Medicine, Food or Commodity: The Significance of Chinese Lycium Barbarum in Daily Life

Lycium barbarum has been eaten by people for more than 4, 000 years in Chinese history, according to medical classics and biographical records that can be verified. In this long development process, people’s understanding of Lycium barbarum has experienced three changes. That is, the changing process from medicine to food to commodity. The purpose of this paper is to study the changes of Lycium barbarum. From the perspective of Lycium barbarum, by presenting the significance of Lycium barbarum in people’s daily life in Ningxia, we can understand how Lycium barbarum is used as a link to influence people’s communication in Ningxia, and how Lycium barbarum spreads and communicates with the outside world through its commodity attributes.