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 were formulated. 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 Major Sources
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.
For updates
click homepage here