Zhang Jian

Wang Dunqin, Chen Rui

Phoenix Fine Arts Publishing Ltd.

February 2019

30.00 (CNY)

Wang Dunqin

Wang Dunqin, a Ph.D. in History, is a professor at Nantong University and the director of Zhang Jian Research Institute of Nantong University. She has long been engaged in the teaching and research of history, especially in the study of Zhang Jian.

Chen Rui

Chen Rui, a Ph.D. in History, is a lecturer at Nanjing Agricultural University.

According to the traditions of the Qing Dynasty, the top scholar (title conferred on the one who came first in the highest imperial examination) Zhang Jian was appointed to the Hanlin Academy (an elite scholarly institution founded in the 8th century CE in China) as a junior scholar, and he quickly set off for his new job. Just as he was happily looking forward to a good career, the First Sino-Japanese war began. Zhang Jian then felt the utmost resentment over Japans invasion of China without a formal declaration of war and was extremely anguished by the annihilation of the Beiyang fleet. Thus, as the 35 officials working at Hanlin Academy were joining forces to impeach Li Hongzhang, Zhang Jian decided to submit a separate petition to the emperor to rebuke Li Hongzhang for “poor preparation for battle and causing a loss of peace” and imploring the imperial court to “pick out another official who would be able to secure peace through battle, stabilize the hearts of the people, and bring glory to the nation”.

Just as Zhang Jian was feeling anguished over the war situation, his dad passed away. This news was like a strike out of the blue to him. Thus, feeling extreme grief over this loss, Zhang Jian made his way back to his hometown as fast as he could and subjected himself to filial mourning for three years.

Back in his hometown, Zhang Jian was supposed to stay calm at home to mourn his father, but due to the ongoing war and the threat to his country, there was a need for more people to step up and place the interests of their country first, and thus Zhang Jian also desired to contribute somehow to his country.

Tonghai county was situated at the front of Chinas naval defense, though the army did not have enough men to send people out to this area. Given this situation, Zhang Zhidong, Viceroy of Liangjiang (Jiangnan Province and Jiangxi Province), invited Zhang Jian to build up an army to defend the area.

However, the government had only provided him with power and an appointment, but none of the resources that he would need in order to build up an army. Thus, to get money, he pawned off his beloved books; to get men, he wrote songs and printed leaflets imploring people to defend their country, and just like that, the number of soldiers under him steadily grew. Just as the army was training vigorously, the war came to an end. As this army was just a stopgap measure to defend the frontlines, it was disbanded after the war.

The First Sino-Japanese War ended with Chinas loss and humiliation. The Treaty of Shimonoseki had trampled all over Chinas autonomy and stolen all of her wealth. For this, Zhang Jian was extremely angry, and he wrote in his diary, “These eleven articles of the treaty have drained the life out of China.” Apart from having to pay up and cede territory, the Treaty of Shimonoseki also allowed foreigners to open factories and mines, build roads in China, and take advantage of Chinas resources and cheap labor to make huge profits. Thus, many educated people agreed that China also needed its own entrepreneurs to rise up and fight with these foreigners for profits.

Zhang Jian, who was back home mourning, received yet another invitation from Viceroy of Liangjiang, Zhang Zhidong, to oversee businesses in the Tonghai area. In the face of another national threat, Zhang Jian reluctantly accepted. He knew nothing about starting and running businesses. He had no experience, no money, and no connections to start up any sort of enterprise. He just had a burning passion for loving and saving his country.

He decided to start a cotton mill, naming it “Dah Sun” (literally translates to great life), which was taken from a verse in the I-Ching that says, “the great virtue of heaven and earth is life”. It can be seen from this that Zhang Jians original intention when setting up the mill, apart from fighting with foreigners over profits, was to let life proliferate. This embodies Zhang Jians social ideals.

What Zhang Jian wanted to build was a huge factory that ran on machinery and produced products in run-of-the-mill style, which was a massive industrial breakthrough. These types of factories required large amounts of money to build and thus Zhang Jian thought of raising capital by selling shares of his new company.

Dah Sun Cotton Mill suffered many setbacks at the beginning of its journey. From the preparations made to build the factory in 1895 to the actual opening of the factory in 1899, this period of four to five years was an extremely tough time for everyone involved. The biggest problem encountered was money. As shareholding companies were still very new at the time, it wasnt easy to raise capital through the sale of shares. Zhang Jian traveled between Nantong and Shanghai countless times, inviting and trying to convince various shareholders to buy more stock, but encountered extreme difficulty as these rich people were not decisive. As for the reasons for these setbacks, first, Zhang Jian, as a top scholar, had no experience setting up a factory; second, he had no money himself; third, there were few successful cotton mills at the time. Therefore, there were few rich men willing to take up this risk, as anything going wrong would result in the loss of a large amount of money.

Moreover, the shareholding joint ventures between government and private companies were also heavily criticized. As such, some of the shareholders went back on their word and backed out of the agreement to build the factory. After the building of the factory had commenced, the funds were still not all in place. Even after the machines had started operating in the factory, cash flow was still a massive problem. Stuck with no way out, Zhang Jian even planned to rent out the factory for someone else to run. It was only because the other party had tried to take advantage of his situation by offering an unacceptably low price that he decided against the idea.

Of course, there is always a way out. Left with no other choice, Zhang Jian adopted an idea he had come up with as a last resort. He would buy as much cotton as he could when there were funds, make as many yarns of cotton as he could, sell the yarns, and use the money made to buy more cotton. By this method, his factorys production began snowballing, and gradually, Dah Sun Cotton Mill resurrected and resumed normal operations.

After four to five years of effort, Dah Sun Cotton Mill finally began operations in 1899. Zhang Jian was a very honest man who adhered strictly to his own management system and put lots of effort into running his business. Employing only reasonable marketing strategies, he began making profits in just his second year of opening the factory. Even though it was still a tortuous journey from then on, as the factory continued encountering many difficulties in production and management, Zhang Jian managed to overcome every single one of them.

Since the founding of Dah Sun Cotton Mill, Zhang Jian had already given up on living a life of luxury which was free of worries and had instead stepped on a totally unpredictable journey, a journey full of unimaginable difficulties and dangers. On this journey, he trudged on alone in great difficulty, gave it his all, and finally obtained massive success.

Holding up the banner of “saving the country through entrepreneurship” and with Dah Sun Cotton Mill by his side, he went on to start many different enterprises over the course of more than 20 years. These enterprises were of many different sectors, which included industry, agriculture, commerce, transportation, water conservancy, salt reclamation, finance, communication, culture, charity, public welfare, urban development, etc. They constituted quite a complete industrial chain, forming one of the most well-known companies in recent Chinese history, Dasheng Capital Group.