What was ancient cinnabar made of? How does cinnabar extract mercury?

We know that mercury is actually highly toxic. In modern society, mercury is often used to make thermometers because of its unique properties. But ancient mercury was a nightmare for many people because it was poisonous. It's just that mercury in ancient times was not as common as it is now, and it was more troublesome to extract it, so ancient people generally used to use cinnabar instead of mercury. What was ancient cinnabar made of? Why can cinnabar extract mercury? Let's take a look together.

Because the color of cinnabar is red, and it will not fade after a long time, it is customary to use cinnabar as a pigment in ancient times. However, although cinnabar looks beautiful, it is poisonous. Because the main component of cinnabar is mercury oxide, which is often referred to as mercury, a large amount of cinnabar is also harmful to human body.

Those who have been watching Ruyi Royal Love in the palace recently should know that Jin Yuyan ordered people to feed fish and shrimp with fish food mixed with cinnabar. Over time, the poison of mercury will gradually penetrate into fish and shrimp. However, pregnant aristocrats who eat these mercury-poisoned fish and shrimp either miscarry or give birth to deformed fetuses. In short, it is difficult to produce safely and smoothly.

Ruyi, on the other hand, was framed by others, took the blame for framing the heir with mercury for no reason, was demoted to a noble person, and entered the cold palace. It can be seen that cinnabar here is equivalent to mercury.

In ancient times, some prostitutes used a small amount of mercury to achieve the purpose of contraception. In ancient times, mercury was basically extracted from cinnabar, but mercury was toxic after all. Over time, it not only harms women's health, but also may lead to people never having children again.

There is a lot of mercury in Qin Shihuang's underground palace. It is said that a large part of this mercury was given to Qin Shihuang by Ba Widow Qing, the earliest female entrepreneur in China history. It is said that she made her fortune by mining cinnabar mines.