The Elixir of Life or of Immortality is celebrated as the potion providing one an ageless life and granting the drinker eternal life. Chinese alchemists and Taoists believed it cured all diseases and obsessively searched for its formula for millennia. The possibility and search for it fascinated emperors, statesmen, poets, scholars, and a long list of others. China’s first emperor launched a nationwide search for this elusive potion before his death in 210 BCE and some emperors died from drinking potions that contained mercury, sulphur, metals, and other fatal ingredients. Taoist philosophy stressed a life in harmony with the Tao or Dao (the Way) achieved by living simply, honestly. and in harmony with nature. In the Han dynasty, Taoists who observed the metamorphosis of silkworms from their cocoon concluded that the mulberry leaves silkworms ate must have life-prolonging, magical, and transformational properties. A mulberry leaf potion was placed in tombs inside cocoon-shaped jars decorated with painted images of clouds to aid souls of the departed in the afterlife to happily live among the immortals and gods in the heavens forever. Images of Ming and Qing dynasty Taoist officials and priests are easily identified when they hold a cup of the elixir of life.
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Images of Taoist priests were often placed on a home altar along with other spiritual images, ancestral tablets and ancestor figures to honor the departed family members, practice familial piety and ancestor-worship, and request good fortune to the family dwelling and its household. Priests were called daoshi (道士 “master of the Tao”) identified by his…
Families placed cocoon jars with auspicious designs containing magical mixtures of mulberry leaves in tombs for souls of the departed to drink for a transformative afterlife. Ovoid shaped, it rests on a trumpet-shaped foot decorated with elegant cloud scrolls and circular “eye” motifs.
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