While developing the textile industry, Zhang Jian set up other factories in Nantong to carry out urban construction and develop transportation, trade and finance. It also raised funds to set up reclamation companies to reclaim coastal beaches in northern Jiangsu and promote cotton planting. The reclamation area later became an important cotton producing area in China. He also founded a whole set of educational undertakings in Nantong, including Tongzhou Normal School, one of the earliest normal schools in China, Nantong Museum, the first museum run by China people themselves, textile, agricultural and medical colleges, middle schools and primary schools, and even girls' red studios, Gong Ling Society and schools for the blind and deaf. Various cultural facilities and social welfare institutions have also been organized. Sheng Da cotton mill is the center of all these undertakings; The profit of Sheng Da cotton mill is the main source of funds for education and public welfare. These undertakings played a pioneering role in China at that time.
Zhang Jian said that the purpose of setting up the factory is to revitalize the industry and resist foreign economic aggression; The second is to set up education through the profit of cotton mills.
Sheng Da cotton mill began to turn losses on 1922. Unable to repay due to heavy debts. From 1925 to 1937, a banking group composed of the financial capital of the creditor Shanghai took over. Since then, there has been no new development in Sheng Da cotton mill, among which Sheng Da No.2 Factory closed down on 1935. Zhang Jian's other careers are also in a state of stagnation or even decline.
After the founding of New China, Sheng Da No.1 Factory, No.3 Factory and No.1 Factory were transformed into socialist enterprises through public-private partnership and renamed as Nantong No.1, No.2 and No.3 Cotton Textile Factory.