《灵宝众真丹诀》

From birth, a person is bound by the endowment of the Five Phases (Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, Water) and the Five Constants (benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and trustworthiness). One is also prone to harm from the Five Flavors in food and drink, and to attack by the Eight Winds (the various wind-borne pathogens). From infancy to old age, no one escapes death from wind pathogens.

Some people eat too much and too fully, while others go hungry and lack food. Some drink too much water, while others suffer from thirst and dehydration. Some eat salty or vinegary foods, while others consume sour and pungent things. Some fear the heat yet stand facing the wind, while others fear the cold yet sit close to the fire. Some admire the moon in a courtyard, while others stand shivering beneath a tree. Some pierce their skin or injure their limbs in a fall. Some habitually take harsh, drying medicines, while others constantly drink thin broths. Some abstain from sexual relations for long periods, while others frequently expend their Jing (essence). As a result, wind pathogens invade every part of the body, and toxic pathogens gather in the four limbs, gradually leaving the hands and feet unresponsive and speech slurred.

In some cases the illness brings pain that drills into the marrow, and in others numbness that creeps across the skin. Some itch as though insects were biting, while others are as numb as iron or stone. Some produce much phlegm, while others become forgetful and quick to anger. Some suffer from blocked blood vessels and wasting flesh. Some remain bedridden for long periods, able to sit up only briefly. Some have swollen faces and heads, alive yet like the dead. And some, who normally have no ailment at all, die suddenly.

In men, wind pathogens travel with the breath, or Qi (vital energy); in women, they travel with the blood. No one escapes death from wind pathogens. Yet people of the world do not understand how to treat them and use medicines only to attack the body's interior. If the wind pathogens have already lodged among the five zang organs, the six fu organs, the four limbs, and the hundred vessels, how can decoctions possibly drive them out? Even when a physician examines the illness and prescribes treatment, the medicine may be ill-suited. Even someone who has thoroughly studied the Classic of Difficult Issues (Nanjing) and the Plain Questions (Suwen), and who boasts of three generations of medical practice and a sure cure every time, how can they guarantee a recovery when faced with deep-seated, long-standing illness?

I have lived on Mount Taibai for a long time and suffered from illness for many years. I tried every kind of medicine, and almost none had any effect. Later an old man gave me this medicine, and after I took five pills, my illness gradually receded. I bowed my head to the ground and thanked Heaven, then begged him to tell me how the medicine was made. He agreed to teach me, but made me swear not to pass it on carelessly to others.

For this reason, I keep the method of preparation close at hand and reverently place it in my spirit chamber. Whoever obtains it afterward should treat it with respect and not transmit it casually, or they may bring disaster upon themselves. If one cultivates according to the proper method, why worry that it will fail to prove effective?

Medicines prepared by roasting can be used to make the burned medicine, and the burned medicine can in turn be used to make the decocted medicine. The specific methods for refining the herbs and the names of the ingredients are not given at this point in the original text.

Among the roasted, burned, boiled, and raw medicinals, each both restrains and aids the others. The roasted medicinal restrains the burned; the burned restrains the boiled; the boiled restrains the raw. In turn, the raw aids the boiled, the boiled aids the raw, the raw aids the roasted, and the roasted aids the burned. They hold one another in check and work in concert, like ruler and minister each fulfilling their own role, or like a father and son whose bond is secure. In this way Yin-Yang (阴阳) falls into proper order. Yang-natured substances restrain Yin-natured ones in order to guide them, and Yin-natured substances restrain Yang-natured ones in order to guide them.

This medicine cannot enable a person to become an immortal, but it is said that taking a dose about the size of a bean will keep a person free of illness for the whole of their natural lifespan. For wind disorders, or for injuries to the limbs and joints from falls and blows that have left someone unable to move for years, taking a single pill according to the method will bring results; even severe cases are said to need no more than ten pills.

If someone suddenly collapses unconscious but the area over the heart has not yet turned cold, take one pill, dissolve it in vinegar, and rub it into the navel more than a thousand times. Once the area around the navel gradually warms and the eyes open, give another pill with hot vinegar, and the person is said to be revived. For wind disorders of any kind, whether recent or long-standing, the medicine is said to work wonders, and its effects are too many to record in full.

Each pill is about the size of a mustard seed and is stored after being dried in the sun. For a sick person, however long the illness has lasted, first give half a liang of Red Snow (a Daoist medicinal formula) or Tongzhong San (the name of another formula) with tea; if the wind disorder is severe and the body markedly stiff, give one liang. After a short while, use hot tea to induce vomiting and purging, so that the patient purges about three times. Then, following the method, give a ginger-and-bean decoction and one pill of the elixir. Next, have others take turns massaging the affected area with warm hands. After some time of massage the area will become very hot; it is said that something like fire is felt moving through the body to the painful spot, and the pain then vanishes.

For someone who has had a wind disorder for one or two hundred days, or a full year, and can no longer get out of bed, a single pill is said to let them rise and walk as though they had never been ill. In especially severe cases, one pill may be given after each purge; after an interval of three to five days, the patient is again purged first with Red Snow and then given the elixir, as before. Taking no more than ten or twenty pills a day in this way, the patient is said to return to normal.

For those whose old injuries from blows and falls, suffered years earlier, ache unbearably on overcast days and leave them unable to move, this medicine is especially effective, and only one or two pills are said to be needed. If a larger amount has been taken, then after recovery the medicine's power is said to lie hidden beneath the sole of the foot: the left foot for men, the right foot for women. Afterward, whenever the person feels unwell, they need only silently call this medicine to mind, and its power is said to arrive at the thought. This medicine is described as miraculously effective, beyond the measure of ordinary understanding; the specific method of preparing it follows.

Cut twenty-four sheets of gold leaf and grind them, together with one liang and one fen of bright cinnabar, into a fine powder. Boil the powder for three days in lye made from millet and wheat ash, then rinse it and weigh out three da fen of realgar. Grind the realgar into fine powder and boil it for three days in vinegar. The materials are ready once they have been treated to the proper degree. This medicine is said to have miraculous effects, so wondrous that human intelligence cannot fathom them. The method of preparation is as follows.

Cut twenty-four sheets of gold leaf and grind them, with one liang and one fen of bright cinnabar, into a fine powder. Boil this for three days in lye of millet and wheat ash. Rinse it, weigh out three da fen of realgar, grind it fine, boil it for three days in vinegar, and rinse it again. Weigh out three da fen of shitingzhi (stone courtyard resin), grind it fine, boil it for three days in wine, and rinse it again. Next weigh out four da fen each of ox bezoar, musk, dounao, navel tiger bone, and dragon teeth, grind them into fine powder, and use them raw. Weigh out three da fen each of actinolite (yangqishi), magnetite (cimaoshi), amethyst, native copper, and changlishi. Weigh out five da fen each of polygala, morinda root, figwort root, wuta, and epimedium. Weigh out six da fen each of costus root, nutmeg, deer antler velvet (which looks like a dried persimmon), and cinnamon bark. Finally, take three da fen each of corydalis and mulü.

Place the four ingredients sulfur, realgar, cinnabar, and native copper together in one vessel, lined and covered with gold leaf, and do not seal the mouth of the vessel tightly. Heat it over a fire for three days, keeping the fire and the vessel three cun apart throughout. Do not let it become too hot.

Next place the four ingredients actinolite, magnetite, amethyst, and changlishi together in a second vessel, again lined and covered with gold leaf. Bury the vessel halfway in ash, leave its mouth unsealed, and heat it for three days. On the first day, keep the fire two cun from the vessel; on the second day, one cun; on the third day, gather the fire around the vessel. During the night, heat it until the vessel glows red, and let the fire's toxicity disperse completely.

Grind ten liang of stalactite with a jade pestle for seven days, until it is as fine as wheat flour, then stop. Pack the powder into a bag of boiled silk and tie it tightly. The original text then repeats the earlier steps about gathering the fire on the third day and heating the vessel until it glows red at night to disperse the fire's toxicity. It does not explain how this step connects to the grinding of the stalactite.

Note: Several characters in the original, such as the "twenty-four" notation, the "ash lye of millet and wheat," dounao, wuta, and mulü, may reflect copying or reading errors. They have been kept as written or rendered literally. Da fen is a unit of measure used in the original, and it cannot be converted into modern weights from this passage alone.

First, take ten liang of stalactite (zhongru) and grind it with a jade pestle for seven days, until it is as fine as wheat flour, then stop. Put it into a bag of boiled silk, tie the mouth tightly, and suspend the bag in a pot. Boil it in two dou of water until only one dou remains, then remove the stalactite and keep the decoction. Take three he of this decoction and use it to grind raw rhinoceros horn, grinding one thousand strokes. Set this horn liquid aside; it will be ground in together with the gleditsia kernels later.

Use the remaining stalactite decoction to simmer five ingredients beginning with polygala (yuanzhi). Add five large fen (an ancient unit of medicinal measure) of vitex fruit, crushed and boiled together with them. Simmer until seven sheng remain, then strain out the dregs. Next, use this liquid to simmer four ingredients beginning with costus root (qingmuxiang), reducing it to four sheng, and strain out the dregs. Then simmer in this liquid pinellia that has been roasted, washed clean with water, and crushed by hand, together with finely sliced Chinese angelica, one large liang of each. Reduce it to three sheng, strain out the dregs, let it stand until clear, and take the clear liquid.

Next, take one sheng each of rehmannia juice, ash-free wine (wine to which no lime or other additives have been added), and the urine of a boy. Combine them with the three sheng of medicinal liquid, making six sheng in all, and place them in a clean vessel. Simmer slowly, alternating gentle and strong heat. When one sheng remains, add the various mineral and metallic substances and stir without pause until the mixture becomes like thin porridge. Remove it from the heat and add the powders of five raw ingredients, beginning with bovine bezoar (niuhuang). Stir thoroughly and simmer again down to one sheng. Then add the gleditsia kernels: take the roasted seeds of the gleditsia pod, shell out the kernels, and pound them into powder, weighing out six large fen. Separately, take two fen of borneol (longnao) and grind it fine in a basin. Place these together with the rhinoceros horn liquid prepared earlier into a mortar, and have a strong man grind it three thousand strokes, until the medicine becomes very sticky. Then roll it into pills the size of mustard seeds; they must not be made large.

The efficacy of this medicine is called marvelous beyond compare. Once made, it may be divided into three large portions, arranged like the character 品. The amount taken in each dose is one of these portions. If one large liang of refined mirabilite is added, it is called the "Coffin-Breaking Elixir" (Poguan Dan). The mirabilite meant here is the finest saltpeter from Shu, the kind with sharp, angular edges being best. Put it in a small pot and heat it, refining it until the liquid has boiled completely dry, then take the powder and add it to the medicine.

The Jing (scripture) claims that if someone dies suddenly, as long as the body has not yet changed color, one may open the coffin, pry open the teeth, and give one pill with hot vinegar. If the pill can be swallowed, the person will revive, and it is said that eight or nine out of ten can be saved this way. The pill is about the size of a meng bean, and the use of the remaining medicines follows the rhymed formula.

Place the liuhuang sand (sulfur sand) above the copper sheet, separated from it. First put the preceding four mineral drugs into the vessel in order, and roast them over fire according to the prescribed method. Arrange the magnetite in a long row, with the purple stone placed at the front. Then put the latter four mineral drugs into the vessel in order, and refine them over fire according to the prescribed method.

Separate the minerals with gold leaf: three sheets above and three below, and two sheets in each layer between. The earlier minerals are to be secured in this way. The purple stone is burned in the fire, and the copper is roasted, until the drugs have been refined three full times. When amethyst is used, the vessel is burned; when native copper is used, the vessel is roasted. Each procedure is carried out for one day.

"Milk simmers, four and five return to one" means decocting with stalactite (zhongru); "simmer" (peng) means to decoct. Using the stalactite, decoct the preceding twenty ingredients in two dou of water, boiling it down to one dou. This is called "returning to one." After the decoction is drawn off, it must still go through eleven further rounds of decocting.

Next, take one dou of the stalactite water decocted earlier and use it to decoct eleven herbs, which is why it is called the "Eleven Refinements." When the decoction has reached the third stage, water is added and it is boiled down again to one dou, which is also called "returning to one." After the decoction is drawn off, it must still go through eleven further rounds of decocting. Then one dou of the previously decocted stalactite water is again used to decoct the eleven herbs, and this is still called the "Eleven Refinements." After reaching the third stage it is drawn off, and then boiled down further to three sheng.

"Rehmannia, boy's urine, and wine, together in a single moment" refers to combining three ingredients: rehmannia, the urine of a young boy, and wine. When the fire-refined minerals are placed in a quiet chamber, this means the minerals are taken out of the fire and moved into a still place, until they become soft and fine like flesh, and thick in consistency. The "Five Raw Ingredients" refers to five drugs, beginning with bezoar (niuhuang). Separately, take three ge of water in a vessel, and grind rhinoceros horn in it with repeated turning on the outside; this refers to grinding the rhinoceros horn with the stalactite water.

The Method of Purple-Gold Cinnabar

Take half a jin of top-grade Chenzhou brocade-bright cinnabar, three liang of azurite (zengqing), and two liang of leaf-form realgar and orpiment. Crush all of these with an iron key to the size of soapberry pods. Take a vessel that holds one sheng, put these three substances into it, and boil them in brine (bittern) water for twenty-one days. While boiling, keep the liquid at a fine simmer like fish-eye bubbles, and do not let it overflow.

Take out one grain of cinnabar, wash it clean with water, and examine it facing the light. If it appears golden, stop the boiling; if it still shows reddish-black halos, boil it for another seven days. After taking it out, let it dry, and then roast it over the fire until the dark black color fades, and then store it in a cabinet.

Place two jin of "guanhua" (盥花) together with one liang of saltpeter. Take out one grain of cinnabar, wash it clean with water, and examine it in a bright place. If it appears golden, you may stop; if red-black halos still remain, boil it for another seven days. After taking it out, let it dry, then roast it over fire until the dark, murky black has receded, and place it in the "chamber" (gui, 柜).

Put the two jin of guanhua and one liang of saltpeter into a bottle and burn them down to a liquid. Pound it to pieces and burn it again, then grind it into a fine powder and pack it into the shape of a chamber. Next, add a layer of "cengci" (曾雌; the text uses this wording, and it is the name of an alchemical material), pack it firm with salt powder and level it off, stopping about three fen from the mouth of the vessel. Seal the opening with cloth and cover it with a tile, then seal it tightly with Liu-Yi mud (六一泥, a clay compound used in alchemy to seal vessels) and smooth it over, leaving no gap.

Once sealed, nourish it with gentle heat at four liang of fire strength for seven days, then at six liang for twenty-eight days, then at half a jin for fourteen days, and finally calcine it with three jin of fire. When the vessel has cooled, take the contents out, place them in a bamboo tube with yellow ox milk, and steam them three times together with black bean rice. Then soak them in a cold spring for three days. Afterward, remove the rice and steam again until the dark, murky black appears. Grind the result into a fine powder and form it into pills with paper mulberry sap (楮汁, the juice of the paper mulberry tree), each pill the size of a millet grain. Take three pills a day with wine.

The original text says this medicine treats the thirty-six kinds of wind disorders, hemilateral wind, wind in the sinews and bones, wind madness, wind causing arched-back rigidity, kidney wind-heat, toxic wind, and all kinds of cold wind. With long-term use it is said to transform the skin and hair, prolong life, and make the body light and robust. Its effects cannot all be recorded. Here, take only four liang and place it in the chamber by the method above: first lay down the cengci, then spread layers of cooked cinnabar and raw cinnabar until full, using four liang of raw cinnabar in all. Then lay cooked cinnabar, then cengci again, and finally cover it with the chamber powder. Seal it as before and nourish it with gentle heat for forty-nine days. When this is finished, repeat the process in the same way; each time use four liang as the "mother" (mu, 母; the base material used in refining to keep propagating the material).

The Method of Transforming Golden-Green Cinnabar into Golden Millet Grains

This method is said to treat all kinds of wind disorders, prolong life, preserve a youthful complexion, cure a hundred illnesses, and transform substances into precious treasures.

This passage records, in the manner of ancient alchemy, methods of sealing vessels, heating in stages, and taking the medicine; terms such as "chamber" and "mother" are technical refining terms here. A passage on steaming and healing appears twice in the original text, and the above has merged it, paraphrasing according to its meaning.

First, prepare the clay ball. Mix yellow cinnabar (huangdan), white earth, powdered tile, salt, and vinegar together. Use wax to make an inner mold, then wrap it tightly in the clay so that not the slightest gap remains. Once the clay has dried in the shade, open a hole at one side, remove the wax mold, and then fire the ball.

Take the finest bright cinnabar (guangming sha, i.e., cinnabar) and grind it into a fine powder. Roll paper into a tube and use it to pour the powder into the ball. Then take one large earthworm and pound it together with some of the ball's clay, using the paste to fill any gaps in the clay ball. When the clay has dried, open a hole at the side, remove the wax mold, and fire it again; afterward, seal the hole.

When the clay ball is completely dry, forge an iron ring and place the ball in a small iron cauldron. Melt lead and pour it into the cauldron, so that the molten lead stands about two inches above the clay ball. Heat it gently over a chaff fire, keeping the lead soft throughout, for one hundred and twenty days, and then increase the heat and take it out. Place it on the ground and burn it open with fire; when it has cooled, take out the contents. The medicine should resemble small, blue-purple snail-shaped pieces. Pick out any black powder among them and do not use it.

Take half of the medicine and place it in a blue inner tube, then steam it with cow's milk five times, changing the milk three times during the process. The skin that forms on the milk in steaming can be used to treat "jianzeng" (a term from the original text whose exact meaning is unclear). Remove the medicine and bury it in a pit in the ground for three nights, then grind it fine and use steamed millet to form pills the size of a millet grain.

A person of forty takes one pill a day, a person of fifty takes two pills a day, and a person of sixty takes three pills a day. The scripture (Jing) states that this medicine has a special efficacy and must not be taken in excess. It also says that the medicine can treat all kinds of wind disorders, prolong life and preserve a youthful appearance, and turn the complexion dark while improving the color of the face.

Grind the remaining medicine into a fine powder and place it in a gan crucible (a refractory crucible). Add one liang of the finest yellow alum, spreading it above and below the powder. Seal the crucible, and when it has dried, set it in an ash fire to nurture it gently for forty-nine days. Then refine it over a strong fire; when it has cooled and is opened, the medicine will all have turned into small golden granules.

Take one xie of "shu wei" (literally "rat's tail"; the measure and wording in the original appear to be corrupted), combined with three liang of "shu"; from this, take half a fen of genuine "gengzhe." First melt the "shu" in the gan crucible, then add three or four of the small granules, and it will turn into "zhen" (the genuine), which is what is called the "true West." The furnace should always be kept supplied with three "da liang" of fire. Finally, place the materials described above into the cauldron holding the clay ball; each time, take a ball of the appropriate size as needed, and set it in the lead cauldron with the opening of the ball facing upward.

The "Feathered Transformation River Chariot Method" (Yuhua Heche fa) is a method for refining elixirs. "River Chariot" (heche) here is a name used in elixir methods for the refining process or its apparatus, while "feathered transformation" (yuhua) refers to the Daoist state of attaining immortality and ascending to the heavens.

Take four liang of bright cinnabar (a kind of cinnabar) and half a liang of Guazhou yellow alum, in pieces the size of a honey-locust seed. Mix these ingredients with rice vinegar aged three years, and grind them finely into a paste. Then coat the cinnabar grains one by one with it and set them out to dry.

Separately, take half a liang of top-grade "Western Geng," beat it into thin sheets, cut them into small pieces, and wrap them around the outside of the cinnabar grains. Next, take one liang of top-grade Wudu realgar and one liang of azurite, and grind them finely. Boil the ingredients mentioned above into a glue, blend it with the powder, and form small cakes. Use these to enclose the grains treated earlier, then let them dry. Pound more of the spirit vinegar into a clay-like paste, apply one further coating, and let it dry.

Next, use true lead as the outer cabinet (the vessel that holds the ingredients). The lead must be smelted three times according to the prescribed method, and each time it must be pounded and sifted fine. Take six liang of lead-silver and shape it into a matching pair of boxes (vessels whose upper and lower halves fit together). The seam where the boxes join must be tight; the original text then specifies their depth and width. First lay a layer of true lead about two fen thick at the bottom of the box, then arrange the coated grains on top of it like lotus seeds. Cover them with another layer of true lead and continue layer by layer until the materials are used up. Finally, fill the box to the top with true lead, secure it with a silver hoop, seal it tightly with Six-One mud (a clay used to seal elixir furnaces and vessels), and let it dry.

Take five jin of salt that has been refined twice with saltpeter, pound it fine, and sift it evenly. Place it in an iron cauldron slightly wider than the box described above. Set the silver box into the salt and pack salt around it to hold it firm. Then cover the cauldron with its lid, fasten it with iron rods passed through it, seal it with clay, and let it dry.

Dig an earthen furnace sixteen cun deep and fourteen cun wide, and fire it for forty-nine days with horse-dung fire and chaff fire. After opening the cauldron, use iron rods to push aside the cabinet that holds the ingredients and check whether the silver box has turned golden. If it has changed color, stop the fire and take it out; if not, fire it for another seven days and then remove it. When it has cooled, open the box, strip away the yellow alum, realgar, and azurite, and keep the remaining substance. Take one grain of it and grind it finely. Place two liang of mercury in a pan and heat it over a gentle fire, then sprinkle in about half a small bean's worth of the powder. The powder will dry very quickly, and once it has been tempered, it is said to become "treasure." This step is called the First Transformation, and the author advises keeping it carefully for the time being rather than using it.

Take another twelve liang of Bright Cinnabar (Guangming sand, a class of mineral raw material such as cinnabar or vermilion), grind it fine, and grind it together with the sand that has already undergone fire-subduing treatment. Following the earlier method, mix and simmer it with good vinegar, knead it into a lump, and place it in the inner chest prepared before. Pound and sift the fine materials, then pack them into the walls of the chest. Next, take the yellow alum that was peeled out earlier, grind it finely, and spread it along the bottom. Put in the lump of sand, cover it with a lid, seal it, and set it inside the chest. Fill the chest with powder, seal it firmly as before, and once it has dried, place it in the cauldron. Build a separate clay furnace, add half a jin of plant ash, and nurture it over a gentle fire for one hundred and twenty days, then calcine it over a strong fire. Remove the medicine from the furnace; following the earlier method, it should have become a superior substance of the "Western" kind. This is called the second transformation, the "Purple Gold River Chariot."

To refine it into a medicine fit for consumption, one must first remove its toxicity by soaking it in cold spring water for one month, then steaming it in milk, and forming it into pills with the sap of the paper mulberry (chu tree), each pill the size of a millet grain. The scripture (Jing) says that it prolongs life and cures all illnesses, and that only one pill may be taken each day. If one sincerely completes a total of one liang, the scripture says it will add five jiazi to one's lifespan (one jiazi being sixty years). This method must be kept strictly secret and must never be disclosed carelessly; if it is passed on to someone lacking moral cultivation, the one who transmits it will suffer calamity.

Take another one jin of Bright Cinnabar, grind it finely, and mix it with "Zuo Wei" (the term appears as such in the original, and its meaning is unclear). Take a meng cauldron large enough to hold the materials, and pack the mixed sand into an outer chest. Grind the sand previously treated with fire-subduing until fine, blend it with vinegar into a paste, and fill the inside of the chest. Once it has dried, add eight liang of mercury, put it in the furnace with two liang of fire, and nurture it for one hundred and twenty days, and it will become Purple Gold. The scripture says this medicine should not be used directly: it should first be taken to a famous mountain, reported to the Highest Mystery (Shangxuan, a term for an exalted heavenly realm or deity in Daoism), and one's name entered into the register of immortals. Here "register of immortals" means the roster of immortals. The original text then repeats the passage "write the name inside the immortal chest... nurture for one hundred and twenty days, and it becomes Purple Gold," which is identical in content to the preceding. When the Spirit Chamber has been put away and the medicine is needed, place it in ash, add six liang of mercury, and nurture it with two liang of fire for one double-hour, and it becomes a genuine, superior substance of the "Western" kind. This is called the third transformation, the "Spirit Chamber River Chariot."

The Golden Flower Yellow Sprout Method

Half a jin of raw silver sprout and half a jin of raw mercury.

The above records the terminology and procedural language of ancient alchemy (Waidan, external alchemy); it involves toxic substances such as mercury, and the health benefits described are those claimed by the scripture itself.

The molten lead-sprout (镕芽, rongya) on the right is mixed with mercury (水银, gong) until the two fuse into a form resembling silver paste. If the quantity falls short, add moist silver to make up the prescribed amount. Next, take a fine Hunan oil bottle, ideally one that holds two jin of material, and fill it with the compound above, leaving ample empty space inside. Seal the whole body of the bottle firmly and smooth the mouth flat, so that it can be set upside down.

Take another bottle, larger than the first and roomy enough to hold it, to serve as the outer cabinet (外柜, the outer vessel). It need not be sealed; simply cover its mouth with something for the time being. Place the inner bottle on three nails. Then build a furnace from clay and hemp fiber, dividing it into three tiers to symbolize the "Three Powers" (三才: Heaven, Earth, and Humanity). Set three nails horizontally in the middle tier. The lower part of the furnace may also have two doors, one at the front and one at the back. The front door is large, four cun high, and the rear door is small, about one and a half cun.

In the lower part of the furnace, leave three fire openings, each four cun long, ordinarily covered with ash. When heat is needed, simply place charcoal at the center of the furnace; charcoal briquettes are even better. Begin firing in the eleventh month. Refine in this way for ten months, including sixty days of stronger "martial fire" (武火, a more intense heat), with the flame somewhat greater than usual.

Cover the top of the furnace with a basin, leaving an opening about one cun wide. At midnight, the Zi hour, turn the medicine bottle so that its top faces upward; after noon, invert it so that its top faces downward. At midnight, turn it back by the same method. Turn only the inner bottle; the outer bottle stays still. After turning, cover it again. The uppermost tier of the furnace is shaped like a rice pot, and it too has a small opening. At midnight, shield this opening with a piece of paper, and uncover it at the proper time.

Regulate the fire evenly in this way, without violating the measure of time and heat, and seal the vessel once in every day and night. After a full five months, weigh the medicine; if the weight falls short, add mercury to restore the original amount. When the medicine coagulates into a single mass, this is called "taking form" (成形). At this point, break the bottle and remove the medicine, then pound it, grind it fine, and wash it. Next, treat it by water levigation (水飞法, using water to separate the fine powder and remove the coarse dregs), and dry it in the sun.

Then reload the medicine as before, adding roughly one third more mercury, spread the medicine flat without sealing the vessel, and nourish it with fire as before. After a full month, remove it, wash it, grind it fine, levigate it in water, and dry it. Again add about one third more mercury by the same method, spread it flat, and continue the nourishing for another month. Remove it and wash it clean; once it is dry, continue the nourishing, until a full ten months have passed in all.

Spots of "transmuted cinnabar" (点化朱砂) will appear on the surface of the medicine. This is the essence of the medicine, born from its mother body (the original compound), and amounts to about half a jin. It is brown in color, which shows that it has been "fire-subdued" (伏火, refined until its nature is stable). Collect it and place it in a separate vessel, then fire it with martial fire for a full sixty days. When taken out, its color is a vivid and remarkable red. After the fire-toxin is removed, the original text says that taking it prolongs life, and that its effects cannot be fully described.

After the full ten months of firing, if the fire has been strong, the medicine will turn to liquid. Thereafter, continue the nourishing with gentle fire, following the original method. The mother body will again produce about half a jin of mercury, and it should be nourished for another month. When removed, the surface of the mother body is still brown; continue nourishing it for a year. Collect the medicine described above and it can serve as the "Worldly Benefit" (世利, a refined medicine named in the original text), which is fire-subdued and of a soft, white texture. If you wish to continue refining, you may add mercury each month. If mercury is added nine times and the medicine is nourished to one jin, the original text says its efficacy is marvelous, that it can endure as long as the world, and that it can cure all kinds of illness.

The original text says that this is the "Nine-Cauldron Elixir" (九鼎丹), and that once it is completed, one may achieve success and ascend. The Cantong qi (《参同契》, a classic of Daoist alchemy) calls it the "Golden Flower" (金华), and some also call it Waidan (外丹, External Alchemy), an elixir refined with furnace fire and mineral substances. This is an extremely secret method of alchemy; only one or two people in Sutai have obtained it, and it must not be lightly revealed.

The Jigong Bai Method

The Supreme One (Taishang, the honorific Daoists use for their highest deity) took pity on those who study the Dao and live in hardship, and also lamented that cultivators of talent and virtue had not met with the right moment. He therefore handed down this method to assist practitioners of the arts. For this reason, the formula is being made public.

This formula is also called "Golden Flower," and in the past some called it Waidan (external alchemy, the art of refining elixirs from material substances). It is a highly secret method, said to have been obtained by only one or two people in the Sutai region, and it must not be disclosed lightly.

Ingredients and Preparation

White Tiger (thirty-two liang), Taiyin Xuanjing (twelve liang), alum (twelve liang), and hu fen, or white lead powder (eight liang).

Pound the last three ingredients and grind them into powder, then mix them with the first to form a paste. First take eight liang of wax and shape it into the form of a "yingzi" (as given in the original; the exact shape is unclear). Next, coat the surface of the wax evenly with the medicinal paste, then wrap it tightly in sweet clay, about half a cun thick. Leave a small hole at the top, about the size of a bean.

After this, dry the clay mold in the sun and burn it with fire to remove the wax inside. Then place the aforementioned Xuanwu (here referring to the substance that serves as the refining medium in the formula) into the hole, and seal the opening with the medicinal paste. Next, refine it over a gentle fire for seven times nine days, until the Xuanwu is completely dry and its color resembles silver. This is called "Silver Essence."

Take one liang of this refined substance and add it to one jin of processed copper. If the copper can be turned entirely into a paste, this is called the "method of subduing." If the ingredients cannot withstand the fire, then once copper and iron are added they will slip out of control, and the subduing will fail.

The text calls "Eight Elders" "Jigong," and "Bai" (white) is another name for Xuanwu. The subdued substance is said to be able to enter metals. As for why it cannot be taken internally, the original explains that this is merely an art of transforming and subduing substances, and not a true path of profound cultivation. "Jibai" refers to mercury and lead; "Bai" describes the effect of transformation and subduing, and so the method is called "Jigong Bai."

There is also a method of boiling and refining with oil and vinegar, for which a separate formula exists.

The Nine-Turn Method of Refining Lead

Take ten jin of lead and one jin of mercury, place them in a vessel, and melt them over a gentle fire. Then use an iron spoon to scrape away the black scum floating on the surface, continuing until it is entirely removed. After each scraping, pour the molten material onto the ground, then return it to the vessel and melt it again. Repeat this process nine times in all.

After the ninth time, add mercury and refine the mixture over a fierce fire until it turns the color of green cinnabar-sand. If the material scatters, sprinkle it with bran vinegar, and it will coalesce into green sand. In a separate iron vessel, again use the iron spoon to scrape away the black skin; once it is fully removed, pour the material onto the ground each time and return it to the vessel to melt, doing this nine times. Then add mercury once more and refine it over a fierce fire into a green-sand color. If the material scatters, sprinkle it with bran vinegar in the same way so that it coalesces into green sand.

Next, place the green sand in another iron vessel containing vinegar, and grind it evenly with the iron spoon, adding more vinegar and continuing to boil and refine it. Take out the lead-yellow substance and let it dry on a roof tile. Take the juice of yellow ox dung, or alternatively barley flour, and blend it with the refined green sand into a mass about the size of a parrot's egg; it may also be shaped into cakes, which are then dried in the sun. Another text says it should instead be dried in the shade.

Set the dried lumps over the fire of a smelting furnace and blow air onto them with a bellows to extract the essence of the lead (jing, 精), which is called "lead elixir" (qiandan). Its texture is soft and moist, and it must be refined further in a vessel until fully cooked, until its color has turned entirely red. Remove it, grind it finely in vinegar, let it settle and clarify, and pour it onto roof tiles to dry; then refine it again in a vessel until cooked, when it will appear purple.

Take another vessel and add one sheng of good wine and two liang of red salt. After mixing them well, pour the purple lead elixir into the wine all at once. When it has cooled, take it out. This is called "Nine-Times-Returned Lead" (jiuhuan qian). "Nine" is the name of the elixir, which is called the "Nine-Cycle Purple Lead Elixir."

The Method of the Spirit-Transformed Golden Elixir

Take three liang of ting juice and two liang of mountain-pool rock salt, and grind both as fine as flour. Then take one jin of northern sulfur that has been fire-subdued and is lustrous and translucent, and grind it into powder. The original text breaks off here and is unfinished.

First, take the first three ingredients and mix them together thoroughly. Then take an iron box and grind fine ink with rice vinegar; coat the inside of the box thickly with it three times, and let it dry. Place the three ingredients in the box and heat it slowly over a mild fire so that the box warms gradually. Once the ingredients have melted into a liquid, remove the liquid and set it in a dark place to cool until it solidifies.

Next, take four liang of saltpeter (a nitrate mineral), grind it into a fine powder, and pack it firmly into the bottom of the box. Seal the mouth of the box with dry paper, and when the paper has dried, place the box inside the cauldron (ding) and seal it with Fa mud (fani, "method clay").

The Fa mud is made from three materials: Yamen daizhe (a kind of ochre mineral), Zuogu muli (a type of oyster shell), and Chishizhi (red clay mineral). All three must be ground into fine powder, then mixed with the liquid of fire-subdued Beiting sand (Beiting sha, cinnabar-type sand that has been treated with heat). Once blended, put the mixture into a stone mortar and pound it with a pestle more than a thousand times. Then use this mud to seal the joint between the box and its base, and seal all the way around the edges, making it firm and tight. The mouth of the cauldron should also be fastened with an iron clasp, again ensuring that it is airtight.

After the sealing mud has dried in the shade, take about three jin of lead and melt it into liquid in a tiaozi (a small furnace or vessel for melting lead). Use a small iron ladle to spread the molten lead around the base of the box until it lies evenly; then gradually pour the lead into the cauldron until its surface stands about two cun above the lid of the box. After choosing an auspicious day, begin the firing at the hour of Zi (midnight): start with a fire of six liang, then increase it by one liang each day, continuing for a full sixty days.

When the cauldron has cooled, use a small iron chisel to remove the black lead, then open the iron box and take out the substance. It should be golden in color. Place it in a mortar and grind it into a fine powder.

Take three liang of Beiting sand, choosing a white and bright kind. Melt one and a half fen of yellow wax into liquid, mix it into the Beiting sand, and blend evenly.

Form the above into a single mass and wrap it in paper. Stir-fry one dou of weathered lime (lime that has been exposed to the air until it has become loose in texture), then place it in a ceramic jar (a meng jar, an earthenware vessel). Fill the jar halfway with lime and tamp it down, then dig a small hollow and set the Beiting (北亭) in it. Cover it with the remaining half of the lime and tamp that down in the same way. At first, nurture it gently over a fire of three catties, then gradually raise the fire to five to seven catties. The original text is repetitive and incomplete here, and goes on to say that after three fu-time periods (san fu shi, a period of refining), the jar is calcined over a fire of ten catties until the whole jar glows red. When the fire dies down, let it cool, take out the substance, and place it in a bag of raw silk.

Next, dig another small pit that can hold five to seven sheng of water and fill it with water. Once the water has fully soaked away, set a fine ceramic bowl in the pit and lay a stick across the bowl. Hang the bag containing the Beiting above the bowl, cover it with an inverted earthenware basin, and seal the surroundings tightly with damp earth so that no vapor escapes. After three fu-time periods, the contents of the bag will turn into water. Take out this water and use it to blend the two ingredients mentioned earlier.

Take ten liang of fine Geng (庚) and fifty liang of mercury (that is, quicksilver), and place them in a jar, heating them continuously over fire. Heat the Geng until it glows red, then drop it into the mercury and stir with a willow spatula (a stirring blade made of willow wood) until it dissolves completely. Then take three catties of Linghua (灵花, "Spirit Flower") and grind it with the gold paste until extremely fine, and spread it evenly in a large shallow pan. Cover it with a basin, seal the edges with clay, and heat it over a gentle fire so that the mercury rises to the top, until all the mercury has sublimated away. Then rinse the vessel holding the Linghua with the prepared decoction until its original odor is gone. Dry the remaining Geng powder on a plate in the sun, grind it fine again, and add it to the compound.

Separately, take eight liang of realgar, choosing pieces whose color resembles the crest feathers of a parrot, and grind it to powder. Take eight liang of orpiment, choosing pieces that are translucent and bright, in leaf-like flakes, and grind it to powder. Take four liang of rock salt (rongyan), ground to powder, and ten liang of gold powder.

The original text contains repetitions and suspected errors. The precise referents of terms such as "Beiting," "Geng," and "three fu-time periods" cannot be determined from this passage alone.

Grind all five of the above ingredients into a fine powder. Prepare another cauldron (ding) and, following the earlier method, grind scented ink in rice vinegar until it is thick, then coat the inner wall of the lidded vessel evenly, three times. Once it has dried, place the medicine inside the vessel and heat it gently over a mild fire, as before, until the medicine melts into a liquid.

Again following the earlier method, take four liang of saltpeter, grind it into a fine powder, and pack it firmly into the base of the vessel. Seal the base with cotton-fiber paper, then seal the lid firmly in place and set the vessel inside the cauldron. As before, seal the base with clay, lock the vessel tightly with an iron bar, and leave it to dry in the shade.

Next, as before, melt three jin of lead in a crucible. With an iron ladle, scoop the molten lead around the base of the vessel. Continue melting lead and pour it in gradually until the cauldron is full and the molten lead stands about two cun above the vessel. As before, choose an auspicious day and begin applying fire at the hour of Zi (11 p.m. to 1 a.m.). Regulate the heat as before: begin with six liang of fuel, then add one liang each day until sixty days are complete. When the cauldron and vessel have cooled, chisel away the outer layer of black lead and take out the vessel. The medicine inside is said to have turned a purple-gold color. Take one part of the medicine and grind it fine in a mortar. It is said that this can transform one jin of mercury, turning it at once into purple-burnished yellow gold. This is not a thing of the ordinary world but a secret transmitted by the immortals. If you use it to support the cultivation of the Dao, you should learn to be content with what you have.

One jin of mercury, one part of the medicine.

Place the medicine on top of the mercury in a new iron tiaozi (a kind of iron vessel), cover it with a teacup, and seal it according to the method. Set the tiaozi over the fire and listen closely for a dripping sound from inside, then plunge the tiaozi into water to quench it. After this has been repeated a dozen or so times, the mercury is said to be "subdued," and when roasted it resembles grains of black lead sand. Then smelt it in a ganguo (crucible), and it is said to become purple-burnished gold. The many other transformations involved cannot all be recorded.

Note: The original text contains many repetitions, and some wording, such as "yaozi," "mian ku zhi," and "ling ding," may be corrupt; the above follows the context to produce a coherent reading. "Subduing mercury" (fu gong) is a technical term of ancient alchemy, referring to processes of heating and treating mercury so that it takes on a more stable or solid state. The text's claims about producing gold are assertions of ancient alchemy. The lead and mercury operations described in the original produce highly toxic vapors and must not be attempted as written.