Master Geng: Chinese Alchemist Geng Xiansheng, 'Refining Snow' or Using Mercury to Extract Silver from Snow

Geng Xiansheng, linocut 9.25" x 12.5" by Ele Willoughby, 2025

Mercury is the final prompt for #printerSolstice2425, which again made me think of alchemy. It is an element the alchemists favoured and felt was fundamental in their efforts to transmute base metals into precious metals, both in western and Chinese alchemy (from whence the more familiar western alchemy emerged). Chinese alchemy (煉丹術 liàndānshù), a name which literally means a method for refining cinnabar, or mercury sulphide (HgS) focused on longevity (and alignment with Tao) . It can be divided into the esoteric "inner alchemy" and "external alchemy" focused on making elixirs. 

The earliest recorded woman in Chinese alchemy was Fang (Chinese: 方), who lived roughly the first century BCE and is credited with a method for turning mercury into silver. So little is known about her, and what little that is known is so tragic, that I opted for another woman alchemist associated with "turning" mercury into silver, ten centuries later.  

This is my hand-printed linocut portrait of a woman alchemist known as Master Geng who flourished some time before the year 975 (Chinese: 耿先生; pinyin: Gěng Xiānshēng; Wade–Giles: Kêng Hsien-shêng). According to legend, this daughter of a scholar named Geng Qian (sometimes spelled Keng Chhien),  was known from adolescence for her intelligence, curiosity and skill in alchemy. She appears in the writing of alchemist Wu Shu, in his book Chiang Huai I Jen Lu (or Records of Twenty-five Strange Magician-Technicians between the Yangtze and Huai River) written in 975. An expert in what was called "the art of the yellow and the white" (that is, alchemy), she distilled perfumes and was also known as a talented poet and magician. Her fame grew to the point that the Emperor Xuanzong (circa 846-859) invited her to the palace, where rather than being counted amongst the palace women, she was honoured as a scholar and given the title Master, as in teacher. She was eloquent, spoke with confidence and known for wearing green robes and for her skills in performing alchemical transformations in the Imperial Court. In particular, she was known for using mercury for "creating" silver. One story tells that she could even transform snow into silver. The Emperor wished to test her skills and noted that all her transformations employed fire  and enquired whether she could perform a transformation without it. 

"She answered, 'Let me try. It might be.' So the Emperor took some mercury and enveloped it in several layers of beaten bark-cloth, closing it with the [Imperial] seal; this she placed forthwith in her bosom. After a long time there suddenly came a sound like the tearing of a piece of silk. The Teacher [Geng Xiansheng] smiled and said: 'Your Majesty did not believe in my methods, but now you will see for yourself. Ought you not to trust me ever hereafter?' Then she handed the packet back to the Emperor who saw that the seal was unbroken and upon opening it found that the mercury had all turned to silver."

Song Dynasty scroll painting "Master Geng of the Southern Tang Dynasty refining snow'"

Modern chemists speculate that she might in fact have been using a legitimate chemical process which uses mercury to extract silver from ore. Likewise, her distilling of perfumes could have employed early prohibitive form of the Soxhlet process to continuously extract camphor into alcohol. Thus while alchemy differs from modern chemistry in aims and understanding, she would have been using some methods which we can recognize as scientific and can be seen as part of history of chemistry.

In her personal life she was known for her love of wine and romantic liaisons. 

My portrait is inspired by Song Dynasty paintings including one scroll painting called 'Master Geng of the Southern Tang Dynasty refining snow' and illustrations of alchemists and their tools like the large three-legged ting furnace in which medicines were prepared.

Detail of Song Dynasty scroll painting "Master Geng of the Southern Tang Dynasty refining snow'"

References

Chinese alchemy, Wikipedia, accessed March, 2025

Fitzgerald, C.P. The Horizon History of China, American Publishing Co., Inc., New York, 1969.

Gordon, Robin L. Chinese Women Alchemists, Women Alchemists 2.0 website, accessed March, 2025.

Master Geng, Wikipedia, accessed March, 2025

Maxwell-Stuart, P. G. (2012-03-01). The Chemical Choir: A History of Alchemy. A&C Black. p. 13. ISBN 9781441132970.

Rayner-Canham, Marelene F.; Rayner-Canham, Marelene; Rayner-Canham, Geoffrey (2001). Women in Chemistry: Their Changing Roles from Alchemical Times to the Mid-twentieth Century. Chemical Heritage Foundation. pp. 4–5. ISBN 9780941901277.

Xin, Yang, Barnhart, Richard M., Chongzheng, Nie, Cahill, James, Shaojun, Lang and Hung, Wu. Three Thousand Years of Chinese Painting, Yale University Press, 1997

Florence Bascom geologist

Florence Bascom, linocut print, 9.25" x 12.5" by Ele Willougby, 2025

As an Earth scientist, the #printerSolstice2425 prompt silicon made me think of the Earth's crust, so I took the opportunity to make a portrait of brilliant trailblazing US geologist and professor Florence Bascom (1862-1945) who championed women’s education, and, amongst other things, pioneered the use of microscopy in petrology (the field of geology describing the structure and minearlogic composition of rocks) and used polarizing microscopes for detailed petrographic analysis to show that rocks previously identified as sedimentary were in fact metamorphosed (that is, changed in composition through heat and pressure over time). She called these volcanic rocks she called aporhyolite (implying a change in rhyolite, a silica rich igneous rock, as in her thin sections like the ones in my print). Though she was the second US woman to complete her doctorate in geology, after paleontologist Mary Emilie Holmes (University of Michigan, 1888), Bascom, the most famous US early woman geologist, is often called the first US woman geologist.

A portrait of Florence Bascom (Public Domain). Smithsonian Institution Archives Collection:
Science Service Records, 1902-1965 (Record Unit 7091)

Unusually for the time, she was encouraged to pursue university education. She was born the youngest of five children in Williamstown, Massachusetts. Her father John, Bascom was a teacher, then professor of oratory and rhetoric at Williams College and supporter of women's suffrage and coeducation. He became president of University of Wisconsin in 1874 and by 1875 he had opened the school to women. Her mother was a teacher, firebrand suffragette and women’s rights activist Emma Curtiss Bascom. Florence herself, a quiet, self-possessed, brilliant student, entered the University of Wisconsin in 1877 at age 15. Women still had limited access to the library, gymnasium and classes with full male enrolment. If there were not enough seats for men in attendance, women were asked to leave the classroom. Her interest in science was fostered by trips exploring the outdoors with her father, who maintained an observatory and laboratory at home. She completed both a BA (1882) in literature and a BSc (1884) in natural science, at the University of Wisconsin. She taught at the Hampton Institute (now Hampton University, 1884-1885), created post-Civil War to educate freed Black formerly enslaved students and Indigenous students. Homesickness brought her back to Madison, Wisconsin. During a drive with her father and family friend, Ohio State University geologist Dr. Edward Orton, discussing the formation of the landscape around them, she became fascinated. With some encouragement and cajoling from her father, she re-enrolled and completed her M.Sc in geology at the University of Wisconsin in 1887. She was frustrated that the field did not allow her to participate as fully as her male peers and was barred from taking part in fieldwork, which was (and often still is) considered a fundamental part of the training of geologists. She taught high school at the Rockford Seminary for Women (later Rockford College) for two years but craved a greater challenge. Her professors encouraged her to pursue her doctorate at John Hopkins University, then the premier geology school.

Florence Bascom holding a Brunton compass1. From: Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College

Despite her multiple degrees and glowing letters of recommendation from several geologists and her university president father, she still had to argue her case to be allowed as the first woman enter the doctoral program at John Hopkins University. The university's founder and president Daniel C. Gilman vehemently opposed coeducation. One of the trustees called women "the foreign enemy within the walls." She petitioned for admission, arguing that she could not receive an equivalent education elsewhere, and was successful with support of her professors. But even then, she was not an official student, and was ineligible for scholarships or fellowships. She needed her family's financial support to attend. She was unhelpfully limited in her library and classroom access to protect her from the “rougher influences” of the young men. Many sources claim that Bascom was forced to sit behind a screen during lectures to shield her from the men and avoid distracting them, but other scholars point out there is a lack of primary sources to support this story; whether the story is true or apocryphal, she certainly found herself quite isolated and singled out, the subject of sexism and animosity. In 1891, her father wrote to her that "you better put a stone or two in your pocket to throw at those heads that are thrust out of windows," in response to those who would gawk at the lone woman. She was forbidden as a woman to participate in fieldwork through the university, but her supervisor, renown geologist George Williams, who believed strongly in equal education for women, insisted fieldwork was a necessary part of a geologist's training. He also worked for the United States Geological Survey (USGS) so, he took her on his USGS field excursions, bringing his wife along to avoid unwanted rumours about a male professor alone in the woods with his female student. Bascom fell in love with fieldwork. She did all the physical work of field geology, hiking and hauling tools and samples, as her male peers, in a high necked gown. In her isolation at the university she decided to focus on petrology and became expert in crystallography and mineralogy. She worked in these nascent fields, trained by the leaders and earliest pioneers. Her thesis “A Contribution to the Geology of South Mountain, Pennsylvania” is regarded as a major contribution to Appalachian geology and she published part of it in the first volume of the Journal of Geology in 1893. Though other some faculty denounced the very idea of women PhD candidates, Williams supported her research and publication efforts and cited her research in his own publications. Tragically, Williams, then only 38, contracted typhoid fever while in the field in 1894. Knowing Bascom would face barriers to publication as a woman, as his health worsened, he submitted her work to the USGS and succeeded in having it published as USGS Bulletin 136 before he died. She used the very recent geologic technique of petrographic microscopy to correct misconceptions about the formation of rocks at the northernmost tip of the Blue Ridge Mountains. She furthered understanding of the east coast of the US and redefined the recognized cycles of erosion in Pennsylvania. She published more than 40 papers - still relevant today - about the crystallography and geomorphology of the Appalachian Piedmont, in Maryland and Pennsylvania, including length USGS Bulletins and Folios. After teaching for a couple of years at Ohio State (1893-1895), she was recruited by women's college Bryn Mawr President James Rhoads. She founded the Geology Department at Bryn Mawr in 1895, working out of a small spaced boarded off in the storage area of the biology, chemistry and physics building. After his death, his successor Martha Carey Thomas did not think geology would appeal to women, and discouraged it. Nonetheless, she persisted, working tirelessly to establish their mineral and literature collection for teaching over the course of two years, developing a lab and field-based curriculum. She became a full prof in 1906, and took a year-long sabbatical to the University of Heidelberg to train with renown crystallographer Victor Mordechai Goldschmidt, who had studied alongside Bascom's supervisor Williams. Bascom and Goldschmidt became true friends, and Florence gained a second devoted mentor and confidant with whom she corresponded for many years. She continued to correspond with his wife Leontine after his death.

In her research she was detail-oriented and driven by the data. Her writing was clear and incisive if sometimes terse, forceful and unapologetic. For instance, in correcting a poorly-determined age for certain igneous rocks previously published in the literature she wrote, "this determination was made on the basis of some rather dubious fossils submitted... by Persifor Frazer and cannot, therefore, be considered perfectly trustworthy." She proceeded to make her own case with clear and detailed illustrations, like those I included in my portrait. She also defended her turf fiercely, on occasion feuding with colleagues who published on her area of expertise but neglected to seek her review.

Florence Bascom (second from front, flat rather than pointy hat) on a field trip,
possibly to the Grand Canyon, with students in 1906. Sophia Smith Collection (Smith College)

Having benefited from great mentorship, Bascom followed suit and was an extraordinary mentor. A tough but innovative in teaching and a devoted mentor, she trained the next generation of women in geology, making one of the best geology departments in the country. She invited world-famous geologists to come lecture her students. She emphasized both lab and fieldwork for students. She argued fieldwork should count towards their physical education credit, clashing with university president Thomas who demanded that women wear appropriate apparel. The usual "athletic skirt" was not to be worn off-campus, and students would require walking skirts before being allowed in the field.  In 1932, she wrote, "I have considerable pride in the fact that some of the best work done in geology today by women, ranking with that done by men, has been done by my students... these are all notable young women who will be a credit to the science of geology." In 1937, of the women who had been made Fellows of the Society of America, 8 of 11 had been her students at Bryn Mawr. Hired to do fieldwork by the USGS in the summers, she returned to Bryn Mawr in to teach after her field seasons and write up her research. Working at the USGS gave her access to more books, labs and colleagues. The university president used her passion for fieldwork and her USGS work to argue that the geology program should be dissolved, but Bascom won that battle too. The strain of her double career and teaching load made things difficult and put a strain on her mental health. But she loved her work and wrote, "one finds a joy that is beyond expression in 'sounding the abyss of science' and the secrets of the infinite mind.

Photo of Bascom teaching in the field around 1915. Bryn Mawr College Archives (Public Domain)

She was the first woman: hired by the USGS in 1896; to present a paper at the Geological Society of Washington in 1901; and she was the second women elected to the Geological Society of America in 1924; and elected VP of the GSA in 1930. She was associate editor of the American Geologist, 1896-1905. In 1906 she the only woman added to the list of 100 most influential geologists by the American publication Men in Science; she was recognized by her colleagues as one of the leading figures in the field. Though future editions included many of the women students she trained, it remained "Men" in Science until 1971. A lover of animals as well as the outdoors, she was known for hiding her horse Fantasy around campuses, and bicycling to work when wearing divided skirts to do so was still rather scandalous. She never married, commenting that women were too often lost to science due to marriage and domestic duties - an issue we still see today. She cut her hair short and often did not bother styling it, having other priorities and working from dawn to dusk in the field. She wrote, "This is the life, to plunge into the welcome isolation of the field, to return to the stimulating association of Bryn Mawr, to observe and in part to clear up geologic phenomena, to return to the exposition and interpretation of geologic phenomena." She retired in 1928 from Bryn Mawr to the Berkshires in western Massachusetts but kept working at the USGS until age 74 in 1936. She died June 18, 1945, in Williamstown, where she was born. The USGS Florence Bascom Geoscience Center, and several geological features including a glacial lake, Venusian crater and an asteroid are named in her honour. She left behind a tremendous record of important geological research and excellent mentorship and training of future geologists.

References 

Ball, Jessica. Dr Florence Bascom: Sounding the abyss of science. Finding Ada. April 1, 2021.

Bascom, F. and G. W. Stose. Description of the Coatesville and West Chester Quadrangles. US Geological Survey Atlas of the United States, Folio, 223. 1938.

Bascom, F. and G. W. Stose. Geology and Mineral Resources of the Honeybrook and Phoenixville Quadrangles, Pennsylvania. USGS Bulletin 891, 1938.

Florence Bascom (1862-1945), Geological Digressions, September 26, 2024. 

Florence Bascom Wikipedia, accessed March, 2025.

Florence Bascom, Trailblazer of the U.S. Geological Survey, Communications and Publishing, USGS, March 1, 2023.

Hurler, Kevin. Florence Bascom, a geologic juggernaut. Advanced Science News, January 27, 2022.

Oglivie, Ida H. Florence Bascom 1862-1945. Science. Vol. 102, Issue 2648, pp. 320-321, September 28, 1945, DOI: 10.1126/science.102.2648.320

Schueth, Jon. The Stone Lady: Florence Bascom (Part 1). Bias in the Fossil Record. April 2, 2021.

Schueth, Jon. A "Woman's Sphere" - Florence Bascom (Part 2). Bias in the Fossil Record. April 12, 2021.

Schueth, Jon. On the Shoulders of Giants: Florence Bascom (Part 3). Bias in the Fossil Record. April 20, 2021.

Schueth, Jon. The Bascom-Goldschmidt Letters: Florence Bascom (Part IV). Bias in the Fossil Record. May 6, 2021.

Shillito, Lisa-Marie. Florence Bascom. Trowelblazers. July 14, 2014.

Sneiderman, Jill S. Rock Stars: A Life of Firsts: Florence Bascom. GSA Today, July 1997.

The Stone Lady Florence Bascom, Acadia National Park, National Park Service, last edited February 5, 2021.