, translated as 'external alchemy' or 'external elixir', is the early branch of Chinese alchemy that focuses upon compounding elixirs of immortality by heating minerals, metals, and other natural substances in a luted crucible. The later branch of esoteric neidan 'inner alchemy', which borrowed doctrines and vocabulary from exoteric , is based on allegorically producing elixirs within the endocrine or hormonal system of the practitioner's body, through Daoist meditation, diet, and physiological practices. The practice of external alchemy originated in the early Han dynasty (206 BCE–220 CE), grew in popularity until the Tang (618–907), when began and several emperors died from alchemical elixir poisoning, and gradually declined until the Ming dynasty (1368–1644).
Terminology The Chinese compound combines the common word 'outside; exterior; external' with 'cinnabar; vermillion; elixir; alchemy'. The antonym of is meaning 'inside; inner; internal', and the term 'external elixir/alchemy' was coined in connection with the complementary term 'internal elixir/alchemy'.
The sinologist and expert on Chinese alchemy Fabrizio Pregadio lists four generally accepted meanings of : "The color cinnabar, scarlet, or light scarlet", "The mineral cinnabar, defined as 'a red stone formed by the combination of quicksilver and sulphur'", "Sincerity (corresponding to )", and "An essence obtained by the refining of a medicinal substance; a refined medicinal substance, the so-called medicine of the seekers of immortality for avoiding aging and death; a term often used for matters concerning the immortal". Pregadio concludes that the semantic field of the word dan evolves from a root-meaning of "essence", and its connotations include "the reality, principle, or true nature of an entity or its essential part, and by extension, the cognate notions of oneness, authenticity, sincerity, lack of artifice, simplicity, and concentration."
The date for the earliest use of the term is unclear. It occurs in Du Guangting's 901 (Explications Expanding on the Sages [Commentaries] on the Daodejing), which is quoted in the 978 Taiping guangji. Liu Xiyue's 988 (Master Taixuan Langran's Poems on Advancing in the Dao) has the earliest mention of both the terms and .
(Way of the Golden Elixir) was a classical name for alchemy, and (with 'art; skill; technique; method') is the Modern Standard Chinese term.
History Joseph Needham, the eminent historian of science and technology, divided Chinese alchemy into the "golden age" (400–800) from the end of the Jin to late Tang dynasty and the "silver age" (800–1300) from late Tang to the end of the Song dynasty. Furthermore, Fabrizio Pregadio uses "golden age" in specific reference to the Tang period.
The extant Chinese alchemical literature comprises about 100 sources preserved in the Daoist Canon. These texts show that while early was mainly concerned with the performance of ceremonies and other ritual actions addressed to gods and demons, a shift occurred around the 6th or 7th century to the later tradition that used alchemical symbolism to represent the origins and functioning of the cosmos, which played a crucial role in the development of .
Early references Little is known about the origins of alchemy in China. The historian and sinologist Nathan Sivin gives an approximate timeline: the Chinese belief in the possibility of physical immortality began around the 8th century BCE, the acceptance that immortality was attainable by taking herbal drugs started in the 4th century BCE, but the uncertain date when the idea that immortality drugs could be made through alchemy rather than found in nature was no later than the 2nd century BCE. Despite a later tradition that Zou Yan (c. 305–240 BCE), founder of the School of Yin Yang, was an early alchemist, his biography does not mention alchemy, and no text is attributed to him.
The sinologist Homer H. Dubs proposed that the earliest historical allusion to Chinese alchemy was in 144 BCE, but other scholars are doubtful. Emperor Jing of Han's 144 BCE anti-coining edict "established a statute (fixing) public execution for (privately) coining of cash or counterfeiting gold" that Dubs believes also made alchemy illegal. However, Jing's imperial decree did not ban making alchemical elixirs but rather, privately coining money; the commentary of Ying Shao (140–206 CE) explains how it abrogated the 175 BCE edict by the previous Emperor Wen that allowed people to cast coins without authorization.
The first historically reliable mention of alchemy in China concerns Li Shaojun, a fangshi "masters of methods", who suggested around 133 BCE that Emperor Wu of Han (r. 141–87) should prepare for the and state rituals to Heaven and Earth by performing an alchemical method of transmuting cinnabar into gold. According to the c. 94 BCE Shiji, Li Shaojun told the Emperor: "By making offerings to the stove (), one can summon the supernatural beings (). If one summons them, cinnabar can be transmuted into gold. When gold has been produced and made into vessels for eating and drinking, one can prolong one’s life. If one’s life is prolonged, one will be able to meet the immortals of the Penglai Island in the midst of the sea. When one has seen them and has performed the and ceremonies, one will never die. The Yellow Emperor did just so. Your subject formerly, when sailing on the sea, encountered Master Anqi (Anqi Sheng), who feeds on jujube-dates as large as melons. Master Anqi is an immortal who roams about Penglai; when it pleases him to appear to humans, he does so, otherwise he remains invisible." Thereupon the Emperor for the first time personally made offerings to the stove. He sent some to the sea to search for the legendary Penglai and for alchemists who could transmute cinnabar and other substances into gold. Li Shaojun's immortality elixir in this passage was not meant to be consumed, but used to cast alchemical gold cups and dishes that would supposedly prolong the emperor's life to the point that he could perform the thaumaturgic and ritual prerequisites to ultimately become immortal.
Although Liu An's c. 120 BCE Huainanzi does not explicitly refer to alchemy, it does have a passage on the natural evolution of minerals and metals in the earth, which became a prominent idea in later cosmological texts. They state that elixir compounding reproduces the process through which nature spontaneously transmutes minerals and metals into gold, but alchemy accelerates it by compressing or "manipulating" the centuries of time that the natural process requires, using 'fire times' to match cycles of different lengths. The context lists wu-xing "Five Phases/Elements" correlations for colors, minerals, and metals. The of balanced earth is received into the yellow heaven, which after five hundred years engenders a yellow jade [possibly realgar or amber]. After five hundred years this engenders a yellow quicksilver, which after five hundred years engenders gold ["yellow metal"]. After one thousand years, gold engenders the yellow dragon. The yellow dragon, going into hiding, engenders the yellow springs. When the dust from the yellow springs rises to become a yellow cloud, the rubbing together of yin and yang makes thunder; their rising and spreading out make lightning. What has ascended then descends as a flow of water that collects in the yellow sea. For each of the Five Colors (yellow, bluegreen, vermillion, white, and black), the transmutation process involves a corresponding mineral, quicksilver (using the archaic name for 'mercury; quicksilver'), and metal ( ). The other four colored metamorphoses are bluegreen malachite-quicksilver-lead, vermillion cinnabar-quicksilver-copper, white arsenolite-quicksilver-silver, and black slate-quicksilver-iron. According to Dubs, this passage omits mentioning alchemy because of its illegality. It accounts for common alchemical ingredients like quicksilver, and comes from the School of Yin-Yang and perhaps even Zou Yan himself. Major says it is considered to be "China's oldest statement of the principles of alchemy".
The c. 60 BCE Yantie lun (Discourses on Salt and Iron) has the earliest reference to the ingestion of alchemical elixirs in a context criticizing Qin Shi Huang's patronage of anyone who claimed to know immortality techniques. "At that time, the masters () of Yan and Qi set aside their hoes and digging sticks and competed to make themselves heard on the subject of immortals and magicians. Consequently the who headed for [the Qin capital] Xianyang numbered in the thousands. They asserted that the immortals had eaten of gold and drunk of pearl; after this had been done, their lives would last as long as Heaven and Earth."
The erudite Han official Liu Xiang (77-6 BCE) attempted and failed to compound alchemical gold. The Hanshu says that in 61 BCE, Emperor Xuan became interested in immortality and employed numerous specialists to recreate the sacrifices and techniques used by his great-grandfather, Emperor Wu. In 60 BCE, Liu Xiang presented the emperor with a rare alchemical book entitled (Arts from the Garden of Secrets of the Great Treasure)–which had supposedly belonged to the compiler Liu An–that described "divine immortals and the art of inducing spiritual beings to make gold" and Zou Yan's "recipe for prolonging life by a repeated method [of transmutation]". The context is also translated as "a method of repeated (transmutation)", or reading as "important methods by Zou Yan for prolonging life". Emperor Xuan commissioned Liu Xiang to produce alchemical gold, but he was ultimately unsuccessful despite having access to the best available alchemical texts in the imperial library, the expertise of numerous and metallurgist assistants, and unlimited imperial resources. In 56 BCE, the emperor ordered Liu to be executed yet later reduced the sentence. Dubs concludes that a "more complete and adequate test of alchemy could not have been made".
First texts The oldest extant Chinese alchemistic texts, comprising the Taiqing corpus, , and , date from around the 2nd to 4th centuries.
The Daoist Taiqing (Great Clarity) tradition produced the earliest known textual corpus related to . Its main scriptures were the (Scripture of Great Clarity), the (Scripture of the Nine Elixirs), and the (Scripture of the Golden Fluid), which early sources say were revealed to the Han Zuo Ci at the end of the 2nd century. Both the Baopuzi (below) and the received versions of these scriptures in the Daoist Canon show that the Taiqing tradition developed in Jiangnan (lit. 'south of the Yangtze river'), in close relation to local exorcistic and ritual practices.
The Zhouyi Cantong Qi (Token for the Agreement of the Three According to the Book of Changes) or Cantong qi, is traditionally considered the earliest Chinese book on alchemy. Its original version is attributed to Wei Boyang in the mid-2nd century, but the received text was augmented during the Six Dynasties (220-589) period. Unlike the earlier Taiqing tradition, which focuses on ritual, the is based on correlative cosmology and uses philosophical, astronomical, and alchemical emblems to describe the relation of the Dao to the universe. For instance, the two main emblems are (Real Mercury) and (Real Lead), respectively corresponding to Original Yin and Original Yang. This choice of mercury and lead as the prime ingredients for elixir alchemy 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". The new view of the alchemical process not only influenced the later development of , but also paved the way for the rise of . From the Tang period onward, the became main scripture of both and alchemies.