Study hard during your studies. Later he was promoted to a clerk and had a good command of English. While negotiating business with foreign businessmen, he got acquainted with Shuai Chu, the chief executive of the British businessman Da Ming Yang Company, and was hired as a street clerk and translator by Da Ming Yang Company. He pays attention to credit in his operations. In a few years, his business has boomed and his financial resources have become increasingly strong. He has successively opened 7 branches in Niuzhuang, Hankou, Zhenjiang, Changzhou, Wuxi, Suzhou and Nagasaki, Japan. His main business is Sold steel equipment on behalf of British merchant Jardine Matheson.

The compilation general director of "The Genealogy of the Zhou Family in Xishan" (1919) and the director of the Nanzhai Branch, the 25th grandson of the Nanzhai Branch in Xishan, Wuxi, and the 30th grandson of Zhou Dunyi. ---------------The first pot of gold dug by Zhou Shunqing Zhou Shunqing, named Tingbi, was born on the tenth day of May in the second year of Xianfeng in the Qing Dynasty (AD 1852) in Zhouxin Community, now Taihu Street. A relatively poor peasant family in Xiaoyuanli Natural Village. According to research, Zhou Shunqing's ancestral home was Daozhou, Hunan (now Dao County in southern Hunan, adjacent to Guangdong and Guangxi.) During the Southern Song Dynasty, his ancestor Zhou Yinggao (Zhou Dunyi-Zhou Tao-Zhou Yan-Zhou Zhengqing-Zhou Xun-Zhou Yinggao) moved from Daozhou Xi was passed down to Zhou Shunqing's father Zhou Daoran (also named Rang San) in the 24th generation. Rang San had two sons and one daughter, and Zhou Shunqing was the younger son.

Zhou Shunqing suffered from displacement when he was young. Due to the turmoil of the current situation and constant wars, one night the house at home was burned down, and the little property he had saved through years of hard work and frugality was also destroyed in the fire. His mother became depressed and became ill and could not afford to die. Shunqing was only 8 years old at the time, but he was as sensible as an adult and behaved very strongly. In order to avoid another misfortune to the family, his father ordered his brother Huiqing to go to Jiangbei to study business, while he took Shunqing on a boat trip on Taihu Lake to avoid disaster. When the situation calmed down a little, he came back to pick up the broken bricks and began to rebuild his home. At this time, Shunqing was already a good helper for his father.

In Dingmao, the sixth year of Tongzhi (1867 AD), at the age of 16, he followed his uncle Zhou Xiaoting to work as an apprentice at the Lichang Iron Company in Shanghai. The boss was Ding Mingkui, a wealthy businessman from Xitiexiang Village in his hometown. (Ding Mingkui, male, from 1816 to 1898, spent a huge sum of money to rebuild the famous bridge in Dongjiang in the 8th year of Tongzhi in the Qing Dynasty. This is a curved arch-shaped stone bridge with three rings. Although it has been hit by wind and rain for 143 years, it still stands in Dongjiang. The northwest bank of the starting point of Jiangxi South Highway is a cultural relic protection unit of Jiangsu Province and Wuxi City.) According to the old man, his grandmother only gave him a change of cloth shirt and a pair of cloth shoes when he set out. It was raining and the roads were muddy. Zhou Shunqing was reluctant to wear his own shoes, so he walked barefoot for more than ten miles to the canal next to Zhoujingxiang Station and took the Suzhou ferry. After becoming an apprentice, he was diligent with his brain, hands and feet. He did everything he could with the boss's care. After closing, I would stare at the cashier and ask questions if I didn't understand something. At that time, foreign capital had invaded our country's market, and Shanghai had just opened its commercial port. With the expansion of trade, Shanghai had become my country's largest commercial and financial center at that time. Since Lichang Coal and Iron Company often did business with foreign businessmen, Zhou Shunqing, with his youthful intelligence, deeply felt the importance of mastering English, otherwise it would be difficult to understand the business situation and gain a foothold in the Shanghai business community. So he made up his mind to work hard as an apprentice during the day and walk more than 20 miles at night to learn English in an amateur cram school, rain or shine. After more than a year of hard work, he has mastered general conversation. Three years later, his foreign language level has been greatly improved. After the three-year apprenticeship expired, he became a regular employee and was promoted by his boss to a clerk specializing in contacting foreign businessmen. He was highly valued by Boss Ding.

In his youth, Zhou Shunqing's own destiny changed dramatically because he handled an incident with integrity. After working as a clerk on the Lichang Railway to contact foreign businessmen, he once picked up a check of NT$1,000 signed in English by a British Taipan Shuaichu on the road. Because he had gone to Shuaichu's Yihe Matheson to deal with business, he knew the name of this big class. At that time, 1,000 yuan was more than enough to buy a Shikumen house in Shanghai. Moreover, after Zhou graduated from high school, he was in urgent need of start-up funds if he wanted to open a store. However, at this time, Zhou Shunqing was thinking that Taipan had lost the funds, and he must be very anxious. It is his responsibility to return the property promptly to its original owner. So he immediately rushed to the British Jardines & Co., Ltd. and personally returned the check to Shuai Chu. Shuai Chu was very moved and praised his civilized behavior of picking up gold without hesitation. From then on, he was deeply trusted and valued by Shuai Chu. Soon, Zhou was transferred to work at Daming Foreign Investment Co., Ltd. founded by Shuai Chu.

In 1878, Shuaichu invested another 5,000 taels of silver and ordered Zhou Shunqing to leave the foreign bank and go to Shanghai to open his own Shengchang Hardware Coal and Iron Company beside the Sichuan Road Bridge over the Suzhou River, and appointed Zhou Shunqing, a 27-year-old young man, as the general manager. Because Zhou Shunqing was smart, capable, courteous, and honest, Shengchang's business was prosperous and its profits were considerable. However, he always kept the bottom line and did not take any extra money. Therefore, Shuaichu relied more and more on this Chinese friend and entrusted the management of Shengchang to Zhou Shunqing. Go back to your country to visit your relatives. Zhou did not enrich himself just because his boss was absent. Instead, he became more cautious and remembered every account clearly. Three years later, Shuai Chu's son came to Shanghai to settle accounts. It turned out that Shuai Chu had passed away. According to his lifetime will, his son took back the profit of 30,000 taels of silver made by the business in the past three years, and donated all the assets of the business to Zhou Shunqing. Another "coal and iron king" from Wuxi emerged in Shanghai overnight. From then on, "Shengchang" became the foundation for Zhou Shunqing's fortune, and it can also be said to be the "first pot of gold" that Zhou Shunqing dug. Starting in business - "King of Coal and Iron" Zhou Shunqing went to Shanghai as an apprentice at the age of 16. After completing his apprenticeship at the age of 20, he served as a clerk in contact with foreign business. At the age of 27, he served as the British merchant commander. Chu invested 5,000 taels of silver to open Shengchang Hardware, Coal and Iron. Manager, 11 years have passed, but it only took 12 years from Zhou's appointment as manager to the time he opened Zhenchang Coal and Iron Co., 8 coal and iron branches and two silkworm shops across the country. Among these 12 commercial enterprises, there are 10 coal and iron companies. By the time Zhou Shunqing opened the Zhenchang Coal and Iron Company on his own in 1884, the assets owned by the 33-year-old Zhou Shunqing had reached more than 200 times the original investment in Shengchang. There are two reasons why Zhou became extremely wealthy, apart from distributing foreign products and making huge profits. One theory is that the two coal and iron trains in Shanghai, Zhenchang and Shengchang, were originally built next to the Sichuan Road Bridge over the Suzhou River. Later, the Shanghai General Post Office building was built on this site and sold for a high price of 280,000 taels of silver. The two coal and iron trains were The cost of moving the number is very low, but the difference between entry and exit is quite large. Another theory is that Shengchang once purchased an old foreign ship from an auction house at the price of scrap iron. Zhou also specially recruited a group of ironworkers from his hometown to unload the machinery and steel. Recharge it as new and sell it, thus making huge profits. In addition, according to the memory written by Zhu Ziwen, around 1885, Zhou purchased more than 20 acres of real estate in Gaochang Temple, Nan City, Shanghai, built a house and sold it at a high price, earning 500,000 yuan in sales and making huge profits.

Industrial fortune - "The King of Silk Reeling" At the age of 44, Zhou Shunqing first opened two smelting workshops in Shanghai Nan City and Suzhou at the same time, specializing in the production of self-marketed iron pots. The last two factories were opened in In 1920, Dongjiang Tube Factory and Brick and Tile Factory were already 69 years old. In 25 years, 16 factories were established, 7 of which were large-scale advanced silk reeling factories with imported equipment. They were later replaced by People in Wuxi call him the "King of Silk Reeling".

The Wuxi Yuchang Silk Factory opened in Zhouxin Town was founded by Zhou in 1904 (the 30th year of the reign of Emperor Guangxu) with a sole investment of 80,000 taels of silver. Yuchang had an annual surplus during World War I and in the first few years after the war. The surplus in an average year is around 20,000 to 30,000 yuan, with the peak in 1923 reaching 150,000 yuan. The annual surplus is divided into thirteen equal shares, with Zhou alone getting ten shares, the manager and associate manager getting more than one share, and the remaining one share being divided among all factory employees. By 1919, the factory had 330 imported silk reeling cars and more than a thousand workers. By 1923, the total capital of the factory had reached 180,000 taels, more than three times the initial investment. Due to the advanced equipment of the silk reeling factory run by Zhou and the tight control over the quality of raw cocoons, the quality of the silk is excellent and is favored by businessmen from Britain, the United States, Japan and other countries. The products dominated the Shanghai and Wuxi areas, and Zhou Shunqing became a veritable king of silk reeling in everyone's mind.

Capital Management - "Bank Tycoon" Generally speaking, after some traditional businessmen in China become strong, they often turn their energy to seeking political status and political asylum, so that they can have wealth and power. . This is determined by the specific living environment, and Zhou Shunqing is also well aware of this. In addition, Zhou Shunqing dared to be the first after making a fortune in the officialdom. In order to accelerate the appreciation of his strong capital, he suddenly slowed down his investment in industry, and instead went all out to study in Japan. At the age of 55, At that time, within two years, it quickly invested in the financial industry and first opened my country's first private bank, Xincheng Bank, in Shanghai. This bank not only engaged in general banking business, but was also granted the privilege of issuing banknotes by the Qing government. This is undoubtedly due to the political and capital backing provided by Prince Qing Yikuang and his son.

Xincheng Bank is headquartered next to Wanju Pier outside Dadongmen, Nan City, Shanghai. It also has branches in Beijing, Tianjin, Nanjing and Wuxi Xincheng Bank. Xincheng Shanghai Head Office issued three types of banknotes, one yuan, five yuan and ten yuan, with the approval of the Ministry of Commerce. The maximum number of banknotes issued reached one million yuan. In the savings business, more deposits were made than withdrawals every year. The maximum deposit balance reached more than 7 million yuan. He was called the "Bank Tycoon" by Shanghainese. Xincheng Bank has only existed for 6 years, but as China's earliest commercial savings bank, it should be said that it does have its place in the history of China's financial industry development and has played an indelible role in historical progress. Another example is the Wuxi Branch of Xincheng Bank. In order to revitalize Wuxi's industry, it set up a savings counter to absorb social hot money, and then lent money to business owners in agricultural, industrial, road and mining industries, and to early Wuxi national industries. This solved the problem of capital turnover difficulties for industrialists and promoted the development of the industry. Industrial and commercial development. At its peak, the Wuxi branch lent more than 500,000 silver yuan, which especially played a huge role in promoting the development of Wuxi's silk reeling industry. At that time, the silk factory in Wuxi had begun to have an "industrial factory" and "business factory" business model, and implemented a system of renting factories and machinery and equipment. Without bank loan support, operators would not be able to pay for the purchase of silkworm cocoons, workers' wages and large rents. Even large factories like Zhenxin Cotton Mill and Maoxin Flour Mill mortgaged all their assets to banks to obtain loans to develop production. In 1910, Rong Desheng borrowed 80,000 taels from Wuxi Xincheng Bank and Li Yucheng Bank run by Zhou Shunqing to redeem Zhenxin Cotton Mill.

Doing good deeds and accumulating virtue - "The King of Good Deeds" In the eyes of the emperor of the Qing government and the president of the military government at that time, especially in the eyes of the people in the Xinan area of ????Wuxi, Zhou Shunqing, a rich man who was as wealthy as the country, was by no means A miser, especially when the lives of the country's disaster-stricken people were very difficult, and when the Revolution of 1911 encountered financial difficulties, he always went all out to help, and was known as the "King of Good Deeds" with a bodhisattva heart.

Zhou Shunqing is rooted in Wuxi, but most of his career is in Shanghai, so he often travels between Wuxi and Shanghai. The train ticket he bought was also an ordinary hard-seat ticket. He never went to the dining car when dining. He just bought a meal in the aisle like ordinary passengers. It is said that in order to facilitate the transportation work, he invested shares in Zhoujingxiang Railway Station with permission and built a transportation dock beside the ancient canal. Once people and goods get off the train, they can quickly go to the ship dock, and then Take a short boat ride directly to your hometown in Zhouxin Town. After Zhou Shunqing became rich, he did not forget his true nature as a working people. He lived a very simple life. He wore a blue cloth shirt, blue shoes and cloth socks for many years. His dress was not equivalent to that of a millionaire. The waves behind the Yangtze River push the waves ahead, surging forward forever. Zhou Shunqing's performance is legendary and brilliant, which makes people admire him, while his decline and decline make people sigh. The historical context is worth summarizing and learning from. Let us learn from the great man Zhou Shunqing of a generation, constantly improve and improve ourselves, and show our talents in the great cause of revitalizing China. ——Zhou Shunqing and Zhou Puyuan Cao Yu in "Thunderstorm". He is one of the most accomplished playwrights since the May 4th Movement in my country. He once served as the executive chairman of the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles and the chairman of the Chinese Drama Association. He was listed as "Lu Lu" by the people. ", Guo, Mao, Ba, Lao and Cao" are six modern literary giants. As early as 1933, the talented 23-year-old Cao Yu wrote "Thunderstorm", a classic in the history of Chinese drama. It was an instant success and became popular in Shanghai. When it was performed in Shanghai, the box office was full and it was hard to get a ticket. From high-ranking officials to industrialists and even ordinary people, they all rushed to witness this human tragedy involving entanglements and blood and tears. As the story of "Thunderstorm" became popular in the streets, there was a saying in society: the prototype of "Master" Zhou Puyuan in the play was Zhou Shunqing, a Shanghai industrial and business tycoon with roots in Wuxi. Because the character in the play once said, "Wuxi is a good place."

To this day, regardless of speculation or agreement, in Dongjiang, Wuxi, the hometown of Zhou Shunqing, the general public still firmly believes in this legend. In fact, there are many similarities and coincidences between Zhou Puyuan and Zhou Shunqing. Of course, most of the plots in "Thunderstorm" are fictitious and pieced together by the author. Zhou Shunqing may only be the author's reference "model" when writing. But it can still be seen from it that Zhou Shunqing had great influence in Shanghai at that time.

It should be said that Zhou Puyuan and Zhou Shunqing have many similarities. Zhou Puyuan is the chairman of the coal mine, and Zhou Shunqing is the "king of coal and iron" in Shanghai, and has invested in the development of antimony mines as chairman; Zhou Puyuan abandoned Shi Ping and married Fanyi; Zhou Shunqing married Fei and then married Fanyi after the death of his first wife Wang Shuzhen. Two side rooms.

Zhou Puyuan recited sutras and became a vegetarian, while Zhou Shunqing became a Buddhist and vegetarian in his later years. (Note: Lines from "Thunderstorm": Lu Sifeng: "I'm afraid that if the master chants sutras and becomes a vegetarian, he won't like me to serve him. I heard that the master always hates women.") In "Thunderstorm" Zhou Puyuan is a character in the play. Zhou Shunqing was just a reference model when master Cao Yu conceived the script. But it is precisely because of this unexplainable relationship that Wuxi people especially love to watch the drama "Thunderstorm". Since the 1930s, a group of stars from the drama and film industry have come to Wuxi to perform "Thunderstorm". Wuxi people seem to be listening to stories from their hometown and watching local plays. The enthusiasm has even infected the actors, and many performances have Later, they still had to persuade them to stay for an extra performance. Some fans of "Thunderstorm" missed the opportunity in Wuxi and did not see the show, so they had to go with the troupe to Suzhou and Shanghai to watch the show. As early as the early 1960s, during the filming of the movie "Thunderstorm", we visited the "Guanshan Villa", "Yizhuang" and "Zhoujingtang Bridge" (Zhouxin Old Street) built by Zhou Shunqing in Dongjiang, Wuxi many times. Many scenes have been filmed at the location.

At the same time, we can see from the trajectory of Zhou Shunqing’s growth, talent, and impressive achievements. When he became rich, he never forgot to serve his family. He bought fields and land in his hometown, built bridges and roads, and founded elementary schools, middle schools, and business schools. He spent huge sums of money to build Zhouxin Town, and also carried out large-scale philanthropic undertakings, setting up righteous fields and righteous villages, helping poor relatives and neighbors, and providing relief to victims of disasters in Shaanxi, Hebei, and Henan. In recognition of his contribution, the Beiyang government awarded him a plaque and the Golden Harvest Medal. Although Zhou Shunqing had remarried and taken concubines, people in his hometown still respected his personality and contribution to public welfare, and his reputation was still very good. This reminds people that Zhou Puyuan is Zhou Puyuan and Zhou Shunqing is Zhou Shunqing. The two Zhou families cannot be equated.

Today, we should be grateful for Cao Yu's "Thunderstorm", which was written, developed and narrated with Wuxi as the background. Wuxi, Wuxi Meijia, Wuxi Zhoujia, etc. are mentioned in many places in the play. He made Wuxi famous as early as seventy years ago and created a resounding brand of "Wuxi is a good place". By exploring the historical context, we must cherish this precious cultural heritage left by Zhou Shunqing, increase the sense of glory and pride of Wuxi people, and encourage the people to revitalize national industry and accelerate construction under the leadership of the party. Charming Wuxi, innovative Wuxi, entrepreneurial Wuxi, and happy Wuxi take the lead in realizing the four modernizations and strive hard. (Taihu Street History Office)