1873, China merchants ship officially opened, and Sheng Xuanhuai served as the conference office. Since then, he has officially become one of the core figures in the Westernization Movement in the late Qing Dynasty.
1875, Li Youwei entrusted Sheng to handle the coal and iron ore affairs in Hubei, and Sheng began to handle mining again.
1909, in view of the fact that "the commercial revitalization depends on the maritime industry, and the development of the maritime industry depends on talents", Sheng Xuanhuai set up the maritime department in Nanyang Public College, and later became Wusong Merchant Marine College independently in 19 12, which was the predecessor of Dalian Maritime University and Shanghai Maritime University. 1879, Sheng suggested to run the telegraph industry, and Li adopted it and ordered Sheng to supervise it.
1880, the first telegraph office in China was established-Tianjin telegraph office.
188 1 year, Sheng Xuanhuai was appointed as the general manager of Tianjin-Shanghai telegraph land line, and entered the telecommunications industry from then on.
1882 In order to prevent foreigners from setting up telegraph networks along the coast of China, Li appointed Sheng to set up telegraph lines from Shanghai to Guangdong, Ningbo, Fuzhou and Xiamen.
1883, Sheng Xuanhuai was in charge of Tianjin Customs. He embezzled customs money to help the telegraph industry and confused the funds of various departments, so he was punished, but he was not demoted for pleading. From 65438 to 0892, he began to supervise the textile industry in Shanghai.
1894 Opening Huasheng Textile General Factory; It controls many cotton mills in Da Chun, Yuchun, Yujin and other places in the name of official supervision and commercial office and joint venture between officials and businessmen. From 65438 to 0896, Sheng Xuanhuai began to supervise railways.
Due to the sluggish production and serious losses of Hanyang Iron Works, Zhang Zhidong sent Sheng Xuanhuai to take over Hanyang Iron Works (including Daye Iron Mine and Jiangxia Maanshan Coal Mine). After Sheng took over the management of Hanyang Iron Works, China Merchants Group changed the commander enterprise into "official supervision and commercial office", Hanyang Iron Works changed into the general factory, and Zheng was appointed as the general manager of China Merchants Group, and Daye Iron Mine was attached to the general factory. Then began to transform and expand Hanyang Iron Works. In view of the shortage of fuel and poor product quality in Hanyang Iron Works, we first sent team members to lead foreign miners to find good coal along the Yangtze River and in the western areas of Jiangsu, Anhui and Chu, and finally found Pingxiang Coal Mine. So, he borrowed 4 million marks from German Lihe foreign firm as capital and started Pingxiang coal mine to solve the fuel problem. Later, doctor Li Weige was sent abroad to inspect steel and seek a new steelmaking method to improve product quality. When inspecting the iron and steel industry in Europe and America, Li found out the reasons for the poor quality of products in Korean factories. Sheng bought a new furnace and completely transformed the iron works. After renovation and expansion, Hanyang Iron Works became the "first male factory" in East Asia. The outside world exclaimed, "China woke up". However, during the reconstruction and expansion of Hanyang Iron Works, Sheng borrowed more than 3 million yen from Industrial Bank of Japan under the temptation of Japanese Iron Works, which made Daye Iron Mine lose its sovereignty. After the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, Sheng Xuanhuai believed that national self-improvement was the key. In his memorial to the imperial court, he said: "Self-improvement lies in talent storage, and talent storage must first promote learning", and "the prosperity of western talents comes from schools".
10.2, Sheng Xuanhuai instructed Emperor Guangxu to set up a new school through Wang Wenshao, governor of Zhili. With the approval of the imperial court, Emperor Guangxu founded Tianjin Beiyang Western Learning School. Later renamed Beiyang University, it was the first government-run university in China's modern history and the predecessor of Tianjin University. This day also became the anniversary of the founding of the first university in China.
After the founding of Beiyang University, Sheng Xuanhuai adhered to the life purpose of "studying everything", constantly enriched and improved the school-running policy of "taking middle school as the body and western learning as the use", and formed the ideological concept of "using western learning as the use". First of all, he adopted the mode of running schools by experts, declared that the emperor "should choose a prime minister who is well versed in western learning and sports", hired Tenney Charles Daniel, an American educator, to take charge of Tianjin University Hall, and hired a group of foreign teachers. Secondly, in view of the urgent need of talents who are familiar with the law in dealing with internal affairs and diplomacy and the urgent need of developing mining resources and machinery processing industry in Qing Dynasty, disciplines such as law, civil engineering, mining and metallurgy, and mechanical engineering were set up. And with the change of career, the major setting has been changed in time and new majors have been added. Sheng Xuanhuai thinks that "the first thing for normal schools and primary schools, especially for a school". So he began to train teachers and students. 1897, he established the first new normal college in the history of education in China, the first foreign school (primary school), and the second-class school of Beiyang University, which is equivalent to the middle school attached to the university, formed a relatively perfect three-level academic system, laying the foundation for the establishment of a new systematic chemistry system in China. Fourth, Sheng Xuanhuai pays attention to teaching students in accordance with their aptitude, which varies from person to person, and trains specialized talents. When students enter a first-class school, they will study the first year of basic courses. After the study, the General Affairs Office and the Chief Teacher will examine the qualifications of each student and decide the content of future study. Even if you are studying abroad, you should choose your own major for further study according to your own qualifications. Fifth, the school spirit of "rigorous scholarship and strict teaching requirements" was established.
Sheng Xuanhuai founded Nanyang Public School in Shanghai from 65438 to 0896, which was the predecessor of Shanghai Jiaotong University, Xi Jiaotong University and Taiwan Jiaotong University.
1897, the first normal school was established in Nanyang public school, which is the first regular normal school in China.
1909, the discipline of maritime administration was first set up in Nanyang Public College, and later developed into an independent Wusong Merchant Marine College, which was the predecessor of Dalian Maritime University and Shanghai Maritime University.
Sheng Xuanhuai also founded the Translation College and Telegraph School affiliated to Nanyang Public College. In order to adapt to the Qing government's selection of special economic entities, he carefully set up "special classes" to train government officials, such as "railway classes" to develop railway undertakings.
The relationship between Sheng Xuanhuai and university education is not only reflected in his own school. After the death of 19 16 on April 27th, his collection of more than 100,000 volumes was divided into three parts by the government of the Republic of China, which were given to St. John's University, Jiaotong University and Shanxi Mingxian School respectively. After liberation, the distribution of these books has been adjusted, and Anhui University, East China Normal University and Shanxi Agricultural University have become new beneficiaries. Even Sheng Xuanhuai's 600 letters with friends were collected by the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Sheng Xuanhuai, 19 10 Shanghai private library has attached great importance to document preservation all his life, and has collected various manuscripts, letters, account books and even banquet menus. Sheng Xuanhuai lived for * * * 26 106 days. At present, it exceeds 1 100 million words, 178633, and 6.8 files are saved every day. If you add the "top files" scattered overseas, the figures will be even more amazing.
During the period of 1975, the editorial team of Shanghai Municipal Committee organized researchers from Fudan University, Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences and Shanghai Library to start sorting out more than 800 packages of Sheng Xuanhuai files in Shanghai Library. This is the first time to organize "Dang Sheng" after 1949. 1997, Shanghai Library organized and sorted out the "top files" again, this time it took 9 years to sort out * * *. More than 800 packages of Sheng Xuanhuai archives are 178633.
Ye Jingkui, a close aide of Sheng Xuanhuai, once said, "During the season in Xuan Tong, when I was in charge of the mint, I was responsible for drafting the monetary terms and invited me to discuss them. Letters and telegrams are all grass, and every time I do it myself on my deathbed, it is the best in the group. " In this paper, "Yu" refers to Ye Jingkui and "Gong" refers to Sheng Xuanhuai. Judging from Sheng Xuanhuai's thought of "corresponding to the grass", even if he is lying on his deathbed, he will "do it himself", which shows that Sheng Xuanhuai attaches importance to copywriting (in fact, it also attaches importance to archives). As a philanthropist, Sheng Xuanhuai founded Guangrentang in Tianjin and founded the Universal Red Cross Society and other charities in Shanghai. He is one of the most famous disaster relief workers in modern China.
In the tenth year of Tongzhi in Qing Dynasty (187 1), Sheng Xuanhuai's father Kang Sheng donated clothes and food, which were purchased by Sheng Xuanhuai and transported to Tianjin for distribution. This is the first time that Sheng Xuanhuai has been engaged in welfare undertakings. During the flood in Hebei, Sheng Xuanhuai followed his father Kang Sheng to participate in the disaster relief work, and went to Jiangsu, Shanghai and other places to collect materials, which made great achievements. Therefore, he confidently asked Li Hongzhang to increase the disaster relief fund by 12,000 yuan, "go back to the south to persuade donations and return them in full."
From the third year to the fourth year of Guangxu reign in Qing Dynasty (1877- 1878), the four provinces of Shanxi, Shaanxi, Henan and Hebei suffered from extremely serious drought, and in history, more than 1000 million people starved to death, which was called "Ding Chou Qi Huang". When Li Hongzhang was the governor of Zhili, he was in the hardest hit area, and the disaster relief work was very heavy. He set up Zhili Relief Bureau in Tianjin to handle relief work, and Sheng Xuanhuai participated in the work of the bureau as an alternate road. 1may, 878, was sent to xian county to take charge of disaster relief work. He conducted a survey in the countryside with local officials and wrote two reports to Li Hongzhang, detailing the post-disaster situation in xian county. Due to years of famine, local farmers have nothing but land. There has been no rain for a long time, the land is hard, the food has been eaten up, most of the farmland is barren and uncultivated, and the victims are either living in other provinces or waiting for death. The situation is very serious. There are too many victims. "xian county must send at least 20,000 households to help." . Sheng Xuanhuai brought only 6,000 strings of government relief funds, and only 6,000 families received relief according to the standard of $0/000 per household. Sheng Xuanhuai requested to borrow twelve thousand Kuping silver to meet the needs of "poor households". As this is an unplanned fund, it may not be allocated. Sheng Xuanhuai proposed: "If the relief bureau has no funds to write off, it plans to borrow them. Once you go back to the south to persuade you to donate, you will never lack it again. "
In the fifth year of Guangxu, in order to solve the problem of raising a large number of orphans and widows left over from the drought in Hebei, Sheng Xuanhuai followed Li Hongzhang's will and founded a charity called Guangrentang in Tianjin. Its founders and directors are mostly "southern relief gentlemen", such as Wang, Wu Dacheng, Jing Yuanshan and Zheng. Among them, Wang is from Shanghai, Wu Dacheng is from Wujiang, Jiangsu, jing yuan Mountain, Shangyu, Changzhou, Jiangsu, and Zheng is from Guangdong, but he has been doing business in Shanghai for a long time. Most of these people are directors or managers of some famous charities and churches in Shanghai. In the eighth year of Guangxu (1882), Wang was elected as the general manager of Shanghai Tongrentang. Jing Yuanshan worked in Fuyuan Hall and Guoyutang in Tongren successively. Zheng used to be the director of Shanghai Baby Care Bureau, and later transferred to the director of Guoyutang. They have long-term experience in folk charity. When Sheng Xuanhuai recalled Guangrentang in his later years, he once said, "There is no good hall in the northern province", and Guangrentang can be called the pioneering work of southern gentry businessmen to create a good hall in the north.
1904 during the Russo-Japanese War, in order to help the people trapped in the war zone, some charitable activists in Shanghai imitated the constitution and methods of the Western Red Cross, and joined neutral diplomats and entrepreneurs from Britain, the United States, France and Germany to set up the "Shanghai Universal Red Cross Society" in Shanghai. Although this organization also has a government background, the then Ministers of Commerce and Contract, Lu Haixian and Sheng Xuanhuai, were the behind-the-scenes hosts who shouldered the government mission, but the China directors Dunhe Shen, Shi Zejing and Ren Xifen who participated in the activities were all southern businessmen who had been engaged in charity for a long time in Shanghai. This played a leading role in the formal establishment of the Chinese Red Cross Society in February. 19 10.
1906 In the spring and summer, serious floods occurred in Anhui and Jiangsu, and the affected population reached 7.3 million. Due to the negligence and delay of local officials in disaster relief work, a large number of victims have been displaced, and hundreds of victims in Qingjiang and Shuyang starve to death every day. The situation is very urgent. In view of Sheng Xuanhuai's influence and appeal in disaster relief activities for many years, gentry and people in disaster areas have written to Sheng Xuanhuai, and even sent representatives to Shanghai to visit Sheng Xuanhuai directly, calling on him to preside over disaster relief work. As the government relief money allocated by the imperial court for the first time was only102,000 silver, which was far from enough, the new governor of Liangjiang also tried his best to invite Lv Haihuan and Sheng Xuanhuai to preside over the relief fund-raising work. Sheng Xuanhuai was in Shanghai at that time, negotiating with German, Italian and other countries together with Lu Haihuan. Although he is busy with official business, it is still difficult for him to stand by and shoulder the heavy responsibility of uprising relief. Under the control of Guangrentang, a non-governmental charity, Sheng Xuanhuai has operated quite smoothly. Shanghai Guangrentang became the organizer of flood relief in Xu, Huai and Hai. Guangrentang handled all disaster relief affairs, including publishing disaster relief, advertising, issuing fundraising letters, sending staff to inspect and investigate, collecting donations, filling in photos, compiling account books, distributing relief clothes, compiling credit records, etc., and played the role of an organization and command center.
When Sheng Xuanhuai talked about Guangrentang in his later years, he said, "I built Guangrentang myself. It usually deals with all kinds of good deeds. In case of famine, colleagues advocate charity relief for a long time. Tang donated shares in real estate and mining, thinking that if it can be managed properly, it will not save people. " The "Shanghai Guangrentang" specially proposed here seems to be different from the Guangrentang originally founded by 1879 in Tianjin. When Guangrentang was first established in Tianjin, it was funded by the government, while Guangrentang, which was established in Shanghai, had no official funding source. Mainly sponsored by Sheng Xuanhuai, China Merchants, Telegraph Bureau, Hanyeping Company, Xinyou Company and other enterprises, it has evolved into a complete non-governmental charity organization.
The rescue work of this flood lasted for more than half a year. Due to the serious bureaucracy of some local officials in Jiangsu Province, Sheng Xuanhuai telephoned the Governor of Liangjiang to express his dissatisfaction: "The official relief is now sent to the state by the township and local governments and shared equally. The official relief is based on the experience of housekeepers in various disaster areas. Once the official relief is released, it will make up for the deficiency. ..... Official relief has always been given by Dongbao, but the Indian Committee divided it into extreme poverty and equal distribution, with hundreds of dollars per mouth, which was paid very late and deducted a lot. Moreover, people say that people who don't eat imperial grain should eat imperial grain, and Dong Bao's unsatisfied eccentricity is excellent. Xuanguan Zhidong, the general manager of the relief service, personally supervised the households and gained insight into its disadvantages. He severely punished the Indian Commission, reported the official righteousness to the court, relieved the official righteousness, returned to righteousness, and instructed the righteous gentry to release with the investigation. Play and sell listed a number of official relief and a number of charity relief. And Zhang did not send members, that is, they sent staff to join the righteous gentry. There is no suitable person for non-mandatory members because of different rules and regulations. The people brought by the Committee members can't suffer all day, so it is better to be a gentleman with an alternate officer. " The suggestion of "official relief" was finally supported. Subsequently, Sheng Xuanhuai personally drafted and formulated Article 18 of the Joint Regulations on Relief for the North and South Governments of the Yangtze River, which standardized the management and distribution methods of funds and materials in government and private channels. In fact, the management right of government relief has also belonged to Shanghai Guangrentang. Duan Fang played in the imperial court after the winter relief, praising the achievements of Sheng Xuanhuai and others: "Since we agreed to jointly organize government relief, it is convenient to send gentry to inspect production, distribute money and grain, and send officials to supervise pressure, select gentry, and start a business independently, with the delay of investigation." ..... In order to stop the leakage, quiet, real HP touch, the power of the righteous gentry is greater. This time, the righteous gentry spread all over the family, and they worked hard and complained bitterly. In fact, it was caused by Shanghai ministers Lu Haihuan and Sheng Xuanhuai upholding justice and vigorously advocating. After September this year, this person and other officials launched charity relief, and when the donation was desperate, they resolutely subscribed to raise millions of strings of donations. Many of the righteous gentry they sent were simple talents. " After this year's winter relief, statistics show that: "The official relief has issued 702,000 taels of silver, totaling more than one million taels, the official payment for rice is 200,000 taels, the relief fund is more than 600,000 taels, and the Huaihai grain accumulation fund is more than 100,000 taels, about two million taels of money." The disaster relief funds raised through Shanghai Guangrentang account for 30% of the total disaster relief expenses.
In his later years, Sheng Xuanhuai repeatedly praised the gentry and businessmen in the south of the Yangtze River for their long-term willingness to participate in disaster relief activities: "Charity relief in the south of the Yangtze River has enjoyed a world-renowned reputation for 40 years. Whenever there is a famine in various provinces, once the officials and gentry announce it, they will try their best to raise funds to save the economy. " This is the basic conclusion based on the fact that he has presided over charitable activities for decades. In China's disaster relief activities in recent years, Shanghai's folk fund-raising activities have really played an important role.