By Eric Vandenbroeck
and co-workers
The first known examples of the use of alchemical imagery in relation to
meditation practices refer to
Laozi as a deity to be visualized within one's inner body. The Inscription for
Laozi (Laozi ming) of 165 CE states that he
"goes in and out of the Cinnabar Hut (danlu),
and rises from and descends into the Yellow Court (huangting).
(La divinisation de Lao tseu dans le
Taoisme des Han; Ecole Francaise d'Extreme-Orient, 1992,47-48 and 128.)
The first major
Chinese alchemical text appearing in Western language, was the 'Secret of the
Golden Flower' text by Richard Wilhelm and interpreted by Carl Jung. This text
came from the 'Grand Unity's' Instructions (on Developing) Golden Florescence
(a light body)’, and came from at least two separate spirit-writing cults next
to Patriarch Lu Dongbin active in the late
seventeenth century. Jung's emphasis on the cross-cultural validity of his
ideas on psychic individuation and archetypal symbolism however, downplayed the
cultural specificity of the text and its tradition.
But in China, it
should be known, ‘adepts’ responded not by abandoning their traditions (as when
chemistry overtook alchemy in Europe by first narrowly redefining and then undercutting
it), but by enriching them. Chinese compiled written texts and embedded their
traditions into grand genealogical structures marked by textual elaboration,
and spiritual meaning.
Among the most
prominent examples here is that of the division of corporeal alchemy into five
collateral branches, each corresponding to one of the five standard
directions - south, north, center, east, and west that articulated space in traditional China. This
geo-genealogical five-lineage structure built on the cultural model of the
Southern and Northern branches of contemplative alchemy, and sought to embed
new patriarchs, scriptures, into familiar structure.
To give their
traditions durable geo-cultural foundation that could outlast the political
decay and disintegration they faced. To date, most scholars have studied the
Completion of Authenticity (Quenzhen), later dubbed
the Northern Branch, followed by studies of the Western Branch. Plus, several
studies have emerged relating to Lu Xixing and the
Eastern Branch.
Belief in physical
immortality among the Chinese seems to go back to the 8th century BC, and belief
in the possibility of attaining it through drugs to the 4th century BC.
The genesis of
alchemy in China may have been a purely domestic affair, we suggest however
that there was some overlap with India during the time the Tantras where
formulated (see the link at the end of this page to enter this wider eSocial Science News research project). In China it
emerged during a period of political turmoil, the Warring States Period (from
the 5th to the 3rd century BC), and it came to be associated with Taoism
(Daoism). The Taoists/Daoists were a miscellaneous
collection of 'outsiders', in relation to the prevailing Confucians, and such
mystical doctrines as alchemy were soon grafted onto the Taoist canon. What is
known of Chinese alchemy is mainly owing to that graft, and especially to a
collection known as Y'n chi ch'i ch'ien
('Seven Tablets in a Cloudy Satchel'), which is dated 1023. Thus, sources on
alchemy in China (as elsewhere) are compilations of much earlier writings.
The magical drug,
namely the 'elixir of life' (elixir is the European word), is mentioned about
that time, and that most potent elixir, 'drinkable gold,' which was a solution
(usually imaginary) of this corrosion-resistant metal, as early as the 1st
century BC many centuries before it is heard of in the West. First invented by
the scholar-official, Ge Hong (283-343), the Way of the Golden Elixir attracted
disaffected literati seeking spiritual advancement through elixir-making.
Ge's alchemy combined
three traditions, and included divine rituals and formulas for preparing and
ingesting mineral or metallic compounds, each of which gave specific powers to chose who took them. Ge uses the term Golden Elixir to name
the best synthesis that would lead to the highest form of transcendence, but the
wide readership of his book ensured that this term would become the generic
label for alchemy. When later writers resorted to the same name however, they
often had something quite distinct from Ge's ideas on the Golden Elixir in
mind. They not only added new writings, deities. structures, and goals to their
alchemical pursuits in the centuries after Ge's death, but from the tenth
century, they frequently omitted any evidence of laboratory knowledge at all.
The Warring States
next generated new approaches to life. Fears that spirits (shen)
prematurely leave the corporeal form prompted some to focus on cultivating the
body's vitalities. Thus Golden Elixir alchemy as it exists today, built upon
the established traditions of sacred places on mountains and in temples as
elements of marketing systems. Developments occurred within the matrix of
learning, including the Confucian, Buddhist, and Taoist classics and several of
their recent incarnations.
The Taiqing, or Great Clarity, legacy flourished between the third
and the fourth centuries in Jiangnan, the region south of the lower Yangzi
River. While earlier documents yield fragmentary evidence on the origins of
alchemy in China, the extant Taiqing sources provide
details on the doctrines, rites, techniques, and aims of waidan.
And The Scripture of Great Clarity (Taiqing jing), the Scripture of the Nine Elixirs (jiudan jing), and the Scripture
of the Golden Liquor (jinye jing)
form the nucleus of the Taiqing doctrinal and textual
legacy.
Enter Ge Hong
While not a creation
of Ge Hong’s family, they certainly played an important role in the
preservation and the spreading of the Taiqing texts
during the third and the early fourth centuries. (See Encyclopedia of Taoism
(Curzon Encyclopaedias of Religion)
Based on Ge Hong’s
account, the three scriptures we just mentioned originated at the end of the
second century, in the area of what should be Mount Qian (Qianshan),
which Emperor Wu of the Han had designated as the southernmost of the five
sacred peaks (wuyue) in 106 BC. Mount Tianzhu at the
end of the second century. The alleged first recipient, Zuo
Ci, gave them to Ge Xuan (164-244), then they were transmitted to Zheng Yin
(?-ca. 302), and finally they reached Ge Xuan’s grandnephew, Ge Hong.
Different hagiographic
lines of transmission were devised about one century later, when waidan was partially incorporated into the corpus of one
of the main Daoist schools of the Six Dynasties; The Celestial Masters sect,
thus releasing themselves from their formal association with the heaven of
Great Clarity (still causing confusion among many present day scholars). The
main study of the cosmological tradition of waidan is
found in Sivin, “The Theoretical Background of Elixir
Alchemy.” On correlative cosmology see especially
Kalinowski, Cosmologie et divination dans la Chine ancienne : Le
Compendium des Cinq Agents. Virtually
all texts that document the use of correlative cosmology in waidan
are related to the Zhouyi cantong
qi (Token for the Agreement of the Three According to the Book of Changes). The
earliest known mention of this seminal work in association with waidan dates from around 500 CE.
What we know today
about the beginnings of Taiqing tradition, however is
that it originated in present-day eastern Anhui around 200 CE, and was soon
transmitted to the nearby region across the Changjiang River. (See Encyclopedia
of Taoism, Curzon Encyclopaedias of Religion)
Apparently the three
main scriptures took form, or at least were initially transmitted, within the
milieu of the fangshi, the “masters of the methods.”
And waidan participated in the progressive eastward
transmission of elements of early religious culture from the Chu region to the
coastal areas that culminated, in the fourth century, with the revelation of
the Shangqing (Highest Clarity) scriptures.
Zheng Yin was the
master who provided Ge Hong with the required “oral instructions” (koujue) on the Taiqing and other
texts, and who formally transmitted the three alchemical scriptures mentioned
above to his disciple-then aged about eighteen-around the year 300. Ge Hong
states that he originally collected, materials found in several sources to
compile a handbook titled Inner Chapters, for his own reference, and that
later he expanded those excerpts and notes into a book addressed to “those who
are moved by the same aspirations as myself.” (Ibid Encyclopedia of Taoism)
While hagiographic
accounts depict him as compounding elixirs on Mount Luofu
(Luofu shan, Guangdong),
Ge Hong himself acknowledges that at the time he wrote his Inner Chapters he
had not performed any alchemical method. Ge Hong’s lack of personal expertise
in compounding the elixirs does affect his image as an alchemist-which anyway
is to a considerable extent a creation of later hagiographers and modern
scholars-and may be at the origin of some unclear or inaccurate reports of
alchemical processes found in his work. The documentation provided in the
Inner Chapters, moreover, reflects the author’s attempt to incorporate
fragments of different bodies of doctrine and practice into a comprehensive
view. See Ho Peng Yoke, On the Dating of Taoist Alchemical Texts; Chen Guofu, Daozang yuanliu xukao, 285-381. On this
and related issues in the study of Chinese alchemy see also Sivin,
Chinese Alchemy: Preliminary Studies, II-34; and his “The Theoretical
Background of Elixir Alchemy,” 2I0-12.
When following Ge
Hong’s Inner Chapters, the Taiqing scriptures began
to circulate in Jiangnan, a new corpus, was ‘channeled’ by mediums, in
the second half of the fourth century. This, was the point of departure for a
series of changes within the religious traditions of Jiangnan that provide
clues to understand the relation of Taiqing alchemy
to medieval Taoism.
The compilation of
the Shangqing (Highest Clarity) and Lingbao (Numinous Treasure) corpora-between 364 and 370,
and around 395 to 405, respectively-resulted in a new arrangement of the
southeastern religious customs and their historical or legendary
representatives. The new hierarchy was codified during the fifth century in the
system of the Three Caverns (iviniz), the earliest
traces of which are found in the Shangqing
scriptures. (See Robinet, La revelation du Shangqing,
I: 75 – 8 5. On Lingbao Daoism see Bokenkamp, “Sources of the Ling-pao Scriptures”; and Yamada
Toshiaki, “The Lingbao School.”)
Within this system,
which formally defined the identity of Six Dynasties and later Daoism, the
heaven of Great Clarity, with the associated scriptures, doctrines, and
methods, was ranked below those related to the Shangqing
and the Lingbao corpora, bringing about a decline in
the prestige of waidan.
Also the above
mentioned texts, Way of the Celestial Masters (and real Clarity) texts were at
first consolidated in the third tier. This lower tier normally associated with
the Sanhuang (Three Sovereigns) and with one of the
main scriptures of the pre-Shangqing and pre-Lingbao traditions of nan, the Sanhuang
wen, or Script of the Three Sovereigns. This explains why medieval alchemy,
despite the lack of textual connections of its sources to the Script of the
Three Sovereigns, is often related to Sanhuang
corpus; it also helps to understand why the Way of the Celestial Masters is
often associated with the heaven of Great Clarity, and why Zhang Daoling, the originator of the Way of the Celestial
Masters, is credited with alchemical knowledge by medieval and later sources.
Although almost all
scholars translate the word ‘waidan’ with “outer
Alchemy,” in contrast the foremost authority on waidan
Ge Hong deemed meditation to be superior to self-cultivation methods like
daoyin (gymnastics), breathing, sexual techniques,
and various types of diets including, in particular, the abstention from
cereals (duangu or bigu).
To him the use of
herbal drugs also was subordinate to meditation and alchemy: whereas medicines
of herbs and plants (caomu zhi
yao) only afford longevity, Ge Hong states, guarding
the One (shouyi) enables one to approach the gods and
repel demons, and ingesting the Taiqing elixirs confers
immortality. The distinction between the benefits of alchemy and meditation,
however, was not so clear-cut, for, as we shall see, Ge Hong also says that “if
one ingests the Great Medicine of the Golden Elixir (jindan
dayao), the hundred evils do not come close.” For Ge
Hong, therefore, alchemy grants one access to the sacred in both of its
aspects: the absolute Tao, on the one hand, and the intermediate world of gods
and demons, on the other. Through this appraisal, Ge Hong presents alchemy as a
teaching that, by the beginning of the fourth century, had positioned itself,
together with meditation, at the higher end of the spectrum of religious and
ritual traditions of Jiangnan.
The earliest written
of what later unfolded in the waidan tradition is performed
by a fangshi (shaman, magician, astrologer) whose
role in the early history of waidan is acknowledged
by both historical and alchemical sources. Named Li Shaojun,
around 133 BC, suggested to Emperor Wu that he perform a complex
practice. The method began with a ceremony to the stove (zao)
intended to ask some deities (or spirits, wu) to
assist the emperor in making an elixir. In their presence, cinnabar would
transmute itself into a gold fit to cast vessels for eating and drinking.
Taking food and drinks from those vessels would extend the emperor’s life, and
enable him to meet the transcendent beings. After meeting them, and after
performing the major feng and shan ceremonies to
Heaven and Earth, the emperor would obtain immortality. Thus, told Li Shaojun to Emperor Wu, did the Yellow Emperor in ilia
tempore. This event is narrated in the Records of the Historian as part of a
lengthy debate on whether and how Emperor Wu should perform the feng and shan state ceremonies. The views of the fangshi and the court officials differed on this issue,
with the officials suggesting that the emperor should only express gratitude
to Heaven and Earth for the restored unity of the Nine Regions, and the fangshi maintaining that he should emulate the Yellow Emperor,
their main deity, who had celebrated those rituals at the beginning of human
time. The Emperor who is said to have personally made offerings to the stove,
sent some fangshi to the sea to search for Penglai
and for those like Master Anqi, and also occupied
himself with the transmutation of cinnabar and other substances into gold. (jiuzhuan huandan jing yaojue , 28.1385, in
Taiji zhenren jiuzhuan huandan jing yaojue,
Essential Instructions on the Scripture on the Reverted Elixir in Nine Cycles
of the Perfected of the Great Ultimate; as quoted in K.Schipper,
Concordance du Tao-tsang: Titres
des ouvrages, 1975 p. 889) See also Sivin, Chinese Alchemy, 25 -26; Needham, Science and Civilisation in China, 5·Ill: 34 – 35.
It should be noted
that Li’s method did not involve ingesting the elixir, and that his alchemical
gold did not grant immortality, but only longevity: the emperor would become an
immortal after performing the feng and shan
ceremonies. This would change over time when following the ingestion process
many died of mercury poisoning, hence the popularity of the later solely
meditative, neidan methods. The earliest evidence on
ingesting elixirs in order to “last as long as Heaven and Earth” dates from
several decades after Li; it is found in the Treatise on Salt and Iron (Yantie lun), a work based on
court debates held in 81 BC but compiled about two decades later. For more
details about the iviniz of Chinese Alchemy see Kim Daeyeol, “Le ivinizat de la force
vitale en Chine ancienne” (chapter IV.3.I), also Sivin,
“Chinese Alchemy and the Manipulation of Time,” 113 and 117-I8.
On the relationship
between the daoshi and the fangshi
see John Lagerwey, “Ecriture et corps iviniza Chine.” Lagerwey
remarks, in particular : « le mode taolste de production des symboles
n’est pas le mode metaphysique des possedes, mais celui, scientifique, du
devin » (p. 282).
On the one hand, the
following techniques for refining and transmuting minerals and metals do not
constitute alchemy per se, as they do not necessarily imply the existence of a
doctrinal and soteriological background. Or better said, this background
exists, but for a variety of reasons the techniques may come to be transmitted
separately from it. Within the Chinese tradition, this is true not only of the
proto-chemical techniques of waidan, but also of the
physiological techniques of neidan; to give one
example that pertains to the latter form of alchemy, one of its greatest
representatives, Chen Zhixu (I289-after 1335),
emphatically rejects the understanding of alchemy as consisting only of its
practices when he writes:
“It has been said
that the way of cultivation and refinement consists of the techniques (shu) of the Yellow Emperor and Laozi. No more of this nonsense!
This is the Great Way of the Golden Elixir, and it cannot be called a
technique.” (See Halleux, Les textes alchimiques, 49,
« un ensemble de pratiques et de speculations en rapport avec la
transmutation des metaux »).
Where the doctrinal
principles at the basis of the compounding of the elixirs are shared by
alchemy with other traditions and disciplines, the compounding of the elixirs
is not the only means of access to them. In Chinese alchemy, this is clearly
visible in the fact that the alchemical process, either waidan
or neidan, is rooted in doctrinal notions that
originate elsewhere-specifically, within Taoism-and of which alchemy represents
one of the applications. Alchemy, in other words, cannot be defined either by
its techniques or by its doctrinal foundations alone but rather, using the
formulation suggested by Halleux, by the unique
relationship it establishes between “practices and speculations,” or between
techniques and doctrines. This relationship can take several forms, including
some in which the compounding of the elixir is meant in an entirely metaphoric
way.
Sources ranging
from historical and archaeological documents to mythological and hagiographic
accounts yield some information on the quest for immortality and the knowledge
of proto-chemical techniques in pre-imperial and early imperial times. At a
closer inspection, however, very few of them are found to be directly relevant
to alchemy proper; most consist of legendary accounts such as those on
medicines of immortality that spontaneously grow in remote places, or refer to
artisanal techniques for refining metals and minerals. Some of these legends
and tales are likely to descend, in the first place, from the same background
that also gave rise to alchemy; no early document, however, makes the link
explicit.
The Taiqing tradition we now come to, was not based on a body
of doctrinal tenets explicitly stated in its texts, and even less so was it
provided with a formal organization of masters and disciples. Far from being a
“school” in the sense of an established movement, it was originally centered on
a set of key scriptures and practices, and developed through the addition of
subsidiary texts and methods. Possibly for these reasons, there is no trace in
any extant source of a catalogue or a list of Taiqing
canonical scriptures. In time, however, the original corpus of writings was
expanded with the enlargement of the older texts, such as the Scripture of
Great Clarity, the addition of new ones, such as the writings related to the
Scripture of the Nine Elixirs, and the compilation of commentaries, such as
the one on the Scripture of the Golden Liquor.
The Scripture of the
Nine Elixirs, is said to derive from a ‘heavenly’ book titled; Superior
Scripture of the Nine Methods of the Princess of the Primordial Dao of
the Nine Heavens, “Jiutian Yuandao
jun jiufang zhi shangjing”.12 As this title shows the text was intended
to have been revealed by the Princess of Primordial Dao (Yuandao jun), who is called
Primordial Princess (Yuanjun) in several passages of
the commentary to the Nine Elixirs. Ge Hong mentions her in connection with
the Great Clarity and the Golden Liquor, the two other texts that form the main
early Taiqing corpus. In both instances, the
Primordial Princess transmits these scriptures to her alleged son, Laozi. On
the Primordial Princess as the mother of Laozi see Seidel, La ivinization de Lao tseu, 40 – 41,
and Kohn, “The Mother of the Tao,” 99. On Laozi as a master and a disciple of
the alchemical arts see Baldrian-Hussein, “Inner
Alchemy: Notes on the Origin and Use of the Term Neidan,”
171-77.
The revelation of the
Nine Elixirs is due it states, to two divine couples, each of which consists
of a female and a male figure: the Primordial Princess and Laozi on the one
hand (transmission in heaven), and the Mysterious Woman and the Yellow Emperor
on the other (transmission on earth). The relation between the components of
the two couples is similar: the Primordial Princess is the mother and teacher
of Laozi, while the Mysterious Woman, as we shall presently see, is one of
several deities who granted teachings to the Yellow Emperor. Also similar is
the relation between the two male and the two female figures. Laozi-or his
divine counterpart, Laojun or Lord Lao-and the Yellow
Emperor are in several ways two aspects of the same divine being: the former is
on the non-temporal level what the latter is in the human time, where he rules
at the beginning of history. See the account of the Mysterious Woman in
Yongcheng jixian lu, 6.2a4a
(trans. Cahill, “Sublimation in Medieval China”). On the Mysterious Woman see
also Seidel, La ivinization de Lao tseu, 40-41; and van Gulik,
Sexual Life in Ancient China, 73 -76. Besides the one reported above, another
tradition, recorded in the Laojun kaitian jing (Scripture of the
Opening of Heaven by Lord Lao), states that Laozi wrote the Taiqing
jing when he appeared to the mythical emperor Shun as
Yinshou zi. See Yunji qiqian (Seven Lots from the Bookcase of the Clouds; CT
I032), 2.13 b; trans. Schafer, “The Scripture of the Opening of Heaven by the
Most High Lord Lao,” 17. Analogously, the Primordial Princess is associated
with the celestial version of the Nine Elixirs, not addressed to human beings
and therefore differently titled, while the Mysterious Woman is related to its
transmission to the Yellow Emperor, in its current form and with its current
title. Note the Yellow Emperor was already mentioned in the first written
record of transmutation by fangshi Li Shaojun, around 133 BC.
On the representation
of the Yellow Emperor and other mythical sovereigns as receiving teachings
from divine beings see also Harper, “The Sexual Arts of Ancient China,” 546-48.
The Mysterious Woman and the Pure Woman, who are often associated with the
sexual practices (fangzhong shu),
are mentioned together in the passage quoted below in the present chapter from
the commentary to the Nine Elixirs Uiudan jingjue, 5 .2a), which states that the Yellow Emperor
learned the practices of Nourishing Life (yangsheng)
from them. Guangcheng zi is the Yellow Emperor’s instructor in chapter 1 of
the Zhuangzi, and Qi Bo is the Celestial Master (Tianshi)
who teaches the medical arts in the corpus of the Huangdi neijing
(Inner Canon of the Yellow Emperor).
The main Taiqing text however was the Scripture of Great Clarity (Taiqing jing). This work
contained methods for making several elixirs, two of which are summarized by Ge
Hong in his Inner Chapters: the Elixir of Great Clarity (taiqing
dan) and the Elixirs of the Nine Radiances (jiuguang
dan).2 The text has not come down to us, but the Daoist Canon contains two
works that claim, through their titles, to have close ties to it. The first,
entitled “Preface to the Scripture of the Divine Elixirs of Great Clarity” (“Taiqing shendan jingxu”), purports to quote teachings of the Primordial
Princess (Yuanjun) on the types and ranks of
spiritual beings. In her speech, the goddess emphasizes that the elixirs lead
to transcendence but pertain to the domain of human beings; alchemy, therefore,
reflects the human limitations compared to the condition of beings of pure
spirit (shen), who do not need to devote themselves
to its practice. But despite the importance of this text-even a neidan author, Chen Zhixu, quotes
some sentences of it in one of his works-and despite its attribution to the
deity who, as we have seen, first revealed the three main Taiqing
scriptures, there is no evidence that the “Preface” was part of the Scripture
of Great Clarity as it existed in Ge Hong’s time. More likely, it is excerpted
from one of the expanded versions of this scripture that we shall presently
mention.
The Practice
The alchemical
process begins with the ceremony of transmission, performed in order to receive
texts and oral instructions (koujue). As stated in
the commentary to the Scripture of the Nine Elixirs, without the written
instructions (wenjue) one would be unable to remove
the toxicity of the ingredients, but the oral instructions are necessary to
understand the meaning of the written instructions. More important, states the
commentary, one should not assume that the alchemical practice simply consists
in following the recipes found in the texts.
To receive the
methods of the Nine Elixirs, the disciple throws golden figurines of a man and
a fish into an east-flowing stream as tokens of his oath. The tokens offered to
receive the Reverted Elixir in Nine Cycles are a golden figurine of a fish and
a jade ring shaped like a dragon. Both are said to replace the rites of
smearing one's mouth with blood and of having one's hair cut.
If the golden figurine and the jade ring are not available, they may be replaced
with hemp fabric and silk. On the offering of golden figurines in Daoist
transmission rituals, and on throwing talismans into east-flowing streams, see
Wushang biyao (The Supreme
Secret Essentials; CT Il3 8), 27.7b and 34.I2a-I6a (Lagerwey, Wu-shang pi-yao, 109 and 124),
respectively. See also Chen Guofu, Daozang yuanliu kao,
283-84. Kim Daeyeol, "Le symbolisme de la force vitale en Chine
ancienne" (chap. III.2),
shows that the fish often appears in early Chinese literature and iconography
as an image of communicating with divine beings, and suggests that the golden
figurines of the man and the fish offered in the rite of transmission represent
the adept's wish to enter the realm of the immortals. Lagerwey, Wu-shang pi-yao, 124, mentions the
replacement of blood and the haircut with golden rings and green silk.
The offerings
mentioned have the same colors as gold and silver, a relevant detail since
alchemy is often called the Art of the Yellow and White (huangbai
shu), with reference to those two metals. The passage
on the transmission of the Scripture of Great Clarity is quoted in the
commentary to the Nine Elixirs, which replaces blood with cinnabar; see Jiudan jingjue, 3.4a-b. (Huangdi jiuding shendan jingjue (Instructions on the Scripture of the Divine
Elixirs of the Nine Tripods of the Yellow Emperor, Schipper, CT, 885.)
Having received the
texts and the oral instructions, the adept retires to a mountain or an isolated
place. He is accompanied by two or three attendants, whose main tasks are
pounding the ingredients and tending the fire. (For many references and details
of this, and follows, including illustrations of all the talismans referred to,
see the Curson Encyclopedia of Taoism.)
After all the
precepts, taboos, and rules have been obeyed, the delimitation and protecting
of space can start. Space should be purified and protected to guard oneself
from the dangerous demons who inhabit the mountains. This can be achieved by
the mere possession of major scriptures like the Script of the Three Sovereigns
(Sanhuang wen), the Charts of the Real Forms of the
Five Peaks (Wuyue zhenxing tu), or the Prajiiaparamita-sutra,
which enable one to summon the gods it is said, and obtain their
protection.(For details see To drive away spirits and demons, one should
also be able to identify them and shout their names, or to recognize those
that, in days marked by certain cyclical characters, appear under the guise of
human beings or wild animals. According to the Supreme Secret Essentials (Wushang biyao), the suqi (Nocturnal Invocation) rite for the protection of
ritual space can also be performed when one compounds the elixirs.
However, as is stated
in the commentary to the Nine Elixirs, the most effective way to protect the
compounding of the elixirs is to use talismans (fu) and seals (yin). These are
worn on one's body, affixed at the four directions, placed along the path that
leads to one's dwelling, thrown in the stove, or made into ashes and drunk with
water before one compounds the elixirs. Examples show how the Taiqing adepts used talismans.
Referring to the
rules for the establishment of the ritual area, three Taiqing
sources mention a compound called Medicine for Expelling the Demons (quegui yao) or Pellet for
Expelling the Demons (quegui wan). Several
ingredients of this compound are poisonous vegetable substances whose
apotropaic properties are also mentioned in the pharmacopoeias.
Next the adept can
start the process of selecting the proper time for compounding the elixir. The
entire preliminary process for making the Reverted Elixir in Nine Cycles should
be timed so that one kindles the fire at dawn on the ninth day of the ninth
month. The Nine Elixirs and three other early texts give a list of auspicious
and inauspicious days to begin the compounding; despite variants in the
indication of inauspicious days among them, the common origin of the passage
is apparent. Among the days indicated as unfavorable are those of Establishment
(jian), of Receiving (shou), and of the Killer of the
Month (yuesha). The most favorable days are the
fifth of the fifth month and the seventh of the seventh month, followed by the
days of Opening (kai) and of Removal (Chu). The compounding can also begin in
the days whose cyclical signs are in a relationship of "ruler and
assistant" and do not "subdue" each other; moreover, the sky
should be clear, and the sun and the moon should be bright.
Now the fire may
finally be started. In the Nine Elixirs, this stage is also marked by a
ceremony. The alchemist invokes the Great Lord of the Dao (Da Daojun), Lord Lao (Laojun), and
the Lord of the Great Harmony (Taihe jun). He offers them food and drinks, and asks them to
watch over the process, let the practice be successful, and let him become an
accomplished man (zhiren) and have audience at the
Purple Palace (Zigong), in the constellation of the Northern Dipper. The
commentary to the Nine Elixirs describes a more complex rite, called Ceremony
of the Nine Elixirs (jiudan ji), which is performed
before kindling the fire.
The adept first sets
up an altar, nine feet wide in the lower part and four feet wide in the upper
part, and places the stove six feet west of the altar. On the altar he
arranges five pieces of silk, placing one piece of dried meat and one cup of
liquor on each of them. On a seat to the east of the altar he arranges nine
pieces of silk, placing two pieces of dried meat and two cups of liquor on each
of them. He also offers millet, dried meat of ox and sheep, boiled carp, cooked
eggs, jujubes, pears, and oranges or other red fruits. Burning some incense, he
pours liquor into the cups. Then he kneels in front of the seat, and after this
he may start the fire. The offerings are moved near the crucible, and more
dried meat and liquor are placed on three tables. The meat should be replaced
once every three days, and the liquor three times a day.
After all the
preliminary rites are performed, the compounding of the elixir may begin. The
alchemist's attention now focuses on the crucible and the fire, and he performs
the method according to the texts and the oral instructions he has received
from his master, helped by his assistants. When the elixir is achieved,
according to the commentary to the Nine Elixirs, he performs again the ceremony
made before the kindling of the fire, adding more pork meat on the altar, and
cooked rice, a cooked chicken, and a dried carp in the seat to the east of the
altar. Finally, having asked permission to do so with an invocation, he opens
the crucible. In the Taiqing methods, the crucible is
typically formed by two superposed - vessels made of red clay (chishi zhi) and joined by their
mouths. Owing to this feature, the texts often mention a "double
crucible" (liangfu) or an "upper and lower
earthenware crucible" (shangxia tufu).
The elixirs had to be
extensively consecrated before ingestion, in this rite, different quantities of
the elixir are offered to Heaven, celestial bodies, and deities, and another
portion is left in the marketplace for the benefit of those who cannot devote
themselves to its compounding.
The Scripture of the
Nine Elixirs also describes the transmutation of the elixir into gold, or-in
one case-into silver, as the final act of the alchemical process. The First
and the Fourth Elixirs are transmuted into gold with mercury; the Second Elixir
is transmuted into gold with an aqueous solution of magnetite; the Sixth
Elixir is transmuted into gold with mercury or lead; and the Seventh Elixir is
transmuted into gold or into silver with lead. This transmutation is referred
to with the word dian, which denotes, as
"projection" does in Western alchemy, the process by which a small
quantity of elixir confers its properties to other substances that are added
to it. The stated purpose of this transmutation is to verify that the elixir
has been correctly prepared, but the Nine Elixirs also hints at the use of
alchemical gold for making vessels when it says that the gold obtained in this
way should be malleable. In the following instance, gold is used for making a
cylinder in which the elixir itself should be stored.
After you achieve gold
the document advises, take one hundred pounds of it and arrange a major
ceremony. For the procedure there is a separate scroll, but this is not the
same ceremony as the one performed for compounding [the elixirs of] the Nine
Tripods. For this ceremony you separately weigh and arrange different
quantities of gold. You offer twenty pounds to Heaven, five pounds to the Sun
and the Moon, eight pounds to the Northern Dipper (beidou),
eight pounds to the Great One (Taiyi), five pounds to
the god of the well, five pounds to the god of the stove, twelve pounds to the
Count of the River (Hebo), five pounds to the god of
the soil (she), and five pounds each to the spirits and the divinities of the
doors, of the house, of the village, and to the Lord of Clarity (Qingjun). This makes eighty-eight pounds altogether. With
the remaining twelve pounds, fill a beautiful leather bag, and on an auspicious
day silently leave it in a very crowded spot of the city market, in the peak
hour. Then leave without turning back. (Ge Ho Baopu
zi neipian, Inner Chapters of the Book of the Master
Who Embraces Spontaneous Nature, 4.76-7.)
Because the talismans
of the Three Sovereigns and the Real Forms, the Taiqing
elixirs grant the power of expelling dangerous demons and keeping away harmful
entities. To do so according to Ge Ho, one does not necessarily need to ingest
the elixirs, and may merely keep them in one's hand or carry them at one's
belt-a revealing detail since scriptures and talismans could also be used in
the same way. The apotropaic properties of some elixirs also become active by
rubbing them on a person's eyes, on the house doors, and even on the city
walls. (Quoted in F. Pregadio, Great Clarity, 2006,
129. This book is an edited version of Pregadio’s
dissertation from 1990, he next went on to edit the Encyclopedia of Taoism.)
Ge Hong as quoted in
The Encyclopedia of Taoism describes how the Real Pearl is obtained by placing
mercury and saltpeter inside the quill of a bird's feather (niaoge),
which is sealed with wood and lacquer and is soaked in a Flowery Pond for seven
days or longer. If it is ingested for one hundred days, it confers immortality.
(Mercury also appears as the name of the lead-tin compound (which is described
as "quicksilver," shuiyin, possibly
implying a change of properties from Yin to Yang) and as an ingredient of the
three other methods given in the Oral Instructions: those for making the Silver
Snow, the Hard Snow, and the Male Snow. To compound the Silver Snow, mercury is
boiled in vinegar for nine days and nine nights; it is then added to the
unidentified "flowery stone" (huashi) and
is made into a powder. This powder is placed in the crucible and is covered
with Red Salt, a compound obtained by refining alum and salt that is also
mentioned by Ge Hong in his summary. The Hard Snow is obtained by placing
mercury in a vessel with plaques of copper (tongban)
and vinegar. The amalgam is made again into plaques and soaked in a Flowery
Pond; if it is placed in a crucible with Red Salt, one obtains the Male Snow.
The commentary to the
Nine Elixirs also refers to the Yellow Emperor's initiatory journey, at the end
of which he compounded two elixirs that enabled him to rise to heaven.
From Waidan To Neidan Alchemy
From the late second
century also comes the first mention of the "inner embryo," one of
the most distinctive notions of neidan. It
is found in the Xiang'er commentary to
the Laozi, written around 200 CE and associated with the Way of the
Celestial Masters, and the meditations described below are still practiced
today.
Still existing in
Taiwan today it is called Zhengyi Celestial Master Taoism, or Dragon-Tiger. Its
founder, Zhang Daoling, lived in the second century
C.E. Dragon-Tiger or Zhengyi Taoists meditate on the Lao-tzu Tao-te Ching as a sacred book, practice rites of healing
and renewal, and receive a special Zhengyi Mengwei
(Cheng-i Meng-wei) register
in twenty-four segments when they are ordained Taoists. Their sacred mountain
is Lunghu Shan (Dragon-TIger
Mountain) in southeast Jiangxi Province. These Taoists marry and pass on their
registers to at least one of their children in each generation.
Taken together, the
above inscriptions show that alchemical imagery was used in relation to
meditation practices by the turn of the third century CE, and that the notion
of an "inner embryo" already existed by that time. The step is not a
major one from the notion of an "embryo" dwelling within one's inner
body to the idea of generating an "inner infant," who is equated with
the inner elixir and represents one's own real self. In fact, as early as the
fifth century a scripture belonging to the Lingbao
(Numinous Treasure) corpus states that "the Golden Elixir is within your
body" (jindan zai
zi xing).
Both the meditation
practices and the relevant terminology continued to be transmitted in the
subsequent centuries, first within traditions related to meditation, and later
within traditions related to neidan. The
two main sources that document the relation of these traditions to both waidan and neidan
are the Central Scripture of Laozi (Laozi zhongjing)
and the Scripture of the Yellow Court (Huangting
jing), both of which circulated in Jiangnan
during the third century. Both the Central Scripture and the Yellow
Court enjoin adepts to visualize the deities who reside within themselves.
These deities perform multiple related roles: they serve as administrators of
the body, allow the human being to communicate with the major (and in several
cases corresponding) gods of the outer pantheon, and personify the formless Dao
or impersonal notions such as Yin and Yang and the Five Agents. In both the Central
Scripture and the Yellow Court, moreover, meditation on the inner
gods is combined with the visualization of essences and pneumas that adepts
drive through the body and deliver to the gods in the five viscera, the three Cinnabar
Fields, and other loci in order to provide them with nourishment. Both Shangqing and neidan would
incorporate not only these practices, but also much of the attached imagery.
In particular, the Central
Scripture often instructs adepts to visualize a "yellow essence" (huangjing) and a "red pneuma" (chiqi) that respectively represent the Moon and the
Sun. Adepts should merge them with each other and circulate them within their
body:
Constantly think that
below the nipples are the Sun and the Moon. Within the Sun and the Moon are a
yellow essence and a red pneuma that enter the Crimson Palace (jianggong); then again they enter the Yellow Court (huangting) and the Purple Chamber (zifang). The yellow essence and the red pneuma
thoroughly fill the Great Granary (taicang).
(Laozi zhongjing, sec. 11)
In this practice, the
yellow essence and the red pneuma are moved through the Crimson Palace (heart),
the Yellow Court (spleen), and the Purple Chamber (gallbladder), and finally
reach the Great Granary (stomach). The purpose is to nourish the Red Child (chizi), an infant who resides in the Great Granary and
is said to represent the "real self" (zhenwu)
of the human being. In another instance, the yellow essence and the red
pneuma are joined and then ingested:
The saintly man
dissolves the pearls; the worthy man liquefies the jade. For dissolving the
pearls and liquefying the jade, the method is the same. Dissolving the pearls
means ingesting the essence of the Sun: the left eye is the Sun. Liquefying the
jade means feeding on the essence of the Moon: the right eye is the Moon. (Laozi
zhongjing, sec. 39) The related practice consists
in lying down and repeatedly visualizing the yellow essence and the red pneuma
that descend from one's eyes and enter one's mouth, so that they may be
swallowed.
The Yellow Court mentions
the same essences and pneumas, saying for instance:
Circulate the purple (huizi) and embrace the yellow (baohuang)
so that they enter the Cinnabar Field; an inner light in the Abyssal
Chamber (youshi) illuminates the Yang Gate (yangmen). (Huangting neijing jing, sec. 2)
Here the two pneumas
are circulated and guided to the upper Cinnabar Field, while the Gate of Life
(or Yang Gate) in the lower Cinnabar Field is visualized as irradiated by a
light issuing forth from the kidneys (the Abyssal Chamber).
There are clear
associations between the essences and pneumas of the Sun and the Moon,
delivered by the adept of the Central Scripture to his inner gods, and
the Yin and Yang essences and pneumas that a neidan
adept circulates in his body to compound the elixir or nourish the
"inner embryo." These associations become explicit when the Central
Scripture refers to visualizing the pneuma of the Sun descending from the
heart and the pneuma of the Moon arising from the kidneys; the adept should
"join them making them one, and distribute them to the four limbs."
An analogous practice is performed by the neidan
adept when he joins the Fire of the heart and the Water of the kidneys to
generate the first stage of the inner elixir. (Catherine Despeux,
Taoisme et corps humain:
Le Xiuzhen tu, 152- 58.
)
Analogies with the
alchemical process are also apparent in relation to another source of
nourishment for the inner gods and their residences, namely the adept's own
salivary juices. The main function of these juices is to aid the ingestion of
essences and pneumas, but they are also used to "irrigate" (guan) the
inner organs and, as we shall see presently, to feed the inner gods. (I.Robinet, Taoist Meditation,1999, 90.)
The Central
Scripture and the Yellow Court refer to these juices using terms
derived from waidan or having
alchemical connotations, such as Mysterious Pearl (xuanzhu),
Jade Sap (yujiang), Jade Blossom (yuying), Jade Pond (yuchi),
Jade Liquor (yuye), Golden Nectar (jinli), and even Golden Liquor (jinye).
Other sources refer to them as Divine Water (shenshui),
White Snow (baixue), and Golden Essence (jinjing), all of which are also known as synonyms of
ingredients of waidan elixirs. These terms
suggest that in providing superior nourishment to the adept and his inner gods,
the salivary juices perform a function analogous to the one that the elixirs,
or their ingredients, do in waidan. The
analogies of essences, pneumas, and salivary juices with waidan
end where those with neidan begin:
the adept nourishes himself and his gods not through the ingestion of external
substances, but through components of his own inner body; he finds the vital
ingredients within himself, and their ingestion takes place internally.
Similar dual
associations with both waidan and neidan are evident in another feature of the
methods of the Central Scripture. Although offering nourishment to the
inner gods is the rule, in some cases it is the adept who asks the gods to
deliver nourishment to him. To do so, he addresses invocations to the gods that
recall the one pronounced by the Taiqing alchemist
before he kindles the fire under the crucible. Now, however, he does not ask
the gods to favor the compounding of the elixir; he asks, instead, that they
dispense an elixir to him:
The highest god is
styled Lord Great One of Original Radiance (Yuanguang
Taiyi jun) Below he resides
within the heart of human beings. At dawn and at midday, on the jiawu and the bingwu
days, always call him and say:"Old Man of
the Southern Ultimate, Lord Great One of Original Radiance! I want to obtain
the Dao of long life of the Divine Elixir of the Great One!" (Laozi zhongjing, sec. 25)
In an invocation
addressed to Master Yellow Gown (Huangchang zi), the
father of the Red Child, the adept asks him to obtain "medicinal
liquor" (yaojiu) and other nurture:
Master Yellow Gown!
Master Yellow Gown! Real Man of the Yellow Court, reside in myself! Summon for
me medicinal liquor, dried pine-seeds, rice, and broth of millet, so that I can
eat and drink of them! Let them come right now! (Laozi zhongjing,
sec. I I)
Double Indigo, the
god of the liver, who is none other than Lord Lao himself, is invoked for the
same purpose:
Flesh Child (Rouzi), Double Indigo (Lanlan)!
Be my friend, stay here and be my envoy! I want to obtain the Divine Elixir of
the Great One and ingest it! Let me live a long life! Do not leave my body!
Constantly reside within the Palace of the Purple Chamber, joined with the Dao!
(Laozi zhongjing, sec. 28)
If the term
"inner elixir" was not already charged with other meanings and
associations, it could be an appropriate definition for the nourishment that
the inner gods are invited to provide. In fact, whether its elixir is
"outer" or "inner," the Central Scripture regards
alchemy and meditation as equivalent when it says: "If you cannot ingest
the Divine Elixir and the Golden Liquor, and do not labor to become skilled in
meditation, you merely bring suffering upon yourself."(Laozi zhongjing, sec. 21. The same sentence, without the
reference to meditation, is found in the opening passages of the Scripture
of the Nine Elixirs.)
In
another passage, the Central Scripture states:
"If you constantly
ingest breath, you will obtain a long life and be a divine immortal. If you
visualize the gods and ingest the elixir, you will become a Real Man." (Laozi
zhongjing, sec. 38.)
As we have seen,
leading the yellow essence and the red pneuma to the stomach provides
nourishment to the Red Child, the innermost deity residing within the human
being. The Central Scripture describes him as follows. However the
initial part of the passage quoted below defies a proper translation, for Laozi
(the speaker of the Central Scripture) refers to himself in both the
first and the third persons. He introduces himself as "I" (wu) and says that he resides in every human being
("human beings also have me," i.e., "him"); he is,
therefore, one's own "self" (wu), represented
by the Red Child. For similar statements see sec. 23 ("Child-Cinnabar,
Original Yang, is the self"), 37 ("the stomach is the Great Granary,
the residence of the Prince, the hut of the self"), 37
("Child-Cinnabar is the self"), and 39 ("the Dao is the self"):
The self is the son
of the Dao; this is what he is. Human beings also have him, not only me. He
resides precisely in the ducts of the stomach, the Great Granary. He sits
facing due south on a couch of jade and pearls, and a flowery canopy of yellow
clouds covers him. He wears clothes with pearls of five hues. His mother
resides above on his right, embracing and nourishing him; his father resides
above on his left, instructing and defending him. (Laozi zhongjing,
sec. 12)
The Child's mother is
the Jade Woman of Mysterious Radiance (Xuanguang Yunii). Through the nourishment that she provides, the
Child "feeds on yellow gold and jade dumplings, and ingests the Divine
Elixir and the zhi plant." But the
Child should also be nourished by the adept: "He feeds on the yellow
essence and the red pneuma, drinking and ingesting the Fountain of Nectar (liquan)," another name of the salivary juices
produced during the meditation practices. The Child's father, whose task is
"instructing and defending" his son, is the Yellow Old Man of the
Central Ultimate (Zhongji Huanglao),
god of the Yellow Court. The Central Scripture often calls him Master
Yellow Gown (Huangchang zi). The Red Child's father
is also called Lingyang ziming,
a name that in waidan is a synonym of
mercury. Both the Red Child, under the name of Child-Cinnabar (Zidan), and Yellow Gown are also mentioned in the
"Inner" version of the Yellow Court, whereas the
"Outer" version grants Child-Cinnabar the honor of being the only
deity mentioned by name in the entire text.
The alchemical
imagery associated with the nourishment of the Red Child-gold, jade, the Divine
Elixir itself-does not need to be emphasized again. Another point, instead,
requires attention, namely the relation of the Red Child to the inner embryo of
neidan. This relation is complex, for
the image of the embryo changes according to the understanding of neidan itself: although some neidan texts emphasize the notion of
"generating" and "raising" the inner embryo through
practices performed for this purpose, others refer to the embryo, and to the
elixir itself, as an image of one's own authentic self, and of one's own
awakened state, which is inherent and does not need to be
"generated." Both ways of seeing have affinities with the image of
the "inner infant" as it appears in the Central Scripture. On
the one hand, nourishing the Red Child in meditation and generating and raising
the embryo in neidan are achieved
through similar practices, namely by joining essences and pneumas related to
the Sun and the Moon, or to Yin and Yang. On the other hand, the "inner
infant" and the inner embryo are both representations of the "real
self," which, just like the Red Child in the Central Scripture, is
innate and is raised by the same forces that sustain life-represented by the
Child's parents in the Central Scripture- but also requires one's
continuous sustenance and nourishment.
The Central
Scripture of Laozi and the Scripture of the Yellow Court merge and
develop several trends apparent in earlier or contemporary sources: the
visualization of inner gods, the practices for channeling the inner essences
and pneumas, and especially the use of alchemical images and terms to define
loci of the inner body. Other stages of development, however, were necessary
before neidan could emerge as it is
known from the Tang period onward. Shangqing Daoism
is associated with the first of these stages.
Methods of
visualization of the deities of the inner pantheon, and chants addressed to
them, form the subject matter of the Authentic Scripture of the Great Cavern
(Dadong zhenjing), the
main Shangqing text. Although this ""
pantheon differs from the ones of the Central Scripture and the Yellow
Court,the
"inner infant" plays within it the same central role. The Scripture
of the Great Cavern ends by describing how an adept generates an inner
"divine being" by coagulating and ingesting pneumas that descend from
the Muddy Pellet (niwan), the upper Cinnabar
Field in the region of the brain:
Visualize a
five-colored purple cloud entering within yourself from your Muddy Pellet. Then
ingest that divine cloud with your saliva. It will coalesce into a divine being
(shenshen), surrounded by a five-colored,
purple, white, and roseate round luminous wheel. The god is inside the wheel.
Below he spreads himself within your entire body, distributing his pneuma to
your nine openings and coagulating it over the tip of your tongue. (Shangqing dadong zhenjing, 6.13 b-14a)
In other contexts,
the image of the "inner infant" or the inner embryo reveals
alchemical connotations even stronger than those seen in the preShangqing texts. One of the Shangqing
revealed scriptures applies the term Nine Elixirs (jiudan)
to the pneumas of the Nine Heavens (jiutian zhi qi) received by human beings during their embryonic
development:
In the first month,
one receives the pneuma; in the second, the numina (ling); in the third,
they are transformed together; in the fourth, one coagulates the essence; in
the fifth, the trunk and the head are established; in the sixth, one alters
oneself and takes form; in the seventh, the [inner] deities take their
positions; in the eighth, the nine orifices are luminous; and in the ninth, the
pneumas of the Nine Heavens are distributed and one obtains the voice. In the
tenth month, the Director of Destinies (Siming)
inscribes the Registers: one receives one's destiny and is born. Therefore
everyone is endowed with the pneumas of the Nine Heavens and the essences of
Yin and Yang.
These are called the
Nine Elixirs, and together they form the human being. (Shangqing
jiudan shanghua taijing zhangji jing, 3a)
In the view of this
and other Shangqing texts, however, the gestation
process also accounts for the creation of "knots and nodes" (jiejie); their function is "holding together the
five viscera," but eventually they are responsible for one's death:
When one is
generated, there are in the womb twelve knots and nodes that hold the five
viscera together. The five viscera are obstructed and squeezed, the knots
cannot be untied, and the nodes cannot be removed. Therefore the illnesses of
human beings depend on the obstructions caused by these nodes, and the
extinction of one's allotted destiny (i.e., one's death) depends on the strengthening
of these knots. (Shangqing jiudan
shanghua taijing zhangji jing, 3a-b)
To untie the
"knots of death," the adept is instructed to re-experience his
embryonic development in meditation, receiving again the Nine Elixirs, which
here denote the pneumas of the Nine Heavens. Then he visualizes the Original
Father (yuanfu) in his upper Cinnabar Field
and the Original Mother (yuanmu) in his lower
Cinnabar Field, who issue pneumas that the adept joins in his middle Cinnabar
Field to generate, this time, an inner immortal body. The Original Father and
the Original Mother play, in this practice, a role analogous to the one of the
father and the mother of the Red Child in the Central Scripture. This
view of the gestation process and its re-enactment in meditation is the topic
of the entire Shangqing jiudan
shanghua taijing zhongji jing (Highest Clarity
Scripture of the Central Record of the Higher Transformation of the Nine
Elixirs into the Essence of the Embryo; Kristofer Schipper, Concordance du
Tao-tsang: Titres des ouvrages, Ecole Franaise d'Extreme-Orient, 1975, 1382).
Another set of Shangqing methods based on the image of the embryo consists
of the practices performed to ensure that the souls of one's ancestors obtain
release from the underworld. Through the meditation practices performed by
their descendants, ancestors may "return to the embryo" (fantai) and become "immortals in the embryonic
state" (taixian), obtaining, this time,
rebirth in heaven. The notion of purification underlying these practices is
also associated with alchemical imagery and terminology: the ancestors rise to
the Golden Gate (jinmen, a station in the
heavenly circuit of the Sun) where they "refine their matter" (lianzhi) by bathing themselves in the Water of Smelting
Refinement (yelian zhi
shui).
The role of the Sun
as a purifying agent-analogous to the role of fire as a refining agent in waidan-recurs in the Shangqing
practices based on the images of the Sun and the Moon. Here Shangqing
clearly develops the legacy of the earlier traditions represented by the Central
Scripture of Laozi, where, as we have seen, pneumas and essences associated
with these two celestial bodies perform a major role. In the Shangqing practices, however, the essences and pneumas are
not those found within the adept's own body, but those of the Sun and the Moon
themselves. In one method, whose analogies with waidan
are transparent, the adept collects the essences of the Sun and the Moon in
a vessel containing water and a talisman, then ingests some of that water and
uses the other part to wash himself. In another method, he meditates on the
circuits of the Sun and the Moon, then visualizes their essences and joins and
ingests them. These and similar methods end with the adept visualizing himself
as being ignited by the Sun and transformed into pure light.
The notions
underlying these practices have an even deeper relation to alchemy than those
seen before. As Isabelle Robinet has noted, the Shangqing
texts sometimes exchange the Yin and Yang qualities of the Sun and the Moon, so
that each of them is said to contain an essence of the opposite sign (Yin for
the Sun, Yang for the Moon). This anticipates an essential pattern of neidan, where the alchemical work is based on
gathering Yin within Yang (i.e., Real Yin, zhenyin)
and Yang within Yin (i.e., Real Yang, zhenyang)
in order to join them and compound the elixir.
After those reflected
in the earliest sources and in the Shangqing texts,
the third historical stage of the encounter between meditation and alchemy was
the one that harbored the most durable consequences for the history of both waidan and neidan.
Whereas the Scripture of the Nine Elixirs and the other Taiqing texts emphasize the performance of rites and
techniques and devote virtually no space to doctrinal statements, the doctrinal
aspects of alchemy are the main focus of many waidan
sources dating from the Tang period onward. These sources are not concerned
with the ritual aspects of the alchemical practice; they explain the alchemical
process by borrowing the language and emblems of the Book of Changes (Yijing) and of the system of correlative cosmology, and
describe the compounding of an elixir made of lead and mercury, which
ingredients replace the much larger variety of ingredients typical of the earlier
methods.
From the beginning of
the seventh century, no other scripture has had an influence on the history of
Chinese alchemy comparable to that of the Token for the Agreement of the
Three. Through this text, the whole array of emblems and patterns of
correlative cosmology entered the language and imagery of alchemy. These
emblems make it possible to describe and relate to each other different
cosmological configurations represented by Yin and Yang, the Five Agents, the
trigrams and hexagrams of the Book of Changes, the Celestial Stems and
the Earthly Branches, the twenty-eight lunar mansions, and so forth, in ways
unknown to the earlier tradition represented by the Taiqing
and other waidan texts.
The waidan or neidan
practices apply those principles to different domains (sometimes with
remarkable variations among subtraditions or
lineages, especially in the case of neidan).
The Token-which is neither a waidan
nor a neidan text, although it
contains allusions to both-provides an illustration of those principles; the
task of connecting them to waidan and neidan is left to a large number of
commentaries and related texts that explicate them and apply them to the alchemical
practice. Thus the meditation methods surveyed above were relevant to these
developments in the history of alchemy in two ways.
First, the Scripture
of the Yellow Court provided the Token for the Agreement of the Three with
imagery and technical vocabulary. One of the most noticeable examples is the
description of the elixir in the Token, where it is said to be
"square and round and with a diameter of one inch" (fangyuan jingcun).
Besides this, the Yellow
Court also influenced the changes that occurred in the alchemical tradition
in an indirect way. Not all the shared terms and expressions are used with the
same or a similar purport in the Yellow Court and the Token. The Token
actually uses some terms and phrases derived from the Yellow Court in
order to criticize the practices at the basis of the latter text. For instance,
the adept of the Yellow Court should "perform ablutions (muyu)to attain complete purity, and discard fat and
fragrant foods." For the Token, "performing ablutions,
fasting, or keeping the precepts [ ... ] is like using glue to repair a
pot." According to the Yellow Court, "if you observe
internally (neishi) and gaze intimately, you
see the Perfected everywhere." The Token counters that "if you
observe internally, your thoughts will absorb your mind." In the Yellow
Court, "you open up the hundred channels (baimai)
and unblock the blood and the fluids." This, for the Token, means
only that "your hundred channels stir like a cauldron." In the
practices of the Yellow Court, one Jiould
"tightly close the Golden Pass (jinguan) and
conceal the Pivotal Mechanism (shuji)." The
Token says that those practices result in "your actions turning
against you, for you have contravened and lost the Pivotal Mechanism." 33
Finally, the Yellow Court recommends the steadfast practice of its
methods, saying that "by being sleepless day and night, you will achieve
perfection." The Token replies that "by being sleepless day
and night, and never taking a pause month after month, daily your body becomes
tired and exhausted."
The Token that
distinguishes alchemy from several other practices:
This is not the
method of passing through the viscera, contemplating within and concentrating
on something; of treading the Dipper and pacing the asterisms, using the six jia
as chronograms (richen); of sating yourself with the nine-and-one in
the Way of Yin, fouling and tampering with the original womb (yuanbao); of ingesting breath till it chirps in your
stomach, exhaling the upright and inhaling the external and evil. By being
sleepless day and night, and never taking a pause month after month, daily your
body becomes tired and exhausted: you are "vague and indistinct," but
look like a fool. Your hundred channels stir like a cauldron, unable to clear
and to settle; by piling soil you set up space for an altar, and from morning
to sunset reverently worship. (Zhouyi cantong qi fenzhang zhu, sec. 8) All this, concludes the Token, will
be pointless when "you leave your bodily form to rot."
Two different
meditation practices are mentioned in the passage quoted above, namely
"passing through the viscera" (lizang) and
"treading the Dipper and pacing the asterisms" (liixing bu douxiu).
The first term appears frequently in meditation texts, including the Central
Scripture of Laozi. The second _expression alludes to the Shangqing meditation methods of "pacing the celestial
net" (bugang). Other terms in this
passage allude to other practices. "Six jia" (liujia)
refers to calendrical deities, in particular those of the divination method
of the "orphan-empty" (guxu), which
in one of its applications allows adepts ritually to exit the cycle of time and
the directions of space. "Way of Yin" (yindao)
denotes the sexual techniques, and "nineand-one"
(jiuyi) refers to "nine shallow and one
deep" penetrations in intercourse. "Reverently worship"
obviously alludes to rites performed in honor of minor deities and spirits. The
last sentence in the first paragraph, as well as the first two lines in the
second quatrain, refers to breathing techniques.
This section of the Token,
in other words, mentions a sample of methods that were current during the
Six Dynasties and denounces them as inadequate. The Token is not content
with criticizing these methods, but refers to them with irony. "Exhaling
the old and inhaling the new" (tugu naxin), a common _expression that denotes ingesting and
circulating breath, is overturned into "exhaling the upright and inhaling
the external and evil" (tuzheng xi waixie). Breath is ingested "till it chirps in your
bowels." The adept who devotes himself to these practices is "vague
and indistinct" (huanghu), an expression
employed in the Laozi and many other texts to refer to the Dao itself, but
deliberately used in the Token to describe a practitioner who "looks like
a fool."
For the authors of
the alchemical version of the Token, borrowing terms from Scripture
of the Yellow Court was an effective way to assert the superiority of
alchemy over the earlier meditation practices. Similar borrowings, although
less frequent, also occur from the Central Scripture of Laozi. One
example may be enough as regards this text. On three occasions, the Central
Scripture instructs its adepts to visualize their inner essences and
pneumas, saying that they should "moisten and impregnate" (runze) several organs of the body. The Cantong qi uses the same expression, but with
a different intent: it is not the viscera of the adept in meditation to be
"moistened and impregnated," but the cosmos itself when the Sun and the
Moon join with each other at the end of a time cycle, and release their
"nurturing fluids" (ziye, a compound
formed by two terms that in the Central Scripture and other texts define
the salivary juices). This event is related to one of the cardinal notions in
the Token, namely the periodic joining of the Sun and the Moon:
Between the last day
of a month and the first day of the next, they join their tallies and move to
the Center.In chaos, vaporous and opaque, female and
male follow each other: their nurturing fluids moisten and impregnate,
emanating and transmuting, they flow and pervade. (Zhouyi
cantong qi fenzhang zhu, sec. 18)
This passage refers
to the Sun and the Moon as respectively harboring Real Yin and Real Yang. Their
conjunction, which occurs at the end of each month, when the Sun and the Moon
"join their tallies and move to the Center," causes Real Yin and Real
Yang, the dual aspects of the timeless Dao, to join and generate the next time
cycle. These continuous temporal sequences are responsible for the occurrence
of change, but in the view of the Token they are also the means through
which Real Yin and Real Yang "flow and pervade" the cosmos, rising
and descending through all its time cycles.
In this renewed
context, the inner gods of the Daoist meditation practices, and the ritual
framework of the Taiqing alchemical practices serve
no more. It is enough to look at some clusters of terms that recur in the Token
to realize how its adept is not asked to meditate on the deities that
reside within himself, or to address those who dwell in heaven. Instead, he
surveys (can), examines (cha), investigates (kao), explores (tan), inquires (ji), and
inspects into the Shangqing corpus, give priority to
methods based on a large variety of ingredients. By the middle of the Tang
period, however, the methods based on refining mercury from cinnabar had grown
in importance. The best illustration of the enhanced role of cinnabar is found
in the writings of Chen Shaowei, who was active during the second decade of the
eighth century. His two works (originally part of a single treatise) describe
the preparation of an elixir obtained by refining cinnabar. In the first part
of the process, each cycle yields a "gold" that can be ingested or
used as an ingredient in the next cycle. In the second part of the process, the
final product of the first part is used as an ingredient of a Reverted Elixir (huandan). Without any explicit mention of the Token
for the Agreement of the Three, or any apparent reference to its system,
Chen Shaowei describes his method using cosmological emblems, especially in the
portions devoted to the stages of heating.
Some Tang sources
related to the Token for the Agreement of the Three explicitly criticize
such methods as the one described by Chen Shaowei through their rejection of
cinnabar and their advocacy of lead and mercury. Invariably, these sources
present as their rationale the fact that a Yin or Yang ingredient alone cannot
produce the elixir. The waidan commentary
to the Token dating from about 700 CE, to which we referred above, says
in this regard:
Without male and
female, how could there be fixation, transmutation, and accomplishment of the
elixir? The male is mercury, the female is the essence of lead. Jiuyuan jun said: "Ingesting
only the reddened mercury (i.e., refined mercury) is called 'orphan Yang' (guyang), and ingesting only the flower of lead (i.e.,
refined lead) is called 'orphan Yin' (guyin). Therefore
lead and mercury need each other to accomplish the elixir. If the elixir is
accomplished without obtaining both Yin and Yang, it would not obtain its
principle. When the two ingredients accomplish the elixir and are ingested to·
gather, this is the Way of the correct conjunction of Yin and Yang. (Zhouyi cantong qi zhu, I.2Ib-22a)
Another passage of
the commentary addresses its criticism to the Scripture of the Nine Elixirs itself,
showing that the denunciation was not limited to methods based on cinnabar and
mercury, but was extended to any method that was seen as not accomplishing a
proper conjunction of Yin and Yang:
According to the Scripture
of the Nine Elixirs (fiudan jing),
one should smear the crucible with the Flower of Metal (jinhua, i.e., refined lead) in order to nourish
mercury. But could one ever use the words "Yin and Yang" or
"Dragon and Tiger" if [the elixir] is accomplished by placing only
mercury in an empty tripod? It is necessary to add to and subtract from what is
different (hie). If mercury is used alone, this would amount to using
the word "sublime" (miao) to define
the "orphan Yang." Jiuyuan jun said: "An elixir made of 'orphan Yang' cannot be
ingested as it is: one should accomplish the elixir by also availing oneself of
Yin. If one stops when lead is accomplished, could one use it alone without a
Yin ingredient?" (Zhouyi cantong
qi zhu, 2.45a-b)
One of the earliest waidan texts to emphasize the role of lead
and mercury as ingredients of the elixir, Zhang Jiugai's
Treatise of the Perfected Zhang on Metals, Stones, and Cinnabar (Zhang zhenren jinshi lingsha lun) dating from the
mid-eighth century, provides a similar explanation of why one should not use
only cinnabar:
The common people who
search for immortality by ingesting only lustrous cinnabar (guangming sha) and purple cinnabar (zisha), without a process for the conjunction [of Yin
and Yang], go afar from the Way .... One cannot transcend the generations [of
mortals] by ingesting lustrous cinnabar or purple cinnabar. Why? Because the
Reverted Elixir, taking the essences of Yin and Yang, is patterned on the
creative and transformative action of Heaven and Earth. If the Yin of mercury
within cinnabar alone forms the body [of the elixir] and does not couple with
Yang to generate [the elixir], it cannot join the Four Emblems (sixiang) to each other and cannot put the Five Agents
in motion (yun). Therefore an orphan Yin
cannot nourish anything, and a lone Yang cannot generate anything. It is the
coupling of Yin and Yang that accomplishes the Reverted Elixir. (Zhang zhenren jinshi lingsha lun, 4a-b)
Finally, two other
Tang texts related to the Token for the Agreement of the Three assert
the superiority of lead and mercury over all other minerals:
The arts of the Great
Elixir derive from lead and mercury, and the principles of lead and mercury are
the foundation of the Great Elixir. (Dadan qianhong lun, ra) Therefore one knows that the sublimity of the Great
Elixir is owed only to the fact that lead and mercury are the perfect
ingredients (zhiyao); it does not consist in
using the four yellows and the eight minerals (sihuang
bashi). If the pneuma of any mineral ingredient
enters the two substances that make the Great Elixir, this will be extremely
poisonous. (Danlun jue zhixin jian, ra)
With its mention of
the "four yellows" (realgar, orpiment, arsenic, and sulphur) and the "eight minerals" (cinnabar,
realgar, mica, malachite, sulphur, salt, saltpeter,
and orpiment), the last passage quoted above echoes the admonishment of the Token
for the Agreement of the Three: "Dispose of realgar, get rid of the
eight minerals!"
These changes in the
understanding of the alchemical process affected not only the history of waidan, but also the rise and development of neidan. From the beginning of the Tang period,
some authors began to describe the alchemical process as happening entirely
within the human being, with no dependence on minerals, metals, instruments, or
fire, as other alchemists had used earlier, and employing the same terminology,
imagery, and symbolism as those found in the Token for the Agreement of the
Three. The earliest extant text that can be labeled as neidan
in this sense is a short treatise written by Liu Zhigu
in the first half of the eighth century, which emphatically criticizes the waidan interpretations of the Token and
offers its first neidan reading. The
development of neidan in the form it
took from the Tang period onward would not have been possible without the
earlier traditions of Daoist meditation, and occurred in parallel with two
shifts, related to each other, in waidan-from
a ritual framework to a cosmological framework, and from methods based on
cinnabar or other ingredients to methods based on lead and mercury.
Due to these
developments, the alchemy of the Great Clarity lost its reason to exist. Adepts
began to look at alchemy as a way to express and to understand the principles
that govern the cosmos, but no longer as a means of getting closer to the gods
and warding off demons and spirits. The classic system of Daoist cosmography,
as expressed in the scheme of the Three Caverns (sandong),
had no place in these new traditions, for the compounding of the elixirs
was no longer seen as a means of rising to a higher heaven. Complex
cosmological notions and patterns of abstract emblems now played a role unknown
in the earlier tradition.
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