Tiantai Mountain in Zhejiang province is renowned for herbs such as Tiantai lindera aggregata, ginseng, atractylodes, Chinese herbaceous peony and poria. Boasting overlapping ridges, thick forests and a mild climate, the region has four distinctive seasons.

Tiantai lindera aggregata [Photo/en.zjtz.gov.cn]

According to both Cihai, edited by Shu Xincheng (1936 edition, literally "sea of words", a comprehensive dictionary of characters and expressions, providing near-encyclopedic coverage in fields like science, philosophy and history) and China Medical Dictionary, the Tiantai lindera aggregata is of high quality.

It’s said in the Han Dynasty (206BC-220AD) that Liu Chen and Ruan Zhao from Yan County went through lots of hardships, looking for Lindera aggregata to cure the patients in Tiantai Mountain. Later on, they met with the Goddess and returned with the medicine.

As early as the Qin dynasty (221-206BC), the medicine was introduced to Japan beside the tomb of Xu Fu, who was said to the first Chinese to bring people to Japan. On the fourth trip to Japan, Buddhist monk Jian Zhen cured many Japanese with Tiantai lindera aggregata. The medicine was also valued as the elixir of life.