Wang Lifu's Family History

With the gradual prosperity of the Wang family, its family industry has spread all over Renhuai County, from operating salt industry to setting up smelters (then called iron works), brewing, operating timber, shops, inns, restaurants, grinding houses, renting land and so on.

Maotai Shao brewed by Tianhe. Burning houses was also sold to Hechuan and Chongqing along the salt road of Chishui River. Early nationals opened a franchise store at the entrance of Chongqing Road (the exclusive trademark of Yumenkou Delicious Village, located in Jie Fangbei, Chongqing), and the areas they visited have already had a certain influence.

Wang Zhen has five sons, and Wang Lifu is the only son of Wang Yongbing, the youngest son of Wang Zhenfa.

Wang Lifu studied business with his father when he was young. He is good at management and knows how to operate.

When he inherited Maotai's Tianhe family business, it was the heyday of the Wang family. At that time, the competition in salt industry had become increasingly fierce, but the "Maotai Shao" wine produced by Maotai was quietly famous because merchants from all walks of life gathered in Maotai.

Wang Lifu seized the business opportunity and founded Rong Tai Heshaofang in the fifth year of Guangxu (1879) in partnership with Shi Rongxiao (a central figure) and Sun Quantai (a Xishui person). The name of the burning house is Rong Tai and the burning house, which is composed of one word of each shareholder.

As a shareholder, Wang Lifu owns his own Shaofang, and has a family-run koji-making formula, brewing skills and sales channels, so he is responsible for the production and sales of Shaofang, so the brewed shochu is very popular in the market.

Soon, Sun's shareholders withdrew their shares and cancelled the word "Tai", and the reform of burning houses was called "Ronghe Burning House".

But at that time, in Maotai Village (called Maotai Town at the beginning of liberation), people who burned houses used to call it "Ronghe" wine and "Elvis Presley" wine, because the boss's surname was Wang; "Cheng Yi" (also called "Chengyu" by some local people) burned the house and made wine as "Hua Mao" because the boss's surname was Hua; "Hengxing" burned the house and made wine as "Lai Mao" because the boss's surname was Lai.

(2008 "Zunyi CPPCC" Phase II Literature and History Corridor)

19 15 Wang Lifu is in its prime, and the United States will hold the Panama World Expo (the 4th World Expo) in San Francisco to celebrate the opening of the Panama Canal.

At that time, the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce of Beiyang, China decided to choose Maotai Shaojiu produced in Renhuai, Guizhou Province (because the liquor in Maotai Town, Guizhou Province was already a local famous product at that time), and Huisha Maojiu produced by Ronghe Shaofang had a great influence on society and had a good reputation, so it was selected (see Intellectual Property Report, 2005, 1).

After strict evaluation by the Expo judges, it won the gold medal in one fell swoop, and was called the world's three largest distilled spirits with Scotch whisky and French cognac, which won a great reputation for China's long-standing brewing industry.

The name of "Moutai" also began here (see "Renhuai County Records" on page 384).

The news that "Maotai" won the prize reached Maotai.

However, the medal stayed in Guiyang and failed to reach benevolence.

Wang Lifu never dreamed that his "Elvis Presley" wine would win a prize and become "one of the world famous wines".

At that time, "Ronghe Burning House" was only apportioned, so we had to obey and sent 200 Jin of "Elvis Presley" wine. We didn't even consider whether we could win the prize or not, and we may forget to develop afterwards. This is consistent with the social reality at that time. At that time, Maotai was a small place, lacking communication and information, and it was impossible to have such a long-term sense of commercial competition.

I have to talk about the background of the founder of Cheng Yi Burning House at that time: Hualian Hui, a native of Linchuan, Jiangxi.

Ancestors came to Guizhou to do business during the reign of Kangxi and settled in Tuanxi, Zunyi.

Ancestors got rich by selling salt.

Hualian Hui did business first, then studied for the exam, and Xianfeng Yihai was the examiner of the imperial examination.

Ding Baozhen served as the governor of Sichuan, reformed the salt policy, and Hualian Hui served as the chief scribe of the salt law, helping Tang Jiong to implement the new salt law of "official transportation and commercial sales" before starting the wine industry.

His younger brother Guo Ying, whose real name is Jian 'an, worked in Xindu, Hejiang and Xuyong counties in Sichuan, and later served as the general manager of Sichuan Salt Bureau.

Hua Zhihong, son of Hualian Hui, was a Confucian teacher in Renhuaitang in the 22nd year of Guangxu (1896).

Because his mother died, he returned to Guiyang to manage the salt industry in the twenty-eighth year of Guangxu.

At the end of Guangxu, he invested in running a school and running a newspaper, and served as the president of Guizhou Chamber of Commerce and a member of the * * * Advisory Bureau.

In the year of Xuantongyuan, he participated in the organization of the "Preparatory Conference on the Constitution and Politics of Guizhou Province".

After the recovery of Guizhou, he successively served as Vice Minister of Finance, General Manager of Dahan Officer's Money Bureau, Premier of Guizhou Bank and Counsellor of the Governor's Office.

(Abstract: The story of China Maotai Liquor, edited by Chen Boshen, Guizhou People's Publishing House, 2002, 392 pages)

History is sometimes naughty and plays tricks on people. History should always keep its ambiguity and ambiguity.

This leaves the world with an interesting question: Does the winning medal belong to "Elvis Presley" or "Hua Mao"? Are the products of Ronghe or Cheng Yi on display? The complexity of the problem lies in that it is said that the product presented to the exhibition is the wine from Ronghe Shaofang (see Intellectual Property News, page 07, 2005, 1, 2 1, written by trademark collector Zuo Xuchu: The History of Maotai Trademark), but Cheng Yi Shaofang did not deliver the wine because of "Cheng Yi Shaofang". There is also a saying that people who "burned houses in Cheng Yi" said after winning the lottery that they also sent wine, and the products sent to the exhibition included both Ronghe and Cheng Yi (in short, Ronghe burned houses definitely sent wine to the exhibition).

It may be that the officials who handled the matter in Renhuai county at that time considered that the two wines were in the same place and the packaging was basically the same. Although they are all marked with the words "produced by Ronghe Shaofang" and "produced by Cheng Yi Shaofang", after all, the word "Shaofang" does not conform to "international practice", and the two products are simply combined into one, and the manufacturer is designated as a "Moutai brewing company" that does not actually exist but can be understood by foreigners.

We have to argue about who the medal belongs to. Wang Lifu was distressed at the thought that the products he sent to the exhibition would be taken away by others after winning the prize. Although he had nothing to do in the provincial capital, he decided to get justice.

So "Ronghe" and "Cheng Yi", two local large-scale burning houses, started a lawsuit for medals.

The lawsuit hit the county * * *, and Qin Guangluan, the county magistrate of Renhuai, couldn't finalize it (because "Elvis Presley" did send wine to the exhibition, and the other party had contacts in the county and the province). The case was difficult to decide at the moment, and the mediation of Renhuai Chamber of Commerce was invalid.

Then a piece of paper was sent to the provincial office in Guizhou.

Winning the prize is a happy event, and the happy event should be done beautifully.

19 18 June 14, Governor Liu of Guizhou made a ruling on this lawsuit which was postponed for three years, and issued the order of the Governor's Office as follows:

Qin Guangluan, county magistrate of Lingrenhuai County:

Present one.

Two households, Ronghe and Chengyu, in the Mao Liquor Department of Panama Games, submitted prizes, which were difficult to distribute. Please check the reason.

Confirm.

The products produced in this case were originally under the name of a brewing company when they were collected and handed over to the county on the same day, so we have copies of the award certificate and medals.

According to the facts presented, although there were no two households on that day and there was no way to collect this prize, it should be handed over to the office of the county chamber of commerce for display, and it is not necessary to send it to the brewers to avoid disputes and keep it as a souvenir.

Zhi Rong and Cheng Yu Dou won prizes. Later, both of them can add prizes for selling imitation trademarks to increase their honor. Don't pay special attention to collecting and holding them, but follow them immediately.

Governor Liu

Republic of China June 2007 14

At this point, the battle that lasted for several years was called the first "intellectual property lawsuit" in the history of the development of China liquor industry, and the dust settled.

(Drunk Maotai by Yuan Renguo, Guizhou People's Publishing House, 2065,438+00, p. 37)

Until August of 1953, the three largest burning houses in Maotai Town were nationalized and became the predecessors of Maotai Distillery today.

Due to historical reasons, during the Cultural Revolution, the descendants of Wang Lifu family made wine for the collective in the collective winery (commune winery).

After the reform and opening up, Wang Lifu's grandson and grandson decided to carry forward the pioneering spirit of their ancestors and started a difficult entrepreneurial journey to inherit the family's traditional brewing skills, and founded Maotai Town Wang Lifu Liquor Co., Ltd.

The former site of "Maotai Town Wang Lifu Wine Industry" located in Cannongji Community of Maotai Town is the former site of Heijingzi Restaurant founded by Wang Lifu's grandfather in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China.

Maotai-flavor liquor brewed by the descendants of Wang Lifu is operated by the descendants themselves, and the koji-making is completely in accordance with the ancestral koji formula of Elvis Presley wine (dozens of Chinese herbal medicines were used in the secret recipe left by the ancestors). During the Dragon Boat Festival, Chinese traditional medicine formula, mother koji and high-quality wheat were naturally fermented to make koji, and various microorganisms in the air were received to make natural koji. The main raw material sorghum is scheduled to be planted by local farmers, and green organic fertilizer is used instead of pesticides.

Production tools are made of bamboo and wood, retort and wine cellar are made of local sand, and pots and pans are made of clay. Everything conforms to nature, in order to restore the old traditional way of brewing in the workshop as much as possible, and the operation process is complete, retaining the traditional manual production.

Several typical liquor types, such as Maotai-flavor liquor, mellow liquor and cellar-bottom liquor, have different roundness, different alcohol content and different wine ages. After careful blending, they can be stored for more than five years before leaving the factory without adding any chemical additives.

Wang Lifu Shaofang, Wang Lifu Baojiao, Wang Lifu Laojiao and other high-grade "Wang Lifu" wine series products have restored the original flavor of Elvis Presley wine.

Since Wang Lifu family established the "Tianhe Burning House" in Daoguang period, it has passed through six generations and passed on its skills 180 years. It is one of the oldest brewing families in Maotai Town, with well-documented and orderly circulation.

"Wang Lifu is one of the well-documented founders of Maotai" (The story of Maotai liquor in China, edited by Chen Boshen, Guizhou People's Publishing House, 2002, p. 392).

Through the clouds of history, the "Elvis Presley" brewing family, which once created the gold medal legend in the Panama Expo, has experienced ups and downs in the course of history. "Maotai Town Wang Lifu Wine Industry" will surely flourish in the hands of a generation of Wang Lifu descendants who have ideals, know how to operate and are good at operating, and brew high-quality handmade Maotai-flavor liquor.

Provide consumers with a higher level of spiritual enjoyment, reproduce the old classic taste of "Elvis Presley" in Wang Lifu era, and make more contributions to society.

Constant blood inheritance, constant craft taste and constant value orientation.