History has its own life, it is like a person, both easy-going and self-respecting. ——Yu Qiuyu
When it comes to the eight major houses of the Beijing Division, I believe that many old Beijingers may not be able to say the whole thing. In fact, they all have the same identity, that is, they all hold the position of minister of the Interior Ministry. In other words, the eight great mansions of the Kyoshi are the eight families of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. They are the family of Jinyu Hutong, the step-family of Twist Hutong, the Kui family of Shajing Hutong, the Zengjia of Qinlao Hutong, the Rong family of Dongjiaotong Hutong, the Zhong Xiang family of Gulou Street, the Wen Dong family of Dongyu'er Hutong, and the Jiang family. Among them, three generations of descendants were ministers of the Ministry of the Interior, and there was only one column since the Daoxian Dynasty. This example is the zengjia of Qin Lao Hutong.
Hand-painted old Beijing goldfish hutong
It is recorded in the "Family of the Interior Ministry": "Ming Shan, Zi Yuanfu, the Ministry of Internal Affairs Zheng Huangqi Manchuria, Daoguang Mo, the foreign Suzhou weaving, Guangdong Customs Supervision, Xianfengjian, the Internal Minister of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Chongwenmen Supervision." Wen Xi, the son of Ming Shan, succeeded him as minister of internal affairs, and Sun Zengchong, who also succeeded as minister of internal affairs, lived in Qinlao Hutong. Later, the people of Jingshi called qin lao hutong zengjia. From here, we can see that the three generations of the Qin Lao Hutong Zengjia were all ministers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. In particular, his grandfather Mingshan not only served as the supervisor of Suzhou Weaving and Guangdong Customs, but also served as the Minister of Internal Affairs and the Superintendent of Chongwenmen in Jingshi. We know that in the Qing Dynasty, there were several official positions with a lot of oil and water, which were the envy of everyone. Among them, there are salt administration, weaving, Guangdong customs supervision, and Chongwenmen supervision, the tax official with the most oil and water in the Qing Dynasty. Mingshan alone held three of these official positions. If their family didn't have money, even the emperor didn't believe it. Cao Xueqin's ancestors have served as weavers for generations, and have accumulated thousands of family wealth, and the degree of luxury is not comparable to that of ordinary officials and rich businessmen. However, the Cao family was a small witch compared to the Qin Lao Hutong Zengjia.
Old Beijing Chongwenmen Street
Ming shan accumulated a million family wealth. After his son Wen Xi succeeded him as the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, he had become a well-known rich man in the capital. The Wuguanzhai antique shop near the Liulichang, as well as the big auspicious antique shop of the East and West Arches, are all opened by their family. At the same time, in the capital, WenXi also opened twenty-four pawnshops. Some people will ask, didn't the imperial court prohibit officials from doing business at that time? Don't officials compete with the people for profit? In fact, this is just a convention, and there is no explicit provision. Because officials disdain business and look down on businessmen, slowly there is a saying that officials do not do business. In fact, there are still many officials who have their own shops, but they do not operate themselves, but through the way of shareholding, let the capable businessmen help operate. The same is true of Wen Xi's twenty-four pawnshops. Among them, there are those who are solely funded by themselves and those who raise funds. They don't need to operate, and then they can get "dividends". Wen Xi's tenure as Minister of the Interior was able to fish a lot of oil and water, and he was able to get dividends from more than twenty pawnshops. Silver flows like water to the house. At this time, the property accumulated by Wen Xi could already guarantee that future generations would be inexhaustible. However, Wen Xi's son Zengchong pushed the family wealth to the peak. Wen Xi had five sons, the eldest passed away early, the second increased chong, the third zengde, the third zenglin, and the fourth zengfu. The four brothers all lived in Qinlao Hutong. Because, the elder Er Zengchong succeeded him as the minister of internal affairs, so the residence was called qin lao hutong zengjia.
Zeng Chong (middle), son Cunqi (left), grandson Kuiyuan (right)
The houses of the four brothers of the Zengjia family occupy half of the alley, and the courtyards are connected into pieces. From the outside, it looks more and more complicated, because these houses are not purchased together and repaired, but are made up one by one, so there is no pattern, no situation. However, the inside of the yard is quite chic. In the courtyard, there are not only rockeries, pools, bridges, pavilions and other buildings, but also a building imitating jiangnan garden, the building is called Changxuan, and the whole is built on a large stone boat. The reason why the increase in worship can bring the family wealth to the peak. First, because he inherited his father's business as minister of the interior; second, he boldly invested in money and took a fancy to a man. This man's name was Liu Huaiting, and he founded Qianzhuang in Jingshi with the help of Zengchong. Under the careful management of Liu Huaiting, Qianzhuang made profits every year, and more and more dividends were distributed to Zengchong. Later, Zengchong invited other officials of the Ministry of Internal Affairs to invest in Qianzhuang and handed it over to Liu Huaiting to take care of. Liu Huaiting can be described as a fish in the water, with both zengchong and other official officials as the backstage, and sufficient funds to develop and expand the qianzhuang. Therefore, Liu Huaiting's money house opened more and more, and founded the four famous Heng Qianzhuang in Beijing. At that time, the old Beijingers referred to Liu Huaiting and Hu Xueyan, the richest man in the Qing Dynasty, as "Southern Hu and Northern Liu". As everyone knows, the biggest shareholder of Qianzhuang, which Liu Huaiting founded at the beginning, was Zengchong.
The money used in the late Qing Dynasty
In 1900, the Eight-Power Alliance invaded China, and a large number of houses in Beijing were destroyed, and the specific number of houses can not be counted. Two of the jewelry and jade shops were robbed at the same time. Although the Zengchongjia suffered a lot of losses this time, due to the thick foundation of the family, it did not hurt the vitality. In 1912, after the end of the Qing Dynasty, Zengchongjia also withdrew from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, where he had served for generations. After that, Zengchong opened three pawnshops in Tianjin, of which two were solely owned and one was funded. The annual profit income of these three pawnshops is as high as 30,000 oceans. Subsequently, Zengchong bought a large number of houses, and its properties spread throughout Beijing, Tianjin, Dalian, Shanghai, Shenyang and other places. There are more than 300 in Beijing alone, 300 or 400 in Tianjin, and hundreds in each other region. Although Zengchong has four wives, he has only one son and one daughter. His son Cunqi married The Five Ge Ge Ai Xinjue Luo Hengfu of the Dingwang Mansion.
Five Grids Of Love Shin Kyora. Daughter of Heng Fu (left) and ZaiTao
Heng Fu's father, Yu Lang, served as a military chancellor during the Qing Dynasty and was the fifth grandson of Yong Huang the Prince of Ding, the eldest son of the Qianlong Emperor. Therefore, at that time, people called Hengfu the grid of the Dingwang Palace. The mother of empress Dowager Wanrong of the last emperor Puyi, Heng Xiang and Heng Fu, were sisters. Wanrong should call Heng Fu the fifth aunt. At that time, the old Beijingers did not understand this relationship too well, and it was also rumored that the Zengjia family of Qin Lao Hutong was the family of the empress's grandmother. As the gegue of the Dingwang Mansion, although Hengfu did not officially attend school, he studied English and Chinese at home. Hengfu's son Kuiyuan recalled: "My mother has a very good brain, especially clear, very quiet, not very demanding of others, and very strict in keeping her own rules. "In the past, the characters in the royal palace all had quite strict rules, and every word and deed was bound by the rules.
Yulambele
Zengadon's health was quite good until his death in 1944. Before this, everything in the family was decided by him, and his son Cunqi wanted to study abroad, but he was blocked by his family several times. As a result, there is also a gap between Cun Qi and his father's elevation. Later, the depressed Old Man in his heart always said: "Everything is empty in me, the house I live in, my home, my money, are all fake." Later, Cun Qi and his wife Wu Gege gave birth to a child, named KuiYuan. As soon as Kuiyuan was born, he was carried to his grandmother's side and raised. Because the family is a single passerby, the grandmother loves this grandson quite much. Kuiyuan later recalled, "My grandmother raised me as a confused child, completely isolated from the outside world. He wouldn't let me read with my other brothers (descendants of several other grandfathers) and wouldn't let me meet people and make friends. When my uncles and brothers saw me, my grandmother took me along and wouldn't let me play with them. ”
Kuiyuan and his wife Zhang Shouying
Cun Qi and his wife Wu Ge saw their son like this, and did not dare to interfere. Therefore, CunQi later vowed never to have children again. He recalled, "If you have a child, you will also be raised to be a confused child." In this way, Kuiyuan did not have much affection with his biological parents. In ordinary life, only when he went to his parents' side to ask for peace, Kuiyuan only saw his mother, and the rest of the time he was with his grandmother and his mother. Later, Kuiyuan recalled. "I didn't have the childhood that a child should have, and I was uncomfortable from childhood to adulthood, which hurt me all my life." Later, the family hired a tutor for Kuiyuan. Kuiyuan was particularly impressed by the two English teachers, because they imparted new knowledge to Kuiyuan and let him open a window into a new culture. His father, Cunqi, did not realize his wish to go abroad, and eventually let his son Kuiyuan help him realize it. Kuiyuan later went to Japan to study, and the family was afraid that he would go to Japan and marry a Japanese wife. Therefore, he first let him form a connection with Zhang Shouying, the second granddaughter of Na Tong, who was also the minister of internal affairs in the past. In this way, the couple went to Japan to study together. Later, Kuiyuan studied at the Imperial University of Japan for three years, but the situation was turbulent due to the war between the United States and Japan. The Kuiyuan couple chose to return to China. However, on the way home, the ship containing their luggage was sunk at sea, and fortunately, another vessel carrying people on them returned home safely. Although the luggage is lost, it can be said that people can survive, which can be said to be a blessing in misfortune.
Kuiyuan husband and wife with grandparents
Later, Japan surrendered, and the domestic situation reversed. As a former aristocratic family, the Cunqi family chose to hand over some of the properties with related investment industries. At this time, although some of the properties in Qinlao Hutong had been sold, there were still hundreds of properties. The later Ministry of Petroleum was the two courtyards of the Zengjia family in Qinlao Hutong. Even so, there are some properties in the Cunqi home with precious stones, gold and silver jewelry, and some antiques. No one can say for sure how much property they still have in their family. But until now, the whole family of more than a dozen people can still rely on the old family property to maintain the basic monthly living expenses. It can be said that the family property left by the ancestors is inexhaustible. To this day, many elderly people in Beijing will say in their memories that the Qin Lao Hutong Zengjia used to have three feet of gold bricks underground and jade tiles slippery. There are jade wrenches, jade bracelets, and even more valuable jade jadeite in the house. Of course, when the descendants of the Zengjia family heard this, they would only laugh at it and tell others that it was just a rumor.
Elderly Kuiyuan
In the past, the old people in Beijing often said that if they talk a lot and move money urgently, this person must be the outer eight flags, the new painting of the small tree house is not ancient, and this family must be the ministry of internal affairs. As the great stewards of the royal family, the ministers of the Interior often did not live too far from the imperial city due to the nature of their work. Due to the restrictions of the status of official products, their residences are called houses in the population of old Beijing, and their super economic strength makes ordinary houses unable to match theirs, so the residences of these ministers of the Interior Have the title of big house doors. The residences of the eight interior ministers of the Beijing Division also formed the eight major houses of the Beijing Division.