Ancient beauties were crazy about painting their lips red to seduce men: Who would have thought that this thing is extremely poisonous!

What is this red thing?

That is mercury and its compounds.

In ancient times, mercury was used to preserve corpses. When realizing that corpses could be preserved for a longer period of time under the protection of mercury, the ancients believed that mercury could maintain the important properties of the living body and could help people live. longer, longer lasting, even immortal.

Today, as science develops, we know that mercury is very toxic (in which, the most toxic compound of mercury is methylmercury . Small drops that stick to the skin can cause death), but in ancient times, it is something that is very attractive to people. 

In ancient times, mercury was used in medicine and rouge powder, "lipstick". Ancient beauties whose plump lips were adorned with mercury became enchanting and could conquer many men's hearts. They don't know that that enchanting red powder is full of poison!

In addition, mercury has countless other uses such as dyeing, feng shui, repelling evil spirits. Some people even rely on it to refine elixirs, especially emperors of dynasties. Even though they know it is a highly toxic drug, they are still crazy about it.

Mercury as medicine 

Mercury is mainly extracted from cinnabar, that is, mercury sulfide (HgS) - contains 86.2% mercury, has a red color and is often used for dyeing. Later it was discovered that it could be used to extract mercury. Cinnabar was not uncommon in China at that time.

Mercury was widely used as early as the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods. Furthermore, the method of refining mercury at that time was specifically recorded, specifically in the "Banh Thao Do Sutra". 

In ancient times, mercury was often used in the production of medicine. 

In the silk book excavated from the tomb of Han Ma Vuong Dui, people wrote about mercury and its uses. Perhaps because of their appreciation for this special metal, the ancients believed that incurable diseases could be cured with mercury. For example, hemorrhoids, vitiligo, body odor and other difficult and complicated diseases.

Not only that , mercury is also considered a 'birth control pill'. In ancient times, girls in brothels often drank (diluted) mercury. The first is to shorten the menstrual period, the second is to avoid pregnancy. Even if a girl is pregnant, it is believed that drinking mercury can cause her to quickly miscarry. 

Mercury alchemy

Alchemy in China began in the Warring States period and was also developed based on the development of bronze and iron smelting technology. 

At that time, some sorcerers thought that because they could melt metals, they could also prepare a medicine that would help people become immortal by adding mercury and other herbs. in the cauldron, then forge the "Elixir".

At that time, people believed that 'form complements form' and eating foods that never decompose could prolong life. Therefore, some people will extract essence from gold, silver, pearls and jade to sell at exorbitant prices. 

That's why there is the concept 'Whoever serves gold will live as long as gold, and whoever serves pearl will live as long as jade' . 

At that time, some people purified "golden liquid" through such smelting and it was said that it could make people immortal. From then on, alchemy developed widely.

In the eyes of people at that time, mercury did not decompose easily and had the meaning of 'immortality'. So, purifying elixirs with mercury could give the person who drank them the ability to "live forever", the cycle would continue and eventually lead to immortality.

Crazy about "knitting"

Cinnabar, also known as dansha (both called dan (丹) - red), created a series of tragedies for ancient Chinese emperors.

After Qin Shi Huang ascended the throne, his desire to rule was unprecedentedly strong. Because he wanted to sit on the throne forever, he recruited many talented people to find a way to live forever. 

In 219 BC, someone reported that there were three sacred mountains containing the elixir of immortality. Therefore, Qin Shi Huang sent people to search everywhere, but until his death, he still had not once seen/used that elixir of immortality with his own eyes. 

In return, the person who wanted to hold the throne for a thousand years passed away at the age of 49.

In the eyes of people at that time, mercury did not decompose easily and had the meaning of 'immortality'.

The first king to be obsessed with alchemy was Liu An - the fourth vassal king of Huainan during the Han Dynasty in Chinese history. He once summoned thousands of people to perform alchemy techniques to find the secret formula. 

Under Emperor Han Jing, alchemy became very popular. Wang Mang of the Western Han Dynasty was also very interested in alchemy and cultivation. Truong Dao Lang, founder of the Five Dou Me Dao and Chinh Nhat Dao sects in Taoism, also continuously collected secret methods of alchemy. He himself also had a lot of knowledge about alchemy.

At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Taoism became more popular than ever. Many fantastic healing methods appeared: Qigong to cure diseases, spells to ward off evil spirits, elixirs to prolong life. At this time, alchemy was widely applied.

But it was during the Tang Dynasty that the 'Age of Alchemy' really exploded . This is also the dynasty with the most emperors who died from "elixir". It is not an exaggeration to say that almost every emperor liked to create alchemy.

Both Tang Gaozong and Tang Minghuang of the Tang personally selected strangers who could make elixirs and had them melt the elixirs in the palace.

Unfortunately, the six emperors of the late Tang Dynasty all died of poisoning from taking elixirs. This shows how crazy these emperors were in their pursuit of immortality. Even when these elixirs contain highly toxic heavy metals like mercury, they still use them.

After all, mercury itself has no temptation. The temptation is that water is said to bring immortality. The emperors were "crazy" about mercury because they thought it actually brought immortality. 

Emperor Han Wu, after 20 years of struggling to find the elixir of life, finally gave up the elixir and chose to eat moderately, live happily and healthily and live to the age of 69. 

Therefore, there is no longevity medicine, everything only comes from one's own desires.