《太极真人九转还丹经要诀》

Lord Wang of the Western City said: To refine the Nine-Turn Returned Elixir, first fabricate a divine cauldron (shenfu, a specialized vessel for elixir work) with a capacity of about three and a half dou and walls four fen thick. Take earth from the three regions of Rongyang, Changsha, and Yuzhang, together with oysters that grow toward the left in the Eastern Sea, white stone fat, mica powder, the dung-earth of earthworms and mole crickets, talc, and white alum stone—six kinds of materials in all, measured out in equal quantities. Pound each kind separately twenty thousand times with the pestle, then combine them and pound together another thirty thousand times, after which sift the mixture through fine silk.

Next take bitter wine (an ancient vinegar) that has been left to age for a hundred days and blend it with the materials until the mixture has the consistency of mud; then pound it ten thousand times more. Spread this mud on the inside and outside of the upper and lower earthen cauldrons to a thickness of about three fen, and set them in a cool, shaded place to dry. Afterward, when the weather is clear and mild, apply another layer of mud three fen thick and dry it for ten days according to the previous method. Coat them three times in all, so that the combined thickness of the inner and outer mud layers comes to one cun and three fen.

Once the mud has dried, mix lead elixir (qiandan, a red lead-bearing mineral) with bitter wine to form a paste, pound it thirty thousand times, and coat the inner surfaces of the two earthen cauldrons to a thickness of three fen. Dry in the shade for five days and nights, then apply an additional two fen and continue drying in the shade. The mud layer must be free of even hair-fine cracks; otherwise it cannot be used. Then, with a brush made of goat whiskers dipped in the paste, carefully coat and seal the joints. Pound again thirty thousand times and apply the paste to the inner sides of both earthen cauldrons, three fen thick; dry in the shade for five days and nights, then add a further two fen and dry in the shade. If hair-like fine cracks appear, the vessel cannot be used; the joints must also be sealed with the goat-whisker brush dipped in paste. At this point the divine cauldron for refining the Nine-Turn Returned Elixir is complete.

One must then go into a famous mountain, to a seldom-trodden spot near a stream that flows eastward, and build a divine ao house (a shelter for housing the alchemical apparatus). The house is four zhang in length and two zhang in width. First raise a foundation four chi high; one must also excavate three to five chi downward until one reaches a soil layer resembling the remains of an old dike, well, or tomb, and only then may the foundation be laid and the house built. The house is provided with three doors: a south door, an east door, and a west door.

Place the divine ao (shen’ao, a stand used to support the alchemical vessels) in the center of the house, with the mouth of the ao facing west. The belly of the ao must be able to hold an iron nao (an iron vessel) in a stable position, and the earthen cauldron in turn must fit inside the iron nao. The divine ao should stand nine cun from the earthen cauldron on all sides. Finally, ram a mixture of fine earth and mud firmly around the divine ao, leaving no pores or cracks. With this, the making of the divine ao is finished.

Place one jin of alum (fanshi) and three jin of kongqing into an earthen cauldron (tufu). If the kongqing has cavities, an iron nao must first be set in place so that it sits stably within the earthen cauldron. Earth is packed firmly around the cauldron, with the rim of the iron nao kept nine cun from the cauldron wall. The surroundings are then sealed with a mixture of fine earth and mud, leaving no pores or cracks. In this way the making of the shen’ao—the vessel used for placing the medicinal substances—is completed.

When compounding the medicine, one jin of alum and three jin of kongqing are used; if cengqing is available it may be substituted. In addition take two jin of white quartz (baishiying) and ten jin of cinnabar (dansha), which must be of bright color and not stain paper. Four jin of realgar (xionghuang) from Chenzhou or Jinzhou, of fine quality, reddish and not staining paper; five jin of orpiment (cihuang); and six jin of mercury (shuiyin).

For all superior elixir ingredients, only mercury need not be pounded; each of the other six substances must be pounded thirty thousand pestle-strokes. First place alum stone at the bottom of the cauldron, then add in sequence kongqing (azurite), white quartz, cinnabar, realgar, and orpiment, with the orpiment on top. Mix the ingredients evenly and spread them level. Then pour six jin of mercury over the orpiment.

Once the ingredients have been placed, cover them tightly with the lid of the spirit cauldron. First coat the joint between the lower cauldron and the lid with lead-red paste, then set the upper cauldron in position and seal the seam where the two cauldrons meet so that they close firmly together. Next apply more lead-red paste outside the joint, building it up gradually to a thickness of one cun and two fen. This is the method used with an earthen cauldron; if one employs a jar-cauldron of fired clay, or a vessel made of gold, silver, or copper, the sealing paste should be applied according to the vessel and need not be held to one cun two fen.

The lead-red paste is to be applied in three coats. Each coat must seal the joint of the two cauldrons; wait until it has dried before applying the next, until the thickness reaches one cun two fen. Then apply six-and-one mud over the lead-red paste in the same way, also to a thickness of one cun two fen, spreading it on gradually and allowing it to dry. The total thickness of the sealing lutum is thus two cun four fen.

When all is sealed, set the cauldron upon an iron nao-stand. The iron nao has four legs, shaped like those of a mirror stand and nine cun high. Heat is then applied in stages: first use a bran-ember fire, keeping the fire six cun from the bottom of the cauldron, continuously for nine days and nine nights; next increase the fire to three cun from the bottom and fire for another nine days and nine nights; then bring the fire level with the bottom of the cauldron and fire for nine days and nine nights; then raise the fire to three cun below the belly of the upper cauldron and fire for nine days and nine nights; continue to increase the fire until it reaches two cun below the belly of the upper cauldron—five cun in all from the cauldron’s belly—and fire for nine days and nine nights; then increase the fire until it stands one cun below the joint of the two cauldrons, and fire for nine days and nine nights. Extinguish the fire and allow the vessel to cool for ten days.

Afterward apply fire once more, bringing it to half a cun below the joint, and fire continuously for thirty-six days and thirty-six nights. The total from start to finish is ninety days and nights; this is called the Nine-Turn Returned Elixir (jiuzhuan huandan). When the firing period is complete, cool for a further seven days. Open the lower cauldron and lift off the upper cauldron, and you will see the nine-colored flying Jing (essence)—the refined essence that has condensed on the vessel walls during the process—streaming with brilliant radiance, adhering to the upper cauldron. Sweep it down with the feathers of a three-year-old rooster, place it in a sealed container, and wear it on the person behind the elbow.

The Jing (scripture) states that if one weighs out two liang as a single dose and each morning at dawn, facing east, swallows it with fresh clear water, one can become invisible, disperse one’s form, and soar through the Great Void. Envoys of Taiji (the Supreme Ultimate) come to receive one with the feathered wheels of the Golden Elixir (jindan), causing the body to divide and transform into light, becoming several thousand white cranes, ascending to Taiwei, and attaining the rank of True Immortal, with a lifespan equal to the sun, moon, and stars, reversing age and returning to youth, extending the years and driving off senescence, the face bright as jade, light upon the neck. These are the effects of the Nine-Turn Returned Elixir.

The Jing further says: take ten jin of lead, place it in an iron vessel, and heat it with a fierce fire until it boils; then cast one zhu of the Flower of the Nine Turns into the molten lead and stir. In a moment the ten jin of lead will become nine jin of gold.

Place one jin of mercury and seven jin of tin into a pot and heat them. When the contents have boiled three times, add one zhu of the “Flower of Nine-One Cycles” (a medicinal ingredient used in elixir refining). Stir it briefly in the molten tin, and the tin will turn into white silver. When this transformation appears, the elixir is considered successfully refined. If testing shows it has not yet succeeded, continue firing according to the previous method for another ninety days and nights; there is none that cannot be brought to completion.

Remove the elixir residue from the ceramic cauldron (the pottery vessel used for refining elixirs) and pound it fifty thousand times. Then blend it with white crystalline honey and form pills the size of parasol-tree seeds. These are called the “Taiji (Supreme Ultimate) Life-Returning Divine Pills.” According to the scripture, for a person who has been dead no more than three days, pry open the mouth, place two pills inside, and administer them with freshly drawn water, and the person will return to life. In cases of injury, disability, bent or twisted limbs, or blindness and deafness, apply the divine pills and the condition will be restored as before. If the illness is within the body, take two pills; if it is on the outside, grind two pills into powder, rub and apply them to the affected place, and recovery will be immediate. The scripture asserts that this medicine can treat all manner of ailments as soon as it is used. Taking one pill each day enables one to share the same lifespan as Heaven and Earth. If the divine pills are smeared onto an object, the moment the hand lets go, the object will return to the hand of its own accord.

The elixir residue remaining in the ceramic cauldron must be carefully preserved and must never be destroyed, for it can afterwards be used to continue elixir refining, employing the same mud previously used to seal the cauldron. The joint where the upper and lower cauldrons meet must be resealed tightly; it must not be soiled or treated with negligence. When it is used, mud should again be applied to both the interior and exterior of the cauldron, and it should be wrapped with minium mud (sealing mud prepared with minium, or lead red), the thickness matching that of the earlier method.

If the fire is too weak, even after the prescribed number of days have been burned, the essence of the elixir still has not flown forth—this means the fire timing is insufficient. The seams at the mouth of the cauldron should be sealed firmly once more according to the rules, and firing continued for thirty-six days. In this way the elixir will be successfully refined, and there is no need to fire for another ninety days and nights.

Before beginning the refining, one should first observe a purification fast for one hundred days, then mix the mud to make the spirit cauldron, and weigh and pound the ingredients according to the regulations. Lighting of the fire begins at dawn on the ninth day of the ninth month. From the commencement of the fast, ordinary worldly dealings should be cut off, and one should wait in single-minded concentration for the elixir to be completed.

Those who compound elixir medicines should select people who revere the methods of the Dao (the Way), whose natures are sincere, honest and even-tempered, who are loyal and keep their word, who do not indulge in sexual dissipation, and who can hold firmly to their resolve while putting it into practice. Three such persons are enough; if suitable people prove hard to find, two will also suffice. All who take part must fast, purify themselves and bathe; they must neither tread upon nor conceal corpses, and they must avoid chickens and dogs—these are all grave taboos. When people ask why the cultivation of health and longevity is so difficult, the reason most likely lies here.

This Nine-Turn Divine Elixir Formula is an oral teaching transmitted by Lord Wang; its steps are concise and readily coordinated in practice. Provided the medicinal ingredients are all of the finest quality, fasting and preparations are thorough, and the work is carried out in a secluded, undefiled place, the formula is wondrously efficacious and never fails. On the day fasting begins, five hu of clear wine should first be poured into flowing water near the dwelling; if the locality has no stream, it is poured into a superior well, the wine serving to nourish the earth’s Qi (vital energy). All who join in the fasting then drink of this water.

When the spirit scriptures and the oral formulas for compounding elixirs are transmitted, fasting must be arranged and oaths sworn. The covenant customarily employs eight liang of golden fish together with a jade dragon yan-huan as tokens of faith, taking the place of cutting the hair and pricking the blood. If these objects are hard to obtain in the world and the guardian numinous items cannot remain sealed away forever, forty chi of fine azure cloth may replace the golden fish as a pledge, while forty chi of heavy silk may stand in for the jade dragon yan-huan. Offerings should also be made to the master who transmitted the Jing (scripture), and wealth distributed to aid impoverished seekers of the Dao in the mountains; none of these things may be kept for oneself. Such actions demonstrate fidelity to the celestial covenant and the absence of selfish intent. Those who violate the alliance or disclose the oral formulas incur the punishment of the deities of the four quarters, and the secrets must therefore be guarded with the greatest care.

The Yellow Emperor’s Four Fans Powder Formula

Anyone who wishes to cultivate and ingest the Nine-Turn Elixir should first take the medicines below, thereby gradually expelling the turbid Qi (vital energy) and illnesses from the mundane body and cleansing the five viscera and six bowels, in the hope of thereby becoming a True Person.

The medicines consist of pine resin, Alisma, mountain wood, dried ginger, mica, dried Rehmannia, rock-growing calamus and cinnamon.

The Eight Medicinal Refining Methods

The eight medicines are each processed with great care, measured out in equal amounts, pounded together forty thousand times, and placed in a sealed vessel. They must not be seen by women, livestock, or anyone who has come into contact with the impurity of funerals. Every morning three fangcun spoons (an ancient implement for measuring medicine) are taken with wine. They may equally well be taken with water, or formed with honey into pills the size of soybeans. A single daily dose consists of twenty to thirty pills. After half a season it is said that the turbid black Qi (vital energy) is expelled from the body and a hundred ailments disappear, after which one may abstain from grain and ingest the elixir. This divine formula was received by the Yellow Emperor from Fenghou and is reputed to delay aging and restore youth.

Queen Mother’s Four Youths Powder Formula

Before the elixir is taken, this powder should first be ingested in order to sweep away yin pathogenic Qi, conserve yang Qi, and harmonize the ying-wei (the nutritive and defensive Qi of Chinese medicine) together with the six fu organs (gallbladder, stomach, large intestine, small intestine, bladder and triple burner).

The ingredients are sesame, asparagus root, poria, mugan, polygonatum, and peach kernels from which the red outer skin has been removed so that only the white flesh remains.

The sesame is first fried until fragrant. The remaining six medicines are prepared separately, combined in equal quantities and pounded together thirty thousand times. Each morning three fangcun spoons are taken with wine, twice a day; they may also be taken with water, or made into honey pills of which thirty are swallowed once daily in the morning. This is said to be a secret method of returning to youth, capable of replenishing Jing (essence) and Qi and of nourishing the brain and marrow.

Maojun’s Formula of the Five Zhi Sprouts

Five kinds of divine zhi (legendary numinous fungi of immortality) grow on Mount Juqu. Daoist adepts who aspire to immortality should go there to seek them. According to the formula one climbs the mountain on an opening day of the third or ninth month, carrying two pairs of precious rings whose material need not be gold or jade. The rings are offered in dedication and a vow is pronounced; the act is repeated three times to constitute a covenant, after which the divine zhi are said to be obtained without fail. The rings are then cast among the mountain rocks and one must not look back or dwell on them thereafter. The arts of the immortals prize cyan-colored ring-shaped objects and regard them as tokens of sincerity.

The first zhi is called Dragon Zhi. It resembles two flood-dragons coiled about each other, its leaves like scales and its roots likewise coiled in dragon form. One who obtains and ingests it is said to become a Taiji (Supreme Ultimate) immortal minister, a title of Daoist immortal officialdom.

The second kind of zhi is called Cancheng Zhi. It is red in appearance and radiates a vivid vermilion luster. When its branches and leaves are struck, they emit a sound as clear and crisp as that of metal and stone; if broken apart, the severed parts immediately rejoin as they were originally. Those who obtain it and ingest it will become a Taiji (Supreme Ultimate) Grandee, a title of a Daoist immortal official.

The third kind of zhi is called Yantai Zhi. It is purple, in the shape of vegetable leaves, with patterns of purple swallows upon it as if they were about to take flight, and its entire body is bright and translucent. Those who ingest one stem of it will become the Immortal Lord of Dragon and Tiger of Taiqing and Zhengyi (Orthodox Unity) Langfu, titles of Daoist immortal officials.

The third kind of zhi is called Yantai Zhi. It is purple, in the shape of vegetable leaves, with patterns of purple swallows upon it as if they were about to take flight, and its entire body is bright and translucent. Those who ingest one stem of it will become the Immortal Lord of Dragon and Tiger of Taiqing and Zhengyi Langzhong, titles of Daoist immortal officials.

The fourth kind of zhi is called Yeguang Dongcao Zhi. It is green-blue in color, with fruits that are purely white and the size of plums, standing three or four cun in height, and with leaves like those of the wutong. When its fruits are viewed at night, they appear as if moonlight were lighting up the entire room. One plant has nine fruits; after the fruits drop to the ground, they grow large in a short while, with a diameter of about seven cun, resembling a mirror disk, and about one or two cun thick after landing. Viewed at night, it is as bright as niu yue (an original term whose meaning is unclear); it turns its gaze as if looking at a person. Those who ingest one stem of it will become Left Censor of the Taiqing Immortal Palace, a title of a Daoist immortal official.

The fifth kind of zhi is called Keyu Zhi. When it is cut open and the “brain” inside is eaten (referring to the interior of the zhi body), one can become Censor of the Three Officials, a title of a Daoist immortal official.

The above five kinds of zhi were requested by three immortal lords to be planted inside and outside Juqu Mountain. If those who seek immortality can be concentrated and steadfast, and wholeheartedly comprehend the mysterious Dao (the Way), they will have the opportunity to see superior zhi; if they cannot single-mindedly practice the Dao and De (Virtue/Power), they will only be able to see inferior zhi. Those who are slack and scattered in seeking the Dao may not necessarily be able to retain what they have already obtained. How can these words not be treated with caution? The five zhi are miraculous immortal herbs, efficacious and extraordinary, and therefore they are appended at the end of the Huandan chapter.