THE RECENT HISTORY OF THE LI FAMILY FROM
XIAO-GANG
Introduction:
In the recent years, there have bee a number of published articles relating to the Li
Family from Xiao-Gang. Of particular interest are the three articles which appeared
in the monthly magazine of “
The “modern history” of the Xiao-Gang Li Family started with two
brothers, Bi-An and Ye-Ding. Bi-An, the elder brother,
had three sons, and nine grandsons. Ye-Ding, the younger brother, had one son,
and seven grandsons. The following chart provides the names translated into
English using the Ping-Yin method. The names in bold form are the ones
mentioned prominently in the articles of the Shanghai Tan.
(Qian Branch)
Bi-An (1795-1880)
I,
Ting-Tao (1834-1909)
Q-3, Chang-Xiang
II,
Lian-Shui
Q-1, Yun-Qing (1842-1912)
Q-2, Yong-Shang (1871-1953)
Q-4, Yin-Xiang
Q-5, Yan-Xiang
Q-6, Shan-Xiang (1880-1959)
Q-8, Kang-Xiang
Q-9, Shou-Xiang
III,
Yu-Tian
Q-7, Xuan-Xiang
(Kun Branch)
Ye-Ting (1808-1868)
I,
Mei-Tang (1841-1900)
K-1, Yun-Shu (1867-1935)
K-2, Yu-Lin
K-3, Ru-Shan
K-4, Wei-Zhuang (1873-1928)
K-5, Zheng-Wu (1875-1933)
K-6, Hong-Xiang
K-7, Xie-Qing (1880-1945)
The elder brother, Bi-An, headeded the QIAN
Branch (meaning “heaven”), and the younger brother, Ye-Ding, headed the KUN Branch
(meaning “earth”). Their sixteen grandsons were each designated, based on their
birthdays, the “heads” of their respective sub-branches (Qian
or Kun). Thus, we have 16 sub-branches for the Li Family of Xiao-Gang (Q-1 to
Q-9, and K-1 to K-7).
The Early History
According to our old Family Book, the Li family originated in or near
the capital-city of Lan-zhou in the modern-day
Over many years, the Li clan migrated southwest, and settled down in
the coastal region of the modern-day
Eventually, some of the Lee clan members settled down in the vicinity
of Ning-Bo. Being close to the rivers, leading to the
The map below shows that the
At various towns and villages around the city of Ning-Bo, the Li clans
stayed and grew into many different and separate “branches”. Eventually, some of the Li families settled down
in the “
“Gang-Kou” means the “mouth of the harbor”, and “Xiao-Gang” means the
“little harbot” of the “Little River”, that flows
from the outskirt of Ning-Bo to the
So, “
Xiao-Gang
(meaning “little harbor”) has been a port town for a long time, ever since the
days of Ching Shi Huang (the very First Emperor of
China). By the mid Tang dynasty, the traders were going as far as
In 1822, at the
age of 15, Ye-Ding left his old home village for
Because of his
diligence at work and friendly personality, Y.D. was much liked and appreciated
by the boat managers and the crew. One day, he was asked to come onboard to
work on the sand-boat. Initially, because of a signed apprentice agreement, he
had to decline. Then the crew chief intervened and persuaded the shop owner to
allow Y.T. to quit the job at the shop. Thus, at the age of 19, Y.T. went to
work on a sand-boat owned by You-Sung-Cheng Shipping Company.
It was the custom
of the time that each crewmember could bring some personal merchandise on
board, and trade on his own, thus making some profit
to supplant the low salary. In addition, the boat owners realized the dangers
of the travel at sea, particularly the pirates and the storms. With their own
merchandise on board, the crew members would work with higher enthusiasm and
fight with added effort. The sand boats would carry grain, salt, soy sauce and
textiles from the south to the north, and then the grain, bean products, and
spices from the north back to the south. At the conclusion of each round trip
journey, there would be a good profit to the owners and the crewmembers.
Y.T. borrowed the seed money from a friend from the same home village,
named Zhao Li-Sheng, who had a “money house”,
(equivalent to a savings and loan association in modern days). Following his
mother’s teaching, Y.T. always paid his loans on time or early, thus
establishing a good name and credit for himself. The “Old Brother Zhao” came to
like dealing with the “the Little Brother Li”. Within a few years, Y.T. had
saved a good sum of money. He approached his “Old Brother Zhao” for a loan to
build a sand-boat of his own. Zhao’s initial hesitation was relieved after
seeing the amount of Li’s savings. Zhao
believed that his “Little Brother Li” would prosper into a large fortune. The
sand-boat was built, and Y.T. and his boat joined a larger boat group, sailing
northward. (A larger group of boats sailing together could fight off pirates
more effectively.) Thus, with this single boat, the Li Ye-Ding set off, though
a latecomer, to become a major player among the financial and industrial giants
on the
Usually, the boat owners would delegate the management of the boats to
the crew chief and the crewmembers. Y.T. was different and he sailed with the
crew on his boat himself. He witnessed the turmoil resulted from the Tai-Ping
rebellion (against the Qing Dynasty) as well as the
increasing hostilities between the Qing Dynasty and
the British over the opium trade on the open sea. Both the commodity prices and
the demands were raised accordingly. The official who oversaw the grain
shipment in Tian-Jing (the major port for the capital
city of
Within a few years, from one single sand-boat, Y.T. became the owner of
more than ten sand- boats. He formed his own boat company, named Qiu-Da (meaning “forever large”) Shipping Company. In
addition to the sand-boats, he also bought some land north of the main shipping
terminal (No. 16 Shipping Terminal, still in existence and in operation to this
date), and built his own dockyard, again named “Qiu-Da”,
(meaning “forever large”), servicing his own sand-boats as well as others.
Over the years, through multiple dealings with his “Old Brother Zhao”, Y.T.
came to appreciate the business of “money houses”. At that time, to start a
“money house”, the actual seed money (cash) required was not huge, about 10
thousands taels of silver. (In comparison, one sand
boat costed 20 thousands taels
of silver). The “money house” would take in cash savings from investors (the
people), and then loan the fund to the boat owners and other businesspersons.
As long as the borrowers were trustworthy and their businesses were profitable,
and with careful management of the cash flow, there would always be a
reasonable profit. So, with increasing wealth, Y.T. decided on expanding his
business to “money houses”.
Together with his “Old Brother Zhao”, they opened three “money houses”
within the Old City of Shanghai. The daily management was delegated to “Old
Brother Zhao”, an old hand in the money lending business, who was acquainted
with all the major tradesmen and businesspersons, and who was familiar with all
the ongoing business activities. All three money houses were successful from
the very beginning.
Despite of his new fortunes, Y.T. maintained in his
old belief that owning the land would be a good approach to wealth
accumulation. So, he acquired more open land as well as two small dockyards next to
his “Qiu-Da”, namely the “Yu-Shuan
Dockyard” and the “Zho-Kang Dockyard”.
Y.T. also sent much money to his elder brother, Bi-An, in the old
country town, to acquire over 2000 “mu” of farmland,
to be rented out to other farmers. (Each “mu” of land
equates to one sixth of an acre.) Then, a large home with the traditional
courtyards was built in the old country town of
Y.T. went one step further. With supposedly 5,000 taels
of silver each, he acquired the title of “National Scholar” for himself and his
brother, Bi-An. Their mother and wives also attained the titles of “Ladies”.
At Y.T.’s 60th birthday celebration,
came the sad news that his shipping group met a most severe storm at the sea,
resulting in the loss of the majority of his boats. Y.T. was shocked and
grief-stricken. He fainted and became very ill, from which he never fully
recovered. Later, in his sick bed, with all his family members at bedside, he
directed that his estates be divided into two halves. Of the three “money
houses”, one each went to the Qian and Kun branches,
and the third remained to be co-owned by both branches. The Qiu-Da
Company, which owned the sand boats and the dockyards, remained undivided, but
co-owned by the two branches. The management of the Qiu-Da
Company was passed on to his nephew, Li Ting-Tao, the oldest son of Bi-An. This
decision surprised everyone. Qiu-Da Company, in
reality, controlled the operations of all business activities, including not
only the boats and the dockyards, but also the three “money houses”. Noticing
the surprise look of all the people surrounding him, Y.T. said, “regardless of sons
and nephews, the management goes to the one most capable”.
Y.T. had a very close relationship with his elder brother; Bi-An, who
never left the old homestead. He stayed behind to take care of the “family”. Following the teaching of Confucius, “With the parent(s) alive, one
should not travel far away.” Being the elder son, he was content to
assume the responsibility of looking after the welfare of his widowed mother.
When his mother passed away in 1857, at the age of 89, the brothers buried the
remains of their parents on top of a mountain looking out to the sea, a
location with the best of “feng-shui”, thus bringing
the best of fortunes to the younger generations.
B.A. also was responsible for the upbringing and the education of his
three sons and one nephew.
He hired the best home teacher in town. His second son, Lian-Shui, successfully passed the various levels of
“Imperial Examinations”, and was eventually awarded the title of “Jin-Shi”. In the
courtyard of the
Meanwhile, B.A.’s major contribution to the Li family was the decision
to send his oldest son, Ting-Tao, to
In 1866 and 1867, the two years before his death, Y.T. noticed that the
foreign steamships were coming to China coast, both north and south, taking
business away from the sand-boats. The Qing dynasty
officials were also calling for having steamships of their own. The sand-boat
business was declining at a rapid rate. Y.T. began to consider his successor.
His only son, Mei-Tang, due to poor
health, was not able to engage in much work or business. His second nephew, Lian-Shui, buried himself in the books, concentrating in
scholastic studies and government affairs. The third and the youngest nephew,
Yu-Tian, the youngest
among the four cousins, never left the old country hometown. Thus, only his
eldest nephew, Ting-Tao, could shoulder the responsibilities and have the
capabilities to manage the oncoming turmoil and changes. Thus, from his sick
bed, Y.T. informed all the persons around him, “Regardless of sons and nephews,
the management goes to the one most capable”. So, Y.T. turned over his helm to
his nephew, Ting-Tao.
Upon assuming the leadership of the family enterprises, T.T. came to
the same conclusion to terminate the sand boat operation. Then, he remembered a
traditional saying that all ships could not leave the harbor for long. Thus,
T.T. invested more funds into the dockyards. He remodeled the dock facilities,
and built more warehouses. He also expanded the money houses. The original
three money houses were located in the old
The Li’s were major contributors to the formation of the “Association
of the Money Houses”, thus establishing a name for the Li family among the
money houses, and later the banking industry. New rules and regulations were
set. Each “money-house” could issue “notes” which would be accepted by all
other “money houses”, thereby reducing the need of actual cash (silver coins)
outlay. Thus, the “money houses” became the forerunners to the “banks”. Li
family members, in later years, were major investors and managers of a number
of the major banks in
Commodity trading was becoming very popular among the money houses. For
a while, these commodity trades were very profitable, but highly speculative.
T.T. remained conservative and decided not to engage in commodity trades. Thus,
the Li family’s money houses were able to avoid any huge losses later as the
commodity trades led to the failure of most of the largest financial
institutions. Being “conservative”, T.T. was bale to preserve the capital to
build up a solid foundation for the future expansions.
Li Ting-Tao was born in 1834. At the age of 60, T.T. began to plan for
his successor. T.T. himself had one son.
His younger brother, Liam-Shui, had seven
sons. His youngest brother, Yu-Dian, had one son. His cousin, Mai-Dong, had
seven sons. So, within the two Qian and Kun branches,
there were 16 potential successors. Most of the 16 cousins had moved away from
the old country home in Xiao-Gang. They resided in
Y.S. was the second son of Liam-Shui, the one
who passed the imperial examinations and went to the capital city of
With the dockyard as the base, Y.S. founded a real eastate
company by the name of Zheng-Kang-Xing-Chi Company,
(later just simply Xing-Chi Company). He built a group of houses near the
dockyard, along the
In the early 20th century, there
was another economic expansion in
In addition to the new money houses, Y.S. also continued with the
expansion into real estate. So, four real estate companies were formed, named Tian-Fung, Dian-Fung, Yuan-Fung and Huang-Fung, (the word Fung meaning “plentiful”).
By then the price of the land along the
Tian-Fung bought 40 mus of land along the
Along with the housing developments, the Li family had to build roads
to accommodate their own properties. Two of the roads still exist, and in heavy
use, today.
1, The Dian Fung Road, named after the Dian Fung Company, which owned the land, is now the
2, The Kun branch (Li Mei-Tang) built a huge family mansion, white color on the exterior, later
known as the famous “White House”. The road was named “
In his late years, although retired, Y.S. and friends formed one more
money house in Ning-Bo. One of his nephews, named Yu Zuo-Ting of Ning-Bo, started there as an
apprentice at the age of 19. He progressively advanced to become the manager,
and eventually the chairman of the Ning-Bo Chamber of
Commerce. Still later, he was invited by Y.S. to head another money house in