Shengze Town, located at the southernmost end of Jiangsu Province, neighbours Shanghai, Suzhou and Hangzhou. The town is thus a hub where the City of Shanghai, Jiangsu Province, and Zhejiang Province meet. It is at the centre of two important opening-up areas in China, namely the coastal region and the Yangtze River delta. Shengze borders with Wangjiangjing Town of Jiaxing’s Xiuzhou District in the south and east. It is connected with Taoyuan Town in the southwest, with Zhenze Town in the west, and with Pingwang Town in the north. Since there are no mountains in the town area, the terrain of Shengze slopes gently. Throughout the town, lakes and rivers are great in number. The mild and humid climate here is typical of the one in the northern subtropical monsoon zone.
During the Qin and Han dynasties, Shengze belonged to Youquan County of Kuaiji Prefecture. In the third year of the Kaiping era of the Later Liang Dynasty (909), Qian Liu, the king of Wuyue State, established Wujiang County, which accommodated the original area of Shengze. In the first year of the Hongzhi era of the Ming Dynasty (1488), a village was set up here. In the fourth year of Emperor Shunzhi’s reign of the Qing Dynasty (1647), a town was established. The fourth year of Emperor Yongzheng’s reign of the Qing Dynasty (1726) saw the division of Wujiang County into Wujiang County and Zhenze County. Then with Lanxi River as the boundary river, Shengze was divided into two halves, belonging to the two counties respectively. In the fifth year of Emperor Qianlong’s reign of the Qing Dynasty (1740), the office of the deputy magistrate of Wujiang County was transferred to Shengze for management of the local economy.
During the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom period, the stationed Taiping army put Shengze under the administration of Xiushui County of Zhejiang Province. After the withdrawal of the Army, Wujiang County took over the town again. On May 6, 1949, Shengze was liberated. Shengze County was merged into Shengze Town on December 22, 1988 and a system featuring the town governing affiliated villages was then applied. On July 12, 2000, Tanqiu Town was merged into Shengze Town. Later Nanma Town was absorbed into the town on December 18, 2003.
Thanks to its advantageous geographical location at the jointing point of ancient Wu and Yue States, Shengze has been known as a bustling trade centre. In the Song Dynasty, Shengze was called “Yinhai Town” (meaning “a harmonious bustling market”). By the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, there had been shops in business in the town. Due the growth of the silk industry since the Jiajing era, the number of merchants and immigrants significantly increased, and business activities gradually thrived. In the early Qing Dynasty, Shengze could boast in its booming commerce and trade, and its prosperity allowed the town to rank top among the towns in this area. After the mid Qing Dynasty, shops, restaurants and pubs sprouted along Huayuan Street and Nanbei Street. Dried foods, sauces, pickled vegetables, fruits, fish, fresh-water shrimps and other aquatic products were available and in great varieties. Meanwhile, the nearby Grand Canal allowed Shengze to become a key production base and distribution center for silk products along the ancient “Silk Road.” The export of silk products in Shengze can be traced back to the mid-Ming Dynasty.
Before the establishment of the People’s Republic of China, Shengze’s silk products had been exported to Canada, the United States, Mexico, Chile, the Soviet Union, Japan, North Korea, Switzerland, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Australia, India, Myanmar, Siam (today’s Thailand), Vietnam, and the islands of southeastern Asia. Before the implementation of reform and opening-up, silk products had always been a main commodity for earning foreign exchange through exports in the country.
In the 1980s, according to the statistics from Jiangsu Branch of China Silk Import and Export Corporation, silk products from Shengze Town were exported to over 50 countries such as the German Democratic Republic, Cuba, the United States, and Canada. The town was rated by the Ministry of Foreign Trade and the Ministry of Agriculture as one of the “Five Townships with Top Capacity of Earning Foreign Exchange through Exports” in 1993. During the period from 2004 to 2012, there were a total of 101 enterprises in Shengze engaged in silk products manufacturing listed among the annual top 20 enterprises of high export trade value in Wujiang District. Shengze ranked the 6th among “China’s Top Thousand Most Competitive Towns in Terms of Comprehensive Strength” on October 20, 2023.
The manufacture of silk and related products is the major industry of Shengze and its surrounding areas. In the mid-Ming Dynasty, family-based production of silk was most flourishing in Shengze, Huangjiaxi, Xinhang and other places in Wujiang. Meanwhile, large handicraft workshops for making silk fabric or silkwear emerged. In the early years of the Qing Dynasty, the silk industry was so influential in Shengze that “in an area of about 400 to 600 square kilometres around town, almost all the residents were engaged in silk production.” In the 10th year of Emperor Xianfeng’s reign of the Qing Dynasty (1860), Huangjiaxi, Xinhang, Wangjiangjing and other silk production bases along the Grand Canal were seriously affected by the warfare involving the Taiping army. However, Shengze which was 3 kilometres away from the Canal remained intact. Since then, its handicraft industry of silk manufacturing experienced a rapid rise. In the later years of the Qing Dynasty, Shengze became a famous silk town at home and abroad. Enjoying the reputation of being able to “produce ten thousand yards of silk to clothe the world,” it was an important base for manufacturing, distributing, importing and exporting silk fabric and related products in China. With the progress of modern China’s industrialization, Shengze’s handloom-based production transitioned to machine-based manufacturing. In 1916, Chen Baoqin, Sun Jifu and Wang Juru, who were the owners of Baotai Silk Mill, Shengji Silk Mill and Yongheng Silk Mill respectively, jointly established Wuhua Silk Weaving Co. Ltd in Shanghai, which was then China’s largest silk mill that used weaving machines for production. The machine-based silk weaving industry in Shengze started to grow since 1930. Silk dealers gradually moved their mills in Shanghai back to Shengzhe. By 1937, there were 1,145 power looms in the town, accounting for 46.88% of the looms operating in Jiangsu Province. During those days, the town’s annual output of silk fabric could reach 5.7 million yards. Due to the Japanese invasion, both the handloom-based and power-loom-based production of silk in Shengze expereineced devastating damage. A severe shortage of raw materials caused the local silk-weaving industry to shrink. The establishment of New China marked the beginning of the state-run era of Shengze’s silk-weaving industry.
Since the launch of reform and opening-up policy, Chinese people’s demands for what they wore grew increasingly diversified, and synthetic silk became popular. The silk manufacturing industry in Shengze still focused on silk weaving, while trying to develop production of synthetic silk at the same time. In 1990, the town was rated as China’s largest town base for synthetic silk production. In 2002, Shengze set the goal “to make the textile industry bigger and stronger, and to make Shengze more competitive and more beautiful” for future development. With the guideline of being “sensitive to businesses’ needs, caring for businesses, and supportive to businesses,” the town made even greater efforts to attract investments and solicit businesses. By absorbing both domestic private capitals and foreign capitals, Shengze intended to build up its international influence, which could in turn attract more domestic and foreign entrepreneurs with greater influence and stronger competitiveness to invest and doing business here. By 2022, Shengze’s total industrial output value reached 84 billion RMB. Its total import and export volume of foreign trade was 2.65 billion US dollars. In the town, there were 110 enterprises whose annual main business income accounted for 100 million RMB or above. There were two Fortune 500 enterprises as well. Therefore, Shengze is known as one of Suzhou’s “Little Giants” in terms of the industrial and economic development.
Shengze has long been known for its talents, abundant natural resources and profound cultural heritage. There were 24 Jinshi (successful candidates in the highest imperial examination) and 77 Juren (successful candidates in the provincial-level imperial examination). There are quite a few anecdotes involving men of letters and renowned officials took place in Shengze. For example, in a poem, the great poet Li Bai expressed his wish to see a hermit friend with the surname Qutu. In the Ming Dynasty, the painter Shen Zhou appreciated the Mulanzhou Garden, a classic garden featuring aquatic views, so much that he wrote a poem to depict its beauty. Besides, Emperor Qianlong chose to lodge at the military camp at Huangjiaxi in Shengze twice during his visits to the southern part of the country. Contemporary celebrities from Shengze are great in number as well, such as Cheng Kaijia who made outstanding contributions to the “Two Bombs and One Satellite” program, the famous radio expert Pan Wenyuan, and the chemist Zheng Lansun who is an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Advantageous geographical location and highly developed industries and economy motivate the townspeople to have a pressing demand for good education and at the same time, allow them to be well-prepared in terms of material conditions since ancient times. In the 38th year of Emperor Kangxi’s reign (1699), an “Yi Xue” (a private school which did not charge tuition fees) emerged in Shengze. In the 20th year of Emperor Guangxu’s reign (1894), Zheng Shiru, a native of the town, established Mr. Zheng’s Primary School, which was the very first modern primary school in the town. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, there were quite a few private schools in Shengze and its surrounding areas. The year of 1912 saw the opening of Shenghu Girls’ School, in which there was a nursing home. It was Shengze’s first primary school for girls and its first kindergarten as well.
In the autumn of 1935, the Junior Silk-Weaving Vocational School of Wujiang County was established, which pioneered vocational education in the County. On July 20, 1943, the private-funded Shenghu Junior High School was set up. It was the very first junior high school in the town.
After the founding of New China, the people’s government took over the old-styled schools. Courses on Marxism and Leninism were introduced into school curricula to educate students to acquire revolutionary ideas. Since the reform and opening-up, education in Shengze has experienced a significant growth. By 1990, children of school age in the town had all received their nine-year compulsory education as requested. In the new century, Shengze has been successively awarded such honorary titles as “Demonstration Township of Suzhou’s Liaoyuan Programme’,” “Model Township of Suzhou Municipal Education Modernization Project,” and “Model Township of Jiangsu Provincial Education Modernization Project.”
“Where the States of Wu and Yue separated, green woods stretched to distant villages. The town and the watercourses merged to form a city, where silk was produced and sold to the central plains.” As the poem depicted, Shengze has been a place of prosperity since ancient times. Now it is a place where tradition meets modernity, where trends and latest fashion blend. With its tolerance and inclusiveness, the town is like a magnet, attracting people from all over the country to start a career, to work and settle down here. Shengze surely deserves an even more glorious future.
