《悟真篇注疏》

The Commentary and Subcommentary on the Wuzhen Pian consists of three volumes, with one additional volume titled Detailed Explanation of the Direct Pointing. The Wuzhen Pian was written by Zhang Boduan in the Song dynasty; Weng Baoguang wrote the commentary, and Dai Qizong later expanded it with a subcommentary. Zhang Boduan was also known as Yongcheng and had the courtesy name Pingshu. He was from Tiantai. During the Xining era, he traveled through Shu, where he met an extraordinary person and received the secret of timing the firing process in Golden Elixir cultivation. During the Yuanfeng era, he attained the Way in Jinghu. He left verses declaring that he would not be reborn, then passed away. After his disciples cremated him, they found many relics resembling Buddhist sarira. Seven years later, someone saw him again on Mount Wangwu, giving rise to the popular tale that he had become an immortal and departed.

This book is devoted to explaining the essential principles of Golden Elixir cultivation. Alongside the Zhouyi Cantong Qi, it is revered by Daoists as an orthodox classic. The line “To know where the medicine originates, look to the southwest, its native home” corresponds to the Cantong Qi’s explanation of the moon’s phases and the emergence of Yang Qi, expressed in phrases such as “on the third day, light begins to appear.” “The medicine weighs one jin; it must be two times eight” corresponds to the teaching that each of the waxing and waning quarters takes the number eight. “Three and five together make one, all three” corresponds to the Cantong Qi’s discussion of “three, five, and one.” It conveys that the essences of Heaven and Earth cannot be fully transmitted in writing and must be grasped through oral instructions. “Wood is born from Fire, yet its edge lies hidden; it must be subdued to find the Metal Lord” corresponds to the Cantong Qi’s account of the Riverbank Maiden flying apart when she encounters fire, and the need to use Yellow Sprout as the foundation for subduing the medicine. These classics illuminate one another, revealing meanings of great depth.

During the Qiandao era, Weng Baoguang, known as the Old Man of Xiangchuan, divided the Wuzhen Pian into three sections and wrote a commentary to explain its principles. He also appended the Detailed Explanation of the Direct Pointing of the Wuzhen Pian. Over time, the book was sometimes mistakenly attributed to Xue Daoguang, while Weng Baoguang’s name fell into obscurity. During the Zhishun era of the Yuan dynasty, Dai Qizong of Qingji found an original copy and revised it, confirming Weng Baoguang as the commentator. Dai then wrote a subcommentary, so that the commentary and subcommentary would complement each other.

Both men had studied alchemical methods extensively, and their explanations are grounded in evidence. They hold that practitioners draw on the two forces of true Yin and true Yang to gather the single Qi of Heaven and Earth as the elixir, bring it into the Dantian energy sea, and use it to regulate the whole body. Thereafter, the Qi of Heaven and Earth gathers in response, like the many stars surrounding the North Star. This account sums up the mysteries of alchemical cultivation. Although the Wuzhen Pian has many commentaries, few are as clear and concise as this one. It has therefore been included and preserved as one Daoist interpretation.

Respectfully collated in the seventh month of the forty-fifth year of the Qianlong reign. The chief editors were Ji Yun, Lu Xixiong, and Sun Shiyi; the chief proofreader was Lu Feichi.

The Wuzhen Pian (Understanding Reality, a Neidan classic by Zhang Boduan) divides cultivation into two aspects: the “School of Nature,” which cultivates the heart-mind and clarifies one’s nature, and the “School of Life,” which refines and nurtures life. It guides people to begin with whichever approach suits them. It also divides cultivation methods into “inner medicine” and “outer medicine,” explaining that practitioners must ultimately attend to both and cultivate them together. For this reason, the book is an important work among the alchemical classics handed down through the ages, and deserves to be transmitted alongside the Zhouyi Cantong Qi.

Before Ye Wenshu wrote his commentary, the teachings of the Wuzhen Pian were conveyed chiefly by word of mouth from master to disciple, and no one had written an explanation. After Ye Wenshu’s commentary appeared, the teachings were set down in writing, but later readers still did not understand them, and no one discerned the errors in the commentary. Of the dozens of commentaries I have seen, some explain cultivation as a practice that favors only one side, while others recklessly add methods from heterodox paths. As a result, the Great Dao of the Golden Elixir remained unknown to the world for a long time. People could not find a way to begin, nor could they investigate the profound teachings; the transmission from master to disciple nearly died out. Once that transmission was broken, where could anyone hear the correct Dao? Thus few truly hear it, and fewer still are able to cultivate in accordance with it.

A commentary on the Wuzhen Pian attributed to the Perfected Purple Worthy has circulated in the world. It is said to have come directly from the Perfected One, so people treasure its words, unaware that someone copied passages from Weng Baoguang’s commentary and falsely attributed them to Dao Guang. I have examined the matter in detail at the end of this work. The Nameless Master was an heir to the Perfected One’s lineage. In the past, in the Gui-si year of the Qiandao era, he saw that Ye Wenshu’s commentary contained many errors and feared that later readers would therefore misunderstand the Great Dao. He explained it line by line and clarified it in detail, praised the wondrous workings of a single Golden Elixir, and distinguished the Three Vehicles, the different levels of cultivation, to reveal the essential teachings transmitted by the masters.

When I was in Ruiyang, I saw several explanations in the circulating commentary attributed to the Perfected Purple Worthy and found that they differed from those in other commentaries. I compared them with what my father and master had transmitted, and found that they did not agree either. I was deeply puzzled. Only after reading them repeatedly did I gradually grasp their subtle meaning. Later, when I obtained the complete text, I studied it over and over, day and night, sometimes forgetting to eat or sleep. My late elder brother, County Assistant Magistrate Zhongfu, and I examined it word by word, questioning and answering one another and checking the evidence. After several years of study, we understood that its teachings accorded with the Great Elixir Dao described in the Zhouyi Cantong Qi.

In my youth, I studied the Zhouyi Cantong Qi under a master, but the time was not yet right for me to pursue it further. Later, though I came to understand some of its essential secrets, I discovered that the Wuzhen Pian made a further distinction between inner and outer methods, whose subtle workings at each moment I had not yet fully understood. Moreover, the immortals concealed the teachings, and the book did not explain them in detail. I wanted to ask my master, but there was no master to guide me; I wanted to consult the written record, but there were no texts to rely on. So I remained preoccupied with the matter, unable to put it out of my mind.

In the summer of the Xinwei year of the Zhishun era, Heaven’s will brought me to my master, and I received the oral instructions. When I returned home and told my elder brother, he was so happy that he did not sleep all night. Later, I came across the Nameless Master’s commentary and found that it matched exactly what my master had taught me. Only then did I understand that the Dao of the Celestial Immortals could be cultivated and that the Original Spirit could endure forever. The teachings transmitted by immortals such as Zhongli Quan and Lü Dongbin all expressed the same principle. With the right method, one might enter the realm of the sages in a brief moment. The reason Heaven concealed these teachings, I suppose, was that it had sworn they should not be transmitted lightly.

Alas! From the Guihai year of the Yan You era onward, I served as a professor of Confucian learning in the Shaoxing Circuit. I was then fifty-two years old. After enduring hardships, I nearly abandoned my resolve to cultivate nature and life. I set aside fame and profit and devoted myself to clarifying nature and nurturing life. Sincerely devoted to the Dao and diligent in my inquiry, I was fortunate not to betray my aspiration: I encountered a master who transmitted the teachings to me. Had I served as an official only while times were favorable, I would merely have accumulated wealth and risen a few ranks, staying busy all my life. What good would that have done me? Now that I understand the teachings, to fail to cultivate would be foolish. Once the human body is lost, it is difficult to encounter it again even after a thousand kalpas; how much more precious, then, is the chance to hear the Dao.

After hearing the Dao, I vowed to help all people reach liberation, but I also feared revealing Heaven’s secrets. After much thought, I decided to follow the path and guide people along it, disregarding Heaven’s punishment and breaking my master’s oath. I put the teachings into writing and spoke them aloud. The people of the world have been lost for so long—how could they believe them easily? So I collected the heterodox teachings and false methods criticized by the patriarchs of past ages, to show people that these paths could never lead to becoming Celestial Immortals, and to prompt them to reconsider how they should enter the Dao. This became the Xuexian Pohuo (Learning Immortality and Dispelling Doubts). Once confusion has been dispelled, how should people be guided into the depths of the Dao? I therefore selected teachings with related principles from ten scriptures and Daoist classics, explained the immortals’ original intent in accordance with the secret teachings transmitted by my master, and wrote commentaries that set out the orthodox Immortal Dao. This became the Xuexian Zhengzong (Learning Immortality: The Orthodox Lineage), which I published separately.

Unexpectedly, my elder brother died suddenly before he could cultivate alongside me. His death made me more alert to my own mortality. As I grew older, I devoted myself to hastening my cultivation of the Dao. Some parts of the Nameless Master’s commentary were not yet fully clear, and it did not explain all the images and metaphors used to describe the Neidan process. I therefore wrote explanatory notes chapter by chapter, filled in what had been left incomplete, and clarified the images and metaphors of the Golden Elixir, so as to reveal how the various methods work together.

The Wuzhen Pian describes distinct inner and outer methods of cultivation, so it often uses different words for similar meanings. At times it says “set up the furnace and establish the cauldron”; at others, “tend the medicine furnace without firewood or charcoal.” Sometimes it says “accomplished in one moment,” and sometimes “accomplished in one day, matured in ten months.” At times a single image is used to refer to different essential secrets; at others, many names point to the same thing. There are many such expressions, and readers can easily become confused. Using one passage to prove another may lead to misunderstanding; interpreting one passage in isolation may make it seem inconsistent with another. In this way, people can be led to force the text into agreement with heterodox methods. Their understanding then goes astray, deepening their confusion; they may even cultivate by mistaken methods and pass those errors on to others. This is lamentable.

I have now grouped the poems and verses by subject and marked their titles alongside them. Reading the main text gives a general sense of its meaning; the detailed commentary and explanatory notes make the teachings all the clearer. Those who obtain this book have an affinity with the Immortal Dao; those who hear these teachings have the potential to cultivate immortality. After hearing them, they should cultivate diligently and not give way to doubt. Practitioners should also settle their minds, hold fast to the root, and devote themselves to the true methods of the Three Vehicles. In this way, they will not have spent their lives in vain and may become heirs to the lineage transmitted by the immortals. They must strive forward with vigor and never grow lax.

As for the highest vehicle of cultivation, it must be realized through one’s own insight; words and writing cannot transmit it. If one takes teachings passed from mouth to ear as the whole of cultivation, one falls into the empty talk of external paths. If one mistakes such empty talk for the mystery of the Immortal Dao, both the School of Nature and the School of Life may go astray. Giving precedence to either inner medicine or outer medicine alone can also lead one into error. I hope that those who study the Dao of immortality will cultivate both aspects and bring their respective approaches together. Though the results of cultivation may differ in degree, this may still allow one to repay, in some small measure, the kindness of one’s master, the Perfected Ones, and one’s father and elder brother.

In the first year of the Zhiyuan era, I, Dai Qizong, the Master of Empty Mystery from Qingji, courtesy name Tongfu, respectfully wrote this preface.

On the day he ascended to immortality, Perfected Lord Xu of the Western Mountain, an immortal revered in Daoism, said, “One thousand two hundred and forty years after my ascension, eight hundred people within the Five Mausoleums will become immortals. A great island will rise in the river at Yuzhang and stretch across its mouth. That will be the moment the prophecy is fulfilled.” From then until the Jiazi year of the Chunxi era, exactly one thousand two hundred and twenty-six years had passed. Now a great island stretches across the river, seemingly matching the prophecy exactly. Alas, Heaven’s mandate placed Perfected Lord Xu Jingyang in charge of immortal affairs in the Jin dynasty, and now it has left this sign. I believe that those within the Five Mausoleums who cultivate this path to immortality are either disciples of Wuzhen or his successors. Perhaps Heaven intends the way of the immortals to spread throughout the world and the affinity with immortals at Yuzhang to become manifest. That is why our magnificent Great Song gave birth to Wuzhen, who oversees the registers of immortals and secretly supports the imperial house. Otherwise, how could he have been bestowed the honorific “Zixuan” in the highest heavens?

The Immortal Elder Wuzhen attained the Dao on Mount Qingcheng and cultivated by taking elixirs in the Jinghu region. One generation passed the teaching to the next, and Guangyizi appeared; another generation passed, and Wumingzi appeared. This is truly a place where immortals gather and spiritual brilliance takes form. Within the Five Mausoleums, the signs of Hongdu’s affinity with immortals had already appeared.

Sadly, many people have distorted and embellished the book Wuzhen. Wumingzi took up his brush to annotate it, making every word seem like refined gold and every sentence like uncarved jade. He made a great contribution to this path of immortality. One day he showed me the book, so I wrote this preface to outline its general meaning.

Preface by Chen Daling, the Ziyang Elder of Wuling.

Master Kongxuan said, “Taking elixirs in the Jinghu region.” According to Bai Yuchan’s Xishan Fayu, Zhang Pingshu succeeded only after receiving help from Ma Duyun, while Daoguang completed his cultivation of the Elixir Way only with help from Zhang Huanwei. The reference here to taking elixirs in Jinghu means following Ma Chuhou and cultivating under his guidance.

After the perfected person attained the Dao, he met Ma Chuhou again. At the time, Ma held office in Hedong. Before the perfected person departed, he inscribed and presented him with the Wuzhen Pian, thereby ensuring its circulation. Lu Yanfu’s account gives the details. After a period of transmission, Guangyizi emerged. Liu Yongnian styled himself Shunli Guangyizi, and in the ren-shen year of the Shaoxing era he published the Cantongqi Fenzhang Tongzhenyi.

In his preface, Liu Yongnian wrote: “The Cantongqi explains the essentials of the Golden Elixir through metaphor, and its content is already complete. Those unable to probe deeply into this classic follow only its surface wording and speculate, mistakenly taking the elixir to be something extracted and refined from metals and stones. They stubbornly maintain that ordinary furnace fires can produce it. Such claims depart from the orthodox teachings and are all the more mistaken. In the wu-wu year of the Shaoxing era, I met a person who had attained the Dao. He personally transmitted the oral instructions to me and taught me: ‘If you consult the Cantongqi alongside the instructions I have transmitted, their meaning will become clear.’ I carefully followed my teacher’s words and studied the principles in the text. Gradually, its meaning became clear to me, and my doubts fell away. I then searched widely for different editions, collecting more than a thousand. After carefully collating them, I had the text printed and circulated so that those devoted to this study could understand its true meaning. This was no small undertaking.”

Qizong later came across the edition published by Liu Yongnian. At the time, the Secret Pavilion edition had not yet appeared, so Liu’s edition still contained errors in both its wording and its interpretation. Qizong believed that the Secret Pavilion edition, collated by Bao Zhongqi, should serve as the standard for studying the Cantongqi, though Bao’s edition too contained a few errors. According to the Tongzhenyi, however, the main text should follow the version explained by Peng Zhenyi. Qizong’s work was to annotate and collate the main text.

The recorded sayings of the Immortal Master Chen of Ziyang (Zhang Boduan, whose Daoist name was Ziyang and who came from Wuyi) have been passed down in the world. They comprise sixty-four passages, each discussing the two traditions of nature and life, as well as the inner and outer medicines. He also said, “Unless you read the Ancient Scripture of the Dragon and Tiger, you cannot understand the mysteries of the two cords of Metal and Water. Unless you read the Cantong qi, you cannot understand the deeper meaning of the sun and moon combining into one measure. Unless you read the Wuzhen pian, you cannot understand the wondrous mystery of the ‘two chapters on Metal and Jade.’” This path of cultivation is the most subtle of the subtle. Practitioners must gather and refine the Qi of the Dragon and Tiger before they separate, and absorb the Jing of the Tortoise and Snake at the moment they are first conceived.

Among the three hundred yao (hexagram lines) are both gentle fire and vigorous fire; within the sixty hexagrams are both the Zhun and Meng hexagrams. By applying these firing times and hexagram images, one can form the Elixir in an instant, or attain the Dao after nine years.

He also said, “If the Dao comes from within, you must set up the furnace and cauldron; yet the furnace and cauldron are outside. If the Dao comes from outside, true lead and true mercury are within. One pound of inner medicine, one pound of outer medicine; purple gold transforms into purple powder, and purple powder then transforms into the Golden Elixir.” This explains the distinction between the precelestial inner and outer medicines. The inner and outer come from the same source, but have different names. The methods of inner and outer cultivation have been fully explained; nothing more can be added. Hence the saying: “The outer medicine must return to the inner medicine; once the inner is penetrated, the outer must also be penetrated.” From this, it is clear that Ziyang’s path of cultivation accords with the Wuzhen pian.

The master once said to me, “After the Immortal Master of Tiantai attained the Dao, he received an imperial decree from the Supreme Emperor and became the Perfected One of Purple Mystery, secretly assisting the imperial house. At times he lived in seclusion; at times he appeared in the world, but people did not know who he was.”

The Master once told me: After attaining the Dao, the Immortal Elder of Mount Tiantai, Zhang Boduan, was appointed by the Supreme Deity as the Perfected One of Purple Mystery and secretly assisted the imperial house. He would appear and disappear in the world, yet few people recognized him. In his youth, the Immortal Elder studied at the Biyong, the ancient state academy, alongside Emperor Song Chengzu. He alone failed the examinations. By nature, his roots were keen and luminous. Later, while reading Buddhist books, he suddenly experienced what was called “tying bamboo”: he awakened to the principle of non-arising and entered directly into the realm of pure, empty stillness.

In his later years, he met the Elder of Qingcheng in Chengdu and learned in full the subtle methods of the Golden Elixir. He understood the key to reversing and applying Yin-Yang, as well as the cycles of Heaven and Earth and the principles by which the myriad things come into being. Thus he could cultivate the true and restore his life, refine his form and ascend through transformation, entering the formless realm. He could also hold fast to unity, empty his mind and quiet his nature, bringing both nature and life to stillness and emptiness. In this way, he attained the wondrous perfection of form and spirit and united with the Dao in truth. His transformations were without limit, and he manifested in many worlds.

During the Yuanfeng era, he spread the Buddha’s teaching widely with Liu Fengzhen and others. After leaving verses expounding “non-arising,” he entered quiescence. Liu Fengzhen and the others cremated his remains and obtained hundreds, even thousands, of śarīra, the largest as big as fox nuts. Seven years later, Liu Fengzhen and the others saw the Immortal Elder again on Mount Wangwu, looking just as he had before. This, too, showed the wondrous perfection of his form and spirit, and the mysterious state in which nature and life are both complete.

The Immortal Elder was naturally kind, generous, and open-hearted. He investigated the principles of things, explored the depths of nature, and thereby understood the Way of life. He held that the foundations of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism are one, and that their wondrous workings do not differ. Unwilling to cultivate only for his own attainment, he wrote the Wuzhen Pian to instruct later students. He first drew people to cultivation with the teachings of immortal longevity, so he began with Golden Elixir techniques. Then he used the true emptiness of Suchness to dispel delusion, and so brought the book to a close with Chan Buddhist songs and verses.

The essential method of the Golden Elixir is to take two substances, true Yin and true Yang, in equal measures of eight ounces each, and set them as the furnace and cauldron. One guides primordial Qi into the furnace and cauldron, where it condenses into a pill the size of a millet grain, called “the One Supreme holding the true Qi.” Thus the opening section contains sixteen seven-character, four-line poems, indicating that true Yin and true Yang each weigh eight ounces. It is followed by one five-character, four-line poem, indicating the odd number “One Supreme,” that is, a single Golden Elixir. Once obtained, this pill is placed in the Dantian, and the fire is then tended according to the sequence of the sixty-four hexagrams in the Book of Changes. Accordingly, the next section contains sixty-four quatrains, corresponding to the sixty-four hexagrams.

The work of tending the fire takes ten months. Adding the periods of bathing and nourishment brings the total to twelve months, so twelve more poems, “Xijiang Yue,” were included to correspond to the cycle of the year. When the ten months of work are complete and the embryo elixir is perfected, the body transforms into pure Yang Qi. For this reason, the work as a whole contains eighty-one regulated poems, symbolizing the ninefold count of pure Yang. After the body has transformed into Qi, one must still hold to the Origin and refine the Qi for nine years, until Qi transforms into Shen and Shen unites with the Dao. In the end, form and spirit attain their wondrous perfection and ascend into the formless, uniting with the Dao in truth. Nature, life, form, and spirit all return to the ultimate source of still emptiness. Accordingly, the volume concludes with thirty-six Chan Buddhist songs and poems on the nature of the Dao.

The sequence of these sections takes its symbols from the Great Way of the Golden Elixir. The subtle details of the ingredients, the timing of the fire, and the oral instructions are all embedded in the poems, and readers can understand them by reflecting on the text. As the work later circulated more widely, the wording and order of its editions diverged, and many errors crept in. Only the family copy preserved by Lu Sicheng, grandson of Lord Lu of the Dragon Chart, was considered authentic: it was the version personally transmitted by the Immortal Elder. At the end of the volume, Lu Sicheng also recorded in detail how he obtained it. When I traveled in Dongting, I came upon this authentic copy. After correcting its wording, I understood the Immortal Elder’s intention: every section’s order corresponds to a symbol of the Golden Elixir method. The writing is concise and its subtle principles complete; its meanings are profound, yet its analogies apt. It is indeed a guide for those who study the Dao and an important reference for reading the scriptures and classics.

Today, people who study the Dao often explain the text through heterodox doctrines and strange interpretations. Some force it to fit ideas such as “the treasure in the Celestial Court,” “the jade flask and jade tablet elixir,” and “the embryonic breath of primordial unity.” They never reach the essential point of how the Golden Elixir takes deep root and becomes firmly established. Ye Wenshu, meanwhile, used Taiji and the numbers of the Great Expansion to explain and analyze the text, adding diagrams at the end of the volume under the title Outer Commentary on the Wuzhen Pian. This is like seeing a shadow on a curtain and deciding that a horse’s shadow is a Heavenly Stem. It muddles the true scripture and leaves students still more confused. The Immortal Elder once said, “One who refuses to examine his own errors, but instead teaches others a mistaken path and keeps them lost forever—how can he bear to deceive his own conscience?” He was speaking of Ye Wenshu.

Ye Wenshu did not know that the Golden Elixir is the single Qi of Taiji. The sages use the substances of true Yin and true Yang to gather this Qi within a single double-hour and condense it into one pill. Swallow it, and one can transcend the ordinary realm. That is why the Immortal Elder said, “Within a double-hour, the elixir is complete,” and also, “Swallow one numinous pill, and you will know that your life is no longer ruled by Heaven.” Can these words be false? Ye Wenshu did not understand this principle and instead rejected the teaching of “a single double-hour.” If a single double-hour is not enough, then one would have to claim that it takes three or nine years to refine the elixir. How could that still be called the simplest and easiest method? And why would the Immortal Elder say that a brief moment of work can bring lasting enjoyment of boundless wonder?

Ye Wenshu also took “one pill” to mean refining one pill each day, wrongly citing Zhenyizi’s words, “Take one pill each day,” as evidence. He likewise failed to understand Zhenyizi’s intent. If one truly refined a pill every day, then after three or nine years one would have to swallow more than a thousand pills. Would the Immortal Elder deceive people by speaking of “one pill”? These two points alone show that Ye Wenshu had not obtained the Golden Elixir art. His commentary also contains many other confused and erroneous passages.

Taiji and the numbers of the Great Expansion are in fact borrowed symbols for describing how the fire is tended. They appear similar, but are different in substance. To mistake these symbols for the supreme Way of the Golden Elixir itself is like drawing a dragon and hoping for rain, or drawing a cake to satisfy one’s hunger: the goal will never be reached. Though my learning is shallow, I have had the good fortune to follow the Immortal Elder’s legacy and receive his true instructions, which I keep in mind day and night. How could I remain silent, watching red and purple be confused with vermilion, without explaining the Immortal Elder’s true intent to correct later students and awaken those who have not understood? Therefore, without fear of Heaven’s retribution, I presume to disclose the celestial secret and explain this true text line by line.

To refine the great medicine of the Golden Elixir, one must first understand the primordial Qi of the beginning, when Heaven and Earth had not yet separated and chaos had no name, and establish this as the foundation of the elixir. Next, one must distinguish the two substances of true Yin and true Yang, which respond to one another as members of the same kind. Take eight ounces of each and set them as the furnace and cauldron. With the true Qi within the furnace and cauldron, circulate the Celestial Circuit according to the proper method and guide the primordial Qi. In less than half a double-hour, a single pill condenses in the furnace and cauldron, the size of a millet grain. This is called the Golden Elixir.

Swallow this Golden Elixir into the Five Viscera, and it can subdue the Jing and Qi of the whole body, like a cat catching a mouse or a hawk seizing a bird, leaving them no chance to escape. After that, use the true Qi of Yin and Yang in circulation—in other words, use the Yin Talisman and Yang Fire to nourish the Jing and Qi and transform them into Golden Liquor. Suddenly, something surges from the tailbone pass, through the paired passes at the spine, its passage clearly audible. It rises in reverse to the Mudball Palace, the upper Dantian in the head. Touching the upper palate, it descends bead by bead into the mouth, shaped like sparrow’s eggs and sweet and fragrant to the taste. This is called “the Golden Liquor Returning Elixir.” Slowly swallow it and send it down to the Dantian, where it forms the sacred embryo.

After ten months, when the embryo elixir is perfected and the fire has reached its full measure, one emerges from the embryo, bathes, and transforms into a pure Yang body. One is no longer troubled by hunger or thirst, cold or heat, and is unharmed by weapons, tigers, leopards, or rhinoceroses. One becomes an immortal of the land. Afterward, one must live in a quiet and secluded place, sit upright facing a wall for nine years, and bring the mind back to emptiness and stillness. This is called “holding to the One.” When the work of nine years is complete, form and spirit naturally attain their wondrous perfection; nature and life are both complete, and one unites with the Dao in truth, with transformations beyond all measure. This is called the “Ninefold Turning Great Return Elixir of Golden Liquor.”

Though the Golden Elixir has three levels, its foundation is one and continuous: progressing from small to middle, then from middle to great, this is the sequence of refining the elixir and entering the Dao. I have therefore divided it into three volumes. The upper volume discusses refining the Golden Elixir, comparing it to raising a strong army and winning victory. The middle volume discusses tending the fire and the Golden Liquor Returning Elixir, comparing them to enriching the state and bringing peace to its people. The lower volume discusses the Ninefold Turning Great Return Elixir and explains the Way of immortals holding to the One. Together, the three volumes are called the “Great Method of the Three Vehicles,” and serve to clarify the true meaning of the Yinfu Jing. This is the supreme and wondrous Way of the highest celestial immortals, the one method passed down orally and heart to heart by the patriarchs through the generations. Its essential instructions are exceedingly simple and amount to no more than a few words. The sages feared that the celestial secret would be divulged, so they used many names—Qian and Kun, furnace and cauldron, Dragon and Tiger, lead and mercury—as symbols to explain the forms and images of the Golden Elixir method.

I have now gathered these various names and pointed out, one by one, what each fittingly means, without daring to omit any detail. I was also concerned that students might not understand the subtle workings of the method, so I have explained it again and again in full. I have written the Direct Guidance to the Wuzhen Pian to set out the secret essentials of the Three Vehicles in detail, and appended the Treatise on the Secret Essentials of the Three Vehicles and the Poem on the Secret Essentials of the Three Vehicles to the end of the volume. I have done my best to clarify its subtleties; one may say that I have fully disclosed the true workings of Heaven and Earth and revealed the Immortal Elder’s secret intent. I hope to leave these writings for those who share my aspirations, so that they may study them with ease, truly grasp the essential meaning of the Wuzhen Pian, establish sound understanding, and no longer be misled by heterodox schools and strange doctrines.

Written with care by Weng Baoguang, the Unnamed Old Man of Xiangchuan, at the Mid-Autumn Festival in the Gui-si year of the Qiandao era, Great Song dynasty.

Master Kongxuan said: The Nameless Master is divided into three volumes—upper, middle, and lower—known as the “Great Teaching of the Three Vehicles.” It sets out to clarify the true meaning of the Scripture of the Hidden Talisman. Its central teaching seems to derive from the Golden Flower Perfected One’s explanation of that scripture.

The Golden Flower Perfected One’s commentary says that the “methods for strengthening the troops and winning battles” refer to cultivating the body through the method of refining liquid gold. Practitioners gather the Yang hun and dissolve the Yin po, using Yang Qi as their troops to overcome Yin influences. By applying the Five Phases’ cycles of overcoming and the Bagua’s mutual interaction, they restore body and mind to their roots and recover their original nature, eventually forming the Elixir. The key to “returning the Elixir a hundred times” lies in the spirit-water and Flower Pond. In Neidan practice, “spirit-water” and “Flower Pond” are technical terms for the processes and places within the body where Jing and Qi are refined, nourished, and brought to condense and transform.

People live between Heaven and Earth. If they do not understand the principles governing Heaven and Earth, they are easily troubled by Yin influences. Time passes swiftly, their spirit is depleted, and their bodies grow weak. The sages therefore established appropriate methods to guide the body’s pure Yang Qi into condensing as a spirit Elixir. This prolongs the life of the physical form and brings body and mind into harmony with the Great Dao. When a state is under attack, it must use strong troops to repel invaders, protect its treasures, and build up its resources. Only after the state is prosperous and secure can one speak of cultivating the Dao of “the immortals embracing the One.”

The verse says: The spirit-water in the Flower Pond, Jade Mercury, and Golden Lead draw on the power of Heaven and Earth, while the Sun and Moon serve as the furnace fire that refines them. Following the fire phases indicated by hexagrams such as Zhun and Meng, one carefully regulates advance and retreat, extraction and replenishment, and bathing. After nine cycles of refinement, Kan and Li are finally joined. By completing three thousand meritorious deeds without wavering, one can undergo transformation and become an immortal.

The “method for enriching the state and calming the people” refers to the method of refining Qi. The Inner Scripture of Laozi says that the human body is like a state: the body is the state, the heart is its ruler, and Jing and Qi are its people. Only when the people are settled can the state be at peace; when the people are scattered, the state is left empty. Cherishing Jing and Qi helps a person attain longevity. A ruler who cares for the people as if they were infants and seeks to nourish them keeps them secure and the state prosperous. This is called “enriching the state and calming the people.” Applied to self-cultivation, it means preserving and nourishing the body’s Jing and Qi.

The human form is made from the essence and blood of one’s parents and arises through the transformation of original Qi. The Perfected One of the Central Yellow said that flesh and bone take their root in essence and blood, while awareness takes its foundation in original Qi; Shen and Qi are the roots of nature and life. Shen is the child of Qi, and Qi is the mother of Shen. This is called the “child and mother” within the body. If Shen and Qi can remain together, Qi will settle in the Cinnabar Terrace and transformations will arise naturally.

The verse says: The Gate of Heaven should remain open, while the Earth’s Door should be closed. The breath of life must continue without interruption, never ceasing even for an instant. Draw the in-breath deep into the roots and let the out-breath reach to the furthest end. Shen is the child and Qi the mother; they depend on each other like a hen brooding over an egg or a fish swimming in water. In this way, they condense into the “sacred embryo” and naturally undergo transformation. “Sacred embryo” is a Neidan term for the inner achievement formed and nurtured as Shen and Qi condense through cultivation; it does not mean a physical fetus.

The Dao of “the immortals embracing the One” is the Dao of refining Shen, and also the Dao of what is natural in its original state. Those who cultivate the Dao, if they can embrace the One and keep to the center, can prevent Shen and Qi from dispersing, move freely and at ease, and become Perfected Ones. The verse further says: The Dao is the root of nature and life; nature is the source of the heart-mind. Heart-mind and nature are one body, able to manifest in response to circumstances and transform without limit. Even the many ordinary activities of people’s daily lives depend on the natural Dao. If one can understand this, forget outward forms and words, and act with an empty heart, a full belly, and the One held fast, then after nine cycles of cultivation one can become an immortal.

It is also said that the aim of refining Shen is to become an immortal: the body grows still while the spirit ascends, bringing freedom and ease. The aim of refining Qi is to become a “fetal immortal”: the practitioner’s Shen and Qi respond to and blend with each other, forming an embryo and nurturing an inner life like an infant, before finally transforming as a cicada sheds its shell. The art of refining the body also includes methods for regaining youth and keeping the physical form in the world for a long time.

The author has carefully recorded these teachings to explain the guiding principles transmitted by the Nameless Master and the reason for dividing them into three volumes. Another version records that the Nameless Master’s courtesy name was Yuanming.

Alas! Human life is hard to obtain, time passes swiftly, and the length of one’s life is impossible to predict. If people do not awaken in time, but content themselves with waiting for life to end, then a single mistaken thought at death may cause them to fall into the three evil destinies—the Buddhist realms of suffering known as hell, hungry ghosts, and animals. They may endure countless eons without ever finding a way out. What good will regret do then?

For this reason, Buddhism and Daoism alike have opened skillful paths, teaching people to cultivate themselves and plant the causes that lead out of birth and death. Buddhism takes emptiness and stillness as its foundation. Those who suddenly awaken to perfect understanding can transcend directly; but if habitual tendencies and afflictions have not been fully severed, they will still wander through birth and death. Daoism takes refinement and cultivation as its true method. Those who grasp its essential points can attain the rank of the sages; but those who have not understood their original nature remain burdened by their illusory bodies.

The Book of Changes speaks of probing the principles of things, fully understanding one’s nature, and reaching an understanding of the Mandate of Heaven. The Analects says not to make conjectures, cling to fixed views, be inflexible, or presume to be right. These teachings, too, touch on the profound mysteries of nature and life that Confucius explored. Yet the Confucian classics generally speak only briefly and do not discuss the Dao of Wuwei (non-action) in detail, because they focus on setting human relations in order and putting into practice active teachings such as benevolence, righteousness, ritual, and music. Teachings about nature and life are sometimes entrusted to the images of the hexagrams in the Book of Changes, and sometimes concealed in subtle expressions. Zhuangzi investigated the ways external things entangle us and expounded the nature of freedom; Mencius was skilled at nurturing the vast, vital Qi. Both came close to the Great Dao. In the Han dynasty, Wei Boyang drew on the Book of Changes’ teaching about the union of Yin and Yang to write the Cantong qi, illuminating the workings of the Great Elixir. In the Tang dynasty, National Master Zhong began his recorded sayings by recounting the words of Laozi and Zhuangzi, making clear the origins and full scope of the highest Dao. This shows that although the teachings are divided into three traditions, their underlying principle is one. Sadly, later Confucians, Buddhists, and Daoists each guarded their own schools and disparaged the others. Heterodox teachings obscured the central purpose shared by all three, preventing them from being brought together in a coherent understanding.

Today some people believe the Daoist tradition is chiefly concerned with cultivating life, yet they do not know that there are two kinds of methods for doing so: some are easy to encounter but difficult to bring to fruition, while others are difficult to encounter but easy to bring to fruition. Refining the Qi of the Five Sprouts, absorbing the light of the Seven Luminaries, visualization, massage, breathing exercises, reciting scriptures and incantations, spraying water and commanding talismans, knocking the teeth together to gather the Shen, abstaining from sexual relations and food, visualizing the Shen and holding the breath, directing intention between the eyebrows, replenishing the brain and returning the Jing, practicing bedroom arts, and ingesting and refining minerals, metals, plants, and other substances—all belong to the methods that are easy to come across but difficult to succeed with. Most fail to address the essential principles of self-cultivation, and no matter how extensively they are practiced, results are hard to see. With diligent effort, they may perhaps ward off illness and prevent accidents; once the practice stops, however, the effects gradually fade. To spend years this way is unlikely to bring true success, much less lasting attainment of the Dao, a return to youth, transformation, or ascension.

Practitioners in recent times often cling to these methods without understanding the true meaning of the wondrous teaching, then blame the immortals for telling lies. They do not know that those who attained the Dao all achieved it by refining the Golden Elixir. Fearing that the secrets of Heaven would be divulged, they concealed the true formula behind other explanations. Among these methods, breath retention can be close to the Buddhist meditation of the Two Vehicles if one can forget contrivance and still one’s thoughts. Practiced diligently, it can lead to meditative absorption and the spirit’s departure from the body. But the spirit belongs to Yin, and the physical body is difficult to keep stable for long, so in the end one cannot avoid exchanging one form for another. Without attaining the Way of returning lead and mercury, how can one restore Yang, transform the bones, and ascend to Heaven in broad daylight?

Refining the liquid of the Golden Elixir and returning it to the body is difficult to encounter but easy to accomplish, provided one fully understands Yin and Yang and deeply comprehends the workings of creation. Only then can the two Qi of Yin and Yang join on the Yellow Path, while Jing, Qi, and Shen return together to the original palace, gathering the Five Phases and harmonizing the Four Images. The dragon cries and the tiger roars; husband and wife respond to one another. The liquid boils in the jade cauldron, and the fire blazes in the golden furnace. The Mysterious Pearl then takes shape, and the reality of Taiyi becomes one. The whole process takes only a brief moment, after which one may enjoy its wondrous bliss without end.

Yet cultivation must be undertaken with care: dangers must be guarded against, and the use of the firing process must be understood. The drawing off and replenishing must be measured; the upright Qi must be nurtured and kept abundant. The key lies in guarding the feminine and embracing the One—that is, holding to softness and stillness, undivided and undispersed. In this way, one can restore the Jing and Qi of one’s first emergence and strip away the Yin-bound, declining body. When the cycles of Qi have run their full course, one can shed the womb and undergo spiritual transformation, enter the register of the immortals, and receive the honored title of Perfected Person. This is the moment when a great man has completed his work and achieved renown.

Today’s scholars sometimes take lead and mercury to mean the two Qi of Yin and Yang, identify the internal organs with the Five Phases, divide the heart and kidneys into Kan and Li, or liken the liver and lungs to the dragon and tiger. Others treat Shen and Qi as mother and child, or bodily fluids as lead and mercury. They do not understand the rising and descending of Yin and Yang, nor can they distinguish host from guest. It is as if they mistook another person’s property for their own, or called someone of a different surname their own child. How could they know the subtle workings by which Metal and Wood constrain one another, or the mysteries of Yin and Yang working together? Such practices are like the sun and moon straying from their proper courses or lead and mercury being kept in separate furnaces. Small wonder that forming the Reverted Elixir is difficult.

From childhood I have been drawn to Daoist learning. I have read widely in the scriptures of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism, and have also studied criminal law, writing and arithmetic, medicine and divination, military strategy, astronomy and geography, and the arts concerned with fortune, misfortune, life, and death. But when it came to the method of the Golden Elixir, I read through the classics and the songs, poems, and treatises of the various schools, yet found only such terms as the sun’s soul and the moon’s spirit, the Geng Tiger and Jia Dragon, mercury and cinnabar, white metal and black tin, and the Kan male and Li female. They claimed these things could be used to refine the liquid Golden Elixir, but never explained what true lead and true mercury actually were. Nor did they discuss the rules governing the firing process, the methods of cultivation, or the aim of the practice. In addition, later people, confused and bewildered, made arbitrary guesses and presumptuously annotated the classics of the sages of old. Their errors multiplied, disturbing the immortal scriptures and misleading later students.

I had never met a Perfected One, and the oral formulas were difficult to obtain. As a result, I could neither eat nor sleep in peace, and my spirit grew weary. Though I traveled throughout the realm, visiting famous mountains and seeking instruction from both sages and ordinary people, no one could explain the true purpose. Later, in the year Jiyou of the Xining era, I followed Lord Lu of the Dragon Diagram into Shu. My desire to seek the Dao grew stronger, and my sincerity more earnest. At last, I moved a Perfected One to transmit the secrets of the Golden Elixir’s ingredients and firing process. His words were concise, and the essential points he explained were not complicated. Truly, from the course of a river one can know its source, and hearing one sentence can bring understanding of a hundred things. The mist cleared like bright sunlight, and the dust was swept away like a mirror made clear. His teaching accorded perfectly with the immortal scriptures.

I then reflected that many people in the world study the way of immortality, yet few are known to have truly grasped its essential points. Since I had received the true transmission, how could I keep it hidden and say nothing? So I wrote, to the full extent of my understanding, eighty-one regulated poems, each in four lines, and titled the work Understanding Reality. Sixteen poems of seven characters in four lines each express the number “two eights”; sixty-four quatrains correspond to the hexagrams of the Book of Changes; and twelve more poems in the Xijiang Yue pattern accord with the cycle of the year. The hierarchy of the cauldron and vessel, the proportions of the ingredients, the advance and retreat of the firing process, the sequence of host and guest, and matters of existence and nonexistence, being and nonbeing, good and ill fortune, regret and remorse are all included.

After completing the work, I felt that it dealt chiefly with nurturing life and strengthening the body, without fully exploring the nature of true awareness at the source. So I studied the Buddhist scriptures and records of the transmission of the lamp. When I read of a patriarch awakening to the Dao upon hearing bamboo struck, I wrote thirty-two odes, poems, songs, and miscellaneous verses, and appended them to the end of the volume. I hoped thereby to complete its account of understanding the source and revealing one’s nature. May those who share this aspiration read the work, grasp the root through its branches, and leave the false behind to return to the true.

Written by Zhang Boduan, courtesy name Pingshu, of Tiantai, on New Year’s Day in the year Yimao of the Xining era of the Great Song.

Those who do not seek to attain the Dao and emerge from delusion cannot be considered truly great, however talented they may be. A hundred years pass in an instant, like a spark that flashes and vanishes; the circumstances of a lifetime are as insubstantial and brief as bubbles on water. People covet only fame, wealth, honor, and success, failing to notice their bodies and faces gradually grow frail and withered. Consider this: even if one amassed gold and silver as high as a mountain, could they buy back life in the face of death and impermanence?

The commentary says that worldly people value nothing more than wealth and rank, and that these are what everyone desires. Thus, people throughout the world often follow their cravings in pursuit of wealth and rank, while few think of how life must eventually decline.

The commentary holds that the highest things people in this world value are wealth and status; both are things people desire. So people everywhere often exhaust their strength pursuing their lifelong ambitions, taking the acquisition of wealth and status as happiness. Yet if we look closely at what they pursue, it amounts to little more than indulgence in profit and rank, sensual pleasures, and beauty. People do not realize that these are like blades and weapons that damage life, and like shackles binding the whole body.

People in the world do not understand the mysteries of the Dao, De, and life. They care only for profit and rank, sinking into desire and drifting in rivers of passion and seas of craving. Disputes over right and wrong, self and others, unsettle the mind, while joy, anger, sorrow, and pleasure wear down body and mind in turn. Thus corpse demons—defiling forces in Daoist thought that drain a person’s vital essence and hasten aging and death—hurry life toward its end, while cold and heat erode the face. People fail to notice that life is as brief as a bubble on the water, and that a hundred years pass in an instant, like a spark struck from stone. Even if one amassed gold and silver by the bushel and piled jade as high as a mountain, once death arrived, how could such riches buy back one’s life or keep one’s corpse from becoming a nest for ants? How grievous and painful! Before life has run its course, the true spirit—the person’s spiritual nature—has already been reborn in another body.

Celestial Master Xujing says: “If you do not awaken in this life, after death you will change bodies and be reborn in another form. You will continue through cycle after cycle of rebirth, still without awakening. Alas! Rather than remain unenlightened and be reborn among other kinds of beings, why not abide in the Great Dao?” Once cultivation of the Dao is complete, one’s body rises beyond the azure heavens, rides clouds and dragons, and roams without limit. No longer bound by the changes of life and death, one ultimately becomes a perfected person. This is the moment when a great man fulfills his aspirations and attains glory.

If one busies oneself only with trivial worldly affairs, fills one’s heart with earthly desires, and becomes trapped in the net of the world, then even with the talents of Ban Gu and Sima Qian, or the fame and distinction of Su Qin and Zhang Yi, one remains no more than a wandering soul in the dust, a walking corpse in the dark. How could that be called the way of a true great man? That is why the Immortal opens this chapter with a poem written especially for people of exceptional insight and lofty aspirations. If a person can awaken through a single sentence, devote themselves to pursuing the Great Dao, leave the misguided path, and practice Wuwei (non-action), then they are a true great man. Nothing else is worth pursuing.

In his commentary, the disciple Qizong, who studied the Dao, says: “If someone reads the Immortal’s poem and the commentary by the Anonymous Master and still does not awaken, they are truly foolish beyond measure. Shouldn’t everyone who has read or heard these teachings begin cultivating the Dao?”

Although a person may live for a hundred years, no one can know in advance how long that life will last or whether their fortunes will prosper or decline. Yesterday they may still have been riding through the streets; today they may already be lying in a coffin. Their wife, children, and possessions must all be left behind and no longer belong to them. Only the sins they have accumulated in life will go with them, and there is no deceiving oneself about this. If one does not actively seek the Great Medicine—the method of cultivating the Golden Elixir—how could one ever encounter it? And having encountered it, to refuse to cultivate it would be utter foolishness.

The commentary says: A person’s lifespan, circumstances, and wealth or poverty may seem to have been determined in advance, but how could ordinary people know these things beforehand? Though people are said to be able to live to a hundred, few make it past seventy. Since human life is limited and fragile, is it not unwise to spend every day rushing about in pursuit of things without end and impossible to predict? When one breath fails to come, a person departs forever, with no knowing where the soul will go. Is this not cause for sorrow?

Thus, someone riding through the streets yesterday may already be a corpse today; no one can be sure of taking even one more breath. At that point, even a high position and generous salary, priceless treasures at home, and beautiful wives and concubines must all be left behind; they no longer belong to the person. The only thing that truly accompanies someone, and cannot be concealed, is the wrongdoing they have accumulated in daily life. As the saying goes, “Of all things, none can be taken along; only karma follows the body.”

In one of his lyrics, Master Cao laments: “Life is ceaseless turmoil, and worldly entanglements bind us day after day. Suddenly the throat falls silent, and spirit and soul disperse. However many times wife and children cry out in grief, the dead do not turn back. No matter how carefully one planned in life, once laid in a barren grave, one has lost all awareness.” These words are indeed well spoken.

To escape the cycle of rebirth and avoid being ensnared by worldly affairs, the best course is to cultivate the Golden Elixir, the Great Medicine. It is said to be a numinous ladder for ascending to Heaven and a shortcut to transcending the ordinary. The path of cultivation may seem simple: even someone dull and ordinary, once taught it, can quickly reach the state of a sage. Yet the great perfected masters of antiquity treasured this path and would not disclose it lightly. They mostly transmitted it orally from master to disciple, leaving no written record, so it is difficult to encounter. Without diligent seeking, unwavering resolve, and sincerity that moves Heaven, it is difficult to hear its teachings.

In the past, Xie Ziran knew that this path was difficult to encounter and wanted to seek a true master on Penglai, the legendary immortal isle in the sea. She offered up all her property to prepare a boat and, undeterred by raging waves, insisted on setting out. Later, a divine being, moved by her sincerity, offered this guidance: “Penglai lies thirty thousand li away, across the Weak Waters, a legendary sea that cannot bear a boat. Not even a mustard leaf can float there. How do you plan to reach it? On Mount Chicheng is Sima Ziwei. Go and take him as your master.” Xie Ziran then turned her boat around and went to Mount Chicheng in search of him. There she indeed met Sima Ziwei and received his teachings. After several years of cultivation, she ascended to Heaven in broad daylight. This shows that when a person’s heart is sincere and steadfast, it can resonate outward, and in time they will find what they seek. If one can devote oneself with such resolve, why worry about failing to attain the way of the Golden Elixir? The Dao does not let people down; more often, people let the Dao down.

The Cantong qi says, “The Great Dao neither favors nor rejects; it is transmitted only to the worthy.” If one does not pursue it with earnest effort, how could one ever encounter it?

The secret method of the Golden Elixir is indeed difficult to encounter. The commentary says that those who do encounter it are mostly people with an innate affinity for immortality and ancestors who accumulated hidden merit. Yet cultivation also requires financial resources, and it takes three people practicing together for success to be possible. Only those with clear understanding can grasp the principles involved; they are difficult to explain one by one. The Treatise on the Subtle Essentials of the Six and Five by the Yin Perfected Lord says: “To learn this path, one must have resources. Without resources, the Golden Elixir cannot be accomplished.” It also says that cultivation requires three people. Thus, after Master Wang Chongxi encountered Liu Haichan and learned the art of the Golden Elixir, he lacked the means to begin cultivation. He therefore went to Luoyang to visit the wealthy Han Gong, relied on his support, and then devoted himself to the Dao. If one encounters this path and also has people willing to join forces and help, yet still refuses to cultivate, that is the height of foolishness.

The poem the Immortal Master gave to Liu says: “I hear you have known the method of the Medicine for many years. Why then do you not gather your spirit and refine mercury and lead? Do not let the wind blow out the candle flame; if you fall into the Six Paths of rebirth, do not blame Heaven.” This expresses the very same idea.

The memorial states that the Perfected One Xie of Guozhou ascended to heaven from Mount Jinquan, outside the western gate of the prefectural city, on the twelfth day of the first month in the eleventh year of the Zhenyuan era under Emperor Dezong of the Tang dynasty. It was daytime, and the people of Guozhou all witnessed him rise into the sky. The prefect, Li Jian, reported the event to the court and had a biography written about him. The emperor issued an edict praising him: “A numinous immortal has manifested marvels within our territory, causing the mysterious and wondrous Dao to flourish further and the highest Dao to spread widely.”

Han Yu’s poem says: In Nanchong County, Guozhou, there lived a poor scholar named Xie Ziran. As a child, he knew little; hearing only that immortals existed in the world, he abandoned ordinary life and studied the Way of the immortals. He lived on Mount Jinquan. One day, he suddenly sat upright and rose into the empty sky. Clouds and mist surged among the mountain cliffs, and it seemed one could hear the music of yu and sheng flutes, its sound coming from the distant heavens. Before long, he rose lightly into the sky, drifting like cloud and smoke. A village official reported the event to the prefect, who was astonished and amazed. He rode out with his officials to investigate. The villagers hurried to the Xie household, but when they entered, he was nowhere to be seen. Only his clothes and cap remained, like a cicada’s shed shell. In the past, I had heard tales of immortals; now I see that they can indeed be believed.

Wang Bo-hou’s Records of Difficult Learning states: Wang Quan, courtesy name Zizhen, was from Yangping in the Qi region. During the Yuanfeng era, Emperor Shenzong bestowed on him the title “Recluse of Pure Harmony” and composed an inscription commemorating his virtuous deeds. Wang Quan had exceptional natural gifts and once kept company with Chen Tuan. Master Cheng Yi was never known to write poetry, but he once sent a poem to Wang Zizhen that said: “I, too, possess a cinnabar elixir. Do you believe it? If I could put it to use, I might even help the people.” When Cheng Yi entered Mount Song, Wang Zizhen was already waiting beneath a pine tree. Cheng Yi asked how he had known he was coming. Wang Zizhen replied, “Word came last year.” As it happened, Cheng Yi had intended to visit the year before but had to abandon the plan because of other affairs.

The Miscellaneous Records from the Gai Studio also states: Wang Quan, courtesy name Zizhen, was a man of the Dao whom Fu Bi once invited as a guest. During the Yuanfeng era, Emperor Shenzong bestowed on him the title “Recluse of Pure Harmony.” In the third year of the Yuanfu era, he traveled to Maoshan and received the Shangqing register, a Daoist register conferred on ordained practitioners that marked their religious status and duties. Shortly before this, a stone cave on Maoshan’s central peak had suddenly opened. It was the entrance to the Huayang Grotto-Heaven. Since Zuo Yuanfang, a legendary Daoist immortal, had departed, the entrance had been closed for a thousand years; now it had reopened. A few days before it opened, sweet dew had fallen on the mountain. The Daoist Liu Hunkang said, “This must foretell something extraordinary.” Before long, Master Wang arrived. On the night he received the register, people on the mountain heard immortal music coming from the sky. The event was recorded in an inscription on the mountain.

If you wish to cultivate immortality, you should cultivate as a Celestial Immortal. Among the methods of cultivation, the Golden Elixir is the most reliable and clearly defined path. When the Dragon and Tiger meet, feeling and nature can be brought into harmony; where the Five Phases gather in full, the Dragon and Tiger coil together and blend. Earth in its Wu and Ji aspects serves as matchmaker, joining the two like husband and wife. Once the work is complete, you may appear at the Jade Gate in the celestial palace and ascend, riding a phoenix through the light of the Nine Rosy Clouds.

Immortals have different ranks. The Yin spirit, though numinous, has no form; this is a ghost immortal. One who lives among people, free from illness and distress and blessed with long life, is a human immortal. One who can soar through the air and ride the clouds, unaffected by hunger, thirst, heat, or cold, roaming among the islands and living forever, is an earthly immortal. A Celestial Immortal, by contrast, brings both form and spirit to a wondrous state and becomes one with the Dao: walking between the sun and moon without casting a shadow, passing through metal and stone without hindrance, unharmed by water or fire, and capable of limitless transformations. Such an immortal may be old or young, appear or disappear, and seem both present and absent. When dispersed, they become Qi; when gathered, they take form. Divination cannot fathom them, and neither ghosts nor spirits can understand them.

True Lord Yin said that one who can put an end to desire and cultivate fetal breathing—a method of regulating the breath and nurturing Qi—while shifting the spirit, leaving the shell, and entering stillness, may pass through metal and stone without hindrance, remain unharmed by water or fire, transform without limit, and become impossible to trace. Dispersed, they become Qi; gathered, they take form. Such a person is a Celestial Immortal. One who uses the corpse as a vessel and is reborn through the Yin spirit may undergo transformation without decay, but belongs among the lower-grade immortals. Those who receive the transmission of methods such as the Six Jia Fulu, the Zhengyi Alliance and Awe registers, the Shangqing teachings, or the registers of the Three Caverns, or who attain the Dao through sword techniques or corpse liberation, are listed among the immortals of the Southern Palace. Within the grotto-heavens, they are middle-grade immortals. Those who attain the Dao by cultivating the great Golden Elixir medicine and ascend bodily are supreme-grade Celestial Immortals of the boundless realm.

For this reason, the Immortal Master urged those who cultivate the Dao to establish firm and lofty aspirations. They should not be content with middle- or lower-grade immortality, but strive for the supreme, boundless rank of Celestial Immortal. There are seventy-two grades of Elixir methods; among them, the Golden Elixir Great Way alone offers a clear and certain method that is relatively simple and readily effective for those who seek to become Celestial Immortals.

The Golden Elixir spoken of here is “something arising from nothing.” It is not made by refining minerals such as gold, stone, cinnabar, mercury, lead, tin, realgar, arsenic, or chalcanthite. Nor is it ash from plants and trees, frost and dew, or the body’s fluids, Jing, or blood. It refers to primordial Qi: the true Qi that was undivided and blended into one before Heaven and Earth separated. Daoists hold that this true Qi arose before Heaven and Earth and mingled within the void. It cannot be seen, heard, or touched. Following the methods handed down by the sages, cultivators gather and condense it, forming within a single double-hour a pellet the size of a grain of millet. This is called the Golden Elixir, and is also known as true lead, the Yang Elixir, the essence of the True One, the water of the True One, true water, the Water Tiger, or the True Qi held within the Great One. Partaking of this Golden Elixir enables one to enter the realm of the sages. This is called the highest Great Way of the Celestial Immortals, and few people in the world truly understand it.

If primordial true Qi has no form or substance, how can it condense into a pellet the size of a grain of millet? The commentators explain that the sages used things with form to illustrate what is formless. True Yin and true Yang have substance, but are not ordinary material things; the “Qi of the first quarter moon, when the two crescents are eight parts full” has Qi but no form or substance. When the two respond to one another, they produce the Qi of the True One, which condenses into a pellet like a grain of millet. The scripture’s words, “The Primordial Beginning suspended a precious pearl, as large as a grain of millet, within the empty mystery,” attest to this.

To avoid revealing the mysteries of Heaven and Earth’s transformations, the sages used the Azure Dragon and White Tiger as symbols for true Yin and true Yang, and the Qi of the two crescents as symbols for true lead and true mercury. In his poems, the Immortal Master used many names for these things. The Azure Dragon is also called the Red Dragon, the Zhen Dragon, the Heavenly Soul, the Qian household, the Jade Cauldron, Fusang, the Jade Pool, Eastern Yang, the eldest son, vermilion mercury, the cinnabar cauldron, and the Red Phoenix. The White Tiger is also called the Black Tiger, the Dui Tiger, the Earthly Po, the Kun position, the Golden Cauldron, the Golden Furnace, Mount Hua, the Western River, the young maiden, black lead, the crescent-moon furnace, and the Black Tortoise. Though the names are many, each corresponds to a particular symbol; they do not refer to many different things.

Among the names for Elixir methods listed by the commentators, true mercury, the Maiden, liquid of water, the Green Maiden, yellow sprout, flowing pearl, the Golden Crow, the Li Maiden, Jade Liquid, and Jade Fungus are all symbolic names of one kind. True lead, the Golden Duke, golden essence, gold in water, silver in water, golden flower, white snow, the Jade Hare, the Kan youth, true water, the mighty Tiger, and the knife measure are likewise symbolic names of one kind. When reading these Elixir scriptures, one should understand them as different names for the same kind of alchemical image.

“The two things meet, and feeling and nature are brought into harmony”: the “two things” here are the Dragon and Tiger. The Azure Dragon dwells in the east, and the east corresponds to Wood. Wood generates Fire, so the Dragon’s contained crescent Qi belongs to Fire and is called “feeling”; it corresponds to the Vermilion Bird of the south. The White Tiger dwells in the west, and the west corresponds to Metal. Metal generates Water, so the Tiger’s contained crescent Qi belongs to Water and is called “nature”; it corresponds to the Black Tortoise of the north. The Dragon’s Wood and the Tiger’s Metal, together with feeling’s Fire and nature’s Water, are called the Four Images. When the Four Images gather in the center, they form the Earth phase of the Elixir. This is the true Five Phases of Elixir practice. When Dragon and Tiger unite, feeling and nature are brought into harmony; when they combine to form the Elixir, the Five Phases are complete.

The Wood Dragon is in the east and the Metal Tiger in the west, with distance between them. How can they be brought together? The commentators say the key is the “Yellow Matron,” that is, the Qi of Earth in its Wu and Ji aspects. Earth harmonizes Metal and Wood, so the Yellow Matron is likened to a matchmaker: with her left hand she seizes the Dragon, and with her right she catches the Tiger, bringing them together in union. The Dragon and Tiger are originally separate; when they unite, they do so with the help of the Qi of the True One. As this Qi transforms, the True Person appears. These are symbolic explanations belonging to the Waidan method of the Elixir.

After taking the Golden Elixir, one must still spend ten months refining the body and transforming it into Qi, then nine years embracing the One and transforming Qi into Shen. Only then can one attain the wondrous perfection of form and spirit, become true in union with the Dao, receive the celestial registers and mandate, and become a celestial immortal. When the Elixir is mature and cultivation in the human world is complete, one can ascend to Heaven, take flight amid the light of the Nine Rosy Clouds with wind beneath one’s arms, ride a phoenix and a luan, and soar through the azure heights. Without nurturing the spiritual root and accumulating abundant hidden virtue, who could attain such a state?

The Collection on Transmitting the Dao says that immortals have different grades: what is entirely Yin and without Yang is a ghost; what is entirely Yang and without Yin is an immortal; and what contains both Yin and Yang is a human being. Only humans may become ghosts or cultivate to become immortals.

A ghost immortal is formed when a person transcends within Yin energy. Its spirit has no clear likeness, bears no fixed name at the Ghost Pass, and has no title even after three rebirths. Although it no longer undergoes reincarnation, it cannot easily return to immortal realms such as Penglai and Yingzhou. With nowhere to settle in the end, it can only be reborn or seize another body. “Seizing another body” here means that consciousness enters someone else’s body. Because practitioners of this kind keep their consciousness contained in the heart and prevent it from dispersing, their thoughts may allow a Yin spirit to emerge, but it is only a pure and numinous ghost, not an immortal of pure Yang. It is truly laughable when Buddhists who reach this stage claim they have attained the Dao.

A human immortal has not fully cultivated the Great Dao. Instead, through the efficacy of a single method or technique, they seek peace and longevity. A terrestrial immortal follows the patterns of ascent and descent in Heaven and Earth and takes the cycles of the sun and moon as a model. They apply the rhythms of years, months, and days within the body, and the divisions of time within each day. They discern the Dragon and Tiger, coordinate Kan and Li, reverse the Five Phases, and circulate Qi between the child and mother and fluids between husband and wife. They repeatedly cycle these through the upper, middle, and lower Dantian, refining them into an elixir and keeping it settled in the lower Dantian over the long term. In this way, they refine the body and remain in the world, living forever without dying as an immortal on land.

If a terrestrial immortal grows weary of the mundane world and continues practicing, they may become a divine immortal. They refine the body until it takes form, bring the Five Qi to the Origin, and gather the Three Yang at the crown. When their practice is complete, they forget the body, and the embryo immortal transforms naturally. Once Yin has been exhausted and Yang made pure, another body exists beyond their own. They then shed their mortal substance, ascend to immortality, transcend the ordinary and enter the sacred, leave the mundane world, and return to the immortal realms of the Three Mountains.

A celestial immortal may grow weary of life on the Three Isles and turn to transmitting the Dao among humanity. When their merit in cultivation and good works is complete, they are summoned by a heavenly mandate to return to a grotto-heaven and ascend to the eighty-one Yang Heavens, then enter the realm of the Three Pure Ones’ numinous light and spontaneity.

When something comes into being from what already exists, it arises through the transformation of material form. Since form was present from the beginning, how could something formed be made formless? When something comes into being from nothing, form and substance arise from what has neither form nor substance, and then coalesce into an elixir. After it is consumed, it can transform the formed into the formless, convert acquired Qi into primordial Qi, and bring form and spirit to wondrous perfection. “Without substance” refers to the “Qi of True Unity,” which resides within the True Dragon and True Tiger and is wholly genuine, without falsity. If people understand its key and know how to use it, they can guide the Qi of True Unity to condense into form and substance. Swallow a single pill, and one can immediately ascend to the sacred realm. This cannot be accomplished through inaction, through sitting in stillness and cultivating alone, or by refining ordinary fire and ordinary medicines.

All things are originally one thing, divided into two. Each of the two contains Yin and Yang, together forming the Four Images. The Four Images return to unity, and the Earth within them becomes the true Five Phases. When the Five Phases unite once more and return to their source, this is the Golden Elixir. Before the two things unite, each holds within itself the Qi of True Unity. Only after the two come together does this Qi converge, and the formation of the elixir begin.

The Jing of Oral Instructions from Shangyan says that each of the two things must steady its intention and remain quiet and focused. When the practice reaches its appointed point, a numinous light as bright and white as the moon will appear before the eyes and be understood within the heart. This is “the empty chamber giving birth to whiteness.” Afterward, one must continue to hold steady and practice until a red light wells up like the sun’s disc; then the white light will disappear. Once the two things have been cultivated to completion, the foundation of the elixir is formed, and the next step is to coalesce the elixir.

This method of cultivation is already exceedingly mysterious, yet it holds a further subtlety. The reason is that the method I have understood differs from those known to ordinary people: I grasp the principle that appears to turn things upside down, a principle rooted in Li and Kan (the Li and Kan trigrams of the Bagua, often used to allude to Yin-Yang and Water-Fire). Who can discern, amid the changes of rising and sinking, which side is the host and which the guest?

To make the Golden Cauldron—the symbol of alchemical refinement—retain cinnabar’s mercury, which represents the Yang essence, one must first cast water’s silver, representing the Yin essence, into the Jade Pool, a symbol of cultivation and refinement. The cultivator uses wondrous skill to regulate the fire and its timing; this cannot be accomplished in a day or two. When the practice has matured, a scene like the full moon reflected in a deep pool will appear.

The commentary says: This Daoist method is supremely sacred, spiritual, precious, and exalted, yet also supremely simple and easy. It is the mystery within mystery, the subtlety within subtlety, and few in the world have ever heard of it. The Immortal Elder—referring to a Daoist perfected immortal—surpassed those of his kind and stood above the rest, alone comprehending its deeper meaning. Thus Master Chongxi said that few in all the world know the Great Way of the Golden Elixir.

The commentary says that this Daoist method is supremely sacred, mysterious, and exalted, yet also simple. Its mysteries lie deeply within the profound, and few people in the world have heard of them. The Immortal Elder—here referring to Zhang Boduan—was exceptionally gifted and alone grasped their deeper meaning. Thus Master Chongxi said, “The Great Way of the Golden Elixir is rejected by practitioners throughout the world; only Pingshu understands it.” This is like Mount Tai and the rivers and seas: how could hills and ditches presume to compare?

The Li trigram belongs to Yang and occupies the south, yet is called “female” because it is Yang on the outside and Yin within. This is “true Mercury.” The Kan trigram belongs to Yin and occupies the north, yet is called “male” because it is Yin on the outside and Yang within. This is “true Lead.” The Immortal Elder said, “The sun dwells in the position of Li, yet becomes female; Kan is assigned to the lunar palace, yet becomes male. If you do not understand the meaning of Yin and Yang being reversed, do not speak grandly on the basis of shallow views.” The Kan male and Li female mentioned here are like the father’s vital essence and the mother’s blood; they are also like the crow in the sun and the jade rabbit in the moon, Mercury in cinnabar and silver in ore, and the dark color of Heaven and the yellow of Earth. These images all point to the Dragon and Tiger—that is, the Yin and Yang Qi represented by the first and second crescents.

“Host and guest” ordinarily means that Yang Qi is exalted and occupies the left as host, while Yin Qi is low and occupies the right as guest. Li is Fire, whose nature rises; like Wood, it tends to float upward and belongs to Yang, so it is ordinarily the host. Kan is Water, whose nature descends; like Metal, it tends to sink and belongs to Yin, so it is ordinarily the guest. This is the usual order of Yin and Yang. Here, however, Li is called female and Kan male, so host and guest also exchange places. This is why the text speaks of “reversal.” “Establishing host and guest” means that the method takes the Qi of the first and second crescents and reverses their host and guest relationship; it does not refer to the ordinary order of host and guest.

The “golden cauldron” refers to metal, which belongs to Yin, while the cauldron contains Fire Qi, symbolizing Yang within Yin; it is the White Tiger. The “jade pool” refers to jade, which belongs to Yang, while the pool contains Water Qi, symbolizing Yin within Yang; it is the Azure Dragon. “Mercury in the cinnabar” refers to the Qi of the first crescent contained in the Azure Dragon, while “silver in the water” refers to the Qi of the first crescent contained in the White Tiger. Those who cultivate the Golden Elixir and wish to make the Tiger’s Qi linger with the Dragon’s must first guide the Dragon’s Qi toward the Tiger’s, bringing the two together in harmony and mutual accord. Then, by applying the method of refinement, they can condense them into the “essence of True Unity”—the vital essence formed through the union of Yin and Yang.

The “Fire” mentioned here is the Qi of the first and second crescents. “Dawn” is the beginning of the day, while “Zi” is the time when Yang Qi begins to emerge in the twelve double-hours; hence the term “dawn.” The sages wield the elixir Fire with wondrous effect: in less than half a double-hour, it can condense into a grain-sized essence of True Unity, appearing in the Northern Sea and shining through the curtains, like a red sun rising from a deep pool. “By the end of dawn” does not mean that one must wait until daylight; it indicates that the Golden Elixir is refined within a single double-hour. The passage above describes the symbols and principles of the External Medicine.

The explanatory commentary says that the Kan male and Li female, the crow in the sun and rabbit in the moon, dark Heaven and yellow Earth, as well as Fire within the Yin metal cauldron and Water within the Yang jade pool, all symbolize taking Yang from within Yin and Yin from within Yang. By reversing the Five Phases and turning cultivation back toward its source, one reaches Taiji, the Supreme Ultimate: the precelestial Qi that existed before Heaven and Earth were divided. The Golden Elixir is formed by the condensation of Yang Fire, but this Fire is not ordinary worldly fire; it is the Qi of the first and second crescents. At first, this Qi exists without form or substance, and its source is pure and free from turbidity. In the year, it corresponds to the season when Yin and Yang are balanced; in the month, it corresponds to the waxing and waning quarters—that is, when Metal Qi and Water Qi are each present in equal measure.

During cultivation, the conjunction of the Dragon and Tiger within Neidan (internal alchemy) brings movement and stillness like wind rising and waves surging. The Tiger refers to the Golden Elixir from outside, regarded as a medicine formed by the coagulation of the essence of the True Unity. The Dragon refers to one’s own true Qi (vital energy). True Qi rises from the Sea of Qi like wind and waves, gathering in the central Dantian (energy center), in the spirit chamber where the Elixir is formed.

As the firing process turns, true Jing (essence) ascends along the coccyx, passes through the spine, and surges straight to the Niwan Palace, a cultivation site within the crown of the head. From there, it descends into the mouth, one bead at a time, as mysterious pearls, sweet and fragrant like sparrow’s eggs. Swallowing one into the Dantian is called the Infant, and is also known as the Return of the Elixir through Golden Liquor. The commentary uses “Mother,” “Sovereign,” and “Lead” as metaphors for the Golden Elixir, and “Son,” “Minister,” and “Mercury” for one’s own true Qi. After the Golden Elixir enters the abdomen, true Qi wells up from the lower Sea of Qi and joins it, like a minister returning to the sovereign mother. The Dragon and Tiger unite in the spirit chamber and the earthen cauldron, symbolic organs of alchemical practice. Nurtured by the firing process, they form the sacred embryo. Just as fruit eventually ripens and an embryo is eventually born, after ten months of completion one can emerge from the embryo and undergo spiritual transformation.

“South and North” refer to the hours of Zi and Wu, while “source of the lineage” refers to the moment cultivation begins. “Dawn and dusk” refer to the beginnings of day and night. The commentator takes the hour of Zi as the beginning of the six Yang lines, matching it with the Dun hexagram to advance the fire; the hour of Wu as the beginning of the six Yin lines, matching it with the Meng hexagram to advance the water. Following the sequence of day and night, two hexagrams govern each day, proceeding in a cycle until, at the end of the month, the Ji Ji and Wei Ji hexagrams bring the cycle to a close and begin it anew. This is what is called “turning through the hexagram images.”

The Cantong qi (Token for the Joining of the Three) likewise says that at dawn on the first day of the lunar month, the Dun hexagram governs, and at dusk the Meng hexagram takes over. One hexagram is used for each half of the day, proceeding in sequence. The entire month is aligned with the sixty-four hexagrams and three hundred eighty-four lines, which symbolize the movements of the sun and moon and the changes of Yin-Yang. The commentary also adds together the line counts of Qian and Kun to arrive at three hundred sixty, corresponding to the degrees of one complete circuit of the heavens.

The “Celestial Pivot” is the pivot of the Big Dipper and also refers to the direction indicated by its handle. The monthly stations shift with the months, while the movements of the sun and moon each have their own pace. Practitioners need to understand the waxing and waning of Yin and Yang, the changes between day and night, and the moon’s fullness and decline. They adjust the firing process according to the hours of Zi and Wu and the direction of the Dipper’s monthly station, bringing it into accord with the timing of Heaven. Hence the saying, “The firing process accords with the Celestial Pivot.”

The wonder of the Dao at its utmost lies in the rising and descending of Kan and Li, the generation of the numinous medicine, and, ultimately, the formation of the Yellow Sprout, a symbol of the Golden Elixir in its initial stage. At the end, the scripture says that although the Great Dao is hidden amid the bustle of the marketplace, cultivation is not possible only in remote mountains. A precious pearl can take shape in an instant, tiny as a grain of millet; once swallowed, it renews the inner palace completely. Those who live in the mountains do not necessarily know the Great Dao, and those who live amid worldly life can still cultivate the Dao.

The commentary states that the Golden Elixir forms through the congealing of pre-heavenly Qi, while the body’s acquired Qi brings about change, surging like wind and waves. The “wind and waves” refer to the body’s Qi meeting the Golden Elixir; the “mysterious pearl arising” refers to the body’s Qi joining with the Golden Elixir.

The Sun’s Zi and Wu are determined by the Sun’s position in its course, while the Dipper’s Zi and Wu are determined by the direction in which the Northern Dipper initially points. Zi and Wu are the due north and due south directions on earth. Practitioners use the body’s acquired Qi according to these temporal cycles, bringing it into correspondence with the movements of the Sun and the Dipper. This is a secret transmitted orally by the master.

When the Sun reaches the point of conjunction, Shen gathers; this is known in the world as the “monthly general.” When the Northern Dipper points in a particular direction, Qi is set in motion; this is known as the “monthly establishment.” The two correspond in secret with the timing of Heaven. To use the Sun’s Zi-Wu cycle, one follows the progress of the Dipper’s establishment; to use the Northern Dipper’s Zi-Wu cycle, one consults the Sun. The Moon waxes and wanes with the seasons, and the hours of day and night are likewise divided into distinct periods.

The “Zi” and “Wu” mentioned here refer to the north and south. “Morning” and “evening” are also divided according to Zi and Wu: from the Zi hour through the Si hour is morning, and from the Wu hour through the Hai hour is evening. These are the definitions of morning and evening used in the Immortal Way, and differ from the everyday meanings of sunrise and sunset.

There is also a method of calculating the Heavenly Stem: at the start of a solar term, place the monthly establishment at the Hai position; at the start of a mid-term, place it at the Xu position, then use these positions to calculate the direction indicated by each double-hour.

After the Perfected Peng, a practitioner from Daoist legend, divided the Cantong qi into sections and wrote the Tongzhen yi, he read the four lines beginning “The Five Phases reverse their course, not proceeding in order.” He believed they revealed the secret of how the Qi of Heaven and Earth work upon one another, as well as the principles of Yin-Yang’s repeated transformations. He therefore wrote the Treatise on the Black Lead Fire Tiger and the Instructions on the Red Lead Fire Dragon, together known as the Golden Key to the Inner Image of the Reverted Elixir. The book takes the tiger as its substance and the dragon as its function; both works discuss the principles of change involved in refining the Great Elixir.

In later times, Wumingzi borrowed the terms “Fire Tiger” and “Fire Dragon” to explain Neidan and Waidan respectively, drawing only on the titles of the works and not their contents. Although this was not the original intent of the Zhenyi zi, the reasoning is nevertheless sound.

Everyone inherently possesses the medicine that can grant long life. Only by taking the wrong path do people wastefully cast it aside. When sweet dew descends, the Qi of Heaven and Earth unite; where the yellow sprout grows, Kan and Li meet. How could a frog at the bottom of a well believe that a dragon has a cavern to dwell in? How could a sparrow among the hedges know that a phoenix has a nest to rest in? Once the Golden Elixir is refined, gold will naturally fill the house. Why then search for herbs and tend the fire, laboring all year long?

The commentary explains that sweet dew and the yellow sprout are both other names for the Golden Elixir; Heaven and Earth, and Kan and Li, are both symbols of the dragon and tiger. When the Qi of Heaven and Earth mingle, sweet dew descends naturally. When the Qi of Kan and Li meet, the yellow sprout grows naturally. As the energies of the dragon and tiger join, the Qi of True Unity congeals into the Elixir. Everyone possesses this supreme treasure from the outset, but because it is so close at hand, people look down on it and throw it away. In truth, it is the very ladder by which one ascends to Heaven.

In recent times, many Daoist practitioners have become attached to deviant and improper paths. Some emphasize solitary Yin or solitary Yang, or try to produce something from what already exists; others pursue methods that are easy to encounter but difficult to bring to completion. In the end, they only hold themselves back. They do not know that this principle is simple and easy to attain. Like frogs at the bottom of wells and sparrows among hedges, how could they know that dragon caverns and phoenix nests exist? Once an Elixir pearl the size of a grain of millet has been formed and hangs in place, the gold between Heaven and Earth is there for the taking.

In the past, Shao Gangzhong was skilled in the art of refining gold and was known as the “Little King of Huainan.” Later, he met the immortal Master Han Zitao and became his disciple, facing north to pay homage to him. Shao offered a hundred yi of mercury gold as a gift of discipleship, but Han Zitao only smiled and ignored it. Shao then pricked his finger and wrote an oath in blood. Only then did Han Zitao transmit the art to him. After teaching him, Han took a handful of mercury, put it in his mouth, rinsed it around, and spat it into a basin of water. The water boiled at once. When the boiling stopped, a lump of purple gold had congealed in the basin. This illustrates the wondrous efficacy of the great medicine of internal alchemy. How could those who spend all year searching for plants and burning metals and stones hope to witness such a state? The Jing says, “What is hidden in the earth comes forth; gold and jade reveal their forms.” This expresses the same principle.

The commentary further says that Lü Chunyang could turn soil, tiles, and stones into gold, while the immortal woman Geng of the Southern Tang could mold snow into silver. The Transmission of the Dao records that accomplished practitioners could even make mercury solidify in their mouths. All these are regarded as signs that the Golden Elixir has been successfully refined.

To understand where the substances used in alchemy come from, the key lies in the southwest, where their root is found. When Lead stirs on a Gui day, it must be gathered and refined at once. Once Gold has passed the full moon, its time has passed and it should no longer be taken. Place the ingredients in an earthen crucible used for alchemy and seal it tightly. Then add Flowing Pearl, an alchemical term for a substance like mercury, so that the two substances work together. The appearance of dry mercury in the mouth can serve as a sign that the elixir has been successfully refined.

The elixir weighs one catty in all and must be proportioned according to the “two-eight” ratio. The firing process is governed by the changes of Yin-Yang.

The Western Splendor Scripture says that the medicines are born in the West and must be gathered back to the positions of Wu and Ji. Gathering the medicine requires the right moment, and the work of movement must also be done on a set day. The southwest is the position of Kun, where the tiger is born. The moon, too, begins to wax from the position corresponding to Kun. Thus the source of the medicine is said to lie in Kun earth. The moon is the essence of Metal and Water; when its upper and lower crescents join, they condense into an elixir. The place where the ingredients for the Golden Elixir are produced therefore truly belongs to Kun earth.

“Lead meets the time when Gui is born” refers to the Chou hour on a Gui day. “Metal meets the distant full moon as it begins to wane” refers to the time after the full moon, when it is gradually diminishing. The timing of the full moon is preserved in oral formulas; the subtlety of the Zi hour within the day is transmitted directly from teacher to student. The breath moves through the circuit of Heaven with delicate precision and measured rhythm, like drops falling from a jade clepsydra: each drop answering the last in the cold, hushed silence. These are all secrets passed from mouth to ear by true adepts.

Lu Sicheng says in his Postface to the Awakening to Reality that those who transmitted this poem often corrupted it, taking “lead” to mean “if” and “metal” to mean “as,” and thereby gravely misunderstanding the immortal master’s original intent. Lead and metal are the Golden Elixir. Master Lu pointed out the clues and corrected errors in the transmission of the text, but concealed the fundamental secret, fearing it might circulate in written books. Since we have personally received our master’s instruction, we should naturally understand it. Without that understanding, even in the midst of the Void, it is difficult to obtain the “pearl of millet” that stands for the exceedingly subtle true seed of internal alchemy.

Practitioners of heterodox methods, however, take things such as the corners of a jade tally to be lead and metal, and gather and refine them when “Heavenly Gui” arrives. This is truly like child’s play. Some also speak of “Kun receiving Gui,” as Ye Wenshu does; such claims can only be laughed off. Golden Elixir practice must begin at the Zi hour on a Gui day. The moment must not be missed, so the medicine must be gathered in time. After the full moon, it gradually wanes and the vital essence and energy weaken, making it unsuitable for gathering and refinement.

When the Gui day is reckoned forward to the Ren-Zi hour, Heavenly Ren and Earthly Gui meet in the north. Zhu Zhen’s Commentary on the Changes says that at the meeting of the dark and new moons, the Kan moon joins the Li sun at Ren and Gui: the Kan moon belongs to Wu, and the Li sun to Ji. On the evening of the third day, the image of the Zhen trigram appears, and the moon rises at the Geng position. On the eighth day, the image of the Dui trigram appears, and the moon shows at the Ding position. On the fifteenth day, the image of the Qian trigram appears, and the moon is full at the Jia position. At dawn on the sixteenth day, the image of the Xun trigram appears, and the moon withdraws to the Xin position. On the twenty-third day, the image of the Gen trigram appears, and the moon diminishes at the Bing position. On the thirtieth day, the image of the Kun trigram appears, and the moon disappears at the Yi position, returning to concealment in Gui. At the turning between the dark and new moons, the Kan water within the moon flows toward the Wu position; the Li fire within the sun returns to the Ji position. These are essential secrets of Heaven’s workings. They can only be transmitted through oral formulas and are difficult to make clear in writing. Without meeting a true teacher, one can only guess and force interpretations.

After taking the elixir, it must be placed in the “earthen crucible” of the Dantian, a Neidan term for the place where the elixir is refined and nurtured, and sealed so that it does not leak out. Then the stages of heating are set in motion: the “fire dragon” moves the “flowing pearl of mercury,” bringing the two into balance, and the sacred embryo can then form. The crow’s liver weighs eight liang and the hare’s marrow half a jin, making one jin in all. Thus the medicine is said to weigh one jin and must be matched in a proportion of “two eights.” The “fire” spoken of here is not actual fire; it is a metaphor for the two Qi of Yin and Yang, used to explain their harmonizing and circulation.

The commentary says that people accept “Heavenly Gui” or avoid “Timely Gui” only if they were born on a Gui day or at a Gui hour. But how could they understand the secret meaning of the Wuzhen pian? “Guard against the hour as Chou approaches” means that the hour has already passed; “the moon is about to wane” means that the day has already passed. Both the day and the hour have been missed. The Qi of Lead has stopped and is about to dissipate, while the Qi of Metal has reached fullness and is about to decline. Any gathering and refining begun at this point will yield nothing; the effort will have no effect.

The Book of Changes says, “Water flows toward what is wet; fire moves toward what is dry.” Water flows to damp places, and fire tends toward dry ones: this is the nature of water and fire. Wu and Ji belong to Earth and lie between water and fire. The flow of water and the movement of fire both contain the Qi of Wu and Ji, and thus give rise to Ren and Gui. Ren and Gui mark the hidden, not yet manifest workings of the sun and moon; Wu and Ji mark the places where the sun and moon shine forth. Ren and Gui converge around the Zi position, while Wu and Ji converge around the Wu position. Zi and Wu correspond to the new and full moons and also symbolize the souls of the sun and moon. This is the wondrous working by which the Golden Elixir is transformed. For details, see “The Small Celestial Circuit of the Month.”

Yang may also be called fire, and Yin may also be called fire. This fire is not literal fire. Rather, the names Yin and Yang are used to refer to the essential Qi of Heaven, Earth, the sun, and the moon, and to explain how these forces are harmonized and put to use.

Do not cultivate medicines such as the Three Yellows and Four Spirits, and do not go searching for various herbs. None of these is a true substance for refining the Elixir. Only when the Yin and Yang qualities match can they interact. When “two and eight are in accord,” they complement one another and naturally draw together. When the sun’s light turns red at the bottom of the pool, the baleful Yin Qi disperses; when the moon shines white on the mountaintop, the medicine sprouts appear. Those who cultivate today must understand that true Lead and Mercury are not ordinary cinnabar and mercury.

The commentary says: The three yellows, the four spirits, and minerals, metals, plants, and trees are all coarse substances that came into being only after Heaven and Earth took shape. How could material things be transformed into immaterial ones? External substances cannot be refined into an Elixir embryo, and flowers cannot bear fruit.

The Qi of True Unity, the primordial Qi that arose before Heaven and Earth, came into being before Heaven and Earth had divided. It is deep, obscure, and immeasurable. Through the union of two substances that are equal in quantity and alike in kind, it joins and becomes one; amid the blending and mutual response of their vital breaths, an image emerges. “Alike in kind” refers to the life force contained in things without awareness, and the essence hidden within what has no visible form or color. This is what is meant by “eight ounces of crow’s liver and half a catty of hare’s marrow.” Crow’s liver and hare’s marrow are terms in Neidan (internal alchemy), symbolizing the two medicines of Yin and Yang. When they unite, the Qi of True Unity enters the place where they respond to one another and congeals into an Elixir pellet the size of a millet grain. This is the mystery of the Way.

The pool belongs to Yin, and the sun to Yang. “The sun glows red at the bottom of the pool” means that Yang is contained within Yin. Since the Yang within Yin is pure and free of Yin Qi, the “Yin demon is extinguished.” This is the tiger’s cord Qi, called “Red Lead.” The mountain belongs to Yang, and the moon to Yin. “The moon shines white above the mountain” means that Yin is contained within Yang. This is the dragon’s cord Qi, the Qi of the first lunar quarter, called “Black Mercury”; hence the phrase “the medicine sprout is new.” An ancient song says, “Red Lead and Black Mercury are the foundation of the Great Elixir. To place Red Lead within Black Mercury is true cultivation.” This is what the passage means.

The sages refine these two medicines together at the same moment, forming a single Yang Elixir in the Northern Sea. It shines like the sun, its light passing through the curtains. They then gather it into the abdomen, where it transforms the Yin Mercury within the body, dispersing all the body’s Yin and malign Qi. This is like the morning sun rising from the Eastern Sea: its rays shine forth, and dark, uncanny things disappear.

Yin Mercury rises from the lower Dantian, the site of internal alchemical practice in the lower part of the body. After receiving the Qi of the Yang Elixir, it gradually gathers and begins to sprout like a tender new shoot, which is why it is called “the medicine sprout is new.” This is also like the sun and moon meeting at the start of the lunar month, when the moon has just received the sun’s Qi. After the sun sets, a faint light appears on the moon in the west, shaped like a moth’s brow. The new moon’s light is tender and clear, like a newly sprouted medicine. The images above are metaphors for the inner and outer medicines.

The Scripture of Western Florescence (Xihua Jing) says that Yin within Yang is called the “Maiden,” and Yang within Yin is called the “Metal Lord.” These are the husband and wife within the pot, a metaphor for the paired Yin and Yang in internal alchemy, and the ladder leading to the Purple Palace, a symbol of the dwelling place of immortals. Those who understand this see the immortals as if they were before their eyes; those who lose their way are as though separated by ten thousand miles of dust and sand.

The True Lead and True Mercury of the outer medicine are the Qi of the dragon and tiger at the first lunar quarter. The True Lead and True Mercury of the inner medicine are the Golden Elixir and the body’s own true Qi. If people wish to discern True Lead and True Mercury, these alone are genuine; everything else falls short of the Great Way. Only these two true medicines can transform the material into the immaterial and bring a person to the state of a perfected being or immortal. How could ordinary cinnabar and mercury compare with them?

The commentary says that most alchemical texts circulating in the world call mercury extracted from cinnabar “true mercury,” or treat cinnabar as the “substance of gold,” then refine it repeatedly into an elixir. This wastes money and takes many years, yet few succeed. Even among those who do produce an elixir, many die after taking it. They have all failed to recognize what true lead and true mercury are.

The poem says: Yin essence is contained within Yang, but its nature is not firm and strong. Cultivating only one substance instead causes the body to grow weaker day by day. Training the body through exercise, pressing, and guiding its movements is not the foundation of the Dao; breathing in Qi and “dining on rosy clouds”—methods that involve breath cultivation and taking in cloud essence—are also misguided practices. People in the world seek lead and mercury in vain, without knowing when they will be able to subdue and conceal the mercury and bring the dragon and tiger—the alchemical names for the two Yin-Yang forces—under control. I urge you to investigate deeply the beginning of life, return to the root and recover the source: this is the most precious medicine.

“Yin essence within Yang” refers to one’s own true essence. Essence can generate Qi, and Qi can generate Shen; together they sustain the nourishment and functioning of the whole body and form the foundation of life. It is like a lamp: when its oil is used up, the flame goes out. When the marrow is exhausted, a person dies. Yet this essence is Yin in nature, soft and weak rather than firm and vigorous. It is also easily lost through urine and stool, nasal mucus and saliva, sweat, and tears, making it difficult to grasp and control. For this reason, ancient practitioners called it the “flowing pearl of the sun,” describing how active it is and how hard it is to gather in.

Without the “true One Yang Elixir of the Primordial Unity” to restrain it, and the Yang fire within Yin to warm and nourish it, the essence cannot coalesce, much less undergo transformation. Practicing this alone instead harms the body and leaves a person frail. Pulling and stretching the limbs, exhausting the body, or “dining on rosy clouds and ingesting Qi” (absorbing the Qi of clouds and mist and taking in breath) are not the correct path. Even swallowing the essences of the sun and moon, circulating Qi through the Jiaji pass (a site of practice along the spine), replenishing the brain and restoring essence, or pursuing methods such as corpse liberation, rebirth, or leaving the body and entering meditation—if, in the end, these practices cultivate only this “Yin essence within Yang,” they remain Yin without Yang. It is like a hen incubating her eggs alone: how could chicks hatch?

Elder Zhongli said: “The seven numinous substances—nasal mucus, saliva, fluid, essence, Qi, blood, and liquid—all belong to Yin. If you take them as ingredients for making the Elixir, how can they cause the spirit to ascend and pass through the Jade Capital, the Daoist celestial realm?” From this we can see that true essence in the body is indeed Yin, and the five viscera and six bowels are also Yin. If one does not understand how to pair the heart and kidneys with Kan and Li, symbols of Yin-Yang transformation, or the liver and lungs with the Dragon and Tiger, terms that symbolize Yin and Yang in Neidan, how can one speak of cultivation? To treat Shen and Qi as mother and child, or bodily fluids as lead and mercury, and rely on these alone to tend the body while hoping to attain the state of pure Yang is like adding ice when cold or pouring hot soup onto heat: it only takes one further from the right path.

The Cantong qi uses the relationship between men and women as a metaphor: two women live together. Though they are beautiful, and others try to arrange a match between them, and they exchange every kind word, they can never become true spouses. Even when their hair has fallen out and their teeth have decayed, they will never come to know and unite with each other. This means that if Yin is joined with Yin, and Yin is refined through Yin, how can Yin and Yang unite and bring about transformation and generation?

The true Dragon and true Tiger are the “two eights”; true lead and true mercury are the Qi of the two sides of the Dragon and Tiger. The principle is neither complicated nor remote. Yet students of the Dao often become fixated on side paths, mistaking unrelated substances for lead and mercury and then judging the true secrets of the Great Dao to be wrong. This is truly lamentable. Master Zhongli said: “Those who seek immortality gain nothing from reading ten thousand treatises on the Elixir if they do not recognize true lead and mercury. If they do not understand the deeper meaning, they will slander the truth and call it empty words.”

So the Immortal Master directly explained where lead and mercury arise and where their source lies: one must ask where one’s own life came from and how it was established, return to the root, and go back to the source. Following this method of reversing the process of cultivation, the true Dragon and true Tiger will naturally be subdued, and true lead and true mercury will naturally coalesce. If this is not the great medicine, what could be called the king of medicines?

In recent times, some have had sixteen-year-old men and women engage in intercourse and called the product obtained through ejaculation and conception the “Fetal Origin Elixir” or “Purple River Cart,” treating it as a great medicine for the Golden Elixir. This is like reaching for the moon with a bamboo pole: it only takes you farther from your goal. After Heaven and Earth came into being, nothing with form and substance could be the supreme medicine, because anything with form and substance belongs to the postcelestial realm, not the Way of the precelestial.

The commentary says, “‘Flowing Pearl of the Sun’ comes from the Cantong qi. It originally served as a metaphor for how difficult it is to subdue spiritual mercury. The Nameless Master uses it as a metaphor for the mercury within the human body; this interpretation also makes sense.

The Taishang Laojun shuo chang qingjing jing says that all things turn their backs on Yin and face Yang, and are formed through the union of Yin and Yang. Neither humans nor other things are entirely without Yang Qi. Why, then, does this text say that the human body is wholly Yin? Because people are born after Heaven and Earth have taken form, and already possess a body. Once embodied, they are constrained by Yin-Yang and the Five Phases, and so are called Yin. This makes them unable to transform. The Cantong qi says, ‘When things lack Yin and Yang, they violate the Dao of Heaven and depart from their origin.’ Perfected Peng also says, ‘Neither isolated Yin nor deficient Yang can generate anything on its own.’

The subtlety of the external alchemical medicine does not mean that it is inherently without Yin. It is called “pure Yang” because its Qi—the primordial Qi of the pre-Heaven state—existed before Heaven and Earth came into being, without form or substance. Even when it later appears in material form, it can transform the formed into the formless, and thus bring about change. It can turn post-Heaven Qi into pre-Heaven Qi, which is why it is called “pure Yang.”

Someone asked, “Yang contains Yin essence and is not firm enough in substance to be used alone. Why, then, does the text also say to use the Yang fire within Yin to warm and nurture it?” The answer is that this refers to the true fire in the large and small furnaces and cauldrons. The human body belongs to Yin and contains only a little true fire from the primordial sea. If it is constrained by the Yang Elixir, the true fire will not dissipate. Then, by warming and nurturing it with the Yang fire within Yin, the reverted elixir can form. This shows that Yin essence cannot be cultivated on its own; it must be cultivated together with Yang. Nourish and warm it through the breath, follow the firing times of the large and small furnaces and cauldrons, and bring their fire into the body; the reverted elixir will then naturally coalesce, leading to transformation. In the large and small furnaces and cauldrons, this is called “Yang fire within Yin”; in the human body, it is called “Yang essence within Yin”; and in immortal alchemical recipes, it is called the “Purple River Chariot”—a Neidan term for the essence and Qi used in warming, nurturing, and refining. It is said not only to nourish a weak and sickly body, but also to transform body and spirit.

Seek the true lead—the key alchemical substance or primordial Qi in cultivation—with care, and do not let time pass in vain. Once you seize the Earthly Soul, the Cinnabar Mercury will naturally be brought under control, and the Heavenly Soul will be able to subdue Water Metal. This may be called profound attainment in the Dao: the dragon and tiger, symbols in Neidan of the two Yin-Yang forces, will also submit. With deep De, even ghosts and spirits will show respect. Once you know that life can be prolonged and endure alongside Heaven and Earth, troubles can no longer disturb the mind and spirit.

Note: True Lead is the Golden Elixir. “Earthly Po” refers to the external medicine, the White Tiger; “Heavenly Hun” refers to the Azure Dragon within the external medicine. The internal medicine is the Golden Elixir, which is also the practitioner’s own self. “Vermilion Mercury” refers externally to the Azure Dragon’s string-qi and internally to one’s own true Qi. “Water-Gold” refers externally to the White Tiger’s string-qi and internally to the Golden Elixir, also called “Mercury within Vermilion” or “Silver in Water.” These expressions are all metaphors for the external and internal aspects of cultivation.

The Immortal Master urges those who seek the Dao to cultivate the Golden Elixir diligently, so they may transcend life and death and not waste their time. In cultivation, one must seize the White Tiger and subdue the Azure Dragon, allowing the two Qi of Yin and Yang to mingle and produce the Golden Elixir. Once obtained, the Golden Elixir is swallowed into the abdomen to draw in one’s own true Qi. When true Qi joins with the Golden Elixir, a sacred embryo takes shape. Once one’s own true Dragon and true Tiger have been subdued, the Dragons and Tigers of the outer world will also grow still. When inner cultivation brings the spirits and souls back to purity, the ghosts and spirits of the world will naturally show respect. Who could reach this state without profound Daoist attainment and deep virtue? The practitioner’s body and mind become pure Yang, and their lifespan matches that of Heaven and Earth. They roam freely beyond the world and live at ease within it. With every distracting thought dispelled, no troubles can disturb the heart.

11

Yellow Sprout and White Snow are not hard to find, but truly understanding them requires deep virtue. The Four Symbols and Five Phases all depend on Earth; the Three Origins and Eight Trigrams all depend on Ren Water. Once cultivation has refined the body into a wondrous form, ordinary people can scarcely recognize it; and when Yin demons and ghosts have vanished, they can no longer intrude. The secret could be left in the human world, but no one who truly understands it has ever appeared.

The commentator says that the Qi contained in the Dragon is called “Yellow Sprout,” while the Qi contained in the Tiger is called “White Snow.” Here, Dragon and Tiger are terms from alchemy: they symbolize Wood and Metal, and also the two forces in the transformations of Yin and Yang. Yellow Sprout and White Snow are important terms in Neidan cultivation. The root of the Great Medicine lies here. The Way of cultivation is simple in principle, and the work itself is not difficult. But without deep virtue and merit, it is hard to encounter a true teacher and receive subtle instruction. The Great Dao arises from nonbeing as a single Qi. This Qi then divides into Yin and Yang, called the Dragon and the Tiger. The Dragon belongs to Wood, and Wood generates Fire; the Tiger belongs to Metal, and Metal generates Water. Wood, Fire, Metal, and Water combine to form the Four Images, which come together to form the Elixir. Earth is the foundation on which the Elixir forms. Earth has no fixed direction and flourishes in each of the four seasons. If Earth Qi did not permeate the four seasons, the sequence of time could not unfold, nor could it nourish and bring forth the myriad things. Thus the Four Images and Five Phases all depend on Earth.

“Ren” belongs to Water. It is also called the “True One Qi,” the source Qi from which all things arise, and is known as True One Water. It exists before Heaven and Earth; through transformation it becomes the Yang Dragon and Yin Tiger. When Dragon and Tiger unite, they form the Elixir, which belongs to Earth. Since the Dragon belongs to Wood and the Tiger to Metal, they are called the “Three Natures,” meaning three attributes. The “Three Origins” likewise depend on the transformations of True One Water.

The Bagua, too, arise through transformations of the True One Qi. Its first transformation becomes Heaven, called Qian and regarded as the father; its second becomes Earth, called Kun and regarded as the mother. The Yang Qi of Qian joins with the Yin Qi of Kun, giving rise in sequence to the eldest son Zhen, the middle son Kan, and the youngest son Gen. These are the Three Yangs. The Yin Qi of Kun then joins with the Yang Qi of Qian, giving rise in sequence to the eldest daughter Xun, the middle daughter Li, and the youngest daughter Dui. These are the Three Yins. The Three Origins and the Bagua alike depend on True One Water.

Since Heaven and Earth first came into being, everything with form and a name has been generated and transformed by the essence of the True One. Zhenyizi says that the essence of the True One is the mother of Heaven and Earth, the root of Yin and Yang, the source of Water and Fire, the progenitor of the sun and moon, the origin of the Three Powers—Heaven, Earth, and humanity—and the ancestor of the Five Phases. All things rely on it to come into being, and the many kinds of spiritual beings appear and disappear through it. The high heavens and vast earth, grotto realms and famous mountains, celestial signs and divine officials, immortals and holy assemblies, as well as wind and rain, darkness and brightness, spring, summer, autumn, and winter—all arise through the transformations of this “Lead Qi,” a Neidan term for the source Qi used in alchemical cultivation, before they take visible form. For someone cultivating the Elixir, obtaining True One Water means that everything needed for the practice is already in hand.

Swallow the millet seed of the True One—a Neidan term for the tiny, pure seed of the Elixir—into the Five Viscera, and refine and nourish it through the appropriate stages of Fire for ten months. Once every kind of Yin Qi has been refined away, it becomes pure Yang. Then the immortal True One is realized, and Yin demons and corpse spirits have nowhere to flee. The Immortal Elder wished to leave this secret, never before transmitted, in the human world, but could never find someone who understood it. It differs so greatly from ordinary understanding that people find it hard to grasp.

Only deep-seated goodness can give rise to a numinous bone; with a numinous bone, there is hope of becoming an immortal. Planting the seeds of goodness and forming a numinous bone are often not completed in one or two lifetimes, or two or three; they accumulate over countless ages. As soon as they begin to show, one takes on an air of having drifted beyond the world. Alas, those who are like walking corpses and wandering ghosts think that carrying a bottle and bowl is enough to ascend to immortality. Becoming a true immortal is no easy matter. Why not feel your own heart and ask how it differs from the heart of an ordinary person? If there is no difference at all, the work of your own immortal Way remains far off.

Those who cultivate the Way should make breadth and understanding their responsibility, and set themselves apart with aspirations that rise above their age. Others may laugh at me for being impractical and remote, but I know that I am no ordinary person. Chijingzi and Chisongzi are my friends; Penglai and Fangzhang are my home. In this way, one will naturally encounter extraordinary people, receive the utmost Way directly, and join with kindred spirits to refine a millet-seed Elixir. The Immortal Elder wished to leave this secret, never before transmitted, in the human world. Yet, regrettably, he never found such a person—so how could he find anyone truly able to receive it?

The commentary says, “‘Earth’ refers to the place where the Four Images join and return to harmony; ‘Ren’ refers to the state in which the myriad things first begin to form. ‘The Water of True Unity’ is Qi that has not yet taken shape, while ‘the Millet of True Unity’ is Qi that has already taken shape. Each of the Four Images contains True Earth: One combines with Four to make Five, and Two combines with Three to make Five. Thus all Four Images return to Earth.

Ren belongs to Water and is generated by Heaven’s One. Ren lies just before Zi, marking the end of Hai and the beginning of Zi. It is the moment when the first Yang begins, and the root of generative Qi. Ren is the first of the Five Phases to arise, so the beginning of all things starts with Ren. Master Zhenyi said, ‘The essence of True Unity is the foundation that brings about the transformations of the myriad things.’ This saying comes from The Golden Key. The formation of lead and mercury both arise from this; what lead and mercury produce is precisely the Spirit Water of True Unity.

Twelve

The Yin and Yang Qi of plants and trees complement one another. Without either, they cannot flourish. When plants and trees first grow, green leaves appear first: Yang Qi takes the lead. Then red flowers bloom: Yin follows. The constant course of Yin and Yang is visible in everyday things. But who can know the truth of returning to this source? Therefore, those who study the Dao are cautioned: if you do not understand Yin and Yang, do not act rashly.

The commentary says: Before plants and trees begin to grow, they contain within themselves the most unadulterated vitality. When a seed breaks open and sprouts, it receives the One Qi and sends out a shoot. First comes a single stem, symbolizing this One Qi; then it divides into two leaves, symbolizing Yin and Yang. From between the leaves, a flower bud emerges, corresponding to the Three Powers of Heaven, Earth, and Humanity. After this, the branches and leaves gradually flourish, and the blossoms open in full splendor.

In spring, plants and trees grow and their green leaves spread; in summer, branches and leaves flourish and red flowers bloom. This is driven by Yang Qi. In autumn, plants and trees draw inward and bear fruit; in winter, they wither and return to the soil. This is driven by Yin Qi. When Yin and Yang work together, the myriad things continually come into being. Without either one, nothing could grow. Thus, Zhenyizi says, “Isolated Yin cannot produce on its own, and isolated Yang cannot bring anything to completion.” When Yin and Yang of Heaven and Earth unite, the myriad things become abundant and flourish; when men and women unite, life multiplies. People live by this principle every day, yet often do not understand its source or subtle workings, nor the key to reversing Yin and Yang and transforming them into one another. Those who can cultivate and master this principle may transcend life and death. If students of the Dao fail to understand this and instead mock me, they are only deluding themselves.

Thirteen

If you do not understand how Yin and Yang are reversed within the mystery, how could you know how to plant a lotus in fire? You must guide the White Tiger—symbolizing Metal Qi or the body’s Yin essence—home to be nurtured. Only then can it form a bright pearl, perfect and round like the moon. Simply tend the alchemical furnace and attend to the firing times—that is, regulate the stages of the cultivation process—while calming the mind and breath and allowing them to follow their natural course. Once the many Yin forces have gradually been dispelled, the Golden Elixir will be refined. Then you can break free from the bonds of the mundane world and attain longevity.

According to the ordinary principles of human life, men cannot become pregnant, and lotus flowers cannot grow in fire. Yet the wondrous methods of immortal cultivation reverse and transform Yin and Yang, enabling a man to “become pregnant,” just as a lotus can be planted in fire. This is what is meant by “turning things upside down.”

The sun belongs to the Li trigram. Though it originally symbolizes the male, it comes to represent the female. The moon belongs to the Kan trigram. Though it originally symbolizes the female, it comes to represent the male. When these two symbols are reversed in relation to each other, they can form the Elixir. Using the Elixir to transform the Yin Mercury within oneself—a substance in Neidan that symbolizes Yin essence and Qi—one forms the sacred embryo and then nurtures it into an infant. This is what is meant by a man becoming pregnant and planting a lotus in fire. When the Immortal Weng read the Cantong qi, he said, “Only when the Five Phases move in reverse can the Elixir’s substance preserve its spiritual nature.” This means that Water reverses and gives rise to Earth, Earth reverses and gives rise to Wood, Wood reverses and gives rise to Metal, Metal reverses and gives rise to Fire, and Fire reverses and gives rise to Water. This is the key to “turning things upside down.”

The Azure Dragon and White Tiger both originally came about through transformations of the True One’s essence—the original, unified essence and Qi. Later they took their places in the east and west, seeming to become two separate things, though in truth they share one source and differ only in name. The True One’s essence belongs to Mercury, which is called the Azure Dragon and resides in the east. The White Tiger, meanwhile, is born from the True One’s essence and resides in the west, though its root remains in the east. Thus the Immortal Weng said, “The Metal Lord was originally a son of the eastern house, sent to reside with the western neighbor. Recognize him, call him back home to be nurtured, and then let him become kin to the Maiden of Beauty,” a goddess who symbolizes Mercury or Yin essence and Qi. The Metal Lord refers to Lead, and the Maiden of Beauty to Mercury. Using Lead to transform the Mercury within oneself and form the sacred embryo is like leading the White Tiger back home to be joined with the Azure Dragon. They become husband and wife and produce a luminous pearl, perfectly round like the full moon.

“Luminous pearl, round as the moon” also explains the symbolism of Waidan. The practitioner first takes the western half of the waxing moon—the first half of the lunar month, symbolizing Yang Qi—and obtains eight ounces of Yang Metal. Next, the practitioner takes the eastern half of the waning moon—the second half of the lunar month, symbolizing Yin Qi—and obtains half a catty of Yin Water. Refining these two portions together forms the Golden Elixir, so the pill is said to be round like the full moon. Chan Master Daoguang’s saying, “One numinous pill weighs one catty,” likewise refers to combining two portions of eight ounces each to make one catty. These statements describe the symbolic patterns of Waidan.

After obtaining this pill, one swallows it and regards it as the White Tiger, then guides the White Tiger back within oneself and joins it with one’s own Mercury. Next, one applies the Yin Talisman and Yang Fire, refining the ingredients in the sequence of the sixty-four hexagrams until they become a single catty of Golden Liquid Returning Elixir, also shaped like the full moon. This describes the symbolic patterns of Neidan.

Neidan uses the full moon as a metaphor because the fire process follows sixty-four hexagrams, each with six lines, making three hundred and eighty-four lines in all. This corresponds to one catty of three hundred and eighty-four zhu. Waidan uses the full moon as a metaphor because the upper and lower lunar crescents each contribute half a circle; together they form a whole and also symbolize the two eights combining to make one catty. The Cantong qi says, “The number of the Dui hexagram at the upper crescent is eight, and the number of the Gen hexagram at the lower crescent is also eight. When the two crescents join, the substance of Qian and Kun takes shape. Two eights make one catty, in accord with the principles of the Changes, so Yin and Yang are not out of balance.” Zhenyizi likewise says that the upper and lower crescents together make one catty, which is then divided into three hundred and eighty-four zhu to correspond to the lines governing the fire process. By comparing the Elixir to the full moon, the Immortal Weng sought to help practitioners understand the mysteries of creation and distinguish the respective numbers of “two eights” in Neidan and Waidan, which must not be confused.

The “fire” spoken of here is not ordinary worldly fire, but the primordial Qi of the Beginning: the Yin-Yang Qi that has neither sound nor form. Qingxiazi says that the cauldron is not a metal cauldron, and the furnace is not a jade furnace; fire issues from the Li position, while Water corresponds to the Kan position. When three qualities meet and two substances coalesce, the embryo’s Qi becomes stable and does not leak away, and transformation soon takes place. Gao Xiangxian also says that when the Qi of Heaven and Earth mingle and men and women come together, the Four Symbols and Five Phases gather in turn. Cultivation should follow the cycles of day and night and the natural order, without clinging to calculations of the fire process.

Thus the cauldron and furnace described here are those formed naturally, and the fire within the furnace is also natural fire. The practitioner need only settle the mind and spirit and regulate the breath, adjusting the gentle fire and the strong fire in accordance with nature so that the heat and timing are precisely right. In less than half an hour, the Elixir can be refined into an ingested pill. Afterward, one follows the methods of advancing and withdrawing, applies the Yin Talisman and Yang Fire, and carries out extraction and replenishment while carefully guarding against possible deviations and dangers. When ten months of work are complete, all Yin Qi has been eliminated and the body transformed into pure Yang. Freed from the cage of the mundane world and able to attain longevity, this is called the Golden Liquid Returning Elixir.

Yet this has not reached the highest state. One must continue to hold fast to the primordial One for nine years, until essence and Qi return to Shen. This is called the Nine-Turn Great Golden Liquid Elixir. At that point, body and spirit both become subtle and wondrous, and unite with the Dao.

The commentary says that “Mercury” refers to the Sun’s Flowing Pearl, an alchemical term for a yang, flowing essence. When it receives the Golden Flower, a metaphor for the essence of Metal, it congeals into the Golden Elixir. The Sun’s Flowing Pearl originally arises from the Azure Dragon of the East, which symbolizes the East and the Wood force. It is therefore called the “son of the East,” or the Gold Duke. The Gold Duke refers to the Golden Elixir: originally the son of the East, it later takes shape by lodging within the Golden Flower of the West.

Zhang Sui’s commentary on the Cantong qi says that a month has thirty days and a year totals 360 periods. These changes in time through the days symbolize the small furnace and cauldron. The hexagram Qi, seasonal divisions, and advances and retreats of the firing process across the twelve months of the year symbolize the great furnace and cauldron. The “fire” here is not ordinary worldly fire, but the timing and regulation of the fire in alchemical cultivation. The immortals lamented that ordinary people did not understand the true firing process, so they used the symbols of hexagram lines to explain it. The hexagram images are only a means of explaining the firing process; once its function is understood, the lines and trigrams can be forgotten. Wumingzi’s commentary is based on this interpretation.

Fourteen

Few people, from ancient times to the present, have truly understood the phrase “three and five unite as one.” The three of the East and the two of the South combine to make five; the one of the North and the four of the West also combine to make five. Wu and Ji, associated with the central direction of Earth, likewise return to the generative number five. When the three families meet, they form an infant. From this we can understand that the Great One (Taiyi), a Daoist term for the One that is the origin, contains the true Qi. After ten months of gestation and maturation, it becomes the foundation for entering the sacred realm.

The commentary explains that the numbers three, five, and one are all connected with the Dragon and Tiger, common alchemical symbols for the mutually coordinating Yin and Yang energies. The Dragon corresponds to Wood, whose number is three and whose direction is east. Wood generates Fire, so the string energy associated with the Dragon belongs to Fire, whose number is two and whose direction is south. Since they share the same source, three and two combine to make five. The Tiger corresponds to Metal, whose number is four and whose direction is west. Metal generates Water, so the lead energy associated with the Tiger belongs to Water, whose number is one and whose direction is north. Since they occupy the same palace, four and one also combine to make five. These two fives meet in the central palace, where Wu and Ji are located. The central palace belongs to Earth, whose generating number is five; this is why the process is called “three-five.”

When three and five combine, they form the Elixir; the Elixir returns to one, hence the phrase “three-five-one.” Since ancient times, very few people have truly been able to unite three and five, refine the Elixir, and bring forth the “infant”—the Elixir body formed and completed through internal alchemical cultivation. “One” is the Golden Elixir; the so-called infant is also the Elixir. The Elixir is one: this “one” is the True One, the mother Qi of Heaven and Earth. The true Qi within oneself is the child Qi generated by the mother Qi. One draws in the mother Qi and settles it within the five viscera, causing it to subdue the child Qi, like a cat watching a mouse and keeping it from escaping. The child and mother Qi cling to one another within the womb and coalesce into an infant. Hence the phrase “Taiyi contains the true Qi,” meaning that it holds the Qi of the True One within.

This is like a human pregnancy: the child is born only after ten full months. The sacred embryo, too, formed through internal alchemical cultivation, follows this pattern. When ten months of cultivation are complete, it naturally tends toward the sacred state. Hence the saying, “When the embryo is complete at ten months, one enters the foundation of sagehood.” How could later practitioners who identify the kidneys with the infant achieve such results?

The subcommentary explains that one, two, three, four, and five are “generating numbers”: they indicate that things have begun to arise and show signs, but have not yet taken form. These are not the Five Phases as visible, tangible things in the world, but the void, formless Qi between Heaven and Earth, which belongs to the precelestial state. Six, seven, eight, nine, and ten are “completion numbers”: they indicate that things have taken form. They belong to the postcelestial state, not to the formless, precelestial Five Phases. The heavenly number one combines with the earthly number four to make five, then combines with the central five to make ten. The heavenly number three combines with the earthly number two to make five, then likewise combines with the central five to make ten. The two fives work together and, in turn, combine to form the heavenly number twenty-five.

The Golden Elixir is refined from the precelestial Five Phases, so it uses only their generating numbers. Treating the kidneys as the infant and the heart as the maiden—a term in internal alchemy for the mind-spirit or the Qi within the heart—as well as practices involving visions of inner and outer realms or visualization of spirits and ghosts, all belong to the Yin method and therefore cannot bring the work to completion.

If one does not understand that “True Lead” is fundamental, then all manner of methods are wasted effort. Abandoning one’s wife and deliberately severing the union of Yin and Yang; abstaining from food until the stomach and intestines are empty—these are of no use. Plants, trees, gold, and silver are all impurities; clouds, rosy mists, the sun, and the moon are merely vague and obscure things. Add to these methods such as regulating the breath through inhalation and exhalation, or visualizing and preserving the spirit, and they still differ from cultivating the Golden Elixir.

Note: The key to cultivating True Lead lies in taking the “Qi of two and eight” as the foundation. Practices other than this are not the highest Dao. When the scripture speaks of “dismissing one’s wife,” it does not mean abandoning one’s human wife. Rather, “yang husband” and “yin wife” are metaphors for the two forces of Yin and Yang; solitary Yin or lone Yang does not constitute a complete path of cultivation. Some people have misunderstood this, taking it instead as a basis for sexual techniques and methods of controlling women, and thereby corrupting the immortal Dao. Who should bear responsibility for this? “Abstaining from grain and food” is not the right path either. If one relies on fasting alone in cultivation, one will become a hungry ghost after death. Plants, trees, gold, silver, and such things are impurities left over after Heaven and Earth came into being. They are easy to obtain but difficult to refine; how could they be compared with the great medicine of the Golden Elixir?

Commentary: Abstaining from grain and food, regulating the breath through inhalation and exhalation, and visualizing and preserving the spirit are all methods of cultivation used by heterodox practitioners and worldly seekers. The Tibetan text repeats here that plants, trees, gold, silver, and such things are impurities left over after Heaven and Earth came into being: they are easy to obtain but difficult to refine, and cannot be compared with the great medicine of the Golden Elixir.

The commentary explains that methods such as abstaining from food, practicing breath regulation and Qi cultivation, and visualization are merely techniques used by practitioners of heterodox arts. Many people see the words “dismiss the wife” in the scripture and mistakenly assume that the Golden Elixir practice is a method of gathering Yin to replenish Yang. Why not study Perfected Tai Bai’s Song for Dispelling Delusion more deeply? It says: “Regulating Qi is not the Dao; bodily fluids are not divine water. Visualization is not the Dao; how can a painted cake serve as food? Gathering Yin is not the Dao; when Jing is exhausted, life follows it away. Cutting out salt is not the Dao; food loses its flavor. Abstaining from grain is not the Dao; hunger injures the spleen and stomach. Dismissing the wife is not the Dao; Yin and Yang lose their proper roles.”

Then what is the Dao? The Great One (Taiyi, the original and complete true Qi) contains true Qi. Yin and Yang Qi respond to one another, but do not actually unite in sexual intercourse. The movement of Qi rises and falls, following the workings of Heaven and Earth. The two kinds of true Qi work together, arising from the Primordial Beginning, the source of all things. The Maiden and the Infant—symbolic names in Neidan for Yin and Yang Qi—join to form “Already Fulfilled,” a state in which Yin and Yang are harmoniously blended. This is the way of Yin and Yang: husbands and wives share the same source and principle, so there is no need to dismiss the wife. Solitary Yang cannot accomplish anything. Becoming an immortal of pure Yang who has transcended the world, and refining the Golden Elixir, are no easy tasks. Those devoted to cultivating the Dao do not lightly reveal the true instructions, for the principles of the Great Cavern are profound and obscure.

“When the Five Phases do not proceed in their usual order, the tiger is born in water; by reversing the Five Phases, the dragon emerges from fire.” These are truly subtle words, and they speak of the power of the Great One. The regulated verses of the Immortal Elder and Yimen’s Song for Dispelling Delusion were likely both based on this teaching. The song also says: “The Great One contains true Qi; the dragon is born from fire, the tiger rises from water. Understanding the reversal of Yin and Yang, one finds its source in the Primordial Beginning. When the Five Phases do not proceed in their usual order, they still accord with Heaven and Earth.” These words explain the meaning of dismissing the wife less clearly than the Song of the Great One: if people do not understand the reversal of the Five Phases, how could they understand that true Yin and Yang do not require the wife to be dismissed?

If those who seek to become immortals cannot even learn all the technical terms in the immortal scriptures, how can they read the full texts closely and grasp their principles? The Great Way of the Golden Elixir has been transmitted for a long time, but books have been lost and people’s innate understanding has grown clouded; the principles have consequently become obscure. Some people have mistaken the phrase “dismiss the wife,” taking the separation of Yin and Yang to mean the sexual practices of worldly couples. This is truly regrettable. Once the Golden Elixir has been refined and true Qi fills the body, one can naturally abstain from food. This does not mean taking medicines such as black beans or sesame seeds to get through a famine. Those who rely on medicines to abstain from grain and circulate techniques in the world—how could they become immortals of pure Yang? Even if someone attains longevity by specializing in consuming herbal medicines, that person does not possess a body of pure Yang.

The principles described in the ten thousand volumes of immortal scriptures ultimately converge. The Way of the Golden Elixir is their foundation. The basis of the Elixir must be generated in the Kun position, which symbolizes Earth, Yin, and the power of generation, then planted in the palace where the Qian house, symbolizing Heaven, Yang, and sovereign power, enters into conjunction. Do not be surprised that the immortals have revealed the secrets of Heaven. Those who seek to learn often confuse and guard themselves, and so fail to grasp them. Whoever truly understands the meaning of the poem can reach directly to the realm represented by the Three Pure Ones (Sanqing) and the Supreme Lord Lao.

The commentary explains that the ten thousand volumes of immortal scriptures all return to a single principle: they speak only of using the Dragon and Tiger, the Two Eights, and the Qi of the First Crescent as materials for refining the Elixir. The Elixir’s basis follows the principle by which the Kun Mother generates all things, but cultivation reverses this process of generation. Once the Elixir is obtained, it is planted in the palace where the Qian Father enters into conjunction, and the talismanic fire is set in motion—the timing and heat that drive the substances’ transformation in Neidan cultivation. The essentials of Elixir cultivation cannot be separated from “lead” and “fire”; these are the foundation of the Great Elixir. The Immortal Elder has here revealed the secrets of Heaven in full, yet scholars may remain confused and unable to understand even after a lifetime of study. In truth, they should seek to experience the Great Way close at hand, within themselves. Once formed, the Elixir may be as small as a millet grain, yet it can stand in the midst of Heaven.

The subcommentary cites Master Cui’s Mirror for Compounding the Medicine: “It is produced in Kun and planted in Qian.” What is produced in the Kun position is the external medicine formed from precelestial Qi; what is planted in the Qian position is the internal medicine formed from postcelestial Qi. The principle of the Kun Mother’s generation refers to the Kun position in the southwest: the Moon rises from the Geng direction, Metal and Water generate one another, and the Qi of the Two Crescents takes shape. This is what “produced in Kun” means. The palace where the Qian Father enters into conjunction refers to the central palace and the Northern Sea region, corresponding to Qian’s position in the northwest. To take and refine the Elixir there, so that lead and mercury enter into conjunction and transform, is what “planted in Qian” means.

Lead symbolizes the White Tiger, and fire symbolizes the Azure Dragon. The White Tiger’s crescent Qi pertains to lead and also symbolizes Water. The Azure Dragon’s crescent Qi pertains to fire, though not to ordinary worldly fire. Lead is the essence of the Moon: born from Water and formed through Metal, it has substance yet also contains Qi, and is the source of Heaven and Earth’s wondrous transformations. Fire is the essence of the Sun: born from Wood and controlled by Metal, it has Qi but no substance, and is the root of Heaven and Earth’s generative power. Therefore, neither the essentials of Elixir cultivation nor the foundation of the Great Elixir can be separated from lead and fire.

One poem of five-character lines and four rhymes, symbolizing the odd number of the Great One (Taiyi).

The woman wears green silk, while the young lord is wrapped in white silk. What can be seen cannot be put to use, while what can be put to use cannot be seen. They meet amid a hazy obscurity, and transformations take place in hidden depths. In an instant, flames leap up, and the True Person appears.

The commentary says: “The woman” refers to the Dragon’s stringed Qi. The Dragon belongs to Yang but contains Yin, so it is called the woman. It is also called the “Wood Maiden,” since it arises from the Green Dragon, and therefore wears green. “The young lord” refers to the Tiger’s stringed Qi. The Tiger belongs to Yin but contains Yang, so it is called the young lord. It is also called the “Metal Youth,” since it arises from the White Tiger, and therefore is wrapped in white silk.

What has form and substance and can be seen is something formed after the beginning of Heaven and Earth, a tangible thing. Because it has form, it can be seen, but it cannot be used in the gathering and refining described here. What cannot be seen is the stringed Qi that first arises in the Dragon and Tiger. It has Qi but no form or substance: though invisible, it can be put to use. This is the key to gathering lead—that is, collecting and using essence and Qi in Neidan practice.

“Hazy obscurity” and “hidden depths” refer to the primal, unified Qi of True Unity, which came into being before Heaven and Earth and is difficult to fathom. “Within hazy obscurity there is something” refers to the Dragon’s stringed Qi; “within hidden depths there is essence” refers to the Tiger’s stringed Qi. The two kinds of stringed Qi meet and gather in what is subtle and hard to see. This brings forth the numinous transformations of the Qi of True Unity, which coalesces into a pearl the size of a millet grain. Here is the marvel of form arising from formlessness.

The “True Person” refers to the Golden Elixir. The commentary says that the practitioner compresses a year’s schedule of firing—a method for regulating the intensity and stages of Neidan practice—into a single double-hour, then divides that double-hour into six periods. By applying the fire during the first two periods, the Qi of True Unity can be made to coalesce into a pearl and appear in the Northern Sea, no larger than a millet grain. The flames leaping up in an instant and the True Person appearing describe this process. This Way is exceedingly subtle and profound. Without meeting a true teacher who orally transmits its secret instructions, who could master it?

The commentary explains that the Immortal Master wrote this chapter as a five-character poem in four rhyming lines to represent the meeting of the Five Phases and the Four Symbols, which condense into a single “millet pearl”—a metaphor for the Neidan (internal alchemy) elixir. Although the Neidan elixir takes shape through the transformation of “the Qi of the True One,” the primordial Qi spoken of in alchemical practice, it cannot be refined without the union of the Qi of the Dragon and Tiger and the two strings. Together, the Dragon and Tiger and the two strings form the Four Symbols. When the Four Symbols meet in the central palace, they condense into the elixir. The elixir belongs to Earth, and is therefore the true Qi of the Five Phases. Laozi said, “The Five Phases are the medicine; the Four Symbols are indispensable.” Thus, the Five Phases and the Four Symbols combine to form the elixir. When the Immortal Master says that the five-character, four-rhyme poem symbolizes “the marvel of Taiyi,” the odd-number principle represented by Taiyi, this is precisely what he means.

Commentary and Subcommentary on Understanding Reality, juan 2, written by Zhang Boduan of the Song dynasty, with commentary by Weng Baoguang and subcommentary by Dai Qizong of the Yuan dynasty.

There are sixty-four seven-character quatrains, corresponding to the number of the sixty-four hexagrams formed by eight times eight.

First regard Heaven and Earth as the furnace and cauldron for refining the elixir, then use the substances symbolized by the Sun and Moon to cook and refine it. If these two powers are not brought into the Yellow Path—the central palace in alchemical practice—how can the Golden Elixir possibly form?

The Sun and Moon are regarded as the essence of Qian and Kun (Heaven and Earth). For this reason, ancient practitioners used Qian and Kun as metaphors for the furnace and cauldron, and the Sun and Moon as metaphors for the substances. Qian and Kun also symbolize the True Dragon and True Tiger. The substances refer to the Qi of the Dragon and Tiger at their first waxing phase, when Yin and Yang Qi are just beginning to arise. Master Wei said, “The cauldron was never a cauldron in any material sense, and the substance was never a substance in any material sense.” The sages simply borrowed names and images as metaphors. The essential point is that the two Qi of the True Dragon and True Tiger join and condense, bringing pure, unified essence together within the central palace of the Northern Sea. The “Yellow Path” here is the central palace, the place where the Golden Elixir condenses and forms.

Immortal scriptures often compare Qian and Kun to the furnace and cauldron, and Kan and Li—the Water and Fire trigrams of the Bagua, which also symbolize Yin and Yang—to the substances. Qian and Kun, Kan and Li, furnace and cauldron, substances: all these terms refer to things without form or name, explained only through borrowed images. The True Dragon and True Tiger are the Dragon and Tiger outside the Golden Elixir. In his commentary on the Cantong qi, Master Peng explained that the essence of the Moon within Kan symbolizes the Metal Tiger born in Water, while the light of the Sun within Li symbolizes the Wood Dragon born in Fire. These, in turn, are the Dragon and Tiger within the Golden Elixir. The two accounts use different names, but both are metaphors. Once these two powers are brought into the Yellow Path, they will naturally join and form the elixir. To insist on deciding what material entities the Dragon and Tiger each represent is to become bound by literalism. What matters is understanding that the Yellow Path serves as the medium that brings them together.

The method of establishing the furnace and cauldron takes its model from Qian and Kun: through the Way of Heaven and Earth, it tempers the essence and regulates the hun and po souls, allowing Yin and Yang to gather and disperse, mingle, and transform. How could such a subtle principle be discussed casually?

Heaven is above and gathers Yang Qi; Earth is below and gathers Yin Qi. If the Qi of Heaven and Earth did not join, there could be no transformation or birth of the myriad things. Yet although Yang predominates in Heaven, it also contains Yin Qi, which enables it to descend; and although Yin predominates in Earth, it also contains Yang Qi, which enables it to rise. When the two Qi of Yin and Yang mingle, the myriad things come into being. The Way of the Golden Elixir likewise establishes a furnace and cauldron, tempers the essence, and regulates the hun and po souls by taking its model from Heaven and Earth. A verse on cultivation says, “When essence and Qi join, no other substance is needed; when the Qi mechanism comes into accord, no words are needed.” The Golden Elixir forms when Qi of the same kind joins and condenses. Hence the saying, “Only when the substance meets its corresponding Qi can a form take shape.” It brings being forth from nonbeing and, through transformation, forms the Golden Elixir.