Throughout the ages, our ancestors have been tirelessly seeking the method of immortality, probably because the starting point of ancient human life is too low, for example, the average life expectancy of primitive people at the beginning of human beings is only 14 years. So, is there any elixir in the world? Can the legendary alchemy really slow down aging? It is said that Peng Zu is the longest-lived person in history, does he really exist?
The legend of Qin Shi Huang seeking eternal life
Regarding the legend of the elixir of immortality, the most famous in history is that Xu Fu came out of the East China Sea for Qin Shi Huang, which was first seen in the "Qin Shi Huang Benji" and "Huainan Hengshan Lie biography" in the "Records of History".
It is said that when Xu Fu told Qin Shi Huang that there were three immortal mountains in the sea to the east, Penglai, Wanzhang, and Yingzhou, and the three immortals living in them had the elixir of immortality in their hands, so Qin Shi Huang sent Xu Fu to lead thousands of boys, girls and girls into the sea to find them. Later, everyone knew that Xu Fu did not find the elixir at sea, so he fled to zuzhou in the East China Sea, and some people said that it was now Japan.
According to legend, Qin Shi Huang was fascinated by immortality, and he also sent an alchemist named Lu Sheng out to the sea to find immortals to seek immortality, but the final result disappointed the emperor of the ages. Qin Shi Huang did not live a long life of one hundred years, and even his Qin Dynasty perished early.
In the ancient history of our country, superstitious immortality and whimsical people are really not in the minority, even if the wise gods are as wise as Tang Taizong, calm and intelligent as the Yongzheng Emperor, and finally died on this supernatural elixir. It is a three-point poison of the drug, even if its name is immortal medicine, but it is also a toxic side effect. What harms people may not be medicine, but endless desires.
Eastern Jin Dynasty alchemy
In the history of China, for hundreds of years, alchemy into immortals almost became a national movement, that is, the famous Wei and Jin dynasties. Nanjing "Modern Express" once reported on the archaeological results of the Eastern Jin Dynasty Tomb in 1965, when a magical "red rice grain" was excavated, and the experts of the Nanjing Museum agreed that this "red rice grain" is actually the "elixir of immortality" recorded in history, and after professional analysis, the particles do contain a lot of Chinese medicine ingredients.
Legend has it that the entire family of the great calligrapher Wang Xizhi, the haoqiang Gao Song family of the scholar clan, and the emperor of the Eastern Jin Dynasty all took Dan medicine, and various alchemists came into being, just like the current film and television stars. The most famous of them is Ge Hong, who is known as a god, who can be regarded as the number one big man in the single furnace world.
Ge Hong wrote a book called "Baopuzi", which detailed the birth of a dan medicine. "Baopuzi" is a valuable material for studying the history of Taoism and the history of thought before the Jin Dynasty in China, and the "Inner Chapter" in the history book inherits the alchemy theory of Wei Boyang of the Eastern Han Dynasty and collects the great achievements of Wei and Jin alchemy.
According to this book, alchemy is nothing more than "Dansha burned into mercury, accumulation and change into Dansha", and the chemical composition of Dansha is mercury sulfide, which decomposes liquid mercury after heating, that is, mercury. After cooling, mercury and sulfur vapor combine to form mercury sulfide, which is the legendary elixir.
Because mercury is very toxic, if you take too much dan medicine, it is easy to die of poisoning. Therefore, the immortal Jindan is just a good wish of people.
The longevity legend of Pengzu
In the Western Bible, the ancestor of mankind, Adam, lived for 930 years, and Peng Zu in china's ancient legend also lived for more than 800 years.
Wang Xudong, director of the Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine Literature of Nanjing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, believes that the character of Peng Zu is not fictional, and there is indeed a person in history. His surname was Jian Ming (簡名铿), and after the Yellow Emperor, he was the grandson of Emperor Huan and the third son of the Lu Clan. Jian Hao is not only the longest-lived old man in ancient China, the founder of Chinese health culture, but also the ancestor of Chinese kitchen, the originator of Chinese martial arts culture, and the earliest sexology master in Chinese history.
However, experts believe that in ancient times, there was no unified standard for the calculation of the year, in the Pengshan area of Sichuan, when the countryside may adopt the "small nail" method of counting, that is, 60 days for a year, so that conversion has become the current annual standard, Peng Zu probably lived for more than 130 years. The sharp reduction of 800 years to 130 years old has disappointed many immortal fans, but this is already the survival limit recognized by current research.
The Chinese book "The Yellow Emperor's Inner Classic" once mentioned that the human age is about 120 years old, that is to say, if we do a good job of scientific health, it is still very possible to look up to Peng Zu.