In this colorful world, there are no surprises. In the long course of history, there have been many wealthy but extremely stingy figures. Not only are they piled up a mountain of wealth, but they are also staggering. These figures cover all levels of society, from ordinary people to high-ranking officials and dignitaries, and some even hold high positions and wield great power. Next, we will take stock of the ten most stingy people in Chinese history.
[1, Cao Hong]
Cao Hong during the Three Kingdoms period, as Cao Cao's cousin, saved Cao Cao from fire and water at critical moments many times, followed Cao Cao to fight in the south and north, made great achievements, and was worshiped as the general of the capital. After Cao Pi became the emperor, he reused Cao Hong, and successively appointed him as a general of Wei and a hussar general, and named him a wild prince, and later transferred to the marquis of Duyang. When Cao Cao was in charge, he personally took the lead in storing the monthly money in the county, and Cao Hong's savings were even inferior to Cao Cao's. It is recorded in "Wei Luo" that Cao Hong is good at amassing wealth and can be called the richest man among Cao Cao's men. However, he was so stingy that he almost lost his life. When Emperor Wen of Wei Cao Pi was still the crown prince, he borrowed a hundred silk horses from Cao Hong, and Cao Hong was distressed about his property and shirked it in every possible way, which annoyed Cao Pi. After Cao Pi ascended the throne, he found an excuse to put Cao Hong in prison and wanted to put him to death. Fortunately, Empress Dowager Bian interceded, and Cao Hong was spared death, but his official position and title were stripped away.
[2, Wang Rong]
In the famous "New Words of the World", there is a chapter dedicated to "frugality", and four of the stories are about Wang Rong, a famous scholar from the official to Situ. It is recorded in the book that Wang Rong is extremely stingy by nature. When one of his nephews got married, although Wang Rong, who was his uncle, gave a single dress as a gift, he was distressed afterwards and went to his nephew's house to ask for the single clothes back. Even for his daughter, Wang Rong is stingy. When the daughter married the son of the Pei family, she borrowed tens of thousands of dollars from her father. When her daughter returned to her parents' house, she forgot to return the money, and Wang Rong looked displeased. The daughter hurriedly returned the money, and Wang Rong was relieved. Although Wang Rong has a lot of money, he has no interest in daily consumption, and only wants to make money profitable. He even had to make a small toothpick by hand to save money. He sold the best plums grown at a high price, but he removed the kernels in advance for fear that others would use them as seeds to grow good plums. Every night, Wang Rong likes to calculate the family's income and expenditure with his wife by candlelight. Such a stingy person contributed a romantic idiom to us, "Qingqing me". Wang Rong's wife often called him "Qing", although he felt disrespectful, but in the end he still let it go.
[3, Zhou tag]
During the Eastern Jin Dynasty, the right general Zhou Za's family of five people was made marquis, and their status was prominent. However, the power of the Zhou family aroused the suspicion of the powerful minister Wang Dun. Wang Dun united with the Shen clan in Jiangnan to crusade against Zhou Za. When Zhou Za learned the news, the enemy army was already under the city. In a hurry, he prepared to lead hundreds of his subordinates out of the city to meet the battle. In the storehouse of Zhouzha, there are a number of sophisticated weapons. However, at the critical moment of life and death, Zhou Za refused to take out these weapons because of stinginess, and only distributed inferior weapons to the soldiers. Seeing that Zhou Za was so stingy, the soldiers did not have the determination to die for him. As a result, under the impact of the enemy, Zhou Za's army collapsed, and Zhou Za was also killed. The Zhou Zha, who died because of miserliness, his father was the famous Zhou who killed the tiger in history.
[4, Xiao Ji]
Xiao Ji, the king of Wuling during the Northern and Southern Dynasties, was the eighth son of Emperor Wu of Liang. He has been favored since he was a child, and he should not take money to heart, but he is extremely stingy, and every penny has to be taken into account. Xiao Ji is quite strategic, has opened up the territory, persuaded farmers and mulberries internally, and traded with foreign merchants, making the wealth rich and the soldiers strong and strong. could have achieved a hegemony, but because of stinginess, it failed in the end. In history, Xiao Ji once led an army to attack Jiangling. He melted gold into cakes, and filled more than a hundred baskets of a hundred gold, and prepared silver several times as much as gold, and all kinds of silk and silk. However, these treasures were only used to motivate the soldiers. At the end of each battle, Xiao Ji never rewarded his merits. This caused great confusion among the army and many defectors. In a short period of time, the fourteen cities on both sides of the strait were surrendered, and Xiao Ji's army was completely defeated. He himself was killed in the rebellion.
[5, Yuan Zongkui]
According to Ming Xie Zhaoqian's "Five Miscellaneous Works", during the Tang Dynasty, there was an official named Yuan Zongkui, who served as the Sima of Guozhou. When one of his maidservants died, he instructed his housekeeper to buy a coffin to bury her. He stressed that his family was poor and could not afford to buy a new coffin, as long as it could be used. He also instructed the housekeeper not to say that his family wanted to buy a coffin, so as not to be known about his embarrassment. The housekeeper spread these words, and as a result, the people of Yizhou used this matter as a laughing stock and laughed at Yuan Zongkui's stinginess. This matter is also recorded in "Datang New Language". Yuan Zongkui's excessively frugal behavior has undoubtedly become a topic of conversation after dinner.
[6, Zheng Renkai]
It is recorded in the book "The Ruling and Wild Servants": When Zheng Renkai served as the assassin of Mizhou, the servants at home complained to him about the worn shoes. He smiled and replied, "Ah Weng will plan a new pair of shoes for you." Soon after, a porter arrived in new shoes, and Zheng Renkai instructed him to go up to the tree to dig up the nest of the eagle. The doorman took off his shoes to get the bird's nest, and Zheng Renkai secretly motioned for the little girl to put on the new shoes and leave. When the porter got down from the tree, he found that his shoes were missing, so he had to return barefoot. Zheng Renkai is quite proud of this, which shows that he is really a man who loves money like his life and acts with a bit of humor.
[7, Wei Zhuang]
Wei Zhuang, a great poet in the Five Dynasties period, was famous far and wide, and his name for miserliness also went hand in hand with it. Wei Zhuang weighed the amount of rice accurately every time he cooked rice, and the firewood used for the fire also needed to be weighed in advance, and even if it was a barbecue, he knew that a slice was missing. When his eight-year-old son died, his wife wanted to put on the clothes of the child and bury him, but Wei Zhuang resolutely stopped him from burying him with the old straw mat used before the child's death. What's even more surprising is that Wei Zhuang actually brought back the straw mat after the funeral, which shows that he is extremely stingy.
[8, Zhang Yun]
During the Five Dynasties Later Han Dynasty, Zhang Yun, a servant of the Ministry of Officials, was famous for his stinginess. He did the same with his wife, and he didn't want to give more money. In order to prevent his wife from taking money without permission, he actually hung all kinds of keys around his waist and walked with a jingle like a woman with ornaments on her body. After Guo Wei's mutiny, although Zhang Yun escaped to the broken temple by luck, the key was snatched by the soldiers. When he returned home, he saw that his home had been ransacked, and his heart was so painful that blood spurted wildly, and he soon died.
[9, Li Yue]
It is recorded in the "Shilin Guangji" written by Chen Yuanliang of the Song Dynasty that Li Yue was the commander of Shangcai County in Caizhou, and he was extremely stingy and often incomprehensible. His family rarely sees meat all year round, and when worshipping the ancestors on the eighth day of the lunar month, he only sends servants to the butcher shop to borrow a pound of cooked meat and put it in the basin, and then uses several plates to hold copper coins and several texts, so as to worship the ancestors. He prayed: "Wine is bought by the officials, and it is mellow and delicious, and the meat is borrowed from the butcher's shop, and it is fresh and edible. "After worshipping the ancestors, he ordered the servants to return the cooked meat. After the news spread, everyone laughed at his stinginess.
[10, Tang Bin]
During the Kangxi reign of the Qing Dynasty, Tang Bin, the governor of Jiangning, was known as a "famous minister of science" and an outstanding representative of the Chengzhu school. He lived a life of self-restraint and was known for his frugality. According to historical records, one day Tang Bin checked the accounts of his family and saw that there was an expenditure on eggs, and he was immediately furious: "Since I arrived in Suzhou, I have never eaten eggs, where did this egg come from?" Tang Bin summoned his son, punished him to kneel in the court, and reprimanded: "Do you think that eggs in Suzhou are the same price as those in Henan? If you want to eat eggs, go back to your hometown in Henan!"