(Wuhe Shopping Mall, Zhengxingde Building, Northeast Corner that year)
Ma Sanli's "The Art of Naming Names": "Where to buy things?" Da de Xiang. Where? Xiang Fuhe. Look at the word! Where to buy tea? Zhengxingde... This word makes it easy for you to remember, and it is easy to shout. It shows that "Zhengxingde" is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, it is almost the oldest old brand in Tianjin to this day, and Ma Lao inadvertently advertised Zhengxingde.
Tianjin people pay attention to drinking jasmine tea, a pot of tea from morning to night, the soup color is thick, the floral fragrance is long-lasting, and the tea mouth is distinct. From the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty to the present hundreds of years, the most famous tea shop in Tianjin has always been one of the "Zhengxingde".
The founder of "Zhengxingde" was named Mu Xingyong, the ancestors of the Mu family were from Qiantang, Zhejiang, during the Ming Hongwu period, their ancestors Mu Chong and the King of Suiyan swept the north, and in the second year of Yongle (1404), Mu Chonghe's son Mu Neng and Mu Tai "attacked the imperial guard position" and escorted the imperial grain to Tongzhou by water transport boats, the emperor gave the Mu family boats, and the Mu family brothers returned south along the North Canal to Settle down to Tianjin Zhigu Xiaosunzhuang, and Xiaosunzhuang was renamed Mujiazhuang.
Mu Xingyong (1752-1816) was young and engaged in rice noodle processing business, often going to the northwest corner of the boy lane a often surname noodle shop, chang surname couple saw Mu Xingyong's cleverness, generous duty, they gave his only daughter Xu to him. Mu Xingyong had four sons after marriage, Wen Jie, Wen Jun, Wen Ying, and Wen Wei. The noodle shop business has become more and more popular, and has successively opened Sidley Rice Shop, Zhengxing No. Money Shop, Changxing Dyeing Factory, Daxing No. Foreign Goods Store; in The Boy Lane, Needle Market Street, Bamboo Pole Lane, Yi Yi Street, Hedong and other places to buy shops and houses for rent, gradually developed.
At this time, during the Jiaqing period, there were only a few Huibang tea shops in Tianjin. Mu Xingyong was optimistic about the tea market, and collected a closed tea shop in Zhugan Lane outside the North Gate, named Zhengxing Tea House. Tianjin is not a tea-producing place, but because of the concentration of goods from the south to the north, tea leaves from all over the world will pass through Tianjin when they enter Kyoto. At the beginning of Mu Xingyong's tea shop, he bought leaf tea in Hunan, Hubei and Lu'an, Anhui in bulk in Tianjin for retail use, and also sold snuff (then called "smelling medicine").
After the business grew bigger, Mu Xingyong sent people to Fuzhou, Hangzhou, Huangshan, Lu'an, Dafang and other tea-producing areas to purchase tea, and opened a fragrant tea lavender factory in Zhoukouzhai, Henan, where the tea was produced, and made jasmine tea back to Tianjin for sale, and profits soared.
The M Mos family developed into the "Tianjin Eight Greats". Tianjin Eight is actually not eight, but a general term for tianjin from the Qing Dynasty to the Republic of China in different eras of the representative giants, can be said to be the epitome of the development of Tianjin shipping, grain industry, salt, industry and commerce in the Qing Dynasty.
In the seventh year of Xianfeng (1857), Mu Xingyong had died many years ago, and only three of his four sons were Mu Wenying. Mu Wenying gathered the sons and nephews of the four gates of the Mu family together, and divided all the shops, real estate, gold and silver into four equal parts, which were operated by each door alone and separated by another family. Mu Wenying was given the Zhengxing Tea House and handed it over to his son Mu Shirong to run, who renamed the tea estate "Zhengxing Deji" and rebuilt and expanded it into a roomless façade room, with a registered trademark of "Green Bamboo Brand".
Mu Shirong had three sons, Mu Yunxiang, Mu Yunhan, and Mu Yunshu. After Mu Shirong's death, each of the three people had a one-third stake in Zhengxingde and jointly managed Zhengxingde. The three shareholders hired a professional manager, the big boss Mu Yatian.
Mu Yatian (1859-1939) was born in Tianjin, apprenticed to Zhengxingde at the age of 16, worked as a worker in the West Stack warehouse, and was appreciated by the owner for his shrewdness and strength. After Mu Yatian became the big treasurer, he continued the traditional business mode of Zhengxingde, sending people to the place of origin to purchase tea kilns every year during the tea picking season to ensure the proper channels and superior quality of high-grade tea; and then opened tea picking in Huangshan all year round, set up factories in Henan, Fuzhou and other places to make tea, and opened semicolons in Beijing Niujie Caishikou, Baoding, Cangzhou, Botou and other places... Most tea merchants in northern China were unable to compete with Zhengxingde, and Mu Yatian himself became the president of the Tianjin Tea Association.
At that time, the Bian family, who was also one of the eight great masters of Tianjin chaebols, invested 200,000 oceans to establish the Yuanxing Tea Estate; the Meng family of Qianxiang Yi Silk Satin Zhuang opened the Quanxianghong Tea House in Jiayi Street; and the warlord Wang Zhanyuan opened the Qianxiang Hou Tea House with 400,000 oceans, and the market competition was fierce.
Mu Yatian's competitive strategy is "dead price, live color". After the opening of the same industry, they will refer to the price of Zhengxingde to price, Zhengxingde to keep the price unchanged, improve the quality, so that, the same price, people will definitely buy Zhengxingde tea. A typical case is that Zhengxingde has improved quality three times, and Qian Xianghou eventually withdrew from the market.
After the French Concession in Tianjin became a commercial center, Zhengxingde opened its first store in Changchun Road, Lizhan area. Mu Yunshu, one of the three owners of the Mu family, died early, leaving his widow Mu Fengxi, who began to preside over the business of this branch when he grew up. There was a piece of official land for sale in the northeast corner, and he immediately sold it, invested in the construction of a three-story building, and opened a second branch of Zhengxingde, which was still managed by Mu Yatian. Mu Fengxi also built a building on the west side of the East Road in the northeast corner, and leased it to Wuhe Department Store, Tongshenghe Shoe and Hat Village, Kaiji Gift Company, Darentang Pharmacy and other businesses, forming the Guanyin business circle.
In the heyday of Zhengxingde, the daily turnover of one main store and two branches in Tianjin alone was 5,000 silver dollars, the turnover of holidays was 10,000 or 20,000 yuan, and the annual turnover was 1.8 million yuan. There are 500 guys in Tianjin. Zhu Xiangchen, a famous cross-talk artist who later partnered with Su Wenmao, had apprenticed in Zhengxingde when he was a teenager.
Zhengxingde deals in Maofeng, Longjing, Jasmine, Pu'er, Biluochun and other types of tea, but the best seller in Tianjin is jasmine tea. Jasmine tea originated in Fuzhou, has a history of more than 1,000 years, and was listed as a tribute during the Qing Dynasty. The tea aroma of this tea is fused with the fragrance of jasmine, and it is known as "the supreme taste of jasmine and the first fragrance in the world".
Jasmine tea is the tea and jasmine flowers for spelling, weaving, so that the tea leaves absorb the floral fragrance, divided into jasmine pekoe, zhulan dafang, jasmine cloud mist, Su Meng and other varieties, its aroma is long-lasting, mellow and fresh, has the effect of calming the nerves, relieving depression, strengthening the spleen, improving the body's immunity and so on.
Old Tianjin people drink jasmine tea, one bite to drink, three mouthfuls for the product, the so-called tea aroma "killing the mouth", is to refer to the jasmine tea aroma, astringency, bitter in the mouth to form a comprehensive taste. The taste of flower tea, the highest quality is called "odd fresh thick", as the name suggests, drinking to the mouth taste strange, fresh, mellow; the second class is called "fresh thick"; the first class is called "thick", with a bottom taste but not fresh; more inferior is called "fresh", only good taste and not resistant to rushing; the most inferior is called "tired", basically there is no tea taste.
Tianjin's exquisite lord, must drink good tea, what to do if you can't afford it? The tea shop sells a kind of "high powder", that is, the residue left under the jar of fine tea leaves, the taste is absolutely first-class, but it is not resistant to bubbles. Later, there was a way to drink tea, which was very popular in Beijing and Tianjin, using a large enamel tea jar, grabbing a large handful of tea leaves, brewing boiling water, brewing into a dark brown, the taste is extremely bitter, but a few bites down to refresh the mind and relieve the difficulties, is better than the Guangdong herbal tea drink. Over time, brown tea scale is also left in the tea jar.
In "Dream of the Red Chamber" forty-one times "Li Cui'an Tea Tasting Plum Blossom Snow", Jia Mu went to Li Cui'an, Miao Yu entertained tea, jia mu said: "I don't eat Lu'an tea." Miao Yu smiled, "I know, this is Lao Junmei." "In fact, Lao Junmei is also produced in Lu'an, Anhui, with slender leaves and pekoe. Zhengxingde Tea House treasured a price list from the 30s, listing the price of the product name: "Lao Junmei is three yuan and two corners per kilogram, Junmei is two yuan and four corners per kilogram, Da Shoumei is one yuan and six corners per kilogram, and Shoumei is octagonal per kilogram." "It shows that the tea sold in this house does have some history." (Text: He Yuxin)