Source: CNKI
In ancient times, due to the underdevelopment of science and technology, many phenomena and things could not be explained by people's existing knowledge, so the ancients deified them.
For example, astronomical constellations, we will now use professional instruments to study astronomy and understand their laws.
But in ancient times, astronomy was a mysterious thing to the ancients, like the "Tai Sui Star". The ancients regarded it as a kind of star that can predict good luck and evil, so there is a saying that "Tai Sui sits on his head, and there is no disaster and disaster".
Of course, in addition to the astral body, the ancients also named a creature "Tai Sui", which was regarded as the embodiment of "Tai Sui" on the earth. So, what exactly is "Tai Sui"?
Mysterious legends
In ancient times, "disasters from heaven" were the views of the vast majority of people, and "heaven" was very mysterious to the ancients, and it was necessary to maintain reverence.
The "Tai Sui Star" is a celestial body they imagined, and its orbit is bound to bring disaster.
It is said that wherever the Tai Sui star runs, there will be a creature underground, which is the embodiment of "Tai Sui", and if the ground breaks above it, there will be a great disaster.
As can be reflected from some stories, legend has it that there is a person who is born against the bone and always dismisses conventional things, and the "Tai Sui" that everyone fears is not worth mentioning here.
He deliberately broke ground in the direction where Tai Sui Xing was at that time, but he didn't expect to really dig up something, which looked similar to a piece of meat. This frightened him and immediately buried him again. But within a few days, this "piece of meat" actually grew into his yard.
This was followed by the death of his family members one by one, including himself. Now people are even more in awe of "Tai Sui".
Although this story is recorded in an ancient novel, the compilation meaning is obvious, but this just shows the status of "Tai Sui" in people's hearts.
Eternal life
In addition to awe, because the "Tai Sui" has an entity, the ancients also have a different understanding of it, the Eastern Jin Dynasty Taoist Ge Hong called it "meat zhi", which means that after it is mashed or eaten in water, it can make people immortal.
If this is from the records of Taoists, there are some metaphysical factors, which is not very realistic. Then the record of the famous medical scientist Li Shizhen is even more believing, and his "Compendium of Materia Medica" also has a record of "Tai Sui".
It is said that the shape of the meat mushroom resembles meat, and it grows on a large stone, and it is a creature with a variety of colors.
Although Li Shizhen recorded that the location of "Tai Sui" was different from the previous records, most of the previous records indicated that "Tai Sui" grew in soil.
But Li Shizhen came to the same conclusion as Ge Hong, that is, eating "Tai Sui" can lead to immortality. So where does this conclusion come from?
Another story side illustrates some of the situation.
There is a story in the legendary novel collection of the Tang Dynasty, "Xuanmur Zhi", that people were in awe of Tai Sui, and they were worried that accidentally digging up "Tai Sui" would bring disaster to their families, so they looked for a solution everywhere. At this time, some people said that if they eat it, then the disaster will be gone.
So the person who accidentally dug up the "Tai Sui" did what he said, but he didn't expect the "Tai Sui" to be unusually delicious, and after eating, he also felt that he was a lot younger, and his physical functions were much better, so people felt that "Tai Sui" could live forever.
But this is just a strange story, and there is not much basis, and the record in the "Classic of Mountains and Seas" is more credible, which describes the characteristics of "Tai Sui" "Exhaust food, find rebirth", simply put, "Tai Sui" can grow indefinitely.
Doesn't this characteristic correspond to immortality?
scientific research
However, these are all from ancient records, and the creature "Tai Sui" is not common, and it is difficult for us to study it.
Even if we want to explain it with scientific knowledge, there is no way to explain it.
However, in 1992, we finally found the real "Tai Sui".
That year, a flash flood broke out in Zhouzhi County, Shaanxi Province, causing a lot of losses to local villagers, and after the situation stabilized, many villagers searched for usable objects in the flood.
One of the villagers found a ball of "meat" at this time, but he didn't pay attention to it, but just threw it aside and continued to look for something else.
But then he thought that it seemed that it could be used as fertilizer, and he didn't need to use it in vain, so he went back and brought the "meat ball" home.
Unexpectedly, this "meat ball" has not changed at all after being left at home for a few days, and there is no sign of decay at all, so it is not possible to use it as fertilizer. The villager and his family became more curious about it, and studied it when they had nothing to do, but nothing came of it.
This villager has always been a bold person, he looked at it and couldn't help but feel that this "meat ball" was a little delicious, so he cut off a little bit and cooked it despite his family's resistance, not to mention, the "meat ball" tasted unexpectedly good.
But a few days later, something surprising happened, the place where the "meat ball" was cut off actually grew, not only that, but it also became a lot bigger, and the villagers were scared. They hurriedly reported to the county and asked the government to study it.
This matter spread quickly, and a professor from the Department of Biology of Northwest University was very interested in receiving the news, so he rushed to the villagers' homes to study, and when he saw that this thing had really not been seen, he took it away for research after obtaining the consent of the villagers.
After careful research by a group of experts, it was finally concluded that this "meat ball" is the ancient "Tai Sui" and "Meat Lingzhi", that is, the creature that is said to be immortal.
At the same time, experts also detected that one-third of the components of "Tai Sui" are "large slime mold complexes".
Slime mold is a lower organism that feeds on bacteria and fungi, that is, its existence allows "Tai Sui" to continue to grow. However, the remaining two-thirds of the part was not able to determine its composition due to technical limitations.
With the passage of time, science and technology have become more and more advanced, and in 2010, biological experts used precision instruments to test "Tai Sui" again, and finally concluded that the remaining two-thirds of the composition is polyvinyl alcohol.
However, polyvinyl alcohol is a chemical raw material, a product of modern industry, how can it appear in the ancient "Tai Sui"?
It can only be said that today's "Tai Sui" is still different from the ancient "Tai Sui", perhaps the composition of the ancient "Tai Sui" is only slime molds.
But with the development of the times, the "Tai Sui" in the soil and water has become the "Tai Sui" we see today after being polluted.
After the first "Tai Sui" was discovered, all parts of the country began to excavate "Tai Sui", and indeed found a lot, because of its "immortality" characteristics from ancient times, resulting in "Tai Sui" was scrambling to buy, and even sold for a sky-high price of 11,000 catties.
But later experts said that "Tai Sui" does not have the effect of immortality, on the contrary, because it contains polyvinyl alcohol, a large number of heavy metal elements will be found after soaking in water, and eating too much may cause damage to the human body.
After this incident, people should believe in science more, if there is a problem that science cannot explain, it is that the degree of development of science and technology is not high enough, and one day the puzzle can be solved.
Resources:
China National Knowledge Network "What is "Tai Sui"" - Liu Haier