On this day, 183 years ago, July 24, 1842 (June 17, 1842 in the lunar calendar), Zheng Guanying, a modern and modern reformist in China, was born. Zheng Guanying (1842.7.24-1922.5) was a representative of the reformists in the late Qing Dynasty and a modern reformist. His original name is Guan Ying, also known as Zhengxiang, and his name is Tao Zhai. His other names are Qi Yousheng, Muyong Mountain, and Daheshan. A native of Xiangshan, Guangdong (now Zhongshan). His father, Zheng Wenrui, was a scholar without fame. He set up an account to teach apprentices in his hometown and urged Zheng Guan to learn the learning of tie-gu. In the eighth year of Xianfeng (1858), Ying Tong failed to pass the test, so he traveled to Shanghai at his father's orders. He abandoned his studies and started business, and "provided the labor of traveling" with his uncle Zheng Tingjiang, who was the comprador of Shanghai Xinde Foreign Firm. The following year, he was introduced by relatives and friends to join Shanghai's first-class British businessman Baoshun Foreign Company. In the winter of the same year, he was sent to Tianjin to inspect business. After returning to Shanghai in ten years (1860), he was in charge of the silk building of the foreign firm and also in charge of ship procurement. At the same time, he entered the British Library night school run by Franya to study English and became very interested in Western politics and economics. In the seventh year of Tongzhi (1868), Baoshun Foreign Trading Company closed down, and Zheng Guanying was transferred to Shengxiang Tea House as a general officer and invested in a partnership to run the Fair Shipping Company. Twelve years (1873), he participated in the founding of Swire Shipping Company. The following year, he was hired as the company's prime minister and also in charge of accounting, housing and other matters. Zheng Guanying set out to open commercial and financial institutions at major ports on the Yangtze River. Swire's shipping business was very prosperous. Zheng Guanying also invested in industry, successively taking shares in enterprises such as China Shipping and Investment Promotion Bureau, Kaiping Mining Bureau, Shanghai Paper Making Company, Shanghai Machine Weaving Bureau, etc., and donated funds to obtain the titles of doctor and Taoist, and joined Li Hongzhang and other Western-style officials. He also paid daily income. In the sixth year of Guangxu's reign (1880), he compiled and published the book "Yi Yan", which reflected his reformist thoughts. The book proposed a series of internal reform measures centered on the wealth of the country, advocated learning from the West, and organized personnel to translate books about the prosperity of Western countries. They were widely disseminated around the world so that everyone could learn from them. It also advocates the use of machine production to accelerate the development of industry and commerce, encourage businessmen to invest in industry, and encourage private mining, shipbuilding, and railways. He expressed strong dissatisfaction with the tariff policy of unequal taxation of Chinese and foreign merchants, and advocated a protective tariff policy of "our country's owners light taxes to broaden the way forward, and those who do not have in our country impose heavy taxes to curb sources." Zheng Guanying also vigorously promoted the Western parliamentary system in "Yi Yan" and advocated that China should implement changes in its political system and implement a constitutional monarchy. In the fourth year of Guangxu (1878), Li Hongzhang, Governor of Zhili, sent Zheng Guanying to organize the Shanghai Machine Weaving Bureau. In six years (1880), Zheng Guanying was officially appointed as the chief office of the Weaving Bureau, and Zheng Guanying was then appointed as the chief office of the Shanghai Telegraph Bureau. Eight years (1882), after Zheng Guanying's employment period with Swire Foreign Trading expired, he officially left Swire and accepted Li Hongzhang's employment, serving as a deputy to the Shipping and Investment Promotion Bureau, which was almost impossible to maintain at that time. At the beginning of taking office, he proposed sixteen articles of the "Outline for Solving the Deficiency" and submitted them to Li Hongzhang. He put forward a series of suggestions and put them into practice in terms of selecting people and employing people, matching responsibilities, clear rewards and punishments, increasing profits, and reducing consumption. In order to stop the price-cutting competition between Swire and Jardine International Banks, Zheng Guanying personally negotiated with the two foreign banks and signed a full-price contract. Due to his internal and external governance, the turnover and stock market value of China Shipping and Merchants Group have increased significantly. In October of the ninth year (1883), Li Hongzhang promoted Zheng Guan to the general manager of the Shipping Investment Bureau. In the tenth year of Guangxu (1884), the Sino-French War broke out. Zheng Guanying recommended himself and was recommended by Wang Zhichun. Peng Yulin, Minister of Defense of Eastern Guangdong, transferred Zheng Guanying to Guangdong to handle the affairs of the Hunan Military Camp. Peng Yulin and Zhang Zhidong, governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, planned to attack Saigon, a place where the French army's grain and fodder were stored. They sent Zheng Guanying to Saigon, Vietnam, Phnom Penh, Cambodia and other places to spy on the enemy's situation, and planned to contact people from all over Southeast Asia to attack the French army. Shortly after returning to Guangzhou, the French fleet attacked Taiwan. Zheng Guanying suggested a decisive battle with the French army and outlined seven combat recommendations. After being appointed to handle matters of aid to Taiwan, Zheng Guanying immediately went to Hong Kong to charter a boat and transport troops, food, grass and ammunition to Taiwan. At the same time, Zheng Guanying was entangled in the Weaving Bureau case and the Swire Shipping Company's recovery case. The former case was caused by the tight money supply in Shanghai during the Sino-French War and the sharp drop in stock prices, which made the money released by the Weaving Bureau unable to recover and suffered losses. Jing Yuan Shan and others were appointed by the Qing government to clean up the bureau affairs and discovered that the chief executive officer Gong Shoutu had embezzled public funds. Gong Shoutu accused Zheng Guanying of mismanagement, so Zheng Guanying had to pay 20,000 gold coins to settle the case. In the latter case, Yang Guixuan, the successor recommended by Zheng Guanying when he left Swire, mismanaged the company and embezzled the company's funds, causing Swire to lose more than 100,000 yuan. Swire invoked the law that the guarantor owed a repayment obligation and detained Zheng Guanying in Hong Kong to pursue compensation. After these two cases, Zheng Guanying was exhausted. On October 13, the tenth year of Guangxu's reign (1884), he lamented in a letter to Sheng Xuanhuai: "The past years have been bumpy, and many things have gone against each other. As a result, superiors and friends blame others on the outside, and fathers, brothers and wives blame others on the inside. They are stuck in a dilemma and have no way to appeal. But now that my reputation is ruined, I can't win people's trust. Although I beg for mercy everywhere, I will never be able to do it." So he retired from Macau, expressed his love for the mountains and rivers, and devoted all his energy to revising and rewriting "Yi Yan". It was not until the 20th year of Guangxu (1894) that "Prosperity and Dangerous Words" that reflected his mature and complete reform system was finally completed. "Stories of Prosperity and Prosperity" runs through the theme of "Prosperity and Saving the Country" and puts forward practical plans for reforms in politics, economy, military, diplomacy, and culture. It provides a way for the depressed and confused late Qing Dynasty after the defeat of the 1894 - 1894. A good medicine to save danger. Zhang Zhidong, a general of Westernization Affairs, commented after reading "The Times of Times":"Although there are many books on current affairs, it is not as detailed as this book's overall planning and selection of the essence." "At the top, using this to help the world can be said to be a good medicine; at the bottom, using this to store talents can be used as a golden needle." "Those who benefit officials use pressure to exploit the people; Those who benefit outsiders use official power to oppress the people." He strongly advocated the speedy introduction of a constitutional monarchy. In response to the Qing government's stubborn and tough attitude on this issue and the effectiveness of Britain and Japan after implementing a constitutional monarchy, Zheng Guanying angrily said,"Do you still think that the House of Representatives is not feasible? Still think that China is not in a hurry yet? Gee! Yi Yi!" He also advocated giving the parliament the power to "govern the government." In order to ensure the smooth implementation of the constitutional monarchy, Zheng Guanying also proposed a series of supporting internal affairs reforms, advocating the expansion of newspapers so that hidden people can reach out to the top, and playing a role in supervising public opinion among officials, large and small, in order to persuade good and punish evil, and promote benefits and eliminate disadvantages. It is advocated that the official selection system be reformed, officials should be elected by the people, and redundant staff and old people should be eliminated. "Recruit famous teachers and open art academies." He believed that in order to strengthen the country, we must attach importance to Western learning, develop education, and pay attention to the cultivation of new talents who master Western astronomy, geography, and human science. He said that according to the education rules of various countries at home and abroad in ancient and modern times, the results of prosperity and prosperity should be strengthened in schools."There are more art academies, more books and materials are being prepared, more production is being made, and the country's power is becoming stronger." It advocates vigorously translating Western books, reforming the imperial examination, adding new subjects such as Gezhi, Electronics, and Medicine, and recruiting talents proficient in Western learning. In terms of economy, Zheng Guanying put forward the famous theory of "commercial warfare". He believed that the purpose of Western powers 'invasion of China was to turn China into their "land of materials and profit making." So he used "military warfare" and "commercial warfare" to deal with China. Commercial warfare was more secretive and more harmful than military warfare. The so-called "annexation of troops would easily cause harm to people, but commercial warfare would make our country invisible." He advocated that "Westerners use commerce as a war,... Since they come with commerce, I should also use commerce to go." Since "our merchants are not prosperous for a day, their greedy plans are also constant." Only by establishing a country with commerce and using industry to support commerce,"If you want to control Westerners to self-reliance, it is better to revitalize commerce." As soon as the book was published, the government and the public were shaken. People from all walks of life competed to read it, and there was an endless stream of people asking for it, so that one print after another was not enough to meet the demand. Even the exam was often based on the current affairs discussed in the book. Sun Jianai, the minister of the Ministry of Rites, recommended the book to Emperor Guangxu. Bi Jia sighed when he read it and ordered it to be distributed to the ministers to read it. The ideas of this book not only influenced the ideological world at that time, but also benefited future generations. For example, Kang Youwei and Sun Yat-sen were greatly influenced by this book. Mao Zedong often read "The Times of Prosperity" when he was young. In March of the 17th year of Guangxu's reign (1891), Zheng Guan asked Sheng Xuanhuai for his recommendation. Li Hongzhang appointed him as the general office of Kaiping Coal Mine Guangdong Bureau, responsible for purchasing land, building factories, and filling docks. The following year, Li Hongzhang appointed him again as a deputy to China Merchants Group to rectify the sluggish China Merchants Group. As soon as he joined the company, Zheng Guanying signed another full-price contract with his biggest competitors, Swire and Jardine Maison International Co., Ltd. He also drafted "Ten Points for Rectification of China Merchants Bureau", and then wrote 14 Points for "Li Fu, Minister of the Northern Sea, reported on the situation of China Merchants Bureau and rectified the Points", which involved opening up sources and reducing expenditure and specific business strategies. In 19th year (1893), Zheng Guanying inspected the estuaries of the Yangtze River in disguise to understand the advantages and disadvantages of each branch, investigated the operations of Jardine and Swire in various places, and then inspected the branches of Shantou, Xiamen, Fuzhou, Zhejiang, and Tianjin. On the eve of the Sino-Japanese War of 1894 - 1894, Zheng Guanying wrote to the Qing court that the Japanese would sneak attack the Qing army. After the war, he wrote many times to guard against Japanese spies and take measures such as not allowing the Japanese to use telegrams and codes to report on the Japanese army's transportation of ordnance. He decided to allocate some of the ships of China Merchants Bureau to transport personnel and ordnance. After the Japanese army captured Northeast China, Zheng Guanying and others "sold openly and secretly" 20 China Merchants ships to foreign banks in Germany, Britain and other countries, flew foreign flags and sailed as usual, and published "The War between China and Japan" to oppose begging for peace from Japan. After the war ended, Zheng Guanying recalled all the ships and resolutely opposed the Treaty of Shimonoseki. In May of 1896, Zhang Zhidong appointed Zheng Guan as the general manager of Hanyang Iron Factory. In January of the following year, he served concurrently as the chief director of the Guangdong-Han Railway. In May, the name was changed from the Assistant Office of the Shipping Investment Promotion Bureau to Joint Handling. In October of the twenty-fifth year (1899), he also served as the general director of Jilin Mining Company in Shanghai and recruited shares extensively. After the death of Li Hongzhang, Yuan Shikai, the successor Minister of Beiyang and Governor of Zhili, took over the Shipping Investment Bureau and Telegraph Bureau. Zheng Guan should leave the China Merchants Bureau and go to Guangxi at the invitation of Guangxi Governor Wang Zhichun to act as Zuojiang Road. He also served as the Guangdong-Han Railway Engineering Bureau and the General Office of the Guangdong-Han Railway Land Purchase Bureau. Later, Wang Zhichun was dismissed and he left his post to Guangdong to participate in the activities to recover the road rights of the Guangdong-Han Railway. Served as assistant at the Guangzhou Chamber of Commerce. In March of 1932 (1906), he was elected by Guangdong businessmen as the general office of Guangdong Commercial Office Guangdong-Han Railway Co., Ltd., where he presided over the fundraising work, and resigned due to "abiding by the rules". In the first year of Xuantong (1909), he joined China Merchants Group for the third time and served as a director, responsible for the registration of China Merchants Group's commercial office with the Ministry of Commerce. The following year, Sheng Xuanhuai appointed Zheng Guanying to attend the meeting, and entrusted Zheng Guanying with full authority to rectify the Shipping and Investment Promotion Bureau after the commercial operation, and once again patrol the affairs of various ports on the Yangtze River. After the Wuchang Uprising broke out, Zheng Guan should return to Shanghai from Sichuan. After the Republic of China, Zheng Guan should devote his main energy to education, and concurrently served as a resident director and director of China Merchants Public School, and honorary director of Shanghai Commercial Middle School. In April of the tenth year (1921), Zheng Guanying wrote to the board of directors of China Merchants Group, requesting his resignation and retirement. One year later, he died of illness in the dormitory of China Merchants College at Tilanqiao, Shanghai. A bourgeois reformist thinker in modern China.