The Dynasties of China Quotes

“Another very popular form of magic, now and for many centuries to follow, was the whole range of alchemy which had attached itself to the more purely mystical philosophy of early Daoism. The Way of the Daoists had been a method of transcending life, of getting in touch with some form of eternity beyond life. Among their humdrum successors this ideal often became lost in the more common quest for eternal life itself...”
― Bamber Gascoigne, The Dynasties of China: A History