This substance was ingested but it could also be combined with sulphur and burned again to return to its natural form of cinnabar, the solid seen as the yang to quicksilver's yin. The colour was significant to symbolic belief as well, red being considered in Chinese culture to be the 'zenith of the colour representing the sun, fire, royalty and energy.' Cinnabar could also be roasted, which produced a liquid form of silver known as quicksilver, now known as mercury. The significance of its red colour and difficulty with which it was refined implied to alchemists its connection with the search for immortality. Gold and cinnabar ( jindan) were the most sought-after substances to manipulate and ingest, believed to have longevity and thus able to elongate the life of the consumer.Ĭinnabar is a mineral with a reddish-brown colour and is the most common source of mercury in nature. The idea that fake gold was superior to real gold arose because the alchemists believed the combination of a variety of substances (and the transformation of these substances through roasting or burning) gave the final substance a spiritual value, possessing a superior essence when compared to natural gold. Process and purpose īy refining bases into gold and ingesting the 'fake' or synthetic gold, the alchemist believed that immortal life would be delivered.

Ĭhinese alchemy was introduced to the West by Obed Simon Johnson. In general, classical Daojia was more austere, whereas Daojiao was more practiced by the general populace. ĭaoism had two distinct parts, the classical Daojia (道家 Tao chia), which was mystical and stemmed primarily from Laozi and Zhuangzi, and the more popular Daojiao (道教 Tao chiao), which was the popular, magical and alchemical side of Daoism. Pao zhi (炮制 Pao chi) or Processing (Chinese materia medica) is used in Traditional Chinese Medicine, such as honey or wine frying and roasting with toxic metals such as mercury, lead, and arsenic. The consumption and use of various concoctions known as alchemical medicines or elixirs, each of which having different purposes but largely were concerned with immortality. Therefore, the traditional view in China is that alchemy focuses mainly on longevity and the purification of one's spirit, mind and body, providing, health, longevity and wisdom, through the practice of Qigong and wuxingheqidao. According to original texts such as the Cantong qi, the body is understood as the focus of cosmological processes summarized in the five agents of change, or Wuxing, the observation and cultivation of which leads the practitioner into alignment and harmony with the Tao.

Crystals of cinnabar, crystals of barite, crystals of quartz, crystals of calcite : Wanshan Mine, Wanshan District, Tongren Prefecture, Guizhou Province, China, an example of material historically associated with Chinese alchemyĬhinese alchemy is an ancient Chinese scientific and technological approach to alchemy, a part of the larger tradition of Taoist body-spirit cultivation developed from the traditional Chinese understanding of medicine and the body.

Elixir of immortality