The Kang Million family in gongyi city has flourished for 400 years.
Spanning the three periods of Ming and Qing Dynasties and the Republic of China,
"Headrest Jingyang, Xi 'an, foot Linyi, Jinan;
Horses run thousands of miles without eating other grass, and people walk thousands of miles full of kangjiatian. "
Shen Wansan is in the south, Kang Million is in the north,
How did Kang Million, who was honored as the "Living God of Wealth in the Central Plains", make his family prosperous for 400 years?
During the Hongwu period in the early Ming Dynasty, the ancestors of the Kang family settled in the Luohe River in Kangdian Town (now Gongyi), Gongxian County.
The ancestors of the Kang family made a living by opening a restaurant on the bank of the Luohe River.
When cold comes and summer goes, xiaodian has gradually become a well-known inn in Heluo area.
Later, the location of the inn was called "Kangjiadian";
The Kang family made a fortune by selling salt.
Kang Shaojing, the sixth generation, served as the ambassador of Yizhou and Dongchangfu in Shandong Province.
Cheng Yi and Dongchangfu are officials in charge of local land and water transportation, official salt, taxation and warehouses. Although they are not big officials, they can make use of the practice of "opening China and France" in the Ming Dynasty (using salt as an intermediary to promote border defense, transportation and important warehouses in the mainland) to pave the way for their descendants to become rich through business.
During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the "salt making law" was mainly governed by "official supervision and commercial office". Businessmen have close contacts with officials, and businessmen are most likely to get rich by salt industry, which provides information and opportunities for Kang Million to manage salt, grain and cotton in Lu Yu, and lays an important foundation for Kang Million to manage Shandong for generations.
1 1 Ren Kanghui's father devoted himself to the Ming Dynasty. Li Zicheng broke Luoyang and killed the axe queen. They took in Li Fei, who had fled, and finally "married Kang Zhu" and married Li Fei's daughter, which made Kang Million the icing on the cake, made a fortune and trained talents.
Kang Dayong, the twelfth emperor, resolutely gave up his fame and broke the traditional secular concept of "doing nothing". He used the information of Emperor Kangxi in the early Qing Dynasty to change the traditional custom of doing business in Luohe, sailing on the river and opening a base in Shandong.
"Kang Dayong came first, then Lan Shuicheng" expanded Kang Million's economic sphere of influence from the Central Plains to the vast areas in southern Shandong and the Jianghuai area.
The 14th Kang Yingkui (Tang. Worship the public), take advantage of the opportunity of Qingyan to suppress the Bailian religion, seize information, bribe Lebao, the general of Qingyan million-strong army, supply cotton and cloth for the whole army, make a fortune for ten years, and open up cotton bases in Sanyuan, Jingyang and Fuping.
"Kang Chonggong comes first, then Jingyang City", together with the assets purchased by ancestors in Shandong, made Kang million mu of land reach 1.8 million mu, and once again erected a thousand hectares of cards.
"Rich three provinces, six rivers by boat", "Jingyang, Xi 'an, Linyi, Jinan, horses travel thousands of miles without eating other grass, pedestrians are full of Kangjiatian", which is called out during this period;
In the 15th generation, Kang Daoping took advantage of Yan Qing's suppression of the Nian Army, organized group training, built a stockade, and finally kept the Nian Army out of Kang and Dian.
Appreciated by Henan gentry and even important officials in the Qing Dynasty, the preserved stone carvings were mostly eulogies of dignitaries at that time, which made Kang Million famous.
Kang Hongyou, the 16th generation, returned to Beijing by Cixi and Guangxu, passing through Gongxian County, lavished money, welcomed the two palaces and donated 22,000 yuan, making Kang million famous all over the world.
Even Kang Million, who is as rich as an enemy, can't escape the fate of ups and downs.
The heyday of Kang Million Family was at the beginning of19th century, which was the turning point of the Qing Dynasty from prosperity to decline.
Ten years after the An Baili Uprising and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the anti-Qing struggles between the East and the West broke out one after another. Western powers entered China one after another, and the import of foreign capital broke the conservative economic system of the Qing Dynasty, and the old social form and production relations were also greatly impacted.
The turbulent social environment cannot fail to spread to the Kang Million family.
From this time on, the Kang family began to decline.
There are several reasons for accelerating the decline of Kang Million:
? 1. The sinking of a big river cut off the economic source.
Around 1862, in order to curb the activities of the Nian army, the Qing government blocked the Yellow River, canals and other rivers, burned and sank all the ships on the river. The Kang family's fleet was devastated and cut off its main financial resources.
The shipping fleet is the economic lifeline of the Kang family, and this loss is fatal to the Kang family.
Since then, although the Kang family has reorganized the fleet many times, it has never been restored.
With the completion of the railway, water transportation has lost its inherent advantages.
Therefore, The River of Fallen can be said to be the turning point of the Kang Million family from its peak to its decline.
2. Renovating the manor and consuming property
With the increase of population, the Kang Million family began to build manors from the fourth generation, which is rare in the world for its large scale, long time and high specifications.
This manor with a total construction area of 64,300 square meters and an area of more than 240 mu has 33 courtyards, 53 buildings, 1300 houses and 73 caves. It is divided into more than ten parts, such as the main residential area in the village, the residential area under the village, the south yard, the ancestral hall, the workshop area, the vegetable garden, the Longwogou, the Jinguzhai, the garden and the board house area, and it has become one of the three major manors in China (Kang Million Manor, Liu Manor and Mou Manor).
3. Take over one million Cixi.
In the late Qing Dynasty, Eight-Nation Alliance invaded Beijing, and Empress Dowager Cixi fled Beijing to xi 'an with Guangxu the following year, and then returned to Beijing. When passing through Gongyikangdian Town, the Kang family spent a lot of money to build imperial roads, pontoons and palaces, and took drivers for Empress Dowager Cixi to entertain the two palaces with a Manchu banquet, which cost a lot of silver.
At this time, the Kang family has reached the point of living beyond its means. In order to save face, Kang Hong was extravagant, giving expensive gifts made of gold and jewels to the emperor, which basically emptied the savings of the Kang family. And offered a million taels of silver, and was given the title of "Kang Million" by Cixi.
4. Sitting on empty food and smoking opium.
17 and 18 have all smoked opium. These playboys, known as the "eighteen-rod heavy smokers", spent money like water and lived in an empty land, which eventually led to the decline of this prominent family.
It is said that in those days, the descendants of the Kang family spent the equivalent of five thousand people's food rations a day smoking opium.
Some people sell their land (wives) because of drug abuse, some people become thieves and beggars, and some people are homeless. At this time, Kang Million Family, which had been famous for 200 years, really reached the position of "helpless flower".
After the founding of New China, there were more than forty descendants of Kang Million in the 18th generation. Except for 15, who went to school and moved to other places, all the others were classified as landlords.
In 1950s, Kang Million Manor was confiscated. Among them,13 houses were requisitioned, which is now Wan Kang Manor Scenic Area, and the other two-thirds houses were distributed to local poor farmers.
Although the Kang Million Family has declined, its family management, mode of operation and philosophy of life are still worth learning and thinking about.
The Kang family has a famous China plaque called "Yu", which is now hung in the lobby of the No.1 courtyard in the main residential area. The plaque is like a flag, fluctuating, dynamically concave and convex. In other words, the upper concave means "staying in the sky is worthy of the court", and the lower convex means "staying in the ground is worthy of the people and future generations".
In Kang Million Manor, there is a gate that says "Live with dignity and be respected" and another gate that says "Be noble and simple". The general idea of "living with dignity and respect" and "living simply" is to pay attention to self-cultivation in daily life; Be honest when you go out to treat people, and be simple in appearance.
As his family motto says: "there is room for others to make progress;" When the money is relaxed, there will be a aftertaste. "The Kang family attaches importance to" reading "and education, just like the inscription on the Kang family couplet." There is no other good way to be a man, and reading is still a good thing. "
Kang Million Garden has its own private school and library, and employs local famous teachers to teach.
In order to facilitate the cultivation of children, private schools should be set up according to age groups: private schools should be set up for children and youth schools should be set up for the young people in the Kang family to study hard, so as to make the scientific field famous and glorify the Yao people.
The library of Kangwanjia is called "Jing Zuo Shihua Building", and a couplet outside the building is intriguing.
The first part is "learning, researching and seeking advice according to Mohism", and the second part is "exploring history, explaining meaning, solving problems and solving doubts by borrowing chapters"
Its moral is to encourage the children of the Kang family to study hard in the sea of books, ask for advice with an open mind, be brave in exploration and apply what they have learned.
In addition, the Kang family is charitable, and the "dignity war" was originally created by the Kang family. When farmers borrow rice from the Kang family, they weigh it in ordinary barrels. When the farmer came to return the rice, the Kang family put a piece of wood in the bucket, so it looked like the bucket was full of rice. In fact, the bottom of the bucket is empty, and farmers can return less rice. This secret is only known to the Kang family, helping others and making others feel that there is rice.
Although the Kang family has such rich wealth, judging the situation and taking the lead, it can't stop the fate of ultimate decline;
The wheel of history is rolling forward. "Look at him starting from Zhulou, watching him entertain guests and watching his building collapse",
There is no eternal wealth, only a life of struggle;