| Zhi | |||||||||||||||||
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&sq=Google&lang=en&file=File:%E8%8A%9D-seal.svg) Ancient Chinese seal script for zhi 芝 | |||||||||||||||||
| Chinese | 芝 | ||||||||||||||||
| Literal meaning | mushroom | ||||||||||||||||
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The Chinese term zhī (芝) commonly means "fungi; mushroom", best exemplified by the medicinal Lingzhi mushroom, but in Daoism it referred to a class of supernatural plant, animal, and mineral substances that were said to confer instantaneous xian immortality when ingested. In the absence of a semantically better English word, scholars have translated the wide-ranging meaning of zhi as "excrescences", "exudations", and "cryptogams".