《修炼大丹要旨》

The essential secret of refining the Great Elixir is to take “two-eight” as the root of the mountain-and-marsh substances, and to use “four-six” to condense those mountain-and-marsh substances into a cohesive mass. The mass is then placed within the root substance, so that the fires of Bing and Ding unite with the Qian position. The mountain-and-marsh substances must be roasted and refined with sulfur to render them firm; the root substance is then used as a vessel so that the already “killed” material is transformed into lead. Once true lead has been obtained, mercury is still added, and only then is the work of refining regarded as complete. Cinnabar is ground together with it, and nourishing refinement is continued with the root substance. When the cinnabar has been refined to the “dead” state, it is called “Great Completeness.” Taking the root substance and co-refining it with this product allows long preservation; by the same principle one may continue until the so-called “true death and nine returns” is achieved. When the five materials and conditions are all in place, these secrets must not be transmitted casually.

I look up at the operations of Heaven and Earth and take the Qi (vital energy) of the Great Void in order to assist the people of the world; lead and mercury likewise imitate the transformations of Taiyi so as to benefit the myriad things. The so-called “stealing” also means taking one’s own Jing (essence) and Qi, refining and nourishing one’s Hun and Po. If one has not yet attained complete efficacy oneself, how can one help others or benefit the myriad things? The principle of mutual taking and transformation between Heaven and Earth must not be transmitted lightly; yet the method of refining in which lead and mercury mutually gestate one another cannot but be studied in depth, so that the work of succoring people and benefiting things may be carried out.

This method of refining takes lead as its root and mercury as its origin. People of the world all know that lead and mercury are the foundation for refining the Great Elixir, yet they often fail to understand what constitutes true lead and true mercury, or how the two swallow and receive one another, and therefore cannot grasp the mystery of unending generation and regeneration. Lead and mercury take the Qi of Taiyi; one ought to know how to borrow from Taiyi. When lead and mercury swallow and receive one another, one must also clarify their root, their place of concealment, their function, and the path of their return, only then can one grasp the pivotal key of creation.

Turning to “cloud dragon and wind tiger,” this speaks of the relationship between Shen (spirit) and Qi: Shen is like the mother and Qi like the child; summoning Qi by means of Shen is like a mother calling her child, and the child comes of its own accord. If there exists between them a problem of mutual swallowing and seizing, success will be hard to attain. Therefore the refining of Waidan (external alchemy) likewise cannot dispense with bodily form and the mechanism of Qi; this point too must not be overlooked.

Whether the circulation of a current of Qi is interrupted can serve to judge whether it is numinous and lively. What is meant by numinous liveliness is that the bodily form has not yet manifested numinosity while the Qi is already numinous, or that numinosity is not shown in life but appears after death. When water is clear to the extreme, once it congeals into ice it is no longer clear; when Shen is luminous to the extreme, once it coagulates into form it is no longer manifest. As soon as the ice melts, the water recovers its clarity; once the form is settled, Shen likewise recovers its luminosity. Only by understanding the principle of “true death” can the Great Elixir be successfully refined.

If the spiritual nature becomes stagnant, it loses its numinous brightness. When water is purified to the extreme, after it condenses into ice it is no longer clear. When the spirit-consciousness (the spiritual perception of a person) is clarified to the extreme, once it congeals into a physical form, it likewise is no longer clear. Melt the ice and the water recovers its clarity; settle the physical form and the spirit-consciousness can recover its brightness. Those who are able to comprehend the principle of “true death” can refine the Great Elixir (the Neidan or immortal elixir spoken of in Daoism).

The Method and Images of the Fire Dragon Mysterious Pearl Elixir Cauldron

The Fire Dragon Mysterious Pearl Great Elixir

Obtain one jin of dragon-tiger medicinal materials, weigh out four liang and grind them into fine powder. Wrap this in two layers of boiled silk cloth, bind it into the shape of a hen’s egg, and trim away the excess cloth. Next take one jin four liang of powder prepared by frying yellow earth together with white sand, and bind this into the shape of a goose egg. Cut leather paper into strips, mix them with egg white to form a paste, and coat the goose-egg-shaped earth-and-sand lump, leaving an opening the size of a hen’s egg. When the outer shell has dried, make it about half a finger thick. After it is dry, use a knife to split open the earth-and-sand lump, pour out the earth and sand inside, then wipe the outer shell clean with cloth; it is then ready for use.

First place the large shell with its opening upward and put eight liang of Azure Dragon (Qinglong) medicinal powder at the bottom, then insert the Mysterious Pearl (Xuanzhu) ball. Next cut Kunlun paper into a ring and rest it upon the Azure Dragon powder so that it covers about half, without letting it touch the outer shell. Then add eight liang of White Tiger (Baihu) medicinal powder. Place strips of leather paper on top of the White Tiger powder, then seal the opening of the shell with paper strips dipped in egg white, forming a seal of the same thickness as the shell, and allow it to dry.

Using a large coin as a measure, place about two sheng of fried raw earth in a pot, then set the large goose-egg-shaped shell into the pot. Next fill tightly from the sides and the top with about three sheng of fried sand-earth. Seal it firmly with the mud used for the medicine box, after which it may be placed in the furnace. The arrangement of fire and the addition of water begins with entering the fire on the first day of each month. Leave one air hole in the vessel facing the doorway and block all the others. Cover the top with a wooden basin that likewise has a corresponding hole. Each month the position of the opening is to be shifted. If four liang of fire is used, replace the old fire with new at the four hours of zi, wu, mao and you.

After forty-nine days, allow it to cool and take it out, remove the sand and earth, and obtain a jade-like ball. Slowly score it down the middle with a knife, divide it into two halves, and carefully note the positions of the upper and lower crescents so as not to confuse them. Remove the Mysterious Pearl from inside, discard the cloth ash, seal it with yellow wax, place it in an oil-glazed porcelain vessel and bury it in earth for three days. Take it out, grind it fine, and with pinellia paste form pills the size of a menglan fruit. Take three pills each time, gradually increasing to nine pills, sent down with salt soup, three times a day on an empty stomach. Collect the numinous liquid obtained and refine it into pills by the same method; whatever quantity of numinous liquid there is, refine that quantity, until the original four liang of medicinal material is exhausted.

Then weigh the medicine; if it is less than four liang, make up the difference with the previous Mysterious Pearl, grind it fine, wrap it into egg shape, place it between the two halves of the upper and lower crescents and seal, then according to the previous method place it in the furnace and refine for forty-nine days. Take it out, grind it fine, form pills the size of a menglan fruit with pinellia paste, and take them according to the previous method. Continue to collect and refine the numinous liquid obtained until the medicinal material is used up. When four liang is reached, grind it fine, wrap it between the upper and lower crescents, seal and place in the furnace, and continue refining for forty-nine days. Proceed in this way until at the fifth turning the Mysterious Pearl appears.

At this point drill a small hole, introduce one liang of mercury, then close the upper and lower crescents together, place it in the box and nourish with fire. Using six liang of fire at the four hours of zi, wu, mao and you, nourish and refine for thirty-one days; upon taking it out, silver is obtained. At the ninth turning, again add mercury and test-refine; it can be refined into “geng” (an alchemical term here denoting the metal).

At the tenth turning, make four liang of the medicine, place it between the upper and lower crescents, and nourish with fire for one year. Then with pinellia paste form pills the size of millet grains. Take one pill each time, sent down with freshly drawn water. Taking one liang enables one to become an earthly immortal. Using one pill to transmutate one liang of mercury can turn the mercury into a treasure; three pills are said to be able to revive the dead. The elixir obtained after nourishing with fire for one year is likewise taken in this way. Ordinary people who take one liang can prolong life and remain unaging; practitioners who take one liang can attain immortality. This method must be kept in secrecy and must not be transmitted to unsuitable persons, otherwise the violation of heavenly prohibitions is extremely severe.

Take four liang or half a jin of cinnabar and wash it repeatedly with grass juice together with the “Forty-Eight Jins.” Then soak and boil it in the liquid obtained from that washing. Add half a liang of sulfur and boil the mixture together for a full day and night; the longer it boils, the better. If grass juice is unavailable, vinegar may be used instead. Afterward, omit the sulfur and take four liang of “Geng” (the refined material indicated in the original), add four qian of elixir seed, and place them in a gan-pot (the crucible used for elixir work) to melt into a liquid. Lift the crucible and stir with an iron fire-poker until the contents become a yellow powder, then pour everything into a clean urn until it is entirely reduced to powder. Wash it with water and weigh the resulting powder; if the weight remains the same as before and nothing has been lost, the result is considered proper.

Separately weigh out one liang of the powder and set it aside. Grind the remaining three liang evenly together with the boiled cinnabar. Once the “Geng-cinnabar” has undergone vaporization treatment, return it to the gan-pot. From the one liang of gold powder set aside earlier, weigh out seven qian and spread it over the surface, separated by paper; then cover it with four liang of mountain-marsh silver powder and press the whole firmly with earth. Place the vessel in an ash pit, seal it well, and nourish-refine it over a fire of four-liang intensity for seven double-hours.

After the furnace is opened, increase the fire so that the crucible sits close to the flames, burn until it is thoroughly red, and hold this heat overnight until dawn. Remove the silver powder; at this point the refined gold-cinnabar is regarded as complete. Grind it finely, place it in an oil jar, and nourish-refine it over a fire of five-liang intensity for two double-hours. Then cover it with western borax (the covering material used in the process) and calcine with a strong fire until fumes rise and the crucible, pressed against the flames, turns red; leave it overnight until dawn. Remove the silver powder, grind the gold-cinnabar fine, place it again in an oil jar, and nourish-refine it over a five-liang fire for two double-hours. Cover once more with western borax and calcine with a strong fire; when the fumes rise, a precious treasure is obtained.

This furnace method is of the utmost importance. Only when the qi (vital energy) and inherent natures of the various substances are allowed to intermingle and circulate with one another—so that gold attains a mature form and rigidity comes to reside within flexibility—can transformation take place.

After the “Shengji” previously described has already been brought into conjunction, it can be further melted into a liquid. For every two liang, one qian of “Geng” is added to prepare the elixir head (dantou); this is stirred according to the earlier method into a yellow powder and then ground. Two liang of boiled and refined cinnabar are placed in a crucible, after which seven fen of the previously obtained gold powder are sprinkled over the surface in order to isolate the silver Qi (vital energy). Four liang of new “mother silver vermilion” (the silver vermilion used as covering material) are then laid on top, the mouth of the vessel is sealed, and it is set in an ash bath to be nourished with a fire of four liang for two days and nights. Half a jin of charcoal is next used to heat it until it glows red throughout the night, and it is taken from the furnace at dawn. The golden cinnabar thus produced is regarded as complete and is ground into a fine powder.

This is because the gold Qi is already sufficient. After the cinnabar has been covered, sealed and heated, it entirely transforms into gold powder. The layer of silver powder is then placed on top; this is the so-called immortal method of refinement, which allows only the Jing (essence) and Qi of the medicinal substances to interpenetrate without permitting their physical forms to mix directly, thereby keeping gold and wood separated from each other and producing the treasure coffer that confers longevity. Once the cinnabar has been processed by the water method and extracted, it becomes this treasure coffer, which is used to nourish the “Three Yellows” (the three yellow medicinal substances of the elixir method) and to transmutate the five metals.

Treatise on the Golden Elixir (Jindan lun)

I have examined records of immortals from ancient and modern times and found that the great elixir they speak of is always called the Golden Elixir (Jindan); I have never heard of any school calling it the “Silver Elixir.” The Golden Elixir takes the meaning of “gold,” indicating that it is firm and strong, neither destroyed nor deteriorated, able to be preserved for a long time and to confer longevity upon people. As for its preciousness, the Three Yellows (yellow minerals or medicines used in elixir refining) cannot stain its essential nature, nor can cinnabar swallow its form; it can last as long as Heaven and Earth, shining together with the sun and moon, with nothing that can compare to it. The elixir is called the Golden Elixir and the cauldron the Golden Cauldron, both named after gold, surely because they are refined using precious gold. Once refined, by virtue of the primordial Qi (vital energy) of gold, it can transform the worldly treasures known as the Three Yellows so that they ascend together to the Jade Palace (the legendary immortal palace), from which one can also perceive the workings of creation.

Why is it that so many elixir scriptures fill the houses, yet when they discuss the mother of the elixir they speak only of True Lead? When they treat the distinction of Yin-Yang and the harmonization of the Four Images (the four forms of Yin-Yang transformation), they mention white gold, cinnabar, black lead, and mercury; when they speak of transmutation, they mention Yellow Sprouts, White Snow, and the two Jing (essences) of female and male. Having read through all the elixir scriptures, not a single one states that gold is to be used as the mother of the elixir.

Some people take only fine gold to nourish the cinnabar, wasting their efforts in vain, and in the end still have to use fire to remove the gold; others employ white gold to assist the growth of the cinnabar, and although the cinnabar can still retain its original color, it is not yet perfect. Over a period of ten years I have consulted the laws of natural creation and seen people using white gold to fashion the elixir chamber, the cauldron lid, or the outer wall, imitating the Dao (the Way) of Yin-Yang intercourse as well as the process by which butterflies and moths nurture their offspring. Carefully observing the conditions of the myriad things, I have sought to transmit their feelings, join their Jing, mix their Qi, and harmonize their Shen (spirit), causing them to transform according to the things themselves, and have carried this out by referring to natural creation. Although this has gradually produced results, it has not yet reached the realm of succeeding in one stroke and completing the refinement in a single day, nor has it attained the marvelous quality of being simple and easy to understand, pure and concentrated.

I once pondered: when the gold Qi (vital energy) of cinnabar is weak and the silver Qi is strong, what was originally gold later turns into silver; if the silver Qi is weak and the gold Qi is strong, what was originally silver later turns into gold. If the influence of the silver Qi is still shallow and the gold Qi not yet strong, the substance may display a golden or silvery color that is hard to distinguish. Therefore one must understand the principles of how matter grows, is nurtured, resonates, and transforms.

Once it has been affected by silver Qi and turned into silver, is it not possible to restore it to gold? In general, things that take form through the gathering of Qi can have their shape changed by Qi; yet if they are formed from a mixture of different materials, one ultimately cannot change their essential nature by Qi alone. When I devised this method I often failed at precisely this point: the gold Qi was too weak and the silver Qi too heavy, so that attempts to turn silver into gold were frequently in vain. Even after the work of “yan’an,” although the golden nature could be restored, some loss was still inevitable. Later, having recognized this problem, one should use gold to nourish and transform gold, and Qi to transform Qi. If the color is not yet firmly set, it may recover of its own accord.

Alas, although gold, silver and the like arise from the wondrous transformations of Heaven and Earth, they also relate to the way of nourishing life and the arts of change. Depth or paleness of color ultimately cannot be separated from the action of Qi. It is like grafting: using a pear tree to graft peach yields fruit that is sweet; using a plum tree to graft apricot yields fruit that is sour. All things have their original natures, yet through long accumulation, influence and permeation they gradually accord with the incoming qualities, until the original nature can no longer be seen.

Day and night without cease I burned incense and prayed, consulting ancient and modern scriptures in search of a simple and practicable method. Later I was fortunate to meet a true immortal who transmitted a great method to me, saying it was the Golden Elixir (Jindan) of worldly transcendence, a supreme art of sudden liberation. Although I have treasured it and do not readily show it to others, I also dare not conceal it without transmitting it.

The Essential Formula for Making Lingsha (Numinous Cinnabar) to Apply Close to the Body

Take one liang of lumped powder frost (a mercury-containing medicinal used in elixir refinement) and boil it for one full day and night in lotus-ash juice that has been filtered three times. Then mix male-female powder with vinegar and spread this paste over the surface of the powder frost. First place it in a silver-mother cinnabar chamber (an alchemical vessel or medicinal cabinet) and nourish it with warmth for three days so that it attains the state of “true death,” meaning that after refinement it no longer undergoes any change, as the scriptures describe.

Take one liang of cinnabar and one liang of sulfur, boil and refine them by the same method, then coat them with vinegar-mixed male-female powder, place them in the silver-mother cinnabar chamber, and nourish with warmth for three days until they reach “true death.” Afterward put the cinnabar and sulfur into the “Forty-eight Fords” three-leached liquid and boil them for a day and a night. Remove them and place them in a gan-crucible (an alchemical pot). First press the already-refined powder frost on top, then press silver vermilion (a red mercury compound) above that, and nourish and refine with warmth for seven days until “true death” is achieved.

Once taken out, successively coat the surface of the medicine with the refined powder frost, cinnabar, and the “fire-subdued flying-cannon” substance. The scripture states that these three coating materials are not ordinary things of the world and remarks “do not swallow the mother,” meaning one does not ingest the mother-medicine together with the product. Use half a qian of coating material for each liang of medicine and apply it evenly. This must be kept strictly secret.

Essential Formula for Nourishing White Snow: The Method of Forming the Five Phases

After the preceding Four Images (an alchemical combination composed of four medicines or materials) have already been refined to “true death,” take a further six liang of powder frost and boil it for a day and a night in the natural juice of ginger; if lotus-ash juice is added at the same time the effect is even better. Remove it and place it in a silver flask, pressing Four Images powder on top. Then combine five medicinals—daomai, Sichuan pepper, cyperus, camphor-willow root, and haritaki—around the outer layer to seal and enclose it, and nourish and temper it with warmth.

Take it out again, place it in the Four Images powder, and nourish it with fire warmth for fourteen days until it reaches “true death.” Grind it and mix it with the Four Images powder to form the chamber of the Great Elixir of the Five Phases. Finally, boil the lumped powder frost with the Three Yellows and apply a coating, then place it in a solitary powder chamber and nourish it with warmth until “true death”; this is called the White Snow Solitary Spirit Chamber.

Powder frost must undergo firm refining: take equal portions of ginger juice and lotus-root juice, combine them and boil for three fu periods (about forty days), constantly maintaining a bubbling state like fish eyes. Then add the Three Yellows (the three yellow medicinal substances used in elixir alchemy) to the juice and boil them together; this step merely employs the juices to exert their effect. Next, apply raw realgar (unrefined realgar) to the body of the powder, place it in a White Snow Chamber (a vessel filled with white powder for nurturing and refining), spread it evenly, and continue regulating the fire for twenty-one days of nourishing refinement. Once the powder material is thoroughly refined, pound it into a fine powder to serve as the filling for a dedicated powder-nurturing chamber. Thereafter nourish the powder frost within this unique powder chamber. Its marvels are boundless; the so-called lead pool is the supreme treasure of the mountains and marshes.

Using the refined dead powder as chamber filling, boil the raw powder together with the two juices already mentioned and raw sulfur-realgar (unrefined sulfur and realgar) for three fu periods. After removing it, apply raw realgar to the powder material and place it into the previously refined dead powder; thus powder frost can be produced and may be used to nourish and refine the Two Yellows so that they transform into the required substances.

Essential Secrets of San Preparation

I have refined numinous cinnabar (a type of elixir in Daoist alchemy) since childhood and am by no means unaware of the method of using the mother to nourish the child: boil it together with realgar material for three fu periods, remove it and apply raw realgar to the powder, place it into the previously refined dead powder, refine the powder frost, and use it to nourish and refine the Two Yellows so that they transform.

From childhood I practiced the refining and nurturing of lingsha (spiritual cinnabar, a medicinal substance used in ancient elixir-making). It is not that I did not know one must nourish the child by means of the mother and take the child as the mother; I also knew that only by passing through three stages of extraction and refining, then entering the method of nine-fold return, and patiently nurturing the yellow sprouts, could the red powder be achieved. Yet for nearly twenty years I met with no success, and I had no choice but to endure humiliation, taking up my alms bowl and going to others’ gates to seek help. I read through all the elixir Jing (scriptures), examining and investigating them again and again, yet never grasped the essential point.

Later I encountered an extraordinary person who gave me instruction, teaching me to harmonize the Four Images and gather the Five Phases (Wuxing: Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, Water), so that the refining would accord with the creative transformations of heaven and earth. Although by this means I could transmutate stubborn substances and turn ordinary things into genuine treasures, I had still not attained the realm of settling my person and establishing my life, bringing benefit to the world, and aiding others.

I recalled again what the extraordinary person had said: between child and mother there easily arises the problem of mutual devouring and seizure; once the red powder is completed, it possesses the merit of long life. Carefully tracing the meaning of this, I saw that whenever three refinings have still not fully succeeded and seven nurturings have still not been thoroughly completed, one must afterward continue to nurture the red powder, boil and refine it according to the formula, and separately seek a method of enclosure-nurturing, before conspicuous efficacy will appear. I now record the oral formula for the fire timing of nurturing the powder upon the recipe scroll; those of later generations who obtain it must not casually disclose it.

In general terms, the red powder is a medicinal substance used in elixir-making. It attaches itself to Metal and Water and grows silver sprouts; the mother’s Qi (vital energy) condenses to form its substantial body. This is far different from the case of vermilion spirit attaching itself to the yang Qi of Yin-Yang. If one does not calcine it in the Shen Chamber (the spirit chamber, the vessel used in elixir-making to seal and refine the medicines), it will not succeed; if one does not nurture and refine it in the Shen Fulu enclosure (a vessel that employs Fulu, talismans and registers, to assist in sealing and nurturing), it cannot be completed; if one does not rinse it three times with lotus-leaf juice and then boil and refine it, the medicine will not submit to the fire timing.

In nurturing and refining one ordinarily uses a gentle fire, steaming first and then calcining, and the fire-power must be continuous without interruption. If one suddenly increases the fire-power, a single calcining will cause loss and damage, and a single nurturing will cause the medicine to fly off and disperse. One must patiently regulate the fire timing as if tending an infant or soothing a young woman, and only then can one obtain a medicine that has truly condensed and taken form. Once the red powder has condensed, the mercury will dry; when the mercury is dry, through mixing and compounding it can be refined into a treasure. Should this method be disclosed, calamity will swiftly descend.

The oral formula says that when boiling, the fire timing should be as gentle as crab-eye bubbles rising; when calcining, one must not employ overly fierce yang fire; nurturing and refining must be kept warm, so that the medicine will not fly off and disperse. On the first, second, and third days, one liang is used each daytime and each nighttime; on the fourth day, one and a half liang are used by day and by night. After the jar is opened, what was above is placed below and what was below is placed above. On the fifth, sixth, and seventh days, one and a half liang are used each day.

Zhu Ling (cinnabar-type materials used in elixir refining) all harbor the hidden danger of being consumed, depleted, and lost. Only when the “powder” unites with the “mother” does this worry vanish. Cinnabar takes bodily form by relying on sulfur; sulfur, however, depletes the “mother” (the component to which the cinnabar attaches and from which it draws nourishment). Consequently, the moment sulfur is encountered, the medicinal Qi (vital energy) disperses. Even if one searched every metal and stone under heaven and exhausted every numinous medicine in the world, this defect still could not be avoided.

The Zhu Ling Oral Formula

Zhu Ling all carry the hidden peril of being swallowed and depleted; only the combination of powder and mother removes this concern. Cinnabar forms its body by means of sulfur, and sulfur consumes the mother, so that upon meeting sulfur the medicinal Qi is lost. Even gathering all the metals, stones, and numinous medicines of the realm cannot free one from this problem. Only when Zhu, Ling, and powder mutually restrain one another can the efficacy of transmutation be realized.

Once the Lingsha has been refined, scrape away the sulfur Qi with a knife, transfer the material onto a mirror surface, and invert it into the ding (cauldron). Support the medicine securely and bury it near the mouth of the ding; seal the edges of the medicinal sand with mud on the outside so that fire cannot injure the sand itself. Calcine it slowly over charcoal, taking care not to crack the medicinal layer on the mirror. Then blend the medicine with vinegar and apply it to the vessel. First place it in the mother kui (the container that holds the medicine and supplies warming nourishment), set it in a yin furnace, and nourish it for seven days by the method of fire above and water below. Next transfer it to a yang ding and continue refining and nourishing for seven days by the method of “water above and fire below.” When the procedure is carried out correctly, sulfur Qi does not escape, mercury Qi does not fly off, both child and mother are preserved, and benefit is thereby obtained.

I have comprehended the essential secret of warming and nourishing Lingsha and have received the method transmitted by my teacher. Its marvelous quality lies in transmutation; its efficacy extends only as far as Danyang (the completed-elixir stage). The Danyang method is said to be capable of changing the bones and of placing the elixir on a par with the precious treasures of the world—yet how readily can such a feat be accomplished?

Of all medicinal substances, none surpasses “White Snow.” White Snow is powder frost (a mercury-containing compound obtained through refining), which is exceedingly difficult to warm, nourish, and complete. Even after it has been rinsed with boiling water and boiled in lotus juice for a full double-hour, further refining and nourishing remain necessary. Place it in a red-powder kui or inside the spirit chamber (the sealed vessel-chamber employed in elixir work) and cover it with Four Images powder. Seal the exterior with a honey mixture of eight medicines—yellow yaozi, Sichuan langdu, purple heche, eight-cornered mirror, tile pine, asarum, phoenix tail, and shiwei—and warm, nourish, and calcine it with fire. After cooling, remove the material, peel away the outer medicines, put the powder from the spirit chamber into Four Images powder, and continue warming and nourishing until the medicine is fully refined. The length of time is not prescribed; one follows the method taught by the master. The results are said to be remarkable.

Thereafter take three qian of white gold, mix it with seven qian of red gold, and add two qian of female powder together with half a liang of dead ling. After the numinous medicine has undergone fetal separation, the red portion remains on top; the dead ling produced from white gold is no longer contaminated by the red. Then take one liang of red gold, melt it in the same furnace, and introduce half a liang of dead ling plus the two qian of female powder already added. First use this mixture to transmute the numinous medicine, then cause the medicine to separate its fetus above, so that the red substance is converted into the so-called “treasure of pure yang.” The dead ling used on the two occasions totals one liang, yet only eight qian is finally recovered. Next transmute it with two qian of dead-letter powder, melt the whole into a liquid, throw in half a liang of raw iron and three qian of raw niter, seal the furnace mouth with mud, and calcine it once over a fierce fire. Break the vessel, remove the contents, change the pot, and decoct with five qian of lead, yielding two liang seven qian of purified material. This is known as the bone-changing method.

The efficacy of White Snow represents a recently accomplished superior method of elixir making. Later there also appeared a “Divine Talisman Elixir,” likewise produced by warming and nourishing powder frost; its efficacy far exceeds that of White Snow. In the preparation of the Divine Talisman Elixir I have truly reached an extremely high level of subtlety.

Pour mercury into White Snow and wait until it dries and forms sprout-like shapes. Take eight liang or one jin of Sacred Sprouts and continue refining and nourishing them until they become powder. Then add lotus frost powder, which may be boiled and refined or ground, and nourish-refine for fourteen days. Every two qian of this medicinal powder can transmute red substances into superior Bone-Changing Cinnabar Yang. This elixir must be further processed according to the methods transmitted by the master, and it is also known as Divine Talisman White Snow. One qian can transmute one liang of red substance into treasure; alternatively, mixing one qian of the powder into mercury will cause one liang of mercury to dry and congeal into treasure.

Someone in the dinghai year succeeded in refining White Snow, extracted the Divine Talisman, and further refined it into Jade Divine Talisman White Snow, using it to make mercury dry and congeal into treasure and to transmute Cinnabar Yang. Later, when firing and refining with the Four Images stove mentioned earlier, each liang of raw material yielded only a little more than three qian of treasure. Likewise, one qian of the medicinal powder can be mixed in to make one liang of mercury dry and congeal into treasure. Someone in the dinghai year refined White Snow, extracted the Divine Talisman, and further refined it into Jade Divine Talisman White Snow, using it to congeal mercury into treasure and transmute Cinnabar Yang. Later, using the Four Images stove previously described, each liang of raw material yielded only a little more than three qian of treasure.

Someone who could not sleep at night and had no appetite by day consulted an enlightened master and came to understand that if the sulfur qi in the numinous sand is not completely eliminated, mercury remains in the powder. Mercury can reactivate the sulfur, cycling like the sun and moon, causing dead matter to revive. From every three liang of raw material only three qian of treasure is obtained, while the rest becomes glue, oil, or sugar-like substances that dissipate. The person consulted the master again, followed the secret method of preserving mercury while removing sulfur, and finally achieved complete success.

First Method for Refining Cinnabar to Remove Sulfur

First nourish and refine the numinous sand so that it congeals into treasure while removing the sulfur; then nourish and refine cinnabar to remove sulfur. The Four Images method is able to remove sulfur, whereas the Five Phases method is not.

The poem says:

Using sulfur to congeal mercury will consume the numinous sand; nourish the original source with the mother and the lotus. Retaining mercury and removing sulfur constitutes the great treasure; after three cycles of returning refinement and subduing the fire, the Yellow Sprout appears.

Dead mercury is the most suitable; then congeal cinnabar-mercury into sand. After twenty-eight days of refining with water and fire, following the fire phasing of the complete celestial circuit, the precious Yellow Sprout is produced.

The Yellow Sprout is used to nourish and refine elixir sand; the Four Stars vessel is the foundation of the practice. When the fire is properly regulated and the refining lasts a full forty-nine days, mercury dries and congeals into true treasure, which is truly remarkable. Then again congeal cinnabar-mercury into sand, refine with water and fire for twenty-eight days, and following the celestial circuit fire phasing produce the precious Yellow Sprout.

A single portion of yellow sprout (huangya, a medicinal substance or key material in elixir refinement) is used to nourish the cinnabar. When the four-star vessel (sixing kui, an apparatus or furnace vessel used in elixir refinement) is united as one, this constitutes the foundation for accomplishing the elixir method. With the fire phasing properly regulated, after forty-nine cycles of circulatory refinement the dry mercury can be made authentic, which is indeed worthy of acclaim.

On Refining Cinnabar, Removing Sulfur and Retaining Mercury to Form the Treasure

Lingsha and zhusha, once processed, can reveal their treasure-like nature; moreover, refining dry mercury can transform it into silver. This is a technique mastered by extremely few in the world. Methods for refining lingsha and zhusha have long been in circulation, and countless people have practiced them, yet it is unknown who has truly succeeded in producing the treasure.

When refining lingsha, if one only decocts it with herbs and plants and nourishes it with the eight stones (bashi, mineral medicinal materials commonly used in elixir refinement) without employing the “mother” (mu, an alchemical term for a material believed capable of carrying and subduing mercury), the endeavor cannot succeed. Using the “mother” without processing it through herbal decoction will severely deplete the “mother,” preventing it from functioning. When the “mother” is insufficient and the “child” (zi, here referring to mercury) is excessive, the mercury cannot be completely subdued and fixed.

Having a “mother” that proves inefficacious, or lacking a “mother” so that refinement fails; when the “mother” is plentiful and the “child” scarce, it is best not to allow it to “borrow a body to restore the soul” (relying on another substance to regain its original form). If the “mother” is scarce and the “child” plentiful, one ought to keep the elixir body from becoming loose and fragmented, ensuring a solid texture; without a “mother,” the elixir body easily loosens and breaks yet is hard to make firm. If one relies solely on the “mother” for refinement, the mercury will depart—this merely borrows the form of the “mother.”

Regardless of whether there is a “mother” or not, and whether it is more or less, the product of refinement may still not succeed. If it emits blue smoke upon burning and is fragile in quality, treasure cannot be obtained either. What is the reason? The crucial point lies in the role of the “mother,” which students of elixir refinement often fail to grasp: all these materials are constrained by sulfur. In the initial refining, without sulfur, mercury alone cannot produce the described marvel of the conjunction of the two Qi of Yin-Yang; however, once the lingsha is refined and coagulated, if the sulfur is not removed, it cannot become treasure.

The “mother” and mercury are originally one entity, both governed by sulfur Qi. During firing they become bluish and brittle; after melting, the surface shows luster. Those possessing a “mother” have a thin white outer layer and are bluish-brittle within; those without a “mother” appear bluish-black and melt into a liquid. If both are present, yellow fumes and flames resembling will-o’-the-wisp will appear, indicating that the sulfur Qi has not been fully eliminated.

If one then immediately applies furnace fire for decoction, allowing sulfur to corrode the materials, the mother and mercury will instead grow drier and more cracked under the fire, becoming difficult to preserve. The sulfur fire may even melt them together into an oily substance, which is a pity and a futile expenditure of effort.

The ancient immortals said that sulfur among metals and stones is like a general who plans and strategizes; it is also like the “Yellow Dame” (huangpo, an alchemical term often denoting the power that harmonizes and mediates Yin-Yang), capable of capturing and subduing mercury as well as mediating the maternal substance of silver so that they take form, yet unable to separate the fetal body from the original substance and refine it into silver. Some say, “Great peace may only be settled by the general; the general is not permitted to witness the great peace.” This means that sulfur can subdue and fix the mercury but must not remain in the final product; if sulfur is not removed, it becomes an obstacle to forming the treasure.

I have now mastered this technique and disclose its key points, not to violate the will of Heaven, but in the hope of assisting those who follow. Those of sincere resolve who obtain this material should not regard it lightly. Bear in mind that studying this art is extremely laborious and success is not easily achieved; one must proceed with caution.

The formula states that “Xiaoyu” is niter. Take four liang and boil it together with water from a long-flowing stream. “Dushen” is iron flowers. Take one jin and boil it for a full day, which will suffice. Cinnabar (zhu) is also among the substances employed. Sincere students of the Dao who obtain this formula must not take it lightly. The work of cultivation and study is arduous and not easy; one should be cautious and yet more cautious.

It further states that “Xiaoyu” is niter. Take four liang and boil it with long-flowing water. To refine Lingsha, take four liang of “Dushen” to nourish one liang of Lingsha. Seal it well, place it in the kui vessel, and set it in the ash pool. Heap thick ashes all around and cluster fire about the kui to calcine it for a time. The next day take it out. If the Lingsha has already become snow-white, the work is complete; if it has not yet turned white, boil it a little longer with “Xiaoyu,” then return it to the kui and nourish it overnight in the kui fire, after which it becomes a white substance. Place it next in the furnace and catalyze it with only a little refined borax-niter, adding a small amount of raw lead. The product thus obtained is called a treasure of the finest luster.

Shenxue Danyang Sihao Dan

The recipe calls for two liang of powder frost, one liang of crystal pi, two qian of borax, one qian of processed niter, three qian of frankincense, and one qian of flame niter.

Grind the above six ingredients finely and mix them evenly, then add four liang of silver powder and place the whole in a water-fire ding. Measure the fire according to eight jin of fuel and control the heat in the same manner as when refining Lingsha. After the furnace has cooled, open it. The medicines will have sublimed and condensed around the mouth of the ding, appearing black, and may be collected. The silver mother material sinks to the bottom and is no longer used; collect only the medicines. This is called Sihao Dan.

Sihao Dan Transformed into Sibao Shenxue Dan

The recipe calls for three liang of Sihao Dan powder, five qian of powder frost, two and a half qian of “pi,” half a qian of borax, one qian of niter, one zi of frankincense, and half a zi of the processed item; all the above materials are used in their raw form.

Mix two and a half liang of silver powder with the medicinal ingredients mentioned previously and stir them thoroughly until evenly blended. Harmonize the mixture into a cohesive mass with ginger juice, then form a tube from a silver qinzi (a small silver vessel), pack the medicine inside, and bind it tightly with fine iron wire. Use shuizhongjin (gold-in-water, a material employed in elixir refinement) as the kui (the vessel that wraps and nurtures the medicine), covering it completely above and below and sealing it securely. Place the assembly in an ash pit, bury it one cun deep, and nourish it with fire for sixteen days. At each of the four double-hours of zi, wu, mao, and you, add fire once, using one liang of fuel each time and replacing it with fresh fire. When the appointed term is complete, allow the preparation to cool, peel away the silver foil, and collect the medicine; it may be used to transform into Danyang. The medicine may also be pounded to a fine powder in an iron mortar and employed as a zimu kui (a nested mother-and-child vessel pairing an outer container with inner medicine).

Four Treasures Divine Snow Elixir Transformed into Divine Talisman White Snow Elixir

Take four liang of the previously refined Four Treasures Elixir, or half a jin or one jin, to serve as the kui, and within it cyclically nourish and transform powder frost, refining according to the oral instructions for the White Snow Elixir.

Divine Talisman White Snow Elixir Transformed into Light Red Powder Elixir

Pound the medicine to a fine powder in an iron mortar; it may serve as a zimu kui.

Four Treasures Divine Snow Elixir Transformed into Divine Talisman White Snow Elixir

Take four liang of the previously refined Four Treasures Elixir, or half a jin or one jin, to serve as the kui, and within it cyclically nourish and transform powder frost, refining according to the oral instructions for the White Snow Elixir.

Divine Talisman White Snow Elixir Transformed into Light Red Powder Elixir

Take four liang of Great Luminous Cinnabar and boil it for one fu-period (an alchemical term denoting a prescribed duration of boiling and refining) by means of the “forty-eight jin” (the forty-eight liquid treatments spoken of in the refining process). Wrap the cinnabar in a half-liang silver luanzi (a small silver vessel) and place it inside the White Snow Elixir to nourish with fire for seven days. Add one liang of fire at each of the zi, wu, mao, and you hours, replacing it with fresh fire each time, and a precious substance will be obtained. This product may also function as a transmuting staff for refining Danyang and may be used along the Geng path to project onto yellow substances. It may likewise be nourished together with the Divine Talisman for twenty-one days for incorporation into further refining. One qian of the red powder is said to congeal five liang of mercury into a dry substance. After the medicine has been refined into a treasure atop a boiling flask, it is passed through a qi furnace; the fumes condense into a superior treasure that can likewise be transformed into Geng.

Divine Talisman White Snow Elixir Nourishing Spiritual Sand into Purple River Chariot Elixir

Nourish lingsha (spiritual sand) inside the White Snow Elixir kui for seven days and silver can be produced. Lingsha together with White Snow Elixir may also be used to project onto a transmuting staff, yielding the so-called “complete Danyang”; three qian of lingsha can refine one liang of material into superior white silver.

The Purple River Cart vessel (a container used for nurturing and refining elixir medicines) is employed to nurture and refine the three-seven mother sand. The two-eight number is used to induce resonance with the medicinal Qi (vital energy), one liang serving as the fire timing, with fire applied during the Mao and You double-hours. After seven days the mother sand and child sand turn white, and the medicines in the furnace become a precious treasure. Further combined refinement with the charging staff can produce superior Danyang. Mother sand nurtured in the Purple River Cart is formed into a Silver Toad elixir vessel; subsequent nurturing and refining then yields powdered frost, which is used to fabricate gold.

When nurturing and refining sand medicines, the two-eight number induces the medicinal Qi, one liang constitutes the fire timing, and fire is applied at the Mao and You double-hours. After seven days the mother sand and child sand appear white, transforming the furnace medicines into treasure; combined refinement with the charging staff produces superior Danyang. Mother sand raised in the Purple River Cart becomes a Silver Toad elixir vessel, and further processing yields powdered frost for the production of gold.

Once the spirit powder has been successfully nurtured, orpiment is next refined and called the Golden Flower Elixir.

Four liang of orpiment are boiled with forty-eight jin for one fu-period (approximately one full day and night). The material is removed, washed clean, wrapped in one liang of genuine gold foil, bound crosswise with iron wire, and placed in the spirit-powder vessel to be nurtured and refined for sixteen days. After extraction the gold foil is peeled away; one qian of it transmutes one liang of flower silver into cauliflower gold.

Realgar nurtured and refined in the spirit-powder vessel produces the Golden Male Elixir.

Four liang of realgar are boiled with forty-eight jin for one fu-period, then removed, thoroughly rinsed, wrapped in one liang of genuine geng gold, and placed in the spirit-powder vessel for sixteen days of nurturing and refining. Upon removal, one qian of gold foil transmutes one liang of flower silver into official gold.

Miscellaneous Methods of the Elixir Chamber

One jin of medicinal stone is ground to a fine powder and placed in an earthenware bowl. Phoenix-tail grass (also known as goose-green grass), mountain cigu, purslane, zhizhu or banana root is then taken.

Grind one jin of medicinal mineral very finely and place it in an earthenware bowl. Select herbal medicines such as phoenix-tail grass (also called goose-green grass), mountain arrowhead, purslane, azalea, or plantain root; the “dansipi grass” named in the scripture is likewise counted among usable materials. Take four or five dan of the herbs, pound them, and press out the juice; a little clear water may also be added. Place this in a large vat to settle for two or three days, then draw off the clear liquid from the upper layer and use it to boil the medicinal mineral. Boil continuously for seven days until the mineral becomes a porridge-like paste; then add further herb juice and boil for another three to five days.

Place the medicinal mineral on a charcoal fire and burn it. After the fumes have fully dispersed, if half of the mineral remains, it may be used for decoction. When it has been boiled down to eight- or nine-tenths dryness, take good tough paper holding furnace ash and set it upon the medicine in the bowl to draw off moisture; then dry it thoroughly, pack it into a lidded vessel, seal it according to the prescribed method, and nourish it with a four-liang fire for more than a month.

Afterwards, seal the medicine in a crucible and calcine it in a furnace pit; then pack it again into a lidded vessel, seal it, and continue the gentle nourishing until the medicine is completely “dead and subdued” (sifu, a technical term of refinement in the scripture, meaning that the medicinal nature has become stable and no longer changes). When it attains a snow-white, light, and smokeless condition, the work is regarded as complete. Next, the refined medicine must “pass through the mother’s Qi (vital energy) to become a kui” (that is, using silver as the mother-body so that the medicine adheres to it, forming the kui employed in later stages of refinement).

For every eight liang of medicine, take eight liang of fine silver, heat it until it melts into liquid, and place it in a Hangzhou pot. Divide the medicine into six small packets and add them one by one onto the silver liquid; after the medicine itself melts slightly, stir gently. Then take another eight liang of silver, melt it in the same way, place it in the pot, and introduce the medicine packets successively into the silver, stirring as each is added; once all six packets are in, stir them together until even. Lift the pot, wait for it to cool, then break the pot and take out the contents. If the silver remains in the lower layer, pure white in color, while the medicine sits in the upper layer with a yellowish tinge, this is called the “kui.” If there is any loss of silver, three liang of lead may be added to the silver; after the silver melts, fan away the lead, and the silver can then be hammered into shape and may also be used to nourish cinnabar.

The method of forging spiritual sand (lingsha).

Eight liang of mercury and two liang of high-quality sulfur are ground fine and then roasted over a gentle fire until they refine into a blue-gold medicine. A small amount of the male and female medicines is then added—or else half a liang is added—and the mixture is placed in a water-fire ding (cauldron) and sealed tightly. At the outset, calcine with a half-ding fire; once the upper part of the ding glows red and the medicinal qi (vital energy) has fully risen, brush the seal with salt mud. Hold this for half a shichen, then raise the fire to seventy percent. As the medicine wrapped at the bottom of the ding is raised and refined, the water will come to a boil of its own accord. When the boiling is about to subside, calcine with a strong fire for one fu-shi; the medicine will then become as hard as iron.

Method of Striking the Vermilion Spirit

Take five liang of the blue-gold previously obtained by roasting and grind it together with five liang of cinnabar, then add two qian of raw sulfur. Continue roasting for half a shichen, then load the mixture into the ding and calcine according to the method given above.

Method of Striking Cinnabar

Ten liang of cinnabar and six liang of high-quality sulfur, with two qian of the female medicine added, may likewise be ground together. Place them in a diao pan and roast over a moderate fire for half a shichen, then load them into the ding, seal firmly with sealing mud, and calcine with fire according to the previous method. For every liang of cinnabar so calcined, only eight qian of weight remains when it is taken out of the ding.

Method of Boiling the Sand

Divide each liang of cinnabar into ten pieces, put them in a silk bag, and boil them in the medicinal liquid for three days; then, using the close-attachment method, pack them into the gui (alchemical chamber) for nourishing refinement.

Boiling the Medicine

For the boiling medicine one may use garden burnet, five-addition, tangerine leaves, Chinese pepper, Dryopteris, or lotus-leaf ash.

Close-Attachment Method

Divide each liang of cinnabar into ten pieces and attach one qian of silver foil to them. The silver foil that Hangzhou people call “Manzi” foil comes in about twenty sheets per liang. After the foil has been applied to each piece, press it down firmly. Then lay out the lotus material and place it in the pi-gui; half a jin of lotus material is used to nourish and refine six liang of cinnabar sand, arranged in two layers above and below. Close the lid of the gui and seal it firmly with sealing mud. First nourish and refine with a three-liang fire for six days, then with a four-liang fire for three days. When taken out, the cinnabar should be blue-black on the outside and red within; only then may it be placed in the mother gui for further refinement.

Take eight liang of mountain-marsh silver. First grind charcoal powder into a fine powder and set it aside; alternatively, spread bran evenly in a large bathtub and mix it thoroughly with water. Next melt the silver into liquid form: holding a bamboo tube in the left hand and lifting the pot with the right, pour the molten silver onto the bamboo tube so that it drips into the bran, where the silver naturally congeals into round pearls.

For every half jin of mother cinnabar (the “mother material” used to nourish and catalyze cinnabar-type medicines), mix two liang of piku medicine (the compounding material named in the original text) evenly and coat it over the surface of the mother material as an outer covering. For every jin of mother material nourish four liang of cinnabar, divide the mixture into two portions, place them in a vessel and seal it firmly. First nourish with a fire of three liang for five days, then with a fire of four liang for four days. After removing the vessel, refine the numinous embryo (the medicine that has undergone alchemical processing) into a precious object or employ it for transmutation.

Transmutation (Dianhua)

Once the cinnabar spirit (the refined cinnabar-type medicine) has been nourished and refined until its properties are stable, both the mother material and the child medicine are fully prepared. Place one liang of cinnabar spirit at the bottom of a crucible, spread one liang of bone powder over it, and cover this with lead powder or yellow lead (lead oxide). Apply fire from above and fan vigorously until the contents melt into liquid. After cooling, break open the crucible, remove the product, and melt-refine it with lead; this yields one liang five qian of silver of approximately ninety-percent purity.

Method of Smoking Numinous Cinnabar

Take one liang of the nourished and refined sand together with one liang of lead. First melt the lead into liquid, then add the sand and refine by blowing air and fanning; once the lead is exhausted the sand naturally turns snow-white.

Smoking the Mother Enclosure

Mix two liang of previously refined and nourished mother silver (the silver used to contain and nourish the cinnabar) evenly together with yellow lead (lead oxide). Let the cinnabar (dansha) be calcined over the fire for one fu-shi (an ancient unit of time, approximately one full day and night), then take it out and put it into lead to boil and refine. If the lingsha (numinous cinnabar) still cannot congeal, continuing to calcine it further will cause it to lose its efficacy. If the cinnabar has already entered the mother vessel (the container or material used to nourish the cinnabar), it will likewise be about eighty percent ineffective. One may pound sagittaria grass, or use large golden crabs or fulu herb (sulfur-subduing grass) to shorten the time of calcination.

Spread grass at the bottom of an earthenware pot, place the cinnabar and lingsha in the middle, and lay a thick covering of grass on top, then cover with a potsherd; there is no need to seal it tightly. Build a furnace of bricks and stones, set the medicinal pot inside the furnace, place charcoal all around and above it, and light the fire from above until the furnace fire burns through and the pot glows red-hot. Prepare in advance one dou of furnace ash mixed with water until moist. When the medicinal pot is red-hot and the smoke from the grass is nearly exhausted, take the pot out and place it in the wet ash, then cover it with more wet ash. After it has cooled, take it out, and the cinnabar will have been refined into what is called “true death” (a state in which, after calcination, its nature is stable and no longer undergoes change).

Supplementing Lingsha

Take two liang of the sand and boil it dry with the medicinal substances mentioned above. Grind four liang of mother silver into powder, then grind one liang of shengpi into powder. First stir-fry the mother silver until hot, then add the shengpi and continue stir-frying. Use this mother silver to nourish the sand for two times seven days (fourteen days): first calcine with two liang of fire-power for seven days, then with two and a half liang of fire-power for five days, then with three liang of fire-power for two days, and finally calcine again with six liang of fire-power. After one night, take it out; the sand will weigh one liang and eight qian. Refine it with lead to form a treasure; from each liang of sand one may obtain eight qian of silver.

Mix the mother silver evenly with two liang of yellow lead, wrap it in bark paper, first calcine with two and a half liang of fire-power for five days, then with three liang of fire-power for two days, and finally with six liang of fire-power. After one night, take it out; the sand will weigh one liang and eight qian. Refine it with lead to form a treasure, and from each liang of sand one may obtain eight qian of silver. Then mix the mother silver evenly with yellow lead, wrap it in bark paper and wrap it again in cloth, bury it underground for three days, take it out and dry it. First put four liang of lead into a crucible and melt it into liquid, then add the mother silver and melt them together; this is the method of supplementation.

Method of Congealing Mother Sand

Beat one liang of mother silver into two or three thin sheets and place them, together with five liang of mercury, into a Jianzhan (a ceramic tea bowl). On top of this put one liang of yellow wax and three or four liang of clear oil. Heat and simmer until the oil and wax have completely melted; after about half a shichen, take the vessel off the fire. Once it has cooled, run a knife around the edges and lift the oil-wax so that it comes away as a single cake. The silver and mercury underneath will already have combined. Remove the silver, grind it to a fine powder, and repeat the same procedure until the silver is entirely used up. This method yields only two liang of mother sand.

Extracting Mercury from Cinnabar

Take ten liang of cinnabar, grind it very fine, mix it with pine-charcoal powder, and pack the mixture into a large gan-pot (a crucible used for high-temperature calcination) until it is about sixty percent full; then cover it with a further layer of pine-charcoal powder. Lay a small potsherd on top, bind everything into a bundle with iron wire, cover the mouth of the pot, and tie it fast.

Dig an earthen pit and first set a small bottle in it, filling the bottle with water. Invert the gan-pot over the mouth of the bottle so that the two rims meet, seal the joint tightly with mud, and wall the whole arrangement round with bricks. Begin the firing with a strong blaze, then add half a furnace of fire. For every liang of cinnabar refined, one obtains about seven qian of true mercury. Pour off the water from the bottle and wash the mercury clean.

Separating Geng Silver

For every liang of pale Geng silver use one liang of raw sulfur; if the sulfur has already received a preliminary treatment, use seven qian instead. Add honeysuckle vine (also called egret vine; dodder vine may be substituted), azalea flowers, or lotus leaves, and boil the sulfur for four or five days so that it subdues and transforms of itself. Then take two and a half qian of niter, mix it evenly with powdered saponin, and add it to the pot in successive portions, boiling until the contents melt into a juice; also add two and a half qian of alum and two and a half qian of salt. Grind all of the above medicinal ingredients together until fine.

First melt the pale gold into a liquid, add a small amount of sulfur, and refine it once more, then wait for it to cool. Cover the surface of the metal with the previously refined medicinal compound, and cover that in turn with aged wall earth and salt. Invert a small pot over it, bind it tightly with iron wire to seal it firmly, and seal the outside completely with mud. Fire it with full heat. After it has cooled, break open the pot and take out the contents; the gold inside will have formed into a single lump, wrapped on the outside with silver. Strike away the outer layer of silver, then treat the gold by the same method as before: add half the quantity of medicinal ingredients, fire it once more, and after cooling remove the silver as before. The third time, take half of that remaining half of the medicinal ingredients and refine it in the same way, continuing until the gold has been thoroughly purified. Place the silver and the medicinal ingredients into lead and fry-refine them. If the gold or silver contains copper, first use niter to refine and remove it completely, then separate the gold, silver, and copper.

Next process the silver. First seal and cover the silver with wall earth and salt. After melting the silver into a liquid, do not stir it, so that the dual Qi (vital energy) of Yin and Yang (Yin-Yang) within the metal may interact of their own accord. Break open the pot and take it out, then melt and refine it once more. Refine it with niter, using more niter and less white alum, repeating the process several times. After stirring, allow the niter and alum to collect at the sides of the pot, pour out the silver liquid, and then melt the alum. If any silver remains, continue refining until none is left. If the fineness is only seventy percent, the final yield can be only seven parts.

Reduction Method

The Qingqing Pian (Green-Blue Chapter) states: Use forty-nine liang of mud material, half a jin of mercury, and half a jin of tin, together with one stalk of thousand-year herb and one stalk of centipede herb, and refine them all together.

Formula Bestowed by Immortal Lü

Place mulberry firewood outside a bright window; with but a single drop, begin to warm and nourish the sacred embryo. Through seven sevens—forty-nine days—of blending and transformation, with a gentle smile it is refined into a gold hairpin.

Four liang of cinnabar (the mineral mercury sulfide) is suspended and boiled in two jin of mulberry-ash lye until the substance is thoroughly cleansed. Four qian of chalcanthite (a copper-bearing mineral), four qian of mingxin (an arsenical mineral medicine), and four liang of charcoal are then combined with juice pounded from Chinese chives and the gallbladder of a black fish. The mixture is placed in a Six-Yi chamber (a vessel used in elixir refinement) and sealed with xuanjing stone until the medicine is fully refined. A closely similar formula is later repeated, with the note that it is to be used only on substances already thoroughly processed.

The refinement of elixirs draws upon the movements of Heaven and Earth and the vital essences of the sun and moon; the pairing of Yin and Yang must follow a proper sequence. One must first clarify the primary and secondary relationships among the ingredients, then carefully examine their specific combinations. Without understanding the natures of the medicines, empty manipulation alone will never succeed. Those who obtain these methods are said to possess karmic affinity from a former life and to have accumulated virtue through good deeds, thereby gaining the chance to be entered in the registers of the immortals and to aid the world. Should the methods be turned to improper ends, one will suffer severe punishment from the Dao of Heaven. The text concludes that this formula was written in a cave in the Patriarch Lü of Pure Yang’s own hand and bestowed upon the recipient.

Another formula: the medicine is prepared over a mulberry-wood fire, with wolfberry root, sour-ginger herb, a red medicinal substance, additional firewood, and vinegar added. After prolonged decoction and refinement it is reduced to a paste, ground to powder, and formed into pills with yellow wax. The text adds that sour-ginger herb and wolfberry root can serve as a means of rapidly obtaining mercury.

Another formula: cinnabar, mercury, and mulberry ash are placed in a Six-Yi chamber for refinement. The text claims that this likewise yields mercury rapidly.

Another formula: the preceding refining method is followed, with the addition of juice from Chinese-chive roots, honeysuckle root, and similar ingredients. The text then discusses treating other minerals with mingxin (an arsenical mineral medicine) so that they melt or undergo transformation. It also mentions borax, niter, and litharge (a lead-oxide mineral), asserting that litharge is capable of transmuting metals.

For the medicinal initiator use one qian, for tin use four liang, for mercury use two liang, and for the protective sealant use two qian. First treat them with vinegar, then proceed with care according to the previous formula.

Fire-Field Farming

Hundun Elixir: Place half a jin of precious sand in the vessel and pour in two liang of mercury. Mix red halloysite and clam-shell powder with vinegar and seal the joints of the vessel with this mixture; do not apply additional clay for reinforcement. Place it in the furnace and nourish it with two liang of fire for three days; on the fourth day increase the fire to four liang and continue nourishing for seven days and seven nights. Then proceed again by the same method: each time take half a jin of precious sand, pour in two liang of mercury, seal the vessel, first nourish with two liang of fire for three days, on the fourth day increase to four liang, and nourish for another seven days and seven nights. The fire phases rotate according to the double-hours of zi, wu, mao, and you.

When the fire work is complete, take out the vessel, open it, and inspect: the mercury should all have dried and congealed. If a small amount of oily mercury remains undried, reseal the vessel and continue nourishing the fire for three more days; open it only after the mercury has dried and congealed. Afterward pour in another two liang of mercury and repeat this process four times, obtaining half a jin of dried, congealed mercury. If one wishes to make a Longevity Casket (a vessel for repeated transmutation), pour in four liang of mercury each time and refine with fire for seven days and seven nights; keep transmuting the mercury in this way until the total reaches one hundred liang. Extract the superior smoky product; it is called a treasure without compare.

Nine-Turn Numinous Cinnabar: Each time pour in two liang of mercury and refine with five liang of fire. Place it in the furnace at the shen hour (three to five in the afternoon); the next day open and inspect, and the mercury will already have been refined into a solid. Laozi said: “Plant in the morning, harvest in the evening; pour and refine early, and by evening it dries and congeals, becoming a treasure without compare.”

Nine-Turn Numinous Cinnabar: Each time pour in two liang of mercury and refine with five liang of fire. Place it in the furnace at the shen hour; the next day open and inspect, and the mercury will already have been refined into a solid. Laozi said: “Plant in the morning, harvest in the evening; pour and refine early, and by evening it dries and congeals.”

First take three liang of green-sprout cinnabar together with three liang of mercury, then apply four liang each according to the three fire phases of Yin, Wu, and Xu. After continuously nurturing and refining for three days and three nights, open the vessel and inspect it. If sprouts have not yet appeared, add another four liang of mercury and continue nurturing and refining for three days and three nights; yellow sprouts will certainly emerge. If sprouts still have not formed, do not move the materials in the furnace; add another four liang of mercury and nurture and refine for five days and five nights, then add a further four liang and continue nurturing for five days. In this way, over a cumulative period of one month, mercury is poured in six times, using twenty-four liang in all. When the fire phasing and the number of days are sufficient, take out the portion that has floated to the surface and been refined into yellow sprouts, pick it off and weigh it—it may come to half a jin, ten liang, or one jin—and store it. Then place it separately into the fire to nurture and refine it so that it undergoes transformation; this is called the “gushing-spring transformation.”

The remainder that has sunk to the bottom of the crucible and has not risen does not count as usable sprouts. It may be combined with the earlier cinnabar to make a grass container (caokui, a vessel used for sealing and nurturing medicinal substances), and after a single refining it too can become a treasure. Pound the yellow sprouts fine and wash them with water: the portion that flows away with the water is placed in a ding vessel to be nurtured and refined, serving as the Great Medicine; the portion that does not flow away is white-sand niter, which can only be used as a treasure and cannot enter the medicine.

One may also take five jin of sprouts as the “mother,” pouring in five liang of mercury every five days, harvesting the newly grown portion and returning it to continue nurturing and refining so that the raw turns ripe; proceeding in this manner, the mercury will not be exhausted. There is another method: take four liang of cinnabar as the charge, pour in one liang of mercury, and nurture and refine with three liang of fire for three days; after cooling, take it out, pour in another liang, nurture and refine for three days, and after cooling open the crucible, whereupon cold-forest sprouts will appear. Do not disturb them at this point. Then pour in one liang of mercury in succession, four times in all, using four liang of mercury altogether. Wait until, when you press the sprouts with your hand, they already feel hard, and only then pick them; if they have grown two or three cun high, that is even better. Harvest them as the occasion arises; they may be used as needed to transform substances, and it is said they can transform sixteen times. This is the method of “pouring mercury in the long-life chamber container.”

Nine Turns of Numinous Cinnabar: take five liang of fully nurtured mercury, which must not be mixed with any impurities, and prepare a separate crucible. Each day pour five liang of mercury into the crucible, then set it in an ash vat and nurture and refine with five liang of ding-fire, pouring and refining once every three days. The mercury will surge upward, taking the form of a jade forest and jade trees, congealing into pearl-like shapes, red at the tips and also resembling coral, exceedingly precious and lovely.

End of the first juan of Essentials of Cultivating the Great Elixir.

The Cinnabar Cauldron Formula

Select genuine cinnabar, preferably in arrowhead form with bright luster and originating from Chenzhou, measured at three catties per portion. Place the cinnabar in a silk bag previously soaked in mulberry-wood ash lye, then suspend the bag in the lye inside an earthenware pot so that the top of the bag does not rise above the liquid and the bottom does not touch the pot. Cover the mouth of the pot with a second earthenware pot and seal all gaps tightly with ash residue.

Fire the pot with mulberry wood for twenty-one days and twenty-one nights. The flame must be neither too fierce nor too weak, so that the lye maintains a gentle simmer with bubbles the size of fish eyes. When the allotted time is complete, remove the cinnabar; it should appear black yet translucent. If it has not yet reached this state, continue boiling for another three days and three nights. Throughout the process check the lye frequently, replenishing it whenever the level falls and resealing the pot; inspect once each night. After refinement is finished, take out the cinnabar and allow it to cool.

Next, cut newly gathered mountain-marsh silver into fragments and place them in a ceramic box (a pottery vessel used for containing and firing materials). First line the interior of the box with a layer of black paper, then pack the silver and cinnabar in alternating layers until the box is full and bind it securely with crossed iron wire. Grind red halloysite to powder, mix it evenly with paper pulp, and seal the mouth of the box so that no vapor can escape. This step is called “mother and child generating each other.”

Dig a pit two feet four inches deep and bury the box for twenty-one days and twenty-one nights. After retrieval, place it in a crucible of refined clay and melt it; the contents will liquefy, and it is said that fusible silver of ordinary quality is thereby obtained.

When the cinnabar is to be buried, first fashion a cauldron mold from yellow wax. Once the mold is thoroughly dry, remove it, leaving the empty form ready for later casting. Before pouring, heat the mold so that the molten metal will flow in evenly. Fashion a lid from high-quality flower silver according to the size of the cauldron, leaving a small hole in the lid. Place mercury (quicksilver) inside the cauldron, introduce powdered iron-fan grass through the hole, and warm it gently over an ash fire for a short time; it is said that the contents will then condense into “treasure.”

For each catty of material add three liang of “red hair” as the skeletal component and five qian of “Gold Lord” as an auxiliary, stirring thoroughly with dry willow twigs. Add a small amount of borax and saltpeter to remove grease and impurities, then pour the mixture into the mold, where it will solidify into the so-called true treasure. If iron-fan grass is unavailable, powdered root of wood-law grass may be substituted.

A verse states: One branch, one leaf opens into flower; the deep mountains are my home. When cinnabar meets me it grows bright, and mercury likewise condenses into cinnabar.

This herb resembles Arisaema in form: its leaves are like those of hemp, divided into seven lobes; the flowers hang downward like bells, with purple petals and a yellow center.

When casting the ding, eight materials are used in equal amounts: realgar, sulfur, orpiment, Acanthopanax bark, Dusao, purple placenta, purslane, and arsenic. Each is ground separately into fine powder and then mixed evenly with red halloysite. The powder is first applied to both the inner and outer surfaces of a wax mold, after which the whole is wrapped and shaped with finely pounded paper fiber mixed with yellow sandy clay, made thick and solid. Once dry it is baked so that the wax melts away, and the original wax mold is then used to cast the vessel.

The following passages list materials and procedures involving an earthenware pot, mountain-marsh silver sand, the wax mold, paper fiber, and yellow sandy clay. They also mention a closed vessel, a sweet-earth pot, mercury, three liang of red hair, five fen of lead (known as jingong), and a little borax and saltpeter.

Iron-fan grass has green leaves with purple, hairy undersides and produces greenish-white flowers whose yellow centers are hollow. The plant sways of its own accord when there is no wind yet remains still when wind arises; there appear to be two varieties.

“Zhulü” exists in two kinds, with white roots, green leaves, yellow seeds, and red stems.

The method for preparing Danhua Dan is as follows: four liang of the finest gold-foot arsenic are ground to a fine powder; processed sand, borax, and frankincense, half a qian of each, are then added. These are placed in a water-fire ding and sublimed beneath the lid. For use, calomel is added and the mixture blended with yellow wax oil to form pills. Two liang of the elixir are said to transmute ten liang of material. Red hair may be added to the true treasure in three-to-seven or four-to-six proportions; the combination is then boiled three times in a plum pot to produce the “treasure.” The original text repeats this procedure and notes that the amounts of calomel and yellow wax oil remain unclear.

Tongshen Dan

Place eight liang of mercury and two liang of sulfur in a new iron pot and roast them, stirring constantly, until they turn into a sand-like granular mass. If smoke or flames appear, sprinkle vinegar over the mixture. When it has cooled, grind it to a fine powder and put it into a water-fire ding (shuihuo ding, a vessel used for refining). Mix red halloysite (chishizhi, a sealing clay) with vinegar and use this paste to seal the mouth of the ding; bind it tightly with iron wire, dry it in the sun, and then reinforce the seal with additional mud.

Refine the contents by burning twenty jin of charcoal. If the ding cracks, dip red halloysite and smear it repeatedly over the fissures until the charcoal fire is completely spent. After one night, take out the medicine, grind it again to a fine powder, and return it to the water-fire ding. Repeat this process a total of seven times. During the refining one must avoid corpse qi, women, dogs, and the like; the work is to be carried out in a clean room after fasting and ritual purification, on a carefully chosen date and hour.

The True Formula of the Wondrous Treasure

Mercury, five qian; Chen cinnabar, five qian; realgar, three qian.

Combine the medicines listed above with one liang of yellow beeswax and form them into a single pellet the size of a bullet. Next, boil ten liang of purslane to extract its juice, and blend this with five liang of white clay powder (baiyoumo) and paper fiber. Then add powdered calamine, iron filings, magnetite, hematite, white…

First take one liang of yellow wax and form it into a pellet. Then boil ten liang of purslane to extract its juice, mix this with five liang of baiyou powder and paper fiber, and afterward add powdered calamine, needle sand, magnetite, hematite, white sulfur, yellow lead, gold-essence stone, and turmeric, grinding everything together into a mud-like paste. Divide the medicinal mud into two portions. First use one half to wrap the wax pellet evenly so that no gaps remain, and wait until it is thoroughly dry; then introduce the mercury-sand-yellow and remaining medicinal substances and seal them tightly. Next wrap a second layer with the remaining half of the medicinal mud, coat it evenly, and again wait until it is thoroughly dry.

Place the whole into a silver-refining crucible, cover the mouth with a ground tile, and seal it firmly, taking care that no Qi (vital energy) can leak out. Once thoroughly dry, coat the exterior completely with six-one mud (the sealing clay used for vessels in elixir refinement), bind it securely with iron wire, and allow it to dry fully. Then slowly roast it over a charcoal fire of twenty-four liang for seven days and seven nights; when the entire vessel has turned red-hot, withdraw the fire. After it has cooled, remove it, discard the outer container, and retain only the inner shell that adheres closely to the medicine.

Mix the burned paper ash with rice water, fire it once more, and place it in a bag of processed silk; wear the bag close to the body so that it may be warmed and nourished for seven sevens (seven periods of seven days, that is, forty-nine days). Afterward take it out and grind it to powder. Take a fruit pit, hollow out a cavity and remove the kernel, fill the cavity with the medicinal powder, bind it firmly with copper or iron wire, seal it with mud, and place it in the fire of an incense burner to burn for one double-hour. Upon removal it is called the “True Treasure.”

One may take only one qian daily; one must not take more because of wealth or rank, nor may one violate the vows of the ancestral masters. It must never be casually transmitted to unsuitable persons, otherwise the offense will be hard to forgive. Extreme caution is required. Should one have the affinity to encounter this method, one ought to treasure it and keep it in strict confidence.

Diagram of the Nine-Return Jiji Furnace: a schematic illustration of the elixir-refining furnace.

The furnace is placed in the central chamber. Its form is round without and square within: the circular outer diameter measures one chi four cun, the square inner diameter one chi two cun, and the depth seven cun, partitioned by an iron grate. The furnace body stands one chi five cun in overall height; its exterior is fashioned in three tiers, each four cun high and three cun wide, save that the lowest tier is twice as wide. The ground beneath the southern side of the furnace must be hollowed out so that it opens directly onto the iron grate, allowing the ashes to be removed with ease.

The uppermost surface of the furnace is marked with the directional positions of the Five Phases (Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, Water): Fire occupies the south, Water the north, Wood the east, Metal the west, and Earth the center. The second tier is inscribed with the Later Heaven positions of the Bagua (Eight Trigrams): Zhen in the east, Xun in the southeast, Li in the south, Kun in the southwest, Dui in the west, Qian in the northwest, Kan in the north, and Gen in the northeast. The lowest tier serves for the offering of the fire of the Dao; at the outset one walks three circuits around the furnace.

A circular incense stand is set on the southern side of the furnace, while a sitting couch is placed to the rear on the northern side, where the master sits each day to keep watch. The utensils required for roasting and boiling are arranged neatly on either side. All medicinal substances, together with the elixir cauldrons and vessels, must be stored in chests and cabinets and may not be handled casually. Attendants from outside are assigned to other quarters and may not enter without specific business. Whenever the master of the purification chamber goes out, he must take the key with him.

Hunyuan Nine-Turn Golden Elixir Formula

First Turn: Nourishing Cinnabar to Form the Precious Elixir

A poem states: “White must be obtained from white, red must be sought from red. Even if this brings the golden seal and purple sash of high office and a position of honor, how could it surpass the rank of princes and marquises?” Here white and red refer to the different medicines and materials used in refining the elixir.

True Person Yin said: “Liang without a head, a cauldron without ears, no medicines are used, it is formed directly.” “Liang without a head” is the name of a refining material in the scripture; “a cauldron without ears” refers to a vessel lacking ear-handles. The statement summarizes a method of refinement.

Laozi said: “Red lead and black mercury are the root of refining the Great Elixir; the single ingredient mercury is especially important.” The scripture explains that red lead denotes cinnabar and black mercury denotes mercury. First the red lead is refined into white cinnabar, then blended with mercury so that the two congeal into a treasure. This serves as the foundation for the transformations of elixir work, in the hope of obtaining lasting nourishment.

Next, take twelve liang of “liang without a head” and spread it on the bottom of an iron box; place half a jin of superior Chen cinnabar upon it, then cover with four liang of powdered “liang without a head.” Pack the vessel solid with raw yellow earth. Mix red bole and clam powder with vinegar and honey to seal the mouth and seams, then reinforce with Six-One Mud (a compound used to seal elixir-refining vessels). When dry, place it in the Immortal Furnace (the elixir furnace). Apply four liang of fire beneath the furnace to calcine and nourish for seven days. After cooling, remove the lumps of cinnabar; the refined “treasure” is pounded and used as a kui. The kui is the vessel or carrier employed in this stage of the process.

A verse says: “It speaks of using lead and also of not using lead; the key is to refine within the lead the substance that seals and consolidates. If one truly treats lead as a medicinal ingredient, that is a mistake.” It further says: “Sparrows cannot give birth to phoenixes, nor can foxes and rabbits suckle horses; without true parents, what is born will ultimately be false.” This emphasizes that elixir refinement requires truly matching raw materials and fundamental conditions; mismatched substances cannot be substituted.

Second Turn: After refinement the treasure manifests as a scene of woods, clear and cold as jade.

Take half a jin of “treasure-revealing cinnabar” (the cinnabar used in elixir methods) and place it in a sealed vessel (the airtight container employed in alchemy). Pour two liang of mercury over it. Mix powdered red halloysite and clam-shell powder with vinegar and honey, and seal the mouth and seams of the vessel with this paste. Once the sealing compound has dried, no further reinforcement is required.

Place the vessel in a furnace and first nourish and refine it over a fire of two liang for three days. On the fourth day increase the fire by another two liang and continue the nourishing refinement until a full seven days have passed, changing the fire at the hours of zi, wu, mao, and you. After seven days remove the vessel and inspect it; the mercury should have dried and solidified. If a small amount of oily mercury remains undried, reseal the vessel and nourish the fire for another three days according to the previous method, opening it only after the mercury has solidified.

Pour in another two liang of mercury and nourish and refine for seven days as before. Once all the mercury has solidified, repeat this process of adding mercury and nourishing the fire a total of four times, obtaining eight liang of dried mercury which, together with the treasure-revealing cinnabar, amounts to one jin. Thereafter add no more mercury; simply nourish the vessel empty for seven days. The dried mercury within will then become the “Jade Trees of the Cold Forest” (here referring to the completed elixir substance), said to possess transformations of inexhaustible subtlety.

If one wishes to prepare a “Living Gushing-Spring Repository” (a furnace method of successively adding mercury and nourishing it), pour in four liang of mercury each time, nourish the fire for seven days according to the method already described, and repeat the process, gradually increasing the mercury until one hundred liang is reached. Take the dried product of the finest color and, after further firing and refinement, it may become an extremely precious treasure.

It is said that if this substance is placed indoors it will emit light at night, and ghosts and spirits will flee at the sight of it; vessels made from it will not be approached by flying insects. If one takes one liang of the finished product that has not been smoked, it can be used to project upon ten liang of red silver, transforming it into “that which first emerges from mountain and marsh” (a type of silver so named in the original text). “The Third Cycle: The Cold Forest Transforms into Jade Laughter” is the title of the following section, meaning the third transmutation, in which the Cold Forest becomes Jade Laughter.

First take equal amounts of the previously refined sand and mercury (the mineral medicines used in elixir refining), totaling sixteen taels, and grind them into a fine powder. Take twelve taels of this powder and place it in a vessel, filling it about halfway. Use a stick to poke several holes whose size can hold four taels of mercury and whose shape resembles lotus seeds. Cover this with the remaining four taels of powder. Mix red halloysite (a mineral material used for sealing) and clam powder with vinegar and honey, then seal the mouth of the vessel and any gaps; allow it to dry. There is no need to reinforce it further with mud.

Place the vessel in the furnace and apply warming nourishment according to the previous method. After seven fu-shi (incubation periods), when sufficient time has elapsed, remove it for inspection. The mercury will naturally condense into an ingot resembling jade bamboo shoots. If it undergoes further refining over the stove, it becomes extremely dry. There is no need for extra reinforcement of the seal. Place it in the furnace and nourish it with warmth as before. After seven fu-shi, remove it; the mercury will have condensed into an ingot like jade bamboo shoots. If refined over the stove, it becomes “Zhibin.” Once the elixir is complete, its uses are inexhaustible; those who cultivate the Dao should still make adjustments according to circumstances.

The Fourth Transformation: Nourishing the Small Elixir

The mnemonic verse states: First the red and white medicines must be subdued and refined before the fire dragon can be captured. Only when metal and wood are brought under the governance of the great furnace will the essence naturally form and dissolve within the crimson chamber (the furnace enclosure used in elixir work). A point of star-like brightness shines in the cauldron, while a half-wheel of crimson sun-like light flies forth from the furnace. Once the elixir is achieved, it can transform all things in the human world; only then does one believe that humans, through adaptive methods, may shift the workings of creation.

First take four liang of mercury and cast it into a container the size of an egg. Place one liang of fine-quality cinnabar inside, seal the joints with a mixture of honey and red stone fat, allow it to dry, and do not apply any further mud sealing. Place this into the previously prepared yangyusun kui (a vessel for warming and nourishing medicinal substances), covering it thoroughly above and below. Change the fire according to the seasonal fire phases and warm-nourish it for seven days. Upon removal, the cinnabar inside remains exactly one liang with neither increase nor decrease, and the color of the embryonic body does not alter even after exposure to fire. Grind the cinnabar into fine powder, form it with paper-mulberry sap into eighty-one pills, place them in a crimson gauze bag, and suspend the bag in a well for seven fu periods in order to eliminate fire poison.

On days of the Three Origins, Jiazi, Gengshen, or the first, fifteenth, or Jiachen of the month, draw well-flower water (the first water drawn at dawn from a clean new well), face the sun, and ingest one pill. It is said this can extend lifespan by twelve years.

To test the efficacy of the elixir, take four liang of mercury, place it in an oil-free yaozi vessel, set one pill of the elixir upon it, cover with a cup, seal the seams tightly with damp paper, and simmer over charcoal. The mercury will emit sounds resembling an infant’s laughter or crying; after a short time the sound ceases. Remove and inspect: if the mercury has congealed into a superior silver color, this confirms the elixir is efficacious.

Store the remaining pills in a clean quiet chamber, packed in crimson gauze bags and kept in a concealed place. One must also accumulate virtue through good deeds and aid the poor; those who merely pursue wealth, honor, and ease will surely meet with calamity.

Fifth Transformation: Nourishing Yellow Sprouts with the Small Numinous Elixir

The verse states:

The Small Numinous Elixir takes effect the sooner the better;

there is no need to boast of the meritorious work of creation.

After warming and nourishing through seven-sevens and the four seasons,

open the furnace and look: it has transformed into yellow sprouts.

Take eight liang of the small elixir and do not place it in the kui; merely empty-nourish it for seven fu periods, regulating the fire phases according to the method already given. When the warming and nourishing are complete, the substance becomes yellow sprouts.

Sixth Transformation: Cultivating Golden Cinnabar with the Yellow Sprouts of the Small Elixir

The verse states:

Once the golden sand is formed, its color is exceedingly lovely;

there is no need to say much, nor to publicize it outwardly.

Flower dregs\ldots

Take eight liang of the small elixir and do not place it in the kui; merely empty-nourish it for seven fu periods, regulating the fire phases according to the method already given. When the warming and nourishing are complete, the substance becomes yellow sprouts.

Sixth Transformation: Cultivating Golden Cinnabar with the Yellow Sprouts of the Small Elixir

The verse states:

When the gold sand has been nurtured and refined until its color is lustrous and beautiful and it can withstand the fire, one should not disclose much of this to outsiders. The floral dregs are to be taken only after they have been refined to purity; the sprouts must be gathered before they have yet differentiated.

When the three dragons gather together, the Qi (vital energy) of Geng and Xin is accomplished; when the five tigers complete one circuit, the Qi of Chen and Si is fulfilled. From this moment Hongniang—the auxiliary material or medium used in the alchemical process—departs, the golden bones gather into a heap, and only then do astonishing transformations become manifest.

First grind the yellow sprouts (Huangya, an alchemical material) into a fine powder to serve as the enclosing medium. Take four liang of cinnabar lumps, paste genuine gold foil onto their surfaces with honey, wrap each piece separately, place them in the enclosure and cover it. Then mix red halloysite and clam-shell powder with vinegar and honey, seal the joints, and wait until thoroughly dry. Next take superior tea buds to prepare floral dregs, and knead them together into Six-One mud (liuyi ni, the clay used to seal the furnace and alchemical vessels). Seal the outer layer to a thickness of half a finger; once dry, place it in the furnace and fire it according to the heating schedule described earlier. After a full seven days, remove it. The lumps will have been refined into purple-polished gold, also called the “golden silkworm” (jincan).

The Seventh Cycle: Using the Golden Silkworm as Enclosure to Nourish the Yellow Sprouts

Take four liang of golden silkworm, place it in the he (the vessel used in alchemy), and pour in one liang of mercury. Mix red halloysite and clam-shell powder with vinegar and honey to seal the joints, and wait until thoroughly dry; at this step no additional outer sealing is applied. Then place it within the yellow-sprout enclosure, seal the joints again with the same materials, and let dry. Fire it for seven days and nights according to the heating schedule previously described. Upon opening and inspecting, the mercury will all have adhered to the golden silkworm, generating golden sprouts; this is said to be a substance of the true immortals.

Thereafter continue according to the previous method, pouring in one liang of mercury, sealing, and firing in the same way. Repeat this process of incremental nourishing four times to obtain four liang of golden sprouts. Combine these with eight liang of golden silkworm; on the fifth occasion pour in two liang of mercury and fire as before. Thereafter increase the amount of mercury poured in at each stage, until sixteen liang are poured in at one time. After that, add no more mercury, but carry out empty nourishing for seven fu-periods. One may then obtain sixteen liang of Geng treasure (gengbao, the refined metallic material), which is said to be usable for casting tripods and vessels.

The Eighth Cycle: Casting the Golden Tripod

At the beginning of each year, on the Three Origins days, Jiazi days, or Shangyin days, select a clean room, install the elixir furnace, and erect a three-tiered ritual altar: arrange the Nine Stars diagram on the upper level, draw the Bagua (Eight Trigrams) on the middle level, and open the Eight Gates on the lower level. Stand swords at the four corners of the altar, hang mirrors, and make offerings to the Three Pure Ones (Sanqing, the three highest deities venerated in Daoism). Then cast sixteen liang of “Gengbao” into an egg-sized ding and use it to nourish and refine the Great Elixir so that the medicine becomes a precious treasure and attains a marvelous, boundless state.

Ninth Transmutation of the Golden Elixir Great Medicine

The song says: Once the creative work of elixir refinement has matured, one can perceive its inner clues; the so-called “Fire Dragon Great Rest” is cinnabar. It can transform an ordinary human body into an immortal body and can also turn a poor household into a wealthy one.

The secret formula is obtained from those thoroughly versed in the art:

Once the creative work of elixir refinement has matured, one can perceive its inner clues; the so-called “Fire Dragon Great Rest” is cinnabar. It can transform an ordinary human body into an immortal body and can also turn a poor household into a wealthy one.

Since the secret formula comes from knowledgeable persons, do not boast of it to the ignorant. Cultivation should proceed in secret; this accords with the Dao of Heaven and Earth. Acting contrary to it will inevitably invite disaster.

After making offerings according to the ding method, place four liang of high-quality cinnabar in the golden ding. Mix red halloysite and clam powder with vinegar and honey to seal the seams of the ding’s mouth. Nourish and refine according to the fire timing already described. After a full eighty-one days take it out and grind it extremely fine. Avoid the vicinity of graves; take natural paper-mulberry sap to mix the powder and form eighty-one pills. Pack them in a deep-red gauze bag and hang it in a well for seven fu periods. Choose an auspicious day to offer sacrifices to Heaven and Earth, the Three Pure Ones (Sanqing), the sun, moon and stars, all deities and hundred ghosts, the Dragon God and Earth Lord (local earth spirit), and the natal yuanchen of the residence (the spirit governing the fortune of the house), and make a sincere vow. First take one portion to offer to famous mountains and great rivers and to persons of the Way.

The song says: Few in the world have heard of this immortal formula; do not speak of this path to the ignorant. Revealing heavenly secrets may bring sudden calamity; concealing the secret formula allows one to enter the source of the immortal Dao.

Do not let ordinary people see the refining; after the elixir is formed, do not discuss it with worldly people. Of three portions take one to aid the people of the world. Once the elixir is completed the household will accumulate treasures like those of Kunlun Mountain.

Supreme Treasure Formula

The medicinal herb “Qianli Gen,” of any quantity, is best when fresh and moist; that produced in the Jiao-Guang region, being old, long and thick, is even better—this is the “root.” Take a never-used new iron tiao (small iron pan), put mercury into it, boil it with sesame oil, then gradually scrape the medicinal root\ldots After the elixir is completed the household will accumulate treasures like those of Kunlun Mountain.

Supreme Treasure Formula

Selecting the root material does not depend on quantity. Newly sprouted ones often grow intertwined and abundantly; those that have already grown old and thick are the best, and these are what is called the “root.” Use a new small iron pot that has never been used before, place mercury into it, and boil it with sesame oil. Then slice the medicinal roots into pieces the size of fingernails and add them to the pot; once they turn yellowish-black, slice fresh root pieces and put them in, constantly wiping and treating them with a cloth. Afterward, remove the sand and place it in a separate container.

The method for making the “kui” (an auxiliary material used to wrap the medicines and heat them) is to take a common substance. The ancients always concealed its name, calling it only “siqi zi mo”: grind it into powder, mix it with water to form the kui, wrap the medicine, and heat it. From the chen hour to the si hour, it is said that red gold can be refined. The so-called “four-qi grass” is known to everyone, visible everywhere, something people cannot do without in daily life, just like the sun. The scripture has a hymn that says: It grows in autumn and withers in summer, able to nourish human life. Ground into powder, fine and white like jade shavings, mixed with water and slightly stiffened. Use it to wrap the divine sand and place it in the wu household. From the chen hour to the si hour, when taken out it reveals a golden radiance.

When sealing the outer layer, “qiangan” is to be used; when forging, “hundun” is used. These are all terms employed in the refining steps.

The treasure lord Xuanyuan also spent three years before comprehending this set of secrets, and only then transmitted this method. This substance is one of the five grains, endowed with metal qi: it grows vigorously in autumn and winter, ears in spring, and withers in summer. Take its seeds and grind them into an extremely fine powder. It is a food that people ordinarily eat. If one takes the whitest and finest quality portion, mixes it with water to form the kui, places it in ashes, and forges it with a great fire from the chen hour to the si hour, it is said that gold can be refined. Those who earnestly seek the Dao will naturally receive revelations from the spirits; those who comprehend this method should not leak it lightly, lest they invite calamity.

The ancients never transmitted such methods lightly. The wife of Cheng Wei, a qimenlang of the Han dynasty, was proficient in the arts of divine transformation and could decoct and refine mercury to turn it into silver. Cheng Wei sought instruction from his wife, who said that Cheng Wei’s bone physiognomy and fate did not entitle him to this art. Cheng Wei continued to press her, and she finally departed by the method of “shijie,” that is, what Daoism calls leaving the world by means of the remnant body, transcending and departing.

He Zhizhang, a poet of the Tang dynasty, paid a visit to Old Wang, a seller of medicines, to seek instruction in the arts of turning stone into gold and of refining gold and silver, and he presented a large pearl as a gift. After accepting the pearl, Old Wang immediately had someone exchange it for cakes, which he then gave to He Zhizhang. He Zhizhang thought to himself that a precious pearl could hardly be worth only a few cakes. Old Wang then said, “You have not yet rid yourself of the habit of clinging to wealth—how can you hope to master the arts of elixir alchemy?”

Essentials of Cultivating the Great Elixir, latter volume.