There is a famous “old” pharmacy in Beijing: Tongrentang, which is not only famous in Beijing, but also in the whole country. Its founder, Le Xian, was the head of the Imperial Hospital during the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty. His son, Le Fengming, abided by his father’s instructions and continued his ancestral business by opening Tongrentang Pharmacy in the south of Dazhalan Road outside Qianmen, Beijing, and proposed to “follow the elbow, identify the real estate, do not dare to save labor even if the preparation is complicated, do not dare to reduce material resources even if the taste is expensive”, which established a good reputation for Tongrentang.
Since its establishment, Beijing Tongrentang has been in business with integrity for several generations, and its reputation has lasted for three hundred years. In 1873, Yang Jingting’s “Du Men Compilation” and in 1890, Li Hong’s “Chao Shi Cong Zai” both recorded the peace pills and tiger bone wine made and sold by Tong Ren Tang, calling them one or two hundred years old stores and authentic.
After hundreds of years of neglect, Tongrentang has passed to the 13th generation of Le’s Family, who is a famous businessman with Rong Yiren.
Accepting the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party
Born in 1908, Le Song Sheng read some books preaching communist theories and came into contact with some so-called “progressive” teachers and students when he was a student at Beijing Huiwen Middle School. After graduating from high school, he went to study at his uncle Le Daren’s Daren Tang pharmacy in Tianjin, and later went to work at his father’s Peking Tongrentang pharmacy in Beijing, owned by Le Daren.
According to the memories of the descendants of the Le family, Le Daren went to Germany for four years as a customs attaché in the Qing Dynasty, and Le Dayi also studied in England for more than a year in the early years of the Republic of China, so this branch of the Le family was more open-minded.
After the death of Le Daren in 1947, Le Songsheng took over his uncle’s business and took care of both the Ping and Jin dong affairs. After his father’s death, in 1948, Le Song Sheng took over as the manager of Tong Ren Tang and became an important shareholder of Tong Ren Tang. He was an easy-going man, considerate of his employees and had a good reputation.
After the establishment of the Chinese Communist Party, Le Song Sheng accepted the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party. He set up a Chinese Medicine refinery on a trial basis in order to improve the procedures and quality of Chinese medicine manufacturing. He hired a professor from the Department of Pharmacy of Peking University to set up a research laboratory for the improvement of Chinese medicine, and tried to make products such as Yin Qiao Anti-poison Pills, Xiang Lian Tablets, Female Gold Tablets, and Huang Lian Shang Qing Pills, which were successful. By 1959, the total annual output value of Tongrentang was more than 12.52 million yuan, with 583 kinds of products.
Became Vice Mayor of Beijing
In 1952, the Chinese Communist Party appointed Le Songsheng as the Vice Mayor of Beijing for the purpose of unification. During the Korean War, Le Songsheng not only took the lead in subscribing public bonds and donating money, but Tongrentang also donated an airplane to support the Chinese Communist Party in helping North Korea.
In 1956, when the Chinese Communist Party implemented industrial and commercial reform, Le Song Sheng was the first to apply for public-private partnership, making Tongrentang a state-owned enterprise. As a result, he became the vice chairman of the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, and together with Rong Yiren in Shanghai, he became a typical figure in the transformation of the industrial and commercial sector.
On January 15 of the same year, Mao Zedong received Le Songsheng, who was representing the Beijing Federation of Industry and Commerce, at the Tiananmen Tower.
Persecution of the whole family
However, such a “reformed” businessman, who had special feelings for the Communist Party of China, was not able to escape the waves of the Cultural Revolution, although he was saved from harm by Peng Zhen’s relationship during the “Three Against’s and Five Against’s” campaign.
At the beginning of the Cultural Revolution in 1966, Le Song Sheng was targeted by the Red Guards (the Xicheng pickets of the Capital Red Guards Joint Action Committee, or “Xicheng pickets” for short), and even though he was still the vice mayor of Beijing, he had no choice but to sit and wait for death. The Red Guards stormed into the courtyard of his house next to Chongwenmen and first put a sign on him that he was “Peng Zhen’s red man, the reactionary capitalist Le Songsheng”, then they beat him up and called out his mother and wife Liang Junmu to beat them together, and he and his wife were beaten and crawled all over the ground to hide. Unfortunately, his mother and wife were beaten to death, and he was also injured all over his body.
Although Le Song Sheng survived after medical treatment, he chose to commit suicide one day in April 1968, more than a year later, at the age of 60, out of extreme fear. No ashes were left behind after his death.
How many Chinese people who know the brand Tongrentang know about this tragic history?
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