As the fourth owner of the Lingering Garden, Sheng Xuanhuai was not only an integral part of Suzhou's cultural heritage but also a pivotal figure in China's modern social transformation.
Born in Changzhou, Sheng Xuanhuai, though unskilled in classical studies, was a business prodigy adept at navigating complex social dynamics. Balancing roles as both an official and a merchant, he rose from humble beginnings to become China's wealthiest individual of his era. He founded Peiyang University (predecessor of Tianjin University) and Shanghai Jiao Tong University, cultivating generations of national talent. The political, economic, cultural, and social conditions and changes of the late Qing Dynasty converged in Sheng Xuanhuai himself.
Renowned historian Mr. Lei Yi, researcher at the Institute of Modern History, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, used Sheng Xuanhuai's extraordinary life as a prism to unveil the deep currents of China's modernization and the clash between tradition and modernity.
