Abstract: There were primarily two kinds of ginseng in the Qing Dynasty: naturally-grown wild old ginseng and artificially cultivated “ginseng seedlings”. The former was much better than the latter in terms of product quality. In the Qing Dynasty, wild ginseng from Northeastern China were requested as tribute to the imperial family. However, wild ginseng was hard to find because of its long growth cycle, and the two types were hard to distinguish, so ginseng farmers often mixed ginseng seedlings with wild old ginseng, pretending that the shoddy goods were of high quality. For this reason, the Qing Dynasty implemented a rigorous examination and control policy. Due to the high profits of ginseng, local officials in Northeastern China frequently extorted ginseng farmers as well as cheated the central government, in order to make a large amount of money for themselves. Finally when the matter was brought to light，the main officials in the Northeast were investigated and punished one after another.