History has never lacked amazing women, the late Qing Dynasty Shaanxi female richest woman Zhou Ying is such a talented woman, from a small point of view, as a woman, her life is very tragic, widowed for more than twenty years, but from a large point of view, she single-handedly created the Wu business empire, in the late Qing Dynasty shopping malls, but also did the daughter of Empress Dowager Cixi, was named a pint of commandments, for the country and the people, she has made great contributions.
I believe that many people have seen Sun Li starring in "That Year the Flowers Bloomed and the Moon Was Round", Sun Li played Zhou Ying, but the historical Zhou Ying is far more powerful than Zhou Ying in the TV series, after all, too many emotional dramas have been added to the TV series, and Zhou Ying, as a widow during the Qing Dynasty, is actually impossible to have any emotional drama.
It is not that she herself does not want to, nor that no one likes her, but that the moral shackles imposed on women by feudal society do not allow a widow to remarry, let alone really married, that is, it is difficult for the man's dead widow to remarry after the engagement.
The so-called "starvation is small, the loss of discipline is big", women have gradually been imprisoned by moral shackles since the end of the Song Dynasty, and can only be from one end to the end, in order to encourage women to stay widowed to the end, there is even such a magical existence as the Chastity Arch.
Zhou Ying is living in such an era that is extremely unfriendly to women, Zhou Ying was born in a business family, that is, the Shaanxi Sanyuan Zhou family, the Zhou family from Zhou Ying's great-grandfather Zhou Mei Village began to be rich on the side, after several generations of management, Zhou Ying's father is also a famous big businessman, it is also such a birth, Zhou Ying was very young and The richest Man in Jingyang Wu Family East Courtyard Wu Ping was engaged.
This family affair was right from the beginning, but later it was a tragedy for Zhou Ying. Zhou Ying did not have a father very early, has been her brother and sister-in-law to raise her, and when she grew up to 16 years old, the Wu family came to discuss the marriage, the two families had long been engaged, so Zhou Ying's brother and sister-in-law did not have any objections to the Marriage agreement with the Wu family.
But when Zhou Ying married into the Wu family, she realized that her husband was a medicine jar, and she had been raised by medicine since she was a child, and the reason why Wu Weiwen, the wu family's father, was anxious to let Zhou Ying pass through the door was also to rush to the joy of Wu Ping.
Chong Xi was a very normal thing in the feudal era, since Zhou Ying had already married into the Wu family, she naturally had to accept her fate, even if she wanted to make trouble, no one was on her side, let alone a brother and sister-in-law, that is, her parents were still alive, and it was impossible to "make the decision" for her daughter.
Zhou Ying, who confessed her fate, became the daughter-in-law of the Wu family, according to the records of the Jingyang County Chronicle
"On the eve of marriage, the husband fell ill and died more than ten days later. Childless, those who choose the infant of the clan must remember the past as heirs. ”
According to this record, Zhou Ying married into the Wu family for ten days, and her husband Wu Ping died, which is undoubtedly a rather tragic thing for a woman in feudal society, because even if it is only ten days, Zhou Ying is also the daughter-in-law of the Wu family, and she is the daughter-in-law who cannot leave the Wu family.
However, according to Zhou Ying's nephew Wu Mi in the "Diary of Wu Mi", Wu Ping died three years after Zhou Ying married into the Wu family, the two also gave birth to a daughter, but only one year old died, and Wu Ping's physical condition became worse and worse, and the two of them together inherited a son from the courtyard of the Wu family, that is, the later Wu Huaixian.
Regardless of the record, it is certain that Zhou Ying was soon widowed when she married into the Wu family, and there were no heirs left, and she could only inherit a son to raise in her name.
The second year after Zhou Ying married into the Wu family, Wu Weiwen died, perhaps as a compensation for Zhou Ying's so-called, or perhaps because the Wu family's east courtyard only had wu to hire this son, so Wu Weiwen let Zhou Ying contact the Wu family's property after Zhou Ying married into the Wu family.
In this process, Wu Weiwen found that this daughter-in-law was worthy of being from a business family and had a lot of business acumen, so Wu Weiwen spent only one year cultivating Zhou Ying, but also let Zhou Ying learn a lot of things, which was very helpful for Zhou Ying to take charge of the Wu family's industry later. After the deaths of Wu Weiwen and Wu Ping, Zhou Ying became the only member of the Wu family's East Courtyard.
After all, Zhou Ying is a woman, wanting to run the Wu family East Courtyard is a rather difficult thing, but Zhou Ying is a shrewd and wise businessman, she has a bold personality, a broad heart, and soon won the support of some people with her strength, after a period of operation, Zhou Ying quickly put the Wu family industry on the right track, which made people who were originally skeptical of Zhou Ying also admired and began to do things around Zhou Ying.
Zhou Ying is bold and strategic, under her efforts, the Wu family not only did not have a family in the middle, but went to a higher level, the Wu family industry throughout the country, involving various fields, including newly laid silk, cotton, cotton, medicinal materials, tea and other industries, Zhou Ying built a business empire, when the folk had such a slip of the tongue:
"The Wu family's guys go through the prefectures and counties, don't eat other people's meals, and don't live in other people's shops."
From this slip of the tongue, it can be seen that the Wu family, which is run by Zhou Ying, is such a huge business empire. After getting rich, Zhou Ying showed her extraordinary wisdom, she fought for righteousness and money, did a lot of practical things for the people, opened warehouses and released grain to relieve the people, revitalized water conservancy, ran education, built a temple of literature, etc., which made Zhou Ying's reputation reach a very high height, and naturally made Zhou Ying invincible in the mall.
However, shang is a businessman after all, if there is no certain status, even if it is rich and enemy of the country, it may disappear in a short period of time, so Zhou Ying is also looking for the protection of the official government, but she is a woman after all, and she cannot donate silver to buy officials to do, she can only look for the right opportunity to find a backer for herself, and soon, Zhou Ying's opportunity will come.
In 1900, the Eight-Nation Alliance invaded the city of Beijing, and Empress Dowager Cixi fled to Xi'an with the Guangxu Emperor and other members of the imperial family, and Zhou Ying heard about it and sent her adopted son to the palace of Empress Dowager Cixi in Xi'an overnight, offering 100,000 taels of silver.
Empress Dowager Cixi was grateful for Zhou Ying's merits, and heard that she was a woman who supported the Wu family's family business, which was not easy, and thought that she was also a widow, but she felt closer, so she accepted Zhou Ying as a righteous daughter, and personally inscribed the plaque "Lady of the Protector" to Zhou Ying. Since then, Zhou Ying has become the dry daughter of Empress Dowager Cixi, which has also become a talisman for Zhou Ying to a certain extent.
The following year, after the signing of the "Xinugi Treaty", Zhou Ying offered silver again, and Empress Dowager Cixi named Zhou Ying "Lady of a Pint of Commandments", such an identity is the ultimate for Zhou Ying, you must know that the "Lady of a Pint of Commandments" such a reward is basically earned by her husband or son, and Zhou Ying spelled a "Lady of a Pint of Commandments" by herself.
It's just that these things are of some use to Zhou Ying before she dies, and once Zhou Ying dies, they won't work. In 1908, Zhou Ying died of illness at the age of forty, and she gave all of her accumulated wealth to those who followed her, and the property was inherited by Wu Huaixian.
Although Zhou Ying single-handedly created the Wu business empire, Zhou Ying had no heirs after all, and could not enter the wu family's ancestral tomb after death, even if she made great contributions to the Wu family and was also the daughter of Empress Dowager Cixi, but under the feudal etiquette, she could not do anything.
She once built an area of 3,000 square meters of Wu's cemetery, but after her death, she could not enter, can only be buried alone in a remote corner about two hundred meters away from the Wu cemetery, with the passage of time, Zhou Ying's tomb has long disappeared, this woman who was dazzling to the extreme before her death, after death, it was lonely and desolate, making people strangle their wrists.