狐丘，亦称狐刚子，是道教创始人之一，炼丹术的杰出代表。他的生卒年份和籍贯在正史中无详述，但据今人陈国符先生考证，他可能与葛洪同时期，为晋代人。狐刚子的著作《五金诀》中，被誉为“最大之外丹黄白师”。赵匡华先生则认为，狐刚子名丘，又有胡罡子、狐罡子的称呼。他是东汉末年的炼丹大师，与魏伯阳相似，而葛玄则被看作其弟子。
他的著作反映了当时我国炼丹术的高度成就，并且展示了他在化学领域的卓越发明家地位。虽然他的作品未能完整保存下来，但唐初的《黄帝九鼎神丹经诀》及唐代黄白术专著中保留了他在这一领域的一些重要佚文，如《五金粉图诀》（又称《粉图经》、《粉图》、《五金诀》，又名《狐刚子万金诀》）、《出金矿图录》、《河车经》和《玄珠经》等。此外，《通志·艺文略》还记载了他撰写过一部关于金石还丹术的书卷。
fox gongzi, also known as fox qiu, is one of the founders of daoism and a master of alchemy. his birth and death dates are not recorded in the official histories, but according to modern scholar chen guofu, he may have lived during the jin dynasty around the same time as ge hong. fox qiu's work "wujin jue" earned him the title "greatest external elixir yellow white teacher". zhao kuanghua believes that fox qiu was named qiuchou or hushangzi. he was an outstanding representative of alchemical techniques during the late han dynasty and early three kingdoms period.
his writings reflect the high level of alchemical techniques achieved during that time and showcase his exceptional status as a chemist-inventor. although his works have not been fully preserved, some important fragments remain in tang-era texts such as "huangdi jiu ding shendanjing jue" and other treatises on yellow white techniques. these include "wujin fen tugu jue" (also known as "fentuguan", "fentuguan", or simply "wujin jue"), which is alternatively titled "fox gongzi wanjing jue". other notable works attributed to fox qiu include “chukuang kaolu lu”, “heche jing”, “xuanzhu jing”, etc.
besides his contributions to alchemy, fox qiu also made significant advancements in metallurgy. for instance, he introduced closed smelting methods for extracting mercury from cinnabar (danxi), a major breakthrough in ancient chinese mercury production history.
fox qiu's research into water-mercury chemistry included dividing it into three categories: masculine mercury (nuling), feminine mercury (nuling), and divine flying mercury (shenfei). corresponding extraction methods were developed for each type.
despite working under primitive conditions with limited equipment, fox qiu managed to achieve remarkable results by optimizing processes like blowing copper ash kilns for refining gold-silver alloys through a technique called blowing silver-gold alloy powder from molten metal using salt powder – thus producing extremely fine gold particles without losing any valuable silver content.
his nine-turn lead elixir method laid groundwork for understanding lead chemistry while remaining one of earliest records on obtaining lead oxide within ancient chinese literature; further demonstrating how far ahead this knowledge was compared to contemporary european practices at that time
this article highlights how china's alchemists reached advanced levels concerning formation tendencies between five metals along with their properties – much more profound than what can be found in traditional literature – representing rare scientific data worth studying further
