On another interesting note, some historians and anthropologists believe that the word for gold (pronounced kim in the Tang dynasty) was used also by arabic traders who traded gold for spices. They say that one such famous trader from the arabic world changed his surname to Al-Qim, because of his gold trading profession.
His obsession with getting gold lead to experiments trying to create gold from other substances. During the inquisitions, the Europeans tried to copy his work and dubbed the study Alchemy.
Historians will disagree on the validity of this. I got this from an American anthropologist who did research on Central and East Asian Cultures.
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