He Nian Tang

He Nian Tang was originally a name of hall in the garden of Yan Song, the prime minister of Ming Dynasty. Later the tablet was drifted out of Yan’s residence, and the name became the title of the drug store.

Heniantang Drug Store, located at Caishikou, was founded in late Jiajing Period of Ming Dynasty. Caishikou was the execution ground in Qing Dynasty, the Drug Store once received execution supervisors. In Culture Revolution, it was renamed as People’s Drug Store. After the Gang of Four was crushed, it changed into the previous name. The store was good at processing of dictation and shredded Chinese medicine, as well as carefully-selected materials.

There was such a saying in Beijing, “Tong Ren Tang’s pill, powder, paste and pellet, He Nian Tang’s dictation, compound and shredded medicine.” The strict rules and regulations ensured the quality of service.

Tong Ren Tang

Tongrentang Drug Store was an old famous drug store in Beijing and abroad. Da Ren Tang and Hong Ren Tang were ran by the Le’s family members, too. However, they were not the branches of Tong Ren Tang. The Les was divided into four braches in late Qing Dynasty, which were represented by the four brothers, namely Le Mengfan, Le Zhongfan, Le Shufan and Lejifan. Tong Ren Tang was jointly managed by the four braches, each branch was entitled to draw 1,000 liang silver. They were permitted to sell pills, powders, pastes and pellets made by their own branch in Tong Ren Tang. At that time, most staffs in Tong Ren Tang were friends or relatives of the four brothers. Therefore, they also belonged to their own branches. All of them tried to introduce their own medicine to customers, thus the system seriously damaged the common interests of Tong Ren Tang and caused the disorder in the store, and impeded operation and management of Tong Ren Tang. Afterwards the representatives of the four branches called on a meeting and reached an agreement to abolish the current system, while allowing each branch to run business independently in the name of “Le’s Store” instead of “Tong Ren Tang.” Since then each branch opened drug stores by themselves. In the 10^th year of the Republic of China (1921), Le Mengfan opened Hong Ren Tang, later Le Zhongfan opened Hong Ji Tang, Le Jifan opened Da Ren Tang. In the 17^th year of the Republic of China (1928), the Government of the Republic of China was moved to Beijing from Nanjing, Le Duzhou belonging to the branch of Le Mengfan opened Tong Ren Tang in Nanjing, which broke the Family Agreement and aroused argument of the other three branches and endless quarrel. At last, the dispute was settled after the resignation of Le Xinshen, the older brother of Le Duzhou in charge of Tong Ren Tang at that time.