Ròulíngzhī (肉靈芝, "meaty Lingzhi mushroom") is a modern name popularized by Chinese news media reporting on purported discoveries of Feng throughout China.
Fengzhu (封豬, with "pig; swine") or Bifeng (伯封, with "elder brother; uncle"), the son of Kui and Xuanqi (玄妻, "Dark Consort"), was named owing to his "swinish" wickedness.
The Kangxi Dictionary entry for shi (視) quotes Guo Pu's Shanhaijing commentary to use the otherwise unattested variant jùròu (聚肉, with 聚 "gather; assemble; get together").
Fabrizio Pregadio explains, The term zhi, "which has no equivalent in Western languages, refers to a variety of supermundane substances often described as plants, fungi, or 'excrescences'.
Birrell notes that the shirou is: A fabled creature, the recurring animalian motif of numerous utopian passages in the text, usually associated with the burial place of deities.
[7]Feng also appears in the Shanhaijing mythic name fengshi (封石, "fief stone"), for example,[8] "[On Mount Accord], the yufu jade is abundant on its summit, as well as copious amounts of bloodstone and fief-stone."
Zhang Hua's (c. 290 CE) Bowuzhi "Record of the Investigation of Things"[10] says, "In the land of Yuexi/Yuesui there is a cow that does not die if you cut a piece of meat off it.
The (c. 320 CE) Baopuzi, written by the Jin Dynasty Daoist scholar Ge Hong, mentions Ròuzhī (肉芝, "meat/flesh excrescences") in two contexts.
[13]The Zazhi 雜志 "Miscellaneous Notes" by the Song dynasty official Jiang Linji 江鄰幾 (1005-1060) records that the Neo-Confucian teacher Xu Ji 徐積 (1028-1103) found a Feng in Luzhou (modern Anhui).
The (1547) Xihu Zhi (西湖志 "West Lake Record") by Ming dynasty scholar Tian Rucheng (田汝成, 1503-1557) uses the name Taisui.
"[7] Li Shizhen's (1578) Bencao Gangmu classic Chinese materia medica includes the Feng under Chapter 51, which describes medicines derived from yu (禺 "monkeys") and kuai (怪 "supernatural creatures") such as the wangliang (魍魎 "a demon that eats the organs of corpses") and penghou (彭侯 "a tree spirit that resembles a black tailless dog").
Bernard Read's translation[14] glosses the Feng as "a naiad" and says, "This refers to a class of peculiar organisms such as the sea cucumber or anemones to which were accredited supernatural qualities, based upon the supposition that they were spiritual beings."
In modern context, counterfeit and imitation goods made in China are so common that English borrowed the Chinese loanword shanzhai.
[citation needed] For instance, construction workers near Lüshunkou District of Dalian dug out a 7-to-8-kilogram lump of fatty meat, which they sold to a Mr. Sun (孙) for 20,000 yuan (about $3,200), who later began selling "Taisui" mineral water.
The Xinhua reporter, who inspected Sun's "Taisui" kept in a water-filled tank, said it was about 40 cm wide, resembled white pig fat wrapped in a brown and yellow skin, and felt like sauced beef tendon.
[16][17][18] However, after viewers identified it as a fleshlight sex toy with a vagina and anus, the story became an internet meme in China, and the station issued an apology.
In a Chinese fairy tale, The Pretty Little Calf was born as the third wife's son, but the first and second wives claimed he was a lump of flesh, and tried to kill him by drowning and feeding to a water buffalo.
The Tamil saint Thirumalisai Alvar was born as a limbless lump of flesh after twelve months in the womb, abandoned by his parents, and returned to life by Vishnu.
The creation of man in the Qur'an (22:5) says, "We first created you from dust, then from a sperm drop, then from clotted blood, then a lump of flesh [mudghah], both shaped and unshaped, so that We might manifest to you [Our power]".
In Welsh mythology, Lleu Llaw Gyffes was born from a lump of flesh dropped by Gwydion, and concealed in a chest until he matured.