Zhang Jingjiang, a famous celebrity whose courtesy name is Jingjiang, was born in Huzhou, Zhejiang. The Zhang family is a wealthy local. His grandfather, Zhang Songxian, was enthusiastic about charity. Influenced by his grandfather, Zhang Jingjiang has been philanthropic since he

Text/Xu Yongchao

In the history of the Republic of China, there was such a strange man. Not only was he one of the tycoons of the Jiangsu and Zhejiang conglomerates, he was also called a "revolutionary saint" by Sun Yat-sen, and Chiang Kai-shek even regarded him as his mentor. This person is Zhang Jingjiang, a wealthy businessman in the Republic of China and a veteran of the Kuomintang.

Zhang Jingjiang (1877-1950), a famous figure whose courtesy name is Jingjiang, was born in Huzhou, Zhejiang. The Zhang family is a wealthy local. His grandfather, Zhang Songxian, was enthusiastic about charity. Influenced by his grandfather, Zhang Jingjiang has been philanthropic since he was a child. The locals call him "Xiao Xia". When he was 15 years old, the young knight fell from a house while trying to put out a fire. Although he survived, he was disabled for life and became lame.

In 1902, the Imperial Envoy Sun Baoqi was ordered to go to France as an envoy, and someone recommended Zhang Jingjiang as the commercial attaché. After arriving in Paris, Zhang Jingjiang saw that Chinese silk and tea were very popular, so he decided to set up his own trading house. At that time, there was no precedent for a Chinese to open a business overseas, so people did not dare to invest in him rashly. In the end, it was his father who gave him 300,000 silver dollars, and Zhang Jingjiang's business was opened.

At first, Zhang Jingjiang only sold raw silk and tea. Later, his business expanded to silk, satin and antiques, and he opened a store in New York, making huge profits. Zhang Jingjiang has a business acumen. He once took advantage of the increase in milk prices in France and opened a bean processing factory to supply high-quality and low-priced soy milk, which quickly became very popular. If nothing else happens, he will always be a wealthy businessman.

In March 1906, Zhang Jingjiang and Sun Yat-sen met on a ship bound for France. Zhang Jingjiang recognized Sun Yat-sen on the deck, "Don't hide it from me, I know you are Sun Wen. Don't think that I am against you, I am the person who approves of you the most!" After a conversation, the two of them had a good relationship. The feeling of regretting seeing each other too late. After landing, Zhang Jingjiang said to Sun Yat-sen: "If the revolution needs money, you can send me a telegram. In the telegram to me, ABCDE is the number, A is ten thousand yuan, B is twenty thousand yuan, and so on. ."

Later, Sun Yat-sen came to Tokyo and planned to start another uprising, but found that there was insufficient funds. When hesitating, he remembered Zhang Jingjiang's promise and asked Hu Hanmin to discuss it: "Last time I met a weirdo on the Internet who said he would help the revolution and made a three-word agreement." Hu Hanmin responded: "It doesn't matter. If you're losing money, why not try sending a telegram?" So they sold the telegram according to the address, and the result was a lot of money.

Sun Yat-sen was greatly surprised. From then on, whenever the money was in short supply, Sun Yat-sen would ask for it from Jingjiang, and he would always send the money in full and on time. Once, Sun Yat-sen sent a telegram, but Zhang Jingjiang did not have enough money, so he sold a tea shop he ran in Paris to fund the uprising. Sun Yat-sen was deeply moved and called him a revolutionary saint.

After the provisional government of the Republic of China was established, Zhang Jingjiang returned to Shanghai. During this period, he met Chen Qimei and his subordinate Chiang Kai-shek. After the failure of the second revolution, Sun Yat-sen went into exile in Japan, and Zhang Jingjiang followed him. On July 8, 1914, Sun Yat-sen prepared to establish the Chinese Revolutionary Party in Japan and appointed Zhang Jingjiang as the Minister of Finance. He said: "Zhang was originally from a wealthy family, and Zhang was the only one who did the party's finances."

In February 1920, in accordance with Sun Yat-sen's Zhang Jingjiang went to Shanghai to continue raising funds for the revolution. At this time, Chen Qimei had been assassinated, so Zhang Jingjiang invited Chiang Kai-shek to work at Hengtai Yi Institute he founded. Due to poor management, Chiang Kai-shek suffered repeated defeats in the market, so he had no choice but to shamelessly borrow money from Zhang Jingjiang to make ends meet. Zhang Jingjiang responded to all requests, and Jiang was able to gain a foothold. In addition, it is worth mentioning that he was also the matchmaker who brokered the marriage between Chiang Kai-shek and Chen Jieru.

In his early years, Chiang Kai-shek was not valued by Sun Yat-sen. In the summer of 1922, Chen Jiongming shelled the Presidential Palace and Sun Yat-sen was in danger. Zhang Jingjiang urged Chiang Kai-shek to follow Sun Yat-sen in Guangzhou. Chiang Kai-shek followed it and gained Sun Yat-sen's trust.

In 1924, Sun Yat-sen organized the first National Congress of the Kuomintang and nominated Zhang Jingjiang as a candidate for the Central Executive Committee. In May of the same year, Huangpu Military Academy was established, and Zhang Jingjiang strongly recommended Chiang Kai-shek to Sun Yat-sen as its principal. It can be said that it was Zhang Jingjiang's support step by step that allowed Chiang Kai-shek to gradually reach the pinnacle of power. Chiang Kai-shek was very grateful for Zhang Jingjiang's help and said that he was his boss.

At the end of 1924, Sun Yat-sen went north at the invitation of Feng Yuxiang, but was admitted to Union Hospital due to illness. Zhang Jingjiang was also ill at the time, but after he learned the news, he still dragged his illness to Peking. When he saw his old friend coming to his hospital bed with difficulty on crutches, Sun Yat-sen couldn't help but burst into tears: "You are so sick, why did you come all the way to see me?" Zhang Jingjiang just held Sun Yat-sen's hand with both hands, choked and unable to speak. . On March 11, 1925, Sun Yat-sen had a premonition that his end was approaching, so he signed the will he had prepared in advance.

On the second day, Mr. Zhongshan passed away, and Zhang Jingjiang was devastated. To this day, there is still a long couplet written by Zhang Jingjiang hanging in the stone niche:

Great achievements in Washington, virtue in China, easy to do but difficult to do, and there are famous sayings spread all over the world

Bones healed Purple Mountain, Lingqi Biyun Temple, Diwei Tian Pillar, his majesty will remain in the world forever

After the death of Sun Yat-sen, Zhang Jingjiang was elected as the Central Supervisory Committee at the Second National Congress of the Kuomintang. In May 1926, he became the party chairman. During the Northern Expedition, Zhang Jingjiang was responsible for everything in the rear.

After Chiang Kai-shek gained power, he appointed Zhang Jingjiang as chairman of the Central Political Conference of the Kuomintang and acting chairman of the National Government. But after 1928, the two gradually drifted apart. He complained to Li Shizeng, Wu Zhihui and others that since Chiang Kai-shek married Soong Meiling, he no longer obeyed him as before. Wu Zhihui said that Chiang Kai-shek was originally a gangster and advised him not to conflict with Chiang Kai-shek.

As a result, Zhang Jingjiang took the initiative to leave the center of power and returned to Zhejiang to serve as provincial chairman. He initiated industrial construction and achieved certain results.

In addition, he also proposed to redeem the land from landlords and distribute it equally to farmers, in preparation for mild land reform. As a result, his land reform commissioners were labeled as Communists by the gentry, and in some places landlord rebellions broke out. Regarding this, he said helplessly:

"My defeat was not due to the times, but actually to my colleagues in the party. Land reform is not a policy unique to the Radical Party, but should also be a policy shared by us revolutionaries. Non-reform The ownership rights of the land cannot inspire farmers to support the revolution; unless the ownership rights of the land are changed, the labor force for industrial development cannot be gathered; unless the ownership rights of the land are changed, the rule of rural clan rights and patriarchy cannot be abolished; unless the ownership rights of the land are changed, If we cannot break up the rural clique within the party; if we do not change the ownership rights of the land, sooner or later we will be defeated by this! Today I was defeated. I was defeated by the spokesperson of the country gentry in the party. A few years later, I will be defeated. The party will surely be defeated by the Communist Party because of this!"

In 1930, Zhang Jingjiang was dismissed from office.

Except for being in charge of the Central Committee during the Xi'an Incident, he spent the rest of his life fasting and chanting Buddha's name. He died of illness in New York on September 3, 1950. In his later years, Zhang Jingjiang was treated coldly, but after his death, he was mourned and honored. Chiang Kai-shek also wrote an elegy for him, "Loss of his mentor", and led the senior Kuomintang officials in Taiwan to pay homage to him grandly.

It's just that Zhang Jingjiang can't possibly know this.