Wu Jintang (1855-1926), famous for his works Mo, was born in Xifang Village, Dongshantou Township, Cixi City, Ningbo City, Zhejiang Province. He farmed with his father when he was young, and when he made it to Japan, he became rich in business. He was well-known both at home and abroad. Focusing on his hometown, he donated hundreds of thousands of taels of silver to build water conservancy projects, establish schools, and benefit the countryside. He also actively supported Dr. Sun Yat-sen in his Revolution of 1911 and was a famous overseas Chinese in modern my country.
Wu Jintang was born in Dongshantou, a seaside village in Beixiang, Cixi (now Jintang Village, Guanhaiwei Town, Cixi City) in the fifth year of Xianfeng in the Qing Dynasty (November 14, 1855). According to the Wu clan, at the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, there were frequent wars in Jiangxi and Anhui. Residents in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River moved south one after another. The Wu clan in Dongshantou moved from Jiangxi to the south bank of Hangzhou Bay in the early Ming Dynasty, and made a living on the new land. When it was passed down to Wu Jintang's father Wu Linchu, he was already the 12th generation.
Most of the residents who moved to Haibin Tudi from other places were very poor. By Wu Jintang's grandfather's generation, the family situation had improved, and they tried to get rid of the reality of farming for generations through educating their children. His father, Wu Linchu, gave birth to five sons and three daughters, with Wu Jintang being his eldest son. The ancestral home of the Wu family is located in Xifang Village, Dongshantou. Because Wu Linchu ranked second, it was called "Ang's second house". Wu Jintang was born in the main house on the west side of the first floor.
By the time of his father Wu Linchu's death, he had suffered from natural and man-made disasters year after year, and his family situation was getting worse and worse. Wu Jintang had to drop out of school to work in farming, helping his father with household chores and becoming his main helper. However, his father did not give up on his cultural education and arranged for him to study with his uncle who was a private school teacher after farming. When Wu Jintang was 16 years old, his mother died of illness and his father married Tang again. He treats his stepmother like his biological mother, and the villagers say that the eldest son of the Wu family will be promising in the future.
In 1880, Wu Jintang worked as a tofu grinder in Ningbo. At that time, "blacksmithing, punting, and grinding tofu" were well-known hard-earning industries, and their status was very humble. But for the young Wu Jintang, two years of getting up early in the dark, shouldering and pushing, and being tempered by a difficult life laid the ideological, psychological, and physical preparations for working hard in Shanghai and even venturing into Japan.
Based on Shanghai
In 1882, a neighbor of the tofu workshop saw that Wu Jintang could endure hardships, was educated, and had a high spirit, so he introduced him to Cui Feng You in front of the Red Temple in Shanghai. Worked as a maid in a candle shop. Wu Jintang happily returned to his hometown Dongshantou from Ningbo to say goodbye to his family. Wu Jintang, who was 28 years old at the time, brought his father's expectations with him to Shanghai, the place he had always longed for, and became a formal store clerk a year later.
Wu Jintang worked in Shanghai for three years, studied arithmetic and literature, and figured out how to operate merchants. He was diligent and shrewd, and was highly appreciated by shopkeepers. He was once sent to Suzhou and other places to do business on his behalf. Although oil candles are a small commodity, they are bought by all kinds of people. Wu Jintang got to know many people through this, which was very helpful for him to understand all walks of life and accumulate experience. In particular, his experience in the Suzhou branch gave him the opportunity to develop business activities on his own, revealing his amazing talent in trading activities.
Shanghai went to Japan
In 1885, the second year of the Sino-French War, the 31-year-old Wu Jintang was deeply touched by the slump caused by the bullying of foreign powers in our country's industry and commerce. To strive to seek development externally is an important way to change the current situation. So, with the help of friends, he took a thousand taels of capital and resolutely traveled east to Nagasaki, Japan.
After arriving in Nagasaki, Wu Jintang made a careful plan and partnered with others to engage in the transportation and sales of materials. His business activities were to purchase materials in the Hanshin area on behalf of exporters and transport them to Nagasaki, and to transport imported goods to Nagasaki on behalf of importers. The Hanshin area is left to the dealer. This kind of business has low investment and fast capital circulation. Wu Jintang expanded his capital five times in just one year.
In this way, Wu Jintang relied on "single gang" management to accumulate capital, and also established a business network through purchase and sales, laying the foundation for a brilliant career in the future.
In 1887, Wu Jintang partnered with others to establish the "Yi Sheng Rong" business in Osaka. He finally had his first business house.
Building a giant in the business world
After that, his business scope continued to expand: from acquisitions to manufacturing, for example, "Yi Sheng Rong Hao" was involved in the match business; Commercial transportation extends to self-operated exports, such as shipping matches and parasols to China; transportation and sales by importers turn to self-operated sales.
In operation, Wu Jintang's cautious and flexible, abiding by credit and extremely pioneering and forward-looking management style gradually took shape, attracting the attention of business colleagues, who praised: "His foresight, cautious attitude and His unique business ability is his ability to adapt to changes in circumstances. "The embryonic form of a business giant has begun to emerge.
In 1889, Wu Jintang established the "Yisheng" in Kobe, a famous commercial port on the Seto Inland Sea, and began to settle in Kobe. Since then, after more than ten years of hard development, the business has continued to expand, involving a wide range of industrial fields, and has become a famous industrial capitalist in Osaka and Kobe. Japanese writer Hiroshi Kurobe once wrote an article, calling Wu Jintang and Muto Sanji, the founder of Kobe's textile industry, "people who light up the future of Kobe." At the same time, he also became a leading figure among overseas Chinese in Kobe. In 1894, Wu Jintang was appointed as the "Commercial Director of the Kobe Businessmen Residing in the Qing Dynasty" and was the general representative of the Kobe Chinese Association and the Kobe Sanjiang Office.
In the book "Mr. Wu Jintang's Sixty Years of Longevity in Zhejiang Province", there is a passage in the "Shouyan" written by the name Jiang Yi: "Using matches as daily necessities for the motherland, he founded the red coat trademark . Using cotton as a Japanese textile, he purchased Zhong Yuan’s shares, opened a business, and held industrial power, and gained millions in capital.”
This is a reflection of Wu Jintang’s business activities during that period. Best summarized.
Benevolence and righteousness for public welfare, feelings for hometown
Wu Jintang is enthusiastic about public welfare and cares for overseas Chinese in Japan. He is an entrepreneur who is well versed in business. He has also inherited and carried forward the tradition of Ningbo businessmen supporting each other and working together to achieve prosperity. He has made great contributions in establishing and developing Chinese business organizations, funding overseas Chinese public welfare undertakings, and safeguarding the rights and interests of overseas Chinese. Outstanding contribution. The International Hospital, Orphanage Home, Home for the Blind and Mute, Red Cross Society, Tongren Society, Yeji Society, etc. have all received huge donations from him.
To this day, there are villages and pools named after Wu Jintang in Hyogo Prefecture, Japan, and a memorial monument to Wu Jintang has also been built.
Wu Jintang is surrounded by fellow villagers and loves his hometown. At that time, domestic warlords were fighting, political corruption was happening, and the people were in dire straits. Wu Jintang was often tossing and turning over it, and whenever he could, he would spend huge sums of money to organize relief. At first, he donated money to the government. Later, he organized a relief organization by himself, trying to purchase rice for relief or organize work-for-relief work. The relief area ranged from Northeast China in the north to Fujian and Guangzhou in the south. He helped countless victims wherever the rain came, and people praised him as " Every family has a Buddha.”
Not only that, his domestic investments include mining, smelting, textiles, railway construction, finance, farmland water conservancy, education and other aspects, most of which are closely related to the national economy and people's livelihood.
“Going around the world and benefiting the country” is an important characteristic of the Ningbo Gang. Wu Jintang diverted funds domestically and invested heavily in national construction. At the same time, he also began to donate huge amounts of money to water conservancy and education in his hometown.
The Dubai Lake Water Conservancy Project, which was started in 1905, is huge in scale and consists of four core projects: rebuilding Yangtang on the west boundary, which can be used to intercept floods from the east of Yaobei Plain during flood season; strengthening the two lake embankments , to increase water storage capacity; add water reduction dams to control water levels; dredge Tonghai Dapu, and add large and small bridge gates to improve the drainage and irrigation system. The entire project took "five or six years of hard work and more than 70,000 yuan" to complete.
More importantly, he believed that education was a necessary way for the country to survive, become rich and powerful, and invested a total of 220,000 silver dollars in the establishment of "Jintang School". Therefore, the China Vocational Education Society, chaired by Huang Yanpei, calls Ng Kam Tong, Tan Kah Kee and Nie Yuntai the "Three Sages in Running Schools".
Concerned about revolutionary affairs and unswerving in justice
Wu Jintang was very concerned about the rise and fall of the country and the nation. While he was actively starting a business, he also enthusiastically supported revolutionary activities.
As early as the Reform Movement of 1898, Kang Liang’s reform ideas aroused repercussions in the overseas Chinese community in Kobe, Japan.
After the failure of the political reform in 1902, Liang Qichao fled to Japan and landed in Kobe. Wu Jintang received him grandly and took photos with Liang Qichao.
Since 1899, Wu Jintang has been inextricably linked with Sun Yat-sen’s revolutionary activities. Sun Yat-sen visited Kobe 11 times before the Revolution of 1911. After the Revolution of 1911, Wang Jingxiang, Wu Jintang and Yang Shoupeng, who became the leading leaders of the Kobe branch of the Chinese Revolutionary Party, had close relations with Sun Yat-sen.
After the Revolution of 1911 broke out, Wu Jintang and other overseas Chinese in Hanshin established the Overseas Chinese Unification Federation of the Republic of China. In the next four months, they carried out large-scale activities to support the Revolution of 1911.
After the Nanjing Provisional Government of the Republic of China was established and Sun Yat-sen took office as the Provisional President, Wu Jintang even more clearly supported the new Communist Party and government. He donated 26,500 yuan and 16,400 yuan in silver to the Shanghai and Ningbo military governments respectively. million, and served as financial and water conservancy consultant to the Zhejiang Provincial Military Government.
In 1914, Wu Jintang celebrated his sixtieth birthday, which was exactly 30 years after he first arrived in Japan. In order to celebrate his birthday, Wu Jintang started construction of a three-story foreign-style building next to Songhai Villa. It was completed in May of the following year and named "Yi Qing Pavilion". It was octagonal in shape and was commonly known as "Bajiao Hall". From the external environment to the appearance of the building, from the layout to the interior decoration, the connotation of Chinese culture is revealed everywhere.
The "Emotional Pavilion" is close to the sea and facing the strong pines. It will definitely bring out infinite memories and beautiful reveries for the owner who was born on the seaside in eastern Zhejiang...
Died of illness in a foreign land
On January 14, 1926, Wu Jintang suffered from acute pneumonia and passed away at the Yowa Villa in Kobe, Japan, at the age of 72. When he was dying, he repeatedly asked his family to transport his body back to the motherland and bury it in his hometown. He also asked future generations not to forget that he was a descendant of the Yanhuang Dynasty and not to do anything detrimental to the motherland at any time.
In 1929, his coffin was transported to Cibei via Shanghai on a ship prepared by the Wu family.
Buried in hometown
Wu Gong Tomb Village is located in Minghe Town, Cixi City, a place with beautiful mountains and clear waters and pleasant scenery. There are Du Lake and Baiyang Lake, which are both tourist attractions and a treasure house of water storage in Cibei. The cemetery is surrounded by stone fences, green pines and cypresses, majestic and solemn, and was built by Wu Jintang himself during his lifetime. The mausoleum faces Baiyang Lake, and the tombstone was written by Zhang Jianti, the number one scholar during the Guangxu period of the Qing Dynasty. There is an eye-catching couplet next to the monument, which Wu Jintang wrote himself during his lifetime. The first couplet is "For the love of the lakes and mountains, it is worth burying the bones", and the second couplet is "Regardless of Feng Shui, just follow the heart", which expresses his deep love for the motherland. Above the tombstone is inlaid a tomb list written by Mr. Zhang Taiyan. It is a straight script with more than 700 words, recording Wu Jintang’s life and deeds.
At that time, thousands of representatives from all walks of life at home and abroad attended the memorial service, and the vast number of people in Cibei also spontaneously came to pay their respects, with more than 10,000 people in total. On this day, there was a constant flow of people on the embankment of Baiyang Lake. From the Tzu Chi Temple to the Jintang Cemetery, there were thousands of people moving around and the water was unceasing. In the elegiac couplet presented by the people in his hometown, he wrote, "With the enthusiasm to help the world, he provided food and clothing, and he was worthy of thousands of families to live as Buddhas; he worked hard in overseas undertakings, endured hardships, and encouraged the heroes of the present generation." This highly summarizes his outstanding life