Schisandra Berry

The red berries of Schisandra chinensis, a climbing plant of the forests of north-east China.

Its name Wu Wei Zi means literally “seed of the five flavours” — a rare and precious trait in the pharmacopoeia: one perceives in succession the sour (skin), the sweet (flesh), the bitter-pungent (crushed seed) and the salty (in the aftertaste).

Five flavours in a single berry, the signature of the five elements. Harvested at full maturity, of a deep red, gently dried, they come wrinkled and dark.

A remarkable herb, its five flavours giving it a reach across several spheres at once.

Traditionally used to gather in the Metal Phase when the breath scatters to excess, to enrich the Water Phase in its Yin foundations, to quiet the Spirit when it stirs, and to engender the Liquids (Jin Ye) when Dryness persists.

In the tradition, the herb of Taoist monks and of long-distance runners.

• Decoction: 1.5 to 9 g (to be lightly crushed before cooking), 25 minutes
• Sheng Mai San: “the decoction that engenders the pulse”, with Ren Shen and Mai Men Dong — a classic blend for constitutions of deficient Qi and Yin
• Steeped liquor (Wu Wei Zi Jiu): steeped in 40° grain spirit for 3 months — a Taoist tradition

To be avoided in cases of an acute attack on the surface not yet resolved, of fullness from inner accumulation, or of settled heat from excess.