《阴阳九转成紫金点化还丹诀》

In the first cycle of refinement, three jin of cinnabar are ground into a fine powder and mixed with eighteen liang of Guazhou alum, then ground together. Salt flowers are spread to form the furnace lining, after which the medicinal ingredients are placed in the elixir cauldron, covered with an earthenware urn, and sealed tightly with Six-One clay. Lady Cai states that wet clay or cloth should be placed at the bottom and sides of the urn, after which the contents are calcined by alternating gentle fire and fierce fire for three days and three nights. Once cooled, the vessel is opened and the product is swept out with a black feather, yielding mercury that has already been transmuted. If the ingredients have not been completely refined into mercury, the same calcination procedure is repeated until the process is finished.

The scripture states: “The Charming Girl of the River is numinous, wondrous, and mysterious. Encountering fire she flies away and remains unsullied by dust; ghosts and spirits vanish, flood-dragons hide themselves, and no one knows where she has gone. To subdue her, one must take the Yellow Sprout as the root.” Here the “Charming Girl of the River” refers to mercury; “Yellow Sprout” is an alchemical term denoting the metallic essence or budding formation that appears during the refining process. The scripture explains that obtaining the qi of Metal marks the beginning of the gradual generation of the Yellow Sprout.

In the second cycle, the mercury obtained from the previous cycle is taken. According to the scripture, two calcinations yield one jin of mercury; four liang of sulfur are then added and the mixture is ground together, with quantities increased or decreased in the same proportion. The ingredients are placed in the elixir cauldron, sealed with Six-One clay, and calcined with gentle and fierce fires for three days and three nights. When the bottom of the cauldron becomes red, matching the color of the fire, calcination is stopped. After cooling, the product is removed; it has once again transformed into cinnabar.

The cinnabar is then sealed and calcined according to the previous method until it turns red, after which flying refinement is continued to produce the elixir. Thus the Scripture of Cinnabar says: “Cinnabar is the essence of Wood; obtaining Metal, they unite; the qi of Metal is thereby gradually formed.”

Note: The original text of the second cycle contains a passage of repeated wording in its latter half; the vernacular interpretation has already merged and processed this material.

The Third Turn consists of grinding the cinnabar previously refined into a fine powder, following the same method as the First Turn. Gua-fan is then taken and one jin of it mixed with the cinnabar to be refined together. The mixture is placed in a jar, sealed according to the earlier method, and fly-refined for three days and three nights under alternating gentle and fierce fires. After cooling it is removed and the refined substance swept up with a black feather; it will again transform into mercury. If it has not been completely refined the process is continued. The scripture states: “The flowing pearls of the sun always wish to leave people. Suddenly obtaining the golden flower, they turn one after another.” This means waiting for the white liquid to condense until hard; only after obtaining the Qi (vital energy) of the golden flower once more will its nature gradually become firm.

The Fourth Turn begins by preparing a gold-and-silver cauldron of about two or three dou capacity. Forty liang of high-quality gua-fan stone are placed in the vessel together with mercury and boiled for thirty days until approximately five sheng remain. Five sheng of salt juice are then boiled together with the alum water in the vessel. One liang each of dapengsha, cengqing and kongqing are added and boiling continues until the liquid produces bubbles the size of fish eyes; it is cooked for about one double-hour before the fire is extinguished.

A separate iron ding of about three sheng capacity is taken, alum water placed in it, and mercury added in successive portions over seven days and seven nights. The mercury is then wrung out with silk cloth and the thicker portion collected; remaining mercury continues to be boiled according to the previous method until all has congealed.

The scripture says: “To plant grain one must use millet seed; to brood chicks one must use eggs. Only by the mutual turning of like kinds can the process occur of itself; there must be metal Qi so that they may respond to one another.” This indicates that in refining like substances must interact with one another and metal Qi is employed to effect the transformation.

The Fifth Turn: A Yin-Yang (yinyang) furnace is fashioned from clay, with water placed in the upper part of the furnace and fire applied below. Take the mercury refined in the previous step and place it in an iron bottle made of magnetite; the vessel should hold at least one dou. If no such container is available, a vessel of yellow clay, porcelain, or a crucible may be used instead. Add two liang of realgar, one liang of niter, two fen of hutonglü, two liang of dapengsha, and two fen each of zengqing and raw puxiao. Grind these materials into a fine powder, work them into the thick mercury, and then load the mixture into the vessel; use up all the remaining medicinal powder, then seal the vessel firmly and heat it.

Here three jin of mercury are used, and three liang of alum may be added; then begin applying fire, regulating the heat according to the seasonal timings described earlier. Once the crucible has been fired red, one need not be bound by morning or evening: simply wait until the mercury has become completely hard, then stop. The scripture says: “If the myriad things lack the pairing of Yin and Yang, they violate the Dao (the Way) of Heaven and turn away from their origin. When a hen incubates eggs alone, the chicks that hatch will not be whole. Why is this? Because Yin and Yang have not yet united, and three and five have not intermingled; when Yin and Yang are apart, they cannot bring each other to completion.” Here the conjunction of Yin and Yang is used to show that the various materials and conditions in the refining work must be properly matched.

The Sixth Turn: Take the slightly hardened mercury obtained in the Fifth Turn and place it in an iron pot. Grind two liang of realgar, five liang of paosha, and one liang of dapengsha into a fine powder and put them into the medicinal vessel. Then add, in successive portions, the alum-stone water obtained from the Fourth Turn, and decoct until bubbles like fish eyes appear on the surface of the liquid. Continue decocting for three periods of seven days and nights. If the mercury has taken on a slight yellow tinge and can be laid on an anvil and hammered, one may stop. If it has not yet reached this degree, continue decocting as needed until it yellows and can be hammered.

The scripture says: “Hammer, blend, and bring them together; send them into the crimson gate; seal the place of joining, taking care to set it on its side and make it firm; then add the medicinals, blend, and fire them, so that they attain a suitable degree of hardness.” The “crimson gate” here is a technical term of the refining process; what it specifically designates depends on the context of the original text.

The Seventh Turn: Take the slightly yellow and hardened mercury obtained in the Sixth Turn, place it in a crucible, and melt it so that it forms a single cake. Combine it with the substances prepared to match it, send it into the “crimson gate,” seal the place of joining, taking care to set it on its side and make it firm; afterward add the medicinals, blend, and fire them, so that they attain a suitable degree of hardness.

In the seventh turn, take the mercury produced in the sixth turn, which is slightly yellow in color and hard in texture, melt it in a crucible, and form it into a cake. Take ten liang of processed cinnabar, add one sheng of guan and three dou of water, and soak for a day and a night; then place it together with the mercury in a vessel and decoct it for fourteen days. After removal, set it on an anvil and hammer it. If the substance is brittle, first heat the cake until red-hot and rub it repeatedly with a ram’s horn; if it remains brittle, heat and rub it again in the same way, then hammer it while turning it until it can withstand the blows. Afterward hammer the whole into gold leaves as thin as paper.

Next take ten liang of processed cinnabar, one sheng of guan, five sheng of red earth, and one liang of hutonglü, mix, pound, and sieve them. Layer this material between the gold leaves already prepared and, following the gold-wrapping method, refine it over a cow-dung fire for more than ten days until the red color has completely faded. The result is “subdued gold” (metal stabilized by fire refining).

The scripture states: “Gold originally possesses the Yang nature.” When first refined it is called the Returned Elixir. The saying “the coiled gold, when remelted, resembles its original vermilion color” means that after the gold has been refined and is melted again it appears in its original cinnabar-red form; only then may it be called Yang and be regarded as the Golden Elixir (jindan).

In the eighth turn the product obtained by the preceding method is already subdued gold. The scripture likewise states that gold possesses the Yang nature; when first obtained it is called the Returned Elixir; only when the gold is remelted and displays its original vermilion red can it be called Yang, and only then is it the Golden Elixir.

In the eighth transmutation, take the gold leaves from the seventh transmutation that have already undergone fire-subduing treatment and heat them until they glow red-hot. For every liang of gold leaf add one liang of mercury, and grind the mixture while it is still hot until it forms a thick gold-mud paste. Cut the paste into pieces about the size of a fingernail and lay them one by one in the elixir furnace. Next take guan (this is the character used in the original text; the medicinal substance it denotes cannot be identified from this passage alone), niter, and hutonglü (the name of a mineral medicine), one large liang of each; mix and grind them fine, then spread them in layers between the pieces of gold-mud until the whole quantity has been used up. Seal the mouth of the furnace and make the closure secure, then heat with alternating gentle fire and fierce fire for three fu periods. After the furnace has cooled, open it. If the mercury has already flown off, remove the gold material, grind it fine together with the guan, and treat it by the water-flying method (adding water, stirring, and allowing the materials to settle so that they separate) until the mercury has been entirely eliminated. The product is a vivid purple and resembles fine sand.

The scripture says: “When the golden sand enters the five viscera, it disperses like wind and rain; the medicinal Qi (vital energy) steams through the four limbs, bringing a ruddy complexion and a glossy sheen to the beard and hair, and it can prolong life.” Taken over a long period, its effects are beyond estimation; it can spare one from the calamities of the world, and such a person is called a Perfected Person. The “returned golden sand” mentioned here refers to gold that has been refined from cinnabar.

In the ninth transmutation, take the golden sand produced in the eighth transmutation and line the vessel with salt. For example, to one jin of golden sand add eight liang of realgar; mix them, seal the vessel securely, and refine with gentle fire and fierce fire so that the medicinal substances fly out, continuing until they have been completely burned away. Then wash with clear water to remove the realgar and the guan, allow the liquid to clarify, and take out the golden sand. Lady Cai said that realgar is light and will float on the water, while golden sand is heavy and will sink to the bottom. Form the golden sand with honey into pills the size of millet grains. After the eighth transmutation the golden sand is purple; by the ninth it has become red, and for this reason the scripture calls it “brilliantly becoming the returned elixir.” The scripture also says that this elixir, once taken, can drive out all manner of diseases, and that long-term use can extend one’s years and benefit longevity; it can likewise be used to transmutate mercury, one fen of the elixir transmutating one jin of mercury, and the same applies to lead and tin.

Method for Removing the Toxicity of Gold: The text that follows this heading is repetitive and disordered. From the parts that can still be made out, the phrase “xuan chi ye” is apparently explaining the color, meaning a deep, dark red; the material that follows, including “hence it is said to brilliantly become the returned elixir,” repeats the wording of the ninth transmutation above.

To remove gold poison, take five liang of Xuanming powder (a processed mirabilite-type medicinal) and soak it in three sheng of water. Place the gold sand that has undergone the ninth cycle of refinement into a vessel, then soak and decoct it with gardenia vinegar for three fu periods (three days and nights). Xuanming powder can restrain the toxicity of various compounded and refined medicines; gardenia can gather and contain the bright Qi (vital energy), causing the medicine to become settled and stable.

To remove fire poison, take one sheng of honey mixed with half a sheng of clear water, place the mixture in a vessel and decoct it for three fu periods, then rinse with clear water, allow it to settle, and take the clarified liquid. Separately sew a bag from five or six layers of fine, dense silk cloth, fill it with the gold sand, wrap it in successive layers of silk, and sink it to the bottom of a well. Treated in this way, there is no need for concern.