《关窍要旨》

Beneath the title Essentials of the Passes and Apertures (Guanqiao Yaozhi), it is said that in the phrase “Thus have I heard,” “thus” refers to the cultivation formulas being transmitted; “I” is how an unnamed person refers to himself; and “heard” shows that these teachings come from oral transmission. To transmit the methods of the Dao (the Way) while concealing one’s name expresses a lofty character and a humble intent. The reader should quietly take in the essential meaning. What the book says of the Dao of immortality and the Dao of human life has already been set out clearly and plainly.

The book repeatedly mentions “my patriarch, Elder Li of the Muddy Pellet,” and so some suspect that it was orally imparted by Elder Chen of Xichuan, in western Sichuan. Tianshuizi may be the hidden name of Elder Guo of Qinliu, and the book may also contain material from Essential Meaning of Practicing Kan (Xikan Jingyi). Noting further that the text speaks of “my lineage, Donghua,” includes Oral Instructions on Purifying the Heart and Practicing Kan (Zhaixin Xikan Jueshuo), and refers to “modeling oneself on the patriarch,” one can see that the book does indeed come from the school of Elder Chen. Unfortunately, the edited copy that survives was not transcribed by Tianshui’s own hand, and so it contains many textual errors. I have therefore collated it with a quiet mind, as the account of our own lineage. — After the Tianzhong Festival in the guisi year of the Daoguang reign (1833), the later student Min Yide respectfully inscribes this colophon at the Shuyin Pavilion on Mount Jingai.

In cultivating the Golden Elixir (Jindan), everything depends on making the heart-mind calm and single-mindedly settled. If the heart-mind cannot be stilled and settled, the spirit (Shen) and the mind grow confused, and it is difficult to harmonize the “true breath” (the natural breathing spoken of in cultivation). If the breathing is not steady, the “prenatal Qi” (vital energy—what Daoism calls the innate primordial qi) within the body withdraws into hiding, and the true Qi of the Three Powers, Heaven, Earth, and humanity, cannot gather either. Practice then brings no benefit; how could one refine the “medicine” (the fruit of Neidan, internal alchemy)?

Therefore, when affairs arise, restrain the thoughts of the heart-mind, and in acting follow the natural course of things. Before an affair has occurred, do not first give rise to thoughts and calculations; once it has passed, let it go as ice melts away. Keep the heart always as if no affair were clinging to it. Only then can the heart-mind be calm; and once it is calm, it naturally becomes settled.

First use this method to settle the mind and spirit (Shen). Sit alone for a short while in a quiet room, cross-legged, with both hands held firmly closed. Draw in the senses, lower the eyelids, concentrate the spirit and turn its light inward, and observe your own inner mind. Let the state of mind be as pure, simple, and unknowing as an infant, sitting upright in the “abode” within the heart.

What is meant here by “sitting upright” is only inner stillness of the mind. “Abiding like an infant” means that inside and outside are wholly settled as one, with no discrimination or thinking arising. The “heart’s abode” means that the mind is empty, clear, and open, as if there were a dwelling place within it—one that can only be sensed, not seen. If one clings to the wording and becomes attached to concrete images, one falls into illusory fantasies and cannot attain true clarity and stillness.

Only by gazing inward according to the method can one see one’s own mind. Only when the workings of body and mind proceed of themselves is this the true condition of the mind.

“Condition” refers to the fundamental substance, that is, the substance of the Dao (the Way). Nifan said: “The root of the Dao is utterly empty; the essential nature of the substance of the Dao is originally without form.” Only when one has learned to grasp this point may one speak of the inner mind, and only then can one master the method of inward contemplation. If one has not yet reached the true condition of the mind and merely forces oneself not to give rise to thoughts, one will feel as though the breath at the nose has disappeared and the Qi (vital energy) has returned to the space between the heart and the navel; only then does one count as having entered the true condition.

Only after the realm of the real has been reached may the mind’s intent be returned into the sea. The “sea” here refers to the Yuanhai (the place where primordial Qi gathers). When it returns to the sea, the mind’s intent is pure and undivided, and embryonic breathing—Taixi (the subtle, continuous breathing of cultivation)—comes to rest as well. Only then may one arouse the mind’s intent, so that the movement of Qi (vital energy) opens wide and closes wide.

This is to set one’s own true Qi turning by means of one’s own true Shen (spirit, the inner spiritual sovereign). What pass or aperture, then, could fail to open? Yet the method lies solely in the intention penetrating and traveling through from the rear. At this time the fire of the Kun furnace (the place of refining and nourishing around the lower Dantian, or energy center) is kindled, and between the two kidneys it is as if broth were boiling. The fluid of the heart flows downward; the Yin Qi in the sea is transformed into Yang Qi and rises in steaming surges. Very soon it bursts open the two passes of Weilu and Jiaji, then passes through Fengfu (the acupoint at the nape) and ascends to Kunlun (the head).

The source of this efficacy is that spirit and intention roam in the Water Palace (the site of cultivation associated with the water of the kidneys and the lower Dantian). Yet because one is still actively visualizing and deliberately meeting and drawing forth the flourishing of primordial Qi, this cannot yet be called the natural joint activation of Heaven and the human being. Alchemical texts call this state the “Mysterious Shadow” (Xuanying). If one uses it to nurture and warmly sustain the work, and if this can be continued, it is called the congealing of Shen and the forming of the embryo, a return to a single grain. Master Niwan, however, says that this is only “self-deception.” The cultivator must carefully remember this: the boundary between the real and the illusory in the cultivation of the Golden Elixir (Jindan) is fixed precisely here. How could one treat it lightly?

On Opening and Closing

The human body has three critical passes, known as the Weilu, the Jiaji, and the Yuzhen. The Weilu pass lies at the lower end of the spine and communicates inwardly with the kidney region. The scripture calls the marrow pathway that begins there the Caoxi, or “Transport Creek,” and also the “Yellow River.” In Daoist Neidan (internal alchemy), this channel belongs to the Governing Vessel (Du meridian) and is also called the “black path.” From the two apertures at the Jiaji it ascends to the back of the head, where the Yuzhen pass is found, also known as the “Iron Wall,” so named because the passage there is narrow and the pass itself is firm and solid.

When Qi (vital energy) travels along the channel, passes through these critical points, and enters the brain, this is called “direct penetration.” Some say that Qi may also cross the passes, which rise like a mountain ridge, and then descend, and that this too seems admissible; yet this belongs to the immortals’ path of “the two Qi returning to the yellow,” which a beginner must not attempt by skipping stages. The scripture warns that if one adopts it rashly and later mixes it with other practices, endless disorders may follow, and so it must be strictly avoided.

On the immortals’ path described in the scripture, Qi rises from the aperture in front of the Weilu and behind the lower Dantian (energy center), ascends straight to the crown, passes through the skull, pauses and melts there, and then descends naturally to the Sea of Qi (the Dantian in the lower abdomen). At times Qi also divides and descends along the Conception Vessel (Ren meridian), resting in turn at such places as the Jiangque (Crimson Palace) and the Zhonghuang (Central Yellow), before finally gathering into the Sea of Qi. The whole process should follow its own natural course: one neither deliberately forgets it nor forcibly assists it. Ancient practitioners called this the “sacred work of return and transformation.” Its subtle mysteries cannot be exhausted in a few words.

If one circulates along the “black path,” one must pass through the three passes. Each of the three has a “cavern chamber,” the place where, as the scripture says, spirits dwell and the various processes of generation and transformation occur. In cultivation they are therefore also called the upper field and upper palace, the middle field and middle palace, and the lower field and lower palace: the upper field is the Niwan (Mud Pellet), the middle field the Tufu (Earth Cauldron), and the lower field the Huachi (Flower Pool).

The upper Dantian (energy center), the Dantian in the upper part of the head, is one cun and two fen in size—a cun being the traditional Chinese body-inch, and a fen one-tenth of a cun. Within it an aperture is posited in emptiness; this is the place where Shen (spirit) is stored. The aperture lies three cun inward from the point between the eyebrows, at the midline. The point between the eyebrows is called the Tianmen (Heavenly Gate). One cun inward from the Tianmen is the Mingtang (Bright Hall); one cun further inward is the Dongfang (Cavern Chamber); and one cun further inward again is the Niwan (Muddy Pellet). These three places together are called the Three Palaces of the Upper Field.

Below the point between the eyebrows is what is called the nasal pillar, and within it stands a Jinqiao (Golden Bridge). Beneath it are two apertures that lead to the mouth and the throat; they are called the Queqiao (Magpie Bridge). The throat has two passages, an outer and an inner. The outer, hard tube is the windpipe, through which breath enters and leaves; the inner, soft tube is the esophagus, through which food and drink pass the diaphragm and enter the stomach. The windpipe has eleven segments and is named the Chonglou (Layered Tower). It runs downward to the lungs and then connects to the heart.

Beneath the heart is an aperture called the Jianggong (Scarlet Palace), the place where dragon and tiger meet. Three cun and six fen farther down is an empty cavity: Yuanying dwells on the left and Baiyuan on the right. This cavity is one cun and two fen in size. It is the place for storing Qi (vital energy) and nurturing the elixir, and it extends all the way to about three cun and six fen behind the navel.

The scripture says: “Thirty-six in heaven, thirty-six on earth; from heaven to earth, eighty-four thousand li.” Between a person’s heart and kidneys there are eight cun and four fen. The region of the heart belongs to heaven and accounts for three cun and six fen; the region of the kidneys belongs to earth and accounts for three cun and six fen; add the one cun and two fen of the Dantian, and the total is exactly eight cun and four fen.

The opening of the navel is called the Rimen (Sun Gate). Within it are seven apertures that connect to the external kidneys; these are the openings through which Jing (essence) and Qi leak away. The midpoint behind the navel and in front of the kidneys is called the Yanyue Lu (Crescent Moon Furnace), also called the Qihai (Sea of Qi). One cun and three fen farther down is called the Huachi (Flower Pool); this is the lower Dantian, the place for storing Jing and gathering the medicine. The scripture then speaks of the Mingtang and the Dongfang, and says that there, too, an aperture is posited in emptiness, one cun and two fen in size. At this spot two apertures lead to the internal kidneys, and in the middle another aperture leads to the Weilü (Tail Gate, the region at the lower end of the spine).

The more important passes and apertures of the whole body that have form and location are, in general, as set out above. None of these passes and apertures, however, can be taken for the Xuanpin (Mysterious Female, the subtle aperture of the hidden root as Daoists call it).

Yang is called “Xuan” (the Mysterious), and Yin is called “Pin” (the Female); together they form the “Xuanqiao” (Mysterious Aperture). It does not lie in any specific place in the body, yet it is related to the body. It is the source of being and non-being, the pivot of emptiness and substantiality, and the root where Yin-Yang meet. Confucians call it “Taiji” (Supreme Ultimate), Daoists call it the Golden Elixir (Jindan), and Buddhists call it “Yuanjue” (Perfect Enlightenment).

This Mysterious Aperture appears only when the mind and Shen (spirit) are empty and still to the utmost, and it opens only in silence and deep concentration. It is hard to make it appear by deliberate speculation, and hard to open it by human contrivance. The method of cultivation lies only in maintaining natural nourishment, so that mind and spirit enter this state directly. The principle within may be grasped by intuition, but it is difficult to pass on in words.

Therefore, apart from this Mysterious Aperture, all other cultivation may likewise follow the method already described: Wogu (the cultivation posture of firmly clasping both hands), and quieting the mind; gathering the mind and spirit and turning one’s gaze back upon oneself. Once the breath has settled, one raises intention in keeping with the moment, so that the mechanism of Qi (vital energy) surges straight forth and opens. The essential of cultivation remains natural nourishment and direct entry into this state. The principle within may be grasped by intuition, but it is difficult to pass on in words.

Apart from the aperture already mentioned, all the rest may be cultivated by the method set out before. Hold both hands in the firm grip, gather the mind, and enter stillness; concentrate the Shen (spirit) and turn its light back upon the body itself. Once the breathing has settled, follow the movement of the Qi (vital energy) and send forth the intention to guide it. When the Qi travels downward, lead it to Yongquan, the point on the sole of the foot; when the Qi rises, the intention rises with it; when the Qi stops, the intention stops with it. In this way change comes about of itself.

The movement of the Qi first rises to the outer kidney—here the region of the external genitalia—where the left and right sides meet. It then passes through the seven apertures at the navel into the Sea of Qi, the Dantian (energy center) below the navel, descends to the lower field, and returns once more to the kidney residence. Next it turns and moves to Weilu, the pass at the base of the spine, goes through Weilu, courses up the spine, forces open the apertures, breaks through what blocks the way, and enters the brain.

Thereafter the Qi may descend along the meeting place of the Ren and Du vessels, pass by way of the so-called Golden Bridge, and enter the mouth. One may also rest the intention lightly about the point between the eyebrows and the bridge of the nose, receive the Qi as it gathers, and draw it into the mouth. The mouth is called the Upper Pool, and in either case one should briefly hold the visualization there. The Qi then passes through the Chonglou and arrives at the Que: Chonglou refers to the throat, and Que to the place on the chest between the collarbones. From the Que the Qi is retained as it enters the Palace, and the breath is gradually made finer. Here the Palace is the Crimson Palace, the region where the heart lies, and “breath upon breath” refers to the breathing.

The scripture says “breath upon breath brings forth,” meaning that the breath grows so faint it seems almost not to be there, and stillness reaches its extreme. Yet this is precisely the stage at which the fluids are refined and transformed into blood. When cultivation reaches this point there is a genuine experience: within the Palace one feels a cool fullness. Only afterward does the movement of the Qi divide behind the heart and pour into the two kidneys. Behind the heart two collateral vessels lead to the kidneys; Qi and blood travel along these collaterals to the kidneys, the blood is transformed into Jing (essence), and from Yin is born Yang. The blood within the heart belongs originally to true Yin, and only when extreme stillness is reached will the fluids turn into blood. This step is essential in the practice and cannot be omitted. The scripture says that the practitioners of antiquity never transmitted it openly.

Sometimes the movement of the Qi first flows out from in front of the heart and pours through the viscera, so as to moisten the channels and harmonize the nutritive Qi and the defensive Qi; this too is an important stage. Sometimes it streams out from behind the heart and from in front of the heart together, and at last gathers back into the Sea of Qi, where it is warmed and nourished, refined and transformed. This is the process of refining Jing into Qi. When the movement of the Qi is full and abundant, the apertures open, as if the Yin Qi had already been entirely exhausted.

All of this ought to arise of itself. The successive stages of cultivation can therefore follow one another in clear order and without the least error, neither confused nor left out.

In accordance with the steps of cultivation, one must first follow the sequence of the “human way” (rendao): in ascent, circulation runs along the Du meridian (dumai, the Governing Vessel); in descent, it runs along the Ren meridian (renmai, the Conception Vessel). The Ren meridian is called the “Red Path” (chidao), and the Du meridian is called the “Black Path” (heidao). Patriarch Lü (Lü Dongbin) said, “If you wish to cultivate the way of immortality, you must first fulfill the human way well.” He also said, “If the human way is not cultivated, the way of immortality lies far beyond reach.”

The three treasures in the human body—Jing (essence), Qi (vital energy), and Shen (spirit)—all belong to the acquired state (houtian). If they cannot be returned to their source and transformed and sublimated, they will in the end disperse. If one merely forces their gathering and their rising and falling, they remain tangible, turbid substances, driven by the conscious spirit (shishen, acquired consciousness). If they cannot be brought together in the furnace and cauldron (luding), they often scatter and stagnate at the various passes and apertures, and instead block the Central Palace (zhonggong). If one then tries to force a remedy, one must fear causing injury; guiding their transformation also does not proceed smoothly, and the harm that results is considerable.

The method of cultivation is therefore to direct the movement of Qi by means of intention, clear the blockages along the Ren and Du meridians, settle the passes and apertures that have fallen out of order, remove the root of accumulated stagnation, and eliminate both what leads and what follows. What the scripture calls “piercing the lanes and breaking through the passes” refers to the movement of Qi among the body’s passes and apertures; “stilling the mind and stopping thoughts” is the practitioner’s work of calming stray thoughts. These methods aim to clear disturbance and restore stability, so that the acquired returns to the innate (xiantian).

The saying “If the human way is not cultivated, the way of immortality is far indeed” reminds the practitioner that once human desires and conscious thoughts arise, the Mysterious Pass (Xuanguan, the crucial aperture in cultivation that points toward the source) becomes blocked, true primordial vitality lies hidden, and the passes and apertures throughout the body may clog one another like a band of gathered thieves, so that acquired Qi lurks in the Central Palace. These problems must therefore be set right before cultivation can go further. People of the world often fail to grasp this fully, and so Master Niwan (Niwanshi, the author or transmitter here) offers this explanation. This is the most important oral instruction for entering the practice; the cultivator should examine it with care.

Yet although the steps of this human-way practice are explained clearly and seem easy to follow, they in fact belong to the method of conscious action (youwei fa, cultivation that deliberately employs intention and the movement of Qi). Only by understanding the principle within them can one achieve the aim of transformation and return. This is the most important oral instruction for entering the practice; the cultivator should examine it with care.

The steps and essentials of this method of cultivation are explained as clearly as pointing to the palm of the hand. To follow them seems easy enough, yet in the end it remains a practice of intentional doing. If one understands the principle involved, one may perhaps succeed; to go further, however, and dissolve deliberate human effort so as to return to original authenticity is no easy matter. Unless one can reach this point, it does not count as the ultimate Dao (the Way), and cultivation of the Dao will be hard to bring to completion.

Since the method is so elaborate, how then is one to grasp it? Master Niwan (a cultivator of the Way in the Daoist texts) says: “In learning this method of the Dao, one must at the outset have every technique fully prepared, examine them with care, and omit nothing. In this way the pivotal apertures within the body will appear one by one: when intention enters, one circulates through each place in turn; when one stops, one lets go of the places through which one has circulated and returns to emptiness and stillness, as if nothing were there at all. One then observes along the body, and also observes the state in which there is no circulation; at last, though it seems one is circulating, it is as if one were not circulating, until one no longer circulates deliberately and yet circulates of itself.

“This is only an expedient, provisional method. Circulating in this way, once the moment ripens, the true vital stirring will suddenly appear, and one may then move in accord with the occasion. The subtlety of the process lies entirely in the lucid clarity of mind, by which alone one knows that its coming is no empty phantom and that what one gathers is no delusive fancy. One gathers it in and preserves it, letting it generate, transform, and circulate, now sinking, now floating. As for that realm which cannot be counterfeited, one preserves it in stillness and condenses it in forgetting. The working of Golden Elixir cultivation lies, in broad outline, just here.”

This is a secret formula that the sages of successive ages have not lightly transmitted. Master Niwan revealed it in the Discourse on Opening the Passes because he pitied the world for having lost the transmission from mind to mind, and so ventured, despite the taboo, to disclose it. Once obtained, it must be treasured and kept hidden; it is not enough merely to transmit it with caution. To obtain the method and not practice it, or to practice it without diligence, is to profane the secret formula, and the statutes of Heaven are truly not to be treated lightly.

Niwan (the name for the inner landscape of the head) says: “The passes and apertures involved in cultivation do indeed each have their own place, and the confirming signs gained in cultivation do indeed have corresponding, tangible sensations.”

Take, for example, the Sea of Qi (Qi, vital energy), or Qihai, the site in the lower abdomen where primordial Qi is stored and nourished. When the moment arrives and the sensation of Qi is stirred, one feels the lower Dantian (energy center) blazing hot, as if on fire, while between the two kidneys it seems as though broth were boiling and seething. At the crown of the head it is as if dew were sprinkled upon Kunlun (the head); spring water wells up in the Upper Pool (a site of the inner landscape in the head), and where the dew falls there is a clear coolness. The Crimson Palace (Jianggong, the inner-landscape site of the heart) pours forth the fluid of the heart, which joins with the fire of Kun. The whole body feels open and at ease, and the Lower Pool answers in response, like golden light upon the waves, clear and pure.

When Qi passes through the Lü Gate (Lümen, the pass in the region of the Weilu, at the base of the spine), it feels as though a snake were boring through the body; once it has passed along the spine, it rises upward like a wheel. When the Qi has penetrated the Jade Pillow (Yuzhen) and reached the brain, the ears seem to fill with the sound of the ocean tide, and also with something like a boatman’s chant answering bells and stone chimes. Sweet fluid then showers down like a heavy rain and pours into the pool; when it reaches the point between the eyebrows, one feels a pulling there, and a sense of fullness.

At this time one gathers Shen (spirit) and intention into the heart, and the Heavenly Gate (Tianmen, the pass at the crown of the head) opens with it, as if all eighty-four thousand pores of the body and all three hundred and sixty joints opened at once. This is what is meant by “When one aperture opens, the hundred apertures open together; when the great pass opens, all the passes open together.”

One then, according to the method, guides intention so that Qi enters the pillar of the nose and descends to the Golden Bridge (Jinqiao, the inner-landscape site associated with the tongue and the movement of the fluids). One feels the pool filled with cool, clear fluid. One must on no account swallow it by a deliberate act of intention; one need only swallow it by according with what is natural, and the fluid will of itself flow into the lungs. If the breath is slightly reversed or stalled, it is because one is ordinarily accustomed to the forward course, so that a sudden reversal is for a time hard to accommodate. One should then draw the mind inward and wait quietly; after a little while the breath will become smooth of itself.

In this way Jing (essence) and Qi irrigate and nourish the five viscera. They do not merely reach the stomach, but return again to the kidneys, and this is therefore called “returning to the root.” Jing and Qi turn from the kidneys to the Weilu, rise from the Weilu to the Niwan, and then descend from the Niwan to the Crimson Palace; this is therefore called “returning to the mandate.”

Cultivated in this way over a long time, no strenuous effort is required: as soon as intention is lodged in place, the circulation of the Zhou Tian (celestial circuit) unfolds. This is the marvel of Qi moving of itself once intention arrives. If, in walking, standing, sitting, and lying down, one can often keep it turning in silence, Jing and Qi will circulate within the body and will not leak outward. At the same time, once the inner Qi is in motion, the breath through the nose naturally becomes faint and fine. The true Qi of the Three Powers (sancai)—Heaven, Earth, and humanity—also enters through the nose, meets and mingles below with the primordial Qi in the kidneys, and then together moves up and down within the body, naturally replenishing true Qi. As the scripture says: “When bamboo is damaged, it should be repaired with bamboo.”

This true Qi (vital energy) is precisely what dissolves the Qi of the grain we take in each day, transforming it into seminal fluid and then refining that fluid into true Jing (essence). When true Jing is abundant, it naturally becomes true Qi; when true Qi is abundant, it in turn naturally becomes true Shen (spirit). Once Jing, Qi, and Shen fill the whole body, the great medicine arises of itself. If one then applies, in due order, the methods of gathering and refining, a spiritual elixir may also be congealed—yet what is obtained is only the Jade Liquid (Yuye), a comparatively preliminary result in the cultivation of the Golden Elixir (Jindan).

Why is this so? Because if one begins from daoyin (nourishing Qi through bodily movement and breathing), the passes and apertures that are opened and brought forth are not the Mysterious Pass and Mysterious Aperture (Xuanguan and Xuanqiao) of which the tradition speaks. What arises in this way comes from the tangible fleshly body, not from the so-called dharma-body (fashen), the reality beyond the fleshly body spoken of in cultivation. Thus, although at the level of the body it belongs to the Prior Heaven (Xiantian), at the level of the Great Dao (the Way) it still belongs to the Posterior Heaven (Houtian).

Practitioners in the world have not seen this clearly, and so some mistake the Gate of Life (Mingmen), the Muddy Pellet (Niwan, the cultivation site in the head), the mouth and nose, or the Upper Pool and Lower Pool (Shangchi and Xiachi, traditional terms for related sites in the body) for the Mysterious Female (Xuanpin), the root gateway that conceives and gives birth to the myriad things. In fact, all these apertures belong to the tangible fleshly body; they are a Mysterious Female that has a definite location. The Qi of Heaven and Earth obtained from them is the visible “being” (you), or the perceptible “non-being” (wu), within Heaven and Earth: relative to ordinary life it may be called Prior Heaven, yet relative to the Great Dao it still belongs to the Posterior Heaven. The practitioner must obtain the root born of Taiji (Supreme Ultimate) before being able to take a place alongside Heaven and Earth.

This true Qi can be gained only where there is no deliberate mind and no attachment; it cannot be sought on purpose with the conscious mind. The ancient sages often awakened practitioners with a sudden blow and a shout, yet very few who heard truly understood. Even so, without passing through provisional methods one cannot enter the true realm, and that is why the author sets out in detail the stages of cultivation handed down through the ages. This is not a matter of hiding the real secret and disclosing only what is unreal.

Essentials of the Golden Elixir

The human body as a whole belongs to Yin; only this single primordial Qi (vital energy) belongs to Yang. At birth, with the first cry, this Qi descends into the Sea of Qi of the lower Dantian (energy center), the Dantian below the navel. Within this Sea of Qi the left side is Yang and the right side is Yin, taking the form of Taiji (Supreme Ultimate), and so it is also called the “Mysterious Female” (Xuanpin, the root that nurtures Yin-Yang and gives birth to the myriad things). Examined closely, however, this still belongs to the condition after a person is born. How can it be anything other than a shadow of the primordial Qi? And if it is only a shadow, how can it be called the Golden Elixir (Jindan)? The five viscera and six bowels, seminal fluid, blood, and Qi are none of them true Yang Qi.

This single primordial Qi is not the Qi of breathing in and out, nor does it have any visible shape or outward manifestation. Master Wuzhen (Zhang Boduan, a Daoist scholar of Neidan (internal alchemy)) therefore said that it can be seen yet cannot be put to use, and can be put to use yet cannot be seen.

Before a person has taken form or received Qi, this thing is first received in the mother’s womb. Only after it has been received do the two kidneys arise, then the two eyes, and then the heart, liver, lungs, and spleen, together with the nine orifices, the hundred bones, and the four limbs; only then is the bodily form complete. From that time on, a person continues amid the flow of generation and transformation, like a small heaven and earth. Yet people merely follow the current of life and do not know how to return to the source, and so there is birth, aging, sickness, and death. Pitying the world, the worthies of antiquity transmitted the oral instructions for purifying the heart and cultivating the position of Kan (the direction corresponding to the kidneys). For the heart belongs to Qian and the body to Kun; the position of Li is in the heart, where mercury is produced (a Neidan term, often standing for the spirit of the heart or for what is Yin in nature); the position of Kan is in the kidneys, where lead arises (a Neidan term, often standing for primordial Qi or for what is Yang in nature). Within Kan there is an aperture called the Gate of Life (Mingmen); to the south is the Yellow Court (Huangting, the region of inner refinement in the middle of the body), and to the north is Guanyuan (the point below the navel). The ancient worthies have already discussed this in detail, holding that the Qi found there is the Great Medicine (the fundamental medicine of Neidan practice).

In the human body, the Mingmen (Gate of Life) is an important aperture. Its left side belongs to Yang and its right side to Yin, and within it are contained the Taiji (Supreme Ultimate), the Mysterious Female (Xuanpin, symbolizing the root of the union of Yin and Yang and of gestation and generation), and the Mysterious Shadow. It does not merely govern the movement of Qi (vital energy) throughout the body; it also communicates with the Mysterious Female of heaven and earth. People often feel that the two are cut off from each other because they lack a genuine, single-minded attention, and because stray thoughts disturb them. Those who cultivate longevity therefore need only concentrate on the Mingmen, quietly guarding and holding it, and not letting the mind scatter. When the moment comes, the mechanism sets itself in motion of its own accord. Whether the breath descends or rises, moves or rests, one simply lets it follow its natural course, neither deliberately forgetting it nor deliberately forcing it along. After a number of celestial circuits have turned, pre-heaven Qi naturally returns to the pre-heaven, and post-heaven Qi naturally returns to the post-heaven; without any laborious guiding, it returns of itself. If one can persist in this without ceasing, so that the post-heaven reverts completely to the pre-heaven, one may attain the rank of a Water Immortal (one class of those who, in Daoist cultivation, attain the Dao and become immortal).

In front of the Mingmen lies the Sea of Qi, and behind it the Tail Gate (Weilu, the site at the lower end of the spine). The bone of the Tail Gate has an aperture, the crucial passage for the circulation of the Conception Vessel and the Governing Vessel. Qi passes through this aperture and ascends toward the rear; this is called “following the Governing Vessel.” It rises along the spine to the passes, meets the Wind Palace (Fengfu, an acupoint at the nape of the neck), and goes up to audience with the Mud Pellet (Niwan, the head, often referring to the brain). From the Mud Pellet it descends through the Bright Hall (Mingtang, the region of the forehead), opens the Gate of Heaven (an important pass of the head), passes along the bridge of the nose, and descends by the Magpie Bridge (the passage formed when the tongue presses against the upper palate). It joins the Conception Vessel at the Upper Pool (an aperture in the mouth), and together they descend along the throat straight to the Crimson Palace (Jiangque, the region of the heart). Passing again through the passes, circulating and transforming, it finally returns to the Lower Pool (the area of the lower Dantian [energy center]), unites with mercury (a term in Neidan [internal alchemy] symbolizing yin Jing [essence] and Qi), and is gathered into the furnace and cauldron. The whole course depends on the bellows within the body—a figure for the driving force of breath and the movement of Qi—to set it going. This is called “the great molding and the great smelting,” meaning that the practitioner takes his own person as the furnace and cauldron of the creative transformations of heaven and earth and refines himself therein. This is the utmost that cultivation by human effort can reach.

Only after this can one ascend from the empty aperture behind the Sea of Qi and in front of the Tail Gate. This is called “returning to the Yellow,” because this aperture is regarded as the celestial pass of the Yellow Path and is also the central and essential pass in the cultivation of celestial immortality. Only by gathering in accord with the proper moment, and by condensing and coagulating, can the sacred embryo be formed. One must then still pass through stages such as nursing and suckling, and warming and nourishing. The related methods of practice each have their specific formulations; the student should examine them with care and caution, so as to await the time when the sacred embryo is fully perfected and about to emerge.

These teachings also rest on established formulations left by earlier generations, and students of the practice must first understand the principles involved. If one follows them rashly, serious consequences may result.

From the initial beginning of cultivation, through continued practice, to final completion, each stage has its corresponding esoteric formulas (xuanjue, the oral instructions of Daoist cultivation) and its proper sequence. After the embryo (the “holy embryo,” shengtai, spoken of in Neidan [internal alchemy] cultivation) has formed, one must still pass through processes such as nursing and warm nurturing. All of these have explanations handed down by predecessors, and in one’s study one should proceed with care and caution until the holy embryo matures and is about to emerge.

As for the esoteric formulas of the initial, subsequent, and final stages, what the ancestral masters transmitted largely follows the single formula “gathering the years and clustering the months” (zuannian cuyue, an oral instruction that condenses a longer period of cultivation into a shorter span of time). Proceeding step by step along the sequence, one’s attainment and inner condition gradually mature, forming a path that can be followed. The practitioner need only accord with the substance of the Dao (the Way): one acts, yet does not cling to “having”; one is aware, yet does not cling to awareness; one remains still or moves as the occasion requires. Passing in this way through the critical junctures (guanqiao, the key barriers spoken of in cultivation), one naturally enters deeply into the mysterious and subtle. What distracting thought, then, cannot be dispelled, and what ordinary nature cannot be transformed? Cultivating in this manner, the holy embryo sheds the ordinary, and thereafter unreal conditions will naturally no longer arise. As for the coming and going of the infant (the embryo of the Dao formed through cultivation), why cling to its direction, distance, or height, or to the distinction between the ordinary and the transcendent?