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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