The Rong Family Sells Its Businesses to Support the Northern Expedition

Rong Zilai’s decision to sell much of the Rong family’s business holdings to supply the Northern Expedition joined a private family fortune to a public cause. It earned the family a commemorative plaque and a reputation for patriotism, but the inscription also became a symbol of Rong Zilai’s refusal to yield to government pressure as the family’s prosperity faded.

Background and the Decision

By the time the National Revolutionary Army reached C City, students were collecting money in the streets for the Northern Expedition. Moved by what he saw, Rong Zilai returned to Tongzhen that same night and sold the docks and half the shops built up by the Rong family over generations. He used the proceeds to buy a boatload of ammunition for the campaign: a rapid conversion of inherited commercial wealth into material support for a military cause.

The sale took place against a broader decline in the family’s fortunes. A state monopoly on salt had already deprived the Rong family of its chief source of income, while few of the younger people who had left to study with Rong Zilai wanted to return to the family business. Many had turned instead toward scientific method and the pursuit of truth, with little interest in money or luxury. Within a decade, the family had lost virtually all it once owned, though its members were reluctant to discuss openly how that loss had come about.

The Plaque and Its Changing Meaning

In recognition of the ammunition purchase, the family received the “Supporter of the Northern Expedition” Plaque, whose five large words were picked out in gold above the mansion’s main gate. The inscription stood as a visible declaration of the family’s patriotic standing. Its meaning shifted when the famous general who had written it became a wanted criminal, fleeing the KMT government; the plaque’s original prestige was consequently diminished.

The government later commissioned a replacement plaque with the same wording and gilding but different calligraphy, and asked the family for permission to exchange it for the original. Rong Zilai refused. He wanted the old plaque to remain, and said it would be taken down only over his dead body. The inscription thus became more than a record of the family’s support for the expedition: keeping its original form mattered enough to Rong Zilai that he accepted the conflict its presence brought.

Consequences and Significance

From the refusal onward, the Rong family seemed to encounter unending trouble with the government, a course of conflict that further endangered its business. Rong Zilai did not mind the business suffering, but insisted that the plaque stay. The gesture preserved the visible trace of the family’s sacrifice even as the material base that had made that sacrifice possible continued to disappear.

The mansion’s decline gives the episode its lasting contrast. Once crowded with masters and servants, it became quiet and increasingly empty; weeds swallowed paths, the garden turned wild, and the rear courtyards became a maze. Against this physical decay, the gold-lettered plaque remained at the gate, holding together two incompatible legacies: the family’s public honor for funding the expedition and its later estrangement from the government. The act that brought recognition therefore also became part of a history of loss and stubborn refusal.