In a modern History of China, Sheng Xuanhuai is a person who cannot but be said. For him, people have mixed opinions. Li Hongzhang praised him for his "ambition to do things when he was tenacious, wise and discerning, and worthy of great use." The author of the "Draft History of the Qing Dynasty" scolded him for "infringing on the law and violating the law, deceiving the monarch, attaching policies, and causing disasters, which is really the leader of the misleading country and evil.". In Sun Yat-sen's eyes, Sheng Xuanhuai was enthusiastic about public welfare, and the economic circles were extremely trustworthy. In Lu Xun's view, Sheng Xuanhuai was an out-and-out thief, bureaucratic capitalist, local tycoon and inferior gentry. What did Sheng Xuanhuai do in his life, and why did people praise and disparage him?
Sheng Xuanhuai, also spelled Xingsun, was born in 1844 in Wujin, Jiangsu Province, and his grandfather and father held official positions. At the age of 26, at the recommendation of his father, he entered Li Hongzhang's shogunate. He is greatly appreciated for his excellent work. At that time, China's coastal and inland waterway shipping was in the hands of British and American shipping companies. Sheng Xuanhuai believes that if China wants to be rich and strong, it must develop industry and commerce, and the development of industry and commerce, transportation rights and interests cannot be monopolized by foreigners. So he suggested to Li Hongzhang that he set up a steamship merchants bureau to take back the benefits of shipping from foreigners. After li hongzhang's recommendation, he became the first supervisor of the steamship investment bureau. Since then, Sheng Xuanhuai has used Li Hongzhang's power to create one foreign enterprise after another, and he has also repaid the favor with a peach, and every time he runs an enterprise, "there are a number of false shares to give Hongzhang". Of course, he did not take advantage of his position to embezzle and embezzle state-owned assets on a large scale.
After Li Hongzhang was transferred to the post of governor directly under him, Sheng Xuanhuai followed. In Tianjin, he founded the China Telegraph Administration, presided over the construction of dozens of telegraph lines across the country, and founded the Telegraph School to cultivate specialized talents.
In 1896, Sheng Xuanhuai went to Hubei to take over the Hanyang Iron Works from Zhang Zhidong, which had suffered a serious deficit. In view of the shortcomings of the lack of fuel and poor steel quality in the iron plant, he sent people along the river to look for coal mines, and finally found suitable coal in Pingxiang, Jiangxi, and introduced the latest smelting technology from the West to solve these problems. In order to ensure the sales of rails produced by the iron factory, he proposed to Zhang Zhidong to set up a special railway company to build the Luhan Railway. He also went to Beijing to ask the Guangxu Emperor about the various benefits of Chen Xing's railway, and finally the emperor approved this request, and he was responsible for supervising the railway company. Through his efforts, Hanyang Iron Works became the "first male factory" in East Asia. But on the other hand, in order to expand the iron plant, he did not hesitate to borrow large-scale loans from Japan with mines, thus making China lose the sovereignty of daye iron ore.
By the beginning of the twentieth century, Sheng Xuanhuai had controlled a number of enterprises such as steamships, telegraphs, railways, banks, and textiles, and controlled half of China's economy. According to statistics, he created a total of 11 Chinese firsts: the first private joint-stock enterprise steamship China Merchants Bureau; the first telegraph bureau; the first inland small steamship company; the first Bank of China; the first railway trunk line; the first steel joint venture; the first higher normal school; the first Kan mining company; the first public library; the first modern university; and the founding of the Chinese Red Cross Society. At this time, Sheng Xuanhuai's life has reached its peak.
After Li Hongzhang's death, Sheng Xuan was alone and was stripped of control of the Railway Bureau and telegraph bureau by Yuan Shikai. A few years later, Zaifeng came to power, Yuan Shikai lost his position and retired, Sheng Xuanhuai came out to move around, and finally became the Minister of Posts and Communications Shangshu (equivalent to the Minister of Communications) in 1908. In May 1911, the Imperial Cabinet was formed. At that time, the debate about whether the railway was a private railway in the country or the private sector was very fierce, especially in Sichuan, Guangdong, Hunan and other places, where many people had already joined the shares of railway companies. At this time, Sheng Xuanhuai did not give the people any compensation, forcibly nationalized the railway, and borrowed foreign debts to build the Guangdong-Han and Sichuan-Han railways, which was undoubtedly a public outrage. This directly provoked the road protection movement in Hunan, Sichuan and other places, and the resulting Wuchang Uprising completely buried the Qing Dynasty. On October 26 of that year, Sheng Xuanhuai was dismissed from public office. Seeing that things were not good, the 67-year-old Sheng Xuanhuai fled to Japan by boat. Later, he spent more than 5 million taels of silver to buy a peace.
At the beginning of the founding of the Republic of China, the finances were stretched, and in order to raise funds, Sheng Xuanhuai went to Japan, intending to obtain a loan from the Japanese side on the condition that the Sino-Japanese joint venture Hanyeping Company be established. In April 1916, Sheng Xuanhuai died in Shanghai. Before his death, he confessed that he had donated half of the more than 11.6 million taels of silver he had left behind for charity. After his death, the Sheng family spent 300,000 oceans for his funeral, and the barman who carried the coffin alone hired 64 people, and the funeral guard was even more long for 5 miles, and many Shanghai citizens witnessed this luxurious funeral. It is said that in order to prevent tomb robbery, his coffin remained in the lingering garden for more than two years, until 1919, when it was buried in the family cemetery.
This controversial figure in recent history has finally turned into a piece of loess.