He is rich enough to rival the country, he only takes pictures once in his life, does not wear satin for 59 years, but has trained 40,000 talents
As we all know, the Whampoa Army Officer School is the most powerful school in China's history, and the Whampoa Military Academy has trained a large number of military and political talents, laying the foundation for the establishment of the National Revolutionary Army. However, during the Republic of China, there was also a well-known school in Shanghai called "Chengzhen Middle School", of which Hu Shi and others had attended, and its founder was Ye Chengzhen, a well-known Ningbo businessman in the late Qing Dynasty.
In fact, when the early Ningbo people broke into the beach, they basically relied on "three knives", what is "three knives"? In fact, it is scissors, kitchen knives, and barber knives, to put it bluntly, the professions of Ningbo people in Shanghai Beach at that time were tailoring, chefs and haircuts, but for Ye Chengzhen of Ningbo, he relied on a small sampan.
Ye Chengzhen was born during the Opium War, but the family was relatively poor, so Ye Chengzhen was very sensible from an early age, and when he was 5 years old, his father sent Ye Chengzhen to a private school to read and write. When he was 14 years old, he went to the beach with the townspeople, and thus he broke into a famous hall.
Ye Chengzhen was selling goods between merchant ships at that time, and because of the language barrier, he needed to hire an interpreter. The translator has to take a commission from the payment, which is expensive. In order to save this fee, Ye Chengzhen spent a month's salary to hire an English teacher for himself. During the month, he seized every opportunity to learn English, even late at night. After all, next month, he will no longer have the money to hire a teacher. A month later, with an English commentary, he stumbled straight into business with foreigners.
Ye Chengzheng started with trade, and then ran industry and finance, he has two kinds of personalities, one is "dare to be the first in the world", the other is the business way of "cautious engagement"; and the perfect combination of the two finally made this young man who was born poor in his early years become the richest man in the early days of the "Ningbo Gang".
In the Ningbo Shang Gang, there has always been such a saying: "Be like Ye Chengzhen". Ye Chengzhen relied on the ability to judge the hour and size up the situation and be good at change, so that he ascended to the throne of the "King of Hardware", and the business became bigger and bigger, becoming a giant of national commerce.
It is no exaggeration to say that Ye Chengzhen at that time could be described as rich and invincible. It can be said that Huangpu Beach created Ye Chengzhen, making a boy who was extremely poor and swaying on the Huangpu River a huge wealth in Shanghai. However, Ye Chengzhen did not like to take pictures, and he only took pictures once in his life, perhaps because his family was relatively poor in his childhood, and after Ye Chengzhen became a huge rich man in Shanghai, he still insisted on not wearing satin and not taking a carriage.
Ye Chengzhen deeply felt that his culture was insufficient, his only wish was to develop education, at the age of 59, he scattered 100,000 silver to build the Chengzhen Academy, enlightened the descendants, specially hired Cai Yuanpei as the principal, Feng Zikai, Tao Xingzhi, Zhang Taiyan and other masters to come to the school to give speeches. Later, among the 40,000 students trained by Cheng zhen academy, there were many talents, including Hu Shi, Li Siguang, Run Run Shaw, Zhu Kezhen and other pillars who influenced the times. The richest man in China in the midst of a chaotic world, who has been righteous and observant all his life, has laid the deepest foreshadowing for China's rise in the future.
It is precisely under the influence of Ye Chengzhen's education to rejuvenate the country, Shaw and others are also keen to donate funds for education, and the "Yifu Building" is all over the country. Nowadays, Ye Chengzhen's business empire has long disappeared, and it is impossible to know how much wealth he has accumulated, but his feelings of home and country for the sake of the rich and the benevolent, helping the poor and establishing education are the biggest property he left to his descendants.