Chinese alchemy
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.
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.
To be sure, the desire to create an elixir of immortality was more appealing to the Taoists, but European alchemists were not averse to seeking out formulas for various longevity-boosting substances.
The secret of transmuting one element into another, specifically base metals into gold or silver, was equally explored by both schools for obvious reasons.
[citation needed] In the European outlook, the ability to turn relatively worthless materials into gold was attractive enough to allow medieval alchemy to enjoy extensive practice long after the Chinese form had been forgotten.
Alternatively, transmutation was also a means of accruing the precious metals that were key in making life-extending elixirs, and were otherwise expensive and difficult to obtain.
Chinese alchemy specifically was consistent in its practice from the beginning, and there was relatively little controversy among its practitioners [citation needed].
Despite much research, many scholars are still unable to marshal conflicting evidence in order to determine when exactly Chinese alchemy started.
One of the first evidence of Chinese alchemy being openly discussed in history is during the Qin's First Emperor's period when Huan Kuan (73-49 BC) states how modifying forms of nature and ingesting them will bring immortality to the person who drinks them.
As there is a direct connection between Daoism and Laozi, some suggest he played a major role in the creation of Chinese alchemy.
[2] Prior to Taoist tradition, the Chinese already had very definitive notions of the natural world's processes and "changes", especially involving the wu xing: Water, Fire, Earth, Metal and Wood.
Doctrine can be accessed to describe these methods in greater detail; the majority of Chinese alchemical sources can be found in the Daozang, the "Taoist Canon".
The meaning of waidan derives from wai (outside, exterior) and dan referring to alchemical operations, such as the preparation of chemical elixirs, made from cinnabar, realgar, and other substances generally involving mercury, sulfur, lead, and arsenic or else the animal and botanical products which are found in Chinese herbology and Traditional Chinese medicine.
Waidan refers to practices relating to the process of making an elixir often containing herbal or chemical substances found outside of the body.
The term Neidan can be divided into two parts: Nei, meaning inner, and Dan, which refers to alchemy, elixir, and cinnabar (mercury).
Breathing exercises were used to preserve jing or "life essence" and bodily postures were used to improve qi or "energy" flow in the body.
Famous Taijiquan masters who practiced Neijia include Wu Tunan (吳圖南) and Chen Weiming (陳微明).
To make medicines one would use ingredients like: Reynoutria, which would be used in famous longevity pills like Fo-Ti;[8] Asparagus, which was used because it was known to increase strength; sesame, which prevents senility; and pine which has over 300 different uses.
[9] Raised in a scholarly family skilled in the alchemical arts, she studied alchemy with one of the Emperor Han Wu Ti's spouses, and therefore had access to the highest levels of society.
[9] Keng Hsien-Seng (circa A.D. 975)[10] was another female alchemist who, according to the science writings of Wu Shu "mastered the art of the yellow and white [alchemy] with many other strong transformations, mysterious and incomprehensible".
