Chapter 17 Chapter 9 1919: The Man Behind the Square

(The "Trying Collection" created by Hu Shi is the first collection of vernacular poetry in China. It was compiled in August 1919 and published by the Yadong Library in March of the following year. The welcome of the youth is for the "revolution of poetic style".) In the spring and summer of 1918, two years after Yuan Shikai's death, the warlord forces were once discouraged.Under the impetus of Liang Qichao and others, Duan Qirui's government, which controlled Beijing, decided to hold elections for members of the National Assembly.This is the first and only national political election with universal suffrage in the century's modern history.The Kuomintang, which advocated violent revolution and lacked compatibility, was driven to Guangdong at this time and was completely excluded.Interestingly, the three competing factions represent three forces, one is warlords, the other is public intellectuals, and the other is entrepreneurs.

The Anfu faction represented the warlords, and Duan Qirui was naturally the leading figure. Since Yuan Shikai died in his attempt to proclaim himself emperor, he became the "big brother" of the Beiyang warlords.Like Yuan, Duan is a good planner and chief executive who studied artillery in Germany and believes in authoritarianism, but knows nothing about modern political ideas.The name of the so-called Anfu Department comes from the fact that Duan's counselors and subordinates often played cards and chess in a big house in Beijing's Anfu Hutong, exchanging breaths, hence the name.This faction has guns, so it is powerful and extremely domineering.

Among the three major factions, the research department has the clearest political philosophy, and its leader is Liang Qichao, who has long been famous all over the world.Later historians concluded that Liang Qichao's theory of parliamentary politics greatly surpassed that of everyone at that time.As early as 1910, he wrote "Private Discussion on China's Parliamentary System", which discussed the organization, election, voting, and political parties of the parliament, and determined that "the parliament is the best system in the world." He successively wrote "On Legislative Power ", "On the Similarities and Differences of Constitutions of Various Countries", "Constitutional Proposals" and other articles, which were later collected in "Ice Drinking Room Collection".He advocated party politics, saying that there are two major conditions for the successful operation of parliament, one is that "most people have the common sense to criticize political gains and losses" and the other is "a well-developed political party." In his mind, the best imitation object is British government.

The leader of the Transportation Department was Liang Shiyi (1869-1933).He was the chairman of the Bank of Communications at that time, so the people around him were called the "Department of Communications".Liang is also a Cantonese (his hometown is Sanshui, Guangdong. A hundred years later, another entrepreneur named Li Jingwei came out here, who founded Jianlibao, which was once the crown of domestic beverages). He was once a classmate of Liang Qichao in Foshan Academy. Participated in the imperial examination, and ranked first in the palace examination, that is, won the number one scholar. When the papers and list were sent to Cixi for imperial approval, the old lady was hating the Kangliang Party. Seeing that Liang Shiyi was from Cantonese and his surname was Liang, she suspected He is Liang Qichao's younger brother, and he was ranked second in the third place.Yuan Shikai took a fancy to his ability to handle practical affairs, so he took it into his hands. The "Yuan Shikai Art of War" handed down by later generations was often handed down. He was appointed as the chief copywriter of the railway, and participated in the conclusion of the Sino-Japanese Treaty of the Three Eastern Provinces. Road Headquarters.Since then, began to get involved in the transportation sector. In the spring of 1906, the imperial court set up a postal department, with Sheng Xuanhuai as the minister, Liang Shiyi as the promotion, and took charge of the national railways.During his tenure, he successively supervised the Beijing-Han, Luning, Daoqing, Zhengtai, Bianluo, Jingfeng, Guangjiu, Jinpu, Jichang, Zhuping and other railways, making great contributions to the construction of trunk lines.At the same time, he founded the Bank of Communications in 1908, which is a commercial bank jointly established by the government and businessmen and a company limited by shares.At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, the scale of the Bank of Communications surpassed that of the China Commercial Bank founded by Sheng Xuanhuai, and its status was second only to the central bank, the Bank of Great Qing.With railway practice and banking finance as the core, Liang Shiyi gradually formed a powerful transportation system. He himself is known as "Liang God of Wealth".The main players in the transportation department are mostly Liang Shiyi's fellow villagers, entrepreneurs in the north, and "official businessmen" who have a slight relationship with the previous dynasty. Private entrepreneurs in Shanghai and Zhejiang rarely participated.

In this parliamentary election, the chess game is delicate, just like the Three Kingdoms back then.The Anfu department is like Cao Wei, which has the strongest military strength and is located in the center. The research department and the transportation department are like Liu Han and Sun Wu.Among them, the role of the transportation department is the most delicate, because of its vague concept, it can be left or right, and its financial resources are strong, so it cannot be underestimated.If it is combined with the research department, it can be combined into a very powerful political party force, and a confrontational pattern between the two parties may be formed; otherwise, the balance will be tilted.

The fact that is extremely emotional is that the transportation department chose to form an alliance with the Anfu department almost without hesitation.There are roughly three reasons for this. The first is the inherent speculative mentality of the entrepreneurial class. Among pens and guns, they with a deep official-business complex very easily chose the latter.The second is the intertwining of real interests. Around 1918, many important figures in the Department of Communications and the Department of Anfu had entangled interests. Among them, Cao Rulin, Wu Dingchang and Duan Qirui of the Department of Communications were all shareholders of Tianjin Yuyuan Spinning Mill. , and another great industrialist Zhou Xuexi and Duan's political ally Xu Shichang are shareholders of Tianjin Huaxin Spinning Mill.The third is the personal relationship between Liang Shiyi and Liang Qichao, the leaders of the two major factions. The two Liangs not only have a feeling of fellow-province and friendship with classmates, but also have an inexplicable hatred for "winning the championship".

In his book "The Dilemma of China's Democratic Politics: 1909-1949", Zhang Pengyuan, a Taiwanese scholar, described in detail the scene of the election at that time.According to his account, in order to win over Liang Shiyi, the Anfu Department promised him the chairman of the Senate, and the Transportation Department secretly donated money to support the Anfu Department's election. Among them, Liang Shiyi donated 2 million yuan, and Cao Rulin and Ye Gongzhuo donated 700,000 yuan each.Duan Qirui also misappropriated treasury funds and salt tax for election purposes.In contrast, the election funds of the research department were very limited. Only Feng Guozhang, a direct warlord who was at odds with Duan Qirui, gave Liang Qichao 400,000 yuan, and other local warlords gave hundreds of thousands of yuan.The Anfu Department took money and sent people to various places to bribe elections. According to the "Shenzhen" report at the time, many people belonging to the Research Department voted together under the banner of the Anfu Department after operation.Some warlords even carried out elections with their guns in their hands. According to the Shengjing Times, Zhang Zuolin, a warlord in the Northeast, gathered the newly elected candidates and announced a list of recommendations.However, the "Shuntian Times" reported that a military governor surnamed Zhao in Henan simply announced that a certain five people must be selected for the central appointment, "If they are not included in the appointment, even if they are elected, they will be invalid." , the "deeds" of businessmen bribing elections have also been reported in the newspapers. The "Shenbao" published an article "Suzhou: The Strange Situation of the Primary Election of Representatives", which stated that a businessman in Suzhou bought more than 400 people and entertained them with a banquet before voting. At the rest of the tables, the voters were in shabby clothes, and about six out of ten looked like beggars.

Anfu is a bully, traffic is speculative, and research is noble, so the chess game is no longer suspenseful. National vote on June 20.As a result, the Anfu department won a big victory, accounting for 335 seats in the Senate and the House of Representatives, 21 seats for the research department, 5 seats for the transportation department, and 111 seats for those with unknown factions. The performance of the entrepreneurial class in this election has been disappointing.Judging from the election data, if the transportation department and the research department are combined, plus the votes poached by the Anfu department with money, and those whose factions are unknown, their strength is enough to compete with the warlords.There may be a different world in China's world situation.Of course, such a "review" after a hundred years is nothing but a sigh.

On November 7, 1918, the former member of the Ministry of Civil Affairs of the Qing Dynasty, Wailang, and scholar Liang Ji, who was about to celebrate his 60th birthday, asked his son Liang Shuming: "Will the world be okay?" The son, who is a philosophy professor at Peking University, replied: "I believe the world is Going to be better day by day." "I wish I could be better!" Liang Ji said and left the house.Three days later, Liang Ji committed suicide by drowning himself in Jishuitan in Beijing, leaving a suicide note saying, "If the national character does not survive, the country will not exist. I must die alone, and then let the people of the country know that the national character is the necessity of building a country... I Death, not only nostalgia for the old, but also arouse the new."

Liang Ji tried to use his death to awaken people's determination to continue to change.Half a year later, on May 4, 1919, a shocking student protest broke out in the university where his son Liang Shuming was, known as the "May 4th Movement" in history. The fuse of the protest was still related to the "Twenty-One" four years ago.In January of this year, the victorious countries in the First World War held a "peace conference" in Paris. In the treaty with Germany, the peace conference explicitly stipulated that all the privileges of Germany in Shandong should be transferred to Japan.China, as the victorious country, was humiliated by this, but the representatives of the Beiyang government agreed to sign the contract, causing an uproar across the country. On May 4, more than 3,000 students from three colleges and universities including Peking University gathered in Tiananmen Square, playing "Give me back Qingdao", "Refuse to sign at the Paris Peace Conference", "Boycott Japanese goods", "I would rather break the jade than be a tile" "And other slogans.When the students marched to the residence of Cao Rulin, the chief of communications, they burned Cao's residence and beat Zhang Zongxiang, the Minister in Japan.Military police suppressed and arrested 32 students.The Beiyang government issued a notice prohibiting protests, which aroused further protests. By the end of May, major cities across the country had announced school strikes. On June 11, Cao, Zhang and others were dismissed, and President Xu Shichang resigned. At the end of the month, the Chinese representative refused to sign the peace treaty.

The "May 4th Movement" was later considered to be the beginning of the Chinese New Culture Movement, and May 4th was defined as "Youth Day". After reading the Twenty-Four Histories, one phenomenon is very intriguing: when a centralized power emerges, it often brings high economic prosperity, but in troubled times when centralization is lost, it is often a period of active thought and culture.The three peak times in the history of Chinese thought occurred in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period - the birth of Laozi, Confucius and other schools of thought, which laid the foundation stone of Chinese philosophy, and the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties - the emergence of the most splendid calligraphy, sculpture and poetry Art, and the early period of the Republic of China we are talking about - the outbreak of the May 4th Movement and the emergence of brilliant thinkers and writers. The early years of the Republic of China were a period of the most active and free thinking. For all Chinese, it was a period of adolescence, bright, turbulent and full of boundless sadness.Various trends of thought are intertwined and stirred up in China, and new publications and new ideas emerge in endlessly.Chen Duxiu, who was fighting with Wu Yue to assassinate the "five ministers", is now a professor at Peking University. The "New Youth" (founded in 1915) edited by him held up "Mr. De" (democracy) and "Mr. Sai" (Mr. Science) with two banners, calling for the downfall of "Confucius's shop", slamming the old culture and advocating the new culture.Young scholars studying abroad, represented by Hu Shi, advocated the replacement of classical Chinese by vernacular under the slogan of "literary revolution".Among the young people of the country, they quickly became new thought leaders. Mao Zedong, who was studying in Changsha at the time, later recalled to the American journalist Snow: "New Youth" is a famous magazine of the New Culture Movement. I admire the articles of Hu Shi and Chen Duxiu very much They replaced Liang Qichao and Kang Youwei, who had been abandoned by me, and became my role models for a while." In the dark age of being bullied, the young people of this ancient oriental country finally decided to smash all the pots and pans of their ancestors.American historian Will Duran—who, like Hu Shih, was a disciple of the pragmatist philosopher John Dewey—succinctly stated in "A History of World Civilization": "The strongest feeling among Chinese today is to hate Foreigners, likewise, today China's most powerful action is to worship foreigners, China knows that the West is not worthy of such worship, but the Chinese are forced to do so, because the facts are in front of them, either industrialization or colonization It's up to you to choose." This contradictory national mood was very clear during the May Fourth Movement. The epoch-making significance of the May Fourth Movement was sensitively predicted at that time.Just a few days before the outbreak of the student movement, the great philosopher John Dewey happened to be visiting Beijing. He wrote in a letter on June 1, "We are witnessing the birth of a country, and birth is always difficult. " However, no one has ever examined the May Fourth Movement from the perspective of corporate history. Its tipping point was at Peking University, and it took place at Tiananmen Square. The pioneers who will be remembered by people in the future are all student leaders and intellectuals. We can easily quote their names: Chen Duxiu, Hu Shi, Cai Yuanpei, Lu Xun, Fu Sinian, Duan Ximing, Luo Jialun, Xu Deheng, Zhou Enlai and so on.However, as the later Japanese documentary photographer Ogawa Shinsuke (1936-1991) said, when a major historical event breaks out, "those vivid stories and characters must be behind the square." In fact, In May and June 1919, without the support of business groups and workers, the May 4th Movement was just an exciting student protest.Behind the youthful agitation of Tiananmen Square, the commercial forces with workers and entrepreneurs as the main body are those who play an important role but are not noticed "behind the square". As early as February, businessmen in Shanghai took action. They called Beijing and Paris in the name of the Association, opposing the transfer of German rights and interests to Japan. Guild hall office to coordinate factory protests. On May 4th, after the news that the Beijing student demonstrations were suppressed, the Chamber of Commerce immediately contacted Fudan University and the Jiangsu Education Federation to plan a protest meeting. On May 7th, the meeting was held at Laoximen Stadium. The theme was Support students and boycott Japanese products. On June 5th, workers in Shanghai started a massive strike in response to the students.The workers of the No. 3, No. 4, and No. 5 cotton mills, the Rihua Mill, and the Shanghai Mill of Shanghai Nissho Co., Ltd. went on strike. More than 20,000 people participated in the strike.In the next three days, Shanghai tram workers, dock workers, cleaners, and ship sailors also went on strike one after another. 43 factories participated in the strike, with a total of about 60,000 workers. They obviously got the support, acquiescence, or tolerance of the factory owners. This is the first strike. Since then, the largest strike in Shanghai. Under the example of Shanghai, protests quickly swept across the country. On June 12, merchants in Wuchang, Jiujiang and other places went on strike. Workers of the Jinghan Railway, Jingfeng Railway, and Guangzhou successively held strikes and demonstrations. The wave of strikes involved 22 cities across the country. More than 150 cities in the province.When Shi Jingqian recorded this period of history in the book "Pursuing Modern China", he believed that "workers launched a strike to support the patriotic movement of the students, which symbolized a new turning point in China's historical development." It was not until the May Fourth Movement that it evolved into a historical event with the participation of all the people and far-reaching influence. The actions of the entrepreneurial class in the May 4th Movement were not limited to supporting students. At the beginning of June, when the protests were in full swing, Zhang Jian accepted an interview with the North China Herald and explained the role of entrepreneurs in the student movement: "Our main task is to create a habit of Chinese people using domestic products, so as to promote our The development of the country’s industry and commerce. The current situation is undoubtedly very favorable for this, because the patriotism of the Chinese people is very high.” Under the guidance of this idea, entrepreneurs launched a boycott of Japanese goods that was even more powerful than that in 1915 , and even squeezed out Japanese forces in the reconstruction of the industrial economy. Not long after the May 4th Movement broke out, Japanese newspapers predicted that China would launch a boycott of Japanese goods, but it wrote in a sarcastic tone, "This demonstration will be sparks on the straw, and the burning event will not exceed five minutes ’” However, a few weeks later, the Miller’s Review, an English-language newspaper in Shanghai, concluded that the five-minute demonstration might continue and seriously threaten Japan’s interests in China. Boycotting Japanese goods has been a running theme in protests across the country. On May 17, eight major newspapers in Shanghai issued announcements on the same day, vowing not to accept advertisements for Japanese products or publish Japanese business news. On June 5, the Shanghai Huashang Spinning Mills Association decided to go on strike. Rong Zongjing—he was elected as a member of Jiangsu Province in the previous year’s congressional election—proposed at the discussion meeting to "unanimously stop using Japanese products." In recent years, non-governmental organizations such as the China National Product Maintenance Association, which has been very active, have printed hundreds of thousands of brochures promoting domestic products, and various slogans have filled the streets and alleys. The editor wrote, "All patriots must buy domestic products. When such voices are heard everywhere: Long live the great Chinese nation and the industrial society created by the people, long live the members of the great Chinese nation, long live the great Chinese nation, then It defeats the purpose of this long-term plan and this eternal organization, because the boycott movement is launched to boycott the goods of certain countries.” The reader knows what certain countries mean. In many cities, businessmen dealing in Japanese goods and serving Japan received anonymous threatening letters warning them to sever ties with Japan, and the shops of some Japanese businessmen were also destroyed.The American "Christian Science Monitor" stated in a report that the students became "police in motion", monitoring shops and vendors, destroying Japanese billboards, etc.The bulletin boards of the students were filled with straw hats, umbrellas, thermos bottles and other Japanese goods confiscated from passers-by. The Western media vividly called this "Straw Hat War".An American missionary named Margaret Monig told Western reporters that her maid refused to buy malted milk powder produced by the British Holik Company because it was only sold in stores opened by Japanese businessmen.Stores in many places were required to put up slogans like this - "From today, this store will never sell Japanese goods." In October, "News" also published a report that a student investigation team from a county in Jiangsu Province found that In one store, there was a problem with the matches. Its outer packaging had the words "Long Live the Republic of China" printed on it, but it was actually Japanese matches. The students destroyed the goods on the spot. In the coastal cities and Huguang area, there is also an organizational form called the "Patriotic Group of Ten". It consists of ten people in a group, and the ten groups form a higher-level organization. The participants swear to only consume Chinese products. And make sure and supervise the members of the same group to do the same. They also distribute leaflets door-to-door and do agitation work. According to reports, there are hundreds of "groups of ten" in Tianjin alone. The May Fourth Movement reached its climax in July, and Japan's exports to China were almost cut off.The effect of the boycott is clearly shown in the trade data of the next two years. In 1920, Japan’s imports to China fell by 7.2% compared with 1919, with a loss of US$29.15 million, while exports to China from other countries increased by 33.3%. In 1921, Japan’s exports to China fell by US$86.96 million year-on-year, while imports from other countries increased by more than 30% over the same period.American economists believe that this shows that the boycott of Japanese goods that began in 1919, no matter what price China paid, has successfully caused Japan's major losses in trade, shipping and industry.According to the records of observers at the time, the boycott promoted the development of the national cotton yarn industry in East China, and provided an extremely favorable market environment for the tobacco and knitting industries in South China.The then U.S. ambassador to China Paul Raines believed in a letter to Congress, "It has brought a huge impetus to the development of China's industry, and it has given manufacturers and the government a reminder of what is a stimulus to the domestic industry. The movement of industrial development should do it.” (According to research data, from 1918 to 1930, the two Japanese cotton spinning factories with the most strikes in Shanghai factories, Nai Nai Co., Ltd. and Nichika Textile Co., Ltd., respectively 45 times and 38 times. Compared with many local textile enterprises, the treatment and production conditions of workers in Japanese factories are slightly better, and the strikes of workers obviously have a strong tendency of nationalism. Another convincing comparison is that in this During the period, British American Tobacco had 31 strikes, while Nanyang Tobacco in the same city had only 5 strikes.) At the same time, a very interesting observation is that amidst the deafening patriotic shouts, the businessmen who are naturally opposed to turmoil also pay great attention to the boundaries of the boycott movement, so as not to make it slip into a situation where the social order collapses.Throughout the movement, entrepreneurs have done a lot of work, trying to limit the boundaries of the movement to non-violence. They have written many times to appeal, "I only want to warn the people of stealing desires, and the masses must not be allowed to take any more violent actions." .” In June, when the Federation of Spinning Mills decided to strike jointly, Rong Zongjing hosted a special banquet for European and American businessmen and diplomats. He explained, "(Our country) has been influenced by the civilization of your country. , strikes, and strikes for more than ten days, but they are still quiet as usual, and there is no riot at all. We should invite all the big countries in the world to forgive us." Then, he made some very skillful words, "People in our country, unanimously refrain It is a good time to use Japanese products, and the products of the major European and American countries sell well in our country. After more than four years of the European War, all your countries sold East Asian products, but they were all sold by Japan. Widely manufactured goods are being sold in East Asia, and I am here to congratulate you, and the friendship between each other has become closer.” The implication is that China’s boycott of Japanese products will greatly help European and American products return to the Chinese market. People's joyful recognition. In addition to promoting boycotts in the consumer market, entrepreneurs took advantage of this patriotic enthusiasm to seize some dominance in the industrial economy.Rong Zongjing, the "two material king" of flour and cotton yarn, made two major events that are very beneficial to the national industry. Since the summer of 1919, Rong Zongjing has been running around, contacting people in the flour industry, and organizing flour exchanges by himself.At that time in Shanghai, Japanese businessmen opened a flour exchange (exchange) to trade flour and wheat futures, and basically controlled the prices of raw materials and finished products in the Shanghai market.Rong Zongjing took advantage of the anger of the public and proposed to set up an exchange by himself to get rid of the control of the Japanese. This proposal received unanimous response from the industry. On January 11, 1920, the China Mechanized Flour Shanghai Exchange (later renamed Shanghai Flour Exchange) was established, raising a share capital of 500,000 yuan, with Rong Zongjing, Wang Yiting and other Shanghai industry tycoons serving as directors. At the same time, Rong Zongjing actively prepared to build a gauze exchange.As the most important national industry in Shanghai and also the most profitable in those years, the raw material futures trading of cotton yarn was also controlled by Tichihi, which was founded by Japanese companies.The annual transaction volume of cotton and gauze is very huge. Although the cotton mills are determined to break free from the control of Japanese companies, they are also very worried about improper operation and repeating the mistakes of Hu Xueyan.Therefore, Rong Zongjing proposed that we must work together to cut off the flow and open up the source.Under his convening, all members of the Chinese Spinning Mills Association gathered together and passed two principles for breaking with the Japanese merchants. The companies or brokers who bought and sold cotton and gauze, all factories cut off contact with them, and announced this purpose in newspapers.Participating manufacturers were asked to raise their hands one by one to show careful approval. On July 1, 1921, the Gauze Exchange officially opened, raising a share capital of 2 million yuan. Rong Zongjing, Mu Ouchu and others were the founding shareholders. The establishment of the flour and gauze exchanges means that the dominance of the futures prices of these two national industries returned to the Chinese merchants.These are two beautiful business battles won by the entrepreneurial class with the help of the May 4th Movement, especially the establishment of the gauze exchange, which can be regarded as a consolation to Hu Xueyan who was in the graveyard more than 30 years late. If the May 4th Movement decisively changed China's cultural ecology, then its impact on the commercial ecology is also enormous.Just as Hu Shi and other young overseas doctors became cultural leaders, some young entrepreneurs with modern business background also quickly climbed onto the stage.This scene soon appeared in the turmoil of the Shanghai General Chamber of Commerce's re-election in 1920. The turmoil is still related to the May Fourth Movement. On May 9, 1919, at the moment when the student demonstration was suppressed, some old-school businessmen in the Shanghai General Chamber of Commerce who were close to Duan Qirui’s government sent a telegram, advocating signing the Paris Agreement first, and then negotiating with Japan to return Qingdao.This telegram caused public outrage.As the wave of protests gradually became the mainstream, calls for "improving the General Chamber of Commerce" came out from within the General Chamber of Commerce, arguing that the current General Chamber of Commerce "has been blindly contacting the bureaucratic faction, it is too stale, the bureaucracy is too heavy, and it is insensitive." Therefore, Mingzhe must be re-elected talent. In August 1920, the General Chamber of Commerce held general elections. Among the original 33 directors, 31 were unsuccessful, and a quarter of the newly elected directors were under 40 years old. The 41-year-old Nie Yuntai (1880-1953) was elected as the chairman of the General Chamber of Commerce, and his predecessor was the 73-year-old old comprador Zhu Baosan. This is a high-spirited entrepreneur of the new school. He was selected as a scholar at the age of 13. Later, he failed the imperial examination and learned English, electrical, chemical engineering and other new subjects from foreigners. Later, he went to the United States for further study and worked in a textile factory after returning home. manager.The most prominent of his identities is that he has a well-known maternal grandfather—Zeng Guofan, whose family blood has a different ambition.In 1917, Nie Yuntai, Huang Yanpei and others initiated the establishment of the China Vocational Education Association in Shanghai as temporary officers. This was the first vocational education organization in China.He also wrote a thin 10-page booklet called "Dungism".The book says that among the people, people who are poisoned can be poured out with manure, and the poison in the nation's problems can also be washed away with manure.According to Nie, there are four kinds of poisons in the people of today, one is arrogance, the other is respectability, the third is arrogance, and the fourth is extravagance. If these four poisons are poured with a spoonful of thick dungism, everything will come to naught. up.The method of pouring manure is very simple, starting from education and politics, but we must closely link public toilets and manure.In the teaching arena, the teachers of the school take the lead and work with the students to pick up manure, clean toilets, pour manure and grow vegetables.Let the students realize that the people who pick dung on the street are the most precious people.In the political arena, it is required from the head of state to the chief executives of the counties to go to the designated place to clean the toilets in person every morning, and they must be cleaned. If you are worried about the safety of the chief, you can send guards to guard around. The speaker speaks about its significance.Although its theory is absurd, it has the simplest people-oriented thought. After Nie Yuntai took office, he quickly launched a series of innovative measures. He gathered a group of entrepreneurs to form eight special committees including finance, display, transportation, and notarization, which enriched and improved the functions of the chamber of commerce. , the General Chamber of Commerce held three large-scale domestic product exhibitions for three consecutive years, which promoted the development of national industries.He also established an industrial and commercial library and a commercial cram school, published the "Shanghai General Chamber of Commerce Monthly", cultivated business talents and released the voice of businessmen. Similar to the brand-new General Chamber of Commerce, another chamber of commerce dominated by young people in the Shanghai business community is the Shanghai Association of Banks. Founded in July 1918, this trade association was initiated by 12 bankers, most of whom were born in the 1880s. They were less than 40 years old at this time, and all of them received modern financial education. Shanghai Chinese and Western College and Keio University in Tokyo, Japan, and others who graduated from Yamaguchi Higher Commercial School in Japan (Li Ming), the University of Birmingham in the UK (Xu Chenmian) and the University of Paris in France (Xu Xinliu).These people disdain the old money bank model, eager to get rid of state intervention, and manage their own banks according to international financial regulations.They raised funds to establish the "Bank Weekly", and declared confidently and clearly in the opening statement, "Since the beginning of our country's trade with foreigners, domestic business has evolved into international business, and the scope of business has been expanding day by day, and its methods have also changed day by day. It is the hub. Organs, like the old bank notes, can no longer meet today's trends, so the so-called banks came into being. Banks are used by a country's finance, industry, and social economy." A line of vigorous and mighty words rushed over , Swept the Qianzhuang bank into the dustbin of history. In 1920, under the initiative of the 31-year-old Zhang Gongquan, led by the Shanghai Banking Association, local associations jointly formed the National Banking Association. In the next seven years, it became an organization that could openly compete with the central government and directly influence financial policies. Bankers Group. In the great May 4th Movement, the role and performance of the entrepreneurial class has not been mentioned for a long time.As we have already described, at the moment of major evolution of the times, they "behind the square" performed the same wonderful drama in their own way. When commenting on entrepreneurs during the May Fourth Movement, French scholar Bergier said, "Those entrepreneurs are all outstanding figures who discarded old ideas and advocated new ideas. It is in this sense that their contribution to the modernization of Chinese society is Compared with the outstanding role of intellectuals in the May 4th Movement, it can be said to be the best of both worlds—although they are not as impassioned as the latter.” She also said, “National entrepreneurs are more practical than radical intellectuals. , compared with conservative bureaucrats, they appear more open." Looking around the world around 1919, we can see that with the end of the First World War, the global political landscape was very turbulent. In the north of China, the Russians established a socialist country through violent revolution, while in the southwest In India, another ancient Asian power, quite coincidentally, is conducting a non-violent popular movement. In modern history, India suffered no less humiliation than China. Since the seventeenth century, India has been invaded economically and militarily by Britain. By 1857—that is, before and after the second Opium War launched by European powers against China, India was officially annexed by the British Empire and humiliatingly renamed the "East India Company Territory".In the following decades, the Indian people continued to revolt and shed blood for self-government and independence. By November 1919, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, a lawyer who was born in the family of a maharaja chieftain and was educated in the West at the University of London, launched the "Non-violent Non-Cooperation Movement". The British government's "non-cooperation" content includes returning titles and medals conferred by the British king, resigning from public offices in local institutions, refraining from all meetings of the colonial government, boycotting British colonial education, etc. Economically, boycotting foreign products goods, especially British products, he called on all Indians to wear homespun cloth and abandon imperial weaving.Gandhi's non-violent non-cooperation movement became the main means for the Indian people to oppose alien rule. It was carried out very tortuously and repeatedly until India finally declared independence in 1947. Gandhi was therefore regarded as "Mahatma Gandhi" and "Father of India" . (At that time, the Indian thinker who was more familiar to the Chinese thought circle was the poet Tagore, the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913. He had a very similar Eastern philosophical thought to Gandhi. In his poems, he sang, "When we are very humble, It is almost great.” In 1919, he supported Gandhi’s idea of ​​non-violent non-cooperation, and was the first to reject the knighthood conferred by the King of England. In April 1924, he visited China at the invitation of Liang Qichao and Cai Yuanpei, which aroused great interest. sensation.) Scholars of later generations often associate the October Revolution of 1917 in the Soviet Union with the May Fourth Movement, but few people have observed the non-violent non-cooperation movement in India that occurred almost at the same time.In fact, China’s intellectual circles in 1919 were under the influence of the two major social trends of thought in the North and the South. At least in the economic field, the choice of the conservative entrepreneurial class and Gandhi’s non-violence stand can be referred to. Looking back at China in 1919, it can be described as vigorous, just like a brightly lit train flashing past in the dark night, leaving people with a sense of dizziness if something is lost.In the following four or five years, the cultural circles were star-studded, ideas were unprecedentedly active, and various political forces and ideas emerged freely. Among them, the event that had the greatest impact on history was from July 23 to 31, 1921, when Chen Duxiu, Li Dazhao and Mao Zedong and others formed the Communist Party of China in Shanghai (later transferred to Jiaxing Nanhu), which would soon rise into a powerful force.And in the corporate world, ambitious budding entrepreneurs began to experiment with their political ideals. Since Yuan Shikai, the Beiyang government has always been weak due to warlord separatism and financial constraints, which objectively gave entrepreneurs room to play games. In the autumn of 1920, the central government decided to issue government bonds. In December, the Bankers Association led by Zhang Gongquan held a meeting in Shanghai and refused to subscribe for all bonds on the grounds that the old bonds were not repayable.Duan Qirui, who was in power in Beijing, was very annoyed but had no choice but to send representatives to negotiate with the bankers, and finally agreed to establish a unified national debt fund, using the customs balance as a sinking fund, and the customs general tax department controlled by the British as Third Party Administration.This kind of confrontation with the central government was not unique at the time. As early as two years ago, the Shanghai General Chamber of Commerce refused to send people north to participate in the economic development seminar organized by the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce. Business is in disarray and there is no point wasting time in meetings like this." Disappointed with the central government, entrepreneurs embraced utopian socialism and liberalism, trying to rebuild China's social order.There are two main directions of its efforts, one is to build model cities or experimental communes, and the other is to create urban self-government mechanisms. 中国人向来有“修身、齐家、治国、平天下”的济世理想，对企业家来说，天下太大，那就去治理眼皮底下的那片土地吧。在这方面，张謇是一个最值得纪念的典范，从1903年开始，他就致力于家乡南通的城市建设，大生纱厂的很多利润都被他投入到了公共事业上。将近二十年下来，南通已成当时中国最出名的县城。1920年，一位访问者描写他看到的南通：“在登岸以前，我们就已感受到她的现代气息了。大道旁柳树成行，满载面粉、棉花以及旅客的卡车、汽车在奔驰，高耸林立的烟囱在冒着烟，工厂的机器轰鸣声在回响——一个欢快劳动的日子又宣布开始了。在江岸边建有现代化的码头和仓储设施，通过现代化的公路和运河，运输线四通八达。登上狼山山顶，一幅动人的壮丽图画展开在我们眼前。在南面奔腾着雄伟的长江，它的水上运输繁忙。在西面静卧着南通城，屋顶、烟囱、城门楼依稀可见。到处都显示着满足、快乐和繁华。我们看到每一寸土地都得到了耕种，并由田间小路分割成几何形状。在居住区内有大量精心种植的树木，这也是这里的一个特征，在中国其它地区没有类似的情况。”上海英文《密勒氏评论报》主笔J·B·鲍威尔也是在这一年到访南通，他称之为“中国大地上的天堂”，他在报道中写道：“张謇以及他的兄长张詧、他的儿子简直可以用'君临天下'一词来形容，除了童话故事中对待臣民就像对待子女一样的慈善君王外，可能无人可与之匹敌，而在南通州这却是事实。”1922年，中国科学社在南通举行年会，梁启超到会，称之为“中国最进步的城市”，文学家鲁迅的朋友、日本人内山完造称南通是一个“理想的文化城市”。同年，北京、上海的报纸举办“成功人物民意测验”，投票选举“最景仰之人物”，张謇得票数最高，这一年正好是他70岁大寿。让人感慨的是，也正是在这一辉煌的时刻，张謇的企业突然冒出了危机的苗头，他将很快陷入无法自拔的泥潭。 不过在1922年，南通模式还是如此的迷人和让人感奋，在很长时间里它成为企业家的梦想。也是在这一年，老买办朱葆三在上海郊区购置1000亩地，设想建立一个类似南通的实验城。而荣家兄弟则尝试着在自己的工厂里搞了一个“劳工自治区”，“自治区”设在家乡无锡，建有男、女职工单身宿舍和职工家属宿舍，宿舍分区、村、室三级，由工人自己推选各级负责人员进行管理。还兴办了食堂、储蓄所、合作社、医院、工人夜校、子弟学校、图书馆、电影场，乃至公墓、功德祠、尊贤堂，工人从生活、教育、文化娱乐、劳动保险到生老病死诸多方面都得到了一定程度的保障，可谓社会功能一应俱全，宛若一个独立的“公社”。到后来，为了处理各种纠纷事宜，“自治区”内还设了一个工人自治法庭。“自治区”的建立，一方面实践了荣家兄弟的社会理念，另一方面也直接带来了生产效率的提高，荣德生经常在周末集体训话时宣传自己的“自治主张”：“厂方的利益，就是各工友的利益，劳资应该充分合作，团结一致，否则皮之不存，毛将焉附？” 如果说，张、荣等人的实验着眼于家乡的重建，那么，另外一些人则有更大的抱负，他们试图在某些城市建立自治型政府。 企业家的政治热情一方面是被逼出来的，另一方面也是不清晰和幼稚的。1921年10月，在商会联合会的年会上，很多年轻的会员提出了参与政治的呼吁，一个叫唐富福的人在发言中大喊，“我们用不着仰赖某个个人，世上从来没有救世主……现在该是商人面对现实，摆脱陈旧的不参与传统，投身政治的时候了。我们拒绝将我们所主张的开明政治与那黑暗的政治混为一谈。如果政治是黑暗的，而我们却接受其的统治，岂不成了奴才和背叛者了吗？我起誓，我决不！中国商人要拯救这个国家。商会总是以不参与政权为自己的荣誉，但在今天，这种节制却是我们的耻辱。”这番演讲刊登在了当时的《北华捷报》上。唐富福的论点在年会上引起共鸣，穆藕初等人也认为，“实业界人士务实不闻政治的陈旧观点，是不值得赞赏的。应团结起来，采取适当的方式，推动政府改善国内局势。” 企业家阶层的参政和自治理念得到了自由派知识分子的呼应，胡适、丁文江等人提出了“好人政府”的概念，就是由“好人”来管理政府，依靠专家解决专门问题，所谓“好人”，就是知识分子和企业家阶层，“即以现身从事农工商业及劳动者执政，而除去现在贵族军阀官僚政客等无职业者执政。” 为了实践商人主政和“好人政府”的主张，各地商会先后都提出过千奇百怪的设想。1923年3月，汉口总商会向国内各主要城市的商会发出了一份《保护商埠安全议案》，在议案中提出，以中世纪欧洲的汉萨同盟为仿效，建立一个“真正的城市联盟”。汉萨同盟是14世纪出现在德意志北部的城市联盟群，它由富商和贵族发起，拥有军队和金库，极盛时加盟城市多达160个，汉口的议案认为，“如全国各商埠能实行团结，声气灵通，势力雄厚，举国内外，谁敢予侮？”此案“看上去很美”，却一点也没有操作的可能。 汉口议案提出后不久，上海的企业家更有过十分大胆的、闹剧式的行动。 年初，北京政坛出现动荡，直系军阀曹琨打败皖系的段祺瑞，控制了中央政权，在总统选举中，曹琨用钱收买国会议员投票，每人5000元，受贿的议员共有480人，曹琨因此“选”上了大总统。6月，他把现任总统黎元洪赶出北京城。一时间，贿选丑闻臭遍全国，各地抗议声四起。6月23日，上海总商会召开了一次会员大会，一方面通电谴责北京，另一方面宣布上海独立。他们组成了一个由70人组成的民治委员会，宣布将以执政者的角色来管理城市。他们发布公开宣言，拟订行政章程，与曹琨政权电报交涉，一时忙得不亦乐乎。 但是，它显然缺乏合法性和实际的行政能力，只忙乎了两个月，民治委员会就无疾而终了。企业家们的尝试遭到了舆论的嘲笑，《东方杂志》的一篇评论便讽刺说，“最可笑的是，上海商会妄欲组织商人政府，自认为民治委员会基本会员，一若除商人外无人民者，又若除上海商人外无人民者，更若除上海总商会之商人外无人民者，即此一端，其无知妄作已可悲矣。我们商人向缺乏政治常识，每激于一时热情，殊不知盲从妄作，根本已错。”其言刻薄，却也点出了商人主政的三个缺陷，一是爱搞“小圈子”，二是缺乏民众基础，三是没有明确的执政主张。令人好奇的是，惟一对总商会行动持鼓励态度的是已经成为共产党员的毛泽东，他在《响导周报》上发文《北京政变与商人》，认为，“上海商人业已改变从前的态度，丢掉和平主义，采取革命方法，鼓起担当国事的勇气……”（早年的毛泽东是地方自治和模范乡村建设的积极倡导者。1919年，他在《湖南教育月刊》第十二期上发表《学生之工作》一文，提出：合若干之新家庭，即可创造一种新社会。新社会之种类不可尽举，举其著者：公共育儿院、公共蒙养院、公共学校、公共图书馆、公共银行、公共农场、公共工作场、公共消费社、公共剧院、公园、博物馆、自治会。合此等之新学校、新社会，而为一“新村”。吾以为岳麓山一带，乃湘城附近最适宜建设新村之地也。40年后的1958年，他的这一理想终于以“人民公社”的方式得以实践。） 企业家阶层的自治努力在今后数年内还将持续下去，每一次它都因为缺乏民众基础和宪政理论支持，而显得幼稚和缺乏持续性。在一个现代国家，自治政府及议会制度的真正确立，需要一个自由或稳定的社会环境，在那样的社会内部，各种利益集团以公平协商的方式共存，可是，在1920年代的中国，内乱远未停止，暴力随时可能打断和平的努力。因此，白吉尔把这一时期的失败，称为是“一个不自由年代中的自由主义的失败”，她评论说，“资产阶级的作为，通常显得模凌两可，缺乏条理和毫无效力，在某种程度上，是由于它所处的政治地位的性质不那么明确的缘故。” 1920年7月，虞洽卿四方运筹，获准建立上海证券物品交易所，票券、棉花、布匹、粮油等均可在此交易。当时的上海，竟有140个各种各样的交易所，是全世界交易所最多、也是规则最不规范、投机色彩最为浓烈的城市。虞洽卿的这个交易所是中国第一家正规、综合性的证券物品交易市场。据记载，该所的首倡者是孙中山，他于1916年在北京约见虞洽卿，提出在上海筹建交易所，他对虞说，“交易所既成，亦可为革命聚积资金，诚乃大事矣。”——靠办交易所为革命筹钱，孙氏逻辑很能代表当时革命家的经济思想。虞依计而行，数年乃成。虞出任理事长，籍此成为上海风云一时的期货大亨。（中国第一家证券交易所于1916年在北京创立，不久，上海也设所交易。） 也是在这段时间前后，陈其美（他已于1916年5月遇刺身亡）的结拜兄弟蒋介石落魄沪上，也来投奔虞洽卿，他慨然收留，安排在交易所当上了一名经纪人，另一位浙江老乡、革命党人张静江则出资4000元，让蒋在交易所中占了股份。不料蒋某人“革命有方”，却经营无术，先是在买空卖空中赚了不少钱，紧接者又全数赔光还欠下一屁股债。百般无奈下，蒋介石躲到虞洽卿家中避债多日，然后决心南下投奔孙中山。为了躲避债主追尾跟讨，虞出主意让他投帖拜青帮老大黄金荣为“老头子”。 黄金荣门徒黄振世日后记录当时的场景：虞洽卿到八仙桥钧培里黄公馆后，向黄金荣说明情由，要求录收蒋介石为门生，黄金荣因为虞洽卿在当时商界地位高，势力大，亦很想结交，所以对他提出的要求都无条件答应下来。又因为虞洽卿不熟悉投拜老头子的手续，第二天陪同蒋介石到黄金荣处时，只投递了一张写着“黄老夫子台前，受业门生蒋志清”的大红帖子，既没有拜师应有的蜡烛、香，更没有致送压帖的贽敬。还因为黄金荣事先从虞洽卿处知道蒋介石的困难环境和拜师目的，同时也为了讨好虞洽卿，所以非但不计较压帖贽敬，还有心“慷慨”地赠送蒋介石旅费大洋200元，并且鼓励他去广州。分别以后，互不通讯，日久以后也就事过境迁，淡然若忘了。 谁也没有料到的是，仅仅6年后，乾坤倒转，这番江湖交情又孽生出一段影响中国走向的历史公案。 不过在讲述这段公案之前，我们先要来到1924年的中国，经济萧条在天灾人祸的夹击下突然降临了。