Taigu Guilingji

Taigu Guilingji is a specialty of Taigu County, Jinzhong City, Shanxi Province. Guilingji has been sold to Hong Kong, Macao and other regions, and even exported to 21 countries including Southeast Asia, Africa, Europe and America. In order to meet the needs of diversification and export of drugs, Taigu people used fine wine Fenjiu as the base wine to brew Guilingji into a valuable medicinal liquor with unique flavor. After Emperor Jiajing ascended the throne in the Ming Dynasty (AD 1522), folk elixirs were widely collected. Fang Tu Shao Yuanjie and Tao Zhongwen, from many prescriptions of tonics in "Seven Notes on Quji", learned from each other's strong points, developed a prescription, and made a so-called immortal "fairy medicine" by using the technology of Ding Sheng Lian, named "Guilingji" and dedicated it to the emperor. After Emperor Jiajing took it, he was really strong and healthy, and he gave birth to nine sons in a row, becoming the emperors who had been in office for a long time and died at a higher age. "Guilingji" was therefore listed as "the imperial holy medicine", and Shao and Tao were two orphans because of their contributions to medicine. At that time, the medical director of the palace was a native of Taigu County, Shanxi Province, and Tao Zhongwen's adopted son. He was an assistant when Shao and Tao were promoted to immortal medicine. When the man retired from his old age and returned home, he brought back the prescription of Guilingji, took it himself and gave it as a gift to his relatives and friends. Later, the prescription of "Guilingji" fell into the "Guangsheng Pharmacy" in Taigu County, and the medicine was sold as a commodity. Since then, "Guilingji" has become a specialty of Taigu County. "Guilingji" has remarkable curative effect and is called "the king of tonics". According to the historical records of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, after the Taiping Army conquered Nanjing, the heavenly king Hong Xiuquan ordered his department Sun Mou to protect the pharmacy that made "Guilingji" and "Dingkundan" when it conquered Shanxi, and moved all its members and equipment to Nanjing. Later, due to Sun's death in the middle, the plan of moving south failed to be realized. From this historical event, we can also see the reputation enjoyed by these two famous drugs in society. The production process of Guilingji is particularly complicated. Apart from 99 working procedures, such as boiling, steaming, mixing, explosion, burying in soil, night exposure, etc., it also needs more than 20 kinds of precious medicinal materials such as ginseng, velvet antler, hippocampus, finch brain, rehmannia glutinosa, cistanche, Lycium barbarum and Epimedium, and various auxiliary materials such as aged vinegar, pepper, yellow wine, milk, honey and ginger juice. Therefore, all pharmacies in Taigu import medicinal materials from all over the country at any cost, almost monopolizing the import and export market of Chinese medicinal materials in northern China. Taigu people divide the imported medicinal materials into three classes, and the superior medicinal materials are transported back to Taigu General for upgrading Guilingji and Dingkundan; Second-class medicinal materials are available for pharmacies in Beijing Tongrentang, Tianjin Darentang and Shanghai; Only after the third class is shipped to the medicinal materials market for wholesale.
Reprinted with attribution： https://cnlocality.com/(Chinese Specialty Products)