Many people first heard of Duan Qirui's name, probably when they read Lu Xun's "Remembering Liu and Zhenjun" while studying in middle school. In the first sentence of the article, Lu Xun mentioned Duan Qirui, "On March 25, the fifteenth year of the Republic of China, the day that the National Beijing Women's Normal University held a memorial service for Liu and Zhen Yang Dequn, who were killed before Duan Qirui took office on the eighteenth, I wandered alone outside the auditorium. ”
With the deepening of their understanding of history, everyone is even more thunderous to Duan Qirui's titles of "Three Creations of The Republic" and "Six No Prime Ministers". The so-called "six noes" refers to Duan Qirui's lifelong observance of "not smoking, not drinking, not prostituting, not gambling, not greedy, and not occupying." Some people have said that Duan Qirui is as clean as water, so poor that he wants to rent a house, is this the real history?
We need to realize that the celebrity effect obscures a lot of real history. Duan Qirui had great merits in the country, but he also had, and in the official arena at that time, he was indeed a clear stream of existence. However, what is widely circulated on the Internet is that Duan Qirui has been renting a house, which is the biggest misunderstanding, or this is another kind of smear on Duan Qirui.
According to the information that can be consulted so far, Duan Qirui has at least three houses in Beijing, which are located in Xitangzi Hutong, Fuxue Hutong, and Jizhao Hutong. Among them, the house of Xitangzi Hutong is a relatively spacious Xihe courtyard, which was later moved to Fuxue Hutong, which is also a quadrangle courtyard.
The courtyard in Fuxue Hutong is several times larger than the courtyard in Xitangzi Hutong, and the entire courtyard garden, inner house, living room, study room, etc., just like the late Qing Dynasty palace. According to the data, this courtyard was originally Yuan Shikai's private residence.
In that year, Yuan Shikai bought this courtyard for 300,000 oceans, and was soon sent to his hometown by the imperial court for "enough disease" to "raise a boil". Before leaving, Yuan Shikai gave the courtyard to Duan Qirui. According to Duan Qirui's housekeeper Wang Chuqing, Duan Qirui also had a large private house in Jizhao Hutong.
This private house was built by Duan Qirui himself, "In the south gate warehouse of Dongzhimen in Beijing, there is a vacant land called "Empty House", which was probably the residence of a prince in the early years, and then abandoned and became a vacant land. When Duan Qirui was in Beijing, he planned to build a mansion there. "This piece of land is very large, in order to build this private house, Duan Qirui also opened his own kiln to burn bricks."
Therefore, Duan Qirui lives on a rental house in Beijing, which is a complete rumor. In addition to having real estate, he also invested in coal mines. In 1912, Duan Qirui also joined hands with Yan Xishan, Wang Shizhen and others to establish the Zhengfeng Coal Mine in the Jingxin Mining Area. Because of its political background, Zhengfeng Coal Mine has produced more than 1,000 tons of coal per day in just 8 years, and has also built an 18-kilometer-long railway.
In addition, Duan Qirui also invested in the Longyan Iron Mine, the uncultivated wasteland in Jilin Province, the Huiye Bank jointly established by China and Japan, and the Maoye Bank jointly established by China and the United States. However, after Duan Qirui's death in 1936, his legacy was eventually cheaper than the Japanese.
References: "Duan Qirui Mansion", "Duan Qirui the Tiger of beiyang"