Among the major religions in China, Taoism is the most important in practice. Because its main goal is to live forever, there are many ways to achieve this goal, which is called magic in China culture.
There are many contents of alchemy, mainly including the following:
1, Pigu: A Taoist practice is not to eat food, including whole grains, meat, eggs and vegetables. The theory of this cultivation method is that although daily food can maintain life, it will leave harmful residues in the human body, which will cause people to get angry, bring diseases and shorten their life. In order to maintain their lives, Taoists should take some medicine or what they call "qi" (that is, air) when they go to the valley.
2, feeding: also known as bait, refers to taking medicine, but also a method of practice. They believe that as long as they eat food, they can live forever, and the medicine they eat is the medicine for living forever. These drugs are actually a mixture of some minerals, including cinnabar, gold, silver, jade and so on. Sometimes it is refined into pills and sometimes it becomes liquid.
3, alchemy: the so-called Dan, that is, Taoism believes that eating something that can become immortal and live forever, is divided into two types, one is inner Dan and the other is outer Dan. Waidan is actually a pill refined from some minerals, generally including cinnabar, mercury, lead, gold and silver. Taoist alchemy is often carried out by a few people in very secret places. This method was very popular in China in the 4th-9th century, forming a social atmosphere. But in fact, as a chemical substance, Waidan is very toxic, and many people have died because of it.