Power, wealth, the most beautiful women - all this was for the rulers of all times and peoples, there was only one thing - the opportunity to use it forever. Death took life equally from a commoner as from a powerful king or emperor. It is not surprising that from the most ancient times the powerful of this world dreamed of getting their hands on the elixir of immortality.
What were the first alchemists looking for?
What equates a pensioner who does not know how to make it to his next pension, and a billionaire "sitting" on a gas or oil pipe, owning a luxurious house on Rublevka and all the benefits of civilization? Only one thing is death. A half-starved pensioner may well live even longer than his fabulously wealthy compatriot. And so it has always been, death made no distinction between a commoner and a powerful king or emperor. For example, a simple 152-year-old English peasant Thomas Parr survived nine kings!
Imagine how rulers and rich people feel sorry for dying when they can buy everything except life! It is not surprising that from the most ancient times, kings and sultans, kings and emperors have done everything possible to gain immortality. They hired alchemists and scientists, sent expeditions to the most distant countries, trying to get their hands on the elixir of immortality. This mythical substance had the property not only to rejuvenate the human body, but also to prolong its life indefinitely. The idea that eternal life can be gained just by using some special means came from mythology. This tool was allegedly owned by the gods and other supernatural forces. The elixir of immortality from them could only be kidnapped or taken by force, having fought with various fabulous monsters. Later, the idea arose thatthat the elixir is quite capable of synthesizing by people themselves, you just need to choose the right ratio of some rare ingredients. This is how alchemy was born, the main goal of which was to create the elixir of immortality.
According to a number of researchers, the most ancient is Chinese alchemy, which arose in the second half of the 1st millennium BC. The Taoists were mainly involved in alchemy at that time. Their teaching did not recognize reincarnation (transmigration of the soul), so the death of the body, according to the Taoists, led to the scattering of souls (they believed that a person had ten of them) and the inability to ever bring them together. Souls were united only by the body, with its death and disintegration the person finally and irrevocably perished, that is why the body had to gain immortality.
Chinese alchemy is divided into external and internal. According to the concept of external alchemy, immortality could be obtained by ingestion of specially prepared elixirs or pills. But internal alchemy assumed a different path, which consisted in gaining eternal life by activating a number of processes in the body. Their activation was achieved through meditation and special exercises.
The story of Emperor Li Chun (820) shows how risky it was to try to gain immortality. This emperor of the Tang Dynasty decided to live forever and began to take the elixir of immortality, developed by his personal alchemists. It is believed that the composition of this elixir included mercury, which causes a negative effect on the psyche. Because of such a dangerous elixir, at first the wise ruler began to lose his mind. The courtiers pretended not to notice this, only one honest dignitary made an attempt to warn the emperor about the danger associated with his belief in fraudulent alchemists. However, Li Chun by that time could no longer reasonably assess the situation, he drove the dignitary and continued to take the poisonous drug. The end of Li Chun was very sad: the emperor finally lost his mind was killed by the court eunuchs. The attempt to become immortal for the Chinese emperor Xuanzong (VIII century) also ended sadly. For a whole year, his personal alchemist prepared a drink for his ruler that would give eternal life. Having taken the elixir prepared by the court alchemist, the emperor died in agony. This is not surprising, since mercury and arsenic were certainly included in the elixirs.
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Expeditions for immortality
In ancient China, they believed in the existence of distant countries and islands, whose inhabitants possess the secrets of immortality. Sailors and merchants talked about the existence of springs, the water of which gave eternal life. There were also rumors about magic fruits: the one who tasted them gained youth and lived an infinitely long time. Especially popular were the legends about the lands of the immortals - the five sacred mountains: Penglai, Duyu, Yuanjiao, Fangzhang, Yingzhou. It was believed that these mountains, with the help of huge black turtles supporting them, swim in the East Sea.
The Chinese emperors of the ancient kingdoms of Zhou and Yan sent special expeditions, their goal was to discover at least one of the legendary islands and deliver magic fruits or a drink to the emperor thirsting for immortality. It is clear that these expeditions did not find anything. However, the dream of finding these legendary lands did not leave the Chinese rulers. Surprisingly, even the famous emperor Qin Shi-Huang was carried away by their search.
According to ancient sources, Shi-Huangdi was very afraid of death, therefore, having discovered in ancient manuscripts the legends about the islands that grant immortality, he, without thinking twice, sent an expedition in search of Mount Penglai. The expedition was headed by a sailor named Xin Shi, he had to find the island and get the magic fruits. Alas, the expedition ended in failure. However, the emperor showed perseverance and sent a second expedition of 20 huge ships in search of. Its leader was the court alchemist Xu Fu, who not only believed in the existence of magic fruits, but also believed that the elixir of immortality could be created by scientific methods.
According to the existing legend, Xu Fu's ships, after a fruitless search for Mount Penglai, headed to Japan and landed on its shores. Fearing the inglorious return to his homeland and the wrath of the emperor, who was left without magic fruits, Xu Fu decided to stay in Japan, where he became the ruler of the land of Kii. This version of the end of the second expedition to search for Mount Penglai is also confirmed by the famous Chinese historian Sima Qian (135-86 BC): according to his data, Xu Fu became a local king on some lands far from China. In one of the Chinese chronicles there is a record: “Xu Fu set out on a voyage, but discovered lands remarkable for their peacefulness and fertility. There he settled, became king and did not come back."
Well, Qin Shi-Huangdi, never waiting for the return of the expedition, placed all his hopes on the Taoist alchemists who were trying to synthesize the elixir of immortality. Alas, and they let him down, the emperor died without waiting for the opportunity to live forever. The failure of the famous emperor did not cool the ardor of those who hoped to become immortal. A hundred years passed, and the Han emperor Xia-Wu sent his ships in search of the cherished lands; Needless to say, his sailors also returned with nothing. However, this was not the last attempt to find the cherished islands of immortality.
The already mentioned historian Sima Qian wrote in his Historical Notes: “Since the time of the sovereigns of Wei-wang, Xuan-wang and Yan Zhao-wang, people were sent to the sea to find the sacred mountains Penglai, Fangzhang and Yingzhou. According to legend, they are in Bohai and whoever gets there will find saints and a medicine for immortality there. From afar they are like clouds; when you get close, the mountains go into the water; you want to swim, but the wind is driving away; so nobody got to the mountains. There was no such person among the rulers who dreamed of them."
When Christopher Columbus discovered America, many rumors and assumptions immediately appeared that it was on these new lands that the cherished springs with water that bestow immortality were located. To Pope Leo X, an associate of Columbus wrote the following about one of them: “To the north of Hispaniola, between the other islands, there is one island at a distance of three hundred and twenty miles from it; as those who found him say, an inexhaustible spring of running water beats on the island of such a wonderful quality that an old man who drinks it while following a certain diet will turn into a young man after a while.
There is no doubt that the island with such a magical source began to be intensively searched, because the mighty of this world were interested not only in gold, but also in eternal life. Alas, navigators, having spent years searching for a miracle source, never found it, but they discovered many new lands. In the centuries that followed, the "hunt" for immortality focused not on the sea, but in the secret laboratories of alchemists.
Nostradamus cheated too
After spending centuries searching for a recipe for the elixir of immortality, the Chinese alchemists never achieved what they wanted. At the same time, it cannot be said that their efforts were wasted. Thanks to the activity of alchemists, new technologies have appeared in the production of metals and their alloys, in the production of glass and porcelain. Also, a substance was discovered, on the contrary, greatly reducing life, under the well-known name of gunpowder.
Not only the Asian rulers wanted to become immortal, their European “colleagues” also dreamed of eternal life. At the courts of many European kings, as well as in the castles of wealthy feudal lords, alchemists worked tirelessly, trying to find the philosopher's stone. As Aristotle suggested, in addition to the four main elements - fire, air, earth and water - of which all objects and living things in the Universe are composed, there is still an unknown fifth element. It was he who was called the philosopher's stone. He not only bestows immortality, knowledge and eternal youth, but is also able to turn ordinary iron or lead into gold.
By the way, the concept of the philosopher's stone, as the beginning of all beginnings (and alchemy, respectively), appeared in Egypt as early as the 5th century BC, so the statement about Chinese alchemy as the most ancient can at least be questioned. The founder of alchemy is Hermes Trismegistus. There is no exact information yet whether he was a real person, because in Egypt he was revered as the god Thoth, and in ancient Greece - as the god Hermes. Now it is believed that the works attributed to Hermes Trismegistus belong to a number of unknown authors, whose names we now hardly recognize. But the theoretical foundation of alchemy, no doubt, was formulated by the Greek philosophers Plato and Aristotle.
Famous scientists were also actively involved in alchemy, among them - Albertus Magnus (c. 1193-1280), the author of the work "On Metals and Minerals", and Roger Bacon (1214-1294), who wrote "The Power of Alchemy" and "Mirror alchemy ". The latter said that a short life is by no means the norm, but a real deviation from it. He was looking for the elixir of immortality and Nostradamus, known to all, he not only looked for a recipe for the coveted potion in ancient books, but also personally experimented with various substances. He even had his own recipe for the elixir, but, as you know, he did not help him: the fortuneteller died, like all ordinary mortals.
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