Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review Volumes 32 and 33.djvu/174

162 substances. Taoism is largely similar to the alchemy of Europe and Arabia, and one of the main preoccupations of the Chinese Taoist philosophers has been to concoct elixirs of life of the most extraordinary materials. They believed that there were substances capable of preserving life, giving immortality, and after death preventing the body from putrefying. Prominent among these objects was a certain class of minerals akin to jasper or jade, nephrite and agate. Jade and gold seem to have been the two most powerful magical substances known to the Chinese. In very early times they were identified with the heavens, the source of all life. It is said, "Heaven is jade, is gold jade and gold naturally endow with vitality all persons who swallow them  and they hold at a distance from the dead corruption and decay, thus furthering their return to life." As an example of the lengths that they went in their endeavours to obtain immortality by means of these and other substances, the following may be quoted. Ku Koh Sung, an alchemist of the fourth century, says, "Grease of jade is formed inside the mountains which contain jade. It is always to be found in steep and dangerous spots. The jade-juice, after issuing from these mountains, coagulated into such grease after more than ten thousand years. This grease is fresh and limpid like crystal. If you find it, pulverize it and mix it with the juice of herbs that have no pith, it immediately liquefies; drink one pint of it then, and you will live a thousand years. He who swallows gold will exist as long as gold; he who swallows jade will exist as long as jade. Those who swallow the real essence of the dark sphere (heavens) will enjoy an everlasting existence; the real essence of the dark sphere is another name for jade Bits of jade, swallowed or taken with water, can in both these cases render man immortal." Another extract: "Plant