The Development of Alchemy in Ancient China

A special kind of formulaic art in ancient China. Also known as jindan, alchemy, point gold, yellow and white art. Its content is very complex, the central goal is to use artificial methods to make both can make people "immortality", but also can be used to point the golden elixir pointing copper, iron and other common metals to transform into gold and silver. Alchemy was first born in China because of the ancient Chinese saying of "becoming immortal". Alchemists believed that the human body could be immortalized with the help of a magical drug. The term "dan" originally referred to dansha (i.e., mercury sulfide), but later it came to refer to a variety of drugs that were considered to be "elixirs of immortality" or "medicines of gold".

The creation of alchemy has its own social background, when the feudal society developed to a certain stage, the productive forces have improved greatly, the ruling class of material enjoyment requirements are also higher and higher. The emperors and aristocrats naturally had two extravagant wishes: firstly, they wished to grasp more wealth for their enjoyment; and secondly, they wished to live forever, so that they could rule once and for all.

Chinese alchemy originated in the 3rd century B.C.E. By the Eastern Han Dynasty, when the ideas of the immortals of the Fonzes developed into Taoism, the culture of alchemy had penetrated into the folklore. In the Eastern Han Dynasty, Wei Boyang's book "Zhouyi Sen Tongqi" is the world's earliest surviving theoretical work on alchemy, and the book mentions that alchemists at that time had 600 articles in the Fire Records, which shows that fire alchemy at that time had already accumulated a lot of empirical knowledge. Ge Hong, an alchemist of the Jin Dynasty, wrote "The Inner Part of Hug Park Zi", which is a detailed record and summary of alchemy since the Han and Jin Dynasties, and his alchemy is divided into three interrelated parts: ① Refining Wan Ying Spiritual Elixir, which is considered as "the extreme of the Immortal Path". (2) Collecting and processing medicines for longevity. These medicines include mineral, animal and plant medicines, which are believed to play the roles of "making the body safe and prolonging the life", "nourishing the nature" and "getting rid of diseases". ③Igniting gold and silver. Copper, iron and other common metals into gold and silver, in fact, is the use of chemical methods to make a variety of gold, silver and similar alloys.

In addition to the development of alchemy in China, the 8th century, Arabia also appeared called al-kimiya (according to evidence may be from the Chinese "gold liquid" two words of the ancient sound kim-ya evolution) of alchemy, the pursuit of a called Al Ixil panacea, counting on it to make a person live longer, other elements included alchemy and pharmacy. Around the 12th century, Arab alchemy spread to Europe with the power of Islam.

The guiding philosophy of the alchemists was idealistic, and as a result, their original purpose was wholly unfulfilled. But the practice of alchemy, after all, brought the alchemists into contact with all kinds of natural phenomena, thus improving their understanding of the natural world, for example, they worked day and night in the laboratory, accumulated a wealth of practical experience, and thus put forward a valuable idea: "Substances can be artificially transformed into each other", and the emergence of the end of Tang dynasty gunpowder was a product of the practice of alchemy. Finally, alchemy became the basis for the emergence and development of modern chemistry in Europe, leading to the evolution from terms such as alchemia and alchimia, which stood for alchemy, to Chemie (German), chimie (French) and chemistry (English), which stood for chemistry.

The invention of alchemy in China originated from the idea of immortality in ancient myths and legends. For example, Hou Yi obtained the medicine of immortality from the Queen Mother of the West, and Chang E stole it and then flew to the Moon Palace and became a fairy in the moon. We do not have exact records to know what kind of pills the ancient medicine takers ate in order to live forever, but if we look at the "Biography of the Immortals" compiled by the Jin people, what they took included unrefined minerals and plants such as dansha, mica, jade, ochre, stone, pine nuts, and cinnamon, among others.

"Zou Yan" this formula had sprouted in the Warring States period, Qin Shi Huang and Han Wu Di also good fairy and longevity. All the Fangshi such as Li Shaojun, Luan Da, etc. in the court service, the Wu emperor Liu An is also famous alchemy JinDan character, his work "Huainanzi" has mentioned mercury, dansha, andrographis and other drugs. To Emperor Jingdi alchemy popular, the end of the Western Han Dynasty, Wang Mang also like the idea of immortals and alchemy. In addition, Taoism was also associated with alchemy, and Zhang Ling, the founder of Taoism, was said to be proficient in the art.

Before the Eastern Han Dynasty, there were two distinct traditions of alchemy: one was devoted to the search for the elixir of immortality, and the other to the experimental production of gold. During the Eastern Han Dynasty, the two traditions merged into one, with alchemists trying to make the elixir of immortality, and the factors that led to the combination of the two traditions were actually related to the development of medicine, so many famous alchemists such as Ge Hong and Tao Hongjing were also great medicine practitioners. Ge Hong's contributions to alchemy and early chemistry are preserved in the Inner Chapters of Huguo Pu Zi, where he recorded many immortality pills (e.g., taiqing dan, jinliu) and the methods of their preparation.

The above is a belief that has been passed down for a long time, and it is even pointed out that mortals can be transformed into immortals, and that this metamorphosis can be explained by the theory of yin and yang and the five elements

The Golden Age of Chinese Alchemy

The story of the elixir of immortality continued to fascinate many emperors after Ge Hong's time, such as the Wei Daowu emperor Tuoba Gui, who set up a workshop for refining the elixir in the capital, and the Taiwu emperor Tuoba, who summoned Wei Wenshiu to ask about the golden elixir and ordered people to enter the palace to make it. The Emperor Taiwu called Wei Wenxiu to ask him about the golden elixir and ordered him to go to the mountains to visit the immortals, and Xu Jian collected and refined the golden elixir for Emperor Xiaowen, realizing the "method of prolonging life" and so on. The picture on the right shows the fireplace contained in the "Instructions for Dan Fang".

Chinese alchemy entered a golden age between the end of the Later Jin Dynasty and the Late Tang Dynasty. The contribution of the famous alchemist, medicine man and pharmacologist was supreme. He had made alchemy for Xiao Yan, Emperor Wu of Liang, and passed down the book "Thirty-six Water Methods" in the Taoist Collection, which was helpful in the study of inorganic reactions in chemistry using water as a medium. At the same time, the alchemist Chu Ze compiled Su Yuanming's work "Taiqing Shibi Ji", which recorded the ingredients and refining methods of various elixirs, such as the Jiu Ding Dan method, and Su also explained the cryptic names used by chemists at the time in the "Jin Ying Dan Fang"