《金木万灵论》

I have read many books on nourishing life and gathered all manner of methods for seeking longevity. The works I have gone through already number over a thousand scrolls, and without exception they take the Returned Elixir (huandan, the art of refining elixirs) and the Golden Liquid (jinye, an elixir refined into liquid form) as their central principle. From this, it seems that these two methods are the wondrous practices cultivated by immortals of the middle and highest ranks. If taking them could not bring about immortality, then there would never have been immortals in antiquity.

In earlier days, when war convulsed the Central Plains, I fled to distant regions. I traveled through hundreds of prefectures, including Yuzhou, Jingzhou, Guangzhou, Jiangzhou, and Xiangzhou, and met several hundred Daoists among the common people. Some had long been famous, their names seeming to hang among the clouds, yet in reality most of them were much alike. Each kept a few scrolls of immortals' writings hidden away, but they were all people who did not understand the contents and merely hoarded books.

Now and then some would practice Qi (vital energy) circulation, abstain from grains, or take various herbs. The methods they handed down were broadly the same, and in truth had nothing distinctive about them. They claimed that the system of the Daoji (Dao Ji, "Mechanism of the Dao") was the orthodox secret method, and said that it was written by Yin Xi (traditionally the Guardian of the Pass who received Laozi's teaching when he left the frontier). I told them: "This was written by Wang Tu, a military commissioner of the Wei dynasty, and not by anyone of antiquity. Wang Tu did not understand the subtleties of refining the great elixir. He wished only to seek immortality through Qi circulation and cultivation within a closed chamber, so he wrote this Daoji and supposed that the cultivation of the Great Dao went no further than this. To say that Yin Xi wrote it is truly absurd."

I questioned those Daoists about the Divine Elixir and the Golden Liquid, about the secret keys of the Three Sages, and about the methods of the spirits of Heaven and Earth, and they knew none of it. As for those who boasted of themselves, deceiving others by claiming long life or friendship with immortals, they made up the greater part, while those who truly grasped the subtle essentials were few. Some, on merely hearing of the Golden Elixir, refused to refine it and said instead that only immortals had understood such things since high antiquity. Others said that there was no such thing at all, and still others said that they had never obtained the true scriptures. There were also those who had acquired a few miscellaneous elixirs and fragmentary recipes that extolled the arts of the Dao and treated illness, and who claimed that the whole substance of the elixir method lay within those formulas.

In former times, Zuo Yuanfang (a Daoist master) devoted himself to cultivation on Mount Tianzhu, where a divine being transmitted to him the Golden Elixir Immortal Scripture (Jindan xianjing, 《金丹仙经》). It happened to be the final years of the Han dynasty, when the realm fell into great turmoil. He had no time to refine and take the elixirs, so he crossed the river, intending to seek refuge in the various commanderies, and later practiced the Dao (the Way) on Mount Qian.

My granduncle Xianfang also studied under Zuo Yuanfang, and received three scrolls of the Taiqing Elixir Scripture (Taiqing danjing, 《太清丹经》), one scroll of the Nine Tripod Scripture (Jiuding jing, 《九鼎经》), and one scroll of the Golden Liquor Scripture (Jinye jing, 《金液经》). My teacher, Master Zheng, was a disciple of my granduncle, the Immortal Elder. The Immortal Elder passed these scriptures to Master Zheng, and Master Zheng in turn passed them to me, so the Daoist Liaoyuan also knows of these scriptures.

I have held this transmission for twenty years, but my family's means are meager, and I have only a meager store of grain, so it is hard to refine the elixirs, and I can only go on accumulating resources over a long time. Even if there were someone with chests full of gold and mountains of coins, he would still not know that there exists a medicine that keeps people from dying. And even if he heard of it, he would not necessarily be willing to believe it.

When one has swallowed jade shavings, one no longer craves coarse and meager food; when one has seen Mount Kunlun (the divine mountain of immortal legend), one no longer finds hills and earthen mounds lofty or precious. Now that I have grasped the Dao (the Way) of the Golden Elixir, I no longer care to read the shallow, minor books of technique. Yet the way of the Golden Elixir cannot be learned or accomplished all at once. The practitioner should take a vow to carry it out and accumulate De (Virtue) over time. If one seeks only small benefits, one will in the end still fail to attain long life.

Hence the Laojun jue (Instructions of Laozi) says: "Without the Returned Elixir and the Liquid Gold, one only toils in vain at self-discipline." The five grains can sustain a person: eat them and one lives, cut them off and one dies. Then would a superior immortal medicine refined in a clay jar fail to benefit people? Surely its benefit exceeds that of the five grains ten thousand times over?

The efficacy of the divine elixir lies in the subtler and more wondrous effects that arise once it is taken. The two substances mentioned here can refine and nourish the human constitution, which is why they are believed to make a person deathless. Could this be merely the essence of ordinary food? Its function is to make the body firm, just as fat keeps a flame from going out.

Furthermore, if one smears verdigris (the green rust on the surface of copper) on the feet and enters water, the skin does not easily rot; this relies on the power of copper to protect the flesh. Once gold enters the body, it is said to fill the body and steady the Ying and Wei (the Qi and blood that guard the body); one must still apply verdigris externally as well.

It is truly lamentable that people of the world do not believe in the supreme Dao. Even when one occasionally meets someone with a sincere wish to seek the Dao, that person may not meet anyone who knows how to transmit this method. Without having followed a teacher and trained under them beforehand, it is already hard to hear of the wondrous methods of the Dao that exist in the world.

I have outlined the methods of alchemy only briefly, hoping that later people of like mind may use them as a basis for their own inquiry. One should not approach them with a shallow or careless attitude, expecting merely to transcend the mortal world. An ordinary cup of wine does not prevent wine brewed many times over from being richer and more mellow; likewise, although the lesser elixir has its own efficacy, it should not therefore be thought superior to herbal and botanical medicines. Common herbs and plants turn to ash once burned, whereas cinnabar, when refined, becomes mercury, and can then be further transformed into the Returned Elixir (huandan). This method differs greatly from that of ordinary medicines, which is why it is believed capable of granting long life.

The principles embodied in the divine elixir are unique, so how could one expect worldly people to accept them with sincerity? Ordinary people have little knowledge but many doubts. They do not know that mercury comes from cinnabar; even when told, they still do not believe it or grasp it. Sometimes, when immortals and the Dao (the Way) are offered as analogies, they laugh all the more. Is this not ignorance? The true persons who attained the Dao in high antiquity took pity on those of later generations who could be taught, and so explained these principles again and again in subtle terms, and the teaching on seeking long life without death was clarified as a result. Even so, worldly people in the end still fail to understand or believe. Heaven and Earth undergo nine transformations in their creative process, and the sun and moon take form through them; all of these principles follow rules, much like the arts of the adepts. True persons are able to comprehend them, and they cannot be explored with the shallow thinking of ordinary people.

In my youth I was fond of these arts. I sought instruction with great effort, undeterred by the distance of the road. Whenever I heard of an unusual teaching, I gladly went to ask about it; even when I was refused, I did not dare to resent it. Who can say that people of the future will not seek and inquire just as people do today? For this reason I have written these things down to show to those of insight. Could it be that I do so to boast of myself? Even the fullest yang energy cannot make a withered tree blossom, and even the wisest person cannot change the minds of the foolish and shallow. These arts should be passed to the worthy, and these teachings are valued only by those who recognize their worth. An ordinary person who obtains an exquisitely decorated bow uses it only to drive away crows; a foreign people who obtain mourning garments use them as scale weights. Of those who do not understand the uses of such things, what more is there to say? The essence of gold and the liquid of stones will, in the end, be refined into the Returned Elixir.

I once heard Master Zheng say that the root of human life lies in yin essence and yang essence (Yin-Yang). Yang essence condenses into the hun soul, and yin essence condenses into the po soul. When these two kinds of essential qi (Qi) interact, spirit-illumination arises. Shen (spirit) depends on the physical body to function, and the body in turn is born from Shen. Once Shen departs, the body inevitably dies with it.

Shen is preserved through the Dao (the Way), while the body is sustained through technique. The Dao lies deeply hidden and has no fixed name, whereas technique is revealed in concrete practices. Concrete techniques can be carried out on their own; the Dao, being without form or name, will likewise accomplish itself naturally. When the Dao is realized, Shen can be preserved; when the body is guarded by technique, the form can be sustained.

These techniques include bending and stretching, stretching upward and bowing downward, embryonic breathing (taixi, regulating the breath to nourish qi), swallowing saliva (yanjin, swallowing the fluids of the mouth), as well as "mastering the young maiden to return the essence" (a sexual-cultivation practice through which Jing, or essence, is replenished) and "taking the cinnabar child to preserve the body" (ingesting elixirs such as cinnabar to nurture the body).

The techniques for sustaining the body also stress gathering and refining the essence of metals and blending the juices of minerals so that they join together, like husband and wife coming together, and correspond respectively to the hun and the po. The two merge into one, and the qi of Yin-Yang surges and stirs between them. The union of Yin-Yang is called the "Dao," while the union of metal and mineral is called the "elixir" (dan). Mineral belongs to yang and, receiving yang qi, gives off heat; metal belongs to yin and is cold by nature. When one takes the elixir, one draws on its yang, firm quality to subdue the yin quality, and its effect is to make the hun stronger and the po at peace. Just as water flows toward low, damp places and fire moves toward dryness, all things respond and unite according to their own nature. This is what is meant by the "spirit of metal and wood", and how could ordinary words ever exhaust it?