What is the Huangbai 黄白?

"Huángbái" is also a term in alchemy. It refers to gold and silver. In the early days of Taoism, the so-called "gold" was merely a yellow smelted substance, which Taoists equated with real gold. It was not until the Tang Dynasty that real gold was distinguished from this yellow substance, which was then called "medicinal gold."

As for silver, in Taoist dietary culture, it was naturally "medicinal silver." Due to linguistic convention, since the art of huángbái placed gold before silver, this technique took gold as its core and was called "gold-making art," which together with alchemy was collectively known as "golden elixir art."