Zipping a folder's content without the folder itself

[Frankie]

Does anyone know how to get zip to compress a directory full of files, but not include the initial parent directory?

For example:

the_directory
 |
  --- x.info
  --- x
  --- subdirectory
      |
	  --- file1.txt
	  --- file2.txt

If I use the command zip -9 -r archive.zip the_directory/#?, archive.zip contains "the_directory" and all files and subdirectories. I only want it to contain the files and subdirectories, like so:

x.info
x
subdirectory
  |
  --- file1.txt
  --- file2.txt

I know I can do the following and it'll work:

• cd the_directory
• zip -9 -r /archive.zip #?
• cd /

But I'd prefer it if zip can do it all in one command for cleanliness.

Thanks!