In
Chinese history, the alchemical practice of concocting elixirs of immortality from metallic and mineral substances began circa the 4th century BCE in the late
Warring states period, reached a peak in the 9th century CE
Tang dynasty when five emperors died, and, despite common knowledge of the dangers, elixir poisoning continued until the 18th century
Qing dynasty.
Warring States period The earliest mention of alchemy in China occurs in connection with
fangshi ("masters of the methods") specialists in cosmological and esoteric arts employed by rulers from the 4th century BCE. The 3rd-century BCE
Zhanguo Ce and
Han Feizi both record a story about
King Qingxiang of Chu (r. 298–263 BCE) being presented a
busi zhi yao "immortality medicine". As the chamberlain was taking the elixir into the palace, a guard asked if it was edible and when he answered yes, the guard grabbed and ate it. The king was angered and condemned the guard to death. A friend of the guard tried to persuade the king, saying, "After all the guard did ask the chamberlain whether it could be eaten before he ate it. Hence the blame attaches to the chamberlain and not to him. Besides what the guest presented was an elixir of life, but if you now execute your servant after eating it, it will be an elixir of death (and the guest will be a liar). Now rather than killing an innocent officer in order to demonstrate a guest's false claim, it would be better to release the guard." This logic convinced the king to let the guard live.
Qin dynasty Qin Shi Huang, the founder of the
Qin dynasty (221–206 BCE), feared death and spent the last part of his life seeking the
elixir of life. This led to later allegations that he died from elixir poisoning. The first emperor also sent
Xu Fu to sail an expeditionary fleet into the Pacific seeking the legendary
Mount Penglai where the
busi zhi shu "tree of deathlessness" grew, but they never returned.
Han dynasty Interest in elixirs of immortality increased during the
Han dynasty (206 BC–220 AD).
Emperor Wu (156–87 BCE) employed many
fangshi alchemists who claimed they could produce the legendary substance. The
Book of Han says that around 133 BCE the
fangshi Li Shaojun said to Emperor Wu, "Sacrifice to the stove and you will be able to summon ' things ' . Summon spirits and you will be able to change cinnabar powder into yellow gold. With this yellow gold you may make vessels to eat and drink out of. You will then increase your span of life. Having increased your span of life, you will be able to see the of that is in the midst of the sea. Then you may perform the sacrifices
feng and
shan , and escape death".
Wei Boyang's c. 142
Cantong qi, which is regarded as the oldest complete alchemical book extant in any culture, influenced developments in elixir alchemy. It listed mercury and lead as the prime ingredients for elixirs, which limited later potential experiments and resulted in numerous cases of poisoning. It is quite possible that "many of the most brilliant and creative alchemists fell victim to their own experiments by taking dangerous elixirs". There is a famous story about
animal testing of elixirs by Wei Boyang. Wei entered the mountains to prepare the elixir of immortality, accompanied by three disciples, two of whom were skeptical. When the alchemy was completed he said, "Although the gold elixir is now accomplished we ought first to test it by feeding it to a white dog. If the dog can fly after taking it then it is edible for man; if the dog dies then it is not." The dog fell over and died, but Wei and his disciple Yu took the medicine and immediately died, after which the two cautious disciples fled. Wei and Yu later revived, rejoiced in their faith, took more of the elixir and became immortals. Elixir ingestion is first mentioned in the c. 81 BCE
Discourses on Salt and Iron.
Six dynasties During the turbulent
Six dynasties period (220–589),
self-experimentation with drugs became commonplace, and many people tried taking poisonous elixirs of immortality as well as the
psychoactive drug Cold-Food Powder. At this time, Daoist alchemists began to record the often fatal side effects of elixirs. In an unusual case of involuntary elixir poisoning, Empress
Jia Nanfeng (257–300) was forced to commit suicide by drinking "jinxiaojiu" "wine with gold fragments". The Daoist scholar
Ge Hong's c. 320
Baopuzi lists 56 chemical preparations and elixirs, 8 of which were poisonous, with visions from mercury poisoning the most commonly reported symptom. The individuals who experimented with Six Dynasties alchemy often had different understandings and intentions. A single alchemical formula could be interpreted as being "suicidal, therapeutic, or symbolic and contemplative", and its implementation might be "a unique, decisive event or a repeated, ritual phantasmagoria".
Emperor Ai of Jin (r. 361–365) died at the age of twenty-five, as the result of his desire to avoid growing old. The
Book of Jin says the emperor practiced
bigu "grain avoidance" and consumed alchemical elixirs, but was poisoned from an overdose and "no longer knew what was going on around him". In a sardonic sense, the emperor fulfilled his desire since the elixir "did actually prevent him from growing any older".
Emperor Daowu (r. 371–409), founder of the
Northern Wei dynasty, was cautiously interested in alchemy and used condemned criminals for
clinical trials of immortality elixirs (like
Mithridates VI of Pontus r. 120–63 BCE). The
Book of Wei records that in 400, he instituted the office of the Royal Alchemist, built an imperial laboratory for the preparation of drugs and elixirs, and reserved the Western mountains for the supply of firewood (used in the alchemical furnaces). "Furthermore, he ordered criminals who had been sentenced to death to test (the products) against their will. Many of them died and (the experiments gave) no decisive result." Many texts from the Six dynasties period specifically warned about the toxicity of elixirs. For instance, the
Shangqing School Daoist pharmacologist
Tao Hongjing's 499 ''
Zhen'gao'' (, Declarations of the Perfected) describes taking a White Powder elixir. When you have taken a spatulaful of it, you will feel an intense pain in your heart, as if you had been stabbed there with a knife. After three days you will want to drink, and when you have drunk a full
hu your breath will be cut off. When that happens, it will mean that you are dead. When your body has been laid out, it will suddenly disappear, and only your clothing will remain. Thus you will be an immortal released in broad daylight by means of his waistband. If one knows the name of the drug [or, perhaps, the secret names of its ingredients] he will not feel the pain in his heart, but after he has drunk a full
hu he will still die. When he is dead, he will become aware that he has left his corpse below him on the ground. At the proper time, jade youths and maidens will come with an azure carriage to take it away. If one wishes to linger on in the world, he should strictly regulate his drinking during the three days when he feels the pain in his heart. This formula may be used by the whole family. Within this context, Strickmann says a prospective Daoist alchemist must have been strongly motivated by faith and a firm confidence in his posthumous destiny, in effect, "he would be committing suicide by consecrated means." Tao Hongjing's disciple Zhou Ziliang (497–516) had repeated visions of Maoshan divinities who said his destiny was to become an immortal, and instructed him to commit
ritual suicide with a poisonous elixir composed of mushrooms and cinnabar. In 517, Tao edited the
Zhoushi mingtong ji (Records of Mr. Zhou's Communications with the Unseen) detailing his disciples visions. The
Liang dynasty founder
Emperor Wu (r. 502–549) was cautious about taking elixirs of immortality. He and Tao Hongjing were old friends, and the
History of the Southern Dynasties says the emperor requested him to study elixir alchemy. After Tao had learned the secret art of making elixirs, he was worried about the shortage of materials. "So the emperor supplied him with gold, cinnabar, copper sulphate, realgar, and so forth. When the process was accomplished the elixirs had the appearance of frost and snow and really did make the body feel lighter. The emperor took an elixir and found it effective." Tao spent his last years working on different elixirs and presented three to the emperor, who had refused immortality elixirs from Deng Yu (who claimed to have lived 30 years without food, only consuming pieces of mica in stream water).
Emperor Wenxuan (r. 550–559) of the
Northern Qi dynasty was an early skeptic about immortality elixirs. He ordered alchemists to make the
jiuhuan jindan (Ninefold Cyclically Transformed Elixir), which he kept in a jade box, and explained, "I am still too fond of the pleasures of the world to take flight to the heavens immediately—I intend to consume the elixir only when I am about to die".
Tang dynasty At least five
Tang dynasty (618–907) emperors were incapacitated and killed by immortality elixirs. In
historic recurrences, the newly enthroned emperor understandably executed the Daoist alchemists whose elixirs had killed his predecessor, and then subsequently came to believe in other charlatans enough to consume their poisonous elixirs.
Emperor Xianzong (r. 805–820) indirectly lost his life due to elixir poisoning. The
Xu Tongzhi (Supplement to the Historical Collections) says, "Deluded by the sayings of the alchemists, [Xianzong] ingested gold elixirs and his behaviour became very abnormal. He was easily offended by those officials whom he daily met, and thus the prisons were left with little vacant space." In response, an official wrote an 819
memorial to the throne that said: Of late years, however, (the capital) has been overrun by a host of pharmacists and alchemists ... recommending one another right and left with ever wilder and more extravagant claims. Now if there really were immortals, and scholars possessing the Tao, would they not conceal their names and hide themselves in mountain recesses far from the ken of man? ... The medicines of the sages of old were meant to cure bodily illnesses, and were not meant to be taken constantly like food. How much less so these metallic and mineral substances which are full of burning poison! ... Of old, as the
Li Chi says, when the prince took physic, his minister tasted it first, and when a parent was sick, his son did likewise. Ministers and sons are in the same position. I humbly pray that all those persons who have elixirs made from transformed metals and minerals, and also those who recommend them, may be compelled to consume (their own elixirs) first for the space of one year. Such an investigation will distinguish truth from falsehood, and automatically clarify the matter by experiment. After the emperor rejected this appeal, the palace
eunuchs Wang Shoucheng and Chen Hongzhi assassinated him in 820. When Xianzong's son and successor
Emperor Muzong (r. 820–824) came to the throne, he executed the alchemists who had poisoned his father, but later began to take immortality elixirs himself. An official wrote Muzong an 823 memorial that warned: Medicines are for use against illnesses, and should not be taken as food. ... Even when one is ill medicines must be used with great circumspection; how much more so when one is not ill. If this is true for the common people how much more so will it be for the emperor! Your imperial predecessor believed the nonsense of the alchemists and thus became ill; this your majesty already knows only too well. How could your majesty still repeat the same mistake? The emperor appreciated this reasoning but soon afterwards fell ill and died from poisoning. Palace eunuchs supposedly used poisonous elixirs to assassinate Muzong's young successor
Emperor Jingzong (r. 824–827). The next Tang emperor to die from elixir poisoning was
Wuzong (r. 840–846). According to the
Old Book of Tang, "The emperor [Wuzong] favoured alchemists, took some of their elixirs, cultivated the arts of longevity and personally accepted (Taoist) talismans. The medicines made him very irritable, losing all normal self-control in joy or anger; finally when his illness took a turn for the worse he could not speak for ten days at a time."
Chancellor Li Deyu and others requested audiences with the emperor, but he refused and subsequently died in 846. Wuzong's successor
Emperor Xuānzong (r. 846–859) astonishingly also died of elixir poisoning. Xuānzong made himself the patron of some Daoists who concocted immortality elixirs of vegetable origin, possibly because his nephew Wuzong had died from metallic and mineral elixir poisoning. The
New Book of Tang records that the emperor received a wine tincture of ivy (,
Hedera helix) that the Daoist adept Jiang Lu claimed would turn white hair black and provide longevity. However, when the emperor heard that many people died a violent death after drinking ivy tincture, he stopped taking it. Jiang was publicly shamed and the emperor granted his request to search in the mountains for the right plant, but he never appeared again. According to the 890
Dongguan zuoji (Record of Memorials from the Eastern Library), "A medical official, Li , presented to the emperor cinnabar which had been heated and subdued by fire, in order to gain favour from him. Thus the ulcerous disease of the emperor was all attributable to his crime". Besides emperors, many Tang
literati were interested in alchemy. Both
Li Bai and
Bai Juyi wrote poems about the
Cantong qi and alchemical elixirs. Other poets, including
Meng Haoran,
Liu Yuxi, and
Liu Zongyuan also referred to elixir compounding in their works. The influential Tang physician and alchemist
Sun Simiao's c. 640 alchemical
Taiqing zhenren dadan (Great Purity Essentials of Elixir Manuals for Oral Transmission) recommends 14 elixir formulas he found successful, most of which seem poisonous, containing mercury and lead, if not arsenic, as ingredients. Sun's medical c. 659
Qianjin yifang (Supplement to the Thousand Golden Remedies) categorically states that mercury, realgar, orpiment, sulphur, gold, silver, and vitriol are poisonous, but prescribed them in much larger amounts for elixirs than for medicines. In contrast to drinking soluble arsenic (as in
groundwater), when powdered arsenic is eaten "astonishing degrees of tolerance can be achieved", and Sun Simiao might have thought that when human beings reached to a level "approaching that of the immortals their bodies would no longer be susceptible to poison". Tang alchemists were well aware of elixir poisoning. The c. 8th–9th century
Zhenyuan miaodao yaolüe (Synopsis of the Essentials of the Mysterious Dao of the True Origin) lists 35 common mistakes in elixir preparation: cases where people died from eating elixirs made from cinnabar, mercury, lead, and silver; cases where people suffered from boils on the head and sores on the back by ingesting cinnabar prepared by roasting together mercury and sulphur, and cases where people became seriously ill through drinking melted "liquid lead". The c. 850
Xuanjie lu (Record of Mysterious Antidotes)—which is notable as the world's oldest printed book on a scientific subject—recommends a potent herbal composition that serves both as an elixir and as an antidote for common elixir poisoning. The procedure to make
Shouxian wuzi wan (Five-herbs Immortality-safeguarding Pills) is to take 5 ounces each of
Indian gooseberry,
wild raspberry,
dodder,
five-flavor berry, and
broadleaf plantain and pound them into flour. Mix it with
boxthorn juice and
false daisy juice and dry. Heat almonds and good wine in a silver vessel, and add
foxglove, tofu, and "deer glue". Combine this with the five herbs, and dry into small pills. The usual dosage is 30 pills a day taken with wine, but one should avoid eating pork, garlic, mustard, and turnips when taking the medicine. During the Tang period, Chinese alchemists divided into two schools of thought about elixir poisoning. The first altogether ignored the poison danger and considered the unpleasant symptoms after taking an elixir as signs of its efficacy. The c. 6th century
Taiqing shibi ji (Records of the Rock Chamber) described away the side effects and recommended methods of bringing relief. After taking an elixir, if your face and body itch as though insects were crawling over them, if your hands and feet swell dropsically, if you cannot stand the smell of food and bring it up after you have eaten it, if you feel as though you were going to be sick most of the time, if you experience weakness in the four limbs, if you have to go often to the latrine, or if your head or stomach violently ache—do not be alarmed or disturbed. All these effects are merely proofs that the elixir you are taking is successfully dispelling your latent disorders. Many of these symptoms are characteristic of acute
metal toxicity in general and
mercury poisoning in particular:
formication,
edema, and weakness of the extremities, later leading to infected boils and ulcers, nausea, vomiting, gastric and abdominal pain, diarrhea, and headaches. For relieving the side-effects when the elixir takes effect, the
Taiqing shibi ji recommends that one should take hot and cold baths, and drink a mixture of scallion, soy sauce, and wine. If that does not bring relief, then one should combine and boil a hornets' nest,
spurge,
Solomon's seal, and
ephedra into a medicine and take one dose. The second school of alchemists, admitted that some metal and mineral elixir constituents were poisonous and tried either to neutralize them or to replace them with less dangerous herbal substances. For instance, the 8th-century
Zhang zhenren jinshi lingsha lun (The Adept Zhang's Discourse on Metals, Minerals, and Cinnabar) emphasized the poisonous nature of gold, silver, lead, mercury, and arsenic, and described witnessing many cases of premature death brought about by consuming cinnabar. Zhang believed however that the poisons could be rendered harmless by properly choosing and combining
adjuvant and complimentary ingredients; for example gold should always be used together with mercury, while silver can only be used when combined with gold,
copper carbonate, and realgar for the preparation of the
jindan Golden Elixir. Many Tang alchemical writers returned to the fashion of using obscure synonyms for ingredients, perhaps because of the alarming number of elixir poisonings, and the desire to dissuade amateur alchemists from experimenting on themselves. By the end of the
Yuan dynasty (1271–1368), the more cautious alchemists had generally changed the elixirs ingredients from minerals and metals to plants and animals. The late Tang or early Song
Huangdi jiuding shendan jingjue (Explanation of the Yellow Emperor's Manual of the Nine-Vessel Magical Elixir) says, "The ancient masters (lit. sages) all attained longevity and preserved their lives (lit. bones) by consuming elixirs. But later disciples (lit. scholars) have suffered loss of life and decay of their bones as the result of taking them." The treatise explains the secret ancient methods for rendering elixir ingredients harmless by treating them with wine made from
chastetree leaves and roots, or with
saltpeter and vinegar. Another method of supposedly removing the poison from mercury was to put it in three-year-old wine, add
sal ammoniac and boil it for 100 days.
Five dynasties Two rulers died from elixir poisoning during the
Five Dynasties period (907–979) of political turmoil after the overthrow of the Tang dynasty.
Zhu Wen or Emperor Taizu (r. 907–912), the founder of the
Later Liang dynasty, became seriously incapacitated as a result of elixir poisoning, and fell victim to an assassination plot.
Li Bian or Emperor Liezu (r. 937–943), the founder of the
Southern Tang kingdom, took immortality elixirs that made him irritable and deathly ill. The Daoist adept
Chen Tuan (d. 989) advised two emperors that they should not worry about elixirs but direct their minds to improving the state administration,
Chai Rong or Emperor Shizong of
Later Zhou in 956, and then
Emperor Taizu of Song in 976.
Song dynasty After its heyday in the Tang dynasty Daoist alchemy continued to flourish during the
Song dynasty (960–1279) period. However, since six Tang emperors and many court officials died from elixir poisoning, Song alchemists exercised more caution, not only in the composition of the elixirs themselves, but also in attempts to find pharmaceutical methods of counteracting the toxic effects. The number of ingredients used in elixir formulas was reduced and there was a tendency to return to the ancient and difficult terminology of the
Cantongqi, perhaps to conceal the processes from rash and ignorant operators. Psycho-physiological
neidan alchemy became steadily more popular than laboratory
waidan alchemy. During the Song dynasty, the practice of consuming metallic elixirs was not confined to the imperial court and expanded to anyone wealthy enough to pay. The author and official
Ye Mengde (1077–1148) described how two of his friends had died from elixirs of immortality in one decade. First, Lin Yanzhen, who boasted about his health and muscular strength, took an elixir for three years, "Whereupon ulcers developed in his chest, first near the hairs as large as rice-grains, then after a couple of days his neck swelled up so that chin and chest seemed continuous." Lin died after ten months of suffering, and his doctors discovered cinnabar powder had accumulated in his pus and blood. Second, whenever Xie Renbo "heard of anyone who had some cinnabar subdued by fire he went after it, caring nothing about the distance, and his only fear was that he would not have enough." He also developed ulcers on the chest. Although his friends noticed changes in his appearance and behavior, Xie did not recognize that he had been poisoned, "till suddenly it came upon him like a storm of wind and rain, and he died in a single night". The scientist and statesman
Shen Kuo's 1088
Dream Pool Essays suggested that mercury compounds might be medicinally valuable and needed further study—foreshadowing the use of metallic compounds in modern medicine, such as mercury in
salvarsan for
syphilis or
antimony for
visceral leishmaniasis. Shen says his cousin once transformed cinnabar into an elixir, but one of his students mistakenly ate a leftover piece, became delirious, and died the next day. Now cinnabar is an extremely good drug and can be taken even by a newborn baby, but once it has been changed by heat it can kill an (adult) person. If we consider the change and transformation of opposites into one another, since (cinnabar) can be changed into a deadly poison why should it not also be changed into something of extreme benefit? Since it can change into something which kills, there is good reason to believe that it may have the pattern-principle of saving life; it is simply that we have not yet found out the art (of doing this). Thus we cannot deny the possibility of the existence of methods for transforming people into feathered immortals, but we have to be very careful about what we do.
Su Shi (1037–1101), the Song dynasty scholar and pharmacologist, was familiar with the life-prolonging claims of alchemists, but wrote in a letter that, "I have recently received some cinnabar (elixir) which shows a most remarkable colour, but I cannot summon up enough courage to try it". The
forensic medical expert
Song Ci was familiar with the effects of metal poisoning, and his c. 1235
Collected Cases of Injustice Rectified handbook for
coroners gives a test for mercury poisoning: plunge a piece of gold into the intestine or tissues and see if a superficial
amalgam forms. He also describes the colic, cramps, and discharge of blood from arsenic poisoning, and gives several antidotes including emetics.
Ming dynasty illustration of a
neidan practice "Putting the miraculous elixir into the
ding tripod", 1615
Xingming guizhi (Pointers on Spiritual Nature and Bodily Life)
Ming dynasty (1368–1644) authorities strongly disapproved of immortality elixirs, but the
Jiajing Emperor (r. 1521–1567) supposedly died from consuming them. The emperor was interested in the art of immortality and put great confidence in Daoist physicians, magicians, and alchemists. One named Wang Jin , who was appointed a Physician-in-Attendance in the Imperial Academy of Medicine, convinced the emperor that eating and drinking from vessels made of alchemical gold and silver would bring about immortality, but it only resulted in his death. Wang fled but was caught and exiled to the frontiers in 1570.
Li Shizhen's classic 1578
Compendium of Materia Medica discusses the historical tradition of producing gold and cinnabar elixirs, and concludes, "(the alchemists) will never realise that the human body, which thrives on water and the cereals, is unable to sustain such heavy substances as gold and other minerals within the stomach and intestines for any length of time. How blind it is, in the pursuit of longevity, to lose one's life instead!". In another section, Li criticizes alchemists and pharmacologists for perpetuating the belief in mercury elixirs. I am not able to tell the number of people who since the Six Dynasties period (3rd to 6th centuries) so coveted life that they took (mercury), but all that happened was that they impaired their health permanently or lost their lives. I need not bother to mention the alchemists, but I cannot bear to see these false statements made in pharmacopoeias. However, while mercury is not to be taken orally, its use as a medicine must not be ignored.
Qing dynasty The
Qing dynasty Yongzheng Emperor (r. 1722–1735) was the last Chinese ruler known to die from elixir poisoning. He was a superstitious man, affected by portents and omens, and a firm believer in Daoist longevity techniques. Taking immortality elixirs is thought to have caused his sudden death in 1735.
Historical interpretations The Chinese tradition of using toxic
heavy metals in elixirs of immortality has historical parallels in
Ayurvedic medicine.
Rasa shastra is the practice of adding metals and minerals to herbal medicines,
rasayana is an alchemical tradition that used mercury and cinnabar for lengthening lifespan,
raseśvara is a tradition that advocated the use of mercury to make the body immortal, and
samskara is a process said to detoxify heavy metals and toxic herbs. The
historians of Chinese science Joseph Needham and
Ho Peng-Yoke wrote a seminal article about poisonous alchemical elixirs. Based upon early Chinese descriptions of elixir poisoning, they decisively demonstrated a close correspondence with the known medical symptoms of
mercury poisoning,
lead poisoning, and
arsenic poisoning. Compare the historical descriptions of Jin Emperor Ai (d. 365) who "no longer knew what was going on around him" and Tang Emperor Wuzong (d. 846) who was "very irritable, losing all normal self-control in joy or anger ... he could not speak for ten days at a time" with the distinctive psychological effects of mercury poisoning: progressing from "abnormal irritability to idiotic, melancholic, or manic conditions". Needham and his collaborators further discussed elixir poisoning in the
Science and Civilisation in China series. Although Chinese elixir poisoning may lead some to dismiss Chinese alchemy as another example of human follies in history, Ho Peng-Yoke and F. Peter Lisowski note its positive aspect upon Chinese medicine. The caution given to elixir poisoning later led Chinese alchemy to "shade imperceptibly" into
iatrochemistry, the preparation of medicine by chemical methods, "in other words
chemotherapy". A recent study found that Chinese emperors lived comparatively short lives, with a mean age at death of emperors at 41.3, which was significantly lower than that of
Buddhist monks at 66.9 and
traditional Chinese doctors at 75.1. Causes of imperial death were natural disease (66.4%), homicide (28.2%), drug toxicity (3.3%), and suicide (2.1%). Homicide resulted in a significantly lower age of death (mean age 31.1) than disease (45.6), suicide (38.8), or drug toxicity (43.1, mentioning Qin Shi Huang taking mercury pills of immortality). Lifestyles seem to have been a determining factor, and 93.2% of the emperors studied were overindulgent in drinking alcohol, sexual activity, or both. The study does not refer to the Chinese belief that the arsenic sulphides realgar and orpiment, frequently used in immortality elixirs, had aphrodisiac properties. ==Hypothetical explanations==