《明真破妄章颂》

Before Chaos—the state in which Heaven and Earth had not yet differentiated—had divided, the Dao (the Way) already existed. The Dao has no form, no color, and no emotion.

The Dao spontaneously transforms and gives birth to the myriad things, bringing Heaven and Earth into being. The Qi (vital energy) of the Dao in Heaven is light and clear; the Qi of the Dao in Earth is settled and still.

When the Dao first generated Heaven and Earth, there were as yet no names. After Heaven and Earth separated, Yin-Yang was thereby established, and the Five Phases (Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water) took form as well.

Human beings stand between Heaven and Earth and are the most numinous of all things. They are generated by the Dao of Heaven and Earth.

Heaven, Earth, and humanity together are called the Three Powers (Sancai), and all issue from a single Qi (the original text writes “black,” which is here understood as Qi, the vital energy that constitutes Heaven, Earth, and the myriad things). Receiving the numinous quality of this pre-heaven (xiantian) single Qi, a person comes to have a body; this is what is called the Dao. A person can resonate with Heaven and Earth and can also commune with divinities.

Outside the true Dao there is no other real existence. Ancestral Qi (Zuqi, the Qi of the source) penetrates numinous nature and constitutes the human body. The one Dao transforms and gives birth to three, manifesting wondrous functions; these three are primordial Jing (essence), primordial Qi, and primordial Shen (spirit).

Primordial Jing, primordial Qi, and primordial Shen are without form, yet they can also appear through their functions. When they are employed properly, one can truly experience them; the radiance they display is vast and boundless.

The foundation of the Thunder Rites (Leifa) comes from the transformations of pre-heaven Qi, and the immortals and sages of the various heavens are all in communion with this fundamental reality. The Qi of my whole body can resonate with them and summon them into union; all share a single source and are as intimate as flesh and bone.

Where the true heart-mind is stirred lies the crux of resonance in the Thunder Rites. When Shen meets Shen, the subtlety is still harder to put into words. Beyond this there is no other difference: like a lodestone attracting iron, they join of themselves and do not oppose one another.

Outside the heart-mind there is originally no method. If one merely gazes at hand-seals, Fulu (talismans and registers), and diagrams without uniting them with the true heart-mind, one can hardly accord with the great Dao. If the heart-mind is genuine, how is its wondrous function brought into play? One need only set primordial Shen in motion with a single point of numinous light.

Primordial Shen can directly bear up and deliver a document. A shaft of cold light shoots straight into the Great Void (Taixu, the vast and boundless emptiness) and arrives directly at the Jade Capital and Golden Towers (Yujing Jinque, the palaces of the celestial realm), there receiving the mysterious mandate of grace, which descends like starfire upon the pathways of Heaven.

Calling upon Heaven and shouting reprimands…

Shouting orders at the sky and driving them on with cracks of the whip, one does not realize that the Yuan Shen (primordial spirit—the inner spiritual master) is the true giver of commands.

Heaven is so high, and the stars so far away—how could they hear a human cry? Even if one recites empty phrases such as “zhi hu bing ye zhe,” what use is that?

Golden Light Summons Thunder

Golden radiance shines brightly upon the Thunder City, and a million thunder soldiers set out under orders.

Summoning thunder need not rely on talismanic diagrams or ritual hand seals. Even after a long drought with no rain, rain can be brought; and once the rain falls, it can also be made to clear.

Practicing through Delusion

Without understanding the key to the opening, closing, and transformation of Yin-Yang, and wielding magic only by means of deluded fancy, one is left in the end with nothing but vain imagination.

Even if thousands and tens of thousands of thunder talismans are burned, not a single drop of rain ever falls.

True Thought Subdues Demons

Where, after all, does the work of subduing evil demons lie? The key is that the Yuan Shen within remains quiet and steadfast.

When the sword of wisdom is brandished, gods and ghosts alike are subdued; in this way, calamity is naturally removed.

A Deluded Mind Is Mocked by Ghosts

When deluded thoughts run in confusion, what is real is lost; drawing talismans and forming hand seals is only a waste of spirit.

Ghosts and spirits laugh at the sight; recklessly striking stones and throwing bricks only brings still more harm.

The Ancestor Without the Yang Crystal

The supremely Yang Jing (essence) within the primordial ancestral Qi (vital energy) can subdue Yin evil, and misfortune is then naturally eliminated.

A Deluded Mind Is Mocked by Ghosts

When deluded thoughts run in confusion, what is real is lost; drawing talismans and forming hand seals is only a waste of spirit.

Ghosts and spirits laugh at the sight; recklessly striking stones and throwing bricks only brings still more harm.

The Ancestor Without the Yang Crystal

The Yang crystal (the essential Qi of pure Yang) within the primordial ancestral Qi can refine and transform Yin souls, making original nature spiritually luminous.

The wondrous work of the nine reversals is completed in an instant; Yin-Yang conjoin and form the embryo-infant (in Neidan, or internal alchemy, the spiritual body that symbolizes new birth).

Discerning True Yin-Yang

If one cannot even distinguish true Yin-Yang, it is like taking water merely as something for bathing and fire merely as something for roasting—remaining only at the level of surface uses.

If the spiritual light within the mind is not bright, what benefit is there even in delivering the souls of the dead?

Nanchang Is Not the Heart

The One Aperture of the Mysterious Pass (the crucial place where Yin-Yang meet in Neidan cultivation) has its own Yin-Yang; the heart and the kidneys are not the place where water and fire conjoin.

Adepts are reminded to broaden their view: do not take the heart within the chest for Nanchang (in Daoism, the divine realm or ritual altar associated with the refining and deliverance of souls).

Universal Deliverance Has Its Method

The work of universally delivering all beings is different again: golden radiance shines brightly upon Luofeng (the dark underworld realm spoken of in Daoism).

The millet pearl (the minute spiritual pearl symbolizing the subtle mechanism of the Dao, the Way) hangs in the void, and Taiji (the Supreme Ultimate) at last returns to Wuji (the Limitless).

Seeking in the Void Is No Different

Having lost sight of the master of one’s own primordial Qi, one vainly hopes to obtain it from the void through scenes that appear in heaven.

This is like riding an ox in search of an ox. Such a person is not worth many words.

Not Recognizing the Yuan Shen

When summoning divine generals, one must first shout the command aloud. The sound of the command is originally the master of primordial Qi (vital energy), yet the deluded take it for something that appears in the heavens and go seeking it in empty space.

This is like riding an ox in search of an ox. With people such as these, what is there to discuss?

Failing to Recognize the Original Spirit

When summoning divine generals, one first shouts a command aloud; the sound of the command can startle awake one’s own original spirit (Yuanshen, the innate master of Shen, spirit).

Why is the true face of the original spirit never seen? Only because people of the world are benighted and do not recognize their own original nature.

The Seal Must Be the Mind-Seal

The mind-seal (Xinyin, the attestation transmitted from mind to mind) must be passed on by those who have a destined affinity. People today understand only the wooden seal and do not grasp the mystery within it.

The mind-seal handed down by the patriarchs is the same from one to another; each is luminous and thoroughly clear, reaching straight to the Nine Heavens.

A Point of Numinous Light

The subtlety of drawing a talisman (Fu) lies in the work of cultivation at the moment the brush is first set down; one gathers mind and intention at the tip of the brush and writes them, in seal script, into the talisman.

If one clings to outward forms, relies on imagination to retain the spirit, and practices according to oral formulas, what one ultimately obtains is nothing more than ink and cinnabar.

Characters of the Prior Heaven

The opening of a talismanic sign should use celestial seal script (Tianzhuan, in legend the writing of the heavenly realm); it is said to have been written originally by the brush of the August Person (Huangren).

What Cangjie created is the writing of the later heaven, the script of the human world; to use writing of this kind always leaves people confused and dull.

Deluded Conceptions of Yin-Yang

To reduce the inhaling and exhaling of Yin-Yang, and the operation of talismanic methods, to the waxing and waning of the heart and kidneys and to Qi that is black or red is mere delusion.

Heaven and Earth are vast indeed; how could such petty tricks ever reach the great Dao (the Way)?

A Point within the Kidneys

Some say there is a point of light between the two kidneys; the foolish keep watch over it, hoping thereby to gain spiritual powers.

Little do they know that the place is entirely Yin Qi. To take this for true Yang (the Qi of pure Yang) is to stand ten thousand miles from genuine Yang Qi.

The Original Spirit beneath the Heart

Some say there is a hollow space beneath the heart where Jing (essence), Qi, and the original spirit all gather.

How easily this deceives people! For they do not recognize the true master of the house, that is, the inner sovereign.

The Gallbladder Is Not the Bureau of Thunder

It is vain to take the body’s viscera for the bureau of thunder and, merely because a surge of anger swells, to suppose that one can give forth a crashing peal.

After a glass bottle is smashed, who has ever heard the sound of thunder?

Feeding and Pointing to Thunder

When the single Yang is first born, this corresponds to what the Fu hexagram of the Classic of Changes calls “Thunder within the Earth, Return” (Yang Qi sprouting anew beneath the ground). The external kidneys (the male genitals) are not the place where thunder resides.

To take a filthy thing for the way of the sages and worthies is a fault hard to repent; persisting in this, one will in the end suffer execution by thunder.

Failing to Discern True Yang

The viscera—heart, liver, spleen, lungs, kidneys, gallbladder, and the rest—together with the six-character formulas xu, he, yan, xi, hu, and chui (methods of nourishing life that coordinate breathing with vocal sound).

How could the postnatal Yin-Yang Qi (vital energy) inherited from one’s parents possibly be used to pray for clear skies or rain?

Seven Matters Wholly Yin

Tears, saliva, jinye, semen, Qi, blood, and bodily fluids—these seven all belong to Yin, and by themselves they bring no benefit.

Within the human body there is truly only one mechanism of Yin-Yang, and its subtlety is something many people in the world do not understand.

Foul Qi Touching the True

Some say that three inches below the navel there is a golden light, and that the method of putting it to use lies hidden there.

Little do they know that what is found there is turbid Yin Qi; if one sets it in motion, it only becomes thoroughly foul.

Specious but False

Some recklessly claim that the aperture lies at the point between the eyebrows, and that one need only go three fen inward.

Such talk misleads the world and is truly laughable, like mistaking crude stone for gold.

Mistaking the Postnatal

Behind the navel wheel, where it joins the kidneys—both of these are merely postnatal sites.

If one would ask where the prenatal mystery resides, one must meet a person who truly possesses the Dao (the Way) and receive it in person.

Thunder Stirred at No Fixed Time

To set thunder methods in motion one must employ the baleful force of thunder, and must also await particular moments, such as the halting of the stars, the sun, and the moon.

If the workings of Heaven were so easy to reckon, why would one need some further art to pray for clear skies or rain?

The Deviant Can Confound the Orthodox

Many who claim to possess the Dao have not in fact seen clearly. They command the so-called “pine spirit” (here meaning a spirit summoned and pressed into service) and suppose that it will take visible form.

Only because there is no true master within the body do Yin souls impersonate spirits and, borrowing divine names, display a seeming numinous power.

The True Essentials Must Be Understood

A single divine general is matched with the methods of several lineages, and not a few of these were fabricated by the patriarchs of those schools.

In a few years more, many of them too will prove false. Drawing talismans, reciting spells, and blowing upon water—how can such things be relied upon to work?

Practice Complete in Both Respects

The methods of the Dao cannot do without spells and Fulu (talismans and registers), yet they must at the same time rely on the wondrous principle of the Great Dao.

If one has already cultivated the subtle prenatal work, then whether spell-mudras and talismanic diagrams are present or absent—what difference does it make?

The Dao as Root and the Method as Body

The performance of ritual methods must accord with the Great Dao and tally with the prenatal; spell-mudras and talismanic diagrams ought likewise to embody the subtle principle.

The Great Dao is profound and remote and cannot be grasped; if one has not truly comprehended the Great Dao, talismanic diagrams and spell-mudras are of no avail.

All Methods Return to the One

That the Dao is born of the “One” is beyond doubt. One may proceed by Wuwei (non-action), and one may also act with deliberate purpose.

All methods ultimately return to one and the same source. Why, then, distinguish between Zhengyi (Orthodox Unity) and Qingwei (Pure Subtlety)?

The Work of Creation Lies Within Me

The various methods differ in nature, yet none stands higher or lower than another. One should begin with the method that feels close and familiar. Since all of them converge in the end, what is there to doubt? Practice may follow what comes naturally, without forcing anything, or it may involve deliberate effort and diligent work.

The human body broadly corresponds to heaven and earth. The principles by which Yin-Yang transforms and brings forth the myriad things can likewise be realized within oneself.

Sitting Blankly in Obstinate Emptiness

Someone who has never truly inquired with the mind, but has only sat dully for many years, comes to believe that the chance of becoming an immortal is already his.

He does not understand the shifts of Yin-Yang Qi (vital energy) symbolized by the dragon’s roar and the tiger’s howl. He knows only how to sit in emptiness, and such practice is in the end in vain.

Yin and Yang Mutually Rooted

White jade lies hidden inside a stubborn stone. Even if one can see the light it gives off, one must still grasp the principle within it.

Taiyin (the Qi of Yin) inherently receives the Jing (essence) of Taiyang (the Qi of Yang). On the eighth day the moon shows its first quarter, and by the sixteenth it nears fullness.

Slander Arising from the Teaching

It was originally fellow practitioners pointing out the way together. Those of keener capacity grasp the mystery at a glance.

If these principles are explained to the foolish and uncomprehending, the listener may answer with slander and anger, and trouble is stirred up instead.