《古文参同契集解》Vol. 2

When hearing ceases to chase outward sound, Shen (spirit) naturally settles back into the heart and no longer leaks through the mouth. When the nose no longer pursues fragrances, Po (the corporeal soul) naturally settles back into the lungs and no longer leaks through the nose. When the four limbs are still, intention naturally settles back into the spleen and no longer leaks through the body’s openings. When these five do not leak, Jing (essence), Shen, Hun (the ethereal soul), Po, and intention intermingle and merge into a single Qi, gathering in the Dantian (energy center) and condensing into the supreme treasure.

The pivot of the elixir path lies entirely in Beidou (the Northern Dipper). Beidou turns the Yin-Yang of the whole person and governs every transformation in the body, like the main rope of a net or the clasp of a garment. The three fields in the body sit in three places; once one grasps the mechanism of the Dipper’s handle turning, true Qi circulates up and down like the Milky Way flowing across the sky—this is the essential Way. The lines of the hexagram stir within until the state of “no harm to the realm’s Way”: one Yang arises inside the body—the beginning of receiving Qi. Gaining this is easy enough, but at this moment of acting, fortune, misfortune, regret, and hesitation all arise from movement; not a hair’s breadth of error is allowed. The Five Phases must be gathered in one place; “metal” and “fire” must share one furnace—and that too depends on a single thought of returning to the source. Otherwise the stars in the cauldron all fall out of place, and heaven and earth stand far apart.

The immortal Lü Dongbin put it well: when water and fire are level, that is the medicine; when Yin and Yang miss their mark, the elixir cannot form. Be on guard! The Records of the Grand Historian, “Treatise on the Heavenly Offices,” says: above the Dipper’s head, the six stars shaped like a basket are the Palace of Wenchang; there are also the Three Steps and Four Assistants, with host stars arranged around the territorial divisions. In the human body, the “Son of Heaven” at the Palace of Feng governs Qian and Kun; there are also the Three Dragons, Four Tigers, and the host of hexagram fire talismans. Those who keep watch do not allow Jia and Yi to err or Geng and Xin to slip; those who maintain the registers align the twenty-eight lunar mansions with the twenty-four qi of the year and finely schedule the cauldron’s firing. It begins at the new moon of the month and ends at its last day. The thread of survival or loss lies between last day and new moon: Yin is almost exhausted but not quite gone, Yang is about to be born but not yet born. Between them—in withdrawal, advance, “bathing,” and union—the slightest slip ties survival or loss to this moment; this is the thread governed by the northern pole.

The ruler is Shen; the minister is Qi. When making the elixir, lead and mercury (the paired Yin-Yang substances) enter the earth kettle (the central cauldron), and body and mind are utterly still. If the body moves, Qi scatters; if the mind moves, Shen scatters. One must concentrate Shen and gather Qi, with heart and breath mutually relying on each other, before the spirit embryo can form. Otherwise the waxing and waning within the body go awry and invite misfortune. Trace the cause: the mind as master runs wild and turns against the Dao, and Qi follows in perverse paths, moving off course—hence rebuke. The Fu Ming Pian says: drive back Beidou, turn the celestial net, grasp the southern length, and enter the “inner chamber” (where spirit and Qi return). Clearly the pole star holds the honored place. In the time of holding light in silence, nurture it softly as if present, leave it to nature, and do not strain Shen. The Treatise on the Heavenly Offices says: the Azure Dragon of the Eastern Palace has Fang and Xin; Xin is the Bright Hall. The Huangting Jing says: Bright Hall, Golden Coffer, Purple Chamber—if you ask where they are, they lie between the two eyebrows. From here light descends like a ruler seated in the Bright Hall issuing policy, reaching the nine border peoples and eight wild regions.

Collected Commentary on the Antiquity Scripture of Joining with the Tally, juan 1, first part, is preserved in the Complete Library of the Four Treasuries. Where is the space between the golden casket—the place within the body where essence is stored—and the purple chamber, the palace in the head? It lies between the two eyebrows. Light descends from there; it is like the ruler seated in the bright hall (mingtang) issuing policy, his voice and teaching reaching the nine Yi and eight Man—every distant quarter. The latter part of juan 1 was written by Jiang Yibiao of the Ming dynasty.

The Scripture of Joining with the Tally (Cantong qi) was composed by Wei Boyang of the Eastern Han. Its middle section treats the principles of the Yellow Emperor and Laozi line for prolonging years, nurturing nature, and long life.

If you wish to cultivate your nature and mind, extend life, and defer death, you should examine the outcome that follows—and you must first reflect on the source from which you began. The body that people receive originally arises from the “One.” Primordial jing spreads like clouds (Yu Yan’s text reads “flows and spreads”); through qi it finds lodging and takes form—that is the beginning. Yin and Yang are its measure; hun and po dwell within: the yang spirit is the sun’s hun, the yin spirit is the moon’s po; hun and po are each other’s dwelling. Nature presides within and establishes the yin’e—the guarded boundary of the elixir foundation; emotion works outward and builds the ramparts (Yu Yan: “forever as ramparts”). When the ramparts are complete, a person can be at peace. Then emotion joins with Qian and Kun: Qian governs movement and uprightness, so qi flows clear and free; Kun governs stillness and gathering and becomes the chamber of the Dao. After firm strength has given, it withdraws and hides; yielding nurtures and grows, and thus the cycles of nine returns, seven reversals, eight homecomings, and six abidings turn. The male is white, the female red; metal and fire mutually restrain each other, and water is settled; fire (Yu Yan: “water”) stands at the head of the Five Phases. Highest goodness is like water—clear, without flaw. In the form of the Dao (Yu Yan: “formlessness”), the True One is hard to depict, yet it spreads abroad, each part dwelling alone. Like an egg, black and white paired, no more than an inch across—that is taken as the first body; limbs, the five viscera, sinew and bone come from it. After ten months the birth membrane is shed; the bones are soft enough to bend, the flesh smooth as malt sugar. Kan is the male and images the moon; Li is the female and images the sun. The sun bestows virtue; the moon spreads its light; the moon receives the sun’s transformations (Yu Yan: “the day changes, the month transforms”), and its substance is not diminished. If yang loses its pairing, yin encroaches on the light; at new and full moon they eclipse and veil each other—yang’s form wanes, yin presses close and calamity arises. Man and woman face each other; one holds, one releases, nourishing each other; male and female interweave, seeking their own kind. Metal turns to water, and water’s nature is restless; fire turns to earth, and water cannot run freely. The male moves and gives outward; the female is still and stores within. Overflow beyond measure and one is bound by yin; po reins in hun—you must not be dissolute or extravagant. Neither cold nor hot, advance and retreat fit the seasons; each finds the mean, and together they show verifying signs.

The Book of Poetry says: “Guan-guan cry the ospreys, on the islet in the river. The graceful maiden— a fair match for the gentleman.” The male does not live alone; the female does not dwell in solitude. The Black Tortoise’s snake and tortoise coil and support each other—precisely showing that female and male must rely on one another. If two women shared one room, however fair their looks, even were Su Qin to carry messages and Zhang Yi to play matchmaker, wheedling with clever tongues and fine words, opening their hearts to harmonize and wishing to become husband and wife—they could not truly know each other until hair rotted and teeth fell out. If the medicinals are not of the proper kind, names differ and doses (another reading: “measures”) are uneven and lose the thread, then even were the Yellow Emperor at the furnace and Taiyi tending the fire, the Eight Lords pounding and Prince Huainan blending, building halls and altars with jade steps, offering unicorn haunch and phoenix jerky, holding registers and kneeling long, praying to the spirits and begging the ghosts, bathing and fasting in hope of response—it would still be like mending a pot with glue or salting a sore with brine, cooling with ice or treating heat by pouring hot water, making turtles fly and serpents dance—only more confusion.

Highest virtue is wuwei (non-action); it is not sought by scrutiny. Lower virtue is youwei ( deliberate action); its work never ceases. When the upper aperture is closed it is called “being”; when the lower aperture is closed it is called “non-being.” Non-being nourishes what is above, and above, spirit-virtue dwells. The rule of these two openings also depends on metal qi (Yu Yan: “being and non-being”). Know the white and keep the black, and spirit brightness will come of itself. White is the essence of metal; black is the root of water. Water is the pivot of the Dao; its number is called “One.” The end and beginning of yin and yang both hold the Yellow Sprout—the seed of the forming elixir; it is lord of the five metals and also the River Chariot of the north. Thus lead is black outside yet holds the yellow flower within—like one in coarse clothes hiding jade at the breast, outwardly seeming wild. Metal is the mother of water; the mother hides the child’s embryo. Water is the child of metal; the child lies in the mother’s womb. The true person is utterly subtle—seeming to be, seeming not—now sinking, now floating in the great abyss; withdrawing (Yu Yan: “advance and retreat”) and spreading, each keeps to its place. When gathered it looks white; when refined it turns cinnabar red; refined as outer guard, within it is white and at rest. Round and square span no more than an inch; blended, they support each other. It is born before Heaven and Earth, lofty and revered. Ramparts and palaces stand beside it, shaped like the isle of Penglai; closed on every side, the four directions open yet it paces and keeps watch—defenses strict, barring deceit. Winding galleries connect, guarding against mishap. You may be without deliberate thought, yet you cannot obtain it by anxious toil. Spirit and qi fill the chamber and cannot be forced to stay; those who keep them flourish, those who lose them perish. In movement, rest, and stillness, they are always with the person. Cultivate inward, quiet and empty, return to the root and hide the light, see the form from within; seal the mouth, fortify the spirit-root. The three luminaries (sun, moon, stars) sink and hide; warm and nurture that pearl-seed. Look and you do not see it—yet it is close at hand and easy to seek.

Chen Xianwei said: Every creature with blood and breath has its own nature (xing), and no nature fails to issue from what is “upright” (zheng); each also has its own destiny (ming), and no ming fails to issue from qing (emotion/desire). Nature is originally upright, yet once true nature is lost and one strays onto a crooked path—even becoming a wicked person, or turning into a snake, scorpion, or other aberrant form, transforming true nature into something perverse—that too happens. Ming is originally bound to qing, yet once the mind is illumined and nature seen, understanding that all sentient beings receive this ming through lust and desire, then refining jing to transform it into qi, transcending the ordinary and entering sagehood, and turning the former ming into upright ming—that also happens. Only when you know where the root lies can you nourish it; only when you know the right place of ming can you extend it.

Consider when a person first receives a body: at the start there is only a single thought of upright nature. When father and mother unite and essence-spirit interpenetrates, primordial qi spreads like clouds—does that arise from zheng or from qing? The Yuanjue Sutra (a Buddhist classic) says “ming exists because of desire (yu)”; the meaning is the same here.

Qing and xing arise from hun and po (yang and yin souls); hun and po arise from light and dark; light and dark arise from sun and moon; sun and moon arise from yin and yang. Sages use the mechanisms of qian and kun, firm and yielding, movement and stillness, opening and closing to infer the pattern, so the great elixir path can align with the Zhouyi (Book of Changes)—the crux is nothing other than taking yin-yang as the measure. When the sun rises at mao (early morning), heaven brightens and hun flourishes; when the sun sets at you (evening), heaven darkens and po flourishes. Hun is the yang spirit; po is the yin spirit. Hun dwells in the day’s light, po in the night’s darkness—nothing beyond these two mechanisms of light and dark. In the bright daytime one deploys hun and shen (spirit); what hun manifests is xing. In the dim night, jing and po return; what jing-po rest upon is ming. Ming can generate qing, so jing-po are treated as ramparts and walls; xing can generate mind (xin), so spirit-mind is kept as yin’e (the protecting inner citadel). When ramparts are firm, person and things find peace. Then, using qing to work outward, qian and kun can unite, and the principles of firm-yielding, movement-stillness, and opening-closing are finally grasped.

Then one cycle of qi flows through the great void, ascending and descending in blended transformation, all becoming true earth (zhen tu). Metal’s completion number is nine, wood’s eight, fire’s seven, water’s six—they return to their places and all settle on earth. Returning to earth, the Five Phases (wuxing) are complete, and the myriad things are born within. The male shows a white form, the female a red image, because the five phases gather and metal and fire mutually constrain. Fire refines metal; metal holds water within, like soup simmering in a cauldron, or like the cauldron in the furnace with the fire blazing. Speak only of water, metal, and fire—all are within earth; speak of fire, and wood is naturally included. Once creation is accomplished, lead congeals and mercury binds in the cauldron, and water’s merit stands above other virtues. The supreme treasure has no flaw; supreme truth is hard to pin down. When firing is sufficient, the five phases each take their station and no longer encroach on one another.

Its shape is like an egg; the flesh is smooth as malt sugar; length and breadth about one inch, slightly narrower—the dharma-body (fashen) is inside. An earlier master wrote in verse: Better to leap out of the pearl’s radiance and in one surge reach the Ziwei Palace (the celestial region symbolizing the highest heaven).

Heaven and earth endure because sun and moon come and go and yin and yang meet, each aiding the other to shine; once degrees are lost, there is the affliction of eclipse. Kan and li in the human body are like heaven and earth’s sun and moon. Can a person thereby “steal” heaven and earth’s mechanism?

This speaks of the wonder of metal and wood as husband and wife, water and fire as spouses. Metal generates water; water’s nature is moist—without earth to restrain it, it would inevitably overflow. Water generates fire, fire generates earth; once earth is produced, water cannot run freely—it is gathered and stored, then pairs with fire. Metal and wood naturally overcome each other, yet become husband and wife by borrowing fire’s power; water and fire naturally overcome each other, yet become spouses by borrowing earth’s power. Then advance and retreat accord with the seasons, each finds harmony, changing and appearing in time, together issuing the verifying talisman-sign.

One yin and one yang—that is called Dao. Excessive yin or excessive yang—that is called illness. With a proper match, no extra effort is needed: union happens naturally and the sage embryo (shengtai) forms. Without a match, however much one toils in vain and exhausts spirit-thought, it cannot be obtained—one only drifts further into error.

Heaven’s Dao bestows downward and is luminous; earth’s Dao moves upward and is obscure. Kun moves upward—its body is originally still; stillness is wuwei (non-action), not to be scrutinized and grasped. Qian bestows downward—its body is constantly active; activity is youwei ( purposeful action), self-strengthening without ceasing. The upper closure is called “you” (having): because kun moves up, one closure yields water—water has form. The lower closure is called “wu” (non-being): because qian moves down, one closure yields fire—fire has no trace. “Wu” is used to offer upward—qian can seek union with kun and rise. What dwells above in peace is kun’s de (virtue/power); kun holds the treasure of the true one (zhenyi). Qian bestowing downward can generate kun’s qi; kun moving upward can generate qian’s metal. The key is that the two orifices of qian and kun assist each other. Above and below in mutual flourishing (jiaotai), when metal is abundant qi naturally arises; when qi is abundant metal naturally thrives. Metal and qi truly depend on each other—this is the dual subtle use of qian and kun.

White is silver; black is lead. “Know the white and keep the black” means refining silver out of lead; refining silver in lead, spirit-light naturally appears. Silver is the essence of metal; lead is the foundation of water. Among the five phases only water’s number is one—it fits the pivot of Dao and becomes the start of yin-yang. Though it is not yet true one itself, it receives true one’s function—so the path of true one first takes “metal,” that is water, as the root of the yellow sprout (huangya). To merge the ten thousand differences into one, you must first find that “one” amid the ten thousand as foundation. This is why the golden elixir method takes lead— the reason lies here; thus it is said water is the pivot of Dao. Only here does one understand: water receives true one’s function, not true one itself. Water’s birth number is one, completion number six; speaking by six, within water’s one is embedded earth’s five. Hence lead is black outside yet holds golden brilliance within—the wonder of enclosing the yellow sprout. Water is the beginning of the five phases; lead is sovereign of the five metals. Water originally sits in the north; moved to the south, water rises from below carrying treasure upward, like the river chariot (heche) turning—hence the name heche. Yellow mixed in black is “ wearing coarse cloth” (pihe)—lead’s substance is lowly; white silver within is “ cherishing jade” (huaiyu)—the supreme treasure hidden in secret. The pattern of creation always hides the noble in the base, nurtures brightness in obscurity, preserves honor through humility, and nurtures sagehood through seeming madness. Outwardly one looks like a madman, inwardly carrying the supreme treasure; the mechanism stays sealed, like a skilled merchant who keeps goods concealed—how can that be spoken of in the same breath as one eager to be seen? Wei Jun (Wei Boyang, author of Cantong Qi) takes lead as the root, yet the meaning also reaches both sides.

Silver is metal; lead is water. Metal generates water, so metal is water’s mother; water is metal’s child. Lead hiding silver is the mother concealing the child’s embryo, the son hidden in the mother’s womb. The golden embryo in lead is the true person in the deep abyss—now hidden, now shown, sinking and floating. When work with lead is finished, water recedes, the deep clears, the true person appears, and each again keeps its own place. The Jinbi Jing (golden-jade scripture) says: when the ash pool is scorched by fierce fire, lead sinks and silver floats—the meaning is the same.

“Gathering from the white” means taking the floating silver treasure in the west; “forming it then red” means forming the golden elixir sage embryo in the southern chamber. When the elixir forms and shows an image, it is like the child at chaos’s first division: within white is the true lord, about one inch square, mutually supporting in blended wholeness. This is Wei Jun’s display of the pre-heaven emblem. Born before heaven and earth, that loftiness and majesty—how could mind measure it?

Within the spirit chamber (shenshi), once the emblem is complete, one world is established. The golden wheel outside is like walls, passes, and barriers shielding on four sides; the world at the center is as beautiful as Penglai (legendary isle of immortals), with silver mountains and iron walls so dense that deviance is shut out without worry. Jade towers and gem pavilions open on all sides—then one can play with divine penetration without obstruction. At this point one can be without thought and without care, not disturbing with worry and toil, guarding supreme harmony as if holding a brimming vessel. Whether thought moves or rests, the dharma-body responds accordingly. Spirit and qi fill the body—the hardest thing is to keep them: keep them and flourish; lose them and perish. Practitioners should take this as self-exhortation.

Peng Xiao said: Master Wei (Wei Boyang, author of the Cantong Qi) held that if people wish to extend life and defer death, they must understand the beginning and end of the body. What is meant by beginning and end is primordial Qi. This is a metaphor: refining and returning the elixir (the elixir that, once perfected, reverts to the source) depends entirely on primordial Qi to succeed—that is, using inexhaustible Qi to sustain a limited physical form. Inexhaustible Qi is the true essence of longevity within the Yin-Yang of Heaven and Earth, the breath of the sacred father and spirit mother; the limited body is the breath of ordinary father and mother—Yin-Yang that is brief, turbid, and mixed. Therefore, by transforming the body born of ordinary parents with the breath of the true parents into a body of pure Yang true essence, one can endure as long as Heaven and Earth. Master Tao said: Primordial Qi is the root of the human being. An old verse says: Refine it and take it for a full thousand days—once the body no longer bears Yin substance, how could one die? Thus the pure Yang essential Qi does not decay or perish.

“Taking Yin-Yang as measure and rule” means that in cultivating the golden-fluid spirit elixir, one must first fix the degrees of Yin-Yang in motion, then establish the Qian-Kun cauldron and furnace (the cauldron and furnace symbolized by Qian and Kun). “Hun and Po dwell in each other as chamber and house” means that the soul of the sun and soul of the moon are together bound within the golden chamber, forming the root of the elixir. “Nature presides within; establish and set the form”: Nature belongs to Metal; Metal governs the interior, receiving the outer talisman (the fire phases applied on schedule) to nourish spirit mercury; the form is the appearance. “Emotion presides without; build and fortify the ramparts”: Emotion is the fire talisman; fire moves through the four directions above and below, becoming the ramparts of sand and mercury; what is called the people are sand and mercury. At this stage one still relies on the movement and stillness of Qian and Kun so that Qi circulates and essence disperses; Earth sits at the center as the dwelling of the Dao. Yang hides while Yin bestows; Tai comes and Pi departs—the punishments and virtues of Yin-Yang are the fundamental path of the medicine.

“Nine returns, seven reversals, eight regressions, six abidings” speak of generating and completing numbers: Metal generates as four and completes as nine; Fire generates as two and completes as seven; Wood generates as three and completes as eight; Water generates as one and completes as six; Earth generates as five and completes as ten. “The male white, the female red”: Metal first arises from Water and belongs to Yin, paired with the northern Kan trigram, symbolizing Qian’s middle son—hence “Kan male”; Metal is white, hence “male white.” Fire belongs to Yang, paired with the southern Li trigram, symbolizing Kun’s middle daughter—hence “Li female”; fire is red, hence “female red.” True gold inside the cauldron is Kan male, husband of Li female; outside the cauldron it becomes Li female, wife of Kan male. Thus the golden mother receives the breath of the sun and gives birth to spirit mercury. “Then water fixes fire” means Metal and Fire mutually constrain each other so that true water does not scatter and drain away.

“The beginning of the Five Phases” is Water’s generating number, one. “The highest good is like water” means water is the mother of the ten thousand things, clear and without stain, invisible to the eye. “The form and image of the Dao” means it runs hidden within the cauldron, changing without fixed pattern, not something that can be drawn. “Transforming and distributing” means the Five Phases each keep their boundaries, and the four seasons’ talisman fire makes no error.

In cultivating the golden-fluid returning elixir, there is an altar; on the altar a furnace; on the furnace a stove; in the stove a cauldron; in the cauldron a spirit chamber; in the spirit chamber gold and water. The spirit chamber is like a chicken egg, and gold and water are likewise. “Shaped like a chicken egg” is layer upon layer of wrapping; “black and white correspond” is gold and water mutually enclosing; “one inch in length and breadth” is to settle spirit mercury. If Qian and Kun are used as the pivot to govern Kan and Li, after ten months a form is generated no different from a person—limbs, five viscera, sinews, bones, and flesh all complete. These lines make explicit Master Wei’s inner and outer symbolic images and the form and bearing of sand and mercury.

Lord Yin’s Song of the Spirit Chamber says: The rear Earth and golden cauldron concern the long endurance of life and death; among the number seven the spirit chamber is bright; take three for circumference and five for diameter, the number as one; it wanders in chaos; Heaven, Earth, and the five stars—Yin and Yang pair by pair; the image like an egg, the appearance without difference; yellow and white as outer and inner, thickness even; sealed by the “six-one” method, guard well the noon gate. The Cantong Qi also says: With water to lift and fly the earth, the mother constrains it.

Kan male is the moon. The moon’s soul is golden sand; the sun’s soul is fiery mercury. When the sun withdraws, the moon takes the authority. Metal and fire alternate in application, mutually subduing, neither harming the other. Between the last day of the month and the first day of the month is the time when Yin and Yang meet, and when the sun and moon wax and wane—so sun and moon may thinly eclipse, mutually cover and press, and the form thereby diminishes. This metaphorizes the yin talisman and yang fire inside the cauldron intersecting by the clepsydra: dusk goes, dawn comes, replaced according to the gnomon’s degrees. Since they mutually cover, it is called disaster arising. Within this are also Kan male and Li female; male feeling and female nature need each other, inhaling and exhaling, gathering and joining, generating and transforming true essence—thereby making the divine medicine.

From “gold turns into water” through “together they spit forth the verifying talisman”: When fire reaches the second and eighth months, metal and water expand and flow freely—either liquid water arises from metal, or golden sand becomes water—so harmony blends and efficacy is clear. When fire’s number reaches its limit, merit returns to Earth; Earth governs the four seasons, so water cannot fly scatter, and water must not move rashly. The male moves and releases outward, so fire acts outside; the female is still and stores inward, so metal keeps to the central palace. Though fire meets metal, it is constrained by water; once the yin soul is constrained, the yang soul also hides. Cold and warmth cling to each other, each in its place, together spitting forth the verifying talisman, giving birth to spirit mercury.

From “The ospreys cry guan guan” through “the more one sees, the more perverse it grows”: To cultivate the golden-fluid returning elixir, one must first understand the root of lead and fire, then know the principle of Yin-Yang. Solitary Yin cannot generate itself; solitary Yang cannot complete itself. One must wait until Yin and Yang meet, female and male receive each other’s breath, dragon calls and tiger inhales, male completes and female bears. Hence it is said: if a hen broods her own eggs, the chicks are incomplete; two women dwell together and their feelings cannot harmonize. Apart from Yin-Yang, Heaven and Earth have no ten thousand things. Therefore one takes the true essence of Heaven and Earth and the root of Yin-Yang as the foundation of the medicine. If one uses metal and stone, plants and trees, ice and frost, salt brine, and the like—not true seed but only solitary Yin and solitary Yang—even if the Yellow Emperor tended the furnace, Taiyi held the fire, the Eight Lords smelted, and the Huainan masters matched phases, with altars spread wide, wine and dishes prepared, and gods bowed to and invoked—still hoping the returning elixir will form—is like mending a pot with glue, smearing a sore with alum, making mercury fly, or making a snake dance: in the end nothing is gained.

From “The highest De is non-action” through “the two orifices’ method—Metal’s breath also mutually needs”: Highest De is water above; lower De is fire below. Water and fire already perfected—that is Qian and Kun. Water above is constantly still and non-active, in the yin position, not sought by peering; fire below is constantly in motion, passing through the twelve double-hours, never ceasing in effect. “Closing above is called having” refers to water within; “closing below is called not-having” refers to fire without. “The not-having used to offer upward” means fire carries the breath of the four seasons and Five Phases to nourish and support the spirit embryo. Thus “above dwells the spirit De” is the spirit embryo of gold and mercury. “The method of these two orifices—Metal’s breath also mutually needs” means the dual linkage of water-fire Yin-Yang breaths, each requiring the other, before the spirit medicine can form—there is no other path. Master Wei’s chapter here explains in depth the outline of symbolic images and where the spirit medicine is headed.

From “Know the white, keep the black” through “without, a madman”: White is Metal, black is Water. Knowing the root of gold and water and using them as the medicine base, wondrous essential Qi arises of itself in the vessel—hence the spirit is said to come on its own. White gold is born from water and becomes the spirit vessel; the water body unceasing, the two natures of gold and water are the pivot of the Dao. Water’s number is one—the beginning of Heaven and Earth, Yin-Yang, the Five Phases, and the ten thousand things: water one, fire two, wood three, metal four, earth five. “Containing within the yellow sprout” is gold and water giving birth to the yellow sprout. The lord of the five metals is the northern River Chariot; the River Chariot is water and fire—meaning water and fire turning to generate the Five Phases. Thus lead is black outside yet harbors golden splendor within: before lead becomes white gold it mingles in ore—black in appearance yet storing golden splendor within, like a madman in coarse clothes hiding jade in his bosom.

From “Metal is the mother of water” through “each guards its corner of the realm”: Water is born from Metal; Metal is water’s mother. Metal gives birth to water, yet the mother hides in the child’s womb; water is Metal’s child, and the child is stored in the mother’s envelope. Black lead changes its substance, its place lodged in the west, becoming the White Tiger; water holds Metal and hides its substance in Metal’s caul—this is true mercury. The utmost subtlety is that each keeps to its boundary: true mercury, pressed by outer talisman fire, in the mother’s womb sinks and floats, flying and hiding without fixity, as if there and not there; then responding to talisman fire, in advance and retreat each guards its demarcation and dares not overstep. Master Wei’s chapter here explains in depth the inner symbolic images: what ear and eye cannot reach—the coming and going of true essence in xiyi (what cannot be seen or heard, the subtle obscurity).

From “Once gathered, it is white” through “ lofty and revered”: At the first turning, white gold leads; in smelting and refining, red fire next forges the cinnabar color. White gold as outer guard—white within, the true dwelling within—uses white gold as the spirit chamber. The golden embryo is fashioned after chaos: upper and lower halves, hollow in the middle, one inch in diameter and circumference, to settle true mercury. The halves join, sealed tight; Yin and Yang correspond without a thread of leakage, to nurture dragon and tiger. An old verse says: Seal and the embryo does not leak; transformation is in an instant. “Born before Heaven and Earth, lofty and revered” means true lead, before the appearance of Heaven and Earth’s Yin-Yang, received “the One” and formed first, then gradually gave rise to Heaven and Earth, Yin-Yang, the Five Phases, and the ten thousand things. Thus lead is the parent of Heaven and Earth and the original source of Yin-Yang. Sages take the root of Heaven and Earth’s parents as the great medicine’s root and gather the pure essence of Yin-Yang as the constitution of the returning elixir—therefore it is not ordinary creation. At the start of refining, Heaven and Earth’s root is the medicine root; Yin-Yang’s mother is the elixir mother. If a thing cannot from within give birth to Heaven and Earth’s Yin-Yang, it is not the way of golden-fluid returning elixir. To use, after Heaven and Earth’s Yin-Yang have already appeared, the five metals and eight stones, plant ash lees, morning frost and night dew, snow broth and ice water, green salt and white brine, and other miscellaneous things—is that not excessively difficult? Kindred spirits who ponder long will understand of themselves. Hence the later text says: Read ten thousand times before it can be seen; the spirit may tell a person.

In all returning-elixir practice there are altar, furnace, cauldron, and stove, linked above and below like a Peng [immortal’s] gourd, connected all around. Within the cauldron are spirit chamber and golden embryo, winding and linked; inside are also pivot mechanisms of constraint and sealing, blocking deceit and preventing true Qi from escaping—only then can stray thought be avoided and toil and worry absent. One must seal and guard so spirit and breath fill the chamber; and regulate Yin-Yang, alternating application, to retain true essence and complete transformation. If fire talismans err, though true essence is within, it will fly without rest. All lies in adjusting water and fire and holding without loss—then prosperity is sure. Thus the movement, stillness, and rest of true Qi are always with the person.

The spirit embryo dwells in the central palace; the breath of Yin-Yang and the Five Phases harmonizes, and the spirit embryo nourishes itself, quietly following the void in transformation, naturally changing. Metal is bright by nature and can mirror its own form; meeting fire it becomes still brighter. “Closing Dui”—Dui is the mouth. After the golden tiger’s spirit root is settled in the central palace, one must seal and fortify the cauldron mouth, commanding the true essence of the three luminaries to enter and nurture the pearl of spirit mercury—hence the three luminaries sink and hide. The three luminaries are yang fire, yin talisman, and golden embryo, symbolizing sun, moon, and stars. Outer operation also has three luminaries, distributed in the marks where movement and stillness meet and in Yin-Yang talisman fire—thereby completing transformation. Inner and outer each have bodies of Yin-Yang change; not all can be told. At such subtlety, nothing but oral transmission of secrets can suffice; words cannot fully convey. Gold and mercury in the cauldron change beyond measure and cannot be peered into; if celestial mechanism turns and constrains symbolic images and pivot, gold and mercury dare not escape and dragon and tiger can join—hence “near and easy to seek.” The Yin Fu Jing (the Secret Talisman Classic) says: The cosmos is in the hand; myriad transformations are born in the body.

Chen Zhizhu said: This passage means that one must first nourish nature (xing) before one can cultivate life (ming). What is xing? It is the single thing represented by Qian (pure yang). If a person can preserve it, the yang of Qian will not be depleted, jing will be kept within the body, and qi will be generated from without—only then can one refine the elixir (internal cultivation using one’s own jing, qi, and shen as the medicinals) and enter the realm of sages. Ordinary people do not know that xing and ming are in fact one matter. Some guess xing is clear knowing and awareness; some take xing to be the fleshy heart in the chest; some treat the thinking mind and discriminating spirit as xing; some treat what cannot be grasped as xing; some treat dead, empty void as xing; and some treat “command” or “order” as ming. How could they know that what is subtle and hard to see is xing, and that the gateway of endless generation and transformation is ming? Relying on blind guessing and idle dreaming, how could one ever reach the Way of the sages?

The Yellow Emperor said: Heavenly nature settles in the human person, yet the human heart is like a mechanism. When a junzi obtains it, he can preserve self and family; when a petty person obtains it, he belittles life itself. Confucius said: Investigate things and extend knowledge to the fullest, exhaust one’s nature, and thereby reach ming. Mencius said: Preserve the heart and nourish nature—this is serving Heaven; whether life is short or long, do not waver in two minds; cultivate the person and await Heaven’s command—this is establishing ming. The teaching of the sages was already stated with utmost clarity by Mencius. The Appended Texts of the Yijing also say: In antiquity the sages made the Changes to accord with the principles of xing and ming; therefore they established Heaven’s Way as yin and yang, Earth’s Way as yielding and firm, and humanity’s Way as benevolence and righteousness. An upper immortal said: If one only cultivates xing and not ming, how can one enter sagehood? To cultivate ming one must first cultivate xing—only then is one on the path of practice. People often say Buddhism cultivates xing and Daoism cultivates ming—as if there were two Ways under Heaven. That comes from not having examined Mencius’s words on “preserving the heart, nourishing nature, cultivating the person, and establishing ming.” To establish ming, one must first nourish xing; without awakening to xing, how can one know ming? Hence the Doctrine of the Mean says, “What Heaven commands is called xing; following xing is called the Way.” The sages did not have two hearts.

What is said here is this: wishing to nourish xing, extend life, and await the fruition one expects, people still do not know what nourishing xing means. Lu Dongbin (style Chunyang) used “refining the self” (tempering mind-nature and laying a firm foundation) to make it clear; not knowing what establishing ming means, the line of Zhang and Xu used elixir refining as a metaphor. Single-minded purity and sincerely holding the middle path—that is nourishing xing. Yin and yang intersecting and the myriad things being generated—that is establishing ming. Gathering jing and accumulating qi—that is nourishing xing. Making the wu earth flow toward ji earth (joining the true intent in Kan with the true nature in Li)—that is establishing ming.

Some, trusting in their own cleverness and stubbornly unchanged, hold that where there is birth there must be death—where is there longevity? Sages, immortals, and Buddhas are born that way; teachers cannot teach it and one cannot accomplish it oneself. That is refusing to think carefully and resigning oneself to a single death. One should first think about the source. Thinking is nian (thought, mindfulness). One should ask: From where did this body of mine come? If one says it comes from the yin-yang qi of one’s parents, then that yin-yang qi must be able to extend life and must be able to accomplish immortals and Buddhas. Therefore refining the great elixir differs in no way from receiving that breath at the beginning of life—only the direction differs, forward or reverse. Confucius said: If you do not yet know life, how can you know death? The sages explain why xing and ming have birth and death in order to show why the Way of yin and yang has reverse and forward courses. Going with the flow and producing human beings and things—that is the ordinary person. Going against the flow and refining the elixir—that is the sage. What is spoken of here is primordial jing.

What is meant by taking yin and yang as measure and taking hun and po as dwelling? Yin and yang take hun and po as substance; hun and po take yin and yang as house. Li is the sun-hun; Kan is the moon-po. Po is yang within yin, dominated by wu earth; hun is yin within yang, governed by ji earth. Hun and po are each other’s dwelling; yin and yang traffic with each other. Xing presides over guarding the precious jing within and establishing the yinge (the boundary and foundation that protects the medicinals); qing (desire, emotion) presides over subduing qi without and building the ramparts. What is the wall? The wrapping that supports the calyx. What is the outer rampart? The place where elixir is refined. At this point, the xing of Qian moves and is firm and straight; jing and qi unite as one body. The qing of Kun is still and gathers inward, becoming the lodge of the Way. The firm and straight aspect releases once and withdraws; the yielding aspect spreads moisture to nourish; the elixir arises in the cauldron and returns to success.

What is “nine returns”: Earth’s number four generates metal; Heaven’s number nine completes silver. Dragon and tiger intersect; the qi of gold and silver returns again to the cauldron—hence nine returns. What is “seven reversions”: Earth’s number two generates fire; Heaven’s number seven completes cinnabar. Hun and po are mutually attached; the essence of cinnabar and fire reflects back into the cauldron—hence seven reversions. What is “eight regressions”: Heaven’s number three generates wood; Earth’s number eight completes mercury. Wu and ji unite as one; the true essence of wood and mercury is returned and refined in the cauldron—hence eight regressions. What is “six abidings”: Heaven’s number one generates water; the completion number is six and becomes lead. Xing and qing mutually resonate; the wondrous use of lead and mercury returns to abide in the cauldron—hence six abidings. Male white and female red: gold and fire mutually constrain each other. The male belongs to the wood of the azure dragon, receiving the qi of dui metal; after refining it returns to white. The female belongs to the metal of the white tiger, refined by the fire of Li, and again becomes red.

Fixing water and using fire require a solemn altar and genuine medicinals: add or withdraw according to the amount of water; cook according to whether the fire is young or mature. Only then is it the beginning of the five phases’ creation and transformation. What is “supreme good is like water”: within water is metal, which can produce beautiful water; take its clearest part, entirely without stirring, without dregs or flaw, and only then can transformation occur—this is called supreme good.

The form and image of the Way: male and female are the form of the Way; Qian and Kun are the image of the Way. Within form and image the true one qi can be generated, yet it cannot be drawn as form or drawn as image. These forms and images each follow the pivot of creation and transformation and dwell separately, each presiding over generation and each presiding over killing. Jia and yi wander from the east; geng and xin rest and lodge in the west—hence each dwells alone.

“Like a chicken egg” means the returned elixir already has form. “Black and white correspond” means yin and yang obtain matching. “One inch in breadth” means when the elixir first congeals it is fine as a millet grain and gradually widens to one inch. Not only is the spirit chamber full; warm nourishment also pervades the four limbs and moistens the five viscera; sinews and bones are all eased. When ten months of work are complete, the elixir has formed; shedding the embryonic sheath, it is called the yang spirit. The yang spirit is formed from pre-heaven qi; bones can be rolled and become supple; flesh is smoother than lead powder—not like a person formed from post-heaven essence and blood, with heavy bones and turbid flesh, unable to transform. Commentators note one textual reading as “flesh smooth as syrup,” another as “flesh smooth as lead”; this note is not included here.

Kan is water, the moon, and the middle son; Li is fire, the sun, and the middle daughter. Kan is yin outside and yang inside; in the middle wu earth stores metal and water and nourishes its yin po—this is central qing, the gate of righteousness, black within white. Li is yin inside and yang outside; in the middle ji earth settles cinnabar and mercury and presides over the yang hun—this is accomplished xing, the body of benevolence and virtue, white within black. The moon’s body is originally black; receiving sunlight it spreads its brilliance, and its substance is not depleted. If yang loses accord, yin comes to invade and light is eclipsed: between dark and new moon, the moon blocks the sun’s light—the sun above, the moon below, temporarily obscuring sunlight. This is called the form of yang being consumed and yin pressing down so calamity arises. People cannot preserve true yang and are repeatedly dissolved by yin. If male and female are inverted and mutually felt, man and woman paired, and one seeks the pivot of creation in reverse, dui metal generates Kan water; without true earth, Kan water floods everywhere. Within Li is fire; fire can generate ji earth to restrain Kan water so the water does not overflow. Therefore the Way of the man is Qian firmness releasing outward; the virtue of the woman is Kun stillness storing within. If the man’s outward release is excessive and beyond measure, he is bound by Kun yin. Using po to bell and restrain hun: po belongs to dui, hun belongs to zhen; zhen is male, dui is female. Yin and yang must not intersect with extravagant excess; there must be one cold and one heat, advance and retreat in season, without error; male and female each give proof, and only then is efficacy visible.

The main point of this chapter is: acting in haste, excessive emission, and unrestrained extravagance make yin press down and calamity arise, so that mid-winter runs summer’s command and becomes scorching heat, or mid-summer runs winter’s command and returns to bitter cold—that is, the man moves but the woman does not follow, yang sings but yin does not harmonize; yin and yang are disordered, all from haste and extravagance. Refining the elixir is not easy; never slight yourself. Formerly Master Chunyang had already received the essential purport of Patriarch Zhongli, entered the chamber and applied the work many times, yet because it was not yet perfect could not immediately form the elixir; later, obtaining the Ruyao Jing (Mirror for Entering the Medicinals) from Master Cui, he understood completely and composed a poem saying: Having read Master Cui’s Ruyao Jing, my mind only then turned clear. Thereafter in practice, success came soon. Later fools take wuwei and dead void alone as the Way, muddle through their days, and leave birth and death as they are—they are great sinners within the teaching, let alone practitioners.

What lines like those in the Guanju indicate is the immortal master’s direct pointer that golden elixir must have paired medicinals: one yin and one yang must interact; one female and one male must generate and transform. Dwelling alone—where is the pivot of endless transformation? Many females without a male—where is the Way of generation? To refine the returned elixir one must obtain pre-heaven one qi to succeed. These sentences are already quite plain; there is no need to repeat and expand them.

From “superior virtue is wuwei” through “always stays close to the person”—this treats superior virtue and inferior virtue, that is, what the Daodejing calls superior virtue that is wuwei yet is not deliberately acting, and inferior virtue that acts and has something it acts upon; and what the Wen shi zhen jing calls forgetting spirit and transcending life versus seeing spirit and long life. Superior virtue is emptiness to the utmost and stillness to solidity: jing naturally transforms into qi, qi naturally transforms into shen, shen naturally returns to emptiness—this is the learning of the void Way, hence “not sought by inspection.” Inferior virtue takes void stillness as root and firing as application: refining jing to unite qi, refining qi to unite shen, refining shen to unite with emptiness—this is the method of driving qi by shen, hence “its use never ceases.” One of superior virtue is a person whose de is complete, one for whom nothing is impossible. When a man reaches the age of two-eight (sixteen), true jing is full and about to leak outward; one of complete virtue can cherish and preserve it without any loss, and again meets an enlightened teacher who transmits the wuwei method of cultivation to extend life—this is the scholar for whom nothing is impossible, one whose superior virtue is complete, that is, the sage who carries out wuwei teaching and the great person who accomplishes wuwei merit. One of inferior virtue steals creation and transformation and plunders the myriad things. An ordinary person just at sixteen, with true jing not yet leaked, is called pure Qian; once desire stirs, the middle line of Qian enters the Kun palace, Qian is no longer pure, the heart becomes empty and becomes Li, and thereafter leaks day and night—how much remains? Only the utmost person, before loss reaches the extreme, practices the sage’s way of return and preservation and makes himself an immortal—this is the scholar of inferior virtue, one who steals creation, that is, the sage’s way of following xing and the work of the spirit-person with purposeful action. Superior virtue is wuwei yet nothing is not done; one obtains the whole of the supreme ultimate and accomplishes post-heaven merit—hence not sought by inspection. Inferior virtue acts and has that for which it acts; one seizes the function of creation and accomplishes pre-heaven merit—hence its use never ceases. The immortal master said: When there is purposeful work at the start, no one sees it; when wuwei is reached, the multitude then knows. People only see the mystery of wuwei; who knows that purposeful work is the foundation? This sentence exhausts the matter of golden elixir; the affair is not easy. The utmost person acts only when there is no alternative. Laozi said fine weapons are inauspicious instruments—used only when there is no choice—and meant precisely this.

Upper closure is called “being.” Upper closure is Kun; Kun’s virtue is still and gathering inward. This “being” is wu earth in Kan, within which is pre-heaven true one qi. Lower closure is called “non-being.” Lower closure is Qian; Qian’s virtue is still and single-minded. This “non-being” is ji earth in Li, within which is concealed post-heaven natural mercury. At this point the aperture of dual clarity and dual use appears. The classic says: Constantly from non-desire observe its mystery; constantly from desire observe its aperture; these two issue from the same source with different names, both called mystery; mystery upon mystery is the gate of all wonders. The sages did not have two hearts. These subtle words are not so remote as to be unreachable; it is only that people cannot fathom the thread and must receive instruction from a teacher. Even the Yellow Emperor, though a supreme sage, could not understand this Way by himself without studying under Guangchengzi. This aperture—the sages truly find it hard to describe; only at the ultimate do they point it out: Fuxi drew the trigrams and first used the two images Qian and Kun to fix this aperture; King Wen explained it tirelessly; Confucius in the transmitted text pointed out the meaning of Qian straight and Kun open; Laozi said the gate of the dark female is the root of Heaven and Earth; Shakya used it to metaphorize the treasury of the correct dharma eye and the wondrous mind of nirvana. These are all direct pointers that can be seen. A person of superior capacity may discern this aperture for himself, yet its function cannot be explained except by a teacher. “Non-being” is what is offered to what is above: non-being speaks of one’s own xing; being is wu qing (earthly emotion). If one’s xing can serve wu qing, the righteousness in qing will yearn for the benevolence in xing. The benevolent virtue established above is because pre-heaven one qi comes from within emptiness—that is the de of shen.

The immortal master again points out: “This method of the two aperture-orifices—metal qi also mutually joins.” These two lines are the key to the Cantong qi; ten thousand generations later, even if wisdom surpasses Yan Hui and Min Ziqian, one cannot penetrate them by oneself. Master Yunfang said: The gate that gives me life, the door that gives me death—how many are awake, how many understand? At night the iron man reflects carefully; long life and freedom from death depend entirely on what one does oneself. Are not “the gate that gives me life” and “the door that gives me death” precisely the two aperture-orifices? Before this, only the principles of Qian-Kun, sun and moon, and creation were set forth; here the Mysterious Pass is finally fixed and gold and water as the two substances are indicated—the order of the book is thus and not diffuse. One who refines elixir, having understood this aperture, must still investigate what pairs with metal and what use mutual joining has; only after penetrating deeply may one refine elixir.

Know white, guard black: knowing that the essence of metal is purely white and unstained is knowing white; guarding the black foundation and awaiting the time when water is generated is guarding black. When water is first generated it is called pre-heaven, because it is utmost truth—it is therefore called spirit illumination. White and black correspond; gold and water flourish; once ji earth restrains water and washes gold, gold and water fill the furnace—hence spirit illumination comes of itself. What is water? It is the pivot of the Way; its number is called one. Water is generated from Heaven’s number one—therefore it is the beginning of yin and yang. What is called dark containing yellow sprout: the Appended Texts say yin though possessing beauty hides it away to serve the king’s affair. Great darkness is water; yellow sprout is elixir; elixir within water—hence the metaphor dark containing yellow sprout. Within black lead is hidden white gold; within the river chariot is hidden yellow sprout—like a scholar cherishing jade in his bosom, or wearing coarse clothes outside so harm does not come. Metal is the mother of water: dui metal generates Kan water, and Kan’s middle line also belongs to metal—hence the mother hides the child’s embryo in her belly. Water is the son of metal: ren and gui water are generated from the west; dui’s middle line belongs to Kan—hence the son is hidden in the mother’s womb.

“True person to the utmost wondrous”: the true person is the substance of Qian. This single thing of Qian is utmost spirit and utmost wonder; its form may be or may not be. The great abyss is the image of Kun. This single thing of Kun can sink or float; its form cannot be seen or heard. Therefore Qian can transform and Kun’s virtue assists generation. Once generation has occurred, Qian and Kun separate and each guards its boundary. One takes the white because within lead is silver appearing white; forming the inner elixir is so; refining cinnabar alone can turn to a white like face powder; taking outer elixir to refine follows the same principle. Outer elixir often needs outer protection—outside it looks as red as cinnabar, yet within it does not lose true white. One inch in breadth, square and round, mixed and mutually bound—this says that within the subtle there is a thing: before the supreme ultimate is divided, before Heaven and Earth, pre-heaven true one qi dwells before the supreme ultimate, before images appear—hence said to stand lofty and honored. Beside it are walls and towers, resembling Penglai; the image of Qian also resembles walls, towers, and Penglai. These symbolic forms all describe the single body, the single self; what is said above all refers to the cauldron vessel. Encircling closure is outer protection; facing affairs on four sides and moving with caution is strict outer defense. Guarding and securing must be tight—one cannot leave for a moment; what can be left is not the Way. Blocking treachery means going out and in according to rule, fixing inner and outer, making people know fear—this is the true lord within the white. Winding passages connect—one must set up the altar and solemn preparations against mishap. From “encircling closure” downward the immortal master instructs item by item, fearing unexpected harm; yet one must also be without thought and without worry, not toiling in anxiety, so that spirit and qi fill the chamber without loss—hence those who guard it flourish and those who lose it perish. Slightly insecure and it overturns and fails. Therefore in every movement and stillness, in rest, one dare not relax or neglect for an instant; only then is cauldron qi firm between self and other and mutually subdued—hence it always stays close to the person.

This section directly points out the body of the two apertures and reveals the use of metal and water. Practitioners reading the Cantong qi to this point then know that the first step of entry is already difficult. Yet vessels of inferior virtue practice the Way with purposeful action; the work entirely depends on refining the self. If refining the self is slightly deficient, spirit illumination does not come.

From “internally to nourish the self” through “near and easy to seek”: nourishing the self is cultivating the person and refining the self. Confucius said: The junzi first makes himself secure then acts, first calms his heart then speaks, first establishes friendship then asks; cultivating these three enables completeness. The sages’ concern runs deep, and they know human reality well. One movement, one word, one request—these three are the supreme principle of entering sagehood and are truly essential words for nourishing the self. Cherishing jing and filling qi is nourishing the self; forgetting the heart’s clinging when facing objects is refining the self; constantly still yet constantly able to respond to affairs is refining the self; accumulating virtue and accomplishing merit is refining the self. Bitterly going forward is called refining; going until pure maturity is also called refining. One who refines elixir must first refine the self—enduring hardship and forbearance—so that when entering the chamber the six roots are peaceful, practice is pure, and forgetting reaches the point where there is nothing left to forget; only then can the work succeed. Therefore the Way of the Great Learning lies in illuminating bright virtue, in knowing people, in resting in utmost goodness. Illuminating virtue, knowing people, and resting in utmost goodness together match refining the self. Knowing where to rest, then one can be settled; settled, then still; still, then tranquil; tranquil, then one can deliberate; deliberating, then one can obtain—this matches the gist of “still and empty.” Empty is not vacant nothingness. The immortal master said pre-heaven one qi comes from within emptiness—that is the ultimate of still and empty. What is called the original root is sought from where one’s own body was born; then one knows true jing and true qi are the root of this body. What is called discarding cleverness means most people waste spirit and qi on what cleverness grasps; the great practitioner dismisses cleverness and screens off cunning, looks inward at the body-form, outward forgets the I-form, blocks dui (the mouth and openings of the senses), fortifies the spirit root, gathers back the gaze, and warm-nourishes the child pearl. Fortifying the spirit root is refining the self and concentrating spirit; warm-nourishing the child pearl is accumulating jing and gathering qi. Only when refining the self is pure may one refine the returned elixir. People neither know that refining the self is a great matter nor rashly practice half an hour’s work of obtaining the medicinals, hoping for success— utterly foolish. Therefore scriptures on purity say: look inward at the heart, outward at form, at a distance at things—one only sees emptiness; emptiness is not empty of anything; when what is emptied is gone, even “nothing” is gone; when no-no is also gone, one is then constantly still, and stillness also has no stillness. Read this way, would not ordinary people take it as great rest and great liberation? Why then does “desire” follow below? How can desire be generated? When desire is not generated, that is true stillness; only true stillness can respond to things. Look carefully: reaching true stillness and responding to things is only the beginner’s affair; speaking of elixir refinement, one must be thus. Nowadays ordinary people offer one feast, build one pagoda, or engage in “three peaks” battle-capture, or sit dryly reciting scriptures, or empty talk of wuwei, or pray and sacrifice—calling these doing good is acceptable; calling them cultivating the Way, they have truly not yet entered the gate. Therefore the work of nourishing the self cannot be lacking in the slightest. Hence Lu Dongbin said: seven reversions and returning elixir depend on the person; one must first refine the self and await the time. Niwang said: if speech does not communicate, they are not kin; if effort is not sufficient, round and square cannot be achieved. Ziyang said: if you wish to complete the nine revolutions, first refine the self and hold the heart. The sages transmitted generation after generation—can one receive it without careful acceptance? True Person Taixu obtained Master Huangfang’s secret method, followed the teaching to Wuyi, and intended to accomplish the matter. At first doing the work of refining the self, demonic obstacles came in every way. Taixu stood firm and said: bind and send the essence of demons and ghosts; cut off the sharp edge of the six thieves (the clinging of eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind). Immediately he settled the breath and sat. Once this thought was fixed, the root of desire was severed; only then did he learn contemplation. The matter of refining the self should be pondered again and again. This section speaks only of nourishing the self and does not yet contain the golden tiger and elixir chamber; if one takes the three lights as yang fire, yin tally, and golden embryo, that is even more wrong.

Yu Yan said: Whether a person is dull or clever, nature (xing) and life (ming) are the same for all. The noble person understands both that nature should be nourished and that lifespan should be extended; combining the cultivation of nature with the extension of life, how could one fail to attain longevity? To seek longevity, one must first inquire into what this body was before one was born—only then can one speak of nourishing nature and extending life. Hence the need to ponder what comes “first.” Human birth is the condensation of form when the parents’ qi interpenetrates. Form is the foundation that receives qi; qi is the root by which form exists. Without form, qi has nowhere to stand; without qi, form cannot arise.

In heaven there is the Yellow Path as a measure of degrees, and the sun and moon move within it—that is their dwelling. In the human body, the Yellow Path is the route along which the Yin tally and Yang fire circulate, and also where the sun’s hun and the moon’s po reside. If one can observe heaven’s way, hold to heaven’s motion, discern the degrees of yin and yang and the abodes of hun and po, then the three hundred sixty-five degrees of the celestial circuit can revolve in a single breath in and out, and the work of sun and moon appears in the subtlest respiration. Exhalation is yang, inhalation is yin—the same subtle operation as heaven and earth.

The sun is taiyang; by day it spreads light, hence it is called hun. The moon is taiyin; by night it gathers light, hence it is called po. Calling the sun’s hun “yang spirit” is apt. The moon’s po is originally yin essence, yet it is also called spirit, because it does not stay fixed—it circulates through the six voids, coming and going without fixed rule, with no constant place above or below. Hun belongs to eastern Wood; po belongs to western Metal. Metal and Wood are not two unrelated substances in the first place—east and west are neighbors; they ascend and descend, alternate in entering and leaving. Nature is still while emotion moves. Nature governs inwardly and establishes the inner foundation and boundary (yong’e)—sitting upright with an empty heart, looking inward, grasping the golden essence as the basis for establishing life. Emotion governs outwardly and builds the outer ramparts—the pivot turns day and night, the dragon and fire travel through the eight directions. When ramparts are intact and the person is at peace, qi penetrates the joints, essence naturally fills, and the valley spirit naturally remains. At that point, to unite Qian and Kun is the river chariot running without cease day and night, secretly moving together with the great transformation.

Qian governs movement; Kun governs stillness. Holding to Qian, qi is full and essence flows, pervading the three luminaries everywhere—like heaven’s motion penetrating all things and reaching the whole realm. Holding to Kun, qi gathers and essence congeals, returning to the primordial sea (the source region around the lower dantian), becoming the lodge of the Dao—like earth using stillness to gather all things and store them in soil. Qian yang descends to assist Kun; Kun receives in yielding, and thus the medicinal substance is produced. After firing and refining, the firm and active withdraws; the yielding and yin ascends, turning into sweet spring that moistens the nine regions. How is this different from yang descending and yin rising in creation, moistening the ten thousand things?

Six, seven, eight, and nine refer to Water, Fire, Wood, and Metal. The corresponding trigrams are Kan, Li, Zhen, and Dui; directions north, south, east, and west; asterisms Xu, Xing, Fang, and Mao; emblems tortoise-and-serpent, dragon, and tiger; seasons winter, summer, spring, and autumn; hours zi, wu, mao, and you—they all speak of one and the same matter. Nine is called “return,” seven “revert,” eight “restore”—the meaning is alike: guard and gather. Only six is called “dwell,” because the northern Kan position is the true lead’s native home. When true lead dwells here, the upright qi of Metal, Wood, and Fire is like wheel spokes meeting the hub and a hundred streams turning toward the sea—all gather here.

Male and female and red and white refer to yin and yang within the body. When yin and yang mutually resonate inwardly, spirit and qi interpenetrate, like Metal and Fire mutually restraining each other. Metal and Fire restrain each other and rest in the northern Kan water; spirit congeals and qi gathers, and this water is naturally stable. If one here turns the light back and reflects inward—exhalation subtle, inhalation continuous, without break—spirit and qi return to the root, gradually deepening, gradually softening, gradually harmonizing, gradually settling. When settling lasts long, breathing seems to vanish, and the medicine congeals of itself. Thus water is the root of the great elixir, first among the Five Phases, the place on one’s own body where the medicine is born.

The great way of the golden elixir is pure and non-active (wuwei)—doing what seems like nothing. The saying that all day one is like a fool is the real gongfu. When water is still and settled, sediment clears; when stirred, it turns muddy—hence the metaphor. When the person is still and settled, the Dao naturally comes to dwell. “There is a thing confusedly complete, born before heaven and earth”—we reluctantly name it Dao. It has no image to seek; how could one draw it in a diagram?

In the muddled, dim state when not a single thought arises and myriad concerns dissolve—chaotically blended like the Great Ultimate not yet divided, vast and hazy like the two modes not yet revealed—only this one thing remains clear and alone, like a clear pool reflecting the moon, utterly still like water without ripples, unable to distinguish which is lead and which is mercury: this is called the true one. When the time arrives and qi transforms, distribution begins—the light and clear rise, the heavy and turbid sink; then Kan palace has lead and Li palace has mercury. The formerly blended, hazy state here splits into two things, each dwelling apart.

The golden elixir is gestated in the pre-heaven and produced in the post-heaven; the subtlety lies in the interval when the Great Ultimate is about to divide yet has not moved—stillness has reached the extreme but movement has not yet begun, yang is about to return but has not yet left yin. Here one aligns with heaven and earth’s mechanism, recognizes the place where the elixir forms, knows the oral formula for beginning practice, and can seek “there is a thing” in vagueness and draw true essence in obscurity—then one knows that from nothing something can be born, and the wonder of the true one truly cannot be drawn in a diagram.

The scripture says it is like an egg, until the flesh is smooth as malt sugar. Black and white are the two qi of yin and yang. At the beginning of fetal formation, father’s essence and mother’s blood, yin and yang qi falsely unite into form—muddled and blended, shaped like an egg. After about a hundred days, limbs, five viscera, sinews, and bones are complete. At term one is born, leaving the womb—bones weak, sinews soft, flesh tender and smooth: an infant. In elixir method, spirit and qi unite in “producing from nothing,” the same principle as male and female conception. The ten months of warm nurturing—true breath continuous, day and night as one—is no different from before the infant is born. From this one knows that refining the sacred embryo (the inner elixir formed from spirit and qi) cannot succeed without the full ten months of gongfu.

From “Kan, the middle male, is the moon” through “when yin overtops, disaster arises”: Kan is the middle male, its body arising from Kun; the middle line is the Qian stroke—yang within yin, hence the image of the moon. Li is the middle female, its body arising from Qian; the middle line is the Kun stroke—yin within yang, hence the image of the sun. The sun spreads virtue and grace, like the husband’s way; the moon spreads light, like the wife’s way. Now taking the moon as Kan male is making the wife into the husband; taking the sun as Li female is making the husband into the wife. This is the inversion of yin and yang in the body, so they can mutually assist without mutual harm.

Solar and lunar eclipses occur when their degrees intersect. When sun and moon oppose, the moon is eclipsed; when the moon covers the sun, the sun is eclipsed. Hence solar eclipse at new moon, lunar eclipse at full moon. Yet sometimes there is eclipse, sometimes not: when they intersect, eclipse; when not, no eclipse. Wei Boyang uses sun and moon to illustrate yin and yang mutually assisting, repeatedly discussing dark moon, new moon, and thin eclipse—his intent points somewhere. If the student does not cling to words and outer images but turns light back and seeks the body’s sun and moon and dark and new moon, one will trust that his words do not deceive.

From “male and female mutually attend” through “both spit forth the verifying tally”: male and female, female and male are both the two things of yin and yang in oneself. If one turns light back and lets one’s yin and yang unite within—firm and yielding matched, three-five return to one—why seek male and female elsewhere? When the two substances’ qi-images harmonize, they naturally exhale and inhale, interpenetrating to form the embryo. Shangqing has a saying: on one’s own body there are husband and wife—people often laugh when they hear it. The student should seek through pure non-action (qingjing wuwei), not drift into heterodox indulgence.

When Metal is born in the Kan palace it is still only qi, not yet turned to water. Because true fire of the sun hides below, steaming and smelting, it melts into water. Water’s nature is to flow everywhere, surging greatly—who can block it? Yet fire at the extreme turns to earth. Earth overcomes water; water meeting earth stops, so it can no longer run wild. The Ruyaojing says: water can flow, fire can flame—in the body one can verify this oneself. Therefore harmonizing lead and mercury to form the elixir must not be excessive or beyond measure. Kan male moves and gives outward; Li female is still and hides within. Once the outward-giving side is excessive and oversteps, Li female restrains it, making yin and yang intersect and hun and po mutually control, so there is no overflow or excess. When gathering medicine, regulate the fire gongfu—neither too urgent nor too slow; seek only peaceful union. The Fuming pian says firm and yielding meet and breath is even—the wonder lies in not harming Dui and Zhen; the main point is taking harmony as precious.

From “guan guan, the ospreys” through “the more one sees, the more perverse”: the great way of the golden elixir is nothing but one yin and one yang. Whether one looks at human affairs or natural patterns, it is always so. Wei Gong takes from Guan Ju the idea of the fair lady matching the gentleman, likening the matching of male and female in the body; he also takes the tortoise and serpent of the Black Warrior coiled together, likening how female and male in the body need each other—metaphor broad, winding and thorough, omitting no detail.

Like Dui maiden and Gen youth mutually sensing above and below, giving to each other—this is Xian (Influence). Li and Dui, two female trigrams dwelling together, wills cannot go the same way—this is Kui (Opposition). This shows yin and yang must mutually obtain each other and cannot lean to one side. As for furnace fire refining, yin and yang on both sides must be complete. If the medicine is not the proper kind, if measures lose their rule—even if the Yellow Emperor stood by the furnace and Taiyi tended the fire, the Eight Lords and Huainan Wang blended and refined, jade and gold built the altar steps, unicorn and phoenix were offered in sacrifice, fasting and bathing, holding registers kneeling long, presenting green petitions and vermilion memorials, praying to spirits above and below—I say it would only waste time and labor in vain. Like mixing clay to patch a broken pot, smearing sal ammoniac on a foul sore, adding ice for cold bias and hot soup for heat bias, making tortoises fly and serpents dance—only growing more confused. Some doubt the line “the male does not dwell alone, the female does not dwell apart,” thinking that refining the elixir without a woman is solitary yang, wrongly citing this chapter as proof while mocking the orthodox way as narrow—these are all heterodox, absurd claims.

From “superior De is non-active” through “the child hidden in the mother’s womb.” The Daodejing says: superior De is non-active and is not intentionally active; inferior De is active and is intentionally active. Here, superior De non-active, without need to investigate, is spirit guarding the mysterious palace, silently without action. Inferior De active, function unceasing, is qi ascending in the female palace, continuous without break. This borrows Laozi’s words to reveal the secret of the two orifices of Kan and Li.

Closed above is called “having”—Li palace has form, hiding true water. Closed below is called “not having”—Kan’s gate is formless yet produces the red dragon. Not-having goes to nourish above; above has spirit-De—meaning the original spirit dwells in its palace and qi all ascends with it, so the wonder lies in the eight gates firmly locked. These two orifices’ having and not-having must depend on each other: if below is not closed, fire cannot gather; if above is not closed, medicine cannot ascend. Hence Kan and Li’s two cavities must match and depend on each other—only then is it possible. Yet “not-having” is paired not with “having” but with “above”; “spirit” is paired not with “qi” but with “De”— lest people cling to the literal having/not-having, above/below, spirit/qi, De and seek outward, so the phrasing is deliberately crossed.

White is Metal, black is Water. In elixir method water is the root; golden essence is born in water, so one must recognize white by only holding to black. Hold black, and white naturally appears. How to hold? Like a cat guarding a hole waiting for a mouse—body unmoved, eyes unblinking, mind only on the mouse, no other thought. Spirit-light is heaven’s mechanism. To steal this mechanism, one must first empty the heart. When the heart is empty, spirit congeals and breath settles; both sides rise together, jointly forming one jin, and spirit-light naturally arrives.

Heaven at one generates water; water occupies the first of the Five Phases, so it is the pivot of the Dao and the beginning of yin and yang. Add earth five to water one, and lead is produced in the water—lead obtains earth to be born: the image of mystery containing yellow sprout. Lead is lord of the five metals, born in water; in the northern dark place it is smelted out by true fire—the river chariot dares not pause even briefly, carrying straight to the peak of Kunlun.

Golden flower is yellow sprout, the elite of lead. Lead’s outside is black; golden flower hides within—like a supreme treasure hidden in the bosom of one in coarse clothes. Metal generates water, so Metal is water’s mother and water is Metal’s child. Metal in water—thus the mother hidden in the child’s womb, the child hidden in the mother’s womb. If the student understands “Metal in water,” one knows where the medicine’s spring lies.

From “the perfected person’s utmost subtlety” through “near and easy to seek.” The perfected person is the original spirit. “If there is, if there is not” means it is continuous as if present, not laborious to use. “As if floating or sinking” means the perfected person comes and goes in the great abyss— faint, as if floating and sinking. The Jindan dacheng ji says: on Kunlun mountain is the yellow-flower road, constantly leading the original spirit away and back. The so-called great abyss is Kunlun.

In elixir method one advances from the zi hour and retreats from the wu hour; advance and retreat are distributed, each guarding its boundary without encroachment. White is Metal, cinnabar is mercury. When gathering, take white—gather the white gold of northern Kan as elixir mother; white gold and cinnabar mercury share qi and follow each other. When cooking, it becomes cinnabar—daily moving fire, drawing off lead’s qi, adding mercury—the so-called truly using lead yet not using that outer lead. Students only know lead and mercury uniting into medicine but not the fire gongfu of drawing lead and adding mercury—then even if an elixir nucleus forms, it cannot avoid dissipation.

“Refined as outer guard” is true fire applied in the outer furnace; “white within, chastity dwelling” is the golden elixir settled within. With elixir in the inner furnace, one must have the outer furnace’s fire refining day and night—then it can mature. The Taigu ji says the crown turns the li pearl and light appears of itself; the belly hides the secret treasure, serene and brilliant—is this not fire moving outside and elixir hidden within?

Square, round, one inch across refers to the mud-pill palace (niwan gong). People today only call the heart the “square inch,” not knowing that in the upper, middle, and lower dantian each there is a one-inch empty space and the qi vessels all connect. “Blended yet mutually supporting” means the head has nine palaces with mud-pill at the center. The Huangting jing says the mud-pill’s nine perfected each have chambers, square and round one inch within—this is the meaning. “Born before heaven and earth” means this cavity of mud-pill is the ancestral cavity of the body’s myriad openings; when this one opens, all openings open together. “Lofty and honored” means mud-pill palace is at Kunlun’s peak, where the original spirit dwells, corresponding above to the mystic capital where myriad spirits assemble. Side walls and towers—the seven openings arrayed outside; bridal chamber and yellow gate are before it. Shape like Penglai—like three sacred mountains on the sea with Penglai above. “Encircling closure” is withdrawing sight and returning hearing, carefully blocking Dui (the mouth). “Four-way passage and wandering” is primordial harmony circulating within—one qi flows, the vermilion bird circling the jade terrace. “Guard and defense firm and strict” is like the dragon nurturing the pearl—heart never forgets; like the hen brooding—qi never breaks. “Blocking treachery” is letting demon realms invade while oneself wields the axe to respond. “Winding galleries linked against mishap” is when spirit goes out, bring it back at once, with twin youths long guarding the cave gate.

When the heart is non-active, qi harmonizes; when qi harmonizes, the supreme treasure congeals. When the heart is active, qi disordered; when qi disordered, splendid essence scatters. Hence one can be without thought, but must not worry or toil. When gongfu truly accumulates over time, great harmony fills. In movement, stillness, and rest, hold carefully. Hold it and flourish; lose it and perish—not a moment can one leave it. The saying that in walking, standing, sitting, and lying one never leaves this: when walking, place the feet on level ground; when stopping, gather spirit in great emptiness; when sitting, even the breath at the nose tip; when lying, embrace the pearl below the navel. Long practice without break is real gongfu. Otherwise the heart-ape is unsettled and the will-horse runs wild—spirit and qi scatter outward—yet one still wants to form an elixir: is that not hard? Hence one must empty the heart, forget form, hold the one and embrace spirit, to consolidate essence, preserve qi, and fully gather spirit for longevity.

Wang Chongyang’s Jinzhen ji says: the wonder of the pass (xuan guan) is not hard to exhaust—it lies only in wordless silence. Only in wordless silence, hidden in utmost emptiness, still and deep, does primordial yang true qi return of itself.

The great hinge of cultivation is returning to the source and turning light inward—as Metal and Water hide light within. Dui is the mouth; the spirit root is the Kan palace. Block Dui and above does not leak; fortify the spirit root and below does not drain. Spirit does not race outward, harmonious qi fills the body, and beauty is within. The three luminaries are the spirit-images of the bridal chamber. If one can gather the three luminaries and reflect them inward, the central upright position produces the mysterious pearl.

The golden elixir great medicine has no visible form; yet if one seeks by measure, in no more than a moment yellow flowers fill the eyes—what is far about it? The Wuzhen pian says gongfu is easy and the medicine is not far—speak plainly and people must laugh. That laugh is at how it is originally near and easy to seek, yet people go searching on high themselves.

This passage comes from the middle fascicle of Jiang Yibiao’s Collected Exegesis of the Guwen Cantong qi, included in the Siku quanshu (Complete Library of the Four Treasuries) under the Qing imperial commission; Jiang wrote it in the Ming dynasty. The Cantong qi itself is attributed to Wei Boyang of the Eastern Han. The lower part of the text treats how the sages of old took and refined the Golden Elixir and the principles of cultivation leading to transcendence and ascent.

Those sages of antiquity harbored arcane principle in the heart and held fast to true nature; they ingested and prepared the Golden Elixir of the nine tripods—firing elixir in the cauldron-furnace, which also figures the repeated refinement of the elixir path—and, once their bodily form had undergone transformation, they withdrew and hid themselves from the world. Inwardly they gathered and stored essence-qi and nurtured spirit (shen); their virtue was in accord with the three lights—the sun, moon, and stars (in Yu Yan’s recension this reads “the Three Origins,” sanyuan)—and they harmonized the fluid essences within the body.

In ancient times, sages and worthies harbored mystery within and kept to their true nature. They ingested and refined the Nine Tripods (the nine-turn elixir vessels of classical alchemy), transformed their forms, and withdrew from the world. They nourished essence and qi and tended the spirit; their virtue connected with the Three Luminaries (sun, moon, and stars). Fluid essence spread through the pores of the skin, and the bones and sinews grew firm; various pathogenic influences were shut out, and upright qi endured. Accumulated over long years, they transformed their substance and became immortals.

They grieved for later people who loved the Way yet only imitated the outward style of their predecessors—pointing to and copying ancient graphs into books to guide those who came after. What was shown were only branches; the root remained hidden. They also used many borrowed names and obscured the text with deliberate disorder. Those who studied the Way received these books as if locking jade in a casket, never able to use them in a lifetime. Sons inherited fathers’ work, grandsons followed ancestors; generation after generation remained confused and finally saw and heard nothing. Officials refused office, farmers neglected the plow, merchants abandoned goods, and aspirants’ households fell into poverty. The author was deeply pained by this and composed this text: words kept simple, easy to ponder; matters abbreviated, not cluttered; items listed so that checking against reality makes things clear; each part has its measure and follows in order. Hence this tangled verse—holes drilled only in the gate—so that those who know may think deeply and investigate with full intent.

The Riverbank Maiden (a hidden name in elixir texts for mercury) is most numinous and wondrous: at the touch of fire she flies away until even dust cannot be seen. Like a ghost she hides, like a dragon she conceals; no one knows where she is. To subdue her, yellow sprout (the yellow bud from the first union of lead and mercury in alchemy; in neidan, often the medicine formed by true earth) must be taken as root.

When things lack yin and yang, they violate Heaven’s Way and turn from the origin. A hen hatching an unfertilized egg will not produce a whole chick. Why? Because mating has not joined; three-five (the pairing numbers of the Five Phases—three with two, four with one, and the central five) have not met; hard and soft stand apart. The subtle gift of transformation is simply how Heaven and Earth are—like fire that rises when stirred, water that flows downward when released—not because a teacher instructed them. What is received at the first thread of order and principle cannot be changed. Watch male and female unite: hard and soft tangle and cannot be undone. They gain measure and token—not by craft or control. A boy is born face down, a girl face up; both receive this from the womb at the first breath of qi—not only obvious in life, but imitated even in death. This is not parents’ teaching; it was fixed from the very start of union.

The Sun’s flowing pearl (metaphor for volatile mercury and for the life treasure of a person) always wants to leave the human being. Suddenly it meets Golden Flower (metaphor for lead, metal qi, or the golden flower born of true intent), turns to rely on it, becomes white liquid, and congeals until solid. Golden Flower leads first; in an instant it dissolves into water, shaped like horse-teeth carnelian (fine stone). Yang then goes to harmonize—such is its nature; it presses the yin of the moment and keeps it penned in the forbidden gate. Like a loving mother nurturing and a filial child repaying, a strict father issuing commands and instructing descendants. When the Five Phases cross in their seasons of dominance, they rely on one another to be born: fire by nature can melt metal, metal can overcome flourishing wood. Three-five unite as one—the most subtle principle of Heaven and Earth; it can pass mouth to ear, yet is hard to fix in writing.

At zi hour one should turn right; at wu hour turn back east; mao and you divide the two sides into host and guest names. The dragon calls the tiger; the tiger draws in the dragon’s essence; each feeds the other, both greedy for union, then link, swallow, chew, and devour. Mars (Sodality star) holds the west; Venus (Great White) crosses the sky; wherever killing qi reaches, what will not topple? Civet and dog stand guard; birds fear the hawk—each fulfills its function; who dares make a sound?

Without grasping the principle within, one cannot talk at random. Families are drained; wives and children hunger. From antiquity to now, those who loved this Way number in the hundreds of millions; most never meet the fit moment, and few succeed. Seeking famous drugs far and wide instead turns one from the Way.

Cinnabar is the essence of wood; only with metal can it unite. Metal and water share one place; water and fire become partners. The four undivided become dragon and tiger when split. The dragon is yang, odd in number; the tiger is yin, even. Liver green is father, lung white mother, kidney black son, li red (Yu Yan’s text reads “heart red”) daughter, spleen yellow ancestor—thus the Five Phases begin. The three substances become one family, all returning to wu and ji (central earth; in neidan, often the Yellow Court and true intent).

Hard and soft rise and fall in turn, passing through and spreading to each direction. Dragon in the west, tiger in the east; warp and woof are set at mao and you. Punishment and virtue meet together and rejoice in seeing one another: punishment governs hiding and killing; virtue governs birth and rise. In the second month elm pods fall—the Dipper’s head rests at mao; in the eighth month wheat grows—the Heavenly Gang stands at you. Zi in the south, wu in the north, each the other’s pattern. The numbers one and nine end and begin again. Primordial qi is contained in xu and wei (two northern constellations), sowing essence in the zi position.

Practice diligently, day and night without cease. After three years of ingestion, the body grows light and can soar far; treading fire without burning, entering water without wetting; appearing and hiding, long ease without sorrow. When the Way is complete and virtue fulfilled, first hide and await the time. Taiyi (a supreme deity of the Way) then summons and moves one to Central Isle (the central isle of the immortal realm); when merit is full one ascends and receives registers and charts.

If one truly encounters this Way and sees its thread, one can compare by kind and measure things’ end and beginning. The Five Phases overcome one another, then in turn become each other’s parents: the mother holds nourishing fluid; the father presides over receiving and giving; congealing essence and spreading form, like metal and stone that do not decay. Examine singleness and do not leak—only then can the Way be achieved (Yu Yan: “attain the true Way”). Raise a pole and the shadow appears; call into a valley and the echo returns—is this not numinous? It is Heaven and Earth’s highest emblem.

If one sends a inch of wild kudzu or an ounce of croton down the throat, the person collapses at once and cannot rise or bend. Then even King Wen divining with yarrow, Confucius observing the images, Bian Que with his needles, or Wu Xian beating the drum could not revive him to run again.

Chen Xianfang’s commentary: Wei Boyang feared people would not understand the reason. He pointed out that ancient sages who harbored mystery and embraced truth all ingested the Nine Tripods and shared virtue with the Three Luminaries, thus removing pathogenic qi and preserving upright qi until they transformed substance and became immortals. He grieved that later lovers of the Way annotated immortal scriptures at random—not only failing to see or hear for themselves but misleading descendants too—so in deep pain he wrote this text.

From the Riverbank Maiden to “yellow sprout as root”: northern upright qi transforms into the Maiden; at fire she flies—appearing and hiding without fixed place. Only when yellow sprout is refined can she be subdued, as when mother and child enter a glass bowl and even divine power cannot be exercised. Those of high attainment naturally know.

From “things lack yin and yang” to “fixed from the start of union”: one cannot treat lone yin as having yang; cultivating a single thing only makes one weaker. One must know that one yin and one yang is called the Dao; only when male and female unite essence and the ten thousand things are generated can one speak of returning the elixir. If the two substances do not unite, three-five do not meet, water and fire are not accomplished, and hard and soft separate, yin and yang are cut off, Heaven and Earth close up, and partial yin or partial yang is called disease.

From the Sun’s flowing pearl to “hard to transmit in writing”: human life rests on mao; the sun rises in the mao direction; the ten thousand things rely on it to grow and all hold sun essence to establish life. The Sun’s flowing pearl is the life treasure. Entrusted to shen (spirit), shen grows busy and thought scatters; thought scatters and chases externals and changes. Entrusted to jing (essence), jing fills and is hard to keep; then intent stirs and wants to leak—hence it always wants to leave the person. Few in the world understand this; fewer still understand and can preserve. This sun treasure is originally the essence of the wood soul; if it meets Golden Flower and is subdued, it becomes white fluid, congeals into yellow sprout like horse-teeth carnelian, and is restrained at the you gate to complete transformation. The method uses the Five Phases devouring one another: like a father driving a son, the son turning to the mother; like a mother nurturing, the son repaying. First fire melts metal, then metal cuts wood—both like a strict father driving a son, then turning to water; water is wood’s mother, hence “mother nurtures”; then congealing into metal, and water is metal’s son—from son back to mother, hence “repaying kindness.” The point does not go beyond “three-five and one.” Without meeting a true person to transmit the oral formula, one must not lightly use writing to pry at Heaven’s secret.

From “zi turns right” to “dare not make a sound”: zi turns right from the west and comes to mao in the east; wu spins from the east and comes to you in the west—both crossing nine turns. Thus the dragon emerges from fire and the tiger is born toward water; Mars holds the west and restrains metal, Venus crosses the sky and shows by day. Then the dragon calls the tiger and the tiger draws the dragon’s essence; civet and dog borrow the tiger’s might to guard; birds see the sun crow and fear the hawk—each gets its function and dares not sound. All this is the principle of the Five Phases restraining one another; it cannot be otherwise.

From “without grasping the principle” to “turn from the Way”: not understanding the principle and only seeking drugs outward wastes wealth in vain.

From “cinnabar, wood essence” to “all return to wu and ji”: metal and wood, jia and geng, assist each other because each embraces true earth. Metal four and water one unite to earth five; wood three and fire two unite to earth five. Though the eastern water dragon and western metal tiger have east-three west-four odd and even not aligned, when they split into three houses and merge in one place, all return to wu and ji.

From “hard and soft rise and fall” to “sow essence in zi”: from zi to si is qian hardness; from wu to hai is kun softness. Understanding this alternation, naturally dragon west tiger east, zi south wu north, warp and woof at mao and you, birth and killing concealment as each other’s pattern, each in its season. The second month normally governs birth, but when western you arrives, elm dies and returns to root; the eighth month normally governs killing concealment, but when eastern mao arrives, wheat and barley sprout. From western mao going forward nine turns, one then sees southern zi; from eastern you going backward nine turns, one then sees northern xu and wei. These numbers one and nine are containing primordial qi in xu and wei and sowing essence in zi.

From “diligent practice” to “receive charts and registers”: practice day and night without interruption; within three years the elixir Way can be complete—entering fire and water, soaring far, transforming with spirit, free and at ease. But after the Way is complete and virtue fulfilled, one should hide among humans, accumulate merit and conduct, and wait for Lord Taiyi to summon; then move to Central Isle and receive charts and registers; when conduct is full, ascend further. It is said three thousand accumulated merits make a Great Luo immortal, eight hundred completed practices make a guest of Great Luo—depending on the height of merit and conduct.

If one truly encounters this and sees the thread, one can seize Heaven and Earth’s creation and measure the ten thousand things’ end and beginning. Human life can be made to die quickly or to live long. Poison in the mouth—even sages cannot revive; a knife’s worth of elixir (a tiny dose) swallowed—even ghosts and spirits cannot harm by force. Spirit’s subtle use lies entirely in empty clarity; the mechanism of Five Phase change is truly the body from which great creation arises. Raise a pole and the shadow appears—all the numinous clarity of spirit fire; call a valley and hear the echo—the responsive echo of spirit emptiness. Metal and stone do not easily decay because they issue from emptiness; lead and mercury are most wondrous because they are born of creation. In trance there is substance; in the dark there is jing (essence)—if not the utmost spirit under Heaven, who could know?

Peng Xiao said: Wei Boyang (a Daoist master of the Eastern Han and author of the Cantong qi, called Master Wei in the text) held that the Three Sovereigns of antiquity refined and ingested the divine elixir of the Nine Cauldrons, thereby nourishing essence and qi until their virtue matched the three luminaries—sun, moon, and stars. They transformed and withdrew, leaving no trace of form, and became immortals attending the Supreme Emperor (Shangdi) as honored guests. He pitied later seekers: some relied only on old texts, others patched together various manuals and formulas, speaking shallowly and opening only branch tips while hiding the root; some falsely used common minerals and metals and muddied the patriarchs’ true transmission, failing to show genuine safeguards. When later people received the words, they did not trace their source, read the surface and took false for true—like locking a treasure in a casket and groping in confusion while pointing at one another—so they ruined wealth and livelihood and wasted the heart turned toward the Way. Therefore Master Wei solemnly set down what this work transmits: the wording is spare and easy to ponder; the matter is essential and not needlessly tangled. What appears is verified discourse, not deliberately confusing prose. He hoped to instruct people before they entered the gate, stating plainly cinnabar and mercury (dan sha and shui yin). The wise who ponder it again and again will surely grasp its true meaning.

“He shang chan nü” through “huang ya wei gen”: The “river maiden” is true mercury. It flies when it meets fire, like a dragon diving into water with no known whereabouts. To tame it, one must use yellow sprout as mother to nurture it so it can remain. Yellow sprout is true lead.

“Wu wu yin yang” through “ding zhi shi xian”: The Book of Changes says: the alternation of one yin and one yang is called the Dao. Between Heaven and Earth, apart from yin and yang there are no myriad things. Solitary yin or solitary yang cannot generate by themselves. Applied to the divine medicine: if the “three-five” (the numerology of three and five, denoting proper Five Phases pairing) are not yet linked, and metal and wood do not meet, how can the elixir form? Fire burns upward and water flows downward by natural disposition. Combined and cultivated, they spontaneously produce spirit. Because each inherits the primordial qi (yuan shi zhi qi—the original breath of the cosmos), affection and nature are already fixed. As a man is born lying face down and dies face down, a woman is born face up and dies face up. Hence male and female must unite to continue true essence.

“Tai yang liu zhu” through “nan yi shu chuan”: The “sun’s flowing pearl” is pearl-dew formed where earth qi meets heaven qi—pure yang essence that generates the myriad things. It has qi but no fixed form, hence it is called the Red Dragon. Yang fire refines qi into cinnabar; thus fire generates earth and earth generates metal. Metal is the essence of great yin; it nourishes the myriad things. It has both qi and substance, hence it is called the Golden Flower. The Red Dragon is born in jia and yi (stems paired with wood and the east); it is also called the Azure Dragon, yang, father, husband, and fire. The Golden Flower rests in geng and xin (stems paired with metal and the west); it is also called the White Tiger, yin, mother, wife, and water. Such is the meaning of Azure Dragon and White Tiger. Some invert yin and yang and interchange the Five Phases, swapping male and female and taking turns as husband and wife—that is another exposition. The song of the True Person of Taibai says: in the art of inverting the Five Phases, the dragon emerges from fire; when the Five Phases no longer follow the usual order, the tiger is born toward water. This is the aim of the returning elixir (huandan—the elixir that restores the source) and the origin of dragon and tiger. Dragon from fire, tiger from water—these words must not be altered. Metal as wife sings first; water as husband applies transformation; the divine mother conceives and bears the “chan nü.” As the chan nü grows, transformations multiply—sometimes becoming water, sometimes forming “horse-tooth” langgan (a jade-like elixir resembling horse teeth). The golden mother was originally born from water; every transformation never leaves the water body. “Yang departs to join in affinity; nature and feeling are spontaneous” speaks of metal and mercury generating each other; “Urged by the season’s yin, confined at the forbidden gate” speaks of yin qi being gathered at the proper time and shut within the forbidden gate (the cauldron or the sealed pass in practice) to assist and guard the inner chamber. “The loving mother nurtures; the filial son repays”—the loving mother is the inner embryo; the filial son is true quicksilver. The song of the True Lord of Yin says: yang is true cinnabar, yin is true mercury. Quicksilver is born of the golden mother, hence it is called repaying kindness. Mutual swallowing and eating is the dragon and tiger exchanging breath. The stern father issues orders and instructs the children: the qian hexagram (first of the Eight Trigrams, image of Heaven and the father) holds the father’s place and commands the other trigrams in turn to assist the Li maiden (Li as fire, the middle daughter) and the Kan lad (Kan as water, the middle son), and together with the Five Phases to beget the cinnabar-mercury offspring. The returning elixir takes the two words “lead” and “fire” as patriarch and ancestor; throughout, it relies on their operation. Other timings, seasons, and talismanic signs are only auxiliaries, jointly forming the root of the divine elixir. Beyond this scope lies outside the way of the golden liquid returning elixir. Fire can melt metal; fire is born from wood; metal in turn restrains wood—so metal and wood mutually constrain and paradoxically flourish. An old song says: cinnabar, essence of wood, must meet metal to combine. It also says: when the three natures unite, the two ingredients mutually bind; when consolidation holds the embryo without leakage, transformation occurs in an instant. The three natures are fire, metal, and water; the two ingredients are lead and mercury—that is, dragon and tiger. Thus “three-five and one” is the subtlest principle under Heaven. It can be made into exquisite oral formulas yet is hard to put in writing—how could one speak of it casually to the unfit? The commentary adds: so-called swapping male and female means divine water first overcomes fire; after entering the spirit chamber (the sealed furnace of the fire phases), fire in turn overcomes metal. Mercury is water within metal; metal is sand within water; sand begets mercury, metal begets water.

“Zi dang you zhuan” through “he gan you sheng”: At zi turn rightward to you; at wu turn eastward to mao. This is the fire timing of yin and yang advancing and retreating with the hexagrams through the twelve branches (zi through hai). The mao and you boundaries are where metal qi and water qi balance. Host and guest are the titles of metal and wood. Once the Azure Dragon exhales, the White Tiger can draw essence; essence and qi embrace and jointly produce the pure substance. Yinghuo (Mars—here the number of extreme yang fire) guards the west: fire qi presses upon the metal embryo. Metal meeting vigorous fire shines throughout the vessel; metal qi carries fire across heaven—hence it is said killing qi arrives and none fail to submit. Then the chan nü and true lead dare not escape—like a cat catching a mouse, like small birds fearing the hawk. Taibai is the essence of metal; what moves across heaven is jia and yi. Metal, fire, and wood take turns in restraint without harm; each succeeds in its task, and there is no voice of disobedience.

“Bu de qi li” through “yu dao guai shu”: Master Wei said: if one cultivates the golden liquid returning elixir without the correct principle, one must not act rashly; otherwise one wastes property and drags down wife and children. From antiquity to the present, seekers number in the hundreds of millions; without meeting a clear master or a true formula, they end with no achievement.

“Dan sha mu jing” through “du gui wu ji”: Cinnabar originally returns to the metal womb to complete congealing. Metal is also quicksilver; metal, stimulated by fire, produces cinnabar, so cinnabar can merge with metal. Metal and wood transform on their own; water and fire manage each other; the four mingle within and dragon and tiger run therein. Yin-yang odd and even and the ascent and descent of day and night are distinguished thereby. The liver is green and is father: jia and yi are the branch lineage of fire; united with the golden mother, hence called father. The lungs are white and are mother: the golden mother guards the inner embryo and always uses fire as talisman, hence called mother. The kidneys are black and are son: the golden mother was originally born from water and rests in the cauldron; water in turn can generate metal, hence water’s son. The son pairs with water, number one, the beginning of the Five Phases. Metal, fire, and wood share the same efficacy; the head and tail of creation all turn toward wu and ji (stems paired with earth and the center). Hence the spleen is yellow—the ancestor of the medicine.

“Gang rou die xing” through “bo jing yu zi”: Water and fire rise in alternation, circulate completely, and distribute through the twelve branches. Dragon and tiger take mao and you as boundary. Yin governs punishment and killing; yang governs virtue and generation. When punishment and virtue meet, they mutually restrain and finally achieve harmony—hence joy. In the second month elm pods fall: from zi advancing fire to mao, yang has already acted but is not yet purely yang; yin remains—yang within yin—hence punishment; yin steals yang and paradoxically in mid-spring’s month of growth makes elm pods drop. In the eighth month wheat sprouts: from wu retreating with the yin talisman to you, yin has already acted but is not yet purely yin; yang remains—yin within yang—hence virtue; yang steals yin and paradoxically in mid-autumn’s month of killing makes wheat sprout. This allegorizes the golden mother in the cauldron at the mutual theft of yin-yang waxing and waning—sometimes rolling true essence, sometimes crushing cinnabar and mercury. Zi is south: yin containing yang—the image of the Kan lad; wu is north: yang containing yin—the image of the Li maiden. One is the yin number; nine is the yang number. Yin and yang from start to finish all serve as medicine. Primordial qi is born in xu and wei (two northern lunar lodges); yang qi returns and sows essence at zi, thereby begetting true spirit.

“Qin er xing zhi” through “ying lu shou tu”: Once obtained, cultivate day and night without slackening. After the medicine is complete, ingest it for three years and one can lighten the body and travel far; water and fire cannot harm; sitting, one remains visible; standing, one hides. Secretly accumulate yin virtue and lie in wait for the moment. Taiyi (the spirit overseeing elixir refinement) summons; one is transferred to the Central Province (the divine land at the center); at the appointed time one ascends and receives talisman registers (fulu). When people first attain the Way, their names are inscribed on golden slips; in this province they receive charts and registers, and only then ascend.

“Ru shen zao feng” through “kui wu zhong shi”: If one truly receives oral transmission of the formula, sees the thread of the teaching, takes images and cultivates, one can succeed from beginning to end.

“Wu xing xiang ke” through “fu qi qu zou”: The Five Phases both generate and overcome; they take turns as father and mother and as husband and wife for each other. Father and mother beget by mutual endowment; yin and yang depend on each other and stand; together they complete the immortal elixir. One who obtains it should guard it carefully in secrecy to accomplish the Way. Set up a pole and the shadow appears; call in an empty valley and the echo answers. Wild ge (a toxic plant whose entry proves effect at once) in the mouth shows immediate proof—how much more the golden liquid returning elixir?

The commentator Chen Zhixu said: The ancient sages and great worthies necessarily understood the highest Dao, so the books left by Fuxi, Shennong, and the Yellow Emperor all speak of the great Dao. When the Yellow Emperor refined the great elixir of the nine cauldrons at Ding Lake and ascended on a dragon, he was not burning and refining with metal, stone, and plant drugs; he was subduing and refining the pre-heaven Qi to form the elixir. Hence it is called fu lian (subduive refinement), not fu lian in the sense of ingesting a pill. Although the scripture writes “ingestive refinement,” the meaning should be subduive refinement.

So-called subduive refinement has its own tasks. Huai xuan (embracing the dark) means inwardly harboring the Qi of the Mysterious One; bao zhen (holding the true) means sustaining the true body of the Great Ultimate; hua ji (transforming traces) means reining in radiance and hiding one’s tracks so others cannot recognize you—hence “when those who know me are few, I am precious”; yin lun (sinking and hiding) means plunging into concealment so others cannot penetrate you—hence the ancients said that those who are good at being shi (knights of the Dao) are deep and subtle, hard to fathom; han jing (containing essence) means storing the essence of true cinnabar-mercury to refine the self; yang shen (nourishing spirit) means outwardly nourishing the spirit of the whole body so it can pair with Qi. When effort accumulates to this stage, what matters most is penetrating the virtue of the Three Lights. De (Virtue/Power) is the higher concern in practice. To cultivate the Dao without cultivating De is to have Yin without Yang. When Dao and De are cultivated together, Yin and Yang naturally match. Ordinary people claim they have De but in fact have none, because wishful thinking is mixed in and De cannot connect. Those who truly practice find De growing deeper while they themselves do not fix on De—yet heaven and earth, spirits and gods, sun, moon, and stars are all moved in response. Figures like Zhang, Ge, and Xu accumulated and practiced on their own, with no coveting in the heart—only this is penetrating the Three Lights. Here the Three Lights mean sun, moon, and stars. The seven matters above must be done first; this is called lu huo (furnace fire), also called refining the self (lian ji). When self-refinement is complete, true Qi steams through the whole body like fire in a furnace and warm vapor rising—hence furnace fire, and hence refining the self.

The four—fluid and humor, the interstices of the flesh, firm bones and sinews, all heterodox influences expelled and upright Qi long preserved—are called subduing Qi, which is also elixir refinement. Jin (fluid) is jade fluid, namely white snow; ye (humor) is golden fluid, namely yellow sprout. When jade fluid and golden fluid penetrate the interstices through the spirit chamber, bones and sinews throughout the body become firm. Heterodox influences are the Yin evils in the hundred bones, all to be cleared; upright Qi is the Yang of pre-heaven, which can be long preserved without decay. Accumulated over time, one can transform the bodily form and become an immortal. The Yellow Emperor’s subduive refinement of the great elixir of the nine cauldrons refers to this.

The Qinghui Lu (Record of Auspicious Assembly) says: In antiquity the clan of Xuanyuan (the Yellow Emperor) were common people in one generation, ministers in the next, and rulers in the third, saving the world and accumulating merit; when their allotted span was finished they ascended. Pitying later lovers of the Dao, he pointed to the wind of intent and drew it into charts and books to open the way for posterity. Sometimes he showed branches and hid the root; sometimes he used borrowed titles and tangled words as cover. “Showing branches” means barely revealing the main drift—for example, “Qian and Kun are the gate of the Yi (Change).” As for the root, it must be transmitted by mouth, so it is hidden. “Borrowed names and cover” means what cannot be said plainly is put in similes and metaphors, scattered through various books. Later people of insight, even if they obtain the writing but not the transmitter, can only keep treasure in a casket and never use it in a lifetime. If it is a ritual implement (faqi), it must be passed from master to disciple generation by generation. Some learners copy this text but get no master, and transmit confusion as doctrine, enter deviant paths, and end with no real hearing; they run to side gates, Yin and Yang undivided, the Five Phases in disorder. Later Dao cultivators rely only on this written text without oral formulas—like scholars, farmers, artisans, and merchants who lose their proper trade: one who seeks office has no path to the register of service; a farmer wants to plow but has no field; an artisan has skill but nowhere to apply it; a merchant reckons profit but loses capital. The student has the text but not the master’s instruction, so has no place to begin, guesses wildly, and how can the Dao be achieved?

The Immortal Lord (Xian Weng) pitied posterity, opened the furnace and fixed the standard text, recorded this writing as the form for billions of ages. Few words, easy meaning; simple matters, not tangled principle—items listed so reality can be checked, easy to read. Numbers and weights and measures all have rule; with one pointer from the master, practice accordingly and the elixir can be achieved. Luan ci (disordered phrasing) is writing that borrows names and uses similes to cover true meaning; kong qiao (apertures and orifices) means the deepest mystery is all contained within—truly the boat-ladder to cross the great sea, the candle to light the dark road. Later sages and worthies should ponder closely and use with care. The great Dao cannot be clarified except by sages, nor spoken except by worthies. A father does not lightly pass it to a son; a subject does not present it to the ruler. Can the sage’s Dao not be transmitted? They fear the virtueless cannot bear it; if spoken lightly, collapse will follow in time. Hence the wise must reflect and read with intent.

From “the riverbank maiden” (he shang chan nü) to “fixed and placed from the first”: He shang (on the riverbank) is a metaphor for the sea of desire; chan nü (the charming maiden) is the Yin cinnabar-mercury essence in oneself. Why call it most numinous, most spirit-like? Because it can give life, kill, and also combine into elixir. When utterly still, a point of numinous clarity is stored within; once stirred and connected, it rushes like a spirit. When the realm moves and feeling arises, fortune is ruined through color. The moment a thought rises, mercury follows fire and flies off like dust that cannot be gathered again; essence hides, the dragon vanishes, clouds scatter in the sky—emptiness is form. To subdue it, one must take yellow sprout as root. The charming maiden in forward motion easily runs away; without that bit of yellow-sprout Yang it cannot be controlled. Yellow sprout is pre-heaven Qi, also called the lead of the True One. With this lead-Qi as foundation for firing, mercury naturally no longer flees, because Yin and Yang are already matched. If a thing lacks Yin and Yang, it violates creation and departs from the root of life. Elixir refinement cannot establish a foundation apart from Yin and Yang. Only when the Qi of the True One returns and the elixir is mature can one step outside Yin and Yang.

Worldly fools, not reading elixir scriptures, think practice must mean dwelling deep in mountains, living alone first, abandoning wife, fasting, aligning with wuwei (non-action), and certainly sitting in meditation—taking these as the Dao. If they do not use Yin and Yang, do not investigate the Five Phases, do not distinguish metal and wood, do not know dragon and tiger, do not recognize lead and mercury, do not understand Kan and Li, and only keep the mouth shut in silence—how can they achieve the Dao? So this book strongly rescues that bias and repeatedly explains that Yin and Yang matching is what is called the Dao. Like a hen without a rooster: brooding eggs alone cannot hatch chicks, because solitary Yin has no Yang. To hatch chicks, at noon one exposes a vessel of water to the sun to warm them and borrows Yang; then all chicks can hatch; without such warming they will not live. Why? It is like creation: if mating is not joined, three-five does not meet, firm and yielding separate—how can the Dao of generating life arise? Hence in a land of women with no men, to conceive one must choose a day and for three shi (double-hours) of one day look down into a well—also borrowing the Qi of true water, viewing the image in the well as union, then pregnancy is possible. This is the subtlety of Yin-Yang bestowing and transforming, heaven and earth naturally responding. Fire burns upward, water moistens downward—not because a master taught it; the one Qi that begins and governs was fixed long ago. The Yi says: “Great indeed is Qian’s origin; the myriad things receive their beginning from it; thus it governs heaven.” Qian’s way changes; each rectifies nature and life (xingming). Once nature and life are rectified, how can they be altered again? Hence: watch when male and female mate—firm and yielding bind and cannot be undone; each gets its season and tally—not by human craft to control. The newborn is always male prone, female supine. These are arguments at the limit of principle; creation cannot shift them. Not only the living born so: the drowned are also male prone, female supine. This is not parents commanding it; it was fixed and placed from the first at the moment of union. To vulgar scholars the talk seems trivial; the intent of the book is to make people penetrate Yin-Yang principle, so the words are frequent but not cluttered.

From “flowing pearl of the sun” to “far from the Dao”: This section clearly shows flowing pearl and golden flower as two things of Yin and Yang, and gives the secret of firing in detail; as for oral formulas, they are hard to pass in writing. Master Shangyang therefore restates the meaning in a verse: The flowing pearl of the sun is the sun-crow in Li (Fire); the charming maiden of the Li palace is not beauty of form. The sun’s hidden clarity is in fact Qian the father. In cinnabar is mercury; mercury is cinnabar’s ancestor. Because the six thieves pull and press, people gouge out the flowing pearl and it either spits saliva or escapes. Metal originally dwells in Dui (Lake); lodged in Kan (Water) it produces flower. Kan’s true water can overcome Li’s cinnabar; mercury is subdued by metal-water and turns into white fluid. Fired on schedule, metal returns to the fore, first spitting flower and singing. True earth is called ji. When ji earth’s spirit is strong, the earth spirit wells up; a jade bureau rises to a high seat and shows the mysterious root. Golden flower turns to water; in an instant the color is like horse’s teeth, stalactite, or langgan jade. Qian Yang is guest, going to seek friendship; Yang nature and Yin feeling twine in joy. Yin is pressed by Yang, Yang urged by Yin—they urge and press each other; then Yin guards and nourishes in the two kidneys—called the forbidden gate. One Yin one Yang, one Qian one Kun. The loving mother is metal; metal begets Kan water; water is the metal lord; water is also called the filial son. The strict father is wood; wood begets cinnabar-mercury; the child begets the grandson, the grandson links on. If one fears lack of pure single-mindedness, strict commands are issued. The Five Phases take turns in ascendancy, inverted yet mutually overcoming in response. Lead, mercury, cinnabar, and silver all gather on earth. Fire flourishing begets earth; earth is metal’s mother; fire strong then metal is melted. Wood fears metal’s punishment; metal is attacked by fire; wood then flourishes. Southeast combines as five: wood three, fire two; northwest combines as five: water one, metal four; center Wu and Ji. This is called three-five. Numbers from one to ten thousand, million, jing, gai, zi—matching heaven and earth’s numbers, striving to connect to utmost refinement. This joining that—formulas must be clear. The child should turn right, as if slow yet swift. Yang metal is born at zi (midnight), then rotates east; Yin mercury is born at wu (noon), wrapping and guarding Yang essence. Mao and you, east and west—host and guest’s two names. Metal and wood separated, ten thousand li apart. Bearing benevolence, bearing De—metal follows and wood rejoices. Dragon calls, tiger inhales—metal loves wood’s benevolence. One host one guest, eating and drinking close; one crow one rabbit, mutually clinging; one male one female, then linking and swallowing; one turtle one snake, chewing and swallowing. The southern spirit is the vermilion bird and Mars, guarding the west, refining metal’s De. Dui is the killing direction—do not err. Containing the intent to store and generate. Qi is called Taibai (Venus), moving the yellow path; trust returns to Qian’s house. When killing Qi arrives, generating Qi disperses on its own. Like a cat catching a mouse, like a sparrow fearing the sparrowhawk—each gets its use; who dares make a sound? Without the formula, how can one guess? Emptying family wealth to walk side gates, crooked paths. Caizhan (battle through sex) ruins true practice; deceiving others—the offense is heavy; who still cares others are poor? From antiquity to now, lovers of this path number in the hundreds of millions; meeting no true master, very few succeed. Not understanding Yin and Yang—how can one be of one kind with the correct path? Widely seeking famous drugs only further exhausts true Qi. Metal, stone, and plants are not of one kind; insentient things are farthest from the Dao’s pole, separated by myriad stages. For later students a law is set, broadly laid out, fully explaining the deep classic so one may become a true immortal.

From “cinnabar essence of wood” to “all return to Wu and Ji”: On the person, what is most numinous and precious is essence and Qi. The Xinyinjing treats them as supreme medicine; Zhang Ziyang treats them as the treasure of life. The Immortal Lord’s book has sameness and difference. The same: when metal returns to the root of nature, it is called returning elixir (huandan)—most concise, most unified. The different: names are extremely many—Qian and Kun, Kan and Li, female and male, bellows and pivot, open and close, being and non-being, Yin and Yang, sun and moon, the mysterious female, Wu and Ji, firm and yielding, male and female, dipper pivot, kuigang, crow and rabbit, po and hun, metal Qi, spirit and clarity, yellow sprout, river chariot, lead and silver, cinnabar and mercury, float and sink, white and black, primordial chaos, indistinct trance, compass center, pivot and control, emptiness, deep obscurity, true person, great abyss, wall and gate, Penglai, vermilion bird, turtle and snake, white tiger, azure dragon, refining pivot, flowing pearl, golden sand, liquid mercury, eight stones, yellow earth, two orifices, spirit and virtue dwelling, crescent-moon furnace, suspended-womb cauldron, crimson gate, bright-window dust, upper and lower bowstrings, civil and martial fire, cinnabar essence of wood, riverbank charming maiden, yong'e ramparts, horse’s teeth and langgan, forbidden gate, knife-spoon, golden flower, autumn stone, feeling and nature, host and guest, white snow, yellow carriage, mysterious ditch, river drum, zeng mountain, shadow outline, stalactite, dark fluid, three-five, two-seven, zhu and liang, tally and seal, and so on. These names and colors are without exception treasures on the body. Some metaphor gates, some the spirit chamber, some vessels, some substance and function, some mix images, some compare advance and retreat. The Yi takes Qian’s straightness and Kun’s breadth as the gate of life and death; elixir method takes magpie bridge and yellow path as the road of coming and going—none depart from essence and Qi on one’s own body. This is borrowing names and changing words. Hence here “cinnabar essence of wood, obtaining metal then combines” is the same meaning as earlier “the flowing pearl of the sun always wants to leave the person; suddenly obtaining golden flower, it turns to rely”: flowing pearl, charming maiden, cinnabar—all originally Yin without Yang, belonging to post-heaven, cannot form elixir; metal, yellow sprout, golden flower are pre-heaven lead and can be refined into returning elixir.

Cinnabar essence of wood is mercury in Li (Fire). Fire’s father is wood of the east (Jia and Yi), which generates this essence—the central daughter. East wood and south fire are one father one daughter; father and daughter are Yang within Yin; Zhen wood and Li fire are thus partners. Yellow-sprout golden fluid is lead in Kan (Water). Water’s mother is metal of the west (Geng and Xin), which gestates this fluid into the central son. West metal and north water are one mother one son; mother and son are Yin within Yang; Dui metal and Kan water thus unite. Wood, fire, metal, and water are arranged as dragon and tiger: one east one west. Dragon dwells east, number three—so dragon is Yang, number odd; tiger belongs west, number four—so tiger is Yin, number even. Wood-fire as partners is dragon emerging from fire; metal-water joining is tiger born toward water. Liver green is wood, fire’s father; lung white is metal, water’s mother; kidney black is water, metal’s son; Li red is fire, wood’s daughter; spleen yellow is earth, ancestor of these four. The child stands at the head of the Five Phases, so is the first of one Yang. Metal and water, water and fire, dragon and tiger are called the three things. If these three meet and become one household, they must borrow the power of the two earths Wu and Ji to complete the work.

From “firm and yielding in alternation” to here: Azure dragon belongs east, white tiger west—their proper positions. Distributed by calendrical degrees, the dragon sets its latitude at you, the tiger at mao—punishment and virtue meet together, dragon and tiger rejoice, inverted meeting. Dragon and tiger meet and unite; the two things rejoice; taking generation as lord is De (virtue). If dragon still east and tiger still west, each stopping in the position of flourishing, the two contend and stir—taking killing as lord is xing (punishment). Xing means Yin-Yang at odds, also the language of the Five Phases in forward order; De is the Five Phases inverted. Xing is Yin extinguishing Yang; De is Yang joining Yin; Xing is much Yin little Yang; De is little Yin much Yang. For example four Yang two Yin is the hexagram of the second month—Yang grows, Yin retreats; Yang is many yet surplus. Xing is Five Phases forward; De is the opposite face.