9/13/2023 0 Comments Elixir of immortality torrent![]() ![]() The Lingzhi, literally translated as the “Supernatural Mushroom,” is the oldest known mushroom used medicinally. Traditional Chinese medicine and early Chinese alchemy are closely related, and the use of plants, fungi and minerals in longevity formulas is still commonly practiced today.Īs early as 475 BCE, Chinese texts reference the Mushroom of Immortality, a key ingredient in the elixir of life. The formula for gunpowder, sulfur, saltpeter and carbon was originally an attempted elixir of immortality. They were frequently commissioned by the Emperor, and experimented with things like toxic mercury, gold, sulfur and plants. The Mushroom of ImmortalityĬhinese alchemists spent centuries formulating elixirs of life. ![]() Lingzhi Mushroom (Via Wikimedia Commons) 1. According to the ancients, the secrets of immortality could be found within the Earth, on the moon, or even in your own back yard. Other times, a normal human would unlock alchemical secrets hidden in natural materials that stopped death in its tracks. In some traditions, immortality was bestowed by the gods themselves. Epic of Gilgamesh, focuses on a hero’s quest for immortality. ![]() One of the earliest works of literature, the 22nd century B.C.E. In mythologies around the world, humans who achieve immortality are often regarded as gods, or as possessing god-like qualities. Naturally, the earliest storytellers and holy men dreamed of ways to achieve immortality as well. While humans are born, subjected to the will of nature and die, the gods of the ancients and the gods of today are usually characterized as immortal immune to the darkness that awaits every man and woman. For many cultures, mortality is one of the major qualities that separates humanity from the Gods. The inevitability of death and speculation upon the nature of afterlife has always been an object of obsession for mystics and philosophers. Mortality (and the lure of immortality) has tormented our consciousness since the first human witnessed death and realized his or her own eventual demise. No such potion has ever been discovered though alchemists in ancient China, India, and the Western world spent a great deal of time and effort on it.Īn elixir can be referred to as the 'Quintessence of life' or by other names - quintessence being reference to the five elements of Chinese alchemical philosophy or a theorized fifth element in European alchemy.Chasing down the ancient world’s alchemical obsession with obtaining immortality and the Philosopher’s Stone In other cultures, alchemical philosophy would deem less or more elements (four in most of Europe, thirty-six in India). In Ancient China, various emperors sought for the fabled elixir with various results. In the Qin Dynasty, Qin Shi Huang sent Taoist alchemist Xu Fu with 500 boys and 500 girls to the eastern seas to find the elixir, but he never came back (legend has it that he found Japan instead). The ancient Chinese believed that ingesting long-lasting precious substances such as jade, cinnabar or hematite would confer some of that longevity on the person who consumed them. Gold was considered particularly potent, as it was a non-tarnishing precious metal the idea of potable or drinkable gold is found in China by the end of the third century BC. ![]() The most famous Chinese alchemical book, the Tan Chin Yao Ch’eh ("Great Secrets of Alchemy," dating from approximately 650 AD), discusses in detail the creation of elixirs for immortality (mercury, sulfur, and the salts of mercury and arsenic are prominent) as well as those for curing certain diseases and the fabrication of precious stones. Many of these substances, far from contributing to longevity, were actively toxic. Jiajing Emperor in the Ming Dynasty died from ingesting a lethal dosage of mercury in the supposed "Elixir of Life" conjured by alchemists. Chinese interest in alchemy and the elixir of life declined in proportion to the rise of Buddhism, which claimed to have alternate routes to immortality.īritish historian Joseph Needham compiled a list of Chinese emperors whose death was likely due to elixir poisoning. ![]()
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