What is Alchemy?

A simple question that at the same time elicits answers to an infinite number of questions. In the thousands of years of human development, countless capable people have tried to answer it, but the truth is that it is impossible to get a completely satisfactory answer to this question, and it is difficult to answer it thoroughly with any kind of answer, and even people can hardly guess how to answer it thoroughly.

The ancient scholar Hans Werner Schutte once said that we cannot draw the boundaries of alchemy, not because we do not have the ability to explore its edges, but because it is all-encompassing and has no boundaries in itself. He, like a human being, is a kind of self-being, a living whole.

This is the city of Alexandria, the center of alchemy in ancient Egypt. Di Zi'an has been here for two days.

These two days were dull and monotonous, and in the dark basement of the temple, the apprentices copied the assigned books, and when they completed a task, they could go to the temple guards to collect food and tools, including papyrus and reed pens, which were the apprentices' own property, but did not include any alchemical equipment. After the invention of the famous water clock, the Egyptians divided the day into 24 hours, 12 hours of day and 12 hours of night, and the apprentices who copied in the basement listened to the chimes in the temple to determine the passage of time.

Only by turning in the books required by the dignitaries on time could these apprentices remain in the temple grounds and borrow the books in the temple when it was open - this was the Temple of Serrapio, the largest library in all of Ancient Egypt after the destruction of the Temple of the Muses in the riots, and it contained a huge number of unique copies that could not be reproduced or even imagined by later generations, but unfortunately the temple was only open three days a month, and there were three days before the next opening day.

"Whew, I'm finally done," Di Zi'an stretched as he moved his sore wrist. At least stay until the so-called sage Sumosis gives a demonstration of alchemy, and if he can learn anything, it will be in vain, if not, then he can only hope that the temple will be open to the open day, and if he can gain some valuable knowledge in the library.

"Norma, Grant is showing his alchemy instrument again, won't you go over and take a look?" Inos, who came to Dizi'an's side at some point, said pointedly, after two days of contact, Dizi'an probably understood Inos's character, and was indeed Norma's friend, although his family was wealthy, he didn't look down on those poor apprentices in the slightest, and he also took good care of Norma, but he had a slight cleanliness habit and was unwilling to contact others.

"Is Grant showing his flask again?" Di Zi'an touched the tip of his nose a little funny, Grant is also one of the more famous apprentices, it is said that he is the descendant of a certain dignitary, to put it mildly, it is illegitimate to say, but it can be said that it is much more noble than a poor apprentice like Norma. As a result, he was exempt from copying books and other miscellaneous labors, and not long ago, he obtained a sealed Hermes bottle from his clan!

Grant regards it as a treasure, and it can be said that he will not leave this small glass bottle. It's no wonder that in this era, this kind of glass is expensive, let alone an instrument related to the legendary alchemy secret art of turning stones into gold, at least in Norma's memory, it was the illustrious alchemist who could possess such an instrument.

But for Dizi'an, whose soul came from thousands of years later, isn't the so-called sealed Hermes bottle just a long-necked bottle? What child who has taken a chemistry class has never seen or played with it? At that time, the scientific name of this kind of bottle was the long-necked pear-shaped glass bottle, and its pot-bellied shape represented the orderly world and the order of the world in the eyes of the alchemists of the time, or in other words, the entire universe. In Norma's memory, she had the privilege of attending a public lecture by Susimus, in which the lower part of the bottle, the abdomen, represented the female, while the upper half, the head, represented the male. The combination of male and female characteristics is uniformly embodied in such a small instrument, and Di Zi'an's reaction at that time was: Wow, do you want to be so, a distillation instrument can still be said to bloom by you?

But the fact is that what we think of as a distillation instrument in the eyes of modern people is not an ordinary thing at that time. People look at this small bottle with both gender characteristics with incredible eyes, and men and women are like the perfect embodiment of yin and yang, just like Tai Chi and like the universe, so it is respectfully called the sealed Hermes instrument. Such an instrument always makes one wonder whether its master's mysterious methods can really make matter take shape, and even transform its essence, and the alchemist is a magician who has mastered the mysteries of material transformation.

Because of this, Enos was very surprised by the disapproving attitude in Norma's tone, "Didn't you like to nod your head in front of that guy before, just to be able to touch that Hermes bottle?"

"......" Di Zi'an can't say that I was a dirt bun who had never seen the world before, but now it is different, I come from the land thousands of years ago, and I am a good child with all-round development of morality, intelligence, physique and beauty under the flying of the red flag. "Didn't Inoss go and see it?" In the other corner of this dim stone room, there were many people gathered around a round table, and Grant was in the middle of the crowd, holding the delicate little bottle in his hand, and the crowd of onlookers let out a sound of admiration from time to time, and Grant was triumphant and very useful.

"That guy looks at people with nostrils," Enos snorted, "who's going to look at his nostrils?" Dizian was a little laughing and crying, indeed, in Norma's memory, Grant was a somewhat vulgar and rather arrogant teenager, and his status as an illegitimate child from a prominent family made his personality quite extreme, and he could not listen to the criticism of others.

"Enos, speaking of which, when is the next class of Master Susimos?" Dizian did not continue Enos's words, but asked what he was more concerned about, apprentices are also hierarchical, such as Norma, which is the bottom of the apprentice, often not seeing a sage once in ten days and half a month, but Enos or Grant have a better family background, they can even keep in touch with the sage on weekdays, because the family that sponsors Susimos's alchemy business has their family figure......

"Probably just a few days," Inoss thought about it carefully, "the teacher said that in a few days he would give a public demonstration of the operation of the three cans, and any apprentice who had completed his homework could sit in there. ”

This is the difference in status between Inoss and Norma, Inos calls Susimos a teacher, and Norma is a sage. Di Zi'an looked at Enos with envy and said seriously, "

When will I be allowed to call Master Susimus a teacher? ”

"Then you need to work harder, instead of thinking about how to be lazy every day!" said Inoss unceremoniously. Dizian shrugged his shoulders, "Okay, okay, then Mr. Enos, can you teach me the lesson that the Sage Master taught before, I really want to forget it!"

Inoss stomped his foot, "Norma, you can't do this! Revision is a very important part of the alchemy course! The teacher talked about the seven metals in the last class, how much do you remember now?"

Hell, the seven metals, why is Norma's memory empty, I don't want to carry this pot, Di Zi'an looked a little embarrassed,

"Uh-huh, well, that's, gold!yes, and silver, iron, and copper, um......" and then couldn't go on, and Enos's gaze became more and more unkind, and could even be said to be fierce, "So you only remember these four?

"This ......" Norma doesn't have these in her memory! Sun Thief pits me not shallow! Dizi An shouted frantically in his heart, but he could only admit it obediently. Inoss sighed and snatched the pen from Dizian's hand, the light of the oil lamp illuminated his delicate eyebrows, Dizian had to admit that this Enos's demeanor revealed an inexplicable elegance,

But seeing him drawing on the papyrus, the tip of the pen was gently swiped, and the symbols symbolizing different metals jumped on the papyrus, and the beautiful handwriting looked at the old face of Di Zi'an, no wonder he could be favored by the sage, compared to this word, Norma's is completely a ghost drawing. No, it's Norma to be ashamed of, what's the matter with me?

"The seven metals correspond to the seven astronomical stars, and to the seven gods symbolized by the seven stars," said Inos, whispering the mysteries of alchemy in the dim light, "Gold is the gift of the sun god, silver flows is the brilliance of the moon god, lead is the heavy Saturn, tin is the favor of water, copper is Jupiter, iron is Mars, mercury is usually Mercury, but sometimes it is associated with the moon." ”

"Seven metals can combine with each other to form new substances, and this kind of new substances will change the properties of the original metals", that's right, as early as the third century AD, the concept of alloys was already known to the alchemists at that time, of course, their understanding may not be mature, there are two more mainstream theories, Inos recalled what the teacher had said, " Some alchemists believe that alloys are the product of the reaction of certain additives added to metals, which is derived from the ancient sage Aristotle, who believed that alloys were a completely new metal, because the teachers had smelted alloys from unmixed ores many times. ”

Di Zi'an listened very carefully to Inos's explanation, these views may seem very naïve now, but they are by no means ridiculous, this is the exploration of the mysteries of the world by the predecessors, no one can have absolute truth, but the relative truth comes from the exploration that these ancestors diligently pursued. The progress of civilization and the beauty of the world are inseparable from the figure of these pioneers.

"In addition to metal, what materials are needed for alchemy experiments?" Dizi'an asked, looking at the metal symbols on the papyrus.

"Materials are generally divided into three categories, solid, Spirit, and non-solid. Ino thought for a moment and replied, "Solid refers to the seven metals and the new substance in which the metal is combined with each other, the Holy Spirit is the material of sublimation, the gas floating in the air, and the non-solid is everything that does not belong to the solid and the Spirit." ”

"The ...... of the Holy Spirit" Di Zi'an is a little confused, gas is gas, why should it be called the Holy Spirit, if he can understand the meaning of the pronunciation of gas "Puniuma" in Egyptian words, he will fully understand. The Egyptians believed that there was a spark hidden in the human psyche that pointed to extraordinary souls, and this spark was also called "qi", which is why gas was so important in the study of alchemy, so it was revered as "the Holy Spirit". ”

I have to say that Inos has a very good grasp of the knowledge taught by Susimos, and there are almost no gaps in the reproduction of the content of Susimus's speech, and Dizian is also like a sponge absorbing this ancient knowledge, travelers walk for eternity, accumulate the knowledge of all things, and in these fragments of knowledge, there may be clues to their promotion.