Black pepper, “the pepper of the Hu”
Hu Jiao reads “the pepper of the Hu”: in classical Chinese, Hu refers to the peoples of the west and north-west, and the character marks foreign origin. The name is accurate: the vine is native to the Malabar Coast, in south-western India, and to Sri Lanka, and was only introduced to China, on Hainan, in the 1940s. Yet pepper had been known there for centuries: under the Ming, when a eunuch was arrested, the inventory of his house counted nearly one hundred and eighty tonnes of it. It is one of the few substances of the Chinese pharmacopoeia that everyone has at home, both a food and a herb. Black pepper is picked before full ripeness and dried with its outer layer, which wrinkles and turns black.
Warming the Middle, dispelling Cold
In traditional Chinese medicine, pepper is hot and pungent in flavour: pungency disperses and sets things in motion, heat warms, and both go in the same direction. Tradition ranks it among the most distinctly hot substances of its register. It enters the Stomach and descends as far as the Large Intestine: it is a substance of the digestive tract, and of that alone. Its cardinal action is to warm the Middle and disperse Cold. When Cold lodges in the Stomach and Intestines, it contracts and immobilises; the warmth of pepper drives it out and gives the Middle back the fire that transforms. With the Cold removed, the Middle regains its taste for what it is given.
One spice, two uses
Pepper also makes the Stomach Qi descend when it rises the wrong way, and warms cold Phlegm so that it can be transformed. But the whole point with pepper is quantity: at the table, that of a seasoning; in the pharmacopoeia, another, brief and aimed at an identified Cold. Taken in excess, say the old texts, it “scatters the Qi” and “stirs the Fire”. Mung beans are said to temper its excess heat. It is best bought as whole peppercorns, whose round drupe and frank bite are hard to counterfeit. Modern research has looked in particular at piperine.
Key benefits
Easy digestion & renewed appetite
With the Cold removed, the Middle regains its taste for meals: black pepper contributes to good digestion, according to Chinese tradition.
Distinct warmth & a warmed body
Pungent and hot, it warms the body and disperses the Cold lodged in the Middle.
Intestinal comfort & descending Qi
It descends as far as the Large Intestine and sets the Qi back in its proper direction, which supports intestinal comfort.
