Lu Zuofu | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
卢作孚 | |||||||||
 "Director Lu Zuofu" | |||||||||
| Born | Lu Kuixian (卢魁先) (1893-04-14)14 April 1893 Hezhou, Chongqing Prefecture, Sichuan,Qing Empire | ||||||||
| Died | 8 February 1952(1952-02-08) (aged 58) Chongqing, Sichuan, China | ||||||||
| Other names | Lu Si (卢思) | ||||||||
| Occupation(s) | Industrialist, activist | ||||||||
| Years active | 1910–1952 | ||||||||
| Chinese name | |||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 盧作孚 | ||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 卢作孚 | ||||||||
| |||||||||
Lu Zuofu (simplified Chinese:卢作孚;traditional Chinese:盧作孚, 14 April 1893 – 8 February 1952), formerly known asLu Kuixian, was a Chinese industrialist and the founder of the Minsheng Shipping Company (currently Chongqing Minsheng Industry).[1] He oversaw the relocation of personnel and supplies fromWuhan andYichang toSichuan in 1938. He was the director of National Grain Bureau of theNationalist government as well as a representative of the FirstNational Assembly.[2]
Lu was born as Lu Kuixian inHezhou, Chongqing Prefecture on 14 April 1893. His parents were small merchants. In 1900, Lu and his brother attended a local private school, and in the following year he transferred to Ruishan Academy. At the age of 14, he completed primary school, but was unable to pursue further formal education due to financial constraints. In 1908, Lu changed his given name to Si, and later went by hiscourtesy name Zuofu. He enrolled in acram school in Chengdu to study mathematics and English.[3]
In 1910, Lu joined the anti-Qing secret societyTongmenghui, and later participated in theRailway Protection Movement. After the fall of the Qing government and subsequent failure of theSecond Revolution, Lu fled Chengdu to escape the persecution of suspected revolutionaries. He sought refuge inJiang'an County of Southern Sichuan, where he worked as a math teacher at a local middle school.[4] In 1914, Lu traveled toBeiping before visitingShanghai, where he met the writer and reporterHuang Yanpei. Huang recommended him to work as an editor atCommercial Press, but Lu declined the offer. Instead, he returned to his hometown, which had been renamed to Hechuan in 1913, and taught at Hechuan Middle School.[5]
In 1916, Lu went to Chengdu and became a reporter forQunbao (Chinese:群报). He briefly return to Hechuan to participate in the compilation of Hechuan County Chronicle, before moving back to Chengdu to work as the editor-in-chief ofChuanbao (Chinese:川报). During theMay Fourth Movement, he joined Young China Association (Chinese:少年中国学会) and published several articles advocating for "saving the country through education."[6]
At the invitation the warlordYang Sen, Lu served as the head of the Education Section of Yongning Circuit in 1921. He hired fellow members of Young China Association, including Wang Dexi andYun Daiying, to implement educational reforms. These efforts were discontinued due to ongoing military conflicts among Sichuan warlords. Three years later, Lu established the Popular Education Center (Chinese:民众通俗教育馆) in Chengdu with support from Yang Sen. The education center was forced to close after Yang was defeated by rival warlords.[7]
In 1925, Lu returned to Hechuan and founded the Minsheng Industrial Company. Using capital raised with friends, he traveled to Shanghai to order an iron-hulled ship with a carrying capacity of 70.6 tons. Completed in May 1926, the vessel was named "Minsheng" and began transport operation along theJialing River, connecting Hechuan with Chongqing.[8]
At the beginning of 1927, Lu arrived inBeibei and served as the director of a local special defense corps. In August of that year, he invited Danish engineer Jesper Johansen Schultz to survey, design and oversee the construction of a railway connecting Chuanbei and Hechuan counties. The resulting 16.5-kilometer long Beichuan Railway was fully completed and opened in March 1935.[9]
On 27 March 1928, Lu converted a temple dedicated toGuan Yu into theBeibei Library with approximately 400 books donated by the local community.[10] In 1930, with support from scholars and politicians likeCai Yuanpei, Huang Yanpei andWeng Wenhao, Lu similarly transformed the upper hall of Dongyue Temple in Huoyan Mountain into the Western Science Academy of China (Chinese:中国西部科学院).[11]
In 1929, under Lu's leadership, the Minsheng Company built two new ships, "Minyong" and "Minwang", with a total tonnage of 230. The company's operational routes were expanded to theYangtze, connecting Chongqing toMianyang and Shanghai. Lu was also appointed by warlordLiu Xiang as the director of the Sichuan River Navigation Administration (Chinese:川江航务管理处).[12]
In the autumn of 1930, Lu founded the Beibei Private Jianshan Middle School. In 1933, he facilitated the merger of five major coal plants along the Beichuan Railway, leading to the formation of the Tianfu Mining Company (Chinese:天府矿业公司).[13] Between 1931 and 1935, he also consolidated shipping companies of upstream Yangtze to counter foreign competition. By 1937, Minsheng Company owned 46 ships with a combined tonnage of over 10,000 and nearly 4,000 employees, making it the largest national shipping enterprise in China at that time.[14]
After the outbreak of theSecond Sino-Japanese War, the Chinese government began relocating government agencies, schools, factories and civilians to Hubei and Sichuan. In 1937, Lu's Minsheng Industrial Company cooperated with other companies to transport a large number of personnel and materials from cities inEast China, including Shanghai,Zhenjiang andNanjing, to Wuhan and Yichang. Between October and December, Minsheng Industrial Company transported 5,834 tons of public property, 2,000 tons of military equipment, and 657 tons of commercial goods from Nanjing toHankou.[15]
In January 1938, Lu was appointed the Executive Vice Minister of theMinistry of Transportation and Communications of theNationalist government. Following the fall of Wuhan to Japanese forces in October 1938, Yichang became a critical hub for the evacuation of personnel and materials to Sichuan. On October 23, 1938, Lu arrived in Yichang to oversee the evacuation efforts. Due to limited ship capacity, he requested the Ministry of Transportation and Communications to requisition 2,000 wooden boats from Chongqing and an additional 800 from Hubei. In the following two months, more than 30,000 people and 100,000 tons of supplies were transported to Sichuan.[16] Due to bombing by Japanese military aircraft, Minsheng Company lost 16 ships during transportation, 116 employees died, and 61 others were disabled.[17]
The Yichang evacuation included military units likeGongxian Arsenal, as well as light and heavy industrial and aviation industry entities. According to statistics from theMinistry of Economic Affairs, the machinery and equipment evacuated from arsenals and private enterprises during this operation could produce 300,000 grenades, 70,000 mortar shells, 6,000 aircraft bombs, and over 200,000 pickaxes per month.[18] Due to its scale and importance, Chinese educatorY. C. James Yen referred to it as "the Dunkirk of Chinese industry." Due to his outstanding contributions in the evacuation, the Chinese government awarded Lu the third-class Brilliant Jade Medal in January 1939.[17]
Before the fall of Yichang in June 1940, the Minsheng Company had evacuated more than 1.5 million people and more than 1 million tons of cargo into Sichuan. Among the evacuees were 64,000 individuals from government agencies, schools, factories, hospitals and other institutions, including educatorTao Xingzhi and teachers and students from dozens of colleges and universities such asFudan University,Wuhan University andRepublic of China Military Academy. Additionally, the company transported more than 2.7 million troops out of Sichuan to participate in the war.[19] In July, Lu became the director of the National Grain Bureau (Chinese:全国粮食局).[20]
In 1943, the Western Science Academy of China collaborated with several educational institutions in Chongqing to establish the Western Museum of China, the predecessor ofChongqing Natural History Museum. Lu was among the 13 founding members of its board of directors.[21]
In recognition of his contributions to military transportation during the war, the Nationalist government awarded Lu the second-classPropitious Clouds Medal in May 1944. Following the end ofWorld War II, he also received theChina War Memorial Medal in October 1945.[17]
As theChinese Civil War resumed in 1947, Minsheng Company faced significant financial hardship due to an unstable business environment. Between 1947 and 1949, Lu undertook business trips to several cities across China, includingQingdao,Kaohsiung andGuangzhou.[22] He stayed atHong Kong in October 1949, when the Nationalist government sentYu Hung-chun,George Yeh and others to urge him to move to Taiwan. Simultaneously, representatives of the newly establishedPeople's Republic of China lobbied him to join the new regime. On June 10, 1950, Lu brought his fleet in Hong Kong to join the PRC, and signed a public-private partnership agreement with the new government. He was elected as a member of the National Committee of theChinese People's Political Consultative Conference.[23]
During theThree-anti and Five-anti Campaigns of 1951–1952, the Minsheng Company fell into financial difficulties due to poor operations. On 5 February 1952, the company's flagship vessel, "Minduo," ran aground and sank inFengdu. Three days later, the company held a Five-anti Campaign mobilization meeting, during which Lu was accused of "corrupting and influencing state officials". That night, Lu died by suicide at his home in Chongqing.[24]