Essay name: Alchemy in India and China
Author:
Vijaya Jayant Deshpande
Affiliation: Panjab University / Department of Chemistry
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.
Chapter 3 - Chinese alchemy
10 (of 25)
External source: Shodhganga (Repository of Indian theses)
Download the PDF file of the original publication
54
God and principles governing life and other philosophical
matters, but a portion is devoted to alchemical
preparations, types of elixirs, natural substances which
can bring about longevity and also transmutation of base
metals into gold and silver.
Ge Hong admits that for the lack of funds he
himself could not make the elixirs and test for their
efficacy, but he was just putting together selected methods
from the earlier texts. He stresses the point that
gold-making should be pursued not for its own sake, i.e.,
for material gains, but for its application in elixir-
syntheses, in order to achieve immortality and Xianship
(i.e., becoming a heavenly immortal according to Taoist
teachings).
16 Artificial gold which was also called as processed
or medicinal gold (Yao Jin), was supposed to be superior
17 to natural gold. At the end of the "Bao-pu-zi" text, a
bibliography of earlier alchemical texts, no longer extant
at Ge Hong's time, has been given.
16 Tul
17 Z?
乐金
