Hu Xueyan asked his family to cut off a corner of the shroud after his death. Why?

According to the past custom, when a grave robber heard that someone in a rich family had died, he would send a man in an iron hat to find out the news. Families of rich families often ask grave robbers to spare the dead with gifts. Those who have no money will cut off a corner of the shroud, indicating that the family resources have fallen and there is no money to be buried with them. Although Hu Xueyan was the richest man in the Qing Dynasty, he should have been buried with an iron hat, because he was bankrupt by Li Hongzhang and Sheng Huaixuan before his death.

Hu Xueyan was a famous red-crowned businessman in Qing Dynasty, and his business talent was unparalleled. When the Qing army attacked the Taiping army, he helped the Qing army transport arms, and food and rice were appreciated by Zuo. Later, he helped Zuo to organize troops, build shipyards, buy arms, spy on information, and raise military salaries. , thus forming an unusual feeling. Hu Xueyan also organized a private bank by using the government-run bank that helped the left, and then became a private bank by virtue of its banking business. ?

But later, Hu Xueyan first lost in the raw silk war with foreigners, and then under the joint plot against Li Hongzhang and Sheng Huaixuan, Hu Xueyan's bank suffered a malicious run, and the situation took a turn for the worse, which gradually became difficult to save, but Hu Xueyan still didn't want to drag others down, so he chose a person to shoulder all the problems. Finally, under the suppression of Li Hongzhang and Sheng Huaixuan, they were defeated.

After the fall of Hu Xueyan, the Qing court quickly confiscated his property and continued to collect debts. In the end, all his wealth was exhausted and he still owed a lot of foreign debts. To make matters worse, Zuo, who had always supported Hu Xueyan and Hu Xueyan in officialdom, died, which means that no one can help him resist the suppression from officialdom.

So Hu Xueyan knew it was time for him to die. Before he died, in order to save his descendants from the officialdom, he returned some of the remaining gold and silver to the dignitaries, some to the poor, and the rest to his wives and concubines, so that they could fly away and be buried hastily after death.

So when the grave robbers heard Hu Xueyan's name and sent an iron hat to find out the news, Hu Xueyan's family cut off a corner of his shroud and gave it to the iron hat according to his last words. When he received the iron hat, the deceased was wearing a rough shroud. He knew that the deceased was in the middle of the road and there was no property to be buried with him, so he didn't have to spend this effort.