Ling Zhi, also called Reishi in Japanese, is the name form of the mushroom Ganoderma Lucidum. Its name also means “herb of spiritual potency”, which shows it is the one of the treasures of Chinese Medicine. It grows wild only upon old trees and roots of certain types of trees in remote mountain forests with high humidity and a dim light. According to the ancient records, it grows in six different colors, and among them, red is the most common one. In ancient times, Ling Zhi was regarded as the elixir, which could make people live forever and brought the dead back to life.
Throughout the history, there were various legends about Ling Zhi. The most famous one is the legend of The White Snake. The legend goes that, Bai Suzhen, the heroine of the legend, a white snake practiced thousands of years and finally transformed to a beautiful lady. She and a scholar named Xu Xian fell in love with each other and got married later. However, when Xu found that Bai was actually a snake, he was scared to death. In order to save her husband’s life, Bai stole a magical Ling Zhi from the gods and then Xu was back to life again with it.
Images of the mushroom can be seen frequently depicted in the ancient Chinese art. Nowadays, Ling Zhi is still regarded as a symbol of “living forever”, “everything goes well”, “the country is prosperous and the people live in peace”, etc.
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I have an account on Twitter now, chinancient@gmail.com
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#4 by sharon on August 3, 2010 - 2:45 am