After Emperor Jiajing ascended the throne in the Ming Dynasty (A.D. 1522), folk elixirs were widely collected. Shao and Tao, two people, learn from each other's strong points and make up for each other's shortcomings in many tonics prescriptions in Seven Records of Quji, developed a prescription, and made the so-called immortal medicine by using the technology of Lian, named it Guilingji, and dedicated it to the emperor.
After Emperor Jiajing took over, he was really strong. He gave birth to nine sons in one breath and became an emperor who died after a long reign and was older. Guilingji was therefore listed as the "imperial holy medicine", and Shao and Tao became two orphans because of their contributions to medicine.
At that time, the medical director of the palace was a native of Taigu, Shanxi, and was Tao's adopted son. When Shao and Tao were promoted to fairy medicine, he was an assistant. The man retired home in his later years, brought back the prescription of Guilingji, took it himself and gave it to his relatives and friends as a gift. Later, the prescription of "Guilingji" fell into "Guangsheng Pharmacy" in Taigu County, and the medicine was sold as a commodity. Since then, "Guilingji" has become a specialty of Taigu County.
"Guilingji" has remarkable curative effect and is called "the king of tonics". According to the Records of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, after the Taiping Army conquered Nanjing, the heavenly king Hong Xiuquan ordered his Sun Mou to protect the pharmacy that made Guilingji and Dingkundan when it conquered Shaanxi, and moved all its personnel and equipment to Nanjing. Later, due to Sun's death, the plan of moving south failed to come true. From this historical event, we can also see the reputation of these two famous drugs in society.
The production process of Guilingji is particularly complicated. In addition to 99 processes such as boiling, steaming, mixing, frying, burying the soil and exposing the night, more than 20 kinds of precious medicinal materials such as ginseng, antler, hippocampus, sparrow brain, rehmannia root, cistanche deserticola, medlar and epimedium are needed, as well as various auxiliary materials such as aged vinegar, pepper, yellow wine, milk, honey and ginger juice. Therefore, all pharmacies in Taigu import medicinal materials from all over the country at any cost, almost monopolizing the import and export market of Chinese medicinal materials in northern China. Taigu people divided the imported medicinal materials into three classes, and the superior medicinal materials were transported back to General Taigu for upgrading Guilingji and Dingkundan. There are two kinds of medicinal materials in pharmacies in Beijing Tongrentang, Tianjin Darentang and Shanghai. After the third class, it will be transported to the medicinal materials market for wholesale.