Why did Taoism later become an alchemist?

Think of the ancient emperor and think of the elixir of life, and think of the melting pot of Taoism. In this way, Taoism has become an alchemist in people's eyes. Not Taoist alchemy, but their alchemy is too famous. Qin Shihuang's search for elixir of life has been laughed at for thousands of years. Gao Yang, Emperor of the Northern Qi Dynasty, died in Jiuzhuan Dan. On his deathbed, Li Shimin turned to the elixir for help. Zhu Houzong is a pure Taoist, obsessed with the elixir all day. These things make Taoism and elixir inseparable.

Although alchemy is extremely important to Taoism, in the early days, alchemy was not exclusive to Taoists (in fact, it will not be in the future). At first, people were most willing to believe in the alchemy of Taoist priests, that is, they would rather drink a bowl of water from Taoist priests than go to get medicine all at once. The main purpose of alchemy is to cure diseases, but it is certainly not as magical as the myth. Later, some people with ulterior motives appeared in the alchemy? Resurrected? Of course, if you believe it, the best outcome can only be cheated of money and feelings like Qin Shihuang, but there are also many people who died directly after taking Dan medicine in history.

In fact, the example mentioned above is flawed. Li Shimin's elixir was actually made by the Buddhist coach, so as mentioned above, alchemy is not exclusive to Taoist priests, but only a few people really saw it, so most people have formed the stereotype that Taoism is an alchemy. In fact, many things like this are not only made by other Buddhist schools, but also left to Taoism, which took over the title of alchemy.

However, it is really a good thing to blame Taoism for all the alchemy. Except for poisoning several emperors, it may be criticized by the world, but the contribution of alchemy in medical treatment, military (gunpowder) and chemistry is attributed to Taoism. In this way, instead of the success of black-handed party teaching, it helped Taoism to a higher level and made people famous.