Taigu Turtle Age Collection

Taigu Turtle Age Collection

　　Taigu Turtle Age Collection is a specialty product from Taigu County, Jinzhong City, Shanxi Province. The Turtle Age Collection has now been marketed to regions such as Hong Kong and Macau, and even exported to 21 countries in Southeast Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas. To meet the diverse needs of pharmaceuticals and exports, the people of Taigu used the fine Fenjiu liquor as the base spirit and brewed the Turtle Age Collection into a distinctive and premium medicinal wine known as Turtle Age Collection Wine.

　　After Emperor Jiajing of the Ming Dynasty ascended to the throne (in 1522), he extensively gathered folk elixirs for immortality. The Taoist priests Shao Yuanjie and Tao Zhongwen refined a prescription by taking the strengths of many tonifying herbal formulas from "Seven Records of Expelling Registers," using ding-sheng refining techniques to create what was claimed to be an “immortality elixir.” It was named “Turtle Age Collection” and presented to the emperor.

　　After taking it, Emperor Jiajing indeed became strong and healthy, fathering nine sons in succession, making him one of the longest-reigning and longest-living emperors in history. The “Turtle Age Collection” was thus listed as an “Imperial Sacred Medicine,” and Shao and Tao, due to their contribution, enjoyed long-term imperial favor and rose to the rank of the Three Dukes.

　　At that time, the head of the imperial pharmacy was a native of Taigu County, Shanxi, and also the foster son of Tao Zhongwen. He assisted Shao and Tao in refining the elixir. When he retired to his hometown, he brought back the prescription for “Turtle Age Collection,” refined and consumed it himself, and also gave it as gifts to relatives and friends. Later, the prescription for “Turtle Age Collection” eventually fell into the hands of the “Guangsheng Pharmacy” in Taigu County, and the medicine began to be sold commercially. From then on, the “Turtle Age Collection” became a specialty of Taigu County.

　　The “Turtle Age Collection” is highly effective and is known as the “King of Tonics.” According to historical records of the Taiping Rebellion, after the Taiping Army captured Nanjing, the Heavenly King Hong Xiuquan ordered one of his generals, Sun Mou, to protect pharmacies that produced the “Turtle Age Collection” and “Dingkun Dan” during the campaign to conquer Shanxi, and to relocate all personnel and equipment to Nanjing. Later, because Sun Mou died in battle midway, the relocation plan was not realized. This historical event also reflects the high reputation these two famous medicines enjoyed in society.

　　The production process of the Turtle Age Collection is particularly intricate. In addition to requiring a total of ninety-nine processes including boiling, steaming, mixing, frying, earth-burying, and night-airing, it also requires more than twenty kinds of precious ingredients such as ginseng, deer antler, seahorse, sparrow brain, rehmannia, cistanche, wolfberry, and epimedium. During preparation, various auxiliary materials are also needed, such as aged vinegar, Sichuan pepper, yellow rice wine, cow’s milk, honey, and ginger juice. As a result, pharmacies in Taigu spared no expense importing medicinal materials from all over the country, almost monopolizing the import and export market of traditional Chinese medicinal materials in northern China. The people of Taigu classified imported medicinal materials into three grades: top-grade materials were transported back to the main branch in Taigu for refining the Turtle Age Collection and Dingkun Dan; second-grade materials were supplied for selection by Beijing Tongrentang, Tianjin Darrentang, and pharmacies in Shanghai; only third-grade and lower-grade materials were sent to the medicinal material markets for wholesale.