Liang Qichao's Encounter with Wanglaoji Abroad

2017-08-31 09:59:59 GPHL GPHL

Chinese ancient famous doctor Bian Que ever proposed the conceptions about "Shang Gong", "Zhong Gong" and "Xia Gong". In his opinion, the most skillful doctors as "Shang Gong" are good at conditioning to combat illness and then can prevent disease, the more skilled doctors "Zhong Gong" pay more attention to health care and can deal with signs of illness, and the less skillful doctors "Xia Gong" can treat persons who already get illness.

Chinese people all realized the importance of preventing disease. For instance, Guangdong housewives regularly boiled medical soup to improve physical conditioning. They boiled soup to eliminate dampness in rainy spring and clear heat-fire in heat summer. Herbal tea is the necessary drink in summer and Guangdong people often drink it in any season.

Nowadays Wanglaoji is the most popular herbal tea all across the country and gradually enters into the international market. Among Chinese herbal tea enterprises, Wanglaoji is the sole one who gained the title of the world's oldest herbal tea brand of the Guinness Record and the brand certification of the ancestor of herbal tea.

For Chinese consumers, Wanglaoji with a history of 188 years is not only one kind of drink, but also the representative product of Chinese native drink as Coca-cola represents American food culture, and thus people always say, "Where there is Wanglaoji, there is Chinese." Behind all the brilliance, Wanglaoji people keep on inheriting tradition and innovating from generation to generation. Particularly, it is constantly inheriting tradition that shaped Wanglaoji's origin stories involving historical figures, such as Mr. Liang Qichao, the revolutionary pioneer.

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Liang Qichao bought Wanglaoji herbal tea.

One day Liang Qichao went to the herbal tea shop to buy Wanglaoji, and accidentally met Dong Yihe (he is said to be the son of Dong Fuxiang, the famous general in the Late Qing Dynasty) and his mother. In their conversation, Liang talked about General Dong Fuxiang (the famous general in Late Qing Dynasty, serving as Imperial Tutor in Charge of Upbringing of the Crown Prince, Gangsu Admiral, and the Minister of Guarding the Emperor, given Baturu with the title Alhang A)under Governor of Zhili and the Minister of Beiyang Rong Lu, who ever was one of leaders of Hui ethnic group's uprising in Northwest China. Lai Shulan (formally called Lai Honggu, Dong Yihe's mother, a female soldier of Taiping Rebellion, and renamed herself Lai Shulan after the failure of the rebellion) was sobbing too much to speak as she heard it ……

Soon Dong Yihe followed Liang Qichao to Beijing to seek his father, and his mother particularly ordered him to take Wanglaoji on the trail. With the failure of Wuxu Reform at that time, the Qing Imperial Court pursued Kang Youwei and his remaining confederates, and then Liang Qichao escaped to America.

From 1898 to 1903, Liang Qichao travelled many countries in America and Europe. He mentioned in his book Travel Notes of the New Continent, "Since some Westerns prefer Chinese doctors, one can grow wealthy through Traditional Chinese Medicine industry. There is so called Wanglaoji herbal tea that is sold for two copper coins each dose in Guangdong, but is sold at 5 or 10 dollars to Westerns." In fact, an ordinary worker's income was 3 to 4 hundred dollars for one year in America at that time. Liang Qichao's encounter with Wanglaoji really proved that Wanglaoji was regarded as the luxury health care product in foreign countries.

In the midst of chaos in Beijing, Dong Yihe participated in Bailian Society as a member of the offshoot named "Kan". After the boxers were defeated, he crossed over to Japan, and then sold herbal tea for a living incognito.

When Sun Yat-sen heard somebody sold herbal tea in Tokyo, he felt fresh and caused his homesickness, and then he went to check it out at once. At that time, Dong Yihe already renamed himself Shan Tao. The two young men became fast friends at the first meeting and got along well, but regretted not to have known each other before because they both concerned about the society and the people.

Afterwards, Sun Yat-sen maintained close contacts with Dong Yihe, continued to instill in him Three Principles of the People, and soon made Dong Yihe become a Chinese bourgeois revolutionist and join Tongmenghui (the Chinese United League) in 1909. Then Dong Yihe accompanied Sun Yat-sen around the world to raise funds for the revolution.

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