Yan Zhang

Lao Zhong, owner of a traditional medicine shop in the south of China, has two adults sons and a daughter. Even as the business prospers, family relationships worsen. A family can be compared to a tree, and damaged trees secrete resin to heal themselves. Perhaps a cure for the family’s intolerable situation can be found.

This Chinese period drama series follows the fortunes of a prominent merchant family engaged in Traditional Chinese Medicine during the waning years of the Ching dynasty. The affairs of this family of doctors/pharmacists (which in those days were one and the same) are intimately linked with social upheavals of the time such as the encroachment of Christian missionaries and foreign imperialism as well as conflicts that inevitably emerge in a large upper class family. Comparable in scope and production value to such recent titles as "Downton Abbey", the lives and character of both masters and servants intertwine in plot lines that spans more than a generation.

In 1913 Changsha, visionary educator Kong Zhaoshou leads the Provincial First Normal School through major reforms, attracting talented youth. Among them, 19-year-old Mao Zedong excels in the entrance exam, marking the start of his journey at this prestigious institution.