In February 1912, China's last feudal dynasty collapsed, and China's feudal imperial system, which lasted for more than 2,000 years, completely disappeared into the long river of history.
After the disappearance of feudal imperialism, where should China go? At that time, People with Lofty Ideals in China began to make various attempts, whether it was capitalism, constitutional monarchy or Marxism, which could only help the weak and small China to develop at that time, and they were willing to try.
Yuan Shikai
Just when everyone was looking for a new way out of China, there was a "strange thing" who wanted to restore the imperial system - Yuan Shikai.
How Yuan Shikai's ending is clearly written in the history books, and going against the tide of history is ultimately not a good result. However, today our protagonist is not Yuan Shikai, but his granddaughter who has experienced the ups and downs of life - Yuan Jiaqian.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-center-line" > the isolated Miss Qianjin</h1>
Yuan Shikai had a total of 17 sons and 15 daughters in his lifetime, of which Yuan Kerui was the fourth son of Yuan Shikai, and Yuan Jiaqian was the daughter of Yuan Jiaqian. When Yuan Jiaqian was born, Yuan Shikai had been dead for 8 years.
Yuan Jiaqian family photo
Speaking of his relatives, it obviously made Yuan Jiaqian feel that his face was dull. Yuan Jiaqian's father, Yuan Kerui, is a capable person, and his handwriting is full of praise, but as the son of the president, Yuan Kerui has developed various bad habits of eating, drinking and gambling since he was a child.
Yuan Kerui once served as a senator in The Grand Marshal's Office of Zhang Zuolin, but he did not go to work every day and was only responsible for receiving money. Later, Yuan Kerui was a nominal director in the Kaimin Mining Bureau, and he was paid 300 silver dollars per month. These 300 silver dollars were basically used by Yuan Kerui to visit the hook bar and smoke a lot of cigarettes.
When Yuan Shikai restored the imperial system, Yuan Kerui specially found someone to carve a seal, which was engraved with three big characters of "The Fourth Son of the Emperor", which was obviously Yuan Kerui's dream of being a prince.
After Yuan Shikai's death, Yuan Kerui's identity changed from "the fourth son of the emperor" to ordinary people, and the huge gap made Yuan Kerui unbearable, and his spirit began to be abnormal, and he was often nagging.
Yuan Jiaqian said: "When I was born, my father's spirit was not very good, and I did not feel the warmth of my parents. After the death of my grandfather, my parents lived on inheritance, and they both had the habit of smoking a lot, which led to a very poor family situation."
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" > Yuan Jiaqian's childhood, there were 13 years of happy life. </h1>
When Yuan Jiaqian was 4 years old, he was adopted by his parents to the second aunt's house without children, and followed the second aunt to live in Wuxi. Yuan Jiaqian's second aunt received a new-style education, and the second aunt once studied in the United States and set up a silk factory after returning to China, making him the richest man in Wuxi. Yuan Jiaqian, who came to live in the second aunt's house, did not have to worry about eating and wearing.
Under the cultivation of the second aunt, Yuan Jiaqian began to learn English and entered Shanghai Women's College. Speaking of his academic career, Yuan Jiaqian said: "I don't want to take history class, every time the teacher talks about Yuan Shikai, I always feel that my classmates are laughing at me."
At that time, China's social order was chaotic, and the children of rich families were often kidnapped, and gangsters demanded ransoms. Every day when Yuan Jiaqian went to school, the curtains of the car had to be pulled up, fearing that he would be recognized by the gangsters and kidnapped.
In addition, the second aunt also equipped Yuan Jiaqian with bodyguards to be responsible for her safety. When Yuan Jiaqian was in class, the bodyguard waited outside, waited until school was over, and then picked her up and took her home.
The life of a rich family in old China is unimaginable to modern people, until the time of high school, Yuan Jiaqian would not buy anything, and never brought money when he went out.
Yuan Jiaqian said: "At that time, I bought things with my second aunt, followed by bodyguards and nannies, to the department store to see something, say a word, the car will be transported back." What is the price of the thing, I never knew."
When Yuan Jiaqian was 17 years old, her second aunt needed to go abroad because of business, and she was sent back to her former home, and was forced to begin to accept various feudal etiquette disciplines: she needed to ask her parents for peace every day; she could not walk too fast; she could not "cross the river" when eating...
Yuan Jiaqian, who had received a Western-style education in the second aunt's house, lived in a very depressed and almost breathless life in the original family. This life lasted until the Yuan family married.
As they grew older, their parents found a family affair for Yuan Jiaqian, who was a famous young talent in the Tianjin national industrial and commercial circles at that time, and also Mr. Ding, the owner of the "Yuanfeng Hardware Store".
For this marriage, Yuan Jiaqian did not agree, because before marrying each other, neither party had seen each other, which was unacceptable to Yuan Jiaqian, who advocated free love since childhood. Unfortunately, in that era, the rights of parents were very large, and Yuan Jiaqian did not have the capital to live independently, and could only obediently marry each other.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-center-line" > from noblewoman to peasant woman</h1>
After marriage, due to the great cause of her husband's family, the Yuan family lived the life of a noblewoman envied by ordinary people, and ten fingers did not stick to the spring water of the yang. It's just that the husband spends all day outside drinking, which inevitably makes Yuan Jiaqian feel spiritually empty.
After the founding of New China, Yuan Jiaqian's fate ushered in tremendous changes.
In 1956, New China implemented the public-private partnership policy, the privileges of the Yuan family were abolished, and the life of a noblewoman of the Yuan family was gone. The Yuan family was sent to live in the countryside, and Yuan completed the transformation from a noblewoman to a peasant woman.
Rural life is so foreign to the Yuan family. Bumpy dirt roads, dilapidated low houses and howling winds make them feel overwhelmed.
The most important thing in life is to fill your stomach. In order for the family to be able to eat enough, Yuan Jiaqian began to learn to farm and find wild vegetables. Sometimes for the sake of wild vegetables, Yuan Jiaqian would quarrel with other peasant women. Yuan Jiaqian suddenly found that her willpower was even stronger than she had imagined.
After living in the countryside for a long time, Yuan Jiaqian began to use his brain to change the current situation. Yuan Jiaqian's husband used to come from a business background, and after consultation, the two proposed to the village committee the idea of opening a small hardware factory in the local area and leading the villagers to get rich, which was agreed by the village committee.
With the support of local villagers, Yuan Jiaqian and her husband set up the first local hardware factory, with her husband as the factory director and her factory accountant. With the efforts of the husband and wife, the business of the small factory is booming, bringing many benefits to the villagers.
Yuan Jiaqian said: "In the past, when I was rich, my husband always spent a lot of time outside, but when he came to the countryside, it was not like this. Now we run a factory together, and my husband cares about the family, which is very good."
The Yuan family lived in the countryside for a total of 8 years. 8 years of wind and rain have transformed Yuan Jiaqian from a noblewoman with ten fingers that does not touch the spring water of the yang to a peasant woman who can raise pigs and cultivate land.
Due to the restoration of the imperial system, Yuan Shikai's descendants were somewhat unable to raise their heads in New China, until the emergence of a person who changed the situation, he was the child of Yuan Kewen, the second son of Yuan Shikai, Yuan Jialuo.
Yuan Jiaxiao is a world-renowned high-energy physicist who has won the National Chinese Association Outstanding Achievement Award, and his wife Wu Jianxiong is one of the developers of the world's first atomic bomb, or the only woman, known as "China's Marie Curie".
While Yuan Jiaqiu enabled the Yuan family to raise their heads and be a person, they had a great influence on the cousin of Yuan Jiaqian. In 1973, Yuan Jiaqiu returned to China at the invitation of Premier Zhou to build, and with the help of Yuan Jiaxiao, the Yuan family was able to return to Tianjin from the countryside.
Yuan Jiaqian spent a period of peaceful years in Tianjin, and the ups and downs of his life made Yuan Jiaqian's state of mind become unfazed and difficult to be affected by the outside world. Yuan Jiaqian also thought that he would complete the last journey of his life in Tianjin like this, until something happened later, which completely changed Yuan Jiaqian's thinking.
<h1 class = "pgc-h-center-line" > the year of huajia bravely entered the business sea</h1>
In 1987, Mr. and Mrs. Yuan Jiaqiu accepted the invitation of the then mayor of Shenzhen to come to Shenzhen as a senior adviser to the government, and Yuan Jiaqian also followed.
Yuan Jiaqian, who is 63 years old, was quickly deeply attracted to Shenzhen, and spent six years in Shenzhen, witnessing how Shenzhen has developed from a backward and poor small fishing village to a modern bustling city. In Shenzhen, Yuan Jiaqian not only increased his insight, but also made his old heart begin to stir.
In the past, when they were working in the hardware factory, Yuan Jiaqian and his wife made some money, a total of 700,000 yuan, which was a huge amount of money at that time, and the husband and wife could rely on this huge amount of money to enjoy the world in their old age. However, under the influence of living in Shenzhen, Yuan Jiaqian decided to do another career in his old age.
With a huge amount of money, Yuan Jiaqian found Yuan Jiaqiu and his wife, said that they wanted to start a business, and got the support of their cousins and sisters-in-law. Yuan Jiaqian said that he wanted to open a real estate company, Yuan Jiaqiao said that this is not good, the real estate risk is too big, it is better to open a restaurant, not only stable but also have staying power. Yuan Jiaqian listened to his cousin's advice.
Where will the restaurant be opened? Want to open a Chinese restaurant or a Western restaurant? This is the first problem that Yuan Jiaqian has to face. Yuan Jiaqian felt that Tianjin, as one of the cities of China's early foreign exchanges, had long formed a culture of doing Western food and eating Western food. If you open a Western restaurant in Tianjin, it will not only meet the needs of Tianjin people for Western food culture, but also provide a place for foreigners who come to Tianjin to work, and the prospects are promising.
Sure enough, after Yuan Jiaqian's Western restaurant opened in Tianjin, it was soon famous for its elegant environment, good quality and low price, and many celebrities and dignitaries in society came to visit. In the eyes of everyone, the Su Yishi Western Restaurant opened by Yuan Jiaqian has become a landmark attraction in Tianjin
According to the normal rules of the catering industry, usually small restaurants can fire for 3 years, and large restaurants can fire for 5 years. However, now that Yuan Jiaqian is 86 years old, her Western restaurant is still in full swing.
Yuan Jiaqian said: "It is not so easy to do Western restaurants, and the competition is very fierce. If you want to endure, you need not only to pay attention to the international economic changes, but also to study the development of Western food, timely update of restaurant dishes, etc., no one can easily succeed."
Yuan Jiaqian has also analyzed the reasons why Su Yishi Restaurant can be popular until now, and its special feature is that Su Yishi Restaurant does not have any foreign debt, and she is such a unique number, not opening a semicolon. Many large enterprises have tried to cooperate with Yuan Jiaqian, but they have all been rejected. Yuan Jiaqian thinks that it is a good thing to open a branch and make more money, but if one of them has a problem, it is all poured.
Asked why he was over eighty years old and still had to work at his post, Yuan Jiaqian said: "When I participated in the Women's Federation in the past, Deng Yingchao had a very good saying, the older a woman is, the more she must fight for her economic status. For this sentence, I have a deep understanding, if women do not have financial support, it is easy to be forgotten in the corner when they are old. Isn't it pitiful to ask for money with humble children? Now I have the economy and status, which the women of the Yuan family did not have before."
I have to say that Yuan Jiaqian is a woman who lives very clearly. In the past, when I was a noblewoman, although I did not worry about eating and wearing, I could not control my husband because I had no economic status.
Later, the family fell to the countryside, became the accountant of the hardware factory, mastered the economic lifeline, and the husband was willing to be honest, which is the result of having economic status.
From the opening of the Western restaurant in the year of Hua Jia until he was over eighty years old, the Western restaurant was still in full swing, of which Yuan Jiaqian had experienced too many things. To say that the most sad thing for Yuan Jiaqian in these years is the death of his cousin.
In 2003, Yuan Jiaxiao died of illness. Before his death, Yuan Jiaqiu and his wife donated all their savings to China, which greatly touched Yuan Jiaqiao.
Yuan Jialuo and his wife
Yuan Jiaqian said: "I sometimes criticize him for being too picky and invite him to eat a roast duck, but he was told for three days. In the past, when my cousin and my cousin were in the United States, I ate instant noodles at noon, and I didn't know what to do when I saved up my money. My cousin lived with me for seven years, downstairs to the restaurant, which made him very happy, saying that this was the most luxurious life he had ever lived, which made people feel sad."
Yuan Jiaqian was very open-minded about the fact that his cousin did not share the inheritance with himself, saying: "I took care of my cousin for seven years, and he did not give me a single inheritance, but I don't blame him. My cousin had told me before that if he gave me the inheritance, he was obviously harming me. There are too many examples of the Yuan family, the playboy gets wealth in vain, will only spend money and will not make money, and finally be poor, far less down-to-earth than himself."
His cousin Yuan Jiaqiu had a profound influence on Yuan Jiaqian, which made Yuan Jiayi change the way he educated his children. Yuan Jiaqian said: "I can help them, but I will not raise idle people, I am still working at my own age." My own property is spelled out by myself, and my own children must be like this. You can't say that I am your mother, and you can enjoy it."
Speaking of the achievements of his children, Yuan Jiaqian looked proud: "Now they all have cars and houses, and they all rely on their own efforts."
Yuan Jiaqian has sponsored more than 20 children in Jixian County, Tianjin, to help them complete their studies, Yuan Jiaqian said: "No matter how poor and miserable, they cannot be wronged by education, and each child can get five thousand yuan of funding every year."
In September 2013, Yuan Jiaqian passed away satisfactorily at the age of 90. Before his death, Yuan Jiaqian repeatedly exhorted his descendants to rely on themselves and strive for the dedication of the country as their goal.
From buying things without spending money, going out with bodyguards, to the noblewomen who do not stick to the spring water of the sun with ten fingers, to the peasant women who cultivate the land to feed the pigs, and finally break and stand up, becoming a new generation of strong women in the business world, Yuan Jiaqian's life can be described as a big ups and downs.
Looking at Yuan Shikai's descendants, his second generation is basically a collapse. Because of their father's legacy, they eat and wear, don't have to worry about work, and don't think about self-reliance. With nowhere to vent their energy, they were infected with various vices such as smoking cigarettes, and finally squandered their wealth and died of poverty.
However, Yuan Jiaqian, who has experienced nearly half a century of great changes, deeply understands the importance of self-reliance, and still did not stop his footsteps in the year of Hua Jia, began his entrepreneurial journey, and finally had the current achievements, which can be described as a strange woman.
Yuan Jiaqian is undoubtedly an object worth learning, we must jump out of our comfort zone, we must learn to be self-reliant. Maybe we who live in the comfort zone eat and wear without worrying, and do not realize the importance of effort, what if one day the comfort zone disappears? Just as Yuan Shikai's descendants squandered their wealth, what should we do then?
We have not experienced the ups and downs of Yuan Jiaqian, but her never-ending spirit is worth learning. With such an excellent descendant as Yuan Jiaqian, if Yuan Shikaiquan knew about it, he would also feel relieved.