Download or read book A Study of Chinese Alchemy written by Obed Simon Johnson and published by Martino Publishing. This book was released on 2009-04 with total page 178 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reprint. Paperback.156p. In China as elsewhere, alchemy is a doctrine aiming to afford an understanding of the principles underlying the formation and functioning of the cosmos. The alchemist overcomes the limits of individuality, and ascends to higher states of being; he becomes, in Chinese terms, a zhenren or Authentic Man. Chinese alchemy went through a complex and not yet entirely understood development along its twenty centuries of documented history. The two main traditions are conventionally known as waidan or "external alchemy" and neidan or "internal alchemy". The bulk of the Chinese alchemical sources is found in the Daozang (Taoist Canon), the largest collection of Taoist texts. The cosmos as we know it is conceived of as the final stage in a series of spontaneous transmutations stemming from original non-existence. This process entails the apparent separation of primeval Unity into the two complementary principles, yin and yang. Their re-union generates the cosmos. When the process is completed, the cosmos is subject to the laws of cosmology. The alchemist's task is to retrace this process backwards. Alchemy, whether "external" or "internal," providessupport to the adept, leading one to the point when, as some texts put it, "Heaven spontaneously reveals its secrets." Its practice must be performed under the close supervision of a master, who provides the "oral instructions" (koujue) necessary to an understanding of the processes that the adept performs with minerals and metals, or undergoes within himself. Modern study of the alchemical literature began in the present century, after the Canon was reprinted and made widely available in 1926. Johnson's work, originally published in 1928, remains one of the full book length treatises in English on the subject.
Download or read book Great Clarity written by Fabrizio Pregadio and published by Stanford University Press. This book was released on 2006-02-27 with total page 405 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first book to examine extensively the religious aspects of Chinese alchemy. Its main focus is the relation of alchemy to the Daoist traditions of the early medieval period (third to sixth centuries). It shows how alchemy contributed to and was tightly integrated into the elaborate body of doctrines and practices that Daoists built at that time, from which Daoism as we know it today evolved. The book also clarifies the origins of Chinese alchemy and the respective roles of alchemy and meditation in self-cultivation practices. It contains full translations of three important medieval texts, all of them accompanied by running commentaries, making available for the first time in English the gist of the early Chinese alchemical corpus.
Download or read book Science in Traditional China written by Joseph Needham and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 1981 with total page 148 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The world's preeminent authority on Chinese science explores the philosophy, social structure, arts, crafts, and even military strategies that form our understanding of Chinese science, making instructive comparisons along the way to similar elements of Indian, Hellenistic, and Arabic cultures. A major portion of the book concentrates on Taoist alchemy that led not only to the invention of gunpowder and firearms, but also, through the search for macrobiotic life-elixirs, to the rise of modern medical chemistry.
Download or read book Alchemy written by Titus Burckhardt and published by . This book was released on 1997 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Spiritual attainment has frequently been described as a transformation whereby a human's leaden, dull nature is returned to its golden state. This wonderfully insightful volume introduces some of the metaphors useful for establishing attitudes required for the soul's advancement: trust, confidence, hope, and detachment. It is a reminder that when any substance or entity undergoes dissolution, it must eventually be resolved or re-crystalized in a new, possibly higher and more noble form.
Download or read book Distilling Knowledge written by Bruce T. MORAN and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2009-06-30 with total page 221 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reacting to the perception that the break, early on in the scientific revolution, between alchemy and chemistry was clean and abrupt, Moran literately and engagingly recaps what was actually a slow process. Far from being the superstitious amalgam it is now considered, alchemy was genuine science before and during the scientific revolution. The distinctive alchemical procedure--distillation--became the fundamental method of analytical chemistry, and the alchemical goal of transmuting "base metals" into gold and silver led to the understanding of compounds and elements. What alchemy very gradually but finally lost in giving way to chemistry was its spiritual or religious aspect, the linkages it discerned between purely physical and psychological properties. Drawing saliently from the most influential alchemical and scientific texts of the medieval to modern epoch (especially the turbulent and eventful seventeenth century), Moran fashions a model short history of science volume
Download or read book Alchemy written by E. J. Holmyard and published by Courier Corporation. This book was released on 2012-04-26 with total page 335 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Alchemy is thought to have originated over 2000 years ago in Hellenic Egypt, the result of three converging streams: Greek philosophy, Egyptian technology and the mysticism of Middle Eastern religions. Its heyday was from about 800 A.D. to the middle of the seventeenth century, and its practitioners ranged from kings, popes, and emperors to minor clergy, parish clerks, smiths, dyers, and tinkers. Even such accomplished men as Roger Bacon, Thomas Aquinas, Sir Thomas Browne and Isaac Newton took an interest in alchemical matters. In its search for the "Philosopher's Stone" that would transmute base metals into silver and gold, alchemy took on many philosophical, religious and mystical overtones. These and many other facets of alchemy are explored with enormous insight and erudition in this classic work. E. J. Holmyard, a noted scholar in the field, begins with the alchemists of ancient Greece and China and goes on to discuss alchemical apparatus, Islamic and early Western alchemy; signs, symbols, and secret terms; Paracelsus; English, Scottish and French alchemists; Helvetius, Price, and Semler, and much more. Ranging over two millennia of alchemical history, Mr. Holmyard shows how, like astrology and witchcraft, alchemy was an integral part of the pre-scientific moral order, arousing the cupidity of princes, the blind fear of mobs and the intellectual curiosity of learned men. Eventually, however, with the advent and ascension of the scientific method, the hopes and ideas of the alchemists faded to the status of "pseudo-science." That transformation, as well as alchemy's undeniable role as a precursor of modern chemistry, are brilliantly illuminated in this book. Students of alchemy, chemistry, the history of science, and the occult, plus anyone interested in the origin and evolution of one of mankind's most enduring and influential myths, will want to have a copy of this masterly study.
Download or read book The Chemical Choir written by P. G. Maxwell-Stuart and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2012-03-01 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: >
Download or read book Li Qi and Shu written by Peng Yoke Ho and published by Courier Corporation. This book was released on 2000-01-01 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fascinating introduction to traditional Chinese concepts of li, qi, shu, yin, yang, wuxing, and yijing. Other topics covered: Chinese mathematics, astronomy and astrology, alchemy, magic, elixirs, and the search for immortality.
Download or read book The Art and Alchemy of Chinese Tea written by Daniel P. Reid and published by Singing Dragon. This book was released on 2011 with total page 243 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The fine art of preparing and drinking tea has become a hallmark ofChinese civilization. In his latest book, Daniel Reid explores Chinesetea in its manifold varieties, its long and colorful historicaldevelopment in China, and the fine art of preparing and drinking it, atradition handed down through the agesby monks and martial artists,and emperors. He describes the principles that lie at the heart oftea culture in China, the potent medicinal properties of Chinese tea,and how to cultivate Cha Dao, the Daoist way of tea, in daily life.Illustrated with many photographs by Christan Janzen, the book containsdetailed descriptions of many Chinese tea varieties, as well asentertaining tea anecdotes from the author's 'Tea Tidings'bulletin, and a useful glossary of Chinese tea terms.
Download or read book Theoretical Alchemy written by Walter Harrison and published by World Scientific. This book was released on 2010 with total page 211 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The best way to understand chemical bonding may be to take a view appropriate to each individual system, a view which may be quite different for various systems. Sometimes two very different views are appropriate for the same system, and then the combination may even give the parameters needed to estimate the bonding energy by hand. Density Functional Theory, on the other hand, generally tries to take one view as applicable to all systems, and proceeds computationally.In contrast to the author's two previous well-known textbooks, Electronic Structure and the Properties of Solids (1989) and Elementary Electronic Structure (1999), in this book he tries to distill the essence of the representation of electronic structure in a much briefer description. It is shortened by focusing primarily on the bonding energies, the energy gained in assembling atoms as a molecule or a solid, or as a solid with a surface. A central point is that the same description of the electronic structure which gives this cohesion, can also be used to understand all of the other properties, though those other properties are not emphasized here. The effort is characterized by the title, which combines the modern word ?theory? with the ancient effort of ?alchemy? to make sense of the material world.
Download or read book Isaac Newton and the Transmutation of Alchemy written by Philip Ashley Fanning and published by North Atlantic Books. This book was released on 2009-07-07 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Isaac Newton was a dedicated alchemist, a fact usually obscured as unsuited to his stature as a leader of the scientific revolution. Author Philip Ashley Fanning has diligently examined the evidence and concludes that the two major aspects of Newton’s research—conventional science and alchemy—were actually inseparable. In Isaac Newton and the Transmutation of Alchemy, Fanning reveals the surprisingly profound influence that Newton’s study of this hermetic art had in shaping his widely adopted scientific concepts. Alchemy was an ancient tradition of speculative philosophy that promised miraculous powers, such as the ability to change base metals into gold and the possibility of a universal solvent or elixir of life. Fanning compellingly describes this carefully tended esoteric institution, which may have found its greatest advocate in the career of the father of modern science. Relegated to the fringes of discourse until its twentieth-century revival by innovative thinkers such as psychiatrist Carl Jung, alchemy offers a key to understanding both the foundations of modern knowledge and important avenues in which we may yet discover wisdom.
Download or read book Newton the Alchemist written by William R. Newman and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2018-12-11 with total page 568 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A book that finally demystifies Newton’s experiments in alchemy When Isaac Newton’s alchemical papers surfaced at a Sotheby’s auction in 1936, the quantity and seeming incoherence of the manuscripts were shocking. No longer the exemplar of Enlightenment rationality, the legendary physicist suddenly became “the last of the magicians.” Newton the Alchemist unlocks the secrets of Newton’s alchemical quest, providing a radically new understanding of the uncommon genius who probed nature at its deepest levels in pursuit of empirical knowledge. In this evocative and superbly written book, William Newman blends in-depth analysis of newly available texts with laboratory replications of Newton’s actual experiments in alchemy. He does not justify Newton’s alchemical research as part of a religious search for God in the physical world, nor does he argue that Newton studied alchemy to learn about gravitational attraction. Newman traces the evolution of Newton’s alchemical ideas and practices over a span of more than three decades, showing how they proved fruitful in diverse scientific fields. A precise experimenter in the realm of “chymistry,” Newton put the riddles of alchemy to the test in his lab. He also used ideas drawn from the alchemical texts to great effect in his optical experimentation. In his hands, alchemy was a tool for attaining the material benefits associated with the philosopher’s stone and an instrument for acquiring scientific knowledge of the most sophisticated kind. Newton the Alchemist provides rare insights into a man who was neither Enlightenment rationalist nor irrational magus, but rather an alchemist who sought through experiment and empiricism to alter nature at its very heart.
Download or read book The Secrets of Alchemy written by Lawrence Principe and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2013 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Alchemy, the Noble Art, conjures up scenes of mysterious, dimly lit laboratories populated with bearded old men stirring cauldrons. Though the history of alchemy is intricately linked to the history of chemistry, alchemy has nonetheless often been dismissed as the realm of myth and magic, or fraud and pseudoscience. And while its themes and ideas persist in some expected and unexpected places, from the Philosopher's (or Sorcerer's) Stone of Harry Potter to the self-help mantra of transformation, there has not been a serious, accessible, and up-to-date look at the complete history and influence of alchemy until now.
Download or read book A Chemical History Tour written by Arthur Greenberg and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2000-03-07 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Von der Alchimie zur modernen Chemie, von der Kunst des Goldmachens zur Moleküldynamik und chemischen Großproduktion: Verfolgen Sie die Entwicklung einer geheimnisvollen Kunst zur Naturwissenschaft! Der Autor trug Dokumente und Illustrationen aus über 400 Jahren zusammen; die Abbildungen sind ganzseitig und von hervorragender Qualität. Lebendig, interessant, informativ! (05/00)
Download or read book Historical Perspectives On East Asian Science Technology And Medicine written by Alan Kam Leung Chan and published by World Scientific. This book was released on 2002-07-24 with total page 609 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Historical Perspectives on East Asian Science, Technology, and Medicine brings together over fifty papers by leading contemporary historians from more than a dozen nations. It is the third in a series of books growing out of the tri-annual International Conference on the History of Science in East Asia, the largest and most prestigious gathering of scholars in the field. The current volume broadens the field's traditional focus on China to include path-breaking work on Vietnam, Korea, Japan, the Philippines, and even the transmission of Asian science and technology to Europe and the United States. Topics covered include: traditional Chinese, Vietnamese, and Filipino medicines; Chinese astronomy; Japanese earthquakes; science and technology policy; architecture; the digital revolution; and much else.
Download or read book Alchemy and Alchemists written by C. J. S. Thompson and published by Courier Corporation. This book was released on 2012-07-12 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Well-researched study traces history of alchemy, chronicling search for philosopher's stone and elixir of life, alchemist's laboratory and apparatus, symbols and secret alphabets, famous practitioners, plus contributions to field of chemistry. 77 black-and-white illustrations, 31 plates.
Download or read book Daughters of Alchemy written by Meredith K. Ray and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2015-04-06 with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Meredith Ray shows that women were at the vanguard of empirical culture during the Scientific Revolution. They experimented with medicine and alchemy at home and in court, debated cosmological discoveries in salons and academies, and in their writings used their knowledge of natural philosophy to argue for women’s intellectual equality to men.
