Chapter 24 West Crane Year Tongrentang

As early as when the Northern Expedition successfully unified the North and the South, Peking Union Medical College Hospital had advanced medical technology and novel machinery, and it was the first in Southeast Asia, and it can also be said to be internationally renowned.However, Beiping was the imperial capital from the Yuan Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty, and the local people are accustomed to advocating the old and the old. Although patients with difficult and serious diseases in various provinces and cities across the country came to Peking Union Medical College Hospital for examination and treatment, at that time, Beiping formed a combination of old and new, and Chinese and Western advanced side by side. situation.Shi Jinmo, Xiao Longyou, Kong Bohua, and Yang Haoru, who are listed as the four most famous doctors in Pingjin, can hardly finish their outpatient clinics from morning to noon every day.

Chinese medicine practitioners are busy all day long, and the hundreds of Chinese medicine shops in and around Beiping City naturally have a prosperous business and a lot of money. Even in the worst recession years, I have never heard of any Chinese medicine shop closing down. Closed doors.A person in the industry said: "The raw materials used in traditional Chinese medicine are bought with large scales weighing hundreds of catties, and then sold with small pens. It's so unreasonable." If you think carefully about what this gentleman said, it really makes sense. There are traditional Chinese medicine shops on every street in Beiping. Analyzing them, they can be roughly divided into three categories.For example Zhuang's unicorn lotus plaster is specially used for the treatment of nameless swollen toxins, expelling toxins and suppurating pus, removing putrefaction and promoting granulation.Mayinglong eye medicine is specially used to treat wind eye and fire eye, sclera clouding, iridescent cataract, wind and tears.Huichuntang Babao Niuhuang Zhenjingsan is specially used to treat children with convulsions, crooked mouth and eyes, and convulsions of limbs. ... There are many pharmacies with these ancestral secret recipes, and they can't be exhausted for a while. Although he doesn’t despise the secret medicines of traditional Chinese medicine, he still doesn’t believe that they have great effects. Once a young child who came to his hospital for treatment was unconscious and convulsed. He thought it was too late to save him, so he had to A dead horse was treated as a live horse doctor. When he went home, he immediately poured weights on Xiaoer’s Zhenjing San, and he recovered from convulsions and saved his life. Another patient suffering from hemorrhoids was timid and afraid of the pain of surgery. Dare not to have surgery, but as a result, a large amount of Mayinglong eye medicine was applied with a secret recipe passed down from person to person, and the hemorrhoids fell off painlessly. Those incredible Chinese medicines are really admirable).One is to prepare decoction slices for people according to the doctor's prescription (in the past, when Cao Kun was the president, Cao Yuanshen, the official medical officer of the presidential palace, gave the doctor's prescription, and he liked to use fresh leaves of plants, such as fresh locust leaves and fresh dendrobium leaves Wait, the general drug store is not prepared at all, and even if it is, it cannot supply in large quantities. There is only Wanchuntang drug store in Dongsi Pailou, which is said to be the imperial drug store of Cao Yuanshen. Medicine nursery, which specializes in planting medicinal plants required for traditional Chinese medicine), and one kind of medicine shop mainly uses pills and ointments, and also has decoction pieces.This kind of pharmacy accounts for the vast majority in Beiping, but the longest history and the most reliable reputation are Xihe Niantang and Tongrentang.

According to Guo Wannian, chairman of the Peking Pharmaceutical Association: “The oldest pharmacies in Beiping are Xihe Nian and Qihuitang. Written by Ru Xian (Rui). One was during the Jiajing period and the other was during the Zhengde period. They are not far from each other. But Yan Fenyi and his son have been notorious for a long time, because the drama exaggerates the knowledge of women and children, and Hai Ruxian’s outspoken advice seems to have not yet come to fruition. You are loyal and respectful, that's why Master Hai's plaque for Qihuitang didn't attract people's attention!"

Xihe Niantang was opened at Caishikou outside Xuanwumen, with five doors, windows covered with gold, and eaves and sills, magnificent and splendid, with a long counter painted black and shiny.The strange thing is that the west head countertop is a five-inch piece of wood. After many times of paint, there are always bloodstains.It is said that Kang Xiaoba, a famous bandit who robbed houses in the Qing Dynasty, was captured by the government and kidnapped and sent to Caishikou (Caishikou was the execution ground for criminals in the Qing Dynasty) to be executed in a hurry.When the executioner opened his heart, he saw that Kang Xiaoba's atrium was nearly twice as large as that of ordinary people. He cut it off and put it in his mouth. After the execution was over, he went straight to Xihe Niantang.When I opened my mouth at the counter, I spit out the human heart contained in my mouth on the counter.As a result, this extra-large human heart was bought by Xihe Niantang at a high price, so there was a bloodstain on the counter, which not only could not be washed off, but even if it was painted and painted, it still looked like a blood spot.Anyone who knows about this matter must take a look at the remnant when they go to collect medicine in the Year of the Western Crane.Yan Song has always been famous for his calligraphy, and he wrote a lot of promotions for people in Beiping. Among them, the one for Liubiju Sauce Garden and the one for Youhe Niantang are the most famous.Therefore, some elegant people went to Xihe Niantang to see the calligraphy of Yan Fenyi, and they heard the legend that they would see blood spots on the counter.

During the Guangxu period, the Six Gentlemen of 1898 were executed at Caishikou. It is said that the government servants in charge of the red errands wanted to blackmail Xihe Niantang a few taels of silver.Xihe Niantang didn't buy it, and ignored it in a daze. As a result, the yamen servants played tricks and set up a public case of beheading officials on the stone steps of Xihe Niantang platform.After the six gentlemen were named and killed in sequence, there was a nonsensical legend in the city of Beiping, saying that ghosts knocked on the door of Xihe Niantang from time to time at midnight to buy medicine for knife wounds, so when it was dark, some timid people would rather walk more I went to another pharmacy to get medicine, and I didn't want to patronize Xihe Niantang.

Among the four famous doctors, Shi Jinmo and Kong Bohua are very serious about the decoction pieces used in the prescriptions, because Xihe Niantang medicinal materials are authentic and carefully processed, they all appoint patients to Xihe Niantang to get the medicine.But they finish their outpatient consultations every day, and they go out very late, and there are so many patients, they often come late in the middle of the night, and they are afraid that the patients will not follow his advice and go to Xihe Niantang to get medicine. In addition, what kind of powder is blind, what kind of pills, all of which are unique pills of Xihe Niantang.Therefore, when some servants of a sick family hear that their master is sick, they invite two famous doctors, Shi Kong, to see him. They all have sad faces, because they are afraid that they will go to Xihe Niantang to get medicine in the dark, and they always feel a little nervous. .However, Xihe Niantang's decoction pieces are indeed more sophisticated and unique than other medicines, which cannot be denied!

Talking about Tongrentang musicians, according to Le Yongxi: "My family was originally from Cishui Town, Ningbo Prefecture, Zhejiang Province. During the Yongle Period of the Ming Dynasty, I came to Peiping. The distant ancestor was a Fangfang doctor who rang string bells. Because of the exquisite veins, The data spread to the early years of the Qing Dynasty. There was a man named Le Zunyu who was in charge of the medicine storehouse in the Taiyuan Hospital, because all the people he dealt with were the shop names of the pharmaceutical industry. In the early years of Kangxi, my Shaojun Le Wugang was sensitive and eager to learn. I took several township examinations, but I was not listed on the list, so I gave up the idea of ​​becoming an official. I opened a Tongrentang Chinese medicine store in the Dashilan outside the front door, facing the door frame alley. Although the three doors are quite impressive, because of the low terrain It turned into falling steps, which seemed less grand. In the old age, everyone didn’t know what air pollution and environmental sanitation are. At the same time, there were rows of shops in Dashilan, and eight out of ten had no toilets. So the apprentices of shopkeepers got up early in the morning to walk around. Morning, the entrance of Tongrentang has become the best convenient place. You come over here for convenience, and I walk over to have a rest. The entrance of Tongrentang, which opened not long ago, has become a pissing place. Shopkeeper Le does not compete with others, although I insist on this, but the commotion in the hall has a great impact on the business. I plan to raise the hall to be bright and airy, so as not to attract the convenience of the public. So I invited a gentleman to come Turning the compass and looking at Fengshui, Mr. Kanyu took a look and decided that Tongrentang is sitting in a prosperous place where financial resources converge and a hundred birds rise to the sun. The Qi veins last for two to three hundred years. Therefore, Tongrentang has always been the façade that has fallen down for more than two hundred years from Kangxi to the Republic of China.

The Le family has been divided into four houses in Beiping for generations, and there are many families in Dingkou.The old house has opened a new road in Xuannan. Since the Qing court advocated the pursuit of knowledge and the establishment of the Tongwen Museum, if the children of Lejia thought reform have talents, they all come to the library to study foreign books.The Gengzi Boxers rebelled, and under the slogan of "helping the Qing and destroying the foreigners", they regarded those who advocated new learning as dudes, and they beheaded when they were caught.Le family kept a lot of original Western books, fearing that they would cause disaster, so they threw all of them into the refining furnace and burned them into ashes.Later, all the young men and women of his family were sent to France and Germany to study abroad, and they bought villas in Paris and Berlin, etc., which were the boarding houses for the children of the Le family to study abroad.Their family rules are very strict. If they are successful in their studies, they must return to China to work. If they are greedy for overseas prosperity, they will be expelled from the ancestral hall.Therefore, although the children of the Le family went overseas in an endless stream, those who did not return for a long time or changed their nationality were really rare and rare.

Le Daren is an outstanding talent in the Le family, not only capable and sensitive, but also far-sighted.There is a family rule in Lejia. The business operation of Tongrentang is managed by four house heads in turn for a period of one year.If someone sets up his own family and seeks to develop outward, he can't help but obey the law.However, the full name of Tongrentang is not allowed to be used, only the word "Ren" and "Lejia Laopu" are allowed to be used. It shows to the outside that it is a drug store opened by the descendants of Lejia. Internally, each room has its own hall number. There is a difference.Therefore, in Pingjin, Shanghai, Han, and Dayi, the capital of the whole country, such as Hongrentang, Lerentang, Darentang, Leshoutang, etc., all Chinese medicine shops with the word "Le" or "Ren" are probably The business opened by the descendants of the Le family.Le Daren returned to China after studying, and first opened a Daren Hall in Beiping. Although he has a great understanding of Western learning, he feels that he has only a half-knowledge of Chinese medicine and has not specialized in skills. The gentlemen concocted and practiced from "Leigong Medicine Properties Fu", "Compendium of Materia Medica", and ancestral secret recipes, and expanded and purchased them.He worked so hard to manage the business, and within a few years, branch offices were opened in Pingjin, Shanghai and Han, and it seemed to be the most outstanding branch of Lejia Old Shop.

Le Daren knows his family's background the most clearly. He did not know how many ups and downs and hardships he had to go through in his previous career to get to the present situation.He said: As far back as the Kangxi period, his family's Wansan Gaodan was quite famous.One summer, Kangxi went hunting at Dahongmen, and suddenly suffered from heatstroke, vomiting and diarrhea, and he was exhausted.The imperial doctor of the Imperial Hospital might not be able to take the heavy medicine, and the medicine is too light to cure the sudden emergency, so the doctors are holding their hands.One of the emperor's close servants, the eunuch Zhang Yiqing, who had a long history with the Le family, offered to try the summer heat medicine of Tong Ren Tang, which might be effective.After the doctors agreed to take it, it really healed quickly. From then on, the words "Tong Ren Tang" were deeply imprinted in Kangxi's mind, which won the emperor's trust.There was a prince who unfortunately contracted red dysentery, and the diarrhea persisted after taking the prescription of the Imperial Physician of the Taiyuan Hospital. Finally, he tried the "Taiyi Zijin Tablet" from Tongrentang, and the medicine cured his illness.From then on, Nei Ting Shou Pharmacy asked Gang Ren Tang for a copy of Tong Ren Tang Danfang, and prepared it in the same way to meet the needs of the inner court (according to the official Wan Ying ingot, commonly known as golden mouse feces, the main raw materials are ancient ink and a twist of gold, which can clear the heart and fire. Internal heat. Taiyi Zijin ingots are effective in treating red and white dysentery, unknown swelling and poison. The Zijin ingots carefully researched and manufactured by Shou Pharmacy are made into various forms of Pisces, Jipan, Ruyi, Fushouzi, and Eight Immortals. They are packed in purses and rewarded to ministers It is called Shuyao Hebao, and the original recipes are all copied from the secret book of Tongrentang Danfang).

As soon as the emperor is convinced of Tongrentang's patented medicine, it will be more effective than any publicity. In addition, the musicians will use their brains to open up channels in the Ministry of Internal Affairs. After approval, all Juren masters who participate in the examination in Jinjing, regardless of Chinese style or not, will all be rewarded. A box of Taiyi purple gold ingots produced by Tongrentang.Traveling in hot weather, sleeping and eating disorders, having a fever and heat stroke, Zijin Tablet works like a god.In addition, the favor comes from the appreciation of the royal family, so it is necessary for every concubine to go to Tongrentang to buy some proprietary medicines and bring them back to their hometown as gifts to relatives and friends to show off.This kind of non-advertising publicity has spread the reputation of Tongrentang far and wide, and the whole country knows it.Under Tongrentang's reputation, it pays more attention to the selection of medicinal materials and strives for excellence. For general medicinal materials, every spring, March and winter, October is the big market for medicinal materials. Experienced and capable operatives are selected from the counters to Baoding Prefecture, the distribution center of medicinal materials across the country. It belongs to Qizhou Yaowangmiao Selected Wholesale Purchase.The medicine market in Yaowangmiao had to wait for the special personnel from Tongrentang to enter the market before they could negotiate prices and open the scale. They only wanted good products and were not afraid of high prices. They also bought in bulk, forming important customers in the medicine market.Later, they contracted various royal medicines from the imperial pharmacy, which made them more famous and contributed to their prestige in the commercial war.Some precious medicinal materials, such as Laoshan ginseng, have to be purchased directly in Changbai, Jilin, and velvet antlers can be purchased from Yingkou Zuozhuang.Although the musk is produced in Qinghai and Tibet, the top-quality musk is all under the care of Du Shengxing in Henan. All musk processed by Du Shengxing is stamped with the word Du, and the price is 20% higher than that of ordinary goods.Tongrentang uses the word Du for musk in medicinal musk, so Tongrentang always sends people to Du's house in Henan to buy a large batch every year.There are also many places where borneol is used in the medicine made by Tongrentang. The best borneol is extracted from the gum of the dipterophyll tree, which is called plum blossom borneol.Although we have production in Fujian and Guangdong provinces, the quantity is limited, and we have to send people to Borneo and Sumatra to purchase them every year.Some people say that the double price of selected ingredients of traditional Chinese medicine is a deceptive trick.If you have seen the preparation process of Tongrentang Pharmaceutical, you will know that you get what you pay for, and the money for adding selected ingredients is not wasted. The workshop of Tongrentang, later renamed the pharmaceutical factory, has always been located in the east courtyard of Xinkai Road Residence. There are many corridors, and it is more than enough to accommodate two to three hundred management and operating personnel.Pills and ointments are divided into different categories and have their own duties; dispensing medicinal wine, grinding powder, boiling plaster, and hanging wax pills all perform their duties; they are all scientifically managed, step-by-step, and well-organized.Some secret recipes are patented medicines, in order to keep them secret, they have to be sent to the inner house, and the designated family members are responsible for adding, subtracting and adjusting them.As for the extremely confidential prescription medicine, the owner in charge will do it himself. Tongrentang is a public property of the four houses. Except for a certain amount of profit, the rest is divided equally among the four shares. There are special warehouses for raw materials, semi-finished products, and finished products. There is also a key for each of the four houses. Only when the house is in place can it be processed in order to keep its promise.In that year, the daily operating income was mostly copper dollars, which was settled every day and distributed to each house according to the shares.The second daughter of my old friend Pu Boxin, Yu Guile's house, piled up a lot of coins and copper coins every day, and they had to wait until the next day to send them to the bank to enter the account.Bundles of copper coins are placed in the house, which naturally smells like copper. We often joked with her that she was worried when she saw money.Nowadays, most transactions are circulated by checks and banknotes. Thinking back to the situation of using silver and foreign copper plates in the past, it really makes people feel overwhelming. Although the ancient shops in Peiping don't know how to design and beautify the packaging, they also have different packaging. Although they are not gorgeous, they are also simple in style.For example, every small bag in a tea shop does not need to be weighed, and the weight of each bag is exactly the same. No matter how many bags to hundreds of bags, although the sizes are different, they are square and uniform.I heard that as an apprentice in a tea shop, learning to pack tea is an important course!As long as you can go to the counter to pack tea for customers, you will almost have to thank the teacher for full wages. The pharmacy is more skillful than the way of packing tea leaves in the tea shop.Because each tea bag has equal weight, it is easier to pack naturally.Medicinal materials are very different, not only the amount of medicinal materials in each package is divided into two, but also the volume and size of the medicinal materials are also quite different.Every time the medicine is taken, it must be stacked into a pyramid shape with the upper point and the lower part, and the edges and corners must be seen.I never went to the pharmacy to pick up medicine, but I never heard of a single dose of medicine, which was scattered all over the ground halfway.Later, Tongrentang innovated the packaging design, classified each pile of medicines and printed instructions, indicating the plant family and genus, the parts used in the medicine, and the contraindications for medical efficacy.Each medicine is accompanied by an explanation, which is not only convenient for the patient to check, but also less likely to make mistakes after another check.Careful and practical, it is quite clever. When the pharmacies saw Tong Ren Tang's prescribing prescriptions, they followed suit, and later it became a norm. In the early years of the Republic of China, before the outbreak of the first European war, Japan took advantage of the international situation to fall apart and disturb the turmoil. It threatened and lured us to China and did everything it could. As a result, the whole country hated Japan and boycotted Japanese products. Psychology, so the sales of Japanese medicines in China plummeted.The Chinese have always had an impression of authenticity and reliability of German products, so the German Bayer factory took advantage of the opportunity and came to China to discuss cooperation with Tong Ren Tang.With the prestige and credit of Tongrentang in the society, coupled with the German Bayer scientific pharmaceutical machinery, precise innovation of formula, the benefit of enterprise management, and abundant funds, the future is naturally promising.Le Daren once studied in Germany and France, saw Hongmiao, and studied Du Wei. He is an outstanding figure among the descendants of the Le family.But at that time, the plenipotentiary representatives sent by the Bayer factory insisted on using the trademark of the Bayer pharmaceutical factory, and the factory was to be located in Qingdao. Lejia believed that Tong Ren Tang had a history of two to three hundred years, and that it had a solid foundation of good reputation among all levels of society. Abandoning the Tongrentang trademark is not only a matter of face, but it is not yet certain whether there is absolute certainty in terms of sales in terms of changing the Bayer trademark.In order to fight steadily, it is safer to use the name of Tongrentang. Moreover, before the war in Qingdao, Germany invaded and occupied Jiaozhou Bay with troops. The Qingdao area was completely under the control of the Germans.The Le family all advocated setting up the factory in Tianjin. After several discussions, there was no progress.Although Le Daren is a person who resolves doubts and difficulties in the Le family, but this is a big matter. Since the opinions of all the houses are conspired by each other, the discussion of Sino-German cooperation has to be abandoned. Last year in Hong Kong, I heard that the Kyoto Tongrentang, a three-hundred-year-old shop in Peking, has been turned into a state-run one.I also heard that there is a Tongrentang on Kaifeng Street in Taipei. It was Nanjing Tongrentang that moved to Taiwan from the mainland.If it is a tradition, I hope that the secret recipe of Lejia's ancestral Wan San Gao Dan will be preserved and not lost. In the future, the old tree will bloom, and it may be able to flourish again.