《神仙服饵丹石行药法》

The Yellow Emperor's Method for Taking the Elixir

Take one jin of high-quality cinnabar. When preparing the elixir, first observe a seven-day fast (zhaijiao, purification ritual) in a clean place. Then go to the shaded side of a high mountain and gather the cinnabar according to the method given below. Pound the cinnabar carefully into fine powder, place it in a copper basin, and blend it with the clearest part of nine sheng of mellow wine.

During the mixing, no one else should be allowed to watch; the original text holds that only in this way can the spirit-qi (Qi, vital energy) enter the medicine. On entering the ritual altar, one must pass in turn through the east, south, west, and north gates, and then set the medicine out as an offering in the center. After the medicine has rested for three days, stir it. Thereafter, stir it repeatedly for the number of times listed in the original text, continuing until the twentieth day. Once the medicine has dried, it can be formed into pills. If it is still not dry, continue treating it by the same method; on overcast or rainy days, cover the copper basin so that the medicine remains suitable for pill-making.

Form the pills to the size of a soybean and swallow three each day. The original text states that after fifty days of taking them, one becomes intelligent and sharp-minded; with long-term use for nine years, one can commune with Heaven and Earth, and after a full 3,424 days, one's Daoist work (Dao, the Way) will be complete and everything one seeks will be fulfilled. The original text also says that the Vermilion Light Divine Elixir (Zhuguang shendan) is formed from the essence (Jing) of cinnabar, and it stipulates that during the period of taking the medicine, one must not undergo moxibustion or acupuncture, nor pass by a household where a birth is taking place, otherwise the medicine will lose its divine efficacy.

The Immortals' Method for Taking the Elixir

Take high-quality, solid cinnabar together with grain seeds. The amount of cinnabar is unrestricted; pound it carefully until it can pass through the pounding implement. Wring the juice from the grain seeds and use it to blend the cinnabar until it reaches a suitable consistency. When taking it, moxibustion and acupuncture are likewise forbidden, and one must not pass by a household where a birth is taking place, otherwise the medicine will lose its divine efficacy.

Take two ingredients: good-quality cinnabar (dansha, also called zhusha) and grain kernels. The amount of cinnabar is not fixed. Pound it carefully until it is fine even where the hammer strikes. Press the juice from the grain kernels and use it to blend the cinnabar into a paste, then pack this into a copper tube and seal it tightly. Stand the tube upright in cooked rice, surround it with dry silkworm droppings, and press them down firmly, spreading them no more than four inches thick. Cover the whole with dry earth until the rice pot is full, set the pot over a cauldron, seal the joint with white chalk clay, and steam over a fierce fire for three days and three nights. When the medicine is taken out, it should have set into a gel.

Break the medicine into pieces the size of soybeans; placed in the mouth, they will dissolve. Take it three times a day. The Jing (scripture) says that after one year of taking it the body becomes light and robust, the eyes grow bright, and all illnesses disappear. After two years, ghosts and spirits will come to pay court. After three years, one can commune with the sun and moon. If one takes it for a long time, the marvelous sight will appear of parrots crying amid the clouds and dogs barking in the sky. The grain kernels should be of pure color, with the red and white clearly distinct.

Three-Ingredient Cinnabar Elixir for Lightening the Body and Benefiting Qi

Prepare one jin of cinnabar, in pieces the size of hemp seeds; one dou of the finest jujubes; and one dou of mellow, clear wine. These are the three ingredients. Pound the cinnabar and sift it through silk to obtain a fine powder, whose color should be a pure red and white.

Three-Ingredient Cinnabar Elixir for Lightening the Body and Benefiting Qi

Prepare one jin of cinnabar, in pieces the size of hemp seeds; one dou of the finest jujubes; and one dou of mellow, clear wine. Pound the cinnabar and sift it through silk. Pour the wine into a copper vessel, add the cinnabar, and stir until evenly mixed. Place the vessel over a charcoal fire with its base three or four inches above the flames, heat it to a boil, and stir continually so that the medicine does not stick to the bottom. Boil the jujubes in two dou of water, wring out the skins and pits, and keep only the juice. Add the jujube juice to the cinnabar little by little, never allowing the liquid to boil dry, until everything has been cooked down into a thick paste like malt sugar. Take it out and store it in a bottle. Swallow one pill each evening, the pill being the size of a jujube. The Jing says that after twenty days one will feel its effects. After thirty days, illnesses are healed and the body becomes light and robust, the hair darkens, fallen teeth grow back, and the black hair regains its luster.

Immortals' Three-Ingredient Cinnabar Elixir

Three jin of cinnabar, three jin of lead, and nine sheng of grain juice: three ingredients in all. First take six sheng of the grain juice and grind the cinnabar in it until the six sheng are used up. Then add the lead and grind them together until the lead can no longer be seen. Take a further three sheng of grain juice and blend it in so the mixture becomes soft, thin, and even. Place it in a bronze vessel, cover it with an earthenware lid, and steam it for three days and three nights in a pot used for cooking rice, using mulberry wood as fuel. The lead, once treated, returns to its original form and serves as an auxiliary substance that guides the cinnabar. Roll the mixture into small pills, each about the size of a small bean. Take three pills at a time; after twenty days of taking them, the effects will appear, and after three years one can ascend to heaven. When grinding the cinnabar and lead, work beside a fire and set the material out in the sun until it is scorching hot. This is the method of preparation.

The Immortals' Four-Substance Elixir

Five jin of cinnabar, three sheng of fine honey, bright red paper mulberry fruit (the fruit of the gou tree), and clear wine: four ingredients in all. Crush the mulberry fruit and press out its juice, soak the cinnabar in the juice until it is submerged, and then dry it in the sun. Repeat the soaking and drying; the more times, the better. Place the material in a large bamboo tube and steam it for three days and three nights, then take it out and decoct it in a bronze tube with a hot liquid. Add enough rich, clear wine to soak it, then add the honey and simmer for three days and three nights, until the mixture is as thick as malt sugar yet does not stick to the hand. Take an amount the size of a jujube twice a day. After a hundred days of taking it, immortals will come to greet you; after a year, Jade Maidens will welcome you and you will become a Perfected One (zhenren).

The Perfected One's Refined Cinnabar Elixir

Take one jin of cinnabar and grind it into a fine powder, then sift it through thick silk so that the powder is fine and even. Pour undiluted, rich wine over the cinnabar, stirring as you pour, so that it is thoroughly blended.

The Perfected One's Refined Cinnabar Elixir

Grind one jin of cinnabar (zhusha) into a fine powder, and sift it through thick silk until it is fine and even. Pour pure, undiluted wine over the cinnabar and stir until it has the consistency of sealing clay. Then place it in a copper basin and set it somewhere high, out of sight of women. Let it bask in the sun, and check on it often. When the mixture dries, add more wine, so that it always stays like clay. In overcast rain or strong wind, cover it and hide it where no one will see it, and bring it out to the sun again once the weather clears. After three dou of wine have been used up this way, keep exposing it to the sun for another thirty days. The cinnabar should turn purple, should not cling to the hand when held, and should stretch like malt sugar when pulled. If it still sticks to the hand, it cannot yet be made into pills. By this method, refine three jin at a time, which will supply three years of use. Refining three jin of cinnabar requires nine dou of wine, and it should be sunned in a large basin.

Before refining the medicine, bathe in water infused with orchid (lan) and angelica root (baizhi), and observe a seven-day fast, keeping women away from the medicine. When you are ready to take it, fast for another five days and bathe again, and only then take the medicine. Make the pills about the size of a hemp seed, and swallow three each morning at dawn. The scripture (Jing) says that after one day of taking it, the "Three Worms" (an ancient term for parasites or disease-causing creatures within the body) will be expelled. After five or six days, the various ailments in the abdomen will begin to respond. After a year, white eyebrows will turn black. Each year thereafter, add one pill, up to a maximum of nine. After three years of taking it, tradition holds that a spirit-being will arrive: a woman in a purple silk robe, bringing food. You may accept it and eat, and should not be afraid because the visitor seems suspicious. All things will then come to heed your command.

The scripture calls this medicine "Shang" (the Supreme), and also "Ke" and "Xu." It says that what these three names refer to can command all things and summon all things. Entering into Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth (the Five Phases, or Wuxing), it makes each show its corresponding form, like the "xu" on the left and right sides, and so it can be applied widely. After one year of taking it, one is said to see the spirits within a thousand li; after three years, one sees beyond three thousand li, one's lifespan is extended, and one can see from the outside to the inside, and even look through a wall from east to west. One thus reaches the state of the "Perfected" (zhenren).

This method is said to have been transmitted by Wang Ji, a native of Yong, who learned it from Ma Mingsheng of Shu. Ma Mingsheng learned it from Wang Ziqiao, who learned it from Chisongzi, who learned it from Xianmen Zigao, who in turn learned it from Zuoshi Ma. The method is kept secret and not lightly passed on. The scripture adds that Qin Zixu took it and already showed results. Orchid and angelica are used in the bathing for their fragrance. As for "Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth," this refers to placing the medicine on the corresponding materials, whereupon it takes on the respective nature, becoming Wood, Metal, and so on.

Another method for taking the elixir:

Take one jin of cinnabar (zhusha, a mercury-bearing mineral) and grind it into a fine powder. Add three sheng of strong bitter wine and two sheng of pure lacquer, and mix them evenly. Simmer the mixture over a gentle flame until it can be rolled into pills the size of hemp seeds. Take two pills each time, twice a day. According to the scripture, after forty days of taking it, all illnesses in the abdomen will be cured, and the Three Corpses (spirits said in Daoism to dwell within the human body, causing illness and harming one's cultivation) will depart. After one hundred days, the flesh and body become firm and strong. After one thousand days, the Director of Destinies (Siming, the deity who governs lifespans) will strike the practitioner's name from the register of the dead, granting a lifespan equal to that of Heaven. The practitioner will also be able to alter their bodily form, changing without fixed shape, and will even cast no shadow in sunlight.

Another method for taking the elixir:

Take one jin of true cinnabar and six liang of rhubarb. Steam the rhubarb in a cauldron, and after two cycles process it further by grinding it into a fine powder. Mix this with the cinnabar, seal the mixture inside a tube, and pare the tube thin. Place the tube between two cauldrons and boil it for another two cycles, and the medicine is complete. Take it out, put it in a mortar, and pound it a thousand times with the pestle. Take half a qian each time, three times a day, usually before meals. The scripture says this medicine is highly effective. It can treat abdominal mass disorders, dispel symptoms such as malign darkening of the complexion and excessive thirst with constant drinking, and also cure ailments of the heart and abdomen as well as consumptive exhaustion. Pounding it two thousand times makes it more effective still. A person who has been ill for three years will recover after finishing one batch, and the length of the illness should serve as the guide for dosage. Two cauldrons are used to keep the medicine from touching the cauldron's boiling liquid, which clarifies the medicinal fluid. The medicine may also be stored in a bamboo tube, with very good results; any bamboo tube will do, provided it is dry and solid.

Han Zhong's Ingestion of the Elixir.

Take ten jin of the elixir (dan) and process it. Then press the juice from bright red paper mulberry fruit (chushi, the fruit of the paper mulberry tree) and blend it in, soaking the elixir as thoroughly as possible. Pack it into a bamboo tube and steam it in sand for three days and three nights. Take it out, place it in a bronze vessel, and simmer it in hot water with ample fat and clear wine. Add three sheng of honey and keep simmering for another three days and three nights, until the elixir is like malt sugar and no longer sticks to the hand. Take a portion the size of a jujube pit twice a day. After a full year, Jade Maidens (female immortals of the realm of the transcendents) will come to greet you, and you will become a Perfected Being (zhenren). Immortals and Perfected Beings alike must take the elixir fully. When its effects have accumulated for nine years, your spiritual powers will be complete, and at the proper time you will ascend to the Golden Watchtower and Jade Capital (Jinque Yujing, the celestial palaces where the immortals dwell).

The Divine Elixir is taken one daogui at a time (daogui, an ancient measuring implement for medicines, also meaning a small dose), about the size of a jujube pit. Take it twice a day, and after a full year the Jade Maidens will come to greet you, and you will become a Perfected Being. Immortals and Perfected Beings alike must take it fully. When its effects have accumulated for nine years, your spiritual powers will be complete, and you will ascend to the Golden Watchtower and Jade Capital.

The Divine Elixir and the Daogui: The Nine Lights Generate One Another

Take ten liang of Divine Cinnabar, the "true vermilion," and ten liang of mercury, and place them together in a bronze vessel. Take another, larger bronze vessel and fill it with one jin each of lead and tin, then set the vessel holding the cinnabar and mercury above the lead and tin. Start with a gentle fire beneath, then gradually increase the heat so that the lead and tin melt and work in concert with the materials in the vessel above, refining them into vermilion elixir. Only then is the medicine complete.

To take it, face the sun at dawn and swallow one daogui with jinghua water (water drawn from the well at first light), once a day. According to the scripture (Jing), after taking it one can ascend in flight or travel hidden beneath the earth. After a thousand days of taking it, Jade Maidens will arrive of their own accord, riding cloud chariots to greet you, and Taiyi (the Great One, a revered deity of Daoism) will also come to meet you.

While taking the medicine, you must carefully avoid women and refrain from sexual union. You must also avoid defilement and matters of mourning, and have no contact with women who have recently given birth or are nursing. The scripture holds that such contact profanes the divine powers, so that life cannot be prolonged and the path of immortality will be obstructed.

Taking the Flowing Elixir

Liudan (流丹) is simply cinnabar (丹砂, also called zhusha), whose main component is mercury sulfide. Place it in a bronze mortar, pound it, and grind it fine; it is ready once thoroughly ground. Three catties make one batch, and after one hundred days it is considered a superior grade.

Take five dou of clear wine and steep one sheng each of large pepper and small pepper in it. When the time comes, strain out the pepper dregs and blend the pepper wine with the flowing pearl (liuzhu) until it is like a thin broth. Put it in a bronze vessel, heat it over a fire, and stir repeatedly until the wine has boiled away. Then add more wine and ingredients: steep one sheng each of large and small pepper in five dou of wine, strain out the dregs, blend the pepper wine with the flowing pearl into a broth, place it in the bronze vessel, heat it, and stir repeatedly until the wine is gone. Keep adding wine and ingredients until the flowing pearl can be drawn out into threads several feet long. At that point the medicine is complete.

Each morning, facing the sun, take one pill the size of a small red bean, three times a day, always before eating. If taken this way for one hundred days, it is said to cure all illnesses and give a lifespan as long as heaven and earth. The "large pepper" mentioned here is Sichuan pepper, and the "small pepper" is Qin pepper. This medicine was also used to treat severe "great wind" (dafeng, the ancient name for certain skin diseases or leprosy), with very good results.

Taking Yue Cinnabar

Take one catty of genuine Yue cinnabar and grind it together with rich, clear wine. Simmer it over water, without direct contact with the fire, for three days and three nights, stirring constantly by hand until the mixture can be stretched. Then roll it into pills the size of soybeans. Take one pill twice a day. It is said to dispel all illnesses, settle the abdomen, and calm the mind and spirit (Shen); with long-term use it can prolong life.

Taking Yue Cinnabar Again

Take one catty of Yue cinnabar and three dou of rich, clear wine. Grind the cinnabar finely, place it in a bronze or porcelain vessel, and pour in the wine, stirring until even. Then set it over boiling water and simmer it indirectly, always stirring to the left. After three full days and nights, when the mixture can be stretched, roll it into pills the size of soybeans. Take one pill twice a day. It is said that after taking it the skin becomes moist and smooth, white hair turns black, lost teeth grow back, and even wrinkles on the face disappear.

Taking Sun-Dried Cinnabar

Take the finest-grade cinnabar (zhusha) and grind it extremely fine; any quantity will do. Place it in a bronze vessel and mix it with white honey into a paste. Cover the mouth of the vessel tightly and coat the seal with lacquer, making sure it is completely airtight. On the same day the following year, take it out, dry it in the sun, and grind it fine again. Return it to the bronze vessel, mix it into a paste with white honey, and seal it as before. After another year, take it out, dry it in the sun, and form it with honey into pills the size of a soybean. Take one pill twice a day. The scripture (Jing) states that it eliminates all manner of illness, and that long-term use prolongs life and leads to the attainment of the Dao (the Way) and immortality.

Elixir for the Waist and Abdomen

Take three jin of cinnabar, grind it fine, and pack it into a multi-layered silk bag. Place the bag inside the belly of an animal and sew the belly closed. Steam it over millet rice, using mulberry wood as fuel, for three days and three nights, then take it out. Form it with white honey into pills the size of a soybean. Take two pills at a time, three times a day. The scripture states that this method eliminates all manner of illness, prolongs life, and leads to the attainment of the Dao and immortality.

Parrot Elixir

Select a pair of white parrots and keep the male and female apart. After they have laid eggs, crack open an eggshell and remove the yolk and the white. Grind cinnabar fine, blend it with the egg, and put the mixture back into the egg. Seal the opening of the egg tightly with wax, then let the white parrot go on incubating it. When the young crane-birds hatch, the medicine is complete. The scripture states that taking it harmonizes the Shen (spirit) and prolongs life.

Parrot Elixir

Select a pair of white parrots and keep the male and female apart. After they have laid eggs, crack open an eggshell and remove the yolk and the white. Grind cinnabar fine, blend it with the egg liquid, and put the mixture back into the egg. Seal it tightly with wax, then let the white parrot go on incubating it. When the young crane-birds hatch, the medicine is complete. Mix it with honey and form it into pills the size of a soybean. Take two pills at a time, three times a day. The scripture states that long-term use brings long life and prolonged years.

The Immortals' Refined Elixir and Returning Elixir

Take one liang of cinnabar and one jin of Qin silver. Place the Qin silver in a copper basin and leave it to bask in the sun during the fifth and sixth months. Grind the cinnabar into a fine powder and mix it into the silver, stirring with the ring of a large knife from morning until dusk, until the silver has completely turned into elixir. Put the resulting elixir into a Danyang copper tube and cover it well. Seal the body of the tube with dog-hair clay, about two cun thick. Once it has dried in the sun, refine it over a horse-dung fire for nine days and nine nights without a break.

Take out the elixir and place it in a white silk pouch, then sew the pouch inside the belly of a crow. Boil the crow until cooked, take out the medicine, and roll it into pills the size of hemp seeds. Each morning at dawn, face the sun and swallow one pill with "well-flower water" (water drawn from a well at first light), three times a day. After one hundred days of taking it, one is said to be able to see spirits. After two hundred days, the body becomes light and robust, and all illnesses are healed. After three hundred days, one is said to be able to ascend and soar above the clouds. This medicine is called "Juliu Zhu" (the Flow-Binding Pearl).

The Immortals' Great Yellow Elixir for Ingestion: this is the formula by which the immortals take the Great Yellow Elixir.

Mix twelve liang of Great Yellow Dan (Dahuangdan) and two jin four liang of mercury with strong liquor, until the liquor has soaked the materials through, then stir them thoroughly. In high summer, during the Si hour (9 to 11 a.m.), place the materials in a copper vessel and expose them to the sun, stirring constantly as they bask. After about the time it takes to cook two dou of rice, the materials will turn into dan (elixir). Moisten, mix, and stir them again with strong liquor, and the dan will transform into silver. Expose them to the sun for about the same length of time, and the materials will again become dan. Then repeat the method in the same way, mixing with liquor and exposing to the sun so that the dan transforms into silver. After another exposure of about the time needed to cook two dou of rice, mix with liquor and expose once more, and it becomes dan. Repeat this procedure during the Si hour of high summer: three transformations into silver and four into dan. This is called the "Divine Elixir" (Shendan).

Choose a wangxiang day (a term from traditional date selection, referring to a day considered auspicious for undertaking such work). In the quiet of early evening, face south and stir and refine the materials when the sun stands directly overhead. Hence the saying: "The mother gives birth to Yang and stands in the southern district." This substance is known as "Chu Huang" (the Chu Emperor), also called "Essence of the Flowing Pearl," and also "Liuhuang." Once it has transformed into the Divine Elixir, it is also called "Red Salt." The scripture (Jing) calls it the essence of all things, and says that taking it enables a person to attain the Dao (the Way) and become an immortal. After one year of taking it, the body is full within and lustrous without, the face shines, white hair gradually turns black, and lost teeth grow back. After two years, one can pass in and out of the Gates of Heaven and see divine beings. After three years, one can ride the clouds and drive dragons, becoming a Perfected Person (zhenren).

The Immortals' Ingestion of Badan

Take one jin of Badan and six liang of rock salt (rongyan, a kind of mineral salt). Grind and blend them, place them in a copper vessel, cover it with an ou (a ceramic container), and let it stand for three days. Then soak the mixture overnight in half a dou of strong liquor, let it settle, and pour off the clear liquid on top. Taste the material; if the salty flavor has not been fully removed, soak it again overnight in another half dou of liquor. Continue until the saltiness is gone, and use all of the liquor in which the material has been soaked. Add white honey and blend, then steam it in the center of three dou of japonica rice for three days and nights, until the medicine is cooked. To take it, form a pill the size of a small bean, face the sun, and swallow it with jinghua water (water drawn first from the well in the early morning). The scripture says that this slows aging and grants long life.

The passage "The Perfected Shanzi's Elixir Preparation" (真人山子饵丹) records a method for preparing an elixir to be taken orally. First, dig a pit three feet deep in the ground. Mix yellow earth into a clay paste and plaster the inside and outside of the pit walls with a layer about three inches thick, making sure it is dry and solid, with no cracks. Place an iron cauldron (an iron pot) in the pit and reinforce it with more clay. Pour six or seven dou of water into the iron cauldron. Then set an earthenware cauldron (a ceramic pot) on top of the iron one, to hold one jin of refined elixir. Add five sheng of mulberry root juice to the elixir and mix it evenly, then cover it with a second earthenware cauldron. Use yellow clay to seal the seams between the two earthenware cauldrons and the iron cauldron, so that the whole is airtight.

Next, build a fire with mulberry wood. The heat should be moderate and never too fierce; the water in the iron cauldron should boil gently but must not boil dry. After each firing, seal the vessel with honey. After steaming and refining in this way for three days and three nights without pause, uncover the upper earthenware cauldron, pour five sheng of clear wine over the elixir, and stir it evenly so that the vapors can escape. Then fire it again for three days and three nights as before, still regulating the heat so the water does not boil dry, and seal the vessel when finished. Uncover the cauldron once more, add another five sheng of clear wine and stir, reseal it, and steam it for a further three days and three nights by the same method.

When this is done, remove the elixir, place it in a copper vessel, and stir in five sheng of white honey. Set the copper vessel over boiling water in the cauldron and simmer it over a gentle fire for three days and three nights, stirring constantly, until the mixture is ready to be rolled into pills. The entire process thus takes nine days and nine nights. To take it, swallow two pills at a time, each the size of a hemp seed, twice a day, adding one pill each day thereafter. After ten days, begin again from two pills per dose and repeat the cycle as the regular regimen.

The original text claims that after thirty days of taking the elixir the body becomes light and robust, after sixty days the ears and eyes grow keen, after one hundred days all illnesses are cured, and after two hundred days one often feels the urge to ascend into the heavens. After three years, it says, one attains immortality and lives as long as heaven and earth. It also asserts that this elixir can cure disease and prolong life, and gives it the name "Elixir of Restored Youth" (返老丹).

Grind one jin of cinnabar finely, sift out the coarse grains, and keep only the fine part. Then take two sheng of pure lacquer, one sheng of white honey, and three sheng of the best bitter wine (vinegar). Put these four ingredients in a bronze vessel and simmer over a low flame, stirring constantly. When the medicine's fragrance is rich and the texture is right for rolling pills, form it into pills. Take one pill at a time, about the size of a hemp seed. The scripture (Jing) says that after taking it the body grows strong, and illness is cured in forty days. After one hundred days, the "Three Corpses" (in Daoist belief, spirits that dwell in the human body and hinder cultivation) leave of their own accord. After one thousand days, one can ward off malign influences, fly, transform, move without hindrance, change one's appearance, and come and go freely, even standing in sunlight without casting a shadow. This is called the secret method transmitted by the immortals.

While taking the medicine, avoid pork, raw fish, and all sour or pungent foods. The preparation should be done in a quiet, secluded place, with no more than two people taking part. The scripture holds that too many bystanders will keep the medicine from being successfully refined.

Immortals Taking Realgar

The treasure of Heaven and Earth is stored in the central place and is called orpiment. After a thousand years, orpiment turns into realgar, and after another thousand years, realgar turns into gold. One who takes gold is called a "Perfected One" (Zhenren). But the scripture says that the method of taking gold is subtle and difficult to complete. When it comes to lightening the body and benefiting the qi (vital energy), nothing surpasses realgar.

The method for taking realgar is as follows. Take one jin of the finest realgar and grind it into powder. Mix it with three sheng of strong wine, place it in a bronze vessel, and heat it gently over white charcoal, keeping it at a faint simmer. Do not cook it too thoroughly, only until the mixture becomes gelatinous. Then take two sheng of the finest lacquer, stir it well and strain out the dregs, and pour it into the medicine, mixing evenly. Form the mixture into pills the size of large soybeans. On an empty stomach, first take one pill and swallow the juice, three times a day. The scripture says that within ten days one will notice the illness is cured. After twenty days, the medicine's power spreads throughout the body and transforms it, and one is called a "Perfected One" (Zhenren), able to adjust the body to the heat and cold of the weather. After one hundred days, the stomach and intestines are strong, the skin is firm, the sinews and bones are sturdy, the ears and eyes are keen, and one is not easily afflicted by disease. After three hundred days, switch to pills the size of millet grains, taking three a day as the regular practice.

Choose realgar from Wudu, preferring yang-type realgar of vivid color and fine quality. Take one jin and grind it extremely fine. Grind half a jin of mercury and six liang of mica to a fine powder as well, then mix them with three sheng of white honey. Fill a special tube with the mixture, thin the tube walls, seal the opening, and bind it tightly with sorghum stalks. Treating one jin of material per five days, leave it for five days and five nights. Then take it out and knead and rinse it in water until the material is as clean as silk floss, does not cling to the hand, and, if dropped on the ground, picks up no grass or soil. Swallow one pill a day, about the size of a bean. The scripture (Jing) says that long-term use allows one to endure as long as heaven and earth, and it warns against passing this method on carelessly.

For another method, choose bright red realgar of good quality, in any amount, and put it into a pot. Invert a second pot over it to seal the mouth, and coat the seam with clay so that no vapor can escape. First lay down dog hair as a cushion, then mix talc and red halloysite (chishizhi) with water into a coating about three fen thick, and seal the body of the pot with it, letting it dry. The upper pot is not coated. Set the pot on an iron fork so that the upper pot stands five cun above the ground. Fire it with reed fuel, and place three clay pellets on top of the pot, waiting for them to dry out in the heat. Then add one more clay pellet above them, and continue layer by layer in this way until all three have been used. After the pot has cooled, gently brush the resulting material off with a parrot feather and put it into the intestine of a fat pig, tying both ends tightly. Place this in a bronze vessel and cover it. Set a small bowl on the vessel and heap yellow earth over the top. After steaming for a day and a night, add another section of pig intestine. Steam in this way for three days and three nights, adding three sections of intestine in all. When finished, take out the material and form it into pills the size of a pellet. Take one pill, and only then may one drink the Jade Liquid (a celestial drink in the Daoist tradition).

There is also another method by which the immortals take realgar.

The Perfected One (Zhenren) takes realgar (xionghuang, a mineral medicine), which is worth a thousand pieces of gold, and after taking it one may live as long as heaven and earth. First the realgar is prepared into an edible elixir-bait. Take one jin of the finest realgar and place it in a bamboo tube, then fit this inside a larger bamboo tube. Add six liang of white honey, five liang of mica powder, and eight and a half liang of mercury, and seal the mouth of the tube tightly so that no vapor escapes. Bury the tube in glutinous millet and steam it for five days and five nights. When it is taken out, wash and refine it in water until the substance is as soft as a cloth, and the bait is complete. Take one pill the size of a bullet pellet each time, once a day.

There is another method of taking realgar, said to cure illness, ward off poison, and prolong life. Take one jin of realgar and pound it into fine powder. Take six liang of mica, crush it, mix it evenly with the realgar, and blend in three sheng of white honey. Place the mixture in a bamboo tube, pare the walls of the tube thin, bind it tightly with cord and cover its mouth, then bury it in millet and steam it for five days and five nights. Once steamed, knead and wash it in water until it is as soft as silk floss, does not stick to the hand, and does not cling to grass or soil when it falls to the ground; it is then considered finished. Take one pill the size of a soybean each time. If taken over a long period, it is said that one will live as long as heaven and earth, become an immortal and transcend the world, and communicate with the spirits. In heaven one becomes an envoy of Taiyi (a Daoist deity), and on earth one can subdue the hundred ghosts and command them at will.

The Elixir-Bait of Two Substances, Mercury and Realgar, of the Immortal Taiyi (the title of the entry on refining an immortal medicine from the two materials, mercury and realgar).

Take one jin of realgar (xionghuang) and one jin of mercury. First process the realgar and place it in cooked rice, then steam it for three days and three nights. Next, mix it with the mercury and pound the two until they are thoroughly blended, then place the mixture in a bronze vessel. Set the vessel in rice, fill the container with five dou of glutinous millet, and steam and boil it over mulberry-wood fuel. When the steam has dispersed, pause for a short while and then steam it again in the same manner. Repeat this fifteen times, until the substance has turned to liquid, then take it out and melt it over charcoal fire.

Afterward, remove the substance and place it on five dou of warm millet, and again steam and boil it over mulberry-wood fuel. Once the steam has dispersed, pause briefly and steam it again by the same method, repeating fifteen times, until the substance becomes liquid. Take it out and set it on warm earth, then heat it over charcoal fire until the substance turns purple. Take one daogui (an ancient unit for measuring powdered medicine) of the powder and mix it with one jin of lead, and the elixir is complete.

To take it, blend it with white honey and form pills the size of millet or foxtail millet grains, swallowing one pill each day. The scripture (Jing) claims that after ten days of taking it, external dampness can no longer cause harm and the hundred ghosts dare not approach; after twenty days, one can communicate with the spirits and the cultivation of the Dao is complete; after one hundred days, one becomes an emissary of the Supreme One (Taiyi); and after three years, one can live as long as heaven and earth, command ghosts and spirits, ride the clouds up to heaven, and finally be counted among the immortals. The perfected (zhenren) have transmitted these methods from generation to generation, yet foolish people are misled by them.

Dongfang Shuo Takes Realgar

The amount of realgar is not limited; grind it into fine powder. Take one fat duck, remove its innards, and fill its belly with the realgar. Steam it for three days and three nights, then spread sand over it. To take it, use an amount the size of a jujube pit, twice a day; it is said to be especially effective.

The Immortals' Ingestion of "Parrot Realgar"

Here the scripture preserves only the words "realgar one" and "handed down, the foolish are misled by it." The meaning is probably that this method of taking realgar has been passed down in the world and easily leads people astray.

Grind one jin of realgar into powder and blend it with fresh "parrot-seed yellow-white" (a material named in the original text, whose exact identity is unclear). Place the mixture in a copper vessel, cover it with a second vessel, and seal the seam. Heat it over a gentle flame for three days and three nights without letting the fire go out. Once it has cooled, open the vessel and scrape away the residue on top. The clarified portion below should surge like mercury; when cooled it hardens, and it softens again on contact with body heat. Each jin of raw material yields ten liang of finished product, which is stored in a bamboo tube to keep it from the air. Each dose is a portion the size of a hemp seed. The scripture (Jing) says that after taking it the skin becomes moist and lustrous and the complexion improves, the body feels warm in winter and cool in summer, and cold Qi (qi) is driven out.

Realgar Elixir of the Single Substance for Longevity and Immortality

Take three jin of realgar. After the material has been prepared, place it in a cauldron, pack the seam with dog hair, and seal it tightly with clay so that no air can escape. The clay seal should be about half a cun thick and left to dry. Set the cauldron in millet and steam it over a fire of reed brushwood. Place a small clay pellet on top of the cauldron as a marker for the heat: when the pellet has dried, the cauldron may be taken down, and the medicine adhering to it is swept up. Fill a whole length of fat pig intestine with the medicine, tie off both ends, and steam it in the millet for one day.

Next, coat a length of pig intestine evenly with good fat to a thickness of about half a cun, let it dry, and place it in the millet to steam over reed brushwood. Again the drying of the clay pellet marks when it can be taken down, and the adhering medicine is swept up. Fill fat pig intestine with the medicine once more, tie off both ends, and steam it in the millet for one day. Then wrap the medicine in a length of fat-coated intestine, add another layer of intestine, and repeat this for three days and three nights, using three lengths of intestine in all. When finished, the medicine is white and has a texture like a dough cake, so that it can be pulled and stretched. Roll it into pellets the size of a bullet and swallow them. The scripture says that taking it extends life and prevents aging.

The Immortal's Realgar Elixir for Summoning Jade Maidens

Take realgar (xionghuang) whose color resembles the crest feathers of a parrot, grind it thoroughly into a fine powder, and mix it with refined pine resin. Form the mixture into pills the size of pellets, and take one pill each day. After ten days, the "Three Corpse-Worms" (fushi sanchong, parasitic creatures that, in Daoist ideas of health cultivation, dwell within the body and harm a person) will be expelled, and blemishes on the face will fade. After twenty days, all illnesses are said to be eliminated, and the ears and eyes become keen.

If the medicine is instead made into pills the size of small beans and two are taken each day, then after one hundred days the Lady of Perpetual Yang from the east will come. After two hundred days, the Plain Maiden of the Azure Waist (a female immortal of Daoist legend) will appear. Her form is like jade, adorned in yellow, and she bears a mark the size of a large millet grain, perhaps on her nose or perhaps in the philtrum. This is the true Jade Maiden. When she wishes to become the wife of the one who has taken the medicine, he should not take her in marriage at first. Instead, he may call himself a mere mortal, foul in odor, restless in temperament, and impure, unworthy of her coming. The Jade Maiden will say: "I have seen that you take the divine medicine, and that your essence and Qi (vital energy) reach up to the Grotto-Heaven (Dongtian, the celestial realm where immortals dwell). Therefore Heaven has sent me to be your wife." He may then ask the Jade Maiden whether he might taste the Flowery Pool wine and the orchid-scented bath of Heaven, and she will fetch them for him. Once he has received and drunk them, he may join with her as husband and wife. From then on, he can remain forever in her company, ride a carriage adorned with flowery plumes, travel to and fro across the Nine Heavens, and roam throughout the Six Realms.

The medicine must not be interrupted, and it is said that one will then endure as long as Heaven and Earth. One must also take care not to lend one's clothing or wooden clogs to others, for the essential Qi of the medicine constantly longs to ascend. Observe a purification fast (zhai) of one hundred days according to this method.

Immortals' Wine-Refined Realgar

Take one jin of realgar (a mineral containing arsenic), pound it fine, and sift it. Soak it in five sheng of clear wine and keep it in a vessel. Bundle the ingredients as the original text directs and put them into a pot, then coat them with a thin layer. Cover the pot with a copper basin and fill it with water to within three or four cun of the rim. Seal the seam with red clay so that no vapor escapes. Boil it over mulberry wood, adding water whenever the pot runs dry. When the liquid has been boiled away, add wine again, five sheng at a time, until twenty-five sheng in all have been used. Regulate the heat, and stop the fire once the ingredients can be rolled into pills. Realgar must not be exposed to fierce flame, because intense heat will make it disperse and the medicine will fail. Before compounding it, fast and observe purification for seven days. Prepare it in a quiet place where no one can see.

Once the medicine is made, take two pills each time, each the size of a small red bean, with water. If taken over a long period, it is said that after a hundred days its power penetrates the bone marrow. The "Three Worms" and the "Hidden Corpses" in the belly (harmful entities within the body, believed in Daoist and ancient medical writings to cause disease) will all be eliminated, leaving the mind clear, the eyes bright, and the bearing commanding. Entering water, one can avoid the flood dragons. Entering the mountains, one can avoid tigers and wolves. Entering the battle line, one can avoid weapons. It is said that no one dares to offend a person who takes realgar.

Divine Immortals' Method for Refining and Taking White Realgar

First build a double earthen furnace, with a mouth five cun wide and one chi long, shaped like a bell. Fill the furnace with charcoal and place the realgar at the furnace door, in a quantity of five or six jin, which may be adjusted as needed. Use a wooden vessel to hold the "Mysterious Dragon Liquid" (the original text's name for a certain medicinal liquid) and set it beneath the furnace to catch the drippings. At the same time, coat the body of the furnace with this liquid to a height of about one chi, five or six cun. Heat it with a strong fire, adding charcoal gradually. After refining for the length of time the original text specifies, the realgar will fall entirely into the trough, and it is then collected. The finished medicine should be white as rice, and after long refining it becomes hard and ready for use. Form it with honey into pills the size of small red beans, and swallow one each day facing the sun. It is said that this wards off all manner of malevolent spirits and baneful things. With repeated use the effect improves, and it enables a person to commune with the spirits.

The Divine Immortals' Method for Refining and Taking White Realgar, for Prolonging Life without Aging, Preserving the Spirit, Subduing the Hun and Po Souls, and Dispelling All Illness

Fill an iron tube with fifty jin of realgar. The tube should be two chi and two cun long, with an inner diameter of four cun, a base three and a half cun wide, and walls five fen thick. Mix salt and crude Glauber's salt (pu xiao) into a mud, coat the inside of the tube to a thickness of three fen, and let it dry completely. Then pound the realgar into pieces and pack it into the tube. Cover the mouth of the tube, like a fumigation sieve, with an iron plate (an iron sieve board) pierced with over a hundred holes. Fill an iron vessel with sesame oil, bury it halfway in the ground, and pass a thick rope through its center. Place this vessel over the tube. Invert the realgar so that it sits in the empty space above, and seal the joint with Six-One Mud (liuyi ni, an alchemical lute used to seal vessels) until it is firm and immovable.

Next, refine it over a charcoal fire. Set the charcoal stove seven or eight cun away from the iron tube and heat it slowly over a gentle flame. When the body of the tube turns reddish-purple, the yellow realgar will melt and flow down into the oil below, where it congeals into bars more than a chi long, or seven or eight cun. Take them out and reload them as before. After repeating this about fifty times, the substance will take on the reddish-white color of jade. Let it dry, pound it into pieces, and return it to the tube. Remove the oil, substitute white liquor, and refine it again by the same method.

After about another fifty repetitions, pound the substance once more and add one dou of Taiyi Yuliang (Taiyi's Surplus Grain, a mineral medicine). Mix it thoroughly, then treat it with white liquor by the same method as before. Remove the liquor, substitute animal fat and honey, and repeat the process. After roughly thirty rounds with honey, the elixir is complete. It will be pure white and have the consistency of an edible medicinal bolus.

For ordinary use, take five pills a day, each the size of a parasol tree seed. The scripture (jing) claims that after ten days of taking it, the "Three Worms" (sanchong, parasites said in ancient times to dwell in the body and cause illness) will disappear. Ground into a fine powder and taken for one month, it will settle the hun and po souls and keep them within the body. After one hundred days, all illnesses are cured and the body becomes light and robust. After one year, the skin renews itself like a snake shedding its slough, neither cold nor heat can harm the body, and evil spirits cannot cause trouble. With long-term use, the dose may be gradually reduced until finally only one pill is taken each day.

My late master said that before refining this medicine one must fast and keep oneself pure, and that women must not be allowed to see it. The scripture holds that a woman's menstruation may violate taboos, and therefore it places particular emphasis on this point, which must not be neglected.

The method of boiling stones transmitted by Master Baishi, known as the Boiling-Stone Method of the Perfected Donghua, is said to enable a person to become an immortal, to transform the body, and to perform all manner of transformations. Those who take stone medicines are said to be rid of all illnesses, to have scars fade, to have firm intestines and stomach with a fragrance arising within the body, to have the six viscera in harmony, strong bones, and upright breath, and to have a face and body as lustrous as jade. Their hun and po souls are nourished, and the Three Corpses (the impure beings that, in Daoist belief, dwell in the body and hinder cultivation) are eliminated.

Stone is the basic material from which gold and jade come. It strengthens the bones and marrow and harmonizes the blood vessels, and it belongs among precious substances of the same kind as qiongyao (fine jade). Properly taken, it is said to make the bones strong, the breath upright, the complexion lustrous, and the souls harmonious. It also firms the teeth, brightens the eyes, and turns white hair black. The essence of gold, jade, and stone is like sesame oil as the essence of the sesame seed, or like the oil of the "great victory" seed (sesame). Qiongyao is the fluid congealed from gold and jade, much as peach gum is the sap that flows from the peach tree. The ancients who took sesame seeds soon saw the benefit of prolonged life, yet drinking sesame oil is not necessarily better than taking powdered sesame. The resin of the peach tree is said to help one become an immortal, yet eating peach gum takes effect more slowly than taking powdered peach bark. Each substance has its own effects: some are easy to prepare, while their subtleties are hard to grasp in others. The difference between boiling stone and taking jade is probably of this kind.

In short, the method of taking stone is one for which the ingredients are easy to assemble, whereas the method of taking jade is costly and demands complete and intact materials. The reasoning is that when the medicines are hard to obtain, they are hard to take over a long period; and when they cannot be taken over a long period, it is hard to persist with single-minded devotion. Success or failure often arises from this. The materials needed for taking stone, by contrast, are easier to obtain, like ordinary herbs that can even be found in great marshes.

Why do people of the east so rarely find the chance to become immortals through elixirs? Making an elixir requires rongyan (rock salt) and zengqing (azurite, a mineral medicine), and neither is produced in the east. The ingredients are therefore difficult to assemble there, the elixir cannot be completed, and without the elixir it is hard to become an immortal. This does not mean that no one has ever become an immortal there, only that few have obtained the elixir and used it to do so. People of the north likewise seldom become immortals by taking stone, because boiling stone requires diyu (burnet) and wujia (Acanthopanax), two herbs that the north does not produce. When the herbs are hard to obtain, the stone medicine cannot be taken, and so there are few immortals in the north.

Yin Gongdu once listened to Meng Chuozi and Dong Shizhou in conversation and heard them say: "Better to obtain a handful of wujia than a cartload of gold and jade; better to obtain a catty of diyu than a bright-moon pearl." These two men were said to be people who had become immortals by taking stone. They were often troubled by how hard wujia and diyu were to obtain, which is why they said they would rather give up gold, jade, and bright pearls. Gongdu understood in his heart, and pressed them again and again about why these two medicines were used. Only after a long while did they tell him the method of boiling stone.

Wujia is also called dingtanzi. The scripture (Jing) says: "If you wish to live long, take dingtanzi; if you wish to be free of sorrow, wear the ash of diyu." Gongdu therefore resolved, together with fellow disciples, students, and dozens of people in his household, to devote themselves to seeking and buying these herbs, boiling stone and taking it, and in the end all attained the Dao and became immortals. In their later years they entered Taihe Mountain in Nanyang together, because stones were abundant there. Gongdu composed a chen (a cryptic prophetic verse) that said: "Swallow golden salt, jade tablets, and zidan, and for a thousand autumns and ten thousand years be a heavenly immortal." The "zidan" mentioned here is dingtanzi, expressed in veiled language. Wujia is also called "Mother of Golden Salt," and diyu is also called "Father of Jade Tablets." The northern Qiang people call fermented soybeans "tablets," so "jade tablets" here should mean "jade fermented beans." Only golden salt and jade fermented beans can be used to boil dingtanzi.

It is told that when Emperor Shun ascended Mount Cangwu, he said: "This fragrant herb is a thing of gold and jade; with it I rest and nourish what is upright." This refers to wujia and diyu. Wang Chang, the Perfected One of Xicheng, also said: "How can one last long? Why not take stone, and store up the Mother of Golden Salt? How can one live long? Why not take stone, and use the Father of Jade Fermented Beans?" These words, too, speak of the method of boiling stone.

Wujia is said to be the essence of the Five Chariots stars in the heavens. It corresponds to metal, the five lakes, the five virtues, the five directions, and the five affairs. Green essence enters the stem and yields the fluids of the east; white breath enters the branches and joints and yields the fluids of the west; red breath enters the flowers and yields the radiance of the south; black essence enters the roots and yields the dregs of the north; yellow vapor enters the bark and yields the spirit of the center, wu and ji. The five spirit-energies guard and nourish life, supporting one another and helping a person to grow. Those who take it are said to become true immortals, and their bodies return from old age to youth.

The mother of Duke Ding of Lu is said to have escaped death by taking only wujia wine; when she was about to withdraw from the mortal world, she feigned death, and people at the time did not notice. Zhang Zisheng Zhongyang, Wang Shucai of Jianshi and his son Shiyan, and others continued to have sexual relations after taking wujia wine, and are said to have lived to three hundred years and fathered twenty children. Through the generations, those said to have prolonged their lives and attained deathlessness by taking wujia wine or wujia powder are too many to count, to say nothing of those who combined it with taking stone.

The north lacks diyu and wujia, and mountains producing good stone are few as well. Only a few mountains, Luhun, Baodu, Qingtian, and Beimu, have white stone; elsewhere there are mostly large slabs of coarse, hard grain. Such mountain rock is solid and hard to quarry, and its taste is poor, like eating earth. This coarse-grained stone is called "earth stone," and taking it only staves off hunger for a time, without bringing the benefit of prolonged life.

Any stone suitable for taking should have a fine, dense grain and a naturally whole texture, free of damage or cracks. Five-colored stones are especially wonderful, with a taste as sweet as meat: purple and blue stones are like cured meat, white ones like cooked rice, yellow ones like taro, jade-green ones are slightly pungent, and green ones are like na, a kind of food. The Perfected cherish these stones, often holding banquets with five-colored stones and also using them to hold fruit. Each of the five colors has its own flavor, which is truly remarkable.

Diyu (地榆, burnet) contains within it the nature of Shaoyin (Lesser Yin) and receives externally the qi of Taiyang (Greater Yang). Below, it belongs to the spirit of Wu and Ji (the Earth stems); above, it receives the essence of the planet Yinghuo (Mars). Its fruit is black like fermented soybeans, symbolizing Yin, while its leaves are red like banners, belonging to Yang. Even when exposed to mist and dew, the fruit does not become moist, which is taken as a sign of the abundance of Taiyang qi. Diyu often grows in flat, damp places, where it flowers and bears fruit, nourished by water and soil.

Diyu holds both Yin and Yang qi, inside and out, and carries the properties of water and fire in its interior and exterior. For this reason it is thought able to melt jade and stone and to break down hard substances. People of the Yue region sometimes call it "Pa" (葩), and others call it "Mother of Fermented Beans." Its black seeds are roasted over fire and placed in a stone vessel as a seasoning, which makes food more fragrant. Its root, when boiled and drunk, has a flavor similar to tea; wine brewed from the root juice is said to treat bi (痹) disorders caused by wind and damp pathogens. The stems of wujia (五加, Acanthopanax) are cut and boiled to make a decoction, which is used to soak rice for brewing wine. The wine is sweet and pleasant, and is said, when drunk regularly, to cure many illnesses, slow aging, keep the hair from turning white, and strengthen the body's functions. The roots of wujia can also be used to brew wine, with effects similar to those of the stems, and reportedly even better. The bark of the wujia root and stem can also be made into a powder and taken, and is said to ward off illness and slow aging, though patients often find it hard to take over a long period.

Ten jin of wujia root should be gathered on the seventh day of the seventh month, or alternatively on the ninth day; the Gengwu and Renwu days are also suitable. Other accounts hold that the seventeenth and nineteenth days, as well as the Jiaxu and Jiashen days, are also appropriate. When digging, one should face the sun and choose roots that grow toward the south and those that grow straight downward, as these are considered better. The gatherer must first fast for a full day and night, bathe, and burn incense. During the gathering, one must not tell anyone about the task, nor tread on unclean places. After gathering, the roots are dried in the shade for one hundred days, and are best stored in cloth bags. They should be washed clean, placed in the bags, and left to dry in the shade further. One must avoid women, chickens, and dogs, and take care that they do not see the roots.

For the Diyu root (地榆, Sanguisorba), use ten catties. It should be gathered on the seventh day of the seventh month, or alternatively on the ninth day of the seventh month. The Dingmao, Guimao, and Jimao days, or the ninth day, are all suitable for harvesting. Dig with your back to the sun; roots that grow southward or straight down are best. Whoever digs the herb must observe a fast and purification, following the same rules as for digging Wujia (五茄). After harvesting, dry the roots in the shade for one hundred days, and keep them away from any impure things.

Alternatively, the Wujia and the Diyu root may each be placed in an earthen cauldron (a clay vessel used for calcination) and burned to ash. When using them, take one square-inch spoonful of each (an ancient measure for medicinal substances, a spoon roughly one square inch in size). If these two herbs are unavailable, one may use more perilla, fragrant leaves, and southward-growing roots to "boil the stones" (a method of combining plant and herbal substances with the calcination of minerals). The two herbs should be combined in equal proportions. It is enough to fill whatever the earthen cauldron can hold; there is no need to fill each with ten catties. The herbs are best when dried in the shade for a full hundred days, and once they have passed two hundred days they should no longer be used.

Prepare two earthen cauldrons. Make a mud from pear-bark fiber, hair, and finely sifted white earth mixed with bitter wine (vinegar), and coat both cauldrons repeatedly, inside and out. The outer layer of mud should be one inch and three tenths thick, and the inner layer seven tenths of an inch thick. Patch any cracks, and make the seal tight and meticulous. Cut the Wujia and the Diyu root into slices about four or five tenths of an inch square and as thin as bamboo strips, mix them in equal amounts, and place them in the cauldron. Cover it with its lid, and seal the seam where the two cauldrons meet with mud. Let them dry in the shade for nine days; if any cracks appear, patch them with mud and continue drying in the shade.

Once sealed, set the cauldrons on the arm, and refine them over a firewood blaze for seven days and seven nights, which is estimated to require three hundred bundles of firewood. The firewood must be dry and clean, and old firewood must not be used. When the seven days of burning are over, let the cauldrons cool for three days before opening them to inspect the contents. The ash should be purplish-blue; only then is the refining complete. If it is not yet purplish-blue, burn it for another seven days, day and night, and again let it cool for three days afterward. The original text adds that, in any case, the work should be completed within a period of four sevens, with the cauldrons inspected after three days of cooling.

When burning the cauldrons, light fires on all four sides, beginning with a gentle flame. If the firewood runs out before the seven days are complete, add more; if firewood remains after the seven days, burn it all up. Each bundle should measure about half a foot around and five feet long, which the original text says is calculated by the measure of Yinshang. The burning may also be done beneath a house. Do not allow anyone who is not a fellow practitioner of the Dao to watch, and do not let them learn the name of this spiritual medicine. The ash is called "Purple Ash." The finished medicine itself should be white; pound it ten thousand times with a pestle and store it separately. If it turns red, it cannot be used.

Examine the color of the stones again and again. If you find fine cracks, patch them at once with mud so that the cracks do not spread. Burn them over a wood fire for seven days and seven nights continuously, then open the kiln and inspect them; if the stones have all turned blue-green, they are acceptable. If they have not yet turned blue-green, seal them again with mud and burn them for another seven days, then let them cool for one day before inspecting them. If they are still not blue-green, continue burning by the same method until the stones turn blue-green. If cracks appear during the burning, patch them with mud promptly. Each kind of stone should be kept in its own separate container.

Next, take the finest white medicinal ingredient, in an amount left to the user's discretion. Pound it a thousand times, soak it in mica water (water that has been treated with mica), and work it into a paste. The three medicines prepared in this way should each be stored in a separate container.

When it is time to use them, take white stones from running water, about the size of peaches or plums, and break them into very fine fragments, the finer the better. For each dou of stones, place them in a cooking vessel and add water to cover them, so that the water stands three or four cun above the stones. Add one fangcun spoon (an ancient small spoon for measuring powder) of each of the three medicines, stir them into the water, and boil over a fierce fire. Keep poking the stones with an implement to check whether the water has boiled dry, and add more water when it runs low. When the stones are cooked through, so that they can be pierced when poked and look like boiled taro, they may be eaten. Eat until sated, using them in place of grain. One may also add scallions, salt, douchi (fermented soybeans), and meat according to taste, which will make them more flavorful.

Zhang Taixuan led more than twenty disciples into the Luhun Mountains and ate this food for more than thirty years, and all of them grew plump and robust. Only after the world had returned to peace did they come down from the mountains. If there is no red-clay cauldron (a pot made of red earth), a red-colored fou jar or a bottle may be used instead. In all of the preparation, one must first observe a purification fast (zhai) for twenty-one days and light the fire in a secluded place; only when cooking and eating the stones need one no longer worry about defilement.

Another method:

Take the roots of acanthopanax (wujia) and elm (diyu) directly, dry them in the shade, and burn them to ash in a cauldron by the method described above. Once the ash is ready, use three fangcun spoons of it for each dou of stones when boiling, and the stones will become cooked, with no need for costly medicinal ingredients or mica water.

Yet another method of boiling stones.

Usually on the seventh day of the seventh month, dig up a suitable amount of sanguisorba root (diyu), dry it in the shade for one hundred days, and burn it to ash. Then take fresh sanguisorba root and pound it to a pulp, mix it with the ash, and pound the mixture repeatedly ten thousand times. Use three parts ash to one part fresh root pulp, blend them evenly, and set the powder aside. To prepare two or three dou of stone material, soak the stones in water so that the water stands three inches above them. Stir the powder into the water and boil it over a fire several times, until the stones become soft and tender like a cake of food (er). They may then be eaten, until one is full. One may also add scallions and salted fermented soybeans (douchi, soybeans cured with salt) and cook them together so that the dish resembles meat. This is what is called "Immortal's Stone-Taro Soup."

How the Perfected Take and Eat Stone Material (Zhenren fushi ershi)

Take ten pieces of stone, each the size of a parrot's egg, bluish-white in color, fine in grain, and smooth and glossy like fat. Place them in a bronze vessel and soak them in one dou of liquid. Add a lump of sanguisorba ash the size of a parrot's egg and boil for the time it takes to cook one shi of rice. Next, pound a piece of "wood jade" (muyu) the size of a goose egg, add it, and continue boiling for another stretch equal to the cooking of one shi of rice. Probe the stones with chopsticks; if they have become soft like taro, they may be eaten. Both the roots and the leaves of sanguisorba are to be burned to ash for use. "Wood jade" refers to cassia (gui), which some also call "tube-mother cassia" (tongmu gui).

For Those Who Enter the Mountains and Take Stone

Those who enter the mountains and take stone should first boil the stones for the time it takes to cook one shi of rice. Then pound a piece of "wood jade" the size of a goose egg, add it, and continue boiling for another stretch equal to the cooking of one shi of rice. Probe the stones with chopsticks; if they have become soft like taro, they may be eaten. The roots and leaves of sanguisorba are both burned to ash for use; "wood jade" is cassia, which some accounts call "tube-mother cassia." This passage states that taking stone in this way can serve to cut off grain while one is in the mountains.

取三种石头,须形状圆润、大小如鸟蛋,共二十一枚。服石之前,先把石头放在怀里温热。清晨吞下青石七枚,中午吞下赤石七枚,傍晚吞下白石七枚。这里的意思是:断食十天后,煮一碗葵菜汤,加姜同煮,滤去渣滓,饮半升(sheng);过一会儿,石头便会排出体外。将石头洗净,第二天再服。

I need to correct myself: the English translation should be output only. Here it is:

Take three kinds of stones, smooth and rounded, each about the size of a bird's egg, twenty-one in all. Before swallowing them, warm the stones against your chest. At dawn swallow seven blue stones, at noon seven red stones, and at dusk seven white stones. After fasting for ten days, boil a soup of mallow greens with ginger, strain out the dregs, and drink half a sheng; after a while the stones will pass out of the body. Wash them clean and take them again the next day.

Afterward, first cook a gruel of broken rice and drink only the gruel broth for two days, after which you may eat. Then wash the old stones and swallow them, and fast for fifteen days; drink the mallow soup as before to expel the stones, then drink gruel broth for five days, wash the old stones and swallow them again, and you may fast for one hundred days. Drink the mallow soup to expel the stones, then the gruel broth, and after ten days you may eat; take the old stones once more, and you may fast for a year. After a year, the period of taking the old stones may be extended to ten thousand days; after swallowing the stones, fast for one hundred days, drink the mallow soup to expel them, then drink gruel broth for ten days, and take the old stones again, fasting for a year. After that year, the period may once more be extended to ten thousand days. As a regular practice, wash the old stones and swallow them; when thirsty, drink water, and eat nothing else. After two years of taking the stones, it is said that one can walk six hundred li a day, the complexion improves, and one can commune with the spirits.

Shenxian Juxing (Rising in Bodily Form as a Divine Immortal)

Place stone powder in cold water, and after a while the water becomes as hot as broth and can be drunk, as though one were drinking jade powder. Taken regularly, it is said to make the body light and able to rise, to cross waters and mountains, and to depart on far journeys. Where the stone powder lies, the qi (vital energy) alone rises upward; when it rains the surface above stays dry, and in times of drought it stays moist. This is called the "Taiyi Fushi Immortal." The scripture (Jing) says that if the earth's qi in mountains and marshes holds stones as white as jade, there must be the source of a fine spring beneath. Drinking this spring water enables one to commune with the spirits.

Shenxian Fushi Shi Zhongru (The Divine Immortals' Practice of Taking Stalactite)

Stalactite (shi zhongru) is sweet in flavor, non-toxic, and warm in nature; it is also called "Konggong Milk." It is used to brighten the eyes, regulate the breath, and replenish essence (Jing) and qi. Therefore, when taking stalactite, pound it and sift it fine, then take it with wine as needed; if there is no wine, take it with water. After one hundred days of taking it, one is said to commune with the spirits; with long-term use, it can eliminate the hundred…

Stalactite (Shi Zhongru): Sweet in flavor, non-toxic, and warm in nature, it is also called "Kong Gong Ru." It is said to brighten the eyes, regulate Qi (vital energy), and replenish Jing (essence) and Qi. To take it, pound the stalactite into pieces, sift it finely, and swallow it; it may be taken with wine, or with water if there is no wine. After a full hundred days of taking it, one is said to attain communion with the spirits (Shen, spirit); with long-term use, it is said to dispel all illnesses, give resistance to cold, and keep one from feeling hungry.

When taking stalactite, choose the nipple-like portion measuring about two inches long. If it snaps at a light touch about one inch from the lower end, it is of good quality. Its hollow part is called "Kong Gong Nie," and its efficacy is inferior to that of the nipple portion.

Immortals' Ingestion of Red Halloysite (Chishizhi): Red halloysite is sour in flavor and non-toxic; white halloysite is sweet, non-toxic, and neutral in nature; black halloysite is salty, non-toxic, and neutral; yellow halloysite is bitter, non-toxic, and neutral; green halloysite is sour, non-toxic, and neutral. All of these are substances reputed to nourish body and mind and prolong life.

Refining the Five Halloysites: Pound the five halloysites into powder, place it in water, and grind it until the texture is fine, like washed sand. Once the stony sediment has settled to the bottom, take the upper layer. Repeat this process fifteen times, then dry the result in the sun. Taking three he daily is said to let one go without the five grains and without hunger, making the body light and vigorous, the strength abundant, and the body able to withstand wind and cold.

Take it with focused attention and caution, and observe a fast and purification (zhai, meaning cleansing the body, calming the mind, and keeping the precepts). If one cannot observe the fast, one should not take it lightly. The scripture (Jing) says this substance is difficult to digest and may harm a person. If the substance remains undigested, boil hemp seeds and take the liquid once it has been reduced to five sheng; or one may simmer one jin of fatty mutton tallow and take it. This is said to help as well. The five halloysites are hard to obtain, so one should be careful in taking them.

Immortals' Ingestion of Amethyst (Zishiying): Amethyst is pungent in flavor and warm in nature. The scripture goes on to say that if indigestion occurs after taking it, one may simmer one jin of fatty mutton tallow and take it. This is said to help as well; the five minerals are hard to come by, so one should be careful.

Immortals' Ingestion of Amethyst (Zishiying): Amethyst is pungent in flavor, warm in nature, and non-toxic. The scripture says that one who takes amethyst may live to three hundred years, and that holding it in the mouth prevents hunger and thirst.