Ge Hong recommends compounding jinyi (lit. "gold liquid/fluid") "golden liquor" in a huachi (lit. "flower pond"), "a vinegar solvent" (fortified with saltpeter). This is simpler to produce than traditional jiuding "nine tripods" elixirs (attributed to the Yellow Emperor), but more expensive – eight doses cost 400,000 cash. It is true that the nine medicines are the best of Hsien medicines. Yet the materials for their compounding are quite numerous. They are easily procurable only in large cities which have good facilities for communication, but are not to be obtained at other places. Furthermore, in the compounding of the medicines, the fires should be tended for tens of days and nights with industrious application and close adjustment, which is a great difficulty. The compounding of the Gold Fluid is much easier. There the only thing which is difficult is to get the gold. One pound in the old measure is equivalent to two in our contemporary measure. Such a quantity of gold would cost only some three hundred thousand cash. The other auxiliary materials are easy to procure. In the compounding, no fire is required. All that needs to be done is to have the mixture in a Hua Ch'ih (Flower Pond) for the necessary number of days. A total expenditure of four hundred thousand cash will make an amount large enough to transform eight persons into Hsien. Just as no wine is formed by the fermentation of small quantities of rice, so small quantities of materials will not be able to interact to give the medicine. (4) Pregadio says recent studies show Ge's intent was "glorifying the religious and ritual legacy of Jiangnan (the region south of the lower Yangtze River), emphasizing the superiority of certain traditions over others, and enhancing their prestige among the social elite to which Ge Hong belonged." Nonetheless, Pregadio concludes, Ge Hong's testimony deserves attention as a valuable overview of the religious traditions of Jiangnan just before the Way of the Celestial Masters (Tianshi dao) spread to that area, soon followed by the Shangqing and Lingbao revelations. From this point of view, the Baopuzi documents important links between the earlier and later history of Taoism, as it also does for medicine and other fields. References Footnotes'Further reading Hu Fuchen. 1991. Baopuzi neipian yanjiu (Research on the Inner Chapters of The Master Embracing Simplicity). Xinhua chubanshe. Kominami Ichirō , 1978. "Gishin jidai no shinsen shisō: Shinsenden