《指归集》

General Preface to the Zhigui ji (Collected Writings on the Ultimate Aim)

Written by Wu Wu, Hermit of Mount Gaogai

The preface says: Under heaven there is a natural Dao (the Way), and each of the myriad things has its own natural pattern. If one does not understand the pattern of a thing, that thing cannot be made to work; and if one does not even understand the Dao, how can one avoid being trapped in difficulty?

The Dao of becoming an immortal is exceedingly lofty and subtle, and it can be reached only through the long accumulation of good deeds and merit. A human life lasts barely a hundred years, and those who live to seventy are few. Even with diligent cultivation, how many years can one accumulate? For this reason, those who wish to study immortality must seek long life so that they may build up merit and conduct, and this is why the doctrine of transmuting through Waidan (external alchemy) came into being.

Yet when a person falls ill, methods such as the use of Fulu (talismans and registers) and the circulation of fire are needed to treat the illness, and so there also arose the teachings of Neidan (internal alchemy), which settle the body and nourish one's nature. Since antiquity, although some have practiced Neidan, there has been no one who ascended and became an immortal without also refining the external elixir.

What is called Neidan amounts to no more than bringing the heart and kidneys into communion, circulating Jing (essence) and Qi (vital energy), preserving the Shen (spirit) while holding the breath, and exhaling the turbid while inhaling the clear. Some devote themselves solely to the arts of the bedchamber; some gather the essences of the sun and moon; some ingest herbs and trees; some abstain from grain and live apart from their wives. All of these aim at obtaining peace and comfort. Among them, only the method of preserving the Shen and holding the breath, if one can forget cleverness and cut off stray thoughts, often closely resembles meditative absorption (chan ding). Even when such practice succeeds, it merely relies on a "yin dwelling" (the original term; its precise meaning is unclear), which cannot escape being used for a long time; perhaps after one moves on, it may then suffice.

As for the sayings about Yin-Yang, the Bagua (Eight Trigrams), the four images, the Five Phases (Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, Water), mercury and lead, and the dragon and tiger, the sages were unwilling to divulge the heavenly mystery lightly, and so they used these expressions to convey the principles of Waidan. Hence an old song says, "The inner medicine and the outer medicine are fundamentally the same." The meaning here is profound indeed.

Why do people of later ages not investigate the original intent of the ancients, nor understand the principles of nature? Having learned only minor techniques from side paths, they assume they can refine the Internal Alchemy (Neidan) and become immortals. Yet they do not ask why the immortals of all ages did not cultivate only Neidan, but also refined External Alchemy (Waidan). Today, all the grotto-heavens and blessed lands of the world (famous mountains and sacred sites said in Daoist lore to be the dwellings of immortals) are said to have been formed because someone refined elixirs there and ascended, and the remains of their elixir furnaces, elixir wells, and elixir stoves can still be found. If one had to first perfect Neidan before Waidan could be used to transform the body, then how could the servants, the parrot, and the dog of an ancient immortal have ascended along with their master? Surely they were not people who had first perfected Neidan.

There are also those who do nothing but search for numinous herbs or smelt metals and minerals. They do not realize that even a herb with spiritual properties will rot if soaked in water and scorch if put in fire, so how could it possibly last forever without decay? All of these are practices of those who do not understand the principle.

I have admired the arts of the Dao since I was young, and for twenty years now I have often met accomplished masters who passed on marvelous oral instructions. This teaching probably originates in the tradition of Shennong, who tasted the hundred herbs and taught the people to take medicines: some are cold in nature, some hot, some mild, and some can injure or even kill. Only cinnabar (a mercury-bearing mineral) is said to preserve both Shen (spirit) and the physical form. For this reason, people hold that cinnabar should be used when the spirit is unsettled, and that mercury should be used if one wishes the corpse not to decay.

Mercury responds to the qi of Yin-Yang. After eight hundred years it becomes cinnabar, after three thousand years it becomes silver, and after eighty thousand years it becomes gold. The longer the time it passes through, the firmer its substance grows, and its transformations are endless. The sages employed water and fire and imitated the qi of Yin-Yang to bring the refining to completion. This is what is called the mechanism of seizing the creative power of nature. Cinnabar turns into silver, silver turns into gold, and this is then refined into the Golden Elixir as a liquid gold that restores the elixir. Taking it is where the Way of long life lies.

The Celestial Master (Tianshi) Xiahou (an honorific title in Daoism) said: "The sages of antiquity used superior medicines to nourish the Shen, middle medicines to nourish one's nature, and inferior medicines to eliminate illness. It is called 'elixir' (dan) because of its color. The Bencao calls it only 'elixir liquid.'"

Celestial Master (Tianshi) Xiahou said: The sages of antiquity used superior medicines to nourish the spirit (Shen), middling medicines to cultivate one's nature, and inferior medicines to eliminate illness. It is called "Dan" (cinnabar, or elixir) because of its color. The Bencao refers to it simply as "cinnabar" (danshā).

What is called "return" (huan) means using the water of Heaven's One, combined with the earth of Earth's Ten, to restore the cinnabar to its original color. This is what Lü Zhenren, the True Man Lü, meant by the "Return of the Five Directions": when the things of the five directions are harmonized, all of them may be called Dan. Naturally formed elixirs are rarely seen in the world. The so-called Dan in cinnabar today is in fact mercury; raw mercury cannot be taken and must first be refined, hence the name "refining the elixir" (liandan).

What is called the "Nine Turnings" (jiuzhuan) refers to the movement of two hexagrams each day, comprising twelve lines in all, corresponding to the twelve months of the year. The refining begins at "Zi One" and ends at "Nine," and each cycle is called a "turning." These are essential instructions handed down from Shennong, and the writing that records them is called the Jinbi Longhu Jing (Scripture of the Golden Green Dragon and Tiger). The Yellow Emperor ascended to the heavens after refining the Nine-Cauldron Elixir, and later generations mistakenly took this book to be his work.

Wei Boyang's Cantongqi, True Man Cui's Ruyao jing (Mirror for Entering the Medicine), Qingxiazi's Huandan jue (Instructions on the Returned Elixir), and True Man Peng's Jinyao shi lun (Treatise on the Golden Key) are all early sources of the alchemical writings, and many later works derive from them. Broadly speaking, the words of the sages often carry profound meaning, much like the records of celestial phenomena, whose principles are deep and subtle. Only when a person who has truly attained the Dao transmits the teaching orally and from mind to mind can the method of cultivation be accomplished; the crux lies in the principle itself.

Zhang Pingshu said, "The external elixir (Waidan) is hard to encounter, yet easy to refine." These are truly words that reach the Great Dao. I am deeply troubled that later students will find it hard to encounter the methods of alchemy, and I grieve that the Great Dao has lost its transmission. I have therefore recorded the words of the former sages and pointed directly to their essentials, titling the work Zhigui (Pointing to the Source) and leaving it for those who share my aspirations.

"The Returned Elixir Uses No Medicine"

The Aozhi zhenjue (Secret Instructions on the Profound Essence) says that the immortals of antiquity spoke only of "lead" and "mercury," and never of the many mineral drugs. Any miscellaneous drug mixed in becomes a poison, and taking it will damage the stomach and intestines. Foolish people treat mercury with such additives so that it no longer evaporates in fire, then give it to others to swallow, calling it "dead mercury" and claiming that it helps the living to cultivate and secure the body. This claim does great harm, and it especially injures the stomach and intestines. Alum is poisonous enough to kill a tiger, and sal ammoniac is also toxic and corrodes copper vessels. When these substances are mixed into mercury and enter the belly, death follows almost without exception.

Master Qingxia says that all eight minerals turn to ash in fire, while cinnabar, once placed in water, becomes silver. Ge Xianweng (the Immortal Ge) says: "The Azure Dragon and the White Tiger share the same root. It is only through the Qi (vital energy) of Yin-Yang that the form of the immortal and the perfected appears. True lead alone is the medicine of long life. Do not trust the common claim that some other drug can achieve the same effect."

Laozi says: "The sage refines the elixir without using drugs, relying solely on the spirit chamber made of gold (the furnace chamber used in alchemy)." The Jinbi jing (Gold and Jade Scripture) says: "South and north alone become the scripture." Huang's commentary explains that in cultivating the Great Elixir no other drugs are mixed in, and only Kan and Li (symbolizing water and fire, and also referring to the two Qi of Yin-Yang) are used. Guangchengzi says: "Refine only the essence of the Yin-Yang of Heaven and Earth." The monk Ruoqing says: "The Yellow Sprout (a Neidan term for the subtle Qi generated in cultivation) is not something from outside, but is drawn from the essence within oneself." The phrase "external things" is written in some editions as "worldly drugs."

The spiritual elixir is originally refined from a single source substance and needs no foreign drugs mixed into it. It is like the clam that absorbs the essence of the moon and forms a pearl in its belly. What other help could it need?

The "lead" spoken of here is not the ordinary lead of the world, and the "mercury" is not external quicksilver. Expressions such as "moving the lead to wrap the Qi (vital energy)" will damage the workings of Qi if they are misunderstood. Minerals such as cinnabar and lead are held to originate from the essence (Jing) and Qi of one's parents, so the true "lead" already exists within the human body. The Great Elixir has twenty-four grades, headed by the "Yellow Sprout." Lead is the yang within yin, and mercury is the yin within yang.

The Perfected Cen said: "Of a thousand people who refine various mineral drugs, hardly one succeeds." The Perfected Cao said: "Worldly people do not understand the root, and most who use various minerals go wrong." The True Lord Yin said: "A good drug has no head, and the furnace and cauldron have no ears. Do not rely on external drugs; refine according to the proper method." Han Yunzhong, a recluse of Mount Taibai, said that those who have loved alchemy from ancient times to the present are beyond counting, and that anyone who meets a master ignorant of the essential doctrine easily strays onto the wrong path. Mercury belongs to yin...

Yellow is paired with the stubborn, yin-natured lead. "Plucking the Flower," "Eleven," "the Sprout and Wood Standing," "Dragon," "Tiger," and the like are all terms of alchemy. If the gold and silver of the world are combined as "mother and child" to gather the elixir, and are then ingested and refined, this often brings untimely disaster. Such misunderstandings are found everywhere, and the error is truly grave. Zhang Pingshu said: "Do not refine the Three Yellows and the Four Spirits; and seeking out various herbs and plants is not the true method of the elixir either."

Heaven and Earth bring forth the myriad things. When have they ever relied on added drugs? Today many people use toxic drugs to process cinnabar and then have others consume it, and the result is that many are harmed. This is caused by the toxicity of those drugs and should not be blamed on cinnabar itself. How can one fail to examine this carefully?

The Returned Elixir uses only the two substances, lead and mercury...

Zheng Siyuan (郑思远) said: "The 'Tiger' refers to silver, which is also called the 'Metal Lord' (Jin Gong). In the Five Phases (五行) it belongs to Water and also to Metal. The 'Dragon' refers to mercury, which is also called the 'Maiden' (Cha Nü). In the Five Phases it belongs to Wood and also to Fire. Metal generates Water, Water generates Wood, Wood generates Fire, Fire generates Earth, and everything finally returns to Earth. The essential point of the alchemical method lies here."

Wei Boyang (魏伯阳) said: "Swallows and sparrows cannot give birth to phoenixes, and foxes and rabbits cannot raise horses. Without true parents, what is born is never genuine." These words show that the substances used in alchemy must have a true and genuine root.

Guangchengzi (广成子) said: "Making the Palace of Li (representing fire and Yang) rest is not difficult. The key lies in seeking out the Gate of Kan (representing water and Yin) and examining its subtle essence with care." Master Yang (杨真人) said: "Within Yin there is Yang, and within Yang there is Yin. Having recognized the mercury within cinnabar, one must still seek the metal contained within lead."

Yin Changsheng (阴长生) said: "Take metal as the bones and mercury as the body. When Yin and Yang are matched, they naturally draw close and unite." The Perfected Tao Zhi (陶植真人) said: "If you wish to make quicksilver congeal into the elixir, you must rely on the power of Kan and Li (water and fire, Yin and Yang)." The monk Ruonè (僧若讷) said: "If you say the seed of the medicine is originally lead, you are far from lead; if you say the seed of the medicine is not lead, you must still begin from lead." The Perfected Zhang Hua (张华真人) said: "With tiger-metal as the bones and mercury as the body, Yin and Yang are matched and naturally draw close and unite."

These sayings of Tao Zhi, Ruonè, and Zhang Hua appear repeatedly in the original text. The Perfected Zhang Hua also said: "When the tiger crouches down, the dragon conceals itself; when the dragon lies hidden, the tiger first goes into hibernation."

The Record of Hangu Pass (《函谷关记》) by Laozi (老君) says: "Red lead and black mercury are the root of the Great Elixir; this one ingredient, quicksilver, is profound and deeply mysterious." The Scripture of the Sage Stone (《圣石经》, Jing) says: "Metal transformed remains metal, and silver transformed remains silver." The Celestial Master (Tianshi) Zhang said: "Lead draws out the marrow, and mercury draws out the vital essence. When essence and marrow unite, the elixir can be completed."

The Perfected Taiyi (太一真人) said: "The art of reversing the Five Phases is that the dragon is born from within fire. If the Five Phases do not move in their usual order, the tiger appears within water." This means that among all things under heaven, only by making what flies and moves crouch down can one subdue it: when the tiger crouches, the dragon flies. Only by using stillness to govern motion, with Yin being still and Yang being active, can this be done. Thus the principle of using lead to subdue mercury lies here.

Lead and mercury must also possess the true "Three...".

The Essential Instructions on the Mysteries (Aozhi zhenjue) says: so long as the lead is true lead, the medicine will be naturally numinous and wondrous once the elixir is refined; so long as the mercury is pure, the elixir will naturally possess a miraculous nature. Master Tao says: if the lead is true lead, it will not lose its original root; if the lead is not true, it will have difficulty bonding with the mercury. The Cantong qi (Token for the Agreement of the Three) says that when lead and mercury attain their true nature, they can accord with each other from the beginning of the refining process to its end. The lead spoken of here is not ordinary silver, nor is the mercury ordinary wood. The Supreme One (Taishang) says: one thing is divided into two parts, one half symbolizing lead and the other half mercury. An old poem says: for the moment, lead is borrowed as the foundation; if the lead is not entirely removed during refining, how can the result become the finest elixir? Discerning the Doubts about the True Instructions says: although it is certain that both lead and mercury must be used, what is used is not the ordinary lead and mercury of the world, but a subtle and marvelous material capable of being refined into the supreme medicine, which must be discerned and selected through profound and subtle methods. Master Qingxia says: lead is the mother of the medicine sprout (the first stirring of the elixir).

The commentary explains: Metal can generate Water, and Water can also generate Metal, so the medicine sprout can arise within lead, which is the proof. Hence the elixir instructions say that lead can restrain mercury, and mercury can also settle lead; as lead and mercury coagulate into form, this is called "subduing."

Wood can generate Fire, and Fire can also generate Wood, so mercury can arise within cinnabar, which is likewise the proof. Mercury is called "Wood" because, after receiving the energy of the Taiyang (Greater Yang), it transforms into "flowing pearls" (fluid, bead-like droplets). Taiyang is the sun, and the sun rises in the east, which belongs to Wood; Taiyin (Greater Yin) is the moon, and the moon rises in the west, which belongs to Metal. The Returning Elixir method uses such images as Taiyang and Taiyin to explain the transformations of the ingredients, and takes these images as its standard.

To recognize true lead, one must understand true mercury. What is called "the metal within water" means that Metal can generate Water, which is why silver is called the mother of lead. Mercury is hidden within cinnabar and is called the "Mysterious Pearl"; yellow earth can restrain water and keep it from flowing, and all of these serve to illustrate the relationship of mutual generation and restraint between Metal and Water. Metal overcomes Wood, Water overcomes Fire, and Earth holds the position of greatest strength across the four seasons. All things follow one another from beginning to end, while the Five Phases (Wuxing) also restrain one another; Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth, combined in threes and fives, together finally refine the supreme medicine.

Among the Five Phases (Wuxing), which in Daoist Neidan (internal alchemy) denote five kinds of forces used to explain material change and the relations of Yin-Yang, "Water generates Wood" refers to mercury; "Wood generates Fire" refers to cinnabar; "Fire generates Earth" refers to the true earth engendered by the transformations of Shen (spirit) and Qi (vital energy); "Earth generates Metal" refers to white metal; and "Metal generates Water" refers to black water. None of these is the silver, cinnabar, earth, or other substance commonly spoken of in the ordinary world.

The sprout is the offspring of lead. Once the golden bloom has appeared (a term used in Neidan cultivation for subtle transformations or the manifestation of the medicine), and once the lead has been obtained, one must not set it down again. The Danjian says: "Lead is lead, and mercury is mercury, yet people of the world always use them wrongly." Yang Yuanyi says: "If you wish to seek immortality and look for the yellow lead, you must obtain the true lead bloom."

Master Huang says: "People of the world all study how to seek the elixir, yet not one has truly found it, because they all use the wrong materials." Yang Yuanyi says: "If you wish to seek immortality and look for the yellow lead, you must obtain the true lead bloom."

Master Huang also says: "People of the world all study how to seek the elixir, yet not one has truly found it. The Dao requires lead, but it is not only a matter of using lead; when the time comes to use lead, even if one uses it, one may still be mistaken." The Wangjiangnan says: "Those who first study the Dao must first obtain true lead." This is because one must first understand the subtle principles of the Five Phases, and only then can transformation be without end. How marvelous, how marvelous.

The Yinfu Jing (Scripture of the Hidden Talisman) says: "Observe the Way of Heaven and follow the patterns of its movement, and you grasp the essential. Between Heaven and Earth there are five hidden forces at work; if you can recognize them, you will flourish." Accordingly, Master Qingxia explained:

Mercury symbolizes the Azure Dragon. It corresponds to the Zhen trigram and the liver, and belongs to the eastern Jia-Yi Wood. Wood generates Fire; Fire corresponds to the heart, belongs to the southern Bing-Ding Fire, and corresponds to the Li trigram. Mercury is naturally blue-green in color, but when it meets fire it turns red, and so it is transformed into cinnabar. Cinnabar symbolizes the Vermilion Bird and is Yang in nature. When Yang qi reaches its extreme, Yin arises. The mercury within cinnabar embodies this change, and also symbolizes the two Yin lines at the center of the Li trigram. It is like the golden crow (a golden raven) within the sun: the crow is Yin and symbolizes the Black Tortoise (Xuanwu), corresponding to the Kan trigram and the kidneys, and belonging to the northern Ren-Gui Water.

Lead symbolizes Kan Water and is Yin in nature. When Yin qi reaches its extreme, Yang arises. Black lead contains a white metal, symbolizing the single Yang line at the center of the Kan trigram, just as the jade hare lives within the moon: the hare is Yang. Metal symbolizes the White Tiger, corresponding to the Dui trigram and the lungs, and belonging to the western Geng-Xin Metal. When Metal returns to its original nature, Water and Fire dissolve of their own accord. The color turns yellow, and yellow corresponds to the spleen, which belongs to the central Wu-Ji Earth.

The liver is blue-green in color and represents Wood; it is the father. The lungs are white and represent Metal; they are the mother. The kidneys are black and represent Water; they are the son. The spleen is yellow and represents Earth; it is the sovereign. Within this, the Five Phases (Wuxing) shift and move upon one another, with both generation and cyclical restraint: Metal generates Water, Water generates Wood, Wood generates Fire, Fire generates Earth, and Earth generates Metal; Metal overcomes Wood, Wood overcomes Earth, Earth overcomes Water, Water overcomes Fire, and Fire overcomes Metal.

Thus mercury symbolizes Metal, which uses Metal to fell Wood; cinnabar symbolizes Fire, which uses Fire to melt Metal; and lead symbolizes Water, which uses Water to extinguish Fire. When Water becomes too powerful, Earth is then used to hold it in check. By letting like respond to like, and by using corresponding qi to harmonize and restrain, one can refine the Great Elixir (the pill sought in Daoist internal or external alchemy, Neidan or Waidan).

The Jinbi Jing (Scripture of the Golden Green Jade) says: "Elaborate the line images and examine the trigram images, taking the Five Phases as the pivot. The Yang qi within Kan is the essence of Metal; the Yin qi within Li is the light of Fire. Metal and Fire attack one another, while Water and Earth restrain one another. When Earth flourishes in the position of Metal, the three substances perish together; only when they gather and are harmonized can peace and stability be attained."

Chunyu Shutong said: Wood is by nature straight, yet it is injured by Metal; Water is by nature yielding, yet it is restrained by Earth; Earth, however thickly piled, is damaged by Wood; and Metal, however hard, is melted by Fire. These relations of mutual overcoming among the Five Phases are the constant law of the Great Dao.

Master Cao said: "Take the Azure Dragon of the east and pair it with the White Tiger of the west; then bring the Vermilion Bird of the south together with the Black Tortoise of the north. The most crucial of all is the Earth at the center." Yan Junping said: "One, two, three, four, five correspond respectively to Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth. One who understands this secret has set foot on the road to longevity." Zhang Pingshu said: "When two substances meet, their natures and sentiments accord; where the Five Phases are complete, the dragon and tiger coil and gather together." All these statements make clear that the Five Phases cannot come into being apart from Earth, and the Golden Elixir (Jindan) cannot be refined apart from Earth.

Zhang Pingshu (that is, Zhang Boduan) said: "When the two things, Yin and Yang (阴阳), meet and join, feeling and nature unite; where the Five Phases (五行, Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, Water) are complete, the dragon and the tiger coil together within." This shows that the Five Phases cannot do without Earth: the myriad things cannot grow without earth, and the refining of the Golden Elixir (金丹, Jindan) likewise cannot do without it.

The Fire Phasing Must Be Examined with Care

Master Qingxia said: "From the first month to the seventh month, at the hour of Shen, is called the Seven Returns; from the eleventh month to the seventh month is called the Nine Reversions. When the fire phasing first begins, Yang qi (气, Qi) amounts to only one part."

The commentary says: "If lead and mercury do not pass through the Seven Returns and Nine Reversions, the elixir cannot be completed; and even if it is completed, it will not prove efficacious."

Here, "fire phasing" (火候, huohou) is a metaphor in Neidan (内丹, internal alchemy) for timing and the progress of practice, while "lead and mercury" are Neidan terms often used to refer to the Yin and Yang qi that work in concert during cultivation.

This begins with the Fu hexagram of the eleventh month, then proceeds through the Lin hexagram of the twelfth month, Tai of the first month, Dazhuang of the second, Guai of the third, Qian of the fourth, Gou of the fifth, Dun of the sixth, Pi of the seventh, Guan of the eighth, and Bo of the ninth, until it reaches the Kun hexagram of the tenth month. The refining of the medicine into an elixir completes one cycle and passes through the twenty-four solar terms. The Returned Elixir (huandan) takes on a purplish-red color, which shows that the Qi of Yin-Yang is now abundant. Its light is bright, its weight neither gains nor loses, and it still matches the original measure in catties and taels. All of this is true earth (zhentu), whose transformations are inexhaustible.

It is also said: the months of Zi, Chou, and Yin belong to spring, and the months of Mao, Chen, and Si belong to summer. In these six months Yang Qi governs and Yin Qi clings to it, like water soaking into an object and dyeing it. The months of Wu, Wei, and Shen belong to autumn, and the months of You, Xu, and Hai belong to winter. In these six months Yin Qi governs and Yang Qi clings to it, so the water congeals and takes form. After the Metal dissolves and enters the water, the Qi of water and fire refine each other, and their substances join in struggle, moving back and forth without fixed pattern, rising and falling without constancy. When water meets fire it rises, and when Metal meets fire it goes into hiding. The two act upon one another and keep changing until they finally coagulate in the vessel. This is the body of the Returned Elixir, so wondrous that it cannot be fathomed.

The Jinbi Jing (Scripture of Gold and Jade) says: Kun first changes into the Zhen hexagram, and on the third day the moon appears at the Geng position; the dragon and tiger (in alchemy, symbols of the two forces of Yin and Yang) come together. Kun then changes into the Dui hexagram, and on the eighth day the moon stands at the Ding position. The waxing half-moon shows a semicircle, symbolizing half a catty of Metal. The body of Kun then changes into Qian, the moon becomes full, and it shines upon the Jia position in the east. Metal and water are nourished in a sun-like fire; the red water flows and turns into mercury. The mercury tumbles as if in a golden pan, and once the moon has filled, it turns toward waning. By the sixteenth day Yin Qi begins to grow, and Qian wanes into the Xun hexagram, with the moon appearing at the Xin position in the early morning. Qian is diminished again and becomes the Gen hexagram. On the twenty-third day the moon shows the image of Gen as the waning half-moon, symbolizing half a catty of water. The moon appears in the south at the Bing position, and Qian, in its third change, becomes Kun. On the thirtieth day Kun appears at the Yi position, the northeast loses its light, and the moon sets at Yi. Earth, Wood, and Metal are about to transform, and what follows is the Zhen dragon (a symbol of the force of Yang beginning to stir).

The Cantongqi (Token for the Agreement of the Three) says: the record of fire phasing (huohou) amounts to six hundred, meaning sixty days, and within day and night the patterns of change in the seasonal Qi are all contained. Hours accumulate into days, days into months, and months into years. The twelve double-hours of a day and night can also be divided into two halves, six belonging to Yang and six to Yin. Within Yang there are four kinds of Qi, and the fire phasing follows these four.

The Taigu Huolong Jing (Scripture of the Fire Dragon of Great Antiquity) says: the bright dragon receives pure Yang Qi, its color belongs to blue-green, and it is conceived in the palace of fire. It receives the true Qi of four thousand three hundred and thirty years, and is therefore called the "Fire Dragon." In his commentary, Sima Wei says that the Jinjing Taisu Jing (Scripture of Golden Essence and Great Simplicity) records that cinnabar receives the Qi of true Yang and also contains the essence of supreme Yin. From its conception and transformation, it takes four thousand three hundred and twenty years to form such an elixir body. Therefore the fire symbolized by the Fu hexagram must pass through four thousand three hundred and twenty years before the Great Elixir can be perfected.

The Perfected One Ge said: "The secret of bathing (muyu) and fire phasing cannot be written into commentaries; one must meet a Perfected Person (zhiren) and receive the oral instructions in person." Fire phasing is the most crucial point in alchemical refining. The sages of earlier ages recorded it in detail in writing, so it was not left entirely untransmitted. Yet its subtle and profound aspects are hard to exhaust in words, so it must still be mastered according to the actual moment. Only a person who possesses the Dao can examine and appreciate it with care.

The mysteries of how Heaven and Earth operate, the principles behind the transformations of Yin-Yang, and the workings of the creation of all things were all recorded in books by the sages of antiquity. They set these matters down in full and careful detail and handed them on to later generations, so that everyone under Heaven might understand where the supreme Dao (the Way), the highest principle, finally leads.

Yet foolish and deluded people reverse right and wrong and cling to their own errors. They do not trust the sages. Instead, they claim that the mysteries of the world must not be divulged, and so they turn their backs on the supreme Dao and die without ever awakening. There is no other reason for this than that their conduct does not accord with principle. Their hearts therefore cannot comprehend the order of things, and they cannot enter the realm of the Dao. Could the heart of a sage ever run counter to principle? When the Yinfu Jing (Scripture of the Hidden Talisman) says, "Reveal the celestial mechanism, and be sunk for three kalpas," it means that foolish people privately and recklessly misuse the great Dao, treating it as something contrary to principle. It does not mean that the sages wished the Dao never to be passed on to the world.

The teachings of Yao, Shun, King Wen, King Wu, the Duke of Zhou, and Confucius are all preserved in the Six Classics (the Confucian canon). The books teach over and over again so that everyone under Heaven may become a gentleman of learning and virtue, and most of the world's gentlemen have indeed come from them. As for those of poor character, even if they read these works, they cannot understand them. The books of the Buddhists (Shi family) circulate throughout the world, guiding the multitude through every kind of teaching so that all under Heaven may become Buddhas, and the world's Buddhas have all arisen from these teachings. As for those who delight in creating evil karma, even if they recite the Buddhist books, they cannot grasp the principles within them.

Moreover, since the books of Fuxi and Shennong have already been handed down in the world, what reason could there be for deliberate concealment? Only those whose hearts accord with the Dao and whose conduct conforms to principle will naturally understand the principles when they read these books, and thereby attain the Dao.

I have consulted more than a hundred authorities on the Danjing (alchemical classics, texts on refining the elixir and cultivating the Dao). Though their wording differs, the principles they set forth are in fact consistent and interconnected. I have therefore selected the passages that are easier to grasp and placed them at the front. In quoting scriptures, citing verses, and reciting poems, I have found that some pieces first came from one person, yet later copyists attribute them to another, and certain key phrases also appear in different alchemical books.

Take, for example, the several hundred theories of the Golden Elixir art. Their crux lies in "Divine Water and Flowery Pond" (a term in Neidan, or internal alchemy, referring to an important function or state of body and mind in practice). This phrase originally came from Li Quan's method of interpreting the Yinfu Jing, yet later schools cite it as though it were scripture. In cases like this I can only record what I have heard, and for the moment I have no time to investigate each one's origin and development. I record these things in order to transmit the principles within them; as for the original branches and instruments of the teaching, I cannot attend to them. Where accounts conflict, most are books forged by alchemists (fangshi) since the Qin and Han dynasties, and scholars who weigh them by principle will naturally be able to tell them apart.