Hu Xueyan, whose real name is Hu Guangyong, whose maiden name is Shunguan (顺官), was born in Jixi, Huizhou, Anhui, and moved to Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, at the age of 13. A famous red-top businessman, politician, and representative figure of emblem merchants in modern China.
The 13-year-old Hu Xueyan began to go out alone, successively working as a young man in the Hangzhou Miscellaneous Grains Store and the Jinhua Ham Trading Company, and as an apprentice in the Hangzhou "Xinhe Qianzhuang". From sweeping the floor, pouring urine pots and other miscellaneous tasks, after three years of completion, he became a formal partner of the money bank because of his diligence and steadfastness.
The 19-year-old Hu Xueyan was accepted as an apprentice by The Treasurer of Hangzhou Fukang Qianzhuang, who had no descendants and regarded Hu Xueyan, who was flexible as his own son. On the occasion of the treasurer's death, he entrusted all the money to Hu Xueyan. This money house worth 5,000 taels of silver can be called Hu Xueyan's first bucket of gold in the commercial sea.
In the eleventh year of Qing Xianfeng (1861), when the Taiping Army attacked Hangzhou, Hu Xueyan was appreciated by Zuo Zongtang for transporting arms, grain and rice from Shanghai to help the Qing army, and later helped Zuo Zongtang organize the "Changjie Army" and found the Fuzhou Shipping Bureau. When Zuo Zongtang went west to quell the rebellion against Agubai, he presided over the affairs of the Shanghai Procurement and Transportation Bureau for him, borrowed foreign funds in Shanghai five times, up to 11.95 million taels, collected military salaries, ordered arms, and did intelligence work, often reporting important news from all walks of life in Shanghai at home and abroad to Zuo Zongtang. When it is popular, the official residence is second and wears a yellow coat.
With his outstanding business talents, Hu Xueyan used his official silver to organize private money houses in Shanghai, and later set up "Fukang" money bank semicolons throughout the country, known as the "living god of wealth". In Hangzhou, he founded the "Huqing Yutang" Chinese Medicine Store, making "Avoiding Plague Dan", "Marching Scatter" and "Eight Treasure Dan" for the needs of the military and the people, and the pharmacy has been passed down to this day and won the reputation of "Jiangnan Medicine King".
In the fourth year of Qing Guangxu (1878), the 55-year-old Hu Xueyan established the "HuQing Yutang" medicine number and officially opened for business. Hu QingyuTang, which Hu Xueyan founded in his heyday, expanded the scope of his life-saving objects to all the people in the world. Under the auspices of Hu Xueyan, Hu Qingyutang launched fourteen major types of proprietary medicines, and gave away free Taiping medicines such as Plague Dan and Sha Medicine, which were necessary for the people, and advertised heavily on the "Declaration", making Hu Qingyutang famous before it began to open, which is exactly the business strategy of Hu Xueyan to put long-term fishing for big fish. In the spring of 1878, the above expenses were exchanged for double profits.
In the fifth year of qing guangxu (1880), the capital of HuQingyutang reached 2.8 million taels of silver, which was in line with the century-old Tongrentang in Beijing, which was known as "Tongrentang in the north and Qingyutang in the south".
In the eighth year of qing guangxu (1882), Hu Xueyan opened a silk factory in Shanghai, consuming 20 million taels of silver and the price of raw silk falling day by day, in an attempt to monopolize the silk cocoon trade, but caused a boycott by foreign investors. In the history of a century-old enterprise, the first Sino-foreign business war began. At the beginning, Hu's high price collected millions of quintals of domestic new silk and gained the upper hand. Both sides of Huayang have reached the limit of patience, and seeing that victory and defeat should be judged, who knows that the "celestial phenomenon" has suddenly changed dramatically. The European Italian silk suddenly harvested and then the Sino-French war broke out, the market changed drastically, and the financial crisis suddenly broke out. As it happened, Hu Xueyan had no power to return to heaven.
In the summer of the ninth year of Qing Guangxu (1883), he was forced to sell cheaply, with a loss of 10 million taels, half of the family's funds, poor turnover, and four winds. Its industry was subjected to the competition of bureaucrats everywhere to withdraw money and extort money, which caused the failure of capital turnover, and was squeezed out by foreign investors, and was forced to sell at a low price, and the assets were halved.
On July 27, 1885 (September 5, 1885) of the eleventh year of the Qing Dynasty, Zuo Zongtang died of illness in Fuzhou. In November of the same year, Hu Xueyan died depressed in the midst of poverty and hatred.