Anyone who achieves career success in life generally has two paths: one is to follow the trend and seize opportunities, and the other is to open up a larger pattern and new space.

The latter is more difficult to achieve.

In the late Qing Dynasty, there was Zhang Jian [jiǎn], the top imperial examination scholar, who was one of the best among the latter.

He was erudite and a calligrapher. He was also a famous politician and educator in modern times. He was also known as "China's first industrialist in modern times".

In May of the third year of Xianfeng in the Qing Dynasty (July 1853), Zhang Jian was born in Changle Town, Haimen Hall (now Changle Town, Haimen District, Nantong City, Jiangsu Province).

Under the good education of his family, Zhang Jian has read poetry, books and classics since he was a child, and he is quite talented in literature.

Following the life path of "excellence in learning leads to official service", Zhang Jian prepared to enter the imperial examination path. However, since no one in the three generations of his ancestors has ever received any honors, that is, he has a "cold status", he needs to pay more for the examination.

So under the arrangement of his family and teachers, he registered in the name of Zhang Yucai, the grandson of Zhang Ju in nearby Rugao County.

Zhang Jian took the first test as a young scholar, and successfully passed both the student and scholar levels.

However, something went wrong. In the next ten years, Zhang Jian participated in the "provincial examination" five times but failed.

Seeing that the expected return failed, Zhang Ju threatened Zhang Jian's family by pretending to be his name, kept asking for money and materials, and sued Zhang Jian in court for "Zhang Yucai's disobedience and unfilial piety" .

In the imperial examination era, "filial piety" was the basic principle that students must abide by. If they were found guilty of "unfilial piety", they would be stripped of their academic honors or, in worst cases, sent to prison.

This lawsuit lasted for many years. Zhang Jian’s family was exhausted mentally and physically, spent a lot of money, and the family was in dire straits.

The young Zhang Jian himself was made infamous.

Fortunately, Zhang Jian's teachers cherished his talent and made adjustments for him. Sun Yunjin, the magistrate of Tongzhou, also came forward to help him intercede with the court.

The case came to an end when Zhang Jian was 20 years old. The court agreed that Zhang Jian should refill his resume, restore his native place of Tongzhou, and drop the charges.

In order to change the predicament of family life that he was dragged down by, Zhang Jian used his skills in writing and began his career as a staff member.

He was invited to serve as an aide to his benefactor Sun Yunjin and Wu Changqing, the commander of the Huai Army's "Qingziying".

During this period, Zhang Jian drafted several political articles and became famous. Li Hongzhang, the minister of Beiyang, and Zhang Zhidong, the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, both competed for the appointment, but Zhang Jian declined them all.

Later, Zhang Jian returned to his hometown to study, preparing to continue to realize his dream of taking the imperial examination.

He participated in the "Shuntian Provincial Examination" and was admitted as the second place.

But what is strange is that the nightmare of failing in the exams more than ten years ago happened again. Zhang Jian took part in the "competition exams" many times in the next ten years but failed.

In fact, there is a very dramatic reason here.

At that time, Weng Tonghe and other court officials admired Zhang Jian very much and made great efforts to recruit him. During the "International Examination", his papers were secretly identified.

However, what is ironic is that in the four consecutive "competition examinations", they misidentified other people's test papers and assigned others to pass, but Zhang Jian failed continuously.

A learned man who could have shown his talents and had the help of noble people, but he missed the chance of fame.

In the 20th year of Guangxu (1894), Cixi's sixtieth birthday, a special Enke examination was held.

Zhang Jian, who was already frustrated, reluctantly went to Beijing to take the exam because he could not disobey his father's orders. The results were passed one after another.

When it came to the palace examination, Weng Tonghe, the military minister of the two dynasties and deeply trusted by Emperor Guangxu, couldn't wait. After hurriedly reviewing Zhang Jian's examination papers, he persuaded the other marking ministers to rank him first.

Then he specially introduced it to Emperor Guangxu: "Zhang Jian is a famous scholar in the south of the Yangtze River and a filial son."

So, Zhang Jian won the first prize in the first class, and finally achieved success on the road of twists and turns in the examination room. This year, he is 41 years old.

In the same year that Zhang Jian won the first prize, the Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese War broke out.

This also intensified the contradiction between the "imperialist party" and the "rear party" in the Qing court.

The "imperialist party" headed by Weng Tonghe likes to publish "main war" remarks and criticize "main war" Li Hongzhang and other "rear-party parties" in an attempt to gain real power for Emperor Guangxu.

Zhang Jian naturally became a disciple of the "Wengmen", promoted writing, gave guidance on government affairs, and became the backbone of the "Imperial Party".

Just when the struggle between the two factions was fierce, Zhang Jian's father died of illness. So he followed the routine of "Ding You" and returned to his hometown to observe the system.

During the period of returning home to observe the system, naturally you cannot hold any official position in the court.

Zhang Zhidong, the minister of Westernization who acted as the governor of Liangjiang, was eager for talents and reported to the court to send Zhang Jian to establish Westernization in his hometown.

Zhang Jian returned the favor. In response to the consequences of the Sino-Japanese Treaty of Shimonoseki, he confidently put forward suggestions such as speeding up business development, opening schools more widely, and building railways.

Immediately, Zhang Jian selected Tangjiazha, which has convenient water and land transportation, to build a cotton mill and planned it to be a commercial operation.

However, during the fundraising period, he had many difficulties running around and the project was stalled midway.

In desperation, the cotton mill was changed to a government-business joint venture. However, the spinning mill has never been completed as scheduled.

After the three-year "Ding You" period expired, Zhang Jian returned to Beijing and resumed his duties as usual.

At that time, Emperor Guangxu used Kang Youwei and others to implement the New Deal. Zhang Jian responded vigorously and assisted his teacher Weng Tonghe in writing many memorials, urging the court to develop Westernization and promote the development of industry and commerce.

However, soon after, the "reform movement" died, and Weng Tonghe and others were dismissed from office by Cixi.

Zhang Jian, who was already well versed in the dangers of officialdom, was disillusioned with his official career.

He has been running a cotton mill in his hometown for three years, and his heart has longed for another blue sky.

Although it was a strange world that I had never set foot on before.

He resolutely gave up his official career in the capital and took a leave of absence to return to the south to realize his dream of "saving the country through industry."

Of course, although he left the officialdom of the capital, he later had to mediate between the government and the public because of his interpersonal connections and the fact that establishing industry was inseparable from the court's personal resources.

For example, he was appointed by the Qing government as the top advisor to the Ministry of Commerce. Actively participated in constitutional monarchy activities and organized and established the Jiangsu Consultative Bureau. When Emperor Xuantong abdicated, he was responsible for drafting the abdication edict.

After the "Revolution of 1911", Zhang Jian served as the director-general of agriculture and commerce of the Beiyang government and the director-general of national water conservancy.

During the Republic of China, due to his high reputation, he was invited to be active in politics for a long time.

Thanks to Zhang Jian’s efforts and mediation, in April of the 25th year of Guangxu’s reign (1899), the Dasheng Spinning Mill with 20,400 spindles was finally completed and put into operation.

Then, however, difficulties with working capital were encountered.

I appealed to shareholders, but no one responded; I planned to rent out the factory, but was met with malicious price bargaining.

When he was desperate, Zhang Jian went into full production and used the income from cotton yarn to buy cotton to maintain operation.

God helps those who help themselves. Subsequently, the cotton yarn market was promising, and Dasheng Cotton Mill continued to expand its funds and survived with difficulty.

Zhang Jian once won the first prize in the examination, which is also "Wen Kui". Therefore, the early cotton yarn products of Dasheng Cotton Mill used the "Kui Xing" trademark, with "Hong Kui", "Lan Kui" and "Lv Kui" under it. ”, “Jinkui”, “Caikui” and other products.

As funds continued to accumulate, Zhang Jian reclaimed coastal wastelands in Haimen near the cotton mill and built a raw cotton base - Tonghai Reclamation and Animal Husbandry Company.

Then, Guangsheng Oil Factory, Fuxin Flour Mill, Zisheng Smelting Factory, etc. were successively established locally, gradually forming the Tangzha Town Industrial Zone.

In order to facilitate the transportation of equipment and products, he built Tiansheng Port and power plants along the Tangzha River, and built roads between towns, making Tiansheng Port gradually become the main Yangtze River port in Nantong at that time.

In addition, he reclaimed hundreds of thousands of acres of land in Dongtai County to develop cotton planting and provide raw materials for cotton mills.

Since then, Zhang Jian’s industrial territory has been expanded step by step:

As a result, Nantong became a famous industrial model district in China at that time, and Zhang Jian was known as “China’s The first industrial king."

From a scholar of pen and ink, a top scholar in the Hanlin Academy, he suddenly devoted himself to the industry and commerce that he had never been exposed to before, and achieved remarkable results.

Zhang Jian successfully completed the life transformation that was unprecedented among ancient Chinese literati.

Under the guidance of the concept of "saving the country through industry", Zhang Jian gradually built a fairly complete industrial and agricultural industry chain, formed a national capital group - Dasheng Capital Group in the southeastern coastal areas of China, and established a national economy system, reducing imperialist control of the Chinese economy.

Zhang Jian believed that cultivating talents is a prerequisite for the development of industry and commerce. Opening schools, introducing Western learning, and cultivating and using various professional talents are the foundation of a strong country.

In his early years, Zhang Jian pursued imperial examination fame and studied calligraphy painstakingly, and he continued to do so throughout his life.

Calligraphy theorist Sun Xun listed Zhang Jian as an important calligrapher in the book "History of Calligraphy in the Republic of China":

Zhang Jian also attached great importance to calligraphy education. , many of the schools he founded have calligraphy classes and have cultivated a number of calligraphy talents.

He also founded Hanmolin Printing and Publishing House, an influential printing and publishing organization in modern China. At the same time, it also promotes the exchange and inheritance of modern calligraphy.

In addition, Zhang Jian also founded the Nantong Museum to strengthen the centralized protection and exchange of epigraphy, calligraphy and painting, and at the same time make up for the shortcomings of school education, making it a place for disseminating science and popularizing knowledge. This opened the door to China’s cultural and museum undertakings.

In addition, Zhang Jian and Ma Xiangbo established China Book Co., Ltd. with the purpose of "protecting our country's educational rights, promoting the progress of civilization, eliminating covetousness by outsiders, and eliminating subsequent disasters."

Zhang Jian also purchased the property rights of Shenbao with Shi Liangcai and others, making it a newspaper with great influence in a short period of time.

Zhang Jian has a forward-looking development vision, keen business thinking, and excellent market management capabilities. However, he does not act entirely with a businessman's mind for profit, but takes into account social responsibilities and cultural beliefs.

When Zhang Jian's industrial territory expanded vigorously and his social reputation was at its peak, a business crisis came unexpectedly and finally defeated him.

In the 11th year of the Republic of China (1922), the cotton textile industry was in crisis.

Japanese counterparts received support from the Japanese government and quickly brought down Zhang Jian’s Dasheng Group in the subsequent competition between Chinese and Japanese yarn mills.

Zhang Jian sought financial support in many places but failed, resulting in high debts, industrial collapse, and irreversible decline.

A few years later, on August 24, 1926, Zhang Jian died of illness in his hometown of Nantong at the age of 73.

Mr. Zhang Jian experienced ups and downs and legends in his life. He was a late bloomer, brave in pioneering and struggling, and achieved fruitful results. He opened up many roads that had not been taken before, and became a famous " "The number one industrialist" shines brightly in the annals of history.

In particular, his great sentiments of setting up industry to save the country and actively developing education and social welfare undertakings are admirable. He is also a sage and model for Chinese private entrepreneurs.

On March 24, 2016, the launching ceremony of China's first dedicated scientific research mother ship for the 10,000-meter-class manned abyssal vehicle, the "Zhang Jian", was held in Songmen Town, Wenling City, Zhejiang Province.

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