Chinese alchemy is a
Chinese culture approach to
alchemy, a part of the larger tradition of
Taoist body-spirit cultivation developed from the traditional Chinese understanding of
medicine and the body. According to original texts such as the
Cantong qi, the body is understood as the focus of cosmological processes summarized in the five agents, or
wu xing, the observation and cultivation of which leads the practitioner into greater alignment with the operation of the
Tao, the great cosmological principle of everything. Therefore, the traditional view in China is that alchemy focuses mainly on the purification of one's spirit and body in the hopes of gaining
immortality through the practice of
Qigong and/or consumption and use of various concoctions known as alchemical medicines or
elixirs, each of which having different purposes.