Qiao Zhiyong and his descendants: Why did the Confucian scholar Qiao Zhiyong achieve such achievements?

At that time, the tea market in Lucun, Qi County was very large in Shanxi, and it was the main trading transit market for tea arriving from the south. Afterwards, the traditional tea road will be divided into two routes: one is to go to Tacheng and Kyaktu in Xinjiang via the west entrance; the other is to go to the northeast through Zhangjiakou. The long tea road, from Wuyi Mountain in the south to the hinterland of Mongolia, is related to the livelihood of countless tea workers, boatmen, camel teams and Shanxi merchants. Zhu Xiuhai said that the Qiao family's silk tea business alone was directly and indirectly related to the livelihood of tens of thousands of people. The Silk Channel transported silk from Huzhou to Luzhou, Shanxi to be made into Lu silk. The hardships and dangers of the business journey began to make Qiao Zhiyong gradually realize the important role of the ticket number.

At that time, the Qiao family was not involved in the ticket business. At that time, there was already a Richang Sheng ticket number in Pingyao. The earliest evidence found now is the record of Richang Sheng's account division in 1823, which was once every five years at that time. However, it is generally accepted that before Richang Sheng, Pingyao already had a business dealing in exchange. As an emerging industry, ticketing was created by people from Pingyao, not Qixian. Zhu Xiuhai said that there were very few ticket companies at that time, and there were only 5 in the country. The largest of them, Rishengchang, only had 7 branches. It did not deal with small and medium-sized businessmen, so its influence was very limited. Generally, small businessmen had to bring money to do business. When Qiao Zhiyong realized the broad prospects of the ticket account, his ambition was to one day connect the world. How advanced this idea was and how big his ideal was! Isn't this similar to today's UnionPay? Shanxi businessmen more than 100 years ago already had such perfect ideas and broad courage at that time. Not only that, although Qiao Zhiyong strives to develop the ticket account nationwide, he has no intention of monopolizing the ticket account business. The difficulty and risk of his idea are obvious at a glance - for example, you want the bank to remit 20 taels of silver to the south, which was not even enough for travel expenses at the time. Think about it, if your Qiao family had a bank account number in Xinjiang, and you were asked to remit one tael of silver, you would have to do it. The cost and risk would be so staggering! But Qiao Zhiyong is such an idealist.

The reason why Qiao Zhiyong attaches so much importance to the future of the ticket number has his own reasons. At that time, bandits and rebels were roaming the trade roads, and it was very dangerous and inconvenient for merchants to carry large amounts of silver. Even if the money order exchanged by the ticket number is intercepted by bandits, it is impossible to exchange the money in the ticket number without the secret code. Surprisingly, later generations have verified that in the entire history of Shanxi banknotes, there has not been a single well-documented case of mis-redemption. Qiao Zhiyong used the Qiao family's capital to open two bank accounts, Dade Tong and Dade Feng. Da Detong is the reformed Da Dexing in the TV series. Founded in the Xianfeng period, Dadexing initially mainly dealt in tea and also engaged in exchange. Qiao Zhiyong later discovered that banknotes were a newer industry, so he changed the business to mainly exchange, supplemented by tea. According to Wudian theory, in the tenth year of Guangxu's reign, Qiao Zhiyong changed Dadexing to Dadetong. In the same year, he established the Dadefeng Bank to specialize in money exchange. Under Qiao Zhiyong's management, both Dade Tong and Dade Feng later became one of the few major ticket companies in the country. Wu Dianxue used these data to show the development speed of Qiao Zhiyong's bank account. When Da Defeng was established in the tenth year of Guangxu's reign, the capital was 60,000 taels. Within a few years, it became 120,000 taels. By the time of Guangxu's ten years, the capital had already reached 120,000 taels. It has increased to 350,000 taels.

The reason is actually very simple. Qiao Zhiyong continues to invest part of his annual profits as capital, which is called doubled capital in jargon. Usually Shanxi businessmen will distribute profits every accounting period, and each accounting period usually lasts 3, 4 or 5 years. According to Wu Dian theory, almost all of Qiao Zhiyong's dividends were invested in capital, and his capital could be said to be second to none among the bank accounts at that time. At that time, some people estimated that the capital of the Qiao family was four to five million taels of silver. Research after the founding of the People's Republic of China estimated that the Qiao family's liquidity was about 8 million to 10 million taels, not including banknotes and real estate. Wu Dianxue also admitted that this number is an estimate by everyone. Since there is no clear record, it is mainly calculated based on how many shops the Qiao family had at that time. It is difficult to say whether it is accurate. But at that time in Shanxi, Qiao Zhiyong, as a relatively representative figure, became an emerging force on the rise among the Shanxi businessmen who began to prosper in the Ming Dynasty.

The reason why a Confucian scholar could achieve such an achievement, both Wu Dianxue and Zhu Xiuhai believe, is that in addition to his talent, Qiao Zhiyong brought the Confucian spirit of generosity and benevolence into business during his business operations.

The most conclusive evidence that can be seen now is the tomb table set up after Qiao Zhiyong's death. According to Wu Dian theory, Qiao Zhiyong's tomb is still in Qiaojiabao Village. The tombstone is erected in front of the tomb and the epitaph is buried in the tomb. Qiao Zhiyong's epitaph has not been found yet. The text on the tomb table was written by Chang Zanchun, Qiao Zhiyong's grandson-in-law and a cultural celebrity in the Republic of China. He describes Qiao Zhiyong's family situation when he was young, and how he originally wanted to pass the imperial examination to shine in his family, but was forced to take over the family business and use Confucianism as his business guidance to achieve great success. As a businessman, Qiao Zhiyong still always has the Four Books, Five Classics and Historical Records on hand. He will come forward to provide relief for social disasters. Zhu Xiuhai said: 'The people are noble, the king is light. ’ Qiao Zhiyong has such a people-centered thought in his heart.

Zhu Xiuhai believes that this spirit can be extended to the ancestors of the Qiao family. Qiao Guifa is a grassroots man who cannot find a wife even at the age of 30. But he eventually married a widow with children, and it was said that he had a deep and profound love. If you go to Qiao's family in Shanxi, they have a first-generation ancestor who reported to the church. Next to the clay sculpture is a begging basket and a dog-beating stick. They do not hide the history of poverty in their ancestors, but want their families to remember this history of poverty. Not only Qiao Zhiyong, but also Qiao Zhiyong's grandson Qiao Yingxia's generation, every New Year, they would use carts to haul rice and noodles to provide financial aid to poor families to help them spend the New Year. Their family has very good tutors, and one of them is not to forget their poor background. An example of how strict the Qiao family’s tutoring is. Many big families in Shanxi have theater stages in their houses, but the Qiao family doesn't have one. They are afraid that future generations will become bored by playing with things. There is also a rule in the Qiao family that instead of using young maids, they use middle-aged women, in order to avoid indecent things happening to the young male master.