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The Pill of Immortality, also known as xiandan (仙丹), jindan (金丹) or dan (丹) in general, was an elixir or pill sought by Chinese alchemists to confer physical or spiritual immortality. It is typically represented as a spherical pill of dark color and uniform texture, made of refined medical material.
Development of the immortal embryo in the lower dantian of the Daoist cultivator. Neidan, or internal alchemy (traditional Chinese: 內丹術; simplified Chinese: 內丹术; pinyin: nèidān shù), is an array of esoteric doctrines and physical, mental, and spiritual practices that Taoist initiates use to prolong life and create an immortal spiritual body that would survive after death. [1]
Chinese alchemy specifically was consistent in its practice from the beginning, and there was relatively little controversy among its practitioners [citation needed]. Definition amongst alchemists varied only in their medical prescription for the elixir of immortality, or perhaps only over their names for it, of which sinology has counted about ...
The mythological White Hare from Chinese mythology, brewing the elixir of life on the Moon. The elixir of life (Medieval Latin: elixir vitae), also known as elixir of immortality, is a potion that supposedly grants the drinker eternal life and/or eternal youth. This elixir was also said to cure all diseases.
Early text such as Zhuangzi, Chuci, and Liezi texts allegorically used xian immortals and magic islands to describe spiritual immortality, sometimes using the word yuren 羽人 or "feathered person" (later another word for "Daoist" [Notes 1]), and were described with motifs of feathers and flying, such as yǔhuà (羽化, with "feather; wing ...
Chinese woodblock illustration of a waidan alchemical refining furnace, 1856 Waike tushuo 外科圖説 (Illustrated Manual of External Medicine). Waidan, translated as 'external alchemy' or 'external elixir', is the early branch of Chinese alchemy that focuses upon compounding elixirs of immortality by heating minerals, metals, and other natural substances in a luted crucible.
This Chinese name sanbao originally referred to the Daoist "Three Treasures" from the Daodejing, chapter 67: "pity", "frugality", and "refusal to be 'foremost of all things under heaven'". [1] It has subsequently also been used to refer to the jing, qi, and shen and to the Buddhist Three Jewels (Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha).
In religious Daoism [broken anchor] and traditional Chinese medicine, yangsheng, refers to various self-cultivation practices aimed at enhancing health and longevity. Yangsheng techniques include calisthenics , self-massage , breath exercises , meditation , internal and external Daoist alchemy , sexual activities , and dietetics .