Sheng Enyi was a famous clumsy boy on the beach during the Republic of China, he was born in the richest family, with a golden spoon, grew up to obtain a degree from the University of London in the United Kingdom and the Columbus Graduating University in the United States, and married the daughter of Sun Baoqi, the prime minister of the Republic of China, this starting line was unique at that time, almost unmatched.
Sheng Enyi
However, he had no intention of doing business, eating, drinking and having fun all day, spending the huge inheritance left by his father Sheng Xuanhuai in just over a dozen years, and by the age of 50, Sheng Enyi was penniless, and could only take the whole family of eight to squeeze into an old mansion in a remote building where debris was piled up before.
He not only spent all his money, but also spent all the family property of his two sons Sheng Yuyou and Sheng Yudu, and had no choice but to take his wife and children to Japan to make a living in order to make a comeback.
Fortunately, these two people have some cross-stove talents, and they have inherited Sheng Xuanhuai's business talent in the next generation, and their management ability is very outstanding.
"Red Top Merchant" Sheng Xuanhuai
Sheng Yuyou started with the early fried fritters, accumulated over the years, and finally built a famous palace-style Chinese restaurant near Tokyo Tower, The New Asia Hotel. Sheng Yudu's business has become more prosperous, he opened a number of branches in Japan, is a famous Chinese restaurant, many celebrities and dignitaries have come to dine, in the 90s of the last century, Sheng Yudu also returned to Shanghai to open a Lingering Garden Hotel, and donated funds for the primary and secondary schools in Changzhou, Sheng's hometown, for many years.
The huge wealth left by Sheng Xuanhuai made Sheng Enyi a loser who only knew how to squander, and the plight of the four walls of the family transformed Sheng Enyi's two sons into successful entrepreneurs from scratch.
1. The son of the richest man, tens of millions of family properties eventually came to naught, and in his old age he fell like a beggar
Sheng Enyi was born with a good hand of cards, he was the only son of Sheng Xuanhuai's wife, because the three sons born to Sheng Xuanhuai's ex-wife died and died of illness, this Sheng Laosi became the eldest son of the Sheng family, and was naturally cultivated as the successor of the richest man. However, because Mrs. Zhuang was too doting, Sheng Enyi developed the habit of spending money and paying attention to enjoyment since childhood, and even when he went to study in Britain, he took his aunt and wife with him to facilitate his life in a foreign country.
In 1916, after Sheng Xuanhuai's death, he left a total of more than 10 million taels of silver, half of which was divided equally by the sons of Wufang.
Sheng Enyi not only received 1.16 million taels of silver, but also served as the general manager of Hanyeping Company, the manager of Sanxin Spinning Factory and China Commerce and Commerce Bank, with a very high salary, but he had no intention of operating and managing, so he hired Song Ziwen, a classmate of Columbia University, as a secretary, and Song Ziwen reported to him every day.
And because Sheng Enyi was busy gambling, playing and smoking opium all day, staying up late every day, so he slept until noon to get up, Song Ziwen could only sit in the living room of the Sheng family every day until he woke up, and then went into the house to report, after waking up, Sheng Enyi did not even want to get up from bed, he lay on the opium bed to listen to the report, drafted a few documents, it was considered to have completed the day's work, and soon, because Song Ziwen fell in love with his half-sister Sheng Aiyi, he simply drove away Song Ziwen, who was proficient in business.
In this way, the business outside the Sheng family naturally plummeted, and the day was not as good as a day, and the Hanyeping Mine, which originally produced ten thousand gold, was controlled by the Japanese businessmen, and soon turned from profit to loss, and even a large number of mining rights and stocks held by the Sheng family became waste paper.
And Sheng Enyi's strength to spend money has increased unabated, under the mother's Zhang Luo, he married sun Yonghui, the eldest daughter of sun Baoqi, the premier of the Republic of China, Sun Yonghui as his name, xianhui capable, soon the children are complete, but Sheng Enyi has never stopped looking for flowers and asking willows, after being assigned to Sheng Xuanhuai's inheritance, he has married 11 aunts and wives, and has given birth to dozens of children, in order not to let so many wives and concubines and children all live together, Sheng Enyi bought a garden house and an imported car for each aunt and wife outside. Coupled with a horde of maids and maids, Kanaya hides her petite skills and is amazingly handy, and his wife is depressed.
Sheng Enyi and Sun Yonghui
Sheng Enyi's own enjoyment is even more luxurious, Shanghai's first imported Mercedes-Benz car is what he bought, in order to show the difference, he also replaced the handlebar with a silver handle, engraved his name, and in order to facilitate access to the concession, he simply bought two cars, a hanging concession car license plate 4444, a hanging Chinese license plate 4, representing "Sheng Lao Si".
Sheng Enyi had fun and gambled, and at his most generous time, he once raised 75 horses in the racecourse, and once lost the alley with more than 100 houses on Beijing Road and Huanghe Road to Lu Xiaojia, the son of Lu Yongxiang, the governor of Zhejiang, who was known as the fourth son of the Republic of China.
In this way, his share of the inheritance was spent in ten years, in 1927, after the death of Mrs. Zhuang,Sheng Enyi proposed to Yuzhai Yizhuang, who managed the public property of the Sheng family, to divide all the public property, he shared 600,000 taels of silver, and soon squandered it, but still did not have the idea of saving, but constantly sold real estate, antiques, and jewelry to maintain expenses.
By the early 1930s, Sheng Enyi had become very nervous, but when dividing up the family property, he also left a back trick, that is, as early as 1911, he established his newborn eldest son Sheng Yu as the heir of Sheng Xuanhuai's third son Sheng Tongyi (who died prematurely).
Sheng Yuyou was originally his own son, and he was established as the heir of the third room, even if he dared to disobey his father, as long as Sheng Enyi opened his mouth, he had to continue to borrow money to go out, so that Sheng Yuyou's family property was also tossed away by Sheng Enyi.
In the later period of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Sheng Enyi not only spent all his own money, but also spent all of Sheng Yuyou's money, coupled with warlord extortion and Japanese embezzlement, the Sheng family's property was left, in order to maintain the expenses, Sheng Enyi once opened a medicine hall, secretly helped the Japanese sell opium, so after the victory of the War of Resistance, his property stolen by the Japanese was not returned, but taken back to the National Government.
The female relatives of the Sheng family are in suzhou lingering garden
Sheng Enyi was poor in Shanghai, and once, he and Li Hongzhang's grandson Li Houfu wandered in front of Xiangyang Park (the old property of the Sheng family), and neither of them could afford to buy tickets, and they went from the son of the richest man to a homeless person without overnight food, just over twenty years.
Suzhou Lingering Garden
In the end, Sheng Enyi fell on the streets in his later years, with no place to stay, he remembered that there were several Sheng Family Ancestral Halls outside the suzhou Lingering Garden gate built by Sheng Xuanhuai, which was still his only remaining ancestral property, so he moved to Suzhou and lived in the ancestral hall for more than ten years, until he died of poverty and illness in 1958.
2. Sheng Yuyou and his wife started by selling fritters on the street and built the New Asia Hotel
Sheng Yuyou was born in 1911, is the eldest son of Sheng Enyi, in order to occupy more than one house of family property, Sheng Enyi made him the heir of the third brother Sheng Tongyi, who died early, so Sheng Yuyou has more prominent status and property than other third generations in the family.
In 1916, after Sheng Xuanhuai's death, he received 1,160,586 taels of silver ancestral property, and in 1928, because the descendants of the Sheng family divided the public property again, he shared 600,000 taels of silver, with a total wealth of more than 2 million silver dollars, including Sanxin Company, Keli Real Estate Joint Stock, Qinyuan House, Taijili, Zhengjiamuqiao, Dongyouheng Road plot of real estate, as well as a large amount of land in Shanghai, Nanjing, Hankou, Wuchang and other places, as well as the stocks of China Commerce and Commerce Bank and Yang Subsidiary. He was the richest teenager in Shanghai at that time.
Sheng Yuyou was still a minor when he inherited the property, his father Sheng Enyi often "helped" him spend money, Sheng Yuyou recalled the past, laughing that at that time he was most afraid of his father inviting him to dinner or making a suit for him, because Sheng Enyi took the opportunity to eat and make clothes to call him out, in order to borrow money from him, the number of money he wanted was not small, and in the face of his father, Sheng Yuyou could not refuse at all.
He grew up with his mother Sun Yonghui living in a garden house on Wanhangdu Road, so unlike his father, he studied hard and became a human being, studied hard after graduating from St. John's University in Shanghai, studied in the United Kingdom, obtained a business degree from the University of Manchester, and returned to Shanghai to manage his own industry for many years.
In 1940, Sheng Yuyou married Ren Zhifang, a big lady from Yixing, Ren Zhifang's father Ren Boxuan was a person in the late Qing Dynasty, his ancestors were officials for generations, his great-grandfather Ren Daorong had served as the governor of Shandong River and the governor of Zhejiang, and had a deep friendship with Li Hongzhang, living in Suzhou for many years, and the garden "Ren Daorong's Former Residence" and "Ren House" built in Suzhou Wang's Washima Lane are now still cultural relics protection units in Suzhou, and the two families are also considered to be door-to-door pairs.
Former residence of Ren Daorong in Suzhou
Ren Zhifang grew in the splendid bushes, dignified and gentle, beautiful appearance, before the engagement, when she went to the dentist clinic, Sheng Yuyu took a car across the road to carefully look at her, fell in love with Ren Zhifang at first sight, and soon, the two held a wedding. At that time, although the Sheng family was not as good as before, Sheng Enyi still held a grand reception banquet for his son at Paramount, and at the wedding, Ren Zhifang was amazingly beautiful, wearing an expensive wedding dress, dragged from the dance floor to the gate, and the feast was a sensation in Shanghai.
Sheng Yuyou and Ren Zhifang
Since childhood, I have not worried about eating and wearing, life is exquisite, a little cleanliness, the room must be cleaned many times a day, the sheets are changed every day, otherwise I can't sleep, and even when I go out to eat, I have to bring her own dishes and chopsticks.
But after coming to the Sheng family, because the father-in-law Sheng Enyi asked Sheng Yuyu for a large amount of money every three to five minutes, coupled with frequent wars, it did not take long for the family to fall and could not maintain a life, the couple were rich children, and did not have a skill, Sheng Yuyu sent his wife and children back to his mother's home, went to Hong Kong and Singapore, worked as a clerk, a secondary school teacher, but did not save much money.
In 1960, Sheng Yuyou and his wife came to Japan with three children, because the bag was empty, they could only consider one of the "three knives" (kitchen knives, scissors, and razors) of the old overseas Chinese, picked up a kitchen knife, and set up an early stall on the side of the road to make a living, while Ren Zhifang accompanied her husband to get up early to touch the black fried fritters, and even had no complaints.
Ren Zhifang
Sheng Yuyou is much more flexible than his father, he accumulated some money by doing early, he opened a snack bar, and later hired Shanghai famous chef Wu Guoxiang to specialize in Shanghai cuisine, sauce pig's trotters, braised paddling, shrimp tofu, braised pork wings, small soup buns, very popular with diners.
After years of development and accumulation, Sheng Yuyou finally opened a seven-storey New Asia Hotel in the Higashi Imperial Gate near Tokyo Tower, with a net worth of hundreds of millions. Middle-aged self-made, can have such achievements, perhaps there is still a talent for business in the bones of Sheng Xuanhuai.
In 2010, the 93-year-old Ren Zhifang was interviewed by Shanghai Television, and she looked as quiet as water, spoke gently and peacefully, and still had her style.
3. Sheng Yudu opened the Lingering Garden Hotel into a well-known brand in Japan
Sheng Yuyu's younger brother Sheng Yudu was originally the second son, and after Sheng Yuyu left the third house, he became the eldest son of Sheng Enyi, but because his father was profligate and in debt, he did not leave a penny, so Sheng Yudu, the grandson who was once the richest man, was very poor when he became an adult, and the family had no surplus money, so he had to work everywhere to support his family.
Sheng Yudu studied at Kyoto University in Japan in 1934, and returned to Japan in the early 1950s, and ten years later, he already had a strong net worth, founded the Lingering Garden Co., Ltd. in Tokyo, became famous for its restaurants with Chinese characteristics, opened a number of branches, became a billionaire, and many Chinese and Japanese celebrities and dignitaries have gone to the Lingering Garden Restaurant to dine.
Sheng Yudu donated the Shanghai Jiaotong University Lingering Garden Hotel
His family speed is so fast, caused a lot of questions, his seventh aunt Sheng Aiyi once said an anecdote in an interview with reporters, saying that Sheng Enyi had a love affair when studying in the Uk, gave birth to a mixed-race daughter, this illegitimate daughter grew up to marry a British rich man, after a stable life, about 60 years ago, he entrusted people to come to China to find his biological father, but Sheng Enyi was no longer alive at this time, only to hear that Sheng Enyi's eldest son Sheng Yudu worked in Japan, and the illegitimate daughter entrusted someone to send 100,000 pounds to this eldest brother who had never met. This allowed him to start the Lingering Garden Hotel.
This statement may not be empty, Sheng Enyi in addition to the right wife and 11 room aunts, in the outside of the debt is continuous, leaving countless illegitimate children, often dancers, female movie stars to the door, but then he has fallen, no one came to the door to recognize the father, he studied at the University of London for a few years when he was young, with such a charming heart, it is not unexpected to have an illegitimate daughter.
One thing is certain, Sheng Yudu never got any property left by his father, whether it was self-made or occasionally received a bonus, after that, Sheng Yudu, who became a billionaire, never squandered like his father, but conscientiously maintained the development of the Lingering Garden Hotel, working until he was more than 80 years old.
Unveiling ceremony of sheng xuanhuai statue
Sheng Yudu is a simple person, usually wears a cloth robe, very traditional Confucian style, after the reform and opening up, he returned to China to visit his hometown, donated 20 million yen to the Wolongqiao Primary School next to the ancestral home of Changzhou Sheng to build the Yuying Science and Education Building (Sheng Yudu's wife's name is Sheng Peng Juying), donated money to the Shanghai Jiaotong University that Sheng Xuanhuai co-founded to set up a scholarship to help young teachers study in Japan.
Towards the end of his twilight years, Sheng Yudu closed the Lingering Garden Hotel in Tokyo, transported some of the decorations back to China, and built the Shanghai Lingering Garden Hotel at the Minhang Campus of Jiaotong University to give back to the motherland.
Born in sorrow and died in comfort, sheng xuanhuai's life course of his children and grandchildren confirms this immortal saying: too much wealth corroded Sheng Enyi's will to struggle, making him indulge in lust and end up sloppy, and the predicament stimulated the fighting spirit of Sheng Yuyou and Sheng Yudu's brothers, allowing them to start from scratch and rebuild their careers.