Gǔdài de dàoshi yòng dānshā liàndān, xiǎng zuòchū chángshēng-bùlǎo de yào.
Daoists of old heated cinnabar in their furnaces, hoping to make a medicine of eternal life.
Tips
usage
丹砂 and 朱砂 name the same mineral, mercury sulfide, and 朱砂 is the everyday word today. 丹沙 is a variant spelling. The finest came from 辰州 in Hunan, so it is also called 辰砂.
history
Cinnabar was so central to alchemy that 丹 itself came to mean "elixir" as well as "red". Heated, it gives off mercury, which made such elixirs poisonous.
