Chapter 14

CHAPTER VII

✦

ALCHEMY IN CHINA AND INDIA

RECENT research has shown that as far back as the fourth
century before the Christian era certain Chinese philo¬
sophers sought the secret of prolonging human life beyond its
usual span, with immortality as their goal. The first conception
was to achieve this by physical means such as gymnastics, proper
breathing, and mental training. Further, it was to be attained
by the proper use of food and the employment of medicines
and of certain substances containing vitalizing qualities. Such
substances were supposed to be animated by a vital spirit, and
relative to this idea there is a very ancient legend. On the
island of Yong Chou there was said to be a mountain, composed
of jade, about 10,000 feet high, from which issued a spring with
a sweet taste resembling that of wine. It was called Jade-wine
Spring, and those who drank several pints of it would imme¬
diately fall into a state of intoxication, after which immortality
was assured.1

The cult of Taoism also was associated with Chinese alchemy
from early times, and the monks of the sect, who were followers
of the philosopher Lao-Tzu, are said to have practised magic.

According to the Chinese encyclopaedia called Pei-ouen-yun -
fou , the first who purified the Tan was called Ko-hong. This
man lived during the dynasty of Ou — that is, between a.d. 222
and 277. T an was a sacred and technical expression which meant
the search for the secret for the transmutation of metals, and so
we have evidence of the dual quest in China — that is, to discover
how to prolong life and how to transmute metals, although the
former appears to have been the first object of their search.

1 D. S. Johnson, Study of Chinese Alchemy.

LURE & ROMANCE OF ALCHEMY

Among the animal, vegetable, and mineral vitalizing sub¬
stances sought for by the Taoists were cinnabar, gold, silver, and
jade, and these were held in the highest estimation. Cinnabar
became a favourite ingredient in life — prolonging elixirs by
virtue of its producing, when heated, the ‘ living ’ metal, mercury.
It was claimed to be capable of converting other metals into gold,
as well as of being able to prolong life for an indefinite period.
Of the vegetable substances with vitalizing properties there were
the pine-tree, peach, and the chih plant, known as the ‘ divine
herb.’ The products of the pine-tree, if refined and eaten,
were believed to prolong life, and the peach also was considered
to have the same property. The crane, fowl, and tortoise were
regarded as possessing life-giving virtues, and the eggs of the
crane formed an ingredient in many of the recipes for making
the elixirs.

Ko-hong, in a work said to have been written in the third
century, says:

When vegetable matter is burnt it is destroyed, but when iansha
[cinnabar] is so treated it produces mercury, and after passing
through other changes it returns to its original form. It differs
widely therefore from a vegetable substance, and hence it has the
power of making a man live for ever and raising him to the rank of
the genii.

He who knows the doctrine is a man far above common men.

It is interesting to note that China appears to have had an
extensive literature dealing with alchemy prior to the period
when the art was studied in Europe ; when the alchemists of the
West were seeking the Philosopher’s Stone the Chinese claimed
to have discovered it in the form of cinnabar.

The similarity of the ideas and doctrines of the East and the
West is striking, but it must be remembered that there was
considerable intercourse between China, India, and Persia, and
that after the Mohammedan conquest of the latter country
embassies from Persia and Arabia, and even from the Greeks in
Constantinople, visited the Court of the Chinese Emperor in
50

ALCHEMY IN CHINA AND INDIA

Shansi ; Arab traders settled in China, and there was frequent
intercourse by sea between China and the Persian Gulf.

There is a curious legend concerning a Chinese alchemist and
philosopher named Wei-po-Yang, who flourished in the second
century and wrote a treatise on a preparation called the Pills
of Immortality, which after prolonged study he is said to have
ultimately succeeded in making. He administered one of his
pills as an experiment to a dog, but unfortunately the animal
speedily succumbed to the effects, whereupon he swallowed a
pill himself and he also died. His elder brother, who still had
a firm faith in the pills, now took a dose, but he too fell down
dead. These terrible results not unnaturally shook the con¬
fidence of a younger brother, and he resolved not to risk his life
and went off to make arrangements for the burials. Much to
his amazement, he found on his return that all the victims had
completely recovered. Thus Wei-po-Yang was enrolled among
the immortals.

The search for the secret of how to prolong life, which appears
to have been the first phase in Chinese alchemy, seems in the
early centuries of our era to have developed into a quest for an
agent which would be both capable of producing an elixir of life
and a means of transmuting metals. The seekers after this
knowledge had a curious resemblance to those who practised
alchemy in the West. There were those who had a genuine and
unselfish interest in the science — largely recluses or anchorites
who pursued their studies in the solitudes of the mountains;
there were others who, seeking personal glory and wealth, fre¬
quented the Imperial Courts. According to a Chinese writer,
the former class sought the following: “Eight precious things
— cinnabar, orpiment, realgar, sulphur, saltpetre, ammonia,
empty green [an ore of cobalt], and mother-of-clouds [a variety
of mica].”

The philosophers considered that base metals might be trans¬
muted into the precious ones by the dual method of eliminating
the more material qualities in their composition and of augment-

LURE & ROMANCE OF ALCHEMY

ing the more spiritual qualities. Visible changes in either colour,
form, or ductility would be considered as actual proof that
the process of refinement or transmutation was taking place.
Whiteness, they contended, was the property of lead, but if it was
caused to become red the lead was changed to cinnabar, as red¬
ness was the property of cinnabar. They thought, therefore,
that by a process of refinement the baser metals might be arti¬
ficially transmuted to the more precious metals, providing only
that the proper refining medium or parent substance might be
discovered.

The Chinese alchemists believed that transmutation was an
inherent feature in the process of growth, for, according to Liu
An (122 b.c.), “gold grows in the earth by a slow process and
is evolved from the immaterial principle underlying the uni¬
verse, passing from one form to another up to silver, and then
from silver to gold.” Here we have the same doctrine as taught
centuries later by alchemists in the West.

The first recorded attempt to transmute metals by artificial
means alluded to in Chinese literature is that of Li Shao-chun,
the master alchemist at the Imperial Court during the reign of
the Emperor Wu Ti, who flourished from 140 to 86 B.c. He
states :

I know how cinnabar transforms its nature and passes into
yellow gold. I can rein the flying dragon and visit the extremities
of the earth. I can bestride the hoary crane and soar above the
nine degrees of heaven. If you will make sacrifice to the furnace
you will be able to transmute cinnabar to gold.

Some writers say that the mysterious Tan Stone was one of
the agents necessary to effect transmutation, and that a small
quantity was always placed in the crucibles employed in the
process. Others refer to the agent as the exoteric drug or the
golden drug, but the majority agree that some form of mer¬
cury formed the basis of it.

Hanbury, who lived in China in the last century, states that
he believed that cinnabar itself constituted the agent, as mercury
52

ALCHEMY IN CHINA AND INDIA

was regarded by the Chinese as the ‘Soul of Metals’ or the
‘ Living Metal,’ and was likened to the human soul. According
to The Book of the Immortals , the essence of cinnabar produces
gold. “Lead is the mother of silver, and mercury is the child
of cinnabar [mercury bisulphide].”

In the biography of Lii Tsu, a Chinese alchemist who is said
to have lived in the eighth century a.d., there is a story told
of a person named Wu Ta-wen, who lived in the city of Chengtu.
He held an official position and was a man of great knowledge.
At one time he was in the service of a Taoist magician named
Li Ken, whom he one day saw heating lead and tin together over
a fire. The magician took a small quantity of some drug about
the size of a bean, threw it into the crucible, and stirred the
mixture with an iron spoon. Upon cooling it immediately
changed to silver. Wu Ta-wen obtained the secret formula,
and whenever he wished to make use of it he abstained from
eating meat for a hundred days, and then retired from the public
gaze, preferably to the summit of some lofty mountain, there,
in complete secrecy or in the presence of a few devotees of un¬
doubted trustworthiness, to carry out the process.

The Chinese alchemists, like the adepts in the West, employed
symbols and allegories in their writings in order to ensure the
secrecy of their formulae and processes. Thus we have allusions
to Yin, the principle of cold and humidity, as the white tiger, and
to Yang, the principle of heat and dryness, as the green dragon.
Realgar was known as the masculine yellow, orpiment as the
feminine yellow, and mother-of-pearl as the Cloud Mother.
Vermilion was called the Fairy Lady, the sun the Golden Crow,
and the moon the Golden Mirror. It is apparent from the early
records that alchemy was practised in China centuries before
the art was known in Europe, for, according to our present
knowledge, it did not make its appearance in the West until
about the fifth or sixth century of the Christian era. In both
systems there was the twofold quest for the prolongation of life
and the accession of wealth, but in the East the former was the

LURE & ROMANCE OF ALCHEMY

dominant feature, while the chief object of the Western alche¬
mists was the secret of transmuting the baser metals into gold.

In India the earliest allusions to alchemical ideas appear in
the Atharva Veda , where mention is made of the gold which is
born from fire : “ The immortal they bestowed upon the mortals.
The gold [endowed by] the sun with beautiful colour which the
men of yore rich in descendants did desire. Long-lived be¬
comes he who wears it.”

From very early times in India gold was regarded as the
Elixir of Life, and lead was looked upon as the dispeller of
sorcery. Dr Ray, an authority on the subject, attributes the rise
of Hindu alchemy to the Soma rasa plant, which was an object of
admiration to the Vedic worshippers, for the juice was regarded
as the stimulant which conferred immortality upon the gods.
By other authorities alchemy is said to have had its origin in
the Tantras, part of the series of sacred books known as the
Fifth Veda, supposed to date from the sixth or seventh century
of our era. Before the eleventh century, however, records are
scanty. Alberuni, the historian, says:

Until that period the Hindus did not pay particular attention to
it, but many intelligent people are entirely given to alchemy. The
adepts in this art try to keep it concealed, and shrink back from in¬
tercourse with those who do not belong to them. They have a
science similar to alchemy which they call Rasayana, an art which
is restricted to certain operations, drugs, and compound medicines.
Its principles restore the health of those who were ill beyond hope
and give back youth to fading old age.

Among the Tantras of the eleventh and twelfth centuries
many allusions are to be found concerning quicksilver, which
was supposed to be capable of giving a divine body. The work
called Rasarnava states : “ It is mercury alone that can make the
body undecaying and immortal.” It was the supreme medica¬
ment, and its study was regarded as a science in itself. During
the Tantric period, with its system of the “Philosophy of Mer¬
cury,” a great amount of chemical information was accumulated

ALCHEMY IN CHINA AND INDIA

mainly concerning the search for the Elixir of Life, and the
knowledge of the Hindus on the subject appears to have been
equal to that obtaining at the same period in Europe.

In the Vedic period gold was described as the yellow metal,
silver as the white metal, iron as the black metal, and copper
as the red metal, while, in the time of Susruta, who is called
the father of Hindu surgery, tin and lead were also known. Of
alkaline substances sodium carbonate (natron), potassium car¬
bonate, and borax were employed, and acids were obtained from
citrons, lemons, and other vegetable sources. Treacle, clarified
butter, and honey were used as solvents, and borax as a flux
for metals.

Nagarjuna, the philosopher, was looked upon as the originator
of the processes of distillation and calcination, and it is claimed
that arsenic, zinc, and iron were used in the tenth century,
while the processes for the calcination of tin, copper, and lead
were known about the same period. Metallic preparations
were employed from about the fourth century, and were gene¬
rally prepared by the process of ‘ killing 5 the metals, a method
frequently employed in India. This meant depriving a metal
of its characteristic physical properties, such as its colour and
lustre. Both gold and silver were treated in this way and were
reduced to a fine state of division. The methods employed for
carrying this out varied, both heat and trituration being used,
and sometimes the juices of certain plants were added during
the process. The Hindu alchemists took especial care that the
operation should be carried out effectively, and in the case of
mercury it was directed “to subject it to a gentle heat for three
hours.’ *

In Rasarnava , which is supposed to have been written about
the twelfth century a.d., some interesting particulars are given
with reference to the equipment of an alchemist’s laboratory.
It is recommended that the laboratory should be erected in a
region which abounds with medicinal herbs and wells. The
furnaces should be arranged on the south-east side and instru-

LURE & ROMANCE OF ALCHEMY

ments on the south-west. Washing operations should be
carried out on the west side of the building, and drying in the
north-west. It should be furnished with bellows, mortars,
pestles, sieves, earth for crucibles, charcoal, conch-shells, iron
pans, and retorts made of glass, earth, and iron. The crucibles
should be composed of black, red, yellow, or white earth, and
apparatus for distillation, sublimation, and for killing metals
installed. It is further recommended that lutes should be
made of lime, raw sugar, rust of iron, and buffalo’s milk, and
cow-dung cakes should be used for fuel.

Among the writings of the Hindu alchemists in the seven¬
teenth century many recipes are to be found for making artificial
precious stones, an art that was also practised by the early al¬
chemists in Europe. Some of the recipes contained in a manu¬
script that was translated about a century ago, which are
probably of greater antiquity, show a considerable knowledge
of chemistry, as may be judged from the following examples :

The Way to make Artificial Diamonds

To counterfeit diamonds so as to endure the fire and harden
them, take of good natural crystal and reduce to subtle powder.
Fill a pot with it, set it in a glass-house furnace for twelve hours
to be melted and purified, then drop the melted matter into cold
water, then dry it and reduce it again to powder and add to it its
weight of fine salts of tartar. Mix these two powders well and
make little pills of them with common water. Then wipe these
pills and put them into an earthen pot on a strong fire, there to
grow red for twelve hours without melting. Then put them into a
pot in a glass-house furnace, where let them stand two days to be
well melted and purified. Then set the matter for twelve hours
in the annealing furnace to cool gradually. Afterward break the
crucible and you will have a fine material for diamonds, which
must be cut and polished at the wheel.

To make Emeralds

Take calcined brass 3 ounces in powder, which recalcine with
oil and a weaker fire for four days. Use this to colour glass or add
to the crystal crocus martis and brass, twice calcined.

ALCHEMY IN CHINA AND INDIA

To make a Green Emerald

Take glass made without manganese; to this add scales of
copper, thrice calcined, and scales of iron from a smith’s forge,
both well washed, pounded fine, and sifted. These scales of iron
serve instead of crocus martis.

To make a Ruby

Take oxide of manganese and strass.

To make a Topaz

Take glass of antimony, purple of Cassius, oxide of iron, and
white strass, and fuse together.

The idea of transmutation is evidenced in the following pro¬
cess for changing white sapphires into true diamonds :

The white sapphire, being fine and fixed, is only imperfect by
reason of its wanting colour and hardness, which may be remedied
by art and be made to surpass Nature because she only would have
made it a perfect sapphire, but art can turn it into a true diamond.
It is only fire can work this effect. Thus take very fine sand, wash
it in several waters till the water becomes clear, then dry it. Fill
a crucible half full with this sand ; then put in your sapphire, and
fill it up with the same sand.

Then cover your crucible with a cover of the same earth or another
crucible. Lute the whole with a good lute and lay it on an inch
thick and let it lie in the shade. Being dry, set it in a glass-house
furnace, approaching it nearer to the fire by degrees and leaving
it twelve hours in the same heat. Then withdraw it little by little
for the space of six hours and let it cool. Break it and you will find
therein your sapphire, which will have all the qualities of a fine
diamond. Polish it again at the wheel and work it.

In a book written by Sanaq, an Indian, chemical analysis is
foreshadowed in a method described for detecting poison in
food or drink. He observes :

The vapour emitted by poisoned food has the colour of the
throat of the peacock. . . . When the food is thrown into the fire
it rises high in the air. The fire makes a crackling sound as when
salt deflagrates. The smoke has the smell of a burnt corpse.

LURE & ROMANCE OF ALCHEMY

Poisoned drinks, buttermilk, and thin milk leave a light blue to
yellow line.

It is probable that the knowledge of alchemy in India was
acquired from the Chinese, for as early as the second century
before the Christian era the Emperor Wu Ti (140-86 B.c.) sent
an embassy into Central Asia, which proved an important factor
in spreading and facilitating intercourse between China and the
West.