{"schema_version":1,"access":"public","rights":"Public-domain or compatibly licensed source editions; provenance is retained per record.","work":{"slug":"wuzhen-pian","title":"Awakening to Reality (Wuzhen Pian)","author":"Zhang Boduan","tradition":"alchemy","language":"lzh","genre":"alchemical poems","period":"Northern Song, preface dated 1075","source_url":"https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/悟真篇","original":{"text":"### Zhang Boduan's Preface\n\n1.嗟夫，人身難得，光景易遷，罔測短脩，安逃業報，不自及早省悟，惟只甘分待終。若臨岐一念有差，墮三塗惡趣，則動經塵劫，無有出期，當此之時，雖悔何及？故老釋以性命學開方便門，教人修種以逃生死。釋氏以空寂為宗，若頓悟圓通，則直超彼岸，如其習漏未盡，則尚徇於有生。老氏以鍊養為真，若得其要樞，則立躋聖位，如其未明本性，則猶滯於幻形。其次，《周易》有窮理盡性至命之辭，《魯語》有毋意必固我之說，此又仲尼極臻乎性命之奧也。然其言之常略而不至於詳者，何也？蓋欲序正人倫，施仁義禮樂之教，故於無為之道未嘗顯言，但以命術寓諸《易》象，性法混諸微言耳。至於《莊子》推窮物累逍遙之性，《孟子》善養浩然之氣，皆切幾之。迨夫漢魏伯陽引《易》道交構之體，作《參同契》以明大丹之作用，唐忠國師於語錄，首敘老莊言以顯至道之本末，如此，豈非教雖分三，道乃歸一。奈何後世黃緇之流，各自專門，互相非是，致使三家宗要，迷沒邪歧，不能混一而同歸矣。且今人以道門尚於修命，而不知修命之法理出兩端，有易遇而難成者，有難遇而易成者。如鍊五芽之氣，服七耀之光，注想按摩，納清吐濁，念經持呪，噀水叱符，叩齒集神，休妻絕粒，存神閉息，運眉問之思補腦還精，習房中之術以至服鍊金石草木之類，皆易遇而難成。已上諸法，於修身之道，率多滅裂，故施力雖多，而求效莫驗。若勤心苦志，日夕修持，止可以辟病，免其非橫，一旦不行，則前功漸棄，此乃遷延歲月，事必難成，欲望一得永得，還嬰返老，變化飛昇，不亦難乎？深可痛傷。蓋近世修行之徒，妄有執著，不悟妙法之真，却怨神仙謾語。殊不知，成道者皆因鍊金丹而得，恐泄天機，遂托數事為名。其中惟閉息一法，如能忘機絕慮，即與二乘坐禪頗同，若勤而行之，可以出定出神。奈何精神屬陰，宅舍難固，不免長用遷徙之法。既未得金汞還返之道，又豈能迴陽換骨，白日而昇天哉？夫鍊金液還丹者，則難遇而易成。要須洞曉陰陽，深達造化，方能超二氣於黃道，會三性於元宮，攢簇五行，合和四象，龍吟虎嘯，夫倡婦隨，玉鼎湯煎，金爐火熾，始得玄珠有象，太乙歸真，都來片餉工夫，永保無窮逸樂。至若防危慮險，慎於運用抽添，養正持盈，要在守雌抱一，自然復陽生之氣，剝陰殺之形，節氣既周，脫胎神化，名題仙籍，位號真人。此乃大丈夫功成名遂之時也。今之學者，有取鉛汞為二氣，指藏府為五行，分心腎為坎離，以肝肺為龍虎，用神氣為子母，執津液為鉛汞，不識浮沉，寧分主客？何異認他財為己物，呼別姓為親兒，又豈知金木相剋之幽微，陰陽互用之奧妙？是皆日月失道，鉛汞異鑪，欲望結成還丹，不亦遠乎？僕幼親善道，涉獵三教經書，以至刑法書筭、醫卜戰陣、天文地理、吉凶死生之術，靡不留心詳究。惟金丹一法，閱盡羣經及諸家歌詩論契，皆云日魂月魄。庚虎甲龍，水銀朱砂，白金黑錫，坎男離女，能成金液還丹，終不言真鉛真汞是何物色，不說火候法度、溫養指歸。加以後世迷徒恣其臆說，將先聖典教妄行箋注，乖訛萬狀，不唯紊亂仙經，抑亦惑誤後學。僕以至人未遇，口訣難逢，遂至寢食不安，精神疲顇，雖詢求遍于海嶽，請益盡於賢愚，皆莫能通曉真宗，開照心腑。後至熙寧己酉歲，因隨龍圖陸公入成都，以夙志不回，初誠愈恪，遂感真人，授金丹藥物火候之訣。其言甚簡，其要不繁，可謂指流知源，語一悟百，霧開日瑩，塵盡鑑明，校之仙經，若合符契。因念世之學仙者十有八九，而達真要者未聞二一，僕既遇真筌，安敢隱默？罄所得，成律詩九九八十一首，號曰《悟真篇》。內七言四韻一十六首，以表二八之數，絕句六十四首，按《周易》諸卦，五言一首，以象太乙，續添《西江月》一十二首，以周歲律。其如鼎器尊卑、藥物斤兩、火候進退，主客後先，存亡有無、吉凶悔吝，悉備其中矣。於本源真覺之性有所未盡，又作為歌頌、樂府、及雜言等，附之卷末，庶幾達本明性之道盡於此矣。所期同志者，覽之則見末而悟本，捨妄以從真。時熙寧乙卯歲旦，天台張伯端平叔敘。\n\n### Sixteen Octaves on the Great Elixir\n\n2.不求大道出迷塗，縱負賢才豈丈夫。\n百歲光陰石火爍，一生身世水泡浮。\n只貪利祿求榮顯，不顧形容暗悴枯。\n試問堆金等山嶽，無常買得不來無。\n\n3.人生雖有百年期，壽夭窮通莫預知。\n昨日街頭猶走馬，今朝棺內已眠屍。\n妻財遺下非君有，罪業將行難自欺。\n大藥不求爭得遇，遇之不鍊是愚癡。\n\n4.學仙須是學天仙，惟有金丹最的端。\n二物會時情性合，五行全處虎龍蟠。\n本因戊己為媒娉，遂使夫妻鎮合歡。\n只候功成朝北闕，九霞光裏駕祥鸞。\n\n5.此法真中妙更真，都緣我獨異於人。\n自知顛倒由離坎，誰識浮沉定主賓。\n金鼎欲留朱裹汞，玉池先下水中銀。\n神功運火非終夕，現出深潭日一輪。\n\n6.虎躍龍騰風浪麤，中央正位產玄珠。\n果生枝上終期熟，子在胞中豈有殊。\n南北宗源翻卦象，晨昏火候合天樞。\n須知大隱居鄽市，何必深山守靜孤。\n\n7.人人盡有長生藥，自是愚迷枉擺拋。\n甘露降時天地合，黃芽生處坎離交。\n井蛙應謂無龍窟，籬鶠爭知有鳳巢。\n丹熟自然金滿屋，何須尋草學燒茅。\n\n8.要知產藥川源處，只在西南是本鄉。\n鉛過癸生須急採，金逢望遠不堪嘗。\n送歸土釜牢封閉，次入流珠廝配當。\n藥重一斤須二八，調停火候托陰陽。\n\n9.休鍊三黃及四神，若尋衆藥便非真。\n陰陽得類歸交感，二八相當自合親。\n潭底日紅陰怪滅，山頭月白藥苗新。\n時人要識真鉛汞，不是凡砂及水銀。\n\n10.莫把孤陰為有陽，獨修一物轉羸尪。\n勞形按引皆非道，鍊氣飡霞總是狂。\n畢世謾求鉛汞伏，何時得見虎龍降。\n勸君窮取生身處，返本還元是藥王。\n\n11.好把真鉛著意尋，莫教容易度光陰。\n但將地魄擒朱汞，自有天魂制水金。\n可謂道高龍虎伏，堪言德重鬼神欽。\n已知永壽齊天地，煩惱無由更上心。\n\n12.黃芽白雪不難尋，達者須憑德行深。\n四象五行全藉土，三元八卦豈離壬。\n鍊成靈質人難識，消盡陰魔鬼莫侵。\n欲向人間留祕訣，未聞一箇是知音。\n\n13.草木隂陽亦兩齊，若還缺一不芳菲。\n初開緑葉陽先倡，次發紅花隂後隨。\n常道即斯為日用，真源返此有誰知。\n報言學道諸君子，不識隂陽莫亂為。\n\n14.不識玄中顛倒顛，爭知火裏好栽蓮。\n牽將白虎歸家養，産個明珠似月圓。\n漫守藥爐㸔火候，但安神息任天然。\n羣隂剝盡丹成熟，跳出樊籠夀萬年。\n\n15.三五一都三箇字，古今明者實然稀。\n東三南二同成五，北一西方四共之。\n戊己自歸生數五，三家相見結嬰兒。\n是知太一含真炁，十月胎圓入聖基。\n\n16.不識真鉛正祖宗，萬般作用枉施功。\n休妻漫遣隂陽隔，絶粒徒教腸胃空。\n草木金銀皆滓質，雲霞日月屬朦朧。\n更饒吐納並存想，總與金丹事不同。\n\n17.萬巻仙經語總同，金丹只此是根宗。\n依他坤位生成體，種在乾家交感宮。\n莫怪天機都泄漏，只縁學者自愚䝉。\n若人了得詩中意，立見三清太上翁。\n\n### Sixty-Four Quatrains, I (1-32)\n\n18.先把乾坤為鼎器，次將烏兔藥來烹。\n既驅二物歸黃道，爭得金丹不解生。\n\n19.安爐立鼎法乾坤，煅煉精華制魄魂。\n聚散絪緼成變化，敢將玄妙等閒論。\n\n20.休泥丹竈費工夫，煉藥須尋偃月爐。\n自有天然真火育，何須柴炭及吹噓。\n\n21.偃月爐中玉蘂生，硃砂鼎中水銀平。\n只因火力調和後，種得黃芽漸長成。\n\n22.嚥津納氣是人行，有藥方能造化生。\n鼎內若無真種子，猶將水火煮空鐺。\n\n23.調和鉛汞要成丹，大小無傷兩國全。\n若問真鉛何物是，蟾光終日照西川。\n\n24.未煉還丹莫隱山，山中內外盡非鉛。\n此般至寳家家有，自是時人不識全。\n\n25.竹破須將竹補冝，抱鷄當用卵為之。\n萬般非類徒勞力，爭似真鉛合聖機。\n\n26.用鉛不得用凡鉛，用了真鉛也棄捐。\n此是用鉛真妙訣，用鉛不用是誠言。\n\n27.虛心實腹義俱深，只為虛心要識心。\n不若煉鉛先實腹，且教守取滿堂金。\n\n28.夢謁西華到九天，真人授我指玄篇。\n其間簡易無多語，只説教人煉汞鉛。\n\n29.道自虛無生一氣，便從一氣産隂陽。\n隂陽再合成三體，三體重生萬物昌。\n\n30.坎電烹轟金水方，火發崑崙隂與陽。\n二物若還和合了，自然丹熟遍身香。\n\n31.離坎若還無戊己，雖含四象不成丹。\n只縁彼此懐真土，遂使金丹有返還。\n\n32.日居離位反為女，坎配蟾宮卻是男。\n不㑹箇中顛倒意，休將管見事高談。\n\n33.取將坎位中心實，點化離宮腹内隂。\n從此變成乾健體，潛藏飛躍總由心。\n\n34.震龍汞自出離郷，兌虎金生在坎方。\n二物總因兒産母，五行全要入中央。\n\n35.月纔天際半輪明，早有龍吟虎嘯聲。\n便好用工修二八，一時辰內管丹成。\n\n36.華嶽山頭雄虎嘯，扶桑海底牝龍吟。\n黃婆日解相媒合，遣作夫妻共一心。\n\n37.西山白虎正猖狂，東海青龍不可當。\n兩手捉來令死鬭，化成一片紫金霜。\n\n38.赤龍黒虎各西東，四象交加戊己中。\n復姤自茲能運用，金丹難道不成功。\n\n39.先且觀天明五賊，次須察地以安民。\n民安國富方求戰，戰罷方能見聖人。\n\n40.用將須分左右軍，饒他為主我為賓。\n勸君臨陣休輕敵，恐喪吾家無價珍。\n\n41.火生於木本藏鋒，不㑹鑚研莫強攻。\n禍發必因斯害己，要須制伏覔金公。\n\n42.金公本是東家子，送在西隣寄體生。\n認得喚來歸舍養，配將奼女結親情。\n\n43.奼女遊從各有方，前行須短後須長。\n歸來卻入黃婆舍，嫁箇金翁作老郎。\n\n44.縱識硃砂及黒鉛，不知火候也如閒。\n大都全藉修持力，毫髪差殊不作丹。\n\n45.契論經歌講至真，不將火候著於文。\n要知口訣通𤣥䖏，須共神明仔細論。\n\n46.八月十五翫蟾輝，正是金精壯盛時。\n若到一陽來起復，便堪進火莫延遲。\n\n47.一陽纔動作丹時，鉛鼎溫溫照幌帷。\n受氣之初容易得，抽添運火卻防危。\n\n48.𤣥珠有象逐陽生，陽極隂消漸剝形。\n十月霜飛丹始熟，恁時神鬼亦須驚。\n\n49.前弦之後後弦前，藥味平平氣象全。\n採得歸來爐內煅，煉成溫養自烹煎。\n\n### Sixty-Four Quatrains, II (33-64)\n\n50.長男乍飲西方酒，少女初開北苑花。\n若使青娥相見後，一時闗鎖在黃家。\n\n51.兔雞之月及其時，刑徳臨門藥象之。\n到此金丹宜沐浴，若還加火必傾危。\n\n52.日月三旬一遇逢，以時易日法神功。\n守城野戰知凶吉，増得靈砂滿鼎紅。\n\n53.否泰纔交萬物盈，屯䝉受卦稟生成。\n此中得意休求象，若究羣爻漫役情。\n\n54.卦中設法本儀形，得象忘言意自明。\n舉世迷人惟泥象，卻行卦氣望飛昇。\n\n55.天地盈虛自有時，審能消息始知機。\n由來庚甲申明令，殺盡三屍道可期。\n\n56.要得穀神長不死，須憑𤣥牝立根基。\n真精既返黃金屋，一顆明珠永不離。\n\n57.𤣥牝之門世罕知，休將口鼻妄施為。\n饒君吐納經千載，爭得金烏搦兔兒。\n\n58.異名同出少人知，兩者𤣥𤣥是要機。\n保命全形明損益，紫金丹藥最靈竒。\n\n59.始於有作人爭覺，及至無為衆始知。\n但見無為為道妙，不知有作是根基。\n\n60.黒中有白為丹母，雄裏藏雌是聖胎。\n太一在爐冝慎守，三田寳聚應三台。\n\n61.恍惚之中尋有象，杳㝠之內覔真精。\n有無由此自相入，未見如何想得成。\n\n62.四象㑹時𤣥體就，五行全䖏紫光明。\n脫胎入口通神聖，無限龍神盡失驚。\n\n63.華池飲罷月澄輝，跨箇金龍訪紫微。\n從此衆仙相識後，海田陵谷任遷移。\n\n64.要知煉養還丹法，自向家園下種栽。\n不假吹噓並着力，自然果熟脫靈胎。\n\n65.休施巧偽為功力，認取他家不死方。\n壺內旋添延命酒，鼎中収取返魂漿。\n\n66.雪山一味好醍醐，傾入東陽造化爐。\n若過崑崙西北去，張騫始得見麻姑。\n\n67.不識隂陽及主賓，知他那箇是疎親。\n房中空閉尾閭穴，誤殺閻浮多少人。\n\n68.萬物芸芸各返根，返根復命即長存。\n知常返本人難㑹，妄作招凶衆所聞。\n\n69.歐冶親傳鑄劍方，鏌鎁金水配柔剛。\n煉成便㑹知人意，萬里誅妖一電光。\n\n70.敲竹喚龜吞玉芝，鼔琴招鳯飲刀圭。\n近來透體金光現，不與凢人話此規。\n\n71.藥逢氣类方成象，道在虛無合自然。\n一粒金丹吞入腹，始知我命不由天。\n\n72.赫赫金丹一日成，古仙垂語實堪聴。\n若言九載三年者，總是推延款日程。\n\n73.大道修之有易難，也知由我也由天。\n若非積行施隂徳，動有羣魔作障縁。\n\n74.三才相盜食其時，此是神仙道徳機。\n萬化既安諸慮息，百骸俱理證無為。\n\n75.隂符寳字逾三百，道徳靈文止五千。\n今古上仙無限數，盡從此䖏達真詮。\n\n76.饒君聰慧過顔閔，不遇師傳莫強猜。\n只為丹經無口訣，教君何䖏結靈胎。\n\n77.了了心猿方寸機，三千功行與天齊。\n自然着鼎烹龍虎，爭奈擔家戀子妻。\n\n78.未煉還丹須急煉，煉了還須知止足。\n若也持盈未巳心，不免一朝遭禍辱。\n\n79.但將死戶為生戶，莫執生門號死門。\n若㑹投機明反覆，始知害裏卻生恩。\n\n80.禍福由來互倚伏，還如影響相隨逐。\n㑹能轉此生殺機，反掌之間災變福。\n\n81.修行混俗且和光，圓即圓兮方即方。\n顯晦送從人莫測，教人爭得見行藏。\n\n### Pentasyllabic Poem, Twelve Xijiangyue Songs, Five Coda Quatrains, and Reading the Cantongqi\n\n82.女子着青衣，郎君披素練。見之不可用，用之不可見。\n恍惚裏相逢，杳㝠中有變。一霎火焰飛，真人自出現。\n\n83.內藥還同外藥，內通外亦須通。丹頭和合𩔖相同，溫養兩般作用。\n內有天然真火，爐中赫赫長紅。外爐増減要勤功，妙絶無過真種。\n\n84.此藥至神至聖，憂君分薄難消。調和鉛汞不終朝，早覩𤣥珠形兆。\n志士若能修煉，何妨在市居朝。工夫容易藥非遙，説破人須失笑。\n\n85.白虎首經至寳，華池神水真金。故知上善利源深，不比尋常藥品。\n若要修成九轉，先須煉己持心。依時採取定浮沉，進火須防危甚。\n\n86.若要真鉛留汞，親中不離家臣。木金間隔會無因，須用媒人勾引。\n木性愛金順義，金情愛木慈仁。相吞相啗卻相親，始覺男兒有孕。\n\n87.二八誰家詫女，九三何䖏郎君。自稱木液與金精，遇七方能三性。\n便假丁公煅煉，夫妻始結歡情。河車不敢暫留停，運入崑崙峰頂。\n\n88.七返硃砂返本，九還金液還真。休將寅子數坤申，但看五行成凖。\n本是水銀一味，周流歴遍諸辰。隂陽數足自通神，出入不離𤣥牝。\n\n89.雄裏內含雌質，真隂卻抱陽精。兩般和合藥方成，㸃化魂靈魄聖。\n信道金丹一粒，蛇吞立化龍形。雞飱亦乃化鸞鵬，飛入真陽聖境。\n\n90.天地纔經否泰，朝昏好識屯䝉。輻來湊轂水朝宗，妙在抽添運用。\n得一萬般事畢，休分南北西東。損之又損慎前功，命寳不冝輕弄。\n\n91.冬至一陽來復，三旬増一陽爻。月中復卦朔晨超，望罷乾終姤兆。\n日又別為寒暑，陽生復起中宵。午時姤象一隂朝，煉藥須知昏曉。\n\n92.不辨五行四象，那分朱汞鉛銀。修丹火候未曽聞，早使稱呼大𨼆。\n靡肯自思已錯，更將錯路教人。誤他永劫在迷津，似恁欺心安忍。\n\n93.徳行修逾八百，隂功積滿三千。均齊物我與親寃，始合神仙本願。\n虎兕刀兵不害，無常火宅難牽。寳符降後去朝天，穩駕瓊輿鳯輦。\n\n94.牛女情縁道本，龜蛇𩔖稟天然。蟾烏遇朔合嬋娟，二氣相資運轉。\n總是乾坤妙用，誰人達此真詮。隂陽否隔即成愆，怎得天長地逺。\n\n95.丹是色身至寳，煉成變化無窮。更於性上究真宗，決了死生妙用。\n不待他身後世，現前獲佛神通。自從龍女著斯功，爾後誰能繼踵。\n\n96.饒君了悟真如性，未免拋身卻入身。\n若解更能修大藥，頓超無漏作真人。\n\n97.投胎奪舍及移居，舊住名為四果徒。\n若㑹降龍並伏虎，真金起屋幾時枯。\n\n98.鑑形閉息思神法，初學艱難後坦途。\n倐忽雖能游萬里，奈何屋破卻移居。\n\n99.釋氏教人修極樂，只縁極樂是金方。\n大都色相惟茲實，餘二非真漫度量。\n\n100.俗語常言合至道，冝向其中細尋討。\n能於日用顛倒求，大地塵沙盡成寳。\n\n101.大丹妙用法乾坤，乾坤運兮五行分。五行順兮常道有生有死，五行逆兮丹體常靈常存。一自虛無兆質兩儀，固一開根四象不離。二體八卦，互為祖孫。萬象生乎變動，吉凶悔吝兹分。百姓日用不知，聖人能究本源。顧易道妙，盡乾坤之理，遂托象於斯文。否泰交則陰陽或升或降，屯蒙作則動靜在朝在昏。坎離為男女水火，震兌乃龍虎魄魂。守中則黃裳元吉，過亢則無位而尊。既未慎萬物之終始，復姤昭二炁之歸奔。月虧盈，應精神之衰旺，日出沒令榮衛之寒溫。本立言以明象，既得象以忘言。猶設象以指意，悟其意則象捐。達者惟簡惟易，迷者愈惑愈繁。故知修真上士，讀《參同契》不在乎泥象執文。","download_url":"https://mouseia.org/api/works/wuzhen-pian/original.txt"},"translations":[{"id":"trn_wuzhen_pian_mouseia","translator":"Mouseia","kind":"curated","note":"Mouseia’s complete machine-assisted Musean translation, made directly from the Chinese Wikisource transcription of the Daozang text (revision 2596349), with one pentasyllabic poem missing there supplied from the Siku quanshu Wuzhen pian zhushu, covering the whole work: the preface, sixteen octaves, sixty-four quatrains, the pentasyllabic poem, twelve Xijiangyue songs with their supplement, five coda quatrains and ‘Reading the Cantongqi’, 5,083 characters, for fidelity, clarity, imagery and cadence.","text":"### Zhang Boduan's Preface\n\n1. Alas! The human body is hard to obtain, and our days swiftly pass. We cannot measure the length of our lives; how can we escape the recompense of our deeds? If we do not awaken in good time, we merely resign ourselves to waiting for the end. Should a single thought go astray at the parting of the ways and plunge us into the three evil paths, we may pass through countless eons without any prospect of release. What use would remorse be then? Thus the teachings of Laozi and the Buddha opened the gate of expedient means through the study of nature and life, instructing people in cultivation to escape birth and death. The Buddhists take emptiness and stillness as their principle: sudden, complete awakening brings one directly to the farther shore, but if habitual defilements remain, one is still bound to rebirth. The followers of Laozi take refinement and nurture as their truth: whoever grasps the essential key immediately ascends to the rank of sages, but whoever has not understood original nature remains entangled in the illusory body. Moreover, the Book of Changes speaks of “exhausting principle, fulfilling nature, and arriving at destiny”; the sayings of Lu speak of “no conjectures, no insistence, no obstinacy, no self.” Thus Confucius, too, reached the deepest mysteries of nature and life. Why, then, are his words generally brief rather than detailed? Because he sought to order human relations and teach humanity, righteousness, ritual, and music, he did not explicitly speak of the Way of nonaction. Instead, he concealed the arts of life within the images of the Changes and the methods of nature within subtle sayings. Zhuangzi's probing of the burdens of things and the nature of free wandering, and Mencius's skill in nurturing the vast, flowing breath, also come close to the essential point. Later, in the Han, Wei Boyang drew upon the interwoven patterns of the Way of the Changes and wrote the Cantongqi to illuminate the workings of the Great Elixir. The Tang dynasty National Preceptor Zhong first set forth the sayings of Laozi and Zhuangzi in his recorded discourse to reveal the beginning and end of the supreme Way. Is it not clear that, though the teachings are divided into three, their Way returns to one? Yet later generations of Daoists and Buddhists each clung to their own school and condemned the others. Thus the essential principles of all three traditions have been lost in errant paths, unable to merge and return together.\nNow people suppose that the Daoist school prizes the cultivation of life, without realizing that the methods for cultivating life fall into two kinds: those easy to encounter but hard to accomplish, and those hard to encounter but easy to accomplish. Refining the breath of the five sprouts, taking in the light of the seven luminaries, visualization and massage, breathing in the pure and breathing out the turbid, reciting scriptures and sustaining spells, spraying water and commanding talismans, clicking the teeth to gather spirits, abandoning one's wife and abstaining from grain, preserving the spirits and holding the breath, directing thought between the brows to replenish the brain and return the essence, practicing bedroom arts, and even ingesting and refining metals, minerals, herbs, and trees: all are easy to encounter but hard to accomplish. Most of these methods are inadequate for cultivating the body. Though much effort is spent on them, their results never prove reliable. If pursued with painstaking resolve, day and night, they can at best ward off illness and prevent untimely harm. Once the practice stops, its earlier gains gradually vanish. Years are drawn out in a task that must be hard to complete. How much harder to hope to obtain something once and possess it forever, return to infancy and reverse old age, transform oneself and fly upward! It is deeply lamentable. Practitioners in recent times cling to delusions; not understanding the truth of the wondrous method, they accuse the immortals of empty talk. They fail to realize that all who attained the Way did so by refining the golden elixir, but, fearing to disclose heaven's secret, gave other practices as a pretext. Among them, only holding the breath, if one can forget contrivance and put an end to thoughts, bears some resemblance to the meditation of the Two Vehicles; practiced diligently, it can lead one out of concentration and send forth the spirit. But spirit and essence belong to yin, and their dwelling is difficult to secure; one must continually resort to moving house. Without the way of returning gold and mercury, how could one restore yang, exchange one's bones, and ascend to heaven in broad daylight?\nRefining the golden liquor and returned elixir, by contrast, is hard to encounter but easy to accomplish. One must thoroughly understand yin and yang and deeply comprehend transformation; only then can one raise the two breaths above the yellow path, bring the three natures together in the primal palace, gather the five phases, and unite the four images. Dragon sings, tiger roars; husband leads and wife follows. The jade cauldron boils; the golden furnace blazes. At last the dark pearl takes shape and the Supreme One returns to the true. All this takes only a moment's work, securing boundless joy forever. As for guarding against danger, carefully drawing off and adding in, nurturing what is right and preserving fullness, the crucial thing is to keep to the feminine and embrace the One. Naturally the breath of returning yang will arise and strip away the deadly form of yin. When the seasonal breaths have completed their cycle, one leaves the womb and undergoes divine transformation: one's name is entered on the rolls of immortals, and one's rank is that of a True Person. This is the moment when a great person has achieved both work and renown.\nToday's students take lead and mercury to be the two breaths, identify the organs as the five phases, divide heart and kidneys into Li and Kan, make liver and lungs dragon and tiger, take spirit and breath for mother and child, and insist that bodily fluids are lead and mercury. They do not recognize what floats and what sinks; how then could they distinguish host from guest? How is this different from claiming another's wealth as one's own, or calling a stranger's child one's son? How could they know the hidden intricacies of metal and wood overcoming each other, or the marvel of yin and yang working through each other? Their sun and moon have lost their courses, their lead and mercury lie in different furnaces. Is it not far-fetched to hope to make the returned elixir this way?\nFrom youth I was drawn to the Way and ranged through the scriptures of the three teachings, as well as law and punishment, writing and calculation, medicine and divination, military strategy, astronomy and geography, and the arts concerning good fortune, misfortune, life, and death; there was none I did not investigate closely. As for the golden elixir alone, I read all the scriptures and the various masters' songs, poems, treatises, and covenants. All spoke of the sun's soul and moon's spirit, the geng tiger and jia dragon, mercury and cinnabar, white gold and black tin, the Kan male and Li female, as able to make the golden liquor and returned elixir. Yet none ever said what true lead and true mercury actually are, or explained the rules of the fire's timing and the direction of gentle nurture. Later deluded followers indulged their own speculation and recklessly annotated the sacred teachings of the former sages. Their errors took ten thousand forms: they not only disordered the scriptures of immortality but also misled later students. Because I had not met an accomplished master and could not find the oral instructions, I lost all ease in sleeping and eating, and my spirit grew weary. Though I searched across seas and mountains and sought instruction from wise and foolish alike, none could explain the true teaching and illuminate my heart.\nThen in the jiyou year of Xining I followed Lord Lu of the Dragon Diagram to Chengdu. As my old resolve had never wavered and my first sincerity grew ever stronger, I moved a True Person to impart the instructions for the substances and fire's timing of the golden elixir. His words were very few, his essentials uncomplicated: one could follow the stream and know its source, hear one thing and understand a hundred. It was as if fog lifted and the sun shone clear, dust fell away and the mirror gleamed. Compared with the scriptures of immortality, his words matched like the two halves of a tally. I reflected that eight or nine in ten of the people of this world study immortality, but I had not heard of even one or two who reached its true essentials. Having found the true key, how could I dare keep silent? I poured out all I had gained in eighty-one regulated poems, nine times nine, entitled Chapters on Awakening to Truth. Among them are sixteen seven-character poems of four rhymes, representing the number two times eight; sixty-four quatrains corresponding to the hexagrams of the Book of Changes; and a single five-character poem symbolizing the Supreme One. I later added twelve songs to the tune “Moon over the Western River,” completing the year's cycle. All the matters of the cauldron and vessel, their higher and lower roles, the weights of the substances, the advance and retreat of the fire's timing, the order of host and guest, presence and absence, and good fortune, misfortune, regret, and shame are included. As for what remained unsaid about the true awakening of original nature, I also wrote songs, hymns, song lyrics, and pieces in varied meters, appended to the end of the book. I hope the way to reach the root and illuminate nature is thus fully expressed. I hope that kindred spirits, on reading it, will see the branches and awaken to the root, abandon illusion and follow truth. Prefaced by Zhang Boduan, Pingshu of Tiantai, on New Year's Day of the yimao year of Xining.\n\n### Sixteen Octaves on the Great Elixir\n\n2. If you do not seek the great Way out of delusion, Though gifted with a sage's talents, how are you worthy?\nA hundred years flash like sparks from struck stone; A whole life floats like a bubble on water.\nYou only crave profit and rank, seeking glory, Unheeding as your body secretly withers away.\nTell me: with gold piled high as mountains, Could you buy off impermanence and keep it from coming?\n\n3. Though human life might last a hundred years, None foreknows its length or fate, poverty or success.\nYesterday a rider still galloped through the streets; This morning a corpse lies in the coffin.\nThe wife and wealth you leave behind are no longer yours; You carry the burden of your deeds and cannot deceive yourself.\nWithout seeking the great medicine, how will you find it? To find it and not refine it is sheer folly.\n\n4. To study immortality, study celestial immortality: Only the golden elixir is the surest path.\nWhen the two substances meet, nature and feeling join; When the five phases are whole, tiger and dragon coil.\nThrough Wu and Ji as matchmakers it begins, And husband and wife are joined in enduring joy.\nWait only for the work's completion to attend the northern palace, Riding an auspicious phoenix through ninefold rosy clouds.\n\n5. This method is truth more wondrous within the true; All because I alone differ from other people.\nI know reversal comes from Li and Kan; Who knows how floating and sinking determine host and guest?\nTo keep vermilion-wrapped mercury in the golden cauldron, First set water-born silver in the jade pool.\nThe divine work of tending fire takes less than a night: A round sun rises from the deep pool.\n\n6. Tiger leaps and dragon soars amid rough winds and waves; In the central place of honor the dark pearl is born.\nFruit growing on a branch is bound at last to ripen; How could a child in the womb be otherwise?\nNorth and south, source and root, reverse the hexagram images; Dawn and dusk, the fire's timing accords with heaven's pivot.\nKnow that the great recluse lives in the marketplace: Why guard solitude in stillness deep among the mountains?\n\n7. Every person possesses the medicine of long life; In foolish bewilderment they simply cast it away.\nWhen sweet dew falls, heaven and earth unite; Where the yellow sprout grows, Kan and Li meet.\nA well frog would say there is no dragon's cavern; How could a sparrow by the hedge know the phoenix's nest?\nWhen the elixir ripens, gold fills the house of itself: Why seek herbs and learn to burn thatch?\n\n8. If you would know the river-source where the medicine rises, Its native place lies only in the southwest.\nWhen lead passes and gui is born, gather it at once; When gold meets the distant full moon, it cannot be tasted.\nReturn it to the earthen vessel and seal it tight; Then introduce the flowing pearl to join its mate.\nThe medicine weighs one pound: two eights are required; Regulate the fire's timing by yin and yang.\n\n9. Do not refine the three yellows or the four spirits; If you seek a multitude of medicines, you have missed the true.\nYin and yang meet their kind and enter union; The two eights match and naturally become kin.\nThe sun glows red beneath the pool: yin phantoms vanish; The moon shines white above the mountain: new medicine sprouts.\nIf people today would know true lead and mercury, They are not common cinnabar and quicksilver.\n\n10. Do not take solitary yin to contain yang; Cultivating one thing alone only weakens you.\nToiling at stretches and massage is not the Way; Refining breath and feasting on clouds is madness.\nSeek all your life in vain to subdue lead and mercury: When will you ever see tiger and dragon yield?\nI urge you: search out the place where your body was born; Returning to root and source is the sovereign medicine.\n\n11. Set your heart on seeking true lead; Do not let the hours pass lightly by.\nWith the earthly spirit capture vermilion mercury, And the heavenly soul will master water-born gold.\nThen the Way is exalted, and dragon and tiger submit; Virtue is weighty, and ghosts and spirits revere it.\nKnowing already that life will last as long as heaven and earth, How could vexation find its way back into the heart?\n\n12. The yellow sprout and white snow are not hard to find; The adept must rely on the depth of virtuous conduct.\nThe four images and five phases all depend on earth; How could three origins and eight trigrams depart from ren?\nOnce its numinous substance is refined, none can recognize it; Yin demons dissolve, and no ghost can invade.\nI would leave the secret instructions in the human world, But have yet to hear a single kindred voice.\n\n13. Plants and trees, too, have yin and yang in equal measure; If one is lacking, they cannot flower.\nFirst green leaves open, with yang taking the lead; Then red blossoms unfold, with yin following after.\nIn the ordinary Way this serves our daily lives; Who knows the true source that reverses its course?\nI tell you, gentlemen studying the Way: Do not act blindly if you do not know yin and yang.\n\n14. If you do not know reversal within the reversed mystery, How can you know to plant a lotus within fire?\nLead the white tiger home and nurture it; Bring forth a bright pearl round as the moon.\nDo not merely tend the medicine furnace, watching the fire's timing; Still your spirit and breath and let nature take its course.\nWhen the hosts of yin are stripped away, the elixir ripens; Leap from the cage and live ten thousand years.\n\n15. Three, five, one: only three written signs; Few indeed in any age have understood them.\nEastern three and southern two together make five; Northern one and western four make five as well.\nWu and Ji themselves return to the generative number five; When the three families meet, the infant is conceived.\nThus the Supreme One holds the true breath within; In ten months the womb is full, and the foundation of sagehood is laid.\n\n16. Without knowing true lead, the rightful ancestor, Ten thousand practices only waste your effort.\nDismiss your wife, and you vainly sever yin from yang; Abstain from grain, and merely empty your stomach.\nHerbs and trees, gold and silver are drossy matter; Clouds, mists, sun, and moon belong to hazy illusion.\nEven if you add breathing exercises and visualization, None of it is the work of the golden elixir.\n\n17. Ten thousand volumes of immortal scriptures speak alike: Only this golden elixir is root and source.\nFollowing its form born at Kun's station, Plant it in Qian's palace of mutual union.\nDo not marvel that heaven's secrets are wholly disclosed: Students themselves are foolish and blind.\nIf anyone understands the meaning within these verses, He will see at once the Most High Lord of the Three Pure Ones.\n\n### Sixty-Four Quatrains, I (1-32)\n\n18. First make Qian and Kun the cauldron and vessel; Next cook the crow and hare as the medicine.\nWhen you have driven both back to the yellow path, How could the golden elixir fail to form?\n\n19. Set furnace and cauldron according to Qian and Kun; Temper their essence and govern spirit and soul.\nGathering and scattering, mingling, they transform; Dare one speak lightly of such mystery?\n\n20. Do not cling to an alchemy stove and waste your toil; To refine the medicine seek the crescent-moon furnace.\nIts natural, true fire nourishes all by itself; What need of charcoal, firewood, and bellows?\n\n21. In the crescent-moon furnace the jade blossom grows; In the cinnabar cauldron the quicksilver settles.\nOnce the force of fire is brought into harmony, The yellow sprout you planted slowly grows to fullness.\n\n22. Swallowing saliva and drawing breath are human deeds; Only with the medicine can creation come to birth.\nIf there is no true seed within the cauldron, You might as well boil an empty pan with water and fire.\n\n23. To make the elixir, harmonize lead and mercury; Neither great nor small is harmed: both realms remain whole.\nIf you ask what substance true lead is, The toad's light shines all day over the western river.\n\n24. Until you refine the returned elixir, do not hide in mountains; Within and without the mountains, nothing there is lead.\nEvery home possesses this supreme treasure; People today simply fail to know it fully.\n\n25. A split bamboo is best repaired with bamboo; To hatch a chick, one must use an egg.\nA thousand mismatched things only waste your strength: What can compare with true lead joined to the sacred key?\n\n26. To use lead, you must not use ordinary lead; Once true lead has served its purpose, cast it away as well.\nThis is the true and wondrous secret of using lead: “To use lead is not to use it”—these words are true.\n\n27. “Empty the heart, fill the belly”: both meanings run deep; To empty the heart, first you must know the heart.\nBetter to refine lead and fill the belly first, And keep the gold that fills the hall secure.\n\n28. In a dream I visited Western Splendor in the ninth heaven; A True Person gave me a chapter pointing to mystery.\nIts message was simple, its words were few: It only taught people to refine mercury and lead.\n\n29. The Way gives birth to one breath out of empty nothingness; From that one breath arise yin and yang.\nYin and yang unite again to form the three bodies; The three bodies give rise anew to all things flourishing.\n\n30. In Kan, lightning boils and roars in the realm of metal and water; Fire erupts from Kunlun: yin and yang.\nIf these two substances are brought into union, The elixir ripens of itself, scenting the entire body.\n\n31. If Li and Kan lack Wu and Ji, Though holding the four images, they cannot form the elixir.\nBecause each of them contains the true earth, The golden elixir can return once more.\n\n32. The sun dwelling in Li becomes the woman instead; Kan joined to the moon palace is the man.\nIf you cannot grasp this reversal within them, Do not pronounce grand judgments from a narrow view.\n\n33. Take the solid heart from Kan's station And transmute the yin within Li's belly.\nIt changes then into Qian's vigorous body: Its hiding and soaring both follow the heart.\n\n34. Zhen dragon, mercury, emerges from Li's domain; Dui tiger, metal, is born in Kan's realm.\nBoth substances show the child giving birth to its mother; All five phases must enter the center.\n\n35. The moon's half-wheel has only just shone at heaven's edge, Yet already dragon sings and tiger roars.\nThis is the moment to work upon the two eights: Within a single two-hour watch the elixir will form.\n\n36. On Mount Hua's summit the male tiger roars; Beneath Fusang's sea the female dragon sings.\nThe Yellow Matron each day knows how to join them, Making husband and wife of one heart.\n\n37. The white tiger of the western mountain rages wildly; The azure dragon of the eastern sea is irresistible.\nSeize them with both hands and make them fight to the death; They change into a single mass of purple-gold frost.\n\n38. Red dragon and black tiger stand each to west and east; Four images meet within Wu and Ji.\nIf you can now put Fu and Gou to work, How could the golden elixir fail to succeed?\n\n39. First observe heaven and discern the five thieves; Then survey the earth and bring peace to the people.\nOnly when the people are safe and the state rich, seek battle; Only after battle will you see the sage.\n\n40. When deploying generals, distinguish the left and right armies; Let the other be host and myself the guest.\nI urge you, do not slight your foe upon the field, Or our family's priceless jewel may be lost.\n\n41. Fire is born from wood, where its blade lies hidden; If you cannot drill and probe, do not attack by force.\nDisaster will flare and bring harm upon yourself; You must master it and seek Lord Metal.\n\n42. Lord Metal was originally a child of the eastern house, Sent to dwell and grow embodied with the western neighbor.\nRecognize him, call him home and nurture him; Wed him to the lovely maiden in affection.\n\n43. The lovely maiden wanders by her appointed course; The journey forward must be short, the journey back long.\nOn returning she enters the Yellow Matron's house, To marry old Lord Metal as her husband.\n\n44. Though you know cinnabar and black lead, Without the fire's timing your knowledge is idle.\nAll chiefly depends upon the strength of cultivation; A hair's breadth of error will prevent the elixir's birth.\n\n45. Treatises, scriptures, and songs expound the highest truth, But do not set down the fire's timing in writing.\nTo know where oral teaching reaches the mystery, You must examine it closely with divine intelligence.\n\n46. On the fifteenth of the eighth month, delight in the toad's glow: This is the hour when metal's essence is fullest.\nWhen one yang rises and the Return begins, Feed the fire at once; do not delay.\n\n47. The instant one yang stirs is the hour to make the elixir; The leaden cauldron glows warmly upon curtains and drapes.\nReceiving the breath at the beginning is easily done; Beware the dangers of drawing off, adding in, and working the fire.\n\n48. The dark pearl takes form and grows with the yang; As yang reaches its height, yin wanes and loses form.\nWhen frost falls in the tenth month the elixir ripens; Even spirits and ghosts must tremble then.\n\n49. After the first half-moon, before the second half-moon, The medicine's flavor is balanced, its vital signs complete.\nGather it and bring it home for firing within the furnace; Once refined, nurture it gently as it cooks of itself.\n\n### Sixty-Four Quatrains, II (33-64)\n\n50. The eldest son has just drunk western wine; The youngest daughter first opens a flower in the northern garden.\nOnce the blue maiden brings the two together, Lock them at once within the yellow house.\n\n51. In the months of hare and rooster, when their time arrives, Punishment and virtue come to the gate, and the medicine shows its sign.\nAt this point the golden elixir should be bathed; Add fire now, and disaster will follow.\n\n52. Sun and moon meet once in three ten-day periods; The method of divine work substitutes hours for days.\nKnow the ill and good of guarding a city and fighting in the field; The numinous cinnabar grows until the whole cauldron glows red.\n\n53. When Obstruction and Peace first meet, ten thousand things abound; Difficulty and Youthful Folly receive their hexagrams and take life.\nOnce you grasp their meaning, cease searching the images; To scrutinize every line would only weary the heart.\n\n54. The methods laid down in hexagrams originally use forms as models; Once the image is grasped, forget the words and meaning shines clear.\nDeluded people throughout the world cling solely to images; They practice the hexagrams' breaths, hoping to ascend in flight.\n\n55. Heaven and earth have their times of fullness and emptiness; Only by discerning growth and decline will you know the key.\nFrom the beginning geng and jia proclaim the command: Slay all three corpses, and the Way may be attained.\n\n56. If you would keep the valley spirit alive forever, Set its foundation in the mysterious female.\nWhen the true essence returns to the house of gold, One luminous pearl will never depart.\n\n57. Few in the world know the mysterious female's gate; Do not rashly practice with mouth and nose.\nBreathe in and out for a thousand years if you like: How will the golden crow ever seize the hare?\n\n58. Different names spring from one source; few people know it; Both are mystery upon mystery, the essential key.\nTo preserve life and keep the body whole, discern loss and gain; The purple-gold elixir is most wondrous and numinous.\n\n59. At the outset, active work is apparent to everyone; Only at the end do they recognize nonaction.\nThey see that nonaction is the marvel of the Way, Not knowing that active work is its foundation.\n\n60. White within black is the mother of the elixir; Female hidden within male is the sacred embryo.\nGuard the Supreme One carefully within the furnace; Treasures gathered in the three fields answer the three terraces.\n\n61. Seek form within the dimly shimmering; Search for true essence in the dark and obscure.\nBeing and nonbeing enter each other through this: How could imagination produce what you have not seen?\n\n62. When the four images meet, the mysterious body is formed; When five phases are whole, purple light shines forth.\nLeaving the womb, entering the mouth, it communes with the sacred; Countless dragons and spirits recoil in astonishment.\n\n63. After drinking at the Flowery Pool, the moon shines clear; Ride a golden dragon to visit the Purple Tenuity.\nOnce you have come to know the assembled immortals, Let seas turn to fields and hills to valleys.\n\n64. If you would know how to refine and nurture the returned elixir, Plant its seed within your own garden.\nWithout blowing or straining to exert your strength, The fruit ripens of itself and the numinous embryo is born.\n\n65. Do not expend cunning and pretense as effort; Recognize the deathless formula from the other house.\nWithin the flask add the wine that lengthens life; Within the cauldron collect the soul-restoring draught.\n\n66. One flavor from Snow Mountain, exquisite clarified butter: Pour it into the transforming furnace of eastern yang.\nIf it crosses Kunlun toward the northwest, Only then does Zhang Qian encounter Magu.\n\n67. Not knowing yin and yang, nor host and guest, How could you tell which is stranger and which is kin?\nVainly sealing the coccygeal gate in bedroom practice Has brought mistaken death to how many in Jambudvipa!\n\n68. All teeming things return each to its root; Returning to the root and restoring life is to endure.\nFew understand knowing constancy and returning to the source; That reckless action invites ill fortune is known to all.\n\n69. Ou Ye himself transmitted the art of casting swords; Moye's metal and water join supple and strong.\nOnce forged, it understands the human will And strikes down demons ten thousand miles away in a flash of lightning.\n\n70. Tap bamboo to call the tortoise to eat jade fungus; Play the zither to summon the phoenix to drink the elixir dose.\nOf late a golden radiance has shone through my body; I will not tell ordinary people this rule.\n\n71. The medicine forms only when it meets a breath of its own kind; The Way resides in empty nothingness and accords with nature.\nSwallow a single grain of golden elixir, And only then know that my life is not decreed by heaven.\n\n72. “In one day the radiant golden elixir is made”: The words bequeathed by ancient immortals deserve to be heard.\nThose who speak of nine years or three years Are merely drawing out the appointed days.\n\n73. In cultivating the great Way there are easy and difficult paths; I know it depends on me, and also on heaven.\nUnless you build up good deeds and practice hidden virtue, At every turn hosts of demons will obstruct your way.\n\n74. The three powers steal from one another, feeding at the proper time; This is the immortal's secret of the Way and its virtue.\nWhen all transformations are at peace, all cares cease; When the hundred limbs are ordered, nonaction is realized.\n\n75. The precious words of the Yinfu exceed three hundred; The sacred text of the Daode amounts to only five thousand.\nCountless supreme immortals, ancient and modern, Have found the true teaching through these very words.\n\n76. Though your wisdom surpass Yan Hui and Min Ziqian, Without a master's transmission do not guess by force.\nThe elixir scriptures lack oral instructions: How, then, will you conceive the numinous embryo?\n\n77. Understand fully the mind-monkey's workings in the heart; Let three thousand meritorious deeds equal heaven.\nThen naturally set the cauldron to cook dragon and tiger— But what of carrying a household and clinging to wife and children?\n\n78. If you have not refined the returned elixir, refine it quickly; Once it is refined, you must know when to rest content.\nIf your mind still tries to hold on to fullness, One day you cannot escape calamity and disgrace.\n\n79. Take the gate of death for the gate of life; Do not insist that life's gate is the gate of death.\nWhen you grasp the moment and understand reversal, Only then know how blessing rises from harm.\n\n80. Misfortune and good fortune have always lain concealed in each other, Following each other as shadow follows form, echo follows sound.\nIf you can turn the pivot of birth and destruction, Disaster becomes blessing in a turn of the hand.\n\n81. Cultivate amid the crowd, blending your radiance with theirs; Be round where things are round, square where they are square.\nAppear or withdraw as occasion leads, beyond anyone's reckoning: How could people discern your action or repose?\n\n### Pentasyllabic Poem, Twelve Xijiangyue Songs, Five Coda Quatrains, and Reading the Cantongqi\n\n82. The woman wears blue robes; the young man is dressed in white silk. When seen, it cannot be used; when used, it cannot be seen.\nThey meet in the shimmering haze; in the utter dark a change takes place. Flames fly up in an instant; a True Person appears of himself.\n\n83. The inner medicine is like the outer medicine; master the inner, but master the outer too. The elixir seed joins with others of its kind; each kind requires its own gentle nurture.\nWithin is the natural, true fire, blazing red forever in the furnace. Work diligently to increase and lessen the outer furnace; no marvel surpasses the true seed.\n\n84. This medicine is most divine, most sacred; I fear your share of fortune is too slight to receive it. Blend lead and mercury in less than a morning, and soon behold the dark pearl's first sign.\nIf people of resolve can practice and refine it, why should they not dwell in the market or at court? The work is easy, the medicine not distant; when told outright, people cannot help laughing.\n\n85. The white tiger's first flow is the supreme treasure; the divine water of the Flowery Pool is true gold. Thus know how deep the source of the highest good's benefits runs; this is no ordinary medicine.\nIf you would achieve the ninefold turning, first refine yourself and keep watch over your heart. Gather it at the right time, determine what floats and sinks; feed the fire but beware of grave danger.\n\n86. If you wish true lead to hold mercury fast, the household servant must not leave its kin. Wood and metal, kept apart, have no cause to meet; a matchmaker must draw them together.\nWood by nature loves metal and follows righteousness; metal's feeling loves wood in merciful kindness. They swallow and devour one another, yet become intimate; now one sees a man conceive.\n\n87. From whose house comes the maiden of two eights? Where is the young man of nine and three? They call themselves wood's liquor and metal's essence; only when they meet seven can the three natures form.\nBorrow Master Ding to forge and refine them; only then do husband and wife unite in joy. The river cart dares not pause for a moment, but carries them to the summit of Kunlun.\n\n88. Seven reversions restore cinnabar to its root; nine returns bring golden liquor back to truth. Do not count yin and zi or kun and shen; simply take the five phases as your measure.\nOriginally there is just one substance, quicksilver, circulating through all the celestial stations. When the numbers of yin and yang are complete it communes with spirits; its coming and going never leaves the mysterious female.\n\n89. The male contains a female substance within; true yin, in turn, embraces yang essence. When both are joined, the medicine forms, transmuting soul to numinousness and spirit to holiness.\nTrust that a single grain of golden elixir, swallowed by a snake, at once transforms it into a dragon. A chicken fed it turns into phoenix or roc and flies into the sacred realm of true yang.\n\n90. When heaven and earth pass through Obstruction and Peace, learn to know Difficulty and Youthful Folly at dawn and dusk. Spokes converge upon the hub; waters flow toward their source. The wonder lies in the use of drawing off and adding in.\nAttain the One and ten thousand tasks are done; make no distinctions of north and south, west and east. Diminish and diminish again; guard the work already done. Do not treat the treasure of life lightly.\n\n91. At winter solstice one yang comes back in Return; every thirty days a yang line is added. In the month's cycle the Return hexagram rises at the new moon's dawn; after the full moon Qian ends and Gou appears.\nThe day likewise divides into cold and heat; yang rises anew at midnight. At noon Gou's image ushers in one yin; to refine the medicine, know dusk from dawn.\n\n92. You cannot distinguish five phases and four images; how then can you tell cinnabar from mercury or lead from silver? You have never heard of the fire's timing for refining the elixir, yet hasten to call yourself a great recluse.\nYou refuse to reflect on your own error and even teach others the errant road, condemning them to lose their way for endless eons. How can your heart bear such deceit?\n\n93. Cultivate virtue beyond eight hundred deeds; accumulate three thousand works of hidden merit. Hold things and self, kin and enemies, in equal balance; only then do you fulfill an immortal's original vow.\nTigers, wild beasts, blades, and weapons will not harm you; impermanence and the burning house cannot ensnare you. When the precious talisman descends, go to court in heaven, riding safely in a jade carriage and phoenix chariot.\n\n94. The love of Cowherd and Weaver Girl takes the Way as its root; tortoise and snake take their natures from heaven. Toad and crow meet at the new moon and unite in beauty; the two breaths sustain and turn each other.\nAll is the wondrous working of Qian and Kun; who understands this true teaching? When yin and yang are severed by obstruction, fault follows: how could they endure as long as heaven and earth?\n\n95. The elixir is the body's supreme treasure; refined, it brings transformations without end. Search further into nature for the true teaching, and resolve the mystery of death and life.\nWithout awaiting a later body or a future age, obtain the Buddha's divine powers here and now. Since the Dragon Girl undertook this work, who has been able to follow in her footsteps?\n\n96. Though you understand the nature of true suchness, You must still shed one body and enter another.\nBut if you can also refine the great medicine, You leap at once beyond all defilements and become a True Person.\n\n97. Entering a womb, seizing a body, moving house, Or staying in the old abode marks the disciple of four fruits.\nIf you know how to subdue dragon and tiger, When could a house built of true gold ever decay?\n\n98. Mirror-gazing, holding breath, and contemplating the spirits: Hard for the beginner, afterward a level path.\nThough in a flash you can travel ten thousand miles, When your house falls apart, you must move elsewhere.\n\n99. The Buddha teaches people to cultivate the Pure Land Because the Pure Land is the realm of gold.\nAmong all forms and appearances, this alone is real; The other two are not true, whatever your idle speculation.\n\n100. Common sayings often agree with the highest Way; Look within them carefully and seek it out.\nIf you can seek reversal in daily life, All the earth's dust and sand will turn to treasure.\n\n101. The Great Elixir's wondrous workings follow Qian and Kun. Qian and Kun revolve, and the five phases divide. With the five phases moving in their natural order, the ordinary way knows birth and death; with the five phases reversed, the elixir body stays forever numinous and enduring. From the One, emerging out of empty nothingness, the two principles first take form; when the One first opens its root, the four images remain joined to it. The two bodies and eight trigrams become one another's ancestors and descendants. The ten thousand forms arise from change and motion; fortune, misfortune, regret, and shame divide from here. Ordinary people use it every day without knowing; the sage can probe its original source. Looking upon the marvels of the Way of the Changes, which comprehends all the principles of Qian and Kun, the sage entrusted its images to this text. When Obstruction and Peace alternate, yin and yang now rise, now fall; when Difficulty and Youthful Folly arise, motion and stillness belong to dawn and dusk. Kan and Li are man and woman, water and fire; Zhen and Dui are dragon and tiger, spirit and soul. Holding to the center brings the yellow robe and primal good fortune; passing beyond the limit brings eminence with no proper place. Already and Not Yet Completed mark the beginning and ending of all things; Return and Encounter reveal the running together of the two breaths. The moon's waning and waxing answer the decline and flourishing of spirit and essence; the sun's rising and setting govern the cold and warmth of nourishment and protection. Words were first established to clarify images; once you grasp the images, forget the words. Images, too, are set up to point to meaning; when you understand that meaning, put the images aside. For the adept, all is simple and easy; for the lost, ever more bewildering and intricate. Thus one knows that the highest students who cultivate truth read the Cantongqi without clinging to images or fastening upon its words.","download_url":"https://mouseia.org/api/works/wuzhen-pian/translations/trn_wuzhen_pian_mouseia.txt"},{"id":"trn_wuzhen_pian_plain","translator":"Mouseia","kind":"plain","note":"Mouseia’s complete Plain English edition, made independently and directly from the same original, covering the whole work: the preface, sixteen octaves, sixty-four quatrains, the pentasyllabic poem, twelve Xijiangyue songs with their supplement, five coda quatrains and ‘Reading the Cantongqi’, 5,083 characters.","text":"### Zhang Boduan's Preface\n\n1. Alas, a human body is hard to obtain, and time passes easily. We cannot predict how long we will live, and how can we escape the results of our deeds? Yet people fail to wake up early and simply accept their lot and wait for death. If one thought goes wrong at the crossroads of death and we fall into the three bad paths of rebirth, we may pass through countless ages with no time of escape. What good will regret do then? So the teachings of Laozi and the Buddha opened ways of practice concerning our nature and life, teaching people to cultivate the means to escape birth and death. The Buddhists take emptiness and stillness as their main principle. With sudden, complete understanding, one crosses directly to the other shore; if ingrained faults remain, one still follows the cycle of birth. The followers of Laozi take refinement and nourishment as the true practice. If one grasps its essential point, one can immediately reach the rank of a sage; if one has not understood one's basic nature, one remains caught in an illusory body. The Book of Changes also speaks of examining principles, fulfilling one's nature, and reaching life's destiny. The Sayings of Lu speaks of having no private opinions, fixed expectations, stubbornness, or self-centeredness. These too show Confucius's deep understanding of nature and life. Why, then, are his statements usually brief rather than detailed? He wanted to put human relationships in proper order and teach kindness, justice, ritual, and music. He therefore never spoke openly of the way of nonaction, but placed the arts of life within the images of the Changes and mixed teachings about nature into his brief sayings. Zhuangzi's inquiry into how things burden us and how our nature can move freely, and Mencius's skill in nurturing an expansive vital energy, both come close to the point. Later, in the Han, Wei Boyang used the structure of the Changes in which the way joins and combines things to write the Cantongqi and explain how the great elixir works. The Tang master Zhong, in his recorded sayings, began by recounting the words of Laozi and Zhuangzi to show the basis and course of the highest way. Does this not mean that although the teachings are divided into three, the way comes back to one? Unfortunately, later Taoist and Buddhist practitioners each kept to their own school and criticized the others. Thus the main teachings of the three schools became lost among wrong paths, unable to join and reach the same end. People today think the Taoist school concentrates on cultivating life, but do not realize its methods take two forms: those easy to encounter but hard to complete, and those hard to encounter but easy to complete. Refining the breath of the five sprouts, taking in the light of the seven luminaries, concentrating the mind and massaging the body, breathing in clean air and breathing out stale air, reciting scriptures and spells, spraying water and commanding talismans, clicking the teeth to gather the spirits, leaving one's wife and stopping food, visualizing spirits and holding the breath, directing the thought between the eyebrows to replenish the brain and restore the essence, practicing sexual arts, and consuming or refining metals, stones, plants, and trees: all these are easy to encounter but hard to complete. Most of these methods are inadequate for cultivating the body. Though one makes great efforts, one sees no reliable results. If one practices diligently day and night, they can only ward off illness and avoid unexpected harm. Stop for a day, and previous gains gradually disappear. Time drags on, and the task is bound to be difficult. How much harder to gain a lasting achievement, return to infancy and turn back old age, transform, and fly up to heaven! This is deeply distressing. Practitioners of recent times cling blindly to their views, fail to understand the true, subtle method, and blame the immortals for making empty claims. They do not know that everyone who attained the way did so by refining the golden elixir, but, afraid to reveal heaven's secrets, used other practices as cover. Of these, only holding the breath, if one can forget one's intentions and stop thinking, somewhat resembles the Buddhists' meditation. Persistent practice can bring one out of meditative absorption and release the spirit. But spirit belongs to yin, and its dwelling cannot be made secure; one cannot avoid repeatedly moving it to another home. Without attaining the way of returning gold and mercury, how could one bring back yang, change one's bones, and rise to heaven in daylight? Refining the returned elixir of liquid gold, however, is hard to encounter but easy to complete. One must thoroughly understand yin and yang and the processes of nature. Only then can one lift the two energies onto the yellow path, bring the three natures together in the original palace, gather the five phases and unite the four forms. The dragon calls and the tiger roars; the husband leads and the wife follows. Liquid boils in the jade cauldron, and fire blazes in the gold furnace. Then the dark pearl begins to take shape and the Great One returns to its true state. All this takes only a short while and ensures endless ease and joy. To guard against dangers, one must handle removal and addition carefully, nourish what is right, and maintain fullness. The key is to keep the receptive female principle and hold to the one. Then the energy of returning yang naturally grows and the harmful form of yin is stripped away. Once the cycle of seasons is complete, one leaves the womb and undergoes spiritual transformation; one's name enters the register of immortals and one gains the rank of a true person. This is when a person has completed the work and gained the reward. Some students today take lead and mercury to mean the two energies, the internal organs to mean the five phases, the heart and kidneys to mean Kan and Li, and the liver and lungs to mean dragon and tiger. They use spirit and energy for mother and child, and mistake bodily fluids for lead and mercury. They cannot tell floating from sinking, much less host from guest. This is like claiming someone else's property as your own and calling a stranger's child your own. How could they know the hidden workings of metal and wood overcoming each other or the subtle mutual use of yin and yang? For all of them, sun and moon are off course, lead and mercury are in separate furnaces. Hoping to form the returned elixir in this way is far from realistic! From childhood I was drawn to the way. I read the scriptures of the three teachings, and carefully studied law, writing and calculation, medicine and divination, military formations, astronomy, geography, and arts concerned with fortune, misfortune, life, and death. In my search for the method of the golden elixir, I read all the scriptures and the songs, poems, discussions, and treatises of many authors. All spoke of the sun's soul and moon's spirit, the tiger of geng and dragon of jia, mercury and cinnabar, white gold and black tin, the boy of Kan and girl of Li, as the means of making the returned elixir of liquid gold. But none said what true lead and true mercury actually were, or explained the rules for timing the fire or how to warm and nurture the result. Later confused followers added their own guesses and wrongly annotated the teachings of the former sages. Their countless errors not only confused the immortals' scriptures but misled later students. Since I had not met an accomplished teacher and could not find oral instructions, I could neither sleep nor eat peacefully, and my spirit grew exhausted. Though I sought answers everywhere, from sea to mountains, and asked everyone, wise and foolish, no one could explain the true teaching and open my understanding. Then, in the jiyou year of the Xining era, I accompanied Lord Lu of the Dragon Diagram Office to Chengdu. Because I held fast to my old aim and grew even more sincere, I moved a true person to give me the instructions for the ingredients and timing of the golden elixir. His words were very simple and their essential point was not complicated. By pointing to the current, he let me know its source; by saying one thing, he made me understand a hundred. It was like fog clearing and sunlight shining, or dust wiped away from a mirror. Compared with the immortals' scriptures, his words fitted them like two halves of a tally. I reflected that eight or nine out of ten people in the world study immortality, but hardly one or two have understood the true essentials. Having found the true key, how could I keep silent? I put all I learned into eighty-one regulated poems, nine times nine, and called them Chapters on Awakening to Reality. Within them are sixteen eight-line poems with seven characters per line, representing two eights; sixty-four quatrains, corresponding to the hexagrams of the Book of Changes; and one five-character poem, symbolizing the Great One. I added twelve songs to the tune Xijiangyue to complete the year's cycle. The poems cover the relative standing of cauldron and vessel, the weights of the ingredients, how to advance and withdraw the fire, which is host and which is guest and which comes first, existence and nonexistence, and good fortune, bad fortune, regret, and trouble. Because I had not fully dealt with the true awareness of our original nature, I also composed songs, lyrics, and other verses and attached them at the end of the volume, hoping thereby to give a full account of understanding the source and knowing our nature. I hope like-minded readers will see the outward detail and understand its basis, reject illusion, and follow what is true. Written by Zhang Boduan, Pingshu, of Tiantai, on New Year's Day of the yimao year of the Xining era.\n\n### Sixteen Octaves on the Great Elixir\n\n2. If you don't seek the great way out of confusion,\nCan you be a worthy person, however talented you are?\nA hundred years flash like a spark from a stone;\nA whole life floats like a bubble on water.\nYou only crave profit and office, looking for honor,\nAnd don't notice your body wasting away unseen.\nSuppose your gold were piled as high as mountains:\nCould it buy a promise that death will not come?\n\n3. Though a person's life may last a hundred years,\nNo one knows its length, its poverty, or its success beforehand.\nYesterday someone rode a horse down the street;\nToday a corpse lies inside a coffin.\nThe wife and wealth left behind are no longer yours;\nYou cannot fool yourself about the wrongdoing you take with you.\nHow can you find the great medicine if you don't seek it?\nTo find it and fail to refine it is foolish.\n\n4. If you study immortality, study heavenly immortality;\nOnly the golden elixir is the surest way.\nWhen the two things meet, feeling and nature join;\nWhen the five phases are complete, tiger and dragon coil together.\nBecause wu and ji act as matchmakers,\nHusband and wife can live together in lasting joy.\nJust wait for the work to finish and go before heaven's northern palace;\nRide a lucky phoenix through nine-colored clouds.\n\n5. This method is true and more wonderful than anything else true;\nIt all comes from my being different from other people.\nI know the reversal depends on Li and Kan;\nWho knows that rising and sinking determine host and guest?\nIf the golden cauldron is to hold the mercury in cinnabar,\nPut the silver from water into the jade pool first.\nThe remarkable work of tending the fire takes less than a night;\nA round sun appears in the deep pool.\n\n6. The tiger leaps and dragon rises through rough wind and waves;\nA dark pearl is born in the central, proper place.\nA fruit growing on a branch will ripen in time;\nWhy should a child in the womb be any different?\nNorth and south, the sources and their lineages, reverse the hexagram images;\nMorning and evening, the timing of the fire follows heaven's pivot.\nKnow that a great recluse lives among shops and markets;\nWhy sit alone in the deep mountains seeking stillness?\n\n7. Everyone has the medicine for a long life;\nPeople foolishly throw it away in confusion.\nWhen sweet dew falls, heaven and earth join;\nWhere the yellow sprout grows, Kan and Li meet.\nA frog in a well would say there is no dragon's cave;\nHow could a small bird by a fence know a phoenix's nest?\nWhen the elixir ripens, gold naturally fills the house;\nWhy search for herbs and learn to burn plants?\n\n8. If you want to know the source where the medicine is produced,\nIts home is in the southwest.\nGather it quickly when lead passes and gui is born;\nWhen gold meets the full moon from afar, it is no longer fit to use.\nBring it back and seal it tightly in the earthen pot;\nThen add the flowing pearl to make the pair.\nThe medicine weighs one pound, made up of two eights;\nAdjust the timing of the fire through yin and yang.\n\n9. Don't refine the three yellows or the four spirits;\nIf you seek among many medicines, it is not the true one.\nYin and yang meet by finding their own kinds;\nThe matching two eights naturally join as a pair.\nThe red sun beneath the pool drives away yin's strange forms;\nThe white moon above the mountain brings new medicine sprouts.\nPeople today should recognize true lead and mercury:\nThey are not ordinary cinnabar or quicksilver.\n\n10. Don't mistake yin by itself for something containing yang;\nCultivating just one thing only makes you weaker.\nStraining the body with massage and stretching is not the way;\nRefining breath and swallowing rosy clouds is sheer folly.\nYou can spend your whole life trying in vain to tame lead and mercury;\nWhen will you ever see tiger and dragon brought under control?\nI urge you to seek the place where your body was born;\nReturning to the root and the source is the best medicine.\n\n11. Take care to seek true lead;\nDon't let your time pass easily away.\nUse earth's moon-soul to catch red mercury,\nAnd heaven's sun-soul will control watery metal.\nThen you can say your way is high, for dragon and tiger submit;\nYou can say your virtue is great, for spirits respect you.\nYou know your life will last as long as heaven and earth;\nTroubles will no longer come into your mind.\n\n12. The yellow sprout and white snow are not hard to find;\nThose who understand must rely on deep virtue and good conduct.\nThe four forms and five phases all depend on earth;\nHow could the three origins and eight trigrams leave ren-water behind?\nOnce you refine the spiritual substance, people can hardly recognize it;\nWith yin demons gone, no ghosts can invade.\nI want to leave the secret instructions among people,\nBut I haven't heard of a single person who would understand them.\n\n13. Plants too have yin and yang together;\nIf either is missing, they will not bloom.\nWhen green leaves first unfold, yang leads;\nWhen red flowers open next, yin follows.\nThis is the ordinary way in daily use;\nWho knows that the true source reverses it?\nI tell all of you studying the way:\nIf you don't understand yin and yang, don't act recklessly.\n\n14. Without knowing the reversal within the mystery,\nHow can you know that a lotus grows well in fire?\nLead the white tiger home and care for it;\nIt will produce a bright pearl as round as the moon.\nDon't just watch the timing of the fire by the medicine furnace;\nSettle your spirit and breath and let nature work.\nWhen all the yin is stripped away, the elixir ripens;\nYou leap out of the cage and live ten thousand years.\n\n15. “Three, five, one”: these are only three words;\nFew people, past or present, have truly understood them.\nEast's three and south's two together make five;\nNorth's one and west's four make five too.\nWu and ji themselves come back to the generating number five;\nWhen the three families meet, they form a child.\nThus the Great One holds the true energy;\nIn ten months the fetus is complete and enters the state of a sage.\n\n16. If you don't know that true lead is the chief source,\nEverything you do is wasted effort.\nLeaving your wife merely separates yin and yang;\nGiving up food only leaves your stomach empty.\nPlants, metals, and silver are all impure matter;\nClouds, mists, sun, and moon are vague things.\nEven if you add breath exercises and visualization,\nNone of it is the work of the golden elixir.\n\n17. The countless scriptures on immortality all say the same thing:\nThe golden elixir alone is the root and basis.\nIt follows Kun's position to bring a body into being,\nThen is planted in Qian's home, the palace where things join.\nDon't be surprised that heaven's secret is fully disclosed;\nStudents themselves are simply confused and foolish.\nIf someone understands what this poem means,\nThey will at once see the highest elder of the Three Pure Ones.\n\n### Sixty-Four Quatrains, I (1-32)\n\n18. First make Qian and Kun the cauldron and vessel;\nThen cook the medicine of sun-crow and moon-rabbit.\nOnce you drive these two things onto the yellow path,\nHow could the golden elixir fail to form?\n\n19. Set up furnace and cauldron on the model of Qian and Kun;\nRefine the essence and control the moon-soul and sun-soul.\nGathering, dispersing, and mingling bring about change;\nHow could one discuss such mystery casually?\n\n20. Don't cling to a physical elixir stove and waste your effort;\nTo refine the medicine, seek the crescent-moon furnace.\nIt has its own natural, true fire to nurture it;\nWhy use charcoal, firewood, or a bellows?\n\n21. A jade blossom grows inside the crescent-moon furnace;\nMercury settles in the cinnabar cauldron.\nOnce the strength of the fire has been adjusted,\nThe yellow sprout you planted gradually grows.\n\n22. Swallowing saliva and taking in breath are human actions;\nOnly with the medicine can nature's transformation arise.\nIf there is no true seed in the cauldron,\nIt is like boiling water and fire in an empty pan.\n\n23. To make the elixir, you must join lead and mercury;\nKeep both kingdoms, great and small, unharmed.\nIf you ask what true lead is,\nThe moon's light shines on the western river all day.\n\n24. Don't hide in the mountains before refining the returned elixir;\nNothing in the mountains, inside or out, is lead.\nEvery household has this most valuable treasure;\nPeople today simply fail to recognize it fully.\n\n25. To repair split bamboo, you should use bamboo;\nTo hatch a chicken, you must use an egg.\nEverything of the wrong kind makes for wasted work;\nTrue lead is what fits the sacred process.\n\n26. Use lead, but do not use ordinary lead;\nAfter using true lead, discard even that.\nThis is the real secret of using lead;\nUsing lead yet not using it is the truth.\n\n27. “Empty the mind and fill the belly” has a deep meaning;\nTo empty the mind, you must understand the mind.\nBetter first refine lead to fill the belly,\nAnd keep the gold that fills the hall.\n\n28. In a dream I visited the western flower in the ninth heaven;\nA true person gave me a text pointing to the mystery.\nIts instructions were simple and brief:\nIt only told people to refine mercury and lead.\n\n29. From emptiness the way produces one energy;\nThat one energy then produces yin and yang.\nYin and yang join again to form three bodies;\nThe three bodies produce all the thriving things.\n\n30. Thunder and lightning in Kan cook metal and water with a roar;\nFire rises at Kunlun, with yin and yang.\nIf these two things come together,\nThe elixir naturally ripens and fragrances the whole body.\n\n31. If Li and Kan lack wu and ji,\nEven with the four forms they cannot make the elixir.\nBecause each holds true earth,\nThe golden elixir can return.\n\n32. The sun occupies Li's place but is instead female;\nKan pairs with the moon's palace but is male.\nIf you don't understand this reversal,\nDon't speak proudly on the strength of your narrow view.\n\n33. Take the solid center from Kan's position\nAnd transform the yin inside Li's palace.\nIt then becomes Qian's strong body;\nHiding, flying, or leaping all depend on the mind.\n\n34. The dragon of Zhen, mercury, comes from Li's country;\nThe tiger of Dui, metal, is born in Kan's region.\nBoth come from children giving birth to mothers;\nAll five phases must enter the center.\n\n35. When just half a moon appears on the horizon,\nDragon calls and tiger roars can already be heard.\nThis is the right time to work on the two eights;\nWithin a single two-hour period the elixir will surely form.\n\n36. The male tiger roars on Mount Hua's summit;\nThe female dragon calls beneath the Fusang sea.\nThe Yellow Woman can always bring them together,\nMaking them husband and wife with a single heart.\n\n37. The white tiger of the western mountain runs wild;\nThe green dragon of the eastern sea cannot be held back.\nCatch them with both hands and make them fight to the death;\nThey turn into a single mass of purple-gold frost.\n\n38. Red dragon and black tiger stand west and east;\nThe four forms meet within wu and ji.\nIf you can now use Fu and Gou, the returning hexagrams,\nHow could the golden elixir fail?\n\n39. First observe heaven and understand the five thieves;\nThen examine earth to settle the people.\nOnly when the people are safe and the country is rich, seek battle;\nOnly after the battle will you see the sage.\n\n40. When you deploy generals, distinguish left and right armies;\nLet the other be host and yourself the guest.\nI urge you not to underestimate the enemy in battle;\nYou may lose your family's priceless treasure.\n\n41. Fire is born in wood, where its sharp point is hidden;\nDon't try to force it if you can't drill it out.\nDisaster will arise and harm you;\nYou must subdue it by seeking the Metal Lord.\n\n42. The Metal Lord was originally the eastern family's son;\nHe was sent to the western neighbor to live in another body.\nRecognize him, call him home, and raise him there;\nPair him with the young woman in marriage.\n\n43. The young woman's movements each have their own direction;\nHer forward journey must be short, her return long.\nWhen she returns, she enters the Yellow Woman's house\nAnd marries the Metal Lord as an older groom.\n\n44. Even if you know cinnabar and black lead,\nWithout knowing the timing of the fire it is all useless.\nEverything depends on the effort of careful practice;\nA difference as small as a hair prevents the elixir from forming.\n\n45. Treatises, scriptures, and songs discuss the deepest truths,\nBut do not put the timing of the fire into writing.\nTo know the oral instructions and understand the mystery,\nYou must discuss them carefully with one who has divine insight.\n\n46. Enjoy the moonlight on the fifteenth of the eighth month;\nThat is when the essence of metal is at its fullest.\nWhen the first yang comes back and begins to rise,\nIt is time to increase the fire. Do not delay.\n\n47. The elixir work starts as soon as the first yang stirs;\nThe lead cauldron glows gently on the curtain.\nTaking in energy at first is easy;\nGuard against danger when removing, adding, and tending the fire.\n\n48. The dark pearl takes shape as yang grows;\nAs yang reaches its peak, yin dwindles and its form is stripped away.\nWhen frost falls in the tenth month, the elixir finally ripens;\nAt that point even spirits and ghosts are startled.\n\n49. After the first half-moon and before the second,\nThe medicine is balanced and its energies are complete.\nGather it and bring it back to refine in the furnace;\nOnce refined, nurture it gently as it cooks.\n\n### Sixty-Four Quatrains, II (33-64)\n\n50. The eldest son has just drunk western wine;\nThe youngest daughter has just opened the northern garden's flower.\nWhen the young woman in green has met them,\nLock them all inside the yellow house at once.\n\n51. The months of rabbit and rooster are the right times;\nPunishment and virtue come to the door, shown by the medicine.\nThen the golden elixir should be bathed;\nIf you add fire, it will surely be in danger.\n\n52. Sun and moon meet once every thirty days;\nUsing hours for days is the method of this remarkable work.\nKnow the good and bad outcomes of defending a city and fighting in open country;\nYou will gain more spiritual cinnabar until the whole cauldron glows red.\n\n53. When Pi and Tai first meet, everything flourishes;\nZhun and Meng take their hexagrams and receive birth and growth.\nOnce you grasp the meaning, stop seeking the images;\nStudying every line only tires the mind in vain.\n\n54. The hexagrams set out a method modeled on forms;\nGrasp the image and let go of words, and the meaning becomes clear.\nConfused people everywhere cling only to the images,\nWorking with hexagram energies in hopes of flying up to heaven.\n\n55. Heaven and earth each have their times of fullness and emptiness;\nOnly by studying their waning and waxing can you know the right moment.\nGeng and jia have always made the command clear;\nKill off all three corpse-spirits and the way is within reach.\n\n56. If you want the valley spirit to live forever,\nYou must establish its basis in the dark female principle.\nOnce the true essence returns to the golden house,\nA single bright pearl never leaves it.\n\n57. Few people know the gate of the dark female principle;\nDon't mistakenly treat the mouth and nose as that gate.\nYou may breathe in and out for a thousand years:\nHow could that bring the golden crow to catch the rabbit?\n\n58. Few know that different names come from the same source;\nThe two, both deeply mysterious, hold the essential secret.\nUnderstand loss and gain to preserve life and keep the body whole;\nThe purple-gold elixir is the most powerful medicine.\n\n59. At first, people all notice deliberate action;\nOnly on reaching nonaction do they understand.\nThey see only that nonaction is the wonder of the way,\nNot knowing that deliberate action is its foundation.\n\n60. White within black is the mother of the elixir;\nFemale hidden in male is the sacred fetus.\nGuard the Great One carefully in the furnace;\nThe treasures gather in the three fields, matching the three stars of the Dipper.\n\n61. Seek a shape in what is vague and fleeting;\nSeek true essence in deepest darkness.\nBeing and nonbeing enter into each other through this;\nHow could you picture what you have not seen?\n\n62. When the four forms meet, the dark body is complete;\nWhere all five phases are present, purple light shines.\nThe fetus leaves and enters the mouth, giving access to the divine;\nCountless dragons and spirits are all startled.\n\n63. After drinking from the splendid pool, the moon shines clear;\nRide a gold dragon to visit the Purple Palace.\nOnce you know all the immortals,\nLet seas become fields and hills become valleys as they will.\n\n64. To know how to refine and nourish the returned elixir,\nPlant its seed in your own garden.\nWithout blowing or forcing anything,\nThe fruit naturally ripens and the spiritual fetus emerges.\n\n65. Do not use clever tricks and deceit as your method;\nRecognize the other family's means of escaping death.\nKeep adding wine that prolongs life to the pot;\nGather the liquid that restores the soul in the cauldron.\n\n66. Pour the fine butter from Snow Mountain\nInto the furnace of nature at East Yang.\nIf it crosses Kunlun toward the northwest,\nOnly then can Zhang Qian meet Magu.\n\n67. If you don't understand yin and yang or host and guest,\nHow can you tell which is distant and which is close?\nPointlessly closing the tail-gate point during sexual practice\nHas wrongly killed so many people in this world.\n\n68. All the countless things return to their roots;\nReturning to the root and restoring life means lasting long.\nPeople find it hard to understand the constant and return to the source;\nEveryone has heard that reckless action brings harm.\n\n69. Ou Ye personally passed on the method of casting a sword;\nThe metal and water of Moye are paired as soft and hard.\nOnce refined, it understands a person's intentions;\nIn a flash it kills a monster ten thousand miles away.\n\n70. Strike bamboo to call the turtle to swallow jade fungus;\nPlay the zither to summon the phoenix to drink the elixir.\nRecently golden light has appeared through my body;\nI do not tell ordinary people this method.\n\n71. The medicine takes shape only when it meets energy of its own kind;\nThe way lies in emptiness and accords with nature.\nSwallow one grain of the golden elixir,\nAnd you will know your life is not controlled by heaven.\n\n72. The brilliant golden elixir is made in one day;\nWhat the ancient immortals said is truly worth hearing.\nTalk of nine years or three years\nIs just a way to put off the appointed time.\n\n73. Cultivating the great way has both ease and difficulty;\nI know it depends on me and also on heaven.\nUnless you build a record of good deeds and unseen kindness,\nCrowds of demons will constantly stand in your way.\n\n74. Heaven, earth, and humanity take from each other and feed at the proper time;\nThis is the moral process of the immortals' way.\nOnce all changes settle and worries cease,\nEvery part of the body comes into order, confirming nonaction.\n\n75. The precious words of the Yinfu number just over three hundred;\nThe sacred text of the Daode has only five thousand.\nCountless great immortals, ancient and modern,\nHave found the true teaching in these writings.\n\n76. However much your intelligence exceeds Yan Hui and Min Ziqian,\nDon't guess at this without receiving a teacher's instructions.\nElixir scriptures omit the oral instructions;\nHow else could you form the spiritual fetus?\n\n77. Understand clearly the restless mind and its workings;\nThree thousand good deeds will bring you up to heaven's level.\nThen you can naturally set up the cauldron and cook dragon and tiger;\nBut how can you do so if you cling to household, children, and wife?\n\n78. If you haven't refined the returned elixir, do it quickly;\nOnce refined, you must know when to stop and be content.\nIf your mind never stops trying to hold on to fullness,\nOne day disaster and disgrace will surely come.\n\n79. Make the gate of death into the gate of life;\nDon't insist that the gate of life is the gate of death.\nIf you grasp the opportunity and understand reversal,\nYou will finally know how help is born from harm.\n\n80. Misfortune and good fortune have always depended on each other;\nThey follow each other like a shadow and an echo.\nIf you can reverse this process of life and death,\nDisaster becomes good fortune in an instant.\n\n81. Practice among ordinary people, keeping your light modest;\nBe round with what is round and square with what is square.\nAppear or disappear and go along so no one can predict you;\nHow could people then see what you do or where you hide?\n\n### Pentasyllabic Poem, Twelve Xijiangyue Songs, Five Coda Quatrains, and Reading the Cantongqi\n\n82. The woman wears blue clothes; the young man wears plain white silk. When you see it, you cannot use it; when you use it, you cannot see it.\nThey meet in a vague state, and change takes place in deep darkness. In an instant flames shoot up, and a true person appears.\n\n83. The inner medicine is the same as the outer medicine; if you understand the inner, you must understand the outer too. The basis of the elixir joins with its own kind; warming and nurturing work in two ways.\nInside there is natural true fire, burning bright red in the furnace. Work diligently to increase and decrease the outer furnace; nothing surpasses the true seed.\n\n84. This medicine is supremely powerful and sacred; I worry that your small share of good fortune cannot bear it. Join lead and mercury in less than a morning, and soon you will see the dark pearl taking shape.\nIf a determined person can refine it, why not live in the market or at court? The work is easy and the medicine is close at hand; people would laugh if you told them outright.\n\n85. The white tiger's first flow is the greatest treasure; the spiritual water of the splendid pool is true gold. So we know the source that benefits all is deep; this is no ordinary medicine.\nTo complete the nine returns, first refine yourself and control your mind. Gather it at the right time and settle what floats and sinks; be very careful when increasing the fire.\n\n86. If you want true lead to hold mercury, the close relative must not leave the household servant. Wood and metal are separated and cannot meet by themselves; a matchmaker must draw them together.\nWood naturally loves metal and obeys what is right; metal's feelings love wood and are kind. They swallow and eat each other, yet become close; then you find that a man is pregnant.\n\n87. Whose young woman is the two eights, and where is the nine-three young man? They call themselves wood liquid and metal essence; only when they meet seven can the three natures form.\nThen use Master Ding to refine them, and husband and wife join in joy. The river cart must not stop for a moment: send it up to Kunlun's summit.\n\n88. With seven returns, cinnabar goes back to its source; with nine returns, liquid gold returns to truth. Do not calculate yin and zi against kun and shen; just take the five phases as the standard.\nOriginally it is one substance, mercury, passing through all the times. When the numbers of yin and yang are complete, it becomes spiritually effective; entering and leaving, it never departs from the dark female principle.\n\n89. The male contains female substance; true yin embraces yang essence. Only when these two combine does the medicine form, changing the soul and making the spirit sacred.\nBelieve that one grain of golden elixir, swallowed by a snake, immediately turns it into a dragon. A chicken that eats it becomes a phoenix or great bird, flying into the sacred realm of true yang.\n\n90. As soon as heaven and earth pass through Pi and Tai, learn to recognize Zhun and Meng at morning and evening. Spokes gather at a hub, and waters run to their source; the secret lies in how you remove and add.\nWhen you get the one, all tasks are done; stop dividing south from north or west from east. Reduce and reduce again, guarding your earlier work; do not handle the treasure of life lightly.\n\n91. At the winter solstice, the first yang returns; over thirty days another yang line is added. Within the month, the returning hexagram moves past the dawn of the new moon; after the full moon Qian ends and Gou begins.\nThe day has its own cold and heat; yang is born again at midnight. At noon the Gou image begins with a first yin line; when refining medicine you must know morning and evening.\n\n92. If you cannot distinguish the five phases and four forms, how can you tell cinnabar and mercury from lead and silver? You have never heard the rules for timing the elixir's fire, yet you already call yourself a great recluse.\nYou refuse to consider your own errors, and even teach your wrong path to others. You lead them astray for endless ages; how can you bear such dishonesty?\n\n93. Cultivate more than eight hundred good actions and accumulate three thousand unseen good deeds. Treat others and yourself, loved ones and enemies, equally; only then do you fulfill the original wish of the immortals.\nTigers, rhinoceroses, swords, and armies cannot hurt you; death and the burning house cannot hold you. When the precious warrant comes down, ascend to heaven, riding securely in a jeweled carriage drawn by phoenixes.\n\n94. The bond of Oxherd and Weaver Girl follows the way at its source; turtle and snake take after their natural kinds. Moon-toad and sun-crow meet at the new moon in beauty; the two energies support each other and turn together.\nAll this is the wonderful working of Qian and Kun; who understands its true teaching? If yin and yang are separated, things go wrong; how can they last as long as heaven and earth?\n\n95. The elixir is the body's greatest treasure; when refined, it brings endless changes. Investigate the true teaching of your nature as well, and settle the mystery of life and death.\nYou need not wait for another body or future life; you gain the Buddha's supernatural powers now. Since the Dragon Girl practiced this work, who has been able to follow her?\n\n96. Even if you fully understand the nature of things as they really are,\nYou still leave one body and enter another.\nIf you can also refine the great medicine,\nYou immediately pass beyond all faults and become a true person.\n\n97. Entering a womb, taking over a body, or moving house:\nThose who live in the old dwelling are called followers of the four fruits.\nIf you can subdue dragon and tiger together,\nWhen will a house built of true gold ever decay?\n\n98. Gazing at your form, holding the breath, and visualizing spirits\nAre hard at first, but become easier later.\nThough you can suddenly travel ten thousand miles,\nWhen the house breaks, you must move elsewhere.\n\n99. The Buddha teaches people to cultivate the realm of highest joy,\nBecause highest joy lies in the region of gold.\nOf the forms of the body, only this one is real;\nThe other two are not real, however you assess them.\n\n100. Common sayings often agree with the highest way;\nYou should look closely into them.\nIf you can seek reversal in everyday activities,\nAll the dust and sand of the earth become treasures.\n\n101. The great elixir's wonderful work follows Qian and Kun; as Qian and Kun move, the five phases separate. When the five phases run in their usual order, there is birth and death; when they run in reverse, the elixir's body remains spiritual and lives on. The one first takes form from emptiness as the two principles; from the one, four forms take root without leaving it. The two bodies and eight trigrams become ancestors and descendants to each other. All things arise from change and movement; from this come good and bad fortune, regret and trouble. Ordinary people use this every day without knowing it; sages can investigate its source. Because the way of the Changes is subtle and covers the principles of Qian and Kun, its author placed images in the text. When Pi and Tai interact, yin and yang sometimes rise and sometimes fall; when Zhun and Meng arise, movement and stillness occur at morning and evening. Kan and Li are man and woman, water and fire; Zhen and Dui are dragon and tiger, moon-soul and sun-soul. Hold to the center and the yellow robe brings great good fortune; push too far and you claim a high place without a proper position. Ji and Wei Ji concern the end and beginning of all things; Fu and Gou show the two energies returning and rushing back. The waning and waxing moon matches the weakening and strengthening of essence and spirit; the rising and setting sun makes the body's nourishing energies cold or warm. Words were first set down to make the images clear; once you grasp the images, forget the words. Likewise the images were set up to point to meaning; once you understand the meaning, set the images aside. For those who understand, it is simple and easy; the confused make it more and more complicated. So we know that the best students of the true way read the Cantongqi without clinging to its images or its words.","download_url":"https://mouseia.org/api/works/wuzhen-pian/translations/trn_wuzhen_pian_plain.txt"}],"retex_markdown_url":"https://mouseia.org/api/works/wuzhen-pian/retex.md"}}