Mercury, also called quicksilver, is the only metal that occurs in a liquid state under normal temperature. It can be mixed with many other metals to form an alloy called amalgam.

Due to its unique physicochemical properties, mercury is widely used in chemical, electric, instrumental and military industries, and utilized as a coolant for nuclear reactors and as an atomic radiation-resistant material. It can also be used to extract nonferrous metals, gold (by the method of amalgamation), thallium (from the smoke dust of lead smelting), and alluminum. In addition, it has some applications in medicines.Mercury and cinnabar are the main products of mercury. China's mercury ores are used chiefly for producing mercury. Cinnabar is utilized in chemical industry and the manufacture of pharmaceutics. Owing to its bright red color and beautiful appearance, cinnabar of large grain size is commonly called jewelly cinnabar. Therefore, cinnabar-bearing pyrophyllite is customarily known as the "chicken blood stone", which is a treasure.

In ancient times in China, cinnabar, the principal mineral of mercury, was called dan sha ("red sand") or zhu sha ("vermilion sand"). After the Song Dynasty (960~1279), it took its name chen sha (cinnabar) from the ancient county Chen (now Yuanling County) which was the main cinnabar producer and market at that time.

China is the country in which mercury was first discovered and used. Archeological data indicate that the use of mercury in China dates back to 5,000 years B.P.

With respect to the recent geological investigation, prospecting, development and utilization of mercury deposits in China, over 20 geologists including Weng Wenhao, Le Senxun, Wang Yuelun, Xiong Yongxian, Wu Xizeng, Tian Qijuan, Liu Guochang and Zhou Dezhong conducted, in the period 1919~1949, initiative geological investigations and studies of the mercury deposits in Guizhou, Hunan, Yunnan, Guangxi, Sichuan, Hubei and Gansu, and published their respective reports or papers. In the 1940s, the former Commission on Resources prospected and exploited some mercury localities. In the 1950s after the founding of New China, to meet the needs of the national economic construction, large-scale geological prospecting and development started. Now China has become one of the main producers of mercury in the world.