Peculiar benefits of pine nuts

偓佺者，槐山采藥父也，好食松實，形體生毛，長数寸。兩目更方，能飛行逐走馬。以松子遺堯，堯不暇服也。松者，簡松也。時人受服者，皆至二三百歲焉。

Wo Quan was a herb gatherer at Mount Huai who loved eating pine nuts. His body was covered with hair several inches long. His eyes, moreover, were square-shaped. He could walk as if flying and chase running horses. He gave [the legendary ruler] Yao some pine nuts, but the latter found no time to consume them. The pine tree was enormous. Those who consumed the gifted nuts at the time all lived two or three hundred years.

* From Liu Xiang 劉向 (77-6 BCE) attr., Liexian zhuan jiaojian 列仙傳校箋 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 2021), edited by Wang Shumin 王叔岷 (1914-2008), 11.

Album leaf by an anonymous artist; from a collection of ancient masterpieces

Image credit: National Palace Museum, Taipei

集古名繪　冊　無款松鼠圖　。國立故宮博物院，台北，CC BY 4.0 @ www.npm.gov.tw