Illustrated Compendium of Materia Medica (Vol. 30)

Poria cocos

Fuling Poria cocos/Indian bread is categorized in the classic texts as a top-grade substance. It grows attached to the roots of pine trees. Today, the variety produced in Yunnan is considered the best. Annual tribute offerings consist of only two pieces, each weighing over twenty catties a Chinese unit of weight, approximately 500 grams per catty. The skin is moist and fine, marked with water-like patterns, and the texture is extremely firm and solid.

In other regions, the method used is to cut pine trees into sections and bury them in the mountains. After three years, the wood rots and the fuling Poria forms. However, the skin of these is rough and black, and the internal texture is loose. Using such specimens provides no medicinal efficacy. Because these mountain woods are all cleared and pruned for this purpose, they tend to exhaust the vitality of the land. Consequently, the mountains where fuling is cultivated often turn into barren hills original: "童阜", literally "child-like mound," referring to hills stripped of vegetation, where the sand collapses and rocks fall, obstructing the streams. The resulting damage is far-reaching. It is said that the people of Xin'an have forbidden this practice.