《太上除三尸九虫保生经》

The three hun-souls of a person are called Shuangling, Taiguang, and Youjing. The scripture says that the three hun-souls lie beneath the liver, take human form, and all wear blue-green outer robes over yellow inner garments. On the nights of the third, the thirteenth, and the twenty-third of each month, the three hun-souls leave the body and wander abroad.

On these nights one should lie on the back, remove the pillow, straighten both legs, and place the hands crossed over the heart. Closing the eyes and holding the breath, one then clicks the teeth three times and performs visualization (cunxiang) three times in the mind. Next one visualizes within the body a mass of red Qi (vital energy) the size of an egg. It rises from within to the throat, gives off a bright light that covers the whole body, and turns into flame; after the flame has burned the body, it becomes rainwater. When the body feels slightly warm, one calls the names of the three hun-souls.

One then softly recites the incantation:

“Purple Tenuity, the Mysterious Officials; Central Yellow, Primordial Green. Inwardly refine the three hun-souls; Taiguang rests in peace. The divine treasure, the jade chamber, is born together with me. You must not move recklessly; the one who watches is the Great Numen. If you wish to fly, go only to the Shangqing realm. If you hunger or thirst, you may drink Jade Jing (essence). Shuangling, protect me; the Three Terraces, nourish me; Youjing, preserve life. Quickly, quickly, in accordance with the statutes and commands!”

The incantation prays that the three hun-souls remain settled within the body, stay with the practitioner, and not move recklessly; if they are to fly, they go only to the Shangqing realm (a Daoist celestial realm). If they hunger or thirst, they drink Jade Jing (the pure, refined Qi imagined in Daoism). Finally it invokes Shuangling to protect, the Three Terraces to nourish, and Youjing to preserve life, closing with “quickly, quickly, in accordance with the statutes and commands” as an imperative spell formula.

Cunxiang is a method of Daoist practice: visualizing particular forms or scenes in the mind.

In this way, the hun-souls and Shen (spirit) grow peaceful and calm, calamities no longer arise, evil demons withdraw and submit, the body remains sound and well, the work of the Dao (the Way) is accomplished, and sorrow and distress never come.

The seven po—the seven Yin numinous energies within the human body, as Daoism describes them—are ghosts formed of Yin-evil Qi (vital energy). They drive corpse-like walking dead, making a person fearful, greedy, jealous, and unrestrained; they bring nightmares and the grinding of teeth, and speech that goes against one’s true mind; they cause seminal emission, craving for sensual beauty, and the pursuit of luxury and licentiousness. Such people are wholly without honest simplicity and are driven only by ghostly Qi. They harm others and harm the myriad things, concealing dark poison in the heart and taking the injury of others as their foundation; they often cause people to lose the steadfast and pure upright Dao and to enter dark, deviant paths. They delight in evil deeds and take no delight in good ones; they are accustomed to tending toward death and do not learn to nourish life; they strive only to prevail and show off their ability, indulge the desires of mouth and belly, and their conduct is muddled and defiled.

When the corpse-ghosts appear, they bring filth; as Jing (essence) and Qi continually leak away, they hasten a person toward decline and death. They also plot to harm people, using occasions of sacrifice to stir up haunting harm. If one can circulate and refine primordial Qi, condense elixir Qi, seal it within and firmly guard true Jing, so that Yang Qi flourishes and Yin Qi recedes, one will not be harmed by them.

Every night, at the hour of Hai (roughly from nine to eleven in the evening), recite this incantation outdoors:

“I have received from the Three Sovereigns the transmission of the Numinous Chapter of Taiji (Supreme Ultimate). Swallowing elixir medicine and regulating the breath to ingest Qi, I thereby drive out the inauspicious. Quickly, quickly, in accordance with the statutes and ordinances!”

If one can do this, sleep will be peaceful and the body strong, and evil beings, calamities, and sudden disasters will never dare draw near.

If a practitioner wishes to cut off the Three Corpses—the Yin evils within the body which, according to Daoism, obstruct cultivation and lead people to do evil—one should first devote oneself to guarding the Dao, so that one’s conduct differs from that of ordinary worldly people, and only then take medicine. Otherwise, one will merely labor in vain.

The names listed in the Diagram of the Seven Po are Shigou (Corpse Dog), Fushi (Hidden Arrow), Queyin (Sparrow Yin), Tunzei (Swallowing Thief), Feidu (Flying Poison), Chuhui (Dispelling Filth), and Choufei (Stinking Lungs).

The Seven Po (qipo; the seven yin souls of the human body, as Daoism describes them) gather yin Qi (vital energy), and their forms resemble ghosts. They increase desire, exhaust body and mind, block the breath, and tighten the body. They make a person fond of filth and averse to upholding right principle. They can also make one like a walking corpse, turning away from the vitality of life and toward death, becoming fawning, crooked, and deceitful, lusting after women, breeding evil thoughts day and night, hastening an early death, and leading one into the ghostly destination (the place of becoming a ghost). They obscure the path of life. Their names are Shigou (Corpse Dog), Fushi (Hidden Arrow), Queyin (Sparrow Yin), Tunzei (Swallowing Thief), Feidu (Flying Poison), Chuhui (Expelling Filth), and Jianfei (Seeing the Lungs).

Whatever leads a person to greed and depletes the mind and Shen (spirit) should be firmly renounced. One must not act by following desire; only then can one be secure. If people of the world do their utmost to investigate the principles of things, they may naturally hope to attain the Dao (the Way). If one is deluded by the yin souls, the mind and Shen fall into disorder, right faith is lost, and one’s conduct becomes like corpse-filth, the nature of the mind is lost; even if one forces the mind to work, recovery is hard. When seeking a teacher and inquiring into the Dao, if one behaves like a ghost or demon—crooked and fawning, false and fraudulent—then even if one thinks the true Dao has been obtained, demonic calamity will follow, and success will not come in the end. Resonance and retribution arise of themselves. Acting in this way, one finally falls back into the condition of a walking corpse, scarcely able to escape the nets of the secular world, sinking into the yin darkness and becoming a ghost. When the principle is not upright, one takes the deviant path and in the end joins one’s own kind. People of the world are often like this; it is truly lamentable.

Therefore this essential instruction has been specially written down, setting forth its main point, to remind those who have lost their way first to subdue the Six Thieves (liuze; a figure often used in Buddhist and Daoist texts for the six desires or senses that disturb the mind) and the Seven Po, and then gradually to cultivate themselves into Zhenren (Realized Persons, those who have attained the Dao). Even if one does not reach the realm of the immortals, one will not fall into an evil path. On the first and fifteenth days of the lunar month and at the month’s end, the Seven Po readily leave their proper stations and must be restrained with special care. Knock the teeth seven times and call the names of the Seven Po once. When a woman practices, first knock the teeth twice, then knock them seven times, and call the names of the Seven Po twice. Sit upright, form the wogu (the seated hand gesture of clenching the fist and drawing in the thumb), gather in the mind and Shen, and silently recite the incantation:

“The Jade Emperor (Yudi, the Jade August Great Emperor) is exalted on high; the Supreme Sovereign is the Utmost True (the supreme perfected sage). May the host of spirits rest secure and stand guard. May the Seven Po adhere to the body, neither overstepping their stations nor falling into disorder, nor keeping company with evil and deviance. May they long dwell within the body and at last transform together into immortal perfected beings. Forever guard my Shen and my bodily form, and bless me to attain the Dao and become realized. May I roam the Upper Palaces (the palace halls of the celestial realm) and, together with the immortals, be a guest of jade. Within the body there is numinous fluid; within the form there is Yujin (jade fluid; a Daoist term of cultivation for the Jing [essence], Qi, and fluids of the body). Protect me and uphold me; do not let me fall into deviant lust. I respectfully obey the statutes and commands—let them be carried out at once, at once.”

Lord Lao says: The turbid Yin corpse-Qi (vital energy) belongs to the hun (ethereal soul) and po (corporeal soul) within the bodily form, and is guarded by Jing (essence) and Shen (spirit). Therefore, one who cultivates the Dao (the Way) should accord with the hun-spirit and restrain the corpse-po; this is the method of refining and nourishing the body. If one allows the po of the Yin corpse to draw one along, the Jing of the luminous Yang spirit will be depleted, the upright Qi will be injured, and death will readily follow.

The scriptures say: “The hun longs to ascend to Heaven, while the po enters the Yellow Springs; to return hun and po to their proper places is the natural Dao.” They also say: “Refine and nourish the Yang hun, and restrain the Yin po.” This is because in life one moves with the hun, and in death one departs with the po; the hun by nature delights in rising, and the po by nature delights in sinking. The sage indicates the path of cultivation in a winding yet thorough manner, so that one may empty the mind and guard Jing, and regulate and circulate the five Shen. When the five Shen are not pressed into service, the true Shen responds of itself, and one is not far from becoming an immortal.

One who cultivates the Dao should gather the hun and restrain the po, using Yang Qi to dissolve Yin Qi, so that the hun is refined and nourished, the po is held in check, and the turbid Yin Qi gradually diminishes. This is the Dao of long life. The scriptures say, “Those of the same kind as life number thirteen,” referring to the three hun and seven po. The Huangting Jing (a Daoist scripture of internal cultivation) says: “Gather the hun and po and return them to their places, and they will never be overturned or lost.” Hun and po are two spirits formed from the Jing and Qi of Yin-Yang. If one can accord with them and guard them with undivided attention, gathering and restraining them so that the hun does not leave the body, one comes to understand the principle of longevity and enduring vision.

Only when Yin and Yang are both present can a human being be born; the forming of the embryo, the circulation of Qi, and the shaping of the body all arise from this as well. For this reason a diagram has been specially drawn to explain it, to be transmitted to later generations, in the hope that people will ponder it carefully and cultivate accordingly.

Diagram of the Corpse-Guarding Ghosts (a diagram of the spirits and ghosts that guard the corpse)

The corpse-guarding ghost is also called “Riposhe.” In shape it resembles a child, and at times a dog or a horse, with black hair about two inches long growing on its back, and it hides within the human body. After a person dies, it is then called a “ghost.” It disguises itself in the likeness the deceased had in life and, in dreams, begs people for food, bringing on headache, chills and fever, and nausea, and leading them to believe that the dead person is truly haunting them.

This corpse-guarding ghost can change its form and confuse a person’s hun and po, causing inverted and terrifying dreams and even an early death as a result. If one takes the elixir, it cannot harm anyone; with prolonged quiet sitting, the radiance of Shen (spirit) becomes bright and clear.

At the end of the scripture the text repeats that this ghost changes its form and confuses the hun and po, causing nightmares and premature death; after the elixir is taken it can do no harm, and with long sitting the radiance of Shen is pure and luminous. The original wording here reads, “The brothers say: the ghost of yesterday’s drinking,” which repeats the sense of the passage above and is suspected to be corrupt or incomplete.

The two brothers said, “Yesterday, after drinking water in which the medicine had been steeped, we vomited and purged filth of all sorts of strange shapes. These must surely be the Three Corpses (Sanshi) or the Nine Worms.” They exclaimed, “If even spring water that has merely soaked the medicine already has such power, how much more efficacious must the divine medicine refined in the furnace be?”

Thereupon they took the medicine furnace from the chamber and broke open its seal. They saw that the medicinal liquid had gathered into a single pool, thick as glue, shining with a dazzling purple light, its fragrance filling the nostrils and lifting the spirit. Not the slightest amount of the medicine had been lost. With hearts of utmost sincerity, the brothers offered the medicine up to Heaven. They ground it fine and rolled it into pills the size of rice grains. After fasting and purification, they divided the medicine into three portions: one they buried at the foot of the mountain to bring relief to the earth; one they scattered into the rivers and lakes to bring relief to the fish; and the last they set aside to save the world and heal people in time to come.

The two brothers devoutly raised their gaze to Heaven, bowed twice, and then took the medicine. After swallowing one pill, then three, then seven, their eyebrows and beards quickly grew out, their sores dried and sloughed away, the hair at their temples became glossy and supple, teeth that had died grew anew, their skin became smooth and lustrous, and every illness was dispelled.

Within ten days, clouds and mist were seen rising from the mouth of the valley, white cranes wheeled overhead, and fragrant winds stirred along the stream. Suddenly a Green Lad—an immortal youth—arrived, bearing a pair of crimson standards, the red insignia of ceremonial escort, together with two mounts, a dragon and a luan. The immortal youth saluted the two men and invited them to ride a cloud carriage to pay court at the Golden Portal, the palace of Heaven. Thereupon the two slowly mounted the clouds and ascended as immortals.

On the twenty-first day of the ninth month, in the autumn of the third year of Guanghua under Emperor Zhaozong of the Tang (900 CE), Yang Yuanyi, the Daoist priest in charge of the abbey on Mount Qingcheng, submitted a written report to the county, saying: “At the yin hour on the twenty-first day of this month, two men ascended as immortals from the thatched hermitage on the ridges north and south of Shuixi; no one knows where they have gone. The remains of the medicine refining and the stone stele are still there, but the full course of this matter can no longer be completely ascertained.”

Diagram of the Three Corpses

The Upper Corpse: Peng Ju

The Upper Corpse, Peng Ju, whose childhood name is Ahe, dwells in the head and harms a person’s Niwan (Muddy Pellet) and Dantian (energy center). It makes the mind dull and heavy, the eyes blurred and tearful, and the nose run with clear mucus; it also brings deafness, loss of teeth, and wrinkles at the corners of the mouth. It beguiles people into craving carriages and horses and the pleasures of music and sensual beauty, and makes them take filthy things for green worms. It further depletes the body’s true primordial endowment, so that the form grows haggard, the hair turns white, and the lifespan is shortened. It also makes people drowsy and fond of sleep, records their offenses, and reports them to the Celestial Official of the Upper Prime.

If one can practice ingestion and cultivation so that Jing (essence) and Qi (vital energy) become ample and secure, and take numinous medicine into the mouth, one may draw near the great Dao (the Way), and the Nine Heavens will no longer be remote. If for the time being one cannot yet do these things, one may regularly stay awake on Gengshen nights and thereby cut down the corpse-worms; taken together with scallion, cinnabar, and zhi-grass, the yin corpses will then dissolve of themselves.

The Middle Corpse, Peng Zhi, whose childhood name is Zuozi, likes to lure people into craving the five flavors and clinging to the five colors. It dwells between the heart and the abdomen, harming the Crimson Palace (the place where the heart resides) and the middle burner (the region where the body digests and transforms). It disorders the mind, brings forgetfulness, lessens the bodily fluids, and leaves one’s strength insufficient; it also drives people by deviant thoughts, overturns their judgment, and causes vexation, agitation, a dry mouth, and dry eyes. It harms the teeth and, day and night, injures the five viscera and six bowels, giving rise to all kinds of illness. One also dreams often and suffers nightmares; in dreams one couples with ghosts and thereby depletes Jing and Qi, and the urine becomes red or white. There may also appear seminal leakage, vomiting, abundant phlegm, ringing in the ears, sweating from depletion, and a distracted manner in one’s affairs. By day one is dull and heavy; by night one is often startled by nightmares. It hastens an early death and further schemes to have the person receive sacrificial offerings.

If one can keep the feelings tranquil and plain, ingest elixir medicines, and nurture form and Shen (spirit), it will have no way to do harm; otherwise, the body will decay and the person will die.

What follows in the original only lists “the Lower Corpse, Peng Jiao,” and provides no related scriptural content.

The lower corpse, Peng Jiao, whose style name is Jixi, dwells in a person’s stomach and feet. The scripture holds that it harms the passes and orifices of the lower body and injures the Sea of Qi (vital energy)—the place where, in Daoism and Chinese medicine, the body’s Qi gathers—giving rise to all kinds of illness. It stirs a person’s thoughts and intentions, causing one to crave women and indulge desire; whenever affairs arise, one squanders one’s strength yet cannot exercise self-restraint, and so one’s lifespan is cut short.

The scripture further says that it makes a person commune with ghosts at night, turn away from the vitality of life, and move toward death, while Jing (essence) and Qi continually drain away. It leads to exhaustion of the bone marrow, tightness and spasm of the sinews and vessels, burning pain in the flesh, and weariness of the heart’s Shen (spirit); the body grows weak, and one becomes addicted to women and indulges lust without restraint. Over time the waist grows heavy, the feet and knees lose their strength, urination becomes frequent, and one is harassed by pathogenic Qi, until serious disease gradually takes shape. The Five Labors and Seven Injuries—a general term for many kinds of strain and bodily damage—confusion of the heart and Shen, contamination by pathogenic Qi, and the so-called “corpse-infestation” (in Daoist thought, a lingering and hard-to-cure illness caused by the corpse-worms) are all said to be its doing. The scripture holds that these corpse-worms want a person, after death, to enter the way of ghosts, so that they may enjoy sacrificial offerings. If one takes mercury, medicinal decoctions, cinnabar, true lead, and the like, the po, or corporeal soul, of the yin corpse will disperse, and the person can preserve the bodily form and remain safe and well.

The nine kinds of worms are as follows: the first, the lurking worm, is four cun (Chinese inches) long; the second, the roundworm, is one cun long; the third, the white worm, is one cun long; the fourth, the flesh worm, is shaped like a rotten plum; the fifth, the lung worm, resembles a silkworm or an ant; the sixth, the stomach worm, is shaped like a shrimp (the characters at this point in the original are suspected to be corrupt); the seventh, the diaphragm worm, resembles the florets of wild rice; the eighth, the red worm, resembles a maggot; and the ninth, the dung-beetle worm, is black in color.

On the exterior of the human body there are also tens of thousands of minute worms, as tiny as vegetable seeds, and they are the leaders of all the various worms. The scripture holds that they make the skin ache and itch, giving rise to great-wind sores, malignant sores, tinea, hemorrhoids and fistulas, maggots in the genital region, damp itching, and similar ailments; they also erode the teeth, causing them to fall out for no apparent reason, to bleed, and to give off a foul odor. At the end of the text it is noted that the color of these worms is qing, a blue-green.

The fu worm is four cun (Chinese inches) long. It has whiskers and teeth and sucks a person’s Jing (essence) and blood. It brings fatigue and panting, with frequent nausea; the five viscera ache and feel oppressed, and the worm darts up and down inside the body, stabbing the chest and the face. It also makes a person crave meat and raw or cold food, and it dissipates the zhenyuan, the fundamental primordial Qi (vital energy) that sustains life. Further symptoms include profuse sweating, a lingering dribble after urination or defecation, stiffness of the back, and pain in the lower back. The person becomes deficient in Qi and weak in body, with seminal emission and uncontrolled leakage, and in the end falls ill and dies. Alum solution, guanzhong, cinnabar, and similar medicines should be taken early, to astringe, secure, and expel the worm, lest it injure the body from within and disturb the root of life.

The worm is black.

The roundworm, also called the hui worm, occurs as one male and one female. They move above and below the heart and suck a person’s blood. This causes pain in the heart, rapid breathing, and a vexing heaviness in the joints of the four limbs; urination is difficult, rough, and obstructed, and the urine may be red or white. The complexion becomes abnormal, the spirit grows dull and indolent, and clear fluid is brought up from the mouth. The scripture says that this worm is one chi (a Chinese foot) long, and that after feeding on the blood of the heart it becomes spiritually responsive. As a regular practice one should write, in cinnabar, the “True Unity Talisman” (Zhenyi Fu), a Daoist Fulu (talismans and registers), and use it to stop the worm’s mouth, and one should swallow “two-qi mercury” to kill the worm. Otherwise it will pierce the heart and the spleen, so that the person dies in unbearable pain; it will also deplete the upright Qi and bring on sudden death. The scripture holds that all of this is caused by this worm.

The worm is white.

The cunbai worm (inch-white worm) is one cun long. After its offspring multiply, it grows longer, to at most about four or five cun. It makes a person crave raw rice, raw tea, raw kuai (sliced raw fish), raw fruit, and “qiao meat” (so written in the source; what it specifically refers to is unclear), among other foods. It also depletes the viscera and bowels, so that the body wastes away, with vomiting of phlegm, abundant nasal discharge, a yellow complexion, and lack of strength. Inside the abdomen it bites, stirs, and stabs; at times a mass of Qi forms, and the pain is hard to bear. There may also be frequent diarrhea, gradually developing into prolapse of the rectum. If chicken is eaten as well, the scripture says this especially promotes the worms’ reproduction, so that they keep growing, travel through the viscera and bowels, and build nests and lairs that are not easily noticed, until at last the person dies short of breath. The scripture says that after mercury and cinnabar are taken to kill the worms, the illness gradually settles.

The flesh worm is shaped like a rotten plum and lives by sucking human blood. It depletes the body’s upright Qi (vital energy), bringing on incessant dribbling, weakness of movement, lack of strength in the sinews and back, and itching and pain of the skin and hair; the flesh also gradually withers and turns black. Lodging in the upper membrane, it makes a person crave sensual desire and fall ill from exhaustion. It feeds greedily on flesh and blood, depleting the body’s Yang Qi and Jing (essence) Qi; once this Jing Qi is exhausted, the person sickens and dies. One should quickly take the Two-Qi Cinnabar (Erqi Dansha) to destroy it, lest the body waste away day by day. This worm is red.

The lung worm is shaped like a silkworm; in old age its color turns bluish green, and at times it resembles a red ant. It sucks a person’s Jing Qi. Entrenched in the lungs, it causes abundant phlegm and coughing, and even the so-called “W illness” of the text (the characters at this point in the original are suspected to be corrupt). It also brings on swelling of the face and shortness of breath, restless sleep at night, and a sound in the throat like the cry of a cat. It can cause loss of voice, a complexion stripped of its luster, withered skin and hair, shedding of the beard and hair, and a gradual weakening of the breath. When the illness is severe there is coughing of blood; the ears stand out, the shoulders rise, the breastbone protrudes, the body wastes and declines, and one wishes only to sleep.

The lung worm also affects the six hollow organs, causing frequent diarrhea that discharges pus and blood, progressing into the five hemorrhoids and giving rise to the so-called “corpse-transmitted consumption” (the ancients regarded this as a contagious wasting illness that recurs). The patient’s cheeks flush red, with bone-steaming fever and night sweats, and the nasal mucus and saliva taste fishy and salty; the illness endangers life, and death may follow quickly. The scripture (Jing) says that one may take the Sea-Fish Elixir and Golden Flower Powder, and use a perilla decoction to regulate lung Qi and clear away the root of the disease; otherwise the lungs become distended and full, the four limbs are afflicted, and a person may die untimely without even noticing that strength is failing.

The stomach worm—the pathogenic worm said in Daoism to dwell within the body—is shaped like a toad, and sometimes like a tiger. Lodging in the body, it disturbs eating and drinking, so that one is easily hungry, craves foods of blood and flesh, and is also partial to what is raw and cold, sweet and cloying, or heavily fragrant. It weakens the internal organs and wastes the body, bringing parched lips, sores in the mouth, a blocked nose, and pain in the skin and hair. The limbs grow tight and cramped, the back feels weary and uncomfortable, nausea comes on by degrees, and phlegm and nasal mucus increase. Wine is readily vomited, and food is hard to digest. Qi (vital energy) stagnates in the chest, surges against both flanks, and sometimes invades the “external kidney”—the ancient name for the reproductive organs—so that one’s strength fails and the morbid signs denoted by “jie yuehua” appear. The sense of the original at this point is unclear and cannot be settled with certainty.

The scripture says that one must first replenish the “solar essence” (rijing) of the heart and spleen—in the Daoist context, the Yang aspect of Jing (essence)—and then eliminate the “yin po,” the Yin aspect of Jing. The pathogenic worm will then disperse, and the elixir one takes can also restore a ruddy complexion.

The worm is mottled bluish green and red.

The diaphragm worm—another pathogenic worm said in Daoism to dwell within the body—throws the six consciousnesses into confusion, that is, the six faculties of eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind, so that one speaks little and sleeps excessively. After falling asleep, one often dreams of wandering elsewhere, of climbing range upon range of steep mountains and then falling, or of crossing water by boat when the boat suddenly sinks. One may also dream of conversing with uncanny beings, of laughing and sporting in the pleasure quarters, or of coupling with yin-pathogenic things. People call dreams of this kind yan: being pressed upon and startled by the dream.

The scripture takes this to be Yin Qi stirring while Yang Qi is exhausted. Gorgeous things arouse desire and injure the “numinous root” (linggen), the root of life, so that Jing and Qi drain away and the body is worn down day by day. A fair complexion soon fades, and old age comes before its time. If one can take lingsha, a mineral elixir refined in Daoist practice, vitality returns as drought-stricken seedlings are watered, and the effect is like fields brought to a full harvest.

The worm is red.

The Red Worm (chichong) leaves a person short of Qi (vital energy) and bodily strength, weak and exhausted, with heaviness at the waist, dim and blurred vision, ringing in the ears, and deafness. It also brings itching of the genital region, sweating at night, and involuntary emission and leakage of Jing (essence). The spine and back ache, the marrow feels sore, food has no savor, and the stomach and intestines are weak and rumble. The scripture further says that Jing and Qi travel with the fluids and pass into the urine. When the movement of Qi grows turbid and the blood vessels become stagnant and sluggish, sores and swellings and yongju (suppurating ulcers) form, and a person may even die young. For this, one should first take medicines that settle the heart and calm the soul, and then take elixir medicines that tonify deficiency and secure what leaks, so as to guard the portals of the body and keep the Qi of ying and wei (the Qi that moves within the body and protects it) free and unobstructed. In this way the worms dissolve of themselves, and the body is not left withered and damaged.

Four worms: their color is faintly purple, with tiny black worms circling around them.

The Qiang Worm (qiangchong; a kind of worm named in the scripture) is black, with many minute worms gathered about it, fine as rapeseeds, and it is the leader of this host. The scripture holds that it gives rise to sores and scabies of the skin, malignant tinea, flakes of the scalp, and head lice, as well as sores, swelling, dampness, and itching of the genital region, hemorrhoids and fistulas, shulou (illnesses of the mouse-sore type), and all manner of itching diseases. It also eats into the teeth so that they decay and fall out; it causes bleeding for no apparent reason and foul breath; and it brings spiral-patterned lesions on the soles of the feet, stubborn numbness and obstruction, severe wind illness, lai-sores over the whole body with pus and blood exposed, loss of the eyebrows, and a complexion that gradually turns bluish-black. The scripture also says that these diseases are passed on to others, even to the point that father and son lose their bond of affection and husband and wife are driven apart. For this reason the sages left prescriptions and essential instructions: those who come after should first bathe and observe purification and fasting, and then take cinnabar, mercury, alum solution, calomel, and the like, in order to destroy the Three Corpse Worms (sanshichong; in Daoist belief, worm-spirits that lodge in the human body and harm body and mind), so that the harm does not reach their descendants and the body’s health and safety are preserved. What is recorded here is the pharmacological teaching of ancient Daoism and does not represent modern medical advice.

The color of the worm is deep black.

Long ago, Master Zhang followed Master Wang in studying the Dao (the Way), and later took the Perfected Person Sun as his teacher. The Perfected Person Sun first taught him a method for removing harmful worms. After he took the medicines, the corpse-worms in his body were expelled along with the drugs. Master Zhang had his disciple, Master Zhou, look at them, and Master Zhou drew the forms of the worms, intending to pass them on to later generations.

Later, on Mount Qingcheng in western Shu, there was a Daoist named Zhao Xiyi, whose attainment in the Dao was profound; he had climbed mountains and braved many dangers. At the time, Yu He, a langzhong serving as prefect of Pengzhou, invited him to the prefecture and honored him as one would serve a teacher. After several years, on every gengshen day Zhao Xiyi kept vigil and cultivated according to the scriptures (Jing), taking medicines and talismanic drugs from the hour of wu, around midday, straight through to the hour of zi, around midnight, without pause by day or night. He, too, received a response, and nine worms three chi in length were expelled from his body. He then ordered artisans to draw their forms, so that they might be transmitted to those who wished to preserve life.

My friend Chen Lingzhang was originally from Dongping. During the Yuanhe era he came to western Shu to cultivate the Dao. In midsummer at the beginning of the Changqing era, at the home of his companion in the Dao, Li Xuanhui of Xinqiao, he fasted for more than a hundred days, devoting himself to methods of Qi (vital energy) and taking Yang Jing (essence), mercury, and numinous medicines, while drinking three cups of water each day. On the ninety-seventh day he drank only one cup of water a day and felt a dull ache in his abdomen. Soon the pain grew severe, as if something were about to be expelled. Li Xuanhui said, “He has eaten nothing for more than ninety days, so there should be no food residue in his belly. This is surely something extraordinary. Have him pass it into a basin so we can see.”

After a long while, he expelled a mass of fatty membrane that kept turning without stop. Once it was washed with water, the membrane grew thin, and two worms appeared inside. Their whiskers and claws were fully formed, and their color was black. Each worm had six legs, with whiskers five fen long and red eyes; both the legs and the heads bore vermilion spots. They looked like the insects found on willow trees in summer, which common folk call “yiyang.” Chen Lingzhang held the worms one in each hand, and they struggled in his grasp like stone-rats. Everyone thought it marvelous and sighed, “That such worms should dwell in the five viscera—how can a person live long?”

After Chen Lingzhang took the elixir medicine and expelled these worms, his appearance became as youthful as a child’s, and his hearing and sight grew keen. Later he entered Mount Qingcheng and never came out again. Someone therefore compiled a record of the matter and drew the forms of the worms, in order to caution those who would come after.

The worm transmitted with the embryo that knows one’s allotted lifespan belongs to the same class as the “flying corpse.” It attaches itself to grain Qi (vital energy) and moves with flowing Jing (essence), and it is born together with the person. The scripture also depicts its form, as a warning to those who come later.

The scripture holds that this worm causes a person to lack orthodox faith, to envy those who follow the good Dao (the Way), to draw close to wicked people, and to fear the Qi of Yangming. It also makes a person constantly give rise to anger, even wishing to drag others along into the path of ghosts. It renders the mind and Shen (spirit) violent and disordered, so that one craves and harbors hatred and clings to favor, affection, and beautiful form; one becomes entangled by impure desires, and primordial Jing is depleted. The scripture presents the worm as the root of disease, holding that it consumes a person’s body and spirit, wears down innate nature, and drives one to chase things urgently and pass one’s days in restless haste, stopping only when the end of life draws near.

The scripture further says that this worm delights in eating meat, drinking tea, and eating roasted and broiled foods. It disorders the viscera, clouds the ears and eyes, and produces foul odors in the mouth and nose. There also appear dribbling and leakage, white flakes on the head, itching of the skin, and stiffness and tension throughout the body. The interior is gradually damaged, and in the end one moves toward death. Only if the ghostly beings it commands can be subdued, and the routes by which it enters the gates of life in the human body can be blocked, will it disperse. The scripture advocates preventing its harm by retaining Jing, circulating Qi, and ingesting the elixir, so that the body remains secure, one may long remain in the world, and care and affliction are removed.

Lord Lao’s Formula for Removing the Corpse-Worms

The formula given in the scripture for expelling the corpse-worms is set out below. The “fen” after each medicinal is a unit of quantity in the prescription:

five fen of guanzhong, used to kill the lurking worm; twelve fen of baiquelu, used to kill the you-worm; three fen of shuqi, used to kill the white worm; five fen of wuyi, used to kill the flesh worm; five fen of leiwan, used to kill the red worm; four fen of jiangcan, the stiffened silkworm, used to kill the jietong worm; five fen of houpo, used to kill the lung worm; four fen of langyazi, used to kill the blue-green worm; five fen of shican, used to kill the molting worm.

Grind the nine medicinal ingredients listed above very fine, stir-fry them until fragrant and fully cooked, then pound them, sift them into powder, and with honey form pills the size of a Chinese parasol-tree seed. Swallow them with a slurry of calomel (qingfen), five pills at a time, three times a day, gradually increasing to ten pills. After thirty days of taking them, results will appear; after sixty days, it is said, all illnesses are cured, and the various worm diseases within the body are likewise eliminated. To take this elixir, one must first observe a purification fast and then ingest it with sincere intent; it is said that none fail to benefit. These scriptural instructions have all been verified in person. On a jiazi day, they must be kept strictly secret.

Secret Formula of the Most High for Removing the Three Corpses by Refining Mercury and Numinous Cinnabar

One jin of vermilion mercury, one liang of Taiyang, and three liang of Xuhuang.

Stir-fry the above substances together over a slow fire for one fushi (an ancient unit of time used in alchemical preparation). When they turn purple, sublime and refine them seven times in a water-fire cauldron (a vessel used for refining elixirs), then calcine them over a fierce fire. Take them out and remove the fire-toxin. With barley flour, form pills the size of a Chinese parasol-tree seed. To each liang of pills add six zhu of calomel (zhu is an ancient unit of weight) and make the pills. Take seven pills on an empty stomach. Avoid sheep’s blood and mallow. The Perfected One says that, after they are taken, they can settle the hun and po souls, secure and protect primal Jing (essence), replenish the blood, preserve the complexion, ease various illnesses, and strengthen the sinews and bones.

Lord Lao’s Talisman of the Six Ten-Day Periods and the Six Jia: Take it once every ten days, ten pieces each time. It is said to remove the Three Corpses and the Nine Worms and to nourish Yang Jing, with marked effect. One should also follow the refining method given above, grind the mercury-cinnabar fine, use it to write Fulu (talismans and registers), and take them regularly.

The Six-Use Talisman

Tap the teeth three times, perform the rite of bowing with the head to the ground, and call upon the names of the Six Jia spirits, saying: “I, so-and-so, have reverently received the numinous talisman.”

Respectfully invite the Jiazi spirit Wang Wenqing, leading eighteen attendants, to descend and attach to my brush.

Respectfully invite the Jiaxu spirit Zhan Zigong, leading fourteen attendants, to descend and attach to my brush.

Respectfully invite the Jiashen spirit Hu Fu.

Respectfully invite the Jiazi spirit Wang Wenqing, leading eighteen attendants, to descend and attach to my brush.

Respectfully invite the Jiaxu spirit Zhan Zigong, leading fourteen attendants, to descend and attach to my brush.

Reverently invite the spirit of Jia-Shen, Hu Wenqing, leading sixteen attendants, to descend and coil about my brush.

Reverently invite the spirit of Jia-Wu, Wei Shangqing, leading eighteen attendants, to descend and coil about my brush.

Reverently invite the spirit of Jia-Chen, Meng Feiqing, leading fourteen attendants, to descend and coil about my brush.

Reverently invite the spirit of Jia-Yin, Ming Wenzhang, leading sixteen attendants, to descend and coil about my brush.

The talismanic writing above is to be inscribed in a clean room while incense is burned.

Choose a “Chu day” or a “Po day” (days in the traditional calendar used for clearing away the old and breaking impurity), write the talisman in cinnabar, and swallow it; it is said that one may thereby subdue the Three Corpses (spirits which, in Daoist belief, dwell in the human body and obstruct cultivation).

There are three talismans in all. On every Geng-Shen night (one of the days of the sexagenary cycle; Daoism holds that at this time the Three Corpses report a person’s faults to the court of Heaven), write them in cinnabar on paper and then swallow them; it is said to be infallible. On a Geng-Shen night one must guard against the corpse-demons and forbid them utterly.

Choose a Chu day or a Po day, write the talisman in cinnabar, and swallow it; it is said that one may thereby subdue the Three Corpses.

There are three talismans in all. On every Geng-Shen night, write them in cinnabar on paper and then swallow them; it is said to be infallible. On a Geng-Shen night one must guard against the corpse-demons. Apply cinnabar beneath the left and right eyes; then apply realgar at the right nostril, and insert it slightly into the left nostril. When this has been done, first click the teeth three times and recite the incantation:

“Upper luminaries fly and entwine; cinnabar and yellow scatter their smoke. Qi (vital energy) seizes turbid evil; corpse-filth sinks into sleep. As the hun-souls are refined and the po-souls tempered, the bodily form is joined and becomes immortal. Let me not die; blessings and long life remain forever complete. Hearing keen and sight penetrating, I long enjoy the benefit of the primordial.”

When the incantation is finished, click the teeth three times more and swallow the saliva in the mouth three times. With the index finger of the right hand press below the right nostril, and with the middle finger of the left hand press below the left nostril, seven times on each side; at the last, press gently and do not raise the hand. The scripture holds that this is the gateway through which the Seven Po (the seven kinds of souls spoken of in Daoism) roam and through which the corpse-demons come and go, and also the passage by which Jing (essence) and Qi are depleted. One therefore uses the Jing and Qi of cinnabar and realgar to block the path of the corpse-demons and to seal off licentious, disorderly Qi.

On a jiazi day (one of the days of the sexagenary cycle), the secret method for taking the preparation and suppressing the Three Corpses (sanshi) is as follows. At dawn take one sheng of “face-washing water”; at noon take another sheng; and at sunset take yet another sheng. After dusk, in a place where the stars and moon can be seen, wait until midnight, recite the incantation, and then mix this water with flour and swallow it. The incantation is: “Heaven is clear and earth is at peace; the sun, the moon, and the five stars. Divine water of the Six Jia, destroy the corpse-bandit hosts. Turn ill fortune into good fortune; originating, penetrating, beneficial, and correct. Quickly, quickly, in accordance with the statutes and ordinances.”

The “Pill of the Initial Spirit Departing the Root” (Chushen Quben Wan) is also called the “Worm-Suppressing Pill” (Zhichong Wan).

The formula: five liang of large aconite root, choosing pieces of eight-angled form and roasting them until they split open; five liang of frankincense; five liang of costus root; seven sheng of hemp-seed kernels; six liang of dried rehmannia; five liang of rhubarb; five liang of zhanmu sugar-gum; seven liang of atractylodes; five liang of the southward-running root bark of evodia, which must be gathered at noon on the fifth day of the fifth month while facing south; five liang of cassia heart; five liang of the essence of cloud polypore; five liang of cinnabar; and ten liang of rock-grown sweetflag, weighed after drying in the sun and soaked in one dou of clear wine.

These thirteen ingredients are each pounded separately. In the original text, the instructions for five liang of the essence of cloud polypore, five liang of cinnabar, ten liang of rock-grown sweetflag, and soaking in one dou of clear wine are repeated once more. Each drug is pounded for three thousand pestle strokes—the ancient count of blows while compounding medicine—and all are then combined and blended with white honey; they are pounded for another eight thousand strokes. The original further says that when the pounding comes to about fifty thousand strokes in all, the medicine is finished. Place it in a sealed vessel and store it with care, allowing neither air to escape nor any defilement to reach the medicine.

In the early morning, facing east, take for the first time “seven nines” (so the original reads; the exact dosage is unclear), the pills being the size of small beans. Thereafter increase the dose by “one nine” at each taking, and swallow the pills with wine. This medicine tonifies and replenishes, removes all manner of calamities, steadies the hun and po souls, and fills out the bodily fluids and the blood and Qi (vital energy). When one preparation has been taken, the grain worms die; once the grain worms are dead, the Three Corpses wither as well. It may also be taken over a long period. After the grain worms have been eliminated, eating the five grains brings no illness, and even eating to excess does no harm. This is a teaching of the utmost truth and should be followed in practice.

The method of preparing the “essence of cloud polypore.”

Five liang of mica powder and four liang of realgar are sifted extremely fine and then weighed. These two ingredients are placed in a copper vessel and warmed gently over a low fire until their color changes slightly. They are then put into a bamboo tube, and the mouth of the tube is sealed tightly with pine resin so that no vapor can escape. The bamboo tube is suspended over a pot in which rice is being steamed and is removed after one shi of rice has been cooked through. When it is opened and examined, the three materials should be thoroughly blended, taking on a state like congealed fat. Pine resin is added again and mixed in repeatedly, ten liang of pine resin being used in all.

The medicine is hung beneath the roof for twenty-four days and afterward pounded ten thousand strokes of the pestle (chu, the traditional count of repeated pounding in the preparation of medicines); the Yunzhiying is then complete. Before making it, one first fasts for three days. After the Yunzhiying has been finished, one fasts for another seven days and only then begins to compound the medicine used to subdue the worms. The scripture (jing) says that nine fasts amount in all to fourteen days; when the term is fulfilled, the medicine is pounded ten thousand pestle-strokes and the Yunzhiying is complete. One first fasts for three days and then compounds the medicine; after it has been made, one fasts for another seven days before compounding the worm-subduing medicine.

During the fast one does not eat the five pungent foods (wuxin, usually scallion, garlic, Chinese chives, Chinese onion, asafetida, and similar acrid foods) or the five meats, and women, sparrowhawks, dogs, and the like must not be allowed to touch or see the medicine. While preparing it, one should live in a separate room. If the fast is not kept with single-minded attention, or if a taboo is violated, the medicine will have no effect when taken. If fiery sores break out over the whole body after it is taken, this is regarded as a sign that the medicine was not carefully prepared or that a taboo was breached during the fast.

The ingredients should be of the highest grade, and every step should likewise be carried out with care and propriety. The medicine should be prepared on the first, third, seventh, or eleventh day of the month. Incense is burned on the eastern side, and a spirit couch and mats are set out. The scripture says that on that day the Director of Destinies (Siming) and the Lord of Great Unity (Taiyi Jun) come to inspect the work. While preparing the medicine, one faces the mats and sits turned toward the east. In making this great medicine one does not choose an overcast day or a day of wind and rain, and the matter must be kept strictly secret. The scripture says that in former times Xiuyang Gong, Nongqiu Zi, Dongfang Shuo, Quewen Zi, and Shangqiu Zi all took this medicine in order to practice bigu (abstention from the five grains) and thereby became immortals.

The method for removing the Three Corpse-worms comes from the Inner Biography of the Immortal Su (Su Xian neizhuan).

Five liang of wuyi, two liang of goji root, and four liang of dried lacquer are used. The dried lacquer alone is cooked until it gives off smoke. The three ingredients are pounded, mixed, and then finely sifted into a powder. In the early morning one first eats a little food and then pinches up the medicinal powder with three fingers and takes it.

At the end of the original text, the words “goji root, two liang; dried lacquer, four liang, cooked…” repeat the dosages of the ingredients given above, and the sentence breaks off at “pinch the medicine.” The rendering above follows the surviving text directly; the subsequent instructions for taking the medicine cannot be supplied.

Pound the three medicinal ingredients mentioned earlier together, pass them through a fine sieve, and prepare them as a powder. At dawn, first eat a little something; then take a pinch of the powder with three fingers, mix it with water freshly drawn from a well that morning, and drink it. After five days, the Three Corpse worms will be expelled of themselves. At the outset this may cause one to feel melancholy and sorrow; this is a sign that the Three Corpse worms are departing.

The Taiqing Formula of the Eight-Jade Elixir

Cinnabar, realgar, kongqing (azurite), sulfur, mica, Rong salt, niter, and orpiment.

These eight ingredients are to be sublimated and refined, ground, processed, and set out according to the formula, following the methods used in preparing the various elixirs. The specific procedure accords entirely with the Method of the Four Divine Elixirs, as found in the Feifu Zhushi Jing (Scripture on the Flying and Subduing of the Various Stones).

The Method of Keeping Vigil on the Gengshen Day

Visualize two divinities in the head, the Most High Lord Lao and the Perfected of the Niwan (Muddy Pellet), seated upright together above. They wear far-roaming caps and long black robes and sit within a curtain of dark radiance, looking downward to inspect the mouth, eyes, ears, and nose, and rendering the qi (vital energy) of these sites pure and clear. This is called “the Upper One, who embraces the hun-souls of the divisions.”

Visualize two divinities in the heart, the Most High Thearch and the Perfected of the Crimson Palace, seated upright together. They wear caps of the Nine Yang and robes of the untrammeled scenery of the Cinnabar South, and sit within a curtain of the Vermilion Mound, looking downward to inspect the condition of the body’s four limbs. In the liver, the spleen, the gallbladder, and the kidneys there are likewise, in each, the Most High Thearch and the Perfected of the Crimson Palace, wearing caps of the Nine Yang and robes of the untrammeled scenery of the Cinnabar South, seated within a curtain of the Vermilion Mound, looking downward upon the body and making the liver, spleen, gallbladder, and kidneys all as pure and clear as five-colored jade. This is called “the Middle One, who restrains the deviant jing (essence) of the four limbs.”

Visualize two divinities in the navel, the Great Yellow Lord Lao and the Yellow Perfected. They wear caps of the Ten Numina and yellow damask robes, and sit within a curtain of yellow brocade, looking downward to inspect the apertures of the spleen and intestines and making them all clear and luminous. This is called “the Lower One, who restrains the intestines and stomach and controls the po-souls of the bodily frame.”

Once one has visualized in this way, the Three Corpses have no means of stirring up disorder.

Oral Instructions of the Most High Perfected

On the yimao day in spring, the bingwu day in summer, the gengshen day in autumn, and the renzi day in winter, when you lie down with your eyes closed, first take three portions each of cinnabar, realgar, and orpiment, grind them into a fine powder, wrap it in cotton cloth to the size of a jujube, and insert it into the nose. This is known as the secret method for eliminating the Three Corpses (Sanshi)—which Daoism holds to be three spirits that dwell in the human body and harm life—and for refining the Seven Po (Qipo), the seven soul-forces of the human body as described in Daoism. Do not let others know of it.

At noon the next day, bathe in eastward-flowing water. After bathing, make up the bed anew, then remove the medicinal packet from the nose, and sweep the sleeping mat and the space beneath the bed, so that the room in which you live remains clean. Then set the pillow and lie down, hold the breath and maintain Wogu (clenching both hands, with the thumb pressing the root of the ring finger—a traditional life-nurturing hand gesture) for a moment, and softly recite:

“The Dao (the Way) of Heaven proceeds with constancy, putting off the old and bringing renewal. The Supreme Thearch bestows an auspicious day; bathing returns one to the realm of the True. The Three Qi (vital energy) eliminate the Three Corpses, and the medicines of cinnabar and yellow stone settle the hun-soul. Treasure and cultivate the Seven Po, so that primordial Qi may join closely with me.”

After the incantation has been recited, this method is a superior means of eliminating and refining away corpse-filth, and it is also an important secret for changing one’s former appearance and renewing the bodily form. Within the four seasons, it is most auspicious to choose one day in each season on which to practice it.

Master Zhao says: To remove the Three Corpses and the Nine Worms, one ordinarily, on the day of each month that corresponds to the “establishment of the month” (the establishment day of the current month as determined by the sexagenary calendar), at midnight in the zi hour, quietly goes into the courtyard, faces due east, relaxes the body and evens the breath, and clicks the teeth thirty times. One then raises the head and tilts it slightly upward, lowers the head and inclines it slightly downward, and next swallows the saliva in the mouth fourteen times. With both hands one then extends and draws back, forward and backward, fourteen times in each direction; when extending and drawing back forward and backward, the hands should cross one another, and the movements are performed quietly.

One recites the incantation, saying: “Lord of Nanchang, together with the five divine officials and the one hundred and twenty officers and generals, I ask you to remove for me the Three Corpses and the prostrate corpses, to escort me as I travel throughout the world, and to enable me to pass through calamities and adverse fortune.” When this has been said, one slowly turns to the left, then goes back and lies down. Practiced in this way, the Three Corpses will be destroyed. If the present month contains a day of renewed establishment, one cultivates according to this method, and when reciting the incantation says: “I ask you to remove for me the Three Corpses and the prostrate corpses, to escort me as I travel throughout the world, and to enable me to pass through calamities and adverse fortune.” When this has been said, one slowly turns to the left, then goes back and lies down, and the Three Corpses will be destroyed.

When cultivating this method, it is best to observe fasting and purification and to live alone. Do not allow other people to crowd in and disturb you; keep quiet, and do not let others know of it. If domestic animals, birds, and beasts all make no sound, that is still more ideal. This method is easy to practice, and it will not leave a person’s spirit (Shen) dazed and unsettled.

The scripture further says: To remove the corpse-worms, in spring one may choose a jia day or a yi day. At night, observe the direction in which the Year Star (Jupiter) lies, and in the morning bow toward it twice. With mind and Shen upright, gaze at it and recite the incantation: “May the bright star of the east support my hun soul and receive and guide my po soul, so that my lifespan may be like the pine, enduring a thousand autumns and ten thousand years, long-lived and never declining. Please remove the Three Corpses and Nine Worms within my body, so that they all disperse and are utterly destroyed.” One should regularly choose a pure and quiet place in which to practice this. What this method speaks of is the lord of benevolent virtue who delights in life. Wood can overcome Earth, and therefore the corpse-worms that belong to Earth can be removed.

There is yet another method for removing the Three Corpses and Nine Worms. On the last day of each month (the final day of the lunar month), when the moon rises, face east, take three steps according to the Pace of Yu (Yubu, a Daoist method of stepping), and recite the incantation: “Nuo Gao, Nuo Gao!” “Nuo Gao” is a calling cry, like a shout. In the moon there are a rabbit, a shrimp, and [the graph is damaged at this point in the original]; in the sun there are worms and the three-legged crow; in water there are worms, snakes, and fish; in the earth there are worms, ants, and mole crickets; in the belly there are worms, squid, and the baitu. The foregoing is to be recited three times in succession and kept strictly secret.

When performing the Pace of Yu, one must hold the Qi (vital energy): first step forward with the left foot, then with the right foot, and finally bring the left foot up beside the right foot. This counts as three steps.

There is another method: regularly trim the fingernails on yin days (寅) and the toenails on wu days (午). On the sixteenth day of the eleventh month, burn the clippings to ash and swallow them.

Mr. Jiang says: Following the “Purple Text of the Five Phases” (Wuxing ziwen, a visualization method corresponding to the Five Phases), at noon on the first and the fifteenth of each month, close the eyes and face west. What is called linmu here means closing the eyes and not opening them. Visualize green Qi (vital energy) issuing from both eyes, red Qi issuing from the heart, and yellow Qi issuing from below the navel; then visualize these three currents of Qi connecting with one another and suffusing the whole body. After a short while, imagine the inside and outside of the body opening through to each other, as if a fiery light appears. A little later, tap the teeth fourteen times, then swallow the fluid in the mouth in fourteen portions. The scripture (jing) calls this the “Way of Refining the Form,” and it is also a method for expelling the Three Corpses (sanshi—spirits which, in Daoist belief, dwell in the human body and obstruct cultivation). Long practice enables the three Qi to interconnect and suffuse the whole body; the scripture further says that, over time, the body will give off five kinds of fragrance.

In addition, each day at cockcrow rinse the mouth and swallow by means of the “Sweet Spring” (liquan, the Daoist name for the fluid in the mouth), rinsing and swallowing three times in all. On wu days (戊) one should rise at daybreak, slowly regulate and even the breath, and during this time not speak with anyone.

The “Diagram of Cultivation and Visualization” is an illustrative diagram of visualization accompanying this passage of practice.