《庚道集》Vol. 4

“True Treasure Is Precious and Delightful” means that the True Treasure obtained through repeated transmutation is indeed precious and worthy of delight.

The Old Lord said: “Jade Smile” is so named because Mercury surges and swirls, gathering into a form like a jade tree. One qian of this “dead Mercury” (Mercury refined until its properties have changed) can transmute one liang of “contentious Lead” into a supreme treasure at once, with wondrous powers of transformation.

The poem says:

Swirling and entwining, they bind together;

This single material alone is enough to make divine efficacy wondrous.

A snow-cold whiteness spreads through the hall, like a jade tree smiling;

When “Metal Lord” (the alchemical name for Lead) appears, it makes the wondrous substance bow.

Sixth Transmutation: The Method for Producing and Gestating the Five Metals, Making Female and Male Substances Subdue One Another, and Changing the False into the True

Take one liang each of the Three Yellows, grind them into a fine powder, and leave it undisturbed for a full day and night. Add one liang of Jade Smile powder, mix thoroughly, and put the mixture into a large crucible. First lay down half a liang of fire-subdued Niter (Niter treated by firing), then cover it with half a qian of Jade Smile powder. Seal the crucible, place it in nine jin of fire, and fire it in three stages until the heat is spent. When the furnace has cooled, remove the substance; it should be cinnabar red.

Copper, iron, tin, or Lead may each be melted in a furnace until liquid. Add one qian of Three Yellows powder. Every five liang of metal can thereby be transformed into true Geng of purple sheen.

How to Prepare Fire-Subdued Niter

Take half a liang of Niter, pound it to pieces, and put it in a sand crucible. Sprinkle one qian of Tianqie powder over the surface. Seal the crucible, and when the sealing clay has dried, place it in one jin of fire. Fire it until it glows red, then remove it with tongs. After it cools, grind it into a fine powder and store it in a sand crucible for use.

The Old Lord said: “Why refine the Three Yellows?” It is to transmute false substances and make them true. Mercury is the essence of Water and is used to return things to pure Yang. Thus it can restrain Yang and transform what is false into what is true.

The poem says:

Delight in refining Yellow Bud into White Snow;

The principle is not hard to understand, and merits careful inquiry.

The Three Origins (the three fundamental powers of Heaven, Earth, and Water in Daoism) protect the substance in the furnace,

And do not let the foolish presume to fathom it.

Seventh Transmutation: The Sevenfold Return Sulfur Method for Transforming Ground Mercury into Silver

Take eight liang of sulfur and two liang of mercury, and grind them together until they turn black. This is the method called “returning and transforming.” Next, add one liang of the fire-subdued Three Yellows prepared earlier. Grind everything together, then place it in a po-he, a vessel used for preparing elixirs. Cover the ingredients with three liang of powdered Three Yellows, seal the vessel securely according to the prescribed method, and place it in an ash pit. Adjust the heat each day at mao and you times, around dawn and dusk, adding four liang of fuel, and nurture the mixture over the fire for seven days. Remove it and grind it into a fine powder. Each time, take one zi, an old unit of measure equal to about one quarter of a qian, place it in an iron vessel, and sprinkle it over three liang of mercury. Heat it alternately with gentle and strong fire, nurturing it for three days. Once the mercury has solidified, add three jin of fuel. After one firing, it becomes silver.

Laojun said: “Why is it called ‘Sevenfold-Returned Numinous Cinnabar’? The original amount of mercury was eight liang, but here it is changed to two liang of mercury and eight liang of sulfur. The idea of repeated transformation is called ‘sevenfold return’; that is, seven transformations.”

The poem says: “With hair in hornlike knots, they set themselves to meet; turning back and forth, they roam at ease, doing what is fitting. When the medicine is ripe, it plainly transforms through inversion; when the mother and child substances unite, there can be no doubt.” This means that during the process of refinement, one should work in accordance with the medicine’s pattern of repeated transformation. Once the medicine is mature, it will change; when the substances come together, the desired result can be achieved.

Eighth Transformation: The white substance becomes gold; mixed with mercury, it becomes geng. This is called the Geng Method of the Eight Trigrams.

Take five liang of Sevenfold-Returned sulfur and mercury, add half a liang each of the finest Three Yellows and one liang of Southern borax, and grind them together until very fine. Place the mixture in a vessel, seal the seams around its mouth, and set it in an ash pit, nurturing it with two liang of fuel. Adjust the heat each day at mao and you, and nurture it for twenty-one days. Remove it and grind it into a fine powder. Each time, take one qian of the powder and mix it with five liang of mercury; it is said to refine into true geng, a term in Daoist texts for the metal produced through refinement.

Laojun said: “Why is it said that mixing with mercury can produce geng? Because the number of the Eight Trigrams is now complete, and Yin-Yang has reached its utmost fullness and perfection.”

The poem says: “Thus it becomes clear that the elixir is complete; throughout the process, no part is achieved without hard labor. With a thread of pure Yang, the Yin energy is dispelled—who, then, could become my companion? If one can refine the substance to this stage, the number of the Eight Trigrams is complete and Yin-Yang has reached its utmost fullness and perfection; one can then ascend immediately.”

The Great Method of the Ninth Transmutation for Long Life, Immortality, and Ascension

Take the spirit sand refined in the earlier stages and ingest it in order, according to its transmutation stage. Make it into pills with refined honey, take one pill each time, and swallow it with water from a flowing stream until the illness is cured. The methods and effects of each stage have already been described above. Since ancient times, no medicine used in cultivating remedies and refining elixirs has surpassed this one. The effects of the ninth transmutation are beyond anything human effort can achieve. The Old Lord said, “If you can cultivate it to this stage, a single dose of the elixir will enable you to ascend, shed the mortal body entirely, and become a perfected person. Your appearance and body will enter a mysterious realm, profound and unfathomable.”

Choose a blessed site on high ground, build a Daoist temple and ritual altar, and prepare Bixia and the other required items. Pay homage to the true deities each day, then make a furnace and cast a cauldron. Take three jin of spirit sand hammered according to the “two-eight” method and grind it finely. Then take the spirit sand from the eighth transmutation and add two jin in total of the Three Yellows, sulfur, and mercury. Together, the ingredients weigh five jin. Grind them all into powder and place them in the cauldron. This is called “dust from the bright window of the sun.” It is said to be used in combined refining and in nurturing the golden silkworm, thereby bringing the mysterious Daoist arts to completion.

A poem says:

When mortals and sages cultivate, both must probe the secrets of sun and moon;

The wondrous effects emerge in secret, and the cultivator can bear them too.

What is there to envy in the golden seals prized by ministers and generals?

The bright moon and clear breeze are what my heart belongs to.

The Old Lord said:

Take one jin each of yellow lead, azurite, mica powder, colored gold earth, and crystal.

Grind the five medicinal substances listed on the right into a powder. Wash and purify the powder with water, then mix it with the milk of a black donkey to make a paste. Coat the inside of the crucible with the paste and wait for it to dry before placing the elixir inside. Then cover it with the upper vessel so that the two parts fit together, and place it in the furnace. Adjust the heat each day, gently nurturing it with a fire of five jin. After one hundred days, remove it and bury it three chi underground for one year.

After a year, take it out and let it dry. Put the elixir back inside, cover it with the upper vessel so that the two parts fit together, and return it to the furnace. Adjust the heat each day, gently nurturing it with a fire of five jin. After one hundred days, remove it and bury it three chi underground for another year. Then take it out and suspend it in a well for a year; remove it and soak it in water for a year; then bury it three chi underground for one more year. This is done so that the elixir does not give off a rosy glow.

Use the juice of sweet dew to form the medicine into pills the size of chicken heads. Place them in the crucible, seal the vessel, and refine them together, continuing to adjust and gently nurture the fire. After seven days, remove the pills. Give one to a completely black dog, then plunge the dog into a vat of freshly drawn water. The water will boil violently and grow hot. Replace the water and soak the dog again; after the water has been changed nine times, the dog will transform into a dragon and ascend to heaven.

A person who takes this elixir will likewise be able to ascend after being immersed in nine vats of water, just like the dog. It is therefore called the “Nine-Turn Great Immortal Elixir.” How could ordinary people presume to cultivate it as they please? If they can refine even one turn, they may take it; it is said to preserve the body and extend life. Unless one honors the Way of Heaven and acts in accordance with the Dao, no one has ever been able to refine the Great Elixir.

In refining the Great Elixir, only after reaching the third stage can it be transformed into the Great Immortal Elixir. How could ordinary people presume to cultivate it as they please? If they can refine even one turn, they may take it; it is said to preserve the body and extend life. Unless one honors the Way of Heaven and acts in accordance with the Dao, no one has ever been able to refine the Great Elixir.

To cultivate the Great Elixir—the elixir sought through Neidan practice—three conditions must be met. First, accumulated impurities from the past must be able to clear away on their own, allowing innate wisdom to open naturally. Second, one must seek out an enlightened teacher and study the Daoist methods so that the mind and nature become settled. Third, one must take part in Daoist assemblies according to one’s affinities with the teaching and act in accordance with the natural course of things. In this way, one may receive the radiant essence of the divine treasure and naturally attain efficacy and protection.

In ancient times, the Celestial Worthy of Primordial Beginning (Yuanshi Tianzun), a revered Daoist deity, transmitted the formulas to Lao Jun. These formulas taught practitioners not to be bound by the ordinary patterns of Heaven and Earth’s transformations. Through the refinement of water and fire, matter was given form; then Metal and Wood were joined as one, so that all transformations of the myriad things could flow through the Dao. In this way, various methods of transformation were established, giving rise to the secret method for refining the Great Medicine. Later, these formulas were passed to the Eastern Florescence Emperor (Donghua Dijun), who then transmitted them to the Queen Mother of the West (Xiwangmu). From then on, the immortals passed them down from generation to generation by word and mind, without committing them to writing. The levels of oral and mind-to-mind transmission were called “three,” while the grades of accomplishment numbered nine.

The Qingjing Jing (Scripture of Clarity and Stillness) circulating today sets out Lao Jun’s intent in discussing the methods of the Elixir. The substances it describes have no fixed form; ordinary people call them “formless.” The scripture therefore teaches one to understand the principle of transformations without end through “yin-jing.” It then expresses this in verse:

Still and natural, it makes use of the root and the primordial Qi.

Rising and descending, advancing and withdrawing, they complement and draw one another on.

If you can bring it into the abdomen, you will ascend through the nine heavens.

After one or two attempts, results can already be seen. But upon reaching the stage of the third revolution, one must not act or speak casually. Alas, even the spirits of Heaven and Earth will not tolerate careless conduct. How could one fail to be cautious?

The Elixir scriptures speak of “nurturing in emptiness for five or seven days.” This refers to opening the furnace to inspect the medicine after the fire has been tended. If the Elixir is not yet fully refined, it should be protected and stabilized again using the method of nurturing in emptiness. Once dry, place it in an ash pit. Seal the furnace lid, spread a layer of ash half an inch thick over it, and use no more than two taels of fire. Cover it with a piece of ash and do not move it. Keep it gently warm as it refines for five or seven days; this is called “nurturing in emptiness.”

Fire Timing

The fire timing discussed here is not the nine revolutions of fire described earlier. It is the nine-revolution fire timing used to boil and refine arsenic powder and make the Elixir’s seed.

For the first through fourth revolutions, use fire for one day per revolution, morning and evening each…

First use two liang. On the third day, add one more liang, bringing the total to three liang. Alternatively, wait three to six days before adding one liang, bringing the total to four liang. Keep the heat at a suitable level. If it is too strong, adjust it as needed; proceeding slowly is steadier. A higher mound of ash is no problem.

When moving from the fifth rotation to the sixth, add one liang, bringing the total to three liang. Alternatively, wait three to six days before adding one liang, bringing the total to four liang. Keep the heat at a suitable level. If it is too strong, adjust it as needed; proceeding slowly is steadier. A higher mound of ash is no problem.

When moving from the fifth rotation to the seventh, follow the usual method. After seven days, replace four liang of heated fuel each day, and do not let the heat weaken. If the daily amount is less than five liang, continue until the “great medicine” reaches the term of seven sevens (forty-nine days), then gradually stop applying heat. Once the amount reaches five liang, apply heat according to this method.

Qingxiazi’s Sixteen-Rotation Great Elixir

Boiling Cinnabar, A

Take one liang each of sulfur and green salt. Crush the Chinese gallnuts, remove the worm-eaten fragments, wipe them clean with a dry cloth, and keep them away from fire. Use one and a half liang of the resulting powder.

Grind and mix these three ingredients, place them in a sand vessel, and pour in aged sour rice vinegar until the vessel is four-fifths full. Suspend three liang of cinnabar in the liquid and boil it for one full day and night. Keep it at a gentle simmer, with bubbles the size of fish eyes. As the vinegar evaporates, add hot vinegar; do not use cold vinegar. When the boiling is complete, remove the cinnabar and wash it clean with warm water.

Forming the Copperas Sand and Applying Its Coating, B

Take five liang of filtered copperas, one liang each of white arsenic and mercury, and one fen of saltpeter.

Grind these four ingredients together until the mixture is fine and uniform, with no visible grains and no sound when ground. Put it in a silk bag and suspend it in an unglazed porcelain vessel. Boil it in river water for one day. Use an iron spoon to take out some mercury and inspect it; stop boiling once it has solidified into a sandy form. Pour away the remaining ingredients, wash and dry the sand, and shape it into a ball. Place it in a Tiao vessel, cover it with a Jian bowl, and use a gentle fire to drive off the free mercury until it is completely removed. Grind the material finely, moisten and bind it with honey, then spread it evenly over the previously boiled cinnabar as a coating of uniform thickness.

Wrapping the Fingers, C

Take seven qian of mercury, three qian of mother, and three qian of pepper.

Grind all the ingredients together into a fine powder. With pepper decoction, slowly grind them over low heat until they become granular, ideally as fine and soft as mud. Wash away the medicinal liquid with water and wipe the material dry. Then press it between sheets of paper to squeeze out the excess free mercury—that is, mercury that has not combined with the ingredients. Only afterward may it be worn against the body. Take cinnabar (vermilion), or use heavier grains of sand; wrap the grains one by one and leave them in a cool place until they harden. Arrange them loosely in an iron, cover it with a Jian ware bowl, and heat them intensely over a long period until all the free mercury has been removed and the grains have fused firmly into cinnabar.

Entering the Cabinet, Ding

Take five liang of silver pellets and use them to cover and wrap the cinnabar, then place it in the yellow whole batch (a term for a vessel or material). Add yellow ox discharge (a liquid named in the source) and two liang of yellow lead. Use medicinal residue and refining clay to form a ball and seal it. Once dry, heat it over a strong fire until red hot, and keep heating it for a long time before removing the fire. After it cools, take it out, grind it finely, and place it in the inner-nourishing yellow (a vessel or material used for inner nourishment). Cover it with one liang of the medicinal ingredients. Seal the opening with refining clay. When it is dry, place it in the furnace and cover the top with two inches of ash.

Fire Timing, Wu

Apply three liang of fire at the top, changing the fuel at the Yin, Wu, and Xu hours (hours marked by the Earthly Branches in ancient timekeeping). Nurture and refine it for three “sui” hours (a term in the source whose precise duration is unclear), then remove the fire. Once cool, take it out and strip away the sand and silver. The cinnabar inside must not melt; it is then used for pouring.

Testing Its Suitability, Ji

Arrange the fire-stabilized cinnabar in the yellow whole batch. Pour in two liang of mercury, seal the vessel, and place it in the furnace. Apply four liang of fire at the top, changing the fuel at the Yin, Wu, and Xu hours, and nurture and refine it for three “miao” hours (a term in the source whose precise duration is unclear). Open it to inspect: if it has not yet “sprouted,” pour in another two liang of mercury and refine it as before. Open it again to inspect; if it still has not sprouted, add another two liang and refine it as before. After these inspections, the cinnabar will “sprout.” Take another twenty-four liang of mercury for pouring over it during the nurturing and refining.

Pouring, Geng

During the refining, do not remove the cinnabar (red cinnabar) or the yellow shoot, an intermediate product in alchemy. Pour in four liang of mercury directly, set it securely in the water cauldron, and place the yellow vessel—or its contents—on top. Open it and inspect it. If the yellow shoot has not yet formed, pour in another two liang of mercury and proceed as before. When you open it again, the yellow shoot will have formed. Take another twenty-four liang of mercury to pour over it during the nurturing refinement.

Pouring and Rinsing Geng

Do not remove the cinnabar or the yellow shoot. Pour in four liang of mercury directly, secure the yellow vessel in the water cauldron, and cover it with two cun of ash. Place four liang of fire on top. Adjust the heat at the Yin, Wu, and Xu hours, and nurture-refine it for five refining intervals. After every two intervals and a further half interval, remove the ash, lift out the yellow vessel, and pour in cold water. Another account says to pour in hot broth instead, filling the water cauldron. When this is done, open the yellow vessel—or its contents—and pour in another four liang of mercury, proceeding as before. Repeat this six times, then collect the yellow shoot. The yield may be one jin, ten liang, or half a jin. Store it, place it in the Great Elixir, and continue refining it by the “nurturing fire and gushing spring” method. It will transform into the material used to refine the sixteen Great Elixirs.

The portion left behind, joined to the bottom of the furnace and not carried aloft, need only be mixed with the cinnabar left over from the earlier elixir preparation. Use it as a herbal container, a vessel in which the medicine is wrapped or held in plant materials; one round of refining will turn it into a treasure.

Flowery Pool Xin

Take one liang each of borax, saltpeter, alum, white ling, and yellow shoot. Weigh the ingredients, divide them equally, and grind them together until fine and uniform. Arrange coverings and padding above and below. Add half a sheng of grain juice and one sheng of rice vinegar, mix well, and pour the mixture over the ingredients until they are moist. Warm over a fire until half dry, then pour over the liquid again and continue warming until it has all evaporated. Cover with a Jian bowl, a ceramic vessel, and warm over a gentle fire for about one interval, until the mixture chars. Move it to a cool place; once cooled, remove it and use it to bathe the yellow shoot.

Bathing Ren

Take Sichuan pepper, white you, purple gromwell, Chinese fangji, and yellow yaoshu; another version omits yellow yaoshu. Weigh the four ingredients equally and chop them. Place them in a sand-and-stone vessel, simmer in running water until the liquid is concentrated, then let it cool before use.

Bathing Ren

Take Sichuan pepper, white you, purple gromwell, Chinese fangji, and yellow yaoshu; another version omits yellow yaoshu. Weigh the four ingredients equally and chop them. Place them in a sand-and-stone vessel, simmer in running water until the liquid is concentrated, then strain it through thick cotton cloth. Use the strained liquid to wash the yellow shoot from the Flowery Pool, cleaning it thoroughly, and do not use untreated water. Then place the yellow shoot in a Jian bowl and dry it over a gentle fire, stirring as it dries. Leave it overnight to receive the harmonious Qi of Heaven and Earth. This is called “the yellow shoot steeped in dew.”

Herbal Cabinet Gui

Pound Sichuan pepper, anemarrhena, fritillaria, scrophularia, sophora root, coptis, phellodendron bark, rhubarb, licorice, apricot kernels, arisaema, gentian, Chinese gallnuts, and gardenia into a powder. Mix the powder with rice vinegar to form a dough.

Coat the processed cinnabar with the medicinal dough, then combine it with mercury that has not formed into budlike crystals. Shape the mixture into a ball about a finger thick. Wrap it in Kunlun paper and seal it with refined clay. Once the clay has dried, inspect the vessel and patch any leaks.

Calcine it over five jin of fire; another account says to use three jin. When it glows red, plunge it into water, then pound it into powder and mix it with rice vinegar to form a dough. Repeat the steps of coating the cinnabar, combining it with mercury to make a ball, wrapping it in paper, and sealing it with clay. Calcine it over the fire again, and when it glows red, plunge it into water. Finally, extract the silver that has melted together.

“Dan tou” is the name given to the materials used in this refining method, or to the substance produced by it.

Place the yellow sprout from the treated mineral medicine into a vessel and add four liang of mercury. Sprinkle it once each day and tend the fire for two and a half days according to the prescribed method: first keep the fire above and the water below, then, for the next two and a half days, reverse them, with the water above and the fire below. This five-day process of tending the materials embodies an alternating arrangement of water and fire.

When the fire is above and the water below, take care not to let the water boil away. When the water is above and the fire below, support the vessel on an iron tripod, place the fire beneath it, and set the water above, so that water and fire interact. On each designated operating day, apply fire according to the prescribed timing: use two liang of fire for the first day or two, then increase it by one liang each day until the sixteenth day. After that, gradually reduce the fire until it is down to one liang. This is the fire regimen for one month. After the designated operating days have passed, tend the materials with one liang of fire for another month. This is the method of gradually advancing the fire regimen; the text says that by increasing and decreasing it in this way, the mercury will not be depleted.

To transform the yellow sprout, likewise increase the fire gradually until the sixteenth day, then gradually reduce it to one liang. After a month, once the designated operating days have passed, tend it with one liang of fire for another month. When the yellow sprout is nearly refined, five-colored, purplish-pink powder should appear. When opening and closing the vessel, if the purplish-pink powder is seen rising and congealing, sweep it into a silver box and collect it as the Great Elixir. Place the remaining yellow sprout in the spirit chamber, the vessel used during alchemical work to store and further tend the materials. Bathe the materials once every fifteen days by stopping or adjusting the fire at the appointed time, so that the refining process accords with the changes of Yin and Yang.

Master Bao Zhen said, “Without the Pool of Blossoms, the work is ultimately incomplete; even when refined into powder, it can easily drift away at the slightest touch.” Only through firing and refining can one understand the principle. For this reason, the Highest Immortals kept this essential method secret and did not lightly speak of the fire regimen, for it concerns the hidden transformations of the Golden Elixir. At this stage, success is said to be all but certain. The Book of Changes speaks of “waning and waxing, fullness and emptiness,” referring to the cycles of increase and decrease in the world. The “spring well surging within” mentioned in the Cantong qi likewise refers to internal transformation. Once the fire regimen has tended the materials until five colors appear, put them into the Purple River Cart for further processing, then continue tending them by the method of the surging spring.

After sprinkling the materials each day, open and close the vessel. If the sprouts inside appear jade green, tea colored, purplish red, or glossy white, these are their natural colors. If the entire box is the color of yellow earth or gold, then the true five colors have appeared. Usually, after sprinkling the materials once or twice, transfer them to another cauldron, take out the purplish-pink powder, and check whether it displays the five colors.

At this stage of cultivation, the purplish-pink powder that appears when the vessel is opened and closed is called “dust at the bright window.” It is the foundation of the Great Elixir. Once the five colors appear, take one or two liang of silver foil, hammer it thick around the edges and thin in the center, and fit it over a sand box. Put the yellow sprout into the box, seal it, and refine it according to the fire regimen described above. The powder will naturally rise and adhere to the silver foil at the top of the box. Open the box every five days, sweep the powder down with a goose feather, and collect it in a silver box. Once you have gathered one, two, or four liang, place it in the spirit chamber for further transformation. Through continued tending and refining, it will become a wondrous substance that no longer needs to be refined with cinnabar and mercury: the essence of cinnabar and mercury.

The Method of Changing Violet Powder and Introducing It into the Spirit Chamber to Form the Great Elixir (the Spirit Chamber is the sealed vessel used in alchemical refinement):

Take three parts and seven parts of cinnabar, squeeze out the free mercury, and weigh exactly one ounce. Divide it into three pellets. Place the pellets in medicinal cakes, or boil them for a day in a mixture of charcoal-ash water and dew until they harden. Then put them in a covered vessel, seal them beneath four ounces of Violet Powder, and place the vessel in an ash container. Heat it by alternating gentle and strong fire, then refine it with heat from above for one ounce. Next, continue the refinement for seven periods at times such as Yin, Wu, and Xu. When removed, the substance will have melted into purple polished gold, without losing even the slightest amount of weight. This is the efficacy of Violet Powder.

The Spirit Chamber is a silver vessel. First seal it on the outside with a sand vessel, then place it in an ash container and refine it for one ounce, alternating gentle and strong fire. If you do not intend to make it transform, grind the Violet Powder finely, mix it with paper mulberry juice into pellets, and divide them once they are dry. This is another way to use Violet Powder. You can also grind the powder finely, make pellets with paper mulberry juice, and, once dry, wrap them in yellow wax. Immerse them in a flowing stream or a well for forty-nine days. After taking them out, swallow one pellet with the first water drawn from a well in the morning. It is said that this will make one immune to all evil influences, turn the five viscera golden, and enable one to become an Earth Immortal—an immortal in Daoist teaching who achieves longevity through cultivation.

The methods of transformation are difficult to explain all at once. If Violet Powder is as fine as dust on a bright window, but you do not wish to take it yet, you can continue refining it through transformation until it is cultivated into a Golden Elixir.

First Transformation: The Method of Refining Yellow Sprouts into White Snow and Golden Essence

Master Zihua said: Pound the Yellow Sprouts, wash them with water, and place in the cauldron for refinement the portion carried away by the water. It will transform into a great medicine; the timing and adjustment of the fire should follow the method described earlier. The portion not carried away by the water can be melted with white metal, and will immediately become a treasure. The portion carried away by the water is called “Yellow Sprout Golden Essence.”

Second Transformation: The Method of Adding Mercury to Yellow Sprouts to Produce the Medicine

Place five liang of Yellow Sprout in the Flower Pool (a vessel used to prepare elixirs), then add five liang of mercury and set it over the fire until it congeals into a sandlike substance. Put it in a crucible, seal the joints tightly with paper, and place it in the furnace. Warm and nurture it with alternating gentle and strong heat for one fu period (about twelve double-hours). Remove it, pour in another five liang of mercury, seal it, and warm it as before. When removed, it has become Precious Sand. Put the Precious Sand into the crucible, seal it, and place it in the furnace to be warmed with gentle and strong heat for one fu period. Remove it, pour in five liang of mercury, seal it, and warm it according to the same method. When removed, it is called the “Treasure.”

Third Transformation: Testing Yellow Sprout to Make the Elixir

Place half a jin each of Yellow Sprout, silver powder, and mercury in the Flower Pool, and quench and refine them fifty times. Remove the mixture, place it in a sealed vessel used for refining, and seal it tightly. Warm and nurture it using the heat described above. When removed, a single round of refining has turned it into the “Treasure.” Add mercury every five days, then collect the resulting product. In this way, the raw material gradually matures and the mercury is not used up; hence it is called “Gushing Spring.”

Fourth Transformation: The Method of Cultivating the Source of Vermilion Mercury with Bright-Window Dust

Place one liang of Bright-Window Dust in a crucible, then add one liang of a large bowl of cinnabar, covering it above and below with Bright-Window Dust. Pour in one liang of mercury. Seal it according to the previous method, place it in the furnace, and tend the fire for forty-nine days. It will become the “Treasure.” Another account says that seven days of smelting will immediately transform it into gold. The portion that flies up to the top of the crucible is called “Purple River Cart.”

Fifth Transformation: The Method of Cultivating the Two Blacks with Bright-Window Dust

Grind one liang each of sulfur and mercury into a fine powder and place them in a crucible. Cover them with two liang of Bright-Window Dust. Seal it according to the previous method, place it in the furnace, and tend the fire for five days, until it turns gold-colored or purple. Then remove it and grind it finely. Add five liang of raw sulfur and grind them together, then mix with paper-mulberry juice into pills the size of mung beans. Each time, take one pill and mix it with one liang of mercury; it is said to be capable of refining it into gold.

Sixth Transformation: The Method of Cultivating the Purple River Cart with Bright-Window Dust

Take five liang of dust from a bright window and place it in the Spirit Chamber, the sealed vessel used for alchemical work, also known as the Taiyi Spirit Chamber. Then take five liang of mercury. Treat it according to the “Lotus Method,” combine it with the window dust, and seal the vessel. Place it in the furnace and tend the fire for seven days, following the previous method. Once the Yellow Sprout has formed—the yellow substance produced during alchemical refining—melting it turns it into true gold. If it rises to the top, it is called the “Purple River Cart.”

Seventh Cycle: The Purple River Cart Becomes Golden Liquid

Mix five liang of the Purple River Cart with vinegar to make a paste, and spread it inside a he, an alchemical vessel. Bore a small hole in it. When it has dried, add five liang of mercury, seal the vessel according to the previous method, and tend the fire for seven days. This produces “geng.”

Eighth Cycle: The Purple River Cart Becomes Yellow Lift

Take five liang of the Purple River Cart and one liang of cinnabar. Grind them into a fine powder, place it in the Spirit Chamber, seal it according to the previous method, and tend the fire for forty-nine days. Remove it and grind it finely. Mix it with paper mulberry juice—the sap of the paper mulberry tree—and form pills the size of hemp seeds. Take one pill on an empty stomach with unashed wine, wine that has not been treated with lime. The scripture says this elixir can raise the dead, revive corpses, and summon back the hun and po souls. Taking ten pills can drive the Three Corpses—the Daoist spirits said to dwell in the body and harm a person—out of the body. If someone dies suddenly, dissolve half a qian of the elixir in cold water and administer it; the person will come back to life. The scripture also says it can make a person live again, and that such powers could only be achieved through divine force.

Ninth Cycle: Yellow Lift Subdues Life and Returns the Corpse and Soul

The scripture says that taking ten pills can drive the Three Corpses out of the body. If someone dies suddenly, take half a qian of the elixir mixed with cold water, and the person will revive and live again.

Ninth Cycle: The Method for Yellow Lift to Subdue Xiong and Transform Its Substance

Take one liang each of Yellow Lift, cinnabar, and mercury, and four liang of realgar. Grind them into a fine powder, place it in the Spirit Chamber, seal it, and tend the fire for seven days. Remove it and grind it finely. Mix it with date pulp and form pills the size of beans. Take one pill on an empty stomach with well-flower water, water drawn from a well at dawn. The scripture says that when Yang energy is depleted and the mind is clouded, taking this elixir can restore youth, recall the soul, and raise the dead; its wondrous effects are beyond measure.

Tenth Cycle: The Method for Realgar to Transform Iron into Gold

Then place realgar in the crucible and cover it with one liang of yellow flower powder. Seal it firmly, then regulate the firing according to the method described earlier and refine it for one hundred days. When it is removed, a single pellet can transmute one liang of iron into gold.

Eleventh Transformation: The River Chariot Method for Processing Mercury into a Treasure

Place one liang each of yellow flower and yellow sprout, together with four liang of cinnabar, in the spirit chamber. Spread them out, cover them with another layer, and seal the chamber firmly. Place it in the furnace and refine it for thirty days, then remove it. Take only the cinnabar and mix it with paper mulberry juice to form pellets the size of mung beans. One pellet can transmute one liang of copper into what is called “Bone-Transmuting Cinnabar Yang”; sprinkled over one liang of mercury, it immediately turns the mercury into a treasure. Another account says that one liang of copper medicine can transmute one jin of mercury; yet another says it can transmute ten liang.

Twelfth Transformation: The Yellow Flower Method for Cultivating the Purple Golden Elixir

Take two liang of calomel, grind it finely, and mix it with glue to form pellets the size of mung beans. Coat each pellet evenly above and below with one liang of yellow flower powder. Seal it firmly according to the method described earlier, place it in the furnace, and maintain the fire for fourteen days before removing it. Sprinkled over one liang of mercury, a single pellet will turn the mercury into a treasure. Another account says it needs to be refined for only one night.

Thirteenth Transformation: The Purple River Chariot Method for Processing the Five Metals

Place five liang of the Purple River Chariot in the spirit chamber and seal it firmly according to the method described earlier. Put it in the furnace and refine it for one year, using the same fire as for the Great Elixir. Mix it with paper mulberry juice to form pellets the size of beans. One pellet can transmute the five metals into treasures.

Fourteenth Transformation: The Spiritlike Transformation of the Purple Golden Elixir

Place Purple River Chariot powder in the spirit chamber, seal it firmly, and refine it in the furnace for one year before removing it. Mix it with paper mulberry juice to form pellets the size of hemp seeds. Place them in the spirit chamber, seal it firmly, and continue refining for forty-nine days before removing them. Wrap them and soak them in flowing water from the east for forty-nine days. Finally, swallow one pellet with ashless wine.

Fifteenth Transformation: Verification of the River Chariot Method

Take four liang of Purple River Chariot, a substance used in Daoist alchemy, or half a jin if preferred, and place it in the cauldron. Cover it evenly with yellow millet, seal the mouth of the cauldron, and put it in the furnace. Refine it over a gentle flame for a year. When the year is complete, open the cauldron and divide the elixir into five kinds. Gather them together, return them to the cauldron, and continue refining them for seven days before taking them.

The five elixirs are called the Dragon-Tiger Elixir, the Divine Talisman Elixir, the Purple Wandering Elixir, the Purple-Gold Elixir, and the Golden Liquid Lesser Reversion Elixir.

The Sixteenth Transformation: Separating the Five Elixirs

Tend the fire in sequence for a year. Once the various elixirs have been refined, fast and bathe, perform a Jiao sacrifice to give thanks to Heaven and Earth, then open the alchemical cauldron and take out the elixirs.

The substance that has congealed on top of the cauldron and is the color of fresh red is called the Dragon-Tiger Elixir. The scripture says that after taking it, one can ascend to the heavens in broad daylight and roam in spirit through the Purple Palace, the dwelling of immortals in Daoist legend. If a chicken eats it, the chicken will become a phoenix; if a dog eats it, the dog will become a dragon.

The substance inside the cauldron that forms fish-scale-like flakes and gleams white is called the Divine Talisman Elixir. The scripture says that taking it can bring withered bones back to life and restore the dead. The pale-red substance resembling a lotus flower is called the Purple Wandering Elixir. If it is purple and its color never changes, it is called the Purple-Gold Elixir. The substance that shines with golden light all around the inside of the cauldron is called the Golden Liquid Lesser Reversion Elixir.

Make all these elixirs into pills using paper mulberry sap, each about the size of a hemp seed. Once the pills are dry, wrap them in silk and soak them for a hundred days in flowing water from the east. Then take them out. Swallow them with well water drawn at dawn, beginning with one pill and gradually increasing to two, then three, and at most four pills per dose. The scripture calls these elixirs Essence Elixirs; take them with sincere and undivided intent, and they will quickly open the way to spiritual communion.

The scripture also says that after taking one pill, the Five Viscera and bone marrow will turn golden. One will be unharmed in water or fire; tigers, wolves, snakes, and insects will flee in fear; and evil spirits and uncanny beings will keep their distance. One can also shed the mortal body, undergo spiritual transformation, and ascend to the heavens in broad daylight. This is called the supreme and wondrous Way of Truth.

End of Volume Eight of the Geng Dao Collection.

This passage first notes that “there should be missing text below,” meaning that part of the original may be absent here.

Gengdao ji, Volume Nine

The Nine-Turn Great Elixir of the Perfected One of the Jade Cauldron of Western Shu

First Turn

Take ten liang of fine cinnabar and add finely chopped red peony root. Boil them in sour rice vinegar for five shichen. Then mix powdered herbs with honey, taking care not to make the mixture too wet. Layer it around the boiled cinnabar, place everything in a vessel, seal it, and warm it over a gentle fire for seven days. When the furnace has cooled, take it out, remove the herb ash, and keep the cinnabar.

Next, take Qianghua and boil it in sour vinegar for three shichen. If the cinnabar has already been subdued by fire—that is, after firing it no longer produces flames or movement—use it as the “container” (a material used to wrap and warm the substance) for nurturing the cinnabar. If it still produces a little flame, take ten liang of Shanzegen, break it into bead-like pieces, and layer them with the cinnabar in a vessel. Press down on top with subdued salt, seal the vessel firmly, and warm it in an ash pit for seven days. This is called “truly rendered dead and made into a treasure.”

Second Turn

Use the cinnabar warmed in the first turn as the “container.” Boil five liang of cinnabar with the previously mentioned ingredients. Grind the cinnabar very finely, add three qian of finely ground “gold in water” (here called the mother of silver), and mix with genuine rock honey. Shape the mixture into a cake, tie it tightly in silk cloth, and wrap it carefully in three liang of silver foil, making sure it is completely covered.

Place the cake in the “container” made earlier and warm it for seven days. When you take it out, if the cinnabar still retains its original embryonic color and has not faded, it is considered ready for further turns of refining the Great Elixir. The text also says that firing this cinnabar in a furnace reveals its treasure nature; using it to transmute Danyang can transform it and make it a supreme treasure; and sprinkling it with liquid causes bud-like growths to emerge.

Third Turn

Use the cinnabar warmed in the first turn as the “container.” The text then says that Shanzegen can transmute Danyang, transforming it and making it a supreme treasure; sprinkling it causes bud-like growths to emerge. It also explains that “gold in water” means the mother of silver.

In the first transmutation, use the cultivated “cinnabar” as the outer container, which holds and encloses the medicine. Shape mountain-and-marsh alum into a small box to serve as the spirit chamber, the small vessel in which the medicine is placed during refinement. Leave tiny openings around the box. First place the mother sand from the previous container inside the box, then set the box within the outer container. Put two taels of cinnabar mercury into the box, bury it at the center of the outer container, and seal it for seven days of cultivation. When you open it, if the mercury has solidified without any visible mercury specks, pour in another two taels of cinnabar mercury and continue cultivating it for seven days. When the mercury develops sprout-like growths, take it out and inspect the box, without disturbing its contents. Pour in another two taels of cinnabar mercury, reseal it, and resume cultivation. Repeat this process until you have accumulated more than ten taels of sprouts, then take them out for bathing.

The method of the Flower Pond: Grind equal amounts of borax, saltpeter, roasted salt, green salt, and alum into a fine powder. Spread it over the base of a tray used to hold the medicine, then lay the sprouts on top and cover them with more powder. Mix one bowl of paper mulberry juice with one sheng of rice vinegar and pour the mixture over the medicine. Cover it with a lid and heat gently until dry. Then seal the lid’s seam tightly, apply a little more heat to cultivate it for about two hours, and remove it. Let it cool before opening, then bathe the sprouts.

The bathing method: Take one tael each of purple gromwell, yellow yam, Han fangji, and white you, and grind them into a fine powder. Add three bowls of water and simmer to make a concentrated decoction; strain out the herbs. Put the sprouts into the liquid and boil them for a few moments. Wash them clean, place them in the tray, and dry them over low heat. Then leave them outdoors overnight.

The passage beginning “Fourth, grind to a powder” records the same steps once more: grind the herbs into powder, simmer them in three bowls of water to make a concentrated decoction, and strain out the herbs. Put the sprouts into the liquid and boil them for a few moments, then wash them clean, place them in the tray, dry them over low heat, and leave them outdoors overnight.

The fourth transmutation: After bathing, take out the sprouts and pound them into fragments to use as the container. Place the silver box inside, pour in five taels of cinnabar mercury, put it into the small box, and seal it for three days of cultivation. When removed, the mercury will have solidified. Open the box to inspect it, add three taels of cinnabar mercury, reseal it, and cultivate it for another three days. When removed, the mercury will have developed sprout-like growths as white as jade. Repeat the pouring and refining until more than ten taels have accumulated to serve as the container. The source text says that these white sprouts are thereby transformed into treasure.

Use a container made of bamboo to serve as the “crucible”—the vessel that holds the ingredients during calcination. Add two liang of realgar and two liang of mercury extracted from cinnabar, and grind them together into powder. Place the powder in the previously mentioned Divine Chamber, the vessel in which the ingredients are sealed during alchemical refinement, and bury it there to undergo refinement for three days. Afterward, add one liang of mercury each time, until ten liang have been added, for a total of twenty-eight days. Then grind and refine it repeatedly for an unlimited number of days, until the ingredients gradually turn into light dust. This substance cannot be extinguished by water or destroyed by fire. At noon, toss a little of it into the blue sky. It will turn into white snow and gradually rise into the heavens, reaching heights beyond measure. Gather and store it for use as the crucible.

Sixth Transformation

Use the “Dust of the Bright Window” produced in the previous refinement as the crucible. Add four liang of gold and half a jin of mercury extracted from cinnabar. Grind them according to the method, place them in the Divine Chamber, and seal them to refine for forty-nine days. When removed, the entire mixture will have turned into gold powder.

Seventh Dust as the Crucible

Take four liang of gold and half a jin of mercury extracted from cinnabar. Grind them according to the method, place them in the Divine Chamber, and seal them to refine for forty-nine days. When removed, the entire mixture will have turned into gold powder.

Seventh Transformation

Use the gold powder as the crucible. Add four liang of cinnabar and half a jin of mercury extracted from cinnabar. Grind them together, place them in the previously mentioned Divine Chamber, and seal them to refine for forty-nine days. The cinnabar and mercury will all turn into purple-gold powder.

Eighth Transformation

Use the refined purple-gold powder as the crucible. Add eight liang of mercury extracted from cinnabar and four liang of realgar. Grind them together, place them in the Divine Chamber, and seal them to refine for forty-nine days. The mixture will all turn into powder of pure purple gold. Use the sap of the paper mulberry tree to make pills the size of hemp seeds. Two pills will transmute one jin of mercury into pure purple gold.

Ninth Transformation

Add one jin of raw iron to the purple-gold elixir of return produced in the previous refinement. First melt the iron into liquid, then cast in one pill of the elixir mentioned above. When the molten iron in the pot begins to sound, it will all turn into purple gold.

Throughout the successive refinements, always extract the mercury from cinnabar, and use the fine sublimed powder of realgar. As for the firing, use two liang of gentle heat at both mao and you hours, and keep a gap of about three cun between the fire and the top of the furnace.

Grand Elixir of Numinous Cinnabar for Longevity in Nine Transformations by the Old Immortal Ge

First Transformation

Eight liang of mercury and two liang of sulfur. After refining the head of green gold, in all subsequent steps extract the mercury from cinnabar and use the fine sublimed powder of realgar. As for the firing, use two liang of gentle heat at both mao and you hours, and keep a gap of about three cun between the fire and the top of the furnace.

Take eight liang of mercury and two liang of sulfur. After roasting and refining them with Qingjin Tou, place the mixture in a water-and-fire crucible and melt it down. Cut it into pieces and set them aside. Next, take saltpeter, lu, blue-black alum, yellow yam, thunder ball, wolf’s bane, wooden rule, jack-in-the-pulpit, and five-leaf ginseng. Boil them in rice vinegar for three days and nights. After boiling, wash them, then boil them in aged leaf juice for two days. Place them in the mother cinnabar casket (a vessel used to nurture and refine cinnabar) and nurture them over a gentle fire until their color turns white throughout. Only then can the casket be considered sacred. If it has not yet turned white, continue nurturing it, checking every seven days, until the material reaches “true death” (a stable state in which its properties no longer change); then stop.

Second Turn

Take sixteen liang of the spirit sand that has reached “true death” and grind it into powder. Separately, take four liang of raw spirit sand. Coat its surface with such substances as Jianhuang, ya-dan alum, Qingling, white snow, and flying talisman, then mix them evenly with honey and wrap each piece. Bury the pieces in the spirit-sand powder and nurture them for seven days. Remove them and fire them in a furnace over a strong flame; the treasure will then be formed.

Third Turn

Take the spirit sand from the second turn and, without firing it again, use it directly to transmute Danyang (here, a material used for transmutation). Two qian can transmute one liang of red material, turning its color white throughout. Pour it into a trough and cover it with damp paper. If it turns snow-white, this is the method for testing the spirit sand gen (a technical term). If proceeding to later turns, do not use this method.

Fourth Turn

Use only the head of the nurtured spirit-sand casket to nurture the mother sand. Refine the spirit sand by the method described above; it will usually become a treasure in seven days.

Fifth Turn

Take sixteen liang of spirit sand from the second turn as the casket (the vessel or medium for nurturing and refining), and use it to nurture four liang of cinnabar. Wrap each piece in gold foil and nurture it for twenty-one days, then remove it. Next, take one liang each of salt essence and stone bile, half a liang of willow-floss alum, and a large bowl of bingyao. Boil these substances until dry, then place them in a gan crucible (a crucible used for refining medicines). In another crucible, put one liang of the nurtured cinnabar and one liang of geng, then heat them in the furnace until they melt into liquid. Put the substances from the first crucible into the furnace and melt them. Use tongs to lift out the liquid cinnabar and geng, and add it to the medicine crucible. Once the molten mixture has cleared, pour it into a trough. When it solidifies, two liang of superior geng will have been obtained.

The cinnabar cultivated and refined in the numinous-sand crucible does not smoke. Take two liang each of the female and male medicines, mix them thoroughly, and place them in the lidded vessel. Maintain the fire continuously for forty-nine days. When the mixture is removed, use yellow wax to form pills the size of a chicken’s head. Each pill can transmute mountain, marsh, and Gen, producing one liang of Geng.

Seventh Turn

Cultivate and refine sixteen liang of numinous sand in the true-dead numinous-sand crucible, selecting the kind that does not smoke. Mix two liang each of the female and male medicines thoroughly, place them in the lidded vessel, and maintain the fire for forty-nine days. When the mixture is removed, use yellow wax to form pills the size of a chicken’s head. Each pill can transmute mountain, marsh, and Gen, producing one liang of Geng.

Seventh Turn

Use sixteen liang of numinous sand cultivated and refined in the true-dead numinous-sand crucible as the crucible charge. Pour in four liang of mercury and cultivate it over the fire for seven days. When the vessel is opened, the contents will already have become a supreme treasure. Wait until medicinal sprouts fill the inside of the vessel before removing them; firing them in the furnace will then produce a treasure. With prolonged cultivation and refinement, they will form “Jade Trees in the Cold Forest.”

Eighth Turn

Take twenty-four liang of Cold Forest powder, twelve liang of cinnabar cultivated in the previous stages, and one jin of raw sulfur. Grind them together thoroughly, place them in the lidded vessel, and cultivate them for seven days before removing them. Then pour in four liang of mercury and maintain the fire for twenty-one days. When all the medicinal sprouts have turned yellow, firing them in the furnace will produce Geng.

Ninth Turn

Choose an auspicious day to prepare the medicine. Place the Eight-Turn numinous sand in the lidded vessel. Apply a fire of one liang on the first day, two liang on the second, and three liang on the third, increasing the amount each day thereafter. Maintain the fire for twenty-one days. When all the medicinal sprouts have turned yellow, firing them in the furnace will produce Geng.

Ninth Turn

Choose an auspicious day to prepare the medicine. Place the Eight-Turn numinous sand in the lidded vessel. Apply a fire of one liang on the first day, two liang on the second, and three liang on the third, increasing the amount each day until the fifteenth day, then remove it. Let the furnace cool, and bathe and process the contents for sixteen days, reducing the amount by one liang. Begin cultivating and refining again on the first day of the next month; after three years, the Great Elixir will be complete. Once the elixir is complete, it can turn mercury into a golden person. Taking it enables one to ascend to the heavens. Form a pill with honey and take it with a decoction of frankincense; it is said that if chickens and dogs take it, they too will immediately transform into dragons and phoenixes.

Ge Xianweng’s Secret Method for Precious Niter

Use an unspecified amount of saltpeter (here, a saltpeter-based substance used in alchemy). Mix it with juice from rehmannia root and rapeseed herb, then boil it. Place it in a phoenix embryo, a shell used as an alchemical vessel. Coat the outside with a layer of Kunlun paper, a kind used in alchemical processes, about one grain of rice thick. Spread powdered talc over the shell, cover it with several pieces of mica, then cover it with white tiger, an alchemical material used to cover vessels, and seal it firmly. Fire it with one balance of heat until it takes on five colors and reveals patterns. The results are remarkable.

This saltpeter can serve as a “casket”—a container or wrapping used to hold and heat alchemical substances—to nurture and refine spirit sand and powdered cinnabar into treasures. It works better than other casket methods. This technique is called “above the shell,” and is also known as the “solar casket” or “pure-yang casket.”

Method for Separating the Shell to Reveal the Treasure

Take eight liang of fire-treated saltpeter, prepared for alchemical use. Break it up and grind it into coarse powder, then place it in a closed vessel to serve as the casket for nurturing and refining various substances and metals.

Wrap two liang of cinnabar in silver foil, then wrap it in a layer of Kunlun paper and place it in the casket. Nurture and refine it for three days with half a jin of Mao-and-You fire, heat regulated according to the Mao and You hours. The text calls the substance “truly dead” after refining, meaning its properties have been fixed by the process. If its color remains unchanged and the silver foil stays intact, it can be used to transmute mercury into a treasure.

Wrap two liang of realgar in Geng foil, an alchemical term for a kind of metal foil. Place it in the casket as before and nurture it for five days with six liang of fire. If its color remains unchanged after refining, it can be used to transmute silver into “tenfold Geng.” Nurture two liang of orpiment in the same way; it can also transmute silver into Geng. Next, take two liang of seven-part-color yanghou. First wrap it in Kunlun paper, then coat it with a mixture of rice vinegar and stone yellow, an alchemical mineral. Leave it to dry in the shade overnight. The next day, place it in the casket and nurture it for three days with six liang of fire. When refined, it will be the color of cinnabar, a bright, luminous red that can be displayed proudly. It will not be exhausted in the furnace when applied to black sand or grass sand.

Wrap two liang of mercuric chloride in silver foil, then add another layer of Kunlun paper and place it in the casket. Nurture and refine it for three days with four liang of fire. After refining, the substance will be harder, and the silver foil will remain intact. It can be used to transmute red “stubborn” metal, an alchemical term for a red metal or mineral, into white. The text says its transformations are limitless.

Take two liang of tin and wrap it in one or two layers of Kunlun paper. Place it in a gui (a vessel used to store and heat medicines) and warm-refine it over a low flame for one day. When the process is complete, the tin’s original color will not have changed entirely, but it can be used to transmute copper.

Take two liang of stone gall (a copper-bearing mineral). Wrap it in gold foil as before, then wrap it in Kunlun paper. Warm-refine it for three days with six liang of fire. When the process is complete, it will have the color of red gold and can be used to transmute silver into “eight-part Geng” (here, “Geng” refers to an alloy or alchemical substance produced by refining).

Wrap borax, arsenic, saltpeter, and alum in gold foil, then wrap them in a single layer of Kunlun paper. Place them in the gui and warm-refine them for five days, carefully adjusting the heat. When the process is complete, their original colors will remain unchanged, and they can be used to make “eight-part Geng.”

Wrap borax, arsenic, saltpeter, and alum in gold foil, then wrap them in a single layer of Kunlun paper. Place them in the gui and warm-refine them for five days, carefully adjusting the heat. When the process is complete, their original colors will remain unchanged.

The Great Elixir of Numina-Sand, Nine Cycles and Sixteen Transformations

First Cycle

Take half a jin of imported sulfur, pound it into lumps, and boil it for seven fu periods (an ancient unit of time whose exact duration varies by account) in two dou of river water with half a jin each of ma-ti-xiang and hu-er-cao.

Take half a jin of mercury and boil it for seven fu periods with four liang each of Sichuan pepper and qiang-hua root. Using a new iron tiao (an iron alchemical vessel), first add two liang of sulfur and melt it. Then add eight liang of mercury, stir-fry until it becomes sand-like, and grind it evenly. Place it in a water-fire cauldron (an alchemical vessel for heating by water or fire) and seal it securely. Refine continuously for three days and three nights with a fire strength of five jin.

Second Cycle

Turn the sulfur and mercury refined in the first cycle into numina-sand, then add two liang of sulfur. Heat the iron tiao until it melts, add the sand obtained in the first cycle, and stir-fry. Place it in the cauldron and refine for one day with a fire strength of five jin, one day with three jin, and one more day with two jin, for a total of three nights.

Second Cycle

Turn the sulfur and mercury refined in the first cycle into numina-sand, then add two liang of sulfur. Heat the iron tiao until it melts, add the sand obtained in the first cycle, and stir-fry. Place it in the cauldron and refine for one day with a fire strength of five jin, one day with three jin, and one more day with two jin, for a total of three nights.

Third Cycle

Add one liang of sulfur to the sand obtained in the second cycle and melt it in the iron tiao. Then add the sand and stir-fry. Place it in the cauldron and refine for one day with a fire strength of five jin, one day with three jin, and one more day with one jin.

Fourth Cycle

Add one liang of sulfur to the three-times-transformed sand. After frying the mixture, place it in the ding. Refine it with five jin of fire for one day, then with two jin of fire for one day, and finally with one jin of fire for one day.

Five Transformations

Add seven and a half qian of sulfur to the four-times-transformed sand. After frying the mixture, place it in the ding. Refine it with five jin of fire for one day, then with one jin of fire for one day, and finally with half a jin of fire for one day.

Six Transformations

Add half a liang of sulfur to the five-times-transformed sand. After frying the mixture, place it in the ding. Refine it with five jin of fire for one day, then with one jin of fire for one day, and finally with half a jin of fire for one day.

Seven Transformations

Grind the six-times-transformed sand finely. Add one liang of raw cinnabar (cinnabar that has not been refined), and grind and fry them together before placing the mixture in the ding. First refine it with three jin of fire, then with five jin of fire, for one day each. Next, refine it with one jin of fire for one day, then with half a jin of fire for one day.

Seven Transformations

Grind the six-times-transformed sand finely. Add one liang of raw cinnabar, and grind and fry them together before placing the mixture in the ding. Refine it with three jin of fire for one day, then with one jin of fire for one day, and finally with half a jin of fire for one day.

Eight Transformations

Add one liang of raw cinnabar to the seven-times-transformed sand. Grind and fry them together before placing the mixture in the ding. Refine it with five jin of fire for one day, then with one jin of fire for one day, and finally with half a jin of fire for one day.

Nine Transformations

Melt one jin of fine silver into a bead, then enclose the previously refined sand inside it. Seal it firmly in a he (a vessel used for alchemical refining), and place it in an ash pit, where it is to be gently warmed with three liang of fire for seven days. Take it out and then perform “bathing” (an alchemical term for subsequent processing). This sand can then be used to nourish and refine new sand, turning it into a precious substance with transformations without end.

It is said that if a pill of this elixir is hurled at the crown of a crane and an expert archer is told to shoot it, the archer will fail to hit it all day; hence it is called “numinous sand.” Used to treat illness, its effect is like a swift wind sweeping away floating clouds. It is said to revive the dead and restore youth, and its miraculous efficacy is beyond telling.

Even an elixir that has undergone only one transformation, when hurled at the crown of a crane, cannot be hit all day; hence it is called “numinous sand.” Used to treat illness, its effect is like a swift wind sweeping away floating clouds. It is said to revive the dead and restore youth, and its miraculous efficacy is beyond telling.

Take one jin of mercury and combine it with three liang each of green vitriol, blue vitriol, and white alum; two liang each of green salt and white salt; and one liang of saltpeter. Grind them all finely, then boil them in one dou of rice vinegar for three days. Wash them clean afterward.

Take imported sulfur (sulfur brought by sea), and boil it for three days with horseshoe-scent herb and fish mint. Melt two liang of sulfur in an iron pan, then add eight liang of mercury and stir-fry until the mixture solidifies into a sand-like substance. Place it in a ding cauldron for calcination: first apply a fire intensity of five jin for one day, then two jin for one day, and finally half a jin for one day. Remove it and form it into lumps. Boil the lumps for a full day and night in a solution of pine-pollen ash, then wash them clean. Dip silver foil in honey and press it onto the surface. Place the lumps in the previously prepared silver-bead container (a vessel that holds medicinal substances while they are heated and refined) and nurture them for seven days: apply a fire intensity of two liang on the first day, three liang from the second through the fourth day, and four liang from the fifth through the seventh day.

Second Transformation

Cut the Nine-Cycle Great Elixir Mother (the base substance of the elixir after nine rounds of refinement) into small pieces. Place half of it in a ge vessel (a vessel used for elixir-making), spread the newly formed sand prepared earlier over it, and cover this with the other half of the Elixir Mother. Seal it securely and nurture it in an ash pit for seven days, applying fire intensities of two, three, and four liang in succession.

After removing it, place half of the material in the ge, spread the newly formed sand prepared earlier over it, and cover it with the other half of the Elixir Mother. Seal it securely and nurture it in the ash pit for seven days, applying fire intensities of two, three, four, and five liang in succession. When the process is complete, remove it. Nurture the sand in this way seven times in all, yielding fourteen liang of elixir seed (the starting substance obtained through elixir-making). Store the portions separately, then boil them for one day with morning-blooming herb.

Third Transformation

Take the newly formed sand from the third nurturing, and pound it into powder in an iron mortar. Wrap it in a layer of Kunlun paper (paper used in elixir-making). Pound earth-ding flower, croton, and castor-bean flesh into a paste, then wrap the powdered sand in the paste to form a ball. Place it in the ge, seal it securely, and calcine it in a furnace overnight with a fire intensity of half a dan. Once cooled, remove it. The finished product resembles a jade tablet and is a precious medicine. Break it up and shape it into a container for subsequent nurturing.

Fourth Transformation

Make the jade-like pieces and grains of sand produced by the previous heating into blocks. Grind equal amounts of powdered frost, sal ammoniac, and borax into a fine powder. Mix the sand with honey, then roll it in the medicinal powder, coating the material evenly. Wrap it in Kunlun paper, place “I Lian” at the front, and put it in a box called “Sacred Ignorance Chest.” Set the box in an ash pit and warm it gently for seven days with a fire of four liang. When this is done, the white substance will have been refined into a treasure. This alchemical method must be performed seven times before the result can be collected.

Fifth Transformation

Place the white substance obtained from the previous warming, together with its box, inside a cauldron. Pour two liang of mercury over it, seal the cauldron’s opening, and set it in an ash pit. Warm it gently for seven days with a fire of two to three liang. After taking it out, pour in another two liang of mercury and apply heat; the white substance will then have been refined into a treasure. This alchemical method must be performed seven times before the result can be collected.

Fifth Transformation

Place the white substance obtained from the previous warming, together with its box, inside a cauldron. Pour in two liang of mercury, seal the cauldron’s opening, and set it in an ash pit. Warm it gently for seven days with a fire of two to three liang. After taking it out, pour in another two liang of mercury and warm it for seven days; add another two liang and warm it for seven days; then add two more liang of mercury and warm it for seven days, making twenty-eight days in all. Next, add three liang of mercury and warm it gently over a Yin fire four times, for twenty-eight days in all. On the fourth round, add another four liang of mercury and warm it gently with six liang of Yin fire; this round lasts twenty-eight days. Then pour in five liang of mercury and apply six liang of heat, warming it gently in four rounds over a total of twenty-eight days.

Sixth Transformation

Take out the “Jade Smile” produced by the previous warming, taking care not to damage it. Put it in a silver flower box and place the box on a stove. Warm it gently with five liang of Yin fire and pour in five liang of mercury. Add mercury once every three days, continuing until “three without end.” Then take it out. It will be shaped like a jade tree in a jeweled grove, resemble a head, and be red like coral. When broken apart, it will become a treasure.

Seventh Transformation

Grind the two liang of “Jade Smile” obtained earlier into a fine powder, and put half of it in a cauldron. Then grind one liang each of realgar, orpiment, sulfur, and sal ammoniac into a fine powder and add them to the cauldron. Then use “transform…”[[END]]

First grind the Jade Laughing Stone (two liang) into a fine powder. Put half of it into a crucible. Grind realgar, orpiment, sulfur, and sal ammoniac, one liang of each, into a fine powder and place them together in the crucible. Cover them with the remaining half of the Jade Laughing Stone powder. Seal the crucible securely and warm it for three days with one jin of hidden Yin fire, a fire method that calcines with Yin fire. When you take it out, the contents will have solidified into a mass resembling gold. Break up four liang of it, add one liang of cinnabar, and warm it for seven days using four liang of fire. Take it out and expose it to fumes; it will then refine into high-grade purple gold. For the second treatment, add two liang of cinnabar and warm it for seven days, again using four liang of fire.

Eight Transformations

Take eight liang of the cinnabar obtained from the previous warming, pour in two liang of mercury, and warm the mixture for seven days using four liang of Yin fire and four liang of Four Directions fire, with the fire apportioned according to the four cardinal directions. This will refine into a “treasure.” Thereafter, pour in mercury every seven days and repeat the refining in sequence, continuing as long as desired. At this stage, proceed in proportion to your own fortune and ability.

Nine Transformations

Place half a jin of sulfur in an iron vessel and heat until it melts. Add two liang of mercury and stir-fry the mixture until it turns black, then grind it into powder. Spread the Three Yellow powder obtained from the previous seven transformations over it. Seal the vessel securely and warm it first with four liang of fire for three days, then with six liang of fire for four days. Pour in four liang of mercury, and it will refine into a high-grade “White Treasure of Mountain and Marsh.” Continue pouring and refining in sequence in the same way, using fire for seven days each time, until the total refining time is forty-nine days.

Ten Transformations

Grind the Elixir Seed obtained from the previous nine transformations into powder. Take an iron pan and place five liang of mercury beneath it. Heat it with half a jin of fire, then add three qian of the Elixir powder in several portions. Each cycle lasts seven days; refine it with fire for a total of forty-nine days.

Ten Transformations

Grind the Elixir Seed obtained from the previous nine transformations into powder. Take an iron pan and place five liang of mercury beneath it. Heat it with half a jin of fire, then sprinkle in three qian of the Elixir powder in several portions. Cover the mouth of the vessel with a bowl and seal it with wet paper. When the “cicada sound” stops, extinguish the fire. After one calcination, you will obtain five liang of the “Supreme Treasure of Mountain and Marsh.”

Eleven Transformations

Take one liang of the jade powder obtained from the nine transformations and one liang of the amalgamated mercury obtained from the ten transformations, and grind them together into powder. Melt one jin of red silver, then add one liang of the powder above. It will transform into a white “Supreme Treasure.”

Twelve Transformations

Mix one liang of “seven transformations of the three yellows” (three yellow minerals refined seven times), one liang of “sixth-transformation cinnabar,” and one liang of “tenth-transformation mercury fang” (a refined mercury-based substance). Form the mixture into a medicinal cake and place it in a ding. Warm-refine it over a gentle fire for seven days, then remove it. Put it into a “yao,” add five liang of mercury, and continue the gentle refining. Refine out two qian of “Four Spirits,” cover it with a cup, and place half a jin of fuel beneath it. When a sound like cicadas singing begins, add one liang of “ten-transformation mercury fang.” Mix it into a cake, place it in the ding, and warm-refine it for seven days before removing it. Put it into the “yao” again, add five liang of mercury, and continue the gentle refining. Refine out two qian of “Four Spirits,” cover it with a cup, and place half a jin of fuel beneath it. When the cicada-like sound begins, fire it once more at high heat. This produces a precious substance of the finest purple color.

Thirteen Transformations

Take five liang of mercury sulfide refined nine times. Add one liang each of superior realgar, orpiment, and borax. Grind them together, place the mixture in a hezi (a vessel for refining elixirs), seal it tightly, and set it in the furnace to refine over a managed fire for twenty-one days. Use two liang of fuel by day and four liang by night. Remove it and use it to transmute the five metals and eight stones into precious substances.

Fourteen Transformations

Use four liang of the three yellows prepared earlier as a “case” (a material that wraps around and nurtures the substance being refined), and use it to nurture and refine two liang of superior cinnabar for twenty-one days: first with two liang of fuel, then three liang, and finally four liang. Remove the cinnabar and grind it together with the three yellows into powder. Mix it with dew to form pills the size of soybeans, and take them with water from a long-flowing stream. The scripture says this can prolong life by a hundred years, grant immortality, and make one run as swiftly as a horse.

Fifteen Transformations

Refine the cinnabar nurtured earlier into gold and cast it into a divine ding to hold the medicine; then cast an iron ding as well. Mix mica, “once-blue,” crystal household Ying-stone, and red lead with paper-mulberry juice to form a paste. Apply it as a lining inside the large ding, and place a divine chamber (the inner chamber where the medicine is set during elixir refinement) inside it. Then choose a blessed site on high ground, build a hermitage, establish an altar space, and cultivate the Great Elixir.

Sixteen Transformations

Mix “once-blue,” crystal household Ying-stone, and red lead with paper-mulberry juice to form a paste. Apply it as a lining inside the large ding, and place a divine chamber inside the ding. Then choose a blessed site on high ground, build a hermitage, establish an altar space, and cultivate the Great Elixir.

Mix fourteen portions of yellow mercury (divalent mercury, or quicksilver) with three jin of twenty-eightfold Numinous Cinnabar, a raw material used in Daoist Waidan (external alchemy), and grind them evenly. Pound the mixture thirty thousand times, then place it in a Divine Crucible, an alchemical vessel, and seal it shut. Put this inside a large iron cauldron, carefully sealing the opening and every seam. Reinforce it with Six-One Mud, used to seal and secure alchemical vessels, and set it in an ash pit or a Heaven-and-Earth Furnace. Join the upper water cauldron to the lower fire cauldron. First nurture it with five jin of fire for one month, then three jin of fire for one month, then one jin of fire for one month, and finally five jin of fire for ten days, making one hundred days in all.

When it is ready, take it out and bury it underground for a year to let the fire’s energy dissipate. Then suspend it in well water for one hundred days. Take it out, pound it thirty thousand times, and grind it into powder. Mix the powder with Sweet Dew Water and form pills the size of mung beans. Place them in a Spirit Chamber, a sealed alchemical room, and nurture them with four liang of fire for seven days. When the process is complete, the text claims that feeding one pill to a chicken will transform it into a phoenix and send it flying away; feeding one pill to a dog will transform it into a dragon and send it flying away.

Use the elixir to make offerings of thanks to Heaven and Earth and the Northern Dipper. Then take one portion and cast it away in a famous mountain or great river. Only after this may you take the elixir, whereupon you can become a true immortal. The scripture says that without good fortune and strength, this cannot be accomplished, so one must remain vigilant and cautious. Anyone who wishes to take it should first soak it in golden Sweet Dew Juice, pounding and refining it three times within a month to remove its fire toxicity. After that, taking it will lead directly to the ranks of the immortals. During cultivation, one should provide for the poor and help the people.

At each stage of refinement, the steps involving ingestion may be omitted. But the scripture holds that the effects are most complete if the elixir is refined through nine cycles and sixteen transformations; the alchemist, too, must truly possess the capacity to become immortal. The key is steadfast resolve and diligent cultivation; then nothing is beyond achievement.

Waidan (external alchemy)

Method for making the silver-powder container

Hammer silver into thin sheets. After soaking them in vinegar, sprinkle them with sulfur powder and cover them with five to seven sheets of paddy grass. Seal the vessel tightly, then heat it over a fire until it glows red. Let it cool and remove the contents; the result will be silver powder.

Cinnabar method

Take one liang of superior cinnabar, together with one fen of sulfur and half a fen of borax. Mix these substances with vinegar and rice-washing water, then boil them for three days and three nights in a vessel made of magnetic stone. If the vinegar is nearly used up during boiling, keep another vessel beside the fire, heat vinegar in it until it boils, and gradually add it. After a full day, remove the substances and wash them clean in warm water. Then select a container of suitable size according to the quantity of the substances, seal it securely, and heat it to refine them into powder.

The Cinnabar Method

Take one liang of superior cinnabar, together with one fen of sulfur and half a fen of borax. Mix the substances with vinegar and rice-washing water, then boil them for three days and three nights in a vessel made of magnetic stone. When the vinegar is nearly used up, gradually add warm vinegar from a vessel kept ready beside the fire. After a full day, remove the substances and wash them clean in warm water.

Choose a container of suitable size according to the quantity of the substances, and seal it securely. First spread a layer of silver powder over the bottom of the container, then add the cinnabar. Mix honey with clam-shell powder and use the mixture to seal the opening and all the seams tightly. Once the sealing clay has dried, place the container in an ash pit and cover it with about a finger’s thickness of ash. Begin by applying a fire of one and a half liang to warm and nourish the contents for three days. Increase the fire to two liang and continue for seven days, then raise it to three liang for twenty days. After that, increase it to forty liang and warm and nourish it for forty-nine days. Remove the container and heat it over a fire until the substance has reached the state called “fire-subdued”; only then may it be used. To obtain mercury-silver, decoct and refine it in a lead bath. To increase the quantity of the substance, lay it out and seal and warm it as before, extending the warming period by one day. Apply the fire at the Zi and Wu hours, observing the appointed times.

The Three Sages Method, also called the Lesser Ninefold Drying

Take ten liang of superior cinnabar, one liang of sulfur, and one liang of mercury. Grind the three substances together for one day until they are extremely fine and no beads of mercury can be seen. Place them in a hezi, a container used to seal and heat substances during refinement. Lay out and warm the contents with ash powder as described above, extending the warming period by one day. Apply the fire at the Zi and Wu hours, observing the appointed times.

The Three Sages Method, also called the Lesser Ninefold Drying

Take ten liang of superior cinnabar, one liang of sulfur, and one liang of mercury.

Grind these three ingredients together for a full day, until the mercury is too fine to see. Place them in a crucible—a vessel used to seal and calcine medicines—and pack them down firmly. Take one liang of fresh folium artemisiae (also called yunjiang), pound it, add one qian of salt, and grind the mixture with a pestle into a paste. Spread it over the inner lid of the crucible as the covering medicine.

Next, pound stone fat, Sheng Wuzhi Shensheng, and a little vinegar-soaked charcoal ash together into a paste, and seal the mouth of the crucible tightly. Then choose an auspicious site and dig a pit one chi and two cun deep and one chi and two cun wide. Drive nails into the pit to secure the fire opening. Stir two qian of charcoal ash into hot vinegar to clear away impure qi inside and around the pit. Once this is done, place the crucible in the pit and secure it. Pound and sift the charcoal ash finely, then cover the crucible with a layer about one finger thick. Add a further layer of charcoal ash about five cun thick on top, and apply heat as follows:

Use one jin of charcoal on the first day, two jin on the second, three jin on the third, and one cheng of charcoal on the fourth. After calcining over charcoal for one day, stop the fire. Let the crucible cool, then take it out. When opened, the sand inside will be dotted with bloodlike spots and gleam like a mirror.

Take one liang of the cinnabar obtained above and grind it very finely. Wrap it in paper and place it on the inner lid of the crucible. Change the leaves, seal the crucible, and secure it as before. For each subsequent calcination, use the same procedure for the third, fifth, sixth, and seventh rounds; the sealing and heat for each should match the eighth round. Remove the medicine from the crucible and grind it finely, then add the ingredients described below.

Take one qian each of six ingredients—saltpeter, sal ammoniac, alum, qingjian, liuxu alum, and boron—and grind them finely with the medicine prepared above. Place the mixture in the crucible and press it down firmly. Spread one liang of finely ground sulfur over it and cover the crucible. Prepare the covering medicine and seal the crucible as before, then calcine it with heat as follows:

Maintain a fire of four liang for seven days, half a jin for seven days, and one jin for seven days. Then cover the crucible with one cheng of charcoal and calcine it. Prepare the covering medicine, seal the crucible, and apply the fire as before.

For every four ounces of medicinal ingredients, cultivate and refine them for seven days; do the same for half a pound, and likewise for one pound. Then apply one measure of fire for calcination. Once it has cooled, take it out. The sulfur will float on top without fusing with the medicine. Gently lift it out with a spoon and set it aside; do not mix it into the cinnabar medicine. Grind the previously calcined medicinal substance to a fine powder, add one ounce of the previously calcined cinnabar, and grind them together. Place the mixture in a sealed crucible. Regulate the heat as in the eighth procedure described earlier, using one measure of fire until the material is completely burned. Remove it, grind it fine, and divide it into three portions.

For the first portion, knead it with red rice into pills, each weighing about one qian. Dry them in the shade and set them aside. Each pill can refine ten ounces of mercury to dryness. Put the mercury in a crucible and heat it from below with half a pound of charcoal that has already been heated. When a faint wisp of smoke appears, grind one pill to powder and scatter it over the mercury. Immediately lay a red-hot piece of charcoal across the mouth of the crucible. The mercury will flow rapidly and make a sound. When the sound stops, gather three pounds of charcoal around it so the medicine burns through thoroughly. When a faint wisp of smoke rises, grind another pill to powder and scatter it over the mercury. As before, lay red-hot charcoal across the mouth of the crucible. Once the sound of the flowing mercury stops, gather three pounds of charcoal around it and heat the crucible until it glows red. Then quickly pour the molten medicine into a hollow in the ground and cover it with damp paper. It is said that when removed, its weight will show no loss.

For the second portion, add one ounce each of fine leaf orpiment and blue vitriol. Grind them finely together, place the mixture in a sealed crucible as before, and set it in an ash pit. Cultivate and refine it there over a fire of three pounds of charcoal for three days. Then apply two measures of fire until it is completely burned. Let it cool, remove it, and grind it fine. Divide one ounce of the medicine into ten portions, each weighing one qian. It is said that each portion can refine ten ounces of mercury to dryness, producing a superior “Geng-Xin substance”—a term for a refined metallic product.

For the third portion, add one ounce of sublimed mercury and grind it thoroughly. Place it in a sealed box and regulate the heat as before. Apply two measures of fire until it glows red. Let it cool, remove it, and grind it fine. Divide one ounce of the medicine into ten portions, each weighing one qian. It is said that each portion can make ten ounces of mercury contract and solidify into a precious substance.

Textual variant: “embryonic sprouts formed through transformation.”

Take one liang of cinnabar that has undergone fire subduing. Add one liang of yellow alum to amalgamate the mercury, then heat it with a fire of three liang. Adjust the heat in stages at the Yin, Wu, and Xu hours, and nurture and refine it for three miao (the unit of time used in the original). Once the mercury has been refined and subdued, it takes on a jade-like shape with a smooth, lustrous surface. Pour and nurture it again according to the method described above. Select the firm, mature portion for use; this is called the “embryo freed from the womb.” Repeat this process four times, over a total of twelve days, before proceeding with the next pour.

Embryo Freed from the Mother

For the next pour, continue to nurture and refine the embryo freed from the womb, using the same method as before. Select the firm, mature portion; this is called the “embryo freed from the womb.” Repeat this process four times, over a total of twelve days, before proceeding with the next pour.

Embryo Freed from the Mother

For the next pour, use five liang of the embryo freed from the womb to amalgamate four liang of mercury. Heat it with a fire of four liang and nurture and refine it for three miao, placing a water cauldron beneath it (a water vessel used to help regulate the temperature or cool the material). Repeat this process six times, over a total of eighteen days. The result is twenty-four liang. The finished material naturally congeals into flat pieces; it does not dry out at either end. This is called the “embryo freed from the mother.” After bathing it in the Flower Pond (a treatment in which the substance is soaked and washed in a medicinal liquid), leave it exposed overnight and it is ready for use. The embryo it produces is emerald green and hard as stone.

The Flower Pond Method

Use sulfur, sal ammoniac, borax, and green alum, then add one sheng of mellow wine. Follow the remaining steps as before.

Naturally Produced Yellow Sprout

Cinnabar, copperas, and Chinese gall.

Grind these three ingredients together and sift them into a fine powder. Moisten the cinnabar with rice vinegar, then carry out the Flower Pond method with it.

Grind the three ingredients listed above together into a fine powder, then sift it through a fine sieve. Moisten the cinnabar with rice vinegar, spread the fine powder over its surface, and wrap it like a coat, making the covering even and thick. Then wrap a thick layer of gold sand around the outside, using the “finger-wrapping method” to secure it. Suspend one dou of rice vinegar and one liang of green salt over the mixture and boil until dry.

For every liang of cinnabar, add three liang of the fine powdered “embryonic sprout of the transformed body.” Cover and pad it, then place it in the yellow crucible to undergo hidden firing. Cover the top with salt, seal the vessel’s mouth, and add one liang of top fire. Adjust the heat at the Yin, Wu, and Xu hours, and nurture the material through seven double-hours. When firing is complete, remove it; the salt will have melted away. Take out the cinnabar, peel off the gold sand, and wash the cinnabar clean. It will now be red throughout, like gold, but must not be melted.

For every liang of cinnabar, add five liang of mercury and grind them together until evenly mixed. Place the mixture in the spirit chamber, the sealed vessel used for alchemical firing, set it inside the yellow crucible, seal the vessel’s mouth, and reinforce it with clay. First apply half a jin of fire. When the heat has spent itself, the material inside will be half dry. Add one jin of fire; when that heat has spent itself, let the vessel cool and remove it. The mercury will have dried and solidified, with a metallic appearance. This is called “Heaven-born Yellow Sprout,” also known as “White Horse Sprout” or “True Lead.” The cinnabar will have flown up and congealed on the top of the spirit chamber, forming a light, honeycomb-like mass. This is the “Purple River Cart,” which may be used as needed.

For every liang of Heaven-born Yellow Sprout, add three liang of mercury. Apply four liang of top fire, adjusting the heat at the Mao and You hours, and nurture the material for a time. The mercury will dry and solidify. For every three liang of mercury dried in this way, add cinnabar or spirit sand, grind together until fine and even, then place it in an iron vessel and heat it to distill the mercury. The mercury will not be depleted.

Making Purple-Gold White Snow

Two liang of purple powder, and one liang each of mercury and sulfur.

When the three ingredients have been blended to the consistency of milk, carry out the process in a place where no stars can be seen and no sounds can be heard. Put the ingredients into the Taiyi Heavenly Palace (a vessel used in alchemical work), set it in the Huangzheng (a particular position inside the alchemical apparatus or furnace), and heat it from above with a two-liang measure of fire. Adjust the heat in alternation at the Mao and You hours. After nurturing and refining it for five double-hours, the process is complete.

Add one liang of mercury and continue nurturing and refining it as before, adding mercury gradually until the total reaches ten liang. When removed, the elixir body will disperse and be gold in color. One qian of this elixir can refine five liang of mercury into purple gold; its efficacy is equal to that of the Great Elixir. If a little is tossed into the air, it will turn into something like white snow, rising higher and farther until the limit of its reach can no longer be determined.

Roast and hammer it into a spoon and chopsticks for use. When they encounter poison, the poison is said to disperse in all directions.

Using rice vinegar, refine five liang of purple powder into a small container. Once it has dried, add three liang of mercury, place it in the Huangken (an implement or position used in the refining process), and seal it tightly. Then nurture and refine it over a fire for one double-hour; it will become dry.

Grind one liang each of cinnabar, realgar, and orpiment until evenly mixed. Add two liang of a yellow, hard, purple powder, place the mixture in a vessel, cover and seal it, and secure the seal with clay. Heat from above with a fire of two liang, changing the heat at the mao and you watches, and warm it gently for about ten liang (the text gives this as a measure of time). Remove it and grind it finely. Use paper mulberry juice to form pills the size of mung beans. Each pill is said to transmute five liang of mercury, causing it to solidify at once.

Cover and pad three liang of cinnabar with four liang of the “Four Spirits.” Heat from above with a fire of two liang and warm it gently for seven mou (the text gives this as a measure of time). Remove and grind it finely. Use paper mulberry juice to form pills the size of mung beans; they are said to bring the dead back to life.

Take half a jin of purple powder and one jin of mercury, and grind them together until no grains of mercury remain visible. Place the mixture in a yellow vessel, seal it, and secure the seal with clay. Heat from above with a fire of four liang and warm it gently for one mou (the text gives this as a measure of time). It is said to transmute the Five Metals into treasures.

Grind one liang each of purple river chariot and cinnabar with four liang of realgar until evenly mixed. Place the mixture in an iron crucible and seal it. Heat from above with a fire of two liang, changing the heat at the mao and you watches, and warm it gently for forty-nine days. Then take one liang of mercury and process it together with gold; this is said to refine the mercury into gold.

Another method also calls for grinding one liang each of purple river chariot and cinnabar with four liang of realgar, then placing the mixture in an iron crucible and sealing it. Heat from above with a fire of two liang, changing the heat at the mao and you watches, and warm it gently for forty-nine days. Next, grind one liang of mercury until evenly mixed. Heat it from above with a fire of five liang, changing the heat at the mao and you watches, and warm it gently for five pan (the text gives this as a measure of time). Then pour in five liang of mercury and continue refining according to the heating schedule described above. The text claims that once the mercury dries, all of it can become gold; repeated pouring, refining, and warming will not exhaust it. This is called the “Immortal’s Golden Grain, Planting Jade in the Field” method.

Another procedure uses one liang each of purple river chariot and cinnabar with four liang of realgar. Grind them until evenly mixed, place the mixture in an iron crucible, and seal it. Heat from above with a fire of two liang, changing the heat at the mao and you watches, and warm it gently for forty-nine pan (the text gives this as a measure of time). Add one liang of mercury and grind until no grains remain visible. Warm it gently with a fire of two liang for seven mou; then add more mercury and refine it in the same way, repeating until the amount added reaches one jin. When removed, the finished product is said to shine with a brilliant purple-gold color. Grind it finely and use paper mulberry juice to form pills the size of hemp seeds. Each pill is said to refine one jin of mercury into purple gold.

Take one liang of purple river chariot and cover and pad it with one liang of realgar. Place them in a vessel called “Taiyi Heavenly Official,” then put it inside a yellow crucible. Heat from above with a fire of two liang and warm it gently for three mou, then remove it. Form the realgar into pills the size of hemp seeds. Each pill is said to refine one jin of mercury into purple gold.

Take one liang of Ziheche (here, the name of a substance used in alchemy) and one liang of covered and nested realgar. Place them together in the Great Unity Heavenly Vessel, the container used for alchemy, and set it inside yellow earth. Heat it with two liang of top fire, nurture it gently for three miao periods, then remove it. Grind the realgar very finely. Put half a liang at a time into an iron vessel, add ten liang of mercury, and refine it by the usual method. When the sound stops, nurture it gently for one miao period, then gradually increase the fire until its color turns completely red. This produces Purple Gold.

Grind four liang of Ziheche together with half a jin of mercury until no specks of mercury remain visible. Put the mixture in an iron vessel, seal it securely, and nurture it gently for forty-nine pan periods with two liang of top fire. Remove and grind it finely, then nurture it gently for a year. Use grain juice to form pills the size of hemp seeds. Each pill can refine one jin of mercury into Purple Gold.

Take five liang each of White Gold Sand and mercury, and refine them together into grains of sand. Cover them with Yellow-White Gold Essence, place them inside yellow earth, and heat them with one and a half liang of top fire. Change the fire at the mao and you hours, nurturing the mixture gently for seven pan periods. Once refined, it is called “Precious Bamboo Shoots.” Divide it in two. Refine one portion with mercury into grains of sand, following all the methods described above. Divide it again, refine it again, and nurture it again. Repeat this process for nine cycles, and it can transmute the five metals.

Nurture the Precious Bamboo Shoots by pouring mercury over them. Set the fire and make the furnace and vessel according to the method for refining the Alchemical Head; nurture the mixture as in the method for nurturing the Alchemical Head as well. After pouring over mercury ten times, take one portion of the Precious Bamboo Shoots and refine it with mercury into grains of sand, then follow the method described above. Divide it again, refine it again, and nurture it again. Repeat this process for nine cycles, and it can transmute the five metals.

Nurture the Precious Bamboo Shoots by pouring mercury over them, following the method for nurturing the Alchemical Head in setting the fire, making the furnace and vessel, and nurturing the mixture. After ten pourings, the Precious Bamboo Shoots have exhausted their efficacy and can be melted into silver. This is also called “the Immortal’s Golden Grain sowing jade in the field.”

Grind the sprouts produced by the Precious Bamboo Shoots finely, cover them with five liang of cinnabar, and place them inside yellow earth. Nurture them gently for five miao periods with five liang of top fire. Remove them, preserving their original embryo color. Add an amount of cinnabar equal to the sprouts, and grind the mixture evenly. Put it in the Great Unity Heavenly Vessel, set it inside yellow earth, and nurture it gently over a low flame for twenty-one miao periods. When complete, the elixir body gives off a golden sheen and is called “Red Stone Cinnabar.” It is especially wondrous for making “Bright Window Dust.”

The transformation method for White Horse Teeth.

Place eight liang of gold in a gan crucible used for alchemical refining. Melt it over a fire, add nitrate-based substances, and stir until they are thoroughly incorporated. Grind white horse-tooth milk very finely, then add a small measure at a time, using a knife-point measure—the ancient unit for a tiny quantity of powdered medicine. Each portion will melt on its own. Continue adding it until it no longer melts. When the liquid has clarified, use tongs to set the crucible in ash to cool. Once it has cooled completely, break the crucible. Its contents will naturally separate into different parts; this is called “yellow sprout.”

Take equal portions of yellow sprout and cinnabar, grind them together until fine and uniform, and place the mixture in a gan crucible, filling it to seven-tenths. Cover the opening with a clay lid and seal it. Heat until the contents melt into liquid, then use tongs to place the crucible in ash to cool. Once it has cooled completely, break the crucible. The contents will naturally separate into layers. At this point, the cinnabar has been refined and is the color of molten silver.

Cut the refined substance into dice-sized pieces, wrap them in a large piece of silk, and suspend them in a sand mortar. Prepare a decoction from qing sheng, stone brain, oil acid, pomegranate peel, and the other ingredients as described in the text: use equal amounts of the first three, add them to rice-washing water and boil for a while, then wash them forty-five times with boiling water to remove all medicinal fumes, and finally dry them over heat.

For every jin of the medicinal ingredients, add four liang of mercury and grind them together until no mercury beads are visible. Then place the mixture in a yellow crucible and seal it firmly. Once the seal is dry, set it in an ash bed on level ground and surround it with a total of five jin of raw and spent charcoal. Heat it until the charcoal has burned away. After it cools, remove the mercury: it will all have entered the cinnabar and fused with its inner substance, without any loss. This preparation is called “true fire-subdued, silver-colored cinnabar.”

Take twenty taels of silvery cinnabar and grind it very fine. First spread eight taels across the bottom of a vessel, then add ten taels of cinnabar. Wrap it in silver filings and place honey in the middle. Finally, cover it with twelve taels of silvery cinnabar, press it down flat, and seal it. Heat it from above with a fire of four or five taels’ strength, gently warming it for seven double-hours. Then burn it with two or three jin of firewood. Once the fire has burned out, let it cool and remove the contents.

The cinnabar placed in the container used to hold elixirs and ingredients will turn as black as iron. It can be refined over and over, hundreds or thousands of times, into a golden liquid, without its vital essence dispersing or the slightest loss. This is called “iron-colored cinnabar.” Hammer it into granules the size of rabbit droppings and use it to transmute the Five Metals.

Take one tael each of copper-bearing stone, black lead, and white iron. Melt them into a liquid, then add seven qian of iron-colored cinnabar to transmute them. Heat the mixture over charcoal and stir well. After a long while, when it has settled and become clear, lift it out with tongs and let it cool in ashes. Break it apart: the cinnabar will still be on top, its granules intact and unmoved, while the Five Metals will be below, transformed into snowflake-shaped mercury silver.

If this cinnabar’s power to transmute has weakened and it can only be used after being ground fine, it can serve as the outer container for red lychee silver.

Take a piece of cinnabar the size of an imperial pearl and wrap it in Qijia sand, then wrap it twice each in Kunlun paper and silk. Put the flower that forms on alum and falls by evening into running water, and boil it for a day. Remove it, trim it neatly, and use it to transmute iron-colored cinnabar. Then grind the cinnabar fine and take seven qian to serve as the outer container.

Refine cinnabar (red cinnabar) until it is the size of an imperial pearl. Wrap it in sand in a ratio of three to seven, then cover it in two layers of Kunlun paper or silk. Take the “flowers that bloom at dawn and fall by dusk,” crystals formed from white alum, and boil them in running water for a day. Remove them and trim them neatly. Grind the iron-color cinnabar used for coloring iron into a fine powder. Take seven qian, refine it with honey into a medicinal paste, and wrap it in two layers of Kunlun paper. Once everything is securely wrapped, seal it with prepared clay and let it dry.

Arrange four jin of charcoal in a ring on the ground, with three jin of hot-burning charcoal. Place the wrapped cinnabar in the fire and heat it until it glows red. Turn the cinnabar ball over and surround it with the remaining embers. When the fire has died down to about one-fifth of its strength, remove the charcoal. After it cools, take it out. Both the sand and cinnabar will have been refined into precious substances, called “red lychee iron-color cinnabar.” This cinnabar is not easily damaged or broken, though its medicinal potency is slow to take effect.

Accumulate one jin of the refined cinnabar and add four liang of mercury. Grind them together until no specks of mercury remain visible. Then place the mixture in a yellow vessel, seal it, and let it dry. Set it on level ground, cover it with damp ash, and arrange five jin of charcoal, partly raw and partly burned, around it. Heat until the charcoal is spent. After it cools, take it out. The resulting substance is the “Longevity Coffer of Sand,” a container or medicinal base for subsequent refining.

Take ten liang of sand in a ratio of three to seven and divide it into ten balls. Loosely wrap the white alum crystals in palm leaves, then suspend them in running water and boil them for a day. Spread eight liang of the Longevity Coffer over the bottom of a yellow vessel. Arrange the sand balls evenly on top, then cover them with twelve liang of the Coffer. Press down, seal the vessel, and let it dry. First warm it over four liang of charcoal for seven shichen; then heat it over three jin of charcoal until it glows red. Remove the fire and let it cool. When taken out, the sand will have fully settled into the Coffer and will no longer move.

If following the old method, the proportions of sand can be adjusted gradually, from ratios such as two to eight or one to nine. Lotus, mercury-pouring, sprinkling, and other materials or procedures can then be added by degrees, causing the Coffer to turn gradually yellow. Only then will one believe that cinnabar’s effects differ from those of the “Eight Mineral Substances,” the eight kinds of mineral medicines commonly used in Daoist alchemy.

Longevity Coffer

Twenty liang of cinnabar; two liang each of realgar and orpiment; and half a liang each of yellow vitriol, chalcanthite, catkin alum, and grape green.

Take twenty liang of cinnabar, and two liang each of realgar and orpiment; half a liang each of yellow alum, chalcanthite, willow-fluff alum, and green grape. Weigh these seven ingredients, grind them together until evenly mixed and finely powdered, then wrap them generously in two layers of well-boiled silk.

Next, take nine ingredients—petroleum, realgar, orpiment, yellow alum, black alum, malachite, green salt, red ochre, and willow-fluff alum—in suitable quantities. Grind them together until evenly mixed and finely powdered. Suspend them in rice vinegar and boil for two double-hours. Remove and dry them over heat, place them in a yellow vessel, and seal it tightly. Once dry, smelt them on the ground over five jin of charcoal until the fire has burned out. After cooling, remove the light, floating material and grind the rest finely to make a “crucible charge” (a medicinal material used to nurture and refine metals). Use it to nurture and refine gold sand, following the same method used for silver sand.

After this crucible charge has been stored for some time, it can also be used to nurture and refine cinnabar, in the same way as sand. After refining, each grain of cinnabar is said to be completely penetrated through to its core. This is called “Golden Elixir embracing gold”; further smelting turns it into gold. Both gold sand and cinnabar must first be boiled for one double-hour in vinegar with the nine ingredients before they can be nurtured and refined. The vinegar used to boil the nine ingredients can be kept for a long time; when it runs out, simply add more.

Medicine for treating severe wind disease with convulsions: Ganying Dafeng Pills

Make the pills the size of Chinese parasol tree seeds. Take twenty pills at a time; for mild illness, take ten or five.

The formula lists one liang each of Chinese angelica root, scorpion, and chaulmoogra seeds, and one liang of camphor; five qian each of mercury, fangfeng, fleeceflower root, and Notopterygium root; three qian each of alum, dahurian angelica root, frankincense, and atractylodes; and two liang of rhubarb, prepared with raw liquor. It also lists one liang each of licorice and dried tangerine peel, and musk in no fixed amount, or one or two qian. The original repeats and corrupts some ingredient names and dosages; the list above follows the text as it currently reads.

The verse says: use one liang each of Chinese angelica root, scorpion, chaulmoogra seeds, and camphor; five qian each of mercury, fangfeng, fleeceflower root, and Notopterygium root; three qian each of alum, dahurian angelica root, frankincense, and atractylodes. The amounts of rhubarb, licorice, dried tangerine peel, and musk are left unspecified.

Roll the glutinous rice paste prepared above into pills about the size of tung seeds. Take twenty pills at a time on an empty stomach, swallowing them with plain boiled water. Porridge and rice are suitable to eat. While taking the medicine, avoid the following foods: radish from the bottom of a cooking pot, Chinese yam, ground jujubes, persimmons with their bloom removed, cucumbers, watermelons, winter melons, unripe melons, lotus roots, water chestnuts, sugarcane, eggplants, sugar, white fish, sea fish, “yellow and white,” and sea moon jellyfish. Nothing else may be eaten. If the illness recurs, it will be incurable. Good wine may be drunk; sexual relations are forbidden.

End of Volume Nine of the Geng Dao Ji.