Born: Unknown, China
Died: Unknown
Country most active: China
Also known as: 方
The following is excerpted from Infinite Women creator Allison Tyra’s book Uncredited: Women’s Overlooked, Misattributed, and Stolen Work.
Fang, who lived during the first century BCE, was the earliest recorded woman alchemist in China. She reputedly discovered a way to turn mercury into silver—one interpretation is that she used a chemical technique to extract silver from ores using mercury. This would have left pure silver residue behind when the mercury boiled away. Her husband Cheng Wei physically abused her, attempting to force her to reveal the secret procedure. She refused, eventually going insane—possibly from all that mercury exposure, as it’s a neurotoxin—and committed suicide.