Precise Processing (Paozhi)

The art of using Chinese herbs for medicinal purposes is intimately connected to the process of collecting and cooking food. Cooking can render certain food items safer for consumption, enhance flavor, and synthesize multiple ingredients into a coherent whole. Similarly, paozhi—the art of processing medicinal substances according to traditional specifications—is a vital component of the science of Chinese herbal alchemy.

Immersion or frying an herb in a carrier substance—alcohol, vinegar, honey, brine, bran, or clay—can neutralize toxicity, change the energetic quality of an herb from cool to warm, direct its medicinal effect to a specific organ network, or simply awaken latent therapeutic potential. Soaking Danggui (Angelica sinensis) in alcohol, for instance, increases its blood moving effect; frying Sharen (Amomum) in high-quality salt can direct its action to the Kidney network.

Like so many other techniques spawned by the wisdom traditions of ancient China, genuine paozhi has become a dying craft. Up to the end of the 19th century, classical prescriptions used to differentiate processing instructions for most of their ingredients. Nowadays, most Chinese medicine physicians don’t know how to prescribe processed herbs anymore; most pharmacies do not carry them, and most herb distributors cannot provide them. Even professional paozhi facilities tend to limit their services to procedures outlined in the standardized materia medica of the People’s Republic of China, and do not know how to execute most traditional paozhi instructions anymore.

Paozhi knowledge and expertise was passed on in family lineages for generations. Since the 1980s, the PRC government has heavily scientized and standardized all aspects of Chinese herbal medicine. Development decisions are made on the basis of laboratory analysis, resulting in a dismissal of most labor-intensive ways of traditional processing methods. What little remains is performed by machines. As a result, genuine experts who hold lineage based paozhi knowledge as well as a visceral understanding of when, exactly, a medicinal substance needs to be removed from the fire have become exceedingly rare.

Classical Pearls is committed to support a revival of the ancient wisdom components of Chinese herbal science, and therefore partner with small family businesses that still maintain original paozhi knowledge and are able to execute the detailed traditional processing instructions. In addition, we have engaged an expert adviser for the specific purpose of maximizing the therapeutic effect of each herb in a formula by suggesting the most appropriate paozhi modality. Dr. Hu Changjiang has been a professor and researcher of paozhi techniques for nearly four decades, and shared a friendship with Heiner Fruehauf since 1990. The Chinese government has recently recognized him as the designated lineage holder of China’s Southwest School of Herbal Processing odalities.