object
Cinnabar
Mercury sulfide, a red ore. Chinese inner and outer alchemy treat it as a working substance; it is not the planet Mercury and not a lipstick metaphor.
Also known as vermilion
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
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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
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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
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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
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Cinnabar is used in Dye.
Pliny’s Natural History treats cinnabar/minium neighbors among painters’ reds as well as among metal drugs. A Roman-era pigment use of cinnabar, not the medicine seat already published and not minium as red lead alone.
from Pliny the Elder · Natural History, c. 77 CE
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Cinnabar is used in Orpiment.
In Theophilus’s Divers Arts, a little cinnabar is mixed with orpiment to fill in a drapery before adding red for the drawing — cinnabar and orpiment are worked together in that drapery mix.
from Theophilus Presbyter · On Divers Arts, c. early 12th century
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Cinnabar is associated with Folium.
In Theophilus’s Divers Arts, a rainbow-like drawing is combined from cinnabar and folium among other paired colours composed in equal traits — cinnabar is mixed with that folium.
from Theophilus Presbyter · On Divers Arts, c. early 12th century
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Cinnabar is historically related to Egg.
In Theophilus’s Divers Arts, pure minium with a third part of cinnabar is ground with water, then the clear of the white of an egg is beaten up for laying gold in books — cinnabar sits with that egg temper.
from Theophilus Presbyter · On Divers Arts, c. early 12th century
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Cinnabar is historically related to Lime.
In Theophilus’s Divers Arts, flesh colour upon a wall is made from ochre and cinnabar and lime, and wall colours are mixed with lime to dry with the wall — cinnabar is mixed with that lime.
from Theophilus Presbyter · On Divers Arts, c. early 12th century
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Cinnabar is historically related to Charcoal.
In Agricola’s De Re Metallica, quicksilver ore mixed with charcoal dust and salt is sealed in a crucible on glowing charcoal until a burnt cinnabar colour shows — cinnabar colour marks that charcoal fire.
from Georgius Agricola; Herbert Clark Hoover and Lou Henry Hoover (translation) · De Re Metallica, 1556 Latin; Hoover English 1912
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Cinnabar is historically related to Varnish.
In Theophilus’s Divers Arts, cinnabar is ground in oil and painted on doors or tablets, dried in the sun, then covered with varnish gluten — the cinnabar coat receives that varnish.
from Theophilus Presbyter · On Divers Arts, c. early 12th century
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In Theophilus On Divers Arts, flesh colour mixed from ceruse and cinnabar is made pallid by adding a little green in place of more cinnabar.
from Theophilus Presbyter · On Divers Arts, c. early 12th century
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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
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Minium is historically related to Cinnabar.
In Theophilus’s Divers Arts, a little minium is mixed with cinnabar to lighten a drapery, then relieved with simple minium — minium is mixed with that cinnabar.
from Theophilus Presbyter · On Divers Arts, c. early 12th century
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White is historically related to Cinnabar.
In Theophilus’s Divers Arts, flesh colour is made by grinding burned ceruse white with cinnabar until like flesh — white is mixed with that cinnabar.
from Theophilus Presbyter · On Divers Arts, c. early 12th century
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Vinegar is historically related to Cinnabar.
In Ure’s Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures, and Mines, verdigris, cinnabar, sal ammoniac, and alum are made into a paste with vinegar and spread as a bronzing pigment on brightened surfaces — cinnabar is worked with that vinegar paste.
from Andrew Ure · Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures, and Mines, 1839 (and later PD editions)
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Rose is historically related to Cinnabar.
In Theophilus’s Divers Arts, the first rose colour is prepared by mixing a little cinnabar and a little minium into the simple flesh colour for cheeks and mouth.
from Theophilus Presbyter · On Divers Arts, c. early 12th century
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Roman religion
Cinnabar appears in Roman religion.
Pliny’s Natural History treats cinnabar among mercury ores and red pigments known to Roman encyclopedia speech. A named cinnabar in that encyclopedia, not minium as the related red already walked in pharmacy and not Baopuzi alchemy cinnabar alone.
from Pliny the Elder · Natural History, c. 77 CE
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Nahua tradition
Cinnabar appears in Nahua tradition.
Sahagún’s Florentine Codex seats bright red mercury-sulfide pigment among paint, body, and craft color speech. A named cinnabar/vermilion lemma in that ethnography, not ochre as earth-red beside it and not cochineal→dye already filed.
from Bernardino de Sahagún and Nahua collaborators · Florentine Codex, c. 1577
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sources
- The Nei P’ien of Ko Hung · Ge Hong; James R. Ware (translation)
James R. Ware, Alchemy, Medicine and Religion in the China of A.D. 320 (Baopuzi inner chapters).
- Natural History · Pliny the Elder
Pliny, Naturalis Historia.
- Florentine Codex · Bernardino de Sahagún and Nahua collaborators
Bernardino de Sahagún, General History of the Things of New Spain (Florentine Codex).
- On Divers Arts · Theophilus Presbyter
Theophilus, On Divers Arts (De diversis artibus / Schedula diversarum artium).
- De Re Metallica · Georgius Agricola; Herbert Clark Hoover and Lou Henry Hoover (translation)
Georgius Agricola, De Re Metallica, trans. Herbert Clark Hoover and Lou Henry Hoover (1912).
- Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures, and Mines · Andrew Ure
Andrew Ure, A Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures, and Mines.