the Eternal Quest for immortality, Part 1 Aging and longevity Emperor Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of a united China and builder of the Great Wall, longed for The Elixir of Immortality. Despite the work he spearheaded to consoli-date Chinese characters into writing, there remain more than 100 characters that convey the notion of longevity. round 210 BC, in the company of several hundred virgins, court alchemist Xu Fu was dispatched by the Qin Dynasty emperor, Qin Shi Huang, to find The Elixir of Immortality. He was never heard from again. Taking matters into his own hands, the emperor instructed his court alchemists to devise their own potions for eternal youth. Although their efforts proved less than successful, killing Qin Shi Huang with a lethal con -coction of mercury, the era marked a period of intense Chinese interest in means to advance longevity. The classic Chinese alchemical book, the Tan Chin Yao Ch’eh ( Great Secrets of Alchemy ) dating from around AD 650, talks about the creation of potions for immortality, tonics for a variety of diseases and the fabrication of precious stones. Many of these formu -lations featured substances such as mercury, mercury salts, sulphur and arsenic, which, far from contributing to longevity, are actively toxic and were implicated in the poisoning deaths of several emperors. Chinese interest in alchemy eventually waned with the rise of Buddhism, which purported alternative, and less lethal, paths to immortality. www.canadianchiropractor.ca A Steve Zoltai is the collections de -velopment librarian and archivist for CMCC and is a member of the Canadian Chiropractic Historical Association. He was previously the assistant executive director of the Health Sciences Information Con-sortium of Toronto. He has worked for several public and private libraries and with the University of Toronto Archives. Steve comes by his interest in things historical honestly – he worked as a field archeologist for the province of Manitoba. He can be contacted at [email protected]. CANADIAN CHIROpRACTOR | DECEMBER 2011 • 19 Steve Zoltai feature
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