Goji root, “the bark of the earth’s bone”
Di Gu Pi reads “bark of the earth’s bone”: the root is the bone of the plant, buried in the earth, and the name says how deep tradition makes it reach. It is the bark of the root of the shrub that gives goji berries, a thorny bush of the Solanaceae family, with pale lilac flowers and coral-red berries. Tradition uses the goji shrub season by season: the leaves in spring, the flowers in summer, the fruit in autumn, the root in winter. The berry nourishes, the root bark clears: one plant, two temperaments. Tradition prefers the bark from Jiangsu and Zhejiang.
Cooling without drying
In Traditional Chinese Medicine, the bark is cold, with a sweet and bland flavour. This is the trait that gives it its value: it is cold without being bitter. Almost all plants that clear an established Heat are bitter, and bitterness dries; but sweetness nourishes, and blandness harms nothing. It descends to the Liver and Kidney and rises to the Lung. Tradition credits it with clearing Deficiency Heat, the kind that arises not from excess but from Yin that has become insufficient, and which the texts call “steaming bones”, so much does it seem to rise from deep within. By clearing it, the bark spares the Yin and lets the Fluids form again.
Restore what is lacking, and the Fire withdraws
It also clears Lung Heat, a fire smouldering in its depths, and brings it back down without the harsh bitterness of other plants. Li Shizhen summed up its way: sweet and cold, the goji plants “replenish the Essence and the Qi, so that the pathogenic Fire withdraws of its own accord”. One does not chase the Fire away: one restores what was lacking. With mulberry root bark, it forms the heart of Xie Bai San, a formula designed for children, which says enough about the gentleness attributed to it.
Key benefits
Sensations of Heat Soothed
Cold and sweet, goji root bark soothes the sensations of heat that seem to rise from deep within, according to Chinese tradition.
Heat Cleared & Lung Cooled
It clears Heat, in the Kidney as in the Lung, without the bitterness that dries.
Preserved Fluids & Dryness Soothed
By sparing the Yin, it lets the Fluids form again and helps soothe dryness.
