Ask the story about Tianshui Ejiao ~

China Daily News Global Online News: Dong 'e County has had a well since ancient times. The water inside is clear and sweet, and people call it "a well".

One day, with the imperial edict of Emperor Taizong, Weichi Gong broke the peace here. General Wei Chi ordered Ajing to be sealed, and issued an imperial decree-only officials can "take water from Kaifeng" and "boil gelatin for tribute", and local people are not allowed to make Ejiao in Kaifeng without permission, otherwise they will be killed.

It turns out that a water mirror in Dong 'e County is very famous in the process of boiling Ejiao. Li Shizhen's Compendium of Materia Medica records: "Ejiao is the classic, and Hongjing says,' Ejiao is named after East Afghanistan'". At first, Ejiao was made from cowhide and Dong 'e well water. Later, because cowhide was hard, it became an important strategic material, and people were not allowed to make gelatin from cowhide privately. After that, people began to replace cowhide with donkey skin and horse skin. Over time, it was found that donkey skin boiling glue had better nourishing and expelling wind effect, but it became authentic Ejiao. The necessary condition for boiling Ejiao becomes donkey skin plus Dong 'e well water.

In a blink of an eye, 1000 years have passed. On the solstice of the winter of 2007, the dusty Gu 'ajing was opened by Dong 'e county party secretary. At midnight that night, Qin Yufeng, general manager of Dong 'e Ejiao Co., Ltd., dressed in Tang suit, announced the opening of the first Dong 'e Ejiao Cultural Festival in China for 9 days. From that day on, the old rubber refiner personally took his disciples, carefully selected pure aconite donkey skin according to the extremely strict and standardized ancient rubber refining method, registered the number, and cooperated with the ancient well water. After 52 processes, Jiuchao Ejiao, which was interrupted for hundreds of years, was refined by hand.

At this time, the Ejiao (imitation) ancient production line invested heavily by Dong 'e Ejiao is under non-stop construction. As the only representative inheritor of Dong 'e Ejiao Intangible Cultural Heritage Project, Qin Yufeng has repeatedly declared: "Our core competitiveness is culture!"

Local methods spell "China first"

Qin Yufeng 1958 was born in Dong 'e County, and 17 years old worked in Dong 'e Ejiao Factory. Dong 'e Ejiao Factory has been established for six years, but the conditions in the factory are very simple, that is, a row of bungalows, several iron pots and dozens of rubber workers in nearby villages. This enterprise is state-owned.

Qin Yufeng started as a rubber dryer and gradually became a rubber refinery. Qin Yufeng's hands are often soaked in glue, because impurities should be filtered out when refining rubber. After a long time, he found that even in winter, his hands were not rough. He secretly wondered, is it that Ejiao has a protective effect on the skin? So he carefully observed the hands of several other rubber refiners, all of which were white and tender, whiter than women's hands. At that time, an idea appeared in Qin Yufeng's mind. If there is an opportunity in the future, he must develop the beauty beauty function of Ejiao.

Before long, the young man who likes to ponder entered the sight of Liu Weizhi, the technical director at that time. Liu Weizhi found that although the young man is young, as long as he explains some knowledge to his employees, he always understands it fastest and accurately, and he always tries his best and has a quiet personality. Liu Weizhi thought he was a useful material and began to cultivate Qin Yufeng.

Because rubber blocks can't dry in summer, Ejiao can only be produced in winter. Qin Yufeng still remembers many details of rubber refining: because there was no money to repair the foam pool, the workers transported the donkey skin to the river four or five miles away from the factory for soaking; In order to prevent the donkey skin from being washed away by the river, we should try to tie it to a stone. After the donkey skin is soaked, break the ice to take the skin and shave it, and then take it to the factory for cleaning. The worker stood on the edge of the pool, holding a big iron fork in his hand, inserted it into the donkey skin and turned it over. In the process of soaking and cleaning the skin, the workers were breathless with cold, and their hands were cracked with blood. When the glue melts, the workshop is filled with smoke and stinks. A cauldron with a diameter of two and a half meters was placed on the high stove. The workers climbed up the stove with bare arms and stirred with a 7-kg copper shovel, stirring 1200 times per hour or more. In this way, it was refined and concentrated for six days and six nights, and then cut into strips with a large straw cutter for mowing grass in rural areas. Rubber strip was cut, and the workers' jaws were split.

This is not the way, the technology is too backward and must be improved! But there was no theory to refer to, so Liu Weizhi had to try it with Qin Yufeng and a few smart workers. They designed their own drawings and made the first steamed meatball peeler in the history of modern Ejiao production in China. I didn't expect the indigenous method to greatly improve the labor efficiency and realize the automation of rubber mixing. At that time, Qin Yufeng was so excited that he couldn't sleep until two o'clock in the evening.

After that, Qin Yufeng followed Liu Weizhi's technical transformation team for continuous research and development, and finally realized the industrialization of Ejiao production. Ejiao has also become a good medicine for ordinary people.

Qin Yufeng gradually emerged. He worked in the fields of production, supply, quality supervision, technology and market. In May 2006, without any suspense, Qin Yufeng became the general manager of Dong 'e Ejiao Co., Ltd. ..

"Journalists are no exception."

Qin Yufeng told reporters that he has been making donkey-hide gelatin for more than 30 years, and it hurts to think of several things. First, at present, the understanding of Ejiao's function in China only stays on "enriching blood"; Second, in recent years, there have been three consecutive disputes over the retention or abolition of traditional Chinese medicine. China had a heated debate, while South Korea proposed to change Chinese medicine to Korean medicine and apply for world cultural heritage.

Qin Yufeng said that Chinese medicine has been handed down by our ancestors for thousands of years, and the curative effect of medicine has been tested by practice, so it must not be discarded. Only by making Chinese medicine bigger and stronger can others have a chance to gossip. As a traditional craft, Ejiao, like rice paper and cloisonne, has a traditional craft that cannot be replicated in other countries. What worries him most is that one day Ejiao's technology will be successfully copied abroad.

In this respect, there is a lesson from China's traditional craft: China Xuan paper has the reputation of "Millennium Life Paper" and "King of Paper", especially the Xuan paper produced in Jingxian County, Xuanzhou, Anhui Province. The Japanese have coveted this secret recipe for a long time. They sent intelligence personnel to Xuanzhou for a fake visit, but they were rejected by Jingxian Factory. The next year, another group of Japanese went to a county in Zhejiang Province, where a paper mill warmly welcomed them and answered their questions. Even the details such as the alkali concentration of cooking materials can't be finished. When he left, he also presented Dalbergia bark, long grass pulp and carambola. Since then, the Japanese people proudly announced that the world's rice paper ranked first in Jingxian County, Anhui Province, second in Japan, third in Zhejiang Province and fourth in Taiwan Province Province!

So how does Dong 'e Ejiao prevent this premeditated theft? Qin Yufeng said, "In fact, the main thing is to be alert ideologically. In order to prevent this from happening, our national formula product production area will never allow non-production personnel to enter; Even if you cooperate with other companies, it does not involve core secrets such as formulas. "

Sure enough, when the reporter asked to visit the production workshop of compound Ejiao slurry, he politely refused and said with a smile: "Sorry, the reporter is no exception!"

In Dong 'e Company, which has more than 2,000 people, some national secret formulas, such as Compound glue paste and Fuzi glue paste, are strictly confidential, and only the rubber refiner knows about them except Qin Yufeng.

"The influence of cultural products is infinite"

"Dong 'e Ejiao has such a good cultural history. If you don't dig, I'm sorry for Chinese medicine practitioners in China, and I'm even more sorry for my ancestors! " This is a sentence repeatedly mentioned by Qin Yufeng in the interview. In fact, the original idea of cultural marketing was formed on the wine table.

China people pay attention to business talks at the dinner table, and wine is the medium to bring them closer. Unfortunately, Qin Yufeng can't drink well. In order to be able to sell products without drinking, we are considering how to divert customers' attention from alcohol. He thought, what are we talking about? Since it is selling Ejiao, let's talk about the history of Ejiao! What Yang Guifei secretly ate Ejiao to save face, and what Empress Dowager Cixi ate Ejiao to keep her son ... Gradually, Qin Yufeng discovered that seven or eight out of ten listeners would buy Ejiao products, and there was no need to be brothers and drink to practice their fists. Qin Yufeng firmly believes that the marketing of Dong 'e Ejiao depends on culture sooner or later.

But culture is a broad concept after all. How to operate cultural marketing? Qin Yufeng thought of holding "Dong 'e Ejiao Cultural Festival". The touching story told on the wine table was also edited into a book named "Dong 'e Ejiao's First Surprise" under the planning of Qin Yufeng. At the same time, the description of Ejiao formula in ancient books was transformed into actual Ejiao products, forming a series of new Ejiao products facing the high-end market. For example, according to Bai Pu's description of Yang Guifei's Yuan Qu, "A bowl of Ejiao, a sesame seed, red stuffed candied white rice, pink cheeks like shame, apricot blossoms and spring rain smiling, nourishing youth, saving life and gaining capital", Ejiao cake was developed.

"The market benefits of material goods are limited, but the influence of cultural products is unlimited." Qin Yufeng said that this was his personal experience. It is with the help of cultural marketing that the brand value of Ejiao has risen from 2.675 billion yuan in 2006 to more than 3 billion yuan now. (Source: global person Magazine)