In 1916, Sheng Xuanhuai, the richest man in the late Qing Dynasty, died, leaving a huge inheritance to his children, and 42 years later, his son Sheng Enyi was too poor to eat and starved to death in front of the house.
Sheng Xuanhuai was born in Jiangsu Province, his family is a traditional scholar, and his father has a good relationship with Li Hongzhang. In 1863, Sheng Xuanhuai won the Xiucai examination, and then participated in the examination three times, but he did not pass the examination and did not continue.
In 1870, Li Hongzhang came to Shaanxi, sheng Xuanhuai was recommended to Li Hongzhang by his fellow villagers, Li Hongzhang also admired him, and gave him an official position, doing work similar to that of a secretary.
Sheng Xuanhuai was conscientious and responsible, personally implemented, and intelligent and capable, and was soon promoted, and after more than a year, he became the prefect.
Sheng Xuanhuai was deeply influenced by his father, who paid more attention to real problems, thought deeply about the problems existing in society at that time, and learned those useful things. At that time, Sheng Xuanhuai had realized that the country had lagged behind other countries, and it was necessary to learn from them and learn something useful.
In 1880, Sheng Xuanhuai suggested to Li Hongzhang that the big plan for self-improvement was, first, the railway, and the second was the telegraph, and the current telegraph was the most important, and it was possible to try to be a telegraph bureau in Tianjin.
Therefore, Sheng Xuanhuai drew up a plan and put forward the view that "the military newspaper is the first, and the convenience business people are the second", and after the formal establishment, Xuanhuai served as the person in charge.
With the telegraph office, there was also a need for technical personnel, so Sheng Xuanhuai began to train technicians and opened the telegraph school. Soon, the telegraph developed very quickly, which was the beginning of the telecommunications industry, and subsequently, the telegraph in various places also began to develop.
In 1896, Sheng Xuanhuai again proposed that foreigners should concentrate their wealth through banks, and we should also have our own banks, and the Guangxu Emperor agreed very much, so he arranged for Sheng Xuanhuai to start building a bank, which was of great significance at that time.
In 1899, Sheng Xuanhuai saw that there were telephones abroad and told the Guangxu Emperor that he requested to open a telephone business, so the telephone business also began to develop.
Sheng Xuanhuai has always used the attitude of learning to grasp different views, which has also made his business thinking slowly mature and perfect. Sheng Xuanhuai mastered many industries, steamships, telegraphs, railways, banks, textiles, etc., it can be said that most of the economy at that time was controlled by him, but Sheng Xuanhuai also encountered problems, there were not enough talents, so he felt that it was more important to prepare for the school and cultivate talents.
So he gave advice to the imperial court and began to prepare for the academy. When beiyang university hall was established, Sheng Xuanhuai also became the first university president.
Sheng Xuanhuai's purpose in developing these industries is to compete with foreign businessmen for profits and their own rights, and to develop strongly and achieve the purpose of self-improvement and prosperity. He has always used the thinking of a businessman to operate, and strives to maximize the benefits and eliminate the monopoly of foreigners.
Sheng Xuanhuai's actions conformed to the development requirements of the times at that time, and were of great progressive significance at that time, accelerating the development and progress of various industries and changing people's concepts at that time.
On April 27, 1916, Sheng Xuanhuai died, and his funeral was very spectacular, sensationalizing the whole of Shanghai, spending 300,000 taels of silver.
How much inheritance Sheng Xuanhuai left behind, it is difficult to calculate for a while, anyway, the number is huge, he made a will before his death, half of the inheritance was taken out and divided equally among his descendants, and the other half was used to establish the Yuzhai Righteous Village, to relieve the poor people of the Sheng family, and to do charity.
In 1920, through liquidation, after deducting some money, he left an inheritance of 11.6 million taels that could be divided, which was distributed one by one according to the instructions left by Sheng Xuanhuai. Sheng Xuanhuai married 7 wives and had 8 sons and 8 daughters.
At that time, the Sheng family was still at the helm of the second lady, which was quite calm, and after the second lady's death, chaos began. Sheng Xuanhuai's sons are all stupid children, eating and drinking every day, three wives and four concubines, they will spend money to lose the family, after the death of the second lady, they just want to get the property quickly.
Sheng Xuanhuai's eldest son, second son, and third son have all died, and the fourth son, Sheng Enyi, is the eldest, and he is even more a person who can spend money.
Sheng Enyi spent a huge amount of money to buy a German Mercedes-Benz car, engraved his name, showed off outside, and also married 7 wives, each wife bought a car, bought a bungalow, and various servants served.
Not only that, Sheng Enyi also loves to gamble, and once lost a lot at a time. Therefore, in just a few years, the more than 1 million taels left by my father were almost spent.
When Sheng Enyi was born, his father happened to be summoned by Empress Dowager Cixi, and Empress Dowager Cixi gave him a name, so Sheng Enyi was very proud to introduce himself to others.
Sheng Xuanhuai's legacy has allowed his descendants to repeatedly confront the dandelion.
After Sheng Enyi spent his money, he set his sights on Yuzhai Yizhuang, asked to take out the charity fund and divide it together, which caused dissatisfaction in the family, Sheng Xuanhuai's 7 daughters raised dissatisfaction, and also wanted to divide, and finally the agreement was not successful, and a paper pleading was handed to the court.
In addition to this, there are other things happening.
At that time, Dafang's son proposed that he was the eldest grandson of the long house, and he wanted to replace Lady Zhuang and preside over the Sheng family business, and Lady Zhuang was the second wife of Sheng Xuanhuai, who was also born into a large family and was good at financial management, and she sent someone to advise the long house elder sun.
However, Changfang Changsun did not listen to the advice, believing that Madame Zhuang was just a woman, and threatened to go to court and take her rights. Mrs. Zhuang then hired a lawyer and took him to court.
Soon there was another incident, Sheng Xuanhuai's father had an aunt, and after his death, he left a large number of gold and silver jewelry, with a valuation of about three or four hundred thousand. Mrs. Zhuang told Qizi to let him take care of the aftermath of this aunt and keep her finances, because she hurts you the most.
Mrs. Zhuang originally planned to leave this money in the family, after all, each room has been divided into a lot of money, and does not care about this little money, who knows that the 5 sons know that the seven brothers are going, afraid that he will steal, so they found a lawyer, published a big newspaper, and finally sued him to the Suzhou official office.
Finally, by the time of 1958, Sheng Enyi had been poor and had finally died in front of the old house, which was also tragic.
It's hard to start a business, and it's even harder to keep your family business! Sheng Xuanhuai's hard-earned family business did not expect that it would make future generations fight lawsuits again and again. Sheng Xuanhuai left so much property to his children and grandchildren, and he did not expect that in the end his son would starve to death!
Reference: "Kiyofumi Draft", etc.
