《雲笈七籤》Vol. 76

Humans receive the Qi of the Five Phases (Wuxing) and are endowed with the nature of the Five Constants, yet they are constantly harmed by the five flavors and invaded by the winds of the eight directions. From nursing at the breast to old age, people often lose their lives to wind pathogens. Some eat too much, some starve excessively; some drink too much water, some lack water from thirst; some eat salty and bitter things, some drink sour and spicy things; some fear heat yet face the wind, some fear cold yet approach fire; some enjoy the moon in the courtyard, some cool off beneath trees; some suffer puncture wounds to the skin, some injure limbs in falls and collisions; some frequently take dry and harsh medicines, some drink much cold liquid; some abstain from sexual intercourse for long periods, some indulge excessively.

Wind pathogens thereby invade all parts of the body, and toxic pathogens gather in one place in the limbs, causing hands and feet to become disobedient and speech to be impaired. In some, pain penetrates deep into the bones; in others, numbness invades the skin. Some itch as if bitten by insects and ants; some become stiff as iron and stone. Some have profuse phlegm and saliva, forgetfulness and irritability, blocked blood vessels, and emaciated muscles. Others lie in bed for long periods; when they rise and sit for a while, speech becomes labored and the complexion weak, so that though alive they seem dead. Some show no sign of illness yet die suddenly. In men, illness comes when Qi follows the wind pathogen; in women, the wind pathogen invades along the blood aspect. There is no one whose death is not caused by wind pathogen.

People of the world do not understand how to treat wind disease and only use drugs to attack the interior. Yet if wind pathogens are hidden among the five viscera and six bowels and between the four limbs and hundred vessels, how can ordinary decoctions remove them? Even if the condition can be identified, if a physician errs in using drugs, then even if well read in the Nanjing and Suwen and with medical skill transmitted through several generations, it is still difficult to cure a lingering chronic illness.

I long resided on Mount Taibai and was ill for many years. I used every kind of drug, and almost none was effective. Later an old man gave me this medicine; I took five pills in all, and the illness was completely cured. I bowed and kowtowed, praying to Heaven for the prescription; only then did the old man agree to transmit it, and he made me swear not to reveal it lightly. Therefore I recorded the prescription on stone and placed it in a spirit chamber. Those who obtain it later should treat it with reverence and not with disrespect; otherwise they will bring disaster upon themselves. As long as one cultivates it according to the method, why worry that its efficacy will fail?

The method of roast-preparing drugs is used to process calcined drugs; calcined drugs are used to process decocted drugs; decocted drugs are used to process raw drugs; raw drugs are used to assist decocted drugs…

When decocting and preparing drugs, calcination must be used; when calcining drugs, broiling must in turn be used. The various drugs are combined in sequence and mutually restrain one another, so that the sovereign-minister relation (the compatibility of principal and auxiliary drugs in a prescription) is fully present and the father-son relation (the mutual supporting relation among drugs) is firmly established, ultimately bringing Yin-Yang each into proper order.

Yang-natured drugs restrain Yin-natured drugs and guide their Yin medicinal power; Yin-natured drugs restrain Yang-natured drugs and guide their Yang medicinal power. Although this medicine cannot cause one to attain the Dao and become an immortal, by taking an amount about the size of a bean, one may remain free of illness for the rest of one’s lifespan.

If one already suffers from wind disease (an ancient general term for certain illnesses caused by wind pathogens), or from falls, impacts, and injuries, or joint injuries, and has been unable to move for five or ten years, one need only take one pill according to the method to see results; in severe cases, no more than ten pills are required. If someone suddenly dies, as long as the heart area has not yet grown cold, take one pill, mix it open with vinegar, and smear and massage it into the navel more than a thousand times. Once the area around the navel gradually becomes warm and the eyes open, take one more pill with hot vinegar, and the person can be revived.

However long the wind disease has been suffered, the results are extremely efficacious and cannot be recorded one by one. Each pill is the size of a mustard seed; dry them in the sun and store them. For any sick person, regardless of how long the illness has lasted, first take half a pill of Hongxue (Red Snow) or Tongzhong San with tea; if the wind disease is severe and the body is stiff and obstructed, take one pill. After a while, take it again with hot tea to cause the patient to have diarrhea two or three times. Afterward, according to the method, take one pill of the medicine with ginger-bean decoction, and have others use warm hands to massage the affected area in turn. Massage for a long time, until the hot Qi penetrates; the patient will then feel something in the flesh like fire darting to the painful place, and the pain will disappear at once.

Those who have suffered wind disease for one or two hundred days, or who within a year have already become unable to get out of bed, can walk immediately after taking one pill, just as when they were well. In especially severe cases, take one pill after each diarrhea; after an interval of three to five days, again follow the previous method: first take Hongxue to cause diarrhea, then take the elixir pill. Taking no more than one or two pills a day, one can recover to normal.

For those with traumatic injuries from many years before, who feel pain and cannot move on cloudy days, this medicine is especially effective; only one or two pills are needed. If too much of the medicine has been taken, after recovery its power will lie hidden beneath the soles: in men under the left foot, in women under the right foot. Whenever there is any discomfort, if one thinks of this medicine in the mind, its power will arrive as one intends. The marvelous efficacy of this medicine cannot be fathomed by wisdom.

Ingredients: Guangming cinnabar, one liang and one fen; Yangqishi (actinolite), Cimao stone, purple fluorite, pyrite (natural copper), Changli stone, Shitingzhi, and realgar.

For the above seven drugs, use three large liang of each.

Twenty-four sheets of gold foil. Grind Guangming sand (a type of cinnabar) into a fine powder, boil it for three days in buckwheat-ash lye, wash it, then take it out and weigh it. Grind realgar into a fine powder, boil it in vinegar for three days, wash it, then take it out and weigh it. Grind Shitingzhi (a mineral drug whose exact identification is disputed) into a fine powder, boil it in wine for three days, wash it, and weigh it.

For the above five drugs, use four large fen of each; grind into a fine powder and use raw: Yuanzhi, Morinda officinalis, Scrophularia, Weishe (as in the original; the drug name is suspected to contain a textual error), and Xianlingpi (the original writes the final character differently).

For the above five drugs, use five large fen of each: Aucklandia, nutmeg, deer antler velvet (choose pieces resembling dried persimmons), and cinnamon.

For the above four drugs, use six large fen of each: Yanhusuo and Muhutonglü (a drug name whose exact identification is disputed).

For the above three drugs, use three fen of each: sulfur, realgar, cinnabar, and pyrite.

Place the above four together in one bottle, cover them with gold foil and place gold foil beneath them; do not seal the mouth tightly. Heat with fire for three days, keeping the fire three cun from the bottle; it must not be too hot.

Actinolite, Cimao stone, fluorite, and Changli stone: place the above four together in one bottle, cover with gold foil, then bury it in ash up to half the bottle’s height, leaving a gap at the mouth. Burn for three days: on the first day keep the fire two cun from the bottle, on the second day one cun, and on the third day bring the fire close to the bottle; by night burn until red-hot, then let the drug be freed of fire toxicity (i.e., reduce its fiery nature after calcination).

Separately take ten liang of stalactite and grind it with a jade pestle for seven days, until it is as fine as flour. Then put it into a boiled double-layer silk bag, tie the mouth tightly, suspend it in a pot, and boil with two dou of water until one dou remains. Remove the stalactite; take three ge of this water and grind and combine it separately with finely ground raw rhinoceros horn (one thousand—as in the original; a missing or erroneous character is suspected), and store it. When the Gleditsia seeds are added, grind and use them together.

Use the remaining stalactite water to decoct the five drugs beginning with Yuanzhi, add five large fen of crushed turnip seeds, and decoct together until seven sheng of liquid remain; strain off the dregs and keep the liquid. Then use this liquid to decoct Qingmuxiang and the other three drugs until four sheng remain; strain off the dregs. Take another portion of the liquid and decoct Pinellia (washed ten times in hot water and crushed) and Angelica (finely cut), one large liang of each, until three sheng remain; strain off the dregs and clarify.

Then take one sheng of Rehmannia juice, one sheng of ash-free wine, and one sheng of boy’s urine; combine these three with three sheng of the medicinal liquid in a clean vessel, making six sheng in all…

Use martial fire (strong, sustained heat) to decoct the medicine. When the liquid has been boiled down to one sheng, add the various mineral and metallic drugs and stir without stopping. When the liquid becomes like thin gruel, remove it from the fire, add the powders of five raw drugs including realgar, and continue stirring so that the ingredients are thoroughly mixed. Then add six dafen of Gleditsia seed kernels (roast the seeds, take the kernels, pound them into powder, and then weigh them) and two fen of borneol (grind it fine in a basin and add it to the medicine like flour), and then put the prepared rhinoceros-horn juice together into the mortar. Have a strong man grind it three thousand times, until the mixture is suitable for making pills. Make the pills the size of mustard seeds; they must not be too large.

The medicine’s efficacy is said to be as wondrous as the creative transformations of heaven and earth. After it is made, divide it into three large portions and arrange them in a pin formation, one above and two below; take one portion each time.

Separately add one large liang of refined mirabilite, called the “Coffin-Breaking Elixir.” Choose the finest Shu-region mirabilite, preferably the kind with sharp-edged crystals. Put it in a pot and heat it over fire until the liquid is completely burned off; take it out, grind it to powder, and add it to the medicine. If someone dies suddenly, no matter what the illness, as long as the body has not yet changed color, one may open the coffin, pry open the teeth, and administer one pill mixed with hot vinegar. After the pill passes the throat, it is said that the person will revive; eight or nine out of ten can be saved. The pills are the size of peas; the remaining medicinal ingredients, such as cinnabar, are handled according to the song verses.

Song of the Returning-Soul Elixir

“Sulfur, realgar, and cinnabar are separated; copper is placed above; magnetite begins the long row; the purple one forms the head; gold: three above and below, two in the middle.”

These lines explain that the four mineral drugs are placed into the bottle one after another; then the four drugs are also placed into the bottle in the same order as before. Gold foil is divided into upper and lower layers with three pieces in each, with the mineral drugs between them, and then two pieces are placed in the middle.

“This is fired and the copper heated for three full rests.”

One bottle is used for firing and one for heating; carry out the medicinal procedure for three full days.

“The milk is cooked, and four-five all return.”

“Milk” refers to stalactite; “cooking” means decocting. “Four-five” is twenty, meaning that two dou of water are used to decoct the stalactite until one dou remains.

“Take one, and it still requires eleven preparations; when it has been boiled down to three, it must be taken out.”

Take this one dou of stalactite water and then decoct it with eleven herbs; when it has reduced to three sheng, take it out.

“Earth, boy, and you are blended at once; withdraw the fire, and the stone returns to a quiet room.”

“Earth” refers to dihuang (Rehmannia), “boy” to boy’s urine, and “you” to wine; blend these three together. After withdrawing the fire, put the medicinal stone back in a quiet room for storage.

This passage records a method for refining “Guangming sand” (the name of a Daoist alchemical material here) into pills and a metallic material. The original text has many missing characters, corruptions, and places difficult to punctuate; the following interpretation follows the meaning that can be identified.

First the material is refined into a fine powder and placed into a clay ball. To make the clay ball, yellow lead, white clay, tile powder, salt, and vinegar are mixed into a mud, with wax used as the inner core; a hole must be left in the clay ball. After the clay ball is shade-dried, the wax is removed through the hole, and the clay ball is then fired. Next, the finely ground Guangming sand is wrapped in paper and inserted through the hole. Then a large earthworm is taken, mashed, and used to seal the opening of the clay ball; after the mud dries, an iron ring is fitted onto the clay ball, and it is placed in an iron ding (cauldron).

Molten lead is poured into the ding so that it rises about two inches above the clay ball, and then a bran fire is used to warm-nourish it over a long period, keeping the lead soft. After refining and nourishing it in this way for one hundred and twenty days, the fire is increased, the clay ball is removed, and it is then calcined with fire on the ground. After cooling, the medicine inside is taken out, and the bluish-purple portions that look like small snails are picked out; the black powdery residue is discarded.

Half of the medicine is placed into a green bamboo tube and steamed with cow’s milk five times, with the milk changed three times during steaming. The original says that the milk skin produced by steaming can be used to treat “qian’an” (darkened complexion). After the medicine is taken out, it is buried in an earthen pit for three nights, then ground finely and made into pills the size of millet grains with millet rice. The dosage increases according to age: at forty, one pill per day; at fifty, two pills per day; at sixty, three pills per day. The original claims that this medicine can treat various wind diseases, prolong life and preserve youthful appearance, regulate and nourish Qi, and improve complexion; at the same time, it warns against taking too much.

The other half of the medicine is ground into a fine powder, placed into a gan guo (a refractory crucible used in alchemy), and one liang of yellow alum is added; the powder is used to cover it above and below, and it is sealed tightly. After the sealing clay dries, it is warm-nourished over an ash fire for forty-nine days and then calcined with a strong fire. After cooling, the furnace is opened, and the original says the medicine will turn into “golden millet grains.” Next, three liang of tou (toushi, a copper-zinc alloy) are taken and melted in a gan guo; then several grains of the golden millet are added, and the toushi can be transformed into “true western metal.” The final sentences about setting up the ding, placing the clay ball, and using fire are textually incomplete and difficult to explain precisely.

Take four liang of bright cinnabar (zhusha), selecting grains as large as honey-locust seeds; then take more than half a liang of Guazhou yellow vitriol, mix it evenly with three-year-old rice vinegar, and work it into a fine paste. Coat the cinnabar with a layer of this paste and let it dry thoroughly. Separately take half a liang of a superior Western material, hammer it into thin sheets, cut them into small pieces, and wrap them outside the cinnabar.

Then take one liang of superior Wudu realgar and one liang of azurite (zengqing), grind them carefully into a fine powder, decoct them with what the original text calls the “left taste” (zuo wei), and blend them with glue. Shape the realgar and azurite powder into small cakes and wrap them around the cinnabar mass prepared above; let it dry. Next, make a glue paste with salt and vinegar and apply another coating layer; after all is wrapped, dry it in the air.

Use true lead to make the outer box (there is a separate method for preparing true lead). Heat and refine it three times; after taking it out, dispel the cold vapor, then pound and sieve it according to the method. Take six liang of lead-silver and forge it into a container. The container should be suitably sized: one cun two fen wide at the mouth and two cun four fen deep. First spread true lead about two fen thick on the bottom of the container, then arrange the cinnabar masses on it like lotus seeds; cover them with another layer of true lead, and continue layering cinnabar and covering with lead until all is used, finally sealing the top with true lead.

Tightly bind the container with the silver binding prepared earlier, then seal it securely with Liuyi mud (liuyi ni) and let it dry. Take five jin of salt, refine it twice with saltpeter, pound it finely, and sieve it. Prepare an iron tripod cauldron slightly larger than the previous container. Put the salt into the cauldron and tamp it firm; hollow out a pit in the salt to hold the container—this is the outer cabinet. Fill around the container with salt to hold it steady, cover with the cauldron lid, pierce and secure it with iron rods, and seal it. After the sealing mud is thoroughly dry, dig an earthen furnace one chi six cun deep and one chi four cun wide, and heat it with horse-dung fire and chaff fire for forty-nine days.

After opening the cauldron, use an iron rod to part the outer salt cabinet and inspect it. If the silver container has turned golden, withdraw the fire and take it out; if it has not yet changed color, heat it for another seven days. After removal, let it cool, open the container, and peel off the yellow vitriol, realgar, and azurite, keeping them for later use. Take one grain of the contents and grind it finely; in an iron pot over a low fire melt two liang of mercury, then sprinkle on it a half-bean-sized portion of the medicinal powder. The mercury will immediately dry and congeal, refining into a “treasure.” This substance should be treasured and not used.

Separately take twelve liang of bright cinnabar, grind it, and together with the fire-subdued cinnabar (fuhuo sha) refined earlier, grind them together. Following the previous method, boil with rice vinegar and knead into a mass. Finely pound and sieve the inner cabinet made earlier, then build it up again into a cabinet shape; take the realgar and azurite peeled off earlier, grind them fine, spread them at the bottom, put in the cinnabar mass, and cover with a lid. Then place it in the outer cabinet; if the outer cabinet is not yet full, seal it according to the previous method and wait for it to dry.

Place “Qian” into a ding, separate it from the clay furnace, add half a jin of plant ash, and calcine-refine and nurture-prepare it over strong fire for one hundred and twenty days. Afterward take out the medicinal substance from the furnace and process it according to the preceding method; it should then be possible to refine a medicinal substance of superior grade. This is also called the “Second-Cycle Purple Gold Heche (River Chariot).” If it is to be taken, first place the substance in a cold spring for one month, then steam it with milk, and use the juice of the chu tree to form pills the size of millet seeds. The text calls this “Great Prolongation of Years” and says it can cure all kinds of illness; only one pill is taken each day. If one cultivates diligently and finishes taking one liang, one may extend one’s lifespan by five jiazi (five sixty-year cycles). This method is extremely secret and must not be carelessly divulged; if it is transmitted to people who do not understand Daoist methods, the transmitter will suffer disaster and punishment.

Shenshi (Spirit Chamber) Heche Formula

Take another one jin of bright cinnabar (a cinnabar-type mineral), grind it finely, and mix it with “left-flavor” (vinegar). Take a porcelain ding of suitable size that can hold the medicinal substance, and build the mixed cinnabar into a cabinet-like form; then grind cinnabar that has undergone fuzhi (subduing/preparation) finely, mix it with vinegar into a paste, fill it into the cabinet, and after it dries place eight liang of mercury inside. Nurture-refine it in the furnace for one hundred and twenty days with the fire timing described in the text, and it is claimed that “Purple Gold” can be refined. Afterward it should be cast into famous mountains and should not be used; it is said that one should report it to Shangxuan (Highest Mystery) and have one’s name entered in the registers of immortals.

When the “Shenshi” is to be used, place it in ash, add six liang of mercury, and nurture-refine it for a period with the fire timing described in the text; it is then claimed that true, superior Western Metal can be obtained. The text says that the Waidan and the Dragon-Tiger Formula discussed in the Cantong qi also refer to elixir-making substances of the Golden Flower and Yellow Sprout type, and that these belong to secret methods.

Nine-Cycle Lead Refining Method

Take lead and mercury, melt and refine them in a vessel over a gentle fire, and use an iron spoon to scrape off the black matter on the surface; pour out and melt again repeatedly, for nine times in total. Then add mercury and decoct-refine over a fierce fire until it takes on a green-sand color; if it does not disperse, process it according to the method described in the text so that it becomes green sand (qing sha).

Next put the green sand into an iron vessel containing vinegar and grind it with an iron spoon. Then continue to treat it with vinegar, and dry the separated lead-yellow on tiles. Then mix cow-dung juice, wheat flour, and the like with the green sand, make it into balls or cakes, dry them, and calcine them over furnace fire with blowing; this yields the so-called “lead essence,” called “lead elixir” (qiandan). The text says it is soft and moist; one must continue to decoct-refine it, grind it with vinegar, and dry it, repeating the treatment until its color turns red, and afterward refine it again until it takes on a purple color.

The above are ancient Waidan records of the refining processes for lead, mercury, and minerals; they contain several toxic substances. Terms such as “fire timing” and “fuzhi” also depend on specific vessels and traditional interpretations, and this must not be used as a basis for actual practice.

Take one sheng of high-quality wine, add two liang of red salt, stir well, and pour into a container. Then immediately place the purple elixir into the wine; wait for it to cool and take it out. This elixir is called the “Nine-Return Lead Pill,” and its elixir name is the “Nine-Cycle Purple Lead Elixir.”

Golden Elixir Method

Take one jin of sulfur (clear in color, ground into fine powder), two liang of mountain-pool rock salt (also ground into fine powder), and three liang of fire-subdued Beiting juice. Mix these three ingredients together evenly.

Take an iron box; grind top-quality fragrant ink with rice vinegar and thickly coat the inside of the box with the ink, applying three coats. After the ink dries, put the three ingredients into the box. Heat the iron box slowly over gentle fire (a weaker flame) until the ingredients melt into liquid and flow out completely and the yin qi of Beiting disperses; then stop the fire and let the substance solidify and cool.

Then take four liang of niter, grind it into fine powder, fill the bottom of the box and press it firm, and seal the bottom of the box with sticky paper. After the paper dries, place the iron box in the ding cauldron and seal it with method mud. The method mud is made from three ingredients: Yanmen red ochre (cockscomb-colored), left-turning oyster shell, and red halloysite. Grind the three separately into fine powder, add fire-subdued Beiting juice, mix evenly, then put into a mortar and pound more than a thousand times before using it to seal the iron box and the cauldron. The joints and the area around the bottom of the box must all be sealed tightly. The top of the cauldron is locked tight with an iron bolt, and it too must be sealed securely; let it dry in the shade before proceeding to the next step.

Take three jin of lead and put it in a pot, melt it into lead liquid. Use a small iron ladle to scoop out the lead liquid and pour it around the bottom of the iron box until it is spread evenly. Melt some more lead liquid and gradually pour it into the cauldron until the lead liquid stands about two cun above the iron box inside the cauldron. Choose a suitable day and start the fire at zi hour (midnight): for the first six days use six liang of firepower, thereafter increase by one liang each day until the full sixty days are completed. After the cauldron has cooled and solidified, use a small iron chisel to chisel away the black lead, open the box, and take out the medicine. The medicine should be golden in color; then put it into a mortar and grind it into fine powder.

Method for Fire-Subdued Beiting

Take three liang of clean, clear Beiting sand, add one and a half fen of yellow wax (first melted into liquid), stir evenly, knead into a ball, and wrap it in paper.

Take one dou of weathered lime and put it into a porcelain jar. First put half the lime into the jar and press it firm, then dig a small pit, place the Beiting sand ball inside, and cover it with the other half of the lime...

After the earlier grey-cover treatment is complete, tamp the material solid again in the same way as before. At the start use three jin of fire, then gradually increase it to five to seven jin of fire, continuing for three shichen. Next increase it to ten jin of fire and calcine the material until it is thoroughly red. After the fire has burned out and the material has cooled, take it out and put it into a raw silk bag.

Then dig a pit that can hold five to seven sheng of water, fill it with water, and wait for the water to seep away completely. Place a fine porcelain bowl in the pit, lay a small wooden rod across it, and suspend the silk bag above the bowl; then cover it by inverting a basin over it, and seal the edges all around with wet earth so that no air can enter. After three shichen, the contents of the bag will transform into water. Take out this water and use it to blend the previous two medicines.

Method for Refining Geng Powder

Take ten liang of superior geng and fifty liang of mercury, place them in a jar, and heat with fire. When the geng is red-hot, cast it into the mercury and stir with a willow-wood comb until the geng is completely dissolved into the mercury.

Take three jin of salt flowers and grind them together with the gold mud until extremely fine, then place in a large cauldron and spread evenly. Cover with a kan basin, seal the cauldron all around with mud, and then calcine over a slow fire so that the mercury evaporates upward until it is entirely exhausted. Afterwards rinse the salt flowers with a decocted broth until the salt taste is completely washed away. Place the remaining geng powder on a plate to dry in the sun, then grind it fine and add it to the medicines.

Realgar, eight liang, choosing the kind as bright red as a rooster's comb, grind into powder; orpiment, eight liang, choosing clear and bright sheet-like pieces, grind into powder; rong salt, four liang, grind into powder; gold powder, ten liang. All five medicines above must each be ground extremely fine. Then change to another ding and combine them, and following the previous method, grind fragrant ink with thick rice vinegar and smear it inside the combining vessel. Then bake it over a gentle fire so that the medicines transform into liquid.

Next proceed as before: take four liang of saltpeter, grind into fine powder, place it in the foot of the combining vessel and press it firm; paste paper with flour paste to seal the foot of the vessel, then seal the lid of the vessel with mud. Put the vessel into the ding, seal the foot and lid tightly with mud as before, and secure them with iron clamps. After drying in the shade, following the previous method first take three jin of lead, melt it into liquid in a small cauldron, and use a spoon to pour the lead liquid successively around the foot of the combining vessel, then gradually fill the ding with lead liquid until the lead rises about two cun above the vessel.

Finally, still following the previous method, choose an auspicious day and begin the fire at midnight, at the zi hour, with the fire regimen the same as described above.

Heat the medicinal substance for sixty days, adding one liang each day; when the term is up, wait until the cauldron has cooled completely. Use an iron chisel to remove the black lead, then take out the compounded medicinal substance; its color should be purple-gold. Take one fen at a time, place it in a mortar, and grind it finely. It is said that this can transmute one jin of mercury, causing it immediately to become purple-polished gold. The book states that this is not something found in the human world but a secret method transmitted by immortals; if it is only meant to aid Daoist cultivation, it is enough to know when to stop.

Method for Refining Mercury after the Subdued Medicine Is Complete

The original text then records a method for “subduing” mercury and then refining it into “geng”: place the medicinal substance on top of mercury in a new small iron pot, cover it well, and seal it tightly. While heating, pay attention to the ticking sound inside the pot; afterward, put the bottom of the pot into water to quench-cool it, and repeat this many times. The book says that in this way the mercury has been “subdued.” Grind the resulting substance, then heat and smelt it as described in the text, and purple-polished gold will be obtained. As for what other transformations it can undergo, the original says these cannot be recorded one by one.

Method for Cinnabar in a Four-Walled Cabinet (gui)

The book states that cinnabar made by this method can dispel wind-cold, warm the body, comfort the bones and body, and make the complexion radiant; long-term use can reduce illness and prolong life.

The formula lists needle sand (iron filings), sulfur, cinnabar, white alum, and salt. The original text then describes multiple rounds of boiling with vinegar, heating and calcining, washing, settling, drying, and grinding. The prepared medicinal material is then put into a container and layered with gold foil and cinnabar, sealed, and heated in stages. After the refined cinnabar is taken out, it must be spread out for some time to dissipate fire poison, then ground fine and mixed with jujube flesh into pills the size of hemp seeds. Here the original continues with “Every day, on an empty stomach, with warm…” and then breaks off, giving no further content.

This passage is a record of ancient alchemy and methods of taking medicines. Terms such as fu (“subduing”), geng, and gui (“cabinet”) are alchemical terms and cannot be directly equated with modern chemical concepts. The text involves toxic substances such as mercury, cinnabar, and sulfur as well as heating operations; the claimed therapeutic effects are only statements from the original book and should not be used as a basis for preparation or ingestion.

Place the five pills in water. A vessel made of lead may weigh up to two jin; a vessel made of copper may weigh up to three jin. Avoid consuming sheep’s blood.