Round 11: Tossup 1

Carl Jung’s Psychology and Alchemy describes this substance as a mediating spirit that unifies representations of the feminine and masculine. Early alchemists like Zosimos used the term azoth for this substance, which Daedalus used to give motion to a wooden statue of Aphrodite. This substance provides liquidity in a system popularized by Jābir ibn Ḥayyān, (-5[1])who sought the perfect ratio of this “cold” (10[1])substance and “hot” sulfur. (10[2]-5[1])This (-5[1])substance (10[2])joins sulfur and salt in Paracelsus’s (-5[1])tria (10[1])prima. In Chinese (10[1])terms (10[1])for internal and external alchemy, the character dān refers to a form of this substance. (-5[2])In the West, this element’s symbol (10[1])is a cross under a caduceus because alchemists (10[1])renamed (10[1])it after a patron of merchants, travellers, (10[1])and (10[1])thieves. (10[2])For (10[1])10 points, (10[1])name this element used in immortality (10[1])elixirs that supposedly killed Qín Shǐ Huáng. ■END■ (10[6])

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