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| The Famous Name of An Old Shop of Anhui Province |
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YuLiangQing
——The Famous Name of An Old Shop of Anhui Province
Anqing Yuliangqinghao plaster shop〈Abbreviation is Yuliangqing〉,built in 1855, was good at making black hard plasters. “Crucian plasters” were especially famous,and won the prize on “Exhibiton on Chinese goods” in 1929. They were praised as one of “Three Treasures” of Auhui and became the presents giving to relatives and friends. This type of the plasters was sold well in many provinces such as Anhui, JiangXi, Hubei, Hunan, Sichuan, Fujian. Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shandong, Shanghai etc. and at areas of HongKong, Macow, Southeast Asia. It has not been declining for more than one hundred years.
The founder of Yuliangqing plasters (the original name, Crucian plasters) was Yu Xingting (Yu Hesheng’s grandfather) lived in Tongcheng YuJiawang( the outskirts of Anqing,Yangqiaozhen Yuwangcun now) of Anhui. He was the doctor of traditional Chinese medicine in the countryside and good at making the traditional Chinese medicines. Later on, he and his family moved to Anqing for avoiding chaos caused by war and set up a stall to sell the plasters. In the fifth year of Xianfeng in Qing dynasty(1855), the relatives presented a horizontal inscribed board to Yu Xingting to congranulate on his birthday. The exact recording history of YuLiangQing began from the inscribing time on the board. In the same year, Yu Xingting opened “Yuliangqinghao plaster shop” at No. 6 Dananmen Zhengjie, Anqing under the relatives’ help, and made, sold the plasters personally.
At beginning, because of the eminent effects of the plasters, there was a folklore about “TieGuaili coming down to earth, the celestial being bestowing the presc ription.” spread in Anqing. It was said, Tie Guaili disguised himself as a cripple beggar with festering feet to come down to earth and came to “Yuliangqinghao” to cure his legs. He lived in “Yuliangqinghao”for several months and got the utmost care and treating from the shopkeeper. The beggar was moved by the spirit of the shopkeeper’ helping the poor and stressing the medical ethics. In a winter moring, the beggar departed suddenly. He left a fresh lotus leaf and a live crucian and exhorted the shopkeeper to put them into the medical pot to decoct. So the shopkeeper named the plasters “Crucian plasters”. Though the folklore was fabricated, the first propaganda effect was taken.
Yu Hesheng died early, his wife continued running the shop with his family. The cost and profit was very little, all of the funds could only buy 4 or 5 jin sesame oil and 2 jin soaked bean-noodles, so the family eked out a living. They began to hire workers about in 1860.
Yu Hesheng (1866-1918) performed the distinguished feats in the history of Yuliangqing. He sold the plasters with his parents when he was young and went to Shipai shop to work as an apprentice later. Because his father and brother died one after another, he came back and help his mother Yu Wengshi manage the shop.
Yu Hesheng took over the plaster shop after 1880. The quality of Yuliangqing plasters was improved remarkably. The trade began to take a turn for the better. YuHesheng knew the traditional Chinese medicine well, he studied intensively with his wife’s brother Tao Xuecen who ran a drug shop in Anqing and improved the formula for the plasters. He changed the main composition,qiandan into CERUSSA and decocted CERUSSA with sesame oil. In the meanwhile, he solved the difficult technical problems such as the plasters’ “overdone”, “underdone” and not sticking well etc..The plasters decocted stuck and sealed well, they couldn’t move from the affected part and didn’t hurt the skin. They were astringent, antiseptic and produced a good curative effect for curing boils, chilblains and eczemas. There was no scar on the affected part after healing. Besides, the plasters were very cheap and easy to operate, so they were warmly received by laboring people. The masses of south of Jiangxi province not only stuck the plasters externally, but also scraped the right amount of plasters to take with water for curing abdominal pain, which was effective too. Therefore, the fame spread far and wide, the plasters sold well inside and outside of Anhui province and became one of the products of Anhui famous brand. The passengers who travelled to Anqing often bought the plasters for private use or gave them as the presents to the relatives and friends.
From 1894 to 1932, “Yuliangqing” got to the period of great prosperity. The shop hired more than 20 workers, apprentices over a long period of time, and purchased 100 jin sesame oil and 80 jin soaked bean-noodles a day, which were more than 40 times that of beginning. The shop made and sold Fengsun plasters, Hugu Zhuifeng liquid, Chuiersan, and Xiagansan etc., besides selling “Crucian plasters”mainly. The annual volumes of business were forty thousand yuan (silver coin). The secret of succes not only lay in the great demands of “Crucian plasters”, but also in proper management. Managerially, besides employing some workers and apprentices over a long time, the shop hired a large of widows in “Qingjietang” (where the Qing government adopted widows)to spread out the plasters by adopting piece rate wage. The wage was low, the cost of man-days was little. In addition, the sesame oil and soaked bean-noodles were purchased conveniently, the shopkeeper was good at using the consumers’ order money to be working funds and supplied the goods in time, treated the consumers politely. Thus, “Yuliangqing” could develop a school of its own in Anqing plaster industry and put itself in an invincible position in keen competition. In the late of Qing dynasty and early of the Republic of China, there were more than 10 plaster shops in Anqing, among them, there were many shops which had a great quantity of funds and varieties, but they went out of business sucessively excepting for “Yuliangqing”.
Yu Hesheng died at the age of fifty-two in 1918 in Anqing. His brother Yu Xuansan took over “Yuliangqing”. Yu Xuansan took the portrait of Yu Hesheng for the registered trademark in order to remember Yu Hesheng’s outstanding contributions for the development of the shop.
Because of extruding of the imperialism’s comprador capital, the turbulent internal situation and the bad management, the shop was on the verge of bankrupt, the shopkeeper Yu Yongnian (the son of Yu Hesheng’s brother) gave it in pawn in 1933.
Japanese invaded and occupied Anqing in 1938, the shopkeeper Yu Damo (the son of Yu Yongnian) carried out all of cash and goods in storage to flee to Tunxi of Anhui and built a new shop. The old shop in Anqing was maintained difficultly. After success of anti-Japanese war, Yu Damo came back to Anqing and started business again. He redeemed the shop pawned in 1933 and looked forward to restore the glory by relying on the reputation in the past. But in the period of the civil war, the people had no means of livelihood because of inflation, Yu Damo could only keep the shop going by painstaking effort and the business was bad day by day
“YuLiangQing” resumed vitality after 1949. The total output value went up to eighty thousand yuan. There were 21 workers in 1953. “Crucian plasters” were named “YuLiangQing plasters” in the same year. “Yuliangqing” was changed from privately-owned shop to publicly-owned factory in 1955 and named “Yuliangqing plaster factory”. Thus, the history of front shop and back plant, producing and selling personally ended. Then the major products were “Yuliangqing plasters”. Adhesive plasters were produced in 1965. New products,“Promoting blood circulation and analgesic plasters”(adhesive plasters) replaced the black plasters and became the major products, which filled a gap of the traditional Chinese medicine production of Anhui province.
The annual output value made a breakthrough at one million for the first time in 1966. The factory was moved to rebuilt at the present address from Dananmen in 1972. It was changed its name into “Anqing No. 2 pharmaceutical factory” in the period of the Great Culture Revolution and into “Anqing Yuliangqing pharmaceutical factory”in 1981.
From 1980 to 1993, tremendous changes had taken place on the appearance of the factory. The scale of production expanded rapidly, which increased progressively by 10% speed every year. The management modernized increasingly. The factory buildings and equipments were renewed continually. Nearly ten technical innovation projects were finished sucessively. The environment of the factory areas was turned green with parks and woods. The quality control web of three ranks formed. The measuring control came up to the second level standard of country. More than 20 new varieties were produced. Musk analgesic plaster was chosen as the product of quality of State Medicine Bureau and State Traditional Chinese Medicine Bureau. Promoting blood circulation and analgesic plaster, Jieguling plaster and Kangfulu liquid were chosen as the provincial products of quality. The others such as Musk dawang plaster, Fujiling plaster, Joint analgesic plaster, Medical adhesive plaster, Seed of wild jujube oral liquid, Qutangling oral liquid, Snake-bile and fritillary bulb oral liquid, Jingang oral liquid, Shengmaiying oral liquid and Buzhong yiqi oral liquid etc. were warmly received by internal and external consumers.
The factory couldn’t fit in with the needs of market economy due to backward in system and management after 1993. The economic benefits declined year after year, the factory was on the verge of loss and was bogged in crisis.
On August, 2001,Yuliangqing cooperated with the private high scientific and technological industry-Anhui Anke Biological Co. Ltd. and changed the system of management thoroughly, introduced advanced experiences and technology. The opportunity of development is coming again.
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