History is the memory of things that have been said and done. —Carl Baker
Qiao Zhiyong is a dazzling star in the business world of the Qing Dynasty, the Qiao family since Qiao Guifa started his career, after several generations to finally become a well-known family in the Jin merchants, especially Qiao Zhiyong, he pushed the Qiao family's career to the peak. As a businessman, it is the innate nature of heavy profits, but what is rare and valuable is that Qiao Zhiyong is patriotic and loyal, helps the poor and the needy, and is willing to be charitable. At the time of the fall of the Qiao family, it was the kindness accumulated by Qiao Zhiyong that allowed the Qiao family compound to survive.
Qiao Zhiyong and his descendants have remembered their ancestral precepts from generation to generation, harmoniously in the township, treating the poor well, and the clan has persisted unremittingly for generations, and the villagers have a good reputation. For poor neighbors, or the dead in the family can not afford to bury, or there is no money to seek medical treatment and buy medicine, or the family is not well-off for the new year, as long as they go to Qiao's house for help, they can get free help.
In the thirty-third year of Guangxu (1907), Qiao Zhiyong died at the age of 89, and after his death, he left tens of millions of family property to his descendants. But the most important thing is not these, but the reputation of joe's family. It is said that after Qiao Zhiyong's death, the people of the hundreds of miles came to see him off. At the time of the funeral, from the Qiao family compound to the cemetery, the crowd spontaneously wore thousands of filial pieties, which was unheard of.
Like many Jin merchants in the same period, the Qiao family did not escape the decline in the end, but the decline of the Qiao family was later than that of other Jin shang families. During the Republic of China, the business of the Qiao family was greatly affected, and only the three businesses of "Fusheng Gong", "Fusheng Quan" and "Fusheng West" lost millions of yuan in the current ocean, and since then the vitality has been seriously injured.
During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the qiao family's life was even more difficult. In 1938, the Shop of the Qiao family in Baotou was occupied by the Japanese, and together with funds, goods, and workers, they were all handed over to the Japanese. In order to conceal cash, falsify the account books, from the books to see that there is little cash left, but in fact, hundreds of thousands of yuan were buried in the cellar more than 3 meters deep, for the 8 years of the War of Resistance, the Japanese Kou was unaware. But at this point, the "fu" font size that the Qiao family has developed for more than 200 years has been in a slump.
After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, the Qiao family had no intention of operating the "fu" brand again, and most of the guys left the number one after another, leaving only "Dadetong" struggling to maintain it, and the dismal operation lasted until 1949. On the eve of the liberation of Beiping, the Qiao family silver business once again ushered in a crisis, the loan debt could not be recovered, and the depositors came to withdraw money, and finally, the Qiao family sold the shop and goods to pay off the debt.
In 1952, the Qiao family began to dismiss employees, and the ticket number business ended. In 1955, the state carried out socialist transformation of capitalist industry and commerce, and all the business of the Qiao family finally disappeared. At this point, the Qiao family's century-old foundation has completely come to an end, but the Qiao family is also the most decent one in the Jinshang.
During the land reform, the entire Qiao family moved out, the Qiao family compound was accepted by the local government, and later the compound was distributed to the villagers to live, but the villagers always refused to move into the compound. In order to mobilize the villagers to move, the task force at that time carried out a lot of work, saying that in the past, the landlords and capitalists exploited the peasants, and now it is time for the peasants to turn themselves into masters and enjoy the happiness.
At the mobilization meeting, the villagers finally said the reason why they did not want to move into the Qiao family compound, because they had received great favors from the Qiao family for generations, and now the Qiao family was in trouble, but they would never forget the qiao family's previous great kindness, and said that they would not do anything that fell into the well and had a bad conscience.
Later, the county government used the compound as a military hospital, and used it as a grain depot, and it was also occupied by the provincial commercial cadre school and the party school of the county party committee, except for a small part of the houses that were demolished, most of the Qiao family compound remained in its original appearance.
During the Cultural Revolution, the Red Guards attempted to rush into the Qiao family compound to "remove the four olds", and the villagers spontaneously organized a nursing home to prevent the catastrophe. All the villagers did was to thank Qiao Zhiyong and other descendants for their contributions to Qiao Jiabao. In the 1990s, the Qiao family compound was identified as a national cultural relics unit and is now a famous tourist attraction.