《碧玉朱砂寒林玉树匮》

The so-called "Dragon and Tiger" are the root of lead and mercury. When the two substances act upon each other, transformation occurs. Within water there is lead, and within fire there is mercury; mercury and lead originally spring from a single source. If one can grasp this, the Dao (the Way) of becoming an immortal seems to lie within arm's reach. If one merely forces cinnabar through decoction with wine and vinegar, it will in the end only turn to smoke and vapor. This shows that lead and mercury are by nature one body. When lead and mercury unite, there is no need to view them separately; once sulfur has been subdued by fire, the flames die down.

The Dao of procreation originally comes from the essence (Jing) and blood of the parents, who join, conceive, and form an embryo. Likewise, the union of lead and mercury is like the union of Dragon and Tiger giving rise to a physical form. Without the aid of lead and mercury, cinnabar cannot keep its Qi (vital energy) steady; it depends entirely on the "kui" (sealed furnace chamber) built of lead and mercury to stabilize the fire phases, so that the cinnabar does not disperse. Cinnabar gives birth to quicksilver and is in the end destroyed through quicksilver; this is the mystery within the mystery.

The poem says:

Lead and mercury unite and form the Sacred Embryo; within the Sacred Embryo there is an infant.

This infant is the treasure within the lead; who would believe that it was conceived within lead?

Therefore, cinnabar subdued by fire must "die at Pi" (as in the original; the meaning here is unclear). It is also said: cinnabar lies hidden in lead and is refined by means of sulfur. As the saying goes, "to make quicksilver congeal, one must first make quicksilver congeal of itself." It is also said: all things perish according to their natural principles, and none can do without their own father and mother. When Dragon and Tiger unite, the result is called True Lead; lead used alone is merely a dead thing with no power of transformation. When Dragon Mercury and Tiger Lead unite, Yin-Yang respond to one another, and their Jing and Qi join as in conception and gestation; thus the "Xuanguan" (the Mysterious Pass, the crucial point where the essence and Qi of Yin-Yang meet) is formed.

The poem says:

True Lead is subtle and profound, the root of the Great Elixir; when quicksilver joins the Metal Duke, the work of transformation is most exquisite.

In the wondrous mechanism of union and gestation, the five colors take form; the Dragon chants and the Tiger roars, and from this the old one cultivates.

As for the so-called "Four Spirits," only True Mercury is able to subdue lead. The Yang Tiger and the Yin Dragon unite, and for this reason it is said that mercury can become lead. This is like the principle of mother and child giving birth to one another: the Metal Duke produces the skin of the Tiger, while quicksilver becomes the sinews and bones of firm lead.

The poem says:

Once the impurities and the maternal component are removed from the lead, it can return to the sacred realm. The principle by which one passes from the mundane into the sacred is profound and far-reaching.

When cinnabar has been refined and nurtured, it can withstand the fire of smelting, and one can see with one's own eyes mercury transformed into a dry, congealed substance. This speaks of the Way by which child and mother generate one another: the "Golden Lord" (a term for mercury) gives rise to the skin of the tiger, and the mercury in turn becomes the sinews and bones of the solid body of lead.

The poem says:

Remove the maternal component from the lead, and it can return to the sacred realm; the principle of passing from the mundane to the sacred is profound and far-reaching.

Refine and nurture the cinnabar so that it can endure fire, and you will see the mercury grow dry and congealed.

Once the mercury is dry and congealed, the realm of the immortals appears. Who says that immortals have some other kind of elixir?

Recognize the principle of creation and transformation contained in true lead, and you will find it comparatively easy to enter the Mysterious Pass (Xuanguan, the key point in cultivation at which one grasps the essential principle).

For the preparation, take half a catty each of silver and lead and melt them together in a pot. Add lime, white glue, and fragrant magnolia bark (xiangpu), stir repeatedly to remove the impurities, and take out the clean portion. Then add white mulberry root bark and stir-fry. Taking two-thirds of the weight of the purified lead, measure out that amount of mercury, add it, and smelt the two together. Then add powdered arisaema (nanxing), sprinkling it in slowly and stirring with a willow branch until the mass breaks into powder. Wash it with water to remove the ash from the ingredients; then mix in the Eight Auxiliary Ingredients and continue stir-frying for half a day, and only then is the "kui" (the medicinal matrix used for sealing and nurturing the elixir materials during refining) complete.

The poem says:

Dragon and tiger unite, naturally in harmony; when the substances of Yin and Yang respond to each other, their delight in one another only grows.

They were originally different substances divided from a single primordial Qi; now they enter the sacred realm and leave the Dragon Slope.

The Eight Auxiliary Ingredients are: borax, paosha, shizhonghuang, and xuanmushi, one tael each; heavy-killed sulfur, chalcanthite, saltpeter, and blue salt, five and a half qian each.

Take one and a half taels of cinnabar, cover its surface with gold leaf, and seal it in the medicinal matrix prepared above to be nurtured, until the cinnabar turns blue-green. Then replace it with one and a half taels of fresh cinnabar and continue sealing and nurturing it according to the same heat regimen, until a total of three taels of "dead cinnabar" (cinnabar whose nature has become stable through refining) has been obtained. Cover it with gold leaf and seal it in the matrix again until the cinnabar turns blue-green; then replace it with one and a half taels of fresh cinnabar and continue refining and nurturing according to the heat regimen described above, finally obtaining three taels of dead cinnabar. Remove the medicinal material from the matrix and prepare it separately as the base of the elixir. This is the process of removing the lead, separating out the maternal component, and joining child and mother to form a precious product.

The poem says:

The subtle principle of the great Way of Yin and Yang transmits a genuine method, using only mercury and black lead.

It harms neither the body of the cinnabar nor the lead; within this method's mystery, a still deeper mystery appears.

If someone can recognize the Dragon and Tiger (terms in alchemy for the union of Yin and Yang, or lead and mercury), the fruit of transformation and refining will appear before their eyes.

They laugh at those who have cultivated for several lifetimes until their hair has turned white: such people do not know the wondrous Way (Dao), and what they say is nothing but empty talk.

First take three liang of cinnabar that has been subdued and tempered, and grind it into a "kui" (a vessel, or medicinal base, used for refining and sealing in the nourishing of medicines). Then take two liang of raw cinnabar and blend it with honey and willow powder into a close-fitting paste. Wrap the cinnabar in this paste, place it in the cinnabar kui, seal it, and nourish it for seven days, then calcine it once more over fire. When it has cooled, open it: the cinnabar has turned white.

The poem says:

The two Qi (vital energy) of Yin-Yang cling to the lead and congeal into form,

And, holding a white Jing (essence), gather within the cauldron.

For this first warming and nourishing,

Do not use too fierce a fire, lest the medicine's power fail to rise.

Next, grind the cinnabar obtained from three rounds of nourishing and refining, five liang in all, into a kui. Take another three liang of raw cinnabar, warm it with phellodendron, scutellaria, bean flour, and honey, and blend it into a close-fitting paste. Place it in the cinnabar kui, seal it, nourish it for three days, and calcine it once more. The finished cinnabar is white, and so it is called "White Snow That Does Not Melt."

The poem says:

After three transformations, the medicine's Qi rises like a dragon,

Yet its original root still carries the taint of the mundane world.

When the cinnabar is finished, boil it into a liquid,

And pour it into the furnace: it is like white snow that does not melt.

Take the cinnabar transformed three times into a dragon, eight liang in all, and grind it to powder, making a kui for nourishing treasures and seeking long life. Golden Mother Sand, Mother Sand, Spirit Sand, cinnabar, the Three Yellows, and Powder Frost can all be nourished with it, and the methods of transformation are then complete. The key to this method lies in grasping the meaning of "Cold Forest, Jade Trees": all things that have life must in the end return to death, and so it is called the "Cold Forest."

In performing the method, place the kui medicine into a chamber assembled for the purpose. Take one liang of raw mercury and one cup of vinegar, boil them, put them into the chamber, and seal and nourish for three days. When it has cooled, open it: the mercury will have grown "sprouts" an inch or two long. These can be gathered gradually and used for all manner of further transformations and transmutations.

The poem says:

Subdue the cinnabar, and one may become an earthly immortal;

To subdue the cinnabar, it must be made to cling to true lead.

If lead and cinnabar are not separated, it is still an error in the end;

Only when it leaves its mother body and the lead is removed does it surge forth like a spring.

The original text that follows repeats these two lines of poetry and mentions the eight liang of cinnabar powder obtained earlier, as well as the phrase "cloud earthly immortal." The text here appears to be defective, and its meaning is incomplete.

First, take the eight liang of cinnabar powder described above and separate it with a partition running east to west. Grind mica and talc finely, spread them to fill the vessel, pack them down, seal it firmly, and nurture it over a gentle fire for three days. When opened, the cinnabar will have turned white. Remove the earlier medicinal material, then surround the cinnabar with mica and talc and place it in the box. Add one liang of fine arsenolite (xinshi), wrap it in Kunlun paper, and lay it over the cinnabar powder. Cover it with mica and talc, pack it tight, seal it, and nurture it for another three days. Once opened, this cinnabar is said to be effective for transmutation: used to transform the subdued and refined medicines into vessels or objects, it will not fail. If mercury sprouts (gongmiao) are added for the transmutation, the effect is better still.

Next, place the aforementioned kui (the layer of auxiliary material that wraps and supports the medicine) into the box and pack it tight. Mix vinegar with wheat ash, spread it over the top with a partition between, cover it, and seal and refine it for three days. When opened, the medicine will have returned to red. Then take one liang of bright realgar, boil and refine it, and add it to the medicine described above. Pack it tight, seal it, and refine it for three days. When opened, the medicine will have turned entirely yellow. This is the "Yellow Sprout" (huangya), said to be extremely potent; combined with mercury, it can transmute base metal into gold.

A poem says:

"If the Sevenfold Returned Elixir can be completed,

Yellow or white, all may become treasure.

Flowers like jade trees in a forest of gems bloom in rivalry;

Its transmutation is transcendent, and it will never lead anyone astray."

Next, grind cinnabar finely to serve as the kui material, and spread it in layers. Place on top of it the kui medicines made from the lead, mercury, and cinnabar first refined, and pack them tight. Using three liang of raw cinnabar from the cinnabar kui, seal it and nurture it for seven days. When opened, the cinnabar will have turned red once more, which is why this is called "Sevenfold Return and Transformation for Long Life." After the cinnabar has been nurtured seven times, its color becomes deeply red and the elixir is complete. For this reason it is called the "Returned Elixir" (huandan), and with this step the refining is fully accomplished.

The color first obtained, a bluish green, resembles the mother; the color that later turns white resembles the father; and after seven rounds of refining it turns red again, completing the "Sevenfold Return to the True." For this reason it is called "Return to the Origin" (guiyuan).

Next, take top-grade orpiment (cihuang, an arsenic-bearing mineral). After processing it by boiling, weigh out two liang, wrap it in gold leaf, and cover that with ink-stained paper. Seal it inside the "Seven-Return Vessel" (qifan kui, a container used for repeated calcination), and nourish it with gentle fire for three days. Once opened, it is said that when used together with the "Mercury Sprout" (gong ya), it can transmute "Geng" (庚, metal) into a treasure prized throughout the world.

For the preparation, lay white salt on the bottom of the crucible over the furnace and place the Mercury Sprout in the crucible. Then put in the Seven-Return Vessel, seal it, and nourish it with gentle fire for three days. When opened, it is said that, used together with the Mercury Sprout, it can transmute Geng into a treasure. Next, place it in the furnace again, with white salt laid on the bottom of the crucible and the Mercury Sprout set inside, and cover it with a lid. The text says that what is made this way will neither spoil nor dissipate, and there is no need to use "gate medicine" (guan yao). Be careful to remember this method and keep it treasured.

Drunken Gold Pool

Frankincense, two qian; borax, one qian; alum, three qian; processed cinnabar sand, five qian.

Divide the ingredients above into eight portions. For each liang of silver to be transmuted, use one qian of the compound. Put the compound and the silver together in a crucible and melt them into liquid, then pour it into a trough. After it cools, knock off the residue. The resulting metal is said to be soft and pure, free of unsightly blemishes, and its effect is marvelous beyond words.

It is said that this formula comes from Mount Qingcheng in Shu and was transmitted by Master Pu. Fan Shusou of the Daoist retreat at West Lake in Hangzhou obtained it and called it a tested secret formula.

Green Jade and Cinnabar Vessel for Nourishing Geng Sand, Part One

Take one jin of silver-lead. Stir-fry white mulberry root bark until it turns white, take ten liang of it, and melt it into liquid. Divide the ash into fifty packets, and with tongs drop them one by one into the liquid, then pour in three liang of mercury. When it has cooled, stir it in the ash until it becomes a powder, take it out, and sift it fine.

Next, following the earlier method, melt a portion of it, add two liang of mercury, and stir quickly until it becomes liquid. After washing away the ash with water, stir-fry and refine the material until it becomes a "dead vessel" (si kui, a solid that, once refined, no longer flows). Then take five qian of subdued sulfur, four qian of five-colored remnant gen stone, and three qian of processed material, and grind them together into a fine powder. Place this in a "great yao" and add the powder slowly. Stir-fry the lead, mercury, and sand that were refined earlier once more.

Translator's note: This passage contains several suspected corrupt characters, and its latter half has repeated sentences that are hard to parse. The translation above follows the surviving wording as it stands; where the meaning cannot be determined, no further conjecture has been added.

Refining and Forging, Part Two

Take three liang of fresh, vivid large cinnabar. Using boiled honey and "dead sulfur" (sulfur that has been processed and has lost its original activity), attach the sulfur to the surface of the cinnabar. Wrap each piece in gold leaf and place the pieces in the one jin of lead-mercury elixir prepared earlier. Nourish and refine them over gentle heat for seven days. When taken out, the cinnabar will have turned entirely golden, a fine sight to behold. Grind this cinnabar to a powder and use it as the "kui" (a vessel, or medicinal base, used to enclose, nourish, and refine elixir materials) to warm-nourish the elixirs refined in later stages.

Chapter Three: Sloughing the Womb into Sagehood

Take the three liang of cinnabar prepared above to serve as the kui, and use it to nourish and refine one liang of large cinnabar. Attach dead sulfur directly to the cinnabar, cover it with gold leaf, and seal it in the kui to be nourished for ten days. Then refine it once over a strong fire. Take it out (the original reads "ling kai," which probably means "open"), and grind it fine as in the earlier method. Next, nourish and refine another one liang and two qian of large cinnabar, rolling it in honey and attaching the coating according to the method described later. Continue this nourishing and refining until the total reaches half a jin, which takes fifty days in all. Finally, grind everything to a powder and treat it with "fuhuo" (subduing the fire), the alchemical term for processing a substance so that it no longer reveals its fiery nature.

Chapter Four: Transferring and Nourishing the Powder Frost

Take two liang of the finest "fenshuang" (powder frost, a white substance obtained through ancient refining, usually referring to a mercury-based preparation) and combine it with the one liang and two qian of large cinnabar nourished earlier. Roll and coat them according to the method described later. Nourish and refine them until the total reaches half a jin, which takes fifty days in all. Finally, grind everything to a powder and subdue its fire.

Chapter Four: Transferring and Nourishing the Powder Frost

Take two liang of the finest powder frost and grind it together with the kui material previously made from "geng" cinnabar, forming a kui. Separately, take one liang of solid powder frost from an outside source and knead it into pills with refined honey. Wrap the pills in ink-stained paper, place them at the center of the geng powder kui, and seal them in to nourish for seven days. Once opened, take out the refined powder frost. It can serve as the close-contact medicinal material for the "geng mother cinnabar" in later refining, used to transmute and alter the nature of other substances. The original text calls its effect efficacious and wondrous.

Chapter Five: Forming the Geng Mother Cinnabar

Take three liang of cinnabar and mercury, together with six qian of Gengmu (庚母), and divide the resulting sand into eight pieces. Mix jiangshui (fermented grain liquid), alum, lime, soapberry-pod ash, and cnidium seed in equal amounts. Suspend the sand in this mixture and boil it for a day and a night, then take it out.

Next, treat it by the "method of tightening the sand." Take three liang of Kezi (苛子) powder. Spread one liang across the bottom of the crucible, place the wrapped Geng sand in the center, and cover it with the remaining Kezi powder. Put the crucible into the "fire chamber." When the smoke thickens, sprinkle in the Kezi powder a little at a time until it is used up. Take the sand out and let it cool, then test its hardness. Only if a blade cannot cut into it is it considered solid enough to be placed in the kui (sealed casket). If it is still not hard enough, repeat the procedure.

Take the Powder Frost left over from the previous round of nurturing and refining, and roll it over the tieshen (the lining layer, a material that adheres to the surface of the main body). Take a large lidded vessel, put in Jinzhu (紧朱) and grind it, then set the Geng sand inside. Separately, take half a liang of the leftover Powder Frost and form it into a small ball. Blend it with five qian of raw cinnabar and roll it over the tieshen. Then roll over it a dense layer of dead sulfur powder and wrap it in gold leaf.

Place this ball of powder at the center of the kui, with the Geng sand arranged around it. Seal it and put it into the pool furnace to nurture with fire for nine days: seven days first, then two more. After that, refine it in the furnace. Once it has cooled, open it, and the Geng sand will have become what is called the "treasure." The scripture says that it adheres tightly, does not break during smelting, and is fully pure in color.

If you continue the nurturing and refining afterward, you need only bind the sand and place it in the kui by the same method. Add to the kui another half liang of cinnabar poured out after the nurturing and refining, grind it finely, and then cultivate and nurture it in several stages. Each time you may add half a liang of Powder Frost, or up to one liang, setting it aside as the Gengzi tieshen. For example, if you keep adding cinnabar to nurture it, then after a year of accumulation it can be divided into two kui. The scripture (Jing) says this forms the "Ever-Flowing Spring of Long Life," called the "Field for Sowing Fire," whose wondrous Dao continues without end.

If you do not continue to add materials, seal the kui according to the method and place it in an ash pool in a pit in the ground. Nurture and refine it continuously over gentle heat so that Yin qi (Qi) does not arise, and the kui will become spiritually responsive. The scripture says that these transformations are many and their effects varied, and calls this "nurturing the female and male." It can be used for transmutation. Those who do not understand this Dao cannot work out its transformations, which is why it is said to be a method for those who deeply understand the "Great Transformation."

Note: Names in the text such as "Kezi," "Jinzhu," and "Gengmu," as well as characters such as "玲" and "姻," may be technical terms or errors introduced in transmission. They have been kept as in the original, and their specific referents cannot be determined from this passage alone.

This formula is a rare and superior one in the world, and the kui (匮, here referring to the vessel used to hold or refine the medicinal substances) becomes efficacious through it as well. It undergoes many transformations, and its effects differ from one to another. It is called "Nourishing Female and Male" (养雌雄), and it can also be used for dianhua (点化, transmuting other substances through refined medicines). Without understanding its underlying principles, one cannot deduce how to use it; only those who understand can grasp the great transformative power within it.

The formula is said to have been secretly transmitted from an earlier generation to the family of Wang Yuanzhong, the Old Man of White Cloud in Taiyuan, who guarded it as a treasured secret so that it would not be passed on mistakenly to later people. After the household of the Chancellor Lü in Bianliang obtained it, it was passed on to the Qian household. It is said that both families put it into practice and achieved results, and so it was transmitted only to those of De (Virtue/Power). Later, someone obtained the formula in the capital prefecture and kept it carefully. The formula involves lead, mercury, and the "three stages" (三段), and is extremely extraordinary; it is called the foremost art under heaven.

Yuan stated that he obtained the formula from the residence of Vice Minister Wei, the Old Man of Shu, and from the Chancellor's household in the capital. He said that the principles and methods of these formulas all return to one and the same Dao (the Way), and that they contain the essential meaning of the True Writings of the Prince of Huainan (《淮南王真文》). It is the most profound of the profound and the most wondrous of the wondrous, and it will certainly not lead anyone astray. At the end he repeatedly cautioned that it should be kept secret with great care and handled with caution.