Alchemy and Taoism

Introduction

Alchemy is the ancient path of spiritual purification and transformation, the expansion of consciousness and the development of insight and intuition through images. Alchemy is an example of mysticism and mystery. This is for the beginning of eternal, dreamlike, esoteric symbols, which have the right to alter consciousness and connect the human soul to the divine.T is part of the mystical secrets and traditions of East and West. In the West, it goes back to ancient Egypt, where adherents of the first to develop it as an early form of chemistry and metallurgy. Egyptians alchemists used their art to make alloys, dyes, perfumes and cosmetic jewelry, and for embalming the dead. (Kurup67)

Alchemists have relied on their dreams, inspiration and vision for leadership in improving his art. In order to protect their secrets, they recorded a diary filled with mysterious symbols rather than text. These characters are extremely powerful to change the state of consciousness. Alchemy is a form of speculative thought that, among other aims, tried to turn base metals such as lead or copper into silver or gold and discover a cure for the disease and a way of prolonging life (Mishra 88).

Alchemy was the name given in Latin Europe in 12 century in the aspect of thought, which corresponds to astrology, apparently an old tradition. Both represent attempts to discover the connection between man and cosmos and to use that attitude to their own advantage. The first of these goals can be called scientific, the second technological.

Chinese alchemy and Taoism

Chinese alchemy is mainly written in about 100 "books" that are part of the Taoist canon. Taoism is a religio-philosophical tradition, which along with Confucianism, the forms of Chinese life for more than 2.000 years. Taoist heritage, with its emphasis on individual freedom and spontaneity, noninterference government and social primitivism, mystical experience, and methods of self-transformation, is largely opposed to Confucian concern of individual moral responsibility, community and governmental responsibilities. (Hughes Jonathan 78)

Although the basic doctrine has remained unchanged, Chinese alchemy gone through complex and not fully understood the development of its twenty centuries of recorded history.

Chinese alchemy has always been closely linked with the teachings of which find their expression in the major doctrinal texts of early Taoism, especially Laozi and Zhuangzi. Cosmos as we know it was conceived as a final step in a series of spontaneous reactions arising from the original nothingness. This process entails the apparent division of the primitive Unity in two complementary principles of yin and yang. (Marius 45)

History

Important details of the early Chinese alchemy are also found in parts of neipian Z. Baopu, written about 320 CE. His descriptions of the processes can be compared with existing sources, however, often abbreviated, and sometimes inaccurate.

During the Tang Dynasty, waidan tradition has reached one of its peaks with Chen Shaowei (top of the eighth century), whose work describes the preparation of an elixir derived processing of cinnabar. Each cycle gives a "gold" that can be ingested or used as an ingredient ...