《抱一子三峰老人丹诀》

From the time Pangu opened heaven and split the earth down to the present day, the cycle of birth and death in the human world has never ceased. What is lamentable is that a human body is hard to obtain, while time passes as swiftly as lightning. If one will not awaken in youth, then in old age one can only resign oneself to waiting for death. Should a single thought go astray at the final moment, one falls into the six paths of reincarnation, and the true nature enters another bodily shell; even after myriad kalpas, escape is hard to find. By then, regret comes too late.

It is a pity that, from ancient times to the present, many who have admired the methods of the Dao (the Way) never met an enlightened master who personally transmitted the oral instructions. Relying on their own shallow views, they cultivated at random and sank into foolish error. Some ate pine nuts and cypress seeds; some drank water and swallowed talismans; some swallowed their saliva; some exhaled turbid Qi (vital energy) and inhaled clear Qi; some absorbed the essential radiance of the sun and moon; some practiced massage and guiding exercises; some fasted and abstained from food; and some cultivated blindly, forcing themselves to concentrate Shen (spirit). Even if all these methods are practiced through and through, they remain only minor arts of side paths, and have nothing to do with the cultivation of nature and life.

Little do they know that “nature and life” is itself divided into the true and the false. True nature and life means cultivating the yang spirit until the yang spirit departs from the bodily form; the way of the yang spirit is the superior method for becoming a celestial immortal. False nature and life means cultivating the yin spirit until the yin spirit departs from the bodily form; the way of the yin spirit is only the lesser attainment of the ghost immortal. What is ridiculous is that some who have produced a yin spirit, together with those of shallow learning and inadequate insight, do not understand “extracting lead and adding mercury” (using lead and mercury as metaphors for the principles of Yin-Yang conjunction and transformation in elixir refinement) or the method of refining the great medicine of the Golden Elixir, still less “subduing the dragon and taming the tiger” (using the dragon and the tiger as metaphors for the practice of regulating the Yin and Yang within the body and bringing them into union).

Yet they presumptuously visualize the lower Dantian (energy center) within the body, settle the mind and fix the intention, and hold fast to Shen and Qi, then claim that their work is already complete and that the Golden Elixir has formed within. They further suppose that the great medicine can be obtained by imagination alone. Such doings are like children at play. They do not recognize true lead and true mercury, yet take spirit and breath directly as the root of nature and life—just as if one saw another’s wealth and treated it as one’s own, or called another family’s child one’s own son. How can riches gained in a dream relieve real hardship? How can a cake drawn on the ground fill the stomach? This is only making emptiness within emptiness, like flowers in a mirror or the moon in water, and in the end nothing can be brought to completion.

If one does not understand the method of cultivating the great medicine of the Golden Elixir, and clings only to inward contemplation and visualization, persons of penetrating understanding and those of extraordinary insight will all find fault with it. A poem by the Perfected Changsheng says: “If the embryo immortal (the inner form of spiritual nature spoken of in cultivation) could be achieved by imagination, then a woman could conceive even without a husband.” Zhang Pingshu says: “Even if one adds breath regulation and visualization as well, it is still not the same as the work of the Golden Elixir.” The Perfected Zhongli also says: “Without obtaining true lead and mercury, even after myriad kalpas one remains sunk in birth and death.” What they say is precisely this principle.

Those just beginning to study the Dao (the Way) have minds in turmoil, racing about like monkeys and wild horses and hard to settle. So as not to be drawn along by external scenes and thereby dissipate one’s resolve, one must keep the ears from chasing after sounds and the eyes from chasing after sights, so that the mind does not run wild and thoughts do not scatter. One should turn awareness inward and rest one’s thoughts in the lower Dantian (energy center; in Daoist Neidan [internal alchemy] practice, the abdominal site where attention is held), making the mind calm and intention concentrated, and steadily nurturing Shen (spirit) and Qi (vital energy; “炁” is a term of Daoist Neidan, referring to the vital breath of life spoken of in cultivation). Practice must not be interrupted, nor should one cling to surface methods; still less should one casually transmit minor arts to others.

What is called “lead and mercury” is not Shen and Qi. In the art of alchemy, lead and mercury each have their measures, and there are operations of extracting and adding; how could Shen and Qi be weighed by quantity, or spoken of as things to be extracted and supplemented?

There are also some practitioners who do not even know how to nurture Shen and Qi, nor the elementary methods of initial attainment by which one enters the practice, yet they cling only to talk of “embracing heaven and wrapping the earth” and of vast emptiness without obstruction. They declare that they themselves do nothing, because the great Dao is without form or image and originally neither increases nor decreases—so why cultivate? When hungry they eat; when full they sleep. To practice in this way is, in the end, like abnormal blossoms opening on a withered tree, or like a lost person groping in the night—truly pitiable.

If the great Dao were truly without words and without marks, then when Patriarch Wang (the Daoist Wang Chongyang) met the Perfected Lü (Lü Dongbin) at Ganhe Town, what was it that he cultivated?

When a person cultivating the Dao completes the great medicine of the Golden Elixir—the name, in Neidan (internal alchemy), for the condensation of Jing (essence) and Qi (vital energy) and for the successful completion of the work—it is said that its radiance illuminates the four directions and its brightness reaches throughout the four seas. When it gathers, it can manifest a visible form; when it disperses, it is boundless and inexhaustible, capable of endless transformations. This is the great Dao (the Way).

A man has internal kidneys, meaning the two kidneys that lie close to the spine and opposite the navel. A person’s golden essence of primordial yang—the vital Jing and Qi of life spoken of in the Neidan arts—is generated from the internal kidneys. The internal kidneys are also called the “reclining-moon furnace” or the “jade furnace.” The heart is compared to a “golden cauldron”; taken together, the internal and external kidneys belong to the class of the Kan trigram, the trigram that symbolizes water. One must never undergo castration or remove the external kidneys, or the body’s capacity for generation and transformation will be damaged and the Dao will be hard to attain. The kidneys are the sovereign of the five viscera.

A person has three palaces and three fields: the crown of the head is called the “Mud Pellet” and is the upper Dantian (energy center); the heart is called the “Crimson Palace” and is the middle Dantian; the place about one cun and three fen below the navel is called the “Yellow Court Palace” and is the lower Dantian. The lower Dantian is said to be where the sacred embryo—the Neidan formed in cultivation—is conceived and nourished, and it is also the furnace in which the great medicine of the Golden Elixir is refined.

A person has five viscera, each corresponding to its own Jing and Qi, and the Jing of all five viscera converges in the lower Dantian. Colored according to the directions of the Five Phases (Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, Water), the lower Dantian is blue-green on the left, white on the right, red above, black below, and yellow at the center. The lower Dantian has many other names: the Palace of Fivefold Radiance, the Palace of the Precious Vase, the Palace of Water Essence, the Furnace of the Five Phases, the Dragon Pool, the Phoenix Pool, the Jasper Pool, the Elixir Pool, the Flower Pool, the Pool of the Seven Treasures, the Anou Pool, the Land of Golden Benefit, and the Sea of Qi.

A person’s heart belongs to the bing-ding fire of the south, and the kidneys belong to the ren-gui water of the north. The heart and kidneys spoken of here are only borrowed as metaphors for water and fire. The lead and mercury within the heart and kidneys are what the Neidan arts call the true Kan and Li—terms symbolizing the union of water and fire.

Those who cultivate the Dao (the Way) and study the immortals must first clearly distinguish the respective relationships of host and guest in nature (xing) and life (ming).

As for nature: when a person’s mind and spirit (Shen) run unrestrained like an ape or monkey and stray lost outside, this is the “guest”; after awakening, the mind and spirit return to their original place, neither dull and sunken, nor confused, nor wavering, and this is the “host.” This is the relationship of guest and host in the cultivation of nature.

As for life: the elixir instructions use “lead” and “mercury” as metaphors. Mercury, symbolizing Wood and Fire, floats in the position of the Li trigram (one of the Bagua, the Eight Trigrams), which symbolizes Fire, and is the “guest”; lead, symbolizing Metal and Water, sinks in the position of the Kan trigram, which symbolizes Water, and is the “host.” Zhang Pingshu said, “Knowing for oneself the principle of reversal still only amounts to speaking of Li and Kan; only one who can understand floating and sinking can determine guest and host.” The Most High said, “Take lead as the ruler and mercury as the minister; if the lead is not genuine, the mercury can hardly be made firm.” Lead is the sovereign of creative transformation. This is the relationship of guest and host in the cultivation of life.

Lead and mercury are further distinguished as true and false, and this is also the key by which a person refines the Golden Elixir (Jindan) within the self, discerns floating and sinking, and determines guest and host. In the mystery of refining the Great Medicine, true lead and mercury are born before Heaven and Earth, while false lead and mercury are born after Heaven and Earth. The “true lead and mercury” spoken of here refers to formless creative transformation, whereas “false lead and mercury” refers to creative transformation that has form.

What is called true lead and mercury is the original source that already existed before Heaven, Earth, and the Void had taken form, known as “the imageless true Metal of Geng and Xin in the West.” Metal is lead, and lead is able to give birth to mercury; this lead and mercury are also called “the imageless true Water of Ren and Gui in the North.” Only when lead obtains mercury does form appear, and thereafter Heaven and Earth, sun and moon, mountains and seas, human relations, and all the myriad things gradually come into being.

Metal is the mother of Water, and the mother is hidden within the child’s womb; Water is the son of Metal, and the son is concealed within the mother’s womb. The body of Metal is firm and solid and does not decay or corrode. Metal is the root; therefore “sealing and securing” (guji, the procedure of sealing the elixir furnace or the medicinal substances) is the foundation of refining the Great Elixir. From this one may know that true Metal is the matrix of all things. The Daodejing (Classic of the Way and Virtue) says, “The nameless is the beginning of Heaven and Earth; the named is the mother of the myriad things.”

When annotating the Yinfu Jing (Scripture of the Hidden Talisman), Tianzhen Huangren (the Imperial Person of Celestial Perfection) said: “The One” is the root of Heaven and Earth and the matrix of Yin-Yang. The myriad things are generated according to their kinds, and the many spiritual natures likewise, through it, manifest states of unfolding or drawing inward. It is born amid the high heavens and the thick earth, in grotto-abodes and immortal mountains, and within palaces of mystery and numinous wonder. Of the immortals and the sagely host, not one comes into being except by means of the Qi (vital energy) of lead. If you can refine lead and transform it into Qi—the primordial qi, the energy of life, of which Daoism speaks—the various Shen (spirits) will arise of themselves, and thus one can live long and never die.

What is called the forging and refining of lead and mercury refers to black tin and quicksilver: black tin is lead, and quicksilver is mercury. Black tin is the matrix of the five metals, while quicksilver is the “thief” of the five metals. When black lead transforms and produces huangdan (a lead-based product in traditional alchemy), this is Yin turning into Yang; when huangdan transforms again into black tin, this is Yang turning into Yin. When quicksilver transforms and produces xinhong (a red substance formed in the alchemical process), this is Yin turning into Yang; when xinhong transforms again into quicksilver, this is Yang turning into Yin. Black tin transforms to produce yingfen (lustrous powder), and quicksilver transforms to produce qingfen (light powder).

These two substances, quicksilver and black tin, each contain the natures of the Five Phases (Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, Water)—Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth—and can transform into the five colors of blue-green, red, yellow, white, and black. Although black tin and quicksilver are merely “false lead and mercury” used as materials for elixir-refining, their transformations resemble the creative processes of Heaven and Earth and of the human body.

Heaven and Earth extract lead and add mercury, thereby generating and transforming the myriad things and enabling them to be nourished and raised. On the day of the winter solstice, the Yang Qi within the earth rises and reaches straight to Heaven; this is called Heaven and Earth’s “flying the Metal Jing” (essence), and it is also Heaven and Earth “extracting lead.” On the day of the summer solstice, the Yin Qi within Heaven descends and reaches straight to the ground; this is Heaven and Earth “extracting mercury.”

Heaven and Earth circulate a single Qi, forming the four seasons of spring, summer, autumn, and winter, together with the Five Phases of Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water. Each of the four seasons possesses the Qi of the Five Phases; only Wu and Ji (the heavenly-stem names of Earth) have no fixed form, but move along with the four seasons. Lü Zhenren (the Perfected Lü) said: “The quintessence of the Five Phases is all contained within one and the same womb.”

The Hidden Talisman Scripture (Yinfu jing) says: “Observe the regularities of the Dao (the Way) of Heaven, and act in accordance with the movement of the Dao of Heaven; the principle is then wholly contained therein.”

The two terms “lead” (qian) and “mercury” (gong) have many explanations in the Way of the elixir (Dandao). Their meanings shift greatly, and one must not fix upon a single account. For example, quicksilver can be refined from cinnabar; elixir practitioners also liken mercury to “the rooster in the sun.” The rooster belongs to Yin, and so, within Yin-Yang, Yin corresponds to mercury. Black lead is compared to “the rabbit in the moon”; the rabbit belongs to Yang, and so Yang corresponds to lead.

Immortals are divided into five ranks: the celestial immortal (Tianxian), the earthly immortal (Dixian), the ghost immortal (Guixian), the human immortal (Renxian), and the spirit immortal (Shenxian).

Only the celestial immortal can bring both bodily form and spirit (Shen) to a spiritually marvelous state and become one with the Great Dao. When gathered, a form may take shape; when dispersed, it is boundless. A poem by the Perfected Lü (Lü Dongbin) says: “A single grain of the Golden Elixir (Jindan) can secure long life; the key is to obtain true lead (zhenqian) and with it refine Jia and Geng.” Here “Golden Elixir,” “true lead,” and “Jia-Geng” are all terms of the Way of the elixir, and what they specifically designate varies with the transmission of the elixir instructions.

The Elder of the Three Peaks, whose sobriquet was Baoyizi (Embracing the One) and whose surname was Liu, traveled the four quarters of the world, visiting teachers and seeking instruction. Those who discoursed on the arts of the Dao yet spoke in tangled confusion were as numerous as the hairs on an ox, while those truly of like mind and like Dao were exceedingly few. All who study the Dao must cultivate both “nature” (xing) and “life” (ming) to full completion: “nature” refers to mind-nature and spirit, and “life” refers to vitality and the body.

I have carefully examined the writings of immortals who attained the Dao in ancient and modern times, selected what is direct and concise, and drawn this Diagram of the Celestial Immortal. I now make public the essentials of deathlessness and of cultivation in clarity and stillness. I hope that discerning readers will read with close attention, ponder the matter again and again, and inquire with care; the detailed account is given in the transmission that follows.

To cultivate by borrowing the doctrine of nature and life, and in the end to project the Yin spirit (Yinshen), is the lesser method of attainment of the ghost immortal.

The oral formula says: “It does not lie in many words.” The details of the cultivation appear in what follows.

To cultivate by borrowing the doctrine of nature and life, and in the end to project the Yin spirit, is the lesser method of attainment of the ghost immortal.

Those who cultivate the Dao (the Way) and refine the elixir must first understand the root of nature and life (xingming). The “nature and life” spoken of here refers to a person’s heart and kidneys: the kidneys are the root of life, and the heart is the source of nature. A person’s nature and life are manifested as the Shen (spirit) and Qi (vital energy) within the heart and kidneys. The heart is where Shen resides, and the kidneys are where Qi resides. The source of Shen lies in the heart, and the heart belongs to Yin; the foundation of Qi lies in the kidneys, and the kidneys belong to Yang. Shen and Qi depend on one another and are therefore called “child and mother.” Shen represents nature and Qi represents life, and for this reason they are also called “nature and life.”

The activity of Shen appears throughout the body: the eyes can see, the ears can hear, the tongue can speak, the nose can smell, the hands can grasp, and the feet can walk. By day it appears as thought and deliberation; by night it appears as dreams. When Shen and Qi disperse, this is called “intention”; when they gather, this is called “Qi.” Their gathering and dispersal are without form or trace. Gathered within the body, they govern the whole body; manifested outside the body, they are like the numinous void, boundless and without limit—vast enough to embrace heaven and earth, minute enough to enter a mustard seed (an extremely tiny seed).

In cultivation, one must settle the mind and intention in the heart and quiet Shen in the lower Dantian (energy center), the site of Neidan (internal alchemy) practice in the lower abdomen.

If Jing (essence) and Qi (vital energy) are not dissipated, the spirit will not scatter. The mind and spirit must not be used recklessly, and thoughts must not be stirred without cause: the moment the mind is put to use, thought arises; once thought moves, Shen (spirit) shifts; once Shen shifts, Qi scatters; and once Qi scatters, Shen declines and perishes. The Zhouyi (Book of Changes) says: “The transformations of Yin-Yang that cannot be fathomed—this is what is called Shen.” A poem by Liu the Perfected says: “A still mind is the road that leads to heaven; thoughts in disorder open the gate of hell.”

The two words “nature and life” are like fine jade hidden within coarse stone. One must meet a craftsman of superb skill; only after it has been carved and cut open can it be revealed, and only then may one begin to cultivate. If cultivation is to begin, through all twelve months of the year and all twelve double-hours of the day one must be sincere and single-minded, holding firmly to the practice; after a long time, skill and ease arise of themselves.

In daily life, food and drink should be kept in moderation. Set aside the myriad affairs, dwell in a quiet room, spread the sitting cushion thickly, and loosen the sash. Cross the hands, sit cross-legged and upright, hold the body straight and properly aligned, and do not give rise to any thought. Do not sleep by day or by night, so that spirit and innate nature remain clear and bright for a long time. The eyes do not look upon external things, the ears do not listen to sounds, and the mouth is kept tightly closed; the breath in the nose seems at once present and absent, yet it must not be broken off. Concentrate on preserving Shen, gather in the mind and the thoughts, and guard only within the lower Dantian (energy center) about one cun and three fen below the navel—the lower energy center spoken of in Daoist Neidan (internal alchemy)—so that the mind is settled and thought is focused, and is not allowed to scatter. To hold fast to the primordial yang true Qi (the fundamental yang Qi of which cultivation speaks) is the correct path of nourishing life and extending one’s years, and also the wondrous method of passing from death into life; for this reason the lower Dantian is called the “immortal furnace.” Settle the mind and fix the intention within the lower Dantian, maintaining a state that is dim and silent, continuous and unbroken. Cultivate by the steady accumulation of days and months, and after a long time results will naturally appear.

From ancient times, most who study the Dao (the Way) never meet an enlightened teacher (a teacher able to point out the essential methods of cultivation). Therefore, in cultivation one must settle the mind and make the intention single-minded, restraining the restless mind that is like a monkey and the scattered thoughts that are like a galloping horse.

Since ancient times, most people who study the arts of the Dao (the Way) have never met an enlightened teacher. Forcibly settling the mind and intention, suppressing thoughts as if one were tethering the restless monkey of the mind and the runaway horse of the will, is a great malady of cultivation, and a particularly distressing one. If one meets a teacher who understands the principles and receives the oral instructions, one can, in daily practice, lodge mind and intention in the lower Dantian (energy center)—the site of Neidan (internal alchemy) cultivation below the navel—gathering the thoughts and not letting them wander about. This is like people who raise pigs, sheep, cattle, and horses and must confine them with pens.

Do not set the mind outside the body, do not imagine outwardly, and still less think of embracing heaven and earth. Once thoughts scatter into the void, they depart from true nature and one no longer knows where they have gone, leaving only an empty body. The lower Dantian is the place within oneself where the Qi (vital energy) of the Dao is nurtured, and it is called the grotto-heaven and blessed land of immortals and sages. Within the lower Dantian there are true Yin and true Yang—the paired Yin-Yang energies of cultivation—and also Golden Jing (essence) weighing one jin, the essence-energy of the Neidan art. This is the root from which immortals and divine beings arise. If a cultivator does not settle mind and intention in the lower Dantian, it is like an infant without a mother and thus without support, and like a lost traveler who has lost all sense of direction.

The Shengtian Jing (Scripture of Birth in Heaven) says: “Concentrate intention on this field of the body and contemplate the five viscera and six bowels; looking inward with the mind’s eye, one can see the true Qi, appearing as a vision of clear stillness, radiance, vacant whiteness, and brightness.” The hymn of Perfected Liu says: “Let there be no stray thoughts in the heart, and do not let intention wander outward. Cultivating in this way, where else need one seek?”

If one can forget clever artifice, cut off stray thoughts, and practice diligently—like a hen incubating her eggs, and like a dung beetle rolling its ball of dung—then, once the work has gradually matured, one must devote oneself to concentrated inner visualization. The practitioner unceasingly guards Qi with Shen (spirit) and guards Shen with Qi, so that spirit and energy hold one another, gather in the lower Dantian, and congeal into the embryonic immortal (the immortal embryo formed in Neidan cultivation). When concentration does not scatter, one can enter meditative absorption. After entering absorption, one can send forth the Yin spirit—the spirit-consciousness that has not yet reached the realm of pure Yang—and even a distance of a thousand or ten thousand li is as easy as stretching out a hand.

When the Yin spirit goes out to wander, one can see other people, yet other people cannot see oneself. This belongs to the kind of cultivation realm known as the nameless ghost-barrier; there is no fixed place of return. Even if one can enter a womb or seize another person’s bodily shell, one merely enters a body of flesh and becomes a ghost of pure emptiness, not yet an immortal of pure Yang. This is called “sending forth the Yin spirit,” and it is a method by which cultivation first attains a measure of success.

Those who cultivate “long life without death” and refine the great medicine of the dragon and tiger, the Golden Elixir (Jindan), must first understand the root of nature (xing) and life (ming). The oral formula says that the key lies not in saying a great deal, but in recognizing this root: it is found in the two trigrams Li and Kan. The Li trigram corresponds to the heart, and the Kan trigram corresponds to the kidneys; the mutual correspondence of heart and kidneys is the foundation of nature and life.

A person’s true nature and life are likened to the lead and mercury within Kan and Li. Lead and mercury in turn symbolize the dragon and the tiger: the Li trigram contains eight liang of mercury, and mercury is the dragon; the Kan trigram contains eight liang of lead, and lead is the tiger. Thus it is said that the Li trigram conceals the dragon and the Kan trigram conceals the tiger. Here, “lead,” “mercury,” and “dragon and tiger” are symbolic terms of Neidan (internal alchemy), used to explain the relations among forces such as Yin-Yang and water and fire in cultivation; they do not refer to actual metals or animals.

The Perfected Lü said: “The yang dragon originally emerges from the Palace of Li, while the yin tiger arises from within Kan.” The Li trigram belongs to the south and is paired with the Bing and Ding fires; the Kan trigram belongs to the north and is paired with the Ren and Gui waters. The Perfected Zhongli said: “The white tiger is concealed in water, and the dragon is concealed in fire; since ancient times the immortals’ Dao (the Way) of cultivation has lain therein.” The Perfected Taibai also said: “The art of cultivation in which the Five Phases (Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, Water) are reversed is the dragon being born from within fire; the Five Phases not proceeding in their usual order is the tiger being born from within water.” All these sayings explain that Neidan cultivation uses symbols such as Kan and Li, water and fire, and the dragon and tiger to set forth the principle of Yin-Yang transformation.

The three characters zhen xingming, “true nature and life,” cover a great many meanings, and are also commonly indicated by such terms as water and fire, metal and wood, husband and wife, and the sun and moon; the names vary without end. An oral formula says that, in the final analysis, what is meant is the Jing (essence) and the blood within the heart and the kidneys: the heart is the sea of blood and the source of blood; the kidneys are the sea of Jing and the root of Jing.

Jing belongs to lead, and blood belongs to mercury. Mercury arises in the south, corresponds to Bing-Ding fire, and belongs to Yang; lead arises in the north, corresponds to Ren-Gui water, and belongs to Yin. What is called true nature and life is precisely the principle of Yin-Yang. In the ordinary account, Yang is nature and Yin is life: the mercury in the Li trigram represents nature, and the lead in the Kan trigram represents life. If one follows the account that inverts Yin and Yang, what Yin and Yang refer to is exchanged: the lead in Kan, situated below, instead represents nature, while the mercury in Li, situated above, instead represents life. This inverted account follows the principle of the movements and changes of heaven and earth and of the sun and moon.

Lead is the mother of mercury, and mercury is the child of lead; when lead and mercury come together, this is the true relation of mother and child. Lead represents nature and mercury represents life, and therefore lead and mercury are themselves true nature and life.

Heaven and earth have no human heart or kidneys, and so the sun and moon are taken as analogues of the heart and kidneys; human beings have no sun or moon in heaven, and so the heart and kidneys are taken as analogues of the sun and moon. Within the sun there is a rooster, symbolizing the southern Li trigram and the Li woman, and indicating Yin contained within Yang; within the moon there is a hare, symbolizing the northern Kan trigram and the Kan man, and indicating Yang contained within Yin. Hidden within Li are eight liang of mercury, symbolizing the Li within the sun; hidden within Kan are eight liang of lead, symbolizing the hare within the moon. The heart symbolizes the sun, and the kidneys symbolize the moon; the Yin-Yang transformations within the heart and kidneys are like the creative transformations in the course of the sun and moon.

The Perfected Lü said: “When someone asked me the method of cultivation, I raised my hand and pointed to the discs of the sun and moon at the edge of the sky—what I pointed to was precisely this.”

From the first day of the lunar month, the moon turns from incomplete toward full: the first day is like the generating of one liang of gold (a traditional Chinese ounce; sixteen liang make one jin, or catty). From the second day through the eighth it gradually increases, and at the time of the upper string it is roughly a half-moon; this is called the “upper string” (shangxian). After another seven days, taken together with the eight days from the first through the eighth, one reaches the fifteenth day in all. Yang Qi (vital energy) has gradually become full, and the moon too has grown round.

From the sixteenth day the moon gradually wanes, and Yin Qi increases along with it. Around the twenty-third day the moon again appears as a half-moon, called the “lower string” (xiaxian). Here the changing phases of the moon are a metaphor for the waxing and waning of Yin-Yang: the upper string corresponds to eight liang, and the lower string likewise to eight liang. The upper string is called gold and called fire; the lower string is called silver and called water. They also symbolize, respectively, Yang and Yin, and the dragon and the tiger (in the art of alchemy, the interacting forces of Yin-Yang). These symbols admit many variations and are hard to set out one by one.

Patriarch Wang said: “The upper string is gold, the lower string is silver; the gold and silver above and below are each half a jin. Joined together they total sixteen liang—how can the stellar fractions within them be matched evenly?” These words use gold, silver, and the measures jin and liang to explain how the two sides of Yin-Yang unite and how their proportions are balanced.

Liu Haichan said: “Let me explain for you the Great Reverted Elixir (the elixir spoken of in Daoist Neidan, internal alchemy): its form is perfectly round, like a pellet. The two ingredients, blended together, come to sixteen liang, and the fire-timing of the celestial circuit (the refining and cultivating fire-timing that turns with the cycle) gathers from all four directions.” The Perfected Zhongli said: “The two symbols are contained together and together make one jin; only when Yin and Yang mutually restrain each other can they transform into the True.”

Anyone who cultivates the Dao (the Way), after meeting an enlightened teacher and companions of like mind, must on no account fail the methods of the Dao that they have personally transmitted, but should at once set about the practice: harmonizing the “Four Images” (an alchemical term for opposing forces such as Yin-Yang), gathering the Five Phases (Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, Water), and bringing “lead” and “mercury” (alchemical terms often used to figure two essential ingredients in cultivation) into mutual accord, so as to attain the “union of two and eight.” Then, following the fire-timing of the celestial circuit (regulating circulation and the degree of firing according to the course of practice), one calcines and refines them into a single dose of the “great medicine of the Dragon-Tiger Golden Elixir,” weighing sixteen liang and red as fire. Shaped like a pellet and colored like a vermilion orange, it corresponds to the number of one jin formed by heaven and earth together. Each liang contains twenty-four zhu, and sixteen liang make three hundred eighty-four zhu, answering to the three hundred eighty-four lines of the celestial circuit.

The cultivator must first firmly guard and nourish Shen (spirit) and Qi (vital energy). Spirit and vital energy are the true “Wu-Ji earth”: Wu and Ji are the mediating agents that harmonize from the center, also called the “Yellow Dame.” Wu-earth refers to the Qi within the Kan trigram of the Bagua (Eight Trigrams); Ji-earth refers to the Shen within the Li trigram. When spirit and vital energy do not scatter, lead and mercury naturally pair; the “crow and hare” (symbolizing the moon and the sun respectively) likewise do not separate, and in the end one pellet of the great medicine of the Dragon-Tiger Golden Elixir is refined.

The Perfected Zhongli said: “Lead and mercury are the two fundamental medicines of elixir refinement; without Wu and Ji, the elixir cannot be completed. Only when the three households unite as one is there the true seed, and only then can the efficacy of the return of the Golden Elixir be seen.” When ordinary people call the spleen Wu-Ji, the Yellow Dame, and the matchmaker, they are merely taking a common organ as a symbol; this belongs to false Wu-Ji.

Practitioners of cultivation must first understand that the “fire” spoken of in elixir refinement falls into three grades, which belong to two categories: internal fire and external fire.

External fire has form and visible appearance. It can be used to smelt metals, grow the five grains, and nourish the myriad things, but it cannot be used to refine the elixir. The fire used in elixir refinement lies within the body and is called “internal fire.” Internal fire has neither form nor appearance, yet when it is aroused it is as if a flame were present. Drawing on the Qi (vital energy) produced through the transformation of the five grains, one can generate true fire.

Jing (essence) is the “fire of the people,” Qi is the “fire of the ministers,” and the heart is the “fire of the ruler.” The ruler’s fire is the fire of Shen (spirit), and the fire of Shen is the fire of nature—the fire bound up with a person’s innate nature and spirit. The fire of nature must not be aroused, nor may it be employed at will. Once the fire of nature is set in motion, it is like fire arising out of wood, which instead burns the self.

The fire of nature must not be stirred rashly. The moment it moves, Shen moves; when Shen moves, Qi moves; and when Qi moves, Jing moves. If the fire of nature does not move, Shen is settled; when Shen is settled, Qi is settled; and when Qi is settled, Jing is settled as well. After all three fires have become settled, they gather in the lower Dantian (energy center), the site of Neidan (internal alchemy) cultivation in the lower abdomen. Gathering there, they warmly nourish the golden cauldron and temper the jade furnace, steaming and suffusing the body’s passes and apertures. In this way the Yin Qi within the body gradually recedes and the Yang Qi gradually increases. Pure, true Yang Qi circulates back and forth between above and below, and in the end is naturally refined into a single vivid red “great medicine of the dragon-tiger Golden Elixir (Jindan)”—a symbolic name, in Neidan cultivation, for the completion of the elixir.

A person’s nature and life are like jade hidden inside stone. Only when one meets a craftsman of high skill, who chisels the stone open and extracts the jade, can one begin to apply effort in cultivation, and only then will a person’s nature and life not be ruined.

The latter part of the original text contains repetitions and passages that appear corrupt or defective. The closing phrase, “if one is to apply… naturally refined into…,” is incomplete in meaning; the reading above therefore interprets the passage coherently according to its context.

Nature and life are like jade hidden in stone. Only when one meets a craftsman of superb skill, who chisels the stone and splits it open, does the jade come into view; only then can cultivation begin. Proceeding in this way will not delay a person’s cultivation of nature and life. To start cultivating, one must follow the “method of lesser accomplishment in bringing forth the yin spirit” described earlier, beginning with the small and gradually reaching a greater attainment.

Between heaven and earth there is Qi (vital energy) that moves of itself, and there is also a natural order. Human beings are born by receiving the Qi of heaven and earth, and the measure of their Qi communicates with heaven and earth. Those who cultivate the Dao (the Way) inquire into the root of creative transformation and understand the paths along which Yin-Yang rises and falls. They can then calm the mind and settle the intention in the lower Dantian (energy center; the Neidan, or internal alchemy, site in the lower abdomen), giving rise to no stray thoughts, the mind clear and limpid, free of desire.

From the zi hour at midnight (roughly from eleven at night until one in the morning), when yang Qi first arises, the primordial-yang golden Jing (essence)—a Neidan term for Jing and Qi—in the lower Dantian transforms of itself into five-colored Qi. In its movement it is like fierce fire and like a hot wind. It passes through the Weilü cavity (an acupoint near the lower end of the spine), surges through the Three Passes (the bodily gateways of cultivation terminology), and goes straight to the Niwan Palace at the crown of the head (the name, in Daoist Neidan, for an inner palace within the head); it then descends and returns to the lower Dantian.

This Qi goes back again from the lower Dantian to the Weilü cavity, infusing harmoniously and coursing all the way through, as if the finest ghee were poured over the crown and the Yellow River rolled backward. Shen (spirit), Qi, Jing, and blood, these four, blend into a single Qi, circulating up and down, around and back, beginning anew each time a round ends. One thereby naturally accords with the fire timing of the Zhoutian (the celestial circuit; in Neidan, the movement of the Qi dynamic and its rhythm), and refines a single crimson pellet of the great medicine, the dragon-tiger Golden Elixir.

When the Golden Elixir is complete, the yang spirit (one of the attainments spoken of in Neidan) appears. At this point the original text repeats once more the passage about circulating back and forth, according with the fire timing of the Zhoutian, and refining the Golden Elixir; its meaning is the same as what precedes.

After the Golden Elixir (Jindan) has been refined, the yang spirit manifests—the yang form of spirit-consciousness (Shen, spirit) spoken of in Daoist Neidan (internal alchemy). The yang spirit is the sacred embryo, and the sacred embryo is the Golden Elixir. The sacred embryo resembles an ordinary human fetus in how it is generated and transformed: an ordinary fetus is formed by the union of the parents’ Jing (essence) and blood, which the text calls “lead” and “mercury” respectively. To liken the sacred embryo to an ordinary fetus is to explain the inner process of cultivation by means of something outwardly visible.

The cultivation of the sacred embryo consists entirely in “extracting lead and adding mercury.” Extracting lead means causing the true Qi (vital energy) of the lower Dantian (energy center, the site of Neidan cultivation below the navel) to rise and enter the upper Dantian (the site of Neidan cultivation in the head). This process is also called “the turning of the river chariot” or “flying the golden Jing behind the elbows”: the golden Jing ascends along the back to replenish the brain, and this is what is called extracting lead.

Adding mercury means that, after the golden Jing has risen to replenish the brain, what seems a full measure of golden water descends from the crown of the head. The practitioner feels sweetness in the mouth and fragrance in the breath; once this is swallowed, the Qi-fluid passes through the “twelve rings of the Storied Tower” in the throat and reaches the lungs. According to the directional scheme of the Five Phases (Wuxing: Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water), the lungs belong to the Metal of geng and xin in the west, and their color is white; here water is transformed into saliva. Two channels of Qi in the lungs then carry the breath into the heart. The heart belongs to the Fire of bing and ding in the south, and its color is red; here saliva is transformed into blood. Blood is called mercury, so this process is called adding mercury, and also “lead generating mercury.”

Two further channels of Qi lead from the heart to the kidneys. The kidneys belong to the Water of ren and gui in the north, and their color is black; here blood is transformed into Jing. Jing is called lead, so this process is in turn called “mercury generating lead.”

One who cultivates the Dao (the Way) practices day and night without cease, extracting lead and adding mercury without interruption; when a full ten months have passed, the sacred embryo can be brought to completion. A poem by the Perfected Zhang Pingshu says: “The infant is one, containing true Qi; in ten months the embryo is complete and enters the foundation of sagehood.” This means that the infant-like sacred embryo is condensed from a single current of true Qi, and when the ten months of cultivation are fulfilled, one steps onto the foundation of becoming a sage.

Half a stanza of the lyric “West River Moon” says: “Wood by nature loves Metal and accords with righteous Metal; feeling cherishes the kindness and benevolence of Wood. They swallow and devour one another, yet grow intimate; only then does one realize that a man’s pregnancy is true.” Here images of Wood, Metal, and the other Five Phases describe the process in Neidan cultivation whereby these forces blend with and transform into one another; only after this union can the practitioner be said truly to bear the “sacred embryo.”

There is also a half-stanza of a lyric to the tune “Xijiang Yue” (West River Moon) that says: “The nature of Wood delights in Metal and complies with right principle; the sentiment of Metal yearns for Wood and harbors kindness and benevolence. When Wood and Metal swallow and absorb one another, mingle together, and draw close, only then does one realize that a pregnancy can also form within a man’s body.”

If the relations of the Five Phases (Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, Water) are not harmonized and reversed, the Dragon and the Tiger—which in Neidan (internal alchemy) represent the two forces of Yin-Yang—cannot meet and join. If the movement of Qi (vital energy) in the upper, middle, and lower Dantian (energy centers) does not circulate back and forth, the Sacred Embryo, the inner spiritual embryo formed in Neidan cultivation, cannot reach completion. After one hundred days of “extracting lead and adding mercury,” a Neidan term for regulating and refining the Yin-Yang Jing (essence) and Qi within the body, the potency of the medicine is sufficient. Cultivated for two hundred days, the Sacred Embryo grows firm; cultivated for three hundred days, the Sacred Embryo is complete, and the four limbs, five viscera, sinews, and bones are all fully formed.

Then one day the practitioner suddenly feels the Qi within the body set in motion, and the Dantian below the navel trembles with it, as if a fetus were stirring in a pregnant woman. After that, the Sacred Embryo must still be warmly nurtured for ten months. When the embryo is complete and emerges, like a golden cicada shedding its shell, there is a “body outside the body.” When the Yang Shen (the pure-Yang spirit spoken of in Neidan) appears, its flesh is clean and its radiance bright, like an infant’s, and its body seems like empty space. When it gathers, it can manifest a form; when it disperses, it is boundless.

Next one must learn to regulate the spirit-consciousness so that it leaves the shell. When the spirit-consciousness first leaves the body, it walks a few steps and then looks back at the original body. Although it can still see that body, it finds it ugly and repulsive, like a heap of dung and dirt. The spirit-consciousness can travel far in an instant, but at first one should not go far: first one step, then two, and only afterward two or three li. As the days pass and going out and returning grow familiar, one can reach a thousand or ten thousand li as easily as stretching out an arm. This is called “the emergence of the Yang Shen.” The scripture says that this is the final method for cultivating the celestial immortal and attaining deathless longevity.

Illustration of the Celestial Immortal Shedding Its Shell like a Golden Cicada

The later text repeats the point: after the spirit-consciousness leaves the body, one first practices from nearby and gradually becomes skilled enough to travel a thousand or ten thousand li. This is called “the emergence of the Yang Shen.” The scripture says that this is the method for achieving the celestial immortal and deathless longevity.

The oral instructions say: Anyone who cultivates long life without death and refines the great medicine of the Dragon-Tiger Golden Elixir (jindan) must first understand the routes along which Yin-Yang ascends and descends, and only then begin the practice. Through “extracting lead and adding mercury” (a metaphor in Daoist Neidan, or internal alchemy, for harmonizing Yin-Yang and transforming Jing, or essence, and Qi, or vital energy), one sets the Qi of the sun and moon coursing and soaring, so that true Yin and true Yang flow back and forth, alternating above and below in endless circulation. In this way one naturally refines a single grain of the great medicine of the Dragon-Tiger Golden Elixir.

The human spine has twenty-four vertebrae in all. Counting upward from the bottom, the lowest is called the Weilu point (the site at the lower end of the spine). It is also known as the Dragon-Tiger point, the Caoqi road, the ninefold iron drum, the three-forked bone, the Hezhuo bone, the river-cart road, the gate of the sea of Qi, the Ridge Facing Heaven, the Ladder to Heaven, and by other names. The bone of the Weilu point is shaped like a golden cauldron, with nine apertures above that communicate inside and out. Through the middle of the spine and along both sides there are three passages in all: Qi rises from the Weilu along the spine straight to the Mud-pill Palace at the crown (what Daoist Neidan calls the upper Dantian, or energy center, in the head); from the Mud-pill Palace it then travels downward and returns to the lower Dantian (the Dantian below the navel); and the Qi of the lower Dantian moves again to the Weilu. This is the route by which Qi ascends along the back of the body. The descent from the Mud-pill Palace is the route that descends along the front of the body. The Mud-pill Palace and the Weilu point are the crucial places in the ascending and descending movement of Yin-Yang.

Above and below along the spine are the Three Passes. The Weilu point is called the lower pass. Counting three vertebrae upward from the lower pass, one reaches the eighteenth vertebra, which is called the middle pass. From the middle pass one continues upward, passing the Jade Pillow Pass (the pass at the back of the head) and the three vertebrae near the Dazhui point above it, straight on to the Mud-pill Palace; this stretch is called the upper pass. These are the names of the Three Passes.

A poem by Perfected Piyun says: “Strike through the Three Passes, and Jing and Shen (spirit) grow calm; burst open the nine apertures, and the breath is harmonized. When the fire-phasing of the celestial circuit meets no obstruction, one sings alone for joy at midnight.” This is the principle meant here.

Those who study the practice may observe the Weilu point among the dry bones in a grave: the form of the apertures in the bone does not differ from what is described here.

A poem by Perfected Dongbin says: “The nine apertures of the Weilu are like an iron drum; the fire-phasing of the celestial circuit is like bow and arrow. Strike through the iron drum, and the effect is no small matter; a whole stream of Yellow River water then flows above and below.” This is the principle meant here.

Diagram of the Weilü Bone

Once the Golden Elixir (jindan) has been refined to completion, one can pass beyond the limits of the creative work of Heaven and Earth. Like a moon without form or shadow, it is not bound by Heaven and Earth.

Seven-Character Quatrains

There are sixteen in all, matching the number of “one jin” belonging to Qian and Kun.

The Azure Dragon and the White Tiger—in Neidan (internal alchemy), symbols of opposing forces such as Yin-Yang and water and fire—dwell respectively in the east and the west. These two powers are gathered in and refined within the cauldron and furnace.

Through nine transmutations, the repeated process of refining and nourishing in Neidan practice, the Great Medicine is completed, and a single grain of the Golden Elixir shows a red radiance at the crown of the head.

The infant sits within the water of Kan, while the Lovely Maiden—in the art of Neidan, one partner in the symbolic union of Yin and Yang—dwells within the fire of Li.

Let the infant and the Lovely Maiden be matched as husband and wife; after ten months they bring forth a precious pearl that keeps the countenance ever youthful.

Who could believe that a man, too, may conceive within his body? Clearly, an infant is nurtured below the navel.

When the four limbs, the five viscera, and the sinews and bones have all been formed, the golden embryo casts off the shell of the mortal embryo and flies to the immortal realm of Penglai.

The Dao (the Way) of long life does not lie in many words, but in gathering and refining mercury and lead—symbolic terms in Neidan—between Kan and Li, the trigrams of water and fire, commonly used to figure the forces of Yin-Yang in Neidan practice.

When sixteen liang of the fire elixir have been refined, one may be enfeoffed as a celestial immortal and receive the edict of the Jade Emperor.

When Dragon and Tiger have been cultivated through the method of nine transmutations, one can command the sun and moon to course east and west.

If one understands how to regulate the firing times and how to increase or decrease the medicines, the Reverted Elixir of Golden Liquor fills the crown of the head and shines with a red light.

From the south one takes the blood of the Red Dragon; from the northern sea one seeks the Jing (essence) of the Black Tiger.

When these two powers are harmonized and the infant is fully nurtured, long life may be attained.

Riding the waters and clouds, one travels to the west and discerns that true gold is solid and firm.

When the Great Elixir has been refined and swallowed into the belly, one wanders freely in the Palace of Fivefold Brightness, a palace in Daoist imagery.

The state of mind is as clear as the bright moon, illuminating all of Heaven and Earth; one’s nature is as still as the halted water of a cold pool.

Through all twelve double-hours one keeps a clear, wakeful contemplation, and does not let oneself grow dull and lose the original mind.

The myriad phenomena of the world are tangled, and worldly affairs entangle; yet the mind and Shen (spirit) can respond to all things while remaining pure, still, and at ease in the void.

One continually polishes the ground of the mind, removing even the slightest obscuration, just as the lotus emerges from the mud.

When carrying out the practice, the mind should be as clear and luminous as moonlight, and no illusion of any kind may disturb it; when one abides in stillness, the spirit pearl—an image of mind and Shen (spirit) in the cultivation of Neidan (internal alchemy)—shines in all directions.

When sitting quietly, constantly contemplate that original nature is free of itself; when lying down, do not let the sense of brightness before the eyes disappear.

Nature and life are two aspects, each distinct, and they must not be treated as the same thing. Cultivating nature to its very end makes one at most a yin ghost-immortal; only by cultivating life and accomplishing the yang Shen—the yang spiritual consciousness spoken of in Daoist Neidan—can one pass beyond the transformations of birth and death.

These principles should be explained plainly to the worthy: firmly gather in the mind-monkey and the intention-horse, a figure for restless and unsettled thoughts, and bind them within the Dantian (energy center), the site of cultivation in the lower abdomen.

The nature of true emptiness and wondrous awareness is ever clear and bright, and does not grow dim; when the work of the nine reversions is complete, one will surely become an immortal.

Break through the three passes and seize the key to sagehood; open the nine apertures and step onto the ladder of ascent to heaven. The Yellow River—a Neidan term for the channel along which Qi (vital energy) circulates within the body—reverses and rises, its movement free and unobstructed, while a pair of golden cicadas, symbolic images in Neidan cultivation, fly up and down.

On the crown of the head one wears the jasper flower, emblem of the numinous fruit gained through cultivation—most marvelous of all—and seizes the hidden pivot of nature’s own creative power. Standing on the highest peak, it is as if the sun and moon themselves were in flight; and yet, it may be said, hardly anyone in the world knows who has become an immortal.

Break through the three passes and seize the key to sagehood; open the nine apertures and step onto the ladder of ascent to heaven. The Yellow River reverses and rises, its movement free and unobstructed, while a pair of golden cicadas fly up and down.

On the crown of the head one wears the jasper flower—most marvelous of all—and seizes the hidden pivot of nature’s own creative power. Standing on the highest peak, it is as if the sun and moon themselves were in flight; and yet, it may be said, hardly anyone in the world knows who has become an immortal.

The River Cart—a Neidan term for the practice of circulating Jing (essence) and Qi within the body—rolls on through the three passes, ceaselessly bearing the jasper flower along. Fill the Niwan Palace, the upper Dantian in the head as spoken of in Daoist Neidan, until it is complete, and then return at ease to Jade Capital Mountain, the celestial mountain of the immortals in Daoist lore.

Liu Daozi, wearer of the flower, wrote the commentary: riding the dragon and straddling the tiger, striking the golden ball. Convey it into the heavenly palace, and win three thousand eight hundred tallies.

The Danjue of Baoyizi, the Elder of the Three Peaks, ends here.

Note: Two collation remarks are also appended at the end of the original: “The Kan trigram should be, change it to,” and “again dragon and tiger,” which, by the collation method of this edition, should be emended to “and again it is dragon and tiger.” The wording of the first remark is incomplete, and the specific characters to be changed cannot be determined.