人参果

人參果
rénshēnguǒ
noun

Measure Word

Meanings

  1. 1 ginseng fruit (mythical, from Journey to the West)
  2. 2 pepino melon (Solanum muricatum)

Examples

Chuánshuō rénshēnguǒ sān qiān nián cái jié yī cì guǒ.
Legend says the ginseng fruit only bears fruit once every three thousand years.
Chāoshì lǐ mài de rénshēnguǒ qíshí shì yī zhǒng shuǐguǒ.
The 'rénshēnguǒ' sold in supermarkets is actually a real fruit (pepino).

Tips

culture
Two unrelated meanings share the name. The mythical fruit is shaped like a baby and grants 47,000 years of life — Sun Wukong steals one in 西 chapter 24. The supermarket fruit is the South-American pepino, marketed in China since the 1980s under the same evocative name.

In Pop Culture

人参果 Sūn Wùkōng tōu chī rénshēnguǒ
Sun Wukong steals and eats the ginseng fruits
Episode in Journey to the West (西游记) chapter 24-26: Wukong, Bajie and Wujing pillage the Daoist Master Zhenyuan's miraculous tree, then have to revive it before the pilgrimage can continue.

Stroke Order

rén
cān
guǒ