When it comes to the famous family of the Republic of China, it is necessary to mention the Song family. Speaking of the Song family, people are talking about the three sisters of the Song family. The story of the three sisters has become a household name. However, have you ever noticed what the men of the Song family do?
Today, let's talk about this topic: the three brothers of the Song family.
The old man of the Song family, Chinese named Song Jiashu, english name Charlie, known as Song Charlie. Old Master Song was born in the third year of Tongzhi in the Qing Dynasty, in 1864 AD, a native of Wenchang, Hainan. Although the old man was in the Qing Dynasty, he did not engage in the imperial examination that ordinary young people in the Qing Dynasty were keen on, and in his early years he followed his uncle to Cuba, and then went to Boston, USA, to work as an apprentice in a tea shop. He was baptized at the age of 16, became a Christian, and was a devout Christian. In his youth, he studied theology at several universities in the United States. After returning to China, he preached in Shanghai. In the process of mission, money was made by printing the Bible. He took this money as a capital and started an import machinery agency business and became an agent. After years of painstaking management, the wealth has accumulated more and more, and the family business has become larger and larger.
Mr. Song and his wife Ni Guizhen had six children, three girls named Song Xialing, Song Qingling, and Song Meiling, and three boys named Song Ziwen, Song Ziliang, and Song Zi'an.
So, what did the three boys of the Song family do later?
Before talking about the three brothers of the Song family, let's first talk about the relationship between the Song family and Dr. Sun Yat-sen. Because of the relationship between the two people, it affected the entire family of the Song family.
The Song family and Sun Yat-sen have an indissoluble relationship. Old Master Song was engaged in business missions in Shanghai, and Sun Yat-sen and Lu Haodong carried out the anti-Qing revolution in Shanghai. In order to raise funds, Sun Yat-sen became acquainted with Song Jiashu. Old Master Song was very appreciative of Sun Yat-sen and admired his revolutionary ideals, ambitions and courage. Later, he began to support Sun Yat-sen's revolutionary cause and sent money to Sun Yat-sen for a long time. Most of the money he earned from business was used to support Sun Yat-sen. He was an important financial pillar of Sun Yat-sen's revolutionary cause. After Soong Ching Ling returned to China after completing his studies in the United States, due to the special relationship between Sun Yat-sen and Soong Ka Shu, Soong Ching Ling became his secretary. As a result, the two developed a relationship and eventually married.
Well, now officially talk about the three brothers of the Song family.
Let's start with Song Ziwen.
We know from the primary school textbooks that there are four major families in the Republic of China, Jiang Song, Kong Chen, who control the country's political and economic power. The representative figure of this Song family is Song Ziwen. Born in 1894, Song Ziwen is the fourth eldest of the six sisters and brothers of the Song family, the eldest of the three brothers, and is the eldest son of Song Jiashu.
The Song family is very rich, and The old master of Song has an international vision, and after Song Ziwen was born, he received a good education. He entered St. John's University in Shanghai at a young age. After graduation, Mr. Song sent him to study in the United States to study economics at Harvard University, during which he obtained a master's degree in economics. After graduating from Harvard, Song Ziwen went to Columbia University to study for a doctorate.
Now, a young man who has successfully won a doctorate must be thirty years old. But do you know how old Song Ziwen is when he got his Ph.D.— or Columbia University? It was 1917, and Song Ziwen was 23 years old. Really young and promising!
After returning to China, he first served as a secretary in the Shanghai office of Hanyeping Company founded by Sheng Xuanhuai, a famous red-top businessman in the late Qing Dynasty. During this period, he and Sheng Xuanhuai's daughter Sheng Jinru fell in love. The Sheng family was not optimistic about the love of the young man and tried his best to obstruct it. Song Ziwen then resigned from Hanyeping Company. Soon after, Song Ziwen successfully entered the financial industry with his professional background and family background, serving as the general manager of Lianhua Commercial Bank and opening a number of companies at the same time.
Just as Soong Ziwen was making a big splash in the financial world, in February 1923, Sun Yat-sen was inaugurated as the provisional president in Guangzhou. After the inauguration ceremony, Sun Yat-sen urgently summoned Song Ziwen from Shanghai to Guangzhou, made him a central bank preparer, and a month later, appointed Song Ziwen as vice governor of the Central Bank of the Republic of China. How long has he been a vice president? Everyone didn't believe it, and it only took 19 days. Because the president Lin Yunqi resigned, Song Ziwen naturally became the acting president. On August 2, 1924, the preparatory work had been completed, the Central Bank of the Republic of China was announced, and Sun Yat-sen formally appointed Soong Ziwen as the governor of the central bank. This year, Song Ziwen was only 30 years old.
Since then, Song Ziwen has held the financial power of the Republic of China for a long time, serving as the minister of finance of the Republic of China from 1928 to 1933, the chairman of the Bank of China from 1937 to 1944, and the chairman of the Supreme Economic Commission in 1946. On January 24, 1949, Song Ziwen and his wife flew to Hong Kong by plane. After learning that the People's Liberation Army had occupied Nanjing on April 23, the couple detoured from Hong Kong to Paris on May 16 and then to the United States. In 1950, his brother-in-law Chiang Kai-shek, who was in Taiwan, asked him to return to Taiwan, but he refused. Since then, he has rarely left the United States. He returned to Taiwan briefly only in February 1963.
On April 25, 1971, Song Ziwen died in San Francisco, USA, at the age of 77.
Let's talk about Song Ziliang.
Born in 1899, Song Ziliang is the second eldest of the three brothers of the Song family. Because he is the second eldest in the family, his ability is not as good as that of the eldest Song Ziwen in all aspects. Compared with the eldest brother, he has a lot less aura on his body, but their brothers' experiences are similar. Song Ziliang received a very good Western education from an early age, studied in the United States, and after further study in the United States, returned to Shanghai, and became the director of the Shanghai Huiwen Bureau at a young age. After the founding of the Republic of China, Song Ziwen controlled the financial power of the Republic of China, and Song Ziliang also entered the financial system of the Republic of China, and in April 1930, he became the director of the General Affairs Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. From 1931 to 1949, he was the general manager of the China National Goods Bank. From 1934 onwards, he also served as the general manager of China Construction Bank Corporation. He used his power, used bureaucratic capital, and invested heavily in various companies, earning a lot of money. In 1949, seeing that the People's Liberation Army was about to cross the river, Song Ziliang, like his brother, went to the United States to settle down. He died in New York in 1983 at the age of 84.
Finally, let's talk about Song Zi'an.
Born in 1906, Song Zi'an is the youngest of the six siblings of the Song family and graduated from Harvard University in the United States. Unlike her older sister and brother, Song Zi'an is not interested in politics and is less involved in politics. Due to his family relationship, after returning from the United States, he mainly engaged in business activities, and served as a director of China National Goods Corporation, a manager of China Construction Bank, the chairman of the board of directors of Bank of Guangzhou, and the general manager of Southwest Transportation Company. In 1948, Song Zi'an flew to the United States and settled in San Francisco, where he has rarely appeared in public ever since. In February 1969, Song Zi'an died of illness at the age of 63. He was the youngest of the six siblings, and he died first.