Lingzhi threw the Ming Dynasty into chaos.

Everyone says that lingzhi is an immortal herb, and I’ve studied it, cultivated it, and even collected its wild varieties. All I’ve seen and heard have been its admirable qualities. Yet, while researching other subjects, I learned that it was once unwittingly drawn into a great upheaval by the imperial dynasties. Perhaps this, too, serves as a lesson from history:
In the autumn of the 37th year of the Jiajing reign (1558), on the very day he celebrated his birthday, the Jiajing Emperor received a most unusual gift: a colossal “Mountain of Lingzhi,” composed of 181 individual mushrooms, all naturally grown and vibrantly alive. The largest among them boasted a diameter exceeding one chi and eight cun. The presenter of this remarkable offering was Wang Jin, a humble commoner from Huxian County in Shaanxi Province. Prior to this act of devotion, little is known of his background; yet, thanks to this extraordinary tribute, he instantly became a celebrated figure throughout the imperial court and beyond. The Jiajing Emperor took great delight in this gift, dubbed the “Eternal Immortal Lingzhi,” and promptly bestowed upon Wang abundant gold and silk.
“Millennial spirit turtles and ten-thousand-year ginseng”—from emperors down to commoners, all held an unwavering belief in supernatural phenomena. The Jiajing Emperor regarded this “Ginseng Mountain” as a symbol of his own “endless longevity.” His profound fascination with auspicious omens soon drew the keen attention of numerous officials. Just three months after Wang Jin presented the Ginseng Mountain—during the winter of 1558—the Ministry of Rites reported to the Jiajing Emperor that a total of 1,804 specimens of lingzhi had been offered from across the realm. Among them were contributions from Shaanxi’s provincial governor, Cheng Gui, and the provincial censor, Li Qiu, who even presented a hundred‑antlered ginseng.
The Jiajing Emperor cherished lingzhi not only as an auspicious sign but also because he believed, on the advice of alchemists, that consuming it would grant him immortality. He ordered that all lingzhi offered from across the empire be refined into elixirs for his personal consumption. Yan Song, however, cared little for state affairs; each day he hurried to the Southern Hunting Park to tend the imperial alchemical furnace, effectively reducing himself to the status of an ordinary adept. By contrast, the Grand Secretary Xu Jie refused to attend the ritual ceremonies at the Southern Hunting Park, choosing instead to grapple with the tangled complexities of governance. Logically, such a minister ought to have been commended—but the Jiajing Emperor saw things differently. He regarded Xu Jie’s conduct as disloyal, openly mocking him: “You deem the fundamental principles paramount, yet you refuse to mingle yourself with the mundane.” The word “hun” here referred to the process of refining medicinal pills. The emperor inferred that Xu Jie’s preoccupation with state matters was merely a pretext, that he regarded the preparation of elixirs as a trivial, even contemptible, task. This left Xu Jie deeply apprehensive; he promptly petitioned to report daily to the Southern Hunting Park, pledging to devote himself to alchemical work for the emperor, just as Yan Song and Li Ben did. Only then did the Jiajing Emperor’s anger give way to favor.
For a time, throughout the Ming dynasty, across the realm and upon the soil of the empire, cultivation beds for thousand-year‑old lingzhi mushrooms and breeding grounds for rare animals could be found everywhere. Hu Zongxian, the Governor-General of Zhejiang and Fujian, having been criticized for his failure to quell the Japanese pirates, presented to the emperor a white deer captured off Zhoushan; the emperor’s anger turned to delight. Hu Zongxian then offered two white turtles and five large lingzhi mushrooms. The Jiajing Emperor christened these two items “Jade Turtles and Immortal Mushrooms” and bestowed upon Hu Zongxian an official rank and a monetary reward. Since presenting auspicious omens could secure promotion, all officials followed suit; governors and provincial commanders vied to submit their own talismans of good fortune, while the ceremonial officials routinely submitted congratulatory memorials—so that not a single high-ranking minister dared to speak out. Chen Zhi, the Pacification Commissioner of Shaanxi, and Li Qiu, the Censor-in-Chief, likewise presented white deer and white lingzhi mushrooms. In the forty-first year of the Jiajing reign, Wang Jin once again made a grand offering: five multicolored lingzhi mushrooms, each more than two chi in diameter, along with a five‑colored ornate turtle. The Jiajing Emperor appointed Wang Jin as Imperial Physician.
Wang Jin, ever more ambitious, in his third year as imperial physician once again presented three “Mountains of Eternal Longevity Incense” on the occasion of the Jiajing Emperor’s birthday. On these three incense mountains grew a total of 360 lingzhi mushrooms. He was granted the honors accorded to a third-rank minister.
The elixirs consumed by the Jiajing Emperor contained mercury, a toxic element; long-term ingestion led to chronic poisoning, causing numbness in the limbs, a deathly pallor, unsteady gait, and even difficulty speaking. Wang Jin and others concocted “Various Immortal Formulas” and the “New Book on Nurturing Life,” which were presented alongside gold‑and‑stone medicines. After ingesting them, the emperor suffered nosebleeds and lost consciousness. Though revived by the imperial physicians, he never again rose from his bed and passed away on the fourteenth day of the twelfth month of the forty-fifth year of the Jiajing reign.
In history, Wang Jin was branded a favorite eunuch, winning the emperor’s favor through unorthodox and underhanded means. As a result, even the perfectly wholesome lingzhi mushroom ended up plunging the Ming dynasty into turmoil, with the true star of this farcical affair being none other than the Jiajing Emperor himself.
(Han Shenghua)
Appendix: Materials on Jiajing’s Superstitions
The Jiajing Emperor was deeply superstitious, placing his faith in monks and Daoist priests and indulging in medicinal remedies and sensual pleasures. In the third year of his reign, he summoned the Jiangxi Daoist priest Shao Yuanjie to the palace. Shao claimed to possess the art of achieving immortality, and after engaging in conversation with the emperor, he won his favor and was bestowed the title “Supreme One True Man,” with a residence—known as the “True Man’s Mansion”—constructed for him within the city. Shao reorganized the palace’s traditional sacrificial rites and liturgies; the petitions and memorials addressed to the “Heavenly Deities” were composed in the ornate parallel prose style and written in vermilion ink on blue‑green paper, hence the term “qingci” (blue‑green words). The Jiajing Emperor came to regard the ability to craft elegant qingci as a measure of a scholar-official’s talent, so court literati viewed composing such texts as a means of vying for imperial favor and advancing their careers. After Shao Yuanjie died, another mystic, Tao Zhongwen, entered the palace. Tao asserted that he could produce “Yuanxing Pure Red Pill” from the menstrual blood of a maiden’s first period, claiming that taking it would grant eternal life. Believing this to be true, the emperor issued edicts ordering officials throughout the empire to select more than three hundred young girls to be brought into the palace as raw materials for the preparation of the elixir. Thanks to his successful presentation of this formula, Tao rose swiftly in rank, eventually becoming Minister of War and Grand Secretary of the Ministry of Rites, while also serving as Junior Tutor and receiving the salary of a first‑rank official; later, he was further elevated to the post of Junior Grand Tutor. His descendants and disciples likewise enjoyed rapid promotions.
The Jiajing Emperor, having taken Tao Zhongwen’s medicine, derived immense pleasure from it. He frequently ventured into the common people to select beautiful women, amassing as many as several thousand to fill his harem. These palace maids were not only subjected to his lascivious indulgences but also reduced to a life of servitude. Consequently, the incident occurred in which the palace maid Yang Jinying assassinated the emperor. (Han Shenghua)