Mahdihassan S
Am J Chin Med. 1979 Summer;7(2):171-81. doi: 10.1142/s0192415x79000143.
According to an herbal cult of immortality in China, about 200 B.C., certain plants could make man immortal. Greek alchemy, the earliest record of which dated about 200 A.D., presents a similar version, was originally Chinese and was introduced by the Arabs who brought herbal drugs of longevity to Alexandria. The name of these drugs, Chin-I, dialectal Kim-Iya, was Arabicized as Kimiya and transliterated Chemeia by the Copts. Other terms were later influenced by Indians (Chumeia, 100 A.D.) and more directly by the Chinese (Chrusozomion, 200 A.D.). The 3 terms signify herbal elixirs of gold and the art related to them. Both early Chinese and Greek alchemies were not concerned with the making of bullion gold. In China the development of alchemy has been ruled by two theories: first, as like makes like, a perennial plant can make human life perennial: likewise, certain substances can prolong human life as they are rich in Life-force or Soul-content. From here, Blood was equated to Soul and later Redness to Soul. Jade, Cinnabar and eventually gold, more precisely Red-gold or Cinnabar-gold, a colloidal gold, became the ideal drug of immortality. Finally, alchemy can be defined as the art of making metal colloids as panaceae.
根据中国一种关于长生不老的草药崇拜，大约在公元前200年，某些植物可以使人长生不老。希腊炼金术最早的记录可追溯到公元200年左右，它呈现了一个类似的版本，其起源于中国，由阿拉伯人引入，阿拉伯人将长寿草药带到了亚历山大港。这些药物的名字，秦医（方言金医亚），被阿拉伯语化为基米亚，并被科普特人音译为化学。其他术语后来受到印度人（公元100年的楚米亚）以及更直接受到中国人（公元200年的克鲁索佐米翁）的影响。这三个术语表示黄金草药长生不老药以及与之相关的技艺。早期的中国炼金术和希腊炼金术都与制造金条黄金无关。在中国，炼金术的发展受两种理论支配：其一，同类相生，多年生植物可以使人的生命长久；同样，某些物质因其富含生命力或灵魂成分，也可以延长人的寿命。由此，血液被等同于灵魂，后来红色被等同于灵魂。玉、朱砂，最终是黄金，更确切地说是红金或朱砂金，一种胶体金，成为了理想长生不老药。最后，炼金术可以被定义为制造作为百草之王的金属胶体的技艺。
