By refining bases into gold and ingesting the "fake" or synthetic gold as a
prepared pill, or (金丹), alchemists believed that immortal life would be delivered. 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. The significance of its red colour and difficulty with which it was refined implied to alchemists its connection with the search for immortality. 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 liquid
mercury (also known as quicksilver). 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. 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 , many other elixirs were formed by combining metallic bases with natural herbs or animal by-products. The
rhinoceros' horn was commonly used in medicines and elixirs and was held to have fertility-increasing abilities. Elixirs could also have more lethal components like
arsenic and
sulphur as ingredients.
East Asian vs Eastern Mediterranean views Both the Eastern practice and the later Western practice of
alchemy are remarkably similar in their methods and ultimate purpose. 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. 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. Alchemical knowledge in the East and West favored different opinions of the true form of alchemy due to different
theological views and cultural biases, however these disputes do not lessen the integrity of alchemy's
canonical nature. Chinese alchemy specifically was consistent in its practice from the beginning, and there was relatively little controversy among its practitioners . 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 1000. Because the Chinese approach was through the fundamental doctrine of
Yin and Yang, the influence of the
I Ching, and the teachings of the
Five Elements, Chinese alchemy had its roots considerably more in obtaining a higher mental-spiritual level. In the West, there were conflicts between advocates of herbal and "chemical" (mineral)
pharmacy, but in China, mineral remedies were always accepted. In Europe, there were conflicts between alchemists who favored gold-making and those who thought medicine the proper goal, but the Chinese always favored the latter. Since alchemy rarely achieved any of these goals, it was an advantage to the Western alchemist to have the situation obscured, and the art survived in Europe long after Chinese alchemy had simply faded away. ==Origins==