Unlike the boundless imagination left to us by the immortal’s picking reishi mushrooms, the depiction of the ancient painters on picking reishi mushrooms was very pragmatic and realistic.

Picking Lingzhi in the Deep Mountains – Too Deep to Locate

The eleventh artwork themed “Riding a Deer and Picking Lingzhi” in the album of the court painter Jin Jie’s “Live as long as the Mountain” during the Yongzheng period of the Qing Dynasty tells the long winding roads in the process of picking Lingzhi. How long will the picker take to find it? Only God knows.

Unknown return dates test the people in the mountains as well as those outside the mountains. Tang Dynasty poet Jia Dao’s “Under pine trees I asked a pupil of your whereabouts, Who mentioned his master has gone to gather herbs. Somewhere in the mountain you were for certain, Uncertain was where among the deep cloud cover you were.” We do not know how many times it has been staged in real life. But in order to prolong life and live as long as the mountains, there is always a price to pay, right?

Picking Lingzhi in the cold forests · innumerable trials and hardships

The painter Li Cheng, who was active from the Five Dynasties to the early Northern Song Dynasty, had the status of a master in the Chinese landscape painting circle, and he was good at painting the cold forests in the harsh winter of the north. In one of the “Cold Forest Pictures”, he drew a person who picked the Ganoderma lucidum. The ganoderma lucidum in the bamboo basket was fresh and dripping, making people almost forget that “growth at the time of Qingming and mature after the Dragon Boat Festival” is the nature of Ganoderma lucidum.

Seemingly contrary to natural common sense, it is actually the author’s artistic conception through the landscape:

If the cold forest symbolizes old age, then Ganoderma lucidum, which is still alive when everything is old, is undoubtedly a promise to those who have been eating for a long time;

If the cold forest is a metaphor for a predicament, it is obviously a tribute to the people who climb over the mountains to find a few plump Ganoderma lucidum.

Picking Lingzhi in the snow mountain · risk lives

If picking Reisi mushroom in the cold forest is not hard enough, look at this “Picking Lingzhi in the Yaopu” completed by the Qing court painter Jin Tingbiao in the fifty-fourth year of Emperor Qianlong. Walking on the thin ice to collect Ganoderma lucidum is a desperate performance – though ganoderma lucidum was collected, the picker’s bones were also frozen, and it was unknown whether the picker could go downhill safely.

This is also a landscape painting that borrows scenery to express emotions, but what the author wants to convey has surpassed the difficulty of picking Lingzhi. The author felt pity for the people who pick Lingzhi and questioned “looking for Sanxiu grass at all costs for refining Jiuzhuan pill”:

The immortal grass that can prolong life puts the picker’s life in danger. Isn’t this a practice of attending to trifles and neglecting the essentials?

What is the significance of the so-called pursuit of immortality if you only know how to seek pill but forget the practice of the heart?

Picking Lingzhi in pine forest for the master

Or maybe it’s not difficult to pick Reishi mushroom, but it’s hard to have the opportunity to eat Reishi mushroom, because, in ancient times, identity determines everything. Just like this “Picture of Sitting and Listening to the Pinewind” made by Li Shida, a Jinshi in the Ming Dynasty, picking and eating Lingzhi are obviously two different fates.

Lingzhi bestowed by heaven · for the emperor

Or, if you don’t even have to look for Ganoderma lucidum, the kindness of an emperor naturally induce the growth of Lingzhi. It’s just that although the Ganoderma lucidum right at the feet of the emperor is close at hand, who dares to think about it? At best, it can only be like hundreds of civil and military officials in the Ming Dynasty painter Qiu Ying’s “Emperor Xiaoming of Han Dynasty”, kneeling in front of the founder of the Ming Dynasty, shouting”Long live the emperor”.
Efficacious Lingzhi · happy like an immortal

Although it is not easy to pick and eat Lingzhi, it can be seen from this anthropomorphic “Celestial Being Picture” by Leng Qian, a Taoist priest in the Ming Dynasty, that the ancients were still optimistic in their mentality and looked forward to living like the gods in the paintings by eating Ganoderma in daily life for agelessness, longevity and immortality.

Artificial Planting of Lingzhi · within easy reach

Unlike ancient times when one lingzhi is hard to find, with the advancement of modern artificial cultivation technology, Ganoderma lucidum has become readily available.

But what’s interesting is that, compared with the ancient firm belief that Ganoderma lucidum is a very rare and valuable thing all over the world, many modern people may not even look at Ganoderma lucidum even if it is placed in front of them.

It turns out that the farthest distance has nothing to do with the journey and identity but the distance of the mind; when the mind stops believing, no matter how efficacious the panacea is, it can only be missed forever.

The benefits of Ganoderma lucidum can always be experienced after long-term consumption.

When we don’t need to risk our lives or climb over the mountains to find a Lingzhi, when eating Lingzhi can be shared equally regardless of identity, why don’t you take a look at Lingzhi that the ancients longed for in their dreams? Why don’t you take the time to experience the benefits of Ganoderma lucidum that has been eulogized for thousands of years?

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