《太清石壁记》

Taiqing Shibi Ji (Record of the Stone Wall of Great Purity)

Upper Volume

Compiled by Master Chuze

Recipe for the Taiyi Golden Flower Divine Elixir

Take five liang of gold, hammer it into thin sheets, then plane and break it into fragments and place them in a clay crucible. Separately prepare six liang of mercury. First heat the gold sheets in the fire until their color approaches that of the fire; then place the mercury in an earthen crucible and heat it slightly. Put the gold sheets into the mercury, whereupon the gold will disperse and dissolve into the mercury. Next refine the gold-mercury mixture once more so that the mercury volatilizes and is slightly reduced. Finally grind it with a jade pestle until it is completely fine, at which point it may be incorporated into the medicine.

Take one jin of realgar, crush it and pass it through a sieve. Take five liang of stalactite, boil it in fine wine for two days and nights, then grind it with a jade pestle. Take one jin of orpiment, crush and sieve it. Crush and sieve cinnabar. Take one jin of mica, wash it with water to separate impurities, then refine it until it attains a state resembling white salt.

The foregoing materials—realgar, stalactite, orpiment, cinnabar, and mica—together with their methods of preparation, are recorded a second time in the original text. Additionally take eight liang of white quartz and five liang of azurite, both crushed and sieved; three liang of mineral medicine from which the upper floating foam has been removed by flying, crushed and sieved; one jin of mercury, blended with yellow salt so that it coagulates; eight liang of calcite, eight liang of gypsum, eight liang of crude mirabilite, eight liang of mirabilite, and eight liang of azurite, all crushed and sieved. All fifteen of the above materials must be of superior quality and must undergo crushing, sieving, and water-flying. Water-flying is the method of washing the medicinal substances with water and separating impurities by means of sedimentation.

Recipe for Preparing the Great Returned Elixir

Twelve jin of azurite, ten jin of bright cinnabar, ten jin of realgar, ten jin of orpiment, two jin of gold, one jin of white quartz, one jin of stalactite, five jin of processed mineral sand, seven jin of mercury, eight jin of mineral sulfur, seven jin of mercury frost, three jin of jade shavings, five jin of gypsum, and a quantity of crude mirabilite.

Kongqing (a cyan-colored mineral), Guangmingsha (a cinnabar-class mineral), realgar, and orpiment, in the respective amounts of twelve jin, ten jin, ten jin, and ten jin; two jin of gold; one jin each of white quartz and stalactite; five jin of paosha; seven jin of mercury; eight jin of native sulfur; seven jin of mercury frost; three jin of jade powder; five jin each of gypsum and puxiao; eight jin of teshen yushi; ten jin each of mica and jiangying; six jin of Taiyin Xuanjing (a mineral medicine employed in Daoist elixir alchemy); five jin of magnetite; three jin of minium; eight jin of chalcanthite; three jin of green stone; four jin of actinolite; three jin of mirabilite; four jin of shelinzi; eight jin of tin; and seven jin of alum stone.

These medicines are pounded and blended according to the Four Spirits Method, except that the gold must be ground separately into powder. They are then divided into portions and subjected to flying refinement (processing the medicines by heating, sublimation, and similar methods). Ingestion of the product is said to enable one to become an immortal.

Yellow Emperor's Nine Cauldrons Elixir Formula

Half a sheng each of realgar and orpiment; five jin of cinnabar; three liang each of native sulfur, white quartz, stalactite, puxiao, and yushi; five liang each of shilin, cold-water stone, gypsum, Yu's leftover grain, green stone, Taiyin Xuanjing, red stone grease, mica, and magnetite.

The above seventeen medicines are pounded together, finely ground, and mixed until moist. They are covered with Wu salt and fire-refined for three days and three nights, then allowed to cool for half a day before being opened. Thereafter they undergo repeated flying refinement seven times. This elixir formula is said to treat various illnesses and will not itself give rise to disease.

Yellow Emperor's Nine Cauldrons Great Return Elixir Formula

One jin each of realgar and gypsum; half a jin each of cold-water stone and Yu's leftover grain; one jin each of niter and Taiyin Xuanjing. These undergo three boil-refinements totaling sixty days until the medicines dissolve and transform; one jin of yushi boiled and refined three times over thirty days; half a jin of golden teeth boiled and refined twice over one day and one night; one jin of orpiment. The original text then lists puxiao, lishi, crimson alum stone, sulfur, mirabilite, yellow alum, rong salt, kongqing, shilin, white quartz, Sun Gong's nie, and other medicines, recording treatment by three-turn boiling; as well as one jin each of cinnabar, stalactite, alum stone, purple quartz, mica, magnetite, paosha, stone brain, green alum, and chalcanthite, recorded as one turn.

All the above medicines are finely pounded and ground, then blended and subjected to nine flying refinements. The completed elixir is formed into pills the size of hemp seeds; nine pills are taken at a time (the original text also records taking five pills). Ingesting one thousand pills is said to transform the bodily form, and prolonged ingestion to confer immortality.

The “Taiyi Golden Paste Elixir Formula” lists the mineral and metal materials used in refining the elixir, such as gold, realgar, orpiment, amethyst, malachite, mirabilite, gypsum, mica, mercury, and sulfur, noting the quantities and processing methods for each. The text states that these “minor elixirs” are all medicinal elixirs used to benefit the world and treat illness; taking them can make the body light and vigorous and prolong life. The specific methods of preparation appear later in the text, and the elixir furnace must still be sealed according to the ancient methods.

The “Six Mud Method” explains the preparation of the clay used to seal the elixir furnace. Materials such as red halloysite, talc, sweet earth, brine salt, and Rong salt are combined and formed into clay blocks, then mixed with wine to make pellets the size of a finger, which are sun-dried and fired for a full day and night. They are then recast and finely ground, mixed with shredded paper and further pounded, then mixed with wine to seal the joints of the upper and lower furnace vessels. The sealing clay must be ground until fine and smooth and applied tightly and securely so that no gaps remain. The text also lists two other sealing methods: one uses solid fine yellow earth that has been sun-dried and pounded; the other is prepared with red halloysite, left-gazing oyster shells, and finely processed salt, requiring the seal to be firm and tight.

The “Flying Elixir Taboo Method” lists the days to avoid when refining elixirs: in spring, avoid Wuzi and Jisi; in summer, avoid Dingsi, Wushen, Jichou, Wuchen, and Jiwei; in autumn, avoid Wuxu, Xinhai, Jihai, and Gengzi; in winter, avoid Wuyin, Dingwei, Gengxu, Jimao, and Guiyou. These stem-and-branch dates are used to select the times for elixir refining and are taboo regulations drawn from traditional calendrical numerology.

The fifth day of the fifth month, the seventh day of the seventh month, the ninth day of the ninth month, as well as Jia-Shen days, Yi-Si days, and Yi-Mao days, are all auspicious days for compounding and refining elixirs. One may also choose the month in which the sun resides, after Lixia (the Beginning of Summer), and from among the Jia-Zi days select those that belong to Cheng (Completion), Kai (Opening), Shou (Gathering), Chu (Removal), Ping (Leveling), or Ding (Stabilizing). Kindling the fire and taking the medicines should be carried out at dusk; if this is inconvenient, one may also choose the fifth watch (the period before daybreak). During the operation one must not cause alarm or violate taboos. Whenever compounding and refining elixirs, those taking part must not number more than three, otherwise it will be difficult for their minds to be unified.

The Method of the Soul-Recalling Elixir

This elixir is also called the Returning-Soul Elixir, the Regeneration Elixir, or the Life-Restoring Elixir. Cinnabar, realgar, orpiment, zengqing (azurite), mineral sulfur, and yushi, five liang of each; mercury three jin, though another account says one jin.

The above medicines are refined according to the formula of the Four Divine Elixirs. After five or six cycles of flying refinement, once they have been brought to purity and full maturity they may be ingested. It is appropriate to take them in combination with the “Nine Sulfur.”

Sulfur Elixir Formula

Mineral sulfur, puhuang (cattail pollen), yuyuliang (limonite), and fuling (poria), two liang of each. Pound these four ingredients, pass them through a sieve, mix them carefully, and form them into pills the size of small beans. Take two pills each time, used to recall the soul. After being refined to full maturity they may also be ingested, and it is appropriate to take them in combination with the “Nine Sulfur.”

Sulfur Elixir Formula

Mineral sulfur, puhuang (cattail pollen), yuyuliang (limonite), and fuling (poria), two liang of each. Pound the four ingredients, sieve them, mix them carefully, and form them into pills the size of small beans. Take two pills each time, used to recall the soul. Take one pill mixed with mineral sulfur, and take two further pills together with it; it is said this can treat all manner of illnesses, and the effect is efficacious. If one is concerned that the nature of the medicine is too heating, the mineral sulfur may be omitted. This elixir need not employ mercury; mercury frost may be used in its place, and the effect is excellent. If mercury is too costly and one cannot afford to purchase it, one need not on that account abandon the undertaking.

The Taboo-Free Elixir

This elixir is also called the Bone-Firming Elixir, the Fearless Elixir, or the Shen-Congealing Elixir (the elixir that congeals the spirit).

Gold-tooth ore one liang, cold-water stone two liang, stone milk one liang, realgar and orpiment four liang each, white quartz one liang, mirabilite two liang, amethyst one and a half liang, niter one liang, maifanshi (wheat-rice stone) one liang, crude mirabilite two liang, oyster shell two liang, stalactite one liang.

The above medicines are subjected to flying refinement for three days and three nights according to the method of the Four Divine Elixirs, then finely ground and formed into pills the size of hemp seeds. Take one pill each time; it is said there is no illness that cannot be cured. Long-term ingestion of the Soul-Recalling Elixir can extend one’s years, whereas this elixir has no taboos.

One is named the Buxu Dan (elixir for walking as if through emptiness), the second the Yaojing Dan, the third the Qingju Dan (elixir that lightens the body so it rises), the fourth the Daojing Dan (elixir that inverts the sun’s reflection), and the fifth the Lingxu Dan (elixir for soaring through emptiness). Realgar, orpiment, white quartz, purple quartz, stalactite, jade shavings, cinnabar, stone brain, chalcanthite and the Yuhun elixir, taken over a long period, can extend one’s years and carry no taboos.

The formula for the Ziyou Dan, also called the Buxu Dan, Yaojing Dan, Qingju Dan, Daojing Dan and Lingxu Dan, uses realgar, orpiment, white quartz, purple quartz, stalactite, jade shavings, cinnabar, stone brain, chalcanthite, yu-stone, kongqing, yangqishi, red halloysite, magnetite, puxiao, alum, gypsum, hanshuishi, mercury frost and niter, three liang of each. It is prepared by the same method as the Jinying Dan, then subjected to flying refinement (heating to sublimate or separate the substances), and the results are excellent.

The Genxue Dan is known by ten names: the Mercury Frost elixir, the Flowing-Pearl White-Snow elixir, the Flowing-Mercury Plain-Frost elixir, the Mysterious-Pearl Crimson-Frost elixir, the Great-Yang Red-Powder elixir, the Flying-Rainbow Transforming-Medicine elixir, the Morning-Glow Scattering-Colors elixir, the Evening-Moon Flowing-Light elixir, the Chen-Brocade Flowing-Radiance elixir, and the Congealed-Steps Accumulated-Snow elixir. Its ingredients are twelve liang of tin, one jin of hongshuang, one jin of specially generated yu-stone, one jin of crimson alum, five liang of puxiao, six liang of Taiyin xuanjing and one jin of guan. The refining directions then state that the tin is placed in a pot and heated from below with a fierce fire.

First place the tin into a dang (an ancient type of pot) and heat it with fierce fire until it melts into liquid, then use an iron spoon to skim off the dross from the surface. Take another dang, heat it until slightly warm, pour the molten tin into it, stir evenly with an iron spoon, and immediately pour it quickly onto the cold ground. After a short while, the tin solidifies into a substance resembling white silver.

Next take fan shuang (the powder obtained from refining alum stone), pound it lightly, and sieve it through a sieve made of horsehair. Pu xiao (a natural niter-type mineral) and xuan jing (a mineral medicine used in Daoist refining) are also pounded and sieved separately. Then pound together the salt powder, mercury, and tin, sieve through a horsehair sieve, and mix all the various medicines evenly. Separately spread about three parts of white salt on the bottom and press it down firmly, then add the medicines and cover the top with pu xiao.

Then heat with wenhuo (gentle fire) for four days and nights, using no more than one jin of charcoal. As long as the upper fu (the upper vessel of the furnace) feels as warm as the human body when touched, gradually add three to five charcoal sticks. After two days like this, switch to wuhuo (fierce fire) so that the upper fu becomes hot to the hand, but do not allow it to remain so for a long time. Heat with wuhuo for seven days, then cool overnight before opening the furnace.

If the fire control is properly regulated, the Jing (essence) of the medicines will fly up into the upper fu in the form of frost and snow; sometimes it condenses into a fu lu pan (a disc-shaped condensate formed in the furnace) attached inside the upper fu, pure white and brilliantly shining, a truly astonishing sight. If the fire control is not properly mastered and the heat is uneven, the medicinal Jing will still rise into the upper fu, but its color will turn bluish-black. After obtaining this Jing, one must continue refining it with subsequent medicines.

The medicines used are three liang of alum stone, three liang of pu xiao, one jin of white salt, and three liang of xuan jing.

The previous methods of crushing and sieving are still to be followed. First grind the flowing mercury frost thoroughly, then mix it with the other medicines, spread the mixture out and cover it with lining material before carrying out the sublimation refining; the number of days of sublimation refining remains the same as in the previous method. In this manner the material may be refined repeatedly three to five times, after which it is better to use.

Taiyin Xuanjing (a mineral medicine employed in ancient alchemy) is probably not easy to obtain; one may search for it along the water’s edge near the Xie salt pond in Hedong. It floats on the surface of the water, its color and texture resembling jade and its shape like a tortoise shell. Those that are black and heavy cannot be used; the yellow-white, bright and clean specimens are best. Once Hongshuang obtains this medicine it will spontaneously turn into powder. After three to five sublimations, grind it extremely fine, then blend it with jujube-paste to form pills the size of hemp seeds. Take four or five pills each time, gradually increasing to six or seven; the original text states that this can cure all manner of illnesses.

Five Flavors Elixir Formula

Mercury frost one jin, niter five liang, cold-water stone five liang, gypsum five liang, chalcanthite five liang.

The above medicines are crushed, sieved fine and mixed together; they are not moistened with wine but are subjected directly to sublimation refining. Place them in the cauldron and refine for three days and three nights, following the same method as “Flying to Summon the Soul.”

Five Sacred Mountains Perfected One’s Small Return Elixir Formula

This elixir is also known as the Golden Essence Elixir, the Flying-in-the-Void Elixir, the Immortal Calyx Elixir, and the World-Saving Elixir.

Cinnabar, realgar, malachite, magnetite, stone brain, crude niter, Ba sand, jade florets, Yu’s leftover grain, white alum, dark stone fat, ice stone, talc and chalcanthite, ten liang of each.

A tube is made from new bitter bamboo, the medicines are packed into it, the mouth of the tube is sealed with wax and pressed tight, and the whole is then placed in the Huachi (a vessel or liquid used in alchemy for soaking and refining medicines). After twenty days it is taken out and is called the World-Saving Elixir.

Cinnabar, realgar, malachite, magnetite, stone brain, crude niter, Ba sand, jade florets, Yu’s leftover grain, white alum, dark stone fat, ice stone, talc and chalcanthite, ten liang of each.

Fresh bitter bamboo is fashioned into tubes. After the medicinal substances have been placed inside, the openings are sealed with wax and the tubes are immersed in the Flower Pond (Huachi), a vessel used for soaking and refining medicines. They are removed after twenty days and left to dry in a cool, shaded place. Another twenty days later they are pounded, sifted, and stored separately according to color. Mixed with zui into nine portions, they are placed in a Jade Cauldron (Yufu), a jade or ceramic vessel used for elixir refinement, and treated according to the method for the Purple Wandering Elixir. The vessel must be sealed so that no Qi (vital energy) escapes, and it is fired with alternating gentle and fierce fire for three days and three nights. Once the furnace is opened, the contents are pounded separately by color and sifted into powder.

Cinnabar is placed first, followed by jade essence (Yuying), a mineral material used in elixir work, so that the two correspond above and below; the vessel is then carefully sealed. Refinement begins with horse-dung fire (Matong huo), a fire fueled by horse manure, for three days and three nights, followed by charcoal fire for another three days and three nights, gentle fire preceding fierce fire. When the substances have flown upward into the upper cauldron the elixir is complete and may be removed. It is ground to powder in a mortar with a jade pestle and mixed with peeled jujubes to form pills the size of millet grains. Three pills are taken each time, swallowed with a beverage or wine.

The formula for the Taiyi Lesser Return Elixir, also known as the Taijing Elixir, Chaojing Elixir, Ningxia Elixir, or Luohui Elixir, calls for one jin of mercury and five liang of mineral sulfur; these two ingredients are ground, the mineral sulfur being ground thoroughly.

First grind mineral sulfur into powder. Catch it on thick white paper, set it over a charcoal fire to roast, and let the melted sulfur drip into water; then discard the paper. Refine it in this way three times, and weigh out five liang.

Next take a new porcelain bottle with a capacity of no more than two sheng; both the inside and the outside of the bottle should be oiled. Finely sieve yellow earth and mix it with lime and paper fiber to make a mud, coat it evenly on the outside of the bottle to a thickness of about three fen, and set it in the sun to dry. Separately take a new porcelain saucer sized to match the bottle, likewise oiled inside and out; coat the outside of the saucer with the same mud to a thickness of about three fen, and after it has dried in the sun use it as the bottle’s lid.

Prepare an iron pot so that its legs can support the bottom of the bottle, and rest the porcelain bottle on the pot’s legs. Then build a wind furnace of bricks, tiles, and mud. The furnace should stand about five cun higher than the bottle, with a gap of about five cun on all four sides between the furnace walls and the bottle. Open four air inlets at the base of the furnace, and wait until the furnace body has dried thoroughly before using it.

First put mercury into the bottle and warm it with a gentle fire. Then take a small pot, melt the sulfur into a liquid, pour it into the bottle that holds the mercury, and stir for a short while. Once it has cooled, the mercury will have turned into a substance resembling fragmented tin, which can solidify into lumps. Next cover the mouth of the bottle with the porcelain saucer and tightly seal the joints with the mud prepared earlier. This method of sealing is called guji. Place the bottle inside the wind furnace and bake it with a gentle fire from all around the bottle until the sealed joints are thoroughly dry, then gradually increase the heat. Begin with a mild fire and afterward switch to a fierce fire. When the flames upon the bottle appear purple and give off sounds, keep the furnace fire at a moderate intensity and add charcoal gradually. Refine it in this manner for one hundred nights, then slowly reduce the fire. After it has cooled, open the furnace and inspect it. The elixir will be found adhering to the sides of the bottle and to the lid, shaped like pomegranate seeds and purple-black in color. Grind it in water and wash out the fine powder; its color is even more brilliant than luminous cinnabar, an extraordinary red.

Once the elixir is made, grind it fine, mix it with cooked japonica rice, and roll it into pills the size of a small hu-eye. Take five pills daily; when five hundred pills in all have been taken, it is said that all manner of illnesses can be eliminated. Another account states that if one begins the firing in the morning, the medicine is ready by noon and may be taken, likewise formed into pills with rice. Steam black sesame (jusheng) until done, dry it in the sun, and take it, washing it down with a plain drink or with wine. While taking the medicine, avoid blood broths and sliced raw fish, avoid becoming heavily intoxicated, and also avoid raw and cold foods.

The Great Sulfur Elixir formula, also known as the Great Yang Powder Elixir, calls for three jin of native sulfur to be crushed and ground fine, placed in an alchemical cauldron, covered by two basins fitted together above and below, and subjected to flying refinement over a gentle fire for three days and three nights. Once the substance has sublimated into the upper vessel and assumed a golden-powder hue, it is ground into pills for ingestion.

The Eight Stones Elixir formula, likewise called the Beautiful Sun Elixir, the Plain Moon Elixir, the Crossing-Calamity Elixir, and the Saving-the-World Elixir, is complete when the medicines, after flying refinement, have risen into the upper vessel and taken on a golden-powder color; they may then be ground into pills and taken.

Cinnabar, realgar, orpiment, and azurite are fly-refined three times by the method already described and may thereafter be consumed. Another version employs realgar, orpiment, native sulfur, azurite, malachite, arsenolite, cinnabar, and alum, fourteen liang of each; these are crushed, sieved, and fly-refined as before. A further recipe uses four liang each of cinnabar, realgar, orpiment, and azurite together with one liang each of arsenolite, magnetite, mirabilite, and alum. Still another simply directs that white quartz and arsenolite be refined according to the preceding procedure.

The Dragon Cinnabar Elixir formula, also known as the Dragging-Silk Elixir, Mulberry Dew, Containing Light, and Spitting Radiance, takes ten liang each of cinnabar, realgar, orpiment, native sulfur, and azurite. The medicines are crushed, sieved, and finely ground, then placed in the vessel called Soul-Summoning Lightning and fly-refined for three days and three nights. When the entire substance has risen into the upper vessel the residue below should crumble like ash; even a hard mass resembling clotted iron filings signals that refinement is complete. The product is crushed and sieved once more and fly-refined a second time for three days and three nights until its essence has fully ascended, after which it is collected. Mixed with fine musk and white glutinous rice, it is formed into hemp-seed-sized pills. One pill is taken at a time, washed down with a beverage or wine.

The Eight Spirits Elixir formula

The same elixir is known by four names: Yuanjing (Primordial Essence), Zhaori (Illuminating the Sun), Liuxia (Flowing Rosy Clouds), and Shenguang (Divine Light).

Take ten liang each of cinnabar, zengqing, realgar, yushi, shinnao, magnetite, and puxiao. Place each mineral separately in a silk bag and soak them in rice wine that has been aged for three years. After two days and one night, remove the bags, dry the contents in a cool shaded place, then pound each one separately and sieve it finely. Place the prepared ingredients into the cauldron in sequence. Once they are all inside, cover them with puxiao and seal the vessel tightly with liuyi mud, a special clay used to lute alchemical furnaces. Heat first with a gentle fire for three days and nights, then with a strong fire for three days and nights. After the vessel has cooled overnight, open it and take out the product from the upper chamber. Grind this product finely and sublime it repeatedly five or six times until it becomes as white as snow, at which point it may be ingested.

Taiyi Realgar Elixir

This preparation is also called Chiliu, Suhui, Hongjing, Chongguang, or the elixir of alternating red and purple.

Take three jin of realgar and place it in a copper vessel. Boil it in rice wine for three days and three nights to drive out its toxicity. Continue sun-drying it for the next nine days until completely dry, then pound it to a fine powder, sieve it, mix it with rice wine, and dry it in the sun. Repeat the mixing and drying seven times. Thereafter follow exactly the sublimation method used for the Soul-Summoning Elixir, flying and refining for seven days and seven nights until the color is pure white like snow, whereupon it may be taken.

Another formula

This passage records a method for refining elixir with realgar as the principal ingredient. First the realgar is ground fine and sieved, then moistened with wine and dried in the sun, a process repeated many times. The powdered medicine is next sandwiched between layers of white salt, placed in a pot whose upper and lower halves fit together, and tightly sealed with “Six-One Mud” (a clay compound used to close vessels). The text requires that a small fire be used first, after which the heat is gradually increased and the firing continued. Once cooled, the medicine is taken out and ground fine; the residue that has been sieved out is mixed back with the refined essence of the medicine, and firing is resumed according to the previous method. It is held that after this procedure has been repeated twice the elixir is complete.

The “Five Numinous Elixir Formula” lists five names: Rising Rosy Clouds, Soaring Empyrean, Numinous Transformation, Taiyi Soul-Summoning, and Returning Rosy Clouds Elixir. The ingredients given in the formula include mercury frost, realgar, mineral sulfur, cinnabar, and orpiment, each specified as ten liang. The text then mentions grinding and sieving, mixing with wine, sun-drying, and packing the material into the pot with white salt flowers as a lining. The operational statements that follow in the original contain repetitions and faulty connections, and the correspondence between the five names and the medicinal ingredients remains insufficiently clear.

These materials belong to the refining records of ancient Waidan (external alchemy). They involve toxic minerals such as mercury and arsenic as well as heating in a sealed vessel.

The medicinal ingredients are crushed, sieved, mixed evenly with wine, spread out to dry in the sun, and the process is repeated seven times. They are placed in a pot lined at the bottom with white salt flowers, the mineral medicines added, mercury frost spread over the top, and finally covered with white salt flowers about three fen thick. Following the method of the Soul-Summoning Elixir (Zhaohun Dan), the mixture is refined with fire for three days and three nights. Once complete, the pills are the size of hemp seeds; one pill is taken each time and is said to treat all manner of illnesses.

Another formula uses three jin of mercury frost together with two jin each of realgar, mineral sulfur, and cinnabar. These four ingredients are crushed and sieved, mixed, moistened slightly with wine, spread out to dry in the sun, and the process repeated four or five times. The remaining flying-refining steps and days of firing all follow the previous method.

The Five Stones Elixir (Wushi Dan) is also known as the Five Stars Elixir, Five Essences, Five Forms, Five Emperors, Five Marchmounts, Five Spirits, and Eight Immortals Elixir. Legend holds that Liu An, Prince of Huainan, was devoted to Daoist arts and received the formula from the immortal Eight Lords (Bagong), who then passed it to Zuo Hao so that it circulated in the world. It is said to extract the essences of five mineral medicines; after ingestion one attains immortality, transcends the mundane realm, and dwells with the herb immortals.

The five stones are the essences of five celestial bodies: cinnabar is the essence of the Greater Yang and the Flaming Planet (Mars); magnetite is the essence of the Greater Yin and the Chronogram Planet (Mercury); cengqing is the essence of Lesser Yang and the Year Planet (Jupiter); realgar is the essence of Empress Earth and the Guardian Planet (Saturn); yushi is the essence of Lesser Yin and the Great White Planet (Venus). This is the account of drawing upon the essences of the five stars. Legend claims the medicine confers immortality.

Another explanation identifies cengqing as the essence of the Eastern Azure Emperor, the Wood phase, and the Azure Dragon; cinnabar as the essence of the Southern Vermilion Emperor, the Fire phase, and the Vermilion Bird; white yushi as the essence of the Western White Emperor, the Metal phase, and the White Tiger; magnetite as the essence of the Northern Black Emperor, the Water phase, and the Dark Warrior; and realgar as the essence of the Central Yellow Emperor, the Earth phase, and the Yellow Dragon.

These various flavorings all fall under the governance of the Jing-Qi of the Fire Spirits of the Five Emperors of Taiwei. When preparing to refine this elixir, take ten liang of each of the five flavors, offer prayers over them separately, then sift them into a fine powder and mix with wine, following a procedure similar to the Method of the Eight Spirit Elixirs. One must also obtain the Divine Talismans of the Five Emperors and place them as a suppressing seal upon the elixir before the flying refinement may proceed; without this talisman the elixir can never be successfully completed. The Fulu (talismans and registers) have their own secret transmission and may also be found in the Three Sections of Talismans of Laozi. The Five Stones are the Qi generated by the Five Stars; ingesting their pure and true Jing-Qi enables one to share the same longevity as Heaven and Earth. Unless one is sincerely devoted to the Dao and earnestly cultivates it, this teaching should not be transmitted lightly. As for niter, purple stone, and stalactite, they are known as “white entering stones.”

The method of constructing the elixir furnace requires that iron bars be placed beneath it, some twelve or thirteen in number, each one chi in length and four fen thick on all four sides. These bars are laid in the grooves at the furnace bottom, spaced about two fen apart, and hang freely two cun above the ground. A space four and a half cun wide is left open in the center of the furnace floor, running through from front to back to serve as channels for the intake and exhaust of wind. Fuel is placed upon the iron bars; aided by the wind the fire burns vigorously and evenly. This is an important method in elixir refinement.

The method of making the medicine cauldron employs an iron vessel for the lower layer, with a capacity of one dou, a mouth diameter of nine cun, and a depth of three cun. The portion of the bottom that receives the fire is eight fen thick, while the surrounding walls are three fen thick; the upper and lower widths are nearly the same and the bottom is flat. The rim around the mouth is one and a half cun wide and three fen thick, likewise fashioned as a flat surface. The ears on either side are each three cun long and sit three and a half cun below the upper rim. The lid is made of fired tile, nine cun four fen in diameter, eight cun deep, and three fen thick, with the top slightly rounded yet level.

This large cauldron is used for the initial refining of the essential medicine and is therefore of greater size. Once the essential medicine has been obtained, a smaller cauldron should be substituted for the subsequent stages. The small cauldron has a mouth diameter of six cun and a depth of two and a half cun; in all other respects of shape and thickness it matches the large cauldron. The lid of the small cauldron measures six cun two fen in diameter and six cun in depth; its remaining form is identical to that of the large lid.

Taiqing Shibi Ji (Records of the Stone Wall of Great Clarity), Middle Scroll

Compiled by Master Chuze.

Formula of the Eight Spirits Elixir

The formula of the Eight Spirits Elixir (Ba Shen Dan) is prepared in two portions, the vessel six cun deep; its outer form is the same as that described previously.

Take half a jin of azurite (kongqing), half a jin of magnetite, half a jin of white quartz, half a jin of crude mirabilite (puxiao), and five liang of stalactite. Pound these medicinals, sieve them fine, and grind them, then mix with “zui” (thus in the original text; this is probably “mixed with vinegar”). In all other respects follow the method given earlier for the Four Spirits Elixir; the difference is that the crude mirabilite is spread over the top of all the other medicinals, and the mixture is subjected to seven cycles of feilian (the alchemical procedure of subliming and condensing the medicinals).

Formula of the Three Envoys Elixir

Take one jin of mercury frost, two jin of cinnabar, and one jin of realgar. Pound these three ingredients, sieve them fine, and grind them, then mix with “zui.” The difference is that the mercury frost is spread on top and then covered with salt blossoms; the remaining procedures are the same as for the Four Spirits Elixir, with five cycles of feilian.

Formula of the Soul-Summoning Elixir

This elixir is also called Returning the Soul; its third name is Regeneration, its fourth name is Returning Destiny, and its fifth name is Completing Life.

Take five liang each of cinnabar, realgar, mineral sulfur, and magnetite, together with one jin of mercury. First melt the mineral sulfur into a liquid and pour it into the mercury, stirring until it forms a jade-green sand; then pound, sieve fine, and grind this together with the other mineral medicinals, and mix with “zui.” In all other respects follow the method of the Four Spirits Elixir, except that the number of feilian cycles exceeds that used for the Four Spirits Elixir.

Flowing Pearls Elixir

This elixir is also called Red Scenery, Crimson Radiance, Double Glow, Red Medicament, and Red Frost.

Take one jin of realgar. Pound, sieve fine, and grind it, mix with “zui” until moist, and process according to the method of the Four Spirits Elixir. The difference is that it is mixed and layered with powdered salt, then covered with salt and sealed (the joints of the alchemical vessel are closed tight). First heat it with a gentle fire (wenhuo, a milder fire) for one full day and night, then gradually increase the intensity and switch to a fierce fire (wuhuo, a stronger fire) for three days and nights. After it has cooled, take it out and perform feilian three times.

Another Formula

Take ten liang each of sublimed realgar and orpiment. Grind the two substances fine, mix them with rice “zui,” and sun-dry them; the method of processing is the same as for the Four Spirits Elixir.

Another Formula

Use Hidden Dragon Liver (fulonggan) together with powdered salt, the amount of powdered salt being twice that of the realgar.

The second recipe calls for grinding the two listed medicinal ingredients into a fine powder, then mixing them thoroughly with realgar and the other drugs. The mixture is packed into a vessel and sealed according to the Four Spirits Elixir method (Sishen dan fa). It is then exposed to the sun in the same manner.

Another formula uses Fulonggan (stove-heart earth) together with salt powder; the quantity of salt is one times that of the realgar, that is, an amount equal to the realgar. These two substances are ground into a fine powder and mixed evenly with realgar and the remaining drugs, then packed into a vessel and sealed according to the Four Spirits Elixir method. The firing is milder than that used for the Four Spirits Elixir: more gentle fire (wenhuo) and less fierce fire (wuhuo) are applied for seven days, the vessel being turned once each day.

Method for Making the Mercury Box

One jin of mercury, two jin of salt, four liang of puxiao, six liang of Taiyin Xuanjing, and one jin of Dunhuang alum are used; crimson alum may be substituted for the alum. Tin is first placed in a pot and melted into liquid over a fierce fire. The mercury is heated slightly and poured into the molten tin, then stirred. The mixture is poured onto the ground, where it soon solidifies into a mass white as silver. Salt is mixed with this tin material and pounded, then repeatedly passed through a horsehair sieve until everything has been sieved fine. Powders of Taiyin Xuanjing and alum are added and the whole is assembled according to the Four Spirits Elixir method. Only the surface is covered with puxiao powder, and the preparation is heated for seven days and seven nights with predominantly gentle fire and little fierce fire. A frost resembling hibiscus blossoms forms on top; this is collected and ground.

Separately, five liang each of alum, puxiao and Taiyin Xuanjing are taken and pounded individually. They are assembled according to the previous method, covered and padded properly. The flying-and-refining (feilian) process is repeated several times to obtain a good result.

Method for Preparing Cinnabar Frost

Two jin of cinnabar are first ground to powder and sieved seven times through fine silk. One and a half liang of crimson alum and one liang of yellow alum are then added. After mixing, the flying-and-refining process must still be repeated several times for the best effect.

Method for Preparing Cinnabar Frost

Two jin of cinnabar are first ground to powder and sieved seven times through fine silk; one and a half liang of crimson alum and one liang of yellow alum are then added.

Pound all the substances listed above together into a fine powder, mix them evenly, then blend with vinegar and sun-dry seven times. Coat only the bottom and surrounding sides of an iron pot with xiusha. Next mix ash and salt into a mud and fill the pot with salt, the amount of salt determined by the quantity of the medicinal substances. Hollow the salt into a bowl shape, place the medicines inside and press them firmly with a copper spoon; then cover with a layer of salt, a layer of Fulonggan (stove-heart earth), another layer of salt, and finally a covering of puxiao, pressing it flat with the spoon. Smear with rice vinegar, set the kettle lid in place and seal it securely.

First mix hemp and mud into a sealing compound and apply it to the pot mouth, broom and the joints of the kettle lid, making the seal about three fen thick so that it is tight and firm. Calcine first with a gentle fire for four days and nights, then with a fierce fire for two days, and finally with an intense fire for one day. When cooling, sprinkle water on the sealing mud to moisten it, then open the furnace and take the product for use.

Method of the Two Powders of Gold and Silver

Two liang each of gold and silver together with two liang of Hutonglü, pounded to powder.

First hammer the gold and silver into thin sheets. Place zhuzhi in a pot and heat it, bringing it to a boil fifteen times; then wash away the zhuzhi with soap-pod. Remove the metal sheets, grind them in a porcelain basin, add salt and process according to the silver-powder method for about seven days. Filter through three layers of raw silk, discard the moisture, take the silver powder and calcine it in xiusha over a weak fire that must not be too vigorous. Remove and grind fine once more. Add the Hutonglü powder, refine together with water, filter again through three layers of raw silk, dry thoroughly and grind to an extremely fine powder, which is then ready for use.

Gènxiāo Elixir

It is of three kinds: the first called Flowing Pearls White Snow, the second Flowing Tilt Plain Snow, and the third Mysterious Pearls Crimson Snow.

One jin of mercury and twelve liang of tin.

Place the mercury in a pot and heat it. Melt the tin to liquid in a separate pot and pour it into the mercury. Pour the mixture onto a clean ground surface, where it congeals into a silvery-white cake. Remove, pound, grind fine and sieve.

Four liang each of crimson alum, white alum and Taiyin Xuanjing.

Take the previously prepared medicinal materials, mix them together with the pounded silver powder, then add Fulon Gan (stove-heart earth) along with powdered salt and similar substances, and blend everything on a clean patch of ground. The mixture will coalesce into a cake of white silver; remove this silver cake, pound it to pieces, grind it fine, and pass it through a sieve.

Take four liang each of crimson alum, white alum, and Taiyin Xuanjing (a mineral drug employed in Daoist refining techniques). Combine these medicinal materials with the pounded silver powder, then add Fulon Gan and powdered salt, arranging the drugs according to the Four Gods Method (a staged-heating refining procedure). Cover the top with one jin of crude niter, then overlay it tightly with finely ground white salt flowers and seal the vessel securely. Begin by applying a gentle fire for four days, gradually increasing the heat while still keeping the flame mild; do not employ the fierce fire used in the Four Gods Method itself. After a full seven days, apply a fierce fire for the time it takes to cook a meal, then allow the vessel to cool before opening it to collect the medicinal frost. Any material that has not sublimed will likewise condense among the salt flowers into lotus-shaped crystals. This medicinal frost is then to be boiled and refined according to the Four Gods Method.

Method for preparing the Neidan (internal alchemy)

Take the elixir previously refined, subject it to flying (sublimation) three times, and remove the entire product. There is no need to detoxify it further; simply grind it fine and form it into pills. Take five pills each time, wrapping the raw elixir in a thin layer of cotton. It may be used to treat scabies, ding sores, internal abscesses, chronic paralysis with hemorrhoids, snakebite, and toothache.

Method for refining sulfur water

Take one jin of clean, bright mineral sulfur. Grind the sulfur fine. Take a clean tile that is higher at one end and lower at the other, spread a sheet of paper upon it, place the sulfur on the paper, and heat it from below. Position a small basin containing rice vinegar beneath the lower end of the tile. As the sulfur is heated it will flow into the basin and condense into small pearls.

Grind the sulfur until it is fine. Take a clean tile and set it so that one end is higher than the other. Spread paper over the tile, place the sulfur on the paper, and heat it. Set a small basin of rice vinegar beneath the lower end of the tile. When the sulfur melts, it flows into the vinegar and congeals into small beads. Remove these beads from the vinegar, return them to the tile, and melt them again in the same way. Repeat this seven times.

Place the sulfur in a bag of thick silk and fasten the bag to a crossbeam. Fill a pot with rice vinegar and rest the crossbeam across the pot so that the bag does not touch the bottom. Boil it for three days and three nights, adding more vinegar whenever the liquid boils down. Then boil it in vinegar slurry for another three days and three nights, and finally boil it in clear water for one full day and night. Take out the sulfur, let it dry, and grind it fine on a stand. Mix five sheng of cow’s milk evenly with the sulfur powder and let it dry; once dry, mix it with milk again, repeating until the milk is used up and the sulfur has been thoroughly dried. The processed sulfur may be formed into pills or a powder and taken internally.

Method for Ingesting Cinnabar as Elixir

Refine one jin of cinnabar. Boil the cinnabar directly in rice vinegar for three days and three nights, then grind it. Mix it evenly with vinegar, let it dry, and grind it more than ten times; this completes that stage. Then place the cinnabar in a bamboo tube and steam it in a steamer ten times, after which it may be taken.

Method for Preparing the Iron Liquid Elixir

One hundred jin of wrought iron.

Forge copper into a round mirror with a central hole large enough to admit a finger. The mirror is five cun in diameter and three fen thick; both faces must be scraped perfectly even and lustrous. Next forge a square metal plate seven cun long, four cun wide and three fen thick, pierced with holes.

Take three sheng of wine together with powdered pepper, hua, bo and dried ginger; crush and sieve each item separately. Then take one sheng of salt, fourteen liang of magnetite and one sheng of wine, and mix them with the wine. Thread the mirrors one after another onto a long iron skewer, scraping three fen from each piece. First bury a pottery urn in the ground, construct a wooden frame inside it, and lay the mirror pieces in successive layers on the frame. Cover them with a pottery basin, seal the mouth of the urn, and overlay it with one chi of earth. Sprinkle salt water over it daily to keep it moist. After one hundred and fifty days open the urn. The mirrors will have formed “flying residue” (feiyin), the adherent matter produced during refining. Scrape it off with a knife, grind it with wine until it becomes suspended, pour it into a vessel and continue grinding until the work is complete. Allow it to settle and clarify, then take it for use.

Dawn-Glow Elixir Formula

Take realgar, orpiment and native sulfur. Wash them with water and collect the portion that floats on the surface. Pour this into a vessel and grind it thoroughly until nothing remains. Then add stalactite, white quartz, magnetite, stone-lung and mica.

Pound the above substances according to the Four Spirits Method; each ingredient, however, should be pounded a greater number of times. They may be mixed with wine and then dried in the sun.

Radiant Beautiful-Sun Elixir Formula

Take realgar, orpiment, white quartz, mica, konggongnie and yushi.

Crush and sieve the above substances, then process them according to the Four Spirits Method, only with a greater number of repeated poundings.

Soaring-Clouds Elixir Formula

Take realgar, orpiment, kongqing, cinnabar, stalactite, yushi, gypsum, yuyuliang, taiyin xuanjing and white alum.

Crush and sieve the above substances and process them according to the Four Spirits Method.

Method of Ingesting the Elixir

Anyone suffering from the ailments of old age, physical weakness or pain should, every morning at dawn, take jujube pulp, niaodouchi and two pills of the elixir, washing them down with warm wine.

Taboos While Ingesting the Elixir

During the period of taking the elixir one must not consume sheep’s blood or carp, nor eat anything with a rank, fishy odor or anything filthy.

Sensations Experienced Upon Ingesting the Elixir

This section is presented under the heading “Sensations Experienced Upon Ingesting the Elixir.”

After taking the elixir, one may feel itching on the body and face, as if insects were crawling over the skin; the hands and feet may swell, food may smell offensive, and eating may bring on nausea and vomiting, together with weakness in the four limbs. Diarrhea, vomiting, or headache may also appear.

Reactions after taking the elixir

After the elixir has been taken, should itching arise on the body and face like insects crawling, should the hands and feet swell, should food seem foul-smelling, should nausea and vomiting occur when eating, should the limbs feel weak, or should there be diarrhea, vomiting, headache, or abdominal pain, do not be alarmed. These are all signs that the elixir is taking effect and driving out pathogenic factors.

Elixir for treating malaria

On the morning of the day a malaria attack is due, take three pills of the elixir, swallowed with wine, so as to induce vomiting. If by breakfast time vomiting has still not occurred, drink another half cup of wine; the dose must be made to come up. If a further attack is still expected, take five pills on an empty stomach and the illness will be cured.

Treating sores and ringworm

Pierce the affected place with a needle, apply the elixir to dry or damp ringworm, then wash it off at once with water and wipe with a cloth. Mix the elixir with butter and spread it on three to five times, and the condition will heal. For a snakebite, blend the elixir with vinegar and apply it; this will effect a cure. For a boil, pierce it with a needle and place the elixir inside the sore; repeat this three to five times, and once the necrotic flesh has been fully expelled the sore will heal.

Internal Elixir Method (Neidan)

Take raw elixir (the unprocessed elixir), wrap it in thin silk cloth. Do not eat at night. Just before sleep, use the middle finger to introduce the elixir into the body, placing it as deeply as possible. After a short time a thunder-like rumbling will be heard below the navel, in the region of the Dantian (energy center); one need only endure it. After the third watch, if it truly cannot be borne, go to a clean place and expel the pus, about three to five ge each time, for three nights in succession, then restore the body with processed elixir (the prepared elixir).

Treating an eruption of the elixir

If the elixir is felt to be erupting, lie down and use the middle finger to introduce the elixir into the body, placing it as deeply as possible. After a short time a thunder-like rumbling will arise below the navel; one need only endure it. After the third watch, if it truly cannot be borne, go to a clean place and expel the pus, about three to five ge each time, for three nights in succession, then nourish the body with processed elixir.

Treating an eruption of the elixir

If the elixir is felt to be erupting, bathe in a decoction of raw and processed ingredients, then drink one cup of scallion-and-fermented-soybean wine and take the preparation according to the realgar fumigation method. If recovery has still not come, take equal amounts of hornet nest, kansui, weiruo, and ephedra, decoct them into a medicinal broth and drink it; it is said that a single dose will bring a cure.

Explanation of the realgar fumigation method

Xunhuang is acrid in flavor, balanced in nature tending toward warmth, and poisonous. It is used primarily to treat scabies and ringworm, can also neutralize the venom of insects and snakes, and can drive away evil spirits and malevolent influences. Taken internally, its action is no different from that of realgar. If one wishes to use it to refine copper and iron into gold and silver, only the xunhuang produced in Wudu will suffice; if one is merely preparing minor elixir medicines for treating ordinary people’s illnesses, there is no distinction between Wudu xunhuang and realgar, and it may be taken and used directly, mixed, sun-dried, and then refined according to the previous method. The medicine obtained is quite serviceable.

This medicinal substance has been kept secret from ancient times to the present and is not recorded in openly circulating formula books. This is probably because it was not especially suited to widespread use at the time, and there was concern that people of the world would hold it in low regard, so everyone kept it confidential. I now disclose it in the hope that those of like mind will transmit it among themselves and not tell it to unsuitable persons. Should anyone obtain this volume of the Dan Jing, it ought to be transmitted for a hundred years and passed to only one person; on no account leak it casually, otherwise both parties to the transmission will meet with disaster.

Fire-Subdued Sulfur Elixir

Refine one piece of sulfur and two jin of osmanthus flowers.

Take a very thick iron pot and set it in a place suitable for refining. Place salt in the pot, spreading it around the sides to a thickness of about three cun and leaving a hollow in the center. Put the sulfur in the hollow, then cover it with salt about three cun thick. All the salt should be pounded to powder and the bottom of the pot packed densely and firmly. Then apply fire slowly, as in cooking rice, changing the salt three times a day.

After this treatment, wash it with water and sun-dry it, then wrap it in sweet-earth clay. When the clay has dried, apply fire slowly, never allowing the fire to go completely out; stop as soon as it has just slightly turned red. Wash it separately once more, sun-dry it, grind it to a fine powder, and form it with cooked white millet into pills the size of Chinese parasol-tree seeds. Take twenty pills each day.

Secret Essential Oral Instructions of the Elixir Classic

This passage primarily enumerates the minerals, metals, plants, and animal substances used in elixir refinement and the compounding of medicines, together with headings for the methods of processing. Most of the terms are names of drugs or raw materials, though some phrases appear to contain variant readings that make exact identification difficult.

It opens by listing yellow mei, poria, aconite, junqing, spirit feathers, processed kongqing, white su, Yu’s leftover grain, green dragon paste, zengqing, white tiger brain, mercury, Black Warrior bone, alum, crude mirabilite, green niter, Vermilion Bird, realgar, yellow dragon liver, tin elixir, Emperor’s Daughter marrow, raw cinnabar, Red Emperor’s flowing pearls, silver elixir, yellow elixir, green salt, Five Peaks fat, the five alums, Rong salt, stone-stopping fat, mineral sulfur, zeique sand, stone flavor, rock salt, mysterious essence, black ox dung juice, nutgrass, black salt, yin dragon liver, dog blood (some readings take this as dog dung), lime, black ox gall, night-shining bone, and similar items. Later it also records alisma, milk, cat-and-tiger fat, dragonfly fat, green ox droppings, saline earth, yellow black-head, yellow aconite, black dragon paste, black dog dung, and related materials.

The “Formula for Compounding Medicines” sets out the method of preparing the drugs. It again lists clam essence, genuine pearls, an earthen cauldron (a ceramic vessel), alisma, milk, animal fats, saline earth, yellow black-head, yellow aconite, black dragon paste, and black dog dung as the substances required.

A subsequent “Formula for Compounding Medicines” records another group of materials that includes clam essence, genuine pearls, yin-circulating water essence, perching-dragon paste, mulberry dew, green oil, kongqing, Yu’s leftover grain, turmeric root, tree peony, talc, oyster, gourd juice, dog gall, actinolite, magnetite, white jade, and scallion. The text also mentions Six-One Mud, a sealing paste mixed from six ingredients and used to close the refining vessels; sprouts of the five grains, Great Cavern lubricating juice, and thousand-search seeds (some identifications take these as locust-tree seeds) appear among the items as well.

The “Method of Subduing Fire” is the procedure that stabilizes the substances after they have been processed by heat. An appropriate quantity of mercury is placed in a white porcelain vessel; a thick layer of ox dung mixed with ash is spread at the bottom, more ash is laid over that, and the earthen cauldron is finally sealed with Six-One Mud. The earthen cauldron is the ceramic container employed in the work; once sealed it can be heated for the refinement.

Place a suitable quantity of mercury in a white porcelain vessel. Mix cow dung and ash into a thick paste and spread it over the bottom of the vessel; then lay another layer of ash over this paste to cover the mercury completely. Seal the vessel tightly and set it in a shaded place to dry.

Mix ash with fine hair to form a paste and wrap it around the body of the bottle to a thickness of one inch. Once the paste has dried, seal the mouth of the vessel as well. First prepare a stiff paste from mulberry ash, then plug the bottle mouth with cotton wadding. When wrapping, one may also simply mix salt and ash into a paste to seal the vessel mouth. To dry the paste more quickly it may be baked over a gentle fire or fired together with hard ash. During the nurturing stage wrap the outer layer with cow dung; during actual fire-refining wrap with charcoal. When the successive layers adhere properly the process is complete. After the vessel has cooled, remove the contents: the mercury together with the other substances will have congealed into a frost-white mass whose texture is sometimes soft and sometimes hard.

The Four Spirit Elixir recipe employs cinnabar, realgar, azurite and orpiment. These four ingredients are each pounded separately and sieved, using white salt as a lining layer. First spread the azurite, then the orpiment, cinnabar and realgar, and finally cover everything with white salt so that the upper and lower layers join. After sealing the vessel with “six-one mud” (the sealing compound used to close alchemical apparatus), sublime and refine it with the usual civil and martial fire (gentle and strong heat used in alternation or combination) for seven days and seven nights, regulating the fire according to the standard method.

In another version the four ingredients may be pounded and sieved directly, mixed with strong vinegar until slightly moist, and sun-dried repeatedly ten times. Cover with white salt so the layers join, seal with six-one mud, and sublime with the usual civil and martial fire for seven days and seven nights, following the standard regulation of fire.

Yet another method is to pound and sieve the four ingredients, mix them with strong vinegar until slightly moist, sun-dry them ten times, then place them in a cauldron arranged according to the previous method. Prepared in this way a greater quantity of medicine is obtained and the colour is also superior.

For treating bleeding in the mouth take four parts of cattail pollen and sieve it, together with half a slice of processed aconite. Pound these two ingredients separately, then mix them with blood from the comb of a white rooster to form a paste. Apply the paste and the bleeding will stop. It must then be washed off quickly, otherwise the medicinal paste will shift to one side.

The Taiqing Jing says: Take high-quality stalactite, grind it into a fine powder, and place it in a gold or silver bottle or an ou, lining the interior with a piece of tile. Then add one portion of niter, seal the bottle or ou tightly so that no qi can leak out, and steam-cook it. When used, the medicine will naturally transform into water; this is called “refining the milk” (lianru) and is suitable for taking.

Method of Preparing Iron Powder

Take high-quality iron material, grind it into a fine powder, and wash away the earth and impurities. Mix the iron powder with good vinegar aged for three years in a small earthenware basin until moist. Heat the bottom of the basin over a chaff fire to dry the iron powder; then transfer it to an iron mortar, pound it, and sieve it through silk. Continue pounding and sieving any remaining coarse particles in the same way until all has become a fine powder.

Prepare twenty pottery crucibles whose shape somewhat resembles the lan-form vessels used by Buddhists, and fashion a notch in each. Mix the iron powder with vinegar until wet, place it in the pottery crucibles, and seal them tightly so that no qi can leak. Set the pottery crucibles on a platform, encase them outwardly in gantu (sweet-earth) crucibles, and calcine them continuously over a cow-dung fire for seven days and seven nights until the gantu crucibles turn purple. Afterwards, repeatedly wash and precipitate the powder by the water-flying method to make it finer; if coarse particles remain, continue the water-flying process as before until it is uniformly fine. Finally place it in a meng basin and grind it thoroughly, then take it together with other medicines. Its efficacy is the same as that of the five-metals category of medicines. While taking it, avoid eating black nightshade, black ox meat, carp, garlic, and the like.

Take one jin of white iron; iron from the rims of mirrors may be used, or good-quality wrought iron is also acceptable. Shave the iron very finely with a planing knife, taking care not to mix in any soil or stone chips. Take one jin of iron and rinse it thoroughly twenty times. Next take three large liang of high-quality white paosha, add one sheng of water, and stir the iron, paosha and water together until the paosha has completely dissolved the iron. Place the mixture in a vessel and decoct until the water has evaporated. Then take one liang of nitre, soak it in one sheng of water for seven days, put it into a pan and decoct as before until dry. After two days of sun-drying, place it in a crucible, cover tightly and seal by the guji method (sealing the vessel’s joints with mud and similar materials). Begin with a gentle fire and gradually increase the heat, firing it for a full fu period. Once it has cooled slightly, remove it, being careful that no ash or dirt mixes in. Grind it extremely fine with an earthenware basin and stone pestle, rinse with water three times, discard the supernatant and dry it; the medicinal powder is then ready. Mix with honey to form pills the size of small beans. Take one or two pills after meals each day and avoid eating black nightshade.

Methods for taking various elixirs

Knead jujube pulp into the size of small beans and take one pill daily; if no effect is felt, increase to two pills. Each preparation is formed with honey into small-bean-sized pills; take one or two after meals daily and avoid black nightshade.

Methods for taking various elixirs

Knead jujube pulp into small-bean size and take one pill a day; if there is no sensation, it may be increased to two pills. Each dose yields one hundred pills. It is suitable for those under eighty and over twenty years of age. Two-year-old children with long-standing illness, and infants under three, should not take it out of concern that their constitutions are too weak to bear it; otherwise it is said that all may take it. This elixir does not treat conditions that show only the jaundiced colour of illness; every other disease can be treated. Dosage may be increased or decreased according to the condition and taken in combination for the best results; this is described as a verified method that treats both exterior and interior. If vomiting or diarrhoea follows, there is no need for fear; if there is qi in the abdomen or pain, these too are the elixir at work and should not cause surprise.

While taking it avoid beef, white liquor, hemp seeds, blood broths, raw vegetables, radish, mustard seeds, coriander, rape, garlic and qiaogai; other foods have no restrictions. After seven days of taking the elixir one may eat and drink freely.

Methods for treating ailments

Great Heat Wind (an old term for severe wind disorders and symptoms such as desquamation), when the eyebrows and beard fall out, take four hundred pills together with “Yaoren” (the name of a medicinal). For piercing wind take two hundred pills; for head wind take one hundred pills. In cases of hemiplegia that has lasted more than seven days, the preparation may be taken with meals according to the circumstances.

Methods for Treating Pathological Conditions

For Great Heat Wind with loss of the eyebrows and beard, take four hundred pills together with Yaoren; for piercing wind take two hundred pills; for head wind take one hundred pills. For hemiplegia in which the hand cannot be raised to the head, take two hundred fifty pills. For ascending qi with cough and rebellious qi, take two hundred pills. For so-called thief-wind entering the heart accompanied by fright and palpitations, take one hundred pills. For cold-damage wind take forty-nine pills. For accumulations, spasms and qi masses take one hundred fifty pills each. For worm toxins take two hundred pills. For cold pain in the heart and abdomen take seventy pills. For joint-running wind (a category of wind disorders involving joint pain) take two hundred pills. For wandering wind throughout the body take one hundred twenty pills. For women’s “broken knots” (a gynecological condition) take one hundred pills.

For sudden onset of tetany, heart pain, abdominal pain caused by ascaris, and intestinal rumbling due to cold qi, take fifty pills each. For women’s leukorrhea take two hundred pills; for disorders of the breast and for vomiting of blood take one hundred pills each. For diarrhea take forty pills. For carbuncle of the back take one hundred pills. For irregular menstruation take seventy pills. For twisting pain below the navel take fifty pills. For gan-dampness with urinary abnormality (gan disease accompanied by dampness or disordered urination) take eighty pills. For seasonal qi (epidemic seasonal illnesses) take twenty pills; if taken within the first three days of onset, three pills are given to induce vomiting. For cold bi take fifty pills; for wind-stroke following childbirth take fifty pills; for internal paralysis and swelling take two hundred pills. For bone-steaming sores (sores formerly attributed to internal heat), grind the medicine to powder, mix with water and apply as a plaster, and also take three pills to induce vomiting.

For mole-cricket disease take fifty pills. For inverted-flower sores and conditions of cold emaciation, apply the powdered medicine to the sores. For ding sores apply the powdered medicine to the affected site. For fright disorders take two hundred pills. For “wild zeng” of the face (the original disease name is unclear) take one hundred pills. For retained overnight food that will not digest and for fullness and distension of the heart and abdomen take fifty pills each. For hemorrhoids in men take one hundred twenty pills. For wind affecting all the joints take one hundred pills. For wind-jaundice take one hundred pills. For bites of bees, snakes or spiders the powdered medicine may be applied to the affected area. For wind invading the five viscera take one hundred pills.

For abdominal pain, rumbling and knotting pain in the intestines, injuries, rebellious stomach qi or regurgitation, dry mouth, scorched tongue, panting, heat in the throat, wasting-thirst, cough with sore throat, women’s flooding and leaking, and blood-warm miasma, take fifty pills each. For stubborn bi-wind take three hundred pills. For weak legs, lumbar pain, cold knees, hot painful hands and feet, and inability of the hands to grasp objects, take fifty pills each. For internally congealed hernia and abdominal masses take fifty pills and also take the medicine. For severed sinews and injured bones, accumulations arising from injury, and malign qi, take fifty pills each. For ghost-syndrome flying wind, corpse-recession tetany, and heart pain caused by pinworms, take fifty pills each. For dreaming of intercourse with ghosts and for evil disorders take two hundred thirty pills.

To break up firm accumulations and expel stagnant masses, and to treat so-called obstruction of the nine palaces, congealed stubborn accumulations, abdominal masses, cold syndromes, as well as bleeding and fainting to the point of death, take one hundred forty pills. For nasal polyps, unceasing bleeding, white mottling of the body, fright-evil palpitations, extreme pain as if dying, fatty sweating with heat, and wind bringing down milky sweat, take one hundred twenty pills each. For women’s infertility and for the five taxations and seven injuries take one hundred twenty pills each. For men’s deficiency damage, weakness, dampness and cold of the genital region, impotence and sagging, take one hundred twenty pills; the wording of the dosage in the original text is here corrupted. For white worms (intestinal parasites) take fifty pills and also take the medicine.

When great-wind disease is first noticed, take three hundred fifty pills. For women’s prolapse and rectal prolapse take two hundred pills. For so-called killing of essence-objects gan sores, as well as various paralyses, tinea, scabies, toxic swellings and malaria, take fifty pills in every case; the powdered medicine may also be applied to the affected site. For outbreaks in the blood vessels take two hundred fifty pills. For unilateral wind causing absence of sweating on one side of the body take two hundred fifty pills. For long-standing abdominal masses with heart pain take two hundred pills. For cold bi of the four limbs take two hundred fifty pills. For toxic-demon disease take one hundred fifty pills. For deficiency disorders take thirty pills.

The Method of Taking the Eight-Stone Elixir

In the early morning just at dawn, on an empty stomach, take a pellet of elixir about the size of a grain of millet and swallow it with rice-paste water. If the elixir is formed into pills, each pill should be about the size of a small bean; take two pills each time, stopping when slight vomiting or diarrhea occurs. On the first day of taking the elixir do not eat until overly full, or it will harm the body; thereafter continue to moderate the diet until the illness being treated is cured. Within a hundred days after taking the elixir, if the limbs feel heavy and drowsy and one wishes to sleep, or if “boils” appear (a post-medication reaction mentioned in the original text), this is a sign that the medicinal force is causing stagnation of Qi (vital energy); there is no need to be alarmed.

The Method of Taking the Eight-Stone Elixir Refined Together with Gold and Silver Powder

Whether hungry or full, whenever one is about to go out, use a silver spoon to take a piece of the medicine about the size of a hemp seed, place it on the tongue, and allow it to dissolve of itself. After taking it once, one may continue in this way for the rest of one’s life. The water used for rinsing the mouth after rising in the morning, as well as the water used for rinsing after meals, should all be swallowed and not spat out.

After taking the medicine for a hundred days, if the whole body becomes feverish, large areas of swelling appear, or white sores break out on the body, it is said that the appearance of the sores is a favorable sign and there is no need to be alarmed. At this time take five liang of pork from under the ribs, cook it thoroughly, and eat it while still warm together with water, rice, and salt; it is said that this will bring about recovery. If the symptoms still do not cease, take again about two soybean-sized pieces of “Jinjun” (the name of the medicine recorded in the original text); it is said that this will bring about recovery.

Taboos While Taking the Eight-Stone Elixir

During the period of taking the medicine, strictly avoid acanthopanax bark, artemisia, iron slurry, all kinds of blood soups, white liquor, wine brewed from aged rice, fishy, foul, and filthy things, drunkenness, slippery-hot foods, the five pungents (onions, garlic, chives, and other acrid vegetables), raw vegetables, as well as anger, anxiety and fear, sexual intercourse, and contact with women. These are the taboos during the taking of the Eight-Stone Elixir.

The major taboos during the period of taking this medicine include acanthopanax bark, sweet wormwood, iron slurry, various blood soups, white liquor, wine yeast made from aged rice, filthy substances, drunkenness, overly greasy and heat-drying foods, the Five Pungents (onions, garlic and other acrid foods), raw vegetables, anger, anxiety and fear, sexual intercourse, and women. This medicine has a stable nature and does not cause violent reactions after being taken.

According to the Immortal Classic, three liang constitute one dose. After taking two or three liang, a hundred ghosts and evil spirits dare not approach; after taking five liang, the five viscera and six bowels transform into golden flowers, one’s name is inscribed in the Jade Palace, and from then on one lives forever without dying. Specific methods of using the medicine to treat diseases all follow the preparation methods given later in the text. If one wishes to extend years and nourish the body, it may also be taken over a long period. Take two or three liang of gold foil, blend it with the medicine to form elixir pills, and then refine them further; grind and refine until fully mature. Size and dosage follow the prescribed standards, causing neither vomiting nor diarrhea, and one remains very stable after taking it.

If spending the night alone in a secluded place deep in the mountains, one may take a single pill the size of a soybean and burn it, whereupon a hundred ghosts and fierce beasts will naturally flee. If encountering miasma, epidemics or seasonal contagious diseases while traveling, place the elixir pills in a silk pouch in any quantity, with men wearing it on the left and women on the right; this wards off illnesses caused by ghosts and evil influences, so there is no need to fear.

The method of treating human leprosy with the Eight Stones Elixir.

If symptoms such as falling out of the eyebrows and hair, swelling and ulceration of the joints of the four limbs, mania or illnesses of the wind-pathogen type, incoherent rambling speech and frantic running about, hard accumulations in the abdomen as solid as stone, the nine kinds of heart pain, seasonal epidemics, fullness and distension of the chest and abdomen, the eight kinds of wind disorders, the twelve kinds of bi (obstruction) syndromes, numbness throughout the body, or malignant sores arising on the limbs should appear, then within one hundred days after taking the elixir one must not eat to excess, must also avoid mixed consumption of all kinds of blood and flesh, and must nourish oneself with care.

Lai disease (an ancient collective term for various severe skin ailments) is divided into five types: the green wind produces green worms, the yellow wind produces yellow worms, the white wind produces white worms, the red wind produces red worms, and the black wind produces black worms. To know whether the condition is improving, one may simply observe after taking the elixir. If after ingesting the elixir various worms are expelled, it is only when a patient of the black-wind type expels black worms in a quantity reaching the degree spoken of as “gongshou” (the original text is thus, the precise meaning remaining unclear) that the case is termed “zhengbao” and regarded as incurable; all other situations are said to be curable.

Method of Water-Refining Mica

When selecting mica, examine it facing the sun: if it displays bright five colors and its texture is free of blemishes, it is of the highest quality. Carefully break the mica into small flakes, place them in a cloth bag, and wash them in a pot. Lay a wooden stick horizontally across the mouth of the pot and hang the cloth bag from it so that the bag does not touch the bottom.

Add one to two sheng of refined white salt to the pot and boil the mica in water, keeping the water at a constant boil. Add more water whenever the level drops; change the water every three days and add fresh white salt each time. Continue boiling in this manner for seven days and seven nights. Afterwards rinse the mica thoroughly with water, discard the wash water, and allow it to drain completely.

For every five sheng of mica add two sheng of powdered white salt, place the mixture in a wooden mortar, and pound it with a wooden pestle; it will quickly become fine. Transfer the processed mica to a large basin, add water, and stir to disperse it. After a short while pour the finer material from the upper layer into another basin; add water again, stir briefly, and pour off the fine portion as before. Repeat this separation once or twice until the fine material has been essentially all extracted; discard the remaining coarse residue. After draining the fine material, add white salt and pound it again according to the previous method, then rinse with water to collect the fine powder and dry it in the sun. This is called “water-refined mica powder.”

If a wooden mortar is unavailable, a stone mortar may also be used for pounding, although a wooden pestle and wooden mortar produce better results.

Methods of Taking Jin Ying and Other Elixir Medicines to Treat Illnesses

Those who have developed hard masses in the abdomen, or who suffer stabbing pain at the pit of the stomach and discomfort in the chest so severe that they cannot turn, whose illness has dragged on for many years and who find food difficult to swallow, should take one hundred pills. For lower-back pain, coldness of the knees, insufficiency of Yang Qi (vital energy), and dreams of intercourse with ghosts accompanied by seminal emission, one hundred pills are taken. For weakness of the lower region, thirty pills are taken, and this is said to produce a prompt effect. The preparation is also suitable when careless eating has damaged both the raw and the cooked viscera.

When the four limbs feel heavy and one is given to drowsiness, one hundred pills are taken. When the hands and feet cannot move at will, when one side of the body is paralyzed, or when the whole body is paralyzed, the condition having long gone untreated and grown severe, one hundred pills are likewise appropriate. For piercing wind, forty pills are taken; for cold pain in the abdomen, one hundred pills; for the five exhaustions and seven injuries, one hundred pills; for rushing about in a frenzy of madness, one hundred pills; for wasting-thirst, fifty pills; for accumulated food that will not digest, one hundred pills; for thief-wind that has invaded the region of the heart, one hundred pills; and for dryness of the throat at night with stiffness of the tongue, fifty pills.

The closing phrase “methods of taking Liangzeng’s Small Returned Elixir and the like” refers to the manner of administering such medicines as Liangzeng’s Small Returned Elixir.

This section enumerates the methods of taking the elixir (dan) internally and applying it externally, along with the ailments the text claims it can treat. Dosages are measured in pills (wan); “wine” or references to intoxication generally mean mixing with wine, while moxibustion (jiu) involves lighting mugwort and applying it to the affected area. The following is a vernacular interpretation of ancient medical records and does not represent modern medical efficacy.

For beriberi, take one hundred pills. For inability to swallow food and drink, fullness and distension at the pit of the stomach, abdominal gas rising to the chest, frequent vomiting of white foam, physical weakness, and rumbling in the intestines, take one hundred pills. When food lodges in the throat and cannot be swallowed, take fifty pills. For unstoppable vomiting of blood with inability to eat, take one hundred pills. For head wind, piercing wind, heat wind, and armpit wind, take fifty pills in each case. For cold damage, take nineteen pills; for alternating chills and fever, take fifty pills; for a yellow complexion with edema of the body, take one hundred pills; for green wind that turns the face, lips, and nails bluish-green, take one hundred fifty pills. When dark wind strikes, producing pulling pain in the head that extends to the eyes, take one hundred pills. For phlegm-fluids surging upward with a sour taste in the mouth, or for cramping of the legs, take one hundred pills in each case. When wind disease attacks, causing wild running and disordered behavior, take one hundred pills. For sudden blockage of the appetite with inability to eat, or for emaciation with night sweats, or for dryness-stagnation with gan-withering, or for excessive sleepiness, take one hundred pills in each case.

Women with red and white vaginal discharge, amenorrhea, infertility, or cessation of childbearing should take one hundred pills. For unbearable toothache, one pill may be placed in the cavity and sealed with wax; it is said to relieve the pain quickly.

When bitten or stung by poisonous creatures such as snakes, lizards, bees, scorpions, or centipedes, with severe toxicity and unbearable pain, mix the elixir with wine into a paste and form cakes the size of elm pods and about as thick as three layers of lotus leaf. Apply these to the wound and perform moxibustion for three to five cones. This is said to relieve the pain. Alternatively, mix the elixir evenly with wine, warm it slightly until dry, and apply a thin layer. For snakebites of two or three days’ standing where the wound has already swollen, grind the elixir with wine into a juice and apply it to the wound.

In cases of sudden fainting with cessation of breath, even if half a day has passed, mix the elixir with wine and administer it; if the person cannot drink wine, it may be poured down the throat, then massage the abdomen with the hands to disperse the medicinal effect. If the jaws are tightly clenched, pry the teeth open to administer it, and additionally give four or five pills. The text claims this can revive the person. For hundred-insect poison remaining in the abdomen, however long it has lingered, take one hundred pills. When epidemic disease spreads among cattle and horses, give the animals fifty pills; alternatively, according to the size of the livestock, grind five or six pills in hot water and pour them down, then give two more pills. For malaria, regardless of how long it has lasted, take two pills before an attack and one pill when the attack is imminent, no more than three times in total.

When a woman has a dead fetus that has not been expelled, even if she is exhausted and in critical condition, grind three or four pills and take them with warm wine. Shortly afterward, if rumbling is felt in the abdomen, the text claims the fetus will be expelled; if after a while there is still no change, take one or two more pills with half a cup of wine. For restless sleep at night with mental confusion and a feeling of drunken stupor, grind three to five pills in wine and apply to the palms and soles for three to five consecutive days; additionally take fifty pills.

For various worms, hemorrhoids, roundworms, tapeworms, heart pain, and vomiting of water, eat little the night before taking the medicine so that the abdomen is somewhat empty. Take three or four pills on an empty stomach, or increase to five or six; the text claims the worms will be expelled before noon. If one dose is ineffective, take two more pills on another day. For hemorrhoids, take thirty pills mixed with honey and insert them into the hemorrhoidal opening. For gan-worms, whether in adults or children, grind two or three pills and mix with winter pork fat the size of a jujube; wrap this on the tip of a thin stick, apply the medicine, and insert it into the anus. The text claims it will take effect in no more than three applications.

For various toxic swellings, grind the elixir with wine into a paste and apply it to the swollen area, replacing it when dry, for two or three applications; wine may also be dripped onto the swelling. After the elixir dries, seal and apply it. For irregular menstruation, take one hundred pills; the text claims that foul-smelling blood and yellow fluid will subsequently be discharged from the vagina. For breast carbuncle, grind the elixir and apply it as a paste. When encountering evil spirits or goblins and feeling fear, carry fifty pills on one’s person and burn one pill in front of the door each night.

Regardless of the size of fleshy tumors, puncture holes in the affected area with a needle, mix the elixir with winter pork fat and apply it, warm it toward a fire, then apply moxibustion; at night, knead and rub it repeatedly. The text claims this treatment will effect a cure. For ding sores (furuncles), puncture multiple holes with a needle, then take ten elixir pills, mix them in a shaded place into a large cake about two qian thick, apply to the swollen area, and perform moxibustion for ten cones, to the point of feeling pain.

For wasting sores, mix the elixir with winter pork fat to the thickness of a scallion stalk and insert it into the sore; after pus and blood have been fully discharged, wash with soybean juice, then apply frankincense mixed with sheep fat. For bald sores, first wash and rub with elixir mixed in wine; after the skin dries, mix elixir powder with pork fat and apply; continue applying even while scabs have not yet fallen off. It is said this will suffice in no more than two applications. For cold sores of many years that continually discharge pus and fluid, insert the elixir into the opening of the sore, wrap with cloth so the medicine does not flow out, and place one pill daily; it is said to heal within five days.

For unbearable severe pain, or for ju abscesses, fistulas, red blisters, wind pain, and scabies or ringworm of many years that will not heal, puncture the affected area with a needle to draw blood, then mix elixir powder with wine and honey and apply; it will suffice once the scab falls off. For worm afflictions growing on the face or in the mouth, the text claims that grinding elixir powder mixed evenly with pork fat and applying a thin layer will heal in three to five applications.

For unstoppable postpartum bleeding, take one hundred pills; for difficult labor, take three pills with wine. For white lai, take one hundred pills and also mix with wine for external application; treat fox odor in the same manner. For contracted lips, take elixir the size of half a small bean, grind it, apply a thin layer, and cover with sheepskin; the text claims it will take effect in three to five applications.

The method of taking the elixir (ingesting the refined medicinal pills) is as follows. Ordinary people should take the elixir on an empty stomach just as dawn breaks. First rinse the mouth thoroughly and wash the hands, then face east and take one pill, repeating this every morning without taking extra. The elixir should be wrapped in a date, or it may be taken with honey, and then swallowed with boiled water, clear wine, or plain water.

During the period of taking the elixir, one must carefully avoid millet, beef, mutton, blood broth, white liquor, boiled calcium, carp, hui, and similar foods, none of which may be consumed.

After taking the elixir for about fifteen days, various bodily reactions may appear. Some people feel slight swelling throughout the body, with aching, stiffness, and rigidity in the hands and feet, difficulty moving the limbs, and pain under the skin as if from sores, resembling the crawling of insects; the Jing (scripture) attributes this to remaining “lingfeng” still present in the body. Others experience nausea and vomiting, expectorating water from the mouth, and an increase in mucus and saliva; the Jing considers this due to lingering illness in the spleen and lungs within the abdomen. Some suffer headaches, dizziness, dry lips, facial heat, tearing, and a runny nose; the Jing regards this as remaining heat-wind in the body. Some have restlessness in the hands and feet along with pain in the chest and back; the Jing classifies this as the five labors and seven injuries (various types of strain and weakness). Still others experience mild diarrhea, discharging pus, blood, or worms; the Jing sees this as illness in the triple jiao (the upper, middle, and lower burners as spoken of in Chinese medicine).

If no obvious abnormalities are felt, there is no need to find it strange. The Jing interprets these reactions as manifestations of the medicinal potency circulating and old illnesses flaring up. If the discomfort is truly unbearable, one may pause for three to five days to recuperate, bathe with raw-ripe soup (washing with water mixed of cold and hot), eat one or two meals of “lingchi wheat and ling porridge,” and then, once physical strength has recovered, resume taking the elixir according to the original method. One should not immediately stop at the slightest discomfort.

If the medicine does not produce a fairly strong reaction after it is taken, the illness will be hard to cure; at the start of treatment one should feel slightly unwell, and only afterward will clear effects appear. For anyone who has taken the elixir more than eight times and suffers vomiting and unceasing diarrhea, cold pickled mallow, cold fermented soybean congee, or cold wheat congee will all be beneficial. One may also take five raw eggs, crack them open, and swallow the whites of all five at once, repeating this for three consecutive days, which works fairly well. Alternatively, mix one ge of white milk with one liang of cold water and drink it. One may also pour three sheng of cold water over the body and sip some slowly, and after a while the disorder will settle; if it has not settled, repeat the method with another six or seven sheng, and the patient will recover.

One may also refine one liang of crude mirabilite and take it in a single dose blended with a cold drink, or grind one liang of saltpeter finely and stir it into a drink. Another remedy is to grind together one liang each of mercury frost, calcite (hanshuishi), and gypsum, and take one liang at a time with a cold, clear drink. A decoction of sweet bean juice, boiled and then cooled before drinking, brings immediate relief. One may also drink three to five mouthfuls of a cold drink and then one sheng of fresh celery juice. Another preparation takes one liang of ginseng and one liang of roasted licorice, simmered in one sheng of water until one ge of liquid remains; drunk once cooled, it brings recovery.

If, after the elixir has been applied, the sores ache without ceasing, pound yellow mugwort to extract its juice and wash the sores with it, and the pain will stop. A decoction of boiled dried jujubes used as a wash will likewise relieve the pain.

When immortals refine metals and minerals, the various ores differ in form and quality, some superior and others inferior. Cinnabar is best when bright and translucent, resembling pomegranate seeds. Realgar should display a vivid yellow hue, like the red crest of a parrot, with a warm and moist texture. Jade occurs in many varieties; the finest is pure white in color, warm and moist in substance, free of blemishes, and producing a clear ringing sound when struck.

White quartz, whether in coarse or fine grains, ranks as superior so long as it is clean and luminous both inside and out, without stains, and appears the same color as water when immersed. Purple quartz is good only when shaped like lattice seeds, bright and translucent, light and clear, utterly lovely, and unmatched by any comparable specimen. Magnetite is excellent if it can attract and hold five or six needles at once; the more needles it draws, the better. Mica is best when peeled into thin sheets and held against the sun, revealing a vivid luster that sparkles with five-colored radiance. Stalactite intended for processes such as sublimation and melting-casting must likewise be of the highest grade: moist in color and firm and thick in texture.

Alum occurs in five colors—yellow, white, green-blue, black, and red. Ordinary people usually employ only yellow alum and white alum; the remaining kinds are unsuitable for large-scale use. Yellow alum from Dunhuang is regarded as fine, while white alum from the Hao region is excellent; the relative merits of specimens from other localities remain unclear.

Concerning niter, ancient tradition claims it can dissolve all metals and minerals into water and, when ingested, confer immortality. This medicinal assertion is difficult to verify; the legends give no place of origin, leaving only the name “niter,” so that what the term actually designates remains uncertain. In more recent times Master Zhenbai, the recluse Tao, compiled the Formulary of Herbs and Trees, stating that crude niter is the raw material of niter and that niter is also called mirabilite. These statements do not agree with one another upon examination. The Qipo Treatise further records that niter originates in the land of Wuchang, possesses a foul odor so strong that birds dare not fly overhead, and, when taken alone, causes the parasites within the body to turn to water upon entering the mouth; when used to refine various metals and minerals that are then ingested, it likewise confers longevity.

For ingestion, crude niter should be chosen that does not readily weather or dry out and that shows a bluish, moist color. Mirabilite is finest when as white and moist as snow accumulated in a shaded place. Gold and silver, though precious, are familiar to everyone, and so they need not be described in detail here.

Yu’s leftover grain (a mineral medicine mentioned in Daoist texts) is produced in the mountains around Zezhou and occurs in five colors: white, red, yellow, purple, and black. For medicinal use the yellow variety is preferred, especially that which is fresh in color like cattail pollen; the other hues are unsuitable. The yellow substance within stone comes from the source of the Qin River and is shaped like a duck egg. When broken open it yields a yellow liquid resembling egg yolk. Tradition holds that obtaining three or five sheng and ingesting it confers immortality.

The “Purple Snow Method” is a formula used to treat foot-qi toxic heat. Here “foot-qi” is an ancient designation for a class of disorders affecting the legs and feet; “toxic constriction” refers to the binding and stagnation of toxic heat. Patients may experience vexing heat both internally and externally, sores on the mouth and tongue, and even startling mania with restlessness, shouting and running about; once the lesions ulcerate they discharge yellow pus resembling the yolk of a parrot’s egg. The original text claims this formula is extremely effective, even going so far as to boast that after taking it one can live forever without dying.

This formula is also said to be usable for treating foot-qi toxic heat, internal and external vexing heat, mouth sores, and startling mania with running about; it is likewise suitable for relieving outbreaks of heat toxin caused by taking herbal or mineral medicines, as well as residual toxic heat left by illnesses such as yellow impediment.

The method of preparation is: take one hundred liang of gold and two hundred liang of silver, together with forty-eight liang each of gypsum rubrum, gypsum, and magnetite; add one shi of clear water and decoct. After it has boiled down to four dou, filter out the gold, silver, and mineral drugs. Then add sixteen liang each of cimicifuga and scrophularia, five liang each of antelope horn, rhinoceros horn, and aquilaria, four liang of cloves, five liang of aucklandia, and eight liang of licorice (roasted); chop them, decoct together, take one dou five sheng of the medicinal juice, and filter out the dregs. Next add four liang each of powdered niter and powdered refined niter; decoct over a gentle fire down to seven sheng and pour into a wooden basin. Then add three liang of finely ground cinnabar and two fen of musk, stir evenly, and leave for two days, whereupon it becomes purple snow frost.

The original text states that robust patients may take it mixed with wine; those who are weak, elderly, or suffering from heat toxin should adjust the dosage as appropriate. People who develop heat toxin, fever, and similar symptoms after taking mineral medicines may also take it mixed with water; it is said to be more effective than many doses of Three Yellow Decoction. In the formula, “sheng,” “dou,” “liang,” “fen,” and so on are ancient units of volume and weight; “decoct over a gentle fire” and “filter out the dregs” are traditional methods of preparing medicinal decoctions.

The “Golden Flower Elixir Formula” lists the ingredients of another formula: two jin each of realgar, azurite, sulfur, Taiyin Mysterious Essence, stalactite, white quartz, mica, amethyst, white alum, niter, gypsum, limonite, gypsum rubrum, and red alum; also two jin each of crude mirabilite, mirabilite, and salt; in addition ten liang of gold and four jin of mercury.

The preceding section describes a method of elixir refinement: gold is first beaten into thin sheets and mixed with mercury to form a fine paste; salt and the medicinal substances mentioned earlier are then added, and the mixture is refined in successive batches over a gentle fire, the essence of the elixir being collected repeatedly. Before use, salt must again be added and the preparation heat-treated; when it is to be employed, it is burned and refined once more with salt according to the instructions in the text, the process being repeated several times, after which the product is taken while still hot. The expressions “covering the vessel” (fùjí) and “flying” (fēi) are technical terms from ancient elixir alchemy; they refer to covering the apparatus and applying heat so that the substances sublimate, condense, and undergo similar transformations.

The “method of preparing arsenic elixir” is a technique of external alchemy (Waidan) for producing a medicinal preparation that contains arsenic. The text states that arsenic ore is to be ground fine and treated with wine, white alum, and other materials, repeatedly heated and dried, then mixed with salt, ash, and similar substances, spread into a cauldron, covered, and sealed tightly. Arsenic ore contains highly toxic arsenic compounds; the passage describes an ancient refining procedure and is not suitable for practical application.

The rim of the basin must be sealed so that no air can enter, the sealing applied more than one meter thick. Charcoal fire is then kindled beneath the ding. The charcoal rods, each five cun long, are at first laid three abreast across the bottom of the ding. In the course of the flying refinement a further rod is added on the third day; another is added after the noon hour; and yet another at the beginning of the night. From the chen hour of the fourth day the fire is stopped and the vessel is left to cool for a full day and night.

Once the furnace has cooled it is opened. The sealing clay is moistened by sprinkling with a damp cloth and then removed. The medicinal frost that has condensed on the bottom of the basin is taken out and placed in a basin. One more charcoal rod is added, the fire being discontinued from the chen hour of the fourth day and cooling allowed for a day and night. After the furnace has cooled it is opened by the same method as before and the frost collected. The extracted medicinal frost is mixed with wine and again submitted to flying refinement according to the earlier procedure. This cycle is repeated three times in all. The frost is then placed in a cheng (a vessel used for decoction) and boiled with wine for a day and night, after which it is removed, pounded and ground.

Separately, three liang of licorice is pounded, two sheng of water are added and the mixture is reduced by boiling to one sheng. The medicine is put into the cheng and decocted with this licorice juice. When it has been boiled dry it is combined with cooked japonica rice, ground until uniform, and formed into pills the size of hemp seeds or grain kernels, which are then dried in the sun. The scripture states that this medicine treats malaria, heart pain and toothache. The first dose consists of three pills, ground and taken with wine; thereafter it may be taken as desired. Flying refinement is carried out seven times according to the method already described.

When the ding and the pot are made, the mouth of the vessel is six cun wide, five cun deep and the bottom four cun wide.

Taiqing Shibi Ji, latter juan.