Updated July 26, 20194.

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For centuries, Chinese emperors drank immortality potions meant to extend their lifespans.
Tales of an island of immortals entranced emperors, who believed they could join the ranks
of immortals if they found the perfect elixir. But what lengths were emperors willing to go to
in order to achieve immortality?

China's first emperor, Qin Shi Huang, became obsessed with immortality. Qin Shi Huang
devoted years to escaping his own mortality, until he ended his life by consuming an
immortality elixir made from mercury. Many of his successors chased immortality, as well,
often drinking toxic potions to obtain eternal life. As one scholar noted, according to
centuries of Chinese emperors, “Holiness essentially meant the art of not dying.” By living
forever, Chinese rulers proved they were god-like.
Ironically, many immortality potions contained toxic ingredients like mercury and
sulfur. Across multiple dynasties, emperors ended their own lives by drinking such elixirs,
including the Wuzong Emperor in the Song Dynasty, the Jiajing Emperor in the Ming
Dynasty, and the Yongzheng Emperor in the Qing Dynasty. Emperors in the Zhou Dynasty
ate jade to live longer. In other periods, emperors ate arsenic. By trying to live forever,
multiple Chinese emperors wound up taking their own lives instead.

China's First Emperor Survived Multiple Attempts On

His Life, Intensifying His Quest For Immortality
China's first emperor kicked off the search for immortal life by dedicating much of his reign
to avoiding his demise. Qin Shi Huang unified China in 221 BC, becoming the first emperor.
And for over a decade, he ordered scholars and magicians to locate an immortality elixir so
he wouldn't perish. 
The emperor ordered every government official in China to commit resources to his quest.
One official from Duxiang wrote back apologizing for not discovering immortality yet, while
an official in Langya sent Qin Shi Huang an herb with life-extending properties. 
 Photo: 
Utagawa Kuniyoshi/Wikimedia Commons/Public DomainHan Dynasty historian Sima
Qian recorded Qin Shi Huang's efforts to live forever. In one instance, a group led by the
magician Xu Fu promised to find the mythical island of the immortals, known as Penglai.
Sima Qian wrote, "They asked that they be allowed to fast and purify themselves and to go
with a group of young boys and girls to search for them. The emperor thereupon ordered Xu
Fu to gather a group of several thousand young boys and girls and set out to sea to search for
the immortal men.”
Xu Fu set off on a journey into the eastern seas in 219 BC, promising he would find the secret
to eternal life. In fact, the magician conned the emperor, demanding a luxury boat and 6,000
virgins to discover the immortality elixir. The emperor agreed, waiting years for Xu Fu to
return with the promised potion.

While he was waiting, assassins nearly took out Qin Shi Huang. It wasn't the first attempt on
the emperor's life. Years earlier, scholar Jing Ke nearly ended Qin Shi Huang by hiding a
poisoned dagger inside a scroll. These close calls only increased the emperor's paranoia.
 

Penglai's Sea Monsters Wouldn't Stop The Emperor's

Quest for Immortality

Photo: Yuan Yao/Wikimedia Commons/Public

Domain
Nine years after heaping riches on Xu Fu to find Penglai, the immortal island, the emperor
nearly gave up. However, the attempt on his life shook the emperor. He demanded to know
why Xu Fu hadn't yet discovered immortality. Xu Fu promised Qin Shi Huang, “the herbs of
Penglai can surely be obtained," except a sea monster was guarding the island. 

His anxiety over his mortality growing, the emperor vowed to sail on Xu Fu's ship himself
and slay the sea monster. Xu Fu reluctantly let the emperor on board, where Qin
Shi Huang fired several arrows at a large fish or whale before they finally turned back. 

The unsuccessful voyage left Qin Shi Huang even more worried about his passing. He
ordered Xu Fu to sail for Penglai once more. This time, the magician's ship left shore and
never returned.

Just days later, Qin Shi Huang ingested toxic mercury pills. An imperial alchemist promised
the mercury would make the emperor immortal. Instead, it took the emperor's life in his 40s.

After the emperor's sudden passing, his body was secretly transported back to the capital
surrounded by fish to hide the stench. But news of Qin Shi Huang's demise soon spread,
leading to a civil conflict that ended the Qin Dynasty. Qin Shi Huang had vowed to found a
dynasty that lasted 10,000 generations. Instead, his dynasty was ruined by his own search for
immortality.
Even while searching for an immortality elixir, Qin Shi Huang planned out his burial,
ordering thousands of forced laborers to create an elaborate underground mausoleum.
Complete with 8,000 terra cotta soldiers and horses, the emperor's tomb remained hidden
until the 1970s. According to ancient sources, Qin Shi Huang's burial palace contained rivers
of mercury. More than 2,000 years later, the soil around the emperor's tomb still shows high
levels of mercury.
Jade, Mercury, and Arsenic Were Key Ingredients in
Immortality Potions
Even after Qin Shi Huang's passing, multiple Chinese emperors searched for potions that
could grant immortal life. Both jade and mercury were supposed to stop bodily decay, an
important first step.

In the Zhou Dynasty, emperors purified themselves by eating jade. One book recorded,
"When the emperor purifies himself by abstinence, the chief in charge of the jade works
prepares for him the jade which he is obliged to eat." When an emperor passed, the book
recommended feeding the corpse jade before burial to help promote immortality.

Photo: Unknown/Wikimedia
Commons/Public Domain
Han tombs also contained jade "plugs," placed in the orifices of cadavers to hold in their
lifeforce. These plugs, placed in the ears, nose, mouth, and anus, preserved the person's spirit.
In addition to jade, Chinese alchemists promised that mercury could extend lives. Mercury
was even called the "immortal elixir" and consumed by multiple emperors. A medical remedy
made from cinnabar, a sulfide of mercury, was often included in laxatives, soap, and
cosmetics. Arsenic was also used in immortality potions. These ingredients, even at very
small doses, could prove fatal.

Six Tang Emperors Perished From Immortality Elixirs

During the Tang Dynasty, at least six emperors perished after consuming immortality
potions. Alchemists promised that elixirs made from mercury and sulfur could grant eternal
life. Instead, the potions ended the emperors who consumed them.
The Tang Dynasty poet Po Chu-i tried to create his own elixir after a merchant's rumors
claimed he was destined for immortality. According to the story, the merchant had been
shipwrecked on Penglai, where he saw the poet's name inscribed among the immortals.
After years of failing to achieve immortality, Po Chu-i admitted that immortality elixirs
seemed to harm the people who drank them. In one poem, he lamented the passing of friends
who took elixirs: "I think of old friends, and they seem to appear before my eyes... All fell ill
or died suddenly; none of them lived through middle age." Life experience didn't change Po
Chu-i's desire for everlasting life; he concluded his poem by acknowledging, "Only I have not
taken the elixir; yet contrarily live on, an old man."

The dangerous concoctions eventually fell out of favor when the Tang Dynasty ended in 905.
Emperors simply couldn't ignore the evidence: The elixirs seemed to hasten the
afterlife rather than extend life. But that didn't stop the search for an immortality potion.
Instead, emperors began to focus on "internal alchemy."

After days of fasting, practitioners could grow an immortal body inside their mortal body.
But internal alchemy brought its own dangers. Accounts warned: “Your clever spirit will leap
and dance. You will sing and dance spontaneously, and utter crazy words from your mouth.
You will compose poetry and will not be able to be restrained.”

Peaches, Mushrooms, and the Moon Rabbit Also

Promised Immortality
Mercury wasn't the only substance emperors consumed to prolong life. Chinese medicine also
promoted the lingzhi, or "mushroom of immortality." By regularly eating the mushroom,
many Chinese texts promised, one could live forever.
The peaches of immortality also granted immortal life to those who ate them. But unlike the
mushrooms, which grew across east Asia, Chinese mythology claimed the peaches only grew
in a single orchard belonging to a Chinese goddess. The peaches took thousands of years to
ripen, at which point immortal gods feasted on them. If humans found the peaches, they, too,
could obtain immortality.
Instead of unraveling the recipe for immortality, another group saw a shortcut to eternal life
through the Moon Rabbit. Chinese folklore claimed that Chang'e, a lunar goddess, took an
immortality elixir from her husband. When she drank it, Chang'e floated to the moon, where
she met the Moon Rabbit, the maker of immortality potions.

Photo: Unknown artist from the Qing emperors'

court/Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain
Emperors venerated the Moon Rabbit. In the 18th century, one emperor wore an embroidered
robe that showed the Moon Rabbit mixing an immortality elixir. In the 8th century, the poet
Li Bai wrote, "The rabbit in the moon pounds the medicine in vain." When trying to catch the
moon's reflection in the Yangtze River, Li Bai fell from his boat and drowned. 
The Search For Immortality Led Mostly To The
Premature Loss Of Life
Qin Shi Huang dedicated much of his life to avoiding his own demise. And yet by pursuing
immortality, the emperor slowly poisoned his body. Emperors in the Tang Dynasty similarly
sought eternal life but only found an early grave.

Chinese emperors connected immortality with divinity, believing that a long lifespan served
as proof of their right to rule. But in their search for immortality, multiple emperors wrecked
their bodies and minds. Even before leading to their ultimate demise, poisonous substances
like mercury harmed emperors. An immortality elixir that contained a non-fatal dose of
mercury would still affect cognitive functions and weaken the body.
In spite of the high cost, the siren song of immortality drove many emperors to extreme
lengths