摘要
Abstract
During the Tang and Song dynasties,external alchemy declined while internal alchemy flourished.Quantitative and qualitative studies based on the texts of the Taoist canon clearly revealed the toxicity of external chemical substances.Mercury,cinnabar,three types of yellow minerals and lead,as the most commonly used ingredients in alchemy,contain elements such as mercury,arsenic,lead and sulfur,which are highly harmful to the human body.Although alchemists were aware of the dangers of toxicity,their theoretical justifications and efforts to detoxify practices did not yield significant results.As the result,many cases of poisoning or death occured.This caused both within and outside the Taoist community to question the belief in achieving immortality.At this time,internal alchemy,which shares theories,terminology,and goals with external alchemy,began a transition from'absorbing external qi'to'absorbing internal qi',which makes safe and efficient'embryonic respiration'practices replace the previously risky"holding one's breath"operation.Additionally,practitioners attempted to use the'internal alchemy not yet complete'as a contingent hypothesis to explain the failure of external alchemy,which accelerated the rapid development of internal alchemy.关键词
外丹/毒性/内丹/服气/特设性假说Key words
External alchemy/Toxicity/Internal alchemy/Absorbing qi/Contingent hypothesis
