The Golden Elixir Blog

The Yellow Emperor (Huangdi), traditionally ascribed with the authorship of the Book of the Hidden Agreement Despite its brevity, the Yinfu jing (Book of the Hidden Agreement) is one of the most obscure and difficult Taoist texts. Within Neidan (Internal Alchemy), this work is especially well-known for its idea of "stealing the mechanism", which Neidan adepts understand as meaning inverting of the process that leads from the precelestial to the postcelestial domains. Read three sections of the Yinfu jing  on the Golden Elixir website. A complete translation of the text, with the commentary by Yu Yan (1258-1314), is found in a chapter or  Taoist Internal Alchemy: An Anthology of Neidan texts (Golden Elixir Press, paperback), and in a Kindle ebook, entitled  The Book of the Hidden Agreement: A Taoist Text on the Harmony between Heaven and Humanity .

Golden Elixir Press is pleased to announce the publication of a new book: Taoist Internal Alchemy: An Anthology of Neidan Texts Translated from the Chinese, introduced, and annotated by Fabrizio Pregadio Paperback, US$ 24.95 ● € 24.00 (incl. VAT) ● GB£ 20 ● JP¥ 5000 (list prices) ISBN 978-0-9855475-5-4 This anthology presents complete or partial translations of sixteen major works belonging to the Taoist tradition of Neidan, or Internal Alchemy. While the selections are far from covering the whole field of Neidan — a virtually impossible task, given its width and variety — they are representative of its main lineages and branches. Texts have been selected in this perspective and are arranged chronologically, in order to provide an overview not only of Neidan, but also of the history of its discourses and practices. Four of the sixteen texts are integrally translated. Six texts and two commentaries are translated here (entirely or partially) for the first time into En...

Many Taoist lineages bestow "ordination names" or "lineage names" using the characters found in a specially-written poem. Each generation of disciples receives their names using in sequence one character of the poem. Thus the name of a first-generation master includes the first character; the name of a second-generation master includes the second character; and so forth. These poems are known in general as "lineage poems" ( paishi ). The most famous "lineage poem" in Taoism is the one of the Longmen (Dragon Gate) lineage. Known as the "Longmen Lineage Poem" ( Longmen paishi ), the "Hundred-Character Lineage of Ancestor Qiu" ( Qiuzu baizi pai ), or in other similar ways, it is made of 20 verses of 5 characters. The 100 different characters of the poem should suffice to assign lineage names for about two and a half millennia, and perhaps even longer. Below is a translation of the poem. Each word is translated with a diffe...

Golden Elixir Press is pleased to announce the publication of a new occasional paper: The Longmen Lineage: Historical Notes (PDF, 25 pp., free download) This essay contains a short history of the Longmen (Dragon Gate) lineage, to which many masters of Neidan (Taoist Internal Alchemy) claim affiliation. It presents the main stages of development of Longmen, and briefly describes its main branches and its main masters. The essay is translated from the chapter "Longmen pai" (The Longmen Lineage) in Zhongguo daojiao (Chinese Taoism), ed. by Qing Xitai (4 vols; Chengdu: Sichuan renmin chubanshe, 1994), vol. 1. • Click the picture or here for the download page in the Golden Elixir website .

▶ Quoted from  Cultivating the Tao: Taoism and Internal Alchemy , by Liu Yiming, page 155 —  Read more about this book . . . Therefore being connected with companions who have the same mind is the most important thing in the cultivation of the Tao. However, companions who share the same mind are very difficult to discern. They have no form and no image, no sound and no color, no front and no back. Facing evil, they transform themselves into yakshas; facing goodness, they transform themselves into bodhisattvas. (1) Their transformations have no limit: they conceal or manifest themselves in unfathomable ways. Everyone has them in front of their eyes, but misses them. If you are unwilling to discern the true, day after day they increasingly separate from you. When all of a sudden an intimate friend appears, you become of one mind with him: walking, standing, sitting, or lying, neither of you separates from the other for a single instant. . . . Those who intend to cultiva...

The stage of "refining Breath to transmute it into Spirit" constitutes an advanced stage of the alchemical work, in which one's practice progresses from "doing" to "non-doing." The Great Medicine is called Embryo of Sainthood ( shengtai ) or Infant ( ying'er ). Both terms are actually metaphors for Spirit and Breath coagulating and coalescing with one another. Wu Shouyang explains the meaning of these terms saying: "Metaphorically it is called 'embryo,' as if there is truly an embryo. In fact, however, there is no embryo. Why is it so? Because according to the principle of giving birth, one generates the embryo of a child in the womb; and according to the principle of cultivating immortality, one generates an embryo of Spirit in the Heart. The worldly people hear the word 'embryo' and say that within the womb there is truly an embryo, which then leaves and becomes 'a body outside the body' ( shen wai shen ). This i...

▶ Quoted from  The Seal of the Unity of the Three: A Study and Translation of the Cantong qi, the Source of the Taoist Way of the Golden Elixir , by Fabrizio Pregadio, pages 78-79—  Read more on and from this book Qian ☰ the firm and Kun ☷ the yielding join and embrace one another; Yang endows, Yin receives, the masculine and the feminine attend         one to the other. Attending, they create and transform, unfolding their Essence and Breath. Kan ☵ and Li ☲ are at the fore: their radiance and glow come down         and spread out. Mysterious and obscure, this can hardly         be fathomed and cannot be pictured or charted. The sages gauged its depth; one with it, they set forth its foundation. These four, in indistinction, are right within Empty Non-Being. Sixty hexagrams revolve around them, outspread like a chariot. Harnessing a dragon and a mare, the bright noble man holds the rein...

"Know the white, keep to the black," (*) and the Numinous Light will come of its own. White is the essence of Metal, Black the foundation of Water. Water is the axis of the Dao: its number is 1. At the beginning of Yin and Yang, Mystery holds the Yellow Sprout; it is the ruler of the five metals, the River Chariot of the northern direction. That is why lead is black on the outside but cherishes the Golden Flower within, like the man who "wears rough-hewn clothes but         cherishes a piece of jade in his bosom," (**) and outwardly behaves like a fool. (*) This sentence is quoted from the Daode jing, sec. 28 (**) This sentence is quoted from the Daode jing, sec. 70 ▶ Quoted from  The Seal of the Unity of the Three: A Study and Translation of the Cantong qi, the Source of the Taoist Way of the Golden Elixir , by Fabrizio Pregadio, pages 78-79—  Read more on and from this book Subscribe to the free  Golden Elixir Quote of the...

▶ Quoted from  Cultivating the Tao: Taoism and Internal Alchemy , by Liu Yiming, pages 78-79—  Read more about this book Now I will not hesitate to speak, and I will give a true reflection of the spirit our ancestral masters, bringing forth what they did not bring forth and disclosing what they did not disclose. Joining them by means of my Spirit, being one with them by means of my Intention, I say to my companions: This Opening has a shape similar to Penglai: outside it is small, inside it is large, and its depth cannot be fathomed. It is not round and it is not square; within it, "the black and the white tally with each other," (1) and darkness and light pervade one another. Its gate is fifty feet high and four feet wide, and has two panels: once they open, once they close. On its left coils a green dragon, on its right is couched a white tiger, above flies a vermilion sparrow, below rests a black turtle. Vague and indistinct! Dim and obscure! (2) A Tr...

Golden Elixir Press is pleased to announce the publication of Cultivating the Tao: Taoism and Internal Alchemy , by Liu Yiming. Cultivating the Tao is a complete translation of one of the main works by the renowned Taoist master Liu Yiming (1734-1821). Divided into 26 short chapters, this book provides a comprehensive overview of the basic principles of Taoism and an introduction to Taoist Internal Alchemy, or Neidan, written by one of the greatest representatives of this tradition. Liu Yiming was an 11th-generation master of the Longmen (Dragon Gate) lineage. Having recovered from severe illness in his youth, he undertook extended traveling that led him to meet his two main masters. In 1780, he settled in the Qiyun mountains, in the present-day Gansu province, and devoted the second half of his life to teaching and writing. His works mainly consist of writings on Neidan and of commentaries on major Neidan scriptures. Liu Yiming grafts Internal Alchemy onto the teachings of the...

The precelestial Breath is the original and initial Ancestral Breath. This Ancestral Breath is in the real center of Heaven and Earth within the human body. [Placed between] the Secret Door and the Gate of Life, hanging in the middle, it is the Heart of Heaven. The self-cultivation of the divine Immortals only consists in collecting the precelestial One Breath and using it as the Mother of the Elixir. The postcelestial Breath is the Breath that circulates internally: one exhalation, one inhalation, once coming, once going. "Exhaling touches onto the root of Heaven, inhaling touches onto the root of Earth. On exhaling, 'the dragon howls and the clouds rise'; on inhaling, 'the tiger roars and the wind blows.'" When [the postcelestial Breath] is "unceasing and continuous," it returns to the Ancestral Breath. The internal and the external inchoately merge, and coalesce to form the Reverted Elixir ( huandan ). ▶ Quoted from  Commentary on the...

Continue to advance in your practice, passing from "doing" into "non-doing." Nourish [the Embryo] warmly for ten months, keeping it tightly closed [within the womb]. Lessen the excess of strong emotions, and augment the insufficiency of compliant nature. Using the celestial True Fire, and relying on the hexagrams Zhun ䷂ in the morning and Meng ䷃ at night, smelt away the postcelestial Yin breaths. Generate the immaterial from the material, passing from the subtle to the apparent. When Breath is complete and Spirit is whole, "with a peal of thunder the golden cicada sheds its shell," and you have a body outside your body. When the work is completed and your name is recorded, (*) you will have audience at the Northern Portal and will ride a soaring phoenix. You will fly and rise in the broad daylight, and will become a Celestial Immortal of Pure Yang, free from death. Wouldn’t that be pleasant? (*) That is, one's name is entered in the "regist...

[ Click to enlarge the picture ] In his  Zhonghe ji (The Harmony of the Center: An Anthology), Li Daochun (late 13th century) makes an important distinction between two Elixirs, which correspond to different degrees of realization. The first Elixir is the Internal Medicine ( neiyao ), and the second one is the External Medicine ( waiyao ). Li Daochun says: The External Medicine allows you to cure illnesses, and to prolong life and have lasting presence. The Internal Medicine allows you to transcend the world, and to exit from Being and enter Non-Being. The chart reproduced above contains a graphic summary of the two Medicines. Reading from right to left, the first lines of the chart show the ingredients of the Internal Medicine : Precelestial Perfect Essence, Void Breath (Qi) of Empty Non-Being, and Indestructible Original Spirit. These are the precelestial Essence, Breath, and Spirit, which are already perfected of their own. The next lines show the ...

Golden Elixir Press is pleased to announce the publication of Commentary on the Mirror for Compounding the Elixir: A Fourteenth-Century Work on Taoist Internal Alchemy The Ruyao jing (Mirror for Compounding the Medicine) is one of the most famous texts of Taoist Internal Alchemy, or Neidan. Written in the 10th century, it describes the foundations of Internal Alchemy in twenty short poems of four verses. Because of its symbolic and cryptic language, it has been subjected to different and sometimes conflicting interpretations. This book contains the first complete translation of the Ruyao jing and of the commentary by Wang Jie, who lived in the 14th century. Wang Jie was a second-generation disciple of the great Neidan master, Li Daochun. His commentary is characterized by a strong connection between the doctrinal and the practical aspects of Neidan. The translator's notes provide details on the main technical terms and on the relation of this work to other important...

Golden Elixir Press is starting a new series entitled Golden Elixir Quote of the Week. Each quote consists of a short passage on Neidan (Internal Alchemy) selected from one of the books published by the Press. To view a sample, click the link below. • Sample Quote of the Week The Quote of the Week is sent by email to subscribers at no cost. To subscribe, enter your email address in the box below, and click Subscribe. ( If you have troubles seeing or using the subscription form above, use the form available on the  Sample Quote of the Week  web page. — You can unsubscribe at any time.  Golden Elixir Press will never sell or share your email address with anyone. )

Fig. 1. Entrance to the Baiyun guan ( Click to enlarge this and the other pictures ) The Baiyun guan (Abbey of the White Clouds, fig. 1) in Beijing is one of the most important Taoist monasteries in China. A Taoist temple already existed here in the mid-8th century, but the present site originally dates from around 1200. From the 17th century, the abbey has been the seat of Quanzhen (Complete Reality) , the main Taoist lineage in northern China. Fig. 2. The Neijing tu stele While Quanzhen allows for different forms of individual practice — especially meditation — and also includes forms of Taoist communal ritual, its methods incorporate a brand of Neidan (Internal Alchemy) that emphasizes the cultivation of one’s inner nature. The Neidan view of the human body  has often been represented in charts and other illustrations. The  Neijing tu , or  Chart of the Inner Warp , is the most famous of these charts. It depicts the body as a landscape and shows...

Fig. 1. Entrance to Mount Qiyun Liu Yiming 劉一明 (1734-1821) was one of the greatest masters of Neidan (Internal Alchemy) . Born in Quwo (present-day Shanxi province), he spent the first half of his life traveling extensively to various towns and mountains in northwestern China and to Beijing, in order to search for teachings. His main teachers were a master whom he calls Kangu laoren (Old Man of the Kan Valley, first met around 1755), who gave him teachings on the Book of Changes , cosmology, and Neidan; and another master whom he calls Xianliu zhangren (Great Man Resting in Immortality, first met in 1768), who gave him further teachings on Neidan. Fig. 2. First level of the Zizai wo In 1779, Liu Yiming visited Qiyun shan (Mount Resting on the Clouds). He decided to settle there and built his residence, called Zizai wo (meaning Nest of Being by Oneself, but also Nest of Freedom, as well as Comfortable Nest...). Since then, his main activities were teaching, writing, and ...

An abridged translation of the Cantong qi (The Seal of the Unity of the Three), the main text of Taoist Internal Alchemy, is now available in PDF format. This version is based on the complete translation published in  The Seal of the Unity of the Three: A Study and Translation of th e Cantong qi, the Source of the Taoist Way of the Golden Elixir  (Golden Elixir Press, 2011), available in both a paperback and a hardcover edition. The PDF contains 32 of the 88 poems of the original text. Each poem is translated in full, and the explications and line notes are the same as those found in the complete version. The Introduction, the tables, the glossary of Chinese characters, and the list of works quoted are reproduced entirely. The textual notes, the appendixes, and the final index of subjects are omitted. ▶ See the  web page  on this PDF ▶ Download a sample (PDF, based on the unabridged version) ▶ Other  materials on the Cantong qi ...

The Golden Elixir website now contains an online slideshow presentation entitled "Who Wrote the Cantong qi ?" , on the author(s) of The Seal of the Unity of the Three . Click the picture above to visit the Golden Elixir web page where you can watch the presentation.

The Japanese alchemical chart of the body reproduced above is entitled Shūshin kyūten tandō zu 修真九轉丹道圖, or Chart of the Way of the Elixir in Nine Cycles for the Cultivation of Reality (the Chinese reading of the title is Xiuzhen jiuzhuan dandao tu ). Although no precisely corresponding picture seems to be found in Chinese texts, it is likely that this chart is either copied from, or based on, an earlier Chinese exemplar that may now be lost. The Chart , which is undated, is now kept in the library of Tenri University in Japan. It is reproduced here from the book by Katō Chie 加藤千恵, Furō fushi no shintai: Dōkyō to “tai” no shisō 不老不死の身体 — 道教と「胎」の思想 (The Ageless and Deathless Body: Taoism and the Idea of the “Embryo”; Tokyo: Taishūkan shoten, 2002), p. 121. Dr. Katō is one the main Japanese scholars of Taoist Internal Alchemy. She has published extensively in particular on the Wuzhen pian (Awakening to Reality) and on the Taoist views of the “embryo.” From top to bottom a...