566 ANNUAL KEPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 193 8 



cated by its use in the burials of the great. 43 So too, gold, and espe- 

 cially gold obtained by transmutation, could be used to assure im- 

 mortality: 



[The wizard Li] Shao-chun said to the Emperor [Wu Ti of Han]: "Sacrifice to 

 the stove [tsao] and you will be able to summon 'things' [i. e., spirits]. Summon 

 spirits and you will be able to change cinnabar powder into yellow gold. With 

 this yellow gold you may make vessels to eat and drink out of. You will then 

 increase your span of life. Having increased your span of life, you will be able 

 to see the hsien of P'eng-lai that is in the midst of the sea. Then you may perform 

 the sacrifices feng and shan and escape death". 43 44 



The Elixir Vitae is also mentioned in another important work, the 

 Ts'an T'ung Ch'i, written under the pseudonym Wei Po-yang in the 

 second century A. D. Waley thinks it likely that the text may have 

 been doctored to give an alchemical interest later, i. e., in the fourth 

 century. This view does not imply any considerable rearrangement, 

 for only one of the 90 sections into which the text is arranged deals 

 specifically with the Elixir, and this in the most definite manner: 



Gold by nature does not rot or decay; 



Therefore it is of all things most precious. 



When the artist [i. e., alchemist] includes it in his diet 



The duration of his life becomes everlasting 



******* 



When the golden powder enters the five entrails, 



A fog is dispelled, like rain-clouds scattered by wind. 



Fragrant exhalations pervade the four limbs; 



The countenance beams with well-being and joy. 



Hairs that were white all turn to black; 



Teeth that had fallen grow in their former place. 



The old dotard is again a lusty youth; 



The decripit crone is again a young girl. 45 



We cannot say how early the belief in the life-giving virtue of gold 

 may have arisen; the first text given above, though attributed to the 

 first century B. C, may be a hundred years or more later, 46 but it is 

 obvious that the belief must have existed at an earlier date than the 

 text. Linking this to what we know of the Elixir in the West, it seems 

 reasonable to infer that the belief originated in China, 47 for these texts 



43 Space is lacking to describe the virtues of jade: though the product of the earth, it is at the same time the 

 essence of Heaven, perfected under high spiritual influence (Laufer, Jade, p. 148, 1912). Appropriate em- 

 blems of jade were placed upon or within the orifices of the body, e. g., the cicada in the mouth, and cere- 

 monial objects of jade were placed within the coffin in contact with the body. Naturally it was only the 

 rich whose grave-furnishings were of jade; I have already alluded to the glassp; (p.558) of the less well-to-do. 



« Waley, A., Notes on Chinese alchemy, Bull. School of Oriental Studies, vol. 6, p. 2, 1930-2. Chinese 

 words have been omitted and only their transliteration given. 



« Waley, op. cit., p. 11. It might have been expected that jade rather than gold would have been cited 

 in the texts quoted. Mr. Waley has suggested to me that the admiration for gold was adopted from the 

 northern nomads at the time when their costume and military tactics were taken over by the Chinese. 



« Waley, op. cit., p. 3. 



47 In arguing that the Elixir Vitae as known to the western world since the early centuries of our era origi- 

 nated in China, I do not ignore the view put forward by the late Prof. Sir Qrafton Elliot Smith and Dr. W. 

 J. Perry that all "life givers" had their origin in the beliefs of Ancient Egypt, which spread across Eurasia 

 at a comparatively early date. I would, however, point out that even if this view be held the diffusion 

 westwards of a conception which was flourishing in the Far East in the latter half of the first millennium 

 B. 0.~can still be accepted. 



