Drying is one of the important post-harvest processing steps of Zanthoxylum bungeanum, which has great influences on the quality of Zanthoxylum bungeanum. The effects of shade drying (SD), hot air drying (HAD), hot pump drying (HPD), microwave drying (MD), freeze drying (FD), and pretreatment by steaming (PS) combined with five drying methods on the drying characteristics and quality of Zanthoxylum schinifolium Sieb. et Zucc. (ZSSZ) were evaluated. The results showed that the Logarithimc and Weibull models fit well the variation of moisture ratio of ZSSZ with time under different drying conditions. PS significantly inhibited the degradation of chlorophylls, but significantly decreased the content of volatile oil. FD and PSFD effectively preserved the chlorophylls, alkylamides, total phenols and total flavonoids in ZSSZ, however, it resulted in relatively low coat dehiscing rate and volatile oil content. MD and PSMD depicted the highest drying rate, which only took about 30min to complete the drying process, retaining the relatively higher level of alkylamides. However, the color and morphology of MD- and PSMD-ZSSZ were not attractive. Similarly, the color and phytochemical components of SD- and HAD-ZSSZ were generally frustrating. In contrast, the color of PSHPD-ZSSZ was similar to the color of first-class ZSSZ in the market, and it also contained high concentrations of volatile oil (4.0mL/100g), alkylamides (60.21mg/g), total phenols (31.81mg/g), and total flavonoids (93.32mg/g). Drying methods significantly influenced the quality of ZSSZ. The coat dehiscing rate, and the contents of D-limonene, alkylamides, total flavonoids, and chlorophyll a were the main factors for the quality difference of dried ZSSZ. The top six composite scores for dried ZSSZ were PSFD, FD, PSHPD, HPD, PSMD and MD. Therefore, suitable drying methods for ZSSZ could be selected according to drying cost and product use.