According to some scholars, alchemy itself originates in the Taoist tradition and it reveals a doctrine of “understanding and underlying the formation and functioning of the cosmos”¹. The alchemist seeks to reproduce, under the laws of science and chemistry, the “work of time and the secrets of life in laboratory experiments”. He masters the transmutation of the elements through the knowledge of the properties of each stage. Chinese alchemy finds its roots in the teachings of the early doctrinal texts of Taoism, particularly Laotzu and Zhuangzi. The explanation of the principle on which Alchemy functions is found in the Taoist cosmogony:

“The cosmos as we know it is conceived of as the final stage in a series of spontaneous transmutations stemming from original Non-being. This process entails the apparent separation of primeval Unity into the two complementary principles, Yin and Yang. Their re-union gives birth to the cosmos. When the process is completed, the cosmos is subject to the laws of cosmology. The adept’s task is to retrace this process backwards.”²

The Chinese word for alchemy is “chin-tan”, meaning “gold-cinnabar”, or huang-pai, which is translated by “yellow and white”, in reference to the basic alchemical substances, gold and mercury, which are the expression of the two complementary forces Yin and Yang. The alchemical union of the opposites is portrayed in the Toist Canon, Daozang, which is the largest collection of Taoist texts. According to the scholar Fabrizio Pregadio,” one fifth of it’s about 1,500 texts are closely related to the various alchemical traditions that developed until the fifteenth century”³. The two main traditions are traditionally known as waidan or “external alchemy” and neidan or “inner alchemy” The former refers to the tradition of chemical manipulation of natural substances, minerals and metals and compounding elixirs. The texts describe in detail the instruments, the ingredients, the ritual rules and the cosmological associations of the minerals and metals. “Inner Alchemy”, often referred to as the “Way of the Golden Elixir”, jindan zhi dao, grew as a discipline at the end of the Six Dinasties, between the 3^rd and 6^th C.E. Although it uses the same language as the former, its aim is to use the body of the alchemist as a symbolic vessel for the elixir of transcendental knowledge to be produced and immortality to be attained.

Outer Alchemy

Waidan manuscripts, such as Scripture of the Nine Elixirs , Huangdi jiuding shendan jing, and other texts that are dated from the first centuries CE, describe the processes of the backward performing of the cosmogonical transmutation, which leads the ingredient in a state of prima materia. The essences mostly used in the Chinese alchemical tradition are cinnabar, mercury, arsenic sulphide, orpiment, sulphur, mica, alum, calcium, etc. According to ancient beliefs, gold is transformed into cinnabar, and alchemy, by reverting the process, proposes to transform cinnabar into gold. Cinnabar, as basic ingredient in the alchemical laboratory, is considered to be “a highly concentrated form of solar energy, which makes all things live and can heal any form of decay”; sublimated, it produces mercury, another basic ingredient used in the sacred art of fusing metals. After each cycle of refining and transmuting the cinnabar, “gold” comes into light, which can be ingested or used forward as ingredients for the next phase. The process leads to the generation the huandan, or the “Reverted Elixir”, which is an elevated, purified alchemical gold.

In the alchemical treatise Pao-Pu Tzu Nei-P’ien and the “Book of the Divine Cinnabar of 9 Cauldrons”, Ko Hung (383-443) under the name of The Master who Embraces Simplicity, relates the nine embryo phases of the transmutation of the cinnabar and it’s uses in healing or divine mystical experiences. The nine times returned cinnabar process is the allegory of the gestation, of the pregnancy, of the inner life, which can only be accomplished by the knowledge of the alchemical method:

“They say: ‘Cinnabar is all red, how can it become white? …But if we speak in vain, how is that the 9 Transformations and the 9 Returns can be accomplished in just few days? It is not thanks to the method? …It is true that the things of the world have ten thousand different aspects and that those concerning the arts of the Tao are the most difficult to understand’.”⁴

The External Alchemy led to Chinese development of metalwork, of bronze smelting and iron technology and to the growth of pharmacology, due to the belief in the virtues of the medicine composed of “stones”. The solar medicine would give the beneficial effects such as notable increase of sexual energy and in aesthetic sensitivity, visions, greater physical resistance, and to a superior level, would allow flying to the heavens “and merge with the subtle energies, the Immortals, the gods and the jade maidens, whose bodies were of the same essence one has just absorbed”⁵.

During the Tang dynasty, the waidan tradition reached a major development, when several collections of recipes were written and when the contacts with Arabic world increased. According to some scholars, the etymology of the medieval word alchymia derives from the Chinese kiem-yak ,translated “Golden Liqueur”, with the addition of the Arabic prefix –al.

…to be continued

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