(The content of this article is based on the collation of data, and there are cited sources at the end of the article.) ）
As the eldest sister of the Song sisters, Song Ailing is the youngest of the three to be famous. But she is also the driving force behind Song Qingling and Song Meiling's prominent status, which shows that her methods are not ordinary.
And Song Ailing's most interesting area may have to talk about the scope of business. If her two younger sisters are politically superior to her, others are hard to match when it comes to their ability to amass money.
He started his career in business at a young age
For Song Ailing, her gender is very ambiguous. First of all, she herself is the personality type of a strong business woman, and because her family loves her more, everything is up to her, so she has been a business person almost since she was a child, and often socializes with her father.
When she was young, she began to take advantage of her young age to help her family ask for some real thoughts on cooperation or competitors. Most people saw that Song Ailing was not very old and basically couldn't defend herself, which gave her a lot of room to operate.
However, the real factor that promotes her to continue to work on this road is the recognition of the people around her, after all, she is still a child, and Song Ailing's values at that time are also in the stage of being shaped by plastic surgery, and once she is recognized, she will unconsciously develop along the way.
Because her father is a business person, and her mother also has a lot of interpersonal entertainment, there are basically countless banquets and negotiations, and under the guidance of such an environment, Song Ailing is also difficult to avoid the influence, so it is not surprising that she will embark on the road of business.
This has to mention the overall situation of the Song family. In fact, it is one thing to favor Song Ailing, but the direction of cultivation is another, within the Song family, in fact, the influence of family affection should be placed under the interests of the family, and Song Ailing herself also recognizes this.
Therefore, the direction of Song Ailing's thinking about the problem is a little peculiar, she thinks that instead of crying and struggling with the existing political marriage purpose, it is better to make herself more valuable and exchange for a marriage with a higher status. This thought also led her to make a more radical choice.
When her peers in the family wanted to have fun and have fun, Song Ailing offered to study abroad. After acquiring the corresponding knowledge, she followed her father to learn business practice, which surprised Song Jiashu inexplicably, but worried about her life abroad.
In the end, Song Ailing couldn't stand it, so she insisted very much, so she sent a few people to take care of her. In fact, because of the unsuitability of several people, they became a drag on Song Ailing, and Song Ailing sent them to the hospital in 1904, and went to the United States in 1904.
After coming to the United States, she benefited from the care of her father's friends, and her unyielding personality played a big role in her school studies, allowing her to catch up with the progress of those seniors at the age of 15.
After six years of study, in 1910, Song Ailing returned to China. Song Jiashu had high hopes for her and arranged her to serve in the League, and at that time, the people who returned from studying abroad belonged to highly educated talents, and naturally had good development prospects.
Therefore, she soon stood out from the crowd and became Sun Yat-sen's secretary in 1912, from which Soong Ailing began her own political path. But in fact, she did not embark on a smooth path to success, but went through hardships.
After the failure of the Second Revolution, she had to flee to Japan, where her political path was interrupted and she began to pave the way of a commercial empire. When it comes to the business field, it is naturally inseparable from her husband Kong Xiangxi, whose family has been in business for generations and has sufficient capital accumulation.
Kong Xiangxi and Song Ailing
In 1914, although Song Ailing met Kong Xiangxi, the Kong family declined to a certain extent. But as a once big family, a temporary decline could not shake its commercial status.
Song Ailing has been cultivated to judge the relationship by value since she was a child, so after an acquaintance introduced the two to meet, she immediately judged that the marriage with the Kong family was conducive to the development of the family, so she readily agreed to this marriage relationship. As a result, the Kong family was given a chance to rise again.
Since then, the Song family has really changed into a legitimate family, rather than a simple nouveau riche, as the heir of the Confucius family, Kong Xiangxi is undoubtedly a noble person who brought it out of the predicament, which shows that Song Ailing had far-reaching plans at that time.
With the Kong family as her backstage, she was naturally able to exert unscrupulous means, began to frequently show her skills in high society, gained amazing fame, and also prepared a network foundation for the establishment of a business empire.
After that, the political circles changed again, and Chiang Kai-shek came to power and seized military power. In 1927, after thinking about it, Song Ailing thought that she wanted the Song family to be tied to the Jiang family's boat, so she immediately contacted Song Meiling to prepare for marriage. As she expected, the prestige of the Song family was even greater.
At this time, Song Ailing was already able to use the Kong and Song families, and with the help of Chiang Kai-shek to complete many business projects, with the help of these three families, she was almost invincible, and not many businessmen dared to touch her mold.
Although Song Ailing has lost her official title in the political circles on the surface, her status is getting higher and higher. In Chiang Kai-shek's memoirs, she was called the eldest sister, and she was often asked about her political affairs, and when Chiang Kai-shek was young, he was admonished by Soong Ailing many times.
She believed that Chiang Kai-shek could not indulge in pleasure, and should focus on the current situation, and that Soong Ailing, who had no official position or position, could admonish him, and Chiang Kai-shek also said that he was good at making decisions, which undoubtedly reflected the high status of Soong Ailing at that time.
In addition, in order to thank Soong Ailing for serving as the matchmaker, Chiang Kai-shek also arranged Kong Xiangxi to serve as the minister of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, which made Soong Ailing's business path achieve the effect of a strong alliance, and he made a lot of money in the financial world, and the rest of the businessmen could only retreat.
In the 30s of the 20th century, Kong Xiangxi took advantage of his position to help Song Ailing collect more than 30 million yuan. In the market at that time, this amount of money was already astronomical, but behind it, it was Song Ailing's unjust means of borrowing Japan's invasion of China to accumulate wealth.
But Song Ailing didn't care about her personal reputation, and she was crazy about making money during the Republic of China. Hundreds of millions of dollars of that money were deposited in Bank of America, much to the shock of the local media, who called him "a predatory resident."
In addition, Soong Ailing also obtained benefits through the purchase of arms, and obtained $25 million in benefits within a year. This money was later used for the development of the Song family, so that more businessmen recognized the authority of the Song family.
But in fact, Song Ailing only regarded these businessmen as capital that could be harvested.
After they followed the Song family's superficial strategy, they immediately secretly let people manipulate the changes in the stock market, and got the latest news from Kong Xiangxi's political channels, so that they could make money through speculation.
Around the 40s of the 20th century, Song Ailing had obtained the highest wealth among the political leaders of the time, and because of her extremely high status, no one could shake her business empire, and her tough hand was also passed on to her descendants, who also achieved success in the business world.
He fled to the United States and unfortunately died
However, due to the impact of the Japanese invasion of China and the civil war, the Kuomintang forces collapsed and continued to reduce the scope of control. In 1943, Kong Xiangxi resigned because of the exposure of the "dollar embezzlement case", and Song Ailing immediately felt that something was wrong, and hurriedly began to transfer assets.
In accordance with his instructions, the Kong family also withdrew from the many arrangements in the political circles, which can be described as a strong man cutting his wrists, but this quick action ensured the transportation of the property of the Kong and Song families, allowing them to ensure that the family business was transferred to the United States, and achieved the goal of leaving safely.
Song Ailing herself stayed in China for a long time, and found that the situation was not likely to improve, so she also went to live in the United States. At the time, she had $2 billion in assets at the Bank of Manhattan alone, not to mention all the other luxury goods and collections.
Although some arrangements disappeared and the business empire she created collapsed, with such sufficient funds, there is actually the possibility of a comeback, but after coming to the United States to taste the taste of failure, Song Ailing lost this heart.
Maybe it's because she has never failed before, and she hasn't adjusted well when she suddenly encounters a change, or maybe Song Ailing sees it by herself and doesn't want to go through the same experience, so she no longer pays attention to business issues, but just lives her own life.
After the Kuomintang fled to Taiwan, in fact, some people asked Song Ailing what she thought, but she said that she did not want to live on Taiwan Island.
The former is because of her 6-year study abroad career, which made her familiar with the local customs; The latter is because of the familiarity of living and working in a more familiar environment for many years. Therefore, as long as he can't return to the mainland, it doesn't matter to Song Ailing.
The mansion of the Confucian family in Shanghai is located on Xiafei Road and West Eryth Road in the French Concession. Western-style building, magnificent, the front and back of the building are gardens, there are many safes hidden in the bedrooms, and there are all kinds of servants for service, a total of more than 60 people.
Breakfast is based on nourishing bird's nest, lunch soup is served, and dinner is served for banquets, and banquets are held almost every day. The two of them have to wear imported foreign clothes, and they bought hundreds of pairs of socks alone, and even the bath powder is the same style as the Queen of England.
In 1967, Song Ailing's husband Kong Xiangxi died, which made her even more hidden from her lack of interest in the business field. But to her sadness, her brother chose to be absent from Kong Xiangxi's funeral at that time.
This situation caused Song Ailing and her younger brother to go further and further, and at the same time, because Song Qingling's political views were different, the way they got along was also a little awkward. In 1971, her younger brother Song Ziwen died, she thought about it for a long time, and finally gave up.
At this point, the political differences of the three sisters were clearly revealed, and several of them originally planned to go, but after hearing that the others had made arrangements, they all gave up going to the funeral. In her later years, Song Ailing's family was separated and she became depressed and sick.
In 1973, Song Ailing was seriously ill and dying, and Song Meiling and Song Qingling were notified, but only Song Meiling was present to offer condolences, and Song Qingling was also in the stage of disease treatment. In 1980, she sent a letter to Song Meiling, hoping to abandon her differences and reunite with her sisters, but she failed to do so.
In Song Ailing's life, she once created a huge business empire with her own hands, but when there was a problem, the strong man cut his wrists and retreated bravely, keeping the family business, it can be said that she has spent a life worthy of success, but she has many regrets about family affection.
Under the Song family's value-oriented cultivation concept, Song Ailing, as the eldest sister, was undoubtedly affected the most, which also laid the groundwork for her sisters' inability to reunite, and in the end, Song Ailing did not see the picture of the three sisters getting back together.
Bibliography:
1. How much property did Song Ailing accumulate Yangtze Evening News
2. How Much Property Song Ailing Owns, Chinese and Foreign Entrepreneurs, No. 1, 1997, 36-36, 1 page
3. Yang Shiyang. What did Song Qingling's legacy leave behind[J].Literature and History Expo,2010(9):25-26.