Chinese Alchemy: Its Origins and Development Yasu Furukawa Alchemy has often been treated as peculiar to the Western tradition ; Chinese alchemy has been rather neglected by the Western historians. For example, in his famous Entstehung und Ausbreitung der Alchemie (1919), E. ©. von Lippmann has stated, “The Chinese possessed no characteristic chemical methods of their own, nor any apparatus of original design.” With a few exceptions,” it has not been until recently that Chinese alchemy has been systematically studied in its own light. An indication of renewed attention is thorough English translations of Chinese alchemical works which have appeared together with commentaries.” This paper attempts to deal with the origins of Chinese alchemy and its development, based on these available materials. T. L. Davis defines alchemy in general as “the search or the effort, whether successful or not, by chemical means to prepare a medicine of longevity or immortality, or by chemical means to prepare authentic noble metal (e.g., gold) from base metal or both.“ Indeed alchemy both in the East and the West held two mutually related aims, ie., longevity or immortality, and gold-making. To attain these goals, alchemists used chemical means which had been practiced in metal work by artisans since the Bronze Age. However, it should be noticed that in addition tn the chemical technology, alchemists had the theoretical explanations of substantial change ; given such alchemical theories they belived that they could arrive at their goal. At the same time, the theories clearly reflected the philosophical framework of the 95times. For example, Arabic alchemical theory that metals were composed of mercury and sulphur owed much to Aristotelianism which had been widely spread On the other hand, Chinese alchemy was concerned with Taoism as well as the traditional concepts of yin-yang* and of wwhsing® In this respect, as N. Sivin insists, “What dis- tinguishes alchemy is the systematic attempts of its practioners to apply a philosophical framework to chemical operation.” Before alchemy flourished in China, there had been some elements of it. As early as the eighth century B.C. there was belief in the possibility of physical immortality.” J. Needham attributes this belief to “this-worldy ethos of the Chinese.” He states that with this ethos,"life on earth was found good and greatly treasured, so that from the Shang* period onwards, emphasis on longetivity grew and grew, length of life in some quiet hermitage or surrounded by one’s des- cendents being the greatest blessing that Heaven could confer.” This desire for longevity, according to Needham, eventually developed into the desire for immortality.” Indeed before Buddhism which introduced a certain pessimism about life in this world and was much concerned with after-life, the Chinese seem to have little idea of where one was to go after death, hence the this-worldly emphasis.” In any event, by the fourth century, immortality was widely thought to be attainable by technical means such as the taking of drugs (ie., elixirs). There now appeared immortality cults which were called the cults of Asien.“ These cults at first considered that the eating of food out of golden vessels could lengthen life. Eventually, gold came to be regarded as a drug for immortality. Such ideas may have been drawn from an analogy that gold spontaneously never oxidizes in air, therefore if one ingests it he would be able to live forever." There had been a gold industry in China for a thousand years before the time of Confucius (651 - 479 B.C.). A multitude of gold objects have been recovered from Shang and Chou® tombs by modern archaeologists Gold refining was practiced in the Chou and Ch'in‘ periods, as is evidenced by an ancient document about gold.” These facts show that China had produced gold by herself and had been 96regarding it as a valuable metal long before alchemy appeared. However, while natural gold would serve the purpose of the members of immortality cults, they wished to make artifical gold rather than use natural. As Ko Hungé (A.D. 283 - 343), an alchemical writer, later reported, most of them [members of immortality cults] were poor; it was therefore more convenient for them to make the gold themselves. Furthermore, “the gold which is made by transformation embodies the essences of many different ingredients, so that it is superior to natural gold.” Thus, unlike Alexandrian alchemy whose final goal was to make gold, Chinese alchemy pursued gold-making as a means to attain immortality. This is why Chinese alchemy was called line tan shu,” the art of medical gold. Line chin shu,‘ the art of gold-making, was regarded as a step toward lien tan shu. For this reason Chinese alchemical literautre is commonly divided into the two parts, ie., the preparation of gold and the method of consuming it to attain im- mortality. Chinese alchemy was based upon the fundamental concepts of Wohsing, the Five Elements, and Yin- Yang, the Two Contraries. T. L. Davis observes, “Both are genuine scientific concepts which supply categories for the description of natural things, and both in the writings of the alchemists are involved with magical and fantastic connota- tion.""® The notion of wu-hsing may be traced back to the twelfth century B.C, In the Shu Ching! (Book of Historical Documents [twelfth century B.C.] ), one of the earliest sources that includes this term, it meant simply the constituents of materical things: all material substances are composed of five elements, ie., water, fire, wood, metal, and earth. By the fourth century B.C., this notion was further extended, with each elment having its relation to the otheres : water is channeled and contained by earth, earth is broken by wood, wood is shaped by metal, metal is melted by fire, fire is put out by water, and so on." Moreover, the concept wu-hsing was applied to nearly everything. Hence, for example, planets, seasons, locations, colors, tones, tastes, smells, grains, animals, virtues, dynasties, and others were respectively classified into five categories, and the relations of these 7were widely discussed among the Chinese."® Therefore it is not surprising that the concept wu-hsing was employed for the explanation of substantial change in Chinese alchemy. On the other hand, the notion of yin-yang appeared much later than the wu-hsing. Davis places the date as sometime after Con- fucius."® Although the terms yin and yang were originally used in the literal meaning, i.e., shade and light, later the couplet yin-yang had the notion of two contrasted principles which regulated the universe : It was supposed that the primal matter, t’ai-chi,* in its gyrations gradually separated into two parts, the /ang-i' or regulating powers which together constituted the soul of the universe. The heavy and gross part, yin, settled and formed the earth, while the fine and light part, yang, remained suspended and formed the heavens. Yin was the female principle, negative, heavy, earthy, and dry, typifying in general the more undesirable aspects of nature such as cold, darkness, weakness, and death. Yang was the positive, male principle, desirable, active, fiery, possessive of qualities directly opposed to those of yin. From the interaction of these two contraries, all things in the universe were created and controlled in their various manifestations.2” While the concept wu-hsing expresses the constitutent elements of things and their order, yin-yang can be considered to show a state of things, i.e., somewhat potentiality. Thus the changing seasons, for example, can be explained as follows. In spring, yang began to come about ; in summer it reaches its highest peak ; on the contrary, yin began to appear in autumn ; and it arrives at its peak in winter. But in summer yin has already been involved and successively increases toward autumn.” As D. Bodde suggests, unlike Western “good-versus- evil type of dualism,” yin-yang dualism was “based not upon mutual opposition but upon mutual harmony.” Both counterparts were equally essential for the existence of the universe just as that of male and female ; “neither is necessarily superior or inferior from a moral point of view.” The two concepts of wu-hsing and yin-yang were, it has been told, 98combined and elaborated by Tsou Yen™ (c. 350-270 B.C.) and his followers. Although Tsou Yen's writings are no longer extant, several sources refer to him and his school. For example, Ssu-ma Ch’ien” (c.145 -90 B.C), in his Shik Chi° (Historical Record or Record of the Historian), reports that “Tsou Yen was famous among the feudal lords (for his doctrine) that the Yin and Yang control the cyclical movements of destiny,” and that “the disciples of the Master Tsou discussed and wrote about the cyclical succession of the Five Powers.”°9 The Chien Han Shu? (History of the Former Han Dynasty [c. 100 A.D.] ) states, “Tsou Yen's technique for prolonging life by a method of repeated (transformation).” So far as historical records in China are concerned, Tsou Yen is the earliest to be mentioned as a person who engaged in alchemy. Therefore most recent authorities place the date of origin of Chinese alchemy around his time, ie., the fourth century B.C.°° We should also know that it was by this time that alchemy had embraced such theoretical entities as wu-hsing and yin-yang. Chinese alchemy was much associated with Taoism. Actually most of the alchemists in Chinese history were Taoists. For this reason, some modern scholars have supposed the Taoist origin of Chinese alchemy.°” However, it may be considered that there is no evidence of Taoism’s influence on the earliest alchemy ; or at least, Tsou Yen’s ideas did not reflect the contemporary Taoism. Taoism had originated as a highly abstract philosophy during the sixth century B.C. It was founded by Lao Tzu,* a somewhat shadowy figure, whose thought appears to have been collected by his disciples in the third century B.C. under the title of his name, ie., Lao Tzu.” Tao,’ the Way, is the principle of all things: There is a thing confusedly formed, Born before heaven and earth. Silent and void It stands alone and does not change, Goes round does not weary, It is capable of being the mother of the world. 1 know not its name 99So I style it “the way.”?® Lao Tzu continued, “Tao produced the One, the One produced the Two, the Two produced the Three, and the Three produced the myriad phenomenal. things.”*” In other words, the phenomenal world is continuously produced out of the Tao. This rather abstract philosophy was carried further by his followers, such as Chuang-Chou® (369 - 286 B.C.) . According to their views, Nature is impersonal purposeless cosmos in which everything, including human beings, has its natural place and function: “Let Nature take its course! Be yourself.”® It was this course of Nature that they called Tao. Their concern was, unlike moralistic Confucianism, with Nature itself, and not with artificial society. One seeks Tao by inaction, by solitude, and by spiritual practices. Those who attained the Tao were supposed to be hsien, which eventually came to mean the immortals.*” The Taoists began to search for the Way not only by mental practices, but by physical operations including alchemy. Thus probably, by the second B.C., it became a common practice for Taoists to study alchemy in search for elixir of immortality.“ As Taoism spread in China, alchemy also became popular. The main systemizers of alchemy, such as Wei Po- yan‘ (c.142A.D.) ,Ko Hung (283 - 343 A.D.) , Sun Ssu-mo! (seventh century A.D.), and others were characteristically all Taoists. Therefore, to the later Chinese the term “alchemist” became syn- onymous to “Taoist.” But it should be noted that alchemy was only a part of the practices of Taoism ; as one statistic indicates, only 132 titles of 1,464 Taoist treatises (approximately 11 percent) relate to alchmy.” The fact that alchemy spread widely during the second century B.C. may be evidenced by the following passages in Chien Han Shu: The emperor Wen Ti’ (r. 179 - 156 B.C.), in the fifth year of his reign, had allowed the common people to mint (ie., cast) coin (without special authorisation), and this law had not yet been abrogated. During the intervening time, and earlier, many people had made artificial gold.“? In 144 B.C. the Former Han Emperor Ching-Ti” (r. 156 - 141 B.C.) issued an edict to prohibit the making of artificial or counterfeit gold : 100In the sixth year of the middle (part of the reign). . . in the twelfth month. . . a statute was established forbidding the (unauthorised private) minting (lit. casting) of coin, and the (making of) artifical or counterfeit gold (wei hwang chin*) under penalty of death.*® Despite such an edict, and also the observation in the Chien Han Shu that “they incurred heavy expenses and in the end they did not succeed” in fabricating gold, alchemy persisted and became deeply rooted in Chinese tradition. According to Sivin, there remain over a hundred alchemical treatises, from half a millennium to two millenia old.” The earliest of them is the Chow I Ts’an T’ung Ch’? (The Concordance of the Three : an aprocryphal tradition of interpretation of the Book of Changes, 142 A.D.) which is attributed to Wei Po-yang. This work is regarded as the oldest complete alchemical book extant in any culture.” It is also referred to as the fruit of the outgrowth of alchemical tradition which preceded him. Ts’an, “The Three,” indicates the alchemical oper- ations, the Taoist theories, and the Changes. Wei Po-yang seems to have considered the Three to be the same one : to be devoted to alchemy is to search for tao, the Way, as well as to follow the principles of change such as wu-hsing and yin-yang. As a Taoist, Wei Po-yang shows his esoteric attitude toward alchemy : Those who love the Tao trace things to their roots. They carefully observe the Five Elements to determine the weights (of the materials used), Profound reflection should be made, but no discussion with others is necessary. The secrets should be carefully guarded, and the knowledge should not be handed down in writing.” Therefore in his writing, Wei Po-yang, like many others and like Western alchemists, devised symbolic and imaginative names for many substances. He used such terms as “White Tiger,” “Gray Dragon,” and “Scarlet Bird.” The use of such symbolic language resulted in the following account and description of an alchemical process. Above, cooking and distillation take place in the caldron ; below, 101blazes the roaring flame. Afore goes the White Tiger leading the way ; following comes the Grey Dragon. The fluttering Chu- niao? (Scarlet Bird) flies the five colors. Encountering ensnaring nets, it is helplessly and immovably pressed down and cries with pathos like a child after its mother. Willy-nilly it is put into the caldron of hot fluid to the detriment of its feathers. Before half of the time has passed, Dragons appear with rapidity and in great number. The five dazzling colors change incessantly. Tur- bulently boils the fluid in the fing" (furnace). One after another they appear to from an array as irregular as a dog’s teeth. Stalagmites which are like midwinter icicles, are spit out horizontally and vertically. Rocky heights of no apparent regularity make their appearance, supporting one another. When ‘yin (negativeness) and yang (positiveness) are properly matched, tranquility prevails.“ His description consisted of metaphor upon obscure metaphor. As Needham points out, “what the fundamental alchmical reactions mentioned in the Ts’an T’ung Ch’i were is not at all certain... . Even the meaning of his terminology is controversial.“ But from the above passage we may see that Wei Po-yang is describing a process of transmutation from “Tiger” into “Dragon” by heat, during which one observes a change of color in five phases. The terminal point of this reaction is the point at which yin and yang are properly matched. It precisely indicates his application of wa-hsing and yin-yang theories to the chemical operation. Elsewhere he argues that mercury refined from cinabar and lead ore are the prime sources of the elixir. Mercury is rich in yang while lead is rich in yin; so a chemical change naturally occurs between them.“ This is a process we now call amalgamation, The above passage appears to show a similar reaction. Wei Po-yang also considered the wu-hsing, the Five Elements, i.e., water, fire, wood, metal, and earth to correspond with five colors, respectively black, red, blue, white, and yellow.“ By using this correspondence he was able to explain the change of color of the metals in reaction in terms of the cyclical relation of each element. 102There is a passage in which Wei Po-yang clearly expressed elixir of immortality : If even the herb chu-sheng*® can make one live longer, Why not try putting the Eixir into the mouth? Gold by nature does not rot or decay ; Therefore it is of all things most precious. When the artist (i.e.,alchemist) includes it in his diet. The duration of his life becomes everlasting. . . When the golden powder enters the five entrails, A fog is dispelled, like rain-clouds scattered by wind. Fragrant exhalations pervade the four limbs; The countenance beams with well-being and joy. Hairs that were white all turn to black ; Teeth that had fallen grow in their former place. The old dotard is again a lusty youth ; ‘The decrepit crone is again a young girl. He whose from is changed and has escaped the perils of life, Has for his title the name of True Man.“” This passage shows the goal which was common to the whole Chinese alchemy. The similar idea can be seen in the Pao pu’ tzu nei p’ien® of Ko Hung: The more the Gold Medicine is heated, the more exquisite are the transformations it passes through. Yellow gold will not be changed even after long heating in the fire, nor will it rot after long burial in the earth, The eating of these two medicines (Huan tan, returned medicine, and Chin i,°° gold fluid, or gold- making fluid] will therefore strengthen one’s body that he will not grow old and die. This is a case of deriving strength from an external substance, comparable to the maintenance of fire by oil and the protection of the leg from rotting in water by a smear of copper blue, which merely acts on the surface.“*” Since Ko Hung’s style is much more simplified and richer in variety than that of Wei Po-yang, this work became a standard Chinese text on this subject.“ A chapter of the book provides a great variety of 103formulas for the preparation of the elixirs of immortality. For example, The fourth medicine is called Huan tan (returned med- icine). Immortality will come to the eater in a hundred days after eating. Above him will hover pheasants, peacocks, and red birds, and at his side will be fairies. Yellow gold will be formed immediately by heating a knifeblade full of the medicine ad- mixed with a catty of quicksilver [the philosopher’s stone] . Whoever has his money painted with it will have it back on the same day that he spends it. Words painted with this medicine on the eyes of common people will keep spirits away from them. It was, as mentioned above, a standard practice for alchemists to use mercury and lead as the sources of the elixirs of immortality. Therefore it is not surprizing that in their pursuit many of them ironically died after partaking those elixirs.*” There were many emperors and court officials who employed some distinguished alchemists to attain immortality. The official Dynastic Histories tell us that many of them became the victims of elixir poisoning. The Chin Shu (Official Histroy of the Chin Dynasty) reports the case of the Chin emperor Ai Ti** (r. 361 - 366 A.D.) who died at the age of only 25: He had a liking for the art of the alchemists. He abstaind from cereal grains, but consumed elixirs. As the result of an overdose he was poisoned and no longer knew what was going on around him. Needham calls the period between the end of Chin™ (c, 400 A.D.) and late T’ang"' (c. 800 A.D.) “the golden age of alchemy” during which the elixir of life continued to attract many a Chinese emperor.) More so than the others, the T’ang Dynasty openly accepted Taoism and alchemy ;° this only resulted in more victims of elixir poisoning. According to M. Yoshida, of twenty-one emperors and an empress of the T’ang Dynasty, seven partook of the elixirs with six being killed. A passage from the Chiu Tang Shu (Old Standard History of the T'ang) decribes Emperor Wu Tsung“ (r. 840 - 846 A.D.): The emperor (Wu Tsung) favoured alchemists took some 104of their elixirs, cultivated the arts of longevity and personally accepted (Taoist) talismans. The medicines made him very irritable, losing all normal self-control in joy or anger; finally when his illness took a turn for the wose he could not speak for ten days at a time. The prime minister Li Te-Yu" and others asked for audience but were refused, and nobody inside or outside the palace knew his real state, so that people were alarmed and sensed danger. On the 23rd day of that month (22nd April 846) the imperial will was read, and the emperor's uncle, Prince Kuang™" (Li Shen") ascended the throne (as Hsuan Tsung™) in front of the coffin.** Besides these emperors and court officials, many common people may have lost their lives by ingesting the elixirs of life, although such instances were usually not recorded. As a result of such events, by the time of Sung’? (960 - 1127) more caution was exercised in the preparations for elixir-making, “not only in the composition of elixirs themselves, but also in attempts to elaborate pharmaceutical ways and means of counteracting the toxic effect.” It should be added that as the art of alchemy was practiced the equipment for its operation became more and more developed. These developments include such chemical aparatus as various types of caldrons with three legs used for reaction vessels, a number of stoves, baths and stills.* However, as Taoism lost favor, especially after the Mongolian invasion during the late thirteenth century, Chinese alchemy finally ceased to develop.” Recent scholarship has led to the strong urging by some that Chinese alchemy has influenced the Western world.“ Arguing that contacts between East and West have a very long history, and further, observing many similarities in alchemical literature, some scholars have concluded that there exists an historical and an intellectual connection between Eastern and Western alchemical speculations. Arabic alchemy, which flourished during the tenth and eleventh centuries A.D., embraced some concepts similar to that of Chinese. Therefore H. M. Leicester concludes : Combining ideas from both Alexandria and China, they 105[the Arabs] gave to alchemy the explicit formulation of the sulfur-mercury theory of the composition of substances, they added a clear statement of the doctrine of the elixir, the philosopher's stone, and probably again under Chinese influence, they clarified the concept of the therapeutic virtues of the stone in curing “sick” metals, and perhaps human illnesses as well.*? Some Arabic alchemical writers such as al-Razi (d. 923 or 924), like the Chinese, stressed the medical effect of alchemical elixirs. After taking over Arabic alchemy, the Latins, by the fifteenth century, shifted “their objectives from elixirs for gold to elixirs for eternal life or simply superior medicines for specific cures.” This eventually led to the foundation of the so-called “iatrochemistry.”. Thus, it is not groundless to suspect the influence of Chinese alchemy upon the West. ‘A question has ofen been raised : why was not Chinese alchemy transformed into European style chemistry? Some historians have attempted to answer the question. For example, C. O. Hucker states, c Taoinst alchemists were not interested in generalizing their methods and observations. For this reason, and because China’s best minds were normally occupied with other intellectual pursuits, Chinese alchemy was never transformed into science.”* However it should be noted that Chinese alchemy arose and was developed strictly within the Chinise cultural framework. Alchemists in China did have their own explanations for alchemical phenomena based on their philosophy. Being a “True Man” or hsien through alchemy was their ultimate desire. To Taoists hsien was nothing but the most intellectual and completed human state, Thus Chinese alchemy should be understood in its own light, rather than as a “failed prototype” of modern science. 106Chinese Characters Referred to In the Paper a i 1 ay He wo oO if hh & bok it m iff x Re ii cif n FM ya Ble jj @iar ds fil o # Ac, 2 OR & kk ak Be e fl p of a aa Mh 11 f& Ht f & q & f bb & ® mm % g & rf cco TURE ii on # ho s Ht f dd & com oo i & ffi t ee f im ji & # uw ff @ = k Km v gg i NOTES (1) Edmund 0. Lippman, Entstehung und Ausbreitung der Alchemie (Berlin : Spengler, 1919), vol. I, p. 456. (2) Eg, Obed S. Johnson, A Study of Chinese Alchemy (Shanghai: Commercial Press, 1928): Tenney L. Davis and Lu-Ch’ang Wu, “An Ancient Chinese Treatise on Alchemy Entitled Ts’an T’ung Ch’i,” Isis, 18 (1932), pp. 210-289 ; and Masumi Chikashige. Alchemy and Other Chemical Achievements of Ancient Orient (Tokyo : Rokakudo Uchida, 1936). (3) A complete translation of Ko Hung’s Pao p’u t2u nei p’ien is in James R. Ware, Alchemy, Medicine, Religion in the China of A.D. 320: The Nei Pien of Ko Hung (Pao-p'u teu) (Cambridge : MIT. Press, 1967). N. Sivin has made a full translation of the Tan ching yao chueh of Sun Ssu-mo (seventeenth century A.D.): Nathan Sivin, Chinese Alchemy : Preliminary Studies (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1968). A considerable amount of new materials on Chinese alchemy are available in Joseph Needham, Science and Civilisation in China (7 vols ; Cambridge: At the University Press, 1954- ), vol. 5, Chemistry and Chemical Tchnology(1974- ). 107(4) Tenney L. Davis, “The Problem of the Origins of Alchemy,” The Scientific Monthly, 43 (1936), P.551. (5) For Arabic alchemy, see Robert P. Multhauf, The Origins of Chemistry (New York: Franklin Watts,Inc., 1967),pp. 124-142. (6) Sivin, p. 24. (7) Ibid, p. 25. (8) Joseph Needham (and Lu Gwei-djen), Science and Civilistion in China, vol. 5, part 2, p. 82. (9) Charles 0. Hucker, China's Imperial Past : An Introduction to Chinese History and Culture (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1975), p. 215. () Needham, Science and Civilisation in China, vol. 5, part 2, p. 82. a) Ibid. (2) Cheng Te-k'un, Archaeology in China (Cambridge: W. Heffer and Sons Ltd., 1959-), II, pp. 11, 161, and 198. (3) Needham, Science and Civilisation in China, vol. 5, part 2, p. 51. (4) Pao p’u tau nei p'ien, ch. 16, pp. 5a ff.: cited in Needham, Science and Civilisation in China, vol. 5, part 3, pp. 1-2 (5) Davis, “An Ancient Chinese Treatise on Alchemy Entitled Ts’an T’ung Chi” p. 216. (6) Ibid, p. 217. () Hucker, p. 195. i Davis, “An Ancient Chinese Treatise on Alchemy Entitled Ts'an T’ung Chi.” p. 218. 9 [bid (0) Ibid, p. 220, () Keizo Hashimoto, “Chugoku no Kagaku” (Chinese Science), Kagaku no Rekishi (A History of Science), ed. by N. Shimao, in Japanese (Tokyo : Sogensha, 1978), p. 38. (2) Derk Bodde, “Dominant Ideas, “China (Berkeley: Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1946), ed. by Harley F. MacNair, p. 22. (8) Ssu-ma Ch’ien, Shih Chi, pp. 10b-11b: cited in Needham, Science and Civlisation in China, vol. 5, part 3, p. 13. Ch’ien Han Shu, ch. 36, 7a: cited in Needham, Science and Civilisation in China, vol. 5, part 3, p. 12. 0) For example, ibid, pp. 2, 7, and 12-13; Homer H. Dubs, “Taoism,” in MacNair ed., China, p. 284; Hucker, p. 204. (6 Exg.. Johonson, esp. the first two chs. () See Hucker, p. 88 ff. (8) Lao tzu, 25, Lao tzu. Tao te ching (Harmondsworth, Middlesex, 1963), tr. by D.C. Lau, p. 82. 108(09) Lao teu, 42. (0) Hucker, p. 90. Gl) The Chinese character hsien, (il, consists of man (4) and mountain (i) , which, it might be argued, originally implied who inhibits a mountain, (2) A document written in the early first century A.D. suggests the fact that there were some Taoists who dealt with gold-making during the second century B.C. See Needham, Science and Civilisation in China, vol. 5, part 3, p. 26. (3) Davis, “An Ancient Chinese Treatise on Alchemy Entitled Ts‘an T’ung Ch'i,” pp. 225-6. () Chien Han Shu, ch. 5, p. 7b: cited in Needham, Science and Civilization in China, vol. 5, part 3, p. 27. (5) Chien Han Shu, ch. 5, p. 7b: Ibid., p. 26. (8) Chien Han Shu, ch. 5, p. 7b: Ibid., p. 27. (0 Sivin, p. 36. (Needham, Science and Civilisation in China, vol. 5, part 3, p. 50. (8) Ts'an T’ung Ch’i includes a description of several earlier alchemists, which suggests that Wei Po-yang was clearly within their tradition. 0) See Mitsukuni Yoshida, Renkinjutsw (Alchemy) in Japanese (Tokyo: Chuokoron-Sha, 1963), p. 29. () san Tung Chi, ch. 33, p. 10b: cited in Needham, Science and Civilisation in China, vol. 5, part 3, p. 74. () TIbid., ch. 64: Davis, "An Ancient Chinese Treatise or Alchemy Entitled Ts'an T'ung Chi,” pp. 258-9. (8) Needham, Science and Civilisation in China, vol. 5, part 3, p. 66. See ibid. (6) Tbid., p. 73. i) Yoshida, p. 35. 4) Ts'an Tung Chi, ch. 27: cited in Arthur Waley, “Notes on Chinese Alchemy,” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London 6 (1930), p. 11 48) Pao p’u teu nei p'ien: Wu Lu-ch’iang and Tenney Davis, “An Ancient Chinese Alchemical Classic. Ko Hung on the Gold Medicine and the Yellow and the White,” Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 70(1935), p. 236. 9 Yoshida, p. 58. 60) Pao p'u tzu nei prien: Wu and Davis, pp. 240-1. 6) See Ho Ping-yu and J. Needham, “Elixir Poisoning in Mediaeval China,” Janus, 48 (1959), pp. 221-51. 109(3) Chin Shu, ch. 8, p. cited in ibid., p. 222. (3) Needham, Science and Civilisation in China, vol. 5, part 3, p. 117. 6 Exg., Hucker, p. 205. (Yoshida, p. 61. (9) Chiu T’ang Shu, ch. 18A: cited in Ho Ping-yu and Needham, p. 224. (3) Needham, Science and Civilisation in China, vol. 5, part 3, p. 208. (8 For chemical aparatus of Chinese alchemy, see Ho Ping-yu and J. Needham, “The Laboratory Equipment of the Early Mediaeval Chinese Alchemists,” Ambix, vol. 7(1959), pp. 57-115. (9 Needham, Science and Civilisation in China, vol. 5, part 3, p. 208, () Eg. ibid., vol. 5, part 2, p. 15: Henry M. Leicester, The Historical Background of Chemistry (New York : Dover Publications, Inc., 1971), pp. 60, 62; and F. Sherwood Taylor, The Alchemists, Founders of Modern Chemistry (New York : Henry Shuman, 1949), p. 75. ) Leicester, p. 72. (@) Robert P. Multhauf, “The Science of Matter,” Science in the Middle Ages ed. by David C. Lindberg (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1978), p. 380. (| Hucker, p, 204. Acknowledgement The author wishes to thank Professor Sidney D. Brown in the East Asian Program at the University of Oklahoma for his comments and helpful suggestions. 110