In the political and business circles, there has been a saying that "you should read "Zeng Guofan" if you are in politics, and "Hu Xueyan" if you are in business." "Hu Xueyan" once became the best-selling entrepreneur biography. Hu Xueyan is respected as a business tycoon who combines strategy and wisdom, and his life is legendary.
Hu Xueyan has been a dominant figure in the business world for more than 30 years and has become a "red-top businessman". He created a business empire worth nearly 20 million taels of silver, but it collapsed overnight.
himself ended up in a miserable old age and died in poverty and loneliness.
Before his death, Hu Xueyan solemnly told Concubine Jiu: Cut off a corner of the shroud and give it to a mysterious person.
Stills of Hu Xueyan
The "Three Noble Men" of the Richest Man in the Late Qing Dynasty
In 1823, Hu Xueyan was born in Jixi, Huizhou, Anhui. In recent years, Hangzhou and Jixi have argued about Hu Xueyan's ancestral home, but the mainstream still regards Hu Xueyan as a representative of Huizhou merchants.
Hu Xueyan's father, Hu Luquan, was quite knowledgeable in the countryside. But it is still not enough to support five children on just a few acres of thin land.
Hu Xueyan has been helping wealthy families herd cattle since he was a child to support his family. The villagers never thought that this humble cowherd boy would become the richest man in the Qing Dynasty. Although Hu Xueyan never went to school, his father's tutoring made him as good as children from rich families in literacy and arithmetic, which also laid the foundation for him to enter the shopping mall in the future.
When Hu Xueyan was 12 years old, his father passed away. Unwilling to be poor, he decided to go out and make a living.
In 1836, Hu Xueyan followed his fellow villagers to the prosperous and prosperous city of Hangzhou. Hu Xueyan is down-to-earth and hard-working. He started as an apprentice and was very busy sweeping the floor, emptying urinals, running errands, and looking after the store every day, and never complained.
Hu Xueyan
Three years later, Hu Xueyan became an official partner of "Xinhe Bank".
In 1842, the fledgling Hu Xueyan jumped to "Fukang Bank". He showed excellent business skills here and was able to stand on his own very quickly, winning the trust of his boss and shopkeeper.
Yu, the shopkeeper, had no heirs and regarded Hu Xueyan as his own. He bequeathed the bank to Hu Xueyan before his death.
In this way, Hu Xueyan jumped from a migrant worker to a bank owner with a net worth of 5,000 taels of silver, completing a primitive accumulation that others could not earn in several lifetimes. Therefore, shopkeeper Yu can definitely be regarded as Hu Xueyan's first noble person.
Hu Xueyan’s success is not only due to his shrewd mind and abundant luck. His character and principles of conduct are also admirable.
Qianzhuang
It rains a lot in Hangzhou. Fukang Qianzhuang always has umbrellas ready, and pedestrians can come and borrow them as long as they pass by. Hu Xueyan once said a famous saying: "Only if you are willing to borrow an umbrella for others will others be willing to hold an umbrella for you."
Therefore, the people around him had a good impression of Hu Xueyan, the young boss.
There was a big cloth merchant in Hangzhou. Because of financial problems, he approached Hu Xueyan and wanted to sell his big house at half price. Hu Xueyan insisted on trading at the original price. He also promised the cloth merchant: after the turnover is over, the house can be redeemed at any time, and a symbolic interest will be enough.
This cloth merchant later became Hu Xueyan's good friend and attracted a large number of colleagues to support Hu Xueyan's business. Hu Xueyan's character of making friends and being generous with money allowed him to meet the second noble person in his life - Wang Youling .
Hu Xueyan stills
Wang Youling is 13 years older than Hu Xueyan and was born into a family of officials.
His father donated a candidate salt officer for him in Zhejiang. Due to his father's sudden illness and death, Wang Youling was unable to get a real job and lived in Hangzhou drinking to relieve his sorrow. Hu Xueyan saw that although Wang Youling was down and out, he was very impressive, so he stepped forward to talk to him and felt that this man was not a thing in the pool.
So Hu Xueyan generously donated 500 taels of silver to help Wang Youling go to Beijing for activities and management. Hu Xueyan's vision was really unique, and Wang Youling soon became prosperous. In 1851, Wang Youling served as the prefect of Huzhou.
Wang Youling became prosperous in middle age, so he naturally repaid his kindness. He handed over the funds from the Huzhou public treasury to Hu Xueyan's Fukang Bank for management and operation, and did not charge interest. It is similar to the current government depositing fiscal revenue into a certain bank for financial management.
Wang Youling stills
Hu Xueyan used this huge sum of money to support farmers in raising silkworms, and then purchased the silk and shipped it to Hangzhou and Shanghai for sale. After the sales were completed, the principal was returned to the public treasury, and a large amount of profits fell into Wang Youling's pocket.
In 1860, Wang Youling was promoted to governor of Zhejiang, and Hu Xueyan quickly took advantage of the opportunity to expand the bank's business to the entire Zhejiang and surrounding areas.
In the same year, the Eight-Power Allied Forces invaded Beijing city . The Qing government suddenly woke up and began to develop armaments and recruit soldiers.
Wang Youling deposited all the military expenditures allocated by the court and the funds raised by the province into Fukang Bank, and entrusted Hu Xueyan to purchase grain, ordnance and distribute military pay. The equivalent of half of Zhejiang's fiscal funds are in the hands of Hu Xueyan.
Hu Xueyan fully demonstrated his business talents. Not only did he handle the things assigned by Wang Youling safely and beautifully, his business also expanded like a snowball, and his business scope continued to expand. In a few years, Hu Xueyan became the richest man in Jiangsu and Zhejiang.
Eight-Power Allied Forces
Hu Xueyan took advantage of Wang Youling and embarked on the path of "official business" and achieved rapid growth in wealth.
However, the good times did not last long. In November 1861, the Taiping Rebel Army captured Hangzhou City. Wang Youling hanged himself and Hu Xueyan lost his backer.
"A blessing in disguise is a blessing in disguise." With the arrival of the governor of Fujian and Zhejiang Zuo Zongtang , Hu Xueyan quickly raised more than 100,000 tons of grain to relieve Zuo Zongtang's urgent need, so Hu Xueyan got in touch with him. Zuo Zongtang became Hu Xueyan's third nobleman.
After the recovery of Hangzhou City, Zuo Zongtang appointed Hu Xueyan as the general manager in charge of money, food, and military pay for the province. Hu Xueyan's identity went a step further and became a person who is both an official and a businessman. On behalf of the government, he did business with foreigners at treaty ports such as Shanghai and Ningbo, organized military pay and arms for Zuo Zongtang, and expanded his business territory overseas.
Zuo Zongtang
With Zuo Zongtang’s trust and endorsement, Qing army generals and local officials deposited money into Fukang Bank one after another.
Hu Xueyan thus weaved a strong network of relationships. Not only was his business restored to its former glory, it was even better. Hu Xueyan actively assisted Zuo Zongtang in dealing with the crisis after the war.
called on the wealthy gentry to donate money to build roads and set up porridge factories and charity halls to help the people. Hu Xueyan has a good reputation among the people, and also has a certain prestige among officials and businessmen.
In 1866, Hu Xueyan assisted Zuo Zongtang in establishing the "Fuzhou Shipbuilding Bureau", which was the first new shipyard in my country. When the first ship "Wannianqing" was successfully launched and sailed into Tianjin Port, the streets were packed with people, eager to witness the grand event. However, what really brought Hu Xueyan to the pinnacle of his life was assisting Zuo Zongtang in regaining Xinjiang .
Hu Xueyan stills
In 1875, Zuo Zongtang, who took office as the Governor of Shaanxi and Gansu, was appointed as the imperial envoy and was ordered to recover Xinjiang, which had been occupied by the Agubai bandits for more than 10 years.
"While the troops and horses are not moving, food and grass must go first." The military expenditure required for this labor expedition was a huge sum of money. The annual cost of food plus wages exceeded 8 million taels of silver.
At that time, the Qing government's treasury was empty, and it sent Prince Gong to borrow money from foreigners, but with no success. The court could not count on it. Zuo Zongtang handed over this arduous task to Hu Xueyan.
Hu Xueyan first found a confidential meeting with the British Standard Chartered Bank, which he had business dealings with. Using customs revenue from Jiangsu, Zhejiang and other places as a guarantee, he successfully raised 2 million silver taels, and Zuo Zongtang's army was able to set off as scheduled. Then, he rushed to Shanghai to find HSBC Bank and other consortiums and borrowed 16 million taels of silver.
Zuo Zongtang
solved the funding problem of the Western Expedition in one fell swoop. Hu Xueyan also purchased a large amount of arms and medicinal materials to support the front line and consolidated Zuo Zongtang's logistics.
Zuo Zongtang led the Hunan Army to carry the coffin in the Western Expedition, and achieved a great victory, safeguarding the integrity of the country's territory. Zuo Zongtang is therefore famous in history.
After the teacher returned to the court. Zuo Zongtang reported Hu Xueyan's achievements to the court. The Guangxu Emperor rewarded Hu Xueyan based on his merits and granted him the title of third-rank envoy, in charge of the "public treasury of the four provinces". I was given a second poinsettia red hat and a yellow mandarin jacket. This kind of treatment was unique among businessmen in the Qing Dynasty.
From then on, Hu Xueyan's business became even more out of control, and his wealth increased to 20 million taels of silver. Among Hu Xueyan's three noble men, one took him on the "road", one gave him "profit", and the other gave him "fame". Helped him grow from a poor child to "the richest man in the late Qing Dynasty".
Zuo Zongtang
Business empire collapsed
The wealth created by Hu Xueyan throughout his life is the envy of the world. But what is truly admired by future generations is that he founded "Hu Qing Yu Tang" in 1878. Hu Xueyan summoned famous teachers and developed a variety of famous prescription medicines. In addition, the "Pandemic Prevention Pill" and " Sha Medicine " will be given away to the people for free. Soon after the pharmacy opened, its reputation spread far and wide.
Over the past few years, it has won the reputation of " Tong Ren Tang in the north and Qing Yu Tang in the south". Among the many plaques at "Hu Qingyutang", there is a "prevent bullying" plaque that hangs inward. Hu Xueyan always warns employees to operate with integrity. Today, "Hu Qingyutang" is one of the first batch of Chinese time-honored brands in my country and has become a truly century-old store.
However, Hu Xueyan could not escape the fate of prosperity and decline.
With the strong rise of the Huaijun Group headed by Li Hongzhang, Zuo Zongtang was squeezed out. As Zuo Zongtang's "money bag", Hu Xueyan naturally became a target in the eyes of his opponents.
Hu Xueyan stills
In 1882, Hu Xueyan hoarded silk at a high price with the intention of squeezing foreign silk merchants out of China. Unexpectedly, these foreign businessmen united to counterattack, and the price of silk purchase continued to rise.
In the end, Hu Xueyan paid more than double the cost and invested all his wealth to win miserably.
Unexpectedly, at this time, China and France went to war, the European financial crisis broke out, and the global demand for silk fabrics dropped significantly. Li Hongzhang instructed his confidant Sheng Xuanhuai to start selling silk at half price in the market. Sheng Xuanhuai is also a "red-top businessman". He is more than 20 years younger than Hu Xueyan and is a cutting-edge representative of the " Westernization ".
Sheng Xuanhuai's move completely changed market expectations, and domestic silk prices began to collapse. In this "silk business war", Hu Xueyan was seriously injured and lost about 10 million taels of silver.
Li Hongzhang then used his second move. Instruct the financial department to deliberately delay the repayment of installment loans for the year when Xinjiang was recovered. Foreign banks were forced to find Hu Xueyan, the manager and guarantor at the time. Hu Xueyan had no choice but to embezzle 1 million taels of silver from his Fukang Bank to meet emergency needs.
Sheng Xuanhuai
Sheng Xuanhuai took the opportunity to send people outside to spread the rumor that "Fukang Bank has no money."
Depositors who didn't know the truth ran on the money one after another, and Hu Xueyan was caught off guard. Because it was impossible to recover the loaned money in a short time, he had to sell his property and land to repay the money.
But this could not cope with the run wave, and Hu Xueyan had to watch one bank after another go bankrupt. The huge business empire collapsed in just four months.
Li Hongzhang did not let Hu Xueyan go. In 1883, Li Hongzhang reported to the emperor: "When Hu Xueyan borrowed money from foreigners, he lied about the interest rate of 8% to 1.5% and misappropriated 2 million taels of public funds."
This gave Hu Xueyan a fatal blow, and Hu Xueyan was dismissed and investigated. . Zhejiang Governor Liu Bingzhang seized and sold all Hu Xueyan’s assets. Only "Hu Qingyutang" survived due to the efforts of Wen Yu, the Minister of Punishment. In 1884, Zuo Zongtang tried his best to save Hu Xueyan's life.
Li Hongzhang
had a desolate evening scene and passed away sadly
Zuo Zongtang has lost power and can no longer protect Hu Xueyan. When others saw this, they naturally cut off from Hu Xueyan quickly. For a time, Hu Xueyan was left alone and alone.
On September 5, 1885, Zuo Zongtang passed away. Hu Xueyan knew that he had no chance of making a comeback.
Hu Xueyan, who was once extremely wealthy, now has to live with his family in a dilapidated small house. From the prosperous scenery of the past to the poverty and desolation of today, Hu Xueyan suffered such a heavy blow, and one can imagine the depression in his heart. Soon he became ill.
Hu Xueyan, who was bedridden, knew that the end was approaching and began to make arrangements for his funeral.
During Hu Xueyan's heyday, in addition to having a lot of money, he also had too many concubines. At that time, Hu's house covered an area of more than ten acres and was extremely luxurious inside. It was known as the "No. 1 mansion in the south of the Yangtze River". He lived a very extravagant and luxurious life there.
Hu Xueyan stills
Hu Xueyan hunted countless beauties throughout his life and took in dozens of concubines. There are as many as 13 recorded wives and concubines. Hu Xueyan doesn't care about the background of his aunts and wives, it all depends on his personal preference. Several concubines were redeemed from brothels by him.
Hu Xueyan took out the last remaining silver and divided it into 13 parts. He called his wives and concubines to his bedside and asked them to take some silver and make a living on their own in order to survive.
Among them, 11 concubines did not want to be dragged down by it. After eating the last meal, they took their silver and left. Only his wife and aunt Jiu couldn't bear to abandon Hu Xueyan and were willing to stay with him.
Hu Xueyan had a premonition that his time was running out, so he began to make a will.
The first one is "Don't get close to the white tiger", which means don't get too close to officialdom. Hu Xueyan was well aware of the dangers of officialdom and did not want future generations to follow his old path. It is true that few of his descendants became officials and engaged in business;
The second article is "Hu and Li do not intermarry." It can be said that Hu Xueyan's decline was due to Li Hongzhang. He naturally hated Li Hongzhang deeply, and even hated people with the surname "Li".
Hu Xueyan stills
In November 1885, 62-year-old Hu Xueyan was exhausted. He called his reliable wife Jiu to his side and told her: "Cut off a corner of my shroud. After I die, if you find someone wearing an iron hat appearing outside the door, you can take this piece of shroud." Give him the horn. Remember! Remember!" Hu Xueyan died of poverty and illness shortly after he finished speaking. Although Aunt Jiu was confused and puzzled, she still agreed to do it. The day before Hu Xueyan's funeral, there was indeed a man wearing an iron hat among the crowd in front of his house.
Mrs. Jiu handed him the piece of clothing that she had cut off from the rag shroud. After the man took it, he looked at it carefully. Then, he shook his head, sighed and turned around to leave.
Li Hongzhang
It turned out that the man in the iron hat was sent by the tomb robber gang to explore the way. Hu Xueyan told them through this move: "The Hu family has declined. , My shroud is no longer made of silk and satin. There are no more valuable things in the house, so don’t make any more decisions!"
Hu Xueyan used his final shrewd calculation to gain peace of mind for himself and his family. Because she had no money, Mrs. Jiu had no choice but to bury Hu Xueyan hastily on a hill in the Heron Ridge of West Lake, Hangzhou.
It was not until more than 100 years later that the descendants of the pharmacist "Hu Qingyutang" found his cemetery.
Mr. Lu Xun commented that Hu Xueyan was "the last businessman in China's feudal society."
Hu Xueyan stills
As an outstanding representative of Huizhou merchants, Hu Xueyan has a shrewd mind and excellent management skills.
He values integrity and is willing to help others. In the face of the interests of the country and the nation, Hu Xueyan never hesitates. This is also an important reason why he is praised as the "Shang Sage" by later generations.
Hu Xueyan "succeeded in officialdom and failed in officialdom" throughout his life. He achieved brilliance in officialdom, but became a victim of officialdom battles. In the end, he had to rely on "cutting off his clothes" to preserve his last bit of dignity. The ending can't help but be disappointing. People lamented.
Reference materials
Dong Yejun, "Hu Xueyan's Flexible Ways to Adapt to Officials and Businessmen", Heilongjiang People's Publishing House, September 2002;
Liu Fanghua, "Hu Xueyan's Strategies", Chinese Publishing House, March 2010;
Gao Yang, "Hu Xueyan" , Sanlian Bookstore, March 2006.
