The belief in immortals and alchemists
The belief in immortals can also be traced back to the primitive society of ancient China. One piece of evidence is the Shan Hai Jing. The book, which records myths and religious beliefs from the primitive society of our country, is quite rich and systematic. It provides a basis for the distant origin of Taoist immortals. In the Shan Hai Jing, the belief in immortality is proposed; The existence of immortals an alchemists; Described the abode of the immortals; It records the s of sacrifice and the strange arts.
In the primitive society of ancient times, some people began to study become a divine being through cultivation. It is recorded that the Yellow emperor Xuanyuan “studied immortality while fighting” and “sought enlightenment from Guangchengzi”, and later achieved enlightenment and ascended to heaven by riding a dragon on Dinghu Lake during the day.
By the Warring States period, the belief in immortals had become quite widespread. During this period, there were many writings about the legends of immortals, which contained a lot of words about the legends of immortals, the fairyland, and elixirs. In Zhuangzi: Free and Easy Wandering, there is such a description: “On the mountain of Miao Gu she, gods live there, their skin is like ice and snow, they are as graceful as a virgin, they do not eat grains, they inhale the wind and drink the dew, they ride the clouds and ride the wind dragons, and they roam beyond the four seas.” Others,such as the “Tangwen”, “Huangdi”, “King Mu of Zhou” in “Liezi”, and Qu Yuan’s “Li SAO”, “Tianwen”, “Jiuge”, have depicted the fairyland as wonderful and mysterious, and their immortals are depicted as being free from the cycle of life and death,extremely quiet, not burdened by material things, transcendent and free, and able to soar through the clouds and fly. Similar descriptions can also be found in “Huainanzi” and Records of the Grand Historian of the Han Dynasty.
With the emergence of the idea of immortals, alchemists who sought the fairyland and immortals and passed on the formula of immortality appeared. They combined the theory of immortals and the art of alchemy with the theory of Yin and Yang and the Five Elements of Zou Yan (a famous alchemist of the Warring States period) to form the way of alchemy, which was mainly popular among the upper class of Yan and Qi. Its form was disintegrated, relying on ghosts and gods, hoping for immortality and immortality. From the middle and late Warring States period(275-221 BC) to the reign of Emperor Wu of Han (Liu Che, 140-87 BC), under the instision of alchemists (also known as the immortal family) and emperors and generals, there was a famous event in Chinese history of going to the sea to seek the elixir of immortality. King Wei of Qi, King Xuan of Qi, King Zhao of Yan, Qin Shi Huang, Emperor Wu of Han and others sent alchemists to the Three Sacred mountains at sea in search of immortals and elixirs of immortality, and the scale grew larger and larger.
The most famous alchemists of the time were Song Wuji, Zheng Boqiao, Zou Yan, Xu Fu, Lu Sheng, Li Shaojun and others.
The unique Chinese belief in immortals was passed down and was inherited by Taoism in the middle and late Eastern Han Dynasty, becoming the core of Taoist beliefs.
After Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, Fangxian Dao gradually combined with Huang-Lao Learning and evolved into Huang-Lao Dao.
