Chapter 9 Chapter 3 Chemical achievements in Chinese alchemy and pharmacy

Since the ancient Chinese alchemists failed in their search for the elixir of immortality at sea, they decided to make that strange thing by themselves.But the world is huge and there are so many things, so where do we start?Which substances can be taken after processing, and can make people "go to the world, and be in harmony with the heaven and the earth"?This depends on the magical imagination of the alchemists.In their view, according to experience, if a person loses energy and spirit, he will die, and if his blood is exhausted, he will die. Therefore, in order to keep the soul forever and life inexhaustible, it is necessary to fill the spirit inside and defend the muscles and bones outside.So they imagined that on the one hand, one should cultivate one's body and nourish one's qi: "promoting qi and guiding" so that the body and spirit will not leave, "cherishing essence and guarding qi" so that "the flower cover is bright, the ears and eyes are clear, the whole body is disease-free, and evil qi does not invade", This is the so-called "preserving the breath of one fetus" in Chinese health-preserving techniques; The minerals and metals of the alchemists took a fancy to them.The first thing is gold. Wei Boyang, a master of alchemy in the Eastern Han Dynasty, said: "Gold enters the fierce fire, and its color does not take away its light. Since its opening, the sun and the moon have not lost their light, and gold has not lost its weight... The nature of gold is not It is decayed, so it is the treasure of all things, and warlocks eat it, and they can live a long life." Ge Hong in the Eastern Jin Dynasty said: "Gold enters the fire, and it will never disappear after a hundred refinements, and it will be immortal forever after being buried." Immortality."Furthermore, in the eyes of Chinese alchemists, if a person can step into the realm of immortality, he is an immortal, and for immortals, the alchemists have even more aspirations: they can "be in harmony with the heaven and the earth, and be in the same light as the sun and the moon; Sit and see thousands of miles, serve ghosts and gods; raise your family to the sky, fly without wings, ride clouds and ride dragons, up and down are too clear, and travel around the eight poles between leaks and engravings."In short, the biggest feature is that it can fly into the sky and travel in space.Therefore, in ancient China, immortality was always associated with immortality and ascension.Therefore, those substances that are easy to fly when exposed to fire, detoxified and lightened (in today's scientific language, they are easy to sublime) substances, in the eyes of alchemists, are a kind of supernatural things. Lighten the body, and then ride the cloud to drive the dragon and travel the universe.Therefore, cinnabar (red mercury sulfide) and mercury have become another kind of panacea in their minds.Because "the cinnabar is burnt into mercury, and it turns into cinnabar after accumulating and turning into cinnabar." It can not be consumed, and it can not be destroyed by burying it. Long, the three gods are in harmony, and riding the clouds is like a dream."

Chinese alchemists call the "gold preparation" artificially cultivated as gold liquid, and the cinnabar that has been refined several times as Shendan, and the two are collectively called Jindan, and they believe that they are the most sacred elixir. Longevity, but not the magic elixir, the golden liquid is just a bitter ear."They are very disapproving of the widespread use of herbal medicine by medical scientists.Ge Hong once said: "People in the world don't like the magic pill, but believe in the medicine of grass and trees. The medicine of grass and trees will rot if buried, rot when boiled, and burn when burned. If they can't live on their own, how can they give birth to humans?" The theory of longevity technique comes down to "borrowing foreign objects to strengthen oneself".That is to say, they naively equate the two fundamentally different things, the firmness and fragility of gold, stone, and vegetation, the strength and weakness of human body, and the longevity and shortness of life, and they try to equate the anti-corrosion properties of golden elixir in a whimsical way. Sex and sublimation are mechanically grafted into the human body.

But alchemists do not advocate taking natural gold and unrefined cinnabar.Because in the beginning some people did eat real gold, but they lost their lives.So the alchemists made up a set of "theories", saying that gold was formed by accumulating the essence of the sun in the mountains and rocks for thousands of years, so its nature is very hot, so it is very poisonous, and people will burn people if they eat it. marrow of the bones, and died of charring.So they advocate trying to use mineral medicine as raw material, cultivate the essence of gold in the alchemy, and create artificial gold (called medicine gold).As for the natural cinnabar minerals, they believe that the dregs that cannot fly up are harmful to people, so it is best to make them artificially, and only after several rounds of practice can they become magical pills.Thus, this set off the transformation activity, and the alchemy room became a primitive chemical laboratory.Of course, besides the golden liquid and the divine elixir, there are other elixirs in Chinese alchemy, but most of them are mixed sublimates of various minerals, and the main component is nothing more than lead red (PbO ) and mercury powder (HgO), golden color of orpiment, realgar (AsS and AsS) and yellow lead (PbO), arsenic, mercuric chloride, etc.There are many kinds of mineral raw materials used by alchemists, such as the so-called "five metals and eight stones", copper, lead, tin, iron, cinnabar, male orpiment, Zengqing, alumite, cishi, stone gall, 礜石, sulfur, nao Nao] Sand, white salt, saliva, etc. are all the medicines they often use for refining.

Soon after Chinese alchemists decided to take the path of alchemy in order to achieve longevity, they began to seek theoretical guidance on the skills of practicing gold liquid and magic pills, that is, what principles of compatibility of gold and stone minerals can produce this magical substance.Soon, they gradually applied the theory of yin and yang, which had become popular in our country since the Western Zhou Dynasty, to specific alchemy, which can also be said to be the theoretical basis for their understanding of all chemical processes and changes.Of course, this kind of theoretical guidance also has a development process.It was quite abstract at first, just a general principle.Hundreds of years later, it became concrete and organized.Wei Boyang, a famous alchemist in the Eastern Han Dynasty, wrote a purely theoretical work on alchemy "Zhouyi Cantongqi", using the yin and yang theory of "Zhouyi" to explain alchemy. They all use metaphors to explain that the basis of alchemy is the intercourse of yin and yang. When the sympathy is in line with the routine, the cultivation of alchemy will be successful; ", so the refining of golden elixir and "Yi" are different, but the principles are unified.For example, he said: "The dryness is rigid, the earth is soft, and the combination is inseparable. The yang is endowed by the yin and the yin is received. The male and the female must be good-natured, and the essence and energy are comfortable. When watching the male and female copulation, the rigidity and softness are inseparable. Talismans do not have skillful workmanship to control them." He also said: "Men and women need each other, and vomit to nourish; male and female intermingle, and seek each other by kind." This is one of the principles of alchemy that emphasizes the combination of the two elements of yin and yang. Gist.He was still afraid that the world would not understand this, so he made further interesting metaphors: "A rooster lays its own eggs, but its chicks are incomplete"; , to clarify male and female, after all, they are like each other. If the two women live in the same room, the color is very beautiful, let Su Qintong speak, and Zhang Yi is the matchmaker, with a sharp tongue, eloquent words, and harmony from the heart, so that the husband and wife will be corrupted. Teeth, never know each other." It can be said that the practice of alchemy must not violate the principle of yin and yang.However, he didn't explain how to use this principle in the process of alchemy, or he couldn't explain it for a while.Around the Tang Dynasty, alchemists summarized the chemical properties of those mineral raw materials and the chemical changes they saw, and governed these knowledge with the theory of yin and yang.So they divided various mineral medicines into two categories: yang medicine and yin medicine, and believed that understanding and using the sexual intercourse, growth and decline, mutual assistance and mutual restraint between yang medicine and yin medicine is the key to mastering the principles of alchemy.They said that the refining of the elixir is to "take the essence of yin and yang, imitate the power of the heaven and the earth, and combine water and fire to form its shape." Death leads to the death of yin and soul, which is the harmony between husband and wife, and the smooth flow of yin and yang." After the cultivation is successful, the great elixir will be conceived.If this principle is violated, then "the solitary yin is sterile and the widowed yang is sterile", which will inevitably lead to failure.As for which type of drug is positive and which type of drug is negative?Although Chinese alchemists have never been able to come up with a clear definition, there are some basic insights that can be used as general principles.They usually classify minerals that are easy to burn, reddish-yellow in color, and easy to fly (sublimation) when exposed to fire, as masculine.For example, gold is "formed by accumulating the sun's energy and fumigated, and the essence of the sun"; sulfur sees fire and bursts into flames, which is "the essence of flint"; Lihuo Qi"; Realgar is born in the "Mountain facing the sun", and once heated on the fire, it will fly up and rise; are all positive.And those who tend to be immobile, stagnant in will, stubborn in shape and quality, unable to burn or formed beside Yin mountains and rivers, they belong to Yin, such as black lead, dark and dark in shape, and belong to northern water in the five elements; Mercury is white, its shape Like water like silver; saltpeter (KNO or NaSO·10HO) is produced by lakeside water or in damp corners, and is considered to be "born from the land of accumulated cold and frost" in late autumn; (SO)(OH)] Born in the Yin Mountains, white crystals are considered to be "condensed by accumulating ice and turned by water", so these medicines are all negative, and their function is to subdue the gold and stone of extreme yang.For example, Zhang Jiugai, an alchemist in the Tang Dynasty, said in his "Jinshi Lingsha Lun": "One yin and one yang are called Dao. The sage uses yin and yang to conquer nature, so there are seven yang medicines, gold, two stones, five, gold, silver, Male orpiment, arsenic yellow, Zengqing, and stone sulfur are all yang medicines; there are seven yin medicines, gold, three stones and four, mercury, black lead, saltpeter, and Puxiao, all belong to yin medicines. Yin and yang medicines have their own characteristics And obey it, so there is a period of life and the principle of immortality." Of course, this kind of statement and this kind of material classification are not very scientific when viewed from the current perspective, but they did guide the ancient alchemists to refine to many important compounds.For example, they smelted red mercury sulfide with mercury and sulfur; mercuric oxide was smelted with cinnabar, alum, and hydrazine; mercurous chloride was smelted with cinnabar, alum, and salt; Arsenic was extracted; tin disulfide (golden colored gold) was refined out of metal tin and realgar, and so on.Therefore, the theory of yin and yang has played an active role in the chemistry of Chinese elixir.

So why can natural gold and stone minerals be cultivated into divine pills in the alchemy tripod, and why can low-quality lead, tin, copper and iron be turned into gold and silver?How could the ancient alchemists believe that such an attempt would be successful?Why is there such a belief?Of course, the idea of ​​immortals is a source, but not the main one.More importantly, in their understanding of the evolution of gold and stone substances in nature, there is also a popular opinion: natural gold and stone substances will naturally change towards self-improvement as time goes by.It can be called "natural evolution theory".Alchemists also believe that some substances can be gradually transformed into gold or even immortality pills in nature.However, the time required is extremely long.There are many such arguments, which are quite old and have lasted for a long time.For example, there are some sayings like this:

"Opiment turns into realgar for a thousand years, and realgar turns into gold in a thousand years." "True liquid and Ligong (south) qi will form mercury for more than a thousand years, and cinnabar for another thousand years, just like turpentine entering the ground for a thousand years and turning into amber." "Where there is cinnabar, there are lead and silver (mercury), male on the right and female on the left. Hold the yin and yang qi of the sun, moon, and qi for 4,320 years to become the god of immortality and celestial beings. Dan)." The ancient Chinese alchemists came up with a very revolutionary idea in this thinking process, which is to artificially create an environment to accelerate the speed of this natural evolution.In their view, metal smelting is a strong evidence of this possibility.So they believed that by putting gold and stone medicines in the alchemy, relying on the mating of yin and yang, imitating the principles of heaven and earth, and supplemented by the promotion of water and fire, they can greatly speed up the schedule of evolution. Transforming copper and lead into gold and silver can be completed in a short time.Based on this idea, they think that Dan Ding is a small universe that shrinks. In this "small universe", due to the harmony of water and fire, time moves quickly, and the medicine in one day can be equivalent to many years in the outside world.For example, the Danjing "Dan Lun Jue Zhi Xin Jian" in the Tang Dynasty said: Dansha all grow in the south, are close to the sun, and are born with a sense of qi over the years. After 4320 years of full qi, they will naturally return dan.Nowadays, there are immortal secret teachings, as long as the fire is according to the festival talisman, and the number of charcoal is two catties corresponding to the hexagrams, the universe will run day by day, and the fire will naturally be invited, then one hour can be regarded as one year, and December, January 30, and 12 days a day When (hour).There are 360 ​​days in a year, so one year of gestation in the Danding will be 4320 years in nature.Therefore, today's immortals in the lower world practice lead and mercury, interact with yin and yang, and transform into spirits. After one year, the gods are refined, and they can live long and become immortals if they take it, which is the same as the heaven and the earth.Therefore, Cheng Yi's "Dan Fang Ao Lun" said: "A tripod can hide dragons and tigers (referring to mercury and lead), and you will know that the universe is in it." It can be seen that the ancient alchemists had a lot of ambition and were determined to be ingenious.So they designed and mastered the alchemy tripod, altar furnace, and alchemy furnace by simulating the big universe they understand.In this understanding and practice, although there are indeed a lot of mysticism and even superstition, they believe that more perfect substances that exist in nature can be imitated in Danding. It has been proven thousands of times in modern chemical laboratories; and the speed of chemical changes can indeed be greatly accelerated through the "combination of water and fire", which is indeed scientific, so our thoughts on "the theory of natural evolution of gold and stone" As well as simulating the universe, the courage and behavior of creating a small universe should be highly evaluated, which is the essence of original chemical thoughts and activities.