Cinnabar

Chinese tradition

• Cinnabar transforms into Mercury (metal).

  Cinnabar is mercury sulfide. Heating it is a way to the metal; Ge Hong’s inner chapters treat cinnabar as a working red, not as a planet.

  from Ge Hong; James R. Ware (translation) · The Nei P’ien of Ko Hung, 1966 (this translation); Ge Hong 4th century CE

  transforms into · sourced · documented

• Cinnabar is used in Alchemy.

  The Baopuzi discusses cinnabar in the craft of elixirs. That is Ge Hong’s China, not the Emerald Tablet’s Latin sentences.

  from Ge Hong; James R. Ware (translation) · The Nei P’ien of Ko Hung, 1966 (this translation); Ge Hong 4th century CE

  used in · sourced · documented

• Cinnabar is associated with Red.

  Cinnabar is a red ore. Vermilion is a color of that mineral, not a slogan.

  from Ge Hong; James R. Ware (translation) · The Nei P’ien of Ko Hung, 1966 (this translation); Ge Hong 4th century CE

  associated with · sourced · documented

• Cinnabar is associated with Stone.

  An ore is a stone before it is an elixir. Ge Hong’s methods start from material.

  from Ge Hong; James R. Ware (translation) · The Nei P’ien of Ko Hung, 1966 (this translation); Ge Hong 4th century CE

  associated with · sourced · documented

• Cinnabar is used in Medicine.

  Pliny’s Natural History Book 33 chapter 41 treats remedies derived from minium (cinnabar): while warning that most medicinal recipes for the pigment are dangerous, he allows its external application to the head or abdomen to arrest haemorrhage when it does not reach the viscera or a wound. A cautious Roman pharmacological use of the ore, not Ge Hong’s elixir ranking and not quicksilver’s refining chapter.

  from Pliny the Elder · Natural History, c. 77 CE

  used in · sourced · documented