A brief history of alchemy in various places

As we all know, alchemy originated in Egypt. At first, some people tried to forge base metals into precious metals. For example, alloys of copper and zinc can be made close to gold in appearance and hardness.

Later, this technology gradually developed into a discipline, because it was possible to get material transformation and actually gained the status of god, so alchemy was born.

The most important thing left by the Egyptians for alchemy is the jade slate, which is the earliest alchemy classic carved on the jade slate. The greatest contribution to alchemy in the Greek period was the philosophization of alchemy.

The famous Athenian school in ancient Greece established the philosophy system of natural science around the 4th century BC, with Socrates, Plato and Aristotle as its representatives.

At this time, the "element theory" which has a far-reaching influence on alchemy was formally established, that is, everything in the world consists of four elements: gas, water, earth and fire; Each element represents a combination of two of the four basic characteristics (dry, wet, cold and hot). Soil = dry+cold; Water = wet+cold; Gas = wet+hot; Fire = dryness+heat.

This thought provides a theoretical basis for the theory of material transformation of alchemy, and it can be said that the main idea of alchemy comes from this era.

During this period, the practice of alchemy also flourished. Around the 1 century, alchemists in Alexandria have basically established the basic steps of alchemy practice:

Raw materials-(blackening) → dead materials-(transformation) → products.

This is the embryonic form of the thought of "understanding, decomposition and reconstruction" in alchemy later.

At the same time, the alchemists also mentioned the idea of completing transformation by adding "seeds" to "transformation". We think this is the earliest pursuit of "the stone of the sage".

But the difference between "seed" and "sage's stone" at this time is that alchemists think that different products need different "seeds". For example, gold needs "golden seeds" and there is no concept of "cosmic matter".

Another far-reaching change of alchemy in this era is the appearance of alchemy symbols, which directly led to the simplification of complex alchemy formulas to a certain extent and laid the foundation for the emergence of alchemy arrays.

The commonly used symbols of alchemy were directly used astrological symbols at first, for example, the sun represents gold and the moon represents silver, and later they were slightly changed. For example, the distillation of mercury combines the symbol of mercury with the symbol of distillation, but different alchemists usually use different symbol systems, which makes the alchemy symbols confused for a time. Until the establishment of modern chemistry, the alchemy symbols were replaced by chemical symbols.

The achievements of alchemy in this period were mainly used to make alloys and dyes. The alloy made in this period was so close to real gold in appearance that Archimedes discovered the law of buoyancy in order to identify the authenticity of the gold crown of the ancient Syrian king Yeron II. Alchemy: Latin Alchemie comes from Arabic. Earlier etymology, many people think that this phrase comes from Hebrew: Ki mi-Jah means: the revelation of God.

After a brief cultural boom in the western world, Greece declined. With the rise of Rome, alchemists no longer had the free and open research atmosphere before, which led to long-term stagnation.

Around the 7th century AD, the Arab world rose, and in the next 300 years, it quickly conquered Persia, defeated Byzantium and occupied Spain, becoming a powerful enemy standing in the east of Europe.

Regarding the origin of Arabic alchemy, the first recognized master was Prince Khalid Ibn Yazd of Damascus. The prince lived in about the middle of the 7th century. According to historical records, Prince Halid began to learn alchemy from a book called The Book of the Wise. Interestingly, the teacher recognized by the prince is a Byzantine Christian monk. It can be concluded from this legend that alchemy in the Arab world was introduced from the Christian world in the west.

Around the 9th century, Gabir ibn Hayyan appeared on the list of Arab alchemists. Historians are also controversial about whether one Zabil or several Zabils (one of the legendary ones) * * * brought about the most profound changes in the history of alchemy. Since he (or they), alchemy has officially changed from a "technology" to a "learning".

Zabir is a descendant of Ismailia, a branch of Shiite Islam. His greatest feature is that he firmly believes that there is "the truth behind the truth" in the world classics.

Zabil left the first batch of alchemy works handed down from generation to generation in the history of alchemy: On Seventy, On Neutrality, On Compassion, etc. In these works, we finally found out how the ideas of Greek philosophers mentioned in the last lecture influenced the development of alchemy. In these works, Zabil elaborated the theory of four states (cold, hot, dry and wet) and four elements (gas, water, earth and fire), and took it as the basic theory of alchemy. While inheriting Greek philosophy, Zabil put forward the theory of "sulfur and mercury" in alchemy, arguing that all metals in the world are composed of sulfur and mercury, just because of different proportions. By adjusting the proportion of sulfur and mercury in metal through alchemy, it can be "transmuted" and precious metal (gold) can be obtained from base metal (lead).

In Zabil's works, he has repeatedly mentioned "the only thing"-"alchemy medicine" or "universal medicine", which has the ability to induce evolution. At the same time, he narrated: "Everything in the world originates from the same source, and the' unique thing' can be reduced to that' unique thing' ...". The motto of alchemy "One is everything, everything is one" shows the laws of the universe, which shows that alchemists have changed from pursuing gold to exploring the universe.

Zabil also tried to classify substances by sorting out their properties. Therefore, Zabil was called "the father of chemistry" by later generations.

There is also an alchemist in Arabia. Although he is more of a doctor, this enables him to introduce biological materials, such as herbs and animal tissues, into alchemy. That's Raj. He is the author of Secrets in Secrets, which inherits Zabil's alchemy theory. From this book, we know that alchemy had a set of special instruments and tools at the beginning of 10 century at the latest. He elaborated on the transformation process of substances in alchemy, and discussed that adding alchemy medicine to the transformation is the key to success or failure. But unfortunately, there are too few records about this Lacey in history, so we can't have a deeper understanding of him. In the early period of this period, in the Christian country Spain occupied by Arabs, Jews sandwiched between Arabs and Christians began the first batch of translation work. However, because they are not alchemists and are not very proficient in Latin, the translation of the works such as Seventy Treatises is obscure and even meaningless. Later, some scholars in the Christian world began to contact alchemy, which officially announced the opening of the European alchemy period.

The first sage was Albert uz Mangers (1 193 ~ 1280), who left about 30 alchemical works in his life. He inherited Zabil's theory of mercury sulfide and put forward his alchemy steps: the first step is to "destroy the characteristics", reduce the metal to pure mercury sulfide, and then tap the potential of the metal to re-fuse it to get new metal. In his works, we also found such a passage: "I hope we can get the stone that will not be burned or corroded by fire, and then we will get rid of all our fears." This is the earliest written record of the "Stone of the Sage".

The next second saint was Thomas von Aquinas (1225 ~ 1274), a student of Albert the Great. He inherited Albert's thought, and at the same time he thought that mercury was the "spirit" of alchemy and a pure substance. Mercury has been playing a decisive role in alchemy since he started. His most famous alchemy works are about species diversity. Of course, the "species" here refers to the "species of matter", not the "species" of biology. At the same time, he also left two theological works, The Complete Book of Theology and The Rising Sun. But because of these two works, in the third year after his death, that is, 1277, the Pope declared them "heresy". Because everyone believes that "the truth behind the truth" is hidden in his works.

The third sage is roger bacon (12 14 ~ 1292), and his works include great works, small works and the third work. Some people say that he is a pioneer of European natural philosophy, because he advocates that any theory should be guided by theoretical research and verified by practical operation. At the same time, he introduced this idea into alchemy and declared: "alchemy is one of many ways to understand the world." Because of this, it was also in 1277 that the Pope declared him a wizard and a "heresy" and sentenced him to 14 years in prison.

The fourth sage is Arnold von Willand Nova (1240 ~1311), who wrote The Rose Garden of Philosophers. Like Lacey, Willard Nova is more like a doctor. He thinks that just like people get sick when the four fluids are out of balance, base metal is a pathological phenomenon caused by the imbalance of four elements with sulfur and mercury, so only by balancing the proportion of four elements with sulfur and mercury in metal can base metal be "cured" and become a "healthy" precious metal.

The last sage was Raimundez Lurus (1235 ~ 13 16), and his book was The Mystery of Nature: The Fifth Element. In theory, alchemy only recognizes four elements, so the "fifth element" here is the stone of the sage. At the same time, Lu Le was also the first person who tried to introduce Kabbalah into alchemy theory, but we know that this integration will be delayed for hundreds of years.

Flamel's alchemy-philosopher's stone

Nicolas flamel (1330 ~ 14 17? )

He is the only alchemist in history who clearly recorded that he became the philosopher's stone.

1382 is a miracle year. 65438+ 10/7 noon, the transformation of "mercury-silver" based on the stone of the sage was successful; At 5 pm on April 25th, the transformation of "Mercury-Gold" was successful.

The later story is that Flamel became a famous rich man overnight. Donated successively 14 hospital, 3 churches, 7 churches and their cemeteries, as well as the murals of the famous El Nino cemetery.

1465438+In March 2007, Flamel's funeral was held.

17 19, Paul's book A Journey to Turkey was published in Paris. In one paragraph, he met a strange Turk and said to Paul, "Do you really believe that he is dead? No, my friend Nicholas Flamel is still alive. Neither he nor his wife has tasted death. "

176 1 year, Samuel saw the Flamel couple under the arch of the Paris Opera House.

1929 In Paris, Louis Powell talked about an old man who looked like Flamel.

This is the story of Nicholas Flamel and the Stone of the Sage. This is the end of the Middle Ages, and an ideological revolution swept across Europe began from Florence: the Renaissance. The Renaissance subverted the world told by Catholicism, so philosophers had to find other ways to explain the world. Some people revived Aristotle's philosophy, which was once banned, just like roger bacon preached. Others began to try to reconstruct Plato's thought, which led to Neo-Platonism, which was also the beginning of metaphysics and mysticism.

Back to the field of alchemy, this ideological difference has also profoundly affected the development direction of alchemy. I'm afraid it's because hermeneutics and neo-Platonism have the same smell, and the "Hermeneutics Theory"-alchemy has been more influenced by neo-Platonism.

Almost at the same time, Jewish mysticism began to penetrate further into alchemy, especially marked by the introduction of Kabbalah. Alchemists began to use Kabbalah's teachings to understand the world. The Kabbalah tree, or the tree of life, which built the world, is considered to be the cornerstone of God's refining everything in the world.

The most famous manifestation of this influence among alchemists is what people call Parra Celsus Celsus. Originally known as Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim (1493 ~ 154 1). I have to say that this Hornheim has an extreme narcissistic tendency. He gave himself a nickname-Parra Celsus-which, if taken apart, means "surpassing Celsus". Celsus was a famous medical writer in ancient Rome. Hornheim, like his predecessors Lacey and Willard Nova, is also a doctor. I'm afraid it was because the development of anatomy at that time made Aristotle's "four-liquid equilibrium theory" more and more untenable, so Parra Celsus abandoned Aristotle's theory in medicine, and this abandonment also extended to his alchemy research. He abandoned Aristotle's theory and resolutely defended Hermes' mysticism and neo-Platonism. He believes that everything in the world has a soul, and the highest soul is the whole universe. His achievement in the field of alchemy mainly lies in his development of "mercuric sulfide" system, in which he added a new element: salt. At the same time, he also made a new definition of his "salt-sulfur-mercury" system: salt is the body, sulfur is the soul, and mercury is the spirit, which constitutes everything in the world.

Soon, Hornheim's followers appeared, and they praised Hermes' mysticism and neo-Platonism more firmly. It is rumored that a German monk named Christian Rosenkreutz founded this mysterious organization called the brotherhood of Rosy Cross, which is a secret society as the inheritor of ParaCelsus School and Hermeneutics. Known members are: Pethrus Severin, the physician of the Danish king, the author of the concept of philosophical medicine; Joseph Duchenne, the physician of the French king, wrote "On the Old Medicines of Ancient Philosophers"; Leonhardt Seniser Zum Thurn, doctor of the Elector of Brandenburg, author of The Fifth Element; Thomas Thymme, an English writer, is the author of Dichina's Chemical Medicine and Hermes' Medical Practice. Gerad Dorn, German alchemist; Joan Baptista van Helmont, an alchemist and doctor, is the author of Dawn of Medicine. Alchemist Basil Valentine wrote The Triumph Car with Antimony and Twelve Keys ... Obviously, I don't know how long this list is. Many people on the list chose to hide their real names and gave themselves a unified name: Rose Cross.

However, some alchemists still adhere to Aristotle's natural philosophy. This persistence and alchemist's thinking about matter and the world finally led to the end of a great alchemy era. Sir isaac newton (1643 ~ 1727) is obviously the most typical representative among scientists. Newton's pursuit of mysticism was probably deeper. He has a famous saying that is selectively forgotten by the world: "I have devoted my life to proving the existence of God."

In fact, Newton came into contact with alchemy even before he came into contact with science. He read a lot of Aristotle's works in his childhood and was very interested in his elemental theory. As we all know, Aristotle's elemental theory is one of the basic theories of alchemy. When he entered Cambridge University, his first tutor was an alchemist, Henry Moore (with immortal soul).

Newton's manuscript shows that he copied and translated many alchemy works word for word, and edited a detailed alchemy glossary containing about 7000 nouns. In his manuscript, he changed his Latin name Iasscus Neuutonus to Jeova Sanctus Unus, which means "God's chosen son" by an ancient way of changing words.

Newton had done a lot of alchemy experiments, including referring to the method in antimony's "Valentine's Car of Triumph", and successfully produced a beautiful crystal called "Star Antimony", and thought that "this star is not precious enough to hold the sage's stone, but it contains a wonderful medicine".

He observed the movement of matter in the alchemy crucible. Judging from the motive force of alchemy, he thinks that the reason why celestial bodies have the wonderful nature of gravity is precisely because our universe is in God's huge and wonderful crucible, and alchemy is the original motive force to promote the operation of our world. In other words, without Newton's research on alchemy, there would be no gravity, and we can even say that Newton's scientific achievements are only by-products of his research on alchemy.

After Newton, alchemy did not die out, but Newton was the last alchemist who contributed to alchemy theory, so we called him "the last saint".

Robert boyle (1627 ~ 169 1), Newton's mentor and colleague in Cambridge, published The Sceptical Chemist in 16 1 year. Boyle put forward a new theory of elements in this book: Only those simple materials that cannot be decomposed by chemical methods are elements. This is the earliest version of the definition of elements that now appears in our chemistry textbooks. At the same time, he also pointed out: "In order to accomplish its glorious and solemn mission, chemistry must abandon the ancient traditional speculative methods and base itself on rigorous experiments, just like physics." This completely eliminates the mysticism in alchemy and separates the natural philosophy into a new discipline: modern chemistry. Boyle is also called "the father of modern chemistry".

Since then, alchemy has undergone the most serious division in history, and alchemy without natural philosophy has been completely classified into the category of mysticism. /kloc-in the 0/8th century, the bourgeois revolution swept the world, and the values of the whole western society changed fundamentally. Money worship has flooded the whole world, and people in the upper class are caught in the endless pursuit of money and have no time to take care of those ancient cultures.

Alchemy seems to be forgotten in this busy time.

But by the end of 18 and the beginning of 19, capitalists, or descendants of the earliest money worshippers, found that there seemed to be something more important than money in this world, so they spread a universal concept of curiosity at that time.

During this period, in order to satisfy this curiosity, some people began to seek ancient and mysterious things to satisfy the public's curiosity.

American Arthur Edward Waite (1857 ~ 1942) is the most famous of these people. He translated and created a large number of metaphysical works, introduced Kabbalah and Jewish mysticism to the world, described the Rose Cross in detail, and translated some ancient alchemy works. Of course, the most important thing that Waite is known to the world is that he integrated mysticism into gypsy divination cards and designed the "Waite Classic Tarot Card" that anyone who plays tarot cards can't be unaware of.

So today's alchemy plays such a role:

Whether it is Nicholas Flamel or Newton's alchemy research, just like Lost Atlantis or UFO, it is a wonderful talk for curiosity seekers and a lasting magic weapon for novelists and filmmakers to make money, isn't it? Alchemy was called alchemy in ancient China. After Qin Shihuang unified the six countries, China sent people to the sea to seek the elixir of life. Emperor Wu himself was keen on immortals and elixirs. During the Eastern Han Dynasty, alchemy developed, and Wei Boyang, a famous alchemist, wrote a book, Zhouyi Shentongqi, to explain the theory of immortality. Later, Tao Hongjing, the alchemist of Jin Dynasty, wrote a real patent. In the Tang Dynasty, alchemy combined with Taoism and entered its heyday. At this time, Sun Simiao, an alchemist, wrote The Secret of the Fontaine. These alchemical works have a lot of chemical knowledge. According to statistics, there are more than 60 kinds of chemical drugs, and there are many records about chemical changes.