Awakening to Reality (Wuzhen Pian)

1 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.

2 If you don't seek the great way out of confusion,Can you be a worthy person, however talented you are?A hundred years flash like a spark from a stone;A whole life floats like a bubble on water.You only crave profit and office, looking for honor,And don't notice your body wasting away unseen.Suppose your gold were piled as high as mountains:Could it buy a promise that death will not come?

3 Though a person's life may last a hundred years,No one knows its length, its poverty, or its success beforehand.Yesterday someone rode a horse down the street;Today a corpse lies inside a coffin.The wife and wealth left behind are no longer yours;You cannot fool yourself about the wrongdoing you take with you.How can you find the great medicine if you don't seek it?To find it and fail to refine it is foolish.

4 If you study immortality, study heavenly immortality;Only the golden elixir is the surest way.When the two things meet, feeling and nature join;When the five phases are complete, tiger and dragon coil together.Because wu and ji act as matchmakers,Husband and wife can live together in lasting joy.Just wait for the work to finish and go before heaven's northern palace;Ride a lucky phoenix through nine-colored clouds.

5 This method is true and more wonderful than anything else true;It all comes from my being different from other people.I know the reversal depends on Li and Kan;Who knows that rising and sinking determine host and guest?If the golden cauldron is to hold the mercury in cinnabar,Put the silver from water into the jade pool first.The remarkable work of tending the fire takes less than a night;A round sun appears in the deep pool.

6 The tiger leaps and dragon rises through rough wind and waves;A dark pearl is born in the central, proper place.A fruit growing on a branch will ripen in time;Why should a child in the womb be any different?North and south, the sources and their lineages, reverse the hexagram images;Morning and evening, the timing of the fire follows heaven's pivot.Know that a great recluse lives among shops and markets;Why sit alone in the deep mountains seeking stillness?

7 Everyone has the medicine for a long life;People foolishly throw it away in confusion.When sweet dew falls, heaven and earth join;Where the yellow sprout grows, Kan and Li meet.A frog in a well would say there is no dragon's cave;How could a small bird by a fence know a phoenix's nest?When the elixir ripens, gold naturally fills the house;Why search for herbs and learn to burn plants?

8 If you want to know the source where the medicine is produced,Its home is in the southwest.Gather it quickly when lead passes and gui is born;When gold meets the full moon from afar, it is no longer fit to use.Bring it back and seal it tightly in the earthen pot;Then add the flowing pearl to make the pair.The medicine weighs one pound, made up of two eights;Adjust the timing of the fire through yin and yang.

9 Don't refine the three yellows or the four spirits;If you seek among many medicines, it is not the true one.Yin and yang meet by finding their own kinds;The matching two eights naturally join as a pair.The red sun beneath the pool drives away yin's strange forms;The white moon above the mountain brings new medicine sprouts.People today should recognize true lead and mercury:They are not ordinary cinnabar or quicksilver.

10 Don't mistake yin by itself for something containing yang;Cultivating just one thing only makes you weaker.Straining the body with massage and stretching is not the way;Refining breath and swallowing rosy clouds is sheer folly.You can spend your whole life trying in vain to tame lead and mercury;When will you ever see tiger and dragon brought under control?I urge you to seek the place where your body was born;Returning to the root and the source is the best medicine.

11 Take care to seek true lead;Don't let your time pass easily away.Use earth's moon-soul to catch red mercury,And heaven's sun-soul will control watery metal.Then you can say your way is high, for dragon and tiger submit;You can say your virtue is great, for spirits respect you.You know your life will last as long as heaven and earth;Troubles will no longer come into your mind.

12 The yellow sprout and white snow are not hard to find;Those who understand must rely on deep virtue and good conduct.The four forms and five phases all depend on earth;How could the three origins and eight trigrams leave ren-water behind?Once you refine the spiritual substance, people can hardly recognize it;With yin demons gone, no ghosts can invade.I want to leave the secret instructions among people,But I haven't heard of a single person who would understand them.

13 Plants too have yin and yang together;If either is missing, they will not bloom.When green leaves first unfold, yang leads;When red flowers open next, yin follows.This is the ordinary way in daily use;Who knows that the true source reverses it?I tell all of you studying the way:If you don't understand yin and yang, don't act recklessly.

14 Without knowing the reversal within the mystery,How can you know that a lotus grows well in fire?Lead the white tiger home and care for it;It will produce a bright pearl as round as the moon.Don't just watch the timing of the fire by the medicine furnace;Settle your spirit and breath and let nature work.When all the yin is stripped away, the elixir ripens;You leap out of the cage and live ten thousand years.

15 “Three, five, one”: these are only three words;Few people, past or present, have truly understood them.East's three and south's two together make five;North's one and west's four make five too.Wu and ji themselves come back to the generating number five;When the three families meet, they form a child.Thus the Great One holds the true energy;In ten months the fetus is complete and enters the state of a sage.

16 If you don't know that true lead is the chief source,Everything you do is wasted effort.Leaving your wife merely separates yin and yang;Giving up food only leaves your stomach empty.Plants, metals, and silver are all impure matter;Clouds, mists, sun, and moon are vague things.Even if you add breath exercises and visualization,None of it is the work of the golden elixir.

17 The countless scriptures on immortality all say the same thing:The golden elixir alone is the root and basis.It follows Kun's position to bring a body into being,Then is planted in Qian's home, the palace where things join.Don't be surprised that heaven's secret is fully disclosed;Students themselves are simply confused and foolish.If someone understands what this poem means,They will at once see the highest elder of the Three Pure Ones.

18 First make Qian and Kun the cauldron and vessel;Then cook the medicine of sun-crow and moon-rabbit.Once you drive these two things onto the yellow path,How could the golden elixir fail to form?

19 Set up furnace and cauldron on the model of Qian and Kun;Refine the essence and control the moon-soul and sun-soul.Gathering, dispersing, and mingling bring about change;How could one discuss such mystery casually?

20 Don't cling to a physical elixir stove and waste your effort;To refine the medicine, seek the crescent-moon furnace.It has its own natural, true fire to nurture it;Why use charcoal, firewood, or a bellows?

21 A jade blossom grows inside the crescent-moon furnace;Mercury settles in the cinnabar cauldron.Once the strength of the fire has been adjusted,The yellow sprout you planted gradually grows.

22 Swallowing saliva and taking in breath are human actions;Only with the medicine can nature's transformation arise.If there is no true seed in the cauldron,It is like boiling water and fire in an empty pan.

23 To make the elixir, you must join lead and mercury;Keep both kingdoms, great and small, unharmed.If you ask what true lead is,The moon's light shines on the western river all day.

24 Don't hide in the mountains before refining the returned elixir;Nothing in the mountains, inside or out, is lead.Every household has this most valuable treasure;People today simply fail to recognize it fully.

25 To repair split bamboo, you should use bamboo;To hatch a chicken, you must use an egg.Everything of the wrong kind makes for wasted work;True lead is what fits the sacred process.

26 Use lead, but do not use ordinary lead;After using true lead, discard even that.This is the real secret of using lead;Using lead yet not using it is the truth.

27 “Empty the mind and fill the belly” has a deep meaning;To empty the mind, you must understand the mind.Better first refine lead to fill the belly,And keep the gold that fills the hall.

28 In a dream I visited the western flower in the ninth heaven;A true person gave me a text pointing to the mystery.Its instructions were simple and brief:It only told people to refine mercury and lead.

29 From emptiness the way produces one energy;That one energy then produces yin and yang.Yin and yang join again to form three bodies;The three bodies produce all the thriving things.

30 Thunder and lightning in Kan cook metal and water with a roar;Fire rises at Kunlun, with yin and yang.If these two things come together,The elixir naturally ripens and fragrances the whole body.

31 If Li and Kan lack wu and ji,Even with the four forms they cannot make the elixir.Because each holds true earth,The golden elixir can return.

32 The sun occupies Li's place but is instead female;Kan pairs with the moon's palace but is male.If you don't understand this reversal,Don't speak proudly on the strength of your narrow view.

33 Take the solid center from Kan's positionAnd transform the yin inside Li's palace.It then becomes Qian's strong body;Hiding, flying, or leaping all depend on the mind.

34 The dragon of Zhen, mercury, comes from Li's country;The tiger of Dui, metal, is born in Kan's region.Both come from children giving birth to mothers;All five phases must enter the center.

35 When just half a moon appears on the horizon,Dragon calls and tiger roars can already be heard.This is the right time to work on the two eights;Within a single two-hour period the elixir will surely form.

36 The male tiger roars on Mount Hua's summit;The female dragon calls beneath the Fusang sea.The Yellow Woman can always bring them together,Making them husband and wife with a single heart.

37 The white tiger of the western mountain runs wild;The green dragon of the eastern sea cannot be held back.Catch them with both hands and make them fight to the death;They turn into a single mass of purple-gold frost.

38 Red dragon and black tiger stand west and east;The four forms meet within wu and ji.If you can now use Fu and Gou, the returning hexagrams,How could the golden elixir fail?

39 First observe heaven and understand the five thieves;Then examine earth to settle the people.Only when the people are safe and the country is rich, seek battle;Only after the battle will you see the sage.

40 When you deploy generals, distinguish left and right armies;Let the other be host and yourself the guest.I urge you not to underestimate the enemy in battle;You may lose your family's priceless treasure.

41 Fire is born in wood, where its sharp point is hidden;Don't try to force it if you can't drill it out.Disaster will arise and harm you;You must subdue it by seeking the Metal Lord.

42 The Metal Lord was originally the eastern family's son;He was sent to the western neighbor to live in another body.Recognize him, call him home, and raise him there;Pair him with the young woman in marriage.

43 The young woman's movements each have their own direction;Her forward journey must be short, her return long.When she returns, she enters the Yellow Woman's houseAnd marries the Metal Lord as an older groom.

44 Even if you know cinnabar and black lead,Without knowing the timing of the fire it is all useless.Everything depends on the effort of careful practice;A difference as small as a hair prevents the elixir from forming.

45 Treatises, scriptures, and songs discuss the deepest truths,But do not put the timing of the fire into writing.To know the oral instructions and understand the mystery,You must discuss them carefully with one who has divine insight.

46 Enjoy the moonlight on the fifteenth of the eighth month;That is when the essence of metal is at its fullest.When the first yang comes back and begins to rise,It is time to increase the fire. Do not delay.

47 The elixir work starts as soon as the first yang stirs;The lead cauldron glows gently on the curtain.Taking in energy at first is easy;Guard against danger when removing, adding, and tending the fire.

48 The dark pearl takes shape as yang grows;As yang reaches its peak, yin dwindles and its form is stripped away.When frost falls in the tenth month, the elixir finally ripens;At that point even spirits and ghosts are startled.

49 After the first half-moon and before the second,The medicine is balanced and its energies are complete.Gather it and bring it back to refine in the furnace;Once refined, nurture it gently as it cooks.

50 The eldest son has just drunk western wine;The youngest daughter has just opened the northern garden's flower.When the young woman in green has met them,Lock them all inside the yellow house at once.

51 The months of rabbit and rooster are the right times;Punishment and virtue come to the door, shown by the medicine.Then the golden elixir should be bathed;If you add fire, it will surely be in danger.

52 Sun and moon meet once every thirty days;Using hours for days is the method of this remarkable work.Know the good and bad outcomes of defending a city and fighting in open country;You will gain more spiritual cinnabar until the whole cauldron glows red.

53 When Pi and Tai first meet, everything flourishes;Zhun and Meng take their hexagrams and receive birth and growth.Once you grasp the meaning, stop seeking the images;Studying every line only tires the mind in vain.

54 The hexagrams set out a method modeled on forms;Grasp the image and let go of words, and the meaning becomes clear.Confused people everywhere cling only to the images,Working with hexagram energies in hopes of flying up to heaven.

55 Heaven and earth each have their times of fullness and emptiness;Only by studying their waning and waxing can you know the right moment.Geng and jia have always made the command clear;Kill off all three corpse-spirits and the way is within reach.

56 If you want the valley spirit to live forever,You must establish its basis in the dark female principle.Once the true essence returns to the golden house,A single bright pearl never leaves it.

57 Few people know the gate of the dark female principle;Don't mistakenly treat the mouth and nose as that gate.You may breathe in and out for a thousand years:How could that bring the golden crow to catch the rabbit?

58 Few know that different names come from the same source;The two, both deeply mysterious, hold the essential secret.Understand loss and gain to preserve life and keep the body whole;The purple-gold elixir is the most powerful medicine.

59 At first, people all notice deliberate action;Only on reaching nonaction do they understand.They see only that nonaction is the wonder of the way,Not knowing that deliberate action is its foundation.

60 White within black is the mother of the elixir;Female hidden in male is the sacred fetus.Guard the Great One carefully in the furnace;The treasures gather in the three fields, matching the three stars of the Dipper.

61 Seek a shape in what is vague and fleeting;Seek true essence in deepest darkness.Being and nonbeing enter into each other through this;How could you picture what you have not seen?

62 When the four forms meet, the dark body is complete;Where all five phases are present, purple light shines.The fetus leaves and enters the mouth, giving access to the divine;Countless dragons and spirits are all startled.

63 After drinking from the splendid pool, the moon shines clear;Ride a gold dragon to visit the Purple Palace.Once you know all the immortals,Let seas become fields and hills become valleys as they will.

64 To know how to refine and nourish the returned elixir,Plant its seed in your own garden.Without blowing or forcing anything,The fruit naturally ripens and the spiritual fetus emerges.

65 Do not use clever tricks and deceit as your method;Recognize the other family's means of escaping death.Keep adding wine that prolongs life to the pot;Gather the liquid that restores the soul in the cauldron.

66 Pour the fine butter from Snow MountainInto the furnace of nature at East Yang.If it crosses Kunlun toward the northwest,Only then can Zhang Qian meet Magu.

67 If you don't understand yin and yang or host and guest,How can you tell which is distant and which is close?Pointlessly closing the tail-gate point during sexual practiceHas wrongly killed so many people in this world.

68 All the countless things return to their roots;Returning to the root and restoring life means lasting long.People find it hard to understand the constant and return to the source;Everyone has heard that reckless action brings harm.

69 Ou Ye personally passed on the method of casting a sword;The metal and water of Moye are paired as soft and hard.Once refined, it understands a person's intentions;In a flash it kills a monster ten thousand miles away.

70 Strike bamboo to call the turtle to swallow jade fungus;Play the zither to summon the phoenix to drink the elixir.Recently golden light has appeared through my body;I do not tell ordinary people this method.

71 The medicine takes shape only when it meets energy of its own kind;The way lies in emptiness and accords with nature.Swallow one grain of the golden elixir,And you will know your life is not controlled by heaven.

72 The brilliant golden elixir is made in one day;What the ancient immortals said is truly worth hearing.Talk of nine years or three yearsIs just a way to put off the appointed time.

73 Cultivating the great way has both ease and difficulty;I know it depends on me and also on heaven.Unless you build a record of good deeds and unseen kindness,Crowds of demons will constantly stand in your way.

74 Heaven, earth, and humanity take from each other and feed at the proper time;This is the moral process of the immortals' way.Once all changes settle and worries cease,Every part of the body comes into order, confirming nonaction.

75 The precious words of the Yinfu number just over three hundred;The sacred text of the Daode has only five thousand.Countless great immortals, ancient and modern,Have found the true teaching in these writings.

76 However much your intelligence exceeds Yan Hui and Min Ziqian,Don't guess at this without receiving a teacher's instructions.Elixir scriptures omit the oral instructions;How else could you form the spiritual fetus?

77 Understand clearly the restless mind and its workings;Three thousand good deeds will bring you up to heaven's level.Then you can naturally set up the cauldron and cook dragon and tiger;But how can you do so if you cling to household, children, and wife?

78 If you haven't refined the returned elixir, do it quickly;Once refined, you must know when to stop and be content.If your mind never stops trying to hold on to fullness,One day disaster and disgrace will surely come.

79 Make the gate of death into the gate of life;Don't insist that the gate of life is the gate of death.If you grasp the opportunity and understand reversal,You will finally know how help is born from harm.

80 Misfortune and good fortune have always depended on each other;They follow each other like a shadow and an echo.If you can reverse this process of life and death,Disaster becomes good fortune in an instant.

81 Practice among ordinary people, keeping your light modest;Be round with what is round and square with what is square.Appear or disappear and go along so no one can predict you;How could people then see what you do or where you hide?

82 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.They meet in a vague state, and change takes place in deep darkness. In an instant flames shoot up, and a true person appears.

83 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.Inside 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.

84 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.If 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.

85 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.To 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.

86 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.Wood 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.

87 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.Then 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.

88 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.Originally 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.

89 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.Believe 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.

90 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.When 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.

91 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.The 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.

92 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.You 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?

93 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.Tigers, 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.

94 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.All 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?

95 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.You 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?

96 Even if you fully understand the nature of things as they really are,You still leave one body and enter another.If you can also refine the great medicine,You immediately pass beyond all faults and become a true person.

97 Entering a womb, taking over a body, or moving house:Those who live in the old dwelling are called followers of the four fruits.If you can subdue dragon and tiger together,When will a house built of true gold ever decay?

98 Gazing at your form, holding the breath, and visualizing spiritsAre hard at first, but become easier later.Though you can suddenly travel ten thousand miles,When the house breaks, you must move elsewhere.

99 The Buddha teaches people to cultivate the realm of highest joy,Because highest joy lies in the region of gold.Of the forms of the body, only this one is real;The other two are not real, however you assess them.

100 Common sayings often agree with the highest way;You should look closely into them.If you can seek reversal in everyday activities,All the dust and sand of the earth become treasures.

101 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.