FLUID BEING Yan Liu and Shigehisa Kuriyama

Home , Alchemy, Baopuzi, Ge Hong, Jing (Chinese medicine), Sun Simiao, Tao Hongjing

This essay should be referenced as:

Yan Liu and Shigehisa Kuriyama, ‘Fluid Being: Mercury in Chinese Medicine and Alchemy’. In Fluid Matter(s): Flow and Transformation in the History of the Body, edited by Natalie Köhle and Shigehisa Kuriyama. Asian Studies Monograph Series 14. Canberra, ANU Press, 2020. doi.org/10.22459/ FM.2020

NOTES 1. The modern chemistry of this transformation is reviewed in Zhao Kuanghua 趙匡華, Zhongguo gudai huaxueshi yanjiu 中國古代化學史研究 (Beijing: Beijing daxue chubanshe, 1985), 128–53. The process was described in the Divine Farmer’s Classic of Materia Medica, see Shennong bencao jing jiaozhu, juan 2, 16–17 (Ctext wiki). For the general background of this foundational classic, see Paul Unschuld, Medicine in China: A History of Pharmaceutics (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986), 11–28. 2. The fourth-century alchemist Ge Hong complained that such matters were far too profound for ordinary laymen to grasp, and he contrasted their bewildered scepticism to the deep insights gleaned by adepts. See Ge Hong, Baopuzi neipian, juan 4, 72 (Kanripo). 3. Guolong Lai, ‘Colors and Color Symbolism in Early Chinese Ritual Art’, in Color in Ancient and Medieval East Asia, ed. Mary M. Dusenbury (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2015), 25–43.

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4. If mercury enters the ears of humans or livestock, it will kill them. The antidote is silver or gold placed near the ears, which will draw the toxin out. See Zhang Zhongjing, Jingui yaolüe, juan 25 (Ctext). The opposite also holds, and mercury can be used to counter gold poisoning. See Ge Hong, Zhouhou beiji fang, juan 7, sec. 68 (Kanripo). 5. Zhao Yi 趙翼, Ershier shi zhaji 二十二史劄記 [Notes on Twenty-Two Histories] (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1963), 398–99. 6. Donald Harper, Early Chinese Medical Literature: The Mawangdui Medical Manuscripts (London and New York: Kegan Paul International Press, 1998), 282–83, 287, 290, 296–97. 7. Shennong bencao jing jiaozhu, juan 2, 16–17 (Ctext wiki). 8. Ge Hong, Baopuzi neipian, juan 4, 72 (Kanripo). 9. For recent studies of poisons in classical Chinese pharmacy, see Yan Liu, ‘Poisonous Medicine in Ancient China’, in Toxicology in Antiquity, ed. Philip Wexler (London: Elsevier, 2019), 431–39; Yan Liu, Potent Matters: Poisons and Medicines in Early Imperial China (Seattle: University of Washington Press, forthcoming). 10. Sun Simiao, Beiji qianjin yaofang jiaoshi, juan 18, 652 (Kanripo). On the efficacy of mercury as a vermifuge, see also Tao Hongjing,Bencao jing jizhu, juan 2, 130 (Ctext wiki). 11. Lei Xiao, Leigong paozhi lun tongjie, 16–17 (Ctext wiki). The ‘Purple-back Heavenly Okra’ could refer to one of the following herbs: purple gynura, tea begonia, semiaquilegia, purple senecio. The ‘Nightly Entangled Vine’ is likely to be flowery knotweed stem. 12. Fan Xuanling et al., Jinshu, juan 72 (Ctext wiki). 13. Ge Hong, Shenxian zhuan jiaoshi, juan 2 (Kanripo). The story is discussed in Akahori Akira 赤堀昭, ‘Drug Taking and Immortality’ in Taoist Meditation and Longevity Techniques, ed. Livia Kohn with Yoshinobu Sakade (Ann Arbor: Center for Chinese Studies, University of Michigan, 1989), 88. 14. Wang Chong, Lunheng jiaoshi, 7 (Kanripo). For studies of shijie, see Isabelle Robinet, ‘Metamorphosis and Deliverance from the Corpse in Taoism’, History of Religions 19 (1979): 37–70; Ursula-Angelika Cedzich, ‘Corpse Deliverance, Substitute Bodies, Name Change, and Feigned Death: Aspects of Metamorphosis and Immortality in Early Medieval China’, Journal of Chinese Religions 29 (2001): 1–68; Fabrizio Pregadio, ‘Which is the Daoist Immortal Body?’ Micrologus 26 (2018): 389–92. 15. Taishang lingbao wufu xu, juan 2 (Kanripo).

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Ge Hong 葛洪. Baopuzi neipian jiaoshi 抱朴子內篇校釋 [Inner Chapters of the Master Who Embraces the Uncarved Wood, Collated and Annotated]. Edited by Wang Ming 王明. Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1985. Kanripo Kanseki Repository (henceforth Kanripo).

Ge Hong 葛洪. Shenxian zhuan jiaoshi 神仙傳校釋 [Biographies of the Immortals, Collated and Annotated]. Edited by Hu Shouwei 胡守為. Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 2010. Kanripo.

Ge Hong 葛洪. Zhouhou beiji fang 肘後備急方 [Formulas for Emergencies to Keep at Hand]. Edited by Shang Zhijun 尚志鈞. Hefei: Anhui kexue jishu chubanshe, 1983. Kanripo.

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Lei Xiao 雷斅. Leigong paozhi lun tongjie 雷公炮炙論通解 [Treatise on Drug Processing from Lord Thunder, Thorough Explanation]. Edited by Dun Baosheng 頓寶生 et al. Xi’an: Sanqin chubanshe, 2001. Ctext wiki.

Shennong bencao jing jiaozhu 神農本草經校注 [Divine Farmer’s Classic of Materia Medica, Collated and Annotated]. Edited by Shang Zhijun 尚志鈞. Beijing: Xueyuan chubanshe, 2008. Ctext wiki.

Sun Simiao 孫思邈. Beiji qianjin yaofang jiaoshi 備急千金要方校釋 [Essential Formulas Worth a Thousand in Gold for Emergencies, Collated and Annotated]. Edited by Li Jingrong 李景榮 et al. Beijing: Renmin weisheng chubanshe, 1997. Kanripo.

Taishang lingbao wufu xu 太上靈寶五符序 [Prolegomena to the Five Talismans of the Numinous Treasure of the Most High]. Daoist Canon 388 (DZ 388). Kanripo.

Tao Hongjing 陶弘景. Bencao jing jizhu 本草經集注 [Collected Annotations on the Classic of Materia Medica]. Edited by Shang Zhijun 尚志鈞. Beijing: Renmin weisheng chubanshe, 1994. Ctext wiki.

Wang Chong 王充. Lunheng jiaoshi 論衡校釋 [Discourses Weighed in the Balance, Collated and Explained]. Edited by Huang Hui 黃暉. Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1990. Kanripo.

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Wang Shizhen 王世貞 and Wang Yunpeng 汪雲鵬. Liexian quanzhuan 列仙全傳 [Complete Biographies of Collected Immortals]. Yangzhou: Guangling shushe, 2009. Hathi Trust Digital Library.

Zhang Zhongjing 張仲景. Jingui yaolüe 金匱要略 [Essential Synopsis of the Golden Cabinet]. Beijing: Renmin weisheng chubanshe, 2004. Ctext.

Secondary Sources Akahori, Akira 赤堀昭. ‘Drug Taking and Immortality’. In Taoist Meditation and Longevity Techniques, edited by Livia Kohn with Yoshinobu Sakade, 73–98. Ann Arbor: Center for Chinese Studies, University of Michigan, 1989.

Cedzich, Ursula-Angelika. ‘Corpse Deliverance, Substitute Bodies, Name Change, and Feigned Death: Aspects of Metamorphosis and Immortality in Early Medieval China’. Journal of Chinese Religions 29 (2001): 1–68. doi.org/ 10.1179/073776901804774578

Harper, Donald. Early Chinese Medical Literature: The Mawangdui Medical Manuscripts. London and New York: Kegan Paul International Press, 1998.

Lai, Guolong. ‘Colors and Color Symbolism in Early Chinese Ritual Art’. In Color in Ancient and Medieval East Asia, edited by Mary M. Dusenbury, 25–43. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2015.

Liu, Yan. ‘Poisonous Medicine in Ancient China’. In Toxicology in Antiquity, edited by Philip Wexler, 431-39. London: Elsevier, 2019.

Liu, Yan. Potent Matters: Poisons and Medicines in Early Imperial China. Seattle: University of Washington Press, forthcoming.

Pregadio, Fabrizio. ‘Which is the Daoist Immortal Body?’. Micrologus 26 (2018): 385–407.

Robinet, Isabelle. ‘Metamorphosis and Deliverance from the Corpse in Taoism’. History of Religions 19 (1979): 37–70. doi.org/10.1086/462835

Unschuld, Paul. Medicine in China: A History of Pharmaceutics. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986.

Zhao Kuanghua 趙匡華. Zhongguo gudai huaxueshi yanjiu 中國古代化學史研究 [Research on the History of Chemistry in Pre-Modern China]. Beijing: Beijing daxue chubanshe, 1985.

Zhao Yi 趙翼. Ershier shi zhaji 二十二史劄記 [Notes on Twenty-two Histories]. Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1963.