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 7 - Indian and Chinese Alchemy鈥擯arallels
5 (of 31)
External source: Shodhganga (Repository of Indian theses)
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processes no doubt point to the metallurgical alchemy
practised in China in the eleventh century AD, yet we find
that certain methods are different from those normally
adopted by medieval Chinese alchemists described in such
texts. It is interesting to note that similar processes
are described in Sanskrit alchemical texts of the
medieval period, viz. Ras膩r峁嘺va and Ras膩r峁嘺vakalpa. On
account of the fact that Buddhists, who were interested in
alchemy, visited China frequently in the medieval period,
it seems possible that the Chinese Buddhists and Taoists,
who practised alchemy, learned some of these methods from
the Indian Buddhists; and probably it was through them
that Su Tong-bo and He Wei came to know about them. Here
an attempt is made to reveal the parallels between such
special cases of Chun zhu ji wen and those come across
in Sanskrit alchemical texts, pointing thereby to the
transmission of alchemical ideas between India and China.
The tenth chapter of Chun zhu ji wen is subdivided
into sections, each describing an incident leading to
some alchemical process. Out of the total twelve
sections, five are discussed here. These cases show
similarities with Indian methods or ingredients.
