《太微灵书紫文琅玕华丹神真上经》

First, observe a forty-day zhai purification fast in the mountain forests, setting aside all external affairs, and only then begin preparing the “divine mud” (the clay used to seal and secure the alchemical vessels). The entire process of making the mud and sealing the cauldron takes about one hundred days.

Take a fire-resistant earthen cauldron with a capacity of three dou; the color may be white or red so long as it withstands firing without cracking. The method of making the divine mud is as follows: take six parts of left-facing oysters from the Eastern Sea, three parts of fenlou earth, one part of fine shed horsehair, three parts of talc, three parts of red bole, two parts of fine sheep wool, and half a part of daguàn, seven materials in all. Mix and pound them, pass through a fine sieve, then blend with “hundred-day yan” and continue pounding for thirty thousand pestle strokes. If the mud is too soft, add more red bole; if the mud is too hard, add the material indicated by the missing character in the original text, and keep pounding until a fine, even mud is obtained. Mix with care so that the clay is refined and uniform.

When selecting the oysters, use only the white inner portion and discard the outer hard shell. The horsehair, sheep wool, and fenlou earth must likewise be cleaned separately, ground fine, and stripped of coarse impurities. The “parts” mentioned in the original are not strictly weighed but estimated according to the quantity of mud required; the proportions are roughly equivalent, calculated to suffice for wrapping and sealing two cauldrons.

Coat both the interior and exterior of the two cauldrons with the divine mud to a thickness of seven fen. Apply it in successive layers: first spread a thin coat and set it in a shaded place to dry; once dry, add more mud, gradually building the layer to seven fen. After sealing, allow the divine mud to dry thoroughly. Next, mix yellow dan (lead red) with “yan,” pound it thirty thousand times into a paste, and apply it to the inner surfaces, top and bottom, of both cauldrons to a thickness of three fen. Should cracks appear, patch them with additional mud; then place the vessels in the shade for ten days, ensuring they no longer crack. The yellow-dan mud must not be applied to the exterior.

After the medicines have been placed in the cauldron, seal the joints and connections tightly with fine mud to guarantee a complete seal. Then coat the outer top, bottom, and sides with mud four fen thick and set the vessel in a cool, shaded location for twenty-seven days. If fine cracks reappear in the outer layer, fashion a brush from goat whiskers, dip it in mud, and patch them, then dry for another seven days. In the end, an outer mud layer of about one cun and four or five fen is appropriate. With this, the procedures for preparing the divine mud, sealing the cauldron, and loading the medicines are complete.

Note: In the original text, the character following “yan” and the name of the material after “if the mud is too hard” are damaged and cannot be determined from the wording; the phrase “zhou qi shi zhi” is also suspected of containing errors or omissions. The above follows the sense of the context.

This method of preparing the sealing mud is simpler and less laborious than that required for the “cauldron of the nine-times-transmuted Golden Liquid” (the vessel used to refine the Golden Liquid elixir). Even so, the mud must be worked until it is extremely fine and refined, blended in the proper proportions, and pounded and processed with dedicated care; the effort expended on these points even exceeds that needed to make the nine-transmutation cauldron. One must be cautious and keep the process secret so that the “floriate essence” (the vital essence required for the elixir) does not dissipate. Once it dissipates there is no benefit, and the meritorious work of the purification observances is wasted. Fashioning the elixir cauldron from this mud and placing the ingredients inside it are hereby completed.

Choose a “Monthly Establishment Day” (an auspicious day determined by the earthly branch of the current month) on which to begin one hundred days of purification fasting. When the fasting is finished, take three hu of clear wine, pour it into eastward-flowing water, and facing the water offer this prayer:

“O Great Mystery Azure Current, Eight Seas and Nine Rivers, mountain gods and earthly spirits, we beseech you to protect the essence of the elixir. We respectfully present three hu of fine wine in sacrifice to the River God.”

After the prayer do not look back on the return journey, and on that same day place the medicinal substances into the cauldron.

The best place to refine the elixir is in a mountain forest near eastward-flowing water, a location with few traces of human presence where even the sounds of chickens and dogs cannot be heard. This is most suitable. Utmost caution is required.

The medicinal ingredients of the Langgan Floriate Elixir are as follows. Ten jin of Crimson Mound Vermilion Child, identified in the oral instructions as cinnabar. Five jin of Cinnabar Mountain Solar Soul, identified as realgar. One jin of White Plain Flying Dragon, identified as white quartz. Five liang of Azure-Waisted Central Maiden, identified as kongqing. Five liang of Purple Mound Cultured Marquis, identified as purple quartz. One jin of Jade-Green Dragon, identified as white quartz. Five liang of Azure-Waisted Central Maiden, identified as kongqing. Five liang of Purple Mound Cultured Marquis, identified as purple quartz. Five liang of Jade City Flying Splendor, identified as stone-black. One jin of Northern Emperor Mysterious Pearl, identified as niter. Five liang of Nine Numina Yellow Youth, identified as mineral sulfur. Five liang of Five Essences Golden Ram, identified as the heart of actinolite. Five liang of Rain-Flower Flying Petals, identified as mica. Five liang of White Tiger Cast-off Teeth, identified as gold-tooth stone. One jin of Flowing Cinnabar White Paste, identified as lead white.

The reversed-walking divine bone uses five liang; the medicine named in the oral formula is rong salt. The mysterious-terrace moon-flower uses five jin; the medicine named in the oral formula is orpiment.

The fourteen medicines are brought together and each pounded separately in sequence, beginning with cinnabar, every one receiving five thousand strokes. Those who pound the medicines should be cautious and mild, speaking little idle talk. They must first observe a thirty-day purificatory fast before being set to the work of pounding. Only three or four persons are to be employed in compounding the medicines, for people of mutual accord are hard to find; should even one among them fail to share the same mind, the entire matter will be ruined. Once the Huadan is completed, each liang counts as one portion of immortal elixir; if one still wishes to remain living in the human world, half a liang may be taken.

After the several medicines have been pounded separately they are placed in the cauldron. First the rong salt is introduced and spread over the bottom of the cauldron; next, in order, niter, mica, actinolite, golden-tooth stone, lead white, kongqing, native sulfur, white quartz, shi-dai, purple quartz, orpiment and realgar are added, cinnabar being set last and occupying the uppermost layer by itself.

When all fourteen medicines have been arranged they are spread out in succession so as to fill the cauldron, then gently pressed so that the substances lie close against one another. Three jin of mercury are poured over the medicines. The earthen cauldron is then placed on as a cover, the joining seam of the upper and lower vessels is sealed with yellow-lead paste, and the outer rims are sealed with oyster-shell paste. After this has dried in the shade, the entire exterior—top, bottom and all around—is coated with mud and sealed to a thickness of about four fen.

Note: In the original the passage running from “first put in rong salt, spread \ldots not of the same mind, then it ruins human affairs” contains repetition and apparent omissions or corruptions; the rendering above follows the context in taking it as “first place the rong salt and spread it on the bottom of the cauldron.” The fu is the vessel used in refining medicines; yin gan means to dry it in a shaded place.

When constructing the stove house, first dig three chi into the ground, remove the filthy soil, then fill it with good earth and ram the foundation firm. Upon the leveled surface further raise a base two chi five cun high. Do not build the stove house on the site of an old grave or the ruins of a former dwelling.

The stove house is three zhang long, one zhang six chi wide and one zhang six chi high. It must be swept clean and put in order, roofed with fine thatch, and both inner and outer walls plastered solid and tight with mud. Open one door four chi wide due east and another due south; close them at night. The fire-tender and the master live inside the house. Place the “Ao” spoken of in the scripture at the center of the room with the stove mouth facing east, and build the stove of good bricks and stone.

Mix bitter vinegar with east-flowing water, pound fine white earth together with the hair of ox, horse, muntjac and deer into a paste, and use this to plaster the stove. Inside the stove set an iron stand (the original text here reads “铁m,” which is suspected to be a textual error), then rest the medicinal cauldron on the stand so that the cauldron sits in the exact center of the stove. Leave three and a half cun between the cauldron and the stove walls on every side; the stove mouth stands two chi above the cauldron, and the cauldron bottom is one chi eight cun from the ground.

Use superior chaff fire beneath the stove. At first keep the fire about one chi from the medicinal cauldron, carefully regulating and watching the heat so it does not burn too fiercely. Burn twenty days, shortening the distance between fire and cauldron bottom to six cun; burn another twenty days, reducing it to four cun; another twenty days, to one cun; then ten days bringing the fire close against the cauldron bottom; finally ten more days of fierce strong fire. Next repeat the regulation of the fire: twenty days at six cun from the bottom, twenty days at four cun, twenty days at one cun, ten days close to the bottom, then ten days of strong fire, followed by twenty days causing the flames to reach halfway up the medicinal cauldron. In this way, after a total of one hundred days, the medicine is refined.

Allow the medicinal cauldron to cool three days before opening it. The sublimed floral essence of the medicine clings lightly to the upper part of the cauldron; sweep it off with the feather of a three-year-old rooster. The floral essence should display thirty-seven colors, their radiance circulating and intermingling, presenting a gorgeous, mysteriously luminous hue like purple auroras; this is called the Langgan Flower Elixir.

On the first day of the eleventh, fourth or eighth lunar month, at dawn, face the Wang direction, bow twice, and ingest one liang washed down with east-flowing water. The scripture states that after taking it seven-colored qi issues from the head and the face manifests a luster like golden blossoms and jade light; by holding the breath one can summon the “Carriages of the Eight Mysteries” (the immortal vehicles of Daoism); saliva dropped to the ground transforms into flying dragons; a long whistle to the left causes immortals to come and present themselves; pointing to the right, the Three Su qi merge with the wind and a thousand carriages with ten thousand riders fly in attendance, ascending to the Shangqing realm.

If the floral essence has not all risen, reseal the stove joints tightly with mud according to the method already described, then fire the belly of the cauldron another forty-nine days and it will be successfully refined.

First heat the elixir cauldron with fire for one hundred days and the Langgan Floriate Elixir will be refined. Once the elixir has formed, do not open the vessel to remove it. Reignite the fire exactly as in the initial heating of the Floriate Elixir, following the earlier instructions for advancing the fire, stopping the fire, and regulating the distance of heat control, then heat for another one hundred days. The combined heating lasts two hundred days. After the fire is extinguished, allow the elixir cauldron to cool for six nights before opening it for inspection.

Various essences condense on the inner wall of the upper cauldron like a hanging curtain. Within the curtain is yellow water from which yellow flowers grow, shaped like hibiscus blossoms; this is called Yellow Water Moon Flower (Huangshui Yuehua). It adheres to the inner wall of the upper cauldron in a form resembling a mysterious gallbladder. Remove the flowers and ingest them, then drink one sheng of the yellow water. It is said that one can then divide the physical form and undergo myriad transformations, with eyes as bright as the moon, freely floating through the great emptiness and ascending to the Purple Tenuity Upper Palace.

In the Wandering Water Jade Essence Elixir Method (Huishui Yujing Danfa), first heat the elixir cauldron with fire for two hundred days so that the medicinal substances transform into Yellow Water Moon Flower. Do not open the cauldron; continue applying fire according to the previous methods for another one hundred days, for a total of three hundred days. After stopping the fire, cool for nine nights before opening the elixir cauldron.

Heat the medicinal cauldron with fire for two hundred days, until the substances inside turn into a yellow liquid resembling moonlight. Do not open the cauldron; continue applying fire in the same manner as before for another hundred days. After a full three hundred days of firing in all, allow the medicine to cool for nine nights, then open the cauldron. Various jing (essence) and qi (vital energy) condense into flower buds, which grow upward in the upper part of the cauldron. Within the buds is a white liquid, like jade paste, that spontaneously swirls and shifts, always circulating to the left as it flows inside the buds.

Inside the white liquid are three bright pearls, each the size of a hen’s egg, called Huishui Yujing (Circling-Water Jade Essence). Its flavor is sweet and mellow, fragrant and soft like malt candy. Taking one pearl, it is said, enables one to connect with Heaven: the body generates water and fire, saliva transforms into jade, the physical form becomes the sun, and the Celestial Emperor personally comes to receive one, who then rides upon light and shadow to ascend to Shangqing (Highest Clarity, the ethereal immortal realm of Daoism).

Dig a pit seven chi wide and seven chi deep. Take Langgan Huadan (a numinous elixir used in Daoist alchemy) and blend it with a Huishui Yujing the size of a hen’s egg, plant the mixture in the pit, then cover it with earth and tamp it firmly. After three years, a small red tree will grow from the ground, resembling a jujube tree, three or four chi tall, with fruits like circular ornaments, called the Huan’gang Tree. It is said that eating its fruit enables one to live as long as Heaven, ascend to Taiji (Supreme Ultimate, the highest celestial realm of Daoism), and have one’s form transform into clouds. It is also known as Taiji Yinzhi (Hidden Zhi of the Supreme Ultimate).

Then dig a pit six chi wide and six chi deep. Take one fruit of the Huan’gang Tree and plant it, water it with five ge of yellow water, cover with earth and tamp it firmly. After three years, another numinous growth will appear on the ground, also named Taiji Yinzhi.

Next, dig another pit six chi wide and six chi deep. Take one fruit of the Huan’gang Tree and plant it, water it with five ge of yellow water, cover with earth and tamp it firmly. After three years, a plant resembling a gourd will grow, bearing peach-like fruits of five colors, called Fengnao Zhi (Phoenix-Brain Zhi). It is said that eating its fruit enables one to ascend to Taiji; saliva that falls to the ground transforms into a phoenix, upon which a person may ride and soar. It is also named Taiji Yinzhi.

Then dig a pit one zhang wide and one zhang deep. Plant four ge of yellow water together with one fruit of the Fengnao Zhi, irrigate the fruit with yellow water, cover with earth and tamp it firmly. After three years, a red tree will grow from the ground, resembling a pine, five or six chi tall, bearing pear-shaped fruits whose kernels are pure white as jade. Eating the fruit, it is said, enables one to ascend to Taiwei (Grand Tenuity, a celestial realm of Daoism); saliva that falls to the ground transforms into cyan jade.

Then dig a pit eight chi wide and eight chi deep. Plant one fruit of this red tree, water it with five ge of circling water (huishui), cover with earth and tamp it firmly. After three years, a crimson tree will grow from the ground, resembling a plum tree, six or seven chi tall, bearing fruits as verdant as jujubes. Eating the fruit, it is said, enables one to ascend to Ziwei (Purple Tenuity, a celestial realm of Daoism); saliva that falls to the ground transforms into gold, and one may also travel upon dark clouds.

Take one sheng and five ge each of yellow water (huangshui) and Huai water (huaishui); together they come to exactly three sheng. Boil them in a small iron vessel until they have come to a boil seven times; they should fuse into a cyan-colored water. This is called the Water-Yang Method (Shuiyang fa).

Take one sheng and five ge each of yellow water and Huai water; together they come to exactly three sheng. Boil them in a small iron vessel until they have come to a boil seven times; they should fuse into a cyan-colored water. This is called Water-Yang Cyan Reflection (Shuiyang Qingying). Drink it all at once at dawn. It is said that the body will then emit a radiance like cyan jade, purple smoke will issue from the mouth, and one will ascend into Shangqing (Highest Clarity, the Daoist realm of pure emptiness). Saliva that falls to the ground will turn into cinnabar (dansha) and the Eight Minerals (bashi, names of minerals and alchemical materials appearing in the scriptures).

Using an iron vessel, refine one jin of lead together with two liang of mercury, bring the mixture to a furious boil, then add one zhu of Langgan Huadan (the Flower Elixir of Langgan, an elixir named in the scriptures). It is said that after the time it takes to eat a meal, true silver will have been refined. Using an iron vessel, refine one jin of lead together with five liang of mercury, bring the mixture to a furious boil, then add three zhu of Langgan Huadan. It is said that after the time it takes to eat a meal, purple gold will have been refined.

Once the gold and silver have been obtained, take one hundred jin of each and cast them into an eastward-flowing stream, forming one gold cake and one silver cake, each weighing fifty jin. Standing by the water, recite:

“Weaver Maiden of the Heavenly River, Water Earl of the streams on earth; the Great Elixir congeals into radiant splendor, immortal souls are refined into essence and spirit. May I long depart the human world and ascend to the immortal realm as a guest of the Thearch Lord (Dijun). I offer these two precious bi discs to garrison the water sources and marshlands.”

When the prayer is finished, return directly and do not look back. If one wishes to plant a divine tree, one should choose the north face of a famous mountain and dig a pit there. The surroundings of the pit must be cleared and opened so that neither the footprints of people nor of beasts pass over the pit.

From his youth the Latter Sage Lord of August Heaven Shangqing studied the methods of the Dao. He received and cultivated the secret essentials that were transmitted to him, and thus later became Emperor of the Golden Palace (Jinque). The Five Elders of the Upper Perfected (Wulao Shangzhen, five honored Upper Perfected Ones) and the Taiji Left Juan Gong submitted a petition, compiled the Lingshu Ziwen (Numinous Writings Purple Text), and ordered it delivered to the Great Lord Azure Youth of Fangzhu Eastern Palace (the immortal Perfected One residing in Fangzhu Eastern Palace), who issued the teachings and registered the mysterious names (the designations recorded in the immortal registers) of those destined to become Zhenren (Perfected Persons).

This is the secretly transmitted speech of the Most High (Taishang), as well as the Purple Writ of the Latter Sage Lord. In accordance with the Four Extremes Illustrious Code (Siji Mingke, the regulations governing transmission of precepts and ordinances in Daoism), this method may be transmitted only three times within seven hundred years. If two suitable recipients appear within a hundred years, transmission may still occur, provided an oath is sworn that altogether only three persons will receive it within the seven hundred years. After the time limit expires, further transmission is forbidden. At the time of transmission the recipient must undertake a seven-day purification fast before receiving the scripture with due solemnity.

Throughout the transmission, ten Upper Spirit Perfected Officials, ten Jade Maidens, and ten Jade Lads attend upon the scriptures, guard the texts, oversee the successes and failures of the transmission, and record merits and demerits. For this reason those who seek to study the way of the immortals should be clear-sighted and cautious from the outset. Transmission of the method requires the establishment of an alliance and the pronouncement of an oath, ensuring that the secret methods will not be disclosed.

When transmitting the Sequential Records of the Sage Lord, the practices of ingesting Jing (essence) and Qi (vital energy) and swallowing rosy clouds (the cultivation methods of absorbing Qi and taking in cloudy mists), as well as receiving the Kai Ming Yin Sheng, the Tianhuang Xiangfu (Heavenly Emperor Image Talisman), the Upper Scripture of Binding the Hun and Controlling the Po, and other such methods, master and disciple must swear an oath of alliance not to leak them. The transmitting master must prepare forty chi of white silk, two pairs of silver rings, and four liang of uncolored silk thread as tokens substituting for a blood oath, to demonstrate the commitment to maintain strict secrecy.

Upon receiving the Divine Perfected Upper Scripture of the Langgan Flower Elixir, one should according to the method prepare a golden dragon and a jade fish as tokens of the covenant, in place of carving the body or swearing an oath upon a stone, thereby signifying that the scripture and its methods will never be revealed.

The ancient Highest Sovereigns all held the sacred scriptures in the greatest reverence and strictly guarded against their being lightly revealed. For this reason they solemnly established a mysterious oath, pledging never to disclose them, thereby demonstrating their sincerity and making clear the origin of this transmission.

If anyone should fail to observe the precepts and leak the Ziwen Lieji (Sequential Records of the Purple Writ), which is meant to be reserved for the sages and worthies of later ages, then his ancestors of three generations and his parents will, while still living, suffer calamities of flood and fire, and after death they will undergo examination and punishment by the Three Officials (Sanguan, the deities who preside over Heaven, Earth, and Water). After his own death he will be reduced to a ghost of inferior rank, and his name will be stricken from the register of immortals. He will also have to haul stones from Beiqi and pile them beside Mount Tai, then draw water from Xijin and carry it to the Eastern Sea. You must be cautious! The medicinal substances named in the scripture all retain their ancient designations; only the essences are those employed in the present age.

Should Qingtong Jun (the Azure Lad, a Daoist deity whose personal name is Fanmei) be reduced to a lowly ghost and have his immortal register removed, he too would have to haul stones from Beiqi and pile them beside Mount Tai, and convey the waters of Xijin to the Eastern Sea. You must be cautious! The medicinal substances named in the scripture all retain their ancient designations; only the essences are those employed in the present age. On each of the Eight Seasonal Festivals (eight important festival days in the Daoist calendar), one must visualize Qingtong Jun.

Lord Wang said: “The golden dragon and the jade fish are tokens employed in the oath of alliance. Few people in the secular world can obtain such things, so even if they cannot be fully prepared, one must not seal the scripture away and let the appointed time of transmission pass without transmitting it.” In the petitioning ritual described above, thirty chi of azure cloth is used as the token of the oath. Azure signifies the purification of the mind, while cloth signifies the open manifestation of one’s sincerity.