The Chemical Choir

The Chemical Choir

by P.G. Maxwell-Stuart

Continuum, HK$200

Alchemy, if we are to believe historian P.G. Maxwell-Stuart, is something more to add to the growing list of things that originated in ancient China, along with the postal system, gunpowder and the wheelbarrow.

While most people associate alchemy with the transmutation of base metals into gold, our ancient mainland friends were more concerned with the other major branch of the discipline: the creation of elixirs for good health and prolonged - or even infinite - life. (Reincarnation wasn't a factor until the rise of Buddhism.) One also discovers here that gold's value (including its colour) to the Chinese goes back at least this far and was exploited by vendors selling fake gold; certificates of authenticity are not mentioned.

The Chemical Choir, however, does not explore the Chinese alchemists much beyond this; it is a thumbnail sketch that unfortunately prefigures the rest of the work and in this case is the more incongruous owing to the author's statement that such is the information available on China, he could 'produce a kind of 'family tree' of alchemists between the fourth and tenth centuries'. This is disappointing, because down the centuries alchemy has influenced and been influenced by philosophy, theology, science and prevailing societal and economic conditions. It could provide a fascinating and relatively unexplored lens through which to view the past 2,000 years.

One does find some interesting trivia in the book: the discovery of oxygen, for example, and the dabbling in the alchemical art of scientific luminaries such as Isaac Newton. More often, however, one finds tantalising mentions that are not followed up, the supposed 1984 laboratory-verified transmutation of mercury into silver being one example.

Broadly, the book is a work of philosophical history, not social, which can make it difficult reading for a general audience and this approach is not helped by some use of unexplained specialist language. It certainly contains some observations of societal influence on alchemy and vice versa: bipolar religious reactions, for one, ranging from direct support to prohibition, including the ordering by emperor Diocletian of alchemical books to be burned in Rome's Egyptian province, lest enough wealth be created to finance a rebellion.

One finds that however alchemy has been interpreted through the ages, from scam to literal truth, to a metaphor for individual and global transformation and everything in between, it tells us much about ourselves. It is a story variously of the esoteric - faith without evidence, the search for a spiritual active force - and the exoteric, spanning health, immortality and power.

Those with an interest in the development of the occult, mysticism and natural philosophy should find the book a worthy addition to their library. The thematic portrayal here, however, tends to delve too far into the history of philosophy and magic to generate strong appeal for the general reader.