Author: Jin Manlou
Zhang Yuanji, a publisher of the Republic of China, originally had a smooth sailing on the road of scientific expeditions, and he was selected as a middle talent at the age of 18, a man in the middle of 23 years old, a 26-year-old middle soldier and transferred to the Hanlin Academy, and later distributed to the chief of the Punishment Department, and the following year he was admitted to the prime minister Yamen Zhangjing with the first place.
Judging from his resume, Zhang Yuanji can be called a spring breeze in both scientific expeditions and career paths, which can be described as a rare feature among thousands of readers.
After the beginning of the Restoration and Reform Law in 1898, Zhang Yuanji was summoned by the Guangxu Emperor on June 16 under the sponsorship of Xu Zhijing, an attendant at the Hanlin Academy (on the same day, Kang Youwei was also summoned), and the monarch and the courtier made a general discussion on the issue of the change.
On September 5, Zhang Yuanji played five general outlines and 40 details of the change method, respectively, on the five major issues of the overall situation of the change, Manchu, employment, and financial management.
On September 18, Zhang Yuanji went to the second session and asked the imperial court to issue an edict ordering Chinese and foreign officials to effectively sponsor those who studied the agriculture, industry and commerce of the mining road to enrich the newly established General Administration of Agriculture, Industry and Commerce of the Mining Road and develop industry.
However, for various reasons, Empress Dowager Cixi soon launched a coup d'état to reclaim the power of the Guangxu Emperor, Kang Youwei, Liang Qichao and others hurriedly exiled overseas, and Tan Si and others were bloodstained at Caishikou.
Afterwards, although Zhang Yuanji, who did not party with Kang, Liang, and others, did not kill himself, he was also severely punished by "dismissal and never use" because he belonged to the same camp of restoration.
In this way, Zhang Yuanji, who was 32 years old at the time, and his political peak came to an abrupt end.
It is said that when Zhang Yuanji's career was in a state of turmoil, Li Hongzhang, the former governor of Zhili and the minister of Beiyang who was at the same low point in his life, sent people to comfort him and ask him what his plans were. Zhang Yuanji said that there is no place for the capital and he will go to Shanghai to make a living.
In late October, Zhang Yuanji and his family went south to Shanghai. In April 1899, with the help of Sheng Xuanhuai, a close confidant of Li Hongzhang and then the superintendent of Nanyang Public School, Zhang Yuanji became the president of nanyang public school translation academy, presiding over the translation of new books from east and west countries.
It was this opportunity that allowed Zhang Yuanji to gradually break away from the officialdom and thus move towards the modern publishing industry.
In 1901, at the invitation of Xia Ruifang, one of the founders of the Commercial Press, Zhang Yuanji took a stake in the Commercial Press and became one of the major shareholders. In the spring of the following year, Zhang Yuanji decided to resign from all his posts and devote himself to the Commercial Press.
At that time, many people did not understand this, after all, Zhang Yuanji was once a Hanlin Qinggui, even if he was once deposed, in the future, he will encounter amnesty, and the reinstatement of the official is unknown. With such an identity, how can we live in the "untouchable karma" that even ordinary readers despise?
In a letter to Sheng Xuanhuai, Zhang Yuanji may have said what he was thinking: Only 400,000 of China's 40,000 people are educated; and to open up the people's wisdom, it is necessary to publish good books, and he is willing to "support education as his mission."
In this sense, Zhang Yuanji originally had a bright future, but the coup d'état in the year of Wu Shu changed the course of his life.
In other words, Zhang Yuanji's becoming a giant in the modern publishing industry is entirely a historical accident, and he could have become a high-ranking official in the DPRK, an academic master, or a great educator.
However, due to the vicissitudes of history, Empress Dowager Cixi inadvertently pushed him down the "commercial sea" and eventually made him a publisher in modern China.
Of course, if Zhang Yuanji wants to return to the official road, it is not without a chance. In January 1906, under the spring breeze of the New Deal at the end of the Qing Dynasty, the Qing Court Academy asked Zhang Yuanji to be reinstated as an official and served as the Counselor's Office of the Academy.
After that, it was adjusted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the Chu Cai Guan. In December of that year, Zhang Yuanji entered Beijing to serve, but because he could not stand the official habits of the time, he abandoned the official and returned to the south in January of the following year.
After that, Zhang Yuanji's mentor, military aircraft minister and foreign affairs minister Shangshu Qu Hongyu repeatedly recruited him out of the mountains, but Zhang Yuanji was still willing to be bland. After that, Zhang Yuanji never got involved in the official field for life and never became a career again.