狐丘，亦称狐刚子，道教炼丹之杰。其生卒年月与籍贯不详。据今人考证，为晋代人，与葛洪同时期。狐刚子以《五金诀》著称，被誉为“最大之外丹黄白师”。他在黄白术领域的研究达到了高峰，是我国古代化学发明家的代表人物。
尽管他的著作未能完整流传，但在唐初的《黄帝九鼎神丹经诀》及唐代的《龙虎还丹诀》、《太古土兑经》中，我们可以找到他关于黄白术的一些重要佚文。他撰写了多部著作，如《五金粉图诀》（又称《粉图经》、《粉图》、《五金诀》，又名《狐刚子万金诰》，以及其他如《出金矿图录》、《河车经》和《玄珠经》的作品。此外，他还撰写了对炼制金属有深入研究的文献，其中包括对水银提炼法、铅化合物合成等方面的开创性工作。
foxglove, also known as foxgongzi, is a representative figure in Taoist alchemy. His birth and death dates are unknown. According to modern scholars, he was a contemporary of Ge Hong during the Jin Dynasty. Foxgongzi is famous for his work "Wujin jue", which has earned him the title of "the greatest external elixir yellow-white master". He reached the peak of research in the field of yellow-white elixirs and is considered one of China's earliest chemists.
Although his works have not been fully preserved, they can be found in Tang dynasty texts such as "Huangdi jiu ding shen dan jing jue" and other alchemical treatises like "Longhu huandan jue", "Taigu tu dui jing", and so on. He wrote several important works including "Wujin fen tu jue" (also known as "Fen tu Jing", "Fen tu", or Wujin jue"), named after him as well - Wanjinqu ju; besides that there were more like Out jin kuilu lu (), River che ren (), Xuan zhu jing () etc.. Furthermore, it was recorded by Tongzhi·yiwulu that he had written a volume titled Zhen yuan tian dan fa ().
China's ancient civilization held beliefs about consuming gold elixirs for immortality, thus Foxgongzi created Out jin kuilu lu to study gold and silver properties geologically, their distribution mining methods metallurgy techniques et al., demonstrating early achievements in Chinese geochemistry metallurgy before 8th century Arab alchemists discovered heating lime could produce acid through distillation.
In addition to these discoveries fox gong zi also invented making silver powder method this technique was used by later generations' Alchemists until mentioned in Ming dynasty Ben Cao Gang Mu
Fox gong zi made major contributions to water mercury history using simple oxidation roasting method with low recovery rate but he first proposed changing roasting method into closed vacuum distillation from which resulted a significant turning point in Chinese water mercury history .He divided Mercury into three kinds: male Mercury female Mercury divine flying Mercury according to its use different production methods accordingly .Not only did he invent these production methods but also quantitatively researched them according to modern chemical theory calculation one catty pure cinnabar can yield twelve ounces while fox gongs experiment yielded twelve ounces out of thirteen two eight indicating an extraction rate above eighty-seven percent under primitive conditions this achievement is remarkable
Furthermore nine turns lead white process records his contribution towards chemistry especially towards lead compounds making it one last record among historical documents related to producing 'lead white' (Pb3O4)
Lastly ,fox gongzi excelled greatly at metal alloy science too
so chemist zhao ganghua believes :Chinese Alchemists reached such profound systematic understanding about how five metals form alloys & their properties within Han & Jin period literature extremely rare scientific data worth further research