My paper focuses on a group of alchemical images found in Western and Chinese alchemy and featuring one or more agents forming a circle. The Chinese diagram known as “Diagram of the Supreme Ultimate” (taijitu 太極圖) represents two cosmic forces, Yin and Yang, completing each other; Western alchemical texts contain circular symbols of the same type such as the dragon biting its own tail, or two birds chasing each other, and so on. Even though these Chinese and Western diagram contain apparent similarities, it remains unknown whether there were any connections between them. Some authors claimed that such connections existed; for example, Persis Berlekamp in his paper of 2003 discussed a painting titled “The Silvery Water” found in an Islamic alchemical manuscript of 1339, and claimed that the symbol of two birds chasing each other and forming a circle originated from the Chinese diagram of Supreme Ultimate. In my paper, I would like to discuss the traditions of this kind of alchemical symbols; more specifically, I will focus on the following issues: (1) the “Diagram of the Supreme Ultimate” is found in Chinese treatises of the Song Dynasty (960-1279), but when did it appear for the first time, and where it originated from? (2) Were any other diagrams similar to the “Diagram of the Supreme Ultimate” and/or to the diagram of two birds found in Islamic and European alchemical treatises? (3) More broadly, what was the tradition of “circular diagrams” in Islamic and Western traditions? (4) Does a similarity of two diagrams always justifies that a transmission of diagrams and underlying concepts took place?
To deal with these questions, I will discuss the origin of the “Diagram of the Supreme Ultimate” and its meaning in Chinese alchemy. After that, I will focus on the symbol of dragon in traditional European alchemy. In particular, I will discuss Zhou Dunyi’s 周敦頤 (1017–1073) Taiji tushuo 太極圖說 (Explanations of the Diagram of the Supreme Ultimate) and Wei Boyang’s 魏伯陽 (fl. 142) Zhouyi Cantong qi 周易參同契 (The Kinship of the Three, in Accordance with the Book of Changes) concepts of the “Supreme Ultimate”, and analyze the alchemical images found in European alchemical compendia such as the Philosophia Reformata (1622), De Lapide Philosophico (1625) and Collectanea Chymica (1693).