Isabelle Robinet, The World Upside Down: Essays on Taoist Internal Alchemy

Golden Elixir Press is pleased to announce the publication of The World Upside Down: Essays on Taoist Internal Alchemy, by Isabelle Robinet, in paperback and PDF editions.

The World Upside Down contains four essays on Internal Alchemy (Neidan), originally published in French and translated here for the first time into English. The essays are concerned with the alchemical principle of "inversion"; the devices used by the alchemists to "give form to the Formless by the word, and thus manifest the authentic and absolute Dao"; the symbolic function of numbers in Taoism and in Internal Alchemy; and the original meanings of the terms "External Elixir" (waidan) and "Internal Elixir" (neidan).

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About the Author

Isabelle Robinet (1932-2000) was one of the most important Western scholars of Taoism. Her work dealt with several major topics: the Laozi and the Zhuangzi with their commentaries; the Shangqing (Highest Clarity) school of Taoism; Neidan (Internal Alchemy); and Taoist thought and cosmology. Her publications in English include Taoist Meditation: The Mao-shan Tradition of Great Purity (1993) and Taoism: Growth of a Religion (1997).

Publication Data

Isabelle Robinet, The World Upside Down: Essays on Taoist Internal Alchemy
Edited and translated by Fabrizio Pregadio
Golden Elixir Press, 2011
viii + 129 pp.
ISBN 978-0-9843082-6-2
Paperback, US$ 15.95 (list price)
PDF, US$ 9.95 (list price)

Free Online Samples

• PDF sample (62 pages)
• Yin and Yang in Internal Alchemy (web page)
• "Reversal" in Internal Alchemy (web page)
• The Language of Internal Alchemy (web page)