《庚道集》Vol. 1

Volume One of the Gengdao ji, titled “Method for Nurturing Danyang in an Arsenic Vessel.” “Arsenic vessel” refers to a sealed container or refining apparatus made from materials associated with arsenic; “nurturing Danyang” means refining an elixir called “Danyang” through Waidan (external alchemy).

Take half a jin of “Mingzheng” without any mixed-in stones, break it into pieces about the size of small beans, and grind them as finely as possible. Put two liang into a packet, wrap it in white paper, and place it in a coarse cloth bag. Gather self-heal in season, dry it in the sun, burn it to ash, then rinse the ash with boiling water and collect the concentrated liquid. Suspend the cloth bag inside a porcelain jar and boil it in the concentrated liquid, continually adding more liquid as it cooks. After five or six days, the bag will gradually become lighter and the liquid thicker. Test it over a fire: if it gives off smoke, remove the substance and return it to the liquid to continue boiling. After seven or eight days, the substance should have dissolved into the liquid. If a little sediment remains undissolved, it is stony residue and need not be dissolved completely.

Pour the liquid containing the substance into another jar and simmer it slowly until all the liquid has dried away and formed dark brown, nearly black lumps. This is called “fu.” Then bake it slowly over a low flame, making sure it becomes completely dry and free of moisture. Only then place it in the ding, seal it securely, and heat and cultivate it in an ash pit.

First apply a fire of one and a half liang to the top of the ding, keeping the fire one and a half cun from its top, and cultivate it for three days. Then gradually increase the fire to two liang and continue cultivating it for three periods of seven days. Inspect it: if the container has not cracked or loosened, continue cultivating it for thirty-five days. When you open it, if the substance is grayish white and its surface looks as though it has been soaked with water, the refining is considered complete.

Next, test it by heating it over a fire. If it melts into liquid or still gives off smoke, it has not yet been refined. Use an iron spoon to remove and grind the substance, put it into a sound container, seal it, and cultivate it for another month. When you open it, if the substance is yellow and gradually dries without remaining damp, heat it over a fire. If it melts into liquid without giving off smoke, it is still not fully refined. Seal it again as before and cultivate it for another month. Only when the substance has turned white and lustrous, does not melt into liquid over a fire, and is hard as stone, is it truly refined.

Here, “cultivating” means placing the sealed substance in an ash pit and heating it continuously with controlled fire. “Container” refers to the vessel that holds the substance and is sealed. Once refined, grind the substance to the size of grains of rice and use it as “kui,” a material for wrapping or supporting substances during refinement. The author says this method is especially effective and that it includes all the oral instructions and practical techniques.

Method for Boiling and Cultivating Sand

For the sand used, take two liang. Pound it together with fish mint and rice vinegar to extract the juice, then suspend the sand in the juice and boil it for seven fu, a traditional unit of refining time. Remove it, wrap it in the plant residue, and place it in a covered vessel or jar. Seal it with clay and calcine it once over a slow fire; heating it in a water bath works better.

After removing the sand, pound and refine it for seven fu with the plant residue used in the earlier boiling. Then wrap the sand in the residue, place it in a covered vessel or jar, seal it securely, and calcine it once over a slow fire; it can also be heated in a water bath. Remove the sand again and use the residue described above to pound it into a “kui,” a container for holding and nurturing the substance during refinement. Put one liang in each kui, and nurture it for three fu, alternating between the Mao and You hours. After removing it, wrap the sand in Kunlun paper and place treated alum, called “dead alum,” against it. Seal it in a mother kui and nurture it for four periods of seven days—that is, twenty-eight days. Gradually increase the amount for every one liang of sand to one and a half liang, then to two liang, and stop. It is considered “subdued” only when it has been nurtured for long enough. Make it into an inner kui and place it close to the medicinal substance for further nurturing, to continue refining the powder frost.

Method for making powder frost:

It works better to prepare a batch using two, three, or four sheng. Take four liang of firm, crystal-like powder frost and break it into small pieces. First wrap it in white paper, then put it in a close-woven silk bag and boil it for five fu in the ash liquor of lotus leaves. Next, boil it for one fu in the juices of juxue grass, also called five-crested grass, and scissor grass, also called arrowhead. Then apply genuine silver leaf, or wrap it in silver leaf, and place it in a dead-sand kui. Pound the sand to form a “spirit chamber,” the inner space used to contain and nurture medicinal substances: lay down a layer of sand, add a layer of powder frost, then another layer of sand, and continue layering in this way. Cover the top with dead sand. Seal it tightly with sealing clay. Once the clay has dried, place it in the outer vessel of a dead-arsenic kui and seal it as usual. Nurture it over a top fire of two liang for seven periods of seven days, that is, forty-nine days. Remove it and heat it over a fire until no smoke is visible. If it has become powdery, continue nurturing it. Once the sealing clay has dried, put it back in the outer vessel of the dead-arsenic kui and seal it again; nurture it over a top fire of two liang for another forty-nine days. One qian of powder frost can transmute one liang of metal into a treasure of fine color. If a sand kui has been used for a long time and has lost its potency, grind the sand together with the powder frost it has produced into a powder, and use one qian to transmute one liang. Then make a new kui according to the method above; the results are excellent, and it should be handled with care.

General method for making a kui:

The spirit chamber inside the covered vessel should be made thick and sturdy, not too thin.

Use one jin of white alum; do not use potash alum. First pound the wheat-stalk ash finely. Pour a large bowl of concentrated ash liquor into a porcelain vessel, add the white alum, and boil it down until the liquor has evaporated and the alum has melted into a liquid. Then dry it over a low flame. Place the alum in a porcelain jar, seal the mouth of the jar and let it dry. Bury it in an ash pit, cover it with two liang of ash, and cultivate and refine it through the three summer periods of intense heat. Then take it out for later use.

The “black donkey juice” mentioned in the text is actually paper-mulberry sap, the juice of the paper-mulberry tree. Take eight liang and divide it into four portions of two liang each; grind each portion into a coarse powder. Wrap each portion first in two layers of white paper, then in coarse cloth. Suspend the bundles in the herb liquor and boil them, using four separate jars. Cover each jar with paper. When the herb liquor has boiled dry, replenish it; once each day’s boiling is complete, take the bundles out. During boiling, lift and move the cloth bags frequently so the medicine cooks through more readily.

If a small amount remains unmelted, collect it and simmer it in a separate jar. When the liquid has reduced to three to five fen, pour it into the earlier liquor and continue simmering until dry. Finally, dry it slowly over a low flame. Break the jar and remove the medicine, then grind it finely together with the small amount that did not melt earlier. After the initial eight liang of medicine is mixed with ash frost, its weight will increase. Place it in a sealed container for storage and cultivation, opening it once each month. After three or four months, the ash frost will gradually be cultivated away, leaving only the original medicine, white as snow. This is called “subduing.”

For the summer-dried-plum ash liquor mentioned above, line the bottom of a bamboo sieve with paper, then pour water over the ash and let the liquor drip through slowly. Collect it in a clean porcelain vessel. Let it settle until clear, then pour the clear liquid into another vessel and let it settle again. Keep the clear liquid for use, and do not boil the medicine in it until all the ash residue has been removed. This is a flexible method.

All Eight Mineral Substances—the substances classified as minerals in ancient alchemy—must undergo boiling, cultivation, and subduing before proceeding to the later stages of fire work. Only after prolonged refining can their properties be considered stable. Alum liquor may be poured over them; collect the bud-shaped crystals that form and use them as material for further pouring and treatment. Repeat this process until the ninth transformation, producing a “container” (a vessel or material used to seal and cultivate elixirs). It is then used to cultivate cinnabar and mercury, preparing them as medicines for ingestion.

Method for Calcining Cinnabar

Take one liang of clean, bright sand and place it in a small jar with a capacity of about one liang. Cover the mouth of the jar with geng, a kind of vessel or material mentioned in the original, press it down to form a seal, leaving no gaps, and seal it securely. Then place the small jar in a crucible, set a water cauldron—a cauldron-shaped vessel for holding water—on top, and use a copper cauldron so that its base rests close to the geng. Add plenty of water around the outside, seal it securely, and let it dry.

Prepare twelve jin in the same way: press the seal at the joint, seal it securely, then place it in the crucible with the water cauldron. Keep the cauldron’s base close to the geng, add water around the outside, seal it, and let it dry. Heat it with dingduan, a term used in the original whose precise meaning is unclear, for about a day. After it cools, remove the sand. The mercury within will have risen onto the geng, appearing white and dry. Take it off and heat it again as before. Repeat this process until about four liang of dry mercury have been obtained. It can be cast into a container and used to nourish and refine the Three Yellow medicines and other substances, making them all amenable to transformation.

Nine-Cycle Method for Boiling Powdered Arsenic

Method for Boiling the Powder

Use five times the amount of rhubarb, then add gardenia, Sichuan pepper, twigs of asarum, ginger juice, honey, and strong rice vinegar. Add water and decoct for a day, until the powder turns black. Let it dry, then grind it again; only then will it work well. This method is known as an immortal art and was handed down to alchemical practitioners as a fundamental method.

Grind rhubarb, Chinese gall, gardenia, Sichuan pepper, and asarum into a fine powder. Add two bowls each of fresh ginger juice, honey, and rice vinegar, then add water. Boil for a day using the suspended-pouch method, in which a bag containing the medicines hangs in the water without touching the bottom of the pot. The powder frost should turn black. Set the powder aside, then calcine it together with arsenic.

Method for Boiling Arsenic

Weigh together chebula, suiyuanzhi, kochia, achyranthes, sophora, anemarrhena, qianghua, euphorbia, and the other medicines. Cut them into pieces and boil them in river water, then calcine the medicinal powder together with arsenic.

Method for Boiling Arsenic

Weigh together chebula, suiyuanzhi, kochia, achyranthes, sophora, anemarrhena, qianghua, euphorbia, and the other medicines. Cut them into pieces and boil them in river water so their medicinal properties will harmonize. Put the medicines in a silk bag and suspend it using the suspended-pouch method. Simmer evenly over a gentle flame, day and night. This can aid in refining the Great Medicine, whose efficacy is beyond compare. Through repeated cycles of refinement, its transformations are boundless, reaching the realm of the “Great Vehicle.”

First take equal quantities of eight medicinal ingredients: chebula fruit, polygala root, kochia fruit, achyranthes root, sophora root, anemarrhena root, notopterygium flower, and kansui root. Chop them, put them in a cotton-cloth bag, and boil the bag in river water for a full day and night. Remove it, place it in an ash box to dry, then grind it into a fine powder.

Method for Calcining Arsenic Powder

Bury a lamp cup flat in the earth. First smear a little hai grease inside the cup and heat it. Next, spread silver-mother sand or silver-mother powder across the bottom, then level a layer of powder frost over it. Place the boiled arsenic on top of the powder frost and cover it with more powder frost. Then mix the ash of kochia, plantain seeds, and other ingredients with powdered medicinal seeds, and heap the mixture over the arsenic in successive layers.

Seal the area beneath the lamp cup tightly with ash, leaving no gaps. Heat it from below with mature charcoal, using a fire of about three jin. Once two jin of fuel have burned away, remove the fire, cover the medicine with cold ash, and let it cool before taking it out. Store the arsenic and powder frost separately. Repeat the calcination three times before using them.

The scripture says that calcined arsenic powder has the power to “communicate with spirits.” It can be used to transmute red silver by applying the elixir, and to make vessels for holding essences. Powder frost can transform red substances, while arsenic can be used to “nourish silver.”

This passage describes a “transformation method” for refining elixirs: follow the steps and take the elixir at the appropriate stages to achieve a powerful effect. “Taking” here means ingesting the elixir. Terms such as “infant,” “Jade Pool,” and “Heavenly Mother” use personification to describe changes in the substances during refinement.

First, use “lü” to extract red mercury and transform it into an “infant.” Then send it to the “Jade Pool” for three baths, after which it is made to drink the “Heavenly Mother’s milk.” “Heavenly Mother’s milk” refers to arsenic trioxide. Combine one liang of the red substance with one qian and a half of Heavenly Mother’s milk, and perform the transformation three times. Once the “infant” has shed its red outer garment, use the “White Snow Divine Elixir” to transform it and send it into the “immortal realm,” making it an “immortal’s bone.” The “White Snow Divine Elixir” is mercuric subchloride, and it too must be applied in three transformations: first, the “infant” returns to the mother substance, drinks the heavenly milk, and changes along with it; then it is sent back to the Jade Pool to be washed clean. Next, transform it again with the divine elixir, adding a little “old frost of mountain-emerging lead.” Also use “instruction herb” to alter the substance’s form and make it a “great vessel”—that is, an elixir of greater potency.

The passage also divides the material into three grades according to particle size: large seven-three frost particles are superior; those of comparable color and size are intermediate; and small three-seven particles are inferior. Keep these as approximate standards and use your own judgment when applying them. Next, make the powder into a “container” for holding and sealing the substance during refinement, and arrange and seal it as described. The “three-seven mother sand” mentioned here is also a substance used in refining. Sealing White Snow in a container made of “faith” can produce the divine elixir, which may then be refined further.

The “faith container” itself is also regarded as a great medicine. Refine numinous sand together with mother sand until they become a “great vessel.” The passage then gives the sequence of repeated refinements:

First refinement: use an arsenic container to nurture vermilion numinous substance.

Second refinement: the vermilion numinous substance changes internally and generates cinnabar.

Third refinement: use cinnabar to nurture and refine “poured mercury sand.” This mercury sand is sand formed by receiving the Yin energy of Heaven and Earth.

Fourth refinement: continue pouring and refining within the mercury sand until mercury generates “jade smiles and jade branches.”

Fifth refinement: refine the jade smiles again to produce cinnabar.

At the sixth transmutation, take half a jin of cinnabar, or sixteen liang. Arrange it according to the celestial pattern and place it in the Spirit Vessel. Use four liang to nourish and refine it; this is the basis from which the Great Form continues to transform. To refine it into the Great Elixir, mix it with paper mulberry juice when taking it and roll it into pills the size of tung-tree seeds. One pill can prolong life; one pill can make mercury dry and solid.

At the seventh transmutation, place the cinnabar in the Spirit Chamber and nourish and refine it with one liang of the male and female ingredients. As the Great Medicine, it will transform into the Mother of Gold. In this process, it changes from white to red, then returns to a bright, luminous red. Red Geng is formed in this way, symbolizing a return to the root and restoration of the original.

At the eighth transmutation, it can prolong life; one pill can make mercury dry and solid.

At the seventh transmutation, place the cinnabar in the Spirit Chamber and nourish and refine it with one liang of the male and female ingredients. As the Great Medicine, it will transform into the Mother of Gold. In this process, it changes from white to red, then returns to a bright, luminous red. Red Geng is formed in this way, symbolizing a return to the root and restoration of the original.

At the eighth transmutation, place the male and female ingredients in the cinnabar and nourish and refine them until they transform into Geng. In all, use eight liang of cinnabar and two liang of the male and female ingredients. After forty-nine days of refinement, four liang will be produced. Then combine it with the embryo medicine and continue refining it in the Spirit Chamber. When the prescribed time has elapsed, the medicine will be ready. One qian can transmute cinnabar and silver into Red Geng.

At the ninth transmutation, use the male and female ingredients as the crucible. Cinnabar and the male ingredient are called the Great Elixir medicine. Take one liang each of cinnabar, the male ingredient, and the female ingredient. First place them in the male and female crucible, then put it in the Geng Spirit Chamber to be refined for forty-nine days. Once the time is complete, use one jin of the medicine refined earlier as the crucible; this gives the best results and can produce the Great Form. Roll it with paper mulberry juice into pills the size of Chinese parasol tree seeds. One pill can make ten liang of mercury dry and solid, producing superior Geng. The instructions for regulating the fire are given earlier; they are repeated here.

Fire Regulation

For the first through fourth transmutations, apply fire daily, adding two liang each morning and evening. On the third day, add another liang, bringing the amount to three liang. Alternatively, add another liang from the third through the sixth day, bringing it to four liang. Keep the fire steady and moderate. If it becomes too strong, assess the situation and adjust it gradually. There is no harm in making the ash pile higher.

For the fifth through seventh transmutations, follow the usual method. On the seventh day of refinement, use four liang of fire. Keep the fire steady and moderate. If it becomes too strong, assess the situation and adjust it gradually. There is no harm in making the ash pile higher.

For the fifth through seventh turns, proceed as usual. After seven days, replace only four liang of the prepared fire each day—the fire having been tempered and kept at a gentler intensity. Keep the heat steady; do not reduce it, and do not exceed five liang. When the Great Medicine has been refined for the full term of forty-nine days, gradually lower the heat. There is no need to use five liang of fire any longer; proceed in the same way thereafter.

Essential Instructions for the Golden Elixir and Great Medicine by Wenzhenzi

Cui Fang, a retired scholar from Mount Culai in eastern Qi, styled Huishu and known as Wenzhenzi, compiled these instructions for the Great Elixir. The book has a preface following the Bencao. Here I have omitted the other formulae and instructions, selecting only the especially unusual material for separate compilation, in the hope that Wenzhenzi’s name will not be lost. This was written during the Mid-Autumn Festival of the jiazi year of the Shaoxing era, when the Hermit Mengxuan was residing at the Hall of Limitless in the Quande Abbey on Mount Heng.

In the year Guiwei of the Qingli era, Cui Fang traveled to Hunan to take up an appointment overseeing the area northeast of Wugang County, where the local mountain peoples were then referred to as the Xidong Yiliao. The region lay three hundred li from Changsha. Liu Chongzhi, a former prime minister who was then governor of Tanzhou, summoned Cui Fang to assist with construction work. Cui Fang therefore moved and stayed for a time at Qingyi Temple.

One day, Li Bi, a local man from the prefecture, came to visit. He was about seventy, with a ruddy complexion, and often spoke about the art of alchemy. He passed on to Cui Fang the method of the Azure-Gold Elixir attributed to Perfected Wei. Cui Fang examined the instructions closely. The steps seemed sound, but he could not grasp their hidden essentials. Li Bi added, “You can refine it by this method: use two parts sulfur and eight parts mercury, place them in a water-and-fire crucible, and subject them to nine cycles of firing. The elixir will form naturally.”

Though Cui Fang had official duties, he had plenty of free time in his daily life, so he followed the instructions. After completing the nine cycles, however, the contents of the crucible had turned back into mercury. He asked Li Bi about it, but Li Bi had no answer. Cui Fang thought it over carefully and concluded that the method itself was profound; he had simply failed to understand the secret essentials handed down by the immortals, and so the refinement had failed.

Later, while away on garrison duty, Cui Fang went to Mount Heng and sought guidance from Master Lan Yangsu. Master Lan said, “This method is exceedingly subtle, yet very easy to carry out. You have simply not studied the immortals’ scriptures deeply enough to understand how the proportions of sulfur and mercury change. In the first cycle, add two liang of sulfur. From the sixth cycle onward, gradually reduce the sulfur; by the seventh cycle, add none at all. Sulfur belongs to the utmost Yang, and mercury to the utmost Yin. After roasting the two together each time, place them in the crucible and fire them. By the seventh cycle, the mercury will no longer fly about; only then has it been subdued. Once the nine cycles are complete, place it in an outer furnace for further gentle nurturing, with its own particular regulation of the fire. Then fire away the sulfur, leaving only the mercury’s original substance, and the elixir treasure will be formed.”

Cui Fang then understood what Li Bi had meant and bowed to Master Lan in thanks. After receiving the alchemical instructions from him, he never again made an error in his refinements. He said that this elixir could prolong life at the highest level, help others at the middle level, and bring prosperity to the household at the lowest level. The key was to keep one’s intentions upright and extend benefits to others, without greed or stinginess; only in this way could one attain the Dao. His disciple, Cui Fang of Daliang, respectfully recorded this account.

A poem by Perfected Wei, with commentary by Lan Zizhen.

To refine azure gold according to the old method, use two parts sulfur and eight parts mercury, and roast them together to form azure gold. Then grind the stalactite rock to a fine powder and place it in a water-and-fire cauldron for further refinement. In the first refinement, combine the two materials, Qian and Kun, according to the ratio “two-eight”; the precise meaning is given in the earlier commentary. In the second refinement, roast them again according to the original method, without changing anything. Only after repeating this process is the divine work considered complete. From the first transformation through the seventh, the result is numinous sand.

For the third refinement, use only half the amount, with one liang of sulfur. The fourth refinement is called “One Yang”; handle it with care and do not let any material scatter. Roast it again with the sulfur described above, taking care throughout not to let the material fly off, and collect it carefully. For the fifth refinement, use a ratio of three parts and add nothing extra; use seven and a half qian of sulfur, assisting the refinement beneath the furnace. The sixth refinement is called “Half a Star”; do not handle it carelessly, and use half a liang of sulfur. In the seventh refinement, the material is confined in the fire. After seven transformations, it changes from red to blue, like wood growing within fire. Some also say, “The dragon emerges from within the fire.” After sulfur has undergone seven refinements, it subdues the mercury so that it cannot scatter. At last, the mercury settles in the fire and congeals into a treasure.

The eighth refinement is called “Heavenly Soul.” At this stage, do not add even the smallest amount of anything. The azure gold has already taken solid form, and no mercury remains in motion. The elixir produced by the ninth refinement is called “Returned Elixir” or “Returning Yang,” meaning that after nine transformations, the Yin nature turns back into Yang. The scripture claims that even the dead can revive after taking it. Once the azure gold has formed an elixir, it is said that if a single pellet is tied to the crown of a crane’s head and several dozen skilled archers stand fifty paces away and shoot at it, not one arrow will hit it, even after a whole day. This elixir is said to greatly prolong life and bring the soul and spirit back.

Each transformation requires careful, patient roasting; none of the nine refinements may be neglected. Use five jin of charcoal for the fire at each stage, from the first transformation through the ninth. During the fifth refinement, also set the “abandoned key” in place and fan the fire; the total charcoal used is forty-five jin. Then warm and nourish the numinous sand so that it can withstand fire. After three refinements, the numinous sand takes on a beautiful color. Place it in the ninefold-refined azure gold and warm and nourish it; it will then withstand fire and become a treasure. “Golden Lord,” the alchemical term for lead, is also required to complete the refinement.

Once the numinous sand has been refined until it withstands fire, use lead to make a “Flower Pool” for decocting it: one liang of River Cart to two liang of lead, with twice as much lead as sand. It is considered fit only when it has been decocted until as white as snow. After decoction in the Flower Pool, the material turns white and becomes a treasure, regarded as a precious object.

When the elixir is complete, use what has been obtained to make offerings in thanks to Heaven, Earth, and the spirits. Also give aid to orphans, the poor, the sick, and those in distress; do good and offer help without greed or excess. By extending kindness widely and accumulating merit, one may receive Heaven’s protection, live long and see far into the future, ascend to the Golden Palace, and wander in feasts at the Jade Capital.

First, refine the spiritual sand (a cinnabar-like substance made here from mercury and sulfur).

Take two liang of high-grade sulfur and eight liang of mercury. Grind them together until thoroughly mixed. Place the mixture in a ceramic water-and-fire crucible, seal its mouth tightly with clay, and secure it with iron wire. Set the crucible over water and charcoal, then gather the fire around it to refine the spiritual sand. Put five cups of water on top of the crucible. When the water has boiled away and no more sound comes from inside, the firing has reached the proper degree. Remove the fire, take out the spiritual sand, and cut it into pieces the size of dice.

Grind equal amounts of four ingredients—Sichuan pepper, white aconite, Sichuan aconite, and Arisaema—into a fine powder. Estimate an amount sufficient to cook the pieces of spiritual sand. Put the sand in a raw-silk bag and tie it closed. Pour aged rice vinegar into a large sand bowl, then use bamboo rods to suspend the bag inside the bowl so that it hangs clear of the bottom. Boil the vinegar until it has dried up. Take out the spiritual sand and wipe it with a soft cloth until it is slightly dry. Then coat its surface with iron-file powder, readying it for sealed incubation.

Prepare a watertight box made of Xinzhou sand clay. Grind high-grade silver filings into powder, or make them into small silver beads. First spread a layer of silver beads in the box, then place the pieces of spiritual sand on top, arranging them like lotus seeds. Cover them with another layer of silver beads. If there are more pieces of spiritual sand, continue layering them with silver beads until all are placed. Cover everything with a sheet of Kunlun paper (paper dyed with high-grade ink), and sprinkle a little salt over it.

Mix white good-earth clay with water and seal the joint of the box. Secure it with iron wire, winding the wire over the top to make a carrying loop. Coat the outside of the box with another layer of clay, about one fen thick. Smooth it down firmly from time to time to prevent cracking, then leave it to dry in the shade.

Next, prepare a sandware jar large enough to hold the box. Burn paper money ash from a temple until red-hot, then put it into the jar until it is about nine-tenths full. First lay down half the ash, place the box in the middle, then cover it with the remaining ash.

Cut high-grade white charcoal into three-inch lengths and weigh out the required amounts. Heat the charcoal until red-hot and put it in the jar, keeping it about two or three inches above the top of the box. Incubate the contents continuously for five days: use four liang of charcoal on the first day, five on the second, six on the third, seven on the fourth, and eight on the fifth. At the end of five days, take out the spiritual sand and continue the incubation. Add fire only in the morning each day, making the next addition the following morning. The scripture explains that this schedule follows the sun’s course and the natural changes of Yin-Yang; adding fire both morning and evening disrupts this rhythm and causes the refinement to fail.

Use four liang of silver beads to incubate one liang of spiritual sand. After enough has accumulated, the silver beads serving as the “mother” may be removed. Use only the matured spiritual sand, ground into powder, to seal and incubate new sand, keeping the same ratio of four liang to one liang of unincubated sand. Once a batch has accumulated, take four liang of spiritual-sand powder and cover one liang of mercury. Seal it and apply the fire as before. After five days of incubation, “shoots” will emerge and may be plucked off in succession. Here, “incubate,” “mother,” and “produce shoots” are alchemical terms describing the repeated sealing and refining of materials according to prescribed proportions and firing conditions. The charcoal used must be high-grade white charcoal from the area around Lu Cibiao in Jiande County, Yanzhou. It should be so dense and firm that it resembles a deer’s leg and does not break easily; charcoal from elsewhere is said to be unsuitable.

This passage describes the method for refining “Two-Eight Spiritual Sand.” “Two-Eight Spiritual Sand” is the name of an alchemical substance, while “Blue-Gold Head” is an intermediate product formed during the process. The text instructs that finely ground sulfur and white mercury be placed in a mortar and repeatedly ground with rice vinegar. The mixture is then stirred continuously over low heat in an iron pan until it becomes sandy, and ground finely again. This process is repeated to produce the “Blue-Gold Head.”

Next, place the ingredients in a crucible and cover it with a Jian ware bowl filled with water. Separately, grind red stone, cold water stone, and yellow lead finely, then mix them with rice vinegar into a paste to seal the joints between the vessels. Bind the vessels tightly with iron wire, apply successive layers of clay, and dry them with heat until the sealing layer is thick enough. Place the vessels in a furnace and gradually heat them with charcoal, continually replenishing the water in the water cauldron. The fire must not be too strong, and the charcoal should be added gradually to prevent the ingredients from escaping. Once the refining is complete, let the equipment cool. Remove the clay seal, iron wire, and water cauldron in turn, then break open the fire cauldron and take out the substance. Pick away the ash and clay, and grind the substance until it makes no sound.

For another round of refining, add one tael of raw sulfur and an appropriate amount of “Blue-Gold Head” to ten taels of Spiritual Sand, then seal and heat the vessels as before. The following text also explains how to prepare the sealing clay, the perforated water and fire cauldrons, charcoal, iron wire, fire tongs, rice vinegar, sesame oil, and water. The small hole in the water cauldron prevents the vessel from floating up and becoming unstable.

Methods for Sealing and Calcining

First grind the sulfur as finely as possible, then add mercury and grind them together. Grind from the Mao hour to the You hour, or from the Chen hour to the Xu hour, until the two substances have combined, producing about half a bowlful. Add a little sesame oil and about five bowls of water, then place the mixture in the furnace.

Keep grinding without stopping until the sulfur and mercury are fully blended and no particles remain visible. If you stop midway, it may take another two or three days of grinding to blend them again. Before putting the mixture into the cauldron, warm it slightly; warm the cauldron over a fire as well. Mix salt and clay in a ratio of eight to two, moisten the mixture with good vinegar, and pound it several thousand times. Then seal the furnace and cauldron tightly, making the sealing layer seven layers thick. Do not begin heating until the seal has dried.

Heat from below with the force of four bowls of fire, taking care not to let the flames leap up. Add fuel gradually, and stop once the fire reaches the cauldron’s waist. Another sealing method uses red ochre mixed with a little iron filings and vinegar; it works very well.

For calcining, place the vessel amid water and fire, and calcine it by the usual method for one fu period (about twelve double-hours). For the second calcination, add more sulfur. For the third, do not use a water cauldron. Instead, place a water cauldron below, cover it with a tile vessel, and calcine with fire from above. A special variation of this method emphasizes coordinating “already crossing” and “not yet crossing” (jiji and weiji). The recipe was transmitted by Chen Benren of Tiantai. The original text calls it a secret method that should not be disclosed casually.

Method for Making the Flower Pool

Mix lime with oyster-shell ash, then stir in boiling liquid until the mixture is even. Shape it into a dish-like vessel and place inside the “Golden Lord” (a code name for mercury) together with the extracted numinous cinnabar. Boil and calcine them together until the color turns white; this is called “the treasure is complete.”

Method for Washing Mercury

Wash it by rubbing it with rice until the rice turns white. Then rub it with lamp wicks until they no longer turn black.

Method for Preparing Mercury

The original text gives only the heading and provides no specific procedure.

Cinnabar that has been clarified, whether large or small in grain, should be ground into powder and mixed evenly with charcoal dust and glutinous rice broth. Put it into a refractory crucible, then pierce it with a fire poker to make honeycomb-like holes, and leave it to dry.

Take an ordinary pot and bury it in the ground, filling it about four-fifths full of water. Set the crucible containing the dried cinnabar over the buried water vessel, and seal the joint tightly with paper fiber and clay. Place it over a fire to dry. Then use five jin of charcoal, lighting it from the top so the flames rise upward. When the crucible glows red, remove the charcoal. Once it has cooled, take it out; the water vessel will contain the mercury produced by the process. Usually, one liang of cinnabar yields only eight fen of mercury.

Cinnabar Prepared by Sealing Over Fire

Take four liang of cinnabar and boil it in one cup of rice vinegar until dry. Then stain the cinnabar black with ink vinegar. Put it into a pouch sewn from boiled silk and tie it tightly. Grind egg white into ink, coat the silk pouch with it, and leave it to dry. Grind the kernels of the cangjian plant into powder, add honey, and knead the mixture into a ball. Press the pouch containing the cinnabar into the ball, squeeze it tightly to pack it firm, then place it in a refractory container.

First chop the leaves of the guanzhu plant—that is, the leaves of the cangjian plant—and spread them across the bottom of the container. Put in the cinnabar, cover it with more guanzhu leaves, and seal the container. Next, wrap the container in dugan and clay, seal the joint, and bind it tightly with iron wire in a cross pattern. Leave it to dry. Take the juice of the roots of the daylily and mix it with clay, then seal the entire container with this mixture. Finally, bury the container in ash, pile a layer of charcoal only around its pointed end, and fire it from above until it reaches the required heat.

Method for Applying a Gold Color by Rubbing

Mix iron rouge powder with water and spread it over the surface of the object. Leave it overnight, then rub the surface repeatedly with a cloth; a gold color will appear.

Method for Applying a Silver Color by Rubbing

Pound mercury, Asiatic pennywort, and ash from a new brick together until finely ground. Let the mercury dry first, then rub the mixture onto a stone; the stone will take on a silver color. Alternatively, mix mint with powdered alum and apply it by rubbing.

End of Volume One of the Gengdao Ji

Volume Two of the Gengdao Ji

The Moon Laurel, Everlasting Spring Elixir centers on the “Great Elixir of Yellow Sprouts.” The text describes how to refine it in the furnace. First, take four liang of elixir seed and crush it. Then prepare one liang of true mercury, along with a small amount of gold and silver flakes extracted from cinnabar.

First seal the water-and-fire cauldron furnace with Six-in-One clay, the material used to seal the furnace, and dry it by heating. Wash the elixir seed with wellhead water, drawn from a well at dawn, then place it in the furnace. Mix the true mercury with the gold and silver flakes and pour the mixture into the furnace. Next, set the water cauldron, which serves as a cooler, on top of the furnace. Seal the joints with strips of paper, then coat the entire furnace with Six-in-One clay and dry it by heating until no gaps remain.

Choose a room and prepare the stove according to the prescribed method. First spread clean paper ash inside the stove. After heating it, place an iron tripod inside, then set the furnace steadily on the tripod. Weigh out four liang of flame charcoal and arrange it around the furnace, level with the position of the medicine inside. Adjust the distance and height of the heat source. Once the contents of the furnace have warmed evenly, cover the charcoal with ash. Put warm water in the water cauldron and check it often so it does not boil dry. Every day at mao and you hours, approximately five to seven in the morning and five to seven in the evening, add fuel and water in the same way. Do not miss these times.

After tending the fire in this manner for half a month, open the furnace and add more true mercury, then seal it again and continue tending the fire. Repeat the additions of mercury and the heating process. On the fourth addition, when the elixir seed and true mercury together weigh about eight liang, add another two liang of true mercury. The old method calls this “four additions plus one.” Some procedures call for opening the furnace every seven days. The scripture cautions that if the true mercury has not yet been fully absorbed, the elixir seed’s “mother Qi” will weaken, making the elixir harder to refine. If the elixir has reached a weight of more than ten liang, the furnace may be opened once a month, or after tending the fire for forty-nine days; one need not adhere rigidly to the intervals described above.

Once the elixir seed weighs more than one jin, stop adding mercury and continue tending the fire as before for three months. When the seed has set firm and turned golden yellow, open the furnace and take it out. Crush and grind it finely, then select the very solid portions that contain no free mercury. Weigh these and set them aside for later use. Continue adding mercury to the remaining material and tending the fire by the same method. This is called the “elixir mother.” The scripture likens the elixir mother and elixir seed to mother and child: through their mutual generation and nourishment, they can be used repeatedly in refining.

First seal a furnace or earthenware jar tightly and dry it. Take eight liang of cinnabar, though five or seven liang may also be used; five liang of charcoal powder; and one liang of honey. Mix the cinnabar with the charcoal powder, moisten the mixture with honey water, and pack it firmly into the furnace. Seal the furnace mouth with a clay disc and dry it, then drill five to seven small holes.

Next, dig a pit and fill a large urn about four-fifths full of water. Bury it in the pit. Turn the furnace containing the ingredients upside down over the water urn so that the two fit tightly together, then seal the joint firmly with liuyi clay, a clay mixture used to seal the seams of furnaces and vessels. Cover the ground with coarse clay to keep water and fire from coming into conflict. First burn twenty jin of charcoal over the top of the furnace, then add another ten or twenty jin. From morning until evening, adjust the heat as needed; do not let the fire burn too fiercely or become too weak.

The next day, once the furnace has cooled, open it and remove the cinnabar. According to the original text, it will have turned into mercury and fallen into the water urn. Wash out the mercury and dry it. When the cinnabar is of good quality, each liang yields about seven or eight qian of mercury; when it is of poorer quality, the yield is only about half that. The remaining sand and grit are in the charcoal powder and the water urn, where they can be washed out and examined, but the charcoal powder has no further use. The mercury produced is called the essence of cinnabar. The key lies in controlling the heat. The original text says that with the heat properly regulated, there is no need to worry that the process will fail. This method also requires oral instruction and personal transmission to master.

Method for Nurturing Yellow Sprouts (a method for refining and nurturing Yellow Sprouts)

Before nurturing and refining the Dan head, first prepare the upper and lower cauldrons. Take equal amounts of yellow earth and pine sand, mix them with paper-fiber clay, and pound the mixture repeatedly until it is firm. Use it to seal the cauldrons, then leave them in the sun to dry.

Place the Dan head inside the cauldron and cover it with the water cauldron. Before putting on the water cauldron, pour in four qian of prepared mercury for every liang of Dan head. Fit the water cauldron in place, seal the joint tightly with the paper-fiber clay prepared earlier, then continue sealing downward from the top of the water cauldron until the clay wraps around the vessel in a gourd shape. It need not be too thick; about three fen is enough. Dry the seal with heat. If the Dan head is dark gray and hard, grind it first into small granules.

The method of tending the fire (using controlled heat to nurture the elixir material)

Prepare an earthenware jar with a wide mouth and narrow body, and put in the ash left over from burning paper. After five to seven days, the ash should cake together. If it cakes less well than the grass ash or thatch ash used previously, use one of those instead. Place a low iron tripod inside the jar and set the alchemical cauldron firmly on it. Pour water into the cauldron’s upper chamber, but do not fill it too full.

Heat charcoal until red-hot. Each piece should be about four or five inches long; weigh out the amount needed. Once the medicine has formed, add four more pieces of charcoal. Begin adding fuel at the Mao hour and remove the old charcoal at the You hour. At the Mao hour, place the charcoal along the north–south axis; at the You hour, place it along the east–west axis. Before adding charcoal, cover the water vessel with a tile, then use a fire poker to stir the ash so the heat is even. Add the charcoal, and remove the tile.

When water needs replenishing, first warm it in a kettle until it is close in temperature to the water in the vessel, then pour it into the cauldron. Do not let the water in the vessel boil away. Open the cauldron every seven days and add mercury. If the heat is even, add charcoal as before. If the medicine has already been placed in storage, the intervals for adding mercury need not be fixed at seven days; half a month or a month will also do.

If the cinnabar seed can absorb the mercury and the free-flowing mercury—mercury that has not yet coagulated—diminishes, this shows that the medicine is taking effect. If the medicine is ready for use, open the vessel and take it out; the following section gives further instructions for its preparation. If the cinnabar seed absorbs mercury slowly, leaving a large amount of free-flowing mercury and little “Jade Forest and Jade Trees,” a term in alchemy for a particular form or quality of the medicine, use a different method.

Instructions for the Later Stages of the Great Elixir of Yellow Sprout

The so-called “Yellow Sprout Elixir Seed” is an elixir carefully cultivated by immortals and sages. Its method depends on water and fire working together and Yin-Yang responding to one another. Mercury is added to nurture the fire, like a mother and child sustaining each other. If too much mercury is added, the quantity is merely impressive on paper: the mother is weakened and the elixir becomes frail, unable to withstand the firing process. Taking it will bring no benefit; as soon as it meets the fire, the mercury will scatter. It is better to use a few taels less, regulate the firing according to the appointed days, and nurture it gently over a long period. There is no need to add more mercury; simply tend the fire continuously for several years.

For internal use, choose the firmest portion, about the size of a bean, and place it in a furnace, with a water vessel set above it. Each day, heat it gently from all sides until the elixir seed in the furnace glows red both inside and out. Wipe away the mercury that condenses on the bottom of the water vessel, and repeat this once a day. The treatment is suitable when the elixir can withstand a fierce fire while the mercury remains stable.

Next, remove the elixir and put it in a fine silk bag that has been boiled and refined. Suspend the bag in a sand pot. Add four or five taels of finely chopped licorice, simmer for a day, and then remove the elixir. Take another ten or twenty amla fruits, boil the elixir in water with them for a day, and remove it. Then wrap the pieces separately in boiled and refined silk, making each packet about two or three fen in weight. Take ten large radishes, cut off their tops, and hollow out a large cavity in each. Place one small packet inside each radish, cover and secure the opening, then wrap the radishes in cloth and steam them over rice until cooked. Repeat this steaming once a day until the inside of the radishes no longer turns black. Remove the elixir and grind it finely, then heat it once more in a smelting furnace until red-hot. Finally, mix it with white rice porridge and form pills the size of millet grains. According to the original text, taking them will not cause vomiting or diarrhea.

Method for Roasting Gold

One liang each of female and male [ingredients], one liang of sulfur, and one liang of arsenolite.

Take a fairly large gan pot (a fire-resistant crucible used in alchemy and metalworking). Coat its interior completely with egg white, then sprinkle in powdered ephedra nodes. Place the four ingredients mentioned earlier in the pot and heat them from all sides with charcoal. Take another four liang of toad-belly turmeric (a variety of turmeric), grind it to a powder, and gradually sprinkle it into the pot until it is all used. Remove the ingredients and grind them to a powder, then return them to the gan pot. Cover them with another four liang of powdered toad-belly turmeric and calcine over a strong fire. When finished, grind the mixture to a very fine powder and set it aside.

To use it, hammer high-quality silver into an extremely thin sheet. Coat the entire sheet with saliva, then sprinkle the powder over its surface. Roast it over a fierce fire, heating it from the back as well. The scripture says that the silver’s color will show through as soon as it is roasted.

The Geng Method

Take two liang of Jiangxi green vitriol, two liang of alum, two liang of green salt, one and a half liang of mint, and two liang of mercury. Suspend these ingredients in a pot and boil them.

Use a new iron pot that has never been used. Add two or three bowls of river water, then put in the ingredients listed above and boil the mercury until it is dry. Remove it and squeeze out the oil. Wrap the mercury in paper and bury it in the ground. After a full day and night, take it out; it will have become hard.

There is another “sealing method”: take one liang of northern lu gan shi, called “tuo ti ya” by the Hui (an old term for Muslims), along with some date flesh, wheat, and cypress leaves. The amounts of the latter ingredients are unrestricted. Pound them together with strong vinegar into a paste and wrap it around the dried mercury prepared earlier. Then calcine it for two shichen using the implements mentioned in the text. When it is ready, pour the furnace charge into ji water (pickling brine); this produces superior Geng. If the lu gan shi is purple, the resulting Geng will also be purple. Using si pao and si peng as materials applied to the surface, then adding a little arsenic yellow, also works wonderfully.

Method for Rubbing Copper to Make It Like Silver

Objects boiled in a solution of natron (a sodium sulfate mineral) and then treated with salt and gypsum will be destroyed. Grind jequirity beans and mirabilite into a fine powder and rub it on an object to make it look like silver. The effect will appear only after six months of this treatment.

Rendering Peng Iron Ineffective

Extract the fresh juice of phoenix-tail fern and use it to boil Peng iron for about the time it takes to eat half a meal. Then pound the water-growing luo grass from a rice paddy to extract its juice, and boil the iron in this juice for about the same length of time. Treated this way, Peng iron will become ineffective.

Liu Langxian’s Great Elixir of Perceptive Qi

For each batch, use one liang of “mother” as the standard amount, and add five qian of Gan. Use as much “mother” as possible in proportion to the amount of sand. Twist thick iron wire into a tripod and place a bowl over charcoal, heating it with charcoal both above and below. The bowl may be made of iron or be a Jian bowl. First fill it seven-tenths full with sesame oil, then add thirty hemp seeds and a handful of Sichuan pepper. Put the “son and mother” together into the oil and fry until the hemp seeds are charred.

Remove the contents and wrap them in silk, enclosing the “xin” together with the inner layer. Take the oil and ingredients out of the bowl, leaving only the sand, and shape it into a pill. Remove the veins from a holly leaf and wrap it tightly around the sand pill; this is called the “Old Lord’s Ball.” Next, mix good rice vinegar with flour to make a paste, and knead loess into an outer casing for the ball. Then wrap it in two or three layers of “xin” with water, making sure the outer covering has no gaps.

First clean out any cracks. Put the ball into the furnace and fan it until it glows red. When the fire dies down, remove the sand. Then melt five liang of salt in a crucible, a heat-resistant vessel used for refining. Beforehand, dig a level, gap-free pit in the ground about the size of the crucible. When the salt is one-third melted, quickly put in the sand, cover it tightly with a brick, press it down firmly, and let it roll.

After taking it out, fire it once more in the crucible. Beforehand, place a paper trough in half a bowl of water. Pour the sand into the trough to make what is called the “treasure.” Add a little Peng sand to clarify the sand, then pour it out. Before putting the sand into the salt, be sure to dig a pit about the size of the pot and check that the ground is level and free of gaps. Keep a brick beside you so you can cover the ball as soon as it goes in. This is the quickest method; the “Gan Geng” method differs from it slightly.

Following the method described earlier, place the base material in sand inside a well-made Jian ware bowl (a black-glazed tea bowl fired in the Jian kiln). Add castor beans, Sichuan pepper, and several pieces of “thousand-year-old ren.” Keep these ingredients together in oil. Do not use the “Old Lord’s Ball”; instead, mix calamine powder with a little lead frost using saliva, and apply this as an outer coating. Fire it in the furnace, and the substance known as a “treasure” will be produced.

Take high-quality alum and add five-direction grass and Jincheng rice straw. Burn them to ash, let the ash settle, and filter the liquid. Pour the liquid into an urn containing brown sugar, then boil it dry over a fire of grain husks to make a “vault” (a container or material used to nourish and refine medicinal substances). Fifty taels of vault material can nourish and refine one tael of medicinal substance.

The “Four Spirits Vault, Lord Wang’s Tin” method from the Taishang Zisheng Xuan Jing:

Take one tael each of cinnabar, sulfur, realgar, and orpiment. Crush the ingredients and grind them to the size of rice grains. Wrap them in layers of white silk paper and tie the package tightly. Pound yellow flowers and chicken-intestine grass to extract their juices. Boil the wrapped ingredients in these juices over low heat in a water bath for seven double-hours, then take them out and dry them in the sun. The “Four Spirits Vault, Lord Wang’s Tin” can then be used again.

Take five qian of pengsha, five qian of alum, and one tael of sal ammoniac. Slowly heat them in a warm water bath for fourteen days, then remove and dry them in the sun. Take five taels of pure gold, fashion it into a box, place the “Four Spirits” ingredients inside, and seal it tightly. Separately, take eight taels of silver and melt or hammer it into silver pellets.

First put half the silver pellets into a clay vessel, then place the gold box on top. Cover it with the remaining silver pellets and pack them down firmly. Next seal the clay vessel: secure the inner gold box and outer silver enclosure with iron wire, bind the outer clay vessel tightly with more wire, and finally seal it with salt mud. Once dry, place it in an ash container and maintain the fire.

The firing period is forty-nine days.

From the first day through the seventh, use seasoned fire—that is, charcoal that has burned through and produces steady heat. Use one liang and five qian each time, applying the fire once in the morning and once in the evening. Do not interrupt the process, or the results will be poor.

Beginning with the second seven-day period, use two liang of seasoned fire each time, applying it once in the morning and once in the evening. If the heat weakens, add half a liang of seasoned fire. During the third seven-day period, use two liang and five qian each time, applying it morning and evening; if the heat weakens, add half a liang. During the fourth seven-day period, use two liang and seven qian each time, applying it morning and evening; if the heat weakens, also add half a liang. After that, continue adjusting the heat according to the instructions in the text. During the fifth through seventh seven-day periods, use three liang of seasoned fire each time, applying it morning and evening without interruption. If the heat weakens, add one liang.

When the heat has reached the required level, take out the substance and inspect it. If it is black, continue heating and refining it, checking it as you go. If it turns yellow, stop. If it has not yet reached this state, continue warming and nourishing it for fourteen days; after that, the refining is considered complete. Divide each liang of the substance into ten packets.

The Pointing Method

Take one liang of high-purity silver and melt it. For every liang of silver, add three qian of the medicine in three separate additions. Once the surface of the silver is clear and free of impurities, pour it out; this is called “making treasure.” The text cautions that this method must be kept strictly secret and not passed on casually. It says the result may be used only to aid the poor and accumulate good deeds.

The text then repeats the method of adding three qian of medicine to each liang of silver in three additions, and calls the medicine the “great immortal medicine.” The final phrase, “The great immortal medicine, the Four Spirits Coffer formula can be great,” is incomplete; it only makes clear that it refers to the “great immortal medicine” and the “Four Spirits Coffer formula.”

Take one jin of naturally occurring sulfur produced on seagoing ships. Select the transparent pieces that resemble yuan-sand crystals, and cut them into chunks about the size of lychee pits. Obtain two dou each of the fresh juices of motherwort and duck-tongue grass. Put the sulfur in a ramie-cloth bag and suspend it in the herbal juices to boil for one fu (one day and night). Keep the fire going continuously, day and night, and boil it for seven full days before taking it out. Test a small amount over a fire. If it has not yet been refined and subdued, continue boiling until it is.

Next, divide the sulfur into two portions and place them in a large gan crucible. Calcine it with thirty jin of hard charcoal, while two people face the crucible and fan rapidly. Then seal the vessel and pour the medicinal material into two Jian tea bowls. If the sulfur has retained its original fetal color, it is considered to have become the “supreme medicine.” Grind it into an extremely fine powder.

Take another four liang of raw sulfur and cut it into small chunks as before. Boil it for one fu in the juices of the two herbs, then remove it. Use the previously refined one jin of sulfur as the kui—the outer medicinal material that holds and nourishes the substance being refined. Following the “□-lotus method” mentioned in the original text, place the four liang of sulfur in a sand vessel, separated and secured with two or three layers of Kunlun paper. Grind it with a guan until it is as fine as flour. Spread the powder on the paper, then add another layer of the prepared medicine. Fill the vessel with White Tiger powder, seal it, and place it in an ash pit to be nourished over a low fire for seven days, using four liang of fuel. When removed, the sulfur will have been refined and subdued by this method.

Next, take four liang of leaf realgar and break it into chunks of the same size as before. Boil it for one fu in sheep’s-foot-root juice, following the previous method, then remove it and grind it finely. Grind it together with the four liang of sulfur from the second preparation until extremely fine. Make it into longan-sized pills with honey, place them in the sulfur kui described above, and nourish them over a low fire for seven days, using four liang of fuel. At this stage, there is no need to “press down the head.” The realgar is now considered refined and subdued.

Then take four liang of cockscomb orpiment. Boil it for one fu with mountain lettuce, then remove it. Grind it finely together with the previously refined realgar and sulfur, and make longan-sized pills with honey. Place them in the kui and nourish them for seven days as before. This will refine and subdue them as well.

The Elixir Classic says, “When one yellow substance dies, the other yellow substances all grieve; when one yellow substance does not die, the others scatter and fly away.” Here, “die” means that refining has made a substance lose its original properties; “fly” refers to the materials dispersing or volatilizing. In alchemical work, sulfur must first be refined to stabilize it. Then the male and female substances are subdued. Once all three yellow substances have been brought under control, cinnabar can be subdued, and the transformative “Great Medicine” can be made.

Select four liang of cinnabar granules with a surface smooth and bright as a mirror. Boil them for a full day in the juices of earth-nail herb and chicken-intestine herb. Remove them, add powdered bai fu zi and borax, then mix with refined honey so that the medicinal material adheres closely around the cinnabar. Place it in the gui—the vessel used to seal and cultivate the medicine—following the method described earlier, and cultivate it there for seven days. When removed, the cinnabar is called “treasure made.”

Set aside the one-jin gui that previously held the sulfur. Take only the “Four Spirits” cultivated earlier, totaling one jin—here, the name for several medicines used in the refining process—and grind them into a fine powder to make the “Four Spirits gui.” First take three parts pure geng metal and seven parts mercury, and refine them into a sandlike substance. Then boil it for one day with purple river carriage, here the name of a medicine used in alchemy, and three sheng of millet-washing water. Wrap the sandlike substance in several small balls of cooked silk, each about the size of a small longan. First stir-fry them in lime until dry and hard, then boil them.

Next, following the method described earlier, arrange the sand balls in the Four Spirits gui and cover them. Cultivate them for seven days using a fire of four liang strength. Remove them and test them over a flame. If they have not yet been subdued, cultivate them for another two days. Repeat this process three to five times. As the gui’s effects gradually appear, refine them into “two-eight geng sand.” Continue cultivating them three to five more times. If the refined substance becomes hard and heavy, with a deep, rich color, and does not break easily, it can be refined into “nine-one light sand.” Cultivate it further in the same way. If the resulting light sand is deep and lustrous, like real gold, the gui is said to have “communed with the numinous” and can be used to cultivate cinnabar.

To refine “geng containing the embryo,” take one liang of large cinnabar granules at a time, wrap them in gold foil, and press the foil tightly around them. Insert them into the gui as before, arrange them inside, and cover them. After cultivating them for a full seven days, remove them. The cinnabar’s embryonic color will not yet have come off; it will shine brilliantly and contain a purple-gold hue.

To refine it by the “mercury pouring” method, grind the “Four Spirits Crucible” into powder and divide it into three portions. Put two portions into a vessel, then use the end of a skewer to make a small hole and line its inside with gold leaf. Next, pour mercury into the gold-lined space using a small pouring flask. Cover it with the remaining portion of crucible powder, then gently nurture it over the fire for seven days, following the heating method described earlier.

Treat each crucible in the same way: put in two of the three portions, make a small hole, lay in the gold leaf, pour in the mercury, and cover it with the remaining portion of powder. Gently nurture it over the fire for seven days. Each crucible weighs one jin and, using the original method, can refine and nurture four liang of mercury. If you are concerned that the crucible’s efficacy may be damaged or weaken over time, refine and nurture only three liang each time; its efficacy will then continue to grow stronger and will not be depleted. A newly made crucible requires seven days of heating during its first year. After a year, five or three days will suffice. After three years, the refining reaches its highest level and can be completed in a single night. By then, much “qi of golden treasure” (the subtle energy said to arise in the refining process) has accumulated in the crucible. It can be used to produce purple-polished true gold or mixed into other materials.

Another method is to put the nitre and borax in separate places and grind them finely inside. After gently nurturing them for seven days, take them out. Put one liang of mercury into a water-milling vessel and sprinkle a tiny amount of the previously refined crucible powder over the surface. Cover it with a small cup, then wet leather paper with vinegar and press it tightly over the seams. Place it over a three-jin fire. Before long, it will refine into true gold of fine color.

It is said that this method has been passed down orally from ancient times to the present and was never written down. I have now compiled it in writing and passed it on to the people of the world. For seven hundred years, it may be transmitted to only three people. Whoever receives this method can become a teacher to the state. Consider how this secret method of refining is both simple and easy, yet can wrest the workings of Heaven and Earth. After receiving it, one should do much to aid others and benefit all beings. Do not use it casually or reveal it recklessly. Keep it strictly secret.

The Superior Great Medicine of Immortal Pu.

Ge Kejiu passed this method on to Chen Shuzi, who in turn taught it to others.

First, take one jin of imported sulfur and break it into pieces about the size of beans. Pound the bark of the Shuiyi tree, dry it in the sun, and simmer it down to five dou of concentrated juice. Let the juice settle, then pour it into a large earthenware jar. Suspend the sulfur in a cloth, secure it inside the jar with a basket woven with fine openings, and pour in the prepared juice. Boil over a low flame for three days and nights. The fire must not be too strong, and the liquid must not boil dry. When the time is up, remove the sulfur, dry it in the sun, and divide it into eight portions. Divide one jin of fine Geng into eight portions as well. These will be refined together with the sulfur to form the Qi of the “cluster mother.”

First dry the bark of the Shuiyi tree in the sun, then smoke fifty liang of it. Prepare eight crucibles and set them firmly in a charcoal fire. Melt two liang of red Geng in each crucible, then quickly pour it into the smoked crucible. Add two liang of boiled sulfur to the molten Geng. Immediately cover the crucible with a clay lid; do not delay, lest the Qi disperse. Repeat this procedure in turn for all eight crucibles. When they have cooled, break the crucibles and remove the sulfur embryo inside.

Use this one jin of sulfur embryo to enclose and nourish the Geng. Geng refined in the Yin-Yang Furnace of the Spirit Chamber can be used only to make the outer compound, not the inner Spirit Chamber.

The transformations of the Dead Yin-Yang method.

Sun-dry one liang of Yinhuang, four liang of Yanghuang, and six herbs: Diyu, Xusui Zi, Lucong, Caomazi, Shuiyang Pi, and Yashe Cao. Then chop them into pieces. Yashe Cao grows in abandoned fields or shallow rivers, submerged beneath the water, and is shaped like a tongue. Put the six herbs together and boil them down into four or five dou of concentrated broth. Let it settle, then pour the clear liquid into a clay pot. Suspend the Yinhuang and Yanghuang inside the pot, add the clarified herbal liquid, and simmer continuously for fifteen fu periods. The fire must not be allowed to go out. As the liquid diminishes, gradually replenish it until the prescribed period of cooking and refining is complete.

Take five liang of Chigeng and make it into a Spirit Chamber, an inner container for holding the ingredients. Put the Yinhuang and Yanghuang inside and add five qian of dead Nao, mixing them together. Make a larger outer container and place the previously mentioned sulfur container inside it, with the Spirit Chamber at the center. Pack dead sulfur firmly around it, above and below. Seal the container’s opening with red stone powder mixed with vinegar, then secure it with Liuyi mud to a thickness of about two finger-widths. Leave it to dry in a shaded place.

Next, place it in an ash pit and nurture it with two liang of top fire at the mao and you hours. After one hundred days, remove it. Grind the refined Yinhuang and Yanghuang into powder. For every liang of mercury, use one qian of the powder to transform it; this is said to produce a superior treasure of red Chigeng.

Method for Dead Nao

Use any quantity of Nao. Pound Cigu Cao and extract its natural juice; boil and refine the Nao in the juice to make it lose its original properties. Alternatively, boil and refine it in the natural juice of Tianzi Cao, which is said to be even more effective.

First place one liang of mercury in a crucible used for alchemical refining. Add one qian of powdered “Two Yellow” that has been thoroughly calcined and tempered, sprinkling it over the mercury. Cover the surface with a little clear pine resin, then add three to five drops of sesame oil. Fit a flat, steady roof tile tightly over the crucible so no gaps remain, and secure the vessel with charcoal. Apply heat from above the crucible’s mouth.

Raise the heat gradually until the sounds inside the crucible stop. Once it has become red-hot, pour out the material, now melted into liquid. This is called the “supreme treasure.” If its color is too intensely red, add silver to make ordinary Red Geng. When produced by this transmutation, it is called “Sacred Geng,” and is said to undergo transformations without end.

Method of Transformation

Take six liang of Sacred Gold produced by transmutation and cast it into a “spirit chamber,” a vessel for holding alchemical ingredients. Grind two liang each of Yin-Yang and imported sulfur into powder, and place them in the spirit chamber. Beat the Sacred Gold into thin sheets, cut them into pieces the size of chessmen, and mix them with the three powders mentioned above. After tempering over the fire for the required time and sealing the vessel with clay or similar material to control the heat, it can transmute Geng; its efficacy is said to be reliable.

Another Method

First temper it over the fire for one hundred days according to the previous method, then use five liang of Two Yellow to transmute it into Sacred Gold. Cast a spirit chamber as before and place the tempered Two Yellow inside, spreading it across the bottom and over the top. Then use tempered Yin to make a four-layer casing around the material, in quantities ranging from one to five liang. Remove the Yin-Yang casing used earlier, then use one qian of tempered Yin to transmute one liang of mercury. This is said to produce superior Red Geng.

If transmutation does not occur, place five liang of Yin in the Sacred Gold spirit chamber as well, spreading it over the bottom and top to form a casing. Tempered sulfur is also arranged in four layers, with each layer ranging from one to five liang. Take one qian of tempered sulfur to transmute one liang of mercury; this is said to produce superior Geng, with transformations without end.

The Arsenic Casing Transmitted by Academician Chen

Method for Tempering Powdered Frost and Transmuting It

Grind purple river carriage—a term used here in alchemy—into powder. For every one liang of powdered arsenic, use one and a half liang of powdered purple river carriage. Mix them evenly and place them in a crucible. The original text then reads, “add to the crucible until it reaches five liang.” It continues: Take one qian of tempered sulfur to transmute one liang of mercury; this is said to produce superior Geng, with transformations without end.

Powder made by burning placenta (human afterbirth) is used as an auxiliary ingredient. Mix one liang of arsenic trioxide powder with one and a half liang of placenta powder, then place the mixture in a refractory crucible. Heat it first over a low flame, gradually increasing the heat. Once calcined, it can be made into a “container”—a vessel used to hold and refine medicinal powders. It works best for nurturing and refining powder frost, surpassing other methods.

Method for subliming powder frost (using the procedure in which alum is calcined to dryness)

Take one liang of mercury, one liang of salt, two liang of alum, and six qian of saltpeter, and grind each separately into a fine powder. Add the powders to the mercury and grind them together until no bright specks of mercury remain. Place the mixture in a water-and-fire vessel, seal the joints tightly with red stone clay, then reinforce the seal with luting clay. Use a bamboo sliver to leave a small hole at the joint around the vessel’s mouth. Once it has dried, pull out the bamboo sliver. This small hole is called “the single aperture of the Mysterious Pass.” Heat the vessel so that the moisture inside is fully expelled, then seal the hole with red stone clay. If the hole is not left open, moisture inside the vessel will press against the sealed joint and cause it to crack.

To nurture and refine powder frost using the dead arsenic prepared earlier—arsenic trioxide that has been calcined—take one qian to transform one liang of bone. The results are very good.

Method for calcining powder frost and effecting transformation

Take one liang of powder frost, grind it finely, wrap it in a piece of silk gauze, and place it in a bowl. Soak and swish it in boiling water to remove the alum-based ingredients, then dry it in the sun and wrap it in Kunlun paper. Take a piece of silver weighing one qian and wrap it tightly around the powder frost.

Grind half a liang each of Sichuan langdu, pig-tusk soap pod, dianthus, and pyrrosia into powder. Mix the powder with refined honey and coat the outside of the medicinal ball. Then grind one liang of camptotheca root and two heads of garlic, peeled, together into a paste and coat the ball with it as the outermost layer. Seal it in a lidded vessel for calcining and place it on half a “bo” (as written in the original). Pack vinegar ash tightly and evenly around it, then place five jin of charcoal fire on top. As soon as the ash mound begins to glow red, remove the fire. After about the time it takes to eat a meal, apply the fire again. Once the fire has burned out and the vessel has cooled, remove it. The powder frost obtained is the “treasure.”

Each time, take eight qian of the powder to transform five liang of red matter. The text calls this method “Bone-Transforming, Supreme Sage Cinnabar,” and says it should be transmitted in secret.

After the arsenic and mercury have been refined for a period of time, place them in the furnace fire for further firing. When the fire has died out and the vessel has cooled, remove the powder; it can then be used to transmute metals. Each time, use eight qian of powder to transmute five liang of red metal. This is called “Changing the Bones, the Sole Sacred Cinnabar of Yang,” and must be kept secret.

Rapid Firing of Arsenic Powder

Take one liang each of arsenic trioxide and mercury, add one and a half qian of processed medicinal material, and grind them together until no grains are visible. Place the mixture in a clay pot, cover it with roasted salt, put a clay disk over it, seal it tightly with clay, and then place it in a black furnace.

Lay two layers of hard charcoal across the bottom of the furnace, set the clay pot on top, bank charcoal around it, and add fire from above. When the pot glows red and the heat has reached its bottom, so that the bottom is red as well, remove it. Once it has cooled, open it. Three qian can transmute one liang of metal.

Rapid Firing of Solitary Male for Transmutation

Boil realgar with sheep’s-foot root for one shichen, then place it in a crucible and heat it gently around the sides. At the same time, add three qian of “Mother Geng,” allowing it to melt into liquid. Once cooled, remove it and use it to transmute metals.

Method for Subduing Female Orpiment

Boil it in the juice of chicken-intestine herb for one shichen, then cover it with dried chicken-intestine herb powder and place it in a lidded crucible. Fire it with ten jin of charcoal. Once cooled, remove it. One qian can transmute cinnabar and silver into precious treasures.

Method for Making Yellow Sprouts

Take five or three liang of lead essence and melt it into a cake, or hammer it into a [missing character in the original] vessel. Add three liang of mercury, keeping it about two inches from the lead cake, then seal it tightly with “Six-One Mud,” a material used to seal the furnace in alchemical practice. Place a water vessel above it to cover the mouth of the [missing character in the original] vessel, and invert the apparatus beneath it. Heat and cultivate it with three liang of gentle, sustained fire for seven full days, then open it and inspect the contents.

Next, following the same method, keep the mercury about two inches from the lead cake, seal it tightly with Six-One Mud, place the water vessel on top, and invert the apparatus. Cultivate it over gentle fire for seven days. When opened, the mercury will all have adhered to the lead cake, sprouting tender, needle-shaped shoots with a bright, gold-like sheen. This is called the “First Turn.” Add another three liang of mercury and cultivate it by the same method for seven days; the substance will turn golden. Do not take it out. Add a further three liang of mercury and continue cultivating it for seven days. The shoots that emerge will be deep yellow and gradually grow larger, like wheat seedlings. Open the vessel and add mercury in this way seven times, cultivating the substance for a total of forty-nine days. Once all twenty-one liang of mercury have been added, the substance can be removed.

This is called the “Purple-Yellow Sprout.” The substance undergoes many transformations inside the vessel, taking on different shapes and colors; it is called the “mother of the Reverted Elixir.” Twelve liang of the substance can be obtained from the lead block. Beneath the block, about three liang of mercury remain unchanged. Another three liang or so of mercury have flown up and adhered to the vessel’s lid, where they appear cinnabar-red; this is called the “Single-Body Cinnabar.”

After removing the substance, steam it in cow’s milk, then grind it into a fine powder. For each liang of powder, use date flesh to make one thousand pills. At one qian per pill, one liang makes one hundred pills. Take three pills each day on an empty stomach with wine. The scripture claims that this medicine greatly replenishes the body’s lower origin energy, calms the spirit, nourishes Kidney Qi, settles the Hun and Po souls, and dispels the malign influences of the Three Corpses, cold disorders, wind disorders, longstanding ailments, and every kind of illness. Its benefits are too numerous to describe one by one.

This concludes juan two of the Collection of the Geng Way. Next comes juan three and the section “The Great Elixir of the Great Lord’s Numinous Sand,” preceded by a preface from Yang Qin, Court Gentleman for Discussion and Military Affairs Administrator of Nanjian Prefecture.

Gather the essence of Heaven and Earth and the radiance of the sun and moon, and refine them into the Great Medicine. Burn substances of a Yin nature to remove their toxicity. After taking it, one is said to strengthen sinews and bones, nourish the marrow, Jing, and Qi, destroy the Nine Worms, and cut off the Three Corpses—the three evil spirits said in Daoism to lurk within the body, cause wrongdoing, and shorten one’s life. It is also said to sharpen hearing and sight, restore youth, even bring the dead back to life, and prolong life. These are called the effects of the Nine Transformations. Since those who practice elixir cultivation may harbor doubts and refuse to believe, this is discussed here in detail.

Whether one can obtain this elixir method depends entirely on accumulating merit, doing good widely, helping others, and relieving the suffering of the world. During refinement, one must be focused and meticulous, not diligent at first only to give up halfway through. The key is to bring Yin and Yang into harmony and Water and Fire into balance, and to make the “flying” and “submerging,” and the “mother” and “child”—terms in alchemy for the rising and descending changes of substances and their primary and supporting roles—interact with one another. Then the mineral and metallic substances must be cultivated with regulated heat for the elixir to form. The changes of flying and submerging, the mother and child, and the cultivation of mineral and metallic substances with heat are all stages that bring about transformation.

Shedding the old body and taking on a new one, sitting or standing at the moment of death, with a dragon coiled around the Golden Tripod and a tiger encircling the Dantian—these refer to Neidan, or internal alchemy, in which the human body serves as the vessel and inner Jing, Qi, and Shen are the substances cultivated. Balancing Water and Fire, turning lead and mercury into supreme treasures, and keeping them from dispersing during cooking or flying away during firing—these refer to Waidan, or external alchemy, in which mineral substances are refined in a furnace and vessel. People of the world favor Waidan but often fail to achieve Neidan; those who understand the Way cultivate Neidan but are unwilling to refine Waidan. The cinnabar method may be the only practice in which both inner and outer cultivation can be accomplished.

A chicken that eats it can become a phoenix; a magpie, a luan bird; a dog that takes it can transform into a dragon; and a person who takes it can become an immortal. Its effects are extraordinary, and it may be passed on only after the practitioner has succeeded in refining it. Its workings are impossible to fathom and its transformations impossible to predict. It is wondrous beyond compare: the old are said to regain their youth by taking it, and even the dead can be brought back to life through it.

Once numinous cinnabar has been refined, plucking out white beard hairs can make them grow back black. When numinous cinnabar is prepared with milk, the milk itself transforms into blood. This is what is called the “inner aspect” of numinous cinnabar. Its preparation requires no substances of uncertain origin or rare herbs; it costs little and its method is not complicated. As soon as the process begins, the color of lead changes; continue firing it, and the mercury dries and congeals. Add mineral and metallic substances, then cultivate them with heat in a vessel kept close to the body, used to store and warm the substances. The essence of a thousand years is said to accumulate in a single day, and the treasures of mountains and marshes can be refined in seven days. Ten taels of numinous cinnabar can transmute a hundred taels of lead; one catty can dry and consolidate a hundred catties of mercury. This is what is called the “outer aspect” of numinous cinnabar.

This secret method was handed down by sages of earlier times and expounded by sages of later generations. It is written on jade tablets and treasured in a divine casket. Only a famous mountain is fit to conceal it, and only a person of noble conduct and deep capacity is fit to receive it. Its transmission began when the Most High Lord Lao gave it to Perfected Xu. Perfected Xu passed it to Immortal Ge; Immortal Ge passed it to Master Baopu; Master Baopu passed it to Master Lü of Xihua; Master Lü passed it to Attendant Zhang; and Attendant Zhang passed it to Ren Baoqu. After obtaining the method, Ren Baoqu completed the procedures left by those before him, and Zhang Zhonghe further developed and explained them. Now the origins and lineage of this elixir method are complete.

Obtaining this method is said to raise seven generations of one’s ancestors to a higher realm, while the practitioner is certain to ascend to the realm of immortals. Used on a large scale, it can make the state prosperous and the people secure; used on a small scale, it can bring abundance to a household and prosperity to a home. When beginners in cultivation and furnace alchemy hear the wondrous instructions for numinous cinnabar, if they still hesitate, they will become confused and sink into delusion without awakening. This method is therefore described again, to explain its foundations, reveal its mysteries, and set out the effects of the Nine Transformations one by one.

First boil and refine the substances with medicines, then roast them with sand. Fire them in the Primordial Tripod and cultivate them with heat in the Longevity Vessel. Once refined, they appear like a jade forest, astonishing those of the highest attainment; they gleam like jade trees, bringing joy to the celestial immortals. At this point, mercury condenses and is refined into a true substance, and the treasure appears. After a transformation like changing one’s bones, wrap it in gold foil: the Geng metal that was there before turns red, and the Xin metal that was there before turns white.

From this we can see that the subtlety of the numinous cinnabar method lies in its conformity with the transformations of Heaven and Earth. Its effects can bring about the cultivation of sages and worthies; its principles accord with the Eight Trigrams of the Book of Changes; and its origins conform to Laozi’s teaching of the Nine Transformations. Thus its transformations, whether entering or emerging, are present everywhere, and it responds to every direction and form, whether horizontal, vertical, or curved. The Dao De Jing says, “What cannot be seen is called ‘xi’; what cannot be heard is called ‘yi.’” This is why the Dao is called the “Dao of Xi and Yi.” Today, this divine elixir is named numinous cinnabar, and the principle is the same. Perfected Zhengyang said, “A single pellet of the Golden Elixir can determine a long life.” This is the elixir he meant. Though the names differ, the substance is one and the same. Sages and worthies of every age have practiced this method, and ten thousand volumes of alchemical texts have recorded it. Numinous cinnabar is the foremost method of furnace alchemy and the guiding principle of cultivation.

Someone asks, “If numinous cinnabar is so wondrous, why must it depend on a mother substance before its treasured nature can appear?” They fail to understand that sparrows cannot produce phoenixes, and foxes and rabbits cannot produce horses. Yin and Yang, when isolated from each other, cannot bring forth transformation. Mercury belongs to pure Yin, while lead belongs to utmost Yang. The Book of Changes says, “One Yin and one Yang: this is the Dao.” Therefore the mother substance must be used for the treasured nature of numinous cinnabar to appear.

Today, some people obtain numinous cinnabar but cannot ascend to the heavens after taking it, and encounter all kinds of obstacles when refining it. Why is this? The answer is that their cultivation is shallow. The scriptures say, “Whether one can understand and bring forth the wondrous depends on the practitioner.” If a person is not suitable, the Dao’s methods will not take effect without cause. If knowing how to subdue a single substance can be enough to ascend to immortality, how much more so the numinous cinnabar method? Once the method is obtained, one must practice it with sincerity. Sincerity means completing one’s virtue. A noble person who hears of the Dao of numinous cinnabar need only cultivate the self and accumulate good works. Why worry that they will fail to attain the Dao and become perfected? The substances to be used and the detailed procedures will now be respectfully listed one by one.

A cultivator of the Elixir arts must keep body and mind pure, burn incense and make a vow, and pray to Heaven and Earth. In practice, one must act with care and keep in mind the wish to aid all things and benefit living beings. Only then can one avoid demonic obstacles and begin the work of cultivation. Without sufficient sincerity, if one indulges desire and lets the mind wander at will, the spirits will offer no protection.

Master Zhang Zhonghe said: “Anyone who cultivates must understand that a person who does not cultivate virtue should not undertake this work. Only when virtue is perfected and cultivation succeeds will one believe how wondrous it truly is for the miraculous Elixir to appear.”

Method for Raising the Numinous Cinnabar Elixir

A poem says:

Take “two eights” from each of the two forces, Yin and Yang, and examine them closely in the Li Palace, one of the Bagua directions. Who can know the true workings of creation? Entrust them, then, to Liu Lang.

Step One: How to Fry Numinous Cinnabar

Take four liang of sulfur, preferably a clear, stone-free variety produced overseas. It may be boiled for a full day and night in the juice of water clover (that is, the juice of Marsilea quadrifolia). If this herb is unavailable, use Chinese pink instead. Grind the herb into a fine powder and boil it in river water.

Next, take one jin of mercury and add one liang each of guanzhong and Chinese gall, along with two and a half qian of clear pine resin. Grind them together until evenly mixed. Soak and boil the mixture in fine rice vinegar for half a day, until it thickens to a paste.

Take out the materials mentioned above and use a new iron pot, a small vessel made of iron. First, put in ginger juice and boil it for half a day. Then wipe the pot dry and place it over a low flame. Melt the sulfur into a liquid, then add mercury. Using an iron spoon, slowly stir-fry the mixture over low heat. If it forms lumps, crush them finely with a willow-wood mallet, then return them to the low flame and continue frying. Be sure not to let it smoke or catch fire. If yellow smoke appears, immediately move the vessel away from the heat. Keep stirring throughout; do not rush, and do not sprinkle vinegar into the mixture. Violating these prohibitions can cause serious problems in the later refinement of spirit sand, a substance produced through Daoist alchemy. Fry it for a full day. When it reaches the state called “aged blue gold,” the spirit sand will be solid and less likely to develop wandering mercury—that is, free mercury that has not been bound into the mixture.

Second, the method for making the furnace and vessel is not recorded here.

Third, how to place the spirit sand in the vessel:

Take ten liang of blue gold and one liang of cinnabar. Choose the finest granular materials and grind them to a very fine powder.

First grind high-quality ink thoroughly with fine vinegar, then coat the bottom of the water cauldron three to five times to make it thick, so the spirit sand can be removed easily. For the outer layer, mix clam powder and red ochre with vinegar, add a little honey, and seal it tightly. Bind it securely with iron wire, then mix Six-One mud with yellow lead and coat the entire vessel to seal it.

After a full day and night, once you have confirmed it is completely dry, place the vessel in the water cauldron inside the furnace and fill the cauldron with water. Put three jin of charcoal beneath the cauldron to heat its base. When about one or two ladles of water have evaporated, add another two or three jin of charcoal. When the water has boiled dry, continue replenishing it with hot water and adding charcoal without interruption. After heating it for five shichen, add another five or six jin of charcoal for a calcination. Only after using fifteen jin of charcoal in all is the firing considered sufficient. When the furnace has cooled, remove the vessel and inspect the spirit sand: it should be hard and ring when struck. If it is not hard enough, that means it still contains oil-mercury and cannot be refined into an elixir.

The various problems that arise during the nurturing and refining of spirit sand, including an excess of “mother-eating,” all result from sulfur and mercury not being properly subdued during boiling and refining, the green gold not being thoroughly roasted, the failure to use rice vinegar, or uneven firing and insufficient heat. If you refine it further by sublimation, you must add hot water to the water cauldron; do not add cold water. When adding fuel, do not make the fire too high: the flames must not rise above the cauldron’s joint.

The Taishang says: “True jia-geng is called ‘green gold.’” Place it in the furnace cauldron and refine it with fifteen jin of charcoal, regulating water and fire until they are in harmony. The resulting sand should be firm and solid. The fifteen jin of fuel used here is equivalent to nine hundred years, or fifteen circuits of the sun, and also corresponds to the number of the sexagenary cycle. This refining over a single day and night is as though it contained nine hundred years of transformation.

Thus it is said that spirit sand conceals whiteness within and belongs to Kan, while its natural color is red and belongs to Li. The joining of Kan and Li and the refining through “already-completed union” refer to the Five Phases—Water, Fire, Metal, Wood, and Earth—blending into one and condensing to form the Great Medicine.

The poem says:

The five metals have already been blended in the Kan-Li Palace, a term in alchemical practice symbolizing the refinement of Water and Fire. They have mixed and congealed into a solid form, which was originally red.

They received the wondrous power of Yin and Yang joining together. After ninety days, reckoned according to the cycle of the sexagenary days, the process was finally complete.

Fourth: The Method for Boiling Spirit Sand

Burn green mulberry branches to ash, then strain the ash to extract the liquid. Prepare two liang of alum, two qian of realgar, one liang of Sichuan pepper, one liang of green salt, and three qian of blue vitriol.

Put these five ingredients into the mulberry-ash liquid, add vinegar, and pour the mixture into a new iron pot or a vessel made of sand or stone. Shape the Spirit Sand into a lump, place it in a fine-meshed bamboo basket, and suspend it in the medicinal liquid to boil for the duration of three periods of summer heat. Once boiled, let it dry, then stir-fry it together with the medicines. Remove it and bathe it in a decoction made from Sichuan pepper.

Someone asked, “Why boil it?”

The Most High replied, “Sulfur and mercury have congealed into a solid form, but they must be made completely firm. So they are boiled to reverse their properties. The five ingredients correspond to the Five Phases (Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, Water); hence this is called the ‘Sulfur Method of Boiling in Five-Phase Mulberry-Ash Liquid.’ Once sulfur’s properties have been reversed, the mercury will congeal.”

The poem says:

Yin and Yang have been blended, yet the precious substance is not yet refined; only the liquid from green mulberry ash can bring it to completion.

Refine it until its efficacy is nine-tenths complete, and it can transform stones; this is all achieved through the power of the mother medicine, revealing the wondrous work of the immortals.

Fifth: The Method for Refining the Lead-and-Sulfur Crucible of the Dao’s Flowering Pool

One jin of black lead and two liang of sulfur. The sulfur must be imported by sea and transparent in color; beware of sulfur boiled in paddy fields…

First place a clean tiao (a small metal pot) over the fire. Melt the lead until it becomes liquid, then add finely ground, prepared sulfur to the molten lead a little at a time, stirring constantly with an iron spoon. Let the sulfur burn in the lead, flickering like a moth. When sparks appear, remove the pot from the fire and keep stirring without pause. Once the sparks have gradually died out, return the pot to the fire to melt the mixture. Then slowly add sulfur powder, stirring continuously until it has all been added. When the mixture has cooled, remove it and grind it into a fine powder. This produces “Flower Pond,” the name of a substance used in alchemy.

The commentary on the scripture explains that this is the union of lead and mercury, with the two kinds of Qi supporting one another and Yin-Yang brought into balance, so that Ying and Wei—the Qi and blood circulating in the body—are harmonized. In other words, water is obtained from fire and Yin from Yang. Thus the principles of the Way of Long Life, which circulates and nourishes without end, are made clear. The product of this method is called “Mountain Trigram Flower Pond”; its specific proportions are given in a separate formula.

Sixth: Method for Making the Mountain Trigram Sulfur Matrix

Take four liang of prepared sulfur and half a jin of shanze. Beat the shanze into fairly thick, thin sheets; the number of sheets does not matter. Heat each sheet over the fire until very hot, then sprinkle it with prepared sulfur powder. Continue heating and sprinkling with sulfur until the shanze turns bluish black and begins to flake away in layers, like the charred underside of a pot. Repeat the heating and sprinkling as described above. Once the sulfur has penetrated the shanze sheets, continue heating and sprinkling until the sheets gradually flake away completely. Finally, grind the material into a fine powder, add the other ingredients, and mix well to make a “matrix,” a material used to hold or work with ingredients in preparing elixirs.

The other ingredients are: roasted hematite, fired seven times, quenched in vinegar, and ground fine; ground wumingyi; and red crow’s feet. Take four liang of each of these three ingredients, and four liang of Mountain Trigram sulfur.

First grind the three materials listed earlier into a fine powder. Mix them evenly in the ratio “one liang of Gentian Sulfur to three liang of this medicine,” and make a gui—a container or bed for wrapping and supporting the medicinal materials. Next, grind the sulfur previously calcined and genuine Shanze into a fine powder. Process it carefully according to the prescribed method to make the coating medicine. Moisten the Ling Sha—a cinnabar-based medicine obtained through refinement—with vinegar paste, coat it evenly with a layer of Shanze powder, then wrap each piece in sheets of high-grade Shanze. Tie each securely with cotton thread. Remove the thread, place the pieces in the Gentian Sulfur gui, and arrange, cover, and cushion them neatly.

Next, make a spirit chamber from Shanze to hold and protect the medicine. If no spirit chamber is available, pound the Shanze into round plates and place them over the Gentian Sulfur gui. Put the previously wrapped Ling Sha coated with sulfur inside, then cover it with a Shanze plate and seal it tightly. After the Huachi stage—here, a liquid or treatment used in preparing the medicine—seal the joints, bind them firmly with iron wire, and seal the outside all over. Place the vessel in an ash jar and heat it.

Begin with a fire of two liang and nurture the medicine for two days. Increase the fire to two and a half liang and continue for two days, then raise it to three liang for another two days. On the seventh day, increase the fire to five liang. Place fire implements around the vessel and nurture the medicine for one full day. After seven days, remove the Ling Sha and take off the coating medicine, then boil it with two other ingredients.

Four qian of alum and eight qian of imported sulfur; grind the huangyaozi and baiyaozi into a fine powder.

Grind the alum and sulfur into powder and apply it to the Ling Sha. Let it dry. Put the huangyaozi and baiyaozi in a small pan and fry over low heat until purple-black, then grind them into a fine powder. Moisten the Ling Sha with vinegar paste and apply the powder so that none of it shows through. Wrap it in Kunlun paper, tie it tightly with cotton thread, and place it in the mother gui—a container used to nurture and store the medicine—for further refinement.

Someone asked, “Why apply this medicine to the surface of the medicinal material?”

The Supreme Lord said: These medicines are the fundamental materials for treating dead mercury. Used to treat dead mercury, they ensure there is no failure and prevent the medicine from leaking out. Then wrap it securely in Kunlun paper, tie it tightly with cotton thread, and place it in the Mother Vessel for gentle warming and nurturing.

Someone asked, “Why should this medicine be kept close to the body?”

The Supreme Lord replied, “These medicines are the fundamental materials for treating dead mercury. Used to treat dead mercury, they ensure there is no failure.”

Seventh: The Method of Gentle Warming in the Mother Vessel

The poem says:

When the mother is upright, the child becomes lively and can communicate with the workings of creation. Yet once the child comes to life, it does not draw close to the mother.

One must also use arisaema, assisted by zedoary. If black dragon is used, it too may be called “star.”

Use one catty of the finest mountain-and-marsh material, prepare it as powder according to the method, and make the grains as small as millet. It may also be used to make the vessel, but the spirit chamber must still be used as an implement to hold and enclose the medicine. Someone asked, “Why use the spirit chamber?”

The Supreme Lord replied, “It is to prevent the coverings above and below from failing to cover the medicine completely. With the spirit chamber, it is enclosed all around and thoroughly covered, and the mineral medicine can fully receive the mother’s nurturing warmth.”

Eighth: The Method of Regulating the Fire During Gentle Warming

The poem says:

Metal and Wood unite and enter the Palace of Bing. Know that Mao and You, too, can be paired in accordance with the principles of Cantong qi.

After repeated questioning, the substance fit for becoming an immortal is released; then Liu Lang is seen entering the azure sky.

After keeping the mineral medicine described above close to the body, proceed with the method of regulating the fire as it is placed in the Mother Vessel for gentle warming.

The poem says:

Metal and Wood unite and enter the Palace of Bing. Know that Mao and You, too, can be paired in accordance with the principles of Cantong qi.

After repeated questioning, the substance fit for becoming an immortal is released; then Liu Lang is seen entering the azure sky.

Press the preceding sand tightly against the body of the crucible, place it in the mother crucible, and arrange it on a lotus-shaped support. Then seal it firmly according to the prescribed method and set it in the ash pit. On the first day, apply fire at the Mao and You hours, using two liang each time. On the second day, use three liang each time. From then on, increase the amount by one liang at each of the two daily firings, at Mao and You. On the seventh day, increase the fire to half a jin, then keep it gently heated for one more day. Once the furnace has cooled, take out a piece of the medicinal material, wrap it in two pieces of white plum flesh, and warm it over the fire for about as long as it takes to eat a meal. Then soak it in vinegar and inspect it: if it has turned snow-white, the sulfur has been removed, leaving only mercury. The mother material has suffered no loss or damage.

If the medicinal material has not yet fully transformed, immediately remove what is adhering to it. If it has already taken on the color of an embryo, the fire was simply too strong; the medicinal potency has not yet been achieved. Next, boil rice vinegar with white alum and use it to wash the mother crucible. Rub and clean it in the palm of your hand. Once it has dried, return it to the vessel and keep it gently heated for three days, applying five liang of fire at both the Mao and You hours. This will complete the refining.

Someone asked, “Why wash the crucible with vinegar?”

The Great One replied, “I fear the mother’s power may be insufficient, so I wash it again with vinegar to strengthen it.”

A poem says:

Without essence, the child cannot endure; if the mother is weak, the child cannot be born.

If you do not understand the Three Essentials of the mysterious mechanism, how can you refine the Great Elixir?

If you have enough material, take another jin of “mountain-and-marsh” material and make it into a crucible by the method described above. Then keep it gently heated for seven days. The sand refined in this way will be firmer, and its original nature will remain unchanged. Use it for further transmutation, and its medicinal potency will grow stronger. Through the refining stage known as “bathing,” one can pass from the ordinary to the sacred, then proceed to the First Transformation, refining precious substances and turning them into treasure.

First Transformation: Turning Precious Substances into Treasure

“Ding flower” is a plant with yellow flowers growing on its stems. If this material is unavailable, golden-lantern root may be used in its place. The flesh of ba stems and the flesh of castor seeds are also among the ingredients. Use equal amounts of each.

Carefully store the spirit sand prepared earlier against the body. Pound it into powder in an iron mortar, then wrap it into a bundle with Kunlun paper. Next, pound the three ingredients mentioned earlier into a paste and use it to enclose the spirit sand. Place this in a large sand vessel. Cover it with salt flowers and make many small holes in the layer of salt. Put a lead cake on top, fill the vessel with more salt flowers, seal the joint tightly, and seal the outside of the vessel as well. Once the sealing clay has dried, place it in an ash pit and calcine it overnight. When the furnace has cooled, take it out. The text says to remove a piece of silver-like material and use it as a “container”—a vessel for holding and nurturing the elixir during refinement.

The poem says: “The spirit sand, after seven refinings, is divided into three grades. Its mysteries must be taught by a master and understood with particular care. Once black and white can be distinguished, one can comprehend the transformations of creation. Washed and refined in the ‘Flowery Pool,’ one can ascend.”

Next, boil and refine the spirit sand with rice vinegar, green salt, mirabilite, and other substances. The aim is to make it firm and bring it into a transformed form, so that it can serve as the elixir base for the first transformation.

Second Transformation: Leaving the Mundane and Entering the Sacred Realm

The poem says: “No longer use a mundane womb-body to nurture the sacred embryo; continue its cultivation according to the method given earlier. This time, shed the old form and bring the immortal bones to completion. Only then will you know how profound and unfathomable the principle is.”

Next, make a separate container from the spirit sand prepared earlier, then place raw cinnabar inside it for nurturing and refinement. The text then lists pepper, long pepper, anemarrhena, fritillaria, and other medicinal ingredients. It instructs the practitioner to boil them in vinegar, then bathe the elixir material in pepper decoction. After washing it clean and drying it, continue according to the method that follows. The text next lists sublimed mercury, roasted sand, anemarrhena, fritillaria, and other ingredients, and repeats the boiling and bathing steps. At the end, it lists sublimed mercury, roasted sand, stalactite, white resin, and calcined alum.

“Seven returns,” “first transformation,” and “second transformation” are terms from Daoist Waidan (external alchemy), referring to the staged refinement and transformation of elixir materials. “Sacred embryo,” “immortal bones,” and “ascending” are expressions in alchemical texts for transcendence and transformation beyond the ordinary.

Grind the five medicinal ingredients mentioned above into a fine powder. Mix them with honey or vinegar, apply the mixture to the body, and place it in the container for the first cycle. Arrange the ingredients according to the prescribed method, seal the container securely, and place it in the furnace to be gently warmed and nurtured. The firing times follow the same method described earlier. When the process is complete, open the container: the elixir will have been refined. It is then called the “Sacred Embryo” (the embryo of the elixir), in which not the slightest trace of the ordinary, worldly has remains. One jin made this way must not be …; it may only be ground further and used to nurture and refine the Great Medicine. The container method still follows the number “Four-One.”

The poem says:

Without relying on any ordinary medium, one can refine a pure white substance;

Apart from the qi of the mother’s womb, it naturally becomes spiritually clear.

Its power to communicate with spirits and transform things comes from this;

In an instant, Cinnabar Yang can remake the body, leaving it pure and free of dross.

If the elixir is to be taken, first bury it in the earth for seven days to remove its fire toxins, then form it into pills with tree honey.

The subtle method of regulating the firing:

Use one liang on the first day, one and a half liang on the second, two liang on the third, three liang on the fourth, four liang on the fifth, four and a half liang on the sixth, and six liang on the seventh. The original text goes on to list quantities for the morning of the seventh day, the east, evening, and the various directions, but some wording and the order of the numbers are unclear. It then repeats the quantities for days one through seven, and says to use three liang on the morning of the eighth day, three liang for the south, three liang in the evening, and three liang for the north as well.

The Third Cycle: Gently Nurturing True Yang (the third stage, in which True Yang is cultivated through gentle warming).

The poem says:

To establish the foundation for the Great Medicine of immortality,

First subdue and restrain the “Red Dragon Boy” (an alchemical term for the Yin energy that must be brought under control).

Refine it through nine times nine, eighty-one layers, until it becomes a pure Yang body;

Only then will you believe in the wondrous transformations within the furnace.

Mercury has already been refined into something precious, but it remains a substance on its own. Without True Yang, it cannot undergo transformation. Use one jin of arrowhead-shaped cinnabar, together with one liang each of Sichuan pepper, black aconite, arisaema, qianghuo flower, alum, and green salt, and five qian each of bile alum and niter.

Pour the finest rice vinegar into a vessel. Suspend the medicine above the liquid and steam it for three fu periods (about six double-hours by traditional reckoning). Next, boil it for half a day in the natural juice of wild knotweed, then bathe it in pepper broth and let it dry.

Grind the finest ink thoroughly into a liquid and pour it into an earthenware cup. Coat the cinnabar with the ink and dry it on a clean roof tile. Coat it with ink again and dry it again, repeating this process five to seven times. Then attach the fa xin—a supporting ingredient or medicinal primer used in the alchemical process—to the medicine, making the layer as thick as possible.

Grind the second-turn Ling Sha to a fine powder and place it in a joined crucible, the vessel used to hold and seal the materials during alchemical firing. Use the “lotus” method to nurture and refine the cinnabar, then seal the vessel according to the prescribed method. First take three or five qian by weight of Ling Sha, shape it into a round disk, and place it over the crucible’s contents. Add the Hua Chi powder, attach it to the medicine in as thick a layer as possible, then seal the vessel. Place it in an ash pit and nurture it with heat according to the regimen described earlier. After the prescribed number of days, remove it, grind it, and examine it. If its color resembles that of mountains and marshes, the refinement is complete. If it still has a reddish tinge, nurture it with fire for three more days, and it will be ready.

The joined-crucible method follows the “four-one” count and involves four rounds of nurturing. Use one jin of medicine to make the crucible material, then pour it over the contents. If you are not refining the orthodox Nine-Turn Elixir, you can use this method to nurture the head of the Second-Turn Elixir and make a “Longevity Gushing-Spring Crucible” for nurturing the mother cinnabar. The saying “One gives rise to two, two gives rise to three, and three gives rise to the myriad things” describes this principle of successive transformation and multiplication.

Fourth Turn: Pouring Over the Yellow Sprout

The poem says:

Wood crystal, Metal Fluid, and cinnabar come together; the refining powers of the numinous medicine and elixir sand are worthy of praise. Through the power of nourishment alone, water-crystal-like Yellow Sprouts gather in abundance within the cauldron.

“Wood Essence and Golden Liquid” refers to refining and nourishing elixirs with materials such as Wood Essence and Golden Liquid. The spirit sand and cinnabar mentioned earlier are cinnabar that has undergone refining and nourishment. The Cantong qi (a Daoist alchemical classic) says, “Cinnabar is the essence of Wood; only when it obtains Metal can they unite.”

Shape the cinnabar that has been treated with fire into a lump and place it in the vessel to nourish in the void for three days, using three liang of fire each day. Open the vessel daily and pour four liang of mercury over the cinnabar. First filter the mercury through three or four layers of skin paper, then pour it over the cinnabar. Seal the vessel securely, place it in an ash bed for further nourishment and refinement, and regulate the fire according to the method described earlier. After seven days, extinguish the fire and let it cool before taking it out. By then the mercury will have dried, but no bud-like crystals will yet have formed. If you do not intend to refine it into the True Elixir, you can use it to nourish spirit sand, serving as a container (a vessel for holding and nourishing refined substances) in which to nourish the Mother Sand. This method is called “sow at dawn, harvest at dusk.”

A poem says:

Add more medicine and nourish it again; the mercury dries each time.

The principle of the Great Dao is clear and plain, not complicated.

Adjust the heat gradually, without letting it grow too strong.

When the furnace is opened, its radiance gathers like fine jade.

Once the mercury has been nourished, there is no need to take it out. Pour on more mercury and continue the process as before. When you have accumulated twenty liang of the material for the container, pour in five liang of mercury and nourish it over the fire for seven days, following the earlier instructions. When you open the vessel to inspect it, the mercury will reveal its marvels, swelling into jade shoots like fine langgan jade.

A poem says:

Jade forests and trees appear only after three rounds of nourishment.

The wondrous flowers of the jade elixir shine with even brighter colors.

At this point, continue to tend and protect them without slackening.

Guard them especially carefully, with unwavering intent.

After nourishing the mercury twice, gradually increase the heat. Pour in seven liang of raw mercury, seal the vessel as before, and nourish it over the fire for seven days. When you open it to inspect the contents, you will see brilliant jade elixir, like a forest of jade trees. Together with what was obtained earlier, you will have one jin of mercury buds. Take them out and call them “Divine Talisman White Snow”; they can be used to nourish and refine the Great Elixir. You may also simply take them out and use them to obtain boundless benefit.

A poem says:

How rarely one encounters the “White Snow Divine Talisman”!

The Red Dragon turns and returns, guarding the central palace.

The vaporous clouds, thunder, and the medicines in the cauldron boil together. After three days, the process is complete; beyond this lies a superior method of the immortals.

Method for Making Firm Sprouts

Finely file one jin of mercury sprouts (a prepared precursor for mercury medicine) and place them in a small cooking pot. Stir-fry them for two double-hours with rice vinegar, cake medicine, and lees from the bottom of the wine. Then sprinkle on medicinal liquid and continue frying. Place the mixture in a sealed vessel used for cultivating medicines, spread it out, cover it tightly, and cultivate it for twenty-one days. When the sprouts have become firm and potent, they are ready for fire cultivation—that is, heating and refining them according to the prescribed method.

Method for Preparing the Fifth-Turn Great Elixir

A verse says: “The elixir refined by subduing fire with the Red Dragon is called the Reverted Elixir. The immortals’ secret method is rarely encountered. After forty-nine days of work, gently cast in one grain of medicine, and the mercury will solidify completely.”

Pound the cultivated cinnabar sprouts and put them in the sealed vessel for fourteen days of unheated cultivation. Then pour mercury over them according to the “four-one” method, and cultivate them with a two-ounce fire for forty-nine days. When the time is complete, open the vessel to inspect the result: a “Jade Grove and Jade Trees” will have formed, a term in alchemy for the state in which the medicine has coalesced. Continue cultivating it in the cinnabar vessel used earlier, which serves as the spirit chamber, the container for sealing and cultivating the medicine. Only then is the process considered perfected.

Take one qian of Jade Shoots, the medicine in its slender, elongated form. Pour mercury over it according to the “four-one” method, and cultivate it with a two-ounce fire for forty-nine days. At the end of this period, open the vessel; a Jade Grove and Jade Trees will have formed. Take one qian of this and scatter it over one liang of mercury to form the elixir. Place the mercury in a Jian bowl, sprinkle the medicine on top, seal it tightly, and set it over the fire. The medicine will naturally make a sound like a cicada’s chirping. When the sound stops, the mercury will have solidified.

Method for the Sixth Turn: Producing Five Gengs, Subduing Three Yellows, and Transforming Them into Treasures

Take one liang of each of the three yellows and grind them together for an entire day and night. Add one liang of jade-snow powder, also known as jade shoots, and continue grinding until evenly mixed. Place the mixture in a crucible and cover it with half a liang of niter that has already been processed to remove its fire. Seal the furnace opening and burn nine jin of fuel, tempering the mixture three times. When the furnace has cooled, remove the contents: they will have refined into a red pellet of elixir.

To test it, place five liang of the five metals in an open furnace and melt them into liquid. Add one qian of the three yellows, and as soon as it is introduced, the whole mass will turn into purple geng metal. At this point, the refining is complete. Be sure to measure the dose carefully when using it. Only those of deep virtue may take it; they should also give relief to the poor and help the lonely and destitute. Cultivating the self and nourishing life is the right path. If you rely on what you have gained to indulge in greed without restraint and take too much, calamity will soon follow. Be sure to remain alert and cautious.

Method for Processing Niter to Remove Its Fire

Take half a liang of niter and add one qian of powdered sky-eggplant. Seal them in a container and heat them with one jin of fuel. When the furnace has cooled, remove the contents. The niter will then have been processed to remove its fire; grind it finely and use it as a covering.

The poem says:

Loving yellow blossoms set against white frost, one need not struggle to understand the principle of transformation.

The Qi of the Three Origins condenses in the furnace into a snowlike substance; do not let the ignorant secretly speculate and presume to measure it.

Seventh Turning: Seven Returns to Restore the Elixir

Take eight liang of sulfur and two liang of mercury, and grind them together until they turn black. Add one liang of the three yellows previously processed to remove their fire, and continue grinding until evenly mixed. Place the mixture in a porcelain vessel and cover it with three liang of the three yellows. Seal the gaps at the vessel’s mouth with red stone fat, then seal the entire vessel with salt mud. After the sealing clay has dried, place it in an ash pit. At mao hour and you hour each day, add four liang of fuel; warm it gently for seven full days, then remove it and grind it into powder.

The poem says:

The women with twin temple locks support one another; harmonize things repeatedly and at ease, and all will accord with principle.

Once the medicine has been refined to maturity, its properties clearly transform. The ingredients work together like father and son succeeding one another, bringing about changes that are profound and difficult to fathom.

The Eighth Turn: Refining Mercury into Geng, Completing the Eight Trigrams

Take five liang of sulfur and mercury that have been prepared and refined, add half a liang each of the finest raw Three Yellows, and one liang of southern borax. Grind them together until evenly mixed, place them in a sealed alchemical vessel, and set it in an ash bed. Warm and nurture it each day with a fire of two liang for three periods of seven days, twenty-one days in all. When the fire and the number of days are sufficient, take it out. Each time, take one zi, an ancient unit of medicinal dosage, and combine it with five liang of mercury to refine purple Geng.

If one still dares not take it after the sixth turn, how much more cautious should one be here, where the medicine has undergone an even greater transformation? Without deep understanding of the principles of nature and life, how could one fail to approach it with reverence and care?

The poem says:

When cinnabar has undergone the eighth turn,

No further labor is needed.

A tiny measure of pure Yang medicine

Can refine superior Geng.

If you can cultivate to this stage,

You should build De and lessen greed and anger.

When your merit is complete in three thousand acts,

You may become one who lives long and sees far.

If you wish to take the medicine in the order of its turns, mix it with honey from the wood tree and form pills the size of parasol-tree seeds. Take one on an empty stomach with running water from a long stream. The scripture says that once the Nine-Turn Elixir is complete, one may be admitted to the ranks of the immortals. The cinnabar spoken of since ancient times originates in this method of refinement.

The Ninth-Turn Elixir: Restoring Life to the Dead

The poem says:

After months of refinement, the elixir is complete;

Its wondrous transformations may then be put to use.

What value have a gold seal and official robes?

Better to live in peace beneath the bright moon and clear breeze.

The Supreme One says: If you cultivate to this stage, taking the elixir can transform an ordinary person’s body into a sage’s body and restore an aged face to youth. You may set up an altar on high, auspicious ground, use a blue-green oil cart, pay homage to the True Immortals and bow to the stars, then set out the cauldron and furnace and refine the Great Medicine according to the prescribed method. Mix paper-mulberry sap with clay to seal the inside and outside of the cauldron. Put in the elixir, place it in a basin of water, seal it, and set it inside the altar furnace. Warm and nurture it each day with a fire of five liang for one hundred days. When the fire has done its work, take out the elixir and bury it three feet underground. Retrieve it after one year.

Someone asked, “Why bury it?” The Great Supreme said, “It is buried to remove its fire toxins. After a full year, take it out and suspend it in a well for a year. Then take it out and soak it for a year in a long, flowing stream. When the three years are complete, take it out and grind it into a fine powder. Use licorice juice to form pills the size of chicken heads, place them in a furnace, and nurture them over a gentle fire for seven days. Then take them out.

“To test the medicine’s effects, simply give one pill to a chicken or a dog. After some time, each will be able to transform into a dragon or phoenix. After a person takes it, both body and spirit will become wondrous, and they will be able to ascend to heaven in broad daylight.

“Once the pills are refined, if the fire is still strong, fill several water vats with freshly drawn water and soak the elixir in the water. When the water grows warm, transfer it to another vat. Keep changing the water in this way until it no longer grows warm.”

The Nine Transformations of the Yellow Sprout and Golden Cauldron

Li Dongxuan’s Secret Art of the Spirit Elixir

The First Transformation in the Golden Cauldron

Take ten taels of arsenic and divide it into thirty packets. First put two taels of black lead into a crucible and melt it into liquid. Then add the arsenic, one packet at a time, waiting for each packet to melt before adding the next. After adding three or four packets in sequence, you may pour out the mixture. Then add more arsenic and follow the same procedure until all ten taels have been used. Ten taels of arsenic yield only about six taels of finished product. If the product is golden in color, there is no need to use lead.

The verse says: “Whether lead is used or not, the process begins with lead. When it is time to use true lead, following the usual method of using lead is a mistake.”

The Second Stage: Entering the Forged Cinnabar

Mix five liang of cinnabar with five liang of the “foundation” mentioned earlier, and grind them finely. Put the mixture in a Jian bowl, then cover its surface with two or three qian of “dead arsenic.” Place it in the furnace and heat it until glowing red, then immediately take turns blowing air with a bellows. When the ingredients melt into liquid, sprinkle in a small amount of “live arsenic” and add it to the mixture, causing the dead arsenic to take effect again. Keep fanning until the arsenic has burned away and the liquid becomes clear. The cinnabar is then considered refined. Remove it with tongs. Once the Jian bowl has cooled, break it open and take out the cinnabar. Heat it again to refine it until all the arsenic has been removed. Then break the cinnabar into pieces the size of soap nuts and boil them with medicinal ingredients.

Take one liang each of bran salt, qiu grass, bitter stem, langdu, pumice, magnetite, and iron filings to boil five liang of cinnabar. Put them in an earthenware pot and boil for three days and nights. When the cinnabar has turned ink-black, remove it and soak and rinse it sixty times in boiling water; do not reduce the number of rinses. After soaking and rinsing, grind the bitter stem, langdu, pumice, magnetite, and iron filings into a powder. This serves as the “bedding,” an auxiliary material used to wrap or support the substance being treated.

Next, take one liang of raw cinnabar, choosing grains or lumps. Moisten it with vinegar, then wrap it in gold leaf so that it resembles a lotus flower. Put it in a porcelain vessel and seal the seams with red bole mixed with vinegar. Bind it tightly with crossed iron wire and seal the whole vessel. Once dry, place it in an ash pit and calcine it for seven days, using two liang of heat from above. Continue calcining the cinnabar in the same way as described earlier.

Transforming Copper and Iron, Third Method

Take two liang of plowshare iron, heat it, and break it into pieces. First put one liang of cinnabar in a pot, then place the iron on top of it and melt them over a strong fire. The cinnabar will rise to the top again while the iron sinks to the bottom. Continue calcining them as described earlier.

Terminology note: A Jian bowl is a ceramic tea bowl. “Dead arsenic” and “live arsenic” are names used in the processing of arsenic substances. A “bellows” is a tool for blowing air. “Remove with tongs” refers to gripping and lifting with tongs. “Ash pit” and “heat from above” are terms for traditional firing and calcination methods.

Take two liang of plowshare iron and heat it until red, then break it into pieces. Prepare a pot and place one liang of cinnabar on its bottom. Put the iron on top of the cinnabar and heat the mixture over a high flame until it melts into liquid. The cinnabar will rise to the top again while the iron sinks to the bottom, making a sound like a woodpecker pecking at a tree. When the sound has stopped completely, the medicine is ready. Do not pour the contents out of the pot.

Cool the outside of the pot with cold water. The cinnabar will naturally solidify into a sheet and float on top. Break the pot to remove the medicine: the iron beneath will have turned into fine silver. Use the cinnabar obtained in the first firing to continue the process in the same way. The silver produced in the second and third firings will be slightly greenish and harder. Refine it together with the silver from the first firing, and the color will become uniform, producing silver of the highest quality. This is not the kind of silver commonly found in the world; it is called “medicinal silver.” The scripture calls it a supreme treasure of the immortals. The same method can be used to transmute copper.

If, after using the cinnabar for a third time, you do not add it to the gui—the vessel used to seal, store, and cultivate the medicine—make another gui and cultivate the mother cinnabar in it, so that raw cinnabar, too, can be refined into a treasure. Refining lead into silver works in the same way, and the silver obtained does not diminish.

Method for Leaving the Ordinary and Entering the Sacred, Part Four

Each time, take four liang of cultivated cinnabar and gather it into eight liang or four liang to make a gui. Take fresh cinnabar and refine it according to the method described above. Wrap it in gold leaf, then cultivate it over heat for seven days. Remove it and mix it in equal amounts with the mother cinnabar; use either eight liang or one jin. Pound them together, add one liang of realgar and one liang of orpiment, and grind the three ingredients until evenly mixed. Place them in the gui and cultivate them over two liang of fire for seven days. Remove the mixture and refine it together to obtain ten liang of high-grade “Geng.” “Geng” is an alchemical term here for the refined metallic medicine or product.

Transferring the Hun and Joining the Po, Part Five

If the ten liang of medicine refined earlier cannot be used to transmute the points into Geng, prepare another batch. Take three liang of raw cinnabar, along with one liang each of the female and male substances. Combine the three ingredients and form them into a block. Wrap it in gold foil, then warm it over a fire for seven days as before. When removed, it should yield five liang in all. Grind one liang of it, add one qian of fire-subdued borax, and mix with yellow wax to make ten pills. Use these to transmute Shan Gen. One liang of the medicine can refine one liang of Geng.

Method of Using Hun to Control Po, No. 6

If the fifteen liang of medicine obtained earlier cannot transmute into Geng, pound it again and add five liang of raw cinnabar and two liang each of the female and male substances. Wrap the mixture in gold foil and warm it over a fire using three liang of fuel for seven days. When removed, it should yield twenty-four liang in all. Take one liang, add one qian of fire-subdued pao and one qian of borax, and grind them together. Then use yellow wax to form ten pills. Each pill can transmute one liang of dry mercury and refine it into Geng.

Method of Refining Yang and Dissipating Yin, No. 7

The twenty-four liang of medicinal ingredients described earlier serve as the basic materials for alchemical refinement. If they are not transformed directly into an elixir, one must build an alchemical chamber, choose a blessed site in a famous mountain, and begin refining the Minor Reversion Elixir. Crush the twenty-four liang of ingredients described earlier and place them in the furnace crucible as the charge. Then take ten liang of mercury and pour it in over three additions: two liang the first time, three liang the second, and five liang the third. Each time, nurture it gently with a fire of three liang. After seven days in all, thirty-four liang of elixir will be obtained. It will be purplish gold in color, brilliantly luminous, and its fragrance will fill the room. Next, immerse it in fragrant bathing water to bathe it, then nurture it gently for seven more days. Remove it and bathe it again. After one sexagenary cycle (sixty days), in the following month, the Minor Elixir will be complete.

For each dose, grind the elixir finely and mix it with a nursing infant’s milk and honey to make a paste. Roll the paste into pills the size of a tung tree seed. Take one pill at a time on an empty stomach, swallowing it with freshly drawn well water. By the tenth day, the Three Corpses (spirits believed in Daoism to dwell in the human body and obstruct cultivation) will depart, the hundred worms will die, and the hernia suffered throughout one’s life will be cured. After taking it for a hundred days, one may take it whether or not one has eaten. In this way, one can avoid plague, malaria and miasmal vapors, evil spirits, tigers and rhinoceroses, and the calamities of weapons and war. Thus one sets out on the path to becoming an immortal; this is a stepping-stone into the immortal Way for those whose foundations are still shallow.

Refining Qi into Shen: The Eighth Fire, Three Liang

Place the Minor Reversion Elixir refined earlier back in the furnace crucible and nurture it gently for seven days, then bathe it. After one heavenly cycle (a complete cycle of circulation), and with a year as the time limit, when its effects are complete and the firing process has reached maturity, its color will turn white and it will shine like the “mark of the tuft of white hair” described in Buddhist scriptures—the light radiating from the white hair between the eyebrows. When the elixir is removed, its radiance will fill the room, and spirits will protect it; mountain ghosts will not dare look directly at it.

The alchemist should observe fasting and purification, keep benevolent thoughts, and perform many good deeds, thereby preserving the elixir. Anyone who obtains it should also first accumulate merit before taking it. After taking it, one will be able to fly through the air and become an Earth Immortal (a realized immortal who dwells among humans).

Refining Shen to Unite with the Dao: The Ninth Fire, Four Liang

According to the prescribed method, one must bathe once every seven days, continuing for three years until a full thousand days have passed. When the cultivation is complete, golden light will shine through; only then is the alchemy considered successful. One must first invite a person of the Dao to join in safeguarding the work, and also perform a Zhaijiao (purification ritual) to report it to Heaven and Earth. Otherwise, a great demon may be provoked to wreak havoc and destroy the elixir, leaving all the effort in vain.

Once refined, the elixir turns yellow. This is what is called “returning to the origin and restoring the true” (returning to one’s original state and the real), a sign that the work is complete. While grinding the elixir, do not let sunlight fall upon it, for it may rise with the sun and disperse. It should be made into pills using honey from a tree. Scatter one pill across the land, and a thousand li of territory will receive its blessings: evil ghosts and demons, pestilence from insects, tiger attacks, drought, and other calamities will not occur. Swallow a single pill, and one can roam the Ten Continents and Three Islands, the legendary sea realms where immortals dwell; take one’s place among the immortals; live as long as Heaven and Earth; and deliver both the living and the dead. A mere movement of the mind is enough to bring things to pass. Even a chicken that eats it will become a phoenix, and a dog that takes it will transform into a dragon. Its many wondrous effects cannot all be recounted.

Those who study the Dao and are fortunate enough to hear of this elixir have all accumulated good affinities in past lives; they are no ordinary people of a single lifetime. Wherever this elixir text is transmitted, spiritual beings will protect it. Anyone who casually slanders this scripture is a person newly reborn in human form, with shallow understanding and limited perception. Those whose affinities are compatible and who sincerely seek the teaching should offer gold and treasure as a sign of their sincerity. When transmitting this scripture, do not show it to unsuitable people; take the greatest care.