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Now and before within Chinese alchemy they attempt to find an elixir of life using mercury (which is poisonous) which did not work well; thus, they switched to using gold.
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Alchemy in China starts as they attempt to turn substances to gold. This is partially to find an incredibly pure gold that will grant immortality which leads into more searches for immortality.
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Ko-Hung wrote a treatise on how gold and other metals can grant immortality which helped fuel this quest.
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A book explaining thoughts on how gold could grant immortality is released showing how many people believed in these ideas.
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A king bans the making of counterfeit gold and deters alchemy in this way steering it towards a search for immortality.
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The Chinese alchemy has switched towards finding a secret of Immortality some even falsely claim that they have.
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Emperor Suan hires an alchemist named Liu Tsiang to lengthen his life span with alchemy made gold. The alchemist failed and was nearly killed for it.
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A writing talking of a mixture of three powders that burn and dance comes from this time. This is likely referring to gunpowder
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Gunpowder has finally definitively been made mistakenly through this search for immortality. Ge Hong wrote down the ingredients and described the explosion.
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Another writing describes alchemists using gunpowder who burned down their house and burnt themselves with gunpowder which allowed people to find out about it.
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Gunpowder had been created once again this year and resulted in a home burning down. This the news of the gunpowder spreads and people find out about it which results in it being used in many things.
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Fireworks using bamboo that would naturally make popping sounds were in use, but now the Chinese used gunpowder in their fireworks.
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Gunpowder is used for the first time in the Chinese military to light arrows on fire before other more powerful uses were discovered.
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The Chinese discover gunpowder will make a bigger explosion the more oxygen rich it is.
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The Chinese use gunpowder in bamboo tubes to chanel the explosion at their enemies at short range shooting fire and arrows at them.
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The Chinese military creates the first canon slightly before this time. This is the time in which the first drawing of a canon appears. The canon completely changes how warfare works making defenses less helpful and armor less helpful in most battles.
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Knowledge and use of gunpowder begins to spread from china throughout the world. This mostly moves along the silk road at first.
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Around this time the Chinese engineers start using gunpowder in quarries to help mine rock.
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Mongol Generals Use the Canon in battle to stop a rebellion.
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People in Europe use gunpowder commonly. This completely revolutionizes battles from then all the way up until now.
