Born in Wuzhen in 1877, with courtesy name of Dongquan, also known as Jianquan and Runquan, he is a veteran of China's financial community. His ancestors moved to Qingzhen to do business since the Reign of Kangxi in Qing Dynasty. He is Mao Dun's uncle.
It might because Wuzhen is located at the junction of two provinces, three governments and seven counties, an open atmosphere was created by the superior geographical environment. Some outstanding figures in history were good at reading and their contributions to the national economy and people's livelihood were also great. And they mastered the purity of Confucianism, which was amazing. Lu Xuepu was a typical example.
Lu Xuepu's ancestral home is in Dongyang. His family had done some business since they moved to Qingzhen and became richer and richer. And then the family gradually became a noble family in Wuzhen. Lu Xuepu grew up in such a rich and literary family. He was well educated. The enlightened and sophisticated family style brought by business undoubtedly had a great impact on his personality.
In the autumn of 1902, Lu Xuepu went to Hangzhou to take the local examination together with Yan Huailin and Shen Tingjiao. Lu and Yan both passed the examination. But in the following year, Lu failed the general examination in Beijing. After returning home, he succeeded his grandfather, Lu Xiaoju, and took the position of the headmaster of Lizhi School. Lu Xuepu was young and vigorous and reformed a lot. He hired Shen Tingjiao and other people with true skill and genuine knowledge and radical ideas to be teachers, which greatly improved the school climate. Lu himself had also become a prominent reformer in this region.
At that time, Mao Dun was studying in the school. He was very popular with teachers because of his diligence and eagerness to learn. Lu Xuepu greatly appreciated Mao Dun's literary talent, and once commented: "Twelve-year-old child could write this, so people cannot say we have no talents in China." He gave Mao Dun high expectations.
It might because Lu’s family did business and Lu was affected a lot. In the second half of 1908, Lu Xuepu suddenly quit his teaching career and left his hometown to manage financial affairs in Nanjing, Beijing and other places. He has successively served as Secretary of the Fengtian Education Department and the Ministry of Finance of the Beiyang Government, Chief of Confidential Department, Bureau of Production and Utilization, Ministry of Finance and Director of the Government Bond Department, Vice-President of the Ministry of Finance of the Beiyang Government, Managing Director of Beijing Xinheng Bank and Supervisor of the Bank of China.
After the Northern Expedition, Lu Xuepu became the supervisor of the Bank of China in Nanjing. In 1926, Liang Shiyi was appointed as General Manager of the Bank of Communications. He strongly invited Lu Xuepu to be the Deputy General Manager, and Lu made great efforts to rectify it, which enabled the bank to survive the financial crisis. Soon, Lu Xuepu became the Chairman of the Bank of Communications and the Managing Director of Zhejiang Industrial Bank. At that time, Song Ziwen of the Nationalist Party founded the Central Bank, who filled the three major banks of the Central Bank, Bank of China and Bank of Communications with official shares into the National Bank. The Kong and Song’s families tried to dominate the national finance and excluded Lu Xuepu and others, but they wanted to take advantage of Lu's prestige in the banking industry and appointed him a nominal position. Lu Xuepu resigned and devoted himself to operating the Zhejiang Industrial Bank. Later, the bank became a famous private bank, which was also known as the "Southern Four Banks" with banks such as the Bank of Zhejiang Xingye, the Bank of Xinhua and the Bank of Shanghai, and had great prestige in the banking industry.
Lu Xuepu was always self-respectful just like the other scholars. During the Japanese puppet rule period, he lived in Shanghai Wanhang Apartment and never cooperated with Wang’s puppet government. After the victory of the War of Resistance against Japan, he continued to serve as Director of Zhejiang Industrial Bank. After 1949, he also served as Chairman of Wing Hang Bank, Continental Industrial Corporation, Director and Supervisor of the Salt Industrial Bank and Bank of China, etc. In 1952, the bank started a public-private partership, Lu Xuepu continued to serve as Director of the public-private joint venture bank and the Supervisor of the Bank of China.
Lu Xuepu's contribution to Wuzhen is indeed commendable. He had invested in repairing the historic sites in his hometown for many times. He had donated money to repair the Wuzhen Shousheng Tower, Water Diversion Pier and other historic sites, and also bought books and sent them to the Zhicai Primary School. In 1933, he inherited his grandfather's legacy and generously to organize the editing and repairing of “Wuqing Records”. He served as Editor-in-Chief and hired Zhu Zhongzhang of Jiaxing and Zhang Jiyi of Wujin as editors. He also invited fellow countrymen Mao Dun and Jin Zhisun of Jiaxing to join in specific discussions. It cost more than 10,000 silver dollars and lasted for 3 year. Finally, it was completed in June 1936.
There have been many editions of “Wuqing Records” in the history. Grandfather Lu Xiaoju wanted to reedit “Wuqing Records” but failed. And it was a pity. Lu Xuepu, the grandson, had finally fulfilled his grandfather's wish. Lu Xiaoju should be gratified.
The “Wuqing Records” renewed under the organization of Lu Xuepu, was known as "Lu Zhi". It has a total of 44 volumes, with 12 volumes in thread-bound wooden editions and the cover inscribed by famous calligrapher Ye Gongchuo..Several new chapters have been added on the basis of “Dong Zhi”, such as industry and commerce, education, election, college students, two former Confucians, talented people, memorabilia of events, doubts and old prefaces. It left extremely valuable historical documents for Wuzhen. The style of the chronicle was perfect, the content was rich, and new color maps and landscape photographs were added. Nowadays, people want to know about the history of Wuzhen basically relying on "Lu Zhi". Just mentioning this, Lu Xuepu's inheritance of rural literature is enough to be remembered by future generations.
On December 25, 1956, Lu Xuepu died in his apartment in Shanghai at the age of 80.
Keyword: