Chapter Eight On TCM Strategy in Li Shizhen’s Hometown

A sea of clouds in Pingfeng Village屏風寨云海

The past 28 years have seen a strategic tendency that takes full advantage of Li Shizhen as a cultural-pharmaceutical brand in the ancient medical scientist’s hometown, Qichun County of Hubei Province.During this period, Qichun people have experienced both the joy of entrepreneurship and the pressure of unsustainability.Like all people they face the idea of giving up in some worst circumstances. Fortunately they persisted in and succeeded in exploring their “knock-out products,” in developing more new products, and in increasing the added value of their products.However, the strategic exploration which has prospered Qichun’s economy can be quite thought provoking.

Happiness exists in the knowledge about mugwort知艾是福

The Treasure Retrieved

Qichun stands brilliantly in Hubei, a “province of a thousand lakes” and a “land of fish and rice.” It is a common, yet charming and unique place in its own ways.

When we traced back to the 1980s in the 20th century, we astonishingly found that Qichun,a place that once earned so many applauses, suddenly lagged behind the times. Many people in other parts of China grasped the opportunity to become richer, while Qichun seemed to have lagged behind. Many locals became alert and decided that something had to be done to improve their standard of living.

But what should be done,exactly? Nobody knew. People in Qichun just blindly followed others. When there was a trend of establishing five small industrial enterprises (producing iron and steel, coal, chemical fertilizer,cement and machinery) in the countryside, Qichun people also set up their own small-scale factories, such as glassworks,cement mills, and jute bag plants.

At that time, the age-old Qizhou Town was demolished,and the time-honored walls were ruined. Only one gate was left.Many villages and townships in Qichun were in heavy debt.

When the craze of establishing township enterprises cooled down, Qichun people had no choice but to hunt for a job outside their hometown. Over 200 thousand youngsters became migrant laborers.

One man’s meat is another man’s poison. Knowing this,Qichun had to walk its own way and develop its own characteristics in a fierce competitive society. After repeated consultations, the local government suddenly found that the most important treasure of Qichun was the TCM culture of Li Shizhen, a historical medical sage.

Market Lessons Learned

Lining at the foot of the Dabie Mountains and facing the Yangtze River, Qichun is an ideal place for various medicinal herbs to grow and be traded.

李時珍故里，中國湖北蘄春縣，提出并實施以李時珍醫藥文化品牌興縣的戰略，已有28個年頭。這其間，蘄春人有過創業成功的喜悅，也有后繼乏力的酸楚，甚至有困難面前是否堅持下去的疑惑。

最終，他們堅持探索不懈，找準主打品種，研發新產品，增加產品附加值。蘄春實施醫藥興縣的實踐探索，帶給人們深深的思考。

識 寶

這是一方平凡而神奇的土地。在千湖之省、魚米之鄉的荊楚大地上，蘄春僅是明珠里面的一顆。然而，她又非常神奇、獨特、璀璨奪目。

歷史的篇章翻到20世紀80年代。環顧四周，那個曾讓無數人喝彩的蘄春，感到自己落在時代腳步的后面。蘄春要趕上去，蘄春要富起來，成為全縣上下的共識。

可是，病急亂投醫。蘄春見方抓方，看到別人做什么，自己就抓什么。別人搞“五小”工業，鄉鎮企業遍地開花，蘄春各鄉鎮也紛紛辦起小玻璃廠、小水泥廠、小麻袋廠等。

千年古城蘄州被拆得變了樣。城墻沒了，城門僅剩一座……許多鄉鎮還欠下沉重的債務。

鄉鎮企業的爐火熄滅后，蘄春人只得外出找飯吃。一個縣有20多萬青壯勞力外出務工。

照抄照搬別人，結果是水土不服，迷失了自我。市場競爭激烈，得靠特色立縣。主政者們集思廣議，大家驀然回首，才發現，蘄春最大的金字招牌就是李時珍，還得向祖宗討教高招。

陣 痛

蘄春背依大別山，面向長江，是藥物生長和交易的好地方。

立足于自然秉賦，主政者們便想到，一個傳統農業大縣應該發揮自身優勢，在“藥材”和“食材”上做文章，提出“兩材”興縣的目標。在政府力量推動下，蘄春的藥材種植如火如荼開展起來。

蘄春由傳統的魚米之鄉，變成百花爭妍的中草藥王國，一時間，人們想到什么可能賺錢，就種植什么。創建金銀花之鄉、創建桅子之鄉、創建菊花之鄉等口號紛紛涌現，誰都不甘落后。

政府還未雨綢繆，從1990年開始，辦起李時珍中藥材交易會。果真是文化搭臺，經貿唱戲，前六屆藥交會上，人頭攢動，萬人空巷。

Workers producing mugwort products艾產品生產現場

上世紀九十年代，蘄春種植的藥材品種有幾十個。藥材商們反映，市場上什么都有，什么都難形成氣候。金銀花由最高時的每公斤20元，跌到低谷時2元，甚至不夠采收的工錢。1.5萬畝的金銀花種植農戶，欲哭無淚。

As a traditional agricultural county, Qichun should give full play to its advantages by concentrating on medicinal materials and food materials based on its natural resources.Thus the government put forward the goal of developing the county through “commercializing the two materials.” Very soon Qichun’s medicinal herb plantations were rapidly growing.

Qichun turned from a traditional “land of fish and rice” to a kingdom of Chinese herbal medicine. People chose to grow whatever they thought profitable. “Let us create a hometown of honeysuckle!” “Or a county of crickets!” “A village of chrysanthemum!” The slogans sprang up. No one would lag behind.

The government had more planning. The Li Shizhen Trade Fair for Medicinal Materials was held since 1990. It was crowded at the previous six times; beneath the glorious banner of historical culture was the craving for the economic success.

In the 1990s, there were dozens of medicinal herb breeds grown all over Qichun. Medicine traders said that there were many products in the market but none of them could become a real business. The price of honeysuckle dropped from 20 yuan per kilogram at its highest to 2 yuan at its lowest, which was not even enough to cover the collecting wages. It was a huge blow to the farmers who planted a total of 15,000 mu (1,000 hectares) of honeysuckle.

藥材市場很快冷卻下來，年交易額由數億元跌到數千萬元。很多人產生動搖情緒。

Mugwort culture nurturing the younger generation艾文化哺育新一代

取 經

到底是醫藥興縣戰略有問題，還是對市場認識不夠，或者經營策略存在問題？之后的十多年，人們一面低調維持藥材種植，一面像李時珍廣取博采那樣，走出去擴大視野。

蘄春本地經營戶田群、肖本大、吳明星等來到河南南陽，意外地發現，南陽的艾草產品需求旺盛，規模達到200多億元，而且品質上佳的艾草產品，都被稱為蘄艾。蘄春田間地頭常見的蘄艾，被河南商戶們視為珍寶。

蘄春經營戶深感震驚：本地藥材種植經營漫天撒網，也許不如集中兵力打殲滅戰，捏緊拳頭，打造自身品牌優勢。

蘄春和韓國堤川是一對國際友好城市，縣委縣政府領導前往堤川考察時，發現市政廳陳列著精美的中草藥產品。對方還將黃芪禮盒作為饋贈禮物，這讓蘄春主政者們感到有些意外。

蘄春人從中受到啟發：韓國注重品牌先行，注重增加高附加值，與此相比，蘄春倡導中醫藥雖然20年，但規模小，品種散，各種產品附加值低。作為醫圣故里，蘄春更有責任做好李時珍醫藥品牌，弘揚中國中醫藥文化。

People began to think differently as the medicine market quickly cooled down, and the annual transaction volume fell from hundreds of millions (yuan)to tens of millions.

Inspirations from Outside

The failure set villagers into thinking. Was it the lack of the awareness of the market?Was there a problem with the management? Or, was the overall strategy a misguided one? In the following decades, farmers kept a cultivation of medicinal herbs in a small size. After that they decided to go out to “expand their horizons,” just like what Li Shizhen had done.

Tian Qun, Xiao Benda, and Wu Mingxing, who were all local medicine traders, once visited Nanyang, Henan Province. They unexpectedly found that the demand for mugwort products in Nanyang was so strong that the scale reached more than 20 billion yuan, and high-quality mugwort products were called Qi’ai, or Qi mugwort. However,in Qichun, the mugwort was but a common plant that usually grows wild in the fields. Qichun traders felt inspired. Instead of growing all kinds of medicinal herbs in Qichun, they should focus on establishing their own brand superiority.

The next inspiration they drew came from Jecheon, Korea,a sister city of Qichun. When Qichun’s governors visited Jecheon, they found that some fine products of Chinese herbs were displayed in the City Hall.More surprisingly, they got Astragalus root, a TCM material,as the official gift from South Korea.

Mugwort moxibustion for health preservation艾灸養生

聚 力

眼界打開了，病癥找準了。他們認識到，原來，蘄春人身在寶山，并未充分認識到李時珍醫藥文化的品牌價值，并未充分利用本地的資源優勢。

經過與南陽、韓國堤川的對比，蘄春人找到自己的問題癥結，他們堅持發展大健康產業、實行健康產業和旅游產業聯動的戰略思路更加明確，而且要咬定青山不放松，抓住主要產品，形成自己核心競爭力。

2011年以來，蘄春設置專項基金，扶植蘄艾等優質中藥材種植，農民連片種植10畝以上優質中草藥，都給予資金扶持；開始時每年投入300萬元，現在每年投入5000萬元以上；扶持李時珍醫藥集團、蘄艾協會等行業龍頭，開發新產品，占據市場新高度。

與此同時，社會資本爭相進入。蘄艾牙膏、蘄艾洗發水、蘄艾沐浴露、艾乳、艾皂被開發出來。電商平臺的興起，著實給蘄艾產品的紅火助添一把柴。

引 爆

每公斤蘄艾干葉由前些年的四五元，上漲到現在的12元；蘄艾企業增加到1100多家，推出新產品20多個系列830多種，基本上每周推出一種。蘄春的中藥材經營，出現空前的繁榮局面。

蘄春人更加看重李時珍文化品牌、李時珍醫藥品牌，形成基地種植、產品研發、美工設計、市場推廣等全產業鏈。中國中醫藥協會2016年將“中國艾都”的稱號授予蘄春。

Qichun people were inspired by how South Koreans gave priority to the brand and paid more attention to increasing high added value. In contrast,though Qichun had advocated Chinese medicine for 20 years,its TCM industry was still small in size, scattered in variety, and low in the added value of various products. As the hometown of the ancient medical sage,Qichun had the responsibility to promote Li Shizhen’s cultural pharmaceutical brand and spread the TCM culture.

Core Competitiveness Formed

While enlarging their horizons,Qichun people realized that they were sitting on a goldmine but failed to recognize the real value of Li Shizhen’s brand, much less to make full use of the local resources.

In comparisons with Nanyang and Jecheon, Qichun people found out their own weakness and decided to insist on their strategy, only with a wise revision. They would adhere to the linkage between the health industry and tourism industry,while developing the big health industry. Moreover, they realized that they should concentrate on the main products so as to form their core competitiveness.

Since 2011, Qichun has set up a special fund to support the cultivation of high-quality Chinese herbal medicines such as Qi mugwort. Farmers who planted more than 10 mu of highquality Chinese herbal medicine are given financial support. At the beginning, 3 million yuan was invested each year; and in recent years, more than 50 million yuan has been invested per year. The Li Shizhen Pharmaceutical Group,Chinese Mugwort Association,and other industry leaders are also supported by the government in their endeavors to develop new products and expand the market.

Qi mugwort products with national medicine permission number國藥準字號蘄艾產品

2017年，蘄艾產業綜合產值達30億元。中國品牌建設促進會公布蘄艾品牌價值43.84億元，躍居全國“地標品牌產品”第二位。

更高的價值，被賦予蘄艾產業的各個環節上，但成績還是初步的。它還只是李時珍醫藥寶庫這座冰山剛剛打開的一角。未來，他們將在健康旅游和養生等方面，做更大的文章。

許多有實力的企業被李時珍醫藥文化品牌吸引，招商局集團、湖北聯投等大型企業投入巨資，蘄春向著打造千億元級的健康養生產業的目標邁進。（文/黃永明）

本刊供稿：王志勇 占小虎 王 晴吳 憾 陳 飄 熊慧玉李林清 高嬌嬌

Meanwhile, social capitals have been poured into the industry. New products such as Qi mugwort toothpaste, shampoo,shower gel, milk, and soap have been developed. The rise of e-commerce platforms has also helped to boost the development of Qi mugwort products.

Farmers collecting medicinal fruits 采摘藥果

An Unprecedented Prosperity

The price of Qi mugwort leaves rose from 4 or 5 yuan per kilogram to 12 yuan. Over 1,100 Qi mugwort enterprises have introduced more than 20 series of 830 products, and continued launching basically one new product every week. The TCM industry in Qichun experienced an unprecedented prosperity.

Qichun people now pay special attention to the Li Shizhen cultural-pharmaceutical brand. A whole industry chain of planting bases, product research and development, art design, and marketing has formed. The county has been awarded the title of the“Capital of Chinese Mugwort” by the China Association of TCM.

Qi Mugwort Health Care Supermarket蘄艾健康精品超市

In 2017, the comprehensive output value of the Qi mugwort industry reached 3 billion yuan.China Brand Building Promotion Association evaluated its brand value worth of 4.384 billion yuan, ranking second in China’s“Landmark Brand Products.”

Higher value was given to all aspects of the industry. However,the achievement was still preliminary, and just reflected but a small corner of Li Shizhen’s medical treasure house. In the future, Qichun people would take more actions in promoting the health tourism and health care industry

Now, many big companies and enterprises are attracted by the Li Shizhen cultural pharmaceutical brand. Large enterprises including the China Merchants Group and Hubei United Investment Group have invested here, helping Qichun move towards the goal of building a 100-billion-yuan health care industry in the near future.

(By Huang Yongming)

Xiongwu Gate in Qizhou蘄州雄武門