《道樞》Vol. 27

“Chapter on the Golden-Fluid Dragon and Tiger” (The Pivot of the Dao, Volume 27, “Sincerity III”)

(Skillfully refining cinnabar to preserve one’s life and protect one’s family; nurturing the “Maiden” and giving her in marriage to the “Yellow Sprout”)

When Renzi—a seeker of the Dao—met the Master of Natural Truth, Zhang Zhongfu, in Liyang, he received instruction in the essential secrets of the Dragon and Tiger. Zhang had once served as a Gentleman of the Board of Revenue and had taken up cultivation after retiring from office. Renzi had met him once before, in the seventh year of the Qingli era. Zhang said: “The Golden Elixir has seventy-two names, all formed through the principle of ‘three, five, and one.’ From the time of the Five Emperors through the Qingli era of our Song dynasty, more than sixty thousand people have ascended to immortality. Every one of them refined the ‘Divine Water and Flower Pond.’ Its method arises from the Five Phases and returns to emptiness. We can thus understand Divine Water as the primal Qi of the Three Powers—Heaven, Earth, and humanity—and the true essence of the Five Phases. Circulating up and down through the three Dantian is the Returning Elixir. This medicine has five flavors: the sour, salty, pungent, sweet, and bitter described by Bian Que. These are of the kind called the River Chariot. Refined through the firing process, they form the Great Elixir. Whether one uses lead or does not use lead, the work must be done within lead: this Divine Water is lead and mercury.”

There are twenty-four names for the Great Medicine: Divine Water, Essence of the Obscure and Mysterious, Returning Elixir, True Unity, Gold within Water, Black Lead, River Chariot, Five Colors, Five Flavors, Kan Male, True Mercury, White Metal, White Tiger, Golden Essence, Five Constant Virtues, Earth Medicine, Earthly Po, Solar Hun, Lunar Flower, Lead-Yellow Flower, Jade Florescence, Water Tiger, Jade Toad, and Yellow Sprout. These twenty-four names all conceal profound secrets at the mysterious pass. A verse says: “What is cinnabar, that it can save one’s life and protect one’s family? Nurture the Maiden and give her in marriage to the Yellow Sprout”—this is the Great Medicine. The essence of Heaven and Earth is obtained in the Primordial Palace. It is the natural way of creation and transformation, known as “three, five, and one.” What does this mean? “Three” refers to the images of the Three Powers: Shen, Qi, and Jing. The Flower Pond arises from the Five Phases. Red on the outside and white within, it is not the cinnabar of the ordinary world. Because it is taken from within Fire, it is called the Vermilion Bird; because it emerges from blue-white mercury, it is called the Maiden. The Yellow Matron serves as matchmaker, betrothing her to the number seven of the north. This, too, does not refer to the cinnabar used in ordinary life, but is a metaphor for internal cultivation.

In this text, “lead,” “mercury,” “Maiden,” “Yellow Sprout,” “River Chariot,” “firing process,” and “three Dantian,” among other terms, are mostly metaphors in Neidan for the movement of Jing and Qi, Yin-Yang, and the Five Phases within the body. They do not refer to the lead, mercury, or cinnabar found in ordinary pharmacies. They are best read as names for stages and states of cultivation, rather than interpreted literally as materials used in Waidan or everyday life.

A Plain-Language Explanation

What the ancients called mercury is quicksilver. The core subjects discussed by the ancient Perfected Ones—those who had cultivated the Great Dao—were simply lead, mercury, Divine Water, Flowery Pool (a metaphor in internal cultivation for the Dantian or a particular “pool” location), and the Three Ones (often referring to the unity of Heaven, Earth, and humanity, or to the number formed by the pairing of lead, mercury, and Divine Water).

The names for the Great Medicine—the fundamental “medicine” produced through internal cultivation—also include twenty-four terms, such as Jade Liquor, Jade Nectar, Flowery Pool, Essence of the Dark and Hidden (vital essence gathered amid obscurity and dimness), Trance and Elusiveness (a state that seems both present and absent, neither wholly joined nor wholly apart), Essence of the Five Phases (Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water), Kan’s Male (the Yang symbolized by the Kan trigram), Li’s Female (the Yin symbolized by the Li trigram), Fire Dragon, Water Tiger, Wood Essence, Azure Dragon, White Tiger, Three Flowers, Solar Soul, Golden Crow (the sun), Jade Rabbit (the moon), Earth Horse, Li Palace, Husband and Wife, Golden Liquor, Red Dragon, White Sprout, White Snow, and Lunar Soul. All these terms describe the pairing of husband and wife and the mutual support of red and white. With yellow earth as the altar (a metaphor for using Spleen Earth or the central palace as the place of cultivation), this is the Correct Way.

The key to refining the medicine in the Flowery Pool lies in controlling the fire timing (the rhythm of intention, breathing, and energy during cultivation): when the smoke has fully dispersed, the fire flies like stars, shining in five colors and making a sound. Once refined, the substance is like frost and snow, like pearls and jade. All of this depends solely on the workings of the Five Phases. The inert substances used by ordinary people, such as metals and stones, cannot truly be transformed into an elixir.

The scripture says: The Azure Emperor guards the soul; the White Emperor attends the corporeal soul; the Red Emperor nourishes Qi; the Black Emperor circulates the blood; and the Yellow Emperor dwells at the center and directs affairs. These are the True Essences of the Five Phases, also known as the Great Medicine.

The Great Elixir (the elixir of great return) has another twenty-four names: Great Return, Golden Elixir, Jade Liquor, Dragon and Tiger, Two Qi, Four Spirits, Five Rosy Clouds, Divine Cinnabar, Radiance, Flowing Pearl, Returning Soul, Seizing Life, Numinous Cloud, Nourishing Life, Extending Longevity, Spirit of the Dregs, Ten Thousand Spirits, Crimson Snow, Subduing Fire, Plain Flow, Joyful Life, Lengthening the Years, Returning to Childhood, and Immortal of Longevity. These names are all established according to principles of the human body.

Ordinary people take the five metals and eight minerals (various metals and minerals) and smelt them over a fire, believing they can make an elixir. This is a mistake. They do not understand the numinous nature of lead and mercury; the true mechanism exists only amid the dark, hidden, and elusive (profound obscurity and a hazy state of mind that nevertheless does not stray from proper awareness). Mercury is within cinnabar, and gold is within lead; mercury is also within lead, and water is within gold. Without oral instructions (the methods transmitted directly by a master), it is difficult to find the way.

Some people, unable to understand the Golden Elixir (the Way of the Elixir that proceeds through internal cultivation of lead and mercury), instead practice visualization, breathing exercises, swallowing rosy clouds, ingesting Qi, eating pine seeds and cypress nuts, or fasting. That is not the Great Dao discussed here.

The Dao has three levels. The highest is called Embracing the One. Embracing the One means gathering the Five Phases into one, collecting the utmost essence of Heaven and Earth, matching Yin and Yang, joining husband and wife, and refining Jing and gathering Qi.

Related Passages from The Pivot of the Dao

Gathering the medicine, regulating the firing times, and flying as an immortal

Gathering the medicine requires choosing the right day and time, and using it requires acting at the proper hour. The Eight Trigrams are used to increase or decrease the firing times, while the interplay of Water and Fire completes the refinement. Once the required number of refinements has been reached, one attains the rank called “flying immortal.”

One level of this process is called “enriching the state and pacifying the people”: capture the dragon in the deep pool and subdue the tiger at the Gate of Kan (Kan is the Water trigram, symbolizing the lower burner, Kidney Water, and related things). Match the medicines according to the Eight Trigrams and gather them in the Nine Palaces; this is the process called “nine returns and seven reversals.”

A further level is called “strengthening the troops and winning the battle”: let Shen and Qi unite without physical intercourse, seal the lower region, and lock it permanently within the Dantian (energy center).

Those who understand “three, five, and one” refine the essential Qi of the Five Phases and return it to the Original Palace (the Dantian, where Shen and Qi find their resting place), tempering it through the firing times. After nine transformations, it becomes complete, and one can return to the root and restore the original.

What is the Great Reversion Elixir? It is the vital essence of the five grains. Refining it can bring longevity.

What are “three, five, and one”? “Three” refers to the Three Powers—Heaven, Earth, and Humanity—and to Shen, Qi, and Jing. “Five” refers to the Five Phases. Within the Five Phases, Jing, blood, and Qi combine as the five flavors; from among the five flavors, one takes the essence of the five grains. This is what the Yinfu Jing means when it says, “The five flavors can bring longevity.” The five grains can consume a person and bring death, yet people can scarcely obtain their essence. How lamentable. “One” means gathering the Five Phases in the Original Palace and refining them through the firing times until they become the “True One.”

The Great White Elixir of Reversion

(The Muddy Pellet is the abode of original Qi, which arrives like the heavenly river descending from the sky.)

Qingxu Zi (the man of Mount Taibai, Wang Yuanzheng, who called himself a person of the Zhengyuan era of the Tang) said: “The essential method for cultivating the Elixir lies in quieting the mind. After midnight and before noon, first regulate the Qi; harmony of Qi is best. This method is called ‘bathing’: rub the palms of the left and right hands together until warm, then rub them over the face, warming the whole body. Next, ‘raise Heaven and establish Earth’: clasp the hands, extend them upward with all your strength, and support them above the head as though holding up Heaven—this is called raising Heaven. Press the feet firmly against the ground and stretch the body upward with all your strength—this is called establishing Earth.”

“When practicing this method, avoid the full and new moons and the quarter moons (such as the waxing half-moon on the eighth day and the waning half-moon on the twenty-third), as well as the Mao and You months. Peng Ju, Peng Qiao, and Peng Zhi (the names of the Three Corpses, metaphors for three kinds of ‘worms’ within the body that consume one’s essence) all guard the numinous palace (the heart). …”

(The later discussions of “strengthening the troops and winning the battle,” “three, five, and one,” and “nine transformations” follow the same thread as the passage above: they concern the firing times of Neidan (internal alchemy) and the return of Jing, Qi, and Shen to their origin. The section on beginning the practice in The Great White Elixir of Reversion focuses on regulating Qi after midnight and before noon, and on the method of raising Heaven and establishing Earth.)

Knowing these things, one must beware: if the methods are practiced incorrectly, they may instead invite demonic obstacles. So first nourish the liver: visualize a Azure Dragon coiled within the liver, then imagine light shining from its eyes and streaming out through your own eyes. Exhale the sound “Xu,” then swallow the “Xu” breath, doing each nine times.

Next, nourish the heart: visualize a Vermilion Bird, phoenix-like, within the heart. Red Qi flows from its belly into your mouth; then make the sound “He” three times.

Next, nourish the spleen: visualize a Gouchen within it—a creature with a dragon’s body, a bird’s beak, tiger’s ears, and a single dragon horn. It breathes yellow Qi into your mouth. Press your tongue against the upper palate, then make the sound “Hu” twelve times.

Next, nourish the lungs: visualize a White Tiger within them, with white Qi flowing from its nose into your mouth. Exhale the sound “Si” through your nose seven times.

Finally, nourish the kidneys: sit upright with your legs extended as straight as possible, and use your hands to pull on the soles of your feet. Then hold your breath briefly and visualize the two channels in the kidney palace. Black Qi wells up from within your eyes and pours into your mouth, where it transforms into a liquid of gold and jade, known as the Divine Water of the Flower Pool.

Nourishing the five organs takes seventy-two days and is called the Lesser Return Elixir. It can dispel illness, but it is not yet the Great Dao. Afterward, tap your teeth to gather the spirit thirty-six times, open and close both eyes, then cover your ears with your palms and strike the back of your head with your fingers—three times on the left and four on the right. This is called Beating the Heavenly Drum.

Then sit calmly and cross the three fingers of your left hand with the four fingers of your right at the Kidney Hall, around the Gate of Life behind the navel. This is called visualizing Heaven and Earth within the Gourd. Heaven and Earth within the Gourd are inseparable from the body: the left eye is the sun, the right eye the moon, and the Mud Ball (upper Dantian) is heaven. Why is the Mud Ball heaven? Just as heaven cannot be climbed, the sages have a method for returning to the origin and restoring the original: they guide primordial Qi back to the Mud Ball, opening the Gate of Heaven and making passage flow freely, like the Yellow River descending from the Milky Way into the sea. The hair represents the stars; the ears, secluded valleys; the eyebrows and beard, the myriad forms; the nose, the Mysterious Female; the mouth, the Heavenly Granary; and the tongue, the Red Dragon—the granary receives all things, while the dragon tills the fields. The throat is a tower, called the Twelve-Storied Tower, arranged in a ring. The five organs correspond to the Five Peaks, and the six viscera to the Six Offices (for details on the Five Peaks and Six Offices, see the “Hundred Questions” chapter). The Triple Burner corresponds to the Three Ministers: the Grand Preceptor above, the Grand Tutor in the middle, and the Grand Protector below.

A Vernacular Interpretation of the Pivot of the Dao

In cultivation, water often corresponds to the “Four Rivers,” the four great rivers, as already explained in the “Hundred Questions” chapter. Sweat is like rain, and Qi (vital energy) is like wind.

Below the navel, visualize a Sea of Jing (essence), a place where Jing gathers, shaped like a ring. Turn it thirty-six times to the left and thirty-six times to the right. Within the ring, visualize a Jade Maiden, a feminine image in the inner landscape, bowing to you and entering and leaving through the right kidney. The right kidney is called the Jade Hall, and the left kidney the Gate of Destiny; the two kidneys are about two and a half inches apart.

Human Jing and Qi are said originally to weigh one jin, or sixteen liang, and to correspond to the trigrams Qian and Kun. After the loss of Jing through ejaculation, it diminishes with age from sixteen onward. By twenty-four, two liang have been lost, corresponding to the Gou hexagram. By thirty-two, four liang have been lost, corresponding to the Dun hexagram; at this point, people often become short of breath and weak in the legs. At forty, six liang have been lost, corresponding to the Pi hexagram; the lower back and spine ache, and the limbs grow weak. As Jing and Qi continue to decline, they are stirred and scattered below the navel, and vision becomes blurred. By forty-eight, eight liang have been lost, corresponding to the Guan hexagram; the hair turns white and the skin wrinkles. By fifty-six, ten liang have been lost, corresponding to the Bo hexagram; many activities become too difficult to manage. By sixty-four, twelve liang have been lost, corresponding to the Kun hexagram; original Qi has declined, and one depends mainly on food for sustenance. At seventy-two, only two liang remain, corresponding to the Shi hexagram—Earth changes into Water. At eighty, Qi is exhausted, corresponding to the Mingyi hexagram—Water is exhausted and belongs to Fire. At this point, nature and life are nearing their end.

Thus, those who study the Dao (the Way) must first subdue the Enchantress, the image of femininity and desire in the inner landscape. Visualize the Jade Maiden entering the right kidney, then returning to the Inner Chamber, a place for storing Jing, such as the Dantian (energy center) or the womb, where she is gathered and contained. Next, visualize Xuanwu, the form of a tortoise entwined with a snake. Fearing it might harm the Jade Maiden, make her forcefully withdraw from it. This is what is meant by “subduing the Enchantress.”

Then gather in the Three Hun souls: Taiguang, Shuangling, and Youjing, and say this invocation: “Let what I do not know be made known to me.” Command them to dwell peacefully in the Gate of Kan, the kidney and Kan-trigram position, at your left and right. Repeat the invocation three times in this way, and visualize the soul spirits entering the Sea of Jing.

Next, visualize the three palaces on the left and seven on the right. Sit upright and practice the method of swallowing the Dragon and Tiger: gather Qi in the mouth and swallow it; this is the “Tiger.” Swallow once more, visualizing it as a great river flowing into the Sea of Jing. Then swallow the Tiger again as before. Do this three times, for a total of six swallows, sending them into the Sea of Jing and visualizing them as three rivers converging. Then swallow the Dragon and Tiger three times, making a total of nine; next, swallow one Dragon and one Tiger as before. Swallow each Dragon and Tiger nine times.

This text links the loss of Jing and Qi with the sequence of hexagrams in the Book of Changes—Gou, Dun, Pi, Guan, Bo, Kun, Shi, and Mingyi—and describes Neidan (internal alchemy) methods of visualization and swallowing Qi. The kidneys, the area below the navel, the Three Hun, the tortoise and snake, and the Dragon and Tiger are all images within the body, not descriptions of anatomy.

At this point, there are still eighteen rounds of “sending” to perform. In the mind’s eye, imagine nine rivers flowing together, and send their waters all the way to the Essence Sea below the navel, where Jing and Qi gather around the Dantian.

Next, perform the Dragon and Tiger practice fourteen times—two sevens make fourteen. Only after completing all fourteen rounds should you “send”: imagine the waters of a great sea and send them to the Essence Sea in the same way. After swallowing the Dragon and Tiger a total of eighty times, rise, sit again, and massage the meridians three times. Then swallow the Dragon and Tiger as before until the count reaches eighty. Massage the meridians again and swallow the Dragon and Tiger again; complete three full rounds in this way. The total is 240 swallows, corresponding to the twenty-four solar terms of the year.

When Shen and Qi are abundant, imagine waves surging like a sea below the navel. After another eighty-one days, you may practice the method of forming the Elixir through the Dragon and Tiger. Those who are still children and have not yet discharged Jing need not use this method of swallowing the Dragon and Tiger.

Then sit upright and regulate the breath. First, use the mind to stir the Essence Sea until it seems to boil, then let it settle into clear stillness. Next, fill the mouth with saliva and use the tongue—the Red Dragon—to stir and plow it. Once the mouth is full, swallow the saliva in three portions; this is the “Dragon.” When the mouth is full of Qi, swallow it in three portions as well; this is the “Tiger.” Send the Dragon and Tiger to the surface of the Essence Sea, and use the mind to roll them into pills, each like a small pellet. Do this three times to form the “Elixir.” Imagine the heart’s fire emerging from below the heart and descending to the water’s surface to refine it. Then imagine Spleen-Earth covering the top. When the fire goes out, open the earth and refine it once more. Repeat this three times; the Elixir is complete and sinks into the water.

Then gather and close as before, and create the Dragon and Tiger nine times, forming nine Elixir pills. This is called the “Nine Revolutions.” An old saying goes: “The Dragon follows the Tiger into the rocky cavern; when the Dragon enters the water, the Tiger follows. When thunder and fire blaze, their manes and fins are scorched; clouds gather and rain falls, and the mountains shake.” This describes Yin and Yang following one another. It is like a married couple: Fire is the woman, Water the child, and Earth the matchmaker; from this union the Elixir is formed. Each round uses three Dragons, three Tigers, and twelve fires, corresponding to the twelve double-hours of a day. The nine revolutions correspond to the Nine Palaces, for a total of 108.

Next use the River Chariot method—the movement of Qi ascending and descending along the Governing Vessel—to transport it. Release the locks, raise the Golden Bell three times and the Heavenly Balance three times. Use the Valley Spirit and the Valley Passage, around the perineum, to drive Qi into the spine; contract and lift it with the breath. Imagine cinnabar ascending together with Jing to the crown of the head, then use the “Three Points” to guide it into the Muddy Pellet, the Dantian in the brain. Raise the head and turn it to the left; this is called “Returning Jing to Nourish the Brain.” Then, at the first light of sunrise, sit facing east, with your back to the west.

Visualize the sun turning like a wheel, then swallow it into the body, swallowing seventy-two times in all. Bend up the “River Chariot”—an image in Daoist inner cultivation for guiding the movement of Qi—and place it behind the top of the head, using it as a pillow. On the thirteenth day, when the moon rises, sit with your back to the sun and your face toward the moon. Visualize it as before and swallow eighty-one times. Stop on the twenty-third day. Thereafter, on every eighth day of the lunar month, visualize embracing the moon. This is called “wearing the sun and holding the moon.”

The sun belongs to Yang, yet it is swallowed seventy-two times, taking the Yin number; the moon belongs to Yin, yet it is swallowed eighty-one times, taking the Yang number. Is this a method of reversing the numbers of Yin and Yang? Next, quietly visualize the “Maiden” in the kidneys—an image of Yin essence in Neidan cultivation—naked and filled with desire; then visualize the heart’s fire burning and refining her. An old saying goes, “Whether or not you use lead, you must work within lead.” Perhaps this is what it means. People in the world do not understand the principle, so they mistake sexual intercourse between men and women for “Yin Elixir,” and thereby bring about their own deaths.

Only after a cultivator of immortality has refined the inner elixir can the outer elixir be refined; then the Great Medicine can turn tiles and rubble into gold. Some people see this claim but do not know that the human body itself contains “true lead” and “true mercury”—metaphors in internal alchemy for substances such as bodily essence and Qi. Instead, they take mercury for mercury and black tin for lead, hoping to turn copper into silver. Is that not deception?

Next, swallow the saliva once and send it into the liver. Visualize the Azure Dragon in the liver racing toward the Palace of the Kidneys to meet the Maiden. When she sees the Azure Dragon, she mounts it. This is what is called “the Qi of child and mother.” The Azure Dragon belongs to Wood, and the Maiden belongs to Water. After they meet, visualize them rising to the crown of the head. Then visualize the Three Hun souls and the assembled spirits entering the crown together. The crown is the Mud Pill, the abode of spirits within the head.

Next, visualize the heart’s fire rising from the various spirit gates and descending, circling the whole body as it burns above and below. Then kindle the fire according to the image of the liver deity. At the first kindling, visualize Peng Ju in the form of a Daoist priest, throwing down his hairpin and shoes as he flees. Then visualize burning him again, as if setting fire to his head. At the twenty-fourth kindling, visualize Peng Qiao as a bull-headed man and Peng Zhi in the form of a beast. Some of the Seven Po souls have chicken heads and dog feet; others resemble yakshas, women, the Wind Earl, or hunting dogs. Some carry crossbows, while others hold fish. At this point, they all flee. Burn the body in this way for a hundred days, and the corpse Gu—filthy, malign things believed to lodge within the body and disturb the mind and spirit—will be completely destroyed.

Afterward, practice fetal breathing, calming the mind, holding firmly to one’s intention, dispelling noise and distress, and keeping the mind single and undisturbed. Then sit quietly as before and practice swallowing the sun and moon. Next, visualize a stretch of land above the spleen, with a golden cauldron on it, and focus your attention intently on the cauldron.

Visualize an infant inside the cauldron, with the same appearance as yourself, kneeling with both hands resting beside the shoulders. The infant raises its face and opens its mouth to receive the radiance of the sun and moon—their vital essences—as well as Golden Liquid and Jade Liquid, terms for Jing, Qi, and bodily fluids in internal alchemy practice. Swallow them according to the method described above. If there is no moonlight at night, swallow Golden Liquid and Jade Liquid thirty-six times. If the energies of both sun and moon can be gathered, use the proper timing for the firing process.

Every seven days, the infant in the visualization turns once. After twenty-eight days, it will have turned four times; at that point, apply the firing process once. Set a fire beneath the cauldron and visualize earth covering it above. The fire is set inside an earthen furnace, whose base supports the cauldron. Each day, make one hundred and eight revolutions in sequence. When the firing process enters beneath the cauldron, it passes beside the cauldron and the stove. In this way, after every four revolutions, initiate the firing process once, as in the method of tending the fire. After ten such cycles, fetal breathing—a fetus-like breathing state in internal alchemy practice—will have formed.

Refine once with a great fire, first removing the jade lid. At this point, the infant in the cauldron becomes a child of long life. When he encounters fire, he rushes upward, naturally flying out through the crown of the head. This signifies that the Great Elixir has been refined. In women’s practice, visualize the infant inside the cauldron and keep it covered with jade throughout, to help nurture the firing process in the head. Only after this nurturing and refining does one reach “Not Yet Complete,” the stage that has not yet been completed.

After the embryo of the sage, the inner alchemical image formed through practice, emerges from the cauldron, it may travel about each day, but must not go too far. What does the cauldron refer to? It is the liver, heart, spleen, lungs, and kidneys. The cauldron belongs to Metal, is four inches high, and has two-inch legs, corresponding to the lungs. The stove belongs to Earth, has three tiers, and is five inches high, corresponding to the spleen. The charcoal belongs to Wood: because wood becomes charcoal after the body is burned, it corresponds to the liver. Fire corresponds to the heart. The kidneys are likened to a fierce maiden, who gives birth to the infant. The infant is primordial Qi, formed from the gathering of essence. Jade Liquid serves as the lid above the cauldron, and the lid encloses the heart. The heart can govern the myriad things; without the heart’s aid, the embryo of the sage cannot be refined.

Qian is Heaven’s Gate, Kun is Earth’s Portal, Gen is the Ghost Gate, and Xun is the Wind Gate. The kidneys belong to Water, flourish in the final part of winter, and symbolize both the fierce maiden and the Black Tortoise. Through the method of reversing the Five Phases, the heart takes the kidneys as its mate. The two join their essences and produce the embryo of the sage. The spleen belongs to Earth and flourishes in the final part of each of the four seasons. It symbolizes the man and can serve as the stove, bringing Yin and Yang into harmony and thereby completing the Dao. For this reason, the Earth of the spleen is called the “Yellow Matron,” like a matchmaker. The liver belongs to Wood and flourishes in the final part of spring.

A Plain-Language Reading of The Pivot of the Dao (Dao Shu)

First, the phrase “the image of the Green Dragon in the Book of Documents”: wood naturally produces fire, and fire in turn burns wood into charcoal, hence the name “everlasting charcoal.” This is an analogy drawn from the generating and overcoming cycles of the Five Phases (Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, Water). It explains how Wood and Fire work together in Neidan (internal alchemy), undergoing repeated refinement and transformation.

A timetable for completing the Elixir in three years

Neidan generally takes three years to complete. During those three years, the second and eighth months (Mao and You) are set aside, leaving about thirty months of actual cultivation. A more detailed count by days is as follows:

• First, replenish the five organs: 72 days
• Then, replenish Jing (essence): 81 days
• The Dragon and Tiger unite: 100 days
• Swallow the Moon (a method of gathering lunar essence): 81 days

Converted entirely into days, the first stages together amount to roughly ten months of practice. If “Swallow the Moon” is counted at fourteen days per month, 81 days is about seven months; Burning the Body (refining and transforming the body) takes 100 days, or about three months. Together, these stages take around twenty-one months. The remaining ten or so months are used to nurture and stabilize the attainment. This is the basis for the saying that it takes three years to form the Great Elixir.

“Leaping steps” after the sacred embryo is formed

Once the sacred embryo—the “infant” formed through Neidan—is complete, there is a method of leaping steps. Visualize the infant as having emerged, and count each day as a month, doubling the distance covered each day: ten steps, twenty steps, and so on, up to a hundred. After about three days, one may visualize it as able to travel a thousand li.

After one hundred days of visualizing the infant, it looks like an eight-year-old child. After one year, its form is no different from one’s own.

Three dangers encountered within a twelve-year cycle

If a calamity occurs within one ji (a twelve-year cycle), the response generally falls into three categories: entering a womb, transferring to another body, and fending off killing ghosts.

First, entering a womb (recognize visions and avoid entering the wrong womb)

The key is to recognize external visions and not mistake phantoms from the netherworld for reality, lest one enter an undesirable womb. Earlier writers listed many visions and the kinds of animals or wombs they might correspond to, as a warning to cultivators. The specialized imagery is retained here:

The general point is that, during spirit travel or excursions through the netherworld, all kinds of splendid, shadowy, aquatic, and terrestrial scenes may be traps that lead to rebirth. Only by seeing through them can one avoid falling into the animal realm or entering the wrong human womb.

Second, transferring to another body (moving the soul into a new dwelling)

Transferring to another body means that the soul is about to leave and must find another dwelling. One must find someone known in advance who has died only recently; their body is an empty dwelling. The person must also have been free of ailments such as wind-cold while alive, and their Jing and spirit must still be firmly intact. Only then can one move into the body.

The body of a young unmarried boy is considered best. Thus, after entering such a body, one should cultivate again from the beginning, following the method described earlier.

Third, fending off killing ghosts

The text merely names this alongside entering a womb and transferring to another body as an important matter in times of danger. Its methods are explained elsewhere in the book and are not discussed here.

Summary

This passage connects the three-year Neidan process—replenishing the five organs and Jing, the union of Dragon and Tiger, Swallowing the Moon, Burning the Body, and other stages—with the visualized growth of the embryo after its formation. It also stresses the dangers that may arise within a twelve-year cycle: one must recognize visions and avoid rebirth, know the conditions for transferring to another body, and guard against the danger posed by killing ghosts. These are practical instructions in Daoist inner cultivation for “emerging as a yin spirit and preserving one’s true form.” The list of images teaches cultivators not to be deceived by visions of the netherworld.

A Plain-Language Interpretation of Daoshu

What does “Slaying Demons” mean?

People practicing the Dao may suddenly face a critical threshold between life and death while the “fetus” of Neidan (internal alchemy) is still forming, or shortly after it has emerged. How should they pass through this trial?

The “five centers” are the palms of both hands, the soles of both feet, and the heart. Pain in any one of these five places is a sign that the critical threshold is approaching.

At this time, sit quietly in a secluded room and visualize “paying homage to the perfected ones.” This means gathering the spirit and entering meditation, shutting away every distracting thought associated with the ears, eyes, nose, tongue, hands, and feet, as well as with Kidney Water (Ren and Gui). Make the teeth into a city wall and let Heart Fire burn within. If demons appear, do not be afraid.

The heart is the ruler, dwelling in the nose (Dantian, the energy center); the feet are the Three Ministers, illuminating and overseeing the myriad officials. The spirit of the Liver commands 36,000 rays of essence-light and guards the left; the spirit of the Lungs commands 12,000 forms and shadows and guards the right; the spirit of the Spleen commands 84,000 pores and guards the front; the spirit of the Kidneys commands 50,000 vital essences and Qi and guards the back. The spirit at the crown of the head commands the hair and guards the upper palace; the spirit of the Gallbladder guards the lower region. The six viscera are the Six Ding divine generals. They fight the demons, who then withdraw and scatter.

After three to five days, the demons may return. At that point, abandon the city—no longer defending the city of teeth—and ascend straight to the Celestial Bureau. One may then become either an immortal among the ranks or an earthly immortal.

Anyone who becomes an immortal must have a sword. How is this sword forged? Use the body as the furnace, Jing (essence) and Qi as iron, the radiance of the sun and moon as steel, the Liver as charcoal, the Lungs as bellows, the heart as fire, the Spleen as clay, the Kidneys as the mold, and the Gallbladder as the whetstone. The leftover iron becomes a dagger. How is it forged? Through visualization alone.

There is also a golden hammer. Each time you swallow the Dragon and Tiger (Jing and Qi), do not let them stop at the Kidneys; take them up into the Lungs as well. The Lungs belong to Metal, so the casting is completed in a single forging.

Note: This is a “Slaying Demons” method in Neidan practice. It builds an inner system of visualization from the body’s organs, five centers, and six spirits. The critical threshold, fetus, and sword are all metaphors for internal cultivation, not literal demon-slaying or sword-forging.