Dasheng Spinning Factory (hereinafter referred to as the Factory), founded in 1895 by Zhang Jian, a pioneering industrial entrepreneur and social reformer, the Number One Scholar of the Imperial Exam in the late Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), was a leading enterprise in the thensprouting cotton industry across China and East Asia. The success is attributed to the combination of traditional Chinese wisdom in economic governance with the world's advanced technology, equipment and forms of business organization. The Factory shouldered corporate social responsibilities by making investment in modern education and charities, which was a moderntransitioning and pan-Asian practice of Zhang Jian's people-oriented Confucian economic ethics.



The factory had opened a wayto participate in a global trend of entrepreneurs not only pursuing profits butcaring improvements of social conditions.The Archives of the Initial Dasheng Spinning Factory (1896-1907) (hereinafter referred to as the Archives) has a collection of 205 volumes, offering a holistic record of the operation of shareholding system, the hiring of Western engineers and legal consultants, the introduction of foreign capital, the purchase of foreign machines and materials, and the development of modern education and charity during 1895-1907 These archives reflect Zhang Jian's profound reflections on practicing modern entrepreneurship that lays equal emphasis on innovation and social responsibility, and his historic contribution to advocating the emancipation of women and developing modern women's education.