Zhi Shi, the young fruit that brings things down

Zhi Shi reads “the fruit of zhi”, the name of a thorny tree of the citrus family. It is the young fruit of the bitter orange, or Seville orange: a small tree with branches armed with long thorns and very fragrant white flowers, grown in the Yangtze valley and further south. In May and June the young fruits are gathered, either fallen of their own accord or picked green; the same fruit, harvested riper, becomes Zhi Ke. The most renowned product is the “goose-eye” Zhi Shi from Jiangxi. Here it is fried with wheat bran, the most common form today.

Pushing Qi downward, lightening the Middle

In Traditional Chinese Medicine, Zhi Shi is slightly cool, bitter, pungent and sour in flavour. The bitter makes things descend, the pungent disperses and sets in motion: together, these flavours make it a herb that pushes Qi downward, and forcefully. The tradition ranks it among the herbs that regulate Qi, and among the strongest: where others make Qi circulate, it “breaks” it. Associated with the Spleen and Stomach, where food is transformed, and with the Large Intestine, through which what remains goes down, it moves along what lingers in the Middle and gives the Intestines back their natural downward movement. Li Shizhen brought everything back to one principle: restoring the free circulation of Qi.

Bran-fried, gentler on the Stomach

Raw, it is called “violent” and can wear down Spleen Qi. Frying with bran tempers this harshness, makes it gentler on the Stomach and turns its action towards dispersing what clogs the Middle. A classical teaching distinguishes it from Zhi Ke: “harsh and fast”, Zhi Shi targets below, whereas Zhi Ke, “gentle and slow”, targets above. The tradition readily pairs it with white atractylodes, which tonifies the Spleen: one deals with what stagnates, the other with the root, and the dispersal no longer wears down the Spleen. This is Zhi Zhu Wan.