-Three secrets hidden in the gold plaque of the town shop

Hongbin Building, which has the reputation of "the first floor of Muslim catering in Beijing", is not really a Beijing time-honored brand, but a Tianjin time-honored brand with a history of 153. Fifty years ago, Wang Shouqian, the head of Hongbin Building in Tianjin, carried two pairs of ivory chopsticks in his bag and protected the golden signboard of Hongbin Building, and moved Hongbin Building from Tianjin to No.50, Xie Jie, Li Tieguai, outside Heping Gate in Beijing. Nowadays, the stars are shifting, and Hongbin Building has flourished on the ground of Beijing for half a century, becoming an old-fashioned brand known to all ages in Beijing and winning the reputation of "the first floor of Muslim catering in Beijing".

After 50 years, Hongbin Building has undergone several major relocations in Beijing. Now, diners can only see one of these three treasures in the shops on Exhibition Road in Xicheng District: a gold plaque with three mysteries hidden in it. This gold plaque, regarded as the treasure of Hongbin Building's entrepreneurship, still looks shining today.

As for the three mysteries hidden in this tablet, no one can completely solve them today.

The first mystery is that the word Hongbin Building on the gold tablet was inscribed by Yu Zejiu, a scholar in Qing Dynasty. The traditional Chinese character "red" has three dots on the left and an I in the middle. The traditional Chinese character "bird" on the right should be at the bottom of four, but this bird is written at the bottom of three. Why? Some people speculate that the word "bird" is borrowed from the bottom of the water, but the top of the word "bird" is written as a horizontal line. Why did Yu Zejiu only use three points of water?

The second mystery is that there is no money on this plaque, which is extremely rare in the plaque written by famous people for the name of the company. Some people speculate that Yu Zejiu is a scholar and doesn't want others to know that he wrote inscriptions for businessmen.

The third mystery is:1In the autumn of 998, Hongbin Building was moved and sent to Rong Baozhai to see the new buildings. When I opened this centennial plaque, I found a meticulous painting on it-Peony Beauty, which was painted during Xuantong's reign. Some people want to spend a lot of money to buy this work, because Xuan Tong has been in office for three years, and there are few works handed down from generation to generation. This painting, as a part of the "treasure of entrepreneurship" in Hongbin Building, is puzzling. Why does a century-old shop want to "hide beauty with gold plaque"?

02, all in one place.

-Registered Trademark in Qianlong Period.

Qing Qianlong seventeen years, 1752. Emperor Qianlong went out of town traveling incognito on the second day of New Year's Day, and it was already midnight when he returned to the front door from outside the city. At that time, vendors usually didn't open their doors until the fifteenth day of the first month. Seeing that there was only a yellow pub with lights on on Qianmen Street, he went in and asked the shopkeeper to iron some yellow wine and order some side dishes such as rose dates, horse meat and boiled peanuts.

In winter, Qianlong was hungry and tired of eating the delicacies in the palace. When he tasted folk dishes for the first time, he felt delicious. After a while, he had a full meal, chatted with the clerk and said, "Your cooking is really good. I wonder how much you should pay for food and drinks? " When the clerk saw the well-dressed old man's praise, he quickly replied, "Old man, we are lucky to be able to serve you satisfactorily. How can we overcharge you? Just pay three cranes. " Gan Long smiled and said to his entourage, "Give me five taels of silver. More is a reward! " The shop assistant had never seen such a generous gift for customers, and bowed to thank Gan Long. Gan Long asked the clerk, "What's the name of your bar?" The clerk said, "The business is too small to have a font size." Emperor Qianlong smiled and said, "How about your family opening the door all the way to welcome guests during the New Year?"

A few days passed, and the clerk gradually forgot the old customers who gave more money. One day, a local official suddenly came to put up a plaque and said it was sent by the imperial edict. The clerk in the store was shocked. Somehow, the official told the old man who was drinking and eating in the store the other night that he was a pilgrim, and the imperial edict gave you a "all in one place" plaque, please hang it as soon as possible. The clerk realized that the old man who had been eating and drinking before was the emperor, and thought, fortunately, the reception was satisfactory, and it would be bad if there was an thoughtless one. The shopkeeper respectfully hung up the plaque. Since then, this wine and rice shop has been called "all in one place". With this skill, it has attracted thousands of customers. Who doesn't want to see where the emperor sat and taste what the emperor had eaten? From government officials to ordinary people are proud of this. Since then, the reputation of "all in one place" has spread all over the world.

03. Quanjude

-roast duck "flies" out of mutton hutong

There is a mutton alley on Xisi Street in Beijing, which is now the seat of the National Gem and Jade Identification Center. Further into Mutton Hutong, there should be a small alley called Caishen Hutong. However, this hutong was demolished in the 1980s. Since the hutong was demolished, the descendants of Quanjude founder Yang have been living in a red brick building, but they still haven't left this hutong.

It is said that in 1864, there was a grocery store opened by Shanxi people in Mutton Hutong. Yang Jingren, who was doing small business at that time, introduced that he laid a good foundation for the grocery store with a little money saved from doing small business and opened a hanging stove shop himself. The name of this grocery store is Dejuquan, which means "gathering wealth with virtue and getting wealth with virtue". Yang reversed the font size and changed it to Quanjude. The whole word implies his name, Jude, which means "Quanjude is rich in financial resources". This is the origin of the name Quanjude.

Later, Yang's business grew bigger and bigger. In order to let more people know about Quanjude, he invited Qian Zilong, a scholar with good calligraphy at that time, to write a plaque. Although it is not the original work of an emperor or a famous artist, this plaque has been hung for over 100 years.

The folklore about time-honored brands has a long history. For example, in many versions of speculation, there is no horizontal line in the middle of the word "de". For example, Qian Xiucai, who wrote the inscription, drank a little wine and made fewer clerical errors. For example, in order to unite the guys in the shop, the shopkeeper Yang removed the knife from the "heart", so Qian Xiucai gave it away.

These are well-intentioned speculations by the people, but the reason is simple. Just as we have disyllabic words in modern times, there are many words written during the Tongzhi period. Qian Xiucai's inscription method gradually disappeared in the evolution of China characters. Therefore, we can't look at the word "de" like this now. In order to maintain its original style, Quanjude, a century-old shop, has never changed its writing style during Tongzhi years.

Now, because of the reputation of Quanjude, Beijing Roast Duck is gradually known as "the first delicious food in the world". Foreign tourists have said that "going to Beijing, two things, visiting the Great Wall and eating roast duck", Quanjude has truly become an internationally renowned Chinese time-honored brand.