Speaking of the first father-in-law of the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China, many people's first reaction is Song Yaoru, because he has three daughters, and the three Song sisters are not only excellent and beautiful, but also married to important figures at that time.
He married 5 wives and gave birth to 16 daughters, and all 16 daughters also married into prominent good families, and their in-laws were all prominent and their sons-in-law were extraordinary.
16 to 3, who is the "first father-in-law"?
Large family of 24 children
The old man with 16 daughters, his name is Sun Baoqi, born in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province in 1867, and is 3 years younger than Song Yaoru's peers.
Sun Baoqi was born in a prominent family, and his father Sun Yijing was born as a Jinshi, an official to the cabinet bachelor, a household servant, and once served as the Guangxu Emperor. Because of his wealthy background, Sun Baoqi received a good education since he was a child, and he was also diligent and studious.
In 1893, he was ranked first in the examination of the upper hall of the second rank of Yinsheng, and since then he has been under the shadow of his father and has made a job in the household department.
Because of his conscientious work, he was also smooth sailing in the household department, and two years later, he took the money and donated a Zhili Taoist, and the official was the fourth grade. After that, he worked as an errand boy under high-ranking officials such as Wang Wenshao and Li Hongzhang, the governors of Zhili.
Young Sun Baoqi
In 1900, Gengzi was in a national disaster, and the Eight-Nation Coalition Army entered Beijing all the way, and the Empress Dowager Cixi and Emperor Guangxu fled westward. Sun Baoqi was the accompanying official along the way, and it was also because of this opportunity that he gained the trust of Cixi and rose to the top ever since.
After fleeing all the way from Xi'an, Sun Baoqi was promoted to the confidential affairs of the Military Aircraft Department, and the following year he was appointed Minister to France, and later to serve as Minister of Spain. By the 31st year of Guangxu (1905), he was already the Shuntian Mansion Yin of Zhengsanpin, equivalent to today's mayor of Beijing, managing 24 prefectures and counties. A few years later, because of his meritorious service in the construction of the Tianjin-Pudong Railway, he was promoted to the governor of Shandong, from the second grade, to the secretary of the provincial party committee.
In addition to the rising official position, Sun Baoqi is also happy about the big family he built with his own efforts, and the powerful in-law network he personally weaved.
In feudal society, it is normal for powerful men to have "three wives and four concubines", and this Sun Baoqi will marry 5 in one go. And he is very good at marrying, his father-in-law Zhang Yao, then the official to the governor of Shandong, Sun Baoqi also has a younger brother, his brother-in-law Li Hanzhang is a powerful person, the governor of Liangguang, Li Hongzhang's eldest brother.
He married 5 wives and gave birth to 24 children, 16 daughters and 8 sons, these children were in his hands, each of them was a vine, and finally weaved a powerful web of in-laws for him.
Not long after he took the post of governor of Shandong, Sun Baoqi resigned, because the Xinhai Revolution arose, the Qing court was crumbling, in order to avoid the fall of the dynasty to affect him, so he resigned from his post and went home to relax. After a few years of leisure, he actually sat on the throne of the prime minister of the Republic of China again.
He has no soldiers and no generals, and his political achievements and talents are not outstanding, but he was able to become a feudal official in the stormy late Qing Dynasty, and in the chaotic Republic of China, he reached the peak of power. He has a smooth future because he has a strong network of connections--------
The network of "first father-in-law".
Sun Baoqi's status began to rise because he married a girl.
In February 1902, the Empress Dowager Cixi issued an edict to abolish the "Manchu and Han prohibition of intermarriage". As soon as the edict came down, Prince Qing Yixuan, the chief minister of military aircraft, came to Sun Baoqi's house.
"Can you read Lafayette's edict? This king wants to ask for the second daughter of your family for the fifth son, is it feasible?"
The status of the two families is very different, Sun Baoqi did not dare to answer for a while, but Prince Qing seemed to be very willing to marry his family, so the two families became in-laws. With Cixi's trust and Prince Qing's help, he was promoted quickly in those years.
The second daughter entered the prince's mansion, and the eldest daughter Sun Yonghui was also targeted by the richest family. This person is Sheng Xuanhuai, the richest man in the late Qing Dynasty after Hu Xueyan, who presided over foreign affairs and ran industries, and his wealth rivaled that of the country.
Sheng Xuanhuai had a total of four sons, but unfortunately three of them died, so the fourth son, Sheng Enyi, can be regarded as his only son. Unexpectedly, as soon as Sheng Xuanhuai spoke, Sun Baoqi replied to him, "I can't afford to climb your family, and I can't afford to give a dowry." ”
Just kidding, the 16 daughters, if each of them wears red makeup, they must not let him die of poverty. But the Sheng family sincerely asked to marry, and finally got married. Although this "Sheng Laosi" is a famous playboy in Shanghai, and in the end, he can't support the wall and lose his family property, but the daughter of the Sun family married him, and the wealth he enjoyed for 20 years was still stable, and he also helped his mother's family a lot. And Sun Yonghui has a good education, her son Sheng Yudu is very promising when he grows up, and he also opened a large company in Japan after studying in Japan, rewriting the glory of the family.
Second daughter and son-in-law
The third daughter of the Sun family married the grandson of Wang Wenshao, a heavy minister in the late Qing Dynasty, and this grandson Wang Yu, because of his grandfather, began to be an official at a young age, and later studied abroad, and also developed a large industry in Hong Kong.
The fourth daughter married Aixin Jueluo Baoxi, he is a descendant of Yutong Prince Duoduo, a high school jinshi during the Guangxu period, and began to enter the court as an official, and later generations classified him as a calligrapher, because his calligraphy is very good.
Sun Baoqi's fifth daughter married Yuan Shikai's son Yuan Keqi, and he also had a son who married Yuan Shikai's daughter. It was with this relationship with Yuan Shikai that he still mixed well after the fall of the Qing court, and served as the chief foreign minister of the Beijing government and even the premier of the Republic of China. It's just that Yuan Shikai's son can't do it, after he fell, the couple took the property he left behind and smoked big cigarettes every day.
Sun Baoqi's daughters
Sun Baoqi's 16 daughters, each married either rich or noble, are high-ranking officials, wealthy businessmen, bankers, etc. Among his daughters, the seventh daughter Sun Yongfan did not marry well, because she was a stepmother, but she was also famous all over the world, because her stepdaughter wrote articles and described her a lot, and she was known by many people as a vicious stepmother.
This seventh daughter is married to Zhang Zhiyi, the third son of Zhang Peilun, a famous minister in the late Qing Dynasty, and Zhang Zhiyi already has a son and a daughter when she gets married, and this daughter is the famous writer Zhang Ailing. Although Zhang Zhiyi has not made any achievements in his life, his father is a heavy minister, and his mother is the only daughter of Li Hongzhang, and he is Li Hongzhang's only grandson.
Sun Baoqi's younger brother is the son-in-law of Li Hongzhang's eldest brother, and his daughter is Li Hongzhang's grandson's daughter-in-law.
The daughters are well married, and the sons are also married to either rich or expensive in-laws, relying on this huge network of in-laws, Sun Baoqi has been in the officialdom for decades, and is known as the "officialdom tumbler". It was not until 1927 that he retired from the post of ambassador of the Republic of China abroad, and died of stomach problems in 1931 at the age of 65.
Sun Baoqi's daughter and son-in-law
On the other hand, Song Yaoru, after the failure of the "Second Revolution", fled to Japan, and died of illness in 1918 at the age of 54. Although he had 3 excellent daughters, he did not have time to enjoy the blessings of many sons-in-law, because it was not until nearly 10 years after his death that Song Meiling married Chiang Kai-shek, and the other two daughters were also married just a few years before his death.
In such a comparison, who do you think the name of this "first father-in-law" should be?