just learned that in chinese buddhism oysters were traditionally considered vegetarian bc of a myth about someone (a god/dess or a monk, depending on the story) eating them to survive a famine, and in return for saving them oysters were granted enlightenment and their physical forms are irrelevant

Replies

  1. beanus.gay profile picture

    Beanus @beanus.gay

    Chinas whole religion situation is endlessly fascinating to me

    0
  2. It makes sense. Oysters do seem like they know what it takes to live a good life. Simple, unbothered, leaving their environment cleaner than they found it, and of course turning the mundane into something beautiful.

    0
  3. i’m a veg guy who eats bi-valves for reasons of sentience, and I feel like a damn sucker compared to this, way better

    0
  4. This is interesting because they also don't count as meat or fish for the purposes of fasting during Lent, at least in the Eastern Orthodox churches. Reasoning is different though - because they don't have blood. All mollusks fall into the category.

    1
  5. From a more practical standpoint, someone probably figured out that the person eating a vegetarian diet and oysters (a rich source of B12) tended to not become sickly and anemic

    0
  6. The slate article about oysters being plausibly vegan is unironically one of the best things they ever published

    0