Goij Legend
During Warring Period ( 475 BC), there lived a young farmer on southern slope of the Fragrant Mountain (located in Zhongning and Zhongwei county in Ningxia, China). He was named informally as Gou Zi, meaning ‘dog’, as Chinese believe children with mean and low names are exempted from illness. When Gou Zi grew up he got married to a lady from Qi (pronounced as ‘chi’) family. Qi was a hard working woman with loving heart and the couple had lived meager yet peaceful life until Gou Zi was called to serve the army to defend invasion from another kingdom.
After many years of rough battles, Gou Zi fulfilled his duty and returned to his home. At that time his home was in a severe famine, Gou Zi’s heart started to sink as he saw everywhere people were dying of mulnutrition. However he was surprised to see his mother and wife were all very healthy with rosy complexion when he returned to home . Gou Zi asked for the reason, his wife Qi told him she picked red berries from a thorny bush growing in Fragrant Mountains and fed the family with such berries. Gou Zi’s mother also confirmed they would had already died if Qi had not used this red berries as their diet. Gou Zi was so happy that he started to cry. His neighbors got to know this story and all rushed to pick the red berries to feed their families. The people started to give the berry a name ‘Gou Qi’ (pronounced as go-chi)or ‘Gou Qi Zi’ to remember this couple who had found and introduced this fruit with high nutritional value.
Goji is another calling of gou qi due to similar pronounciation. Goji or gou-qi's Chinese writing is
枸杞, 杞 (prounced as 'chi') is an uncommon word that many people don't know the pronounciation. Some people pronounce it as 'ji' because of the right part '己' (pronounced as ji, meaning self). Even in China, gou qi is called 'go-ji' sometimes.
(wild goji plant, Zhongning, Ningxia China, photo provided by Pengsheng Qing)