《上清丹元玉真帝皇飞仙上经》

The Dao (the Way) of the Shangqing Danyuan Yuzhen Sovereign Emperor is the cultivation method by which the Miaoling Qionghua Yufei of the Crimson Terrace—the immortal perfected being spoken of in the Jing (scripture/classic)—nourishes the practitioner with sweet nectar. This method is kept secret in the Palace of the Imperial Ultimate on the Crimson Terrace of Shangqing, engraved on jade texts, and transmitted to Perfected persons qualified to receive it.

To practice this method, one should purify body and mind, withdraw from the dusty world, and cultivate in secluded mountain forests, so that spirit and Qi (vital energy) become one. Only after a pure fast of thirty days may the practice begin. Persisting in this way for fifteen years, one can become a Perfected of Shangqing. One must also fashion golden vessels and crimson-colored objects and offer them to the scripture master, as a sign of keeping the covenant to guard the secret and not transmit it, and only then cultivate according to the scriptural text. When practice reaches the point at which purple Qi descends and the Jade Consort enters the chamber, the five viscera grow bright and transparent, the whole body becomes firm as gold and is encircled by crimson clouds, one is granted the book of the Jade Emperor, and one ascends in flight to Shangqing.

Each morning at sunrise, burn incense in the courtyard and spread a sitting mat; knock the teeth twenty-four times, perform nine bows, and then sit down. Rest both hands upon the knees and wait until the breath is even and the mind is settled. Concentrate and visualize, within the sun, flowing light and flowing auroral clouds nine million zhang in length, descending from the sun and shining over the entire body. After a short while, draw the Jing (essence) and Qi of this auroral light into the abdomen and swallow them in forty-nine draughts. Visualize the five viscera, within and without, harmoniously bright, the whole body illumined, while in the contemplation of Shen (spirit) purple auroras appear and extend to the boundless edge of heaven. Then knock the teeth nine times and silently recite in the heart:

“O Great Spirit of Primordial Jing, purple auroras rise in teeming fullness; golden light coils and circles about, pouring in to forge and refine my bodily form, dispersing the impurity of the corpse and the dust of defilement, uniting me with the Dao in oneness of spirit, and bringing me to full awakening in Daluo Shangqing.”

Next, visualize that beneath the sun, at the source of the streaming light of purple cloud-auroras, there is a woman whose form resembles an infant. Her hair is dressed in a triangular cloud-chignon; she wears a deep-red headcloth and a splendid brocade robe, is adorned with gray-green jade, and holds in her hand the talisman of the Solar Emperor’s Jade Perfection and Purple Aurora. She flies forward, treading the cloud-auroras, and comes before me. Visualize with full concentration and do not let the image slip away, while silently reciting the invocation: “Qionghua Jade Consort, Wondrous Numen of the Crimson Terrace of the Cinnabar Origin of Highest Clarity (Shangqing), personal name Yudongzhu, courtesy name Jingmingying.” Recite this silently three times, then say: “May my body ride the purple aurora, ascend to the palace of the sun, feed upon the Qi (vital energy) of Jade Clarity, and enjoy a lifespan equal to that of the Dao (the Way).”

Next, visualize the Jade Consort drawing you forward with her right hand. Again silently recite three times: “Qionghua Jade Consort, personal name Yudongzhu, courtesy name Jingmingying.” Then say: “May my body ride the purple aurora, ascend to the palace of the sun, feed upon the Qi of Jade Clarity, and enjoy a lifespan equal to that of the Dao.”

Then visualize the Jade Consort taking your left hand in her right and raising you, so that together you set off, flying as you tread the streaming light of the purple aurora and heading straight into the sun. After a long while, when the body feels slightly warm, visualize yourself amid the gathered radiance of the sun.

At this point, visualize the Jade-Perfect Sovereign Emperor of the Cinnabar Origin of Highest Clarity seated upright upon purple clouds within the sun. His form resembles an infant. He wears a red brocade robe and jade ornaments, with five luminous moon-pearls bound at his waist, and he holds a red sun in his mouth. The sun sends forth nine rays of light, all of them purple, and upon each purple ray is set one jade Jing (essence), shaped like an egg and the size of a pellet. The jade Jing hang downward in shafts of light about nine cun (Chinese inches) long. They display nine colors—purple, crimson, blue-green, white, yellow, jade-green, green, dark purplish-blue, and gray-green—turning with a smooth luster while radiant Qi swirls about them.

Next, visualize the Jade Consort standing at the Sovereign Emperor’s right, while you kneel before the Sovereign Emperor, perform nine bows in the heart, and silently recite the invocation: “Supreme Perfected Lord of the Dao, Jade-Perfect Sovereign Emperor of the Cinnabar Origin of Highest Clarity, personal name Longjingteng, courtesy name Jiangxilu.” Recite this silently three times. Then visualize yourself opening your mouth upward to receive the jade Jing and taking them into the mouth. Begin with the gray-green jade Jing; once a slight warmth is felt, visualize swallowing it and sending it into the lower Dantian (energy center), the cultivation site below the navel.

Next, visualize the dark purplish-blue jade Jing entering the lower Dantian, the green jade Jing being placed in the Bright Hall, the cultivation region of the head, and the jade-green jade Jing entering the Cavern Chamber, a bodily site in inner visualization. Visualize these four jade Jing as suspended in their respective places, shining as brightly as the sun. Then visualize the purple jade Jing entering the central position on the left side of the body; once a slight warmth is felt, visualize swallowing it into the lower Dantian.

What is described here is a contemplative visualization practice centered on inner vision and silent invocation: the practitioner visualizes, in succession, divine spirits (Shen), radiant auroras, and jade Jing, and settles the jade Jing in the bodily sites specified by the Jing (scripture/classic).

Next, visualize the essential Qi (jingqi—Jing, essence, together with Qi, vital energy) of dark cyan jade (ganyu, a deep blue-green jade) entering the Dantian (energy center), the site of Neidan (internal alchemy) cultivation in the lower abdomen. Then visualize the essential Qi of green jade coming to rest in the Mingtang (the visualized site within the space between the eyebrows), and the essential Qi of bluish-green jade entering the Dongfang (the visualized site within the head). Visualize the essential Qi of these four kinds of jade suspended in their respective places, bright as the sun.

Next, visualize purple essential Qi entering the left kidney, and essential Qi of the “female” color entering the right kidney; crimson entering the heart, blue-green entering the liver, white entering the lungs, and yellow entering the spleen. Let this essential Qi enter the five viscera, the lights of the jades shining upon one another, so that bodily form and Shen (spirit) become one. Knock the teeth nine times, visualize your own form coming before the Thearch, and then pray:

“O numinous and wondrous radiance, transforming without end—marvelous essential Qi of the nine jades! The perfected immortal who is Thearch within the sun is king of the supreme Dao (the Way). Purple clouds and auroral mists pour down, shining into the Mingtang and the Dongfang, refining and nourishing my five viscera, so that I naturally grow ear ornaments like beautiful jade, obtain precious marrow and elixir fluid, and mount the clouds to fly on high.”

Then suddenly forget your own bodily form, and visualize yourself within the sun, become one with the sun. After a time the rite comes to an end; visualize that you no longer feel yourself to be upon the mat, while still appearing in the form of the sun.

At noon, sit upright indoors facing south, with both hands resting on the knees. Visualize in the sun a beam of crimson auroral light, nine hundred chi in length, streaming down from the edge of the sun and connecting with your body, so that the whole body is brilliant and bright. Then visualize the Qionghua Jade Consort (Qionghua Yufei, a title of the Jade Consort, referring to a female immortal) holding a purple-jade ying (a vessel made of jade), treading the auroral light as she flies and descends before you; afterward, following the method already given, visualize her prayer and her personal name, and do this three times.

Next, visualize the Jade Consort placing the jade vessel at your lips. Visualize the vessel filled with yellow jade-syrup (a sweet liquor like jade fluid), and drink it, nine mouthfuls in all. Inwardly visualize the jade-syrup surging like clouds, spreading and filling the five viscera, while the whole body gives off a red light. Then pray:

“O lofty Perfected of Qionghua, spirit of the Thearch of the sun! You set in motion and carry out wondrous transformations, driving and commanding the spirits of the sun. The yellow sweet syrup in the jade vessel is the food and drink of the numinous beings within the sun. It causes the five viscera to blossom and brings long life; it settles the bodily form upon the Jiangtai (the crimson terrace of the immortals), long united with primordial Qi (yuanqi).”

In the original text, the meaning of nü you shen and of xialing fuying in the prayer is not very clear; the above follows the original in a literal translation.

Then visualize the Jade Consort—the immortal consort fashioned of jade—bowing to me and, bearing my bodily form with her, rising together to mount the crimson clouds and arrive at the center of the sun. Carefully visualize, at the center of the sun, a terrace of crimson jade, a thousand tiers in height and breadth, with a golden bed set upon it. Then lie upon the bed, the Jade Consort’s head alongside mine, hers facing south and mine facing north; afterward forget one’s own bodily form and rest abiding within the crimson terrace.

At midnight, rise from the bed, face the direction in which the moon lies, and perform five bows in the heart. Visualize within the moon a shaft of white auroral light seven million zhang long, reaching downward to join my body. Within the aurora is a woman wearing a blue-green hibiscus crown, dressed in yellow brocade, and holding a golden tray; upon the tray rests a Shen (spirit) pearl as bright as the full moon. She slowly descends and stands before me.

Click the teeth six times and invoke: “Golden Perfected within the moon—the immortal perfected, as they are called in Daoism—Shen Mother of Shangqing (Highest Clarity), taboo name Yuewuting, style name Weiniyan.” Say this three times. Then, in visualization, take the Shen pearl and swallow it so that it enters the heart, letting light and Qi (vital energy) reach the four quarters of the body. Invoke again: “Golden Jing (essence) of Great Simplicity, Shen pearl of utmost perfection. The light of Jing, hidden and intimate, shines forth, washing away the dust and defilement within the heart; it causes the hundred Shen to transform and be refined and nurtured, and unites my Qi with radiance. May I abide together with the Most High, and may my bodily form dwell in Shangqing.”

Then visualize the Shen Mother, the Golden Perfected, concealing her traces and merging as one with the light and the aurora. One likewise forgets the bodily form; the mind becomes vast and empty, as if clinging to nothing.

Write the “Talisman of the Purple Aurora of the Jade Perfected of the Solar Emperor”—the purple-aurora talisman transmitted by the Jade Perfected of the Lord-Emperor of the Sun—in cinnabar upon blue-green silk, place it in a red pouch, and wear it on the person. Make further small talismans, written on thin blue-green foil, and swallow one each on the first, third, fifth, seventh, ninth, thirteenth, fifteenth, seventeenth, nineteenth, twenty-third, twenty-fifth, twenty-seventh, and twenty-ninth days of every month. When swallowing a talisman, face east and perform two bows, then send it down with the Mysterious Spring—the pure water so called in Daoism.

The Natural Script of Yuqing (Jade Clarity)—the natural true writ transmitted by Yuqing.

When a Daoist priest cultivates this method of the Dao (the Way), what must above all be avoided is disturbance by foul and corrupting Qi (vital energy), or practice that is not single-minded. If one can persevere in diligent cultivation for fifteen years, one may receive transmission of the scriptures (Jing) and become a Perfected of Shangqing—a Perfected Being of the Shangqing celestial realm—driving flying dragons and, attended by many jade youths, passing in and out of Taiji (the Supreme Ultimate), the celestial realm of which Daoism speaks. This is the method of practicing the Jade True Emperor’s ingestion of the jade essence within the sun: the Jade Consort drinks the yellow sweet syrup, the Golden True, within the sun.

The method of ingesting the divine pearl is as follows. Once cultivation has succeeded, the nine jade essences of the sun transform into nine elixirs and generate your Shen-Qi (spirit and vital energy—the subtle Qi obtained through cultivation). After fifteen years, the nine jade essences transform into divine dragons of nine colors, and the essence of the divine pearl becomes a carriage bearing divine light, which carries your whole body up into the Shangqing celestial realm.

Lord Wang, the Chief Perfected of the Western Citadel, transmitted this method to Lord Mao, the Perfected of Taixuan (Great Mystery); Lord Cai, the Perfected of the Wen River, then concealed it in the Palace of the Imperial Ultimate on the Crimson Terrace of Shangqing. This is the established method by which the imperial Jade Consort cultivates the refining of immortality.

Note: The latter half of the original repeats the passage from “transmitted to Lord Mao, the Perfected of Taixuan” through “raising this body to ascend to Shangqing”; the text above combines and paraphrases that repetition.