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The alchemical tradition in China was divided into two differing schools in the search for the pill of immortality. [4] Taoist sects which advocated the attainment of immortality by consuming substances were very popular during the Eastern Han dynasty in the 2nd century AD and they were collectively known as the school of the "external pill ...
In early China, alchemists and pharmacists were one and the same. Traditional Chinese medicine also used less concentrated cinnabar and mercury preparations, and dan means "pill; medicine" in general, for example, dānfāng 丹方 semantically changed from "prescription for elixir of immortality" to "medical prescription".
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. Alchemists in various ages and cultures sought the means of formulating the elixir.
One of the most misguided attempts at creating a potion for immortality involved the first emperor of China and mercury pills. In his obsession with finding a formula that would grant him eternal ...
In China, gold was quite rare, so it was usually imported from other surrounding countries. However, cinnabar could be refined in the mountains of Sichuan and Hunan provinces in central China. Although the majority of xian (immortality) elixirs were combinations of jindan , many other elixirs were formed by combining metallic bases with natural ...
A statue of Xu Fu in Weihai, Shandong. Xu Fu (Hsu Fu; Chinese: 徐福 or 徐巿 [1]; pinyin: Xú Fú; Wade–Giles: Hsu 2 Fu 2; Japanese: 徐福 Jofuku or 徐巿 Jofutsu; Korean: 서복 Seo Bok or 서불 Seo Bul) was a Chinese alchemist and explorer.
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.
The two different categories of requirements for immortality include internal alchemy [11] and external alchemy. [12] External alchemy is mastering special breathing techniques, sexual, yoga, attempting to produce an elixir of immortality by consuming purified metals and complex compounds, and developing medical skills. In Taoism, one’s soul ...