My sister said to me that the reason why this alchemy and chemistry are inextricably linked is because man's exploration of nature is limited to the unknown, and the more advanced he is, the more correct he feels, so he becomes a god, so this chemistry and Dan Dao become one. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

The drugs and tools used in alchemy are related to the production of chemistry, and in terms of medicines, the chemical historian Yuan Hanqing has made an incomplete statistics based on alchemy literature, including inorganic and organic substances, a total of about 60 kinds. Of course, this statistics is not complete, because not only plant and animal drugs are not included, but even from the perspective of gold and stone medicine alone, I am afraid that there are more than 60 kinds of them. However, from here, we can get a general impression of the commonly used medicines in ancient alchemy.

Alchemy is extremely mysterious and strange in the cultivation activities or processes. If you think that the choice of Dan place should be in the famous mountain and scenic spot that is inaccessible and there are immortals, otherwise "the evil spirit can enter, and the medicine will not succeed." "When the tripod is opened, the warlock must fast, clean the crown, kneel and hold the medicine furnace, and face the south to pray to the Great Dao Tianzun; Another example is to enter the mountain refining, you must choose the auspicious day of the "opening month (March or September)"; The altar should be burned with talismans, and the ancient mirror of the sword should be inserted in the furnace. And so on, all of which are filled with extremely strong superstitions. However, the ancient alchemists were personally engaged in collecting and dispensing medicines, and through repeated large number of chemical experiments, they consciously or unintentionally developed the primitive chemical industry, which can be regarded as the ancestor of modern chemistry. Dr. Joseph Needham of the United Kingdom said in "The History of Science and Technology in China" that Chinese alchemists are "one of the most important sources of chemistry in the whole world." ”

Regarding tools and equipment, there are about ten kinds of tools and equipment found in alchemy literature, namely Dan furnace, Danding, Shuihai, pomegranate jar, sweet snail, mercury extractor, Huachi, grinder, silk sieve, horsetail luo, etc.

Dan furnace is also called Dan stove. Wu Xi of the Southern Song Dynasty "Danfang Instructions" (written in 1163 AD) has "both Ji furnace" and "Wei Ji furnace". The reaction room placed inside the Dan furnace is Danding, also known as "God Room", "Kui", "Danhe", some are like gourds, some are like crucibles, some are made of metal (gold, silver, copper), and some are made of porcelain. "Jindan Dayao" has a "suspended fetus tripod", which is divided into three layers, "hanging in the stove and not touching the ground". The "Essence of the Jinhua Chong Bi Dan Sutra" says that there is a silver "sea of water" placed on the top of the shrine to cool down. There is another kind of "water and fire tripod" in the "Essentials of Cultivating the Great Dan", which may be the part of the tripod itself that holds water. In short, these things are the main tools of alchemy, which can be placed in a furnace to heat up the medicine to melt and react inside, or to sublimate it.

In addition to Danding, the Danjia also has a distiller dedicated to drawing mercury from Dansha, which can be called "mercury extractor". The gist of the Jinhua Chong Bi Dan Sutra contains a simple one, divided into two parts, the upper part is shaped like a round-bottomed flask, called "pomegranate pot", and the lower part is barrel-shaped, called "sweet pot". When it is used, it is heated so that the mercury vapor generated in the jar becomes liquid mercury in the cold water of the sweet man. Although it does not explain what materials are made of, the size, and usage, etc., it can be clearly seen from the diagram that the lower part is a heated furnace, and the upper part is a closed container for drugs such as Sheng Dansha, and a tube is passed next to it, so that the mercury vapor generated in the container can flow into the condensation tank placed next to it. Such distillation equipment, even today, seems to be quite perfect, of course, it is the product of gradual improvement in long-term alchemy practice, and its formation was before Wu Xi. Western historians of science have always believed that the distiller was invented by the Arabs, but in fact, the ancient alchemists in China have long had a tradition of manufacturing this equipment.

Therefore, China's traditional culture cannot be characterized by one thing, but should be related to see.

(To be continued)