Alchemy in India and China
by Vijaya Jayant Deshpande | 1988 | 42,318 words
The thesis "Alchemy in India and China" explores the comparative aspects of alchemy in these two countries, focusing on chemical and protochemical formulations while addressing why modern science developed in the West rather than in India or China. It briefly touches upon internal alchemy in China and the ritualistic tantra in India....
4. Case of a metal-container becoming golden
The same section' of Chun zhu ji wen describes the transmutation of a metal-container, which was used 26. Rasarnava, see Primary Sources, p. 217. ayodhi pravasami rasabandhakari priye 11 112 1 jalam savenmadhucchistam tat samadaya parbati | veghayet sarvvalohani kancanani bhavanti ca || || 14 || 27 See Chapter VI, p. 187. 28 'See FN. 21 of this chapter, p. 151. 199
for boiling the leaves of a certain plant in water, into gold. " 29 At the dawn of the next day the owner of the lodge saw this. He could not understand how it could have happened. When the pan was heated for cooking rice, the whole of it turned into gold." 30 A similar case is seen in the Sanskrit text Rasarnavam. Oil of the seeds of the creeper Jyotismati (Cardiospermum Halicacobum) when placed in a copper pot, 29 zhi ming, ke di zhu ren shi zhi, le bu ce gong he wei zhi ji jie fu chui fan ze fu tong ti cheng jin. 30 Rasarnava, p. 223, Section No. 12. jyotismati nama lata tha ca kancanasannibha vallivitan bahula hemavarnaphala 51797 || 144 || 200
after heating converts the pot into gold. This transmutation needs six months though.