Alchemy: Transforming Stone into Gold

Author: Yang Shaogang
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-01-01
Features: The Mystery of the Origin of Alchemy, Transmuting Stones into Gold: Western Alchemy from Ancient Greece to Modern Times, Immortality: Ancient Chinese Alchemy, East Meets West: The Origin of Alchemy in Arab Countries, Mysterious Alchemical Symbols, Characters, and Their Symbolic Functions, An Interpretive Analysis of the Glory of Alchemy, An Introduction to the Religious and Psychological Issues of Alchemy. Part of the "Jung's Mystical Psychology" series, this book comprehensively studies the historical development of alchemy and Jung's psychological analysis of it. The book includes: Transmuting Stones into Gold: Western Alchemy from Ancient Greece, the Middle Ages to Modern Times; Immortality: Ancient Chinese Alchemy; East Meets West: The Origin of Alchemy in Arab Countries. This book focuses on Jung's psychological reflections on alchemy, involving many long-forgotten historical facts from ancient China, Arab countries, and European nations, making the research quite challenging. Fortunately, during my study of Jungian psychology, I had the privilege of meeting many internationally renowned Jungian psychology researchers, especially the president of the International Association of Analytical Psychology, who, upon hearing that I was studying Jung's alchemical thoughts, greatly encouraged and supported me, and generously provided me with a large amount of research materials, enabling me to gain a relatively comprehensive understanding of Jung's psychological views on alchemy, as well as many historical facts about the origin, development, and evolution of alchemy. This laid a solid foundation for me to complete the writing of this book. The book cites many references and documents from foreign scholars, as well as some relevant academic monographs from China. The illustrations in the book are mainly sourced from foreign materials.