《太上卫灵神化九转丹砂法》

In the first transformation, cinnabar is refined into mercury. Sixteen liang of bright sand (a type of cinnabar), preferably that produced in Chenjin Prefecture, are taken together with twelve liang of yellow alum, preferably from Guazhou. The yellow alum is first fried and ground into a fine powder that is spread across the bottom of the furnace. The cinnabar is then ground into powder and layered evenly over the yellow alum using a silver spoon. A further covering of yellow alum powder about two fen thick is applied on top. The materials are covered with a small bottle and sealed firmly with six-one mud (the sealing compound used for elixir furnaces) according to the methods of elixir refinement, ensuring the seal is airtight.

Once the mud has dried, three iron nails are placed on the furnace at the zi hour of a chosen day and heating begins. A gentle fire is first used to nourish the contents continuously for one day and one night, after which the heat is gradually increased and a fierce fire applied for two days and two nights. When the furnace body glows red-hot, heating is stopped. After cooling, the furnace is carefully opened; the cinnabar should have transformed into mercury that can be swept up and collected with an implement. If the conversion is incomplete, the covering with yellow alum powder, sealing, and fierce-fire refinement are repeated for another one or two days until all the mercury has been obtained.

This mercury is called He Shang Lao Nu (the Old Woman on the River). The Cantong Qi states: “The charming girl on the river is numinous and most spiritual. Encountering fire she immediately flies, remaining unsullied by dirt or dust. Ghosts hide and dragons conceal themselves, none knowing her whereabouts. Should one wish to restrain her, yellow sprouts serve as the root.” This means that mercury possesses the Jing (essence) of metal and grows gradually like a sprout.

In the second transformation, the mercury is further refined back into cinnabar. The previously collected mercury is weighed, and for every ten liang three liang of stone-pavilion fat are combined with it.

Process the two medicinal substances, shit ingzhi and mercury. First place the shit ingzhi in a new amber vessel and grind it into powder; then pour it all at once into a lead container and melt it over charcoal fire. Once the sulfur has turned into liquid, add the mercury little by little into the sulfur liquid while rapidly stirring with an iron rod so that the two fully combine and congeal into “qingsha zi.”

Take out the qingsha zi, place it in the furnace, cover it according to the previous method, and carefully seal it tightly with liuyi ni (a mud used to seal the elixir furnace). After the mud has dried thoroughly and it is confirmed there are no leaks, set the furnace on three furnace nails. First nourish it with gentle fire (a weaker fire) for one day and night, then gradually increase the fire and burn it with fierce fire (a more vigorous fire) for two days and two nights.

After the firing is complete, wait for the furnace to cool before opening it to inspect. The scripture states that the mercury has already been transformed into cinnabar, bright and lovely in color. The Cantong qi says: “Cinnabar is the essence of Wood; only when it obtains Metal does it combine.” This means that cinnabar originally possesses the form and quality of Metal and must be nourished and refined with Metal in order to take shape gradually; another view holds that the process is to make the cinnabar gradually harden.

The third turning: transform the refined cinnabar back into mercury.

Take out the previously calcined cinnabar and grind it into a fine powder. All remaining operations follow the previous method: cover and pad it from above and below with yellow alum powder (huangfan, yellow vitriol ground into powder), then seal it according to the prescribed method. Once the six-one mud (liuyi ni, the clay compound used to seal the alchemical apparatus) has thoroughly dried, proceed according to the method of the first cycle: first nourish it with a gentle fire (wenhuo, a milder fire) for one full day and night, then apply a fierce fire (wuhuo, a stronger fire) to fly-refine it for two days and nights.

After the furnace has cooled, open it for inspection. Subsequent operations continue to follow the previous procedures: cover and pad with yellow alum powder above and below, seal it, wait until the six-one mud is completely dry, first nourish with gentle fire for one day and night, then fly-refine with fierce fire for two days and nights. Once the furnace cools, open it and examine whether the cinnabar has transformed into mercury. If it has, carefully remove it and grind it in a different amber vessel. If any portion remains untransformed, cover it again with yellow alum powder and seal it according to the previous method, then fly-refine for another one or two days and nights until the mercury has completely flown out. This mercury is known as the Solar Flowing Pearls (taiyang liuzhu).

The Cantong Qi (a Daoist alchemical scripture) states: “The Solar Flowing Pearls constantly desire to leave people; if they obtain the Golden Flower, they turn and become intimate with it; transforming into a white liquid, they congeal to the utmost hardness.” The “flowing pearls” spoken of here refer to mercury that has been refined three times. Mercury is unstable by nature and readily volatilizes; only after receiving the qi of the Golden Flower does it gradually congeal and take form.

This step is called the Fourth Turn, which transforms the Solar Flowing Pearls into cinnabar.

As for the method of boiling gold-silver water: take a silver pot that can hold one dou of water and place fifty sheets of high-quality gold and silver foil into it. Keep eight or nine sheng of water in the pot at all times and boil the gold and silver foils continuously for seven days and seven nights without letting the fire go out. After the seven days of boiling, only about three sheng of water remain in the pot; then decoct for another five days, periodically removing some liquid and adding more water in the interval. Once the prescribed number of days has been completed, take out the refined gold-silver water and store it in an amber bottle.

When this water is used to process medicinal substances, take three sheng of the refined gold-silver water, add one small he of brine, together with one fen each of Dapengsha, Zengqing, Kongqing, Shidan and Xiaoshi, and two fen each of Fanshi and Huangfan. All of the above medicinal substances must be finely ground into powder and then placed together into the gold-silver water to be decocted. The water must be kept in a state of gentle boiling that produces small bubbles like fish eyes; water is added day and night without interruption so that the quantity in the pot remains sufficient. After boiling for three sevens, or twenty-one days, wait until the “flowing pearls” (a substance of the liquid-mercury type) in the medicine have coagulated into a form resembling cotton wool; the fire may then be stopped, by which time the gold-silver water will also have been completely decocted away. If the water dries up midway, continue adding water and decocting until the stipulated number of days is reached. Use an iron spoon to remove the mercury sand, then sift the coagulated portion with silk cloth and set it aside in a separate vessel. Continue boiling the remaining thin portion according to the previous method until all of the flowing pearls have coagulated.

The Cantong qi says: “To plant grain one must use grain seeds; to hatch a chicken one must use an egg.” It also says: “Only things of like nature can respond to one another; if the principles are contrary, a treasure cannot be refined. Sparrows cannot give birth to phoenixes, nor can foxes and rabbits nurse horses.” The commentary explains that cinnabar and mercury originally belong to the category of gold and must rely upon the jing (essence) and qi of gold and silver in order to take form. The fifth turn: place the medicinal sand into the yin-yang furnace so that it becomes hard and firm.

First, seal the “Yin furnace” (the furnace used for refining elixir medicines) from the outside with crucible clay. After it has been prepared according to the proper methods, wait until it is completely dry. Take the medicinal sand prepared earlier, crush it and grind it finely, then place it into the furnace and add the medicines: two parts realgar, three parts hutonglü, three parts dapengsha, one part cengqing, and one part puxiao. All five of these medicines must be ground very finely.

Then mix the medicines with “gold-silver water” and brine, adding them gradually. Heat the furnace by alternating mild fire and fierce fire, always maintaining a gentle bubbling inside the size of a fish’s eye. After boiling in this manner for a full seven days and seven nights, extinguish the fire, remove the medicinal sand and inspect it, continuing until it has become extraordinarily hard. Next place it in the “spirit chamber” (a sealed room used in elixir refinement to contain and gently nourish the medicines) and warm-nourish it for a complete three hundred and sixty cycles of Qi (vital energy). At that time the medicine will naturally “subdue the fire” (its fiery nature contracts and becomes stable), so that even if melted under blast from the bellows it will not crack.

The Cantong Qi states: “If the myriad things lack the Qi of Yin-Yang, they violate the Dao (the Way) of Heaven and lose their origin. If an egg relies only on itself for incubation, the chick cannot take form.” The commentary means that if the myriad things lack the mutual cooperation of Yin-Yang Qi, they cannot be accomplished; they must rely upon the Qi of Yin and Yang in order to take shape.

The sixth transmutation: the medicine is refined into hard, fire-subdued yellow silver.

Place the previously mentioned medicinal sand into an iron mortar and pound it until crushed, then transfer it to a silver pot. Add two fen of cihuang, one sheng of salt bile, and five sheng of xuanming water. Combine everything and boil together for a full fourteen days. When the water boils dry, continually replenish it while using a gentle fire to simmer slowly, always maintaining small fish-eye-like bubbles on the surface. Someone must keep watch both day and night, taking care to stop the moment the mercury sand just begins to show a pale yellow color; it must not be allowed to turn dark yellow.

Although the yellow silver sand has already hardened and congealed, it has not yet completely undergone fuhuo (subduing the fire, meaning refined until the fiery nature is stable and the properties are fixed). Therefore it should be sealed tightly according to the method, placed into the shenshi (spirit chamber, the vessel used in alchemy for sealing and heating the medicinal substances), and then set in an ash pool to be gently warmed and nourished for seven days. Afterwards it is placed in a crucible and melted; there is no loss of weight, and it can be hammered just like silver.

The Cantong Qi states: “Pound and mix together, grind until evenly blended, do not allow the color to become bright red; seal tightly so that inside and outside unite, striving to refine it into a pure white and solid substance.” The commentary explains: Although the yellow silver has already congealed and become hard, it has not yet been subdued by fire. It should be sealed tightly according to the method, placed in the ash pool and warmed for seven days, then put into a crucible to melt; it will not lose even the slightest amount and can be forged with a hammer like silver.

This is the seventh transformation: refining the yellow silver into red lead gold.

Take the previously prepared pale yellow huangyin and place it in a crucible to melt, then cast it into thin strips and hammer these into sheets about half a fen thick. Next take two liang of paosha and one sheng of white salt, mix them with two dou of water, and soak the huangyin sheets in the mixture for a full fourteen days.

Remove the sheets and test them by hammering on an anvil to see whether they have become slightly brittle. If they still cannot withstand blows from a silver hammer, rub them with antelope horn. First heat the huangyin sheet until red-hot, then rub it back and forth with the antelope horn; should the sheet cool, reheat it slightly and continue rubbing in the same manner until it can endure the silver hammer. Afterward hammer it into thin leaves, making them as thin as possible—as thin as paper—taking the thinness used in making gold leaf as the standard.

Separately take two liang of paosha, one sheng of white salt, five sheng of red earth, and one liang of hutonglü. Pound and grind these four ingredients together into powder, then mix with black ox dung and knead until the consistency of mud. Layer this mud mixture as a lining and stack the gold leaves in successive layers within it until all have been placed. Cover them according to the prescribed method and heat with fire on all sides for more than ten days, until the gold takes on a pure red color. This is called qianjin (lead-gold).

The Cantongqi states: “When gold returns to its original nature, it may then be called the returned elixir.” The commentary explains that this refers to the flying and refining of red gold so that it gradually assumes a color approximating cinnabar, and is therefore termed the “returned elixir.” The present section is titled “The Eighth Transformation: Refining Red Lead-Gold into Gold Powder.”

First, fire-refine the medicinal substances described earlier until they become gold leaf. Take one liang of this, together with one liang of cinnabar-mercury. The remaining medicinal substances are to be proportioned to the gold leaf in exactly the same way. Mix the substances with mercury so that the mercury of itself swallows and dissolves the gold leaf, until the whole is like mud. Knead all the ingredients together repeatedly and form them into tablets about the size of a finger-pad. Then take one tablet and place it in the furnace.

Next, first spread inside the furnace two liang of salt flowers, two liang of niter, and one liang of hutonglü (poplar resin). All these substances must be ground to a fine powder and used to separate the gold leaf layer by layer. Seal the furnace tightly according to the prescribed method, making certain it is firm and does not leak. When the furnace has dried through, carry out flying refinement (sublimation) over a gentle fire for three days and three nights. After the refinement is finished, wait until the furnace has cooled, then process the contents with care.

The Ninth Cycle

The original text is missing.

Preparing Xuanming Powder

Take two liang of crude mirabilite and one liang of white salt, mix them, and place them in the furnace. When the furnace has dried through, carry out flying refinement over a gentle fire for three days and three nights. After the refinement is finished, wait until the furnace has cooled, then process the contents with care.

The Ninth Cycle

The original text is missing.

Preparing Xuanming Powder

Take two liang of crude mirabilite and one liang of white salt, mix them and decoct until they assume an appearance similar to salt flowers. This is called Xuanming powder. When the time comes to use it, soak and boil it in water once more, because this substance does not keep for long; after more than fourteen days its medicinal properties dissipate and it can no longer be used.

When boiling and refining the silver sand, continually replenish the Xuanming powder water and boil for a full fourteen days, until the silver sand becomes as hard as stone. If it has already hardened before the fourteen days are complete, this shows that the Qi (vital energy) of the niter has fully permeated it, and there is no need to continue boiling for the full fourteen days. Sometimes after only two or three days of boiling the silver sand is already hard as stone; this is because the fire was rather intense and the Qi of the niter has already been exhausted. In that case one need not continue boiling with Xuanming powder water.

There are also cases in which only after about fourteen days of boiling does the Qi of the niter gradually disperse completely, after which the silver sand hardens. The Qi of niter is not easily eliminated in full, because niter can cause metals and stones to transform into liquid. If niter is not added, the other minerals are not easily refined and transmuted. If a little mercury is added, the silver sand will still harden, but one must observe carefully and handle the process with discretion.

The Taishang Weiling Shenhua Jiuzhuan Dansha Fa (The Supreme Lord’s Method of the Divine Transformation of Cinnabar through Nine Cycles, Guarded by the Numinous) ends here.

The original base text has two blank lines here, which should indicate that some wording has been lost. In addition, the content of the eighth turn earlier should also have some omissions.