In ancient times, how were colors extracted?

Ancient mineral colors are divided into minerals, soil, animals, plants and artificial pigments.

Minerals: kyanite, azurite, cinnabar, realgar, muscovite, etc.

Soil quality: ochre, loess, clay, chalk, ochre, shell powder, smectite and so on.

Animals and plants: rouge, magenta, gamboge, blue, saffron, Sudan red, money, indigo naturalis, blue flower, grass juice, etc.

Artificial pigments: yellow cinnabar, red cinnabar, black cinnabar, copper rust, lead, black ink, paraquat, marrow ash, grape black, oil fume, etc.

The earliest pigments used by human beings for coloring are red hematite (Fe2o3) and black magnetite (Fe3o4). These colored stones are easily obtained from nature and can be used without complicated treatment. Our ancestors have realized that minerals must be crushed and ground before painting. The finer the grinding, the better the adhesion, hiding power and coloring power of the pigment.

We call this stone dyeing method of coloring clothes with various mineral pigments "mineral dyeing". The earliest mineral dyeing records appeared in Shang and Zhou Dynasties, and there were records about "black soil, white mud, Songka, blue soil and loess" in the ancient book Shangshu Gong Yu in the Warring States Period, indicating that people at that time had already known minerals and soils with different natural colors. The pigments of main minerals in ancient China are: red hematite and vermilion (HgS), yellow stone yellow (realgar and orpiment), green azurite, blue azurite, white Hu powder, stork ash and black carbon black.

After the Eastern Han Dynasty, alchemy, which arose for seeking the elixir of life, greatly improved China people's understanding of inorganic chemistry, and gradually began to make cinnabar by chemical methods. In order to distinguish it from natural cinnabar, people in ancient times called artificial mercury sulfide (HgS) cinnabar or purple powder cream. Its main raw materials are sulfur and mercury (mercury), which are refined in a special container at a specific temperature. This is the earliest pigment extracted by chemical method in China. Artificial cinnabar is also an important export product of China in ancient times, which was exported to Japan and other countries.