The Golden Elixir (Baopuzi, Inner Chapter 4)

1 Baopuzi says: I have studied books on caring for one's nature and gathered methods for living long. The volumes I have read number in the thousands, and all treat reverted elixir and liquid gold as the essential things. These two, then, are the highest achievements in the way of becoming immortal. If someone takes them and does not become immortal, there have never been any immortals since ancient times. In the past, when the northern heartland fell into disorder, people fled in every direction. I traveled through several provinces, including Xu, Yu, Jing, Xiang, Jiang, and Guang, and met hundreds of ordinary Daoist practitioners who had been displaced. Some had once had a reputation reaching beyond the clouds and sun. But almost all were alike: what they knew, whether much or little or nothing, was not enough to distinguish one from another. Though each had dozens of scrolls, they could not fully understand them. They had simply copied and collected them. Some knew methods of circulating breath, abstaining from grain, and taking medicines made from plants and trees. The recipe books they owned were almost identical. Every one had the Scripture of the Mechanism of the Way, which they considered their greatest secret, and said that Yin Xi had written it. I told them, “This was written by Wang Tu, a military supervisor in the Wei period, not by anyone from antiquity.” Tu knew nothing at all about the great medicine. He wanted to become immortal simply through breath exercises and seclusion indoors. He wrote this Mechanism of the Way, claiming that it contained the whole way. This is a serious way to mislead people. I asked the Daoists about the divine elixir and liquid gold, and about the method in the Inner Writings of the Three Sovereigns for summoning the gods of heaven and earth. Not a single one knew anything about them. Most boasted, praised themselves, deceived people by claiming they had already lived for ages, or said they had traveled with immortals. Very few were worth discussing subtle matters with. Some had heard a little of the golden elixir but thought nobody alive today could obtain it. They said only immortals who had passed beyond the world in remote antiquity could know it. Some had learned things said about the recipe but did not have its authentic scripture. Others had obtained fragmentary elixir recipes and thought these covered all elixir methods. In the past, Zuo Yuanfang meditated intensely on Mount Tianzhu, and a divine being gave him the Immortality Scripture of the Golden Elixir. Because disorder broke out at the end of the Han, he had no time to make it. He fled across the river to the east, intending to seek a famous mountain and practice this way. My great-uncle, Lord Xian, received it from Yuanfang. Altogether he received three scrolls of the Scripture of the Elixir of Great Purity, one scroll of the Scripture of the Nine Tripod Elixirs, and one scroll of the Scripture of the Liquid-Gold Elixir. My teacher Master Zheng was a disciple of my great-uncle Lord Xian; he received them from him too, but his family was too poor to buy the ingredients. I personally served him and swept for him for a long time. Finally, on Mount Maji, I set up an altar, made a pledge, and received the scriptures, together with oral instructions that had not been written down. These books had not existed in the lands east of the river before. They came from Zuo Yuanfang, who gave them to my great-uncle; my great-uncle gave them to Master Zheng, who gave them to me. That is why the other Daoists know nothing of them. More than twenty years have passed since I received them, but I do not have even a modest supply of money and cannot make the medicines. All I can do is sigh. Others have chests full of gold and money piled like mountains, but they do not know this method for escaping death exists. Even if they heard of it, not one in ten thousand would believe it. Why? Whoever drinks a drink made from jade knows how thin the flavor of ordinary vegetable broth is. Whoever sees Kunlun knows how low a little mound is. After studying the way of the golden elixir, one no longer wishes to read minor recipe books. Still, the great medicine is hard to obtain and prepare at once, so in the meantime we must rely on lesser remedies to sustain ourselves. Taking ten thousand measures of other drugs may do a little good, but can never give a person lasting life. Thus a saying attributed to Laozi goes, “If you cannot obtain reverted elixir and liquid gold, you are only putting yourself through hardship for nothing.” The five grains can already keep people alive: with them people live; without them they die. How much greater must the benefit of the finest divine medicines be—surely ten thousand times that of grain? The longer golden elixir is fired, the more marvelous its transformations become. Gold does not disappear even after a hundred firings; buried, it will not decay until the end of the heavens. Taking these two substances refines the body, allowing a person to avoid aging and death. This means using something from outside to strengthen oneself. It is like oil feeding a fire so it cannot go out, or copper patina applied to the feet to keep them from rotting in water: the strength of copper protects the flesh. Golden elixir enters the body and permeates its vital circulation, unlike copper patina merely applied on the outside. Most people in the world do not believe in the highest way: nearly everyone is like that. Now and then someone takes an interest but cannot find this method or meet an informed teacher, and thus has no chance to hear that such a marvelous thing exists. Here I copy a short overall account of golden elixir to show those who share this interest in the future. Seek it diligently. Do not cling to superficial recipes and think them sufficient to transcend the world. If you never find it, you simply have to give up hope of living forever. Once you encounter its account, you will surely know that it is like leaving a muddy puddle to float on the open sea, turning away from a firefly's glow or a candle toward the sun and moon, hearing thunder and realizing how feeble a cloth drum is, or seeing a great whale and realizing how small a tiny shellfish is. Anyone who chatters on without first gaining access to this knowledge, hoping to rise to heaven with poor medicines, is like someone riding a lame donkey to catch a swift wind, or rowing a small boat across a great river. There are many recipes for lesser elixirs taken by mouth. Their preparation ranges from simple to complex, so their powers differ. Even among these grades, one cannot measure up to the next. Wine fermented once cannot compare to the rich flavor of wine fermented nine times. Yet even the lowest lesser elixir is far better than the best plant medicine. Plants turn to ash when burned, but cinnabar turns into mercury when heated, and with further changes turns back into cinnabar. It is far removed from ordinary plants and trees. That is why it can give people long life. Only the divine immortals understand this principle. How immeasurably far apart they and ordinary people are! People know little and find much strange. Some do not know that mercury comes from cinnabar. Even if told, they will not believe it. They say, “Cinnabar is red; how can it become something white?” Or, “Cinnabar is only a stone. All other stones turn to ash when heated. Why would cinnabar alone do otherwise?” They cannot grasp even this familiar, simple thing. No wonder they laugh loudly when they hear of the way of immortality. The realized people of antiquity took pity on those in future generations who could be taught. They created methods and took great pains to help them escape the disaster of death. Their words could truly be called the best possible guidance. Yet ordinary people refuse to believe and call the writings empty claims. If they were empty claims, how could the nine firings and nine changes, and the number of days required for each, all turn out just as the recipes say? Ordinary thinking cannot explain how realized people came to know this. When I was young I liked the arts of special methods. I carried provisions and went on foot to seek instruction, undeterred by dangerous or distant journeys. Whenever I heard something unusual, I was happy. Even when people insulted and laughed at me, I was not distressed. Who knows whether future people will not be like me? That is why I have written this for people who understand. Would I really prize strange things and dress up empty claims just to circulate a book in the world and win the trust of the crowd? The strongest sunlight cannot make dead wood flourish; the wisest person cannot change a complete fool. A book is passed down for people able to understand it; a practice is valued by those who recognize it. A farmer who receives a red ceremonial bow uses it to drive off birds; a southerner who receives ceremonial robes uses them to carry firewood. How can one force understanding on those who do not have it? People spend entire days eating their fill. They may not even work hard at Confucian or Mohist learning, or pursue the business of improving their character. They just wander about together until their days run out. They seek either status or profit. Some go hunting with hawks and dogs across the plains; some linger over cups of wine while their stew bubbles; some lose themselves among beautiful women and instrumental music; some become absorbed in fine silk clothing; some strain their bodies drawing bows; some waste their time playing board games. Hearing of the highest way leaves them as uncomprehending as a drunk; when they see discussions of it they fall asleep in broad daylight. They have bodies but do not cultivate them. Every action takes them closer to death. They refuse to inquire into methods of caring for life. Instead, they seem bent on cutting their bodies up, cooking them, wearing them out, and draining them dry. Those who know the way, meanwhile, guard their knowledge in secret and want nothing from others. Why would they insist on telling them? People commonly say that if long life could be obtained, the rich and powerful of old would have obtained it. Since none did, they conclude there is no such way. They do not realize that the rich and powerful of old were just like those of today. They neither believed nor sought it; all were concerned with their immediate desires. How could they possibly obtain it? Even if you cannot commit to believing that your allotted life can be extended and immortality achieved, why not try? Suppose the trial has only a small effect and gives you two or three hundred years. Would that not be better than the short lives of ordinary people? There are countless matters in the world, and the methods of the way are especially hard to understand. How can someone of ordinary intelligence decide that no way of lasting life exists in the world? If the disbelief of most people proves there is no such way, are most people really so intelligent? And are people who understand something of the way and still seek to practice it necessarily complete fools, inferior to everybody else? Some people also worry that if they seek long life and do not obtain it, others will laugh at their ignorance and confusion. But if their firm judgment should be wrong, and a way to avoid death really does exist, wouldn't those who obtain it laugh at them? Even the sun and moon cannot shine everywhere. Why trust the human mind alone?

2 Baopuzi says: According to the Scripture of the Yellow Emperor's Nine Tripod Divine Elixirs, the Yellow Emperor took the elixir and then rose to become immortal. It also says: “Breath exercises, stretches, and medicines made from plants can prolong life but cannot prevent death. Taking a divine elixir gives endless life, lasting as long as heaven and earth. One rides clouds and drives dragons, traveling through the heavens.” The Yellow Emperor passed it to Master Xuan and warned him: “This way is extremely important. Give it only to someone worthy. If a person is not suitable, do not tell him this way, even if he offers a mountain of jade.” The recipient throws gold human and fish figures into a stream flowing east as a pledge, and makes an oath by tasting blood. Someone not born with the potential to become a divine immortal cannot even see this way. To make the elixir, go to a famous mountain in an uninhabited place. Take no more than three people. First abstain from forbidden foods for a hundred days, bathe with five fragrances, and keep especially clean. Stay away from filth and contact with ordinary people. Do not let people who do not understand the way learn about it. If they slander the divine medicine, it will fail. Once made, it can make the entire household immortal, not just one person. People do not make divine elixir and instead trust herbal medicines. Plant medicines rot when buried, fall apart when boiled, and char when burned. They cannot keep themselves alive; how could they keep people alive?

3 The nine elixirs are essential for long life; ordinary people should not see or hear about them. The teeming millions know only how to seek wealth and status. Aren't they walking corpses? When making the elixirs one must also make offerings. There is a separate scroll with diagrams and directions for the offerings.

4 The first elixir is called Cinnabar Blossom. First make the Dark and Yellow preparation. Use several dozen jin each of liquid realgar, liquid alumstone, Rong salt, brine salt, arsenolite, oyster shell, red clay, talc, and white lead powder to make Six-and-One Clay. Fire it for thirty-six days until it is ready. Take it, and in seven days you will become immortal. Mix this elixir with Dark Paste, make pills, and place them over a fierce fire: they turn into gold in a moment. Or mix 240 zhu of it with 100 jin of mercury and heat it; that also turns into gold. When the gold is ready, the medicine is ready. If no gold forms, reseal the medicine and heat it for the same number of days as before. It will certainly succeed.

5 The second elixir is called Divine Elixir, or Divine Talisman. Take it and you will become immortal in a hundred days. To cross water or fire, apply it to the soles of your feet and walk over the water. If you take three knife-tip measures, the three corpse spirits and nine worms in your body immediately disappear, and all illnesses are cured.

6 The third elixir is called Divine Elixir. Take one knife-tip measure and become immortal in a hundred days. If domestic animals swallow it, they too will never die. It also protects against the five kinds of weapons. After taking it for a hundred days, immortals, jade maidens, and spirits of mountains and rivers come to serve you, appearing in human form.

7 The fourth elixir is called Reverted Elixir. Take one knife-tip measure and become immortal in a hundred days. Red birds and phoenixes circle overhead, and jade maidens come to your side. Combine one knife-tip measure with one jin of mercury and heat it; it immediately becomes gold. If you put this elixir on money or other things you lend out, they all return the same day. If you write with it above an ordinary person's eyes, a hundred ghosts run away.

8 The fifth elixir is called the Edible Elixir. Take it and become immortal in thirty days. Spirits come to serve you, and jade maidens stand before you.

9 The sixth elixir is called the Refined Elixir. Take it and become immortal in ten days. If you mix it with mercury and heat it, it also turns into gold.

10 The seventh elixir is called the Soft Elixir. Take one knife-tip measure and become immortal in a hundred days. If a ninety-year-old man takes it mixed with clematis juice, he can still father a child. Combine it with Gold Lord and heat them, and they become gold.

11 The eighth elixir is called the Subdued Elixir. Take it and become immortal that same day. Carry an amount the size of a date pit and a hundred ghosts will avoid you. Write with the elixir on the doors of your home, and no evil being or spirit will dare approach. It also keeps away thieves, tigers, and wolves.

12 The ninth elixir is called the Cold Elixir. Take one knife-tip measure and become immortal in a hundred days. Immortal boys and girls come to serve you. You rise lightly and fly without wings.

13 Obtaining just one of these nine elixirs makes you immortal. You do not need to prepare all of them; you can make whichever you like. Anyone who takes one of the nine can ascend to heaven if desired or remain in the human world if desired. Such people can pass through any barrier and cannot be harmed.

14 Baopuzi says: There is also a Divine Elixir of Great Purity. Its method comes from the Primordial Lady, Laozi's teacher. The Scripture for Observing Heaven in Great Purity has nine chapters. It says the upper three chapters must not be taught, and that no one in the world is worthy of receiving the middle three; these are always kept deep below three springs. The lower three chapters are the upper, middle, and lower sections of the Elixir Scripture, three scrolls in all. The Primordial Lady is a great divine immortal. She can regulate yin and yang, command ghosts and gods and wind and rain, and drive a chariot drawn by nine dragons and twelve white tigers. All the world's immortals are under her authority. Yet she says she too attained this by studying the way and taking elixir, not naturally. How much more necessary is it for ordinary people! Her scripture says: “The best practitioners who obtain the way ascend to office in heaven. Those in the middle live together on Kunlun. The lowest live long lives in the human world.” Foolish people do not believe it and call it empty talk. From morning to night they do nothing but bring death closer, never trying to prolong life. How could heaven force them to live? Ordinary people care only about tasty food, fine clothes, music, sex, wealth, and status. They follow every desire until they suddenly die. Take care not to tell them of divine elixir: they will ridicule the way and slander the truth. If you transmit the Elixir Scripture to the wrong person, misfortune will surely come to you. If someone firmly believes, you may share the finished medicine with that person, but do not lightly transmit the recipe. If you know this way, why would you need the rank of prince or lord? For once divine elixir is ready, it not only gives long life but also makes gold. When the gold is made, take a hundred jin and first make a great offering. There is a separate scroll of instructions for this offering, which differs from the offering for the Nine Tripods. Label and set aside the gold for each offering separately.

15 Offer twenty jin to Heaven, five to the sun and moon, eight to the Northern Dipper, eight to Taiyi, five to the well, five to the stove, twelve to the River Lord, five to the earth altar, and five each to doors, neighborhood gates, ghosts and spirits, and the Pure Lord: eighty-eight jin altogether. Place the remaining twelve jin in a good leather bag. On a lucky day, when the city market is crowded, silently leave the bag where many people are and walk away without looking back. Only after using a hundred jin this way may you freely use any gold beyond that. If you do not first offer gold to the gods, disaster will surely follow. The scripture also says: “The way to lasting life does not lie in sacrifices or serving ghosts and gods, nor in stretching and bending exercises. The essential means of ascending to immortality is divine elixir. Learning it is not easy; making it is truly hard. If you can make it, you can live on indefinitely.” Toward the end of the Han, Master Yin of Xinye made this Great Purity elixir and became immortal. He had originally been a Confucian student, a talented thinker and a good poet. He wrote a preface and verses praising the Elixir Scripture. He recounted how he first studied the way and followed his teacher, and listed more than forty people he knew who became immortal, very clearly. Making the Great Purity elixir is a little harder than making the Nine Tripod elixirs, but it is a supreme method for rising to heaven in broad daylight. To make it, first prepare Flower Pond, Red Salt, Gen Snow, Dark White, Flying Talisman, and Three-Five Divine Water; only then may you light the fire.

16 Take a once-refined elixir and become immortal in three years. Take a twice-refined elixir and become immortal in two years. Take an elixir refined three times and become immortal in one year; four times, in half a year; five times, in a hundred days; six times, in forty days; seven times, in thirty days; eight times, in ten days; and nine times, in three days. If you take the nine-times-refined elixir, place it in the divine cauldron after the summer solstice and heat it until the cauldron is hot. Put one jin of Vermilion Child under the lid. Watch closely and wait until the sun's essence shines on it. In a moment both rise together, shining brilliantly with divine light of five colors, and turn into reverted elixir. Take one knife-tip measure of it and you will ascend to heaven in broad daylight. To make the nine-times-refined elixir, seal it with clay in an earthen cauldron and heat it over a bran fire, first gently and then fiercely. Each refinement from the first through the ninth takes its own number of days; that is how you can tell them apart. With fewer refinements, the medicine has less power, so it must be taken for more days and immortality comes slowly. With more refinements, it is stronger, so it must be taken for fewer days and immortality comes quickly.

17 There is also a Nine-Radiance Elixir. Its method differs from the nine refinements, though they are broadly similar. To make it, combine various medicines and fire them to transform the five minerals: cinnabar, realgar, white arsenolite, blue-green copper mineral, and magnetite. Transform each mineral five times to produce five colors each: twenty-five colors from five minerals. Put one liang of each color in a separate container. To revive someone who has been dead less than three days, mix one knife-tip measure of the blue-green elixir with water and wash the body. Then open the mouth and put another knife-tip measure inside. The person comes back to life immediately. To obtain a ready-made meal, mix the black elixir with water and spread it on your left hand. Everything you ask for aloud arrives on its own; you can obtain anything in the world. To become invisible, know events that have yet to occur, and stop aging, take one knife-tip measure of the yellow elixir: you will immediately live indefinitely without aging. You will also be able to see things a thousand li away while sitting down and know whether events there are good or bad as if they happened before your eyes. You will know people's destinies from previous lives, their rises and falls, whether their lives are long or short, and whether they will be rich or poor, powerful or humble. All these methods are in the middle scroll of the Great Purity Scripture.

18 Baopuzi says: Below those is the one-scroll Scripture of the Five-Spirit Elixir, containing five methods. It uses cinnabar, realgar, orpiment, sulfur, blue-green copper mineral, alumstone, magnetite, Rong salt, and Taiyi's Remaining Grain. It also uses Six-and-One Clay, and calls for offerings in the divine chamber when the ingredients are combined. It is ready in thirty-six days. Five Emperor talismans are also written in five colors. This elixir too keeps people from dying, but is not as good as the Great Purity or Nine Tripod medicines.

19 There is also the Mount Min elixir method. The Daoist Zhang Gaita obtained this recipe while meditating intensely in a stone chamber on Mount Min. Smelt yellow copper to make a square moon mirror that catches water from the moon. Cover it with mercury, then bring the sun's essence and fire into it. Taking it continually prevents death. Alternatively, place this elixir in a copper fire-striker containing realgar, cover it with mercury, and expose it to sunlight. After twenty days, open and process it. Take a dose the size of a small bean with fresh well water. After a hundred days, blind people can see, every illness heals by itself, white hair turns black again, and lost teeth grow back.

20 There is also Master Wucheng's elixir method. Put mercury from Ba sand in an eight-inch copper dish. Put charcoal in an earthen furnace, and prop up the dish at three corners of a trench. Pour sulfur water over it, keeping it as wet as mud. Take it for a hundred days and you will not die.

21 There is also Master Xianmen's elixir method. Mix one jin of elixir with three sheng of wine and expose it to the sun for forty days. Take it for one day, and the three worms and a hundred illnesses immediately leave the body. Take it for three years and you achieve immortality. Two jade maidens will come to serve you. You can command them to bring a ready-made meal. This elixir can suppress a hundred ghosts, the harmful influence of corpses from the four directions on a home, and the harm to people from earthworks. Hang it up facing these dangers and there will be no trouble.

22 There is also an Instantly Completed Elixir. It too has nine sections and resembles the Nine Tripods, but is less effective. One version of the main instructions also says to fire orpiment and realgar, use the copper that collects beneath them, and cast it into vessels. Cover the vessels over three-year-old strong sour wine. After a hundred days, a red substance like milk grows on all these vessels, several fen long; sometimes five-colored precious stones appear. Collect and prepare it to take by mouth, and it too gives long life. You can also mix it with dodder. Dodder here means the newly formed root, which resembles a rabbit. Dig it up and cut it to draw out its blood. Mix that with this elixir and take it; you can immediately change shape and do whatever you like. Or mix it with red grass: a single dose lets you travel through the air. Red grass resembles a small jujube tree. It grows three or four feet high, with red branches and leaves and stems like coral. It likes to grow below the rocks of famous mountains. When cut, its juice flows like blood. Put jade or any of the eight minerals, gold, or silver into this juice and they can immediately be rolled into pills like mud. With time they turn to liquid. If gold is added, it is called Gold Broth; if jade, Jade Sweet Wine. Both give long life when taken.

23 Another method for obtaining the Subdued Elixir says: Among the waters of the world are rivers with the word “cinnabar” in their names, such as the Cinnabar River of Nanyang. They all have cinnabar fish. On the tenth night before the summer solstice, watch for them. The fish will certainly float near the riverbank, casting a brilliant red light upward like fire. You can catch them with a net, but however many there are, do not take them all. Cut the fish to get their blood and put it on the soles of your feet: you can walk on water and live for a long time in deep pools.

24 There is also Master Red Pine's elixir method. Soak the elixir in juice from a thousand-year-old vine and from alum peach. Put it in a container that does not leak, close it with purified honey, and bury it three feet deep. After a hundred days, squeeze the red fruit of the ning tree for juice, mix it in, and take it. Your face, eyes, temples, and hair will all turn red, and you will live long. In former times there was a red-bearded man among the immortals of Central Yellow. Could he have taken this?

25 There is also Master Shi's elixir method. Take a young crow that has not yet grown feathers and feed it real cinnabar mixed with beef. Once it is grown, its feathers will all be red. Kill it then, dry it in the shade for a hundred days, and grind it up with its feathers. Take one knife-tip measure. After a hundred days, you will have a life of five hundred years.

26 There is also Master Kangfeng's elixir method. Use a sheep, a crow, crane eggs, and sparrow blood, combined with juice of tianxiong from Mount Shaoshi. Mix it with elixir, put it inside a swan's egg, and coat it with lacquer. Put this into mica water; in a hundred days it turns into red water. Take one ge and add a hundred years to your life each time, or take one sheng for a thousand years.

27 There is also Master Cui Wenzi's elixir method. Put elixir inside a duck and steam it. Taking it extends life; continued use prevents death.

28 There is also Liu Yuan's elixir method. Put cinnabar in Dark Water Liquid; in a hundred days it turns purple and will not stain your hand when held. Mix it with mica water, seal it with lacquer inside a tube, and throw it into a well. In a hundred days it becomes red water. Take one ge to gain a hundred years; keep taking it and live indefinitely.

29 There is also Le Zichang's elixir method. Mix blue-green copper mineral and red lead with mercury and cinnabar, and put them in a copper tube. Seal it with dry roof tiles and white talc, and steam it in white sand for eighty days. Take an amount the size of a small bean; in three years you will become immortal.

30 There is also Li Wen's elixir method. Wrap the elixir in plain white silk and boil it in bamboo juice. This is called Red Spring. Then steam it above the surface of boiling water and mix it with Dark Water. Take one ge and in one year you will become immortal.

31 There is also Master Yin's elixir method. Mix the elixir with mica water and seal it tightly. Put it in a Gold Flower Pond and take it out after a year. Take one knife-tip measure at a time until you have taken one jin, and you will live five hundred years.

32 There is also the Great One Elixir for Calling Back Souls. Its five minerals and the Six-and-One Clay used to seal it resemble those of the nine elixirs. It is particularly good for reviving someone who died no more than three days ago. Open the person's teeth, put in one pill and a sulfur pill, and wash them both down with water. As soon as they reach the throat, the person comes back to life. All such people say they saw a messenger carrying an official tally summon them.

33 There is also the Gathering Maiden's elixir method. Mix rabbit blood and the elixir with honey, and steam them for a hundred days. Take one pill the size of a parasol-tree seed three times a day. After a hundred days, two divine women will come to serve you; you can command them.

34 There is also Master Jiqiu's elixir method. Combine it with clear wine, sesame oil, hundred-flower sweet wine, and dragon paste; seal it with Six-and-One Clay and heat it gently over a bran fire. It is ready in ten days. Take one pill the size of a small bean at a time until you have finished the batch. You will live five hundred years.

35 There is also Mozi's elixir method. Place mercury and the liquids of the five minerals in a copper vessel and boil them over a fire, stirring with an iron spoon. After ten days they revert to elixir. Take one knife-tip measure and all illnesses leave your body; take it continually and never die.

36 There is also Zhang Zihe's elixir method. Mix lead, mercury, and blue-green copper mineral water, and seal them together. Steam them among red millet grains. After eighty days the medicine is ready. Mix it with date paste to make pills and take an amount the size of a soybean. In a hundred days you will have a life of five hundred years.

37 There is also the Qili elixir method. First heat the five minerals to collect their fine powder, and mix it with cinnabar and mercury. Boil it in a large copper vessel for a hundred days until it has five colors. Take it and you will not die. Fire a hundred jin of lead with a hundred knife-tip measures of the medicine, and it becomes silver. Mix it with realgar water and fire it for a hundred days, and it becomes gold. If the gold is too hard, boil it with pig fat; if too soft, boil it with white plum.

38 There is also the Jade Pillar elixir method. Mix elixir with Flower Pond liquid, cover and layer it with powdered blue-green copper mineral and sulfur, and place it in a tube inside sand. Steam it for fifty days and take it for a hundred days. Jade maidens, the spirits of the six Jia and six Ding days, and divine women will come to serve you. You can command them and learn what is happening anywhere in the world.

39 There is also the Handy Formula elixir method. Mix Gold Flower with elixir, seal it with dry roof tiles, and steam it for eighty days. Put an amount the size of a small bean in a dish and face it toward the sun while stirring. Its light rises and meets the sun. Take an amount the size of a small bean and live indefinitely. Put it into Danyang copper and heat it; the copper becomes gold.

40 There is also Master Li's elixir method. Mix one sheng each of real cinnabar and the liquids of the five minerals until they are like mud. Fire them in a cauldron and take them out after thirty-six days. Mix them with liquid sulfur and take the medicine for ten years; you will last as long as heaven and earth.

41 There is also Liu Sheng's elixir method. Mix the elixir with white chrysanthemum juice, juice from the ground paper-mulberry plant, and juice from the tree of heaven, and steam them for thirty days. Grind and mix the product, and take it for one year to gain a life of five hundred years. An old man who takes it grows so young that he cannot be recognized; a young person who takes it also does not grow old.

42 There is also Master Wang's elixir method. Put Ba sand and mercury inside eggs, seal them with lacquer, and let a hen incubate three of them. Take it on a day when the seasonal forces are at their height, and you will stop aging. Children must not take it: they would never grow. Newly born chicks and puppies given it likewise never get bigger. The same has been tested with birds and animals.

43 There is also Chen Sheng's elixir method. Mix the elixir with white honey, place it in a copper vessel, and seal it. Submerge it in a well for one full year. Take it for a year and you will not be hungry. Finish one jin and you will live a hundred years.

44 There is also Han Zhong's elixir method. Boil the elixir with lacquer and honey. Take it to extend your years and live a long time. Standing in the sun, you will have no shadow. Beyond these there are still dozens of methods, too many to describe fully.

45 Baopuzi says: Liquid gold is what Taiyi took to become immortal. It is no less effective than the nine elixirs. To make it, use one jin of gold by the ancient measure, along with Dark Brightness, Dragon Paste, Taiyi Xunshou Center Stone, Ice Stone, Purple Wandering Maiden, Dark Water Liquid, Gold-Transforming Stone, and cinnabar. Seal them until they turn to liquid. Its scripture says: “When liquid gold enters the mouth, the whole body becomes gold-colored.” Laozi received it from the Primordial Lady, who said, “This way is extremely important and appears once in a hundred generations. Store it in a stone chamber. To make it, abstain from forbidden foods for a hundred days and have no contact with ordinary people. Set up a separate, clean dwelling beside a famous mountain and an east-flowing stream. It is ready in a hundred days. Take one liang and become immortal. If you do not yet want to leave the world and want to be an immortal on earth or in water, you need only complete the hundred days of abstinence. But if you seek to ascend to heaven, you must first abstain from grain for a year before taking it. If you take half a liang, you will live indefinitely without dying, and no harm or poison can injure you. You may keep a wife and children and hold an official position and salary, doing as you like without restrictions. If you later wish to ascend to heaven, you can abstain again and take another liang; you will then fly away as an immortal.”

46 To make the Weixi-Jusheng preparation with liquid gold, take liquid gold and mercury and boil them together for thirty days. Remove the mixture, put it in a yellow earthenware bowl, seal it with Six-and-One Clay, and heat it over a fierce fire for sixty hours. It all changes into elixir. Take an amount the size of a small bean and become immortal. One knife-tip measure of this elixir, ground to powder and added to one jin of mercury, immediately turns it to silver. Put one jin of this elixir on a fire and fan it; it melts and flows as red gold, called Elixir Gold. Coat knives and swords with it and it will ward off weapons from ten thousand li away. Make plates and bowls from Elixir Gold and eat and drink from them to live indefinitely. Catch the liquid of the sun and moon in them as a moon mirror catches water; drink it and you will not die. Mix liquid gold with yellow earth, put it in a Six-and-One Clay bowl, and heat it over a fierce fire. It all turns into gold fit for use. Heat it again and it all changes into elixir. Take an amount the size of a small bean, and you can enter famous mountains and great rivers as an earthly immortal. One knife-tip measure of this elixir, ground into mercury, immediately makes silver. Mix one liang of this silver with one jin of lead, and it all becomes silver. The Liquid Gold Scripture says: “Throw a gold human figure weighing eight liang into an east-flowing stream and drink blood to make an oath. Only then will the oral instructions be given.” If you steal the recipe without following the original procedure, you will never succeed. You may give the medicine to an ordinary person who has complete faith, but must not lightly transmit the book. Otherwise, both of you will certainly meet with disaster. Heavenly gods watch people closely, though people do not know it.

47 Baopuzi says: The nine elixirs are indeed the best immortal medicines, but making them requires many different ingredients. If roads are open in all directions, you can buy them all. If the regions of the empire are cut off from each other, you cannot obtain them. You must also keep a fire going day and night for dozens of days, tending it so it stays at just the right strength. This is extremely hard work, so it is not as easy as making liquid gold. For liquid gold, only the gold itself is hard to obtain. One jin by the ancient measure equals two jin today and usually costs no more than about three hundred thousand coins. The other ingredients are rather easy to collect. No fire is needed: simply put them in Flower Pond and wait the required number of days. For a total of four hundred thousand coins you can make one batch, enough to make eight people immortal. But if you make a smaller batch, its power will not be enough to bring about the transformation. It is like trying to brew wine with only a few sheng of rice: that is certain to fail.

48 Baopuzi says: Next comes a method for taking gold by mouth. Though not as good as liquid gold, it is still far better than other medicines. Some refine it with pig back fat and wine; some process it with bark of the tree of heaven; some dissolve it with thorn-tree wine and magnetite. Some methods make it pliable enough to stretch into a cloth; some make it immediately turn to liquid to drink. Some impose restrictions, unlike liquid gold. Some combine it with realgar and orpiment for eating; it can be pulled and stretched like leather. All of these are methods for becoming an earthly immortal. Silver and large pearls from shellfish can also be liquefied and drunk. But they must be taken continuously without a break, so none is as good as liquid gold.

49 Baopuzi says: Making liquid gold and the nine elixirs requires money and a journey to a famous mountain, away from human affairs. That is why few can make them. Among ten million people there might occasionally be one who obtains their scriptures. So authors of books on the way generally say almost nothing about golden elixir. The first rule forbids letting ordinary people who do not understand the way criticize and slander it. Otherwise the preparation will certainly fail. Master Zheng explained why. Making these great medicines always requires offerings. When the offerings are made, Taiyi, the Primordial Lady, the Old Lord, and the Dark Maiden all come to inspect the work. If the person making the medicine has not withdrawn to an isolated place, so that ignorant ordinary people can pass by and hear or see what is happening, the gods blame that person for not following the scripture's rules and for letting malicious people slander the method. The gods then stop helping, harmful energies enter, and the medicine fails. You must go into a famous mountain, abstain from forbidden foods for a hundred days, eat no five pungent plants or raw fish, and see no ordinary people. Only then can you make the great medicine. Keep observing the restrictions until it is finished, not just when you begin. Master Zheng said that Master Zuo had told him no small mountain is suitable for making liquid gold or divine elixir. No true god rules such mountains. Most are inhabited by spirits of wood and stone, ancient creatures a thousand years old, and ghosts that consume blood offerings. These are all harmful forces. They do not want to help people, but can cause trouble. They often test Daoists. A Daoist should use special methods to protect himself and the disciples traveling with him, yet these beings can still ruin the medicine. Doctors today also keep chickens, dogs, children, and women from seeing them make fine medicines and ointments. If such beings interfere, the preparations are ineffective. Dyers too dislike being watched by people whose gaze brings bad luck: their colors lose their beauty. How much more would this apply to the great medicine of divine immortals? That is why Daoists of old always went to famous mountains, rather than ordinary mountains, to make divine medicines. According to the immortality scriptures, mountains where one can meditate intensely and make immortal medicines include Mount Hua, Mount Tai, Mount Huo, Mount Heng, Mount Song, Mount Shaoshi, Mount Chang, Mount Taibai, Mount Zhongnan, Mount Nüji, Mount Difei, Mount Wangwu, Mount Baodu, Mount Anqiu, Mount Qian, Mount Qingcheng, Mount Emei, Mount Rui, Mount Yuntai, Mount Luofu, Mount Yangjia, Mount Huangjin, Mount Biezu, Mount Tiantai the Great and Little, Mount Siwang, Mount Gaizhu, and Mount Kuocang. True gods live in all these mountains, and in some there are earthly immortals. All grow numinous mushrooms and offer safety from great wars and disasters as well as a place for making medicine. If someone who knows the way climbs one, the mountain god will surely help that person, and the medicine will succeed. If you cannot climb one of these mountains, large islands at sea also provide places to make medicine. Next best are Wengzhou, Danzhou, and Zhuyu east of Kuaiji, and Xinju Island, Taiguang Island, and Yu Island near Xuzhou. The famous mountains in central China are now inaccessible. Among the famous mountains east of the river where one can live are Mount Huo in Jin'an; Mount Chang and Mount Taibai in Dongyang; and Mount Siwang, Mount Tiantai the Great and Little, Mount Gaizhu, and Mount Kuocang, all in Kuaiji.

50 Baopuzi says: I am fortunate to be descended from a high minister. Although I am not talented enough to govern a state and manage its affairs, many of my peers who share my interests and pursuits, and whose knowledge is not far ahead of mine, have risen high in government and gained distinction at court. I have stopped taking part in celebrations and mourning rites in my community and turned away from the honors of my time because I intend to travel far to a famous mountain, finish the books I have written, and then make divine medicine in the hope of living indefinitely. Ordinary people all think it strange that I have left my home and family behind, turned my back on a clear path to office, and gone to farm in the woods, with calluses on my hands and feet. They think I suffer from a kind of madness. But the way and worldly affairs cannot both prosper at once. If I did not give up human affairs, how could I pursue this goal? If you see something clearly and are firmly committed to it, why fear criticism or praise? Why be swayed by encouragement or opposition? I write these thoughts to show future people who share my interests. Those who later share this unbreakable commitment will give up the same things I have.

51 Recipe for a Lesser Divine Elixir: Mix three jin of genuine cinnabar with six jin of white honey. Expose it to the sun and cook it down until it can be made into pills. Each morning take ten pills the size of hemp seeds. Before a year has passed, white hair will turn black, lost teeth will regrow, and the body will grow smooth and healthy. Taken continually, it makes an old man young and gives life without death.

52 Lesser Elixir Method: Pound and sift one jin of cinnabar, then add three sheng of strong sour wine and two sheng of lacquer. Mix the three ingredients thoroughly and cook over a low fire until they can be shaped into pills. Take three pills the size of hemp seeds, twice a day. After thirty days, all illnesses in the belly will be cured, and the three corpse spirits will leave. After a hundred days, flesh and bones will become strong. After a thousand days, the Controller of Lifespans will remove your name from the register of the dead. You will last as long as heaven and earth and face the sun and moon as their equal. Your form and face will change in unpredictable ways. You will cast no shadow in the sun but instead have a separate light of your own.

53 Lesser Method for Taking Gold: Refine gold by dipping it into clear wine around two hundred times. Each time it enters or leaves, the wine will boil. When you squeeze it, it should come out between your fingers like mud. If it does not boil or come out between your fingers, shave it down and put it into clear wine again as many times as necessary. Once it is ready, take a pill the size of a pellet. You may also divide that pill into smaller pills. After thirty days of taking it, you will feel neither cold nor heat, and divine beings and jade maidens will serve you. Silver can also be taken by the same method as gold. Anyone taking these two substances who can live in a stone chamber on a famous mountain will rise lightly into the air in one year. Taking them while remaining in the human world also makes one an earthly immortal. Do not pass this method on carelessly.

54 The Two Principles Master's Method for Taking Gold: Use three jin of pig back fat and one sheng of strong sour wine. Take five liang of gold and place it in a vessel to cook over an earthen furnace. Put the gold into the fat and take it out a hundred times; do the same with the sour wine. Eat one jin and live as long as heaven and earth; eat half a jin and live two thousand years; eat five liang and live one thousand two hundred years. Whatever amount you have, you can take it. Make it on a favorable day when the seasonal forces are at their height; taken then, it works marvelously well. Do not transmit it to the wrong person. If you show it to the wrong person, the medicine will fail and lose its marvelous power. If you wish to take a medicine that drives out the corpse spirits, you should take cinnabar.