Jing Jie Sui, the fragrant spikes that disperse Wind
Jing Jie Sui refers to the flower spikes of Jing Jie, Schizonepeta tenuifolia, an annual herb of the mint family with a square stem, leaves cut into fine strips and small lavender flowers packed into spikes. The whole plant is highly aromatic, with a scent reminiscent of mint and pine, and its oldest name, Jia Su, “false perilla”, already speaks of this fragrance. It is gathered from summer to autumn, when the spikes are long but still green; Hebei, around Anguo, yields a renowned quality. It was long a vegetable too: in Sichuan it was eaten raw, and its fresh leaves still flavour the cooking of Henan.
Opening the surface, dispersing Wind
In traditional Chinese medicine, Jing Jie is slightly warm, pungent and aromatic in taste. The pungent taste disperses and opens outward, the fragrance carries upward and towards the surface. Its warmth is so discreet that tradition regards it as the gentlest and most balanced of the herbs that disperse Wind-Cold: with warm herbs, it disperses Wind-Cold; with cool herbs, Wind-Heat. The spikes are stronger than the whole plant for dispersing Wind. With Fang Feng, it forms the Jing Fang pair, which releases the surface without harshness.
A herb that reaches the Blood
It enters the Lung, which governs the skin and the surface, and the Liver, which stores the Blood. It is through the Liver that it reaches the Blood level, which few surface herbs can do: commentators nicknamed it “the herb of Wind within the Blood”. In Li Shizhen’s words, it clears the head and the eyes and opens the throat. To keep its fragrance, it is added at the end of cooking, in the last five to ten minutes. A note on the name: catnip, Nepeta cataria, is another plant, which is not the Jing Jie of the pharmacopoeia.
Key benefits
Wind dispersed & open surface
Pungent and fragrant, it expels Wind lodged at the surface, with the gentleness that sets it apart from the herbs in its category.
Wind & cold dispelled
Slightly warm, it dispels wind and cold, and pairs as well with warm herbs as with cool ones.
Open surface & light sweating
According to Chinese tradition, it opens the pores and promotes light sweating, to push outward the Wind lodged at the surface.
