Lei Yun Shang and Liu Shen Wan: A 1734 Suzhou Apothecary Behind a Divided Modern Brand

Disclaimer: This page is for historical and cultural education only and is not medical advice. References to traditional use describe what historical sources record or what is traditionally believed — not a claim that any product treats, cures, or prevents any disease. These statements have not been evaluated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration or any other regulator. Consult a qualified physician with any health questions.

Lei Yun Shang (雷允上) traces to Lei Dasheng, courtesy name Yunshang, born in 1696. In 1734 he opened an apothecary, Lei Songfen Tang, inside the Changmen gate of Suzhou (a smaller number of sources place the opening in 1736; 1734 is the mainstream account).

Rebuilt in Shanghai after wartime destruction

The Suzhou store was destroyed during the unrest of 1860. In 1863, the house reopened as a Shanghai branch, "Lei Songfen Tang Shen Hao" — the origin of the Shanghai lineage of the Lei Yun Shang name that most overseas buyers encounter today.

One name, many companies today — read carefully

Today, close to a hundred separate companies use some form of the "Lei Yun Shang" name. The Suzhou lineage is generally understood to hold the historical claim to Liu Shen Wan's origin story; overseas retail listings that carry the "Lei Yun Shang" or "Liu Shen Wan" name most often trace to the Shanghai lineage instead. This site presents that structure plainly, rather than treating "Lei Yun Shang" as a single unified company the way some of the other houses covered here can be.

The Liu Shen Wan formula story, and a caveat on how it's told

According to the house's own account, in 1864 an elderly man surnamed Gu from Kunshan gave Lei Yun Shang a six-ingredient formula that became Liu Shen Wan ("six spirits pill"). The house also reportedly paid ten thousand taels of silver in 1902 to secure exclusive production rights. Both details come from the company's own historical account rather than an independently verifiable primary document, and are presented here as company lore, not as independently confirmed history.

Liu Shen Wan's formula is widely reported to hold protected, state-secret status in China, though the evidence behind that claim is weaker here than for some of the other houses on this site — this page uses "widely reported" deliberately, rather than a more confident phrasing, to reflect that.

The strongest heritage listing among the houses on this site

In 2008, "Lei Yun Shang Liu Shen Wan manufacturing technique" was listed in the second batch of China's national-level intangible cultural heritage register — the clearest, most confidently documented heritage listing among the four houses added to this site in this round. China Time-Honored Brand recognition followed in 2011.

Overseas presence

Secondhand historical accounts describe Liu Shen Wan being widely sold into Southeast Asia before 1949, with distribution offices later set up in Hong Kong, Macau, and Myanmar after 1949 — presented here as reported history rather than independently confirmed fact. An official English- language website exists, but this research was not able to access its content, so this page states only that the English site exists, without describing what it contains.

Third-party retail traces include pharmacy chains in Hong Kong and overseas Chinese community e-commerce retailers in North America — none of it, on its own, evidence of an official overseas retail network.

Markets: Vietnam and Indonesia

In Vietnam, "Lục Thần Hoàn" is a real, circulating local name for the product, sold there by a manufacturer from the Shanghai lineage described above — the strongest evidence among the non-English-speaking markets this site tracks for this brand. In Indonesia, the product appears under its Chinese pinyin name on major e-commerce platforms; an informal local nickname sometimes used for it online has not been independently verified, so this page does not use it, and the specific manufacturer behind individual Indonesian listings is not confirmed either.