《云笈七签》Vol. 26

My past transgressions weigh upon me like mountains. I can only pray that the Most High (Taishang, the supreme deity revered in Daoism) release the Three Corpses (Sanshi, spirits believed to dwell in the human body, record a person’s misdeeds, and report them) and dispel every kind of calamity. Now I entrust myself to the Dao Lord of the Most High. I shall forever be a subject of the divine and often contemplate the Way of Clarity and Emptiness, cleansing my defiled body through it. I hope for the good fortune to encounter an immortal and open the path to the mysterious realm.

Today I received from my late master the Scripture of the Golden Liquids. As I unrolled and read this precious classic, my mind and spirit grew clear and still, as if I had been reborn. Only then did I understand the sacred majesty of the Celestial Worthy: it cannot be expressed by a mortal body. How could ordinary, foolish and limited people readily hear such mysterious Daoist teachings? I dare not casually reveal or privately keep the scripture and its teachings. Therefore, I set out offerings and report to the supreme celestial deities, making an oath to pass it on only once, with silk as the token of trust. All these rites have been prepared according to the prescribed regulations. I shall wear and uphold this teaching for a long time, and never reveal or lose it.

I pray only that the Lords and Venerable Elders of the Great Dao of the Most High (divine figures revered in Daoism) will support me, grant me long life, and make all I seek come to pass. May the work of refining the divine medicine soon be completed, and may my wife also withdraw to live in the mountains and forests. I will separately report my plea to the exalted emperors above, asking them to help me refine the essence of the Elixir. In accordance with the transmitted procedures, I will respectfully accept my master’s instruction and arrangements.

When I have finished speaking, I bow nine times and strike my body with my hand nine times. The sound should be slow and gentle, barely audible. If I cannot recite the incantation from memory, I may hold the scripture and read from it. Then I present incense and wine once more. When the rite is over, I send off the deities. I rise, perform the kowtow, and report in turn: “I respectfully summon the True King of the Nine Heavens”; “I respectfully summon the True Sovereigns and Nine Elders of the Three Heavens, Lords of the Immortal Capital”; “I respectfully summon the Venerable Elder of the Nine Qi”; “I respectfully summon the Perfected One of the Most High”; “I respectfully summon the Venerable Elder of Nonbeing, the True Official”; “I respectfully summon the Jade Maiden of Great Elixir”; “I respectfully summon the Lord of the Heavenly One”; “I respectfully summon the Central Official”; “I respectfully summon the Jade Maiden of Great Elixir”; “I respectfully summon the Lord of the Heavenly One”; and “I respectfully summon the Lady of Central Yellow.” After each invocation, I rise and bow once. When all the bows and offerings are complete, I rise.

During a sacrificial offering, the offerings must not be shared with ordinary people—those who do not cultivate the Dao. The paper, ink, brush, and inkstone used to copy the scripture for the rite should be placed separately beside the offerings. Report to the spirits: “Today I use this paper and ink to write the elixir scripture. May they remain intact and suffer no damage.” Place three portions of ginger on the offering tray, three liang per portion, nine liang in all. Other sweet fruits and fine dishes may be added or reduced according to your wishes; there is no need for extravagance. Those of modest means need do only this.

The next day, if anything remains unclear, you may ask someone to explain it with one or two lines of oral instruction. During the rite, do not let ordinary people approach the study; it is best to keep them away. If you lack rong salt, a salt used in alchemical practice, you may substitute Hedong coarse salt. If you lack brine used in alchemy, take fine clear wine and simmer it over a low flame until it becomes thick and hard like malt syrup, then use it in equal measure with alum stone and arsenolite, two mineral medicines. Only when neither of those materials can be found should you use this method as a substitute. The substitute is ultimately less solid and compact than the original, so make the sealing clay a little thicker. This is a last resort.

“The Song of the Yin Lord on the Divine Elixir of Golden Liquid of Great Clarity” (a song by the Yin Lord concerning the divine elixir of Golden Liquid of Great Clarity)

The returned elixir made with Golden Liquid transforms into flowing immortal blossoms, enabling a person to soar aloft and ascend to the Mound of Heaven. Yellow and red substances can be refined quickly. Once the male and female materials are obtained, they undergo different transformations: they can rise and change, and summon a traveling kitchen to provide food along the way. Spirit beings and jade maidens all take me as their husband; I come and go without hindrance, in harmony with Heaven. Its essence condenses like frost and can sink or float. If this astonishes you, it will surely come forth and roam. (The entire song has sixty-three characters. The wording in the old text is also difficult to understand; the Yin Lord revealed its meaning.)

To refine the Golden Elixir by the method of liquid gold, use two large copper cylinders. Each cylinder should have an opening three and a half cun wide, walls four fen thick, and a height of nine cun. One cylinder serves as the lid, and should be five cun high.

Take one jin of processed arsenolite and half a jin of red lead. First heat the arsenolite twenty times, then pound and grind it ten thousand times. Place it in an iron vessel and keep it over a fierce fire for nine days and nine nights. Pound it another ten thousand times, then grind it to a fine powder. Mix it with pure bitter vinegar to make a paste, and coat the outside of the copper cylinders with it, applying a layer four fen thick over the top and bottom. This is the first layer. Next, take the essences of realgar and orpiment, mix them with pure vinegar, and coat the inner walls of both cylinders to a thickness of half a fen. This is the second layer.

For the third layer, apply frost and snow. Coat the upper cylinder, which serves as the lid, in the same way as the lower cylinder. Fill the cylinder with frost and snow to a depth of less than one and a half cun, place the medicine in the frost and snow, and cover it with the lid. Apply two more layers in this way. For the third application, again use frost and snow; coat the lid in the same manner as the cylinder, and fill it with frost and snow to a depth of less than one and a half cun. Place the medicine in the frost and snow, then cover it with the lid. Finally, seal the joined edges with flakes of hematite tile as before. Seal them firmly so no air can escape; if there is a leak, the essence of the medicine will disperse. If you find a leak, seal it again.

Place the vessel in a cool, dry, clean place and leave it until completely dry. Then set it upright on an iron stand in the center of a fire fueled by reeds and horse manure.

The furnace should stand about three inches above the ground; chaff can also be used for fuel. At first, keep the fire three inches from the vessel on all sides, observing carefully and tending it with caution. After ten days, bring the fire closer, leaving two inches on each side. After twenty days, bring it closer still, to one inch. When the refining has continued for about thirty days—fifty days in all—the substance is called “gold.” Here, “gold” means the miraculous medicine from which gold can be refined.

Continue refining it over the fire for another twenty days, making seventy days in all. The substance is then fully refined and called “red gold.” This name means that the miraculous medicine can be used to make red gold; it is also called “Golden Elixir restored through liquid gold.” To make gold, put one zhu of the restored elixir into one jin of lead, and it will yield genuine gold. Another method is to place the lead in a vessel and heat it until it melts, then add a small amount of the red medicine. Looking down into the vessel, one will see five-colored radiance scattering and purple clouds crossing and reflecting one another. Dense, luminous vapors appear in black and yellow, like banks of colored clouds gathered in the sky above. This phenomenon is called “purple gold” and is a marvel of Daoist arts.

The purple, frostlike substance on the vessel’s lid is called the “divine elixir.” To take it, mix it with “dragon balm,” form it into pills the size of soybeans, and swallow one each morning with freshly drawn well water. The scripture says that after seventy days, the Six Ding and Six Jia—the guardian generals of Daoism—together with various immortals and jade maidens, will come to pay their respects. They will stand beside the practitioner and guide them from before and behind. After one hundred days, one will be able to move about in a daze, entering and leaving without hindrance and reaching distant places in the blink of an eye. After one hundred and fifty days, the jade maidens will come to pay their respects and serve the practitioner. It is said that one’s appearance will become as beautiful as jade, that one will be able to transform freely, and that one will see many wondrous sights and treasures.

The scripture also says that gold governs the flesh, while the restored elixir governs the blood and vessels. It can summon spirits, allowing unobstructed movement between above and below, and entry and exit without impediment, so that one may meet the spirits of the sun and moon. Each morning, one should also rinse the mouth and swallow the “jade fluid of the flower pool.” In this context, “jade fluid” means saliva. The scripture holds that it nourishes the marrow, sinews, and flesh, replenishes a person’s vital essence, and causes that essence to rise. It leaves one without fatigue and grants long life and far-reaching vision.

“Dragon balm” means the dew on mulberry leaves, wiped up in the early morning with cotton cloth. Boil large dried dates until their clear upper liquid comes out, mix it in equal parts with sheep’s fat, and simmer it into date paste. This, too, may be taken over a long period; the scripture says that it will strengthen the body and give the complexion a healthy glow. The copper tube may also be made larger. The dimensions given earlier apply only to one batch of the restored elixir, and may be adjusted as needed.

To make jujube paste, take three dou of large dried jujubes for each batch and boil them in six dou of water until the flesh is soft and falling apart. Add another three dou of water and continue boiling, for a total of nine dou. Strain out the jujube pulp and let the liquid stand until clear, then collect three dou. Add six dou of “jia yang sui” (sheep bone marrow) and simmer over low heat until thick, like malt syrup. If sheep bone marrow is unavailable, sheep fat can be used instead.

To refine realgar and orpiment, take one jin of each, pound them finely for ten thousand strokes, then sift and set aside. Seal the upper and lower parts of an earthen crucible with “six-one mud” (the clay used to seal vessels during elixir refinement), then fit the two parts together. Mix fragments of newly fired roof tiles with mud and seal the crucible tightly so no gas can escape. Leave it to dry in the sun; if the clay layer cracks, patch it with more mud. Then burn reed fuel continuously for three days and nights, heating the base and sides of the crucible. When the essence condenses in the upper part as a frostlike or snowlike deposit, collect it. A larger vessel may also be used; the frostlike deposit on the lid is the finished product.

To make frost-snow, take seven ingredients—cengqing, arsenolite, stone sulfur, Rong salt, condensate stone, hematite, and mercury—and mix them in the stated proportions. Pound them for ten thousand strokes, without sifting. Mix with pure vinegar until moist, soft, and of the right consistency, then place the mixture in an earthen crucible. Seal it in the same way as a crucible used to refine elixirs. Coat it tightly with hematite and white roof-tile fragments, ensuring no gas escapes; follow the remaining steps as before. Burn reed fuel continuously for four days and nights, heating the base and sides and making the fire somewhat stronger. When the “divine efflorescence” condenses above as a frostlike or snowlike deposit, sweep it up with the feathers of a three-year-old rooster. This is called “frost-snow.” One may also add three more ingredients—cinnabar, realgar, and orpiment—in the same proportions as the preceding materials, making ten ingredients in all. This is called “golden efflorescence condensed into frost-snow.” With this procedure, the method for refining the revertant elixir is complete.

After refining it for three more years, sweep it with rooster feathers. The substance obtained is called “Frost and Snow.” Add three more ingredients: cinnabar, realgar, and orpiment, in the same amounts as the ingredients used earlier. There are ten ingredients in all, and the mixture is called “Golden Flower Condensed Frost and Snow.” Refined in this way, the method for making the Reverted Elixir is complete.

Before making the Reverted Elixir, one must first perform a sacrifice; otherwise, the refining will not succeed. One must also fast for three days, prepare five jin of clear wine and one or two jin of dried meat, and sacrifice to the Kitchen God. Reed is used for the copper tube because the “Heavenly Horse” mentioned here should especially be made of reed; horse-dung fire should also be used. Reed fire is difficult to tend. When burning the essences of realgar and orpiment, and when preparing Frost and Snow, use a separate reed fire; it must not be mixed with the fire used for the copper tube. “Golden Flower Condensed Essence Frost” is a medicine that can be taken and is said to make a person live forever. It is not the same as Frost and Snow and must not be put into the copper tube. The verdigris, Rong salt, and gypsum used to prepare Frost and Snow are precious medicinal materials and cannot be replaced with other substances. If the ingredients are not genuine, the elixir cannot be made.

The Taiqing Divine Elixir of Golden Liquids contains 576 characters. After the seventh character, it records: “The Golden Liquids contains 506 characters; the Reverted Elixir contains 63 characters.”

Master Zheng said: “Immortals may ascend or withdraw into concealment; the efficacy of their ways is difficult to describe. They truly lie beyond the reach of ordinary people.” A further note records: “Seven characters; the Golden Liquids contains 506 characters; the Reverted Elixir contains 63 characters.”

Master Zheng said: “The wondrous deeds of immortals, who appear and disappear, are too numerous to recount one by one. Ordinary people truly cannot glimpse them. The Elixir classics record marvelous transformations, along with instances in which their teachings have proved effective. For this reason, the Celestial Venerables and perfected beings kept this Daoist method concealed.

“The true principle and its practical cultivation are inseparable. The foolish are nevertheless confused by this, and so the Daoist method is described as lofty and remote. But surely those who understand can grasp it inwardly. The scriptures are made available for those who have not yet understood; this does not limit human wisdom. If someone has no aspiration to seek immortality, this scripture would never be transmitted to them in the first place.

“Lady Taizhen once told Master Ma: ‘Spend some time following An Qisheng, and you will receive his teachings and methods.’ If one only wants a taste of the path and seeks immediate gain, its gates will close firmly. The perfected beings treasured and guarded the Daoist method so carefully—how could they pass it casually to people of low character?

“Lord Yin copied several versions of the scripture, sealed them away, and entrusted them to the Five Sacred Mountains. If someone devoted to the Dao can withdraw to the mountains and forests, concentrate on the subtle principles of the Dao, and persevere in cultivation over a long time, the immortals will naturally open the stone chest where the scriptures are stored and reveal them clearly. For anyone without firm resolve and admiration for the Great Dao, the secrets of the Elixir classics will remain hidden forever among the towering mountains.

“Masters Ma and Yin were surely more than immortals! They could observe celestial signs and the courses of the stars, foresee the rise and fall of states, discern the waxing and waning of fortune and destiny, and confirm the inevitable outcomes of events yet to come. With great compassion for protecting the people, they established standards for people in every region and brought order to affairs. Their reputations began to approach those of sages; their radiance extended far and illuminated all things. Truly, their understanding was unsurpassed and their powers wondrous!

“I once heard perfected beings who had attained the Dao speak of these matters. What I heard was almost always praise; they urged people to treasure and study these teachings, and their accounts agreed with one another. How could such pure and truthful teachings be allowed to pass away without being recorded? I have therefore written down the accounts of the divine radiance manifested by Masters Ma and Yin, along with related traditions that have circulated in the world since the reign of Emperor Ling of Han, and appended them to the Yuánjì Elixir Classic. May all who follow the Dao draw from them the resolve to seek the Dao.”

The Cantong Qi says that there are many kinds of alchemical arts, with tens of thousands of methods. This shows that the finest feature of the Great Elixir—the Golden Elixir of Daoism—is that it uses only lead and mercury as its supreme medicines, without mineral substances such as the Four Yellow Minerals and Eight Stones. If ingredients from mineral medicines are mixed with lead and mercury, the Great Elixir will contain deadly poison.

Some say that even solidified mercury can make a person live forever. But to refine the Great Elixir, one must rely on the Qi of Yin-Yang, bringing water and fire together until they congeal. Only then can taking it lead to longevity. Medicines made by heating and processing minerals such as alum, sulfur, and sal ammoniac are highly poisonous when swallowed; taken over a long period, they also damage the body. Sal ammoniac can corrode steel, and alum is even said to be potent enough to kill a tiger. These facts should serve as ample warning.

People who study the Dao often learn only a minor technique, yet assume that few others in the world understand it. They then give elixirs to others to take, and end up causing their deaths for no reason. This is truly tragic. Later, when people see an elixir, they may grow suspicious of it and say that mineral elixirs cause sores and swellings. In truth, this is the fault of those who learned the art incorrectly, and it unfairly brings the Golden Elixir method into disrepute.

Mineral medicines such as stone milk are best avoided. Do not force yourself to take them out of a momentary fixation on obtaining them; people in the world have indeed died young as a result. One should carefully distinguish among them and use antidotes to counter their effects. The text mentions taking a decoction of fang kui and licorice to help expel the medicine; only afterward may one take the Great Medicine.

The Great Elixir is said to be the pure, primordial Qi of the mysterious workings of Heaven and Earth, and the food of the supreme immortals. It takes shape by encompassing the Four Symbols—the four basic elements, including Yin and Yang, that compose all things—and changes naturally in accordance with the way of Qian and Kun, Heaven and Earth. It congeals into a red-purple elixir, also called Correct Yang, Pure Yang, Primordial Yang, or the Returning Elixir. How could an ordinary person readily understand such an elixir? Those who follow the Dao should guard it with care and pass it on to those worthy of receiving it, so that the Dao’s methods may continue. It is born of the creative transformation of Heaven and Earth, and its workings accord with the Three Powers: Heaven, Earth, and humanity.

Arrange the directions of the sealed alchemical chamber according to the hexagrams of the Changes (Zhouyi), follow the timing of Yin-Yang Qi as it moves, and refine the elixir using the firing times of a year, coordinated with the degrees of the sun and moon in their courses. Then the elixir can be completed. The immortals of antiquity all cultivated in this way and attained immortality. When ordinary people hear of long life and unimpaired sight, they clap their hands and laugh. A person of wisdom, hearing it only once, can understand its principle and bring it into accord with the original true essence.

My learning is inadequate, so I cite the verses of the Three Sages and Perfected Ones as proof, then clarify them with the Treatise on the Golden Elixir. I will say no more.

The so-called Returned Elixir is refined by relying on the patterns of the sun and moon’s movements. Cinnabar is restored to its original state and returns to the dark, black color it had at the beginning; hence the name “Returned Elixir.” Elixirs are divided into three grades: the first is the Zhengyang Elixir, belonging to the Upper Origin; the second is the Zhuanyang Elixir, belonging to the Middle Return; and the third is the Yuanyang Elixir, belonging to the Three Origins. These three are one in substance, yet have three grades, and all belong to the principle of the Great Returning Elixir. Without understanding this subtlety, one cannot speak of the art of elixir cultivation.

Cinnabar prepared and stabilized using only brine, or mercury stabilized on its own, cannot be ingested. Why? Because these contain Yin without Yang; taking them for a long time harms the body and does not accord with the position of Correct Yang. Methods such as “stilling mercury in the empty expanse,” and practices using realgar, orpiment, and other substances, are likewise unsuitable for ingestion. These teachings were passed from one person to another; they are not the true medicines used by the sages. Why? Because the Eight Minerals are all toxic. The Scripture of the Golden Wall says, “Discard the five alum compounds; do not use the Eight Minerals.” A verse says, “Use no medicines; use the Five Phases.” This is the essential point.

Chapter Two: Distinguishing Clearly

Three liang of sulfur can subdue one jin of mercury. From this we can see that mercury is weaker than sulfur. The force of one liang of mercury is like the strength of an ox; thus one liang of sulfur can subdue five liang of mercury, showing that mercury is weaker than sulfur. This is a key principle in the transformations of the Five Phases (the ancient system used to explain the relationships among all things).

Chapter Two: Discerning Clearly

Three liang of sulfur can subdue one jin of mercury. From this we can see that mercury is weaker than sulfur. The force of one liang of mercury is like the strength of an ox; thus one liang of sulfur can subdue five liang of mercury, showing that mercury is weaker than sulfur. (By this measure of efficacy, sulfur is not used to refine the Great Elixir; true lead is used instead.) Five liang of true lead can subdue two jin of mercury, which clearly shows that mercury is weaker than lead. We can therefore understand that Yin can subdue Yang, but Yang cannot subdue Yin. This is what is called reversal.

Those who seek the highest Dao and hope to attain longevity and nourish their nature will ultimately find their goal difficult to reach without obtaining the Great Elixir (the Great Elixir spoken of in Daoist internal alchemy or elixir cultivation). If they are fortunate enough to encounter this set of secret instructions, it is often because they have accumulated much merit that they are able to learn this hidden text. If they pass it on to someone unworthy, their ancestors for seven generations will suffer calamity, and their descendants will also be harmed.

The key to refining the Great Elixir lies not in the kinds of ingredients, but in the relationships among the Five Phases. One must study deeply the changes in the images and numbers of the Book of Changes, discern the movements and shifts of the seasonal qi, and understand the degrees of the sun and moon’s courses, so that Yin and Yang may be brought into harmony. These are the essentials of cultivation toward immortality and the foundation for joining with the Dao. One should not readily believe that the so-called eight minerals and four yellows (categories of mineral substances used in ancient alchemy) are wondrous medicines for longevity; they are not where the mysteries of longevity lie.

Lead and mercury are the foundation of refining the Great Elixir, as well as the foundation of the Five Phases and the principal medicines among the eight minerals. Metal is cold in nature and occupies a Yang position (the Kan trigram contains one Yang line); mercury, meanwhile, is born within cinnabar.

Ore has a hot nature and occupies the Yin position (“two Yin lines within Li,” referring to the Yin lines inside the Li trigram). Lead contains gold; this is what is called “true lead.” For this reason, alchemical practice depends on Yin and Yang joining together: Yang is like the ruler, and Yin like the minister; stone floats while metal sinks—the principle is plain. When ruler and minister are united, floating and sinking are properly balanced, and the ingredients harmonized, the elixir that makes one immortal can be successfully refined.

If one does not understand how ruler and minister work together, or the distinct categories of the ingredients, then even spending a thousand pieces of gold will not reveal the essential method. One must understand their cooperation and how it accords with the principles of Qian and Kun before the art of the Great Elixir can be understood. For example, lead as ruler can guide the Five Organs; mercury as minister can subdue the “Three Thieves”—the forces that disturb body and mind—so that one becomes attuned to the divine and shines in all directions. Thus the secret teaching of the perfected ones says, “Use lead, yet do not use lead.” The five metals are born within lead and also emerge from it. This is an exceedingly profound saying; the wise must ponder it carefully to understand how the Dao can be refined to completion.

“Use lead, yet do not use lead” means that lead is the essence of the five metals and the finest medium for the Seven Treasures. The flavor of the Great Elixir is equal to that of Heaven and Earth. Yet lead is forbidden in refining the five metals—so what should be used to compound them? The “Song of the Five Metals” says, “Take yellow sprouts as the root.” What are yellow sprouts, and what vessel should be used to refine them? Yellow sprouts are not lead, yet they do not arise apart from lead.

Hu Gangzi asked, “What substance should be used to refine it?” He also asked, “If one does not use the five metals and eight stones—that is, metals and minerals—what can be used to produce it?” Master Wei replied, “To sow grain, one uses millet seed; unlike kinds cannot produce one another.” Refining with the five metals and eight stones would be like expecting a fox and a hare to produce a horse, or sparrows and swallows to produce a phoenix. How is that any different from mending a pot with glue or treating illness with wild kudzu? Different kinds cannot generate one another, so how could they be joined together? To transmute something into gold, one must use gold; to turn it into silver, one must use silver. Yellow sprouts are obtained from lead—this makes their affinity clear. If lead is true lead, it will not lose its nature; if it is not true, mercury cannot unite with it.

The White Tiger, a term in alchemy referring to mercury, is the brain; the Yellow Tooth, referring to lead, is the foundation. The Azure Messenger is the envoy, and the Crimson Blood is the general. Here, silver must be used. The Yellow Tooth can be obtained from lead; this is how one knows that the two truly correspond. If the lead is genuine, it will not lose its “household spirit.” If the lead is not genuine, the mercury within it cannot unite with it.

The White Tiger is the brain, the Yellow Tooth the foundation, the Azure Messenger the envoy, and the Crimson Blood the general. “Azure mercury” refers to mercury that contains cinnabar; it does not mean that the mineral copper sulfate should be used. Whoever has mastered this method should guard it carefully and cherish it. If it is revealed, one’s lifespan will be shortened and calamity will befall one’s descendants. The Yinfu says: “Do not reveal the words transmitted by your teacher to those whose Way is different, lest they bring disaster upon you.”

Those who yearn for the Great Dao can communicate with the spirits and grasp its principles only through utmost sincerity. Only then will they understand that the Great Dao is hard to attain and that few in the world truly comprehend it. The foolish and deluded cannot understand its meaning. Even if they read many alchemical manuals, they will achieve nothing. Why? Because they have not encountered a truly discerning adept and enlightened teacher who can explain each step. So they rely on guesswork, trying to work things out from the written words alone. Many people do this.

I once saw Sima Xiyi practicing the Great Elixir on Mount Song, and eagerly asked him about it. He said the furnace fire had been burning for five months. When I asked again, he still kept the matter secret. I wanted to understand this method, but worried I would simply waste many days and in the end accomplish nothing. Xiyi then said, “There are three kinds of the Great Dao, and one of them must be watched over in person.” He then refined realgar using lead and mercury. But this was not the subtle method for making the great medicine; it was merely guesswork, preparing things according to the books.

Later, I also saw Master Li Zunshi Zixu add sulfur to two ingredients. He, too, said the process had to be watched over in person. Neither man had truly grasped the correct method; errors had entered their transmission, and I feel deep pity for them. Their capacities were not yet mature, and their conduct…

If one cannot attain the true state, one will never gain a long life. Even someone who cultivates internally alone and knows that Wu and Ji—symbols of central Earth and also names for the cauldron and furnace used in alchemy—serve as the vessel may practice in vain without understanding their true meaning. Even after reaching old age with white hair, they will achieve nothing. If one never encounters a truly enlightened teacher, it is not my fault; the Dao and the seeker simply have not come into accord.

The Song of the Five Metals says: “There is no need to worry that the medicine lacks efficacy; worry only that it does not accord with the right way. There is no need to worry that the medicine lacks miraculous power; worry only that the medicine being used is not genuine.” If a wise person can grasp this meaning, they truly understand the Great Dao and have penetrated its wondrous mysteries. Why, then, should they worry that the Great Elixir of the Dragon and Tiger—an internal alchemy formula symbolized by the dragon and tiger—cannot be refined? It may be said that the sun and moon seem to rest in their hands, while the workings of creation turn at their will. This is truly so.

The True Text of the Dragon and Tiger says: “The tiger is true lead; the dragon is true mercury. Lead, through transformation, becomes yellow sprouts; mercury, through transformation, becomes true mercury. True lead does not run dry; true mercury does not disperse.” The mercury spoken of here is not the mercury of the ordinary world, but an internal alchemical substance that has transcended the mundane.

The Song and Instructions of Ma Ziran says: “True mercury is born through the transformation of mercury, but mercury itself is not living true mercury. True lead appears through the wondrous yellow sprouts. The elixir of return that transcends the world may be refined, yet the deluded cannot understand it. True mercury and mercury are not the same; if the deluded use the wrong one, they will not find the method. If you can understand this true source, you can transcend the ordinary.” Those in later generations who study the Dao truly find it difficult to meet a teacher who can transmit the authentic method.

The oral instructions say: Use eight liang of lead, symbolizing Yang, the Qian trigram, and the tiger; then use eight liang of mercury, symbolizing Yin, the Kun trigram, and the dragon. These two substances can undergo endless transformations. Lead is inherently Yin and black in color. Water is associated with the number one and also with Yin, yet it contains a Yang line. Mercury corresponds to the Wood number three; cinnabar corresponds to Fire, whose number is two, though Fire also contains Yin. Thus the ingredients themselves contain Yin and Yang. Only when the two restrain and harmonize with each other can they become a true medicine.

Lead and mercury are proper symbols of the Yin and Yang of Heaven and Earth. How could the so-called eight minerals and four yellows of the world be refined into an elixir? Those with wisdom should examine this carefully. When the perfected immortals of antiquity spoke of the “true realm” and the “true mother,” they meant the fundamental ingredients used in this kind of alchemical work.

Thus it is said that Qian and Kun have hardness and softness, and that the dragon and tiger are paired: eight liang belong to Qian, and eight liang to Kun. One liang is divided into four parts, each of six zhu. Each part corresponds to one trigram, and each liang to four trigrams. The eight liang make thirty-two parts, symbolizing thirty-two hexagrams; the Kun side also has eight liang, likewise symbolizing thirty-two hexagrams. Together they make the sixty-four hexagrams, the foundation of the Dao. Qian and Kun each have eight liang, making one jin in total, which symbolizes the sixty-four hexagrams. One jin contains three hundred and eighty-four zhu, symbolizing the three hundred and eighty-four lines of the Book of Changes. The ancient immortals observed the images of the Changes, brought Qian and Kun together, and aligned them with the seasonal periods. The elixir was completed over the course of a year, and the firing process, too, had to accord with Heaven’s timing. How could the four yellows and eight minerals correspond to the numbers and images of the Qian trigram?

The oral instructions say: “Yellow sprouts one, mercury two, Wood three, Fire two, Water one, Metal four, Earth five.” The laws and symbols of Heaven and Earth are all contained in these numbers. Yin alone or Yang alone will not suffice. The instructions also say that white metal is the sovereign medicine: it is originally the black essence of Metal, occupies the west, and symbolizes the essence of the sun.

The Scripture of the Golden and Jade Radiances says that refining silver in lead brings forth a wondrous substance. Heat and smelt them in an ash basin: the lead sinks and the silver rises, revealing a pure white treasure that can be used to refine golden sprouts. This substance is also given the hidden name “yellow light,” and is called “yellow sprouts” or “autumn stone.” “Autumn” corresponds to the west, while “stone” is another name for the Dui trigram. Its nature is Yin: it contains Yang within Yin and is regarded as a superior medicine for longevity. “Sprouts” means…

At the beginning of life, all things are called “Ya.” Because something originally white turns yellow after being refined by fire, it is called “Yellow Ya.” The Prince of Huainan called it “Autumn Stone”; after Wang Yang obtained it, he called it “Yellow Ya”; and the Perfected of High Antiquity called it “Returning Elixir.”

The Secret Essentials say that these two substances are exceptionally subtle and wondrous, and are sufficient to refine the Great Elixir. The Perfected One says: Gold in lead appears after nine refinings, having received the Qi of water and fire; mercury appears in the sun, having received Yang Qi. Gold and mercury each complete their reception of Qi within Yin and Yang. The sages then gather them as the great medicine, blend them together, and place them in a vessel made of clay. They apply water and fire from above and below, guiding the fire’s timing through its ascent and descent until the process is complete; then countless transformations can occur.

Things of similar nature respond to and follow one another: when dragons sing, clouds rise; when tigers roar, fierce winds arise. This is the result of Yin and Yang interacting through the Dao; only things of the same kind can correspond. If other minerals and medicines are mixed in, in the hope of refining them into treasures, success will remain impossible even after countless ages. The method for refining these two substances is one handed down by the Perfected of High Antiquity. It is worth a thousand pieces of gold and must not be passed on lightly; these substances are the proof of the Golden Elixir.

On the Golden Elixir, Part Three

Cinnabar is the essence and vital energy of the Great Yin. It originally receives the pure, upright Qi of the Great Yang; refined by fire, it turns white, takes the foremost place among the Azure Emperor’s forces, and is called “Mercury.” This is Wood coming to life through Fire: their inherent qualities accord with one another, and so they become a wondrous substance. Lead is originally a black essence. Once transformed, it returns to its proper place in the Western Metal of Geng and Xin. According to the Five Phases’ cycle of generation, Metal generates Water, and Water generates Wood. These two substances, lead and cinnabar, are matched with one another. Without extraordinary spiritual insight and supreme sanctity, how could anyone make them form an elixir in the fire?

Ordinary foolish people often say, “How could taking the Golden Elixir make anyone live forever?” I am deeply pained whenever I hear this claim. Since ancient times, perfected beings and sages have refined elixirs in pursuit of long life. Hundreds and thousands have done so, and everyone knows it. Why, then, do people still refuse to believe? They always bring up the First Emperor of Qin and Emperor Wu of Han. Yet even the Great Elixir, wondrous as it is, cannot spare a person the calamities they bring upon themselves.

In the past, Liu Xuanmu followed Master Wei and tended the furnace for a year. Later, his resolve wavered and doubts arose in his mind. In the end, he failed to obtain the immortal medicine and died young. Xu Jingxiu, by contrast, devoted himself to diligent practice and never ceased accumulating virtue; from morning until night, he never slackened. After his master passed the formula on to him, he attained long life and became an immortal. He is still on Mount Taibai, now more than a thousand years old. The difference between the two was this: Liu Xuanmu grew doubtful and did not persevere. Though he was only one step away, the outcome was as distant as ten thousand miles. Xu Jingxiu received the transmission, and their fates became as different as clouds and mud. These two examples are enough to make the matter credible.

Besides, when spring comes and the seasons turn, all things receive the Qi of spring. After flowers fall, seeds form; as the seeds respond to the movement of Qi, they ripen and become food for people. Is this action of Qi not plainly visible in nature before our eyes? Is it not plain to see that the Five Grains sustain human life? How much more, then, can the finest medicines and numinous elixirs transform one’s body and bones and make one a perfected being? The people of the world are simply confused and do not understand the principle. They neither believe nor practice; even when they meet an opportunity, they do not act on it. Thus they waste their lives in vain, sinking through many kalpas. This is truly lamentable.

If you covet wealth and high status, pursue sensual pleasures, and let fame and profit entangle you, your body will decline and your life force will be exhausted. You may even have your life taken by the Three Officials—the deities who govern the affairs of Heaven, Earth, and Water in Daoism—and then be punished by the underworld. How, then, could you attain long life? If you are full of schemes, abandon your own proper way, and seize what belongs to others to build up your household, how could you hope to meet an accomplished adept who can teach you the arts of the Dao? Only by cultivating your nature and quieting your thoughts, so that your mind and spirit return to the Dao, can you hope to meet such an adept. And if you slander virtuous people of earlier generations and harm the innocent, how could you ever hear the teachings of the Dao?

Even the Five Grains can nourish the spirit and preserve primordial Qi. Though they are perishable things, they can still sustain human life and increase vitality. How much more, then, can a divine Elixir, with its mysterious efficacy, transform the body of an ordinary person, cast off weakness and illness, preserve youthful appearance, and extend life? I will say no more about these principles: seeing them with your own eyes is enough to understand. To explain them in detail would take too many words. The remaining subtle teachings on purity and mystery are all written in the Golden Tablets, the precious scriptures spoken of in Daoism.

The three men Xu Jun, Master Wei, and Lord Chunyu all understood the highest arts of the Dao and were themselves figures of the immortal kind. In recent times, Xie Xuanchong and Su Dan, too, refined and ingested the Golden Elixir and ascended as immortals. Their stories are known to all, so why say more? Besides, among famous mountains and in busy towns, people who have transcended the ordinary often live in seclusion, mingling with worldly people and unwilling even to reveal their surnames. How could anyone recognize them without shared aspirations and a fervent desire to seek the Dao?

Examine these words carefully. Do not reveal them rashly, or treat them with contempt and insult, lest you incur guilt by slandering the Golden Elixir and the sages, and bring upon yourself calamities lasting through a thousand kalpas. Have you not heard the Cantong qi, a Daoist alchemical classic, say: “Gold and sand are the principal substances; they receive harmony from mercury”? From this, these two substances reveal their numinous nature. It also says: “Use no medicine; use the Five Phases.” That is, the substances employed already embody the Five Phases—Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water. It further says: “White horse teeth, fine cinnabar; at the hour of the Rooster, two and eight; unite the two houses.” It also says that Liu An, King of Huainan, refined autumn stone, and that the Yellow Emperor praised golden brilliance.

Another formula says: “Lead is not ordinary lead, but true lead and true cinnabar. The two substances are matched with each other; through hidden refinement they unite as one. After the fire has passed through nine revolutions, the Yellow Sprout appears of itself.” It continues: “The fire’s refinement turns the white medicine into red blossoms; flowing mercury is the same as autumn stone. The flowing pearl enters the body like a tiger devouring its prey. Where, then, can one go to find the Metal Lord?” These are all terms of alchemy: names such as gold, cinnabar, lead, and mercury refer to the substances used in alchemical practice and the processes by which they change.

Since ancient times, those who practice alchemy have found it difficult to fully understand the mysteries of lead and mercury. Once their principles are understood, the methods of refinement naturally become clear and wondrous.

Yang alone cannot bring forth transformation, nor can Yin alone achieve completion; the two have always worked together. When a pearl enters the body, it is as though a tiger swallows it, yet one does not know where to discern the “Metal Lord” (an alchemical term for lead or a substance associated with lead). Another view holds that Yin and Yang are united from the start, and that signs of transformation will appear on their own.

Once the Dragon and Tiger (alchemical symbols for paired Yin and Yang, or lead and mercury) meet, when would they ever part again? Their white liquids swallow one another, as if they had become husband and wife. Through transformation, they produce the “yellow sprouts” (an alchemical sign that the elixir is forming); in accordance with the seasons, they correspond to “Houtu,” the Queen of the Earth, symbolizing Earth and the Yin aspect. If one obtains the “Purple River Cart” (an alchemical term for a key substance or product in the process), one may receive the favor of the immortals.

If one obtains the oral instructions for alchemical practice, its wondrous workings can be brought under human control. The powers of life and death lie in one’s own hands; study the matter carefully, and its truth can be determined. Without the essentials of alchemical practice, one may spend a lifetime in anxious effort. Do not refine useless, withered lead or dead mercury, or all that labor will scatter like dust.

Within Heaven and Earth, the sun and moon, the elixir is called the “Metal Lord.” The Metal Lord is lead, which is already contained within lead. I have explained this plainly, yet the confused still rush past it. Adding mercury to lead may seem to produce “golden blossoms” (an alchemical sign that appears during the process). But these blossoms are not the true medicine; pursue them alone, and the effort will ultimately be wasted.

This is the art of the immortals. How could it fail to be attainable? Read the Cantong qi (The Seal of the Unity of the Three), an important classic on alchemy, carefully, and compare it with the methods of the ancients. If you grasp the principles of true lead and persist in practice, you will eventually see results.

Lead and mercury accord with the principles of Heaven and Earth; when refined, they become the Great Reversion Elixir, an important Daoist elixir. Once the elixir is complete, the yellow sprouts appear naturally. Without these signs, it is difficult to call the elixir truly complete.

The perfected person of antiquity said: “Now that I have seen this elixir’s effects with my own eyes, I know that the words of the immortals did not deceive the world. As long as one cultivates according to the methods of the Dao, one can attain stability. Within the elixir furnace are five-colored numinous energies; the ingredients transform and lie hidden according to a set pattern. After ten months, the elixir emerges as if born anew, revealing a wondrous form. I say this to warn those who pursue wealth and glory: after a hundred years, beauty and life will inevitably decline and fade. Why throw away the chance to cultivate the Dao beyond the world, remaining benighted and unawakened until the time for cultivation is nearly gone? I have explained this again and again, yet you still slander me, calling these words false and their principles absurd. How sad that dust on the southern mountain gathers year after year until it becomes a hill. In the boundless sea of suffering—the predicament of birth and death—life and death rise and fall like waves. What is there to cherish in the places where emperors of old once lived?”

It also says: “The white liquid in the furnace changes, and the yellow elixir (huangya, a term for the elixir in alchemical practice) gradually takes shape. Looking back to our first encounter, the substance was still hard to recognize, like mercury. When Yang energy reaches its height, Yin fire arises; when the fire subsides, Yang energy gathers. The elixir then transforms of its own accord into the Purple River Cart (ziheche, an alchemical term for the mature form of the elixir). By ingesting it, one may seek long life.”

It also says: “In the first month, the white liquid has just congealed, like snow. In the second month, it gradually gathers, like curds and whey. In the third month, the substance is half enclosed in a flower bud; it slowly opens, hanging like a small pearl. In the fourth month, the two substances embrace one another, taking the shape of a drop of blood. In the fifth month, the substance seems to soar, clinging to its mother and giving a sobbing sound. In the sixth month, it moves to the place of the womb; Yin energy has ended, and its color is like goose yellow—examine it carefully. In the seventh month, the substance hangs down and receives Qi; its hands and feet seem stiff and cold. In the eighth month, the internal organs are about to form, with blood-colored matter congealed inside. In the ninth month, the substance congeals into tiny beads and grows hair. In the tenth month, it is nearly mature, as though mother and child are about to part. At this point, the ‘mother’ in the furnace is weary, while the ‘child’ is fully formed, its exterior like white snow.” (This means that after the lead ingredient sheds its outer layer, its surface appears snow-white.)

Afterward, it must continue to be gently nourished in the furnace. This is called “feeding with milk,” and it makes the substance’s texture moist and supple. One must also follow the instructions for removing the elixir’s “poisonous Qi.” Once the substance has been refined, it must be gently nourished in a red-hot furnace for sixty days; only after its poison has been removed may it be ingested. The process of refining this elixir is like an infant growing in the womb: its spirit gradually becomes clear, while its body and bones each take shape. Those who seek the Dao should be diligent and careful, and not let their time pass in idleness. The mysteries involved are difficult to describe fully, but the refinement follows a set sequence, with no step to be omitted; the elixir’s poisonous Qi, too, must be removed according to the instructions.

This medicine is like a fetus developing in the mother’s womb. It can make a person’s spirit clear and wondrous, and gradually penetrate the bones and flesh. I urge practitioners to be meticulous and cautious, and not to let their time pass in vain. The mysteries here are difficult to put fully into words. Cultivation follows a definite sequence: nothing may be omitted, and no step may be skipped. If you cultivate correctly and the “yellow teeth” (an alchemical term for the elixir that has been refined) ripen, the effects of transformation will continue to manifest.

Taking the medicine of longevity can turn white hair black. When the elixir is complete, it is like silver and can help those who are destitute and without support. A person of benevolence who obtains it can keep cultivating and come into accord with the Dao. This also depends on the depth of one’s affinities from past lives. It should be taught to the right person; the key lies in their character. If someone who does not cultivate the Dao obtains this method, their karmic burden will deepen; even if they obtain it, they may invite disaster. This concerns the workings of Heaven and Earth and is not easy to master. It cannot be acquired casually, nor taught lightly.

Have you never heard the secret words passed down by the ancients? If you teach this recklessly, disaster will befall your ancestors for seven generations. You should believe this and have no doubts. The wise and perceptive will naturally understand and receive the true transmission. Today I solemnly instruct you: remember this well, keep every word clear in your mind, and seal it with an oath.

When Yang Qi first arises, it corresponds to the Returning hexagram (Fu), which marks the beginning of the fire phase in the eleventh month. When Yin Qi first begins to arise, it corresponds to the Initiating hexagram (Shi). From the eleventh month through the fourth month, Yang Qi gradually grows stronger; in the fifth month, the first Yin arises, and the fire phase then changes. The furnace is placed at the center, symbolized by Wu and Ji Earth. The cauldron has an upper and a lower part; these must be carefully harmonized and firmly held so that the medicine’s Qi does not disperse. In regulating the fire phase, observe the changes of the seasons: the Dragon and Tiger (alchemical names for forces such as Yin and Yang, and Water and Fire) chase one another. The elixir, like an infant, is only beginning to form and needs the nourishment of its mother, while the mother is gradually depleted by nourishing it. Once the elixir matures, mother and child sustain one another in turn.

When Yang Qi reaches its height, it is the Qian hexagram; when Yin Qi reaches its height, it is the Kun hexagram. Qian, Kun, and the Four Images are the gateways of the Changes; among the sixty-four hexagrams, those used in cultivation hold the highest place. The Dragon and Tiger bite together and transform one another by swallowing. The place where life is brought forth is established, and its mystery lies within. Use Water and Fire as intermediaries to gather and harmonize your own Jing, Qi, and Shen. Yin and Yang nourish me, and Shen passes from obscurity into clarity.

As the eight solar terms turn through the year, cold and heat change with them. Observe closely: the Yellow Sprout at the root—the yellow substance or sign that appears during alchemical work—will gradually emerge. The alternation of sun and moon and the passage of time also seem to urge the practitioner to reflect on the work of refining and nourishing. By refining the Elixir according to this method, one establishes the foundation for cultivating the Dao, to be carried on through the generations.

Guard and preserve this secret method with care; do not speak of it casually. Its subtle mysteries are not to be disclosed lightly. People are often blinded by worldly thoughts, so even in a marketplace or village, one should remain quiet and keep to oneself. Do not show the wondrous medicine to ordinary people, lest they slander and criticize it. Remember well: keep the secret method safely stored, as if treasured in a golden coffer. The art of long life should be taught to those who cultivate the Dao; the celestial officials will then record their names.

○ The Fourth Principle of the Great Return Elixir

The “Restored Elixir” is the elixir consumed by the immortals. Since ancient times, celestial immortals have passed down this method. It reached the human world and was then handed on to later generations. It is said that after the Yellow Emperor obtained the method, he ascended to immortality in broad daylight at Dinghu Lake. There were many other immortals in ancient times, but they need not be listed here.

The Restored Elixir is said to be refined from precious substances, such as the mysterious pearl contained in cinnabar, and the numinous qualities of gold and mercury—metals and liquid materials used in alchemy. Legend tells of a naturally formed Restored Elixir produced in mountains that face the sun and are shaded on the other side. Cinnabar is abundant in the south but absent from the north. The natural elixir forms when flowing mercury joins with the “Metal Lord” and gives rise to it. Wherever cinnabar is found, lead and silver are also present. Only after four thousand three hundred and twenty years is the elixir complete: the male is on the left and the female on the right, cinnabar is above and zengqing—a mineral used in alchemy—is below, and the whole receives the Qi of Yin-Yang from the sun and moon. After a vast span of time, it becomes the supreme Restored Elixir consumed by heavenly beings and immortals.

Immortals of the lower realms refine lead and mercury, completing the elixir in one year. They begin applying the fire—that is, start heating the elixir—in the eleventh month, when “Yang first arises.” By the eleventh month of the following year, the elixir has taken its completed form. Immortals, heavenly beings, and sages of the upper realms consume the naturally formed Restored Elixir. Today’s cultivators imitate this process and take the elixir according to the “number of the great thousandfold world”; they too can live forever, ascend to immortality, and share in the power of Heaven and Earth.

Someone asked, “Why say that the number of the naturally formed Restored Elixir is replicated over the course of one year?” The answer was: “One day and night in the upper realms corresponds to five years in the human world. A human year has twelve months, each with thirty days, for a total of three hundred and sixty days. Each day has twelve double-hours, making four thousand three hundred and twenty double-hours in a year. This exactly symbolizes the time required for the natural Restored Elixir to form. True immortals of the upper realms passed this method down to the human world. By following its prescriptions and coordinating with the essential Qi of the sun and moon and the movement of the four seasons, one can refine the elixir in the corresponding span of time. All who consume it can extend their years and ascend to the realm of immortals.”

Those of the highest order who cultivate the truth and accord with its principles can ascend to immortality. Those of the middle order become earthly immortals after consuming the elixir. Those of the lowest order can extend their lives and live forever without dying. There are also specific methods for consuming the elixir.

The Fifth Record of Master Red Pine

Master Red Pine said: The essence of cinnabar comes in two colors, white and vermilion. The white kind, which contains the nature of Fire, is called the “White Tiger”; the vermilion kind is called “Fire Cinnabar.” Mercury arises within the cinnabar: these three are originally one. The White Tiger symbolizes Metal and belongs to the West. It contains auspicious signs in five colors, as well as the unusual qualities of various minerals. Lead is the White Tiger, and it is paired with mercury. Lead and mercury stand in relation to one another as ruler and subject, Heaven and Earth, husband and wife, and parent and child. Their workings are too wondrous to fathom. They are like the Three Yellows, do not belong among the Eight Minerals, and follow a principle of transformation all their own. By cultivating and refining according to this principle, one can produce an elixir.

Long ago, I met a Daoist who graciously taught me this method. Following the oral instructions in my practice, I have already reached the state of feathered transcendence. I therefore dare to set down this verse:

The wondrous principles of the immortals are hard to fathom; ordinary people do not understand lead and mercury. Lead and mercury are the essence of Heaven and Earth, and the forces through which Yin-Yang moves between them. Their efficacy belongs to Wu and Ji, the Earth phase, which gives birth to and nourishes all food. All things depend on Earth’s workings: Earth is the root of the mother’s body. The mother nurtures all things, and all things in turn rely on the mother’s body to multiply. Lead, mercury, and Earth respond to one another and accord with the three Qi of the mysterious source, the three primordial energies that constitute all things. The work of cultivation depends on a firm foundation and on understanding the changes between firmness and softness. The key lies in the practitioner, in the movements of the mind. When the mind is clear and still, the substances can exert their numinous efficacy; when the spirit is confused, the principles of the elixir are hard to fathom. The Great Dao calls for inner emptiness and stillness; its mysteries cannot be fully described. The wise understand the root and, in time, can ascend to become immortals.

The Four Lords’ Instructions of the Liang Dynasty

The Liang Dynasty had four young lords who were immortals beyond the world. They traveled to the farthest reaches of the eight directions, through the thousand realms that surround us, rising to the heavens above and descending to the Nine Depths below. The four said: “The sages have a verse:

Lead and mercury unite, bringing their wondrous efficacy to completion; blended together, they return to the purpose of the Great Mystery. The whole principle is contained in the Five Phases, and also in the wisdom of the Three Powers: Heaven, Earth, and humanity. Immortals, immortals! They travel to the farthest reaches of the eight directions, through the thousand realms that surround us, rising to the heavens above and descending to the Nine Depths below.” The four said: “The sages have a verse:”

When lead and mercury are combined, they can produce wondrous effects; when the two blend together, they return to the Great Mystery—the profound and subtle principle of the Dao. The secrets involved lie entirely within the Five Phases and are also contained in the principles governing the Three Powers of Heaven, Earth, and Humanity. The immortals left behind a path leading to the Great Dao, and taking the elixir can transform a person from the inside out. If one masters the true method of lead, one can naturally become an immortal.

Preface to the Golden Elixir

The Baopuzi says: “I have consulted books on nourishing life and gathered methods for attaining longevity. The volumes I have read number well over a thousand. Every one of them treats the Reverted Elixir—the elixir transformed after the Golden Elixir has been refined—and the Golden Liquor, the liquid form of the refined Golden Elixir, as their most important subjects. It is clear, then, that the Reverted Elixir and Golden Liquor are probably the highest attainments in the cultivation of the immortal Way. If taking them cannot make one an immortal, then no one in antiquity ever became one.

“In the past, the realm was in turmoil, and people fled in every direction. I traveled among the provinces of Xu, Yu, Jing, Xiang, Jiang, and Guang, and met several hundred Daoist priests who had been displaced and driven from place to place. Some had long enjoyed great reputations, as though their renown reached above the clouds, but most of them were much alike. Their knowledge varied in depth, and each knew some things while remaining ignorant of others; no one could claim superiority over the rest on that basis. Each had collected dozens of scrolls of Daoist writings, but they had not necessarily understood them all—they had merely copied and stored them.

“At the time, some knew methods for guiding Qi, abstaining from grain, and taking various herbal medicines. The formula books they had were much the same, and their principles differed little. Some had obtained the Jing of the Pivot of the Dao and treated it as an exceptionally secret text, claiming it had been written by Yin Xi. I told them: ‘In fact, it was written by Wang Tu, a military commander of the Wei dynasty, and is not an ancient work. Wang Tu knew nothing at all about the Great Medicine. He hoped to become an immortal through breath cultivation and chamber practices, so he wrote this Jing of the Pivot of the Dao, believing that it contained the entire principle of cultivation. This is truly a very misleading thing.’

“I asked those Daoist priests about the divine elixir, the Golden Liquor, the Writings of the Three Sovereigns (a Daoist scripture), and methods for summoning the celestial and terrestrial spirits, but not one of them truly understood these things. More than half, however, boasted about themselves and deceived others, claiming to have attained longevity or saying that they had once traveled with immortals. In what they said aloud and what was recorded in books, there were occasionally some subtle insights. Some said they had heard of the Golden Elixir, but that no one today could refine it; only those in antiquity who had attained the Dao and become immortals understood its secrets. Others had received only oral teachings about the Golden Elixir, without the authentic scriptures; or they had obtained scattered elixir recipes and assumed that these contained the whole method of refining elixirs.

“In the past, Zuo Yuanfang devoted himself to cultivation in the Tianzhu Mountains, where a divine being transmitted to him the immortal scripture of the Golden Elixir. Later, just as the realm fell into chaos at the end of the Han dynasty, he had no time to refine the elixir…”

I came to Jiangdong to escape the turmoil, hoping to seek refuge in a famous mountain and practice this Daoist method. I received teachings first from my great-uncle, the immortal Gong, and then from Zuo Yuanfang. In all, I obtained three volumes of the Taiping Elixir Scripture and one volume of the Nine Cauldrons Elixir Scripture.

My teacher, Master Zheng, was a disciple of the immortal Gong and had also learned these scriptures from him. But his family was poor, and he had no money to buy ingredients. I served him personally, sweeping and cleaning for him over a long period. Later, he established an altar on Mount Maji and held a covenant ceremony, transmitting the scriptures and various oral instructions to me. These instructions were not written in the books.

Until then, these books had not circulated in Jiangdong. They came from Zuo Yuanfang, who passed them to my great-uncle; my great-uncle passed them to Master Zheng, and Master Zheng passed them to me. That is why the other Daoists knew nothing of their contents. Yet it has been more than twenty years since I received the teachings, and I still lack the means—even a single load of grain is beyond my reach. How could I possibly have the resources to refine elixirs? All I can do is sigh deeply. Those whose homes are filled with gold and silver, whose wealth is piled up like mountains, do not even know that this method of attaining long life and deathlessness exists. And even if they hear of it, perhaps not one person in ten thousand will believe it. Why should that be?

Once you have tasted fine wine served on a jade terrace, you know how insipid rough grain brew is; once you have seen the Kunlun Mountains, a small hill seems very low indeed. Those who have read the way of the Golden Elixir no longer regard ordinary minor techniques as worthy of attention. Yet refining the great elixir—the Golden Elixir and other advanced elixirs—is difficult, and its success or failure cannot be determined quickly. For that reason, one must first use lesser methods to sustain oneself. But however many other medicines one takes, they bring only slight benefit and can never truly make a person immortal. Thus Laozi’s secret teaching says: “Without the Reverted Elixir and Liquid Gold, one merely suffers in vain.”

Even the five grains can sustain life: people live by eating them and die without them. How much greater, then, must the benefit of the highest divine medicines be? The longer the Golden Elixir is fired and refined, the more wondrous its transformations become. Gold does not vanish when repeatedly fired in a furnace; buried underground, it does not decay even after long ages. Taking these two medicines refines and nourishes the human body, making it possible to remain forever young and deathless.

This is like using something external to make oneself firm: it is like tending a lamp carefully so that its flame does not go out, or coating one’s feet with copper patina so they are less likely to decay in water—using copper’s hardness to protect the skin. Once the Golden Elixir enters the body, it can regulate and nourish the Rong and Wei—the nutritive and defensive Qi that circulate within the body. Its effect is not limited to protecting the body from the outside, as copper patina does.

Many people in the world do not believe in the highest Dao. Even those who happen to love the Dao may never encounter this method or meet a clear-sighted teacher, and so have no way of knowing that such a thing exists in the world.

I am now making a brief record of the essentials of the Way of the Golden Elixir, for people in later generations who aspire to and cherish this Way. Later practitioners of the Dao should devote themselves carefully to their practice and must not cling to shallow, limited techniques. Only by cultivating the Way of the Golden Elixir with dedication can one rise beyond the mundane world. If one never encounters the opportunity to undertake such a practice, one can only give up the pursuit of boundless hopes.

Once these principles are understood, their meaning becomes clear. It is like leaving a low-lying pool of water and sailing toward the sea; turning away from the faint light of fireflies to face the sun and moon; hearing thunder crash and recognizing how feeble a cloth-covered drum sounds; or seeing a giant whale and realizing how tiny the little fish and shrimp are.

If one has little understanding and no preconceived ideas, yet hopes to attain transcendence and become an immortal through crude prescriptions, it is like driving a lame donkey to chase the swift wind, or trying to cross a great river in a flimsy little boat.

There are also many minor bait elixir recipes—small-scale methods for refining elixirs. Their methods range from simple to complex, and they demand different levels of skill. Even among them, some are better and some worse, and the differences between them are considerable, just like…

A single goblet of wine, an ancient drinking vessel, cannot match the rich, mellow wine held in a nine-handled vessel, another ancient drinking vessel. Yet it still counts as a kind of minor elixir, and is far superior to medicines made from plants and herbs. Ordinary plants decay after being heated, but when cinnabar is refined by fire, it turns into mercury; after repeated transformations, it can return to cinnabar. In this it differs greatly from ordinary medicines. For this reason, the ancients believed cinnabar could enable people to live forever.

The immortals alone saw through the principle behind this. How far their understanding surpassed that of ordinary people! People know little, yet often find strange what they do not understand. Some do not know that mercury comes from cinnabar, and even when told, refuse to believe it. They argue that cinnabar is red, so how could it become white mercury? They also say that cinnabar is only a stone, and that other stones turn to ash when heated—why should cinnabar be any different?

If even this simple principle is hard to make people understand, it is no wonder they laugh when they hear of the profound Way of the immortals. The Perfected Ones of high antiquity—cultivators who had attained the Dao—pitied those in later generations who could still be taught. They therefore left behind methods for refining elixirs, explaining them in full, in the hope of sparing people the calamity of death. Their words could hardly have been more earnest. Yet ordinary people still refuse to believe them, dismissing them as empty and fanciful writing. If these words were truly false, how could the nine cycles and nine transformations of elixir refinement be completed according to the prescribed days, each one matching what the elixir recipes describe? The Perfected Ones’ understanding of these matters truly cannot be reached through shallow, superficial thought.

From my youth, I was fond of the arts of the Dao. I once traveled among the various schools, undaunted by hardship and danger. Whenever I heard an unusual account, I felt delight. Even when people mocked me, I was not troubled. Who can say that those who come after us will necessarily be inferior to those living now? So I wrote these things down for discerning readers. Do I merely enjoy strange tales and bizarre happenings, dressing up empty words in fine language in the hope that this book will be passed down and win favor with the world?

Even the midsummer sun cannot make decayed things flourish again, and even a wise person cannot change the mind of someone who is foolish. Books are written for those who understand; only people of discernment know how to value what they contain. A farmer who receives a red bow uses it only to drive away birds. People of the southern tribes who receive a ceremonial robe embroidered with dragons carry it on their backs as firewood. If others do not know its worth, how can they be forced to value it?

People in the world eat and drink their fill every day, yet may not be willing to study the teachings of the Confucians and Mohists with care, or strive to cultivate themselves and advance in De (Virtue/Power). They concern themselves only with roaming about at leisure and letting time slip away. What they pursue is either fame or profit. Some gallop across the plains to hunt; some lose themselves in drinking feasts; some are enamored of music; some covet fine clothes. Some draw bows and shoot arrows until they exhaust themselves; others become absorbed in gambling and chess, wasting their hours. When they hear talk of the “Supreme Dao,” they are like people in a drunken stupor; when they see discussions of Dao, they may even fall asleep in broad daylight.

They do not cherish their own bodies. They do things that could put their lives at risk, yet refuse to ask about methods of nourishing life. Instead, they let themselves suffer injury, torment, emaciation, and exhaustion. Those who have the Dao keep their knowledge within themselves. They do not actively seek others out; how could they force their teachings on anyone?

People in the world often say that long life seems attainable. Among the sages of antiquity were also people of wealth and rank, yet few lived long. So people conclude that no way to long life exists. They do not realize that the wealthy and powerful of antiquity, like those of today, neither believed in nor sought the way to long life. They treated only what was immediately before them as urgent. How, then, could they attain it? Even if one cannot be entirely certain that one’s lifespan can be extended or that becoming an immortal is possible, what harm is there in trying? Even a small result—living to two or three hundred years—would surely be better than dying young like an ordinary person. As for all beneath Heaven…

The affairs of the world are tangled and countless, and among them, the arts of the Dao are especially difficult to understand. How can ordinary people’s limited knowledge establish that no way to attain long life exists in the world? If we conclude that something does not exist simply because everyone disbelieves in it, would that not mean there are far too many wise people in the world? Today, some people understand the Dao’s purpose and still practice and seek the way to attain long life. Must they be the most foolish of all, inferior even to ordinary people?

Some may worry that if they seek long life but fail, others will mock them as confused and superstitious. If they give up simply for fear of possibly failing, yet a way to immortality truly exists in the world, would those who attain it still be mocked? Even the sun and moon leave places beyond their light; how can the human mind presume to know everything?

Preface to the Divine Elixir of the Nine Tripods of the Yellow Emperor (a preface introducing the Yellow Emperor’s Divine Elixir of the Nine Tripods)

The Scripture of the Yellow Emperor’s Nine Tripods and Divine Elixirs records that after taking the divine elixir, the Yellow Emperor at last attained the Dao and ascended to immortality. It also says that although breathing and breath regulation, daoyin exercises, and the use of herbal medicines can prolong life, they cannot prevent death. Taking the divine elixir, however, enables a person to live without end, endure alongside Heaven and Earth, ride clouds and dragons, and travel through the Great Clarity—the lofty heavenly realm described in Daoism.

The Yellow Emperor passed these methods on to Xuanzi and warned him: “This Dao is exceedingly precious and must be transmitted to people of worth and virtue. If someone is not suitable, then even if they pile up gold like a mountain, do not tell them these methods.” Those who received the transmission were to cast golden figurines and golden fish into flowing water as a pledge, and seal their oath with blood. Anyone without the innate foundation for becoming an immortal could not learn these methods.

The divine elixir should be refined deep in a famous mountain, in a place rarely visited by people, and the party must number no more than three. Before refining it, one must fast and abstain for a hundred days, bathe with five kinds of incense, and maintain scrupulous cleanliness. One must avoid anything defiling, have no dealings with ordinary people, and keep the matter from those who do not believe in the Dao. If anyone thereby slanders the divine medicine, the elixir cannot be completed. Once it is made, the whole family can become immortal, not only the person who refined it. People in the world do not refine divine elixirs but instead put their faith in herbal medicines. Plants buried in the ground rot, and plants placed over a fire are scorched; if they cannot endure on their own, how could they make people live forever?

The Nine Elixirs are the key to long life and are not meant for ordinary people to see or hear about. People in the world are ignorant and know only how to crave wealth and status. How many of them can avoid becoming walking corpses? When refining the elixir, one should also perform a zhaijiao ritual, a Daoist rite of prayer to the gods. The associated diagrams and ritual procedures are given in a separate volume.

The Names of the Nine-Turn Elixirs

The first elixir is called “Elixir Splendor.” First, one should make the Xuanwu vessel or ritual form used in elixir refining, using realgar, orpiment, alum mercury, Rong salt, brine salt, and other materials.

The first kind of elixir is called “Elixir of Radiance.” First, one must prepare “Mysterious Black,” using several dozen jin each of realgar, orpiment, alum mercury, Rong salt, halite, arsenolite, oyster shell, red ochre, talc, and lead powder, among other ingredients, to make “Six-One Mud.” Use it to seal the elixir furnace, then heat and refine it. After thirty-six days, the elixir will be ready. Taking it for seven days is said to make one immortal. The elixir can then be made into pills with “Mysterious Yellow Paste.” Set a pill over a fierce fire, and in a moment it will turn into gold. Refining 240 zhu of the elixir together with 100 jin of mercury can also produce gold. If the gold is successfully produced, that shows the elixir has succeeded; if the gold is not produced, the elixir has failed. Seal the elixir again and refine it for the same number of days as before, and it will then be impossible for it to fail.

The second kind of elixir is called “Spirit Talisman.” Taking it for one hundred days is said to make one immortal. To cross water or pass through fire, apply this elixir to the soles of the feet; one can then, it is said, walk on the surface of the water. Once taken, all the “Three Corpses and Nine Worms”—Daoist terms for impure or disease-causing things within the body—will disappear, and every illness afflicting the body will be cured.

The third kind of elixir is called “Divine Elixir.” A single daogui—an ancient measure for a tiny quantity of elixir—is said to make one immortal after one hundred days. If fed to livestock of any kind, it will keep them from dying. It can also protect people from harm by weapons. After taking it for two hundred days, immortals, Jade Maidens, and the spirits of mountains and rivers are said to come and serve the practitioner, appearing before their eyes.

The fourth kind of elixir is called “Returning Elixir.” A single daogui is said to make one immortal after one hundred days. Vermilion Birds and phoenixes will circle overhead, spreading their wings above the practitioner. If fed to livestock of any kind, it will keep them from dying. It can also protect people from harm by weapons. After taking it for two hundred days, immortals, Jade Maidens, and the spirits of mountains and rivers are said to come and serve the practitioner, appearing before their eyes.

Refining a single daogui of Returning Elixir together with one jin of mercury will produce gold at once. Apply this elixir to money and possessions, and lost things are said to return that same day. Write the elixir on an ordinary person’s eyelid, and all ghosts will flee.

The fifth kind of elixir is called “Ingested Elixir.” Taking it for thirty days is said to make one immortal. Spirits will come and serve the practitioner, and Jade Maidens will appear before them.

The sixth kind of elixir is called “Refined Elixir.” Taking it for ten days is said to make one immortal. If it is then combined with mercury and heated, it will produce gold.

The seventh elixir is called the “Flexible Elixir.” Take one daogui (a small ancient unit of measurement), and it is said that after one hundred days you will become an immortal. If you mix it with “basin-pit sweat” (an auxiliary ingredient used in elixir making) before taking it, you are said to become an immortal after ninety days; even a ninety-year-old man will be able to father a child. Burn it together with “Golden Lord” (an alchemical term for an ingredient), and it can be refined into gold.

The eighth elixir is called the “Subdued Elixir.” After taking it for one hundred days, you are said to become an immortal. Carry a walnut-sized piece of the elixir with you, and it is said that a hundred ghosts will flee. Use it to write talismans on a doorway, and the myriad evils and all kinds of spirits will not dare approach. Even a ninety-year-old man will be able to father a child. Burn it together with the Golden Lord, and it can be refined into gold.

The eighth elixir is called the Subdued Elixir. After taking it for one hundred days, you are said to become an immortal. Carry a walnut-sized piece of the elixir with you, and it is said that a hundred ghosts will flee. Use the elixir to write talismans on a doorway, and the myriad evils and all kinds of spirits will not dare approach; it can also ward off thieves, tigers, and wolves.

The ninth elixir is called the “Cold Elixir.” Take one daogui, and you are said to become an immortal that very day. A Jade Maiden (an immortal maiden in Daoist legend) will come to serve you, and you will be able to fly lightly without needing wings.

Possessing any one of these nine elixirs is enough to become an immortal; there is no need to refine them all. Which one to make depends on personal preference. After taking one of the Nine Elixirs, you may ascend to Heaven if you wish, or choose to remain in the human world for a while. It is said that you can come and go freely without hindrance or harm.

◎ Method of the Great Clarity Divine Elixir

The Baopuzi says: The method for refining the Great Clarity Divine Elixir was handed down from the Primordial Lady, a great divine being in Daoist legend. The Primordial Lady was Laozi’s teacher. The Scripture of the Great Clarity on Observing Heaven has ten chapters. The first seven must not be transmitted, and in the world below there is no one worthy of receiving the remaining three. They should be sunk beneath the Three Springs. These three chapters are the upper, middle, and lower scrolls of the Scripture of the Correct Elixir.

The Primordial Lady was a great divine being, able to harmonize Yin-Yang, command wind and rain, and ride in a chariot drawn by nine dragons and twelve white tigers. All the immortals under Heaven were subject to her. Yet she said that she, too, had reached this state by studying the Dao and taking elixirs; she was not born that way. How much more so for ordinary people? The scripture says: Those of the highest order, upon attaining the Dao, rise to become heavenly officials; those of the middle order, upon attaining the Dao, dwell in Kunlun; those of the lowest order, upon attaining the Dao, live long in the world. The foolish do not believe this and regard it all as empty talk. From morning to night, they do only things that invite death, and make no effort at all to seek long life. How, then, could Heaven force them to live long?

Ordinary people know only how to pursue fine food, fine clothes, and the pleasures of sound and sight. Once they gain wealth and status, they indulge their desires until their lifespan is exhausted and they die suddenly. Never tell such people about the Divine Elixir, lest they mock the Great Dao and slight the perfected beings, thereby adding to their own offenses. The elixir scripture must be transmitted only to a suitable person; if no such person is found, do not reveal it. If someone is truly devoted in their belief, you may share some of the medicine once it has been refined, but do not pass on the elixir scripture lightly.

One who understands this Dao may perhaps be a prince or lord. Once the Divine Elixir has been refined, it can not only make people live long but also be used to refine gold. After the gold has been made, first set aside one hundred jin for a solemn sacrificial rite. The rite has its own dedicated scroll of instructions and is distinct from the sacrifice of the Nine Tripods. For the ceremony, separately record the names and ranks of those receiving the offerings, and itemize and seal the amount of gold used.

The ritual offerings for worshipping the various deities are as follows: twenty jin for the sacrifice to Heaven; five jin for the Sun and Moon; eight jin for the Northern Dipper; eight jin for Taiyi, a revered Daoist deity; five jin for the Well God; five jin for the Stove God; twelve jin for Hebo, the River God; five jin for the Earth God; and five jin each for the gate and household spirits and for Qingjun. The total is eighty-eight jin.

Put the remaining twelve jin into a fine leather pouch. Choose an auspicious day, go to a busy place in the city market where goods are plentiful, quietly drop the pouch, and walk straight away without looking back. Only after setting aside a total of one hundred jin to honor the deities may you use the rest of your property as you please. If you do not first honor the deities with money, disaster is sure to follow.

It is also said: the way to long life does not lie in sacrificing to spirits and ghosts, but in Daoyin—health practices involving regulated breathing and bodily movements—and exercises of bending and stretching. The key to becoming an immortal lies in the divine elixir, a Daoist elixir of immortality. Learning the method is difficult, and making the elixir yourself is harder still. If you can succeed, you will be able to remain in the world for a long time. In the late Han dynasty, Yin Jun of Xinye attained the Dao and became an immortal after taking the Taiqing Elixir prepared according to this method. He was originally a Confucian scholar, quick-witted and skilled at writing poetry. He also wrote encomia and prefaces for elixir texts, recounting how he first studied the Dao and practiced under his original master. He listed more than forty people whom he knew to have become immortals, and recorded their stories in considerable detail.

The small Taiqing method composed by Yin Jun is harder to master than the alchemical method in the Scripture of the Nine Tripods. It is said to be a superior method by which one can ascend to Heaven in broad daylight. On the day of refining the elixir, one must first prepare the Master, Flower Pond, Red Salt, Gen Snow, Mysterious White, Flying Talisman, Three-Five Divine Water, and other ingredients; only then can the fire be lit and the refining begin.

Time Required for the Nine-Stage Elixir to Take Effect

After taking the first-stage elixir, one becomes an immortal through three years of cultivation; with the second-stage elixir, after two years; with the third-stage, after one year; with the fourth-stage, after half a year; with the fifth-stage, after one hundred days; with the sixth-stage, after forty days; and with the seventh-stage, after thirty days. The eighth-stage elixir brings immortality immediately after it is taken.

The original text then repeats that the fifth-stage elixir brings immortality after one hundred days, and the sixth-stage elixir after forty days.

With the Seven-Stage Elixir, taking it for thirty days enables one to become an immortal. With the Eight-Stage Elixir, ten days suffice; with the Nine-Stage Elixir, only three.

Place the Nine-Stage Elixir in a sacred cauldron and, after the summer solstice, expose it to the sun to warm the inside. Then place one pound of cinnabar beneath the cauldron’s lid. Keep watch and wait for the sunlight to reach it. In an instant, everything inside the cauldron will rise together, blazing with brilliance and emitting divine light in five colors, then transform into the Reverted Elixir. Take one knife-point measure—a small ancient measure for medicinal substances, also used to mean a small dose—and one can ascend to heaven in broad daylight.

Alternatively, seal an earthenware cauldron with elixir and fire it over a bed of chaff, first with a gentle flame and then with a fierce one. From the first stage through the ninth, each requires a different number of days; the alchemist uses this to judge how fully the substance has been refined. With fewer stages, its medicinal power is not yet sufficient, so taking it requires a longer time to become an immortal. With more stages, its power is fully refined, and the time required is shorter, allowing one to become an immortal more quickly.

◎ Method of the Ninefold Radiant Elixir

The Jiuguang Elixir method is broadly similar to the Nine Transformations Elixir method. In preparing it, various substances are combined and refined over a fire, repeatedly transforming the Five Mineral Medicines. The five minerals are cinnabar, realgar, alum, zengqing (a blue mineral), and magnetite. Each mineral is transformed five times, producing five colors; together, the five minerals yield twenty-five color forms. One liang of each colored elixir is set aside in a separate vessel.

According to legend, to revive someone who has been dead for no more than three days, take a small amount of the green elixir—a “knife-tip measure,” an ancient unit for a small quantity—pry open the dead person’s mouth, and place it inside. The person will then come back to life. To summon food and drink or other items for someone to use, mix the black elixir with water and apply it to the left hand. The requested item will be delivered as described; one can also summon all things under Heaven. To disappear from sight, foresee future events, and prolong life without growing old, take a small amount of the yellow elixir, and one will become immortal. While seated, one can see ten thousand li away, and good or ill fortune will seem to be right before one’s eyes. One can also know a person’s fate in past lives, as well as their rise and decline, longevity or early death, status, and wealth or poverty. These methods are all recorded in a volume of the Taiping Scripture.

Five Spirits Elixir Method

The one-volume Five Spirits Elixir contains five methods of preparation. The materials include cinnabar, realgar, orpiment, sulfur, zengqing, alum, magnetite, Rong salt, and Taiyi residual grain (a mineral medicine known in ancient times). It also requires Liuyi clay, used to seal vessels during elixir preparation, and the performance of a sacrificial Zhaijiao ritual in the Spirit Chamber. After the ingredients are refined together for thirty-six days, the elixir is complete. The Five Emperors’ Talisman is also used, written in five colors. It is said to be capable of making a person immortal, though its efficacy is inferior to that of the Great Clarity Elixir and the Nine Tripods Elixir.

Mount Min Elixir Method

The Methods of the Cinnabar Elixirs of Mount Min says that the Daoist Zhang Gai devoted himself to cultivation in a stone chamber on Mount Min, where he obtained this formula. The method is to hammer bronze into a “fangzhu,” an implement used in antiquity to collect dew. Use it to gather moon water, cover the water with mercury, and kindle within it the fire of solar essence, the fire used in alchemical refining. It is said that taking this medicine over a long period can make one live forever.

Another method is to place this elixir in a realgar-bronze fire striker, a bronze implement made using realgar. Cover it with mercury and expose it to the sun for twenty days, then remove it and grind it to a powder. Take a dose the size of a small bean with water drawn from a well at dawn. After a hundred days, it is said, the blind can regain their sight, all illnesses can be cured, white hair turns black, and lost teeth grow back.

The Method of the Five Transformations

The Elixir of the Five Transformations also comes in nine kinds, called the “Nine Heads,” though it seems inferior to the method of the Nine Cauldrons. Its essential steps are to take realgar, smelt it, extract the copper, and cast it into a vessel. Cover the vessel for three years, then moisten it with strong vinegar. After about a hundred days, red, milk-like growths several inches long will appear on the vessel; sometimes five-colored langgan, a precious stone resembling jade, will appear as well. Remove and grind these substances before taking them. It is said that they too can grant immortality.

This elixir can also be mixed with “rabbit-digging,” and its blood used to blend the mixture. After taking it, one can transform at will. Mix vermilion grass, a legendary immortal herb, with one daogui of the elixir, an ancient unit for a very small dose, and take it; it is said that one can then walk through the air.

The leaves of vermilion grass resemble those of wild rice. It grows alone, apart from other plants; its branches and trunk are red, and its stems resemble coral. It is often found beneath the rocks of famous mountains. When cut open, it oozes a blood-like liquid. Place jade and eight kinds of minerals, along with gold and silver, in the liquid, and they can immediately be kneaded into pills; after a long time, they turn back into liquid. Put gold in the liquid and it becomes golden fluid; put jade in and it becomes jade. It is said that taking these substances can bring immortality.

The Method of Liquid Gold (with an appendix on the Method of Weixi Jusheng)

The Baopuzi says that Liquid Gold was a medicine taken by Taiyi, a revered deity in Daoism, to attain immortality. Its efficacy was no less than that of the Nine Elixirs, the nine kinds of immortality elixir described in Daoist teachings. To prepare it, weigh out one jin of gold using an ancient scale, then add Dark Bright Dragon Paste, Taiyi’s Ten-Day Guarding Stone, Ice Stone, Purple Wandering Maiden, Dark Water Liquid, Gold-Transforming Stone, and cinnabar. Seal the mixture away, and it will turn into liquid.

The scripture says that when Liquid Gold enters the mouth, the body turns golden. Laozi received this method from Yuanjun, a revered Daoist deity. Yuanjun said, “This art is supremely precious; it is transmitted only once every hundred years, and must be kept hidden in a stone chamber.” To prepare it, one must observe purification for a hundred days and have no dealings with ordinary people. Build a separate quiet chamber near a famous mountain, beside water flowing east; after a hundred days, the medicine can be made. Taking one liang enables one to become immortal.

If you do not yet wish to leave the human world and seek only to become an earthly immortal, one who cultivates while remaining among people, you need only observe purification for a hundred days. If you wish to ascend to Heaven, first abstain from grain for a year, then take the medicine. Taking half a liang makes one live forever, immune to every calamity and poison. One may also marry, have children, hold office, and act as one wishes without restriction. Later, if you wish to ascend to Heaven, observe purification and then take one liang; you will become a flying immortal.

○ The Method of Wei Xi Ju Sheng

Take gold liquid (a metallic preparation produced or refined through water processing) and mercury, add them together with “left flavor,” and boil for thirty days. When finished, pour the mixture into a yellow jade vessel and seal it with Liuyi clay (clay used to seal and secure an alchemical furnace). Then heat it over a fierce fire for a time, until the whole mixture transforms into an elixir. Take a pill the size of a small bean, and you will become an immortal.

Grind one daogui measure (an ancient unit of weight, meaning a small amount) of this elixir into powder and add it to one jin of mercury; the mercury will turn into silver. Next, place one jin of the elixir over a fire and fan it to heat it. It will transform into red gold, flowing like liquid, which is called “Dan.” Smear it on swords and knives, and it will keep you safe from the calamities of war, even at a distance. Make plates and bowls from gold refined with this elixir and use them to serve food and drink; they will enable people to live forever. Use the gold to catch the essence of the sun and moon, and you can obtain divine liquid, just as a fangzhu (a vessel for collecting dew) can gather drops of water. Anyone who drinks it will not die.

Mix gold liquid (a liquid produced by refining gold) with yellow earth and place it in a vessel made from Liuyi clay. Heat it over a fierce fire, and the whole mixture will turn into gold. Heat it again over a fire, and it will all transform into elixir. Take a pill the size of a small bean, and you can enter famous mountains and great rivers and become an earthbound immortal (one who attains the Dao of immortality while living in the human world).

When transmitting the Golden Liquid Scripture, cast eight liang of gold into water flowing eastward, then swear an oath by tasting blood. Only then may you transmit the scripture to another person.

The oral instructions say: If you do not understand the fundamental method and merely steal the recipes to imitate the procedures, you will never succeed. Give the elixir only to someone you have found to be truly devout. Do not transmit the scripture lightly, or both the transmitter and the recipient will suffer calamity. The heavenly spirits watch people’s conduct with great vigilance; this must be understood.

The Baopuzi says: Once the Nine Elixirs have been refined, they are the highest grade among the medicines of immortality. However, preparing the Nine Elixirs requires many kinds of auxiliary ingredients. When travel between the four regions is convenient, the ingredients can be bought in the markets; when the regions are cut off from one another, the necessary materials cannot be obtained. Refining the elixirs also requires keeping the fire going continuously, day and night, for several dozen days, while carefully monitoring its intensity at every moment so that it never strays from the proper degree. Since the process is both laborious and difficult, refining the Golden Liquid together is easier.

In refining the Golden Liquid together, gold is the only ingredient that is hard to obtain. A pound in ancient times was equivalent to two pounds today, and usually cost no more than a little over three hundred thousand. The auxiliary ingredients needed were also fairly easy to gather. The process requires no fire: simply place the Golden Liquid in the “Flowery Pool” (a vessel used in alchemical work, or a container for the elixir), and it will be ready after the prescribed number of days. For a total cost of less than four hundred thousand, one can obtain a dose that, once taken, is enough to join the ranks of the immortals.

Volume Sixty-Eight: The Sixth Section on the Golden Elixir.

Formula for the Supreme Eight Radiances, Four Pistils, Purple Nectar, and Five Pearls’ Life-Bestowing Divine Elixir: one formula, with an accompanying preface. This elixir is also called the “Three Blossoms Flying-Band Elixir.”

The Most High Perfected One, a Daoist of supreme spiritual attainment, can survey the many heavens, roam freely through the vast purple celestial realm, and calmly experience the “Seven Awakenings,” the stages of realization attained by cultivators. At dawn, he travels through the four directions. He does so by means of the ascending fluids refined from the “Four Liquids” and the elixir made from the “Five Pearls.” He then rides the “Three Blossoms,” gazes out in all eight directions, and safeguards his true nature through the principles that govern flight. Transforming his primordial spirit and altering the scene, he wanders at ease in the Upper Clarity realm.

By beholding the blossoms of langgan, a jade-like precious stone, the cultivator can bring forth an elixir that renews life. Once he obtains the sublime scriptures of the Nine Perfected Ones, the Gate of Nine Yin also opens. Longevity comes from profound contemplation, while attaining the Dao depends on subtle cultivation. One should therefore focus on true Qi and settle the mind and spirit in a quiet, secluded realm.

Let the Five Spirits, the deities of the body’s five directions, grow calm and clear in the Purple Chamber, the divine room within the body, so that body and mind accord with Taiwei, a celestial region and a lofty heavenly realm. The radiance of the moon joins with Jielin, its essence, while sunlight courses through Yuyi, the sun’s essence. Wondrous transformations appear in the Nine Mornings, a celestial realm. As fluids gather within, the body can fly through open space. The Jade Scripture is chanted amid brilliant visions, and Longhua shines in Fuxi, a wondrous celestial realm. The body recedes into the distance, speeding between the dark heavens and the celestial river, as Heaven and Earth suddenly shift and change. The cultivator can transform instantly along the circuitous path, swift as lightning and thunder; dwell in the vast abyss without drowning, and tread across blades without injury.

When he wishes to close himself off, ten thousand gates shut fast; when he wishes to pass through, every obstruction vanishes. Descent and ascent have no fixed direction: he follows his will. The elixir of numinous transformation is boundless, its radiance equal to that of the Lord Emperor and the realm of Nine Yin. After taking a single dose, even the Three Luminaries—the sun, moon, and stars—will not wane. The following are the names of the ingredients and their formulas:

The first ingredient is seven liang of Vermilion Child of Crimson Mound. The formula says this is cinnabar, from the region of Yue.

The second ingredient is four jin of Sun Soul of Cinnabar Mountain. The formula says this is realgar, chosen for its brightness.

The third ingredient is three jin of Moonlight of the Dark Terrace. The formula says this is orpiment.

The fourth ingredient is five jin of Jade Maiden of Azure Keep. The formula says this is azurite.

The fifth ingredient is three jin of Rich Essence of Numinous Splendor. The formula says this is frankincense.

The sixth ingredient is one jin of the Dark Pearl of the Northern Emperor. The formula says this is saltpeter.

The seventh ingredient is five jin of the Patterned Lord of Purple Mound.

The fifth ingredient is called “Numinous Flower, Sunken Richness.” Use three jin. The coded formula refers to frankincense.

The sixth ingredient is called “Dark Pearl of the Northern Thearch.” Use one jin. The coded formula refers to saltpeter.

The seventh ingredient is called “Patterned Marquis of Purple Mound.” Use five liang. The coded formula refers to high-quality amethyst.

The eighth ingredient is called “Youth of the Eastern Mulberry.” Use seven liang. The coded formula refers to green costus root.

The ninth ingredient is called “White Plain Flying Dragon.” Use eight liang. The coded formula refers to white quartz.

The tenth ingredient is called “Divine Pearl of Luminous Jade.” Use seven liang. The coded formula refers to “genuine precious stone that picks up mustard seeds.”

The eleventh ingredient is called “Golden Ram of the Five Essences.” Use five liang. The coded formula refers to actinolite.

The twelfth ingredient is called “Flying Blossom of Rain.” Use five liang. The coded formula refers to bright, lustrous mica.

The thirteenth ingredient is called “Cinnabar Flowing in White Paste.” Use nine liang. The coded formula refers to calomel.

The fourteenth ingredient is called “Lone-Born Tingjiong.” Use six liang. The coded formula refers to clove, which has a pungent taste.

The fifteenth ingredient is called “Patterned Marquis of Green Mound.” Use five liang. The coded formula refers to mineral pigment.

The sixteenth ingredient is called “Divine Bone Walking Backward.” Use five liang. The coded formula refers to Rong salt.

The seventeenth ingredient is called “White Tiger’s Shed Tooth.” Use four liang. The coded formula refers to golden tooth stone.

The eighteenth ingredient is called “Yellow Child of the Nine Numinous Ones.” Use three liang. The coded formula refers to sulfur.

The nineteenth ingredient is called “Life Left Behind in the Land of Emptiness.” Use five liang. The coded formula refers to dragon bone; the best kind sticks to the tongue when licked.

The twentieth ingredient is called “King Among Men of Awe and Pattern.” Use six liang. The coded formula refers to the yin bone from a tiger’s skull. Crush it before use.

The twenty-first ingredient is called “Sunken Brightness Joined with Radiance.” Use four liang. The coded formula refers to pearls found inside mussels. Pearls that have already been pierced may also be used, but fresh ones should be chosen.

The twenty-second ingredient is called “Dark Feather of Zhangyang.” Use four liang. The coded formula refers to white aconite.

The twenty-third ingredient is called “Mother Stone of Green Hiddenness.” Use five liang. The coded formula refers to magnetite; a kind that can suspend a needle may be used.

The twenty-fourth ingredient is called “Full Grease of Zhongshan.” Use seven liang. The coded formula refers to Taiyi remaining grain; take its yellow portion.

The twenty-four medicines correspond respectively to the breaths of twenty-four deities. They combine with the vital essences of the Nine Mornings and Nine Yin, congeal into liquid, and gather the essence of the sun’s and moon’s radiance.

Pound each medicine separately, in sequence, beginning with cinnabar. Pound each one four thousand times. Choose only fine, fresh ingredients with vivid color. Those who pound the medicines should be gentle and cautious in temperament, and avoid idle talk. They must observe a thirty-day purification beforehand. After the purification, pound the medicines in a separate, clean room, wearing neat clothing and having bathed first. Three or four people may prepare the medicines together, provided they work with one mind and full attention in a quiet place. During the process, observe the same prohibitions as during the purification.

Once all the medicines have been pounded, place them in the cauldron used for refining medicines. Arrange them in this order: first cinnabar, then realgar, orpiment, and azurite, and finally Taiyi “surplus grain,” a mineral medicine, positioned above all the others. After loading all twenty-four medicines in sequence, gently press them together with a small willow spatula so they lie close against one another.

Next, pour five jin of mercury over the medicines, then slowly cover the cauldron with its earthen lid. Seal the joint between lid and cauldron with yellow-lead clay, then apply oyster-shell clay in a strip one cun wide around the outer edge. Let it dry in the shade for ten days, then remove it and check for cracks. If any are found, apply another layer of sealing clay. Finally, seal the earthen cauldron all over—outside, above, below, and around its sides—with oyster-shell clay to a thickness of six fen. Before this, prepare “Six-and-One Clay” to coat and seal the inside and outside of the earthen cauldron.

To make Six-in-One Sealing Clay, used to seal an earthen cauldron during alchemical refinement, take equal amounts of six ingredients: East Sea left-looking oysters, Rong salt, yellow lead, talc, red stone fat, and yellow earth from an earthworm mound. Pound them all together and sift them through fine silk. Mix them with bitter wine (vinegar) that has been brewed for a hundred days and has a strongly sour taste. Then pound the mixture twenty thousand times to make Six-in-One Sealing Clay.

Coat the inside and outside of an earthen cauldron, an alchemical vessel made of pottery. Apply a thin layer first and leave it in the sun to dry. Once the layer is completely dry, gradually add more clay until the coating is finished. The clay layers on both the inside and outside of the cauldron should each be one and a half inches thick. Estimate how much clay the work will require and prepare enough.

Bitter wine is used to mix all clay of this kind. If Rong salt is unavailable, Hedong coarse salt may be used instead. Another method is to put two jin of fine East Sea salt into one hu of bitter wine, stir it, and filter out the dregs. Use the resulting salt-vinegar liquid to mix the Six-in-One Sealing Clay, following these proportions as a guide.

Build a cooking shed four zhang long, facing south. Make a doorway at the eastern end and install gauze windows on the south side. Build a stove in the middle of the shed. The stove should be square, with an opening on each of its four sides. Set a large iron frame with four legs in the middle of the stove. Adjust the vertical spacing as circumstances require, making sure the frame is stable. Place the earthen vessel containing the medicine securely on the frame, and seal its mouth with high-quality flour. Then set another large iron frame with four legs in the middle of the stove. Adjust the spacing between the upper and lower frames as needed so that the structure remains stable.

Burn high-quality bran fuel beneath the vessel, keeping the fire about one chi from it and tending the heat carefully. Do not let the fire grow too fierce. Continue for eighteen days. Then move the fire to one cun from the bottom of the vessel and burn for five full days. Next, bring the fire level with the vessel’s bottom and burn for twenty-seven full days; then raise it to the midpoint of the vessel’s belly and burn for thirty full days; finally, let the fire reach two cun above the vessel and burn for twenty-four full days. When all this is complete, the medicine will have been refined.

Let the medicine cool for seven days, then open the vessel slowly and inspect it. The splendor of the Eight Luminaries and Four Pistils—the numinous radiance that appears when the elixir is complete—will be clinging to the vessel. Sweep it down with the feathers of a three-year-old white rooster and place it in a tightly sealed vessel made of gold or silver. This radiance will show the colors of auspicious clouds and give off fifty-eight kinds of qi. Its brilliance will shine like flowing rosy clouds, while its rich purple light gleams with an intensity beyond words. This elixir is called the “Divine Elixir of Crimson Life, the Eight Luminaries, Four Pistils, and Five Pearls.”

At dawn on the first day of the second or eighth month, face the auspicious direction of the Grand Duke of Jupiter and bow twice. Take one liang with water flowing eastward. After taking it, a light of the Nine Mornings will appear above your head, and your face will shine with a jade-like radiance, bright enough to see through all beneath Heaven. Hold your breath, and you can immediately summon the cloud-carriage of the Three Su’s; spit on the ground, and it will transform into the light of the sun and moon. Whistle to the left, and the immortals will appear; whistle to the right, and the Eight Luminaries will gather and become real. You will then be able to soar into the purple empyrean, move freely in Jade Purity, and rest and feast in the dwellings of the immortals.

If the elixir’s blossoms have not all risen, seal the vessel tightly again with clay as before and continue heating the belly of the vessel; the original text ends at the character “dun.”

After a further sixty days, the medicine will be fully refined. Then, cool it for seven days, and it will return to its original state.

The method described above uses one hu of hemp fat that has already been refined—a kind of oil made from hemp materials—and adds three liang of Four-Pistil Flower, a substance used in alchemy. Place them in a bronze vessel and gently heat it over charcoal. After three days, the medicine will be refined; it is called “Four-Pistil Purple Elixir.” Take one ge each day, and you will live as long as Heaven and Earth, manifest countless bodies, fly through open space, and travel wherever your mind wishes.

Alternatively, apply Western-Pistil Purple Flower, a purple alchemical substance, to your palms and fingernails, then look closely into a mirror. You will be able to see things ten thousand li away. Whatever you wish to see will appear in response to your thoughts. You will also be able to perceive possible future scenes and changes in fate, including life and death, prosperity and decline.

This elixir has eight names: Eightfold Radiance Elixir, Four-Pistil Purple Flower, Great Subtlety Purple Jade Fat, Five-Pearl Flower Elixir, Life-Descending Dawn Flower, Three-Flower Supreme Elixir, Supreme One’s Flying Net, and Nine-Dawn Supreme Elixir. The text refers to it throughout as “the Eight Names.”

To prepare hemp paste, take five hu of clear water, one hu of hemp paste, and two jin each of the white parts of scallions and Chinese chives. Combine all four ingredients and boil them until only one hu remains. To make purple-pistil paste, light a fire in a quiet place and cover the bronze vessel with a wooden lid so that the paste’s vapor cannot escape. The finished paste may also be taken by itself; it is said to prolong life and increase longevity.

When refining the Eight Radiances Divine Elixir with husk fire, do not open the vessel when the prescribed number of refining days has elapsed. Instead, continue applying fire as before; the dates and hours for firing should also follow the previous method. Once the entire process is complete, let the vessel cool for seven days before opening it. The medicine’s vapor will transform into five bright moon pearls, which rise and attach themselves to the lid, each wrapped in a thin crimson film. When sent through refinement with clear water, they will appear beneath crimson clouds and ascend to Shangqing, the Daoist upper heavens. Wearing the five pearls enables one to illuminate all under Heaven, their radiance equal to that of the sun and moon. This elixir is called “Five Pearls Born of Crimson.” Those who cultivate the Shangqing Way should double the firing time.

After the five pearls have formed, do not open the vessel. Continue applying fire according to the method described above. After sending them through refinement with clear water in the same way, they will again appear beneath crimson clouds and ascend to Shangqing. Wearing the five pearls enables one to illuminate all under Heaven, their radiance equal to that of the sun and moon. This elixir is still called “Five Pearls Born of Crimson.” Those who cultivate the Shangqing Way should double the firing time. Once the five pearls have formed, still do not open the vessel; continue applying fire according to the previous method. When the entire process is complete, let the vessel cool for twenty-two days before opening it. The five bright moon pearls will then transform into a dragon of the Three Blossoms and Flying Firmament. When the alchemical vessel is opened, it will suddenly grow, release divine light, and breathe out clouds. This is what is called the “Hidden Dragon.” Riding it, one can travel to the palaces of the Nine Dawns, the celestial halls of Daoist heaven. Thus the Higher Scripture says: “Ride the Hidden Dragon, and you will dwell with Heaven, enduring without end.”

“Doubling the firing” means that each successive period of continued firing is twice as long as the one before: first one day, then two days, then four, eight, and sixteen days. Calculate each period in this sequence.

To prepare tiger brain, take one jin of Ma Xian Chuanqiong and pound it finely into powder. Mix the powder with six liang of tiger brain, shape the mixture into cakes, and leave them to dry in a cool place.

To make the “Tiger Brain” medicinal cake, take one jin of horse-bit cōngqióng, pound it carefully into a fine powder, then mix the powder with six liang of tiger brain and shape the mixture into a cake. Leave it to dry in a cool, shaded place. Once dry, pound it again and weigh out six liang; throw the rest into a river flowing eastward. Tiger brain dried in the shade can still be used for three years, so it need not be freshly dried. Store it in a silk bag to keep dust from getting onto it.

When using resinous frankincense, first wash and refine it in hot water to remove the dirt, since it usually contains a great deal of dust and grime. Use the clean, translucent portion, free of impurities.

Place ten jin of tin in an iron pot and heat it for half a day. Add one zhu of “Western Pith Purple Flower” and stir briefly; this will refine into “Wilting Jade-Green Gold,” also called “Purple Gold.” Whether this Purple Gold can bend and straighten depends on the user; the description here refers to its state immediately after refining. Add two zhu and it will refine into “Purple-Pistil Jade”; add three zhu and it will refine into “Dark Pear Green-Scenery Jade.”

Pound the dregs of the “Eight-Scenery Elixir” thirty thousand times. Take one pill each day, each about the size of a small bean. It is said to make the body shine with a jade-like luster, grant a lifespan equal to that of the Immortals of the Nine Mornings, and make the body’s fragrance carry for thirty li. Burn one pill until it melts, and it is said to ward off every illness, foul energy, ghosts, and ill omens; its fragrance will not fade for ten days. Take one pill the size of a millet grain, hold it in the mouth, then spit it out. It is said that one can then transform at will, conceal one’s body and shadow, and travel freely across the world. To end the effect, swallow the pill. If a person has been dead for less than three days, give them one pill, have them knock their teeth together and wash it down with water, then place another pill over the heart. It is said that this can bring back the soul, making the body warm and supple again.

Place ten jin of lead in an iron vessel and melt it. Add these two pills, each about the size of an egg yolk, and stir for a while; the lead will turn to gold. Add three pills and it will turn to purple gold. Carry one pill with you, and the spirits of the mountains and seas will come to pay homage. Smear one on the doorway, and the whole household will remain free of illness, while ghosts and uncanny spirits will be driven away. Take one pill each day: after a hundred days, your appearance will be like that of a young woman; after three years, your face will regain the look of an infant.

Stir one pill into a vessel for refining lead, and in an instant it will turn to gold; add three pills and it will become purple gold. Carry one pill with you, and the spirits of the mountains and seas will come to pay homage. Smear it on the doorway to keep the whole household free of illness and drive away ghosts and uncanny spirits. Take one pill each day: after a hundred days, your appearance will be like that of a young woman; after three years, your face will regain the look of an infant. Toss a pill the size of a small bean into water, and dragons and fish will rise to the surface as the water boils. Toss a pill the size of a soybean into a fire, and the flames will continue for about a day.

The scriptures titled The True Jade Scripture of the Golden Mystery, Nine Yin and Nine Yang, of Lord Zhonghuang, the High Sage of Shangqing and Lord of the Cavern of Truth, The Writings of Tai Shang Yu Yi, The Chapter of Jie Lin, and The Writings on the Divine Elixir of the Eight Effulgences, among others, are engraved on the Immortal Terrace of Donghua and are not disclosed to ordinary people. Only those whose destiny already bears an immortal’s name may hear of them or see them. When these scriptures are transmitted, the recipient must observe purification and visualize the spirits. The transmitter must carefully confirm that the recipient is truly suited to receive them before passing them on. They must also form an oath pact, pledging not to reveal them.

On receiving the Emperor’s Nine Yin Instructions, one must offer a knot of blue silk as a token of the oath. On receiving The Writings of Tai Shang Yu Yi, one must pledge twenty-four chi of crimson silk—an oath to the Sun Spirit. On receiving The Chapter of Tai Shang Jie Lin, one must pledge twenty-four chi of blue-green silk—an oath to the radiance of the Moon. On receiving the Elixir Scripture of the Eight Effulgences, one must pledge three pairs of gold bu coins—an oath to the god of the Unceasing Youth’s transformations. Today, these four pledges serve as tokens of the pact: the gods of the Nine Dawns are called to bear witness, and the Sun and Moon stand as its signs. The pledge is never to reveal the teachings, and one’s resolve must be equal to Heaven and Earth.

One must strictly honor the oath and never reveal the scriptures and methods one has received. Only then can one’s heart and purpose accord with Heaven and Earth. If one does not respect and keep the oath, one will become a ghost in the underworld. One’s ancestors for seven generations will also be punished amid water and fire, sinking into the depths of the river like stones from Meng Mountain.

The oath tokens that a scripture master—the teacher who transmits scriptures and methods—gives to disciples should be distributed among the poor. They are meant to aid those in urgent need because of poverty or illness, provide relief to the hungry in the mountains and valleys, and serve the gods in common. If the scripture master keeps any for personal use, using them to support himself or even seeking profit, then his ancestors for seven generations will suffer punishment in hell for a long time. He himself will fall amid wind and fire and endure indescribable pain.

Disciples and scripture masters should treat one another sincerely and with affection; this relationship also reflects respect for the foundational lineage. When one’s moral cultivation is deep, there is no separation between people and ghosts or spirits; when one is close to the foundational lineage, the hun and po souls can also be at peace. If one honors only the beginning but neglects what follows, failing to uphold virtue to the end, one will fall amid wind and fire and suffer. How could such a person live long, or hope to become an immortal? Only after truly grasping these principles can one discuss the foundations and stages of seeking the Dao.

The Nine Cycles of the Golden Elixir, Chapter Two, Chapter One (Six Sections)

Preface to “The Chapter on Containing the Primordial in the Upper-Certainty Section”

The Reverted Elixir, an elixir made through cultivation, is condensed from the essence of the Nine Yangs. It receives the Twenty-Four Real Ones and contains both true Water and true Fire. Joined within and without, it nurtures and transforms the Five Spirits. The Five Spirits set the breath in motion; as it gathers, it forms cinnabar, which is then refined into an elixir. When the breath has gathered to its utmost, it is called the “Great Reverted Elixir of Purple Radiance and Red Blossoms.”

The method for refining the Great Reverted Elixir has traditionally been passed from master to disciple and taught through oral instructions. Its wondrous words are concealed in grotto-heavens, and its golden tablets kept secret in the immortal capitals. Fearing that the Dao’s methods would be lost, the immortals set down hidden words in riddling language and left them among humanity. Later, people of talent searched widely for obscure meanings, spending much time and effort, yet never grasping them. They gradually lost their way and sank into delusion; before long their bodies decayed and their spirits dispersed, while their corpses and souls became demonic apparitions. This is truly lamentable.

Yet the workings of the Great Dao must be received through a person’s focused attention. The key to mastering the efficacy of its transformations lies in refining mercury. The essentials of refining mercury are explained in detail in the two chapters. These chapters are divided into nine grades. The upper three grades discuss extracting mercury from cinnabar, adding gold after refining mercury, and refining gold in combination with medicines; these topics are set out in seven sections. The middle three grades discuss methods for subduing the gold of the Five Minerals and the Four Yellows, as well as the transformations and applications of yang gold. The lower three grades discuss blending the Great Elixir, the furnace and vessel, and the timing of the Fire; they also explain the methods for verifying the elixir’s authenticity once it is complete. All these topics are covered in the nine grades and two chapters.

Grade One: Extracting Mercury from Cinnabar

The Scripture of the Great Cavern on Refining the Real Treasure conceals its teachings on true lead and true mercury. True mercury is mercury extracted from top-grade Bright Cinnabar. It is then further combined according to the methods of internal cultivation of Water and Fire, and for this reason it is called “true.” The teachings on Bright Cinnabar are also included in the nine grades and two chapters.

Grade One: Extracting Mercury from Cinnabar

The Scripture of the Great Cavern on Refining the Real Treasure conceals its teachings on true lead and true mercury. True mercury is mercury extracted from top-grade Bright Cinnabar. One pound of Bright Cinnabar contains fourteen ounces of mercury.

To draw out mercury (Hg) with a bamboo tube, first select a length of sinew bamboo and make it into a tube, keeping three of its more closely spaced nodes. Make a hole about the size of a pellet in the upper section. In the middle section, make a smaller hole, about the size of a chopstick tip, to serve as a passage for the mercury to drip through. Lay two layers of thick waxed paper over the middle section, then put finely ground cinnabar into the tube and bind it tightly with hemp cord. Steam it for a day. Next, coat the bamboo tube with yellow clay to a thickness of about three inches, then bury it in the ground so that it is level with the surface. Pack the earth firmly around it to prevent the vapor from escaping.

Then pile firewood over the tube and keep it burning for a full day and night, heating the upper section thoroughly. The mercury will flow down into the lower section with almost no loss. If the heat is insufficient and the mercury has not all flowed out, the remainder will still be heavy and blackish purple. Continue firing by the same method until you have obtained enough mercury, reaching the standard known as “red horse teeth.” Mercury can also be drawn from Purple Spiritual Sand by this method.

Other flying extraction methods cause considerable loss and often fail to draw out all the mercury; the bamboo tube method is the best. A detailed account of this method appears among the superior-grade items in this chapter.

Refining Mercury and Adding Gold to Produce Sand: Second Item

Even if mercury has already been drawn from cinnabar of the same kind, it cannot simply be added to an alloy and refined into sand; if done this way, sand will never form. The accounts in the preceding seven chapters are still incomplete. As for the method of adding gold to produce sand, it is secretly recorded in the Instructions on Refining Mercury: when mercury is acted upon again by the inner forces of Water and Fire and meets its original metal counterpart, it transforms and generates sand.

Take one jin of mercury and three liang of stone sulfur. First pound them and grind them into a powder. Put the powder in a porcelain bowl and heat it over a low flame. Keep adding mercury as you grind rapidly until the mixture has been refined into a blue-green, sandy substance. Then place it in a porcelain bottle that holds one sheng. Coat the outside of the bottle thickly with yellow-earth clay, cover its mouth and seal it tightly, then put it in the furnace.

Heat it slowly over charcoal for three days, keeping charcoal burning around the bottle the whole time. After three days, alternate between a gentle fire and a fierce fire: divide ten jin of charcoal into two portions, and each time place five jin of charcoal above the bottle to burn. If a blue-green flame shows through the bottle, immediately seal it over with thin mud so the flame is no longer exposed. Continue burning until the charcoal is spent. After the bottle has cooled for three days, open it.

Through this process, mercury will turn into purple cinnabar, with no loss whatsoever of the medicinal substance. Put one jin of black lead in a cauldron and melt it into a liquid. Then add finely ground purple cinnabar to the molten lead. Remove the heat and immediately stir-fry the mixture by hand until the two combine into granules. Grind them finely in the cauldron, cover them with salt about two fen thick, press it down firmly, and seal the mouth of the cauldron. Refine over a strong fire for half a day, and the numinous mercury will separate out without any loss in quantity.

Next, follow the sequence given in the seven chapters, repeatedly adding and refining the substances until they are fused together and form granules. The second time, when preparing the mercury used in the “Chapter on Transforming Treasure Cinnabar,” refine it twice with stone sulfur to form granules, then use black lead twice to extract and refine the mercury, and finally add gold to transform it into granules. The third time, when preparing the mercury used in “Heroic Cinnabar,” refine and extract it three times. The fourth time, for the mercury used in “Wondrous Cinnabar,” refine and extract it four times. The fifth time, for the mercury used in “Numinous Cinnabar,” extract and refine it five times. The sixth time, for the mercury used in “Divine Cinnabar,” refine and extract it six times. The seventh time, for the mercury used in “Mysterious True Crimson-Cloud Cinnabar,” follow the method described above: refine it seven times with stone sulfur until it becomes purple cinnabar, then extract and refine it seven times with black lead until it returns to numinous mercury.

Use three liang of stone sulfur for each round of refining. When extracting and refining the mercury, use one jin of black lead. Carry out each round according to the fire-control methods described earlier. After the mercury has undergone refining and extraction, it contains the essential Qi of water and fire and accords with the number of the seven chapters. Thus the luminous energies of water, fire, and metal naturally join together, gather their essential Qi, and transform into a numinous substance, attaining the state of realizing the Real.

Third: The Method for Cultivating Gold and Combining the Medicines

When the soul of the Yang Origin, the soul of primordial Yang energy, is moved by Yin Qi, it settles and takes form, congealing into a corporeal soul. This is called “Concordant Metal,” the metallic medicine formed through the interaction of Yin and Yang. Concordant Metal manifests a Yin nature and form, while also containing Yang essence. When Yin and Yang join and their essential Qi gathers, they transform into a numinous substance and attain the state of realizing the Real.

The soul of Yang origin, a Yang essence, responds to Yin Qi and settles within the body, transforming into a Po soul. This is called “Metal of Dui.” Once formed, the Metal of Dui displays a Yin substance, yet still contains Yang essence. The stagnant Qi within it is then gradually removed. Spiritual Mercury, a mercury-based substance endowed with spiritual potency, is added, causing it to transform repeatedly and grow ever more lustrous. In the end, it passes from turbidity to clarity and becomes a purely Yang form. In refining this metal, one should follow the method for combining Golden Elixir ingredients, exhaust its innate nature, bring it into accord with “nonbeing,” and allow its spiritual potency to run through the seven chapters on cultivation and refinement.

Rock salt originally received the essential Qi of the Kun and Kan trigrams. It is a substance of extreme Yin that congeals into solid form. It is square, with edges like flat pieces of stone; its color is bright white, like grains of salt, and its taste is milder than that of ordinary granulated salt. It can suppress Yang essence and neutralize the toxins of fire stone, and its potency can match that of rock sulfur. After refinement, its substance and form change: it can bring forth Metal essence, remove coarse and stagnant Qi, and cause it to rise. In the seven chapters, rock salt is used as an auxiliary ingredient.

Horse-tooth nitre, the name of a mineral medicine, is also an essence of extreme Yin. It has the form of congealed stone and is found in the Sichuan region. It too can suppress Yang essence and neutralize the Qi of fire stone. Used alone, its suppressive force is weak; combined with rock salt, its Yin toxicity becomes powerful.

Northern Court sand received the Qi of Yin stone and contains an essence of Yang toxicity. It can destroy the metals of the Five Stones and bring out the distinct nature of each medicine. It can both bring things to completion and ruin them, and its potency is comparable to sulfur. Its effects are especially marked in removing foul Qi and augmenting Yang Qi. It is naturally granular and pale red; the best quality is bright and translucent. In the seven chapters, Northern Court sand serves as an auxiliary ingredient, guiding the essence of Yang Metal to break through the Yin Po soul. Combined with Great Bright sand, red salt, and sulfur, it produces exceptionally subtle effects in transformation and refinement.

Qilin Stele is produced in the Western Hu (an ancient name for regions to the west). It receives the breath of Yinghuo (Mars) and grows in the shade of Yang Stone, where it condenses into shape. Its color resembles purple reeds, and its form resembles weathered stone. It can also replenish Yang essence and disperse stagnant Yin energy. When gathered, augmented, and refined, it has considerable efficacy. To identify the genuine substance, place it in a fire: red liquid should well up, and the color of the flame should not change easily. Only material that behaves this way is genuine.

Stone Gall is produced on Mount Song and in Puzhou. It receives an unusual energy from numinous stone and is shaped like a pipa. Its nature is fluid; vital essence responds and enters the stone, enabling it to turn the Five Metals into liquid. When Yang energy encounters it, clear energy returns to the central palace, the central position in the body or a system of cultivation. To distinguish genuine material, coat copper or iron with it and heat it over a fire. If it turns the color of red gold, it can be used for subduing and refining, with excellent results. There is another way to verify it: fill a copper vessel with water and add a little Stone Gall. If the water turns clear blue-green and stays that way for several days, the material is genuine.

Bright Sand receives Yang essence and is nourished by Yang energy. Its form resembles amber, and its texture resembles peach gum. Its nature is gentle; it can dissolve and refine Yang Metal and transform the qualities of stagnant Yin. Combined with sulfur and red salt to transform and refine Yang essence, it grows brighter layer by layer. In the Seven Chapters, it is used to regulate and harness the energy of Correct Yang, restoring it to its original true state. Its efficacy is considerable.

Red Salt is simply Rong Salt, produced in the Xirong region. It receives the natural energy of the local water and soil, then condenses into shape. The local water and soil are yellowish-red, and the salt takes on the same color as it forms; hence its name, Red Salt. Its taste is slightly milder than that of rock salt, yet it can refine Yang essence, making it brighter and more radiant. Used with sulfur, it can restore the hun and po souls, cultivate the po, and increase brightness. It can also subdue the Four Yellows, stabilize their qualities, and return them to Wuxu and Jisi, the Heavenly Stems associated with Earth in the Five Phases. To identify its source, place it in a fire: if red liquid flows out and becomes darker in color once it congeals, it is the original genuine material.

Stone sulfur comes from the region of Southern Ming in Persia. It receives the refined Qi of pure Yang Fire, which condenses into a solid substance. Its texture is fluid, and it contains a potent poison; among medicines it is known as the “general.” It is said to dispel what is deviant and restore what is right, transform turbidity into purity, raise up Yang essence, and eliminate Yin Qi. The movement of Original Truth also often relies on its effects. When it comes into contact with lead, its refined Qi dissipates and the Po soul is harmed.

Stone sulfur that is slightly greenish and brightly lustrous has stronger medicinal power; when it has condensed into yellow, its power is weaker; when it is reddish yellow, its power is weaker still. In refining the Great Elixir, it must undergo stages of blending, subduing through refinement, and digestion, and stone sulfur with strong medicinal power must be selected. In using it, one must discern the quality of its Original Qi and medicinal power. Refining it according to the methods of the Seven Chapters can transform it into gold and produce sand. As the sand gradually becomes clear and bright, its potency can then be used in refining the Nine Elixirs.

Middle Grade, Section Three: An Account of Five Stone Metals — Fourth

The five stone metals each receive the Yin essence of a deity of one of the five directions. They also combine with the different Qi of mountains and marshes, condensing into physical form.

Iron takes shape by receiving the Yin essence of the southern Ding position. Iron is hard in nature, and ingesting it harms the lungs.

Copper takes shape by receiving the Yin essence and Qi of the eastern Yi position. Copper is unyielding and harsh in nature, and ingesting it harms the kidneys.

Silver takes shape by receiving the Yin essence and spirit Qi of the western Xin position. Silver is unyielding and harsh in nature, and ingesting it harms the liver.

Lead and tin both receive the Qi of the northern Ren and Gui positions: tin receives Ren essence, while lead receives Gui Qi. Yin Qi reaches its extreme at the Gui position, so lead receives the essence of extreme Yin. Lead and tin are viscous in nature and carry heavy Yin poison; ingesting them harms the heart and stomach.

Gold receives the Yin Po of the central Ji position. It is hard in nature, and ingesting it harms the intestines and muscles.

Most metal-based medicines have a yin and toxic nature. Taking them over a long period can damage the muscles and bones and shorten one’s life. People hope to attain immortality, yet do not understand the nature of these substances; they carelessly refine metals from ore by repeatedly heating them. These metals have absorbed the turbid yin Qi of the spirits of the Five Phases and congealed into solid form. They are heavy in substance. Even when treated with the “Four Yellows” and their form can be changed, their toxic yin nature does not disappear. Even if made into an elixir, taking it will still damage the five organs. This is simply their inherent nature. Such practice goes against the true principle: seeking immortality by taking medicines only takes one farther from the Dao.

The Fifth: Subduing the Four Yellows

The “Four Yellows” are realgar, orpiment, arsenic, and sulfur. Their properties all belong to the position of Wu Earth in the central palace, and each contains the toxicity of yang fire, which can harm the five organs. If they are subdued individually and their fire toxin removed, they can serve as materials for changing the form and substance of the five metals. If their toxicity can be subdued so that they lose their flame-like color without changing their original nature, and liquid flows out during refinement, they can be put to use in transforming copper and silver into gold. If, after their fire nature has been subdued, they turn white like light powder and their liquid melts and flows freely, they can turn all five metals into silver. Each of the Four Yellows receives a different original Qi; transforming them...

Realgar transforms iron into other metals; orpiment alters tin; arsenic sulfide alters copper; and sulfur transforms silver into mercury. These four yellow minerals can also transform iron into copper, copper into silver, and silver into gold, one stage after another. Sulfur is the most potent: it augments Yang energy and Jing, and turns turbid matter into something clear and pure. For this reason, it is called the general who commands the seventy-two minerals.

When the Four Yellows meet red salt, dapeng sand, and stone gall, they draw in their substance and return to their original state without changing color. But when they meet rock salt, sal ammoniac, and stone gall and are refined in fire, their substance changes, becoming white like light powder. The ancient book The Precious Scripture of the Great Grotto: Zheng Jun’s Inner Account of Cultivating the Real discusses how to subdue the seventy-two minerals: during refinement, the minerals should be enclosed in a womb-shaped vessel, then sealed and refined in a crucible made with an equal amount of yellow earth, along with lead powder and stone brain, materials used in refining minerals. This is because earth shares the nature of the Four Yellows; lead can dispel the poison of fire, and stone brain can subdue the minerals’ toxicity. The Tradition of Cultivating the Real gives many detailed secrets for transforming different minerals, too many to list here. I will therefore briefly describe the main ways the Four Yellows and the Five Metals subdue one another, arranged by category.

Sixth: Transformations of Yang Metal

Yang Metal receives the essence of Yang energy. It is formed when the Five Spirits emit talismanic Qi and their breaths converge, finally taking bodily form as cinnabar. The methods for enclosing cinnabar in its outer layer are described at length and will not be discussed here.

Sixth: Transformations of Yang Metal

Yang gold is formed by receiving the essence of Yang Qi. The spirits of the Five Phases (the spiritual Qi corresponding to the Five Phases) emit talismanic Qi and gather primordial Qi; dwelling in a physical form, they become cinnabar. Cinnabar is wrapped externally in the Eight Minerals (the eight minerals used in alchemical practice), while containing gold essence within. Gold essence first receives Qi from Jia (the East, Wood), takes form in Bing (the South, Fire), emerges from its womb and becomes visible in Ren (the North, Water), then gathers hun and po to become Geng (the West, Metal). Its radiance is further enhanced, and it returns to Wu (the Center, Earth). Yin and Yang Qi rise, descend, and transform, each returning to its corresponding category.

For example, galena and the Five Metals all receive the Yin Qi of the Five Spirits. After condensing, they too divide into five forms. Their substance is hard and inert, and their nature heavy and stagnant. Mercury, by contrast, receives the subtle, numinous essence of the Five Spirits’ Yang aspect. It gathers the various Qi into one body, and so can rise lightly and transform, undergo hidden and mysterious changes, and communicate with all spirits.

Mercury originally dwells in the womb of cinnabar and occupies the South. When its womb substance changes, it becomes Ren Water. Water takes visible form in the North and, lowering its po, becomes Geng. Geng belongs to the Western white metal. Through refinement, its form and substance turn into Jia, the Eastern green metal; its essence is then further enhanced in Wu. Wu is the gold of the Center. The metal substance transforms and returns to Li (the Li trigram, associated with Fire), and its efficacy is completed at the number nine. As Yang gold undergoes successive transformations, it sets the mechanism of change in motion, turns and alters its form, changes the nature of its womb, and combines to form the bodies of the Five Directions. It then receives the Qi of Heaven and Earth, transforms Yin and Yang, transcends the Three Primordials (the three kinds of primordial Qi, or three levels, in Daoist thought), sheds its form and substance, and returns to its original nature. This is called the Return Elixir.

The second chapter of the Ninefold Return Golden Elixir says: “Change the substance of the womb and combine to form the bodies of the Five Directions. Then receive the Qi of Heaven and Earth, transform Yin and Yang, transcend the Three Primordials, shed form and substance, and return to the original nature. This is called the Return Elixir.”

The third section of Chapter Two of the Ninefold Return Golden Elixir: An account of the lower three grades of cinnabar.

To refine and combine the Great Elixir, one must first accumulate the essence of Yang Qi, making purple gold (an alchemical term for gold or a gold-based ingredient) circulate repeatedly through transformations and transmute the Qi of the Five Spirits. One removes its physical form and material nature, enabling it to transform lightly and flow freely. Then one uses what is called true water to carry out the fire phases, reasoning through the subtle principles until the number nine is completed nine times. The true water mentioned here contains fire; it refers to substances such as black lead and sulfur. Lead belongs to Ren and Gui Water of the North.