oriented thought based on Confucian values, the concept of overall coordinated development and the concept of social improvement are the three basic points for observing Zhang Jian's business in Nantong.
Portrait of Mr. Zhang Jian. (*Visual China).
He is not limited to the development of industries related to the national economy and people's livelihood, but the all-round development of industry, education, charity and public welfareHe was not limited to the production of material wealth, but also attached importance to the production of spiritual wealth and the construction of humanistic morality.
He not only built cities, but also developed rural areas, advocating the integrated development of rural areas and urban and rural areas.
He doesn't just look at the current development, but also thinks about how to achieve sustainable development. He pursued the construction of a people-oriented and harmonious local society through the development of industry, education, and local self-government, and sought a balanced, harmonious, and lasting early modernization.
Jiangsu Dasheng Group "Digital Spinning Workshop". The company was formerly known as Dasheng Yarn Factory, which was founded by Zhang Jian in 1895. (Photo by Xu Congjun from China News Service).
Zhang Jian Xi learned from the West in the construction of industry and society in Nantong, but he never blindly followed. Proceeding from the reality of his country and the reality of the Nantong region, he made full use of the local natural resources, human resources, and social resources, and embarked on a path of combining handicraft industry with machine industry, cities and towns driving rural areas, coordinated development of agriculture and industry, and coordinated development of economy and society, forming the Nantong model of early modernization that attracted attention from China and foreign countries.
Zhang Jian's spiritual world has both the roots of traditional Chinese culture and the elements of modern Western civilization, but the Confucian values and influences, including the idea of harmony, are the first and fundamental.
Zhang Jian's inscription Nantong Museum couplet.
Zhang Jian ran a new type of education, advocating starting with basic education, and first establishing normal schools. When he went to Japan, he did not inspect universities, but elementary schools and teacher education.
Zhang Jian's education is not to establish a primary school or middle school, but to establish an education system, and this system is a practical education system that has a far-reaching impact. He was self-proclaimed and thrifty, and founded nearly 400 schools of various categories in his lifetime, and the predecessors of many schools in China were founded by Zhang Jian. According to research, Zhang Jian has created as many as 23 "China's firsts" in his lifetime.
Zhang Jian has an unswerving patriotic spirit and ideals of saving the country and strengthening the country. Whether he is running industry or education, and building Nantong, the purpose is to love the country, save the country and strengthen the country, which is a thread that runs through to understand Zhang Jian's thinking and action, is the starting point, but also the end point, and is a key to unlocking all Zhang Jian's ideas and propositions.
The cover of Zhang Jian's Biography.
Zhang Jian's patriotism is a kind of rational patriotism. Patriotism cannot just shout slogans, but must be done in a down-to-earth manner, "empty talk will ruin the country, and hard work will prosper the country." Zhang Jian is not a utopian, but a doer and doer. Zhang Jian really practiced the "gentleman seeks himself, villain seeks others" advocated by Confucius, everything starts from himself, and strives to correct the disadvantages of Song Confucianism who only says not to do, "do a little achievement, and fight for scholars".
Zhang Jianshu couplet. (*Visual China).
Zhang Jian's thoughts and actions have a distinct Chinese cultural character. He cared about the countryside and regarded solving the livelihood problems of the Li people as the duty of a Confucian scholar, and it was also the first priority of his business.
About author:Ma Min is a senior professor of humanities and social sciences at Central China Normal University
Executive Producer |Wang Xiangyu.
Editor-in-charge|Cai Liyuan.
Audit|Lan Xi Feng.
Crafting |Hu Qi.