The Origin and Evolution of "Bai Jingyu"

　　According to the Bai family, their ancestors were Hui people who settled on the north bank of the Yellow River after following Genghis Khan's army before the Yuan Dynasty. In the early 20th century, Bai Ruiqi, a descendant of the Bai family, inherited the properties of his uncles and father, and established the "Golden Sheep Eye Medicine Shop" at the west cross street of Dingzhou city in present-day Hebei Province, using the name of his ancestors. The "Golden Sheep Eye Medicine" they sold was renowned for its miraculous effects. Legend has it that during a secret visit to the people, the Qing Dynasty Emperor Qianlong suddenly suffered from an eye disease, with his eyes red and swollen, causing severe pain and itching. After taking medicine without improvement, and with imperial physicians unable to cure him, he found the Bai family's medicine shop. After applying the Bai family's eye medicine, he felt its effectiveness, and the disease was cured. Qianlong was overjoyed and immediately bestowed the name "Golden Sheep Medicine Shop" with an imperial inscription. From then on, the Bai family's eye medicine in Dingzhou became famous and widely circulated. Later, the common people gave it a nickname, "All-Purpose Little White Eye."

　　In the early 1930s, Bai Ruiqi, the head of the Bai family, decided to expand into southern markets. He established the Bai Jingzi Eye Medicine Shop at the entrance of Laofang Alley on Shengzhou Road in Nanjing, and later moved to No. 152, Baixia Road, for official operation. After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, it was temporarily closed until it reopened in March 1938 at No. 12, Zhuque Road, Nanjing, and was renamed Nanjing Bai Jingyu Eye Medicine Shop. In 1939, Bai Zemin, a descendant of the Bai family, changed the "Golden Sheep" trademark to the "Whale" trademark. In July, the Whale trademark received a 20-year registration certificate from the Trademark Bureau of the National Government.

　　In 1951, the head office moved from Hankou to Nanjing, obtaining a business license from the Nanjing Municipal People's Government's Commerce Bureau and a registration certificate for the "Whale" trademark from the Central People's Government's Private Enterprise Bureau. It was renamed Nanjing Bai Jingyu Pharmaceutical Factory.

　　In September 1955, the publicly-privately owned Nanjing Bai Jingyu Pharmaceutical Factory was officially established. After that, more than ten small enterprises were merged into the publicly-privately owned Nanjing Bai Jingyu Pharmaceutical Factory, gradually developing into a comprehensive pharmaceutical enterprise producing raw materials and preparations. In the mid-1990s, like many state-owned enterprises, the company fell into operational difficulties due to its slow pace in adapting to the market economy, and its profits declined year by year. By the end of the 1990s, the company was already losing money. At that time, the national economy was facing difficulties, so the state introduced a series of policies for state-owned enterprise reform, such as "grasping the large and releasing the small," "three-system reform," etc., promoting the "privatization of small and medium-sized state-owned enterprises," separating the political, social, and other functions of enterprises, and introducing a competitive mechanism into state-owned enterprises. Under these circumstances, the company established a marketing company in a final attempt to reverse the losses. The marketing company, at the forefront of the market, fully recognized the importance of branding, and actively advocated changing the factory name "Nanjing Second Pharmaceutical Factory," which was deeply imprinted with the planned economy, to "Nanjing Bai Jingyu Pharmaceutical Factory." Through various efforts, the name change application was successful in 2002, re-injecting the bloodline of the old brand into the company. Following this, the company responded to the government's call and completed the "three-linkage" reform at the end of 2003. In January 2004, it was restructured and officially established Nanjing Bai Jingyu Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. At the same time, responding to the municipal government's call to "retreat from secondary industry and advance into tertiary industry," the raw material and preparation production bases were relocated to Nanjing Chemical Industry Park and Nanjing Economic and Technological Development Zone in 2004.