On the vast land of Qixian County, Shanxi Province, stands an ancient mansion that has weathered storms and still shines brightly – the Qiao Family Courtyard. This mansion, named after the prominent family of Jin merchants Qiao Zhiyong, is not only a shining pearl in the history of northern residential architecture, but also an interpretation of the saying ‘a family of good deeds, a gentleman has an end’.
The Qiao family has broken the law that wealth cannot exceed three generations, making it a highly feasible textbook for individuals, families, and businesses. Many years ago, I read a book about the Qiao Family Courtyard and was deeply moved by my personal experience and work experience in the company. Among them, including the management of Mr. Kazuo Inamori, a separate article will be written to discuss it later. This article is not about Qiao Zhiyong, the third-generation successor who propelled the Qiao family’s commercial empire to its peak, but about its founder Qiao Guifa.
At first, Qiao Guifa chose to go west, not simply because of poverty. Both of his parents died in childhood, and his uncle treated him well. His snobbish aunt was very uncomfortable, and Qiao Guifa experienced the harsh realities of the world in his childhood. Once, a distant cousin of Qiao Guifa got married and held a wedding banquet. Qiao Guifa heard the news and went there. My distant cousin’s family thinks that Qiao Guifa is too poor and has a low status, and they don’t want him to be at the banquet table. The neighbors and acquaintances around him also make fun of him and ridicule him for still being single to this day. However, the protagonist of this wedding banquet, the young and beautiful bride, said, “Don’t underestimate or look down on people in the cracks of the door. Maybe Qiao Guifa will make a lot of money and have great success in the future
Shortly after the wedding banquet, Qiao Guifa resolutely left his hometown and came to Laoguanying Village in Saraqi Hall, Inner Mongolia, where he worked as a pawn shop assistant in a Wu family. After more than ten years of experience accumulation, I moved to Baotou Xinaobao and opened a grass shop. During my entrepreneurial period, I also experienced losses. After rising to fame, Qiao Guifa, who was in his forties, returned to his hometown and married a widow with two boys as his hairtied wife, the young and beautiful bride from before.
A person’s experience, thinking, cognition, and other factors determine what kind of enterprise to create or what kind of family to form, as well as what kind of person to be. Qiao Guifa loves reading and even masters traditional culture, and applies it to self-cultivation, family harmony, and enterprise management. Nowadays, human nature is preconceived and self-centered, believing that management is about controlling people and must be obeyed. Who knows what leadership is? The sentence from ‘University’ makes it clear that in governing others, one must first cultivate oneself. The wisdom of the Book of Changes has always been upheld by the Qiao family, who have been dedicated to accumulating good deeds for generations to come.
Destiny prediction is just a tool, and ultimately we need to return to the act of self-cultivation, knowing what to do and what not to do. The founder of Autohome once sought advice from Mr. Nan Huaijin and said four words: “Success is too early.” Those who have achieved fame and success after too many years have not had very good outcomes. They do not understand the way of humility in dealing with people and things, and believe that all achievements are the result of their own intelligence and hard work. Di Shan Qian, Qian Gua, symbolizes humility and humility. Gens symbolize mountains, stop, Kunxiang, land acquisition, and smoothness. There are mountains in the ground, towering in height, but underground, under high energy, they appear humble. In humility, there is a sense of nobility, bowing down to things and prioritizing oneself over others. Therefore, humility symbolizes humility. Being so humble in dealing with things and things, everything goes smoothly. However, only a gentleman can always maintain the virtue of humility. Several generations of the Qiao family, especially the founder Qiao Guifa, have a deep understanding of the way of humility and know how to advance and retreat.
Recently, I came across a song called “Struggle in Ordinary Days” sung by Zeng Douyin. The lyrics are: “I have seen people with gray faces smiling and saying how beautiful life is, and I have also seen successful people who are always full of alcohol. I see people who stay up late and never go home, always hoping for a beautiful tomorrow. I have also seen people who look good and secretly wipe away tears. I know that people who live seriously always have different tastes. I also know that the adult world can collapse in an instant, and we all struggle desperately in ordinary days. I desperately want to live up to the expectations of others, even if it means living in different places and enduring the wind and rain, I still have to smile and say that I’m okay
It is easy to transition from frugality to luxury, but difficult to transition from luxury to frugality. There will always be difficulties in life. We are all ordinary people, and the world has always taught us how to succeed, but rarely how to face setbacks. Whether from the perspectives of statistics, fortune telling, or regularity, a person’s life is a curve, and everyone’s trajectory is different. Mr. Jin Yong’s every novel explains the importance of internal strength, which includes resilience, thinking, introspection, cognition, and so on. With this system in place, one can handle any fate with equanimity. Heng, a gentleman has an end.
Wen/Xingchen Mountain People