What were some of the most powerful industrialists during the Republic of China period? What have they accomplished?

After the Xinhai Revolution, although China was always in a situation of warlords fighting and dividing up, in the midst of the cracks, China's national industry still developed tenaciously. Among them, the development of light industries with small investment and quick results is particularly rapid, such as flour industry, textile industry, chemical industry, leather industry, tobacco industry and so on. For a time, many national capitalists such as the "King of Flour" and the "King of Cotton Spinning" also emerged.

The development of China's national capital

When Talking about China's industrial development, Chairman Mao once said that there are four people who must not forget: We must not forget Zhang Xiao when we talk about light industry, we cannot forget Zhang Zhidong when talking about heavy industry, we cannot forget Fan Xudong when we talk about chemical industry, and we cannot forget Lu Zuofu when talking about transportation industry. These four highly representative national industrialists, except for Zhang Zhidong, who belonged to the late Qing Dynasty, the other three were industrialists in the Republic of China period.

Zhang Jian

Zhang Jian (張謇), also spelled Ji Zhi, was born in Haimen, Jiangsu Province in 1853, and was a champion of the late Qing Dynasty before becoming an industrialist. In 1898, his teacher Weng Tonggong was deposed by Cixi, and after witnessing the dangers of the official field, Zhang Xiao left the official field and was determined to save the country through industry, and from then on, he became the most famous industrialist in modern China.

Zhang Jian founded more than 20 enterprises and more than 370 schools in his lifetime, and he is also a pioneer in China's cotton textile industry. Many of the schools founded by Zhang Xiao were the first in China at that time. The Dasheng Spinning Factory he founded has always been the largest spinning mill in China, with 137,000 spindles at its peak. Because he believes in "industry to save the country" and "education to save the country", and practices it himself, Zhang Xiao is also respected as a "champion industrialist".

Fan Xudong

I believe that everyone has learned the famous Hou's alkali method in the middle school textbook. Dr. Hou Debang, who completely broke the monopoly of the West and created Chinese alkali production method, was hired by Fan Xudong's Yongli alkali plant to develop.

Fan Xudong, zi Mingjun, born in 1883 in Changsha, Hunan, Fan Xudong was one of the few down-to-earth industrialists in China during the Republic of China period, known as the "father of China's national chemical industry" because of his outstanding contributions to the chemical industry.

We all know that in the chemical industry, triacids and two bases are always indispensable, but at that time, Chinese was completely unable to manufacture. Deeply aware of the importance of chemical industry to the national industry, Fan Xudong, who studied in Japan and graduated from the Department of Chemistry of Kyoto Imperial University, returned to China after the Xinhai Revolution and successively founded Jiuda Fine Salt Company, Jiuda Fine Salt Factory, Yongli Alkali Plant, Yongyu Salt Company, Huanghai Chemical Industry Research Society, Yongli Ammonia Sulfate Plant and other chemical plants of great significance to China.

Factory founded by Fan Xudong

Fan Xudong has created countless firsts in China's chemical industry: he founded China's first refined salt plant, China's first soda ash plant in Asia, China's first ammonia sulfate plant, China's first fertilizer plant and so on.

In 1926, developed by Hou Debang and others, the Red Triangle brand soda ash produced by The Yongli Alkali Factory won the gold medal at the Philadelphia World Exposition in the United States, and it was also known as "the symbol of China's modern industrial progress". On October 2, 1945, due to overwork, Fan Xudong suddenly fell ill with acute hepatitis and unfortunately died at the age of 62. Chairman Mao, who was participating in the negotiations in Chongqing at the time, wrote for him an inscription entitled "Industrial Pioneer, Merit in China."

Fan Xudong funeral

Lu Zuofu

Lu Zuofu, formerly known as Lu Kuixian, was born in 1893 in Hechuan, Chongqing. Lu Zuofu was a famous patriotic industrialist, educator and social activist in modern China, and he was also known as the "King of Chinese Ships".

In 1925, due to the warlord melee, Lu Zuofu, who hoped to "educate and save the country", was repeatedly defeated, and after learning the lessons, Lu Zuofu turned to the idea of "saving the country through industry". He believes that industry saves the country, especially the transportation industry as the "mother of all industries", so he abandoned his studies and engaged in business, struggled to raise 8,000 yuan as capital, and founded the Minsheng Industrial Company.

Under the leadership of Lu Zuofu, the Minsheng Industrial Company, which started with a boat, had unified the shipping of the upper reaches of the Yangtze River in 1935, and the foreign steamship companies that could not be used to cross the Yangtze River were all expelled from the upper reaches of the Yangtze River. By the eve of the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War in 1937, Minsheng Company had owned up to 46 ships, with a total tonnage of 30,000 tons and nearly 4,000 employees, and Minsheng Company also became the largest national shipping enterprise in China at that time.

In particular, it is worth mentioning that in 1938, on the eve of the fall of Yichang, Lu Zuofu led the Minsheng Company to direct the famous "Yichang Great Retreat". Under his leadership, Minsheng Company used its own ships. In more than 40 days, 1.5 million people gathered in Yichang and more than one million tons of materials were snatched away.

The schools and materials that Were rushed into Sichuan by Lu Zuofu, including Fudan University, Central University, Jinling University, Wuhan University, Shandong University, and dozens of other modern factories, preserved the lifeblood of China's economy and industry and education and culture at that time. However, Lu Zuofu's Minsheng Company paid a huge loss of 16 ships that were sunk, sixty-nine ships that were injured, 117 employees who died, and 76 employees who were disabled.