Reishi Through History and Traditional Culture

Few mushrooms have as rich a cultural history as Reishi. Known in China as lingzhi, it has appeared in texts, paintings, carvings and textiles for around two thousand years. This article explores that history as history: a story of how people have valued a remarkable fungus.

What’s in a name?

The Chinese name lingzhi is often translated as something like “spirit plant” or “divine mushroom”. In Japan the fungus is called reishi, written with the same characters, and it has also been known as mannentake, the “ten-thousand-year mushroom”. In Korea it is yeongji. In scientific terms, the fungus belongs to the genus Ganoderma, from the Greek for “shining skin”, a reference to its lacquered, varnish-like cap. See Ganoderma Species Explained.

Early records

A symbol of longevity

Lingzhi became closely associated with Daoist ideas of longevity and immortality. In legend, it grew on the misty mountains of the immortals, and emperors were said to have sent expeditions in search of it. Stories told of the fungus reviving the dead or granting everlasting life. Its rarity in the wild, and the fact that the dried fungus does not rot, only added to its mystique.

Lingzhi appearing in the wild was sometimes recorded as an auspicious sign, and specimens were presented at court. In later imperial China, it was valued as a gift expressing wishes for long life.

Reishi in art

The fungus became one of the most recognisable motifs in Chinese decorative art. Its curved, cloud-like shape is echoed in the ruyi, a ceremonial sceptre whose name means “as you wish”, given as a token of good fortune. Lingzhi appears in paintings, porcelain, jade and lacquer carvings, embroidered robes and architecture, often alongside other symbols of long life such as cranes, deer, pine trees and the peaches of immortality. The “auspicious cloud” motif that decorates everything from palace roofs to textiles is closely related to its form.

Reishi in Japan and Korea

Lingzhi symbolism travelled with Chinese culture to Japan and Korea, where it took on its own local forms. In Japan, reishi appears in decorative art and was presented as an auspicious gift, and dried specimens were sometimes kept as ornaments. Its Japanese name is the one most familiar in the West today.

From rarity to cultivation

For most of its history, lingzhi was gathered from the wild and was genuinely rare, particularly the prized antler-like and red forms. Reliable commercial cultivation, on logs and later on sawdust-based substrates, developed only in the twentieth century. That transformed it from a rare treasure into a widely available product, and made it far easier for scientists to study.

The naming puzzle

For much of the twentieth century, Asian lingzhi was known in the West as Ganoderma lucidum. That name had originally been given to a European species, and DNA studies have since shown that much of the lingzhi cultivated in East Asia is a distinct species, now often called Ganoderma lingzhi. The history of the name is itself a small lesson in how carefully we need to read old labels and old studies.

History is not evidence

Reishi today

Today, Reishi is cultivated around the world, including in the UK. Our Reishi tincture is made from UK-grown fruiting bodies. To learn more about the fungus itself, read The Complete Guide to Reishi, or explore more history in Mushrooms Through History.