《还丹金液歌注》

"Dragon and Tiger" are alternative names for lead and mercury. The Cantong qi (Zhouyi Cantong Qi) says, "The Golden Tiger is the root of refining the Returned Elixir." Here "Golden Tiger" does not refer to two separate things but is used to indicate lead. Lead is black in color and belongs to the north; the north belongs to water, and the number of water is one. Therefore, if one can understand this "One," one can grasp the essentials of all things.

The Cantong qi also says, "One substance contains five colors; in the long run it becomes the fortune of an immortal." Lead holds five colors within it, corresponding to the Five Phases (Wuxing). The Five Phases are Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth; since lead possesses the nature of all Five Phases, it is said to contain five colors.

Laojun (Lord Lao) said: "Heaven attains the One and becomes clear; Earth attains the One and becomes tranquil; spirit (Shen) attains the One and becomes numinous; the myriad things attain the One and are able to grow; kings and lords attain the One and are able to set the world aright." These words serve as a metaphor for the great Dao, yet they also point to concrete things, and are not something ordinary people can understand. Laojun also said: "Embrace and hold fast to the One, and the self will reach harmony and balance." From this we can see that the meaning of the "One" is extremely profound.

The Cantongqi, a classic of Daoist alchemy, says: "Three yellows and one black; seek death and you will not find it." "Three yellows and one black" is the name of a spiritual elixir, and in the human body it corresponds to the "Three-in-One." One who cultivates the Three-in-One can become a soaring immortal. Of these, the "One" belongs to Water, and Water is lead; the "Three" belong to Wood, and Wood is cinnabar.

Cinnabar is the essence of the southern sun, and the "essence" here means mercury, which is called the Azure Dragon. The Cantongqi also says: "Cinnabar is the essence of Wood; when it meets Metal, the two merge." Lead belongs to Metal, and mercury to Wood. Wood is the Azure Dragon, situated in the east and called the "middle son." Lead belongs to Metal, is situated in the west, and is called the White Tiger, corresponding to the "middle daughter." Hence the Song of the Twenty-Four Sages says: "The middle son and middle daughter dwell at Zi and Wu; the gates of Mao and You belong only to sun and moon; plainly, the long is the beginning." It also says: "The middle son governs the young maiden, and together they form water and earth." This is the general principle by which the Five Phases (Wuxing: Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, Water) are combined.

Mercury refined into cinnabar is the essence of the sun, named the Azure Dragon. Cinnabar belongs to Wood, and the color of Wood is green-blue; fire is born within Wood, and the color of fire is red, belonging to the south. Yet its source lies in the east, so it is called the Azure Dragon. An old song says: "White horse's teeth, fine cinnabar." Quicksilver is produced from cinnabar. Quicksilver is Yang, and Yang essence easily scatters and flies off, so it is called the "Old Woman" and is hard to subdue.

The Cantongqi says: "The Maiden of the River is numinous and most spiritual. Meeting fire, she flies away, leaving no trace of dust. Ghosts hide and dragons conceal themselves; none can know where she dwells. If you wish to subdue her, Yellow Sprout is the root." Here the "Maiden" refers to quicksilver, and "Yellow Sprout" refers to lead. Lead is black in color and belongs to the northern Ren-Gui Water. It is the essence of Great Yin, and so it can subdue Yang quicksilver. Yang is hard and strong, and can be restrained by Yin. Quicksilver belongs to Fire and lead to Water, and Water can extinguish Fire.

Among the Five Phases there are also relations of overcoming: Wood, though upright, is harmed by Metal; Water, though soft, is checked by Earth; Earth, though heavy, is overcome by Wood; and Metal, though hard, is melted by Fire. This is the ordinary principle of mutual overcoming among the Five Phases.

The deeper meaning of lead and mercury is hard for people of the world to fathom. Some, white-haired with age, still bend over their desks searching for ancient recipes, and when they meet something puzzling, they say the meaning of the classic is false. But the lead and mercury spoken of here are not the ordinary lead and mercury of the everyday world. People combine common lead and mercury to make elixirs, put them through the so-called processes of "subduing the elixir" and "expelling the poison," then treasure and consume them, calling them the Great Elixir. Yet I have never seen anyone who took such an elixir enjoy a full natural lifespan; many instead died young. People are constantly misled by this teaching and bring harm upon themselves.

As for refining lead to consume, Master Zhang Guo said: "The lead of this world is highly poisonous and readily kills. People do not understand the principle behind it and devote themselves to refining it, only to suffer in vain." The Cantongqi says: "Diving into water to hunt pheasants and hares, climbing mountains to seek fish and dragons." Hunting land hares in the water and searching for water-dwelling fish and dragons on a mountain is a fitting illustration of how absurd this approach is.

People refine spiritual medicines and various minerals without distinguishing Yin-Yang (Yinyang) or what floats and what sinks, without understanding hardness and softness, without telling sovereign from minister, and without knowing how to subdue the ingredients, so they do not know what should be refined at all. Yang substances must be subdued by Yin substances, and Yin substances by Yang substances; one must also understand which is primary and which is secondary, and handle the methods of subduing with care. One must know how to recognize the Vermilion Bird and regulate the fire, and listen closely to the breathing of the "Infant." Only after passing through the number nine times nine will the spiritual medicine be subdued by fire. The way of ingesting elixirs is difficult in itself, and the difficulty lies not in finding the ingredients but in the fact that people say with their mouths that they believe while in their hearts they do not, which makes the teaching hard to transmit.

In former times, Wang Yang (a personal name) had achieved a good deal in his practice, but he suffered from the poverty of his household, so he presented his alchemical method to Emperor Wu. He said, "Cinnabar, once subdued by fire, can be refined into yellow gold." Yet even with the power of an emperor behind it, alchemical refining was no easy matter. The real difficulty lay not in finding the ingredients but in the fact that people agreed with their lips while disagreeing in their hearts, which made the teaching hard to transmit.

Master Baiyun, Right Military Aide (a Daoist name or title), admired this Dao (the Way) for more than twenty years. If the worthies of antiquity still devoted themselves painstakingly for twenty years or more, how much harder is it today, when people prize wealth and slight righteousness, speak fine words while harboring other designs, refuse to do good in secret, presume to play at clever tricks, covet beauty, envy the capable, and stay entangled in worldly affairs all day long? How could such people hope to be taught by a truly accomplished master? Those who study the Dao should be humble, treat wealth lightly and righteousness weightily, take compassion as their root, perform many hidden good deeds without seeking reward, pity orphans and look after the widowed and weak. They should also keep themselves tranquil and unattached, and not cling to either being or non-being in their conduct. Only those with these qualities can hope to attain the great Dao.

Ordinary people merely refine lead and mercury, subdue them with fire, and then claim that this yields an elixir that can aid the world. Master Zhang Guo (a Daoist figure) said that long ago two men became sworn brothers, and each took a jin of mercury into the mountains of Yangcheng to burn and refine it. After three years the mercury had been subdued by fire. It had turned red and gleamed like glass, and it was so lovely that they called it the "Great Elixir" (Dadan). Each of them swallowed two liang of it. They needed others to support them when they walked, and before a hundred days had passed they were dead. How could such a substance add anything to a person's life?

People today also like to put the "Golden Lord" (Jingong, an alchemical term, usually referring to lead) into mercury, collect the "golden flower" from it, and extract its essence and qi (Jing and Qi), refining it year after year. When the lead flower takes on the color of purple-polished gold, they call it the "Great Elixir." The original text breaks off at the words "taking it to [sustain] life" (服命), and the meaning is incomplete.

Nowadays some people throw "Golden Lord" (jingong, the lead of alchemical practice) into mercury and collect the "golden blossom" that forms in it, refining essence and qi (Jing and Qi) year after year. If they produce a lead blossom that is golden-yellow in color and light and buoyant in texture, they call it the "Great Elixir." Yet within a few months of taking it, a person's complexion turns sallow and wasted, they fall ill with consumptive exhaustion, and the face then turns a bluish-green.

Master Zhang Guo said: "Lead is intensely poisonous. It can harm people and damage their blood vessels." Those of shallow learning do not grasp the principle behind this, and so they take the ordinary lead and mercury of the world and refine them. But ordinary lead and mercury can do no more than transform the five metals, so how could they possibly prolong a person's life? The mysteries of lead and mercury are unfathomably deep, and how could people of the world hope to understand them through a mere taste?

There are three kinds of mercury, yet people today recognize only one, common quicksilver. The Cantong (the Zhouyi Cantong Qi), the Wuxianglei, the Jinbi Qiantong, and the five immortal scriptures (Jing) of Master Zhang all discuss one kind of mercury. People of the world know only how to use this one, and they do not even know what the other two kinds are. Because they will not investigate deeply and rely only on hearsay, they squander their youth in vain, gain nothing in the end, and are instead harmed by lead and mercury. This is why those who take medicines in pursuit of long life are so often delayed, or even injured, by the very drugs they take.

The Yijing (Book of Changes) says: "One Yin and one Yang is called the Dao." It also says that lead and mercury both belong to Yin and are the root of the Reverted Elixir; that the five metals take Yin as their master; that the myriad things carry Yin on their backs and embrace Yang in their arms; and that Yin is the sovereign, and the sovereign is the one who rules. The Yinfu Jing likewise says that although there are many methods of the Golden Elixir, the key lies in the "Divine Water and Flowery Pond." These words are already quite clear. Yet people of the world take lead and mercury directly as the Divine Water and Flowery Pond, which shows that they have not truly understood the deeper meaning.

For this reason the Cantong Qi says that guessing wildly from the wording and the surface meaning will never lead to an understanding of the profound principle. The ancients wrote their intentions on bamboo and silk because they feared revealing the secrets of Heaven. The Baopuzi says that if this medicine were known to ordinary people, the immortals of Heaven would appear in crowds. Laojun said: "Those who know do not lightly speak; those who speak lightly do not truly know." The Perfected Zuo said that true understanding comes from within the heart, and that those who receive the genuine transmission have often accumulated merit in former lives and enjoyed blessings across many lifetimes, so that even their descendants may attain it without study. People today are shallow in their aspirations, so how could they find the great Dao? They merely waste their spirit (Shen) and in the end will gain little. From this we can see how difficult it is to perfect the Dao of Yin-Yang.

The ancients urged people to seek the Dao and to look for methods of cultivation. To inquire into the scriptures and the arts of cultivation, one must understand the words of the ancients thoroughly and then reflect on them with a focused mind; only then may one grasp the great Dao. Laojun said: "A tree that takes both arms to encircle grows from a tiny sprout; a tower of nine stories rises from a basket of earth; a journey of a thousand li begins beneath one's feet." Students should be humble in heart, practice diligently, and advance step by step, and only then can they gradually reach the state of spiritual penetration. People nowadays are restless in mind and impatient in temperament, so how can they find the Dao? If they only reach for what is lofty and distant, without meeting someone who has truly attained the Dao to pass on the method, how could frivolous people ever receive the true transmission?

It is said that Master Zhang Guo once told the following story. Long ago, two men became sworn brothers, though their names were never recorded. They made their living as butchers, and having fallen into debt to the government, they had no choice but to go into the mountains on foot, intending to end their lives there.

One of them was firm of purpose, and before long he met an immortal. The immortal took the form of an ordinary man, carrying grass on his back to sell, and asked the butcher: "These mountains are deep and secluded, with scarcely a trace of human presence. How did you come to be here?"

The butcher replied: "I owe a debt to the government, I have been separated from my father, my sons, and my kin, and I am too ashamed to face my fellow villagers. I have come into the mountains only to seek my own death. I have heard that many immortals dwell here, so I wished to seek the Dao (the Way), and I am resolved never to return to the human world."

The immortal said: "You have entered the mountains to seek the Dao because of a government debt. Those who seek the Dao must have a firm resolve. I am an immortal. Can you hold fast to your purpose? The rock you are sitting on is about ten feet thick. If you can drill through it with a wooden drill, I will transmit the Dao to you."

The butcher said: "This is a test of my resolve." So he made a drill from wood found in the mountains and drilled the rock day and night. Over twenty years passed, and the drill was nearly worn away. The rock had been pierced to a depth of seven feet, with three feet still unbroken.

The man never wavered in his resolve. When the mountain wood ran out, he reported this to the immortal. The immortal then caused the rock to open all the way through, and afterward transmitted to him the "Great Medicine of the Golden Elixir" (Jindan; in Daoist cultivation, the elixir regarded as capable of granting long life). Through this, he ascended to heaven in broad daylight. There were many others like him: Zuo Ci bowed in worship in a cave dwelling for three years, tireless day and night, and Lord Yin received instruction for more than twenty years.

No one has ever heard of someone attaining the Dao merely by sitting upright. People today covet fame and profit, hold righteousness lightly, and prize wealth and worldly desires. Even if they think of the Dao all day long, how could they truly find it? By the time their sinews and bones have decayed and their original Qi (vital energy) has weakened, it is very hard to restore youth; when the span of life is nearly spent, there is no way to rescue it. How could they know that the numinous elixir has the power to prolong life, and that there is also a principle of drawing in the Qi of the embryonic origin to continue one's life?

Now I have gathered the writings left by earlier sages in order to clarify them and pass them on to beginners, and I have also composed them into verses, to show to those of like aspiration, in the hope that they will no longer be in doubt.

It is hard to transmit the teachings of the Dao (the Way) to someone whose words follow one course while their heart follows another.

In ancient times, Wang Yang (a figure of antiquity) had roughly mastered the methods of alchemy, but his family was poor, so he presented these methods to Emperor Wu of the Han. He claimed that cinnabar, once refined by fire, could be made into gold. This shows that the work of refining still required the power of a sovereign to be completed.

The Daoist known as Master Baiyun (Baiyun xiansheng, a cultivator who took this style name), Right Military Affairs Officer, had admired this Way for more than twenty years. If worthy people of antiquity still labored for over twenty years in their practice, how much more so people of today, who so often value wealth and despise righteousness, say one thing while meaning another, refuse to do good in secret, and habitually scheme, boast of their appearance, envy the worthy, and are bound all day by worldly passions? How could such people hope to be taught by a truly accomplished master?

Those who study the Dao should keep their hearts empty and still, regard wealth lightly and righteousness highly, take compassion as their root, and practice good deeds widely without seeking reward. They should pity orphans, aid widows, and settle themselves in simplicity and calm. If one can be as though existing yet not existing, attached to no outward thing, only then may one hope to receive the teachings of the Dao.

People of the world merely refine lead and mercury over fire and call this "securing and sustaining life" (gu ji sheng ren, meaning sealing the elixir vessel in order to prolong life). Master Zhang Guo (an immortal of Daoist legend) said that long ago two men became sworn brothers. Each took a catty of mercury into the mountains near Yangcheng and refined it. After three years, the mercury had become a red, glass-like substance, lovely in its brilliance, and they called it the "Great Elixir" (dadan). Each swallowed two ounces. Afterward they needed others to support them when they walked, and within a hundred days they were dead. How could such a thing benefit the body or lengthen life?

Today, many also cast the "Golden Lord" (jin gong, an alchemical term for lead) into mercury, collect the "golden flower" (jin hua, an alchemical term for the crystals or products formed in refining), and extract its essence and qi (vital energy). After a year of refining, when the lead flower takes on the color of polished purple gold, they believe the work is complete. How could such a thing benefit the body or lengthen life?

Nowadays some people place the so-called "Golden Lord" (jin gong, the lead of alchemy) into mercury, collect the "golden flower" from it, and extract its essential qi (Qi). After refining it for a year or half a year, when they see the lead blossom turn a purplish gold, they call it the "Great Elixir." Within a few months of taking it, a person's complexion withers and yellows, and they fall prey to consumptive exhaustion, after which the face turns bluish-green. Master Zhang Guo said: "Lead is intensely poisonous. It easily harms people and also injures the blood vessels."

Those of shallow learning do not understand the principle behind this, and so they refine the ordinary lead and mercury of the mundane world. Yet the lead and mercury of the world serve only to transmute the five metals. How could they possibly prolong life? The Dao (the Way) of lead and mercury is profound and subtle, hard to fathom. How could people of the world grasp it after only a casual taste?

There are three kinds of mercury, yet people today recognize only one, quicksilver. The Cantong qi (Zhouyi cantong qi), the Wuxianglei, the Jinbi qiantong, and the five immortal scriptures (Jing) of Master Zhang all mention this mercury. At this point the original text reads "gong gong qing," a phrase that seems corrupted or missing characters, and its meaning cannot be established with certainty. People know only how to use this one kind of mercury; as for the other two, they cannot even tell them apart from quicksilver. Nor are they willing to investigate the learning in depth. They rely on hearsay, squander their youth in vain, and in the end gain nothing, only to be harmed by lead and mercury. Thus those who take drugs in pursuit of long life are often ruined by the very drugs they take.

As the Yi Jing (Book of Changes) says: "One Yin and one Yang: this is called the Dao." It also says: "Lead and mercury, the two Yin, are the heart of the returned elixir." Among the five metals, Yin is the ruling principle; and it is also said, "The myriad things bear Yin on their backs and embrace Yang in their arms." Yin is the sovereign, and the sovereign is the master. The Yinfu Jing (Scripture of the Hidden Talisman) says: "There are a hundred methods of the Golden Elixir (Jindan), but the crux lies in the Divine Water and the Flowery Pool." Is this not clear enough? Yet people of the world take lead and mercury themselves to be the Divine Water and the Flowery Pool, which shows that they do not grasp the profound subtlety within.

Hence the Cantong qi says: "To rely on the written word and go by outward appearances, guessing at will, is to interpret falsely." The mysterious principle is not to be set down on bamboo and silk. The Cantong qi also says that to write on bamboo and silk the true meaning grasped within the heart would risk divulging heavenly secrets. The Baopuzi says: "If ordinary people came to know this medicine, the immortals of heaven would appear in crowds." Laozi (Lord Lao) said: "Those who know do not speak; those who speak do not know." Perfected Zuo said that true understanding comes from within the heart, and that those who can attain it are all people who accumulated merit and virtue (De) in former lives and received blessings, blessings that pass on to their descendants and allow them to understand without study. People today are shallow in aspiration; how can they hope to find this principle? Even if they exhaust their minds in vain, in the end they will gain nothing. From this we know how difficult it is to perfect the Dao of Yin-Yang.

The ancients, in urging people to seek the Dao, taught them to search out masters of the arts. If someone came to ask about the scriptures and the techniques, the master would first make sure the person thoroughly understood the words of the ancients. With further careful thought, it becomes possible to comprehend the great Dao. Laozi said: "A tree that fills the arms' embrace grows from a tiny sprout; a nine-story tower rises from a basket of earth; a journey of a thousand li begins beneath one's feet." Students should be humble of heart, diligent, and steady in accumulating effort, so that they may advance gradually and in the end reach the state of spiritual penetration. People today are restless and impatient; how could they find the Dao? They only reach after lofty things in vain. And unless they meet a truly eminent master to transmit the Dao, why would such a master hand down the method to the frivolous?

The Biography of Master Zhang Guo says: In the past there were two men whose practice began, at the very first, with effort made one step at a time. Those who study the Dao (the Way) should first make the mind empty and still, and accumulate merit through diligent, painstaking work, so that they may advance gradually and in the end reach the realm of spiritual communion. People today are restless in mind and agitated in qi (vital energy), so how could they hope to attain the great Dao? They merely admire it idly, and have not met a true master, a perfected person (zhiren), to transmit the methods to them. Why would such a master pass on the teaching to the frivolous?

The Biography of Master Zhang Guo also says: In the past two men became sworn brothers, though their names were not recorded. They made their living as butchers, and since they owed a debt to the government, they went into the mountains on foot, intending to end their days there. Though their circumstances were wretched, they held the aspiration to seek the Dao. One of them suddenly encountered an immortal. The immortal, disguised as an ordinary man, was carrying grass on his back to sell, and asked the butcher: "This mountain is remote and deep, with no trace of people. How did you come to be here?"

The butcher answered: "I owe a debt to the government, I am separated from my father and sons, and I am ashamed to face my neighbors. I have come into the mountains to die here. I have heard that there are many immortals in these mountains. If I could meet even one, I would ask him for the Dao and never return to the human world." The immortal said: "You have come to the mountains to seek the Dao because of your debt. To study the Dao, one must have a firm resolve. I am an immortal. Can you hold fast to your resolve? The rock before you is about ten feet thick. If you can drill through it with a wooden drill, I will transmit the Dao to you."

The butcher said: "This is a test of my resolve." So he made a drill from mountain wood and drilled the rock without rest. After more than twenty years he had bored in only seven feet, with three feet still unpierced. His resolve never wavered, until all the wood in the mountains had been used up, and he reported this to the immortal. The immortal then caused the rock to open through, and transmitted to him the great medicine of the Golden Elixir (the Daoist method of internal refinement), and the butcher ascended to heaven in broad daylight.

There are many such cases. Zuo Ci sought out a teacher and studied for three years, day and night without rest; Lord Yin received instruction for more than twenty years. I have never heard of anyone attaining the Dao by sitting upright and doing nothing. People today covet fame and profit, belittle righteousness, and prize wealth and worldly desire. Even if they think about the Dao all day long, how could they attain it? By the time the body has declined and original qi has been spent, it is very hard to restore youth, and when one's years are nearly over, there is no way to rescue them. How would they know that the spiritual elixir has the power to extend life, and can draw in the qi of the embryonic origin (the original qi of life's beginning)? This is the very principle by which life is prolonged.

Now I have gathered the writings left by earlier worthies to clarify the principles and help beginners, and have added verses in song form for like-minded readers, so that they will not be led astray.

(Translator's note: In the Chinese original, the passage "more than twenty years... three feet unpierced" is repeated, and fragmentary text follows "then transmitted the great medicine of the Golden Elixir"; the translation above follows the coherent sense of the passage.)

The harmonized qi originates in the Supreme Beginning (Taichu); the qi of the Supreme Beginning ultimately returns to unity. Here "harmonious qi" (Qi) refers to the primal energy that existed between Heaven and Earth at the very start. Because this primal qi is able to generate the myriad things, both Heaven and Earth receive it.

Mother and child originally generate one another, yet in the course of generation and transformation they also separate from each other. Here the "mother" refers to the water base, which is the root of mercury. Gold can be generated only by relying on this maternal body; and gold then quickly transforms and returns to the mother. Because the forms of the two keep changing, the ancients called them "child and mother."

The essence of dark Yin (Yin-Yang) is refined by the Yin method, and after a cycle of one month it joins with the sun. "Marrying" means going toward and uniting with. At the start, the heat of the fire is regulated so that the hexagrams begin with Zhun; with each xun (ten days), the process advances by one line, until it reaches Jiji. When the sixty-four hexagrams have completed their course, the cycle begins anew.

After the sun and moon have intermingled, the returned elixir (huandan) appears red. Here the returned elixir is refined according to the changes of the Yin and Yang lines and hexagrams; the sun and moon symbolize Qian and Kun respectively, and as the primal qi condenses into the elixir, it becomes clear and distinct.

From the north, the "River Chariot" (heche) is taken. The River Chariot refers to the water base, and the "maidservant" mentioned within it is mercury.

The south belongs to the Vermilion Bird, from which one draws a single qi. The south corresponds to the fire of Bing and Ding; the two kinds of qi within it unite and form the returned elixir.

Within the azure water, a marvelous flower grows, and the white flower holds a jade-like substance. The "azure water" refers to the water base; the white flower is the metal of the West, refined through the transformations of Yin and Yang, and its blossom is shaped like jade.

The dragon and the rainbow enter into union, and the minute quantities of medicinal ingredients and the vessels used in refining the elixir must be guarded carefully and kept secret. The "dragon" and the "rainbow" refer to metal and fire. When they have just entered the furnace, their subjugation is not yet stable and they are easily lost, so the work must be done with great care; neither the elixir nor the vessels may leak.

By using the Dao (the Way) of Qian and Kun alone, one is able to nourish the myriad things.

Only "Golden Flower" (jinhua) and "mercury" (shuiyin) can be refined into the Returned Elixir (huandan, the elixir described in Daoist alchemy). They are born within the myriad things, can govern life and death, and endure as long as heaven and earth; they are not materials like the eight minerals, gold, or silver. Today some foolish people mix mercury with various metals and burn them together, and cases of harm to life are common. Other similar practices are largely the same.

The Maiden (chanü, here meaning mercury) and the Dark Yin Essence (xuan yin jing, yin-natured essence-qi) ultimately merge into one.

Maiden-mercury and the dark yin water base, two kinds of qi, unite and become one body, forming the Returned Elixir. This is why it is said so.

"There is no mercury on the river": this does not refer to the mercury found in the cinnabar of the human world.

Rather, it means that the refining must accord with the yin regulation, that is, the timing of the fire (huohou) must match the rhythms of Yin-Yang.

"The vast Red Dragon coils": red refers to fire, and dragon refers to the medicinal substances. When the two kinds of qi unite, they undergo endless transformations, so wondrous and unfathomable that they are like a dragon. This is why it is said so.

The timing of the fire requires observing the form of the medicinal substances as it changes with the waxing and waning of the moon (the cycle from crescent to full and from full to dark), and discerning their appearance.

After transformation it becomes "Hoof-Wrapped Gold" (guotijin), which is a name for the Returned Elixir.

"The Yellow Sprout has no root and no guard": "yellow" refers to the color of gold, and "sprout" refers to the budding essence. It is produced from the qi of heaven and earth. It is not mercury obtained by smelting stones, nor the flower extracted from lead. Therefore it does not grow from a root or stem, nor is it born of impure matter.

The Record of Fire (Huo ji) in three hundred chapters: one who understands its principles will never fail.

One who understands mercury, recognizes the Golden Flower, and grasps the principles of the fire timing and the Returned Elixir will never fail.

Like a mule conceiving and giving birth to a foal, it nurtures its own form within itself.

The so-called "mule foal" refers to a mother who bears a child after conception. The Golden Flower unites with it, so the Returned Elixir is refined from the Golden Flower, and the mercury transforms along with it.