Traditional TCM Culture
01 · Historical Records
By the early 20th century, as Hongjitang's scale continually expanded, a Chinese medicine culture had taken shape that combined the common features of the Chinese medicine industry with the distinctive characteristics of Hongjitang.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The Hongjitang Chinese medicine culture is a system of Chinese medicine culture that takes the spirit of 'expanding enterprise to benefit the people,' upheld by the century-old Hongjitang, as its core and 'widely spreading great virtue and preserving the health of the world' as its cultural orientation, covering such aspects as trade mottos, hall mottos, employment practices, the selection and purchase of medicinal materials, and the production of Chinese medicines. Hongjitang was founded during the Guangxu reign of the Qing dynasty. According to the Hongjitang Yaomu (Hongjitang Medicine Catalogue), Le Jingyu established Hongjitang on the basis of the former Shandong Official Medicine Bureau, taking its name to mean 'expanding enterprise to benefit the people.' After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Hongjitang integrated the techniques, culture, and history of the Chinese medicine workshops then operating in Jinan, further enriching the content of Hongjitang Chinese medicine culture and forming a cultural character that is plural and inclusive yet unified in focus. After the reform and opening up, the interpretation of the trade name 'Hongji' was expanded from 'expanding enterprise to benefit the people' to 'widely spreading great virtue and preserving the health of the world.' As the foundation and soul of Hongjitang, Hongjitang Chinese medicine culture encompasses many aspects, including material selection, drug preparation, employment practices, and management. In the selection of materials, it adheres to the 'five don'ts' (goods that are not first-grade, stale goods, goods containing impurities, non-medicinal parts, and goods not from the best producing area), stressing high-quality raw materials. It follows the principle that 'however laborious the processing, we dare not skimp on manual work; however precious the ingredients, we dare not reduce the materials.' In employment, it adheres to the 'five don'ts' (not being filial to one's parents, being disloyal to friends, being rude to others, lacking credibility, and lacking benevolence and righteousness) and the 'five who shall not enter our hall' (those greedy for wealth, those greedy for fame, those too lazy to study, those of mediocre skill, and those who despise the poor), displaying the Confucian demeanor of the 'scholar-gentleman.' In its business philosophy, it follows the tenet of 'preparing compounds unseen by others, with Heaven knowing what is in our hearts,' practicing the universal principle of the physician's benevolent heart. Hongjitang Chinese medicine culture fully embodies the outstanding creativity and vigorous vitality of Chinese medicine culture and stands as a historical microcosm of the centuries of tortuous development of Chinese medicine.
Five refusals in selecting material
Five things are refused at the purchase: substandard goods, old stock, material with impurities, non-medicinal parts, and anything not from the best place of origin.
Never to skimp on process
Never to skimp on labour because a process is elaborate, nor on materials because an ingredient is costly.
Five refusals and five exclusions in hiring
Staff were screened for filial piety, honesty, courtesy and ren, and excluded for greed, vainglory, laziness, mediocre skill and contempt for the poor.
No one sees the compounding, yet heaven knows the heart
Compounding is done unseen, yet the motive is known to heaven—a rule for the hours in the workshop when no one is watching.
From enterprise for the people to virtue spread widely
Founded in the Guangxu era on the strength of an official dispensary, the house has twice recast the meaning of its own name, first as enterprise for the people, later as virtue spread widely.
Traceability and industry standards
Traceability secures the origin of the material, standards secure the product, and old skill joined to modern science secures the whole process.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Hongjitang Chinese medicine culture is distributed mainly in Jinan, Shandong Province; over its more than a century of development, its renown and influence have continually grown.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Traditional TCM Culture · Traditional TCM Culture · Traditional TCM Culture · Traditional TCM Culture · Traditional TCM Culture · Traditional TCM Culture · Traditional TCM Culture · Traditional TCM Culture.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
In the course of its transmission and development, Hongjitang Chinese medicine culture takes 'widely spreading great virtue and preserving the health of the world' as its cultural content and gives priority to people. Through traceability systems it guarantees the authentic provenance of medicinal materials; through industry standards it guarantees the quality of medicines; and by combining traditional techniques with modern science and technology, it exercises strict, comprehensive control over the whole process of medicinal material procurement, drug production, and product testing, endowing traditional Chinese medicine with new connotations of the era and promoting its high-quality development through inheritance and innovation. To date this heritage project has been transmitted through four generations. Apart from representative inheritors of intangible cultural heritage at various levels and young and middle-aged inheritors, who form the main inheriting communities, the general public who know of this culture or who have benefited from Hongjitang are also making efforts to transmit and spread Hongjitang Chinese medicine culture. Transmitting and preserving this cultural heritage plays a promoting role in carrying forward China's outstanding traditional Chinese medicine culture.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Quyuxiang 03-1461
- Lei Yulin 04-1948
- Shentuyinhong
- Lu Qifu
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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