Ten years ago, there was such a legendary CCTV drama "Qiao Family Courtyard" directed by Hu Mei, which was broadcast in one episode and left a deep impression on me. This stirring TV series takes decades after the Opium War as the historical background, and truly reproduces the ups and downs and legendary entrepreneurial life of Qiao Zhiyong, a Shanxi businessman.

As early as the beginning of19th century, Shanxi merchants went out of Shanxi and spread their reputation of sincere unity and loyal service to the country all over the country. Qiao Zhiyong (1817-1906) is one of the representative figures. He was born in Qiaojiabao, Qixian County, Shanxi Province. He set up a ticket market to exchange silver tickets. He wants to realize his wish of connecting with the world all his life. After Eight-Nation Alliance occupied the capital, he received Empress Dowager Cixi, who fled all the way, and lent money to the exiled court at that time, and was rewarded by Empress Dowager Cixi. His banking business is unimpeded and there is no ban.

He finally saw the success of his lifelong struggle, but also witnessed the decline of the Qing Dynasty, witnessed the people being displaced and massacred under the iron feet of foreign devils. He wants to do more for his country, but his heart is at a loss.

? 1

When he was young, Qiao Zhiyong was aggressive. He is determined to make a career, hates stereotyped writing and decadent imperial examination system, is unwilling to study classics, sticks to classics, and deeply yearns for the world outside the courtyard. However, his brother Joe died young. Before he died, he hoped that he would study hard, gain fame and honor his ancestors. So he made an oath before the ancestral tablet and set off with the servant's long crossbow.

But what he didn't expect was that the axle of the carriage was damaged on the way, so the inspection was delayed. The examiner thought that he was just a dude, and he was only famous by the face of the county magistrate. Moreover, in front of everyone, there is still a lot of contempt for Shanxi businessmen, saying that Shanxi people have always been greedy for money and corrupted folk customs. Qiao Zhiyong supercilious, declaimed before the entrance examination, to clear the names of Shanxi businessmen, to clear the names of Shanxi people, he loudly told the world:

Throughout the ages, merchants have been regarded as a scourge, cut off by trade routes and blocked by the north and south. There is actually a big fallacy. Businessmen account for 30% of the world's tax revenue. If the businessman goes bankrupt, there is no way to pay taxes. To change the plight of Shaanxi, only businessmen can make the country rich, and rich countries can make Qiang Bing rich. Shanxi businessmen are by no means greedy profiteers who seek profit and hoard goods.

He said so, and spent his whole life practicing the creed of "no hypocrisy, honesty first". In him, we see the broad mind and vision of a generation of Confucian businessmen. After the senior high school entrance examination, Qiao Zhiyong took over a huge family business because his brother's son was too young.

Ambitious and youthful, he personally led the caravan to sell tea everywhere and made a lot of money. It's a pity that when the Taiping rebels made an insurrection, he met his former enemy, Liu Heiqi, but he was narrowly missed and was released. Ten years later, Qiao Zhiyong still remembers this old friend. After the failure of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement, Liu Heiqi was captured and executed, and his body was exposed in the street for three days.

Qiao Zhiyong at this time, not impulsive, took the initiative to Liu Hei up, but also bowed deeply to the body. Unexpectedly, this incident was reported, and the government arrested and imprisoned Qiao Zhiyong, and sentenced him to Qiu Jian on the charge of "adultery with bandits".

This can be anxious for his whole family, let people come to intercede and try to save them. The Qing court deeply felt that the Qiao family were fat ducks and could profit from them, and asked the Qiao family to take out five million and two thousand pieces of silver to redeem Zhiyong in order to enrich the state treasury. This huge expenditure is a heavy blow to the jstars, and Qiao Zhiyong can recover from remorse and depression for a long time. After that, he stayed at home and handed over the business to his assistant.

But once again, misfortune befell Qiao Zhiyong. Just as Joe's life gradually showed signs of recovery, he regained his vitality. Because he violated the interests of the imperial court, the Qing government restricted Joe's business route and ordered Joe's family to pay huge sums of money for several years in a row. Maybe the government wants to earn enough money to pay war reparations, which are constantly shared among the people.

Qiao Zhiyong had no choice but to live in exile at home. A few years later, Eight-Nation Alliance * * * entered the city, burning and looting, and committed all kinds of crimes. First, they robbed the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development of three million taels of silver, and then gathered the residents of Beijing together and shot and killed thousands of people. Empress Dowager Cixi fled to Shaanxi with her entourage Li, passing through Qiaojiabao, Qixian County, Shanxi Province. Under such circumstances, it is necessary for the Qiao family to donate money as a salary, and more importantly, pay attention to ostentation and extravagance, hold a big banquet, and greet them with good wine and food.

Qiao Zhiyong is sentimental about current events, but still abides by the imperial edict of Empress Dowager Cixi. He lost no time in proposing that 83-year-old Qiao Zhiyong finally realized his long-cherished wish of "connecting the world", provided that the business trip of the jstars would travel all over the country without any taboos. In the next few years, his industry made a comeback and banks circulated all over the country.

However, his heart is full of mixed feelings and inexplicably heavy. His wife Liu Yuhan also left him alone in the world. He looked in the mirror, looked at his pale face in the mirror, and muttered, "Who are you? Why are you still alive? You are eighty-nine years old. What is your life and pleasure? If you had followed your brother's wishes and sought fame, you would not have been a scholar like Li Bai and Wang Wei, but you had to go into business! Now, um, money, a lot of money, but what's the use? The Qing dynasty is dying, what's the use of asking for money! "

He has deep pain and deep love for the misfortune of his country. Even when the court tried to suppress him and wronged him, he naively thought that this was not a temporary confusion of the holy family. Perhaps only people of that era would have such feelings of home and country.

At a time of national disaster, Qiao Zhiyong, who is at home at leisure, still thinks about his life and wants to do something for the Lebanese people. In those years when Qiao's family was in trouble, Zhiyong opened a porridge shed around Qixian County to help thousands of victims despite the poor economic situation. The whole family is frugal and supports the porridge shed. Their righteous actions infected the people around them, so other businesses also opened porridge sheds to help.

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Qiao Zhiyong died at the age of 89. What he brings to people is not the shrewd impression of traditional businessmen, just like his name, he abides by the Confucian golden mean. People are very friendly, don't blame others at will, stick to their beliefs, goods are cheap, and small profits are quick turnover.

This drama is not only the entrepreneurial history of a generation of Shanxi merchants, but also a microcosm of the social outlook in the late Qing Dynasty. Exposed the decay of the Qing court, the indifference of the world, and the cruelty of foreign aggression. On the one hand, Qiao Zhiyong had a strong illusion about the Qing Dynasty, hoping that the rise of commerce would benefit the people, and the court would sweep away the haze and expel foreign invasion; On the other hand, they feel helpless and desperate about reality.

The huge compensation brought by years of war fell to the Qiao family, which made Zhiyong disheartened. Because the treaty of humiliating the country and humiliating the country wants to do unequal trade with foreigners, the monopoly of foreigners also makes other Shanxi businessmen suffer greatly; The forced trafficking of opium also erodes the spirit and body of China people, and countless shocking realities afflict the dying old people. When he thought he had realized his lifelong wish, he only got a heavy sigh.

He finally didn't see the way out for the country, and his thoughts were completely branded with that era. As early as the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement, although he was very grateful to Liu Heiqi, he hated the Taiping Army, regarded the "long-haired soldiers" as national thieves, and took the lead in donating money as military expenses to suppress the Taiping Army. He will not try to change the system more thoroughly, but will only make compromise improvements. Therefore, it has repeatedly become the wallet of the government and cannot get rid of the oppression and exploitation of feudal bureaucrats.

After Qiao Zhiyong's death, Shanxi merchants gradually began to decline due to the infiltration of foreign monopoly. Nevertheless, Qiao Zhiyong is still a model among Shanxi merchants. In the last few years of his life, Qiao Zhiyong knew that the collapse of the empire was inevitable and the future of his family was uncertain. He restored the old house of the Qiao family and left a precious and unforgettable site for future generations.

90 days of growth training camp without warning.