Ever heard of a tree that distinguishes between good and evil? Well, you can find one such tree at the Beijing Temple of Confucius! But first, a bit of background information: The Beijing Temple of Confucius is the second largest Confucian temple out of many throughout China, after the Qufu Confucius Temple in Shandong Province. Built in 1302, the temple covers 22,000 square meters. According to online sources, The Beijing Temple of Confucius holds 198 stone tablets with the names of 51,624 advanced scholars from the Ming, Qing, and Yuan Dynasties, as well as 14 stone-steel pavilions from the Ming and Qing dynasties that are inscribed with prized information about ancient China.

The Beijing Temple of Confucius, along with all the other temples spread across China, is named after and dedicated to the great philosopher, political figure, and teacher, Confucius. Widely recognized as China’s philosophical leader, his teachings, also known as Confucianism – focusing on kindness, justice, knowledge, and loyalty – became the basis of philosophy in China for thousands of years to come. Confucianism made people realize that philosophy was a part of everyday life. By now, you’re probably thinking: What’s the deal with the all-knowing tree?

Well, the tree is called 触奸柏 Chujian Bai, or Touch Evil Cypress in English, and it is well over 600 years old! It was given this name because of a legend that dates back to the Ming Dynasty, between 1521 and 1567. While under the reign of the neglectful and cruel Jiajing Emperor, the government was under the command of Yan Song, the Grand Secretary. He was given this position by the Emperor but was infamous for being corrupt and was said to be as rich as the Emperor himself. One day, Yan Song came to the temple to worship Confucius on behalf of the Emperor, but as he was walking by the tree, one of the branches knocked his official hat – or 康冠liang’guan in Chinese – off.

Since Yan Song was known to be corrupt and just an unpleasant person overall, stories started to go around that the tree had the ability to tell the difference between people with good intentions and people with bad intentions. It wouldn’t be the first time in history that people have ascribed human qualities to inanimate objects based on superstition, and it certainly won’t be the last. Wouldn’t you be interested to see how the tree reacts to you when you walk past it?

KEEP READING: The Woman, the Myth, the Legend Behind the Great Wall

Images: Unsplash

If last Sunday was any indication, the temperatures in Beijing are about to drop, and that means many of us, parents and children alike, might come down with sickness ranging from a minor nuisance to something outright debilitating. But what exactly is it about the falling temperature which causes an uptick in illnesses? Let’s examine the science behind why we get sick when the weather changes.

Right off the bat, we can dispel one myth that effectively has people preemptively reaching for the tissue box when the leaves begin to change: the notion that cold weather, in and of itself, has the power to make us sick.

According to Internal Medicine Specialist, Kittu Jindal Garg, M.D., “A lot of the viruses that cause the common cold are shown to cause outbreaks more frequently in the early to late spring and early to late fall.” However, he goes on to explain that, “really there’s still no evidence to show that it’s the cold weather itself that’s making us sick.”

Rather, it’s a bunch of complementary forces that flourish during cold weather. But before we go into those, we can safely say that if you’re an otherwise healthy person, merely standing out in the cold will emphatically not make you sick.

Having said that, there are a number of complications cold weather promotes, which, when taken together, create a sort of perfect storm, and wind up landing people in bed with an achey body and runny nose.

To begin with, the two viruses which most often cause the common cold, rhinoviruses and coronaviruses, do in fact thrive in weather that’s cool. So as summer gives way to fall, and the city is enveloped in an autumnal chill, the common cold makes itself at home in tiny airborne droplets called aerosols, which people then inhale. Once inside your nasal passages, the virus goes about the business of replicating all throughout your upper respiratory tract.

Similarly, influenza viruses, or those that cause the common flu, “may also survive and spread more easily in cold and dry air,” says Jamie Eske at Medical News Today. In fact, Eske cites one study in the Journal of Virology which found that, in a study on guinea pig populations, “the ideal temperature for the influenza virus to spread is 5 degrees Celsius, or 41 degrees Fahrenheit.” For reference, at the time of writing, Beijing was 49 degrees Fahrenheit with 30 percent humidity.

In addition to happy little virus particles finding ideal conditions in which to exist, it’s also known that “cold, dry air cuts down on the healthy mucus that’s supposed to coat areas of your respiratory system, leaving airways more susceptible to unpleasant microbial visitors.” This also accounts for why you get a runny nose. That is, the body attempts to overcompensate for a lack of mucus in the nasal passages, and thus you, or your child, become a drippy, unhappy mess.

Aside from the blossoming populations of viruses in cooler weather, the drop in temperature can also have an effect on the immune system in a variety of ways. For instance, a lack of sunlight means that people are getting reduced amounts of Vitamin D, which according to some research is essential to maintaining a healthy immune system. What’s more, during particularly harsh winter months, people have a tendency to spend more time indoors and, of course, with increased close contact comes an increased chance of spreading diseases. If that wasn’t bad enough, to prevent against heat loss, the respiratory tract constricts when breathing in cold and dry air which in turn makes it more difficult for white blood cells to reach the mucous membranes and consequently lessens the body’s ability to fight off germs.

So what can be done about it?!?!?!

Well, unfortunately there’s no hidden secret or grand plan to stave off an illness. Just a bunch of well-known preventative measures we can take to hopefully stay happy and healthy throughout the coziness of fall and winter. These include getting plenty of sleep, staying hydrated (with that most common of Chinese medicines, hot water), avoiding sick people, and washing hands regularly (cold viruses can live on the skin for up to two hours). What’s more, if the darkness overtakes you and you can’t remember the last time you saw the sun, vitamin D can be replenished in the body with supplements or foods such as fish, mushrooms, and eggs.

So while it isn’t the weather that’s making you sick, per se, it is creating an environment that many things which make you sick find particularly suitable for their own well-being, at the expense of yours.

Photos: Kidnurse.org, Pixabay

Photo by JB London via Flickr