As we all know, in ancient times, our country has always belonged to a large agricultural country. Therefore, except for those who have official positions, the status of peasants is the highest in the world. And now the seemingly unattainable merchant rich is likely to be considered a low-class profession in ancient times, and people look down on it. In addition, there will be different degrees of suppression of merchants, so merchants in ancient times could not live very comfortably no matter how rich they were. Of course, the status of merchants was not so low throughout the feudal period, at least during the Qing Dynasty, there was a merchant with a high status and respected by all the people.
This person is Sheng Xuanhuai, born in 1844, whose ancestral home is Jiangyin, Jiangxi, China. And he was a well-known businessman during the Qing Dynasty. However, although Sheng Xuanhuai was a big businessman, the status of the Sheng family in the society at that time was still very high. Sheng Xuanhuai's grandfather was a man of great birth and not low in the Qing Dynasty, and his father was also a Qing Dynasty scholar and held many important positions. It can be said that Sheng Xuanhuai can have such a powerful business empire and is also linked to his family, if there is no support from the elders, he may have been targeted long ago.
Many people may wonder why Sheng Xuanhuai's father did not let Sheng Xuanhuai continue their path as an official. In fact, at the beginning, the Sheng family also planned to train him on the career path, sheng Xuanhuai learned the Four Books and Five Classics from an early age, but after taking several examinations for the imperial examination, he found that he was not suitable for taking this path, and each time he was named Sun Shan. Fortunately, Sheng Xuanhuai's family had a good strength in the imperial court, so he found Li Hongzhang as a master for Sheng Xuanhuai. This is also a major turning point in Sheng Xuanhuai's road to business.
When working under Li Hongzhang, Sheng Xuanhuai came into contact with many foreign cultures because of the foreign affairs movement, and also understood the value of business. Later, he succeeded in creating the most powerful business empire in the late Qing Dynasty, and at the same time created eleven Chinese firsts. But what is most incredible is not his own achievements, but the two maids in his family. According to common sense, as maids, their own talents or status will not be very high, but the maids in Sheng Xuanhuai's family are also well-known figures in modern history, all because they will marry, and the children born are excellent.
One of the maids in Sheng Xuanhuai's family is named Lu Baozhen, and some people may not know her name, but his child Zhao Yidi must be known to everyone. Yes, Lu Baozhen is the biological mother of this Miss Zhao Si, and her marriage to Miss Zhao Si's father was also handled by Boss Sheng. The maids in the general family will definitely not have a good marriage, but Lü Baozhen has a high status as her boss, and Boss Sheng feels that Lü Baozhen should not casually find a family to marry, so she found such a family affair.
At that time, Boss Sheng also chose for Lü Baozhen's marriage for a long time, and only then did he choose his old subordinate Zhao Qinghua. It can be said that if Lu Baozhen really marries the other party, she can also get ahead. However, the feudal system was still a hurdle after all, and the young and beautiful Lü Baozhen, despite being matched by Boss Sheng, still failed to become Zhao Qinghua's wife, but became the other party's concubine. Fortunately, Lu Baozhen's children are very contentious, and she has spent the rest of her life perfectly.
Sheng Xuanhuai's second maid is named Ni Guizhen, compared to Lü Baozhen's beauty, Ni Guizhen's talent has made her status in the Sheng family rise. Moreover, Ni Guizhen was also born in Shuxiang Mendi and received a good education from an early age. When she went to shengjia as a maid, she was a high-achieving student in Shanghai, not only academically successful, but also had super high piano skills. Naturally, such a person could not have been working as a maid in the Sheng family, so after working for some years, Ni Guizhen married a priest surnamed Song and left the Sheng family.
Speaking of Ni Guizhen's children, everyone knows it. The three sisters of the Song family, as the world knows, are her daughters. In addition, she also gave birth to Song Ziwen, Song Ziliang, and Song Zi'an. Each of these children has left a strong hand in modern history, and the achievements of these children are closely related to the education of Ni Guizhen, the mother. It seems that anyone in the richest family is not ordinary, and extraordinary is inseparable from good family education and interpersonal relations in the final analysis.