"There is a Bao Qingtian in Kaifeng, and the iron mask selflessly defends the loyal and adulterous."
This is the opening sentence of the theme song of the TV series "Bao Qingtian", which describes the image of Bao Zheng, a famous minister of the Northern Song Dynasty.
However, most people in the world only know the image of Bao Zheng when he handled the case, and few people know that in his later years, he suffered the pain of losing his son. His eldest son, Bao Qi, the son of him and his stepbrother Dong Clan, died of illness the year after his marriage. Bao Qi's son also died at the age of five.
It was not until he was sixty years old that Bao Zheng, who thought he was the last queen, unexpectedly learned that the concubine Sun Shi, who had been sent back to his mother's family by himself, had actually given birth to his only son, Bao Shou, that is, Bao Shou. It is Bao Zheng, the "old man", who has preserved the blood of the Bao family.
It is also from Bao Shuo that the Bao family is prosperous, and bao Shou alone has four sons. After that, the Bao family's clan also became larger and larger.
In 1918, Bao Zheng's 29th grandson Bao Yugang was born, and his father Bao Zhaolong was an ordinary paper merchant in Ningbo, Zhejiang. When he was young, Bao Yugang did not know that he was a descendant of Bao Zheng. Because of his chaotic life, he could not finish his university. In desperation, Bao Yugang went to a bank as a clerk.
At this time, his father Bao Zhaolong still wanted his son to continue his studies in order to become an official in the future and seek benefits for the people. The reason why Bao Zhaolong has such a thought is naturally related to the Blood of the Bao Family flowing in his bones.
It is also because of his high hopes for his son that Bao Zhaolong attaches great importance to the moral education of his son, and he taught his son from an early age: A gentleman should carry goods with great virtue. Under the teaching of his father's words and deeds, Bao Yugang, who was full of righteousness, slowly grew into an upright young man.
Bao Zheng and Bao Yugang in the film and television drama
During his time at the bank, Bao Yugang won the trust of the president with his down-to-earth and honest character, and a few years later, he even became the manager of the business department of Shanghai Municipal Bank. Everyone was sure that in a few years he would take over the bank's presidency.
But Bao Yugang chose to leave the bank at this time, but he did not go to the university to continue his studies as his father thought, but chose to start his own business. The year the decision was made, Bao Yugang was 31 years old. After leaving Shanghai, he arrived in Hong Kong, and he began to set up a joint venture with others to open a Chinese company and deal in import trade.
After several twists and turns, at the age of 37, he once again made a major decision that affected his life: to develop the shipbuilding industry.
When he decided to develop the shipbuilding industry, all his savings were hundreds of thousands of yuan saved with his father. To persuade his father to support his choice, he said to him:
"Shipping is a worldwide business, assets can be moved, the scope involves property, technology, insurance, economics, politics, trade, almost everything!"
This sentence completely touched Bao Zhaolong, who felt: Since it is all-encompassing, it is similar to politics.
After making up his mind, Bao Yugang began to learn about the situation of ships and shipping, and he began to carefully study the relevant books.
Another reason why Bao Yugang chose shipbuilding as the direction of entrepreneurship is also related to his childhood experience. In his childhood, his father often took him to the beach, and when he was first taken to the beach by his father, he fell in love with the vast sea. He liked to pick up shells and pile up mud people on the seashore, and every time a boat passed, he listened with bated breath to the whistle of the sails setting sail.
In Bao Yugang's heart: There is no sound in this world that is more beautiful than the whistle of a ship.
Also because of his special feelings for the sea, when he went to Shanghai to study at the age of 13, Bao Yugang chose Shanghai Maritime University, and his major was shipbuilding.
Therefore, after Bao Yugang, who was in the banking industry, left, after countless struggles, he finally chose the shipping industry, which is actually inevitable, or that it is doomed in the dark.
There are ships to be transported, but the money in Bao Yugang's hands is not enough, what should I do? After asking a friend to borrow money and being refused, he had to try to borrow money from the bank. After easily scraping together $770,000, he went to England to buy an old coal-fired cargo ship.
Bao Yugang in his youth
The first second-hand ship that Bao Yugang bought had been in use for 28 years by the time it reached him, and its displacement was only 8200 tons. But everything is difficult at the beginning, and with the beginning, everything is easy to say.
When he officially began to dabble in the shipbuilding industry, Bao Yugang also had his own ideas, he felt: the most important thing to do any line of work is to build trust. Therefore, when choosing his own partner, he attaches great importance to the virtue of the other party. He believes that the basis of a real win-win situation is that both sides are good people.
Therefore, when all ship owners use the traditional short-term way to charter ships, Bao Yugang chose long-term charter. Compared with long-term rents, short-term rentals are not only settled quickly (run once and settle once), but also have the advantages of high charging standards and can be raised at any time. The world-famous Greek ship kings Onassis and Niacks, the American ship king Ludwick, and the older Generation of Hong Kong ship kings, Tung Haoyun, all did this.
When Bao Yugang leased his ship for 3, 5 or even 10 years, some of his peers ridiculed him as a layman. But Bao Yugang had his own ideas, he had his own calculations, and his idea at that time was: only long-term rent can build real trust. The establishment of trust is the most important foundation for doing business.
On the other hand, Bao Yugang also feels that the income obtained by renting the ship to others for a long time is continuous and stable. In the process, he could free up his hands to learn about the shipping business.
In the second year of Bao Yugang's involvement in the shipbuilding industry, the Suez Canal was closed due to the Egyptian war, and shipping costs soared. At the end of that year, his second-hand ship earned him enough money to buy 7 new ships.
In the second half of 1957, the shipping industry experienced a depression, freight rates fell to the lowest point, and short-term rental shipowners had a dismal business, and they had to lose money every day. But Bao Yugang relied on the contract to collect rent steadily, so that people had to admit that Bao Yugang, the "layman" in people's eyes, was a truly far-sighted person.
The longer he operated the shipping industry, the more trust Bach had built up with all parties, and slowly, because of his extreme trust, Japanese shipyards often asked Bao Yugang to "drive the ship away first, and then pay slowly."
Because of his leniency, Bao Yugang also had a group of people who followed him. Bao Zheng in the film and television drama always has seven heroes and five righteousness around him, and Bao Yugang's side, who has followed him for decades, is also a lot of people.
Under the meticulous management of Bao Yugang, the fleet of the Global Company he founded grew rapidly.
After being rich and famous, Bao Yugang's side is also facing more and more temptations. But no matter when, he only had his beloved wife Huang Xiuying in his heart. In order to reassure his wife, he often took the initiative to report his whereabouts to his wife.
For decades, Bao Yugang had never had any scandal with any woman. Because of this, many business tycoons expressed puzzlement, and they quipped to him: "You never think about other women? ”
Bao Yugang listened but laughed and said, "I already have five women in my family, do I still have time to worry about other women?" ”
The "five women" in Bao Yugang's mouth are actually his wife Huang Xiuying and their four daughters, namely the eldest daughter Bao Baoqing, the second daughter Bao Bao Rong, the third daughter Bao Bao Li, and the fourth female Bao Pei Hui.
Bao Yugang with his family
Bao Yugang attaches great importance to his family, and in addition to often taking time to accompany his wife, he also attaches great importance to the education of his four daughters. Bao Yugang felt: "People, the most important thing is virtue, as long as virtue is no problem, everything is easy to say." ”
Therefore, when he was very young, Bao Yugang began to teach the eldest daughter Bao Peiqing how to be humble to others, in order to let the eldest daughter develop a hard and simple style, he also stipulated: clothes, shoes can not be more, especially shoes, a pair of shoes before not worn out, can not be replaced with a new.
Once, Bao Peiqing took a fancy to a beautiful pair of shoes, so she wanted to buy another pair. Bao Yugang looked at the shoes she was wearing on her feet, which were canvas shoes made for her by her wife. After watching for a while, he said to his daughter: "We all only have one pair of feet, so we only need a pair of shoes at a stage, if you buy two pairs, isn't it wasted?" ”
Bao Yugang also asked the eldest daughter to be self-reliant and self-reliant, and every time he took an exam, he asked his daughter to take the first place as much as possible, and sometimes, if the daughter did not get the first, he would punish her. When her daughter felt aggrieved after being punished once, Bao Yugang once said to her:
"In this world, both men and women must learn to be independent, rely on their own ability, can not rely on their parents or family background, and can not rely on their husbands and others for a living." To do this, you must read more, study hard, accumulate knowledge, enhance wisdom, and then make a living in the future. ”
Under the influence of his father, Bao Peiqing not only achieved excellent results in all aspects, but also was more low-key, simple and loving than his peers. Most importantly, at all times, she kept the teaching given to her by her father: virtue and goods!
Bao Yugang was strict with his eldest daughter, as was he for his other three daughters.
Bao Yugang also has a concept, he feels: the future marriage of children has a great relationship with the marriage of parents. Therefore, in order to give the children the confidence to establish a perfect marriage in the future, he always has various "fancy shows" with his wife. He often said: "In marriage, as long as you are looking for a good person, you can also be a good person, no matter how it changes, such a marriage will not be too bad." ”
Sure enough, later, the marriages of his four daughters were all perfect. Later, these four sons-in-law, who were very strong in character, were all recruited by Bao Yugang to his company and held important positions. Under the management of the four sons-in-law of the Bao family, the Bao Group has developed smoothly and has become a diversified and international group.
Bao Yugang accompanied his wife and daughter Bao Qing
After his career became bigger and bigger, Bao Yugang, who was about to turn 60, began to ponder a question that had been hovering in his mind: how to help the impoverished motherland to achieve development after getting rich.
Helping the country develop is Bao Yugang's wish, and it is also the wish of his father Bao Zhaolong. But as his father's body grew weaker, he realized that he had to cling to it. Yes, he wanted his father to see him fulfill their common wish.
After the age of 60, Bao Yugang became more and more homesick, and he began to pay frequent attention to domestic newspapers, and he did not want to miss the little by little reports about the country.
In 1978, Bao Yugang, who was reading a newspaper on the couch, read a news that excited him: "Lu Xuzhang has been appointed director of the National Tourism Administration." After reading this news, he immediately got up from the sofa excitedly and said, "Great, great! ”
It turned out that Lu Xuzhang was Bao Yugang's cousin. He said to his wife, "We can finally go back to the mainland to visit our relatives and find our relatives." After his wife Huang Xiuying heard it, she was also overjoyed.
When he was young, Bao Yugang and his wife Huang Xiuying
Immediately, he sent his secretary to send a letter to the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of the State Council: "My wife and I hope to return to the interior as soon as possible to visit my cousin Lu Xuzhang. After sending the telegram, he said in his heart: "Finally, we can go back to China to see what the country needs our help, and finally we can help." ”
At this time, Bao Yugang desperately wanted to know what had changed in his hometown after 30 years of leaving.
People say that if you don't return home, it's like walking at night. The idea of going home to see it had been on his mind for decades. Now that he finally had the opportunity, how could he not be excited!
Shortly after the telegram was sent, Deng Xiaoping, who had always attached great importance to overseas Chinese affairs, immediately asked Liao Chengzhi to send a telegram: He warmly welcomed Bao Yugang and his wife back to the interior to visit their relatives.
In the late autumn of 1978, Bao Yugang, who had been away from the mainland for 30 years, finally returned to his motherland. On the night of arriving in Beijing to visit his family, Bao Yugang encountered embarrassment: they could not find a decent hotel. He immediately decided to invest $10 million to introduce international management technology and build a modern tourist hotel.
Bao Yugang said that he donated all the hotel to the state, including property rights and management, which are responsible for the state, but he also made a request: he wanted to name the hotel "Zhaolong Hotel" in his father's name, as long as the Chinese side agreed, the funds could be sent.
The reason why Bao Yugang wanted to name his father was because he wanted to do filial piety to his father.
But because China was in the process of reform at the time, the relevant personnel did not know what to do in the face of this $10 million check. More than two years later, on July 6, 1981, after consideration, Deng Xiaoping decided to personally accept the check that no one dared to accept, and decided to build the Zhaolong Hotel on the banks of the Changhong Bridge in Beijing's bustling East Third Ring Road.
After learning of this good news, Bao Zhaolong, the father of the sick Bao Yugang, was naturally very pleased, he had been enthusiastic about public welfare all his life, he had donated many schools in Hong Kong, and he had sponsored countless poor students, and he always felt: As a descendant of the Bao family, he could not engage in politics for the benefit of the people and the country, and it was a great fortune to use business to earn money to help the country and the people.
It was in this year that Bao Yugang's fleet reached a total tonnage of 21 million tons: he became a veritable world king of ships.
Bao Yugang
In July 1981, Bao Yugang and his 86-year-old father, Bao Zhaolong, returned to Beijing, and they also participated in the opening ceremony of the zhaolong hotel. Because his father was old and sick, Bao Yugang carefully accompanied his father throughout the whole process.
In 1982, before the Zhaolong Hotel was completed, Bao Zhaolong died of illness. The death of his father was a heavy blow to Bao Yugang, and it was also after this that Bao Yu, who had not had much concern, began to devote himself wholeheartedly to various work for the country, and he knew that what he did was exactly what his father wanted to do most.
Bao Yugang's filial piety to his father is the result of hearing about it and is also the tradition of the Bao family. The Bao family, including Bao Zheng, is extremely filial piety. They have been adhering to the concept of "filial piety first" for generations, and they feel that if filial piety cannot be done, everything else will be false.
Bao Zheng's "filial piety" is famous in history. In order to fulfill his filial piety, the real Bao Zheng in history has given up his future countless times. Bao Zheng is a native of Anhui, and seeing that his parents are old, he asked to take up a job near Hefei. Later, he did abandon the high-ranking marquis, and in order to take care of his parents nearby, he was replaced by the small hezhou (present-day Hexian) tax inspector.
When he was an official in the state, because his parents also felt that he was too far away from them and too busy, he simply resigned from the official position and dedicated himself to supporting his parents at home.
Portrait of Bao Zheng
Until their parents died one after another and personally sent them to the end, Bao Zheng still refused to leave their second elder. He even built a thatched hut next to his parents' graves to guard their funerals. Until the end of the mourning period, he still refused to leave.
Finally, it was after many times of encouragement and encouragement from his father and elders in the same village that Bao Zhengcai wiped his tears and left Maolu, and many years later, he served as the governor of Kaifeng Province, the capital of the country at that time.
Bao Yugang had heard these stories of his ancestor Bao Zheng a long time ago, and he even knew the last words that Bao Zheng left to the future generations of Bao Zheng's family before his death:
"Future generations of eunuchs, who have committed adultery, shall not be released to their own homes. After death, it is not allowed to be buried in the great cocoon. Not from my will, not from my descendants also. ”
For a long time afterwards, Bao Yugang pondered the deep meaning of this last word.
Bao Yugang and his wife Huang Xiuying both agree with a concept: if a person does not even talk about filial piety, or even the feelings of family and country, even if this person climbs high, he will fall down at any time, because their foundation is unstable.
Bao Yugang and Huang Xiuying, who were obsessed with the country, and more than a dozen relatives and friends returned to their hometown of Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, after more than 30 years of absence.
Bao Yugang (first from left) with relatives and friends
After returning to his hometown, Bao Yugang's first thing was to worship his ancestors. In front of the graves of their ancestors, they worshiped their ancestors in full accordance with the old rules, they filled the tombs of the Bao family with fruits and wine, and also lit incense candles, after everything was ready, Bao Yugang led the family members to brush and kneel in front of the grave...
At the moment of kneeling and prostrating his head, Bao Yugang had the urge to cry, and he found out at this time that these young and young people had made countless worship moves, which made him trance back to the past.
In his hometown, Bao Yugang was also fortunate to eat the pastries he had eaten when he was a teenager, and those familiar and unfamiliar tastes stimulated his taste buds at the same time, but also evoked his infinite memories.
The day after returning to their hometown, Bao Yugang and his party also returned to their ancestral house in Zhongbao Village. That day, Bao Yugang was like a child, he carefully inspected every room, and he did not let go of every corner. Whenever he saw a place that would evoke memories of his childhood, he would tell his wife in detail about those little funny things.
Bao Yugang (middle)
When he came to the new room where he and Huang Xiuying had a candle in the cave, he gently helped his wife to the dresser, and after looking at his wife in the mirror, he wrapped his hands tightly around her shoulders. In a trance, this pair of flower armor old men returned to the day of their new marriage!
On the third day of returning to his hometown of Ningbo, Bao Yugang made a major decision: to donate 20 million US dollars to build Ningbo University in Ningbo. He said:
"Ningbo is several times larger than Hong Kong, and its population is similar to that of Hong Kong, but it does not have its own university." When I go to foreign countries and see that others are making progress, I very much hope that my country will catch up with it as soon as possible, and to modernize, education is the most important thing, so I will be very happy to do this matter well. ”
Ningbo University
Since then, he has continued to donate funds to Ningbo's education, medical and other public welfare undertakings.
Bao Yugang's return to Ningbo also led to the return of many overseas "Ningbo Gang" people later. They followed his footsteps back to their homeland and responded to the call to "mobilize the 'Ningbo Gang' of the world to build Ningbo" and repay Sangzi.
Bao Yugang also used his influence to help China State Shipbuilding Corporation break into the international market. At the beginning of reform and opening up, China's shipbuilding industry had no place in the world at all. To break this situation, Bao Yugang decided to have China State Shipbuilding Corporation build six bulk carriers for its own global shipping group.
After 540 days of hard work, China's first "Great Wall" freighter successfully tested the waters, and at that moment, Bao Yugang burst into tears. This news caused great repercussions in the world, and since then, Chinese manufacturing has begun to go global.
Compared with helping China's development, Bao Yugang is also very concerned about the reunification of the motherland. In order to help Hong Kong return to the motherland, Bao Yugang did a lot of work in advance.
Bao Yugang used his good relationship with the British government to assist the Chinese government and the British side in active communication. During his visit to Margaret Thatcher, he even deliberately booked two ships in England at a loss, and he invited Margaret Thatcher to Shanghai to participate in the ribbon cutting.
Bao Yugang and Margaret Thatcher
The Chinese government also issued a formal invitation to Margaret Thatcher in a timely manner, and it has to be said that Bao Yugang has made outstanding contributions to the opening of the two countries' negotiations on the return of Hong Kong.
However, just as Bao Yugang was preparing a new plan to serve the country, he was unfortunately killed by the disease. He died in 1991, at the age of 83.
Today, Bao Yugang has been dead for a full 30 years, but his name is still often mentioned by the world. Whenever he is mentioned, people sigh: as bao Zheng's 29th generation grandson, he is worthy of his ancestors!