Zhou Xuexi (周学熙) was a late Qing Dynasty industrialist who, as Minister of Finance, became one of the most powerful men in country and to latterly use that influence in bringing about social welfare and industrial reform which earned him a place in school text books.
周学熙（周学熙）是清朝晚期的实业家，作为财政部长，他成为全国最有权势的人之一，后来利用这种影响力带来了社会福利和产业改革，这使他在学校教科书中占有一席之地。
Born in Nanjing on 12 January, 1866, Zhou was the fourth son of Zhou Fu, one of the eight regional Viceroys in Qing Dynasty China.
周福于1866年1月12日出生于南京，是中国清朝八大总督之一周福的第四个儿子。
A scholar by the age of 16, Zhou was elected in 1894 to initially become an official in Zhejiang Province. Just 4 years later, Zhou got his first glimpse of his entrepreneurial future when he took office at the Kaiping Mining Bureau, based in northeast Tangshan, as a major military supplier.
作为一名学者，周在16岁时于1894年当选，最初成为浙江省的官员。 仅仅4年后，周在位于唐山东北部的开平矿业局担任主要军事供应商，第一次瞥见了自己的创业未来。
Zhou’s knack for spotting a gap in the market emerged while travelling the southern provinces supervising coal sales. He noticed that, as factories, mines and railways took hold, the potential market for cement was huge. But China had not one cement plant.
周在南方省份监督煤炭销售时发现了市场缺口的诀窍。 他注意到，随着工厂、矿山和铁路的进入，水泥的潜在市场是巨大的。 但中国没有一座水泥厂。
Zhou took on Hans Kunde, a German technician, to conduct tests on Tangshan soil. They found it and the surrounding rock to be ideal for making high-quality cement. Qixin Cement would go on to hold together buildings such as the Beijing Library, the Bank of Communications, Hebei Gymnasium and the Shanghai General Post Office.
周让德国技术人员汉斯·昆德在唐山的土地上进行测试。 他们发现它和周围的岩石是制造优质水泥的理想选择。 Qixin Cement继续将北京图书馆、交通银行、河北体育馆和上海邮政总局等建筑固定在一起。
Among the most famed of the many companies and institutions which he founded, Zhou got the chance to build a tap water project in Beijing in 1908. Over 22 months, Zhou laid 200 kilometres of water pipes all over the city.
在他创立的众多公司和机构中最著名的公司和机构中，周于1908年有机会在北京建造一个自来水项目。 在22个月的时间里，周在全市各处铺设了200公里的水管。
Then the Jingshi Water Works, and as today’s Beijing Water Works, the project was the first of several major contributions to public welfare.
然后是京石水厂，以及今天的北京水厂，该项目是对公共福利的几个重大贡献中的第一个。
With his family major players in government, Zhou had over the years built a close association with Yuan Shikai, the military commander who would bring about the abdication of the Qing Dynasty’s Xuantong Emperor and become the first President of the Republic of China. With the treasury then empty, Yuan sent Zhou an invitation.
多年来，周与军事指挥官袁世凯建立了密切的关系，袁世凯将使清朝玄通皇帝退位，成为中华民国第一任总统。 当时国库空空如也，袁向周发出了邀请。
The upshot was that in 1912, Zhou commenced the first of two stints in the position of Minister of Finance as the fledging Republic of China took to the stage.
其結果是，在1912年，随着新生的中华民国登上舞台，周开始了两次担任财政部长职位中的第一次。
Latterly, Zhou finally chose to withdraw from politics and devote himself to industry. Gathering the Zhou clan together in Tianjin, the “Zhou Family Enterprise Group” was established. It would go on to be a huge industrial group, well known at home and attracting worldwide attention in the following decades. The group greatly changed the fortunes of northern China’s then-lagging textile industry, playing a pivotal role in shaping the entire industrial field.
后来，周终于选择退出政界，投身于工业。 周氏聚集在天津，成立了“周家企业集团”。 它将成为一个巨大的工业集团，在国内广为人知，并在接下来的几十年里吸引了全世界的关注。 该集团极大地改变了中国北方当时落后的纺织业的命运，在塑造整个工业领域方面发挥了关键作用。
It would also cement Zhou’s business credentials as the “Northern Industrial Giant” which put the country on the road to industrial salvation.
这也将巩固周作为“北方工业巨头”的商业信誉，使国家走上工业拯救之路。
Constituting a picture of modern Chinese national capitalists seeking survival and development in the cracks, Zhou’s deeds which would find their place in the history textbooks of Chinese high schools.
构成了一幅现代中国民族资本家在裂缝中寻求生存和发展的画面，周的行为将在中国高中的历史教科书中找到它们的位置。
The father of China’s northern industries passed away in Beijing, on 26 September, 1947.
1947年9月26日，中国北方工业之父在北京去世。