Lu Zuofu

Lu Zuofu

Lu Zuofu, formerly known as Lu kuixian and alias Lu Si, was born in Hechuan, Chongqing. He was a famous patriotic industrialist, educator and social activist in modern times. He was also the founder of Minsheng company and a pioneer of China's shipping industry. He was known as "the king of Chinese ships" and "the father of Beibei".

He was born in Hechuan County, Sichuan Province on April 14, 1893. He had a poor family when he was a child. After dropping out of school, he taught himself to become a useful person and wrote many textbooks. In 1910, he joined the league, engaged in the anti Qing Road Protection Movement and joined the revolution of 1911. In 1914, he served as a teacher of Hechuan middle school, and then successively served as a newspaper, editor in chief and reporter. In 1925, Minsheng company was founded to unify Chuanjiang shipping, forcing foreign shipping forces to withdraw from the upper reaches of the Yangtze River. In the autumn of 1938, Lu Zuofu led Minsheng company to organize and command the Yichang retreat. He used 40 days to rush to transport more than 1.5 million people and 1 million tons of materials. He saved the entire national industry of China during the Anti Japanese War and was praised by the national government. In 1952, he was falsely accused of committing suicide by taking sleeping pills in Chongqing.

Lu Zuofu has stridden over the three fields of "saving the country by revolution", "saving the country by education" and "saving the country by industry", and has made achievements in several aspects. When he was young, he proposed to save the country through education and fight for it; after self-study, he established schools, libraries and museums to popularize culture and education, and took Beibei as the base to engage in theoretical exploration and social practice of rural construction; during the Anti Japanese War, he stayed in Yichang, organized and led the Yichang retreat, preserved the lifeline of China's national industry, and was rated as "China's dunkerk retreat" by historians Back. Mao Zedong commented that he was "a man that can never be forgotten in modern Chinese history"; Chiang Kai Shek called him "brother Fu" and "national hero"; Feng Yuxiang praised him as "the most patriotic and the most promising man".

Life of the characters

The road to study

Qing Guangxu 19 years (1893) April 14, was born in Sichuan Hechuan county (now Chongqing Hechuan District) an ordinary small vendor family.

In 1900, he and his elder brother went to the Li family private school outside the north gate to study.

In 1901, he was transferred to Ruishan Academy.

In 1907, he graduated with excellent grades, but he could not continue to study because of lack of money, and he never entered any formal school.

In 1908, he changed his name to Zuofu and went to Chengdu cram school to study mathematics and English.

Educational career

In 1910, he contacted the revolutionary theory, joined the Chinese League and engaged in the anti Qing movement.

In 1913, the second revolution failed and left Chengdu for Shanghai. In 1914, he met Huang Yanpei in Shanghai and established a deep friendship with each other. Mr. Yan Pei recommended him to work in the commercial press. He left Shanghai and returned to Sichuan. Later, he went back to his hometown to teach in Hechuan middle school and participated in the compilation of Hechuan county annals. Later, he went to Chengdu and successively served as the chief writer and reporter of Chengdu Qun Bao, Sichuan Bao. I have written many articles criticizing the current situation.

In 1919, he took over the post of president and general manager of Sichuan Daily. He actively participated in the May 4th movement, participated in the youth China Association organized by Li Dazhao, and advocated "saving the country through education".

In 1921, he was the chief of the education section of Yongning office in Huzhou. He actively carried out popular education activities. Wang Dexi and Yun Daiying, members of China Youth Association, were employed as the president and Dean of South Sichuan normal school respectively to carry out popular education and new education experiments centered on the people and influenced the whole Sichuan. Sichuan warlords were forced to die in the middle of the battle.

In 1924, at the invitation of warlord Yang Sen, he went to Chengdu to set up a popular education museum for the masses and served as the curator. In Shaocheng Park, he built various exhibition halls, museums, libraries, sports grounds, music performing rooms, amusement parks, zoos and other cultural and entertainment places, gathered all kinds of engineering and technical talents and literary and art experts in Chengdu, and gave full play to their talents. However, it was very popular and followed the wrong path of educational experiment in southern Sichuan. Thus, the idea of "saving the country through industry" came into being, and the transportation industry was regarded as the "mother of all industries".

Abandon education and go into business

In the autumn of 1925, he abandoned his studies and went back to Hechuan to set up Minsheng Industrial Company. It was envisaged that the company would be based on the shipping industry and run other industries at the same time. It would combine industry with education to promote social reform and achieve the goal of revitalizing China.

In 1926, Lu Zuofu personally went to Shanghai to order a 70.5-ton shallow water iron hull ship. In May, the new ship was built in Shanghai. On the one hand, Lu Zuofu sent people to Shanghai to pick up the ship, on the other hand, he held a company founding meeting in Chongqing, which determined the name of the company as "Minsheng Industrial Co., Ltd." and named the first ship as "Minsheng Industrial Co., Ltd." Lu Zuofu was promoted as the general manager. He set up company offices in Chongqing and Hechuan, opened the Jialing River Chongqing Hechuan route, and started his shipping road.

In the spring of 1927, Lu Zuofu went to Beibei to serve as the director of the Xiafang regiment Bureau of Jiangbei, Baxian, Bishan and Hechuan. While he was cleaning up the bandits, he experimented with rural construction in the area. Beichuan railway, Tianfu coal mine, Three Gorges weaving factory and Western Chinese Academy of sciences have been built here in succession; rural telephone network has been built in Sichuan for the first time; and North Hot Spring Park has been opened up. He built roads, canals, farms, factories, parks, stadiums, renovated old cities, and set up hospitals, libraries, museums and schools in towns.

In 1929, the Minsheng company under the leadership of Lu Zuofu made two new ships, civil and minwang, with a gross tonnage of 230 tons. The route expanded from Jialing Jiangyu Hexian to Chongqing Fuling and Chongqing Shanghai lines of the Yangtze River. Liu Xiang appointed them as the director of Chuanjiang navigation management department. He also served as director of the Construction Department of Sichuan Province, deputy director of the Ministry of communications, director of the national food administration, vice chairman of the national ship Allocation Committee, etc., making great contributions to the military supplies and civilian movement during the Anti Japanese war.

In the summer of 1930, a delegation led by Lu Zuofu, composed of relevant personnel from Minsheng company, Beibei Xiafang Bureau and Beichuan railway company, set out from Shanghai on June 21 to July 25, visited Northeast China and other places, and wrote "travels to Northeast China". In the same year, in order to resist the monopoly of foreign shipping companies on shipping in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, Lu Zuofu launched the movement of "turning parts into whole".

In 1931, people's livelihood was smoothly integrated. Seven upstream companies, ten ships and four downstream China shipping companies were incorporated into people's livelihood.

In the early January of 1932, Lu Zuofu initiated the establishment of the Beibei Anti Japanese and national salvation volunteer army. He signed the Declaration on the establishment of the Beibei Anti Japanese and national salvation volunteer army in the name of various organizations, enterprises and institutions in Beibei, and established the Beibei Anti Japanese and national salvation Volunteer Army on the same day. Lu Zuofu was the commander-in-chief of the Beibei Anti Japanese and national salvation volunteer army. He organized the youth volunteer team and the staff of the Xia defense Bureau into the first and second teams of the volunteer army. He concentrated on military training to help the Japanese in the future, so that once war was declared between China and Japan, the well-trained volunteers could go to the front line to fight against the Japanese aggressors.

In 1935, he unified shipping on the upper reaches of the Yangtze River and expelled the once invincible foreign shipping companies from the upper reaches of the Yangtze River. So that Minsheng company "rise in the Yangtze River, strive for hegemony in the powers.".

the period of the war of Resistance Against Japan

In 1937, on the eve of the Anti Japanese War, Minsheng company had 46 ships with a gross tonnage of more than 10000 and nearly 4000 employees, becoming the largest national shipping enterprise in China at that time. Lu Zuofu was also known as the "king of Chinese ships" at home and abroad. In August, Lu Zuofu became the executive vice president of the Ministry of communications of the civil affairs.

In June of 1938, he served as the director of the provisional Committee of the Central Committee of the third Youth League. After the fall of Wuhan, a large number of personnel and materials were withdrawn from Chongqing and moved to Sichuan. Nearly 100000 tons of materials were collected in Yichang, which was unable to be transported away and was constantly bombed by Japanese planes. Lu Zuofu concentrated all the ships and most of the business personnel to command the "Yichang retreat". He carried them by sections, and rushed to transport them by day and night, regardless of the heavy bombardment of Japanese planes. After 40 days of fighting, he finally rushed all the personnel and materials to Sichuan before the fall of Yichang.

In January 1939, the national government awarded Lu Zuofu the third grade jade medal for his outstanding contribution in handling military transportation. In September, he also served as the director of the Social Service Department of the Central Committee of the three Youth League.

In July 1940, he served as the director of the National Grain Bureau; in November 1941, he served as the director of the Central Committee of the three Youth League; in February 1943, he served as a member of the Central Committee of the three Youth League.

In 1944, as a representative of China's industrial circles, he attended the international trade conference held in New York. After returning home, he founded the Museum of Western China in Beibei, and advocated the vigorous development of tung oil trees, which set off a climax of tree planting in Beibei. In May, the National Government awarded the second-class Qing Yun medal to Lu Zuofu for his outstanding achievements in handling military transportation during the Anti Japanese war.

On February 27, 1945, Lu Zuofu visited the famous daguli hydropower station in Washington state. In October, 1945, the national government awarded Lu Zuofu a Victory Medal for his important contributions during the Anti Japanese war.

during the civil war

In 1946, U.S. Navy commander yolu Zuofu went to Nanjing and proposed that U.S. ships should sail directly to Hankou to reduce the level of loading and unloading. Lu said that China's existing ships

Chinese PinYin : Lu Zuo Fu