"Donkey-hide gelatin is the top grade in the classics. Hong Jing said: it comes from Dong'e, so it is named donkey-hide gelatin." The "Compendium of Materia Medica" tells the authentic birthplace of donkey-hide gelatin for thousands of years. Since ancient times, there has been a popular saying among the people: Only the donkey-hide gelatin produced in Dong'e is the authentic "donkey-hide gelatin", and products from other origins can only be called donkey hide gelatin at best. What is the difference between "donkey hide gelatin" and "donkey hide gelatin"? We have to start from Dong'e, the hometown of donkey-hide gelatin.

Groundwater, the "soul" of authentic donkey-hide gelatin

The reason why donkey-hide gelatin is "donkey-hide gelatin" lies first in the underground water of Dong'e. The groundwater in Dong'e is an indispensable raw material for making donkey-hide gelatin. Li Daoyuan of the Northern Wei Dynasty said in "Shui Jing Zhu": "There is a well in Dong'e as big as a wheel, six or seven feet deep. Every year, glue is boiled to pay tribute to the heaven." Shen Kuo of the Northern Song Dynasty In "Mengxi Bi Tan" it is said: "Dong'e is also where Jishui passes, and the well water is used to boil glue, which is called donkey-hide gelatin."

Dong'e groundwater is an underground flow at the intersection of Taihang Mountain and Taishan Mountains. The water quality is "downward, clear and heavy", so during the cooking process, impurities float up, and the finished Dong'e gelatin has a pure texture. . Modern science has proven that Dong'a water has a relative density of 1.0038 and is rich in a variety of minerals and trace elements. A large amount of minerals can help the dispersion of medicinal properties and achieve rapid curative effects.

Water is the soul of donkey-hide gelatin, and it is the unique water quality conditions that determine the quality of donkey-hide gelatin. Throughout the ages, whether it is among the people or the authorities in the field of traditional Chinese medicine, it has been unanimously recognized that only the donkey-hide gelatin produced in Dong'e is the authentic donkey-hide gelatin.

The glue boiling process is the "source" of authentic donkey hide gelatin

The traditional donkey hide gelatin boiling technology requires very strict requirements, and the production process requires 50 steps such as "receiving materials, trimming the skin, and boiling the gelatin". There are many purely manual processes, and any error in any link will have an impact on the overall quality. Historically, the craft of donkey-hide gelatin has been passed down from master to apprentice and is generally kept secret.

Today, in order to protect the traditional donkey-hide gelatin production process, the people of Dong'e have not only restored the ancient donkey-hide gelatin production line, but also hold the Winter Solstice donkey-hide gelatin festival every year to promote the health culture of traditional Chinese medicine. During the Winter Solstice Donkey-hide Jiao Festival, it has become a hot topic to restore the nine tribute glue-refining rituals from a hundred years ago. People read donkey-hide gelatin poems, collect donkey-hide water, get black donkey skins, and light the first fire for glue refining... a solemn and elegant tribute. The glue ceremony allows modern people to once again witness the magnificence and magic of the ancient secret techniques of donkey hide gelatin production.

In 2006, Shandong Fukiao Group Dong'e Town E-Jiao Co., Ltd. was listed as a time-honored donkey-hide gelatin enterprise in China. Two years later, in 2008, the donkey-hide gelatin production technology was listed as a national intangible cultural heritage. Dong'e's traditional secret gelatin refining process constitutes another factor in the origin of Dong'e's authentic donkey-hide gelatin.

Donkey skin raw material, the "base" of authentic donkey-hide gelatin

"Little black donkey, white belly, pink nose, pink eyes, pink feet, take a walk on the bridge in the city and slaughter it during the winter solstice "Donkey skin" - it is the black-headed donkey sung in this folk song, which makes Dong'e Town's donkey-hide gelatin the third key to being synonymous with authentic donkey-hide gelatin.

The production process of Dong'e Town Fu brand donkey-hide gelatin

Information source: Pingyin County Government website | Information author: | Release date: 2009-12-01

Donkey-hide gelatin is a holy medicine for nourishing blood. Together with ginseng and deer antler, it is also known as the "Three Treasures of Traditional Chinese Medicine". It is named after it was first produced in Dong'a Town, Pingyin County, Jinan City, Shandong Province, and has a history of more than 2,500 years. Dong'e Town is the nationally named "Hometown of Donkey-hide Jiao in China" and the origin of donkey-hide gelatin. According to "Yu Gong" written during the Warring States Period and "Huainanzi" of the Han Dynasty, donkey-hide gelatin is recorded. my country's earliest existing pharmacological monograph "Shen Nong's Materia Medica" lists it as "top grade" and "Compendium of Materia Medica" calls it " Holy medicine". In 2002, Dong'a Town was listed as a protected area for the origin of gelatin by the state. Dong'a Town has become a famous town that forms three major traditional ethnic cultures with Jingdezhen and Maotai Town.

Part One Overview

1. Salient Features

Dong'e Town is the concentrated production area of ??donkey-hide gelatin. Ejiao has been recorded in the medical monographs of the past dynasties, such as "Yu Gong", "Shen Nong's Materia Medica", and "Compendium of Materia Medica". By the Ming Dynasty, the donkey-hide gelatin industry in Dong'e Town had almost reached its peak period when "all women and children were familiar with frying gelatin." Large-scale donkey-hide gelatin workshops include "Deng's Shudetang", "Tu's Huaidetang" and "Yu's Tiandetang". "Waiting for dozens. Some of these shops specialize in donkey-hide gelatin, and some have front shops and back-office factories, or they also practice medicine and make donkey-hide gelatin. Each shop has its own strengths. Among the donkey-hide gelatin produced by "Deng's Shudetang" and "Tu's Huadetang" are the best.

During the Xianfeng period of the Qing Dynasty, the emperor's favorite concubine Lan Guiren Yehenala was cured of blood disease after taking donkey-hide gelatin from Deng's Shudetang, and she was blessed with a dragon son (the later Emperor Tongzhi). Emperor Xianfeng specially gave three treasures to Deng Fa, the leader of Deng's Shude Hall: first, a yellow mandarin jacket (equivalent to the official uniform of a fourth-grade official); second, a hand fold (equivalent to a pass for entering and exiting the palace); third, he gave Give Tang's Shudetang the word "福", and the lucky brand of donkey-hide gelatin becomes exclusive for the royal palace.

The notable features of Fubai donkey-hide gelatin production are: unique geographical environment; careful selection of materials and processing in accordance with ancient times; numerous processes and rich unique skills.

2. Social and Natural Environment

Dong'a Town is located in southwest Shandong, at the intersection of Jinan, Tai'an, Liaocheng and Heze, with a geographical area of ??95 square kilometers and topography It is high in the east and low in the west. The east is mountainous and hilly, and the west is plain along the Yellow River. The Yellow River and the Langxi River, the largest inland river in the county, pass through it. The cultivated land area is 48,000 acres and the population is 39,000.

Dong'a Town has been the seat of Dong'a County in the past dynasties, and the establishment of Dong'a County began in the Qin Dynasty. There are records in the old "Donga County Chronicle" and "Shandong General Chronicle". In 1948, with the Yellow River as the boundary, Dong'a County east of the Yellow River was placed under Pingyin County, which is now Dong'a Town; west of the Yellow River was placed under Dong'a County, and the county seat was moved to Tongcheng (now the town).

Dong'a Town is surrounded by mountains in the southeast and a river in the northwest. The Langxi River in the territory is formed by more than ten mountain springs in Hongfan. The spring water is filtered and gushes out layer by layer through underground rock crevices. The water quality is natural, clear and sweet. , is a natural traditional water for boiling glue. Using it to boil glue can reduce the pollution of raw materials, the ash content is easy to control, and the glue block will not break in winter or soften in summer. During the cooking process, the trace elements contained in the water combine with the protein in donkey-hide gelatin to form organic salts, which are easily absorbed by the human body, thereby ensuring the unique therapeutic effect of Dong'e Zhenfu brand donkey-hide gelatin.

Shi'er Mountain is located 1.5 kilometers southwest of Dong'a Town. It is lush with lush grass and forests. It was a breeding ground for donkeys that were used to prepare glue for the royal palace in ancient times. Due to the wide variety of Chinese herbal medicines, donkeys that eat the grass here will be strong and fat, with shiny black fur, and their skin is particularly suitable for making donkey hide gelatin.

3. The production process of Dong'e Zhenfu brand donkey-hide gelatin

"Chinese Pharmacy Dictionary" records that according to the ancient method: every spring, pure black disease-free and healthy donkeys are selected and fed to the east The grass from Shi'er Mountain in A Town is drank with water from Langxi River. In winter, it is slaughtered and skinned. It is soaked in Langxi River for four or five days to shave off the hair and remove dirt. It is then soaked and bleached for several days. Water from Langxi River is used to make fire with mulberry firewood. Blend for three days and nights, remove the residue and filter, use a silver pot and a golden spatula, add ginseng, yarrow, gui, xiong, orange, cinnamon, licorice and other medicinal juices, and boil it into gel. Its color is bright and clean, its taste is sweet and salty, and its odor is fragrant. This is true donkey-hide gelatin.

The production process of Dong'e Zhenfu brand donkey-hide gelatin is divided into processing of raw materials, juice extraction and gelatin decoction, concentration and gelatin collection, gelatin cutting, gelatin drying, gelatin rubbing and packaging. The entire process has 49 steps and takes 30-60 days to complete.

(1) Raw material processing

1. Skin selection: Select the whole donkey skin that is free from insects and mildew, and carry out metering and feeding;

2 , Soak the skin: Soak the donkey skin in the pool for 5-7 days, change the water 1-2 times a day, and take it out after the skin is soft;

3. Shaving: Soak the donkey skin , place it on a wooden bench, first remove the carrion or fat inside, and then scrape off the hair on the surface;

4. Cut the skin: Cut the hairless donkey skin into squares about 40cm long and wide;

5. Skin washing: Place the chopped leather pieces in the skin washing pool, add water several times, and rinse them with a skin washing machine. 6. Blanch the skin: Put the washed donkey skin into a leather tank, add water and heat to blanch it until the skin is rolled up and then take it out for frying the glue. < /p>

Shave, cut into pieces, and blanch to ensure quality.

(2) Get the juice and fry the glue

1. Put the donkey skin pieces into the leather tank, add water in batches and heat to get the juice. The extracted glue juice will be filtered through sedimentation and then put into the decoction tank. In the glue pot.

2. Fry the filtered glue juice in a glue frying pan for a long time. During this process, the operator uses unique traditional techniques to repeatedly float and beat out the glue foam to purify the glue juice. Impurities.

(3) Concentrate and collect glue

1. Filter the pure glue juice into the glue frying pot again, continue to simmer until it reaches a certain level, and add an appropriate amount of rock sugar, etc. Excipients.

2. During the frying process, add soybean oil when the glue "hangs beads" and "smash the oil" to fully mix the oil and glue to avoid oil holes in the finished glue block.

3. When the glue continues to boil to a certain extent, add Shaoxing wine. At this time, the heat should be reduced and stirred at any time. Large bubbles will continue to appear in the pot, like mushrooms, commonly known as "hair pot". Then the heat is reduced, a process commonly known as "sobering up".

4. When the glue liquid is fried to "hanging flag", stop heating. Pour the glue solution into the gel box.

Key points of the decoction process:

Sedimentation, filtration, foaming and impurity removal;

Civil and military heat, long-term tempering;

Hanging The beads are smashed into the oil, foaming and sobering up;

Hanging the flag to produce glue, the aroma is rich.

(4) Gel and cut glue

Condensate the concentrated glue liquid to obtain glue mass. The glue lump is first cut into large strips and then into small pieces. This process is commonly known as "opening".

Key points of the gelling and cutting process:

The glue lumps are condensed and have moderate hardness and softness;

Place strips and cut into pieces with even thickness;

(5) Glue drying

1. After the film is cut, it is placed on the glue drying bed to dry, and the glue is turned over within a certain period of time. , so that the moisture is evenly distributed on both sides.

2. During the drying process, the drying degree of the glue block varies, and it is easy to form "warped glue". According to the traditional method, the glue block is put into the wooden box, the glue is stuffed with moisture, the box is flattened, and the air is released to dry the glue. After three times of glue drying, drying, and airing, the glue block was kept flat and dry.

Key points of the glue drying process:

In the cold dew and grain rain environment, three tiles Three-air drying process;

The box is upright and inverted, and the rubber blocks are regular and smooth.

(6) Glue wiping and packaging

1. After the donkey-hide gelatin sheet is dried to the specified level, enter the gluing process. Use a coarse cloth dipped in special water to wipe the surface of the rubber block to make the six sides bright and shiny, with a clear coarse cloth texture.

2. Use Chinese medicinal material silver and vermilion to print the product name or place of origin on the surface of the rubber block.

3. Sterilize the rubber block through a special channel to meet national standards.

4. Pack the sterilized donkey-hide gelatin blocks to obtain the finished product.

Key points of the glue wiping and packaging process:

Rub gluing with coarse cloth to make the cloth pattern clear;

Silver and vermilion printing, brand mark;

Color Like amber, black like paint;

One piece in one package, moisture-proof and quality-proof.

Part 2 Outstanding Value

1. Historical Value:

In the long-term process of social evolution and human practice, glue has gradually become a kind of medicine. During the Han Dynasty, glue had become a commonly used medicine among doctors. It has been recorded in the Materia Medica of all ages. After more than 2,000 years of development, donkey-hide gelatin embodies the wisdom and efforts of the working people. It is a valuable asset of national cultural heritage and contains the profound historical and cultural value of Chinese medicine.

2. Medicinal value:

Donkey-hide gelatin has obvious functions of replenishing blood, stopping bleeding, enhancing the body's immunity, and is resistant to hypoxia, cold, fatigue, radiation, and muscle weakness. , anti-shock, nourishing yin and kidney, strengthening muscles and bones, diuresis and reducing swelling, etc. Fupai donkey-hide gelatin has stable quality, accurate curative effect, convenient consumption, and no toxic or side effects. It is a good nourishing product for treating diseases and strengthening the body without diseases.

3. Craftsmanship value:

After more than two thousand years of practice, the Dong'e Town Fu brand donkey-hide gelatin production technology has formed a unique set of technologies, which is a long-term system of the Chinese working people. The crystallization of glue wisdom, the glue making process almost includes dozens of tedious processes such as soaking, washing, cutting, boiling, boiling, cooling, tiles, rubbing, wrapping, etc. It is a typical representative of my country's traditional Chinese medicine production technology. Dong'e Town's donkey-hide gelatin production process The production process is where product quality is guaranteed and has rich technical connotations.

4. Economic value:

Fupai donkey-hide gelatin is famous at home and abroad for its authenticity and remarkable curative effect. Overseas Chinese only recognize Fu Brand, and its products are exported to more than a dozen countries and regions including Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea. In its more than 50 years of reform and development, Fukuo Group has made outstanding contributions to the economy, society and human health.

Part Three Endangered Status

After thousands of years of practice and exploration, Fubai donkey-hide gelatin has formed a traditional production process. With the development of modern science and technology, the connotation of traditional production craftsmanship and classic techniques have been gradually forgotten and diluted. In addition, old glue-making workers and old technicians have retired one after another. The glue-making craftsmanship that is passed down only by mentoring apprentices and teaching by words and deeds will face challenges. At risk of being lost. As a "treasure of traditional Chinese medicine", donkey-hide gelatin contains thousands of years of traditional donkey-hide gelatin history and culture. It is the historical crystallization of the collective wisdom and civilization of the Chinese nation. Effective protection is imperative.

Part 4 Protection Plan and Measures

1. Protection Plan:

(1) Systematically excavate and sort out the preparation process of donkey-hide gelatin to form a systematic text, Pictures, special DVDs, and systematically organized and archived;

(2) Comprehensive management of the Langxi River and building it into a Langxi River Park integrating ecological protection and sightseeing;

(3) Build the Shi'er Mountain ecological donkey breeding base, extend the traditional industrial chain, and increase the self-supply rate of donkey hide gelatin raw materials to 50%.

(4) Restore and construct the original appearance of the traditional donkey-hide gelatin workshop in Dong'e Town during the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and establish a unique donkey-hide gelatin cultural tourism industry.

2. Protection measures:

(1) Protection of traditional craftsmanship: 1. Hire the descendants of the skilled donkey-hide gelatin from Dong'e Town to enterprises as technical consultants and senior technicians at high salaries; 2. . Veteran technicians who are descendants of donkey-hide gelatin and have more than 30 years of service will be assessed as senior technicians within the company and given a special monthly allowance. A master-to-apprentice approach will be adopted to ensure that the traditional donkey-hide gelatin craftsmanship can be passed on.

(2) Organize and protect historical documents and materials: 1. Collect historical documents and materials related to donkey-hide gelatin in Dong'e Town, and incorporate them into the unified management of corporate archives; 2. Produce the scientific and educational film "Treasures of Traditional Chinese Medicine", publish and compile "China's donkey-hide gelatin" ” book; 3. Collect certificates, plaques, physical objects, etc. from before the Republic of China;

(3) Effectively protect the traditional donkey hide gelatin workshop site: 1. Consult with the local government and issue regulations on environmental management of the Langxi River Basin The protection policy documents stipulate that the water for donkey-hide gelatin is ensured; 2. Erect a monument to the ruins of the traditional donkey-hide gelatin workshop in Dong'e Town before the Ming and Qing Dynasties that are on the verge of disappearing.

Dong'e Town Fubai donkey-hide gelatin production technology was created and accumulated by the working people in practice. It embodies the wisdom and sweat of the working people and is a precious national cultural heritage. On the basis of inheriting tradition, Fujian Group will shoulder the historical responsibility of protecting national cultural heritage and contribute to the revitalization of national industry, promotion of traditional Chinese medicine culture and healthy mankind.