In the late Qing Dynasty, the richest man in the late Qing Dynasty, known as "Sheng Gong Bao", the postmaster Shangshu Sheng Xuanhuai had eight sons and eight daughters, in order to pass on the inheritance of the family from generation to generation, Sheng Xuanhuai, who was proficient in finance, made very meticulous and thoughtful arrangements, and the will handed over a large amount of land property, mining rights, and stocks to the management of "Yuzhai Yizhuang" similar to the family trust, and took it for investment and operation, and the children and grandchildren could only use the dividends, at the same time, Yizhuang also took out a part of the dividends to relieve the poor people and invest in social charity.
It should be said that Sheng Xuanhuai's vision is relatively long-term and has modern business thinking, but unfortunately, most of his sons are stupid children, who are indulging in pleasure, spending money like dirt, and do not know how to operate.
Sheng Xuanhuai
In particular, the darling sheng enyi born to Mrs. Xuxian Zhuang, known as the "sheng si gongzi", is the recognized loser of Shanghai Beach, from Sheng Xuanhuai's death in 1916 to the bankruptcy of Sheng Enyi in 1942, in just 26 years he squandered the big business, once rich in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, in Shanghai has thousands of real estate Sheng Enyi, in his old age, the whole family of eight people crowded into a stove room, the former prosperity, as if Nanke a dream.
The defeat of the Sheng family, on the one hand, of course, is the failure of the fourth prince of Sheng, on the other hand, because of a lawsuit for property that alarmed the media, the entire property of the Sheng family was exposed in front of the world, which caused public opinion to boil over, so that the national government in Nanjing at that time ordered a lot of military expenses to be extorted, and in the end, Yu Zhai Yizhuang was insolvent and hastily closed its doors.
After the death of Mrs. Zhuang, they entrusted a lawyer to sue the court, and as a "virgin", they rightly demanded that the mother's property be divided equally, and finally won the lawsuit, each of whom received 600,000 oceans, equivalent to 500,000 taels of silver. However, the cause of this "first case of women fighting for property in the Republic of China" is due to Sheng Enyi's miserliness and thin affection for her sister.
1. After The death of Mrs. Zhuang, the sons of the losers coveted the real estate of Yizhuang
Sheng Xuanhuai had three wives before and after, and his wife Lady Dong gave birth to his eldest son Sheng Changyi, the second son Sheng Heyi, the third son Sheng Tongyi and three daughters, the second son, the third son died early, the eldest son Sheng Changyi was the best of the eight sons to study, during the Guangxu years, he was a zhongzhong and served as a Zhengerpin official, but his life expectancy was not long, and he died of illness just over forty years ago, and died in front of Sheng Xuanhuai.
Twelve years after marrying Lady Dong, in 1874, Sheng Xuanhuai took the Qinglou woman Diao Shi as a concubine and gave birth to a daughter, four years later Lady Dong died, The Diao clan did not straighten out, Sheng Xuanhuai did not continue the string, it was run by the Diao family, until 1889, When Diao died of illness, in 1891, Sheng Xuanhuai married zhuang Dehua, who was born in the famous family.
Lady Zhuang, who followed the traditional etiquette, saw that Sheng Xuanhuai was middle-aged and childless under his knees, and set up several side chambers for him, liu and liu, so that they could open branches and leaves for the Sheng family, after which Lady Zhuang gave birth to four sons Sheng Enyi, seven missEscent Sheng Aiyi and eighth son Sheng Junyi, and other concubines gave birth to three sons and three daughters, of which Sheng Junyi died early.
Sheng Enyi and his wife
After sheng xuanhuai died, it was taken care of by the fourth ranked Sheng Enyi as the eldest son, at this time Sheng Enyi was only 24 years old, his mother was the wife of the family, his father-in-law was the prime minister of the Republic of China Sun Baoqi, with a famous university degree from the University of London and Columbia University, the status was prominent and powerful, and the later Republic of China God of Wealth, Dr. Song Ziwen of Columbia University, was his secretary at the time, because of Sheng Enyi's rich nightlife, he had to sleep until noon every day to get up, and Song Ziwen, who was accustomed to getting up early, often went to the shengfu living room to wait for half a day. Fortunately, after the boss got up, he asked for instructions to work, and according to Sheng Enyi's son, after getting up, Sheng Enyi was just lying on his side on the opium bed, "smoking a big cigarette while approving documents."
Sheng Enyi has no sense of enterprise at all, nor does he have the heart to take care of the great property left by his father, under the doting of his mother, he has developed the habit of spending money like dirt, and his hands are extravagant, becoming the famous "Sheng Si Gongzi".
At that time, Shanghai's first imported Mercedes-Benz car was purchased by Sheng Enyi, in order to show the difference, he replaced the handlebars with silver, engraved with his name, the car license plate was "4", is his rank, in order to facilitate the entry and exit of the concession, Sheng En Yi simply bought two Mercedes-Benz, the other hung up the concession license plate 4444, in Shanghai Beach, everyone saw the license plates of these two cars, they knew that it was Sheng Si Gongzi driving.
Although married to the stable and powerful Prime Minister,Sheng Enyi continued to fish, and married 11 aunts at a young age, because his father was unruly after his death, and in order to avoid his wife's eyes and ears, he bought a bungalow for each aunt and wife outside, and equipped with a large number of male and female servants, and these young and beautiful aunts and wives also squandered and bought diamonds and famous cars. In addition, Sheng Enyi also has a hobby: gambling, in order to study running horses, he once bought 75 good stallions, and the newspaper rumors that he had lost more than a hundred houses in the entire lanes along Beijing Road and Yellow River Road at the card table overnight.
When Sheng Xuanhuai died, the family property of more than 10 million taels of silver (one or two silver in the late Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty was equivalent to 1.1 oceans) was divided into two parts, of which half was handed over to Yuzhai Yizhuang for operation, and the other half of about 5.8 million taels of equity and cash were divided equally among the children and grandchildren of the five houses, namely Sheng Yuchang, the grandson of the big house, Sheng Yuyou, the grandson of the third house, the old fourth Sheng Enyi, the old five sheng chongyi, and the old seven sheng shengyi.
Sheng Enyi in addition to the proportion of their own share of more than 1 million two silver, but also served as the general manager of Hanyeping Company, with equity dividends and high salaries, the annual income is amazing, including Shanghai, Jiangsu Province's annual financial income is about 40 million silver dollars, a mu of good land price of 10 silver dollars, Lu Xun then bought the Eight Dao Bay before and after the three into dozens of rooms of the courtyard cost a total of 3500 silver dollars, showing Sheng Enyi's wealth.
But so much money can not help Sheng Enyi bottomless squandering, in 1916, after Sheng Enyi shared the inheritance, less than ten years, he almost spent it, he started the idea of Yuzhai Yizhuang, and his two younger brothers also agreed with the opinion of their brother, so together they proposed to their mother Mrs. Zhuang to distribute the other half of the family property managed by Yuzhai Yizhuang again, and Mrs. Zhuang sternly refused.
2. The tuition fee of 100,000 oceans was rejected, and the brothers and sisters quarreled over property
In the autumn of 1927, after the death of Mrs. Zhuang, her original "old maintenance fee" of more than one million taels was incorporated into Yizhuang, and according to Sheng Xuanhuai's will, the two parts of the property totaled more than 7 million taels of silver, half of which was distributed to the children and grandchildren of the five houses, and the other half of 3.5 million taels of silver was then managed and operated by Yizhuang.
Shengjia Garden is now and past
After Sheng Enyi once again obtained more than 700,000 taels of silver, he was still not enough, and together with the other four houses, proposed to Yuzhai Yizhuang to distribute the remaining half of the family property, believing that Yizhuang was not well managed, Hanyeping Iron Ore had nearly gone bankrupt and the stock had fallen, and demanded that the remaining 3.5 million taels of silver be divided equally by the five houses.
In fact, iron ore reserves are abundant, but it is only because of the hidden dangers left by the Japanese capital introduced by Sheng Xuanhuai that year, and Sheng Enyi did not know how to operate, which caused the suspension of the Hanyeping iron ore mine in 1925, resulting in a sharp decline in stock prices, and the Sheng family brothers also had no intention of operating, and only wanted to realize the stocks and field products as soon as possible.
After all, the manager of Yizhuang was only the manager of the Sheng family, and could not help the House Arrest of the Sheng family brothers, so the board of directors promised to take out the rest of the money and distribute it to the son of the sheng family's five houses, and submitted it to the Shanghai Public Concession Provisional Court for approval in November 1927.
At this time, the seventh miss Sheng Aiyi raised objections, Sheng Aiyi is Sheng Enyi's half-sister, the age is not small, 27 years old is still in the middle of the word, it turned out that she and Song Ziwen had a bitter love, was obstructed by her mother and brother, some lovers had to work to fly separately, after which Sheng Aiyi has been unwilling to marry, at home to help her mother take care of family affairs, quite a business ability.
Love yi
Sheng Aiyi proposed to her brother that she was also a child of the Sheng family, or a "virgin" who was not married, Yuzhai Yizhuang was originally a public property, had its own share, if it had to be privately divided, according to the past tradition, the chambermaid also had a certain inheritance right, she did not intend to want more, as long as 300,000 oceans, about 270,000 silver, as a future old-age security.
Who knows that Sheng Enyi is generous to his aunts and wives, but he is stingy with his own siblings, and he refuses Sheng Aiyi's request, he believes that Sheng Xuanhuai's will before his death will distribute half of the family property to the five-room son, indicating that Sheng Xuanhuai believes that his daughter is not eligible to inherit the family property, so the remaining half, Sheng Aiyi of course, does not have a share.
Sheng Aiyi did not want to argue more, so she took a step back and proposed to her brother that she had been helping her mother take care of family affairs at home for many years, and she had no time to study, and if her brother could support her to study abroad in 100,000 oceans to help her obtain the skills to make a living, she would no longer mention the requirements of family property in the future.
Sheng Enyi still refused, he felt that he would have too many places to spend in the future, and he did not want to give a big ocean to his sister, which made Sheng Aiyi very disappointed. At that time, when Sheng Enyi went to study in the United Kingdom, he once took an aunt who knew English with him and paid the tuition, but he was so harsh and ruthless to his sister.
Sheng Aiyi (first from left) with sisters
At this time, Mrs. Zhuang, who had always loved her, had passed away, and Mrs. Zhuang's large amount of "old maintenance fees" was incorporated into Yuzhai Yizhuang, and The property of Yizhuang would soon be distributed to the children and grandchildren of the five rooms, and the Sheng family had no public property and no follow-up dividends, which was equivalent to sweeping Sheng Aiyi out of the house and leaving her with nothing to rely on, so Sheng Aiyi did not stop doing two, and together with the eighth sister Sheng Fangyi, who was also not yet married, jointly hired a lawyer, and in June 1928, he submitted to the Shanghai District Court, requesting that the 3.5 million taels of property of Yuzhai Yizhuang be divided equally with the children and grandchildren of the Sheng family.
3. Miss Sheng Qi won the lawsuit and used the property to set up the famous "Paramount" dance hall
The news of Sheng Aiyi and her brothers fighting over property lawsuits was sensational, and the "Declaration" had been reported in a prominent position many times, called "the first case of women's property disputes in the Republic of China", which involved a huge amount of property and involved sensitive women's property rights, so it triggered heated discussions and controversies from many parties.
In China's traditional feudal society, women are not considered heirs, have no ancestral inheritance and identity inheritance rights, and are not eligible to divide the property of the mother's family.
From the Tang and Song dynasties to the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties, the law regarded families without male ding as "extinct families", even if the couple had daughters, they could not inherit the inheritance, but had to be inherited by nephews within four generations, but the laws of feudal society also clearly stipulated that "in the chambermaid" (unmarried daughters) can get a part of the family property as a dowry, so Sheng Enyi's practice is quite desperate.
After the Xinhai Revolution, the Beiyang government did not support equal rights for men and women, until the May Fourth Movement in 1919, the discussion of the equal decentralization of women's property was put on the official agenda, in 1925, the National Assembly appeared "women and men have the same right to inherit property", in 1926, the National Government of Nanjing officially issued a law recognizing that daughters have the same property inheritance rights as sons.
Sheng Aiyi's prosecution was opportune and supported by women from all walks of life, and even sisters Soong Ching Ling and Soong Mei Ling affirmed her courage to fight for her rights.
Song Ziwen
September 5, 1928 was the day of the opening of the trial, the scene was crowded by the auditors, sheng si gongzi's lawyer retorted that when Sheng Xuanhuai died in 1916, the law did not have the provisions on the equal division of women's inheritance rights, Miss Sheng Qi, Miss Sheng Ba had no right to share the family property, and the lawyers of the Sheng family sisters argued that the property managed by Yu Zhai Yizhuang belonged to public property, and sheng Xuanhuai's will had clearly stipulated that it belonged to all the children of the Sheng family and could not be divided privately; second, since 1926, there had been a law on equality between men and women in inheritance rights. Yuzai's property was only approved by the court as inheritable private property in 1927.
A month later, after the verdict, Sheng Aiyi, Sheng Fangyi and the other five-room Sheng family's children and grandchildren shared more than 3.5 million taels of silver, and Sheng Aiyi received 600,000 oceans of family property, which was six times the study fee she asked her brother for.
And just when this lawsuit was the most lively, I don't know if it was out of revenge, as the minister of finance, Song Ziwen ordered the board of directors of Yizhuang to subscribe for 1 million yuan of cigarette warehouse coupons to support the Northern Expedition, although Yizhuang mortgaged the real estate to buy 700,000 yuan of treasury coupons, but in September 1928, the Nanjing Nationalist Government still sent people to forcibly expropriate Yizhuang, and in 1929, the following was to confiscate the real estate distributed by Sheng Enyi and others. In January 1931, Chiang Kai-shek reluctantly promised that in addition to the confiscated property, other real estate fields could be retained in the hands of the Sheng family's children and grandchildren, but within a few days, he again sent a telegram to Sheng Enyi and others to buy 1 million yuan of Nanjing construction bonds, and after several exploitations, Yizhuang had to declare bankruptcy and dissolution.
Chiang Kai-shek sent a telegram on the Xuzhou front to ask Yizhuang to pay for the military
And Sheng Enyi still did not change the style of the previous big-spending, although before and after inheriting a huge inheritance of more than two million two silver, but in his early forties, Sheng Enyi began to be shy, he sold his real estate, stocks sold out, had to pawn the family jewelry antiques for a living, and also set up Hongji Shantang during the fall of Shanghai to help the Japanese sell opium, in 1942, Sheng Enyi completely bankrupt, the whole family of eight people crowded in a stove room with four leaks, after the victory of the War of Resistance, because Sheng Enyi was suspected of being a traitor, Several houses occupied by the Japanese were confiscated by the Nationalist government, and they lived in poverty until they died of illness in the former ancestral hall of the Sheng family in 1958.
Old age loves to love with children
Sheng Xuanhuai's long-sleeved good dance allowed him to accumulate a net worth of tens of millions of taels of silver, rich enough to rival the country, and his plans for his children and grandchildren were also very thorough, but this Republican merchant father who was also an official and a businessman did not consider the vicissitudes of the times at that time, and his wealth came with the trend, and he would also go with the trend, plus Sheng Enyi, a playboy who grew up in Jintangyu Mali, was particularly good at losing the family, so it was only a matter of just over twenty years from the son of the richest man to the complete bankruptcy.
However, his daughters, who did not pay attention to his will and did not obtain the right to inherit property, did not release themselves because of their rich and worry-free future, and they were still relatively self-reliant and calm. Sheng Aiyi, who knows how to operate, married her cousin Zhuang Zhujiu at the age of 32, gave birth to a pair of children, opened a "Paramount" dance hall in Shanghai, and lived her life calmly and richly, until the age of 83.