The Life and Alchemical Teachings of Chen Zhixu

SPREADING THE DAO, MANAGING MASTERSHIP,
AND PERFORMING SALVATION:

THE LIFE AND ALCHEMICAL TEACHINGS OF CHEN ZHIXU
Wm. Clarke Hudson
Submitted to the faculty of the University Graduate School

in partial fulllment of the requirements
for the degree
Doctor of Philosophy
in the Department of Religious Studies,
Indiana University
December 2007
UMI Number: 3297123
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Accepted by the Graduate Faculty, Indiana University, in partial

fulllment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.

Robert F. Campany, Ph.D.
Doctoral
committee

Stephen R. Bokenkamp

John R. McRae
October 18, 2007

Lynn Struve
ii
2008
William Clarke Hudson II
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
iii
This work is dedicated to .
iv
Acknowledgements
This dissertation, and my views on the study of religion in general, are inspired rst
and foremost by my doctoral mentorsProfessors Robert Ford Campany, Stephen
R. Bokenkamp, and John R. McRae. I thank them for the personal support and
encouragement they have given me over the years, and for the example they have set
for me with their scholarship. During my time at Indiana University, Bloomington, I
had the blessing to workin seminars, lecture halls, reading groups, and tutorials
with six superb scholars of Chinese religion and thought Professors Campany,
Bokenkamp, McRae, Jan Nattier, Robert Eno, and Lynn Struve, each of whom I try
to emulate in my research and teaching. Would that I could transmit something of
their xuefeng to later generations.
I also am grateful to many others for teaching me, and, more importantly, for
inspiring me: faculty of the Department of Religious Studies at Indiana University
whose courses I took David Brakke, Jim Hart, Richard Miller, Robert Orsi, and
Steve Weitzman, scholars of Daoism Wang Ka , Prof. Ma Xisha , and Lu
Guolong at the Daoism research section of the Institute of World Religions
of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing

who introduced me to the history of Daoism, Prof. Wang Zongyu
of Peking University, teachers at Stanford University Lee Yearley, Carl
Bielefeldt, and Arnold Eisen, and teachers at the University of Chicago Michael
Murrin and Chihchao Chao .
My thanks go to four colleagues Mark Graham, Steve Kory, Cuong Mai, and
David Mozina whose comments I have incorporated into this dissertation. And also
to Hsieh Shuwei, Michael StanleyBaker, Gil Raz, Erik Hammerstrom, Brian
Flaherty, Hong Yue Guo, David Cockerham, Doug Padgett, Jonathan Pettit, Paul
Amato, Graham Bauerle, Tad Cook, and David Allred for their fellowship in the
study of things Daoist and Chinese at Indiana. And to my friend Prof. Liu Yi for
his conversations in Beijing. And nally to Guo Lei for many years of training in
Taiji Quan, which taught me so much about masterdisciple relations in Chinese
traditions of selfcultivation.
I dedicate this work to my wife Yikui, who a decade ago convinced me of the
value of a scholarly career, and has given me moral support every day.
Finally, thank you, dear reader, for reading this work.
Wm. Clarke Hudson

Spreading the Dao, Managing Mastership, and Performing Salvation:
The Life and Alchemical Teachings of Chen Zhixu
This dissertation describes and interprets the biography and teachings of Chen
Zhixu 12901343+, styled Shangyangzi, a Daoist master and sexual alchemist from
south China, and also the reception of his biography and teachings by later Daoists
and other readers in the Ming and Qing dynasties. The dissertation describes his
place within networks of patronage his supporters included both Daoist monks and
interested laymen, and the pains he took to develop these networks. The
dissertation pieces together an account of his sexualalchemical practices from
cryptic references scattered throughout his writings, and situates this account within
the elds of Chinese inner alchemy neidan and sexual cultivation. Secondarily,
through the study of the life and work of one Daoist, this dissertation o ers new
approaches to the reading of any Daoist gure or text. One new approach is to locate
Daoists and their texts within marketplaces of teachings or economies of salvation
drawing on Pierre Bourdieus sociology of culture; another is to study Daoists use
of secrecy as a strategy within such competitive environment drawing on Hugh
Urbans work on esotericism. Finally, this study is meant to be a contribution to the
social history of religions. It is hoped that this general theoretical perspective
emphasizing social conict will be useful for the study of religious gures or texts
from other places and times beyond Chens world of premodern China.

vi
Contents
Chapter 1. Orientations 4
1. Seven Perspectives in the Study of Inner Alchemy 4
1.1. Understanding 4
1.2. Explanation 5
2. Literature Review 8
2.1. Studies of Inner Alchemy 8
2.1.1. Studies in Chinese 8
2.1.2. Studies in Japanese 11
2.1.3. Studies in Western Languages 12
2.2. Studies of Sexual Alchemy 15

2.3. Studies of Chen Zhixu 17
3. Denitions 18
3.1. Inner alchemy 18
3.2. Daoism and Daoists 19
3.3. Religion 21
4. Themes and Theories 22
4.1. An Outline of Chens Religious Market 23
4.1.1. Theories of religious markets 24
4.2. Esotericism 25
4.3. MasterDisciple Relations 26
4.4. The Master Function 27
4.5. Speech Act Theory and Performativity 29
4.6. Syncretism: Imperialist Inclusivism 31
4.7. Primary Salvation and Secondary Salvic Eects 32
5. An Overview of the Dissertation Chapters 37
6. Conventions 39
vii
Chapter 2. Chen Zhixus Biography,

Environment, Lineage, and Network 41
1.1. Chens Biographies 42
1.2. Chens Name 43
2. Chens Life until Forty, and the Environment at Luling 44
2.1. Chens Life until Forty 44
2.2. Lulings Geographical and Religious Environment 48
3. Meeting Master Zhao, and Enlightenment 53
3.1. Meeting Zhao Youqin 53
3.2. Chens Enlightenment 54
3.2.1. Chens major enlightenment 55
3.2.2. Two other enlightenments 59
4. Chens Two Masters: Zhao Youqin and the Qingcheng Master 60

4.1. Zhao Youqins Life 60
4.2. The Qingcheng Master 62
4.2.1. Doubts about the Qingcheng master 63
5. A Period of Preparation, 132931 65

5.1. Tian Zhizhai 67
6. Chens Teaching Career 70
6.1. The End of Chens Life 76
6.2. An Odd LateImperial Hagiography 76
7. Was Chen Zhixu a Quanzhen Daoist? 78
7.1. Quanzhen Daoism and the Southern Lineage 78
7.1.1. Comparison of Quanzhen Daoism with the Southern Lineage of the Golden Elixir 79
7.1.2. Did Chen have a real connection to a Quanzhen lineage? 80
7.1.3. In his genealogy, Chen venerates the Quanzen patriarchs above the SouthernLineage
patriarchs 81
7.1.4. Is there any Quanzhen content to Chens teachings? 82
7.1.5. If Chen had no Quanzhen lineage or Quanzhen teachings, then what was he up to? 84
7.1.6. Chen represents a historical trend toward the fusion of the Southern and Northern Lineages of
inner alchemy 84
7.1.7. Chen drew on Chan Buddhism in the same way that he drew on Quanzhen Daoism 85
viii
7.2. Quanzhen Daoism in Chens Time and Place 85

7.2.1. Quanzhen books 85
7.2.2. Quanzhen initiates 86
7.3. Chens Immediate Lineage 89

7.3.1. Song Defang 90
7.3.2. Li Taixu 91
7.3.3. Zhang Ziqiong 93
7.3.4. Zhao Youqin provides no evidence about this lineage 93
7.4. Chens Eective and Extended Lineages in DZ 1070 94

7.4.1. Comparing genealogies 94
7.4.2. Other points om DZ 1070 98
7.4.3. Reading the ritual 99
7.5. Conclusion on the Issue of Chens Quanzhen Aliation 102

8. Chens Students, Disciples, and Acquaintances 103
8.1. MasterDisciple Relationships 105
8.1.1. Ming Suchan, at Mt. Jiugong 105
8.1.2. Deng Yanghao, in Hongzhou 109
8.2. MasterPatron Relationships 115

8.2.1. Tian Zhizhai 115
8.2.2. Chens Three Networks 115
8.2.3. Luo Xizhu and the Jiaotai Hermitage 120
8.3. Literati association 126

9. Conclusion 129
Appendix 1 to Chapter 2. Places Chen Zhixu Is Known to Have Visited 133
Appendix 2 to Chapter 2. Chens Disciples and Acquaintances 135
Appendix 3 to Chapter 2. Translation of DZ 1070 137
Chapter 3. A Conict View of Daoist Mastership 161

1. A Conict View of Chen Zhixus Life and Work 163
1.1. Chens Teachings within a Field of Competition 163
1.1.1. Skeptics 163
1.1.2. The marginal traditions 164
ix
1.1.3. Sexual cultivators 166

1.1.4. The Three Teachings 169
1.1.5. Chen as marginal 173
1.2. The Field of Competition within Chens Teachings 174

2. Toward a General Conict Theory of Society 178
2.1. Conict 179
2.2. Why choose conict theory? 179
2.3. Why choose Bourdieu as a conict theorist? 184
3. Bourdieus Sociology of Culture 186
3.1. Bourdieu and Weber 187
3.2. Habitus 189
3.3. Field 193
3.4. Capital 199
4. Conclusion 202
Appendix to Chapter 3. Song on Judging Delusions 204
Chapter 4. What Is Inner Alchemy? 210

Prototypes, paradigms, and the standard account 212
Part 1. Toward a Denition of Inner Alchemy 214

Short Denitions 215
A Full Description: Inner Alchemy in Two Thousand Words 216
1. Roots 216
2. Social Contexts 217
3. Ontological Registers, and Language 217
4. Psychophysiological Elements 219
5. Symbolic Elements 221
6. Aegorical or Visionary Elements 222
7. A Historical Outline of InnerAlchemical Literature 223
Part 2. An Extended Discussion: Inner Alchemy in Forty Thousand Words 228

1. The Roots of Inner Alchemy 228
1.1. Roots in Daoism 228
1.2. Roots in Chinese society 229
1.3. Roots in alchemy 230

1.4. Roots in qi cultivation 232
1.5. Roots in sexual cultivation 235
1.6. Roots in mind cultivation 236
1.7. Roots in literary mysticism 237
2. The Social Contexts of Inner Alchemy 238

2.1. Social institutions 238
2.1.1.1. Sma groups: the masterdisciple relationship 238
2.1.1.2. Sma groups: the patronclient relationship 239
2.1.1.3. Sma groups: the advisorruler relationship 240
2.1.1.4. Sma groups: relations of iendship and literati association 241
2.1.1.5. Sma groups: the family or clan and its related institutions 242
2.1.2.1. Midsized groups: monastery, temple, or cult association 243
2.1.2.2. Midsized groups: local practice and printing networks 243
2.1.3.1. Large groups: macroeconomies, social class, and the imperial state 244
2.1.3.2. Large groups: daos, traditions, teachings, schools, and sectarian movements 245
2.2. Selftransformation into masters within this world and transcendent beings beyond it 245
3. Ontological Registers, and Language 246

3.0. Ontological registers or levels of reality 246
3.1.1. The register of the microcosm: the human body 247
3.1.2. The register of the microcosm: the mind 252
3.1.3. The register of the microcosm: spirit or spirits 252
3.2. The register of the mesocosm of signs 254

3.2.1.1. The register of the mesocosm, abstract signs: yin and yang 257
3.2.1.2. The register of the mesocosm, abstract signs: the ve agents 260
3.2.1.3. The register of the mesocosm, abstract signs: the trigrams and hexagrams 262
3.2.1.4. The register of the mesocosm, abstract signs: the numbers of the River Chart 265
3.2.2. The register of the mesocosm, gurative signs: lead and mercury, and dragon and tiger 267
3.3. The register of the macrocosm of Heaven, Earth, and humanity 268
3.3.1. The register of the macrocosm: temporal aspects 269
3.3.2. The register of the macrocosm: spatial aspects 271
3.4.1. The register of other metaphysical realities: purposive action and nonaction 272
3.4.2. The register of other metaphysical realities: inherent nature and life endowment 273
3.4.3. The register of other metaphysical realities: the Dao or the One 276
3.5.1. Other dualistic, crossregister categories: xiantian and houtian 277
xi
3.5.2. Other dualistic, crossregister categories: prosaic and mysticizing interpretation 277
3.5.3. Other dualistic, crossregister categories: exoteric and esoteric interpretation 279
3.6.1. Exploiting crossregister ambiguities to convert the reader or listener 281
3.6.2. Exploiting crossregister ambiguities to create an air of authority for text, teacher, or lineage 281
3.6.3. Exploiting crossregister ambiguities: writing in a code that is only partia
y transparent 281
3.6.4. Exploiting crossregister ambiguities to synthesize elements om many sources 282
3.6.5. Exploiting crossregister ambiguities to represent the protean nature of alchemical discourse 282
3.6.6. Exploiting crossregister ambiguities to directly cause salvic eects in the reader 282

4.1.1. Psychophysiological terms 283
4.1.2. Soteriological terms 283
4.2. The dao of the golden elixir 283

4.3. The human body as the alchemical chamber 285
4.4. Dantian as the furnace and caldron 285
4.5. Inner tracts as the pathways of circulation 288
4.6. The three treasures essence, qi, and spirit as the pharmaca 291
4.7. Respiration, guiding intention, intense concentration, or formless samdhi as the re 292
4.8. Firing periods of low or high heat, or nonring, represented with trihexagram cycles 293
4.9. Firing over stages lasting days, months, and years 299
4.9.1. The standard account 300
4.9.2. Two general divergences 303
4.9.3. Other divergences, by era 305
4.10. Monitoring progress by cycles, responses, or inner vision 311

4.11. Creating, gathering, rening, crysta
izing, incubating, purifying, and sublimating elixirs 312
4.11.1. Creating elixirs through gathering the pure yang qi om the time of cosmogenesis 315
4.11.2. Creating elixirs through inverting and uniting contrary principles 317
4.11.3. Creating elixirs through rening essence into qi, qi into spirit, and spirit into void 317
4.11.4. Creating elixirs through rening the postnatal three treasures into the prenatal three treasures 317
4.12. Stimulating and enlightening the inte

ect 320
4.13. Grasping the handle of cosmic creation and transformation 321
4.14. Reversing cosmogonic devolution, and returning om a postcosmic to a precosmic state 322
4.15. Flowing backwards against the lifecurrent that leads toward death 323
4.16. Returning to a state of youth and health 323
4.17. Escaping om the round of birth and death sasra 324
xii
4.18. Perfecting inherent nature and life endowment 324

4.19. Giving birth to a new inner self, or spirit of pure yang 324
4.20. Seeking immortality or transcendence in the heavens and/or union with the Dao 326
5. Symbolic Elements 328

5.0. Symbolic terms om the Yijing, yinyang and veagent cosmology, RiverChart numerology,
and other systems 328
5.1. Uniting contrary principles to recover perfection, caed pure yang, One, Taiji, or Wuji 329
5.2.1. Reversing the course of cosmogonic devolution leading om qian to kun 331
5.2.2. Extracting the yaoline om kan and applying it to li 332
5.2.3. Relying on agent earth in the form of wuearth and jiearth 333
5.2.4. Remaking the trigram qian 334
5.3.1. Reversing the devolution om Taiji to the ve agents to the myriad existents 335
5.3.2. Condensing the ve agents together into three, and then into one 336
5.3.2.1.1.1. Uniting the ve agents as abstract mesocosmic signs: turning the ve agents upsidedown 336
5.3.2.1.1.2. Uniting the ve agents in the microcosm: uniting the ve qi of the ve viscera 338
5.3.2.1.2.1. Condensing three into one as abstract mesocosmic signs: uniting the three cardinal agents 339
5.3.2.1.2.2. Condensing three into one in the microcosm: uniting the three owers 341
5.3.2.2. Uniting the ve agents numerologicay: condensing the three ves into one Taiji 342
6. Allegorical or Visionary Elements 343

6.1.1. Figurative mesocosmic signs: uniting mercury with lead 344
6.1.2. Figurative mesocosmic signs: uniting the dragon with the tiger 344
6.1.3. Figurative mesocosmic signs: uniting the gold suncrow with the jade moontoad or rabbit 346
6.1.4. Figurative mesocosmic signs: wedding the lovely girl to squire metal 346
6.2. The mediation of the yeow dame in the center 348

6.3. Bringing about the birth of the naked infant, the alchemists new self 348
6.4. Other aegories or visions: the goat, deer, and oxcarts 349
6.5. Other aegories or visions: the inner landscape of the body 350
Conclusion 350
Appendix 1 to Chapter 4. Questions for the Comparative Analysis of Any Inner
alchemical Text 352
Appendix 2 to Chapter 4. Alternate Terms for Corporeal Sites, as Found in Inner
alchemical Texts 359
Appendix 3 to Chapter 4. Li Daochuns Classication of Teachings 361
xiii
Chapter 5. Chen Zhixus Path to Alchemical Salvation 367

1. But Was Chen Really a Sexual Alchemist? 368
1.1. Chinese Readers 368
1.2. Robinet 370
1.3. Alchemical Language 371
1.4. Orthodox vs. Heterodox Sexual Practices 374
1.5. SoloAlchemical Teachings? 380
1.6. Two Pieces of Evidence 383
1.6.1. Inconclusive evidence 383
1.6.2. Conclusive evidence 385
1.7. Prostitutes 386

1.8. The Sex Act 387
1.9. The Sex Organs 389
1.9.1. An alchemical litmus test 394
1.9.2. Xuan and Pin 395
1.9.3. Other texts 396
1.10. Apologetic statements 397

1.10.1. Lu Shu 398
1.11. Conclusion 400

2. The Field of Sexual Cultivation 400
2.1. Basic distinctions 400
2.1.1. Wile 400
2.1.2. Hao Qin 403
2.1.3. Cai Jun and Li Wenkun 404
2.1.4. Hu Fuchen 405
2.1.5. Ideal types and continua 406
2.2. The History of Sexual Cultivation 407

2.2.1. Wiles Four Tracers 407
2.2.2. Hao Qins historical narrative 409
2.2.3. Lists of texts 411
2.3. Ideal Types and Procedures of Cultivation 413

2.3.1. Type 1: Classical huanjing bunao, and sanfeng caizhan 413
xiv
2.3.2. Type 2: Quasialchemical huanjing bunao 416

2.3.3. What is jing? 418
2.3.4. Type 3: Alchemical huanjing bunao 420
2.3.4.1. Jindan jieyao 420
2.3.4.2. Caizhen jiyao 422
2.3.5. Type 4: Lateimperial goldenelixir sexual alchemy 424

2.3.5.1. Lu Xixing and Li Xiyue 427
2.4. Comparison 428

3. Chen Zhixus SexualAlchemical Path 431
3.0. Stage Zero: Starting Out on the Path 431
3.0.1. Introduction: The Unity of the Three Teachings 432
3.0.2. Homily: The Saga of Devolution and Redemption 435
3.0.3. Pep Talk 439
3.0.4. Conclusion 440
3.1. Stage One: Rening the Self lianji and Equipping the Chamber 440
3.1.1. Inner preparation: rening the self 441
3.1.2. Outer preparation: nding mates and funds 446
3.1.2.1. The threeway exchange 448
3.1.2.2. Who is the partner? 452
3.1.2.3. Shoujing zhibao 455
3.1.2.4. How many partners are employed? 457
3.1.2.5. Longhu danfa 458
3.1.2.6. How does the adept get the partners agreement? By paying for it . . . 463
3.1.2.7. How does the adept get the partners agreement? By doing no harm . . . 465
3.1.2.8. How does the adept get the partners agreement? By being nice . . . 466
3.1.2.9. How does the adept get the partners agreement? She benets too . . . 467
3.1.2.10. Female sexual alchemy 468
3.1.2.11. Signs of conict 469
3.2. Stage Two: Gathering caiqu and Initial Fusion hedan 470
3.2.1.1. Timing the gathering: examining the water 470
3.2.1.2. Foreplay 474
3.2.2.1. What is the pharmacon? 476
3.2.2.2. Sex positions 477
3.2.2.3. Gathering and fusing 479
xv
3.2.2.4. Gathering the outer pharmacon: physiological aspects 480

3.2.2.5. Gathering the outer pharmacon: mental aspects 485
3.2.2.6. Gathering the outer pharmacon: abstract mesocosmic signs 488
3.2.2.7. Gathering the outer pharmacon: mixed symbology 492
3.2.3. Fusing the pharmaca 493
3.3. Stage Three: Forming the Elixir jiedan through Internal Firing 495
3.3.1. General descriptions 496
3.3.1.1. Caldrons, furnaces, and orbits 497
3.3.1.2. Reclusion and baoyi 502
3.3.2. Firing periods huohou 504

3.3.2.1. Chens huohou 507
3.3.2.2. Chens Matching Stems 509
3.3.2.3. The standard ring cycle 514
3.3.2.4. Firing as a secret teaching 516
3.4. Stage Four: Transformation into a Yang Spirit shenhua 518
3.4.1. General description 518
3.4.2. Meritorious labor, moral and psychophysiological 519
3.4.3. Further training, meditative or sexual 522
3.4.4. The yang spirit 523
3.4.5. Leaving the body 526
3.4.6. Celestial rank 529
3.4.7. Union with the Dao 532
4. Chens Adaptations of His Alchemical Dao 532

4.1. Apocryphal Buddhist Sexual Alchemy 533
4.1.1. Chen as an apocryphal Buddhist 544
4.2. NeoConfucian Sexual Alchemy 545

4.3. Solo Inner Alchemy 548
5. Conclusion 551
Chapter 6. Chens Legacy in the Ming and Qing Dynasties 557

First reason for studying MingQing traditions 557
Second reason 557
1. Quantitative Overview 560

xvi
1.1. The Printings of Chens Texts 560

1.2. Analysis of Bibliographies 563
2. Texts Mentioning Chen Zhixu, by Century 565
2.1. Fourteenth and Fieenth Centuries 566
2.1.1. Dai Qizong 566
2.1.2. Zhao Yizhen 567
2.1.3. Zhang Yuchu 568
2.1.4. Other Daoist texts of the era 568
2.2. Sixteenth Century 571

2.2.1. Wang Yangming 572
2.2.2. Luo Qinshun 572
2.2.3. Taishang bashiyi hua tushuo 574
2.2.4. Lu Xixing 575
2.2.5. Two Cantong qi commentaries 576
2.2.6. Wang Shizhen 576
2.2.7. Wang Qi 577
2.2.8. Peng Haogu 578
2.2.9. Summary: sixteenth century 578
2.3. Seventeenth Century 579

2.3.1. A gazetteer 579
2.3.2. A medical text 579
2.3.3. A Daoist hagiography 580
2.3.4. A sexual alchemist 580
2.3.5. Cantong qi studies 580
2.3.6. A Quanzhen Daoist author 581
2.3.7. Summary: seventeenth century 582
2.4. Eighteenth Century 583

2.4.1. Two literati sexualalchemist readers 583
2.4.2. Two Quanzhen Daoist readers 584
2.4.3. Imperial publications 585
2.4.4. Other reference works 589
2.4.5. Summary: eighteenth century 589
2.5. Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries 591

xvii
2.5.1. The Western Lineage of inner alchemy 591

2.5.2. Other sexual alchemists 592
2.5.3. Quanzhen critics 594
2.5.4. Other Daoist readers 594
2.5.5. Other nonDaoist citations 596
2.5.6. Summary: nineteenth and twentieth centuries 596
3. Tracing Themes in Chen Zhixus Legacy 597

3.1. Early Reactions 601
3.1.1. Dai Qizong 601
3.1.2. Zhang Yuchu 602
3.1.3. Zhao Yizhen 606
3.1.4. Conclusions 608
3.2. Polemics by Two LayDaoist Literati 609

3.2.1. Wang Yangming 610
3.2.2. Wang Shizhen 614
3.3. Lu Xixing: Adopting and Extending Chens Dao 624

3.4. Literati Alchemists of the KangxiYongzhen Period 628

3.4.1. Tao Susi and Qiu Zhaoao 629
3.4.2. Chens teachings in imperial editions 633
3.5. Dissenting Views 637

3.5.1. Laboratory alchemy: Peng Haogu 637
3.5.2. Ignoring Chen Zhixu: Zhu Yuanyu and Dong Dening 638
3.5.3. Counterreadings, 1: Wu Shouyang 642
3.5.4. Counterreadings, 2: Liu Yiming 644
3.5.5. Counterreadings, 3: Li Xiyue 648
3.5.6. Dissenters: Conclusions 649
4. Conclusion 650
4.1. Historical narrative 650
4.2. Themes 653
Appendix to Chapter 6, Cantong qi and Wuzhen pian Commentary 657

Commentators on Cantong qi 657
xviii
Commentators on Wuzhen pian 659
Chapter 7. Conclusion 661

Seven perspectives in the study of inner alchemy 661
An outline of Chens religious market 664
Issues for future study 668
Where do we place Chen Zhixu on the map? 670
Appendix 1. A Comprehensive Bibliography of Editions of

Works by Chen Zhixu and Zhao Youqin 675
A. Primary Texts by Chen Zhixu 675
B. Primary Texts by Zhao Youqin 687
C. Collectanea Containing the Primary Texts 689
Appendix 2. Text Criticism of Jindan dayao 702

1. The Various Editions of Jindan dayao 702
1.1. Extant Editions of Jindan dayao 703
1.1.1. Daozang edition 703
1.1.2. Zhengli edition 703
1.1.3. Jiyao edition 704
1.1.4. Shandong edition 705
1.1.5. Wuzhong edition 705
1.1.6. Shanzhuang edition 705
1.1.7. Daofan edition 706
1.1.8. Doga edition 706
1.1.9. Four modern editions 706
1.2. The Dating of the UrText 707

1.3. The Filiations of the Jindan dayao Editions 712
1.4. Choosing the Daozang Edition as the Base Text 714
1.5. Establishing Filiations 1 and 2 715
1.6. Which Extant Edition Is Earliest? 716
xix
1.7. The Wording of the Daozang Edition and Zhengli/Jiyao Filiation 717
1.8. Comparing the Shandong Edition with the Daozang Edition 724
1.8.1. Dating the Shandong edition 724
1.8.2. The Shandong edition is later than the Daozang edition 725
1.8.3. Sections missing om the Daozang edition ought to be replaced 726
1.9. Of the Zhengli and Jiyao Editions, Which Is Earlier? 728

1.10. Filiation 3: Daofan and Doga Editions
1.11. Filiation 4: Wuzhong and Shanzhuang Editions 729
2. The Contents of the Various Editions of Jindan dayao 730
2.1. The General Organization of Jindan dayao: Chapter Titles 730
2.2. The General Organization of Jindan dayao: Contents of the Chapters 731
2.3. The Organization of Jindan dayao in the Dierent Editions 733
2.4. The Segments Missing om the Daozang Edition 734
2.4.1. Missing segment 1 734
2.4.2. Missing segments 24 735
2.4.3. Missing segments 56 736
2.4.9. Conclusions regarding missing segments 737
2.5. Discrepancies in the Other Editions 738
Bibliography of Works Cited 740

A1.1. Works in the Ming Daoist Canon 740
A1.2. Daoist Primary Works Not in the Ming Daoist Canon, and Works on Sexual
Cultivation 747
A2. Buddhist Works 757
B. Other PreModern Works in Chinese 758
C. Modern Works in Chinese and Japanese 761
D. Works in Western Languages 769
xx
Chapter 1, Orientations
If you have not met a master, transmitting or discussing the dao is di
cult; yet if
you have already heard the mysterious wonders, it is but a leisurely task.
If you send your spirit and qi back to your golden caldron as soon as possible,
you can avoid dying and letting your body and bones be buried in the
mountainous wilds!
!

1
So spoke Chen Zhixu , a Daoist master and teacher of sexual alchemy a form
of inner alchemy who was active in southcentral China in the rst half of the
fourteenth century. This dissertation is a study of Chens career, and his teachings on
salvation, as situated within his social world. As we see in the passage above, Chen
taught salvation through alchemical practice, and this teaching was situated squarely
within an institution of esoteric masterdisciple transmission. Studying the contents
of Chens teachings should not be separated from studying the institutions within
which his teachings were formed and transmitted.
My main goal in this dissertation is to describe and interpret Chen Zhixus
biography, his teachings, and his reception in later inneralchemical tradition. I piece
together an account of Chens sexualalchemical practices from references scattered
throughout his writings, and situate this account within the elds of Chinese inner
alchemy and sexual cultivation. Secondarily, through this study of the life and work of
one Daoist, I oer new approaches to the reading of any Daoist gure or text,
approaches such as locating Daoists and their texts within economies of salvation, or
noting how texts produce salvation by serving as vehicles for performative speech.
Finally, this study is meant as a contribution to the social history of religions. My
insights will be useful for the study of religious gures or texts from other places and
times beyond Chens world of premodern China.
*
1
DZ 1067, Shangyangzi jindan dayao 9.7b12.
Like the adamantine sword, it has a great vigor

Skt. vrya; like the hundredfoot
pole, it is straight and unbending; of all the armored warriors in the world, none
could break it. This vigorous heartmind has great courage and erceness. When
all of the gods in heaven and people
on earth see this vigor, their joy will be
measureless. Utilizing this vigor, one becomes a buddha and a patriarch.
!0/* .)#-/*
%1
/*5')+$/*"2
What does this passage mean? The goal of my research is to nd meaning in inner
alchemical passages such as the one aboveto nd the meaning of a passage within
its own tradition, and to nd its meaning for us as scholars of religion. The bulk of
this dissertation addresses the meaning of Chens language within his sexual
alchemical tradition. I discuss the meaning of Chens teachings and person for
religious studies mainly in this introduction, in chapter 3, and in the conclusion, but
also in passing throughout the dissertation.
Inner alchemy or interior alchemy; neidan is a form of selfcultivation,
leading to transcendence, in which discourse drawn from laboratory alchemy and the
Book of Changes Yijing , is applied to the practice of rening corporeal energies.
It has been the main form of Daoist selfcultivation practice for more than a
millennium, and yet relatively few scholars outside China have researched it. Scholars
may feel it to be too forbidding a subject: alchemical texts are written using an
obscure vocabulary, and in an abstract cosmological code based in part on Yijing
trigrams. The texts also claim that they leave their deepest secrets unrevealed, that
the inner secrets are not committed to writing at all, but may be learned only from
the lips of a master. This may be discouraging to scholars, yet as I will show, claiming
secrecy is itself a strategy, worthy of study in its own right. Scholars may also feel
inner alchemy to be too boring or technical a subject. A reader may gain some
familiarity with the language of these texts only to nd that they all sound alike.
They can be tasteless: as Chen himself notes using a Chan Buddhist idiom , the
reader of an alchemical classic will nd it like chewing wax throughout, without any
place to make an entry
into understanding (34)2&3 unless guided by
a teacher, of course! . This problem of insipid or repetitive language can strike us
2
Zhouyi Cantong qi fenzhang zhu, Jiyao ed., 1.35a8.
when we read other genres of Daoist literature, but perhaps especially when reading
inneralchemical literature.
So my goal of nding meaning in these texts has two aspects. First, it must
involve simply understanding the referents for alchemical terms. The passage above
may strike the uninformed reader as a pastiche of Chan Buddhist references, but
through research we can discover that it refers to the male alchemists sex organ, its
use, and the state of mind he ought to have during sexual cultivation. Second,
nding meaning involves nding new value and signicance of these texts for the
study of Daoism, or for the study of religion in general. Some understanding of
alchemical terminology can be gained through consulting modern Chinese secondary
sources; but to discover the value of alchemical texts for the study of religion will
require new approaches. In this dissertation I o
er a number of such approaches;
one new approach is to look for religious strategies and uses of language within
alchemical texts. My interpretation of the passage above reveals the following:
1 Chen is cosmizing the body and the sex act, partaking in a sacred reality;4
2 he is reinterpreting the Buddha himself and all Chan masters of the past as
having been sexual alchemists, a political strategy for justifying his own teachings;
3 he is assimilating the sexual alchemist Chen himself, and the male reader to
the Buddha and the patriarchs;
4 he is describing the participation of deities in the alchemists sexual practice;
and nally 5 he is enacting or performing of all these truths through an
illocutionary speech act.
Through written statements like this one, Chen is managing his authority as an
alchemical master, and he is enacting salvation. It will take several chapters to esh
out these ideas, but this is enough to illustrate my goal: to take seemingly formulaic
inneralchemical writing and nd new meaning and value in it for scholars of religion.
There have been so many writers and readers of inneralchemical literature during
the past millennium of Chinese history5 that Western scholars ought to search for
4
Regarding the term cosmizing, see p. 35n98 below. The term comes from Berger, The Sacred Canopy, 2737.
I have made a rough study of Daoist commentarial literature in eight Daoist canons and collections. Of all the
extant Daoist commentaries in my survey 623 , 16 percent of them 99 are on inner alchemical texts. If we
consider inner alchemy texts as a percentage of all extant Daoist texts not just Daoist commentaries , the
percentage may be comparable.
value and meaning in these texts too. This dissertation reects my e

ort to translate
inner alchemy according to our canons of meaning.
In this introduction I will rst present my ideal picture of how we ought to
study inner alchemy. Then I will o
er a brief review of the literature, comparing the
work of previous scholars to this ideal. Next, I will introduce my own theoretical
approach, o
er some necessary denitions, introduce my dissertation chapters, and
list some conventions used in this dissertation.
1, Seven Perspectives in the Study of Inner Alchemy

A complete, critical study of any inneralchemical text6 ought to consider it from at
least seven di
erent perspectives. The scholar of alchemy must rst establish his or
her texts or other materials; this is 1 the philological perspective. Next, the scholar
must understand the specialized language of the material in its own terms, and
translate it into an accessible modern idiom; this is 2 the exegetical perspective.
Then, the scholar must approach the material from 3 historical, 4 structural/
institutional, 5 discursive, and 6 textuality perspectives. Finally, the scholar must
remain 7 selfreective, conscious of his or her own stance and agendas.
1.1, Understanding.
Before translating the alchemical text into a modern
language, the rst step must be to understand it in its own terms. While our reading
may involve some amount of misreading, readings are in fact constrained by social
and institutional factors, and texts are not mere palimpsests, wantonly overwritten
by later readers. As a modern Western academic reader, when reading an alchemical
text, I can approach the text as a public document, and I can indeed approximate
6
In the following, I speak of texts, but I would argue that this account could apply equally to the study of
persons, practices, or ideas. Cf. Ricoeurs discussion of meaningful action considered as a text in Hermeneutics
and the Human Sciences, 197221.
A critic of Ricoeur could argue that studying living people through ethnography cannot be reduced to the
study of their actions as mere texts, but this critique does not apply to our study of people from past ages. We
must study premodern alchemists through texts or other artifacts. To attempt to study premodern alchemists
solely based on our own alchemical meditation experiences, for example, would be methodologically unsound.
how a pre
modern educated Chinese layperson, from the author s own place and
time, may have read the text. With more practice and experience in reading such
material, I may even be able to approach the text as an initiate would have, though
this is less certain. My reading of an alchemical text will never be fully objective or
subjective, but neither would I want it to be so. According to Hans
Georg Gadamer,
understanding takes place through a fusion of horizons,7 an encounter between the
reader s e ective history one s own prejudice and tradition as a forestructure of
knowledge and the other tradition which confronts the reader in the text. When I
read an alchemical text, I change the text to some extent in reading it, but the text
also interrogates me, and I am changed in turn. Through this dialectic we may grow
individually, and as a scholarly community.
1.2, Explanation.
Yet we must also be aware of the institutional and
structural background and makeup of the text. Despite Gadamer s distaste for that
cold rationality which treats the text as an object and severs the I
thou communion
between reader and text, our reading of the text must involve this aspectmust
involve explanation as well as understanding, must involve the social sciences as well
as the human sciences.8 Here, the scholar of alchemy must attend to the historical,
structural/ institutional, discursive, and textuality
related contexts of the material.
This aspect of reading must be more than a disinterested analysis of the text s
background and makeup: it must also involve critique of the text s ideology. As
Gadamer s critics would point out,9 texts are not merely our amiable conversation
partners: texts are shaped by the desires, interests, and ideologies of the authors and
their social worlds. Texts are produced by such interests, and serve to perpetuate or
create such interests. We must be critical of the interests in the text, and our own
interests, as we analyze the historical, structural/institutional, discursive, and
textuality
related contexts of the text.10
7
Gadamer, Truth and Method, 306.
Ricoeur, Hermeneutics and the Human Sciences, 14564. Ricoeur speaks especially of including Lvi
Strauss s
structural approach as a stage within interpretation.
9
For example, Jrgen Habermas. See Ricoeur, Hermeneutics and the Human Sciences, 7883.
10
For a systematic approach to the political interpretation of myth and cosmology, see Lincoln, Theorizing Myth,
14951; and idem, How to Read a Religious Text.
Placing the alchemical text in diachronic historical context, the scholar may
illuminate its links to other texts, ideas, persons, groups, and events from before or
after its time. Placing the text in synchronic sociological context,11 the scholar may
study institutions and discourses, illuminating how the text deploys discourses in
relation to social structures, institutions, or other constellations of power. By
discourse, I refer to Michel Foucaults conception of discourses as highly regulated
groupings of utterances or statements with internal rules which are specic to
discourse itself, and not bound to any single institution.12 Sociologists of culture tell
us that people develop and use discourses and other cultural elements in order to
deal with the institutions and structures that make up human social lifeand
perhaps this is even our main use of culture.13 Thus, we cannot understand cultural
elements without understanding how they relate to institutions.
When I analyze Chens social world from a historical perspective, I nd it
populated by real persons, while when analyzing it from a sociological perspective, I
see Weberian ideal types of master, disciple, patron, monastic, and spiritual seeker.
From a historical perspective, I may study Chens relations with particular disciples
such as Deng Yanghao , or his visits to monasteries at specic times, while
from a sociological perspective, I may study the masterdisciple institution or other
structures. From a historical perspective I may study Chens citations of previous
masters, while from a sociological perspective I may study the patterns of his
appropriation and manipulation of discourses.
Placing the text in the context of material textuality, the scholar may study
how the production and reception of alchemical knowledge is allowed or constrained
by the media of printed, handwritten, or oral texts, each with their own eects. The
scholar may also study the text as writing, which escapes from or transcends its site
of production in ways dierent from speech.
Finally, the scholar must always interrogate his or her own prejudices.
11
By sociological context I mean context as studied not merely by sociology, but also by social sciences such as
anthropology, linguistics, or psychology. These social sciences may be diachronic too, of course, but their special
contribution is synchronic structural or functional perspective.
12
Mills, Discourse, 48.
13
Swidler, Talk of Love, 17779.
Jonathan Z. Smith says that the historian of religion must be relentlessly self
conscious. Indeed, this selfconsciousness constitutes his primary expertise, his
foremost object of study.14 While Smith may be hoping primarily to avoid bad
writing or thinking, Paul Ricoeur holds out the hope that this selfconsciousness will
be part of our process of selfunderstanding and personal growth:
the text is the medium through which we understand ourselves. . . . Henceforth,
to understand is to understand oneself in ont of the text. It is not a question of
imposing upon the text our nite capacity of understanding, but of exposing
ourselves to the text and receiving from it an enlarged self . . .15
Translation of foreign thoughtworlds and critique of their ideologies enriches us as it
reects and contributes to our own constructive selfcritique.
These seven perspectives that I hold as essential for the study of inner
alchemyphilological, exegetical, historical, structural/institutional, discursive,
textuality, and selfreectivedo not exhaust the eld, of course. Other perspectives
that I do not address in the dissertation include philosophy, ethics, the lived body,16
the sacred,17 psychology, metaphor theory,18 cognitive science, neuroscience, and
biomedicine. The study of laboratory alchemy would also include the perspective of
chemistry. Religion is also a necessary perspective for the study of inner alchemy, but
I do not list it as an eighth perspective since it is related to all of the perspectives,
especially the exegetical, institutional, and discursive perspectives.
I want to make inneralchemical texts meaningful for scholars of religion. Other
audiences, such as meditators, may nd practiceoriented, experiential, or spiritual
approaches more meaningful. These approaches are worthy of both respect and
critique. I know of no satisfactory way to apply them to the historical study of
alchemy.
14
Smith, Imagining Religion, xi.
15
Ricoeur, Hermeneutics and the Human Sciences, 14243.
16
As in the work of Maurice MerleauPonty, Thomas Csordas, et al.
17
As in the work of Mircea Eliade.
18
As in the work of George Lako , Mark Johnson, et al.
2, Literature Review
2.1, Studies of Inner Alchemy
2.1.1, Studies in Chinese.
Inner alchemy has never died out in Mainland China and
Taiwan, and new primary texts on inner alchemy and similar forms of selfcultivation
continue to be published, even by staterun publishing houses. The academic study of
inner alchemy in Mainland China began in the 1970s and 80s, when qigong qi
training grew in popularity and received pseudoscientic legitimacy.19 Traditional
selfcultivation practices such as inner alchemy have always been religious practices,
existing within a religious matrix including monastic life, the masterdisciple
institution, worship of deities, a sense of the sacred, cosmology, ritual, and ethics. Yet
by treating qigong as a form of scientic medicine rather than religion, it became
possible for Chinese scholars to research the history of inner alchemy even under a
regime of state atheism. Nevertheless, most Mainland scholars of inner alchemy
blend critical academic discourse with traditional discourses on selfcultivation,
health, and ethics. I term this contemporarytraditional scholarship. Mainland
scholars do not explicitly base their historiography on personal practice and
experience, but their professional interest in inner alchemy is certainly informed by
personal interests in health practices and spirituality.20 In Taiwan, the study of inner
alchemy is almost completely practiceoriented.
The rst generation of modern Chinese scholars of inner alchemy includes Li
Yuanguo, Ma Jiren, Hao Qin, and Wang Mu.21 The books of Li, Ma, and Hao
combine historical narratives with general discussions of inneralchemical practice
and sections on the teachings of specic gures. Wangs commentary uses the text of
the alchemical classic Wuzhen pian Chapters on Awakening to the Perfect to develop
his own understanding of orthodox inner alchemy, based on Quanzhen Daoist
19
Palmer, Qigong Fever.
20
I do not mean this as a criticism. All scholars have subjective reasons for their choice of study, although some
may protest that they practice science as a vocation, according to Max Webers ideal.
21
Li Yuanguo, Daojiao qigong yangsheng xue; Ma, Daojiao yu liandan; Hao, Longhu dandao; Wang Mu, Wuzhen pian
qianjie. I do not mention here the books of Chen Yingning and Hu Haiya . Their work is valuable
for understanding inner alchemy, but I consider their books to be primary sources rather than secondary sources.
teachings. While Li combines lifenurturing yangsheng and inneralchemical

traditions into a single narrative, Ma and Hao separate lifenurturing from inner
alchemy, each devoting one book to inner alchemy and a second book to life
nurturing or qigong.22 The books by these four scholars are invaluable references for
any student of the subject.
Li and Ma betray a naturalistic attitude, a reluctance to accept inner alchemy
as an ineluctably religious tradition. Li writes of one Daoists teachings, This type of
interpretation is relatively scientic. It cuts down on the penumbra of mystic
dazzlement which had surmounted inner alchemy for ages.23 Ma writes, Therefore,
the elixir is an e
ect reecting the repletion and cyclical transformation of essence,
qi, and spirit. Its just that some men of old dressed this in mystical garb, making it
hard for people to grasp, and thats all.24 However, in Chen Zhixus teachings, inner
alchemy is absolutely inseparable from religious factors such as the worship of
deities, participation in cosmic process, and ritual. In other words, the mystical or
in my terms, esoteric aspect of inner alchemical teachings is not a mere robe which
may be do
ed, but the very skin of the traditionand if we call it a skin, then it is
not just the epidermis, but the internal membranes as well. Before the modern
period and the arrival of Western science and scientism, I doubt it would be possible
to separate alchemy from religion in the teachings of any alchemist.
Books by the second generation of modern Chinese scholars of inner alchemy
include general works by Zhang Qin, Ge Guolong, Yang Lihua, and Shen Jie,25 and
monographs by Zhang Guangbao, Yang Ming, Liu Zhong, Zeng Chuanhui, and Xie
Zhengqiang.26 Inner alchemy is also discussed in every Chinese overview history of
22
Ma Jiren has written Daojiao yu qigong in addition to Daojiao yu liandan; Hao Qin has written Dao zai yangsheng in
addition to Longhu dandao.
23
Li Yuanguo, Daojiao qigong yangsheng xue, 301.
24
Ma Jiren, Daojiao yu liandan, 130.
25
Zhang Qin, Daojiao lianyang xinlixue; Ge Guolong, Daojiao neidan xue tanwei; Ge Guolong, Daojiao neidan xue
suyuan; Yang Lihua, Niming de pinjie; Shen Jie, Neidan written by a Mainland author, though published in Hong
Kong . I do not include primary sources and practitioneroriented works such as the books of Tian Chengyang
and Zhang Xingfa .
26
Zhang Guangbao, JinYuan Quanzhen Dao neidan xinxing xue; Zhang Guangbao, TangSong neidan daojiao; Yang
Ming, Daojiao yangshengjia Lu Xixing yu ta de Fanghu waishi; Liu Ning, Liu Yiming xiudao sixiang yanjiu; Zeng
Chuanhui, Yuandai Cantong xue; and Xie Zhengqiang, Fu Jinquan neidan sixiang yanjiu.
Daoism.27 The general works add little to the similar works by Li, Ma, and Hao of the
previous generation, and repeat some of the same scientistic fallacies. Zhang Qins
book aims to interpret inner alchemy in terms of modern psychology, and Ge
Guolongs rst book aims to do so in terms of analytic philosophy, but neither
attempt even gets o the ground. The historical monographs are of greater value
than the general works. Until they are ready to rethink their historiographical
assumptions, one hopes that Chinese scholars will concentrate their research on
specic gures, movements, or texts, which would at least oer new historical data,
rather than continuing to plow the same exhausted soil.
When we review the study of inner alchemy in modern China in terms of the
seven perspectives I call for above, we nd only three of the seven represented:
philology, the perspective of translating alchemical terminology into a modern idiom,
and the historical perspective primarily intellectual history. We might not expect to
nd Chinese scholars employing theories of discourse or textuality which are recent
Western trends, and it is not surprising to nd a lack of methodological selfcritique
in such a cheerfully scientistic, positivistic, and forwardlooking academic culture,
yet we might be surprised to see that Mainland Chinese scholars have never studied
premodern Daoism or inner alchemy in terms of social structures or institutions. It
is ironic that nominally Marxist Chinese intellectuals lack a sociological perspective,
but state MarxLeninMaoism has little in common with Western academic
Marxism, and critique is not encouraged in the Chinese academy unless directed
away from modern Chinese society.28 Other defects of Chinese scholarship include
scientism, a fondness for pseudosciences and parapsychology,29 a reluctance to view
inner alchemy as thoroughly religious, and a linear riseandfall historiographic script
27
Worthy of mention are two major histories of Daoism edited in Beijing and Sichuan Ren Jiyu, Zhonuo daojiao
shi; Qing Xitai, Zhonuo daojiao shi, and two histories of Daoist thought Qing Xitai, Zhonuo daojiao sixiang
shigang; Kong Linghong, SongMing daojiao sixiang yanjiu.
28
There are sociological reasons why the postrevolutionary Marxism of China should dier from the pre
revolutionary Marxism of the Western academy. Stanislaw Ossowski has noted how revolutionary ideologies
change after the revolution is accomplished: before the revolution they portray the society as dichotomously
divided, which justies the need for the revolution itself, but after the revolution, they are transformed into
functionalisttype justications of the status quo Ossowski is paraphrased in Bernard, The ConsensusConict
Debate, 200.
29
Cf. Li Yuanguo, Daojiao qigong yangsheng xue, 114, 14546, 191.
10
according to which the MingQing period must necessarily be viewed as a time of

stasis or decline.
Although we nd only the philological, exegetical, and historical perspectives
in Chinese scholarship on inner alchemy, these are in fact the most basic and
important perspectives, and Chinese scholars have a great amount to contribute
here. Western scholars will rarely be able to read as broadly in Daoist primary
sources as Chinese scholars do, so Western scholars must rely on their superior
breadth of reading. Also, as I argue in chapter 6 below, Chinese contemporary
traditional scholarship on inner alchemy participates in the tradition of inner
alchemy itself, and has much to o er to Western scholars. Inner alchemy is part of
these scholars e ective history, and if Western scholars were to ignore their views,
their own understanding would su er. In my chapter 4 on inner alchemy, I have
absorbed the contemporarytraditional scholarship of Hao, Ma, and Li, and
reconstituted it according to my own lights.
2.1.2, Studies in Japanese.
Japanese scholars have contributed specialized
studies related to specic inner alchemical gures, texts, and forms of thought.
Unlike Chinese and Western scholars, Japanese scholars have produced articles but
almost no books though some articles are of monograph length
. Azuma and Fukui
have studied the structure of the classic Wuzhen pian;30 Hachiya, Imai, Matsushita,
Miyakawa, Sakauchi, and Yokote have studied earlier traditions of inner alchemy or
traditions linked to inner alchemy
;31 Miura, Mori, and Yokote have studied later
traditions;32 Mori has also contributed many textual studies on Daoist works from
the MingQing period, often dealing with inner alchemy;33 Akioka and Ikai have
30
Azuma, Ch Hakutan Goshin hen no kenky to ksh; Azuma, Goshin hen no naitan shis; Fukui, Goshin hen
no ksei ni tsuite.
31
Hachiya, Kindai dky no kenky; Hachiya, Chy shinjin kinkan gyokusa ketsu ni tsuite; Imai, Kintan dky
kenky; Matsushita, Zenshin Ky Nansh ni okeru seimei setsu no tenkai; Miyakawa, NanS no dshi Haku
Gyokusen no jiseki; Sakauchi, ShRy dend sh to naitan shis; Yokote, Haku Gyokusen to NanS knan
dky.
32
Miura, Gendai shis kenky josetsu; Mori, Kinsei naitand no sanky itchi ron; Yokote, Zenshin D no
heny.
33
Cf. Mori, Identity and Lineage; Mori, Ds shy to Sh Yofu no Ryos fukei shiny; among others.
11
studied sexual alchemical teachings in the MingQing period;34 nally, Fukui,
Kamata, Kubo, Yokote, and Yoshikawa have studied inner alchemists borrowings
from Chan Buddhism.35 As is usual in Japanese Sinology, these studies are rigorous
and limited in scope. Japanese scholars interest in the interactions between inner
alchemical and Buddhist traditions is especially valuable, although they betray a
preference for Buddhism. Reviewing Japanese scholarship in terms of the seven
perspectives, we nd mainly the philological, historical, and textuality perspectives
represented. Japanese scholars often prefer to produce positivistic philology rather
than delve into the content of inner alchemical teachings, and are less interested in
translating alchemical terminology and thought into a modern idiom.
2.1.3, Studies in Western Languages.
Western scholars of inner alchemy have
concentrated on philology and translation, and rightly so, since philology and
translation into an accessible modern language are the most fundamental and
important steps in the study of inner alchemy. But this also means that the eld has
not advanced far beyond this stage. Dozens of books have been published which are
nothing but translation, sometimes with the apology that these translations are
meant to speak for themselves to the reader. This category includes the alchemical
translations of Thomas Cleary, Eva Wong, and Lu Kuan Y a.k.a. Charles
Luk .36 Other books, such as those by BaldrianHussein, Darga, Despeux, and
Wilhelm, include an extended introduction with the translation.37 These
introductions continue the task of translating alchemical language into accessible
modern language, with some historiography as well. Only six books have been
published which I would call critical or synthetic studies; these are by Despeux,
34
Akioka, Roku Seish no naitan shis; Ikai, J Samp no bchjutsu.
35
Fukui, Zenshind no Hannya shin ky juy ni tsuite; Kamata, Shin dky no keisei ni oyoboshita zen no
eiky; Kubo, Rshi hachijichi ka to setsu ni tsuite 1968, 1972 ; Kubo, Zenshin ky to Rinzai zen; Yokote,
Kanwa to naitan; Yoshikawa, Waki ha taku ni itarazu.
36
Cf. Pregadio, Review of Harmonizing Yin and Yang: The Dragon Tiger Classic, translated by Eva Wong.
37
BaldrianHussein, Procds secrets du joyau magique, a translation of DZ 1191, Michuan Zhengyang Zhenren lingbao
bifa; Darga, Das alchemistische Buch von innerem Wesen und Lebensenergie, a translation of Xingming guizhi; Despeux, La
Moee du Phnix Rouge, a translation of Chifeng sui ; Despeux, Trait dalchimie et de physiologie taoste, a
translation of Weisheng shenglixue mingzhi; and Wilhelm, The Secret of the Golden Flower, a translation of Taiyi jinhua
zongzhi and Huiming jing.
12
Esposito, Needham, Robinet, and Wile.38 These six studies all include translation,
save Needhams. Below I will compare the books by Needham, Robinet, and Wile.
Four books from Joseph Needhams project Science and Civilisation in China
mention Chinese alchemy, and one book is devoted to inner alchemy. Needham and
his collaborator Lu Gweidjen approach their study mainly from the
philological and historical perspectives. Their alchemical typology and views on the
evolution of alchemy from the laboratory to the oratory are at least as valuable as the
theories of Mainland scholars. Needhams theory of the global spread of specically
inner alchemy from China to the Arab and European alchemists, Indian yogis, and
American Transcendentalists, while unproven, is fascinating. Another of Needhams
controversial claims is that Chinese inner alchemy was in essence not psychological
or spiritual, but physiological.39 He believes that inner alchemists were aiming solely
at bodily longevity through biochemical means, and does not admit that inner
alchemy was a religious practice aimed at spiritual salvation, transcendence of the
human condition, and ascent to the heavens.40 I will show that, in fact, inner
alchemy is inseparable from these religious concepts and hopes.
Isabelle Robinets book is the best study of inneralchemical thought and
discourse in a Western language. Robinet understands alchemical language on its own
structural terms, and interprets it clearly. She is even able to notice contradictions
within the use of inneralchemical symbols in any given text, and identify this
transgression of the laws of logic as an important principle of alchemical thought.41
No other nonChinese scholar has been able to enter into the alchemical language to
this extent. One of Robinets insights has been crucial for my thinking about inner
alchemy:
It is, in eect, as a k an that neidan acts upon the spirit of the adept. A brain
teaser whose e
cacy resides precisely in the sort of seduction and fascination
38
Despeux, Taosme et corps humain; Despeux, Immortees de la Chine ancinne; Esposito, L
alchimia del soo;
Needham, Science and Civilisation in China, vol. 5, Chemistry and Chemical Technology, part 5, Spagyrical Discovery and
Invention: Physiological Alchemy; Robinet, Introduction l
alchimie intrieure taoste; and Wile, Art of the Bedchamber.
39
Needham, Science and Civilisation in China, 5.5:23.
40
Note Needham, Science and Civilisation in China, 5.5:23, where he translates, but tellingly leaves undiscussed, the
line the embryonic qi released from its husk . . . , a man can ascend to the heavens as an immortal.
41
Robinet, Introduction l
alchimie intrieure taoste, 95102.
13
that it obviously provokes in its usersmasters or adepts.42

It is Robinets insight, that inneralchemical language works like Chan Buddhist
language, that I take as my starting point for applying the approaches and
achievements of Chan Studies to the study of inner alchemy.
Robinets book has a aw, however: it is ahistorical. Douglas Wile identies
this aw in a book review:
To answer fundamental questions about inner alchemy we must know something
about the inner alchemists, about the men and their subculture as
anthropologists and sociologists would describe them, or at least historians. . . .
The book left me satised that we have cracked the linguistic and conceptual
code of inner alchemy; we know what a strike, walk, and foul are, but we do
not know why grown men play baseball.43
Robinet treats inner alchemy as a homogeneous thoughtworld rather than a
discourse that was deployed by living people over time and in connection with social
institutions. She studies the alchemical langue, but not its parole. She does oer a
General Historical Survey at the beginning of the book, but does not tie this to her
study of inner alchemical thought. In fact, many of her insights are based on a close
reading of a single alchemical author, Li Daochun d. 1306
, and thus do not
take account of dierent teachings within the tradition. She also misreads alchemists
views about sexual cultivation, and even asserts that Chen Zhixu was not a sexual
alchemist. Robinets strength is her keen perception of inneralchemical thought; her
weakness is her conscious prescinding from inneralchemical practice.
Douglas Wiles book on sexual cultivation in China,44 while not exclusively
devoted to the subject of inner alchemy, nevertheless contains a reliable description
of inner alchemy as part of Wiles study of sexual alchemy. Wile translates texts on
sexual cultivation from throughout Chinese history; about half of his material is
42
Robinet, Introduction l alchimie intrieure taoste, 78.
43
Wile, Review of Introduction l alchimie intrieure taoste, 89, 91. In a rejoinder to Wiles review, Robinet says that
she avoided consideration of physiological teachings because each alchemist oers a somewhat dierent system
making a general summary dicult
, and because she thinks
that many of the alchemists themselves downplay
the physiological side she is probably thinking of Li Daochun in particular
. She also says that the alchemists
intimate and ultimate mover . . . clearly . . . is not a sociological or political mover, which in their eld of action
would be a supercial one; Robinet, Response to Douglas Wiles Review of Introduction l alchimie intrieure
taoste, 14647.
I show in this dissertation. among other things, that 1
it is worthwhile to study the physiological teachings of
intellectual alchemists, and 2
their abstract teachings can be thoroughly political, i.e., micropolitical.
44
Wile, The Art of the Bedchamber.
14
sexual alchemy from the MingQing period. Wile is able to combine philological,
exegetical, and historical perspectives in his book. He oers a history of the
discourse of sexual cultivation, but does not attempt to locate it within the social
worlds of the cultivators. He does not analyze the institutional background of sexual
alchemy hinted at in the alchemical texts themselves.
Mention must also be made of Judith Berlings book on the Mingdynasty
sectarian founder Lin Zhaoen 151798
, which includes a section on Lins
own odd form of inner alchemy, called stilling in the back genbei
.45 During
the past few years, at least seven dissertations in English related to the history and
practice of Chinese inner alchemy have appeared, so the future for this eld of study
looks promising.46
2.2, Studies of Sexual Alchemy

Relatively few secondary studies on sexual alchemy in Chinese religion and society
have been published in any language, and Wiles section on the subject has yet to be
equalled. General discussions of sexual alchemy can be found in Chinese by Li
Yuanguo, Hao Qin, Cai Jun and Li Wenkun, and Zhong Laiyin;47 and in English by
Furth, Needham, Ruan, and Van Gulik.48 The sexual alchemy of the Ming gure Lu
Xixing has received special attention, and has been studied in some depth by
Yang Ming, Liu Tsunyan, Wile, and Akioka,49 and in less detail by Qing Xitai et al.,
45
Berling, The Syncretic Religion of Lin Chaoen, 11637.
46
Bellamide, SelfCultivation and Quanzhen Daoism, with Special Reference to the Legacy of Qiu Chuji; Crowe, The
Nature and Function of the Buddhist and Ru Teachings in Li Daochuns . ca. 1288 Wondrous Way of Peerless Orthodox Truth;
Komjathy, Cultivating Perfection: Mysticism and SelfTransformation in Early Quanzhen Daoism; Liu Xun, In Search of
Immortality: Daoist Inner Alchemy in Early Twentieth Century China; Skar, Golden Elixir Alchemy: The Formation of the
Southern Lineage and the Transformation of Medieval China; Valussi, Beheading the Red Dragon: A History of Female
Inner Alchemy in China; Wang Li, The Daoist Way of Transcendence: Bai Yuchans Inner Alchemical Thought and
Practice.
47
Li Yuanguo, Daojiao qigong yangsheng xue, 397417; Hao Qin, Longhu dan dao, 285350; Cai Jun and Li Wenkun,
Xing kexue yu Zhonuo chuantong xing xiulian; Zhong Laiyin, Longhu ji, 2:589666.
48
Furth, A Flourishing Yin, 187223. Needham, Science and Civilisation in China, 5.5:186, 284, and passim; Ruan Fang
Fu, Sex in China, 4968; and Van Gulik, Sexual Life in Ancient China, passim.
49
Yang Ming, Daojiao yangshengjia Lu Xixing yu tade Fanghu waishi; Liu Tsunyan, Lu Hsihsing: A Confucian
Scholar, Taoist Priest and Buddhist Devotee of the Sixteenth Century; Liu Tsunyan, Lu Hsihsing and His
Commentaries on the Tsantungchi; Wile, The Art of the Bedchamber; Akioka, Roku Seish no naitan shis;
15
Li Yuanguo, Hao Qin, and Xu Zhaoren.50 The Qing sexual alchemist Fu Jinquan
has been studied by Xie Zhengqiang.51
Contemporarytraditional scholars are ambivalent about sexual alchemy,
accepting it as a legitimate form of selfcultivation while warning against over
indulgence. Li Yuanguo cites Needhams opinion that Chinese sexual cultivation is
healthyminded,52 a case of feedback between East and West. Liu Tsunyan accepts
Lu Xixings sexual alchemy as orthodox, but rejects some of his texts also translated
by Wile as vulgar, and is ultimately ambivalent about sexual alchemy: the
di erence between the Taoist dualcultivation and the comparatively degenerate arts
of love was very tenuous at that time, in fact it was so vague that even Taoist priests
themselves would have some confusion in interpreting it.53 Liu here comes close to
the realization that the line between orthodox and heterodox practices was
constructed as a site of contestation. Isabelle Robinet is mistaken on this point as
well. She criticizes Li Yuanguo for interpreting certain inneralchemical terms such
as other, bi ; and self, wo as referring to paired cultivation. She argues that
any seemingly sexual terms in the literature are merely metaphorical, and that the
classic inner alchemists rejected sexual alchemy, citing Chen Zhixu himself as an
example.54 Robinet fails to recognize that, when Chen excoriates practitioners of
sanfeng caizhan gathering and battling at the three peaks, he is not
rejecting sexual alchemy per se, but only rejecting a more vulgar form involving
tangible bodily secretions I address this issue in chapter 5, 1. As I show in chapter
6, readers in the Chinese alchemical tradition have never forgotten that Chen taught
sexual alchemy. Li Yuanguo represents this tradition of interpretation, and Western
scholars such as Robinet or ourselves should think twice before rejecting this
traditional perspective.
50
Qing Xitai, Zhonuo daojiao shi, 4:2358; Li Yuanguo, Daojiao qigong yangsheng xue, 52026; Hao Qin, Longhu dan
dao, 33538; Xu Zhaoren, Daojiao yu chaoyue, 33055.
51
Xie Zhengqiang, Fu Jinquan neidan sixiang yanjiu.
52
53
Liu Tsunyan, Lu Hsihsing and his Commentaries on the Ts an t ung ch i, 227.
54
Robinet, Introduction l alchimie intrieure taoste, 4850.
16
2.3, Studies of Chen Zhixu

Most surveys of the history of Daoism mention Chen Zhixu as a pivotal gure in the
history of inner alchemy. The standard history of inner alchemy begins with the
Southern and Northern Lineages of the Golden Elixir Jindan Nan
Bei Zong
arising separately within the northern and southern regions of a China divided
by foreign conquest dynasties. The Southern Lineage was said to have begun with
Zhang Boduan 984?1082 , author of the Wuzhen pian
Stanzas on
Awakening to the Perfect , and been later codied by Bai Yuchan 1194
1229+ ; and the Northern Lineage refers to early Quanzhen Daoism. When the
Mongols conquered the whole of China, and the populations of North and South
China began to mingle once again, Quanzhen Daoism moved into the South, and
absorbed the Southern Lineage.55 The standard view is that Chen Zhixu absorbed
elements of both traditions and blended them in his own thought and practice.56 But
this description of Chen is wrong. While Chen claims descent from a Quanzhen sub
lineage, and cites Quanzhen gures now and again, his writings actually contain not a
hint of distinctively Quanzhen teachings or Quanzhen spirit, and instead represent a
native Jiangxi tradition. Chens false claim to this lineage re ects the name
recognition value that Quanzhen Daoism possessed in South China at this time, but
Chens teachings do not represent a blend of Northern and Southern elements.
Chen Zhixu is discussed in some depth by Zeng, and Zhou, and in less depth
by Davis and Chen, Eskildsen, He and Zhan, Kong, Li Yuanguo, and Reiter.57 Zeng is
studying the history of Zhouyi Cantong qi studies, and is exclusively interested in
Chens Cantong qi commentary. I have seen Zhou Yes work mentioned online, but
have not read it. Davis and Chen merely published some biographical information.
Eskildsen has translated a ritual text by Chen as an example of early Quanzhen ritual
55
This history is studied in Skar, Golden Elixir Alchemy.
56
Cf. Robinet, Introduction l alchimie intrieure taoste, 43, as one example of this common natrrative.
57
Zeng Chuanhui, Yuandai Cantong xue; Zhou Ye, Shangyangzi Chen Zhixu shengping ji dandao sixiang yanjiu;
Zhou Ye, Shangyangzi Chen Zhixu shengping ji Jindan dayao de dandao sixiang; Davis and Chen, Shang
Yang
Tzu, Taoist Writer and Commentator on Alchemy; Eskildsen, The Beliefs and Practices of Early Chan
Chen
Taoism, 395408; He Naichuan and Zhan Shichuang, Lun Chen Zhixu de Jigong leixing shi; Kong Linghong,
Song Ming daojiao sixiang yanjiu, 27581; Li Yuanguo, Daojiao qigong yangsheng xue, 41631; and Reiter, Die
Synkreitistischen tendenzen der zeit.
17
this is misleading, since Chen does not represent an authentic Quanzhen tradition.
Reiter rightly takes Chen Zhixu as an example of the syncretic trend of his times. He
and Zhen have studied several of Chens poems, and Kong studies Chens thought.
My approach to Chen Zhixus life and teachings departs signicantly from these
previous studies.
3, Denitions
3.1, Inner alchemy
Chapter 4 of this dissertation is an extended answer to the question What is inner
alchemy? For the moment, I oer three brief denitions. The rst is my own, the
second is by Hao Qin, and the third is by Robinet.
Denition 1:
Inner alchemists aim to join yin and yang, and recover primal perfection, through
contemplative practice.
Denition 2:
Inner alchemists borrow the experience, theory, and technical terms of laboratory
alchemists to rene their life endowment ming
. They take the human body as
the chamber, heart and kidneys as furnace and caldron, essence, qi, and spirit as
the pharmaca, intention and breath as the ring, to create an elixir within the
body, and seek immortality and transcendence.58
Denition 3:
Interior alchemy texts are always characterized by these features:

1. a concern for training, both mental and physiological, with the mental aspect
often tending to predominate;
2. a synthesizing tendency bringing together various Taoist elements breathing
exercises, visualization, alchemy
, certain Buddhist speculations and methods
speculations on the wu and the you, Chan gonganthe kans of Japanese zen
,
and references to Confucian texts;
3. a systematized use of the trigrams and hexagrams of the Book of Change, already
used metaphorically in laboratory alchemy and ritual; and
4. references to chemical practices, of a purely metaphorical nature, following an
interiorized interpretation we have already seen in less developed form in the
58
From Ge Guolong, Daojiao neidan xue tanwei, 5, citing Hao Qin, Longhu dandao, 23 p. 7 in Beijing ed.
. My two
thousandword description in chapter 4 is partially based on this denition. Hao literally says that intention and
breath are the huohou , which I translate here as ring, but usually translate as ring periods.
18
Shangqing school.59
A denition of inner alchemy must mention continuities between inner alchemy and
laboratory alchemy, as well as other older Daoist traditions, yet ought to reserve the
name inner alchemy for a tradition which applies alchemical, cosmological, and
Yijing discourse to the rening of corporeal energies. Inner alchemy must be dened,
rst and foremost, in terms of discourse, as Robinet would do. Practicebased
denitions of inner alchemy, like Needhams, turn inner alchemy into a tradition
which had been practiced throughout the history of Daoism, an impossibly broad
denition.60
Actually, Chen Zhixu does not use the term neidan inner elixir; thus,
inner alchemy to describe his teachings. He does use the term neidan to refer to an
aspect of his practice,61 but even so, the term hardly occurs in his writings. Chen
instead says that he teaches the golden elixir jindan , translated metallous
enchymoma by Joseph Needham and others. But because we need to remember
that this is an alchemy62 carried out within the human body, and not in a laboratory,
we will term Chens teaching inner alchemy.
3.2, Daoism and Daoists
In his 1978 article, Nathan Sivin argues that the term Daoism has been used
sloppily in the past. For example, the term can be used to refer to a religion, a
philosophy, or a mystic and natureloving sensibility. He believes that a more
satisfactory state of aairs will depend not on imposing a standard denition but on
being explicit about which of the many senses of Taoism we are invoking in each
instance.63 Another oftcited attempt to dene Daoism is Michel Strickmanns.
59
Robinet, Taoism: Growth of a Religion, 127.
60
Needham, Science and Civilisation in China, 5.5:34: The neidan palace was in fact a house of many mansions, and
over the two millenia of its existence there grew up a multiplicity of teachers, schools, and sects, embodying the
traditions of a number of Taoist centres. By a narrower and more common denition, inner alchemy has existed
for one millennium only.
61
Usually, for Chen, the neidan is equivalent to the neiyao inner pharmacon, but sometimes the neidan is
equivalent to the elixir within the Yellow Court, a.k.a. the holy fetus shengtai .
62
Alchemy waidan was the art of making elixirs of immortality, perfected substances which brought about
personal transcendence and eternal life . . .; Sivin, Chinese Alchemy and the Manipulation of Time, 513.
63
Sivin, On the Word Taoist as a Source of Perplexity, 304.
19
Strickmann
denes as Daoist those who 1 recognize the historical position of Zhang
Daoling; 2 worship the pure emanations of the Dao rather than the vulgar
gods of the people at large; and 3 safeguard and perpetuate their own lore and
practices through esoteric rites of transmission.64
Throughout this dissertation, I will be referring only to Daoism as an institutional
religion, though an institution may be merely a codied practice rather than a
chartered organization. My analytical denition of Daoism is polythetic, based on an
openended set of elements, and does take our naturallanguage, uncritical, English
language use of the term Daoism into consideration. The set of elements by which
we dene Daoism includes the gure of the saint and qicosmology these two are
the basis for Robinets general view of Daoism,65 a discourse on sometimes
means the Dao, sometimes a dao, a discourse privileging life, physical
transcendence or immortality, selfcultivation, salvation of ancestors,
correspondences between micro and macrocosm or corporeal and celestial spirits,
rituals for communicating with a celestial bureaucracy, and more. None of these
elements need be unique to Daoism, and some forms of Daoism may lack some of
the elements. By this denition, Daoism would have no sine qua non, no singular
essence, but rather, dierent cases would be farther from or closer to an ideal type.66
More relevant to this dissertation is the question of who is a Daoist, and I
will not oer my nal answer until the conclusion. Chen Zhixu considered himself a
Daoist, and was probably ordained, but spent much of his career outside the
monastic network. Chens main Daoist institution is the uno
cial institution of
master and disciple, not the monastic system. Some of his disciples may have had few
direct links to the system of ordained Daoist monastics, yet we would not call them
any less Daoist for that.
When speaking of religious Daoism, our prototype for a Daoist is an ordained
Daoist priest or monastic, though nonprototypical lay Daoists ought still to be
64
Bokenkamp, Early Daoist Scriptures, 14, citing Strickmann, On the Alchemy of Tao Hungching, 16467.
65
Pregadio, In Memoriam Isabelle Robinet, 19322000, xi.
66
For another polythetic denition of Daoism, see Raz, Creation of Tradition: The Five Talismans of the Numinous
Treasure and the Formation of Early Daoism, 2223.
20
considered Daoist. Yet ironically, Chen Zhixu, a prototypical Daoist, sometimes

does not think of himself rst and foremost as a Daoist! His views of his relations
with other traditions such as Chan Buddhism or NeoConfucianism are elastic,
stretching or contracting according to strategy and circumstance. Chen is not always
contrasting one religion with another. In our terms, he is not always contrasting
Buddhism with Daoism, or, in his own terms, he is not always contrasting the
tradition of the Buddha with the tradition of Laozi. Chen focuses almost
exclusively on selfcultivation; sometimes he treats selfcultivation as the primary
category, which includes various forms of practice that we would distinguish as
Daoist or Buddhist. Within the category of selfcultivation, he may ally himself
more closely to a true form of Buddhism than to a false form of Daoism, or he
may not speak of these forms of selfcultivation as Buddhist or Daoist at all. In
studying Chinese religions, the emphasis should not always be put on religions, but
instead it may often be better put upon traditions, practices, discourses, or
repertoires, which may cut across the boundaries of various religions.67
3.3, Religion
Finally, we must dene religion. According to J. Z. Smith, Religion is not a native
term; it is a term created by scholars for their intellectual purposes and is therefore
theirs to dene.68 And yet Western scholars always come to their study with a pre
existing folk understanding of religion, a prototype, based on their familiarity
with Christianity or Judaism. Benson Saler argues that Christianity and Judaism have
always served as prototypes for Western anthropologists studying foreign religions.
Many anthropologists who study religion implicitly and sometimes explicitly
compare what strikes them as religious in nonWestern societies with what they
suppose to be the religious traditions of the West. Indeed, they rst recognize
religion among nonWestern peoples by nding professed convictions and other
behaviors that they interpret as analogues of those that they assign to the domain
of religion in Western societies, past and present. In short, ideas about the
natures and histories of religions in the West serve as . . . prototypesas the rst
or original modelsguiding anthropologists in their development of models of
67
For the concept of repertoires, see Campany, The Meanings of Cuisines of Transcendence in Late Classical
and Early Medieval China 1n1, 3. Also cf. Swidler, Talk of Love, 24; idem, Culture in Action.
68
Smith, Religion, Religions, Religious, 281.
21
religion among nonWestern peoples.69

Saler argues that Western scholars of religion should acknowledge that the academic
study of religion owes its form and, I would add, its raison dtre to the prototypical
Western religions, Christianity and Judaism. This is not acknowledging a failing, but
acknowledging the way the human mind constructs categories.
The human mind constructs categories such as fruit, bird, or furniture,
based on prototypes. Naturallyconstructed categories do not have strictlydened
boundaries, but rather are made up of collections of more or less prototypical
individuals. For example, we seem to see apple as a more prototypical fruit than
olive, robin as a more prototypical bird than penguin, and chairs as more
prototypical furniture than radios.
Applying this theory about human cognition to the study of religion, Saler
proposes that we consciously treat Christianity, Judaism, and Islam as exemplars of
religion; on the opposite pole, as a distant and doubtful case, would be something
like communism. Saler proposes that we not set up sharp boundaries around the
category of religion, so the question of whether or not communism is a religion
would be answered dierently in dierent situations. Saler proposes a polythetic,
multifactorial denition of religion based on the prototypes of Western
monotheism. He recommends that we conceptualize religion for analytical purposes
in terms of a pool of elements that often cluster together but that may do so in
greater or lesser degrees.70 Saler does not give an absolutely xed pool of elements,
but would include elements like belief in gods, a moral code with supernatural
warrant, eschatology, and rituals with extrahuman referents.71 I recommend Salers
approach for dening religion, Daoism, and inner alchemy.
4, Themes and Theories

69
Saler, Conceptualizing Religion, 199200.
70
Saler, Conceptualizing Religion, 213.
71
Saler, Conceptualizing Religion, 213. He mentions lists of elements proered by other authors such as William
Alston nine elements and Martin Southwold twelve 17071.
22
4.1, An Outline of Chens Religious Market

In my research on Chen Zhixu, I view his teachings and career in terms of an
economy of salvation. I organize my religiousmarket perspective around the
following six questions, and their many answers:
1 What is Chen selling?
He is selling salvation, and harmony with the sacred;
he is selling a unique religious worldview including such elements as
cosmology, anthropology, theory of transcendenthood, myth, theology of
various types of spirits or deities, metaphysics, ethics, theory and uses of
scripture, ritual, social institutions such as the masterdisciple
relationship, and way of life;
and nally, he is selling specic alchemical teachings.
2 To whom is he selling?
He is selling to laymen Confucians, literati, and o cials,
religious seekers,
Daoist monastics,
and even to Buddhist monastics.
3 What needs is he meeting?
These include the needs for
avoiding death and dissolution,
for rebirth and renewal,
participation in sacred anthropocosmic creation and transformation zaohua
,
feeling special or elect,
prestige,
agency or controlling ones destiny,
transference between disciple and master,
cognitive solutions to philosophical issues,
and probably also the need to manage ones sexuality and emotions.
4 How does he market and sell it?
He does this
by establishing and managing his mastership and authority,
by establishing correspondences to other known truths a strategy I term
extension,
through the esoteric assumption that truth is secret,
through an esoteric strategy of managing secrecy and display,
by making violent misreadings,
and by ex cathedra pronouncements and speech acts which I call secondary
salvic e ects.
5 How does salvation work for Chen?
23
There are two forms of salvation in Chens teachings: primary salvation, and
secondary salvic eects.
Primary salvation is achieved through
alchemical selfcultivation,
amassing karmic merit,
and intercession by spirits and deities.
Secondary salvic eects are produced through
achieving gnosis itself,
recreating the cosmogonic state in text or discourse,
reenacting the actions or lives of heroes or sages,
repeating the actions of the gods,
emphasizing correspondence of microcosm to macrocosm,
participating in cosmic creation, cosmizing the body,
and through a whole array of speechact eects enactments or
performance eects, such as
performing salvation, enlightenment, wisdom,
performing status as one of the elect,
performing the receiving of blessings from deities,
or performing cosmogony itself.
6 Why does he sell it, and what does he receive in payment or exchange?
He oers his teachings
for nancial gain,
from a sense of duty,
to save others,
because like all people he craves prestige,
in order to manage his mastership,
and ultimately for his own salvation.
While this religiousmarket perspective stands in the background of my research on
Chen Zhixu, I have not used it explicitly to structure the dissertation. Because no
one else has studied Chen in depth, the bulk of the dissertation is taken up with
groundwork on Chens alchemical teachings, situating them within the elds of inner
alchemy and sexual cultivation. Throughout the dissertation, I refer to many of the
points in the religiousmarket perspective outlined above, but not to all of them. In
the conclusion, I revisit this outline, eshing it out with cases drawn from my
chapters.
4.1.1, Theories of religious markets.
The religiousmarket perspective I have
outlined above is informed by a number of theorists, but is not taken directly from
any one of them. Currently there are quite a few scholars in the eld of sociology of
religion who use a market model to study religious life; Rodney Stark is the most
24
wellknown exponent of this approach.72 While I may make some use of this body of
work in future research, I have not used it at all for this dissertation, instead using
Pierre Bourdieus sociology of culture, especially his concepts of eld and capital.
Bourdieus work is more directly applicable to smallscale social interactions, and his
focus on intellectuals makes him more appropriate for my material. By applying
Bourdieus approach, I am able to emphasize the competitive and conictual nature
of Chens life and teachings. I discuss Bourdieus conict sociology at length in
chapter 3. My religiousmarket perspective is also informed by the work of Gernet
and Cole on economies of religious merit in Chinese Buddhism,73 though I do not
employ their work directly.
4.2, Esotericism
Within Chens competitive market economy of religious teachings, many of his
strategies for success involve claims, or assumptions, that the true path to salvation is
secret, known only to a few initiates. My thinking on this aspect of Chens career and
teachings is informed by the work of Hugh Urban. When we are faced with the
problem of discovering the secret teachings of an esoteric tradition, Urban advises us
to study the sociology of secrecy rather than esoteric content.74 In one article, Urban
discovers three strategies employed equally by two esoteric groups in unrelated
societies. These three strategies are
1 the creation of a new social space or private sphere, which promises equality
and liberation for all classes, while at the same time constructing new and more
rigid hierarchies; 2 a hermeneutical strategy
called stealing the lightning,
which appropriates the authority of traditional scriptures, while at the same time
asserting the superiority of esoteric exegesis; 3 a ritual strategy, which creates a
homology between the body of the initiate, the hierarchy of the cosmos and the
72
Stark and his coauthors have honed their perspective in many publications; Stark and Finke, Acts of Faith, is a
primer. Jelen, Sacred Markets, Sacred Canopies, is a volume of critique and justication. For alternative religious
market approaches, see Ekelund, et al., Sacred Trust: The Medieval Church as an Economic Firm; Eno, Selling
Sagehood: The Philosophical Marketplace in Early China; Goossaert, Taoist Masters and Spiritual Teachings,
in The Taoists of Peking, 18001949, 274320.
73
Gernet, Buddhism in Chinese Society: An Economic History; Cole, Mothers and Sons in Chinese Buddhism. Also see
Benavides, Economy; Walsh, The Economics of Salvation.
74
Urban takes his cues from Bellman and Lindstrom here, with Bourdieu supplying an overall framework; Urban,
Elitism and Esotericism, 34. Cf. Bellman, The Language of Secrecy, 3.; Lindstrom, Knowledge and Power in a South
Pacic Society, 119.; Bourdieu, Language and Symbolic Power.
25
hierarchy of the esoteric sect, inscribing the individual into the body of the order,
and inscribing the order onto the human body.75
In another article, he discovers four strategies used within an esoteric Hindu Tantric
tradition I will number them 47 :
4 The rst and most basic strategy is the advertisement of the secretthe
claim to possess very precious, rare, and valuable knowledge, while
simultaneously partially revealing and largely concealing it. . . .
5 The second of
these strategies is to construct a graded hierarchy of levels of truth and then to
restrict access to these truths by means of initiation. . . .
6 The third of these
strategies we might call the intentional and systematic use of ambiguous
language. . . .
7 The fourth of these strategies we might call . . . the power of
semantic shocknamely, the eect that deliberately jarring, unusual, weird, or
even oensive juxtapositions of words have on their audience.76
Robert Campany shows how seekers of transcendence in early medieval China
employ strategies 4 and 5. Campany notes that strategy 1 is irrelevant for his
material,77 and the same is true for Chen Zhixus case. I would also discard strategies
3 and 7 as not essentially esoteric though they are certainly found in Chens case . I
have found Chens most important esoteric strategy to be the strategy 2 claiming
that the classic texts are teaching a secret, in code , followed by strategy 5 restricting
secrets to graded initiates . Chen also employs strategy 6, dissimulating for the sake
of avoiding social censure or persecution. All of my answers to question 4, How does
he market and sell it?, in the religiousmarket outline above, are related to Urbans
strategies 2 and 46.
4.3, MasterDisciple Relations
Texts are elements of culture. If sociologists of culture are correct when they tell us
that peoples main use of culture is to deal with institutions and social structures,78
then practices of textual interpretation in any society must be studied in relation to
these social structures. The unrestrained interpretation of texts or oral traditions is
most likely to be found in social settings where social institutions do not depend
75
Urban, Elitism and Esotericism, 1.
76
Urban, The Torment of Secrecy, 23539.
77
Campany, Secrecy and Display, 29394.
78
26
directly upon the xed interpretation of texts. The esotericism of Chen Zhixu, or
the cases studied by Urban and Campany, are specic examples of this more general
rule. This is not to say that these are social settings where there is no stable
authority; rather, they are settings in which authority lies somewhere besides the
xed meaning of the canon. Social stability may lie in ritual, or the personal charisma
of leaders or scholars, rather than in the narrowly determinate meaning of a canon.
For example, traditional Jewish scriptural exegetes enjoyed much more interpretive
leeway than Christian scriptural exegetes did, presumably because Christian
authority relied relatively more on a determinate meaning of scripture, and Jewish
authority rested relatively more on other sources. Within Judaism or Islam, the most
unrestrained forms of scriptural exegesis would be found in social settings where
exegetical authority rested mainly on the charismatic authority of the master, such as
in the traditions of Kabbalah or Susm. In such settings, the masterdisciple relation,
or the network centered on a master, carries the weight of social structure. Esoteric
interpretation of texts is often found in such social settingsthe strong master
disciple bonds and lineages make esoteric strategies more successful, and esoteric
strategies help to keep these bonds strong. The sociology of inner alchemy is based
squarely on the masterdisciple bond. My attention was rst drawn to the importance
of masterdisciple relations and lineage by scholarship on Chan Buddhism, such as
McRaes work on encounter dialogue.79
4.4, The Master Function

In Chens social world, inneralchemical authority rests on mastership. The case of
inneralchemical mastership bears comparison with Faures account of mastership in
Chan Buddhism:
The denition of masters and disciples, and of what is supposed to be
transmitted through them, is primarily social. . . . Chan masters . . . are not
masters because they have realized the truth and can now teach it although, of
course, this may be the case; rather, they can teach the truth because, having
been socially dened as Chan masters, what they teach has the performative
power of being the truth. Like the author function analyzed by Foucault, the
79
McRae, Seeing through Zen. Steiner, Lessons of the Masters, discusses masterdisciple relations in Western
intellectual history. Also see Wach, Master and Disciple.
27
master function is a position determined by discourse . . . In this sense, its

performative power requires a broad social consensus.80
Foulk makes a similar point regarding the practice of commenting on koans, as in
Biyan lu or Wumen guan:
The mark of the master, or rather the formal position of master, is to have the
last word and pronounce ultimate judgment.
The voice of awakening is a matter of positioning in a formal ritual or literary
structure: whatever the voice of the judge in a dialogue says, regardless of its
semantic content, represents the truth, or the standpoint of awakening. In a
social context, whoever can work himself by whatever means into the position
of speaking as a judge of old cases will thereafter be deemed a worthy spokesman
of the awakened point of view, regardless of what he says.81
Within these specic facetoface or textual contexts in Chan Buddhism, truth is
dened as whatever the enlightened master says, and the enlightened master is
anyone able to occupy that position in a social institution. In Chens social arena, the
master function, or the authority of the masterinstitution, is never as strong as in
Faure and Foulks accounts. Chen would like to achieve such unquestioned
mastership, but lacking the support of a monastic institution as in the Chan
Buddhist case, he can only try his best, using esoteric or other strategies. In Chens
situation, the charisma of mastership has not been routinized and institutionalized as
in Chan Buddhism, so he must put more eort into managing his mastership.82
In addition to Bourdieus sociology of intellectuals, and the study of Chan
Buddhism by Faure and Foulk, my thinking about mastership has also been informed
by the work of Peter Brown on the authority of the saint in early Christianity. Just as
religious truth resides in the position of the Chan master in Faure or Foulks
accounts, religious power resides in the position of the saint in Browns account:
The holy man was expected to establish himself almost as a blessed object in
the midst of his fellows. . . . Right down to his rigid stance, his gure was a
precipitate of the unfullled needs of an illoriented and highly competitive
society. What needs, therefore, did his person fulll? . . .
80
Faure, The Rhetoric of Immediacy, 22.
81
Foulk, The Form and Function of Koan Literature, 34, 35. T 2003, Biyan lu, is by Yuanwu Keqin
10631135, and T 2005, Wumen guan, is by Wumen Huikai 11831260.
82
Palmer, Hsu, and Goossaert also make valuable contributions to the study of mastership, masterdisciple
relations, and authority in Daoism and Chinese society; Palmer, The Grandmasters, in Qigong Fever, 86101;
Hsu, The Transmission of Chinese Medicine; Goossaert, The Taoists of Peking, 18001949.
28
Power gained in this way had to be seen to exist. . . .
Such power was built up by hard, unobtrusive and so, for us, partly obscure
work among those who needed constant and unspectacular ministrations.83
Browns formulation of the master function allows more agency for the masters
audience than Faures or Foulks do, and rightly so. For Brown, and for Bourdieu,
master and audience constitute one another. As Bourdieu says, the representative
creates the group which creates him.84 The master is dened by his audience, and
serves as the linchpin of a group.
4.5, Speech Act Theory and Performativity
Speechact theory was begun by J. L. Austin, then developed by John Searle, Jacques
Derrida, Bourdieu, and many others; currently, Judith Butlers work represents the
state of the art in this eld.85 According to Austin, any utterance has locutionary,
illocutionary, and perlocutionary aspects. The locutionary act is the act of saying,
with its propositional content. The illocutionary act is what we do or enact in
saying, the performative aspect of an utterance. The classic example of an
illocutionary act is the promise. To say I promise is not a statement about
promising: the utterance is itself the promise. Finally, the perlocutionary act is
what we do by the fact that we speak, such as arousing reactions of fear or
embarrassment in an interlocutor. These aspects are also found in written texts,
though texts escape from the control of the writer in ways that an oral utterance
usually does not. When we think about texts, we usually are only thinking about
them in their locutionary aspectthe information they presentyet they also have
an illocutionary aspect. Chen Zhixus texts are full of illocutionary acts: when he tells
his disciples that the gods have blessed them, or that they have achieved
enlightenment, he performs this as truth through illocutionary speech acts.
I rely mainly on the work on performative speech by Bourdieu in Language
83
Brown, The Rise and Function of the Holy Man in Late Antiquity, 143, 137, 1056.
84
Bourdieu, Language and Symbolic Power, 105.
85
A short list should include: Austin, How to Do Things with Words; Searle, Speech Acts; Searle, Expression and
Meaning; Derrida, Limited Inc.; Felman, The Scandal of the Speaking Body; Miller, Speech Acts in Literature; Butler,
Excitable Speech; and Butler, Performativitys Social Magic. There was also a spate of performative studies of
ritual in past decades; these are discussed in Bell, Ritual: Perspectives and Dimensions, 68.
29
and Symbolic Power and Faure. Bourdieu tells us that performative language is
pervasive in everyday social behavior, such as in the act of naming:
By structuring the perception which social agents have of the social world, the
act of naming helps to establish the structure of this world . . . There is no social
agent who does not aspire, . . . to have the power to name and to create the world
through naming: gossip, slander, lies, insults, commendations, criticisms,
arguments and praises are all daily and petty manifestations of the solemn and
collective acts of naming . . . which are performed by generally recognized
authorities.86
Bourdieu is talking about the process by which social reality is produced, reproduced,
managed, contested, or transformed by its participants through their acts of naming,
with their speech acts having more or less e
ect depending on the symbolic capital
they mobilize behind their speech. Bernard Faure speaks of Chan texts as possessing
a performative thus illocutionary aspect. In Japanese Zen,
apparently the custom of leaving death poems often became an emptybut not
less ecientritual by the thirteenth century. . . . Yet it had important
ideological and political consequences. A departing verse was not simply intended
to testify to the masters enlightenment as a locutionary act ; it was producing it
as an illocutionary act and contained . . . its essence. As such, it was also a relic
embodying ultimate truth . . .87
The Zen masters death verse proved to his disciples and anyone else in the Zen
world that he was an enlightened master. If we assume that enlightenment is a
human, intersubjective quality, rather than a hardwired quality of the masters mind
or otherwise part of the furniture of the natural world, then we can say that the
death verse even produced or enacted the masters enlightened status. Whenever
Chen says something like only the virtuous, wise, or those destined for
transcendence will receive these teachings, and then bestows the teachings on a
disciple, he is pronouncing the disciple to be in fact virtuous, wise, and destined for
transcendence. Chens pronouncement will have force in dening reality if his
audience views him as an authoritythat is, it will have force if he is able to exercise
his master e
ect upon them.
86
Bourdieu, Language and Symbolic Power, 105.
87
Faure, The Rhetoric of Immediacy, 189.
30
4.6, Syncretism: Imperialist Inclusivism

Chen Zhixu often cites Buddhist gures and concepts. It should not be surprising to
nd a Daoist citing Buddhism, or Buddhist elements within Daoist teachings.
Daoists throughout history have adapted elements from Buddhism, and if we accept
the views of some Japanese scholars, Buddhism served as an example for Daoists as
they thematized Daoism as a religion as such. The late scholar of Daoism and Tantric
Buddhism, Michel Strickmann, complained that, although Western scholars have
seen BuddhoDaoist syncretism as a particularly Mingdynasty phenomenon, in fact
the same sort of syncretism was already in evidence in Daoist texts as early as the
fth century. Shall we then speak of primary and secondary syncretism?
Strickmann asks. This is a problem that students of the later dynasties should at
least come to perceive.88
Actually, syncretism in the narrow sense, as a full, systematic, and reective
combination of religions, which does not merely subsume one into another, was a
rare phenomenon in Chinese history. Timothy Brook has proposed a schema of six
dierent terms for interreligious mixtures in China:
syncretism full and systematic integration
;
ecumenism which says that truth is universal, but its expressions vary
;
inclusivism explaining elements of one religion in terms of another
;
compartmentalism restricting dierent religions to dierent purposes or areas of
reality
;
eclecticism the pick and choose approach
; and
condominium religions living together in political or social harmony
.89
Chens use of Buddhism should be called, not syncretism, but inclusivism, or better
yet, imperialist inclusivism, a violent incorporation of Buddhist elements within a
Daoist framework. But actually, Chens misreading of elements within Daoism which
is nominally his own tradition
is no less violent. This violent misreading is made
possible by Chens claim to secret understanding of the true meaning of the Buddhist
teachings Urbans strategy 2
, backed up by his authority as a master the master
function
.
By the Ming Dynasty, the doctrine of the Unity of the Three Teachings had
88
Strickmann, The Consecration Stra: A Buddhist Book of Spells, 7677.
89
Brook, Rethinking Syncretism, 1415.
31
become a mainstream idea within Chinese culture. According to this doctrine, truth
is unitary: the Confucian, Buddhist, and Daoist sages teach the same fundamental
truths regarding ethics, inherent nature, selfcultivation, or the Dao. The roots of
this idea are ageold, but it perhaps rst became a central point of doctrine for
Daoists with the Northern Quanzhen Daoist movement during the twelfth and
thirteenth centuries. Slightly before this, in South China during the Song Dynasty,
there was also a separate wave of interest in Chan Buddhism by Daoist inner
alchemists.
Chen Zhixu is the heir of both of these trends: the Quanzhen Daoist
advocacy of the Unity of the Three Teachings, and the Southern alchemists interest
in Chan Buddhism. Chen shows far more interest in Buddhism than in
Confucianism, and for the most part this is an interest in Chan Buddhism. Chen
seems mostly to have been dealing with Chan in the form of texts, but he also had
cordial relations with Chan Buddhists. Chen was a participant in a greater cultural
dialogue about spiritual practice, and had his own opinion of what proper Chan
practice ought to be.
4.7, Primary Salvation and Secondary Salvic Eects
In this dissertation, I study Chens specic alchemical procedures leading to
apotheosis. This is what I would call primary salvation, salvation as we often
understand the term, that is, rescue from the mortal realm and assumption into
heaven. In addition to salvation through alchemical selfcultivation, Chen also
alludes to other forms of primary salvation, such as salvation through amassing
karmic merit, or through intercession by spirits and deities. Actually, he includes
these latter two forms as moments within the alchemical process, at its end.
Yet I also identify secondary salvic e ects throughout Chens writing and
practice, both within primary salvic process and outside it. The germ of the idea of
two forms of salvation came to me from Sivins description of Chinese laboratory
alchemy:
Alchemy waidan was the art of making elixirs of immortality, perfected
substances which brought about personal transcendence and eternal life,
32
and yet,
the dominant goal of Chinese alchemy was contemplative, even ecstatic. . . .
The alchemists constructed their intricate art, made the cycles of the cosmic
process accessible, and undertook to contemplate them because they believed
that to encompass the Dao with their minds . . . would make them one with it.90
This gnosis itself is salvic: as Sivin says, to grasp the unchanging reality that
underlies the chaos of experience is to rise above that chaos, to be freed at least for
the moment from the limits of personal mortality. I call this a secondary salvic
e ect. I call it secondary because it is subtle, only semiconscious to the adept,
and usually found together with a more selfconscious and commonsense form of
salvation, through ingesting the elixir and rising to the heavens.
I think of secondary salvic e ects primarily in terms of Mircea Eliades
hermeneutic of the sacred, the power of performative language, and, to a lesser
extent, Peter Bergers concept of cosmization as I will explain presently. In my
outline on Chens religious market above, I list six salvic e ects, and four
performance e ects; this is meant to be an openended list, not an exhaustive one.
Salvic e ect number 1 is the e ect of gnosis itself: for example, sometimes
Chen says that one may escape from samsra merely by realizing ones own buddha
nature. In Chan, this would be primary salvation, but for Chen it is a side e ect,
which actually contradicts the inherent gradualism of most inner alchemy.
Number 2 is the salvic e ect of repeating a saga of degeneration and
redemption, a narrative by which the cosmos originates in a state of primal
wholeness, degenerates from that state, and then the alchemist is able to return to
the primal state. As I will argue, merely by repeating the cosmogonic story itself,
Chen is in e ect recreating this fall and return within the text or discourse. This idea
comes from Eliades discussion of cosmogony in The Sacred and the Profane. Eliade says
that The cosmogony is the supreme divine manifestation, the paradigmatic act of
strength, abundance, and creativity. Religious man thirsts for the real. By every
means at his disposal, he seeks to reside at the very source of primordial reality, when
90
Sivin, Chinese Alchemy and the Manipulation of Time, 513, 524.
33
the world was

in the state of being born.91 In a traditional society, when the
cosmogony was repeated in an annual ritual at the turn of the New Year, for example,
by participating ritually in the end of the world and in its recreation, any man
became contemporary with the iud tempus; hence he was born anew, he began life
over again with his reserve of vital forces intact, as it was at the moment of his
birth.92 By repeating the cosmogonic narrative of fall and return, Chen forges a
temporary link between himself or his listeners or readers and the sacred
cosmogonic state.
Number 3 is the salvic eect of reenacting the actions of sages. Whenever
Chen quotes an ancient master, deity, or the Buddha, he is subtly assimilating himself
to the holy person he is quoting. Whenever he recounts a legendary masterdisciple
encounter for the edication of an audience of students, he is subtly assimilating his
relation with that audience to the relation between the legendary master and
disciple. When Chen cites the story of Mazu Daoyis 70988 lesson from Nanyue
Huairang 677744 ,93 Chen is Nanyue, and his disciples are Mazu, both parties
receiving a subtle salvic benet from this association. I have taken this idea from
Gri th Foulks argument that, when the Songdynasty abbots of Chan monasteries
took the stage before the assembly and instructed the monks with stickblows and
shouts, the abbots were in fact reenacting the deeds of the mythical Tangdynasty
masters, or playing the role of the living Buddha. Foulk calls this ritualized
antinomianism.94 Similarly, the ceremony of entering the chamber rushi for
a personal audience with the abbot was a ritual reenactment of mythical master
disciple encounters as described in the genealogical histories.95 Foulk views this
91
Eliade, The Sacred and the Profane, 80.
92
Eliade, The Sacred and the Profane, 80.
93
When Mazu was living in a cloister on the Southern Marchmount, he would only do zazen all day long, seeking
to become a buddha. Chan Master
Huairang then took a brick over to the front of the hut, and
began to
polish it.
Mazu said, Why are you doing that?
Huairang answered, Im polishing it to make a mirror.
Mazu
said, How could you make a mirror by polishing a brick?
Huairang said, Thats right! How could you become a
buddha through zazen? Mazu was suddenly enlightened, receiving the import of these words. # (
$, .,%+(*
*- *+"!-.
',"!# ) &DZ 1067, Shangyangzi Jindan dayao 16.7b69.
94
Foulk, Myth, Ritual, and Monastic Practice in Sung Chan Buddhism, 17779.
95
Foulk, Myth, Ritual, and Monastic Practice in Sung Chan Buddhism, 181. McRae makes a similar point,
34
behavior as a way of achieving social cohesion and prestige for Chan institutions.
Foulk also makes the same point in regards to Chan textual practices.96 We nd
similar textual practices in Chens writing. In my own reading of similar behavior by
Chen Zhixu, I draw on Eliades idea that human beings seek to participate in the
sacred, and I argue that this behavior is not just for the sake of social prestige and
authority, but is also a way to participate in the sanctity of the Buddha, Laozi, or the
holy masters of the past.
Number 4 is the salvic eect of repeating the actions of celestial deities at
the beginning of time. In his commentary to the Duren jing, for example, Chen often
compares the actions of the alchemist with the actions of the Celestial Worthy of
Primordial Commencement.97 This idea also comes from Eliade.
Number 5 is the salvic eect of emphasizing cosmological or numerological
correspondences between the microcosm of the body and the outer macrocosm of
the cosmos. By cosmizing the body or mind, Chen is able to, in a limited sense, tap
into the sacred reality of the cosmos. This is simultaneously a salvic act
as Eliade
would emphasize, and a political act
as Berger would emphasize.98 One variation of
this is envisioning the body as a cavern heaven, a closed space containing multitudes
of gods, landscape features, mountains.
Number 6 is the salvic eect of participating in cosmic creation and
transformation
zaohua . When he combines the two pharmaca to create the
arguing that the Zutang ji
of 952 must have been used to provide models for training, with the goal not of an
exalted state of spiritual attainment but reenactment of the archetypal drama that takes place between each
patriarch and his successor; McRae, Encounter Dialogue and the Transformation of the Spiritual Path in
Chinese Chan, 353.
96
A commenting master such as Xuedou stands in an interesting position visvis the old patriarchs, one that
remains fundamentally subordinate and yet manages to evince ultimate authority. On the one hand, it is clear that
the patriarchs, being ancestral gures, have seniority in the Chan lineage. . . . To be a living heir in the lineage . . .
is to benet from association with the eminent patriarchs of old. To comment on the words of the patriarchs,
similarly, is to be on the receiving end of the prestige with which those words are invested. On the other hand,
the master as commentator, is always able to nd fault with the masters on whom he is commenting; Foulk, The
Form and Function of Koan Literature, 34. Xuedou Chongxian

980 1052 wrote the commentary
Baize sonu , which became the basis for T 2003, Biyan lu, by Yuanwu Keqin.
97
Chen did not invent this idea: Chens Duren jing commentary draws on earlier inneralchemical Duren jing
commentaries, such as DZ 90, Yuanshi wuliang duren shangpin miao jing neiyi, which he cites more than a dozen
times.
98
For Berger, cosmization, or identication of the human world with the worldassuch, is a strategy for
legitimating social institutions, hiding their arbitrary and constructed character by grounding them in ultimate
reality; Berger, The Sacred Canopy, 27 37.
35
elixir, the inner alchemist is handling the same cosmic forces that generate all the
transformations of heaven and earth. By handling them, the adept can participate in
a sacred reality.
In my outline of Chens religious market, I also include four speechact
eects as salvic eects: performing salvation, enlightenment, or wisdom;
performing the disciples status as one of the elect; performing the receiving of
blessings from deities; and performing cosmogony itself. These are enactments of
reality through the masters pronouncements, depending on the master eect for
their power.
Lets revisit a passage from the beginning of the dissertation, translating it
into this new theoretical vocabulary. Here is the passage:
Like the adamantine sword, it has a great vigor; like the hundredfoot pole, it is
straight and unbending; of all the armored warriors in the world, none could
break it. This vigorous heartmind has great courage and erceness. When all of
the gods in heaven and people on earth
see this vigor, their joy will be
measureless. Utilizing this vigor, one becomes a buddha and a patriarch.99
On page 3 above, I claim that the passage contains the following religious strategies
and uses of language:
1 the cosmization of the body and the sex act, and participation in a sacred
reality;
2 the reinterpretion of the Buddha himself and all Chan masters of the past as
having been sexual alchemists, a political strategy for justifying Chens own
teachings;
3 the assimilating of the sexual alchemist to the Buddha and the patriarchs;
4 the description of the participation of deities in the alchemists sexual
practice;
5 and the enacting or performance of all these truths through a speech act.
Here is an extended reading of this passage, using the themes and theories just
introduced above. While the primary salvic goal of alchemical apotheosis lies in the
background ostensibly, the passage is describing a state of sexual power and control
the male adept must attain so he may stimulate and gather the female partners
sexual qi without losing his own seminal essence, the main function of the passage is
to enact secondary salvic eects through speech acts. Chen compares the male
adepts sex organ to a mighty sword wielded by a vajrapi a Buddhist dharma
99
36
protecting deity
, or an impossibly long pole cited in a Chan kan. He is giving the
male adepts many of whom were older men
a psychological handhold for
empowering their sexual practice leading to primary salvation
, but he is also setting
up a correlation between the adepts and holy Buddhist gures. In Eliades terms, this
slakes homo religiosuss craving for the sacred; in Bergers terms, it legitimates the
social order, the cosmic order, the religion, the masterdisciple relation, the relation
between the sexes, or between gods and human beings, and so on. When Chen
describes how the gods rejoice in the adepts prowess, he is attempting to enact this
state of aairs; the power to enact reality through speech acts depends on the power
of his master eect. At the end of the passage, Chen is describing the future
attainment of primary salvation, but also, in a more subtle and unconscious way,
enacting this reality in the present, bringing the sacred quality of these holy Buddhist
gures to the recipient of the poem, and making this quality available to any later
reader willing to accept Chens pronouncements. The success of these speech acts
depends on Chens authority, but may also contribute to his authority. Through this
imperialistinclusivist misreading of Buddhist elements, Chen aims to convince the
skeptic or steel the believers faith
that sexual alchemy is also the underlying truth
of Chan Buddhism, stealing the lightning of this other prestigious tradition to
advance his own claims. If successful in convincing the interlocutor or reader, Chen
can extend his regime of truth to this other tradition. This is an example of how I
read Chens texts.
The bulk of this dissertation is on Chen Zhixus biography, his teachings, and
the history of their reception. So, for most of the theoretical points introduced
above, I can only allude to them in the dissertation, and not develop them at length.
The one exception is Bourdieus conict sociology, which I develop fully in chapter 3.
5, An Overview of the Dissertation Chapters

In this introductory chapter 1, I introduce themes that will appear throughout the
37
dissertation. Chapter 2 treats Chen Zhixus biography and social environment. I

discuss Chens name and titles; the dating of his life and activities; his two masters,
Zhao Youqin , and the Old Man from Mt. Qingcheng Qingcheng Weng
; Chens several enlightenment experiences; and Chens teaching career and his
many lay and monastic disciples. I draw a concrete picture of the social backdrop of
the sexualalchemical teachings and practices of Chen and his circle among the cities
and mountains of southcentral China during the Mongol reign.
In chapter 3, I argue that Pierre Bourdieus sociology of culture o ers the best
conceptual framework for studying a case like Chens. Bourdieus sociological work
on culture, knowledge, and art provides a welldeveloped vocabulary, and will help me
frame my picture of Chen Zhixu and his world, and organize its parts. After
introducing Bourdieu, I present Chen competing for economic, social, cultural,
symbolic, and religious forms of capital, within the concentric elds of social
power, religion, and selfcultivation. Chens teachings are the tools he uses in his
struggle to achieve three interrelated goals: 1 achieving recognition and authority
as a master, or managing his mastership; 2 spreading his teachings in the religious
eld; and 3 attaining personal salvation.
In chapter 4, in answer to the question What is inner alchemy?, I o er an
analytical overview of inneralchemical tradition, building on and criticizing previous
overviews of inner alchemy by Chinese and Western scholars. In my discussion, I
take the lateimperial or modern standard account as a paradigm of what inner
alchemy ought to look like, and then test this paradigm against other forms of
alchemy that diverge from the standard account. Throughout the chapter, I compare
di erent forms of inner alchemy in terms of dozens of di erent criteria, on
microcosmic, mesocosmic, and macrocosmic and other registers, within a
denitional framework of my own design. This is an extended proposal for future
work in the comparative study of inner alchemy.
In chapter 5, I prove that Chen Zhixus alchemy is indeed sexual alchemy, I
describe his alchemical path in detail, from nding partner and patron, to gathering
the pharmaca, to rening them, generating the yang spirit, and ascending to the
38
heavens. Finally, I compare Chens alchemy with other forms of sexual cultivation,
sexual alchemy, and inner alchemy in Chinese history.
In chapter 6, I study the postmortem career of Chen and his writings.
From Chens time on, inner alchemists debated whether the elixir should be
harvested by the male adept through coition, or whether it should be sought entirely
within the mans own person, and Chens works were central to this debate. Chens
teachings were known to all major later gures in the history of inner alchemy, and
advocates of both positions had to address his teachings, whether to declaim them,
advance them, or merely acknowledge them. Later alchemists used Chens writings as
a landmark, and perpetuated or reinterpreted his teachings, as they shaped the eld
of inner alchemy into the tradition of today.
6, Conventions
I have silently converted WadeGiles romanization to Pinyin when quoting the words
of others, except in the cases of titles of works, or names of people, and the words
Taoism or Taoist.
In most cases, the Chinese characters for the titles of works cited in
footnotes are listed only in the bibliography of works cited at the end of the
dissertation. DZ refers to the numbering system used for texts in the Zhengtong
daozang by Schipper and Verellen, The Taoist Canon. H.Y. refers to HarvardYenching
numbering systems for various classics; for these HarvardYenching editions, look
under the name of the editor, William Hung, in the bibliography.
Because Chinese authors are di cult to recognize by surname alone, in
references to sources by authors with Chinese names, I list the authors full name. I
do not do this for sources by authors with nonChinese names.
When reading Jindan dayao, I use the Zhengtong daozang edition DZ 106770
as a base text, supplementing it with variants from the Jindan zhengli daquan and
Daozang jiyao editions as necessary. I justify this approach in dissertation appendix 2.
39
When quoting Jindan dayao, I do not list every character variant between these three
editions, only a few important variants. Often, a passage missing from DZ 106770
will be found in both of the other two editions. Because the Jindan zhengli daquan and
Daozang jiyao editions are usually quite similar in even their small details, yet the
former is slightly more complete and reliable that the latter, I usually cite only the
former as a supplement to DZ 106770. For Chens other three texts, and for Zhao
Youqins Xianfo tongyuan, I have consulted only one edition for each text.
When quoting and translating passages from Chens three commentaries on
Cantong qi, Wuzhen pian, and Duren jing, I often set isolated words or phrases in
boldface. By this I mean to highlight the correlations between his commentary and
the passage he is commenting upon. In his commentaries, Chen sometimes writes in
a relatively freeranging style, but usually he picks his words so as to include words
and phrases from the original passage within his own sentences. By setting these
echoes in boldface, I show the intertextual nature of his writing. Also, we may note
that, just as in Jindan dayao Chen reinterprets or misreads common cultural symbols
to advance his own countercultural teachings the strategy of extension, when
writing a commentary Chen uses the original words of the classic while turning them
to new meanings. Actually, nonDaoist traditional Chinese commentary is often like
this too.
I romanize as qi, and as Qi. Sometimes these two characters are
equivalent, and sometimes refers to precosmic or prenatal .100 I romanize
as either Dao or dao; my reason for this is spelled out on page 175 below.
100
Hao Qin, Longhu dandao, 183.
40
Chapter 2, Chen Zhixus Biography,

Environment, Lineage, and Network
Chen Zhixus life is not well documented. He receives short biographical notices in a
handful of Ming and Qing encyclopedias and gazetteers, as well as hagiographical
notices or mentions in at least two Daoist works. Chens own writings especially
Jindan dayao are the best source of information on Chens life, though they still do
not oer enough information about Chen to write a continuous biography of the
man. From Jindan dayao we can learn something about Chens peregrinations during
the decade from 1334 to 1343, and something about the searchers and selfcultivators
who took Chen as their teacher, and the discourses Chen imparted to them. As for
the practices he taught, I will save this topic for chapter 5. Although the sort of
information we can learn about Chen Zhixu from Jindan dayao and other sources is
insucient to write a proper biography, it is extremely valuable for studying the
concrete social contexts of inner alchemy. Many other Daoist lives are better
documented with biographical and hagiographical material than Chen Zhixus; there
are even other Daoist inner alchemists whose lives are better documented such as
the Quanzhen patriarchs, or Bai Yuchan; yet I know of no other Daoist whose
writings document the links between social activities and the details of alchemical
teachings so well as do the writings of Chen Zhixu. Chen Zhixus transmission
epistles and the other biographical material do not tell us nearly enough about the
lives of Chen or his disciples and acquaintances, but they tell us more than perhaps
any other source about the social context of a single masters inneralchemical
teachings.
In this chapter I present basic biographical and sociohistorical data about
the life and activities of Chen and his disciples, lling this out with information
about the religious and social environment of the late Yuan dynasty. I will portray
Chen as an itinerant and selfmade man, competing in a marketplace of daos, and
41
achieving some success within monastic and literati circles of Jiangxi and Hubei, as
well as the hinterland of Guizhou.
In this chapter I also analyze Chens genealogy with a critical eye, and test the
usual view within the historiography of Daoism that Chen was a new breed of
Southern Quanzhen Daoist. I will take the controversial position that Chen was
Quanzhen in only the barest sense, without any Quanzhen lineage, experience, or
learning to speak of. I will also argue that Chens immediate lineage was a ction, and
even that one of his two masters was a ction. Chen invented these patriarchs and
master to boost his authority within the marketplace of daos, and he could only get
away with this because Quanzhen Daoism was not well known within his core area of
operation. Chens invented patriarchs and master are mythical echoes of other gures
from his tradition.
In this chapter I will also discuss some hagiographical material on Chen,
though there is not enough of this material and there probably was never very much
to undertake a full study of Chens hagiographical legacy. Although Chens life was
not widely remembered in later hagiography, his alchemical texts and teachings were
widely remembered by later commentators, so I will present a full study of the legacy
of Chens texts and teachings in chapter 6.
1.1, Chens Biographies.
I know of seven di erent biographies or
hagiographies of Chen Zhixu, some of them in multiple versions. They contain some
errors such as using the wrong characters to write Chens name, or claiming he lived
in the Tang dynasty, and add little to the information we can nd in Jindan dayao. I
list them here and draw from them as necessary in this chapter.
1. Wang Qi, ed., Xu wenxian tongkao 1586, 243.30a in Xuxiu siku quanshu,
767:50.
Based on Xu wenxian tongkao:
1a. Chen Jiaoyou, Changchun daojiao yuanliu 1879, 6.8b9a.
2. Guo Zizhang, ed., Qian ji 15731620; Guizhou, 54.1b.
Similar to Chens entry in Qian ji:
2a. Da Qing yitong zhi 16861842, j. 396 in Siku quanshu.
2b. Zheng Zhen, ed., Zunyi fuzhi 1937 ed., based on eds. of 1841 and 1892; 49 juan;
Guizhou, 38.1a in Su Jinren and Xiao Lianzi, Lidai shidao renwu zhi, 1018.
3. E Ertai, ed., Guizhou tongzhi 1741; 47 juan, 32.13b. Contains some material like
42
Qian ji, and some not found in Qian ji.

3a. Minguo Guizhou tongzhi 1948, 7.1a in Su and Xiao, Lidai shidao renwu zhi,
1001.
4. Wang Jianzhang, ed., Lidai shenxianshi 1693, j. 5.
5. Ji Yun, ed., Qinding Siku quanshu zongmu tiyao 178189, j. 146.
6. Fu Xieding, ed., Jiugong Shan zhi 1882, 4.6a8b1 7:9596.
7. Dacheng jieyao author unknown, pre1929; Wudao zhenji ed., 15758;
Yongcheng yinshu guan ed., 1.34b36a; Xiuxian baodian ed., 11314.
1.2, Chens Name.
Chen Zhixus full title as listed at the head of each chapter
of the Zhengtong daozang edition of Jindan daoyao, for instance is Zixiao Jianggong
$, Shangyangzi , Guanwu ', Chen Zhixu . It is not
immediately apparent what sort of name Zixiao Jianggong Crimson Palace of the
Purple Empyrean is, but it is probably a choronym, a placename taken as a personal
moniker. Shangyangzi Master of Highest Yang is a Daoist stylename daohao #
". Guanwu Viewing Myself is a byname zi , Chen is a surname, and Zhixu
Arriving at Void is a personal name ming
. Each of these names can tell us
something about the man. I will discuss the possible meaning of Zixiao Jianggong
on page 52 below. The name Shangyangzi indicates an emphasis on the cultivation
of yang energy, distinctive to alchemy.
Chens personal name Zhixu and byname Guanwu are both drawn from
Daode jing, chapter 16: I do my utmost to attain void zhi xu; I hold rmly to
stillness. The myriad things all rise together, and by this I watch wu guan their
return &%! '.1 Chen was not born with the
name Zhixu, but chose it or received it based on a mature interest in Daoism. He
writes: Long ago, an elder gave me the byname Guanwu '2
This elder from long ago would not have been a Daoist elder, but rather an elder
within Chens birthfamily about which nothing is known, who recognized or
encouraged Chens interest in Daoist learning or moral cultivation. I expect that
Chen chose the name Zhixu for himself after receiving the name Guanwu from the
elder, since Zhixu is even more Daoistsounding than Guanwu. Both names could
1
Translation based on D. C. Lau, Tao Te Ching, 20, with changes.
DZ 1067, Shangyangzi Jindan dayao 12.11a10.
43
be interpreted in terms of selfcultivation: Guanwu could refer to concentrating on

cultivation, with the goal of a return fu to perfection, and Zhixu refers to the
ultimate state to be attained through cultivation. Zhixu must have been a relatively
common Daoist name: the contemporaneous master Peng Nanqi, also active in
Jiangxi, had a disciple named Gong Zhixu , for example.3
2, Chens Life until Forty, and the Environment at Luling

2.1, Chens Life until Forty
Chen Zhixu was born in the summer of 1290, a native of Luling County, in Jian
Circuit , Jiangxi Province.4 The year of Chens birth may be calculated from
his age at the time he received the transmission of alchemical teachings from his
master Zhao Youqin. As he writes in his hagiography of Zhao Youqin, Chen received
Zhaos teachings in the fall of a jisi year.5 As I show in appendix 2 to the
dissertation, Chens writings were published in the 1330s and 1340s. For example,
Ouyang Tianshu dates his preface to early 1336.6 The closest previous jisi year was
1329, so 1329 must be the year Chen received Zhaos teachings. Chen writes that he
was forty years nian old at the time of Zhaos transmission.7 If Chen were forty
nian or sui in age in the fall of 1329, he would actually have been thirtynine years
old by our reckoning, which would put his birth year in 1289 or 1290. That he was in
fact born in 1290 can be conrmed by a statement he makes in a transmission epistle
to one of his disciples, Yu Shunshen . In the essay, Chen remarks that both he
Chen Yuan, Daojia jinshi le, 1201.
The Luling county seat was a little to the south of the presentday city of Jian. Luling City was also the seat of
Jian Circuit, the larger territorial division. In the Yuan Dynasty, Jiangxi was a provincial branchsecretariat xing
zhongshu sheng
, with a territory including most of presentday Jiangxi Province, together with half of
Guangdong and a small part of Hunan.
5
DZ 1069, Shangyangzi jindan dayao liexian zhi 9a2.
DZ 1067, Shangyangzi Jindan dayao, preface, 5a57. Ouyang dates his preface to the last month of the rst year of
the Zhiyuan reign period, an yihai year. This month corresponds to between Jan. 15 and Feb. 12, 1336.
DZ 1067, Shangyangzi Jindan dayao 1.2b78.
44
and Yu were born on the same hour of the same summer day, in a geng ) year.8 The
year 1290 was a gengyin ); year, so this corroborates the calculation of Chens birth
year as 1290.
Chen Zhixu did not become a Daoist until adulthood. Before becoming a
Daoist, he led the life of a school student for years. The following passage comes
from a dialogue in which Chen teaches a student about the ultimate form of study
xue zhi zhi J
. This is probably an essay composed on paper rather than a
record of a reallife encounter.

Shangyangzi said: Come! I have more to say to you.
Now, at one time I was engaged in study. Back then, what I called study
involved working hard at my parallel prose, training in prosody, exhaustively
researching the present and the past,9 happily writing commentaries and
expositions, conversing on inherent nature and principle, and distinguishing
the correct from the incorrect. When I studied big issues, it was the Book of
Changes; when I studied small things, it was
occult? techniques; I did not tire of
this study. I selshly called this the ultimate in study, and never knew how far
away I was from the ultimate.
Whats more, I did not know there were perfected beings in the worldI
did not trust that there was a dao in this world by which one could achieve
transcendenthood or buddhahood.
D '#BG
#FJ<(,5J
0L
N>M3HAC6I*=41-?9
7J
&K5J %/(+ 0
/:
0$2"!E0
10
Chen Zhixu began his education by learning how to write prose, read history with a
Confucian eye, write commentaries probably to Confucian classics , and study the
Book of Changes. He may have had a side interest in mantic of metaphysical learning
or techniques Yi - and shu ? , but was not actively seeking salvation from this
world.
Because there were no civilservice examinations in the Yuan dynasty until
1315, and the career path in government for a Han man from southern China was
restricted throughout the dynasty, it is likely that Chen Zhixu was studying in school
8
Chen says they were born in a shangzhang @ year. In calculating years, shangzhang is a way to say geng; DZ
1067, Shangyangzi Jindan dayao 12.11a6.
This could easily be a reference to the practice of gewu 8. investigation of things as advocated by Zhu Xi.
Zhu Xis learning was orthodox for all men in the exam system during Chen Zhixus era.
10
45
more for personal cultivation than for a public career. He may have been studying at
a NeoConfucian academy in his native Luling, such as the famous academy on
White Egret Island
Bailu Zhou 2 in the Gan River 1. This particular
academy was founded in 1241 to venerate the NeoConfucian philosophers Cheng
Hao !3
1032 85 Cheng Yi !.
1033 1107 and their father.11 The ChengZhu
teachings
of the Cheng brothers plus Zhu Xi -, 1130 1200 were adopted as state
orthodoxy during Chens generation
the new exam system of 1315 was based on
ChengZhu learning,12 and remained so until the twentieth century. Some of Chen
Zhixus disciples were followers of ChengZhu learning, and Chen himself praises the
Cheng brothers teachings on the Book of Changes.13 Chens relatively advanced study
sounds like training at an academy, but he also could have received an education in
ChengZhu NeoConfucianism
Daoxue #+ at a governmentsponsored school.
Kublai Khan
r. 1260 94 made a commitment to universal schooling from the
beginning of his reign, and in a proclamation of 1261 he ordered the establishment
of schools on the local level and appointed regional superintendents of education to
oversee the eort.14 These governmentsponsored schools also spread Daoxue,
teaching the Four Books with Zhu Xis commentaries.
At some point in his youth, Chen developed an interest in alchemy:
From my youth I had this aim, but had not encountered a true teacher, and did
not understand the essentials. I read the various elixir scriptures, but found
them distant and dicult to grasp. By cogitation I could not achieve the
teachings , and I had no method for exhaustive research. I lost sleep and forgot
to eat, ever and again feeling this regret.

$*)"0&
( '%/,15
When he was a student getting a Confucian education, Chen was not interested in
alchemy. But then, perhaps after leaving his school yet while still a young man, he
developed a sincere desire to study alchemy, but could nd no one to help him, and
11
Walton, Southern Sung Academies as Sacred Places, 343.
12
De Bary, The Rise of NeoConfucian Orthodoxy in Yan China, part 1 in his NeoConfucian Orthodoxy and the
Learning of the MindandHeart, 1 66.
13
Zhouyi Cantong qi fenzhang zhu, Daozang jiyao ed., 1.32b9 10.
14
De Bary, NeoConfucian Orthodoxy and the Learning of the MindandHeart, 48.
15
DZ 1067, Shangyangzi Jindan dayao 1.10b10 11a2.
46
found it impossible teach himself alchemy by reading books perhaps books such as
Zhouyi Cantong qi % or Wuzhen pian !#3
.
Chen says that he wandered through the world of men until he nally
encountered his master Zhao Youqin at the age of forty:
I wandered through the human realm, enjoying the karmic benet of the merit
amassed by my ancestors, and the pity and blessing of Heaven and Earth. At the
age of forty, I undeservedly received the correct dao from my teacher Zhao
Youqin.
-($4,7+".
2
'116
As for meeting his master and perhaps other good fortune he enjoyed during this
period
, Chen explains this as the result of spiritual merit passed down to him from
his ancestors. This merit would not be karma in a strictly Buddhist sense, which is
transmitted along a single chain of individual rebirths irrespective of family
relationship, but rather a native Chinese conception of clan karma. The earliest
instance of this concept is found in the Taiping jing /, which speaks of
inherited burden chengfu
, a sort of negative clan karma. Clan karma was
an important concept in the fourthcentury Shangqing scriptures, in which
Succeeding generations were tied to their ancestors . . . through hidden or dark
virtue yinde, the good deeds of an ancestor which inuenced the fortune of his
descendants. . . . Misdeeds likewise a ected the fate of descendants.17
Unfortunately, Chen never records the names of any of the worthy ancestors who
might have left him this karmic inheritance.
This is all that is recorded of Chens life until he received Zhao Youqins
transmission in 1329 at the age of forty. Yet we can still round out the picture with
some background information. Chen Zhixu was a man of Luling Lulingren 6)
,
and probably grew up there. Anne Gerritsen has studied the religiosity of the
common people of Jian including Luling
in the Southern Song, Yuan, and Ming
16
17
Bokenkamp, Death and Ascent in Lingpao Taoism, 6.

In one Yuandynasty Daoist hagiography, for example, positive clan karma is called owing
fragrance liufang
. Zhang Liangs & unseen spiritual merit and eremitic practices transmitted good
karma to later generations * 50, down to Zhang Daoling &1) DZ 296, Lishi zhenxian tidao
tongjian 18.1a
. When the term owing fragrance occurs in common Chinese writing, it refers merely to a
persons glorious reputation after his or her passing, not necessarily to spiritual merit passed down to
descendants.
47
Dynasties,18 and I will draw on her research to describe Lulings environment.

2.2, Lulings Geographical and Religious Environment
In preQin times, Jiangxi was part of Chu , a nonHan kingdom originally distinct
from the homeland of the Han people in the central plains of China. Luling is
mentioned as a town as early as the Qin dynasty, yet it was not a HanChinese town
at that time. Jiangxi as a whole did not become a HanChinese region until many
centuries after that: it was not until the period from the third to the sixth century
that Han Chinese started to emigrate southwards to Jiangxi, and it took until the
eighth century for Jiangxi to become predominantly Han Chinese.19 By the Song
dynasty, Jiangxi had become a very important region within China, and by the Yuan,
about a quarter of the population of China lived in Jiangxi. This was due to the
arrival of refugees and migrants from the north, and to Jiangxis rich harvests.20
Though situated far from the imperial capitals, Luling was not a backwoods town. It
was located on the Gan River, one of the most important northsouth shipping
routes in the province. While Nanchang was the most important city in Jiangxi,
Luling was also a major cultural center: During the Yuan, according to one
contemporary observer, Jian was the most culturally prominent prefecture in Jiangxi,
and Luling was the most outstanding county in Jian.21
Gerritsen lists a number of religious and cultural sites in the region of Luling.
There were many shrines to deceased worthies, warriors, or literati built there during
the Southern Song. As mentioned above, NeoConfucian academies also functioned
as shrines to early Confucian sages and NeoConfucian worthies. Although Chen
Zhixu never mentions shrines in his writings, he certainly would have visited them
while growing up.
Chens writings are full of Chan Buddhist elements. While Chen may have
18
Gerritsens 2001 Harvard dissertation is entitled Gods and Governors: Interpreting the Religious Realm in Jian
Jiangxi during the Southern Song, Yuan, and Ming Dynasties.
19
Gerritsen, Gods and Governors, 22.
20
Xu Huailin, Jiangxi shi gao, 397.
21
Gerritsen, Gods and Governors, 28.
48
adopted this inclusivist attitude mainly from his master Zhao Youqin whose
imperialistinclusivist use of Buddhist ideas in Xianfo tongyuan is even more
pronounced than Chens in Jindan dayao, it is also likely that Chen learned about
Buddhism in his native Luling before he met Zhao. The most famous Buddhist
temple in Luling County was Jingju Monastery, situated in the Qingyuan
Mountains about nine miles southeast of the county seat. During the Song dynasty,
this monastery was occupied by Chan monks of the Huanglong branch of the
Linji lineage. The monastery burned down at the end of the Yuan dynasty, and
was not rebuilt until the seventeenth century. The Huanglong lineage seems not to
have been transmitted into the Yuan dynasty, and no names of Jingju Monastery
monks from the Yuan dynasty are recorded, so we cannot know exactly which Chan
teaching tradition Chen Zhixu would have encountered if he visited there, though it
would have been within the broader Linji tradition.22 Chens writings show that he
was especially interested in the teachings of the Yuanwu Keqin ! 10631135,
of the Yangqi branch of the Linji lineage, also centered in Jiangxi, and he may
have developed this interest during later travels. There would have been hundreds of
other Buddhist temples or monasteries within the county: thirtyseven are listed in
the Jiangxi provincial gazetteer of 1881, and 147 are listed in the Luling gazetteer of
1781.23
The 1781 Luling gazetteer mentions twentytwo Daoist temples,24 while the
1881 Jiangxi gazetteer mentions none in Luling. I have also found records of several
Daoist temples from the Luling region in other sources. There is an inscription
describing the founding of a Jiahui Abbey
in Luling County in 1312; this
temple was founded as a place to worship the Three Transcendents of Mt. Huagai
, an important cult centered in Fuzhou , northeastern Jiangxi.25 Another local
22
Cf. Xiaofeng Daran, Qingyuan zhi le, j. 2 1:95112; Foguang da cidian, s.v. Qingyuan Shan
, 37023.
23
Liu Kunyi, Jiangxi tongzhi 183.18 6:255760; Ping Guanlan and Huang Youheng, Luling xian zhi 10.1a29b
3:785842.
24
Ping Guanlan and Huang Youheng, Luling xian zhi 10.30a34b 3:84252. The ratio of Buddhist to Daoist
temples in this gazetteer is about 6.5 Buddhist temples for every 1 Daoist temple.
25
This Jiahui Abbey inscription by Feng Yiweng is partially translated in Hymes, Way and Byway, 92.
Hymess book is an extensive study of the Huagai cult. The three tutelary deities of Mt. Huagai are Earl Fuqiu
, and his disciples Wang Daoxiang and Guo Daoyi .
49
temple, Chaoxian Abbey ( on Mt. Xiangcheng was said to have been
founded by the Three Transcendents.26 The Huagai cult must have been an important
cult in Luling as the Jiahui Abbey inscription says, the gentlemen and commoners
of the whole prefecture rushed eagerly to pay reverence and make obeisances below
the altar
, and Chen mentions the main cult deity a few times in his writings. It
appears that the most prominent regional cults in Chens eyes were cults to Zhang
Daoling $,27 Ge Xuan #,28 and Xu Xun &,29 with the Perfected Lord of
the Floating Hill Fuqiu Zhenjun
, from Mt. Huagai
as fourth in
prominence.30 Zhang, Ge, and Xu were all saints associated with the region of
presentday Jiangxi Province.
Another temple in Luling, Zhenchang Abbey, is mentioned as the home
of a priest named Li Jundi who printed a certain number of juan of the
26
Ping Guanlan and Huang Youheng, Luling xian zhi 10.34a 3:851
.
27
Zhang Daoling . 141

is remembered as the founding patriarch of the Celestial Master lineage
headquartered at Mt. Longhu in presentday Jiangsu. Pregadio makes the important point that Zhang Daoling
was remembered as an alchemist: If one reads the account of Zhangs life in the fourteenthcentury DZ 1473
Lineage of the Han Celestial Masters Han tianshi jia
with no knowledge of the crucial role that he played in the
history of Daoism, one might indeed take that account to refer to an alchemist; Pregadio, Great Clarity, 151. The
Shenxian zhuan emphasizes Zhangs knowledge of the Elixirs of the Nine Tripods of the Yellow Emperor Huangdi
jiuding dan !%
; Campany, To Live as Long as Heaven and Earth, 350. It is also primarily as an alchemist that
Chen Zhixu remembers Z*hang Daoling. Also see the longer footnote on Zhang Daoling below, pp. 14748n82.
28
Ge Xuan was Ge Hongs greatuncle, and was remembered as an alchemist at Mt. Gezao in presentday
Qingjiang County, Jiangxi Province
. His cult must have been alive in Jiangxi during Chen Zhixus era.
According to Ge Xuans hagiography in DZ 296, Lishi zhenxian tidao tongjian, j. 23, Ge tried to rene his elixir for a
long time without success, leaving traces of his alchemical platforms in twentytwo di erent spots on di erent
mountains. He used to sing about how he was already sixty years old and had still to successfully complete his
elixir. Finally, he was able to ingest it and ascend to Heaven at the age of eightyone. Chen Zhixu seems to have
been a ected by Ge Xuans story. A halfdozen times Chen cites Ges lament at being sixty years old and still
unsuccessful at his elixir. For Chen, the moral of the story is that even a great transcendent like Ge had to face
old age and failure, before nally succeeding, so lesser mortals should be prepared for the same. Also see the
longer footnote on Ge Xuan in appendix 2 to this chapter.
29
Xu Xun 23992/374?
, byname Jingzhi ", a.k.a. Xu Jingyang , lived in Yuzhang ' a.k.a. Hongzhou
, presentday Nanchang
. After his mortal career, he was worshiped locally as a healer and dragonqueller,
later becoming seen on a national scale as a paragon of lial piety and patron of the Jingming Zhongxiao
Daoist tradition. Also see the longer footnote on Xu Xun in appendix 2 to this chapter.
30
Chen lists Zhang Daoling, Ge Xuan, and Xu Xun as alchemical exemplars regularly throughout his writings. He
lists these three gures together in the same sentence at least six times in his extant corpus; DZ 1067, Shangyangzi
Jindan dayao 8.2a6, 13.19a9; DZ 91, Taishang dongxuan lingbao wuliang duren shangpin miaojing zhujie 1.29b12; Zhouyi
Cantong qi fenzhang zhu, Daozang jiyao ed., 1.23a4, 1.34a4; DZ 142, Ziyang Zhenren Wuzhen pian sanzhu 5.17b89. In
four passages, he adds Fuqiu as a fourth name; DZ 1067, 8.2a6; Zhouyi Cantong qi fenzhang zhu 1.23a4, 1.34a4; also,
DZ 91, 3.19a6.
50
Daozang in about 1337.31 This shows that Daoist texts were printed openly in Jiangxi
despite the 1281 imperial ban on Daoist scriptures, and also that there was a market
for Daoist scriptures in the region. Chens own writings were printed at almost
exactly this time, but this printing probably took occurred at other places: in
Hongzhou, the Lu Mountains !, and Mt. Jiugong .
Another Daoist temple in Yuandynasty Luling is mentioned in the biography
of Peng Nanqi
1284 1335. A commemorative inscription by the famous
literatus Yu Ji 32
1272 1341 describes Pengs life. Peng rst gained an interest in
Daoism when he visited West Mountain
the center of the Xu Xun cult with his
father at the age of six. At the age of twelve he became a Daoist novice at Ziji Palace
in the prefectural seat
i.e., Luling. During his life, Peng also dwelt in
temples in other parts of Jiangxi, but spent his later years at Ziji Palace. He practiced
a form of inner alchemy, but it was probably not like Chens sexual alchemy. Like
Chen, Peng studied Buddhist teachings with a critical eye, though unlike Chen, Peng
was more interested in comparing Buddhist and Daoist rituals than comparing self
cultivation practices.
Xu Yi
1291 1350 was another Daoist from Luling who contributed to
the textual development of the Xu Xun cult. Xu Yi was a disciple of the Jingming
Daoist master Huang Yuanji
1271 1325 and an editor of DZ 1110, Jingming
zhongxiao quanshu, the largest collection of materials on the Xu Xun cult. Xu Yi was
born in Luling, but was ordained as a Daoist in Fuzhou
Fengcheng
, about
ninety miles to the northeast. Xu Ziqi

was another Luling Daoist who studied
the Jingming tradition after failing to receive a government post in the capital.33 The
Xu Xun cult was very prominent in Chen Zhixus place and time. Gaoming Palace
, on Mt. Zhenjun near the Luling prefectural seat, was another Daoist
temple with links to the Xu Xun cult. By one account Xu Xun founded Gaoming
Palace personally, and by another account it was founded by local people after they
31
Van der Loon, Taoist Books in the Libraries of the Sung Period, 56 57, quoting a preface written by Chen L
1287 1342.
32
Yu Ji , Jiuwan Peng Jun zhi bei , reprinted in Chen Yuan, ed., Daojia jinshi le, 1201 2.
33
Ping Guanlan and Huang Youheng, Luling xian zhi 34.28b

7:2400.
51
made a sacrice to Xu Xun, praying that he would exterminate a hornless dragon jiao

that was bothering them, and the dragonhaunting ceased.34 Chen himself
sometimes mentions Xu Xun and other cult deities such as Wu Meng or
Chenmu % in his writings, though he interprets them in a way that would not be
recognized by most devotees of the cult. Chen intimates that Xu Xun and Chenmus
true teaching was none other than his own form of sexual alchemy.35 This is a violent
misreading of the Xu Xun tradition.
The last Yuandynasty Daoist temple in Luling that I will mention is of
special signicance, because Chen may have been ordained as a Daoist there.
Although Chen does consider himself a Daoist,36 it is nowhere recorded that Chen
Zhixu was formally ordained as a Daoist priest. Of course, for Chen, the most
important initiations he received in his life would not be public ordinations, but
rather the private transmissions of alchemical secrets from his two masters, Zhao
Youqin and the Old Qingcheng Master. But was Chen a professional Daoist in the
eyes of the law? If he were, he was probably ordained at a place called Zixiao #, or
called Jianggong , or called both together.37 There was a Zixiao Abbey #( in
Luling, another Zixiao Abbey about sixty miles east of Luling,38 and a Zixiao Peak
# in the Lu Mountains '. Chens choronym may refer to one of these three
places, and if so, that would likely be where he got his start as a Daoist. Zixiao Abbey
in Luling is recorded in a commemorative inscription by the fortythird Celestial
34
Ping Guanlan and Huang Youheng, Luling xian zhi 10.30b 3:844
.
35
For example, Chen mentions the gripping of Jingyangs Xu Xuns sword, and the gulping of Chenmus elixir
!%; Jindan dayao, Jindan zhengli daquan ed., 6.35a missing from DZ 1067
.
36
In a passage criticizing ignorance and corruption among templedwelling Daoists, Chen writes Why dont they
reect on what it is that we study in our religion! $ Soon after, he writes My our
Most High Lord Lao said . . .
. I translate this passage below. As Campany notes, in medieval China,
The names, partial names, or titles of founding or paradigmatic gures are sometimes used synecdochally to
refer nominally to what in Western discourse would be called an entire religion or tradition; Campany, On the
Very Idea of Religions, 299. This may be the only page on which Chen explicitly calls himself a Daoist.
37
Jiang Gong does not sound like the name of a Daoist temple or ordination hall within a temple complex
. A
proper name for a Daoist temple or hall would have three syllables XY Gong
. Jianong may be some sort of
reference to the middle dantian in the body cf. p. 250 below
, or to some feature of the heavens perhaps the pole
star, or the central region of the rmament
, rather than to a Daoist temple.
38
Cf. Wu Cheng ", Zixiao Guan ji #(, in Chen Yuan ed., Daojia jinshi le, 115859. Wu says that this
Zixiao Guan was located eighty li southwest of the Nanfeng & county seat, which would put it about sixty
miles east of the Luling county seat.
52
Master Zhang Yuchu * 13591410

.39 Zhang writes that the abbey was founded
in the Northern Song, and destroyed in 1324; although restorations were planned in
the 1340s, it was not rebuilt until 1370.40 If Chen was once a Daoist from Zixiao
Abbey, this would have been before the destruction of the place in 1324, when he was
thirtyfour years old. I have found Zixiao as the name of a peak in the Lu Mountains,
but no record of any Daoist temple on that peak. Of these three Zixiaos, a link to the
Zixiao Abbey in Luling is the most likely. Chen probably rst entered the Daoist life
there.
3, Meeting Master Zhao, and Enlightenment

3.1, Meeting Zhao Youqin
Chen Zhixu met Zhao Youqin at the age of forty sui, in 1329, and received his
transmission at or near Mt. Heng 7
, the Southern Marchmount
8.
In the autumn of the jisi year 1329, while lodging in Hengyang, Zhao gave the
complete transmission of the wondrous dao of the golden elixir to Shangyangzi.
#.71 3+1 41
My master, the perfected Yuandu, received the true instructions of Zhongli
Quan, L Dongbin, Wang Chongyang, and Ma Danyang. On the side of the
Southern Marchmount I took him as my master and received his full
transmission; I was forty years old. Although he was living in a monastery,42 he
was addicted to poetry and books.
&42',9)
39
8%+!,$0
On pp. 568 and 6026 chap. 6, 2.1.3, 3.1.2

, I discuss Zhang Yuchu and his criticism of Chen Zhixu.
40
Gerritsen, Gods and Governors, 28586, citing Zhang Yuchu, Zixiao guan ji /5<(, in Luling xianzhi ;-6
1873
, 45.40ab.
41
DZ 1069, Shangyangzi jindan dayao liexian zhi 9a23.
42
The subject who was living in a monastery is Zhao, not Chen this is clearer in the context of the whole
passage
.
Linxia is a term found in Chan Buddhist texts, meaning within the conglin : Buddhist monastery

Foguang da cidian, s.v. linxia , 3311
. In general, Daoists have used the word conglin exclusively to refer to
Buddhist monasteries, never to Daoist ones. Yet I have found the term lin used to refer to a Daoist monastery
at several points in Jindan dayao; DZ 1067, Shangyangzi jindan dayao, preface, 4b7; 11.11b10. So it must refer to a
Daoist monastery here.
The Jindan zhengli daquan and Daozang jiyao eds. have " instead of
, an editorial error.
53
()!"43
My master Zhao the Perfected came from his selfcultivation at Mt. Dadi and
transmitted the dao of the golden elixir to me, together with the teachings on the
current and reverse current of the River of Heaven.44
&$ #
%45
It is unclear whether Chen and Zhao were lodging at Mt. Heng, or in the city of
Hengyang '
about thirty miles southwest of the mountain. Certainly they did
visit Mt. Heng together, because Chen records an enlightenment experience he had
while attending Zhao at Mt. Heng discussed below. Perhaps they moved between
the two places. Mt. Heng was a major Buddhist center, but there were also many
Daoist monasteries on the mountain, and over the centuries there was much contact
between the Buddhist and Daoist monks there.46 Both Zhao and Chen taught that
the highest truths could be found equally in Buddhism and Daoism, so they would
have appreciated opportunities for religious exchange at Mt. Heng. However, few
Buddhists and Daoists would have agreed with them that the highest form of
practice involved sexual alchemy.
Before coming to Mt. Heng, Zhao had been doing cultivation work at Mt.
Dadi $, the thirtyfourth grotto heaven, near Hangzhou in Zhejiang Province.
While there is a gazetteer for this mountain, DZ 782, Dadi Dongtian tuji ca. 1299, it
does not tell us what sort of Daoist practices Zhao Youqin may have encountered
there. All we can discover is that some or all of the Daoists there belonged to the
Zhengyi Daoist tradition.47 I argue below that sexual alchemy was practiced at
the Zhengyi Daoist center at Mt. Jiugong, so it is possible that the same was true at
Mt. Dadi.
3.2, Chens Enlightenment
43
DZ 1067, Shangyangzi jindan dayao 2.3a68.
44
The current and reverse current of the River of Heaven probably refers to the lesser microcosmic orbit see
chap. 4, 4.5, pp. 28891, but it could refer to some technique for transporting seminal essence, or the partners
qi, by means of urethral suction see pp. 41920, 4805 below or guiding intention see pp. 29293, 53839.
45
DZ 1067, Shangyangzi jindan dayao 14.12b10a2.
46
Robson, Imagining Nanyue.
47
There is an entry on a Zhengyi Daoist from Mt. Dadi named Jin Changqing . 129497 in Zhou
Yongshen, Lidai zhenxian gaodao zhuan, 290.
54
The idea of personally receiving esoteric transmission of alchemical teachings from a

master plays a paramount role in Chens teaching. Chen mentions often that he
received esoteric transmissions both from Zhao Youqin and from an unnamed Old
Man from Qingcheng. At two points in Jindan dayao he describes an epiphany he had
under the guidance of Master Zhao; I will present these two passages, with my own
commentary interposed. I will also mention two later enlightenment experiences
which Chen discusses more brie y. It is unusual to nd this sort of Chanstyle
enlightenment so strongly emphasized in Daoism.
3.2.1, Chens major enlightenment.
At two points in Jindan dayao Chen tells us
that he had a profound epiphany at the time of formally receiving his transmission
from Master Zhao, and he describes this enlightenment experience, using a mixture
of ChanBuddhist and inneralchemical tropes.
My master, the perfected Yuandu, received the true instructions of Zhongli
Quan, L Dongbin, Wang Chongyang, and Ma Danyang. On the side of the
Southern Marchmount, I took him as my master and received his full
transmission; I was forty years old.
Although he was living in a monastery, he was addicted to poetry and books.
He once spoke of nirva48 and voidnonexistence, and his talk was profound,
distant, indistinct. After I undeservedly received a single instruction from my
master, I felt prickles in my esh and a feeling of liberation. Not until I
looked down did I realize that my feet had always been standing on solid ground.
It was like the sudden dispersal of clouds oating in the empty sky, to reveal the
precious moon full and bright. I also got the Daode jing as interpreted by Zhao,
and burned incense to attract the gaze of the gods. . . .
/RF27V3#'U,6)7+@
W" XCJ0MT4E@=P!.Z(O/*:>
9 & $HKSN?%
1B;YD 5IL
QG<-8A49
This encounter has a fourstep structure: 1 a pithy lesson, which 2 precipitates
enlightenment, followed by 3 formal transmission, and then 4 an exploration of
the signicance of the new knowledge in inneralchemical terms.
1 First, Chen receives a single instruction yizhi * from Master Zhao.
Chen does not record the content of this pithy lesson, which is a valuable esoteric
secret, but we can infer its content. Accounts of the similar enlightenment
48
Ch. jimie 4E translates Skt. vyupaama calmness and extinction, an epithet or description of nirva.
49
DZ 1067, Shangyangzi Jindan dayao 2.3a6b2.
55
experiences of Chens students emphasize the shock they feel, so in both cases the
lesson probably involved something shocking, thus, sexual alchemy. As I will show
below, Zhao Youqin was also a sexual alchemist.
2 Then, Chen experiences enlightenment. This event is very Chanlike in its
phenomenology, doctrinal content, and reportage by Chen. Its phenomenology
involves a prickly feeling and a sense of liberation; this sort of phenomenon is not
found in other, earlier Daoist conceptions of masterstudent transmission. The
doctrinal content of the single instruction is presumably related to Zhaos talk of
nirv a and voidnonexistence, which Chen mentions immediately before it in the
same passage; nirv a signies Buddhist doctrine and voidnonexistence signies
Daoist doctrine. Finally, Chens reportage of the event uses Chan language. The
Chanlike elements in Chens writings are drawn from specic Chan texts, especially
the discourse records yulu of Yuanwu Keqin. Chanimbued enlightenment
experiences in Jindan dayao show how mental and physical experience can be
conditioned by tradition
in this case, Chan tradition.50 Chen may have studied
Chan texts on his own, but he certainly received this sort of training from Master
Zhao. Zhao Youqins Xianfo tongyuan devotes equal time to Daoism and Buddhism,
giving both a sexual interpretation.51 Zhao also acted like an eccentric Chan master.52
3 Then, Chen receives Zhaos interpretation of the Daode jing, and the
initiation is announced to the deities. Throughout the history of Daoism, Daoist
ordinations have involved the transmission of texts, including the Daode jing.53 In the
50
Cf. Steven Katz, Language, Epistemology, and Mysticism. Of course, Chens reports of his encounters with
masters and students should not be taken as objective and merely factual. Objective reporting itself is an
impossibility, strictly speaking, and Chens reportage is relatively less objective
it is highly structured, didactic,
and selective. Yet I assume as a matter of course that when Chen reports an encounter between himself and
Master Zhao, this encounter did in fact take place, and I assume that some avor of the encounter is indeed
represented in the report. I have found no grounds in the texts themselves for treating Chens reportage as
essentially ctional.
51
On pp. 93 94 and 459 62 below, I discuss some evidence of sexual alchemy in Xianfo tongyuan.
52
Cf. DZ 1067, Shangyangzi Jindan dayao 15.4b6 5a3.
53
Benn, The CavernMystery Transmission, 73 98; Schipper, Taoist Ordination Ranks in the Tunhuang
Manuscripts.
56
earliest period of Celestial Master Daoism, initiations and ordinations54 involved the
transmission of spirit registers lu
, lists of spirits the new ordinand could
command , but from early on the fourth century at the latest , the ordinand would
also receive specic scriptures at the time of ordination. The Daode jing was the
scripture transmitted at the lowest stage of Daoist ordination. I do not think that
Master Zhao was ordaining Chen Zhixu as a Daoist of a certain rank by transmitting
the Daode jing to him as part of this initiation. I think that Zhao transmitted the
Daode jing, both to echo traditional Daoist ordination, and to use this classic as a
handy and authoritative vehicle for expressing his own unique teachings the strategy
of extension or stealing the lightning . I think that Master Zhao presented Chen
with a written copy of his personal commentary on the Daode jing or perhaps he
allowed Chen to write out a new copy . Zhaos commentary on the Daode jing is lost,
but Chen has included his own commentarial material on the Daode jing in several
sections of Jindan dayao.55
4 Finally, Chen explored the signicance of his new realization in inner
alchemical and Chan terms, applying the new teaching he received from Master Zhao
to his previous knowledge of inner alchemy and Chan kan discourse:
As for this the two appear together but have dierent names,56 all along this
was the twin themes of xing and ming inherent nature and life
endowment . I felt
even more that my whole body was bathed in sweat. I felt that when I sat I was
facing Laozi, and when I walked I was walking together with Laozi. I felt that the
buddhas and patriarchs were beneath my heels, and it was as if among the three
realms of the Buddhist cosmos I was truly the most revered being i.e., like the
Buddha . Transcending, I asked what birth and death could there be?
Thus there are the sword of the Three Pure Ones, and the mitre of the Five
Marchmounts; existence and nonexistence, the thing and the aperture;
quicksilver within vermillion cinnabar, and silver within water; the sun
hare and
the moon
crow, male and female, black and white. Then we come to the vajra
protector? and oating stra pillar; the lantern and the buddha
hall; the treasure
of the true eye of the dharma; the wondrous mind of nirva; the pole a hundred
54
Benn distinguishes initiation from ordination: in his account of Daoist ranks, based on DZ 1125, Dongxuan
lingbao sandong fengdao kejie yingshi, he calls ranks one through three initiations, and ranks four through eleven
ordinations; Benn, The CavernMystery Transmission, 7398.
55
See the sections Daode jing xu DZ 1067, Shangyangzi Jindan dayao 2.1a37b7; the current passage I
am discussing comes from this section , Dao ke dao zhang jie DZ 1067, 2.7b812b6 , and Daode
jing zhuanyu DZ 1067, 10.1a313a6 . Also see texts A1e and A6 in dissertation appendix 1.
56
Daode jing, chapter 1.
57
chi in height; the water of the western river; bamboo, hemp, and reeds;57 the
habitual use of stickblows and shouts; and the number of grains of sand in the
Ganges River.
The buddhadharma is ever thus: once the buddhanature is revealed and the
Buddhist is enlightened, one is always peeping at it day and night, and there is
great dynamism and great application. At times one reaches a place to stop and
rest, bringing great elation. Why is this? Just because of these terms double
meaning. The masters just want people of these times to understand
they take
this as their hope.
:1LX*8t+.`PNH`3@7@;)7
;=n,O%?
cCVz|/>"2\
s
[/U0DKx$:Yhl
=!TumA5e<46y~{
#]SE=Tvd`Fj #/krM&
wbBa>_ b1XWf Rb}58
In this remarkable passage, Chen treats terms from Daoist and Chan Buddhist
discourse as completely interchangeable. He is also adding a sexual interpretation to
Buddhist and Daoist terminology in lines such as existence and nonexistence, the
thing and the aperture /U. I will analyze similar material below.59
On page 393 I show that for Chen the lantern and the buddhahall refer to the sex
organs of the male adept and female partner respectively. Note how Chen begins
with a sentence from the Daode jing: this may come from Zhaos Daode jing
interpretation.
There is one more passage in Jindan dayao describing the phenomenology of
Chens enlightenment experience with Master Zhao:
Studying buddhahood and cultivating transcendenthood: this is the single
greatest thing. After I received a single word from my master, it was like a
radiant, bright mirror hanging in a lofty hall. Of the objects coming and going,
none were not reected in it.
=g'I C9riG-(R^QoqUUJ
60
This sounds like a report of mystic experience. I believe that Chen is describing a
57
These refer to famous kans, such as Yunmen Wenyans Zp 864 949 three jin of hemp ma sanjin y
. This has been taken as an example of a Zen non sequitur, but it originally just meant Buddhist monk wearing
a robe made of three jinpounds of hemp.
58
DZ 1067, Shangyangzi Jindan dayao 2.3b2 4a1. Jindan zhengli daquan and Daozang jiyao eds. have xK. DZ
1067 ed.s Kx would seem to be backwards, but this could be intentional.
59
See pp. 391 94, and 533 44 chap. 5, 4.1.
60
DZ 1067, Shangyangzi Jindan dayao 4.9a5 6.
58
nondual state in which the usual division between self and things, or subject and
object, did not apply. But also note that, once again, this is Chaninected language.
Chen learned how to feel this way, or learned how to talk about it, or learned how to
feel this way by learning how to talk about it, by reading Chan texts, and receiving
Chan teachings.61
3.2.2, Two other enlightenments.
Finally, Chen also describes two other,
perhaps lesspowerful enlightenment experiences. One actually seems to be Master

Zhaos account of his own enlightenment experience.
While attending Master Zhao at the Southern Marchmount, Shangyangzi heard a
person chanting the Duren jing, and asked: What does The vajrabeing rides up
to heaven mean? The Master replied: Dont get muddledup! Try to say it again
from the beginning. First, I ask you, what kind of things are Red Writ and Turbid
Cavern? Shangyangzi then arose, bowed, and again asked his question. The
Master said: When I heard these four words Turbid Cavern Red Writ, I
began to sweat all over. I was enlightened by these words, and read this scripture
once through deeply.
;)E$B0?@*=3 '/.
0
-6C<4DA%35,"+&
92:30
?7(#+! 1 =8>
62
Note that this experience is based on and expressed in Daoist elements only, unlike
the mixed Chan/Daoist enlightenment above. In light of what I will show in chapter
5, it is very likely that the line Red Writ and Turbid Cavern hundong chiwen 5,"

is being given a sexual interpretation here: perhaps it refers to the female
partners sex organ and menses.63 I think that this episode occurred after Chens
Chan/Daoist enlightenment. I think that Chen rst comprehended the sexual
alchemical teachings from Zhao at the time of the Chan/Daoist enlightenment, and
in this episode, Zhao expects Chen to be able to gure out the sexual interpretation
of any religious scripture by himself.
61
Cf. Katz, Language, Epistemology, and Mysticism.
62
DZ 91, Taishang dongxuan lingbao wuliang duren shangpin miaojing zhujie 2.42a4.
63
DZ 91, Taishang dongxuan lingbao wuliang duren shangpin miaojing zhujie 2.3a7. Bokenkamp translates hundong
chiwen as the red script that penetrated the turbulent void idem, Early Daoist Scriptures, 415
. John Lagerweys
interpretation of this passage is very di erent: Apparently Chen understands the hundong chiwen, revealed at the
beginning of time, to be comparable to the cold sweat that covers the microcosm of the adepts body when he or
she is sublimating the elixir; in Schipper and Verellen, The Taoist Canon, 2:719. But Chens cold sweat is a trope
related to enlightenment, not to inneralchemical experience. Sweating may occur during the stage of internal
ring, when the adept bathes the elixir at the mao and you points, but this is not cold sweat; see pp. 296, 311, and
51316 chap. 5, 3.3.2.3
.
59
Chen also very briey alludes to another later enlightenment experience he

had under the guidance of his anonymous master from Mt. Qingcheng:
After I received my masters transmission, I had a shocked feeling, even when
eating and sleeping.
#64
I argue in the next section that Chen made up this tale of a Qingcheng master; the
brief, highlystylized quality of this enlightenment report accords with my argument.
4, Chens Two Masters:

Zhao Youqin and the Qingcheng Master
4.1, Zhao Youqins Life
I draw on Volkovs work on Zhao Youqin for this section,65 as well as the three
primary sources for Zhaos life.66 Zhao came from Poyang
, Rao Commandery
", presentday Jiangxi Province, and was born on July 26, 1271.67 According to Song
Lians ! account, Zhao studied astronomy while preparing for an o
cial career,
and later received a secret alchemical book from Shi Dezhi .68 Song says that
Zhao passed on his astronomical learning to Zhu Hui
,69 but that Zhu had no
disciples. It is also said that Zhao taught divination to Wang Gang , Wang
Yangmings forefather, and predicted that Wang Gang would have an illustrious
64
DZ 142, Ziyang Zhenren Wuzhen pian sanzhu, preface, 5b6.
65
Volkov, Scientic Knowledge in Taoist Context, 2:525; Volkov, Science and Daoism: An Introduction, 3438.
66
These are Zhaos entry in Jindan dayao DZ 1069, Shangyangzi jindan daoyao liexian zhi 8b9a ; Wang Weis $
preface to Chongxiu Gexiang xinshu text no. B2a in dissertation appendix 1 ; and Song Lians ! 131081 preface
to Gexiang xinshu text no. B2 dissertation appendix 1 . There are also entries on Zhao in later gazetteers; these
appear to be derivative, or reect standard tropes, so I do not consider them here.
67
Name Youqin, bynames Yuandu , Jingfu or Jing and Zigong or , stylename Yuanduzi
Master of Following the Middle .
68
Shi Dezhi is identied by others as Shi Tai , the second patriarch of the Southern Lineage of the Golden
Elixir. After he died in 1158, Shi Tai appeared again two years later to someone named Yijie at Luofu Shan;
Skar, Golden Elixir Alchemy, 245. Thus, Shi Tai was known as a transcendent being active in this world.
69
Byname Deming .
60
descendant i.e., Wang Yangming himself .70 Zhao was buried at Mt. Jiming MF in
Longyou K7, Zhejiang Province. Volkov argues that Zhao must have died before
Jindan dayao was published thus before 1331 or 1336 . According to Chen Zhixus
account,
Zhao Youqin was a son of the Zhao lineage71 E". As a boy he encountered the
res of civil war,72 and from an early age had an interest in mountain and forest
eremitic retreat. He was extremely bright, and had a thorough and accurate
knowledge of astronomy, Confucian classics and wefttexts jingwei AH ,
geography, and arts and calculations. He was able to receive the great dao of the
golden elixir from Master Ziqiong, and then he combed through scores of books,
scriptures, and biographies, and wrote . . . Xianfo tongyuan. He also wrote Jindan
nanwen, and other books circulating in the world. . . .
'E" J!
% I?L2AH35G4
D609N)1&C=B*A< @
&O-8*$73
Zhaos works are listed in dissertation appendix 1. While both accounts agree that
Zhao was learned in astronomy, they dier on the issue of Zhaos alchemical lineage.
By Songs account, Zhao received his alchemical secrets from Shi Tai +, the
second patriarch of the Southern Lineage of the Golden Elixir, traditionally said to
have died in 1158 , while by Chens account, Zhao received his secrets from Zhang
Ziqiong /9N, a member of a Quanzhen lineage reaching back to Ma Danyang ,
;. This Quanzhen lineage claim was a fabrication, probably by Chen and not by
Zhao himself, as I argue below. In later times, Zhao was known equally as an
alchemist, and as an expert on astronomy, mathematics, calendrics, and the camera
obscura. His Gexiang xinshu (:>* New writing on the alteration of images
discusses practically all traditional topics related to astronomy and the calendar,
such as, for example, the structure of the universe, that is, the shape and relative
70
Liu Tsunyan, Wang Yangming and Taoism, 155; and Wang Xingchang Xiansheng zhuan #.<, in
Wang Yangming, Wang Yangming quanji, 38.1 2:1380 .
71
Rather than being a mans name, Zhao zong probably means the former SongDynasty imperial Zhao clan.
Song Lians preface states this more clearly. In this dissertation, I have not explored the possibility that Zhao,
Chen, or others around them could have been Song loyalists. At least one reader has spotted a Songdynasty
taboo character in the Zhengtong daozang edition of Jindan dayao, which suggests that it this edition or liation
was printed by Song loyalists; Zhonghua daozang, 27:521n1. Yet Chen Zhixus disciples and patrons included many
men who were associated with the Yuan government, such as Zhang Shihong and his friends cf. no. 9 in appendix
2, pp. 13536 below , or Zhenxi no. 21 . Also see my note on the Song loyalist Zhao Daoyi, p. 137n5 below.
72
Jiehuo !, literally, the apocalyptic ames at the end of a kalpa.
73
DZ 1069, Shangyangzi jindan dayao liexian zhi 8b79a2.
61
position of the earth and the heavens . . . The book also contains descriptions of
astronomical instruments devised by Zhao . . .
and a section devoted to the . . .
approximate values of .74
In his commentaries to the Duren jing and Zhouyi Cantong qi, Chen quotes or
paraphrases dozens of passages from Gexiang xinshu on topics such as the relative
positions of Heaven and Earth, so we know that Chen studied astronomy with Zhao
and received a copy of Gexiang from him. Volkov has studied these passages, and
concludes that the text of Gexiang xinshu that we have today is actually partially based
on Chens Duren jing commentary: it was reconstituted in part using Gexiang
quotations drawn from Chens commentary by later editors.75
Zhaos religious teachings can be found in his Xianfo tongyuan, which discusses
Buddhist and Daoist positions on various inneralchemical and selfcultivation topics,
and has the ultimate goal of showing that Buddhism and Daoism teach a single truth
and a single alchemical practice. Many of Chens teachings are clearly based on
Zhaos; sometimes Chen copies long passage verbatim from Xianfo tongyuan.
4.2, The Qingcheng Master
Chen claims that, after receiving Zhao Youqins transmission at Mt. Heng or
Hengyang in 1329, he received higher secrets from a Qingcheng master.76 He
esteems the Qingcheng master no less highly than he does Master Zhao. Master
Zhao clearly had a major eect on Chens thinking, because Chen mentions and
quotes Master Zhao in his works so often. Yet Chen also raises the Qingcheng master
above Master Zhao when he says that his alchemical learning was incomplete and not
yet rm until he met the Qingcheng master:
When I rst received the words of Squire Zhao Yuandu, although my intent had
long been set on
alchemy, I could not avoid hesitancy. Later, while staying in an
unfamiliar land, I again paid my respects to an ultimate man, who transmitted the
most secret writs of Qingcheng to me without holding anything back. Since
reverently receiving them, I have been
in training day and night, without taking
a break.
74
Volkov, Scientic Knowledge in Taoist Context, 2:52627.
75
Volkov, Scientic Knowledge in Taoist Context, 2:53135.
76
Chen Zhixu calls this master Old Man from Mt. Qingcheng Qingcheng Weng , Qingcheng
Master Qingcheng Laoshi , Saintly Qingcheng Master Qingcheng Shengshi , or Old
Transcendent from Qingcheng Qingcheng Laoxian .
62
&<SLRQV8! TO.X6C/+-

;=>EUK%$N77
When I, Zhixu, rst heard the instructions of Master Zhao, I did not dare to be
satised with myself. Later after I encountered the secret techniques of the Old
Transcendent of Mt. Qingcheng, and knew the principle by which yinyang or
creation and transformation zaohua
follows the current to produce a human
baby or advances against the current to produce a transcendent, I did not
engage in further discussion. As for mysteries such as the image of the moon
appearing in the region of geng,78 or the generation of yang and the ring
periods, the Qingcheng masters advice is the most accurate and easy to follow.
Now I dare not keep it a secret.
2F3PR5D#.M+-7*AH@I,:
,?EC"WG'H4J+-91B)(

D779
Chen is saying that Zhaos teachings were insu cient, and that the Qingcheng
masters teachings were betterperhaps they were a clearer version of the same
general theory and practice. Both masters taught sexual alchemy, but the Qingcheng
master may have emphasized the sexual aspect of alchemy to an even greater extent.
Actually, I have deep suspicions about Chens story of the Qingcheng master.
He may never have met a Qingcheng master, or he may have met some such
personage, yet still be inating the importance of this person for his own learning.
What does Qingcheng master mean? It must mean a master from Mt. Qingcheng,
the famous Daoist center in Sichuan, the fth grotto heaven dongtian 0
. Chen
never actually identies Qingcheng as a mountain in Sichuan, and the name
Qingcheng +- does occur as a toponym in other parts of China besides
Sichuan,80 yet I have no doubt that Chen means Sichuans Mt. Qingcheng.
4.2.1, Doubts about the Qingcheng master.
I have two reasons for doubting
that Chen actually had a Qingcheng master. The rst reason is that, unlike Chens
encounter with Zhao Youqin, we get no details about his encounter with the
Qingcheng masterChens report of this encounter sounds more like myth than
77
78
Geng is the third day of the lunar cycle, when the outer pharmacon rst appears. See pp. 26970 chap. 4,
3.3.1
, 47980 chap. 5, 3.2.2.3
, and 50913 chap. 5, 3.3.2.2
.
79
DZ 142, Ziyang Zhenren Wuzhen pian sanzhu, preface, 5a25.
80
In addition to Qingcheng mountain or county in Sichuan, Zang Lihe, Zhonuo guji diming da cidian, 570, lists
Qingcheng towns, cities, and counties in the regions of presentday Henan, Anhui, Shandong, and Jiangsu
Provinces.
63
autobiography.81 Compare, for example, the elaborate account of Chens

enlightenment under Master Zhao with the minimal and stylized report of Chens
reaction after receiving the Qingcheng masters teaching. I am only aware of one
passage in which Chen quotes the Qingcheng master,82 whereas he quotes Master
Zhao many dozens of times. Basically the only thing Chen ever says about the
Qingcheng master is that Chen got teachings from him the Qingcheng master is
not a fullydeveloped character, but a mere function.
The second reason for my doubts is that the idea of meeting a mysterious
master at Mt. Qingcheng in Sichuan probably came to Chen from reading the
hagiography of Zhang Boduan ?%S
984/871082/84,83 patriarch of the Southern
Lineage of the Golden Elixir. I think that Chen wished to model his own life on the
life of Zhang Boduan, and I think that the mysterious Qingcheng master of both
Zhang Boduan and Chen Zhixu was the same person: he was the transcendent Liu
Haichan U9[. Lets look for a moment at the development of the Zhang Boduan /
Liu Haichan myth.84 In his original preface to Wuzhen pian 8:W from before 1082,
Zhang Boduan ?%S writes that he met a perfected person in Chengdu:
Afterward, in the jiyou year of the Xining reignperiod 1069 , because I had
followed Squire Lu Longtu85 into Chengdu, and due to my longstanding and
unagging desire and my everdeepening sincerity, I attracted a perfected person
to bestow me with secret instructions on the ingredients and retiming for the
golden elixir.
4$RP*IYZOF !E'/KH5MG:B
81
I believe that Daoist myths do inform the everyday lives and everyday teachings of Chen and others like him.
Daoists may recount or understand the veriable events of own their lives in mythical terms. Yet the episode of
the Qingcheng master is more mythical than other parts of Chens story of himself.
82
Furthermore, the Old Man from Qingcheng bestowed upon me the true secret instructions, and then
exhorted me, saying: In the future there will certainly be a prince, marquis, or great man who seeks to take you as
his teacher. Now, the dao must not be kept secret, but neither must you leak it out inappropriately. Who can
judge when to keep it secret or transmit it ? I have a method for testing students , which does quite a good job
of capturing the true situation or, their true feelings , and now I will transmit it to you. You can use it to sift out
the gold from the sand. 13<BN:D6#^4"2(7LJ;

->=V&"],T@+AQB)`C0DZ 142, Ziyang Zhenren Wuzhen
pian sanzhu, preface, 5b47.
83
The traditional dates for Zhang;s life are 9871082. Liu Tsunyan proposes 10761155 as alternative dates; Liu
Tsunyan, Zhang Boduan yu Wuzhen pian, 795.
84
I have taken this chronology from Ma Jiren, Daojiao yu liandan, 57.
85
Lu Shen F_
a.k.a. Scholar of Longtu \OX , 101270 was Zhang Boduans patron, and Administrator
zhi
. of Chengdu; Zhang Huizhi, Zhonuo lidai renming cidian, 1307.
64
=
)86
By the time of Weng Baoguang %2 . 1173 , this anonymous perfected person
had received the more specic title of Qingcheng Zhangren , and by the
time of Bai Yuchan > 11941229 , Zhang Boduans teacher had been positively
identied as Liu Haichan 8#> Liu Cao 8< , the fourth transcendent patriarch
of the Southern Lineage of the Golden Elixir, and one of the Eight Immortals of
Chinese popular culture. Chen Zhixu was familiar with the works of Bai Yuchan and
his circle, so he knew that Zhang Boduans master was said to be Liu Haichan. Chen
even compares his own masterdisciple encounter with Zhangs:
Pingshu
Zhang Boduan encountered the sageteacher at Chengdu, and wrote
Wuzhen pian in order to instruct those to come. The meaning of his instructions is
detailed and accurate. . . . After meeting the sageteacher, I, Shangyangzi,
wandered throughout the back corners of the country, meeting
cultivators all
over the place and drawing widely on
their teachings, and all of it was
mendacious chatter.
51!*"$: &03/51
!64,.9'+(-7;87
Because he mentions his own encounter with his Qingcheng master soon after
mentioning Zhang Boduans encounter with Zhangs master Liu Haichan , we may
infer that Chen links the two episodes in his thinking. I argue further that Chen
Zhixu modeled his encounter with the Qingcheng master on Zhang Boduans
encounter with Liu Haichan, and implied that his Chens master was in fact the
transcendent Liu Haichan too! Just as, in Grith Foulks description,88 the Song
dynasty abbots of Chan monasteries reenacted the deeds of the mythical Tang
dynasty masters, or played the role of the living Buddha, Chen Zhixu reenacted
the patriarchal myth of Zhang Boduan.
5, A Period of Preparation, 132931
86
87
Zhouyi Cantong qi fenzhang zhu, Daozang jiyao ed., 1.5b96a2.
88
Foulk, Myth, Ritual, and Monastic Practice in Sung Chan Buddhism.
65
We may not believe that Chen Zhixu actually met the immortal Liu Haichan at Mt.
Qingcheng, but we may accept that he could have journeyed to the mountain during
the period between his initiation at Mt. Heng and the composition of Jindan dayao.
In his preface, Chen tells us that he wrote Jindan dayao two years after meeting his
masters:
At the age of forty, I undeservedly received the correct dao from my teacher
Zhao Youqin. After this, I furthermore encountered the Old Teacher from Mt.
Qingcheng, who personally transmitted the goldenelixir principles of the one
precosmic qi and the kan moon and li sun, and the secrets of timing the re by
subtracting or adding
fuel he bestowed all
his teachings without reserve. . . .
But as for
lling my sack with elixir material, I knew not how to proceed
wangcuo *8 . For two years I visited companions and sought friends, with the
intention of jiang 6 bringing together my aair. Then I did not dare keep
the
teachings a secret . . .
and wrote this Jindan dayao.
E#29D<.=,-2FA3"H+
(:C1479?G/I $*8'B 5
;!%)6@ &>4+
089
The chronology for this period of Chens career is thus:
1 Fall of 1329: Received Zhao Youqins transmission at Mt. Heng;
2 Unknown date: Supposedly received the Qingcheng masters transmission in
Sichuan;
3 Twoyear period of cultivation;
4 Wrote Jindan dayao: one internal preface is signed Sept. 21, 1331.90
This chronology gives us another reason to doubt the Qingcheng master story.
Although Chen claims to have met this master two years before he began to write
Jindan dayao, the composition of Jindan dayao suggests that most of the work had
already been written before Chen began to speak of the Qingcheng master, and
therefore that this story is a late addition. Within the body of Jindan dayao, Chen
only mentions the Qingcheng master in his preface dated 1335 , and in his
transmission epistles to his various disciples some of which are dated as late as 1343 .
Zhao Youqin, on the other hand, is quoted or cited in many of the chapters of Jindan
dayao. I think that when Chen was writing the technical chapters of Jindan dayao, the
story of the Qingcheng master had not yet come to the fore in his thinking.
During this twoyear period, Chen was trying to cultivate his elixir, and ll his
89
DZ 1067, Shangyangzi Jindan dayao 1.2b63a5.
90
66
sack with material by visiting companions. In addition to the usual kinds of

meditational training such as calming the mind, sharpening the internal vision, or
waiting for physiological signs of progress in training, he was probably seeking
suitable female partners for sexual cultivation. As I discuss in chapter 5,91 in sexual
alchemical discourse, companions might refer to fellow male cultivators who help
the alchemist to proceed on the correct path, or to female sex partners. These female
partners would probably have been bondmaids rather than female alchemist
colleagues. In order to have access to female partners, the time and space for
cultivation, and protection from interference, alchemists required the sheltering
patronage of wealthy men. In the preface to his Wuzhen pian commentary after 1331,
Chen says that his Qingcheng master predicted he would nd the wealthy and
powerful patrons he needed:
Furthermore, the Old Man from Qingcheng bestowed upon me the true secret
instructions, and then exhorted me, saying: In the future there will certainly be a
prince, marquis, or great man who seeks to take you as his teacher.
(+79B6;-P,*#1 92
Chens rst disciple, Tian Zhizhai J, was just such a man. Chen may have put
this prediction into the mouth of the Qingcheng master after the fact.
5.1, Tian Zhizhai.
Chen says that he set out on his peripatetic teaching career
after completing Jindan dayao:

After the book was completed, I furthermore worried that if people of the times
did not receive oral transmission, how could they enlighten themselves by simply
using the book
! Thereupon I stumbled about in a rush,93 carrying my book under
my arm. I stooped myself to seek others disciples
. Whenever there was a person
who could be beckoned or grabbed, I always bent my head and stooped over
bending down to their level
, with words of praise and warnings to repent,
hoping they would
enter upon this dao.
5,F)8
>C2AO5QK% #<
&4':!/0$GLN3H=@94
This passage describes the circumstances in which Chen Zhixu met most of his
91
See pp. 44648 chap. 5, 3.1.2.
92
93
Qiejue QK must be a variant of jiejue DK, for which Hanyu da cidian has M?. "IE with the
appearance of tumbling and falling while
walking with hurried steps; Hanyu da cidian, s.v. jiejue DK.
94
67
disciples, yet I believe that he met Tian Zhizhai during the twoyear period before he
nished Jindan dayao. Tian was Chens rst disciple, and he transmitted his teachings
to Tian before starting out on a longer circuit:
I rst transmitted it to Marquis Tian, Zhiyangzi, then wandered throughout
Yelang, Qiongshui, Yuanzhi, Chenyang, Jingnan, the two Es, Changsha, the Lu
Mountains, and east and west of the Yangtze. Overall, I transmitted to a hundred
persons or more . . .
,3';B@!+J$;1(:%I&
#
3F95
Zhiyangzi ;, Tian Zhizhai H, lived in Sizhou *, in the northern part of
presentday Guizhou Province.96 Here is what Chen says about him:
When I traveled west, while on the road I lodged with the pacication
commissioner97 of Siguo.98 While I was there,
Marquis Tian Zhizhai99
kowtowed before me again and again, desiring to hear the ultimate dao. After a
year, when he did not tire of this, I bestowed it on him, saying: . . .
With my words, Zhizhai had a violent enlightenment. I expected that he
would practice assiduously, and I changed his stylename to Master of Ultimate
Yang.
C/7*2)9H',5DA> -3
H 6.8<" ?;100
I think that Chen Zhixu stayed with Tian Zhizhai for at least one year out of the
twoyear period between 1329 and 1331. It does not say here whether Tian provided
Chen with the necessities for sexual alchemy, but this would have been a reason for
Chen to stop over as the client of a wealthy and powerful man.
Chen and Tian are mentioned in several gazetteers from Guizhou. The oldest
record I have seen is in Qian ji of the Wanli =G reignperiod, 15731620, which says
that Chen
wandered all over Yelang,101 and reached Sitang, where he rened the elixir with
95
96
Sizhou is presentday Wuchuan K County, Guizhou Province.
97
One would expect )E instead of )9.
98
The toponym Siguo was not found. Siguo was probably Sizhou when it was Marquis Tians marquisate
houguo '2.
99
Marquis was a title of nobility, usually next in prestige after Prince wang and Duke gong, . . . usually
conferred for special merit Hucker, A Dictionary of Ocial Titles in Imperial China, p. 225.
100
DZ 1067, Shangyangzi Jindan dayao 11.1a10b2, 2a910.
101
This is presentday Tongzi 04 County, Guizhou Province.
68
Tian Qi Zhiyangzi , the younger brother of the pacication commissioner,

within a cli on Mt. Wansheng. Afterward, they both departed as transcendents.
. . . The stone spring on the summit is still there today.
>;*%+@#A537 89-B$(
1'/102
This passage is repeated in several other Guizhou gazetteers,103 but the Guizhou
tongzhi of 1741 also adds the following details:
Shangyangzis Elixir Terrace: It is to the east of the prefectural seat, on the back
side of Mt. Wansheng. It is said that there was a man of the Dao, Chen Zhixu,
styled Shangyangzi, who, on his own, entered a bamboo cage, and oated on the
river. He encountered the pacication commissioner, who hauled the cage over
and extricated him.
They rened the elixir here:
their furnace and mallet both
still exist today.
5 ?" 82$6<0)4:5E,
=#A&E
7 DC(104
Sizhou and Mt. Jiugong are the only places where Chen Zhixu made his mark on the
local landscape. As I show in chapter 6, Chen Zhixu made his mark on the history of
alchemy through his texts, but there are only these two places where he was
remembered as a local gure. The traces of the implements of halfforgotten
alchemists can be found all over south China. In Jiangxi, Zhang Daoling, Ge Xuan,
and Xu Xun left the most such traces.105 I will return to the detail of the bamboo
cage on page 77 below.
Chen Zhixu met Tian Zhizhai while staying with the pacication
commissioner of Siguo, and the later Guizhou local histories say that Tian was the
younger brother of the commissioner. Hucker tells us that pacication
commissioner rank 3b was one of the most prestigious titles granted aboriginal
tribes in southwestern China and their natural, mostly hereditary chiefs.106
According to the Yuanshi , the pacication commissioner of Sizhou was named
Tian Ren , and he was invested with this o ce in 1327.107 Tian Zhizhai Tian Qi
102
Guo Zizhang, Qian ji 54.1b 43:929 .
103
See the chart on pp. 4243 above.
104
E Ertai, Guizhou tongzhi, j. 7.
105
We can see this from Zhang Yuchus .! 13591410 essay, translated on pp. 6035.
106
Hucker, A Dictionary of Ocial Titles in Imperial China, no. 2682, p. 251.
107
Luo Xianyou, Yuandai minzu shi, 470; Yuan shi 30:683a.
69
was probably Tian Rens younger brother or cousin. Most of the residents of Sizhou
were Hmong Miao people, and the powerful ruling Tian clan, although originally
a Han clan which had migrated to the area in the seventh century, had become like
the Hmong too.108 So Chens rst disciple was a relative of a HanHmong warlord.
6, Chens Teaching Career

During his period of preparation 132931, Chen drafted Jindan dayao. He may have
done part of this work while staying in Sizhou, but wherever he did the work, he
would have needed access to a few dozen Daoist and Buddhist works. He composed
Jindan dayao because he felt his cultivation was incomplete, or perhaps composing
the work was itself part of his cultivation:
From the moment I was able to encounter an Ultimate Man or Men
, and
receive transmission of the great dao under oath, I immediately planned to
complete my aairs of selfcultivation
. But because my merit and karmic
conditions109 were not yet established, I therefore yongshi searched
through the various transcendent scriptures, seeking out the unusual, plucking
the best passages
, and compiling these as Jindan dayao.
$*# "%
( ) !
&'110
Composing Jindan dayao was a duty Chen felt before the gods, the transcendent
patriarchs of his lineage. Yet it was also potentially dangerous to write the book, as to
leak secrets improperly would be to invite karmic retribution, or personal retribution
from the gods:
Then I did not dare keep the teachings
a secret: I burned incense and made my
report to Heaven, informed the holy teachers, the Seven Perfected, and the Five
Patriarchs, and thereupon, drawing upon the various elixir scriptures of the ranks
of transcendents, wrote this Jindan dayao.
In this book I have hazarded the prohibitions to give a detailed account,
revealing and making things clear in lists and discussions, directly opening the
door for gentlemen of aftertimes who wish to study transcendence, and guiding
108
Luo Xianyou, Yuandai minzu shi, 47890.
109
Gong yuan
( could also be translated eorts and fortune.
110
70
them along the road.

`PaH+V!lJMOq }#k)'<
D4?jmEdW{8yB2p=n111
The danger of revealing the teachings to the wrong person is a common trope in
Southern Lineage texts.112 The trope comes from the story of Zhang Boduans life.
Zhang Boduan was punished by the gods three times for transmitting his inner
alchemy to the wrong student:
This is the greatest aair between Heaven and Earth. If serious vows are not
made, who would dare to leak the
secret trigger? By the time you have bestowed
it to the wrong person, the punishment of the netherworld is already manifest.
Ziyang
Zhang Boduan transmitted it to the wrong person three times, and three
times he met with tribulations from this. The transcendent scriptures all record
it: how can one not take it as a warning? But on the other hand, if one only keeps
it as a taboo and secret, then this is to refuse and obstruct
the will of the
transcendents.
%e'1]>FizR`7U>
sIbfg
>
4k3o-TjNg@C5/113
Revealing the teachings to other cultivators was not just a duty, but something Chen
desired to do:
Since I gained
the elixir, I have not dared to keep it a secret, and have desired
to discuss similarities and dierences with true friends. Recently, how many are
the people of this generation who take it upon themselves to discourse vacuously
upon
all things between Heaven and Earth! All these side doors and perverse
paths are briey but exhaustively listed in Cuixu yin Chant of
Mr. Kingsher
greenVoid .114 Besides
teachings on the one point of precosmic perfected
qi,
all strands
of teaching beyond this are, overall, perversions of the truth.
.S2`PXr9G~$Z;2 ^w
:(|{%}K
=C0[xc,YuQA"M&v0 115
Chen wishes to spread his teachings for two reasons: to help others achieve
transcendence, and also to stamp out what he sees as heretical teachings. A more
111
112
This is also an ancient trope within Daoism.
113
114
Cuixu yin is the polemical poem Niwan Zhenren Luofu cuixu yin 6M
Lxc, The MudPill Perfecteds
Chant of Mr. KingshergreenVoid of Mt. Luofu , attibuted to Chen Nan \h d. 1213 , a patriarch in the
Southern Lineage of the Golden Elixir. The poem is collected in DZ 1307, Haiqiong Bai Zhenren yulu 4.16, and DZ
1090, Cuixu pian 712.
115
DZ 1067, Shangyangzi Jindan dayao 9.3a69. These are two couplets from the Song on Judging Delusions
Panhuo ge *_t , translated as the appendix to chapter 3.
71
important reason is to manage his mastership, to gain authority for himself as a

master, though Chen never openly admits this as a goal. In chapter 3, I discuss what I
call a threeway feedback loop of propagation, authority, and salvation in Chens
career. We see the rst two terms in this loop here: spreading his teachings would
help Chen gain authority, and, in a circular manner, authority would in turn help him
spread his teachings.
After his time with Tian Zhizhai in Sizhou, Chen made a circuit through parts
of presentday Guizhou, Hunan, Hubei, Henan, and Jiangxi:
I rst transmitted it to Marquis Tian, Zhiyangzi, then wandered throughout
Yelang, Qiongshui, Yuanzhi, Chenyang, Jingnan, the two Es, Changsha, the Lu
Mountains, and east and west of the Yangtze.116
!%*-,
117
8
*#)5
Most of these places or regions are located on tributaries of the Yangtze, but Chen
would have had to travel overland to visit them in succession. For a full list of every
place Chen traveled to, see appendix 1 of this chapter. For many of these places,
there are no records of Chens encounters and activities. The transmission epistles
included in Jindan dayao are mostly to disciples from Hongzhou, Jiujiang, and the Lu
Mountains in Jiangxi, or Mt. Jiugong in Hubei.
Chen describes his approach to nding students:
After the book was completed, no matter where I was staying, whenever I passed
by a wellknown mountain or any of
the various walled towns, wherever I was at
I made friends. I lowered my head and my heart stooped my dignity
to
enlighten and guide the people of the times, and entice them to enter this dao.
For the past three or four years, those seeking my teachings
have been many, yet
in the end I have not met anyone who used great force to put forth sincere
116
1 Yelang is presentday Tongzi "' County, Guizhou Province. 2 Qiongshui is Zhenyuan 4/ County,
Guizhou. 3 Yuanzhi is Zhijiang TongEthnicity Autonomous County 9&2, Hunan. 4 Chenyang is
Chenxi + County a.k.a. Chenyang *, Hunan. 5 Jingnan is in the region of presentday Nanping and
Jiangling (2 County, Hubei. 6 The Two Es are regions in Hubei and Henan. 6a East E Dong E )
refers to Wuchang , part of Wuhan ., Hubei. 6b West E Xi E refers to the region of Nanyang City
*7 and Dengzhou 1 7 City, Henan.
Zeng Chuanhui locates these Yuandynasty places somewhat dierently. He identies 1 Yelang as Cenfan
County, Guizhou; 2 Qiongshui as Sansui 3 County, Guizhou; 3 Yuanzhi as Huaihua 6 City, Hunan; 4
Chenyang as Fenghuang 0$ County, Hunan; and 6 the Two Es as the Wuhan region; Zeng Chuanhui,
Yuandai Cantong xue, 48. For nos. 2, 3, 4, and 6, Zengs identications and my own diverge by 50 miles or less, but
he places Yelang in eastern Guizhou, while I place it in the northwest. I stand by my identications, which come
from Zang Lihe, Zhonuo gujin diming da cidian.
117
72
eorts.
E!?@KP-] i>0o(g)B Xm
eU$\ 1.;HH2/#V&aU;118
Chen had a di cult time nding worthy disciples:
Having undeservedly received my masters secret transmission, and henceforth
knowing what the perfected transcendents and sagemasters intended, how could
I not wish but for all people to achieve realization, and become totally complete?
But what can one do about the fact that there is a large group of people in
this generation who do not reach the mark, and a great many who go too far, with
a hundred dierent kinds of obscurations and obstructions, and no way to
perceive
the truth?
cCLM+&?:F[CZJNfD``Y!94
;O];%Ih<T/b119
So he oered lesser teachings for students of lesser capacities or ambitions:
Overall, I transmitted to a hundred persons or more, but only transmitted
instructions on making their bodies whole by means of the dao. As for those to
whom I could tell the secret of extending the lifeendowment by means of
techniques,120 there were not even as many as two or three in a hundred. It is not
that I dared begrudge
the secrets. Their capacities dieredsome were sharp
and others dull.
M%kA\,"'8Q53Gd;%T=^
7Sp6l#*W_121
Chen taught techniques for nourishing life yangsheng j to many people he met
on his travels, but reserved his ultimate teachings for a select handful of worthy men.
Chen adapted alchemical discourse to express dierent messages and to suit dierent
audiences. In chapter 5, 4, I discuss this issue again: Chen could translate his sexual
alchemy into Buddhist or Confucian language, or even give solo rather than sexual
teachings, as necessary.
Not only did Chen face the di culty of nding worthy disciples, he was often
berated in public by those who regarded his teachings as heretical:
I came traveling through Yuzhang122 in order to nd people of correct heart and
118
119
120
Note that a technique shu Q is presented as being more valuable than a dao here. Usually daos are
considered superior to mere techniques.
121
DZ 142, Ziyang Zhenren Wuzhen pian sanzhu, preface, 5b96a2.
122
Yuzhang nR was a SuiTang period commandery with its seat in modernday Nanchang city, Jiangxi Province.
Yuzhang here could refer to Nanchang city or county.
73
sincere intent, so I could tell them about the dao of cultivating the self and long
life. But
as soon as I would express a single idea, I would arouse
a riot of
slander and acrimony.
.+3#" )'/
&,956:
%123
Sometimes people
would berate me, and I would hide and forbear it for a time.
Gaining by chance the appreciation of one or two men, I would then bring upon
myself
the slander of a thousand or ten thousand. I only wished to practice the
dao, and did not care about disputes over who is right and who is wrong. When I
encountered various forms of mockery, I suered it glady.
2*0 7!4(6",
8-1 $124
Reading Chens accounts, we get a picture of him as a teacher traveling from town to
town, oering his teachings to strangers wherever he found a circle of self
cultivators. These seekers practiced quiet sitting, Chan meditation, Daoist inner
alchemy, and perhaps other forms of Buddhist or Daoist meditation. He does not say
how he found selfcultivators other than by word of mouth. Perhaps he sought them
in temples, or even in the marketplace. He would suer derision for his views, but
endure it stoically in hopes that, after the critics had said their piece and departed, a
curious seeker might linger behind to learn more about these strange teachings, and
Chen could test his worth and try to convert him.
Most of the time, when Chen encountered derision, it seems to have been in a
public arena, but he also seems to have gotten a similar reaction in some Daoist
monastic circles as well. He criticizes some Daoist priests for obstructing him when
he tried to teach selfcultivation to some of the priests among them:
O! Those people of this generation who wish to wear towering headpieces enter
the school of Mr. Lao Laozi
and study his dao.
Now, the dao of Mr. Lao is to treasure essence and qi, and cultivate by
returning and recyling. It is to esteem the clear void, reduce lust, reduce eating
and drinking, distance oneself from dusty worldly
entanglements, extend
compassion and pity, establish hidden virtuous deeds, reduce again and again,
until one reaches nonaction. Someone who does this
may be called a follower
of Mr. Lao.
Nowadays, how can it be that they live in vermillion palaces and bedrape
themselves in cranequill robes
, yet when you ask them about a dao, they
become bashful and discomted! Why dont they take a good hard look at what is
123
Jindan dayao, Jindan zhengli daquan ed., 6.42a12 missing from DZ 1067.
124
DZ 1067, Shangyangzi Jindan dayao 8a10b3.
74
studied in our religion!

And then when one or two amongst them wishes to learn selfcultivation
teachings, the others gather around in packs and laugh at them! Our Most High
One Lord Lao said: When an inferior gentleman hears of the Dao, he has a big
laugh.How could this be merely an old saying?
Now, one who has entered the school but does not practice its dao is a vermin.
A vermin is one who wears the clothing of an institution but envies its
teachings, chomps down its food like a ravenous silkworm but slanders its dao.
This is like wearing the vestments of the sageking Yao but criticizing Yaos
words. I dont know how that could be acceptable!
Even if there were a Daoist made of truly outstanding stu , and who was also
willing to cast his pure, lofty, and most precious self into a dirty and hateful place,
this would cause the vulgar men who talk a lot to call him a heretic. Alas! What a
pity!

8O5D?'A'q'quQM
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4C%?6J^tP#XF125
Chen is exasperated with the Celestial Master priests in the temples of his region
who would interfere whenever he would try to pass on his selfcultivation teachings
to a few curious Daoists among them. Chen identies himself as a Daoist too, a
follower of Lord Lao, but not a Daoist like the priests he sees in his day. He makes it
sound as if most of these priests scorned Daoist selfcultivation as such, but it may
be that they had their own practices, and were merely scornful of Chens sexual
alchemy.
Yet despite all of these trials and travails, Chen was successful: look at how
many students he had. He has left record of at least twentythree students, some of
them ardent disciples, some of them sometimestudents, some of them near equals,
but all of them accepting what he had to tell them. Chens claim that he transmitted
to a hundred persons or more shou baiyu ren Y&~
may be inated, but is not

impossible. I list these students in chapter appendix 2, and will introduce several of
them below.
125
75
6.1, The End of Chens Life

It is not known exactly when Chen died. The latest internal date in Jindan dayao is
1343, when Chen would have been ftythree years old.126 One hagiography says that
he died just before the end of the Yuan dynasty, thus before 1368:
Shangyangzi saw that the Yuan dynasty was at an end and the world would soon
be in chaos, and was unwilling to respond to the
imperial summons. Then one
morning he ducked away into the Numinous Wastes and into parinirva,127
relying on transformation to make his departure.
M0FNHWLRZSEUC)128
Another hagiography says that he lived from the Song into the Yuan, over a hundred
years in total:
He was in the world for a hundred and some dozens of years, from the Song
dynasty to the Yuantruly an old transcendent.
*.D$(T%9<
129
However, as we have seen, Chen was denitely born in 1290, and did not live during
the Song dynasty. Since these hagiographies are highly stylized, we need not take
them as literally true. For example, the trope of a recluse who refuses to serve a ruler
who has lost the mandate of Heaven is as old as Chinese historiography itself. The
hagiographer is portraying Chen as a famous and virtuous hermit, and Chens ability
to choose his own death is the sign of an accomplished Daoist or Buddhist master.
Perhaps Chen did die around 1368, though, when he would have been seventyeight
years old.
6.2, An Odd LateImperial Hagiography
126
Here are the two mentions of 1343. 1 On February 3, 1343, when I was about to go into deep reclusion on Mt.
Mei, a man styling himself Zhenxi made a special trip to visit me and inquire about the dao :FIX
G '*P@>6?2JQ; Jindan dayao, Jindan zhengli daquan ed., 6.53b34 missing from DZ 1067 .
2 Dongyangzi 5M, Tao Tangzuo =,K, in the month of pure yang
fourth month, 1343, because
he
was in Dongping
County following his lord Xiangfu, paid a most reverential visit to me on top of Mt. Heer
Mt. Crane Chick, and asked me about the mysteries of the old man from Mt. Qingcheng +:4A
M#5!-1;OV/Y3 &/78B ; Jindan dayao, Jindan zhengli daquan ed.,
6.55a910 missing from DZ 1067 .
127
Jiwei EU was not found in Hanyu da cidian or a CBETA Taish search. It probably means shiji "E, a Buddhist
term for the passing of an enlightened master literally, parinirva .
128
Wang Jianzhang, Lidai shenxianshi, j. 5; quoted in Kubo, R shi hachij

ichi ka to setsu ni tsuite, 37; and Volkov,
Scientic Knowledge in Taoist Context, 544n12.
129
Fu Xieding, Jiugong Shan zhi, 4.6b1 7:96 .
76
Dacheng jieyao is an undated inneralchemy orilegium which some say was compiled
by the Quanzhen master Liu Huayang 5MN 1736? , but was probably compiled
sometime between 1911 and 1929, and contains a full hagiography of Chen Zhixu.130
This passage occurs within a section on alchemical lineages. After briey introducing
the patriarchs in Chens selfconstructed lineage from Ma Danyang to Zhao Youqin,
the passage recounts Chens life:
Chen had the byname Guanwu, and had the stylename Shangyangzi. After he
heard the dao, he wished to cultivate it, but had no resources, so he sought all
over for someone fated
to meet him. He roved to the southwest region of Yue.131
The Lao people there sought his dao by force; unable to gain it, they got him
drunk, placed him in a drum, and tossed it into the Pacic Ocean. The Consort
of Heaven
Mazu was startled into action, and ordered the sea spirits to guard
him, and deliver him to the southern shore. There he encountered Marquis Tian,
who was following orders to come and perform a sacrice to the Consort of
Heaven.
Marquis Tian saved him from the waters, questioned him to nd out
exactly how he had been put in such a predicament, and brought him back to the
capital.
Marquis Tian aided him with resources and funds, and
Chen thereafter
was able to complete his dao and achieve perfection. Chen thought to himself,
My not having perished in that drum in the water, and being able to be alive
today, is
because Heaven will rely on me to transmit the dao.
Thereupon he sought all over for anyone fated
to meet him, and opened
wide the gates of the dao. Of the disciples he transmitted to, there were more
than twenty who transcended the
realm of the profane and entered the
realm
of the holy. At the end of the Yuan dynasty, in the guiwei year of the Zhizheng
reign period of Emperor Shun,132 his fame was heard in high places. Emperor
Shun ordered that he be summoned and employed
at court,
but Chen the
Perfected knew that the fate of this nation was coming to an end, and displayed
his transformation133 before the fact, ducking away into the Numinous Wastes.
The above is a record of the line of transmission
from Patriach Ma Danyang.
The patriarchate thereupon ceased and was not transmitted
further.
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130
Jiangnan Ke, Zhongguo gudai qigong yaoji daodu.
131
Yue P comprises presentday Guangdong and Guangxi Provinces.
132
The guiwei year of the Zhizheng reign period was 1343. This was during the reign of Emperor Hui Huidi J2 .
I do not know of any Yuan emperor named Shun. Note that the latest internal references in Jindan dayao are from
1343.
133
I.e., died. Note that the Lidai shenxian shi hagiography has jiwei A[, while the Dacheng jieyao hagiography has
shi . Perhaps the sentences in both texts are derived from a sentence in the original text which had the more
familiar term shiji A.
77
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HNJ831 >2%@7!1F@134
This hagiography combines elements from three sources we have seen already:
material from Jindan dayao, the tale in the Guizhou gazetteer of Chen oating in the
river in a bamboo cage and being found by Marquis Tian, and the tale in Lidai
shenxian shi of Chen dying to avoid the call to court because the Yuan dynasty had
lost the mandate of Heaven. There are some elements here not seen before, such as
Chens being thrown into the water by the Lao O people, or his rescue being
orchestrated by the maritime goddess Mazu A1. The author of this hagiography
seems to have scrambled or changed the date of Chens demise, locating it in 1343
which happens to be the latest internal date in Jindan dayao
, when the date probably
should be the end of the Yuan dynasty. This odd story may represent an attempt by
the author of Dacheng jieyao or his sources to link Chen Zhixu to the Mazu cult of
southeastern China. Chen is also quoted three times in Dacheng jieyao, but all three of
these quotes are sheer fabrications. The author is trying to lend Chens authority to
his own practices by placing them in the mouth of a hazilyknown Daoist master of
the past.
7, Was Chen Zhixu a Quanzhen Daoist?

7.1, Quanzhen Daoism and the Southern Lineage
The question of Chen Zhixus relation to Quanzhen Daoism is a very important one.
For most historians of Daoism, Chen Zhixus main signicance in the history of
Daoism is as a leading example of a trend during the Yuan dynasty toward the fusion
of the Southern and Northern Lineages of the Golden Elixir Jindan nanbei zong )
+#
i.e., the fusion of the lineages of Wang Chongyang /> and Zhang
Boduaninto a single tradition. Yet historians views on how Chen was a Quanzhen
Daoist diverge on a number of important issues. Before oering my own analysis at
134
Dacheng jieyao, 15758 Wudao zhenji ed.

; 1.34b36a Yongcheng yinshu guan ed.
; 11314 Xiuxian baodian ed.
.
78
length below, I will summarize these various perspectives. The goal of section 7.1 is to
root out some misconceptions concerning Chen Zhixus lineage and teachings,
which, despite being refuted generations ago, continue to be perpetuated in new
works. I will discuss six main issues, with representative positions by various
scholars, and my own position. I prefer the position of Qing Xitai and/or his co
author Chen Bing on all of these issues, though my own position is even more
skeptical than theirs.
7.1.1, Comparison of Quanzhen Daoism with the Southern Lineage of the Golden
Elixir.
In chapter 4, What Is Inner Alchemy?, I oer many specic comparisons
between the alchemical teachings of the Southern Lineage, early or later Quanzhen
Daoism, and other alchemical traditions. While I will defer alchemical comparisons
until chapter 4, it would be helpful to oer a brief sociological comparison at this
point. Li Yuanguo compares the two traditions on four points:135 1 Unlike the
Northern Lineage i.e., Quanzhen Daoism, the Southern Lineage had no temples or
systematic precepts.136 Teachings were transmitted in secret, unknown to the public.
2 Unlike in traditional Daoism, and in the Northern Lineage, Southern Lineage
patriarchs did not leave the life of the householder chujia to become celibate
monastiscs, but rather roamed within the world, or even did craftwork, saying that
The greater hermit dwells in the marketplace dayin ju chanshi 137 rather
than in the mountains. The idea of selfcultivation in the marketplace had additional
signicance for those who were sexual alchemists, and needed to nd companions
in urban areas. 3 Southern Lineage masters were poor and unknown, but left a
wealth of invaluable books. 4 Although the Southern Lineage was swallowed up by
the Northern Lineage, its inneralchemical teachings actually became dominant.
Every later Quanzhen teacher quoted Southern Lineage works. Also, Southern
135
136
Perhaps this is why Skar speaks about the Southern Lineage as if it were not actually Daoist: Regarding the
Southern Lineage patriarchs, none show any links to a Daoist movement or tradition, but some, including Zhang
Boduan, had clear connections to Buddhist traditions; another studied classical medicine Skar, Golden Elixir
Alchemy, 248. It was Chen Zhixu who propelled the Golden Elixir alchemy, for the rst time, to explicitly
become integral to Daoist tradition ibid., 189. Skar does not explicitly dene what Daoism would mean here.
137
This phrase also as chanshi comes from Zhang Boduans Wuzhen pian, and is much repeated in Southern
Lineage texts; e.g., DZ 142, Ziyang Zhenren Wuzhen pian sanzhu 1.15b3.
79
Lineage alchemy was popular beyond the boundaries of Daoism, among Confucians,
Buddhists, and literati.
7.1.2, Did Chen have a real connection to a Quanzhen lineage?
The two main
issues in this section are 1 whether Chen had a Quanzhen lineage, and 2 whether
he possessed Quanzhen teachings. In answer to the rst question, Chen Jiaoyou,
Wang Mu, Ma Jiren, and Qing Xitai, et al., say no:
As for Chen Zhixus system, it was yet another oshoot of Shi Tais disciples,
advocating the union of the two lineages the Southern Lineage, and the
Quanzhen lineage
. He at once advocated pure cultivation and spoke of yin and
yang sexual cultivation
, and was in truth a false pretender runtong of the
Southern Lineage.138
For the sake of parading his true Quanzhen transmission, in Shangyangzi
Jindan
dayao liexian zhi and other books, he asserted that his own lineage had been
transmitted from Qiu Chujis disciple Song Defang , and a master by the
name of Li Jue
had taken Huangfang Gong i.e., Song Defang as
teacher . . . This claim is historically baseless, and Chen Minggui in his
Changchun daojiao yuanliu already suspected that Chen was using these names
falsely.139
As early as 1879, Chen Jiaoyou 182481 in his history of Quanzhen Daoism,
Changchun daojiao yuanliu, criticized Chen for claiming to belong to a Quanzhen
lineage.140 Nevertheless some contemporary scholars e.g., Hao Qin and Kong
Linghong sti havent gotten the message, and take Chens pretended lineage at face
value:
In 1329
Chen was able to encounter the Quanzhen Daoist Zhao Youqin, . . . and
subsequently taking Zhao as his teacher, obtained the technical instructions of
Northern Lineage inner alchemy. Zhao Youqins alchemical transmission had
come from Ma Yu, the head of the Seven Masters qizi of Quanzhen. . . . So,
Chen ought originally to belong to the Northern Lineage of inner alchemy, which
has a strictly pure solo
alchemical system. Yet Chen later met a certain Daoist
from Mt. Qingcheng in Sichuan, and received transmission of technical
instructions of the Southern Lineage school of the dual sexual
cultivation of yin
and yang.141
In 1329, Chen Zhixu
carried on the teachingline of Zhao Youqin. Zhao had
138
Wang Mu, Wuzhen pian qianjie, preface, 9.
139
Qing Xitai, et al., Zhonuo daojiao shi, 3:375.
140
Chen Jiaoyou, Changchun daojiao yuanliu, 2:16668.
141
Hao Qin, Longhu dandao, 126. Both editions of Hao Qins book have 1320. is 1329 the
correct date, so 1320 must be a typographical error.
80
carried on the teachinglines of Song Defang of the Northern Lineage, and Shi
Tai of the Southern Lineage, possessing the learning of both lineages together, so
Chen Zhixu also received the learning of both Northern and Southern lineages.142
Hao Qin thinks that Chen Zhixus fusion of Quanzhen and SouthernLineage
alchemy is due to his having had two masters, a Southern master from Qingcheng,
and Zhao Youqin the Quanzhen Daoist. Kong Linghong thinks that this fusion goes
back one generation earlier, to Zhao Youqin himself, who received transmission from
the Southern Shi Tai, and the Quanzhen Zhang Ziqiong .143 Qing Xitai and
others deny that Zhao Youqin was a Quanzhen Daoist. Qing Xitai says that it was
Chen Zhixu who forged the connection between Song Defang and Li Jue. I agree
that it was Chen who forged the link between Song Defang and Li Jue, and that Zhao
Youqin was not a Quanzhen Daoist. But I will go farther than that. I will argue that,
not only did Chen not have a Quanzhen lineage, he may have had no lineage
extending beyond Zhao Youqin. I will argue that, like his Qingcheng master, Chens
patriarch Li Jue and perhaps also the other intervening patriarch, Zhang Ziqiong
was ctional.
7.1.3, In his genealogy, Chen venerates the Quanzen patriarchs above the
SouthernLineage patriarchs.
This has been noted by Kong Linghong, Li Yuanguo,
Pregadio and Skar, and Qing Xitai, et al.:

Chens written genealogy . . . grafts the line of Zhao Youqins two immediate
predecessors onto a leading line of Quanzhen patriarchs. Simultaneously he
places the patriarchy stemming from Zhang Boduan in an inferior position,
thereby eectively identifying the Golden Elixir heritage which had developed
and circulated in the south with the Quanzhen heritage. While Chen sometimes
refers to himself as a Complete Perfection master, the signicance he intended by
this term is hard to determine.144
Precisely because Chen Zhixu himself came from the Southern Lineage, and
furthermore was posing as heir to a direct Quanzhen transmission, he became an
active midtolateYuandynasty advocate of combining the two lineages.
Furthermore, while combining the two lineages, he strove to the utmost to raise
the positions of the Quanzhen patriarchs and suppress the positions of the
142
Kong Linghong, SongMing daojiao sixiang yanjiu, 274.
143
Kong Linghong suggests that Zhaos master was in Shi Tais lineage, but, as we have seen above, Zhao Youqins
hagiography says that he received a visit from Shi Tai, the second patriarch of the Southern Lineage, in person.
Zhao Youqin was born in 1271, and Shi Tai died in 1158, so Shi would have visited Zhao as a spirit or immortal.
144
Pregadio and Skar, Inner Alchemy Neidan, 480.
81
Southern Lineage patriarchs.145

Chen showed his reverence for Quanzhen patriarchs over the Southern
Lineage
patriarchs by calling the former perfected lords zhenjun and the latter merely
perfected persons zhenren , and by placing the former ahead of the latter in
the genealogy within his ritual for the birthdays of Zhongli Quan and L Dongbin
see below, and chapter appendix 3.146
7.1.4, Is there any Quanzhen content to Chens teachings?
Setting aside the
question of whether Chen had an authentic Quanzhen lineage, does Chen teach
Quanzhen
avored self
cultivation practices at all? Ma Jiren, and Qing Xitai, et al.,
say no:
Although posing as a transmitter of the Northern Lineage, in regards to his
alchemy, he venerated and upheld the tradition of Zhang Boduan instead.147
Chen Zhixus alchemy belongs to the school of dual cultivation of yin and yang
of the Southern Lineage, in the same line as Weng Baoguang , and vastly
dierent from Quanzhen Daoisms philosophy of pure cultivation qingxiu
.148
Hao Qin, Kong Linghong, and Zhang Baoguang say yes:
In terms of thought and theory, his teachings take the Northern Lineage as their
bones, while in terms of practice and technique, his teachings take the
Southern Lineage as their esh. His proposal for combining the two lineages
received the approval of all of the schools within Daoist inner alchemy, and
thereby the various schools, seeking union while preserving dierences, gradually
followed the trend toward becoming mutually consistent. . . . This was very
signicant for the development of inner alchemy.149
In regards to the specic means of cultivation of his methods, he tended toward
the Southern Lineage, carrying on the teaching
line of Wuzhen pian, but in regards
to his doctrinal thought, he tended toward the Northern Lineage. This reects
the trend of the time for the Southern Lineage as an independent school to be
incorporated into the Northern Lineage.150
Chen Zhixu, originally holding a traditional Quanzhen attitude, and taking the
145
146
Kong Linghong, SongMing daojiao sixiang yanjiu, 28081; Li Yuanguo, Daojiao qigong yangsheng xue, 418; Ma Jiren,
Daojiao yu liandan, 8990.
147
148
149
150
Kong Linghong, SongMing daojiao sixiang yanjiu, 274.
82
theory of the Northern Lineage as his basis, at the same time adopted the
Southern schools training method for actualizing the lifeendowment zhengming
, and brought the Quanzhen school a step closer to perfecting their
thoughtsystem for the dual cultivation of inherent nature and lifeendowment
xingming shuangxiu tixi .151
None of these three scholars give explicit examples of Quanzhen elements in Chen
Zhixus thought, but we can guess why they are saying this. Immediately after
saying that 1 Chen had Quanzhen doctrinal content, they say that 2 he
contributed to the fusion of Northern and Southern Lineages. I think that their
assumption of 2 , which I agree with, led them to assume 1 , which is groundless.
Zhang Guangbaos chapter discusses Li Daochun and Chen Zhixu together, often
without distinctions, as if they were the same person. He may have the following
sorites in mind: Li Daochun is a Quanzhen thinker ; Chen Zhixu is like Li
Daochun; therefore, Chen Zhixu is a Quanzhen thinker. One problem with this
sorites is that we cannot say with condence whether or how Li Daochun was a
Quanzhen Daoist. As Robinet says, It is not completely clear whether Li Daochun
was associated with the Quanzhen school to which he seems to refer
DZ 249,
3.28b or with the southern school, to which his master belonged. 152 The other
problem with Zhangs argument is that, even if Li Daochun were a Quanzhen Daoist,
and there were similarities between him and Chen Zhixu there wereboth are
sophisticated and theoretical writers , this does not mean that Chens thought must
be Quanzhen. He Naichuan and Zhan Shichuang oer the best characterization of
Chens Quanzhen thought :
Because Li Jue came from Mt. Wuyi, where Bai Yuchan had been active, the
teachingline that Chen Zhixu carried on ought to come from the Southern
Lineage, yet, from various traces and signs, Chen Zhixu had also done plenty of
cursory reading
shelie of Northern Lineage learning.153
Although I will not be able to make a full consideration of this issue, since I do not
have the space to oer a pointbypoint comparison of typical Quanzhen teachings
with Chen Zhixus, I will argue below that Chen Zhixu probably only learned about
Quanzhen Daoism from hearsay and reading rather than from taking a Quanzhen
151
Zhang Guangbao, JinYuan Quanzhen dao neidan xinxing xue, 156.
152
Robinet, Taoism: Growth of a Tradition, 225; idem, Introduction lalchimie intrieure taoste, 43.
153
He Naichuan and Zhan Shichuang, Lun Chen Zhixu de Jigong leixing shi, 219.
83
master, and that his Quanzhen reading was very cursory, perhaps limited to only a
couple of books.
7.1.5, If Chen had no Quanzhen lineage or Quanzhen teachings, then what was he
up to?
Most of the authors surveyed merely explain Chen Zhixus behavior in terms
of general historical trends: it was the zeitgeist to combine the Northern and
Southern Lineages, so Chen went with the ow or, as they often seem to say,
actively promoted the ow . But historical trends are made up of individuals acting
on their own will, so what did Chen think he was doing? Qing Xitai, et al., and Skar
attempt to explain Chens behavior within the framework of his own career. Qing, et
al., say that, after Kublai Khan reunited North and South China, Quanzhen Daoism
began to penetrate the South, and many southern alchemists jumped into the
Quanzhen fold, either seeking a Quanzhen master, or parading their own version of
Quanzhen Daoism. The Southern Lineage had a loose structure, unable to compete
with the tight organization of Quanzhen Daoism, so ocking to Quanzhen was to
their competitive advantage. To combine with Quanzhen Daoism was a universal
desire of the SouthernLineage Daoists.154 Skar says that Chen shortcircuited rival
claims by Bai Yuchan and Zhang Boduans followers I am not sure what this means,
but still used their teachings. Chen could hope for support from the Mongol Khan
who ruled China by appealing to Quanzhen lineage there is no textual evidence
that Chen ever aimed at imperial patronage. At approximately the same time,
several groups challenged Chens claims about the priority of these two
legacies could Skar be speaking about the early Ming dynasty?.155 I will argue that
Chens appeal to a Quanzhen lineal connection was part of his attempt to manage his
mastership, and thus part of his threeway feedback soteriological loop, with
authority, patronage, and alchemical attainment reinforcing each other in a threeway
virtuous circle.
7.1.6, Chen represents a historical trend toward the fusion of the Southern and
Northern Lineages of inner alchemy.
Nearly every scholar surveyed says this, and I
concur. This is Chens main claim to fame in most historiography of Daoism.

154
155
Skar, Golden Elixir Alchemy, 203. See pp. 60124 chap. 6, 3.12 below.
84
7.1.7, Chen drew on Chan Buddhism in the same way that he drew on Quanzhen
Daoism.
It is remarkable how few scholars link Chens Quanzhen pretensions with
his Chan pretensions. While many scholars discuss Chens use of Chan elements, and
discuss Chens Quanzhen pretensions, they do not note the connection between
these two features.156 Chens claims to Chan Buddhist and Quanzhen Daoist
authority should be seen together, since both are examples of his general strategies of
extension establishing correspondences between his dao and other known truths
and stealing the lightning appropriating the authority of traditional scriptures,
while asserting the superiority of esoteric exegesis.
7.2, Quanzhen Daoism in Chens Time and Place
If Chen did not learn Quanzhen Daoism from a Quanzhen lineageholder, where
would he have gotten his interest in it? I will argue that Chen was not really
interested in the teachings of Quanzhen Daoism at all, only in the cachet of this
tradition, and the authority he could thereby gain in the eyes of potential disciples
and patrons. Chens ctional link to Quanzhen Daoism was a strategy for managing
his mastership.
7.2.1, Quanzhen books.
Removed from the Quanzhen heartland in northern
China as he was, Chen would have encountered Quanzhen Daoism rst through
texts. Throughout his entire corpus, Chen cites hundreds of texts and persons, but
cites Quanzhen texts or gures only relatively infrequently. Two major sections of
Jindan dayao are devoted to the Quanzhen lineage.157 Yet aside from these sections,
Chen only refers to Quanzhen gures in two contexts: 1 citing them as exemplars,
as his lineal patriarchs,158 even as tutelary gods of alchemy to whose portraits a
frustrated reader of Jindan dayao may pray for help;159 and 2 brief quotations from
156
Boltz A Survey of Taoist Literature, 18486 and Eskildsen Emergency Death Meditations for Internal
Alchemists, 408n76 make this connection, but I am not aware of any Chinese scholar discussing these two
issues together.
157
These originally were two parts of juan 8, but in the Zhengtong daozang they have become independent texts,
DZ 1069 and 1070.
158
E.g., my Wang

Chongyang ; DZ 1067, Shangyangzi Jindan dayao 1.1b5; DZ 142, Ziyang Zhenren Wuzhen
pian sanzhu, xu preface, 5a10; 4.18b9.
159
And, if someone has obtained this Jindan dayao, yet

cannot understand the deep instructions within it, then
85
Ma Danyangs discourse record yulu JN . By my count, Chen Zhixu quotes the

words of Ma Danyang nine times, and eight of these quotations can be traced to DZ
1057, Danyang Zhenren yulu. It is as if Chen Zhixu only read this one book of
Quanzhen teachings.
I believe that Chen Zhixu was not very well
read in the Quanzhen literature.
If Chen Zhixu learned about his Quanzhen patriarchs from books, then he could
conceivably have read, not a small library of Quanzhen texts, but only two books: an
illustrated hagiography such as DZ 174, Jinlian zhengzong xianyuan xiangzhuan which
would be the source for his own DZ 106970 , and Ma Danyangs yulu, DZ 1057
which was the souce for his few meager quotations .
7.2.2, Quanzhen initiates.
Could Chen Zhixu have encountered Quanzhen
Daoists in the esh? Lets look for some Quanzhen activity that he could conceivably
have encountered in person. Where would Chen have met a Quanzhen Daoist? Chen
did the majority of his teaching activity in Jiangxi, Hubei, Guizhou, Hunan, and
Jiangsu Provinces, with some activity in Guangxi, Sichuan, Henan, Anhui, and
Zhejiang too see chapter appendix 1 . Here is what I judge to be his core area of
operation:
Luling, Hongzhou Yuzhang , Jiujiang, and the Lu Mountains in Jiangxi;
Mt. Jiugong and Jingnan in Hubei;
Sizhou and Qiongshui in Guizhou;
Mt. Heng or Hengyang in Hunan;
and Jinling in Jiangsu.
What kind of Quanzhen activity could he have encountered in these places?
The rst traces of Quanzhen Daoism in southern China date to around the
middle of the thirteenth century, in the third generation after the passing of the
founder, Wang Chongyang 111270 , and two generations before Chen Zhixus time.
We can nd evidence of northern Quanzhen Daoists transmitting their tradition in
he may paint images of the true shapes of the three transcendent patriarchs Chunyang L Dongbin, Wang
Chongyang, and Ma Danyang. Morning and evening oering incense and owers, with singleness of mind face
the portraits and chant aloud this Jindan dayao one time through, or even a hundred times, or a thousand, building
up many repetitions over the days and months. If his initial will does not decrease, and he becomes even more
concentrated and assiduous, then he will stimulate the perfected transcendents to personally descend to bestow
teachings. For a student of transcendent
hood, this is sudden enlightenment, when the path of principle
penetrates all the way through, and the ground of the heart
mind becomes void and numinous. 93&
)1#">'DP/,0<*<<
. 5+$EDI!(&
)B BBBL6%2@H=?.MO4(KCG;
-7A8F:Q. DZ 1067, Shangyangzi Jindan dayao 1.12b510.
86
southwest China before 1250. For example, Ji Zhiqiang

. ca. 1170 1240
transmitted Quanzhen Daoism in Yunnan,160 and Quanzhen Daoism came to Mt.
Qingcheng in Sichuan not long after.161 We see evidence of southern Daoists
traveling north to meet Quanzhen masters as early as the 1270s. Lu Dayou " d.
1285 may have been the one who rst brought Quanzhen Daoism to Mt. Wudang
in modernday Hubei. Lu was a Wudang Daoist who traveled north to Mt. Yin
Yinshan 162 to nd traces of Quanzhen Daoism. When he returned to Mt.
Wudang in 1275, he attracted hundreds of disciples.163 Mt. Wudang subsequently
became a Quanzhen center. Some Daoists from Jiangxi traveled to and from Mt.
Wudang, such as Li Mingliang
b. 1286; from Anfu in Jiangxi, Luo
Tingzhen %
!
. Yuandyn.; from Nanchang, and Wang Daoyi
. ca.
1350 70. Wang Daoyi was a Zhengyi Daoist from Mt. Longhu who traveled to
Wudang Shan to study Quanzhen.
There was Quanzhen Daoism at Mt. Longhu, the ancestral mountain of the
Zhengyi lineage of Celestial Masters in Jiangxi. The eccentric Jin Zhiyang
1276 1336, a.k.a. Jin the Dishevelled Jin Pengtou #,164 may have been the
one who rst brought Quanzhen Daoism to Mt. Longhu. Chen Zhixu never
mentions visiting Mt. Longhu himself, but it was only about ninety miles from his
home, so it would have been wellknown to Daoists throughout Jiangxi. Two disciples
of Jin Pengtou, in turn, were teachers of Zhao Yizhen d. 1382, an important
gure whom I will discuss again in chapter 6.165 Zhao Yizhen was learned in Qingwei
thunder rites, and both Quanzhen and Southern Lineage selfcultivation.
160
Guo Wu, Daojiao yu Yunnan wenhua, 130, citing Xu wenxian tongkao, j. 243.
161
Quanzhen Daoism began to come to Mt. Qingcheng during the time of the Quanzhen Daoist Li
Daoqian $ 1219 96; Wang Chunwu, Qingcheng Shan zhi, 197.
162
There is a Mt. Yin near Macheng in presentday Hubei, but this is southeast of Mt. Wudang, so it is
unlikely that this was Lu Dayous destination.
163
Hu Fuchen, Zhonghua daojiao da cidian, s.v. Lu Dayou ", 157; Goossaert, La cration du taosme
moderne, 107.
164
Hu Fuchen, Zhonghua daojiao da cidian, s.v. Jin Zhiyang , 162. Jin Pengtous masters were Li Yuexi
in the south, and Li Zhichang in the north. Zhonghua daojiao da cidian says that Jin died in 1276, but I
follow Schipper for Jins dates; Schipper, Master Chao Ichen ? 1382 and the Chingwei School of
Taoism, 730.
165
See pp. 567 68 and 606 8 chap. 6, 2.1.2, 3.1.3.
87
Robinet compares Zhao Yizhen with Chen Zhixu: By the time of Chen Zhixu, . . .
the northsouth division had ceased to be meaningful. This is shown, for example, by
the case of Zhao Yizhen in the fourteenth century: he was trained by two masters,
one coming from the northern school, the other from the southern. Like Chen,
Zhao Yizhen combined Northern and Southern lineages, but unlike Chen, Zhao
really had a Quanzhen master.166
In Chen Zhixus familiar territory within Jiangxi, I have found record of only
two Quanzhen Daoists who would have been his contemporaries, Liu Zhixuan
. 132427 and Gui Xinyuan
.167 Both were active in the Lu Mountains, so
he could easily have crossed paths with them there. As I show in chapter appendix 2,
Chens known acquaintances there included Daoists from the grand temple Taiping
Xingguo Gong , and literati dilettantes. There is no indication that
Chens supporters at Taiping Xingguo Gong were Quanzhen Daoists. I also have
record of a number of Quanzhen Daoists in Jiangxi from beyond Chens core region.
The most important of these is Li Jianyi , the author of DZ 245 preface of
1264, whom I discuss below.168 DZ 245 is the earliest Southern inneralchemical text
to make much mention of Quanzhen teachings. Li Jianyi was probably not a
Quanzhen Daoist himself, but rather, like Chen, a SouthernLineage alchemist who
read some Quanzhen literature.
Mt. Jiugong in Hubei was another of Chens core sites. I have found no record
of Quanzhen Daoism there during his era. There was a lot of Quanzhen activity at
Mt. Wudang in northwest Hubei of course, but Chen probably never went to that
Daoist center. I also have no record of Quanzhen Daoism in Chens core region in
Hunan Mt. Heng or Hengyang, and Changsha, only of local Daoists who traveled
from Hunan to Mt. Longhu to study Zhengyi Daoism, to Mt. Wudang to study
Qingwei Daoism, or whose a liation is not known.
In Chens core region within Jiangsu, I have record of several Daoists in Li
166
Robinet, Taoism: Growth of a Tradition, 225; idem, Introduction lalchimie intrieure taoste, 4344.
167
Hu Fuchen, Zhonghua daojiao da cidian, s.v. Liu Zhixuan , 180, and Gui Xinyuan
, 162. Zhonghua
daojiao da cidian says that Gui Xinyuan died in 1276, but I reject this, based on Schippers dates for Jin Pengtou.
168
See pp. 9697 below. Li Jianyi, author of DZ 245, Yuxizi danjing zhiyao, was from Yuanzhou presentday
Yichun , Jiangxi; Hu Fuchen, Zhonghua daojiao da cidian, s.v. Li Jianyi , 139.
88
Daochuns lineage. Li Daochun may be listed together with Chen Zhixu, Li Jianyi,
Wang Jichang, Yu Yan, Mu Changchao, Niu Daochun, Chen Chongsu, and Wang
Daoyuan Wang Jie ,169 as an examplar of a trend during the Yuan and early Ming
period toward the integration of Northern and Southern inner
alchemical traditions.
Ke Daochong was one of Li Daochuns students in Jiangsu;170 he was active in
Jinling around 132427, so he could have crossed paths with Chen Zhixu when Chen
was visiting his Jinling network after 1335.
The history of the rst few generations of Quanzhen Daoists, or Quanzhen
Daoist texts and ideas, or as in the case of Chen Zhixu Quanzhen Daoist cachet,
has yet to be written. This history ought to involve a careful reading of texts by these
tradition
crossing gures, as well as research into dates, places, and social trends. We
may tentatively conclude that the number of Quanzhen initiates in Chen Zhixus
core area of operations was quite small. Chen could conceivably have met a few
Quanzhen initiates during his lifetime, but there probably were no Quanzhen
teaching centers south of Mt. Wudang.
7.3, Chens Immediate Lineage
I think of Chens lineages in terms of three concentric categories: extended,
eective, and immediate lineages. The genealogies in DZ 1070 see chapter
appendix 3 are devoted to Chens extended lineage, rather than his eective lineage.
The Xianpai and ritual list in DZ 1070 include some gures that never show up
again in his writings, such as the avatars of Laozi, or the Louguan patriarchs. The
hagiographical text DZ 1069, Shangyangzi Jindan dayao liexian zhi, represents Chens
eective lineage.171 This is:
the Five Patriarchs wuzu
of Quanzhenthe Sovereign Lord of Eastern
Florescence Wang Xuanfu, Zhongli Quan, L Dongbin, Liu Haichan, and
Wang Chongyang;
169
Li Daochun . ca. 1288 ; Wang Jichang . 122040 , Yu Yan 12531314 ; Mu Changchao
. ca. 1294 , Niu Daochun . ca. 1296 , Chen Chongsu Chen Xubai , . Yuan
dyn. , and Wang Daoyuan Wang Jie , . ca. 1360 . I situate these gures within the history of inner
alchemy in chapter 4, part 1.
170
Hu Fuchen, Zhonghua daojiao da cidian, s.v. Ke Daochong , 180.
171
For the names and characters of all of these gures, see chapter appendix 3.
89
the Seven Masters qizi of QuanzhenMa Danyang, Tan Chuduan, Liu

Chuxuan, Qiu Chuji, Wang Chuyi, Hao Datong, and Sun Buer;
and Chens immediate lineage, his nominally Quanzhen sublineageSong
Defang, Li Taixu, Zhang Ziqiong, and Zhao Youqin.
Chens accounts of the Quanzhen wuzu qizi are conventional. I have not attempted
to discover which text Chen took them from, but the illustrations in DZ 1069
suggest that he drew on an illustrated text like DZ 174, Jinlian zhengzong xianyuan
xiangzhuan. I call this Chens e
ective lineage because he relies on this lineage for
his authority as a master. I will have a lot more to say about Chens extended and
e
ective lineages in section 7.4 below.
More curious though, is Chens immediate lineage. I argue that Chen
invented this lineage himself, and may even have invented the gures Li Taixu Li
Jue and Zhang Ziqiong. Zhao Youqin discussed on pages 602 above and Song
Defang are wellattested in other sources, but Li Taixu and Zhang Ziqiong are mostly
unknown outside Chens writings.
7.3.1, Song Defang.
Song Defang 11831247 , personal name Youdao

Defang is his byname , was an eminent Quanzhen master of the second generation
after Wang Chongyang, a disciple of Wang Chuyi 11421217 and then Qiu
Chuji 11481227 . Song was one of the eighteen worthies who accompanied
Qiu Chuji to the court of Qinggis Khan in Afghanistan in 122223, and was coeditor
of the Yuan Daoist canon Xuandu baozang in 123744.172 Chen mentions
Song in about eight di
erent passages, consistently using his stylename Sire Yellow
House Huangfang Gong . Chens hagiography of Song Defang in DZ 1069173
mentions Songs journey to Afghanistan, but considers Song to be a disciple of Ma
Danyang 112384 rather than Wang Chuyi or Qiu Chuji. From the dates of Mas
death and Songs birth, we know they could never have met while alive Chen may
not have heeded these dates . Chen interprets Songs monicker Perfected Who
Parts the Clouds Piyun Zhenren as a reference to Songs power to dispel
rainclouds with talismans. Apparently, there was some confusion in the
hagiographical literature regarding the three names Song Defang, Song Youdao, and
172
Hu Fuchen, Zhonghua daojiao da cidian, s.v. Song Defang , 153.
173
DZ 1069, Shangyangzi Jindan dayao liexian zhi 7a6b6.
90
Huangfang Gong.174 Chens hagiography of Song shows no insider knowledge of

Songs life, and even some misconceptions, which were echoed in later hagiographical
literature.
7.3.2, Li Taixu.
Li Taixu ! : personal name Jue ' is mentioned in eight
passages throughout Chens corpus, plus the hagiography in DZ 1069.175 In the

hagiography, Chen writes that Li Taixu came from Chongqing, and traveled to Mt.
Wuyi & in presentday Zhejiang Province to rene his elixir for seven months.
Chen describes an encounter between Li Taixu and some Zhengyi Daoists at Mt.
Longhu, after Li left Mt. Wuyi:
After seven months, when he was about to complete his dao, he returned, and on
the road passed by Mt. Longhu E*. The night before, someone had had a dream
at the Rain Altar that a perfected person would arrive. That season there had
been a long drought, and they had prayed for rain
without any response. The
next day, Taixu
the Perfected actually did arrive, but
no one among the
assembly knew it. Only the person who had had the dream saw that a poor
Daoist had arrived, and said: This is the man. The assembly begged him to pray
for rain, and when the response came, the rain was heavy. Then he departed.
B=36=<E*7D>1 )0
.
HF1 %4-(2>)"5= #,
4A.+F0CI
After completing his elixir in reclusion in the Jade Void Hermitage :9 at
Zhenzhou,176 he transmitted his dao to Zhang Ziqiong and then vanished into Mt.
Qingcheng in Sichuan. I believe that Chen Zhixu forged the hagiography of Li Taixu,
at least partially. He probably took the story of Li Taixus rainmaking exploit at Mt.
Longhu from a hagiography of Bai Yuchan:
According to Peng Si s
account, . . . Bai went across the
river to the east and
resided in Mount Longhu . . . It was that year that the region was aicted with a
drought. Many Daoist priests had attempted to chant the Mulang zhou /$,
an incantation for supplicating rain; however, they gained no response and Bai
174
The later recension of DZ 1070 changed by other hands considers Song Defang and Huangfang Gong to be
two dierent gures see p. 152n95 below. This distinction is repeated in Zhonghua daojiao da cidian, and
compounded by a separate entry on a Huang Youdao ;=, who sounds the same as Song Defang in most
respects. Like Chen Zhixus view of Song Defang, in this entry, Huang Youdao is a disciple of Ma Danyang. For
the entry on Huang Youdao, see Hu Fuchen, Zhonghua daojiao da cidian, s.v. Huang Youdao ;=, 142. For the
idea of Song Defang and Huangfang Gong as two gures, see ibid., s.v. Li Jue !', 131, citing Xu wenxian tongkao.
175
Li Jue !', originally named Jue, changed his personal name to Qizhen 81. His byname was Taixu :, and
his stylename Shuangyu G; DZ 1069, Shangyangzi Jindan dayao liexian zhi 7b89.
176
Zhenzhou 1 is presentday Yizheng City ?@, Jiangsu Province, northeast of Nanjing.
91
Yuchan then provided the correct way to chant the incantation, which resulted in
rain.177
Just as Chen invented his Qingcheng master based on the hagiography of Zhang
Boduan, he invented Li Taixu based on Bai Yuchan. Both are mythical echoes. Of the
other eight passages mentioning Li Taixu, ve simply mention that he transmitted
the teachings to Zhang Ziqiong, or that he rened the elixir at Mt. Wuyi.178 The
emphasis on Mt. Wuyi is another clue that Li Taixu is an echo of Bai Yuchan, since
Bai was the most famous inner alchemist ever to dwell at Mt. Wuyi. Of the eight
passages mentioning Li Taixu, the remaining three are:
1 a brief exchange between Li Taixu and Zhang Ziqiong on the Zhouyi
learning
in the Cantong qi;179
2 Li Taixus comment that Buddhists can teach but not do, while we
Daoists can do but not preach;180
3 An exchange between Li Taixu and a debater, in which the opponent reveals
his ignorance of sexual alchemy, and Li calls him a worthless monk probably
a Chan monk.181
The two common themes in these passages are encounter dialogue either enigmatic,
as in no. 1, or harshly competitive, as in no. 2; and a sense of competetion with Chan
Buddhism in nos. 2 and 3.
I argue that Chen Zhixu invented the character of Li Taixu, partially based on
Bai Yuchan, and partially as an expression of Chens own sense of conict within a
competitive market of daos. Is there evidence that Li Jue or Li Taixu was a real
person before Chen adopted him as a patriarch? A database search reveals that Li
Jue was a rather common name, and Li Taixu was also used by dierent men in
various eras. I have not sifted through these references, though I note the record of a
177
Wang Li, The Daoist Way of Transcendence, 64, citing Peng Si, Haiqiong Yuchan Xiansheng shishi & '
, in Song Bai Zhenren Yuchan quanji, 71617. A more widely
available edition, also containing Peng Sis text, is
Bai Yuchan Zhenren quanji, in Daozang jinghua, coll. 2, no. 2.
178
DZ 1067, Shangyangzi Jindan dayao 1.2b10, 14.8b5; DZ 142, Ziyang Zhenren Wuzhen pian sanzhu 4.18b10, 4.29b7;
Zhouyi Cantong qi fenzhang zhu, Daozang jiyao ed., 1.18a24. In the last passage, Li battles mara
obstacles mozhang
(#, mental demons during meditation by repeating a mantra from the Duren jing.
179
Zhouyi Cantong qi fenzhang zhu, Daozang jiyao ed., 1.30a57.
180
After my patriarch Taixu, Li the Perfected, had attained the elixir, he heard the sound of a stra lecture at a
Buddhist monastery, and slipped into the assemply to listen to it. When he came out, he sighed, saying, They can
talk it up, but not put it into practice; we can put it into practice, but we cant talk it up.
!%$)
"" DZ 142, Ziyang Zhenren
Wuzhen pian sanzhu 3.12a35
181
DZ 142, Ziyang Zhenren Wuzhen pian sanzhu 4.22a57. I translate and discuss some of this passage on p. 475.
92
transcendent named Li Jue in the Tang dynasty.182 I found several references to Zhang
Ziqiong that also mention Li Taixu; these were obviously based on Chens Jindan
dayao itself.183 I have found no evidence that the Li Taixu described by Chen Zhixu
was known to anyone before him, either as a historical person or as a legend.
7.3.3, Zhang Ziqiong.
Chen never mentions Zhang Ziqiong in his corpus
except together with Li Taixu see the passages mentioned above. According to his
hagiography in DZ 1069, Zhang Mu byname Ziqiong 184 rst met Li Taixu
at Xichun Hall at Anren.185 Later, when they met again in a marketplace, Li
nally agreed to transmit his dao to Zhang after seeing him donate cash to a beggar.
Zhang completed his ring periods this could be internal ring, or external
ring, i.e., gathering the next year, at Zhenzhou. Later, Zhang transmitted his dao
to Zhao Youqin, and went into eremitic retreat. That is all Chen ever tells us about
Zhang Ziqiong. I have argued that Li Taixu was a ction created by Chen Zhixu; as
for Zhang Ziqiong, Chen never says enough about him to judge whether Chen
invented him or not. There is no record of Zhang Ziqiong in other texts outside
Chens corpus except the two accounts in which he appears together with Li Taixu.
7.3.4, Zhao Youqin provides no evidence about this lineage.
Chen probably did
not get the idea of claiming a Quanzhen connection from his own master, Zhao
Youqin. In his Xianfo tongyuan, Zhao Youqin whom Chen calls a Quanzhen master
not only does not include any distinctively Quanzhen language, concepts, virtues, or
attitudes, but he only cites a Quanzhen gure twice, by my count.186 These two
citations are both references to Ma Danyang. The second reference is in the context
of a discussion about the wonder of dual cultivation by husband and wife fuqi
shuangxiu zhi miao here Zhao is not talking about the alchemical
husband and wife the two pharmaca, but rather about a human husband and wife.
182
Yu Yin, Tong xingming lu 10.38a. This gure was from Jiangyang , in presentday Hubei Province.
183
Yu Yin, Tong xingming lu 10.38a; Huang Tinggui and Zhang Jinsheng, Sichuan tongzhi 38.3
.
184
Zhangs personal name was Mu, his byname was Junfan . After becoming a Daoist, he changed his personal
name to Daoxin .
185
Anren was about twentyve miles northwest of presentday Guixi , Jiangxi Province. This is near Mt.
Longhu, the home of the Celestial Master lineage.
186
Xianfo tongyuan 16b3, 40a3, in Daoshu quanji, Zhongguo Shudian ed., 470, 482.
93
Zhao Youqin is saying that Ma Danyang and his wife Sun Buer practiced sexual
alchemy together, bringing advantage to both self and other zili lita
. I
have never heard of a Quanzhen Daoist teaching sexual alchemy. Not only does Zhao
pay little attention to Quanzhen Daoism, but when he does mention it, he violently
misreads it. Let no one henceforth mistake Zhao Youqin for a Quanzhen Daoist. In
contrast to his two citations of Ma Danyang, Zhao cites another man named Ma, the
Chan patriarch Mazu Daoyi 70988
, at least eight times. Zhao Youqin would call
himself a Chan Buddhist before he ever called himself a Quanzhen Daoist. Although
Chen Zhixu traces his Quanzhen lineage back through Zhao Youqin, Zhao does not
consider himself a Quanzhen lineageholder, so Chen got the idea of a Quanzhen link
from somewhere besides Zhao.
Chen Zhixu invented his connection to Quanzhen Daoism, and probably even
invented two of the masters supposedly linking him to Quanzhen Daoism. Song
Defang and Zhao Youqin were real enough, but between Song and Zhao there was no
connection. Zhao Youqin did not consider himself to have any connection to
Quanzhen Daoism, and neither did Zhao consider Zhang Ziqiong and Li Taixu to be
his lineal masters. Zhao Youqin never mentions any of his teachers in his extent
works. If Zhao did have a teacher named Zhang Ziqiong, he was not important
within Zhaos religious worldview.
7.4, Chens Eective and Extended Lineages in DZ 1070
Appendix 3 to this chapter is a complete translation of DZ 1070, The Master of Highest
Yangs Great Essentials of the Golden Elixir: Stream of Transcendents Shangyangzi jindan
daoyao xianpai
. DZ 1070 is valuable for two reasons: it oers

the best record of Chen Zhixus selfcreated lineage, and it contains a manual for a
communal ritual, in which the participants petition Zhongli Quan and L Dongbin
to aid them in their sexual alchemy. I will analyze the genealogies in DZ 1070 here, as
part of my argument against Chens claim to be a Quanzhen Daoist.
7.4.1, Comparing genealogies.
Chen Zhixus complex lineage is listed twice in
this text, once as a Stream of Transcendents Xianpai
and once as a sub
94
section of the section entitled Ritual for Celebrating the Birthdays of the Two
Transcendents, Zhong and L ZhongL erxian qingdan yi . The
Stream of Transcendents appears to be based on another genealogy, the Correct
Lineage of the Great Dao Dadao zhengtong , dated 1260, and composed
by Xiao Tingzhi
, a secondgeneration heir of Bai Yuchan.187 I know of no
closely comparable rituals in the Daoist canon, though the ritual in the Ming text
DZ 793 could be a distant relative.188
Xiao Tingzhis genealogy begins with the nameless Dao, then includes seven
distinct groupings, descending in time and sacrality from celestial deities down to
Xiao Tingzhis own master Peng Si 1185 after 1251:
A1 a cosmogonic grouping of four celestial worthies tianzun ;
A2 a Laozi lineage, from Laozis mother, to Laozi, to Yin Xi, to the patriarchs of
the Louguan tradition;189
A3 a waidan lineage from Heshang Gong to Wei Boyang, the supposed author of
the Zhouyi Cantong qi;
A4 Zhang Daoling, the founder of the Celestial Master movement, and his two
famous disciples;
A5 a neidan lineage of four patriarchs, including Zhongli Quan and L Dongbin;
A6 the Southern Lineage of the Golden Elixir, with six patriarchs from Zhang
Boduan to Peng Si;
A7 the Quanzhen lineage, with Wang Chongyang and his six disciples.
Chen Zhixus rst genealogy, the xianpai, has four groupings:
B1 the precosmic Laozi, and his avatars in ancient times;
B2 A5, with di erences
the historical Laozi, and the ve neidan patriarchs
wuzu ;
B3 A7
the seven masters qizi , disciples of Wang Chongyang;
B4 the ve masters of Chen Zhixus own sublineage: Song Defang, Li Taixu,
Zhang Ziqiong, Zhao Youqin, and Chen Zhixu himself.
This is a standard Quanzhen lineage of 2 wuzu and 3 qizi, sandwiched between 1
Laozis precosmic avatars, and 4 Chen Zhixus own immediate lineage. The
genealogy of patriarchs invited to the ritual space includes eight groupings:
C1 A2
Laozi and the Louguan patriarchs;
187
Dadao zhengtong, in DZ 687, Daode zhenjing sanjie, preface, 5a10 7a1.
188
DZ 793, Taiqing daode xianhua yi is a ritual for the birthday of the deied Laozi. Unlike DZ 1070, the deities
invited to the ritual area in DZ 793 are cosmic deities rather than patriarchs.
189
Louguan Daoism was a SixDynasties Daoist movement, active at the Platform of the TowerAbbey Louguan
Tai in Shaanxi, where Laozi bestowed the Daode jing to Yin Xi before leaving for the western regions.
95
C2 A3the waidan lineage from Heshang Gong to the authors of the Cantong qi
although Wei Boyang is missing from the list in DZ 1070 ;
C3 A4Zhang Daoling and his disciples;
C4 the cult deities Ge Xuan, Xu Xun, and Xu Xuns associates;190
C5 A5, with dierencesthe ve neidan patriarchs wuzu ;
C6 A7the seven Quanzhen masters qizi ;
C7 A6, with dierencesthe ve Southern Lineage patriarchs, from Zhang
Boduan to Bai Yuchan;
C8 the masters of Chen Zhixus immediate lineage.
Comparing this list of gods to be invited to the ritual area with Chens genealogy
proper Xianpai , we note that there is a common core shared by both lists: Laozi,
the Quanzhen wuzu qizi, and Chens immediate lineage.
Is Chen Zhixu claiming to be a Quanzhen Daoist then? He claims a direct
lineage back to Wang Chongyang, so the short answer is, yes, he is claiming to be a
Quanzhen lineageholder, if not an ordained Quanzhen monastic. But in the ritual
list, he is also claiming links to ve other groups: the transmissionlineages of his
three most important scriptures, C1 Daode jing, C2 Cantong qi, and C7 Wuzhen
pian, and the cults to C34 local patron saints of alchemy. The ritual list is not a
Quanzhen genealogy at all: it is a list in which only one group C6 out of eight is
distinctively Quanzhen.
Lets compare Chens two genealogies with Xiao Tingzhis Dadao zhengtong.
Is Chen drawing directly on Xiao Tingzhi? I would argue that he is. I have compared
the Dadao zhengtong and Chens two genealogies against four other examples of
the genealogical genre:
1 Bai Yuchans brief genealogy in DZ 1309 after 1218 ,
2 Li Jianyis long genealogy in DZ 245 preface of 1264 ,
3 the genealogy of the Qingwei
tradition, DZ 171 preface of 1293 , or
4 a Quanzhen genealogy/hagiography such as DZ 174 preface of 1241 ,
The Dadao zhengtong and Chens two genealogies stand much closer to one
another than they do to any of these other examples.191 Li Jianyis 2 Hunyuan
xianpai zhi tu Chart of the stream of transcendents
from the turbid prime
i.e.,
190
Zhang Daoling was a third major cult deity in Chen Zhixus native region, and he is in the immediately
preceding group 3. The fourth major cult, to the Huagai deities, is not represented in Chens lineage lists.
191
See Bai Yuchan, Xianpai, in his DZ 1309, Haiqiong chuandao ji 9a59; Li Jianyi, Hunyuan xianpai zhi tu
, in his DZ 245, Yuxizi danjing zhiyao 1a4b; DZ 171, Qingwei xianpu; DZ 174, Jinlian zhengzong xianyuan
xiangzhuan. Chens DZ 1069 is inspired by the Quanzhen DZ 174 or something like it , however.
96
Taishang Laojun
in DZ 245 is the most likely candidatesince Li was active in
Jiangxi like Chen Zhixu, or like Xiao Tingzhis patriarch Bai Yuchan
, and since Lis
genealogy includes both Southern Lineage and Quanzhen guresyet the content of
Li Jianyis genealogy has very little in common with Xiao Tingzhis and Chen Zhixus.
It appears that Chen is drawing on Xiao Tingzhis Dadao zhengtong in DZ 687.
Although DZ 687 is a SouthernLineage text, Dadao zhengtong includes
Wang Chongyang and the seven masters qizi
of the Quanzhen order. Zhang Boduan
and Wang Chongyangs lineages are listed together at the end of the chart, and
weighted equally in the layout on the page, with neither one given pride of place to
the other. Quanzhen Daoists have also been listing the Southern Lineage patriarchs
within their own documents for a long time.192 This reects the incorporation of the
Southern Lineage teachings into Quanzhen Daoism. Yet the incorporation of lineage
does not always reect the incorporation of teachings. In the case of Dadao
zhengtong, although this genealogy venerates the Quanzhen patriarchs, I know of
no evidence that Xiao Tingzhi or his circle adopted any Quanzhen teachings. While
Chen Zhixu and Xiao Tingzhi dier in that Chen claims a personal connection to the
Quanzhen lineage and Xiao does not, I think that we should consider Chens lineage
in the light of Xiao Tingzhi. Not only does Chen Zhixu objectively have no lineal
connection to Quanzhen Daoism, but sometimes, like Xiao Tingzhi, he lists the
Quanzhen lineage without even giving it pride of place. The Quanzhen qizi do
receive emphasis in the Xianpai, or in DZ 1069, Shangyangzi Jindan dayao liexian zhi,
but in the ritual genealogy they do not. The place of the Quanzhen qizi in Chens
ritual genealogy is exactly the same as their place in the nonQuanzhen Dadao
zhengtong.
Chen Zhixu bases his ritual genealogy, and perhaps also his Xianpai, on Xiao
Tingzhis Dadao zhengtong. It is even conceivable that the Dadao zhengtong was
where Chen got the idea of claiming a connection to the Quanzhen lineage in the
192
Li Yuanguo notes that Quanzhen Daoist now generally list the Southern Lineage patriarchs within their
genealogy, in a subsidiary position to Wang Chongyangs qizi. To ll out the Southern Lineage to the number
seven to match the qizi
, Peng Si and Liu Yongnian . 113856
are added. Li cites the Qingdynasty text
Daomen gongke by Liu Shouyuan as an example of this; Daojiao qigong yangsheng xue, 418. I have not been
able to examine this text.
97
rst place. I have argued that Chen probably did not get the idea of claiming a
Quanzhen connection from his own master, Zhao Youqin, since Zhao does not
consider himself a Quanzhen lineage holder. I have also argued that Chen was not
well read in Quanzhen literature, and may have met few live Quanzhen Daoists. We
cannot know for sure whence Chen got the idea, but Xiao Tingzhis Dadao
zhengtong is as likely a source as any other. Would it not be ironic if it were from a
Southern Lineage text that Chen Zhixu got the idea of calling himself a Quanzhen
Daoist?
7.4.2, Other points from DZ 1070.
There are several other points of interest in
the genealogies of DZ 1070. In my translation, I include some material in angle

brackets and a smaller fontthis is material included in two later editions of Jindan
dayao, but not included in DZ 1070. There are enough errors or anachronisms in this
material to indicate that it was interpolated by later hands. One minor but telling
dierence is the way Chen Zhixus name is used in the dierent editions. In DZ
1070, Chens name is listed in the Xianpai, but not in the list of spirits to be
summoned to the ritual area. In the other two editions, his name is included in the
list of defunct patriarchs. In DZ 1070, Chens given name Zhixu is used, while in
the other two editions, his respectful byname Guanwu is used instead this should
be a third rather than a rst person form of address. In the two later editions, two
long genealogies of Daoist and Buddhist gures are interpolated in the Xianpai.
The additional Daoist list adds the Louguan and waidan lineages C12, a lineage
related to Ge Hong , Lan Yangsu alone, and the Southern Lineage C7,
including Peng Si and Xiao Tingzhi. The additional Buddhist list is a single lineage,
beginning with kyamuni Buddha. Apparently this list ends with Huanglong Huiji,
an eighth generation descendant of Qingyuan Xingsi d. 740, but actually, it leads to
L Dongbin. According to a tale in T 2035, Fozu tongji, L Dongbin attacked
Huanglong, but ended up conceding defeat, attaining enlightenment, and becoming
Huanglongs disciple, implicitly giving up his alchemy.193 This is not a story favorable
to inner alchemy, yet a later hand has inserted it into Chen Zhixus Xianpai in order
193
T 2035, Fozu tongji, 49:390b414. Also see p. 141n40 below.
98
to assert a true transmission from the Chan patriarchs, through L Dongbin, to

Chen. Chen Zhixu himself never asserted such a historical connection between the
Chan lineage and his own lineage; rather, both the true masters of both lineages
shared an esoteric communion, both knowing that the true dao is sexual alchemy.
Another reason that the later hand inserted this Buddhist list might be that it
reects a local Jiangxi legend. As I note on page 49 above, the Huanglong lineage was
active at Qingyuan, in Chen
s native Luling. Here we see a later redactor stirfrying
Chen
s lineage, much as Chen did to his own sources. Turnabout is fair play.
Finally, Chen lists, after Zhao Youqin, a Preceptor Liu, the Perfected of
ValleyCloud Dushi Guyun Liu Zhenren
.194 Could this be the
name of his fabled Qingcheng master? Or was it Chen
s rst preceptor, from when he
began his Daoist career? I have argued that Chen may never have had a Qingcheng
master, so I nd the latter possibility more likely. I have never been able to nd any
additional material on Mr. Liu Guyun.
7.4.3, Reading the ritual.
There are also several points worth mentioning
within the text of the Ritual for Celebrating the Birthdays of the Two
Transcendents, Zhongli and L. The ritual celebration of Zhongli and L
s
birthdays was a Quanzhen practice.195 I suspect that it was also practiced outside
Quanzhen circles. Almost no liturgical material from Yuandynasty Quanzhen
Daoism has survived,196 so we cannot know the links between Chen
s ritual and
Quanzhen rituals. If Chen had no real connections to Quanzhen Daoism, as I have
argued above, then he would have gotten the idea of celebrating the birthdays of
Zhongli Quan and L Dongbin from nonQuanzhen southern monasteries, such as
those at Mt. Jiugong or the Lu Mountains. Perhaps these were Zhengyi monasteries
that were also, in some sense, Southern Lineage monasteries.
In high style and wellchosen phrases, Chen and whoever participated in the
194
DZ 1070, Shangyangzi Jindan dayao xianpai 5a5.
195
Goossaert notes that the practice of celebrating L Dongbin

s birthday at the Quanzhen center Yongle Gong
in Shaanxi was inaugurated by the monastery
s director, Pan Dechong 11911256; Goossaert, La
cration du taosme moderne, 34954.
196
Goossaert, La cration du taosme moderne, 353, says that DZ 1069 is one of only two surviving pieces of
Quanzhen liturgy from the Yuan dynasty. I would not call DZ 1069 Quanzhen.
99
ritual with him, or used it thereafter supplicates the inneralchemical tutelary gods
Zhongli Quan and L Dongbin for their aid in completing the elixir. As I argue
throughout this dissertation, the elixir is produced by fusing male and female
pharmaca, the male adepts seminal essence, and the female partners sexual qi.
Asking for aid, the ociant says:
I look up in expectation that you, in compassionate mercy will look down with
pity on my petty lowliness, and give me relief with your expedient means,
helping me to enter the chamber without demonic hallucinations .197
When Chen intones words like these, he is asking for Zhongli or L to descend and
support him during the moment of gathering the partners pharmacon, during sex.
The vital thing is to make marvelous use of a splitsecond. The hardest thing is to
be truly tranquil and respond to things. How much the more dicult is the
great danger of what is referred to by the phrase supreme treasure of the rst
passing
shoujing zhibao , and the deep fear from when the virile tiger
reduces its passion!198
I hope that there will be hidden scrutinizing of this mortal body, and it will soon
receive substances and pharmaca. I will gather the the initial crossing of the
ultimate treasure.
Looking up, I beg . . . that you make it such that I enter the chamber and achieve
success, without deviating from the great ring periods; that my fetus will
soon be born and transform into a spirit, and be promoted on high to be among
the ranks of the transcendents.
When Chen says this, he is praying for the pharmacon that is coincident with the
menarche of a pubescent partner. In my reading, this rened ritual has become very
strange indeed.
The proof for my argument that Chen is a sexual alchemist must
wait until later chapters, especially chapter 5, 1. In the nal passage, Chen also
prays that his internal ring and yangspirit training will be successful. Internal ring
is stage 3 of the alchemical path, or forming the elixir
jiedan , and yangspirit
training is stage 4, or transformation into a spirit
shenhua .
This ritual functions through performative speech. On pages 29 30 above, I
argue that Chen Zhixus texts are full of illocutionary acts: when he tells his disciples
197
These translations all come from chapter appendix 3, so I do not cite line numbers or include Chinese
characters here.
198
Supreme treasure of the rst passing is the female partners pharmacon at menarche. See pp. 455 57
chap. 5,
3.1.2.3. The erce tiger is usually the female sex organ, in its threatening aspect as a robber of the male adepts
seminal lifeessence; see pp. 389 90 below.
100
that the gods have blessed them, or that they have achieved enlightenment, he
performs this as truth through illocutionary speech acts. Examples of this abound
in the ritual:
Now, the candles one point of numinous radiance has not been lacking in the
past or today. Throughout the whole world, it pervades places both visible and
inaccessible. The ignorant believe that it is the ame that is transmitted. Those
who are in the know say: the wisdom of the inherent nature causes the dark
chamber of ignorant consciousness to sprout a heart
mind and know awe, and
to return the radiance.
We trust that there is a path to Heaven, and we can approach it; that we can
transcend the mundane and enter into the holy.
Chen is performing the wisdom of the ritual participants, performing their status
as members of the spiritual elect. In the second passage, he establishes salvation as a
possibility merely by speaking of it. In another passage, Chen performs a meeting
with L Dongbin:
You wish to succor the world, and the people do not recognize you; I wish to
seek you, but my fortunes have not yet succeeded. I dare to recall that I do not
understand the principles of xuan and pin; I have been fortunate to have had the
chance to receive a sworn transmission from you, perfected teacher.
You have enlivened this declining body, and made me familiar with the re
timing. Although I have naught with which to repay you, I rely on your
fondness for life i.e., for helping people live longer.
The themes that it is dicult to recognize L Dongbin in disguise as he wanders
through the mortal world, and that only those worthy of receiving his teachings will
be able to recognize him, occur often in L Dongbin hagiographies.199 Because it is
so hard to meet Patriarch L in real life, Chen and his fellows perform this
meeting. They even manage to cadge a transmission from L, obsequiously
arrogating the status of pure
hearted disciples worthy of Ls condescension. All of
these performative statements are what I have termed salvic eects: subtle, semi
conscious, and secondary to the primary salvation of the alchemical path.

Performative speech is often constitutive of ritual. In a study of performative
utterances in African healing ritual, Benjamin Ray describes how illocutionary speech
199
According to Katz, in DZ 305, Chunyang dijun shenhua miaotong ji, compiled by Miao Shanshi . 1288
1324, 43 percent of the stories involve the theme of recognition of the transcendent by mortals; Paul Katz, Images
of the Immortal, 173.
101
works:
In telling the spirits to leave o a icting people, the priests emphasize that the
command to do so is sucient to separate and release them from the ailing
persons. . . . From the Dinka point of view, the ecacy of the priests command
lies in his institutional authority over the spirits, together with the added
authority of the divinity Flesh and the spirits of his ancestors.200
Chens speech act works the same way, though his authority may be less secure, based
on his continuing eorts to manage his mastership, and backed up by the master
eect. Chen cannot command Zhongli Quan and L Dongbin to descend and aid the
ritual participants, so his performative speech is more uncertain than in the African
case, but the way it works is quite similar.
7.5, Conclusion on the Issue of Chens Quanzhen Aliation
Chen Zhixu was not a Quanzhen Daoist. He probably did not know many Quanzhen
Daoists personally, and probably did not even read many Quanzhen texts. His
interest in Quanzhen may have been stimulated by other SouthernLineage Daoists
rather than directly from a Quanzhen source. Rather than being a Quanzhen Daoist
himself, he merely used the Quanzhen marque as a freshsounding, prestigious, and
in Yuan China
socially dominant source of authority. My conclusions thus diverge
somewhat from the standard line within Daoist historiography that Chen Zhixu
represents the lateYuandynasty historical trend toward the fusion of the Northern
and Southern lineages. While I agree that there was such as trend, and that he
represents it, his own fusion was of the shallowest sort.
Rather than a master of cultural fusion, Chen was more like a karate
instructor in an American suburb who decides to hang out his shingle as an authentic
teacher of kungfu or, these days, Brazilian JiuJutsu
. He is like a Beijing fastfood
franchiser selling Californiastyle Chinese noodles. Such folk can achieve
commercial success with their mislabeled products because their clientele knows
only enough about the foreign marque to respond to its appeal, and not enough to
question its zhengzong authenticity. Chen Zhixu represents only the barest
200
Ray, Performative Utterances in African Rituals, 26. Ray is able to make a strong case for a performative
reading of Dinka ritual, due in part to articulate native concepts that correlate well with the theory of speech
acts. I have not found analogous concepts in Chens writing, so my use of speechact theory is tentative for now.
102
trickle of Quanzhen Daoism into Yuandynasty Jiangxi.
8, Chens Students, Disciples, and Acquaintances

Chens students include ordained Daoist monks or priests,201 and laymen. Among the
Daoist monks, he instructed both powerful abbots and common members of the
assembly. Among the laymen, he taught powerful o cials, lesser o cials, and
una liated seekers. Many of them were also Confucian, and some were Buddhist.
One is a Mongol, one a Hmong, and the rest are presumably Han. All are men. The
ages of the students are distributed more or less evenly across a range between
twentytwo and seventytwo years old. Each of these students received a new Daoist
stylename daohao from Chen Zhixu, in the form Xyangzi , by which
Chen acknowledged him as his disciple. Some of these disciples had powerful
conversion experiences under Chens guidance e.g., Ming Suchan, Deng Yanghao,
while others may have accepted the stylename only as a courtesy and kept their
distance from Chen e.g., Zhao Renqing, or just regarded Chen as a conversation
partner or drinkingbuddy e.g., Yu Shunshen. I provide a full list of Chens disciples
and acquaintances in chapter appendix 2.
The main source of information on Chens contacts is his transmission
epistles. Eight of these are included in juan 1011 of the Zhengtong daozang edition of
Jindan dayao, but fteen more are included in the Jindan zhengli daquan edition
fourteen in the Daozang jiyao edition. In dissertation appendix 2, I defend the
authenticity of these texts missing from DZ 1067. Chen wrote each epistle to a
disciple except in the case of Luo Xizhu, who is not a disciple, to recount their
meeting, and to serve as a formal record of Chens transmission of lineage to the
disciple. They were not just certicates for the recipient to store away, but essays
201
The professional Daoists we meet in Chens epistles were neither Quanzhen monks nor married Celestial
Master priests huoju daoshi . They were probably under the jurisdiction of the Celestial Masters but
perhaps leading lifestyles more like Quanzhen monks, having left the householders life chujia . I call them
monks, but one might also call them priests. The Mt. Jiugong gazetteer, written centuries later, tells us little
about their daily activities.
103
polished for posterity, to be savored by a future readership, and reinforce Chens

reputation as a true master forever. Other sources of information on Chens contacts
are the prefaces to texts by Chen and Zhao Youqin, some other materials preserved
in Jindan dayao, and the Mt. Jiugong gazetteer.
In this section, I will discuss a handful of Chens disciples under three
headings: masterdisciple relationships, patronage, and literati association. I
relate masterdisciple relationships and patronage to the overarching themes in
this dissertation, managing mastership, spreading the teachings of sexual alchemy,
and achieving salvation. In chapter 3, I discuss Chens threeway feedback loop of
propagation, authority, and salvation. Here is my denition of this concept:
Chens teachings are the tools he uses in his struggle to achieve three interrelated
goals: 1 achieving recognition and authority as a master, or managing his
mastership ; 2 spreading his teachings in the religious eld; and 3 attaining
personal salvation.
These three goals are complementary. Why does he seek authority?
Proximately, for the sake of advantages in this world; ultimately, for the sake of
his own salvation. The authority he gains will help him attract a support network
and audience base of patrons, disciples, or readers. This support network in turn
will help him nance his personal quest for salvation.
In addition to this, his teaching activities within his network, and his
successes in spreading his teachings to new audiences, will generate karmic merit
for him, which will further contribute to his salvation.
The relationships that Chen forged with disciples and patrons allowed him to
develop his authority as a master, and spread his teachings. He could spread his true
dao to one person at a time as we see in most of his transmission epistles; or he
could attract the patronage of wealthy laymen Zhang Shihong and Wang Shunmin
or powerful abbots Che Kezhao and Pan Taichu, who could subsidize the
publication of his writings, and thereby allow him to reach a much wider audience.
Spreading the teachings is a duty to the gods, and would bring karmic merit, or count
as good deeds in the celestial register, ultimately helping Chen achieve salvation.
Establishing authority and spreading his teachings would also help Chen attract
patrons who could nancially support his sexual alchemical practice.
The third heading, literati association, does not contribute as much to the
threeway feedback loop, and I will discuss it only briey.
104
8.1, MasterDisciple Relationships

8.1.1, Ming Suchan, at Mt. Jiugong.
Mt. Jiugong was an important place in Chen
Zhixus career because of the support and acclaim he received from the Daoist
monks there. Although Daoists had dwelt on the mountain from early times, the
great Daoist center at Mt. Jiugong, Qintian Ruiqing Gong , was founded
in 1184 by the Zhengyi Daoist Zhang Daoqing 11311207 .202 Zhang also
founded the Zhengyi ordination sublineage Yuzhi Pai
, which was centered
there. Zhang and his disciples were summoned to the Song court to heal emperors
and their family members several times, and received imperial largesse. Ruiqing Gong
was one of the ve great Daoist centers of the Song Dynasty.203 Zhangs mummied
body was preserved in a seated position in a cave near Ruiqing Gong and worshiped
there for over six centuries as the focus of a major local cult.204 In 1855, a warlords
army stormed the mountain and tried to burn the body along with the temple
buildings; the body resisted the re, but the bandits did cut it into six pieces, so the
priests buried the body for safekeeping.205
Ming Suchan ,206 styled Zongyangzi , was a monk from Ruiqing
Gong, and perhaps Chens closest disciple. Ming contributes one of the prefaces to
Jindan dayao, so we can read the accounts of their relationship in both Mings preface
and Chens epistle. Ming met Chen Zhixu for the rst time in 1335, and they hit it o
immediately:
In the fth month of the summer of 1335, in the SquareJug Heaven, I chanced to
meet my master, the Perfected Man of Highest Yang of the Crimson Palace of the
Purple Empyrean. I opened my breast and tipped my canopy when we met for
the rst time, joyous as if we had known each other our whole lives. I steeped tea
202
Byname Deyi, stylename Sanfeng, from Yingpu , Zao Li presentday Jingshan County, Hubei
Province . While still alive, Zhang was honored by Song Ningzong r. 11941224 with the title Taiping Huguo
Zhenmu Zhenren . In his deied or ancestral form he was known as Zhenmu Jun .
203
Liu Sichuan, Jiugong Shan yu daojiao Yuzhi Pai ; Fu Xieding, Jiugong Shan zhi, passim.
204
Fu Xieding, Jiugong Shan zhi, 4.12a 7:89 .
205
Fu Xieding, Jiugong Shan zhi, 3.11b 7:72 .
206
Byname Tiancong !, original name Chen Zongming ? . Zongyangzi is identied as Chen
Zongming, and given a biographical entry in Fu Xieding, Jiugong Shan zhi, 4.4a 7:91 . This biography seems to be a
conation of Zongyangzi with one of Zhang Daoqings disciples, so Chen Zongming is probably not his name.
105
and burned incense, and together we discussed alchemy. When the crucial point
was slightly revealed, we became naturally drawn together.
Anh'DZs[B]G0V d{_l}
~JW@qgup`|L4?(207

Living on Mt. Jiugong, Ming had seen dozens of alchemical teachers come to o er
their teachings to the monks:
Generally, regarding those who came from the four directions, although they
followed sidepaths and narrow ways, in all cases he listened to their discourses
to the end with an open mind and manifest sincerity. In all there were several
dozen of these men; they believed that they had completely attained the way of
the golden elixir.
-3zEy
UT\*ek.m#:8:ro
$=RM5g208
Ming had accepted some teachings from these teacherswho were charlatans to
Chen but whom we ought merely to call rivals
so Chen had to disabuse Ming of
his false learning:
I inquired unhurriedly about the teachings he had received, which included
transporting spirit and qi within the body. This seems to be true, but is not. The
teachings also included tempering the lead and mercury in the dantian, which
seems to be the same as the true teachings but is not. At their most extreme, if
these teachings werent about gathering and battling, then they were about
roasting the yellow gold and boiling the white silver; if they werent about
sitting dazedly, then they were about concentrating the thoughts on empty
words.209 Now he had slacked o , believing that the dao of the golden elixir was
like this and nothing more. He was wellsuited to alchemical scriptures,210 and his
chanting of them aloud was like owing water. Furthermore, his crooked
interpretations were successful though from a sideangle, their words almost
reasonable. When he surveyed those of his own generation below him, it was as if
no one could match him; others had the hope of encircling him, but they could
not check his arguments.
jNCK./Mm9"bf, HF3X%;#6"Qc
i)3%#S>#6Ot9v^Y6 &91a2+I!
207
DZ 1067, Shangyangzi Jindan dayao, preface, 1a10b2. The Square Jug Heaven is a building at Mt. Jiugong: the
Pavilion of the Jug Heaven Hutian zhi Ting V7
; Fu Xieding, Jiugong Shan zhi, 9.13a9 7:235
. The idiom
qinai _l goes back to Han literature, and refers to two friends meeting each other on the road, then drawing
their carriages close together so they may converse. Qinai also came to refer to a rst meeting; Hanyu da cidian,
s.v. qinai _l. The idiom zhenji xiangtou L4?( refers to the supposed
phenomena of pins being attracted
by magnets, and mustard grains by amber; Hanyu da cidian, s.v. zhenji xiangtou L4?(.
208
209
It appears that Chen Zhixu is here referring to the principle forms of selfcultivation associated with the
Caodong P< and Linji xw Chan lineages, respectively. Both lineages were active in this period.
210
Alternative translation: As for alchemical scriptures, talismans and tallies, . . .
106
T"x9 k^! &+4jW;Hr@6FZ

8UCduFAaQ | _!
l211
After convincing himself of Ming Suchans intelligence and worthiness, Chen agrees
to transmit his teachings to Ming at Luo Xizhus Jiaotai Hermitage JR:
Because at the time I was busy in coming and going, I could not fully investigate
his qualities. Afterward, I waited and looked into the distance for the purple qi,212
and chased the yellow crane, arriving at the Jiaotai osite hall. I kowtowed and
made my request, repeatedly and sincerely. Then we smeared213 cinnabar on a
written document and made vows to Heaven, spread out bluegreen silk214 and
swore upon the Earth. With multitides of perfected beings supervising the
ordination, Shangyangzi bestowed his secrets in toto.
G]X'O>!}DcIPyf#J$zB
t{`b=h3:sVKo<nS1L215
Ming goes on to describe his enlightenment experience, which has much in common
with Chens description of his own enlightenment under the guidance of Zhao
Youqin:
Ming Suchan was startled when he rst heard Shangyangzis teachings, and was
dubious when he heard them again, . . .
Suddenly, while standing on a wall tenthousand fathoms high, he straightaway
accepted this teaching, and was rst enlightened to the facts that inherent
nature and life endowment are none other than a couple of yins and yangs, and
that the body and mind possess so much spirit and qi.
5N~.q!q!m/bwi72g.E0-%?*
p[e)v YMI216
Ming learned that the cultivation of inherent nature and life endowment must
involve the interaction of a man and woman. As a Daoist monk, this was shocking to
Ming, but after several days of soulsearching, he nally came to accept this as truth.
This whole episode is reminiscent of sudden enlightenment in a Songdynasty Chan
narrative, and is even set in language drawn from Chan Buddhist texts, such as
plunging from a high wall, or drinking up the West River in one mouthful.
211
212
This refers to Yin Xis \ encounter with Laozi at the Hangu ,( Pass.
213
Sha refers to the ancient practice of drinking the blood of a sacricial victim to seal an agreement. In
Daoism, blood sacrice is replaced with writing or other practices.
214
Daoist ordination rites may involve oering silk and other goods to the spirits as a pledge. Cf. Benn, The
CavernMystery Transmission.
215
DZ 1067, Shangyangzi Jindan dayao, preface, 1b26.
216
107
Chens describes Ming Suchan as being a talented young writer of some

renown while living the life of a Daoist monk:
When I climbed Mt. Jiugong, there was a man named Ming Suchan. From the
age of capping twenty years old when he abandoned his family and went forth
from the householders life, he was bright and fond of learning. At the age when
he was established thirty years old, he towered above the rest. Selecting widely
and reading mightily, he modestly made visits to the vast records, discussing the
present and investigating the past, and producing literary writings. Galloping
madly across the scene, his writings pleased peoples sensibilities, though he was
not free from the fault of becoming full and overowing, or raising a whirlwind
with his burning, so good and understanding friends were few.
c[
G*<Lq?-H@SlFR,'j)X,%5d
aWQ^rnUJOh+!.DV8:kCI _/
E,`Y vA;3<>?217
Ming adopted his odd name in homage to Bai Yuchan.
I asked him: Does Ming Suchan mean something? He replied: I, Cong, often
admired Bai Yuchan, so with my surname I thanked Heaven and Earth, with my
name I thanked my family, and with my byname I thanked my friends.
Ming bright is Bai white; Su undyed is like Yu jade; su and yu both
connote purity; and chan toad
is chan toad
; therefore I am called Ming
Suchan.
P<Lq?4*mu 2f$"q? B#9
opb&ol(o<0$ LZ" Bm<Lq218
Bai Yuchan could have been a hero to any inner alchemist, but he was also a local
gure, having been active in Jiangxi and even visiting Mt. Jiugong in 1218.219 Chen
points to Bai Yuchan as an object lesson for Ming, telling Ming that he, like Bai
Yuchan, should ignore the mockery of others who would deride Ming for being a
sexual alchemist
:
O, that Old Man Bai Ziqing was able to su er the mockery and scorn of all the
people of his times, and accept it all with dull silence and nondi erentiation!220 .
. . If you are able to use clarity and elegance to transform your heart, and use
modesty and selfe acement to expel your pride and disregard, then you will
certainly be able to repay others mockery and scorn with dull silence.
i\TMN6eKg,=71sNT],t;
217
218
219
Liu Sichuan, Jiugong Shan yu daojiao Yuzhi Pai.
220
The term oneavor yiwei 7

is used in classical Buddhist as well as Chan Buddhist texts to refer to a
highlyrened state of mind which does not discriminate or thematize separate objects or concepts.
108
<W\'E,=")
;Q&221
I believe that in the account of Mings encounter with Chen, we see Chen convincing
a monk chujia ren 9, presumably celibate of the truth of sexual alchemy. Chen
initiated Ming at Jiaotai Hermitage, and perhaps Ming was able to practice sexual
alchemy at Jiaotai; I suggest below that Jiaotai Hermitage was a secret site for sexual
alchemy. Also note that Chen was one of dozens of peripatetic teachers who climbed
Mt. Jiugong over the years to oer their teachings to the monks. Because Chen
secured the temples nancial backing for publishing his books, he must have been
more successful than most of his rivals from the marginal traditions pangmen B1.
I will argue in chapter 5 that Chens practices may not have been so much dierent
than those of his rivals, but I would not say the same about his writing. I do not
think that Chens oeuvre was also just one among dozens of others that have since
slipped through the cracks and been lost. Chens oeuvre is of rare quality.
8.1.2, Deng Yanghao, in Hongzhou.
Chen Zhixu also spent a good deal of time
in Hongzhou or Yuzhang, modernday Nanchang, in Jiangxi. In chapter appendix 2,

I list three or four disciples that Chen met there: Zhao Boyong, Zhao Renqing, Deng
Yanghao RS:, and possibly Zhou Yunzhong. Three of these four men were
disciples in name only: Chen may have conferred Daoist stylenames on them, but
they seem not to have been ardent followers like Deng Yanghao. Deng Yanghao was
not a Daoist monk like Ming Suchan, but a layman and a spiritual seeker. Chen
describes Dengs character:
Nanyangzi is a scion of the Deng clan of Old Hong Hongzhou. His byname is
Yanghao. His father named him Ximeng #*, but at one point he changed his
avoidancename to Yi U. From birth his superiority stood out, and he cared little
about the details of his conduct.
Because he lacked the dao of correctness in heart and sincerity in intent, he
ended up taking a tumble, behaving outrageously and searching wildly. Although
the aspirations in his heart were lofty and not shallow, among the benighted
persons of the marketplace there was not a single one who was suitable. It is
impossible to avoid making comparisons between self and others, or to avoid you
and me mocking one another. Why? Because you
never heard the dao.
2D05R S:(#*M/TUL
-V@>HF
JK7[Z %X< .8GG
?]^
CA!+IN$6Y3POJ4
221
DZ 1067, Shangyangzi Jindan dayao 12.5a67, 5a9b2.
109
222
Chen addresses Deng directly, discussing his character and biography quite frankly:
Deng is a talented man, but he initially lacked direction. His career or projects were
blocked by petty men chan an zhi ren .
I came traveling through Yuzhang in order to nd people of correct heart and
sincere intent, so I could tell them about the dao of cultivating ones person
xiushen N6 and long life.
But as soon as I would express a single idea,
I
would arouse a riot of slander and acrimony. Yanghao would come and go,
hearing what he heard, seeing what he saw.
I knew that
he was a person who
was always coming to chime in about this dao, so Yanghao would certainly exhaust
his knowledge yun , and then cease.223 Sure enough, the next day, he came
again and spent the whole day inspecting these teachings
of mine,
but I was
not able to get him to enter the gate
i.e., completely accept my teachings. In the
space of more than a month, he came and went three times, both doubt and trust
mingled in his heart. When he asked me for some

teachings, I unhurriedly
answered him with a few words. Because of this, he told me all of the teachings
he had received from his teachers.
He had once experienced enlightenment after hearing the teachings of the
monk Youtan , and nally he denitely did receive a transmission from old
man Huayang o.224 Now all had become clear
to Deng Yanghao. Whenever
he entered a calm and settled state, he had the sensation of something like qi or
cloud within the doublepass of his Spinal Straits, rising steadily upward and
reaching the Muddy Pellet.
The sensation would be similar to the state hou M
called three owers gathering in the crown, and the ve qi paying court to the
prime sanhua juding, wuqi chaoyuan
DeSk .225 After
Deng
Yanghaos claims, everyone who came from every direction to discuss this all
expressed their wildfox imp views.
y7uc`3%tr N6nv;W
l,TC&<,74<4,!8#Rjv,.C
T$}<,I >?i7d0j)[8F,K
:|GLw*ay\O^ ']m8V<_P5
Cz=x5*QfI=oXB*<qZl29
H1Y(S(p,.@ E/
DeSkM
-{gI"7+CJbA~4s226
Yanghao was sure that he was correct, was quite full of himself, and even went so
far as to style himself Peng the Perfected. 227 He was wild in his study, and made
deep errors like this. I heard a lot of his errors, but did not dare to assent to the
222
Jindan dayao, Jindan zhengli daquan ed., 6.41b742a1 missing from DZ 1067 .
223
I.e., after a while Deng would run out of impudent comments, and begin to listen to Chen.
224
I have yet to identify this Daoist teacher.
225
For wuqi chaoyuan, see pp. 33839; for sanhua juding, see pp. 34142. Deng is claiming a high state of attainment.
226
Jindan dayao, Jindan zhengli daquan ed., 6.42a110 missing from DZ 1067 .
227
This is likely a reference to the famous preQin transcendent Pengzu hU.
110
errors. I was deeply aware that he was wrong, but did not dare to straighten out
his wrongheadedness. How could it be said that I was slow of speech or
chickenhearted and did not dare? We may say that if you wish to draw someone
in, you must gradually soak
zi him in order to melt
shi him.
The next day he came back with his cloud companion Zhang Shouqian228 ^
9 to invite me over to his house, where he laid out his clauses
liekuan n,
begging me over and over for the teachings of my Qingcheng master . I again
inquired about what he had learned previously from his teachers, and based on
this, quizzed him on point after point. Yanghao revealed all without privileging
anything,229 so I was well able to show him that suchandsuch were marginal
teachings , soandso were blind teachers, suchandsuch were perverse trails,
suchandsuch were merely qicirculation, suchandsuch were gathering and
battling
caizhan, and suchandsuch were vacuous stillness. Among all of these,
he had only taken one of Huayangs teachings as a given, and in the end missed
the single principle threading through them all, and furthermore nally had no
place to settle upon.
Now, when he sought my instruction, he was full of this willingness. I praised
him, saying: Your lofty aspirations like this will lead to your soon receiving the
teachings of the old transcendent from Qingcheng. But then, why would the
teachings only be openly exposed230 between Jintang and Zhongling?231 You must
overleap the eight limits of space, and gallop after the tracks of Zhongli Quan
and L Dongbin !
7T)L)O*)NlV N0#&~"7
(mL7cA7G(m@7GX~gmb
S6]e4v>^9*; P n
/.FJ%~|7H<_=QPC!{TGU
<W7MCNkEMCN?QMCN3RMCN}MCNa
MCNB\7tùNyp8_hdjoqz
f/K2&~-[:#&5T$_FJ
'%IX+YDxit]sr
Z,(1232
Chen says that he came to the Nanchang region
near his home in the Lu Mountains
seeking worthy disciples to receive his teachings. As he says elsewhere, Chen came
looking for disciples after writing an initial version of the Jindan dayao.233 He says that
when he rst began to teach, he suered signicant ridicule. It seems that Chens
228
I have yet to nd any other information on this gure.
229
For the meaning of the word feite GU, dictionaries give only bujin w
not only, but I read feite as
meaning not regarding anything as privileged, not regarding anything as particular.
230
The specic meaning of xuanbao Y is unclear. Xuan can open and spacious.
bao, to explode could
conceivably be a loan for
bao, to expose.
231
By Jintang Dx Chen may mean a city about twenty miles southeast of Changsha, Hunan Province.
Zhongling i was part of presentday Nanchang County, Jiangxi Province.
232
Jindan dayao, Jindan zhengli daquan ed., 6.42a10 43a4

missing from DZ 1067.
233
DZ 1067, Shangyangzi Jindan dayao 11.6a5 6.
111
audience recognized that his teachings are sexual, and heckled him for it. Deng was
among this largely hostile audience. Over time he was drawn to Chen, yet Deng
remained boastful of his own prowess. Chen hooked Deng with carefully chosen
words, and reeled him in slowly. Then Chen disabused Deng of his illusions, showing
him that all the things he had learned were only minor techniques, not a great dao of
the same caliber that Chen o ered. Chen accuses Deng of practicing coarse sexual
practices, which is probably what Chens hecklers were saying about Chen.
When Deng describes his sensation, he is not describing a heterodox or
merely trivial practice: other inner alchemical authorities describe the sensations of
orbital circulation in the same way. Chen probably rejected Dengs alchemical
experiences because he was doing mostly solo cultivation, and some coarse sexual
cultivation, but not the true practices of the golden elixir.
One of Deng Yanghaos erstwhile teachers is Youtan, i.e., Pudu 1255
1330, a.k.a. Youtan Zongzhu
, a Buddhist monk who established a White
Lotus cloister in the Lu Mountains, and wrote defenses of the White Lotus Buddhist
movement.234 We may imagine Deng Yanghao as drifting between rival teachersthe
Buddhist preacher Pudu, the alchemist Huayang about whom I know nothing
more, and then Chen Zhixuwith each teacher extolling his own tradition, and
excoriating his rivals. Chen Zhixu criticizes his rivals, but not Pudu per se. However,
Pudu would have criticized Chen Zhixu, had he known of him. Pudu did know of
Daoist or quasiDaoist sexualcultivation networks in Chens exact place and time,
though he would not have known of Chen, since Pudus deathdate 1330 and the
date of Chens enlightenment 1329 overlap by only one year. Barend ter Haar
discusses several of Pudus attacks on his rivals; these attacks
seem to deal with sexual techniques and can be connected with each another.
One attack is as follows:
Nowadays there is a bunch of stupid people who habitually practise a
divergent religion yijiao and assume the name of Pupils of the Lotus
Tradition lianzong dizi . They falsely point to dual cultivation and
engage in dirty acts.
Dual cultivation can be short for The dual cultivation of the inner nature and
234
Foguang da cidian, s.v. Pudu , 49901; and ter Haar, The White Lotus Teachings in Chinese Religious History,
passim.
112
life xingming shuangxiu , i.e. inner and outer alchemy sic
, which can
apply to the Complete Perfection Teachings. In Yuan Daoism it could also refer
to sexual disciplines, short for the dual cultivation of Yin and Yang. Pudu uses
the second interpretation here, and below I shall suggest an explanation for his
doing so.
Elsewhere, he again attacks sexual techniques being practised by people who
used the name of the Lotus Tradition. According to one such attack, these people
distorted the Lotus Tradition with Daoist methods of cultivation daomen
xiuyangfa . . . .
Pudus criticism on the practice of sexual techniques by Pupils of the Lotus
Tradition, therefore, served two purposes: he defended his own tradition against
potential suspicion and at the same time raised doubts about a competing and
supercially similar tradition.235
Here we see Chen Zhixu, or his ilk, criticized from a Buddhist point of view. Pudu is
attacking Daoist sexual cultivation in exactly the same way, and for exactly the same
reasons, that Chen Zhixu attacks the marginal traditions and minor daos pangmen
xiaodao
of his own nameless rivals. In his book, ter Haar argues
convincingly that most of the attacks on popular religious movements in late
imperial China by secular ocials, or Buddhists like Pudu involved stereotyping these
movements. Thus, a common criticism of these movements was that they
encouraged the sexes to mingle together in nocturnal assemblies, or even engage in
unregulated sexual activity. Some of Pudus attacks on rival movements may use
stereotypes, but there certainly were Daoist sexual cultivators practicing and
teaching in his place and time, so there is a grain of truth to his attacks.
Chen does not attack Pudu, because he is a respected Buddhist leader, and
Chen respected Buddhism as much as he did Daoism. Note that, in his speech to
Deng Yanghao, he does not thematize Dengs erstwhile teachers as Buddhist or
Daoist : they are all just masters. Chen and Deng would agree that the learning
and experience that Deng gained from the Buddhist Pudu complemented what he
gained from Huayang who was probably what we would call a Daoist.
Next, Chen describes his conversion of Deng, and transmission to him:
I understood Yanghaos sincere intent and knew about his human relations and
235
Ter Haar, The White Lotus Teachings in Chinese Religious History, 1067, citing Lushan lianzong baojuan
10:49b.
113
entanglements.236 I probed his shortcomings, and blunted his wildness. I

corrected his doubts, and saved him when he strayed. I caused him to repent
his past deeds, and straightened out his errors. Then I made him swear a compact
with the revered teachers, and we made vows to one another. Yanghao was
pierced through with sincere feelings, and unwittingly began to weep streams of
tears, experiencing a great enlightenment while weeping pitifully. I then bestowed
him with the secret contents of the Qingcheng teachings , saying: . . .
07!. /645* 2$
9(3-&)8+7!/1;,
(%'#
": 237
Chen straightens Deng out, and Deng experiences a tearful moral conversion and
enlightenment. Chen has successfully enacted his mastership, and convinced Deng to
accept his dao. Then Chen presents Deng with the secret teachings, and with it a
long lecture, lasting until the end of the essay. I believe that this lecture is not
reportage of Chens speech to Deng, but a piece of writing composed for this essay.
The essay may have been presented to Deng at the time of the transmission of the
secret teachings, or soon thereafter. I discuss the content of this homily on pages
43140 below.
What were the secret teachings? Chen is always managing the boundary
between revealing his teachings and retaining some things as too secret to put in
writing.238 While many secrets can be deciphered from Chens texts
as I show in
chapter 5, he would have reserved his ultimate secrets for oral transmission only.
Whatever it is that Chen passes to Deng is something which can be summed up
briey, and is not transmitted over a period of months through a regimen of training.
Like in Chan Buddhism, it is the transmission of an essence, rather than careful,
handson instruction. However, it is probably not as nonrepresentational or
mystical as the mindtomind transmission of Chan Buddhism.239 Chens
236
Human relationships and entanglements
yuan shu 64. In Quanzhen texts of this period, students are
enjoined to sever their yuan, i.e., to sever family ties. I read shu as meaning shouren 4, or acquaintences.
237
Jindan dayao, Jindan zhengli daquan ed., 6.43a48

238
Urban describes this esoteric strategy as the advertisement of the secret the claim to possess very precious,
rare, and valuable knowledge, while simultaneously partially revealing and largely concealing it ; Urban, The
Torment of Secrecy, 235; also see pp. 2526 above.
239
Thus alchemical transmission diers from Chan tranmission as we see it in McRaes description: As is
frequently stressed in the texts of Chan, there is no thing such as enlightenment, the Buddhamind, or
whatever that is actually passed from one patriarch to the next ; McRae, Seeing through Zen, 6. Of course, Chan
lineages also often transmitted objects of a more public nature, such as robes, bowls, certicates, or kirikami <
114
transmissions to his various disciples would have varying depths of content; most
were related to sexual alchemy, but some might involve solo alchemical teachings,
Buddhist kans, or NeoConfucian moral cultivation.
Here are some things we may learn about Chen Zhixu and his religiosocial
environment from this transmission epistle to Deng Yanghao: 1
Some of Chens
disciples are spiritual seekers, consumers of both Daoist and Buddhist teachings
within a spiritual marketplace. 2
Chen rejects practices that are close to his own.
We may say that he is trying to sail a narrow strait between the Scylla of false sexual
cultivation caizhan
and the Charybdis of false meditation zuochan
. In
chapter 5, I show that Chens own practice actually outwardly resembles both caizhan
and zuochan: we could even say it is call it about 70 percent zuochan.240 3
Conversion
and enlightenment are a central feature of Chens masterdisciple relations. 4
Chen
justies all of his teachings through allusion to scriptures and sages, the esoteric
strategy of stealing the lightning. 5
The key to Chens authority is the esoteric
assumption that the truth is known only to a master.
8.2, MasterPatron Relationships
8.2.1, Tian Zhizhai.
Chens rst patron was Tian Zhizhai, the younger brother of the
pacication commissioner of Siguo, Guizhou. I have already discussed him on pages

6770 above, suggesting that he could have provided Chen with alchemical
requisites, i.e., shelter and female partners.
8.2.2, Chens Three Networks.
Looking at the prefaces to the books by Chen
and his master Zhao Youqin, we nd several prefaces written by Chens disciples.241
These prefaces tell us about how these books came to be published. Jindan dayao has
prefaces by Ming Suchan of Mt. Jiugong, and Ouyang Tianshu of Taiping
Xingguo Gong in the Lu Mountains. Ouyang Tianshus preface dated 1336
reveals
that the publication of Jindan dayao was arranged by Chens lay disciple Wang
esoteric texts
, to accompany the formless mind transmission xinchuan
.
240
See p. 444 below.
241
Chen also writes his own prefaces to each of his texts, plus one to Xianfo tongyuan. His preface to Jindan dayao
has been displaced to become a section of juan 1. Also, there is a preface by Zhao Youqin for Xianfo tongyuan.
115
Shunmin < zi Bingtian , and by Pan Taichu M

$, the abbot of Xingguo
Gong:
The teatransport o cial242 Sir Wang Bingtian hides his transcendent potential in
a clerical career, and has long felt a profound attachment to alchemy. Having met
a friend and condant, he wanted to spread his transmission.
Pan Taichu, the mountain chairman, is superintendent of the Daoist

monastery. With its high roofs and quiet eaves, its deep pools that reward slow
enjoyment, here was the redoubled mystery rst expounded. When the exquisite
printing
of Jindan dayao reached its gates, the phoenix ed and the dragon
coiled, the cicada exuviated and the tip pierced through. We lay out all the
prefaces, hoping to receive some fame. I, my humble self, have entrusted my steps
to the purple prime, and my mind remains set on the mystic gaze. My seed karma
already ripe, I have been able to hear some leftover traces.
0GV6&#*F'L ? ,
$
9WE">:R56/!)+2X4A- %(K=SZY
B\8J@U113C;.[HONT7I
P243
It appears that Wang Shunmin nanced an initial printing of Jindan dayao; this would
have been in 1335 or early 1336. Then Pan Taichu contributed to a subsequent printing
in 1336, with Ouyangs and Ming Suchans prefaces.244
Does Ming Suchans preface to Jindan dayao indicate that his own temple,
Ruiqing Gong, also contributed to the printing of the book? Not necessarily; yet Che
Kezhao of Ruiqing Gong probably did contribute to a related publishing eort, Wang
Shunmins printing of Xianfo tongyuan in 1337:
My preceptor Shangyangzi gave me the oral instructions in a facetoface
transmission, and thereupon composed Jindan dayao among other books in
order to enlighten and guide people of these times. Chuyangzi
Wang Shunmin is
one of his senior disciples. He was able to plumb the depths
even with his
beginners mind. He only feared that others would be unable to achieve
transcendenthood, so he engraved and printed
this book, Xianfo tongyuan in
order to spread
the teachings widely.
In the past Mou Pufu from our mountain
Mt. Jiugong was deeply
committed to doing this, but met with great changes in the passing of time, and
his strength did not equal his intention. There was
a book called Yigui jince
242
Mingcao 0G. Wang Shunmin may have been employed in the Transport O ce Caoyun Si GD , though the
main sort of good managed by this o ce was grain, not tea.
243
DZ 1067, Shangyangzi Jindan dayao, preface, 4b510. Chantui yingtuo YB\8 comes from the idiom tuoying er
chu 8Q the tip of the awl pokes through the bag: talent will out . \ in this passage must be a loan for
Q.
244
I discuss the printing history of Chen Zhixus texts in chapter 6, 1.
116
Golden writingstrips on the return of the One that was transmitted in this
generation.
Although I discussed and chanted
Yigui jince?, I had not fully understood
their wonders. Now I have undeservedly received my masters bestowal of the
essentials of the truth, and only now have I realized that the secrets are in oral
transmission. . . . Written in the month of the MidAutumn Festival, 1337, by
lineal heir, the Master of Azure Yang, Che Shuke, with the tabooname Langu.
?J f EU
Yn/>DaMe{R2=f
<=4TLVw7h:0*)\|39_Fj
Nôd3(&>b-9yu+$q71sJ
UOD;P'
h,CiAKHrf 6M
}5M245
Che Kezhao 6
c was the abbot zhuchi .@ and imperial superintendent tidian
] of Ruiqing Gong during the period of Chens visits. He was probably about
sixty years old at this time, and he died at the age of ninetytwo.246 He oversaw the
rebuilding of the complex after res in 1314 and 1321.247 In addition to buildings for
the monks, and for visiting Daoists and selfcultivators, he built lodgings for lords,
ministers, and great men from the four directions "G and for ocials
t . These lodgings were occupied by pilgrims coming to the birthday festival
of the mummied founder of the mountain, Zhang Daoqing. We know of at least
several great men who did visit, and who left stele inscriptions for the templethe
calligrapher Zhao Mengfu v8z 12541322 , and the literatus Yu Ji lg 12721341 ,
both of them devotees of Daoism.
Finally, DZ 142, Ziyang Zhenren Wuzhen pian sanzhu has a preface by Zhang
Shihong S# Zhang Yifu x of Jinling >Z Jurong !I, near Nanjing ,
stating that it was he who edited and printed Chens Wuzhen pian commentary,
together with commentaries by Xue Daoguang ~m% actually, this is by Weng
Baoguang Qk% and Lu Shu [p:
While listed in the Secretariat
zhongshu sheng MB I had my will set on this. I
always suspected that transcendents and buddhas each had their own dao, and
the cultivation of inherentnature and lifeendowment were two paths. Later, I

245
Xianfo tongyuan, preface, 2b610, 3a12; Zhongguo shudian ed., 461. Gengji 4 means wellrope or drawing
water by means of a wellrope. A related idiom is gengduan jishen `4W the rope is short, and to draw water
one must reach down the well a long way; ones abilities are not up to the task . The text has X, which I emend to
2.
246
Che had been a Daoist for over forty years, so was probably over sixty years old. Fu Xieding, Jiugong Shan zhi,
4.7b7 7:98 says he died at age ninetytwo.
247
Fu Xieding, Jiugong Shan zhi, 9.15a 7:239 .
117
received the transmission of my master, and only then did I receive guidance on
which way to go, and realize for the rst time the principle that there are not two
di erent daos in this world. Whatever is not the instruction of a teacher is
mendacious chatter. I have read the various books one after another, and also
traveled to every quarter in search of learning. I may have seen thirty or more
commentaries to the Wuzhen pian. . . . Now, I have collected the commentaries of
the Xue Daoguang, Lu Shu, and Chen Zhixu, and had them printed for
circulation. Their meanings and instructions are in unisontruly a stair for latter
day students! . . . Written by Zhang Shihong, Minister of the Ministry of Works.
+f/819!5_)JB_@xZdqo\
CO vbSd-`^f"<1e
gUZ#=
c|{cKs 3A*
2-(ZriyGfn$f248
In his transmission epistle to Zhang Shihong, Chen mentions that it was Wang
Shunmin who rst introduced them, by the grace of Providence :249
Zhang is ftyseven years of age. The Creator of All Things, desiring that he
should hear of the exalted a air, is going to treat him generously. My friend
Chuyangzi Wang Shunmin, seeing that his virtue was pure and his qi abundant,
o ered up the exalted a air and displayed it to him.
When I was lodging in Jinling, Zhang paid his respects to me, boldly resolving
to make eternal progress. He vowed, I dared to hold a position at court, of the
third rank. My will has been deeply xed upon this a air of the golden elixir,
but I had never encountered an enlightened teacher. I saw that his words were
genuine and his expression true. After more than ten days, I ascertained that he
was indeed sincere, resolute, and in good faith. Then I chided myself privately,
saying: How deep are this mans roots of faith!
3,
HwNP_t?jG>m W7Q
AhajG> }RzE~0V:'/
4IFY8>&MdApg].
%lT[;6 Tu
Zhang was a high ocial, who had risen to the third rank, and his name appears
once in the Yuanshi 32.719.7
, for the period 132829. Chen describes him as an
intelligent and uncorrupt ocial. Perhaps when he and Chen met in 1335, Zhang was
already in retirement. At home in Jinling, Zhang Shihong had a small network of
friends, and it seems they were all interested in selfcultivation, perhaps also in
reading Daoist and Buddhist texts with Zhang. In his transmission epistle addressed
248
DZ 142, Ziyang Zhenren Wuzhen pian sanzhu, preface, 7a8b2, b67, 8a12 preface entitled Ziyang Zhenren
Wuzhen pian quandi g eg
.
249
I think this Creator of Things is an echo from Zhuangzi, as in the following passage: Amazing! said Master
Yu. The Creator is making me all crookedly like this! kXalt. wNPm _1LL;
chapter 6, Da zongshi Dd, H.Y. 6.4950; translation from Watson, The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu, 84.
118
to another disciple, Li Tianlai , Chen mentions that Li Tianlai and Zhang were
friends, together with three other men:
From time to time, your good friends and auroral companions250 such as the four
gentlemen, Zhang from the Ministry of Works, Zhang Tailang, Wang Jiujiang, and
Wang Jiage, will have to straighten you out and line you up, as you make
concentrated eorts to advance. Im telling you clearly: having already had a
chance to hear of the dao of the golden elixir, can you now
achieve it without
rening yourself lianji /?
'!7 )-)4&%6"(,2.
+ 5#
1$*3 /
Li Tianlai and the other men must have been of the same class as Zhang Shihong,
and perhaps of the same age and station. Were they encouraging Li Tianlai in his
sexual practice, or just in the basics of rening the self ? Rening the self lianji is
stage 1 of the alchemical path; the adept must avoid losing energy through strong
emotion or seminal expenditure, and must work to replenish his seminal essence and
train his spirit or mind through inner circulation and/or concentration meditation.
Wang Shunmin was the linchpin of Chen Zhixus new triplestrength network
of disciples in Jinling, Mt. Jiugong, and the Lu Mountains. It was Wang Shunmin who
introduced Chen Zhixu to Zhang Shihong in Jinling; Zhang subsequently edited and
published Chens Wuzhen pian commentary. It was also Wang Shunmin who brought
Jindan dayao to the attention of Taiping Xingguo Gong in the Lu Mountains, where it
caused quite a stir. And it was Wang Shunmin who brought Xianfo tongyuan to the
attention of Qintian Ruiqing Gong on Mt. Jiugong. Wang Shunmin himself was an
ocial on the point of retirement:
How mighty is Chuyangzi, Wang Shunmin! Hes a great man. He has been in and
out of government service for around thirty years. I have heard that in his
service, even when there is personal gain to be had, Shunmins heart did not
waver, and even when he was weary, he did not alter his integrity. He is decisive
and yet conservative. Generally, even to
those lodging with him who have
underestimated him, he has shown no sign of any small aws or defects.
In the winter of 1335, we met at his
oce on the Pen River.251 After a single
bow, it was as if we had known each other
for a long time. He wanted to take
my hand and talk about how in his heart he did not really want to be an ocial. I
saw that his bearing was lofty and free, and his bonephysiognomy was suited for
250
I.e., companions on the path of selfcultivation leading to ascension to the skies.
251
The Pen River usually called Penshui 8 is a small river in northern Jiangxi Province of fewer than sixty
miles in length, originating in Ruichang 0 County and owing into the Yangtze at Jiujiang City.
119
transcendenthood. He had had the fortune to run into me, and sought my
alchemical dao. Thereupon we made vows before Heaven, and I bestowed upon
him my Qingcheng masters secrets of the metal caldron and ring periods one
after another.
:Y XI=R*abX0
FN51F35fhW+) 7S$ /?9!Vi[M
K"Zj-#7U,A
BTdLV68a]5D(H
gG@&'ceQ42^_\<>.C;`PE,
OJ252
Perhaps Wang Shunmin cut back on his ocial duties soon thereafter, and spent his
talents and energies in promoting Chen Zhixus career, allowing Chen to strengthen
his position as a master, bring the dao to others, and gain patrons for sexual alchemy.
This may have been a way for Wang Shunmin to gain prestige for himself, too. He
was a li %, a sub
ocial functionary, but his discovery of Chen Zhixu gave him an
excuse to meet higher ocials such as Zhang Shihong. I do not know if Wang and
Zhang could have met under normal circumstancesperhaps they could have. I
discuss this issue in sociological terms on page 197 below.
This bears some resemblance to Urbans esoteric strategy number 1, the
creation of a new social space or private sphere, which promises equality and
liberation for all classes.253 This is not to say that any of the gures mentioned in
this dissertation professed ideals of social equality, but that esoteric self
cultivation
may have created a sort of communitas, where literati of dierent ranks could have
mingled and formed unusual networks.
8.2.3, Luo Xizhu and the Jiaotai Hermitage.
The extant Mt. Jiugong gazetteer
from 1882 possibly based on 156773, 164462, or 173696 editions records the
history of the Daoist center there, and mentions Chen Zhixu, Ming Suchan, Che
Kezhao, Luo Xizhu, and many others from before and after Chens time. Many of
these Daoists received purple robes and imperial titles during their lifetimes. Because
it was a relatively small Daoist center, which achieved one of its peaks of activity
during the time Chen visited, it is much easier for us to grasp the relationship
between Chen Zhixu and the Daoist center at Mt. Jiugong than it would be to
understand Chens status vis

vis the Daoist temples in the Lu Mountains, or his
252
253
Urban, Elitism and Esotericism, 1. Also pp. 2526 above.
120
place in an urban setting like Hongzhou or Jiujiang.

Luo Xizhu L
, stylename Dongyun %=,254 was a fthgeneration lineal
heir of the founder Zhang Daoqing. When Ruiqing Gong was destroyed in a 1259
battle between Kublai Khan and other Mongol princes, Luo spent more than thirty
years helping his master Feng Taiben # to rebuild it from the ground up. Luo
was later summoned by Kublai and given an imperial title. Luo met Zhao Mengfu at
the capital, and got him to write a 1287 stele inscription about the rebuilding of
Ruiqing Gong, which would have contributed to the temples acclaim and attracted
muchneeded donations from visitors.
Luos rst contact with Chen Zhixu was when he sent an attendant to ask
Chen to write a commemorative essay for his satellite temple, Jiaotai Hermitage.
Chens essay Record of Jiaotai Hermitage at Mt. Jiugong (-1/, is the
most formal and rococo of all the essays he wrote. It is said that Chens essay
contributed to Luos own fame:
Shangyangzi, Chen Zhixu wrote the Record of Jiaotai Hermitage, and also gave
Luo
a letter. Its the hermitages
name was wellrespected for a time.
<5sic:&-1/; ,'+255
Luo solicited this essay from Chen, and Chen wrote it before he had ever visited the
place. Perhaps this is what drew Chen to Mt. Jiugong for the rst time:
When I was staying in old Hong zhou
, I happened to run into his disciple
Tingzhang )6, and thereby was able to hear about his daily activities.
Furthermore, Tingzhang
besought my words as a record. I was delighted with
Tingzhangs simple and not irritating manner
, his directness and love of justice.
Although I had never set eyes upon that splendor which is Jiaotai Hermitage, I
thought from afar of what would be writable about its dimensions, and made a
general record of it.
D.$H?*)6230!F /
D8)6K
A"CJB-1
7E>4G
,<@/
256
In this essay, Chen depicts the hermitage as a rustic retreat, though it may have been
a highroofed and nely decorated temple:
254
Byname Jingshan 9, Daoist stylename Mibian Xiansheng IM; Fu Xieding, Jiugong Shan zhi 4.7a5
7:97.
255
Fu Xieding, Jiugong Shan zhi, 4.7a9 7:97.
256
Jindan dayao, Jindan zhengli daquan ed. 6.33b14 missing from DZ 1067.
121
Luo Dongyun, of Qintian Ruiqing Palace on Mt. Jiugong, approached the stream
and parted the clouds, slew the thatchgrass to build a hut. His gate, though made
of sticks, is without vulgarity. His mind is far and his place of dwelling is distant.
0 >CK0T*B<BD,P'2$?%J8257
Chen gently chides Luo for neglecting his selfcultivation training:
Now, his cranium is seventytwo years old.258 His brows are expansive, and his
hair is sti , his face is peachy and his skin is lustrous. Ordinarily, he must dash
about on business, and he is sparing with his inner cultivation. How could things
be like this?
QUVG+;N:R4LO/19IHW"M
65-(&259
One long section of the essay is full of sexualalchemical signals. Chen is
acknowledging that Luo practices sexual alchemy at Jiaotai Hermitage, giving his
approval, and telling Luo to have more restraint:
Letting wu ow to reach ji
, controlling the four and bulging the three,
seeking the mystery beyond the usual pattern, practicing the dao of the Yijing,
uniting the strip of qian with the track of kun , using the nine to circulate the
six, knowing the male but maintaining the female, leaving small and returning
large, in order to collect and summon good fortunethese are the correct
activities of Jiaotai Hermitage. It would be well for you to have continence.260
There is even the gripping of Jingyangs Xu Xuns sword, and the gulping of
Chenmus261 elixir. The moon appears in the geng region, and the ingredient
comes home into the caldron. . . . The one above and the one below have
intercourse with a shared intention; the roof is stable, and the celestial light
shines forth. With ones awakening, one awakens the one behind; beneting
oneself, one benets the other.This is how Zhimu Zhang Daoqing is
constantly present, and this is the thing that Jingyang transmitted secretly. This is
gaining the peaceful state of the hermitage. It is meet that you should single
mindedly glorify thishow could it be so suitable without belonging to Jiaotai
Hermitage?
)=
A3#F7@!.E
257
Jindan dayao, Jindan zhengli daquan ed. 6.33a34 missing from DZ 1067
.
258
I.e., seventytwo sui, between seventy and seventyone years old.
259
Jindan dayao, Jindan zhengli daquan ed. 6.33b67 missing from DZ 1067
.
260
Wu is wuearth wutu

, and ji is jiearth. These are the kan and li S aspects of the catalytic
agent earth, and correlate with the female and male pharmaca or sex organs; see pp. 33334, 48892. Four is
agent metal, i.e., the outer pharmacon of the female partners sexual qi; three is agent wood, the male adepts
inner pharmacon of seminal essence; cf. pp. 34243, 49091 and chap. 5, 3, passim
. Whip and track are
technical terms related to the adding of yaolines from hexagrams; here, they may have a sexual connotation.
Nine and six refer to qian and kun respectively, but must have an additional meaning here. Geng is the third
day of the lunar cycle, when the outer pharmacon rst appears.
261
Chenmu was a deity who aided Xu Xun. See the footnote on Xu Xun below, pp. 14950n87.
122
@[#a
9& 2\&:%LQ c07 $#
G&WUZ b,g V8jh^. &"
6&XllD'++%?> P!&UZ ;MTAE
FSQ L7 OH)e&BLQA262
Note how Chen reinterprets sexual alchemy in terms of the Jiangxicentered Xu Xun
cult, and also in terms of the local Zhang Daoqing cult. Zhang Daoqing may have
become associated with sexual alchemy at some point in time: in Mingdynasty texts,
Zhang Sanfeng RI is the name of a sexual alchemical master and transcendent,
and this was also Zhang Daoqings nickname he chose the name himself based on
the three peaks near Ruiqing Gong. Some later said that Zhang Daoqings nickname
was the origin of this Mingdynasty master.263 Of course, sanfeng is also a term for a
form of sexual cultivation see pages 41416 below.
There can be no doubt that Chen Zhixus commemorative essay is talking
about sexual alchemy. He took some of the wording from an epistle written by Luo
for Che Kezhao, in which Luo describes the teachings of Jiaotai Hermitage.264 Chen
must have been presented with this essay when Luos attendant visited him in
Hongzhou with the commission for Chens own essay. The essay is ostensibly about
the technical Yijing studies that take place at Jiaotai Hermitage, but does contain
some faintly suggestive language, such as
With a shared intention, the one above and the one below have intercourse.
&.
The site was known in aftertimes as a place for Yijing studies, as is recorded in the
Mt. Jiugong gazetteer:
Luo built Jiaotai Hermitage, and discussed the Yijing with his disciples. Relying
on the positions of precosmic qiankun, postcosmic likan, precosmic kanli, and
postcosmic zhendui, they actualized the interlocking hu of tai L and
guimei h5 , and thereby illuminated the meaning of one life after another
without cease.
CLQ_3Jd<1N4Di--iDf* (
kLh5=K ]265
262
Jindan dayao, Jindan zhengli daquan ed., 6.35a4b2 missing from DZ 1067.
263
Liu Sichuan, Jiugong Shan yu daojiao Yuzhi Pai.
264
The Teachings of Jiaotai Hermitage, as Revealed to Che Kezhao LQ`/Y, in Jiugong Shan zhi, ed.
Fu Xieding, 4.7a9 7:97.
265
Fu Xieding, Jiugong Shan zhi, 4.7a57 7:97.
123
Jiaotai Hermitage may have been built or christened for sexual alchemy from the
beginning. Jiaotai could be a pun for taiintercourse. Guimei is a standard Yijing
hexagram, but literally means bringing home the maiden; and the guimei hexagram
is a red ag because it is mentioned only extremely rarely within inner alchemical
discourse it would only be mentioned as part of a set of sixty or sixtyfour
hexagrams. From comparing the phrase interlocking of tai and guimei with the
name of the temple Jiaotai, I suspect that the temple s name itself was meant to be
a double signi
er of Yijing studies and sexual alchemy. The later editors of the
gazetteer passage would have had no idea what Chen and Luo were talking about.
It is possible that Luo Xizhu had been practicing sexual alchemy for his whole
career, and not just at the end of it. In an essay on the rebuilding of the temple
complex, Che Kezhao cites several important turning points in the ongoing feedback
loop of fundraising, temple construction, temple fame and glory, and further fund
raising. Important points include the enfeoment of founder Zhang Daoqing s
parents, the postmortem ocial promotions of Zhang Daoqing and his disciples,
Zhao Mengfu s essay, and Luo Xizhu s sojourn at the imperial court. In 1286, Tiemuer
Buhua 266 put out a general call, and Luo Xizhu
traveled to the palace gates at a gallop, accepting the duty of applying the
talismans and ritual methods fufa . Xizhu also promoted in court the
secrets that he had kept as part of his family transmission. Through this, the
silken sounds of imperial commands descended in layers, and tax and corve
requirements were dismissed.
$+'&
267

#(! %*",
What were these family secrets that Luo Xizhu was teaching to the courtiers and/or
the imperial clan? They could have been something like macrobiotic practices, or
medicinal recipes, or prestidigitation, or . . . sexual cultivation. I suspect that the
imperial largesse bestowed upon Qintian Ruiqing Gong during Luo Xizhu s time at
court was thanks for Luo s instruction in the arts of the bedchamber, or even sexual
alchemy. Extending this admittedly tenuous line of inference, the guesthouses that
266
This must be a confusing reference to Chengzong , Borjigin Temr ) r. 1294 1307. There
was also a Tiemuer Buhua who lived 1286 1368.
267
Fu Xieding, Jiugong Shan zhi, 8.13a10 b27 7:205 6.
124
Che Kezhao built at Ruiqing Gong could also have been lodging for V.I.P.s seeking
the same sort of instruction. I am less condent in this latter supposition, though,
because we should note that Ming Suchan was shocked to learn Chen Zhixus sexual
teaching, thus, shocked even to consider that sexual alchemy could be the true dao.
Luo Xizhus activities in his osite hall could have been kept secret from the monks
at Ruiqing Gong, but I dont think Che Kezhao could have kept the secret from
Ming Suchan if it were being practiced in guesthouses right beside the main temple.
It seems that, when Luo rst sent his attendant Tingzhang to visit Chen in
Hongzhou, he invited Chen to come to visit Jiaotai Hermitage. Chen promises:
Another day, I will follow the river back to Jiujiang city, climb Mt. Jiugong, roam
at leisure, pay a call at the Yulong Palace, and borrow from Jiaotai Hermitage
, in
order to cultivate my elixir. In setting the furnace and choosing the caldron, one
meets the right
person. I ought to see what can be seen, and encounter what I
have heard of. I will consider this.
%'
&(#
!$" *268
Because he speaks of borrowing something at Jiaotai Hermitage, I think Luo Xizhu
was oering Chen the use of female partners at his Daoist temple. Were Daoist
temples used as private sites for sexual alchemy? I have seen no account of this in the
secondary literature, but it seems to have been so.269
We see that Chen and the monks from Mt. Jiugong contributed to each
others reputations: Chens essay for Luo Xizhu brought glory to Jiaotai Hermitage,
and the prefaces by Che Kezhao and Ming Suchan recommended Jindan dayao to
curious readers. Also, the Ruiqing Gong may have funded the publication of Chens
works, may have given Chen a place to stay, and may even have found alchemical
partners for him. To extend my model of the threeway feedback loop of
propagation, authority, and salvation, perhaps we could image a doubled, sixloop
model, with Chens tripleloop and the tripleloop of the Daoists of Mt. Jiugong
interconnected.
268
Jindan dayao, Jindan zhengli daquan ed., 6.35b68 missing from DZ 1067. I read yi as su ).
269
Why would Chen need female partners any longer at this point, if he had gathered enough pharmaca during
the twoyear period of preparation, 132931? Either 1 Chen actually did not need any more partners; 2 he
actually had not completed his elixir during the period 132931; or 3 he wanted to practice an advanced form of
cultivation. I discuss the evidence for this advanced cultivation in pp. 52223 chap. 5, 3.4.3.
125
8.3, Literati Association

Inner alchemy has always been a literary tradition, and, until recent times, a literati
tradition. From the perspective of social history, one may argue that the shift from
laboratory to inner alchemy in the Tang dynasty, and the popularity of inner alchemy
in the Song, is linked to a general social shift from aristocratic society to gentry
society.270 Due to advances in printing, the wider availability of education, and a
general growth in population, the literati class grew dramatically in the Song, until
only a small proportion of literate and educated men were able to nd employment
in government service. Unable to pursue traditional literati careers on a national
scale, they developed regional forms of higher culture, and enjoyed the arts of private
life, including inner alchemy. As Skar says, adepts and their patrons used these new
teachings . . . to add to the repertoire of literati association.271 Along with this new
alchemy came new deities, a new type of supralocal transcendent being, such as
Zhongli Quan, L Dongbin, or Liu Haichan who resembled the cultivated
gentlemen he sought to attract.272
The aspect of literati association is evident in Chens transmission epistles to
each of his disciples, both in the genre of the epistle itself, and in his descriptions of
their meetings. For example, Chen often speaks of the character qualities of his
disciples e.g., Ming Suchan, Deng Yanghao, Zhang Shihong, and Wang Shunmin
,
often mingling them with physiognomical observations e.g., Luo Xizhu
. Chen
speaks of enjoying conversation with his disciples e.g., Ming Suchan at the Square
Jug Heaven
, along with tea, alcohol, and meat, as in the following examples from
epistles to Xu Renshou and Yu Shunshen , both laymen living on Mt.
Jiugong:
I climbed to the peak of Mt. Jiugong, and met with Squire Xu of LikeaFool
Studio. . . . In the past, he stored tea and clay bowls in a little case. As soon as I
arrived, he would have to provide me with tea; whenever our drink of tea was
done, we would have to sit. Or, we might take a stroll and look at the vista, or
270
Skar, Golden Elixir Alchemy, 14.
271
272
126
climb the mountain to view its excellences, gazing down on the cleansing ow of
the springs, and thus gaining everything that this place was good for. Now, Mr.
Nanshan, with his heart yearning for the Dao, has been inquiring into this a air
of the golden elixir for some forty years. . . . Yet he did not know where to begin
his practice.
z
e3g=8o7(IBn
(>M{AvzDd]^[rJN#SX#
mH"& 46R}273
Recently I saluted Yu Shunshen, Mr. Guangu Xin One Who Views the
Ancients with His Mind
. We met casually and hit it o , striking up an
acquaintance with a single word. The fragrance of our meeting? was like a
numinous plant or an orchid, and the avor was like smoky mist or aurora. Aside
from conversing liberally, we drank freely. His style and appearance was free and
unrestrained. . . .
On 68 of the yihai year June 29, 1335, with a pigling on the shoulder and
caged geese, we met at his lodgings. We joined in drinking and o ered toasts
back and forththis was truly a rare moment in a mans life, and so I wrote it
down to show our similarities and di erences. Guangu Xin said, Since we share
so many similarities they were born on the same year, day, and hour, and their
names were also similar, you could bestow me with the dao . . . so our similarity
could be moreorless complete. I replied, Okay, lets meet again next year.
Asking about his increased diligence, I exhorted him, saying: When following
the dao of the golden elixir, one must rst amass merit, and only then may one
ask about it, otherwise one will take a tumble. At present you are tempted by
scheming for prot, fettered by cares, buried in lusts, and sunk in anger and
doubt. Seeking merit in this state of character would be slanderous; seeking the
Dao like this would be dicult.
!y:|*%wY@UJc0L
'WQka - TONxpQ+
~,)?51h#E0ut%9J20l#
#`sKqFJN0$P4/mj
"V(.6Z$<W_Of;
ObiOGO3\6C3\6C274
Acquaintances like Xu Rengong and Yu Shunshen were not talented selfcultivators,
but they were good for quiet or cheery companionship. Alchemical learning was a
common interest that brought them togetherit was one tool available in their
repertoire of association, together with poetry, tea or alebibbing, and moral
cultivation. Chan Buddhism was also part of Chen Zhixus repertoire of literati
association, as we see from Chens long epistle to the lay Buddhist and/or spiritual
273
Jindan dayao, Jindan zhengli daquan ed., 6.27a9b5 missing from DZ 1067
.
274
DZ 1067, Shangyangzi Jindan dayao 12.11a13, 12b713a4. Man can be a loan for man , including the meaning
casual, random.
127
seeker, Wang Xiangweng .275 This essay could have been written by a Chan
Buddhistand, in a sense, it was. Foulk speaks several levels of identication with
Chan Buddhism: there were a few enlightened dharma heirs in Chan lineages, there
were other Chan lineage holders, there were monks in Chan monasteries, and there
were monastics or laypeople who had received precepts from a Chan master, and so
on.276 Chen Zhixu was none of these. But the Chan school chanjia , chanmen
, on the other hand, consisted of everyone who believed in the Chan lineage,
gained inspiration from its lore, worshiped its patriarchs, and followed or supported
the Chan masters who were its living representatives.277 Chen certainly possessed
some aspects of this relationship to the Chan lineage, gaining inspiration from its
lore and showing reverence to its patriarchs in his own way.
I believe that the Ritual for Celebrating the Birthdays of the Two
Transcendents, Zhong and L in DZ 1070 translated in chapter appendix 3 also
reects the same atmosphere. Note that, when the ritual participants oer candles,
incense, tea, ale, and owers, they make statements on the cosmic signicance of
these oerings except the owers , but these statements are also exercises in literary
appreciation. Look at the statement for oering tea:
Now, as for teathere are the sparrows tongues of early spring, tender leaf
tips
trembling in the rain. We pour the crab
eye water, and white owers oat on the
surface of the water in the bowl. We pour water from the dragon
spring, and a
transcendent wind is aroused in Penglai. Lu Tong penetrated to the
transcendents and spirits in six bowls; and Zhaozhou joined the buddha
nature with one cup. It rouses sleepy fellows, and brings illumination to drowsy
transcendents. We bow and bow again, oering up tea.278
Although I have not undertaken a systematic comparison of this text with other
ritual texts, I believe that this text is more literati than most. It is true that poetry
has always been associated with ritual, such as ci
poems on pacing the void buxu ci

from the early medieval period, or blue
paper prayers qingci from
the Tang dynasty, yet these two ritual poetic genres are more Daoist, dwelling on
275
DZ 1067, Shangyangzi Jindan dayao 15.1a36a3.
276
277
278
DZ 1070, Shangyangzi Jindan dayao liexian zhi 5b96a6.
128
the vastness of the cosmos more than on the virtues of tea.279 I believe that the ritual
in DZ 1070 was written for a literati audience, rather than a strictly sacerdotal one.
This is not a Quanzhen ritual, it is a literati ritual. While tea is an oering
appropriate for many kinds of divinities in China, this is literati tea, tea described
in a amboyantly literati language.280
9, Conclusion
In this chapter, in addition to introducing some basic data about Chens dates, the
arc of his career, his area of activity, list of contacts, and general social and religious
environment, I have discussed the following themes.
The feedback loop.
According to the schema of seven perspectives laid out in
chapter 1, this chapter mainly represents a historical perspective; the next chapter
will oer a structural/ institutional perspective. In chapter 3, I will discuss Chen
from the perspective of conict sociology, developing a theory of elds and capital.
In this chapter, I have provided background material for such a theoretical
discussion. One concept from chapter 3 that I have already adumbrated in this
chapter is Chens threeway feedback loop of propagation, authority, and salvation.
According to this process, Chens transmission of his teachings, his struggle to build
his authority, and his eventual salvation from the mortal condition, are all linked in a
virtuous circle. I have suggested how this feedback loop worked within Chens own
career. I have also suggested that this model may be applied, not only to the life of
one man, but to the fortunes of a larger institution, such as Qintian Ruiqing Gong on
Mt. Jiugong.
Performative speech.
I have oered the ritual in DZ 1070 as an example of
279
Bokenkamp, The Pacing the Void Stanzas of the Lingpao Scriptures is a study of buxu ci; Liu Tsunyan,
The Penetration of Taoism into the Ming NeoConfucianist Elite includes a section on qingci.
280
In chapter 1, we saw that Hugh Urban has found one aspect of esotericism to be the creation of a new social
space or private sphere, which promises equality and liberation for all classes, while at the same time
constructing new and more rigid hierarchies ; Urban, Elitism and Esotericism, 1. If we were to nd such a thing
in Chens milieu, we would look for it here, in his literati association with disciples and kindred spirits. I dont
think that Urbans description applies to Chens case, however.
129
performative speech as a secondary salvic eect: Chen and his ritual participants
perform enlightenment, perform a meeting with L Dongbin, or perform alchemical
transmission.
Patronage.
I have identied Tian Zhizhai and perhaps Luo Xizhu as patrons
Chen relied on to supply the requisites for his sexual

alchemical workshop. I have
also noted Chens source of patronage for spreading his books: the triple network of
Zhang Shihong
and perhaps his four friends in Jiujiang, and the temples at Mt.
Jiugong and the Lu Mountains, with Wang Shunmin as the middleman bringing them
all together.
The marketplace of daos.
I also show Chen in a shakier semblance, as a
wandering teacher in a marketplace of daos, suering derision in order to nd a few

worthy disciples. This may reect a stage in Chens career before he developed his
network, but I think that, in such a wide
open marketplace, Chen would have
continued to face the same sti competition in the marketplace of daos. Chens
transmission epistles to his two most promising young disciples, Ming Suchan and
Deng Yanghao, show just how many rivals he had for their trust.
Conversion and mystical experience.
I have shown the powerful eect Chen
had his on disciples, and how this was understood, by Chen and disciple alike
e.g.,
Ming Suchan, in the terms of a discourse drawing equally from the Daode jing and
the classics of Chan Buddhism. Actually, we cannot be certain how far or near the
epistles and prefaces are from the experience. Following Steven Katz, I hold that
their conversion experiences would not be pure, unmediated, mystical experience,
which they would later describe in words drawn from religious tradition; rather,
tradition would prep them, suggesting to them what experience to expect, and would
give them practices to stimulate the experience. Thus, the use of traditional
discourse to describe the experience would be a natural result rather than a forced
translation of the experience into the straitjacket of language. These conversion
events come to us in textual form. Someone who is optimistic that we may
understand the conversions qua experience might say that the written and
intertextual nature of the experiences may serve as a handle by which to grasp a
130
participant understanding of the event: just as we can read and attempt to embody
the same texts they read, so we may approach their own understanding of their
experience. A pessimist and skeptic might say that the textuality of the sources
would pose an obstacle to understanding the experience: Chen Zhixu and Ming
Suchan might have composed their texts without the intention of representing
experience at all, but rather to repeat the proper phrases and attain a conventional
and literary respect in the eyes of others. Chen and Ming could simply be using
writing to manage mastership and enact enlightenment. A third position, which we
might call postmodern with Faure as an example, or poststructuralist in
Wuthnows terms,281 would advocate focusing on publiclyavailable texts and
symbols rather than on subjective inner meaning or experience, or on surfaces
instead of depthsnot because public surfaces are all the scholar can see, but
because this is the only side of a person worth studying, the only aspect of human
being with cashvalue for social thought. In this dissertation I waver between all
three of these positions.
Lineage and Quanzhen Daoism.
The question of Chen Zhixus relation to
Quanzhen Daoism is a very important one in the hagiography of Daoism, as I show

through a survey of the literature. I attempt to dispel any remaining suggestion that
Chen was a Quanzhen Daoist in any substantial sense. Not only did he fabricate his
Quanzhen lineage, but he probably had not met many Quanzhen initiates or read
many Quanzhen books: his Quanzhen Daoism was in name only. While he does
represent a trend toward the fusion of the Northern and Southern lineages, he does
not embody this trend substantially. Chen probably invented his Qingcheng master,
and the two patriarchs standing behind his real master, Zhao Youqin. Chen may have
gotten the idea of crafting a Quanzhen lineage for himself from his reading of a
Quanzhen text, but it is just as likely that he got the idea from reading a genealogy by
Xiao Tingzhi of the Southern Lineage of inner alchemy.
Buddhism.
Chan Buddhism will be a continuing theme throughout the
dissertation. In this chapter, we saw Chen, Ming Suchan, and possibly Zhao Youqin
281
Wuthnow, Beyond the Problem of Meaning. Wuthnows poststructuralists include Foucault, Habermas, and
Mary Douglas.
131
experiencing or performing Chanstyle enlightenment and/or describing it in Chan

avored language. The traditional terms for the shock of satori serve them as well for
describing their shock at discovering that the true dao is in fact sexual alchemy.
Sometimes, Chen sees Daoism and Buddhism as fundamentally di erent, and
sometimes he does not. In his speech to Deng Yanghao, Chen does not thematize
Dengs erstwhile teachers as Buddhist or Daoist: they are all simply masters.
Just as Chen manipulates Buddhist elements for his own purposes, so too can Chens
material be manipulated according to Buddhist sympathies: a Chan lineage leading to
L Dongbin was attached to Chens ritual genealogy by a later redactor, apparently
based on a local Jiangxi story of Ls defeat at the hands of a Chan master.
132
Appendix 1 to Chapter 2,
Places Chen Zhixu Is Known to Have Visited
Presentday Yuandyn.
Later placenames
province
placenames
Above and below
Anhui?
Xuan Xuanzhou Xuancheng County

?
Sitang ,
Guangxi
Pingnan County
Sitang Zhou

Citation
Notes
JDDY 6.55b2 Zhengli ed.
Met Tao Tangzuo.
Guizhou tongzhi 1741 32.13b
Travelled from Yelang to

Sitang.
Guizhou
Yelang
Tongzi !% County
DZ 142, xu, 5b8; Guizhou

tongzhi 1741 32.13b; Da
Qing yitong zhi, j. 396
Guizhou
Sinan
Sizhou

Wuchuan > County
Guizhou tongzhi 1741 24.5a Stayed with Tian Zhizhai.
Guizhou
Mt. Wansheng
.), ./
In Wuchuan > County
Guizhou tongzhi 1741

Went there with Tian
32.13b; Da Qing yitong zhi, j.
Zhizhai.
396
Guizhou
Qiongshui =
County
Zhenyuan :3 County
DZ 142, xu, 5b8
Henan
West E *
Hubei
Jingnan $
Hubei
East E *
Hubei
Mt. Jiugong
In Tongshan ' County
Hunan
Hunan
Hunan
Yuanzhi
Chenyang +
Changsha
Zhijiang County
Chenxi ,, Chenzhou
Changsha City
Hunan
On a side of the

S. Marchmount
7
Mt. Heng 6, or Hengyang 6+ DZ 1067, 2.3a7, 9.3a7
Hunan?
Jiangsu
Jiangsu
Jiangxi
Huojia 81 County, Nanyang

+ Commandery, Dengzhou 5
Nanping , Jiangling (

County
Wuchang
Jingzhou 0
County? Or
Mt. Heer < Guangfeng 49 or Yongfeng 9
Counties?
Qinhuai #&
Jiangning 2 County
Jinling (
Jiangning County
Luling ;(
Jian
Jiangxi
Mt. Lu ;, Lu
Fu ;
Mt. Lu
Jiangxi
Penjiang ?
Ruichang -, Jiujiang

County
Jiangxi
Penpu ?"
Jiujiang City
Jiangxi?
The waterside at
Jiang Jiangzhou
Jiangzhou is Jiujiang City

? Or just the
Yangtze?
133
DZ 142, xu, 5b9

DZ 142, xu, 5b9; DZ 1067,
15.5a3
DZ 142, xu, 5b9
DZ 1067, 12.1a9; JDDY
6.27a8 Zhengli ed.; Jiugong
Shan zhi 4.6a8b1
DZ 142, xu, 5b8
DZ 142, xu, 5b8
DZ 142, xu, 5b9
Met Wang Xiangweng.

Met Che Langu, Ming
Suchan, Yu Guangu, Xu
Renshou
First met Zhao Youqin and

received teachings there.
JDDY 6.55a10 Zhengli ed. Met Tao Tangzuo.

DZ 1067, 12.11a9
Met Li Tianlai.
Met Zhang Shihong.
Birthplace.
Met Pan Taichu, Ouyang
DZ 1067, 11.6a9, 12.8b8;
Yuyuan, Ouyang Yutian,
DZ 142, xu, 5b9
Zhou Caochuang.
Met Wang Shunmin, Zhou
DZ 1067, 11.3a5; JDDY
Yunzhong, Zhou
6.17a6, 33b6, 66b10,Zhengli
Caochuang, Zhang
ed.
Xingchu, Zhao Boyong.
JDDY 6.36b7, 46b10
Met Xia Yanwen, Zhao
Zhengli ed.
Boyong.
Met Tao Tangzuo.
Jiangxi
Jiangxi
Old Hong
Hongzhou , Nanchang
Yuzhang
Within Hongzhou or Jiujiang
Jintang
City?
Jiangxi
Zhongling
Jiangxi
Mt. Jinluo
Within Hongzhou
DZ 1067, 1.2b8, etc.
134
Met Tingzhang, Zhao

Renqing, Deng Yanghao.
JDDY 6.42b10, 45a9

Met Zhao Boyong.
Zhengli ed.
JDDY 6.42b10a1 Zhengli
Part of Chens circuit.
ed.
Mt. Wansong , in Ganzhou

DZ 91, xu, 5a12
City
Southcentral Jiangxi ?
Mt. Mei
Mt. Qingcheng In Guan County
Sichuan
Sichuan now Old Yu

Chongqing
Chongqing Yuzhou
The marketplace
Zhejiang?
of Hu Huzhou Wuxing County
?
Jiangxi?
JDDY 6.33b1, 40a4, 41b7,

42a1 Zhengli ed.
Wrote DZ 91 there, 1336.

Met Zhenxi Haci.
Chen never says he
actually went there . . .
JDDY 6.17a5 Zhengli ed.
Met Zhou Yunzhong.
Met Tao Tangzuo.
Chens Disciples and Acquaintances1
A Guizhou Province

Tian Qi L, a.k.a. Zhizhai `, Marquis . Tian
HanHmong, younger brother of Pacication Commissioner?
B Hongzhou 4 or Yuzhang [H i.e., Nanchang /*, Jiangxi
Deng Yi X\, zi Yanghao Y=

Spiritual seeker
Studied with Youtan ]Z Pudu K0, and later, Old Man
Huayang O?; friend of Zhang Shouqian B%^
Zhao Boyong UA
3
Aged almost 30; starting out on ocial career
Is he the son of Zhao Renqing 4?
Zhao Renqing U 8
4
Aged over 50; ocial for 30+ years
Is he the father of Zhao Boyong 3?
Also from Jiangxi:
5
Zhou Yunzhong &

Aged ca. 40; NeoConfucian
C Jiujiang , Jiangxi
Wang Shunmin M, a.k.a. Bingtian
Aged 52; teatransport ocial mingcao @R
6
Knows Che Kezhao 12, Ouyang Yuyuan 18; friend of Zhang
Shihong 9
Zhang Xingchu B),
Aged over 60; Confucian physician
7
Former disciple of Zhao Youqin
Xia Yanwen 91
8
Aged over 50; physician, diviner
D Jinling -G i.e., Jurong ;, near Nanjing, Jiangsu
2
Zhang Yifu BW , Shihong , Dingzhai (`, Gongbu F

Aged 57 ; a high ocial
9
Friend of Li Tianlai 10, Wang Shunmin 6 presumably also
Zhang Tailang, Wang Jiujiang, and Wang Jiage
Li Tianlai !$
Spiritual seeker; ocial?
10
Friend of Zhang Shihong 9, Zhang Tailang BT7,
Wang Jiujiang , and Wang Jiage 3V
E Mt. Jiugong :, Tongshan E County, Hubei
11
Ming Suchan +>a, Tiancong c

Daoist monk
12
Che Kezhao #N, zi Langu #b", a.k.a. Shuke <

Aged 5560? Daoist for 40+ years; abbot zhuchi 2 and
superintendent tidian J_ of Ruiqing Gong
Knows Wang Shunmin 6, knew Mou Pufu I deceased
DZ 1067, 11.1a2a Zhiyangzi 132931? 133134?

O
JDDY 6.41a44a Nanyangzi

Zhengli ed.
/O
JDDY 6.44a48a Zhiyangzi
Zhengli ed.
6O
JDDY 6.39a41a Fuyangzi
Zhengli ed.
O
JDDY 6.15b18a Guyangzi
Zhengli ed.
"O
DZ 1067, 11.2b
6a
1334, 1335
Chuyangzi met in the

,O
winter of 1335
JDDY 6.23a26a Xiyangzi

O
Zhengli ed.
JDDY 6.35b39a Deyangzi
Zhengli ed.
CO
met 1341
met in 1335 after

JDDY 6.30b32b
meeting Wang
Huiyangzi
Zhengli ed.; DZ
O
Shunmin in
142, xu, 6a8a
winter
JDDY 6.29b30b Laiyangzi
$O
Zhengli ed.
DZ 1067, xu 1a
3b; 12.1a6a;
JGSZ 91 error
DZ 1067, 11.8a
12b; XFTY, xu, p.
461; JGSZ 9899,
passim
Zongyang
met 1335
zi
'O
Biyangzi
SO
met 1335?;
preface 1337
Li Yuanguo, Daojiao qigong yangsheng xue, 517, citing a Daotong yuanliu QDP5 source unidentied, says that
Chen transmitted the dao to Zhang Sanfeng B, styled Xuanxuan . I do not take this seriously.
135
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
Luo Xizhu O#, zi Jingshan <, hao Dongyun *B, daohao

Mibian Xiansheng JP
Aged 72; eminent Daoist leader
Disciple: Tingzhang ,:
Yu Shunshen @, a.k.a. Guangu S , Guangu Xin S
Exactly Chens age; not a Daoist or an ocial
Xu Renshou -E, hao Nanshan % of Ruyu Zhai CM
Aged 5560? alchemst for 40+ years; Confucian ocial?
Also from Hubei: Wang Xiangweng 80 from Jingnan 1%
Buddhist layman and/or BuddhoDaoist spiritual seeker
Dharmadescendant of Yingan K4, in the Linji lineage.
F Lu mountains N, Jiangxi
Pan Taichu H$
Abbot zhuchi ) of Taiping Xingguo Gong
Ouyang Yuyuan GA7, a.k.a. Tianshu , Ziyuan ?
Monk at Taiping Xingguo Gong
Knows Wang Shunmin 6
Ouyang Yutian GA
Friend of Zhou Caochuang 20
Zhou Caochuang 2>
Exam candidate, ChengZhu NeoConfucian
Friend of Ouyang Yutian 19
G From other places, or place unknown

Zhenxi /. Zhenxi Haci? &: met at Mt. Mei 6, Jiangxi ?
21
Mongolian, NeoConfucian
Descendent of Hacilu &I, son of Earl Fengyi Q
Tao Tangzuo 9+: met at Mt. Heer R ?; Huzhou =,
Zhejiang; Jiangzhou , Jiangxi; Xuanzhou ', Anhui
22
Aged over 70
Is Xiangfu his master?
Zhang Yanwen 5(
: location unknown
23
Spiritual seeker; clerk lowlevel?
24
Han Guoyi L3F: location unknown
25
Dingyangzi !A other names unknown

Aged 24; seeking an ocial post
136
JDDY 6.32a35b Not

Zhengli ed.;
Chens
JGSZ 97, passim disciple
DZ 1067, 12.10b
13b
JDDY 6.26a28a
Zhengli ed.
DZ 1067, 15.1a
6a
DZ 1067, 11.6a
8a
met 1335?
Xinyangzi met 1334? parti

A
ed June 29, 1335
Nanyangzi
%A
Not
Chens
disciple
Yiyangzi
A
met 1336 or
before
DZ 1067, xu 4a Xuanyang met ca. 1335?

5a; 12.6a7b
zi A preface of 1336
DZ 1067, 12.7b
10b
Fuyangzi
;A
same as above
Quanyang
zi A
JDDY 6.51b55a Zhenyang

February 3, 1343
Zhengli ed.
zi /A
JDDY 6.55a59a Dongyang
4th month, 1343
Zhengli ed.
zi "A
JDDY 6.28a29b
Zhengli ed.
JDDY 6.48a51b
Zhengli ed.
JDDY 6.57b58a
Zhengli ed.
Nanyangzi
%A
Yiyangzi
DA
Dingyang
zi !A
Translation of DZ 1070
The Master of Highest Yangs Great Essentials of the Golden Elixir: Stream of Transcendents2
Shangyangzi jindan daoyao xianpai /
%!
1a2
Composed by the Master of Highest Yang of the Scarlet Palace of the Purple Empyrean, Chen
Zhixu, byname
Guanwu
,;-&/
=*$.9.
Stream of Transcendents xianpai !.
The GreatUltimate precosmic Laozi 1a4
1
.3
At the beginning of the Great Ultimate,4 the Celestial Sovereign of Marvelous Nonbeing
produced the three qi, the Mysterious, the Primal, and the Incipient xuan yuan shi . The
Incipient Qi transformed, producing the precosmic Laozi. Since then, the precosmic Laozi has
been born down below time after time, by means of the Mysterious Qi.5
+
1"

5

This appendix is a complete translation of DZ 1070. In the Zhengtong daozang, this text is treated as a stand
alone text or perhaps an appendix to DZ 1067, but it was originally a section within juan 8 of Jindan dayao. The
Jindan zhengli daquan and Daozang jiyao editions of Jindan dayao retain this original structure.
3
Note how Laozi is not Most High taishang , i.e., at the top of the hierarchy of divinities. Rather, his pre
cosmic xiantian origin is emphasized.
4
This is when nonbeing was rst showing signs of a division into yin and yang.
The following list of fteen names is a list of Laozis successive incarnations in dierent prehistoric and
historical eras. I have compared the sequence of names in a variety of texts: DZ 296, Lishi zhenxian tidao tongjian;
DZ 770, Hunyuan shengji; Laozi bashiyi huatu
3 lost edition, quoted in T 2036, Fozu lidai tongzai,
49:713c; and T 2116, Bianwei lu, 52:755a, 756a; Laozi bashiyi huatu Hangzhou edition, quoted in Yoshioka, Dky
to Bukky, 1:199284; DZ 774, Youlong zhuan; Shenxian zhuan (0 in Campany, To Live as Long as Heaven and
Earth, 19496; DZ 1205, Santian neijie jing; S. 2295, Laozi bianhua jing; Huahu jing #2 in DZ 1139, Sandong
zhunang 9.6b7b; DZ 1437, Laozi Kaitian jing also DZ 1032, Yunji qiqian 2.9a14b; and DZ 1123 Yiqie jing yinyi
miaomen youqi.
For most of these I just looked at the chart in Kohn, God of the Dao, 218. I conclude that the lists closest to
Chens list are the lists in Tidao tongjian, Hunyuan shengji, and the Taish edition of the Bashiyi huatu the top three
items in the list above. The Tidao tongjian and Hunyuan shengji materials are extremely similar. Both may have
been based on a lost Hunyuan shilu ) 4<, which Tidao tongjiao quotes. To ll out these gures hagiographies
below, I rely on these two texts. Chens list and these other three lists are not identical, though.
Tidao tongjian does not identify these gures as avatars of Laozi, and they follow the entry on the Yellow
Emperor. This is an eccentric treatment of the material. It may have been a way of escaping the wrath of
Buddhist censors, or it may be a holdover from a Songdynasty arrangement of the material. In the Song, the
Yellow Emperor was said to be the imperial Zhao clans ancestor. Zhao Daoyi was a Song loyalist Tidao tongjian
includes prefaces by two Song loyalists, Liu Zhenwen 7' 123297
and Deng Guangjian :86 12321303
,
so this rst chapter on the Yellow Emperor may be a form of resistance to the Mongol conquest.
137
,,
Celestial Master of a Myriad Methods;6<appeared in the time of the earliest Great August One>. =$+%*
,7
The Great and Ancient Master;8 <appeared in the time of the middle Great August>. *,
Master of Dense Florescence; <appeared in the time of the latter Great August One>.9 P6
(*,
Master of Great Attainment; <appeared in the time of Fuxi>.10
G,
Master of Broad Attainment; <appeared in the time of the Yellow Emperor>.11 E
1L,12
Master Who Responds Freely; <appeared in the time of Shaohao>.13 JK
R,
Master of Red Essence; <appeared in the time of Duanxu>.14
1b1
C
N@,
Wanfa Tianshi is called Tongxuan Tianshi 4+, a.k.a. Xuanzhong Da Fashi $+, in DZ 296, Tidao
tongjian. Tongxuan Tianshi produced the Dongzhen ). section of the Daoist canon in the time of the Celestial
August One tianhuang * the rst of the Three August Ones *, cosmogonic deities Tidao tongjian 2.1a .
The Taish ed. Bashiyi huatu gives this name as Wantian Fashi =$+, a.k.a. Xuanzhong Fashi $+.
Fashi $+, translated here as master of methods, could alternatively be translated as master of doctrine,
master of
cosmic law, or even master of dharma.
7
The following phrases in angle brackets are found in the the Jindan zhengli daquan and Daozang jiyao eds., but not
in the DZ 1070 ed.
8
Yougu Da Xiansheng produced the Dongxuan ) section of the Daoist canon in the time of the Chthonic
August One Dihuang * ; DZ 296, Tidao tongjian 2.1a. The Taish ed. Bashiyi huatu concurs.
In Tidao tongjian, Yougu Da Xiansheng is followed by Pangu Xiansheng F, in the time of the Human
August One Renhuang * . The Taish ed. Bashiyi huatu gives Jinque Dijun &M'. This third gure is
missing from Chen Zhixus list.
9
Yuhuazi, a.k.a. Wanyua !6 or Tianyezi 5

, descended in the time of Fuxi QO = G , and transmitted
the Tianhuang neiwen * , and writings on the River Chart Hetu #A and Eight Trigrams. He also wrote the
Yuanyang jing 7> in thirtyfour rolls; DZ 296, Tidao tongjian 2.1b. The Taish ed. Bashiyi huatu is similar, but
without details. This Yuanyang jing sounds like a Lingbao scripture found as DZ 334, P. 2336, P. 2450, S. 3016, and
D4717, but these texts dont mention Yuhuazi, and do not have 34 juan.
In Tidao tongjian, Yuhuazi is followed by Guangshouzi EB
, who descended in the time of Zhurong 0H.
The Taish ed. Bashiyi huatu concurs.
10
Dachengzi, a.k.a. Chuanyuzi 8I
, descended in the time of Shen Nong /? and transmitted the Dihuang
neiwen * , and taught the people how to grow vegetables instead of hunting. Some say he wrote the Taiyi
yuanjing jing C> in thirtysix rolls; DZ 296, Tidao tongjian 2.2a. The Taish ed. Bashiyi huatu is similar, but
without details. No Yuanjing jing is extant, but it is quoted briey several times in DZ 1032, Yunji qiqian 11.52b4,
64.2a3, 72.24a9 . It was a Lingbao scripture.
11
Guangchengzi taught selfcultivation to the Yellow Emperor; DZ 296, Tidao tongjian 2.2ab. The Taish ed.
Bashiyi huatu is similar, but without details. His dialogues with the Yellow Emperor were quoted in all manner of
Daoist texts. A Guangchengzi shul e E
-2 is included in the Zangwai daoshu 3:7058 .
12
In the Jindan zhengli daquan and Daozang jiyao editions, the eraascriptions from Guangchengzi to Guyi
Xiangsheng have been displaced, so Suiyingzi appears in the time of the Yellow Emperor an error instead of
Shaohao correct . I have corrected this error to avoid confusion.
13
Suiyingzi, a.k.a. Taiji Xiansheng <, descended in the time of Shaohao 9 = " and preached the
Zhuangjing jing 3;>; DZ 296, Tidao tongjian 2.3a. The Taish ed. Bashiyi huatu is similar.
14
Chijingzi preached the Weiyan jing :> in the time of Zhuanxu N@; DZ 296, Tidao tongjian 2.3a. The Taish
ed. Bashiyi huatu is similar. No Weiyan jing is extant, but a Weiyan : in three scrolls is mentioned at DZ 1185,
Baopuzi neipian 19.5a7.
138
Master of Records and Charts; <appeared in the time of Gaoxin>.15 OF63

Master Who Has Completed His Task; <appeared in the time of Yao>.16 7=3
Master Yin Shou; <appeared in the time of Shun>.17 G@3
Master of Perfected Practice; <appeared in the time of Yu>.18 4,3
Master Who Bestows Guidelines; <appeared in the time of Cheng Tang>.19 N&?3
Master of the Ancient Burg.20

Jian Keng <this is Pengzu>.21 WQ>5

Shang Rong.22 81
The precosmic Laozi, although he transformed and crossed over from one generation to the
next, did not reveal any traces of his births. But then in the time of the eighteenth Shang king,
Yangjia A, he took shelter as a fetus within the body of the Jade Maiden of Wondrous Mystery
15
Lutuzi descended in the time of Diku *V, and preached the Huangting jing B2C DZ 331, 332. He also
transmitted talismans to Diku, who ascended to become a celestial deity; DZ 296, Tidao tongjian 2.3b4a. The
Taish
ed. Bashiyi huatu is similar, but without details.
16
Wuchengzi descended in the time of Tang Yao /=, and preached the Xuande jing IC. Some say that he
wrote the Zhengshi xuanhua jing +!)
C in forty rolls; DZ 296, Tidao tongjian 2.4a. The Taish
ed. Bashiyi huatu
gives this as the Xuanhua jing )
C.
17
Yinshouzi descended in the time of Yu Shun D@, and preached the Daode jing. He transmitted the dao to
Pengzu >5. Some say he wrote the Tongxuan zhenyi jing <4C in seventy rolls, and the Daode jing in 1200
rolls !; DZ 296, Tidao tongjian 2.4a. The Taish
ed. Bashiyi huatu is the same. No Tongxuan zhenyi jing is extant, but
a text with a similar title, Wenzi tongxuan zhen jing <4C, is quoted in DZ 725, Daode zhenjing guangsheng yi,
by Du Guangting 2 3.19b6, 30.20b8. The quotes are in Daode jingstyle language.
18
Zhenxingzi, a.k.a. Ningzhenzi U4, descended in the time of Xia Yu 0,, and transmitted many texts and
talismans to Yu, including the Lingbao wufu TR; DZ 388, Taishang lingbao wufu xu. Some say he was called Ji
Ziken #$, and wrote the Yuanshi jing "C in fortysix rolls, the Miaole jing JC in seventy rolls, and the
Dewei jing I(C in thirty rolls; DZ 296, Tidao tongjian 2.4a5a. The Taish
ed. Bashiyi huatu gives this as a Yuanshi
jing in forty rolls. A Yuanshi jing is quoted at DZ 1032, Yunji qiqian 21.2a2, and Taiping yulan 9S 675.8a25.
Might Miaole jing refer to DZ 1192, Dahui Jingci Miaole Tianzun shuo fude wusheng jing?
19
Xizezi descended in the time of Shang Tang 8?, and preached the Changsheng jing %C. The Taish
ed.
Bashiyi huatu says this too. Some say he was called Xishouzi NG or Jie ziken $, and that he wrote the
Daoyuan jing E C in seventy rolls; DZ 296, Tidao tongjian 2.5ab. For translating his name, I take x N as a loan
word for c L.
20
The name Guyi Xiansheng shares the character yi with Xieyizi P in DZ 296, Tidao tongjian; Huahu
jing; Kaitian jing, yi Xiansheng with Wenyi Xiansheng in Shenxian zhuan. Xieyizi, a.k.a.
Chijingzi H note that Chijingzi has already appeared in the list, descended and preached the Chijing jing
HC. Xibo i.e., Zhou Wenwang employed him as an archivist Tidao tongjian 2.5b. The Taish
ed. Bashiyi
huatu is similar.
21
Jian Keng is the avoidancename hui M of Pengzu >5. Pengzu was best known for his longevity. He was said
to have practiced gymnastics, sexual cultivation, etc., in order to live more than eight hundred years Campany, To
Live as Long as Heaven and Earth, 17286. It is unusual to see him listed as an avatar of Laozi. Jian Keng is not
mentioned in the Taish
ed. Bashiyi huatu.
22
Shang Rong was a worthy xianren K in the time of the last Shang king, Zhou - Shiji ., 55:2041a10f.. In
the Huainanzi :', Shang Rong is said to have been Laozis teacher. He stuck out his tongue, and from this
Laozi learned how to maintain his softness like the soft tongue; Huainan Honglie jijie, 1:237, j. 10. This may seem
at odds with the claim here that Shang Rong is an avatar of Laozi, but elsewhere in the Jindan daoyao, Chen Zhixu
himself says that Laozi took Shang Rong as his teacher 1.5a10b1, 16.9b12. Shang Rong is not mentioned in the
Taish
ed. Bashiyi huatu.
139
Xuanmiao Yun /=0 for eighty one years, only then being born. He descended and was
born between 5:00 and 7:00 a.m. on February 8, 1241 .23 He pointed to a plum tree to indicate
his surname.
4!7(( Y8.1Mm'{2ho`/=0C
6$1O 24LD&%*hc\@^J
The Most High Laozi, the Mysterious Prime and Latter Day Sage. Z/"7
<Yin Xi, Master of the Origin of the Text>#I41t
25
< Gautama the Ancient Buddha> ,;
26
<Yin Gui, the Perfected of Great Harmony> "Fi a
<kyamuni> b#;
<Du Chong, the Perfected of the Great Ultimate> "i AB
<Mahkyapa> zb
<Peng Zong, the Perfected of Great Clarity> "ri uK <The 27 Patriarchs of India in the West> :!
j
<Song Lun, the Perfected of Great Clarity> "ri >
<The First Chinese Patriarch, Bodhidharma> Qj
<Feng Zhang, the Perfected of the Western Marchmount> :i |S<The Second Patriarch, Huike> jv+
<Yao Tan, the Perfected of the Mystic Continent> /]i WH
<The Third Patriarch, Jingzhi> jw
<Zhou Liang, the Perfected of the Eight Simplicities> ki GT
<The Fourth Patriarch, Daoxin> -jU
<Yin Zheng, the Perfected of the Great Ultimate> "i y
<The Fifth Patriarch, Daman> j
<Wang Cong, the Perfected of the Yellow Court> }ei '
<The Sixth Patriarch, Dajian> j
<Li Yi, the Transcendent Minister of the Western Marchmount> :)d@
<Qingyuan Xingsi> r9[28
<the Elder, Sire on the River> P
<Nanyue Huairang> V29
<Liu Jinbi the Perfected> Ri
<Mazu Daoyi> lj30
<Master An Qi the Perfected> 5x1i
<Shitou Xiqian> 3?31
<Master Ma Ming the Perfected> lN1i
<Tianhuang Daowu> !_g32
<Yin Changsheng the Perfected> sS1i
<Longtan Chongxin> pU33
<Xu Congshi the Perfected> fqEi
<Deshan Xuanjian> X34
<Wei Boyang the Perfected> <{i
<Gantan Ziguo> n35
23
The text gives the date and time as the mao * hour on 225 in the gengchen LD year of the Shang King
Wuding O .
24
The Jindan zhengli daquan ed. has $MO instead of $1O . Daozang jiyao ed. has O.
25
The following names in angle brackets are found in the Jindan zhengli daquan and Daozang jiyao eds., but not in
the DZ 1070 ed.
26
Apparently, the person who compiled this Chan genealogy regarded Gautama and kyamuni as two dierent
persons.
27
Usually named "~ instead of " and instead of y.
28
Qingyuan Xingsi d. 740 was a disciple of Huineng.
29
Nanyue Huairang 677744 was a disciple of Huineng.
30
Mazu Daoyi 70988 was a disciple of Nanyue Huairang.
31
Shitou Xiqian 70090 was a disciple of Qingyuan Xingsi.
32
Tianhuang Daowu 738819 was a disciple of Shitou Xiqian.
33
Longtan Chongxin dates unknown was a disciple of Tianhuang Daowu.
34
Deshan Xuanjian 782865 was a disciple of Longtan Chongxin.
35
Gantan Ziguo dates unknown was an heir of Deshan Xuanjian.
140
<The Old Patriarch and Celestial Master, Zhang Daoling> 4 09G:
<Xuefeng Yicun> ;/E36
<Wang Chang, Perfected of the Left Mystery> 3%
<Yantou Cunhuo> ZQ,37
<Zhao Sheng, Perfected of the Right Mystery> 3I#
<Xuanquan Yan> *(38
2a1 The Great Sovereign of Eastern Florescence from the Purple Oce Cavern Heaven, Who
Establishes the Ultimate and Assists the Primal. $=<!JC'39
<Huanglong Huiji> ARHO40
Zhongli Quan, Sovereign Lord of Correct Yang Who Spreads Awakening and Transmits the Dao. ?
>1BG'SUY41
<Ge Xuan, the Old Transcendent Fellow of the Grand Ultimate> C6F
L Yan, Sovereign Lord of Pure Yang Who Morally Transforms People through Admonition, the
Trustworthy Righthand Aide. 5?X'W42
<Ge Zhichuan, the Perfected Who Embraces the Unhewn> "3FD 43
Liu Cao, SeaToad Sovereign Lord Who Propagates the Dao and Is a Pure Righthand Aide. 2VG
5'LN44
<Zheng Siyuan, the Perfected of Cinnabar Yang>
?3M)K45
Wang Zhe, Sovereign Lord of Redoubled Yang and Complete Perfection, Who Spreads
Transformation. .?3>'[46
36
Xuefeng Yicun 822 908 was a disciple of Deshan Xuanjian, and master of Yunmen Wenyan @&7 864
949.
37
This must be Yantou Quanhuo ZQ 828 87, a disciple of Deshan Xuanjian and fellow of Xuefeng Yicun.
38
Xuanquan Yan, or Xuanquan Shanyan ( . 800s, was a disciple of Yantou Quanhuo.
39
This title was granted by Yuan Wuzong r. 1307 11 cf. DZ 174, Jinlian zhengzong xianyuan xiangzhuan 13b10.
Note that Donghuas title here, tiandi, is one level higher than his title as given in DZ 1069, Liexian zhi, where it is
dijun.
40
Huanglong Huiji dates unknown was a disciple of both Yantou Quanhuo and Xuanquan Shanyan. T 2035, Fozu
tongji, 49:390b4 14, records an encounter dialogue between Huanglong and L Dongbin. When passing Mt.
Huanglong, L Dongbin attended a public assembly ascending to the hall, shangtang 8 at Huanglong Huijis
monastery, and boasted about his inner elixir. When Huanglong mocked this, L Dongbin returned at night, and
attempted to assassinate Huanglong with a hidden sword. Huanglong parried the blows with a single nger, then
caused L to achieve enlightenment. Fozu tongji lists the source of this tale as Xianyuan yishi -P no longer
extant?.
This tale makes L Dongbin a disciple of Huanglong Huiji, with a lineage stretching back to Qingyuan Xingsi,
Bodhidharma, and
kyamuni. This Chan lineage leading up to L Dongbin was spliced into this chapter of
Jindan dayao by a later redactor. It is not found in the DZ 1067 edition, and probably was not known to Chen
Zhixu at all. L Dongbin is the butt of this story, which would contradict Chen Zhixus consistent veneration of
L.
41
This version of Zhonglis title is a combination of two dierent titles granted by Yuan Wuzong and Yuan Shizu
r. 1260 94; DZ 174, Jinlian zhengzong xianyuan xiangzhuan 15a3. Chen Zhixu gives the correct uptodate title
granted by Yuan Wuzong on p. 4a4 below.
42
This is a combination of the titles from Yuan Shizu and Yuan Wuzong; DZ 174, Jinlian zhengzong xianyuan
xiangzhuan 16a10. Chen Zhixu gives the correct uptodate title granted by Yuan Wuzong on p. 4a5 below.
43
This is Ge Hong F+ 283 343, the Master Who Embraces the Unhewn Baopuzi ".
44
This is an abbreviation of the title was granted by Yuan Wuzong; DZ 174, Jinlian zhengzong xianyuan xiangzhuan
18a1. The correct title is given on p. 4a6 below.
45
Zheng Yin MT, byname Siyuan . 298 302, was a disciple of Ge Xuan, and was Ge Hongs master.
46
This title was granted by Yuan Shizu; DZ 174, Jinlian zhengzong xianyuan xiangzhuan 23a3 4. The longer title
granted by Yuan Wuzong occurs on p. 4a7 below.
141
<Lan Yangsu, the Master Who Laughs Long on the Marchmount> c

/:f_;47
Ma Yu, Perfected Lord of Cinnabar Yang Who Embraces the One and Maintains
Nonaction. L)
I28"=n48
<Zhang Boduan, the Perfected of Purple Yang> JL>8>!U
Tan Chuduan, Perfected Lord of Extended Perfection of Clouds and Water Who Holds Virtue
Within. /8MkZ8"jCU49
<Shi Tai, the Perfected of the Apricot Grove> &,86
Liu Chuxuan, Perfected Lord of Long Life Who Assists Transformation and Illuminates Virtue. /
W+Z8"XC50
<The Perfected of Purple Nobility, Xue Shi> J^8d
Qiu Chuji, Perfected Lord of Extended Spring, Who Develops the Dao and Takes Charge of the
Teaching. /1TR?8"C`51
<Chen Nan, the Perfected of the Mud Pellet> -8EP
Hao Datong, Perfected Lord of Broad Tranquility Who Penetrates the Mysterious, Named
Great
Antiquity. YSD8"<D52 <Bai Yuchan, the Perfected of the Sea QiongJade> 7h8i
Wang Chuyi, Perfected Lord of Jade Yang Who Embodies the Mysterious and Saves Broadly. Lm
54
Y08"C53
<Peng Si, the Perfected of the Crane Grove> l,8FB
2b1
Sun Buer, Perfected Lord of Purity Who Sounds the Depths of Chastity and Obeys the Dictates
of Virtue. @bA3NZ8"455 <Xiao Tingzhi, the Perfected of Purple Vacuity> JK8a$ 56
Song Youdao, Sire YellowHouse, the Perfected of Virtuous Radiance Who Parts the Clouds. O'(
MZ8# R
Li Jue, the Perfected of the Grand Void Who Perches in Perfection, Named
Double Jade. KG
8g8%.
Patriarch Zhang Mu, Master of Purple Redgem, with the Byname Junfan. 95Jh >["\
Master Who Follows the Middle, Zhao Youqin. ] Q V H
47
Lan Yangsu is mentioned by Li Jianyi %e* in DZ 245, Yuxizi danjing zhiyao, preface, 1a5b7. The story seems
to be, not a common legend, but part of Lis personal family heritage. In the story, Lis ancestor meets Lan at the
Southern Marchmount, and Lan does laugh long, so it appears Lis story is the locus classicus for this citation in
Jindan dayao. Lan is said to be an associate of Liu Haichan X7i, who is one of the patron saints of Quanzhen
Daoism and the Southern Lineage.
48
This title was granted by Yuan Shizu; DZ 174, Jinlian zhengzong xianyuan xiangzhuan 26b45. A title closer to
Yuan Wuzongs title occurs on p. 4a10 below.
49
This title was granted by Yuan Shizu; DZ 174, Jinlian zhengzong xianyuan xiangzhuan 29a56. Yuan Wuzong
granted a longer title, but a title even longer than Yuan Wuzongs title occurs on p. 4b1 below. It is a combination
of Shizus and Wuzongs titles.
50
This title was granted by Yuan Shizu; DZ 174, Jinlian zhengzong xianyuan xiangzhuan 31b56. The longer title
granted by Yuan Wuzong occurs below on p. 4b2.
51
This title was granted by Yuan Shizu; DZ 174, Jinlian zhengzong xianyuan xiangzhuan 35b1036a1. Yuan Wuzong
granted a longer title, but a title even longer than Yuan Wuzongs title occurs on p. 4b3 below.
Wang Yuyang should follow Qiu Chuji in the sequence, but in this text he follows Hao Datong.
52
This title was granted by Yuan Shizu; DZ 174, Jinlian zhengzong xianyuan xiangzhuan 41a45. The longer title
53
This title was granted by Yuan Shizu; DZ 174, Jinlian zhengzong xianyuan xiangzhuan 38b1039a1. The longer title
54
Peng Si 1185after 1251 was a disciple of Bai Yuchan.
55
This title was granted by Yuan Shizu; DZ 174, Jinlian zhengzong xianyuan xiangzhuan 43a12. The longer title
56
Xiao Tingzhi . 1260 was a disciple of Peng Si.
142
Master of Highest Yang, Chen Zhixu. y Z }57
3a1 Ritual for Celebrating the Birthdays of the Two Transcendents Zhong and L.
?
&
<The patriarchs surname is Zhongli,58 his byname is Yunfang, and his taboo
name is Quan. His time of birth was the 415.
Prior to this, on the 14th of the month, we hold a jiao
fte of celebration for him together with L the transcendent. The
other patriarchs surname is L, his byname is Dongbin, and his taboo
name is Yan. His ancestors resided at the Western
Capital <E in Henan Prefecture QUL,59 Mantuo County N, Yongle Town -. His four paternal uncles of his
mortal clan, were L Wen, L Gong, L Qian, and L Rang. L Rang served the Tang government as an ocial, and was
recommended for the post of functionary scribe in Hainingzhou,60 and the family was based there. Dongbin was born on May
30, 755, between 9 and 11 a.m.61 He was a bright child; after three attempts he passed the ocial exam, and was given the
command of Dehua62 in Jiangzhou 84 as District Magistrate, xianling %. He walked about in the Lu mountains,
where he encountered old man Zhongli, who gave him the sword technique of the celestial transcendents. After a further ten
trials, L attained the great dao of the golden elixir. Subsequently, he obtained the secret instructions on the ring periods from
Cui the Perfecteds Ruyao jing, and practiced self
cultivatation to complete the dao.>
jbI3M( .CO (1?&~jbI?3XajK<E
QULN-!=#(c$_f4|'2avX.O_ (5+(
(d):rxp84%2Blp&R :oT
onh"]i7^;6
Sequence and rank of ritual participants; ritual actions; sprinkling and purifying; sending out
the incense.
AgRDu;\
We have respectfully heard that the season is the fourth month between late April and early June; it
is proper that the pure and harmonious trigram of summers beginning be full, with six yang lines:
the exact central moment of joyous and pure qian m , the dawn of the sagely masters birthdays. We
extend the sincerity of people of afterdays who pay respects and oer congratulations. In one voice,
with incense and owers, the pure assembly oers and requests the following.
cd( J[`tGFzkm,b.*/V{~t
w1\SH
Raise the incense and owers, and make the request three times.
\S
We cautiously bow and make our request, to:
W
Most High Lord Lao, Pre
cosmic Dao
Ancestor; 0j9@
Former Sages and Transcendent Masters of the Three Teachings, Who Have Achieved the Dao;63 q
57
The Jindan zhengli daquan and Daozang jiyao eds. have > instead of Z} , and do not space out the last two
names.
58
This section is found in the Jindan zhengli daquan and Daozang jiyao eds., but not in the DZ 1070 ed.
59
I.e., Luoyang Y. Luoyang was called the Eastern Capital during most periods. It was only called the Western
Capital during the Song, as well as the Later Liang s 90723 and Later Jin e 93646 Dynasties.
60
This is probably Haizhou f4, in present

day Donghai Pf County, Jiangsu Province, rather than the
Hainingzhou in present
day Zhejiang Province.
61
The text gives the date as 414 of Tianbao 14, an yiwei + year, the si hour.
62
In present
day Jiujiang 8, Jiangxi Province. This place was called Dehua from the Southern Tang 93775
until the Ming Dynasty.
63
Presumably, Chen Zhixu means to include all important sages from Daoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism
here, before concentrating on the Daoist sages in the rest of his list. Note that here, although the Three
143
+86&
Master Yin, Celestial Worthy of the Origin of the Text;64
1
Yin, the Perfected of Great Harmony;65 (
Du, the Perfected of the Great Ultimate;66 5(
Peng, the Perfected of Great Clarity;67 '-2(
Teachings are given equal status, Taishang Laojun also stands preeminent over all Three Teachings. Yet Taishang
Laojun is not a universal deity: according to the Chinese way of referring to teachings by the name of their
founders, Laozi or Taishang Laojun is synonymous with Daoism. This is a Daoist inclusivism.
64
Yin Xi 0, byname Gongwen

, a.k.a. Wenshi Xiansheng the Master of the Origin of the Text
of the
Daode jing , or Guanyinzi ?. He was the keeper of the Hangu Pass Hangu Guan ?, in presentday
Lingbao County A@<, Henan Province to whom Laozi transmitted the Daode jing before decamping for the
West. This was during the reign of Zhou Kangwang * . ca. 1000 ? . During the reign of Zhou
Zhaowang . c. 990970 ? , Yin Xi built a straw tower caolou ): in the Zhongnan mountains .
near the Hangu Pass , and Zhou Muwang ; . ca. 970940 ? later rebuilt this tower into the
TowerAbbey or TowerObservatory, Louguan :B .
Because other parts of DZ 1070 resemble the DZ 296, Tidao tongjian, it is possible that Chen Zhixu would also
have been familiar with the material contained in Yin Xis entry in Tidao tongjian 8.119. The entry contains a long
description of the alchemical teachings that Laozi transmitted to Yin Xi. The use of Yijing symbolism in the
teachings is reminiscent of the Cantong qi, yet the entry says Laozi transmitted Taiqing scriptures to Yin 8.6b46,
8.10a89 . Laozi also teaches Yin inner alchemy 8.7a9a , and nally gives him the Daode jing 8.11b1 . At the end
of Yins training, Laozi ascends to Heaven, but promises to meet Yin after one thousand days in the market of
the black goat qingyang zhi si 7 in Chengdu. Laozi is born into a local family, and transforms from the
form of an infant into his godlike golden body to greet Yin 8.13a4f. , then bestows Yin with the title Wenshi
Xiansheng, and a celestial oce. They then travel about the heavens and the holy isles and mountains, and nally
a few lines about their converting the Western barbarians are mentioned 17b59 . DZ 954, Taishang hunyuan
zhenlu, gives the same material at even greater length.
Yin was mentioned throughout the history of Daoism. In 1233, a longlost text attributed to him was
rediscovered and delivered to the Quanzhen master Yin Zhiping 11691251 , who had claimed Yin Xi as an
ancestor. The longlost text was called Guanyinzi ?, and the rediscovered text is DZ 667, Wushang miaodao
wenshi zhenjing.
65
Yin Gui $, byname Gongdu ", from Taiyuan %, was said to have been a disciple of Yin Xi, who
transmitted about one hundred Daoist sciptures to him. After Yin Xi went to his heavenly reward, Yin Gui
practiced together with Du Chong, abstained from grains and nourishing his qi. This stimulated the Most High
Lord Lao to make him a transcendent ocial of Duyang Gong 4. He wandered about the human realm
using his alchemical powers to succor the needy and sick: cf. his entries in DZ 296, Tidao tongjian 8.1921 and
Shenxian zhuan Campany, To Live as Long as Heaven and Earth, 34749 . Yin Guis link to Yin Xi may have been a
later addition by the 5th c. Louguan Daoists? .
Yin Gui is mentioned in Shangqing texts. According to later hagiographies, there is a Shangqing scripture
which mentions Yin Gui as roaming the cosmos with other lofty Perfected this scripture is a Shangqing qiongwen
dizhang ->
!/; this may be DZ 55
=Robinet A.30 or DZ 129 . Yin Gui is also listed in Tao Hongjings DZ
167, Dongxuan lingbao zhenling weiye tu as Jiuku Zhenren Jun
=Yin Gui ,#(
=$ 16b3 .
Elsewhere, Chen Zhixu refers to a lineage from Laozi to Yin Xi to Yin Gui. This is a lineage of the
transmission of enlightenment, parallel to the Chan lineage BuddhaMahakasyapaAnanda, and to a Confucius
Zengziother disciple lineage Jindan dayao, Daozang jiyao ed., 2.39a6b4 .
66
Du Chong , byname Xuanyi 3, from Haojing = in presentday Shaanxi, west of Xian heard of Yin
Xis ascendence, then went to stay at the tower Yin Xi had built. He practiced together with Yin Gui. During this
time, Zhao Muwang rebuilt into the tower into the TowerAbbey. After Du had dwelt at the TowerAbbey for over
twenty years, Yin Xi, now a Perfected, returned to bestow Du with alchemical scriptures. In 922 , at the end
of his mortal career, Du received a celestial post as Transcendent Monarch of Mt. Wangwu Wangwu Shan
Xianwang . Cf. DZ 296, Tidao tongjian 9.1a2b.
67
Peng Zong 2, byname Faxian , from Pengcheng 2 presentday Tongshan 9 County, Jiangsu
Province , was said to have been a disciple of Du Chong in the time of Zhou Muwang. Several hagiographical
144

3b1 Song, the Perfected of Great Clarity;68 50
Feng, the Perfected of the Western Marchmount;69 C70
Yao, the Perfected of the Mystic Continent;70 (%0
Zhou, the Perfected of the Eight Simplicities;71 20
Yin, the Perfected of Great Tenuity;72 :0
Wang, the Perfected of the Yellow Court;73 8-0
entries portray him as a wonderworker. In 866 , at the end of his mortal career, he was given a transcendent
position in charge of Chicheng Palace Chicheng Gong $, . Cf. DZ 296, Tidao tongjian 9.2b3b. His title is
also written as Taiqing 5, the same as the next gure, Song Lun.
68
Song Lun *, byname Dexuan =, from Luoyang, was said to have entered the TowerAbbey Terrace in 857
, reciting the Daode jing and ingesting herbal drugs. After twenty years, Lord Lao was stimulated by his pure
and sincere practice, and gave him talismans. He was known as a wonderworker and cosmic traveler. In 784 ,
at the end of his mortal career, he was given charge of the records of spirits and transcendents at the Central
Marchmount, Mt. Song Songgao Shan 93 . Cf. DZ 296, Tidao tongjian 9.4a5a.
69
Feng Chang 7", byname Yanshou <, from Lishan G presentday Lintong D> County, Shaanxi
Province , was said to have been hired as an archivist by Zhou Xuanwang & r. 827782 . He soon
resigned his post and became a Daoist. He recited the Daode jing and ingested herbs for several years, stimulating
the transcendent Lord Deng @ to descend and transmit holy scriptures. Later, Peng Zong, riding on a white tiger,
descended to his chamber and transmitted more scriptures. Feng made a name for healing the sick and saving
those in distress with his powers. In 751 , at the end of his mortal career, he was appointed as a Perfected of
the Western Marchmount. Cf. DZ 296, Tidao tongjian 9.5b6b. The entry in DZ 956, Zhongnan Shan Shuojing Tai
lidai zhenxian beiji 5a says Lord Deng transmitted the Huangting jing 8-; to him.
70
Yao Tan %, byname Yuantai /, from Pingyang 6 presentday Linfen D County, Shanxi Province ,
was said to have been employed by the lords of Jin . in the time of Zhou Pingwang r. 771720 . He
recited the Daode jing and ingested pine resin for several decades, until a transcendent child bestowed him with
charts and scriptures. In 575 , at the age of 210, he disappeared in a terric thunderstorm, and was appointed
Xuanzhou Zhenren, in the White Water Palace Baishui Gong , . Cf. DZ 296, Tidao tongjian 9.6b8a.
71
Zhou Liang #, byname Taiyi /, from Taiyuan +, was said to have been a disciple of Yao Tan, who
bestowed on him the Daode jing and the Basu zhen jing 20;. The Basu jing is a Shangqing scripture, text A.3.
in Robinets analysis of the Shangqing corpus. He served the people by exorcising ghosts and fox spirits. He
received honors from the Zhou prince. In 402 , at the end of his human career, he was appointed a Perfected
of the Qinlong 1E Palace. Cf. DZ 296, Tidao tongjian 9.8a9a. His entry in DZ 956, Zhongnan Shan Shuojing Tai
lidai zhenxian beiji 6a adds that he was a close companion of Zhou Lingwangs F r. 571544 son, and was
renowned for his musical abilities.
72
Yin Cheng ?, byname Chumo B, from Fenyang 6 presentday Yangqu County 6, Shanxi Province ,
was said to have entered the Tower Abbey in 399 . Qin Shihuang as well as successive Han emperors donated
lands to the Tower Abbey, and built buildings there and installed Daoists there in hopes of getting Laozi to return
from the West and teach them secrets of immortality. Too many of the faithful came to worship, and so Yin
changed his name to Lin and escaped into the wilds. On Mt. Emei he met Lord Song Song Lun? , who
transmitted to him Sanhuang neiwen )
, and alchemical scriptures. The talismans gave him great magical
powers. In 87 , at the age of more than 340, Taiwei Dijun :' made Yin into Taiwei Zhenren. Cf. DZ
296, Tidao tongjian 9.9a11a.
73
Wang Tan 4, byname Yangbo A, from Taiyuan, was said to have served the Latter Han, then when
Empress L gained power in 188 he quit in protest, and went into retirement at the Tower Abbey, where
he practiced qi circulation and breathing exercises. He was visited by transcendents who gave him secrets of
transforming his form. In 124 , when he was ninetyone, Xiling Jinmu F! sent transcendent ocials to
give him the title of Taiji Zhenren, and put him in charge of Dayou Gong , this may be Greater Cavern
Heaven #2 . Cf. DZ 296, Tidao tongjian 9.11b12b.
145
Li, the Transcendent Minister of the Western Marchmount;74 .

the Elder, Sire on the River;75
the Perfected, Master An Qi;76 $
the Perfected, Master Ma Ming;77

74
Li Yi / was said to have received his dao from Wang Tan and transmitted it and the Daode jing to Heshang
Gong . Li was installed as Transcendent Minister of the Western Marchmount by the Celestial Sovereign
Tiandi . Cf. DZ 296, Tidao tongjian 9.12b.
His entry in DZ 956, Zhongnan Shan Shuojing Tai lidai zhenxian beiji 7b adds that his byname was Zhongfu ),
and he came from Yingchuan - ? . He entered the Daoist vocation at the Tower Abbey when Han Wudi r.
14187 was installing new Daoists there. He encountered Yin Gui, and was promoted to Duyang Gong Yin
Guis bureau , where he served a Transcendent Lord Wang Wang Xianjun . He ascended as Transcendent
Minister of the Western Marchmount in 179 .
But Li Zhongfu and Li Yi were probably generally not the same gure. Li Zhongfu has an entry in the
Shenxian zhuan Campany, To Live as Long as Heaven and Earth, 23032 , and is mentioned by Tao Hongjing in DZ
1016, Zhengao as being a transcendent Director of Destiny Siming ; 9.22a1 , the Perfected of the Central
Marchmount 10.18b5 , and the master of Zuo Ci ' 12.3b1 . This Li Zhongfu has nothing to do with the Li Yi
of either of the above TowerAbbeyrelated hagiographies.
Note: Chen Zhixus lineage leaps from the TowerAbbey masters to Heshang Gong, but the TowerAbbey
lineage in Zhongnan Shan Shuojing Tai lidai zhenxian beiji continues on for twentytwo more TowerAbbey gures
before leaping to the Quanzhen master Yin Zhiping who wished to attach himself to the TowerAbbey lineage .
75
According to the Shenxian zhuan, Heshang Gong lived in a hut by the river and studied the Daode jing. Han
Jingdi r. 157141 called him to court to consult him about the Daode jing, and when Heshang Gong would not
come, went out to visit him in person DZ 296, Tidao tongjian 12.13f. and other texts say it was Han Wendi
r. 180
157 . But Heshang Gong rejected the emperors authority over him, and humbled the emperor by levitating
above him.
The commentary to the Daode jing attributed to Heshang Gong may not be a Han commentary; it may date
from between the 3rd c. and the Sui Dynasty. The standard received version of the Daode jing in fact comes
from the edition of the Daode jing in the Heshang Gong commentary.
DZ 770, Hunyuan shengji 7.1a45 says that Heshang Gong was an avatar of Laozi.
76
Master An Qis name is written as $ in later hagiographies, but the Liexian zhuan & gives his name as
$. According to the Liexian zhuan, An was called to an interview with Qin Shihuang r. 221210 . They
spoke for three days and nights. Qin Shihuang rewarded An handsomely, but An discarded the treasure, and
disappeared, leaving a pair of red jade slippers and the message: Meet me in Penglai +% in a few years some
texts give: in a thousand years . Qin Shihuang sent search parties out into the Eastern Sea, but they did not nd
Penglai DZ 294, Liexian zhuan 2.14b; Kaltenmark, Le Liesien tchouan, 11518 .
By some accounts, Heshang Gong taught Master An Qi Shiji 80.2436a12, quoted in DZ 296, Tidao tongjian
13.1b6; also, Gaoshi zhuan !& 2.10a . By another account, Master An Qi taught Master Ma Ming, who in turn
taught Master Yin Chang Hunyuan shengji 7.1a56 . The AnMaYin lineage is relatively early. Pregadio notes that
Tao Hongjing contested the usual attributed origin of the Taiqing teachings to Zuo Ci , and says that the Taiqing
teachings came from the AnMaYin lineage Pregadio, Great Clarity, 145, citing Robinet, La Rvlation du
Shangqing, 1:10, who cites DZ 300, Tao Huayang yinju neizhuan 2.6b .
Putting the Shiji and Huanyuan shengji accounts together and discounting parts of each account discounting
the Shiji lineage after An Qi and the Hunyuan shengji lineage after Yin Changsheng gives the HeshangAnMaYin
sequence in Chen Zhixus list. These four gures also appear in sequencesignicantly followed by Wei Boyang
in Tidao tongjian 12.13a13.15a. In Chen Zhixus list, the XuWei Cantong qi alchemical lineage directly follows the
HeshangAnMaYin Taiqing alchemical lineage.
77
Master Ma Mings name is written as in most hagiographies, but the Shenxian zhuan gives his name as
* Campany translates this as Master Horseneigh . According to the Shenxian zhuan, his name was originally
He Junxian ,. He took Master An Qi for his teacher, and received two alchemical scriptures from him: the
Grand Purity and the Gold Liquor Taiqing Jinye dan jing
#"( . He lived for ve hundred years, then
eventually ascended to Heaven; Campany, To Live as Long as Heaven and Earth, 32526. Mas entries in DZ 296,
Tidao tongjian 13.3a8b and DZ 1032, Yunji qiqian 106.15b21a include a long story about Ma following a female
Perfected, who brought in An Qi Sheng to teach him. DZ 962, Wudang fudi zongzhen ji 2.21a, gives the alchemical
146
the Perfected, Yin Changsheng;78 '

the Perfected Xu Congshi;79 "
<the Perfected Wei Boyang>;
80
3)
teachings Ma received as Taiyang shendan )!.

78
Yin Changshengs name could be also be parsed as Yin Chang Sheng
Master Yin Chang. According to the
Shenxian zhuan, Yin came from a noble family, but having heard of Master Ma Ming, he served him as a servant.
After ten years, Ma transmitted the Taiqing shendan jing $!- to Yin at Mt. Qingcheng
Wudang fudi
zongzhen ji 2.21a gives Taiyang shendan )! and Mt. Wudang. He travelled about performing good works for
three hundred years before taking a full dose of the elixir and ascending to Heaven
Campany, To Live as Long as
Heaven and Earth, 274 77. Yins entries in DZ 296, Tidao tongjian 13.8b 13a and DZ 1032, Yunji qiqian 106.21b 24b
add detail to the same general story.
Yin, together with An and Ma, were seen as part of a Taiqing alchemical lineage from early on
ca. 3rd c. ,
Ge Hongs time or before. But in the Tang and Song, Yin was seen as part of a Cantong qi alchemical lineage.
Three Tang or Songperiod works attributed to Yin Changsheng are included in the Zhengtong daozang: DZ 226,
Ziyuan Jun shoudao chuanxin fa; DZ 904, Jinbi wuxianglei cantong qi; and DZ 999, Zhouyi cantong qi
with Yins
commentary.
79
No entry for Xu Congshi exists in any Daoist hagiographical work, but he is mentioned in writings about the
Cantong qi. There is a tradition that, after Wei Boyang composed the Cantong qi, Xu Congshi was the rst
recipient of the text. In his preface to DZ 1002, Zhouyi cantong qi fenzhang tongzhen yi, Peng Xiao says that Wei
Boyang rst gave the text to Xu Congshi of Qingzhou
preface, 1a9 10, who wrote an anonymous
commentary to it. Later, in the time of Han Xiaohuandi /
r. 146 67, Wei transmitted the text again, to
Chunyu Shutong #%, whom we have to thank for spreading the text in the world
preface, 1a9 b1. There is
a tradition that Xu Congshis personal name was Jingxiu (
supposedly mentioned in Yu Yans 6 DZ 1005,
Zhouyi cantong qi fahui, but I could not nd the reference; cf. Xiao Hanming and Guo Dongsheng, Zhouyi cantong
qi yanjiu, 5.
Guwen Cantong qi jianzhu, Zangwai daoshu, 6:254 70, is ascribed to Chen Jingxiu, named Congshi, of
Eastern Han Qingzhou. Finally, at DZ 1016, Zhengao 12.8b3, we are told that Chunyu Shutong received the
Cantong qi from Xu Congshi rather than from Wei Boyang himself.
By another tradition, however, Xu Congshi composed the rst juan of the Cantong qi, and transmitted it to
Wei Boyang. Wei composed the second juan, and transmitted both to Chunyu Shutong, who composed the third
juan
Xiao Hanming and Guo Dongsheng, Zhouyi cantong qi yanjiu, 27 28. Xiao and Guo say that this is closer to
the truth, and that Peng Xiaos version of the lineage is erroneous
ibid., 33.
In other places in his writings, Chen Zhixu gives a YinXuWei sequence. In his Cantong qi commentary Zhouyi
Cantong qi fenzhang zhu, Daozang jiyao ed., 3.40a5 6, Chen Zhixu cites Peng Xiaos preface to DZ 1002, Zhouyi
cantong qi fenzhang tongzhen yi, which would make Wei the master and Xu the disciple
see above. But in the same
passage, immediately after citing Peng Xiao, Chen says that Weis initial teacher was Yin, but that Wei afterward
took Xu as his teacher. And at DZ 1067, Shangyangzi Jindan dayao 13.19a6 9, Chen says that Wei Boyang received
the dao from Xu, wrote the Cantong qi to express this teaching, and passed it on to Fuyuan Tianshi 0
.
Fuyuan Tianshi here must be an error for or variation on Fuhan Tianshi 0/, i.e., Zhang Daoling. Chen
also says this at DZ 1067, Shangyangzi Jindan dayao 1.1a7.
80
Not much is known for sure about Wei Boyang. His birthyear has been given as 107 , but he may be a
legendary gure. A Songdynasty source gives his personal name as Ao 2, his byname as Boyang, and his style
name as Yunyazi *
DZ 1017, Daoshu 34.1a1. He was said to have come from Shangyu . in Guiji ,1, and
to have written the Zhouyi cantong qi, and a related text, the Wuxiang lei 4. Entries on Wei in the standard
hagiographical collections repeat a story in which he takes an elixir and fakes his death in order to test the faith
of three disciples.
As mentioned in the above note, Peng Xiao says Wei was active in the reign of Han Huandi
r. 146 67, and
was linked with gures named Xu Congshi and Chunyu Shutong. Pregadio has shown that a text entitled Cantong
qi was extant by at least 200 , and was probably composed and transmitted in southeastern China until it came
into contact with alchemical and Shangqing teachings; Pregadio, The Early History of the Zhouyi cantong qi, 153
59. So the Han Dynasty is indeed an appropriate era for Wei Boyang and the Cantong qi whether in fact or legend.
Links between Wei Boyang and Laozi have been proposed by some. Chen Xianwei &5+
. 1254 claims
that Wei Boyang was a manifestation body
huashen of Laozi; DZ 1007, Zhouyi cantong qi jie 2.20a7. Fukui
Kjun suggests that Laozis byname Boyang ) gave rise to the legendary gure Wei Boyang; Fukui, A Study of
Choui Tsantungchi.
147
<the Perfected Liu Jinbi>;81 +(
the Great Ritual Master of the Three Heavens;82

the Great Ritual Master amidst the Mystic;83
81
I can nd nothing denite on this gure. By placing him after Wei Boyang in the list, Chen seems to be
presenting him as a Handynasty follower of Wei. His monicker Jinbi also suggests the Jinbi jing ($, a text
or textliation related to the Cantong qi. Chen Zhixu does not mention the name Liu Jinbi in his Jindan dayao, but
at one point he does mention a Liu Yan +& as author of or commentator to a Longhu shangjing .$
Jindan dayao, Daozang jiyao ed., 2.21b9 . Longhu shangjing probably refers to the wellknown Longhu jing, which
was closely related to the Cantong qi and Jinbi jing. So perhaps Jinbi is the byname of this Liu Yan. I have not been
able to nd any other reference to Liu Yan.
82
This is Zhang Daoling. At DZ 1067, Shangyangzi Jindan dayao 13.19a89, Chen says that Wei Boyang transmitted
his dao to Fuyuan Tianshi *, i.e., Fuhan Tianshi *', i.e., Zhang Daoling. In the DZ 1070 list, Liu
Jinbi is interposed between Wei and Zhang, but I cannot say why.
Zhang Daoling . 141 is remembered as the founder of the Celestial Master movement though some have
argued that his grandson Zhang Lu , coopted the organization of an unrelated Zhang Xiu , and
subsequently promoted Zhang Daoling posthumously as the founding Celestial Master; cf. Ren Jiyu, Zhonuo
daojiao shi, rev. ed., 3738 .
The hagiography of Zhang Daoling is more relevant to us than his actual historical identity. From the end of
the Tang Dynasty, he was remembered as the founding patriarch of the Celestial Master lineage headquartered at
Mt. Longhu in presentday Jiangsu. The new ritual traditions of the Song Dynasty, and popular religion down to
today, remembered him as a demonqueller he is included as a patriarch of the Qingwei " tradition; cf. DZ
171, Qingwei xianpu 11a .
Pregadio makes the important point that Zhang Daoling was remembered as an alchemist. The Shenxian zhuan
emphasizes Zhangs knowledge of the Elixirs of the Nine Tripods of the Yellow Emperor Huangdi jiuding dan !
%
, and also claims that Zhangs involvement with the Celestial Masters was really just a strategy for raising
funds for his own alchemical endeavors Campany, To Live as Long as Heaven and Earth, 350 . This early
reinterpretation of Zhang Daolings activities as covers for laboratory alchemical work is quite reminiscent of
Chen Zhixus view that the activities of sages of the past were all covers for another sort of alchemy. Pregadio
argues that Shangqing Daoists remembered Zhang Daoling as a Taiqing alchemist in order to both acknowlege
the Celestial Masters presence in the Jiangnan region and assert the preeminence of their own teachings over the
Celestial Masters teachings; Pregadio, Great Clarity, 149. But Zhang Daoling was remembered as an alchemist
long after the extinction of the Shangqing lineage. Pregadio notes that If one reads the account of Zhangs life in
the fourteenthcentury
DZ 1473 Lineage of the Han Celestial Masters Han tianshi jia with no knowledge of the
crucial role that he played in the history of Daoism, one might indeed take that account to refer to an alchemist ;
ibid., 151.
It is primarily as an alchemist that Chen Zhixu remembers Zhang Daoling. Note that Zhang Daoling is
followed by Wang Chang and Zhao Sheng in DZ 1070 list the intervening Xuanzhong Dafashi, who must be Wei
Jie #, is perplexing . Wang Chang and Zhao Sheng are linked to Zhang Daoling in his persona as a master of
esoteric methods especially alchemy . If Chen Zhixu were remembering Zhang Daoling primarily as the founder
of a Daoist lineage, he would have included Zhangs son, grandson, and possibly even his wife in the list, rather
than his disciples Wang and Zhao. In DZ 296, Tidao tongjian, the entries for Wang Chang and Zhao Sheng appear
directly after Zhang Daolings entry, and before the entry for Zhang Lu, whereas in DZ 1473, Han Tianshi shijia,
Wang and Zhao of course do not receive individual entries, as they do not belong to the Han clan.
83
This must be Wei Jie #, but I cannot imagine why Wei Jie would follow Zhang Daoling in Chens list. Wei Jie
496569 , byname Chuyuan , came from Duling near presentday Xian . He served successive
Northern Wei 386534 emperors, beginning as a court calligrapher at the age of fourteen. He was permitted to
go to Mt. Song to study under Master Zhao Jingtong )-. Zhao asked him to nd a better place to practice;
Wei used divination to choose the south side of Mt. Hua, so he received the monicker Huayangzi . At Mt.
Hua he ingested numinous drugs, and practiced the teachings of the Huangting jing !$. He possessed both
Shangqing and Lingbao scriptures. He wrote commentaries to the Xisheng jing $ excerpted in DZ 726,
Xisheng jing jizhu; cf. Kohn, Taoist Mystical Philosophy and other Daoist and Confucian texts, and also wrote a
hagiography of Yin Gui. Zhou Wudi r. 56078 was pleased with him, and gave him the title Xuanzhong Dafashi.
Cf. DZ 296, Tidao tongjian 29.4a5b.
Note: Xuanzhong Dafashi is also a name for Taishang Laojun in his role as the teacher treasure shibao
/ , the great teacher of all Daoists cf. DZ 1032, Yunji qiqian 43.5a6; Tidao tongjian 23.4a7 .
148
the Perfected Wang of the Left Mystery;84

the Perfected Zhao of the Right Mystery;85 1
Ge the Old Transcendent Fellow of the Grand Ultimate;86 -/

the Grand Astrologer and Chief of Transcendents of the Nine Prefectures
of China '
;87
84
This is Wang Chang or Wang Zhang , Zhang Daolings rst foremost disciple. According to Zhang
Daolings entry in Shenxian zhuan, Zhang only entrusted his most essential Nine Caldron jiuding 0 alchemical
teachings to Wang, and later, Zhao. The Shenxian zhuan dwells on Zhangs testing of his disciples among who only
Wang and Zhao displayed sucient tenacity and faith. In the end, Zhang and the two disciples ascend into the
clouds together. Cf. Campany, To Live as Long as Heaven and Earth, 35254.
According to the DZ 296, Tidao tongjian entry 19.1a , Wang was the only one of Zhangs disciples from
Shandong to accompany him to Mt. Yunjin +5 near presentday Luzhou 7, Sichuan Province .
85
This is Zhao Sheng 1, Zhang Daolings other foremost disciple. The Shenxian zhuan entry says that Zhang
awaited Zhaos arrival in Sichuan, and gave Zhao seven trials, which he passed Campany, To Live as Long as Heaven
and Earth, 35254 . The DZ 296, Tidao tongjian entry 19.1b adds that Zhaos byname was Lutangzi )!.
Wang Chang and Zhao Sheng are listed in Tao Hongjings DZ 167, Dongxuan lingbao zhenling weiye tu as
Protectorgenerals of the Three Heavens Santian duhu '8 9a8 . They would seem to be demonquellers
in Tao Hongjings pantheon.
86
This is Ge Xuan /, Ge Hongs greatuncle. In the Shenxian zhuan he is portrayed as a typical master of
esoterica, and adept . . . who sees and controls spirits and is on familiar terms with local gods, who heals the sick,
. . . and who seems most memorable for his illusional arts of multilocality and transformation . . .
and his use of
talismans Campany, To Live as Long as Heaven and Earth, 158 . Campany notes that, although Ge Xuan transmits
alchemical scriptures, he is not depicted as an alchemist in the Shenxian zhuan.
Ge Xuan became even more important in the Lingbao scriptures, in which he is a highranking deied human,
and a main vector for the transmission of teachings from the Lingbao deities to the human realm. Bokenkamp
has argued that Ge Xuans exalted place in the Lingbao scriptures is a reaction on the part of Ge Chaofu /",
the author of the early Lingbao scriptures, against earlier Shangqing revelations which had demoted Ge Xuan to
the rank of a lowly earthbound spirit Bokenkamp, Sources of the Lingpao Scriptures, 44243 .
According to Ges long entry in DZ 296, Tidao tongjian whole of j. 23 , his byname was Xiaoxian , and his
ancestors had dwelt in Langye .% in presentday Shandong Province and served the Han Dynasty. At the age
of fteen or sixteen, he was visited by the Perfected Xu Laile while strolling on Mt. Tiantai, and received
all thirtyeight sections of the Lingbao scriptures, as well as ten types of zhailiturgy 23.3bf. . After serving his
uncle Ge Mi /6 23.4f. , he chose Mt. Gezao 3 in presentday Qingjiang $ County, Jiangxi Province; in
the late Tang this was considered to be the home mountain of the Lingbao lineage as a place to complete his
alchemical procedures. However, his ancestors had killed many people in battle while serving the Han Dynasty,
and Ge had rst to perform Lingbao liturgies to save their souls and remove this obstruction to his progress
23.5af. . The narrative abruptly shifts to recounting Ges magical feats from the Shenxian zhuan 23.7bf. , and his
exchanges with the ruler of Wu Sun Quan 9, r. 22252 23.10b17a . Eventually he leaves the Wu ruler to
work on his alchemical elixir with disciples in solitude. He tried to rene his elixir for a long time without
success, leaving traces of his alchemical platforms in twentytwo dierent spots on dierent mountains 23.17b .
He used to sing about how he was already sixty years old and had still to successfully complete his elixir 23.17b10
18a1 . Finally, on Dec. 24, 238 , the Most High three times bestowed Ge with titles and clothes of celestial oce
as reward for his pains 23.18b420a . Ges elixir was nally ready at this time too, so he was able to ingest it and
ascend to Heaven at the age of eightyone 23.21a9 . DZ 450, Taiji Ge Xiangong zhuan, covers the same material as
the Tidao tongjian entry, often verbatim.
It is important to know the content of the full, late Ge Xuan hagiography, because Chen Zhixu seems to have
been aected by Ge Xuans story. A halfdozen times Chen cites Ges lament at being sixty years old and still
unsuccessful at his elixir. For Chen, the moral of the story is that even a great transcendent like Ge had to face
old age and failure, before nally succeeding, so lesser mortals should be prepared for the same or worse.
87
This is Xu Xun &2 some read 2 as Sun . The gure Xu Xun does not appear in Six Dynasties hagiography:
his cult developed out of a local Jiangxi deity cult, only appearing within Daoism in the late Tang.
Xu Xun 23992/374? , byname Jingzhi ,, a.k.a. Xu Jingyang &#*, lived in Yuzhang 4( a.k.a. Hongzhou
, presentday Nanchang , Jiangxi Province . After his mortal career, he was worshiped locally as a healer
and dragonqueller, later becoming seen on a national scale as a paragon of lial piety and patron of the Jingming
149
4a1 and the Eleven Perfected Lords, from Wu to Huang P9.88

We respectfully look for the transcendents to have the compassion to descend to their seats at this
jiaofte.
5AR2fk4
h/^
The ancestral masters: :3
the Great Sovereign of Eastern Florescence from the Purple Oce Cavern Heaven , Who
Establishes the Ultimate and Assists the Primal;89 *LK'ZS.
Sovereign Lord Zhongli of Correct Yang Who Spreads Awakening, Transmits the Dao, and Sends down
the Teachings; giNM6QV-?.
Sovereign Lord of Pure Yang Who Develops Uprightness and Morally Transforms People through
Admonition, the Trustworthy Righthand Aide; <NXl !.
Zhongxiao B)( Daoist tradition. Song Huizong
r. 1100 25 recognized Xu Xun with an the ocial title
Shengong Miaoji Zhenjun ;e9 in 1112, and Yuan Chengzong
r. 1295 1307 expanded it to Shengong
Miaoji Zhidao Xuanying Zhenjun ;eVd9
Akizuki, Chgoku kinsei dky no keisei, 5. Akizuki says
that Jingming Daoism was founded later by Liu Yu \
1257 1308. Cf. Boltz, A Survey of Taoist Literature, 70 78.
It is important to know how Chen Zhixu saw Xu Xun. Xus entry in the DZ 296, Tidao tongjian
j. 26 is almost
a verbatim copy of Jingyang Xu Zhenjun zhuan @ND9Q
j. 33 of Yulong ji cO, by Bai Yuchan j, in
DZ 263, Xiuzhen shishu, j. 31 6, plus sections from Xu Zhenjun zhuan D9Q and Yujiang Zhenjun cegao
biaowen >29 Y, in j. 34 of Yulong ji. I summarize this Tidao tongjiao entry forthwith. As a youth, Xu
heard that Wu Meng C had received marvelous prescriptions, and went to study from him. Wu taught him all
he knew. Xu then visited the named mountains with Guo Pu Fa
276 324: Guos birthdate belies the story,
settling at the Mt. Xiaoyao E[, south of Mt. West
Xishan , 30 km from Nanchang
26.1b. In 280 he was
made magistrate of Jingyang @N County in Shu U Commandery
in presentday Zhijiang + County, Hubei
Province; he was a paragon of virtue, and used his post to spread moral transformation among his subordinates
and the people of the region. He also used his miraculous prescriptions to heal the sick in great numbers
26.2.
When saw the Jin Dynasty was in decline and he decided to leave his post, the local people begged him not to
leave
26.3. He received sword techniques from ve transcendent maidens, and went with Wu Meng to study
under Chenmu b&
later included in the Qingwei Daoist lineage
26.3b. She had been waiting for him to arrive
for many years, and transmitted to him the Way of Filiality
Xiaodao V, talismans, alchemical teachings, and
Correct Unity
Zhengyi demonquelling methods
26.4a, etc. She revealed to Xu and Wu their celestial
titles
Xus was Gaoming Dashi =)$, and told Wu to take Xu as his teacher
26.4b. Xu and Wu pursued a
career of wonderworking and demon and dragonslaying, the site of each deed part of the XuXun cults sacred
topography
26.5 14b. Finally, when Xu was 136 years old, transcendents descended to reward him for his years of
magical healing and dragonslaying with a new celestial title and post of Jiuzhou Duxian Taishi Gaoming Dashi
G
=)$
26.15a3. He left instructions for his eleven disciples, achieved the salvation of his
ancestors, and arose to Heaven with his whole household, including chickens and dogs
26.16b3. The entry
concludes with records of imperial edicts honoring Xu. There are several clues that Chen Zhixu knew this
material, whether from Bai Yuchans text or other sources. He gives the same title for Xu Xun
Jiuzhou Duxian
Taishi, and the same list of eleven disciples
see below.
88
These are Xu Xuns eleven disciples. The sequence and details of the eleven vary between dierent Xu Xun
hagiographies. According to the chart on Akizuki, Chgoku kinsei dky, 35, a version of the list beginning with a
gure named Wu and ending with a gure named Huang can be found in three texts: DZ 448, Xishan Xu Zhenjun
bashiyi hua lu; DZ 296, Tidao tongjian
27.1 9; and Xiaoyao Shan qunxian zhuan E[TQ
in j. 35 of Yulong ji, by
Bai Yuchan, in DZ 263, Xiuzhen shishu. The Tidao tongjian material seems to be an abridged copy of Bai Yuchans
text, with added commentary.
This list of eleven from Wu to Huang is: Wu Meng C, Chen Xun H_, Zhou Guang %], Zeng Heng
J, Shi He 71, Gan Zhan `, Shi Cen 0", Peng Kang I#, Xu Lie n8, Zhongli Jia giW, Huang
Renlan Pm.
89
For the following twelve Quanzhen patriarchs, see notes to their titles above, pp. 141 42, nn. 46 55.
150
SeaToad Sovereign Lord Who Illumines with Awakening, Propagates the Dao, and Is a Pure Right
hand Aide; 4^#2M8&
and Sovereign Lord of Redoubled Yang and Complete Perfection, Who Spreads Transformation and
Assists the Ultimate. ,G5FRK&
jiaofte.
1<J-[_0
](V
The ancestral masters: 6/
Perfected Lord of Cinnabar Yang Who Embraces the One, Maintains Nonaction, and Disseminates
Moral Transformation; G"A*@5
4b1 Perfected Lord of Extended Perfection of Clouds and Water and Dark Tranquility Who
Concentrates His Spirit and Holds Virtue Within; %5H
X7Y`T5
Perfected Lord of Long Life Who Assists Moral Transformation, Takes Mystery as Its Principle, and
Illuminates Virtue; %R!#T5
Perfected Lord of Extended Spring, Who Develops the Dao, Makes Virtue Complete, Miraculously
Transforms, and Illumines Response; %)OMT7#Z5
Perfected Lord of Broad Tranquility and the Marvelous Ultimate, Named Great Antiquity; SN?
K 5
Perfected Lord of Jade Yang Who Embodies the Mysterious and Broadens Compassion and
Disseminates Salvation; GbSJ@'5
Primal Lord of Purity and the Mysterious Void, Who Sounds the Depths of Chastity and Obeys the
Dictates of Moral Transformation
Qingjing Yuanzhen Xuanxu Shunhua Yuanjun =Y>+DI
.
jiaofte.
1<J-[_0
](V
Perfected of Purple Yang, Who is Awakened to the Real, from Tiantai
Tiantai Wuzhen Ziyang
Zhenren 25BG5;90
Perfected of the Apricot Grove, of Halcyon Mystery;91 Q$5
Perfected of DaoRadiance, the Purple Worthy;92 MBW5
90
His surname was Zhang :, personal name Boduan P, byname Pingshu , later personal name Yongcheng
, from Bead Street in Tiantai County aCE
in presentday Zhejiang Province
DZ 143, Ziyang
zhenren wuzhen zhizhi xiangshuo sancheng miyao 15a. Zhang Boduan
traditional dates 987 1082 was the author the
Wuzhen pian 25U Stanzas on awakening to the real , the single most important inner alchemy text.
91
His surname was Shi , personal name Tai 3, byname Dezhi ;, stylenames Xinglin $ and Cuixuan Q
, from Changzhou 9. Shi Tais dates are traditionally given as 1022 1158. He is said to helped get Zhang
Boduan out of prison, and become his rst proper disciple. Cf. DZ 296, Tidao tongjian 49.12b 13b.
92
His surname was Xue \, personal names Daoguang M, Shi , and Daoyuan ML, byname Taiyuan .,
151
the MuddyPellet Perfected of the Halcyon Void;93 (RG6

5a1 and Perfected of Purple Purity from Hainan.94 5+F@6
jiaofte.
4?K/]c3
_-X
the ancestral masters: 72
Song, Sire YellowHouse, the Perfected Who Parts the Clouds; J%&I695
Li, the Perfected of the Grand Void; G6
Zhang, the Perfected of Purple Qiongjade; Fa<6
Preceptor Zhao, the Perfected of Following the Middle; ,2WMS6
Preceptor Liu, the Perfected of ValleyCloud. ,2IU696
<Chen the Perfected, Master of Highest Yang> HB697
We respectfully look for the transcendents

all sages and worthies from the past to the present who
have cultivated perfection, studied transcendenthood, and achieved the Dao
to have the compassion
to descend to their seats at this jiaofte.
$ !06[=PNY4?K/]c3
We extend a notication and request, asking that the deities forgive the sully of stooping down
to us. We oer up our hope that we might detain the deities, that they might accept our
from Mt. Chickenfoot `
in presentday Shan : County, Henan Province, or possibly from Langzhou e
area of presentday Langzhong e, Sichuan Province. He had once been a monk, with the dharmanames
Zixian FY and Chan Master Piling .A\2. Xue Shis dates are traditionally given as 1078 1191. According to
his entry in DZ 296, Tidao tongjian 49.13b 14b, he had practiced selfcultivation this is described in a mixture of
neidan and Buddhist language and achieved a certain level of enlightenment as a Buddhist monk, before meeting
Shi Xinglin in 1106, and received his neidan teachings, later returning to the lay life in order to practice neidan.
93
His surname was Chen B, personal name Nan L, byname Nanmu +, stylenames Cuixu RG and Niwan (
, from Whitewater Cli d in Boluo Cb County near presentday Huizhou D, Guangdong Province.
Chen Nans dates are traditionally given as ? 1213. He received neidan teachings from Xue Shi, and also practiced
apotropaic thunder rites. Cf. DZ 296, Tidao tongjian 49.15a 16b.
94
His surname was Bai originally Ge O, personal name Yuchan ^ originally Zhanggeng *#, bynames
Ruhui >, Ziqing F@, Baisou 1, stylenames Haiqiongzi 5a , Hainan Weng 5+9, Qiongshan Daoren
a
P, Binan f;, Wuyi Sanren 'E, Shenxiao Sanli 8ZE, from Minqing T@ near presentday
Fuzhou Q, Fujian Province or Qiongzhou a Hainan Province. Bai Yuchan 1194 1229 or his disciples are
responsible for creating this Southern Lineage of the Golden Elixir Jindan Nanzong )+". Chen Zhixu
knew Bai Yuchans writings and teachings.
95
The Jindan zhengli daquan and Daozang jiyao eds. omit &I from 72J%&I6, and add a
separate entry for &I6. These editions do not recognize Huangfang Gong and Song Defang as being a
single person. As is evident from numerous other places in Jindan dayao, Chen Zhixu did consider Huang
Fanggong and Song Defang to be the same person, yet other authorities such as Hu Fuchen, Zhonghua daojiao da
cidian, s.v. Huang Youdao JP, 142, and Song Defang V, 153 do consider these to be two persons. The
alternate wording of the Jindan zhengli daquan and Daozang jiyao eds. is clearly by a later hand.
96
I have not been able to discover any information about this gure. He may be Chen Zhixus second teacher,
from Qingcheng.
97
Added in the Jindan zhengli daquan and Daozang jiyao eds.
152
reverence and wish for refuge. Today we encounter L Chunyangs auspicious dawn birthday,
and meagerly extend our dullards sincerity in paying our congratulations.
.7ri98+*;dfc[e%n(z9
Taking up our candles, we say: Now, the candles one point of numinous radiance has not been
lacking in the past or today. Throughout the whole world, it pervades places both visible and
inaccessible 5b1. The ignorant believe that it is the ame that is transmitted. Those who are in the
know say: the wisdom of the inherent nature xinghui @ causes the dark chamber of ignorant
consciousness to sprout a heart
mind and know awe, and to return the radiance. We trust that there
is a path to Heaven, and we can approach it; that we can transcend the mundane and enter into the
holy. We bow and bow again, oering up birthday shou candles.
F+$XOYuEF W>EFT@=
N4EKj+Mm34#}-R
Ritual action.
D<
Taking up our incense sticks, we say: Now, as for incense, we venture to say yue that one stick of
it has been standing forth since the beginning of greatest antiquity. Why would it have waited for after
the time of the Three August Ones99 Sanhuang Z ? And through how many kalpas has its
fragrance owed? Inferior fools have noses but have not smelt it, while superior gentlemen smell the
fragrant and distinguish it from the malodorous. This is like the way that the holy master L
Dongbin? rubbed earth between nger and thumb, leaving a fragrance everywhere. At pains we can
call this virtue; everyone should receive and apply it. We bow and bow again, oering up birthday
shou incense.
^Fp$JCa"_P ZQw8VG
34|^4
g1`q ttI 4o/?'-R^
Ritual action.
D<100
Taking up our tea, we say: Now, as for teathere are the sparrows tongues of early spring, tender
leaf
tips qiangqi trembling in the rain huyu L . We pour the crab
eye water,101 and white
owers oat on the surface of the water in the bowl. We pour water from the dragon
spring, and a
transcendent wind is aroused in Penglai. Lu Tong102 6a1 penetrated to the transcendents and
spirits in six bowls; and Zhaozhou103 2 joined the buddha
nature with one cup. It rouses sleepy
fellows, and brings illumination to drowsy transcendents. We bow and bow again, oering up tea.
hF,Sv5Ls{)HbA\kU!]A
4u!24l6@yx~B!-Rh
98
The Jindan zhengli daquan ed. has instead of i , and Daozang jiyao ed. has :. Neither of these make sense
here.
99
The Celestial, Chthonic, and Human August Ones Tianhuang Z, Dihuang 0Z, Renhuang Z were
rulers at the beginning of history. By tracing his lineage back to Wanfa Tianshi D` and Yougu Da Xiansheng
3$,& in 1a89 above, Chen Zhixu has implicitly traced his lineage back to these times.
100
The DZ 1070 ed. omits D<.
101
Water just coming to a boil, with tiny bubbles the size of crabs eyes.
102
A disaected Tang
Dynasty poet who wrote poems about tea. He was praised by Han Yu 768824 . Cf.
Zang Lihe, Zhonuo gujin renming da cidian, 1589.
103
Zhaozhou Congshen 2p 778897 , a Chan Buddhist master from the Tang Dynasty, and subject of many
later Zen kan. This seems to be a kan in which Zhaozhous every response is Go have some tea Shih Chao
chou, The Recorded Saying of Zen Master Joshu, 146 .
153
Ritual action.
4/104
Taking up our ale, we say: Now, ale is sweet dew sent down from the heavens, or sweet water welling
up from the earth. Those who drink claried butter of superior avor are ever alert and never
intoxicated. Those who get the dregs of the sages can thereby revert from existence to nonexistence.
If one sucks up the West River in one mouthful,105 ones appearance will never age. One can penetrate
to the great Dao with three cups, and ones dharmabody will have a long existence. We bow and bow
again, oering up birthday shou \ ale.
E59m Ml?1poR5Gb&N`WdJH "&fN
+($Ai%@K
Y4n7!=P\E
Ritual actions.
4/
Chant the HeartSeal Scripture and the Merit Scripture of Thirty Items. 106
aV8_V
Those who have drawn up ju 0 memorials oering congratulations ought to cautiously kneel and
present them.
0"Ô6gUX:
Memorial of Congratulation for Ancestral Master Zhongli Quan. ehDBO6
The disciple of the great Dao named
insert name here, on the fteenth day of this month,107 has
reverently arrived at
Y->CL
6b1 this day fraught with the auspicious, the day of Ancestral Master Zhongli, the Sovereign Lord of
Correct Yang. In anticipation of this day, on the fourteenth, I reverently presented
i.e., wrote out my
memorial oering congratulations:
DBehQ;*ST .[.g26Ô5
Crouching on the righthand side,108 I
proclaim: The Dao is revered and De _ is valued: I look
upward
along the cord of a myriad generations of masters. Yin is extinguished and yang is pure: the
birthday shou \ morn of the exalted transcendent has arrived. The moon is full in the heavens, and
in the human realm there is an auspicious haze. I kowtow, bow and bow again, and reverently make
wei I
the following statement:
104
The DZ 1070 ed. omits 4/.
105
Mazu Daoyi FDY 70988 once answered Layman Pang Yun jk3 d. 808 : When you can swallow
the whole water of the Western River in one gulp, I will tell you <#+]($)#Y. Cf. Wudeng
huiyuan, Zhonghua shuju ed., 3:186; trans. by Ogata, in Tao Yuan, The Transmission of the Lamp, 293. For Chen
Zhixu, West River is correlated with both agent metal in the west as the outer pharmacon of lead, Pb, qian Z,
kan , and agent water the female partners uid as the source of the pharmacon . According to the usual
production sequence of the ve agents, metal produces water, but according to the alchemical sequence,
interlaced waxing of the ve agents wuxing cuowang 'c , it is water which produces metal. This also
represents the appearance of fresh yang metal out of pure yin water .
106
The HeartSeal Scripture is DZ 13, Gaoshang Yuhuang xinyin jing, or something like it. This short neidan text is
still recited daily by Quanzhen monks. The Merit Scripture of Thirty Items is unidentied, but likely another text
used in daily liturgy, perhaps with precepts.
107
Zhongli Quans birthday is on the fteenth day of the fourth lunar month.
108
The martial side, and yin side, thus the more humble of the two sides?
154
E:M<C,P9J>1L4H@
BR=(G+&
-7
Ancestral Master, the Sovereign Lord Zhongli of Correct Yang Who Spreads Awakening, Transmits
the Dao, and Sends down the Teachings, is his own origin and root, preceding Heaven and Earth. He
takes qian 5 and kun as the caldron, renes kan and reverts li O , nabs the crow and
rabbit as the ingredients, subdues the dragon and the tiger. His dao surpasses the Great Ultimate Taiji
A , and his grace nourishes the company of living things. Continuing on and on for kalpa after
kalpaall people receive salvation. From L Chunyang, Liu Haichan, and Wang Chongyang
who bestow the transmission upon the array of later sages, mind after mindto Ma Danyang,
Qiu Changchun, and Zhang Ziyangs supplying aid, and on, they serve as 7a1 father after father
for the masses. Their merit is not something that can be extolled in words; their cohumanity ren
can be compared to that of cosmic creation and transformation zaohua 8 itself.
I am merely mundane bones,109 and do not yet possess a numinous perfected heart
mind. In
the dao I have been fortunate enough to receive the teachers instructions. The xuan110 and pin
are the root of heaven and earththe details of this are in the writings on the elixir. Essence jing K
and qi are the roots of yin and yang. The oreate pool huachi ; and the spirit water shenshui
0 are styled qians gold qianjin 5" and earths caldron tufu 2 .111 Flowing pearl liuzhu
)/ is a name for woods mercury mugong .112 The two lunar quarters xian 113 unite their
substances, and for ten months you bear the fetus. The vital thing is to make marvelous use of a split
second. The hardest thing is to be truly tranquil and respond to things. How much the more dicult
is the great danger of what is referred to by the phrase supreme treasure of the rst
passing shoujing zhibao +DQ , and the deep fear from when the virile tiger reduces its
passion xionghu guaqing ?!I6 !114
For these reasons, I pay my respects and oer congratulations, furthermore discoursing on the
dangers and diculties. I look up in expectation that you, in compassionate mercy will look down
with pity on my petty lowliness, and give me relief with your expedient means, helping me to
109
This humilic statement likely means both I am just an lowly old bag of bones and I do not possess the
bone
physiognomy guxiang 3* which would mark me as transcendent
material.
110
The term xuanpin originally comes from Daode jing, chapter 6: The gateway of the mysterious female is called
the root of heaven and earth #'N
.. Some texts read xuan and pin physiologically as a
denite entities, and some read them as mystical or indenite entities. For Chen Zhixu, they always retain the
meaning of the male and female sex organs, whether foregrounded or in the background.
111
According to Chen Zhixu, spirit water is a cover

name for mercury gong , , and oreate pool is a cover
name for lead qian F, ; DZ 1069, Shangyangzi Jindan dayao liexian zhi 9b6, 10a10. Qians gold is a cover
name
for the center yang line yao within lead; DZ 1067, Shangyangzi Jindan dayao 13.16b23. The earth caldron
could be the outer caldron the female sex organ , or the inner caldron the Yellow Court .
112
Flowing pearl is quicksilver, an aspect of mercury. Woods mercury is just mercury emphasized as coming
from the east the direction corresponding to wood . They are both correlates of the male adepts seminal
essence.
113
Xian
means a line stetching across a circle, usually the circle of the moon. The fore
chord qianxian $
and after
chord houxian % are lines representing the yin
yang light
dark ratios of the moon on the eighth
and twenty
third days of the month, respectively at the ends of the rst and third quarters ; Wang Mu, Wuzhen
pian qianjie, 82. Uniting the two chords would mean gathering each of the two ingredients at the rst and third
quarters; yet in pp. 50913 chap. 5, 3.3.2.2 , I argue that this is a theoretical point rather than a practical
instruction for Chen.
114
Supreme treasure of the rst passing is the female partners pharmacon at menarche. See pp. 45456 chap. 5,
3.1.2.3 . The erce tiger is usually the female sex organ, in its threatening aspect as a robber of the male adepts
seminal life
essence; see pp. 38990 below.
155
enter the chamber without demonic hallucinations.115 You transcendents live as long as the sun and
moon, so why would you depend on eulogies from the mundane, dusty world? In a future year, our
work and deeds will be complete, relying on our craftsmenmasters casting of us.
Secondly, I wish that superior gentlemen, worthies, and the virtuous will all become enlightened to
the ultimate Dao; and that errant fools, liars, 7b1 and absurd men will repent and develop trust; that
claried milk116 will ow in rivers, and claried butter will anoint the crown;117 that the earth will all
become cyan jade, and the ground will everywhere become gold.
I risk imposing myself upon the masters and Perfected, trembling and sweating unbearably. I have
cautiously drawn up ju ` a memorial oering congratulations, and make them heard. With sincere
glee and joy, I kowtow, bow and bow again, and cautiously speak.
-uwRL+L66?VbSs^
W4l1QQoA ax3z9
o|%]$$(pZ)~,
fcF.J?@}+I# n
}<"X_d=!ekT2kjiM
Z;Kl>C;5B[f
r
v%'!oPy&D(N7\:EG
YgMqEh/?nt
H`m%~8{Z
Fill in year, month, day. Congratulatory memorial of disciple of the great Dao ll in name
here.
D!U~m
Memorial of Congratulation for the Birthday shou of Ancestral Master L
Chunyang.
m
The disciple of the great Dao named insert name here, on the fourteenth day of this month,118 has
reverently arrived at this day when
U~!*
the Ancestral Master, the Sovereign Lord of Pure Yang, descended to be born. I have cautiously drawn
up ju ` a memorial, and reverently pay my respects and extend congratulations. Crouching on the
righthand side, I proclaim:
115
That is, practice meditation without the maraphenomena, or hallucinations, known to aict meditators. For
a list of ten maras, see the chapter Lun monan in Zhongl chuandao ji, in DZ 263, Xiuzhen shishu 16.22b
26b; translated in Wong, The Tao of Health, Longevity, and Immortality, 13541.
116
Eskildsen translates sulao as koumiss, an alcohol made of fermented mares milk. I cannot discover an
English equivalent from the entry in Hanyu da cidian, s.v. sulao . It is some food made from the essence of
the milk of mares or ewes, but does not seem to be alcohol. In Qingdynasty Beijing, it was commonly mixed with
sugar.
Foguang da cidian, s.v. tihu guanding , 6322, says that tihu is a kind of rened sulao, so it seems sulao is
a more general term for milk products which are partially rened, but not as rened as ghee tihu.
117
The term tihu guanding looks Tantric, but I have only found it in three Chinese Buddhist texts: two Chan texts,
T 1999, Mian heshang yulu, 47:969a9, and ZZ 1318, Xukan guzun suyu yao, 119:32a18; and one Dunhuang text ?, T
2859, Huiyuan waizhuan, 85:1316b24. It seems not to occur in any Tantric texts in the Taish canon.
The term shows up in some later inneralchemical texts. It has obvious inneralchemical connotations, but the
inneralchemical texts are merely quoting what seems to have become a common Chinese phrase, tihu guanding,
ganlu saxin 0, meaning cool and refreshing. Hanyu da cidian, s.v. tihu guanding, quotes this
phrase from both Honglou meng and Shuihu zhuan #. Some inneralchemical texts quote it from the
the Xiyou ji O. How did this Indian and possibly Tantric phrase make its way into colloquial Chinese?
118
L Dongbins birthday is on the fourteenth of the fourth lunar month, one day before Zhongli Quans.
156
4/5<)-H!J"(07;'

The season has arrived at the point of pure yang, and tonight is the rst night of the full moon. In the
heavens, primal qi has gathered, and meritorious deeds have been performed in full over many years.
The cosmos is full of joy, and transcendents and mortals express birthday shou B wishes. I kowtow,
bow and bow again, and reverently make wei 6 the following statement:
@%5< >&#I2D&$MPEB+A.*06
8a1 O Sovereign Lord of Pure Yang Who Develops Uprightness and Morally Transforms People
through Admonition, Trustworthy Right
hand Aide 5<CL), your dao has been exalted
for millenia, and of all the numinous spirits, your auspiciousness is the nest. You observed your
heart
mind within, and your form without, and therefore achieved the mystery of making your form
complete quanxing . By means of existence you one observes the courses of things jiao
O , and by means of nonexistence wu 8 one observes the mystery. All return to the gateway of all
mystery.119 From the waters source, you ladle out water of greatest purity; you rene the golden
elixir and soon attain it. The green snake within the sleeve passes Dongting Lake with a resounding
cry.120 The yellow crane before the tower nds its hermitage amidst the marketplace, playing a
ute.121 You play at impartiality and quickly transform the transcendent lady. You head south but soon
arrive at Mt. Hua :. Astride a blue ox you enter Dongting Lake; riding a white deer you pass over
the Grass
green Sea Canghai F3 .122 You are exaltedly conrmed in the position of Sovereign Lord,
and your achievements have lived on forever, from past to present. You broadly transmit the authentic
lineage of Dao and De, by the south and by the north.123 You wish to succor the world, and the people
do not recognize you;124 I wish to seek you, but my fortunes have not yet succeeded. I dare to recall
that I do not understand the principles of xuan and pin;125 I have been fortunate to have had the
chance to receive a sworn transmission from you, perfected teacher.
Now, enlightenment about the Dao 8b1 is not something which can be shown in words; only
then will one know that it is something transmitted from mind to mind. One must seek eight ounces
119
The last three lines are a paraphrase of Daode jing, chapter 1.
120
This refers to a poem attributed to L Dongbin. I found the untitled poem in an electronic le, but was not
able to locate it in Lzi quanshu. Green snake means mercury from the east = green; snake = dragon . The
lyric poem seems to mean 1 L was rening his mercury as he traveled past Dongting Lake, in present
day
Hunan and Hubei Provinces; and 2 L was rening his seminal essence beside the water
source, the female sex
organ.
121
This refers to another poem attributed to L, entitled Ti Huanghe Lou Shi Zhao K=NG?. I found the
poem in an electronic le, but was not able to locate it in Lzi quanshu. Huanghe Lou was a famous storeyed
pavilion, in what is now Wuhan, Hubei Province. This also refers to foreplay: the male adepts ute is handled
probably by the female partner while he dwells in private seclusion in an urban setting the greater recluse hides
in the marketplace .
122
These must all be episodes from L Dongbins hagiography. They are also playful references to the sex organs.
123
The authentic lineage of Dao and De could mean a virtuous lineage, the transmission of Dao and De, or
the transmission of the Daode jing. I read zi as you L transmitted his teachings through both the
Northern Lineage of the Golden Elixir through Wang Chongyang , and the Southern Lineage through Zhang
Boduan . Wang Chongyang was said to have received teachings from L Dongbin, and Zhang Ziyang was said to
have received teachings from the transcendent Liu Haichan, whose own teacher had been L Dongbin.
124
The theme that it is dicult to recognize L Dongbin in disguise, and that only those worthy of receiving his
teachings will be able to recognize him, was occurs often in L Dongbin hagiography. According to Katz, in DZ
305, Chunyang dijun shenhua miaotong ji, compiled by Miao Shanshi ,91 . 12881324 , 43 percent of the stories
involve the theme of recognition of the transcendent by mortals; Paul Katz, Images of the Immortal, 173.
125
See p. 155n110 above.
157
of qians gold. 126 First one must be clear about the guest and the host. 127 Furthermore, one
transports the half a catty of woods mercury, matching the yin and the yang.128 One renes them into
a single lump, and keeps watch on them for a full ten months. One calmly listens to the keening of the
dragon and the roar of the tiger, and must not allow the watersupply go dry or the re to grow cold. If
one has been able to remain at this
stage, one must act with great trepidation.
Ones mind is so
occupied with it that one does not know how to proceed; one is so anxious that one forgets
mealtimes. If one is fortunate enough to receive pity
a teachers guidance, one can harvest and ingest
a spatulaful daogui H . You have enlivened this declining
body, and
made me familiar with the
retiming. Although
I have naught with which to repay
you,
I rely on
your fondness for life
i.e., for helping people live longer.

In this fortunate moment in a ourishing season
in late spring, I have even joyously arrived at
this auspicious morn. I dare to state my mundane sincerity, and pay my respects from afar to
your
transcendent deportment xianfeng 2 . I believe that you, revered one, dwell above in the celestial
supervisory department jiusi }8 , and I think that you extend pity down to us beginning students.
Although I am not making use of eulogizing from the everyday human realm, I am relying on
this
other form of address to inform you of my heartfelt feelings. I hope that there will be hidden
scrutinizing ? yin xiang of this mortal body, and it will soon receive substances and pharmaca.129
I will gather the the initial crossing of the ultimate treasure. Faultless inside and outside, I will rene
the
9a1 precosmic
aspect of the One qi. Completely moral from beginning to end, I will no longer
encounter demonic obstacles.

When I meet the numinous
spirit of the heartmind130 xin ling "
, I will then begin swiftly cultivating. Now, who would not want to be given relief through
expedient means, and to have their aairs easily succeed? Secondly, I wish that superior gentlemen,
worthies, and the virtuous will all become enlightened to the ultimate Dao.
The rest is same as
before. 131
=_Y[7p"9paCaQ1
1^^*WUOU]
U\U2Uq-U @U
[X37UVUV4.U
ceU
;Auz>TPt j&|l"en
Bz05%(fFJM']Um*U
+)wLL~ggbU HSU|+
6vI?twy/w:2s }
8w<
G1wwONw{
W9B rdi"#1!
Kkw&ZlxMRhzW D`133
Those who have drawn up memorials testifying to their oaths, reverently face
the deities and
proclaim:
oQ$
126
Qians gold is a covername for the center yang line yao , within lead DZ 1067, Shangyangzi Jindan dayao
13.16b23 . Cf. p. 155 above.
127
Guest and host have many possible connotations. In general, the host is that which is more substantial of
the pair such as the within the , the guest is the more insubstantial such as the within the .
128
In the alchemical process, one gathers eight ounces of pure yang from , and eight ounces of pure yin from
, and unites them in the caldron. The reason they mention eight ounces of each is to symbolize the eight days
approx. of a lunar quarter.
129
Wu yao {: a fancy way of saying yaowu {, the usual term for the ingredients of the elixir?
130
For a discussion of Chens use of intention spirits during the process of cultivation, see pp. 53839 below.
131
Referring to the end of the previous memorial to Zhongli Quan.
132
DZ 1070, Shangyangzi Jindan dayao xianpai has { instead of { .
133
DZ 1070, Shangyangzi Jindan dayao xianpai has E instead of D` less comprehensible .
158
The disciple of the great Dao named insert name here

, on the fourteenth day of this month, has
reverently arrived at
9M"Zn
this auspicious birthday of the Ancestral Master, the Sovereign Lord of Pure Yang; and on the
fteenth day will
arrive at
^Y`|J8;Zn
the auspicious birthday of the Ancestral Master, the Sovereign Lord of Correct Yang. Cautiously
equipped with incense and candles, on this fourteenth day I have drawn up a memorial, and together
with my fellows
pay my respects and extend congratulations. After this is nished, I hope to be
bestowed with a sealed compact yin meng * from all of the exalted transcendents and holy beings
together. I piously oer paper funds spirit money
and respectfully exhaust myself
in taking refuge
in you
and paying thanks jing dan gui xie O. I pray that you guarantee that I can study the
Dao without demonic hallucinations
, and that I be fated to cultivate transcendenthood. Looking up,
I beg for compassion and pity, for invisible protection from dangers and diculties; that you make it
such that I enter 9b1
the chamber and achieve success, without deviating from the great re
timings; that my
fetus will soon be born and transform into a spirit, and be promoted on high to be
among the ranks of the transcendents.
Secondly, I wish that superior gentlemen, worthies, and the virtuous will all become enlightened to
the ultimate Dao; and that errant fools, liars, and absurd men will repent and develop trust; that
claried milk will ow in rivers, and claried butter will anoint the crown; that the earth will all
become cyan jade, and the ground will everywhere become gold. In my seeking I risk the masters
severity, making my declaration without end. On the righthand side, I have cautiously drawn up a
memorial, and, kowtowing present it to:
^Y#|J8;qS;"<B,&uz\=~'gl,
*acvbOPExV1'o7+WI4 /
X U0mQ4_gs]2t
:T?5e[yD{/@
pN$-}CFYHAL!<kRK

PreCosmic DaoAncestor Most High Lord Lao, (^
38
Former Sages and Transcendent Masters of the Three Teachings, Who Achieved the Dao, jh(
Y
Master Yin Xi
, Celestial Worthy of the Origin of the Text. >r(%
As before, ask the spirits to come to their
positions; there should be
no addition or subtraction in
the sequence or layout.
.G_62)f134xw
Document for Sending the Spirits O d_
In my previous passionate sincerity, I risked profaning the clear hearing and vision of the spirits
.
Looking up, I hope for pity and forgiveness, and that you should broadly extend greeting and
guidance, that you should stoop your transcendent banners and come down into the dusty realm, that
I who
am shivering and do not know how to proceed in returning to the perfected condition
should
10a1
voyage back to the isle of Penglai.135 Taking
clinging and loving attachment as my
task, I now must, bowing, send them the spirits
o. I expect to bear the shame of dwelling vacantly
without the spirits after they have gone?
. I have heard that even if a person travels alone or sits
alone, his name could
still move the heart of an emperor or king. Poems that no one comprehends
134
The Jindan zhengli daquan and Daozang jiyao eds. have i) instead of 2) +f
.
135
This is a general reference to transcendent lands or heavens, and need not refer literally to an island in the
eastern sea. The patterns of usage of the term Penglai deserve closer study.
159
can still make their way to the ears of the highest

ranking ministers. How much can the eshly eyes
of a common mortal comprehend?
A single grain of elixir establishes long life; this meeting of ours was not unfated. I have the
heartfelt wish to proclaim that the entire world ought to? seek this dao. This aair is dicult to
know, but if you get started on it, it will be speedily cultivated. If you are too slow at it, who in the
whole world would be able to carry it out? This body has already appeared in the trichiliacosm
sanqian
jie X. In the past you even gave it to Zhang Seng p ? , and permit us to rove together to the
realm of the Five Emperors.
Now, I wish that you should take pity on these mortal bones, and not say that this common mans
empty life
endowment is ill
fated
ming bo @.136 I beg to trade my bones to an impoverished
Confucian for elixir.137 You the Perfected are already roving in the realm of Jade Clarity, your sword
spanning the twin riverbanks.138 After you have left, master, it ought to be dicult for you to grow
old:139 your body is in the Great Veil Heaven
Daluo Tian . Coming, you leave no shadow;
leaving, you leave no tracks. You supervise
jiusi L$ 10b1 the records of the spirits and
transcendents up in the heavens. You cannot be heard by listening, or seen by watching.140 I serve the
Jade Emperor as he returns to the realm of Great Clarity
Taiqing fv. My risk of profaning the
spirits has been deep. I bow and see them o with a concentrated mind.
,?qRI)\csD!]4?_GaMtOh4G
drgUm^2E(898:A-oS
J%b[56xJ1PyBQ'}/[<kqu
Y22>J
~` Vj9N2=" XHCGp
{;+SGnzWK@ |nh0&v
F*'#T3=0?#L$i!<7>
&ZfvRrwUm
<Transform the funds burn the paper money >
<Take away the seats>
le141
136
This paraphrases a line from a poem attributed to L Dongbin: Zi shi fanliu fuming bo 8VW@.
137
This is a line from a poem attributed to L Dongbin. I found the untitled poem in an electronic le, but was
not able to locate it in Lzu quanshu.
138
This is a line from a poem attributed to L Dongbin.
139
This is a twist on a line from a poem attributed to L Dongbin: Xiansheng qu hou shen xu lao *'#.=3.
140
Quoting Daode jing, chapter 14.
141
DZ 1070, Shangyangzi Jindan dayao xianpai omits these nal instructions.
160
Chapter 3, A Conict View of Daoist Mastership

Chen Zhixus writings reveal him as a man striving to spread his teachings, achieve
recognition as a master, and attain salvation. The story told by his writings is, in the
main, a story of social competition between rival intellectuals within a soteriological
marketplace. Chen is competing against other purveyors of daos, anonymous
salesmen of salvic teachings, who like him are relatively marginal, operating
sometimes within and sometimes between the interstices of social institutions, both
religious and secular. Chen is competing for recognition from disciples, patrons,
rivals, and readers. He is striving to achieve recognition for selfcultivation as a
practice per se, recognition for Daoism visvis other religious traditions, recognition
for his own dao in particular, and, ultimately, recognition of himself as an authentic
master and keeper of the keys to Heaven. I call this work managing mastership.
In this chapter I argue that Pierre Bourdieus sociology of culture oers the
best conceptual framework for studying a case like Chens. Bourdieus sociological
work on culture, knowledge, and art provides a welldeveloped vocabulary, and will
help me frame my picture of Chen Zhixu and his world, and organize its parts. After
I have introduced Bourdieu, we will be able speak of Chen competing for economic,
social, cultural, symbolic, and religious forms of capital, within the concentric
elds of social power, religion, and selfcultivation.
Chens teachings are the tools he uses in his struggle to achieve three inter
related goals: 1
achieving recognition and authority as a master, or managing his
mastership; 2
spreading his teachings in the religious eld; and 3
attaining
personal salvation. These three goals were complementary. Why does he seek
authority? Proximately, for the sake of advantages in this world; ultimately, for the
sake of his own salvation. The authority he gains will help him attract a support
network and audience base of patrons, disciples, or readers. This support network in
turn will help him nance his personal quest for salvation. In addition to this, his
161
teaching activities within his network, and his successes in spreading his teachings to
new audiences, will generate karmic merit for him, which will further contribute to
his salvation.1 I call this dynamic a threeway feedback loop of propagation,
authority, and salvation. His struggle for the rst two of these three goals involves
competition with others, while the third goal does not. Chens activity, as he has
recorded it for posterity, takes place in the toil and moil of an arena of social
competition. His ultimate goal of salvation involves transcending the realm of human
conict, though in practice he imagines and expresses it in human, social, and
competitive terms.
In this chapter, I argue that we must not only place Chens teachings within
the eld of social competition, but we must also recognize the element of
competition within Chens religious teachings themselves, even his most abstruse and
technical teachings. Chens teachings are thoroughly strategic, often polemic, colored
by their competitive context. Since Chens sexual alchemical teachings are radically
revisionary, he has more di culty than most alchemical teachers would in gaining
recognition and acceptance for himself and his dao, and so his teachings may exhibit
this competitive aspect more than most alchemical teachings would. Yet if Bourdieu
is correct, this competitive, strategic aspect must be present, to a greater or lesser
extent, in a religious teachings, and we ought to reread the history of all Chinese
religion in this light especially relatively intellectualized elements of Chinese
religion .
Chens goal is to become a transcendent. To become a transcendent, the cultivator must combine inner
cultivation with outer deeds that generate karmic merit:
If one makes progress in ones inner training, and achieves success in outer deeds, only then can one be called
a transcendent. Inner training is the dao of applying proper ring periods, followed by parturition
of your
holy fetus and transformation into a spirit. Outer deeds are succoring people and bringing benet to
things, such in as
the cases of the Celestial Master of the Han
Zhang Daoling distinguishing humans from
demons, Transcendent Ge
Xuans mission to save netherworld souls, and Perfected Lord Xu
Xuns judicial
slaying of the dragongoblin.
+ )
'#. 2/!&
$,
20("-%* DZ 91, Yuanshi wuliang duren shangpin miaojing zhujie 1.29a9
b3
This concept of spiritual merit combines the Indian Buddhist concept of karma with preBuddhist Chinese ideas
about the eects of virtuous power de 1 upon people, Heaven, spirits, and the natural world.
162
1, A Conict View of Chen Zhixus Life and Work

1.1, Chens Teachings within a Field of Competition
The best justications for a new approach are that it suits the material, reveals new
meaning in the material, and yields new theoretical insights applicable elsewhere.
Here I will show that an approach emphasizing conict suits the case of Chen Zhixu
particularly well. The new meanings that this approach reveals in the material will
appear in subsequent chapters; as for the new theoretical insights applicable
elsewhere, these would only become evident as I apply the approach to other topics
in future work. For now, I will show that a conict view is appropriate for the case of
Chen Zhixu by showing the elements of conict in Chens story
showing which
kinds of opponents Chen is competing against, and which kinds of goods Chen is
competing for. First I will place Chens teachings within his eld of competition, and
then I will place the eld of competition within Chens teachings.
1.1.1, Skeptics.
Chen is competing against several kinds of opponents in a
cultural debate over selfcultivation. Logically, his most fundamental opponents

would be those who reject the possibility of Daoiststyle transcendence altogether.
Such people he consigns to hell:
There is one kind of trivial fool who, never having joined in the practices of
transcendents and sages, sneers at selfcultivation activities, saying, In this
world, since there is birth, there must be death. How could the dao of longlasting
vision i.e., longevity exist? These people are seeded for hell, content with their
lot in sasra!
%
!'
"#$&2
Chen is competing with these skeptics for the advantage of authority in the religious
eld. While we might expect those critics who are fundamentally skeptical of self
cultivation to constitute a dangerous threat, as they could undermine Chens entire
religious enterprise, Chen does not mention them very much, and they seem not to
be a threat to him. Perhaps his audience is already well committed to the idea that
2
DZ 142, Ziyang Zhenren Wuzhen pian sanzhu 4.19a3 5. These people have hell seeds diyu zhongzi #$,
karmic seeds that will bear the fruit of rebirth in hell.
163
transcendence truly can be cultivated.

1.1.2, The marginal traditions.
Chens next type of opponent is the purveyor
of the heterodox teachings of a marginal tradition pangmen 7*, lit. side door,
side gate, or side school
.3 Chen apparently considers this his most dangerous
type of opponent.4 Chen denes the teachings of a marginal tradition as any
teachings that are not devoted to the gathering and rening of the one point of
prenatal perfected qi, i.e., the golden elixir5:
Recently, how many are the people of this generation who take it upon
themselves to discourse vacuously upon all things between Heaven and Earth!
All these side doors and perverse paths are briey but exhaustively listed in
Cuixu yin Chant of Mr. KingsherblueVoid
. Besides teachings on the one
point of prenatal perfected qi, all strands of teaching beyond this are, overall,
perversions of the truth.
(#8@&DCE7*,"5A9
3+I2?F"6
4G>
The cultivation of the one perfected qi is the core of Chens teaching, the good
news that he partially displays while still keeping secret, and it is the same secret
teaching that all the sages have possessed.7 Teachers from the marginal traditions do
not know of, or do not accept, this ultimate teaching. Yet in addition to mere
ignorance of the golden elixir, there seems to be a second component to this concept
of marginal tradition. When he criticizes ordained Daoist monastics for their
ignorance of the golden elixir and their reliance on false teachings, Chen does not
3
Other terms equivalent to pangmen 7*//* in Chens writings include qianxi baijing H., xiexi qujing "H
., pangmen xiejing 7*"5, pangmen qujing 7*., pangxi xiaojing /H5, pangxi yu qujing 7HB5,
qujing pangxi 57H, and pangmen zuodao /*<.
J. Z. Smith has observed that rather than the remote other being perceived as problematic and/or dangerous,
it is the proximate other, the near neighbor, who is most troublesome. That is to say, while dierence or
otherness may be perceived as being either or , it becomes most problematic when it is
or when it claims to ; Smith, Dierential Equations: On Constructing the Other, 145.
For Chen, the golden elixir is the qi gathered on the outside, i.e., from a woman. Qi, when on the outside, is
called black lead, that is, the dao of the golden or, metal elixir. 0':=)<
Qi,
when on the inside, is called black mercury, that is, the dao of cultivating and xing 0':!-$
<
DZ 1067, Shangyangzi Jindan dayao 2.2a. So, for Chen, the term golden elixir refers more often to the
exterior work of inner alchemy than to the process as a whole.
6
DZ 1067, Shangyangzi Jindan dayao 9.3b24. Cuixu yin is the polemical poem Niwan Zhenren Luofu cuixu yin %
2J1A9 The MudPill Perfecteds Chant of Mr. KingsherblueVoid of Mt. Luofu
, attibuted to
Chen Nan 6; d. 1213
, a patriarch in the Southern Lineage of the Golden Elixir. The poem is collected in DZ
1307, Haiqiong Bai Zhenren yulu 4:16; and DZ 1090, Cuixu pian 712.
7
According to my numbering of Hugh Urbans esoteric strategies, display is no. 4, advertisement, and appeal to
the sages is no. 2, stealing the lightning ; see pp. 2526 above.
164
call them purveyors of the teachings of marginal traditions, as we might have

expected. So, in practice, marginaltradition teachings are not just any false or
ignorant teaching, but rather those teachings which are false and furthermore
practiced mainly by uncertied teachers or gullible laypersons.
In his Song on Judging Delusions
Panhuo ge -6,8 Chen states that there
are 3600 marginal traditions. 9 He oers dozens of examples of false teachings,
which can be divided into several overlapping categories. I will not use the term
heterodox for these teachings, because this list includes many traditional and non
controversial Daoist, Buddhist, and macrobiotic
yangsheng D practices, as well as
some more controversial practices. Chen rst criticizes meditation or selfcultivation
practices that involve a vain outward show, such as various kinds of noisy breath
control,10 massage and gymnastics,11 or inneralchemical practices involving shaking
the body or inducing borborygms
bellyrumbles.12 Second, Chen criticizes practices
involving the ingestion of concrete substances, whether they be the mineral
ingredients of traditional alchemy,13 herbal drugs,14 or bodily uids.15 Third, Chen
DZ 1067, Shangyangzi Jindan dayao 9.3a66a10. A full translation of this song is appended to this chapter.
Polemics against marginal traditions can be found throughout Chens writings another representative passage
is Zhouyi Cantong qi fenzhang zhu, Daozang jiyao ed., 2.59a4b2. But the Song on Judging Delusions is the longest
and richest polemical passage.
10
Chen mentions the noisy macrobiotic breathing practices of spitting and gulping
tutun , or pu ng,
hooting, and swallowing
xuhe fu yanyan =,LL. He also mentions counting respirations
shuxi @#,
harmonizing the breath
tiaoxi B#, stopping the breath
bixi (#, and sitting and gazing at the nose
zuoguanbi
P<. Chen describes the face of someone sitting and gazing at his nose as being like sh
the eyes gazing at
insects as they come alive in a marsh in the spring
the nose. This suggests that breath control is a noisy practice.
11
Chen mentions massage and stretching

anmo shenqu !?, and gymnastic exercises with animal names
xiongshen niaoyin, guisuo heshu 7*

SHO/, reminiscent of an early macrobiotic practice called the Five
Animal Frolics
Wuqin xi 3G.
12
Chen mentions shaking the inner passes
dong weil, han jiaji 'CE%, or producing sounds in the
cranium and belly
dingmen xiang, fuzhong ming ) N5; and calling these the cries of dragon and tiger
longyin huxiao sheng F>I.

13
Chen mentions smelting the Three Yellows and Four Spirits

sanhuang ji sishen J0$, or Five Metals
and Eight Minerals
wujin bing bashi
see p. 205nn12932 below, as well as ingesting metals and
minerals generally
er jinshi :
14
Chen mentions ingesting atractylis and tuckahoe
yong zhufu Q, or herbal medicines generally
souji
yaozhong zhu caomu 18MA&.
15
Chen mentions ingesting phlegm

choutuo 4+, seminal essence and urine
jing ni 92, breast milk and urine
ru sou R, menses
nren tiangui ", semen and menses
jingxue 9, and other lthy and evil things
K..
165
criticizes certain forms of sexual cultivation as false.16 I believe that for Chen, these
three categories of practice have a common aw
they are too coarse, relying on
outward sounds and movements, tangible external substances and secretions
mineral, vegetable, or human, or tangible internal secretions the adepts semen
within the body, rather than intangible internal energies. Perhaps the reason Chen
criticizes the traditional Daoist practice of ingesting the qi of sun and moon17 is
because it too relies on external things, even though they are intangible. Chen also
criticizes several other Daoist or macrobiotic practices,18 as well as the Buddhist
practices of Chan zazen and Pure Land nianfo chanting.19
1.1.3, Sexual cultivators.
The marginal
tradition teaching that Chen
condemns most carefully throughout all his writings is the coarse sexual cultivation
called gathering and battling at the three peaks or, battling to reap from the three
peaks, sanfeng caizhan <FS. Chen aims to draw a clear distinction between this
practice and his own rened form of sexual alchemy, which does not involve gross
bodily substances. Chen tells us that the false practices of coarse sexual alchemy are
foolish and debased:
if one does not join with another of the same category an approving reference to
sexual alchemy, and instead practices the various marginal
tradition methods,
whether this be the art of the bedchamber, or gathering and battling at the three
peaks, these are all perverse paths, and are like mistaking sh eyeballs for pearls.
9 CY!R@2+,
E+<FS7'=KQJ6
16
Chen mentions using the numinous bough yong lingke Z4, and a ve
stage practice of retaining,
retracting, sucking, extruding, and sealing cun, suo, xi, chou, bi wushi U%-I(; see p. 206n139
below. He also mentions lying in wait for the movement of the semen, and recycling it as a tonic for the
brain sihou jingxing zhuanbu nao $;P!XNL, i.e., recycling seminal essence to replenish the brain huanjing
bunao VPNL.
17
Chen criticizes gazing at the sun and moon, then inhaling the two qi of the sun and moon and sending them
down to the xuanpin cavity ies wang riyue, erqi xi gui xuanpin xue GA%W .
18
Chen criticizes grasping at a single bodily site, visualizing a golden radiance, and daring even to regard this as
the dantian zhuo yichu, cun jinguang, ren shi dantian ?H1Q3; the qigong
like practice Eight
Sections of Brocade baduan jin 5T; fetal breathing taixi 8>; and the prognostication of death dates
shengsi dingnian ci yueri ) or fetuses guanwu zhitai [./8. Bernard Faure mentions similar
mantic practices in Kamakura Japanese Buddhism; Faure, The Rhetoric of Immediacy, 186. These practices are not
specically Daoist.
19
Chen criticizes zazen as sitting stubbornly in emptiness zuo wankong &O0, and criticizes those who chant
the name of Amitbha Buddha zhuan nianfo D*# and yearn for his western paradise yixin zhiyao xiang xifang
:", yet do not keep the precepts hunjiu MB.
166
L20
Yet Chen reserves the harshest rhetoric, not for those who practice false sexual
alchemy, but for those who pose obstacles to his true sexual alchemy. Such persons
may pose obstacles by slandering the true sexual dao such as the dao of the Wuzhen
pian as a false sexual dao:
it is only this rst passage of the white tiger which, when forced to put a name to
it, we may term, the one precosmic qi. . . . If a fool of this generation points to
this as the teaching of gathering and battling, or a technique using the boudoir
elixir, then calamity will come to his person.
&AI]P!K[ HEGQhd8if
S?Cb:521
Or such persons may pose obstacles by misinterpreting a truly sexual and correct dao
as a nonsexual dao:
Whenever he met someone who would chat about the dao all day long, repeatedly
claiming to have met and received
instruction from an eminent person, my
master Zhao Youqin
would immediately bow before him and ask: Not daring to
ask about your dao, let me just ask for now: What sort of
thing are the dragon
and tiger?
The other person would say: Dragon and tiger are within your body.
Master would say: What shape do they take?
The other person would say: They are the liver and lungs.
The master would say: You ought to go down to the hell where they pull out
peoples tongues and receive your punishment there, never again to delude or
cheat the people of this world! Old Man Ziyang Zhang Boduan
has now
indicated the twin things dragon and tiger too closely!
Now, my thing is the dragon, and the partners thing is the tiger. There is a
distinction between east and west, so Wuzhen pian
has each to east and west. The
dragons head is ji, and the tigers gate is wu. The dragon and tiger rely on these for
their coition . . .
/e(J"4 ag^1iV_N W;J.BD)OÛ
O^jAG,= jA$'5 J-,> 3@F
J'\
9*#`6T20 Yck XZMEj
A=lR /=Gj7=GA%7/F<+
20
21
DZ 142, Ziyang Zhenren Wuzhen pian sanzhu 5.7b58. Boldface represents a reference to the passage in Wuzhen pian
that Chen is commenting on. For Chen, rst passage of the white tiger refers, not to a girls rst menses, but to
the primal qi coincident with menarche; see pp. 45557 chap. 5, 3.1.2.3. A xation on physical menses would be a
coarse sexual teaching. It would be a sin to misrepresent the holy teachings of Zhang Boduans Wuzhen pian as
coarse sexual teachings. However, I will argue in chapter 5 that Chens own sexual alchemy is not so distant from
the practices he condemns.
167
>
=$
!$>

/22
Chen is battling with rivals on several fronts, but the most bitter and ticklish of his
battles is this one over the denition of the true dao of sexual alchemy. Most of the
handful of passages in which Chen or his master Zhao Youqin consigns a rival to
hell involve a rival who mischaracterizes the dao of true sexual alchemy either as
coarse sexual alchemy or as nonsexual alchemy, often through an alternative reading
of a classic text.23 Because of the frequency of this topic, and the vehemence of his
reactions, we can infer that such rivals seem most threatening to Chen. In the above
passage we also gain a glimpse of a concrete social setting for Chens competition, a
public market of daos.
Just as Chen criticizes his rivals, he is also the object of much slander and
abuse. He occasionally refers to his own troubles of this sort:
I came traveling through Yuzhang in order to nd people of correct heart and
sincere intent, so I could tell them about the dao of cultivating the self and long
life. But as soon as I would express a single idea, I would arouse a riot of
slander and acrimony.
5
3<*(2.
6%-
4C?AD&
,24
More often than recounting his personal trials, however, Chen mentions slander as a
general problem for any teacher of the correct dao. He claims that all true teachers
have su ered slanderous attacks or mere misunderstanding. This has been a problem
for even the sages of the past. Therefore sages have always been leery of revealing
their secrets openly, and this is why their writings are so di
cult to interpret!
Alas! The abilities and virtue of people of the world are meager and shallow, and
they easily turn to slandering. Therefore the sages of old and the great worthies
did not let slip the treasures of heaven, and strewed them about in the scriptures.
: ;7)@8A#19"' B+
025
In the passage following the line quoted above, Chen goes on to cite Zhou Wenwang
and Confucius as Confucian sages, the Yellow Emperor and Laozi as Daoist sages,
22
DZ 142, Ziyang Zhenren Wuzhen pian sanzhu 3.17b818a6. Italics are for emphasis.
23
The passage in which Chen consigns a skeptic to hell see p. 163 above is an exception.
24
Jindan dayao, Jindan zhengli daquan ed., 6.42a12.
25
Zhouyi Cantong qi fenzhang zhu, Daozang jiyao ed., 1.4a10b2.
168
and kyamuni and Bodhidharma as Buddhist sages, all of whom left secret teachings
i.e., teachings on sexual alchemy within their scriptures, but did not speak them
openly for fear of slander by ignorant oafs. This claim by Chen that the sages did not
reveal their sexual teachings openly for fear of slander or misunderstanding is a
version of his esoterizing strategy of managing secrecy and displaydisplaying a few
hints that the sages possessed secrets, and oering this as evidence that their secret
is his own secret.26
Chen is competing directly with teachers from marginal traditionsand from
our perspective he is himself a marginal teacher! He is competing rstly for authority
or capital as we will term it later within the religious eld, secondly for patrons,
disciples, and readers, and thirdly for the benets these followers could bring him.
We would not say that Chen is competing with his rivals for salvation, per se, since his
nal goal of personal salvation is not a good in limited supply, as a worldly good
would be. Yet he is competing with rivals for the goods he would need in his quest for
salvation: competing for authority, which would attract disciples and patrons, who
could oer the nancial support, women, and private quarters Chen needs to
complete his self
cultivation. And he is also competing for an abstract good: the
denition of salvation, and religious truth. While there might be enough patronage
and authority for Chen to share with his rivals, it would be much more dicult for
competing denitions of religious truth to co
exist. Chen could re
read the daos of
the holy teachers of the past, but not brook competition in the present between his
true dao of the golden elixir and his rivals rival regimes of truth,27 potentially
true daos such as sanfeng caizhan, stubborn zazen, or embryonic breathing. The
town of Hongzhou was not big enough for the both of them.
1.1.4, The Three Teachings.
Although Chen is, in the nal analysis, a Daoist,
he rmly distances himself from ordinary ordained Daoists, as well as from

Buddhists and Confucians. He criticizes Zhengyi, Quanzhen, and other monastic or
reclusive Daoists who know nothing of inner cultivation:
26
In addition to the esoteric strategies, of managing secrecy and display, and stealing the lightning, we see here
imperialist inclusivism: embracing other religious traditions, yet violently misreading them according into ones
own lights.
27
The phrase comes from Bruce Lincoln, e.g., Lincoln, Theorizing Myth, 18.
169
Crowned with the seven stars of the Dipper , and named Zhengyi Daoists ,
which man among them can recognize the gates of xuan and pin?28
RC
(?1bn
They dwell in the mountains and forests and are called Daoists, but they dont
know what the great Dao is. Nor have they ever heard the name golden elixir
so how could you want to teach them to understand life and death or, sasra !
48a]< ]B,2>
Uc9FQ6'
Wanderers of cloud and water, they are called Quanzhen Daoists , and from
morning to night they work at saving themselves. Their patriarchs have left
behind teachings on the spatula, but nowadays how many men know this?29
ZA\K@DV7P0LIJ !f<="%T
Chen appears to be positing three Daoist categories here Zhengyi, Quanzhen, and
just Daoist. Do these three categories line up with a general view about the
categories of Daoists in his place and time? Would he call
the misguided ones
among the monks from Mt. Jiugong or the Lu mountains Zhengyi, or just
Daoist? The answers are unclear. Next, Chen criticizes Chan Buddhist monks who
joust with kans, vainly maintain their precepts, or lord it over their disciples, but do
not see the truth:
There is one type of person, called Chan monk, who walks on foot, passing
about with kans of great dynamism and great application ever on his tongue.
He only struggles over victories and defeats in idle linguistic jousting , and
neglects to face Mt. Tai and check the old woman.30
*[h\l3 j k^:SGX/edM)N
The Chan monks they shave their temples, but the Buddha holds out this
monkish mien and orders us to examine it.31 Forming lines and troops, they
lower not their heads. Hardly a patchedrobe monk among them has actually
seen his buddha nature and illuminated his mind.
l_Hoi+O&E`$*$Y-k.56WTp
Clearsighted men, who have seen their buddha natures, because they ascend
and sit on the teaching dais they then rail at the buddhas and patriarchs. The
teaching mechanisms of stickblows, shouts, and the single nger are most deep,
28
For Chen, xuan and pin refer to the male and female sexual organs
or to their points of contact.
29
Spatula refers to the alchemical pharmacon

yaowu m;. The metaphor comes from laboratory alchemy,
where the elixir is scraped out of the caldron with the tip of a spatula.
30
This refers to the kan Zhaozhou checks the old woman
Zhaozhou kan po g#MN. In this kan, an old
woman by the roadside gives monks the correct advice to go straight and immediately toward Mt. Tai, i.e.,
become suddenly enlightened without wavering or mediation.
31
Monks follow the monastic code, but

according to Chan teachings the Buddha pointed to any emphasis on
proper behavior as itself an impediment and subject for contemplation.
170
but nowadays they have turned these into routine phrases.32

$9"&.)3-F?<(LK;7 =4B
He criticizes NeoConfucian sophists or exegetes who think that the ultimate truth
can be captured in oral dialetic or written commentary:
Those smarties, yakking on about inherent nature and principle, with wanton
words and forced sophisms say that only they are correct. But who understands
inherent nature and the great Dao? Master Yan sat in forgetfulness and Master
Zeng said Yes.33
N$!G"8J
6Q1*"D CH$P
>
1
Chanting the Great Learning and discussing the Mean, they swerve not a jot from
the teachings of Zhu Wengong Zhu Xi. With correct mind and sincere intent
they search for commentary for each stanza and sentence, but sincere intent is
originally not found within stanzas and sentences.34
E IO5/#A@:A@':

Daoist, Buddhist, and Confucian religious specialists are Chens rivals within the
religious eld, but they are not as threatening to him as the uncertied or lay
purveyors of marginaltradition teachings. Chen criticizes these certied religious
specialists for not understanding the inner truth of their own traditions, rather than
for peddling dangerously misleading teachings. Chan Buddhist monks have facility
with k anjousting, but have lost sight of the true goal of enlightenment. Confucian
disputators and exegetes have forgotten their own sages mental cultivation practices
and understanding of the inherent nature. And ordained Daoists from Zhengyi,
Quanzhen, and other lineages have forgotten Laozis true teaching of the golden
elixir.
In fact, the sexual dao of the golden elixir is the true teaching, not just of
Laozi, but of each of the Three Teachings:
32
In this stanza, Chen is referring to Chan masters who perform a ceremony of ritual antinomianism called
ascending the hall shengtang %2 or shangtang 2
; cf. Foulk, Myth, Ritual, and Monastic Practice in Sung
Chan Buddhism, 17679. Zhitou (L nger
likely refers to the onenger Chan method yizhi Chan (M
of the Tang monk Juzhi ,+. Chen himself uses the Chan methods mentioned by Foulk, although here Chen
rejects them. Perhaps it is because he would consider substance of the teachings of ordinary Chan masters to be
incomplete merely zazen or k anpractice, with no alchemy
.
33
Chen criticizes NeoConfucian disputators, arguing that Confuciuss disciples also supposedly meditated Yan
Hui P, in Zhuangzi, H.Y. 6.92
, and understood the esoteric for Chen, sexual
aspect of Confuciuss dao Zeng
Shen >0, in Lunyu, H.Y. 4.15
.
34
Zhangju : stanza and sentence

refers to a type of careful, analytical sentence commentary, distinct from a
broadbrush, bigidea approach to commentary.
171
Within the caldron of the suspended fetus, one renes the owing pearl, already
joyous to have the gold return to the origin of the inherent nature. The sages of
the Three Teachings all follow a single track, yet, in after times, other people
and myself are on dierent paths.
V4OMJ18D-$Q(,?KS0$"/7C35
This dao is the true teaching of Laozi, kyamuni, and Confucius; they each taught it
in secret to their immediate disciples, but due to their secrecy, the true teaching
became lost to subsequent tradition:
Laozi said, Always be without desires, in order to observe its secrets: this is the
recycled elixir of jade uid. Always have desires, in order to observe its orice:
this is the recycled elixir of golden uid. This dao is very great, so the sage kept
it a secret and did not disclose his pretext. . . . The Tathgata did not dare to
disclose it in words, thus he held a ower between two ngers to transmit the
dharma, and Kayapa received it with a smile. Confucius did not dare to disclose
it in words; when it came to his lineal disciples, Zeng Shen managed only a Yes.
Laozi did not dare to disclose it in words; when it came to the ve thousand
character mysterious writing the Daode jing, the Guardian of the Pass Yin Xi
used it to arrive at ming life endowment and reach the mysterious.
=G@X% 2AP=@X%R2-AP
%N3
K9 WT$ EW#)+H*6LI:
& EW#.!F;>< EW#
U5'B36
Chen Zhixu is competing with representatives of the Daoist, Buddhist, and
Confucian traditions for the very denition of these traditions. Contrary to the more
mainstream interpretations of the Three Teachings, as taught by Daoist and
Buddhist monks and Neo Confucian scholars, Chen oers the esoteric
interpretation that the essence of the Three Teachings is none other than his own
brand of sexual alchemy. Here he is competing mainly to establish the authority of
his teachings, and thus establish and manage his mastership.
While Chen does compete with religious institutions for the denition of
truth as we have seen in chapter 2, he sought disciples and patrons in Daoist
monasteries, he never criticizes rival religious professionals as harshly as he does the
teachers of marginal traditions, so we may infer that he either has a reason not to do
35
DZ 1067, Shangyangzi Jindan dayao 9.10a910. For Chen, the caldron of the suspended fetus is the male sexual
organ, and the owing pearl is the seminal essence, which will escape in ejaculation unless carefully retained.
The gold is the female partners primal metal qi. After the male siphons up this qi, he renes the amalgam of
male and female energies within his body. The reference to joy suggests sexual pleasure.
36
Jindan dayao, Jindan zhengli daquan ed., 6.36a35, a8b1.
172
so, or no reason to do so. A possible reason not to harshly attack Daoist and
Buddhist monks or NeoConfucian scholars is that this would arouse too much
antipathy among them, and he would no longer be able to recruit from their ranks.
And he may have less reason to attack them, because he would not have to struggle
to distinguish himself from them. While an outsider might mistake Chen for a
false
teacher from a marginal tradition, the outsider would not mistake Chen for
an ignorant
monk or scholar. The danger of being mistaken for such a false
teacher would be greater, and so he would have to work harder to distance himself
from them.
1.1.5, Chen as marginal.
Indeed, Chen does look much like a teacher from
one of the marginal traditions that he attacks. Like Chen, such teachers are also
attempting to promulgate subversive counterinterpretations of the teachings of the
sages. Although he never mentions the names of his rivals from marginal traditions,
at one point he lists the titles of several texts which may have been composed and
promulgated by such anonymous teachers:
We may say that, of those who have not attained the perfected instructions, and
are silently speculating and benightedly cogitating about the contents of the
alchemical scriptures, not a single one can complete their practice. They can
only make marginal allusions and warped attempts at proof, wideranging debates
and highying discourses, to pass away their lives. Then again, whats surprising
about this?
Furthermore, ignorant men wantonly contrive alchemical writings, borrowing
the names of former sages for their titles, such as The Old Transcendent Ge
Xuans Alchemical Instructions for Preserving Ones Life and Nourishing Ones Life
Endowment, Disquisition on Bodhidharmas Scripture on Fetal Breathing, Zhaozhous Song
of the Twelve Hours, Sire Pangs Encomium on the River Cart, as well as things like
Eight Sections of Brocade, and Qi of the Six Characters.
There are even more titles of such writings, but they are denitely
unreliable. The essentials of any true teaching ought to take the Cantong qi and
Wuzhen pian as their main source.
Y3HCK2/SaJPON&H?'dbÊ]
7QM).IN12"LAF<T9 #UD5_
-KV[:=S^Z%
@Xc0+W(
8`$B e,*!4;RG6>C
\937
These former sages, whose names other teachers are attaching to their own texts
37
DZ 1067, Shangyangzi Jindan dayao 1.5a39. Both of the last two false practices are still popular today within
qigong circles.
173
the Daoist holy man Ge Xuan, and the Chan patriarchs and worthies Bodhidharma,
Zhaozhou Congshen , and Layman Pang Yun are also frequently
cited by Chen Zhixu himself as masters of his dao. From our outsiders perspective,
Chens claims upon these former sages are just as false as the claims by the rival
teachers that Chen is criticizing. From our perspective, there are many structural
similarities between Chen Zhixu and his marginal rivals. We will see in chapter 5 that
the line separating Chens sexual alchemy from other forms of sexual cultivation that
he criticizes is very thin. Similarly, here the line between other teachers claims to the
former sages and Chens own claims is very thin.
If Chen Zhixu is a marginal gure, this may actually play to his advantage.
Remaining marginal, he would be able to deploy his esoterizing strategy of managing
secrecy and display. If his secret teachings were to become mainstream teachings,
practiced by all, he would lose his special outsiders advantage. While I do not
believe that Chen wishes to remain a marginal gure,38 he does receive certain
benets from this peripheral position, and so we may say that his managing of his
mastership contains an inherent tension.
1.2, The Field of Competition within Chens Teachings
Chen uses his teachings as a tool to compete within his religious eld. But the
situation becomes more complex and interesting when we look at the religious
content of his teachings. It is not the case that Chen simply wields a set repertoire of
teachings in a strategic way; rather, his teachings themselves are permeated with
strategies. In a sense, the competitive eld can be found within Chens teachings just
as much as Chens teachings can be located within a competitive eld.
For an example of the thoroughly strategic nature of Chens abstract teachings
on alchemical or other Daoist matters, I could analyze almost any technical topic and
nd seams of strategic action within Chens treatment of that topic. One striking
38
Chen claims that the Old Man from Qingcheng . . . exhorted me, saying: In the future there will certainly be a
prince, marquis, or great man who seeks to take you as his teacher.

DZ 142, Ziyang Zhenren Wuzhen pian sanzhu, preface, 5b45. I believe that Chen would have liked to nd a
patron of the very highest rank. With such a patron, while he could retain his esoteric secrecy, he would no longer
be a marginal person.
174
case I have found is Chens treatment of the Dao.

The Daoist tradition takes its name from the Dao as found in early classics
like Laozi.39 This metaphysical Dao is a great Way that is at once the ground of
existence, the principle or motive force beyond the natural functioning of all things,
and the proper guide for authentic human being and action. Because Chen Zhixu is
teaching a version of Daoism, the Dao ought to be the starting point for our
discussion of Chen; yet the Dao is actually mentioned in Chens Daoist teachings
rather less than one might suppose. In only a small fraction of the occurrences of the
word in Chens corpus does this word refer to the metaphysical Dao. For Chen,
usually refers instead to a tradition,40 and usually to his own tradition. In most cases
we ought to romanize Chens as dao rather than Dao, and translate it as a
way rather than the Way. And when Chen is referring to his own tradition, we
ought to translate it as the way rather than a way, because for Chen, there is only
one true way to salvation: the way of the golden elixir, using the outer pharmacon
gathered from a female partner.
One place Chen does discuss the cosmic Dao is in his section The Daos
Root Is Yin and Yang Dao ben yinyang . In this section we can see Chens
slippery equation of the Dao with his dao. In an exchange with a disciple,41 Chen
presents his conceptions of the cosmic Dao, the human Dao, and the alchemical dao.
The alchemical dao involves sexual practice inviting slander from ignorant persons
yet is equivalent to the cosmic Dao itself. Here is a translation of almost the entirety
of the short section:
The Daos Root Is Yin and Yang
A disciple again approached the master
, and said, . . . The socalled Dao is able
to bring the vastness of the Heaven and Earth to completion. But you have also
said, The Dao is nothing more than a thing within the human body. Why is
there this dierence between the small and the great? What is this Dao, after all,
39
Cf. Kidder Smith, Sima Tan and the Invention of Daoism, Legalism, et cetera.
40
This was the original meaning of the word . Analyzing the graph , Robert Eno argues that its original
meaning was a formula of speech and step, connoting aspects of both discourse and skilled practice Eno,
Cook Dings Dao and the Limits of Philosophy, 129. And it remained a common use of the word. Campany
argues that In early medieval Chinese discourse, probably the most ubiquitous way of nominalizing what we
would call religions was to speak of one or multiple ways or pathsone or more dao
Campany, On the
Very Idea of Religions, 300.
41
This teaching encounter was probably composed on paper, and is probably not a report of an actual occurrence.
175
that its numinous pervasion and transformations could be like this? Your disciple
dares to ask this, so that his surprise and doubts might be dispelled.
The Master of Highest Yang replied, The Dao generates Heaven and Earth,
brings the transcendents and buddhas to completion, and organizes the myriad
things by classes. This is the precosmic Dao lit., the Dao from before Heaven
and Earth
. Now, presently, there are Heaven and Earth, humans, and the myriad
things; this is the postcosmic Dao. Yet the Dao runs within them. As for what I
am calling the precosmic Dao, its merit is universal and vast, and its application
cannot be plumbed. That which the heavens conceal is unimaginable, and cannot
be rashly discussed. Theres no need for you to rashly listen, either.
The disciple asked, What do you mean?
The master replied, Now, the Dao or dao
is dicult to put into words.
The disciple said, I wish to receive your instruction.
The master replied, Not yet. Superior gentlemen listen eagerly and are
courageous in their practice, and middling gentlemen listen tentatively and are
indolent in their practice. When inferior gentlemen hear of it, hostility and scorn
arise.
The disciple advanced on his knees, and said, Between Heaven and Earth,
the Dao or dao
is the most great. How could a middling or inferior gentleman
hear of it or receive it? Your disciple will not speculate about it on his own, and
with his simple minded mediocrity would not dare to slight or neglect it, or be
indolent. I wish to hear of the ultimate Dao or dao
.
The Master of Highest Yang replied, I once made an interpretive
commentary on the Daode jing, and as for the wonders of the ultimate Dao or
dao
, I have already indicated a few of the details in my essay on the Dao That
Can Be Spoken Of chapter the rst chapter of the Daode jing
.42 In a moment I
will bestow you with that.
Now, the Dao is none other than a yin and a yang: havent you heard this?
Heaven and Earth are a yin and a yang, humans are a yin and a yang,43 and each of
the myriad things is a yin and a yang. . . . As for the Dao of Heaven and Earth,
when yang reaches the limit it becomes yin, and when yin reaches the limit it
becomes yang; therefore the myriad things are nished and generated. As for the
Dao of human beings, when yin reaches the limit and stops, there is thus birth
and death in the world; when yang reaches the limit and stops, there is thus the
golden elixir in the world. Worldly birth and death are the postcosmic Dao of
repletion and deciency, waning and waxing. It is the golden elixir alone which is
none other than the Dao of Heaven and Earth, and does not make people or
things or, and is not procreation
. One does not seek it by following the
current; instead one attains it by advancing against the current, bringing life
without death. Such a person is called a sage, a transcendent, or a buddha. Do you
alone not know that the precosmic Dao or dao
is the golden elixir? People of
this generation are not only unaware that the precosmic Dao is the golden elixir:
when they hear of it, if their response does
not stop at mere
laughter, then
42
Chens essay Dao ke dao zhang Section on the Dao which can be spoken of is in juan 1 of Jindan
dayao 2.7b812b7 in DZ 1067.
43
I.e., humanity is composed of a yin human a woman and a yang human a man.
176

their response develops into ensuing slander and scorn.44 Therefore Confucius
said: If he is not a sage, there is no way
to teach him. . . .
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45
When Chen speaks of a that incites surprise, hostility, and slander, we should
recognize that he is no longer speaking about the cosmic Dao which would be
known to and largely accepted by all, including nonDaoists , but instead is speaking
of an esoteric dao, a dao which strains the credulity and tolerance of most people who
have never previously heard thishe is speaking of his own sexualalchemical dao.
Chens strategic shifts between Dao and dao can be tricky to catch, but we can see
him doing this in the second paragraph of the translation above. Between the words
. . . what I am calling the precosmic Dao, its merit is universal and vast . . . and . . .
is unimaginable, and cannot be rashly discussed, . . . Chen has shifted strategically
from a vast cosmic Dao to a sexual dao that cannot be rashly discussed without
inciting slander from ignorant philistines. There may be another such shift when the
disciple says Between Heaven and Earth, the is the most great. . . . I wish to hear
of the ultimate , . . . and Chen replies Not yet. . . . When inferior gentlemen hear
of it, hostility and scorn arise . . . The disciple seems to be referring to the cosmic
44
I read Rc as analogous to the Mandarin pattern \Aw\B.
45
DZ 1067, Shangyangzi jindan dayao 13.6a78a5.
177
Dao, and Chen is certainly referring to the sexual dao which arouses hostility .46 We
might say Chen shifts from Dao to dao, or we might say he embeds his dao within the
Dao as its mainstream.
This shift from Dao to dao is an example of strategic ambiguity, and is also a
clear example of a rhetorical strategy found throughout Chens works: marshaling
universal truths in service of his own particular truth, or extension. He argues for
the validity of sexual alchemy by rst citing a noncontroversial and widelyaccepted
religious truth such as the Dao, the buddhanature, or the person or teachings of
Laozi, kyamuni, Confucius, Mencius, or any one of various holy persons from
history or legend , then reinterpreting this truth in terms of sexual alchemy, and
attempting to convince us that the real import of this truth is to teach the sexual
dao of the golden elixir.
In the above passage we see that Chens teachings are not simply set pieces
that he applies in strategic ways, but that his teachings are strategic all the way
down. We nd traces of social competition everywhere in his writing, even in
abstract discussions. This is not to say that he has concocted his religious thought for
the sake of advancement in a teaching career. It is not a matter of making things up
from whole cloth, but of activating or emphasizing those conceptual or praxological
links or homologies from within Chens overall religious toolkit that would be most
useful to his purposes.47
2, Toward a General Conict Theory of Society

I have argued that it is appropriate to apply a conict view to the case of Chen
Zhixu; that is, to focus on the conictual aspects of his life and work, which are
indeed manifest and manifold. The remaining steps in this chapter are to draw the
46
When inferior gentlemen hear of it, hostility and scorn arise

recalls chapter 41 of the
Daode jing: When inferior gentlemen hear of the Dao, they have a big laugh over it
. Yet the
hostility mentioned by Chen is quite dierent from the mere derision or incredulity in the Daode jing passage.
47
See my discussion of Bourdieus concept of matrimonial strategies on p. 190 below.
178
outline of a general conict theory of society, and then to choose the best specic
theory for our purposes. In this section I take the rst of these two steps.
2.1, Conict.
Human social life is pervaded with both competition and
cooperation, with both conict and consensus.48 Conict is always based on some
sort of consensusevery debate has its rules of order and given topics, and every
ght has its groundrules49but consensus is not more basic than conict. Just as
species evolve through natural selection based on intraspecies competition as much
as on competition with other species
, human societies and cultures change due to
conict. In the animal and human worlds, conict and consensus exist in a dialectic,
and it is unrealistic to imagine any other state of aairs.
While human society will always possess both aspects, we may still ask which
aspect is dominant. Is human social life fundamentally characterized more by
conict, or by consensus? This might seem to be a false question fundamentally
conictual or consensual relative to what? , we might ask
, but I argue that it is
reasonable. Some societies are clearly more conictual than others, and it is also
reasonable to ask whether human society as such is more conictual or
consensual. We might compare human society as we know it with imagined utopian
societies, heavenly orders, animal orders, or even inorganic natural processes. Or we
might compare human social life as it is seen by sociologists with social life as
represented in our own commonsense view our common sense being based on our
own biography, culture, and society, of course
. So, nally, this is a reasonable
question.
2.2, Why choose conict theory?
There is no scholarly or cultural agreement
on the answer to this question of whether competition or consensus is more

48
Social conict may be dened as the intentional mutual exchange of negative sanctions, or punitive behaviors,
by two or more parties, which may be individuals, corporate actors, or more loosely knit quasigroups Blalock,
Power and Conict, 7
.
I understand the terms conict and competition to be largely interchangeable. Most conict is
competitive, and most competition aside from friendly games
is conictual. Finks review of the relation
between terms conict and competition in various conict theories shows that there is no general consensus
on how to use the two terms together; Fink, Some Conceptual Diculties in the Theory of Social Conict,
44053.
49
In Bourdieus terms, every eld has its doxa. Anthropological research has shown that even violent conict
follows culturally encoded patterns, has institutionalized forms, and is controlled and directed in its
appearance Elwert, Conict: Anthropological Aspects, 4:2543
.
179
dominant. Yet I will argue that, in the absence of theoretical agreement, a theory
assuming that conict is endemic to human society o ers unique theoretical
advantages.
We may all agree that every human society has possessed aspects of both
consensus and conict, and human social life as such will always possess both aspects.
Yet social theorists continue to disagree on issues such as:
how to dene conict, competition, or consensus,
whether conict is a species of competition, or vice versa,
how broadly or narrowly conict should be construed,
whether a general theory of conict is possible or desirable,
the relative amounts of conict and consensus in society or social groupings,
which varieties or patterns of conict are worthy of study,
at which level of society from micro to macrolevels conict should be
studied,
how di erent varieties of conict interrelate,
what kinds of general phenomena can be observed in conict relationships.50
With this much disagreement on basic points, we should not expect it to be easy to
develop a general theory of conict.
Theorists views on conict di er for objective technical or theoretical
reasons, but also for subjective moral or political reasons. In his book on the
conictconsensus debate in Western social thought,51 Thomas Bernard concludes
that most thinkers views on conict are actually based on their underlying
assumptions about human nature and proper human society, rather than on empirical
observation, and furthermore that the question of whether human society as such is
conictual is yet unresolved. Bernard has compared the positions of more than a
dozen classic and contemporary thinkers on the issue of social conict, analyzing
their views on human nature, their contemporary society, and the ideal society, and
dividing their positions into four types:
conservative consensus theorists such as Aristotle, Aquinas, and Locke, who
regard both their contemporary society and human nature as basically consensual;
sociological consensus theorists such as Hobbes, Durkheim, and Talcott
Parsons, who regard human nature as conictual but identify contemporary and
ideal society as a means of holding individuals together in a consensus;
50
Fink, Some Conceptual Di

culties in the Theory of Social Conict.
51
Bernard, The ConsensusConict Debate.
180
radical conict theorists such as Plato, Rousseau, and Marx, who regard
humans as having a sociallyharmonious nature which is made conictual by
society;
sociological conict theorists such as Machiavelli, Georg Simmel, and Ralf
Dahrendorf, who regard both human nature and human society as basically
conictual.52
In comparing the positions of thinkers from similar eras and societies, Bernard
shows how often assessments by two contemporaries of the same society may be
radically dierent, and in almost every case Bernard concludes that the dierence
between the two theorists is not one of empirical descriptions of existing societies,
but rather one of value judgments about what is described and predictions about the
future course of society which are also based upon these value judgments.53 For
example, Locke and Rousseau lived in similar oligarchical societies, but because
Locke saw this social arrangement as legitimate, he did not recognize any real
endemic struggle within his society, and therefore saw his society as consensual.
Rousseau did not see the arrangement of his society as legitimate, and so he was
inclined to see it as marked by conict.54 In midcentury sociological thought,
functionalists were inclined to support the status quo of modern society and of
society in general, and thus to describe the dominant power group as incorporating
the large majority of people in a society, making this social arrangement morally
legitimate and practically stable.55 Marxists, on the other hand, were inclined to
reject the status quo of modern society and of most known human societies in favor
of a utopian society, and thus to portray the dominant social group as quite small,
making this social arrangement morally illegitimate and practically precarious.
Bernard argues that, until the question of whether human society as such is
more conictual or consensual has been answered empirically, sociological
conict theories56 are the best option that we have. Unlike sociological consensus
e.g., functionalist theorists, or radical conict e.g., Marxist theorists, sociological
52
Bernard, The ConsensusConict Debate, passim, esp. viii ix, 189 93.
53
Bernard, The ConsensusConict Debate, 102.
54
55
56
E.g., the theories of Ralf Dahrendorf, Lewis Coser, or Randall Collins.
181
conict theorists are not fundamentally biased toward or against the status quo of
their own society or other societies. Sociological conict theories merely provide a
framework for analyzing conict, and are not intended as weapons in a culture war.57
If evidence emerges in the future suggesting that human nature and society are
relatively more consensual or conictual, this nding could be incorporated into the
sociological conict approach,58 but until then, this approach may operate with
thinner assumptions about the basic character of human nature or society.
Sociological conict theories emphasis on conict is a methodological choice
rather than a moral one. In a similar vein, I argue that emphasizing conict over
consensus helps us to remain alert to the possibility of di
erences between
individuals and within groups at all levels of society, rather than merely between
societies. Emphasizing conict over consensus has heuristic advantages. For
example, when introducing students to unfamiliar traditions, it is easier to draw
students into the material by teaching the debates within the tradition or between
rival traditions emphasizing conict rather than by merely describing static
structural elements in the tradition emphasizing consensus. The same strategy
works for introducing unfamiliar material in writing to any audience. This bias
toward conict is based on the practical exigency of presenting the subject in a
striking light and drawing the audience into the subject.
In the eld of Daoist studies, too many scholars have preferred to study
Daoist history, structure, and ideas as a general continuum, perhaps implicitly
distinguishing Daoism from Western religion and culture, but not marking sharp
di
erences within the continuum of Daoism itself. The best way to cultivate an
alertness and sensitivity to di
erences within Daoism is by emphasizing conict
within Daoism. All scholars of Daoism would agree that the history of Daoism has
been a history of political struggle and competitive cultural innovation, but scholars
have not emphasized strife enough, or have underestimated the pervasiveness of
strife in Daoist religious life. Scholars have too often represented the history of
Daoist concepts or texts as an unfolding of ideas themselves, when in fact the main
57
58
182
motor of change is social competition between individuals between dierent

Daoists, or between Daoists and nonDaoists, or between people who are
sometimes Daoist, or Daoist in some aspect.59
One ne model of a conict approach to the study of Chinese thought and
religion is Michael Puetts book To Become a God. In this book, Puett rereads classic
early Chinese philosophical and religious texts as arguments, as statements in a
cultural debate over concepts of divinity shen .60 He criticizes attempts by some
modern scholars to understand Chinese ideas as features of a Chinese mind, or
attempts by others to explain the ideas of particular texts in terms of a broad
evolution of Chinese ideas across the millennia, and criticizes as well the common
habit of marking particular texts as representatives of schools of thought such as
Confucianism or Daoism.
All of these interpretive strategiesreading in terms of schools, essentialized
denitions of culture, evolutionary frameworkshave the consequence of erasing
the unique power that particular claims had at the time. My strategy is, instead,
to contextualize through a dierent approach: to ask why statements are made in
particular situations, to understand the cultural signicance they would have had
at the time, and to work out the historical consequences of the ensuing debates.61
Following Puett, we must view religious ideas, not as the solid and natural furniture
of an ageless and holistic Chinese cultural system, but rather as unsteady new
proposals advanced in specic circumstances and rmed up through cultural debate.
We must think of teachings like those of Chen Zhixu as arguments in cultural
debates about specic issues relating to tradition, lineage, or selfcultivation, rather
than merely expressions of the Daoist mind. Finally we must move beyond the
59
Exceptions include the work of Stephen Bokenkamp e.g., Scripture of the Inner Explanations of the Three
Heavens: Introduction, in his Early Daoist Scriptures, 186203, Kenneth Dean e.g., Taoist Ritual and Popular Cults
of Southeast China, and Lord of the Three in One, and Paul Katz e.g., Images of the Immortal. Articles by Schipper
Purity and Strangers and Stein Religious Taoism and Popular Religion must also be mentioned. Skar, Golden
Elixir Alchemy comes close to the perspective adopted in this chapter, but Skar emphasizes consensus at the
expense of conict. He identies selfcultivation as a form of cultural power that elites could use at court or
among their peers 23. Adepts and their patrons used these new inneralchemical teachings and the
transcendents bound up with them to add to the repertoire of literati association 231. Yet the texts of the
Southern Lineage of the Golden Elixir whose teachings he is referring to here are rife with polemicthe story
of inner alchemy is a story of division as much as association.
60
Bokenkamp notes that such debates are not always carried out in terms of grand concepts, but often in terms
of the various local concerns of importance to the people involved therein; Bokenkamp, Ancestors and Anxiety, 17
18.
61
Puett, To Become a God, 25.
183
range of Puetts book and place Chens teachings within larger social and cultural
contexts, rather than considering only intertextual relations within an intellectual
arena, as Puett does.
2.3, Why choose Bourdieu as a conict theorist?
The conict view of Daoist
mastership that I propose in this chapter is based on the social thought of Pierre
Bourdieu. Although Bourdieu uses the term conict only rarely he uses the term
violence more often , David Swartz characterizes Bourdieus view as a conict
view of the social world, which tends to downplay processes of imitation or
cooperation.62 Out of all the work on conict theory I have reviewed for this
chapter, I have found Bourdieus work the most useful, as I will explain below. To
understand where Bourdieus conict theory stands within the eld of conict
theories, we may chart conict theories along two axes, as constructed by C. J.
Crouch gure 3.1 below .63

Momentous
Structural
functionalism

Mundane
Marxism
Insitutionalization of
conflict theories
Micro-functionalism;
applied sociology
Critical
applied
sociology
Functions of
conflict approaches
Neo-Weberian
sociology
X
Exceptional
Y
Endemic
Fig. 3.1, The main axes of sociological theories of conict
The X axis runs from Mundane to Momentous i.e., from theories that
treat conict as a minor occurrence to theories that treat conict as a cataclysmic
event , and the Y axis runs from Exceptional to Endemic i.e., from theories that
treat conict as a rare event to theories that treat conict as part of everyday life in a
normal society .
62
Swartz, Culture and Power: The Sociology of Pierre Bourdieu, 6364.
63
Figure 1 and the following discussion is from Crouch, Conict Sociology, 4:255558.
184
In quadrant 1, we nd Talcott Parsons functionalist sociology, in which

conict is regarded as unusual and undesirable.64 In quadrant 2, we nd Marxism,
which concerns itself with major conicts between classes, conicts which are
regarded as inescapable in feudal and capitalist societies. Because they treat conict
as a momentous occurrence, both of these theories are inappropriate for the study of
conict in Chen Zhixus career and teachings. We have seen that, in Chens case,
conict is endemic rather than exceptional. Marxism and its heirs such as Ralf
Dahrendorf s institutionalization of conict theory65 are further inappropriate
because they treat mainly classes or other large groups. Functions of conict
approaches as found in the work of Georg Simmel or Lewis Coser are unsuitable for
the same reason.66 Randall Collins microfunctionalism is more useful, because it
discusses conict at the microlevel.67 But NeoWeberian approaches are the most
appropriate, because they recognize conict as endemic and ubiquitous in everyday
life as it is for Chen Zhixu. Also, whereas Marx imagines a simple polarization of
society into propertied and nonpropertied classes,68 Weber and his heirs recognize
the complexity of social stratication in cultural and social terms as well as
economic. Chen Zhixu cannot be easily sited within a Marxian economic class
structure. As an itinerant teacher, he is economically marginal; his sexual alchemy
makes him culturally marginal within Daoist society, yet his secret circle of disciples
includes many social and religious elites. So he is a marginal gure within the
economic eld, but an authority within his local Daoist subeld.
As I will show below, Bourdieus sociology of culture is basically Weberian.
Among all of the positions in Crouchs eld of conict theories in gure 3.1 above,
NeoWeberian theories are the most appropriate for the study of endemic, mundane
conict, and among conict theories of this type, Bourdieus work o
ers the richest
array of concepts and methods, on macro, meso, and microlevels.
64
E.g., Parsons and Smelser, Economy and Society.
65
Dahrendorf, Class and Class Conict in Industrial Society.
66
Simmel, Conict and the Web of Group Aliations; Coser, The Functions of Social Conict.
67
Collins, Conict Theory: Toward an Explanatory Science.
68
Turner, Conict Theory, 136.
185
Crouch writes that Todays postmodern, postCold War world presents a

scene in which conict seems at once endemic and directionless, and sociological
theory is reecting that.69 This comment is a good characterization of Bourdieus
work. Bourdieus theory of elds is based on his research on academics, artists,
writers, and middleclass consumers in modern French society, and the theory of
conict as endemic and mundane that we may abstract from his specic research
reects the modern society which he both studies and embodies. Surprisingly
enough, Bourdieus distinctively modern view of conict as endemic and
directionless is also well suited to Chen Zhixus specic social environment, even
though Chens premodern Chinese society would seem to be otherwise quite foreign
to Bourdieus modern Western society.
3, Bourdieus Sociology of Culture

My study of Chen Zhixus alchemy in the remainder of this chapter takes the social
thought of Pierre Bourdieu as its framework. My reading of Bourdieu is deeply
indebted to David Swartzs study, Culture and Power: The Sociology of Pierre Bourdieu.
Bourdieu did not write much about religion,70 so why is his thought my best choice
here? I will study religion as culture, and sociologists of culture tell us that peoples
main use of culture is to deal with institutions and social structures,71 so religion
must be studied in relation to these structures. Bourdieu o
ers a sophisticated
approach to the study of the politics of culture, one which attends to the macrolevel
structures of societies class and habitus , and to the microlevel strategies of
individual persons struggling to improve their cultural and economic positions by
accumulating and converting di
erent forms of capital, and furthermore adds the
mesolevel concept of eld. Bourdieus work o
ers one of the most appealing
theoretical frameworks for understanding relations between persons, groups,
69
Crouch, Conict Sociology, 4:2558.
70
His longest work on the sociology of religion is an article, Genesis and Structure of the Religious Field.
71
186
structures, and cultural products.

The view of culture as an arena for social striving has deeply informed my
study of Chen Zhixus teachings and biography from the beginning of my research.
This view is current within the human sciences, which is partially due to Bourdieus
work. Yet Bourdieu does not merely support a view of culture as a competitive arena:
he has developed a set of new concepts and theories to sharpen this general view. For
my purposes, Bourdieus most important concepts are eld, capital, and
misrecognition, and his most important theoretical insights include the
interconvertibility of various forms of capital, the semiautonomy of elds, and the
function of elds in mediating macrostructures.
3.1, Bourdieu and Weber
Bourdieu, like Karl Marx, studies the relation between cultural and economic life,
but unlike Marx he does not reduce culture to a merely suprastructural legitimating
function. Building on Max Webers thesisthat not only does economic activity
shape religious ideas, but religious ideas can also shape economic activity72
Bourdieu applies Webers religious thesis to culture more generally. Weber speaks of
the eects of ideas, but this is not to say that ideas generally exercise direct eects
upon social life. For Weber and Bourdieu, more important than ideas are ideational
interestsideas as used by social actors for their own purposes. As Weber says, Not
ideas, but material and ideational interests, directly govern mens conduct.73 The
action of individuals or groups is interested, strategic, and aimed at advantage, yet
interests can be ideational as well as strictly material. Bourdieu develops Webers
concept of ideational interest into a theory of various types of interest, all distinct
from but intertwined with material interest. I will analyze Chen Zhixus teachings
and biography in terms of Bourdieus economic, cultural, social, and symbolic
interests.
Bourdieu studies human action as social action, and he assumes that peoples
action is directed toward other people, rather than toward transcendent ideals or
72
As in Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism.
73
Weber, From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology, 280.
187
superhuman entities. Weber writes that, while religious life is more than merely an
outgrowth of economic life as Marx would say, it is still a human social product:
the most elementary forms of behavior motivated by religious or magical factors
are oriented to this world. . . . Religious or magical thinking must not be set apart
from the range of everyday purposive conduct, particularly since even the ends of
the religious and magical actions are predominantly economic.74
Bourdieu adds that Webers insight allows him to escape from the simplistic
alternative . . . between . . . the absolute autonomy of mythical or religious discourse
and the reductionist theory that makes it the direct reection of social structures.75
Following Bourdieu, I will neither regard Chens religion as an autonomous realm or
system with its own phenomena or laws as Mircea Eliade or Claude Lvi Strauss
might do, nor will I reduce it to social structure as Marx would do. Chens
teachings are inseparable from his social position, yet neither are they reducible to
this. Chens striving for social goals, and for the extra social goal of salvation, is
mediated by his interests, strategies, and struggles in religious and other cultural elds
which I will introduce presently.76
Bourdieu regards social life as fundamentally agonistic, characterized by strife,
not only on the macro level, but in all the little deeds of daily life. The recurring
image one nds in Bourdieus work is one of competitive distinction, domination,
and misperception; this is a conict view of the social world, which tends to
downplay processes of imitation or cooperation.77 This view is a fundamental
presupposition not a hypothesis for testing,78 and, as such, is a point in his thought
that is open to criticism. Yet Bourdieus conict view is also one of the reasons why
his thought is suitable as a framework for studying the teachings of Chen Zhixu and
other Chinese masters like him. Much of Chens writing is manifestly interested,
74
Weber, Economy and Society, 399.
75
Bourdieu, Genesis and Structure of the Religious Field, 5.
76
Chens religious striving is oriented toward goals in this world, but also toward reward in the heavens or union
with the Dao. His trajectory beyond the human realm is still presented in social terms of course: the celestial
bureaucracy is consciously modeled on the Chinese imperial bureaucracy, for example. Daoist heavens are often
imagined as societies, but not human societies. We may doubt whether Chens conceptualization escapes the circle
of human society, but we may not doubt his extra human, transcendent aspirations.
77
Swartz, Culture and Power: The Sociology of Pierre Bourdieu, 63

64.
78
188
agonistic, even antagonistic. At any time his discourse on technical aspects of

alchemy can segue into a criticism of rival teachings on selfcultivation. Given that
parts of Chens writing are manifestly agonistic, it is reasonable to view all of his
writing as possessing this agonistic aspect to some degree, or at least to have been
shaped in agonistic contexts. His struggle with rival teachers must thus be present,
whether as a trace in all of his writing as I have suggested in section 1.2, pages 174
78 above , or as a basic reason for his engaging in teaching activities at all as
Bourdieu might say . David Swartz notes that Bourdieus approach works best for
certain professions in the media, the arts, and academe, where individuals seek to
convert their valued cultural resources into economic rewards;79 Chens profession
as master of a dao of salvation is just such a case.
Bourdieu has developed a sophisticated model for the study of culture: a
political economy of practices, which he calls a science of the reproduction of
structures. His fundamental aim is to study how stratied social systems of
hierarchy and domination persist and reproduce intergenerationally without
powerful resistance and without the conscious recognition of their members.80 The
basic elements of this model are superstructure,81 habitus, eld, capital, and practice.
3.2, Habitus
Habitus is a matrix of practices, a exible system of structures produced and
reproduced semi or unconsciously by each generation, a set of loosely organized
dispositions or principle rather than conscious aims or procedures.82 Habitus is a
heuristic concept, expressing Bourdieus view that practices are not structured in
terms of formal rules, but neither do practices represent individuals unfettered free
will. We may even say that habitus is a polemical concept, by which Bourdieu stakes
79
80
81
Superstructure includes the economy, polity, and class structure of a society. I will not be dealing with this level of
social structure in my study of Chen Zhixu.
82
In Bourdieus words, habitus is a system of durable, transposable dispositions, structured structures
predisposed to function as structuring structures, that is, as principles which generate and organize practices and
representations that can be objectively adapted to their outcomes without presupposing a conscious aiming at
ends or an express mastery of the operations necessary in order to obtain them; The Logic of Practice, 53.
189
out a position in opposition to both objective structuralist and subjective

existentialist positions, as exemplied by Claude Lvi
Strauss and Jean
Paul Sartre
respectively. With habitus, Bourdieu is asserting what practice is not as much as what
practice is.
Practice is not strictly based on codes, because in practice social actors vary
their use of overlapping social codes such as rules about cousin
marriage and
cosmological schemes such as cosmological correlations between parts of a human
body, parts of a house, and seasons83 according to context. A telling example of how
Bourdieus approach diers from a structuralist approach is the fact that Bourdieu
replaces the idea of rules of kinship with matrimonial strategies.84 Peoples actual
deployment of social codes is strategic, and cannot be adequately represented by the
owcharts of a structuralist kinship analyst. These codes and schemes have an
inherent practical coherence85 because they are all generated by the same
underlying habitus
matrix, yet their linkages are polyvalent, allowing individuals or
traditions to apply them variously in practices. Codes and schemes are used
strategically in practices, but this strategy is often unconscious, being the eect of
lifeways what Bourdieu calls objective intentions86 that ow through similar
channels over the generations, as much as the conscious work of individual agents.
A habitus is a class subculture, an array of dispositions possessed by a social
class. Class, in turn, is dened as all of the people sharing a common habitus. Habitus
is both structured and structuring: it is structured by the life chances or
conditions of existence of the people in that class, and it in turn structures their
aspirations and expectations. The dispositions of a habitus are master patterns of
behavioral style that cut across cognitive, normative, and corporal dimensions of
human action.87 A male habitus characterized by machismo, for example, could be
expressed in all aspects of a mans life, including language, nonverbal
83
Bourdieu, Outline of a Theory of Practice, 157.
84
Swartz, Culture and Power: The Sociology of Pierre Bourdieu, 99. Cf. Bourdieu, Outline of a Theory of Practice, 3071.
85
86
87
190
communication, tastes, values, perceptions, and modes of reasoning.88 Habitus can

be seen in specic lifestyles, and bodily ways of being in the world. The corporal
aspect of habitus, called hexis, is the unconscious embodiment of principles and
values specic to a class or group. Bourdieu calls this process of embodiment
an implicit pedagogy, capable of instilling a whole cosmology, an ethic, a
metaphysic, a political philosophy, through injunctions as insignicant as stand
up straight or dont hold your knife in your left hand.89
In addition to its hexis, a habitus will also generate a distinctive pattern of lifestyles
or aesthetic tastes specic to its social class. Bourdieu characterizes the four
lifestyles of the four social classes in France, for example, as ostentatious indulgence
and ease within the upper class, aristocratic aestheticism among intellectuals,
awkward pretension by middleclass strivers, and antipretentious ignorance and
conformity within the working class.90 These lifestyles are structured by the past
social conditions of the members of a class, and in turn structure their future
horizon.
For Bourdieu, people develop practices as they act, on the basis of their semi
conscious habituses and their accrued capital, within elds.91 In my study of
Chen Zhixu, I draw on the concepts of capital and eld to explain Chens
practices as strategic action, and make little direct application of the concept of
habitus. Chen Zhixu shares the same basic literati class habitus with his rivals,
friends, patrons, disciples, and readers, and indeed with every other party, group, or
type of person who appears in his writings, so as we compare Chen with his rivals and
friends, habitus is a constant quantity within the equation, and will not help us
understand the dierences among the ideational interests we nd.
The concept of habitus will still be relevant throughout this dissertation,
however. My account of Chen Zhixus teachings as strategic, semisystematic
applications and mobilizations of selfcultivation practices, social forms, myths, or
88
89
Bourdieu, Outline of a Theory of Practice, 94. The concept of bodily hexis is clearly indebted to the philosophical
phenomenology of Maurice MerleauPonty, et al.
90
91
191
cosmological and soteriological concepts is informed by Bourdieus concept of

habitus as a loose cosmological matrix applied strategically through the practices of
individual agents within traditional lifeways. Bourdieus concept must be applied
carefully, however. In Outline of a Theory of Practice, Bourdieu often warns
ethnographers against intellectualizing the practices they are studying, against
regarding them as philosophy, against seeking eternal answers to the eternal
questions . . . in the practical answers which the peasants . . . have given to the
practical . . . problems which were forced on them by their lifeconditions.92 But
with Chen Zhixu, we have not a peasant, but an intellectual. Chen does elaborate
cosmological meanings consciously, yet Chens teachings are still a form of practice.
Bourdieus account of practices being generated out of the loose matrix of the
habitus does apply to Chen Zhixus teachingaspractice, but not directly. Chen
Zhixus teachings are situated somewhere along the continuum in gure 3.2:
X
Y
Unconscious
workaday practices
Semiconscious
micropolitical practices
Hyperconscious
intellectual practices
Governed by
practical logic
Governed by
decient logic
Governed by
formal logic
Unconscious objective
intention only
Practices are infused

with strategic intent
Practices have a place

within a general strategy
Fig. 3.2, Continuum of consciousness, logic, and strategy of practices
The peasant practices that Bourdieu alludes to in Outline of a Theory of Practice and
The Logic of Practice would belong to a range extending from point X on the left pole
of the continuum toward the center Y. The practices of mathematicians or formal
logicians, for an opposite example, would belong to point Z at the right pole of the
continuum. Academic logicians are just as strategic as any social actors, but there may
be little evidence of strategic moves within the detail of their theorizing itself.
Rather, their theorizing is part of general strategy with the goal of success in
academic competition, for example. I have argued above in my analysis of Chen
Zhixus use of the term dao or Dao that Chens theorizing is infused with
92
192
strategic action. I would place Chen near point Y on the continuum, where his
teachingaspractice is governed by Bourdieus concepts of habitus and practice, but
less directly. The concept of habitus helps to articulate a point that I made in section
1.2 above pages 17478 , that Chens teachings are permeated with political
strategies. Chens teaching activity is neither habitual behavior nor formal
philosophy, but something inbetween. It is semiselfconscious micropolitical
practice, governed by inconsistent logic, and infused with strategic intent.
3.3, Field
A eld is a network, or conguration, of objective relations between positions.93
The concept of elds in the social sciences is based in part on the concept in physics
of the electromagnetic eld. Fields are
arenas of production, circulation, and appropriation of goods, services,
knowledge, or status, and the competitive positions held by actors in their
struggle to accommodate and monopolize these di
erent kinds of capital. Fields
may be thought of as structured spaces that are organized around specic types
of capital or combinations of capital.94
Fields are similar to markets in some respects, but unlike the concept of market,
the concept of eld suggests not only exchanges between buyers and sellers, but
also rank and hierarchy within a force eld. Fields are similar to institutions when
institution is dened in the broadest sense , but the concept of eld privileges
struggle rather than consensus. The concept of eld is more exible than the
concept of institution: elds can incorporate multiple institutions, or multiple
elds may be found within a single institution. The concept of eld may also be used
for undeveloped societies or subcultures with weak institutionalization.95 Bourdieus
theory of elds of struggle for capital is reminiscent of Foucaults hydraulic theory
of power,96 but Bourdieu criticizes Foucault for paying insucient attention to
93
Swartz, Culture and Power: The Sociology of Pierre Bourdieu, 117. Cf. Martin, What is Field Theory? for a
discussion of the advantages of a eldtheory approach in sociology.
94
95
96
As in, for example, Foucault, The History of Sexuality, vol. 1.
193
institutions.97
An aspect of Bourdieus social thought that is most signicant for my study of
Chen Zhixu is Bourdieus attention to how elds mediate outside interests. Fields
have internal dynamics, capitals, aims, and vectors, which modulate external e
ects.
The e
ects of economic forces upon individuals, for example, are mediated by elds,
translated into terms or valences specic to each eld. The concept of eld is a
conduit for Bourdieus polemic against class reductionism and vulgar materialism.98
Human action, or practices, cannot be reduced to the e
ects of class habitus or
economic interests alone. Struggle within a eld is in terms of the elds capital and
positions, rather than in terms of external structures. External inuences are always
retranslated into the internal logic of elds.99 The eld Bourdieu has studied in the
most detail is the intellectual eld, the eld of academic practice in France. For
him, intellectuals are strategists who aim to maximize their inuence within cultural
elds.100 He argues that an academics intellectual or political stances cannot be
explained merely in terms of his or her scientic judgment, philosophical inclination,
or class habitus, but always reect the internal structure of the intellectual eld and
his or her discrete position within that eld or within overlapping elds.
Based on my reading of the sociology of culture of Bourdieu and Ann Swidler,
I feel that it would be irresponsible to study culture without also studying the social
structures elds or institutions in which culture is inscribed. Swidler has suggested
that
a good deal of what we normally mean by culture is not an internalized set of
values, easily transportable from one institutional setting to another. Precisely the
opposite: most culture sustains the symbolic capacities people develop to deal
with institutions. ...
Even the deeper parts of culturehow people conceive the nature of
personhood, the sense in which one is an individual, or the ways one feels
obligated to collectivities, may be much more directly tied to the institutional
forms than we normally acknowledge. . . .
This formulation of how culture inuences action calls for an approach
97
Swartz, Culture and Power: The Sociology of Pierre Bourdieu, 79n17.
98
99
100
194
dierent from those that prevail in much of the sociology and anthropology of
culture. First, it suggests that rather than looking at cultural meanings in the
abstract, it is crucial to attend to the contexts in which they are actually used.101
Swidler shows how people use culture as a toolbox of resources for negotiating their
way through institutions, and she believes that this is one of the main functions of
culture as such. Bourdieus sociology speaks of elds rather than institutions, but
makes a similar point, and to this adds case studies and new conceptual instruments.
Swidlers work does not address the question of how intellectual culture ts within
institutions, but Bourdieu has devoted much study to intellectual elds. Both make
the same point: we cannot understand culture without attending to how it is being
used within strategies for action, and cannot understand these strategies without
attending to mesolevel social structures such as elds or institutions. In the case
of Chen Zhixu, we cannot understand his alchemical teachings without attending to
his jockeying for authority with rival teachers, and, further, we cannot understand
Chens specic relations with his rivals without placing them within a general,
agonistic eld of production, consumption, and transmission of teachings on self
cultivation. This is not to say that Chens religious activity is completely reducible to
social activity, only to say that his religious activity in life is thoroughly and
inescapable social.
In studying the phenomenology of elds, Bourdieu has shown how two or
more elds may develop homologous patterns, including positions of dominance
and subordination, strategies of exclusion and usurpation, and mechanisms of
reproduction and change.102 A notable example of this phenomenon is the way that
struggles between producers in the cultural eld produce analogous eects in the
social eld:
legitimation of social class inequality is not the product of conscious intention
but stems from a structural correspondence between dierent elds. . . . When
cultural producers pursue their own specic interests in elds, they unwittingly
produce homologous eects in the social class structure. . . . In serving the
interests of their particular elds, intellectuals also serve the interests of the class
101
Swidler, Talk of Love, 177, 179.
102
195
structure.103
The structural correspondence between elds is underlain by shared habitus or
aspects shared by distinct habitusesspecically, by a common set of dichotomous
symbolic categories such as rare/common, good/bad, high/low, inside/outside, male/
female, light/heavy, or distinguished/vulgar.104 When intellectuals employ these
distinctions for cognitive purposes in the intellectual eld, this can help reproduce or
reinforce corresponding class distinctions in the social eld.
I will not be studying medieval Chinese class relations in this dissertation, but
we may note how Chen employs eld homologies as he strives for distinction as a
master, and for personal salvation. For example, Chen sometimes makes a distinction
between the two or three quasisocialclasses of holy selfcultivators and vulgar
worldlings. A class of men with middling potential is sometimes listed between the
two levels of superior and inferior men, as in the following example:
The Master of Highest Yang says: There are three levels
of transmission of the
dao.
The superior ones in this scheme
are men of letters and virtuous gentlemen,
of few words and loving the good, able to discard their wealth, and anxious only
about their person. These are called superior gentlemen, and one may transmit
the dao to them.
The middling ones in this scheme
are solid but unlettered; hearing of the
dao, they have deep trust in it, and are able to sever loving attachments, put eort
into making improvement, and do not pay attention to squabbles. These are
called middling gentlemen. If they have the same intention as a superior
gentleman, one may transmit the dao to them.
The inferior ones in this scheme
, though foolish, are of stout faith, delight
in good and discard evil, giving up their own desires
to follow others, and acting
with daring and courage. These are called inferior gentlemen. If their intention
passes muster, one may still transmit the dao to them.
485, ,1
91'+.2(#
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58,,> <8?!'-&7;
3 @$ $

58,,6!:=
1+/*)"0%$
58,105
This class hierarchy within the eld of religious practice would be homologous in
some respects with a class hierarchy within the social eld, or more fundamentally,
103
104
105
DZ 1067, Shangyangzi jindan dayao 8.6a7 b3.
196
within the superstructure of the society. Yet Chens employment of eld homologies
is strategic, not mechanically structuralist. In the above passage, Chen lists three
levels of cultivator, and he oers a place within his dao for even the lowest. In the
passage below, Chen lists two kinds of cultivator, excluding the lower one from his
dao, and he does this for strategic purposes.
In the following example, Chen tells his disciple Wang Shunmin 3 a
tea transport ocial that superior men practice earnestly once they receive the dao,
while fools have doubts and are unwilling to proceed:
The old transcendent Chunyang L Dongbin said, Then, even if you set to
work now and speedily cultivate, you are still too late, in order to spur superior
gentlemen to be sure to diligently cultivate the dao once they have heard it. As for
those common men, when they hear it they are both surprised and dubious,
unwilling to get to work as soon as possible. The ash of a thunderboltthe
spark from the striking of stoneslike the speed of an arrowo, how
frighteningly quickly does human life pass! Now I tell you, Chuyangzi, do not
neglect it!
-4'1+2> :65"0$@
(A9
%, 7/?<1*)
;&4!B#=106
Chen is trying to make rm his disciples commitment to self cultivation, both by
warning him that death looms near and only Chens dao can save Wang from his
mortal fate, and by warning Wang that if he does not practice diligently, this will
prove him to be a commoner rather than a superior gentleman. Chen is
employing a eld homology between classes in the social eld and classes in the
religious eld. Wang Shunmin is a subocial functionary li whose line of work is
transporting tea mingcao .8 .107 Wang may have an ambiguous social position, or at
least a position of middling or low social status within the literati class. Chen takes
advantage of Wangs social location to make a religious point, threatening to demote
Wang to the rank of religious commoner. This strategic move, originally written for
the purpose of managing his teacher patron relationship with Wang, is then printed
in Jindan dayao for the purpose of perpetuating this as a social structure. This micro
structure, in turn, would structure future teacher patron relationships.
106
DZ 1067, Shangyangzi jindan dayao 11.3b1

5.
107
DZ 1067, Shangyangzi jindan dayao, preface, 4b5.
197
For Bourdieu, there are many eldsas many elds as there are forms of
capitalbut all elds can be given specic locations relative to a metaeld, the
eld of power. Bourdieus work on elds is based mainly on his study of modern
France; he has determined that two major competing principles of social hierarchy
. . . shape the struggle for power in modern societies: the distribution of economic
capital . . . and the distribution of cultural capital.108 These two principles can be
represented as two poles on a continuum, and this continuum can be used as the X
axis in a twodimensional space, with volume or amount of capital as the Yaxis. The
eld of power encompasses the upper part of the space of capital, and other elds are
arrayed within the eld of power gure 3.3 .109 We can mark the position of any
actor or group in a eld based on the amount of economic and cultural capital they
possess. Bourdieu identies two types within each eld: in the French academic
eld for instance, professional researchers are located toward the EC/CC+ pole,
and university mandarins toward the EC+/CC pole. We can also mark the
positions of entire elds relative to one another. Religious, artistic, and intellectual
elds will usually be located toward the EC/CC+ pole of the Xaxis continuum for
a given society, and relatively high or low on the Yaxis depending on the status of
the eld within that society. Chen Zhixu, as an itinerant master with little economic
capital but a certain amount of cultural capital as an educated man and Daoist
master, would be located near the EC/CC+ edge of his religious eld.
more capital
3.
2.
EC-/CC+
EC+/CC1.
less capital
Fig. 3.3
EC/CC+ indicates relatively more cultural capital CC
than economic capital EC , and EC+/CC vice versa.
1: The entire space of capital. 2: The eld of power. 3: The religious eld.
108
109
This gure is based on Figure I in Swartz, Culture and Power: The Sociology of Pierre Bourdieu, 139.
198
3.4, Capital
A eld is a structured space organized around a specic form of capital. The concept
of a variety of dierent interconvertible forms of capital is perhaps Bourdieus most
widelyknown contribution to social science. Bourdieu took Webers idea of
ideational interests that are distinct from material interests, and developed his own
idea of a cultural capital that is distinct from economic capital. Cultural and
economic capital are not Bourdieus only forms of capital. Bourdieu, unlike Marx,
sees a much broader range of types of labor social, cultural, political, religious,
familial, to name but a few that constitute power resources110 and can be embodied
as capitals. Usually, though, Bourdieu speaks of four generic types of capital:
economic capital money and property, cultural capital cultural goods and services
including educational credentials, social capital acquaintances and networks, and
symbolic capital legitimation.111 Cultural capital, for instance, covers a wide
variety of resources including such things as verbal facility, general cultural awareness,
aesthetic preferences, information about the school system, and educational
credentials.112 All forms of capital are used by dominant groups within a society, or
by dominant individuals within a group, in the struggle for power. Bourdieus
descriptions of capital are based on his study of modern France, and must be
modied somewhat when applied to any other society, but still hold much
explanatory value for my study of premodern China.
It is not hard to apply the concepts of economic, cultural, social, and symbolic
capital to the case of Chen Zhixu. Economic capital does not weigh heavily on
Chens mind.113 The only type of luxury goods Chen would need economic capital
for, apparently, are female partners and a secure space for practice. To obtain the
economic capital needed to hire female partners, and private quarters for sexual
cultivation, Chen mobilizes his social and cultural capital. Through his social
110
111
112
113
Economic capital did not weigh as heavily on Chens mind as it might for some religious people, such as, for
example, a religious layman worried about the corrupting eects of money.
199
network of masterdisciple relationships, he is able to meet rich and powerful patrons

such as Tian Zhizhai K from a HanHmong warlord clan, Zhang Shihong 8
a high court ocial, or Luo Xizhu L!' an eminent Daoist from a national
temple, who could oer the women and quarters he needed. Chen nds such
patrons through his network social capital and gains their patronage by proving his
status as a cultured literatus and authentic alchemical master cultural capital,
receiving in return lodging and probably women economic goods. He also receives
money from patrons directly. Chens defensiveness about possessing cai 5 which can
mean either wealth or alchemical material, and the way he contrasts cai with
religious poverty, suggests that he would indeed have received cash from disciples or
patrons:
In general, whenever the fools and vulgar men of the present generation hear of
techniques and wealth, they have a hearty laugh, and say that selfcultivators
must be impoverished to the bone, and not wear even a stitch. They only practice
stubborn seated meditation, and devolve into empty vacuity and haziness without
horizon.
?HF(50
4+J3*2E6;<
:9#C /)7MI114
There are some passages which suggest that Chen may also have given teachings
cultural capital to his female partners in exchange for their sexual labor and its
product the prenatal yang qi possessed only by women:
Having heard the ultimate dao and yet lacking elixir material, one is cautious and
careful; having met one who has more than enough elixir material
and is fond of
virtue, then the two people can make an exchange. This is called application of
both technique and wealth, with neither party lacking in either of the two
goods
.
-FA ",DD@@BG=*,1>&.(5$
%115
Now, according to the technique of nine recyclings and seven reversions, one
must unite the external ingredient with the inner ingredient. If one does not have
gold and jewels as a surety, how can one gain the wonder of this jing? How can one
cause the tiger to submit in order to cause the dragon to descend? How can one
114
DZ 91, Taishang dongxuan lingbao wuliang duren shangpin miaojing zhujie 2.52b68. Chen is either criticizing Chan
Buddhists yisi bugua <: is a Chan phrase, referring to a mind which relies on nothing, or to Daoists who
act like Chan Buddhists.
115
DZ 1067, Shangyangzi jindan dayao 13.12a10b2. Because the word dancai " is used here, it probably refers to
the female partners material cai ", rather than the patrons wealth cai 5.
200
attain the state in which the precosmic qi comes out of void nonbeing?
H)I I2+*J/E,9:@#

9'4F
9:3!=L%116
In the second passage above, Chen takes the term jing @ scripture from the
Scripture of Salvation Duren jing -@, and reinterprets it to refer to the womans
qi which appears before her menses her yue jing @. This alchemical pun is based
on a sentence from the alchemical classic, Wuzhen pian.117 Chen is speaking of
exchanging cash for the female partners prenatal qi, to be gathered from her through
sexual cultivation. I analyze all of the available data on Chens relations with his
female partners in chapter 5.118
Bourdieus fourth major type of capital, symbolic capital i.e., the legitimation
of power relations by the dominant party, is possessed by Chen in the form of his
skillful justications of his teachings and of his supposedly dominant position vis
vis rival teachers. This symbolic capital is quite unstable, and depends upon Chens
skill in convincing his audience of the truth of his words, combined with his listeners
reception and application of his message for their own reasons.
For Bourdieu, the conversion of economic, social, or cultural capital into
symbolic capital can only be done successfully through the process of
misrecognition. Misrecognition is the denial of the economic and political
interests present in a set of practices,119 and is akin to the Marxist concept of false
consciousness, or the Freudian concept of psychic repression. Most human action
relies on symbolic communication, and because most action is interested, in most
cases the actor must mobilize his or her capital in order to carry out the action. If
116
DZ 91, Taishang dongxuan lingbao wuliang duren shangpin miaojing zhujie 2.52b2
6. In Chens linguistic system, the
tiger represents the female sexual organ, and the dragon represents the male.
117
The supreme treasure of the rst passing of the white tiger baihu shoujing zhibao '5@"J; DZ 142,
Ziyang Zhenren Wuzhen pian sanzhu 5.6a5. Lu Ziyes commentary on this Wuzhen pian passage is an unmistakably
sexual interpretation: At two eights the age of sixteen, a mans perfected seminal essence pervades him,
while at two sevens the age of fourteen, a womans celestial gui sign menses descends. This being the time of
rst descent, is it the rst passing? $ 8D; 04?&(47.5@1.
Chen arms Lu Ziyes reading: The transcendent teacher Zhang Boduan, author of Wuzhen pian has leaked the
secrets too much, and the commentaries of Xue Daoguang and Lu Ziye are too detailed 6KBC
G<>A. Chen is telling his readers to be thankful for the details revealed in the Wuzhen pian and its
sexual alchemical commentaries. For a discussion of the shoujing zhibao, see pp. 455
57 chap. 5, 3.1.2.3.
118
See pp. 446

70 chap. 5, 3.1.2.
119
201
the actor is mobilizing economic, social, or cultural capital, it must be converted into
symbolic capital to cloak its naked interest: most symbolic action can be carried out
successfully only if its interested character goes misrecognized.120 Chens teaching,
writing, and publishing activities are symbolic labor, devoted to the conversion of
economic capital e.g., leisure, publishing expenses, social capital e.g., distribution
networks, and cultural capital e.g., education, cultural knowledge, writing ability
into symbolic capital religious discourses, arguments, and teachings. Chen can use
this religiosymbolic capital to gain more of the other forms of capital, or can
mobilize symbolic capital to work toward his own salvation.
4, Conclusion
However, I do not mean to suggest, ultimately, that Chen Zhixus religious career
consists of nothing more than social competition, as a sociologist might argue. For
Bourdieu, the aim of social analysis is liberation and social justice. Once the social
analyst has identied the habituses, practices, elds, and capitals of a specic case,
and related the specic eld to the general eld of power, the analyst can then
publish these ndings with the aim of exposing social inequalities and
inauthenticities for the general reader, or for insider readers who actually belong to
the specic case in question. Bourdieu would have no qualms about reducing a
persons religiosity, if not to social structure itself as a Marxist would, at least to the
persons position within a eld.121 He would not take peoples religious aims seriously
on their own terms, but rather merely reduce them to forms of symbolic labor aimed
at reproducing social structure and securing the religious actor a more dominant
position within that structure.
Yet as I have mentioned throughout this chapter, I do take Chens quest for
salvation seriously. Chen is striving to spread his teachings, achieve recognition as a
120
121
Bourdieu, Genesis and Structure of the Religious Field, 18.
202
master, and attain personal salvation, in a threeway soteriological feedback loop. The
rst two of these three goals may be understood within Bourdieus frameworkand I
have argued that Bourdieu may indeed oer the best theoretical framework for
understanding Chens working toward these goalsyet the third goal of salvation
does not have a place within Bourdieus system.
In this chapter I have argued that we must study religious action as strategic
and competitive. This is certainly true for the case of Chen Zhixu; further work
would be necessary to determine how well this approach would suit disparate cases
such as popular religious cults, monastic life, or a lay Buddhism, for example. If
Bourdieu is right, as I believe he is, all religious action can be shown to be strategic
and competitive, and this sort of analysis is always appropriate, even necessary.
We cannot study religious concepts without analyzing how they are being
employed by specic actors or groups within religious elds, and within economies
of symbolic capital. But neither should we reduce religious action to the struggle for
power within this world alone. As Weber says, the most elementary forms of
behavior motivated by religious or magical factors are oriented to this world page
188 above, yet it would be wrong to say that religious action is oriented only toward
this world. As I have stated above, Chens teachings are the tools he uses in his
struggle to achieve the three goals of managing mastership, spreading his teachings
in the religious eld, and attaining personal salvation. Chens quest for personal
salvation ultimately structures his social action. His quest structures his entire career
in the long term, his writings and teachings in the medium term, and his daily
practices in the short term. While worldly micropolitical goals and strategies
permeate his social action, I do not mean to suggest that Chen is a cynical social
climber masquerading as a true master. His life is ultimately pointed, not toward
social mastership, but toward the mastery of transcendence, and the transmundane
goal of salvation. As I show in chapter 5, Chen speaks of salvation most often as
eternal life in the celestial realm, but also speaks of it as escape from sasra, or
union with the Dao.
In this chapter, I have established the dynamic, or motor, of Chens teachings.
203
In the next two chapters, I discuss the content of Chens teachings, always within the
context of Chens strategic action with a competitive eld.
Appendix to Chapter 3, Song on Judging Delusions122

Song on Judging Delusions (Wd
I, Master of Highest Yang, was late in hearing the dao, rst meeting my teacher at Hengyang123 at the
age of forty. I had never believed in the teachings of longevity or immortality, but when I received
my teachers words, my doubts were dispelled.
[k`rq[2aBM0;8lLB-<ze
Only then did I lower my head, rub my nostrils, and trust that there are perfected seeds of spirithood
and transcendenthood. Thus I perceived that my myriad activities of the past were wrong because
they did not mention any little ol perfected thing like this.
{'scm;E$DgyM=^/:`RHDJ_
This little ol thing is greatly mysterious and wondrous; its wonder is in constantly possessing desire
and watching the aperture.124 This aperture is clear, right in front of your face, but when inferior
gentlemen hear of it they immediately have a big laugh.125
RJ_\++"K$|1w%w3"Q=
k)G
Since I gained the teaching, I have not dared to keep it a secret, and have desired to discuss
similarities and dierences with true friends. Recently, how many are the people of this generation
who take it upon themselves to discourse vacuously upon all things between Heaven and Earth!
,L0XFNb5Ap
P70Vi6&n l!
All these marginal traditions and perverse paths are briey but exhaustively listed in Cuixu
yin Chant of Mr. KingsherblueVoid.126 Besides teachings on the one point of precosmic
perfected qi, all strands of teaching beyond this are, overall, perversions of the truth.
oU9@.SjZ*OufI>vD#ht.
The great dao is simple. One cannot expound on it, only use the wonder of the aperture127 to x qian
and kun cosmic or celestial male and female principles. How can it be helped that people lose
the central road, and on the roadsides point to three thousand six hundred false gates?
122
Translation of Song on Judging Delusions Panhuo ge (Wd from DZ 1067, Shangyangzi Jindan dayao 9.3a6
6a10.
123
Presentday city of Hengyang, Hunan Province, about thirty miles south of Mt. Heng, the Southern
Marchmount.
124
Alludes to Daode jing, chapter 1: ?KYN|1+$N|1w or }. Chen is likely imparting a sexual
meaning here.
125
Alludes to Daode jing, chapter 41:

k`G.
126
Cuixu yin is the polemical poem Niwan Zhenren Luofu cuixu yin 4DxCjZ* The MudPill
Perfecteds Chant of Mr. KingsherblueVoid of Mt. Luofu, attibuted to Chen Nan T] d. 1213, a patriarch
in the Southern Lineage of the Golden Elixir. The poem is collected in DZ 1307, Haiqiong Bai Zhenren yulu 4:16;
and DZ 1090, Cuixu pian 712. Chens verses echo Cuixu yin on many points.
127
Or, use wonder and aperture to x qian and kun.
204
W!xHPvNO#`b ;]
There is counting the breaths, there is stopping the breath; within these practices the practitioners
are in a predicament128 and without a track. Some rene the Three Yellows129 and the Four Spirits,130
some rene the Five Metals131 and the Eight Minerals.132
7m7mVbT"sT\5
+
Desiring to take atractylis and tuckahoe133 at mid summer, they search exhaustively for all of the herbs
within the pharmaceutical corpus . How many of them shorten their lives because of this? After all,
ginseng has a deadly toxin.
j
k)%u3/9_I( wQ7~ f
Chunyang L Dongbin said, Minister Zhang lost his eyesight from ingesting medicines, and his
spirit and qi became drained. How amazingly foolish it is not to know that the recycled elixir is
originally without material substance, and instead to ingest metals and minerals!
tyQpY#Xsqe[&\+@
Wanting to practice breath control, they sit watching their noses, like a sh in a marsh at springtime
when the hundreds of insects are awakening from hibernation and buzzing . As for the limitless
marvel of this practice , where is it? If one grows old never having succeeded in the practice ,
wheres the benet in that?
}mFBcZ;IH1gK<6@Ur
Grasping at a single site, they visualize a golden radiance, daring even to regard this as the dantian.
They themselves know for certain that they cannot gain it by practicing this way , but still they
teach others to practice this technique.
n4\-d*G>M[?zCx9{$?
Embodying heaven and earth, gazing at the sun and moon, they inhale the two qi of the sun and
moon and send them down to the xuanpin cavityies . Massaging themselves, stretching and crooking
doing physical exercises , spitting and gulping breathing heavily without restraint, from dawn till
dusk they pu and hoot, swallowing again and again.
0|qE':,aARl.DL
Fixing the point in time by means of an earth gnomon,134 they use this to say that it seems true; but it
is not. They know to teach that ones own inherent nature will penetrate through to the goal at a
specic time, but they still ought to consciously examine such thoughts.
2PoJxBd=^{>S7o
128
b is not cuzh but czh, and means in a predicament.
129
Realgar
xionghuang , orpiment
cihuang , and sulfur
liuhuang .
130
The identity of the Four Spirits varied

Needham, Science and Civilisation, 5.2:285. The line "s
itself comes from Wuzhen pian
e.g., DZ 142, Ziyang zhenren Wuzhen pian sanzhu 1.25a9. Hu Fuchen, Zhonghua
daojiao da cidian, s.v. sishen "s, 1150 cites Liu Yimings Wuzhen pian commentary Wuzhen zhizhi to identify the
Four Spirits as powdered cinnabar
zhusha 8h, mercury
shuiyin , lead
qian , and saltpeter
xiao .
However, Chen Zhixu may not have known or cared about the exact identity of the Four Spirits.
131
Gold, silver, copper, iron, and lead

or tin.
132
The identity of the Eight Minerals varied.
133
Atractylis
zhu % is an herb similar to thistle; tuckahoe
fuling i is a fungus that grows on pine roots. For a
description of these wondrous ingredients, cf. Campany, To Live as Long as Heaven and Earth, 134n4, 310n73.
134
This refers to a technique by which geomancers determined the cardinal directions by erecting a pole and
observing the positions of its shadow, or it could refer to alchemical symbolism. Tugui 2 could also have an
alchemical meaning, but Chen Zhixu is referring here to a line in Chen Nans Cuixu yin
see p. 204n126 above,
and in Chen Nans line, tugui denitely refers to the surveyors tool.
205
Shifting the Tail Gate

point, at the tailbone and shaking the Spinal Straights
pass, in the spine, they
swallow their135 phlegm, seminal essence, and urine. Proting from the great yang elixir their whole
lives, they focus on gathering and eating womens menses.
h>=f9x#H$ ik Zy
Rening urinary crystals and collecting urine,
receiving urine
and feces? is their fate. Furthermore,
they regard this recipe as a secret treasureif you have no wealth they wont transmit it to you!
]%RR*nW@?.Ye_~g[
Entering chambers of lechery in a state of great agitation, they lie in wait for the movement of their
semen, and recycle it as a tonic for their brain. If they desire to achieve longevity
through absurd and
perverse
practices like this, their ancestors to the seventh and ninth generations will have diculty
keeping
their stations!136
mK {4b2+|L`P#d!6S
Eating lthy and nasty things, slurping milk and urine, they have a look at the two
sides of the
womans face to see if it is ruddy yet. Furthermore they await for a woman and a man to unite
sexually, and gulp down their semen and blood as the basis for the elixir.
az;137D\G}^:@UA[)916
Cherishing their inherent nature and life endowment, and making whole their primal qi, they even
suck the liquid seminal essence from within the jade gate.
Practicing this until old age lacks even a
iota of merit, but they blame Shouguang and Huangguzi
for leading them astray.138
jJI(c;"/Fl
~TV&B
There is a ringing in the fontanel, and a twittering in the belly, and

they say this is none other than
the sound of the dragon keening and tiger roaring.
Calisthenic practices like the bear stretch and the
bird pull are a vain expenditure of energy, and why even mention turtleretracting and crane
spreading?
tQ.8<O5uNv3C
Practices concerning the instructions on preserving life, using the numinous bough, or the twin
elixirs of yin and yang, transmit great error. As for the ve matters of retaining, retracting, sucking,
extruding, and sealing, at present these techniques are unsurpassably numerous.139
SIp$Xs q,;MrE0.ow*
As for transmitting Bodhidharmas
teachings, this talk ends up being vacuous.140 As for watching a
thing
or animal and knowing about the fetus, such talk is irrational. As for xing the year of birth
and death, and following that, the month and daywhen the time
of death? comes, furthermore
135
Ta here could mean other peoples or their

own.
136
According to the laws of clan karma, if a living person commits a crime, not only the guilty party but also his
deceased ancestors may be remitted to hell.
137
DZ 1067 has , while the Jindan zhengli daquan and Daozang jiyao eds. have ;.
138
Ling or Leng 7 Shouguang and Master Huanggu Huanggu xiansheng '# were legendary transcendents.
For Shouguang, see Campany, To Live as Long as Heaven and Earth, 23233, 44041. In Chen Nans Cuixu yin see p.
204n126 above , both are associated with sexual cultivation.
139
All of the teachings mentioned in this quatrain are related to sexual cultivation. Hao Qin discusses the ve
matters of retaining, retracting, sucking, extruding, and sealing, based on Fangzhong lianji jieyao, by the Ming
prince Zhu Quan -; Hao, Longhu dandao, 34748.
140
Or, teaching returning to emptiness.
206
you must x the action of your mind!141

URTe~$4I/2mDI
The Eight Sections of Brocade142 and the Ode of Ten Shouts ? are both as useless as the ring nger
on your hand.143 When suddenly oating clouds obscure the sun and moon, and the great limit the
day of death arrives, one must be settled and rm.
`
+(^%*piGFJh
Saving the celestial demons and cutting o the yin demons is also called ddling with the celestial
gate. When the zi hour 11 pm
1am comes in the middle of the night on the jiazi day, one cycles qi,
draws it seven times, and places it on the tongue.
[uBQ&jEmoNO+7
Pointing to the Indian Taixi jing Scripture of fetal breathing,144 they say that they can live on in the
world, and retain their bodies. They dont know that the virtuous ones of old were men of few words,
only wanting people to follow the correct road.
^Velt;rCT,=gy#8
Drinking unrestrainedly yet keeping a vegetarian diet, some people cut o smoke and re, and do not
burn wood. In their previous lives they did not spread and plant mouth merit,145 yet they glare
indignantly and in vain at their lot in their present life.
kvY]MnW$! Y'3$U"
Sitting in stubborn zazen, practicing only nonaction, they maintain an empty chamber and old, worn
hedge. Lacking their ll of food? morning and evening, and also not dressing warmly, if they are
suering like this they should reect on their life choice before long.
"A
a-UZ0z1469@}uHf0)\
Grasping white beads, focused on chanting the buddhas name, when they see others eating and
drinking pungent herbs and alcohol, they want to vomit. Directing themselves singlemindedly toward
the western paradise, Sukhvat, whats the use of east, south, or north to them?
]s147qwL<Ev{
g':bPX
Practicing many rituals, and making rounds of prayer: if thus, then they read scriptures all the way to
old age. Being unable to distance themselves from covetousness, anger, love, and concupiscence, how
can they succeed in extending their lifespan in this lifetime?
,>Qd1_148cSG5|t.x3$K6
As for presently practiced teachings, in no case should you use them. If you amass such techniques,
141
Lit., the ve minds, or quintipartite mind. Soothill identies these as the ve conditions of mind produced by
objective perception; Soothill and Hodous, A Dictionary of Chinese Buddhist Terms, 117.
142
This is a daoyin guiding and pulling practice involving stretching and breathing, attested as early as the Song
Dynasty and still practiced today; Hu Fuchen, Zhonuo daojiao da cidian, s.v. Baduan jin ` and Baduan jin
daoyin fa `Q, 1031. The practice is encapsulated by a text of eight stanzas, thus its name.
143
Wuming zhi (^ means ring nger, which is considered a useless, extra digit.
144
This may refer to teaching on fetal breathing ascribed to the Indian Chan patriarch Bodhidharma.
Bodhidharma was associated with the practice of fetal breathing by the Song dynasty e.g., DZ 1017, Daoshu 3.7a1,
dated ca. 1151.
145
Meaning unclear. Lu can mean fu fortune which in turn can mean karmic merit.
146
DZ 1067 has ? instead of an error.
147
DZ 1067 has s, while the Jindan zhengli daquan and Daozang jiyao eds. have .
148
DZ 1067 has _, while the Jindan zhengli daquan and Daozang jiyao eds. have m.
207
you will incur a heavy debt of karmic retribution. If you meet a perfected teacher, swiftly bow to him
as your teacher and throw yourself on his mercy . In some cases, a single word from a new teacher
will strike the target and bring about the students enlightenment .
e+Ag
76zwOLUSEF2;A5DR
If you have not heard it, you may not transmit it. How many marginal teachings are setting inherent
nature and heaven149 in disorder? If you want to know where that which is within the mystery
really is, you ought only to commit Wuzhen pian Stanzas on awaking to the perfected to memory.
A ux#jBv:LM@h\{WTU
There is one type of person, called Chan monk, who walks on foot, passing about with kans of
great dynamism and great application ever on his tongue. He only struggles over victories and defeats
in idle linguistic jousting , and neglects to face Mt. Tai and check the old woman.150
+|}8
?lNs5 !Z)^
The Chan monks they shave their temples, but the Buddha holds out this monkish mien and
orders us to examine it.151 Forming lines and troops, they lower not their heads. Hardly a patchedrobe
monk among them has actually seen his buddha nature and illuminated his mind.
Q,_(J%+%t .4:=ro
Clearsighted men, who have seen their buddha natures, because they ascend and sit on the teaching
dais they then rail at the buddhas and patriarchs. The teaching mechanisms of stickblows, shouts,
and the single nger are most deep, but nowadays they have turned these into routine phrases.152
=f4:AX/H_,VqmGkc*1-n`
Those smarties, yakking on about inherent nature and principle, with wanton words and forced
sophisms say that only they are correct. But who understands inherent nature and the great Dao?
Master Yan sat in forgetfulness and Master Zeng said Yes.153
=9:d5b\I:
&=/0p\
Chanting the Great Learning and discussing the Mean, they swerve not a jot from the teachings of
Zhu Wengong Zhu Xi . With correct mind and sincere intent they search for commentary for each
stanza and sentence, but sincere intent is originally not found within stanzas and sentences.154

a Y <'~y3i~yCi
Crowned with the seven stars of the Dipper , and named Zhengyi Daoists , which man among
them can recognize the gates of xuan and pin? Within the more than ve thousand words in the Daode
149
For xingtian :, Hanyu da cidian gives tianxing :

inherent nature bestowed by heaven, or xing, tian
as
the two main topics of debate in NeoConfucianism; Hanyu da cidian, s.v. xingtian :.
150
This refers to the kan Zhaozhou checks the old woman

Zhaozhou kan po $Z^. In this kan, an old
woman by the roadside gives monks the correct advice to go straight and immediately toward Mt. Tai, i.e.,
become suddenly enlightened without wavering or mediation.
151
Monks follow the monastic code, but

according to Chan teachings the Buddha pointed to any emphasis on
proper behavior as itself an impediment and subject for contemplation.
152
In this stanza, Chen is referring to Chan masters who perform a ceremony of ritual antinomianism called
ascending the hall
shengtang >] or shangtang ]; cf. Foulk, Myth, Ritual, and Monastic Practice in Sung
Chan Buddhism, 17679. Zhitou G
nger likely refers to the onenger Chan method
yizhi Chan G
of the Tang monk Juzhi PK.
153
Chen criticizes NeoConfucian disputators, arguing that Confuciuss disciples also supposedly meditated
Yan
Hui ", in Zhuangzi, H.Y. 6.92, and understood the esoteric
thus, for Chen, sexual aspect of Confuciuss dao
Zeng Shen p[, in Lunyu, H.Y. 4.15.

154
Zhangju i
stanza and sentence refers to a type of careful, analytical sentence commentary, distinct from a
broadbrush, bigidea approach to commentary.
208
jing, as soon as
zheng you have attained the One
yi, the myriad aairs are complete.155
R@");.dpk,^g[LZ/O
They dwell in the mountains and forests and are called Daoists, but they dont know what the great
Dao is. Nor have they ever heard the name golden elixir so how could you want to teach them to
understand life and death or, sasra !
25c^8^?*/:" Te7BN3(
Wanderers of cloud and water, they are called Quanzhen Daoists , and from morning to night they
work at saving themselves. Their patriarchs have left behind teachings on the spatula, but
nowadays how many men know this?156
Y=\!G<AU4M-HCF
#f89%&S
According to Old Man Zhengyangs Zhongli Quan Zhimi ge Song for directing the confused ,157
this dao is clear, and its matters few. I only wish that all people might become awakened. How can it
be helped that peoples fortune is meager, and they cling to delusions?
XI>Ja'^3/$+q Q]D0hbnKJ*
The aairs of this oating world are but waves on the water: having gained this precious human
birth, do not live it in vain! If you have the fortune of meeting with the instructions of an enlightened
teacher, who can say that you will have no means of ascending to the Great Veil Heaven?
E/6 -LPW`&hj_3C>ilV
155
o
For Chen, xuan and pin refer to the male and female sexual organs
or to their points of contact.
156
Spatula refers to the pharmacon. The metaphor comes from laboratory alchemy, where the elixir is scraped
out of the caldron with the tip of a spatula.
157
This is an odd title. There is a wellknown polemical text ascribed to Zhongli Quan, but this is entitled, not
Zhimi ge, but DZ 270, Pomi zhengdao ge
Song for abolishing confusion and rectifying the way.
There is also a text ascribed to Zhang Boduan entitled Chanding zhimi ge m1>Ja
Song of directions
regarding confusions about dhyna; DZ 263, Xiuzhen shishu 30.6a98b9. However, this text is unrelated to the
present discussion.
209
Chapter 4, What Is Inner Alchemy?

This chapter is a general introduction to inner alchemy. It is an extended prologue
for my analysis of Chens alchemical teachings in chapter 5, a careful explanation of
terms, concepts, and practices that can only be mentioned more briey in the later
chapter. By laying out the inneralchemical eld as a whole in this chapter, and
locating Chen Zhixu within this eld, comparing and contrasting his teachings with
those of other alchemists, I aim to impart signicance to ne technical points, and
inspire appreciation for otherwise dry details. Not enough has been written in
English about inner alchemy, and I hope this chapter will have general value for
scholars of Daoism or selfcultivation.
Comprehending the textual legacy of Chinese inner alchemy is a dicult task,
for a number of reasons. Inner alchemy is a di
use tradition or family of traditions,
without a founder or founding revelation, and whose origins are the subject of
debate. While it is associated with specic social institutions such as masterdisciple
lineages and monastic life, these give it only a loose structure, and a great amount of
variation remains, regarding its borders and outlines as well as its inner details. From
the FiveDynasties period 90760 on, inner alchemists did recognize inner alchemy
as a coherent category, calling it jindan golden elixir, golden elixir alchemy
instead of the modern name neidan inner elixir, inner alchemy . While it was
a native category, I will show in this chapter and chapter 6 that very di
erent
denitions, selfunderstandings, and views have always abounded within the eld of
inner alchemy.
Aside from historical and sociological considerations, inner alchemy is also
dicult to dene and describe because of its internal complexity. While we can point
to some common elements within inner alchemical discourse, thought, and practice,
these elements often cannot be dened in terms of a single factor, but instead must
be given multifactorial denitions that include a range of variation, even including
210
internal contradictions. As Isabelle Robinet notes, while the discourse of the

alchemists rests on a logical foundation, their discourse is not linear and is often
poetic,1 or shot through with intentional contradictions or conations. The
alchemists develop this complexity intentionally, both to create esoteric authority for
the teacher as a possessor of powerful and rare secrets, and to transform the student
by forcing him or her to overcome knotty intellectual challenges. Finally, some
Chinese scholars2 identify a further diculty confronting the scholar of inner
alchemy: long personal experience in alchemical meditation, and perhaps even the
guidance of a true master, would be necessary for a deep understanding of the
tradition. This opinion has some merit, but it should not dissuade we who lack this
level of personal experience from studying inner alchemy with the same condence
or lack of condence! that we bring to any subject in the human sciences.
If inner alchemy is to be seen as a multidimensional eld of variations, as I
say it must, it can only be understood through historical and structural comparison.
The authorities I have relied upon for my understanding of inner alchemy
principally Hao Qin, Ma Jiren, Li Yuanguo, Robinet, Needham, Despeux, and Wile
do a fair amount of implicit comparison, and a bit of explicit comparison.3 The
Chinese authorities generally present the history of inner alchemy as one of
continuous development, and represent that history through short studies of the
more famous and oftcited texts or authors, from the Zhouyi Cantong qi
dubiously ascribed to the 2nd c.
to Chen Yingning 1880 1969. Since
these modern scholars may discuss similar themes in each chapter of their books,4
the reader may make his or her own comparisons between chapters, but the scholars
themselves oer no systematic comparative theory. Robinet and Needhams books do
contain comparative insights, yet these two authors would prefer to see inner
1
Robinet, Introduction lalchimie intrieure taoste, 90 91.
E.g., Ge Guolong, Daojiao neidan xue tanwei, 30, 34 35. I have heard this opinion from other scholars as well.
Secondarily, I have also relied on books by BaryosherChemouny, BaldrianHussein, Wang Mu, Ge Guolong, Hu
Fuchen, Zhang Guangbao, and Zeng Chuanhui; articles or chapters by Pregadio and Skar, and Azuma;
dissertations by Wang Li, Liu Xun, Valussi, Komjathy, Crowe, and Belamide; and a halfdozen Chinese
dictionaries devoted to Daoism and qigong.
For example, each chapter may contain a discussion of an alchemists theory of the heartmind and inherent
nature xinxing xue
or stages of practice.
211
alchemy as a unitary tradition, with certain alchemical works being more or less
clear, rened, or exemplary than others, and so comparison is not their basic
method.5 Wiles book on sexual cultivation is explicitly comparative, but his interests
are sexological, and the specic categories he uses are not completely relevant for the
comparative study of inner alchemy.
In this chapter, I will attack the problem of dening, describing, and
understanding inner alchemy from several di
erent angles. In part 1, I describe its
structure and history in the form of a list. Part 2 is an extended discussion of the
points in part 1. And in appendix 1, I o
er a set of questions for future study. I can
o
er no systematic comparative framework at this point of my research, but I intend
the questions in appendix 1 to be a contribution toward the future development of
such a framework. I will include comparative insights within my discussion in part 2.
Prototypes, paradigms, and the standard account.
I take my theoretical
approach to the study of inner alchemy or the study of Daoism, or religion from
Benson Salers book on dening religion.6 Saler advocates a comparative, polythetic
or multifactorial approach informed by prototype theory. Following Saler, I
attempt to dene inner alchemy in terms of a collection of elements, rather than one
central feature or paradigmatic case or text such as the Wuzhen pian, and do not
expect to nd any one specic element present within all forms of inner alchemy.
Section 1.2 of this chapter is a list of these elements of inner alchemy. Yet if no one
specic element must be present to call a text inneralchemical, then how can our
denition ever get o
the ground? How do we know what we should be looking for?
Saler o
ers a solution to this problem by appealing to prototype theory. We begin our
denition of inner alchemy with an uncritical idea of what inner alchemy ought to
look like, a prototype taken from tradition. We may take elements and themes from
this prototype a , and use them to look for other arrangements b, c, . . . x of similar
5
I do not assume that any inner alchemical text is more or less valuable than any other. According to the
hermeneutical circle by which each part is understood with reference to the whole, and the whole is understood
with reference to each of its parts, all texts represent positions with an entire eld, and each text must be
understood against the background of this entire eld and each of its constituent positions. Some texts, such as
Wuzhen pian, will be more popular, oftencited, or representative, but our view of the inneralchemical eld must
not focus on these to the exclusion of other texts that may appear less dominant within the eld but may turn out
to be important for our understanding of inner alchemy.
6
Saler, Conceptualizing Religion.
212
elements that hold a family resemblance to the prototype. We continue the process
by adding new elements from b, c to a, resulting in a new, modied paradigm a1.
After we have compared our paradigm with enough outside cases, each time causing
it to evolve further a1, a2 . . . ax, we will have a polythetic denition ax that is much
better able to account for the variety within the alchemical eld. Remember, though,
that the alchemical eld itself is neither a completely objective nor subjective
construct: the eld is rst organized around a prototype taken from tradition, which
evolves into a paradigm that may escape from the strictures of the initial perspective,
but never completely so.
Let me illustrate my approach. The scholarly traditions upon which I am
basing this chapter are 1 Chinese contemporary traditional scholarship e.g.,
Wang Mu, Hao Qin, Ma Jiren, and Li Yuanguo, and 2 Western Sinological
scholarship e.g., Robinet, Needham, Despeux, and Wile, with more weight given to
the Chinese scholarship. I have identied a prototype of what these Chinese scholars
think that inner alchemy ought to look like, which I call the standard account of
inner alchemy. I am not aware of any Chinese scholar who discusses this prototype
explicitly and self consciously as a paradigm. My sense is that contemporary
traditional scholars believe that inner alchemy, at heart, is a true tradition, and that
truth is unitary; thus, they are less likely to be critical about their own categories.7
The standard account seems to be a late imperial consensus based on the teachings
of writers like Wu Shouyang and Liu Huayang, Liu Yiming and Zhao Bichen, Qinghua
miwen and Xingming guizhi; these late imperial teachings in turn are derived in large
part from the Southern Lineage established by Bai Yuchan.8 Within Western
scholarship, there is no single, consistent prototype of inner alchemy. Wiles
prototype is the Chinese standard account. Needham and Despeux privilege the
Zhong L teachings, and Robinet privileges Li Daochun. In writing this chapter, I
rely on the Chinese standard account, but my aim is to test it critically, compare it
7
Even a scholar like Ge Guolong, who is more consciously analytical, believes that inner alchemy is a true
tradition, and that truth is unitary Daojiao neidan xue tanwei, 30
31, 35, 40.
Wu Shouyang, Liu Huayang, Liu Yiming, and Zhao Bichen all belong to the Longmen lineage of Quanzhen
Daoism, but their alchemical teachings reect a prior synthesis of the Southern Lineage and the Northern i.e.,
Quanzhen Lineage.
213
with other, alternative forms of inner alchemy, and arrive at a broader picture of the
eld of inner alchemy in history.
Part 1, Toward a Denition of Inner Alchemy

My strategy for dening and describing inner alchemy in this chapter will be to begin
with concise denitions, and expand thence to a brief description of around two
thousand words, and nally to a full discussion of each important term and category.
In order to represent the complex structures of alchemy clearly for the reader, I have
found it useful to compose my description of alchemy in the form of a tiered list
rather than in paragraphs. I hope that the concision of the twothousandword
description will enable the reader to hold the entirety of alchemy together within a
single horizon of view. Inevitably, some of the references in the brief description will
appear puzzling until explained at length in the full discussion. Each item in the brief
description is followed by two numbers in parentheses; these are the section and
starting page numbers of the extended discussion for that same item in the full
discussion. I hope that attacking the problem of description from both sides at once
showing the whole and explaining the parts, all the while marking the links
between the parts and the wholewill contribute to the readers understanding.
My description of inner alchemy is both historical and structural, both
diachronic and synchronic. I will mention some dierences between dierent strands
of the tradition within the full discussion, but I am not able to cover all the historical
and structural variation in the eld of inner alchemy within this chapterthis would
be a much larger project. I oer an outline history of inneralchemical literature in
section 7 of the list; I have chosen not expand on this outline in the full discussion,
yet many of the texts or people from section 7 are discussed elsewhere in this
dissertation. The aim of this chapter is to provide a full outline of the eld of inner
alchemy as a background for my description of the alchemical practice of Chen
Zhixu in the following chapter.
214
Short Denitions
Inner alchemy in fteen words.
In my own words,
Inner alchemists aim to join yin and yang, and recover primal perfection, through
contemplative practice.
Inner alchemy in sixty words.
In the words of Hao Qin,
Inner alchemists borrow the experience, theory, and technical terms of laboratory
alchemists to rene their life endowment ming . They take the human body as
the chamber, heart and kidneys as furnace and caldron, essence, qi, and spirit as
the pharmaca, intention and breath as the ring, to create an elixir within the
body, and seek immortality and transcendence.9
Inner alchemy in a hundred words.
In the words of Isabelle Robinet,
Interior alchemy texts are always characterized by these features:

1. a concern for training, both mental and physiological, with the mental aspect
often tending to predominate;
2. a synthesizing tendency bringing together various Taoist elements breathing
exercises, visualization, alchemy, certain Buddhist speculations and methods
speculations on the wu and the you, Chan gongan
the kans of Japanese zen,
and references to Confucian texts;
3. a systematized use of the trigrams and hexagrams of the Book of Change, already
used metaphorically in laboratory alchemy and ritual; and
4. references to chemical practices, of a purely metaphorical nature, following an
interiorized interpretation we have already seen in less developed form in the
Shangqing school.10
An overextended denition.
Joseph Needham writes,
We may list the techniques designed to give rise to one or other form of
anablastemic enchymoma i.e., elixir of life as follows: 1 What one may call
redemptive mental and bodily hygiene juchu fa in all its aspects. . . . 2
Respiratory exercises and techniques harmonising the qi, tiaoqi . . . . 3
Allied with the respiratory exercises were others intended to assist actively the
circulation of the qi and the uids in the body banyun . . . . 4 Passing to
exercises requiring still greater muscular exertion, one reaches the large eld of
remedial gymnastics daoyin . . . . 5 An exceptionally important role was
played by the conservation of certain secretions, for example saliva. . . . 6 Sexual
techniques fangzhong buyi
. . . . 7 Techniques of meditation, trance,
From Ge Guolong, Daojiao neidan xue tanwei, 5, citing Hao Qin, Longhu dandao, 23 p. 7 in the 1994 ed.. My two
thousand word description is partially based on this denition. Hao literally says that intention and breath are
the huohou , which I translate here as ring, but usually translate as ring periods.
10
215
and ecstasy zuowang . . . . All these were the neidan procedures.11
This denition is probably based on an oftcited Songdynasty denition by Wu Wu
:
The theory of the Neidan enchymoma is nothing more than the mutual
conjunction of the heart and the reins xinshen jiaohui ", the circulation
of the jing seminal essence and the qi jingqi banyun % $, the preservation
of the shen and the retention of the air cunshen bixi , exhaling the old
and breathing in the new tugu naxin
!. Besides this, one may practise the
special arts of the bedchamber huo zhuan fangzhong zhi shu , or take
the rays and emanations of the sun and moon huo cai riyue jinghua %,
or consume particular vegetable substances huo fuer caomu &, or again,
it may be, abstain from cereal grains, or practise celebacy huo pigu xiuqi #'
.12
Both Needhams and Wu Wus denitions are overbroad. Some of these practices
such as macrobiotic practices, gymnastics, qi circulation, sexual cultivation,
ingesting solunar qi or elixirs made of concrete substances may have been considered
inneralchemical practices by some adepts at some time, but not by most adepts
most of the time. Of course, most or all adepts would have practiced macrobiotic
yangsheng ( practices in addition to, or preparatory to, inneralchemical practice,
all the while distinguishing the two. If we were to assemble a consensus view of inner
alchemy, drawing upon texts from the entire range of inneralchemical history, this
view would certainly not include gynmastics or ingesting solunar qi, for example.13
Comparing Needhams denition with Ge Guolongs and Robinets denitions
quoted above, we can see that Needhams denition emphasizes physiological
practices, but lacks any mention of inneralchemical thought or discourse.
A Full Description: Inner Alchemy in Two Thousand Words
1. Roots
11
12
Needham, Science and Civilisation in China, 5.5:3435, translating DZ 921, Zhigui ji, preface, 1a10b2.
13
Thus, I disagree with BaldrianHussein, who says that Wu Wu dened neidan as a syncretic system
comprising all the longevity methods: gymnastic, respiratory, dietary and sexual techniques. This is the denition
which persists to the present day; BaldrianHussein, Inner Alchemy: Notes on the Origin and Use of the Term
Neidan, 187.
Robinet says that what we call inner alchemy would be included within what Wu Wu calls waidan, while
what Wu Wu calls neidan are the classical Daoist physiological practices; Robinet, Sur le sens des termes waidan
et neidan, 1011.
216
Inner alchemy borrows, develops, combines, and transforms previous traditions

within Daoism 1.1, 228 and Chinese society 1.2, 229, including
laboratory alchemy 1.3, 230,
qi cultivation 1.4, 232,
sexual cultivation 1.5, 235,
mind cultivation 1.6, 236, and
literary mysticism 1.7, 237.
2. Social Contexts 238
In sociological terms, the inner alchemists
use culture within social institutions 2.1, 238
such as small groups characterized by interpersonal relationships, including
the masterdisciple relationship 2.1.1.1, 238,
the patronclient relationship 2.1.1.2, 239,
the advisorruler relationship 2.1.1.3, 240,
friendship and literati association 2.1.1.4, 241, or
the family or clan and its related institutions 2.1.1.5, 242;
or midsized groups, characterized by semipersonal relationships, including
the monastery, temple, or cult association 2.1.2.1, 243, or
local practice and printing networks 2.1.2.2, 243;
or large groups, macrostructures, and the broader society, characterized by
impersonal or abstract relationships, such as
macroeconomies, class, state 2.1.3.1, 244, or
daos, teachings, traditions, schools, and sectarian movements 2.1.3.2;
for the goals of selftransformation 2.2, 245 into
authoritative and holy masters within this world,
distinct from the common run of mortal humanity,
and transcendent beings beyond it.
3. Ontological Registers, and Language
217
Inner alchemists may, for rhetorical, philosophical, or soteriological reasons,

interpret their concepts and discourse on a number of dierent ontological
registers or levels of reality 3.0, 246, including the registers of
the microcosm of human body 3.1.1, 247, mind 3.1.2, 252, and spirit or spirits
3.1.3, 252,
including empirical, theological, and symbolic perspectives on the body 3.1.1,
the mesocosm of signs 3.2, 254,
including abstract signs such as yin and yang 3.2.1.1, 257, the ve agents
3.2.1.2, 260, the trigrams and hexagrams 3.2.1.3, 262, or the numbers of the
River Chart Hetu 3.2.1.4, 265,
and gurative signs such as lead and mercury, or dragon and tiger 3.2.2, 267,
the macrocosm of Heaven, Earth, and humanity 3.3, 268,
including temporal diurnal, mensual, annual aspects 3.3.1, 269, and
spatial cosmographical, geographical, or political aspects 3.3.2, 271,
and other nonspatiotemporal metaphysical realities such as
purposive action and nonaction wuwei 3.4.1, 272, or
inherent nature xing and life endowment ming 3.4.2, 273, or
inherent nature xing and human dispositions qing 3.4.2, or
the Dao or the One 3.4.3, 276.
There are also dualistic categories that cut across all of these registers, such as
the cosmogonic categories 3.5.1, 277 of
xiantian precosmic or prenatal and
houtian postcosmic or postnatal;
or the hermeneutical categories 3.5.2, 277 of
prosaic interpretation, which takes alchemical terms or passages to refer to
tangible or denite entities, and
mysticizing interpretation, which takes terms to refer to formless or indenite
entities;
or the hermeneutical categories 3.5.3, 279 of
exoteric interpretation, which accepts terms according to their most apparent
218
meanings, and
esoteric interpretation, which gives secret meanings to terms.
Inneralchemical discourse is characterized by constant shifts between these
dierent registers. Alchemical authors exploit crossregister ambiguities in order to
make and break linkages between dierent symbols, or keep the multiplicity of
registers constantly present,14 for the sake of
weaving a picture of the salvic eects of the alchemical work that would be
convincing enough to convert the reader or listener 3.6.1, 281,
creating an air of authority for the text, teacher, or lineage 3.6.2, 281,
writing about teachings in a code that is opaque to unworthy readers but partially
transparent to worthy readers 3.6.3, 281,
synthesizing elements from many sources into a single teaching 3.6.4, 282,
representing or delighting in the unstable and protean nature of alchemical
discourse itself 3.6.5, 282, and
directly causing salvic eects in the reader 3.6.6, 282.
In psychophysiological 4.1.1, 283 and soteriological terms 4.1.2, 283, the inner
alchemists,
following the dao of the golden elixir 4.2, 283,
take
the human body as the alchemical chamber 4.3, 285,
dantian three bodily centers associated with the kidneys, heart, and brain as the
furnace and caldron 4.4, 285,
inner tracts as the pathways of circulation 4.5, 285,
the three treasures the three lifeenergies of essence, qi, and spirit as the
pharmaca15 4.6, 291,
sometimes identied as outer pharmacon, inner pharmacon, and greater
14
Robinet, Introduction lalchimie intrieure taoste, 91.
15
Pharmacon/pharmaca is my term of art for yao or yaowu , usually translated as the ingredient or the
medicine.
219
pharmacon see 4.9,

respiration, guiding intention, intense concentration, or formless samdhi as the
alchemical re 4.7, 292,
with ring periods of low or high heat, or nonring 4.8, 293,
whose patterns of ring are modeled on lunar and seasonal cycles and
represented with cycles of trigrams and hexagrams,
over a series of stages lasting days, months, and years 4.9, 299,
and monitoring their progress by means of temporal cycles, trihexagram cycles,
psychophysiological responses, or inner vision 4.10, 311,
in order to
create, gather, rene, crystallize, incubate, purify, and sublimate elixirs within
themselves 4.11, 312 through
gathering the spark of pure yang qi remaining from the time of cosmogenesis
4.11.1, 315,
inverting and uniting contrary principles 4.11.2, 317,
rening essence into qi, qi into spirit, and spirit into void 4.11.3, 317,
and/or rening the postnatal three treasures seminal essence, respiratory qi,
and cognitive spirit into the prenatal three treasures primal essence, primal
qi, and primal spirit 4.11.4, 317,
stimulate and enlighten the intellect 4.12, 320,
grasp the handle of cosmic creation and transformation 4.13, 321,
reverse cosmogonic devolution 4.14, 322,
returning from a postcosmic state to a precosmic state,
and from postnatal deterioration to prenatal wholeness,
ow backwards against the lifecurrent of the natural man which leads toward
death 4.15, 323,
return to a state of youth and health 4.16, 323,
escape from the round of birth and death sasra 4.17, 324,
perfect their inherent nature xing and life endowment ming 4.18, 324,
give birth to a new inner self, or spirit of pure yang 4.19, 324,
220
and seek immortality or transcendence in the heavens 4.20, 326,

and/or union with the Dao 4.20.
5. Symbolic Elements
One of the most distinctive aspects of inner alchemy is its use of symbolic terms
drawn from the Book of Changes Yijing, the cosmology of yinyang and the ve
agents, the numerology of the River Chart, and other systems 5.0, 328. Robinet
writes that the joining of trigrams and chemical terms is the distinctive element that
distinguishes interior alchemy from the ancient breathing exercises.16
In symbolic terms, the inner alchemists goal 5.1, 329 is to
unite contrary principles,
i.e., yin and yang,
especially in their mixed forms of yangwithinyin and yinwithinyang,
in order to recover a state of primal perfection,
described in terms such as pure yang, the One, Taiji the Great Ultimate, or
Wuji the Limitless.
According to trihexagram symbolism, the union of yin and yang involves
reversing the course of cosmogonic devolution 5.2.1, 331
leading from the trigram qian pure yang; to the trigram kun pure yin;
by wedding the trigrams kan yang within yin; and li yin within yang; 5.2.2,
322,
extracting the single central yaoline of perfected yang from the trigram kan
,
and applying it to the brokenyang trigram li , repairing it by replacing
its single central line of yin with a line of yang,
relying on agent earth as an intermediary 5.2.3, 333,
in the doubled form of wuearth and jiearth,
to remake the trigram qian pure yang; 5.2.4, 334.
According to veagent symbolism, the union of yin and yang
16
221
involves reversing the cosmogonic expansion and devolution from Taiji to the ve
agents, and then to the myriad existents 5.3.1, 335
by condensing the ve agents together into three, and then into one 5.3.2, 336:
uniting them symbolically
through condensing the ve . . .
in terms of abstract mesocosmic signs, by turning the ve agents
upsidedown 5.3.2.1.1.1, 336,
or in terms of the body microcosm, by uniting the ve qi of the ve
viscera 5.3.2.1.1.2, 338,
or condensing the three . . .
in terms of abstract mesocosmic signs, by uniting the three cardinal
agents water, re, and earth 5.3.2.1.2.1, 339,
or in terms of the body microcosm, by uniting the three owers
essence, qi, and spirit 5.3.2.1.2.2, 341,
. . . into one elixir;
or, uniting them numerologically 5.3.2.2, 342
through condensing the three ves, according to RiverChart numerology,
into one Taiji.
6. Allegorical or Visionary Elements 343
In terms of allegorical, visionary, or gurative mesocosmic signs, the inner alchemists
goal is
to unite mercury with lead 6.1.1, 344,
or
to unite the dragon with the tiger 6.1.2, 344,
or
to unite the gold or metal crow in the sun with the jade toad or rabbit in the
moon 6.1.3, 346,
or, to wed
the lovely girl from the east, who rides the cyan dragon 6.1.4, 346,
222
to
squire metal from the west, who rides the white tiger 6.1.4 ,
through the mediation of
the yellow dame in the center 6.2, 348 ,
and bring about
the birth of the naked infant, the alchemists new self 6.3, 348 .
Other allegories or visions include
the goatcart, deercart, and oxcart by which the alchemist transports the
pharmaca during the process of circular renement 6.4, 349 , and
the description of the inner landscape of the body, with sun and moon, mountain
peaks, gates, bridges, towers, springs, and lakes 6.5, 350 .
7. A Historical Outline of InnerAlchemical Literature17

Period of Nascence.
While teachings on inner circulation resembling inner alchemy
appear in several SixDynasties texts,18 the elements of inner alchemy rst appear as
alchemy during the Sui and Tang dynasties within
eclectic alchemical teachings that take inner alchemy as a complement to
laboratory alchemy,
the Zhouyi Cantong qi, which may have been recomposed around or just before
this time, transforming it from a weft text into a cosmological treatise on
alchemy,19
as well as other alternative forms of inner alchemy whose relationships to better
known and later traditions await further study.
17
See Pregadio and Skar, Inner Alchemy Neidan for a detailed chronological overview of inner alchemy up to
the early Ming dynasty.
18
E.g., the Shangqing texts DZ 639, Huangtian Shangqing Jinque Dijun lingshu ziwen shang jing cf. Bokenkamp, Early
Daoist Scriptures, 28486 , and DZ 1382, Shangqing jiudan shanghua taijing zhongji jing; the Lingbao text DZ 361,
Taishang dongxuan lingbao bawei zhaolong miaojing cf. Robinet, Taoism: Growth of a Religion, 228 ; and the early
Southern text Huangting jing see p. 236n89 below , which reects the traditions of Ge Hong and his lineage. Also
of note is Qingling Zhenren Pei Jun neizhuan , a Shangqing text preserved in DZ 1032, Yunji qiqian
105.126; this text teaches a form of inner circulation which has many of the hallmarks of inner alchemy.
19
Pregadio, The Early History of the Zhouyi cantong qi, 16869. For a discussion of the transition from preinner
alchemical Daoist meditation to inner alchemy, see idem, Early Daoist Meditation and the Origins of Inner
Alchemy.
223
Formative Period.
From the late Tang to the Five Dynasties and Northern Song,
alchemists developed
teachings related to the Zhouyi Cantong qi, such as
the teachings of the Ruyao jing,20
the writings of Peng Xiao,21
the tradition of Chen Tuan,22
and teachings with less relation to the Cantong qi, such as
the ZhongL tradition,23
the Zhenyuan tradition,24 and
the writings of Chen Pu.25
Classical Period.
During the Northern and Southern Song dynasties and the Jin
dynasty, we
nd
Cantong qiinected teachings, especially
Zhang Boduan s Wuzhen pian,26
the work that became the root text of the Southern Lineage founded by
Bai Yuchan and his heirs,27
and other works later included in the Southern Lineage,
20
BaldrianHussein identi

es four dierent versions of Ruyao jing Mirror on the admixture of pharmaca,
dating them from the Tang to the end of the Southern Song dynasty. See her entry for DZ 135, Cuigong ruyao jing
zhujie, in Schipper and Verellen, The Taoist Canon, 2:844.
21
Peng Xiao d. 955, Cantong qi commentator.
22
Chen Tuan traditional dates 871? 989.
23
Regarding the ZhongL tradition 10th 13th c., cf. BaldrianHussein, Procds secrets du joyau magique;
BaryosherChemouny, La qute de l immortalit en Chine.
I de
ne a text as part of the ZhongL tradition, not by whether it is said to be derived from Zhongli Quan
or L Dongbin, but by whether it shares characteristics and terminology with paradigm texts such as DZ 1191,
Michuan Zhengyang Zhenren lingbao bifa, or Zhong
L chuandao ji. Thus, I de
ne some Quanzhen texts as Zhong
L.
My generalization that ZhongL texts are relatively unrelated to Cantong qi learning may need to be clari
ed;
cf. Xie Zhengqiang, ZhongL neidan sixiang yu Zhouyi Cantong qi guanxi shixi.
24
Robinet, Recherche sur l alchimie intrieure neidan: L cole Zhenyuan. The texts of the Zhenyuan
tradition, though edited as late as the Ming, may be based on Tangdynasty materials.
25
Chen Pu 11th or 12th c.; cf. Li Yuanguo, Daojiao qigong yangsheng xue, 300 11; Eskildsen, Neidan Master
Chen Pu s Nine Stages of Transformation.
26
Zhang Boduan 984? 1082; Wuzhen pian .
27
Southern Lineage Jindan Nanzong

; Bai Yuchan 1194 1229+. Cf. Skar, Golden Elixir Alchemy;
Wang Li, The Daoist Way of Transcendence.
224
most of which teach solo cultivation

such as the texts collected in Xiuzhen shishu
ca. 1340,28
but some of which may teach paired sexual cultivation,29
ZhongL teachings,
early Quanzhen teachings,30
advocating a formless approach to inner alchemy
as in the teachings of Ma
Danyang, and mostly quite unrelated to the Cantong qi or Wuzhen pian,31
the alchemical ritual teachings of liandu,32
from ritual traditions such as Shenxiao, Tianxin Zhengfa, Jingming Zhongxiao
Dao, Lingbao Dafa, Lingbao, and Qingwei,33
and many other texts whose a liation with or links to the betterknown traditions
have yet to be studied.
Period of Integration.
Beginning in the Yuan dynasty and continuing in the Ming,
alchemists systematically borrowed and combined teachings from dierent

traditions, or even from dierent religions.
Many Quanzhen texts
i.e., texts composed by authors associated with Quanzhen
institutions combine
early Quanzhen teachings
28
Needham, Science and Civilisation in China, 5.5:88nc describes DZ 263, Xiuzhen shishu: The sexual element seems
to be rather played down in this text, either because of later bowdlerisation, . . . or perhaps more likely because
these practices were from a quite early time a matter of oral instruction.
29
Texts oering a sexual version of SouthernLineage alchemy may include DZ 151, Jinye huandan yinzheng tu; DZ
555, Gaoshang yuegong Taiyin yuanjun xiaodao xian; DZ 878, Zituan danjing; the works of Weng Baoguang
DZ 141,
Ziyang Zhenren Wuzhen pian zhushu; part of DZ 142, Ziyang Zhenren Wuzhen pian sanzhu; DZ 143, Ziyang Zhenren
Wuzhen zhizhi xiangshuo sansheng miyao; DZ 144, Ziyang Zhenren Wuzhen pian shiyi; and DZ 145, Wuzhen pian zhushi;
and the works of Chen Zhixu. Two other SouthernLineage sexual alchemists are Dai Qizong
cf. DZ 141, 143,
and Lu Ziye
cf. DZ 142.
Robinet argues that Weng and Chen do not teach sexual alchemy
Robinet, Introduction lalchimie intrieure
taoste, 48 50; Sur le sens des termes waidan et neidan, 5 6; Taoism: Growth of a Religion, 227. I argue for a sexual
alchemical interpretation of Chen Zhixus teachings in chapter 5, but I will not be able to address the question of
Wengs views.
30
The early period of Quanzhen Daoism is the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.
31
Ma Danyang
1123 84; cf. Zhang Guangbao, JinYuan Quanzhen dao neidan xinxing xue.
32
Liandu
salvation through renement; cf. Boltz, Opening the Gates of Purgatory.
33
Shenxiao , Tianxin Zhengfa , Jingming Zhongxiao Dao

, Lingbao Dafa ,
Lingbao , and Qingwei .
225
with
Cantong qi learning,
teachings from the Southern Lineage,
or Zhong L teachings.34
Southern Lineage teachers
claimed ties to Quanzhen Daoism,
and continued the earlier trend of combining inner alchemical with Chan
Buddhist teachings
Chen Zhixu does both of these things.
Masters from traditions associated more with ritual than self cultivation began to
advocate inner alchemical learning: for example,
Qingwei master Zhao Yizhen35 taught Zhong L style alchemy,
and the forty third Celestial Master Zhang Yuchu36 taught Southern Lineage
style alchemy.
Sophisticated theoretical texts were composed by teachers from the Quanzhen or
Southern lineages, or from backgrounds that combine both traditionsteachers
such as
Yu Yan,37 Li Daochun,38 Mu Changchao, Niu Daochun, Chen Zhixu, Chen
Chongsu, and Wang Daoyuan Wang Jie .39
Late Imperial Period.
Inner alchemy in the Ming and Qing dynasties is marked by
features such as
a new view of the eld of inner alchemy based on a basic distinction between solo
practice pure cultivation and paired practice sexual alchemy ,
34
Two studies of Quanzhen texts that I believe teach Zhong L style inner alchemy are Belamide, Self
Cultivation and Quanzhen Daoism; Komjathy, Cultivating Perfection.
35
See pp. 567

68, 606
8; cf. Schipper, Master Chao I chen ?
1382 and the Ching wei School of
Taoism.
36
Zhang Yuchu 1361

1410 ; see pp. 568, 602
6.
37
Yu Yan
1253
1314 ; cf. Zeng Chuanhui, Yuandai Cantong xue.
38
Li Daochun . ca. 1288 ; cf. Crowe, The Nature and Function of the Buddhist and Ru Teachings in Li Daochun.
39
Mu Changchao . ca. 1294 , Niu Daochun . ca. 1296 , Chen Zhixu 1290
1343+ , Chen
Chongsu Chen Xubai , . Yuan dyn. , and Wang Daoyuan Wang Jie , . ca. 1360
226
with more alchemists advocating sexual alchemy than before, alchemists such
as
Lu Xixing and his Eastern Lineage,40
Tao Susi, Qiu Zhaoao, and Sun Ruzhong,41
Zhang Sanfeng,42
Li Xiyue and his Western Lineage,43 and
Fu Jinquan,44
and most solo practitioners of nonsexual alchemy also at least acknowledging
the importance of sexual alchemy;
a trend toward more explicit and lucid discussions of social and psycho
physiological details, as in the teachings of
Qinghua miwen,45 Xingming guizhi,46 Wu Shouyang and Liu Huayang, Zhang
Sanfeng, Fu Jinquan, Huang Yuanji,47 and Zhao Bichen;48
the Longmen revival, when a series of great masters from the Longmen tradition
of Quanzhen Daoism were active,49 including
Wu Shouyang and Liu Huayang, Zhu Yuanyu, Liu Yiming,50 Dong Dening, and
Min Yide;51
the appearance of inner alchemical elements
40
Lu Xixing 1520 ca. 1601; cf. Yang Ming, Daojiao yangshengjia Lu Xixing yu tade Fanghu waishi; Wile, Art
of the Bedchamber, 146 53.
41
Tao Susi . 1700 11, Qiu Zhaoao - . 1638 1713, Sun Ruzhong . 1615; for Sun
Ruzhong, cf. Wile, Art of the Bedchamber, 146 49, 153 69.
42
Zhang Sanfeng ,, , or ; cf. Wong Shiu Hong, Investigations into the Authenticity of the Chang
San
Feng Ch uan
Chi; Wile, Art of the Bedchamber, 146 49, 169 88.
43
Li Xiyue 1806 56.
44
Fu Jinquan ' 1765 1845; cf. Xie Zhengqiang, Fu Jinquan neidan sixiang yanjiu.
45
DZ 240, Qinghua miwen full title Yuqing jinsi qinghua miwen jinbao neilian danjue, probably a Mingdynasty work.
46
Xingming guizhi 1615 and after; cf. Darga, Das alchemistische Buch von innerem Wesen und Lebensenergie: Xingming
guizhi.
47
Wu Shouyang
! 1574 1644; Liu Huayang ! b. 1736; Huang Yuanji " . ca. 1841 83.
48
Zhao Bichen &+$ 1860 after 1933; cf. Despeux, Trait d alchimie et de physiologie taoste.
49
Longmen *; cf. Esposito, Longmen Taoism in Qing China.
50
Liu Yiming ( 1734 1821; cf. Liu Ning, Liu Yiming xiudao sixiang yanjiu.
51
Zhu Yuanyu . 1657 69; cf. Dong Dening #)% . 1788; Min Yide
227
1758 1836.
within medical literature,

and within new religious movements, in scriptures known as precious
scrolls;52
and the development of a new literature on female alchemy.53
Modern period.
Alchemists since the late Qing have, in response to the challenges
posed by modern science, often given their teachings names other than inner
alchemy or Daoismnames such as
Transcendent learning,
used by Chen Yingning and his heirs since the Republican era,54
or, qi training qigong,
used since 1950.55
Part 2, An Extended Discussion:

Inner Alchemy in Forty Thousand Words
1, The Roots of Inner Alchemy
1.1, Inner alchemy combines and transforms previous traditions within Daoism . . .
Inner alchemy neidan is a tradition of practice, thought, and discourse within

religious Daoism. Daoism is a form of organized Chinese polytheistic religion whose
daos paths or traditions are guided by and aimed toward the Dao as a metaphysical
and cosmic principle, and spiritual source.56
The term dao/Dao way/Way is used in every Chinese philosophical or
religious tradition; its most general meaning is a way of being or acting, passed on as
52
Precious scrolls baojuan ; cf. Overmyer, Precious Volumes.
53
Female alchemy ndan ; cf. Valussi, Beheading the Red Dragon; Despeux, Immortees de la Chine ancinne;
Despeux and Kohn, Women in Daoism.
54
Transcendent learning Xianxue

; Chen Yingning 1880 1969; cf. Liu Xun, In Search of
Immortality.
55
Qigong ; cf. Palmer, Qigong Fever.
56
Also see my polythetic denition of Daoism on pp. 19 22.
228
a tradition. In its earliest occurrences in Western Zhou bronze inscriptions and the
Book of Poetry , appears to combine the meanings of 1 a path or walking along a
path , 2 an art, and 3 speaking. Thus we may call it a formula of speech and step,
connoting aspects of both discourse and skilled practice.57 In early Daoist texts
such as Neiye , Daode jing, and Zhuangzi, the term is used in complex ways to
refer to 1 the most basic sacred agent or pattern in the cosmos, 2 a perfect society,
3 a state of mind, or 4 a style of being or action. In medieval Daoism, usually
refers to that most basic sacred cosmic agent the Dao , or to a tradition of practice
a dao aimed at salvation. On pages 17478 above, I note that Chen Zhixu takes
advantage of the dual meanings of the term to argue that his own dao uniquely
represents the Dao as such.
Some scholars argue that inner alchemy should be seen as a tradition that
overlaps Daoist religion, weaving in and out of Daoist and other contexts in the
course of history, rather than as a branch of Daoism.58 Yet, while not all inner
alchemists or inneralchemical writings are Daoist, most of them are. Other scholars,
adopting a narrow denition of Daoism, have argued that inner alchemy belongs to
the category of Transcendent Learning xianxue , rather than
Daoism daojiao .59 Yet something like Transcendent Learning appears as a
category separate from Daoist religion only in a few cases in Chinese history, such as
in the Han dynasty. Inner alchemy is intimately related to Daoism in doctrine and
practice, social forms, and historical instances.
1.2, Inner alchemy combines and transforms previous traditions within . . . Chinese
society.
Inner alchemy also has roots in other traditions within Chinese society.
Inner alchemists frequently include Chan Buddhist and NeoConfucian concepts and
modes of discourse within their alchemical teachings. This is partly due to the times
while Daoists have always incorporated Buddhist and Confucian elements into
57
Eno, Cook Dings Dao and the Limits of Philosophy, 129.
58
Skar, Golden Elixir Alchemy, 304, citing Michel Strickmann.
59
Zeng Chuanhui, Yuandai Cantong xue, 39, 142. Mou Zhongjian makes a conclusive counterargument
ibid., pref., 5 .
229
their teachings, this trend increased from the Song dynasty onward as part of a
general view among Chinese intellectuals that the Three Teachings Confucianism,
Buddhism, and Daoism were three versions of a single underlying truth. And among
latterday Daoists, inner alchemists borrow more heavily from Chan Buddhism and
NeoConfucianism than other Daoists do, often thinking carefully about the links
between these traditions. Alchemists take various approaches to the questions of
where alchemy ts within the Three Teachings, how the Three Teachings could all be
true, and how they could be related. One approach, adopted by Bai Yuchan, Li
Daochun, Chen Zhixu, and probably many others, is for the alchemist to claim that a
deeper truth underlies all daos, and that he approaches this common truth more
closely than any other teacher does. Li Daochun teaches that Golden Elixir alchemy
is just one version of this truth, one among many.60 Chen Zhixu, on the other hand,
claims that his own dao has a privileged relation to the truth: the underlying truth is
precisely the dao of the Golden Elixir, and all the sages of the Three Teachings have
always been transmitting this teaching, in secret. Chen sometimes divides the eld of
religious teachings, not according to the faultlines of Daoism, Buddhism, and
Confucianism, but according to the lines of true selfcultivation including true
teachings from Buddhism and Confucianism as well as Daoism and false self
cultivation including false Daoist teachings as well as false nonDaoist teachings.
Emic views of inner alchemy like this are helpful for us to use in constructing an etic
denition of inner alchemy within the eld of Chinese religion and society.
1.3, Inner alchemy borrows, develops, and transforms . . . laboratory alchemy.
The
original form of alchemy, in China as well as in other civilizations, was laboratory

alchemy waidan. The use of the name alchemy dandao within inner
alchemy, as well as many terms and concepts from laboratory alchemy, identies
inner alchemy more closely with laboratory alchemy than with any other source.
From the time of Ge Hong 283 343 or earlier, laboratory alchemists included inner
cultivation practices as part of their overall regimen. These innercultivation
60
Crowe, The Nature and Function of the Buddhist and Ru Teachings in Li Daochun, 161.
230
practices included breath control, qi ingestion and circulation, sexual cultivation, and
visualization.61 Such practices later became important parts of inner alchemy, but
during the early medieval period these innercultivation practices were not yet seen
as alchemy, only as ways for the alchemist to cultivate life and health during his
long years of labor in the laboratory. These components of later inner alchemy began
to emerge as an alchemical system in the early Tang dynasty, and only gradually
became separate from laboratory alchemy.
Chinese laboratory alchemy came in many forms. The two most common
forms were 1 attempting to make a mercurysulfur compound, and 2 attempting to
make a leadmercury compound; a third form worth mentioning is 3 the attempt to
make a mercurygold solution.62 In 1 mercurysulfur alchemy, mercury Yin is
rened from cinnabar Yang, added to sulfur Yang, and rened again. This process,
typically repeated nine times, yields an essence deemed to be entirely devoid of Yin
and thus to incorporate the qualities of Pure Yang.63 In 2 leadmercury alchemy,
rened mercury Real Yin, zhenyin is rened from cinnabar Yang, and rened lead
Real Yang, zhenyang is rened from native lead Yin. The elixir produced by joining
rened mercury and rened lead to each other is also equated to Pure Yang.64 The
nal product of each of these forms of alchemy is called huandan cyclically
transformed elixir, reverted elixir, or recycled elixir. While inner alchemists adopted
terminology from 3 mercurygold alchemy e.g., the terms golden liquor, jinye
, and golden elixir, jindan and perhaps also from 2 mercurysulfur alchemy,
it is 1 leadmercury which they took as their theoretical basis. For inner alchemists,
mercury represents the principle of yinwithinyang li , or its central yin line,
and lead represents the principle of yangwithinyin kan , or its central yang
line. This dominant position of leadmercury alchemy coincides with the dominance
of the Zhouyi Cantong qi within inner alchemy. A text with this title had been in
continuous transmission from the Han dynasty on probably as a weft text, weishu
61
Ma Jiren, Daojiao yu liandan, 23; Li Yuanguo, Daojiao qigong yangsheng xue, 18491.
62
Pregadio, Great Clarity, 114 18; Pregadio, Elixirs and Alchemy, 190.
63
Pregadio, Great Clarity, 100.
64
Pregadio, Great Clarity, 100.
231
, but it was probably reedited into a text of alchemical theory toward the end of
the Six Dynasties, or as late as the Sui or early Tang.65 The form of alchemy taught in
Cantong qi, the fusing of lead and mercury, established this leadmercury complex as
the alchemical mainstream; or perhaps the establishment of both Cantong qi as the
central text, and leadmercury alchemy as the alchemical mainstream, were part of
the same process.66
Other important laboratoryalchemical terms or concepts found within inner
alchemy include the alchemical chamber, furnace, caldron, bellows and tuyre
tuoyue
, re and water, yellow sprouts
huangya , white snow
baixue
, and
granulated cinnabar
zhusha . Some important terms or concepts from
laboratory alchemy, such as sulfur and luting mud, were not picked up by the inner
alchemists.
Sometimes, inneralchemical interpretations of terms from laboratory
alchemy are numerological and not metaphorical at all, obviously unrelated to the
original meaning. Thus, inner alchemists often do not interpret the terms nine
recyclings or seven reversions
jiuhuan qifan as nine or seven stages of
cultivation, but rather dwell on the numerological signicance of the numbers nine
or seven. In inner alchemy, jiuhuan and qifan are, to a certain extent, merely
oating signiers.
1.4, Inner alchemy borrows, develops, and transforms . . . qi cultivation.
The concept
of qi67 is the most important concept within Chinese cosmology, embracing gaseous,
energetic, and material phenomena. Its root meaning is air, vapor, ether, breath, but
it came to be seen as the substance of all solid bodies, insubstantial
airy qualities,
and energic processes in the macrocosm of the natural world and the microcosm of
the human body. For example, Songdynasty NeoConfucian philosophers beginning
with Zhang Zai
1020 77 believed that, soon after the cosmic origin, some qi
65
Pregadio, The Early History of the Zhouyi cantong qi, 168 69.
66
Pregadio, Elixirs and Alchemy, 170 71.
67
English translations for the term qi in the Sinological literature include pneuma, air, matterenergy,
congura tional energy, vital energy, vapor, breath, and subtle breath.
232
became turbid hunqi

68 and solidied into matter, while other qi remained
insubstantial as air or energy.
Religious Daoists regarded qi as the primary medium by which one might
apprehend and eventually join with the Dao.69 Daoist selfcultivation in general
involves the gathering and renement of qi, and qi is indeed one of the main
ingredients of the inneralchemical process. BaldrianHussein notes that The
earliest texts which speak of neidan compare it with qi techniques, either with
embryonic breathing or with the absorption of breath.70 Among the qicultivation
practices to which inner alchemy is heir, we may distinguish 1 the practice of
cultivating external qi from 2 the practice of cultivating internal qi, with the former
involving breath control and the latter involving circulation of internal energies.71
Daoist qicultivation practices include spitting out the old
qi and drawing in the
new tugu naxin , tuna , rst mentioned in Zhuangzi72 , guiding and
pulling daoyin , which may refer to gymnastics as well as qicultivation73 , fetal
respiration taixi , ingesting qi fuqi , circulating qi xingqi , rening qi
lianqi ,74 and visualizing colored qi.75 Henri Maspero argues that, towards the
middle of the Tang dynasty, there was a revolution in the theory of qicultivation, and
a change from the ingestion of external atmospheric qi through swallowing air and
saliva to the cultivation of the internal qi of the viscera.76 This is reected in the
changing theory of fetal respiration. Whereas in the early medieval period, the adept
practicing fetal respiration slowed and softened the breath until it was imperceptible,
68
Hun could also mean curdled or rotten.
69
Bokenkamp, Early Daoist Scriptures, 16.
70
BaldrianHussein, Inner Alchemy: Notes on the Origin and Use of the Term Neidan, 179.
71
This is a helpful distinction, but it overly simplies the matter, since qi always includes both gaseous and
energetic aspects.
72
Zhuangzi, H.Y. 15.5; Watson, The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu, 167.
73
Campany, To Live as Long as Heaven and Earth, 175n140.
74
Maspero, Methods of Nourishing the Vital Principle in the Ancient Taoist Religion, 469, identies
circulating qi as guiding it e.g., to an aicted area , and rening qi as letting it go where it will without
guiding it.
75
Visualizing colored qi is an important practice within Shangqing Daoism, e.g., Robinet, Taoist Meditation, 110.
76
Maspero, Methods of Nourishing the Vital Principle in the Ancient Taoist Religion, 460, with special
reference to DZ 824, Songshan Taiwu Xiansheng qi jing.
233
at which point the adept could be assumed to be respiring through the umbilicus like
a fetus in the womb, in the midmedieval period fetal respiration came to mean
forming a spiritual fetus within the subtle body through internal respiration.77
The later form of internal fetal respiration is one of the main sources of inner
alchemy. Some forms of classical inner alchemy contain a stage called fetal
respiration, a state of deep stillness during which the holy fetus forms.78 Thus,
some forms of inner alchemy may be distinguished from fetal respiration in theory
and discourse, yet resemble it in practice.
Inner alchemists may be unique in the singlemindedness of their emphasis
upon cultivating the One Qi, a point of pure yang energy left over within this fallen
world from the state of cosmogenesis, and left over within the adult body from the
pure state of infancy. Inner alchemists had various notions about gathering this One
Qi through respiration and salivaswallowing, internal sensation, or sexual congress.
There was a practice of cultivating a spiritual fetus in the Shangqing tradition
that may also be relevant to the prehistory of inner alchemy. DZ 639, Huangtian
Shangqing Jinque Dijun lingshu ziwen shang jing from the root text Zishu lingwen shang
jing describes a practice in which the the adept ingests yin qi jade placenta, yubao
from the sun and yang qi jade fetus, yutai from the moon.79 These qi are
mixed in the region of the lower dantian by the corporeal spirit Peach Child or
Peach Vigor, Taokang , producing the Ruddy Infant or Naked Infant, Chizi
, who nds lodging in the region of the upper dantian. Bokenkamp says that this is
an alternative to sexual practice, a sublimated form of huanjing bunao recycling
essence to replenish the brain .80 This practice resembles inner alchemy in its use of
two pharmaca, one yinwithinyang yubao from the sun and the other yangwithin
yin yutai from the moon ,81 but in its use of solunar qi it is more like the earlier form
77
Maspero, Methods of Nourishing the Vital Principle in the Ancient Taoist Religion, 481.
78
Wile, Art of the Bedchamber, 42. Zeng Chuanhui, Yuandai Cantong xue, 223, says this of Yu Yan.
79
DZ 639 is a piece of Zishu lingwen shang jing, probably composed by Yang Xi 330? around 36470. This
root text exists in the Ming Daoist canon as four separate texts DZ 639, 255, 442, and 179 . A translation and
study of these texts is found in Bokenkamp, Early Daoist Scriptures, 275372.
80
81
234
of fetal respiration where external qi is ingested than the Tangdynasty form where
internal qi is cultivated . Also note that this Shangqing practice was associated with
alchemical discourse, though not directly. The root text Zishu lingwen shang jing
includes both this quasifetal respiration in DZ 639 and a form of astroalchemy in
DZ 255, Taiwei lingshu ziwen lanan huadan shenzhen shang jing , but while these two
practices were both found in the original text, they were not integrated. This is like
what we see in the early alchemy of Ge Hong and others, where selfcultivation
practices are part of the alchemists overall regimen, but are not integrated with
laboratory alchemy. The practices in DZ 639 go unmentioned by later inner
alchemists. These practices may reect a moment in the prehistory of inner
alchemy, but are not direct ancestors of the tradition.
1.5, Inner alchemy borrows, develops, and transforms . . . sexual cultivation.
Hao Qin
believes that we should seek the origins of inner alchemy in sexual cultivation
bedchamber arts, fangzhong shu
, rather than in qi cultivation.82 He believes
that the concept of circulating energy along subtle tracts within the body comes
from the classical sexual practice of recycling the seminal essence to replenish the
brain huanjing bunao ,83 and does not come from qicirculation or fetal
respiration. His best evidence for this theory comes from the Mawangdui manuscript
Ten Questions Shiwen , which contains key elements of later inner alchemy,
including the interconvertibility of seminal essence and qi,84 retaining seminal
essence bijing , rening essence lianjing , and recycling the essence to
replenish the brain.85 In addition to transporting the essence up the dorsal tract to
the brain equivalent to the superintendent tract, dumai , the Ten Questions
manuscript also includes the concept of swallowing the rened essence and returning
it to the abdomen which would follow a course comparable to the ventral
82
83
84
The Ten Questions contains the line For human qi, there is nothing as good as the essence of the penis

Hao Qin, Longhu dandao, 73 . The Ten Questions is translated in Harper, Early Chinese Medical
Literature, 385411.
85
235
conception tract, renmai , and thus this practice uses an internal route that
looks much like the lesser orbit xiao zhoutian of classical inner alchemy.86
Hao also argues that Ge Hong describes a close cousin of later inner alchemical
practice though not in alchemical language, and that Ge Hongs protoinner
alchemy is in fact sexual cultivation.87
Hao also believes that the concept of the inner pharmacon neiyao
comes, not from rening outer qi atmospheric qi into inner qi subtle energy, as
Maspero thinks, but from rening seminal essence into qi.88 My tentative judgment is
that both Hao and Maspero may be correct. Maspero may be right that there was a
revolution in the theory of qicultivation in the Tang, but the idea of the cultivation
of inner qi could have existed for centuries within sexual practice before it was
applied to breath control.89
1.6, Inner alchemy borrows, develops, and transforms . . . mind cultivation.
Just as
NeoConfucian learning of the heartmind and inherent nature xinxing xue
can be seen as a Songdynasty reaction from within Confucian tradition to the
challenge posed by Chan Buddhist mind cultivation, the xinxing xue within Daoist
texts can be seen as a Daoist echo of both Chan Buddhism and NeoConfucianism.
From the Song dynasty on, intellectuals advocating the unity of the Three
Teachings sanjiao heyi
would take commonalities in Buddhist, Confucian,
and Daoist xinxing xue as one of their main points of comparison. As Li Daochun
writes, the Three Teachings all speak of the inherent naturethe Chan Buddhists
want to actualize or see their inherent nature xianxing or jianxing , the Daoist
inner alchemists want to preserve their inherent nature cunxing , and the Neo
86
Hao Qin, Longhu dandao, 289, 384.
87
88
89
A fuller evaluation of this issue would require more research on the Scripture of the Yeow Court Huangting jing,
especially the Outer scripture DZ 332, Taishang huangting waijing yujing; DZ 403, Huangting neiwaijing jing jie; or
Huangting waijing yujing zhujie , in DZ 263, Xiuzhen shishu. This scripture seems also to
contain the alchemical lesser orbit, and Maspero argues that the scripture is teaching something like recycling the
essence to replenish the brain, but his interpretation is highly speculative Methods of Nourishing the Vital
Principle in the Ancient Taoist Religion, 52329. Also, his claim that the Scripture of the Yeow Court knew only
about external qi and not internal qi 495 is hard to accept.
236
Confucians want to exhaust their inherent nature in order to illuminate bright

virtue .90 Or, as Mu Changchao and Chen Zhixu say, Confucianism
recties the heartmind, Buddhism claries the heartmind, and Daoism empties or
puries the heartmind.91 Of course, inner alchemists usually also say that their
xinxing xue is superior. For example, they say that whereas Chan Buddhists only
cultivate the inherent nature, Daoists cultivate both inherent nature and life
endowment xingming , and so whereas alchemists can become yang spirits after
death, Chan Buddhists will become mere yin ghosts.92
1.7, Inner alchemy borrows, develops, and transforms . . . literary mysticism.
This is
one of the signature insights in Isabelle Robinets study of inner alchemy. While
there are many manifest echoes of Chan Buddhism within inner alchemical texts,
Robinet also argues the two traditions share deeper similarities in their playful and
antiessentialist use of language, or even their metalinguistic reection on the
limitations of language. It is, in e
ect, as a k an that neidan acts on the spirit of the
adept.93 Like Chan Buddhist masters, inneralchemical masters try to induce
mystical experiences in their disciples, not only by the ancient physiological
practices, but also by harnessing the mind to disentangle knotty problems and break
logjams.94 She traces this ultimately back to the Zhuangzis insights on the arbitrary
nature of human language.95
Yet mystical language is not always directly related to mystical experience.
Inneralchemical teachers also used mystical language to describe the state of mind
and body that the adept ought to feel at certain points in the alchemical process, or
to reinforce analogies between the microcosmic body and macrocosmic universe.
90
alchimie intrieure taoste, 6768, citing DZ 249, Zhonghe ji, by Li Daochun, 6.21a25b.
91
alchimie intrieure taoste, 71, citing Mu Changchaos DZ 1066, Xuanzong zhizhi wanfa
tonui 4.5b, and Chen Zhixus DZ 1067, Shangyangzi Jindan dayao 14.4b. In the section Robinet cites, Chen Zhixu
argues that the Three Teachings are univocal on the following points of doctrine: the One Dao, the heartmind,
inherent nature and lifeendowment, yin and yang, and the teaching institution jiaomen .
92
93
alchimie intrieure taoste, 78.
94
95
Robinet, Taoism: Growth of a Religion, 219, 229.
237
When Chen Zhixu often uses mystical language to describe the sex act, he is doing
both of these at once.96 Finally, looking at inneralchemical literary mysticism from a
political perspective rather than a philosophical perspective, we can see that inner
alchemical teachers use mystical language to heighten the secret and therefore
socioeconomically valuable penumbra surrounding their practices.
2, The Social Contexts of Inner Alchemy
2.1, The inner alchemists use culture within social institutions.
I dene social
institutions, not only as formal organizations, but also as informal groups, and the
xed patterns of social interaction identied with these groups or organizations. I
hold that the cultural elements of inner alchemy must be analyzed in terms of
Chinese social structures. Sociologists of culture say that people develop and use
discourses and other cultural elements in order to deal with the institutions and
structures that make up human social lifeand perhaps this is even our main use of
culture.97 Social institutions are more than a vague background structure that we can
assume is standing behind our cultural analyses; rather, social institutions strongly
shape how people use culture. We cannot understand cultural elements without
understanding how they relate to institutions.
2.1.1.1, Inner alchemists use culture within . . . small groups, . . . including the
masterdisciple relationship.
Daoist selfcultivation teachings have almost always
been transmitted within masterdisciple lineages. Many distinct social institutions

that is, distinctive patterns of social interaction are essentially linked to, or
secondarily associated with, the masterdisciple relation. Examples of social
institutions linked to the masterdisciple relation include the roles and duties of
master and disciple; lineage; secret or privileged transmission or knowledge;
esotericism; and rites of transmission. Certain textual forms may be associated with
the masterdisciple relation, such as oral instructions, and manuscripts or private
printings. Textual forms, like social forms, may shape how people use culture.
Masterdisciple relationships could grow into masterdisciple networks, or
96
See pages 492 93 below for an example of this mystical analogizing by Chen.
97
Swidler, Talk of Love, 177 79.
238
even cults of disciples following a charismatic gure or saint, such as in the case of
Tanyangzi
155880.98
2.1.1.2, Inner alchemists use culture within . . . small groups, . . . including . . . the
patronclient relationship.
This relationship depends on the exchange and conversion
of dierent forms of capital: the patron gives the client an alchemical adept or
teacher economic support and protection economic capital or a social network
social capital, and in exchange the client gives the patron oral instructions, written
texts, or other forms of training cultural capital.99 Also, the patron receives cultural
capital merely from association with a Daoist master, and the Daoist adept
consolidates his status as a master through the patrons attentions. The patron is
often a disciple of the master at least nominally, so in many cases the patronclient
relationship would be a special case of the masterdisciple relationship. When the
patron is also a disciple, he will submit to the masters authority in some respects
e.g., in the religious eld while the master submits to the patrons authority in other
respects e.g., in the economic eld, or the eld of social status. A study of this
powerswitching would be a valuable contribution to the sociology of inner alchemy,
but Chens writings do not oer much data on the subject.
Some alchemists lacking wealth of their own or connections to monastic or
temple networks would have to rely on patrons completely. For example, after giving
up his wealth and ocial career for a life of selfcultivation, Zhang Boduan relied on
the patron Lu Shen rst, and, after Lu died, Ma Chuhou . In return for
Ma Chuhous economic support, Zhang Boduan gave him the manuscript of Wuzhen
pian. The advice of Zhang Boduans disciple and second patriarch of the Southern
Lineage, Shi Tai d. 1158 to the third patriarch, Xue Shi d. 1191, is also
often repeated:
Shi Tai
furthermore warned Xue Shi
, saying, Swiftly make your way to a
central town well served by many roads
or a metropolis, and, relying upon a
powerful person, make plans to do this cultivation
. The Purple Worthy Xue
Shi
followed this advice
, and thereby completed the dao.
98
See pp. 62224 below.
99
See my discussion on pp. 199202 above.
239

100
Other alchemists, such as Chen Zhixu, might rely on lay patrons at some times and
temple networks at other times. In addition to exchanging forms of worldly capital,
both patron and client might also help each other toward salvation: the client might
help the patron by giving religious teachings, and the patron might help the client by
giving him the space and time to complete his selfcultivation. If the client is a sexual
alchemist, he would need the patrons help in procuring female partners, and privacy
or protection from disapproving outsiders.
advisorruler relationship.
This is a special case of the patronclient relationship. The
trope of an adept presenting teachings or texts to a ruler, or a ruler seeking wisdom

or secrets from an advisor, can be found in early texts such as Zhuangzi, and was of
especial importance in the Han dynasty.101 This became a continuing literary trope:
Douglas Wile notes that mainstream sexual literature from the Han to the Tang
dynasty or later was written in the form of a dialogue between an emperor often the
Yellow Emperor and his counsellor, while texts on private practice were written in
straightforward exposition.102 The advisorruler relation is not merely a literary
trope: it is also a social institution, or at least a social ideal. In his writings, Chen
Zhixu often retells the story of the Yellow Emperors meeting with Guangchengzi
, Guangchengzis advice to the Yellow Emperor not to belabor his body or
disturb his seminal essence, and the Yellow Emperors eventual apotheosis. This
legend of the Yellow Emperors disciplerelation to Guangchengzi is an important
myth in Chens religious world. This was a myth that Chen hoped to embody himself.
Chen reveals that he would like to repeat this scenario in his own life, with himself
100
DZ 1067, Shangyangzi Jindan dayao 13.12b7 8.
101
In Imperial Treasures and Taoist Sacraments, Seidel argues that the spiritual function of the Celestial
Master as established in the Han was conceived on the model of the ancient sages who . . . instructed the
mythical sovereigns of antiquity 293. A medieval emperor could prove his legitimacy that is, could prove that
he possessed the Mandate of Heaven by attracting wise men including Daoists to his court by the power of his
vertu de , and these wise Daoists could receive his support for their religious projects and institutions in return
369.
102
Wile, Art of the Bedchamber, 14.
240
playing the advisor.103 And we can say that he achieved this wish while staying with
his disciple Marquis Tian Zhizhai and the ruling Hmong Tian clan in Guangxi.
2.1.1.4, Inner alchemists use culture within . . . small groups, . . . including . . .
relations of friendship and literati association
between male equals. Inner alchemy has
always been a literary tradition, and, until recent times, a literati tradition. From the
perspective of social history, one may argue that the shift from laboratory to inner
alchemy in the Tang dynasty, and the popularity of inner alchemy in the Song, is
linked to a general social shift from aristocratic society to gentry society.104 Due to
advances in printing, the wider availability of education, and a general growth in
population, the literati class grew dramatically in the Song, until only a small
proportion of literate and educated men were able to nd employment in
government service. Unable to pursue traditional literati careers on a national scale,
they developed regional forms of higher culture, and enjoyed the arts of private life,
including inner alchemy. As Skar says, adepts and their patrons used these new
teachings . . . to add to the repertoire of literati association.105 Along with this new
alchemy came new deities, a new type of supralocal transcendent being, such as
Zhongli Quan, L Dongbin, or Liu Haichan who resembled the cultivated
gentlemen he sought to attract.106
From the perspective of the sociology of culture, we may view inner
alchemical culture as a repertoire of tools used by literati to pursue strategies within
and among literati institutions.107 This way we can explain specic features of inner
alchemical culture, such as the fact that many inneralchemical texts are poem or
song cycles written by named authors
either human literati, or terrestrial
transcendent literati such as L Dongbin, rather than scriptures dictated or
revealed by celestial deities. Poetry was an important cultural currency among
literati, and the value of a literati poem as art or as cultural capital is usually closely
103
DZ 142, Ziyang Zhenren Wuzhen pian sanzhu, Chen Zhixus preface, 5b.
104
105
106
107
Cf. Swidlers theory of cultural tool kits; Swidler, Culture in Action; idem, Talk of Love, 24 44.
241
related to its authorship.

family or clan and its related institutions.
Family or clanrelated social institutions
relevant to the study of inner alchemy include lineage, the ancestor cult, and
polygamy. Inner alchemy has always been transmitted within lineages, for several
reasons. The rst reason is historical: the family has always been the main model for
Chinese society, and beginning in the Song dynasty or earlier, the familybased
institution of the lineage in particular was taken as a model for society.108
Another reason why lineage is important within inner alchemy is because
alchemy is an esoteric tradition. Inner alchemical training requires the oral
instruction and handson guidance of a master, but even then, how can the adept
know whether to trust his or her teacher? Unlike religious healing or apotropaic
ritual, which can be veried through extraordinary miracles or ordinary good
fortune, the spiritual attainments of inner cultivation can rarely be publicly veried.
Thus, people will judge the value of an alchemical teaching according to their trust in
the authority of the teacher who is transmitting this teaching, or their own personal
experience in practicing it which also depends on this trust in the teacher.109 The
authority of the students teacher depends on the authority of the teachers teacher,
and the lineage extending behind them. Therefore, any inneralchemical teacher will
depend in large part on his lineage to legitimate his teachings.
Inner alchemists often venerated their lineal patriarchs, taking the ancestor
cult in Chinese society as their model. In the Tang and Song dynasties, Chan
Buddhists rst developed the concept of a lineage of Chan patriarchs stretching back
to the Buddha, and later added to this the institution of a cult to their immediate
patriarchs, i.e., an ancestor cult.110 Both lineage and ancestor cult are important to
Chen Zhixu. As we saw in chapter 2, Jindan dayao includes several genealogies of
108
109
In Language, Epistemology, and Mysticism, Steven Katz argues that mystical experience is tradition
dependent, and I hold that the alchemists experiences or attainment are also traditiondependent. The adepts
experiences will depend directly on his or her training. We could almost say that the adept will experience what
he or she is trained to experience, but this would be an oversimplication. So personal experience also depends
directly on the students trust in his or her teacher.
110
Foulk, Myth, Ritual, and Monastic Practice in Sung Chan Buddhism.
242
mortal and divine patriarchs, as well as many other genealogical statements scattered
throughout, that attempt to place Chen within a Quanzhen Daoist lineage. I have
identied three levels of lineage claim in this material: Chens extended, eective,
and immediate lineages. Actually, all of these are retrospective, or false, lineages.
Chens one known patriarch, Zhao Youqin, did not have a real historical link any to
Quanzhen Daoist lineage, and Chens teachings themselves have almost nothing to
do with Quanzhen Daoism. Chen Zhixus Stream of Transcendents contains the
texts of rituals reecting Daoist ancestor cult, addressed rst to Zhongli Quan and
L Dongbin but also including all of the patriarchs of Chens lineage.
Finally, the institution of polygamy is relevant to the study of inner alchemy.
Male sexual cultivators have often required multiple female partners to be available
for their practice. Classical Chinese sexual cultivation as studied by Wile assumes a
certain family institution, the polygamous household. The later sexual alchemists
such as Chen Zhixu may have used bondmaids or prostitutes instead of wives or
concubines.111
2.1.2.1, Inner alchemists use culture within . . . midsized groups, . . . including . . . the
monastery, temple, or cult association.
Many alchemists had monastic or priestly
careers, and this may have aected their teachings. I believe that the strongly
polemical attitude of Chen Zhixus writings, and even of his alchemy itself, is due to
his precarious economic situation; probably the writings, and even the alchemy, of
adepts in economically stable situations within monasteries or temples would be
signicantly less polemical. As I argue in chapter 3, socioeconomic factors can shape,
not only the outer trappings of alchemical teachings, but even their inner technical
details.
2.1.2.2, Inner alchemists use culture within . . . midsized groups, . . . including . . .
local practice and printing networks.
An alchemists use of alchemical culture that is,
his or her practice and teachings may reect the conditions, constraints, and
opportunities of local practitioner networks, and scribal or printing networks. For
111
On pp. 385
87, and pp. 446
70 chap. 5, 3.1.2, especially pp. 463
65 3.1.2.6 , I discuss the evidence for
Chens use of prostitution or other kinds of paid sexual labor.
243
example, when the alchemist writes down his teachings and disseminates them to a
wider audience, we may expect to nd these teachings in code. Because the
alchemical author cannot select his or her readers, and will no longer have direct
control over who receives his teachings, he will have to use a new means of limiting
their spread to a worthy few: writing coded texts and entrusting that only readers
who have received personal instruction from an authoritative teacher would be able
to decode these texts. As Chen Zhixu writes ever and again,
What does the term reverted elixir refer to? I say, one must have a teachers
personal instructions. Thus Chunyang the Perfected L Dongbin said, If you
do not rely on a teachers instructions, this aair is dicult to comprehend.
Lord Lao said, I am not a sage: I attained this through study. Therefore, in
studying alchemy, you must rst seek a master, and must not speculate wildly
about alchemical discourse by yourself.
() $ #*
%'!
' "&112
Chen assumes that his writings could only be properly applied by readers under the
direction of a realized master, whether that be himself, or someone like himself
elsewhere in space or time. This is Hugh Urbans esoteric strategy no. 5: constructing
a hierarchy of levels of truth, and restricting access to them.
2.1.3.1, Inner alchemists use culture within . . . large groups, macrostructures, and the
broader society, . . . including . . . macroeconomies, social class, or the imperial state.
All
of the micro and mesolevel institutions discussed above t into these larger
structures. These larger structures do not impact alchemists use of alchemical
culture directly, but are mediated by the other institutions discussed above. Macro
economies of nancial, cultural, social, intellectual, and other capitals underlie the
alchemical eld.113 When literati use alchemy to maintain networks, develop higher
culture, and enjoy the arts of private life, this activity presupposes the class system
and the privileges and desirability of being a literatus. The advisorruler relationship
found in alchemical literature and in the careers of alchemists presupposes the
Chinese imperial state, with ruler, court, and national and local bureaucracies. The
112
DZ 91, Taishang dongxuan lingbao wuliang duren shangpin miaojing zhujie 1.41a6 9.
113
See pp. 193 202

chap. 3, 3.3 4.
244
Daoist heavens that alchemists often depict as their nal goal and salvation are
modeled on the Chinese state. This model of the state actually has less impact on
alchemical culture than it does upon other forms of Daoism, such as ritual or
classical Daoist scripture. Sexual alchemists use of bondmaids for their practice also
depends on an exploitative class system.
2.1.3.2, Inner alchemists use culture within . . . large groups, macrostructures,
and the broader society, . . . including . . . daos, traditions, teachings, schools, or sectarian
movements.
Robert Campany has shown that premodern Chinese writers did see
things like what we call religions in their social world, and their term for these was
daos.114 Yet the term dao could also applied to entities at many di
erent levels of
generalityfrom a universal truth, to a major religion practiced in many lands such
as Buddhism , to a regional religion or form of religion, to the tradition of a single
lineage or single teacher, perhaps a smaller dao within a larger dao. Chinese writers
also spoke of abstract schools of thought or practice each organized around a
distinctive principle, zong , such as the Northern and Southern Schools of
Chan Buddhism, painting, inner alchemy, poetry, or martial arts.115 From their texts
we can see that inneralchemical teachers from the Song dynasty on devoted a great
deal of thought to daos. It is dicult to summarize alchemists various schemata for
categorizing daos, since each thinker seems to have a di
erent schema. Also, to
analyze these attempts sociologically would add several additional levels of
complexity. Such an analysis would require 1 sorting out di
erent alchemists
conceptions of daos, 2 viewing these emic conceptions as uses of culture within
etic social and socioreligious instititions that is, our viewing of medieval Daoists
thinking about and constructing religions, and out setting this against the
background of the objective institutions the Daoists were living in , and 3
theorizing about the categories religion, religions, religious in general.
2.2, The inner alchemists use culture within social institutions . . . for the goals of self
transformation into authoritative and holy masters within this world distinct from the
114
Campany, On the Very Idea of Religions.
115
245
common run of mortal humanity, and transcendent beings beyond it.
In this
dissertation I argue that Chen Zhixu has three interrelated goals, and it is my
hypothesis that most inner alchemical teachers will have similar goals. Chens three
goals are 1 achieving recognition and authority as a master, or managing his
mastership; 2 spreading his teachings in the religious eld; and 3 attaining
personal salvation. Why does he seek authority? Proximately, for the sake of
advantages in this world; ultimately, for the sake of his own salvation. The authority
he gains will help him attract a support network and audience base of patrons,
disciples, or readers. This support network in turn will help him nance his personal
quest for salvation. In addition to this, his teaching activities within his network, and
his successes in spreading his teachings to new audiences, will generate karmic merit
for him, which will further contribute to his salvation.116 Among Chens strategies for
managing his mastership and attracting disciples is the strategy of emphasizing the
gulf between two types of person: common fools doomed to death and dissolution,
and himself and his fellow illuminati saved by their wisdom, selfcultivation, and
knowledge of the secrets of transcendence.
3, Ontological Registers, and Language
3.0, Inner alchemists may, for rhetorical, philosophical, or soteriological reasons,
interpret their concepts and discourse on a number of dierent ontological registers or
levels of reality.
A classic example of an inneralchemical theory of ontological
registers is Li Daochuns schema of four vehicles and nine grades of alchemical

technique sicheng jiupin danfa .117 This is a sophisticated theoretical
construct, reminiscent of Chinese Buddhist panjiao classication of teachings
schemas for ranking the various forms of SinoIndian Buddhism, and it serves as a
model for my own schema of alchemical registers below.118
At the bottom of Li Daochuns schema are nine grades of marginal
116
See pp. 16162; also, pp. 72, 84, 104, 12425, 129, and 44852 chap. 5, 3.1.2.1.
117
DZ 249, Zhonghe ji, by Li Daochun, 2.13a17a. Cf. Li Yuanguo, Daojiao qigong yangsheng xue, 49194; Robinet,
Introduction lalchimie intrieure taoste, 15052; Crowe, The Nature and Function of the Buddhist and Ru Teachings in Li
Daochun, 28992. This passage is translated in appendix 3 of this chapter pp. 36166.
118
Other such inneralchemical classication of teachings schemata can be found in the writings of Chen Nan,
Bai Yuchan, and Mu Changchao.
246
traditions pangmen , which Li does not consider to be inner alchemy at all;
above them come three gradual vehicles of inner alchemy; and surmounting them all
is the one sudden vehicle. The lowest of the four vehicles is alchemy on the
microcosmic register, alchemy understood in psychophysiological terms, with
body and heartmind as variables occupying the general category caldron and
furnace, and kidneys and heart occupying the category water and re. His
middle vehicle is alchemy on the mesocosmic level, alchemy understood in terms
of abstract signs, with qian and kun occupying the category caldron and
furnace, and kan and li occupying the category water and re. His upper
vehicle is alchemy on the macrocosmic level, alchemy understood in cosmic and
psychic terms, with Heaven and Earth occupying the category caldron and
furnace, and sun and moon occupying the category water and re. His Supreme
One Vehicle, which is also a sudden vehicle, is alchemy on the purely metaphysical
level or level of nonspatiotemporal realities, alchemy as the direct cultivation of
inherent nature, with the Great Void Taixu and the Great Ultimate Taiji
occupying the category caldron and furnace, and calming meditation ding ,
Skt. samatha and wisdom hui
, Skt. praj occupying the category water and
re. I include a full translation of Li Daochuns nine grades and four vehicles in
appendix 3 to this chapter. These four vehicles line up with my quadripartite schema
of ontological registers below though details vary between them.
3.1.1, Inner alchemists may interpret their concepts and discourse on . . . the register of
the microcosm of human body, . . . including empirical, theological, and symbolic
perspectives on the body.
Kristofer Schipper o
ers a useful schema for categorizing
Daoist body concepts. He writes that Daoists may view the body empirically,
theologically, or symbolically.119 The empirical body is the medical body as
understood by the practicing physician, according to a way of knowing based more
on experience than theory. In the theological body, the multiple souls and spirits
represent the essences and the energies qi of the body. This view also includes
understandings of the body based on correlative cosmology. The symbolic body is
119
Schipper, The Taoist Body, 1035.
247
the body viewed as an inner landscape. Whereas the empirical and theological bodies
are part of Chinese common culture, the body as a landscape is a uniquely Daoist
concept. This beautiful vision includes both the empirical and theological views,
but what distinguishes it from the other ways of viewing the body is that it is related
to a rich and meaningful mythology. By turning the light of his eyes within, a Daoist
may see a mythical inner world, with the great sacred mountain; the Kunlun, pillar
of the universe; the isles of the Immortals; the holy places, such as the altars of the
Earth God; in short, the whole mythical geography as well as its corresponding
pantheon.120
In this chapter, I discuss the 1 psychophysiological, 2 symbolic, and 3
allegorical or visionary elements of inner alchemy; almost all of these are related to
body and mind. These do not map directly to Schippers A empirical, B
theological, and C symbolic visions of the body, but Schippers categories are useful
for comparison. The 1 psychophysiological elements of inner alchemy include
essence, qi, spirit or spirits, and so on. The 2 symbolic elements come from
Chinese correlative cosmology. The 3 allegorical or visionary elements include
dragon and tiger, or squire metal jingong , lovely girl chan , and naked
infant chizi . Comparing Schippers categories with mine, I have left out
Schippers A empirical perspective, and divided his B theological perspective into
1 psychophysiological and 2 symbolic dimensions. The closest relation is between
Schippers C symbolic view and my 3 allegorical or visionary perspective. As in
Schippers account, in some cases inner alchemists do represent the body as a
mountain, or a landscape.121 Chen Zhixus Jindan dayao contains an illustration of the
alchemical body gured as a mountain, copied from an earlier text.122 This
illustration does not represent Chens usual bodydiscourse, and may be related to
liandu salvation through renement practice, which plays no role in Chens
120
Schipper, The Taoist Body, 105.
121
Catherine Despeux has written a book, Taosme et corps humain, on Daoist images of the body as a landscape.
Many of her images are related to inner alchemy.
122
DZ 1068, Shangyangzi Jindan dayao tu 3a; copied from DZ 90, Yuanshi wuliang duren shangpin miaojing neiyi 8b9a.
248
teachings.123 As I say in section 6 below on the allegorical or visionary elements of

inner alchemy, I do believe that the 3 allegorical elements of inner alchemy belong
to an embodied mythology that is comparable to Schippers C symbolic view, yet
the contents of the two mythologies are quite dierent.
The inneralchemical theological body includes the Five Viscera124 wuzang
, which are yang; the Six Receptacles liufu ,125 which are yin; the three
dantian in the front of the body and the Three Passes in the back; and the lesser orbit
xiao zhoutian
, or ecliptic huangdao , often thought to be made up of
the twin tracts of conception and superintendency rendu ermai ;126 and
various other subtlebody tracts, some of which may be used for the greater orbit da
zhoutian
.127
While the descriptions of the Five Viscera and Six Receptacles do not vary
much according to the teachings of various inneralchemical authors, there is
considerable variance in the conception and description of the three dantian, the
lesser and greater orbits, and the various tracts. The nomenclature of some sites
especially the dantian varies tremendously, mostly for rhetorical reasonsthe
dantian or other sites may be given dierent epithets to emphasize their dierent
functions or correlations. The conception of some sites also varies, though to a lesser
extent. I list many alternate terms for body sites in appendix 2 to this chapter.
123
Chens illustration includes body sites labeled Luofeng and Kuhai , which are infernal sites for the
renement of souls.
124
These are the kidneys correlated with agent water , the liver wood , the heart re , the lungs metal , and the
spleen earth . The most important viscera for inner alchemists are heart and kidneys, representing the opposed
principles of yinwithinyang and yangwithinyin, or the human beings two major systems of cognition
heart
and reproduction
kidneys; Hao Qin, Longhu dandao, 190.
125
These are the gallbladder, stomach, small intestine, large intestine, bladder, and Triple Burner. The Triple
Burner is associated with certain bodily locations, but should be thought of as a triple set of functions rather than
an organ. See Komjathy, Cultivating Perfection, 457, for a full denition. Medical texts beginning with the Huangdi
suwen further add a set of ve Odd Receptacles qiheng zhi fu
126
The superintendent tract dumai leads from the lower Magpie Bridge between coccyx and anus up the spine
through the Three Passes, and over the crown to the upper Magpie Bridge between upper palate and tongue .
The conception tract renmai leads from the upper Magpie Bridge down the front of the body, through the
middle and lower dantian, and back to the lower Magpie Bridge.
127
These tracts include the cardinal jing and reticular tracts luo . According to the modern medical
system, there are twelve regular cardinal tracts zhengjing , eight extraordinary cardinal tracts qijing ,
and fteen reticular tracts; Ma Jiren, Daojiao yu liandan, 15378. Of the cardinal tracts, the twin tracts of
conception and superintendency rendu ermai are the most important.
249
As for the lesser orbit, we can divide the di

erent versions of it into two
categories: those versions in which the pharmacon being circulated is swallowed as
saliva, with the circuit thus involving the salivary glands, tongue, and throat, and
those versions in which the pharmacon is circulated as intangible essence or qi, with
the circuit thus bypassing the throat. Conceptions of the greater orbit vary
tremendously; some versions involve the greater and lesser tracts, while others do
not.
Alchemists see upper, middle, and lower ranges in the body, each range with
its dantian. Important bodily sites within the upper range of the alchemical body
include the upper dantian MudPellet Palace, Niwan Gong and sites related
to it such as the brain and the crown of the head; the eyes, brows, and the ophryon
midway between the brows; the upper Pass JadePillow Pass, Yuzhen Guan
at the occiput; and the upper Magpie Bridge shang Queqiao , nose, mouth,
and the tongue with its precious saliva. The eyes, ophryon, and salivary system are
not important for all alchemists, but the other sites in the upper range of the body
are generally relevant in most forms of inner alchemy. The eyes and ophryon become
important in Quanzhen alchemy of the Ming and Qing dynasties. The salivary system
is emphasized in some forms of inner alchemy, but less so by Southern Lineage
alchemists and their heirs.128
Important bodily sites within the middle range of the alchemical body include
the middle dantian Crimson Palace, Jianggong and sites related to it such as
the Bright Hall Mingtang ,129 Grotto House Dongfang
, heart,130
spleen,131 and Yellow Court Huangting ; the liver; the lungs; the digestive
128
An exception to this trend is Weng Baoguang, whose teaching involves swallowing saliva called recycled elixir
of metallous humor, jinye huandan as part of the lesser orbit; Hao Qin, Longhu dandao, 27. Although he
was not part of Bai Yuchans Southern Lineage, Weng Baoguang did consider himself a true heir of Zhang
Boduan.
129
Some texts locate the Bright Hall below the throat, and the Grotto House between the Bright Hall and the
middle dantian Maspero, Methods of Nourishing the Vital Principle in the Ancient Taoist Religion, 458;
Despeux, Taosme et corps humain, 72. Other texts use these terms to refer to the middle dantian itself.
130
Sometimes the heart is considered to be a section within the middle dantian; Maspero, Methods of
Nourishing the Vital Principle in the Ancient Taoist Religion, 458.
131
The spleen may also be an assistant of the lower dantian; Maspero, Methods of Nourishing the Vital
Principle in the Ancient Taoist Religion, 459.
250
system with ve of the Six Receptacles

gallbladder, stomach, small intestine, large
intestine, and bladder; the middle Pass SpinalStraits Pass, Jiaji Guan ; the
throat, esophagus, and trachea the Storied Building, Chonglou ; and the arms
and hands. Crimson Palace is the most common term for the middle dantian, but
sometimes it refers directly to the heart. The middle dantian is usually located below
the heart, and is related to it functionally. The Yellow Court is usually associated with
the spleen both correlated with agent earth, but is sometimes glossed as the middle
dantian.132 The throat and esophagus are emphasized only in relation to saliva
swallowing. The arms and hands are only mentioned rarely, when the greaterorbital
practice involves transporting qi along their tracts.
Important bodily sites within the lower range of the alchemical body include
the lower dantian simply called the Dantian, or Dantian Palace and sites related to it
such as the kidneys, bellows and tuyre tuoyue ,133 genitals, and gate of seminal
essence; the lower Pass TailGate Pass, and sites related to it such as the
lower Magpie Bridge xia Queqiao , Gate of Destiny Mingmen ,134
perineum Huiyin , and anus; and the legs and feet. The legs, feet, and related
sites135 are only mentioned rarely, in relation to greaterorbital practice.
Certain sites vary in their physicality, with some teachers giving them physical
locations, some arguing that they have only a functional or mystical existence and no
xed location,136 and others saying that either of these positions may be appropriate,
depending on the adepts depth of understanding or stage of cultivation. Such sites
include the xuanpin which is sometimes understood to be a pair of sites, the
132
Despeux, Taosme et corps humain, 78.
133
Quanzhen alchemists place the bellows between the heart and kidneys or as a function of heart and kidneys;
Southern Lineage alchemists place them between the two kidneys or as a function of the two kidneys; Despeux,
Taosme et corps humain, 165.
134
Because it is understood functionally, the Gate of Destiny is variously dened as the navel or below the navel,
right kidney, a point between the second and third vertebrae, eyes, lower dantian, spleen, nose, and the Gate of
Essence.
135
Such as the Bubbling Well acupoint Yongquan xuewei

in the sole of the foot.
136
Bai Yuchan especially criticizes the view that regards xuanpin as nose and mouth in alchemical practice.
Rather, Bai says that xuanpin is the gate of generation or creation; Wang Li, The Daoist Way of Transcendence, 159
also see 266 67. Li Xiyue says that the Mysterious Pass does not have a physical existence or site, yet is
connected with the various inner bodily sites; Zeng Chuanhui, Yuandai Cantong xue, 115.
251
xuan and pin , the Mysterious Pass Xuanguan , a.k.a. One Aperture of the
Mysterious Pass, Xuanguan Yiqiao , the Yellow Court, the Gate of Destiny,
and the three dantian. Also, some terms are given additional or variant
interpretations within sexual alchemy, especially the xuan and pin, and the Mysterious
Pass.
Finally, some alchemists develop conceptions of the alchemical body based on
Buddhist terms such as formbody seshen or dharmabody fashen
.137
3.1.2, Inner alchemists may interpret their concepts and discourse on . . . the
register of . . . mind.
The cultivation of the heartmind xin and inherent nature
xing is an important part of inner alchemical practice. The inherent nature is

often understood as transcending the heartmind while also depending on it. Most
alchemists take inherent nature rather than heartmind as an object of cultivation,
but some such as Bai Yuchan emphasize heartmind instead of inherent nature.138
This prefence by some alchemists for inherent nature, and others for the heartmind,
parallels a divergence between proponents of Xingxue and Xinxue within
the eld of NeoConfucian thought.139 Alchemical proponents of cultivating the
inherent nature rather than the heartmind must also still, purify, and clarify the
mind, of course; some such as Ma Danyang even say that this is the whole of the
alchemical process. They may interpret this in terms from Chan Buddhism, calling it
illuminating the heartmind and actualizing the inherent nature or
buddhanature mingxin xianxing

or, jianxing . They also draw on the
Buddhist idea that six forms of sensory consciousness may be embodied as ve or
six thieves liuzei , maras who will tempt the unwary and lead them astray.
register of . . . spirit or spirits.
The human subtle body as a bureaucracy peopled with
spirit o cers is one of the most distinctive concepts of medieval Daoism i.e,
137
Chen Zhixu oers a remarkable discourse on these terms in DZ 1067, Shangyangzi Jindan dayao 10b11a. I do
not have the opportunity to analyze this passage in the dissertation.
138
Diering from the Northern Lineage of Complete Perfection that usually regards nature xing as the
golden elixir, Bai insists the mind xin is the golden elixir; Wang Li, The Daoist Way of Transcendence, 222.
139
Yang Lihua, Niming de pinjie, 157.
252
religious Daoism, and perhaps also early Daoism i.e, philosophical Daoism.140
The corporeal spirits of early medieval Daoism, such as the spirits of the Nine
Palaces in the upper dantian, twentyfour phosphors jing from the Huangting
jing in three sets of eight,141 or the set of ve spirits from the Duren jing,142 are still
present within the purview of many inner alchemists, but they are usually mentioned
only within quotations from the scriptures, and are not developed within the
alchemists own teachings. Calling the corporeal spirits by name is no longer an
important practice. Alchemists may also speak of summoning groups of corporeal
spirits, such as the hundred spirits or myriad spirits, but these are anonymous
groups, and their response is a result of alchemical practice rather than the direct
goal of practice. Some alchemists may even speak of classical corporeal spirits as
mere qie
ects, rather than independent entities, but this sort of demythologization
is not universal. The classical concepts of the cloudsouls hun , whitesouls po ,
and corpses or deathbringers, shi or worms chong seem to be widely
accepted in inner alchemy, though these spirits are not named individually.143 They
may be reinterpreted as forces of alchemical process, or understood as individual
corporeal spirits as in classical Daoism. Some alchemists, such as Chen Zhixu,
develop unusual teachings on corporeal and mental spirits.144
The most important spirits in inner alchemy are 1 the spirit of the heart
mind xinshen and related concepts of cognitive spirit shishen 145 and
primal spirit yuanshen ; and 2 the pureyang spirit yangshen . The spirit
of the heartmind exists both as an individual spirit being though not visualized
140
Something like this concept can also be found in nonDaoist texts from early China, such as Xunzi;
Bokenkamp, What Daoist Body? While the concept is not unique to medieval Daoism, we may say that it is
distinctively medievalDaoist.
141
In the upper range, spirits of the hair, brain, eyes, nose, ears, mouth, tongue, and teeth; in the middle range,
lungs, heart, liver, spleen, left and right kidneys, gallbladder, and throat; in the lower range, kidneyorb, intestines,
abdomen, chest, diaphragm, armpits, and two yinyang spirits; DZ 1067, Shangyangzi Jindan dayao 4.4ab.
142
Grand Unity Taiyi in the MudPellet Palace; Nonpareil Wuying and White Prime Bai Yuan, in the head or
liver and lungs; Director of Destinies Siming in the heart and sex organs; and Peach Vigor Taokang, in the
lower dantian.
143
Despeux, Taosme et corps humain, 135.
144
I discuss this on pp. 52326.
145
Also called desiring spirit yushen

.
253
wearing certain robes and with a certain physiognomy, as it would have been in
classical Daoism , and as a function or quality of mind and inherent nature.146 In its
postnatal, degenerate form, this spirit is cognitive spirit, and in its prenatal,
perfected form, it is primal spirit.147 Primal spirit is at once pharmacon, agent,
and result of alchemical cultivation: it is material on which the alchemist works, yet
it is also an aspect of the alchemists self and thus an agent of that work. The pure
yang spirit, an invisible and intangible spiritform of the self, is strictly a result of
cultivation, and not an agent of cultivation. It is the alchemists new spiritbody, able
to live forever in the Heavens or in the Dao. Sometimes, it is said that the yang spirit
may divide into multiple spirits, or even countless spirits. Perhaps we can regard the
yang spirit and its o
spring as a new alchemical version of the classical Daoist
concept of corporeal spirits, although, unlike the classical spirits, these alchemical
spirits only come into existence at the end of a long process of cultivation. Some
teachings also may represent the holy fetus shengtai which is also produced
through renement of the elixir, but at a stage earlier than the yang spiritas a sort
of spiritbeing.148 Other teachings do not personify the holy fetus; this issue awaits
further study.
3.2, Inner alchemists may . . . interpret their concepts and discourse on . . . the register of
. . . the mesocosm of signs . . .
I take the term mesocosm from a denition of the
Tantric maala by D. G. White:

the maala is a mesocosm, mediating between the great and small the universal
macrocosm and the individual macrocosm , as well as between the mundane and
the sublime the protocosm of the visible world of human experience and the
146
That is, this spirit is sometimes a count noun a singularity or plurality of discrete beings and sometimes a
mass noun a spiritstu
. This phenomenon is found throughout the history of Daoism, but predates Daoism;
Bokenkamp, What Daoist Body? This issue awaits further study.
There may have been a turning point in the Tang period, as evinced by texts such as DZ 1460, Taishang
Dongxuan jizhong jing, which John Lagerway calls A small jewel. . . . In this new form of Taoism the human being is
no longer considered as a body lled with spirits that one must try to retain, but as a spirit endowed with
knowledge; Schipper and Verellen, The Taoist Canon, 1:564.
147
The binary opposition between cognitive spirit and primal spirit could also be restated as the opposition
between heartmind and spirit Ge Guolong, Daojiao neidan xue tanwei, 90 , or, in NeoConfucian terms, as the
opposition between our postnatal inherent nature qizhi zhi xing and our Heavenbestowed nature
tianfu zhi xing .
148
E.g., in the illustrations studied by Despeux in Taosme et corps humain.
254
transcendentyetimmanent metacosm that is its invisible font.149

As described by White, a Tantric maala is a grid with a central deity in the center
and a host of other beings, including lesser deities and the human practitioner,
situated amidst a hierarchy of spaces, or moving along pathways of power, which
both organize them into a hierarchy and connect them to the central gure. I am not
using the term mesocosm to describe this sort of an abstract, hierarchical space of
powerpoints within inner alchemy.150 I merely wish to draw attention to how, within
inner alchemical thought, 1 yin and yang, 2 the ve agents, 3 the ve directions,
4 the eight trigrams and sixtyfour hexagrams, 5 the numbers one through ten
within the numerological system of the River Chart Hetu and Luo Writ Luoshu ,
and other abstract cosmological or symbolic systems such as 6 the celestial stems
tiangan and terrestrial branches dizhi , exist and interact within a plane
distinct from both the macrocosm of Heaven, Earth, and humanity, and the
microcosm of the human body and spirits. The reason why this mesocosm is
ultimately important to the alchemist is because he must apply its laws to his
microcosm in order to achieve transcendence, yet the transformations of the
mesocosm are often accorded a life of their own within inneralchemical discourse,
without direct reference to the microcosm. Often the transformations of the
mesocosm actually appear to be the source of transformations within the microcosm,
so it is important for the alchemist to understand mesocosmic phenomena in their
own terms. Take the following passage from Chen Zhixus commentary to the
Wuzhen pian for example:
Heaven three produces wood, earth two produces re. Fire is numbered two, and
wood is numbered three. Three and two join their natures, integrated into a
single ve. The image of wood is in the east, and its modelimage faxiang is
the bluegreen dragon. The qi of the dragon is mercurial re, dwelling in the
south, with a modelimage of a cardinalred bird. Wood produces re, so wood is
the substance, and re is the qi that is produced. Therefore wood and re make a
single clan. . . . Heaven ve is jiearth, earth ten is wuearth. Wuearth dwells in
kan, and jiearth dwells in li. . . .
149
White, Introduction: Tantra in Practice: Mapping a Tradition, 9.
150
If one were to pursue the metaphor of body as maala, one would have to be aware that the alchemical body
has neither a singular center gure or position, nor a rigorously hierarchical structure. There may be hierarchies
and central positions at each stage of the process, but these vary according to the stage.
255
--,'#*
*#..%# *#("#2#
%"!#$

/151
In this passage, the patterned transformations of 1 trigrams from the Book of
Changes, 2 numbers from the River Chart, 3 agents from the system of the ve
agents, and 4 animals from the system of the Four Images Sixiang * take on a
life of their own, distinct from their correlates in the body of the alchemist. Using
mesocosm as a term of art helps us to thematize these structural positions and
transformations as located on a separate ontological register. I will talk more about
these mesocosmic elements in section 5 on Symbolic Elements below.
One word that alchemists often use for these mesocosmic elements is xiang *
images.152 According to Robinet, the xiang occupies a fundamental place in Chinese
thought, similar to the Word Logos in Christianity, or the sound of a mantra in
Tantrism.153 Xiang and shu - number are both fundamental elements within
Chinese tradition; some thinkers privilege the xiang, while others privilege number.
The Commentary on the Attached Verbalizations Xici zhuan 01+ of the Book
of Changes is the earliest text to oer a theory on the xiang as symbolic explanations
of the trigrams. Robinet notes that, for the early medieval philosopher Wang Bi )
226 49, the xiang are a link between thought and language. More mystically, for
alchemists such as Li Daochun, the xiang serve as relays between the inexpressible
vision of totality and the deciency of human discourse, between metaphysicalmoral
Principle li & and practice, between natural tian principles and the human
mind. I will not attempt to remain true to the emic term xiang, because the term
varies so much in usage. For Chen Zhixu at least, xiang can belong to a specic set
e.g., the Four Images, or it can just mean any kind of sign regarding the changes of
sun and moon, the transformations of the outer pharmacon, or the rening of the
151
DZ 142, Ziyang Zhenren Wuzhen pian sanzhu 2.17a7 b1, b10.
152
Other translations for xiang include: signs, emblems, forms, or manifestations; Platonic Ideas Baryosher
Chemouny, La qute de l
immortalit en Chine, 127; gures or symbols Robinet, Introduction l
alchimie intrieure
taoste, 84; counterparts Schafer, Pacing the Void, 55; BaldrianHussein, Inner Alchemy, 183; simulacra Schafer,
ibid.; or schemata Sharf, Coming to Terms with Chinese Buddhism, 147 49. Image has become the consensus
translation. The best discussion of the term is in Sharf, ibid.
153
alchimie intrieure taoste, 84 87.
256
elixir within the body. In Cantong qi, qian and kun can be xiang, but macrocosmic
heaven and earth can also be the xiang of mesocosmic qian and kun! Robinet would
say that the inconsistency of the referents for the term xiang is instructive, a
symptom of the alchemists fundamentally ludic and selfcontradictory use of
language. This is a salient point, but I prefer simply to avoid using the term xiang, for
the sake of clarity. Before noting the ssures and inversions in the structures of
alchemical thought and language, let us understand the structures themselves. I talk
about these mesocosmic elements below in section 5, Symbolic Elements, and
section 6, Allegorical or Visionary Elements.
Another alternative view of the xiang comes from Wile, who calls the tri
hexagrams both the myth and mathematics of Chinese thought.154 This is an
exaggeration in the direction of truth. While Wile alerts us to the mythical and
numerological functions of the trihexagrams, and warns us that creation myths can
be found within Chinese culture in places we might not be looking for them, it is an
overstatement to say that trihexagrams are the myth of Chinese thought, and it is
also misleading to call this mathematics. While inner alchemists do often use the
trigrams qian , kun , kan , and li to tell the myth of a fall from
primordial perfection,155 this myth may be mostly conned to inner alchemy. The
most common sort of myth in Chinese culture, including Chinese thought, is the
myth of a culture hero, or the founder of a tradition e.g., the Yellow Emperor.
3.2.1.1, Inner alchemists may . . . interpret their concepts and discourse on . . . the
register of . . . the mesocosm, . . . including abstract signs such as yin and yang . . .
Yin
and yang are key concepts within traditional cosmology, astronomy, divination,
psychology, medicine, cooking, martial arts, and other arts of living. Although they
are central concepts within religious Daoism, they are not unique to or uniquely
associated with the religion. Yin and yang serve as markers for dual categories into
which any aspect of mundane reality can be divided:
154
155
I discuss this saga of devolution and redemption on pages 43539 chap. 5, 3.0.2.
257
Yang
Male
Heaven
Sun
Yin
Female
Earth
Yang
Pure
Above
Day
Yin
Impure
Below
Night
Heavens
White
Spring
Chinese
Sunny
Host
Action
Black
Autumn
Foreign
Shady
Guest
Passivity
Life
Hot
Summer
Outside
Dry
Ruler
Hard
Death
Cold
Winter
Inside
Wet
Minister
Soft
Moon Netherworld
Fig. 4.1., Yangyin dyads
The pair yinyang is epitomized by the pair malefemale, but it is better to think
of yin and yang as markers of a pair of abstract categories rather than as simply
reducible to the pair malefemale. Note that, in all of the pairs in gure 4.1, yang is
superior to yin. It is commonly assumed, by scholars as well as nonscholars, that
Daoists aim to harmonize yin and yang principles in their bodies or lifestyles, or
even to maximize the yin principle and reduce the yang, but this is somewhat
mistaken. There are many passages within the Daode jing emphasizing the
harmonization of masculine and feminine principles and/or the maximization of the
feminine.156 Readers who assume a strong continuity between the Daode jing and
medieval Daoism may assume that medieval Daoists must therefore also seek to
balance yin and yang, or exalt the yin.157 But this is not true. Medieval Daoists are
essentially devoted to personal salvation from this world of decay and death, of
imperfection and dissatisfaction. The cultivation of health and holism through
balancing yin and yang is but the rst step on their path to salvation, which
ultimately leads beyond the realm of yin and yang to the purer realm of the One Qi,
Great Ultimate, Limitless, or Dao also equated with the heavens, celestial deities,
and cosmogenesis. And this One Qi is yang.158 Because yang is pure, high, and
associated with life, while yin is impure, low, and associated with death, the
purer, higher realm of eternal life is marked yang relative to the sublunar, mortal
realm, which is yin. Thus, while the harmonization of yin and yang, or cultivation
156
E.g., Know the masculine but maintain the feminine, and be a valley for the world
chapter 28.
157
Cf. Needham, Science and Civilisation in China, 5.5.54: And how profound a truth lay hid in this exaltation of the
feminine qualities and virtues to the highest place, perhaps nothing less than the key to all human social evolution
in its sublimation of intraspecic aggressiveness. Also cf. Schipper, The Taoist Body, 12729.
Needhams view that inner alchemists essentially aim to maximize yin is colored by his love of the Daode jing
and his love of peace, and is not objectively accurate.
158
This claim is based on my understanding of inner alchemy, but also holds generally for nonalchemical Daoist
teachings in the Tang dynasty and after. I believe that it holds generally for early medieval teachings, but there
may be more exceptions in this period.
258
of yin, may play some role in the practices of medieval Daoism, usually these Daoists
would ultimately be aiming for a state of pure yang. This involves inverting turning
topsyturvy, diandao E+ the normal relation between yin and yang cf. pp. 32021
and 323 below.
All of the foregoing holds especially true for the inner alchemists.Yinyang
symbolism plays a more central role within inner alchemy than within perhaps any
other form of Daoism;159 and while the manipulation of yin is essential within inner
alchemical procedures, inner alchemists are always clearly aiming to achieve a state of
pure yang.160 In addition to the set of yinyang paired oppositions listed above in
gure 4.1, the inner alchemists added many of their own.
Yang
Yin
Yang continued
perfected yang
perfected yin
male
female
masculine pin ; xiong 8
feminine mu ; ci =
qian 1
kun
Yin continued
kan
li C
husband
wife
the yang within the yin
the yin within the yang
above
below
lead qian 9
mercury gong
host
guest
perfected lead
perfected mercury
self wo
other bi "
rabbit within the moon
crow within the sun
movement dong 2
stillness jing A
Tiger as kan
White Tiger of the Western
Mountains
the Lad of Kan kannan
Dragon as li
Cyan Dragon of the Eastern
Ocean
the Maiden of Li lin C
rm gang ,
yielding rou )
pure qi qingqi 4-
impure qi zhuoqi @-
descending jiang *
rising sheng $
the Baby Boy yinger B
the Lovely Girl chan
exhalation
inhalation
Heaven
Earth
civil ring wenhuo
martial ring wuhuo %
Sun
Moon
advancing
retreating
south
north
summer
winter
jade caldron yuding :

eight ounces of fallingcrescent
silver !<
ghost gui 0
spirit shen /
qi -
metallous furnace jinlu 'F

eight ounces of risingcrescent
gold !'
transcendent
qi -
essence jing ;
earthly whitesoul dipo ?
celestial cloudsoul tianhun >
heart
kidneys
wuearth wutu
jiearth jitu
six digestive viscera liufu

6
ve basic organs wuzang G
nine
six
re
water
white
black
inherent nature xing #
life endowment ming
outer pharmacon waiyao D
inner pharmacon neiyao D
metallous essence jinjing ';
wood humor muye 3
outer elixir waidan
inner elixir neidan
gold humor jinye '3
jade humor yuye 3
yang elixir yangdan 7
yin elixir yindan 5
oating, volatizing fu .
currentdriven waterraising
machine heche &
oxdriven waterraising machine

niuche
sinking chen
Fig. 4.2, Inneralchemical yangyin dyads

159
The rhythm and principle of the play of Yin and Yang are essential in all of Taoism, but the practitioners if
interior alchemy have concentrated and reected on their interactions to the greatest extent; Robinet, Taoism:
Growth of a Religion, 10.
160
Robinet, like Needham, would like to portray inner alchemy as requiring the equal involvement of yin and yang
Introduction lalchimie intrieure taoste, 141, but she also notes that the equality of yin and yang is a feature of
the houtian ( postnatal, postcosmic, temporal realm, whereas the xiantian prenatal, precosmic, io
temporal state is pure yang without yin ibid., 117.
259
The above is a table of the most important paired oppositions within inner
alchemy.161 Note that elements from every register, level, or niche of inneralchemical
thought and discourse macrocosmic, mesocosmic
abstract or gurative, and
microcosmic have a place in the yinyang categorical scheme, and the yinyang
scheme can be used to establish resonances between elements of dierent registers.
register of . . . the mesocosm, . . . including abstract signs such as . . . the ve agents . . .
The schema of the ve agents

wood, re, earth, metal, water is a way for people to
organize species according to a set of categories. Like the schemata of yinyang
above or the trihexagrams

below, the schema of the ve agents can
in theory
include within it all things in the postcosmic
houtian realm. Cosmological treatises
oer many sets of veagent correspondences the ve tastes, smells, musical notes,
styles of government, and so on. A full search would turn up more than a hundred
such sets of correspondences.162 Figure 4.3 lists several such sets that are relevant to
inner alchemy.163
Colors
Directions
Seasons
Yin/Yang
Heraldic animals
Viscera
Parts of the
body
Wood
Cyan
East
Spring
Lesser yang
Cyan dragon
Liver
Muscles
Fire
Red
South
Summer
Greater yang
Cardinalred bird
Heart
Blood
xue
Earth
Yellow
Center
Dog days
furi
Yin and yang

in balance
none
Spleen
Flesh
Metal
White
West
Autumn
Lesser yin
White tiger
Lungs
Water
Black
North
Winter
Greater yin
Dark warrior
xuanwu
Kidneys
Skin and
hair
Bones
marrow
Visceral
spirits
Cloudsoul
hun
Spirit
shen
Intention
yi
Whitesoul
po
Will
zhi
Fig. 4.3, Fiveagent correlations
Like yinyang or the trihexagrams, the schema of the ve agents allows people to
thematize
or, understand, within their given epistemological horizon how
A any
one species succeeds another species from a dierent category, or how
B species are
161
Figure 4.2 is based on Needham, Science and Civilisation in China, 5.5:60, and Hao Qin, Longhu dandao, 146, with
some deletions and additions.
162
Needham, Science and Civilisation in China, 2:264, citing Eberhard, Beitrge zur Kosmologischen Spekulation
Chinas in der HanZeit.
163
I have selected these correspondences from similar tables in Bokenkamp, Early Daoist Scriptures, 1819;
Needham, Science and Civilisation in China, 2:26263; and Hao Qin, Longhu dandao, 15052, with modications.
Bokenkamp lists
260
related to one other by belonging to the same category. As a part of Chinese

cosmology, the ve agents also contribute to C a general sense of metaphysical
order and moral meaning in the natural and social world.
A The schema of ve agents helps the alchemist to understand how one
species in the world produces another, or conquers another, according to their ve
agent value. Standard Chinese veagent cosmology includes several general
sequences of the ve agents. Three of these are the cosmogonic order shengxu ,
the order in which the agents came into being: water, re, wood, metal, earth, the
mutual production order xiangsheng
, in which wood produces re, re produces
earth, followed by metal, water, and wood again; and the mutual conquest order
xiangsheng
or xiangke
, in which wood is conquered by metal, metal is
conquered by re, followed by water, earth, and wood again.164 These orders may
help alchemists to understand the sequence by which the qi of the viscera produce
one another. For example, in DZ 150, Xiuzhen taiji hunyuan zhixuan tu, to make a
lesser recycled elixir xiao huandan , the adept causes the primal qi of the
kidneys to pass through the liver, heart, lungs, then to the middle dantian associated
with the spleen, where the elixir is formed.165 Actually, more often than production
or conquest cycles, the alchemists use a contrary sequence called turning the ve
agents upsidedown wuxing diandao or interlaced waxing of the ve
agents wuxing cuowang , as I discuss in on pages 336 38 below.
B The schema of the ve agents also helps the alchemist to see links
between di
erent species of the same category xianglei
. For example, following
veagents correspondences, the alchemist can understand how the spirit
corresponds to the heart because both correpond to agent re, or how the will
corresponds to the kidneys because both correpond to water.166 With this
understanding, the adept can guide natural processes of transformation in ways
164
Needham, Science and Civilisation in China, 2:253.
165
166
Such correspondences often have their own logic. For example, in discussing the system of kidney correlations,
Wile argues that The soporic state following emission also may have inspired the conceptual link in medical
theory of jing and zhi , both associated with the urogenital system the kidneyorb , and of the urogenital
system and the brain; Wile, Art of the Bedchamber, 6.
261
favorable to his own purposes.

The ve viscera are perhaps the most important set of ve within alchemy, or
within any form of Daoist body practice. As Robinet notes in her study of early
medieval Shangqing Daoism, within the human body, the viscera are both the
location and privileged form of the expression of these Powers the ve agents . The
Powers are active everywhere in the body . . . but the viscera are the points of
concentration of nodes which integrate the other bodily parts. As a text related to
the Huangting jing says, the ve viscera are the governors of the body.167 The ve
viscera, as governors of the body, correspond to the ve planets above, or the ve
marchmounts or, ve holy mountains, wuyue below.168
These relations between species of dierent categories or between species
within the same category work not so much by mechanical impulsion or causation
as by a kind of mysterious resonance.169 A. C. Graham calls Chinese cosmology a
form of correlative thinking, which may be contrasted with scientic thinking, but
which has its own rationality and is an inescapable mode of human thought.170
register of . . . the mesocosm, . . . including abstract signs such as . . . the trigrams and
hexagrams . . .
The trigrams and hexagrams or trihexagrams171 come from the
Zhouyi Changes of the Zhou. The Zhouyi began as a manual for royal
divination, and was probably compiled over the course of centuries, reaching its nal
form in the late Western Zhou period, perhaps 825 800
.172 By the 2nd c. , it
had become customary to append ten commentaries Ten Wings, Shiyi to the
Zhouyi to make the Yijing Classic of changes. By this time, no one
remembered what the original oracle statements of the Zhouyi had meant, and the
167
Robinet, Taoist Meditation, 60 62.
168
Robinet, Taoist Meditation, 180 81.
169
170
Graham, YinYang and the Nature of Correlative Thinking, 7.
171
Both trigrams and hexagrams are called gua ; I use the term trihexagrams to encompass both meanings
of gua.
172
Rutt, The Book of Changes, 33.
262
Yijing was used as a book of ethicometaphysical wisdom.173

In the Han it was assumed that the trigrams came rst, and hexagrams were
later constructed by stacking two trigrams, but actually the hexagrams may be the
older of the two.174 Traditionally, the composition of the trigrams is attributed to the
mythic culturehero Fuxi , and the hexagrams and their statements are
attributed to King Wen of the Zhou Zhou Wenwang
, or to King Wen and
the Duke of Zhou Zhougong
together.
Like yinyang and the ve agents, the trigrams and hexagrams o
ered Chinese
cosmologists and diviners sets of categories eight for the trigrams or sixtyfour for
the hexagrams to use in A marking di
erence between species, B forging links
between species within a common category, and C contributing to a general sense
of meaningful order. The special value of the trihexagrams lies in their use for
illustrating the dialectical complexities of change bianhua , according to
which No state of a
airs is permanent, every vanquished entity will rise again, and
every prosperous force carries within it the seeds of its own destruction.175 Through
knowledge of the Changes, the wise man may know the patterns of all changes of
heaven, earth, and humanity.
Laboratory alchemists, probably beginning in the Tang, used select sequences
of the trihexagrams to represent the waxing and waning of yin and yang during the
periods of ring the elixir, and this was continued by the inner alchemists. I discuss
the three most important such trihexagram sequences, the Matching Stems,
Sovereign Hexagrams, and Hexagram Qi schemata, on pages 29399 below. Here I
will briey mention two more fundamental trigram sequences, the Precosmic
Trigrams Xiantian bagua ascribed to Fuxi, and the Postcosmic Trigrams
Houtian bagua ascribed to King Wen. Both are said to be derived from
quotations from Shuogua , the eighth wing of the Yijing, but they were
popularized by the Songdynasty NeoConfucian and inner alchemist Shao Yong
101177. The sequences are more commonly seen in the form of circular
173
174
175
263
diagrams, which also owe their popularity and perhaps invention to Shao Yong.176
Follow the trigrams from qian at bottom i.e., South counterclockwise to zhen, then from xun above qian clockwise to kun.
8
kun
7
gen
6
kan
5
xun
4
zhen #
3
li '
2
dui
1
qian
Heaven and Earth have xed positions, Mountain and Still Water pervade their qi, Thunder and Wind excite one
another, Water and Fire do not shoot at one another % &Shuogua
1.3
Fig. 4.4, Precosmic diagram, numerical sequence, and Shuogua quote
9
li '
8
gen
7
dui
6
qian
5
zhong
4
xun
3
zhen #
2
kun
1
kan
The thearch emerges at zhen, arranges at xun, sees i.e., receives at court at li, is given service at kun, speak his
words at dui, does battle at qian, labors at kan, and completes his words at gen
#"

' ! $ Shuogua 2.5
Fig. 4.5, Postcosmic diagram, numerical sequence, and Shuogua quote
Both diagram/sequences exhibit mathematical regularity: adding the numerical values

of each opposing pair on the circle qiankun, likan, duigen, or zhenxun always gives a
sum of 9 for the precosmic diagram, and 10 for the postcosmic diagram. However,
for the inner alchemist, whereas the precosmic diagram represents the perfect order
that we all possessed before birth, the postcosmic diagram represents the disorder
and fallenness of our mortal condition.177 Perhaps this is because, whereas the pre
cosmic diagram and numerical sequence are correlated the diagram is constituted by
two fourtrigram subsequences from the eighttrigram sequence, the postcosmic
176
Hao Qin, Longhu dandao, 160 62. Rutt, The Book of Changes, 440 43; Smith et al., Sung Dynasty Uses of the I
Ching, 110 20.
177
264
diagram and sequence seemingly do not correlate with one another.

It is said that an adept must follow one or the other of these diagrams
according to his stage of practice. Many scholars say that the adept must follow the
postcosmic diagram at an initial stage of cultivation such as when rening the outer
pharmacon, and the precosmic diagram at a more advanced stage when rening
the elixir.178 However, I see no evidence of this from my study of Chen Zhixu, for
whom li and kan always correlate with the cardinal directions east and west in
accordance with the precosmic diagram, and never, as far as I know, with north and
south in accordance with the postcosmic diagram. Wile oers a dissenting
viewpoint, asserting that the postcosmic sequence is found only in texts on female
inner alchemy.179
register of . . . the mesocosm, . . . including abstract signs such as . . . the numbers of the
River Chart Hetu . . .
In Yijing learning and common practice, the River Chart is
usually paired with the Luo Writ Luoshu .180 While inner alchemists may cite
the titles of the River Chart and Luo Writ together in the same breath, I have
not been able to nd any special uses of LuoWrit numerology in inner alchemy, so I
do not discuss the Luo Writ in this chapter.181 The term River Chart has a long
history within Chinese culture,182 but for our purposes we need only think of them as
two simple cosmograms, each of which correlates 1 the numbers 1 through 10 with
2 the waxing and waning of yin and yang, and 3 the ve agents in their mutual
production cycle wuxing xiangsheng . In the River Chart, we see the
178
Hao Qin, Longhu dandao, 161; Ma Jiren, Daojiao yu liandan, 203; Robinet, Introduction lalchimie intrieure taoste,
141; Wang Li, The Daoist Way of Transcendence, 303 citing DZ 243, Chen Xubai guizhong zhinan.
179
180
My discussion of HeLuo symbology below is based on Hao Qin, Longhu dandao, 176 79.
181
The Luo Writ is a magic square of three adding the values of any three squares in a line gives the same sum
of fteen, and represents the waxing and waning of yin and yang during a cycle around the eight directions of the
windrose. Both River Chart and Luo Writ are correlated with the eight trigrams, with the River Chart
being precosmic representing the trigrams in their precosmic order, and the Luo Writ being postcosmic.
The River Chart when it is drawn as a round chart represents Heaven, while the Luo Writ square represents
Earth; Saso, What is the Hotu?
182
The titles River Chart and Luo Writ originally referred to palladia, royal treasureobjects, guobao . The
possession of a palladium by a sovereign signied that he also possessed the Mandate of Heaven; Seidel, Imperial
Treasures and Taoist Sacraments, 297 302. These were probably stones with unusual natural markings Hsieh,
Writing om Heaven, 141; the diagrams that we know today may be Songdynasty products.
265
numbers 1 through 10 arranged in a circle over the four cardinal directions and the
center, as in gures 4.6 and 4.7 below.
Fig. 4.6, The River Chart
Fig. 4.7, The Luo Writ
The ve odd numbers are celestial and yang represented with white dots; the ve
even numbers are terrestrial and yin black dots; this arrangement follows a passage
from the Xici zhuan: Heaven has 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9. Earth has 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10. Thus
heaven has ve numbers and earth has ve numbers. The two series are interlocked
in order; each number in one series has its partner in the other.183 Each of the ve
directions has one oddcelestialyang number its production number, shengshu
, and one eventerrestrialyin number its completion number, chengshu .
Thus, according to these numbers of production and completion, heaven 1 tian yi

produces water, earth 6 di liu
completes it, and the numbers 1 and 6
dwell in the north. Earth 2 produces re, heaven 7 completes it, and the numbers 2
and 7 dwell in the south, and so on for the other three directions.184 According to
common, nonDaoist understanding, the ve yinyang pairs for the ve agents in the
River Chart symbolize continued blessing and productivity in nature. Blessing,
productivity, and good fortune are possible because the ve elements are married,
that is, their yin and yang aspects are joined together; and also because the chart
represents the veagent mutual production cycle.185 Within inner alchemy, the
183
Hao Qin, Longhu dandao, 176; the translation is from Rutt, The Book of Changes, 415.
184
185
Saso, What Is the Hotu?, 402.
266
River Chart is primarily used to represent the union of the ve agents as the union
of three ves, as I discuss below.186
The ten celestial stems, combined with the twelve terrestrial branches, form
the Chinese sexagesimal cycle.187 Inner alchemical texts use a system for correlating
each stem with yinyang and the ve agents. There is also a system for correlating the
branches in the same way, but while these stemcorrelations are often seen in
alchemical texts, the branch correlations are not. This is because the ten stems can
be distributed evenly among the ve agents, while the twelve branches produce a less
elegant distribution. This must be why stemcorrelations are used within inner
alchemy to represent distinctions between the ve agents.188 Texts on sexual alchemy
may advise the adept to gather the gengjin yang metal; i.e., the womans primal qi
from the renshui yang water before the renshui turns into guishui yin water.189 Even
more important are the jitu yin earth and wutu yang earth, which I discuss below.
Each one of these ten yin or yang values of the agents is mentioned within the
literature, although not each one appears in every text.
3.2.2, Inner alchemists may . . . interpret their concepts and discourse on . . . the
register of . . . the mesocosm, . . . including gurative signs such as lead and mercury, and
dragon and tiger...
In addition to the abstract mesocosmic signs of yinyang, the ve
agents, trihexagrams, and RiverChart numerology, inneralchemical texts also

186
Hao Qin notes that the River Chart is also used to correlate the ten celestial stems with ten viscera Longhu
dandao, 178, but I have never seen this correlation employed in an inneralchemical text. The representation of
the ve agents as three ves is very common in the literature, however, especially in SouthernLineage texts
that draw heavily on the Wuzhen pian.
187
The ten celestial stems tiangan are jia , yi , bing , ding , wu , ji , geng , xin , ren
, and
gui . The twelve terrestrial branches dizhi are zi , chou , yin , mao , chen , si , wu , wei ,
shen , you , xu , hai . The two sequences may be used individually as a separate cycles of ten values from
jia to gui and twelve values from zi to hai, or combined in staggered cycles to produce a sequence of sixty
combinations from jiazi to guihai, the sexagesimal cycle.
188
Here is the list of the ten stems that are used to mark the yin and yang forms of each of the ve agents
arranged according to the mutual production sequence: jiamu yang wood, yimu yin wood, binghuo
yang re, dinghuo yin re, wutu yang earth, jitu yin earth, gengjin yang metal,
xinjin yin metal, renshui
yang water, and guishui yin water.
189
Wile, Art of the Bedchamber, 32. In the sexualalchemical texts studied by Wile, the adept must gather from the
renshui and not the guishui ibid., 159, 177, 189, but Chen Zhixu teaches the opposite see p. 472 below. I think this
is just a semantic dierence. For Chen, the outer pharmacon of yang metal within the yin water represents yang
withinyin kan . In Wiles materials, the renshui itself represents yangwithinyin ibid., 32. The point in both
cases is to use water symbolism to signify the gathering the yangwithinyin outer pharmacon with the symbol of
water.
267
contain allegorical elements: from weakly allegorical elements such as lead and
mercury, to relatively richly allegorical elements, such as the lovely girl and squire
metal. I discuss these in section 6 below. To distinguish them from the abstract
mesocosmic signs, I call these allegorical elements gurative mesocosmic signs.
3.3, Inner alchemists may interpret their concepts and discourse on . . . the register of
the macrocosm of Heaven, Earth, and humanity.
In Daoism, the macrocosm is
conceived as a trinity of Three Powers sancai , Heaven, Earth, and humankind.
The link between macrocosm and microcosm in Daoism is often so strong that the
correlation between these the macro and microcosmic ontological registers is simply
assumed by the composers and readers of Daoist texts. When a cosmic process is
described in a Daoist text, this description is often equally applicable to either the
body and mind or to the cosmos. Sometimes the modern reader cannot be sure
whether the text is describing meditation or processes in the macrocosm. Daoist
writers may intentionally create this ambiguity, or writers and readers may even
simply assume that macrocosm and microcosm operate by similar principles, and not
bother to disentangle the two ontological registers.190
In inner alchemy, perhaps the most basic assumption concerning the
correlation of the macrocosm and the microcosm is the assumption that the
appearance of the cosmos ex nihilo, and its expansion and devolution into the fallen
world we know today, is parallel to the birth, growth, maturity, degeneration,
decrepitude, and death of each human being especially males. This is not a
complete correlation, because the microcosmic devolution leads to death and then
rebirth according to the cycle of sasra, whereas the macrocosm devolves into the
generally steadystate system of the world as we know it.191 The aim of the inner
alchemist is to reverse this anthropocosmic fall, and return to a state of primal unity,
190
Sharf, Coming to Terms with Chinese Buddhism, 61. This same observation holds for mainstream Indian Buddhism
too: psychology and cosmology parallel each other in Buddhist thought; Gethin, Cosmology and Meditation,
211.
191
The BuddhoDaoist notion of kalpic cycles of macrocosmic destruction and reformation is, to my knowledge,
rarely exploited within alchemical thought.
268
following a narrative that I call the saga of devolution and redemption.192 This is
done through regaining the energy he has lost, which can still be found in this world,
either in the body as internal primal qi or mingled with atmospheric qi as external
primal qi . The prelapsarian state is called xiantian , and the fallen state is called
houtian .193 Depending on whether the passage in question is discussing
cosmogonic or anthropogonic devolution and redemption, xiantian may be translated
as precosmic or prenatal, and houtian as postcosmic or postnatal. And if
one decides that the passage is talking more about microcosmic process pre and
postnatal , the idea of macrocosmic process pre and postcosmic will always still
be present as a meaningtrace. Such is the inextricable correlation of self and cosmos
in this aspect of inner alchemy.
register of the macrocosm . . . including . . . temporal aspects.
In addition to the
correlation between human and cosmic devolution, there are many temporal
correlations within this postcosmic, postnatal world. Alchemical theories of the
generation and gathering of the outer pharmacon, and the melding of the two
pharmaca into a single elixir through renement, are based on diurnal, mensual, and
annual cycles of time. The completion of the elixir is based on a human temporal
cyclethe gestation of the child, thought to take ten monthsrather than a
macrocosmic one.
The sexual alchemist cultivates the inner pharmacon gradually in preparation
for the arrival of the outer pharmacon, which is capricious and di
cult to catch. For
most sexual alchemists, the outer pharmacon must be gathered on the third day of an
alchemical lunar cycle, represented by the trigram zhen and the celestial stem
geng , and corresponding to a certain day of the female partners menstrual cycle.
The sexual alchemist then combines his inner pharmacon his yuanjing
or
192
I discuss this saga on pages 43539 chap. 5, 3.0.2 .
193
The terms xiantian and houtian were popularized in the NeoConfucian Shao Yongs 101277 teachings on the
Book of Changes: Shao terms the Fuxi arrangement of the eight trigrams the xiantian arrangement, and the
Wenwang arrangement the houtian arrangement. For Shao, xian and houtian mean before and after the
creation of Heaven. The term xiantian derives originally from the Wenyan commentary to the Book of Changes
the seventh wing , where its meaning is unrelated to this meaning. Shao may have taken his meaning of xian
and houtian from the cosmology of medieval Daoism; Smith et al., Sung Dynasty Uses of the I Ching, 112n49.
269
sublimated seminal essence with the outer pharmacon. Conversely, for solo
alchemists, it is the outer pharmacon which must be amassed gradually and the inner
pharmacon which suddenly appears. The solo alchemist cultivates his outer
pharmacon by transporting qi along the lesser orbit, and after he has done this for
long enough, his inner pharmacon appears within his lower abdomen at a moment
called the living midnight hour huo zishi ; corresponding to a moment just
before midnight in the diurnal cycle or called the arrival of winter dongzhi ;
cor responding to a moment just before the winter solstice .194
During the process of rening the elixir, the system of ring periods huohou
of hot ring, cool ring, and resting, varies from teacher to teacher, or between
traditions, but without any essential di
erence between solo and sexual alchemies.
The ring periods are completely based on macrocosmic time cycles, although some
alchemists may claim that higher forms of alchemy transcend any concrete ring
periods. As I discuss below, within SouthernLineage alchemy there are at least three
di
erent temporal ring schemata: one using six trigrams to represent the waxing
and waning of yin and yang over a lunar month, one using twelve hexagrams to
represent the changes of yin and yang during the twelve months of a year or twelve
hours of a day , and one using sixty hexagrams to represent the changes of yin and
yang during a month. Any teacher or tradition may employ only one of these, or
several.
Many alchemists say that re phasing has nothing to do with time as
measured by the cyclical signs, years, months, and days, xed in precise fashion by
various authors. . . . This cannot be connected with seasonal rhythms.195 This may be
true for many forms of inner alchemy, but in the ZhongL tradition of inner
alchemy, it seems the adept is meant to follow macrocosmic temporal cycles more
literally. For example, in a later tradition drawing upon the ZhongL teachings, the
heat of the re that is, the number of breaths is varied over a microcosmic cycle of
three hundred days according to the macrocosmic season, and time of day, plus the
194
Midnight is the centerpoint of the Chinese zihour lasting from 11 pm to 1 am. In solo alchemical teachings,
the adept is often instructed not to mechanically expect this moment to come just before the actual time of
midnight or the winter solstice: this temporal correlation is only metaphorical.
195
270
adepts level of attainment.196

register of the macrocosm . . . including . . . spatial aspects.
Within inner alchemy,
spatial correlations between the macrocosm and the microcosm are much less
important than temporal correlations. The only two macrocosmic spatial entities of
universal importance within inner alchemy are the sun and moon, which are
correlated with pure yang
qian and pure yin
kun respectively when alone, or with
yinwithinyang
li and yangwithinyin
kan when they harbor the suncrow and
moonhare
or moontoad. The cardinal directions are also frequently included
within alchemical discourse. Within standard correlative cosmology, east is correlated
with the agent wood, south with re, west with metal, north with water, and center
with earth. Within inner alchemy, the southwest is often mentioned as the direction
from whence the pharmacon originates, since the pharmacon is metal, and southwest
is the point on the windrose immediately preceding the west. Since the pharmaca
appear in the lower abdomen, the southwest also correlates with this region in the
bodily microcosm.
In earlier forms of Daoism such as the Shangqing tradition, spatial
correlations between sites in the body and palaces in the heavens, or asterisms, were
of major importance, but this sort of correlative thinking can be found in inner
alchemy only in the quasialchemical practice of liandu
salvation through
renement, which I mention in section 6 below on allegory and visualization.
Sometimes the alchemical body is depicted as a mountain but this depiction is also
related to visualization practice, so I will not discuss it here.
Macromicrocosmic correlations between bodily spaces and social
spaces
such as the state are not much in evidence in inner alchemy. In early
Daoism
for example, in the Heshang Gong commentary to the Daode jing, from the
Han dynasty, it was thought that to bring order to the self is to bring order to the
196
DZ 244, Dadan zhizhi, discussed in Hao Qin, Longhu dandao, 268. The Quanzhen tradition represented in
Dadan zhizhi
ascribed to Qiu Chuji but perhaps postdating him seems to be largely based on ZhongL
teachings. It is translated in Belamide, SelfCultivation and Quanzhen Daoism.
271
state zhishen zhiguo .197 This is not quite the same as the Confucian theory
from the Great Learning Daxue that the moral self
cultivation of one and all
alike helps bring about a moral society. In the concept of zhishen zhiguo, cultivation is
more physiological than moral though the two are linked, and the body itself is a
country. Only a few traces of this sort of social
spatial macro
microcosmic
correlation can be found within inner alchemy, such as in the Zhong
L concept of
lordly re, ministerial re, and folkish re junhuo
, chenhuo , minhuo ,
or the analogy between pacifying the internal energies or passions and bringing
prosperity to the state and peace to the people fuguo anmin . Finally, in
Zhong
L teachings, a set of nine viscera is correlated to the Nine Regions jiuzhou
.
3.4.1, Inner alchemists may interpret their concepts and discourse on . . . the register of
. . . other nonspatiotemporal metaphysical realities, such as purposive action and non
action wuwei.198
In accordance with a dominant reading of the Daode jing, within
Daoism even outside of Daoism, non

action wuwei is usually given a higher
value than purposive action youzuo ; youwei , yet purposive action has an
important place within most forms of inner alchemy. During the lesser
orbital cycle,
for example, the adept may rst use purposive action to force the gradually melding
pharmaca up the dorsal tract, but then maintain a state of non
action while he allows
the pharmaca to gently descend the ventral tract.199 Or, the early stages of practice
may generally involve purposive action while advanced and mystic stages may involve
non
action.200 Or, purposive action may be used to rene the life endowment ming
, while non
action may be used to rene the inherent nature xing .201
Purposive action is associated with the cognitive spirit, while non
action is
197
198
Wuwei could also be translated as not Acting, eortless action, non

interference, or conforming with
the spontaneous ow of things.
199
Robinet, Introduction lalchimie intrieure taoste, 129. Yu Yan teaches this; Zeng, Yuandai Cantong xue, 180.
200
Li Yuanguo, Daojiao qigong yangsheng xue, 558; Robinet, Introduction lalchimie intrieure taoste, 149. Yu Yan
teaches this; Zeng, Yuandai Cantong xue, 234.
201
272
associated with the primal spirit.202 In all of these binary oppositions, purposive
action is associated with the inferior element, and nonaction with the superior
element. However, this does not mean that nonaction is superior to purposive
action in all contexts. While some alchemical teachers emphasize nonaction almost
exclusively, other teachers give relative priority to purposive action. Quanzhen
alchemy is generally said to emphasize nonaction. We see this in the teachings of Ma
Danyang 112383 or Wu Shouyang 15741644, or in the Wupian lingwen .203
Yet some Quanzhen teachings are characterized by purposive action.204 Southern
Lineage alchemy is generally said to emphasize purposive action: Chen Zhixu does
this at times.205 Yet some SouthernLineage alchemists, such as Bai Yuchan,
emphasize nonaction. Almost all inner alchemists would agree that inner alchemy
emphasizes purposive action more than Chan Buddhism does Chan emphasizes
nonaction, and this is the advantage of inner alchemy, which cultivates the body as
well as the mind.
register of . . . other nonspatiotemporal metaphysical realities, such as . . . inherent
nature xing and life endowment ming, or inherent nature xing and human
dispositions qing . . .
Xing and ming together make a major metaphysical category
within postTang Daoist thought, especially within inner alchemy. The new emphasis
on xing and ming within Daoism was probably a reaction to Chan and NeoConfucian
thought while NeoConfucian thought itself was a reaction to Chan. Xing and ming
are a way for Daoists to organize conceptions of body, mind, and spirit, but they are
also a polemical concept. Whereas all inner alchemists teach the dual cultivation of
inherent nature and life endowment xingming shuangxiu , Daoists say that
NeoConfucians, and especially Buddhists, teach cultivation of the inherent nature
only, lacking an emphasis on physiological practice, so Daoist practice is more
202
203
Hao Qin, Longhu dandao, 264. The Wupian lingwen are ascribed to the Quanzhen founder Wang Chongyang, but
are likely a later composition.
204
205
E.g., DZ 1067, Shangyangzi jindan dayao 11.8b23: Having nothing to do is mere postnatal naturalness; having
something to do is the way of the prenatal One qi
.
273
complete, and superior.206

By a simple denition, inherent nature is the abstract essence of mind and
spirit, and life endowment is the abstract essence of physical vitality. According to an
analogy by the modern teacher Chen Yingning, if the body is like a lamp, then ming is
the oil of the lamp, and xing is the light produced by the lamp.207 Note how, in this
analogy, xing and ming are distinct, yet linked together in a single process; xing is
superior and more rened, while ming is inferior and more coarse; xing is an
intangible energy, while ming is a liquid, perhaps suggesting the seminal essence. Both
xing and ming can come in prenatal universal and postnatal individual forms. Pre
natal xing or perfected xing, zhenxing is what humans share with the Dao, while
postnatal xing is qing
, the minds dispositions, passions, or other
manifestations;208 prenatal ming or zhenming is the point of pure yang within the
body left over from before the cosmogony, while postnatal ming is an individuals
lifespan.
While both nature and life must be cultivated, dierent teachers will give
them dierent priorities, cultivate them in dierent sequences, or place them on
dierent ontological levels. Some scholars say that, in Quanzhen alchemy, one
cultivates nature rst and life thereafter xianxing houming , while in
SouthernLineage alchemy one cultivates life rst and nature next xianming houxing
.209 For example, the Quanzhen patriarch Ma Danyang taught nature
cultivation almost exclusively, advising against lifecultivation practices minong
, assuming that the perfection of the life endowment would be a later sideeect
of the more important perfection of the inherent nature;210 this can be contrasted
with the Southern classic Wuzhen pian, in which Chan verses are placed at the end of
the work in order to provide a stage of naturecultivation following the life
206
Robinet, Introduction lalchimie intrieure taoste, 45; Li Yuanguo, Daojiao qigong yangsheng xue, 385, discussing Bai
Yuchan.
207
Chen Yingning, Daojiao yu yangsheng, 247, cited in Ge Guolong, Daojiao neidan xue tanwei, 104.
208
Ge Guolong, Daojiao neidan xue tanwei, 108.
209
Ma Jiren, Daojiao yu liandan, 91; Li Yuanguo, Daojiao qigong yangsheng xue, 372. Li traces this comparison of
Northern and SouthernLineage alchemies to Song Lian 131081.
210
Belamide, SelfCultivation and Quanzhen Daoism, 66. Li Daochun also says that the cultivation of life is included
within the cultivation of nature yi xing jian ming; Li Yuanguo, Daojiao qigong yangsheng xue, 459.
274
cultivation that is taught throughout the body of the work.211 Exceptions to this
characterization of the Northern and Southern Lineages include Bai Yuchan, who
teaches the cultivation of nature before life,212 and the Quanzhen text Dadan zhizhi,
which teaches the cultivation of life before nature. Sometimes we will see the same
teacher make apparently contradictory statements about the relative priority of
nature and life, but this is because dierent answers are appropriate at dierent
stages of the process.213
Other scholars reply that all alchemical teachings involve both nature and
lifecultivation throughout all stages of the process.214 It is certainly true that even
the most mingcentered practices, involving the cultivation or gathering of sexual
energies for example, must involve deep mental training, that is, training of the xing;
yet the reverse, that xingtraining always involves mingtraining, is more a matter of
doctrine than an obvious point.215
Robinet goes so far as to state, The truth is that for both schools xing and
ming are to be worked on conjointly, and that any division of them into before and
after is articial.216 These are salutary cautions, but the issue of the priority of
nature or life cannot be dispensed with, because it was an issue alchemists did use as
part of their unending processes of selfinterpretation and construction of alchemical
tradition. There is no essential and unied alchemical truth lying buried beneath the
shifting sands of historical trends, so our object of study must be those shifting
211
Ge Guolong, Daojiao neidan xue tanwei, 118. This structure of Wuzhen pian is analyzed in Fukui, Goshin hen no
ksei ni tsuite.
212
Wang Li, The Daoist Way of Transcendence, 185.
213
214
Robinet, Introduction lalchimie intrieure taoste, 44; Robinet, Taoism: Growth of a Religion, 226; Wang Li, The
Daoist Way of Transcendence, 223; and Ge Guolong, Daojiao neidan xue tanwei, 106.
215
From my study of Chen Zhixu, I can see that physiological practice must be based on training of the mind or
spirit, but the idea that mental training must somehow also perfect the body is a point of faith.
Li Yuanguo, Daojiao qigong yangsheng xue, 376, discusses the relative emphasis on xing and ming in the stages of
alchemical process in the SouthernLineage classic Jindan sibai zi: stage one tamping the base, zhuji involves
both xing and ming, stage two rening essence to qi is mostly ming work, stage three rening qi to spirit is
mostly xing work, and stage four returning the spirit to the void is purely xing work. This is excellent analysis.
216
275
sands.217 The categories of inherent nature and life essence were categories the inner
alchemists used to think about practice, philosophy, and tradition, just as Chan
Buddhists used the categories of subitism and gradualism to think about Chan
tradition. In the case of Chan, we will note that any Chan teaching program must
perforce contain both subitist and gradualist elements,218 but this would not lead us
to say that distinctions between subitism and gradualism are articial, since it was in
fact by means of such distinctions that Chan or Zen Buddhists made and understood
their tradition.
In addition to using the categories of xing and ming to think about di
erent
traditions of alchemy, or to think about alchemy in relation to Chan, alchemists also
used the categories to make technical distinctions: xing and ming were correlated
respectively with yin and yang,219 the classic epistemological categories of substance
ti and function yong ,220 the upper and lower dantian,221 night and day,222 lead
and mercury,223 nonaction and purposive action, or mind and body.
register of . . . other nonspatiotemporal metaphysical realities, such as . . . the Dao or the
One.
The Dao gures into inner alchemy as the cosmogonic origin and the nal goal
of practice, that is, at the beginning and end of the cosmogonic saga of devolution
and redemption. Alchemists do not often explicitly seek visions of the Dao, or extol
its workings in the world; in fact, the majority of occurrences of the character in
217
This does not amount to a serious critique of Robinet. She only makes such a reductionist statement while
summarizing a previous discussion in which she has in fact paid close attention to details.
218
This is a familiar paradox inherent in Chan. How could Chan enlightenment occur without any practice which
is objectively gradualist whatsoever? And yet, according to classical Buddhist understanding, the nal leap to
enlightenment cannot be understood to be caused by the practice leading up to it, and thus the concept of
enlightenment is essentially subitist.
219
220
Ge Guolong, Daojiao neidan xue tanwei, 9394; Li Yuanguo, Daojiao qigong yangsheng xue, 49798 a discussion of
Wang Daoyuans theory of substance and function .
221
222
223
276
alchemical writings refer to a human daos rather than to the metaphysical Dao.224 We
may say however, that the alchemists outer pharmacon, the prenatal One Qi of pure
yang, is the One for the alchemists, their manifestation of the Dao in the
phenomenal world.225 By means of this One outer pharmacon, the alchemist may
return to the Dao. Inner alchemists also speak of guarding unity or, embracing the
One, shouyi during the phase of the incubation of the elixir, but this is a mere
metaphor, or an echo of earlier Daoist practices, and does not actually involve
embracing the Dao as the One.226 There is also no mention of the Three Ones sanyi
as in the earlier Shangqing tradition.
3.5.1, Other dualistic categories cut across all of these registers, such as the cosmogonic
categories of xiantian and houtian.
I have already introduced these concepts above on
page 269. Chinese correlative cosmology, and especially inner alchemy, is pervaded
with binary oppositions, with one half of these dyads being yang, and the other yin.
These concepts of xiantian precosmic, prenatal, iotemporal and houtian
postcosmic, postnatal, temporal cut across all registers microcosmic, mesocosmic,
and macrocosmic, and through many of these binary oppositions. There can be
xiantian or houtian versions of essence for the male alchemist or water of the female
partner, qi, spirit, inherent nature, life endowment, caldron, furnace, sequence of
trigrams, time,227 and so on. These oppositions help to reinforce the sense of a gap
between sacred and profane aspects of reality, and teach the alchemist to reject the
profane and aspire to gain the sacred for himself.
3.5.2, Other dualistic categories cut across all of these registers, such as . . . the
hermeneutical categories of prosaic interpretation . . . and mysticizing interpretation.
Some terms or passages may be understood to refer either to physiological, tangible,

224
See my discussion on pages 17478 chap. 3, 1.2, on how Chen Zhixu strategically exploits the ambiguity of
the term Dao/dao.
225
Zeng Chuanhui, Yuandai Cantong xue, 37, 105.
226
Some early Daoists also argued against the idea of embracing the Dao as the One; Bokenkamp, Early Daoist
Scriptures, 89, 97 from the section on Laozi xianger zhu, dated to before 255
.
227
The time of gathering the pharmacon is xiantian time, the time of ring the melding elixir is houtian time
Robinet, Introduction lalchimie intrieure taoste, 122, citing Chen Zhixu, and upon completion of the ring
process the alchemist returns to xiantian time Ma Jiren, Daojiao yu liandan, 203.
277
concrete, or denite entities, or to mental, mystical, abstract, formless, intangible, or

indenite entities. Examples of such terms include the xuanpin or xuan and pin, the
Mysterious Pass, the Yellow Court, the Gate of Destiny, and the three dantian.
Lets take, for example, the Mysterious Pass Xuanguan, also known as the
One Aperture Yiqiao . Some interpreters say that the Mysterious Pass has no
xed location, whereas some say it does have a physical location. In her discussion of
the mystical nature of the Mysterious Pass, Robinet cites a passage from Jindan sibai
zi as evidence of the view that it has not xed location;228 yet Hao Qin interprets this
same passage as hinting that the Mysterious Pass is none other than the Yellow
Court229 associated with the middle dantian. Not only do alchemists vary in regard
to their prosaic or mysticizing interpretations of elements of alchemy, but these
interpretations themselves may be ambiguous. According to a third position, the
same term may refer to a denite bodily site for adepts at a lower level of cultivation,
and to a formless entity for adepts at a higher level. This is Li Daochuns position
regarding the Mysterious Pass. The Mysterious Pass, also called the Center Zhong
, plays an important role within Li Daochuns system. In one passage, he says that
it is no particular part of the body, but neither can it be found outside the body; the
body is like a marionette, and the Mysterious Pass is like the strings that cause the
body to move and act.230 Yet in another section of his collected writings, he locates
the Mysterious Pass within specic bodily locations as appropriate for dierent
vehicles, or levels of cultivation. For adepts practicing the lower vehicle, the
Mysterious Pass is the lower dantian; for adepts of the middle vehicle, it is the upper
dantian; for adepts of the higher vehicle, it is the Heart of Heaven perhaps an
abstract version of the upper dantian; and for adepts of the highest vehicle, it is the
Center.231 Such a position, which includes both prosaic and mysticizing
228
Robinet, Introduction lalchimie intrieure taoste, 104, citing DZ 1081, Jindan sibai zi, 4a b also found in DZ 263,
Xiuzhen shishu 5.4a b. This text is ascribed to Zhang Boduan, but it was probably composed within Bai Yuchans
circle; Ma Jiren, Daojiao yu liandan, 64 65; Skar, Golden Elixir Alchemy, 185.
229
230
DZ 249, Zhonghe ji 3.3a1 10, translated in Robinet, Introduction lalchimie intrieure taoste, 105, discussed in
Crowe, The Nature and Function of the Buddhist and Ru Teachings in Li Daochun, 262 63.
231
Cf. pp. 364 66 below.
278
interpretations within a single hermeneutical system, is able to comprise both

physiological and mental cultivation, and other potentially incompatible forms of
doctrine and practice. It serves a function similar to the doctrine of Two Truths232
within Mahyna Buddhism, allowing a teacher to teach concrete doctrines or
practices, or to undermine them, according to the pedagogical needs of his students,
or according to his rhetorical needs for justifying his teachings and striving against
rivals. It is the most common kind of hermeneutical position within inner alchemy.
3.5.3, Other dualistic categories cut across all of these registers, such as . . . the
hermeneutical categories of . . . exoteric interpretation and esoteric interpretation.
Inner alchemical texts are usually explicitly esoteric, announcing their own secrecy.
They often cite an injunction against leaking the celestial trigger xie tianji ,
or divulging the secrets of Heaven. This celestial trigger could be merely a technical
secret, but more often it was actually thought to be a piece of powerful knowledge
guarded by celestial deities, who would punish any teacher who revealed it to the
wrong persons.233 The case of Zhang Boduan, who mistakenly transmitted his
teachings to unworthy persons three times, is often cited: I transmitted
the
teachings to three persons, and met with three calamities, in each case not more
than ve days
after the wrongful transmission
.234 While this reason may explain, to a certain extent, why alchemists advertised
the secrecy of their teachings, a more important reason would be in order to generate
prestige and authority for the teachings and the masters who possessed them, or
even to constitute their mastership in the eyes of others.235
Yet in addition to promising that their texts contain esoteric, private
interpretations, alchemical teachers often also oer exoteric, public interpretations
232
These are ultimate truth Ch. zhendi , Skt. paramrthasatya and conventional truth Ch. sudi
, Skt.
savtisatya .
233
This trope in Daoism has a history as long as Daoism itself. One common formulation of this trope in Six
Dynasties Daoism was the idea that scriptures are attended by guardian spirits jade lads and maidens . These
spirits watch over the possessor of the scripture, protecting him from danger or punishing him for misusing the
scripture; Robinet, Taoist Meditation, 26.
234
DZ 142, Ziyang Zhenren Wuzhen pian sanzhu, postface houxu , 2a7.
235
Recall my discussion of the master function on pp. 2729 above; and my discussion of the threeway
feedback loop in chapters 2 and 3.
279
as part of their teachings. This could be part of a strategy for attracting students, rst
into the outer hall and then, at the right time, into the inner chamber. Chen Zhixu
describes this process of progressive conversion.236 More often, claiming that there
are both exoteric and esoteric interpretations of a teaching is a way for an alchemist
to add a new, esoteric, alchemical interpretation of a classic teaching, without
admitting that it is a new interpretation. Alchemists were able to claim that the
teachings of Laozi, kyamui, and Confucius all contain an esoteric, alchemical layer
as well as exoteric, philosophical layers. Similarly, sexual alchemists were able to claim
that solo alchemical teachings also contained a truer sexual layer. Chen Zhixu takes
this hermeneutical approach in his commentary on the Scripture of Salvation Duren
jing . For each section of the text, Chen Zhixu oers two interpretations, one
according to Daoist usage Daoyong
, and one according to worldly
technique shifa :
Now, the scripture has both Daoist usage and worldly technique. One can rely
on Daoist usage to cultivate ones practices and ascend to transcendenthood.
As for worldly technique, this involves reciting and keeping the spirits in
mind with vigorous diligence to seek blessings.

237
For Chen, the superior approach is to practice the teachings of the Scripture of
Salvation through both Daoist usage sexual alchemy and worldly
technique classical Daoist recitation or ritual together.238 Like Li Daochuns
synthesis of prosaic and mystical interpretations of the Mysterious Pass, this is a
hermeneutical position that is able to bring together two potentially incompatible
interpretations of the teaching into a single vision.
236
When I encountered various forms of mockery, I suered it glady. If I found a dharma vessel worthy
student, I tried my best to approach him. As for students among them who could reach the gate, I guided them
through. As for those among them who could enter the gate, I guided them up the stair. As for those among them
who could ascend the stair, I guided them up to the hall. As for those among them who could enter the hall, I
guided them into the inner chamber. Generally, my reasons for acting this way were that I wished that the great
dao could continue on in a single line, that I wished to raise up the common runofthemill man from the ery
pit, and that I wished that the world should know there is indeed a dao of the golden elixir, and not slander
it DZ 1067, Shangyangzi jindan dayao 12.8b27.
237
DZ 91, Taishang dongxuan lingbao wuliang duren shangpin miaojing zhujie 1.1a9b2.
238
DZ 91, Taishang dongxuan lingbao wuliang duren shangpin miaojing zhujie 1.1b102a2.
280
3.6.1, Alchemical authors exploit crossregister ambiguities . . . for the sake of . . .

converting the reader or listener.
All of these correlations, ambiguities, and polyvalent
hermeneutical positions provide resources for converting students. They allow

alchemists to justify contradictions within the teachings, reinterpret nonalchemical
ideas in alchemical terms, and oer an overall climate of theoretical holism. The
concept of upya expedient means; helpful means is one of the most powerful tools
within Buddhism for resolving contradictions and accomodating all manner of
alternative ideas and practices within a single religious horizon. Alchemists also use
this tool, and many others, for their own purposes.
creating an air of authority for the text, teacher, or lineage.
This is what I term
managing mastership. As I discuss in chapter 3, the teachers ability to spread his

teachings, his authority as a master, and his own salvation may be interdependent I
term this a threeway feedback loop of propagation, authority, and salvation. His
authority as a master depends on the opinion of his clients or the greater public, and
this in turn depends in part on convincing them of the truth and high value of his
teachings or texts.239 Shifting between ontological registers or hermeneutical
positions are important strategies for achieving this goal. Advertising the secret,
that is, the claim to possess very precious, rare, and valuable knowledge, while
simultaneously partially revealing and largely concealing it,240 is a related strategy.
writing about teachings in a code that is opaque to unworthy readers but partially
transparent to worthy readers.
Once a book has escaped from the hands of its author,
the author can no longer directly control how it is used. Yet the alchemical author
can manage the uses of his words by writing them in code, and supplying the key
only to chosen initiates. In this way, he can publish his works widely while still
partially controlling access to their secrets. Actually, most alchemical writers do not
239
Robinet says that, rather than aiming to convince or persuade, alchemical language is addressed to the seeker,
whom it guides toward a goal Introduction lalchimie intrieure taoste, 83. Actually, since the alchemical eld is rife
with con
ict, even an alchemical writer writing moreorless exclusively for readers who are already alchemical
practitioners must always attempt to convince them of the truth of his speci c approach to alchemy.
240
Urban, The Torment of Secrecy, 235. Also see Campany, Secrecy and Display, 294.
281
intend to supply the keys such as the correct ring periods, huohou, or the revelation
that all true cultivation is sexual directly to all of their readers in person. Rather,
writers assume that teachers in other places or later times would do this. Writers
often advise readers to nd a true master on their own, who can help them
understand the import of the text fully, and ll in the necessary gaps. In this way,
the writer may maintain his own monopoly on valuable teachings and charge
students for access, or may contribute to the present and future monopoly of
alchemical teachers as a class. Another important reason for writing in code is to
avoid censurewhich would be a serious danger for sexual alchemists, for example.
synthesizing elements from many sources into a single teaching.
This is the
intellectualist goal of Buddhist panjiao classi cation of teachings , Li Daochuns

ranking of physiological, mental, and mystical approaches to alchemy, and Chen
Zhixus esotericizing appeal to nonalchemical classics as proof for the truth of his
teachings.
representing or delighting in the unstable and protean nature of alchemical discourse
itself.
Robinet argues that, while the discourse of the alchemists rests on a logical
foundation, the discourse is not linear and is often poetic. The ruptures of thought
and language are constantly and consciously worked.241
directly causing salvic eects in the reader.
Robinet argues that, like Chan Buddhists
practicing with kans,242 alchemists achieve a sort of enlightenment that inheres

within language itself, rather than existing outside of language.243 This is a powerful
insight, though alchemists certainly also hope to achieve salvation by ascending to
the heavens and/or becoming one with the Dao, a Dao which is more than a
linguistic construct.
241
Robinet, Introduction lalchimie intrieure tao ste, 90.
242
It is, in eect, as a kan that neidan acts on the spirit of the adept; Robinet, Introduction lalchimie intrieure
tao ste, 78.
243
282
4, Psychophysiological Elements
4.1.1, In psychophysiological terms . . .
Inner alchemists do distinguish body and
mind as separate elements within their systems, regarding mind as superior to body
more raried and ultimately more important , but usually emphasizing the
cultivation of both mind and body or, the dual cultivation of xing, inherent nature,
and ming, lifeendowment on the path to salvation. Alchemists often distinguish
Daoists from Buddhists and NeoConfucians in these terms: while Daoists cultivate
both xing and ming, the other two Teachings neglect the cultivation of ming i.e., the
physiological quality .
4.1.2, In soteriological terms . . .
Inneralchemical practice is always devoted
to personal spiritual salvation or perfection . While alchemical writers may also
have micropolitical, aesthetic, or cognitive goals, these must be understood within
their overall soteriological m
rga.
4.2, Inner alchemists follow the dao of the golden elixir.
Whereas the English term
inner alchemy is derived from the modern Chinese term neidan , most inner
alchemists actually called their teaching the way of the golden elixir jindan zhi dao
, or the way of the elixir dandao .244 While we may certainly make
our own distinction between inner alchemy and laboratory alchemy waidan ,
inner alchemists often did not make exactly this distinction. By the Song dynasty,
many inner alchemists believed that true alchemy had always been inner alchemy,
and that even those texts believed by modern scholars to teach laboratory alchemy
were actually teaching inner alchemy all along. Like Western spiritual alchemists
scorn for sooty empiricks,245 the middleperiod inner alchemists would say that
laboratory alchemists from the early medieval period were simply misunderstanding
244
Robinet writes that the expression interior alchemy is an arbitrary designation for a widely followed
movement still in existence today. At the outset it was not designated by a specic term, except perhaps
jindan . . .; Robinet, Taoism: Growth of a Religion, 215.
245
Needham, Science and Civilisation, 5.3:206, uses this term to translate a Chinese inner alchemists criticism of
laboratory alchemy. The locus classicus of the term is Robert Boyles 162791 The Skeptical Chymist 1661 . Boyle
criticized laboratory alchemy from the standpoint of chemistry rather than spiritual alchemy.
283
the true meaning of alchemy.246 Similarly, sexual alchemists would say that solo inner
alchemists misunderstood true alchemy, and solo alchemists would say the same of
sexual alchemists. Thus, while these inner alchemists would agree that dierent
alchemical practices exist, they would not agree that these represent separate and
equally legitimate traditions.
In the late imperial period, inner alchemists came to understand the eld of
alchemy in terms of three approaches or three elixir methods, danfa : solo inner
alchemy alchemy taking Heaven as prime, tianyuan danfa , laboratory
alchemy alchemy taking Earth as prime, diyuan danfa , and sexual alchemy
alchemy taking the human as prime, renyuan danfa . The earliest
appearance of this formulation may be in Lu Xixings Xuanfu lun, composed in
1567.247 In this late formulation, alchemists did recognize the various approaches as
distinct and equally legitimate, though not as equally ecacious.248
Is the dao of inner alchemy Daoist? Michel Strickmann advised against
assuming that alchemy is always Daoist, noting that alchemy and other technologies
would . . . emerge more clearly against the backdrop of Chinese society if visualized
as separate entities, weaving in and out of Taoist and other contexts in the course of
history.249 Lowell Skar applies this same perspective to inner alchemy as well,
apparently considering even a work such as Jindan zhengli daquan ca.
1442 outside the boundaries of Daoism.250 Emic and etic de nitions of alchemy or
Daoism or Buddhism and understandings of their interrelationships are complex
matters which I will discuss further in chapter 6 and the conclusion. I do not limit
246
This perspective oversimpli es the case, but at the present state of my research, I cannot oer a more
nuanced perspective. Actually, there were plenty of alchemical texts mixing inner and laboratory alchemy through
the Southern Song dynasty the classical period of inner alchemy . By my count, approximately eleven such
transitional texts survive from the Tang, ve survive from the Five Dynasties period 90760 , eight from the
Northern Song, and four from the Southern Song many of these dates are speculative . A text entitled Diyuan
zhenjue may include Bai Yuchans teachings on laboratory alchemy; Wang Li, The Daoist Way of Transcendence, 123.
Thus the practice of a combined inner alchemy and laboratory alchemy was a continuing tradition.
247
Xuanfu lun, Sanyuan lun , in Fanghu waishi, by Lu Xixing, 8.1a3b6.
248
Two other examples of lateimperial alchemists teaching both inner alchemy and laboratory alchemy are Peng
Haogu

. 15861600 , and Fu Jinquan 17651845 .
249
Strickmann, On the Alchemy of Tao Hungching, 166.
250
284
my use of the label Daoist to ordained Daoist clergy, and I assume that all inner
alchemy is Daoist, aside from exceptional cases. Chen Zhixu calls himself a Daoist.251
4.3, Inner alchemists . . . take the human body as the alchemical chamber.
Whereas waidan alchemists manipulate their pharmaca252 in a laboratory, inner

alchemists manipulate pharmaca within the spaces of their own body. Thus, the
inner
alchemical chamber is also corporeal.253 An important exception to this is the
meaning of chamber in sexual alchemy: when a sexual alchemist speaks of entering
the chamber rushi , this may refer either to entering the bedroom to collect
the outer pharmacon, or to sending the elixir into a corporeal chamber for further
rening during a later stage in the process. Another exception may be found in the
works of Li Daochun and others: for adepts at higher stages of practice, the chamber
may be, not the body, but the heart
mind, the macrocosm, or non
spatial space.
4.4, Inner alchemists . . . take . . . dantian three bodily centers associated with
the kidneys, heart, or brain as the furnace and caldron.254
From laboratory alchemy
come the terms lu furnace or stove; also zao and ding caldron, crucible, or
reaction vessel; also dingqi or fu , together with the bellows and tuyre tuoyue
. Given the importance of the furnace and caldron within inner alchemy, and
given the mutability of inner
alchemical language in general, it should not be
surprising that the usage of these terms varies quite a lot between texts. Also, within
each text, there will be more than one pair of referents for furnace and caldron: as
the adept moves to a new, higher level within the alchemical sequence, the referents
for furnace and caldron will change too. The two most common furnace
caldron
251
In a passage criticizing ignorance and corruption among temple

dwelling Daoists, Chen writes Why dont
they re ect on what it is that we study in our religion! Soon after, he writes My
our Most High Lord Lao said . . .
. Chen thus considers himself and the temple
dwelling Daoists to
be members of a common jiao with the deied Laozi as its founder. I translate this passage on pp. 7475 above. As
Campany notes, in medieval China, The names, partial names, or titles of founding or paradigmatic gures are
sometimes used synecdochally to refer nominally to what in Western discourse would be called an entire religion
or tradition; Campany, On the Very Idea of Religions, 299. This may be the only page on which Chen
explicitly calls himself a Daoist.
252
These pharmaca are principally lead and mercury, but other pharmaca include gold, sulfur, and hundreds of
other mineral, vegetable, and animal substances. Cf., e.g., Huang Zhaohan, Daozang danyao yiming suoyin.
253
There are dozens of inner

alchemical technical terms for corporeal entities using the characters fang or shi
chamber.
254
This section draws on Haos discussion of furnace and caldron; Hao Qin, Longhu dandao, 18995.
285
pairings are kidneys heart255

i.e., lower and middle dantian and kidneys brain
i.e.,
lower and upper dantian.
In the Zhong L texts, and other early texts
from the period of nascence, or
the formative period, the primary furnace caldron pairing is kidneys heart, since the
union of hearts uid
yin within yang, li with the kidneys qi
yang within yin,
kan is an important practice in this teaching. The furnace caldron pairing of
kidneys and brain is also found within Zhong L texts, as part of orbital
circulation,256 but this is emphasized less. It seems that the kidneys heart pairing is
cultivated rst, and the kidneys brain pairing only gures in at higher levels of
cultivation.
The situation is reversed in Southern Lineage texts
from the classical period
and the period of integration, where the primary emphasis is on orbital circulation
from lower, to upper, to lower dantian;257 while still part of the process, cultivation
using the heart region
middle dantian is a more advanced stage, and is mentioned
more vaguely. Northern Lineage alchemy from the period of integration appears to
draw on both Zhong L and Southern Lineage alchemy, so I do not discuss it
separately here. I know less about the case of early Quanzhen alchemy.258
The standard account of inner alchemy that we have today developed in the
late imperial period, and is found in the teachings of Wu Shouyang and Liu Huayang,
Liu Yiming and Zhao Bichen, Qinghua miwen and Xingming guizhi. In this version,
during the two initial stages of opening the passes and rening seminal essence into
qi, the adept circulates the pharmaca along the lesser orbit from coccyx to fontanel;
here, the lower dantian is the furnace, and the upper dantian is the caldron, together
called the greater caldron and furnace
da dinglu . As Wile writes, In
255
A related version of the kidneys heart pairing is the pairing of the Pit of Qi
Qixue and Yellow Court
Huangting. This is a more literal pairing of lower and middle dantian.
256
This is termed called causing crystals of metal to soar up behind the elbows
zhouhou fei jinjing ,
i.e., recycling
seminal essence to replenish the brain
huanjing bunao
.
257
I simplify the orbital path for the sake of clarity here. The path is described more carefully below.
258
Early Quanzhen alchemy is that taught by Wang Chongyang and his rst generation of heirs, especially Ma
Danyang. Although DZ 1156, Chongyang zhenren jinguan yusuo jue, and DZ 244, Dadan zhizhi, are ascribed to Wang
Chongyang and Qiu Chuji respectively, some scholars have dated these to later generations of the Quanzhen
movement; Hachiya, Chy shinjin kinkan gyokusa ketsu ni tsuite. These two texts draw on Zhong L teachings.
286
meditation practice, the crucible is often pictured between the kidneys, and the
spirit provides the re of the furnace, which is fanned by the breath to heat the jing
so that it may rise up the spine.259 Then, during the stage of rening qi into spirit,
the elixir circulates along the greater orbit; now the middle dantian becomes the
caldron, while the lower dantian remains as the furnace, together called the lesser
caldron and furnace xiao dinglu . During the nal stage of rening the spirit
and causing it to return to the void, the elixir as spirit remains in the upper dantian,
and the furnace caldron metaphor is not used.
In addition to the dyadic pairing of furnace and caldron, bodily centers are
also viewed in triadic and pentadic arrangements: the triadic relationship of three
dantian together,260 and the pentadic relationship of the Five Viscera.261
Sexual alchemists retain the furnace caldron terminology introduced above,
while adding an additional layer of furnace caldron pairings, such as inner and outer
caldrons neiwai ding , or crescent moon furnace yanyue lu and
caldron of the suspended fetus xuantai ding . Chen Zhixu explains that the
inner caldron is the lower dantian, while the outer caldron is the valley spirit,
Mysterious Pass, gates of xuan and pin, etc., references to the female sex
organ.262 The term crescent moon furnace or yin furnace, yinlu describes
the shape of the womans lap.263 The caldron of the suspended fetus, or yang
259
260
Terms for the union of the three dantian include harmonious meeting of the three elds santian hehui
, reversion and return of the three elds santian fanfu , the three owers gather in the
crown sanhua juding and the three yang gather in the crown sanyang juding .
261
Terms for the union of the Five Viscera include the ve qi pay court to the prime wuqi chaoyuan ,
condensing the ve agents cuancu wuxing
, and pairing up the ve agents wuxing pipei
.
Needhams term for this circulation of qi amongst the ve viscera is mutual irradiation; Needham, Science and
Civilisation in China, 5.5.74
76, discussing DZ 149, Xiuzhen taiji hunyuan tu. DZ 149 is a later Zhong L text, and
mutual irradiation is a Zhong L practice. DZ 149 is also studied in Baryosher Chemouny, La qute de
limmortalit en Chine.
262
DZ 1067, Shangyangzi jindan dayao 5.6b10, 7a9

b1.
263
To be sure, solo inner alchemical theory also has its yanyue lu. By one interpretation, it is the Mysterious Pass;
cf. DZ 1007, Zhouyi cantong qi jie, by Chen Xianwei, cited in Hu Fuchen, Zhonghua daojiao da cidian, s.v. yanyue lu
, 1181. By a second interpretation, it is the lower dantian; cf. DZ 240, Qinghua miwen, cited in Hao Qin,
Longhu dandao, 244. By a third interpretation, it is the recumbent new moon, and represents the moment when
the new yang is born on the third day of the lunar cycle; cf. Wang Mu, Wuzhen pian qianjie, cited in Hu Fuchen,
Zhonghua daojiao da cidian, s.v. yanyue lu , 1188.
Sexual alchemists might accept these readings of the symbol yanyue lu, while retaining their own physiological
reading. The idea of a womans lap as a recumbent new moon can also be found in European alchemical
287
caldron, yangding , which contains the owing pearl264 and enters eight cun
inches into the furnace and remains suspended within it without touching the
ground,265 is the male organ. In the sexual cultivation texts translated by Wile,
however, the symbolism is reversed, with the caldron referring to the woman.
Finally, in multi level alchemical systems, such as Li Daochuns system of Four
Vehicles, the furnace and caldron will have di erent referents at each level, ranging
from the physiological to the cosmic and mystical.
The term bellows and tuyre can refer to various things that fan, pump, or
otherwise promote the rening process; referents range from kidney region, kidneys
heart pairing, lungs, or spirit intention, to yin and yang, heaven and earth, the Dao,
or in sexual alchemy the sex organs the gates of xuan and pin.
4.5, Inner alchemists . . . take . . . inner tracts as the pathways of circulation.
According to classical Chinese medical theory, the body is criss crossed by cardinal
and reticular tracts jingmai and luomai
. While one goal of inner alchemy
is to circulate rened qi throughout the whole body using all of the cardinal and
reticular tracts, only a few of the cardinal and none of the reticular tracts266 receive
much mention within alchemical teachings.267 Among the cardinal tracts, there are
two sets, twelve regular cardinal tracts268 and eight extraordinary cardinal tracts;269
alchemists mainly care only about the extraordinary tracts, and of these, usually only
two of the eight are mentioned, the superintendent tract dumai, and
symbology, as in Robert Fludds painting of the world soul in his Utriusque cosmi historia.
264
DZ 1067, Shangyangzi jindan dayao 9.10a9. When Chen says that the owing pearl within the caldron of the
suspended fetus receives the metal, he means that the semen inner pharmacon meets the womans qi outer
pharmacon within the penis.
265
DZ 1068, Shangyangzi jindan dayao tu 8b6

7.
266
Ma Jiren says that there are fteen reticular tracts, twelve linked to the regular cardinal tracts, two linked to
the conception and superintendent tracts, and nally, the great reticular tract of the spleen; Daojiao yu liandan,
169.
267
Hao Qin, Longhu dandao, 197

98.
268
The twelve regular cardinal tracts shier zhengjing may be divided into four sets: three yin and three
yang tracts for the hands, and the same for the feet. These twelve tracts are related to twelve visceral systems:
lungs, large intestine, stomach, spleen, heart, small intestine, bladder, kidneys, cardiac envelope xinbao ,
Triple Burner, gallbladder, and liver.
269
The eight extraordinary cardinal tracts qijing bamai are the superintendent, conception, highway
chong , belt dai , yin and yang ligative wei , and yin and yang heel qiao or tracts. I take my
translation terminology from Sivin, Traditional Medicine in Contemporary China, 250.
288
conception tract renmai . The superintendent tract leads from the lower
Magpie Bridge between coccyx and anus up the spine through the Three Passes in
the back at coccyx, mid spine, and occiput, and over the crown, through the
ophryon between the eyebrows, to the upper Magpie Bridge between upper palate
and tongue.270 The conception tract leads from the upper Magpie Bridge down the
front of the body, through the twelve story tower esophagus, the middle and lower
dantian, and back to the lower Magpie Bridge.271 Joined at the two Magpie Bridges,
the superintendent and conception tracts together make up the lesser orbit
xiao zhoutian,272 one of the most important features of the alchemical body in almost
all alchemical teachings.273 In the latter day standard account, during the initial stage
of tamping the base zhuji
, the adept rst opens up the twin tracts which in
an adult will become stopped up over time by circulating unrened seminal essence
or qi, in preparation for the stage of rening seminal essence into qi or joining outer
and inner pharmaca into the greater pharmacon along the same route. During both
of these stages, but especially the second, there are dangers and di culties. The
precious pharmacon may leak away at upper Magpie Bridge in the form of long
stalactites of snot jade pillars, yuzhu , or at the lower bridge as atulence.
Penetrating the Three Passes in the dorsal tract also takes some care. In general, the
internal mechanism for transporting the pharmaca is called the waterwheel or,
river cart, heche ,274 but this one che wheel, cart is also split into three, drawn
270
Some alchemists locate the upper juncture of the twin tracts at the crown, rather than the palate and tongue.
271
According to modern qigong understanding, the superintendent tract intersects with the twelve regular cardinal
tracts at many points, and the conception tract intersects with and can control the six yin regular cardinal tracts
Ma Jiren, Daojiao yu liandan, 172
73. I have not seen this mentioned in premodern alchemical writings.
272
I translate the term zhoutian simply as orbit, but as an astronomical term it refers to the great celestial
sphere in which the visible heavens are embedded. In astronomy, xiao zhoutian refers to a twelve month cycle
year cycle, and da zhoutian refers to a twelve year cycle jovian cycle. An oft cited locus classicus of the term xiao
zhoutian is DZ 243, Chen Xubai guizhong zhinan 1.2b5 Ma Jiren, Daojiao yu liandan, 153, but an earlier occurrence is
in the Zhong L text DZ 1191, Michuan Zhengyang zhenren Lingbao bifa 1.14a10.
273
A rare counter example is Chen Pus DZ 1096, Chen Xiansheng neidan jue also in DZ 263, Xiuzhen shishu, j. 17,
with the misleading title Cuixu pian . Chen Pu concentrates only on the conception tract, never
mentioning the superintendent tract until the eighth stage of his system; Li Yuanguo, Daojiao qigong yangsheng xue,
311; Eskildsen, Neidan Master Chen Pus Nine Stages of Transformation.
274
Needham identies the heche as a square pallet chain pump Needham, Science and Civilisation in China, 5.5:225
or current driven water raising machine ibid., 5.5:60.
289
by a goat, deer, or ox.275 When transporting the pharmacon through the Tail Gate
Pass
Weil Guan in the coccyx, the adept must proceed slowly, as if driving
a goatcart
with his intention. When transporting it through the SpinalStraits Pass
Jiaji Guan , the adept can rush along with abandon, as if driving a deercart
or a sheepcart. When transporting the pharmacon through the Jade Pillow Pass
Yuzhen Guan at the base of the skull, one feels as if one must bull ones way
through an obstacle, as if driving an oxcart.276 The adept senses and understands
movements in the tracts through a sensation of heat, reactions of secretions
some
teachers speak of transporting the pharmacon from the mouth to the esophagus by
swallowing saliva, for example, and guided visualization. Higher stages of alchemical
attainment may be signaled by internal visual and aural signs.
Some texts from the late imperial period mention the belt and highway tracts.
Lu Xixing and Li Xiyue mention the visualization of the yin heel tract, a unique
feature of their teachings.277 Some texts ascribed to Zhang Sanfeng speak of
beginning the lesserorbital circulation by drawing qi up from the Bubbling Spring
yongquan acupoint in the sole of the foot to the Tail Gate Pass.278 ZhongL
texts from the formative period also mention this route from the Bubbling Spring.
There is also a dierent conception of inner tracts found in later imperial
Longmen Quanzhen texts
such as the writings of Min Yide. In this system there are
three main tracts, the red, black, and yellow paths; the red and black paths are the
conception and superintendent tracts, while the yellow path ascends straight up from
the lower dantian to the middle and upper dantian. Chen Yingning in the Republican
Period accepted the central yellow path
zhonghuang zhi dao
as a powerful
275
ZhongL texts have an unrelated set of three che, the lesser, greater, and purple waterwheels. The lesser
waterwheel transports qi from one organ to another
in mutual irradiation; the greater waterwheel transports
pharmaca along the lesser orbit
xiao zhoutian, and the purple waterwheel transports the elixir along the greater
orbit
da zhoutian. Li Yuanguo, Daojiao qigong yangsheng xue, 298 99, discussing chapter 12 of ZhongL chuandao ji
in DZ 263, Xiuzhen shishu, j. 14 16.

276
Ma Jiren, Daojiao yu liandan, 154. I also discuss these three carts on page 349 below.
277
278
Ma Jiren, Daojiao yu liandan, 94; Wile, Art of the Bedchamber, 171. This is also found in Xingming guizhi
rst
printed 1615, but later expanded, cited in Li Yuanguo, ibid., 297.
290
but dangerous alternative to the twin tracts.279

4.6, Inner alchemists . . . take . . . the three treasures the lifeenergies of
essence, qi, and spirit as the pharmaca.280
According to the latterday standard
account, alchemists usually speak of uniting an outer pharmacon281 with an inner

pharmacon282 to produce an elixir,283 which is further rened into a spiritbody.284
The concept of inner and outer pharmaca seems to have originated, not in alchemy,
but in practices for ingesting qi, as studied by Maspero.285 For solo alchemists, the
adept rst circulates the outer pharmacon, and the inner pharmacon later appears as
a result of this.286 For sexual alchemists, the outer pharmacon is gathered from the
female partners sexual energy as qi , and the inner pharmacon from the male adepts
own sublimated sexual energy yuanjing . In alchemical texts from the period of
nascence and the formative period, the outer ingredient may be gathered as
atmospheric qi, which is mixed with saliva and swallowed. The common idea in all of
these cases is that the inner pharmacon is the primal qi of the body, almost always
linked to the seminal essence jing , while the outer pharmacon is macrocosmic
primal qi, often called the prenatal One Qi xiantian yiqi .287 And
common to all forms of inner alchemy and laboratory alchemy , is the idea of joining
the two ingredients to form an elixir.
The three pharmaca are essence, qi, and spirit, with the outer pharacon
279
Liu Xun, In Seach of Immortality, 144. The term zhonghuang zhi dao must be related to the term
huangdao ecliptic .
280
I discuss the nature of essence and qi again below on pp. 31720, and 41819. I discuss spirit above on pp. 252
54.
281
The outer pharmacon waiyao may also be called lead qian or perfected lead zhenqian .
282
The inner pharmacon neiyao may also be called mercury gong , or perfected mercury zhengong .
Solo alchemists may call it perfected seed zhenzhongzi ; sexual alchemists may call it the mysterious pearl
xuanzhu , since it is linked to the semen.
283
This elixir dan may also be called greater pharmacon dayao , golden elixir or metallous elixir jindan
, mysterious pearl xuanzhu , yellow sprouts huangya , Qi Qi is sometimes understood as
prenatal qi ; Hao Qin, Longhu dandao, 183 , and many other names. At the beginning stage of smelting the elixir,
it may be called mother of the elixir danmu
.
284
This nal form of the elixir may be called infant yinger , fetus taier , holy fetus shengtai , fetal
transcendent taixian , yang spirit yangshen , and many other names.
285
286
287
291
related to qi either primal qi or atmospheric air, the inner pharmacon related to

male seminal essence, and spirit as the nal form of the elixir. But alchemists will also
say that essence, qi, and spirit are all included in most aspects of the cultivation
process. The middle term, qi, is present within essence because, after all, essence is
really just a form of qi;288 and qi is present in the nal form of the elixir as spirit
because, while from one point of view, spirit is a personied being, from another
point of view it is just a form of qi. Essence is also present within the middle stage of
the elixir, since this is the amalgam of essence and qi. I have never seen it stated that
essence is present within the nal spirit form of the elixir, however. Spirit is present
throughout all stages of the process, as both subject and object of cultivation.
Throughout the process, the adept uses intention yi to force, guide, or observe
the process, and spirit is the semipersonied agent or subject of this intentionality.
Yet spirit is also an object of cultivation, not just in the nal stages, but throughout
the process: the alchemist must usually maintain a state of mental calmness, which
may be called nurturing the spirit yangshen . Calming the mind or spirit is
crucial in both solo and sexual alchemy; sexual alchemists, for example, assert that
the elixir may be ruined if any lustful thoughts arise, so the adept must undertake a
long period of mental training rening the self, lianji before approaching a
partner.
4.7, Inner alchemists . . . take . . . respiration, guiding intention, intense
concentration, or formless samdhi as the alchemical re.
For the laboratory
alchemists, ring uses re, of course; yet for the inner alchemists, ring involves
breathing and intention, or usually a combination of the two.
Usually, there are two types of ring, cooler civil re wenhuo and
hotter martial re wuhuo , each appropriate for a dierent stage in the overall
ring process. The phases of civil and martial ring may also each include hotter and
cooler subphases within them advancing the yang re, jin yanghuo , and
withdrawing the yin tallies, tui yinfu
. There are also periods of nonring
bathing, muyu ; i.e., basting at two points mao and you or four points zi
288
I will speak more of this on pages 31720 4.11.4 on prenatal and postnatal essence, qi, and spirit; and on
pages 41820 below.
292
, wu , mao, and you289 within each cycle. ZhongL texts add a further layer of
ring terminology, the folkish, minister, and sovereign res minhuo , chenhuo
, and junhuo , symbolizing essence, qi, and spirit.
Some authorities say that martial ring is respiration and civil ring is mental
concentration,290 but it would be safer to say that each phase of ring involves both
respiration and concentration, with martial ring being intense, and civil ring
attenuated.291 In some teachings e.g., ZhongL, ring can be a relatively
physiological process, related to breathing and posture; others teach a relatively
wuwei samdhic form of ring, using attenuated intention only,292 based on the
alchemical correlation between spirit as intention and re.293 Most teachings would
include both forms of ring at dierent stages. Niu Daochun, for example, de nes
ringasrespiration as appropriate for a lower stage of attainment the lowest level
of the little vehicle takes . . . the circulation of the breath as re, with ringas
concentration at a higher stage in the little vehicle . . . the re is luminous
awareness.294
4.8, The alchemical re . . . has ring periods of low or high heat, or nonring,
whose patterns of ring are modeled on lunar and seasonal cycles and represented with
cycles of trigrams and hexagrams.
Inner alchemists re their pharmaca and elixirs
according to patterns of intention and respiration called huohou

ring periods,
re phasing.295 Inneralchemists model their ring periods upon those of the
laboratory alchemists, who would gradually increase and decrease the intensity of the
289
Zhang Zhenguo, Fanpu guizhen, 234, says that during lesserorbital circulation the pharmacon is bathed at mao
and you, while during greaterorbital circulation the pharmacon must be bathed at these zi, wu, mao, and you.
290
Zhang Zhenguo, Fanpu guizhen, 233. BaryosherChemouny, La qute de limmortalit en Chine, 100, in her study of
the later ZhongL texts by Xiao Daocun , DZ 149, Xiuzhen taiji hunyuan tu, and DZ 150, Xiuzhen taiji
hunyuan zhixuan tu.
291
Hao Qin, Longhu dandao, 229; Ma Jiren, Daojiao yu liandan, 143.
292
Li Yuanguo, Daojiao qigong yangsheng xue, 272, citing DZ 135, Cui Gong Ruyao jing zhujie, by the Quanzhen author
Wang Daoyuan Wang Jie ,
. 1392; or Hao Qin, Longhu dandao, 266, citing the later Quanzhen text,
Wupian lingwen.
293
294
Robinet, Taoism: Growth of a Religion, 254, citing DZ 276, Xiyi zhimi lun, by Niu Daochun , dated 1299.
295
Hou
are temporal units. Inner alchemists correlate the day with the month, and with the year: the twelve
Chinese doublehours in a day are equivalent to the twelve months in a year, and the six twentyminute hou in a
doublehour are equivalent to the six veday hou in a standard thirtyday month.
293
re by using precisely weighted increments of fuel.296 Although inneralchemical

writers usually say that one may only receive the nal details of the ring periods
from ones master, they still tell us much about the subject.
Like the earlier alchemists who used numerological correlations,
correspondences, and resonances297 to model their laboratory upon the cosmos, and
to model their ring patterns upon the natural temporal cycles of day and night,
moon, and seasons, the inner alchemists use cycles of trigrams and hexagrams from
the Yijing to represent, condense, and control macrocosmic time within the
microcosm of the human frame, and to infuse themselves with the creative and
transformative powers zaohua of the Dao.
Within inner alchemy, there are at least three dierent temporal schemata for
ring elixirs.298 The rst schema, the Method of Matching Stems Najia Fa
uses a sequence of six trigrams to represent the waxing and waning of yin and yang
over a lunar month. In the second schema, Twelve Sovereign Hexagrams Shier
Pigua 299 represents the changes of yin and yang during the twelve months
of a year, or the twelve hours of a day. The third schema, the Theory of Hexagram
Qi Guaqi Shuo , uses sixty hexagrams to represent the thirty days of a
month, but this schema is rarely mentioned.
The schema of Matching Stems derives from the Yijing thought of Jing Fang
and Yu Fan,300 and is employed within the Cantong qi. As the Cantong qi became
popular within inner alchemy, so did the Matching Stems. In this schema, the trigram
Zhen is correlated with the third day of the month, or shuo301 newmoon
296
Sivin, Chinese Alchemy and the Manipulation of Time, 518.
297
298
Hao Qin, Longhu dandao, 16974; Ma Jiren, Daojiao yu liandan, 14550. The rst person to identify four types of
Handynasty Yijing learning within the Cantong qi was Wang Ming, in Zhouyi Cantong qi kaozheng. These are
najia fa, shier pigua, guaqi shuo, and liuxu shuo theory of six vacuities; Zeng Chuanhui, Yuandai Cantong xue,
34.
299
I have taken the translation Twelve Sovereign Hexagrams from Liu Tsunyan, Lu Hsihsing and His
Commentaries on the Tsantungchi, 224. They are also called the Twelve Hexagrams of Waning and
Waxing Shier Xiaoxi Gua
.
300
Jing Fang 7737

; Yu Fan 164233
; Hao Qin, Longhu dandao, 168.
301
Shuo is actually the rst day of the lunar cycle, but in the MatchingStems schema it belongs to this rst
period.
294
day within the lunar cycle. Here, Zhen represents the arising of fresh new yang out
of the pure yin of the end of the previous cycle; thus, out of arises _ to make
. Zhen is followed by Dui , Qian , Xun , Gen , and nally Kun
, then Zhen again. The gure below summarizes the correlative signi cances of
these six trigrams.
Zhen
Dui
Qian
Xun
Gen
Kun
Thunder
Satisfaction
Active
Compliance

Restraint

Earth

new yang
waxing yang
pure yang
new yin
waxing yin
pure yin
third day
eighth day
fteenth day
sixteenth day
twentythird day
thirtieth day
wangyue full
moon
rst day after full

moon
xiaxian last
lunar quarter
huiyue dark
moon day
shuoyue new shangxian rst

moon day
lunar quarter
Fig. 4.8., The Matching Stems
Of the eight trigrams in the Yijing Fuxi arrangement, the remaining two
trigrams, kan
and li , do not appear within the Matching Stems. This is
because they do not t precisely into the pattern of waxing and waning of yang and
yin i.e., , and also because they have a more general function, acting as
gobetweens linking the other trigrams.302
The schema of the Twelve Sovereign Hexagrams is found in a Handynasty
Yijing commentary,303 and in the Cantong qi. In this schema, six yang hexagrams
waxingyang hexagrams, xigua are followed by six yin hexagrams waningyang
hexagrams, xiaogua . The cycle begins with Fu , Return , which is
correlated with the zi doublehour and the eleventh lunar month, and represents
the arising of new yang out of pure yin. Fu is followed by Lin
, Tai , and so
on. Figure 4.9 below summarizes the correlative signi cances of these twelve
hexagrams.
302
According to one interpretation of the cryptic Xici zhuan phrase

owing everywhere within the six
vacuities zhouliu liuxu ; Yijing, Xici zhuan, 2.8.1; Rutt, The Book of Changes Zhouyi, 428 , while the
other six hexagrams have xed positions in a circle, kan and li enter the center of this circle, and, in the form of
the celestial stems wu and ji , move about freely between the other hexagrams; Hao Qin, Longhu dandao,
17072.
303
Yu Fans commentary to Xici zhuan; Ma Jiren, Daojiao yu liandan, 147.
295
Hexagrams of
Waxing
Fu !
Lin $
Tai
Dazhuang
Guai &
Qian
xigua
Return

Overseeing

Peace
Great Strength
Resolution

Active
zi hour
11th month;
winter solstice
dongzhi
chou hour
yin hour
chen hour
si hour
12th month
1st month
mao hour
2nd month;
vernal equinox
chunfen
3rd month
4th month
Hexagrams of
Waning
Gou '
Dun (
Pi
Guan %
Bo
Kun
xiaogua
Encounter
Withdrawal
Obstruction
Viewing
Peeling
Earth

wu hour

wei
hour

shen hour

you hour

xu hour

hai hour
5th month;
summer solstice
xiazhi
6th month
7th month
8th month;
autumnal equinox
qiufen
9th month
10th month
Fig. 4.9, The Twelve Sovereign Hexagrams
Alchemists use the Matching Stems and Sovereign Hexagrams to understand

the natural cyclical changes of the pharmaca or elixirs within the microcosm of the
body,304 and to understand what they ought to do at each stage of the cycle. The
moment when the pharmacon should be gathered is called Fu the Return of
yang. During the initial short stage after gathering the pharmacon, the adept may
transport the pharmacon along the lesser orbit from the lower to upper dantian;
following the Sovereign Hexagram schema, he advances the yang ring jin yanghuo
"#, or applies hot, martial ring, through the six hexagrams of waxing yang, and
then withdraws the yin tallies tui yinfu
, or applies cool, civil ring, during
the six hexagrams of waning yang. At the mao and you points, the midpoints of these
two halfcycles, he will cease ring altogether, which is called bathing the
pharmacon a metaphor drawn from laboratory alchemy. During lesserorbital
circulation, the adept may also correlate his ring with the position of the
pharmacon along the orbit within his body. While transporting the pharmacon up his
spine along the superintendent tract, he may use martial ring to smash through the
unyielding JadePillow Pass at the occiput; while transporting the pharmacon down
the conception tract, he may use civil ring. In this schema, the mao and you points
304
Yu Yan introduces a theory that qi naturally circulates along the lesser orbit within the body, and if the adept
knows this, and harmonizes his microcosmic cycle with the macrocosmic cycle, he can harness the macrocosmic
power of qian and kun within his corporeal microcosm; Li Yuanguo, Daojiao qigong yangsheng xue, 408.
296
would be located at the midpoints of the two tracts, in the spine and abdomen.305
During later stages of ring, the adept may circulate the progressivelyfusing
pharmaca either along the lesser orbit as above, or along the greater orbit.306 Instead
of gathering the new pharmacon at the Fu point, now he may need to glean rened
qi, and deposit this qi in his lower dantian. In this case, rather than using the
Sovereign Hexagrams, he will use the Matching Stems to determine the points of
shangxian
the rst lunar quarter and xiaxian
the last lunar quarter, when he must
glean this qi.
Alchemical texts often say that the adept ought not to try to slavishly to map
the images
xiang existing within the bodily microcosm onto macrocosmic
patterns; that is, the adept should not assume that he must gather the pharmacon at
the zi doublehour between 11 pm and 1 am, or glean qi on the eighth and twenty
third days of the lunar cycle. Rather, the adept should watch for signs or emblematic
scenes
jingxiang 307 within his own body
for the solo cultivator or in the body
of the partner
for the sexual cultivator, and then use the trihexagrams as labels for
these signs, and the trihexagrammatic systems of correspondences as frameworks
for linking individual bodily signs into repeatable patterns.
Yet most alchemists may also speak as though there is an active link between
microcosmic cycles and macrocosmic cycles rather than merely a metaphorical one.
In ZhongL texts, or texts inspired by ZhongL teachings,308 the adept may
actually measure the duration of ring by counting his breaths on a rosary, and he
may change the duration or heat of ring to match the season.309 Or, the adept may
try to match the heat of the ring to the time of day. This latter practice is found in
alchemical teachings from the period of integration,310 or the late imperial period.311
305
306
The da zhoutian , usually involving the middle and lower dantian
the lesser caldron and furnace, or
involving circulation throughout the whole body.
307
308
Such as the early Quanzhen text DZ 244, Dadan zhizhi.
309
Hao Qin, Longhu dandao, 268; Li Yuanguo, Daojiao qigong yangsheng xue, 473.
310
Li Yuanguo, Daojiao qigong yangsheng xue, 272, discussiong Wang Daoyuan.
311
Hao Qin, Longhu dandao, 277, discussing Liu Huayang; or Ma Jiren, Daojiao yu liandan, 143 44, reecting the
297
The cycle of the Sovereign Hexagrams may be applied simultaneously on dierent

time scales. For example, on one time scale, one complete circulation of the
pharmaca on the lesser orbit may take only as long as one inhalation during which
the adept advances the yang ring and exhalation during which the adept
withdraws the yin tallies. At the same time, the adept could be correlating the
Twelve Sovereign hexagrams with the twelve doublehours of the day with
advancing and withdrawing each taking half a day, and with the twelve months
of the year with each phase taking half a year.
A complete account of the uses of these schemata within the alchemical eld
would be quite complex. Zeng Chuanhui says that 1 Some solo alchemists use the
Matching Stems for the ring periods of the lesser orbit, and the Sovereign
Hexagrams for those of the greater orbit. 2 Some solo alchemists do the opposite.
3 Some solo alchemists use the Matching Stems for gathering the pharmaca and the
Sovereign Hexagrams for the ring periods. 4 Some solo alchemists use the
Matching Stems for the ring periods and the Sovereign Hexagrams for oral
instructions i.e., instructions regarding other issues . 5 Some sexual alchemists use
the Matching Stems for the female partners pharmacon and ring periods, and the
Sovereign Hexagrams for the adepts pharmacon and ring periods. 6 Some sexual
alchemists use the Matching Stems for the pharmacon and ring periods, and the
Sovereign Hexagrams as oral instructions when approaching the partner.312
Robinet is correct to point out that alchemists often warn against
mechanically mapping microcosmic to macrocosmic cycles,313 yet the same
alchemists who do proer such warnings e.g., Liu Huayang, who advocates a wuwei
approach to alchemy are also making these direct micromacrocosmic correlations
themselves. More research is required to determine whether this is due to situational
rhetoric, dierences between stages of attainment within a single alchemical system,
systematic ambiguity, or simple contradiction.
Alchemical writers usually say that the ring periods are secret, and one may
latterday standard account.
312
Zeng Chuanhui, Yuandai Cantong xue, 220.
313
298
only receive the nal details of the ring periods under the guidance of a true master.
Perhaps this guidance would involve imparting new secrets not written down in any
text, but more likely it would involve telling the adept just what to believe among all
of the conicting teachings, and which among the many potential correspondances
are actually relevant. In the Maghrebian peasant society studied by Bourdieu, agents
do not see cosmology or social relations as a systematic whole; instead, they activate
only some of the possible structural correspondences available to them, as necessary
for their strategic purposes, according to a practical logic; and these never add up
to the harmonious system imagined by the structural anthropologist.314 Just so, an
alchemist may use only some of the structural correspondences available to him, as
necessary for his own training, and may need the teachers guidance in choosing
elements from his alchemical toolkit.315
4.9, The ring is done over a series of stages lasting days, months, and years.
In this
section I will begin by giving a standard account of the stages of solo inner
alchemical cultivation,316 then discuss departures from or variations on this account.

The standard account of solo inner alchemy seems to be a matter of common
knowledge among qigong authorities in modern China, and authors such as Wang Mu,
Li Yuanguo, Ma Jiren, Hu Fuchen, or Zhang Zhenguo treat this standard account as
the underlying truth to all inner alchemy.317 Azuma says that this account dates back
to Li Daochun and the Yuan dynasty.318 I would say instead that the standard account
includes DZ 243, Chen Xubai guizhong zhinan, is epitomized the Ming
dynasty Qinghua
314
315
Cf. Swidlers toolkit theory of culture in Swidler, Culture in Action; idem, Talk of Love.
316
The standard account over

simplies the historical reality, but it is still not wholly univocal itself. We should
think of it as a family
resemblance standard account. Standard account is my own term; I have seen no
comparable idea in the Chinese secondary literature.
317
Among these scholar

practitioners, the writings of Wang Mu, Hu Fuchen, and Zhang Zhenguo are more
practitioner
oriented and ahistorical, while Li Yuanguo and Ma Jiren are more scholarly and historical. Hao Qin is
the most historical and generally reliable of these scholars.
318
Azuma, Ch Hakutan Goshin hen no kenky to ksh, 109.
299
miwen,319 developed further by Wu Shouyang and Liu Huayang in the early Qing, and
brought to its nal form by Zhao Bichen in the late Qing. In the account presented
below I draw on Hao Qin, Li Yuanguo, Ma Jiren, and Zhang Zhenguo, who in turn
draw on these Ming Qing sources, especially Qinghua miwen.320
4.9.1, The standard account.
The most distinctive feature of this standard
account is a series of four stages: 1 tamping the base, 2 rening essence into qi, 3
rening qi into spirit, and 4 causing spirit to return to the void. While this
quadripartite sequence is a distinctively Southern Lineage teaching, Li Yuanguo and
Hao Qin say that it has an earlier origin in the late Tang and Five Dynasties period
and the Zhong L teachings.321
During the rst stage, called tamping the base zhuji 322 or rening the
self lianji , the adept prepares his essence, qi, and spirit for subsequent
renement. An important practice at this stage is shouyi guarding unity, also
called shouqiao watching the aperture or ningshen ru Qixue
crystallizing the spirit and causing it to enter the Pit of Qi. The adept rests his
intention in the lower dantian: this has the dual eect of calming his heart mind and
spirit, and building up post natal essence and qi in the dantian. When the adept has
suciently strengthened his essence, qi, and spirit, and regained a state of ordinary
good health this way, he can begin to transport this post natal essence cum qi jingqi
through the twin tracts, paying special attention to the process of penetrating the
three passes in the superintendent tract. When the adept feels his tracts are open
and unobstructed, he transports the qi around them in concert with his breathing,
raising the qi up the superintendent tract with every inhalation, and drawing it down
the conception tract with every exhalation, through the conscious working youwei
319
DZ 240, Yuqing jinsi qinghua miwen jinbao neilian danjue Golden treasure formula for the inner renement of
the elixir, of the secret writ of blue orescence, from the golden case in the Jade Clarity heaven. This text is
ascribed to Zhang Boduan, but some say it was actually composed under Zhangs name by the Ming Dynasty
Daoist Li Puye
; Ren Jiyu, Daozang tiyao, 171.
320

58; Li Yuanguo, Daojiao qigong yangsheng xue, 376
82; Ma Jiren, Daojiao yu liandan,
181
210; Zhang Zhenguo, Fanpu guizhen, 230
35.
321
Li Yuanguo, Daojiao qigong yangsheng xue, 231, 351; Hao Qin, Longhu dandao, 242.
322
Zhu means to ram earth to make a foundation for a building. I prefer to translate zhu as tamp rather than
as ram or pound, which would imply violent action.
300
of his intention yi . Regulating the breath also aids in calming the mind, to
the point of sam
dhi. The qi being transported at this stage may be called yuanqi
primal qi, but it has not yet been activated as the pharmacon. There is no set
duration for the stage of tamping the base, but a gifted cultivator may be able to
advance to the next stage after perhaps one hundred days.
During the second stage, the adept re nes essence into qi by gathering and
re ning the outer and inner pharmaca. For a solo cultivator, the outer pharmacon is
produced from the store of yuanqi that he has accumulated in his lower dantian also
called Sea of Qi, qihai during the stage of tamping the base. The outer
pharmacon emerges from this store of yuanqi at the living midnight hour huo zishi
, in the form of sexual energy primal essence, yuanjing , and signaled by
the male adepts sudden erection. The adept must gather the outer pharmacon
carefully, when it is neither too stale nor too fresh laonen , and transport it
along the twin tracts. Between the substages of gathering the outer pharmacon and
transporting it on the lesser orbit, there may be an intermediary substage of ring
the pharmacon with hot, martial re within a closed caldron fenglu
.323 Now, the
orbital circulation is slower and more di cult to accomplish than it was during the
rst stage. It may take one hundred respirations some say 360 respirations to
transport the pharmacon one full orbital cycle. As before, the adept must be careful
to penetrate the three dorsal passes at the right pace penetrating the coccygeal pass
lightly, the spinal pass swiftly, and the occipital pass slowly and with eort. It may
take as many as one hundred days to penetrate the three passes. When the adept has
circulated the outer pharmacon three hundred cycles some say 360 cycles, he may
enter into a state of sam
dhi, and the inner pharmacon will appear spontaneously in
the lower dantian. The adept can then unite the two pharmaca immediately to make
the elixir matrix danmu . He must then go into a state of sam
dhihibernation
for seven days called entering the hut, ruhuan , at the end of which the
greater pharmacon dayao will appear, again in the lower dantian. The greater
pharmacon appears at the primary midnight hour zheng zishi , and may also
323
301
be called the holy fetus shengtai , or simply the elixir dan . After brie
y
transporting the greater pharmacon on the lesser orbit, the adept may shift the
caldron yiding , shift the elixir from the lower to middle dantian, and begin
stage three. The appearance of the inner pharmacon, and the subsequent cultivation
of the greater pharmacon, signal the complete sublimation of the adepts sexual
energy: at this point the male adepts sex organ detumesces and retracts. This is
likened to the horses yin organ
concealing its marks mayin cangxiang

.324
During the third stage, the adept re nes qi the elixir, greater pharmacon,
holy fetus into spirit the yang spirit, infant. Whereas the adept had used the lesser
orbit during the stages of tamping the base and re ning essence into qi, during the
third stage the adept uses the greater orbit. Whereas lesserorbital circulation uses
the greater caldron and furnace the upper and lower dantian and the twin tracts,
greaterorbital circulation uses the lesser caldron and furnace the middle and lower
dantian and all eight of the extraordinary cardinal tracts qijing bamai . As
the adept res the elixir gently with wuweitype concentration, closed to the outside
world and watching the elixir like a hen brooding over her eggs, with his inward
vision he perceives the elixir in an inde nite form, abiding within the region of the
two dantian, mystic and hazy yinyun . Later during this stage, the adept
continues to re it as he circulates it throughout the entire body along the eight
tracts. This stage is a symbolic gestation of the holy fetus, and lasts ten months.
At the end of ten months, the fetus ascends from the middle dantian to the
upper dantian to become the yang spirit. During this fourth stage, the adept nurtures
the yang spirit, then trains it to return to the void or the heavens, or the Dao. For
three years, the adept suckles the infant through shouyi guarding unity, then for
six years he nurtures the growing child, training it to exit and reenter through the
fontanel, and gradually take longer and longer journeys away from the body. At the
end of nine years, the adepts yang spirit will be able to leave his mortal body for
324
A penis that can retract into the abdomen, like a horses, is one of the thirtytwo major marks xiang of a
buddhas enjoyment body or retributionbody, sabhoghakya; Foguang da cidian, s.v. mayin cangxiang

, 4348. The alchemical term may allude to this.
302
good, as a transcendent.
Such is the standard account of the four stages of inner alchemy. It represents
a solo cultivation alchemical synthesis from the Ming and Qing periods, based on
Southern Lineage teachings as they were taught within Quanzhen lineages. It oers a
good basis for comparison, but should not be mistaken as an underlying structure of
all inner alchemical teachings. In his article on Wuzhen pian, Azuma notes that
commentators throughout history have interpreted the teachings of this classic quite
variously, and because contemporary Chinese scholars use the relatively perspicuous
Jindan sibai zi and Qinghua miwen to interpret the cryptic Wuzhen pian
believing that
Zhang Boduan is the author of all three works, their conclusions are not completely
reliable.325 I approve of Azumas skepticism, and his proposal of scraping away the
outer layers of paint daubed on by later interpreters
paint that is colored by the
standard account to nd what we can of the earlier classics underneath. Yet, in this
section on the stages of practice in inner alchemy, I have found it convenient for
heuristic purposes to present the standard account at length, then note some
qualications to this account, rather than
as would be more accurate treating the
standard account as only one variation within the larger historical eld of inner
alchemy.
4.9.2, Two general divergences.
One major divergence from the standard
account, found among many forms of inner alchemy, is a stage of harmoniously

uniting re with water
hehe shuihuo . This re is also correlated with the
heart or heart mind, middle dantian, spirit, mercury, dragon, and li , while the
water is also correlated with the kidneys, lower dantian, essence, lead, tiger, and kan
.
Some of these correlations have not been discussed yet in this chapter, but
will be discussed below. This is an inversion, a process of turning these two
pharmaca upside down, then smelting them together in the center. The heart is
essentially ery but its core contains a uid
yin within yang, or li ; the heart is
yang and thus associated with ascension, but its pharmacon is yin, which sinks. The
kidneys are essentially watery but their core contains metal or qi
yang within yin, or
325
Azuma, Ch Hakutan Goshin hen no kenky to ksh, 109.
303
kan ; the kidneys are yin and thus associated with sinking, but their pharmacon is
yang, which rises. The two pharmaca, one sinking and one rising, meet in the center
to form an initial elixir, called yellow sprouts. This whole complex is very important
within inner alchemy of the period of nascence, of the formative period e.g., the
Zhong L teachings, and even of the classical period of Southern Lineage alchemy
e.g., Weng Baoguang326. It is found as late as the nineteenth and twentieth
centuries, as we see in the Neijing tu Chart of the inner tracts and related
materials studied by Despeux.327 This melding of opposites through inversion is the
key practice within the initial stage of Zhong L alchemy,328 and this trope is
repeated throughout the second and third Zhong L stages as well. Inversion is also
the most important trope within sexual alchemy. The standard account of solo
alchemy, however, can only give lip service to the inversion of opposites, by saying
that this is contained within lesser orbital circulation, when primal spirit yang, ery
is drawn down to unite with primal essence yin, watery, or by putting this in merely
symbolic terms. Late imperial solo cultivation teachings emphasize sequential
sudden appearances of singular pharmaca rst outer, then inner, greater, and the
yang spirit rather than the joining of two pharmaca, and so the classic alchemical
idea of inverted union no longer has a central place in the standard account.
The second major divergence from the standard account in some teachings is
the inclusion of multiple alternative practices within a single stage. For example,
whereas the standard account gives a set sequence of sub stages within each stage,329
early Quanzhen texts such as Jinguan yusuo jue may oer multiple alternative practices
within their early stages.330 If we may illustrate the practices of the standard account
with a linear diagram, we would have to illustrate Jinguan yusuo jue with a diagram like
326
Azuma, Ch Hakutan Goshin hen no kenky to k sh , 109.
327
Despeux, Taosme et corps humain, 149; Needham, Science and Civilisation in China, 5.5.114
15.
328
Hao Qin, Longhu dandao, 230; Ma Jiren, Daojiao yu liandan, 206; Li Yuanguo, Daojiao qigong yangsheng xue, 298.
329
The standard account is a modern construction, and dierent scholars or qigong lineages construct it
dierently, but they always speak of a set sequence of sub stages. For example, Ma Jiren lists six sub stages within
stage two, ve within stage three, and three within stage four. Ma does not consider tamping the base to be a
separate initial stage, and within his stage one he includes what I am calling stages one and two.
330
Li Yuanguo, Daojiao qigong yangsheng xue, 469, citing DZ 1156, Chongyang Zhenren jinguan yusuo jue. For studies of
this text, see Komjathy, Cultivating Perfection; Hachiya, Chy shinjin kinkan gyokusa ketsu ni tsuite.
304
a tree. At this point in my research, I cannot say whether we can restrict this
arbiform diagram of practices to ZhongL or ZhongLlike teachings, or whether
the linear standard account is a misleading simplication of the actual state of aairs,
and in fact teachers from all over the alchemical eld could give dierent sequences
of practices to dierent students as appropriate to their individual circumstances.
4.9.3, Other divergences, by era.
With the standard account as a paradigm, we
can turn to look at a few dierent alchemical systems to see how they diverge from
this paradigm. This is not a comprehensive survey.
Texts from the period of nascence await further study. The one text from this
period that has been extensively studied is Cantong qi; since this text is more
theoretical than practiceoriented, I doubt that it would contain a sequence of stages
of practice.
Chen Tuans Wuji tu
, from the formative period
perhaps dating to the
Five Dynasties, is a simple diagram said to represent ve stages of practice:331
1
nding the ancestral qi
zuqi in the xuanpin
or, mingmen between the kidneys,
2 rening essence to qi, and qi to spirit,

3 transporting this spirit through the ve
viscera
ve qi pay court to the prime, wuqi chaoyuan ,
4 forming the
holy fetus by equalizing kan and li, then
5 a return to the Limitless
Wuji. Liu and
Ma believe that Chen Tuans teachings conform closely to the standard account, but
this merits further study. Chen Pus Chen Xiansheng neidan jue332 also belongs to the
formative period. Chen Pus sequence of nine stages shares some practices with other
alchemical systems from this period, but on the whole does not resemble any other
inneralchemical text. Some of Chen Pus terminology and ideas about the alchemical
body may be unique.
ZhongL texts belong to both formative and classical periods in my schema.
Li and Hao to say that the ZhongL teachings are the source of the fourstage
331
Li Yuanguo, Daojiao qigong yangsheng xue, 322 33; Ma Jiren, Daojiao yu liandan, 51. Chen Tuans Wuji tu is no
longer extant; modern reconstructions of it are based on descriptions by Huang Zongyan
1616 86, Taiji
tu shuo bian, in Yixue bianhuo; and Zhu Yizun
1629 1709, Taiji tu shoushou kao, j. 58 of Pushu ting ji. I
include a version of Chen Tuans Wuji tu as gure 4.10 on page 335 below.
332
DZ 1096, Chen Xiansheng neidan jue

also in DZ 263, Xiuzhen shishu, j. 17, with the title Cuixu pian. Li Yuanguo,
Daojiao qigong yangsheng xue, 300 11.
305
sequence of the Southern Lineage teachings,333 which would make them structurally
equivalent to the standard account; indeed, the stage structures from some Zhong
L texts do appear relatively equivalent to the structure of the standard account.
According to chapter 18 of ZhongL chuandao ji,334 there are twelve stages or,
classes, ke , divided into three vehicles sansheng/sancheng or sancheng
.335
Lesser vehicle:
1 uniting yin and yang pipei yinyang : ingesting atmospheric qi and
directing it to the ve viscera;
2 collecting and dispersing water and re jusan shuihuo !: cultivating
the uid of the bladder orb;
3 causing dragon and tiger to copulate jiaogou longhu
#: producing two
pharmaca, qi from hearts uid and uid from kidneys qi, then joining them
in the Yellow Court;
4 roasting and rening the elixir pharmaca shaolian danyao " %: smelting
the two initial pharmaca into a holy fetus;
Middle vehicle:
5 causing crystals of metal to soar up behind the elbows zhouhou fei jinjing
: lesser orbital circulation;
6 the recycled elixir of jade humor yuye huandan $: swallowing saliva,
which is a uid from the kidney orb;
7 rening the body with jade humor yuye lianxing : lesser orbital
circulation of the kidney uid;
8 the recycled elixir of gold or, metal humor jinye huandan $:
gathering uid from the lung orb;
9 rening the body with gold humor jinye lianxing : lesser orbital
circulation of the lung uid;
Greater vehicle:
10 rening the qi by paying court to the prime chaoyuan lianqi :
circulating the qi of the ve viscera, based on complex seasonal timing;
11 gazing within upon the mingling and replacement neiguan jiaohuan &
;
12 transcending through parturition, and dividing the bodily form chaotuo
fenxing .
In the sequence of stages above, stages 1
2 are homologous to tamping the base,
stages 3
5 and 6
9 look like a reduplicated version of rening essence into qi, stages
10
11 would be equivalent to greater orbital circulation and rening qi into spirit,
333
Li Yuanguo, Daojiao qigong yangsheng xue, 231, 351; Hao Qin, Longhu dandao, 242.
334
ZhongL chuandao ji, in DZ 263, Xiuzhen shishu, j. 14

16.
335

40; Li Yuanguo, Daojiao qigong yangsheng xue, 291.
306
and stage 12 is homologous to causing the spirit to return to the void. Other
Zhong L esque sequences, such as that of the Quanzhen text Dadan zhizhi, are more
dicult to accord with the standard account.336 Here is the sequence of stages in
Dadan zhizhi:
Methods of lesser completion xiaocheng fa :
1 copulation of dragon and tiger longhu jiaogou %!: lesser orbital
circulation of atmospheric air to cause the inverted union of kidneys qi and
hearts uid in the middle dantian;
2 ring periods of the celestial orbit zhoutian huohou : lesser orbital
circulation of this qi to produce an inner pharmacon;
3 causing crystals of metal to soar up behind the elbows zhouhou fei jinjing
: recycling metallous essence to replenish the brain; a form of huanjing
bunao;
Methods of middle completion:
4 the recycled elixir of golden or, metal humor jinye huandan ':
swallowing this metallous essence down to the Yellow Court, cycling it among
the ve viscera to produce a lesser recycled elixir xiao huandan ', then
cycling it among the three dantian to produce a greater recycled elixir;
5 rening the form with the great yang taiyang lianxing ": smelting the
qi of the ve viscera in the upper dantian, then transporting this qi throughout
the body;
6 the three dantian in equilibrium santian jiji
&: uniting kidneys water
and hearts uid in the esophagus to form saliva, then swallowing it down to
the middle dantian;
Methods of greater completion
7 rening the spirit and causing it to enter the crown lianshen ruding ":
visualizing the spirits of the ve viscera meeting in the upper dantian;
8 rening the spirit and causing it to unite with the Dao lianshen ruding "
$: the qi follows the spirit from the middle to upper dantian, where the two
combine to form the yang spirit;
9a discarding the husk and ascending to transcendent hood qiqiao shengxian
;
9b transcending the profane and entering the holy chaofan rusheng #.
This sequence of nine stages in Dadan zhizhi is reminiscent of the twelve stages in
ZhongL chuandao ji, which I have said is reminiscent of the standard account, but I
would say that Dadan zhizhi is structurally about twice as far removed from the
standard account as Chuandao ji was, and so Dandan zhizhi is not very homologous to
the standard account. Dandan zhizhi and the standard account are both constructed
336
DZ 244, Dadan zhizhi, ascribed to Qiu Chuji, founder of the Longmen lineage of Quanzhen Daoism. In the
following summary, I paraphrase Belamide, SelfCultivation and Quanzhen Daoism, 157
64.
307
out of similar conceptions and elements, however.

Zhang Boduans Wuzhen pian, the text most quoted by inner alchemists after
Cantong qi, comes from the classical period. There is no doubt that a sequence of
stages lies behind Wuzhen pians cryptic phrasing; this sequence is probably linear in
structure, and largely equivalent to the standard account; yet I cannot say with
certainty what this sequence would be. Azuma notes that each commentator
interprets Wuzhen pian somewhat dierently; his solution is to remain skeptical of all
commentaries while giving more credence to the earliest ones.337
Bai Yuchan, another key author from this period, is more explicit. One cycle
of Bais alchemical poems hints at a sequence of stages:338
1
returning to the mountain;
2
gathering the pharmaca;
3
furnace and caldron;
4
the ring periods;
5
bathing;
6
incubation;
7
parturition;
8
the golden elixir;
9
shooting upward to the heavens;
10
kinship.
Elsewhere in his writings, Bai oers a sequence of nineteen formulae jue
, which
also reect a sequence of stages:
1
gathering the pharmacon caiyao
;
2
forming the elixir jiedan
;
3
tempering penglian
: tempering the body by circulating metallous uid;
4
reinforcing and bonding guji

: ceasing thought and forgetting the
physical form;
5
martial ring wuhuo
;
6
civil ring wenhuo
;
7
bathing muyu
;
8
grains of elixir dansha
;
9
crossing the passes guoguan
: the fetus ripens;
10
parturition fentai
;
11
incubation wenyang
;
12
guarding against dangers fangwei
;
13
training gongfu
;
337
Azuma, Ch Hakutan Goshin hen no kenky to k sh , 109.
338
308
14 copulation jiaogou ;

15 great recycling dahuan ;
16 holy fetus shengtai ;
17 nine revolutions jiuzhuan ;
18 switching to a new
caldron huanding : myriads of transformations and
propagations of new spirit selves
;
19 Grand Ultimate Taiji : body and spirit are perfected, and unite with the
Dao.
Li Yuanguo and Wang Li say that the standard sequence of re ning essence into qi
stage 2 of the standard account, re ning qi into spirit stage 3, and causing spirit to
return to the void stage 4, can be found in Bai Yuchans teachings.339 Wang
identi es formulae 19 with stage 2, formulae 1215 with stage 3, and formulae 1619
with stage 4. While Wang and Li are probably right in the main, we ought not to
assume that Bai Yuchans teachings match the standard account in detail. For
example, greaterorbital circulation seems not to play as important a role in classic
Southern Lineage teachings such as Bais as it does in the lateimperial standard
account. We will see that this is also true for Chen Zhixus SouthernLineage
teachings in chapter 5.
In the period of integration, alchemists such as Li Daochun, Yu Yan, Chen
Zhixu, and Wang Daoyuan began to combine Quanzhen and SouthernLineage
teachings. Li Daochun seems to have been working with a version of the fourstage
sequence with some dierences from the standard account,340 yet in his panjiaolike
schema for classifying alchemical teachings he seems to correlate tamping the base
with his upperlevel marginal teachings pangmen, and the second, third, and fourth
stages with his lower, middle, and upper vehicles, de ning his own highest vehicle as
superior more loftily cosmic to anything found in other SouthernLineage
teachings.341 Yu Yan teaches a simpli ed form of SouthernLineage practice,
emphasizing only lesserorbital circulation and dropping the higher stages of
339
Li Yuanguo, Daojiao qigong yangsheng xue, 393. Wang Li, The Daoist Way of Transcendence, 30210.
340
For example, unlike the standard account, Li Daochun emphasizes the practice of ve qi paying court to the
prime wuqi chaoyuan
; Crowe, The Nature and Function of the Buddhist and Ru Teachings in Li Daochun, 199,
270.
341
309
cultivation
the third and fourth stages in the standard account.342 Wang Daoyuan
seems to follow the fourstage sequence, though without including many of the
details found in the standard account;343 this is also true of Chen Zhixu.
The inneralchemical eld during the late imperial period is too broad and
understudied for me to summarize with condence. There are at least two hundred
extant texts from this period. However, we can use the issue of sexual alchemy to
draw a simple plot of the eld during this period, distinguishing between teachers
who downplay or exclude sexual alchemy and those who include it as recommended
or essential. Most of the solocultivators belong to the Longmen lineage of
Quanzhen Daoism. While we can identify a general trend in Longmen teachings
toward agreement on the standard account in both outline and detail, I cannot say at
present how many of the nonLongmen teachers follow the standard sequence of
stages, and how many depart from it signicantly. I believe that most nonLongmen
teachings are similar in structure to the standard account, but some may, while taking
the standard account as a basis, depart from the standard account in new directions.
This is the sense one gets from Li Xiyue, in whose teachings substages of the
standard account are doubled or expanded into many new series of substages.344 Qiu
Zhaoaos sequence of seven stages is structurally similar to the standard account, yet
he expands some elements
e.g., initial sexual training while reducing others
e.g.,
stages three and four of the standard account.345 We may say the same about female
inner alchemy
ndan from the lateeighteenth and nineteenth centuries. While
female inneralchemical texts oer diering sequences of stages,346 Hao Qin and
Despeux say that it conforms roughly to the standard fourstage sequence, with
major dierences at the standard stages one and two.347 While men and women both
342
343
Li Yuanguo, Daojiao qigong yangsheng xue, 497 505.
344
Hao Qin, Longhu dandao, 338 46.
345
Azuma, Ch Hakutan Goshin hen no kenky to ksh, 109. Ma Jiren, Daojiao yu liandan, 180.
346
For example, Ndan shize teaches a tenstage sequence, N jindan

an eighteenstage sequence,
Kunyuan jing a sevenstage sequence, and Jinhua zhizhi ngong zhengfa
a ninestage
sequence; Hao Qin, Longhu dandao, 375 76.
347
Hao Qin, Longhu dandao, 375 76. Despeux and Kohn, Women in Daoism, 221 41.
310
begin by cultivating their essence, for men this essence is related to semen, and for
women it is related to menstrual blood. A mans sublimated semen primal essence,
yuanjing and a womans sublimated menses perfected blood, zhenxue both
originate in the Pit of Qi Qixue , but whereas the mans Pit of Qi is his lower
dantian, the womans is between her breasts.348 There are many other important
dierences between the subtle physiologies of man and women. After stage two,
when a womans breasts disappear and her body becomes like that of a prepubescent
boy, her cultivation process ought to be equivalent to a mans.349
4.10, Inner alchemists . . . monitor their progress by means of temporal cycles, hexagram
cycles, psychophysiological responses, or inner vision.
Inner alchemists rely on various
sorts of evidence and calculation for monitoring the eects of their practice, and
determining when they have successfully completed a stage of cultivation and are
ready to begin a new stage. Adepts may use external temporal cyclessuch as one
hundred days, or ten monthsto regulate their progress. They may rely on outer
physiological signs, such as healthy teeth, voice, and eyes showing the essence, qi,
and spirit are replete,350 sweating during the stage of bathing the elixir,351 an
erection of the male member when the outer pharmacon arrives at the living
midnight hour, or shrinking of the male genitals when the greater pharmacon
arrives at the primary midnight hour, the production of copious and sweet saliva
when the pharmaca pass through the palate and tongue, or snot and atulence if
the pharmaca are lost at the upper and lower Magpie Bridges. Adepts may await
internal proprioceptive or imaginary signs, such as a feeling of heat when the tracts
open up, kaiguan , a quaking of the six senses and something like a vultures cry
in the back of the brain at the primary midnight hour,352 the feeling of a great axe
348
Wile, Art of the Bedchamber, 193, 203.
349
350
Zhang Zhenguo, Fanpu guizhen, 231.
351
Ma Jiren, Daojiao yu liandan, 144, citing Min Yide.
352
Ma Jiren, Daojiao yu liandan, 204, citing Wu Shouyang.
311
splitting the brain when the yang spirit exits the fontanel for the rst time ,353 or
psychic powers e.g., the six spirit pervasions, shentong , related to the Buddhist
abhij
. Adepts may use internal vision to watch colored qi cycle between their
viscera, or gaze upon the elixir cooking within the lesser caldron and furnace. They
may encounter celestial music, visions, and deities when the elixir is complete, or
temptations and obstructions created by marademons mozhang during the
process.354 The adept always relies on his feeling of intention. He may con rm these
dierent forms of evidence through the counsel of his fellows and master, and by
comparing them against the words of Cantong qi, Wuzhen pian, and latterday classics.
One case that combines several of these forms of evidence is the sexual
alchemists evaluation and gathering of the outer pharmacon. Sexual alchemists must
gather the outer pharmacon from the right kind of female partner, and at the correct
time. To do this, the sexual alchemist relies on outward physiological signs e.g.,
testing the vaginal
uids ,355 and temporal cycles the age of the partner, and the
timing of her qicycle or menstrual cycle , which are correlated with the lunar
hexagram cycle of the Twelve Sovereign Hexagrams. Immediately after gathering the
outer pharmacon and bonding it to his inner pharmacon, the sexual alchemist uses
intention and inner vision to guide the pharmaca through lesserorbital circulation
and into the caldron. Finally, all of these signs must be corroborated by the words of
teachers and alchemical classics, and the adepts own intuition, as part of a
hermeneutical circle of prior expectation and subsequent experience.
4.11, Inner alchemists do this . . . in order to create, gather, rene, crystallize, incubate,
purify, and sublimate elixirs within themselves.
There are many dierent descriptions
of inneralchemical elixirs within the literature. Usually there are several stages of
elixir within the system of a single teacher; as we have seen above, these systems vary
by teacher, and so will their descriptions of the elixirs. Even teachers whose systems
353
Ma Jiren, Daojiao yu liandan, 213, citing DZ 244, Dadan zhizhi.
354
Ma Jiren, Daojiao yu liandan, 22728. This is a common theme in inner alchemy and other forms of Daoism.
There is a long discussion of maras Lun monan in Zhong L chuandao ji, in DZ 263, Xiuzhen shishu
16.22b26b; translated in Wong, The Tao of Health, Longevity, and Immortality, 13541.
355
Wile, Art of the Bedchamber, 175, citing Jindan jieyao.
312
are similar may use dierent metaphors to describe the elixirs, and this variety of
metaphors may also be signicant.
The two most common terms for elixirs are waidan
outer elixir and
neidan
inner elixir. These terms are sometimes used to distinguish laboratory
alchemy
waidan from inner alchemy
neidan, but more often they refer not to two
forms of alchemy, but to two entities within inner alchemy, what I have been calling
the outer pharmacon
waiyao and inner pharmacon
neiyao.356 I prefer to call these
initial reagents pharmaca rather than elixirs, but generally the initial reagents
pharmaca are of one kind with the later elixirs.

In SouthernLineage alchemy and its heirs in the lateimperial period, the
sequence of reagents and elixirs begins with the amassing of essence/qi, leading to the
outer pharmacon
waiyao, waidan and inner pharmacon
neiyao, neidan; these are
rened together into the elixir
a.k.a. holy fetus, shengtai, which is rened further
into the yang spirit
no longer elixirlike, which returns to the Void or the heavens.
The situation is more complicated in ZhongL alchemy. In ZhongL teachings, the
inner elixir
neidan is an initial product, created through the inversion of the ve
agents between heart and kidneys
see pages 338 39 below, and the outer elixir
waidan is a more advanced product, involving combining corporeal

mercury
extracted from cinnabar with silver
extracted from black lead
see
page 344 below and rening them through lesser orbital circulation.357 This neidan
and waidan would also be called the lesser and greated recycled elixirs
xiao/da
huandan
respectively.358 Xiao Daocun
. 1260, a later inheritor of the
ZhongL tradition, speaks of seven types of elixirs: three important ones
elixir of
purple gold, zijin dan ; golden elixir, jindan ; and elixir of the dragon and
tiger, longhu dan , and four less important ones
elixirs of liver, heart, lungs,
and kidneys.359
356
Robinet, Sur le sens des termes waidan et neidan discusses the history and variations of these terms.
357
BaryosherChemouny, La qute de limmortalit en Chine, 98; BaldrianHussein, Inner Alchemy: Notes on the
Origin and Use of the Term Neidan, 186; BaldrianHussein, Procds secrets du joyau magique, 18 19.
358
Needham, Science and Civilisation in China, 5.5:77, citing DZ 150, Xiuzhen taiji hunyuan zhixuan tu.
359
BaryosherChemouny, La qute de limmortalit en Chine, 98; cf. DZ 149, Xiuzhen taiji hunyuan tu, by Xiao Daocun,
and DZ 150, Xiuzhen taiji hunyuan zhixuan tu.
313
Elixirs are often called golden elixirs

jindan or recycled elixirs
huandan.
As we saw on pages 230 32 above, these terms come from early laboratory alchemy:
jindan comes from mercurygold alchemy, and huandan was a term used within all
forms of laboratory alchemy. In inner alchemy, jindan, rather than meaning golden
elixir, usually means metallous elixir. This metal is the lead which comes from
water, correlated with agent metal born from agent water
cf. pages 336 38 below.
Huandan means an elixir that is produced through a cyclical process
huan, but also
an elixir that causes the alchemist to revert
huan to physiological youth, or to a pre
cosmic state. Recycling or reversion is an extended conceptual cluster in inner
alchemy
cf. page 322 below. The two types of huandan mentioned most often are
jadehumor recycled elixir
yuye huandan and goldhumor recycled elixir
jinye huandan . These always come as a pair, but their referents vary by
tradition and even within a tradition or a single text. The terms yuye huandan and
jinye huandan are much used within ZhongL texts; sometimes they refer to recycled
saliva, sometimes to the qi of certain viscera. I will not discuss this further, but only
note that jinye is always the more rened of the pair. In sexual alchemy, yuye refers to
the initial stage of tamping the base, when the adept amasses, renes, and controls
his sexual energy, and jinye refers to the stage of gathering the metal
yuanqi from
the female partner.360
Elixirs may be given dierent evocative descriptions. Beginning with the
Cantong qi if not before, elixirs were likened to milletgrains
shumi ,
broomcorn millet or to the dust dancing in the sunray of a window
mingchuang chen
.361 They were called or described as chicken eggs

jizi , tangerines
hongju , and all manner of pearls. Elixirs are called milletgrain pearls
shumi
zhu , precious pearls
baozhu , mystic pearls
xuanzhu , numinous
pearls
lingzhu , divine pearls
shenzhu , asyoulikeit pearls
ruyi zhu
, mani pearls
moni zhu or mouni zhu , a wishgranting pearl from
Indian Buddhist lore, nightglowing pearls
yeming zhu
, also from Buddhism,
360
I analyze Chen Zhixus possible uses of the terms yuye huandan and jinye huandan on pp. 549 50 below.
361
For shumi in Chen Zhixus writings, cf. Zhouyi Cantong qi fenzhang zhu, Daozang jiyao ed. 3.74b; for mingchuang
chen, cf. ibid., 1.35a. Also cf. Hao Qin, Longhu dandao, 25.
314
radiant pearls mingzhu & , barbarians pearls huzhu #& , seedpearls zizhu & ,
black pearls heizhu .& , red pearls chizhu & , and rosegem pearls qiongzhu 4
& . They are called
owing pearls liuzhu !& , i.e., drops of mercury; for the sexual
alchemist, this is the neiyao/seminal essence. And they are called lipearls lizhu 6& ,
alluding to the pearl found beneath the chin of the black dragon.362 This metaphor is
especially apt for sexual alchemy, where it would mean the neiyao within the male
adepts dragon.
Finally, the elixir may, of course, be mysticized. Some alchemists, such as Li
Daochun or Liu Yiming, say that re ning the elixir is after all just a metaphor for
cultivating the inherent nature xing .363
4.11.1, Inner alchemists . . . create . . . elixirs within themselves through gathering
the spark of pure yang qi left over from the time of cosmogenesis.
The yuanqi that an
alchemist nds and gathers is actually a bit of stu remaining from the time of
cosmogenesis. As Chen Zhixu says,
This is the method of the golden elixir: to plunder that one point of incipient qi
from before heaven and before earth, in order to re ne the recycled elixir.
,
3'-% /2364
This is also an anthropogonic stu, remaining from the time of anthropogenesis,
received from father and mother at the moment of conception:
Now, a human being is born possessing one point of precosmic perfected yang qi,
and is the most numinous of all creatures. This qi increases day by day; in its
powers of creation and transformation it is united with the primal chaos of

heaven and earth in io tempore.
0
3'-%"+5%1
)
$* 365
The moment of gathering caiqu ( is one of the most important stages of the
entire alchemical process, especially for sexual alchemists. The alchemist must gather
this cosmic stu carefully; it is often emphasized that he must gather it immediately,
but then again, it must be gathered at the proper moment when it is neither too stale
362
From Zhuangzi, chapter 32 Lie Yukou , H.Y. 32.44; in Watson, The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu, 360.
363
364
DZ 142, Ziyang Zhenren Wuzhen pian sanzhu 4.25a10b1.
365
315
nor too fresh. As the Wuzhen pian says, The lead is produced when it encounters gui
the yin phase of agent water , and you must hurriedly gather it
.366 For a solo cultivator, if the pharmacon is lost or the gathering is bungled, he
may simply try again. For a sexual alchemist, the moment of gathering is a time of
great anxiety mixed with sexual and emotional excitement, when the rst step
toward transcendence may be attained by gaining the outer pharmacon, or when he
may lose his own seminal essence, and with it, days or years of his lifespan.
This raises an interesting issue: is this one point of precosmic qi the outer
pharmacon or the inner pharmacon? For the sexual alchemist the one point of qi is
most certainly the outer pharmacon. But it may be the case that, for the solo
cultivator, the one point of qi is usually the inner pharmacon. Robinet has noticed
this as a point of dierence between Chen Zhixu and Li Daochun: for Chen it is the
outer pharmacon which is the cosmic stu, whereas for Li the outer pharmacon is the
gross and postcosmic three treasures i.e., seminal essence, respiratory qi and
cognitive spirit, and it is the inner pharmacon which is the one point of primal
yang.367 This jibes with the standard account of solo alchemical process discussed
above see pages 3012: according to the standard account, the outer pharmacon is
an initial and lessrened product, leading to the sacred inner pharmacon. Robinet is
puzzled by this contradiction between the accounts of Chen and Li, since she
believes that the teachings of these two authorities ought to be the same and that
both are solo cultivators. Her solution to the problem is to point out that, later in
the same text, Li resolves both outer and inner pharmaca into a single stage of the
process of cultivation.368 In the standard account, this would be stage two, the stage
of rening essence into qi. Robinet does not discuss alchemical cultivation on the
microcosmic register at all in this article, only alchemical discourse on the
mesocosmic register.
Yet this may be an important insight. For the study of inner alchemy to
progress, we must develop new tools for distinguishing between the discourses of
366
DZ 142, Ziyang Zhenren Wuzhen pian sanzhu 1.22a67.
367
Robinet, Sur le sens des termes waidan et neidan, 27, citing DZ 249, Zhonghe ji 2.4a6b, 3.25a, 3.28a.
368
Robinet, Sur le sens des termes waidan et neidan, 28, citing DZ 249, Zhonghe ji 2.6b7a.
316
laboratory alchemy, solo inner alchemy, and sexual inner alchemy as well as other
forms of alchemy that cannot be reduced to any of these categories, such as purely
cosmological alchemical discourse. Perhaps the concept of the one qi of primal yang
could help us in distinguishing solo from sexualalchemical discourse. Can we make
the generalization that solo alchemists invariably gain the one qi when they gather
the inner pharmacon, and that sexual alchemists gain it when they gather the outer?
This question is worth investigating further.
4.11.2, Inner alchemists . . . create . . . elixirs within themselves through . . .
inverting and uniting contrary principles.
Most forms of alchemy, in China and other
civilizations alike, aim at the union of opposites, what Carl Jung calls the coniunctio,
or Mircea Eliade calls coincidentia oppositorum.369 In China, this dyadic pair of
opposites will always be interpreted in terms of yin and yang. However, the union of
opposites in inner alchemy is not a simple union of pure yin
kun and pure yang
qian . Rather, it is a union of yangwithinyin

kan and yinwithinyang
li ,
the union of two opposites, each of which already harbors the germ of the other
within. On pages 33031 below, I discuss the question of why the inneralchemical
union of opposites is actually a union of alreadymediated opposites. In microcosmic
terms, some alchemists
from the ZhongL or other early traditions may represent
this union of opposites as the union of the hearts humor
xinye and the
kidneys qi, while sexual alchemists may view it as the union of male and female
sexual energies within the male in the form of the inner and outer pharmaca
cf.
pages 33941 for both. Note that this is an inverted union: the theme of inversion
links it to the rich conceptual complex of diandao
topsyturvy, which I discuss
on page 323 below.
rening essence into qi, qi into spirit, and spirit into void, as
I have discussed in section
4.9 above
on pages 299311.
rening the postnatal three treasures . . . into the prenatal three treasures.
369
Inner
Jung and Eliade view the conjunction of opposites as a universal feature of human psychic process
Jung, or of
the sacred
Eliade. I do not have space to introduce their ideas about conjunction here.
317
alchemists re ne seminal essence into primal essence, respiratory qi into primal qi,
and cognitive spirit into primal spirit. I have already introduced the concepts of qi
and spirit above.370 I have been alluding to jing essence, seminal essence and
yuanjing primal essence, sublimated sexual energy throughout, without a
detailed de nition yet. I will now de ne the two concepts jing and yuanjing together,
paraphrasing and developing Hao Qins words.371
Jing is the primal stu of life, promoting vitality, growth, and fertility, and
necessary for spiritual and sexual reproduction alike. In Chinese medicine, jing, in
the broad sense of the term, refers to the subtle substances that constitute corporeal
life, including semen, blood, and saliva; and jing in the narrow sense refers exclusively
to the essence of the kidneyorb, i.e., a mans semen and a womans qi and blood.
Inner alchemists develop and transform these medical concepts,
distinguishing between prenatal xiantian and postnatal houtian jing. Prenatal jing
is also called primal jing, perfect jing, and prenatal jing of utmost yang. We
common humans inherit this from our fathers semen and mothers blood, and it is
this yuanjing that determines the waxing and waning of our life, fertility, and
reproductive functions. For alchemists, this is the perfect pharmacon or utmost
pharmacon. Postnatal jing is also called turbid jing or reproductive jing, and is
what the physicians call jing of the ve viscera or kidney jing. We form our post
natal jing from water and grains; its function is to maintain life activity and organic
metabolism. Yuanjing is contained in the kidneys, and rooted in the lower dantian.
Postnatal jing is contained in the ve viscera, and rooted in the kidneys.
Inner alchemists regard yuanjing and postnatal jing as dierent manifestations
of a single underlying substance or reality, codependent and mutually promoting one
another. Postnatal jing is rooted in yuanjing, and yuanjing is nurtured by postnatal
jing. If a mans jing is stirred by sexual desire, and he ejaculates, the jing has become
postnatal jing; if it is not stirred by desire, and remains replete within the body, then
the jing retains its prenatal quality. The rst rule of cultivation is to avoid losing any
more postnatal jing through ejaculation or menstruation. Most Chinese would say
370
See pp. 23235, 25254.
371
Hao Qin, Longhu dandao, 18081. Also cf. Wile, Art of the Bedchamber, 2023.
318
that losing post

natal jing will make one sick and can lead one to an early death;
sexual cultivators such as Chen Zhixu would even say that the death of any person is
in fact caused by the loss of post
natal jing over the course of a lifetime.372
The solo alchemist begins his cultivation by rening post
natal jing into the
outer pharmacon of yuanjing. In the standard account, the yuanjing is closely related
to semen, but in Zhong
L teachings, jing also manifests as saliva the adept passes
the pharmacon across his upper Magpie Bridge in the form of saliva. The adept then
renes this yuanjing through lesser
orbital circulation to produce the inner
pharmacon of yuanqi primal qi. The sexual alchemist also begins by cultivating his
own yuanjing here called the inner pharmacon; he combines his yuanjing with the
female partners yuanqi the outer pharmacon, which is rooted in the womans post
natal jing menses or sexual uids.

Robinet takes highly
sublimated and mystical forms of alchemy e.g., in Li
Daochuns teachings as her paradigm for inner alchemy per se, and implicitly rejects
more physiological forms of alchemy e.g., in Zhong
L teachings as spiritually
second
rate. Thus, she emphasizes that the jing of the alchemists is not a
physiological entity, is not semen.373 According to Hao Qins explanation of jing,
Robinet is correct: seminal jing and yuanjing are two manifestations of a single
underlying reality. Yet, Hao continues, the yuanjing of the alchemists is inextricably
linked with semen. Robinet seems to be aware of this but loathe to acknowledge that
the subtle stu of alchemy is in fact indissociable from the corporeal body.374
Just as the alchemist renes post
natal jing into yuanjing, he may also rene
post
natal qi atmospheric air into yuanqi, and post
natal spirit cognitive spirit into
yuanshen. The rening of post
natal qi into yuanqi is less clearly evident within most
forms of inner alchemy than the rening of jing into yuanjing and shen into yuanshen.
Some early forms of inner alchemy do speak of ingesting atmospheric qi and turning
372
Cf. Wile, Art of the Bedchamber, 6: The Chinese noted that sexual potency declines with age. Thus, sexual energy
must be a nite quantum in the organism. Taking this reasoning one step further, the inner alchemists believed
that it is not age that causes sexual decline, but rather sexual mismanagement that causes aging.
373
374
She acknowledges it later in this section: Nevertheless . . . the light of the original jing uid cannot appear
without the light of the everyday jing. Robinet, Taoism: Growth of a Religion, 251, citing DZ 240, Qinghua miwen.
319
it into yuanqi.375 The cultivation of primal spirit out of ordinary mental activity is a
major goal of Quanzhen alchemists in particular. In general, we may say that the
creation of the yang spirit is equivalent to the transformation of post natal spirit into
yuanshen.
4.12, Inner alchemists do this . . . in order to . . . stimulate and enlighten the intellect.
As
I have discussed above, Robinet says that It is, in e ect, as a kan that neidan acts on
the spirit of the adept.376 Like Chan Buddhist masters, inner alchemical masters try
to induce mystical experiences in their disciples, not only by the ancient
physiological practices, but also by harnessing the mind to disentangle knotty
problems and break logjams.377 Knotty problems include paradoxes such as the
child gives birth to the mother er chan mu or zi sheng mu or the
mother hides within the womb of her child mu yin zitai . In one familiar
version of this paradox, teachers point out that Metal gives birth to Water and is its
mother . . . but Metal is also within Water.378 That is, according to the mutual
production sequence of the ve agents wuxing xiangsheng
, metal produces
water as when dew forms in a bronze mirror, yet according to alchemical process,
the yang primal qi i.e., metal comes from utmost yin i.e., water.379 So metal
produces water, and water produces metal.
Seemingly paradoxical statements are not always meant to be taken as
paradoxes, however. For example, when Chen Zhixu writes Although every family
possesses it, it is not owned by ones own family ,380
Chens meaning is that every household possesses the outer pharmacon within the
body of a wife or partner, and the male adept does not possess it himself in his own
375
Hao Qin, Longhu dandao, 224, discussing Zhong L texts. The standard account may also account for the
rening of qi into yuanqi in a roundabout way by saying that qi circulation during the stage of tamping the base
leads to the appearance of yuanjing, and since jing is after all a form of qi, this yuanjing is also yuanqi.
376
377
378
379
This reversed production sequence of the ve agents is called interlaced waxing of the ve agents wuxing
cuowang. See pp. 336
38 below.
380
The quote is from one of Chens comments in DZ 142, Ziyang zhenren Wuzhen pian sanzhu 1.10b9
10.
320
body. Chen means for the uninitiated to take this statement as a paradox, and the
initiated to take it as a simple truth. Here, paradoxical language is being used more
for rhetorical reasons for managing mastership, or contributing to the masters
authority than for intellectual or spiritual contemplation.
4.13, Inner alchemists do this . . . in order to . . . grasp the handle of cosmic
creation and transformation
wo zaohua zhi bing . Robinet writes that
interior alchemy . . . is above all a technique of enlightenment including a method of

controlling both the world and oneself and a means of fashioning zaohua and hence
understanding in the sense of an existential and intellectual integration.381
Elsewhere, Robinet has identi ed the sages ability to integrate himself with the
cosmos through understanding its transformations as a trope common throughout
Daoist texts, and even the Xici zhuan:
The interplay of the transformations of life is a process of alternation, the
balancing of forces, and the circulation of energies. When arriving at a terminal
point of development, each thing reverses itself into its opposite or otherwise
changes its form. . . .
Ordinary humans do not, however, . . . see what passesimperceptibly,
tenuously, and progressivelyfrom one form to another. Ordinary humans only
see the rupture in forms. Thus to grasp the changing unity and . . . to know the
bianhua of things is the hallmark of spiritual knowledge. As the Xici says, He
who knows the way of the bianhua knows how spirits operate. And a few
centuries later a commentary on the Duren jing states that knowing change bian
and knowing how
to transform oneself hua is to be ling spiritual or luminous;
it is also what one calls the Tao.382
By knowing the transformations of all things in Heaven and Earth, the sage can not
only predict the future, but achieve a state of harmony with the Dao.
Sivin describes laboratory alchemy in similar terms:
The dominant goal of Chinese alchemy was contemplative, even ecstatic. . . .
The alchemists constructed their intricate art, made the cycles of the cosmic
process accessible, and undertook to contemplate them because they believed
that to encompass the Tao with their minds . . . would make them one with it.383
This knowledge itself is salvi c: as Sivin says, to grasp the unchanging reality that
381
382
Robinet, Taoist Meditation, 15455, citing Yijing, Xici zhuan, 1.9.10 Rutt, The Book of Changes Zhouyi, 416,
and DZ 87, Yuanshi wuliang duren shangpin miaojing sizhu 1.1b.
383
321
underlies the chaos of experience is to rise above that chaos, to be freed at least for
the moment from the limits of personal mortality. This is none other than the thirst
for the real, the sacred, the presence of the gods, the origin, or the ground of reality,
felt by Eliades homo religiosus.384
Just as laboratory alchemists aim not only to ingest an elixir, but to touch the
Dao by contemplating the transformations of the elixir during the alchemical
processes, the inner alchemists aim not only to create and ingest internal elixirs, but
to touch the Dao by grasping the handle of zaohua. On pages 3236 above, I termed
these two aims primary salvation and secondary salvic eects.
4.14, Inner alchemists do this . . . in order to . . . reverse cosmogonic devolution,
and return from a postcosmic state to a precosmic state, or from postnatal
deterioration to prenatal wholeness.
There is a mythic narrative sometimes found in
inner alchemical texts385 in which the male human being falls from a state of youthful
perfection that is, a state of pure yang into degeneration, old age, and, nally, death
a state of pure yin . This fall is caused by the loss of the seminal essence, through
ejaculation, over the course of a lifetime. This fall from yang to yin corresponds to
the macrocosmic cosmogony, the unfolding of the cosmos from a holy and nondual
state of primal undierentiation into the profane and heterogeneous disorder we see
in the world around us. The aim of the alchemist is to reverse this cosmogony, which
is also a microcosmic anthropogony, and return to a state of primal unity, by
regaining the energy he lost. Alchemists symbolize this process of loss and
redemption using four trigrams from the Book of Changes, qian and kun , kan
and li . Qian symbolizes the pureyang body of the preadolescent male. With
the sexuality of puberty, the central yang line within the trigram qian is lost, and
becomes lodged within kun , to make kan . This leaves the depleted male as li ,
that is, yang on the outside but hollow yin within. The goal of the alchemist is to
recover the central yang line from its lodging place within kan, to replace it within his
li, and to turn this li back into a state of immortal, pureyang qian. This is primal
384
E.g., Eliade, The Sacred and the Profane, 80.
385
This seems to be especially common in sexual alchemy or sexual cultivation. I discuss Chen Zhixus tellings of
this saga of devolution and redemption on pages 43539 chap. 5, 3.0.2 .
322
state is both precosmic precosmogonic and prenatal preanthropogonic.

4.15, Inner alchemists do this . . . in order to . . . ow backwards against the life
current of the natural man which leads toward death.
Of the many dyads in inner
alchemical thought, one of the most important is shun going with the
ow and ni
going against the
ow, widdershins. Ni and other terms such as diandao
upsidedown, topsyturvy, inverted, huan
recycling, and fan reversion form a
conceptual complex that alchemists apply to such themes as
1 the reversal of cosmogonic devolution,
2 the reversal of the anthropogonic fall toward old age and death,
3 the inversion of yin and yang,
4 the inversion of water and re or kidneys qi and hearts
uid,
5 the inversion of the ve agents,
6 the inverted relation between child and mother with child spawning mother,
7 lesserorbital circulation as an inversion,
8 recycling the seminal essence to replenish the brain huanjing bunao,
9 or otherwise using sexual energies for personal transcendence ni ze chengxian
rather than procreation shun ze shengren ,
and even 10 the inverted position of male and female partners in sexual alchemy!
Robinet would also add the inner alchemists transgression of the laws of logic,
language, and ordinary life, through their discourse, as a form of ni or diandao.386 The
terms ni or diandao may encompass any of these themes, and alchemists fully exploit
these conceptual links in their rhetoric. Whereas the common man follows the
natural
ow, a downhill slide toward old age and death, the adept travels against the
current of cosmogonic and anthropogonic devolution, back to the state of primal
perfection. This idea gave alchemists an excuse to resist social norms and clan
responsibilities, and allowed them to feel and represent themselves as special,
superior to the common man. Inversion and reversal can be polemical concepts.
While we usually think of Daoism as teaching naturalness, the inner
alchemical concept of the nature is nature in its primal and unspoiled form, not the
fallen nature of adult humanity. Regaining this unspoiled nature may require acting
unnaturally with respect to norms or concepts of this world.
4.16, Inner alchemists do this . . . in order to . . . return to a state of youth and
health.
386
Inner alchemists take radiant youth and health, with white hair reverting to
323
black, and the teeth that have fallen out growing anew , as an
initial goal. This is a common trope in medieval Daoism e.g., in early Lingbao texts
such as Duren jing. Inner alchemists repeat these words, but with their own
interpretation: teeth and hair belong to the kidneyorb, so healthy teeth and hair are
signs that ones essence is full, and one is ready to produce the pharmacon. Some
texts also mention radiant health as a byproduct of the successful completion of the
elixir.387
4.17, Inner alchemists do this . . . in order to . . . escape from the round of birth
and death sasra.
While the round of birth and death lunhui

, shengsi is
a Buddhist concept from India, by the Song dynasty it had become a commonplace
within inner alchemical discourse. Inner alchemists believe that, whereas the
common man wanders through rebirth after rebirth, bueted by the forces of karma,
the alchemist is in control of his own destiny, working toward perfection, apotheosis,
and immortality.
4.18, Inner alchemists do this . . . in order to . . . perfect their inherent nature
xing and life endowment ming.
As discussed above, the dyad of xing and ming is
another register by which inner alchemists understand their practice. Xing is the
abstract essence of mind and spirit, and ming is the abstract essence of physical
vitality. Both xing and ming can come in postnatal and prenatal forms. Postnatal
xing is the passions of the mortal mind, while prenatal xing is the nature humans
share with the Dao; postnatal ming is an individuals limited lifespan, while prenatal
ming is the bodys quantum of pure yang remaining from before the cosmogony. Inner
alchemists cultivate mind and spirit with the goal of replacing their postnatal with
prenatal xing, and cultivate essence and qi with the goal of replacing their postnatal
with prenatal ming. The adepts goal is to complete xing and ming liao xingming
, that is, to merge them into a single entity and transcend them.388
4.19, Inner alchemists do this . . . in order to . . . give birth to a new inner self, or
387
Huiming jing, j. 10, 38a1 Zangwai daoshu ed..
388
Pregadio and Skar, Inner Alchemy Neidan, 486, citing Robinet, Introduction lalchimie intrieure taoste, 165
95, and Despeux, Immorte es de la Chine ancienne, 22327.
324
spirit of pure yang.
In most teachings, the highest goal389 that an alchemist may
attain through alchemical practice is to produce a viable spirit body, called the yang
spirit yangshen
, which is able to live forever in the Heavens as a celestial
transcendent, tianxian
, or in the Dao. The creation of the yang spirit is the
alchemists goal throughout the process of transforming essence into qi and qi into
spirit. Also, as discussed above, the creation of the yang spirit may be understood as
the transformation of the postnatal cognitive spirit or desiring spirit
into pre
natal primal spirit yuanshen
. And, as discussed below, the creation of the spirit of
pure yang may be understood as the transformation of li into qian . The yang
spirit is also called a body beyond the body shenwai youshen

. Sometimes
this creation of the yang spirit is described, not as the creation of a single being, but
of multiple sons, each of which produces multiple grandsons, in uncountable
myriads of transformations
. This process may even be
depicted in a sort of tree diagram, with the adept producing ve spirits, and these
ve each producing another ve spirits.390
The concepts of primal spirit and yang spirit overlap, but primal spirit is a
broader category. Primal spirit is an important concept throughout the entire
alchemical process, while the yang spirit only appears in the nal stage of that
process. The primal spirit is at once an object the material on which the alchemist
works
and a subject an agent and an aspect of the alchemists self
, while the yang
spirit is always described as an object, like a child whom one must carefully train. The
yang spirit, when ultimately complete and fully trained to leave the body, must
represent the alchemists new me, rather than a sort of alchemical ospring that
would survive after the death of the alchemist as a subject. There must be a point in
the process at which the yang spirit would switch from child to me, yet I do not
know how alchemists would imagine this switch to take place. Also, I have never
389
In texts such as ZhongL chuandao ji, in addition to the goal of becoming a celestial transcendent, there may
also be other, less ambitious, goals, such as living forever among people as a merely undying human
transcendent renxian
, or in the mountains as a powerful earthly transcendent dixian
. This
tripartite hierarchy of goals looks like the Three Vehicles of Mahyna Buddhism, but actually it has preBuddhist
roots: the terms occur in Baopuzi neipian for example Ware, Alchemy, Medicine, and Religion, 4748
.
390
Cf. Huashen wuwu tu , in Xingming guizhi, section, n.p., in Zangwai daoshu, 9:589. Also, DZ
235, Danjing jilun 9a710.
325
seen any alchemical writing that would answer such questions. We might expect
alchemical writers to attend to such an issue, but perhaps they did not.391
4.20, Inner alchemists . . . seek immortality or transcendence in the heavens and/
or union with the Dao.
Sometimes inner alchemists describe their nal goal as entry
into the ranks of transcendents in the heavens; sometimes they describe their goal as
yu Dao hezhen #" , which could be translated uniting with the Dao in
perfection, or uniting my perfection with the Daos perfection. Union with the
Dao would be a state beyond all limitations of time unlimited by lifespan or kalpic
cycles
, space roaming throughout earth and the heavens
, or form not limited to
unitary bodily form
.392 One might imagine such a state to be beyond individuality or
personality, but I have never seen this sort of statement. Union with the Dao is not
envisaged or not emphasized
as a loss of personal identity. Other terms for the Dao
include the One, the Limitless Wuji
, or voidnonbeing xuwu
.393
Alchemists may also describe this state using Buddhist language. Li Xiyue describes
this state as great nonbeing, as empty yet beyond simple emptiness,394 as utterly
and constantly quiescent, as great detachment chaotuo
, great liberation and
enlightenment jiewu !
, great purity qingjing
, and perfect enlightenment
yuanjue '
.395
Do some alchemists seek to join the ranks of the celestial transcendents? Do
some seek to unite with the Dao? Are these two goals distinct? Or are they
391
Further work on this question perhaps should begin with the idea that human beings speak of themselves as a
single subject with multiple selves; Steven Bokenkamp, What Daoist Body? citing the work of George
Lako and Mark Johnson
.
392
Some inner alchemists do explicitly aim to produce a mutable body that can live forever, transcending the
kalpic cycles of macrocosmic destruction and cosmogony. As Wang Daoyuan says, When one completes ones
life endowment, one will live forever. This body will pass through the kalpas without decaying, able to take on
various forms, transforming itself wherever it goes
%&($
DZ 1074, Huanzhen ji 2.5b910, cited in Li Yuanguo, Daojiao qigong yangsheng xue, 500
.
393
A Daoist philosopher might object to equating Dao directly with the One or Wuji, saying that the other
entities ought to be seen only as secondary manifestations of the Dao, but alchemical discourse is more poetic
than it is philosophically rigorous.
394
Viewing emptiness as empty? is itself empty, yet there is nothing empty about emptiness. While
that
which is viewed as empty
is nonexistent, regarding nonexistence as nonexistent is itself nonexistent )
. This discourse derives from Tangdynasty DoubleMystery texts,
which draw on Mah y na Perfection of Wisdom literature.
395
Li Yuanguo, Daojiao qigong yangsheng xue, 533, citing Li Xiyues Wugen shu ci zhujie.
326
equivalent? My answer to all of these questions is Yes. This is a complex issue.

Some scholars assert that the goal of inner alchemy is union with the Dao, and not
personal transcendenthood. Robinet takes such a position:
The ultimate goal is no longer illustrated and incarnated by the somewhat
fantastic image of the Saint. References to this gure in interior alchemy texts are
rare, abbreviated, and scattered. As we shall see below, Wang Zhe denied that
such operations can result in bodily immortality, and his disciple Qiu Chuji told
Genghis Khan that the elixir of immortality does not exist. The ultimate truth is
the unity between the Tao and the world
see, e.g., DZ 1067, 8.5b 6a and the Tao
and the xin
human spirit.396
Robinet has written much about the gure of the saint
her generic term for
zhenren , xianren , shengren
in early medieval Daoism.397 If she means,
in the passage above, that inneralchemical texts devote less space to inspired literary
depictions of the celestial perfected than Shangqing texts do, then I would agree
with this claim. But if she means that transcendenthood is not an important goal
within inner alchemy, this would be an eccentric position. In fact, transcendents are
very important within alchemical discourse, mythology, lineage, and imagination.
Skar notes that we see a new type of transcendent in inneralchemical traditions:
These new traditions claimed their origins from a new type of supralocal
transcendent being who resembled the cultivated gentlemen he sought to attract.398
Zhongli Quan , L Dongbin , Liu Haichan , and Zhang Sanfeng
are examples of this new type of being.399 These patrilineal structures
stressed transcendents literate and sacred learning rather than their place in an
otherworldly bureaucracy, and matched parallel eorts of gentry to situate
themselves in local society.400 The gure of the transcendent is central within the
mythology of the inner alchemists, and alchemists also hoped to meet such gures in
this world, and, eventually, to become like them.
If transcendenthood and union with the Dao are both potential goals of
396
Robinet, Taoism: Growth of a Religion, 219. I address Robinets citation of DZ 1067, Shangyangzi jindan daoyao, in
chapter 5, 1.
397
E.g., Robinet, Taoist Meditation, 42 48.
398
399
400
327
alchemical practice, how do alchemists choose between these goals, or integrate

them? Komjathy notes this duality of goals within the early Quanzhen movement
which overlaps broadly with inneralchemical tradition, and oers an explanation:
At rst glance, it appears that there are competing, even contradictory, views
concerning immortality and perfection within the early Quanzhen movement. At
times, the early Quanzhen adepts seem to suggest that religious praxis results in a
state of mystical absorption, wherein one becomes permeated by the Dao and
lives in carefree bliss. At other times, it seems that immortality is understood as
involving transcending the mundane world and the physical body. After death,
ones yangspirit, or the bodybeyondthebody, enters the ranks of immortals.
Beyond dismissing the early Quanzhen adepts as unsystematic or
confused, there are a number of ways to make sense of these seemingly
contradictory views. From my perspective and based on my research, the most
viable interpretation is that in dierent contexts the early adepts are discussing
dierent aspects of selftransformation. . . . In certain instances they are
attempting to characterize . . . the transformed existential mode, which results
from Quanzhen training regimens. . . . This is often experienced as a feeling of
mystical communion with the Dao . . . At other times, the early adepts are
emphasizing what is believed to occur after physical death . . .401
This is the right sort of answer to such questions: these writers use dierent
concepts or modes of discourse within dierent contexts, and the better we
understand these contexts, the better we will understand their thought and practice.
While these two perspectivesthe transcendentoriented and the Dao
orientedare both found within inner alchemy, they have separate origins in early
Chinese culture. As Skar points out, During Warring States times, two main models
emerged for selfcultivation, one based on manipulating qi in order to embody the
cosmic Way, and another based on interacting with spirits who are agents in a
bureaucratized pantheon.402 These were once competing perspectives,403 but in
Daoism of the midmedieval period they are frequently combined.
5, Symbolic Elements
5.0, Inner alchemy . . . uses symbolic terms drawn from 1 the Book of Changes Yijing,
2 the cosmology of yinyang and the ve agents, 3 the numerology of the River Chart
401
Komjathy, Cultivating Perfection, 283.
402
403
Puett, To Become a God.
328
Hetu , and 4 other systems.
The symbolic registers of trihexagrams, yinyang
veagent cosmology, and RiverChart numerology are especially important404 within

inner alchemy, from both etic and emic perspectives. From an outsiders point of
view, these symbolic registers are a hallmark of inner alchemy, distinguishing it from
other forms of Daoist or nonDaoist practice. Robinet writes that the joining of
trigrams and chemical terms is the distinctive element that distinguishes interior
alchemy from the ancient breathing exercises.405 Extrapolating from Robinets
informal statement into a formal denition, we could call inner alchemy a
reinterpretation and development of fetal respiration taixi , using laboratory
alchemy for a few general metaphors, and the trigrams plus the hexagrams and other
registers for its symbolic language. Of course, these symbolic registers do not
constitute the entirety of the inner alchemists language, but they are the alchemists
most important linguistic resource. Inner alchemists reliance on these symbolic
registers are more than just a convenient marker for a denition of inner alchemy,
however: the adepts symbolic manipulation is an integral part of their practice, or is
even a form of practice itself. As Robinet says, much like Chan Buddhists practicing
with kans, alchemists achieve a sort of enlightenment that inheres within language
itself rather than existing outside of language. Just as the earlier alchemists
contemplation of chemical reactions within the laboratory was itself a form of
salvic practice, inneralchemical oral and written discourse is also a practice in itself,
and aimed at salvation on page 439 below, I call this discursive practice a secondary
salvic eect . While adepts would not agree with this outsiders view that their
alchemical practice is, to a certain extent, just symbolic manipulation,406 they would
agree that the symbolic registers are especially important within inner alchemy.
5.1, In symbolic terms, the inner alchemists goal is to unite contrary principles
i.e., yin and yang, especially in their mixed forms of yangwithinyin and yinwithin
yang in order to recover a state of perfection, described in terms such as pure yang, the
404
These symbolic registers are also important within other forms of Daoism, but to a lesser degree. Saso, What
Is the Hotu? mentions some uses of the River Chart and Luo Writ within past and present Daoist ritual.
405
406
Adepts would not agree that they are aiming for an enlightenment inhering within languagethey would say
that they are aiming for real immortality in the heavens or in the Dao what I call primary salvation .
329
One, Taiji the Great Ultimate, or Wuji the Limitless.
The union of opposites in inner
alchemy is not a simple union of pure yin kun and pure yang qian ; rather, it is
a union of yangwithinyin kan and yinwithinyang li .
Why is the inneralchemical union of opposites actually a union of already
mediated opposites? Robinet sees therein an underlying idea that there must be an
impurity within each of the two contrary principles that will serve as a motivating
force for their rejoining.407
Another reason is that the inner alchemists are aiming at two goals at once:
the union of yin and yang, and the attainment of pure yang. Life belongs to the
category of yang, and death to the category of yin; alchemists often understand
their goal as longevity in this world or the heavens, and represent this in symbolic
terms as the attainment of pure yang. If they were simply to unite qian and kun, this
would produce the trigrams kan and li as a result. Kan and li represent the mixed,
fallen, postcosmic, postnatal, mortal state, not the pure state that alchemists have
as their goal. The pureyang state of union must come from the union of mixed
contrary principles.
This is sort of yinyang wholeness which somehow is yet yang is found as an
ideal in other, unrelated cultures as well. Many cultures have a myth of a primal
androgyne who was sundered to create the human race as we know it with male and
female sexes, and may also have a myth, fantasy, or soteriological goal of rejoining of
the male and female halves to reform the primal androgyne.408 However, this primal
androgyne, while being both male and female, is often also somehow male! Jerey
Kripal uses the term male androgyny for this phenomenon:
readings of androgyny as expressing a kind of spiritual wholeness or gender
balance . . . capture part . . . of the truth, but they need to be deepened and
qualied . . . Recent scholarship . . . has demonstrated that androgyny is often
actually a kind of male androgyny that admittedly includes but does not grant
equal semiotic weight to the feminine . . .
One also thinks of . . . Daoist sexual yoga: . . . even though heterosexual
intercourse was used by Daoists to reconstitute the primordial androgyny of the
dao as yin and yang, its primary purpose was to allow the male practitioner to
407
408
The most famous example of such a legend is in Plato, Symposium 189c193e.
330
steal the mysticoerotic energies of the woman in order to reconstitute that

unity in himself.409
This goal of male androgyny is not unique to sexual alchemy of course: it is the goal
of all forms of inner alchemy, and is found in other traditions and cultures as well. As
Ge Guolong notes, while one would think we could call the precosmic unity of yin
and yang either Pure Yang or Pure Yin, the inner alchemists are not philosophically
consistent. Because yang is good relative to yin, the good primal stu can only be
called yang.410 Daoism does possess the concept of a primal state of union of yin
and yang, the Taiji . While the Taiji symbol itself with its twin commas or
sh may be a Songdynasty invention, the concept of Taiji, the state in which yin
and yang are rst emerging yet still not separate, is ancient. Inner alchemists do
sometimes use the yinyangneutral concept of Taijior other concepts of entities
which precede any appearance of yin and yang, such as Wuji , the One, or the
Daoto describe their goal, but most often, they describe their goal as pure yang.
The One, for example, is usually envisioned as the One Qi, which for them is
yang. The alchemists asymmetrical view of yin and yang may have general social
eects. Sangren notes that, by marking the cosmic whole as yang, and correlating it
with order and orthodoxy, Chinese folk ideology perpetuates orthodoxy as a value.411
The yangyin hierarchy in folk ideology may also perpetuate a malefemale hierarchy
in the social realm. One wonders how the inner alchemists inordinate emphasis on
the priority of yang over yin might be related to a priority of men over women in
actual social relations.
5.2.1, According to trihexagram symbolism, the union of yin and yang involves reversing
the course of cosmogonic devolution leading from the trigram qian pure yang; to the
trigram kun pure yin; . . .
The inner alchemists quest for salvation is based on an
underlying myth of anthropocosmic fall and redemption, the fall of the human being
from a state of youthful perfection that is, a state of pure yang into degeneration,
409
Kripal, Sexuality: An Overview Further Considerations

, 12:8243b. Kripals characterization of Daoist
sexual yoga is accurate for all but the earliest and most recent forms of sexual cultivation. I oer a general
picture of sexual alchemy in chapter 5 that con rms this account.
410
411
Sangren, Orthodoxy, Heterodoxy, and the Structure of Value in Chinese Rituals.
331
old age, and, nally, death a state of pure yin. For the male, this fall is caused by the
loss of the seminal essence through ejaculation over the course of a lifetime. In terms
of the trigrams, qian symbolizes the pureyang body of the preadolescent male.
With the sexuality of puberty, the central yang line within the trigram qian is lost,
and becomes lodged within kun , to make kan . This leaves the depleted male as li
, that is, yang on the outside but hollow yin within. If he does nothing, he will lose
even the outside yang, and end up as kun, completely yin, and dead.
5.2.2, . . . by wedding the trigrams kan yangwithinyin; and li yin within
yang; , extracting the single central yaoline of perfected yang from the trigram kan
and applying it to the brokenyang trigram li , repairing it by replacing its
single central line of yin with a line of yang . . .
The adept aims to remake qian by
reversing the path of qians depletion. Just as qian lost its central yaoline to kun,
and the two transformed into li and kan respectively, the adept aims to remake qian
by taking the central yang yaoline of kan and placing it within li.
What does this really mean, though? The meanings of this narrative of qian,
kun, kan, and li dier according to the register on which we view it. On the
macrocosmic level, it represents the cycles of cosmic time: dayandnight, the lunar
cycle, or the year. On the microcosmic level, it represents cycles of human time,
especially, the lifespan of an individual. On the mesocosmic register, this narrative of
qian, kun, kan, and li is a story of the interaction of images xiang , following their
own law.
Adepts from dierent traditions may interpret this narrative dierently, even
within the same register. If we look, for example, at correlations between the
mesocosmic register of signs and the microcosmic register of body, mind, and
spirit, we may see solo practitioners correlate
1 the extraction of the yang yaoline from kan with
2 the gathering of primal essence yuanjing from the adepts kidneys or lower
dantian; and
3 the replacement of the yang yaoline within li with
4 the perfection of the primal qi yuanqi of the heart or middle dantian.
Sexual alchemists, however, correlate
1 the extraction of the yang yaoline from kan with
332
2 the gathering of the female partners yuanqi;

and
3 the replacement of the yang yaoline within li with
4 the repair of the lifeenergies of the male body as a whole.
For the sexual alchemist, kan symbolizes the womans sexual and metaphysical
water the outer yaolines of kan are yin , containing primal qi the central yaoline
of kan is yang . Li is the hollow body of the adult male, yang on the outside, but
containing the mercurial yin essence within, so slippery and liable to
ow away and
be lost through ejaculation.
Yet when one reads inneralchemical literature, especially texts from before
the Ming dynasty, one often gets the sense that the saga of the trigrams can also
stand on its own, without reference to the microcosmic register of body, mind, and
spirits . Robinet explains this sort of free
oating trigramdiscourse as linguistic
play. She argues that inneralchemical explanations do not aim at explaining i.e., do
not oer causal explanations in terms of an underlying psychophysiological
register , but rather aim only at showing operations and applications of the symbolic
system.412 To this I would add a second explanation for the seeming independence of
trigramdiscourse from macrocosmic or microcosmic meanings: it is the central myth
of alchemical religion, a myth of fall and redemption, which is the teacher reenacts
with each retelling. I mention this alchemical myth again on pages 43539 below.
5.2.3, . . . relying on agent earth as an intermediary, in the doubled form of wu
earth and jiearth, . . .
Inneralchemical process requires a catalyst; in the mesocosmic
eld of abstract signs, the catalyst is agent earth, the central member of the ve
agents. In the narrative of qian, kun, kan, and li, the catalytic agent earth is redoubled
into the yang wuearth wutu and the yin jiearth jitu . The wu and ji
earths are the central yaolines of kan and li in their mediating function. That is, kan
and li yearn to rejoin one another, and their points of contact and exchange are their
central yaolines; the wuearth is the yang yaoline of kan, insofar as it yearns to return
to li and to remake li into qian ; and the jiearth is the yin yaoline of li, insofar as it
yearns to return to kan and to remake kan into kun .
Alchemists may also write as if the joining of the wu and jiearths is a goal in
412
333
itself, rather than just one aspect of the remaking of li into qian. For example, inner
alchemists may take the term daogui lit., spatula; i.e., a spatulaful of elixir, a
term from laboratory alchemy, and interpret the character gui as a cover term for
the union of the two earths + = . This sort of kenning or serious punning is
called cezi plumbing a character.
In the mesocosmic eld of abstract signs, it is agent earth which catalyzes the
reaction of kan and li to remake qian. In the microcosmic eld of mind or spirit,
agent earth is correlated with guiding intention yi , and in the microcosmic eld
of the subtle body, earth is correlated with the Yellow Court, or with the Spleen
Palace Pigong and its energies. It is intention which catalyzes the reaction of
the outer and inner pharmaca to make the elixir; some alchemists may also say that
the reaction occurs in the Yellow Court, or through the work of the spleenorb.
As for the interpretations of the wu and jiearths, as distinct from agent
earth en simple, solo alchemists may correlate both with guiding intention yi ; or,
they may correlate the yin jiearth with the cognitive spirit shishen , and the
yang wuearth with the primal spirit yuanshen .413 Sexual alchemists instead
interpret the wu and jiearths as the sexual energies,414 or the sex organs, of the
female and male partners, respectively. Since the sex organs within sexual alchemy are
practical, powerful, and dangerous, clamoring for the alchemists sublimation
throughinterpretation, while the cognitive and primal spirits in solo alchemy are
vague, and perhaps even completely theoretical and not practical concepts at all, it is
not surprising that the wu and jiearths gure more prominently within sexual
alchemy than within solo alchemy. The solo alchemists from the late imperial period
who interpret wu and jiearths as cognitive and primal spirits probably do so in
reaction to, or as complementary to, the sexual interpretation.
5.2.4, . . . to remake the trigram qian pure yang; .
This corresponds on the
microcosmic register to the wondrous perfection of both physical body and spirit
xingshen jumiao and rebirth as a perfected yang spirit. On the
413
Hu Fuchen, Zhonghua daojiao da cidian, s.v. liuwu jiuji

, 1260, citing only Ming and Qingdynasty
texts.
414
Wile, Art of the Bedchamber, 32, citing Jindan zhenchuan.
334
macrocosmic register it corresponds to the unmaking of cosmogony.

5.3.1, According to veagent symbolism, the union of yin and yang involves reversing the
cosmogonic expansion and devolution from Taiji to the ve agents, and then to the myriad
existents . . .
Figure 4.10 below, Qiu Zhaoaos lateimperial version of the famous
Wuji tu ascribed to Chen Tuan,415 shows two paths: the path of following the current
shun, and the path of advancing against the current ni. The natural course of the
cosmos or the human being follows the current, owing downward from top to
bottom. The cosmos and human being develops out of the Limitless Wuji, topmost
circle, into a state with yin and yang yet intertwined Taiji, circle #2, expanding into
the ve agents circle #3, and nally into qian and kun or man and woman circle
#4, and the myriad existents bottommost circle.
Fig. 4.10, Forward and reverse cosmogonies416

415
Chen Tuans original Wuji tu is lost, but survives in the descriptions of Huang Zongyan and Zhu Yizun p.
305n331 above.
416
Figure 4.10 comes from Qiu Zhaoaos Guben Zhouyi Cantong qi jizhu, reproduced in Zhijizi and Putuanzi, Can
Wu jizhu, 38889.
335
5.3.2, . . . by condensing the ve agents together into three, and then into one: . . .
Beginning in this natural and fallen state, the adept advances against the current,
forging upward against gravity, as it were. Making use of both being and nonbeing
you and wu , the two circles on the bottom ,417 the adept unites the qi of the
ve agents in the Central Palace Zhonggong ; square #3 , then unites the three
the three
owers; circle #2 and the two kan and li; also circle #2 , and returns to
the One the Dao; topmost circle . Circles two and one also correlate with the
joining of primal essence and primal qi to make primal spirit. Moving backward
against the current, the adept reverses cosmogony and anthropogony by condensing
the myriad existents into the ve agents, then condensing the ve agents into three,
the three into one, and returning to primal chaos hundun
and the Dao.
We may say that Chinese alchemy in general is a dao of condensing cuancu
zhi dao . Alchemistsinner alchemists and laboratory alchemists alike
condense space and time, capturing macrocosmic zaohua creation and
transformation within the microcosm of the caldron or body, or reducing the cycle
of a year into a month, a month into a day, a day into a doublehour, and nally all
into a mere tick ke ; a notch on the waterclock of thirty minutes.418 The concept
of condensing the ve agents cuancu wuxing may be discerned within the
Cantong qi, though the term does not appear there.419
5.3.2.1.1.1, . . . uniting the ve agents symbolically through condensing the ve . . .
into one elixir . . . in terms of abstract mesocosmic signs, by turning the ve agents
upsidedown, . . .
The ve agents are condensed by reversing the usual sequence of
the ve agents: this is called wuxing diandao turning the ve agents upside
down or wuxing cuowang the interlaced waxing of the ve agents . As I
discuss above on page 261, standard Chinese veagent cosmology includes several
417
For Qiu Zhaoao, the author of this version of the Taiji tu, being would correlate with sexual alchemy, and
nonbeing would correlate with formless mental cultivation. Chen Zhixu would agree. As I show on page 632
below, Qiu Zhaoao is an indirect heir of Chens teachings.
418
Sivin, Chinese Alchemy and the Manipulation of Time; Li Yuanguo, Daojiao qigong yangsheng xue, 161; Robinet,
Introduction lalchimie intrieure taoste, 100.
419
Zeng Chuanhui, Yuandai Cantong xue, 201. Zeng lists a locus classicus of the term cuancu in Ruyao jing , in
the line condense the ve agents, and cause the eight trigrams to meet , but the version of
Ruyao jing with this line can be traced back only as early as 1260 cf. F. BaldrianHusseins entry for DZ 135,
Cuigong ruyao jing zhujie, in Schipper and Verellen, The Taoist Canon, 2:844 .
336
general sequences of the ve agents, including the cosmogonic order, the mutual
production order xiangsheng
, and the mutual conquest order xiangsheng "
or xiangke
. The alchemists wuxing diandao corresponds to none of these
standard sequences, but rather involves the reversed relations of metal to water, and
wood to re. According to the mutual production order, metal produces water, and
wood produces re, but according to the wuxing cuowang sequence, it is water which
produces metal, and re which produces wood. The term wuxing cuowang comes
from a line in Cantong qi: The ve agents wax in an interlaced fashion, depending on
one another for production '&. Yu Yan interprets this line as
follows:
When metal produces water, and wood produces re, this is the normal
ow of
the ve agents, according to the constant Dao. But now, if we are speaking in
alchemical terms, wood and re are mates, and contrary to the normal
ow, re
produces wood. Metal and water dwell in union, and contrary to the normal
ow, water produces metal. This it is said, The ve agents wax in an interlaced

fashion, depending on one another for production.
$#
%
%! '&420
Water produces metal, and re produces woodthis is an inneralchemical
commonplace, yet concrete applications of the principle di er by tradition. Solo
alchemists may correlate water producing metal with kidneys or lower dantian
producing primal qi i.e., the generation of yang from yin

; and they may correlate
re producing wood with heart producing humors ye
or middle dantian
producing primal spirit421 i.e., the generation of yin from yang

. Sexual alchemists
may correlate wuxing diandao with the production of primal qi metal
by the female
partner in conjunction with her sexual or menstrual
uids water
, or the production
of seminal essence mercury, wood
by the male adept who is yang, i.e., ery
.422
More often, though, alchemical texts do not openly o er concrete
applications, only a maze of symbols, as in this typical passage by Weng Baoguang:
420
DZ 1005, Zhouyi Cantong qi fahui, by Yu Yan, 7.5a610. This passage in DZ 1005 is discussed in Li Yuanguo,
Daojiao qigong yangsheng xue, 1617; Hu Fuchen, Zhonghua daojiao da cidian, s.v. wuxing cuowang ', 1245;
421
Zhang Wenjiang and Chang Jin, Zhonuo chuantong qigong xue cidian, s.v. huozhong mu , 201.
422
The correlation of agent re with the alchemists male gender is tentative.
337
Cardinalred granulated cinnabar belongs to the category of re, and re is li.
When mercury which is correlated with wood emerges from granulated
cinnabar , this is, contrary to expectations, re producing wood. Therefore we
say the child gives birth to the mother. . . . Black lead belongs to the category
of water, and water is kan. When silver which is correlated with metal emerges
from lead, this is, contrary to expectations, water producing metal. Therefore we
say the child gives birth to the mother.
(8'6( #&!*%-01
8 '31 #& !*"%-423
Weng rejects a ZhongLstyle application of these abstract signs:
Latterday folks take the qi and humor of heart and kidneys as the dragon and
tiger or lead and mercury. . . . These words are like childish japes and nothing
more! If you want to complete the great pharmacon, how could you be perverse
like this ?
$
/),'4
424
152+7.
We see that Weng rejects some concrete applications of these symbols, but does not
oer any of his own. Is this because he thinks alchemists ought not to ground
alchemical symbols in the microcosmic register of body, mind, and spirit? Probably
not. I do not believe that Weng is seeking an intellectual enlightenment that exists
only within the sphere of discourse itself
as Robinet might say. Is it because Weng
is covertly teaching sexual alchemy
as Li Yuanguo would say? I suspect so, but
Wengs teachings have not been studied well enough yet to say this with condence.
In sum, wuxing diandao applies the multifaceted alchemical theme of
inversion and reversion
ni, diandao, huan, fan to the concept of uniting the ve
agents. In my discussion of inversion above, I stated that alchemists in their rhetoric
fully exploit the links between dierent aspects of the conceptual complex of
inversion, and we can see this in the quotation from Weng above, where he connects
wuxing diandao with the inverted relation between child and mother.
5.3.2.1.1.2, . . . uniting them symbolically through condensing the ve . . . into one
elixir . . . in terms of the body microcosm, by uniting the ve qi of the ve viscera, . . .
On
the microcosmic register of the body, mind, and spirit, the condensing of the ve
agents into one is correlated with a practice of condensing the qi of the ve viscera
423
DZ 141, Ziyang Zhenren Wuzhen pian zhushu, by Weng Baoguang, 4.7b3 5, 7b10 8a2, cited in Li Yuanguo, Daojiao
qigong yangsheng xue, 17.
424
DZ 141, Ziyang Zhenren Wuzhen pian zhushu, by Weng Baoguang, 4.8a7 8, b1 2.
338
within the Central Palace, a practice called wuqi chaoyuan ve qi pay court
to the prime.425 In one well known form of wuqi chaoyuan practice, found in Zhong
L texts or texts drawing upon Zhong L teachings, the adept should circulate
primal qi among the ve organs. For example, according to DZ 150, Xiuzhen taiji
hunyuan zhixuan tu, the adept transports perfected yang primal qi from the kidneys
through the liver, heart, and lungs, then down to the middle dantian related to the
spleen, to make the lesser recycled elixir xiao huandan .426 Other teachers,
such as Li Daochun, envision wuqi chaoyuan as a formless practice accomplished
through wuwei. As Crowe explains, for Li Daochun, wuqi chaoyuan, in which all of
the senses are muted or stopped, is a method for retaining various forms of qi in their
proper bodily locations. Li Daochuns wuqi chaoyuan is a form of samatha, a kind of
bodily, inner alchemical correlate to the practice described in purely mental terms as
cessation in the Mah y na Awakening of Faith or the Great Cessation and Contemplation
of Zhiyi.427
Harmoniously uniting the four images sixiang hehe
is another
related term for condensing, in concrete terms, the ve agents into one. Bai Yuchan
describes sixiang hehe in a diagram: the four heraldic animals dragon, bird, tiger, and
murky warrior are correlated with the four senses eyes, ears, nose, and mouth, and
four viscera liver, lungs, kidneys, and heart, with no thought wunian in the
center linking them all.428
5.3.2.1.2.1, . . . or condensing the three . . . into one elixir . . . in terms of abstract
mesocosmic signs, by uniting the three cardinal agents water, re, and earth . . .
Sometimes alchemists focus on three cardinal members of the ve agent schema.
These three agents may be water, re, and earth en simple, or they may be agent earth
425
Other related terms for the symbolic union of the ve agents are ve e orescences pay court to the
prime wuhua chaoyuan , ve dragons attend and support the holy wulong pengsheng , ve
minds pay court to heaven wuxin chaotian , and the ve agents all gather wuxing zongju .
426
Needham, Science and Civilisation in China, 5.5:70; Baryosher Chemouny, La qute de limmortalit en Chine, 98.
Not all forms of mutual irradiation this is Needhams term are directly equivalent to wuqi chaoyuan. There is
another form of mutual irradiation in DZ 149, Xiuzhen taiji hunyuan tu that involves a set of viscera including the
standard wuzang plus bladder and gall bladder; Needham, ibid., 74
76.
427
Crowe, The Nature and Function of the Buddhist and Ru Teachings in Li Daochun, 199.
428
339
together with two combined agents repluswood and waterplusmetal

.429
Cardinal agents is my own term; a term used by the alchemists for this tripartite set
is three natures sanxing or
.
The equilibrium of agents water and re shuihuo jiji
through the
catalytic agency of agent earth is an important theme within most forms of inner
alchemy, though it is not emphasized in Qiu Zhaoaos chart in gure 4.10 on page 335
above. For solo practitioners, the equilibrium of water and re corresponds to the
union of ascending energy from the kidneyorb and descending energy from the
heartorb. The kidneys are usually associated with water yin
and the heart with re
yang
, but their energies may also be described as kidneysqi yangwithinyin
and
heartshumor yinwithinyang
. This concept appears most often in ZhongL
teachings and later teachings drawing on them. Sexual alchemists may likewise
correlate the agents water and re with the kidneys and heart, but they are more
likely to correlate water and re with the outer pharmacon the female partners
primal qi
and the inner pharmacon the male adepts primal jing
. This union of the
energy of heart and kidneys is an inverted union of opposites cf. page 317 above
.
Sometimes alchemists may link the condensing of the ve with the
condensing of the three, resulting in a sequence in which ve is condensed into
three, and then into one. We see this in Yu Yans symbolic union of the ve agents.
First, four are condensed into two: the four images sixiang; here, not the heraldic
animals, but the agents water, metal, re, and wood
are united into the two
substances ti
, i.e., two pairs of agents, called dragon re plus wood
and
tiger water plus metal
. Dragon and tiger are formed when metal descends into
water, and wood ascends into re. Finally, these two substances are united with the
center we may discern a union of three here
. Yu Yans term for this nal union of
ve into three
into one is wu xianglei
the ve agents correspond with one
another by category
.430
While this sort of vetothreetoone sequence is very evident in the union
429
The product of the sum of agents re and wood may be called wood humor muye
, and the product of
water and metal may be called metallous essence jinjing
; Hu Fuchen, Zhonghua daojiao da cidian, s.v.
sanxing , 1140.
430
340
of the three ves of River Chart numerology

discussed below, and can also be
discerned in Yu Yans wu xianglei
which may actually be inspired by the River
Chart, the ve three one sequence is not universal. It appears that ve to one
sequences
e.g., wuqi chaoyuan above or three to one sequences
e.g., sanhua juding
below are more common than ve three one sequences.
5.3.2.1.2.2, . . . or condensing the three . . . into one elixir . . . in terms of the body
microcosm, by uniting the three owers essence, qi, and spirit . . .
As we can see in
gure 4.10 on page 335 above, the adept unites the ve
square #3, then the three
and the two
both in circle #2, and returns to the One
topmost circle. The term
for uniting the three used in this chart but also found widely in the literature is
sanhua juding
three owers gather in the crown. These three owers are
almost always glossed as essence, qi, and spirit.431 What would it mean for essence,
qi, and spirit to gather in the crown? We have seen above that the inner alchemical
path is commonly described as the transformation of essence into qi, and qi into
spirit
with all three elements inhering in the process throughout the process. We
have also seen that the entire process takes a progressive upward direction: the
pharmaca of the essence to qi stage are gathered from the lower dantian, the elixir of
the qi to spirit stage
the holy fetus is red in the middle dantian, and the elixir of
the spirit to void stage
the yang spirit is nurtured and trained in the upper
dantian.432 The concept of three owers gathering in the crown brings these
concepts together: by the nal stage, the three owers have gathered in the upper
dantian in the crown of the head, where the adept trains the yang spirit to enter and
exit through the fontanel.
In Zhong L related teachings, there is a similar term, sanhua chaoyuan

three owers paying court to the prime, that refers to something quite dierent:
the gathering in the crown of the three yang qi of the kidneys, lower dantian, and
431
Other, more common, terms for the essence, qi, and spirit together are three treasures
sanbao , and
three essentials
sanyao .
432
The pharmaca and elixirs of each stage may circulate throughout the body, and are not restricted to the
cardinal bodily register for that stage. For example, although the primary focus in the essence to qi stage is on the
kidneys, the outer pharmacon is circulated along the superintendent and conception tracts.
341
heart.433 This suggests that the idea of three somethings ascending to the palace in
the brain is more basic than the identity of these somethings. Just as the meanings
of the ancient alchemical terms nine recyclings and seven reversions
jiuhuan
qifan in inner alchemy are often reduced to the numerological signicances of nine
and seven, the general idea of uniting three somethings into one is what gives
signicance to sanhua juding or sanhua chaoyuan,434 rather than the specic identity of
the somethings. My point is supported by the fact that the term three
natures
sanxing can refer either to the three cardinal agents, or to the three
treasures, and the three agents and three treasures are not mutually synonymous.435
5.3.2.2, . . . or uniting . . . the ve agents . . . numerologically through condensing the
three ves, according to RiverChart numerology, into one Taiji.
According to the
mesocosmic eld of abstract signs, inner alchemists condense the ve agents into the
three cardinal agents, and then into the one Taiji, by adding their numerological
values. According to the River Chart, the numerological value of agent wood is 3,
and the value of re is 2; the sum of these values is 5. Next, metal
4 and water
1 are
added to give a second 5. The value of agent earth is also 5. These three ves are
joined together to make one, a clear sequence of ve to three to one.436 In
microcosmic terms, the ve agents
or qi of the ve viscera unite to form a single
elixir. In macrocosmic terms, the ve agents unite to remake the Great Ultimate.
The three ves are discussed in a verse in Wuzhen pian:
Three, ve, and one just three characters altogether yet how few indeed are
those people of past or present who have understood them!

"
Easts 3 and souths 2 together make 5; norths 1 and wests 4 join them too.

433
The
1 kidneys qi is yangwithinyin
yinzhong yang !, the
2 perfected qi of the dantian
dantian zhenqi
is perfectedyangwithinyang
yangzhong zhenyang !!, and the
3 qi of the hearts uid is yang
withinyang
yangzhong yang !!; BaryosherChemouny, La qute de limmortalit en Chine, 121. Terms such as
yangwithinyang are not found in SouthernLineage teachings.
434
I would not say the same about the union of the three cardinal agents
re, water, and earth. While re, water,
and earth have very rich conceptual overtones in inner alchemy, the three owers do not.
435
Hu Fuchen, Zhonghua daojiao da cidian, s.v. sanxing , 1140.
436
The clearest exposition of this idea in secondary literature is in Wang Mu, Wuzhen pian qianjie, 2426.
342
Wu and ji dwell independently; their production number is 5. The three houses

meet one another to form the infant.

The infant is one, holding perfected qi within; after ten months the fetus is
whole, and enters the sacred base.

437
Later inneralchemical texts
such as Jindan dayao that draw on Wuzhen pian often
cite this verse. All modern reference works that I have seen gloss the phrase three
houses meeting one another
sanjia xiangjian as the union of body, heart
mind, and intention, or the three treasures
essence, qi, and spirit, always citing the
lateimperial text Xingming guizhi, and sometimes Wuzhen zhizhi or Wuzhen pian
zhengyi.438 However, the manifest meaning of the phrase three houses meeting one
another in this Wuzhen pian verse is the meeting of the ve agents
in the form of
the three cardinal agents, not the union of the three treasures. Despite this
consensus among modern interpreters, there is no clear, direct correlation between
the three houses and the three treasures in this Wuzhen pian verse; rather, both
concepts manifest the same underlying alchemical concept of condensing the three
into the one.
6, Allegorical or Visionary Elements
In this section, I will discuss the allegorical or visionary elements of inner alchemy,
such as lead and mercury, dragon and tiger, or maiden and squire. Like yin and yang,
the ve agents, or the trihexagrams, these elements are xiang
images existing on
a mesocosmic plane, yet they dier from these abstract xiang because they are
likened to concrete objects or beings. To distinguish them from the abstract
437
Wang Mu, Wuzhen pian qianjie, 24. This is verse 15 in Wang Mus sequence, but verse 14 in the sequence found
in DZ 142, Ziyang Zhenren Wuzhen pian sanzhu 2.16a, edited by Chen Zhixu or his disciple Zhang Shihong. The
sequence of verses in Wang Mus edition comes from his chosen base text, Wuzhen pian zhengyi, dated 1788, by the
Quanzhen Daoist Dong Dening; ibid., preface, 8.
438
Wang Mu, Wuzhen pian qianjie, 26; and the entry in each of the following: Hu Fuchen, Zhonghua
daojiao da cidian, 1240; Huang Jian and Zhu Huiqin, Jianming qigong cidian, 31 32; Li Yuanguo, Zhonuo daojiao
qigong yangsheng daquan, 68; L Guangrong, Zhonuo qigong cidian, 36; Lu Jinchuan, Qigong chuantong shuyu cidian,
39; Ma Jiren, Shiyong yixue qigong cidian, 140 41; Zhang Wenjiang and Chang Jin, Zhonuo chuantong qigong xue
cidian, 62; Zhang Zhizhe, Daojiao wenhua cidian, 750.
All of these sources cite Xingming guizhi. The passage they cite is entitled Sanjia xiangjian tu and
Sanjia xiangjian shuo , from Xingming guizhi, section, n.p., in Zangwai daoshu, 9:526.
343
mesocosmic signs, I call these elements gurative mesocosmic signs.

6.1.1, In terms of allegorical, visionary, or gurative mesocosmic signs, the inner
alchemists goal is to unite mercury with lead . . .
Of the various forms of laboratory
alchemy existing in earlymedieval and Tang times, inner alchemists adopted their
theoretical basis from leadmercury alchemy, in which perfected lead is the yang
drawn from the yin of native lead, and mercury is the yin drawn from the yang of
cinnabar. Within inner alchemy, in terms of abstract mesocosmic signs, the yang
withinyin is the the central yang yaoline within kan , and the yinwithinyang is
the central yin yaoline within li . These united to form pure yang qian . In terms
of gurative mesocosmic signs, the yangwithinyin is lead i.e., perfected lead, and
the yinwithinyang is mercury. Lead and mercury are not richly gurative in inner
alchemy. Inner alchemists especially sexual alchemists take mercury as an eective
concrete metaphor on the microcosmic register for male seminal essence, which, like
quicksilver, is liquid, di cult to control, and liable to ow away and be lost. The
slipperiness and volatility of mercury likewise describes the ightiness of primal
spirit, which like the sexual instinct is di cult to control. I am not aware of any
comparable use of lead as a concrete metaphor for primal qi.
6.1.2, Or, . . . in terms of gurative mesocosmic signs, the inner alchemists goal is
. . . to unite the dragon with the tiger . . .
Dragon and tiger are ubiquitous Chinese
symbols for yang and yin, respectively. Dragons represent majesty, the moistening
inuence of rain, good fortune, life; tigers represent wild and dangerous power,
death. In inner alchemy, the dragon is correlated with the trigram li , yin within
yang, the male, the east, spring, the liver, wood, and the hue qing usually, blue
green or cyan, while the tiger is correlated with representing the trigram kan , yang
within yin, the female, the west, autumn, the lungs, metal, and the color white. Thus,
the dragon represents verdant life that harbors the seed of decay, while the tiger
represents the threat of death that harbors the seed of eternal life. While the dragon
is usually equated with li, and the tiger with kan, there are cases in which the interior
of li is called tiger, and the interior of kan is called dragon.439
439
344
Sexual alchemists take dragon and tiger as metaphors on the microcosmic

register for the male and female sex organs: the male organ is said to look like a
dragon, while the female organ is a threatening entity like a tiger, since this is where
the male adept could lose his life endowment
ming through ejaculation, if he were
to lose control. Solo alchemists do not use dragon and tiger as concrete metaphors,
but only as abstract metaphors. In Zhong L alchemy, the perfected tiger is
1 the qi
from within
2 the perfected water from within
3 the kidneys uid, while the
perfected dragon is
1 the perfected qi from within
2 the uid from within
3 the
hearts qi.440
Inner alchemists may also use dragon and tiger as quasi independent signs,
with only abstract correlations to macro or microcosmic registers. For instance, the
reaction between yin and yang
i.e., the reaction between yin within yang and yang
within yin is seen as the copulation of dragon and tiger
longhu jiaogou , or
as a erce struggle, in which the dragons keening is matched by the long roar of the
tiger
longyin huxiao . When depicted in alchemical illustrations, though,
dragon and tiger are drawn in parallel stances and not actually entwined. The
successful smelting of the dragon tiger pair into a single elixir is called defeating the
dragon and subduing the tiger
xianglong fuhu . Male sexual alchemists also
interpret the phrase xianglong fuhu to mean subduing their own unruly sex organs and
instincts
defeating the dragon, and absorbing the female partners primal qi
subduing the tiger.

In Chinese cosmology, the cyan dragon of the east and the white tiger of the
west are joined by the cardinal red bird
zhuque
of the south, and the murky
warrier
xuanwu of the north
a turtle and snake entwined, to make up the four
heraldic animals, the sixiang .441 These animals, as gurative mesocosmic signs,
do not play a signicant role in inner alchemical discourse. Rather, inner alchemists
are more likely to the see the sixiang
lit. four images as qian, kun, kan, and li, or
440
Hu Fuchen, Zhonghua daojiao da cidian, s.v. longhu jiaogou , 1247.
441
This set of four tutelary beasts dates back to the Han or earlier; Despeux, Taosme et corps humain, 115.
345
dragon, tiger, water, and re,442 or water, re, metal, and wood,443 than as the four
beasts. This is instructive: it is abstract signs such as the four trigrams, not gurative
signs of the four beasts, which dominate the mesocosm of inner alchemy. The
gurative signs of the four beasts are used within meditation in other Daoist
traditions, such as the Shangqing tradition described by Robinet.444 We may see the
dierence between inneralchemical and Shangqing teachings by contrasting their
uses of the term sixiang: whereas the referents of sixiang in inner alchemy are
elegantly abstract, the referent of sixiang in Shangqing tradition is more richly
concrete.
. . . to unite the gold or metal crow in the sun, with the jade toad or rabbit in the
moon . . .
Alchemists use the gurative mesocosmic signs of gold crow in the sun and
jade rabbit in the moon riwu yuetu , jinwu yutu

, or toad and crow
chanwu , or stellar cloudsoul and lunar whitesoul rihun yuepo to
correlate key alchemical concepts of yinwithinyang and yangwithinyin or, in
abstract mesocosmic terms, li and kan with the macrocosmic celestial bodies of sun
and moon, as well as to link alchemical ideas with ancient Chinese lore. The gure of
the alchemical toad was popular in the Tang and Song dynasties, with the legendary
and historical patriarchs of the Southern Lineage, Liu Haichan and Bai
Yuchan taking the toad as part of their sobriquets. Liu Haichans pet three
legged toad, originally an alchemical allegory, became part of Chinese popular
culture.445
. . . to wed the lovely girl from the east, who rides the cyan dragon, to squire metal from
the west, who rides the white tiger . . .
Below is a chart of the dierent meanings of
these symbols on dierent registers:
442
Zeng Chuanhui, Yuandai Cantong xue, 97, citing DZ 1008, Zhouyi cantong qi, by Chu Huagu ca. 1100
50. The idea of the sixiang as four trigrams comes from the Xici zhuan.
443
Hu Fuchen, Zhonghua daojiao da cidian, s.v. hehe sixiang , 1254.
444
Robinet, Taoist Meditation, 41, 74.
445
Cho, Images of Liu Haichan is a study of Liu and his pet.
346
Figurative mesocosmic terms The lovely girl from the east, riding the cyan dragon
Figurative and abstract mesocosmic
The waxing qi of the dragon
long zhi xianqi
terms
Figurative terms
laboratory alchemy The mercury within the granulated cinnabar
shazhong gong
Abstract mesocosmic terms
Microcosmic terms
early solo
cultivation
Microcosmic terms
later solo
cultivation
Microcosmic terms
sexual alchemy
The central yin yaoline within the trigram li

Hearts uid
esp. in the ZhongL tradition
Primal spirit in the heart
Seminal essence and/or primal essence in the male sex organ
Figurative mesocosmic terms Squire metal from the west, riding the white tiger
Figurative and abstract mesocosmic
The waxing qi of the tiger
terms
Figurative terms
laboratory alchemy Silver within lead; lead within water
Abstract mesocosmic terms
Microcosmic terms
early solo
cultivation
Microcosmic terms
later solo
cultivation
Microcosmic terms
sexual alchemy
The yang yaoline with the trigram kan

Kidneys qi; saliva from the lungs
Primal essence in the kidneys
Primal qi from the female sex organ
Fig. 4.11, Corellations of yangwithinyin and yinwithinyang
The origin of this terminological complex seems to be in the use of the terms lovely
girl
chan and squire metal
jingong 446 in early laboratory alchemy,
both as coverwords for mercury.447 The lovely girl also appears in Cantong qi, but not
squire metal. The locus classicus for this terminological complex is Wuzhen pian, where
the lovely girl appears thrice, squire metal four times, and the couple appears thrice
together.448 While the lovely girl and squire metal appear sparingly in ZhongL
texts, or in Quanzhen texts related to the ZhongL teachings,449 it is the terms
appearance in Wuzhen pian, and the popularity of Wuzhen pian, which made them
popular in the alchemical discourse of the classical period, period of integration, and
446
A.k.a. old metal man

jinweng or stalwartsquire
din
ong .
447
E.g., DZ 885, Huangdi jiuding shendan jingjue 1.6a10; translated in Pregadio, Great Clarity, 172.
448
Squire metal appears twice as jingong, once as din

ong , and once as jinweng . The couple appears
once as niun
i.e., the cowherd and the weavergirl, once as the elder male and junior female
zhangnan
, shaon , and once in the line the woman wears a cyan robe, and the young lord drapes himself in
unbleached silk
DZ 142, Ziyang Zhenren Wuzhenpian sanzhu 5.1a4.
449
The lovely girl appears in the later ZhongL text DZ 149, Xiuzhen taiji hunyuan tu 7a2, 13b2 3; translated in
BaryosherChemouny, La qute de limmortalit en Chine, 148, 160; also mentioned in Needham, Science and
Civilisation in China, 5.5:75. Here chan refers to hearts humor, and is paired with the naked infant, rather than
with squire metal.
Both lovely girl and squire metal appear in DZ 1156, Chongyang Zhenren jinguan yusuo jue, and DZ 1158,
Chongyang zhenren shou Danyang ershisi jue, both ascribed to Wang Chongyang, the founder of the Quanzhen
movement. DZ 1156 is probably a later text, and draws on ZhongL teachings.
347
late imperial period. In Wuzhen pian, the lovely girl and squire metal seem almost like
characters in an epic, fated to unite in matrimony, orin the form of niun ,
the oxherd niulang and the weavergirl zhin as starcrossed lovers. It
may be that adepts actually visualized such gures as part of a drama within their
own bodythis may be why the famous Chart of inner tracts Neijing tu
depicts the couple as oxherd and weavergirl.450 I have never seen explicit evidence of
this, however. I have also never seen evidence that these gures represent corporeal
spirits one could easily imagine them to be spirits of the heart and lungs, for
example. These are allegorical gures or freeoating signiers, not deities in a spirit
bureaucracy, and they are unique to alchemical discourse.
6.2, . . . through the mediation of the yellow dame in the center . . .
Unlike the lovely
girl and squire metal, which to at least some extent are characters in an allegorical
narrative, the yellow dame huangpo
or matchmaker mei is a cipher, not a
character at all. As suggested by her color and function, she is correlated with agent
earth in abstract mesocosmic terms, and the spleen or Yellow Court in
microcosmic terms. For the sexual alchemists studied by Wile, it seems that the
yellow dame may be an actual procuress employed by the alchemist.451
6.3, . . . and bring about the birth of the naked infant, the alchemists new self.
The gure of the infant yinger or naked infant chizi is already familiar to
us as the holy fetus or yang spirit. While we would expect the union of the lovely girl
and squire metal to lead inexorably to the conception of a fetus, it seems that
alchemists do not extend the allegory this way. To my knowledge, while do they
speak of the joining of the couple, and they do speak of the conception of an infant,
these are two dierent symbolic complexes. So, while the allegorical marriage of the
lovely girl and squire metal does lead to the birth of the infant, this is not an
allegorical infant, but rather a nascent spiritform. The infant belongs to the
450
Despeux, Taosme et corps humain, 46. In this picture, the weavergirl is a spinnergirl, with a spinning wheel.
451
Wile, Art of the Bedchamber, 158, 161 citing Jindan zhenchuan, 173, 176 citing Jindan jieyao.
348
microcosmic register rather than to the mesocosmic register.452

6.4, Other allegories or visions include the goatcart, deercart, and oxcart by
which the alchemist transports the pharmaca during the process of circular renement, ...
Alchemists uses three animaldrawn carts to symbolize how the pharmaca are to be
transported along the superintendent tract in the back. When transporting the
pharmaca through the Tail Gate Pass in the coccyx, the adept must proceed slowly, as
if driving a goatcart with his intention
. When transporting it through the Spinal
Straits Pass in the center of the back, the adept can rush along with abandon, as if
driving a deercart. When transporting the pharmacon through the Jade Pillow Pass
at the base of the skull, he feels as if he must bull his way through an obstacle,
symbolized by driving an oxcart.453 These three carts are allegorical expansions of
the simple original symbol of the heche river cart, or chainpump
.454 The names of
the three carts are drawn from the famous parable in chapter 3 of the Lotus Stra, in
which a rich man the Buddha
promises three kinds of carts the Hinayna,
Pratyekabuddhayna, and Mahyna
as gifts for his many sons sentient beings
to
entice them out of the burning mansion of many rooms sasra
. The parable in the
Lotus Stra teaches that the three vehicles according to Mahyna teachings
are all
expedient means, and only the teaching of the Lotus Stra the One Vehicle, Ekayna
is ultimately real. None of this is evident in the three carts of inneralchemical orbital
circulation, however: the alchemists seem only to have taken the names from the
Lotus Stra, and not the concepts. The three alchemical carts are further expanded
into a true allegorical narrative in the Mingdynasty novel Journey to the West Xiyou ji
452
In some alchemical texts, the lovely girl may appear paired with the infant, rather than with squire metal. Cf.
Needham, Science and Civilisation in China, 5.5:75 citing DZ 149, Xiuzhen taiji hunyuan tu
, and Hu Fuchen,
Zhonghua daojiao da cidian, s.v. huangpo meijie , 1261 citing Ruyao jing, a commentary compiled by Peng
Haogu,
. 15861600
. Chen Zhixu solves this contradiction by linking the infant and squire metal together as
two lifestages of a single character, whose milkname is yinger, and later takes the name jingong DZ 1067,
Shangyangzi Jindan dayao 3.3a2
.
453
454
Generally, the internal mechanism for transporting the pharmaca is called the heche. Needham identi es the
heche as a squarepallet chainpump Needham, Science and Civilisation in China, 5.5:225
or currentdriven water
raising machine ibid., 5.5:60
.
349
.455
6.5, Other allegories or visions include . . . the description of the inner landscape
of the body, with sun and moon, mountain peaks, gates, bridges, towers, springs, and
lakes.
This is what Schipper calls the Daoist symbolic body. Although this Daoist
body does appear in alchemical texts, as Despeux shows in Taosme et corps humain, it
is not central to inner
alchemical thought and discourse. Many of the materials
studied by Despeux should not be called inner alchemy,456 but there are materials in
Despeuxs book that are alchemical and do include visions of the inner landscape of
the body. One example is Chen Zhixus Chart of the Corporeal Images of Primal Qi
Yuanqi tixiang tu , an illustration of the alchemical body gured as a
mountain, copied from an earlier text.457 This illustration does not represent Chens
usual body
discourse. The place, in his teachings, of the vision of the body as a
mountain is comparable to quotations from Mencius, Chan Buddhist kans, or
Prajpramit
inspired language from the Tang
dynasty scriptures of Double
Mystery Daoism:458 all of these are materials external to inner alchemy which he
absorbs into his alchemical religion.
Conclusion
In this chapter, I have oered an analytical overview of inner
alchemical tradition,
building on and criticizing previous overviews of inner alchemy by Chinese and
Western scholars. In my discussion, I take the late
imperial or modern standard
account as a paradigm of what inner alchemy ought to look like, and then test this
paradigm against other forms of alchemy that diverge from the standard account. I
455
Oldstone
Moore, Alchemy and the Journey to the West: The Cart
Slow Kingdom Episode.
456
That is, they should not be called inner alchemy if we follow the denitions of alchemy that I use in this
chapter, such as Robinets hundred
word denition on page 215 above.
457
DZ 1068, Shangyangzi Jindan dayao tu 3a; copied from DZ 90, Yuanshi wuliang duren shangpin miaojing neiyi 8b9a.
458
E.g., DZ 620, Taishang Laojun shuo chang qingjing miao jing, or DZ 641, Taishang Laojun neiguan jing. Chen cites
these in DZ 91, Taishang dongxuan lingbao wuliang duren shangpin miaojing zhujie, his alchemical commentary to the
Duren jing.
350
had hoped thereby to achieve a rich hermeneutical circle, whereby I would begin
with the standard account as a paradigm, modify the paradigm in the light of
con
icting evidence, then apply the new paradigm to further evidence, then repeat
the process. Using this approach, I aimed to avoid the
aws of the Western pioneers
in the study of inner alchemywhose accounts of inner alchemy are hesitant and
partialby infusing my account with the learning of Chinese contemporary
traditional scholars, and reworking this according to my own lights. But I do not
feel that I have quite accomplished this aim yet. Until I can read more widely in the
primary literature, it will be dicult to transcend the standard account. On the other
hand, to merely read primary texts without a solid paradigm in mind would also be a
misguided approachit would be too dicult to begin to draw the disparate data
together without an initial framework. Work on inneralchemical texts will always be
workinprogress; this chapter re
ects an early stage of my own hermeneutical
process.
This chapter does accomplish a more modest purpose of providing a
backdrop and eld of comparisons for the next chapter on Chen Zhixus alchemical
teachings.
351
Questions for the Comparative Analysis
of Any Inneralchemical Text
A. General Questions
A.1. In this teaching, what are the interpretations or denitions of dandao
alchemy
, or dan elixir
?
A.2. What are the interpretations of the chamber shenshi , danfang
?
A.3. What are the interpretations of terms such as ding caldron
, lu $ stove,
furnace
, yanyue lu $ crescentmoon furnace
, xuantai ding # caldron
of the suspended fetus
? Are they important in the teachings? The terms almost
never occur in ZhongL texts; how often do they occur in Quanzhen texts?
A.4. Are yin and yang or zhenyin and zhenyang

equally important, overall
as in the phrase partially yin and partially yang, pianyin pianyang
; or is
yang emphasized much more than yin? Does yin become valuable in some
situations? Is the regeneration of qian the exclusive goal? Or is there a rare
mention of the regeneration of kun ?

A.5. What are the interpretations of basic alchemical concepts such as jiuhuan
nine recyclings
, qifan seven reversions
, jiuzhuan " nine revolutions
,
huangya yellow sprouts
, and baixue white snow
? Are these given
strictly metaphorical, numerological, or metaphysical interpretations, or
physiological interpretations as well? Is sulfur mentioned at all? Sulfur hardly
ever appears in neidan texts, unlike in the texts of laboratory alchemy.
A.6.1. What is the theory of jing essence, seminal essence

?
A.6.2. Is jing clearly equivalent to sexual energy or not?
A.6.3. Is it cosmic? What is it called?
A.6.4. Is sexual energy to be totally sublimated and the sexualenergy system emptied
of energy?459
A.7. What is the theory of qi?
A.8. What is the theory of shen spirit, spirits
?
A.9. Are yuanjing primal essence
and yuanshen primal spirit
important
within the system? What names are they known by?
459
Relevant terms include: suogui % retraction of the turtlehead

, guisuo buju zhi jing % scene in
which the turtlehead retracts and does not rise
, mayin cangxiang ! the horses netherregion hides its
marks
.
352
A.10. What do dragon and tiger mean?

A.11. What roles do the ve agents play? What is the interpretation of wuxing diandao
A' inversion of the ve agents , cuancu wuxing B= condensing the
ve agents , wuxing cuowang ; interlaced waxing of the ve agents ? Is
there an emphasis on the union of the ve agents? Does the term wuqi chaoyuan
*3 the ve qi pay court to the prime appear? Was this originally a
ZhongL term? How about the four images sixiang 6 ?
A.12. What roles do water and re play?
A.13. What roles do metal and wood play?
A.14. What roles do the eight trigrams play? Are they used in both houtian ! post
cosmic and xiantian precosmic arrangements as in the ZhongL
tradition , or merely in the precosmic arrangement as in the Southern Lineage ?
A.15. Are there any distinctive uses of trigram or hexagram terminology? Do any of
the following trigram or hexagram schemas play a role?
a. najia , Matching Stems theory;
b. shier xiaoxi gua +( Twelve Hexagrams of Waning and Waxing or shier
pigua 8 Twelve Sovereign Hexagrams ;
c. the six vacuities liuxu 5 ;
d. guaqi * HexagramQi theory using sixty out of the sixtyfour hexagrams .
Are the hexagrams jiji "< and weiji < prominent?
Do any uncommon hexagrams appear, such as tongren or guimei >?
A.16. How important is Hetu 9 River Chart numerology within the system? Is
Luoshu $) Book of the Luo numerology used at all?
A.17. Do sun and moon have a place in the teaching e.g., in solunar ingestion, or
cosmicization of the eyes ?
A.18. What does yinfu 1/ yin tally mean within the teaching? Does it refer to the
renmai - conception tract , or to the elimination of yin?
A.19. Is zaohua 0
creation and transformation mentioned?
B. Tradition
B.1. Is there a schema for categorizing dierent traditions or forms of practice? Are
there more than one such schema?
B.2. Is the teaching based on the Cantong qi and Wuzhen pian? How often are they
cited?
B.3. Does the teaching employ terms reminiscent of the ZhongL tradition, or
explicit mentions of the ZhongL tradition or teachings?460
B.4. Is the teaching based on specic Daoist but noninneralchemical classics, such
460
Examples of ZhongL terms include zhouhou feijin jing !& 2; minhuo , chenhuo , junhuo ;
sanmei huo # ; fenshen 4; chao shangqing 3.; chao taiqing 3.; chao yuqing 3.; chuanxi zhi fa %
7:; jinguan yusuo @?.
353
as the Daode jing, Huangting jing

Scripture of the Yellow Court, Yinfu jing
Scripture of yin tallies, Yuhuang xinyin jing

Jade Emperors mind seal scripture,
Chongxuan
Double Mystery texts, or Lingbao texts?
B.5. Does the teaching emphasize certain historical or legendary teachers, sages, or
transcendents in particular?
B.6. Which geographical regions or sites is the teaching associated with?
C. Practice
C.1. Does the teaching include the xiao zhoutian
lesser orbit, and da zhoutian

greater orbit? Are they known by these terms, or by others such as
huangdao (*
ecliptic, tianhe niliu !
reverse ow of the celestial river,
huanghe niliu (!
reverse ow of the Yellow River, lulu 01
windlass,
falun zizhuan ,/
the wheel of dharma turning by itself? How important
are the three heche
waterwheels? Does the process work through breathing
or reverse breathing, ni huxi !, ideation, or spontaneously?

C.2. Does the teaching include a progression from zhuji ."
tamping the base to
rening essence into qi, qi into spirit, and spirit into void? What is it called? What
are its sub stages? Or instead of this sequence, is there an unrelated sequence of
stages?
C.3. Does the path to salvation involve multiple kinds of practices to choose from at
each stage
as in Zhong L texts, or only one choice?
C.4. Which practices are specically rejected?
C.5. Which times of day, month, or year ought one to practice? Which times ought
one to gather the pharmacon?
C.6. What are the durations of cultivation required at each of the various stages?
C.7. How is the ring actually done? What is ring?
C.8. How are the huohou
ring periods calculated? Is there a strong correlation
between alchemical and mensual cycles
e.g., the four points on the lunar cycle,
hui, shuo, xian, and wang #$? Is there a strong correlation between
alchemical and seasonal cycles
e.g., the twenty four nodal qi )?
C.9. What is the teaching regarding muyu
physical secretions such as saliva?
bathing or basting? Does it involve
C.10. What are the signs that the elixirs are ready, or completed? Are the signs
spontaneous erection, stirring in the dantian, and ecstatic feeling
as in the
Southern lineage or Wu Liu teachings; or, retraction of the male sex organs
as in
the Wu Liu teachings or those of Zhao Bichen? Are terms such as xiaoxi ,
huo zishi , zheng zishi , yanuang sanxian ' % used?
C.11. Is there a nal requirement to perform three thousand deeds
jigong leixing
man sanqian -
&+? Does this mean good deeds, or some other action?
354
D. Pharmaca
D.1. What are the pharmaca or other foci of cultivation? What is the theory of the
precosmic One Yang xiantian yiqi
"
? Are terms such as zhenzhongzi
$1, neiyao :, waiyao :, danmu , dayao :, taier , yinger 6,
shengtai 0 , huangya /, baixue *, yangshen .% used?
D.2. What is the outer pharmacon waiyao : or xiaoyao :, and how and when
is it gathered? Is it gathered through breathing and ingestion of air or saliva,
through awakening it in the kidneys, sexual alchemy, or other means? How is it
initially re ned? Is it re ned through breathing, ideation, or both?
D.3. What is the inner pharmacon neiyao :, and how and when is it gathered?
D.4. What are the interpretations of terms such as jinye ( gold humor, yuye (
jade humor, zhenye $( perfected humor, jinshui gold water, jinjing 2
gold elixir, shenshui % divine water, jin
uid, yujin jade
uid,
yujiang 3 jade broth, qiongjiang 83 rosegem broth, and so on?
D.5. Is salivaswallowing important?461
D.6. Is blood an important element? How about other bodily
uids?
E. Goal
E.1. Is the goal to become one with the Dao, to go to heaven e.g., the Grand Veil
Heaven, Daluo Tian 9
, to escape sas
ra lunhui 4&, shengsi , to
revert to the primal origin, or to reverse ones age and achieve longevity in a
youthful body? If more than one goal is mentioned, what are the relative
emphases on the goals, or the relation between the goals? Does one discard the
body qiqiao '+, or perfect it xingshen jumiao % and rise with it to
heaven bairi shengtian
?
E.2. What is said about the yang spirit? Does it multiply zi you sheng sun !? Is
it called dharma body fashen ?
F. Alchemical Body and Alchemical Person
F.1. How much terminology is there related to corporeal sites or processes? Are there
any distinctive terms?
F.2. What roles do the heart and kidneys play?
F.3. What roles do the ve visceral orbs wuzang ;, wunei play? How about
the six digestive viscera liufu ,? How important are the liver, spleen, lungs,
and bladder?
461
Terms related to salivaswallowing include huachi -, yuchi qingshui ), bian chilong 75, chilong
jiaohai 5<#, and qiongjiang 83.
355
F.4. What kinds of channels are mentioned? Are any channels mentioned by name
besides the tracts of conception and superintendency rendu ermai >*,
such as qijing bamai ?*, shier zhengjing ?, chongmai *, or yongquan
5!?
F.5. What are the terms used for the three dantian? Is there an emphasis on santian
fanfu 4 the inversion of the three dantian or santian diandao L$
the three dantian upsidedown? Is the child produced in the middle dantian?
F.6. Is the body yin or yang?
F.7. What are the interpretations of sanyuan three primes and sanguan K
three passes?
F.8. What is the interpretation of the huangting :' Yellow Court?
F.9. What is the interpretation of xuanguan yiqiao KI the one pore of the
mysterious pass?462
F.10. What is the interpretation of xuanpin or xuan and pin ?
F.11. Are there any striking physiological references, such as to the gonads or anus
e.g., gudao @, or the Deer Exercise?
F.12. Are the third eye and associated phenomena tianmu , huiyan D1, baihao
guang . important?
F.13. Is there an emphasis on corporeal spirits?
F.14. Is there an emphasis on corporeal heavens, hells, astral features, and other
geography?463
G. Meditation and Mental Training
G.1. Are breathing techniques important?
G.2. What is the emphasis put upon mental cultivation?
G.3. Is stillness, quiescence, nonaction wuwei 6", and/or the cutting o of
emotions strongly emphasized?
G.4. Is purity qingjing /0 greatly emphasized? How is purity understood?
G.5. What is the place of intention in the alchemical cultivation process? Does the
term yitu < intentionearth; agent earth correlated with guiding intention
occur? What is the interpretation of huangpo :+ yellow dame?
G.6. Is formless or semiformless meditation emphasized? Are these used only at
the advanced stages, or are they emphasized consistently throughout, or even
462
I list alternative names of this locus in appendix 2 to this chapter.
463
Relevant terms include Luofeng JO, Fengdu O2, Huagai 8B, Yuluo MJ, Shangqing /, Penglai E9,
Sandao &, Jiuxiao F, Jiu Diyu A, Tonggong C%, Kuhai #(, Huangquan :!, Wuyue
H, Yushan
, Yujing Shan , Kunlun Shan ,- , Jiuzhou , Shenzhou Chixian )G, Tiangang N,
Zhuling Huofu 3 , Ziji 7=, Ziwei Shanggong 7;%.
356
exclusively?
G.7. Is interior vision or visualization neiguan $, huiguang fanzhao
, jizhao
emphasized explicitly? Is it an important element but not mentioned by
name?
G.8. Are eye movements important?
G.9. Are light phenomena shenguang
, jinguang
, changuang "
, yanuang
sanxian
mentioned?
G.10. Is shouyi guarding unity emphasized?
H. Philosophy or Thought
H.1. What is the teaching on xing inherent nature and ming life endowment?
Is xing emphasized? What are the relative values or priorities of xing and ming?
What about mind xin ? What about the pair xing and qing dispositions?
H.2. Is subitism dunwu preferred over gradualism jianwu , or a great
vehicle dasheng over a lesser vehicle xiaosheng ? Is there a ranking
scheme of practices? Or are certain practices appropriate for dierent
practitioners?
H.3. Are paradoxes and other mystical elements emphasized?
H.4. Can we see a distinctively inneralchemical use of or view of language?
H.5. Does the teaching contain an explicit or implicit theory of ontological
registers?
H.6. What are the interpretations of shunni going with or against the current
and diandao # topsyturvy?
H.7. Does the teaching include an embryological theory? What is it?
I. Sexual Elements
I.1. How much sexual imagery is used? What are its meanings? Is it merely
metaphorical?
I.2. Is sexual alchemy yindan ever acceptable?
I.3. How often are sexual practices mentioned?
I.4. What is the attitude toward huanjing bunao ! recycling seminal essence
to replenish the brain? What kind of huanjing bunao is taught?
J. Other Traditions
J.1. What is the attitude toward waidan laboratory alchemy?
J.2. How are Buddhist elements used in the teaching? How much is Buddhist karma
357
theory emphasized? Is xianjianxing chengfo actualizing ones

buddha
nature and becoming a buddha presented as a goal?
J.3. How are Confucian elements used in the teaching? How much is Confucian
morality emphasized?
J.4. Is there any trace of Tantric teachings?
K. Other
K.1. Here is a list of distinctive terminology to look for:
a. terms regarding the sword jian +, zhujian 6+, huijian ,+, baojian 4+ ;
b. terms regarding the elixir, milletgrain, or pearl xingru jizi 2, xingru
hongju /, shumi ', shuzhu '!, shumi zhu '!, xuanzhu !,
mingzhu !, moni zhu -
!, mouni zhu
!, baozhu 4!, lizhu 8!,
zizhu !, ruyi zhu )!, xuanzhu 5!, yishu zhi zhu '!, chizhu !,
heizhu (!, huzhu !, shenzhu "!, yeming zhu !, lingzhu 7!,
qiongzhu 3!, liuzhu !, taiyi liuzhu !, wuya zhu ! ;
c. terms distinctive to Chen Pus teaching baozhu 4!, honglian ., chishui
, jiuhou zhu !, xuanzhu !, tianqiao 1, diqiao 1, yangsha huangu
&%# .
K.2. Are spirit penetrations or transcendental powers shentong "$ 464 emphasized?
K.3. Is there an emphasis on celestial deities e.g., Yuanshi Tianzun 0 ? Is
there an emphasis instead on patron saints and demigods e.g., L Dongbin
* ?
K.4. Is the meditator enjoined to seek solitude in the mountains and forests, or can
one practice in the busy marketplace? Must one renounce the world, or can one
remain in a householder?
464
This term is derived from a Buddhist term Skt. abhij .
358
Alternate Terms for Corporeal Sites,
as Found in Inneralchemical Texts465
Diyi ., Gushen <, Jiaogan Gong V4, Jinmen )*, Jiuqiao
d, Liaotian Y, Lingguan kh, Liuzhu Gong 094, Mingtang 'B, Moni Zhu
]9, Neiyuan ?, Nitan (_, Qianjia A3, Qingxu Fu GP$, San Modi ]
, Shang Jinque )e, Shang Tianguan h, Shenshi <,, Shoucun ,
Taiwei Gong U4, Taiyuan H, Tiangen 7, Tiangu , Tianguan h,
Tiantang B, Tianxin , Xinghai %8, Xuandu I, Xuanmen *, Xuanshi
,, Xueshan J , Yaochi Z, Yufang &, Yujing Shan , Yulu i,
Zhengshi ,, Zhenji :\, Zifu M$, Zijin Cheng M)+, Ziqing Gong MG4,
Ziwei MU, and Zuqiao ;d.
Upper dantian.
Jiufeng Shan 5 , Kongdong Shan D- , Kunlun EF, Xumi Shan Sb

, Zengshan l , Zhurong Feng =`5, Zuigao Feng K@5.
Crown.
Brain.
Jiugong 4, Xumi Shan Sb , and Yulou ^.
Dongfang 1&, Huagai O[, Lujian gQ, Mingtang 'B,

Shangen 7, Shoucun , Tianmu , Tianting 6, Tianzhong
, Youque
/e, Yumen *.
Brows and ophyron.
Dihu , Guangai Zhongyue jL

a, Lujian gQ, Mian zhi Yueshan 2
a , Mingmen "*, Qiqiao zhi Zong d#, Renzhong
, Shangen 7,
Shanyuan W, Tiangen 7, Tianmen *, Tianzhong zhi Yue
a, Xuanmen
*, Xuanpin , Yulong f, Zhongyue
a.
Nose.
Digen 7, Dihu , Huachi O, Pinhu , Taihe Gong !4,
Tianchi , Tianguan h, Tianmen *, Xuanpin , Yuchi .
Mouth.
Throat.
Mingtang 'B, Xuanying c.
Dongfang 1&, Huangfang T&, Huangzhong T

, Jinque )e,
Mingtang 'B, Shenshi <,, Tufu >, Xintian Shenfu <N.
Middle dantian.
Yellow Court.
Heart.
R$.
Huangpo TC, Mingmen "*, Mingtang 'B.
Jingong ), Jiuding X, Shangxuan , Xuehai 8, and Yuanyang fu
465
The main sources of these terms are the following dictionaries devoted to Daoism and/or qigong: Hu Fuchen,
Zhonghua daojiao da cidian; Huang Jian and Zhu Huiqin, Jianming qigong cidian; Li Yuanguo, Zhonuo daojiao qigong
yangsheng daquan; L Guangrong, Zhonuo qigong cidian; Lu Jinchuan, Qigong chuantong shuyu cidian; Ma Jiren,
Shiyong yixue qigong cidian; Zhang Wenjiang and Chang Jin, Zhonuo chuantong qigong xue cidian; Zhang Zhizhe,
Daojiao wenhua cidian.
359
Liver.
Yinger o3.
Chan
, Huagai [h, Mingtang :P.
Lungs.
Changong vH, Danding e, Dantai g, Danyuan ,

Danyuan Gong H, Digen %I, Dihu %, Dongfang C8, Dongyang Zaohua
Lu ;^Vx, Fuming Guan X4w, Guanyuan w, Guizhong U, Gushen 2
N, Hongmeng Qiao rqs, Huangjia _G, Huangjin Shi _>A, Huayue Shantou
[pm, Huiyin `W, Hunyuan Danding Se, Jingfang f8, Jinghai fK,
Jinglu fd, Jingshe f<, Jinmen b?, Jiuqiao s, Kungong 5H, Kunwei 5/,
Linggen yI, Lingguan yw, Lingshan y, Longhu Xue n=#, Mihu Q,
Mingmen 4?, Mingtang :P, Nei Sanyao E, Neiding e, Penghu j,
Pingyi Xue 9#, Pomen k?, Qiaonei Qiaozhong Qiao sss, Qihai JK,
Qiji Men Jl?, Qizhong t, Qujiang (+, Renmen ?, San Chakou 0,
Sangong H, Sangu 2, Sanshiliu Guan w, Shang Tianti R, Shantou
m, Shengmen !?, Shengsi Xue !*#, Shenlu Nx, Shenshi NA, Shouling '
y, Taixuan Guan w, Taiyuan T, Tandi i7, Tiangen I, Tianxin ,
Tufu O, Wailu x, Wuji Men ?, Xichuan ., Xifang ., Xinan Xiang
.@], Xintian Shenfu "NZ, Xishan ., Xiyi Fu 1&6, Xuanguan w,
Xuanmen ?, Xuanming F, Xuanpin -, Xuanpin Men -?, Xuanqiao
s, Xuanxiang ], Xuwei Xue \$#, Yangding ê, Yinlu Wx, Yuangong H,
Yuanyang Jinghai ^fK, Yuanyang zhi Men ^?, Yuchi ,, Yuding e,
Yueku c, Yulu x, Zaohua Lu Vx, Zhenyi Qiao Ls, Zhongchi ,,
Zhongji a, Zhusha Ding )De, and Zuqiao Ms.
Lower dantian.
Yiqiao s, Zuqiao Ms, Yuanqiao s, Xuguan \w, Xuguan Yiqiao
\ws, Xuwu Yiqiao \Ys, Zhenyi Qiao Ls, Zhenqiao Ls, Zhenkong
Qiao Ls, Hunyuan Yiqiao Ss, Lingguan Yiqiao yws, Lingming
Yiqiao y:s, Qixue J#.
Xuanguan.
Mingmen.
Mihu Q.
Danyuan Gong H, Jingfu f6, Mihu Q, Xiaxuan , Xuanpin
-, Xuanxiang ], Youque Bu.
Kidneys.
Gate of seminal essence.
Yufang
8.
Tail Gate Pass.
w.
Anus.
Jinmen >?, Jingguan fw, Jingmen f?, Yangguan ^w,
Jinmen b?, Jiuqiao s, Longhu Xue n=#, Taixuan Guan
Dihu %.
360
Li Daochuns Classication of Teachings
DZ 249, Zhonghe ji 2.12b117a7
A. The Nine Grades of Marginal Traditions pangmen jiupin
A.1. The Lower Three Grades xia sanpin
A.1.1. The Lowest of the Lower Grade DZ 249, 2.12b913a7
Riding women within the bedchamber,

gathering and battling at the Three Peaks,
drinking from the breasts,
turning ones face to the furnace,
taking a woman as the caldron,
taking the menses or natural gui, tiangui
as the pharmacon,
taking the vagina or birthgate, chanmen
as the place which gives life to the body
shengshenchu
,
taking seminal essence and menstrual blood as the germ of the great pharmacon,
forging the male and female swords,
erecting the yin and yang furnaces,
calling the woman pure yang,
pointing to the menses yuejing
as the ultimate treasure, gathering this and ingesting it,
taking one month as one recycling,
using nine women as nine caldrons,
making nine reversions in nine years,
compelling a virginal boy and girl to copulate, and gathering their rst emissions jing ,
obtaining the milletgrainlike thing from within the yin region and regarding it as the mystic
pearl,
or even prizing the golden
ower and playing with the golden spear,
the seventytwo traditions of conquest in battle through force of weapons,
entering much and exiting little,
nine shallow and one deep
perverse and absurd things like this are called mud alchemy to the number of more than three
hundred items. This is a dao of great disorder, the lowest perverse dao of the lowest grade.
A.1.2. The Middle of the Lower Grade DZ 249, 2.13a8b4
There are also eightyfour traditions of techniques of contact and thirtysix types of gathering the
yin:
using the caul as the purple waterwheel heche
,
re ning urine into autumn stones qiushi
,
taking the ingesting of ones own seminal essence as returning to the origin huanyuan
,
taking the pinching of the tailgate coccyx
as sealing the gate,
taking the stopping of ejaculation during coitus between husband and wife as no
361
out
ow, wulou
,466
gathering the womans menses as the red circle.
Some people re ne the ve metals and eight stones of laboratory alchemy to make a bolus, then
compel a women to ingest it. After ten months, she gives birth to a lump of
esh, which they take as
the ultimate pharmacon, gather, and ingest. I do not wish to mention all of the absurd techniques like
this. There are roughly three hundred items herein, the middle heterodox dao waidao
of the
lowest grade.
A.1.3. The Higher of the Lower Grade DZ 249, 2.13b58
There are also the various grades of the elixir stove and furnace re i.e., laboratory alchemy:
roasting and working with the ve metals and eight stones,
cooking geng and drying mercury,
lighting cogongrass fuel and roasting gen ,
stirring ashes and playing with re,
even the outer pharmacon of numinous granulated cinnabar,
the three escapes and ve reliances sanxun wujia
,467
and the more than four hundred methods of ingesting metals, stones, and plants.
These are the higher heterodox dao of the lower grade.
As for the three lower grades above, with more than one thousand items altogether, are practiced by
the people who are greedy, lustful, and fond of personal advantage.
A.2. The Middle Three Grades zhong sanpin
A.2.1. The Lower of the Middle Grade DZ 249, 2.14a15
Abstaining from cereal grains,

enduring the cold and eating cha ,
eating from the prickly ash jiaomu
,
exposing ones back to the sun and lying prostrate on the ice,
fasting once a day,
sometimes maintaining a pure fast, sometimes eating,
and doing a lot of odd and unusual things
some take drinking alcohol without becoming drunk as an ecacious sign of spiritual power,
some take the reduction of their food intake as the choutian subtracting and supplementing
yin and yang quantities in alchemy
,
some do not eat the ve
avors but do eat the three white things,468
some do not eat cooked food,
some drink alcohol and eat meat
not caring about their own person or lifeendowment, and calling this nonaction, toss and
turn like stormy seas fancang daohai
all these di erent kinds of weird fabrications are the lowest of the middle grade.
A.2.2. The Middle of the Middle Grade DZ 249, 2.14a5b1
466
Wulou is a Buddhist term for an advanced attainment of one who is nearing arhathood or buddhahood, when
one ceases producing new karma.
467
The ve reliances are ve magical methods of hiding the physical form Hu Fuchen, Zhonghua daojiao da
cidian, s.v. wujia, , 783, and wujia fa
, 617
, and the three escapes sound like something similar. I
do not know why these belong to the category of laboratory alchemy. Did alchemists rely on three or ve items to
escape from the mortal condition?
468
This is a Buddhist term. The three white things are probably plain rice, water, and salt Hanyu da cidian, s.v.
sanbai
, though another de nition lists milk, cheese, and rice Foguang da cidian, s.v. sanbai shi
.
362
Gulping down auroras tunxia &

and ingesting qi,
gathering the essences of sun and moon,
gulping down the radiances of asterisms and planets,
ingesting the qi of the ve directions
some gather the qi of water and re,
some take the yunyong469 to be concentrating the thoughts and making them present in the
imagination, then roving about the nine continents in thought,
some take the hehe
harmonious union
to be visualizing the two qi within the body in the
form of a man and a woman, with the appearance of a human married couple copulating and
gathering pharmaca
all these visualizations, and many kinds of vapid and crazy methods, are the middle of the middle
grade.
A.2.3. The Highest of the Middle Grade DZ 249, 2.14b26
Transmitting and receiving the Three Refuges and Five Lay Precepts,
reading, chanting, and cultivating good habits,
transmitting and putting trust in the dharma,
obtaining karmic responses,
practicing examination and assignment of demons? kaofu
,
obtaining a return route home guicheng '
, a return to emptiness guikong '
, ten
trustworthy signs shixin
, three intervals sanji !
, and nine meetings jiujie
,470
gazing at the asterisms from afar and making reverence to the Dipper
some abstain from speaking,
some put their e orts into hard work, guarding their external merit
all of the above is purposeful action youwei
, thus the higher of the middle grade, gradually and
by stages approaching the Dao.
As for the three middle grades above, with more than one thousand items altogether, if you practice
them unstintingly, you may gradually enter the realm of excellence. Pay great attention to this!
A.3. The Higher Three Grades shang sanpin
A.3.1. The Lower of the Higher Grade DZ 249, 2.14b915a4
Gazing inwardly in sam

dhi, re
ecting the physical form, and keeping it present in the
imagination,
expelling stale air and taking in fresh air, massage, and extinguishing the breath,
the Eight Sections of Brocade and the Qi of the Six Characters,471
watching the fontanel and concentrating on the root of the umbilicus,
gulping saliva and stirring up divine waters saliva
469
Yunyong usually means application, but in inner alchemy it means transporting pharmaca along tracts within
the subtle body.
470
These are Buddhist terms. Guicheng may refer to a Chanstyle examination of ones original self. Guikong is a
vague, common usage. Shixin are ten mental states attained by a bodhisattva. Sanji are three intervals of the year,
or the three realms of past, present and future. I did not nd jiujie. Foguang da cidian, s.v. guicheng xiangcan '
, shixin, sanji
.
471
The Eight Sections of Brocade is a daoyin guiding and pulling

practice involving stretching and breathing,
attested as early as the Song Dynasty and still practiced today; Hu Fuchen, Zhonuo daojiao da cidian, s.v. Baduan
jin % and Baduan jin daoyin fa %$, 1031. The practice is encapsulated by a text of eight stanzas,
thus its name. The SixCharacter Formula is a set of six breathingsounds# Xu! or Shi!
, He! or Ha!
,
Hu!
, Si!
, Chui!
, " Xi!
each of which stimulates one of the viscera; ibid., s.v. Liuzi qijue ,
1079.
363
some take a thousand mouthfuls of water472 to be envivifying,

some take the red dragon to be the tongue,
some take the ring huohou to mean rubbing the body until it is hot,
some seek longevity in one shout and nine massagestrokes,
some rene thick spittle as the perfected seeds zhenzhongzi ,
some concentrate on the dantian,
some cup ? dou the genitals in hand,
even boiling the sea and watching the nose, taking saliva and spitfroth as the pharmacon
this is the lower of the higher grade.
A.3.2. The Middle of the Higher Grade DZ 249, 2.15a510
Holding the breath and circulating qi,
stretching and crooking, guiding and pulling,
massaging the waist and kidneys, concentrating on the Seal Hall yintang , ophryon,
rolling the two eyeballs, shaking the shoulder blades, concentrating on the umbilical disk
some take the two eyeballs as sun and moon,
some take the point between the brows ophryon as the Mystic Pass,
some take gnashing the teeth as the Celestial Gate,
some visualize the yang spirit coming and going through the fontanel,
some dream of roving to the realm of the transcendents,
some silently pay court to the thearch on high,
some take sam
dhi as a dusky, deep sinking a woozy feeling?
,
some take the ring periods as counting respirations,
some visualize jiji , equilibrium, e.g., of water and re as the meeting of the black qi and
white qi of heart and kidneys
this is the middle of the higher grade.
A.3.3. The Higher of the Higher Grade DZ 249, 2.15b14
Transporting essence and qi,
causing
the three res to revert to the umbilicus,
adjusting and harmonizing the ve viscera,
applying
the sixteen methods of inner
vision,
concentrating xedly on the dantian,
ingesting the yellow qi within the dantian
,
recycling and reverting the three dantian,
replenishing the brain and recycling the seminal essence,
raising both of the golden wells,473
transporting pharmaca through?
the twin pass of the Spinal Straits,
clutching tightly and gazing within
all of these kinds of transporting practices are the higher of the higher grade.
As for the three higher grades above, with more than one thousand items altogether, if gentlemen of
middling aptitude
practice them, they may rid themselves of disease.
B. The Three Gradual Vehicles jianfa sancheng

B.1. The Lower Vehicle DZ 249, 2.15b716a1
For the lower vehicle
472
The DZ 249 edition reads a thousand mouthfuls of wood mu , but this must be a transcription error.
473
This means constricting the Gate of Seminal Essence and the anus; Zhang Wenjiang and Chang Jin, Zhonuo
chuantong qigong xue cidian, s.v. shuangti jinjing , 203.
364
the caldron and furnace are body and mind,

the pharmaca are essence and qi,
the water and re are heart and kidneys,
the ve agents are the ve viscera,
the dragon and tiger are liver and lungs,
the perfected seeds are essence,
the ring periods are
carried out according to year, month, day, and doublehour,
the bathing muyu ! is irrigating by swallowing saliva,
the Three Essentials sanyao are mouth and nose,
the Mysterious Pass is in front of the kidneys and behind the umbilicus,
and the completion of the elixir is the mixture of the Five Agents wuxing hunhe $
This is a method of paci cation and enjoyment anle / comprising more than a hundred
applications. If one is able to put emotional dispositions out of ones mind, one may nurture the life
endowment
thereby. It is somewhat similar to the higher three grades, but diers in application.
B.2. The Middle Vehicle DZ 249, 2.16a38
For the middle vehicle,
the caldron and vessel are qian and kun,
the re and water are kan and li,
the pharmaca are crow and rabbit,
the ve agents are essence, spirit, cloudsouls, whitesouls, and intention jing, shen, hun, po, yi -"
.1+ ,
the dragon and tiger are body and mind,
the perfected seeds are qi,
the ring periods are the cold and hot periods of one annual cycle yinian hanshu '( ,
the bathing is irrigation with dharmawater fashui ,
the reinforcing and bonding guji 4 is not coming out of the inner realm and not entering
the outer realm , ,,
the Three Essentials are the Great Gulf Taiyuan
% , the Crimson Palace Jianggong ) , and
the Chamber of Seminal Essence Jingfang - ,
the Mysterious Pass is the MudPellet Palace,
and the completion of the elixir is the mixture of essence and spirit.
This middle vehicle is a method of nurturing the lifeendowment yangming 0 , comprising several
dozen applications. It is mostly identical to the lower vehicle. If you practice it unstintingly, you may
live long changsheng jiushi * .
B.3. The Higher Vehicle DZ 249, 2.16a10b5
For the upper vehicle,
the caldron and furnace are Heaven and Earth,
the water and re are the sun and moon,
the catalyst of transformation huaji 3 is yin and yang,
the ve agents are lead, mercury, silver, granulated cinnabar, and earth,
the dragon and tiger are inherent nature xing and dispositions qing ,
the perfected seed is thought nian ,
the ring periods involve re ning thought by using the mind,
the nurturing of the re involves sti
ing the thoughts xinian ,
the reinforcing and bonding involves holding the light within hanguang ,
the battling in the wilds yezhan &2 involves conquering and subduing the inner mara
demons,
the Three Essentials are body, mind, and intention,
the Mysterious Pass is the Heart of Heaven,
the elixir is complete when the dispositions revert to the inherent nature qinglai guixing #5
,
the bathing is the harmonious qi rising like smoke.
365
The higher vehicle is a dao of extending the lifespan; within it there is much that is similar to the
middle vehicle, but the points of application are dierent. It also comprises several dozen items. If
superior gentlemen practice it without changing from beginning to end, they may actualize the dao of
transcendenthood.
C. The Supreme One Vehicle DZ 249, 2.16b917a6

The supreme one vehicle is the highest marvelous dao of ultimate perfection, in which
the caldron is the Great Void,
the furnace is the Great Ultimate,
the foundation for the elixir is clarity and stillness qingjing
,
the mother of the elixir is nonaction,
the lead and mercury are inherent nature and life endowment,
the water and re are sam dhi and praj ,
the copulation of water and re involves the sti
ing of desire and anger,
the conjunction of metal and wood involves the union of inherent nature and dispositions,
the bathing involves washing the mind and rinsing away cares,
the reinforcing and bonding involves maintaining ones sincerity and xing ones intention,
the Three Essentials are
la, sam dhi, and praj ,
the Mysterious Pass is the Center,
the e cacious reaction is illumination of the mind mingxin ,
the crystallizing and forming ningjie is actualization of the inherent nature xianxing ,
the holy embryo involves the mixing and union of the Three Primes,
the completion of the elixir is when inherent nature and life endowment are knocked together
into one piece ,
the parturition is having a body beyond the body,
and the nal completion is busting the void emptiness.
This is the wonder of the supreme one vehicle. If gentlemen of ultimate
aptitude practice it, when
their merit is swelling and full, they may directly transcend through perfect and sudden
enlightenment, and physical form and spirit both wondrous, unite with the Dao in perfection.
366
Chapter 5, Chen Zhixus Path

to Alchemical Salvation
This chapter is a study of Chen Zhixus sexualalchemical dao and its place within the
eld of Chinese sexual cultivation. In section 1, I ask the question Was Chen really a
sexual alchemist? and oer proof that he was. Section 2 is a historical and
comparative introduction to Chinese sexual macrobiotics and sexual alchemy,
drawing on the work of Douglas Wile and Hao Qin. In addition to taking a position
on controversial subjects such as the nature of sexual energy in Chinese tradition
, I
also develop a general picture of the eld of sexual cultivation, based on ve ideal
types.
Section 3, the bulk of this chapter, is a comprehensive account of Chens
sexualalchemical path. In section 3.0, I analyze one half of Chens transmission
epistle to his disciple Deng Yanghao the other half was presented on pages 10914
.
This epistle shows us what an adept must know as he sets out on the alchemical
path. I divide the alchemical path proper into four phases, and discuss them in
sections 3.1 through 3.4, oering translations and close readings of selected passages
arranged by topic. Within these sections, I make a number of dierent arguments on
topics such as the human relationship or lack of one
between the male adept and
female partner s
, the functions of the partners water during the moment of
gathering the outer pharmacon, and the rich conceptual clusters that Chen expresses
in his writing. I argue that there are some unusual aspects to Chens alchemical
practice: for example, microcosmic orbital circulation plays a much smaller role in
his practice than in any other I have seen, and his use of alchemical ring patterns is
surprisingly abstract. In section 4, I analyze passages in which Chen translates his
alchemical dao into the language of 1
Chan and Yogcra Buddhism, 2
Mencian
Confucianism, and 3
solo inner alchemy. In the conclusion, I compare Chens
teachings with other historical soloalchemical teachings as introduced in chapter 4
.
367
I also oer a comparison of Chens practices with other historical forms of sexual

cultivation in section 2.4.
1. But Was Chen Really a Sexual Alchemist?

Dozens of Chinese commentators over the centuries have believed that Chen was a
sexual alchemist, and I agree with them. Yet at least one Western scholarIsabelle
Robinethas demurred. In section 3 of this chapter I analyze Chens alchemy
systematically; yet because of the gravity of Robinets reservations, I must begin with
a section addressing the question of whether Chens alchemy was sexual at all. My
overall account of Chen Zhixu depends on my argument that he is a sexual alchemist,
so I here defend this position at some length. This section is also a contribution to
the general issue of classifying inneralchemical works: how do we know whether any
particular text is discussing solo alchemy, sexual alchemy, or both?
1.1, Chinese Readers
Many premodern Chinese readers have identi ed Chens teachings as sexual. In
chapter 6, I will discuss the reactions of more than two dozen premodern Chinese
readers, including a dozen of them who explicitly identify Chens teachings as sexual.
Some later readers do not mention sexual alchemy at all, but to my knowledge, only
one Chinese commentator has ever explicitly argued that Chens teachings are not
sexual. This was the editor of a nineteenthcentury gazetteer for Mt. Jiugong.1
Some of Chen Zhixus readers in the lateimperial period are very critical of
his sexual teachings. We can see one representative premodern reading of Chens
Jindan dayao as a book on sexual alchemy in an essay penned by the Ming literatus
Wang Shizhen 152690 . This is a book review of sorts:
1
Fu Xieding, untitled discussion in Zazhi section of Jiugong Shan zhi, 14.14b p. 476 in reprint ed. . Chen
Zhixu was an eminent visiter to Mt. Jiugong in presentday Hubei Province , so this local, latterday, Confucian
editor wishes to retain Chens good name, and the glory Chen brings to the mountain, while rejecting the practice
of gathering and battling at the three peaks sanfeng caizhan
. He reads Chens rejection of sanfeng
caizhan as proof that Chen teaches that the pharmaca are within ones own body yao zai benshen . On
pages 38082 below, I prove that Chen does not teach that both pharmaca are within ones own body.
368
Chen Shangyang, named Zhixu, was a man of the Yuan dynasty. As for Daoist
books, he read almost all of them. Although he was not able to achieve a docile
re nement in his style, yet his book
is still grand and unrestrained, erudite in
judgment, and forms a school of thought unto itself. His discussion of essence, qi,
and spirit is incisive and moving, justi ed with citations from dharmatalks. His
sections
on Marvelous Application of the Golden Elixir and the Pharmaca
also have gleanable contents. But as for what he says about
the crescentmoon
stove in the section on the Caldron and Vessel, that the ingredient
must be
gathered from within the body of the woman, well, thats absurd! The one thing I
nd odd is his preposterous citation of Confucians and Buddhists, impudently
sullying the sages words. I feel that, if he did not ameliorate his guilt, it would
alter his fateaccount with
the Good Star. I have spoken of this in detail in my
review of Wuzhen pian. . . .
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2
Wang Shizhen is certain that sexual alchemy can be found in both of the texts by
Chen that he has read. In chapter 6 I translate and analyze many statements by later
literati and Daoist authors that are in the same vein as Wangs statement.
Modern Chinese scholars of Daoism, many of whom practice contemporary
traditional scholarship, also regard Chen as a sexual alchemist. Wang Mu says that
Chen Zhixu advocates both qingxiu @7 pure cultivation, solo alchemy and
yinyang femalemale, sexual alchemy teachings. He says that Chens Wuzhen pian
commentary DZ 142 is a work of the yinyang school yinyang pai BM4.3 Li
Yuanguo, Qing Xitai et al., and Kong Linghong include Chen within the school of
the dualcultivation of yin and yang yinyang shuangxiu pai BMd74.4 This
yinyang school is an anachronistic heuristic category, and not a term that sexual
alchemists use to describe themselves. Liu Tsunyan argues that Chen is a sexual
alchemist, citing passages from Jindan dayao, and from Chens Wuzhen pian
commentary. Lius work must be taken with a grain of salt, though: he also makes the
Wang Shizhen, Yanzhou Shanren xugao 159.13a8b4 57:728384. I discuss Wang Shizhens paper war against Chen
below on pages 61424. This passage is also translated on pp. 62021, with additional footnotes.
3
Wang Mu, Wuzhen pian qianjie, preface, 9, and 5.
Li Yuanguo, Daojiao qigong yangsheng xue, 41013; Qing Xitai, Zhonuo daojiao shi, 3:375; Kong Linghong, Song
Ming daojiao sixiang yanjiu, 28081.
369
dubious claim that sexual alchemy was practiced in the early Quanzhen movement.5
Hao Qin identi es Chen as a sexual alchemist.6 Ge Guolong identi es Zhao Youqin,
Chens master, as a sexual alchemist.7 Yang Ming identi es the commentaries of Lu
Shu and Chen Zhixu in DZ 142 as sexualalchemical precursors to Lu Xixings
tradition.8 Zhang Zhenguo says that Zhao Youqin and Chen Zhixu altered the
teachings of the Southern Lineage into sexual alchemy.9 Hu Fuchen and Zeng
Chuanhui represent a sidebranch of contemporarytraditional scholarship. They
claim that the form of sexual alchemy that Chen Zhixu teaches is dragontiger
alchemy longhu danfa
, in which the alchemist employs a copulating
couple but does not himself have intercourse.10 I do not believe Chen Zhixu teaches
this form of alchemy, but there is some evidence that Zhao Youqin does I discuss
this issue on pages 45962 below. One authority on whom I rely in chapter 4, Ma
Jiren, does not oer an opinion on whether Chen Zhixu teaches solo or sexual
alchemy.
1.2, Robinet
In contrast to these nearly two dozen modern and premodern Chinese readers,
Isabelle Robinet argues against the claim that Chens teachings were sexual,
addressing herself to Li Yuanguos position in particular. She notes that Lis sexual
reading of Weng Baoguang and Chen Zhixu depends partly on Lis sexual reading of
alchemical terms such as wo and bi or guyin guayang see pages 37273
below.11 As I argue above and in chapter 6, however, Li Yuanguos sexual reading of
Chen Zhixu is not based solely on his interpretation of such metaphors, but on an
interpretive tradition stretching back to Wang Shizhen and Wang Yangming in the
5
Liu Tsunyan, Lu Hsihsing and His Commentaries on the Tsantungchi, 204, 20911.
Hao Qin, Longhu dandao, 126, 311.
Yang Ming, Daojiao yangshengjia Lu Xixing yu ta de Fanghu waishi, 1920.
Zhang Zhenguo, Wuzhen pian daodu, 29.
10
Hu Fuchen, in Yuandai Cantong xue, by Zeng Chuanhui, third preface Xu san , 12; also, Zeng, ibid., 251.
11
Robinet, Sur le sens des termes waidan et neidan, 6.
370
Ming dynasty, if not to Chens contemporaries Dai Qizong and Zhang Yuchu. As
such, Lis views are by no means gratuitous and without any justi cation,12 as
Robinet says. Robinet argues that seemingly sexual terms such as wo/bi or guyin
guayang in the literature are merely metaphorical; she argues that the classic inner
alchemists rejected sexual alchemy and taught solo alchemy, citing Chen Zhixu
himself as an example.13 To a certain extent, Robinet is correct on each of these
counts: alchemical language should not be read too rigidly, as if it had a single
meaning; Chen was indeed rejecting a form of sexual practice; and Chen did teach
solo alchemy to some of his disciples. But the fact remains that Chen was a sexual
alchemist. Now let us look at each of Robinets points in turn.
1.3, Alchemical Language
Robinet is right to warn against the mechanical interpretation of alchemical terms.
As I have shown in chapter 4 in part drawing on Robinets work, any alchemical
term can be, and historically has been, interpreted in many dierent ways. Lets take
the Wuzhen pian line Let the other be the host, and the self be the guest
14 as an example. According to a sexual reading, this line is saying that the
female partner ta , the other should take the active role, while the male partner
wo , the self merely responds; this could refer to the woman riding the man,
which is a position contrary diandao to comman practice.15 However, Wang
Mu, a contemporary commentator writing from the soloalchemical perspective of
the Longmen lineage of Quanzhen Daoism,16 understands the line quite dierently.
For Wang Mu, the self here refers both to the trigram qian and to spirit shen
, while the other refers both to the trigram kun and to essence. According
12
Robinet, Sur le sens des termes waidan et neidan, 5.
13
Robinet, Introduction lalchimie intrieure taoste, 48 50. Robinet,Sexualit et Taosme, also dicusses the
general subject of sexual metaphors in inner alchemy.
14
15
See p. 323 above for my discussion of diandao as a conceptual cluster, and p. 478 below for my discussion of this
sex position in sexual alchemy.
16
Wang Ka Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing pointed out to me that Wang Mus commentary
clearly re
ects a Longmen perspective.
371
to Wang Mu, the line is describing two things:

1 qians surrendering its position to li , i.e., the decay of the cosmos
on the macrocosmic register or the trigrams on the mesocosmic register from
the perfect xiantian precosmic or prenatal state of pureyang qian into the
imperfect houtian postcosmic or postnatal fallen state of li; and
2 the degeneration on the microcosmic register of primal spirit yuanshen

into mere cognitive spirit shishen , and of primal essence yuanjing
into
mere human semen or blood fanjing .17
The Wuzhen pian line is ambiguousboth sexual and nonsexual readings are valid
within Daoist tradition, within the Wuzhen pian commentarial tradition, and arguably
even within the original frame of meaning of the Wuzhen pian text itself as far as we
can determine this. As Robinet notes in her book,18 and as I have shown in chapter
4, alchemical discourse contains multiple registers, and often activates homologies
between elements on these dierent registers. Alchemical discourse is consciously
and intentionally ambiguous, and this ambiguity has made alchemy a big tent able
to accommodate radically dierent perspectives. Like the Daode jing, alchemical texts
often oer hints of secret underlying meaning without committing themselves to any
single straightforward reading. This, no doubt, has contributed to the popularity and
prevalence of alchemical discourse in Chinese culture.
Let us continue with another example. Robinet criticizes Li Yuanguo for
taking the phrase guyin guayang as proof of sexual alchemy. Here is a passage in which
Chen Zhixu uses the term:
Nowadays, people sit dazedly in the mountains, with widowed yin and yang guyin
guayang, taking this to be cultivating the dao, and wishing for long life. What a
great absurdity! Dont they know that if yin and yang are blocked or obstructed,
then they cannot achieve creation and transformation zaohua? How much the
more for the dao of the golden elixir!

19
Is Chen criticizing selfcultivators who insist on celibacy as I believe, or is he
merely cricitizing selfcultivators who do not know how to eect the alchemical
17
Paraphrased from Wang Mu, Wuzhen pian qianjie, 66, with added explanation.
18
E.g., Robinet, Introduction lalchimie intrieure taoste, 82, 91.
19
DZ 142, Ziyang Zhenren Wuzhen pian sanzhu 5.9a8b1 commentary by Chen Zhixu.
372
reaction of their inner yin and yang elements as Robinet would believe? Robinet is
correct to say that merely nding terms such as wo/bi or guyin guayang in Chens
writing is not proof that Chens teachings are sexual. I believe that these terms may
occur more often in sexual teachings.20 Yet these terms certainly can be found in
nonsexual teachings too: the dyad of wo and bi is found in the writings of the Bai
Yuchan, for example. Robinet notes that the phrase guyin guayang appears in the
writings of other alchemists such as Xia Zongyu or Wang Chongyang, alchemists
whom Li Yuanguo himself would consider to be solo alchemists.21 Other terms that
have manifest and literal sexual meanings for sexual alchemists, but are also
employed by solo alchemists, include shengshen chu the place that gives life to
the body, goujing zhi chu the place where essences are copulated, and
churu zhi menhu the gates for exiting and entering. For sexual
alchemists, these terms all refer to the sex organs. For example, shengshen chu means
the female sex organ: the place where the body of an infant is born, or where the
adept is reborn. Yet for a solo alchemist, the shengshen chu is the site within his own
body that gives him life, i.e., leads to transcendence.22 The argument for a sexual
reading of Chens texts must be based on more explicit references, or a pattern of
language, rather than merely upon the use of certain technical terms. Robinets
critique of Li Yuanguos evidence for sexual alchemy in Chens writing holds, but the
critique only invalidates one form of evidence, and does not solve the issue. I do
hope that, one day, we may be able to identify certain alchemical terms or patterns of
language which are distinctive of sexual alchemy. This would help us in the work of
20
Cf. Master Ans cryptic advice to Sun Ruzhongs father in the preface to in Jindan zhenchuan: When a hen
produces an egg by itself, the chick does not form; Wile, Art of the Bedchamber, 154. Also cf. Wugen shu, verse 4;
Wile, Art of the Bedchamber, 189. The locus classicus is the line If a hen lays eggs alone, the chick will be
incomplete
, from Cantong qi; cf. Zhouyi cantong qi fenzhang zhu, Daozang jiyao ed., 2.63a2.
21
Robinet, Taoism: Growth of a Tradition, 227, citing DZ, 146, Ziyang zhenren wuzhen pian jiangyi 2.8b, by Xia Zongyu,
and DZ 1156, Chongyang Zhenren jinguan yusuo jue 5a, attributed to Wang Chongyang. Also, Robinet, Introduction
lintrieure alchimie taoste, 49.
Liu Tsunyan notes that later Chinese readers did think that Xia Zongyu was a sexual alchemist; Zhang
Boduan yu Wuzhen pian, 802.
22
Zeng Chuanhui, Yuandai Cantong xue, 203, citing Yu Yan. For Yu Yan, at least in the passage Zeng is citing, the
shengshen chu appears to be related to the eyes.
373
mapping the alchemical eld.23
1.4, Orthodox vs. Heterodox Sexual Practices

Robinet is also correct to say that alchemical writers such as Chen Zhixu or Weng
Baoguang criticize some sexual practices,24 but she is wrong to infer that they
therefore must be rejecting sexual practice as such. What Chen is criticizing is not
sexual practice as such; rather, he is criticizing the perverse, strange sexual
practice of gathering and battling at the three peaks sanfeng caizhan =FW, or
the art of mounting women yun shu DH, which are distinct from his own
orthodox practice:
As for the yang essence, although one gets it within the bedchamber, this is not the
art of mounting women. If you practice the latter art, this is a perverse dao: how
could you live long this way? Thus the Buddha said: This man practices a
perverse dao, and cannot actualize his tathgata.25 If it is not a perfected teacher
who indicates the path of the yang essence, then this is one of the various
heterodox marginal traditions, which are all perverse practices. The blind
teachers of this generation transmit the strange arts of gathering the yin, the
three peaks, and mounting women from one to another. This is what is called
the blind leading the blind.
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Chen is saying that, while his practice is indeed done within the bedchamber
fangzhong +, it is distinct from the common arts of the bedchamber sanfeng
caizhan, yun shu, or fangzhong shu. As I show on pages 41416 below, sanfeng caizhan
gathering and battling at the three peaks is a practice involving oral sex.
Gathering refers to gathering the pharmaca in any form of alchemy, and is not a
23
Of course, there are explicit and indubious terms found in texts on sexual cultivation, e.g., the ve aairs of
concentrating, contracting, absorbing, inhaling, and locking cun, suo, xi, chou, bi, wushi Y"-I%,
discussed in Wile, Art of the Bedchamber, 14142, translating Zijin Guangyao Daxian xiuzhen yanyi. However, explicit
terms such as these are di
cult to nd in sexual alchemy texts.
24
Robinet, Introduction lintrieure alchimie tao ste, 50, citing DZ 1067, Shangyangzi Jindan dayao 5.13a 31K0F
S'
1 4ONZS; or Robinet, Sur le sens des termes waidan et neidan, 5, citing DZ 1067, 5.13a and
3.3b VL?G!S\*FT^*QSON.
25
This is a line from the Diamond Stra e.g., T 235, Jingang bore boluomi jing, 8:752a18 that is much quoted by Chan
authors.
26
DZ 142, Ziyang Zhenren Wuzhen pian sanzhu 4.17a6b1. My italics. Bold type indicates that Chan has taken words
from the original text here, Wuzhen pian and woven them into his commentary.
374
pejorative term. Battling invokes a military metaphor for sexual practice: the man
is to attack and capture the spoils.27 The three peaks are the female partners
mouth, breasts, and genitals, whence the man is to imbibe three dierent kinds of
sacred uid.28 Ynu shu the art of mounting women or fangzhong shu the art
used within the bedchamber literally mean sexual technique as such; yet when
they write scornful words about yun shu or fangzhong shu, Chen and his fellow sexual
alchemists are scorning, not all forms of sexual technique, but the practices of
common men, practices which are not necessarily Daoist at all.29
Later sexual alchemists such as Lu Xixing ' 1520
ca. 1601 and Sun
Ruzhong b. 1575, . 1616 make similar distinctions between orthodox and
heterodox practices. In describing a meeting with his transcendent teacher, L
Dongbin -, Lu Xixing writes:
At rst he spoke of attaining the Dao through uniting yin and yang. At that time
I absurdly mentioned the teachings of the three peaks, and asked my teacher
about them. He rejected them.
() +"10
,.!!
30
Sun Ruzhong writes:

In every case, the elixir scriptures say that it is acquired within the elixir
chamber bedchamber, but this is not a case of mounting women or
gathering and battling.
* $
%&/
31
Both of these texts are unmistakably teaching sexual alchemy, by Wile and anyone
else who has studied them. Like Chen Zhixu, Lu Xixing and Sun Ruzhong reject
sanfeng caizhan or yun shu as heterodox sexual practice, distinguishing it from their
27
Cf. the Wiles section The Battle of the Sexes, Art of the Bedchamber, 14
15.
28
Cf. Wiles translation of the Ming text Zijin Guangyao Daxian xiuzhen yanyi in Art of the Bedchamber, 140
41. This
text promises longevity rather than celestial transcendence, and has relatively little mesocosmic discourse, so I
call it classical huanjing bunao rather than sexual alchemy; see pp. 414
16 below.
29
These practices for common men would probably be much like the texts translated by Wile in his sections The
Sui Tang Classics Reconstructed the Ishimp texts, and Medical Manuals and Handbooks for Householders,
Art of the Bedchamber, 83
112, 113
46.
30
Lu Xixing, Jindan jiuzheng pian, preface, 8.14a10
12. For a loose translation, see Wile, Art of the Bedchamber, 149.
Three peaks sanfeng could refer either to the three peaks practice, or to the semi historical Daoists Zhang
Sanfeng # . Zhang Sanfeng # may also be written # or #2, though # is sometimes
considered to be a dierent person.
31
Sun, Jindan zhenchuan, preface, 3.2a1

2. Cf. Wile, Art of the Bedchamber, 154.
375
own orthodox sexual practice. Because Lu and Sun were sexual alchemists who
criticized sanfeng caizhan, Robinets argument that Chen Zhixu could not be a sexual
alchemist simply because he criticizes sanfeng caizhan does not hold water. Known
sexual alchemists and known critics of sexual alchemy alike both criticize sanfeng
caizhan, so criticism of sanfeng caizhan alone informs us only of the critics view of
sanfeng caizhan or at least his public position on this issue, and does not inform us of
the critics view of sexual alchemy.
Catherine Despeux has noted the di culty of identifying whether authors of
the later imperial period are teaching sexual alchemy, strictly solo alchemy, or both.
Her words are worth quoting at length I italicize the points most germane to my
argument:
Some alchemical schools rejected sexual partner practice; others integrated it into
their system. The Northern tradition, including Complete Perfection, generally
favored celibacy and sexual abstinence. . . . For them, the union of yin and yang
took place inside the adepts body, and sexual energy was not to be used
outwardly. The Southern traditions, on the other hand, made use of sexual
intercourse in their practice . . .
However, as time went on, in the Ming dynasty an increasing openness
regarding sexual matters developed. . . . Some strongly sexual schools did not put
their teachings into writing, while others publicly condemned bedroom arts yet
undertook them in private. Documents emerged that rejected sexual methods up front
but then discussed them in some detail in their midst. Some texts defended the
practice openly and strove to delimit it clearly om marital relations and the bedroom
arts. Others emphasized the spiritual dimension of twosome practice and its
bene ts for women, described as equal and competent partners in the great
work.32
Although she is talking about the Mingdynasty scene, Despeuxs points can be
applied to the case of Chen Zhixu as well. Chen strives to delimit sexual alchemy
clearly from marital relations and the bedroom arts, as well as from the techniques
of other practitioners.
In an article on Lu Xixing, Chen Zhixu, and other sexual alchemists, Liu
Tsunyan notes that the dierences between heterodox and orthodox sexual
practice are not easy to discern:
it seems to be very clear to us that the dierence between the Taoist dual
cultivation and the comparatively degenerate arts of love was very tenuous at that
32
Despeux and Kohn, Women in Daoism, 212.
376
time, in fact it was so vague that even Taoist priests themselves would have some
confusion in interpreting it. More often than not contradictory assertions may be
found in one and the same work.33
Liu is right to see that the dierences between sexual alchemists teachings and the
sexual teachings they rejected might not be obvious to an outside observer. Indeed,
sexual alchemists were the target of criticisms from readers who did not understand
the dierences between their orthodox teachings and gathering and battling, or
perhaps did not consider the dierences to be signi cant. As Chen writes:
The white tiger . . . is a thing dicult to attain. If you seek it without missing its
timing, you will certainly have a future among
the celestial transcendents. Only
this initial period of the white tiger may, with diculty, be called the precosmic one
qi.
The transcendent teacher Zhang Boduan
has gone to special lengths to leak
the secret
completely, and Xue Daoguang
and Lu Ziye
have glossed it in too
much detail. Of the fools of this generation, some have pointed to this as a teaching of
gathering and battling, while others have called it a technique involving
elixir of
the ladies quarters i.e., menses
. Disaster will come to these critics
personally.
If the student knows that the moon comes out from the geng quadrant on the
third day, only then may he seek to use the spiritwater of the oreate pool.
*-I6
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34
Chen writes that readers of these two sexualalchemical commentaries to Wuzhen
pian, by Xue Daoguang actually, Weng Baoguang and Lu Shu, regarded the
commentaries as teaching sanfeng caizhan. These two commentaries were published
together with Chens own commentary in DZ 142, and represent Chens own
alchemical tradition. Chen is saying, in eect, that they think we are teaching sanfeng
caizhan, but that is not what we teach. In the nal line of the quotation, rather than
changing to a new topic, Chen carefully repeats his own sexual teaching, noting that
the thing distinguishing his practice from sanfeng caizhan is that, in his practice, that
the adept must gather the female partners outer pharmacon at the moment in the
lunar cycle when it rst appears while it is still pure, not yet a dirty substance. So
Liu Tsunyan is right in noting that the distinction between this orthodox sexual
33
Liu Tsunyan, Lu Hsihsing and His Commentaries on the Tsantungchi, 209.
34
DZ 142, Ziyang Zhenren Wuzhen pian sanzhu 5.7b39. My italics.
377
practice and sanfeng caizhan was open to debate at the time.

In his teachings, Chen is walking a line between his true teaching, and the
various false teachings of
1 formless nonsexual practice,
2 substituting mere
sophistic rhetoric for religious practice, and
3 the vulgar arts of the bedchamber:
Alas! The foolish people of this generation, proud of their trigger and
blade i.e., skillful Chan dialogue , wish to achieve linguistic understanding
through words; proud of their intellects, they wish to achieve cognitive
understanding by grasping with the mind. Some rely upon perversity, practicing
gathering and battling; some merely sit in withered zazen, going it alone.
#%" &
&!
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35
Chens rejects
2 mere linguistic uency, probably referring to Chan Buddhist kan
practice associated with the Linji lineage, but perhaps also to people who approached
alchemy in the same way. He rejects
2 the mere cognitive approach of the
autodidact reader of alchemical treatises, who claims to understand alchemy but has
never met a true teacher. He rejects the
3 dualpractice of the vulgar sexual arts,
and
1 the solitary practice of calming meditation. He says that he practices none of
the above; yet I will argue later in this chapter that Chens practices actually have
anities with both the vulgar arts and concentration meditation.
Liu Tsunyan is right to say that the line between the orthodox and the
heterodox is a ne one, yet he is wrong to say that even Taoist priests themselves
would have some confusion in interpreting the dierences between the two forms of
sexual practice. The crucial dierence is that gathering and battling involves
collecting material secretions from the female partner, whereas orthodox sexual
alchemy involves collecting only intangible qi. This qi is collected from the woman at
a certain point in her temporal cycle. This might be at a point in her menstrual cycle
just before the appearance of her menses:36
We may say that, at this time, when the ingredient has just been generated, the
source of the waters is perfectly limpid, never having been stirred. This is the
moment when there is qi, but no material substance. The great cultivator must
approach this moment in haste, equipped with his single wisdomeye, and then
35
DZ 142, Ziyang Zhenren Wuzhen pian sanzhu 4.26b8 10.
36
Some sexual alchemical texts, such Jindan jieyao, ascribed to Zhang Sanfeng , mention more complex
theories for identifying the arising of the womans primal qi, going beyond the manifest menstrual cycle. Cf. pages
177 78 of Wiles translation of Jindan jieyao in Art of the Bedchamber.
378
determine its signs.

&,- %
!. ")'
(#37
Chen Zhixus sexual practice involves gathering the primal qi generated in the
woman; while the appearance of the qi is coincident with the appearance of the
menses, Chens practice does not involve gathering and ingesting physical substances.
This is the most basic distinction between his sexual practice and the vulgar arts of
the bedchamber.
Hao Qin claims that the sexual alchemists distinguish their teachings from
heterodox sexual cultivation in terms of the position of women, saying that in true
sexual alchemy, the woman bene ts too.38 While Chen Zhixu does hint that both
partners bene t from the practice see page 467 below
, he never cites this as
evidence of the superiority of his tradition. I have never seen evidence to support
Hao Qins claim, which re
ects a modern rather than premodern moral perspective.
Wile writes that the central problems for the sexual theoreticians themselves were
practical not ethical.39 He notes that, at best, sexual cultivators such as Sun Ruzhong
and Chen Zhixu, we could add
have a moral concern not to leak the secret
teachings to the wrong persons. Moral concern for the female partner is an issue that
rarely arises in their writings. I discuss these issues on pages 46368 below.
Chens sexual cultivation is a sublimation of the bedchamber arts. Chen was
not the rst to sublimate sexual macrobiotics. Another notable sublimator is Yang Xi
$* 33086
, the source of most of the early Shangqing scriptures. As Stephen
Bokenkamp has shown, Yangs revelations include a description of hieros gamos
marriage and sublimated sexual intercourse with a goddess using energies or spirits
jing
rather than physical contactand Yang Xis revelation is presented as an
alternative to the bedchamber practices of his patron Xu Mi + 30373
.40 The
37
DZ 1067, Shangyangzi Jindan dayao 7.3a10b2. My italics.
38
Hao Qin, Longhu dandao, 305, citing DZ 142, Ziyang Zhenren Wuzhen pian sanzhu 4.11a2 Li Shus commentary
.
39
Wile, Art of the Bedchamber, 17. Some premodern texts discussing sexual practice may consider the potential
harm to the female partner from her point of view. The Laozi xianger zhu asks But what creditor female partner
exists who will loan? So they male adepts receive nothing; Bokenkamp, Early Daoist Scriptures, 125. I have not
seen this perspective in the sexualalchemical literature, however.
40
Bokenkamp, Declarations of the Perfected.
379
dierence between Chen and Yang Xi is that Chen s sublimation of sexual

macrobiotics still involves physical coition, while Yang s does not. Or, we might
compare Chen s tradition with that of the early Celestial Masters. Like Chen and his
heirs, the early Celestial Master text Laozi xianger zhu inveighs against the
bedchamber arts of the Yellow Thearch, the Dark Maiden Xuann, Gongzi, and
Rongcheng, while teaching the Celestial Masters own form of sexual cultivation,
the sacred ritual of heqi
merging qi.41
1.5, SoloAlchemical Teachings?

Finally, Robinet argues that Chen Zhixu states explicitly that no ingredient needed
in interior alchemy practice can exist outside the body.42 Robinet cites the following
passage as evidence:
As for the great Dao, within Heaven and Earth it produces beings. Qian and kun
cover over and spawn the beings. Sun and moon, and yin and yang, unite with
them or the Dao in creation and transformation zaohua. Within the human
body, the situation is not outside of this. Heaven and Earth take yin and yang as
bellows and tuyre, and the human body takes xuan and pin as bellows and tuyre.
&'!( $%#
"
$%*)*)43
There is no evidence against a sexual reading of Chen s writings here.44 The passage
merely correlates the Dao s power of zaohua in the cosmos with the same power in
the human body, and correlates yin and yang in the macrocosm with xuan and pin
which I will argue are the sex organs in the corporeal microcosm. Chen s reference
to the human body here does not merely mean my body, but could mean the body
of the partner as well. What Robinet would need to make this claim properly would
be a phrase such as male and female within the body ; such a phrase can
41
Bokenkamp, Early Daoist Scriptures, 43

44, discussing Laozi xianger zhu, which he dates to before 215 .
42
Robinet, Taoism: Growth of a Tradition, 227.
43
DZ 1067, Shangyangzi Jindan dayao 11.7a3

6. Robinet makes the misleading citation DZ 1068.11.7a in the
American edition of her book at least, but she must mean this passage at DZ 1067, 11.7a, since there is no such
page in DZ 1068.
44
Perhaps Robinet reads Within the human body, the situation is not outside of this as It is within the
human body, and is not outside of the body. Both readings are grammatically correct, but Robinet s reading
presupposes a jarring turn in Chen s prose. Chen is simply comparing zaohua on the macrocosmic and
microcosmic registers, and not throwing in an awkward tangential statement that zaohua is not found to be found
beyond the human body.
380
be found in the writing of the solo alchemist Yu Yan,45 for example, but cannot be
found anywhere in Chens extant corpus.
There are even passages in Chens writings contradicting Robinets claim, in
which he explicitly says that the precosmic yang qi, or the outer pharmacon, cannot
be found in the adepts own body:
Although it is found in every home, you do not possess it in your own home i.e.,
within your own body.
XG99.
9(,46
My master Zhao Youqin said, The prenatal One Qi comes out of void and non
existence. The Master of Highest Yang says i.e., I say, whoever can take this up,
and attain this one sentence, is therefore a living transcendent! We may say that
it comes from void and nonexistence, and does not drop down from the sky. It
neither drops down from the sky, nor is it something that you possess yourself.
#;= IF%
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5RIF%04D
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M. (
47
The Master of Following the Middle Zhao Youqin said, The one bit of yang
essence is hidden within the mountain of the physical form. It is not in the heart
and kidneys, but is within the one aperture of the Mystic Pass. Students do not
recognize yin and yang, do not know the times and periods, and are unable to
recycle and revert it. They do not go beyond groping within their own body, and take
that bright and numinous cognitive spirit as true and real, revolving around and
around, missing the mark and galloping vainly.
TLYJQ@" H]ZV,\EJ
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The inner pharmacon is naturally possessed by a ji self, while the outer pharmacon
is produced by anothers body. The inner pharmacon is thus within ones own body,
while the outer pharmacon is produced by anothers body. The inner pharmacon does
not depart from within ones own body, while the outer pharmacon does not
depart from within the shape of form or, a sexual shape.49
45
DZ 1005, Zhouyi Cantong qi fahui 7.24b8.
46
47
48
DZ 1067, Shangyangzi Jindan dayao 7.2b13a3, quoting verbatim from Xianfo tongyuan, by Zhao Youqin, 22b79, in
Daoshu quanji, Zhongguo Shudian ed., p. 473.
49
The DZ 142 edition of Ziyang Zhenren Wuzhen pian sanzhu has jixiang 7 the shape of ji self
; 5.4b10.
However, the other, later editions of Wuzhen pian sanzhu that I have been able to examine all have sexiang !7,
which for Chen would have this double meaning in Buddhist Chinese, the term se translates Skt. rpa, form
.
Cf. Wuzhen pian sanzhu, Daozang jiyao ed., Kui 1 coll. 2, j. xia , 4b1. Fu Jinquans eyebrownote identies this
381
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:
50
9
: 9*

The above evidence notwithstanding, there is at least one passage in Jindan dayao
where Chen does explicitly teach solo alchemy to a student. This passage would have
served Robinets argument better. I will discuss this passage in section 4.3 at the end
of the chapter pages 54851
.
Robinet also cites as counterevidence a passage in which Chen says that the
alchemical husband and wife are not like the husband and wife in the mundane
realm:
The husband and wife are actually not what are called husband and wife in the
world. The husband and wife of the world take the begetting of male and female
children as a joy, and the wasting of essence and spirit as pleasure. From this
come kindness and love; from this come birth, old sage, sickness, and death; by
this are people entwined in woe.
$'%2"8 )156.)
7,4-+;051
Again, this is no evidence against a sexual reading of Chens words. Here, Chen is
warning against the common mans loss of seminal essence through conjugal
intercourse, and the general loss of vital energies by anyone living a secular existence.
In contrast to the common man, a sexual alchemist must avoid losing his seminal
essence during coitionthis is the opposite diandao
of natural behavior.
Whereas the natural man follows the current of normal sexual activity to
produce children, the sexual alchemist advances against the current to attain
transcendence:
Following the current leads to the birth of humans or other beings, while
advancing against the current makes a buddha or transcendent.
3&#/&52
sentence as referring to sexual cultivation fangzhong zhi shi !

; cf. Dingpi sanzhu Wuzhen pian, Zangwai
daoshu ed., j. xia , 3b 11:843
; Daozang jinghua ser. 6, no. 1, p. 438.
The fact that the later editions reect Chens original wording, and that the DZ 142 wording * is wrong,
is attested by Dai Qizongs quotation of Chens wording as * in DZ 141, Ziyang Zhenren Wuzhen pian zhushu
7.5a2.
50
DZ 142, Ziyang Zhenren Wuzhen pian sanzhu 5.4b710. Here, ji means several things at once: self, the abstract
mesocosmic sign of jiearth, and the glans penis. For a preliminary justication for identifying ji with the male
glans, see the translation on p. 394 below.
51
52
Jindan dayao, Jindan zhengli daquan ed., 6.37a5 missing from DZ 1067
.
382
Another passage lists three functions possessed by seminal essence:

is a metaphor for the river of love and sea of lust, and lovely girl
chan is ones own essence, the yin mercury. What does numinous and most
divine mean? This is said because work with the essence can give life to a
person, can kill a person, and can also bring about the fusion of the elixir.
On the river
&
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53
!
A mans work gong with his seminal essence can engender a child, lead to an early
death through semen loss, or bring about the fusion of the elixir and, later,
transcendence. The trope that sex can bring either life or death is found in earlier
literature on sexual macrobiotics.54 According to my tentative results of an etext
survey, this trope of shun zhi, sheng ren; ni zhi, zuo xian %
is not to
be found in soloalchemical texts.

1.6, Two Pieces of Evidence
I have answered Robinets objections to a sexual reading of Chens writings,55 yet in
addition to refuting counterevidence, I also ought to o
er positive evidence. I will
o
er evidence for my sexual reading taken from every one of Chens texts. This is not
to say that every passage in Chens writing is manifestly sexual, of course: much of
Chens writing does not touch directly on sexual practice at all. Also, because of the
multivalent meaning of alchemical language, even passages that do mention sexual
practice also, at the same time, could be read as speaking to other aspects of alchemy,
from the macrocosmic to the meso or microcosmic.
1.6.1, Inconclusive evidence.
When looking for further evidence that Chen is
teaching sexual alchemy, we should look rst for explicit references. In contrast to
Mingdynasty authors, Chen almost never makes explicit references. I will list two
apparently explicit references, arguing that the rst reference is actually not
conclusive evidence, while the second one is conclusive. Then I will follow with a list
53
Jindan dayao, Daozang jiyao ed., 2.63a missing from the DZ 1067 and Jindan zhengli daquan eds..
54
Cf. DZ 838, Yangxing yanming lu, 2.12a9 trans. Wile, Art of the Bedchamber, 122: The business of the bedroom
can give life to a man but can also kill him
'.
55
I have defended a sexual reading of Chen Zhixu, but in this dissertation I cannot address the question of Weng
Baoguang or other potential sexual alchemists of the Song dynasty.
383
of passages, taken from all of Chens works, that I see as highly suggestive if not
conclusive.
One might take the following passage to be conclusive, but it is not:
As for the yang essence, although one gets it within the bedchamber, this is not the
art of mounting women.

56
This phrase, or close analogues of it, occur in many alchemical texts after Chens
time. The phrase is often ascribed either to L Dongbin or to Qiu Chuji, founder of
the Longmen lineage of Quanzhen Daoism, but I have not been able to track down
the original source. The phrase may come from a Songdynasty verse ascribed to L
Dongbin, or it may simply be based on verse 50 of Wuzhen pian itself.57 There is a
range of interpretations by later alchemical writers regarding this phrase. As an
unmistakeable sexual alchemist, Sun Ruzhong would seem to take fangzhong to mean
fangzhong shu, the art of the bedchamber:
In every case, the elixir scriptures say that it is acquired within the elixir
chamber bedchamber, but this is not a case of mounting women or
gathering and battling . . .
58
Yet Liu Yiming
1734 1821 and Li Xiyue
1806 56 take the phrase to be a metaphor
only.59 In a commentary to the same verse 50 in the Wuzhen pian, Liu writes,
Mistaking yin essence for yang essence, and practicing the arts of the
bedchamber and of mounting women, sealing the Tail Gate coccyx, restraining
the yin essence, and being nuts enough to hope to form the elixir, how could they
complete it? As for the yang essence, although one gets it within the chamber, this is
not a chamber in a house, but is a chamber within a body. Just like when the old
transcendent Zhang Boduan says every home has it, or plant it within the
family, this is the same kind of metaphor. How could one believe it is a chamber
in a house? If students want to recognize the yang essence, they ought rst to
seek the Primal Pass. When one knows the Primal Pass with certainty, the yang
essence is here.
56
DZ 142, Ziyang Zhenren Wuzhen pian sanzhu 4.17a6 7. My italics.
57
Chens line
4.17a6 7 comes from his commentary to verse 50; verse 50 includes both the phrases yangjing
and fangzhong
58
Sun, Jindan zhenchuan, preface, 3.2a1 2. Cf. Wile, Art of the Bedchamber, 154.
59
Li Xiyues discussion is in zhang 7 of his commentary to Huangting waijing jing. Lis text is in his collection
Taishang shisan jing zhushi; this collection is reprinted in Daozang jinghua, ser. 2, vol. 4. I have only seen an etext
version of this text.
384
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Although Chen Zhixus use of the phrase looks much more like Sun Ruzhongs than
it looks like Liu Yimings for example, neither Chen nor Sun say that the chamber
is not a physical room, as Liu says
, this cannot be certain. We see from this example
how dicult it can be to prove any alchemical interpretation on the basis of a single
passage.
1.6.2, Conclusive evidence.
Yet I think that this can be done in the following
passage, which may be the best single piece of evidence for a sexual reading of Chens
writings:
Only this precosmic one qi, although said to be within oneself , comes om outside.
Thus the transcendent teacher Zhang Boduan has the secret instruction to rely
upon the others seed. Cantong qi says Granular cinnabar and wood essence
acquire the metal and become united. It also says The owing pearl of great
yang constantly desires to depart from a person. Then suddenly it acquires the
orescence of metal, and the two revolve and depend upon one another. These
are none other than this one thing, leadmetal. One must only rely upon the mundane
method of birth and nurturing by means of a man and a woman, and send the seeds
backward to the qian palace.
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Chen is saying that the mans essencei.e., primal essence, which is coincident with
seminal essence62is liable to escape through ejaculation
unless xed by the primal
qi drawn from the woman. It would be very dicult to misinterpret the key phrase
one must rely upon the mundane method of birth and nurturing by means of a
man and a woman as referring to somehow relying on sex as a metaphor. Yi 2 . . .
fa 8 can only mean to rely on or use a practical method, not to use the method as
a metaphor. This is proof that Chen is talking about sexual alchemy.
60
Wuzhen zhizhi, by Liu Yiming, 2.48a8b4.
61
62
See pp. 31819 above. Liu Yiming emphasizes that the yin essence and yang essence are di erent things;
Robinet also emphasizes this distinction Robinet, Taoism: Growth of a Religion, 227, citing DZ 1067, Shangyangzi
Jindan dayao 3.2b4a and 11.8b9a
. Nevertheless, the primal essence and seminal essence are fundamentally
linked. The alchemist who wastes his yin essence also loses his yang essence. For Chen Zhixu, during the stages of
gathering the outer pharmacon and fusing it with the inner pharmacon, the yang essence does not replace the
semen, but rather is an aspect of semen, or is found in conjunction with the semen.
385
1.7, Prostitutes
In addition to the most explicit reference above, there are also many references
which are suggestive but not conclusive per se. For example, Chen says that the adept
may visit brothels without losing his seminal essence:
The characteristic of sex is that, although in and of itself it has no sharp blade,
it has killed more people than knives and halberds! The great cultivator seems
similar to the common man but is dierent: he never ceases disporting himself in the
taverns and brothels, yet the not
sexual is sexual; he who knows the sexual is not
sexual; there is sexual in the non
sexual; there is no xed sexuality in the sexual.
%( !$
# &"
')%63
This passage is saying that, by adopting a detached and philosophical attitude during
sex, the advanced cultivator can engage in sexual activity without disturbing his
mental equanimity. The line % is a
pastiche of phrases from DZ 19, Taishang shengxuan xiaozai huming miaojing, a
scripture drawing heavily on discourse from Mah y na Praj paramit scriptures,
and commonly chanted in Daoist monasteries. In its original context within DZ 19,
the line would be read
not
form is form; he who knows form does not posit form; form is within the
not
form; form has no xed form.
But Chen would read the line as
the not
sexual is sexual; he who knows the sexual is not sexual; there is sexuality
in the not
sexual; the sexual has no xed sexuality.
The late
imperial Wugen shu expresses the same ideas more openly:
From ancient times, owers and wine have been the companions of the
immortals.
Houses of pleasure;
Feasts of wine and meat.
Do not be guilty of esh eating or lust.
To be guilty of lust is to lose the treasure of long life.
Wine and meat pass through the intestines, but the dao is in the heart.
Open your door;
Let me tell you:
63
DZ 1067, Shangyangzi Jindan dayao 8.8a.
386
Without wine or owers, the dao cannot be realized.64

Like in the passage from Jindan dayao above, the Wugen shu verse is saying that the
sexual alchemist must employ ladies of the demimonde owers , yet by maintaining
his mental quiescence, he will not be aected by his surroundings, and will not
succumb to lust.
Another discussion of prostitution can be found in Chens Wuzhen pian
commentary. There Chen recounts a long tale about the transcendent L Dongbins
dalliance with and teaching of his prostitute disciple Zhang Zhennu during
the Xuanhe period 1119
26 .65 After visiting her over a period of months as a paying
customer, L Dongbin reveals his identity to Zhang Zhennu, and transmits to her
the great alchemical technique of rening the physical form with Great Yin
. Chen identies rening the physical form as a form of inner alchemy
specically for women.66 This tale appears rst in a preface to DZ 142 that is
ascribed to Xue Shi , the third patriarch of the Southern Lineage of the Golden
Elixir.67 The tale reects a tradition in which L Dongbin adopts the guise of a
paying customer to save prostitutes while enjoying their favors; this tradition was
developed further in the late imperial period.68 Actually, L Dongbins association
with sexual cultivation occurs as early as the twelfth century.69 As I argue on pages
449 and 463
69 below, Chen Zhixu, like L Dongbin, advises the adept to make an
exchange with the female partnerhis Daoist teachings for her sexual access. This
sort of partner may well be a prostitute.
1.8, The Sex Act
If we accept the possibility that Chen Zhixu is talking about sexual alchemy, many
64
Wile, Art of the Bedchamber, 189. Hao Qin notes two other examples of this in verses ascribed to Zhang Sanfeng;
Longhu dandao, 305
6.
65
DZ 142, Ziyang Zhenren Wuzhen pian sanzhu 2.4a10

6a2, repeating the story from the preface ascribed to Xue
Daoguang, Wuzhen pian ji
, in ibid., 4a10
6a1.
66
DZ 142, Ziyang Zhenren Wuzhen pian sanzhu 2.4a6

10; also ibid., Wuzhen pian ji,4a6
10.
67
Baldrian Hussein says that this section of Xue Shis preface was taken from Chens commentary, rather than
the other way around; Schipper and Verellen, The Taoist Canon, 2:823. Perhaps she is right.
68
Despeux, Immortees de la Chine ancinne, 77

82; Despeux and Kohn, Women in Daoism, 213
15.
69
Wile, Art of the Bedchamber, 148, citing Rongcheng pian , in DZ 1017, Daoshu 3.4b5
7b3.
387
references to sex acts will become evident in his writings. In the following passage
from his Cantong qi commentary, he refers to the sexual positions of man and woman,
correlating this with the positions of the sun and moon:
Whenever the Great Yin moon in the heavens meets the Great Yang sun, sun
and moon unite their tallies. The moon is below the sun, and the sun is above the
moon. The moon receives the essential radiance from the sun which faces it
squarely; this radiance is directed toward the sky, and is not something people can
see. This is also like when a man and woman unite in sexual congress: with man
above and woman below, the woman is occluded by the man, and cannot be seen.
At this period of the darkmoon day and newmoon day, the moon is below the
sun. The reected radiance of the sun on the moon has not yet appeared,
comparable to a young yin person in the human realm.

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'70
By correlating the positions of the human male and female with the positions of
celestial bodies, Chen is sacralizing the human sex act, a strategy of cosmization see
footnote 98 on page 35 above
. He is also performing, or ideologically reinforcing,
the subordinate position of women to men in Chinese society. At the end of the
translated passage, he indicates that the female partner is a young girl. As I argue on
pages 45254 below, the partner would ideally be between the ages of fourteen and
sixteen. The mention of the period between the last day of the former lunar cycle
hui %, darkmoon day
and the rst day of the new cycle shuo $, newmoon day
indicates that the adept should gather her outer pharmacon at an early point in the
lunar and menstrual cycles, when the yang has just appeared out of pure yin.71 The
above passage would also make sense to a solo alchemist, but as an extended
metaphor.
Ordinarily, the position of the adept and his partner should be the reverse of
the natural position with the male on top, as described above. The adept should be
beneath his partner:
When the sage applies li and kan , he tips them upsidedown, calling this
water above and re below. When he applies qian and kun , he tips them
upsidedown, calling this earth above and heaven below. When he applies
70
71
388
husband and wife, he tips them upsidedown, calling this man on the bottom and
woman on top.
AI
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72
3K
This is a form of diandao, and ties the sex act into the whole complex of reversion
see page 323 above
.
Chen advises the reader to let the woman experience orgasm rst while
maintaining his mystical mental composure:
Let the other person whip rst, and take her pleasure, yourself remaining as if
stupeed or tonguetied.
LJ&!?>73
By maintaining mental composure, the adept may engage in seemingly lustful
behavior without letting it disturb his selfcontrol:
means that men of the world are lost within love and
lust, but I possess my powers of discrimination while in the midst of love and
lust.
Dierent than other men
8*+0*@F"-*@F 74
I will discuss this theme again on pages 48588 below. Chen Zhixu speaks of the
adepts mental and genital control as a sort of formless, mystical meditation.
1.9, The Sex Organs
References to the sex organs abound in every one of Chens texts. In Jindan dayao, we
nd a veverse poem cycle on the alchemists sword.75
Ordinarily and not merely to speak of the dark of night
, when perverse and
strange sprites hear of it they feel the cold in their very bones. Hung in the
great void, it is worthy of loving protection; you must use it to slay the tiger and
draw from the tiger to replenish the dragons liver.
;59C=DD%)E1 :6<(@M.47,BH$
If it can come alive, it oers great contributions to a man. With great76 vigor and
swiftness it erects its mighty force or wind. It levels its head at all of the world
systems of the ten directions and cuts them up, transforming demonic palaces into
72
73
74
75
76
Bf
ng distinct from the more common bfng
can mean very.
389
precious palaces.
L?7'-p0!>E@bqfvuI*rI
A Moye sword three chifeet in length rests in the empty void;77 its divine might
is severe, and very heroic. Neither the holy nor the profane dare to raise their
heads to look upon ita ray of miraculous light from between the Oxherd and
Weaving Girl stars.
{\G:K>jjzC^cYqAeK#
Neither bronze nor iron nor gold, not dependent upon mundane re for its
forging, my sword was originally a bone of heaven and earth. You must know it can
both kill and produce life.78
=i=t"=<N]s&/k3%MD9LRL
If not sword
skilled, spirits and transcendents cannot achieve
transcendenthood, and the sword
skill is not transmitted except
by the spirits
and transcendents. If I must speak of the numinous and miraculous aspect of the
golden elixir, it would be that its merit is to rst erect a heaven inside the earth.
K=k&kHK `Bh<y.U4$!%
Here are two more poems on the same themes:
On the peak of Mt. Taihua the tiger roars up a wind, startling heaven, stirring
earth, and rocking the empty sky. I now have the sword of the Three Pure Ones
cached within my sleeve, and I will propel it into an opening in the side of the
mountain.
ZJq;lEwO%n[:/V'SkW5d
79
The tiger has a numinous power of the wondrous dharmafor stripping o clothes.
It sucks a mans blood and marrow, and eats a mans semen
or, essence. I now cause
it to come and go; the imperial guards and altar area aid
me in completing the
dao.
;'T).8y_(xFg,2P33QmoX+e&80
The symbol of the alchemical sword is not unknown to solo alchemists,81 but they do
not speak of it this way! Note how in these poems Chen cosmicizes the sex organs,
imbuing the male organ with an aura of sacrality and strength, and representing the
77
Moye was the name of a legendary sword, mentioned in Zhuangzi H.Y. 6.58 for example. Three chi were
equivalent to 2.9 at that time.
78
Cf. similar language in DZ 838, Yangxing yanming lu: The business of the bedroom can give life to a man but can
also kill him 61L La DZ 838, 2.12a9; trans. Wile, Art of the Bedchamber, 122 . As I said,
according to an unscientic etext survey, such language is not to be found in nonsexual alchemical texts.
79
Jindan dayao, Jindan zhengli daquan ed., 5.24b910. References to male and female sex organs are unmistakeable!
80
Jindan dayao, Jindan zhengli daquan ed., 5.25a23.
81
Cf., e.g., Li Daochuns paeans to the sword of wisdom; DZ 249, Zhonghe ji 4.22b123a6, 5.4a25. Li Daochun
dwells mostly on the forging of the sword, but also calls it a demonslayer. He states explicitly that the sword is
formless 4.23a3 .
390
female organ as the enemy. He calls the male organ a dragon, but also a Moye sword,
a sword of the Three Pure Ones the highest celestial deities of the pantheon
, and a
cosmic bone suspended in the cosmic void. The female organ is likened to the void,
to a mountain, to a demonic or precious palace, and to a maneating tiger. By
demonizing the female organ, he contributes to normative gender ideology, yet this is
not his main purpose. Rather, his purpose is to give the male adept a stock of images
that he may draw upon during the sex act to temper his instinctive lust and restrain
himself from spending his essence. Such tropes are familiar to us from manuals on
sexual macrobiotics translated by Wile. In The Classic of Su N, for example, it is said
that in engaging the enemy a man should regard her as so much tiles or stone and
himself as gold or jade.82 This is a trick for avoiding semen loss, with the denigration
of the female partner as a secondary eect.
The following passage from Jindan dayao is another striking discussion of the
adepts sex organ:
Like the adamantine sword, it has a great vigor Skt. vrya; like the hundredfoot
pole, it is straight and unbending; of all the armored warriors in the world, none
could not break it. This vigorous heartmind has great courage and erceness.
When all of the gods in heaven and people on earth see this vigor, their joy will
be measureless. Utilizing this vigor, one becomes a buddha and a patriarch.
,+&
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I have analyzed the above passage in my introduction to the dissertation see pages
23 and 3637
, noting its strategies: cosmicizing the body and the sexual act, re
interpreting the Buddha and all Chan masters of the past as sexual alchemists,
assimilating the sexual alchemist to the Buddha and the patriarchs, describing the
participation of deities in the alchemists sexual practice, and enacting or performing
of all these truths through an illocutionary speech act.
One of the continuing themes throughout this dissertation is Chens use of
Chan Buddhist linguistic, social, and textual forms. In the following passage, Chen
cites a long list of holy Chan masters from the Tang dynasty, turning these citations
into references to the sex organs. I have put the sexual references in boldface.
82
Wile, Art of the Bedchamber, 85. Wile dates The Classic of Su N Sunu jing
83
391
(
to the Sui or Tang dynasty.
The import of golden elixir is none other than the import of Bodhidharmas
phrase straight pointing at the human mind, or
kyamunis phrase I alone
am honored, or the Treasury of the Eye of Correct Dharma, the Wondrous Mind
of Nirva received by Kyapa,84 or Mazus85 phrase its not mind, nor Buddha,
nor thing, or when the Sixth Patriarch Huineng saluted Yongjia86 with the
phrases nothing born, no speed,87 or Layman Pangs88 phrase in one mouthful
I completely suck up all the water of the West River, or Yaoshans89 phrase the one
thing is not the head,90 or when Danxia91 burned the wooden buddha image, or
Shigongs92 bow and arrows, or Zhaozhous93 phrases turnips, cypress trees,94
and drink your tea, or Guizongs95 phrase the precosmic state is the ancestor
of the mind. Finally, we come to mountains, rivers, and the great earth,
walkingstas and agpoles, cudgels, shouts, and revealing the pillar, the lamp
and the buddhahall, monastery gate and storehousehall, precious sword of the
vajraking, Dongshans96 three catties of hemp, Shishuangs97 hundredfoot
pole, Juzhis98 onenger Chan, Huanglongs99 redspotted snake . . .
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In this passage, Chen is repeating his point that the Buddha and all of his heirs in the
84
The legendary Chan dharma heir of the Buddha, rst Indian patriarch in the Chan lineage.
85
Chan Master Mazu Daoyi MKa 709 88.
86
Chan Master Yongjia Xuanjue c~ 665 713.
87
Nothing born could mean that sexual intercourse does not lead to the production of babies. No speed could
refer to the unhurried process of gathering the outer pharmacon.
88
Pang Yun z} d. 808.
89
Chan Master Yaoshan Weiyan {Q 751 834.
90
I could not make sense of this citation, so I cannot say whether it would be a sexual reference. Elsewhere,
Chen does mention the head glans as an element of sexual alchemy; see p. 394 below. Could Chen be using
Yaoshans antinomian phrase to make an antinomian rejection of Chens own usual teaching?
91
Caodonglineage Chan Master Danxia Zichun wR 1064 1117.
92
Chan Master Shigong Huizang miy 9th c..
93
Chan Master Zhaozhou Congshen f"P 778 897.
94
Or, cypress seeds?
95
Chan Master Guizong Zhichang x1[O Tang dynasty.
96
Caodonglineage founder, Chan Master Dongshan Liangjie B. 807 69.
97
Chan Master Qingzhu hl 807 88.
98
Ven. Juzhi FD Tang dynasty.
99
Chan Master Huanglong Huinan ^ti= 1002 69.
100
DZ 1067, Shangyangzi jindan dayao 16.4b1 10.
392
Chan lineages were teaching the dao of the golden elixir, that is, all Chan masters
have taught sexual alchemy, in secret. Perhaps thirteen out of these twentyone
references could be sexual references. Most of these references are phallic; there is
no reason inherent within sexual alchemy for this to be so, since one would imagine
that sexual alchemists ought to be just as obsessed with timing the womans
pharmacon as with controlling their own pharmacon. Perhaps emphasizing the
phallus gives the alchemist a sense of control, whether it be control of the alchemical
process, of the female partner, or of the feminine in the abstract.
Chen elaborates on some of these references, such as the lamp and the
buddhahall, in other passages. It is worth looking at another passage in more detail,
to see the workings of his interpretive mind:
The buddhas and patriarchs are compassionate, and for the sake of all the people
whose selfnature101 is not clear, they establish models, so that the people can
picture things for themselves. . . . These triggers, because they are so shallow and
near at hand, allow people to see
the truth easily. Yet no one is willing to take up
the burden! Then we come to mounting the monasterys main gate on top of the
Buddha Hall,102 or putting the Buddha Hall into a lantern.103 One may well say,
The Buddha Hall is needed for making oerings to the Buddha, so how could
someone move the main gate over on top of it? How could this not be an oense
to the Buddha? The lantern with a Buddha Hall placed inside it104how greatly
does it seem to glimmer brightly! Furthermore, it reaches to the mountains and
rivers and the world around it, to Sumeru and Mt. Kunlun. As for some of the
Chan types, when they see this sort of discussion, they feel thoroughly as if they
are chewing wax, and it is meaningless. They chalk it up as Chan triggers, or
words tangled like vines, and then they shelve it and do not examine it.
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Selfnature: zixing "*, essence, Skt. svabhva.
102
The reference must be to section 248 in Yunmen Kuangzhen Chanshi guanglu T 1988, 47:563c17; App, Master
Yunmen, 207 , but Chen has changed it. App has I pick up the lantern inside the Buddha Hall and place the main
monastery gate on top of it. Chen may be combining this line with another line from Yunmen: Have a look at
the old fellow
me riding out astraddle the Buddha Hall 7 LV$F T 1988, 47:549c6; cf. App,
Master Yunmen, 122 .
103
I could only nd a passing reference to the Buddha Hall entering a lantern $FRZ in ZZ 1307, Wansong
Laoren pingchang Tiantong Jue Heshang niangu qingyi lu, 67:482c6; ZZ 1343, Baojue Zuxin Chanshi yulu, 120:228b14; and
ZZ 1583, Xudeng zhengtong, 144:0504b2. It sounds like a familiar sort of Chan paradox.
104
This is a tentative translation. Iriya and Koga, Zengo jiten gives H[ for C. I read WW as WW
1 Zengo jiten, 301, provides justication for this reading of .
393
`GMP]Z\YQ_O#=105
Chen has combined two unrelated references from Yunmen Wenyans L7A
864949
discourse record, reinterpreted them as references to sexual
intercourse,106 set this within a broader picture of Chan masters mercifully hiding
their secret sexual teachings in plain sight, and criticized the latterday Chan monks
for not seeing this truth themselves, or for their despairing of ever nding an
underlying meaning to their own k ans. Chen is competing with Chan monks for the
denition of Chan itself, as well as for authority and patronage among unaliated lay
cultivators.
1.9.1, An alchemical litmus test.
In the following passage from his Wuzhen pian
commentary, Chen describes how his master would test whether an interlocutors
alchemical learning was true or false by seeing if the other adept could correctly
identify the dragon and tiger as the two sex organs:
My master Zhao Youqin , when he met someone, would chat about the dao all
day long. Whenever the interlocutor said he had met and received instruction
from an eminent person, Master would immediately bow before him and ask:
Not daring to ask about your dao, let me just ask for now: What sort of thing
are the dragon and tiger?
The other person would say: Dragon and tiger are within your body.
Master would say: What shape do they take?
The other person would say: They are the liver and lungs.
The master would say: You ought to go down to the hell where they pull out
peoples tongues and receive your punishment there, never again to delude or
cheat the people of this world!
Old Man Ziyang Zhang Boduan has now indicated the twin things dragon
and tiger too closely! Now, my thing is the dragon, and the others thing is the tiger.
There is a distinction between self and other, so Wuzhen pian says each to east
and west. The dragons head is ji, and the tigers gate is wu. The dragon and tiger rely
on these for their coition . . .
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106
Taken in isolation, mounting the monasterys main gate on top of the Buddha Hall need not refer to sexual
intercourse with the woman on top
; indeed it need not refer to anything concrete at all. But if we accept that
Chens discourse often refers to sexual practice, then this sexual reading becomes possible, and these jumbled
Chan idioms take on a starkly concrete meaning.
394
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In some forms of alchemy, dragon and tiger are correlated with the liver and lungs
among other things
,108 but Chen and his master insist on a primarily sexual
interpretation of the dragontiger dyad. From the above passage, it seems that Chen
and Zhao identify the jiearth and wuearth as the male glans and female vulva
respectively see my discussion of the two earths on pages 33334 above
.
1.9.2, Xuan and Pin.
The terms xuan and pin are also correlated with the sex
organs:
Erect root and foundation: We
may say that xuan and pin are the human body s gates of
egress or entry, and the golden elixir is cultivated and united by means of them. The
great cultivator must rst achieve a penetrating understanding of the teaching on
xuan and pinthis is the place where yin and yang mingle their essences in coition, and
only thereby acquire the one pearl of numinous radiance.
FK9X
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Since Laozi pointed out the words gates of xuan and pin, perfected masters and
transcendent sages have acquired this teaching in order to begin their
cultivation of the great elixir. Fools take mouth and nose as xuan and pin, and
respiration as the dao. With an absurd and twisted understanding like this, how
could they achieve the joining and union of the crow and hare?
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Correct identication of the primarily sexual referents of the terms xuan and pin is
another mark of true alchemical learning.
As I mention on page 278 above, terms such as xuanpin or xuan and pin
may
be understood to refer either to concrete entities or to formless entities. The term
xuanpin comes originally from chapter 6 of the Daode jing, yet within inneralchemical
discourse it can take on any number of meanings. The list of possible referents to
xuan and pin within inneralchemical discourse in general includes 1
the Limitless
Wuji
and the Great Ultimate Taiji
, 2
heaven and earth, 3
mouth and nose, 4
107
DZ 142, Ziyang Zhenren Wuzhen pian sanzhu 3.17b818a6.
108
Robinet, Introduction l alchimie intrieure taoste, 88; and DZ 249, Zhonghe ji, by Li Daochun, 2.15b716a1
section B.1., The Lower Vehicle, on pp. 36465 above
.
109
DZ 142, Ziyang Zhenren Wuzhen pian sanzhu 4.9a36. Xuan and pin here are identied as the male and female sex
organs.
110
395
the gate of generation and creation,

5 two pores in the heart,
6 the spot between
the kidneys,
7 the sex organs,
8 the fathers prenatal essence and the mothers
prenatal blood,
9 primal spirit or prenatal inherent nature,
10 the Yellow Court,
11 the spleen,
12 the dantian,
13 the high and the low,
14 the gate of marrow,
15 the One Aperture

of the Mystic Pass,
16 the tracts of superintendency and
conception, and no doubt many more things.111 Chen oers his own list of referents
for xuan and pin: male and female, qian and kun, nonbeing and being, miao and qiao

the marvelous and the aperture, from Daode jing, chapter 1, celestial horse and
terrestrial ox, the terrestrial branch ji within the trigram li and wu within
kan.112
While Li Daochun and Chen Zhixu would not accept every possible referent
for xuanpin
both of them criticize the identication of xuan and pin with nose and
mouth, they would admit a range of referents, from the mystic to the prosaic. Yet
Chen emphasizes a concrete interpretation of xuanpin, whereas Li would emphasize a
formless interpretation. Chen would not reject a formless interpretation of xuan and
pin
he includes nonbeing and being within his own list of possible referents, yet
he emphasizes a sexual interpretation. While emphasizing the corporeal, he does not
overturn the usual ranking of the formless as superior to the corporeal.
1.9.3, Other texts.
Is it possible that some of Chens texts mention the sex
organs while others do not? No: like Jindan dayao and the Wuzhen pian commentary,
Chens other two extant commentaries also contain unmistakeable references. The
rst two passages below come from his Cantong qi commentary, and the third passage
is from his Duren jing commentary
I have italicized the most relevant phrases:
If you show a shadow by erecting the hundredchifoot pole, or send an echo by
hoering into the vaey of a thousand clis, yin and yang will spontaneously have
intercourse through the inuences of these actions, with most wondrous eect. This
way you can unite the ultimate images of the forces of creation and
transformation
zaohua of heaven and earth.

!
!
111
S.v. xuanpin in Hu Fuchen, Zhonghua daojiao da cidian, 1169 70; Zhang Wenjiang and Chang Jin, Zhonuo
chuantong qigong xue cidian, 260; L Guangrong, Zhonuo qigong cidian, 168 69.
112
Jindan dayao, Jindan zhengli daquan ed., 6.16a10 b1

396
Q
:

>113
Xing inherent nature is in charge of making ones essence or semen replete
inside, and erecting the perimeter. Qing the dispositions is in charge of subduing the
womans qi on the outside, and tamping earth to make the city walls. . . . At this
time, the inherent nature of qian is straight in movement, and so essence or
semen and qi unite their substances. The expression of kun closes in stillness,
acting as a lodge for the Dao. The sti and straight one releases or ejaculates, shi
and retracts; the pliant and exible one nourishes by disseminating lubrication.
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114
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is the gate that produces humans and creatures, and the gate of
transcendenthood and buddhahood.The gate which gives birth to me is the gate
which kills methat which the Perfected Zhongli Quan referred to is none
other than this gate. Because people do not understand, demons of lust take
pleasure in standing athwart this door. The dao of Heaven is fond of and values life,
yet people bitterly incline toward the dao of demons.
The gate of life
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The rhetorical purpose of the rst two passages seems to be to impart a sexual
interpretation to the sacred words of the Cantong qi. The rst passage is just poetic
e
usion. In the second passage, Chen o
ers a sexual reading of the key terms xing
and qing, yin G and e @, as well as some titillation, perhaps. The third passage, from
the Duren jing, repeats the message that sex can either give life by giving birth to an
infant, or rebirth to an adept, or take life by causing semen loss. His mention of
demons serves to impart a sexual meaning to an important concept from the Duren
jing, reinterpreting the Demon Kings as lustful tempters troubling the mind of the
sexual alchemist.
1.10, Apologetic statements
Chen sometimes makes apologetic statements to bring his teachings in line with
standard alchemical values. I argue above that, even though he interprets the term
xuanpin in corporeal rather than formless terms, he still does not overturn the usual
113
Zhouyi Cantong qi fenzhang zhu, Daozang jiyao ed., 2.62b46. This passage says that, by means of physical sexual
intercourse, the alchemist can achieve the union of yin and yang in both ordinary and cosmic terms.
114
Zhouyi Cantong qi fenzhang zhu, Daozang jiyao ed., 2.54b15.
115
397
ranking of the formless as superior to the corporeal. Forced to justify corporeal

practice in a realm of discourse where the corporeal is less respectable, he resorts to
apologetics:
Spirits and transcendents are none other than precosmic qi, and are its masters.
Know that this precosmic qi is found amidst hazy faintness and acquired in deep
dimness. Muddy it and it remains undeled; dirty it and it becomes even clearer.
When the ancient transcendent said, The agrant comes om the fetid, and the
sweet comes from bitter, he was probably speaking of this qi.
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116
This passage justies drawing the pureyang qi by a method that Chen admits is
dirty. The unclean method of seeking the outer pharmacon does not dele its pure
and formless nature. If Chen were teaching solo alchemy here, as Robinet avers, I do
not know why he would take the trouble to justify his methods as correct although
dirty.
1.10.1, Lu Shu.
We can make the same point with another passage from
Chens Wuzhen pian commentary. This text, DZ 142, is a compilation, by Chen and/or
his disciple Zhang Shihong, of three Wuzhen pian commentaries. The rst
commentary is ascribed to the third patriarch of the Southern Lineage, Xue
Daoguang, but in fact is mostly the words of Weng Baoguang.117 The second is by Lu
Shu 48 byname Ziye
3, . S. Song?
, and the third is by Chen Zhixu himself. Lu
Shu openly advocates a sexualalchemical interpretation of Wuzhen piancan this be
in doubt when Lu states Kun is a person $,118 or There is no depletion for
the other, and there is benet for me 57!
)!?119 Lu Shu begins his
preface to his Wuzhen pian commentary by saying,

116
Jindan dayao, Jindan zhengli daquan ed., 6.26b710 missing from DZ 1067
. Elsewere, Chen ascribes this
quotation to Wang Chongyang cf. DZ 1069, Shangyangzi Jindan dayao liexian zhi 3b78
.
117
Liu Tsunyan, Zhang Boduan yu Wuzhen pian, 800, notes that sixteen passages in the DZ 142 commentary
attributed to Xue Daoguang are actually similar to Weng Baoguangs words in DZ 141, Ziyang Zhenren Wuzhen pian
zhushu. DZ 141 is itself an abbreviation, edited by Dai Qizong, of Wengs words in DZ 145, Wuzhen pian zhushi.
Actually, DZ 141 postdates DZ 142, since it cites Chens words from DZ 142.
Liu holds out the possibility that
parts of DZ 142 could truly have been from a lost work by Xue Daoguang ibid., 801
. The NeoConfucian Wang
Yangmings claims that Chen Zhixu concocted all three commentaries in DZ 142 is simply false ibid., 799
.
118
DZ 142, Ziyang Zhenren Wuzhen pian sanzhu 1.7b89.
119
398
When a righteous person practices a perverse technique, this perverse technique

reverts completely to righteousness. Yet when a perverse person practices a
morally proper technique, this proper technique reverts completely to perversity.

/D

/D120
Lu is saying that, despite the seeming perversity of sexual alchemy, this practice is
sanctied by the moral impeccability of the practitioner. Chen Zhixu repeats Lus
words twice, once in Jindan dayao, and once in his own preface to the Wuzhen pian
commentary:
This is not the technique of gathering and battling at the three peaks, nor is it a
marginal path or crooked route. Those types are all wildly perverse teachers. For
a long time, the righteous has been thwarted; instead, the perverse has been in
the ascendent. When a perverse person practices a morally proper technique,
the proper is perverted, yet when a righteous person practices the perverse, the
perverse reverts to righteousness.
#
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D121
Therefore the Perfected Zhang Boduan says in his own afterword, The Yellow
Emperor and Laozi pitied their greedy grasping at laboratory alchemy, and
so they made their teachings on the techniques for cultivating life follow what
the fangshi desired, in order to guide them to the correct path gradually and by
degrees. When Lu Ziye also says in his preface, When a righteous person
practices a perverse technique, this perverse technique reverts completely to
righteousness, with this he has deeply understood Zhang Boduans meaning.
%, =95(4<1?A7
/D!'2.122
In the rst passage, Chen repeats Lu Shus idea that the moral turpitude of sexual
alchemy is ameliorated by the righteousness of the practitioner. In the second
passage, he compares this idea with Zhang Boduans own claim that the Yellow
Emperor and Laozi taught inner alchemy in the guise of laboratory alchemy as a way
to gradually convert the fangshi of the time. These fangshi were so besotted with
laboratory alchemy that they would not have accepted the Yellow Emperor and
Laozis true inneralchemical lessons right away. In essence, Chen Zhixu seems to be
saying here that sexual practice is necessary as an appeal to the baser instincts of
120
121
Jindan dayao, Jindan zhengli daquan ed., 5.28b missing from the DZ 1067 and Daozang jiyao eds.
.
122
DZ 142, Ziyang Zhenren Wuzhen pian sanzhu, preface, 4a10b2. The passage Chen quotes from Zhang Boduan is
found in the postface Ziyang Zhenren houxu :;, $
, 1b910.
399
men. Perhaps he means that the lustful aspect of sexual practice is a necessary hook
for beginners, and that advanced sexual alchemists learn to abandon lust within their
sexual practice. These passages, like the passage where Chen says that The fragrant
comes from the fetid, are apologetic. Why would Lu Shu and Chen Zhixu say these
things if they were not teaching sexual alchemy?
1.11, Conclusion
The Ming texts studied by Wile reveal their sexual teachings openly, but Chen Zhixu
is much more guarded. Proof that Chen Zhixu is a sexual alchemist must come from
a preponderence of circumstantial evidence rather than from explicit revelations. I
hope that I have supplied enough evidence and interpretation above to convince the
skeptical reader.
2, The Field of Sexual Cultivation

2.1, Basic distinctions
On pages 37879 above, I say that there is a clear di erence between 1
the golden
elixir sexual cultivation of Chen Zhixu and his tradition, and other practices such as
2
the arts of the bedchamber fangzhong shu ; yun shu
, or 3
gathering and battling sanfeng caizhan

. I say that the crucial di erence is
that gathering and battling involves collecting material secretions from the female
partner, whereas orthodox sexual alchemy involves collecting only intangible qi.
Does this distinction hold when we look more broadly at the history of sexual
cultivation, and not merely at Chen Zhixus claims about himself and his rivals? How
do other scholars make distinctions within the eld of sexual cultivation?
2.1.1, Wile.
For our rst perspective on the taxonomy of sexual cultivation,
lets look to Douglas Wile. He divides the sexual cultivation texts in his study into
four categories:123
123
Wiles fth category of solo ndan female alchemy

texts is not relevant to this chapter on sexual alchemy.
400
1
The Han Classics Rediscovered at Mawangdui
1.1
He yinyang Uniting yin and yang
1.2
Tianxia zhidao tan Discourse on the highest dao under
heaven
2
The SuiTang Classics Reconstructed from the Japanese collection Ishimp
2.1
Sun jing The classic of Sun
2.2
Sun fang Prescriptions of Sun
2.3
Yufang zhiyao Essential of the jade chamber
2.4
Yufang mijue Secrets of the jade chamber
2.5
Dongxuanzi
3
Medical Manuals and Handbooks for Householders, from Six Dyn. to Tang
3.1
Fangzhong buyi pian !# Health benets of the bedchamber;
before 682
3.2
Yun sunyi pian # The dangers and benets of intercourse
with women; before 536?
3.3
Sun miaolun $ The wondrous discourse of Sun; Ming dynasty
3.4
Chunyang Yanzheng Fuyou Dijun jiji zhenjing

The classic of perfect union; 1598
3.5
Zijin Guangyao Daxian xiuzhen yanyi
'" Exposition
of cultivating the true essence; 1594
4
The Elixir Literature of Sexual Alchemy, from the Ming and Qing dynasties
4.1
Jindan jiuzheng pian # Seeking instruction on the golden elixir;
1570s?
4.2
Jindan zhenchuan True transmission of the golden elixir; 1616
4.3
Jindan jieyao Summary of the golden elixir; before 1825
4.4
Caizhen jiyao & Secret principles of gathering the true essence;
before 1825
4.5
Wugen shu % The rootless tree; before 1825
Wile has made these categories by grouping similar texts together. Categories 1 and 2
contain texts that were originally grouped together by ancient editors or scribes, so
they ought to be coherent as historical categories. Category 4 contains alchemical
works, and looks coherent, though I will call this into question below. Category 3
contains all the rest, and is the least coherent. Rather than representing a single
historical moment, category 3 is a mixed bag of various nonalchemical sexual
cultivation texts, dating from the Six Dynasties and Tang dynasty to the Ming.124 The
most obvious dierences between the 4
alchemical texts and the 3
non
124
3.1
Yun sunyi pian may be a SixDynasties text: it is from DZ 838, Yangxing yanming lu, arguably compiled
by Tao Hongjing 456536
. 3.2
Fangzhong buyi is a Tangdynasty text, from Qianjin yaofang, by Sun
Simiao 581?682?
. The other three texts are Mingdynasty works taken from R. H. van Gulik, Erotic Color Prints
of the Ming Dynasty.
401
alchemical texts are that the former use alchemical discourse such as the Yijing
related discourse of the trigrams qian and kun, kan and li
and aim at transcendence,
while the latter do not. I will argue in section 2.3 below that Wiles category of 4
alchemical texts includes both 4a

goldenelixir sexual alchemy, and 4b
huanjing
bunao recycling essence to replenish the brain
in alchemical language.125 These two
types of sexual alchemy may come from similar milieux, however, since the
eighteenthcentury compiler Fu Jinquan transmits both types.126
In this chapter, I will not be able to o er a denitive statement on the
di erences and similarities between these traditions; I raise these issues because they
are relevant to our study of Chen Zhixu. Chen claims that there is a deep gulf
separating his 4a
goldenelixir sexual alchemy from the perverse lineages xiezong

. These perverse lineages would include what I am calling 4b
alchemical
huanjing bunao, 3
nonalchemical huanjing bunao, and other practices such as 3
sanfeng caizhan. Yet in this section I argue that there is a continuum linking 4a
goldenelixir sexual alchemy, 4b

alchemical huanjing bunao, 3
nonalchemical huan
jing bunao, and other traditions. I will not o er a nal answer to the question of how
di erent Chen Zhixus practices are from the practices of the perverse lineages
this would be a question for a larger study
, yet I will show that the di erences
between Chens tradition and the other traditions are not as great as Chen claims!
Wile treats his alchemical texts as data points upon a general graph of trends
within Chinese sexology,127 but he also considers the category of sexual alchemy
alone, noting some distinctions between the 4
alchemical texts and the other
categories 13
taken together:
What distinguishes the texts of sexual alchemy from the other categories in this
anthology? Above all, it is that the theme of immortality is no longer a literary
convention but a literal and exclusive obsession. Questions of emotional
harmonization, sexual synchronization, eugenics, and therapies for sexual
dysfunction have become completely irrelevant. The adept enters a state of
125
The two texts on goldenelixir sexual alchemy are 4.1
Jindan jiuzheng pian, by Lu Xixing, and 4.2
Jindan
zhenchuan, by Sun Ruzhong, Zhang Chonglie, and Li Kan. I say that the other three texts, all ascribed to the
legendary gure Zhang Sanfeng, are teaching alchemical huanjing bunao.
126
Fu Jinquan supplies commentaries to both the goldenelixir text 4.2

Jindan zhenchuan, and the alchemical
huanjing bunao text 4.4
Caizhen jiyao.
127
I discuss Wiles historical narrative on pages 4078 below.
402
meditative abstraction in which sexual arousal has been virtually divorced from
personalized passion and in which the partner has been reduced to mere
medicine. The emphasis on timing has shifted away from macrocosmic
avoidances and taboos to the precise microcosmic moment when the yang
essence . . . is ready for gathering . . . Finally, the yang extract . . . is centrifuged
within the body of the adept by a process of microcosmic orbital circulation,
which is indistinguishable from solo inner alchemy meditation.128
Wile disagrees with Liu Tsunyan, who says that practitioners of the bedchamber
arts did not cultivate qi. Wile avers that it is the cultivation of qi which unites rather
than separates them
bedchamber arts and sexual alchemy and has been the most
consistent theme underlying the diverse developments within the sexual school for
more than two thousand years.129 On pages 41720 below, I will return to the issue
of whether it is qi, or tangible secretions, that are used within the bedchamber arts.
While alchemical texts and the texts of the other categories 13 share a common
theme of qicultivation, sexual alchemy, unlike the other texts, emphasizes
transcendence, and disregards calendrical divination, conception of children, passion,
and human relations. Wile denes Chinese sexual yoga generally as the practice of
sexual intercourse for the purpose of intergender harmony, physical and
psychological health, and ascended states or immortality.130 Within this denition,
the sexual alchemists disregard harmony and health, leaving only transcendence.
2.1.2, Hao Qin.
Hao Qin simply distinguishes bedchamber fangzhong
practices from pairedcultivation shuangxiu practices, and remarks that

although the pairedcultivation school tries strenuously to show that it is not at all a
bedchamber art, actually it is very di cult to distinguish an essential dierence
between the two.131 Hao divides the eld into two categoriesbedchamber arts and
sexual alchemyand says they are essentially the same. What about them is
supposedly almost the same, though? From the context of his proximate discussion
on this page, he means that women are exploited equally within the bedchamber arts
128
129
130
Wile, Art of the Bedchamber, 4. Wiles term for sexual cultivation is sexual yoga. The term yoga is not a
good choice as a neutral term for discipline. Most people identify yoga with Indian gymnastics, spirituality, or
philosophy, so the term is misleading when applied to Chinese practices.
131
403
and sexual alchemy. Perhaps he would say that the social and physiological di erences
are minimal, while agreeing that there are major di erences of goal or discourse. I
would say that the bedchamber arts usually aim at the goal of health rather than
transcendence, and lack most of the distinctive mesocosmic discourse of inner
alchemy.
2.1.3, Cai Jun and Li Wenkun.
In a general study of modern and traditional
sexology, Cai and Li o er a schema with four types of sexual cultivation xing xiulian

:
1
pairedreplenishing type shuangbu lei
, or bedchamber
type fangzhong lei

;
2
pairedrening type shuanglian lei
;
3
pairedcultivation type shuangxiu lei
; and
4
purecultivation type qingxiu lei
.132
Type 4, solo sexual alchemy, may sound oxymoronic, but it emphasizes a point also
made by Wile, Hao Qin, and Despeux;133 that is, even solo inner alchemy is indirectly
sexual since it is based on the sublimation of sexual energy. The other three types
in Cai and Juns schema are prescriptive rather than descriptive. They think that
adepts of shuangbu sexual cultivation produce a lesser elixir xiaodan
through
lesser orbital circulation xiao zhoutian
,
shuanglian adepts produce a middle elixir through greater orbital circulation, &
shuangxiu adepts produce a greater elixir by regarding spirit and death as
one shen yu si tong
.134
Cai and Li assume that the standard account of inner alchemy is a true and scientic
description of human physiology, and they assume that the various types of historical
Chinese sexual cultivation can be pigeonholed into a hierarchy of elixirs. This
prescriptive approach seriously distorts the data, and should not be mistaken for
objective historical research.
2.1.4, Hu Fuchen.
Hu, a contemporarytraditional scholar and alchemist, says
that there are three forms of alchemy:135

132
Cai Jun and Li Wenkun, Xing kexue yu Zhonuo chuantong xing xiulian, table of contents, and p. 140. They
ascribe these categories to a friend, Guo Changhong ; ibid., 139.
133
Wile, Art of the Bedchamber, 28; Hao Qin, Longhu dandao, 24, 39; Despeux and Kohn, Women in Daoism, 184, 211.
134
Cai Jun and Li Wenkun, Xing kexue yu Zhonuo chuantong xing xiulian, 140.
135
The following is from pp. 1112 of Hu Fuchens preface Xu san

to Zeng Chuanhui, Yuandai cantong xue.
404
Alchemy taking heaven as prime tianyuan danfa
Celestial alchemy
Alchemy taking earth as prime diyuan danfa

Alchemy taking the human as prime renyuan danfa
Laboratory alchemy
Human alchemy
Fig. 5.1, Hu Fuchens three categories of alchemy
For other writers, tianyuan danfa means solo alchemy and renyuan danfa means sexual
alchemy,136 but Hu places both solo alchemy and sexual alchemy within renyuan danfa.
For Hu, celestial alchemy must mean something like the advanced alchemy of Li
Daochuns four vehicles.137 Within the scope of human alchemy, there are three
houses and four lineages sanjia sipai :
Three houses sanjia
Four lineages sipai
Ordinary term

Seeking yinyang within ones own
body zishen yinyang
Pure alchemy
qingjing danfa
Physiological solo alchemy

Seeking yinyang within
a partner
of the same category
tonglei yinyang

Seeking yinyang within void
emptiness xukong yinyang
Alchemy
using the house of the
other bijia danfa
Dragontiger alchemy
longhu danfa
Alchemy of void and nonbeing
xuwu danfa
Sexual alchemy
Formless solo alchemy
Fig. 5.2, Hu Fuchens categories of human alchemy
Yu Yan, Wu Shouyang, and Liu Huayang are examplar physiological solo alchemists,
who seek yinyang within their own bodies, and practice pure alchemy. Liu Yiming
and Min Yide are examplar formless solo alchemists, who seek yinyang within void
emptiness and practice the alchemy of void and nonbeing. Within the category of
sexual alchemy the search for yinyang within another person of the same category ,
there are those who practice bijia danfa, that is, nann shuangxiu , the dual
cultivation of one male and one female partner i.e., one female partner at a time .
Hu classies Lu Xixing and Qiu Zhaoao as examplars of bijia danfa. But there are also
those who practice longhu danfa, using a living dragon and tiger shenglong huohu
, and bringing the three parties to meet together sanjia xiangjian .
Hu lists many of the known sexual alchemists in this category, including Chen Zhixu,
136
See page 284 above.
137
See appendix 3 to chapter 4 pp. 36166 .
405
Zhang Sanfeng, Tao Susi, Sun Ruzhong and his father Sun Jiaoluan, and Fu Jinquan.138
Hu says that contemporary scholars have some understanding of all of these
categories, save longhu danfa. For Hu, longhu danfa is the most secret and excellent
form of sexual alchemy, and it may well be that he actually practitices it. Hu says that
the alchemical instructions for all of the three houses and four lineages can be found
within Cantong qi. Zeng Chuanhui concurs with Hu Fuchen, saying that Chen Zhixu
teaches longhu danfa. This is a controversial claim, as I will discuss on pages 45763
below. Much of what Hu says is traditionalist, and must be taken with a grain of
salt, yet we must look seriously at the issue of longhu danfa. In longhu danfa, the
alchemist orchestrates a coupling between a male youth the dragon and female
youth the tiger, ingesting their sexual energies from afar without actually
touching them. I will argue that Chen Zhixu is not practicing longhu danfa, though
something like it may have existed within his tradition, practiced by both a patriarch
Zhao Youqin and a distant heir Fu Jinquan.
2.1.5, Ideal types and continua.
How would I draw distinctions within the
eld of sexual cultivation? I delimit myself to sexual alchemy and its cousins rather
than Chinese sexology as such from alpha to omega, and even within these limits I
will only oer a tentative answer. In subsequent sections, I will argue for a
multifactorial continuum of ve ideal types. These ideal types are categories of
convenience, not an absolute list of all possibilities. In synchronic or morphological
terms,139 the continuum stretches
from 1 nonalchemical huanjing bunao,
to 2 quasialchemical huanjing bunao,
to 3 alchemical huanjing bunao,
to 4 goldenelixir sexual alchemy
from the lateimperial period,
and 5 goldenelixir sexual
alchemy from the classical
period and period of integration.
Fig. 5.3, Morphological continuum of sexual alchemy

138
I discuss all of these gures in chapter 6.
139
I dene morphology as a logical, formal progression which ignores categories of space . . . and time, allowing
the arrangement of individual items in a hierarchical series of increased organization and complexity; J. Z.
Smith, Imagining Religion, 23.
406
In diachronic or historical terms, the continuum stretches

from 1 classical huanjing bunao
Han to Song dynasties
to 5 classical goldenelixir sexual
alchemy Song, Yuan, and
perhaps later dynasties
to 2 quasialchemical
huanjing bunao, 3
alchemical huanjing bunao,
and
4 lateimperial
goldenelixir sexual alchemy
Ming and Qing dynasties.
Fig. 5.4, Historical continuum of sexual alchemy
If Hao Qin is right, and solo inner alchemy developed out of huanjing bunao, then we
may construct a third arrangement, a twodimensional diagram showing evolutionary
relationships:
huanjing bunao
solo inner alchemy
huanjing bunao
Fig. 5.5, Developmental diagram of sexual alchemy
Throughout the rest of section 2, I will describe and discuss these ideal types. Future
research will probably complicate this composite picture, or suggest revisions.
2.2. The History of Sexual Cultivation
2.2.1, Wiles Four Tracers.
One of Wiles most noteworthy contributions is his
account of thematic progressions within Chinese sexual cultivation.140 He chooses

four tracers to show trends over the centuries; these are A the pleasure
principle, B the position of women, C ejaculation frequency and control, and
140
Here I am paraphrasing Wile, Art of the Bedchamber, 4451.
407

D sexual energy. In the earliest texts,
A sex is for pleasure, but in the
householder manuals
category 3 and treatises on sexual alchemy
category 4,
pleasure is de emphasized. Sexual joy has been replaced with the transcendental joy
of salvation, and sexual pleasure is mentioned merely as a signpost for navigation
during the process. In the early texts,
B women are nearly equal partners, but the
literature of sexual alchemy portrays women as at metaphysical props. Wile claims
that in the full blown sexual alchemy literature, foreplay and female orgasm have all
but disappeared, a claim which is belied by some of the material he translates.141 He
notes that The theme of immortality for women disappears from the sexual
literature after the Ishimp and only re emerges in the context of womens solo
meditation. This is not entirely true
recall the story on page 387 above, in which L
Dongbin transmitted a specically female alchemical practice to Zhang Zhennu, but
Wiles point is well taken. Wile also notes that, over the centuries, the requirement
of youth in the female partner tends to be for younger and younger women, and
nally, within sexual alchemy, focuses on the moment of puberty.
C Ejaculation
becomes less and less frequent over the centuries, until in sexual alchemy the male
adept should not ejaculate at all. Finally, Wile notes a development over time in the
interpretation of female
D sexual energy and male gathering, rening, and
circulating. The earlier texts, from the Han to Tang dynasties, leave room for
ambiguity as to whether the essences involved are internal, external, or an amalgam
of the two. Sometimes the terms essence and qi are used interchangeably for
female sexual energy, and it is not clear whether the adept should pay attention to
tangible uids or intangible qi. I will argue below that this ambiguity remains even
within later sexual alchemical texts that reject any reliance on tangible substances.
Because Wiles four categories are not strictly diachronic, his thematic progression is
neither purely historical nor purely morphological. Category 3
householder manuals
overlaps chronologically with categories 2 and 4, and therefore is a morphological
rather than historical category. Yet Wile speaks as if the thematic progression is a
historical progression
themes changing over time, so this is a aw in his argument.
141
See pages 474 below and 389 above.
408
2.2.2, Hao Qins historical narrative.
For Hao Qin, inner alchemy evolved out
of early sexual cultivation, specically, huanjing bunao.142 The Mawangdui manuscripts

teach huanjing bunao, Wei Boyang teaches it in the Cantong qi this is an anachronistic
and dubious claim, and Ge Hong recommends it.143 Sexual cultivation including
both huanjing bunao and the Celestial Masters heqi, merging of qi went underground
due to Kou Qianzhis , 365 448 prohibition of sexual cultivation within
Daoism, and due to the social strictures of the Tang and Song dynasties; yet it never
ceased transmission. This sexual current contributed somehow to the development
of solo inner alchemy, and reemerged in the Southern Lineage of inner alchemy in
the Song dynasty.
Were the alchemists of the Southern Lineage solo alchemists or sexual
alchemists? Hao Qin says that Bai Yuchan H was denitely a solo alchemist, but
as for Bai Yuchans lineal predecessors
Zhang Boduan .@, Shi Tai +, Xue
Daoguang F<, and Chen Nan 7:
we cannot say with certainty. Actually,
while Bai cited and emulated these gures, he probably did not stand in a lineage of
direct transmission with them.144 Hao Qin cites the following detail from Xue
Daoguangs biography as evidence that Shi Tai and Xue Daoguang were sexual
alchemists:
Dezhi Shi Tai transmitted all of the oral instructions to him Xue Daoguang,
and furthermore warned him, saying: As for this practice, if you have not the
outer protection of a colossal squire, it is liable to lead to slander. You ought to go
quickly and, relying upon a patron of virtue and power, attempt it. The Purple
Worthy Xue Daoguang thereupon threw away his monastic kali, and came to
the capital wearing a turban and scholars gown, mingling and harmonizing his
radiance with common folk, and only then completing this aair of cultivation.
/0
62' I%G;,$!A
&?9B=3>*C8E1" &4(#145
142
Here I am paraphrasing Hao Qin, Longhu dandao, 298 302. I have discussed this on pages 235 36 above.
143
Ge Hong accepts the bedchamber art as one of three fundamental forms of cultivation the other two being
daoyin D and golden elixir laboratory alchemy, and for Ge the essence of the bedchamber art is huanjing bunao;
144
This lineage was probably cooked up by Bai Yuchan or his heirs. Bai or his heirs may have written some of the
texts ascribed to the SouthernLineage patriarchs, too. The works attributed to Chen Nan have long been
considered spurious; Skar, Golden Elixir Alchemy, 248 49.
145
Hao Qin, Longhu dandao, 299, citing DZ 296, Lishi zhenxian tidao tongjian 49.14b2 4, and Shi Xue er zhenren
jile F-)5 Abbreviated biography of the two perfected, Shi and Xue. I have not been able to nd
409
Why would Shi Tai and Xue Daoguang fear slander, and require a patron, if they were
merely practicing solo inner alchemy? Hao Qin extends this line of thinking to
Zhang Boduan as well, suggesting that perhaps the reason Zhang needed his patrons
Lu Shen and Ma Chuhou was because Zhang was also a sexual
alchemist. Whether we take this as convincing evidence or not, Chen Zhixu certainly
interprets them this way, citing these two cases as examples of seeking patronage
for
sexual cultivation.146 Hao Qin thinks that Chen Zhixu and his master Zhao Youqin
got their sexual alchemy through Shi Tais lineage; and that Weng Baoguang also
received sexual teachings through a separate branch of the Southern Lineage,
through Liu Yongnian
. 1138 52, d. 1168. It is said that Liu Yongnian was a
direct heir of Zhang Boduan, yet Liu lived too long after Zhangs demise for this to
have been possible.147 Hao Qin says that SouthernLineage masters of the Song
taught sexual alchemy in secret; Chen Zhixu and Dao Qizong taught sexual alchemy
guardedly in the Yuan; and sexual alchemy became more popular and openly
discussed in the Ming because the commercialism of Ming society led to a measure
of sexual liberation. Despeux basically agrees with Hao Qin:
Some alchemical schools rejected sexual partner practice; others integrated it into
their system. The Northern tradition, including Complete Perfection, generally
favored celibacy and sexual abstinence. . . . For them, the union of yin and yang
took place inside the adepts body, and sexual energy was not to be used
outwardly. The Southern traditions, on the other hand, made use of sexual
intercourse in their practice . . . As time went on, in the Ming dynasty an
increasing openness regarding sexual matters developed.148
Elena Valussi echoes this, mentioning a shift in attitude, from open to chastising,
towards sexual techniques in the practice of inner alchemy from the end of the Ming
dynasty to the Qing.149 Valussi cites the shift from Lu Xixings openness in the Ming
to Li Xiyues prudishness in the Qing as an example of this shift. A study of sexual
the source of this Shi Xue er zhenren jile; it is probably a lateimperial text, and not reliable evidence of the
earlier tradition. The version of this episode in DZ 296 mentions the themes of patronage, and mingling with
common folk, but not the threat of slander.
146
DZ 1067, Shangyangzi Jindan dayao 13.12b7 8, 14.8b10.
147
Hao Qin, Longhu dandao, 300, 352, 359.
148
Despeux and Kohn, Women in Daoism, 211.
149
Valussi, Beheading the Red Dragon, 43 44; also see ibid., 292n13.
410
attitudes in the Yuan and Ming would contribute further to this issue, but the central
question of whether SouthernLineage masters practiced sexual alchemy awaits
further study.
2.2.3, Lists of texts.
In lieu of contributing a historical narrative of my own, I
will contribute research materials for a future history of sexual alchemy. I will oer a
list of the relevant texts in the Ming Daoist canon, and see what can be learned from
it. As for the history of sexual alchemy from the Ming dynasty down to the present, I
oer some discussion of this in chapter 6, but not a denitive account.
In the two tables below, I oer two lists of texts from the Ming Daoist canon,
dating from the seventh to fourteenth centuries, that either teach sexual alchemy or
are relevant to the study of sexual alchemy. Figure 5.6 is a list of texts I am relatively
certain contain sexual cultivation teachings. A few of these contain macrobiotic
yangsheng sexual cultivation, but most contain sexual alchemy. Figure 5.7 is a list of
texts that may or may not prove to contain sexual content. These lists do not give a
full picture of the eld of sexual cultivation in Chinese society generally, only a
picture of the eld within professional Daoist circles.
Tang
dynasty
DZ 1032, j. 73
Yindan shenshou jue %+$ in Yunji qiqian )86 Sexual protoinner alchemy
Tang
dynasty
DZ 1032, j. 64
Wangwu Zhenren koushou yindan mijue lingpian

Sexual protoinner alchemy
%$71 in Yunji qiqian
Five Dyn.
DZ 134
Yin zhenjun huandan gezhu
Early alternative sexual alchemy
1150?
DZ 1017, j. 3
Rongcheng pian in Daoshu

Revealing criticism of sexual

alchemy
1180s1279 DZ 878
Zituan danjing &.,
Cites Wuzhen pian, Weng

Baoguang
1222
DZ 151
Jinye huandan yinzheng tu !23/
Cites Weng Baoguang
Song
dynasty
DZ 1034
Taixuan baodian 5
An anthology of macrobiotics and

inner alchemy
1291
DZ 851
Sanyuan yanshou canzan shu 04
An anthology of macrobiotics
1173; 1335
DZ 141
Ziyang Zhenren Wuzhen pian zhushu &(1'#
Editor Dai Qizong is a sexual

alchemist see pp. 6012 below;
Weng Baoguang may be
Yuan
dynasty
DZ 555
Gaoshang yuegong Taiyin Yuanjun Xiaodao Xianwang lingbao

A Jingming Daoist text; cites
jingming huangsu shu
%-75"* Southern Lineage materials

12th c.,
133135
DZ 142
Ziyang Zhenren Wuzhen pian sanzhu &(1'
Chen Zhixu and Lu Shu are sexual

alchemists; Weng Baoguang may
be
133136
DZ 106770,
1077
Jindan dayao
Chen Zhixu
411
ca. 1335
Daozang jiyao
Zhouyi Cantong qi fenzhang zhu &

,
Chen Zhixu
ca. 1335
DZ 143
Ziyang zhenren wuzhen zhizhi xiangshuo sansheng miyao

03$#$:;"%!
Editor Dai Qizong is a sexual

alchemist; Weng Baoguang may
be
1336
DZ 91
Taishang Dongxuan Lingbao wuliang duren shangpin miaojing zhu Chen Zhixu
C@/271
ca. 1350
DZ 1189
Yindan neipian + <
An alternative tradition of sexual

alchemy
Fig. 5.6, Daoist sexual cultivation texts, up to the Ming dynasty
962
DZ
926
Da huandan zhaojian ?6B
Liu Tsunyan, Lu Hsihsing and His

Commentaries on the Tsantungchi, 206, says it
contains sexual alchemy; I reserve judgment.
Tang or
Song
dynasties?
DZ 32
Hunyuan yangfu jing )3*7
Wang Ka says it teaches sexual cultivation;

Hu Fuchen, Zhonghua daojiao da cidian, 37273.
ca. 110050?
DZ
660
Hunyuan bajing zhenjing ).$7
Cf. Liu Tsunyan, ibid., 212; I reserve judgment.
ca. 1173
DZ 145 Wuzhen pian zhushi #$<1A
By Weng Baoguang was he a sexual alchemist?
N. Song
dyn.?
DZ 225 Taishang jiuyao xinyin miaojing ! 7
1227
DZ
109
Huangdi yinfu jing jiangyi 4+*7>8
By Xia Zongyu was he a sexual alchemist? Cf. Liu

ca. 1227
DZ
146
Ziyang zhenren wuzhen pian jiangyi 03$#$< By Xia Zongyu was he a sexual alchemist?
>8
1309
DZ 103
Yuqing wuji zongzhen wenchang dadong xianjing zhu

(/5=$7
Song or
Yuan
dynasties?
DZ
399
Taishang dongxuan lingbao tianzun shuo jiuku miaojing

zhujie C@-;' 719
Cf. Liu Tsunyan,Lu Hsihsing and His

Commentaries on the Tsantungchi, 207; I
reserve judgment.
Fig. 5.7, Daoist texts possibly mentioning sexual alchemy, up to the Ming dynasty
From the list in gure 5.6 above, we can see that, whether or not Weng Baoguang and
the Wuzhen pian teach sexual alchemy, they had become associated with sexual
alchemy during the Southern Songby 1222 at the latest cf. DZ 151 , and probably
earlier cf. Lu Shu , likely of the Southern Song, in DZ 142 . I would sum up the
eld of preMingdynasty Daoist sexual cultivation into four categories: early sexual
alchemy in DZ 1032, 134, and 1017 , sexual macrobiotics DZ 1034, 851, 32? , and one
late alternative tradition DZ 1189 , with the rest and bulk of the texts containing
sexual alchemy associated with the Southern Lineage.
2.3, Ideal Types and Procedures of Cultivation
In section 2.1 above, I suggest that the Wiles category of alchemical texts includes
both materials on goldenelixir sexual alchemy and materials on huanjing bunao in
412
alchemical language. I also suggest that the goldenelixir sexual alchemy, alchemical
huanjing bunao, and nonalchemical huanjing bunao form a continuum. I will now show
this by describing the practices from several of Wiles texts, ranging from classical
huanjing bunao, to alchemical huanjing bunao, to goldenelixir sexual alchemy. I will
also summarize Hao Qins discussion of sexual alchemy in the Western Lineage of
inner alchemy. We will see that, within the continuum formed by these texts, there
are both contrasts and similarities. The diculty is not that there are no dierences
between the texts, but that it is open to debate which dierences are most
signicant. The discussion in this section is relevant to the study of Chen Zhixus
teachings in section 3 of this chapter because it will give us some points for
comparison, and help us to locate Chens teachings within a broader eld of sexual
cultivation. Also, because the Mingdynasty texts reveal their details more openly,
comparing them with Chens writings will shed light on cryptic passages in the latter.
2.3.1, Type 1: Classical huanjing bunao, and sanfeng caizhan.
What is huanjing
bunao? Hao Qin takes it as the mainstream of sexual cultivation, and the origin of the
key physiological elements of inner alchemy. Wile calls it the centerpiece of Chinese
sexual practice.150 Cai Jun and Li Wenkun nd traces of this concept in every classic
discussion of sexual cultivation, from Mawangdui to the Ming dynasty.151 For Ge
Hong 283343
, huanjing bunao is an indispensible part of any regimen of self
cultivation and a support for the greater work of laboratory alchemy
:
There are texts by ten or more experts on the techniques of the bedchamber.
Some of them use this for replenishing and rescuing from injury and
deterioration; some use it for attacking and curing the many diseases; some use it
for gathering yin to benet yang; some use it to increase the lifespan; yet the
great essentials lie in the one matter of recycling the essence to replenish the brain huanjing
bunao, and nothing more. These techniques are transmitted orally by perfected
persons, and originally were not to be written down. Even were one to ingest
famous medicines, if one did not also know these essentials of the bedchamber,
one could not achieve long life.
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151
Cai Jun and Li Wenkun, Xing kexue yu Zhonuo chuantong xing xiulian, 151.
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Ge Hong goes on to recommend huanjing bunao as a way for the male adept to avoid
the twin dangers of celibacy with its mental demons and semenloss leading to
early death . Wile characterizes Chinese male sexual cultivation in general as
arousing and circulating internal energy without engaging in kinetic overkill or
allowing the energy to escape,153 and throughout history huanjing bunao has been the
main way that adepts have tried to do this. I take huanjing bunao as a thread running
throughout the prealchemical sexual literature. It is not the only threadWile
mentions other threads such as emotional harmonization, sexual synchronization,
eugenics, and therapies for sexual dysfunctionbut it is the thread most relevant to
our study of sexual alchemy.
Descriptions of huanjing bunao can be found in Tang and Mingdynasty
materials. Yufang zhiyao text 2.3, a SuiTang text from Ishimp says,
The classics on immortality say that the dao of returning the jing to nourish the
brain is to wait during intercourse until the jing is greatly aroused, and on the
point of emission, and then, using the two middle ngers of the left hand, press
just between the scrotum and the anus. Press down with considerable force and
expel a long breath while gnashing the teeth several tens of times, but without
holding the breath. Then allow yourself to ejaculate. The jing, however, will not
be able to issue forth and instead will travel from the jade stalk upward and
enter the brain.154
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Here, it seems that it is tangible semen which is recycled to replenish the brain. In
this case, it is only the male adepts jing that is recycled, but huanjing bunao often
involves gathering and recycling the female partners jing as well. The following
passage from Zijin Guangyao Daxian xiuzhen yanyi text 3.5, Ming dynasty includes
huanjing bunao as an element within muchmaligned practice of sanfeng caizhan
gathering and battling at the three peaks :
Carry out nine times nine strokes with eyes closed and mouth shut . . . In this
152
Baopuzi neipian jiaoshi, 150. My translation, adding italics. Also cf. Ware, Alchemy, Medicine, and Religion, 140.
153
154
Wile, Art of the Bedchamber, 101. Chinese text from Yufang zhiyao, Shuangmei yingan congshu ed., 1b112a1 pp. 76
77 in reprint .
414
way, one rst absorbs from the lower peak.

When the lower absorption has reached great intensity, the womans qi
becomes expansive and stimulates the middle peak above. I slowly embrace her,
suck the juices from the left and right
breasts, and swallow them. After
absorbing their wonderful essence one may stop. This then is absorption from the
middle peak.
When absorption from the middle peak has reached great intensity, the
womans qi expands again and penetrates all the way to the upper peak. I allow
my tongue to explore freely beneath the opponents tongue. Probing the two
openings there, I suck the secretions, swallowing again and again. This then is the
upper peak of the three absorptions.
When the upper absorption is complete, the woman will be at the height of
ecstasy and the true qi of her private parts will be released. At this time, one
should withdraw the wonderful handle an inch or so and elevate the body like a
turtle, raising a breath of qi directly to the upper dantian. Take in the opponents
qi and absorb her secretions, circulating them throughout your body. At this
point, the three absorptions are complete. The woman, too, is thoroughly
satised from top to bottom; and her channels of qi open up and ow freely.
Now exhale a breath or two of qi and have the woman inhale and swallow it to
calm her spirit. When this art is thoroughly mastered, and when the true
essence released by the partner is obtained and ones own unshed jing is
returned, then this is of little harm to the woman and of great benet to
oneself. When yin and yang obtain each other and water and re are in perfect
union, this then is the marvelous benet of mounting women.155
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This is not an alchemical text, though we do see a hint of alchemical discourse in the
phrase water and re are in equilibrium shuihuo jiji Eq , an alchemical
sounding reference to the hexagram jiji . In this passage, the male adept practices
sanfeng caizhan for some preliminary benet, but mainly to stimulate the release of
the partners qi and secretions. Gathering these, he performs huanjing bunao using
both her sexual matterenergy and his own. I quote this passage on sanfeng caizhan at
length to show that this sexual practice, rejected so vehemently by Chen Zhixu and
others, is not obviously evil. From the vantage point of contemporary morality or
philosophical ethics, we might call it a form of exploitative pedophilia Zijin
155
415
Guangyao Daxian xiuzhen yanyi recommends a fourteenyearold partner, which was

actually the marriageable age for a young woman ,156 but as we shall see below, the
same may be said of sexual alchemy.
Why then did Chen hate sanfeng caizhan so much? On pages 11213 above, I
quote Barend ter Haars view that the Yuandynasty Buddhist leader Pudus criticism
of
the practice of sexual techniques by Pupils of the Lotus Tradition, therefore,
served two purposes: he defended his own tradition against potential suspicion
and at the same time raised doubts about a competing and supercially similar
tradition.157
In chapter 3, I argue that Chen rejects the bedchamber arts and sanfeng caizhan
because he fears that outside observers might elide the distinctions between these
teachings and his own. On pages 62324 below, I argue that Wang Shizhen, a famous
man of letters in the Ming, rejects Chens sexual teachings because he fears others
might infer wrongly that his relationship with his young female guru Tanyangzi
involved similar behavior. We see the same mindset in all three of these cases. There
may be cultural reasons why Chen rejects the cultivation of tangible jingye in favor of
intangible jingqi he may feel that external substances are profane and qi is sacred ,
but the vehemence of his rejection may be a strategy for social competition, a way to
install a rewall between himself and his rivals.
2.3.2, Type 2: Quasialchemical huanjing bunao.
Lets look at one more example
of huanjing bunao, in which the practice is glossed in inneralchemical terms. This

passage is from Huanjing caiqi pian Section on recycling the essence
and gathering the qi , in Shesheng zongyaog, a Mingdynasty anthology on macrobiotics
yangsheng .158
If we are to speak of successful
sexual practice but stop at nonejaculation, this
is not yet
to speak of the marvelous. The essential thing is in recycling the
156
From the Song to Qing dynasties, the age of marriage was set at sixteen for men and fourteen for women;
Zhang Dapeng, Zhongguo gudai hunyin nianling de chansheng jiqi yanbian.
157
Ter Haar, The White Lotus Teachings in Chinese Religious History, 1067.
158
I translate all of Huanjing caiqi pian except for some concluding verses. Huanjing caiqi pian is a subsection
within the larger section Fangshu qishu , within the book Shesheng zongyao
. Fangshu qishu
is ascribed to Ren Dongming, Daoist of the Kan Palace Kangong Daoren Ren Dongming ,
about whom nothing is known. Shesheng zongyao was compiled by Hong Ji . 1638 , and is mostly medicinal
prescriptions.
416
essence and gathering the qi: this is the great dao.

Someone asks: What is recycling the essence and gathering the qi?
I answer: In general, when one has slapped and drummed hundred or
thousands of times, the woman will have yinconjunctions yinjiao ;
expressions of yin in three places: 1 the two breasts, 2 two armpits, and 3 two
kidneys. While slapping and drumming to and fro, gauge her sounds,
tenderness, and changes of complexion. If her eyes are unfocused and her mouth
closes, her hands are cold and heart is impatient, then at this moment
immediately contract your lower body, humping up lit., squatting like a turtle.
The secretions159 within her pin will be drawn into your numinous bough;
thus, this is called drinking from the sea, the black dragon receives the jing .
First, fuse it with your own primal yang, and then they can mix together and
become one. From the Tail Gate the coccyx and through the Spinal Straits at
midspine or shoulder height, it ascends to penetrate the MuddyPellet Palace
the brain, then descends to the dantian, the perfected qi moistening and
nourishing. How could this be only a minor tonic?
We may say that the female body as a whole is yin, with only her secretions
being yang. Thus we say that the lead within the water is her yang quality. This is
also called the red dame. The male body as a whole is yang, with only his jingqi
being yin. Thus we say that the mercury within the granulated cinnabar is his
yin quality. This is also called the hoaryheaded old man. The red is lead, and
the white is mercury. When the perfected Qi and humor fuse together, and you
transport them up to the Muddy Pellet, then your teeth and hair will not fall out,
and your complexion will be that of a youth.
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In this lateimperial account of huanjing bunao, the sexual energy is drawn from the
mans sex organ up his spine to nourish his brain, returning to the dantian. I call this
quasialchemical huanjing bunao, since the mans white essence the semen and the
womans red secretions the menses, or something related to them are correlated
with the alchemical pharmaca mercury and lead. The idea that the lead within the
womans body is yangwithinyin, and the mans mercury is yinwithinyang, is also
159
In classical Chinese medicine, the jin S and ye h are distinguished from each other, though not consistently.
Generally, jinuids are relatively yang and may escape from the body, while yeuids are relatively yin and
internal; Sivin, Traditional Medicine in Contemporary China, 166. I doubt the technical distinction between jin and ye
applies here.
160
Primary material from Hao Qin, Longhu dandao, 296, and an online etext widely available. I have not been
able to consult the reprint of Shesheng zongyao.
417
derived from inner alchemy, and not from huanjing bunao.

2.3.3, What is jing?
These passages raise a question regarding jing: Is it
tangible matter, or intangible qi? It can be both: Wile notes that semen is thought to
possess both a material jingye and an energetic jingqi aspect,161 and the
same would be true for a woman, who has both jingye sweat, blood, or secretions
and jingqi the qi within her yin jing. In the passage above from 2.3 Yufang zhiyao,
the man seems to be recycling his jingye. In 3.5 Xiuzhen yanyi, the adept is told to
take in the opponents qi and absorb her secretions, so he is using both material
and energetic aspects of the partners jing. In Huanjing caiqi pian, the nature of the
jing is quite ambiguous: the womans secretions jingye mix with the mans jing to
become perfected qi jingqi within his body; and the womans pharmacon is termed
both secretions jingye, and lead within water jingqi within jingye. We could
imagine a range of relations between the two aspects of jing that is, between jing and
qi, or between jingye and jingqi: these relations could include 1 jing + qi, or 2 jing =
qi, or 3 qi within jing, or 4 qi signaled by jing, or 5 simply an undisambiguable
jingqi.
A similar ambiguity holds in solo alchemy. Hao Qin denes qi as the
functional or energetic aspect of jing jing is the substance ti , and qi is the
function yong , and says that jing and qi, in essence, are a single stu
.162 Ma Jiren
says that the three treasures, jing, qi, and spirit, are all derived from a common pre
cosmic ancestral qi xiantian zuqi that divided into three di
erent
functions within the postcosmic world.163 Within solo alchemy, jing and qi may been
either seen as separate entities, or as an ambiguous jingqi.
For solo alchemists, the ambiguous relationship between jing and qi is mostly
just academic, but for sexual alchemists, it is a live issue. The di
erence between
sexual alchemy and the bedchamber arts is sometimes stated in terms of jing and qi.
Zeng Chuanhui says that in the bedchamber arts one takes tangible secretions as
161
162
163
418
pharmaca, while in sexual alchemy only intangible qi is used.164 Maspero and

Needham would agree with Zeng, saying that it is jingye rather than jingqi which is
circulated in huanjing bunao.165 Yet Maspero and Needham receive pointed criticism
from Wile for this position. While noting the ambiguous nature of jing in his texts,
Wile argues that what is circulated in huanjing bunao is almost always intangible jingqi
rather than tangible jingye he would say the same thing for sexual alchemy . Hao
Qins position di
ers from all of the above: within sexual alchemy as well within the
bedchamber arts, the inner pharmacon is none other than the mans semen, and the
outer pharmacon is the womans secretions, and possibly the socalled female
ejaculate.166 Yet elsewhere Hao says that the outer pharmacon is qi.167 Perhaps his
ambiguity is related to his point that, when the male pharmacon is locked inside, it is
primal essence yuanjing
, and if it is ejaculated it becomes seminal essence.168
To recap:
Standard position Zeng
Maspero and Needham
Wile
Hao Qin
Sexual alchemy
qi
?
qi rarely, uid
uid or qi
Bedchamber arts
uid
uid
qi rarely, uid
uid or qi?
Fig. 5.8, Views on jingqi and jingye in sexual cultivation
Rather than choosing one of these positions as correct, I prefer to bring ambiguity
rather than clarity to this debate. The stu
which is circulated in huanjing bunao may
be jingqi, or jingye, or just jing. I will argue below that the situation within sexual
alchemy is also ambiguous. This supports my point that, in some aspects such as the
physiological aspect , it is dicult to draw distinctions between alchemical and non
alchemical sexual cultivation, between jindan zhi dao and pangmen xiaoshu
, and that the distinctions may be more rhetorical than praxological.
A nal question arises regarding phrases such as the secretions within her pin
will be drawn into your numinous bough in Huanjing caiqi pian . Is the male
164
165
Wile, Art of the Bedchamber, 56, 59.
166
Hao Qin, Longhu dandao, 313. Hao correctly notes that the existence of female ejaculate in human beings is still
a matter of debate.
167
E.g., Hao Qin, Longhu dandao, 317, 321.
168
419
adept sucking female secretions through his urethra? Needham describes the vajrol
mudr of modern Indian yogis, by which the penis performs a veritable seminal
aspiration, the muscles of the abdomen creating a partial vacuum in the bladder and
so permitting the absorption of part at least of the vaginal contents.169 Needham
speculates that this skill may have come to India from China. While Indian texts
themselves may indeed call this a Chinese discipline cncra
, we should take
Needhams speculations with a grain of salt, since he is an inveterate booster of
classical Chinese civilization or his own view of it
.170 As to whether Chinese adepts
also did seminal aspiration, from the passages translated above, it certainly seems
that they did. I have never seen this called a sacred and indispensible skill, however.
2.3.4, Type 3: Alchemical huanjing bunao.
Of the ve alchemical texts
translated by Wile, I consider the rst two, 4.1

Jindan jiuzheng pian, and 4.2
Jindan
zhenchuan, to be sexual alchemy, and the other three, 4.3
Jindan jieyao, 4.4
Caizhen
jiyao, and 4.5
Wugen shu, to be alchemical huanjing bunao. I will summarize and
discuss the practices of 4.3
Jindan jieyao and 4.4
Caizhen jiyao here, and 4.2
Jindan
zhenchuan below. The remaining two texts, 4.1
Jindan jiuzheng pian and 4.5
Wugen
shu, do not openly reveal their practice sequences.
2.3.4.1, Jindan jieyao.
The Zhang Sanfeng text 4.3

Jindan jieyao begins with
instructions for heel breathing zhongxi , 17071

.171 The term alludes to a line
from Zhuangzi: The perfected person breathes with his heels; the mass of common
men breathe with their throats.172 Here, however, heel breathing means doing seated
meditation with the heels pressing on the lower Magpie Bridge at the perineum, and
the tongue forming the upper Magpie Bridge at the upper palate. While visualizing
sun, moon, and a pearl within the inner landscape, the adept swallows qi in the form
169
170
Needham thinks that sex as a way of salvation has something suspiciously Chinese about it; Science and
Civilisation in China, 5.5:283. When he says that, whereas Indian yoga was more extreme, Chinese practices were
protoscientic, his bias is obvious; ibid., 288.
171
Both 4.3
Caizhen jiyao are ascribed to Zhang Sanfeng, and come from Sanfeng danjue, a
small collection included within the larger collection, Jiyizi daoshu shiqi zhong, that was compiled by Fu Jinquan
around 1825. I paraphrase Wiles translations Art of the Bedchamber, 16978 and 17888
, adding intext page
number citations.
172
From Zhuangzi, chapter 6 Da zongshi

, H.Y. 6.7; translated in Watson, The Complete Works of Chuang
Tzu, 78.
420
of saliva, and performs lesserorbital circulation. Next comes the stage of opening the
passes kaiguan , 171
. The adept transports qi up from the yongquan points in the
heels and around in lesserorbital circulation, does heel breathing while contracting
the anus, does various rubbings and pattings to open up the passes, then causes his
metallous essence to soar up behind the elbows zhouhou fei jinjing
, a
form of solo huanjing bunao.
For rening the self with humors of jade yuye lianji , 17173
, the
adept uses between three and ve female partners. They should be between sixteen
and seventeen years old, or as young as fourteen. The text describes mutual
masturbation or other foreplay, using two terms from Wuzhen pian: striking the
bamboo qiaozhu
and drumming on the zither guqin
. The adept
visualizes qi between the kidneys, and glares inwardly at his ophryon between his
brows
. He practices formless intercourse shenjiao ti bujiao
173 stopping
after several cycles to breathe deeply and ingest the partners qi.
Jindan jieyao discusses the requisites for sexual cultivation: funds cai
, site,
and companions 173
. It counsels the adept to live in a city, and rely on a rich and
powerful patron clan, echoing the same phrases from the hagiography of Xue
Daoguang see pages 40910 above
. The adept ought to live in a compound with an
altar for worshiping the patriarchs of the lineage. The adept must have companions
and a yellow dame to look after him while he is drunk on the pharmacon, and guide
him at the crucial moment of gathering.
The text gives detailed instructions on choosing female partners 174
. The
best is a fourteenyearold prepubescent girl who has lived 5048 days; her rst
menses is a priceless treasure. Women in their late twenties can still be employed
for practicing the sexual timing xilian huogong
, or as a tonic for male
impotence zipei ruolong

. The yellow dame aids the adept in inspecting the
partners menses and discharges in order to gauge the point in the lunar cycle when
the partners pharmacon will appear 175
. The moment when the pharmacon appears
is said to be three days after the sign of the termination of the menstrual period in
173
That is, he has physical intercourse without engaging with his spirit. The term is explained on page 424 below.
421
the west, that is, three days after the juncture between pure yin on hui, the dark
moon day
and the birth of new yang on shuo, the newmoon day
. Yet this is not the
third day of a calendar month, nor even the third day of the womans individual
menstrual cycle. Jindan jieyao oers a complex system for calculating the true hour of
living midnight huo zishi
, based on the birthhour, day, month, and year of

the individual partner 17778
.
In addition to calculating the proper day for gathering, the adept must
determine the proper moment during intercourse. When the tongue is like water,
the medicine is about to arrive; when the dates are like re huozao ,174 the
medicine is nearly ready 177
. This timing may be related to female orgasm, but
exactly how is unclear. By watching the womans face, the adept can see when she will
begin to produce yin water guishui
; he must gather when the yin water has
run out and changed to yang water renshui
.
The adept transports a drop of perfected mercury from his perineum jin
bianchu
to meet the partners lead, and remains motionless as he gathers her
outer pharmacon. As he is gathering it, he performs lesserorbital circulation; after he
has gained it, he must disengage and withdraw for seven days of meditation, to form
the holy fetus. This is the most advanced stage of attainment mentioned in Jindan
jieyao.
2.3.4.2, Caizhen jiyao.
The Zhang Sanfeng text 4.4

Caizhen jiyao is a set of
laconic verses, with Fu Jinquans explicit commentary. Fu says many of the same
things we saw in Jindan jieyao, adding some details. In his commentary to the nal
verse 18788
, Fu describes the process succinctly. First, the adept tamps the
base zhuji
for one hundred days, circulating qi and locking the seminal
essence, and holding the breath. Then, he must do thirty hours of preliminary sexual
intercourse to open the passes and apertures, adjust the heartmind and inherent
nature xinxing
, as well as the essence and qi, the sword, the water and re of
heart and kidneys?
, and the humors, qi, and blood. Then he approaches the chosen
partner of ve thousand and fortyeight days, or around fourteen years, of age
.
174
For a discussion of ery dates, see p. 534n307 below.
422
After foreplay, and intercourse with the partner on top symbolized by the hexagram
tai , i.e., yin over yang
, he will feel his coccyx become stimulated and
naturally constrict. Now, the adept must lock his seminal essence by clenching his
anus, closing his eyes, halting his breath, and using erce guiding intention. He
brings the tiger to the point of ecstasy, swallows her cold, clear saliva, and gathers
her metallous qi by sending a drop of his perfected mercury from the coccyx to
meet it. Then he must withdraw, grasp the crooks of his knees, and perform nine
rounds of huanjing bunao while concentrating on the Mystic Pass xuanguan
,
followed by lesserorbital circulation. He circulates his own perfected mercury
through his cranium and nose, passing it down his throat in the form of mucus.
Below the esophagus, the recycled male sexual energy will meet the womans
metallous humor jinye
that the adept swallowed before, and he transports both
to his middle dantian zhongji
, central limit
. Continuing to inhale atmospheric
qi and swallow it as saliva, his spirit and qi become one. Practicing this way, the adept
will have no di
culty attaining the highest dao.
Hao Qin discusses several Zhang Sanfeng texts, as well as some short passages
from Shesheng zongyao. His discussion of the Zhang Sanfeng material, based on several
texts from Zhang Sanfeng Xiansheng quanji,175 adds little to Wiles materials. Hao does
add one piece of new information: in Xuanji zhijiang, the sort of huanjing bunao
practices that we saw above in Jindan jieyao and Caizhen jieyao are not the end of the
practice sequence, but are followed by more advanced practices that correspond to
the stages in the standard account of solo inner alchemy
of greaterorbital
circulation da zhoutian
, or rening of qi into spirit lianqi huashen

.176 In section 2.4 below I compare all of the di erent forms of sexual cultivation
discussed in this chapter, arguing that the Zhang Sanfeng texts are huanjing bunao in
alchemical language, and lack many important features of inner alchemy, yet the
inclusion of the advanced stages of alchemical practice within Xuanji zhijiang show
that some forms of sexual cultivation ascribed to Zhang Sanfeng may be more fully
175
Xuanji zhijiang, Dadao lun, and Xuanyao pian. These texts were probably composed by Wang Xiling
16641724
, or may have been transmitted to him by Zhang Sanfeng through spirit writing; Wong Shiu Hon,
Investigations into the Authenticity of the Chang SanFeng ChuanChi, 1012, 100.
176
423
edged sexual alchemy.

2.3.5, Type 4: Lateimperial goldenelixir sexual alchemy.
This ideal type is
represented by the text Jindan zhenchuan.177 This text was written by three authors
working together: Sun Ruzhong supplies his fathers teachings, Zhang Chonglie
supplies the commentary zhu , and Li Kan supplies the discursive
commentary shu .178 While the book is credited to Sun, the prose of Zhang and
Li tells us more than Suns verses do. The text I use was edited and with eyebrow
notes on the upper margin of the page by Fu Jinquan, the same man who
transmitted 4.4 Caizhen jiyao.
1, Tamping the base
Zhuji; 15658 . The male adept draws blood and qi from
the female partner into his dantian, where they coalesce with his own essence and
spirit. This stage takes one hundred days. He may use either the prenatal
blood within the uterus? or postnatal blood menses . The qi is contained within
the blood; or, rather, blood and qi are two energyforms of a single underlying stu
,
jingqi. The adept practices formless or wuweistyle sexual intercourse. The
phrases shenjiao ti bujiao or qijiao xing bujiao mean although one is
engaged in intercourse, it is as if one was not 158 .
2, Obtaining the pharmacon
Deyao ; 15859 . The adept draws the outer
pharmacon from the postnatal caldron into his body, combines it with the qi and
blood gathered in stage 1. He uses his postnatal substance zhi ; i.e., semen to
receive the prenatal qi, which stabilizes his semen to turn it into true mercury
zhengong
; i.e., yuanjing, primal essence . He must use his sword to separate the
yang water renshui from the yin water guishui , gathering the yang water several
times until his three dantian are full and his elixir foundation danji
is rm.
Several people participate at this stage: the male adept, an external yellow dame wai
huangpo , perhaps a chaperon or procuress , and multiple companions lban
who together with the adept are three persons with one will tongzhi sanren
177
I paraphrase Wiles translation Art of the Bedchamber, 15369 , with intext pagenumber citations.
178
Sun Ruzhong b. 1575, . 1616 received teachings from his fathermaster Sun Jiaoluan 1505
1610 , and compiled the book together with two kindred spirits, Zhang Chonglie from Henglu , the
foothills of Mt. Heng in Hunan and Li Kan byname Chuyu , from Yingcheng county, or present
day Dean county, Hubei . The book was produced in 1616 by Sun Ruzhong and his brother Sun Ruxiao
. Zhang and Li were not students of Sun; it seems they all were equals.
424

. The adept probably uses two female partners at this stage, though we must
consider the possibility that this is longhu danfa, with an alchemist orchestrating,
from a distance, an encounter between two other persons. When the adept gathers
the outer pharmacon, he will feel as if drunk or bewitched, and the companions
and yellow dame must look after him.
3, Fusing the pharmacon
Jiedan ; 15960
. The adept fuses the outer
pharmacon with his own yin mercury yingong , seminal essence, or perhaps
primal essence
, to form an inner elixir neidan
like a glowing red tangerine
within the lower dantian. Blood is tranformed into seminal
essence, and essence
into perfected mercury primal essence
. When this stage is complete, the adept has
become a transcendent in the human realm renxian
.
4, Rening the self
Lianji ; 16061

. The adept renes the elixir, a fusion
product of the womans outer pharmacon and his own primal essence, within his
body to transform it into cinnabar. The discursive commentary says that Although
one employs caldron and furnace, zither and sword, partner and yellow dame, one
must remain proper and dignied, so this stage still involves sexual activity. Within
the body, the adept renes the pharmaca until their yin aspect is completely
extinguished. Outwardly, he transforms all of his tangible bodily uids semen, saliva,
and humors, blood, sweat, and tears
into rosegem ointment qionao
, and
transforms his esh into jade. The yellow dame and companions keep watch on the
adepts rhythm and timing.
5, Recycling the elixir
Huandan ; 16164

. This stage involves both
gathering and rening. The adept should gather the pharmacon when its yang qi is
freshest, that is, in the interval between the darkmoon day hui ; the last day of
the month
and the newmoon day shuo ; the rst day of the month
, or between
pure yin and the emergence of new yang. According to the cycle of the month, the
adept should gather between hui and shuo; but it is also said that the adept should
gather eight liangounces of yang on the eighth day of the month dui
, and
eight more on the twentythird gen
. These two eightliang measures are added
to make a whole catty jin
of yang. The rst sort of gathering is an external, sexual
425
gathering of the outer pharmacon, while the second sort of gathering is an internal,
meditational gathering of yang qi from the fusing pharmaca, to make an inner elixir
of pure yang. In addition to the lunar cycle, a cycle of six periods hou
is also
mentioned. During the rst two periods, the adept gathers the pharmacon from the
partner, and during the nal four periods, he works on fusing the elixir within his
own body. Three companions are required at this stage. Li Kans discursive
commentary records a solemn sexual ritual in which the adept approaches the altar
with the pace of Yu Yu bu
on the fteenth day of the eighth month, and,
clasping the hands of the dragon to the left and the tiger to the right, attains the
fusion of water and metal, and the return of the yang yaoline into the dragons li
. It seems that the adept is using both a male dragon
and female tiger
companion here. Another companion sits within a tent, making plans zuowo
yunchou
, perhaps as a sort of project manager.
6, Incubation
Wenyang ; 16466
. This is a purely internal stage. The
adept cooks the elixir within his inner caldron, the middle dantian near his heart. He
res the elixir over ten lunar cycles, and one calendar year, using the twelve Sovereign
Hexagrams pigua
, and adjusting the level of re to suit each of the twelve lunar
cycles. The text also o ers cryptic instructions on the ring cycle during each day,
with 216 units of re during the rst half of the day the period of advancing the yang
re, jin yanghuo
, 144 units of re during the second half of the day the
period of retracting the yin tallies, tui yinfu
, adding up to 360 units per day.
After ten lunar cycles, the holy fetus shengtai
will appear.
7, Parturition
Tuotai ; 16667
. The elixir ascends from the middle
dantian to the brain the upper dantian

, bursts through the crown with a peal of
thunder, and emerges as the yang spirit. One is greeted by the gods, and becomes a
terrestrial transcendent dixian
. One trains the yang spirit to roam
progressively further and further from the body.
8, The Mysterious Pearl
Xuanzhu
; 16768
. Moving from the level of a
terrestrial transcendent to a celestial transcendent requires realizing the non

duality between self and other, or between self and all things. It also requires
426
gathering the mysterious pearl, the precosmic metal within the precosmic
state xiantian zhong zhi xiantian qian
, produced in the prenatal
crucible over a period of 5,048 days i.e., 13.8 years without error 167
, that is, it has
developed in a fourteenyearold girl of rare perfection, as she has grown up. Most
cannot hope to nd such a caldron because she is extremely rare, so instead one
receives the pearl from the gods as recompense for ones virtuous deeds.
9, Proceeding to the Jade Pool
of the Queen Mother of the West Fu Yaochi

; 16869
. The adept receives a fantastic welcome into Heaven, and a post in
the celestial administration.
2.3.5.1, Lu Xixing and Li Xiyue.
Hao Qin oers an extended description of
SouthernLineage sexual alchemy. This is based almost exclusively on DZ 142, Ziyang

Zhenren Wuzhen pian sanzhu by Chen Zhixu, et al. Hao also includes sections on the
alchemy of Lu Xixing founder of the socalled Eastern Lineage, Dongpai
,
and Li Xiyue founder of the socalled Western Lineage, Xipai
. Hao asserts
that Lu Xixing and Li Xiyue are carrying on the distinctively SouthernLineage form
of sexual alchemy, but tells us almost nothing about what sexual practices they might
actually have been doing. Like the others who have studied Lu Xixing Li Yuanguo,
Liu Tsunyan, Wile, and Yang Ming
, Hao discovers little about Lu Xixings sexual
practices, except for one passage suggesting that he teaches sexual alchemy at a
distance geti shenjiao
.179 Perhaps we will never know much about them. Li
Yuanguo, for his part, mentions several key unexplained terms from Lu Xixings
sexual practice: opening the passes and spreading the apertures kaiguan zhanqiao

, crossing through the pass and ingesting guoguan fushi
, and
lifting and sucking, chasing and controlling tixi zhuishe
.180 The last term
must be related to anal constriction and urethral suction, as we saw in the Zhang
Sanfeng texts above. Haos discussion of Li Xiyues alchemical system citing Jiuceng
lianxin, Daoqiao tan, and Sanche mizhi
does contain several hints of sexual alchemy
such as the phrases forgetting the passions as one stares at the scene, duijing
wangqing ; and lead in the house of the other, bijia zhi qian

, but
179
180
427
tells us next to nothing about our subject. Li Xiyue has yet to be studied
systematically.
2.4, Comparison
Lets return to my notion of a morphological continuum of sexual alchemy with ve
ideal types, as shown in as in gure 5.3 above. These ve types, and their
representative texts, are
1
nonalchemical huanjing bunao, or sanfeng caizhan 2.3.1
2.3
Yufang zhiyao and 3.5
Zijin Guangyao Daxian xiuzhen yanyi
2
quasialchemical huanjing bunao 2.3.2
Huanjing caiqi pian, from Shesheng zongyao

3
alchemical huanjing bunao 2.3.4
4.3
Caizhen jiyao
4
lateimperial goldenelixir sexual alchemy 2.3.5
Jindan zhenchuan
5
SongYuanperiod goldenelixir sexual alchemy
Chen Zhixus teachings
What can we say about the similarities and di erences between these types?
Following Wile, I will choose several tracers to show thematic progression:
alchemical language, explicitness, conception of jing , stages of cultivation, and
goal.
In type 1, there is almost no alchemical language; the sexual language is highly
stylized, yet explicit. The jing to be circulated is primarily the male adepts jing,
which is primarily tangible seminal essence. In sanfeng caizhan the female partners
jing may also be used, in both tangible and intangible forms. There are no stages of
cultivation to speak of, and the goal is physical health, vitality, and longevity, rather
than transcendence. The only important distinction between types 1 and 2 is that, in
type 2, some language and concepts have been adopted from inner alchemy. This is a
signicant distinction, though. In inner alchemy, language is not mere dressing added
to a praxological core: language is as much a part of the essence of inner alchemy as
physiological practice is. Or, we could say that alchemical language represents a form
of practice too, linguistic practice.181 Thus, by adding alchemical language to
181
On the topic of alchemical language as practice, see my discussion of Chens homily to Deng Yanghao on pages
43539 3.0.2
below.
428
huanjing bunao practice, type 2 moves closer to inner alchemy in a real way.
In type 3, alchemical language is employed fully. The texts in type 3 may not
develop alchemical language to the same extent that Chen Zhixu does, but they do
use it as extensively as plenty of other inneralchemical texts do. The sexual
language is explicit. The balance of emphasis on the jing of the male adept and the
jing of the female partner is the same as we nd in sexual alchemy. The jing is both
tangible and intangible. While there is a striking emphasis on swallowing the saliva
jing of both adept and partner, the partners jing is also gathered as qi. Unlike in types
12, there are stages of cultivation in type 3; this idea must have been adopted from
inner alchemy. Oldfashioned huanjing bunao is still an important practice here, but
now it is part of an overall alchemical framework. Like goldenelixir sexual alchemy,
type3 texts begin with a stage 1 of rening the self, then a stage 2 of gathering and
initial fusion of the two pharmaca to make an elixir. But whereas in sexual alchemy
the holy fetus is red for ten months to produce a yang spirit, in type3 texts the path
ends after seven days of ring to produce the fetus. Hao Qin reports that some
Zhang Sanfeng texts include the entirety of stage 3 of internal ring to produce a
yang spirit; this might make them full sexual alchemy rather than alchemical
huanjing bunao. The goal of type3 texts is ambiguous: it seems to be more than
health, vitality, and longevity, but a full expression of Daoist apotheosis is lacking.
Type 3 is essentially huanjing bunao set within an alchemical pathframework and
expressed in alchemical language.
Types 4 and 5 are fulledged sexual alchemy. I will be discussing type 5, Song
Yuanperiod goldenelixir sexual alchemy, for the rest of the chapter, but I will
mention it now briey. If type 3 is huanjing bunao in alchemical terms, then type 5 is
inner alchemy that has drawn some key elements from huanjing bunao, and type 4 is
type5 alchemy with an expanded sexual dimension. In type3 alchemical huanjing
bunao, stage 1 of rening the self involves sexual intercourse. In Chen Zhixus type5
sexual alchemy, rening the self is done through concentration meditation alone,
without intercourse. The adept may test his mental control through intercourse
during this stage see pages 44446 below , but he builds up his seminal essence
429
through meditation alone, not through intercourse. The type4 sexual alchemy of
Jindan zhenchuan requires intercourse as an essential element in stage 1 of rening the
self. This suggests that type 4 is type 5 crosspolinated by type 3. In type3 huanjing
bunao and in Chen Zhixus type5 alchemy alike, after gathering the outer pharmacon
from the female partner, the male adept should retire to circulate the initial fusion
product. Yet in Jindan zhenchuan, the adept should continue to have intercourse
during this phase of circulation phase 4, Rening the Self above
. It also appears
that the adept should continue to have intercourse during a subsequent phase called
Recyling the Elixir,182 which may be an innovation. Finally, Jindan zhenchuan also has
elements of Mingdynasty standard solo alchemy. For example, whereas for Chen,
the inner pharmacon is simply the mans sexual energy, in Jindan zhenchuan, the inner
pharmacon appears within the body of the adept aer the outer pharmacon has
manifested and been rened for awhile, just as in the standard account of solo
alchemy see page 301 above
. So Jindan zhenchuan includes elements of 1
type5
classic sexual alchemy, 2
type3 alchemical huanjing bunao, and 3
lateimperial solo
alchemy, and may 4
add its own innovations as well.
My initial comparison of ve types of sexual cultivation is tentative at best. I
intend it to be a suggestion for future work, rather than a nished piece. These ve
categories might require further adjustmentfor example, is Jindan zhenchuan a
type or just an isolated case?yet I believe that my most general conclusion, that
sexual alchemy is huanjing bunao plus solo alchemy, is a sound one.
182
It is also possible that the chapter on Recyling the Elixir, rather than describing a discrete stage, mingles
references to both stage 2 gathering
and stage 3 ring
.
430
3, Chen Zhixus SexualAlchemical Path

Chen Zhixu does not oer a numbered list of stages anywhere, yet he certainly does
have a formal practice schema in mind. He oers details, hints, and alternative
formulations throughout his writings, yet the practices he is referring to remain
consistent. Beginning with stage zero gaining basic knowledge and trust in
alchemy, followed by conversion and transmission, I list four stages in the path to
salvation proper:
1 preparation, including:
rening the self lianji ,
nding partner, place, and patron,
approaching the partner,
choosing the correct time to gather;
2 gathering caiqu and initial fusion hedan ;
3 forming the elixir jiedan through internal ring
4 transformation into a spirit shenhua .
Chens sequence coincides roughly with the standard account of solo inner alchemy,
but with signicant dierences, as we will see.
3.0, Stage Zero: Starting Out on the Path
In this section, I discuss what the disciple ought to know as he embarks on his
journey toward salvation. For this data, I translate sections of a representative
transmission epistle: to know what Chen thinks the student should know, lets see
what he actually says or, writes to a student.
According to the Noble Eightfold Path of mainstream Buddhism, a Buddhist
ought to begin by cultivating wisdom, before moving on to the practices of morality
and meditation. Within the category of wisdom, the two pathfactors are 1 right
views or right understanding accepting as true the Four Noble Truths, the
doctrines of rebirth, karma, and so on and 2 right thought or right
resolution straightening out the emotions and resolving to embark on the path.
Just as in classical Buddhism, the path to deliverance for a student within
431
Chen Zhixus tradition must begin with a clearsighted recognition of the human
condition, an implicit trust in the teachings, and a resolution to follow the path to
the end. What should a student know as he begins the path? Lets answer this
question by looking at the advice Chen oers to one disciple. The passages translated
below come from Chens epistle to Deng Yanghao, the BuddhoDaoist seeker that
Chen met at Yuzhang in the marketplace of daos. Twentythree such epistles are
preserved in Jindan dayao; while there are dierences between them, Chens advice to
Deng Yanghao below may represent them all.
To Nanyangzi, Deng Yanghao
3.0.1, Introduction: The Unity of the Three Teachings
That which Heaven ordains is called inherent nature xing. Following the
inherent nature is called the Dao.1This is the learning of the Doctrine of the
Mean Zhongyong of the Confucian school Kongmen .
Nonbeingin order to see its wonder; beingin order to see its aperture
qiao .2This is Master Laos dao of void and nonbeing.
The treasure of the eye of the true dharma, and wondrous heart of
nirva zhengfa yanzang, niepan miaoxin .3This is the
instruction of the Tathgata at the time of his extinction in stillness.4
Extinction in stillness always refers to empty stillness and extinction. This
instruction includes teachings fa related to both a celestial trigger ji
and a human application.Therefore the scripture says: I always cause beings to
enter nirvawithoutremainder and cross over by means of extinction.5
Void and nonbeing does not mean empty void and utter nonbeing. This dao
has a marvelous ability to generate buddhas and transcendents. Therefore the
scripture says: It is empty without being exhausted: the more it works, the more
comes out.6 Adapt the nonbeing in a vessel to the purpose in hand, and you
1
Zhongyong, chapter 1.
Daode jing, chapter 1. Most editions of the Daode jing have

. Chen omits
chang and yu , and writes qiao knack, pore, aperture instead of jiao
movements, chasings,
manifestation, sprouting.
3
This is the essence transmitted by the Buddha to Kyapa, and thence on down to the other Chan patriarchs.
Cf., for example, Wudeng huiyuan, Zhonghua shuju ed., 10.
4
I.e., nal nirva jimie , Skt. vyupaama.
This is a line from the Diamond Stra. Cf., for example Kumrajvas version, T 235, Jingang bore boluomiduo jing,
8:749a9.
6
Daode jing, chapter 5; trans. D. C. Lau, Tao Te Ching, 9.
432
will have the use of the vessel.7

Equilibrium and constancy zhong yong a does not only mean being
without inclination to one side or reliance on things. The learning of the
Doctrine of the Mean has a principle of cosmic creation and transformation
zaohua m and continuous generation of life. Therefore the scipture says:
Achieving equilibrium and harmony, Heaven and Earth will be settled, and the
myriad things will be nourished.8 Confucius said: Dignities and emoluments can
be declined; naked weapons can be trampled under the feet;but the course of
the Mean cannot be attained to.9 Laozi said: There is a thing turbidly formed,
born before Heaven and Earth. I do not know its name, but if forced to name it,
I would call it Dao.10 kyamuni said: The Tathgata truly did not gain
anything in the presence of the buddha Dpakara.11
In after times, persons of inferior spiritual capacity xiaji , displaying
their useless wisdom, have not comprehended the point made by the great sages
of the Three Teachings that one may become a sage, a transcendent, or a buddha.
They have used false ideas to gloss the scriptures teachings, seeing everything in
overly shallow and easy terms. After a myriad of generations, when a superior
sort of person appears, it is already too late to rescue and correct the teachings.
ACiCy2Nan?:1
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Chen begins his epistle by quoting and interpreting famous passages from Confucian,
Daoist, and Buddhist classics.13 These quotations are selected and glossed to make
the point that each of the Three Teachings speaks of the same cosmic dao. The
Zhongyong speaks of a dao which Chen tells us is a cosmic dao that produces life
zaohua shengsheng zhi dao, corresponding to the Dao as mentioned in the Daode jing.
7
Daode jing, chapter 11, trans. ibid.
Zhongyong, chapter 1.
Zhongyong, chapter 9, J. Legges translation.
10
Daode jing, chapter 25.
11
This is a line from the Diamond Stra. Cf., for example, T 235, Jingang bore boluomiduo jing, 8:749c18.
12
13
Note the sequence of the Three TeachingsConfucianism, then Daoism, then Buddhism. This is the way a
literatus would order them. Also note that Buddhism for Chen is almost always Chan Buddhism in particular.
433
The Buddha entered an ultimate stillness

jimie and emptiness which likewise
corresponds to the pregnant nonbeing of the Daode jings Dao. This section ends by
saying that only in degenerate after ages did people begin to imagine that the Three
Teachings taught dierent doctrines. Chen is arguing for the unity of the Three
Teachings
sanjiao heyi , an inclusivist position.
Chen is continually reiterating this inclusivist position throughout his
writings. The content of this rst section is not noteworthy per se; but it is perhaps
noteworthy in that this is not the way we might expect an essay addressed to a pupil
would begin. Many Daoist discourses begin by rehearsing the cosmogony and other
rst principles, so to begin this essay by talking about the Dao would be expected.
But why sanjiao heyi? Each of Chens essays to pupils begins with a general,
impersonal prolegomenon like this. I believe that this is for the benet of a wider
readership, to establish a tone for the piece and to identify Chen as a certain sort of
authority, rather than for the benet of Deng Yanghao, the original recipient of the
letter. By repeating known truths from the Three Teachings, Chen presents himself
as a mainstream teacher. Then, when he oers surprising esoteric interpretations of
the classic teachings, he may be able to catch his audience o guard, and convert
them to his decidedly non mainstream perspective.
The essence of
Chan Buddhism that Chen mentions, The treasure of the
eye of the true dharma, and wondrous heart of nirva, was what the Buddha
transmitted to K yapa, and so on down to the other Indian and Chinese Chan
patriarchs in succession. Anyone thinking of this empty yet wondrous essence would
naturally draw a mental association with the acts of Chan transmission down through
the ages. Thus, by invoking it here, Chen is implicitly comparing himself to a Chan
patriarch, and Deng Yanghao to a dharma heir. Chen is attempting to activate a
distinctively Chan Buddhist master function in the service of the transmission of
sexual alchemy. Several of the themes and theories I introduced in chapter 1, section
4, are evident here: esoteric strategy 2
stealing the lightning, the master function,
and imperialist inclusivism. The most salient function of this passage is the re
enactment of the actions of the sages
secondary salvic eect 3.
434
After this introduction follow several pages in which Chen

1 paints a
portrait of Deng Yanghao,
2 describes the circumstances of his encounter with
Deng in the Yuzhang marketplace, and
3 describes Dengs tearful conversion, and
their ceremony of transmission. Almost all of this material is translated and discussed
on pages 10914 above.
After the transmission, Chen concludes with a homily and pep talk:
3.0.2, Homily: The Saga of Devolution and Redemption
Within the Dao, there are not multiple routes: you are united together with
all the things produced by Heaven and Earth. Now, the Book of Changes discusses
the Great Ultimate. The Great Ultimate produces the two standards, which
produce the four emblems, which produce the eight trigrams.14 This is the Dao
of Heaven and Earth in yinyang terms. The Dao produces the one, the one
produces the two, the two produce the three, and the three produce the myriad
things.15 This is the Dao of the human body in yinyang terms. Humans
inherently possess the correctness of yin and yang qi, and they grow and develop
based on this. When they reach the age of twoeights sixteen years old, the
yang of nine threes is pure. At this age, how could you not be a great man of
superior virtue? Suddenly, one morning, some fellows arrive seeking to repay
Hunduns virtue, and each day they bore another hole.16 Thus your threenines
yang gallops away with ying hooves, leaving you amidst sixsix pure yin.
Because of this, qian C is not able to be pure, and breaks up into li X . Kun
1 begins to contain something within itself, and solidies into kan , .
PI$9R# 6" =)5&L< /S/S
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The content of the transmission homily here and below is quite formulaic. Each of
Chens transmission epistles to disciples includes a lecture with the same general
content, which I have come to call the saga of devolution and redemption.
According to this formula, in macrocosmic terms, the cosmogony is an expansion
from the one
the Taiji, to the two
yin and yang, to the four
images, to the eight
14
The two standards

liangyi /S are yin and yang. The four images
sixiang J, in this context, are greater
and lesser yang, and greater and lesser yin.
15
Cf. Daode jing, chapter 42.
16
Referring to the fable at the end of Zhuangzi, chapter 7

Watson, The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu, 97.
17
Jindan dayao, Jindan zhengli daquan ed., 6.43a8b5

435
trigrams , to the universe as we know it. And in microcosmic terms, the cosmogony
leads from the Dao, to the one spirit , to the two qi , to the three essence , to the
human body as a whole.18 This human body, in its prenatal state, is the body of the
prepubescent male, whose essence is full. But this state cannot last: with puberty,
demonic forces maras; or the six thieves liuzei D, the sense organs in their
aspect as semiautonomous forces of temptation entice the youth to waste his
seminal essence. The nine threesthe male adepts inner pharmacon, or the primal
essence of any male youth in the fullness of health19devolve toward the sixsix of
pure yin.20
If ultimate persons, sages, or spirits are able to understand how the Dao divides
while embodied as the Great Ultimate; understand how the roots of birth and
death commence; understand how qian , kun , yin and yang dominate cheng
.
in succession; and understand how xuan and pin have intercourse
if
sages know all of this, then if qian and kun follow the current shun @ , creatures
are born, while if yin and yang advance against the current ni 5 , then the elixir
is generated. The sage embodies the substance, and applies the function. He
models himself on qian and kun as the substance, and imitates kan and li as
the function. He grasps the handle of yin and yang, then passes through the gate
of birth and death. He builds up his eorts jigong G toward rening himself
lianji B and awaiting the proper moment; he achieves the act of gathering
the pharmacon in the space of a single hour. After this, he makes whole his
hundunbody, and thereby shows forth the body of a perfected person. This is how
he is able to be an ultimate person, sage, or spirit.
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In the mesocosmic terms of the trigrams, qian loses its central yang yaoline to kun,
18
At DZ 1067, Shangyangzi Jindan dayao 4.7b12, Chen Zhixu maps this famous Daode jing cosmogony onto the
development of the human body. Just as the Dao produces the one, void xu > transforms into spirit; just as the
one produces the two, spirit transforms into qi spirit plus qi make two ; just as the two produce the three, qi
transforms into essence i.e., spirit, qi, and essence make three ; and just as the three produce the myriad things,
essence transforms into the human body xing .
19
Hu Fuchen, Zhonghua daojiao da cidian, s.v. jiu san , 1135, citing Weng Baoguangs DZ 141, Ziyang Zhenren
Wuzhen pian zhushu.
20
Sixsix signies kun or pure yin , just as ninenine signies qian or pure yang . This may come
from the two sixes in lines 67 of the hexagram kun in the Zhouyi, and the two nines of qian. Only the qian and
kun hexagrams have a line 7.
21
Jindan dayao, Jindan zhengli daquan ed., 6.43b544a1 missing from DZ 1067 .
436
and qian and kun pure, precosmic yin and yang

devolve into kan and li mixed, post
cosmic yin and yang
.22 Yet these degeneration products, kan and li, also hold the key
to redemption. As the sages know, the current leading from life to death can be
reversed through sexual alchemy, and the adept may regain his prenatal endowment.
Note that Chen condenses the entire alchemical process down to the two stages of
rening the self over time
, and gathering the outer pharmacon in the space of an
hour
. This does not mean that he neglects the longer processes of fusing the
pharmaca, ring it in the dantian, and training the yang spirit. As I will show in
sections 3.3 and 3.4 below, these are very much a part of Chens teaching. Yet, clearly,
the moment of gathering, and its preparation rening the self
, are the heart of
Chens alchemy.
There is little new in this alchemical story of cosmogonic devolution and
redemption. Anyone familiar with alchemical discourse may wonder why these basic
ideas are worth repeating. Robinet has noted this same repetitive feature of inner
alchemical texts:
What is striking in neidan texts is that disciples always ask the same questions,
and then reask them. And the masters say the same things repeatedlyeach
time one and the same thing and each time in a slightly di erent way. The
pertinent question for me is: why are these people repeating the same thing? One
answer is that they do not and cannot succeed in saying it. And nevertheless they
go on and on, striving to say it, because it is so strongly real.23
Robinet is probably thinking, once again, of the texts of Li Daochun here, such as his
discourse records yulu
such as DZ 249, Zhonghe ji, or DZ 1060, Qing an
Yingchanzi yulu, in which disciples come forward to ask stereotyped questions and
receive the masters replies. The simplest answer to Robinets question is that inner
alchemists such as Li Daochun are mimicking the repetitive questionandanswer
format from Chan Buddhist discourse records, in which the disciple asks Why did
Bodhidharma come from the West? and the master responds with a ritualized
22
Also discussed on page 322 above.
23
Robinet, Response to Douglas Wiles Review of Introduction l alchimie intrieure taoste, 148.
437
antinomian act.24 Like in the Chan case, the repeated asking and answering of
simple questions about alchemy gives the master a chance to reenact his authority.
Yet I agree with Robinet that this as behavior has a religious as well as
political aspect. Why does Chen Zhixu bother to repeat these basic ideas to Deng?
Why does he repeat either in speech or writing the ideas in this situation? Deng
Yanghao had been practicing a form of the microcosmic orbital circulation xiao
zhoutian for years, so Deng would have been extremely familiar with these
concepts. Why does Chen Zhixu bother to repeat or refer to these basic ideas here,
and so many times throughout the Jindan dayao? It is not just so that he can reenact
his authority, though this aspect will always be present too.
I argue that this repetition itself has religious meaning, in a number of ways.
The alchemical cosmogonic story is a myth. By Wendy Donigers denition, for
example, myth is a story that is sacred to and shared by a group of people who nd
their most important meanings in it; . . . a story believed to have been composed in
the past about an event in the past . . . that continues to have meaning in the
present.25 The Daoist cosmogonic myth is the story in which alchemical adepts
found their most sacred meanings, and which they repeated to each other, over and
over, as a sign of their mutual understanding and solidarity in the communal
enterprise of selfcultivation.
I should add that the alchemical cosmogonic myth usually appears as a
mythic theme rather than a fullblown mythic narrative. In a book on myth in early
Daoism, Norman Girardot claims that myths do not die. They go underground and
resurface as mythic themes in nonmythological literary forms. Girardot denes the
mythic theme as the detectable presence in written texts of recurrent symbolic
images, that both summarize a central mythological idea and condense in an ideal
typical way the basic structure or logic of a set of myths.26 Girardot employs this
concept of mythic theme to nd references to Daoist cosmogony throughout early
24
Foulk, Myth, Ritual, and Monastic Practice in Sung Chan Buddhism, 17779. These questionandanswer
sessions often occur during ascending the hall shengtang or entering the chamber rushi
ceremonies.
25
Doniger, What is Myth?
26
Girardot, Myth and Meaning in Early Taoism, 9.
438
Daoist texts.
Just so, I argue that whenever an alchemical author such as Chen Zhixu
mentions the formation of kan and li out of qian and kun , and the replacing
of the central yin yaoline of li with the central yang yaoline of kan to remake the
original state of pure yang qian, this is a mythic theme, which activates the meaning
and power of the entire cosmogonic myth. Because the reader would know the
mythic patterns, it is often su cient for Chen to invoke them with these simple,
abbreviated devices. This narration is a form of salvic practice, a secondary salvic
eect.
3.0.3, Pep Talk
Nanyangzi, as I have told you from beginning to end qianhou (, since your
coming, in the past, the old man from Qingcheng entrusted me with this dao,
which comes from a realm lost to this world.27 He repeatedly urged me to supply
it to others, and to guard it well myself. Today, I entrust it in turn to youso

work hard!
Now, practicing the Dao is not easy, and the hardest thing is to build up
virtuous
deeds. On this score, Laozi said: A man of the Dao conforms to
virtue.28 Studying the Dao and not cultivating virtue is like walking without feet.
Seeking the Dao and not building up virtue is like a hungry man lacking grain.
You must
apply expedient means;29 you must spread and magnify; you must
build up; you must be courageous and erce; you must be rm; you must strive to
make progress. Care for your whitesouls and embrace the One; concentrate on
your qi, and devote yourself to yieldingness. Cleanse the mystic gaze, and clarify
the four penetrations.30 Carry out the superior deeds of Wang
Chongyang and
Ma
Danyang; practice the superior eorts of the Buddha. If you indeed do act
like this, then in the future I will hold your hand above
in the Nine Heavens!31
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This term juexiang 7H or juexiang zhi yu 7H
1 occurs at two other places in Jindan dayao: at DZ 1067,
Shangyangzi jindan dayao, preface, 4a9 preface by Ouyang Tianshu >9 , and at Jindan dayao, Jindan zhengli
daquan ed., 6.53a5 missing from DZ 1067 . In both other places it refers to a true teaching of the ancients that is
no longer found in the present generation at 6.53a5 Chen is referring to the Confucian tradition of the Yellow
Emperor, Yao, Shun, the sage rulers of the Zhou, and so on .
28
Daozhe tong yu de :%"= is a misquotation of Daode jing, chapter 23 :%":=%"= .
29
Ru qi ! XY is a repeated pattern here. I read qi as a modal must.
30
The mystic vision xuanlan F usually refers to active visualization, and the four penetrations sida ;
may refer to knowledge of all past, present, and future events, as well as of events occurring in the heavens Hu
Fuchen, Zhonghua daojiao da cidian, s.v. sida ;, 471 . However, I speculate this may simply refer to the sense of
sight xuanlan and the four other senses sida .
31
The Nine Heavens are the eight horizontal directions of Heaven, plus the center.
439
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Chen welcomes Deng into his lineages, one lineage going back only to Chens
Qingcheng master, the other through Zhao Youqin going back to Wang Chongyang,
the founder of Quanzhen Daoism, and perhaps even to the Buddha. He enjoins Deng
to work hard and cultivate himself morally as well as alchemically, and suggests that
Deng will achieve an alchemical apotheosis, and return to his celestial home.
3.0.4, Conclusion.
This essay, and the many others like it preserved in Jindan
dayao, are a mixture of history, polemic and apologetics, alchemical instruction, and
moral exhortation. All of these transmission epistles contain the saga of devolution
and redemption, and all of them are couched through citations and glosses in the
words of the sages of the Three Teachings. Here is what a student should know as he
begins the path:
Mortal degeneration is a tragedy, but there is a promise of redemption.
Redemption can only be achieved by following the one true dao of the golden
elixir.
This dao is both broad and narrow:
it is broad because traces of it are found in each of the Three Teachings,
and yet it is also narrow because it must not be confused with its closest
analogues, such as false sexual cultivation, qi circulation, and Chan
meditation.33
In this world there are wise men and fools, and the disciple is one of the former,
one of the chosen.
The disciple should continue his engagement with the world, doing good deeds.
3.1, Stage One: Rening the Self lianji 1 and Equipping the Chamber
Having gained basic knowledge of and trust in alchemy, followed by conversion and
transmission of the secrets, the adept is ready to embark on the alchemical path
proper. Stage 1 is a stage of preparation, the male adepts rst step on his path to
32
33
Chen makes these points in the other part of the epistle translated on page 111 above, but not included here.
440
recovery of his original, prenatal wholeness. Within stage 1, I include substages of
1.1 inner preparation,

1.2 outer preparation,
1.3 approaching the partner, and
1.4
timing the gathering of the partners pharmacon.
3.1.1, Inner preparation: rening the self.
First, the alchemist must practice
lianji
rening the self. Lianji has similarities to the rst stage of zhuji @3
tamping the base in the standard account of solo alchemy

see pages 300 1, but, as
I will show, also important dierences. Lianji is a rich complex, including
physiological, moral, mesocosmic, religious, and philosophical aspects.
The most basic meaning of rening the self is the male adepts rening of
his seminal essence:
As for the dao of the recycled elixir, cultivating it is easy, but rening the self is the
most dicult. Thus Zhang Boduan the transcendent teacher warned people to
rst rene the self, just as Chunyang L Dongbin said: Recycling the elixir
depends on a person: one must rst rene the self and await the proper
moment.
Why? We may say that re is the most numinous or, dynamic of things,
something that humans cannot gauge. But then again, if you rst know the ring
periods, it is like the wick of a lamp. While even ordinary re is numinous or,
eective, how much the more so is perfected re, that is, your own mercury! You
must rst rene this perfected re, and defeat this perfected dragon, causing it to
not gallop, and to submit to your own horsemanship.
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In this commentary to a Wuzhen pian verse, Chen denes the object of lianji to be the
adepts own mercury, or seminal essence. This is a perfected re, contained within
the perfected dragon, the sex organ. Rening the seminal essence involves asserting
control over the sexual impulses, both mental and physiological. When Chen says
cultivating the elixir is easy, while rening the self is most dicult, he means that
lesser orbital circulation
xiao zhoutian is much easier than taming the sexual nature.
If Chens lianji were closely equivalent to the stage of zhuji,35 then we would
expect Chen to emphasize orbital meditation at this stage, devoted to opening up
34
DZ 142, Ziyang Zhenren Wuzhen pian sanzhu 5.7b9 8a5.
35
We have already seen zhuji in the standard account of solo inner alchemy
pp. 300 1, the Mingdynasty sexual
alchemy of Jindan zhenchuan
p. 422, and the Ming alchemical huanjing bunao of the Zhang Sanfeng texts
p. 424.
441
the passes and building up a preliminary store of postnatal jingqi, and leading to the
appearance of the pharmacon.36 Yet Chen does not tell us that the generation of the
male adepts inner pharmacon is a laborious process requiring the adepts diligent
attention.
If you rid yourself of sexual desire, then the essence and qi will be whole. If these
are whole, then you can defeat the dragon and subdue the tiger. If you can defeat
and subdue them, then you can gather the prenatal one Qi.
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Within lianji, Chen spends his eorts on controlling the sexual impulses and
energies, rather than on generating them. Chen is saying that, if the adept can rid
himself of uncontrolled lust, then his essence and qi will naturally be full. This is
quite dierent from what we have seen in the Mingdynasty materials, where the
generation of essence and qi takes much time and stronglyfocused guiding intention.
Lianji is not merely a trick of the mind or the sphincter urethrae, but is part of a
conceptual complex that also includes ethical and philosophical aspects. In the
following passage, Chen lists ascetic discipline lit. bitter practice, kuxing &
, and
the suering of humiliation to subdue the ego
, within the scope of lianji:
Treasure the seminal essence and make the qi full and rich: this is nurturing the
self. Forgetting with the mind while facing the scene i.e., the partner: this is
rening the self. Constantly still and constantly responsive: this is rening the
self. Amassing virtuous power and accomplishing ones labor: this is rening the
self. Bitter practice is called rening; practicing to the point of ripeness is
called rening. Gentlemen who cultivate the elixir must rst rene the self,
doing bitter practices and undergoing humiliation, hoping that, when they are
able to enter the chamber, the six sensory roots will be in a state of great
rmness. Only then can one make them pure and ripe, put out of ones mind
what cannot be put out of mind, and thus be able to complete the aair.
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Lianji involves cultivating a state of calm in which the adept is constantly still and
constantly responsive, both during the act of sex, and when faced with the everyday
36
For solo alchemists, the stage of zhuji leads to the appearance of the outer pharmacon, which is further rened
to produce the inner pharmacon. For sexual alchemists or sexual cultivators, zhuji produces the inner pharmacon.
37
.
38
442
tribulations of a sexual alchemist in a hostile social environment. Chen further links

this state of being to the Prajparamit
inspired philosophy of the Tang
dynasty
Daoist scriptures of Double
Mystery Learning Chongxuan Xue *F , as we see in
the following passage on cutting o loving fondness one of four essentials of
lianji :39
The dao of defeating and subduing is rst to cut o the entanglements of loving
fondness. Loving fondness arises in the scene that faces you. Whenever you grasp
at the scene, then fondness arises, and from fondness comes love. Therefore, to
cut o fondness and love, rst rid yourself of grasping. If you face the scene
without grasping, the scene will not be grasped at and thoughts will not arise. The
Scripture of Purity and Tranquility says, When you look at the heart
mind within,
the heart
mind has no heart
mind. When you look at the physical form
without, the form has no form. When you look at objects in the distance, the
objects have no object
ness. Only if you maintain this sort of mental state can
you be permitted to rene the lead and control the mercury, and obtain the
supreme treasure of the rst passing shoujing zhi zhibao .
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The passage above may appear vague or cryptic, but when we understand it within
the context of sexual alchemy, we see that Chen is warning the adept against
emotional attachment to his female partner; and he adds gravitas to this lesson by
restating it in the prestigious discourse of Tang Buddho
Daoist philosophy. As in all
of the sexual cultivation texts studied by Wile save perhaps the earliest , the male
adept must maintain emotional distance from the female partner, so as to avoid
spending his seminal essence. This does not mean that the adept may abuse the
partner. He must treat her with virtue, and pay her well. On the next page, we read
that Virtue or spiritual merit and deeds complete each other, and funds move a
persons heart; facing the scene, one forgets ones passions, and essence and spirit are
39
These four essentials are ridding oneself of sexual desire, cutting o loving fondness, caring little for wealth
and goods, and being careful to act virtuously GID7-9A.5:C; Jindan dayao,
Jindan zhengli daquan ed., 3.10a1 missing from DZ 1067 . I have not structured my discussion in terms of these
four essentials, because they actually do not cover the full range of lianji at all.
40
Jindan dayao, Jindan zhengli daquan ed., 3.10a8b2 missing from DZ 1067 . For the Qingjing jing quotation, see
DZ 620, Taishang Laojun shuo chang qingjing miaojing 1b57. I discuss this supreme treasure below.
443
plentiful and stable

.41 I discuss this in
more detail below.
Lianji is an arduous process, and may require years of training. Chen takes a
line from Cantong qi as a rule of thumb about the amount of lianji required:
Seventy at rst: to amass ones own meritorious labor is the most dicult thing to
do. In the end, three decades: this means the period of incubation, when you must
be especially cautious. Seventy and three decades three tenday periods together
make 206, or, altogether, 360 days, which is the whole number of four and nine, or
the sucient number of days in one cycle. Of the 360 days that I mentioned
just now, take seventenths of these days for rening the self, and threetenths of
these days for incubation. If you incubate for one year, then you must rst rene
the self for three years.
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Thus, the entire alchemical process may be summed up as 70 percent lianji and 30
percent incubation, with the special onehour period of gathering in the middle. One
year is the usual amount of time required for incubation, so according to this
formulation, three years would be the proper length of the lianji training.
Elsewhere, Chen speaks of spending a shorter period on lianji training. The
following passage from Chens commentary to the Duren jing describes a lianji
meditation retreat of onehalf to a full year in a secluded location, in preparation for
sexual alchemy:
Among the karmic delements of the Ten Evils, wantonness and lust stand at
their head. Gentlemen selfcultivators ought rst to sunder themselves from this.
When Qiu Chuji the Perfected of Extended Spring faced the Great Imperial
Ancestor Chinggis Qan, he only took lust as the rst thing to be curbed. The
Numinous Book of Great Sublimity puts lust at the head of the ten defeats.43 There
is nothing else to selfcultivation: if one is merely able to truly sunder oneself
from lust, then all other matters are easy.
As for the belief among worldlings that cutting o lust is very dicult, this is
an idiotic view. They do not know that the technique is very easy: they just
havent tested themselves. Testing is a matter of rening the self. The beginning
learner should test himself in a place with no other people around, practicing
and sleeping alone, and even forsaking alcohol. By day, he is constantly relishing
41
.
42
43
DZ 179, Taiwei lingshu ziwen xianji zhenji shangjing 1a.
444
the alchemical scriptures, while by night, he focuses his heartmind in a state of

purity and tranquility. Since before his eyes there is no disturbance of his eld of
perception, within his heartmind he has completely rid himself of all wild
thoughts. If he has even a few demonic obstacles, then he makes his heartmind
even stronger. Without, he does not allow himself to feel hunger or thirst; within,
he constantly adds nourishing tonics. If he remains like this for half a year or a
year, waiting until his essence and Qi become stable within, then he will naturally
not think lustful thoughts. If he has not yet rid himself of lustful thoughts, his
essence will remain incomplete, so he ought to make it even more stable.
The elixir scripture says, He whose spirit is complete does not think of sleep,
he whose Qi is complete does not think of eating, and he whose essence is
complete does not think lustful thoughts. These are direct and ultimate words.
Once the seminal essence is full, and one is also able to maintain this state
indenitely, only then can one rene the recycled elixir. If you test this in
practice, you will immediately see its result. We may say that one who practices
rening the self in a place with no people around is called a lesser recluse. If
your lesser reclusion is stable, then you can do a greater reclusion in the
marketplace. If you cut o the eld of perception without, yet you have not rid
yourself of thoughts within, then if you see somebody in your eld or
perception you will be immediately stirred. This is not true and solid practice.
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In this passage, we see a tight link between the adepts ridding himself of lust, and his
amassing of seminal essence; mental cultivation and body cultivation make up a
single process. At least in this stage, Chen takes a relatively formless approach to
inner alchemy: the adept need only properly cultivate his mind or inherent nature
xing E
, and his body or life endowment ming ?
will be cultivated too, as a side
eect of the cultivation of xing. Here, Chen would be in disagreement with the
standard account of solo alchemy and the Ming sexual texts, in which the cultivation
of seminal essence is a more active process, and he would be in agreement with Ma
Danyang or Liu Yiming, who advocate the formless cultivation of the inherent
nature. Yet this agreement with formless solo alchemy does not last long: after the
44
DZ 91, Taishang dongxuan lingbao wuliang duren shangpin miaojing zhujie 1.18a719a5.
445
lianji retreat, the adept should return to the marketplace, and test his powers of
emotional or philosophical distanciation by letting desirous objects come within his
visual eld. It appears that this may involve sexual intercourse:
We may say that, if you do not rid yourself of lust, then the seminal essence will
not be stabilized, and the Qi will not be whole. Not only must you rid yourself of
it, but you must also be able to totally dissociate yourself from it. In the past, Liu
Changsheng the Perfecteds three years of training in Luoyang were rening the
self. When Chen Niwan the Perfected said Playfully training in the alehouses
and bawdy houses, one after another, this is rening the self. When you have
rened the self for a long time, rinsing and panning your dispositions and
inherent nature, you will naturally forget even the forgetting. It is not that you
must make a special eort to forget it: you must be able to defeat and subdue it.
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In the passage above, Chen cites examples of sexual selftesting by his alchemical
patriarchs Liu Chuxuan an original disciple of Wang Chongyang, founder of the
Quanzhen movement and Chen Nan the socalled fourth patriarch of the Southern
Lineage. Chen applies the key idea of double dissociation shuangqian <6 from
DoubleMystery philosophy as a justication for the importance of sexual selftesting
within lianji practice. Chen says that the adept must forget even the forgetting. In
Daoist DoubleMystery philosophy, or the philosophy of the Prajparamit stras
of Mahyna Buddhism, the student must take two steps, rst using the concept of
of emptiness unyat to rid him or herself of fallacious belief in substantial
existence or belief in nonexistence, and then following this up by ridding him or
herself of any grasping at emptiness itself. Chen Zhixu applies this same reasoning to
the question of lust in sexual alchemy: not only must the adept rid himself of the
emotional grasping which leads to lust, but he must rid himself of the ridding of
lust, that is, he must rid himself of any grasping at celibacy. The same argument is
found throughout Buddhist or other tantras, though this is probably a parallel
development; I doubt Chen got this idea from Tantrism.
3.1.2, Outer preparation: nding mates and funds.
In order to gather the
precious pearl of pure prenatal yang, and rene it into the elixir, the sexual alchemist
45
446
must have the help of other people. As Chen says in verse 23 of his Twentyve
Verses on the Golden Elixir,
In seeking funds and companions for rening the golden elixir,
Funds are not hard
to acquireit is companions who are hard.
If you have gained companions, funds, and plenty of external protection
a
patron,
Then in cultivating transcendence, what is the need to cling
obstinately to the
supposed requirement of being a recluse deep in the mountains?
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What are these funds, companions, and external protection? If Chen were
making the same sort of arrangements that we saw in the Mingdynasty texts above
see pages 42027 , then we might expect Chen to need a yellow dame procuress or
chaperon , two or more female partners, a patron, and perhaps other male friends, or
even a dragon the male partner in socalled longhu danfa . Nowhere does Chen say
that the yellow dame is an actual woman, though; for him, yellow dame always
refers to a catalytic factor47 that mediates the fusion of the two pharmaca. Chen does
speak of looking for companions and friends:
As for
lling my sack with elixir material, I knew not how to proceed. For two
years I visited companions and sought friends,
with the intention of collecting
my aair.
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Chens initial search for companions and friends led to his sojourn with Tian Zhizhai
and his Hmong warlord clan. Chen uses the terms cai , l , and peng
ambiguously. L can refer either to female partners, or to male friends. In both cases,
the alchemist looks to his mates l for funds cai . When the mate is female,
then she supplies an outer pharmacon as funding; if the mate is male, then the
funding he oers is nancial support, access to women, or a secluded place to
practice. How many women does the alchemist need? I will address this question
further below.
The alchemists mates may also be, not just patrons or partners, but fellow
46
47
For Chen, the yellow dame could be guiding intention yi , the wu and jiearths, or the two sex organs;
unlike in solo alchemy, he does not correlate the yellow dame with the Yellow Court or spleen.
48
447
male cultivators:
Once you are able to rene the self, you must make alchemical friends, and take
them as your outside protectors. Liu Haichan says, This one matter is not a
common matter; one seeks for the proper person without nding them. Chen
Niwan says, If there are no likeminded folks keeping each other in line and
alert, then when the time comes one may fear that the ring periods within the
furnace will be wrong.
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We saw in the Mingdynasty Zhang Sanfeng texts that the adept must have male
friends on the scene to keep him from losing control during the gathering process,
and to watch over him during the period of intoxication after gathering the
pharmacon. Perhaps Chen is talking about friends like this here, though the details
may dier from the Zhang Sanfeng texts.
3.1.2.1, The threeway exchange.
Chen envisages a threeparty transaction,
involving alchemist, patron, and woman. In the following two passages from his
Duren jing commentary, Chen hints at this arrangement:
We may say that the one who has funds provides the funds, and the one who has
technique provides the technique. Also, the one who has the pharmacon provides
the elixir. The one who senses the jing scripture / passing of menses applies
or, provides the fa dharma / technique, so jing and fa are both clear, and fa and
material are both roped in.
There are always two things mentioned in the Duren jing, whether it be the
denizens of heaven and human beings, or jing and fa. Thus, the denizens of
heaven and human beings fulll the substance of qian and kun, and jing and fa
fulll the application of the great elixir. Each one fullls his or her original years
of life, with no cases of harm occurring in the meantime.
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Gold and treasure buy the heart means trading funds for technique. Now, gold and
treasure are what the generations of the world treat as important. . . . So, the
supreme person renes the ninetimesrecycled divine elixir of golden uid, and
relies on gold and treasure for his technique and funds. If one has technique but
no funds, the aair can rarely be achieved. If one has funds but no technique, he
is no dierent than a fool. When jing scripture / passing of menses and fa
dharma / technique ow unimpeded are exchanged in an economy of salvation, and
49
DZ 91, Taishang dongxuan lingbao wuliang duren shangpin miaojing zhujie 1.41b14.
50
448
fa and funds are both employed, an alliance, based on a code, is announced, and
only then can you bestow your item in trade. If you act forcefully or wildly, the
aair is dicult to conclude.
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that one thing, is the most dicult to nd. The poor man frets at
having no funds, the man with funds frets at having no site for practice, the man
with a site frets at having no thing, the man with a thing frets at having no
comrade. The comrade is your outside protector. One who sets his will to seeking
must rst amass technique and funds, and then select a site. Thus the Old
Perfected Zhang Boduan has the sentence No one should see your conscious
action in the beginning. If you do not obtain a good site, then people will see
you and you cannot use your technique. Before I had entered the chamber, I
didnt pay much heed to this. But when it came time to enter the chamber, with
great trepidation I set my will to seeking and selecting a site, and only then
realized that there are many matters that are dicult to accomplish, and had
much extra distress.
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In the rst two lines of the rst passage, Chen says that someone is providing funds,
someone is providing alchemical knowledge, and someone is providing the material
for cultivating the elixir. While he does not directly state that these three goods are
provided by three separate parties, the word you strongly suggests that three
parties are involved. Because these passages come from a commentary to a sacred
text, Chen cannot reveal his message openly, and employs double entendre. Jing a
means both daojing ba Daoist scripture
, and yuejing a menses
, while fa
means both dharma true teaching, or truth
and alchemical technique or
method. Look at the double meanings of the clause wenjingzhe shi fa ea=D:
in the rst passage. The one who hears the scripture provides i.e., shishe DU
the
Daoist dharma to all beings; or, the one who senses hears, or smells: wen e
the
coming of the womans pharmacon whose arrival is correlated with her menses
applies or uses i.e., shiyong D

the alchemical method danfa :
. In the second
passage, Chen hints at a formal compact between the three parties. This is a three
51
DZ 91, Taishang dongxuan lingbao wuliang duren shangpin miaojing zhujie 2.51b1052a6.
52
449
way economy of salvation, by which the alchemist, the patron, and possibly also the
female partner can all move closer to liberation from the mortal condition. In the
third passage, Chen also mentions the necessity of having a private site for practice.
This could introduce a fourth party into the economy of salvation: a layman with a
secluded courtyard e.g., Tian Zhizhai, or Zhang Shihong
, or a knowing abbot with
rooms at a mountain temple e.g., Che Kezhao, or Luo Xizhu
. Chen takes the
trouble to contrive this code, both to escape censure, and also to shine the sacred
glow of the Duren jing, one of the Daoists holiest scriptures, upon his own marginal
teachings. Also, at the end of the rst passage, he says that no party is injured in this
transaction, and at the end of the second passage, he warns against aggression
against the partner?
. I will discuss these points below.
The passages above are the only ones where Chen hints at a threeway
exchange, but there are plenty of other passages where Chen speaks of exchanging
alchemical instruction for funds:
There are also ne companions who have never heard the dao. If they have extra
funds, then it is appropriate to trade with them so that each party may complete
his aair. Therefore Pang Yun the Chan layman sank his funds in the water to
seek the pharmacon i.e., spent his money to get the pharmacon , and Fu the
Mah sattva sang out and sold o his wife and children. Both were alike in this
dao.
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Even lower than that is one who is broke and living in a mean dwelling, without
sucient funds for his needs, but solid in his will. He is nothing but busy and
avid, forgetting food and sleep. Having already heard the ultimate dao yet lacking
material for the elixir, he is cautious as if anxious and afraid. When he encounters
one who has more than enough and is fond of virtue, then they can make a trade.
This is called using both methods and funds; neither the one nor the other is
lacking.
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I believe that Chen is talking about an exchange of alchemical learning for nancial
support, but because of the ambiguity of the terms shanl <-, haoshanzhe <,,
53
54
450
and cai ;/', there is a slight chance that he is talking about an exchange between
the alchemist and a female partner. The chance is only a slight one because Chen
would use a word of praise such as shanl H2 ne companion for social superior a
patron rather than a social inferior a female partner. However, I will argue below
that Chen may indeed be sharing alchemical learning with women.
Chen projects his economy of salvation back onto the great patriarchs of the
past. Xue Daoguang the so called third patriarch of the Southern Lineage sought
patronage:
Havent you heard the story of Purple Nobility? He stripped o his hair to
become a Buddhist monk with the name Xue Shi, exhaustively researched the
buddha dharma and true buddha nature for years without anything to settle
on. One day he lodged in Shi Tai Xinglins station, and undeservedly received
from Dezhi the Perfected Shi Tai the true essentials of inherent nature and life
endowment. Shi Tai furthermore warned him, saying, Swiftly make your way to
a central town well served by many roads or a metropolis, and, relying upon a
powerful person, make plans to do this cultivation. Purple Nobility followed
this advice, and thereby attained the dao.
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Huineng, the sixth Chan patriarch in China, also sought patronage:
Furthermore, Huineng did not have dharma funding. He thereupon got
Shenhui to supply him completely. Huineng furthermore gained the outside
protection of Liu Zhile. Subsequently, he hid among the hunters of Sihui
County, and began his alchemical labors.
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Chen can make such claims because, for him, truth is univocal: his own tradition is
the one true tradition, and has been followed by the holy teachers of all ages. As a
true teacher, surely Huineng went through the same process of procuring funds and
patronage!
Finally, Chen allays the fears of disciples or readers who feel that a true
cultivator ought not to concern himself with money. Or, perhaps he is deecting
potential critics.
55
DZ 1067, Shangyangzi Jindan dayao 13.12b4

8.
56
DZ 1067, Shangyangzi Jindan dayao 16.12b6

9.
451
Generally, in the generations of today, foolish fellows and impure persons, as soon
as they hear of technique and funds, will certainly have a big laugh, then say that
the cultivator ought to be impoverished down to his bones, without a stitch on
him.
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Chen defends the exchange of symbolic and economic capital within a regime of self
cultivation. Impoverished down to his bones recalls Bai Yuchans description of his
time of anguished cloudlike wandering between monasteries yunyou *,
as a
young man;58 and without a stitch on is a Chan phrase suggesting lack of
obscuration, mediation, or reliance on anything.
3.1.2.2, Who is the partner?
Wile also notes that, in the sexual cultivation
literature over the centuries, the requirement for youth in the female partner tends
to be for younger and younger women, and nally, within sexual alchemy, focuses on
the moment of puberty.59 Looking back at our Mingdynasty texts, we see that Jindan
jieyao calls for a girl of sixteen or seventeen for gathering the pharmacon. Women as
old as their twenties may also be employed, but for basic training only. The ideal is a
partner 5048 days old, which would be 13.8 years in modern terms, or adding 300
days in the womb
14.65 years by the traditional Chinese count. Jindan zhenchuan also
mentions a sixteenyearold partner, with a 5048dayold partner as the ideal. Chen
Zhixu also hints at employing teenage females:
Great Change is exchanging yin for yang, or exchanging li for kan, or
exchanging the senior male for the junior female, or exchanging qian for dui.
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60
Most readers would understand the senior male and junior female here as the
trigrams qian and dui , but I think Chen is referring to the age disparity between
the two partners. Chen hints at the age of the female partner as being either
fourteen or fteen, always justifying it with reference to scriptures or alchemical
57
58
True poverty, down to the bones and marrow zhen ge chegu chesui pin
, in Bai Yuchans
Shangqing ji ; DZ 263, Xiuzhen shishu 39.1b9.
59
60
Jindan dayao, Jindan zhengli daquan ed., 6.50a9b1 missing from DZ 1067
.
452
classics, of course. The rst passage comes from the Cantong qi commentary:
Mouth, foureights; twoinch lip.
The sum of four and eight is twelve; add two more to make a full fourteen.
Fourteen is the initial fullness of the moon in the heavens. The moon in its
fullness is pure yang. Only because its yang is pure can it produce the metal
essence of One Yang within the caldron. Mouth and lips are the gates where metal
and Qi conjoin; these are called the caldrons mouth and vessels lips. We call this
two sevens, or fourteen. We call this the wondrous meaning of seven
reversions. People of the generations have not understood
Wei Boyang the Old
Transcendents wondrous import, hiding wonders within wonders, with a meaning
beyond the meaning.
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In this dense passage, Chen is justifying the need for a fourteenyearold partner. He
manipulates the original line from Cantong qi, Mouth, foureights; twoinch lip, and
the term seven reversions a phrase carried over from laboratory alchemy to
produce the number fourteen. The correlation of fourteen with the fourteenth day
of the lunar cycle, just before the full moon, is a bit unusual. He is gathering the
outer pharmacon from the partner, but the outer pharmacon usually appears on the
third day of the cycle zhen : , when fresh yang is just beginning to appear out of
pure yin, rather than at the apex of yang. Chens logic here contradicts his usual
teachings; this shows the situational exibility or lack of rigor of alchemical
terminology and numerology.62
You must know the weight of the
pharmacon in catties and liangounces, before
employing it. We may say that this dui metal must weigh roughly fteen liang
ounces, close to the standard of one catty. By this,
Cantong qi says the metals
sum is fteen. When the metal is as heavy as fteen liangounces, then it can
produce the lovely water.
What is meant by the number of water also resembles it? This is not saying
61
62
Aside from gathering the pharmacon at the beginning of the cycle, Chen also speaks of collecting yang qi from
the elixir at the rst and last quarters of the moon, as I discuss below on pp. 510, 512, and 514. Some alchemists do
speak of gathering yang qi on the full moon the fteenth day of the lunar cycle , which would be close to the
fourteenth day that Chen mentions above. For example, Qiu Chuji speaks of gathering the inner pharmacon on
the fteenth day; Hao Qin, Longhu dandao, 169. Yet I dont think that Chens statement above is part of his usual
system: it is numerological rhetoric.
453
that water is also fteen liangounces. You must weigh the water and metal
together: if there are fteen liangounces of metal, then they must certainly be
able to produce that much water, so Cantong qi says resembles it. Therefore Wei
Boyang the Old Transcendent prompts us that only when overlooking the
furnace can we be certain of the zhudrams and liangounces. If fteen liang
ounces of metal have already produced ve parts of water, then the water is
excessive and cannot be used. Thus Cantong qi says ve parts of water with
surplus . . .
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Again, Chen speaks of gathering the outer pharmacon when it weighs fteen ounces.
Gathering at the fullmoon day is not his usual teaching: the adept must gather on
the third day of the cycle during stage 2
, or the eighth and twentythird days
during stage 3
. He means one must gather from a fteenyearold partner. This is
the age when a partner is able to produce the lovely water lishui n
, that is,
secretions that signal the presence of the metallous outer pharmacon. Like Wiles
sexual alchemists, Chen is focusing on the moment just before puberty.
This jing is subtle and marvelous, saving all beings without limit. Of all the
denizens of heaven and all human beings, none do not receive good fortune.
Interpreting this according to daousage, this jing is none other than the supreme
treasure, or the metal humor. Subtle and marvelous is none other than the white
tiger, or twosevens fourteen years old. Cui the Perfecteds Ruyao jing says
Twosevens assemble the assisting wings. By means of this jings subtle and
marvelous merit, people can follow the current and give birth to things, or
advance against the current to form the elixir. Succoring broadly and with feeling,
saving all beings without limit.
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In the passage above, Chen weaves his message about the wondrous ecacy of the
pharmacon from a fourteenyearold partner into his commentary to the Duren jing, a
scripture promising salvation to all sentient beings. Once again, jing means both
scripture and passing of menses. His phrase weimiao V/ is none other than the
white tiger may echo the common term miaoling /r a girl in the spring of youth
.
63
64
454
3.1.2.3, Shoujing zhibao.
We have seen Chen use variations of the phrase
shoujing zhibao '6= supreme treasure of the rst passing

several times; this
term comes from Wuzhen pian, and is a controversial term. I will show that the term,
for Chen Zhixu and others of his tradition, refers unequivocably to the female
partners pharmacon, and almost certainly to menarche. Here is the original Wuzhen
pian verse:
The rst passing of the supreme treasure of the white tiger
Is the perfected metal of the divine water from the oreate pool.
Thus we know that the superior virtues font of benets is deep,
And cannot be compared with common medicines.
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The Wuzhen pian verse is rather incomprehensible without commentary. I do not
think that the Wuzhen pian verse is necessarily sexual, but the commentaries in DZ
142 certainly are. Lu Shu writes:
At twoeights sixteen years old a males seminal essence comes through, and at
twosevens fourteen years old a females natural gui menses comes down. At
the moment when it rst comes down, is this the rst passing, or not?
O, when one meets a doughty ghter on the road one must display ones
sword, and when ones zither music is heard by a friend who can truly
appreciate it, only then should one strum.

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Lu Shu intimates that the shoujing zhibao is correlated with menarche, without
committing himself to the statement, asking is this the rst passing, or not? This
might be because there is an ambiguous relationship between the metallous outer
pharmacon and the female partners water secretions, or menses
. The pharmacon
is qi, yet it is signalled by secretions. Like the adepts own primal essence and seminal
essence, the partners pharmacon is an intangible entity, yet indissociable from
tangible and dirty matter. Lu Shus nal couplet refers to sexual display and foreplay
with a worthy partner.
Xue Daoguang i.e., Weng Baoguang
asserts that the shoujing zhibao is not
65
DZ 142, Ziyang Zhenren Wuzhen pian sanzhu 5.6a56. The line Gu zhi shangshan liyuan shen !14,
echoes Daode jing, chapter 8.
66
455
an elixir of the boudoir:

. . . The rst passage is the rst waxing of the qi of the white tiger, and is not a
technique of gathering and battling or boudoir elixirs. If one speaks of the
three peaks, or the twentyfour items in the method of gathering the yin, this is
to slander the great Dao: your ancestors to the ninth generation will forever sink
down as lesser demons, and you will personally receive a nasty retribution in this
lifetime. The Dao may not be slandered, just as one cannot ascend to the heavens
by a staircase!
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Weng Baoguangs defensiveness here suggests that he like Lu Shu and Chen Zhixu
is a sexual alchemist, and he is concerned to distance himself from teachers of

perverse arts such as sanfeng caizhan
. An outside observer might lump sexual
alchemy and these perverse arts together, so sexual alchemists must make a show of
criticizing the latter. I make this argument in chapter 3, 1.1.
In his commentary to this verse, Chen Zhixu says
. . . It is only this rst passage of the white tiger which we may term, with
diculty, the one prenatal qi.
The transcendent teacher Zhang Boduan has gone to special lengths to leak
the secret completely, and Xue Daoguang and Lu Ziye have glossed it in too
much detail. Of the fools of this generation, some have pointed to this as a
teaching of gathering and battling, while others have called it a technique
involving elixir of the ladies quarters i.e., menses. Disaster will come to
these critics personally.
If the student knows that the moon comes out from the geng quadrant on the
third day, only then may he seek to use the spiritwater of the oreate pool.
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Chen arms the commentaries by Lu and Weng, and tells his readers to be thankful
for the details revealed in the Wuzhen pian and its sexualalchemical commentaries.
For Weng, Lu, Chen, and later sexual alchemists, the shoujing zhibao is the prenatal qi
that coincides with a female partners rst menses.
Later solo alchemists would disagree of course. The twentiethcentury
67
DZ 142, Ziyang Zhenren Wuzhen pian sanzhu 5.6a8b2. The exact same passage is found in DZ 145, Wuzhen pian
zhushi 2.45a24. Wengs commentaries in DZ 142 are always attributed to Xue Daoguang, but the commentary in
DZ 145 is attributed correctly to Weng.
68
456
alchemist Chen Yingning says that Xue i.e., Weng

, Lu, Chen, and Qiu Zhaoao are
mistaken about Zhang Boduans original intent. He advises against sexual alchemy in
general: all the sexual alchemists he has personally known have failed in their quest.69
3.1.2.4, How many partners are employed?
To my knowledge, all premodern
Chinese sexual cultivation teachings recommend a series of female partners for a

single male adept. One reason for this may be because if you return habitually to the
same woman, her yin qi will become progressively weaker.70 Chen states that
neither partner is harmed.
Many of the texts studied by Wile call for many partners.
Sun Simiao calls for ten partners in a single night, and an ideal overall number of
ninetythree. Yufang zhiyao calls for seven or eight, though the Yellow Emperor
employed 1200 partners. Jindan jieyao calls for three to ve, and Caizhen jiyao calls for
three.71 Presumably these are serial rather than group encounters, although the
Mingdynasty texts Sun miaolun and Jindan zhenchuan do speak of arrangements
involving one adept and two partners together.72 I have yet to nd any clear
statements in Chens texts about how many partners the alchemist must usually
employ. In one passage, Chen hints at employing a sequence of nine partners:
Now, if a great sage again creates yin and yang, impelling the passions and uniting
the inherent natures, revolving and joining, setting up additional elixir furnaces, and
further creating the great elixir of nine caldrons, this is just like the Cog and Armil
of the Dipper established again at the starting point of zi.

!73
!

Chen takes the Yellow Emperor as a model here, as he often does. Chen cites the
Yellow Emperor as a sage ruler who was an alchemist, but perhaps also because the
Yellow Emperor is a hero of so many manuals in the history of Chinese sexual
cultivation. There can be little doubt about the meaning of setting up additional
elixir furnaces here. Yet I believe that this is an optional, advanced practice, rather
than something all male adepts must do, so it does not tell us how many partners
69
Chen Yingning, Lun baihu shoujing , reprinted in idem, Daojiao yu yangsheng, 3068.
70
Yufang zhiyao, in Wile, Art of the Bedchamber, 102.
71
Wile, Art of the Bedchamber, 11416 Sun Simiao

, 100 Yufang zhiyao
, 171 Jindan jieyao
, and 185 Caizhen jiyao
.
72
Wile, Art of the Bedchamber, 125 Sun miaolun

, and 163 Jindan zhenchuan
.
73
457
would usually be needed in Chens teachings. I discuss this again on pages 52223
below.
3.1.2.5, Longhu danfa.
Hu Fuchen and Zeng Chuanhui think that Chen Zhixu
practiced dragontiger alchemy.74 This is an important issue that goes to the heart
of Chens teachings, so I must address it carefully. I do not nd the evidence for this
specic claim about Chen Zhixu convincing, yet it is certain that threeway sexual
alchemy is not a modern invention projected onto the past, and there is evidence that
Chens master Zhao Youqin may have practiced this.
Hu Fuchen keeps the details of longhu danfa hazy, but we know that it involves
three persons: In dragontiger alchemy, the three houses meeting each other are
the qian caldron, kun caldron, and alchemist
.75 The qian caldron would be male, the kun caldron would be female, with the
alchemist as the third party. The idea of a threeway encounter is the main element
distinguishing longhu danfa from other forms of sexual alchemy. The three houses in
the phrase three houses meeting each other76 are an adept and two partners, not an
adept, partner, and yellow dame; Hu mocks those who follow the latter
interpretation. Hu hints that the qian and kun caldrons are to be treated with utmost
respect,77 which leads me to suspect that there is no physical contact between the
alchemist and the two caldrons. Another piece of supporting evidence that there is
no physical contact is Hus hint that the two caldrons are not adults. Hu claims
that, in the Avatasaka stra, when Maitreya meets Desheng Lad and Desheng
74
The main contemporary written source on longhu danfa is Yangsheng lice, an unpublished booklength
collection of writings by Zhang Shangyi. It should be read together with a critique by Wuyouzi , Wuyouzi
dianpi Yangsheng liceZhang Shangyi Xiansheng yuanzhu. Wuyouzi is the penname of another authority on
these matters; his legal name is not revealed. Both of these works are widely available on the internet. They not
critical scolarship, and should be regarded as primary sources rather than secondary sources. I do not use them
here because I cannot vouch for their quality, and my points can be made citing Hu Fuchen and Zeng Chuanhui
alone.
75
Hu Fuchen, in Yuandai Cantong xue, by Zeng Chuanhui, third preface Xu san
, 13.
76
See p. 343 above.
77
Hu cites a line from Chen Zhixus Wuzhen pian commentary: As for the caldron and vessel, what are they? They
are the numinous father and holy mother, the qian male and kun female

DZ 142, Ziyang Zhenren Wuzhen pian sanzhu 3.1b34
. Chens original meaning is simply to correlate the two
human partners with the numinous father and holy mother a pair of Daoist entities or quasideities originally
from the Shangqing scriptures
, and reinforce the sacred nature of sexual alchemy.
458
Lass,78 and receives from them a method of being xed in illusion huanzhu fa
,79 this is the longhu danfa.80 I take this as a hint of sexual contact between a lad
and a lass. Hu believes that longhu danfa is a superior practice, suitable for
alchemists in contemporary world, but I doubt he would ever advocate sexual
contact between an alchemist and a teenage couple. Thus, I believe that in longhu
danfa the alchemist does not touch the couple, and it must be a form of sexual
alchemy at a distance, geti shenjiao bodies separate but spirits copulating .
Perhaps the couple, as well as the alchemist, do not touch physically.
While the term longhu danfa may be a modern term, the idea of a threeway
encounter is not modern. In Jindan jieyao, at the stage of recycling the elixir, the
alchemist clasps the hand of the dragon to the left and the tiger to the right. In
another text, Fu Jinquan writes that true alchemical practice must involve three
persons. He cites brief quotations from authorities such as Xue Daoguang, L
Dongbin, Chen Zhixu, Zhongli Quan, Longmeizi, and Tianlaizi as evidence that the
alchemical scriptures have many words about the companions. One should know that
this is not done through a single person i.e., not just one companion
.81 None of Fu Jinquans citations are convincing evidence

that his predecessors practiced threeway sexual alchemy, but they do show that Fu
himself teaches this. While Fu does not directly say that the three persons are
adept and two partners rather than adept, partner, and yellow dame, I believe
that he is indeed talking about an adept and two partners.
So how is all of this relevant to Chen Zhixu? Hu Fuchen and Zeng Chuanhui
say that Chen Zhixu teaches longhu danfa. This claim is worth investigating, because
there is evidence of some sort of threeperson sexual alchemy within the writing of
78
Desheng Tongzi Skt. risambhava? and Desheng Tongn , from, e.g., T 293, Dafang guangfo
huayan jing, 10:809a20.
79
In the Avatasaka stra, this is the ability to see that all worlds are xed in illusion; Foguang da cidian, s.v.
Desheng Tongzi , 6008. Hu seems to have garbled it into a method using illusion.
80
Hus claim of nding sexualalchemical teachings in the Avatasaka is outrageous, but has a long history in
China, going back to Zhao Youqin if not earlier.
81
Dingpi Shijin shi, by Fu Jinquan, 3.13b9, in Zangwai daoshu, 11:883. Longmeizi is the author of the
thirteenthcentury sexual alchemical text DZ 151, Jinye huandan yinzheng tu. Tianlaizi is the author of
several alchemical poems from the Yuan dynasty? .
459
Chens master, Zhao Youqin. Chapter 2 of Zhao Youqins book Xianfo tongyuan,
entitled Intimate Friends and Companions in the Dao Zhiyin daol 05J1 82 is
an extended hint about some sort of alchemical practice requiring three people.
Zhao cites many Daoist and Buddhist scriptures and essays that either mention
intimate friends zhiyin , or various items in threes, including a quotation ascribed
to Xue Daoguang, three people with one intention guard cautiously against threats

"+4,!.83 Then Zhao adds his own comments:
The teachings on intimate friends and companions in the dao are univocal in
meaning. If only gentlemen of eminent understanding can silently recognize this
and attune their heart
minds to it, that is enough. Among the friends and
companions, it is only the clear and pure family members, united in intention
and of a single mind, who are the hardest to nd. So we know that the
transcendents and buddhas of yore certainly relied upon companions in the dao,
and only thereby achieved the dao. Therefore, the twenty
sixth patriarch of the
Dhyna or Chan lineage in India, Bodhidharma took leave of the king, saying,
I wish that, within the supreme Buddhist vehicle, the king will not forget
about outside protection waihu \ . Both Gushan Shenyan84 and Xue
Daoguang the Purple Worthy have sayings about ten years of wandering in
the lakes and seas. I sincerely appreciate that they would come to this ten years
of bitter training, and always sigh three times for their eort.
But as for the teaching of the three persons, among the gentlemen of the
dao in the whole world, none may know this!
05J1P-I >;/SWC->?@A[
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&85
Because of his emphasis on companions and outer protection i.e., patronage ,
Zhao Youqin sounds like a sexual alchemist in this passage and indeed, he reveals
himself as a sexual alchemist in other passages from Xianfo tongyuan . Throughout
the section, he claims to nd hints of three
ness throughout Buddhist and Daoist
texts, and here indicates that this three
ness is related to companions, and is highly
secret. I have not found evidence within Xianfo tongyuan indicating whether these
82
Xianfo tongyuan, by Zhao Youqin, 5a8a, in Daoshu quanji, Zhongguo shudian ed., 46466.
83
Xianfo tongyuan, by Zhao Youqin, 5b3, in Daoshu quanji, Zhongguo shudian ed., 464.
84
Gushan Shenyan , a Chan master active the late Tang or Five
Dynasties periods; Foguang da cidian, s.v.
Gushan shengjian, , 5714.
85
Xianfo tongyuan, by Zhao Youqin, 7b27, in Daoshu quanji, Zhongguo shudian ed., 465.
460
three people are adept, partner, and yellow dame, as is common in Mingdynasty
sexual cultivation, or adept and two partners as implied by Hu Fuchen and perhaps
Fu Jinquan. If the latter, then Zhao Youqins phrase clear and pure family members
or, dependents
qingjing juanshu "#$)
suggests that this may be dry sexual
alchemy, without physical contact between the alchemist and partners. Further
research may clarify these issues.
So, threeway sexual alchemy probably existed in the Ming and Qing
dynasties, and may even have been taught by Zhao Youqin, so it is not impossible
that Chen Zhixu teaches this too. Lets look at the evidence for and against this
possibility. Hu Fuchens evidence is a line from Chen Zhixus Wuzhen pian
commentary: As for the caldron and vessel, what are they? They are the numinous
father and holy mother, the qian male and kun female &'* %
!
!
.86 Chens original meaning is simply to correlate the two human
partners with a pair of Daoist quasideities,87 and reinforce the sacred nature of
sexual alchemy. This is not evidence of threeway sexual alchemy. Zeng Chuanhuis
evidence is the following passage from Chens Cantong qi commentary:
checks re, re checks metal, and metal checks wood. The four are all
obliterated, and the meritorious labor is credited to the thick earth. Thick earth is
jiearth. The three natures are wu, metal, and water.
Water

88

(
(

Zeng argues that most alchemists would interpret the common phrase three houses
meeting each other sanjia xiangjian
as the meeting of agents water, re,
and earth.89 Because Chen is talking about a di erent set of three agents, water,
metal, and re, this suggests that he is talking about longhu danfa.90 I cannot evaluate
this claim, since Zeng does not tell us how this triad of watermetalre is related to
86
87
Chen mentions the numinous father and holy mother at least eleven times in his corpus, but without dening
them. This couple perhaps rst appears in DZ 1382, Shangqing jiudan shanghua taijing zhongji jing, an early
Shangqing text; Schipper and Verellen, The Taoist Canon, 1:16465.
88
89
I discuss the meeting of the three cardinal agents water, re, and earth
on pages 33940.
90
461
longhu danfa. Yet I can say that the phrase the three natures are wu, metal, and
water appears nowhere else in Chens extant corpus, and thus must not represent his
usual teachings. I do not take this as evidence of threeway sexual alchemy. The
quotation that Fu Jinquan attributes to Chen in his section on threesomes, Having
already attained a true master, you ought to rst seek alchemyfriends '$"
+,91 does not exist in Chens extant corpus, and says nothing about
threesomes anyway. Furthermore, the suggestive terms three persons sanren
and qian caldron qianding &-

do not occur in Chens extant corpus.
Yet there are several passages in Chens writings which do suggest three
person sexual alchemy. Chen often cites holy persons of the past as models for latter
day alchemists, and in several passages he mentions a holy exemplar who employed
lads and lasses in alchemy. Chen recounts the tale of a Handynasty gure Deng
Yuzhi /. Deng Yuzhi and Xu Lingqi #4* practiced alchemy sidebyside
under the same master, but when they found they could only aord enough elixir
funds dancai %
for one person, Deng let Xu use these funds i.e., female
partner s
, while he went without. Deng was depressed to be without the means to
practice alchemy, until Han Wudi received a portent pointing to Deng, and
thereupon
bestowed gold, silk, boy s
and girl s
, and permitted him to select a site on the
Southern Marchmount and set up three halls upper, middle, and lower
to
cultivate the inner and outer elixirs. After more than two years, Deng came to
the stone altar and ascended to the heavens.
.
(32, !
92
0)1
Chen has copied this tale from his master Zhao Youqins Xianfo tongyuan;93 the tale
speaks of boy s
and girl s
, which could be the socalled qian and kun caldrons;
Zhao Youqin speaks of three persons. Yet Zhao does not speak of boys and girls
together elsewhere in Xianfo tongyuan, and Chen does not speak of three persons. I
think that this does not amount to evidence of threeway alchemy for Chen Zhixu.
91
Dingpi shijin shi, by Fu Jinquan, 3.14a12, in Zangwai daoshu, 11:883.
92
93
Xianfo tongyuan, by Zhao Youqin, 9b, in Daoshu quanji, Zhongguo shudian ed., 466.
462
How about the episode of Xu Xun !* learning a sword technique from the
transcendent lads and lasses sent down from the heavens to teach him? Is this
suggestive?
Xu Jingyang sent ve transcendent lads and lasses to do swordplay, and execute
the baleful dragon by decapitating it.
,'
#94
$"-,
Long ago, when Xu Jingyang was rening the recycled elixir, he stimulated the
thearch s
on high to send down to him ve transcendent lads and lasses bearing
swords. After doing daily swordplay with them, Jingyang attained the dao. How is
this not a case of protecting and receiving the jing menses within ones person!
! $/. %+",
(
0& 95
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-,
These passages cite an episode from the legend of Xu Xun. Xu Xun was an important
cultic gure in Jiangxi Province during Chen Zhixus lifetime, and Chen coopts Xu
Xun and his cultic pantheon into his own alchemical mythology, as sexual alchemists.
While the term transcendent lads and lasses xian tongn "
is suggestive,
there is no conclusive evidence of threeway alchemy here. Tongn " is an
ambiguous term: I have translated it as tong lads
and n lasses
, but Chen could be
interpreting it to mean tongn lasses only
, rather than tong+n lads and lasses
.
I have found no strong evidence that Chens sexual alchemy involves three
way sexual alchemy, and I tentatively reject the ascription of longhu danfa teachings to
Chen Zhixu. Chens sexualalchemical triangle is not an adept plus a male and female
partner, but rather the threeway exchange that I discussed above, with a master
supplying teachings fa
, a patron supplying money cai
, and female partner s
supplying the elixir dan

.
3.1.2.6, How does the adept get the partners agreement? By paying for it . . .
When one rst reads about sexual alchemy, the question of the womans position
comes immediately to mind, so I will take the next several sections to discuss the
relevant evidence in Chens writings.
How does the adept come to terms with the partner? He must win the
partners agreement with golden treasure:
94
95
463
Now, as for the technique of nine cyclings and seven reversions, one must unite
the outer pharmacon with the inner. If there is not a pledge of golden treasure,
then how could one attain the marvel of this jing? And how could one subdue the
tiger and defeat the dragon? And how could one attain the prenatal Qi that
comes out of void nonbeing?
9e>]
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96
Now, funds can be used to establish the caldron, or to favor the other, or to
achieve the dao. If you use funds in order to impel the other, you must gain her
emotions, then the mani pearl, that priceless treasure, can be obtained.
EZN&XE4H6I;)CO
[eH297
In the second passage, we see a naked commercial exchange: funds are exchanged
for the pearl of the outer pharmacon. While the later stages of the alchemical
process involve formless rening of an internal elixir through nonaction, the initial
stages require purposeful action youzuo ',
, even muddying ones hands with
money:
Do not cling to nonaction, doing absolutely nothing. When you begin your
work you must also rely on funds to attractandemploy pin
the partner.
K0O>! > SFEW98
The funds are not given directly to the female parter, but to a matchmaker of some
kind:
Even if wood loves the obedient righteousness of metal, if not for funds then you
cannot attain her joyous heart. Even if metal feels much passionate attachment
to wood, if not for a matchmaker then she cannot break through by herself.
Once the matchmaker has communicated the friendly feelings, and the funds
have caused the joy to form, the two parties will naturally gulp each other down,
and the male will become pregnant with a fetus. If you do not enfold her in your
breast with virtuous power, and favor the other with cohumanity, then when you
approach the aair, how could she go along with my employ?
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The passage above is couched in technical alchemical language, but this is not a
96
97
.
98
Jindan dayao, Jindan zhengli daquan ed., 5.28b12 missing from both DZ 1067 and Daozang jiyao eds.
.
99
464
cover language. As I have shown in chapter 4, alchemical discourse may operate on

several di
erent levels at once, so this passage is simultaneously about the
interaction of agents wood, metal, and earth on the mesocosmic plane, pharmaca or
sex organs on the microcosmic plane, and adept, partner, and matchmaker on the
macrocosmic plane of human society. Money must be exchanged for the alchemical
coupling to take place. The nal sentence says that human feeling is also necessary:
how could the process work without the partners trust in the adept?
Who is this matchmaker? Is it a brothel madam? A tracker in female
servants, bondmaids, or female slaves bin ? A chaperon of some kind? I cannot
say for sure. Chen Zhixu mentions prostitution often enough as I show on pages
38687 above that I suspect the rst possibility. Other sexual cultivation texts speak
of employing bondmaids.100
Chen is skilled at overlaying instructions for sexual alchemy onto traditional
Daoist discourse. In the following passage from his commentary to the Duren jing, he
weaves together the sexual alchemists exchange of money for intercourse with the
traditional o
ering of precious goods to the gods during a Daoist masters solemn
transmission of a scripture jing to his or her disciple, as pledges or sureties of the
disciples sincerity and trustworthiness.101
Encomium: That secret , which the heavens above treasure, is not transmitted
lightly. If you are favored with a personal transmission, you may rise to the
heavens. The golden treasure discloses that which ones heart values. This jing is
subtle and marvelous, with boundless auspiciousness.

102

Gold is o
ered freely, without regret, for it expresses the sincerity in ones heart. For
the alchemist, the monetary value of the golden treasure cannot compare with the
salvic value of the jing menarche, and the outer pharmacon that comes with it.
3.1.2.7, How does the adept get the partners agreement? By doing no harm . . .
Ideally, harm should come to neither party:

100
Cf. Sun Simiao, Fangzhong buyi pian; or Zijin Guangyao Daxian xiuzhen yanyi; in Wile, Art of the Bedchamber,
115, 144.
101
Cf. Benn, The CavernMystery Transmission: A Taoist Ordination Rite of .. 711.
102
465
The two do not injure one another, so virtue returns to you.
)4E2LU103
The elder son of qian is called zhen, which means great. He is in charge of
producing the mercury. The younger daughter of kun is called dui, which means
small. She is in charge of producing the lead. When zhen and dui are regulated
and harmonized, how could there by any injury? Both countries whole means
the other su ers no loss, and I accomplish my a air.
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104
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Chinese sexual cultivation often has a vampiric element. As one text says, if you
return habitually to the same woman, her yin qi will become progressively weaker.105
Yet Chen is saying here that the female partner will not be depleted.
3.1.2.8, How does the adept get the partners agreement? By being nice . . .
To
gather the pharmacon, the alchemist must harmonize with the partner:
Same qi is none other than same in kind. Having become same in kind, you
must be able to equalize hearts. If hearts are equalized, only then can you
accomplish the a air.
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The alchemist gains the good will of the partner by giving her money, and also by
treating her virtuously:
It exists within this world: just use funds to gain her good will, and rely on
virtuous behavior to succor her.
D@;?*WPLS107
If you are without the transgression of lust, and the ten karmic delements are all
extinguished, then you will be equally united in benevolent love, encompassing
both other things and yourself. The bones of strangers will become like those of
your own kin refers to pity for the dead, and you will bring benet to both
yourself and others. The country will be at peace and the folk will prosper, in a
general state of joy and Great Peace. Country means the body. Folk means the
essence and Qi within the body.
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103
104
105
Yufang zhiyao, in Wile, Art of the Bedchamber, 102.
106
107
Jindan dayao, Jindan zhengli daquan ed., 3.10b89 missing from DZ 1067.
466
@'? 4%
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=108
The emotional harmony of the partners is free of lust. It is probably a kind of
impersonal, patronizing benevolence, between a social superior and inferior, rather
than a feeling between equals.
3.1.2.9, How does the adept get the partners agreement? She benets too . . .
As
we saw on page 408 above, Wile traces the position of women throughout the
history of Chinese sexual cultivation, and nds that the literature of sexual alchemy
portrays women as at metaphysical props.109 Yet the appearance of the phrase
bringing benet to self and other
zili lita "" in Chens writings suggests
that the womans benet is not totally neglected.
When the one above and the one below copulate with shared intent, the roof of
the heavens is xed and the celestial radiance shines forth. By means of your
awakening, bring about the awakening of those coming after. Bring benet both
to yourself and to others.
#&:CC,""110
If a person, bearing the ability of a superior gentleman who diligently sets to
work, mingles with the worldly dust, distances himself from the vulgar, and
mixes in the techniques of the nine schools and the hundred kinds of specialist,
establishing virtuous power and meritorious labor, bringing benet to self and
other, spreading virtue without hope of recompense, this is called complete in
both ability and virtue, and we may trust that he will have the achievement of
transcendenthood and buddhahood.
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In the rst passage, the line the one above the the one below copulate with shared
intent tells us that Chen is talking about sexual alchemy, and establishes the context
of bringing benet to self and other rmly within the sexual encounter. The second
passage is not about sex; rather, it connects selfcultivation and working for the
benet of other beings as two indissociable aspects of the alchemical mrga. What
we would call the exploitation of a minor female by an older male alchemist, is, in
Chens eyes, part of a general Mahynaavored ethos in which the male alchemists
108
DZ 91, Taishang dongxuan lingbao wuliang duren shangpin miaojing zhujie 1.19a10 b2.
109
110
Jindan dayao, Jindan zhengli daquan ed., 6.35a9 10

111
Jindan dayao, Jindan zhengli daquan ed., 6.23b1 3

467
labor benets the female partner and indeed the whole world and all sentient beings
within it.
3.1.2.10, Female sexual alchemy.
How does the female partner benet from
the encounter? Chens writings contain hints of female sexual alchemy. In his Wuzhen
pian commentary, Chen oers a discussion of female solo
inner alchemy, a rare
discussion to nd before the Qing dynasty.
When the woman cultivates transcendence, she takes her breasts as the site
where the qi is generated. This technique is especially simple. Therefore, when a
man cultivates transcendence it is called rening the qi, whereas when a woman
cultivates transcendence it is called rening the physical form. When a woman
practices selfcultivation, she must rst build up qi in her breasts, then set up the
caldron and furnace, and practice the technique of rening the form by means of
the Great Yin. By means of this dao, it is most easy to achieve the dao, and there
are plenty of marvelous instructions for it.
3."%14 &#*A03943
939=4("%8/;C
69 *#:7
): 112
The passage above does not mention sexual alchemy, but the following passage may:
The males is white, and the females is red: metal and water detain one another.
The male belongs to the wood of the bluegreen dragon, and receives the Qi of
dui metal. The female belongs to the metal of the white tiger, which is rened and
reverted to red by the essence with its lire.
!,2'D-> $, D+ ,5B
<@?!113
If the essence with its lire is the mans seminal or primal
essence, then it
certainly appears that the female partner is using the males pharmacon just as he
uses hers. While this one passage is too slight to carry much weight, I oer the
possibility that a form of sexual alchemy for the mutual salvic benet for both
partners exists within Chens purview. If, in the threeway exchange of teachings,
funds, and elixir, the male adept is giving teachings to the female partner as well as to
the patron, then the passage above might oer a clue about what these female
alchemical teachings would be. While it is of course possible that I am reading too
much into this passage, perhaps femalealchemical teachings are part of Chens
repertoire but simply do not merit much discussion in his writings addressed to male
112
113
468
adepts.
3.1.2.11, Signs of conict.
Many sexual cultivation texts describe a battle of
the sexes, using military metaphors such as feints, generals, and gathering and
battling caizhan =X .114 In Chens writings, we also see signs of hostility between
the two partners:
At the moment of gathering the pharmacon, the dragon and tiger wage a conict,
and metal and wood are separated from one another. If as soon as one loses
ones
pharmacon, one prevents and blocks
it from escaping, this must result in its
escape
through ejaculation. We may say that, if there is gain on my side, then
the other loses, and if I lose, then the other gains. Thus
Cantong qi says one side
succumbs. At this time, only supreme persons, sages, or divine persons who have
rened themselves until pure and ripe can prevent the loss due to a onesided
succumbing.
,\S[(+8-EP"O2!BR; /&
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The idea of dragon and tiger battling each other before they nally fuse together is
common throughout all forms of alchemy, but here, Chen is talking not merely about
a battle between the two pharmaca, but between the two sex organs. The passage
above seems to describe the usual state of aairs, rather than an encounter gone awry.
It seems to belie Chens rhetoric of benet to self and other.
Chen also describes the white tiger as a threat:
The tiger has a wondrous dharmae cacy for stripping o clothes; it drinks
peoples blood and marrow, and eats peoples
seminal essence. Now I am getting
it to come and go; guarding the altar and ritual area, aiding the completion of the
dao.
+?'^H]3Q #;$$<VWCN116
The dragon is the yin within the yang, and is in charge of life, so it raises the
clouds and brings the rain, moistening the myriad existents. Yet the yin within it
can kill, like when a persons allotment of yang is exhausted and he is pure yin, so
he dies. The tiger is the yang within the yin, and is in charge of killing, so it calls
up the wind with a whistling roar, and always has a murderous heart. Yet the yang
within it can give life, like when a persons allotment of yin is exhausted and he is
pure yang, so he
becomes a transcendent.
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114
115
116
Jindan dayao, Jindan zhengli daquan ed., 5.25a23 missing from DZ 1067 .
469
*+#((
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The white tiger is a traditional demonic killer in Daoist and general Chinese
folklore,118 and in alchemy it correlates to the female partner or sex organ. This
symbolic coincidence becomes important to sexual alchemists because the idea of
the female sex organ as a threat accords with the male adepts fear of losing his
essence and lifeendowment
during the sexual encounter.
3.2, Stage Two: Gathering caiqu & and Initial Fusion hedan
After stage 1 of rening the self and preparing the alchemical requisites, the adept
may gather the outer pharmacon and fuse it within his inner pharmacon. Within
stage 2, I include substages of 2.1
timing the gathering, 2.2
gathering caiqu
,
2.3
and fusing the elixir hedan
, an initial joining of the pharmaca.
3.2.1.1, Timing the gathering: examining the water.
The male adepts goal
during the sexual encounter is not to attain pleasure for its own sake recall Chens
rejection of lust
, but rather to gather the partners outer pharmacon of pure yang
qi, and draw it into himself as an ingredient for the elixir.
The outer pharmacon is correlated with agent metal. According to the usual
cycle of the ve agents in Chinese cosmology, the production cycle, metal produces
water, just as dew appears on the face of a bronze mirror at night. Yet alchemy is
governed by a widdershins diandao -!
principle, and the ve agents interact
di erently. The alchemist turns the ve phases upsidedown wuxing diandao !
, following the system of the interlaced waxing of the ve agents wuxing
cuowang ,
, so in alchemy it is agent water which produces agent metal,
rather than vice versa.119 For the sexual alchemist, likewise, the partners metal, or
lead outer pharmacon
appears within her water. The gathering of the outer
pharmacon is the most highly charged moment in the sexualalchemical process,
when life gained by gathering the outer pharmacon
and death su ered due to
losing the seminal essence
hang by a thread. In all forms of alchemy, the successful
117
118
Cf. Hou Chinglang, The Chinese Belief in Baleful Stars.
119
I explain this on pages 33638 above.
470
completion of the elixir is said to be extremely di

cult. Emphasizing the di
culty of
the process is a way for alchemists to justify the fact that alchemy usually does not
work, and it also adds luster to the practice. The gathering of the outer pharmacon is
said to be the most di
cult thing to do:
This stanza exclusively hints at the modelimages faxiang - of the outer
elixir. If you obtain the outer elixir, then the matter which the spirits and
transcendents are good at is already done. This is a warning not to take the enemy
lightly when you approach the battlelines. For gentlemen selfcultivators, the only
thing that can be called a di
cult matter is making this one move.
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4120
The di
culty of sexual alchemy is focused on the male adepts control of his seminal
essence through lianji training, timing the moment of gathering the outer
pharmacon, and performing the act of gathering.
To time the gathering of the outer pharmacon, the alchemist must examine
the quality of the partners water. The explicit Mingdynasty texts translated by
Wile give us a sense of what examining the water can involve: in the Zhang Sanfeng
text Jindan jieyao, the adept leaves a coin in the partners sex organ overnight then
examines the discoloration of the coin, or sends the yellow dame to examine the
partners menses.121 Typically, we cannot tell from Chens words to what extent he
would agree with the Mingdynasty works. At least we can say that, although there
was a matchmaker in stage 1, there seems to be no human yellow dame in stage 2
of Chens alchemical path.
Chen says that the adept must gather when the water is clearest:
Plumb its utmost clarity: when it is completely undisturbed, without substance
and without aws, only then can it transform. This is called the highest virtue.
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+122
We may say that, at this time, the pharmacon has only just been produced, and
the watersource is extremely pure, never yet having been disturbed: this is the
moment when it has qi but no substance. The great cultivator will swiftly turn
toward the water at this time, and, with his single wisdom eye, regulate and
120
121
122
Zhouyi Cantong qi fenzhang zhu, Daozang jiyao ed., 2.55a45. The phrase shangshan + echoes Daode jing, chapter
8.
471
examine its signs.

P37
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When the water is clearest, it possesses only an intangible qiquality, and no

tangible, substantial quality no blood
. Is Chen referring to a partner who is in the
clear part of her cycle, or to a prepubescent partner who has never menstruated?
While we saw above that Chen places high value on the rst passing of the superior
treasure menarche
, we can see that clear water may also refer to the clear part
of a young
adult womans cycle:
The elixir caldron is no dierent: the caldronvessel in the human realm is called
junior yin, and on the third day of every month, at sunset, she produces the Qi
of One Yang in the district of ren and gui, serving as sign of the hexagram fu . Fu
is one yang yaoline subduing ve yin yaolines. What is meant by seated in
downhanging warmth? The cultivator, having already attained the caldronvessel,
and coming to the moment of sunset on the third of the month, must sit and wait
for the outer pharmacon, awaiting for its ery Qi to hang down, neither cold nor
hot and dry, but warm. At this time, when its yang Qi is about to stir, you can
quickly rene the elixir.
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The outer pharmacon appears on the evening of the third day of the partners cycle,
on the cusp between ren yang water
and gui 4 yin water
. I believe this means
just before the menses appear. Dierent from lateimperial texts Jindan zhenchuan
and Jindan jieyao, which tell the adept to discard the gui water and use only the ren
water, Chen looks for the pharmacon within the gui water; this is just a semantic
dierence, though. While the third day of the cycle appears again and again in Chens
texts as the day for gathering, in one place Chen confusingly says that the day for
gathering is the seventh day correlated with the hexagram fu
, rather the third
day:
The return comes on the seventh day means that the moon hides its light,
but on the seventh day again spits it forth. This is also like with people: when
the menses have stirred for seven days, the yang is rst generated.
123
124
472
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Chen also describes this crucial moment as the time when there are two measures
of water out of ve
:
We may say that this dui metal must weigh roughly fteen liangounces, close
to the standard of one catty. By this, Cantong qi says the metals sum is fteen.
When the metal is as heavy as fteen liangounces, then it can produce the lovely
water. . . .
If fteen liangounces of metal have already produced ve measures of water,
then the water is excessive and cannot be used; thus Cantong qi says ve
measures of water are surplus. If the dui metal is produced when the water has
reached the moment of two measures, then it truly can be used; thus Cantong qi
says take two measures of water as perfected. If these two measures of water
denitely have roughly fteen liangounces of metal, then this is Cantong qis
statement the metals weight is like at the origin. If the water has already reached
three measures, it also cannot be used; thus Cantong qi says its three thus do not
enter.
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5.
Chen stretches the language of Cantong qi to say that, when the fteenyearold
partner the fteen ounces of dui metal
has produced two measures of
water but not three or ve measures
, that is the time to gather the metal. As for
what two measures actually means, this is unclear. Measure fen
could mean
onetenth, or could mean an arbitrary fraction. It could refer to a moment during
the menstrual cycle the moment of 20 percent?
, or to the second day of the lunar
cycle, or to a partner who has already had two cycles, but not yet a third. The rst
interpretation seems most likely. While Chens exact meaning remains unclear, at
least we can tell from his emphasis on watertiming that the timing for gathering the
outer pharmacon is unlikely to involve the kind of calculations that we saw in the
system of Jindan jieyao, involving the partners hour, day, month, and year of birth.127
Another dierence between Chen and other alchemists is that he rarely uses the
term living midnight hour huo zishi 6=
, which becomes a standard term in
125
126
Zhouyi Cantong qi fenzhang zhu, Daozang jiyao ed., 1.35b89, 36a25.
127
473
later tradition. The term huo zishi appears only once in Chens extant writings.128
It appears that the water refers, not solely to menses or cyclical secretions ,
but also to sexual uid. In addition to waiting for a certain moment of the lunar
cycle, the adept must wait until the right moment during the sexual encounter:
Let the other whip rst and obtain
her pleasure.
54+129
The lightning of kan is the moment when the others leadqi is aroused and
vigorous. I immediately take advantage of the arrival of this time, and arouse the
re of my Mt. Kunlun to respond to it. This is what is called Only one day in a
month, only one doublehour in a day.
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130

#
It appears that the male adept gathers the outer pharmacon near, or at, the moment
of the partners orgasm. On page 472 above, we saw the moment described as a time
when the ery Qi descends warmly, neither cold nor hot and dry, but warm. Does
the pharmacon appear at orgasm, or not? In some of the texts translated by Wile, the
female partners jing appears at orgasm, and in some it appears at a point of
heightened arousal before orgasm.131 The weight of evidence points to orgasm, but
not denitively.
3.2.1.2, Foreplay.
Having chosen a partner, gained the acceptance of the
partner or her guardian, and identied the correct day for the sexual encounter, the
couple engages in foreplay:
Clasping the zither with a will, I pass by the western courtyard. The more the
plucking, the sparser is
that which can be heard.
(+,%/
26
*132
Bamboo is a thing that is hollow all the way through on the inside and straight on
the outside. If it is not straight, then tap on it, since you must make it respond to
the thing. A zither
has a will to have zithercord and strings in mutual
128
129
130

131
Generally, in the early literature, female jing comes at orgasm; Wile, Art of the Bedchamber, 22. This holds for the
lost Tangdynasty? version of Ruyao jing summarized in DZ 1017, Daoshu, Rongcheng pian "0 Wile, ibid.,
27 , and the Mingdynasty texts Zijin Guangyao Daxian xiuzhen yanyi Wile, ibid., 140 and Caizhen jiyao Wile, ibid.,
183 . Yet in the Sun jing Sui or Tang dynasty , the partners jing appears before orgasm; Wile, ibid., 89.
132
474
harmony. If it is not in harmony, then tune it, and hopefully you will be able to
accomplish the matter you are working on.
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For Chen Zhixu, as for the Ming sexual cultivators studied by Wile,134 the alchemical
language for foreplay is taken from a couplet in Wuzhen pian:
Strike the bamboo and call the turtle to gulp down the jade exudations.
Strum the zither and summon the phoenix to drink the spatulaful.
:5E&96#<7135
Whatever Zhang Boduan originally meant by this verse,136 sexual cultivators have
used it as a code for foreplay since the time of Lu Shu Southern Song or earlier.
Alchemists in Chen Zhixus lineage even used this Wuzhen pian couplet to test the
level of understanding of their rivals. In his long commentary to this bambooand
zither couplet in DZ 142, Chen recounts an episode in which his lineal master Li
Taixu used the couplet to defeat a debater bianshi C in single combat. Li sends
his opponent packing with the comment You learned those words on the long
linked bench! Go o and debate it with everyone
else in the world! My place here is
not the place for your calling the turtle! 2)'4 ?
.;
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5E1137 The remark This was learned on the long
linked bench 2)'4 ?0
is found in Chan Buddhist texts, so the speaker
in this exchange whether it be Li Taixu himself, or Chen Zhixu concocting the story
retrospectively is either speaking to a Chan or Daoist monk, or speaking like one.
This bambooandzither couplet in Wuzhen pian seems to be a controversial one, an
axis of polemic, a marker by which alchemists worked out or contested boundaries
133
134
Cf. Jindan zhenchuan and Caizhen jiyao in Wile, Art of the Bedchamber, 172, 181.
135
136
Wang Mu thinks Strike the bamboo and call the turtle to gulp down the jade growths, means to cultivate the
inherent nature until the lead the outer pharmacon, the primal essence appears within oneself, while Strum the
zither and summon the phoenix to drink the spatulaful means to cause the primal spirit to descend and fuse
with the outer pharmacon; Wang Mu, Wuzhen pian qianjie, 11617.
I am not convinced that Wang Mus interpretation matches the original sense of the Wuzhen pian verse, but
that does not detract from the value of Wang Mus work, if we treat his work as a primary rather than a secondary
source. If we expected alchemical commentaries to remain true to the sense of the text they purport to explain,
we would seldom be satised!
137
475
within the eld of alchemy.

3.2.2.1, What is the pharmacon?
The simple answer is that the partners outer
pharmacon is qi, and the adepts inner pharmacon is essence:

The inner pharmacon is naturally possessed by a self, while the outer pharmacon is
produced by anothers body. The inner pharmacon is thus within ones own body,
while the outer pharmacon is produced by anothers body. The inner pharmacon
does not depart from within ones own body, while the outer pharmacon does not
depart from within ones own match. The inner pharmacon only completes the
inherent nature, while the outer pharmacon also completes the life endowment.
The inner pharmacon is essence or, seminal essence, and the outer pharmacon is
qi. When neither essence nor qi departs, this is called the perfected seed. Only
when inherent nature and life essence are cultivated as a pair can one actualize
celestial transcendenthood.
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Yet Chen also says that the lead the qi
and mercury the essence
only become
pharmaca when they touch one another:
We may say that the yin follows the yang, and they only thereby become a
matching category. The lead is projected into the mercury, and they only
thereby become the pharmaca. The pharmaca transform into the elixir, and the
elixir transforms into the spirit. With physical form and spirit both becoming
wondrous, my life endowment depends on myself.
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139

In this formulation, it seems that the partners sexual qi and the adepts seminal
essence appear in nonperfected perhaps tangible
form, but are transformed into
the perfected pharmaca during the sexual encounter itself. Thus, the two substances
would rst appear in postnatal form, and become prenatal through the alchemical
reaction. This sounds at odds with Chens discussion above. Above, we learned that
the partners pharmacon should be gathered when it is in a pure, prenatal state at
a certain moment in the partners arousal cycle, menstrual cycle, and life cycle
, while
here, it seems that the qi and essence only become pharmaca, only become prenatal,
through the alchemical reaction.
Both the mans essence and the womans qi appear in tangible, postnatal
138
139
476
form. The postnatal form of the essence is obviously semen, but what is the post
natal form of the womans qi? It is probably a tangible feeling of warmth:
At this time, the cultivator ought immediately to seek the others prenatal Qi of
the perfected monad, and send it down into the dantian. This is the return of the
One Yang. Yet one ought to know the timing for causing the initial return of the
yang, and ought to take warming Qi as a timing sign.
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Warming qi is the sign for gathering the One Yang, that is, the partners outer
pharmacon.
Although we understand the pharmaca as two discrete entities, ultimately
they are manifestations of a common, nondual, primal reality:
This lead, hidden within the cavern of cosmic creation and transformation, was
produced before heaven and earth. After it is produced, it increases and grows
day and night, until it reaches the number of twoeights, or one catty. This is
called plenty. Thus, existing in the postnatal or, postcosmic state, it is neither
inner or outer, and yet is both inner and outer. So, we give it the convenience
name of the two elixirs, inner and outer.
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Here, lead refers proximately to the female partners pharmacon, but ultimately to
the One Yang that existed before the beginning of time and became lodged in the
two pharmaca of mortal men and women.
3.2.2.2, Sex positions.
Chen o
ers a few hints at sexual technique, but
without special emphasis. The cryptic but oftmentioned term caldron of the
suspended fetus refers to the positions of the sex organs:
Entering the furnace to the depth of eight cuninches, suspended within the
stove, without touching the ground, this is the suspended fetus.
R
Q.FH"Q<:142
Because it does not touch the ground, it is as if suspended within the stove. This
caldron enters the furnace to a distance of eight cuninches, with its body and
belly unimpeded and straight: this is called the yang caldron.
140
141
142
DZ 1068, Shangyangzi Jindan dayao tu 8b67.
477
.?1
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M-C;24AE143
The male adept may practice several cycles of tumescence:

How would you give a shape to that thing called the suspended fetus? Now
dead, now alive, mess around for a few bouts.
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While the nonalchemical sexual cultivators studied by Wile often speak of nine
shallow and one deep strokes, Chen takes this as a hallmark of false cultivation, and
does not teach anything like it.145
At some point, the male adept must assume a passive position underneath the
woman, turning yin and yang upsidedown, and playing guest to the partners
host:
Yin is above, and yang gallops below.
is the water within the vessel, and yang is the re within the caldron. With
water above and re below, water and re are in equilibrium or, like the
hexagram Jiji 3I. Yin above and yang below is Earth and Heaven in a state of
peace or, like the hexagram Tai 8. This is what Ziyang Zhang Boduan
means when he says Let the other be the host, and me be the guest.
Yin
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146
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The sage employs it by means of turning li and kan upside down, calling this
water above and re below; or by means of turning qian and kun upside down,
calling this Earth surmounting Heaven; or by means of turning husband and
wife upside down, calling this male below and female above.
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As I mentioned on page 323 above, diandao is a complex conceptual cluster applicable

to many dierent forms of inversion. Here, Chen correlates the inversion and
equilibrium jiji 3I
of yin and yang or water and re with the inverted position
of the sex partners. The original reason for this position may have been to help the
male adept control ejaculation, but Chen gives it an alchemical justication,
143
144
.
145
Wile, Art of the Bedchamber, 104; DZ 1067, Shangyangzi Jindan dayao 5.13a2.
146
Zhouyi Cantong qi fenzhang zhu, Daozang jiyao ed., 3.80a13
147
478
reinforcing the correlation between the originally unrelated traditions of sexual

cultivation and alchemical discourse.
3.2.2.3, Gathering and fusing.
Chen says that gathering the outer pharmacon
caiqu :( takes onehalf of a Chinese doublehour shi 8, or sixty minutes:
On this night of the third day is the moment when the moon is born in the
region of geng. At this time, the watersource is perfectly pure and totally
undisturbed throughout. Quickly use half a doublehour to gather it, and make it
revert to the place east of the Magpie Bridge i.e., to the front of the perineum,
in the genital region.
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,LH-148
Actually, the gathering process takes, not a full sixty, but only forty minutes. The
doublehour is subdivided into three tallies fu <. Gathering takes only one tally,
that is, forty minutes.
We say that there are six yaolines in a hexagram, and one yaoline has three
are two hexagrams in a day, and thirtysix tallies in these two
hexagrams. When yin and yang copulate, this does not need even as much as a
doublehour, and does not exhaust the use of a single yaoline. This is like one
doublehour having three tallies, but using only one tally. If one tally set in
motion, then one yang yaoline is produced below kun to form zhen.
tallies. There
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Chen also divides the doublehour into six periods hou 6. Gathering takes two
periods again, forty minutes:
If you condense one year into one month, then two and a half days equal six
periods. If you condense one month into one day, then one doublehour equals six
periods. Therefore the seventytwo watches of one year are condensed into one
day. Thereby we know that there is only one day within the year, and only one
doublehour within the day. The great cultivator must distinguish the mao and you
points within a doublehour, and must know the six periods of the doublehour.
We may say that the process of gathering the pharmacon and obtaining the lead
uses only two periods out of the six periods in a doublehour, which is like using
only one part out of three. And within one doublehour, it is especially the
remaining four periods which have another marvelous use.
J ,&46J,0862
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149
479
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In this passage, Chen condenses cuancu OL the year into the month and day, and
the month into the day and hour. As I note on page 336 above, Chinese alchemy in
general is a dao of condensing space, time, and cosmic process. At the end of the
passage, Chen says that the remaining four periods of the doublehour or, eighty
minutes are reserved for some other marvelous process. This second process is hedan
, an initial fusion of the inner and outer pharmaca through orbital circulation:
Use only two periods for gathering, leaving four periods remaining within the
doublehour.
What you do within these four periods is called fusing the elixir.
The wonder of fusing the elixir
is in hurriedly fusing the lead with ones own
mercury. At this time, regulate and harmonize your perfected breath,
letting the
fusing pharmaca ow everywhere within the six vacuities. From the Great
Mysterious Pass, owing against the current to the Cavity of the Celestial Valley,
gulp it down into the Chamber of Gold. This is the labor of lighting the re and
beginning the process at the rst year.
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For Chen Zhixu, the Mysterious Pass usually refers to the partners sex organ, but
may also refer to a bodily site below the umbilicus near to or identical to the lower
dantian .152 Although Chen may be drawing this passage from Li Daochuns teachings,
Chen does not subscribe to Li Daochuns complex view of the Mysterious Pass.153
From the region of the lower dantian, the fusing pharmaca are transported to the
upper dantian Cavity of the Celestial Valley , then to the Yellow Court near the
middle dantian for ring. The stage of gathering takes forty minutes, and the stage of
initial fusion takes eighty.
3.2.2.4, Gathering the outer pharmacon: physiological aspects.
The adept
transports a bit of essence to meet and fuse with the partners qi. It seems that this
alchemical reaction takes place within the male sex organ:
150
151
152
Two passages identifying the Mysterious Pass as the partners sex organ are DZ 1067, Shangyangzi Jindan dayao
5.7a10 and 7.3a1. Two passages identifying it as the lower dantian or a nearby site are the illustration at DZ 1068,
Shangyangzi Jindan daoyao tu 3a, and Jindan dayao, Jindan zhengli daquan ed., 6.27b1 missing from DZ 1067 .
153
At DZ 1067, Shangyangzi Jindan dayao 7.2a13, Chen cites Li Daochun as the source for a similar passage it is
from DZ 249, Zhonghe ji 2.4b58 . I discuss Li Daochuns view of the Mysterious Pass on page 278 above.
480
Make the others prenatal perfect lead revert to within the caldron of the
suspended fetus, and unite it with perfect mercury, then rene this into a grain of
golden elixir.
G)
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Send it back into the caldron of the suspended fetus, project the mercury upon it,
and cause it to enter the chamber i.e., dantian: this is called the outer
pharmacon.
â=Z]%48\
155
Rene the owing pearl within the caldron of the suspended fetus; you are
already fortunate that the metal has come home to the state of the origin of the
inherent nature. The sages of the Three Teachings all follow a single track, but
in these after times I follow a di
erent path than the others.
a=ZeU:DP0'^*-JW`5'$3BN156
The loss of seminal essence would be an utter disaster for a sexual alchemist:
Thus you gain the tallies for the meeting of yin and yang without, and within you
give birth to a body of perfected oneness. If you are ever incautious while
transporting the heartmind, and the nodes and periods go o
the mark, this
means the lovely maid will ee and be lost, and the numinous fetus will not form.
6HIOTKEc>+X_V?AB#F
d=R157
Yet while he must not allow his seminal essence to be lost, the adept must have
sucient control to transport it within his body, from a site near the anus the
perineum to his urethra:
Transport one point of perfect lead the inner pharmacon from a spot below the
kidneys near the place of excretion the anus to meet the outer pharmacon.
,S Q/1MX]EY.158
There is even a hint that the male adept would let it escape slightly, in order to e
ect
a greater gain:
in front: let the other be the host. Hardness is applied behind:
I, contrarily, am the guest. With mu, there is a minor egress at rst; then with
pin there is a great return. Metal and qi are in conjunction, and yang completes
its body of qian.
Softness is applied
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154
155
156
157
158
481
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Does minor egress mean the adept should ejaculate slightly in order to gather the
outer pharmacon? Further research may turn up more clues. We may be sure that
Chen is not doing what a tantric yogin would do, completely mixing his sexual uids
with the partners uids within the partners sex organ or outside the body, then
drawing the mixture back into his own body through his urethra or his mouth. For
Chen, the initial fusion of the pharmaca occurs within the male sex organ. Yet the
question of urethral suction must be investigated.
On page 420 above, I discussed the possibility that Chinese adepts, like the
Indian yogins described by Needham, perform vascular induction, sucking the jing of
the female partner through their urethras and into their dantian. Does Chen Zhixu
also draw in the partners tangible jing? Or does he merely suck the partners
intangible, prenatal qi? The evidence is ambiguous. Sometimes Chen likens the
gathering the outer pharmacon to eating claried butter, as in these verses on
subduing the tiger
fuhu :
Entering the tigers den to seek the tigers claried milk: its avor is matchless,
like claried butter. Only if someone attains a place like this will he be a great and
manly man on the cosmic level of qian and kun.
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160
I laugh at how you name the crescentmoon furnace: within the furnace is a sweet
dew better than claried butter. If you try gulping down a drop of it, it will be like
honey, or candy and claried milk.
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Tihu 65
Skt. maa is the purest form of claried butter
ghee. In Indian
Mahyna Buddhism it symbolizes something most delicious and pure
such as
nirva or buddhanature.162 Chens use of the term tihu here certainly suggests that
the adept should somehow ingest a sacred substance, yet tihu could merely be a
metaphor for qi. Chen also sometimes likens the gathering of the outer pharmacon
159
Zhouyi Cantong qi fenzhang zhu, Daozang jiyao ed., 2.51a2 4.
160

161

162
Foguang da cidian, s.v. tihu , 6321.
482
to sucking up the West River in one mouthful:163

The Xici
zhuans saying Gaining a friend in the southwest, or Wei
Boyangs
saying The perfected person cruises underwater in the deep abyss, or Tiantai
Zhang Boduans
saying Lead is produced when it meets gui, and you must
swiftly gather it, or Mazu Daoyis
saying Sucking up the West River in a single
mouthful, are all references to
this dao of the recycled elixir.
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Though the dragon
is ugly and evil in mien, its qi is vast and enormous. Being so
huge and rockhard, it is never easy to defeat. Do not let it join the clouds in
producing rain: rather, you want it to suck up the West River in one mouthful.
%6*5(IB!.4 $
165
For Mazu Daoyi, the phrase Sucking up the West River in one mouthful would
refer to enlightenment as a sudden, unexpected, enigmatic, and impossibly grand
action. For Chen Zhixu, West River is correlated with both agent metal in the west
as lead, the outer pharmacon and agent water the female uid as the source of the
pharmacon. Does Chens use of this phrase imply that an actual uid is ingested
through the ugly, huge, hard dragon? Perhaps. He certainly implies that uid is
present during the process of gathering. Other evidence suggests that the adept
should not actually suck up menses or other uids. In his chapter of illustrations in
Jindan dayao, there is an illustration in which a number of throwing sticks have been
successfully tossed into a vase or lie strewn around it. Chen depicts a stick labeled
Marginal tradition: the numinous turtle drinking the sea, or the drinking of milk,
blood, and uid 7-NOD8D'>166 lying on the ground farthest from
the vase, signifying that this practice is the farthest from the true teaching. Here,
Chen is rejecting the drinking of menses and uids through the male sex organ. So,
while the sucking of water seems to be involved somehow in the process of
gathering the pharmacon, if an adept focuses his attentions on this, it would be a
false practice. How can we make sense of this? The following passage helps to clear
163
Mazu Daoyi ;:F 70988 once answered Layman Pang Yun LM) d. 808: When you can swallow
the whole water of the Western River in one mouthful, I will tell you 0 $H #F. Cf.
Wudeng huiyuan, Zhonghua shuju ed., 3:186; translated by Ogata in Tao Yuan, The Transmission of the Lamp, 293.
164
165
166
DZ 1068, Shangyangzi Jindan dayao tu 12a. This illustration is copied from DZ 252, Gushen pian.
483
up the confusion:
If the numbers of the metal and water are timely and equal, then swiftly fuse two
measures of re with it; thus Cantong qi says retwo makes a pair with it. When
metal, water, and re have fused together, then re receives Qi from the metal,
and also is well kept in check by the water, and they form the recycled elixir. Now
this can transform, and has a shape like a spirit. In the labor of setting to work and
approaching the furnace, nothing is more essential than this.
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167
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The crucial sentence in this passage is When metal, water, and re have fused
together, then re receives Qi from the metal, and also is well kept in check by the
water, and they form the recycled elixir. While metal the outer pharmacon and re
the inner pharmacon are the reactants, water somehow serves to stabilize the
reaction. Another passage also mentions water as an indispensible party within the
reaction:
The turtle and snake coil and knit in the elixir furnace, and crow and hare meet
to travel the ecliptic. The black and the white re ect their radiance at each
another, and the rm and the yielding arise by turns. The jade furnace stores up
good fortune, and the purple eorescence re ects the sun. The Dazzling Deluder
Mars keeps to the western limit, and the cardinalred bird ames in the middle
of the empty sky. Impel the water to transport the metal, thrust the re into
the caldron. The subdued steam uses the Qi of the Great Yang to form into what is
called the yellow coach elixir.
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168
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The rst part of this passage sounds like a description of stage 3, the internal ring of
the elixir, but in fact it is a description of the moment of gathering the outer
pharmacon during the one tally of time forty minutes . The key sentence in this
passage is Impel the water to transport the metal, thrust the re into the caldron.
The adept sends re seminal essence into his caldron of the suspended fetus sex
organ , and causes the water the partners sexual uid to bring the metal the
pharmacon . In the passage above, the water keeps the metal in check, and here the
water transports the metal. In Chens teaching, the male adept is clearly working
167
168
484
with uids, though he may never need to actually draw the uids into his urethra.
My partial reconstruction of Chens secrets has value for the comparative
study of sexual cultivation, but I am also making a larger point here. This
investigation reveals that the physiological, praxological di
erence between Chens
selfadjudged true dao gathering the metal by means of the water and the worst of
the false daos the numinous turtle drinking the sea is very slight. From our overview
of the huanjing bunao and sexualalchemical texts studied by Wile, we know that,
throughout all of these texts, the line between qi and uid is very ambiguous see
pages 41819 above . It is likely that practitioners of the numinous turtle drinking
the sea would claim to be gathering not just uid, but qi. Recall that a similar term
drinking from the sea, the black dragon receives yinhai heilong shou
appears in the text Huanjing caiqi pian page 417 above , and in this case it is
indeed a technique for gathering qi caiqi . Chens true dao is not
qualitatively di
erent. It involves the use of both qi and uid from the partner with
the uid being both menses and sexual uid ; uid is intimately involved with the
initial fusion of the pharmaca, possibly even within the male sex organ; yet ultimately
Chen rejects the numinous turtle drinking the sea. At the gathering stage at least,
the main di
erence between Chens teaching and the false daos of his rivals are in
the aspects of theory, rhetoric, terminology, or goal, rather than in the aspect of
practice.
3.2.2.5, Gathering the outer pharmacon: mental aspects.
While the adept is
managing and manipulating the partners sexual energy and uids, and his own, he
must employ the mental training that he developed during the stage of rening the
self lianji; cf. pages 44146 above . The adept must maintain a state of passivity,
deference, and singleminded concentration:
At this time, it would be proper to be deferential in all things, for the moment.
Let the other whip rst and obtain her pleasure, while you are as if stupeed
or unable to speak. Display the characteristic attitude of a man of the Dao,
politely taking the lower position, and not competing. This is actually the
higher stratagem of a divine transcendent; only thereby may you approach the
furnace and have something to celebrate.
$" !
#
485
6 G ANuy(k169

People of this generation know only that macrobiotics ends in preventing lust,
but they have no idea that if a single thought stirs, qi will follow the mind and be
dispersed, seminal essence will be driven away, and qi will be forgotten. Those
who undertake this dao must maintain a state of great void in heartmind and
body, unied inside and out.

+7o"5dlC73@HDqYhTD->)g
8c{[ &170
Chen describes the state of tranquility while gathering the pharmacon using a
couplet from Cantong qi,
The perfected person plumbs cruises underwater in the abyss,
with his oating and cruising restricted to the circle of the compass.
F
nQPEZ'S171
For Chen, this state of being includes both mental and physiological aspects:
At the moment of rst gathering the pharmacon, sun and moon meet in sexual
joy, and dragon and tiger are about to have intercourse. At the moment of battle,
The perfected person is already plumbing cruising underwater in the abyss,
with his oating and cruising cautiously restricted to within the circle of the
compass. We may say that, at this time, you close and block o
the three
treasures, and ought only to be singleminded and with utmost intention. If not,
it will come to losing life and limb.
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While oating and cruising, keeping within the circle of the compass: Within the
circle of the compass is called the cave of creation and transformation. If you
rene the great elixir within this, for the duration of one tally, you must be
absolutely cautious and secret. Floating and cruising means ever still and
furthermore ever responding, not leaving this state for even a moment. Keeping
means diligently re ecting within, and there truly being something that you are
relying upon.
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Because Chen is talking about gathering the outer pharmacon, we can be certain that
the perfected person is none other than the male adepts sex organ, while the cave
169
170
171
172
173
486
of creation and transformation is the organ of the female partner. Yet the perfected
person cruising the abyss also represents the adepts mind in a state of deep
tranquility. Through force of guiding intention yi #, he blocks o his three
treasures of essence semen, qi respiration, and spirit outer senses. The metaphor
nicely correlates corporeal sex with rened meditation, two aspects that we might
not expect to nd together. Our assumption that sexual technique and meditation
belong to dierent realms does not apply here. We should not too quickly attribute
our diculty to Cartesian dualism, however: many of Chens contemporaries might
have been similarly surprised to nd such a juxtaposition of sex and meditation.
Chen also describes this state of mind using phrases from the Prajpramit
avored scriptures of Tangdynasty DoubleMystery Learning:
Thus, at the moment of gathering the elixir, tightly grasp onto a single thought,
such as the concept of Gazing at the heartmind within, the mind is mindless.
Gazing at the shape without, the shape is shapeless. Looking afar at the object,
the object is objectless. If in fact you are able to meet the partner with this
intention, then the mystic pearl will be produced within the dantian.
& "
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We already saw Chen using this language to explain how an adept may frequent
brothels without losing his purity. Here, Chen is telling the male adept to repeat a
line from the Scripture of Purity and Tranquility175 during the sexual encounter, as a sort
of mental mantra.
Chen uses a phrase from another DoubleMystery text, the Scripture for
Protecting Life and Averting Disaster,176 to make the point that the alchemist must
never become attached to his partner. Chen puns on the dual meaning of se as
both form in the abstract, Buddhist sense and sex:
What does Know that se is not se refer to? Its like that river water: the clear
ow is slight and slow, with its water aiding the boat to reach the other shore.
This boat and water are both external things. Didnt the patriarch Zhao Youqin
say, After the dao is complete, as for the vessels of the elixir chamber, leave them
behind by entrusting them to someone else? This is what it refers to.
174
175
DZ 620, Taishang Laojun shuo chang qingjing miaojing 1b57.
176
DZ 19, Taishang shengxuan xiaozai huming miaojing 1b8.
487
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The quote comes from Zhao Youqins Xianfo tongyuan.178 Chen even justies this
brusque dismissal of the partner after the gathering is done by referring to the deeds
of Buddha and Bodhidharma:
If you have not yet rened the recycled elixir, you ought to swiftly rene it. If you
have already rened the elixir, you ought to swiftly leave it behind. The Buddha
says, After the dao is complete, as for the vessels of the elixir chamber, leave
them behind by entrusting them to someone else. If you do not leave them
behind, then when the heartminds eld of consciousness looks ahead, one
fears that there will be the distress of probably being ashamed. Bai Ziqing the
Perfecteds Bai Yuchan sudden wind and thunder at midnight is evidence of
this. Therefore, Bodhidharma left Changlu, and entered Shaolin in order to sit
in the cold, without distress for even a single morning.
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On pages 46667 above, I searched for signs of emotional or human relations
between Chen and his partner, nding an impersonal, patronizing harmony that is
free of attachment. To this we may now add that, as soon as he has gathered her
pharmacon, even this relation would come to an end, and he would send her away for
the sake of his own spiritual wellbeing.
Another important mental aspect of gathering the pharmacon is the use of
guiding intention yi N or will zhi ( ; I will say more about this below on pages
53839 and 54748, where I analyze Chens translation of the whole process into
Buddhist and NeoConfucian terms.
3.2.2.6, Gathering the outer pharmacon: abstract mesocosmic signs.
Chen often
repeats the inneralchemical commonplace that the outer pharmacon is kan , the
inner pharmacon is li , and they must be joined to produce the elixir of pureyang
qian . Kans nature as yangwithinyin correlates with the yang stability of lead
female sexual qi within the protean yin water uids, or the female body and person
per se . Lis yinwithinyang nature correlates with the yin instability of the mercurial
177
178
Chen quotes verbatim from Xianfo tongyuan, by Zhao Youqin, 13b1, in Daoshu quanji, Zhongguo Shudian ed.,
468.
179
DZ 142, Ziyang Zhenren Wuzhen pian sanzhu 4.27b510
488
male seminal essence within the yang stability of the male sex organ or body.
On the mesocosmic register, agent earth catalyzes the reaction between
agents water and re I discuss this on pages 33334:
Use earth to x the lead, use lead to x the mercury, make
both lead and
mercury revert to the caldron, with body and heartmind unmoving.
!@o!o@;o;{p?\180
Earths catalytic power works because earth itself is divided into yang and yin
aspects, wuearth and jiearth. Chen correlates the wu and jiearths with several
other yangyin pairs. In the following passage, he correlates the wu and jiearths
with the female vulva and male glans:
Old Man Ziyang Zhang Boduan
has now indicated the twin things dragon and
tiger too closely! Now, my thing is the dragon, and the others thing is the tiger.
There is a distinction between east and west, so Wuzhen pian
has each to east and
west. The dragons head is ji, and the tigers gate is wu. The dragon and tiger rely
on these for their coition . . .
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Because the meeting of the two pharmaca takes place through the mediation of the
two earths on the mescocosmic register, and through the mediation of these two
parts of the sex organs on the physiological register, the wu and jiearths must
correlate with the vulva and glans. In another passage Chen correlates the wu and ji
earths the waxing qi of tiger and dragon:
Therefore, the jiearth is the yin within the yang, and is the sign of the dragons
waxing qi. The wuearth within kan assists the eorescence of the moon, dwelling
above zi, so the winter sun is warm, and the winter nights are cool. Zi is the head
point of yang, and the moon is yin. Therefore, wuearth is the yang within yin,
and is the sign of the tigers waxing qi. Dragon and tiger harbor within their
breasts the perfected earths of wu and ji. Therefore dragon and tiger copulate and
wu and ji unite, wu and ji unite and lead and mercury meet, lead and mercury
meet and the recycled elixir forms.
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181
489
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Perhaps these waxing qi xianqi $ are the waxing sexual arousal of the two
human partners. We will see on pages 51112 below that waxing xian means
something quite di
erent during the stage 3, when the adept is ring the elixir within
it means the rst and third lunar quarters shangxia xian .
How do the the wu and jiearths cause the two pharmaca to fuse? It is easy to
see how they do this in their microcosmic identity as the vulva and glans, but the
situation is more complex on the mesocosmic register. In terms of RiverChart
numerology, the wu and jiearths fuse because they are both numbered 5 see page
342 above , and adding them makes a perfect 10:
is a reference to an ultimate number. According to daousage, ten is the
number of the birth and growth of heaven and earth. The two earths wu and ji,
unite to make ten.
Ten
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183
Strangely enough, Chen says the opposite in another passage:

Heaven ve is jiearth, earth ten is wuearth. Wuearth dwells in kan, and jiearth
dwells in li. When wu and ji are divided, the two earths number ten. When wu
and ji are united, the two earths form the gnomon and number ve. Earth dwells
in the center, and so makes a single ve.

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"#184
In the rst passage, wu and ji belong together because the sum of their two 5s makes
a perfect 10, whereas in the second passage, when wu and ji are separate, their two
separate 5s add up to 10, but when they fuse, they make a single 5. This may be a case
of the rhetorical exibility of alchemical language.
According to the concept of three houses meeting one another as discussed
on pages 34243 above , it is necessary that agent earth form a single 5, so that it may
join together with the two other 5s to make three 5s. The rst 5 is agent wood3 plus
re2, the second 5 is water1 plus metal4, and the third 5 is earth5. The fusion of the
pharmaca into an elixir is understood as the union of these three 5s.
182
183
184
490
Heaven three produces wood, earth two produces re. Fire is numbered two, and
wood is numbered three. Three and two join their natures, integrated into a single
ve. . . . Therefore wood and re make a single clan. . . .
Heaven one produces water, and earth four produces metal. Metal is
numbered four, and water is numbered one. One and four join their dispositions,
to form a single ve. . . . Therefore metal and water make a single clan. . . .
Once wu and ji have united, metal and wood will come together. When metal
and wood meet, the dragon and tiger will have intercourse. When dragon and
tiger have intercourse, then the three ves will unite into one. When the three
ves unite into one, then the three houses will meet one another. When the three
houses meet one another, then lead and mercury will knit together. When lead and
mercury knit together, the infant will be complete, which is none other than the
one qi.

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In addition to the numerological mesocosmic explanations above, there is also a
gurative mesocosmic explanation for how the wu and jiearths cause the two
pharmaca to fuse:
The ve of ji is the trigram lis earth; the ve of wu is the trigram kans earth.
When li mingles with kan in the beginning, wu ows to meet ji. Within the wu
earth is the lead, and within the lead is the saber dao , one half of the word
daogui , the spatula. Within the jiearth is the mercury, and within the
mercury is the granulated cinnabar. The essences of the two ves unite
wondrously and crystallize. Water and re are in equilibrium, lead and mercury
x and subdue each other, wu and ji unite and form the gnomon gui , the other
half of daogui .

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186
According to the gurative mesocosmic symbology of cezi 6 plumbing a
character , the union of the two earths produces the character gui + = , part
of the word daogui lit., spatula; i.e., a spatulaful of elixir . This explains why
wu and ji are drawn together. This union of wu and ji also e
ects the union of the
two pharmaca lead and mercury because the pharmaca are contained within wu
and ji perhaps because wu and ji correlate with the sex organs . This constitutes an
185
DZ 142, Ziyang Zhenren Wuzhen pian sanzhu 2.17a78, a9b1, b34, b67, 18b47.
186
Jindan dayao, Jindan zhengli daquan ed., 6.50b14 missing from DZ 1067 .
491
alchemical argument for how the pharmaca react with one another. This is strange
stu, but not unfamiliar: for Robinet, at least, this sort of discursive practice is the
essence of inner alchemy.
Chen correlates the wu and jiearths with other yangyin pairs as well. In the
passage above, he correlates wuearth with the moon during the beginning of the
annual solar cycle, it seemsa correlation between mesocosmic and macrocosmic
registers. Elsewhere he correlates the wu and jiearths with dispositions and
inherent nature qing 7 and xing ',187 and being and nonbeing you and wu @188
a correlation between mesocosmic and nonspatiotemporal registers.
3.2.2.7, Gathering the outer pharmacon: mixed symbology.
The gathering of the
outer pharmacon, and the initial fusion of the pharmaca, is a grand mystery
reverberating on all the ontological registers, from macrocosmic, to mesocosmic, to
microcosmic, at once a grand cosmic drama and a sexual encounter between two
mortal humans:
At this moment, Heaven and Earth mingle their essences,
and the myriad beings are

born out of the void. Sun and moon uphold one another
; the crow and rabbit
fuse together and do not part. The yang is masculine and towers rigidly;
iridescentgreen and darkly mysteriously it spreads its transformations. Yin is
feminine and opens, transforming the yellow enclosure in order to hold
nourishment within. Within the vast mistiness of primal chaos, the two things
meet and touch each other. In the beginning quanyu means
when the
masculine and feminine rst copulate, rst establishing root and base. As for
quanyu, this means the origin. . . . This is speaking of the initial fecundity of
creation and transformation.
But quan also means temporary, and yu means stable. This is saying that
temporarily the eortful application must be most stable yet not sti like a
corpse. Plan out and manage the one Qi in order to nurture the perimeter of the
physical form
, crystallizing and spreading the yang essence, in order to make the
bodily form and material.
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Zhouyi Cantong qi fenzhang zhu, Daozang jiyao ed., 1.10b911a2, a35. The Daozang jiyao ed. has ; I have
converted it to .
492
In this powerful passage, Chen rings the changes on alchemical myth, mysticism, and
practice, moving from cosmogony to sexual technique, or using ambiguous language
that applies to both at once. He begins making a macrocosmic statement about the
zaohua creation and transformation of Heaven and Earth, with microcosmic
resonance, in e ect correlating the moment of gathering the pharmacon with the
moment of cosmogenesis. When he speaks of the indissoluble union of crow and
rabbit, or sun and moon, or Heaven and Earth, he correlates these macro and
mesocosmic realities with the human partners, who cling together as if they would
never part. The towering yang and enveloping yin are the sex organs of the two
partners, or perhaps the sex organs of male and female humans as such writ large on
the mesocosmic register, at once abstract yin and yang and gurative towering and
opening. The initial contact of the two pharmaca is also likened to cosmogenesis in
primal chaos, then to the continuing fecundity of zaohua in the world. Finally, Chen
speaks of the proper mental and physiological attitude during copulation. Chen has
whipped up all of this mythical spume out of the cryptic phrases of the Cantong qi.
This is a perfect example of what I call a secondary salvic e ect. This is not just
wordplay, or Chens crafty justication of his eccentric reading of alchemical
scripture within an arena of social con ict though it is indeed both these things.
What Chen is also doing here is recreating the cosmogony in discourse, bringing it into
the circle of the text, where writer and reader can bask in its power; and he is forging
anew the bonds between macro, meso, and microcosmic registers, making them
real, vivid, and sacred for everyone who accepts his words.
3.2.3, Fusing the pharmaca.
After the adept gathers the outer pharmacon
from the partners water, bonds it with his own inner pharmacon, and draws the two
pharmaca through his sex organ, he performs hedan fusion of the elixir by
transporting the fusing pharmaca along the ecliptic huangdao of his subtle
body. In his commentary to the Wuzhen pian line Movement should be short in front
and long in back

, Chen describes this entire progression from
gathering to initial fusion:
While waiting for the moment of the rst stirring of the partners bi One
Yang, when the prenatal perfect lead is about to come, none of the seminal
493
essence or qi in my body stirs at all, except for transporting one point of perfect
lead the inner pharmacon from a spot below the kidneys near the place of
excretion the anus to meet the outer pharmacon. This is called a short
movement in the front.
When the adepts perfect lead has crossed over the house of the Magpie
Bridge the perineum and become mixed together with the outer pharmacon
from the partner, it follows the perfect lead in ascending by means of the three
chainpumps at the three passes in the spine, and travels through the double
SpinalStraits pass to ascend to the MuddyPellet Palace, in the brain. The
melding pharmaca move throughout the Nine Palaces in the brain, pour into
the two eyes, descend the Golden Bridge between the upper palate and the
tongue, go down the Storied Tower the trachea, and enter the Crimson Palace
the middle dantian, near the heart, to be smelted together. This is wandering
having its own method, this is called the back must be long.
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The adept gathers the partners outer pharmacon by meeting it with a bit of
seminal essence from his perineum, then circulates the two pharmaca around the
inner ecliptic of the superintendant and conception tracts rendu ermai %p[ ,
nally depositing them into the middle dantian. In another passage, Chen describes
the inner sensations that indicate the progress of the fusing pharmaca around the
ecliptic:
The Master of Highest Yang said, The great cultivator, having already made the
spatulaful of elixir enter the mouth, transports his own jade exudation in order
to meet? and nurture it. Generally, whenever you transport the re, you will
suddenly feel a perfected Qi within your spine shoot upward to the Muddy Pellet
Palace, in the brain. There is a purling sound, and within your head it feels as
though there is an object that touches the upper brain. Suddenly, things like
sparrow eggs, one after another, drop from the palate down the Storied Tower
esophagus. They are fragrant and sweet like icy claried milk, with a
matchlessly delicious avor. When you have this form of sensation, this is proof
that you have attained the recycled elixir of metallous uid, so quickly swallow
it send it back to the dantian. From this point onward, do it ever and again
without cease. Close your eyes and gaze inward: the ve yang viscera and six
yin viscera are layed out like shining candles; gradually and by stages, there is a
golden radiance that envelops the body.
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Note that the circulating elixir or fusing pharmaca crosses the upper Magpie Bridge
from palate to tongue, and descends the esophagus, in the form of tangible uid,
either saliva or mucus. My research suggests that Chens use of the classical inner
alchemical practice of lesserorbital circulation xiao zhoutian along the
superintendant and conception tracts is rather limited. Unlike solo alchemists in the
standard account, who use lesserorbital circulation extensively to generate the
outer pharmacon through tamping the base, zhuji # , and then to generate the
inner pharmacon, I believe that Chen only uses xiao zhoutian circulation during the
short period of eighty minutes, or four periods hou , within the 120minute sexual
encounter. This is the only context within which he mentions xiao zhoutian
circulation. Because this is a consciously intentional youzuo rather than non
active wuwei practice, presumably the adept would need to train in this
practice for at least a few months before applying it during the sexual encounter. Yet
Chen does not mention this prepwork as a core element of rening the self. As we
have seen, for Chen the adept amasses seminal essence during the lianji stage
through calming meditation rather than orbital circulation.
The relative underemphasis on xiao zhoutian circulation is a very distinctive
feature of Chens teachings. In future research, I may be able to develop this insight,
locating Chen Zhixus personal form of alchemy relative to other cognate or ancestral
forms within an overall alchemical map, and discover where his practice actually
comes from, morphologically and historically.
3.3, Stage Three: Forming the Elixir jiedan through Internal Firing
After stage 2 of gathering and initial fusion of the elixir hedan come stages 3 and 4,
during which the adept forms the elixir through internal ring in the middle dantian,
then trains the yang spirit to ascend from the upper dantian and beyond the body. In
this section, I discuss the stage of forming the elixir jiedan by ring or
incubating it wenyang within the internal caldron.
191
495
3.3.1, General descriptions.
After gathering the pharmaca, bonding them
together, and circulating them brie y around the lesser orbit, the adept res the
elixir, called a holy fetus shengtai :, , within the Yellow Court. At the end of ten
months or three hundred days , the yang spirit or infant yinger C$ appears, and
after a thousand days or three years it is ready for apotheosis:
A drop falls into the Yellow Court: how could nurturing the re be dicult? For
nine cycles, wait until the tallies and periods have been carried out, cleansing the
heartmind and rinsing away cares, in order to form the threehundredday fetus.
Rene the spirit and return to the void, completing the great and manly a
air.
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Project the outer yang onto the inner yin, and rene and nurture it during a long
fast of a thousand days. Paying no attention to human a
airs, the many
delements all leak away. Then the holy embryo can be formed, and the infant
will be born. This is called male pregnancy.
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This is equivalent to transforming qi into spirit as in stage 3 of the standard
account of solo inner alchemy :
Then we know that the physical form will transform into qi, and qi will transform
into spirit, which is called the infant, or the yang spirit.
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When the two pharmaca have initially fused together hedan , the fusion product still
contains equal amounts of yang and yin. The goal during the stage of elixir formation
is to transform this into pure yang, extracting the center yaoline of kan the
plumbous outer pharmacon and plugging it into li the mercurial inner
pharmacon to make qian :
The divine man swallows the doubleve spatulaful of elixir into his belly,
tempers it in the chamber of gold, then practices the thousanddays labor,
managing and moderating the ring periods. When the training is done, then
water will conquer re, and yang will wipe out yin. When yin is almost exhausted
then yang will be pure. With this, kan has recycled its middle yang yaoline to li,
which we call The dao of Heaven liking to return. Li obtains the yang yaoline
192
193
Jindan dayao, Jindan zhengli daquan ed., 6.25b34 missing from DZ 1067 .
194
496
within the heart of kan, and becomes qian.

E5 ( #+VNT7;:* !_H
BA098)SDPPJ]9SF=- S)c
d`Y%cdK-S)'G195
This is equivalent to increasing the mercurial component of the amalgam this
component was male essence while decreasing the plumbous component this
component was female qi, until the mercury transforms into the pureyang cinnabar
elixir:
As for extracting and supplementing, after using lead to x mercury, gradually and
day by day transport the re and add mercury. Mercury will gradually increase,
and lead will gradually decrease. After a long time, the lead will be almost
exhausted, the mercury will be dried up, and it will transform into granulated
cinnabar, nicknamed the pure yang of the recycled elixir of metallous uid.
3M5 Z1.<OX\M..\$Z\9ZJ]
."G)>@W7LcFS196
Like the laboratory alchemists, the inner alchemist must pay close attention to his
re:
One renes them into a single lump, and keeps watch on them for a full ten
months. One calmly listens to the keening of the dragon and the long roar of the
tiger, and must not allow the watersupply go dry or the re to grow cold. If one
has been able to remain at this stage
, one must act with great trepidation.
UI[&'
aeb,)6^f/G)QK4R>?
C197
Chen here repeats an inneralchemical commonplace, a battle between dragon and
tiger, with the dragon making a yin , keening, or perhaps humming, and the tiger
making a xiao ^ not a whistle here, but a long, drawnout sound. This description
of the dragon and tiger is purely fanciful, without any complex correlative
signicance beyond yinwithinyang and yangwithinyin.
3.3.1.1, Caldrons, furnaces, and orbits.
According to the standard account of
solo inner alchemy, during lesserorbital circulation xiao zhoutian 2 during
stage 1 of tamping the base, and stage 2 of rening essence to qi, the adept uses the
lower and upper dantian as furnace and caldron. These are called the greater caldron
195
Jindan dayao, Jindan zhengli daquan ed., 6.50b47 missing from DZ 1067. The dao of Heaven liking to
return Tiandao haohuan is an echo of Daode jing, chapter 30.
196
197
DZ 1070, Shangyangzi Jindan dayao xianpai 8b24.
497
and furnace da dinglu because of their distance from one another within the
subtle body. Then, during stage 3 of rening qi into spirit, when the elixir circulates
along the greater orbit da zhoutian , the middle dantian is taken as the
caldron, while the lower dantian remains as the furnace; these are called the lesser
caldron and furnace xiao dinglu . This is slightly di erent from earlier forms
of solo inner alchemy, where the emphasis is upon heart and kidneys rather than
middle and lower dantian these two pairs of sites are related, of course. During the
nal stage of rening spirit and causing it to return to the void, the elixirasspirit
remains in the upper dantian, and the furnacecaldron metaphor is not used.198
Chen does not use this terminology. The terms for the xiao/da dinglu in any of
their permutations do not appear at all in his extant works; rather, his preferred
binary pair is inner caldron the dantian and outer caldron the male adepts
caldron of the suspended fetus. If he speaks of inner and outer caldrons, one would
also expect to hear of inner and outer furnaces, but Chen never mentions an inner
furnace, only outer furnaces, which are sometimes male and sometimes female.199 To
further depart from the precision of the standard account, Chen refers to both the
lower dantian and middle dantian as the inner caldron.200 Clearly, the distinctions
between various internal caldrons and furnaces would not be important for him. His
emphasis is not upon internal structures of the subtle body, but rstly, upon the
intricacies of sexual physiology, psychology, and jingqi, and secondly, upon meditative
concentration. Yet, although Chen does not speak of switching from the lesser
furnaceandcaldron to the greater furnaceandcaldron, there is an implicit
progression from lower dantian during the phase of hedan in stage 2 to middle
198
See pages 28687 above.
199
The two sex organs may be paired as yang furnace and yin caldron, in which case the furnace is male. But
when the organs are paired as caldron of the suspended fetus and halfmoon furnace, the furnace is female.
See DZ 1067, Shangyangzi jindan dayao 5.6b67 for the former case, and 5.8b29 for the latter.
200
For the inner caldron as the lower dantian, see DZ 1067, Shangyangzi Jindan dayao 5.6b107a1; yet just a few
lines later, Chen identies the inner caldron as the Yellow Court Huangjin Shi
, i.e., Huangting
;
5.7a79. We know that Chen locates the Yellow Court near the Crimson Palace Jianggong ; see Jindan dayao,
Jindan zhengli daquan ed., 6.27b5, missing from DZ 1067, so the Yellow Court would be associated with the middle
dantian. Thus, the inner caldron can be either the lower or middle dantian.
498
dantian in stage 3 to upper dantian in stage 4, just as in the standard account.201
According to the standard account, after xiao zhoutian in stages 12 comes da
zhoutian in stage 3. I have already discussed Chens xiao zhoutian circulation on page
495 above: it exists within his dao, but plays a reduced role. How about his da
zhoutian? What, after all, is the da zhoutian? Lets look at what Zhang Zhenguo and
Ma Jiren have to say. Zhang Zhenguo describes da zhoutian according to the standard
account of solo inner alchemy:
In greaterorbit training, one takes the middle dantian as the caldron and the
lower dantian as the furnace. The distance traveled in the qicircuit is much
smaller than in the case of lesserorbit training. Since the phenomena associated
with the circulation of the greater pharmacon are not as obvious as in the case of
lesserorbit training, we habitually use the term dense mist yinyun
to
express the circulating and rening of the greater pharmacon between the two
dantian. Whereas in lesserorbit training, one relies upon purposive inner
respiration to set the circulation in motion and attain reverse transport niyun
, in greaterorbit training one relies upon the inherent energy of the
pharmacon for circulation. In greaterorbit training one does not transport by
means of the River Chariot: instead, the pharmacon moves above and below,
before and behind, to the left and right.202
Ma Jiren adds that the adept then opens up his or her eight tracts tong bamai
, and transports elixirqi along them. The usual practice is to transport qi along the
eight extraordinary cardinal tracts qijing , but some adepts use the
superintendent and conception tracts, and some even use the twelve regular cardinal
tracts zhengjing : the case diers for each person.203
Thus the standard account. Yet the understanding of the greater orbit within
the eld of inner alchemy varies widely. Wile says that da zhoutian can refer to 1
transmuting qi to spirit, 2 projecting qi into the meridians of the four limbs, 3 a
shift to the middle dantian, or 4 merging the qi with the cosmos.204 To these we may
add 5 causing the metallous crystal to soar up
behind the elbows zhouhou jinjing
201
Chen mentions shifting the elixirasspirit to the upper dantian for stage4 training at DZ 1067, Shangyangzi
Jindan dayao 8.2a910 and 14.1b12.
202
Zhang Zhenguo, Fanpu guizhen, 234.
203
Ma Jiren, Daojiao yu liandan, 206. An example of da zhoutian circulation using the superintendent and
conception tracts is in the WuLiu text Wu Zhenren dandao jiupian, cited in Li Yuanguo, Daojiao qigong yangsheng
xue, 544. WuLiu alchemy contributed heavily to the standard account, so it is a little surprising to nd the rendu
ermai used for da zhoutian here, contrasting with the standard account.
204
499
%0-D, a form of solo huanjing bunao

in classic ZhongL teachings;205 and
6,
transporting qi between the three dantian
in quasiZhongL teachings attributed to
Wang Chongyang.206
Lets compare these possibilities for da zhoutian with several passages from
Chens commentaries. We will see that, just as Chens references to furnace and
caldron are partially ambiguous and depart signicantly from the standard account,
so too does his use of standard elements of da zhoutian circulation only intersect
partially with the standard picture. The term hazy yinyun 8Q is one da zhoutian
marker to look for. Chen usually uses the term to refer to Heaven and Earth in their
xiantian state, but also uses it for a xiantian entity within the bodymicrocosm:
Similar in category to a chicken egg: the recycled elixir now has a physical form.
Black and white tally with one another: yin and yang have been matched. One cun
inch across: when the elixir is rst forming, its coming is like an especially tiny
grain of millet, and one gradually feels it is one cuninch wide. It is not only that
the spirit chamber is full and replete, but also that it pervades the four limbs in a
haze
yun , moistening the ve viscera, and the sinews and bones at once all
have a pleasurable and unimpeded feeling . When the labor of ten months is
full, and the elixir has already taken form, it is freed from the placenta, and is
nicknamed yang spirit.
^\
)[ #J3@)BH=ZU) G
,&I KS_
U
U.";/NbO
*VX
aF
(4MH
H;207
<2$PR #A(
Gentlemen who cultivate the elixir, if they desire to retain the dragon by using the
tiger, must rst impel the tiger to approach the dragon. Then the two qi will
exist in a haze
yinyun 8Q, and the dispositions of the two beasts will
copulate and unite. Expend your labor at tempering it, and it will naturally
crystallize into jingqi of the perfected One.
?+9
9Y
`+CYE078Q'>1]
6 5?
L!EWG:T7208
While the rst passage refers to stage 3 of internal ring, the second passage actually
refers to the initial fusion of the two pharmaca, during stage 2. This departs from the
standard account, in which the haze of da zhoutian occurs during stage 3 only.
205
BaldrianHussein, Procds secrets du joyau magique, 237., discussing DZ 1191, Michuan Zhengyang zhenren Lingbao
bifa; and Despeux, Taosme et corps humain, 151.
206
Li Yuanguo, Daojiao qigong yangsheng xue, 467, citing DZ 1156, Chongyang Zhenren jinguan yusuo jue.
207
Zhouyi Cantong qi fenzhang zhu, Daozang jiyao ed., 2.55a8 b1.
208
DZ 142, Ziyang Zhenren Wuzhen pian sanzhu 1.12b7 9.
500
Another standard element of da zhoutian circulation is the idea of qi circulating

throughout the entire body: not just along the superintendent and conception tracts,
but along other major or minor tracts, or along nameless qi capillaries. The rst
passage above conforms well to the standard account of the da zhoutian stage: during
internal ring, the elixir product circulates about the body, pervading the four limbs
in a haze yun j , moistening the ve viscera, and the sinews and bones. Yet
compare this with the following two passages:
Hot re spreads below, properly diligent in its sound day and night: We
may say that

when the yang elixir rst arrives, there is a sign within it. When it has rst
obtained the re from within the hexagram li, it ows all around the body day and
night. The hundred joints and myriad spirits all receive their orders, and properly
and diligently keep themselves inside, causing the sounds to grow silent and the
thoughts to be harmonious, the Qi evenly to spread and the channel pulse to
stop, and the elixir to begin to crystallize and form.
3I2L/bT4[R
6*) :Jf L/
->'XWFK?i.1TT (bHU,G
"
0Ò209
Use the four heraldic beasts, sixiang to x and subdue the Qi of cinnabar
powder and perfected metal, and recycle it into the ve viscera within. When the
elixir rst arrives, the qi is dispersed like mist, moist and lubricating like rain. The
elixirs qi rises like smoke or steam, penetrating throughout to the four limbs.
When the spirit and qi are complete, the complexion will be pleasing. The teeth
will grow, the hair will blacken, and you will revert from old age to boyhood. You
will alter your withered physical form, and forever escape the disasters of this
world. Your physical form and spirits both wondrous, you will be a perfected
person of the purple auroras.
<(+
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6 DM
Mh
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A9
De
e
\ZY
Y5FD;g!C_^S7
cN&)=V
%#
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%FB$PdE210
These two passages above sound like descriptions of da zhoutian circulation, but they
are referring primarily to stage 2 rather than stage 3. The rst of the two passages is
denitely talking about the phase of hedan during stage 2, when the yang elixir the
female pharmacon and re i.e., the male pharmacon form an initial bond. The
second passage covers both the hedan phase, and a later stage when spirit and qi are
complete, perhaps stage 4, the completion of the path. Once again, the da zhoutian
209
210
501
like state is not limited to stage 3, as it would be in the standard account. Chen
describes the completion of the path as a robustly physiological perfection, as well as
a spiritual transcendencephysical form and spirit s
both wondrous xingshen
jumiao $#
is a classic description of alchemical apotheosis. Also note the role
played by corporeal spirits in the rst passage. As the fusing pharmaca circulate
throughout the body this is probably xiao zhoutian circulation along the twin tracts
,
the corporeal spirits and other powers of the body receive the order to remain within
the body. This is a theological description of the state of mind and body during
concentration meditation. In conclusion, the standard account of da zhoutian
circulation applies to Chens teachings only imperfectly, because Chens teachings are
ambiguous on some points the caldrons and furnaces, and the circulation of qi
throughout the entire body
that the standard account tries to dene more strictly.
3.3.1.2, Reclusion and baoyi.
As we have seen in previous sections, Chen
derides the idea that inner alchemy requires retreat deep into the mountains; this is
because he requires female partners and patrons, who are more easily found in the
marketplace shichan :
of the city. Yet, at the stage of forming the elixir, the
adept ought on the contrary to go into reclusion:
If you have never rened the recycled elixir then do not enter the enclosure hut.
The germ of the elixir is mostly in the noisy groves.211 As soon as the infant and
lovely maid have met joyously, then on the contrary you may turn toward the
enclosure to nurture the great recycled elixir.
65 (; 32+49-;15212
After having obtained it, and as if by a uke ordered this treasure of life
endowment, it is furthermore best to dwell deep within an undisturbed place, to
incubate it, cherish and regulate it. Reducing and again reducing: with thoughts
tend toward turning to ash, and one forgets ones desires; vigorous labor tends
toward diligence; and, as for the scene, one tends toward forgetting it. Before you
obtain the elixir, undertake the practices of a truly divine transcendent. If you
have already obtained the elixir, harbor a mind that seems not to have obtained
a thingthen all a airs and objects will have nought to do with the heartminds
lord though you will not be without danger
, all the way until the work is
complete, the ring is sucient, and you may slacken.
%
/"
8'*).1!0,
,&
211
Could the groves lin

be monasteries conglin 7
? Or is this just a reference to an urban environment?
212
502
'FWFN"KF',E@$ATB$=E8
[L0E5+2\%"LX3# *"9213
Huineng cultivated both inherent nature and lifeendowment, using earth to x
lead, and lead to x mercury. The two pharmaca returned to the caldron of
metal. Then he entered deep into the mountains, to sit dazedly, to cultivate and
nurture.
IC/.Z? -QQ-(Y4R6 G&?
U214
The adept may even sit in dazed zazen, as did Huineng, the sixth patriarch of Chan
Buddhism. Sitting dazedly is usually a pejorical term for Chen, but it is actually
appropriate for stage 3. Chen mentions entering the hut ruhuan ^. The
meditation retreat within a huandu ]D was a distinctive Quanzhen practice during
the JinYuan period.215 While this may have had special signi cance for Quanzhen
Daoists wishing to echo their founder Wang Chongyangs years of trial in the grave
of the living dead man huosi ren mu <!S, they did not invent this practice, and
Chen does not label it a Quanzhen practice.
Many Daoists would call this concentration meditation guarding
unity shouyi , but Chens preferred term for it following Weng Baoguang is
embracing the One baoyi 1. In Wengs words, baoyi describes the adepts
practice in stage 4, when he sits in stillness to cultivate the yang spirit:
If you have not yet rened the elixir, you must immediately set to work: time waits
for no one. When you have nished re ning the elixir, embrace the One and
protect your attainment, facing the wall for nine years like Bodhidharma: this is
the vast expansiveness of the Dao.
O:M
@7;O
OH1
=
216
)
>VJP
On the spiritual register, the One is the Dao; on the mental register, it is a mental
state empty of de lements; and on the physical register, it is repletion with jing
seminal essence. In the following passage, Chen echoes another passage by Weng
Baoguang:
To ll the belly is to re ne the lead and cause the mercury to dry up. Do not
213
214
215
Goossaert, La cration du taosme moderne, 171219.
216
503
sway your seminal essence, which is mercury. If you ll your belly by guarding
your mercury, then gold and jade will ll your halls. This is just what Laozi meant
when he said embrace the One. The One is the elixir. Make your heartmind
empty by embracing the One. If the heartmind is empty, then dust sensory
delement will not adhere to it: only then will it be full. Rene the lead to
control it. The mercury will dry up and the physical form will transform; you use
embracing the One in order to empty your heartmind. With an empty heart
mind and a spirit in a wondrous state, you unite with the Dao in perfection.
51*93-/0!77'5!1*(6.
%'%&!&*4
!
593"- %&!&,82
+217
In the passage above, amassing and retaining seminal essence lianji training ows
seamlessly into internal ring of the elixir drying up the mercury in stage 3 ,
Buddhistic mental purication chen buli 4
, and nally union with the Dao at
the end of the alchemical path. All of these stages involve concentrating and
purifying the mind, or training the inherent nature xinong $ . It is sometimes
said that training of the lifeendowment minong # and inherent nature
xinong depend on one another. On page 275 above, I argue that obviously all
minong must involve xinong, and here we do see that cultivating the seminal
essence minong par exceence involves gaining control over lustful and distracting
thoughts xinong . Yet alchemists belief that the opposite is also true, that xinong
also naturally leads to the perfection of minong, is a point of faith that is not
immediately obvious to common sense.218
3.3.2, Firing periods huohou.
In this section, I argue against the importance
of ring periods in Chens meditational practice. Chens practice appears to lack a

complex pattern of ring periods, either for lesserorbital circulation during the
eightyminute period of hedan after gathering, in stage 2 , or for internal ring in
stage 3 , or for training the yang spirit stage 4 . The complexity of Chens practice is
found in the process of gathering the partners outer pharmacon, rather than in
lesserorbital circulation or internal ring as in other forms of inner alchemy.
217
DZ 1067, Shangyangzi jindan dayao 6.6b38. DZ 1067 has %, while the Jindan zhengli daquan and
Daozang jiyao eds. have %. It is not clear what % would mean here. This is all a paraphrase of
218
This point is not re ected in the passage above, though Chen does believe it. Cf. One may attain longevity
through completing ones inherent nature $) Zhouyi Cantong qi fenzhang zhu, Daozang jiyao ed.,
1.29b5 .
504
This is a controversial claim, and proving it will take us deep into the sea of
alchemical technicalities. I am not saying that the concept of ring periods per se is
underemphasized in Chens writingsChen does use the term huohou quite often. I
am also not saying that the three major huohou schemata, the Matching Stems,
Sovereign Hexagrams, and sixty hexagrams see below , are absent from Chens
writings. Chen mentions trigrams from the Matching Stems such as zhen or dui
throughout his writings; he also includes discussions of the Sovereign Hexagrams
and the sixtyhexagram schema within his Cantong qi commentary.219 What I wi
argue is that, while Chen talks about huohou and employs complex trihexagram
schemata, when he talks about huohou he is not talking about the details of
meditational practice, and when he talks about the complex schemata he is not
applying them to meditation. Ultimately, his lesserorbital circulation stage 2 and
internal ring stage 3 appear not to be complex regimens, following the waxing and
waning of yin and yang; rather, they seem to involve concentration meditation only.
What are these ring periods again? Picture the laboratory alchemists,
weighing their fuel, carefully varying the height of re according to secret ring
patterns, everfearful of scorching the budding elixir or letting it grow cold. Inner
alchemists adapted this picture to their own practices, modulating their own ring
of guided intention and breath according to similar patterns of yin and yang. Recall
the discussion of the ring periods on pages 29399 above. Inner alchemists use at
least three di
erent temporal schemata for ring elixirs: the Method of Matching
Stems Najia Fa , the Twelve Sovereign Hexagrams Shier Pigua ,
and the rarer Theory of Hexagram Qi Guaqi Shuo . The Matching Stems
are the trigrams
zhen , dui , qian , xun , gen , and kun
.
The Twelve Sovereign Hexagrams are
fu , lin , tai , dazhuang , guai , qian , gou , dun
, pi
, guan , bo , and kun
.
The Theory of Hexagram Qi uses sixty of the sixtyfour hexagrams to represent days
of the year six days per hexagram , with kan, li, zhen, and dui reserved for equinoxes
219
Zhouyi Cantong qi fenzhang zhu, Daozang jiyao ed., 1.2a5b5, 2.51b46.
505
and solstices.220 Inner alchemists use these schemata to represent the correct
patterns of waxing and waning of yin and yang throughout a cycle of ring.
Zeng Chuanhui notes that the applications of these schemata vary quite a bit
from one teacher to another. Zeng says that 1 Some solo alchemists use the
Matching Stems for the ring periods of the lesser orbit, and the Sovereign
Hexagrams for the ring periods of the greater orbit. 2 Some solo alchemists do the
opposite. 3 Some solo alchemists use the Matching Stems for gathering the
pharmaca and the Sovereign Hexagrams for the ring periods. 4 Some solo
alchemists use the Matching Stems for the ring periods and the Sovereign
Hexagrams for oral instructions regarding other issues . 5 Some sexual alchemists
use the Matching Stems for the female partners pharmacon and ring periods, and
the Sovereign Hexagrams for the adepts pharmacon and ring periods. 6 Some
sexual alchemists use the Matching Stems for the pharmacon and ring periods, and
the Sovereign Hexagrams as oral instructions when approaching the partner.221
One example of a huohou schema using Sovereign Hexagrams comes from the
twentiethcentury traditionalist Wang Mu. Wang Mu includes a chart in his book
correlating the Twelve Sovereign Hexagrams and the twelve terrestrial branches,
dizhi with twelve sites on the twin tracts of superintendency and conception.222
In this chart, the cycle of orbital circulation begins with kun in the region of the
lower dantian, proceeds to fu at the coccyx, then adds further yang yaolines at sites
along the spine until reaching qian at the occiput; next, the chart adds yin yao
lines, leading from gou at the crown of the head down the front of the body to
reach kun in the belly again. Another example of a huohou schema comes from the
lateimperial sexualalchemical text Jindan zhenchuan. As we saw on page 426 above,
the adept must make ring calculations during the stage of internal ring or
incubation, wenyang , with 216 units of re during the rst half of the day, 144
units of re during the second half of the day, adding up to 360 units per day. As far
220
Cantong qi uses the sixty hexagrams to represent days of the month, and reserves qian, kun, kan, and li instead;
221
222
Wang Mu, Wuzhen pian qianjie, 9.
506
as I know, Chen never mentions any concrete instructions like this for the stage of
internal ring; instead, he would apply this sort of calculation to the stage of
gathering the outer pharmacon.223
3.3.2.1, Chens huohou.
Chen uses the term huohou quite often, but what does
he mean by it?
When you already know that the pharmacon has been produced, you still must
fully understand the ring periods. The Perfected Person of Purple Nobility Xue
Daoguang said: The sage transmits teaches how to gather the pharmacon, but
not the ring. In the past, few people have known the ring periods. What is
re? Fire is none other than the granulated metal. What are the periods?
Waiting for the coming of the moment and the arrival of the re.
When people in the mundane world rene common granulated cinnabar
and ery silver should be mercury? into an elixir, they must also rst set it in the
caldron, then place it upon the furnace, and watch for when the re may be
aroused: this is ring according to periods.
Taking care that the ring arrives at the correct time: this is ring according
to periods.
Making certain that the ring is not excessive or insucient: this is ring
according to periods.
Understanding the res qualities such as being overaged or tenderfresh,
warm or attenuated: this is ring according to periods.
If the elixir is already complete, then swiftly extinguish the re: this is ring
according to periods.
The dao of the great ninetimesrecycled metallous uid elixir of the upper
transcendents is closely similar to this.
1,N>'5=L7E?N?8(5,%
&.3%55)6(5)$4 C 3K
#-DH;/P2)<!5
A)6*
!5
J):G!5
+)"IB@!5
4
0)!5
M.9FO!224
In this passage, huohou means 1
the ring periods of the laboratory alchemists; 2
starting at the right time; 3

not allowing the re to be too hot or cool; 4
understanding age or freshness laonen "I

; and 5
stopping at the right time.
Number 1 is irrelevant Chen consistently rejects laboratory alchemy
, numbers 2 and
5 are truisms, number 3 simply calls for constancy, and number 4 probably does not
223
224
Jindan dayao, Jindan zhengli daquan ed., 6.50b951a6 missing from DZ 1067
.
507
refer to ring within the inner caldron.225 There is no evidence from this passage that
Chen is using complex huohou.
In the third fascicle of Jindan dayao, Chen has an entire section on the ring
periods,226 in which he cites Cantong qi, Wuzhen pian, and a halfdozen other
authorities including Weng Baoguang . Yet, in this section, if we discount his
quotations from authorities whose alchemical teachings di
er markedly from his
own,227 and look at Chens own words, we nd that he is almost exclusively speaking
about gathering the partners pharmacon with judging the right moment called a
kind of timing , or the adepts control of his seminal essence essence is correlated
with re , rather than to lesserorbital circulation or internal ring. Whereas
laboratory alchemists locate the trickiness of the huohou in following the correct
heating pattern, Chen locates the trickiness of the huohou in avoiding the arousal of
any lustful thought while gathering or the brief period of lesserorbital circulation.228
In this whole section on huohou, the only two sentences on internal ring are
When the perfected lead has reverted to within the Chamber of Gold, advance
the re and set the tallies in motion evenly throughout the twelve nodes.
$'6;4!# 52-229
As for supplementing the mercury and extracting from the lead, when the lead
is exhausted and the mercury is dried up, the golden elixir is already complete,
and the infant will soon appear.

+667)!
:*,230
The rst sentence merely repeats what we already know about the transformation of
225
The term laonen appears three times in Chens extant works; of the other two instances, one refers to gathering
the partners pharmacon Zhouyi Cantong qi fenzhang zhu, Daozang jiyao ed., 2.55a3 , and one refers to timing the
brief period of lesserorbital circulation during the stage of hedan DZ 1067, Shangyangzi jindan dayao 12.3b9 . I
know of no evidence that Chens lesserorbital circulation involves delicate timing.
226
Section on the Wondrous Application of the Firing Periods Huohou miaoyong zhang %/ . In the
original layout of Jindan dayao this is in juan 3, but in the DZ 1067 edition it is in juan 6.
227
One example is Chens quotation from an anonymous Wuzhen pian zhu &'81 that speaks of fusing the qi of
kidneys and heart; DZ 1067, Shangyangzi jindan dayao 6.4b39. The kidneysheart complex is important within
mainstream inner alchemy, but quite alien to Chens teachings.
228
When the ring periods arrive at this, one absolutely must protect and nurture the lead and mercury. Now,
when any man reaches adulthood, his thoughts stir, and the perfected qi is scattered and lost over time %
3"9('.0; Jindan dayao, Jindan zhengli daquan ed., 3.19a89
missing from DZ 1067 .
229
230
508
lead and mercury into the elixir. As for the second sentence, I will argue below that it
refers only to a simple ring cycle. For Chen, the term huohou usually does not refer
to lesserorbital circulation or internal ring at all, and when it does, there is no
indication of a complex ring system.
Indeed, Chen asks, How could nurturing the re be dicult?
For nine cycles, wait until the tallies and periods have been carried out, cleansing
the heartmind and rinsing away cares, in order to form the threehundredday
fetus.
3:7
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12 *#231
Chen summarizes the internal ring as just a form of concentration meditation,

with gentle, uninterrupted intention directed inward to the Yellow Court:
Now, incubation is to let ones limbs and body fall away, to dismiss ones sharp
senses of hearing and vision, to remain like a fool to the end of the day without
violating this attitude
; one may not depart from this for even a moment. Like
when
a hen broods over her clutch, the warm qi may not be interrupted. Then,
the meritorious labor of extracting and supplementing choutian will appear on its
own.
/3<;54(-0,89.
%+6&232
Whereas stage 2 of caiqu and hedan is a stage of conscious action youwei or youzuo,
stage 3 of jiedan is a stage of eortless action, in which there is no intentional action,
yet nothing remains undone wuwei er wu buwei )")".
3.3.2.2, Chens Matching Stems.
I have argued that Chen appears not to teach
a complex ring system during stage 3. Yet there is a lengthy discussion of the
Matching Stems in Jindan dayao, in which he correlates them with days of the month,
hours of the day, the points of moonrise, and the waxing and waning of yin and yang
or mercury and lead. What, then, are we to make of this passage? I argue that,
despite the complexity of the system Chen is laying out here, he is not applying it
directly to meditational practice, either lesserorbital circulation or internal ring.
Rather, he is developing alchemical theory for its own sake, or in order to echo his
sources such as Weng Baoguang. This passage is worth analyzing at length.
Day 1
Each month, at the zi hour 23:001:00 in the early
morning of the rst
231
232
DZ 1067, Shangyangzi jindan dayao 6.8a10b2.
509
day of the new moon, sun and moon unite their discs at the position of
gui, and
a thin mist gathers above in the lunar mansions of
Mao Hairy Head and Bi
Net. This symbolizes the initial generating of the re. At this time, pure yin
has already reached its apex, and a slight bit of yang is about to be generated; this
is called the dragon cruising underwater.
&76[*4ZTKaA!D. N!
6:CLJI>3XUY233
This is shuo 7, the newmoon day. Chen correlates day 1 with a specic hour,
positions of sun and moon in the sky, and the initial generating of the re. Because
re is correlated with seminal essence, Chen is speaking of rening the self, when
the male adept amasses seminal essence through calming meditation. Day 1
correlates to the lianji stage. The dragon cruising underwater qianlong UY is the
one yang yaoline cruising at the bottom of the trigram zhen W zhen will appear on
day 3, but it also suggests the hidden power of the male sex organ the dragon
during lianji training.
Day 3
At the buhour 3:005:00 pm
of the third day, the moon rises above the
position of
geng, and perfected yang has already commenced its waxing
. Geng
belongs to the direction of
southwest. The Book of Changes says, One gains a
friend in the southwest, and thereupon moves forward together with one
of the
same category. Cantong qi says, Kun rst transforms into zhen, and on the third
day the moon rises at geng.
We may say that, at this time, the pharmacon has only just been produced,
and the watersource is extremely pure, never yet having been disturbed: this is
the moment when it has qi but no substance. The great cultivator will swiftly turn
toward the water
at this time, and, with his single wisdom eye, regulate and
scrutinize
its signs. . . .
b)9IO)^%0+%0?, P]
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"H234
Chen correlates day 3 with a trigram zhen , hour, position of moon in the sky, and
the male adepts gathering of the metal pharmacon from the partners water. Day 3
correlates to the fortyminute period of gathering caiqu.
Day 8
On the eighth day, at the hour of you 17:0019:00
, the moon has arrived
at the heart of heaven, and its levelness is like a cord. This is called the day of the
rst lunar quarter, when one obtains a halfcatty of metal. The Longhu jing says,
Kun changes twice to become dui, and on the eighth day the moon rises at ding.
233
234
510
We may take this to resemble the process of lead and mercury gradually fusing
into the owing pearl. At this time, the qi of metal and water halt, and one does
not advance the yang re or set the tallies in motion, but only bathes, cleansing
the mind.
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(g-b[2SJ,235
This is the rst lunar quarter shangxian <. Chen correlates day 8 with a trigram
dui , hour, position of moon in the sky, the waxing of metal, the fusion of metal
and lead, and the alchemical phase of bathing the elixir at mao # I discuss bathing
below. Day 8 correlates to the initial fusion of the pharmaca hedan.
Day 15 Three ves is the full moon. At the full moon, sun and moon shoot rays
at each other. Within yin the three yang yaolines are already replete, and have
formed qian, which is like when the whitesoul of the moon gains the cloudsoul of
the sun and becomes full. This is an analogy for lead and water being robust
within the caldron, perfected yang plenteous and full, the re bright and the
metal robust and thriving, just about to form a vessel. This is when the qi of metal
and re are securely fused, and mercury and its mother feel loving attachment for
one another.
K^^@LOEcld,+Xhz]y,te
rq0aVlt?C>\_+{HCRw19i1w
7%6LU 236
This is the fullmoon day wang ^. Chen correlates day 15 with a trigram qian ,
the positions of sun and moon in the sky, and the waxing of metal and lead in the
caldron. Day 15 correlates to an early point in the stage of forming the elixir jiedan.
Day 16 Arriving at dawn of the full moon day, the moon rises in the region of
xin, and qian rst transforms into xun. This is the dao of the mutual transference
of yin and yang. In the beginning, pure yin was able to intersect with a slight
amount of yang and produce the pharmacon; now, afterward, yin holds yang qi
within, and forms the elixir. Xun wind or respiration thereupon takes charge of
the yin tallies. Yin qi gradually rises, and encloses and reinforces the yang essence,
which thus does not stir or roam. Then the grains of metal fall into the placenta,
which is yin harboring yang within. This is called returning home to the root.
G^$?34XBf clL=p;ÈWc]'ml,
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jECMoNc/lH|~Q 237
Chen correlates day 16 with a trigram xun , position of moon in the sky, and a
235
236
237
511
moment when grains of metal fall into the placenta. I think he is referring to a
point during the jiedan stage when the holy fetus shengtai eJ is beginning to form.
Day 23
On the dawn of the twentythird day, the moon rises in the region of
bing, kun copulates with the middle yaoline of qian to make gen, and the
pharmacon within the caldron naturally crystallizes. At this moment, the yin and
yang qi again come to a halt, the yin tallies not advancing their ring periods
either. One only bathes the nascent elixir

, rinsing away cares. This is called the
day of the last lunar quarter of yin
, when one obtains a halfcatty of water. Take
the halfcatty of metal from the rst lunar quarter of yang
and the halfcatty of
water from the last lunar quarter of yin
, then unite the two hemispheres to
make a total of one catty, in order to form the grains of elixir. Cantong qi says,
The two hemispheres fuse their essence, and the bodies of qian and kun are
thereupon formed.
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This is the last lunar quarter xiaxian ?. Chen correlates day 23 with a trigram gen
, position of moon in the sky, and a moment when the two hemispheres unite to
form a one catty jin , or more grains of elixir. This also correlates with the
bathing of the elixir at you 9.
Day 28
On the dawn of the twentyeighth day, the moon rises in the region of yi.
At this moment, yin and yang qi are both replete, metal and mercury fuse to form
the fetus, kan and li transport qi into the caldron, and are sent owing everywhere
within the six vacuities, between the images. This symbolizes the beginning and
end of the golden elixir. When the day of darkness the last day of the waning
moon
arrives, sun and moon again meet in the region
of ren, yin reaches its
apex, and yang is again on the point of being born.
&AV-LYbMK8C4^.,J3nfM@g
<G_@`-ZC>X0@U[cDYd
.b S'6239
This is nearing the darkmoon day hui U, the thirtieth of the month. The dark
moon day would correlate with kun , but Chen does not list a trigram for day 28.
Chen correlates day 28 with a position of the moon in the sky, and the completion of
the holy fetus at the end of ten months of gestation. The clause yang is again on the
point of being born refers to the birth of the yang spirit from the holy fetus. The
238
239
512
owing of kan and li everywhere within the six vacuities refers to what, in the
standard account of solo alchemy, is called the greater orbit da zhoutian .
The birth of the yang spirit would correlate with the generation of new yang at the
newmoon day shuo of the next cycle.
What is going on in the passage above? The rst thing we note is that this
cycle covers several stages of Chens alchemical path. Day 1 refers to lianji stage 1 ,
day 3 refers to caiqu in stage 2 , day 8 refers to hedan in stage 2 , and days 15, 16, 23,
and 28 refer to internal ring stage 3 . So if we want to call this a schema of ring
periods, we could only do this in an abstract way. The concept of ring itself, for
example, does not have a stable identity here, shifting from cultivating seminal
essence days 1 and 15 , to gauging the partners water day 3 , to intentional action
in general days 8 and 23 . This is not a consistent microregime of ring like in the
example from Wang Mu; rather, it is a ring schema applied to the alchemical path
overall or rather, stages 13, but not stage 4 . In Wang Mus example, the cycle of
ring i.e., lesserorbital circulation is to be repeated many times, but because Chens
ring schema above describes the nearly entire path, it is not a repeatable cycle at all.
In another passage, Chen admits as much himself:
Although we use a lunar month to symbolize the undertaking, the work requires
ten months: only then can you plan for the yang spirit to take form.

240
The long passage translated above is not evidence of a complex ring system to
actually be used during meditation.
Another noteworthy feature of the passage above is Chens instructions to
gather elixir products at several points during internal ring. When yin begins its rise
on day 16 trigram xun , the grains of metal fall into the placenta. This is yin
harboring yang within: the metal elixir as yang, and the placenta itself is yin. On day
23, the adept should Take the halfcatty of metal from the rst lunar quarter and the
halfcatty of water from the last lunar quarter, then unite the two hemispheres to
make a total of one catty, in order to form the grains of elixir. To understand what
this could mean, lets review some alchemical concepts.
240
513
3.3.2.3, The standard ring cycle.
In inner alchemy, one full alchemical cycle is
bisected into a yang hemisphere, when the adept advances the yang re jin yanghuo
EF , and a yin hemisphere, when the adept withdraws the yin tallies tui yinfu 6
?< . Each hemisphere is further bisected by a moment of nonring, when the
adept bathes muyu
4 the elixir; in microcosmic terms, this may involve breath
retention or formless meditation:

Now, what is meant by bathing? The great cultivator completely and
unfetteredly sheds the ordinary mind of melancholy, worries, and pains, and
thoughts of clinging and greed. He is wholly without even a shred of care. He
must only have a physical form like a withered tree, and a heartmind like dead
ashes: this is called bathing.
O 41L93N@*MP-8D>H%T
C=AB:;S(/J.+O 4
241
Do not allow tugging and suspended worries or old cares to rile the heartminds
lord. This is called rinsing away ones cares and cleansing the heartmind; this is
called bathing the elixir. If by chance in some case loving attachments remain,
then we may worry that the mercury and lead will y away.
#;SQMG+OKM,+O
!242
47&5R)2I0
The moment of bathing during the yang hemisphere is called mao , and its yin
counterpart is you ". Alchemists may also speak of two types of ring: hotter
martial re wuhuo ' and cooler civil re wenhuo . Usually, advancing
the yang re means using martial re, and withdrawing the yin tallies means using
civil re.243 There is a common idea that, during internal ring, 1 at the moment of
mao, correlated with the rst lunar quarter shangxian $, a.k.a. the upper chord of
bisection or pinnacle of waxing , the adept gathers eight liangounces of metal, and
then 2 at you, the third lunar quarter xiaxian $ , the adept gathers eight liang
ounces of water, and nally 3 the adept unites the two eightounce measures erba
to make a full catty jin of elixir. With this background in mind, we may
understand why Chen mentions gathering elixir products on day 8 the rst lunar
quarter and day 23 the last lunar quarter . As for Chens instruction to gather on day
241
242
243
514
16, just after the pinnacle of yang at the full moon on day 15, this is something else,
which I do not understand.244
What do these instructions mean on the microcosmic register, though? What
timing calculations should the adept be making, how should he be applying his
guiding intention yi , and what should he be feeling in his body? In the long
passage translated above, Chen applies the various concepts of 1 gathering the two
eightounce measures to make a catty, 2 jin yanghuo, 3 tui yinfu, and 4 bathing, in
an abstract way to the entire alchemical path, rather than concretely to solo
meditation either lesserorbital circulation, or internal ring as other alchemists
would do. If we examine other occurrences of the concepts in his writings, we do not
nd Chen applying these concepts to solo meditation there either, as I will show.
The twoeights.
As far as I know, there are no other passages in Chens extant
writings that will help us interpret the teaching on gathering the two eightounce
measures to make a catty during internal ring; instead, there are numerous passages
in which the twoeights refer to the sixteenyearold partner. In the Wuzhen pian
commentary, there is a relevant passage by Weng Baoguang wrongly ascribed to Xue
Daoguang, which discusses gathering the two eightounce measures to make a
catty;245 tellingly, this passage applies the concept mainly to the process of gathering
the outer pharmacon, and only vaguely to internal circulation. We must conclude
that, for Chen and perhaps also for Weng, this concept is not applied concretely to
either lesserorbital circulation in stage 2 or inner ring stage 3. There is no
evidence of a complex ring regimen here.
Mao and you.
In Jindan dayao, Chen includes a section entitled Things
Necessary to Know about Punishment and Virtuous Power at Mao and You.246 This
section is mostly about the mao and you points within the macrocosmic temporal
cycles: the vernal and autumnal equinoxes of the year, eighth and twentythird days
244
This idea of gathering at the fullmoon day also appears in Xiao zhoutian ge
; Hao Qin, Longhu
dandao, 169. This text is ascribed to the Quanzhen patriarch Qiu Chuji, but is likely a lateimperial work.
245
246
Maoyou xingde xuzhi ; DZ 1067, Shangyangzi jindan dayao 7.8a89b5. Punishment and virtuous
power xingde refer to autumn and spring. Autumn is the season of waxing yin punishment, and spring is
the season of waxing yang virtuous power, or blessing.
515
of the month, sunrise and sunset within a day. Most important, however, are the mao
and you points within the doublehour period of gathering the outer pharmacon.
There is no indication that these concepts are applied to cycles of solo meditation.
Martial and civil re.
In a passage in Jindan dayao on using martial re for jin
yanghuo and civil re for tui yinfu, Chen applies these concepts to the entire
alchemical path, just like in the long translated passage above. Martial re is used for
the rst threetenths of the alchemical path stages 1 and 2, while civil re is used for
the remaining seventenths of the path stage 3; apparently stage 4 is not included
here.
We may say that, when there is a battle in the wilderness, then the dragon and
tiger mingle and unite: this is what is called using threetenths martial re, or a
short movement in the front. . . . Now, as for protecting the fortress, because the
perimeter has already been erected, you must
only incubate and bathe the
elixir
, guarding against faint aws
and eliminating growing problems
: this is
what is called using seventenths civil re, or the back must be long.
QCV5X2 9
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In another passage, the adept should use martial re at the beginning lianji, stage 1
and end incubation, stage 3, with civil ring in between during stage 2.
Commencing with the civil makes it cultivable: When commencing to rene the
elixir, cultivate it with civil re. At the head and tail points
, however, use martial
re. At the head point
, use martial re to rene the self; at the end use martial
re to incubate the elixir

. Therefore this is as the Song of the Caldron says,
Martial at head and tail, civil inbetween.
.,<1Y.
.
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<-;%5:/
/;/
/Y
/LT8MUN;%/I9248
B/
Again, these concepts are not applied concretely to meditation, but are applied to
the entire alchemical path. There is no evidence of a complex ring regimen here
either.
3.3.2.4, Firing as a secret teaching.
Xue Daoguang, the socalled third
patriarch of the Southern Lineage says, The sage transmits teaches how to gather
the pharmacon, but does not transmit the ring. In the past, few people have known
247
DZ 1067, Shangyangzi jindan dayao 7.2a10b1, b26.
248
516
the ring periods .249 What does this mean? It
could mean that each adept must work out the ring periods for himself; or that the
master makes a wordless mind transmission xinchuan as in Chan Buddhism;250
but its main meaning ought to be that the ring periods are not to be written down.
Indeed, within the Southern Lineage of the golden elixir, the details of the ring
periods are rarely committed to writing. This need not be the case for all forms of
alchemy, however. Some texts in the Zhong L tradition, for example, spell out a
complex system of ring periods in full detail.251
Why does the master not commit his teachings on the ring periods to
writing? One practical reason is that the student needs a teacher to monitor his or
her progess, and advise him or her how to apply the teachings on ring according to
his or her capacities, experiences, and level of attainment. Another reason is that the
master is applying esotericism as a strategy: by advertising yet withholding his
teachings, the master reinforces his authority as a master, or manages his
mastership.
A third reason that I am proposing for why Chen Zhixu would not transmit
his ring periods openly is that Chen might feel a sense of disjunction between his
alchemical practice and theory. Chens dao actually involves less complex ring than
other alchemical daos do, yet Chen must somehow retain the complexity of
alchemical discourse within his teaching, because this discourse comes from
authoritative texts, and because it has intellectual cachet. He retains the discourse by
applying the lunar ring cycle to stages 1
3 of the alchemical path as a whole, rather
than to an actual regimen of practice. He cannot reveal his ring periods openly
because this would reveal the divergence of his practice from the alchemical
mainstream.
249
DZ 1088, Huandan fuming pian 4b3. Yu Yan 1253

1314 thought this text was not Xue Daoguangs but
actually written by Bai Yuchan; Skar, Golden Elixir Alchemy, 188.
250
Chen does speak of something like mind transmission, but regarding the pharmacon rather than the ring
periods: Now we realize that the dao is not revealed baldly in words. Only now do we realize that to know the
aair depends on mind transmission
DZ 1070, Shangyangzi Jindan dayao xianpai
8a10
b1. This is a prayer to L Dongbin for a marvelous transmission of the teachings to the adept.
251
On pages 270
1 above, I briey discuss DZ 244, Dadan zhizhi, as an example of this.
517
3.4, Stage Four: Transformation into a Yang Spirit shenhua >

3.4.1, General description.
At the end of ten months or three hundred days, the
holy fetus shengtai E7 is transported from the Yellow Court associated with the
middle dantian to dwell in the upper dantian, where it will slowly transform into the
yang spirit or infant. After a thousand days or three years the yang spirit is
complete:
In ten months the work is sucientthe holy fetus is already accomplishedso
shift it to dwell in the upper dantian. Protect and nurture it, cause it to grow and
mature, and over the course of
one or two years it will transform into the yang
spirit.
(4E7B2A- 1J0+F2
5C>252
Although the process normally takes three years, it could be completed in two years
as above, or even just ten months:
Completing the work takes
three years; if your labor is superb then it takes
one ji 6 three hundred days.

G2!?26253
These two years of cultivating the yang spirit are spent in advanced concentration
meditation. The description of this meditative work by Chens teacher Zhao Youqin
mingles language from inner alchemy, Chan Buddhism, and the Daode jing:
Therefore my master, Zhao the Perfected, said, The entire matter of sitting in
dhyna or, zazen and entering samdhi has to do with attaining the mani pearl.
After the holy fetus has formed, we call this stage
embracing the One and
maintaining harmony, knowing the white but maintaining the black, or facing
the wall and sitting upright, cultivating dhyna and entering samdhi, or rening
the physical form and transforming it into qi, rening qi and causing it to revert
to spirit,254 or physical form and spirit exit the womb, personally practicing
matters already undertaken by the Buddha.
4':I= %N
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Chen also describes the cultivation of the yang spirit as rening the spirit and
252
253
254
Cf. Daode jing, chapters 10 embrace the One, and 28 know the white but maintain the black.
255
518
causing it to return to the void lianshen huanxu >.=4 :

Whoever knows this dao will make his spirit happy and guard his physical form,
nurture his physical form and rene his essence, store up essence and transform it
into qi, rene qi and unite it with spirit, and rene spirit and cause it to return to
the void. The golden elixir will then be complete: it is only a matter of the One
Thing from before Heaven and Earth.256
'7(%.":">9<9->-.>.=4)
& 257
The progression in this passage from essence to qi, then to spirit, and to the void,
corresponds perfectly to the three main stages in the standard account of solo
alchemy. The idea of returning to the primal, precosmic state of void through
emptying the mind in concentration meditation re ects a deeplyengrained Daoist
assumption that the adept may regain the sacred primal state through perfecting his
own body and mind, because the processes of the microcosm correspond to the
processes of the macrocosm.258
3.4.2, Meritorious labor, moral and psychophysiological.
Chen often speaks of
building up meritorious labor jigong < , sometimes to the count of a full three
thousand man sanqian 8 , as an integral aspect of the alchemical path. Usually
this comes at the end of the path, as in the nal verse from the poemcycle Twenty
ve Verses on the Golden Elixir Jindan shi ershiwu shou ) 6, :
Superior gentlemen and heroes learn the teachings of superior transcendents.
They build up their training and amass good deeds, to the full count of three
thousand.
Parturition from the fetal state, and transformation into a spirit, are common
a
airs for such persons.
In broad daylight they spring up bodily, and ascend to the Nine Heavens.
+5;
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259
What does jigong leixing mean? I argue that, for Chen Zhixu, this term is an amalgam
of two concepts from Daoist tradition: storing up bodily energies, and amassing
spiritual merit. While Chens use of the term jigong leixing seems to be confused,
256
Cf. Daode jing, chapter 42: There is a thing, chaosformed, born before Heaven and Earth &0
.
257
258
Cf. p. 268 above.
259
519
actually there is a deeper relation between these two concepts.

Sometimes Chen uses the phrase jigong leixing simply to refer to internal work,
ring and meditative concentration:
Sitting in forgetfulness for nine years, you have great training in nonaction.
When your practices are full to the count of three thousand, you can join the
celestial spirits in communal joy.
/!-4769260
1/
Concentrate qi until it is soft. Produce it and store it up. Build up meritorious
labor and practices, guarding the infant.
+'"
(:,;261
Many inner alchemists would hear the formulation jigong leixing :, as an
echo of the phrase jijing leiqi :5,' from a couplet in the Huangting neijing jing:
Transcendents and gentlemen of the Dao do not possess a spiritual nature : they
bring about perfectedhood through amassing essence and qi.
3*:5,' !)262
Chen cites this particular Huangting jing couplet twice.263 The Huangting jing couplet
refers to the basic practice of amassing of corporeal energies, while Chen uses the
formulation jigong leixing to refer to advanced work during the nal stages of internal
work.
Sometimes Chen uses the phrase jigong to refer, not to internal work, but to
doing good works for other people:
If the inner elixir is complete, then amass outer deeds through cultivation. Then
your merit will be fully attained. You will soar up to the Golden Porte, and wander to a
banquet at the Jade Capitoline mountain. This is truly not vacuous!
#
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What is meant by good? The answer is meritorious labor gong, practice xing
, virtuous power de . Build up merit to receive transmission and hear the
dao, spread virtuous power widely to invest your person with merit , store up
practices to achieve transcendence. Practice upya in secret: this is called
meritorious labor. Carrying it out for real, this is called practice. Spreading,
increasing, and encompassing widely: this is called virtuous power. When the
260
261
262
DZ 331, Taishang huangting neijing yu jing 9b7 chapter 28.
263
DZ 1067, Shangyangzi Jindan dayao 4.7a2, and DZ 142, Ziyang Zhenren Wuzhen pian sanzhu 4.15b12.
264
520
three are replete, then this person is permitted to hear of the ultimate dao.
;/

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In the rst passage above, jigong refers to saving other beings, something that the
adept does after completing the elixir. This idea is quite unusual within Chens extant
corpus as a whole. The passage comes from Chens commentary to the Duren jing,
and reects the Mahynist Lingbao idea that achieving salvation for oneself involves
working for the salvation of others. In the second passage, Chen makes contradictory
statements regarding the place of leixing within the alchemical path: at rst leixing
refers to advanced work, then it is said to be a precondition for receiving the
teachings at all.
Sometimes the concept of jigong is ambiguous:
When the eight hundred merits are complete, ying dragons will appear in the
sky, with a thousand or hundred or hundred million transformations. When
youve reached this stage , your meritorious labors will be full and you will be
replete with the Dao, and called a manly man.
&<5!02, 266
This passage could refer to either inner work or outer good deeds. In this context,
the concept of jigong is probably undisambiguable. While we might insist on
distinguishing internal work from outer deeds, Chen would see these two things as
simply two aspects of the single concept of jigong. Sometimes when we nd troubling
ambiguities in Daoist texts, we ought to look for how the writer is using terms
strategically within an arena of social competition. In chapter 3, I argue that Chens
use of the term 2 is strategically ambiguous. Yet I do not see any proximate
polemical value of the term jigong in these passages, so I would look for a cognitive
reason for the ambiguity of the term, rather than a sociological reason.
The idea of an internal connection between psychophysiological qi
cultivation and spiritual or moral cultivation of merit or virtue is not unique to
Chen Zhixu, and is not even unique to Daoism. Recall Menciuss description of the
cultivation of the virtues as the cultivation of a oodlike qi
haoran zhi qi '.
265

266

521
/: here, too, a single process of cultivation has both moral and psychophysiological
aspects. As an educated man of the postZhu Xi, NeoConfucian era, Chen knows
this Mencian passage well, and oers an extended interpretation of it, exploiting
Menciuss words to argue that Mencius is actually teaching sexual alchemy!267
3.4.3, Further training, meditative or sexual.
While Chen usually says that the
cultivation of the yang spirit takes three years to nish, he also speaks of a nineyear
process:
If the elixir is already complete, and the child is growing steadily larger, why not
practice the superior training of a further
nine years?
.A%=
#: 268
Sitting in forgetfulness for nine years, you have great training in nonaction.
:"$7+5269
Embracing the prime and guarding unity shouyi, in nine years the labor will be
complete.
'
:
270
From the rst passage, it appears that the yang spirit will be viable without these
nine years of cultivation, and that the nine years are optional work for advanced
attainment. On page 457 above, I note a rare mention by Chen Zhixu of cultivation
with additional sex partners, perhaps nine of them:
Completing the work takes
three years; if your labor is superb then it takes
one ji -. Now, if a great sage again creates yin and yang, impelling the passions
and uniting the inherent natures, revolving and joining, setting up additional elixir
furnaces, and further creating the great elixir of nine caldrons, this is just like the
Cog and Armil of the Dipper
established again at the starting point of zi.
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21
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I believe that this is also an optional, advanced practice. The phrase impelling the
passions and uniting the inherent natures, revolving and joining suggests sexual
practice, and is very much at odds with the phrases sitting in forgetfulness or
267
268
269
270
271
522
embracing the prime and guarding unity. I cannot explain this contradiction.
The phrase again creating yin and yang zaizao yinyang EFM may be of
crucial importance for understanding this advanced practice. This phrase appears in
two other passages within Chens writings:
The Master of Highest Yang says, When the prior fetus is nished, and has
already become a perfected person, then shift it to dwell in the upper dantian. But
then readjust qian and kun, and again create yin and yang, so the child will
further give birth to the grandchild, and a thousand or hundred or hundred
million transformations.
M 06'H
;"T272
<1B,
29U@+EFM
This term rebirth refers exclusively to cultivation. When the elixir is complete,
the yang spirit exits the womb. Again create yin and yang, doing again what the
chapter above means when it says three bodies are reborn.
!9
9AV:&
M=6EFMI5
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W9273
If we assume, based on the passage from Cantong qi fenzhang zhu, j. 2, that zaizao
yinyang refers to advanced sexual cultivation,274 then the two passages above would
refer to this too. They would be saying that, while the generation of a single yang
spirit is done through internal ring, the generation of further yang spirits requires
further sexual work. As for the phrase three bodies are reborn, who knows what
Chen means by that! Could it be longhu danfathreeperson sexual alchemyafter
all?
3.4.4, The yang spirit.
The yang spirit has a pliable spirit body, able to change
shape and transform at will:

When your ten months of labor are full, and the elixir has already taken shape, it
is released from its placenta, and known as a yang spirit. The signs of the yang
spirit are that its prenatal Qi has knitted together, its bones thus are soft enough
that they can be rolled up, and its esh is more resplendent and glossy than lead.
Its not at all like when postnatal paternal seminal essence and maternal blood
are taken to form humans or animals, with weighted bones and esh of mere
dregs, which cannot transform.
R (C)
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272
273
274
The referents of alchemical terms vary so often that we should not assume a consistent referent for zaizao
yinyang.
523
^275
The creation of the yang spirit out of the holy fetus may also be understood as the
cultivation and perfection of the adepts ordinary corporeal spirits:
the hundred spirits means
after ten revolutions the hundred numinous
spirits
return to me, and after ten months the myriad Qi all become
equally
transcendent. There is a body beyond the body, and the perfected person appears.
Unite
#(@Y)(_$,)MS/&/? C276

Chen oers several dierent descriptions of the bodys ordinary corporeal spirits:
When the elixir is complete, your body will become holy; the yang spirit will
come out, and you will be called a perfected person. The yin marademons and
devilish thieves will transform into dharmaprotector spirits dharmaplas
. The
denizens
of the body, the bluegreen dragon, white tiger, cardinalred bird, dark
warrior, three cloudsouls, seven whitesouls, Three Primes and Nine Palaces, three
sets of eight phosphor spirits, ve viscera and eight consciousnesses, will all
transform into independent
spirits, and your thirtysix thousand glints of
essence will transform into spirit soldiers.
%8/NL@CO? E\AP9[3@/7W!5
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Naturally becoming perfected means that
the child in the womb is already
complete. Within perfection there are spirits means that
the fetus has already
crystallized into spirits: LongLife controls the heart, Nonpareil controls the liver,
White Prime controls the lungs, Grand Unity controls the head, Director of
Destinies controls the spirit, Peach Vigor controls the spleen, and Union and
Extension controls the kidneys.
*H%?;X%?
?&@;U@6
6 `<.!
4V0@>BJ#1I278
In the two passages above, Chen lists the following categories of corporeal spirits:
the maratempters, who disturb the mind of the meditator;
the tutelary beasts of the four cardinal directions Sixiang K;
the cloudsouls and whitesouls, familiar in all forms of medieval Daoism;
the spirits of the Three Primes, perhaps the spirits of the three registers of the
body centered on the dantian,
the spirits of the Nine Palaces of the brain or upper dantian,
the twentyfour corporeal spirits from the Huangting jing see pages 25354 above,
the spirits of the ve viscera,
the eight consciousnesses, personications of a Buddhist concept see pages 535
275
276
277
278
DZ 91, Taishang dongxuan lingbao wuliang duren shangpin miaojing zhujie 2.41a10b2.
524
39 below,
the mysterious thirtysix thousand glints of essence,
and the ve corporeal deities of the Duren jing Chen lists them as seven
deities.279
With completion of the alchemical path, all of these entities will be transformed
into spirits, perhaps changing from corporeal spirits into celestial deities. Chen does
not say whether they will remain bound to the yang spirit of the adept, or whether
they will go their separate ways. A similar question arises regarding the multiplication
of the yang spirit itself. On page 325 above, I note that the creation of the yang spirit
in inner alchemy generally may also be described, as the creation, not of a single
being, but of multiple sons, each of which produces multiple grandsons, in
uncountable myriads of transformations 1@. Chen also describes
the yang spirit using these same words:
The Master of Highest Yang says, When the prior fetus is nished, and has
already become a perfected person, then shift it to dwell in the upper dantian. But
then readjust qian and kun, and again make yin and yang, so the child will
further give birth to the grandchild, and a thousand or hundred or hundred
million transformations.
Old Man Ziyang said, One child every year, and each of them able to ride the
crane up to the heavens .
Chen Niwan the Perfected said, In one year the fetus is born as a child. The
child gives birth to the grandchild, who branches out further.
Only this is the great and manly state . If you establish your merit in a timely
manner, then your person will return home to the Three Pures.
<*.:3+7$,0A5#89<
1@;<4>?"??=DE(3
>.?"11'&-
/B2
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Who are these perfected corporeal spirits, or these sons and grandsons, relative to
the adept? Are they self, or other? Henri Maspero suggests that there is an internal
connection between the Daoist concepts of singular identity, physical immortality,
and multiple spirits:
For the Chinese, who believed in multiple souls, . . . the body was the sole
principle of unity. Only within the body was it possible to attain an immortality
which would continue the personality of the living person and which would not
279
There should be only ve of these Lingbao deities, but Chen adds two more, LongLife Changsheng ),
and Union and Extension Heyan %, based on his misreading of the Duren jing. These ve corporeal deities
are discussed in Bokenkamp, Early Daoist Scriptures, 38485.
280
525
be divided into several independent personalities each functioning by itself. . . . It

is this necessity of conserving the body . . . which gives birth to all the
physiological practices I have mentioned above.281
I have my doubts about Masperos conclusion, which smacks of armchair
anthropology, or the if I were a horse approach to understanding another
culture.282 I feel that, unless the Daoists themselves say that only through apotheosis
of the body can the adept keep the spirits together, we should not assume a real
underlying connection between the two ideas in their thought. Unfortunately, I am
not aware of any discussion within a Daoist text of the relation between multiple
spirits and the self that would answer the question of how, or in what aspects, these
spirits are me. In the passage from DZ 142, juan 2, translated above, Chen does not
say that the perfected corporeal spirits remain with the adept, but that would
certainly be the usual idea. For example, early medieval Daoist texts speak of the
adept ascending to the heavens borne by his or her own corporeal spirits jing ,
phosphors. Masperos theory would apply to the DZ 142, j. 2 passage. But even
Masperos dubious attempt at an explanation would not be able to answer the
question of whether the adepts alchemical sons and grandsons are somehow
him.283
3.4.5, Leaving the body.
During the two years spent cultivating the yang
spirit, the adept trains the spirit to exit from and enter the brain, allowing it to
depart progressively further and further from the body. This must be done carefully
and without haste, for there are real dangers at this stage:
Arriving at the tenmonth mark
when the fetus is done, it is released from its
husk and switches to a new caldron: you cannot protect and secure it. If the yang
spirit comes out impulsively, then as soon as it is out it will lose the path,
subsequently losing its dwelling and having nowhere to return home to.

!284
281

282
Anthropologists such as Max Gluckman and A. R. RadclieBrown used this phrase to mock earlier
anthropologists, comparing the earlier scholars seeking to understand the mind of primitive man to a
businessman or a farmer seeking for a stray horse by asking himself if I were a horse, where would I go? The
locus classicus is in Mark Twains Huckleberry Finn; Mair, Past and Present in the Present, 354.
283
Also see pp. 32526 above.
284
526
Furthermore, after the elixir is complete, you still must recognize the true and
distinguish it from the false. If your labor and practices are not complete, then
before your eyes you will suddenly see many varieties of numinous oddities,
strange and special things appearing by the hundreds, even the phenomenon of
them being generated one after the other. If you have divine power of sight, you
can always understand them clearly. In cases like this, its that demonic obstacles
have already appeared. They are by no means real, and you should not believe that
they are already sacred apparitions of the numinous elixir. These are the
perverse and false illusions of tricky demons, who, seeing that your dao is
complete, wish to tempt you to enter a perverse lineage, and throw your
perfection into confusion. At this time, you must still persist in wisdom,
protecting and nurturing your complete perfection.
'&BHsMqTG,j[@80wZ#l6L)
+
3$'P0ER:;G(`!CDun+2>Mi
mDwfS1T.0-g&W
17d-M9
^KcU5_o?p"M285
If the immature yang spirit is allowed to roam too far too soon, the adept will lose it.
There is no sense here that the adept would thereby become soulless, only that he
would have wasted all of his labors. Thus, the yang spirit here is the adepts vehicle,
rather than his self. The second passage describes illusions wrought by mara
demons.286
And then one day, suddenly, the yang spirit is ready, and departs from the
body for good:
There is the sound of a thunderbolt in the crown, and you depart. . . . Patriarch
L Chunyang said, Having truly gone through nine years of ring periods,
suddenly the Celestial Gate in the crown breaks open. The perfected person
appears from inside with great spirit powers, and from this point you can be
congratulated as a celestial perfected. Arriving at this, the great a air of the
golden elixir is nished.
]=tvr*QbOJ%IMeh8k=]N
M X P\V(Fa4(A< 3Y/287
This seems to be the moment when the yang spirit shifts from being an object to
being a subject, from being a vehicle for the adept to becoming his very self. What,
then, happens to the physical body?
Question: After the fetus is nished, what is the work like? Answer: In ten
months the work is sucient
the holy fetus is already accomplished
so shift it
285
286
See p. 312 above.
287
527
to dwell in the upper dantian. Protect and nurture it, cause it to grow and mature,
and in one or two years it will transform into the yang spirit. When the yang
spirit exits and enters, coming and going, without obstruction, this is called
parturition and departure. Question: If this is so, then would this physical
body su er death and decomposition? Answer: Hard to say.
3"/) &0;38 .6+
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3 0.'$?2A% 288
Chen does not answer the question of what happens to the body. Throughout the
history of Daoism, we nd two main conceptions of what happens to the body after
apotheosis. Sometimes it is said that the body does not die, and sometimes it is
admitted that the body does die. According to the rst possibility, the adept might
betake himself to the mountains, leaving behind a simulated corpse through shijie
<.289 Or, the adept might rise bodily to the heavens, as suggested in the common
inneralchemical phrase physical form and spirit both marvelous xingshen jumiao #
54!
. This is probably the primary goal of yangspirit cultivation in Chens
teachings. As for the second possibility, in the second passage above, Chen also
tacitly accepts it. The idea of life in the heavens after the death of the body was
common in early Quanzhen Daoism, for example. Often, both possibilities coexist in
the thoughtworld of a Daoist. Think of Tao Hongjings mourning for the premature
death of his friend and disciple Zhou Ziyanghe mourns, even though, according to
their shared doctrinal understanding, Tao should have been celebrating Zhangs
successful apotheosis.290 Tao should have viewed Zhangs death as illusory shijie, but
actually he understood it as a tragic demise. Or think of the poisoning deaths of
alchemists in the Tang dynasty that were rationalized as successful apotheoses.
For adepts unable to complete the elixir in this lifetime, Chen holds out hope
that they might progress toward completion of the elixir in a later lifetime: this is
how the Yellow Emperor did it.291 Chen also mentions the practice of guided rebirth,
the adepts casting his spirit into a fetus within a womans womb, just as Hongren,
the fth patriarch of the Chan lineage, cast his soul into the womb of his mother, ne
288
289
Cf. Campany, Living o the Books.
290
Bokenkamp, Declarations of the Perfected.
291
Zhouyi Cantong qi fenzhang zhu, Daozang jiyao ed., 2.51b952a1 and 3.72b46.
528
Zhou ! . This is a heterodox practice, but Chen accepts it as a way to avoid total
dissolution, and discusses it in some detail.292 He considers it to be a
characteristically Buddhist practice.
3.4.6, Celestial rank.
Having exited the body for good as the mature yang
spirit, the adept is welcomed by celestial spirits, and receives an ocial rank within
their number:
Hundreds of millions or myriads postcosmic spirits and precosmic spirits attend
and chase in their chariots and on their mounts. Having become a perfected
person, one takes the reins of the cloudchariot, and travels to visit the Three
Pure Ones, and receive transcendent rank in full. This is called ascending to the
heavens in broad daylight. This is called the completion of the great and manly
a
air.
<$E#$EcA\lhR'DeXiS_
M.2F>g! >0O 293
This is how all the holy alchemists of the past received their deied status. Chen
mentions the apotheoses of several of his favorite Jiangxi alchemical exemplars here,
Zhang Daoling, Ge Xuan, and Xu Xun:
We may say that the ancient transcendents and holy masters must have rened
this great recycled elixir of metallous humor, and then soared up into the sky in
broad daylight. For example, the Yellow Emperors apotheosis at Caldron Lake,
or Zhang, Ge, and Xus ying ascent. This is the only thing that people of this
generation know: how could they speak fully of it? But as for what they do not
know, also, how much less could they speak of it? Therefore there has been a
transmitted saying that, if we were to roughly record those who have soared
up in ight, there would be more than thirty thousand, and as for those who have
brought their entire households with them to the heavens, there would be eight
hundred such cases. These are all people who attained transcendence through
the dao of the golden elixir, and furthermore were able to build up meritorious
deeds. How could this not be paying court to the Northern Porte on a soaring
phoenix!
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292
DZ 142, Ziyang Zhenren Wuzhen pian sanzhu 5.20b921a2; DZ 91, Taishang dongxuan lingbao wuliang duren shangpin
miaojing zhujie 3.11a6b2. This topic has been exhaustively researched in Eskildsen, Emergency Death
Meditations for Internal Alchemists.
293
294
529
The usual sort of transcendent post a successful adept may hope for would be on the
transcendent isles, but an especially worthy adept may move directly to the highest
heavens of the Three Pure Ones Sanqing A:295
When nine years are complete, you may lightly ascend, . . . and
feast at the Jade
Pool in perpetual joy. . . . Your name will be held in the registers of
the Three
Heavens. Taiyi will summon you, and you will be made a holder of an ocial
position among the
transcendents, and can move to dwell in the central
transcendent
isles. If you have eminent merit, you can soar up bodily to the
three realms, received enfeoment and progress through the ranks, bearing
registers and receiving charts.
$S
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Doubtless, those adepts who are welcomed directly up to the highest heavens rather
than undergoing preliminary eons of training at lowerranking transcendent posts
are those who have built up more meritorious labor jigong during their last lifetime.
As I argue on pages 51921 above, this extra jigong could involve either meritmaking
through saving other ignorant beings, or further sexual cultivation.
Chen also mentions several lessdesirable afterlife destinations:
Now, when a person is alive, the corporeal spirits
are yang cloudsouls, and when
dead they are yin whitesouls. If the cloudsouls and whitesouls are dispersed and in
disorder, then you can never keep them in hand, or order them to form
units
and protect the physical form and cloudsouls. If you cause them not to disperse and
decay, then you will be able to control the marademons and protect your ascent,
shifting your ocial post to the Southern Palace. Shifting your ocial post means
that
if you build up the many roots of virtue through meritmaking
, then you
will receive renement and transformation into a transcendent. If you have no
merits or demerits, you will be saved and shifted du 2 to have rebirth as a
human. If you cultivate the utmost jing scripture / outer pharmacon, then when
your meritorious labor is complete, your living body will last long, for kalpa after
kalpa, eternally saved from the three painful rebirths.
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If a person does not practice selfcultivation at all, his or her self will dissolve upon
295
Sanjing P refers to the heavens of the Three Pure Ones. These are Yuqing Jade Clarity, Shangqing
Upper Clarity, and Taiqing Great Clarity. The transcendent isles, oating in the eastern sea, are
commonly listed as Penglai
, Fangzhang , and Kunlun , but there are also other versions of this list.
296
297
530
death, as the cloudsouls and whitesouls scatter. If one learns how to keep these
corporeal spirits in hand during life, then at death one may hope at least to be
remanded to the Southern Palace to be rened by re.298 A person with a neutral
record will be reborn as a human being. And a person who has gathered the jing that
is the shoujing zhibao #.5, the outer pharmacon that comes with the menarche
of the female partner may hope to live forever as an embodied being, through
innite cyclical dissolutions and rebirths of the cosmos. This adept will never receive
a painful rebirth as an animal, hungry ghost, or hell being. This leaves open the
possibility that the adept may be reborn periodically as a human being or celestial
being, but Chen would be more likely to say that the adept will live on in just one
embodied form, free from rebirth as such.
After his assumption to the heavens, the adept may hope to meet all of the
masters and friends from his past lives there:
The great merit of saving others is boundless. Every sentence of the Duren jing
explains what
good interpersonal attachments are
. It is as if your
masters
and friends from the kalpa of Primordial Commencement will all meet again
today in the Grand Veil Heaven.

%0
*-3 299
"64
,1 %
And more importantly, by saving himself through sexual alchemy, the adept also saves
the souls of his ancestors, to the ninth generation:
Now, one who has completed the dao unites his spirits with the Dao, and will be
without decay for endless kalpas. What is more, his merits will also reach to his
nine generations of ancestors, and they will ascend together to the heaven of
Upper Clarity in broad daylight.

(/
'0/+2$&!)300
Saving ones ancestors is a central goal of Daoist practice; within Daoism, this goal
was rst emphasized in the Lingbao scriptures. Chen repeats this goal in his
commentary to the central Lingbao scripture Duren jing, of course; yet because the
passage above comes from Jindan dayao, we know that this must indeed be an
ultimate goal of Chens practice, and not merely prompted by the requirements of
298
Bokenkamp, Death and Ascent in Lingpao Taoism.
299
300
531
commentary to the Duren jing.

3.4.7, Union with the Dao.
The passage above says that one who has
completed the dao unites his spirits with the Dao. Union with the Dao is another
ultimate goal of Chens practice:
Transport the re for ten months, and your physical form will naturally transform
into qi, and qi will transform into spirit. Embracing the prime and guarding unity,
in nine years the labor will be complete. Your physical form and spirit both
marvelous, you will unite with the Dao in perfection. The sages give this the
makeshift name Great Ninetimes Recycled Elixir of Metallous Humor.
%"
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( 301
#
On pages 32628 above, I address the question of how inner alchemists could
describe their nal goal as both personal transcendence, and union with the Dao
which we could imagine as an impersonal dissolution in the Dao . I concur with
Komjathys insight that,
Beyond dismissing the early Quanzhen adepts as unsystematic or confused,
there are a number of ways to make sense of these seemingly contradictory views.
From my perspective and based on my research, the most viable interpretation is
that in di
erent contexts the early adepts are discussing di
erent aspects of self
transformation.302
Assumption of the physical form into the heavens, escape from the physical form as
the yang spirit, receiving a celestial rank, and union with the Daothese are some of
Chens descriptions of his nal goal, which, perhaps, transcends such distinctions.
4, Chens Adaptations of His Alchemical Dao

Chen Zhixu adapts the presentation of his teachings to suit his audience. Chen
believes that truth is univocal, and has been transmitted in secret from master to
disciple since the beginning of the world.
These two statements, taken together, explain the material I will discuss in
section 4. In section 4.1, I present and analyze a truly bizarre passage in which Chen
301
302
Komjathy, Cultivating Perfection, 283.
532
translates the stages of sexual alchemy

gathering and initial fusion from stage 2,
internal ring from stage 3, and yangspirit training from stage 4
into a unique
Buddhist idiom. I have never found anything quite like it in any Buddhist text, or any
Daoist text save Xingming guizhi , and I hope that in future research I may
be able to identify it. At the end of this section I will entertain the term Apocryphal
Buddhist as a description for Chen. In section 4.2, I show that Chen does a similar
reinterpretation of the famous passage from Mencius on the oodlike qi. And in
section 4.3, I examine evidence that, in addition to his sexualalchemical path that I
have introduced in section 3 of this chapter, Chen also taught a strictly solo form of
alchemy to some of his disciples.
4.1, Apocryphal Buddhist Sexual Alchemy
Chen believes that the Three Teachings are univocal, not only at a hazy foundational
level, but in the details of practice, as we see in the following passage. The passage
comes from The Highest Pharmaca Shangyao , a chapter in Jindan dayao
discussing the three treasures sanbao , essence, qi, and spirit. Chens
discussions of essence and qi predictably dwell on the postnatal and prenatal forms
of essence and qi in the body. His discussion of spirit begins with a passage not
translated here listing the twentyfour corporeal spirits from the Huangting jing, and
the spirits of the Nine Palaces in the brain,303 but then inexplicably veers into an
uncharted territory of hybrid teachings, in which forms of consciousness from
Yog c ra Buddhism have become spirits controlled by the mind of the sexual
alchemist. While I note the sources of some of the Buddhist terms Chen uses, I do
not know his overall source or inspiration for these teachings. They do not appear
elsewhere in his extant writings, so one suspects that he is importing them from an
outside source, though it is conceivable that he developed them in his lost
commentary to the Diamond Stra. Some of the BuddhoDaoist discourse in other
passages from Chens writings was inspired by his teacher Zhao Youqin, but none of
the following material comes from Zhaos extant works. This material sounds vaguely
303
DZ 1067, Shangyangzi Jindan dayao 4.4a8 6a1.
533
tantric, but perhaps only coincidentally so.

Chen Zhixu begins by correlating the prenatal or primal spirit yuanshen E
with the True Man of No Rank wuwei zhenren N#D, a phrase made famous by
the Chan patriarch Linji Yixuan , and with a Heart Buddha:
Now, we will speak of the prenatal spirit. This spirit is styled the True Man of No
Rank. The Buddha called it Hrdaya Buddha.304 If you are able to recognize this
spirit, it will then have a marvelous function. This spirit has exclusive mastery
over killing a person or giving birth to people. As for those persons who cultivate
transcendenthood and seek buddhahood, it is necessary for them that this spirit
have mastery over life and death; only thus can they attain their goal.
E"*,EQN#D$9%6:$<YUJ
E7& EHKHA($3= E
J305
Because the primal spirit is involved in controlling the release or gathering of sexual
uids, it can bring death to a man by wasting his seminal essence and thus his life
endowment , or it can bring life, through the birth of a baby through normal sex or
the rebirth of the adept through sexual alchemy .
This spirit originally has no head or tail,306 no back or face, no name: thus it can
be called the same names as the buddhas, and can follow along with people. If a
mans surname is Zhang the Third Son, his spirit will also be called Zhang the
Third Son. If the mans name is Vajra, his spirit will also be called Vajra. If a
mans avoidancename is DharmaEye, his spirit will also be called Dharma
Eye. If a person loves to eat re dates,307 so will his spirit. Presumably the spirit
is by nature well able to follow what a person likes to do; this is therefore the pre
natal spirit. The Yinfu jing says: People know the spirituality of spirit, but do not
know what makes nonspirit into spirit too.308 A great selfcultivator will rst
of all be clear about his spirit, and hold it in reverence and awe. If he is able to
understand it clearly, he will be equivalent to a spirit or transcendent.
E+NXN'N;N>NNGFS$QFP0
<-I ,EI ,5B,E5B,V2L
,E2L?ME?MT,.OW/
304
Helituoye 9%6: is simply a transcription of the Sanskrit word hrdaya, the eshly heart; Foguang da
cidian, s.v. hanlituo !CR, 2471.
305
306
This is an echo of Daode jing, chapter 14: Meeting it, one does not see its head, nor, following it, does one see
its end 4
),@W
),8.
307
The re date huozao M is a fruit of the transcendents xianguo 1 . Eating it, one can ascend to the
heavens. Cf., e.g., DZ 1016, Zhengao 2.19b3. Elsewhere, Chen takes it as a cover term for the outer pharmacon; DZ
1068, Shangyangzi Jindan dayao tu 10b. The term has a sexual referent in Jindan jieyao, but the precise meaning is
unclear there; Wile, Art of the Bedchamber, 177, 269n51.
308
DZ 31, Huangdi yinfu jing 1b34.
534
276;
)%22)2&2309 0
'2:>/3' "2#310
The prenatal spirit is a formless cosmic entity, a mini me, and an awesome being
governing the adepts fate.
The functions of this spirit are to drive and employ the spirits of the four minds,
the spirits of the four wisdoms
zhi 8, and the spirits of the eight
consciousnesses
shi B.
23C282B2311
These spirits of the four minds, four wisdoms, or eight consciousnesses are not
found in any other Daoist or Buddhist text
to my knowledge, but enough echoes
appear within Chan and Yogcra Buddhist texts to indicate that Chen
or his
unnamed sources did possess some Buddhist learning. The four minds may draw
on a tradition also found in Zongmi,312 and the four wisdoms313 and eight
consciousnesses314 seem to draw on Yogcra teachings. If Chen is drawing on
Yogcra, then his use of the terms departs rather far from their original meaning.
Whereas for Chen these mental entities take the form of corporeal spirits, in
Yogcra they are abstract hypostases, or stages of attainment in understanding. Has
Chen or his source invented these spirits, or is he drawing on teachings from
309
DZ 1067 has
)%2
2)2
&2, while the Jindan zhengli daquan and Daozang jiyao eds.
have:
)%22)2&2.
310
DZ 1067, Shangyangzi Jindan dayao 4.6a4 b2.
311
DZ 1067, Shangyangzi Jindan dayao 4.6b2 3.
312
Guifeng Zongmi
780 841, in his Chan Preface
T 2015, Chan yuan zhuquan jidu xu, 48:401c18 25, gives a
di erent list of four minds:
1 helituoye -!*.
hrdaya1, the eshly heart;
2 yuanl xin ?=, the
contemplative aspect of the eight forms of consciousness;
3 zhiduoye @.
cetaya, the layavijnas activity of
collecting and awakening
jiqi 94 the seeds; and
4 ganlituoye 51*.
hrdaya2, the mind of suchness, the
tathgatagrbhamind; Foguang da cidian, s.v. hanlituo 1<, 2471.
313
In Yogcra, the four wisdoms are

1 xiangwei shixiang zhi

recognition that the forms of all types
of sentient beings are not real,
2 wusuo yuanshi zhi
recognition that the consciousnesses of all
sentient beings are not real,
3 ziying wudao zhi
recognition that the sensory elds occur naturally
and are not delusions, yet are not real,
4 sui san zhizhuan zhi
three wisdoms involving responding to
sensory elds without grasping, or not even allowing elds to arise; Foguang da cidian, s.v. sizhi , 1770.
314
Foguang da cidian explains the similar term bashi xinwang B. The eight forms of consciousness
bashi
B, Skt. ashtau vijnni, as taught in Yogcra or Faxiang (, Buddhism, are the forms of consciousness
corresponding to
1 5 the ve senses, plus
6 mind,
7 tainted mind
mona shi $B, Skt. manas or kliamanas,
the illusion of self, and
8 the storehouse consciousness
alaiye shi +A.B, Skt. layavijna. Faxiang
Buddhism speaks of mindplaces
xinsuo &, Skt. caitta and mindkings
xinwang , Skt. citta
corresponding to each of the eight forms of consciousness. The eight mindkings are the ontological essences of
the eight consciousnesses
shi zhi benti BD; they seem to be abstract rather than personied entities;
Foguang da cidian, s.v. xinwang , 1398.
535
Esoteric Buddhism? The set of four wisdoms, for example, was developed in Esoteric
stras, with the four wisdoms being associated with the buddhas of the four
directions
and a fth wisdom and buddha added. However, these Esoteric buddhas
are not the ones mentioned by Chen Zhixu in the passage continuing below. More
importantly, in the Esoteric stras, while these wisdoms are associated with specic
buddas, the Esoteric stras do not personify the wisdoms themselves as spirits, while
Chen does. So, while the idea of associating specic wisdoms with specic Buddhist
deities may be related to Esoteric Buddhist materials, Chens teachings here depart
from them too.
This primal spirit is not only able to employ these spirits , it is furthermore
able to cause them to transform: the eight forms of consciousness transform into
eight vajras,315 the four wisdoms transform into four bodhisattvas, and the four
heartminds transform into four buddhas. The rst is named Hrdaya1 Buddha, the
second is named *Aladaya Buddha,316 the third is named Cetaya Buddha, and the
fourth is named Hrdaya2 Buddha. Of the four bodhisattvas, the rst is named
Bodhisattva of Great Accomplishment, the second is named Bodhisattva of
MarvelousObservation Wisdom, the third is named Bodhisattva of Universal
Sameness Wisdom, and the fourth is named Bodhisattva of GreatPerfectMirror
Wisdom.
#$$3 13!( *0
/ . %"
(*0'*04-(*0 )(*0+
2(*0317
The names of Chens four buddhas seem to be based on the names of Zongmis four
minds. The redundancy of the two Hrdaya Buddhas is also found in Zongmis list,
but the pseudoSanskrit the name of the second buddha is not. The names of the
four bodhisattvas do correspond to Yogcra terms, though in Yogcra they are types
315
I.e., eight guhyapda vajras

a.k.a. vajranpnis, vajrasattvas, in Chinese called by names such as jingang miji
!&, or miji lishi &,
inter alia. These are erce yaksha spirits who protect the buddhadharma; Foguang
da cidian, s.v. miji lishi &,
, 4483. A set of eight would protect the eight horizontal directions.
316
Aladaya appears to be a faux Sanskrit word

and hapax legomenon conjoining the / of /
1
alyavijna with the of
hrdaya. Note that the names of buddhas nos. 1, 3, and 4
correspond to the names of Zongmis four minds
cf. p. 535n312 above. Either Chen Zhixu or a teacher preceding
him is ring on the Chan Preface in an as yet unfathomable way.
The seventeenthcentury text Xingming guizhi has a similar, but less knotty, passage, at Zangwai daoshu, 9:514,
Yuan collection , upper register, a9 11. This passage is translated and discussed in Darga, Das alchemistische
Buch von innerem Wesen und Lebensenergie, 78 and 343 47. This merits deeper investigation.
317
DZ 1067, Shangyangzi Jindan dayao 4.6b3 8. DZ 1067 has '*0; the Jindan Zhengli daquan and
Daozang jiyao eds. have '(*0.
536
of attainment, rather than classes of bodhisattvas. The Bodhisattva of Great

Accomplishment Dachengjiu Pusa .1:
ought to correspond to chengsuozuo
zhi / kty nu h naj na
.318 Perhaps dachengjiu . here is a variant of
chengsuozuo .319 It appears that whoever coined the name Dachengjiu Pusa
actually did know the meaning of kty nu h na, so it may come from a Buddhist
teacher, rather than Chens own gleanings from Buddhist texts. The names of the
other three bodhisattvas correspond more closely to Yog c ra attainments.320
The vajras of the eight consciousnesses are: formconsciousness vajra, the sound,
scent, taste, touch, and dharmaconsciousness vajras, the vajra of the
consciousness of transmitting and sending chuansong shi 2,;
, and the vajra of
the consciousness of containing and storing hancang shi 9;
.321 Now,322 as for
calling the spirit emperors, the names of the spirits are numerous. People who do
not know how to do selfcultivation properly will on the contrary be
manipulated by these spirits. How can one drive and ride them?
;");")7'= ;")2,;")9;"
)4*%*- !(8&*+>6
#323
The eight consciousnesses are a major Yog c ra doctrine. The odd chuansong shi is
not an innovation by Chen, but comes from Chan and perhaps Lankavat ra
318
In Yog c ra, kty nu h naj na is produced when the fullyrealized buddha transforms his ve sensory
consciousnesses; Foguang da cidian, s.v. sizhi xinpin /$, 1771.
319
Cheng refers to the buddhas successful chengjiu .

compassionate responses; suozuo refers to the
double benecent action zuo
of helping self and others; Foguang da cidian, s.v. cheng suozuo zhi /,
292425.
320
The Bodhisattva of MarvelousObservation Wisdom Miaoguancha Zhi Pusa ?5/1:

corresponds to
the Yog c ra pratyaveka j na. This wisdom is produced when the fullyrealized buddha transforms his mind
consciousness. Using this wisdom, the buddha calmly observes and preaches all of the buddhadharma; Foguang da
cidian, s.v. miao guancha zhi ?5/, 2858.
The Bodhisattva of UniversalSameness Wisdom Pingdengxing Zhi Pusa 0/1:
corresponds to the
Yog c ra samat j na. This wisdom is produced when the fullyrealized buddha transforms his kli amanas. Using
this wisdom, the buddha sees self and other as equivalent; Foguang da cidian, s.v. pingdeng xing zhi 0/, 1916.
The Bodhisattva of GreatPerfectMirror Wisdom Dayuanjing Zhi Pusa 3</1:
corresponds to the
Yog c ra darshaj na. This wisdom is produced when the fullyrealized buddha transforms his layavij na;
Foguang da cidian, s.v. dayuan jing zhi 3</, 872.
321
I.e., layavij na. The term hancang shi occurs in T 1789, Lengqieaboduoluo baojing zhujie dated 1378
, and T
2006, Rentian yanmu, as well as the Chan texts T 2003, Biyan lu; T 2016, Zongjing lu; and the Platform S tra T 2007
and 2008
.
322
In the clause , I translate dao as a sentence initial particle now, . . .

. Dao could also be a
verb speaking of . . .
, which would result in the same translation. The most obvious translation of the clause is
the Dao calls spirit emperors, but this is an unlikely reading because Chen does not personify the Dao.
323
537
literature.324 The idea of the eight consciousnesses transforming into protector

spirits is an unfamiliar one, however. This may be a previously unattested Esoteric
Buddhist idea, or it may be the product of Chens inventive mind.
After a long passage not translated ,325 in which Chen cites various Daoist
prooftexts to make the point that the cultivation of essence, qi, and spirit is
interrelated, Chen tells us how to employ the primal spirit to gather the pharmaca
and cultivate the elixir, translating these processes into quasiBuddhist terms:
If you want this One Thing to arrive, then you must rely on prenatal spiritwork,
must employ the spirits of the eight consciousnesses, sending them out to gather
the elixir and fetch the lead. Their strengths are shoring up and bonding,
transmitting and protecting.
-'+: />/!1#95
0)@,"326
$;6
According to this Buddhistic formulation of sexual alchemy, the adept employs the
vajras of the eight consciousnesses to gather the female partners lead qi , to shore
up and bond the male adepts seminal essence preventing ejaculation during the
moment of gathering , and to transmit the outer pharmacon into the male adepts
sex organ, and from there together with the adepts inner pharmacon on to the path
of lesserorbital circulation.
Among the spirits of the eight consciousnesses is the spirit of the dharma
consciousness, who is in charge of a persons guiding intention yi 8 . When the
guiding intention moves, this spirit moves; when the guiding intention halts, this
spirit halts. There is also the Bodhisattva of UniversalSameness Wisdom, who
controls the vajra of the consciousness of transmitting and sending. There is also
the Bodhisattva of GreatPerfectMirror Wisdom, who controls the vajra of the
consciousness of containing and storing. They are all controlled by taking their
orders from the spirit of guiding intention. When the guiding intention sends
them away, then they leave; when the guiding intention makes them come, then
they come immediately.
>
&>/8883%24=
60>(. 7?24=<>(.,A8/8!*
324
I.e., mona , kliamanas. The term chuansong shi 60> appears in three texts in the CBETA database of
Buddhist texts: in T 2006, Rentian yanmu, 48:326a27; T 1789, Lengqieaboduoluo baojing zhujie, 39:350a08; and T 1791,
Zhu dasheng ru lengqie jing, 39:444a02, 499b25. The Rentian yanmu passage cites a Lankavatra text; this passage
may prove important for unravelling Chen Zhixus sources.
325
326
538

327
This passage is confusing. First, it is unclear whether the vajra of the dharma
consciousness
the sixth of Yogcras eight consciousnesses is controlling the
adepts guiding intention, or is controlled by it
probably the latter.328 Then, we have
two bodhisattvas controlling two vajras, which in turn are in charge of two aspects of
the alchemical process, transmitting and sending the pharmaca back into the
adepts body, and containing and storing the fusing elixir during stage 3 of internal
ring. Do these two bodhisattvas and two vajras all take their orders from the vajra
of the sixth consciousness? Or is the spirit of guiding intention the master of all the
other entities? The ssures in this system of Buddhistic spirit entities suggest that
the system is still only halfbaked.
After a passage
not translated in which Chen describes the spirit
chamber
chiey, the lower dantian as the home of the spirit of guiding intention,329
comes a polemical interlude, a passage comparing false Daoist and false Chan
Buddhist teachings, copied verbatim from Zhao Youqins Xianfo tongyuan:330
My teacher said:
The sage is fearful of revealing the trigger or secret of Heaven. The School
of the Dao
daojia takes the true emptiness and wondrous existence331 as
its foundational principle
or, ancestor, zong . There are many gures of
speech for it: granulated vermilion cinnabar , quicksilver, red lead, black
mercury, the infant, the lovely maiden, the lordling, the yellow dame, the
yellow sprouts, white snow, and the like. When these terms come near to
touching on reality, they cause deluded persons to speculate wildly. Students
cling to that which seems to be but is not, believing that it really exists. They
even say that the term metal mother
jinmu is about
tu the outer
pharmacon. They are bogged down in the realm of physical forms and icky
substances, or the lthy practice of gathering and battling
caizhan ,
and even in the end never awaken to the wonder of true emptiness.
327
DZ 1067, Shangyangzi Jindan dayao 4.7b8 8a1. DZ 1067 has ; the Jindan zhengli daquan and Daozang
jiyao eds. have .
328
Perhaps zhu ren zhi yi means is in charge of the domain of intention within a person that receives
intentionrelated orders from a higherranking entity, the persons yuanshen.
329
DZ 1067, Shangyangzi Jindan dayao 4.8a2 b4.
330
Xianfo tongyuan, by Zhao Youqin, 32b6 33a2, in Daoshu quanji, Zhongguo Shudian ed., 478.
331
Miaoyou zhenkong . This sounds like a term from praj

paramit
avored DoubleMystery Learning
Chongxuan Xue . It is also a Chan term, found in the Chan Preface
T 2015, T 2016, Zongjing lu, and a
handful of other texts.
539
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ve)(hiY[@0332
Zhao and Chen repeat a familiar polemic against those sexual cultivators whose
practice involved too much handling of sexual uids. I have argued that Chens and
Zhaos sexual alchemy, quite dierent in theory from the huanjing bunao traditions
that they condemn, dier from them only slightly in practice.333
The
kyas i.e., Buddhists take the nonemptiness of wondrous emptiness
miaokong bukong 0@@ as their foundational principle. They use various
analogies for it, such as: grandson of a fox and son of a dog, uncovering the
sta and stpapole, yellow owers and iridescentgreen bamboo, cudgel
and ywhisk, owers and herbs, the Buddha Hall in the lantern, the water
of the West River, Zhaozhous tea, and the like. These are all meaningless,
and make it impossible for people to understand. Students think about and
discuss these without success, and so they call them Chan triggers Chan ji
. Because they xedly take these Chan sayings as being nothing, they
drift into an attitude of blockheaded emptiness wankong }@. From
calming sitting they enter into samdhi, their spirits exit their bodies, and
even in the end they never awaken to the wonder of nonemptiness.
0@@O6!k>U= MHQpC'l:C
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Dont they know that Chan teachers are vexed by blockheaded sitting, and
Daoists fear marginal traditions?
_?}/z8ZF334
Here, Zhao and Chen directly compare false Daoism the marginal traditions of
deviant sexual cultivation with false Buddhism zazen, and intellectual gymnastics
with kans. They situate the true tradition their own tradition, which is also the
tradition of all the sages outside of both of these false traditions. We would describe
Zhao and Chen as Daoists and at one point Chen calls himself a Daoist,335 yet
332
DZ 1067, Shangyangzi Jindan dayao 4.8b4 9. Xianfo tongyuan has L~; DZ 1067 has Ls; the Jindan
zhengli daquan and Daozang jiyao eds. have L
.
333
See pp. 166 69 above, and pp. 419 and 485 below.
334
335
In a passage criticizing ignorance and corruption among templedwelling Daoists, Chen writes Why dont
they reect on what it is that we study in our religion! ,K.f9, Soon after, he writes My
Most High Lord Lao said . . . . As Campany notes, in medieval China, The names, partial names, or
titles of founding or paradigmatic gures are sometimes used synecdochally to refer nominally to what in Western
540
because they reject false Daoism and false Buddhism in equivalent terms, they claim
authority within both traditions, and so claim to speak for and stand within both
traditions.
Great is the One Matter of studying buddhahood and cultivating transcendent
hood! From a single word I received from my teacher, I felt like there was a
brightlyilluminated mirror suspended in a high hall. Of the objects coming and
going, none were not illuminated and comprehended in my mind. Today I will
make a special e
ort to point out a single great road, and o
er it for people to
walk upon.
p3P&;80\Q9 ,'CrLBZ[EE>a
fUK^g(n 1336
Chen is describing a nondual state in which the usual division between self and
things, or subject and object, does not apply. Chens enlightenment experience
where he received the secret and shocking nal teaching from his master was, in a
way, a Chan Buddhist experience. Chen learned how to feel Chan enlightenment,
or learned how to talk about it, or learned how to feel this way by learning how to
talk about it, by reading Chan texts and receiving Chan teachings.This is a sort of
Chan developed especially by the Linji Chan master Dahui Zonggao mAD 1089
1163 , and indeed Chen often quotes the words of Dahuis teacher Yuanwu Keqin t
R4d 10631135 , so Chen was familiar with this Linji Chan tradition.
Peng Xiao the Perfected said: In one day, you can seize 4,220 years of correct qi
of heaven and earth. The Master with No Name Weng Baoguang said:
HeavenOne produces water; in humans, this is called essence. EarthTwo
produces re; in humans, this is called spirit. Great selfcultivators should at
the earliest chance utilize the Bodhisattva of MarvelousIntentionObservation
Wisdom to put the Hrdaya1 Buddha to work. On the night of the third day of the
eighth lunar month, at the midnight hour of the gui M day, rush to the West
River, gather lead and fetch metal, and speedily mount the white tiger. Return
together with the vajra of the consciousness of transmitting and sending, hand
the ingredients over to the Bodhisattva of MarvelousObservation Wisdom, and
send it all back to the spiritchamber.
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discourse would be called an entire religion or tradition; Campany, On the Very Idea of Religions, 299. This
may be the only page on which Chen explicitly calls himself a Daoist.
336
DZ 1067, Shangyangzi Jindan dayao 4.9a47. I read (n as =B.
541
#
%"!337
In this passage, Chen describes the phases of caiqu gathering and hedan initial
fusion from stage 2 in his unique quasi Buddhist idiom of mental buddhas and
bodhisattvas. On the third day of the lunar cycle zhen , when fresh yang
appears anew out of pure yin, the adept spurs his wisdom bodhisattva number 2 to
set his mind buddha number 1 to work presumably to gather the partners
pharmacon. The buddha presumably returns to the adept together with
consciousness vajra number 6, and delivers the pharmaca back to the spirit
chamber, the lower dantian. Lesser orbital circulation is not mentioned at all here,
which supports my argument on page 495 above that this phase is under emphasized
in Chens teachings.
Meeting face to face with the spirit lords Gouchen338 and Tengshe339 &,
receive and store it, shut it up, lock it, and seal it tight. At rst, the tiger and
dragon meet in battle; afterward, the dragon and tiger are defeated and subdued.
The Bodhisattva of Marvelous Observation Wisdom and the Hrdaya1 Buddha,
united in a common eort, guard the alchemical process day and night, not
allowed to depart for even a moment. After preserving and caring for it like this
for ten months, there will then appear a gold colored dhta ascetic monk,
called the Perfected of Highest Yang.340 He is the master within, but the two
buddhas are still in front of him on the outside, illuminating and looking after
him, not allowing him to exit lightly and take o for distant places. For one year
and then two, the buddhas will give instruction to the Perfected of Highest Yang.
Only after this can the reward be given and merit proclaimed to you, for your
successfully completed cultivation.
337

b3.
338
Gouchen is one of the twelve spirit generals associated with the six ren divination scheme. He is associated
with agent earth, and in charge of arresting and detaining gouliu ; Hu Fuchen, Zhonghua daojiao da cidian, s.v.
Gouchen , 772. Gouchen is mentioned as the image xiang of the position if agent earth the center in
ZhongL chuandao ji, in DZ 263, Xiuzhen shishu 14.20b4. In laboratory alchemy, gouchen was a cover name for
cihuang , As2S2. I suspect Gouchen is here being associated with a central organ or location.
339
Tengshe is also one of twelve spirit generals associated with the six ren . He is associated with agent re, and
arouses shock and terror jingkong $; Hu Fuchen, Zhonghua daojiao da cidian, s.v. Tengshe &, 774. In
another inner alchemical text, DZ 1098, Neidan huanyuan jue N. Song?, Tengshe is a cover name for the perfected
pneuma of the gallbladder the organ associated with the center and agent earth; Hu Fuchen, ibid., s.v. Tengshe
&, 984. I think that here both Tengshe and Gouchen represent the Yellow Court, where the elixir is red.
340
This may be a unique idea. Gold colored dhta is an epithet for Mahkyapa the rst Indian Chan
patriarch; Foguang da cidian, s.v. Jinse Jiaye , 3528; and Highest Yang is Chen Zhixus own title,
Shangyangzi . Highest yang is not a common inner alchemical term, and I would be surprised to nd the
title Perfected of Highest Yang in any other text. So, from its name, this entity seems to be a cross between
Mahkyapa and Chen Zhixu himself. The Qing dynasty solo alchemist Liu Yiming also uses the term
gold colored dhta in passing, perhaps adopting it from Chen Zhixu; Huixin neiji 1.32a2, by Liu Yiming, in
Zangwai daoshu, 8:646.
542
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,oXPQi[ID8A)_! `kbm#'9
n @=&Z7(f8W4
TE"*):U
Y .\k]0V)[
TE@/c-341
Some entities bodhisattva 2 and buddha 1; what about vajra 6? meet two Daoist
tutelary deities who are not elsewhere attested as corporeal deities at the Yellow
Court; together they seal the pharmaca within and stand guard at the inner caldron,
as dragon and tiger mercury and lead fuse together through a violent battle. For ten
months, bodhisattva 2 and buddha 1 keep watch over the developing holy fetus.
When the yang spirit appears in the form of a golden monk apparently an amalgam
of a Chan Buddhist holy gure and Chen Zhixu himself, the two buddhas i.e.,
bodhisattva 2 and buddha 1? train him carefully, until the alchemical path is fully
accomplished. The chapter ends after another short passage untranslated.342
Chen does not say that he has written this passage or Jindan dayao as a whole
specically for readers literate in Buddhism, but from foregoing passage it seems that
he is trying to catch the eye of such readers. Perhaps he has readers in mind like
Wang Xiangweng. In Jindan dayao is a text, written in Chanstyle discourse, entitled
A Piece
Given to Wang Xiangweng [LG.343 Chen describes his encounter
with Wang:
When passing through Jingnan ,344 I met a man of great ability, I met the
man of the Buddhist
Way,345 Xiangweng. By his own account, in the past he had
made visits to Chan monasteries, and deeply gained their purport. Upon further
inquiry, I found out that
he was a dharma
descendant of Yingan hK.346 His
teacher was a blind old fellow,347 and every time his teacher
instructed him he
341
DZ 1067, Shangyangzi Jindan dayao 4.9b310. DZ 1067 has f8W, but I prefer f8W4
from the Jindan zhengli daquan and Daozang jiyao eds.
342
343
DZ 1067, Shangyangzi Jindan dayao 15.1a36a3.
344
This is the Nanping < or Jingzhou H$ region, in southcentral Hubei.
345
In Chan contexts, daoren W especially refers to young initiants who live in a monastery but have not yet
taken the precepts; Foguang da cidian, s.v. daoren W, 5620.
346
Tanhua eR 110363, a.k.a. Yingan, was a Songdynasty master of the Linji lineage; Foguang da cidian, s.v.
Tanhua, 623435. He received teachings from Yuanwu Keqin, and was visited himself by Dahui Zonggao ^2
3. Tanhuas dharmaheir was Mian Xianjie JK>O. Xiangweng would be quite a few generations removed
from Tanhua.
347
Or perhaps his teacher was formally known as Xiaweng aG.
543
would receive beatings from the varlet.348 He was unable to part from him even
for a moment, and thus gained a certain amount of vitality ruzuo .349
1#,$7)"0'*8:(%6/
9
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350
Perhaps it is for readers like Wang Xiangweng that Chen Zhixu has written the long
Yog c rainected passage above on the function of mental and corporeal spirits in
sexual alchemy.
4.1.1, Chen as an apocryphal Buddhist.
The English word apocryphal
derives from a Greek word meaning hidden away or secret, and refers to
Christian scriptures whose value was suspect, and which thus deserved to be hidden
away so as not to corrupt the public. Within Buddhology, apocryphal usually refers
to scriptures that are not the direct word of the Buddha. While apocryphal is
usually a word applied to texts and not to people, I propose that we call Chen Zhixu
an apocryphal Buddhist. Chen is claiming to present Buddhist teachings which
have been hidden away the original meaning of apocryphal, and which his
opponents in the Buddhist, Daoist, and Confucian establishments reject as heretical
the common meaning of the term. Chen is appropriating and using Buddhist
cultural and social elements from a common store of knowledge available to all
educated Chinese of the time, whether they had taken the vows of a Buddhist or not.
We can conceive of Chen Zhixus relation to Buddhism in a new way if we think of
culture less as a great stream in which we are all immersed, and more as a bag of
tricks or an oddly assorted tool kit . . . containing implements of varying shapes that
t the hand more or less well.351 Chen is a bricoleur, treating Buddhism not as an
integrated system but as a repertoire of elements from which he may select elements
as he wishes to manipulate in new ways or turn to new purposes. This Buddhist
culture, and these Buddhist social forms, are not necessarily the sole possessions of
Buddhists
they belong to whomever people decide they belonged to. Chen is
348
Si 3 or 3 = + < can mean lackey.
349
Ruzuo is dened as to act so as to take in vitality AC?@>B; Iriya and Koga, Zengo jiten, s.v.
irisaku , 359.
350
DZ 1067, Shangyangzi jindan dayao 15.5a3 7.
351
Swidler, Talk of Love, 24; also see idem, Culture in Action.
544
trying to use these Buddhist elements for his own purposes, and judgments of
whether this is a perversion of Buddhism or not will depend on communities of
opinion among his immediate audience, or later audiences, such as ourselves.
4.2, NeoConfucian Sexual Alchemy
Chen Zhixu adapts the presentation of his teachings to suit his audience. Some of
Chens disciples are what we would call
NeoConfucians: students of the dao of the
sage rulers and teachers of old and the latterday sages of the Song dynasty. Chen
attempts to speaks to them in their own language. As an educated man, he would
count this as one of his own languages too, of course, yet the models for his
aspirations are primarily Daoist gures, and secondarily Buddhist gures, with
references to Confucian and other gures scattered throughout his works.352
While assenting to the truth of the words of Confucius and Mencius, and
accepting their lineage as a lineage of true sages, Chen is always aiming to bend their
words and lineage to his own uses. In the following passage, from a transmission
epistle to a NeoConfucian disciple Zhenxi (' a Mongolian of noble blood
, Chen
attempts to graft the lineage of Confucius and Mencius into his own alchemical
lineage, arguing that the true inheritors of Confucius and Mencius were not the Neo
Confucians, but legendary Daoists:
After Confucius and Mencius, the tradition of the sages was not passed on. As for
the interval between Confucius and the NeoConfucians some say that many
sages hid in the high mountains and dense forests, such as Huangshi Gong,
Heshang Gong, Zhang Daoling, Xu Xun, Zhong li Quan, L Dongbinall
of them live long and do not die. If those of this generation who have broadness
of mind and experience do not have the opportunity to take part in this tradition,
they cannot make out even the outline of it, and turn their focus on heterodox
teachings and other a airs. . . .

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Sometimes we see Chen criticizing Zhu Xi and his latterday followers in the Yuan
352
The sage rulers of old often mentioned by Chen are Yao, Shun, and Yu, the Yellow Emperor, Zhou Wenwang,
and the Duke of Zhou; the sage teachers of old are Confucius, Yan Yuan, and Mencius; and the Song Neo
Confucians are Zhou Dunyi, Shao Yong, the Cheng brothers Cheng shi
, and Zhu Xi.
353
Jindan dayao, Jindan zhengli daquan ed., 6.52b853a1 missing from DZ 1067
.
545
dynasty as I show in chapter 3 and its appendix, yet his beef with NeoConfucians is
not about the substance of their teachings, but about their assumption that the dao
of moral selfcultivation is public and simple although dicult to embody. Chen
believes that the single principle threading through all of Confuciuss teachings yi yi
guan zhi
Y is not cohumanity ren or any other virtue, but the dao of the
golden elixir: The soleandunitary dharma tradition is none other than the dao of
onethreading or the instructions on the recycled elixir <>.
Yb
.k(.354 Anyone who does not realize that the truth is hidden, and can be
received only from a master, is tragically misguided. In the following passage, he
pities Zhu Xi for his attempt to study the Cantong qi on his own, without the
guidance of a master:
Who can complete the aair by relying only
on a text? The former worthy Zhu
Wengong Zhu Xi
desired to learn the ultimate dao, but did not obtain
transmission from a master. He was terribly fond of this book Cantong qi
. . .
Now, the mystic words and secret instructions are unimaginable. What Wengong
Zhu Xi
repeatedly discarded as meaningless in Cantong qi
, blind teachers will
on the contrary want to guess at. He furthermore said, At another time,
whenever I wanted to study it, I did not receive its transmission, and had no
place to begin understanding it
. Now, if a sageworthy is not a master, though
equal in wisdom to Confucius and Mencius, then how could anyone else
understand on their own? People nowadays are full of themselves, speculating and
acting wildly. If we look at prior worthies, then their transgressions are many. If
Zhu
Xi had received transmission with instructions from a master, and greatly
understood the dao of the Book of
Changes of the sages, then he certainly would
not have clung to the idea
that Cantong qi
is a book of divination!
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Chen criticizes Zhu Xi, not for his Confucian doctrine, but for daring to comment
on the Cantong qi relying on public reason rather than esoteric transmission. Actually,
Chen would never need to criticize Confucian doctrine, or any doctrine. Relying on
the assumption that truth is known only to masters, on his own authority as a master,
and on his formidable skills in misreading scripture, Chen can easily bend any
354
355
Zhouyi Cantong qi fenzhang zhu, Daozang jiyao ed., 1.37b1038a1, 38a738b1.
546
canonical text to his own uses. For Chen, scriptures and classics are tools, not
threats. What Chen nds threatening is not the written word, but persuasive words
wielded by false teachers in facetoface situations within the marketplaceoral
rhetoric wielded by teachers like himself.
In the following passage, Chen rereads Menciuss classic passage on the
oodlike qi haoran zhi qi .4
-
, presenting it as esoteric references to sexual
alchemy.
Mencius said, I am skillful at nurturing my oodlike qi. Its qualities as qi are
great size and rigidity. Nurturing it with straightness or, directly, there will be
no harm. He also said, This is produced by the gathering together of
righteousness; it is not that righteousness obtained it by a sneak attack. He also
said, Uphold the will, and do not abuse the qi. He also says, When the will
arrives there, the qi will be next. Next means that it will arrive following.
He
also said, The will is the commander of the qi. Since it is the commander of the
qi, it must be the controller of the qi. As the controller of the qi, if it causes the
qi to come then it will come; if it causes the qi to stay then it will stay. He also
said, Match righteousness with the Dao. If you are of great wisdom, you can
distinguish the pure from the turbid here.
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From Menciuss words, Chen develops instructions for the adept on training his sex
organ during the lianji stage perhaps
, and using his will zhi
to control his qi. In
Chinese correlative thinking, will is correlated with the urogenital system;357 thus,
Chens Mencius would be talking about the adepts control of his inner pharmacon
during stages 12 of the alchemical path.
Why? He said, I am skillful at nurturing. Soon after that, he said, Nurture by
means of straightness. This then develops and claries the concept of
straightness in the Book of Changes, where it is said, Now, the stillness of qian
is concentrated, and its movement is straight direct. Therefore it produces
greatly. Therefore Master Zhou Dunyi loved the lotus, saying Unimpeded
within, and straight without with the same meaning. Mencius also says, This
is produced by the gathering together of righteousness; it is not that
356
357
Wile argues that The soporic state following emission also may have inspired the conceptual link in medical
theory of jing 9 and zhi , both associated with the urogenital system the kidneyorb, and of the urogenital
system and the brain; Wile, Art of the Bedchamber, 6. Also see gure 4.3 on page 260 above.
547
righteousness obtained it by a sneak attack. At the end he says, Match

righteousness with the Dao. Thus we know that Mencius is speaking of
cohumanity and righteousness. He also says, Uphold the will, and do not abuse
the qi, and When the will arrives there, the qi will be next. Thus we know that
it is not the case that Mencius was only skillful at nurturing, but that he was also
skillful at obtaining the pharmacon . One may ask, What is obtaining? The
reply is, Obtaining by means of straightness. One may ask, How does it come?
The reply is, It is produced by righteousness. One may ask, How does it
appear? The reply is, It takes will as its commander. Knowing it thereby, and
seeing it thereby, who is willing to stick out his head and take it on his crown?
Thus the other the partner also has this knowledge and this view.
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Zhou Dunyi loved the lotus, whose stalk is long, straight, and hollow; for Chen, this
is the male adepts sex organ. Yet Chen is not simply translating Confucian moral
philosophy into psychophysiological terms: Chen is talking about both the corporeal
and moral qualities of the adept together. The adept manages his own sexual qi
through will zhi #, and stimulates the partners sexual qi through righteousness yi
K. He should not attempt to obtain the qi by sneak attack as in the battle of the
sexes of false sexual cultivation but rather by approaching the partner directly
and uprightly. Actually, the psychophysiological and the moral realms are also
indissoluably linked in Menciuss original passage;359 this is why Chen develops the
passage here. Although the language here is very di
erent, Chen is talking about the
same topic as he was in the passage above on the buddhas, bodhisattvas, and vajras
using the mind to control and gather the pharmaca.
4.3, Solo Inner Alchemy
Chen Zhixu adapts his presentation to suit his audience. Although Chens writings
are su
used with teachings on sexual alchemy, he also teaches solo inner alchemy to
some of his disciples:
358
359
Cf. Yearley, Mencius and Aquinas, 15255.
548
Overall, I transmitted to a hundred persons or more, but only transmitted

instructions on making their bodies whole by means of the dao. As for those to
whom I could tell the secret of extending the lifeendowment by means of
techniques, there were not even as many as two or three in a hundred. It is not
that I dared begrudge the secrets. Their capacities di
eredsome were sharp
and others dull.
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Based on this passage, the Qingdynasty sexual alchemist Qiu Zhaoao writes:
Ziyang the Perfected Zhang Boduan was not able to keep the teachings
secretly hidden, and so he met with celestial censure three times. Chen Guanwu
knew this, so he gave oral transmission of yuye lianxing :E# rening the
physical form by means of jade humor to no fewer than several hundred people,
but as for jinye dadao -:F the great dao of metallous humor , he did not
meet more than one or two appreciative friends who could receive this
teaching. We can say that, able to keep the precepts, he feared heaven.
AC5 87RGLS>T"+0D:E#, K
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Qiu identies Chens exoteric teaching as yuye lianxing, and Chens esoteric teaching
as jinye dadao. The terms yuye and jinye often occur as a pair within inner alchemy, but
their referents vary.362 I think that Chen would agree with Qius statement. Lets see
how Chen uses the terms yuye and jinye:
The Dao is originally without action, yet leaves nothing undone. Nonaction is
the great elixir of jade humor yuye ; leaving nothing undone is the recycled
elixir of metallous humor jinye .
F@1@ 1@1,:@ 1,-:P;6.29a
Having nothing to do is the postnatal; having something to do is the pre
natal. The prenatal is the great recycled elixir of metallous humor jinye , and the
postnatal is the ninetimes recycled elixir of jade humor yuye . The jade humor is
the inner elixir, and the metallous humor is the outer elixir.
The referent of Laozis saying Always be without desire in order to watch
the wonder is the recycled elixir of jade humor yuye , and the referent of
Always have desire in order to watch the orice363 is the recycled elixir of the
metallous humor jinye .
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1,
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360
DZ 142, Ziyang Zhenren Wuzhen pian sanzhu, preface, 5b96a2.
361
Wuzhen pian jizhu, by Qiu Zhaoao, 1.22a69; Daozang jinghua ed., 43. Also in Zhijizi, CanWu jizhu, 357.
362
See p. 314 above.
363
Daode jing, chapter 1. Contrary to most editions of the Daode jing, Chen typically writes qiao Q pore, orice;
knack instead of jiao V movements, chasings, manifestation, sprouting .
549
A8,8!597G(&/8A
57G(B/,8A364
We see that yuye practice is wuwei practice, related to the inner elixir: it is the
tranquil, ataraxic meditation of internal ring in stage 3 and perhaps also of lianji in
stage 1. Jinye practice is youwei practice, related to the outer elixir: it is lustful
coition, leading to gathering the outer pharmacon of metal. Qiu Zhaoao says that
Chen taught yuye solo alchemy to many students, and jinye sexual alchemy to only
a few. Chen himself does not refer to solo alchemy as yuye and sexual alchemy as jinye;
rather, jinye and yuye are two aspects or stages within the overall alchemical path.
Yet because jinye involves sexual gathering while yuye involves only tranquil
meditation, Chen would agree with Qiu. Perhaps when Chen transmitted
instructions on making bodies whole by means of the dao to more than a hundred
people, he was selecting practices from the yuye and wuwei aspect of his alchemical
path.
Among Chens transmission epistles to his disciples, I have found one
example of a purely soloalchemical teaching. It is from his epistle to Xia Yanwen 2
., a physician, diviner, and spiritual seeker:
Li is the heartmind, and kan is the body. Within the body, collect the yang of the
wuearth within kan: this is called the outer elixir, or the crescentmoon furnace.
Within the heart, supplement the void of the jiearth within li: this is called the
inner elixir, or the caldron of the suspended fetus. . . . This is not the training of a
moment: obtaining the elixir is easy, but doing
the three thousand deeds and
rening the self is extremely arduous. . . . Subduing it means subduing the water
within the body.
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The passage includes references to lesserorbital circulation, the proper moment of
gathering, and so on, all in the language of the Book of Changes. Chen does not often
use this language from the Changes, but perhaps he considered it appropriate for a
disciple who was a mantic specialist. Some of the soloalchemical language in this
passage is unique. Statements like li is the heartmind, and kan is the body, or
subduing the water within the body occur nowhere else in Chens extant corpus.
364
365
Jindan dayao, Jindan zhengli daquan ed., 6.38a34, 38b12, 38b9 missing from DZ 1067.
550
Chen Zhixu shaped the presentation of his teachings to his audience. For an
audience of Buddhists or Buddhist seekers, he could translate his instructions on the
alchemical path into quasiBuddhist terms. For a NeoConfucian audience, he could
turn a passage from Mencius into an esoteric discourse on gathering the outer
pharmacon. And he could transmit solo instead of sexual alchemy, as appropriate.
5, Conclusion
In this chapter, I have argued that Chen is a sexual alchemist, I have mapped out the
eld of Chinese sexual cultivation, and within it I have plotted Chen Zhixus sexual
alchemical path from conversion to apotheosis. When I began reading Chens texts, I
doubted I would be able to discover the concrete practices underlying his
discourses,366 but the results of my eorts in this chapter are promising. Inner
alchemical texts written in code can be decodedor at least some of them can be
at least to a certain extent. Of course, if it ever happens that we cannot decipher a
particular text, then we may shift our focus to study the texts indecipherability or
oddity as itself a strategy,367 just as an ethnographer studying a secret society but
barred from its inner councils may shift his or her focus from the content of the
secrets to studying secrecy as a strategy.368 There is no danger in nding nothing to say
about inner alchemy; yet we would like to have the luxury of being able both to
decipher the text and to study its strategies.
Discourse and practice.
One discovery I made in this chapter is that Chen
Zhixus discourse may diverge from his practice in surprising ways. For example, from
the perspective of discourse, Chens dao is quite dierent from the practices of, e.g.,
366
Perhaps, instead of saying the practices underlying his discourses, I should say practices as an aspect distinct
from his discourses. I would not say that practice is a bedrock layer underlying discourse. Discourse is just as
important within inner alchemy as practice is, and discourse can itself be a kind of practice; see pp. 43839 above.
367
This is what I do on pages 43839 above, where I argue that the very monotony of the saga of devolution and
redemption is itself soteriologically signicant.
368
This is Urbans recommendation for esoteric studies; Urban, Elitism and Esotericism, 34, following Bellman,
The Language of Secrecy, 3., and Lindstrom, Knowledge and Power in a South Pacic Society, 119. This approach has
a nities with the poststructuralist focus on surfaces rather than on depths, or on publiclyavailable texts and
symbols rather than on subjective inner meaning or experience; Wuthnow, Beyond the Problem of Meaning.
551
the huanjing bunao adepts that he so strongly condemns; yet from the perspective of
practice they are unexpectedly similar. Before doing the research for this chapter, I
assumed that, whereas Chen gathers an outer pharmacon of pure, intangible qi, the
teacher of a marginal tradition pangmen would be mucking about with
tangible sexual substances instead. Yet, after comparing the views of Wile, Hao Qin,
Maspero, and Needham on sexual jingqi see pages 41819 above , and investigating
what Chen is actually doing, I conclude that, from the perspective of practice, Chens
true dao does not di
er qualitatively from the false techniques of his rivals. I
knew that Chen and his rivals were equally marginal and outrageous in their inclusiv
ist cooptation of Buddhist or Confucian elements see pages 169 and 17374 above ;
now it appears that their practices do not diverge much either. For Chen, the outer
pharmacon is qi, yet it is signaled by secretions. His practice involves the use of both
qi and uid from the female partner; this uid may be either menses or sexual uid
probably both ; and the uid is intimately involved with the initial fusion of the two
pharmaca, possibly even within the male sex organ. The partners pharmacon is an
intangible entity, yet indissociable from tangible and dirty matter, just as the adepts
essence comes in the two forms of prenatal primal essence yuanjing and postnatal
seminal essence. While the doctrinal teachings of a rival huanjing bunao adept might
lack some of these concepts, such as yuanjing, the practice of such a rival would be
quite similar. At the gathering stage at least, the main di
erences between Chens
teaching and the false techniques of his rivals are in the aspects of theory, rhetoric,
terminology, or goal, rather than in the aspect of prescribed practice these are real
di
erences, though, not just semantic di
erences . Because so many participants in
this debate over tangible and intangible jingqi express strong opinions about it this
goes for Daoists, premodern commentators, and modern scholars both Chinese and
Western , it appears that there is a psychological dynamic at work here perhaps
involving repression , so a psychoanalytic approach may ultimately be necessary to
explain what is going on, both for the Daoists and for those who study them.
We see a similar disconnect between discourse and practice in the case of
Chens ring periods. As an alchemist, he knows that the ring periods ought to be
552
one of the most important aspects of his teachings, yet I argue

there is no evidence
that, during the meditative stages of the process, Chen is actually using complex
regimens of breathwork or guiding intention. Rather, he teaches concentration
meditation at this stage. As a master that is, as someone who is able to activate the
master function visvis an audience
, he would need an impressive grasp of the
complex correlations related to the ring periods; yet he does not require these, or
have a place for them, within his own practice. What can he do, then? He applies the
complex ring schema to the alchemical process as a whole, rather than to concrete
meditative practices.
By nding this ssure between discourse and practice, I have found a new site
for exploration. What other kinds of alchemists lacked complex ring periods? Is
this specic to sexual alchemists, for whom complexity may be focused more on the
gathering of the pharmacon than on breathwork and intention? How many other
alchemists who eschew complex ring in practice would still retain it in discourse?
Can we nd historical, sociological, or morphological patterns within these variations
in teachings and rhetoric? This is the way I believe we should study inner alchemy:
we can begin with a paradigm, then with the paradigm in mind collect as many data
points as possible, and look for patterns that will either conrm the paradigm or
more likely
suggest revisions to it.
Comparison with the standard account.
Chens alchemical path resembles the
standard account of inner alchemy in many ways, of course. There are four stages
to his path, which correspond in most aspects to the standard model of solo alchemy:
The three treasures
The reactants
rening the self and tamping a base

lianji zhuji
preparing ones essence, qi, and spirit
Main site of Caldron &

reaction
furnace
n/a
lower dantian
producing outer and inner pharmaca, then fusing
upper and
them to produce the great pharmacon dayao
lower dantian
or holy fetus shengtai
rening qi into spirit

middle
middle and
rening the holy fetus to produce a yang spirit
lianqi huashen
dantian lower dantian

rening spirit to cause it to return to the
upper
training the yangspirit
n/a
void lianshen huanxu
dantian
rening essence into qi
lianjing huaqi
Fig. 5.9, Four stages of solo alchemy, according to the standard account
The main divergence of Chens teachings from those of the standard account is
553
during stage 2: for him, the adept gathers the outer pharmacon from the partner, and
combines it with his own inner pharmacon, whereas in the standard account, the
outer pharmacon is rst produced from the adepts orbital circulation of his
essence, and then further circulated to produce an additional, inner pharmacon. A
second, related divergence is that, for Chen, orbital circulation on the
superintendent and conception channels rendu ermai seems to be limited
to an eightyminute period after the gathering of the partners outer pharmacon.
Contrast this with the standard account, in which inneralchemical practice can be
summed up as being mostly lesserorbital circulation, since most adepts spend their
time doing orbital circulation at stages 1 and 2, without ever graduating to stages 3 or
4 where lesserorbital circulation is usually no longer applied. Whereas in the
standard account most of the adepts time is spent doing nonformless youwei
orbital circulation, in Chens teachings most of the adepts time is spent doing
formless concentration meditation. Chen calls his practice a uniquely youwei dao,
however; not because the adept is doing years of conscious youwei orbital
circulationwork, but because it contains one or more moments of sexual i.e.,
youwei gathering. It seems that the entire breathcontrol complex is also under
emphasized or absent from Chens practices. The relative underemphasis on lesser
orbital circulation may be a very distinctive feature of Chens teachings. This
discovery might be helpful for placing Chen on the inneralchemical map. If I can
nd a similar underemphasis in some other alchemical text X, then I would
investigate whether X and Chen could share a common liation of practice. This
sort of work could help to conrm or rewrite the history of the traditions within
inner alchemy.
Chen also diverges from the standard account in that he does not use the
concepts of the greater caldron and furnace during the second stage with the
reactant circulating between lower and upper dantian and lesser caldron and
furnace during the third stage with the reactant circulating between lower and
middle dantian. For him, there is a progression from the lower to middle to upper
dantian over the course of the entire alchemical path, but caldronfurnace dyads
554
within the body of the adept are just not important for him. His concept of greater
orbital circulation
da zhoutian is also, from the perspective of the standard
account, underdeveloped. His teachings are ambiguous on some points that the
standard account tries to dene more strictly.
Circulation of elixirs between the ve viscera
wuzang is also under
emphasized in Chens practices, but this is a less distinctive omission. Whereas the
ZhongL adepts and their heirs emphasized intravisceral circulation, or mutual
irradiation of the viscera, SouthernLineage alchemy speaks of the numerology of
the ve agents rather than the elixirs of the ve viscera
see pages 336 39. All we can
discern from Chens lack of viscerawork is that he stands closer to the Southern
Lineage than the ZhongL tradition, which is what we would have expected anyway.
The threeway exchange.
Chens concept of a threeway exchange between the
patron
who provides the money, the female partner
who provides the elixir
material and the alchemical master
who provides the teaching is a distinctive
concept that I have never noted in any other sexualcultivation text. This is a three
way economy of salvation, by which the alchemist, the patron, and possibly also the
female partner
s, can all move closer to liberation from the mortal condition. Is it a
circular exchange, with patron o
ering money to partner, partner o
ering
pharmacon to master, and master o
ering teaching to patron? Or is it a more robust
threeway exchange, in which each party o
ers its goods to both of the other two
parties, the patron o
ering money to the adept as well as the female partner, the
partner o
ering their qi to the patron as well as the master, and the master o
ering
his teachings to the partner as well as the patron? I cannot say.
Conceptual clusters.
One of the most appealing aspects of Chen Zhixus
thought is his ability to make conceptual connections across registers, traditions, and
religions. This is something common throughout the eld of inner alchemy, but he
may be better at this than are most alchemical authors. Rening the self
lianji
was one conceptual cluster I noted: Chen imbues lianji with moral, religious, and
philosophical signicance, in addition to lianjis basic mesocosmic and physiological
signicance. Diandao
inversion is another rich conceptual complex, which I
555
explore on page 323 above. The diandao complex is found in Chens writing, but he
does not really add much to it. His diandao emphasizes the inversion of male and
female partners during intercourse, rather than heart and kidneys, as would be more
common within inner alchemy. I also note the perplexing ambiguity of jigong
amassing meritorious labor in Chens teachings, concluding that, for him, internal
alchemical work and outer virtuous deeds are simply two aspects of the single
concept of jigong. The idea of an internal connection between psychophysiological
qi cultivation and spiritual or moral cultivation of merit or virtue is not unique to
Chen Zhixu: we can also nd it in Menciuss concept of the oodlike qi, for
example. Chen makes some truly surprising conceptual connections. He takes the
perfected person in the Cantong qi line The perfected person plumbs cruises
underwater in the abyss as a symbol combining meanings as disparate as 1 the
male adepts sex organ, or 2 his mind during meditation see pages 48588 above ; or
3 the one yang yaoline cruising at the bottom of the trigram zhen see page
510 ; or nally, 4 the goal of becoming a perfected being.
556
Chapter 6, Chen Zhixus Legacy

in the Ming and Qing Dynasties
This chapter examines how Chen Zhixus writings and career were interpreted and
used by later readers in the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties. There are two reasons
why this study of later readers is an essential part of my overall study of Chen Zhixu.
The rst reason is that Chens works played an important role in the development of
later inneralchemical tradition. The second reason is that the interpretations of
Chen by his readers, though later, can actually help us to understand his earlier
works. The rst reason for studying the later tradition is of indirect interest for a
study of Chen Zhixu himself, but the second reason is of direct interest to a study of
Chen.
First reason for studying MingQing traditions.
My research shows that Chen
Zhixus works were read and discussed by many later writers over the centuries,
among both inner alchemists and a wider public. That Chen Zhixu was read widely is
interesting enough; yet I will also argue that the later writers on alchemy who discuss
Chen developed a divided discourse on sexual alchemy, and Chens works were a key
ingredient for this discourse. Chens works gave the discussants material for
discussion, but also thereby shaped the development of this discourse itself. A study
of the later tradition is interesting, but not entirely germane to our understanding of
Chens original context, which is the focus of this dissertation.
Second reason.
Later readers made dierent readings of Chens texts, but
Chens texts themselves also had dierent eects upon later readers, as part of the
same process. And Chens readers have an eect upon us, readers from even later in
time and mostly outside the tradition. Unlike some Daoist texts which were
unavailable to past generations of readers and have been newly rediscovered by
contemporary scholars such as the texts excavated at Dunhuang or Mawangdui,
Chinese readers never ceased reading Chen Zhixus writings. In a sense, Chens
557
writings have come down to us through these later readers, and our new readings of
Chens texts ought to take them into account.
In my study of Chen Zhixu, I have been drawing on various traditions of
theory and interpretation. The horizon in which I am making this study is of
course contemporary Englishlanguage academic praxis, and this horizon provides
my hermeneutics and critical theories. On a deeper level, this horizon also
determines in advance both what seems to me worth inquiring about and what will
appear as an object of investigation,1 both constraining my study and making my
study possible or inspiring me to study this sort of topic in the rst place.
However, in interpreting esoteric works like Chen Zhixus writings, which
hide the referents of their symbolic language, I have also found the Chinese
contemporarytraditional scholarship of scholars such as Wang Mu
, Ma Jiren
, Hao Qin , or Li Yuanguo .2 These scholars are more or less
removed from Western academic discourse, and stand within a tradition of
alchemical hermeneutics and selfcultivation practice. While Lis discourse includes
aspects of MarxLeninHegelianism and the modern Chinese ideology of science
and progress, thus sharing some relation to Western discourse, the other three
scholars betray no signicant links at all to Western discourse. Their qigong
tradition looks backward through the Qing and Ming dynasties before the use of the
term qigong, all the way back to Chen Zhixus time and before. They are heirs to
the Qingdynasty exegetical works of Zhao Bichen , Liu Yiming , Qiu
Zhaoao , and Zhu Yuanyu , and the Mingdynasty critical comments of
Wang Yangming and Wang Shizhen , all discussed in the chapter
below.
The Chinese hermeneutical tradition almost without exception identies
Chen Zhixu as a practitioner of yinyang shuangxiu both woman and man
cultivating, or sexual alchemy. Without reading the Chinese contemporary
traditional scholarship, I would have been less certain about the issue of Chens
1
In chapter 4 I have made extensive use of Wang Mu, Wuzhen pian qianjie; Ma Jiren, Daojiao yu liandan; Hao Qin,
Longhu dandao; Li Yuanguo, Daojiao qigong yangsheng xue.
558
sexual alchemy and many other issues. To be sure, the Chinese scholarship must
always be taken with a grain of salt and not relied on overmuch, yet there is no
denying its value to a reader from outside the tradition. I have gained much from this
fusion of horizons.3
While contemporarytraditional Chinese scholarship does oer new or
modern interpretations of alchemical writings, it also draws very much on Ming
and Qingdynasty readers and practitioners opinions about and applications of
alchemical teachings. Every interpreter of Chens writings in the Chinese tradition
reads with one eye on Chens writings, and one eye on interpretations by prior
interpreters. This is true of any commentarial tradition this must be true by
denition, if it is to be a tradition at all, but it is especially appropriate when
dealing with selfconcealing and polyvalent esoteric alchemical writings. Thus, prior
readers and commentators have shaped Chens place in history. This is true not only
for the history of qigong / inner alchemy produced and reproduced in traditional
Chinese scholarship, but for the history of Chinese religions produced by any
contemporary Western scholars who draw on the traditional Chinese scholarship as
I say we must. The interpretations of Chens writings, as well as the fact that we nd
Chens writings interesting at all, must be determined in part by past traditions of
scholarship and practice. This chapter is, in eect, a study of the later Chinese
tradition which has transmitted the texts of inner alchemy down to us and told us
that they are worth reading.
In this chapter I trace references to Chen or citations of his writings within
later works.4 In addition to being cited in Ming and Qing works on Daoist inner
alchemy, Chen also receives mention in imperial encyclopedias and private scholars
literary collections.
In the next two sections, I will provide a quantitative overview of the
3
This sort of research has become possible with the greater availability of searchable electronic texts, such as the
searchable database of the Wenyuan Ge
edition of the Siku quanshu . I have also used Daoist e
texts downloaded from Mainland Chinese and Taiwanese websites such as Jindan dadao , Loujin ge
, Xianxue wang , and Dandao .
559
dissemination and circulation of Chens works, and brief summaries of all the later
references to Chen Zhixu that I have found. Taking all of these references as a whole,
the most important theme we will see is the debate over sexual alchemy, and I
discuss this at length in the third section of this chapter. The various participants in
the debate worked out their positions, in part, by reading and commenting on Chens
works, especially his commentaries to the Zhouyi cantong qi and Wuzhen
pian .
The most signicant contributions that I make in this chapter are made in
section 3. Section 2 is background material for section 3. Section 1 is an essay in
history and sociology of the book, and represents the textuality perspective on
the study of inner alchemy which I discussed on page 6 above.
1, Quantitative Overview
How widely did Chens works circulate? We can attempt to answer this question by
looking at three dierent sources of data: 1 later texts that mention or discuss
Chen; 2 the printing history of Chens works; and 3 bibliographies that show who
was collecting his works. In section 1 I provide a quantitative overview of the
printing history and bibliographies in this section, and in section 2 I provide a
qualitative discussion of citations of Chen in later texts. The most important point I
wish to make in section 1 is that Chens texts were by no means simply hidden away
in the Ming Daoist canon, and neither did they circulate only in underground
lineages or cultic networks dicult to reconstruct, as is the case with many Daoist
texts. Chens texts were relatively widely printed and circulated among the literati. I
will also be able to use the data I have collected on printing and book collecting to
draw more detailed conclusions.
1.1, The Printings of Chens Texts
Figure 6.1 shows the number of printings of texts by Chen Zhixu in each century. In
560
each box, I have listed Chens texts as they were 1 printed as standalone editions,
2 included in larger collections of Daoist texts such as Zhengtong daozang
or Jindan zhengli daquan , and 3 included in editions collecting several
commentaries on a single Daoist classic. Figures 6.2 and 6.3 break down these latter
two categories in more detail. I have not included data from the twentieth and
twentyrst centuries. This data is drawn from my complete bibliography of editions
see dissertation appendix 1. I found this data originally through a thorough review
of all the current rarebook catalogues I could nd, mostly covering the libraries in
Mainland China and Taiwan.
century
14th
JDDY
1
15th
16th
Ming
DRJ
CTQ
1
2
2
18th
19th
Total
3 7 0 2
510
2227
22
10
1
1
2 0 8
15
914
1722
Total
Panhuo ge
unknown
DDJ
27
17th
Total
WZP
5156
Fig. 6.1, Number of editions of Chen Zhixus works, by century, and by type:5
Bold = standalone edition of one of Chens works.
Italic = Fig. 6.2, a Chen edition within a larger collection of Daoist texts.
Plain = Fig. 6.3, a Chen commentary within a commentary collection.
Bottom line = total number of editions for each text.
century
JDDY
DRJ
CTQ
WZP
15th
C1, Zhengtong daozang
16th
C3, Jindan zhengli daquan
C20, Daoshu quanji
C6, Daofan zhengzong wujing sishu daquan
C16, Daoyan neiwai mijue quanshu

17th
C14, Yihua yuanzong
18th
C4, Daoyan wuzhong
DDJ
Panhuo ge

JDDY is Jindan dayao A1 in dissertation appendix 1; DRJ is Duren jing zhujie A2; CTQ is Zhouyi Cantong qi
fenzhang zhu A3; WZP is Wuzhen pian sanzhu A4; DDJ is Daode jing zhuanyu A1e; Panhuo ge is A1f.
561
C7, Doga jikji dokyo kyng
C13, Siku quanshu
C17, Gujin tushu jicheng

19th
C2, Daozang jiyao

Jiyizi dingpi daoshu sizhong

Subtotal
Fig. 6.2, Larger collections of Daoist works containing one or more works by Chen, by century.
century
JDDY
DRJ
CTQ
Daode jing Bashiyi huatu shuo
17th
Jiang Yibiao, Zhouyi cantong qi jijie
Mao Jin, Jindai mishu
Qiu Zhaoao, Guwen Zhouyi Cantong qi

jijie
Qiu Zhaoao, Wuzhen pian jizhu

19th
unknown
DDJ
Wuqiubei zhai Laozi jicheng
Daodejing gujin ben kaozheng
Subtotal
Panhuo ge
16th
18th
WZP
n/a
n/a
Fig. 6.3, Collections of commentaries on a single classic, containing a commentary by Chen.6
According to the total number of editions the bottom line in gure 6.1 ,
Wuzhen pian sanzhu was the most widely distributed of all of Chens texts, followed by
Cantong qi fenzhang zhu and Jindan dayao. The Duren jing commentary was the least
widely distributed,7 though it seems to have been used either in manuscript or
printed form sometime between 1336 and 1404 by scholars interested in the many
astronomical quotations from Zhao Youqins text Gexiang contained therein.8 Chens
works or collections containing them were printed more frequently in the Ming
dynasty than in the Qingperhaps twice as frequently, or more.
I was able to nd the place of publication for only about a dozen of the
editions in my appendix. The places of publication, listed in order of frequency, are
Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, Sichuan, Shaanxi, and Korea. We may conclude that the
majority of editions were published in south China, but some were published in
6
I list the two commentary collections by Qiu Zhaoao here but not in my bibliographical appendix because Qius
works quotes Chens commentaries enough to receive mention here, but not enough to be considered as actual
reprint editions of Chens works.
The Daode jing commentary and Panhuo ge would have been more wellread than the Duren jing commentary, as
they were also contained within the Jindan dayao editions.
8
Volkov, Scientic Knowledge in Taoist Context.
562
north China and even Korea.9 Almost all of these editions were private publications,
but at least one edition, Jindan zhengli daquan, was publicly printed. According to
Gujin shuke , a sixteenth century work, Jindan zhengli daquan was printed by
the Provincial Administration Commission Buzheng Si of Henan, and the
Shu prefectural government Shufu in Sichuan.10
The mere count of editions of each work may not give an accurate picture,
because some editions had larger print runs and circulated more widely than others.
The Zhengtong daozang, for example, was locked away in a limited number of Daoist
monasteries and temples, and probably was not available for many readers before its
reprinting in the twentieth century. According to Chen Guofu,
It can be said that, from the beginning of the Ming dynasty, no one was able to
read the Daoist canon aside from scholars of the Qianlong and Jiaqing periods
17361820
who used the Daoist canons editions of works by classical
philosophers to collate and prepare common editions, and Liu Shipei
when he wrote
Record of Reading the Daoist Canon.11
Because the Daoist canon was unavailable to most or all readers, Jindan dayao was
usually read as found in Jindan zhengli daquan, Daoshu quanji , and to a lesser
extent, Daozang jiyao . As for Chens Cantong qi and Wuzhen pian
commentaries, these texts circulated more widely in privatelyprinted individual
editions than in anthologies.
1.2, Analysis of Bibliographies
The question of whether some printings circulated more widely than others can be
addressed to a certain extent by examining traditional bibliographies from dierent
centuries to see which ones list editions of Chens works. This will not show us
whether any particular printing was widely circulated since the bibliographies rarely
give this sort of detail, but will show us in general which texts were circulating more
9
A 1588 edition of Wuzhen pian sanzhu text A4.3 in dissertation appendix 1 has a preface by an ocial from
Guanzhong Shaanxi. The mideighteenthcentury collection Doga jikji dokyo kyng was published in Korea.
10
Zhou Hongzu, Gujin shuke, 374, 384. Gujin shuke was composed sometime after 1540.
11
Chen Guofu, Daozang yanjiu lunwen ji, 365. Pre1920s scholars such as Liu Shipei 18841919, Chen Yingning
18801969, and Chen Yuan
read the copy of the Ming canon at Baiyuan Guan in Beijing, but
they could not have read much of itthey could only borrow sections of the canon during the annual ceremony
of sunning the scriptures liangjing qihui , which probably would have lasted a week or two at longest;
Li Yangzheng, Xinbian Beijing Baiyun Guan zhi, 51617.
563
in which centuries, and in which regions of the country. The bibliographies

represented in gure 6.4 are mostly handlists from the libraries of private book
collectors. Figure 6.4 also includes several references to Chens works or larger
collections containing them in governmentsponsored bibliographies: Jindan zhengli
daquan is listed in Zhejiang tongzhi
of 1736;12 and Jindan dayao and Cantong qi
fenzhang zhu are listed in Xu wenxian tongkao of 174713 and Siku quanshu
zongmu . Chens works do not appear in the bibliographic essays yiwen
zhi of the dynastic histories.
century
14th
15th
16th
17th
18th
Qing
19th
20th
Total
A. Biblios
examined
0
2
4
10
11
4
16
11
58
B. Biblios with a
Daoist text
n/a
0
4
7
8
4
9
9
41
C. Biblios with a
text by Chen
n/a
n/a
4
3
5
0
2
3
17
Percentage of B. biblios

w/a text by Chen
n/a
n/a
100
43
63
0
22
33
41
Fig. 6.4, Number of bibliographies listing at least one text by Chen

or listing at least one larger collection containing a text by Chen.
Comparing gure 6.4 with gure 6.1 which lists the printing history of known
editions, we can see that, according to both gures, Chens works were more popular
in the sixteenth century than in any other century. Relatively few texts seem to have
been printed in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, but many texts do show up
in eighteenthcentury collectors booklists. Perhaps these were sixteenthcentury
printings. The nineteenth century seems to have been a relative low point for both
the printing and collecting of Chens texts, and perhaps for the reading of Daoist
books in general.
I was not able to examine all surviving bibliographies, so how representative a
sample is this? Judging from the largest list of extant bibliographies,14 I have been
able to examine about 50 percent of extant Ming dynasty works, about 30 percent of
12
Li Wei, Zhejiang tongzhi 245.19b 7:4058.
13
Xu wenxian tongkao 185.1 2:4269.
14
Zhonuo lidai shumu zonglu.
564
extant Qing dynasty works, and about 22 percent of extant Republican period works.
There are no bibliographies from the fourteenth century in gure 6.4, because
probably none exist. Which regions did these book collectors come from? Five came
from Jiangsu, three from Zhejiang, and one each from Fujian, Guangdong, Henan,
Hebei, Liaoning, and Shandong. This is similar to the regional breakdown for the
places of publication mentioned on pages 56263 above: the majority of Chens
readers lived in the south, but they could also be found in far ung places, such as
Liaoning.15
century
JDDY
DRJ
CTQ
WZP
Zhengli
Daofan
14th
15th
16th
17th
18th
3
1
1
19th
20th
Total
Fig. 6.5, Number of texts by Chen mentioned in a bibliography.
Figure 6.5 breaks down gure 6.4 by text the total for gure 6.5 is greater
than the total for gure 6.4 because many bibliographies list multiple texts by Chen .
We can see that Jindan dayao was most widely read in the sixteenth century. There
were probably a number of printings of Jindan dayao from this period of which no
copy has survived. The reason so few copies of Chens Cantong qi and Wuzhen pian
commentaries show up before the eighteenth century is because many early booklists
merely list Cantong qi or Wuzhen pian, without listing which edition this is, or
whether it had a commentary, so we cannot know how many of these were Chens
editions.
2, Texts Mentioning Chen Zhixu, by Century

15
The booklist from Liaoning is Lianting shumu, by Cao Yin 16581712 , which lists a copy of Wuzhen pian
sanzhu 4:2647 .
565
This section is a chronological list of all references to Chen Zhixu that I have found.
The most important theme throughout these references is the debate about sexual
alchemy, which I will discuss at length in section 3 of this chapter. About one third of
the materials in section 2 will be discussed in section 3. These materials to be
discussed later will be introduced here, but not be discussed at length. Other
materials not reprised in the third section may be discussed in more detail in this
section, as warranted. I thus hope to show the range of references to Chen Zhixu in
section 2, then expand on the more important ones in section 3. Figure 6.6 below
shows the number of references per century.
A. Citations
authors
B. Related to
sexual alch.
C.
B as of A
14th
100
15th
100
16th
44
17th
25
18th
12
25
19th
14
43
20th
20
century
Fig. 6.6, Number of citations of Chen Zhixu or his works, by century.16
2.1, Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries

I have done a thorough search of texts from this period, and found only one author
referring directly to Chen Zhixu. I have also found two other authors who I argue are
referring indirectly to Chen. All three are Daoists: Chens contemporaries Dai
Qizong and Zhao Yizhen, and the fortythird Celestial Master Zhang Yuchu, who
lived slightly later.
2.1.1, Dai Qizong.
Dai Qizong . 1330s17 quotes Chen Zhixu at least
nine times in his Wuzhen pian commentary, DZ 141, Ziyang Zhenren Wuzhen pian zhushu
16
This is a count of authors, rather than texts, because some Daoist authors mention Chen Zhixu in multiple
texts.
17
Byname Tongfu , stylename Master of Empty Mystery Kongxuanzi .
566
). Here Dai is reprinting Chens comments from DZ 142, Ziyang

Zhenren Wuzhen pian sanzhu. DZ 141 pairs the commentaries zhu of Weng
Baoguang " . 1173 with Dais own subcommentaries shu . Most of Chens
commentaries reprinted in DZ 141 appear to be related to sexual alchemy, so we may
presume Dai also advocates it. I will discuss this in more detail below in section 3 of
this chapter.
Dai signs his 1335 preface to DZ 141 with the placename Jiqing (, which
was a Yuandynasty territory covering presentday Jiangning
$ county, Jiangsu
province, very close to presentday Nanjing. From the fact that Dai knew Chens
work, and the date of Dais preface, we know that Chens Wuzhen pian sanzhu must
have been printed in 1335 or before,18 i.e., before the appearance of Jindan dayao
which probably existed in some form as a manuscript from 1331 on, but was not
printed until 1336 . From Dais choronym we know that Wuzhen pian sanzhu had
already circulated at least as far as Nanjing.
2.1.2, Zhao Yizhen.
The writings of Zhao Yizhen ' ?1382 19 include
several warnings against sexual practices.20 Schipper has written an article on Zhao
Yizhen, based on Zhang Yuchus biography of Zhao in DZ 1311, Xianquan ji
see below , as well as other sources. In the article Schipper tells us that Zhao Yizhen
spent time in Nanchang.21 This is perhaps a decade or two after Chen Zhixus Jindan
dayao and commentaries would have been circulating in that city. I argue that when
we put Zhaos comments together, and compare them with similar criticisms by
Zhang Yuchu, we will see that there is a good chance they are referring to Chen
Zhixu. I will translate and interpret Zhaos comments in the third section of the
chapter.
18
It is likely that Dai Qizong had a copy of the text that is DZ 142, rather than Chens Wuzhen pian commentary
alone as an isolated text, because Dai also cites another commentator from DZ 142, Lu Ziye e.g., at DZ
141, 5.19b .
19
Byname Yuanyang , stylename Master of Original Yang Yuanyangzi , of Anfu % presentday
Jian , Jiangxi province .
20
Zhaos extant works are DZ 568, Lingbao guikong jue ,+* and DZ 1071, Yuanyangzi fayu & nos.
89 in gure 6.7 , and the medical text DZ 1165, Xianchuan waike mifang . Schipper argues that Zhao
also wrote the Qingwei material in the rst ftyseven juan of DZ 1220, Daofa huiyuan #!.
21
Schipper, Master Chao Ichen ' ?1382 and the Chingwei
567
School of Taoism, 729.
In the article, Schipper points out that Zhaos rst teacher

Zeng Guikuan '
*4 transmitted the Qingwei tradition, that Zhao went on to study with nominally
Quanzhen teachers, but that Zhao was most active as a Qingwei master, and his
alchemical teachings had little relation to traditional Quanzhen teachings. A glance
at the alchemical discourse in these texts identies them as closer to ZhongL 9
inner alchemy22 than to the Cantong qi and Wuzhen pianbased SouthernLineage
alchemy of Chen Zhixu. Quanzhen Daoist alchemical practices included both
ZhongLesque physiological practices,23 and the more formless and quietistic
mental cultivation of Ma Danyang. Zhao Yizhen and Chen Zhixu are similar in that
both men mingled other traditions with the more prestigious Quanzhen lineage,
though many di
erences between Zhao and Chen remain.
2.1.3, Zhang Yuchu.
The fortythird Celestial Master Zhang Yuchu "
1359 141024 repudiates the sexual alchemists who were active at the end of the Yuan
dynasty. Throughout his career, Zhang received favor from the Ming throne, and the
printing of his literary collection DZ 1311, Xianquan ji
1407 was supported by a
Ming prince.25 In Xianquan ji and DZ 1232, Daomen shigui 1$ he criticizes
sexual alchemists: I will discuss this below in section 3. Although he does not
mention Chen Zhixu by name, I will argue that he is most likely referring to Chen or
his circle.
As the Celestial Master, Zhang Yuchu would have spent much of his time at
Mt. Longhu 6, which was not far from Chens home. Chen was from Luling,
Jiangxi, and also spent time in Hongzhou
i.e., Nanchang or Yuzhang, about ninety
miles from Mt. Longhu. Thus it seems that the Celestial Masters of Mt. Longhu
were aware of Chens activities, although they were not able to curb them.
2.1.4, Other Daoist texts of the era.
These texts by Dai Qizong, Zhao Yizhen,
22
As studied by Farzeen BaldrianHussein in Procds secrets du joyau magique, for example.
23
E.g., DZ 244, Dadan zhizhi ; DZ 1156, Chongyang Zhenren jinguan yusuo jue ,
24
Byname Zirui :, stylename Qishan !.
25
<;%.
Hu Fuchen, Zhonghua daojiao da cidian, s.v., Zhang Yuchu ", 190. Zhangs other extant work is DZ 89,
Yuanshi wuliang duren shangpin miaojing tongyi (+/&0. He also edited the sayings of Zhang
Jixian "=
1092 1127 as DZ 1249, Sanshidai Tianshi Xujing Zhenjun yulu )2 35, and
contributed prefaces to DZ 548, Taiji jilian neifa .#8
, and Wang Daoyuans DZ 1074, Huanzhen ji 7
no. 10 in gure 6.7.
568
and Zhang Yuchu are the only texts mentioning Chen Zhixu I found from the rst
century and a half after Chens appearance on the scene. Why should Chen be
mentioned by only three writers in this period, and yet by so many other writers in
later centuries? I believe I have found so few Daoist texts mentioning Chen during
this period because so few Daoist texts survive from this period which could be
expected to mention Chen. Let us look at the Daoist literature available from this
period. To search for Daoist texts, I used an appendix in Daozang tiyao for dating,26
and I considered every Daoist text datable to the period 13301500. Fiftyseven texts,
such as ritual manuals, local hagiographies, or Daode jing commentaries, I decided
would be unlikely to mention Chen Zhixu.27 Eighteen texts, such as essays or
commentaries related to inner alchemy, I identied as possibilities:
1 1335
DZ 141
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
DZ 247
DZ 1144
DZ 1256
DZ 1258
DZ 1100
DZ 248
DZ 568
DZ 1071
14th c.?
14th c.?
14th c.?
14th c.?
ca. 134167
1364? 1304?
pre1382
post1382
10 1392
DZ 1074
11
12
13
14
15
16
DZ 1075
DZ 135
DZ 137
DZ 1076
DZ 1232
DZ 1311
ca. 1392
ca. 1392
ca. 1392
1401
ca. 1400?
1407
15th c.?
17
post1392
Weng Baoguang /F, Chen Daling

9If, and Dai Qizong [1
Wang Jichang
Author unknown
Xuanquanzi
Xuanquanzi
Peng Zhizhong :'
Liu Zhiyuan O5
Zhao Yizhen L.
Zhao Yizhen
Wang Daoyuan H5 Wang Jie
Huanzhen ji \.?
g; preface by Zhang Yuchu
Daoxuan pian HQ
Wang Daoyuan
Cui Gong ruyao jing zhujie 2
_`=G Wang Daoyuan
Qingtian ge zhushi " J=d
Wang Daoyuan
Suiji yinghua lu YVZX
He Daoquan H
Daomen shigui H!7
Zhang Yuchu 3
Xianquan ji +%?
Zhang Yuchu
Ziyang Zhenren Wuzhen pian zhushu
<>.,.Q=6
Huizhen ji B.?
Ziran ji ;?
Zhuzhen zhizhi yulu .$KX
Zhuzhen neidan jiyao S. ?(
Minghe yuyin MeU)
Qizhen ji 4.?
Lingbao guikong jue fb]8
Yuanyangzi fayu *>K
DZ 1257 Qunxian yaolu cuanji D(Kc?
Dong Jinchun ET
26
I used the appendix Xinbian Daozang fenlei mulu ARHâX, in Ren Jiyu, Daozang tiyao, 1255
1318, with caution. This appendix lists all Zhengtong daozang texts by category, generally in chronological order,
though this ordering scheme is somewhat modied.
I checked Daozang jiyao xinzeng daojing mulu H^W(APHCX in William Hung, Combined Indices to
the Authors and Titles of Books in Two Coections of Taoist Literature, 3840. This is a list of Daozang jiyao texts not in
the Zhengtong daozang, and so I am certain that I missed nothing important in Daozang jiyao. I did not consider
the other Daoist canons, for which there are no shortcuts for dating texts.
27
I did examine a number of these texts. The ftyseven texts are:

Scriptures Daojing HC: DZ 12, 89, 100, 126, 313, 398, 750, 760, 1440.
Precepts and rituals jiel keyi #&N: DZ 194, 219, 222, 309, 541, 548, 585, 813, 981, 1166, 1220, 1413, 1480.
Records jilu 0@: DZ 163, 306, 440, 447, 450, 451, 476, 602, 603, 605, 778, 959, 960, 961, 1304, 1462, 1463,
1465, 1468, 1469, 1470, 1472, 1484.
Philosophers and experts zishu -: DZ 161, 162, 676, 687, 698, 704, 712, 720, 741, 742, 1164, 1165.
569
18 15th c.?
DZ 278 Qingwei danjue
Author unknown
Fig. 6.7, Texts that could have mentioned Chen Zhixu
I have found direct references to Chen Zhixu by Dai Qizong no. 1, and indirect
references by Zhao Yizhen no. 9 and Zhang Yuchu nos. 15 and 16. Dai, Zhao, and
Zhang were all inner alchemists living not far from Chen Zhixus region of activity.
But what about the other texts? What can we learn from the fact that they do not
mention Chen Zhixu?
Four of the texts nos. 3
6 are collections of Quanzhen Daoist sayings and
poetry. These Quanzhen Daoists probably never would have come into contact with
Chen Zhixu, and three of them may even predate Chen Zhixus era.
Two of the texts nos. 2, 7 are by Quanzhen authors who cite Zhang Boduan,
and yet whose alchemical teachings resemble the teachings of the Southern Lineage
more than those of the early Quanzhen patriarchs. The author of no. 7 was the
disciple of the author of no. 2. These texts are undated though the cyclical year term
mentioned in the preface to no. 7 may refer to 1364 or 1304, so we cannot know
whether the authors were ignorant of Chens activities or wrote before Chens time.
Texts 8 and 9 are by Zhao Yizhen, and text 18 is a Qingwei alchemy text. I
have argued that text 8 may refer indirectly to Chens teachings. Texts 9 and 18 teach
Zhong L alchemy. It is not surprising that these texts do not cite Chen Zhixu,
because they did not follow the same teachings, and in fact cite no other teachers at
all.
It is surprising, however, that the writings of Wang Daoyuan a.k.a.
Wang Jie nos. 10
1328 never mention Chen Zhixu. Wang came from Xiujiang
, or present day Nanchang, Jiangxi province, and was probably living in 1392 this
is the date of Zhang Yuchus preface for Wangs collection Huanzhen ji.29 Wang is said
to have been a Quanzhen Daoist,30 but there is little evidence of this in Wangs
28
Several other commentaries by Wang Daoyuan DZ 100, 126, 760 are among the fty seven unlikely texts.
There is also one more unlikely text by Wang in Daozang jiyao Huangdi yinfu jing zhujie
.
29
It is also possible that Wang Daoyuan died before Zhang Yuchu ever read Huanzhen ji. Farzeen Baldrian
Hussein believes that Wang was a contemporary of Chen Zhixu Schipper and Verellen, The Taoist Canon, 845,
and Catherine Despeux lists Wangs dates as . 1331
80 ibid., 1174. I believe that Wang Daoyuan lived after
Chen Zhixus time.
30
Hu Fuchen, Zhonghua daojiao da cidian, s.v. Wang Daoyuan , 186.
570
writings, which like Chens writings tend to cite Zhang Boduan more than Ma
Danyang. Wang Daoyuan did not teach sexual alchemy: for him, the alchemical
pharmaca are all to be gathered from within my body wushen .
Wang Daoyuan was probably two or three decades younger than Chen Zhixu,
lived in the same city, read the same scriptures and cited the same patriarchs, but
never refers to Chen Zhixu, even though his friend Zhang Yuchu probably does. We
can only guess why. Perhaps Wang was less strongly opposed to sexual alchemy than
Zhang was, and so did not feel the need to criticize it in his essays. Or perhaps he
regarded Chen as a negligible gure.
The author of text 14 was a Quanzhen Daoist who came from Zhejiang and
traveled to northern China. He does not cite any textual authorities, and seems
removed from the world of Chen Zhixu. Text 17 is a collection of excerpts from other
texts, including Wang Daoyuans Huanzhen ji, Quanzhen texts, and Southern Lineage
texts. I cannot say why it does not mention Chen Zhixu.
I have tried to explain why Daoist texts from the rst century and a half after
Chen Zhixu should or should not have mentioned him, based on their genre,
geography, and tradition. I have been able to account for almost all of the texts,
except most notably for Wang Daoyuan. The second body of literature I should
analyze is nonDaoist texts. Why did no references to Chen Zhixu from secular texts
of the fourteenth and fteenth centuries turn up in my electronic search of the Siku
quanshu? I can oer no fully condent answer, and only speculate that it is related to
the history of the printing and circulation of Chens texts. The earliest extant
editions of Chens texts are three commentaries from the 1480s.31 It seems that the
editions available to Daoists such as Dai Qizong, Zhao Yizhen, Zhang Yuchu, and the
editors of the Zhengtong daozang, were not available to a secular audience. Or perhaps
there were more references to Chen in secular texts, but these are not included in
the Siku quanshu, or are not extant.
2.2, Sixteenth Century
31
These are items A3.1, A4.2, and A4.5 in dissertation appendix 1.
571
2.2.1, Wang Yangming.
Wang Yangming 14721529,32 one of the most important
thinkers in Chinese history, comments on Wuzhen pian sanzhu. In an essay 1508 and
two poems 1514, Wang denounces Shangyangzi by name for the lewd commentary,
as well as for general Daoist charlatanry.
Yet this scorn for Chen Zhixu is not representative of Wangs attitude toward
Daoism on the whole. As Liu Tsunyan has shown, throughout his life Wang was
attracted to Daoist selfcultivation practices and writings, and the Daoist lifestyle.
Even Wangs name Yangming is Daoist: he took it from the Yangming Grotto near
Shaoxing Zhejiang province, where he undertook a curative Daoist meditation
retreat in 1502.33 Liu writes that
His earlier relationship to Taoist priests . . . was so close, and his knowledge of
Taoist scriptures and treatises so profound, that it proved impossible for him to
shake them o without injury to his whole system of thought.34
I will translate and analyze Wangs criticism of Chen Zhixu in section 3. Wang may
have encountered Chens books in his native Zhejiang, or elsewhere, even Jiangxi
where his wife came from. Wangs copy of Wuzhen pian sanzhu may have been
printed in the 1480s.
2.2.2, Luo Qinshun.
Luo Qinshun 1465154735 makes the earliest
known reference to Chen Zhixus Cantong qi commentary, in his book Kunzhi ji

, dated 1528. This book has been translated by Irene Bloom as Knowledge Painfuy
Acquired. Luo is remembered as a defender of the views of the ChengZhu
school of NeoConfucianism against the new teachings of Luos contemporary Wang
Yangming. Although Luos home in Taihe county was about 120 miles southeast of
Nanchang, Luo spent most of his o cial career in Nanjing,36 and this may have been
where he picked up his Cantong qi commentaries. Chens Cantong qi commentary was
published in or near Nanjing in 1484. Since Luos discussion of Chen does not touch
32
Personal name Shouren , byname , stylename Master of Yang Radiance Yangmingzi , from
Yuyao
in presentday Zhejiang province.
33
Liu Tsunyan, Wang Yangming and Taoism, 152.
34
Liu Tsunyan, Wang Yangming and Taoism, 162.
35
Byname Yunsheng , stylename Zhengan , from Taihe county presentday Jiangxi.
36
Bloom, Knowledge Painfuy Acquired, 24.
572
on sexual alchemy, and I will not discuss Luo in section 3, I will discuss him in more
detail here.
In Kunzhi ji, Luo mentions Chens commentary within a larger discussion on
Daoism. Luo discusses the teachings of spirits and transcendents shenxian zhi shuo
before rejecting them as both metaphysically impossible and detrimental
to society:
Since ancient times there have been few men of intelligence who have not been
attracted by theories about divine immortals shenxian zhi shuo
. In my
ignorance I also thought a lot about these things in my early years, and it was only
later that I came to see through them. . . .
If there were, in fact, something in the universe that was undying, it would
mean that there would be no creation and transformation. If you truly
understand this principle, there will certainly be no need to waste your mental
eort on the question of immortality
. But if your faith is not sucient, and you
are impelled to try your luck against overwhelming odds, who will be to blame
when the whole realm is brought to down ruin with you?37
Note that Luo nds it natural for men of intelligence certainly including
Confucians to feel some attraction to Daoist thought, even though this is
impractical and even harmful.
Luo says that all elixir scriptures danjing ultimately derive from the
Daode jing,38 yet he identies Cantong qi and Wuzhen pian as the core scriptures on
transcendence:
The mysterious essence of the school of immortality xianjia miaozhi
may be entirely contained in the Cantong qi, but one must read the Wuzhen pian
. . . before attaining the stage of perfect understanding. The Wuzhen pian is
fundamentally an elucidation of the practices of immortals.39
Daoist inner alchemists such as Chen Zhixu also identied these two texts as the
most important transcendent scriptures. Luos category of the school of
transcendents xianjia is probably more limited than our category of religious
Daoism. Luos category includes Daoist thought and inneralchemical practice and
perhaps Daoist selfcultivation in general, but Luo shows no interest in other forms
37
Bloom, Knowledge Painfuy Acquired, 16566. I have checked the original wording in Luo Qinshun, Kunzhi ji, 128
2.38b.
38
Bloom, Knowledge Painfuy Acquired, 162. Original wording in Luo Qinshun, Kunzhi ji, 128 2.38b.
39
573
of contemporary Daoism such as local cults, community rituals zhaijiao ,

thunder rites leifa , or the use of alchemical elixirs or talismans. It was inner
alchemical thought and practice which were most attractive to Confucian elites.40
Luo thinks that the Cantong qis theories about the hexagrams were clever
but lacked the slightest jot of usefulness. Therefore there came about the theory of a
separate transmission outside the exoteric
teachings.41 Yet Luo still respects Zhu
Xis deep and real interest in the Cantong qi: Master Zhu edited and corrected this
text . . . his feeling at the time was very deep.42 Luo read the available commentaries
to the work, including Chen Zhixus commentary:
The hidden meaning of the Cantong qi may be understood from the work of six
commentators: Peng Xiao, Chen Xianwei, Chu Huagu, Yin Zhenren, Yu Yan, and
Chen Zhixu. Yus annotation is the best, followed by the commentaries of the
two Chens and Yin, whose interpretations are, however, somewhat obscure,
probably because they regard this as an esoteric transmission. . . . There are also
commentaries by two anonymous authors, one of whom speaks exclusively about
inner alchemy . . . These are wide of the mark. Yu Yans
. . . statements are on
the whole lucid and yet reserved, which is why this is superior to other
commentaries.43
Luo likes Chens commentary well enough for what it is, but says it is somewhat
obscure. He admits there may be something profound about Daoist texts such as
Cantong qi and Wuzhen pian, but rejects Chen Zhixus assumption that a secret
teaching is encoded in these texts. Luo may not have been aware of Chens esoteric
sexual teachings, and his reputation as an instigator of wantonness yin
, or Luo
likely would have included this among his criticisms of Daoism.
2.2.3, Taishang bashiyi hua tushuo .
This is an illustrated
version of the Huahu jing , collected together with prefaces by Ming Taizu
r. 136898 and Chen Zhixu, and probably printed after 1524. This text has been
studied by Yoshioka Yoshitoyo44 who owned it and Kubo Noritada.45 Yoshioka
40
See Liu Tsunyans work on this topic: The Penetration of Taoism into the Ming NeoConfucianist Elite,
Taoist SelfCultivation in Ming Thought, Wang Yangming and Taoism.
41
42
43
44
Yoshioka, Dky to bukky, 1:18193.
574
argued that the text had been printed by a disciple of Chen Zhixu, around the time
of the date of the preface by Ming Taizu 1374, but Kubo argues that the text was
printed by a lineal disciple of Zhao Yizhen sometime after 1524, perhaps by Li
Desheng &? ?
1530 or one of his disciples.46 Kubo dates the text by an imperial
title given to Shao Yuanjie 2 1459
1539, an eminent Daoist from Mt. Longhu,
so the editors of the text were probably active not far from Chens home.47
Bashiyi hua tushuo includes a Daode jing xu 463', by Chen Zhixu, which
is probably the same as a text found in Jindan dayao and there called Daode jing xu
463.48 This is a preface to Chen Zhixus partial Daode jing commentary, which is
contained within Jindan dayao. The inclusion of this material in a text in Zhao
Yizhens tradition suggests that he and his lineal heirs read, valued, and transmitted
some of Chens writings, probably including Jindan dayao. In Yuanyangzi fayu !0
5, Zhao Yizhen explicitly rejected a sexual interpretation of the elixir, but perhaps
Zhao and his heirs accepted and valued other aspects of Chens teachings.
2.2.4, Lu Xixing.
Lu Xixing ) 1520

ca. 160149 cites Chen Zhixu in two
works,50 The two works, commentaries on the alchemical classics Cantong qi Zhouyi
Cantong qi ceshu %-(, 1569 preface and Wuzhen pian Wuzhen pian xiaoxu
"#8, are included in his collection Fanghu waishi *
.51 Like Chen, Lu
taught sexual alchemy, and he cites Chens commentaries approvingly, though he does
not mention Jindan dayao. I will translate and analyze this material in section 3 below.
45
Kubo, Rshi hachijichi ka to setsu ni tsuite: Chin Chikyo hon no sonzai o megutte; and idem, Rshi hachij
ichi ka to setsu ni tsuite: sono shiry mondai o chshin to shite.
46
Kubo, Rshi hachijichi ka to setsu ni tsuite: Chin Chikyo hon no sonzai o megutte, 38.
47
Liu Tsun yan discusses Shao Yuanjie in Shao Yan chieh and Tao Chung wen, 168
70.
48

7b7.
49
Byname Changgeng , style names Submerged in Void Qianxu 7/, External Secretary of
Fanghu Fanghu Waishi *
, and Buddhist Layman of Empty Skandhas Yunkong Jushi <, from
Xinghua : in Yangzhou , present day Jiangsu province.
50
For Lus biography, see Liu Tsun yan, Lu Hsi hsing: A Confucian Scholar, Taoist Priest and Buddhist Devotee
of the Sixteenth Century.
51
Zhouyi Cantong qi ceshu is reprinted in Zangwai daoshu, 5:255

86 and 6:519
67 two editions, and Wuzhen pian
xiaoxu is reprinted in Zangwai daoshu, 5:318
37.
Lus other extant works are: twelve texts in Fanghu waishi nine are commentaries, three are original works, a
Zhuangzi commentary Nanhua fumo .$9, and a Lankavat
ra stra commentary Lengyan shuzhi 1> , in
Dai Nihon zokuzky =;3, ser. 1, case 89, bk. 3. Jindan jiuzheng pian + 8, one of Lus original
writings in Fanghu waishi, has been translated in Wile, Art of the Bedchamber, 149
53.
575
Later practitioners and historians of inner alchemy say that Lu Xixing founded a
school of inner alchemy, the Eastern Lineage Dongpai .
2.2.5, Two Cantong qi commentaries.
Chen Zhixus Cantong qi commentary
was one of the editions available to Ming dynasty scholars who wanted to produce
their own Cantong qi editions. The imperial critical bibliography Qinding siku quanshu
zongmu tiyao *
!"7) identies two scholars who used Chens edition
to produce their own: Zhang Li % js 1568 and Zhu Changchun . ca. 16th
c..52 The Siku zongmu compilers note that Zhang Lis Zhouyi Cantong qi zhujie $
,1 is based on Chens edition, with Chens commentary removed and replaced
with commentaries selected from other commentators.53 Zhu Changchuns edition of
Cantong qi, collected in HanWei congshu 498",54 was also merely a copy of Chen
Zhixus edition, stripped of Chens commentary.55 We may infer that these editors
valued Chens textual arrangement of Cantong qi, but did not approve of his sexual
alchemical teachings, or perhaps his esoteric Daoist approach in general as Luo
Qinshun put it.
2.2.6, Wang Shizhen.
Wang Shizhen 1526

9056 severely denounces
Chen Zhixus sexual teachings as found in Wuzhen pian sanzhu. Wang was one of the
most prominent literary gures of the Ming dynasty, and left voluminous collected
writings. His Yanzhou sibu gao ;
'6, second series xugao :6, includes essays
on the various Daoist and Buddhist texts he was reading, including Wuzhen pian
sanzhu and Jindan dayao. In several of these essays we can see him weighing the
orthodoxy of inner alchemical texts, querying to what extent their teachings could be
52
The other main alternatives to Chens textual arrangement of Cantong qi were Peng Xiaos edition DZ 1002,
Zhouyi cantong qi fenzhang tongzhen yi $(&#0, and the so called old text guben edition.
This old text edition was supposedly unearthed from a stone casket in Sichuan, but was probably actually
forged by Du Yicheng 2 . ca. 1506
22. It was printed in 1546 by the well known literatus Yang Shen /1488
1559, and became quite popular. For a discussion of this forged edition, see Meng Naichang, Zhouyi Cantong
qi kaobian, 59
62.
53
Ji Yun, Daojia lei cunmu zongmu, in Qinding Siku quanshu zongmu tiyao 11b4
5.
54
HanWei congshu was a collection of thirty eight texts, compiled by Cheng Rong +3 . 1573
1616, of Xinan .
in present day Zhejiang province; see Li Xueqin and L Wenyu, Siku da cidian, s.v. HanWei congshu 498",
2071. Siku da cidian does not list Cantong qi among the contents of the surviving version of HanWei congshu.
55
Ji Yun, Daojia lei cunmu zongmu, in Qinding Siku quanshu zongmu tiyao 31a3
8.
56
Byname Yuanmen , style names Fengzhou 5 and Yanzhou Shanren ;, from Taicang
present day Jiangsu province. Cf. Goodrich and Fang, Dictionary of Ming Biography, 2:1399
405.
576
county
construed as sexual alchemy. Wang was a Buddhist layman, but also a devotee of the
celebrated female Daoist guru Tanyangzi # Wang Daozhen
( , who had
taught him to reject sexual alchemy. I will discuss this case at more length in section
3. Wang Shizhen spent some time in the northern capital presentday Beijing and
Shandong, but spent most of his days in his native place of Taicang, located about
twenty miles from Suzhou. Chens writings seem to have been as wellknown in
Jiangsu as in Chens native Jiangxi, and we would expect them to be found in a
cultural center like Suzhou.
2.2.7, Wang Qi.
Wang Qi
. 15651614 ,57 in his Xu wenxian tongkao of
1586, includes entries on Chen Zhixu and Chens disciples and lineal masters. These
entries add nothing not also found in Jindan dayao, whence Wang almost certainly
gleaned this information. Xu wenxian tongkao58 was intended as a sequel to Ma
Duanlins "' Wenxian tongkao * of 131924. Unlike Mas work, however,
Wangs work contains very long sections on Daoism and Buddhism Xianfo kao
, including subsections on religious history, terminology, hagiography,
bibliography, and cult deities.59 Wang seems to be writing from a perspective
sympathetic to Daoism listing Daoism before Buddhism , or even a Daoist insiders
perspective listing the surnames and personal names of dozens of cult deities . Wang
may have been more interested in Chens hagiography than his teachings, since his
bibliography of religious Daoist works does not list any of Chens works. We may also
infer that Wang was not a practitioner or admirer of sexual alchemy: one of the
entries in his section on Daoist terminology is shenzhong fufu the husband
and wife within ones own body , and his denition for dinglu !) caldron and
furnace is body and mind shenxin .60 A sexual alchemists denitions for these
terms would be quite di
erent. Wangs choices of Daoist selfcultivation terms for
57
Byname Yuanhan %, stylename Hongzhou , from Shanghai. Cf. Goodrich and Fang, Dictionary of Ming
Biography, 2:135557.
58
Wangs work is not to be confused with a 1747 work of the same title, which also mentions Jindan dayao in its
bibliographical section; see p. 564 above.
59
Daoist history: Lidai daojia zongji $ & j. 23940 ; Daoist terminology: Daoshu mingyi
j. 767 ; Daoist hagiography: Daojia xingshi j. 24143 ; personal names of cult deities: Shizu kao:
Fangwai 214.18a ; all Buddhist sections j. 24454 ; bibliography j. 179 .
60
Wang Qi, Xu wenxian tongkao 241.4b2, 8.
577
denition seem to have been drawn from the Huangting jing '), and possibly
from alchemical writings in the ZhongL tradition. Wang spent almost his whole
life in Songjiang
Shanghai, which is in the vicinity of presentday Jiangsu
province.
2.2.8, Peng Haogu.
Peng Haogu #

js 158661 reprints Chens Duren jing
commentary and Panhuo ge in his Daoist anthology Daoyan neiwai mijue quanshu *

internal prefaces 1597 1600.62 This anthology includes commentaries
to Cantong qi and Wuzhen pian, and in which Peng mentions Chen Zhixu. Peng also
produced a separate reedition of DZ 142, Wuzhen pian sanzhu, entitled Wuzhen pian
sizhu .
$, and he appraises Chen in the preface to this work. Peng did not
reject the sexual alchemy of Wuzhen pian sanzhu altogether, but preferred his own,
dierent, approach. I will discuss Pengs alchemical teachings and views of Chen
Zhixu below in section 3. Peng served as an ocial in Shanxi, Hebei, and Sichuan
during the period 1591 93.63 Pengs hometown of Macheng, Hubei is about 100 miles
north of Jiangxi, where Chens works were originally published, so it is more likely
that Peng encountered Chens works in Macheng than in Shanxi, Hebei, or Sichuan.
2.2.9, Summary: sixteenth century.
Chens Cantong qi and Wuzhen pian
commentaries made more of an impact on these sixteenthcentury readers than his

Jindan dayao did: the comments of seven of these nine readers are directed at these
two commentaries. Two readers, Wang Yangming and Wang Shizhen, reacted
violently to Chens sexual teachings. Both Wangs were interested in some aspects of
Daoist practice, but were not professional Daoists; perhaps there is something about
their partial selfidentication with Daoism that made them react so harshly to
sexual alchemy
I will address this again in section 3. Four readers, Luo Qinshun,
61
Personal name Fu , byname

? Bojian 7, stylenames Buddhist Layman from a Gully in the West Hills
of Chuhuang
Chuhuang Xiling Yihuo Jushi ('!1, and Master of Radiant Yang
Xiyangzi +%
, of Macheng "
in presentday Hubei province. He seems to refer to himself as Fu in Daoyan neiwai
mijue quanshu, preface, 1a8
Zangwai daoshu, 6:1, so it must be his personal name.
62
Other known works by Peng include the collections Daoyan neiwai ji *& and Daoyan wuzhong *
cf. Zhang Zhizhe, Daojiao wenhua cidian, s.v. Daoyan neiwai ji and Daoyan wuzhong, 412 13, Wuzhen pian sizhu
A4.14 in dissertation appendix 1, and two texts listed in the Mingshi

Yiyue 6, 96.2348a9; and Leibian
zashuo 3/2-, 98.2450a1.
63
Wong Shiu Hon, Investigations into the Authenticity of the Chang SanFeng ChuanChi, 34, citing Lantai fajian lu 4
,50, by He Chuguang
js 1583, et al.
578
Zhu Changchun, Zhang Li, and Peng Haogu, had neutral responses to Chens
commentaries. One reader, Lu Xixing, a Daoist, adopted Chens teachings as his own.
Some of the readers were only interested in a few aspects of Chens writings: the
editors of Bashiyi hua tushuo were interested only in his remarks on the Daode jing,
Zhu Changchun and Zhang Li only in his textual arrangement of the Cantong qi, and
Wang Qi only in Chen as a Daoist gure.
These readers came from Jiangxi, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shanghai, and Hubei:
from this evidence, we do not see Chens teachings spreading far from their places of
publication in Jiangxi and Nanjing. Yet a look at sixteenthcentury booklists nds his
works collected farther aeld in Henan,64 Hebei,65 and Jiangsu66 and printed in
Henan and Sichuan.67
2.3, Seventeenth Century

2.3.1, A gazetteer.
A Ming gazetteer, Qian ji +, produced around 1604 by Guo
Zizhang 15421618 , et al., records Chen Zhixu as an alchemist who traveled
to Sitang in presentday Guizhou province , and made alchemical elixirs on the
top of Mt. Wansheng
there. This entry has no information not found in other
sources, and mistakenly lists Chen as a Tangdynasty gure. I list this reference in the
section on Chens biography and hagiography in chapter 2.
2.3.2, A medical text.
Zhang Jiebin $ 15631640 68 quotes Jindan dayao
three times in his 1624 medical text, Leijing -. The quotes are on the power of
essence jing # and qi to nourish each other,69 and the heartminds rulership of the
64
Chaoshi Baowen Tang shumu, by Chao Biao . . Jiajing "! period, 152266 , lists Jindan dayao thrice and
Jindan zhengli daquan once; ibid., 222, 225, 229.
65
Baichuan shuzhi, by Gao Ru ' . 1540 , lists Jindan dayao; ibid., 162.
66
Zhao Dingyu shumu, by Zhao Yongxian %& 153596 , lists Jindan dayao, as well as Fanghu waishi by Lu Xixing,
Tanyang Dashi zhuan ( by Wang Shizhen, and Tanyang yiyan (* the words of Wang Daozhen ;
Zhao Yongxian, Zhao Dingyu shumu, 57, 59.
67
Gujin shuke, by Zhou Hongzu js 1559 , lists Jindan zhengli daquan twice 374, 384 .
68
Bynames Jingyue
and Huiqing , stylename Master Who Pervades and Makes All as One Tongyizi
, from Shanyin in Shaoxing ), presentday Zhejiang province .
69
Zhang Jiebin, Leijing, j. 1; and fuyi ,, j. 3; quoting DZ 1067, Shangyangzi Jindan dayao 3.1b56.
579
body as the sovereign of a country.70 The material in the latter quote from Jindan
dayao is based on the Huangting jing. Leijing quotes many other Daoist texts as
authorities.
2.3.3, A Daoist hagiography.
Lidai xianshi =
by Wang Jianzhang ,
16451718 71 contains a tantalizing account of Chen Zhixus disappearance from the

world of the living just before the end of the Yuan dynasty, as discussed on page 76
above.
2.3.4, A sexual alchemist.
Shangyang 2 i.e., Shangyangzi is cited once
and brie y in Jindan zhenchuan
4, a text on sexual alchemy. Jindan zhenchuan
was compiled by Sun Ruzhong b. 1575, . 1616 , together with two kindred
spirits, Zhang Chonglie &% and Li Kan -.72 I discuss Jindan zhenchuan on
pages 42427 above.
2.3.5, Cantong qi studies.
Jiang Yibiao ;) . 1614 73 reprints Chen Zhixus
Cantong qi commentary in toto in his Guwen Cantong qi jijie #36 preface

dated 1614 , along with the commentaries of Peng Xiao .<, Chen Xianwei +@5,
and Yu Yan A.74 Jiangs edition is in the spurious old text arrangement, with the
commentaries inserted into this new textual layout. Jiangs Cantong qi edition was
reprinted in the Siku quanshu. Jiang styles himself Fuyangzi, and claims to have
received the alchemical teachings of a true teacher: I encountered an ultimate man,
and undeservedly received his instructions on the elixir 079'* .75
Jiang appears to have been a Daoist layman, but was probably not a professional
Daoist. I have discovered nothing else about him.
Another collection reprinting Chens commentary is Jindai mishu 1!,
70
Zhang Jiebin, Leijing, j. 3, quoting DZ 1067, Shangyangzi Jindan dayao 4.5a5

.
71
Byname Kentang $, stylename Ququzi "", Daoist stylenames Yushuzi :, Yushu Zhenren :
, from Shaoxing (>, Zhejiang.
72
Jindan zhenchuan is in Zangwai daoshu, 11:86076 and 25:45970; translated in Wile, Art of the Bedchamber, 15369.
The citation of Shangyang occurs in Zhang Chonglies commentary, line 19a9 at Zangwai daoshu, 11:871; line 4b8
at Zangwai daoshu, 25:461; and Wile, Art of the Bedchamber, 168.
73
Stylename Master of Returning Yang Fuyangzi /2 , from Yuyao in presentday Zhejiang province .
74
Peng Xiao d. 955 , DZ 1002, Zhouyi Cantong qi fenzhang tongzhenyi; Chen Xianwei S. Song , DZ 1007, Zhouyi
cantong qi jie #6; Yu Yan S. Song and early Yuan , DZ 1005, Zhouyi Cantong qi fahui and DZ 1006,
Zhouyi Cantong qi shiyi #?8. See the list of all extant Cantong qi commentaries on pages 65758 below.
75
Jiang Yibiao, Guwen Cantong qi jijie, rst preface, 2a.
580
compiled by Mao Jin 15991659. Mao is remembered for his private library
the Jigu Ge of Changshu , Jiangsu province, and the various book series
congshu " he published. Jindai mishu includes the same four Cantong qi
commentaries as Jiang Yibiaos edition. Siku quanshu reprints these same four Cantong
qi commentaries, together with those of Zhu Xi and Jiang Yibiao himself. The Siku
quanshu editors must have chosen to reprint these four commentaries Peng, Chen,
Chen, and Yu in the Siku quanshu due to the popularity of these commentaries in
previous reprints such as Jiang Yibiaos and Mao Jins.76
Kwon Kkjung # 15851659, a Korean inner alchemist described as the
great master of lateChson inner alchemy, is said to have drawn on Chen Zhixus
teachings, presumably as found in Chens Cantong qi commentary. According to Jung
Jaeseo, Kwon established a systematic neidan philosophy in his Chamdongkae juhae
Commentary to the Cantong qi. It o ered a complete ontology, theory
of human nature, system of alchemical pratice and doctrine of immortality.77
Although I have not seen Kwons Cantong qi commentary, I infer that it places Chens
Cantong qi commentary in high regard, since Kwons inneralchemical teachings
re
ect the Cantong qi and the dual cultivation of nature and life as developed by
Zhang Boduan and Chen Zhixu.78
Another text citing Chens Cantong qi commentary is Yitu mingbian

of 1706, by Hu Wei 16331714, a scholar from the Han Learning Hanxue
movement.79 Hu cites Chen Zhixus Cantong qi commentary four times. Hu often
cites Yu Yan on the Cantong qi, and prefers Yus approach to an esoteric reading like
Chens. Hu was a textual critic, not an alchemist: he wanted to prove or disprove the
authenticity of ancient Yijing literature.
2.3.6, A Quanzhen Daoist author.
Wu Shouyang 15741640/44; or
76
The Siku quanshu editors were familiar with Mao Jins Cantong qi edition, mentioning it at Ji Yun, Daojia lei
zongmu, in Qinding Siku quanshu zongmu tiyao 30a89.
77
Jung, Daoism in Korea, 800. Here Jung also mentions another Korean Cantong qi commentary, Chamdong ko
$, by S Myngng ! 171687, but there is no indication that Ss work mentions Chen Zhixu.
78
Jung, Daoism in Korea, 812.
79
Bynames Feiming % and Dongqiao , from Deqing in presentday Zhejiang province.
581
1550ca. 163580 cites Chen Zhixu in three of his texts, Neilian jindan xinfa "
1622, Xianfo hezong yulu &+ 1630?, and Tianxian zhengli zhilun
) 1639.81 Wu described himself as an eighthgeneration lineal holder in the
Jing branch Jingzi Pai , of the Longmen - lineage of Quanzhen
Daoism.82 As would be expected of a Quanzhen Daoist, Wu was critical of sexual
cultivation, yet he still quotes Chens words at least six times in his writings. I will
analyze one of these quotations in section 3 below, showing that Wu is actually doing
a counterreading of Chens words, using them to criticize sexual alchemy.
2.3.7, Summary: seventeenth century.
In the seventeenth century, the Cantong
qi was a text of great interest to cosmological investigators, and Chen was considered
one of the most important commentators on this classic. His Jindan dayao was
considered an authoritative text, even among nonDaoists such as the medical writer
Zhang Jiebin. Chen was also remembered hazily as a legendary local alchemist in
Guizhou. Chens writings were being read as far away Korea, probably as reprinted in
the 1591 collection Daoshu quanji. Yet aside from Kwon Kkjung and the Guizhou
gazetteer, all of these other readers hailed from the same provinces as readers from
the previous centuries: Jiangxi, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang. Of the three known printings
of Chens works in this century, the places of publication of two are known: Zhejiang
and Jiangsu.83 Of the three known booklists from this century listing Chens works,
one was from Fujian,84 and two from Jiangsu.85
80
Byname Duanyang % , stylename Master Who Dashes into the Void Chongxuzi , from Jian
in presentday Jiangxi province.
81
I found these citations through searches of electronic texts from the website Loujin Ge. Editions of Xianfo
hezong yulu and Tianxian zhengli zhilun can be found in Daozang jiyao, Bi coll. these are also photoreproduced in
Zangwai daoshu, vol. 5. I have found a reprint of Neilian jindan xinfa in WuLiu zhengzong, compiled by Wu Yijiang,
41254, and a text with a similar title Nei jindan xinfa in Daozang jinghua, ser. 4, no. 7 ser. 4, no. 3, in
the hardcover printing. Wu Shouyangs other works are Jindan yaojue and Wu Zhenren dandao jiupian
$(.
82
Liu Tsunyan, Wu Shouyang: The Return to the Pure Essence, 186.
83
These are the editions by Jiang Yibiao and Mao Jin, each reprinting Chens Cantong qi commentary.
84
Xushi Hongyu Lou shumu, by Xu Bo 15921639, dated 1602, lists Jindan zhengli daquan; ibid., 354 listed
under Chao Biao.
85
Qianqing Tang shumu, by Huang Yuji !#' 162991, dated ca. 164050, lists Jindan dayao and Cantong qi
fenzhang zhu ibid., 439; and Yushan Qian Zunwang cangshu mulu huibian, by Qian Zeng * 16291701, lists Duren
jing zhu, Cantong qi zhu, and Daofan zhengzong wujing sishu daquan ibid., 253, 254, 264.
582
2.4, Eighteenth Century

2.4.1, Two literati sexualalchemist readers.
Chens Cantong qi and Wuzhen pian
commentaries and his Jindan dayao were admired and closely read by the two friends
Tao Susi and Qiu Zhaoao, both of them sexual alchemists. Tao Susi <.: . 1700
11 86 printed an abbreviated version of Jindan dayao in his collection Daoyan wuzhong
K
M.87 Daoyan wuzhong also contains Taos own Cantong qi and Wuzhen pian
commentaries Cantong qi maiwang 0&/5 and Wuzhen pian yuezhu +-Q($ ,

both of which cite Chens commentaries.
Qiu Zhaoao [ js 1685, 16381717 88 is a central gure in my story of
Chens legacy. Qiu took the famous Neo Confucian Huang Zongxi B!U 161095
as his master in 1667. He read Cantong qi and Wuzhen pian for the rst time in 1685, his
rst year at court. While serving at court, he took part in the projects of editing the
Da Qing yitong zhi 69 and Mingshi #
, discussed Neo Confucian thought
Lixue 8T, Learning of the Principle with his friends Li Guangdi and
Zhang Yushu 2 , both of whom are mentioned below in this chapter , and also
wrote commentaries to the Confucian Four Classics and the poems of Du Fu .89
He discussed sexual alchemy with the Kangxi emperor on the emperors birthdays in
1714, 1715, and 1717 soon before Qiu died . During a temporary return home on sick
leave to Zhejiang in 1695, he and Tao Susi studied self cultivation together, probably
under Master Sun Jiaoluan *4Z sexual alchemist and father of Sun Ruzhong .90
86
Original name Shiyu , style names Master Who Ever Retains Cuncunzi , Man of the Way Who
Penetrates the Subtleties Tongwei Daoren ;DK , and Pure Minded Buddhist Layman Qingjingxin Jushi
67" , of the Wondrous Lotus Studio Miaolian Zhai SW , Guiji EP in present day Zhejiang
province .
87
Reprinted in Zangwai daoshu, vol. 10.
88
Original name Congyu 3>, byname Cangzhu F', Daoist style name Master Who Knows a Bit Zhijizi %
? , style name late in life Zhangxi Laosou =G), of the Yong River , Yin O county present day
Ningbo, Zhejiang province .
89
Sishu shuoyue ,N( and Du shi xiangzhu JI$. He was able to present the latter work to the Kangxi 1L
Emperor for him to read.
90
This biographical information on Qiu Zhaoao comes from three sources: a biographical notice by Zhang
Daochuan 2KC Wuxianzi + included in the Daozang jinghua edition of Wuzhen pian jizhu, ser. 6, no. 1, p.
58 ; Zhang Huizhi, Zhonuo lidai renming da cidian, 285; Tongchen, Qiu Zhaoao xingli lechao; and Tongchenzi
Zhou Quanbin, Qiu Zhaoao Xiansheng shengping jianbian [XR, in Zhijizi, CanWu jizhu. Zhou
Quanbian has used a friends notes on Qiu Zhaoaos chronological autobiography zizhu nianpu AY as his
main source.
Sun Jiaoluan a.k.a. Yanxia Sanren HV@, 15051610 is Sun Ruzhongs father. Sun Ruzhong b. 1575, . 1616 ,
583
Qiu collected various commentaries to the Cantong qi and Wuzhen pian in his Guben
Zhouyi Cantong qi jizhu
*43 170310 and Wuzhen pian jizhu $'<
43 1703,91 including Chens commentaries. In 1710, the year he printed these two
works, he was serving in court as a Hanlin academician and Right Palace Attendant
You Shilang " in the Ministry of Personnel Libu 0, rank 3a. Qiu praises
Chens teachings in his prefaces to these works, and in a guest preface for Tao Susis
Cantong qi commentary. I will discuss Tao and Qiu below in section 3.
2.4.2, Two Quanzhen Daoist readers.
Liu Yiming ; 1734182192 quotes
Chen Zhixu in no fewer than nine texts, most of them in his 1799 collection Daoshu
shierzhong 9%:.93 Liu called himself an eleventhgeneration lineal heir of the
Longmen lineage of Quanzhen Daoism, and preferred pure qingjing -@ alchemy
to dualcultivation shuangxiu A# alchemy. Many of Lius writings are voluminous
commentaries on alchemical classics, or other texts of alchemical interest even
including the novel Xiyou ji 8). I will argue in section 3 that Liu was ambivalent
about Chens teachings, respecting Chen as an authority from the past, and
incorporating Chens teachings into his own system, though probably without
practicing them personally.
I can tell from the individual wording of Liu Yimings quotes from Chens
works that Liu was reading Chens works as printed in Jindan zhengli daquan or Daoshu
quanji, and not from the Zhengtong daozang. We have seen how both of these
collections had national distribution Jindan zhengli daquan was printed in
government oces or even international distribution Daoshu quanji was read by
Korean alchemists. So Liu Yiming was able to become familiar with Chens
teachings, even living far from southern China, and within the milieu of Quanzhen
together with Zhang Chonglie and Li Kan, compiled Jindan zhenchuan. For a discussion of it, see pages 42427.
91
Guben Zhouyi Cantong qi jizhu and Wuzhen pian jizhu are reproduced in Daozang jinghua. Qiu also wrote at least
two other Daoist works: Jindan tiliang ,+, and Huanglao canwu 5*$ cf. Daozang jinghua edition of
Wuzhen pian jizhu, p. 58.
92
Stylenames Master Awakened to the Prime Wuyuanzi $, Master of Simplicity Supuzi (>, and
RoughlyClothed Loafer Beihe Sanren .=1, from Quwo presentday Shanxi province and active in
presentday Gansu province. Cf. Liu Ning, Liu Yiming xiudao sixiang yanjiu, 36.
93
Eight texts are in Daoshu shierzhong. These are: Cantong zhizhi * ; Jindan sibaizi jie 6;
Tonuan wen /B ; Wugen shu jie 2&?6; Wuzhen zhizhi $' ; Xiuzhen biannan #'DC; Xiuzhen houbian
#'D; and Xiuzhen jiuyao #'!. Another text, Baihui xiangzhu 7, I have seen only as an etext.
584
Daoism.
Liu Huayang 1736?94 quotes Jindan dayao twice in his Huayang jinxian
zhenglun
1790. Liu was a Chan Buddhist monk who was unable to
attain the wisdom he sought until he encountered Wu Shouyang and received his
secret instructions.95 Later Daoists printed the works of Wu Shouyang and Liu
Huayang together under the title WuLiu xianzong
, and now consider them
to have formed a school together, WuLiu Pai . Since Wu died in 1644 or
1640, Liu could not have physically encountered Wu, so Liu must have met him in a
vision, or perhaps he considered Wu to be living on in the world as an immortal. The
content of the Jindan dayao quotation in Lius work is negligible.96 It is not surprising
that Liu should have been familiar with Chens writings, as they are quoted in Wus
works, which Liu knew well.
2.4.3, Imperial publications.
The great imperial collectanea Gujin tushu jicheng
170626 prints dozens of Daoist texts in its section on the arts of
stillness jinong , including Chens song Panhuo ge from Jindan dayao.97
Perhaps the editors of Gujin tushu jicheng selected this Song on Judging Delusions
for inclusion because this song is so explicitly critical of all sorts of degenerate even
coprophiliac selfcultivation practices that the editors felt Panhuo ge re
ected an
orthodox viewpoint.98 We may also note that Gujin tushu jicheng reprints a mutilated
version of Wuzhen pian sanzhu, with only the commentary attributed to Xue
Daoguang included, and the controversial commentaries by Lu Ziye and Chen Zhixu
excised. The editors of Gujin tushu jicheng regarded Chen Zhixu as an authoritative
Daoist, worthy of the attention of cultivated readers, but their selective reprinting of
Panhuo ge and Wuzhen pian sanzhu amounts to a willful distortion or counterreading
of Chens oeuvre. The general editors of Gujin tushu jicheng were Chen Menglei
16511741 and Jiang Tingxi 16691723. Chen hailed from presentday
94
From Hongdu i.e., Hongzhou , presentday Nanchang , Jiangxi province.
95
Liu Huayang, Huiming jing, preface, 1b1 in Zangwai daoshu, 5:876.
96
Liu Huayang, Jinxian zhenglun, 26b8, 47a4 in Zangwai daoshu, 5:931, 942.
97
Chen Menglei, Gujin tushu jicheng, j. 302.
98
I have translated this text on pages 2049 above.
585
Fujian province, and Jiang came from Changshu, in presentday Jiangsu province, but
this probably would not have had any bearing on their familiarity with or views of
these works by Chen Zhixu. Chen Menglei was also an associate of Li Guangdi.99
The imperiallysponsored rhymedictionary Yuding Peiwen yunfu !

1711, under the chief editorship of Zhang Yushu
1642 1711, quotes
Chens Cantong qi commentary twice. From their selection of passages for quotation,
we can see that Zhang Yushu and his compilers regarded Chen as an authority on the
Cantong qi, specically as an authority with esoteric knowledge. Recall that Zhang
Yushu was an associate of the courtiercumsexualalchemist Qiu Zhaoao.
There was a supplement to Peiwen yunfu, entitled Yunfu shiyi !
1720,
under the editorship of Zhang Tingyu

1672 1755,100 which quotes Jindan
dayao twice. These quotes are brief and of negligible signicance.101
As a Grand Secretary, Zhang Tingyu was one of the highest ocials in the
realm, and a member of the Yongzheng Emperors inner court. He was the chief
compiler of the Mingshi
1739, but before working on this project, he also compiled
another imperial rhymedictionary, Yuding pianzi leibian "
1728, which is
of great signicance for my study of Chen Zhixus legacy.102 This dictionary quotes
Chens works no less than 119 times, with almost all of these quotes coming from
Jindan dayao. Many of these quotes show the editors interest in and approval of
sexual alchemy. According to his choice of quotations, the editor
or editors also
seems to support Chen Zhixus outrageous contention that the Buddhist patriarchs
of the past had all secretly practiced sexual alchemy. Recall that it was this notion
that made Wang Shizhen particularly incensed. The editor quotes many Daoist
sources, but Buddhist sources very rarely, and NeoConfucian sources not at all. I will
discuss this in detail below in section 3.
99
Zhang Huizhi, Zhonuo lidai renming da cidian, 1389.
100
Bynames Hengchen and Yanzhai , from Tongcheng

in presentday Anhui province, a Grand
Secretary
Da Xueshi and Grand Minister
Shangshu of the highest rank
1a during the Yongzheng
reign period
1722 35. Zhang left the literary collection Chuanjing tang ji .
101
In Zhang Yushu, Peiwen yunfu, 4:4478.3, 4482.2

both in j. 34.
102
This is according to Li Xueqin and L Wenyu, Siku da cidian, s.v. Pianzi leibian ", 2058 59. According
to Qingshi gao, 47:4365b8 9, Wu Shiyu
? 1733 presented a Pianzi leibian in 1719. I trust the exhaustive
entry in Siku da cidian more than this short and perplexing line in Qingshi gao.
586
Another imperiallysponsored dictionary, Yuding fenlei zijin I0j!g

1722 , quotes Chen Zhixu once,103 but briey and without signicance.
Qinding siku quanshu zongmu tiyao, compiled between 1781 and 1789 under the
chief editorship of Ji Yun @3 17241805 , has entries on Chen Zhixus Jindan dayao
and Cantong qi commentary; the latter text is also reprinted in Siku quanshu. The
entries on Jindan dayao and Zhuzhen yuanao jicheng dGYV" mildly criticize
Chen for claiming that all Buddhist and Daoist teachings boil down to alchemy:
This book of
Chen Zhixus seems not to stray from Mr. Wei
Boyangs original
principles,
but his
attempt to drag together all books on Laozi, Zhuangzi, and
Buddhism, and identify them as teachings on the golden elixir, cannot but be far
fetched. Every form of scholarship has its origin and development. Not only are
Buddhism and Daoism dierent paths, but the Daoist school
itself may not be
summed up within a single track.
AU<FS i#/L %N&F?;>6
a9(7
ZeO$\=8J&_MX*_D H[C104
What Zhao Youqin says is also all
in line with the principles of Wuzhen pian. His
Xianfo tongyuan, with elaborate and wideranging citations, argues that entering
the chamber to seek the elixir is something that all transcendents and buddhas
or, all Daoists and Buddhists have done.

This idea is passed in the form of
Chen Zhixus Jindan dayao, which illuminates the meaning of Xianfo tongyuan
most clearly. However, as for saying that this is what the Buddhists mean
when
they speak of a separate transmission outside the teachings, not based in
language, we do not know if this truly accords with
the facts or not!
bR1-?EGc#/&\ch`Qf&?$:,

.W>PAU6
B/T2&\]^'>*kK
)W !#95/4 +105
The compilers of Siku zongmu very sensibly object to Chen Zhixus claim that all
Daoist and Buddhist masters have practiced his form of alchemy. In this, they agree
with Wang Shizhen, but disagree with Zhang Tingyu in Pianzi leibian.106 R. Guy has
written that the goal of the Taoist section of the catalog was to establish clearly, and
in some cases distinguish between, the various philosophical impulses which were
103
He Zhuo, Yuding fenlei zijin, j. 61, s.v. liuwu .
104
Ji Yun, Daojia lei zongmu, in Qinding Siku quanshu zongmu tiyao 27b36.
105
Ji Yun, Daojia lei zongmu, in Qinding Siku quanshu zongmu tiyao 34b25.
106
587
called Taoist.107
The Siku zongmu compilers were exponents of the Han learning movement,
and so they were interested in determining the authenticity of the Cantong qi in its
various editions. They have nothing bad to say about Chens Cantong qi commentary,
calling his annotations clear, open, and
uent mingbai xianchang :1.108 This
praise of Chens text is copied verbatim from Wang Qis Xu wenxian tongkao of 1586,
which says little more about Chens text than this.109 In their entry on a Qing
dynasty work, Gu Cantong qi jizhu #-, by Liu Wulong 28 js 1723, the
compilers of Siku zongmu write that Liu ought not to have based his commentary
solely on Yu Yans work, but should have drawn on the works of Peng Xiao and Chen
Zhixu as well:
As for Yu Yans Fahui, it truly is not as good as the commentaries by Peng Xiao
and Chen Zhixu. Taking Yu Yans work
alone as his basis, Lius
discussion
could not be accurate.
;*(0 '6%!+,75
<3110
The compilers of Siku zongmu say of Yu Yans DZ 1005, Zhouyi Cantong qi fahui #
*(:
Although he was not up to the level of Peng Xiao, Chen Xianwei, and Chen
Zhixu in terms of specialized Daoist learning, he is very erudite in his use of
materials.
9 '6%:.%!+,/"$4)
&111
Note the contrasting attitudes of Luo Qinshun112 and the compilers of the Siku
zongmu. The compilers preferred Chen Zhixus work to Yu Yans for the reason that
Chen had more Daoist esotericism than Yu Yan, while Luo preferred Yu Yans to
Chens because Chen had too much Daoist esotericism. We must remember that not
all nonDaoist literati shared Luo Qinshuns dismissive attitude toward Daoist works.
The Siku zongmu compilers also criticize Li Guangdis
. 18th c.
107
Guy, The Emperors Four Treasuries, 115.
108
Ji Yun, Daojia lei zongmu, in Qinding Siku quanshu zongmu tiyao 31a3.
109
Xu wenxian tongkao 185.4269.
110
Ji Yun, Daojia lei cunmu zongmu, in Qinding Siku quanshu zongmu tiyao 14a45.
111
112
See p. 574 above.
588
Cantong qi zhangju for following the spurious old text edition,113 and for
saying that among the other editions, Zhu Changchuns edition found in HanWei
congshu114 is closest to the original version of Cantong qi. After looking at Zhus
edition, the compilers of Siku zongmu note that Zhus edition was simply a copy of
Chen Zhixus edition stripped of Chens commentary, that Li Guangdi did not
recognize this, and therefore that Li did not know what he was talking about.115 The
Siku zongmu compilers betray their distinctively HanLearning approach here. They
seem again to be defending Chens work against those who would dismiss it.
2.4.4, Other reference works.
In a commentary on the poems of Su Shi
10371101 from the turn of the eighteenth century, Zha Shenxing 1650
1728116 cites a line from Chens Cantong qi commentary in his note on a term
appearing in one of Su Shis poems.117 Like Qiu Zhaoao, Zha was a disciple of Huang
Zongxi. It is conceivable that Qiu could have introduced Zha to alchemical literature,
or Zha may have encountered it the same way Qiu did, though he probably was not a
practicing alchemist as Qiu was.
In Guizhou tongzhi of 1741, Chen is listed in the section on Daoists
and Buddhists of Sinan
prefecture, in the same words as the entry in Qian ji of
1604.118 The chief editor of Guizhou tongzhi was E Ertai 16771745, an
associate of Zhang Tingyu at court.
2.4.5, Summary: eighteenth century.
The most important nding from this
analysis of eighteenthcentury citations of Chen and his works is that there seems to
have been active interest in Daoism, inner alchemy, and even sexual alchemy, among
high o cials in the Kangxi and Yongzheng courts, probably with the approval of
these emperors themselves. Qiu Zhaoao stands at the center of this web of linkages.
113
Ji Yun, Daojia lei cunmu zongmu, in Qinding Siku quanshu zongmu tiyao 11ab.
114
See p. 576 above.
115
116
Zha Shenxing came from Haining in presentday Zhejiang. He was awarded a jinshi degree out of
recognition for his poetry, but did not stay long at court.
117
Zha Shenxing, Su shi buzhu 39.11a78. The term is ziwu the zi and wu doublehours, approximately
midnight and noon.
118
E Ertai, Guizhou tongzhi 32.13b5 p. 637.
589
Qiu was a lineal heir of Wang Yangming Wang YangmingHuang ZongxiQiu

Zhaoao, though his attitude toward sexual alchemy was quite opposite to Wangs. At
home in Guiji, Qiu knew Tao Susi. At court, Qiu knew Li Guangdi who compiled a
Cantong qi commentary, and Zhang Yushu and Zha Shenxing who were aware of
Chen Zhixus work but not active followers. Li Guangdi knew Chen Menglei, who
selectively incorporated Chen Zhixus works into Gujin tushu jicheng unless it was the
other editor Jiang Tingxi who did this, and Qiu may have known Chen Menglei too.
The court ocial Zhang Tingyu seems to have been a partisan of Daoism and an avid
reader of Jindan dayao. Zhang knew E Ertai who perhaps coincidentally listed Chen
Zhixu in the gazetteer he edited. Many of these gures came from southern China,
but I think that, in this case, interest in Chen Zhixus works spread through court
channels rather than among retired scholars at home, as had been the case in
previous centuries. Recall that it was at court that Qiu Zhaoao rst read Cantong qi
and Wuzhen pian.
The other tradition appearing in this section is the scattered Longmen
Quanzhen Daoist lineage, represented here by Liu Yiming and Liu Huayang. Liu
Yimings reading of Chens works was probably unrelated to geography: he must have
found Chen in collections of universal distribution such as Jindan zhengli daquan or
Daoshu quanji. But Liu Huayang came from a local Jiangxi tradition of Quanzhen
Daoism.
Analysis of publishing and booklists from this century reveals that most of
the book publishing and collecting activity taking place in Zhejiang with three
reprintings119 and one booklist120. The second most active site of book publication
and collecting was the imperial court. It seems Chens works began to spread out of
the southern region more during this century: his works were also reprinted in
Korea,121 and listed in booklists from Shandong122 and Liaoning.123
119
Tao Susis Daoyan wuzhong reprints Jindan dayao; Qiu Zhaoaos Cantong qi and Wuzhen pian commentary
collections reprint Chens commentaries.
120
Zhejiang tongzhi, by Li Wei , et al., dated 1736, mentions a reprint of Jindan zhengli daquan; ibid., 245.19b
7:4058.
121
Doga jikji dokyo kyng, which reprints Jindan dayao.
122
Jiaqu Tang shumu, by Lu Liao , dated 1730, lists Wuzhen pian sanzhu and Jindan zhengli daquan; ibid., 1938,
590
2.5, Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries

Most of the citations of Chen Zhixu and his works for this last period I found in
Daoist etexts. I know of very few references from nonDaoist texts. For previous
centuries, I found these references through a search of the Siku quanshu database, but
this does not cover works written after 1776.
2.5.1, The Western Lineage of inner alchemy.
Li Xiyue 180656124
founder of the Western Lineage Xipai

of inner alchemy, cites Chen Zhixu a
halfdozen times in his Daoqiao tan , as well as brie
y in two subcommentaries
to commentaries by Liu Yiming.125 Ma Jiren points out that Li Xiyue established his
Western Lineage in contradistinction to the Eastern Lineage of Lu Xixing 1520
ca. 1601, who lived two centuries before him. Ma says that although Li Xiyue set
himself up in contradistinction to Lu Xixing, Lis practices were actually based on
Lus. Like his practices, even Li Xiyues names Western Moon Xiyue ,
Harboring Void Hanxu , and Round Peak Yuanjiao are variations of
Lu Xixings names Western Star Xixing , Submerged in Void Qianxu ,
and Square Jug Fanghu , a transcendent mountainisle.126 Sexual alchemy
played an important role in the teachings of both authors. Zeng Chuanhui also notes
that Li Xiyue regarded the sexual alchemist Sun Jiaoluan 15051610 as an ancestral
patriarch.127 Only one of Lis quotations of Chen Zhixu is of interest; it is a re
interpretation by Li of Chens words. Li is advocating a less physical form of sexual
alchemy in which the man and woman do not remove their clothes, and touch in
spirit only. Of more interest is a preface to Lis subcommentary Wugen shu ci zhujie
, which compares Lis work to Chens Wuzhen pian sanzhu. I will discuss
1942.
123
Cao Yin, Lianting shumu, 2645, lists Wuzhen pian sanzhu.
124
Byname Hanxu , stylename Changyi Shanren , from Leshan in presentday Sichuan
province.
125
Daodejing zhushi , and Wugen shu ci zhujie, photoreproduced in Daozang jinghua.
126
Ma Jiren, Daojiao yu liandan, 109; Hao Qin, Longhu dandao, 137.
127
Zeng Chuanhui, Yuandai Cantong xue, 108. Because Tao Susi and Qiu Zhaoao studied under Sun Jiaoluan, Li
Xiyue took Sun as his ancestral teacher, Zeng says that Sun Jiaoluans teachings were wellrespected and
transmitted during the Qing dynasty; ibid., 113
591
this in section 3 below.

Li Xiyues alchemical tradition is still being transmitted today, and two later
writers in this tradition also quote Chen Zhixu. Wang Qihuo #8R . 190016 128
editor of Daotong dacheng D9 a major collection of Daoist texts printed in
1900 , cites Chen in three of his texts.129 Wangs disciple Xu Songyao 0E= also
cites Chen Zhixu.130 According to Xu Songyao, Wang Qihuo was a secondgeneration
disciple of Li Xiyue: Li Xiyue transmitted his teachings Wu Tiantie "U of
Shaanxi among others , and Wu Tiantie was one of Wang Qihuos masters. These
citations by Wang and Xu are not worth discussing in this chapter, except for one
passage from Xus Tianle ji L>, in which he writes to a disciple,
Now I am sending you a copy of Jindan dayao. You must read it until you are
familiar with it, then enlighten yourself with it
by reading it over thirty or fty
times. Then you will know the meaning of my words.
T5+/6/VM71 N
*!$%
This passage shows that Chens works were considered essential reading within this
tradition, and that Xu believed that his teachings echoed Chens words. These texts
from the Western Lineage were put online in 2001 by one Chen Yuzhao ;@B b.
ca. 1930 of Ningbo, Zhejiang province, presumably Xu Songyaos disciple.
2.5.2, Other sexual alchemists.
Fu Jinquan <+K 17651845 131 author of
more than a dozen commentaries and original works collected in his Jiyizi daoshu shiqi
zhong QD2I, was one of Chen Zhixus most avid latterday followers. Fu
has been called a Daoist of the Eastern Lineage of Lu Xixing,132 but I have seen no
evidence to support this. Fu actually valued Chens teachings more highly than he did
128
Byname Dongting ),, stylenames Mountain Dweller Who Embodies the Real Tizhen Shanren W4
and External Secretary of Mystic Hiddenness Xuanyin Waishi S , from Xiuning G county, Anhui
province. Cf. Hu Fuchen, Zhonghua daojiao da cidian, s.v. Wang Qihuo #8R, 208.
129
These are Xingming yaozhi (&/, Liewei nzhen shige 4CH, and Tizhen shanren zhenjue yulu W4
4:JO preface 191516 .
130
Xu Songyao, stylenames Layman of Mystic Stillness Xuanjing Jushi P' and Haiyin Shanren 3
, from western Zhejiang. I have seen an etext version of his text Tianle ji on the Xianxue wang website. I do not
have a printed edition of this text, so I cannot give page numbers below.
131
Byname Dingyun F?, stylename Jiyizi Q 17651845, or 17961850 , from Shancheng .- in Jinxi +A
presentday Shancheng, District, Jinxi county, Jiangxi province ; see Xie Zhengqiang, Fu Jinquan neidan sixiang
yanjiu.
132
Hu Fuchen, Zhonghua daojiao da cidian, s.v. Fu Jinquan <+K, 217.
592
Lu Xixings. Fus anthology includes his subcommentaries on Chens Cantong qi and

Wuzhen pian commentaries, plus another work by Fu including hundreds of
quotations from Chens writings.133 In his subcommentaries on Chens commentaries,
we see Fu interpreting Chens words in more openly sexual language. Fu also
emphasizes Chens critiques of nonsexual alchemists, those who merely practice
calming meditation. There is also a valuable preface to Fus Cantong qi
subcommentary by one of Fus disciples which states the distinction between sexual
alchemy and purecultivation qingxiu alchemy in unequivocal terms.
Two other texts of unknown date but probably from the nineteenth century
oering a sexualalchemical reading of Chen Zhixus writings are Xiyou zhenquan
by Chen Shibin %,134 and a lateimperial edition of the classic Xingming
guizhi . I have determined that Chen Shibins quotations ascribed to Chen
Zhixu are unsubtle sexualalchemical fabrications, not the words of Chen Zhixu at
all. Xingming guizhi is a seventeenthcentury text, probably rst printed in 1615, but
later expanded. The early edition of Xingming guizhi was only about onequarter the
length of the edition reproduced in Zangwai daoshu.135 None of the citations of Chen
Zhixu in Xingming guizhi occur in that early portion of the text. The early version of
the text appears not to have taught sexual alchemy, as one of the early prefaces
actually criticizes sexual alchemy;136 yet blatantly sexual quotations from Jindan dayao
can be found in the later sections of the text.137 The Xingming guizhi is an interesting
case: we see the addition of sexualalchemical material to an early purecultivation
text. This may have occurred in a time or place in the history of inner alchemy when
sexual alchemy had become more popular than purecultivation alchemy.
133
Daoshu yiguan zhenji yijian lu
#" 1813.
134
A.k.a. Yunsheng , stylename Wuyizi , from Shanyin this may be in Shaoxing !, present
day Zhejiang province. Xiyou zhenquan is an alchemical commentary on the Xiyou ji. I have an etext from the
Loujin ge website, but no printed text.
135
In Zangwai daoshu, 9:50495. The early edition of Xingming guizhi has been translated and studied in Darga, Das
alchemistische Buch von innerem Wesen und Lebensenergie: Xingming guizhi.
136
This is in the 1669 preface by You Tong $; Xingming guizhi, preface, 1b2, in Zangwai daoshu, 9:506.
137
E.g., Chens allegorical description of the personied Primal Qi DZ 1067, Shangyangzi Jindan dayao 3.7b6, who
rides a white tiger and loves to eat the turtle i.e., male organ
with great passion
& Xingming
guizhi, in Zangwai daoshu, 9:558. This quotation, although verbatim, is not attributed to Jindan dayao in Xingming
guizhi.
593
2.5.3, Quanzhen critics.
I have found two voices from the Longmen lineage
of Quanzhen Daoism who do not approve of Chen Zhixus teachings. Chen Jiaoyou
)% 182481138 in his history of Quanzhen Daoism, Changchun daojiao yuanliu
0%/ 1879, criticizes Chen for claiming to belong to a Quanzhen sublineage
when he really belongs to the Southern Lineage Nanzong of inner alchemy;
see page 80 above.139 Chen Jiaoyou also cites criticisms of Chen Zhixu from Wang
Shizhen and Siku zongmu, and so in a sense revives a discourse of criticism of Chen
Zhixu which had not been seen for centuries at least in the records I have found.
Another author writing from a Longmenlineage perspective is Wang Mu
before 1909?.140 Wang writes:
As for Chen Zhixus system, it was yet another o
shoot of Shi Tais
disciples, advocating the union of the two lineages the Southern Lineage, and
the Quanzhen lineage . He both advocated pure cultivation and spoke of yin
and yang sexual cultivation , and was in truth a false pretender runtong -&
of the Southern Lineage.141
Wang criticizes Chen Zhixu as being an aberration among Zhang Boduans heirs, but
does not absolutely reject his approach to alchemy.
2.5.4, Other Daoist readers.
Chen Zhixu is praised in an 1822 preface to an
edition of Cantong qi: Of those who annotated this book, Shangyangzi was the best
+.*.142 Chen is also quoted by Jiyangzi 4. late Qing? in
Jindan miaojue (,143 and Zhao Bichen 251 1860after 1933 in Xingming
138
Name Minggui 3", Byname Youshan , stylename Master of Sulao Cave Sulao Dongzhu ,7, from
Dongguan ', Guangdong province. In his middle age he entered the Quanzhen order at Mt. Luofu 6! in
Guangdong.
139
Chen Jiaoyou, Changchun daojiao yuanliu, 2:16668.
140
Wang was the author of Wu zhenpian qianzhu and Neidan yangsheng gongfa zhiyao 1990, I have not seen this, and
editor of Daojiao wupai danfa jingxuan, 5 vols., 1989. That he writes from an obviously Longmen perspective was
pointed out to me by Wang Ka
, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
141
Wang Mu, Wu zhenpian qianzhu, preface, 9.
142
Ma Yizhen #, Chongkan Guwen Cantong qi xu $ , reprinted in Cantong qi fenjie mijie
143
Jindan miaojue is reproduced in Daozang jinghua. I have only seen the etext version, and not the printed
version.
594
fajue mingzhi .144 The contents of these quotes are negligible, but they
tell us that Chens works were authoritative for later authorities. Zhao Bichen was
one of the most important inner alchemical writers in recent times. Zhaos works
have been translated and studied by Catherine Despeux and Lu Kuan Y Charles
Luk .145
Accounts of Chens life and career are included in two undated Daoist works
which are probably from recent times, Dacheng jieyao and Jingai Shan gu
Meihua Guan zhi !$. The Dacheng jieyao account is discussed in more
detail on pages 7778 above. The Dacheng jieyao hagiography develops Chens own
account of his travels among ethnic minorities in present day Guizhou province into
a story in which Chen is saved by the Consort of Heaven Tianfei from an
attempted assassination by Lao & people.146 This odd story may represent an
attempt by the author of Dacheng jieyao or his sources to link Chen Zhixu to the
Mazu
cult of southeastern China. Chen is also quoted three times in Dacheng
jieyao, but all three of these quotes are sheer fabrications. One quote deals with
fasting and abjuring strong avors, and one deals with Zhong L style physiological
alchemy.147 This may represent an attempt by the author to lend Chens authority to
his own practices and gods by placing them in the mouth of a hazily known Daoist
master of the past.
Jingai Shan gu Meihua Guan zhi includes Chen Zhixu in a Quanzhen Daoist
lineage as a twenty rst generation heir of Ma Danyang.148 This seems to confuse
144
Zhao Bichen, Xingming fajue mingzhi 7.1b45, 7.10b48, 16.8b9 Zangwai daoshu, 26:52, 57, 123 . Zhao was
originally from Changping county present day rural Beijing , and was active in Huaian present day
Jiangsu province .
145
Lu Kuan Y has translated Xingming fajue mingzhi as Taoist Yoga: Alchemy and Immortality New York, 1970 , and
Catherine Despeux has translated Zhaos Weisheng shenglixue mingzhi "# as Trait dalchimie et de
physiologie taoste Paris, 1979 .
146
I have Dacheng jieyao in three printed editions, as well as one electronic le. Some say the text was compiled
from the notes of Liu Huayang, but it is more likely that it is a Republican Period product; Jiangnan Ke,
Zhongguo gudai qigong yaoji daodu. The Dongfang xiudao wenku edition includes prefaces from Daoists of
Baiyun Guan $ in Beijing n.d. , Liaoning province 1929 , and Laoshan % in Shandong 1933 . This
passage is on pages 15758 of the Dongfang xiudao wenku edition.
147
Dacheng jieyao, Dongfang xiudao wenku ed., 161, 208. The third passage is on p. 221 .
148
I only have seen an online edition of this, and no printed version. See Jingai Shan gu Meihua Guan zhi in the
bibliography. Mt. Jingai is in Wucheng , Huzhou
, Zhejiang province.
595
Chen Zhixu with another person of similar name who belonged to the Longmen
lineage in the late Ming or early Qing dynasty. This may be simple error, or error
combined with an attempt to co opt Chens name and add luster to the lineage.
Chen Zhixu is also briey mentioned in the 1893 novel Qizhen yinguo zhuan
3#< by Huang Yongliang ;). Huang, who may have been a Longmen
Quanzhen Daoist,149 lists Chen Zhixu as the disciple of Xue Daoguang, and the
master of Bai Yuchan.150 Huang seems to have mistaken Chen Zhixu for Chen Nan
6>, the fourth patriarch of the Southern Lineage.
2.5.5, Other nonDaoist citations.
A Qing gazetteer from Guizhou, Zunyi fuzhi
IB"!, produced in 1841 by Zheng Zhen E+ 180664 , et al., again records Chen
Zhixu as an alchemist who traveled to Sitang, and made alchemical elixirs on the top
of Mt. Wansheng there. This entry has no information not found in other sources. I
list this reference in the section on Chens biography and hagiography in chapter 2.
A Qing critique of geomancy, Fengshui quhuo -Q7, by Ding Ruipu PG
. ca. 1850? 151 quotes Chen Zhixu once:
Qingnang aoyu . . . also says: Turning turning upside down, in the twenty four
mountains are pearls and treasures; following or advancing against the current, in
the twenty four mountains are re pits. These are the words of Chen Zhixu of
the Yuan dynasty, thus a reference to the self cultivation of the alchemists.
(O=DMM. 2N:4
6,8D0/@5152
Ding says that Qingnang aoyu (O=D153 is quoting Chen Zhixu, but these are
actually not Chens words. This tells us that Chen Zhixu was only hazily familiar to
the nineteenth century Zhejiang literatus Ding Ruipu.
2.5.6, Summary: nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
During this last pre
149
In Qizhen yinguo zhuan, preface, 2a, Huangs name is given as Latter day Student of Longmen J'*F Huang
Yongliang.
150
Qizhen yinguo zhuan 1.14b45, in Zangwai daoshu, 35:441; trans. Eva Wong, Seven Taoist Masters, 18.
151
Fengshui quhuo is included in Yuehe jingshe congchao %C&K9, a collectanea printed by Ding Ruipus son
Ding Baoshu N1. Yuehe jingshe congchao was printed in 1880, probably by Ding Baoshu himself. The Dings were
from Guian L present day Wuxing H, Zhejiang province . Li Xueqin and L Wenyu, Siku da cidian, s.v.
Yuehe jingshe congchao %C&K9, 2092.
152
I found this quotation from Fengshui quhuo in an online posting, and have not seen a printed version of Fengshui
quhuo.
153
Qingnang aoyu is a geomancy text ascribed to a Tang dynasty author, Yang Yunsong ?A$, but, as argued by
Ding Ruipu, is probably a Ming or Qing dynasty product.
596
modern period we see Chen cited and studied within traditions of practice Li Xiyue
and his heirs, Fu Jinquan, criticized by historians Chen Jiaoyou and Wang Mu, and
appearing in odd corners and strange guises the gazetteers, Dacheng jieyao, Qizhen
yinguo zhuan, and Ding Ruipu. The geographical distribution of his readership is still
concentrated in the south, with three or four citations linked to Zhejiang, one or two
to Guangzhou, and one each to Jiangxi, Jiangsu, Sichuan, and Guizhou. One citation
may be linked to a northern province Anhui. Chens works were hardly reprinted
during this period, excepting within the Zhengtong daozang and Daozang jiyao reprints,
and so his works rarely showed up in booklists anymore.
3, Tracing Themes in Chen Zhixus Legacy

Having surveyed the the entire known range of Chens readership from the Yuan
dynasty on in section 2 above, I will now develop two major aspects of Chens
readership and legacy: sexual alchemy, and commentary on the alchemical classics
Wuzhen pian and Cantong qi. I will develop these aspects by translating and analyzing
important passages from more than a dozen of Chens later readers.
Most of Chens readers took sexual alchemy as the most important theme in
Chens teachings. From Chens time on, inner alchemists debated whether the elixir
should be harvested through coition in dual cultivation, shuangxiu or whether it
should be sought entirely within ones own person in pure cultivation, qingxiu.
Throughout this section, I will argue that Chens works were central to this debate
over sexual alchemy. Chens teachings were known to all, and advocates of both
positions had to address his teachings, whether to declaim them, advance them, or
merely acknowledge them.
Chen Zhixu was known in later times more for his commentaries than for his
Jindan dayao. When latterday alchemists used Chens teachings to formulate their
own positions, they were primarily using Chens teachings as found in his Wuzhen pian
and Cantong qi commentaries. Wuzhen pian and Cantong qi became the core scriptures
597
of inneralchemical tradition, and I will argue that this may have been due in part to
Chens legacy.
Below, I present and analyze the more important source passages from Chens
readership, grouping them into ten subsections. I will begin with a passage written
in 1841 by Yu Muchun ;qL,154 from a preface to a Cantong qi commentary by Fu
Jinquan _8o. This passage contains many of the themes I will be developing
throughout section 3, here presented in stark dichotomies:
I am a junior ocial in the southeast. In my youth I admired the mystic
fraternity, and enjoyed roving to Daoist monasteries, and associating with and
paying respects to the Yellow Caps Daoists . They emphasize purity, and
habitually practice seated meditation. That one must discard wife and children
and enter the mountains, and that only then can one be free and untrammeled, is
the Quanzhen teaching. It has been some years since I rst bowed before a
teacher and received teachings. Yet as soon as I read an alchemical scripture, I
become dizzy and confused, doubtful and uncertain, unable to decide how to
proceed. We may say that the words of alchemical scriptures are completely
about action, while the teachings of the Yellow Caps are completely about
nonaction wuwei cC. Which one is right? How can there be proof of this?
The Most High Lord Lao established this tradition of teaching, pronouncing
the Scripture of Purity and Tranquility,155 and promulgating the laws of purity. It has
lasted ten thousand years without falling into disuse: how could it be wrong?
Cantong qi and Wuzhen pian are the patriarchs of alchemical scripture. Reading
them is like drifting on a redoubled hyperborean sea, vast and misty, without
shores. If you ask the various elder Daoists and wellread Confucians about these
scriptures , they say the scriptures are completely incoherent, without certain
interpretation.
I have weighed the situation privately, and I believe that there must be one
right answer. If the Quanzhen teaching tradition is right, then the alchemical
scriptures can all be discarded. If the alchemical scriptures are right, then the
teaching tradition is completely wrong. The two are just the black versus the
white, the bitter versus the sweet, as di
erent as ice and charcoal. It has been
probably ten years now that this question has been smoldering in my heart.
How would I be able to meet a noted worthy man who could clarify it for me?
L4>
q= 1`bi|Pxe<wWXY)V/
D 0Sf[n!JULA#.u ,&{
h=Iaj}Z2tTlhk- 'e<UkzcCQBQ
:% y!U9mWXh$WX6gpNS
:PGJhK{7E~McH3sr"i\
154
Stylename Qianyangzi Od , of Macheng ^?, Hubei province. This is a preface for Dingpi Shangyangzi
yuanzhu Cantong qi ]+d F5P@, Fu Jinquans subcommentary to Chen Zhixus commentary.
155
E.g., DZ 620, Taishang Laojun shuo chang qingjing miaojing "(mRWv*h; there are also many other
editions.
598
tl~{`/<iP7^C /EW?EBhlo
hEBW?l~A =wdm$Im"2,)GQQ1}
n.6-Uk+sF4_156
The preface continues by describing how the writer heard about Master Fu Jinquan,
tracked him down, and received his teachings. Yu Muchun receives the teachings
from Master Fu in the form of texts:
I furthermore asked for a lesson on the Three Commentaries to Wuzhen
pian, and
Cantong
qi. Master said: These have textual distortions, and are not the
authentic editions. He immediately opened his book casket and handed me a
slipcase, saying: This is Shangyangzis original commentary to Cantong
qi,
divided into thirtyve chapters, and along with it, the Three Perfecteds
commentaries to Wuzhen pian. In addition are appended Jindan zhenchuan and
Shijin shi157 to serve as proofs for latterday students seeking a teacher. I have
added dotted underscoring to all of them, to alert
the reader to their secrets. I
have topped them o with appraisals in the form of eyebrow notes, to uncover
their subtleties. This will allow anyone with eyes to see
the secrets: drink deeply
of it!
PbMN S* rR'#
0ZeAN!3X
xV
0cKbS* [NbM
Nq @>Nf j>& FDu]LvHT
zy:Op\5a:g9/%(8:;158
This passage contains many of the themes I will explore throughout the rest
of this chapter. Mu states that there are two main categories in the eld of inner
alchemy. Mu calls these the ways of action youwei /F and nonaction wuwei `F ,
but other Daoists might call these two categories pure cultivation qingxiu YJ
and dual cultivation shuangxiu |J . The eld of inner alchemy could conceivably
be congured in many other ways, but this is the way the various Ming and Qing
dynasty writers on alchemy chose to congure it. I will study the historical
development of this conguration below.
Mu identies the way of action with the two great summae of inner alchemy,
Cantong qi and Wuzhen pian, and their commentaries. He identies the way of
nonaction with Laozi and the Quanzhen monastic institution. Apparently, in Mus
experience, Quanzhen Daoists practiced seated meditation but were not serious
156
Yu Muchun, in Dingpi Shangyangzi yuanzhu Cantong qi, preface, 1a2b4 Zangwai daoshu, 11:745 .
157
For Jindan zhenchuan >Nf True transmission of the golden elixir , by Sun Ruzhong 1615 , see Wile, Art of
the Bedchamber, 15369, and pp. 42427 above. Shijin shi Stone for testing gold is Fu Jinquans own work, known as
Dingpi shijin shi \5j>&.
158
Yu Muchun, in Dingpi Shangyangzi yuanzhu Cantong qi, preface, 2a6b3 Zangwai daoshu, 11:746 .
599
practitioners of inner alchemy. This account of the way of nonaction in terms of

Quanzhen practice is unique among the passages I study in this chapter, but the
account of the way of action is typical: sexual alchemy was spoken in the idiom of
Cantong qi and Wuzhen pian, and developed through the writing and study of
commentaries on these classics.
A corollary of this study of commentaries is that, for these men, throughout
the chapter, alchemy is a textual tradition, and may be learned through books. These
students of alchemy were all autodidacts, more or less. They credited their learning
to the books they read more than to the handson instruction of a teacher. Some may
even have learned little from human teachers. This is a signicant departure from
Chen Zhixus teachings: for Chen, the student can learn nothing without oral
instructions received personally from a teacher. Chen was afraid that his teachings
would escape from the his control, or from the control of the class of handson
masters like himself. By the Ming dynasty, this had occurred.
Mu describes an absolute choice facing the bewildered student: of the two
paths of action and nonaction, both paths cannot be correct, yet the student by
himself cannot tell which path is the correct one. Mu is aided in his decision by
Master Fu Jinquan, but the aid comes in the form of printed books rather than oral
instructions. Mu learns that the correct choice is sexual alchemy, as exemplied in
the works of Chen Zhixu. The idea of alchemical teachings being transmitted in the
form of texts, rather than secret instructions, will be a recurring theme below.
Chen Zhixus teachings play a part in the scene presented by Mus preface, in
a number of ways. The form of inner alchemy which Mu chose as the correct one was
a form based on Chen Zhixus teachings. The various themes we see in this passage
a scenario with a beginning student, a conguration of the eld of inner alchemy, and
a choice to be madeare also, in a sense, based on Chen Zhixus teachings. I do not
mean that these themes were adapted directly from his books, but that Chens
teachings were associated with these themes for most alchemists, whether they
chose to follow Chens teachings or not. In the scenario with a beginning student,
the student turns rst to the Cantong qi and Wuzhen pian, including Chens
600
authoritative commentaries to these works. In the conguration of the eld,

Chens teachings exemplied one of the two categories of alchemy. In the choice to
be made, Chens teachings are one of the main options from which the alchemist
may select. Chen Zhixus teachings were one of the major elements used by alchemist
actors in the Ming and Qing dynasties as they negotiated their traditions and created
the history of inner alchemy as we know it.
3.1, Early Reactions
The earliest references to Chen Zhixu are by Dai Qizong . ca. 133537 ,
Zhao Yizhen
?1382 , and Zhang Yuchu 13591410 . Dai refers to
Chen by name; although Zhao and Zhang do not refer to Chen by name, I will argue
that they were also referring to him. All of these references are to Chens Wuzhen pian
commentary and perhaps also his Cantong qi commentary .
3.1.1, Dai Qizong.
Dai Qizong copies nine passages from Chen Zhixus
Wuzhen pian commentary into his own work, DZ 141, Ziyang Zhenren Wuzhen pian
zhushu 1335 . In this work, Dai copies the original Wuzhen pian
text and Weng Baoguangs . 1173 commentary, adding his own shu
subcommentary after Wengs zhu . At nine points, Dai adds in Chens
commentary on a Wuzhen pian passage, often verbatim and in toto. He also adds in Lu
Ziyes commentary at least once. Dai must have owned a copy of DZ 142,
Ziyang Zhenren Wuzhen pian sanzhu, the Wuzhen pian edition produced by Chen Zhixu
and his patrondisciple Zhang Shihong . In another work DZ 143 , Dai
discusses a Wuzhen pian commentary ascribed to Xue Daoguang159 that he has
seen, arguing that this Xue commentary is actually the work of Weng Baoguang, and
not by Xue.160 Here Dai must be speaking of the Xue Daoguang sections in DZ 142,
Wuzhen pian sanzhu, though he does not mention it by name. Liu Tsunyan has argued
convincingly that this Xue commentary within Wuzhen pian sanzhu may actually have
been excerpted from a commentary by Xue, and is not necessarily being wrongly
159
Xue Daoguang or Xue Shi is the third patriarch of the Southern Lineage of the Golden Elixir.
160
In the section Jindan faxiang , in DZ 143, Ziyang Zhenren Wuzhen zhizhi xiangshuo sansheng miyao 19b
23b.
601
attributed to Weng Baoguang.161 Dais argument, that the Xue commentary is Wengs
work, is reasonable, yet he may have been making this argument not simply out of
disinterested scholarship, but because he wished his own DZ 141, Wuzhen pian zhushu
to replace Chens DZ 142, Wuzhen pian sanzhu in the alchemical marketplace. Perhaps
he meant to absorb the best points from Chens work the passages he copied
, and
correct a weakness of the work the Xue error
. Dais readership in later times never
came close to Chens readership in size however.
In Dais alchemical marketplace, readers are willing to accept sexual alchemy.
Dai is obviously advocating dual cultivation when he writes, for example,
By this we know that the yin essence semen cannot be cultivated alone, but
rather one must use it in dual cultivation.
162

Of the nine passages of Chens words copied from Wuzhen pian sanzhu, four passages
openly refer to sexual alchemy, two passages may refer to it, and three passages do
not refer to it.163 Two interesting features of Dais quotations are a passage including
an anecdote by Chen Zhixu about his lineal master Zhang Ziqiong , and a long
L Dongbin tale about a Buddhist monk whose spirit left his body in the form of a
snake while he was dreaming.164 The moral of the L Dongbin tale is that mere zazen
here said to involve breath control bixi , ingesting qi fuqi , and
suppression of desire and ignorance
is worthless as a form of selfcultivation. From
these inclusions we can conclude that Dai agreed with Chens critique of formless
zazen, and to Chens claims about his own immediate lineage.
3.1.2, Zhang Yuchu.
I have found a passage in Zhang Yuchus literary
collection DZ 1311, Xianquan ji 1407

that must be referring to Chen Zhixu. I
discuss Zhang Yuchu before turning to Zhao Yizhen because they are both saying
similar things, but Zhang o ers more detail. Reading Zhao after Zhang strengthens
161
Liu Tsunyan, Zhang Boduan yu Wuzhen pian, 797802.
162
DZ 141, Ziyang Zhenren Wuzhen pian zhushu 1.13b1014a1.
163
Open references: DZ 141, Ziyang Zhenren Wuzhen pian zhushu 1.10b113a3, 2.12a113a9, 5.2a810, 5.19b720b6;
possible references: 3:17a10b7, 4.1b89; nonreferences: 6.15b717a8, 7.4b95a4, 8.16b617b8.
164
Within the quotations at DZ 141, Ziyang Zhenren Wuzhen pian zhushu 8.16b617b8 and 6.15b717a8, respectively.
These are from DZ 142, Ziyang Zhenren Wuzhen pian sanzhu 4.21a1022b1 and 5.21a922b10, respectively.
602
my argument that both are referring to Chen Zhixu.

The passage is from a short text reproduced within Xianquan ji entitled
Preface to Compilation of Essentials on the Elixir Dan zuanyao xuJ, . This
would have been the preface to a now lost compilation of alchemical teachings.
In the parts of the passage that I am reproducing here, Zhang begins by
describing the origin of alchemy and arguing that inner alchemy and laboratory
alchemy share the same essence:
. . . The so called great elixir of metallous humor started out in Jinbi longhu
jing165 and Taishang shishi ge.166 Then when Wei Boyang of the Han dynasty wrote
Cantong qi based on Jinbi jing, he relied on the Changes to clarify the elixir . . .
Now, we may say that in the tradition of the outer elixir or, outer alchemy,
one gathers the best parts from the ve metals and eight stones, then cooks them
to rene them, following the ring periods and yin tallies.167 This is no dierent
from the ascending and descending, or advancing and retreating, of the dao of the
inner elixir or, inner alchemy. Therefore, the inner and outer applications are
one. . . .
) F%2"%AG#< (?@I:
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E ;$% CB*.753HD-9/
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169
Although we might not expect a Celestial Master like Zhang Yuchu to be a
transmitter of inner alchemical teachings, his work Xianquan ji discusses the virtues
of inner alchemy at more than one place. Because Zhang identies the Cantong qi as
the origin of contemporary alchemical practice, I infer that Zhang must have been
familiar with inner alchemical teachings of the Southern Lineage, that is, teachings in
the tradition of Zhang Boduan and his Wuzhen pian. Other traditions of inner
alchemy, including Quanzhen and Zhong L alchemy, did not accord Cantong qi pride
of place. In DZ 1232, Daomen shigui >&6, a text oering rules for the Daoist life,
165
Sometimes Jinbi longhu jing %AG#< is regarded as a single text, and sometimes Longhu jing and Jinbi jing are
treated as separate texts. These texts or text are often regarded as the inspirations for Wei Boyangs Cantong qi.
However, before the Song dynasty, Longhu jing was an alternative title of Cantong qi, and Jinbi jing was a separate
but related text; Pregadio, The Early History of the Zhouyi cantong qi, 17071.
166
Not found.
167
Yinfu 75 refers to the period during the ring cycle when the alchemist uses a gentle ame and does not
actively re the elixir.
168
DZ 1311, Xianquan ji 2.15a46.
169
DZ 1311, Xianquan ji 2.15b46.
603
Zhang gives a list of what he considers to be the major alchemical scriptures:

Shibi ji ?', Longhu jing A4, Cantong qi (, Wuzhen pian #$>, Cuixu
pian ;.>, Huanyuan pian B2>, Zhixuan pian >, Dadao ge 89, Cui
Gong ruyao jing )
CD, Jindan sibai zi .170
Except for the rst two texts in the list, these texts were all produced or studied
within the Southern Lineage. Zhang mentions the Qingwei *1 tradition betimes in
his writings,171 but this cannot explain his interest in the SouthernLineage texts,
because Qingwei inner alchemy was closer to ZhongLstyle inner alchemy
neither
of them emphasizes the Cantong qi. Zhangs alchemy involved the Cantong qi, and the
writings produced by the Southern Lineage, and so I do not think it was Qingwei
alchemy.
The passage from Zhang continues:
Thus, the alchemical furnaces and medical stoves among the named mountains
and rivers have all left historical traces. As for those alchemists of the caliber of
my ancestor the Celestial Master Zhang Daoling of the Han dynasty, Grand
Scribe Xu Xun, and Old Man Ge Xuan the Transcendent, their transmission
over the generations has been especially prominent.
/EC,
-172
@7!%:"+6& 0
Zhangs mentioning of the traces of alchemical workshops in the mountains left by

Zhang Daoling, Xu Xun +=, and Ge Xuan 6 would have been familiar to Chen
Zhixu. The cults of Xu Xun and Ge Xuan were popular in Chens native region, and
he mentions them often in Jindan dayao. These three gures, among others, are also
part of Chens extended lineage in DZ 1070 see page 96 above . Ironically, Chen
Zhixu himself was remembered for centuries in rural Guizhou as such a gure: a holy
man of yore who had built an alchemical workshop in the wilderness, completed the
elixir, and achieved transcendence, leaving behind an elixir platform dantai <
on the top of Myriad Sages Mountain Wansheng Shan 35; see page 69 above .
These correspondences between Zhang Yuchu and Chen Zhixu are due to the fact
that the two men both came from a similar place and time, and a similar religious
170
DZ 1232, Daomen shigui 8b8 10.
171
E.g., at DZ 1311, Xianquan ji 1.19a1.
172
DZ 1311, Xianquan ji 2.15b8 10.
604
environment.
The passage continues:
Thus, all those traditions which dispense with both inner and outer alchemy
are
preposterous. In the latter days of the Yuan dynasty, some illbehaved and
frivolous types were striving to outdo each other in promoting heterodox
teachings, and practiced the art of gathering and battling. Their thieving
practices were written up in book form, and these books made use of the words
of worthy teachers of the past to give evidence of the truth of
their mendacious
enticements. Many rich merchants and members of the great families of the time
followed these teachers, in order to extend their lifespans and give free rein to
their passions, but this could only end in their losing their lives and meeting their
end. As for the man who made the rst
grave attendant gurine,173 how great
would be the karmic retribution for this primal ignorance!174 At one time I
wanted to combat and declaim them or him
, and it pains me that I was not able
to broaden my result
.
4/.M17*LZ\:-9&R6BYEKD
;>V$8^SJOIT P@+[W
G%( 3
')"0.N]HO!2 QC,A=
U#175
Zhang speaks of wayward alchemical teachers living in the latter period of the Yuan
dynasty Yuan jijian *L, which is just when Chen and his disciples would have
been active. Zhang speaks of privatelypublished books of sexual alchemy, books
which cite the words of previous masters, twisting these words so as to make the
masters seem to be promoting sexual alchemical teachings. I believe that Zhang is
referring to Chen Zhixu here. The only sexual alchemical texts from the latter part of
the Yuan that I know of are by Chen Zhixu and Dai Qizong, with the addition of DZ
1189, Yindan neipian FX ca. 1350, a brief text by Zhu Dongtian <5 from
Mt. Longhu. Dai Qizongs Wuzhen pian zhushu and DZ 1189, Yindan neipian do not t
Zhangs description, but Chens writings are conspicuous for citing past masters and
classic texts as evidence for their teachings. Later critics of Chen such as Wang
Shizhen would fault him for precisely this. Zhang speaks of the scions of rich and
powerful families being attracted to these pernicious teachings. This would also
describe Chens case: Chen enjoyed the support of Zhang Shihong ? and other
173
A pejorative idiom taken from Mencius, referring to the founder of some despicable practice.
174
Yeshi N] refers to the karmaproducing consciousness stirred by a sentient beings original and basic
ignorance; Foguang da cidian, s.v. yeshi N], 55034.
175
DZ 1311, Xianquan ji 2.15b1016a5.
605
ocials, young and old, both high and low in rank. Zhang Yuchu was probably not
referring to false teachers from just anywhere in China, but to teachers active close
to his home. One of Chen Zhixus main centers of activity was Hongzhou
Nanchang , located about ninety miles west of Zhangs home at Mt. Longhu. It
is conceivable, but highly unlikely, that Zhang is referring to some other teachers or
teachers rather than Chen. Perhaps someone in Zhu Dongtians circle presumably at
Mt. Longhu was also claiming that the sages of the past were sexual alchemists, but
I doubt they could have made as much of an impression as Chen did. I nd it
unlikely because these other teachers if they existed left no traces on the historical
record, while Chens traces are manifold.
Zhang Yuchu was born in 1359, about twentyve years after Chens works
began circulating. When Zhang writes I wanted to combat and declaim them or
him
, if this means Zhang wanted to suppress active teachers, these would be Chens
heirs either direct or indirect heirs, since Chen 12901343+ would likely have been
deceased by this time. But I think that Zhang means he wanted to suppress Chens
teachings circulating in textual form. Zhang especially condemns the originator of
these teachings. Although Chen drew on earlier teachers of sexual alchemy such as
Lu Ziye
, Zhang is probably condemning Chen himself here: perhaps to
punishment in the afterlife, as Wang Shizhen does. Finally, Zhang thinks that sexual
alchemy was a form of practice unlike both inner alchemy and laboratory alchemy,
but this is a misleading claim. Sexual alchemy is simply a version of inner alchemy in
which the elixir is gathered through coition. After stage 2 of the alchemical process,
stages 3 of internal ring and 4 of training the yang spirit may be identical within
solo and sexual alchemy.
3.1.3, Zhao Yizhen.
At two places in his literary collection DZ 1071,
Yuanyangzi fayu , Zhao Yizhen criticizes sexual alchemists in terms similar

to Zhang Yuchus:
Some people study things which are not the real
dao, and make preposterous
interpretations of the alchemical scriptures. They cite the Changes as evidence:
One yin and one yang: this is called the Dao. The Dao of qian becomes
606
male, and the Dao of kun 2 becomes female.176 They take the human male
and female as the caldron and the furnace, emblematizing heaven and earth. They
extract their human yin and yang as the pharmaca, and do not realize that
originally there are no male or female emblems in the great Dao. The
transcendent teachers relied upon emblems as analogies; presumably they were
referring to the precosmic principle of correspondence, not to postcosmic form
and subtance. There is an instruction that The visible cannot be used, and the
usable cannot be seen.177 This is precisely the principle of the pharmacon of the
inner elixir.
39f:0Y#oWm4 Q ViYHY%
,2Y%'
,U"?[n10QV?l57 Y
T,UBFU?S9`>!];K:=+diN
-9 9-l5&178
Do not study the broad and penetrating unyat of wildfox Chan,179 stirring
up and eliminating sin and blessing, and aunting the trigger and blade kan
style discourse. They are only drumming with their mouths so much that they
could startle the deaf, and do not pay attention to the fact that in a later time
they will be in the sea of suering.
Do not study perverse teachers who mislead the worthy people of later times,
preposterously identifying man and woman as qian and kun. They gather the other
partners essence and blood as the ancestor of the elixir. But how could a
swallow or a sparrow give birth to a sparrowhawk?
Mf6jkZ8bGXÔgeI\rqspC@D
Mf/Ba=c#,*2H1_(?EhR$)LJt180
These passages do not implicate Chen Zhixu directly, but I think they may be
referring to him, or to a type of alchemist which he exemplied. I include the rst
verse criticizing wildfox Chan here because we will see this theme again in Wang
Yangmings polemic below. Both Zhao and Wang Yangming would lump together
sexual alchemists and wildfox Chan teachers as being pernicious in similar ways.
Zhaos statement that there are teachers who make preposterous interpretations of
the alchemical scriptures #oW could conceivably refer to masters who quote
scriptures such as Cantong qi or Wuzhen pian in their everyday discourse, but it may
also refer to masters who wrote sexualalchemical commentaries of such scriptures,
176
These two sayings come from Yijing, Xici zhuan, 1.5.1, 1.1.4; Rutt, The Book of Changes Zhouyi, 411, 409.
177
This is a paraphrase from Wuzhen pian, Wul, yishou < A section a.k.a. Wuyan, yishou . A; cf.
Wang Mu, Wuzhen pian qianjie, 133; or DZ 142, Ziyang Zhenren Wuzhen pian sanzhu 5.1a36.
178
DZ 1071, Yuanyangzi fayu 1.2b93a5.
179
Chan teachings which appear to be true but are not Foguang da cidian, s.v. Yehu Chan P6j, 4818 perhaps
like a wild fox spirit taking on human form.
180
DZ 1071, Yuanyangzi fayu 2.1b92a2.
607
and Chen
s commentaries were the most wellknown. My contention that Zhao is
referring to Chen Zhixu also gains strength when combined with my analysis of
Zhang Yuchu
s writings above. Zhao
s critique of sexual alchemy is premised on the
principle that the sacred forces invoked in inner alchemy should not be confused
with bodily uids or indeed any material substance. As we have seen, Chen Zhixu
agrees with this: the female partner
s pharmacon of yang metal is gathered during
coitus, but it is merely coincidental with corporeal activity, rather than being
completely identied with bodily uids, as critics claimed. Actually, on pages 48385
above, I argue that, while separable in theory, the female partner
s intangible metal qi
and tangible water are inseparable in practice. The qi is signaled by and coincident
with uid. Thus, someone criticizing Chen
s alchemy because it involves substances
would be making a valid point.
3.1.4, Conclusions.
In this period the fourteenth and early fteenth
centuries, sexual alchemy had not yet gained legitimacy outside certain circles. It
was not part of the alchemical mainstream, and Zhang Yuchu and Zhao Yizhen did
not have to take it seriously. The range of Zhang
s references to inneralchemical
practices, texts, and traditions covers both the Southern Lineage and Quanzhen
traditions: he refers both to Southern Lineage classics such as Wuzhen pian, Cuixu
pian, and Huanyuan pian, and to Quanzhen practices such as chujia leaving the
householder
s life181 or zuohuan undertaking a meditation retreat within a
hut.182 This reects a place and time in the history of Daoism when elements of
Southern Lineage and Quanzhen traditions were being combined by dierent actors
in dierent ways. Zhao Yizhen
s Qingwei inner alchemy was ZhongLstyle inner
alchemy, a form of alchemy eclipsed in the Ming dynasty by SouthernLineagestyle
alchemy such as Chen Zhixu
s. Sexual alchemy was not yet something Zhang Yuchu
or Zhao Yizhen were forced to take seriously, as later solo cultivators would be forced
181
DZ 1232, Daomen shigui 14b13. The notion of chujia was not associated only with Quanzhen Daoists, but with
other types of ordained Daoist; Chen Zhixu says that his disciple Ming Suchan had chujia
ed. See p. 109 above,
and DZ 1067, Shangyangzi Jindan dayao 12.1a9b3.
182
DZ 1232, Daomen shigui 7a3. The founder of Quanzhen Daoism, Wang Chongyang, achieved enlightenment
while dwelling in his grave of the living dead man huosiren mu for the better part of two years, a self
designed rite of passage. Ma Danyang institutionalized a hundredday huandu retreat for Quanzhen Daoists.
The practice continued until at least the eighteenth century; Goossaert, La cration du taosme moderne, 172
219.
608
to.
In this chapter I argue that, when people analyzed the eld of inner alchemy,
they viewed it rst in terms of two broad categories: sexual alchemy, and pure
cultivation. In DZ 1232, Daomen shigui, we already see Zhang employing these two
categories:
The scripture says: Gentlemen who study the dao take purity as their
foundation, and view all perverse daos like they are viewing enemies. They
distance themselves from the various forms of
love and lust like avoiding
stinking lth. They eliminate the roots of suering and anxiety, sever the
attachments of fondness and love. Therefore, after leaving the householders life,
one distances oneself from passions and cuts o love, gives up the inappropriate
and inclines to the real.
! ("
* '" 0$'%+.
,)&/ -183
The scripture Zhang is quoting here, a Songdynasty Lingbao scripture DZ 18,184
contrasts qingjing * directly with xiedao ". The path of perversity xiedao is
associated with concupiscence, stinking lth, Buddhistlike dukha, and loving
attachment. Zhang goes a step beyond the classical Lingbao scripture by applying
qingjing to the detached Daoist monastic life, and xiedao to the emotionally
embroiled life of the householder. Although Zhang is not directly applying the term
xiedao " to sexual alchemy in this passage, he would not hesitate to do so on page
605 above, Zhang calls sexual alchemical teachings xieshuo #. Zhang would say
that a practitioner of sexual alchemy, like a householder, involves himself or herself in
lust and in lth. Chen Zhixu would disagree that sexual alchemy must involve lust: as
we have seen in chapter 5, the male sexual alchemist must pay particular attention to
curbing his enthusiasm when with the partner. Also note that in this quotation from
DZ 18, we see how the directlyopposed categories of qingjing and xiedao may have
been used in other contexts in the Song dynasty before being applied to the
categories of pure cultivation and dual cultivation in inner alchemy.
3.2, Polemics by Two LayDaoist Literati
183
DZ 1232, Daomen shigui 14b15.
184
DZ 18, Taishang xuhuang tianzun sishijiu zhang jing 7a67. John Lagerwey argues that it is a Songdynasty text;
Schipper and Verellen, The Taoist Canon, 952.
609
3.2.1, Wang Yangming.
Wang Yangming 14721529 and Wang Shizhen 152690
denounce Chen Zhixu in the strongest terms. I will examine the substance of their
remarks, and attempt to explain their vitriol. Both men practiced Daoist meditation,
and Wang Shizhen also followed a BuddhoDaoist teacher, Tanyangzi. Wang Shizhen
may have been trying to avoid being damned by his peers for association with bad
Daoism, and the same may hold for Wang Yangming.
First I will translate and analyze a pair of Wang Yangmings poems entitled
Two poems written about Wuzhen pian in reply to Zhang, Minister for Ceremonials
#"%:.(', written in 1514 while Wang was working as an ocial in
Nanjing.185 The rst poem reads:
The Chapters on Awakening to the Truth are chapters which mistake the truth,186
and the Three Commentaries to the Wuzhen pian
are the annotations of a single
hand. The authorities
are bent on personal prot, and cannot bear to kill
these
demonic enticers. Thus, they allow false teachers
to vie in transmitting
confusion and wantonness.
One can hardly avoid blaming
Zhang Pingshu as the originator; yet
who
would slander Xue Zixian as having caused
the rst misfortune? I will speak to
you directly with a single word: Start from the beginning by having a look at wild
fox Chan.
"%:8%: 5
+C2$1
&A0
,4@(3;7?/<
96* )=-> 187
Wang Yangming avers that the three commentaries in DZ 142, Ziyang Zhenren Wuzhen
pian sanzhu were all written by a single person, i.e., Chen Zhixu.188 While Wang is
strongly opposed to Chens teachings, he is less negative, perhaps ambivalent, about
the Wuzhen pian itself. Zhang Boduans original work commits the sin of providing
Chen with the material to develop his perversions, yet Wang would not blame Zhang
Boduan or his lineal heir Xue Daoguang for Chens results.
In this poem there are several echoes of themes we have encountered in the
185
Wangs post was Chief Minister of the Court of State Ceremonial Honglu si qing B!, rank 4a.
186
Note the pun: wuzhen "% ironically leads to wuzhen 8%.
187
Wang Yangming, Wang Yangming quanji, 1:744, for both poems.
188
This charge that Chen Zhixu composed all three commentaries is baseless. There are actually plenty of
contradictions between the three commentaries, and it would be hard to imagine a single author aiming for this
eect.
610
passages by Zhang Yuchu and Zhao Bichen above. Like Zhang Yuchu, Wang
Yangming sighs that these wicked teachings have not been eradicated through
government action. He even speaks of the teachers as being demonic yaomo =,
thus not even human beings. And like Zhang, Wang speaks of such teachers vying
with each other to spread their teachings, implying that such teachers were
numerous. Like Zhao Yizhen, Wang compares the teachers of sexual alchemy to
teachers of wildfox Chan. These are two kinds of false teachers, who claim to be
transmitting the true teachings of the patriarchs, but who have distorted these
teachings. By applying the category of wildfox Chan to Chen Zhixu, Wang again
implies that Chen is not fully human.
The second poem reads:
Mistaking the truth is not equivalent to the Chapters on Awakening to the Truth:
Pingshu Zhang Boduan already spoke of this back in his time. It is only because
people of this generation have too many a
ectionate attachments, and
furthermore they set o
karmic causes and conditions by following their
passions and desires.
How could you ever discuss dreams in front of an idiot? Within the topic of
true nature, it would be even more hard to speak of the mysterious.189 I would
ask the Daoists to look with a di
erent eye, and try to see what sort of a thing
blue Heaven is.190
3#!#6/"

>-()5&7
;%+82#<4
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Zhang Yuchu blamed the popularity of sexual alchemy on peoples lust aiyu .5
and loving attachment qinai 9.. Wang Yangming echoes this, but in more
Buddhist terms. Wang wishes that these Daoists would occupy themselves more
protably with with NeoConfucian topics, investigating the moral nature and its
source in Heaven rather than their Daoist mysteries xuan .
Wangs Coected Works also contain a longer prose passage discussing Chen
Zhixus teachings. This is a letter entitled Reply to a person asking about spirits and
transcendents ,'$, written in 1508. I translate the letter below, slightly
abbreviated:
189
That is, it would be hard to nd something more darkly mysterious and unknowable than true nature itself.
190
Wang would rather that Daoists study the moral nature, and its source, Heaven.
611
Wuchen year, i.e., 1508.

You have asked me whether spirits and transcendents exist or not, and also asked
about their aairs. You have asked me thrice without receiving a reply. It is not
that I do not wish to reply, but that I have nothing to reply, thats all. . . .
Wang then describes his physical debilities at the age of thirty
something.
He contrasts himself with the sages:
In ancient times, there were ultimate men, who puried their virtue and
crystallized the Dao, harmonizing with yin and yang, adjusting themselves to
the four seasons, departing from the world and distancing themselves from the
vulgar, amassing their essence and making their spirits whole. They roved
between heaven and earth, seeing and hearing things beyond the distant reaches
of the eight directions. As for Guangchengzis 1500
year lifespan without
debility, or Li Boyangs lasting through the Shang and Zhou dynasties, then
crossing the Hangu Pass to the westthese things also happened. If this were
true but I said it never happened, I would suspect myself of hoodwinking you.
Now, taking the Dao as ones substance in breathing out or in, in movement
or stillness, rening ones bones to the end, one possesses the qi, in its pure form
from when the qi was rst received. It is likely that this is something
accomplished by Heaven, not something a human can compel by force. As for
latter
day feats such as uprooting the entire household and ascending to
Heaven,191 causing transformation by alchemical projection dianhua ,192
or casting oneself into and arrogating the body of another person touduo
,193 these are just bizarre weirdness and odd shockers. These are thus the
secret skills and dishonest tricks which Yin Wenzi called illusions, and
kyamuni called heresies waidao . If I said that they do exist, I would
again suspect myself of hoodwinking you. Now, language cannot capture what is
in the hazy realm between existence and non
existence. If you keep it for a long
time it will become clear to you; if you cultivate it deeply, you will attain it
yourself. But if you have not arrived at spiritual attainment and yet you make
forced analogies, you will not necessarily gain others assent.
One may say that we Confucians also possess a dao of spirits and
transcendents: Yanzi died at the age of thirty
two, and he is still present even
today. Can you believe this?
One may say that latter
day types like Shangyangzi are gentlemen of skills
from beyond the normal realm fangwai . We cannot regard these skills as
dao. As for types like Bodhidharma and Huineng, they are almost close
enough, but not yet easy to speak of. If you wish to hear their teachings, you
must rst retire and dwell in the mountains and forests for thirty years, to make
your ears and eyes whole, concentrate the intention in your heart, and let your
191
Xu Xun is supposed to have achieved this miracle; his story was the most well
known, but not the only such
story.
192
That is, casting a bit of catalyst onto a piece of material and achieving an instant transformation.
193
Touduo is short for toutai duoshe

. This sort of magical feat is described near the end of Chen Zhixus
commentary to Wuzhen pian. It was also mentioned in fairytales: this is how Li Tieguai one of the Eight
Immortals came to have the body of a crippled beggar. See pp. 52829 above. Eskildsen, Emergency Death
Meditations for Internal Alchemists is the best reference on this topic.
612
breast be blown clean of even one mote of dust; only after this can you discuss
spirits and transcendents
.
At present we
are still far from the dao of transcendents, and there is no
blame in my
inappropriate words.
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Wang does not feel qualied to discuss transcendenthood, since he himself has no
such attainment. He accepts myths about sages of the past such as Guangchengzi
and Li Boyang i.e., Laozi, who belong to Confucian as well as Daoist lore, but
doubts that the heterodox phantasms of latterday Daoists such as Shangyangzi
belong in the same category. Chan masters are comparable to these heterodox
Daoists, though not as bad.
Wang contrasts his own debility at a relatively young age with the perfect
health and immortality of the transcendents, but also proposes a sort of Confucian
immortality. Yan Hui is an example of a Confucian immortal. Yan mentions his own
age, and also mentions Yans age when he died, so Wang is implicitly comparing
himself with Yan, suggesting he could be a Confucian immortal too. We see Wang
as a Confucian partisan competing with Daoism.
Note that Wang singles out Chen Zhixu for special mention. In Wangs eyes,
Chen Zhixu is a negative exemplar of contemporary Daoism in general. Wang
reacted strongly to Wuzhen pian sanzhu. We cannot know if Wangs knowledge of
Chen was limited to this work, or if Wang knew of other writings by Chen, or lore
about Chen. Also note that Wang does not discuss Daoism in terms of the two
ocial categories of Celestial Master Daoism and Quanzhen Daoism. The Celestial
194
Wang Yangming, Wang Yangming quanji, 1:8056. In yu Dao wei ti w, I read yu as meaning jiang
or ba P.
613
Masters were recognized by emperors in the Yuan and Ming dynasties; the Quanzhen
institution did not gain o cial recognition in the Ming, but it had been extremely
powerful for some time during the Yuan. Does Wang not mention Celestial Master
or Quanzhen Daoism here because he would not mention them in the same breath
with a charlatan alchemist like Shangyangzi? This cannot be the reason, since he does
mention the o ciallyvenerated Chan patriarchs Bodhidharma and Huineng in the
same breath with Shangyangzi.
I would argue that the teachings of Chen Zhixu made more of an impression
on Wang Yangming than the teachings or activities of Celestial Master Daoism and
Quanzhen Daoism did. Actually, Wang does not mention these traditions even once
in his collected works.195 If we wrote the history of Daoism in this period based
solely on dynastic histories and court records, the Celestial Masters and Quanzhen
Daoists would receive much mention, and Chen Zhixu none at all. But, from the case
of Wang Yangming, we can see that the Daoism of Chen Zhixu was clearly well
known and discussed within literati society, sometimes more so than o cially
recognized Daoism. The history of Daoism cannot be studied through o cial
records alone.
3.2.2, Wang Shizhen.
Wang Shizhen was a major literary gure, ranked as the
most prominent representative of the classicist school in the Ming dynasty.196 In

addition to honoring the Confucian teachings and sages, he was also a practicing
Daoist and Buddhist. Among his nearly ve hundred juan of collected writings are
many dozen reading essays. These are brief, informal pieces written in reaction to
books Wang had read, reecting his thoughts just at the time he nished his
reading.197 The essays are arranged by category including a Daoism category, and
seem to be arranged in chronological order within these categories, so one can use
this order to trace the evolution of Wangs thinking. Many of these reading essays are
195
An electronic search of the fourjuan Wang Yangming quanji nds no references to Celestial Master
or Quanzhen Daoism.
196
Goodrich and Fang, Dictionary of Ming Biography, 1399. This classicist school is called the Gu Wenci
Yundong .
197
Wangs collected works were published as Yanzhou Shanren sibu gao 174 j. and Yanzhou Shanren
xugao 207 j.. Yanzhou Shanren dushu hou
8 j. reprints selected reading essays.
614
on classics, literature, or biographies, but there are also, by my count, fortyseven

essays on Daoist books, and twenty essays on Buddhist books. Six of the essays on
Daoist books mention Chen Zhixu. The rst of these six essays is on Wuzhen pian
sanzhu, a text which seems to have aected Wang Shizhen very strongly. In the
subsequent ve essays, we see Wang comparing other inneralchemical writings to
Wuzhen pian sanzhu, testing each new text to see if it is as pernicious as Sanzhu.
The rich rst essay, Written after reading
the Three Commentaries to Wuzhen
pian 647P +/, is worth translating at length. I interrupt my translation
twice for analysis.
Zhang Pingshu, styled
Ziyang, wrote the poems and songs of Wuzhen in order to
reveal and clarify the secret instructions of the golden elixir. Their contents are
recursive and concealed. Although not easy to plumb, the texts
general
instructions are contained between two poles, namely, seeking within the body,
and seeking outside the body. The meaning of the teaching of seeking outside the
body is the same as what the Lankavat ra stra says in the section about the
ten
transcendents: Solidify oneself ceaselessly through intercourse.198 I dare not
testify that this does not exist, but this is such a vile act, so dangerous in its
mechanism, so base in its character, and its eect is so dicult to achieve.
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Wang Shizhen proposes a clean division of inneralchemical approaches into two
categories: alchemy which seeks the pharmaca for the elixir within the body, and
alchemy which seeks the pharmaca outside the body. These correspond to the two
categories of pure cultivation and dual cultivation. I doubt this is the rst time in
history that the eld of inner alchemy was explicitly congured in this way, but it is
the rst time we have seen it done by an author referring to Chen Zhixu. It has
remained the dominant way of looking at inner alchemy down to the present day.
I think that in Wang Shizhens time and place, sexual alchemy had already
become a major alternative within inneralchemical tradition, and Wang could not
easily dismiss it as a marginal commotion as Zhang Yuchu did or demonize it as
198
This comes from T 945, Dafoding rulai miyin xiudeng liaoyi zhu pusa wanxing shou lengyan jing, 19:145c11: :&O
3FUCM. I have not found this quoted in any Daoist text.
199
Wang Shizhen, Yanzhou Shanren xugao 158.18b819a3 57:724849.
615
Wang Yangming did

, but had to refute it point by point. In this passage, Wang
Shizhens reasons for rejecting sexual alchemy are that it is vulgar, debased,
ine ective, and dangerous perhaps because of the danger of overindulgence, which
could be fatal
.
Wangs essay on Wuzhen pian sanzhu continues:
The commentaries of both Xue and Lu seem to o er a mixture of clarity and
obscurity. However, when it comes to that of Chen Zhixu, styled Shangyangzi,
nothing is held back! Whats more, the wild, unrestrained, and absurd import of
his words extinguishes the Dao of Heaven, and injures the rules of men. But his
especially heinous crime is to sully the words of the sages. We may say this is not
allowed by the kings laws, and would be repaid with a spirited lashing in hell.
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Wang accuses Chen Zhixu of crimes against Heaven and humanity, without o ering
any details of these crimes. I think that what he really has in mind is Chens
blasphemy against Daoist and Buddhist scriptures and classics, which he discusses in
detail below. Note also that Wang Shizhen consigns Chen Zhixu to Hell: I doubt
Wang is speaking facetiously.
Wangs essay on Wuzhen pian sanzhu continues:
He says: Perfect yin and perfect yang are solidly existing things. Of the same
kind refers to a sentient being. That which is void and empty is the emerging
horizon of qi at the age of sixteen.201 His primary meaning is this: possessing qi
but without substance, the two things form each other, and a single object is
produced therefrom. The single thing refers to the perfect one qi congealing
into a single pearl like a kernel of millet.
Now, as for quoting the Scripture of Salvation, which says The Heavenly
Worthy of Primal Commencement suspended a single precious pearl, as big as a
kernel of broomcorn millet, in the middle of empty darkness,202 this is the rst
instance of his sullying the sages words.
He also says: Following the ow produces a person; going against the ow
produces a transcendent or a buddha.203 As for becoming a transcendent, could
200
Wang Shizhen, Yanzhou Shanren xugao 158.19a37 57:7249

.
201
In Wuzhen pian sanzhu these sentences are attributed to Xue Daoguang, not Chen Zhixu; DZ 142, Ziyang Zhenren
Wuzhen pian sanzhu 1.5b106a1. Whoever it was that rst composed these words Xue or Weng Baoguang
, it was
not Chen.
202
For a translation of this episode from DZ 87, Yuanshi wuliang duren shangpin miaojing sizhu, see Bokenkamp,
Early Daoist Scriptures, 408.
203
This is a paraphrase, not a verbatim quote. Cf., e.g., DZ 142, Ziyang Zhenren Wuzhen pian sanzhu, preface, 5a23.
616
this also be called becoming a buddha? Produced from this idea, he goes so far
as to speak of
kyamunis asceticism in the Himalayas, or Bodhidharmas
facing the wall on Mt. Song for nine years, as this thing.204 Therefore, these two
sages would have rst gathered the elixir from a woman, and afterward performed
this trick with it. Now, there is no need to discuss the case of the Buddha.
When Bodhidharma achieved the Dao he was already a centenarian. He said
There is a vessel of the dharma in the middle kingdom whom I can transmit the
dharma to, and therefore faced the wall in order to reveal his mechanism, and
rst gained the second patriarch. How can he now speak of Bodhidharma as a
sexual alchemist? This is the second instance of his sullying the sages words.
The Buddhist stras say: Like dew, and like lightning. This means that all
dharmas of purposeful action youwei /H are illusory, as well as swift and
ungraspable. To use this Buddhist quotation now as testimony that his sexual
practice is swift and easily controlledwhat an error this is!205 A golden body
eight spans in height206this is
kyamunis transformation body. To cite this
now as a metaphor for the sixteen ounces i.e., the age of sixteenwhere does
he get this from? He also says: Mazu had never cultivated the great pharmacon,
and sought buddhahood through lifeless zazen: because of this came Huairangs
trigger of polishing the brick.207 Therefore, Nanyue Huairang seduced Mazu
into becoming a wanton! This is the third instance of his sullying the sages
words.
The pearl that the dragonchild played with at the assembly at Vulture Peak
was a perfect and precious mani pearl. But to cite this as the lead from a woman
would be to say that the nagaprincess committed wantonness with the World
Honored One in the central marketplace in full view of the multitudes!208 This
is the fourth instance of his sullying the sages words.
In sum, the crime of Xue Daoguang was in the practicing, and the crime of
Chen Zhixu was in his words. Daoguangs betrayal of his teachers and Zhixus
slandering the Buddha measure up to the same thing. But Daoguang achieved
something, and Zhixu achieved nothing. Alack, that Zhang Ziyangs instructions
should have been more obscure the clearer they were, allowing some people in
the world to use Awakening to the Truth to mistake the truththese people are
the three commentators.
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204
DZ 142, Ziyang Zhenren Wuzhen pian sanzhu 4.16b2; and 4.27b4, 5.6b9. The references to Bodhidharmas facing
the wall 4.27b4, 5.6b9 are attributed to Xue Daoguang rather than Chen Zhixu.
205
206
Found only in Jindan dayao, and not in Wuzhen pian sanzhu; DZ 1067, Shangyangzi jindan dayao 3.3a6 7 also cf.
16.2a2.
207
DZ 142, Ziyang Zhenren Wuzhen pian sanzhu 1.19a8 9.
208
This refers to a passage beginning at DZ 142, Ziyang Zhenren Wuzhen pian sanzhu 2.10b10.
617
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Wang Shizhen has understood the practices being advocated in Wuzhen pian sanzhu,
has decoded some of the language of the text, and has identied how Chen Zhixu
plays fast and loose with Daoist and Buddhist symbols. However Wang does not
appreciate the way in which alchemical language works on dierent levels. When
Chen says the pharmacon is received from the woman during coitus, and also says
the Buddha received the mani pearl from the Naga Princess, Chen may, or may not,
be saying that the Buddha actually received the mani pearl from the Naga Princess
during coitus. Similarly, Chen is probably not saying that the precious pearl
suspended in the void by Yuanshi Tianzun is simply gross sexual uids. Chen is
saying that these things belong to the same category, that embraces both physiological
and spiritual registers. I think that, in some cases, Chen is trying to eect a oneway
correspondence between a myth and a practice. Chen wants to the sacred aura of
the traditional Lingbao Daoist myth to rub o on his specic practices the
secondary salvic eect of emulating the gods, but without necessarily attempting
to infuse the sacred myths and symbols with his own physiological practices. Wang
Shizhen, on his part, refuses any such symbolic contact between pure myths and base
practices. Often, Chen does seem unambiguously to impute sexual practices to the
gods or patriarchs, including kyamuni, Bodhidharma, Huairang, and Mazu.
In an essay entitled Bai Ziqings Chapters Pointing out the Mystery +mbO
*, Wang Shizhen ranges the works of Zhang Boduan, Chen Nan gt, and Bai
Yuchan on one side, against Chen Zhixu and unnamed others on the other side:
Bai Yuchan, the Perfected, styled Ziqing, took Chen Niwan as his teacher.
Niwans dao was also received from Xue Zixian. The three grades of
transcendenthood and three stages in rening the elixir in Ziqings work
Discourse on Discriminating Fallacies are all found within ones own body, and
do not depend on the neighbor to the west. . . .
209
Wang Shizhen, Yanzhou Shanren xugao 158.19a720a7 57:724951.
618
For the untrammeled ease and gaiety of the poetry, no one is better than Bai
Ziqing. Overall, the miscellanies of Zhang Ziyang and Chen Niwan all approach
the perfect. The others are no better than Chen Shangyang and his ilk, put
together through relying on and copying
the originals. Although they are wide
ranging and erudite in their discimination, in truth the quality theoretical
material therein is scanty.
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Chen Zhixus work made such a strong impression on Wang that he uses Chen as a
negative standard by which to judge all other alchemists, and in every aspect. Here
we see Wang Shizhens polarization of inner alchemists into two classes of good
purecultivators and bad dualcultivators applied to the category of literary
aesthetics.
In an essay entitled
Written after
reading Four Hundred Words on the Golden
Elixir C!,)H, Wang absolves Zhang Boduan from any suspicion of
teaching sexual alchemy:
. . . Yet, I still suspected
Zhang Boduan of teachings related to the jade
maiden, southern garden, hand upholding the olives, dragon and tiger
meeting and battling, storm in the grotto chamber, or teachings touching on
inquiring at the neighbors.. . . Afterward, I knew he had absolutely nothing of
the socalled west neighbor teaching, and the instructions of Wuzhen pian can
also be guided back to
practices contained within a single body. . . . How could
Ziyang have misled the world by means of Xues commentary, when his
instructions were to pick out the secret within
ones own body in order to save
and correct
the world? . . .
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In an essay entitled
Written after reading
Instructions for rening the elixir of
golden treasure, of the secret writ of blue orescence, from the golden case in the
210
Wang Shizhen, Yanzhou Shanren xugao 158.20a3b8 57:725152 . For shi , I translate miscellanies. Hanyu da
zidian s.v. oers miscellaneous and numerous pin za, shu duo Gv( . This is the best sense I could
make of this sentence.
211
Wang Shizhen, Yanzhou Shanren xugao 158.21a57, 21b56, 22a12 57:725355 .
619
Jade Clarity
Heaven212 3$R%;0$O? , Wang proposes a theory
about the further development of Zhang Boduans writings after his passing:
I recently looked at this book again, in which it is said that Zhang Ziyang
memorialized the Emperor on High, and wrote these charts and discourses. Its
Discussion on Illusory Elixirs forcefully exposes the fallacy of
practices relying
on the other
i.e., the partner, and brings
alchemy back to
ones own body.
Its theories are quite orthodox, and applications are quite close
to the mark, but
cannot avoid containing traces of having been tidied up. We may say that latter
day Daoists were incensed at the erroneous commentaries to Wuzhen pian of Xue,
Chen, and their ilk, and tried to correct this by
writing in Ziyangs
name.
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Whether or not the Qinghua miwen was composed as Wang suggests, his ideathat
the history of inner alchemy after Zhangs time involved struggles between pure
cultivators and dualcultivators over the meanings of Zhangs teachingsis correct.
In his reading essay on Jindan dayao, Written after
reading Chen
Shangyangs Great essentials of the golden elixir .7 >$
+), Wang admits
that Chen is very wellread, and Jindan dayao has much merit, but underscores his
previous outrage at Chens habit of nding sexual alchemy in the teachings of the
sages and patriarchs:
Chen Shangyang, named Zhixu, was a man of the Yuan dynasty. As for Daoist
books, he read almost all of them. Although he was not able to achieve a docile
renement in his style, yet
his book is still grand and unrestrained, erudite in
judgment, and forms a school of thought unto itself. His discussion of essence, qi,
and spirit is incisive and moving, justied with citations from dharmatalks. His
sections on Marvelous Application of the Golden Elixir and the Pharmacon

also have gleanable contents. But as for what he says
about the crescentmoon
furnace in the section on the Caldron and Vessel, that
the pharmacon must be
gathered from within the body of the woman,214 then thats absurd. The one thing
212
The full title of this text ought to end in 5 jue or

fa. The text appears in Zhengtong daozang DZ 240 , as well
as Daozang jiyao in ' coll., ce 1 , and Zangwai daoshu three editions, at 6:13658, 9:30014, and 9:36972 . It is
ascribed to Zhang Boduan, but some say it was actually composed under Zhangs name by the Mingdynasty
Daoist Li Puye K6; Ren Jiyu, Daozang tiyao, 171.
213
Wang Shizhen, Yanzhou Shanren xugao 158.22a8b2 57:725556 .
214
Wang Shizhens sentence is not clearly written, so I have interpolated more words than usual. I dont think he
means to say that the crescentmoon furnace itself must be gathered from the womans body, because this would
be a misunderstanding which no careful reader would make. He ought to mean that, according to the teaching
regarding the crescentmoon furnace, it i.e., the pure yang pharmacon must be drawn from the crescentmoon
furnace i.e., the womans body . The crescentmoon furnace can also refer to the kidneys, yet I suspect that the
620
I nd odd is his preposterous citation of Confucians and Buddhists, impudently

sullying the sages words. I feel that, if he did not ameliorate his guilt, it would
alter
his fateaccount with the Good Star.215 I have spoken of this in detail in my
review of Wuzhen pian. . . .
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216
In his essay
Written after reading of Chapters Pointing out the Mystery in
Anthology of the Dark Mysteries of A the Perfected, the sixth fascicle
of the Anthology
tL"ed'B"sS3A, Wang marshals Bai Yuchans teachings in
his paper war against sexual alchemy:
The discussion of the recycled elixir of golden uid in this fascicle is the most
detailed and accurate. Its citations and metaphors are very proper, and do not
approach any language about the partner. It is Ziyangs Remonstrating
O cial, and the Overseer of Defeat217 for Zixian and Shangyang.
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In this allegory, Bai Yuchans text is personied as a Remonstrating O cial
subordinate to Zhang Boduans text, with the duty of keeping Zhang Boduans
teachings honest, and preventing them from straying toward sexual alchemy. Bai
Yuchans text is also a sort of sheri, with the duty of bringing Wuzhen pian sanzhu to
justice.
Why did Wang Shizhen have such a continuing negative view of Chen Zhixus
teachings? I think we can nd direct reasons for his attitude by examining his
biography, specically, Wangs relationship with his own teacher. Some of Wangs
letters give us a precious glimpse at the lifeworld of a Mingdynasty literati inner
alchemist.
Wang Shizhen received his Daoist learning from social contacts, his own
sexual meaning of the term came rst. See pp. 28788 above.
215
The Good Star Shanxing _C is the Wood Star Muxing C or Year Star Suixing fC , i.e., Jupiter.
In popular belief, oending the Great Year Taisui f Star related to or equivalent to Jupiter is disastrous,
even perilous; Hou Chinglang, The Chinese Belief in Baleful Stars.
216
Wang Shizhen, Yanzhou Shanren xugao 159.13a8b4 57:728384 .
217
Sibai
218
Wang Shizhen, Yanzhou Shanren xugao 159.14a79 57:7285 .
Q is an alternative term for sikou
P minister of justice Hanyu da cidian, s.v. sibai
621
Q .
reading of Daoist texts, and from his teacher, Wang Daozhen 5 155880 , a.k.a.
Tanyangzi 1) Mistress of Densely Clouded Yang .219 Tanyangzi was the daughter
of Wang Shizhens friend and colleague Wang Xijue 23 15341611 , who like
Wang Shizhen was a native of Taicang , near Suzhou. Tanyangzis career began at
age sixteen, when her anc died just before they were to be wed, and she chose to
become a chaste and virtuous widow. She received her own private quarters in her
family home, and began a religious career. Her religious life involved visitations from
female transcendents, ecstatic travel, and fasting. Her teachings included elements
from both Buddhism and Daoism. She had many disciples, including Wang Shizhen
and her own father. She is said to have chosen her own time of death, then preached
a sermon before an audience of thousands before ascending as a transcendent.
Wang Shizhen became Tanyangzis formal disciple, taking refuge and
undergoing a great transformation guiyi dahua
,220 probably in 1576,
when he was dismissed from oce and returned home to Taicang. He would have
followed her teachings until she died in 1580, yet he continued to follow her
teachings after her apotheosis, as we see from a letter written to Tanyangzi beyond
the grave: Now it is exactly three years since the time of your, my transcendent
mistresss transformation (7
&-.221 Tanyangzis own religious life
involved distancing herself from the family household, celibacy, and fasting, and she
seems to have enjoined the same on Wang, as he writes in a letter to a friend:
I have already forsaken my household, but am not able to distance myself from it.
. . . I have been celibate these past three years. In the evening I drink a little ale. I
have given up strong avors222 and meat. In this way my body and spirit have
gradually become more attached to one another.
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219
This biographical information comes from the entry on Wang Daozhen in Goodrich and Fang, Dictionary of
Ming Biography, 142527. Also see Waltner, Learning from a Woman: Ming Literati Responses to Tanyangzi; idem,
Tan yang tzu and Wang Shih chen: Visionary and Bureaucrat in the Late Ming..
220
Wang Shizhen, Letter sent up to Great Mistress Tanyang 1), in Yanzhou Shanren xugao 173.1a8
58:7885 .
221
Wang Shizhen, Letter sent up to Great Mistress Tanyang, in Yanzhou Shanren xugao 173.2a2 58:7887 .
222
Hun , refers specically to the ve xin : garlic, onions, ginger, Chinese chives, and leeks. These were foods
that could not be oered to the buddhas, and were also forbidden from the Buddhist diet because they were
thought to excite the passions. Foguang da cidian, s.v. hunjiu ,", 5592; Kieschnick, The Eminent Monk, 24.
622
!223
Wang learned some selfcultivation practices from Tanyangzi, but not enough, so he
tried to teach himself more by reading inneralchemical texts and experimenting with
meditation. In the posthumous epistle to Tanyangzi, Wang tells her:
Despite the key completely revealed by my transcendent mistresss subtle
instructions, your disciple is still tormented, and sighs all the more.
In the interval I have stolen a glimpse at a thing or two in the book Jindan
zhengli daquan, and I reckon that this dao does not depend on seeking
the
pharmaca beyond
ones own body. But I have not gured out where xuan and
pin, or lead and mercury, are to be located. Also, I dont know what is true earth
and what is re timing.
In the interval I have practiced quiet sitting while I await
your? time of
coming, but I have gradually approached
a state of stubborn emptiness,224
pervasive and without location. If, for a few moments, I am not
feeling
scattered and disorderly, then I am sinking into a daze. Because I am keeping
watch at your shrine, I have not been able to go far away into the deep
mountains. . . .
Z&^<M\V %
,9Y@TJ.4 C=]W
8OA'#*"P(-1U8> U
8:JDX$7+G R3Q2EHNFL5[/)
<_?SB225
Wang was quite uncertain about inner alchemy, both in its details and in its broad
outline. He may have rejected sexual alchemy so strongly because it clashed so
fundamentally with the way of purity advocated by his teacher, which included
abstention from social contact, sex, meat, and strong avors.
Another reason Wang may have spoken so forcefully against sexual alchemy is
that he intended his reading essays to be read by others. Wangs relationship with
Tanyangzi was a matter of suspicion. After her death, Wang wrote a hagiography
which was printed and widely circulated. Wangs piece
received severe criticism. In 1581 . . . , a supervising ocial, and . . . , a censor,
simultaneously impeached Wang Xijue and Wang Shizhen for heresy. Fortunately
for the two Wang
s, a fellow townsman . . . , then minister of Rites, helped to
smooth the matter over.226
223
Wang Shizhen, Reply to Kong Yan and Wang Sun in Nanyang I6K0;, in Yanzhou Shanren xugao
172.17b45 58:7870 .
224
This is a pejorative term commonly used by Daoists for any Buddhist emptiness which is too empty.
225
Wang Shizhen,
Letter sent up to Great Mistress Tanyang, in Yanzhou Shanren xugao 173.1a9b4 58:788586 .
226
Goodrich and Fang, Dictionary of Ming Biography, 1427.
623
Wang may have condemned sexual alchemy in his reading essays so that anyone who
read them would not accuse him of at least this crime. To accuse a rival of
debauchery was a common strategy: Wang used it himself against Grand Secretary
Zhang Juzheng 152582 , in retaliation for the impeachment. Later writers
did accuse Wang of interest in carnal matters, however: his name was later attached
to the sensual classic novel Jinping mei , though scholars nowadays do not
think he wrote it.
For Wang Yangming and Wang Shizhen alike, sexual alchemywhich both
writers associated rst and foremost with Chen Zhixus teachings in Wuzhen pian
sanzhuwas totally illegitimate, unthinkable as a personal option. Why were the two
Wangs so critical? They were both literati who practiced Daoism quite seriously, but
never left the life of a responsible householder. I think they were even more critical
than would be a hypothetical orthodox Confucian who despised, but did not care
much about, Daoism. Wang Shizhen may have felt the need to distance himself
personally from bad Daoism in the eyes of others, and the same may hold true for
Wang Yangming. Wang Shizhen also criticized Chen Zhixu as a blasphemer against
Buddhist sages. Of course, Chen Zhixu did not intend blasphemy against Buddhism.
Chen had great respect for many aspects of Buddhism, and tried to coopt them into
his own system without demoting the status of Buddhism at all.
Both men would have rejected sexual alchemy as dirty or injurious to the
social order just as Zhang Yuchu before them, but we cannot explain this simply as
the natural reaction of any Confucian or literatus, because below we will
encounter plenty of nominallyConfucian literati who did not react this way. Yet
there may be something about Wang Yangmings Confucian partisanship which
contributed to his reaction. In my discussion of Zhu Yuanyu and Dong Dening on
pages 63842 below, I develop this idea of practicing Daoists who criticize sexual
alchemy as being partisan Confucians.
3.3, Lu Xixing: Adopting and Extending Chens Dao
Sexual alchemy was unthinkable as a personal option for a literati cultivator like
624
Wang Yangming or Wang Shizhen, but it became a legitimate option for later literati
like Qiu Zhaoao or Zhang Tingyu. I will argue that the writings of Lu Xixing !
1520ca. 1601 were the pivot around which attitudes rotated, and Lu Xixings
teachings are based on Chen Zhixus.
To show that Lu Xixings teachings were highly popular within the eld of
inner alchemy will require examining passages from other alchemists after Lus time,
which I will do below in my discussions of Tao Susi, Qiu Zhaoao, and Li Xiyue. Here
I will show that Lu Xixings teachings were based on Chen Zhixus.
As I show below in my chapter appendix, Chen Zhixu was the rst exegete in
history to compose commentaries to both Cantong qi and Wuzhen pian, and thus
helped these two texts to become the kings of alchemical scripture. Signicantly,
Lu Xixing was the second exegete in history to compose commentaries to both
scriptures.227 He seems to have taken these two texts as the most important
scriptures in the alchemical tradition. In Jindan jiuzheng pian, he writes:
From an early age I sought to understand this dao; however, because of my own
dullness and lack of talent, I was not able to fathom its principles. Turning to the
Cantong qi and Wuzhen pian, I found the path thorny and progress impossible.
+ (#-4%/*
0'
&5.,)32 228
Cantong qi and Wuzhen pian were the works Lu turned to rst, sometime before 1547,
but was not able to comprehend. Two decades later, he felt condent enough to write
commentaries on these works. And in both of these commentaries, Lus teachings are
explicitly based on Chens.
The earliest Cantong qi commentary postdating Chens is Lu Xixings Zhouyi
Cantong qi ceshu $. In his preface dated 1569, Lu writes that, after
comparing the commentaries of Peng Xiao, Chen Xianwei, Yu Yan, and Chen Zhixu,
he found Chen superior to the others though too verbose, and based his own
commentary on Chens:
I once read the books of the various experts, Zhenyi Peng Xiao "1 , Baoyi
227
I must add that Lu Xixing wrote at least nine other commentaries, most of these on works Chen Zhixu did not
study, so Lus range was by no means coextensive with Chens.
228
Lu Xixing, preface to Jindan jiuzheng pian, in Fanghu waishi 8.14a45 Zangwai daoshu, 5:368; translation from
625
Chen Xianwei Ye , and Yuwu Yu Yan : . In dividing up their

commentaries and interleaving them with the scripture, they each have their
relative gains and losses. I sought their understanding
xinling u, and gained
my own understanding through experiencing the truth with my spirit.
Now, as for the principle in Cantong qi upon which to base ones words in a
commentary , only Shangyang is close. His learning is especially profound, and
his discussion especially erudite. If beginning students were to read Chens
commentary abruptly, they would be unable to avoid growing weary of its excess
and throwing it aside, or becoming pained with its diculty and stopping. I may
say that in the past I myself regarded this as a defect. . . . The central principle of
my commentary is Shangyangs, while the words are my own. I call it a
subcommentary which plumbs the depths
ceshu `X.
bnPyBK1)Fah%^q&+.u
MgS-$7;Td9H.}QVWzcZ8}
r(m#&v@&s'>37J,.0$;
d .; !`X229
So according to Lus own words, his teachings in Cantong qi ceshu are fundamentally
based on Chens. Lus second Cantong qi commentary, Zhouyi Cantong qi kouyi /4P
<
i, from 1573, does not mention Chen Zhixu, however. A more rigorous
account of how Lus teachings are based on Chens, whether in Cantong qi ceshu or in
Lus other works, would require a systematic study of Lus thought. I cannot oer
such a study in this chapter.
Lus inneralchemical learning may have been gained entirely through reading
and personal inspiration, rather than through the oral instructions of a master. In the
passage above, Lu says that he sought the understanding of other commentators ,
and gained his own understanding through experiencing the truth with his spirit.
In Jindan jiuzheng pian, Lu claims to have received his teachings from L Dongbin:
In the year 1547 of the Jiajing reign of the Ming dynasty, I chanced to meet
Master L Dongbin at his hut in Shandong. He encouraged me to stay and
treated me most graciously. He oered ne black millet wine and exhorted me
with words of wisdom. . . . For twenty years I failed to live up to my teachers
kindness. . . . Just as I was feeling that time was running out, I was visited by
Master in a dream and determined to change my ways.
olO"x|tSk5L*2GUNRI_?{
w-"]j[ACD6E =\fDCp
229
Lu Xixing, Zhouyi Cantong qi ceshu, preface, 1b3 6, 9

Zangwai daoshu, 5:255. In translating hu you yilou %^q
as they each have their relative gains and losses, I take yi ^ as a loan character for ji ~, to gather or collect; cf.
Hanyu da cidian, s.v. yi ^.
626
230
Lu Xixings rst meeting with Master L must have been in a spiritwriting session,
or possibly in a dream visitation like the second case. Lu Xixing did receive teachings
from L Dongbin through the planchette. But I think that Lu Xixing learned his
inner alchemy through reading. Lus alchemy is a fundamentally textual tradition.
Lu Xixing tells us that his Cantong qi commentary is based on Chens, but this
is more clearly true in the case of Lus Wuzhen pian commentary, Wuzhen pian xiaoxu
), which takes the form of a subcommentary on DZ 142, Wuzhen pian
sanzhu by Chen, et al. In his preface to Wuzhen pian xiaoxu, Lu explains the form of
the work:
Wuzhen pian is the work of Ziyang the Perfected. The three worthies i.e., Xue
Daoguang, Lu Ziye, and Chen Zhixu have annotated it in detail, but their
sections are vast as the sea, and the reader takes this as a defect. I have
understood their intent, and written this in the form of small prefaces placed at
the head of each section.
)#%+$
()",-!
'&*)231
I have scanned this work, and found twentynine sections with Lus appraisals of
either Chens commentary alone or the three commentators together. Lu assents to
the views of Chen
sometimes also including Xue and/or Lu about 65 percent of the
time, and prefers the view of either Xue, Lu, or none of the three about 35 percent of
the time. Lus teachings are thus partially based on Chens, yet Lu is reading Chen
critically.
3.3.1, Conclusions.
Wang Shizhen was the rst reader in our survey to
congure the eld of inner alchemy into the two categories of pure cultivation
searching within the body, shenzhong qiuzhe and dual cultivation
searching outside the body, shenwai qiuzhe . Lu Xixing, Wangs

contemporary, also thematized the eld of inner alchemy this way from the
beginning. As a neophyte, Lu turned to Yu Yans commentary on Cantong qi:
As rst explained to me by Master Yu Yan, these works taught the tao of purity
and nonaction. All practice external to ones own body was condemned as
230
Lu Xixing, preface to Jindan jiuzheng pian, in Fanghu waishi 8.14a8 9, b1 3

Zangwai daoshu, 5:368; translation
from Wile, Art of the Bedchamber, 149.
231
Lu Xixing, Wuzhen pian xiaoxu 1a3

627
heterodox . . . Steadfastly maintaining this view he could not be shaken. . . . At

that point in my studies, I could not help being skeptical.
"-$ 3! )*," . #"%
2&
',1232
Early on in his studies, he identied Yu Yan as the exemplar of the purity and
nonaction
qingjing wuwei )*," school of thought. Many teachers espoused pure
cultivation, and few espoused dual cultivation:
It can be found in the other. . . . Those who believe it can be found in others are
rare lit., only one or two
while skeptics are many.
+ 1 233
Who are these one or two sexual alchemists? Chen Zhixu and Lu Ziye certainly;
perhaps others, or perhaps they are the only ones.
With Lu Xixing we see the eld of inner alchemy dened in terms of Cantong
qi and Wuzhen pian, and congured into the two categories of pure cultivation
exemplied by Yu Yan and involving purity and nonaction, and dual cultivation
exemplied by Chen Zhixu. This will be the way the eld of inner alchemy will be
viewed by most later alchemists, especially Chen Zhixus readers.234
3.4, Literati Alchemists of the KangxiYongzhen Period

There were a number of court ocials in the Kangxi (0 16621722 and Yongzheng
/ 172335 periods who read Chen Zhixus works or otherwise mentioned him. As
I show on page 590 above, Qiu Zhaoao 4 . 16381713, stands at the center of
a web of linkages: he knew Tao Susi, Li Guangdi, Zhang Yushu, Zha Shenxing, and
maybe Chen Menglei. Two other ocials who mention Chen Zhixu are Zhang
Tingyu and E Ertai. Actually, the Kangxi emperor himself was quite interested in
Cantong qi learning: he wrote two commentaries to this classic in Manchu. A number
232
Lu Xixing, preface to Jindan jiuzheng pian, in Fanghu waishi 8.14a56, 8 Zangwai daoshu, 5:368; translation from
233
Lu Xixing, preface to Jindan jiuzheng pian, in Fanghu waishi 8.14a34 Zangwai daoshu, 5:368; translation from
234
After writing this, I found Zeng Chuanhuis book, Yuandai Cantong xue, which takes the commentaries of Yu
Yan and Chen Zhixu as the two main representatives Cantong qi learning in the Yuan dynasty. Later alchemists,
such as Lu Xixing, took Yu Yan and Chen Zhixu as two opposing exemplars, not just of Cantong qi learning, but of
alchemy.
628
of high ocials in the Qing wrote Cantong qi commentaries. In addition to Qiu

Zhaoao and Li Guangdi, Zeng Chuanhui mentions Liu Wulong 16901742
,
Li Shixu 17731824
, Qing Yuanchang
18461900
, Guo Songtao
. 1875
.235
I will discuss the works of three of these guresQiu Zhaoao, Tao Susi, and
Zhang Tingyuin more detail. These three men were all sexual alchemists. Qiu and
Tao were friends, but I cannot nd any direct link these two and Zhang Tingyu. They
could have met at court, though: Zhang received his jinshi degree and began his
court career in 1700, and Qiu was active there o and on, perhaps
until the year of
his death in 1717. In any event, the three men had a common interest in Chens
works, which Qiu and Zhang must both have encountered while serving at court.
3.4.1, Tao Susi and Qiu Zhaoao.
Tao Susi and Qiu Zhaoao were friends and
fellow selfcultivators in Guiji , perhaps even students of the same master Sun
Jiaoluan . Both Tao and Qiu produced their own commentaries on Cantong qi
and Wuzhen pian. Taos commentaries were published together with three other works
in his collection Daoyan wuzhong preface of 1700
. Qiu wrote a guest
preface for Taos two books, in which he praises Taos work. Qius own works,
produced several years later in 17034, include linebyline commentaries selected
from the works of seventeen previous exegetes in the case of Cantong qi
or nine in
the case of Wuzhen pian
.
Tao Susi . 170011
obviously valued Chen Zhixus teachings, since
his collection Daoyan wuzhong reproduces Chens Jindan dayao in an abridged form.
Explicit appraisals of Chens works may be found in several of Taos prefaces. In a
preface to Cantong qi maiwang preface of 1700
Tao writes:
There are very many people who have written commentaries on the Cantong qi.
For accuracy and detail of appraisals and discussion, or clarity and propriety of his
collation and corrections, nothing can compare to Yu Yans Fahui. Yet Yu is
ignorant of the great pharmacon of the golden elixir. In all cases his teachings
return to purity, and beyond this he denounces all else as marginal traditions.
He knows little, yet is overcondent. As for correcting those who have been
misled by Yu Yans teaching, this is not a shallow matter. Ever since Shangyang
let the secret leak at rst, and Qianxu Lu Xixing expounded in detail
235
629
afterward, there has been deep and solid attainment. These two commentaries
transmitted together are like massive lamps in a dark chamber, or precious rafts
for an treacherous ford. Aside from these, Li Huiqing Li Wenzhu also has many
enlightening aspects. . . .
vY#D?K%~Q;i&BrqP-B
>@bd(LJOA >+G a+
xI9Ct~9Fclv3z[o{EUH
s(0_M 'r;j236
Qius appraisal of Chens Cantong qi commentary in his Guben Zhouyi Cantong qi jizhu
5:Y#Dyv preface of 1704 is much the same:
Of the selections, records, and commentaries by the various experts which are
circulating in the world, such as those of Zhenyi Peng Xiao and Baoyi Chen
Xianwei, each reveals and claries in its own way, but most have omissions and
abbreviations. Quanyangzis Yu Yan exegesis makes Cantong qi out to be
pure; this is biased toward internalism. Only Shangyangzi testies to and
illuminates alchemical methods, uniquely revealing the true instructions. Yet his
citations are excessive and untrimmed. Lu Qianxu Xixing applies the alchemical
instructions, adjusting them uently, having received a personal transmission
from Patriarch L Dongbin. Now, I cite the commentaries from each exegete,
with the largest number coming from Lu. Peng Yihuo Peng Haogu has mixed in
laboratory alchemy, and Li Huiqing speaks of two sets of qian and kun: neither of
them has achieved pure simplicity.
N^v},?&R8'r;-%7hf*!x}.
bdW9Z]
x;=R-)1um
trqkgè\/Sz$<]mn%p
w0_M24XV6LT237
Tao and Qiu describe two approaches to the Cantong qi: the pure cultivation
approach as dened by Yu Yan, and the dual cultivation approach as dened by Chen
Zhixu, and Lu Xixing. For Lu Xixing, the two approaches were also dened by Yu
Yan and Chen Zhixu, and now for Tao and Qiu, Lu Xixing joins Chen as an exemplar
of the dual cultivation approach. Even though Tao praises Chens Cantong qi
commentary in his prefaces, I could nd no citations of Chens commentary within
the body of Taos work. Qiu reproduces Chens line commentaries twenty six times,
by my count. Qiu quotes Lu Xixing and Tao Susi most frequently, and Yu Yan and
Zhu Xi almost never.
236
Tao Susi, Cantong qi maiwang, Zayi | 2b59 Zangwai daoshu, 10:4 . The translation As for correcting those
who have been misled by Yu Yans teaching, this is not a shallow matter for a is my best guess.
237
Qiu Zhaoao, Guben Zhouyi Cantong qi jizhu lieyan ershi tiao "2 ` 13a510, in Guben Zhouyi Cantong qi
jizhu, p. 25 Qigongyangsheng congshu ed. .
630
Tao also praises Chen Zhixus Wuzhen pian commentary, though he seems to
value Lu Xixings work even more highly:
As for the Wuzhen pian, aside from the three commentaries by Weng
Baoguang, Lu Ziye, and Chen Zhixu, each has its relative aws and
excellences, but only Lu Xixings is pure and mellow.
DE;FON
T&XYHO+>?b)238
Qiu praises Chens commentary without noticeably praising Lu Xixings:
The two commentaries by Lu Ziye and Chen Guanwu frequently match the
original meaning of Wuzhen pian. Chens interpretation of rening the self
training uniquely claries this point, but as for the ring tallies for advancing
and withdrawing, it seems he has not given detailed exposition of the method of
using metal and water in alternation.
O MNe,3T$#DE%N[Wc&R7(6U
GLQ\:B8239
Tao does not quote Chen in his Cantong qi commentary, but he does quote Chen
extensively in his Wuzhen pian yuezhu DE`@T, eighteen times by my count. In
looking at Taos reading of Chen, I found that at three points Tao deletes phrases by
Chen which are critical of Buddhist practice, or of ordained Buddhists and
Daoists,240 perhaps because Tao, unlike Chen, is not competing with such rivals.241
Qiu also quotes Chen extensively, fortysix times by my count.
In the preface to Wuzhen pian yuezhu, Tao also praises Chens Jindan dayao as a
sort of commentary to Wuzhen pian:
Dai Qizong took Wengs commentary and added his own discursive commentary,
with many ne ideas. Besides this, the commentaries of the various gentlemen
Lu Ziye and Chen Shangyang the two perfected, Lu Qianxu Lu Xixing, Li
Huiqing, Zhen Jiuying, and Qiu Zhaoaoeach have ideas which illuminate
Wuzhen pian like the sun and stars.
Shangyangzis Jindan dayao expounds the dao of the golden elixir especially
uently, and can serve as feathers and wings for Wuzhen pian. Peng Haogu mixes
in the earth prime, and has not achieved pure simplicity, so I do not draw on
him.
d!05FT(K-Z^$'O MNVEO_S/
IC]=9PaT"&R7DE%<A>1V
238
239
Tao Susi, Cantong Wuzhen zhu zixu *. 1b89, from Daoyan wuzhong Zangwai daoshu, 10:1
.
Qiu Zhaoao, Wuzhen pian jizhu lieyan ershi tiao

6, no. 1, p. 27
.
2 J 14a12, in Wuzhen pian jizhu Daozang jinghua, ser.
240
Tao Susi, Wuzhen pian yuezhu, j. 2b 4

, 24a; 3.3a; 3.3b Zangwai daoshu, 10:113,115
.
241
I discuss Chens competion with these rivals on pages 16973.
631
/ 5 :d/RS'
&= #+)242
^9<Gc_
Tao seems to value Chen Zhixu and Lu Xixing most highly among his sources. Tao
does identify himself as an heir of Chens, but less directly than Lu Xixing did. Sexual
alchemy had become a broader tradition by Taos time. Whereas Lu knew of only
one or two previous masters teaching dual cultivation, for Tao there were more
known teachers in this tradition: Li Huiqing, Zhen Jiuying, Taos comrade Qiu
Zhaoao, and most notably Lu Xixing himself. I argue that it is Lu Xixing who opened
up and popularized this tradition of sexual alchemy, and Lus teachings were based on
Chen Zhixus.
Qiu identies himself as a direct heir of Chens, more clearly than Tao does.
Qiu especially prizes the teachings of Wuzhen pian sanzhu. He even hints at a textual
lineage of sorts extending from Cantong qi to Wuzhen pian, to Wuzhen pian sanzhu, and
thence to himself:
Generally, those things which Cantong qi
hides and does not reveal are all
promulgated and leaked out within Wuzhen pians
verse stanzas and song lyrics.
Because
the great dao of the golden elixir achieves such an exposition, Zhang
Boduan
is truly Yunyas Wei Boyangs
lineal heir, or a meritorious vassal of Guiji
Wei Boyangs home region
.
The old commentaries if the three experts Xue, Lu, and Chen Zhixu
are all
able to discuss the original meanings. Here I make a point of excising their excess
verbosity, and lling in their omissions, highlighting their overall structure, in
order to achieve their comprehensive understanding, and cause the oral
instructions and mindtomind transmission be clear before the eyes of the
reader
.
A`!e.302,PFTK/ RBHd-QL
*%NY"aJ
86>@Z1?;$(][W(b
CX(UV!4(NE7DM\I
Here Qiu is presenting his Wuzhen pian jizhu as an edited version of Wuzhen pian
sanzhu, when it is actually a selection of line commentaries by nine previous exegetes,
plus Qius own. This is evidence of the high prestige of Wuzhen pian sanzhu at this
point in the history of the tradition: even though Qius work is not really a reedition
of Chens work, he prefers to present it as such, so as to make it appear more
authentic and prestigious to readers who knew of and respected Chens name. How
242
Tao Susi, Wuzhen pian yuezhu, Zayi cO 1a6b1 Zangwai daoshu, 10:72.
243
Qiu Zhaoao, Wuzhen pian jizhu, preface, 12a8b1 Daozang jinghua, ser. 6, no. 1, pp. 2324.
632
dierent the case is here than it was for Wang Yangming and Wang Shizhen, a couple
of centuries before. Also note the textuality of Qius alchemy: Qiu aims to translate
the oral instructions inherent in Wuzhen pian sanzhu into clear writing in his Wuzhen
pian jizhu. This is in marked contrast to Chen Zhixus repeated assertions that books
can supplement but not replace the oral transmission of a master.
3.4.2, Chens teachings in imperial editions.
As discussed in section 2 above,
Chen Zhixus works were cited, quoted, or excerpted in seven Qing imperial
compilations. Chens works are briey listed or cited in Xu wenxian tongkao #"
1586, Yuding Peiwen yunfu
1711, Yunfu shiyi
1720, and
Yuding Fenlei zijin ! 1722. Not much can be learnt from these
citations, beyond the fact that Chens works were known to the editors of these
works usually highranking o cials, and were not rejected as being completely
heterodox. Three other imperial compilations deal with Chen more extensively. One
compilation grudgingly accepts Chens work: Gujin tushu jicheng
1706
appears to accept Chen when he is being critical of heterodoxy and reject him when
he is teaching sexual alchemy. Another compilation goes a step further toward
accepting his work: Qinding siku quanshu zongmu tiyao 1781
89, prefers Chens work on the Cantong qi which includes sexual teachings to the
more orthodox approach of Yu Yan. A third compilation Yuding pianzi leibian
! 1728, wholeheartedly accepts Chens teachings, including sexual alchemy.
Zhang Tingyu 16721755 is listed as the chief compiler of Pianzi
leibian. It is not recorded whether he had other compilers working with him who had
input into the nal shape of the work, though I suspect that this is the case.244 I
found Jindan dayao quoted 119 times in this work. From the wording, I can tell that
the edition used for these quotations was not the Zhengtong daozang edition of Jindan
dayao; it was probably the Jindan zhengli daquan edition.
The great majority of Pianzi leibian passages quoted from Jindan dayao are
without obvious signicance. There are a number of quotations which are open to a
244
To my knowledge, Buddhist texts are only cited in Pianzi leibian from j. 97 onward perhaps a proBuddhist
editor began working on the project here, and Chen Zhixu is not cited in j. 173240 perhaps a proChen Zhixu
editor ceased working on the project here.
633
sexual reading, as well as some with an obviously sexual referent, such as the
following ve separate quotations:
Only when metal crystals arise in the Xuanwu palace does the perfected qi ascend
from below Capitoline Mountain.
,7 .AU=);9245
From time without beginning, the valley spirit has erected the heavenly root.
The superior sages, when forced to name them, call these the xuan and pin gates.
&<C+8H>/246
When the winds on the river of love have stilled, look to the other shore. Only
then will you see the single mani pearl.
E-4N'S2%LQ:247
Ingesting lthy and nasty things, i.e., milk and excreta,248 they have a look at
the partners two cheeks to see if they are already ushed. Then they wait until
the woman and man have united, and swallow the others essence or blood to
form the base of the elixir.
6R@ (VI2*PB3!#0$1F
J
O249
The celestial pass is in the hand, and the terrestrial axis forms in the heart. The
Perfected dives into the abyss, and the sword ies to the grotto of the moon.
TD";M?K5G250
I have also identied several Jindan dayao quotes in Pianzi leibian which support Chen
Zhixus subversive interpretation of the practices of kyamuni Buddha. Here are
two of them:
The single precious pearl was originally produced within the womb of the mussel,
then nurtured and guarded beneath the chin of the black dragon. The World
245
Zhang Tingyu, Pianzi leibian 57.9a s.v. 7 ; quoting DZ 1067, Shangyangzi Jindan dayao 5.12b34. Xuanwu is
the tutelary beast of the north, where water generates metal. Here, the palace refers to the female sex organ, and
the mountain refers to the male. The female partners pharmacon of metal or gold appears in the palace, is
drawn through the male adepts sex organ, and ascends from there up his spine.
246
Zhang Tingyu, Pianzi leibian 40.21b s.v. &<; quoting DZ 1067, Shangyangzi Jindan dayao 10.1b9. The xuan
and pin gates are the male and female sex organs; see pp. 39596 above.
247
Zhang Tingyu, Pianzi leibian 82.11b s.v. Q; quoting Jindan dayao, Jindan zhengli daquan ed., 2.26b89
missing from DZ 1067. Only if the male adept can curb his lust will he be successful in gathering the outer
pharmacon.
248
Alternatively, mammary excretions.
249
Zhang Tingyu, Pianzi leibian 111.6a s.v. *P; quoting DZ 1067, Shangyangzi Jindan dayao 9.4b23. The context
in Jindan dayao is a critique of such practices, but in Pianzi leibian this excerpt becomes ambiguous.
250
Zhang Tingyu, Pianzi leibian 111.6a s.v. K5; quoting Jindan dayao, Jindan zhengli daquan ed., 3.9a78 missing
from DZ 1067. Perfected and the sword would refer to the male sex organs, abyss and the grotto to the
female.
634
Honored One kyamuni Buddha attained it, and called it mani. The
Heavenly Worthy of Primordial Commencement, Yuanshi Tianzun attained it,
and called it millet
sized.
T6Q,>*82LV*XON?;F?
;FC251
Therefore kyamuni cultivated sam dhi and sat in dhy na in order to x lead by
means of earth, and x mercury by means of lead, unmoving in body and mind.
This is called cultivating Chan dhy na and entering sam dhi. What they call
Chan nowadays is all glass
bottle Chan. If you walk, you will knock it and it
will smash; if you sit, you will drop it and it will smash. In this generation, only
body
with

skin
leaking Chan252 will not snap when pulled or burst when
bitten. If one is able to take part in leaking
skin Chan, then the lead and
mercury will injaculate of themselves.
/U4("P'GG'$G$SH& 9/4P
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PZ R. 73:;IP-GJ$ 1#%253
Here Pianzi leibian assents to Chens co
optation of Chan as being a form of alchemy,
and even to Chens contention that kyamuni practiced sexual alchemy i.e.,
cultivating a pearl which was extracted from a shellsh by a dragon . Considering
Wang Shizhens outrage at exactly this sort of discourse, it is surprising to nd them
repeated in an imperially
sponsored book.
Indeed, many of the choices made by the compilers of Pianzi leibian are
surprising. By my count, they quote at least two dozen Daoists texts, yet they quote
only a handful of Buddhist texts, and not a single Neo
Confucian work. The lack of
Neo
Confucian material is astonishing. What was going on in the court of the
Yongzheng emperor?
The compilers choice of Daoist texts to quote is also unusual. Many of the
Daoist texts quoted are alchemical texts, as well as some classic works such as
Huangting jing heavily quoted , Laozi zhongjing E, and Yunji qiqian BYW.
Yet much is missing: no Quanzhen or Celestial Master texts are quoted, and even the
251
Zhang Tingyu, Pianzi leibian 76.1b s.v. T6 ; quoting DZ 1068, Shangyangzi Jindan dayao tu 4b12.
252
This is a Buddhist epithet for the human body, imperfect and impermanent, but in Chan discourse it means
the free and laissezfaire use of heuristic triggers; Foguang da cidian, s.v. Pike Louzi Chan @IP, 2107.
253
Zhang Tingyu, Pianzi leibian 160 s.v. = ; quoting DZ 1067, Shangyangzi Jindan dayao 1.10a38.
635
mighty Daode jing only appears twice, and only within quotes from Jindan dayao.254
Among the quotes from Jindan dayao, what is missing? Chens constant harping on
the need to nd a perfected teacher is ignored by the Pianzi leibian compilers, as is
the ultimate aim informing Chens Daoist practice: to become a transcendent. I
suspect that the compilers of Pianzi leibian who were so interested in sexual alchemy
were pursuing it for reasons of health, or even pleasure, rather than for salvation, as
Chen Zhixu did.
3.4.3, Conclusions.
We may conclude that Chens works Jindan dayao, Cantong
qi fenzhang zhu, and Wuzhen pian sanzhu had become wellknown among readers by this
time, and were regarded as authoritative, even at court. Some readers among court
o cials were alchemists
such as Qiu Zhaoao, but the times were such that even
nonalchemists accepted the authority of Chens works to a greater or lesser extent. I
argue that these changes only came about after the appearance and spread of Lu
Xixings teachings. Lu popularized this tradition of sexual alchemy in the idiom of
Chens works.
None of these men were professional Daoists. Even Tao Susi and Qiu Zhaoao
were no more professionally Daoist than Wang Yangming and Wang Shizhen were.
In reading Tao Susis abridged version of Jindan dayao, one may note that he resisted
referring to previous alchemical masters as patriarchs
zushi .255 This suggests
that Tao did not accept Chens Daoist lineage for himself or his readership. Qiu
Zhaoao takes a slightly dierent position on Daoist lineage. In his preface to Wuzhen
pian jizhu, Qiu takes several pages to discuss the two lineages
the Southern Lineage
from Zhang Boduan to Bai Yuchan, and the Quanzhen Northern Lineage,256 but his
emphasis is still on the texts the masters wrote, and he never mentions secret mind
tomind transmission, which for Chen Zhixu would be an important aspect of
254
Zhang Tingyu, Pianzi leibian 129.10a

s.v. , and 157.3b
s.v. ; quoting DZ 1067, Shangyangzi Jindan
dayao 10.12b9 and 10.5a9. The second quotation states that chanting the Daode jing is worthless if one lacks the
proper esoteric understanding of the text.
255
In the Shangyao chapter

equivalent to j. 3 4 in DZ 1067, Tao Susi alters Danyang Zushi to
Danyang Zu twice; Chunyang Zushi
to Chunyang Weng
once; and L Zushi
to L Zu once.
256
Qiu Zhaoao, Wuzhen pian jizhu lieyan ershi tiao, 21a 22a, in Wuzhen pian jizhu
Daozang jinghua, ser. 6, no. 1,
pp. 41 43.
636
lineage. Whereas Tao Susi rejected Daoist selfidentication, Qiu Zhaoao comes
closer to it. Yet Qius Daoist lineage would be a completely textual lineage.
3.5, Dissenting Views
3.5.1, Laboratory alchemy: Peng Haogu.
Peng Haogu was an ocial who published
several collections of inneralchemical and other Daoist texts. Peng adopts a more
ambivalent attitude toward Chen Zhixus teachings. For Peng, the main teaching of
Cantong qi and Wuzhen pian is ingestion fushi (0, i.e., waidan , laboratory
alchemy rather than dual cultivation or pure cultivation. In his 1599 prefaces to
Guwen Cantong qi xuanjie 9,G, Peng writes:
Those who discuss mystic cultivation nowadays follow
thousands of crooked
paths and side tracks. Roughly speaking, these hundreds of experts can be
summed up in terms of three teachings. These are: purity, yinyang, and ingestion.
Q1) 35O <FHKL"2N
J+=>
@C(0-257
If you look at the book Cantong qi
, it is basically talking about the spirit elixir,
but Mr. Chen Shangyang annotates it as yinyang cultivation
, and Yu Quanyang
Yu Yan
annotates it as pure cultivation
. Neither of them gets the meaning of
Sir Wei Boyang
, both interpreting him crookedly.
R'6%8$C?B.@CC*B.=>/
:P
E$ . G)258
Cantong qi
takes ingestion as its main teaching
. Only in the middle chapter do
Wei Boyangs
words express both HuangLao and outeralchemical teachings
.
!6(0.;M%D#IA259
Peng Haogu prefers an outeralchemical interpretation of the classics to the two
other interpretations, yet he does not entirely reject dualcultivation either. In his
1599 preface to Wuzhen pian sizhu 47MB, a reedition of Wuzhen pian sanzhu
adding Pengs own commentary, Peng writes:
When Ziyang Zhang Boduan
wrote Wuzhen pian
, he took ingestion as his main
teaching
.
257
Peng Haogu, Guwen Cantong qi xuanjie, preface, in Daoyan wai, 53a34 Zangwai daoshu, 6:234.
258
Peng Haogu, Guwen Cantong qi xuanjie, preface, in Daoyan wai, 56a57 Zangwai daoshu, 6:236.
259
Peng Haogu, Xuanjie fanli G&, in Daoyan wai, 58a24 Zangwai daoshu, 6:237. Peng Haogu is identied
by other commentators as an advocate of taking
earth as prime diyuan , or laboratory alchemy. I do not
know what the dierence between ingestion and outer alchemy was for Peng.
637
;? </1%.,260
I have said before that we cannot say that the Three Commentaries do not
correspond to
the meaning of Wuzhen pian
, yet neither can we say that they
exhaust the meaning of Wuzhen pian
. The dao of mystic cultivation remains
within the three limits of pure cultivation
, the female caldron, and ingestion.
The pure approach
is the ancestral principle of selfcultivation. The female
caldron approach supplies
the technique of gathering and uniting. The ingestion
approach
is essential for sudden ascension to Heaven
. Each is indispensible.
F! L
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I believe that the Wuzhen pian
of the three transcendents is not the Wuzhen
pian
of Zhang
Ziyang, yet how could their approach
not also exist? I have
already annotated the Longhu jing
and Cantong qi
. Because I recalled that
Wuzhen pian
is something practiced by all
the people of this generation, I
could not slight it.
,
/1);? /1&" :*+CM(
2K/1,0$6G:262
Although Peng Haogu prefers to read Cantong qi and Wuzhen pian as primarily
teaching laboratory alchemy, neither is he able to reject the sexual alchemical
reading. The sexualalchemical reading of the classics was so prevalent in Pengs time,
that he was forced to admit it as a legitimate approach.
For Peng Haogu as for so many others, Chen Zhixu exemplies the dual
cultivation approach, and Yu Yan exemplies the purecultivation approach. Lu
Xixing had said that many alchemists practiced pure cultivation, while very few
practiced dual cultivation. Yet it seems that by Peng Haogus time, the dual
cultivation approach was prevalent, perhaps even dominant. Peng received his jinshi
degree in 1586, so he was probably about thirty years younger than Lu Xixing. It is
hard to know whether this contrast is due to the rhetoric of the two writers or the
dierent circles they frequented, or whether dualcultivation alchemy actually did
have a sudden increase in popularity between the times of Lu Xixing and Peng
Haogu.
3.5.2, Ignoring Chen Zhixu: Zhu Yuanyu and Dong Dening.
Zhu Yuanyu
260
Peng Haogu, Wuzhen pian buzhu xu /1JB> 1b82a1, in Wuzhen pian sizhu Peking University edition,
A4.14 in dissertation appendix 1.
261
Peng Haogu, Wuzhen pian buzhu xu 1b26, in Wuzhen pian sizhu Peking University edition.
262
Peng Haogu, Wuzhen pian buzhu xu 3a24, in Wuzhen pian sizhu Peking University edition.
638
. 1669 263 and Dong Dening DLH . 1788 264 both wrote commentaries to
Cantong qi and Wuzhen pian which never mention Chen Zhixu.265 I discuss Zhu and
Dong here because this neglect of Chen Zhixu could only be willful. I have argued
above that Chen Zhixus Cantong qi and Wuzhen pian commentaries were widely
accepted as authoritative statements on these two classics from the time of Lu
Xixing on. The two most important commentaries on the Cantong qi for Daoists at
least were by Chen and Yu Yan, with Chen exemplifying the dualcultivation reading
and Yu the purecultivation interpretation. Chen was, if anything, even more
dominant in the eld of Wuzhen pian hermeneutics. As can be seen in my analysis of
the tradition of Cantong qi and Wuzhen pian commentary in the chapter appendix, by
neglecting to mention Chen Zhixu, Zhu Yuanyu and Dong Dening are major
exceptions to the mainstream of this tradition after Chens time.
Why did Zhu and Dong neglect Chens teachings? Because they both rejected
sexual alchemy. In his preface to Wuzhen pian chanyou, Zhu Yuanyu writes:
In recent generations, marginal
teachers have produced outrageous
interpretations
of Wuzhen pian, and deluded latterday students. The lowest have
even devolved into
teachings on furnace res or
sexual partners, while the
highest do not go beyond merely cultivating the one thing in solitude.
&4'I=7J+S%/-V"19%GT0
$266
Dong Dening says almost the same thing in his preface to Cantong qi zhengyi, Dong
Dening writes:
There have been several dozen latterday interpreters of this book. Aside from
those espousing perverse and false doctrines, which we will not speak of for the
moment, there are some who interpret
Cantong qi in terms of inneralchemical
learning, and some who interpret it in terms of the techniques of the furnace
res.
+=E5%MR18: K
263
BQ,. S%
Stylename CloudyYang Man of the Way Yunyang Daoren @>F .
264
Stylename Master of Primal Yang Yuanzhenzi 6 , from Guiji AO in presentday Zhejiang province .
Zhu signed his prefaces at the Tower of Collecting Yang Jiyang Lou ?> N , at the Mountain Dwelling of the
Four Peaks Sifeng Shanju 2
! .
265
Zhu wrote Cantong qi chanyou ;(U* and Ziyang Zhenren Wuzhen pian chanyou <>636PU*
preface of 1669 , and Dong wrote Zhouyi cantong qi zhengyi #;(C and Wuzhen pian zhengyi 36PC
both have prefaces of 1788 .
266
Zhu Yuanyu, Cantong qi chanyou, preface, 1b89 Daozang jiyao, Kui ) coll., 3 .
639

),I6&267
The only known laboratoryalchemical reading of Wuzhen pian is by Peng Haogu, and
of course Chens Wuzhen pian sanzhu was the most famous sexualalchemical reading.
Dong indicts Chen Zhixu implicitly in his preface to Wuzhen pian zhengyi:
How could Zhang Boduan
imagine that people afterward would give outrageous
interpretations of Wuzhen pian? Perverse doctrines are running amok. Their
willful absurdity has reached the point of the Xue commentary that is being
transmitted in this generation, which on the whole is falsely ascribed to Xue
Daoguang
. Thus, several dozen commentators after Xue
, rather than being
enlightened
are benighted by Xues gloss of the Wuzhen pian phrase
seek the
companion. Things would truly be better o if there were no commentaries at
all!
J<(
3/0C9@E H-;G9&
F+21*9&A .?+%4>89,=268
In saying that the Xue commentary has been falsely ascribed to Xue Daoguang,
Dong Dening echoes Wang Yangmings charge that Chen Zhixu forged all three
commentaries in Wuzhen pian sanzhu.269 And by claiming that so many commentators
followed the Xue commentary into error, Dong is acknowledging the dominant
position of Chens teachings in the tradition of Wuzhen pian exegesis. But he does not
accept Chens position, or even deign to mention Chen by name.
Dong Dening is a partisan of Confucianism, and Zhu Yuanyu may be also.
Dong argues in both his prefaces that the traditions of Ru D as represented by
the Master Fuzi
, Mencius, Zhu Xi, Lu Xiangshan 7: , et al. and
Dao as represented by Laozi were originally a single tradition, and only became
falsely divided after the Han dynasty. Dong aims in his work to repair this division.
Zhu may also signal a Confucian interpretive stance by using the phrase By
exhausting principle and human nature, one arrives at the mandate.270 A more
thorough reading of their commentaries might provide a better understanding of the
place of Confucian elements in their thought, but I am not able to oer that in this
267
Dong Dening, Cantong qi zhengyi, preface, 2a1112 in Daozang jinghua lu.
268
Dong Dening, Wuzhen pian zhengyi, preface, 2a45 in Daozang jinghua lu.
269
One might argue that Dong is echoing Dai Qizongs contention that the Xue commentary is actually Weng
Baoguangs work, yet Dongs polemical tone suggests he is following Wang Yangming instead of Dai. Dai would
not call the Xue commentary a false wei 2 work.
270
Zhu Yuanyu, Cantong qi chanyou, preface, 1a7 Daozang jiyao, Kui ' coll., 3. The phrase Qiongli jinxing, yi zhiyu
ming B5?#$" comes from the rst section of Shuo gua @! in the Yijing.
640
chapter.271
When I call Zhu and Dong Confucian, I have a view in mind more complex
than this term may suggest. Despite what some scholars have assumed,272 most
Daoists throughout history accepted many aspects of Confuciuss teachings and the
tradition which developed around Confucius. Chen Zhixu and other Daoists of his
time accepted on principle the unity of the Three Teachings
sanjiao heyi ,
though Chen was an imperialistinclusivist rather than a true syncretist
see page 31
above. Chens approach, as we might expect, was to try to turn Confucius and
Mencius into secret alchemists
see pages 54548 above. Most of the alchemists I
have studied in this chapter were even more Confucian than Chen may have been,
because they participated in the culture of the exams, served in o ce, and did not
become ordained as Daoists. Lu Xixing is an unusual case: he was ordained as a
Daoist, and yet still referred to himself as a ru , or classicallytrained scholar.273
Yet although all the authors on both sides of the debate about sexual alchemy
adopted aspects of broader Confucianism, there seems to be something dierent
about Wang Yangming, Zhu Yuanyu, and Dong Dening a conuence of their anti
heterodoxy and Confucian selfidentication. They would consider their rejection of
sexual alchemy and their Confucian selfidentication to be linked. Yet look at Wang
Shizhen, who rejected Chens teachings because they were base, but also because
Chen slandered the Buddha. Wang Shizhen is not a Confucian partisan as the other
three are. While Zhang Yuchu would have espoused Confucianism, he seems to
criticize teachers of sexual alchemy for injuring public morality without putting this
in Confucian terms. Sexual alchemy was declaimed as misconceived, dirty, and
contrary to proper social behavior, but this was not always a specically Confucian
reaction, although for Wang Yangming, Zhu Yuanyu, and Dong Dening it seems to
have been.
271
Hu Fuchen, Zhonghua daojiao da cidian, s.v. Zhu Yuanyu , 208, identies Zhu as a Quanzhen Daoist.
From his prefaces, Dong Dening seems identify himself with the Southern Lineage but not with Quanzhen Dao.
272
Sivin, On the Word Taoist as a Source of Perplexity, 31618, argues against the sloppy intellectual habit of
viewing Daoist and Confucian as two monolithic ideal types with nothing in common between them. Sivins
main target is Joseph Needham.
273
Liu Tsunyan, Lu Hsihsing: A Confucian Scholar, Taoist Priest and Buddhist Devotee of the Sixteenth
Century, 185.
641
This Confucian partisanship seems to entail rejection of sexual alchemy for

Zhu and Dong, but it does not entail rejection of Daoist lineage. While being a
Confucian partisan, Dong also seems to identify with the standard Southern Lineage
Nanzong of inner alchemy:
We may say, regarding books on selfcultivation, that with the making of Cantong
qi, students rst knew the source of the great dao. Then Wuzhen pian appeared,
and gentlemen with intention rst understood the secrets of inner cultivation.
Thereafter, the Perfected Shi Tais Huanyuan pian DZ 1091 , the Perfected Xue
Daoguangs Fuming pian DZ 1088 , Old Man Li Niwans Cuixi pian DZ 1090 ,
Old Man Bai Yuchans Ziqing ji,274 and Xiao Zixus Dacheng ji DZ 263, j. 913
appeared in succession. As for books on selfcultivation, there is nothing that can
be added to these.
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Dong Dening personally identies with the Southern Lineage of inner alchemy. Yet
note that he does not attempt to trace the lineage past the sixth patriarch Xiao
Tingzhi ? . 1260 down to himself, as Qiu Zhaoao does with his quasilineage
of Wuzhen pian commentary. Also note that, as was the case for Qiu, for Dong this is
a textual lineage. Each of these patriarchs is identied with a signature text, rather
than with some other element, such as a myth, form of charisma, or secret teaching.
Dong identies himself as a Confucian, and as a Daoist though probably not a
professional Daoist. He opposes Daoist abuses such as Chen Zhixus teachings on
Confucian grounds, but by no means does his Confucianism entail a fundamental
opposition to Daoism. The model whereby partisans from each of the Three
Teachings oppose the other two Teachings on principle only applies very rarely in the
history of Chinese religions, and would be totally inapplicable to the gures studied
in this chapter.
3.5.3, Counterreadings, 1: Wu Shouyang.
Wu Shouyang 5 15741640/44;
or 1550ca. 1635 was a Longmen Quanzhen Daoist monk, so we would expect him to
reject sexual alchemy. Wu was disappointed with the according to him sexual
274
This must refer to Bai Yuchans Zhixuan pian, in DZ 263, Xiuzhen shishu, j. 18. Dong Dening compiled an
edition of this text, entitling it Ziqing zhixuan ji.
275
Dong Dening, Cantong qi zhengyi 60b1061a1.
642
obsession of most of the selfcultivators in his day. After receiving a transmission

from his rst teacher Cao Huayang around 1593, he searched for other
teachers, to further his learning. He found the Quanzhen teachers only knew
bedchamber arts and gathering and battling yun caizhan &, which they
taught for pay. Chan monks spent their energies teaching the technique of guided
rebirth see pages 52829 above, which was far removed from the emptiness
philosophy of true Buddhism. And the Daoist lay practitioners devoted themselves
to auriction, the forgery of gold. Daoist and Buddhist lay practitioners alike studied
the arts of extended and pleasurable lovemaking.276 It would be very interesting to
know what sort of sexual cultivation the Quanzhen monks were practicing at this
time, and to compare it with the ve ideal types I have surveyed in chapter 5, section
2. We can learn little from Wu Shouyangs brief and stereotyped description.
Through searches of Wus etexts, I have found passages in which Wu quotes
Chen Zhixu. Wu is using two of these quotations to argue against sexual alchemy. For
example, Wu Shouyang quotes a sentence of Chens:
Unable to distance oneself from greed, anger, love, and desire, how could one
consider extending the longevity of this body?
#
(
! 277
Then Wu uses this quotation to make his own point that sexual alchemy is useless:
The lustful essence from coitus is already doubly impure. The substance of the
body cannot be transformed.
"'%)278
This is a counterreading of Chens teachings by Wu Shouyang. Chen would not
agree with Wu that sexual alchemy is soteriologically useless, inherently unable to
produce positive e ects. I argue that Wu Shouyang knows very well what Chen is
teaching, but rather than rejecting Chens teachings, Wu chooses to subvert their
true import by drawing from Chens teachings only what suits his own. This is
probably because Chens teachings held an unavoidable authority for Wu and his
276
Liu Tsunyan, Wu Shouyang: The Return to the Pure Essence, 197; and Li Yuanguo, Daojiao qigong yangsheng
xue, 535. Both quote Zhilun qiyou $, in Wu Shouyangs Tianxian zhengli zhilun.
277
Wu Shouyang, Xianfo hezong yulu 1b34 Daozang jiyao, Bi coll., 1; Zangwai daoshu, 5:639.
278
Wu Shouyang, Xianfo hezong yulu 1b1 Daozang jiyao, Bi coll., 1; Zangwai daoshu, 5:639.
643
audience.
3.5.4, Counterreadings, 2: Liu Yiming.
Liu Yiming G + 17341821 also
makes counterreadings of Chens oeuvre. There is a passage in Lius work Tonuan

wen <L in which we can actually see two layers of counterreading: Liu Yiming
is counterreading Chen Zhixu, who was originally counterreading Ma Danyang 9
A 112383 . Liu writes:
The Strait of Self and Other
The Changes says: Cleaving to the back, the self is not gained. Traveling to his
court, the man is not seen.279 . . . The Diamond Stra says: There is no dharma of
self, and no dharma of other.280 . . . The Sage says: . . . That which you do not
want done to yourself, do not do to others.281 Shangyangzi says: Swiftly overturn
the mountain of self and other, and burst open the cavity of dragon and tiger.
All of these
authorities are saying that in cultivating a dao, there must be no
self/other view. Now, if you wish there to be no other, rst there must be no self.
We may say that as soon as there is a self, the mind of selshness arises.

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Liu is teaching the importance of humility, presenting his lesson in Buddhist terms:
one ought to avoid xating on and objectifying the self. Liu was a Quanzhen monk,
and this lesson would be familiar to monastics the world over, although Liu has put it
in specically Buddhist terms here. Note how Liu quotes one representative
authority from each of the Three Teachings to support his point: the Yijing and
Confucius represent Confucianism, the Diamond stra represents Buddhism, and
Chen Zhixu represents Daoism. In this passage, Liu has elevated Chen to canonical
status within Daoism, and implicitly placed him on the same plane as Confucius. The
phrase Liu is quoting from Chen is actually the words of Ma Danyang, a Quanzhen
patriarch. It is surprising that Liu Yiming, although a Quanzhen Daoist, would prefer
to cite Chen Zhixu as the authority for a particular phrase rather than Ma Danyang,
279
This is from the beginning of hexagram no. 52, gen .
280
Found in T 235, Jingang bore boluomi jing, 8:750b16, and other texts.
281
This is a paraphrase of Ji suo buyu, wu shi yu ren ';0)

, Lunyu, HY 12.2, 15.24.
282
Liu Yiming, Tonuan wen 1.23a8b4 Zangwai daoshu, 8:221 .
644
a patriarch from a branch of his own lineage.283 This is signicant. It tells us both
that Chen Zhixu was highly respected at this point in Daoist history, and that Liu
Yiming had a view of his own Quanzhen lineage which diers from Quanzhen views
at earlier or later points in the history of that tradition.284
The sentence Swiftly overturn the mountain of self and other in its Jindan
dayao context carries a meaning very dierent from Liu Yimings. Chen is using this
saying to emphasize the corporeality of sexual alchemy.
kyamuni said or, the kyas, the Buddhists, say: Between qian and kun,
within the cosmos, there is a single treasure hidden in the mountain of physical
form.285 He also said: I possess a single thing which upholds heaven above and
earth below. Does everyone still recognize it?286 The Changes says: That which is
above form we call Dao; and also says: Man and woman mingle their essence,
and the myriad things are produced through transformation.287 Cultivation
within the Three Teachings is inseparable from physical objects with form.
Thus Old Man Ma Danyang said: Swiftly overturn the mountain of self and
other, and burst open the cavity of dragon and tiger.
O:*+@ N8$#
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There can be little doubt about Chen Zhixus referents here. The mountain and
cavity are objects with form xingwu $., so mountain would refer to the male
sexual organ, and cavity to the female organ. In Chens text, this passage
accompanies a picture, which is symbolically suggestive in similar ways. Like Liu
Yiming after him, Chen Zhixu is quoting representatives of the Three Teachings to
support his point. He quotes Chan gnomic verses attributing them to Shi shi O,
which may mean Buddhist here, the canonicalConfucian Yijing, and the
283
Liu Yimings Longmen lineage was founded by Qiu Chuji 1=H, rather than Ma Danyang, but Longmen
Quanzhen Daoists still revered Ma nearly as much as Qiu.
284
Chen Jiaoyous critique of Chen Zhixu in Changchun daojiao yuanliu, 2:16668 is an example of a later Quanzhen
view that is quite dierent.
285
The locus classicus for this sentence is T 1857, Baozang lun, 45:145b2334, but this variant wording probably comes
from T 2003, Biyan lu, 48:193c2324.
286
This is a variant of a saying attributed to Dongshan Liangjie 5)P 80769 in T 2076, Jingde chuandeng lu,
51:322b2.
287
These two sayings come from Yijing, Xici zhuan, 1.12.4, 2.5.13; Rutt, The Book of Changes Zhouyi, 419, 426.
288
DZ 1068, Shangyangzi Jindan dayao tu 7a37.
645
Quanzhen patriarch Ma Danyang.

As we might expect, the meaning of the sentence in the original context of
Ma Danyangs Discourse Records is unrelated to its meaning for Chen Zhixu:
The Master
Ma Danyang often wrote a pair of linked verses in large characters.
He said to a Daoist companion: Swiftly overturn the mountain of self and other,
and burst open the cavity of dragon and tiger. Based on this, I asked: I dare to
ask, once you know about the mountain of self and other, where is the cavity of
dragon and tiger? The Master replied with a smile: I dare not tell you the
mechanism of heaven lightly. Examine the worthies carefully, and see if you will
achieve enlightenment
on the matter or not!
"($
5/-* !'41,.&
4+&"%3+0 ))
2##289
For Ma Danyang, the mountain of self and other is the obstacle of self/other view,
and the cavity of dragon and tiger is something to be discovered for oneself, as part
of ones own being, through examining worthies i.e., kanlike cases from past
masters and presumably also through introspection and mental cultivation of the
inherent nature xing .
In tracing the history of this simple sentence, we see a threestage process of
counterreading. Ma Danyangs words are recorded, then Chen Zhixu twists the
meaning of Ma Danyangs words, then Li Yiming twists the meaning of Chen Zhixus
words. Liu brings Chens words back relatively close to Mas original meaning. Liu is
talking about monkly humility, and Ma is talking about mental cultivation, so Lius
point is not exactly the same as Mas, but the two teachings are broadly related. Yet
in an important sense, Liu is not bringing the meaning of the sentence back to Mas
meaning, because Liu prefers to regard the sentence as Chens words. The original
Quanzhen teaching makes its return through the medium of Chens teachings, and is
changed by them. Between the time of Mas career twelfth century and Liu
Yimings eighteenth stands Chen Zhixus career fourteenth , and the subsequent
ascendancy of Chens teachings and works in the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries.
Liu Yimings Quanzhen Daoism has been strongly tinted by Chen Zhixus
sexual alchemy, while basically retaining its original color. This can be seen in the
289
DZ 1057, Danyang zhenren yulu 3a10b3.
646
following passage from Xiuzhen biannan <?VW:
The questioner asks: Since wealth is not wealth like gold and silver, then why
did . . . Shangyangzi say: The poor man frets over having no wealth, and the man
with wealth frets over having no companion . . . ? What does this mean?
Liu Yiming answers: Herein is a secret mechanism that you cannot know if
you are not a teacher. You should not hazard a guess. Now, there are two daos for
cultivating perfection. The rst is that of higher virtue, the work of making ones
body whole by means of a dao. The second is that of lower virtue, the work of
extending ones lifeendowment by means of techniques.
For the man of higher virtue, his pure yang has not been broken. In making
his body whole by means of a dao, he does not use wealth in practicing the work
of nonaction. He can immediately complete his inherent nature, and when his
nature is complete, his lifeendowment will also be complete.
For the man of lower virtue, his precosmic
yang is already lost, and he is like
a poor man without wealth. He must borrow resources from anothers house.
He extends his lifeendowment by practicing the dao of action. Only then can he
complete his lifeendowment. When his lifeendowment is complete, then he
may begin cultivating his inherent nature.
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Liu Yiming, although ostensibly a celibate Quanzhen monastic, has room in his
system for both purecultivation and dualcultivation approaches. Pure cultivation is
the ideal, but only one who has not lost ones primal yang contained in semen or
menses may choose this route. Those whose bodies are depleted ought to begin by
gathering the pharmacon for the elixir from a partner through sexual alchemy, before
moving to mental cultivation cultivation of the inherent nature, lianxing O0 . Chen
Zhixu has a place in Lius system, but Chens sexual alchemy would be considered a
lessthanideal approach. This is basically the view of modernday Chinese experts on
alchemy.291 The Quanzhen Daoist Wu Shouyang did not include sexual alchemy in his
teachings, but Liu Yiming, living 150 years later, does. I argue that we can see an
evolution in the eld of inner alchemy here: sexual alchemy has become more
290
Liu Yiming, Xiuzhen biannan 16b19 Zangwai daoshu, 8:477 .
291
Many modern experts would say that sexual cultivation is appropriate is for middleaged and old men, whose
bodies have lost almost all of their primal qi; young, healthy men or boys would have no need for it, and should
not take the risk of trying it; Li Yuanguo, Daojiao qigong yangsheng xue, 522.
647
authoritative and acceptable in the interval between Wu Shouyang and Liu Yiming.
Liu Yimings sexual alchemy was not derived merely from Chen Zhixu,
however. Unlike the other alchemists I have studied in this chapter, Liu Yiming had
at least two sources for his sexualalchemical teachings: the tradition that developed
around Chen Zhixu, and another, separate tradition traced to Zhang Sanfeng K.
In this passage, Lius teaching on pure vs. dual cultivation is related to the quote from
Chen Zhixu, and not to a quote from Zhang Sanfeng.
3.5.5, Counterreadings, 3: Li Xiyue.
Li Xiyue 40" 180656 was a sexual
alchemist, but his sexual alchemy may have emphasized a spiritual coition between
the man and woman, in which they do not disrobe or even physically touch.292 Lis
text Daoqiao tan U]Y quotes Chen Zhixu at least six times. One of these quotes is
what I term a counterreading:
Xuan and Pin, Root and Foundation&/HJ
Gentlemen who cultivate the mystic, whether they are working on
the greater
or lesser elixir, all ought to nurture the valley spirit in stillness, and establish their
root.
The valley spirit is a term for the precosmic void numinosity, my own primal
nature. Where is it to be nurtured? Xuan and pin are yet therein. Shangyangzi
said: Xuan and pin are two things. If these two things did not exist, how then
could the myriad things exist? We may presume that xuan is heaven, and pin is
earth. This
already appears in the rst hexagram of the Changes. We can know
that the one aperture of xuan and pin is actually the source of birth after birth,
and transformation after transformation. Can one who enters the dao not seek
this source of generation and transformation?
G&PZ3:\[7I(8H%7IA* Q_
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&/]VD''SUA$N.'SB293
For Chen Zhixu, xuan and pin have multiple referents: heaven and earth, qian and
kun, but also the male and female sexual organs. There is no doubt that the referents
of xuan and pin in the original Jindan dayao passage quoted by Li Xiyue are the sexual
organs:
The Perfected Ziyang said: If you would have the valley spirit live
long and not
292
This was taught by the the Qingdynasty gure Fangnei Sanren !O; Li Yuanguo, Daojiao qigong yangsheng
xue, 415. As we have seen on pages 421 and 424 above, however, the phrase shenjiao ti bujiao I)^) can also
mean although one is having intercourse, one is not engaged mentally.
293
Li Xiyue, Daoqiao tan 20b921a3 Zangwai daoshu, 26:61819.
648
die, you must rely on xuan and pin to establish the root and foundation. Ye
Wenshus commentary reads: Take the xuan and pin as the single cavity of turbid
unity between the two kidneys. Wumingzis Weng Baoguang inscription reads:
Wrong! Ye has no idea that xuan and pin are two things. If these two things did
not exist, how then could the myriad things exist? Therefore the two elixirs,
outer and inner, are attained through this. The sages make a secret of them,
calling them the crescentmoon furnace and the caldron of the suspended
fetus.
=A419&6+"BI#28E(?#.
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For Li Xiyue, the cultivation of xuan and pin involves a sam dhilike meditation, while
for Chen Zhixu, xuanpin cultivation is sexual alchemy. Li would know very well what
Chen is talking about in this passage, yet he willfully ignores what Chen is saying,
and applies Chens words to his own teachings. Li is coopting Chens authority for
his own version of alchemy through a counterreading of Chens writing.
3.5.6, Dissenters: Conclusions.
Paul Ricoeur says that
writing renders the text autonomous with respect to the intention of the author.
What the text signies no longer coincides with what the author meant. . . . An
essential characteristic of a literary work . . . is that it transcends its own psycho
sociological conditions of production and thereby opens itself to an unlimited
number of readings, themselves situated in di erent sociocultural conditions.295
All texts escape from the hands of their authors and take on new forms in the eyes of
other readers. This is radically true for texts in this particular Chinese hermeneutical
tradition. In this tradition, later interpreters feel no compunction in ripping
fragments of earlier canonical texts out of their original context, stripping o the
fragments original meanings while shining up their canonical authority, then
investing them with new import undreamed of by the original authors. Texts also
help to create and maintain a measure of continuity in the sociocultural conditions
of their reception. The cultural material in the text perpetuates certain social
institutions or conditions, and certain types of practices, readings, and readers. But
these institutions, practices, or readers are not unitary or univocal. Often, several
quite di erent audiences may be reading the same text in di erent ways. While
294
295
Ricoeur, Hermeneutics and the Human Sciences, 139.
649
readings within each audience may be relatively consistent, there may be a large
contrast in readings between audiences. For example, there is a signicant
hermeneutical contrast between Chen Zhixu and his sources, or between Chens later
readers and Chen as their source.
This radical Chinese hermeneutics is not unique to inner alchemy, or even to
Daoism: it may also found in Chan Buddhist k an practice, for instance. This radical
hermeneutics becomes possible in an esoteric tradition. In esoteric traditions, the
meaning of any public or written teaching is subordinated to private teachings which
are possessed by masters, given out sparingly to worthy students, and not disclosed
or impossible to disclose in writing. These traditions also emphasize that the secret
teachings are surprising, unguessable to the uninitiated. And for some of these
esoteric teachers, the boundaries of the esoteric tradition expand to include all other
traditions: for Chen Zhixu, Mencius and kyamuni become alchemists like himself.
Thus, the meaning of any text at all will depend ultimately on the whim of the
master, with whom all interpretive authority resides, and there are few obstacles to
the sort of counter readings analyzed in this section.
4, Conclusion
We may draw a general historical narrative from the data collected and materials
translated above, as well as more than a dozen recurring themes. I will summarize
what we have learned in this chapter, from these two perspectives.
4.1, Historical narrative
In the beginning, Chen Zhixus teachings were marginal, far from the mainstream.
Chen attracted some followers, but by and large his teachings were not seen as a
serious alternative by many self cultivators or readers. As we have seen in chapters 2
and 3, in his own lifetime, Chen attracted the respect and support of a number of
students, yet also suered ridicule in the city marketplace as well as the spiritual
650
marketplace. The same attitudes can be seen in comments by Zhao Yizhen in the
fourteenth century, Zhang Yuchu in the early fteenth, and Wang Yangming in the
early sixteenth. One alchemical writer, Dai Qizong, accepted his teachings, and Chen
may have left a shortterm legacy of disciples and wealthy followers remaining into
Zhang Yuchus day, but for most other Daoists or interested readers, Chens teachings
were not something to be taken seriously.
In the sixteenth century, Wang Yangming dismissed Chens teachings in
Wuzhen pian sanzhu as debased and dangerous, and Luo Qinshun dismissed his
teachings in Cantong qi fenzhang zhu as merely feckless, yet we see Chens teachings
gaining in authority. Wang Shizhen rejected them strongly, but he still had to work
his way through a number of alchemical books, writing essays on them, before he
could be sure that Chens teachings were truly wrong. Whereas Zhang Yuchu, Zhao
Yizhen, or Wang Yangming could dismiss Chens teachings with a few lines of
stereotypes and moral commonplaces, Wang Shizhen had to refute them point by
point. Is this evidence that Chens teachings had become somewhat more
authoritative by Wang Shizhens time? I believe that it is.
Lu Xixing, active in the same century, nds the true teachings in Chens
works, but says that Chen was one of only a few who oered such teachings. Yet by
the end of the century, Peng Haogu feels he must reprint Wuzhen pian sanzhu because
it is so popular among the people of his generation, even though he doubts the truth
of the teachings. Can we see a change in the popularity of Chens teachings between
the time of Lu Xixing and Peng Haogu? I argue that Lu Xixing stands as Chens
successor, being the second man in history after Chen Zhixu to publish
commentaries on both Cantong qi and Wuzhen pian,296 and thus Lu is partially
responsible for the growing interest in Chens teachings.
In the seventeenth century, aside from Wu Shouyang, most of Chens readers
were readers of his Cantong qi commentary, such as Jiang Yibiao, Kwon Kkjung, Mao
Jin, and Hu Wei, most of whom admired his work. Wu Shouyang only mentions Chen
296
The third man in history to do so was Zhang Li js 1568, and the fourth was Peng Haogu. I do not know if
Zhangs works are extant. Zhang Li was probably not a follower of Chens teachings, since Qinding Siku quanshu
zongmu tiyao says Zhang used Chens Cantong qi edition without acknowledgement.
651
six times, but I think this is further evidence of Chens importance in inner
alchemical circles. Like Peng Haogu, Wu rejects sexual alchemy, yet must nd a way
to acknowledge Chen Zhixu as a respected authority from the past.
There was a breakthrough for sexual alchemists around the year 1700. Our
evidence for this is the writings of Tao Susi and Qiu Zhaoao, and books produced at
court, such as Zhang Tingyus rhymedictionary. With his contacts at court and later
at home in Guiji, Qiu himself may have been a catalyst for this moment of glory, or
he may simply be reecting activity among other men who left no records of it. For
these men, the two most important sexualalchemical teachers from the past were
Chen Zhixu and Lu Xixing. Writing toward the end of the eighteenth century is Liu
Yiming, one of the greatest Daoist exegetes in history, who includes the sexual
alchemy of Chen Zhixu and Zhang Sanfeng within his system of thought and
practice. To Liu Yiming, sexual alchemy may have been indispensible to some self
cultivators, even though he would not have practiced it himself.
In the nineteenth century, Chens works had gone out of print and were less
well known. Li Xiyue remembers Chen as a great master of the past, and must make
room for Chens name, if not for the substance of his teachings, within his own
writings. Li Xiyue secretly respected Lu Xixing, and may respect Chen Zhixu only
because Lu Xixing did. Li Xiyue himself seems to have preferred the teachings of
Zhang Sanfeng, around whose name an alternative tradition of sexual alchemy grew.
Chen Zhixus only known true heir in the nineteenth century was Fu Jinquan.
Analyzing the geographical range of Chens works, we see that, while he was
read outside the region of Jiangxi, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang297 by some readers such as
Liu Yiming in Shanxi, or the Korean Cantong qi exegetes, his base remained in the
southern region from rst to last. This is despite the fact that his works were
reprinted or quoted in books with national circulation, such as Jindan zhengli daquan
or Pianzi leibian. The popularity of Chens works was not limited to this southern
region in theory, but we can say that this is what happened in practice. Why?
297
According to G. William Skinners model of Chinese macroregions, these provinces do not constitute a single
entity. Jiangxi is in the Gan Yangzi region, Jiangsu is in the Lower Yangzi region, and Zhejiang is in the
Southeast Coast region; Skinner, The Structure of Chinese History.
652
Probably because proper sociocultural or religious contexts for the ourishing of his
teachings were less likely to exist in other areas of China. This may be because other
forms of practice or morality occupied his spiritual marketplace there such as
Quanzhen Daoism, or because the same class of curious literati readers could not be
found.
This is a case in which the realities of social context constrains the spread or
popularity of a text. This is similar to the way that social context can constrain
interpretation of a text. A text is open to widely varying interpretations in theory, but
often in practice the interpretations of a text do not vary radically, because the text
circulates only within networks or contexts which do not di er radically from the
context of the author. Sharing contexts, the author and later readers largely share
readings of the text. Unusual readings still do occur, such as the counterreadings I
have identied in this chapter, but these are readily identied as anomalies, and
interesting for that.
4.2, Themes
At the head of section 3, I introduced a passage from an 1841 preface by Yu Muchun,
a disciple of Fu Jinquan. This passage adumbrated many of the themes that appear in
the material throughout this chapter. I argue that these themes constituted an
alchemical textual tradition, with Chen Zhixu in the center, followed by Lu Xixing.
In Yu Muchuns preface we nd the scenario of a beginning student who is
perplexed by alchemical teachings, and knows not where to turn. This same scenario
appears in Lu Xixings preface to Jindan jiuzheng pian.
The student sees the eld of inner alchemy divided into two categories
equivalent to pure cultivation and dual cultivation. Wang Shizhen is the rst writer
among those studied in this chapter to articulate this division, and this division is
echoed by most readers after Wang. Most of these readers agree that Chen Zhixu is
an exemplar of the dualcultivation category. From Zhang Yuchus quotation of a
Lingbao scripture, we see that these two categories originate in earlier Daoism.
In Yu Muchuns preface, the student believes that alchemical tradition is
653
epitomized by the two classics Cantong qi and Wuzhen pian together. Chen Zhixu was
the rst man to write commentaries to both texts, identifying them as central to this
form of alchemy, and he was followed in this by many others.
In Yu Muchuns preface, alchemy is primarily a textual tradition rather than
an oral tradition. I have pointed out this same theme in the writing of Wang Shizhen,
Lu Xixing, Qiu Zhaoao, and Dong Dening.
In Yu Muchuns preface, pure cultivation is exemplied by the Quanzhen
institution. The other writers studied in this chapter see themselves as in a debate
with pure cultivation, but do not identify this with Quanzhen Daoism. Quanzhen
Daoism had its periods of ascendancy and nadir over the ve centuries between
Chen and Yu Muchun. In Chens time, the Quanzhen Daoist lineage was very
prestigious, so Chen created his own lineal connetion to the Quanzhen Daoism. Yet
in Liu Yimings time, by contrast, Liu must stoop to accomodate to Chens teachings,
rather than viceversa.
From Yu Muchuns preface, we cannot be sure whether Yu is a professional
Daoist or not, and the same goes for many of the writers studied in this chapter.
I will also mention other recurring themes from the material that are not
found in Yu Muchuns preface. Two Daoist themes are 1 textual lineages, and 2
Zhang Sanfeng. Qiu Zhaoao and Zhu Dening identify with textbased alchemical
lineages, rather than lineages based on the charisma of masters. This is a notion
which did not occur to Chen Zhixu himself. The mysterious gure of Zhang Sanfeng
represents a separate tradition of sexual alchemy which coexisted with Chens
tradition from the time of Lu Xixing. Lu Xixing rejects the teachings associated with
Zhang Sanfeng, Qiu Zhaoao acknowledges them,298 Liu Yiming and Li Xiyue prefer
them, and Fu Jinquan also transmits them. The attitudes of these writers toward
Zhang Sanfeng may chart a rise to prominence of a tradition based on Zhang,
perhaps even at the expense of the tradition based on Chen and Lu.
There are also a number of themes recurring in the texts which are
298
If
anything remains inexplicit, you can gain understanding by savoring Sanfeng the Perfecteds Jieyao pian,
and Sun Ruzhongs Jindan zhenchuan

; Qiu Zhaoao, Wuzhen pian jizhu lieyan ershi tiao 15a46, in Wuzhen pian jizhu Daozang jinghua, ser. 6, no. 1,
p. 29. Both of these texts are translated in Wile, Art of the Bedchamber.
654
judgmental or critical of Chen Zhixu. One major theme is Chens Cantong qi

commentary. Several of the readers Lu Xixing, Jiang Yibiao, Mao Jin, Peng Haogu,
and the Siku zongmu compilers include Chens commentary as one of a set of four
standard commentaries together with the work of Peng Xiao, Chen Xianwei, and Yu
Yan. Some readers Luo Qinshun and the Siku zongmu compilers set up a dichotomy
between Chens commentary and Yu Yans, with the two representing dualcultivation
and purecultivation approaches, respectively.
Luo Qinshun and the Siku zongmu compilers disagree over the legitimacy of
Chens assumption that Cantong qi is an esoteric text, with Luo rejecting this
approach and the Siku zongmu compilers preferring it. Some literati readers Zhang
Yushu and Zhang Tingyu value Chens esotericism. Others criticize Chens belief
that other Daoist and Buddhist teachers were teaching inner alchemy Zhang Yuchu,
Wang Shizhen, and the Siku zongmu compilers.
Finally, we can see what I would call traditions of polemic against Chen. The
polemics of Zhang Yuchu and Wang Yangming wishfully threaten Chen with
government action, even summary execution. Zhao Bichen and Wang Yangming
together compare sexual alchemists with teachers of wildfox Chan. Criticism of
wildfox Chan may have been a theme in the early Ming, but it is never mentioned
again in the later sources studied in this chapter. Thankfully, this sort of
dehumanizing and prejudiced rhetoric was not a continuing theme in the Ming and
Qing, at least for Chen Zhixu. This sort of rhetoric is reminiscent of the
stereotypical polemics against Mingdynasty popular Buddhist groups as studied by
ter Haar.299 Government ocials persecuted these groups as White Lotus rebels
who committed wanton lewdness in midnight gatherings, and worshiped devils, when
usually none of this was true.
Although this sort of harsh polemic against Chens teachings did not continue
after the Ming, Chen Jiaoyou as a Quanzhen critic in the nineteenth century does
repeat the critiqes of Wang Shizhen and the Siku zongmu compilers. Yet Chen Jiaoyou
merely criticizes Chen Zhixu for inferior teachings and false claims about lineage,
299
Ter Haar, The White Lotus Teachings in Chinese Religious History.
655
rather than casting him into the abyss as the early critics had done.
656
Appendix to Chapter 6,
Cantong qi and Wuzhen pian Commentary
Of all the alchemical waidan and neidan works produced throughout Chinese
history, Cantong qi and Wuzhen pian were the two works which received the most
commentaries. Chen Zhixu was the rst exegete to write commentaries to both
classics, and Lu Xixing was the second. Chen and Lus works both contributed to the
continuing preeminence of these two texts in the later tradition.
Commentators on Cantong qi
Commentators predating Chen Zhixu
Tang dynasty:
1. Ca. 700, unknown author, Zhouyi Cantong qi zhu
! DZ 1004.
2. Ca. 700, unknown author, Zhouyi Cantong qi
DZ 999.
3. Tang period, unknown author, Jinbi wuxiang lei Cantong qi )0 DZ 904.
FiveDynasties period:
4. 947, Peng Xiao +, Zhouyi Cantong qi fenzhang tongzhen yi
# DZ 1002
and Zhouyi Cantong qi dingqi ge mingjian tu
%*'/& DZ 1003.
Northern Song dynasty:
5. Ca. 111117, Lu Tianji -3, Cantong qi wuxiang lei miyao 0 DZ 905.
6. Late N. Song or early S. Song, Chu Huagu . , Zhouyi Cantong qi
DZ 1008.
Southern Song dynasty:
7. 119798, Zhu Xi ,, Zhouyi Cantong qi kaoyi
DZ 1001
8. After 1210, unknown author, Zhouyi Cantong qi zhu
! DZ 1000
9. 1234, Chen Xianwei 2", Zhouyi Cantong qi jie
$ DZ 1007.
Yuan dynasty:
10. Ca. 1284, Yu Yan 4, Zhouyi Cantong qi fahui
DZ 1005 and Zhouyi Cantong
qi shiyi
1( DZ 1006.
Chen Zhixu
11. Ca. 1335, Chen Zhixu, Zhouyi cantong qi fenzhang zhu in Daozang jiyao, etc.
Commentators postdating Chen Zhixu
15th century:
None.
16th century:
12. 1569 and 1573, Lu Xixing , Zhouyi Cantong qi ceshu
in Zangwai daoshu
and Zhouyi Cantong qi kouyi
# in Zangwai daoshu.
Lus rst commentary mentions Chens commentary.
657
13. 1582, Wang Wenlu O, Zhouyi Cantong qi shule #%;-?> in Zangwai daoshu
.
Mentions no other commentaries at all.
14. 1599, Peng Haogu I, Guwen Cantong qi xuanjie ;-S in Zangwai daoshu
.
Mentions Chens commentary.
17th century:
15. 16th17th c., Yuan Renlin : (, Guwen Zhouyi Cantong qi zhu #%;-) in Baibu
congshu jicheng
.
Cites only Confucian texts.
16. 1614, Jiang Yibiao XB, Zhouyi Cantong qi jijie #%;-MS in Congshu jicheng
.
Reproduces Chens commentary in toto.
17. 1669, Zhu Yuanyu ", Cantong qi chanyou ;-]0 in Daozang jiyao
.
Does not mention Chen by name; may be critical of his work.
18th century:
18. 1701, Tao Susi E8A, Cantong qi maiwang ;-9= in Zangwai daoshu, 10:165
.
19. 1710, Qiu Zhaoao
b, Guben Zhouyi Cantong qi jizhu #%;-M) in Daozang
jinghua
.
Cites Chens commentary extensively.
20. 1788, Dong Dening RWT, Zhouyi cantong qi zhengyi #%;-Q in Daozang jinghua lu
.
21. 1799, Liu Yiming V', Cantong zhizhi ;*1 in Zangwai daoshu
.
19th century:
22. 1841, Fu Jinquan G+U, Dingpi Shangyangzi yuanzhu Cantong qi FL4);- in
Zangwai daoshu
.
Reproduces Chens commentary in toto.
23. 1870s, L Huilian JC, Zhouyi Cantong qi fenjie mijie ;-P7S in Zangwai daoshu
.
Cites Chens commentary.
There are also at least fourteen other Cantong qi commentaries that are still extant
but which I have not seen. These are all rare books that have not been reproduced in
modern collections.300 There are also at least two dozen commentaries which are not
extant.301
Of the twelve Cantong qi commentators postdating Chen whose
commentaries I have seen, eight or twothirds
mention Chens commentary. Four of
these eight commentators who mention Chen are known to have been committed
Daoists Lu Xixing, Zhu Yuanyu, Liu Yiming, and probably Fu Jinquan
. The other
four men practiced Daoism, but their connections with Daoist institutions are not
300
Extant works by the following commentators are listed in Meng and Meng, Wangu danjing wang, 41517: 1
Xu
Wei 5K ca. 156773
; 2
Wang Jiuling ` 1591
; 3
Zhang Wenlong < Z and Zhu Changchun ,2 ca.
1612?
; 4
Jiang Zhongzhen /6 ca. 1650?
; 5
Li Guangdi ca. 1700?
; 6
Yaoqu Laoren H_
and?
Xu Naichang 5& 1718
; 7
Liu Wulong VZ 1735
; 8
Wang Fu !@ ca. 1750?
; 9
Ji Dakui 3.
ca. 1820?
; 10
Li Shixu Y ca. 1820?
; 11
Guo Songdao DN\ ca. 184050?
; and 12
Yuan Chang :a
1892
.
Extant works by 13
Kwon Kkjung ^ 1639
and 14
S Myngung 5$[ ca. 1780?
are mentioned in
Jung, Daoism in Korea, 800, 8089.
301
Pregadio, The Early History of the Zhouyi cantong qi, 149.
658
clear. Three of these eight commentators draw heavily on Chens commentary Jiang
Yibiao, Qiu Zhaoao, and Fu Jinquan, while the other six mention it without giving it
special attention. Of the four commentators who do not mention Chen, one
mentions no other commentators Wang Wenlu, one is a staunch Confucian who
cites no Daoist texts Yuan Renlin, one is a ConfuciancumDaoist who rejects
sexual alchemy Dong Dening, and one is a Quanzhen Daoist who also rejects sexual
alchemy Zhu Yuanyu. The conclusion we may draw from these statistics is that,
while most commentators read Chens commentary and found value in it, few
accepted it as o ering the nal word on the Cantong qi. Only Fu Jinquan, and editors
of reprints such as Guwen cantong qi C11 in dissertation appendix 1, would accept
Chens as the best commentary on the Cantong qi.
Commentators on Wuzhen pian
Commentators predating Chen Zhixu
12th century:
1. 1161, Ye Shibiao , in Xiuzhen shishu: Wuzhen pian &, DZ 263, j. 2630.
2. 1173 and dates unknown, Weng Baoguang , in Ziyang Zhenren Wuzhen pian zhushu
&, DZ 141; in Ziyang Zhenren Wuzhen zhizhi xiangshuo sansheng miyao
$ , DZ 143; and Wuzhen pian zhushi &*, DZ 145.

3. After 1161, Xue Daoguang (!,302 in Ziyang Zhenren Wuzhen pian sanzhu &,
DZ 142.
13th century:
4. 1204, Yuan Gongfu %, in Xiuzhen shishu: Wuzhen pian &, DZ 263, j. 2630.
5. 1227, Xia Yuanding ", Ziyang Zhenren Wuzhen pian jiangyi &), DZ 146.
14th century:
6. 13th14th c.? Lu Shu #, in Ziyang zhenren Wuzhen pian sanzhu &, DZ 142.
Chen Zhixu
7. Ca. 1335, Chen Zhixu, in Ziyang zhenren Wuzhen pian sanzhu &, DZ 142.
Commentators postdating Chen Zhixu
14th century:
8. 1335 and 1337, Dai Qizong ' , in Ziyang Zhenren Wuzhen pian zhushu &,
DZ 141; and in Ziyang Zhenren Wuzhen zhizhi xiangshuo sansheng miyao
$
, DZ 143.
15th century:
None.
302
Dai Qizong and many commentators thereafter argue that the oldest of the Three Commentaries is by Weng
Baoguang rather than Xue Daoguang, but Liu Tsunyan undermines Dais arguments, and argues that there could
have been a commentary by Xue circulating at that time, from which these annotations could have come; Liu
659
16th century:
9. Ca. 157080, Lu Xixing .#, Wuzhen pian xiaoxu &(@ ZWDS 5:31837.
Discusses Chens commentary in detail.
10. Ca. 15971600, Peng Haogu 2, Wuzhen pian &(@ ZWDS 6:31953; and Wuzhen pian
sizhu &(@ 4 rare book, A4.14.
Mentions Chens commentary; reprints Chens commentary in toto.
17th century:
11. Ca. 1669, Zhu Yuanyu , Ziyang Zhenren Wuzhen pian chanyou 35(&(@F! in
Daozang jiyao, Kui
coll..
18th century:
12. 1703, Qiu Zhaoao G, Wuzhen pian jizhu &(@64 in Daozang jinghua.
13. 1711, Tao Susi /)-, Wuzhen pian yuezhu &(@% in Zangwai daoshu, 10:66124.
14. 1788, Dong Dening 9?;, Wuzhen pian zhengyi &(@7 in Daozang jinghua lu.
15. 1799, Liu Yiming >, Wuzhen zhizhi &(" ZWDS, 8:327402.
19th century:
16. Ca. 1841, Fu Jinquan 1=, Dingpi Sanzhu Wuzhen pian 0&(@ ZWDS, 11:790859.
Reprints Chens commentary in toto, with extensive discussion.
There are also at least two other Wuzhen pian commentaries that are still extant but
which I have not seen.303 There are at least four commentaries which may still be
extant as rare books,304 and no doubt many other lost commentaries. I have not
made an inventory of lost works.
Of the eight Wuzhen pian commentators postdating Chen whose
commentaries I have seen, six or threequarters mention Chens commentary. The
only two who do not are Zhu Yuanyu and Dong Dening, who reject sexual alchemy.
Chens Wuzhen pian commentary was even more popular among later readers than his
Cantong qi commentary.
303
Danting Wuzhen pian &(@, by Lu Danting E, MS copied by Fu Shan 1 160784, in Daozang
jinghua; and Jishi quanshu Wuzhen zhinan B'&(", by Wang Qixian +A 16221722 and Wang
Qisheng +8, in Jishi quanshu a rare book.
304
Two cited in Qiu Zhaoaos Wuzhen pian jizhu are Wuzhen pian zhizhu &(@4, by Li Wenzhu
C .
15731616; and Wuzhen pian yizhu &(@D4, by Zhen Shu <, . 162844.
Two others mentioned in Ma Jiren, Daojiao yu liandan, 111, are Wuzhen pian zhujie &(@4:, by Zhang Li *
js 1568; and Wuzhen pian &(@, by Ji Dakui $ . ca. 1820?.
660
Chapter 7, Conclusion
Here I will revisit two schemas from the introduction that have also reappeared at
times throughout the dissertation. Then I will list some issues that ought to be
addressed in future study on Chen Zhixu or study of inner alchemy in general, and
focus on one issue in particular: Where do we place Chen Zhixu on the map?1
Seven perspectives in the study of inner alchemy.
In chapter 1, 1, I argued that
a complete, critical study of any inneralchemical text ought to consider that text
from at least seven di
erent perspectives. These are the 1 philological, 2
exegetical, 3 historical, 4 structural/institutional, 5 discursive, 6 textuality, and
7 selfreective perspectives. Now I will show where I have applied each of these
perspectives in the other chapters of the dissertation.
The scholar of alchemy must rst establish his or her texts or other materials:
this is 1 the philological perspective. In my study of Chen Zhixu I have applied this
perspective mainly in dissertation appendices 12 below, as well as in my critical
edition of Jindan dayao which is too long to include in the dissertation . In appendix
1, A Comprehensive Bibliography of Works by Chen Zhixu and Zhao Youqin, I list
and annotate every known rare book or reprint edition of Chens works. In appendix
2, Text Criticism of Jindan dayao, an extended discussion of four important editions
of Jindan dayao, I defend my selection of the Zhengtong daozang edition as a base text,
but also argue for the authenticity of additional material found in other editions but
not in the Zhengtong daozang edition; adding this material makes the critical edition
20 percent larger than the Zhengtong daozang edition. It is important to establish the
authenticity of this additional material because many points in my analysis of Chens
career in chapter 2 or teachings in chapter 5 depend on it.
After establishing his or her materials, the scholar must understand the
specialized language of the material in its own terms, and translate it into an
1
The wording of this question has been left intentionally vague for the moment.
661
accessible modern idiom: this is 2 the exegetical perspective. Chapters 4 and 5 are
devoted to this work. In chapter 4, What is Inner Alchemy?, I have tried my best
to do justice both to the concerns of modern readers and to the concerns of the
alchemical writers themselves. Modern readers may be more interested in topics such
as the body which are familiar and amenable to crosscultural comparison, while
alchemists are often more interested in the intricacies of cosmology, such as the
patterns of trihexagrams in Zhouyi Cantong qi, or the dynamic interplay of the ve
agents. I have covered topics of both types. Throughout the dissertation I have
attempted to make inneralchemical texts meaningful for scholars of religion. Usually
this involves transcending Chen Zhixus own horizon, and translating the material of
Chens texts into terms that are meaningful for modern scholars but which he would
not recognize himself e.g., approaching the material from structural/institutional or
discursive perspectives , or setting Chens material against the backdrop of a broader
sweep of history than he had access to. Yet I have also tried to represent alchemical
teachings in terms that Chen and other alchemists themselves would recognize.
Some examples of points I have made that alchemists might recognize are my
preliminary comparison of the fourstage standard account of the inner
alchemical path with other forms of the alchemical path pages 299311 ,
analysis of the unions of ves and threes pages 33543 ,
argument that innerorbital circulation plays a restricted role in Chens practice
pages 49395, 554 , and
critique of Chens abstract use of ring schemata 50417 .
The student of any religion must be uent both in academic discourse and in the
discourses of the texts or persons he or she is studying, and ideally should be able to
conceive and defend meaningful arguments in both idioms.
Placing the alchemical text in 3 diachronic historical context, the scholar
may illuminate its links to other texts, ideas, persons, groups, and events from before
or after its time. I have done this in chapter 2 the biographical chapter , chapter 6
on the afterlife of Chens texts and teachings , and to a lesser extent in chapter 4
e.g., section 7, A Historical Outline of InnerAlchemical Literature and chapter 5
e.g., section 2.2. The History of Sexual Cultivation .
662
Placing the text in 45

synchronic social context, and applying insights from
sociology, anthropology, and other forms of social thought or the human sciences, the
scholar may study the 5
discourses and other cultural elements of alchemy, and
analyze how alchemists uses and understandings of discourses and other elements
are shaped and mediated by 4
structures or institutions. Chapter 3 is devoted to this
work, using the social thought of Pierre Bourdieu to develop a conict theory of
Chen Zhixu. Whenever possible, in chapter 3 I have linked my synchronic claims to
historical data about Chen Zhixus career and social environment from chapter 2.
I also discuss institutions or structures to a lesser extent in chapter 4 section
2, The Social Contexts of Inner Alchemy
, and chapter 5 section 3.1.2, Outer
preparation: nding mates and funds.
. In addition to my systematic approach to
the study of discourse in chapter 3, I include critical discourse analysis in all of my
chapters, such as in my discussions of Chen Zhixus esoteric hermeneutics, that is,
his strategy of extension or stealing the lightning.2 I have scattered my
discussions of Chen Zhixus use of Chan Buddhist elements throughout the
dissertation, and studied Chen Zhixus applications of Buddhist and NeoConfucian
discourse to alchemy in chapter 5 section 4, Chens Adaptations of His Alchemical
Dao
.
Placing the text in the context of 6
material textuality, the scholar may study
how the production and reception of alchemical knowledge is allowed or constrained
by the media of printed, handwritten, or oral texts, each with their own eects. The
scholar may also study the text as writing, which escapes from or transcends its site
of production in ways dierent from speech. While I address this issue briey in
chapter 4 section 2.1.1.1 on the masterdisciple relationship in inner alchemy
, it is in
chapter 6 on the afterlife of Chens teachings that I develop this approach. In section
1 of chapter 6 I study the history of the printing and distribution of Chens texts, and
in sections 2 and 3 I study the history of the reception of Chens texts and teachings
2
Extension is my term for a strategy in which the teacher takes up a religious truth that would already have
been accepted by his audience
then attempts to stretch its truthvalue to encompass his own teachings. The
audience would see these teachings as aberrant unless the teacher can convince the audience that the truthvalue
of the noncontroversial religious truth applies to them too. The similar concept of stealing the lightning
comes from Urban, Elitism and Esotericism, 1.
663
by later readers. Having studied Chens misreadings of earlier Daoist, Buddhist, and
Confucian traditions throughout chapters 25, in sections 3.5.3 through 3.5.5 of
chapter 6 I study the counterreadings of Chens teachings by later solo alchemists.
In chapter 6 I also note that some Ming and Qingdynasty alchemists hold a view
about the foundation of alchemical learning that di
ers signicantly from Chens
view: whereas for Chen the student cannot achieve true alchemical understanding
without oral instructions received personally from a teacher, for these later
alchemists, alchemy is a textual tradition, and can be learned through books.3 This 5
discursive change may be due to di
erences between the 4 institutional
backgrounds of Chen Zhixu and the MingQing alchemists, but it is certainly also
due to changes in the 6 textuality of alchemical learning between Chens time and
the MingQing period.
According to the 7 selfreective perspective, the scholar must always
interrogate his or her own prejudices, and may also change them in light of what he
or she learns through research. I have addressed this issue to some extent in chapter
4, where I adopt a received standard account of inner alchemy as my initial
paradigm, but aim to revise the prejudices of this received account through the
survey of inneralchemical traditions in the chapter. I have also addressed this issue
in the introduction to chapter 6,4 where I talk about Chinese contemporary
traditional scholarship on inner alchemy, and the value of this scholarship as
e
ective history wirkungsgeschichte .
An outline of Chens religious market.
In chapter 1, I o
er an outline of Chen
Zhixus religious market, in the form of six questions. While I have not used this
outline explicitly to structure the dissertation, most of the points in the outline are
addressed in the chapters above, so here I will recall the points I make in the
chapters and relate them to the religiousmarket outline from chapter 1. This may
also serve as an index to many of the points that are repeated throughout the
dissertation. I defend the religiousmarket approach to the study of Chen Zhixu in
chapter 3.
3
See pp. 600, 62627, 633, 63637, 642, 654.
See pp. 55759.
664
1 What is Chen Zhixu selling? Chen is selling salvation, and harmony with
the sacred. The rst of these two religious goods involves departing from the state of
common, mortal humanity this departure may be envisaged as a form of life, or
death, or lifeafterdeath5 to become a transcendent in the heavens or united with
the Dao.6 The second religious good, harmony with the sacred, involves touching
the sacred in this life. What I call secondary salvic e ects are examples of this.7
Chen is also selling a unique religious worldview. In chapters 4 and 5 I discuss
the elements of this worldview such as cosmology,8 anthropology,9 theory of
transcendenthood,10 myth,11 theology of various types of spirits or deities,12
metaphysics,13 ethics,14 theory and uses of scripture,15 ritual,16 social institutions such
as the masterdisciple relationship,17 and way of life.18 Finally, Chen is selling specic
alchemical teachings, of course, which I discuss in chapter 5.
2 To whom is Chen selling? He is selling to laymen Confucians, literati, and
In one passage, Chen remains cagey about the question of whether apotheosis necessarily involves the death of
the body; see pp. 52728.
6
See pp. 32428 chap. 4, 4.174.20, and 52632 chap. 4, 3.4.53.4.7.
Also see pp. 66768 below. A more careful development of these two categories of salvation and harmony with
the sacred might compare the former with J. Z. Smiths category of utopian religion and the latter with his
category of locative religion; cf. Smith, The Wobbling Pivot, 1012.
See pp. 25468 chap. 4, 3.2, 26872 chap. 4, 3.3, 32843 chap. 4, 5, 48892 chap. 5, 3.2.2.6, 49293 chap.
5, 3.2.2.7, and chap. 5, passim.
9
See pp. 24754 chap. 4, 3.1, 283328 chap. 4, 4, and 431532 chap. 5, 3 passim.
10
See pp. 24546 chap. 4, 2.2, 32426 chap. 4, 4.19, 32628 chap. 4, 4.20, and 518532 chap. 5, 3.4.
11
See pp. 3334, 240, 24849, 257, 322, 33032, 43839, and 49293.
12
See pp. 25254 chap. 4, 3.1.3, and 52326 chap. 5, 3.4.4.
13
I discuss metaphysics aside from cosmology on pp. 27277 chap. 4, 3.4, and chaps. 45, passim.
14
While Chen often discusses topics related to ethics in his writings, I only mention ethics incidentally at pp.
379, 39899, 44345, 51922 chap. 5, 3.4.2, 46566 chap. 5, 3.1.2.7, and 54548 chap. 5, 4.2.
15
While Chen often discusses topics related to scripture in his writings, I do not devote any sections specically
to this topic, only addressing it in my discussions of esoteric hermeneutics. See, in particular, pp. 27980 chap. 4,
3.5.3.
16
I translate a ritual written by Chen on pp. 13760 chap. 2, app. 3, and discuss this material on pp. 99102
chap. 2, 7.4.3.
17
See pp. 23839 chap. 4, 2.1.1.1.
18
See pp. 44146 chap. 5, 3.1.1.
665
o
cials,19 religious seekers who are willing to follow Daoist, Buddhist, or other
kinds of teachers,20 Daoist monastics,21 and perhaps even to Buddhist monastics.22
3 What needs is Chen meeting? These include the needs for avoiding death
and dissolution,23 for rebirth and renewal, participation in sacred anthropocosmic
creation and transformation zaohua ,24 feeling special or elect,25 prestige,26
agency or controlling ones destiny, transference of the disciples unconscious a ect
onto a master, cognitive solutions to philosophical issues,27 and probably also the
need to manage ones sexuality and emotions.
4 How does Chen market and sell his teachings? He does this by establishing
and managing his mastership and authority; chapter 3 is devoted to this topic. In
chapters 3 and 5 I argue that Chen has three goals of a achieving recognition and
authority as a master, or managing his mastership; b spreading his teachings in the
religious eld; and c attaining personal salvation. I call this dynamic a threeway
feedback loop of propagation, authority, and salvation. These three goals are
complementary: for example, the authority Chen gains will help him attract a
support network and audience base of patrons, disciples, or readers. This support
19
Such as Tian Qi #1 in chap. 2, app. 2, pp. 13536; also see pp. 6770, Zhao Boyong #3, Zhao Renqing #4,
Zhou Yunzhong #5, Wang Shunmin #6; also see pp. 11520, 197, Zhang Xingchu #7, Xia Yanwen #8, Zhang
Shihong #9; also see pp. 11520, Yu Shunshen #14; also p. 127, Xu Renshou #15; also p. 126, Ouyang Yutian
#19, Zhou Caochuang #20, Zhenxi #21, Tao Tangzuo #22, Han Guoyi #24, and Dingyangzi #25.
20
Such as Deng Yanghao #2; also see chap. 2, 8.1.2, pp. 10915; chap. 5, 3.0, pp. 43140, Li Tianlai #10, Wang
Xiangweng #16; also see pp. 54344, and Zhang Yanwen #23.
21
Such as Ming Suchan #11; also see chap. 2, 8.1.1, pp. 1059, Che Kezhao #12; also see pp. 11617, 12425, Luo
Xizhu #13; also see chap. 2, 8.2.3, pp. 12025, Pan Taichu #17; also p. 116, and Ouyang Yuyuan #18; also see
pp. 44, 11516.
22
I suggest pp. 17273 but do not have direct evidence that Chen Zhixu was hoping that his teachings would be
received by Buddhist monastics. It is possible that he did have this hope, but it is also possible that his Buddhistic
discourses and arguments were addressed only to lay seekers, or lay Buddhists who followed monastics.
23
See pp. 322 chap. 4, 4.14 and 323 chap. 4, 4.15.
24
See pp. 32122 chap. 4, 4.13.
25
See pp. 101, 197.
26
See p. 120.
27
For example, Chen Zhixu discusses astronomy in DZ 91, Taishang dongxuan lingbao wuliang duren shangpin
miaojing zhujie and in Zhouyi cantong qi fenzhang zhu. We may assume that Chen discusses astronomy for cognitive
or scientic reasons as well as for religious reasons. This material is studied in Volkov, Scientic Knowledge in
Taoist Context, but not in the dissertation. Volkov argues that Chen Zhixu must have been well versed in
contemporary astronomy, and that mathematical and astronomical was, at least partly, transmitted through
Taoist networks and was not conned exclusively to state institutions; ibid., 540.
666
network in turn will help him nance his personal quest for salvation. In addition to
this, his teaching activities within his network, and his successes in spreading his
teachings to new audiences, will generate karmic merit for him, which will further
contribute to his salvation.28
Chen also markets and sells his teachings by establishing correspondences to
other known truths a strategy I term extension, or stealing the lightning,29 or
through the esoteric assumption that truth is secret,30 or through an esoteric strategy
of managing secrecy and display,31 or by making violent misreadings,32 or by ex
cathedra pronouncements and speech acts which I include within the list of
secondary salvic e ects below.
5 How does salvation work for Chen? There are two forms of salvation in
Chens teachings: primary salvation, and secondary salvic e ects. Primary
salvation is salvation as we often understand the term, that is, escape or rescue from
the mortal realm and assumption into heaven. In addition to salvation through
alchemical selfcultivation, Chen also alludes to other forms of primary salvation,
such as salvation through amassing karmic merit,33 or through intercession by spirits
and deities.34
Yet in addition to salvation in the usual sense, I also identify secondary
salvic e ects throughout Chens writing and practice. I think of secondary salvic
e ects primarily in terms of Mircea Eliades hermeneutic of the sacred. I call them
secondary because they are subtle, only semiconscious to the adept, and usually
found together with a more selfconscious and commonsense forms of salvation.
28
See pp. 16162; also, pp. 72, 84, 104, 12425, 129, 24546, and 44852 chap. 5, 3.1.2.1.
29
See p. 663n2 above; also pp. 57, 8485, 115, 164, 16869, 178, 39697 chap. 5, 1.9.3, 53345 chap. 5, 4.1, and
54548 chap. 5, 4.2.
30
See pp. 2526 chap. 1, 4.2, 164, 1689, 172, and 27980 chap. 4, 3.5.3.
31
See pp. 2526, 164, 1689, 174, and 28182 chap. 4, 3.6.2.
32
See pp. 16378 chap. 3, 1, 39697 chap. 5, 1.9.3, 53345 chap. 5, 4.1, 54548 chap. 5, 4.2, and 64249
chap. 6, 3.5.33.5.5.
33
See pp. 47, 7071, 162n1, and 51922 chap. 5, 3.4.2.
34
See pp. 3637, 8586n159, 99102 chap. 2, 7.4.3, and 13760 chap. 2, app. 3.
667
Secondary salvic eects are produced through achieving gnosis itself,35 recreating
the cosmogonic state in text or discourse,36 reenacting the actions or lives of heroes
or sages,37 repeating the actions of the gods,38 emphasizing correspondence of
microcosm to macrocosm,39 participating in cosmic creation,40 cosmizing the body,41
and through a whole array of speechact eects enactments or performance
eects, such as performing salvation, enlightenment, wisdom, and status as one of
the elect,42 performing the receiving of blessings from deities,43 or performing
cosmogony itself.44
6 Why does Chen sell his teachings, and what does he receive in payment or
exchange? He markets his teachings for nancial gain,45 from a sense of duty,46 to
save others,47 because like all people he craves prestige, in order to manage his
mastership, and ultimately for his own salvation.
Issues for future study.
This study of Chen Zhixu has suggested to me many
issues for future study; some of these I plan to address in my own future work, and
some I can only hope will be addressed by others. It seems to me that the most
pressing issue is 1 the need for more studies of individual inneralchemical texts and
teachers. After enough such studies have been done, scholars may begin to compare
the dierent texts or teachers in their details, addressing the kinds of questions that
I ask in the conclusion to chapter 5:
35
See pp. 33, 101.
36
See pp. 43539 chap. 5, 3.0.2.
37
See pp. 3435, 65, 434.
38
See pp. 122 where Chen likens the sexual alchemist and his partner to the cult deities Xu Xun and Chenmu,
463, and 493.
39
See chaps. 45, passim.
40
See pp. 32122 chap. 4, 4.13.
41
See pp. 3536, 38991, and 49293 chap. 5, 3.2.2.7.
42
See pp. 36, 101.
43
See pp. 99102 chap. 2, 7.4.3 and 13760 chap. 2, app. 3.
44
See pp. 43539 chap. 5, 3.0.2 and 49293 chap. 5, 3.2.2.7.
45
See pp. 44852 chap. 5, 3.1.2.1.
46
See pp. 7071, 104.
47
See pp. 162n1, 197, 468, 51922 chap. 5, 3.4.2, and 531.
668
By nding this ssure between discourse and practice in Chen Zhixus teachings
on ring periods, huohou , I have found a new site for exploration. What
other kinds of alchemists lacked complex ring periods? Is this specic to sexual
alchemists, for whom complexity may be focused more on the gathering of the
pharmacon than on breathwork and intention? How many other alchemists who
eschew complex ring in practice would still retain it in discourse? Can we nd
historical, sociological, or morphological patterns within these variations in
teachings and rhetoric? This is the way I believe we should study inner alchemy:
we can begin with a paradigm, then with the paradigm in mind collect as many
data points as possible, and look for patterns that will either conrm the
paradigm or more likely suggest revisions to it.48
The morphological study of inneralchemical teachings may also suggest revisions to
our understanding of historical links between traditions:
The relative underemphasis on lesserorbital circulation may be a very distinctive
feature of Chens teachings. This discovery might be helpful for placing Chen on
the inneralchemical map. If I can nd a similar underemphasis in some other
alchemical text X, then I would investigate whether X and Chen could share
a common liation of practice.49
Just as comparative linguistics can o
er data about historical links between ancient
peoples that supplements data from documentary or archaeological records, a
comparativemorphological study of the details of inneralchemical teachings could
help to conrm or rewrite the history of the di
erent strands of tradition within
inner alchemy.50 This sort of study could also contribute new tools for the dicult
work of distinguishing solo inner alchemy from sexual alchemy, or laboratory
alchemy, or astroalchemy, or philosophical alchemy.
Other pressing issues for the study of inner alchemy are the need for
historical and sociological research on the 2 sociocultural environment in which
inner alchemists lived and worked, and on 3 Chinese sexual life including sexual
macrobiotics and selfcultivation, and social institutions such as marriage,
concubinage, servitude, and prostitution as a background for sexual alchemy. I
believe that much of this information would be available in secondary sources
48
From p. 553 above.
49
From p. 554 above.
50
Similarly, the morphological study of music used in Daoist ritual can supplement documentary or oral records
of the history of Daoist ritual traditions.
669
already, but it has not been applied to the study of inner alchemy.51
A promising topic
rather than a pressing issue is
4 the comparative study of
esoteric traditions that are based on master disciple relations: traditions such as
Daoism or Chan Buddhism
in many cases, Chinese alchemy, European alchemy,
tantra, kabbalah, susm, early gnosticism, or Western esotericism, or even more
distant cases such as Chinese medicine52 or secret teachings in Japanese religion and
ne arts.53 It might be helpful to think of
most of these traditions as disciplines of
salvation54 to distinguish them analytically from public religions. I believe that it
would be rare to ever to nd such a tradition divorced from public religion, however.
For example, my Outline of Chens Religious Market above is the outline for a
description of Chen Zhixus dao as a religion. Studies comparing inner alchemy with
other master disciple based esoteric disciplines of salvation may provide some
random new insights into inner alchemy
or into the other traditions being compared
with alchemy, but the hope would be to discover general phenomena rather than
just serendipitous conjunctions here or there. For the comparative study of
esotericism, the work of Hugh Urban is an excellent model,55 but I do not know of
any similar contributions toward the comparative study of specically masterdisciple
based traditions.
Where do we place Chen Zhixu on the map?
A theme running through the
dissertation is the question of where Chen Zhixu ought to be placed on the map.
51
Skar, Golden Elixir Alchemy is a contribution to the historical study of the socio cultural environment of inner
alchemy, but we lack comparable work from sociological or anthropological perspectives.
52
Hsu, The Transmission of Chinese Medicine.
53
Scheid and Mark Teeuwen, The Culture of Secrecy in Japanese Religion; Jordan and Weston, Copying the Master and
Stealing His Secrets: Talent and Training in Japanese Painting.
54
The concept comes from de la Valle Poussin, Indian Disciplines of Salvation, 1 8. De la Valle Poussin
contrasts religions with disciplines of salvation in India in the time of the Buddha. One feature of the
disciplines is that they are not concerned with mundane ends at all. . . . The Indian ascetic . . . has to save himself,
to liberate himself from transmigration. . . . There must be a Path to deliverance from rebirth and death. This
Path must be a certain knowledge or esoteric wisdom, or a certain sacrice, or a certain asceticism, or a certain
ecstatic meditation. . . . Various Indian institutions may not agree concerning deliverance and the path to
deliverance, but they all pursue deliverance. The right name for them seems to be disciplines of salvation or
paths to deliverance. Applying de la Valle Poussins categories to Chen Zhixus dao, we would nd in Chens dao
aspects of both social religion and discipline of salvation.
55
E.g., Urban, Elitism and Esotericism: Strategies of Secrecy and Power in South Indian Tantra and French
Freemasonry.
670
Where ought we to locate him within the various daos, or religions, or traditions,
spheres, arrays of discourse or practice, such as
Daoism,
e.g., Quanzhen Daoism, or the Southern Lineage,
Buddhism,
especially Chan Buddhism,
southern cults
to Xu Xun, Ge Xuan, or Zhang Daoling throughout Jiangxi,56 or to the
Perfected Lords of the Floating Hill at Mt. Huagai,57 or to Zhang Daoqing at
Mt. Jiugong,58
NeoConfucianism,
Cantongqi or Wuzhenpian learning,
inner alchemy,
sexual alchemy,
and so on? Chen says that he is a guide on the royal road to salvation; this road passes
through the hearts of a true traditions, so he claims to stand at the center of all true
traditions, though the ignorant may say that he belongs to a marginal tradition
pangmen . In chapter 6, I have argued that many later readers came to see Chen
as central to the traditions of Cantongqi and Wuzhenpian learning, sexual alchemy,
and perhaps also inner alchemy; in chapter 3, I have argued that Chen stood at the
margins of all the other traditions in the list above.
Another question suggested by the problem of locating Chen on the map is
the question What is the map? How ought we to dene these daos, religions,
traditions, spheres, or arrays, within which, or in relation to which, we propose to
locate Chen? In chapters 1 and 4, I discuss my general approach to denitions in the
study of religion: a comparative, polythetic approach informed by prototype theory
and drawn from the work of Benson Saler.59 My simple answer to the question of
how to dene these traditions would be to apply this approach. As for the question
What is the map?, that is, How are we situate these various traditions in relation
56
See p. 50.
57
See p. 50.
58
See pp. 105, 117, and 12224.
59
See pp. 2122 chap. 1, 3.3, and 21213.
671
to one another?, I can only suggest Bourdieus concept of a total space of

capital containing the eld of power or the eld of religion within it as a model
for thinking about this question.60 It would probably be impossible to nd a single
quality like capital by which to dene the various traditions, though.
An even more basic question would be Where do maps come from? What
are we doing when we dene these traditions and place them within a larger sphere?
What were they doing in premodern China when they made their own
denitions? Clearly, for Chen Zhixu, dening traditions, placing them on the map
for Chen this would be a map of ultimate truth, the dao of the golden elixir , and
locating himself with respect to the traditions and the map, was a crucial and deeply
contentious a
air. What were the processes underlying this denitional struggle?
A full answer to the question Where do we place Chen Zhixu on the map?,
in addition to the basic tasks of dening Daoism, Chan Buddhism, and all of the
other traditions,61 and of locating Chen Zhixu somewhere in relation to them,62 we
ought also to investigate the internal dynamics by which groups di
erentiate
themselves on some levels and establish strategic identications on others.63 This
would be what Catherine Bell has called a thirdstage approach. In a review article
on the use of the category of popular religion in the contemporary study of
Chinese religion, Bell sums up scholarship on the study of Chinese popular religion
since the 1950s in terms of what she calls rst, second, and thirdstage approaches.
Firststage approaches assume a dichotomy between a great and a little tradition in
Chinese society, and see the religiosities of elites and peasants as mutually
60
See p. 198, g. 3.3.
61
Instead of developing a formal denition, one could also sketch out a denition, or indicate the denitional
process, while leaving the boundaries exible. This is what Benson Saler does, and what I do. Saler writes, The
power of religion as an analytical category . . . depends on its instrumental value in facilitating the formulation of
interesting statements about human beings Conceptualizing Religion, 68 , rather than in producing a nal
denition of religion or of a particular religion.
62
Chen focuses almost exclusively on selfcultivation; sometimes he treats selfcultivation as the primary
category, which includes various forms of practice that we would distinguish as Daoist or Buddhist. Within
the category of selfcultivation, he may ally himself more closely to a true form of Buddhism than to a false
form of Daoism, or he may not speak of these forms of selfcultivation as Buddhist or Daoist at all. In studying
Chinese religions, the emphasis should not always be put on religions, but instead it may often be better put
upon traditions, practices, discourses, or repertoires, which may cut across the boundaries of various religions.
See p. 21 above.
63
Bell, Religion and Chinese Culture: Toward an Assessment of Popular Religion, 45.
672
autonomous. Secondstage approaches often structuralist argue that elite and folk
religiosities share a common framework, and take this underlying social framework
as their subject of interest. Thirdstage approaches do not assume that elite and
folk are stable terms, and do not assume a stable structure uniting them, instead
studying how both cultural categories and social organization are generated,
maintained, or contested through symbolic activity,64 especially through ritual or
public performance. We might call the thirdstage approach the study of the
production of di erence and unity. We could apply Bells ideas about the categories
of elite and folk in the study of popular religion to the question of boundaries or
relations between daos and traditions in the study of inner alchemy, or Chinese
religion in general. According to this approach, we would look at how actors and
groups within the religious arena of premodern China generated, maintained, or
contested denitions of and relationships between these daos and traditions. We
would attend to how actors or groups produce maps of the religious arena based on
their own memberships in or relations to various traditions, teachings, or daos. Yet
we would also attend to how traditions, teachings, or daos are themselves produced
or reproduced through this denitional or mapmaking activity.
Bourdieus account of the act of naming in everyday social life describes a
similar process:
By structuring the perception which social agents have of the social world, the
act of naming helps to establish the structure of this world . . . There is no social
agent who does not aspire, . . . to have the power to name and to create the world
through naming: gossip, slander, lies, insults, commendations, criticisms,
arguments and praises are all daily and petty manifestations of the solemn and
collective acts of naming . . . which are performed by generally recognized
authorities.65
Bourdieu is talking about the process by which social reality is produced, reproduced,
managed, contested, or transformed by its participants through their acts of naming,
with their speech acts having more or less e ect depending on the symbolic capital
they can mobilize to support their speech acts. Sometimes mapmaking activity is
e ective, and sometimes it is not, depending on the amounts of capital that agents
64
Bell, Religion and Chinese Culture: Toward an Assessment of Popular Religion, 39.
65
Bourdieu, Language and Symbolic Power, 105. Also quoted on p. 30 above.
673
can bring to the arena of contestation. In chapter 3 I have argued that Chen Zhixu
was probably able to convince his audience to accept his map of religious truth in
only some of his facetoface encounters, or only some of his reading audience, so
during his career his mapmaking was only e ective on a small scale, and he
remained a marginal gure. Yet in chapter 6 I have argued that, by the time of Lu
Xixing 1520ca. 1601, Chens teachings and those of other teachers had been used
e ectively to remap the eld of inner alchemy, dividing it between solo and sexual
approaches, so Chen had become a gure central to alchemists denition of the eld
of inner alchemy.
This dissertation is a similar attempt to use Chens teachings to redraw the
eld of inner alchemy, even if only a little. Chen would be unlikely to approve of my
secularized reading of his dao; on the other hand, we cannot approve of Chens use of
minor bondmaids for sexual cultivation. So Chens discourse and our own are to a
certain degree talking past one another; but this is, perhaps, how people usually use
culture.
674
Appendix 1, A Comprehensive Bibliography of

Editions of Works by Chen Zhixu and Zhao Youqin
A. Primary Texts by Chen Zhixu
A1. Jindan dayao . 1st ed. MS?, 1331 ?; 2nd ed. printed with prefaces by
Ming Suchan
and Ouyang Tianshu , 1336; 3rd ed. printed, 1343
or thereafter.
Also entitled:
Shangyangzi Jindan dayao .
Collected in:
C1, Zhengtong daozang. 16 juan. DZ 1067, HY 1059.
C2, Chongkan Daozang jiyao. 3 ce .
C3, Jindan zhengli daquan. 10 juan.
C4, Daoyan wuzhong. 1 juan.
C5, Daozang jinghua. 2+ juan.1
C6, Daofan zhengzong wujing sishu daquan.
C7, Doga jikji dokyo kyng.
C8, Zhonghua daozang, 27:52094.
C9, Zhonuo qigong jingdian.
Standalone copies:
1
Chen Chongsu and Chen Zhixu, Guizhong zhinan Jindan dayao, photoreproduces the same edition as Daozang
jinghua.
675
A1.1. Jindan dayao. 10 juan. 8 ce in 2 han. Ming edition. Held by Shandong

Provincial Museum.2
A1.2. Jindan dayao. Edition printed in Ningfu 3.3 Not extant?
A1.3. Jindan dayao. Online electronic edition, input and collated by SIVINL
and Baixue, based on Zhengtong daozang and Daoshu quanji eds.
SIVINL)*1">1:1
,8!7'.
A1a. Xiulian xuzhi 9-.

Collected as a separate text in:
Forms part of the text of Jindan dayao itself in:
All editions of Jindan dayao.
A1b. Shangyangzi Jindan dayao tu + 2.

2
Zhonuo guji shanben shumu, zibu, 6:88a. A former librarian claimed that this is a Yuan edition from the second
Zhiyuan reign period 133541 . I have examined this edition personally, and found a Ming
dynasty colophon: printed at the behest of Tao Zhongfu of old YellowRed Cli , Grand Master for Proper
Consultation, Governor Assisting in Administration, and Eminent Gentleman of Divine Empyrean, Assisting
Administration of the Regulations, and Holding Harmony Within < 0
#6;5/$.
%(4=&. According to Hucker, Governor Assisting in Administration 0
was a Mingdynasty merit
title.
From examining the paper of this book, I cannot tell if the printing is Ming, or later. This edition is at least
one step away from the original edition, yet it is a unique edition, and very valuable for analyzing textual
divergences.
3
Mentioned in Chao Biao and Xu Bo, Chaoshi Baowen Tang shumu, 225. This bibliography is from the Jiajing reign
period, ca. 152266.
676
C2, Chongkan Daozang jiyao ed. of Jindan dayao, 3.26a39a.

C3, Jindan zhengli daquan ed. of Jindan dayao, 8.1a13b.
A1.1, Shandong edition of Jindan dayao.
A1c. Shangyangzi Jindan dayao liexian zhi

.
C3, Jindan zhengli daquan ed. of Jindan dayao, 8.23a32a.
A1d. Shangyangzi Jindan dayao xianpai .

C3, Jindan zhengli daquan ed. of Jindan dayao, 8.13b23a.
A1e. Daode jing zhuanyu .

A1e.1. Daode jing gujin ben kaozheng . Photoreproduced in
C5, Daozang jinghua, ser. 13, vol. 2.
677
A1e.2. Wuqiubei Zhai Laozi jicheng chubian & %. 2 juan. In

han 6, ce 3. Taipei: Yiwen yinshuguan, 1965. This Taipei printing is a
photoreproduction of an 1809 Hanjian Zhai woodblock ed. $
'&.
C1, Zhengtong daozang ed. of Jindan dayao, 10.1a13a.
C2, Chongkan Daozang jiyao ed. of Jindan dayao, 1.76a88b.
A1f. Panhuo ge
Also entitled:
Shangyangzi panhuo ge
Collected as a separate text in:4

C16, Daoyan neiwai mijue quanshu, Daoyan nei section, juan 3.
Photoreproduction of this ed. in C21, Zangwai daoshu, 6:200.
C17, Gujin tushu jicheng.
C18, Qunxian zhuyu jicheng.
C1, Zhengtong daozang ed. of Jindan dayao, 9.3a6a.
C2, Chongkan Daozang jiyao ed. of Jindan dayao, 1.68b70b.
Also mentioned as a separate text in postface bayao to Daoyuan jingwei ge ! , by Liu Mingrui #
, dated 1889 "
. Chens name given as (. Cf. Zhu Yueli, Daojing zonglun, 318.
678

A1g, Yu Jiugong Biyangzi Che Langu .

Also entitled:
Yu Jiugong Shan Biyangzi Che Langu .
Yu Biyangzi .
Yu Che Langu shu
.
Collected as a separate text unrelated to Jindan dayao in:
C19, Jiugong Shan zhi, 8.9b13a4.
C1, Zhengtong daozang ed. of Jindan dayao, 11.8a12b.
C3, Jindan zhengli daquan ed. of Jindan dayao, 6.7a10b.
A1h, Jiaotai An shuo shi Che Kezhao .

C19, Jiugong Shan zhi, 8.6b7a.
C2, Chongkan Daozang jiyao ed. of Jindan dayao, 2.28b29a.
679
A1i, Jiaotai An ji .

Also entitled:
Jiugong Shan Jiaotai An ji .
C19, Jiugong Shan zhi, 8.7ab.
C2, Chongkan Daozang jiyao ed. of Jindan dayao, 2.29ab.
C3, Jindan zhengli daquan ed. of Jindan dayao, 6.33ab.
A1j, Yu Luo Dongyun shu .

C19, Jiugong Shan zhi, 8.7b9b.
C2, Chongkan Daozang jiyao ed. of Jindan dayao, 2.29b31b.
C3, Jindan zhengli daquan ed. of Jindan dayao, 6.33b35b.
A2. Taishang dongxuan lingbao wuliang duren shangpin miaojing zhujie

. 1336 preface by Chen Zhixu.
Also entitled:
Duren jing, Chen Zhixu jiezhu .
Reedition:
680
A2a. Taishang dongxuan lingbao wuliang duren shangpin miaojing. 2 juan. With
portions of Chen Zhixus commentary as selected by Peng Haogu %
in C16, Daoyan neiwai mijue quanshu, Daoyan nei section, juan 1.
Photoreproduced in C21, Zangwai daoshu, 6:2555.
Collected in:
C16, Daoyan neiwai mijue quanshu.
Standalone copy, entitled:
A2.1. Taishang dongxuan lingbao wuliang duren shangpin miaojing, 3 juan.; Yuanshi
wuliang duren shangpin miaojing, 3 juan. 1504 ed. from woodblocks cut by
Wang Taiyuan . Held by National Library of
China !!,/ i.e.,
,, Shanghai Library.5
A3. Zhouyi Cantong qi fenzhang zhu
".
Also entitled:
Zhouyi Cantong qi fenzhang zhujie
Cantong qi fenzhang zhu
"&*.
".
Cantong qi jingwen fenjie jie

Zhouyi Cantong qi zhujie
Zhouyi Cantong qi zhu
) (*.
&*.
&.
Reeditions:
A3a. Dingpi Shangyangzi yuanzhu cantong qi #'
. 3 juan. In
Jiyizi dingpi daoshu sizhong 0#+-, edited by Fu Jinquan $

. 17651845, styled Jiyizi 0, of Jinxi 1, Zhejiang.
5
Zhonuo guji shanben shumu, zibu, 6:85b.
681
Photoreproduced in C21, Zangwai daoshu, 11:74489. Another

photoreproduced edition standalone by Xinwenfeng chuban gongsi,
Taipei, 1978.
A3b. Cantong qi jingwen fenjie jie
)'(.
A3c. Cantong qi jianzhu fenjie jie
)'(.
A3d. Cantong qi san xianglei
,.
All collected in:

C11, Guwen cantong qi. 3 juan. These three redactions A3bd are
composed of selections from Zhouyi Cantong qi fenzhang zhu.
Together they contain about 70 percent of the text of Zhouyi
Cantong qi fenzhang zhu, with almost no changes.
Collected in:
C2, Chongkan Daozang jiyao. 3 juan.
C3, Jindan zhengli daquan. 3 juan. This edition is photoreproduced in C21,
C12, Sanzhu wuzhen pian. 3 juan.
C13, Siku quanshu. 3 juan.
Guwen Cantong qi jijie
%(. Jiang Yibiao +!, comp.
Jindai mishu $. Mao Jin , comp.

Xinqin Wuzhen pian sanzhu &-*#. 3 juan. See A4.
Zhouyi cantong qi guzhu jicheng
% 1990.
Standalone copies:
A3.1. Zhouyi Cantong qi zhujie. 3 juan. 1484 ed. from woodblocks cut by Xu
Yonghe of the Jinling Print Shop "
.
682
Held by Shanghai Library.6

A3.2. Yifu chongkan Zhouyi Cantong qi zhujie "&. 3 juan.
1552 ed. from woodblocks cut at Yifu )(
. Held by
National Library of China *.7
A3.3. Zhouyi Cantong qi zhu. 3 juan. Ming woodblock ed.
. Held by
National Library of China *.8
A3.4. Zhouyi Cantong qi fenzhang zhujie. 3 juan. 1842 ed. from woodblocks cut at
the Hall Where Books Are WellTreated '

.
With handwritten comments and punctuation by Guo Songtao . Qing

dyn. $-,. Held by Hunan Normal University Library.9
A4. Ziyang Zhenren Wuzhen pian sanzhu !#+". After 1331.

Also entitled:
Wuzhen pian sanzhu.
Reedition:
A4a. Dingpi sanzhu Wuzhen pian +. 2 juan. In Jiyizi dingpi daoshu
sizhong, edited by Fu Jinquan. Photoreproduced in C21, Zangwai daoshu,
11:790859. Also in Daozang jinghua, ser. 6., no. 1.
A4a.1. Sizhu Wuzhen pian "+. 3 juan. A reedition of Dingpi sanzhu
Wuzhen pian, unrelated to A4.14 below. Collated and printed by Saoye
Shanfang .%, 20th c.? Photoreproduced in C5, Daozang jinghua,
ser. 6, no. 1.
Collected in:
Zhonuo guji shanben shumu, zibu, 6:82a.
683
A1, Zhengtong daozang. 5 juan. DZ 142, HY 142.

C2, Chongkan Daozang jiyao. Kui coll. * 2.
C12, Sanzhu wuzhen pian. 3 juan.
C14, Yihua yuanzong. 3 juan.
Standalone copies:
A4.1. Xinqin Wuzhen pian sanzhu +8!#2'. 3 juan in 4 ce. Printed by Mr.
Luo of the Forest of Books . Ming dyn. "6 . Held by
National Central Library of Taiwan.10
A4.2. Wuzhen pian sanzhu. 3 juan. 1483 ed. from woodblocks cut by Wang
Zhongcheng et al.
1&. Held by Shanghai
Library.11
A4.3. Wuzhen pian sanzhu also called Wuzhen pian jizhu?. 3 juan. 1588
woodblock ed. ,4. Originally part the collection Qunxian
yulu -/5. Preface by Liu Qian 03, Administrator of the Left of the
Administrators O ce, presented for the rank of Grand Master for
Governance () from Guanzhong 7
presentday Shaanxi. Held by Peking University Library.12
A4.4. Wuzhen pian sanzhu. 3 juan. Ming ed. from woodblocks cut by Chen
Changqing %. Held by Shanghai Library.13
A4.5. Wuzhen pian sanzhu. 3 juan. Ming ed. ca. 1484?see A3.1 above from
woodblocks cut at the Xu Family Print Shop at Jinling $
. Held by National Library of China ..14
10
Guojia tushuguan shanben shuzhi chugao, zibu, 3:288.
11
12
Zhonuo guji shanben shumu, zibu, 6:89b. I add information gained from consulting this copy.
13
14
684
"
A4.6. Wuzhen pian sanzhu. 3 juan. Ming woodblock ed. . Held by
Shanghai Library; Lda City Library, Ningxia Province.15
A4.7. Wuzhen pian sanzhu. 3 juan. Ming woodblock ed. Held by Hangzhou City
Library.16
A4.8. Wuzhen pian sanzhu. 3 juan. Ming woodblock ed. Held by Library of the
Henan Institute of Chinese Medicine.17
A4.9. Wuzhen pian sanzhu. 3 juan. Ming woodblock ed. Held by Peoples
University Library.18
A4.10. Wuzhen pian sanzhu. 3 juan. Late Ming ed. from woodblocks cut at the
Chengzhi Storied Building in Guangling Jiangsu
.
Held by City of Beijing Bureau of Antiquities.19
A4.11. Wuzhen pian sanzhu. 6 ce, 1 han . Mingdyn. printing. Held by
University of California at Berkeley Library.
A4.12. Xinke Wuzhen pian sanzhu
. 3 juan. Woodblock ed. from
the Wanli reign period 15731620 ! . Held by Fudan

University Library.20
A4.13. Ziyang Zhenren Wuzhen pian sanzhu. 5 juan. Ming MS ed. . Held
by Tianyi Ge, Hangzhou.21
A4.14. Wuzhen pian sizhu
. 2 juan. 1599 woodblock ed. !
. The fourth commentary is by Peng Haogu , who also

supplies a preface dated 1599. Printed by Wu Wenlong " of Xinan
Men unknown. Held by Peking University Library, Gest Library
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
685
at Princeton University.22
A5. Wuzhen pian kanwei ji (. 3 juan. Printing errors corrected
$ by
Chen Zhixu and Xue Daoguang ,! .23
May be similar to A4. Not extant?
A6. Daode jing xu !'
. Included in a woodblock ed. of Taishang bashiyi hua tushuo
"%,24 rst printed sometime after 1524 by the ThreePrimes

Workshop and? the Scriptureworkshop of the UnitedinVirtue Studio

'
. May be related to sections in Jindan dayao entitled Daode jing xu !

also entitled Daodejing zonglun !'
+) or Daode jing zhuanyu !'
/#
also entitled Daode jing zhuanyu jie 0.25 Held by Yoshioka Yoshitoyo
.
.
A7. Xianfo tongyuan xu

. Chen Zhixus preface to this work by Zhao
Youqin.
Collected in:
Juan 8 of C15, Zhuzhen xuanao jicheng.
A8. Huolong jue *. This is a brief lateimperial text on laboratory alchemy; it is
not by Chen Zhixu.
22
Zhonuo guji shanben shumu, zibu, 6:90a; Ch Wanli, A Catalogue of the Chinese Rare Books in the Gest Coection,
396. I add information gained by consulting the Peking University copy.
23
Recorded in two Qingdynasty critical bibliographies

Luo Weiguo and Hu Ping, Guji banben tiji suoyin, 692.
24
This edition of the Taishang bashiyi hua tushuo is referred to by Yoshioka Yoshitoyo as the Hangzhou ed.

Yoshioka, Dky to bukky, 1:18193. Yoshioka thinks that this edition of Bashiyi huatu was edited by Chen
Zhixu himself, and printed around the time of its 1374 preface by Ming Taizu , but Kubo Noritada casts
strong doubt on this conclusion. Kubo thinks that this edition of Bashiyi huatu was edited by an heir of Zhao
Yizhen &
d. 1382, sometime after 1524
Kubo, Rshi hachijichi ka to setsu ni tsuite, 38.
25
In his preface to DZ 91, Taishang dongxuan lingbao wuliang duren shangpin miaojing zhujie
see A2, 4a8, Chen Zhixu
says that he wrote a commentary to the Daode jing. Because in the same sentence he also mentions writing Jindan
dayao, it seems that his Daode jing commentary was a separate work, not a section of Jindan dayao.
686
Collected in:
C5, Daozang jinghua, ser. 11, no. 2.
A9. Yuou shuo .26 This text seems not to have been part of the Jindan dayao,
and not to be extant.
A10. Jingang jing zhu . Mentioned in the preface to DZ 91, Taishang dongxuan
lingbao wuliang duren shangpin miaojing zhujie see A2, 4a8.
Not extant.
B. Primary Texts by Zhao Youqin
B1. Xianfo tongyuan . 10 juan originally 81 juan.27 Preface of 1337 to the rst
printed edition 10 juan ed..
Also entitled:
Xianfo tongyuan lun .
Xianfo dongyuan .28
Collected in:
Juan 8 of C15, Zhuzhen xuanao jicheng. 1 juan.
C6, Daofan zhengzong wujing sishu daquan.
Standalone ed.
26
Mentioned in postface to Daoyuan jingwei ge, by Liu Mingrui. Chens name given as
. Cf. Zhu Yueli,
Daojing zonglun, 318.
27
Chen Zhixu, preface to Xianfo tongyuan, by Zho Youqin, in Daoshu quanji Zhongguo shudian ed., 460.
28
Kong Linghong, Song Ming daojiao sixiang yanjiu, 274n3, probably an error.
687
B1.1. Yuandu zhenren xianfo tongyuan wen
%
1 ce. 1834 MS
ed. by Mr. Li of Osmanthus Pavilion in Dehua, Fujian Province

. Preface by Man of the Way Luo Jingxu #!, dated
1834. Held by Peking University Library.29
B2. Gexiang xinshu . 1324 or before. 5 juan.30

Also entitled:
Yuanben Gexiang xinshu .
First entitled Gexiang .
Reedition:
B2a. Chongxiu Gexiang xinshu .
Reedition collected in:
B2a.1. Jinhua congshu ". Reedited by Wang Wei &.
Collected in:
B3. Jindan nanwen $.31 6 zhang . Mentioned in many biographical accounts

of Zhao Youqin, but not extant.
B4. Daode jing commentary. Mentioned by Chen Zhixu DZ 1067, 2.3b1, but not
29
Beijing daxue tushuguan cang guji shanben shumu, 360. I add information gained by consulting this copy.
30
See Volkov, Scientic Knowledge in Taoist Context for a discussion of the textual history of Gexiang xinshu.
Volkov shows that the extant editions of Gexiang xinshu are actually heirs of a nowlost recompiled edition ca.
13361404 which was based in part on the quotations of Zhaos work in Chen Zhixus DZ 91, Taishang dongxuan
lingbao wuliang duren shangpin miaojing zhujie A2 and possibly also Zhouyi Cantong qi fenzhang zhu A3.
31
Kong Linghong, SongMing daojiao sixiang yanjiu, 274n3, has $, probably an error.
688
extant.
B5. Mengtian lu .32 Not extant?
B6. Jindan zhenli .33 Not extant? This may be a reference to C3, Jindan zhengli
daquan , which is sometimes wrongly attributed to Zhaos
editorship.34
B7. Tuibu licheng

.35 Not extant?
B8. Sanjiao yiyuan .36 Not extant?
C. Collectanea Containing the Primary Texts
C1. Zhengtong daozang . Woodblocks cut in 1444, some recut in 1598.37
Includes:
A1, Shangyangzi jindan dayao. 16 juan. DZ 1067.
A1a, Xiulian xuzhi. 1 juan. DZ 1077.
32
Huang Yuji, Qianqing Tang shumu, 439; Kong Linghong, SongMing daojiao sixiang yanjiu, 274n3.
33
Kong Linghong, SongMing daojiao sixiang yanjiu, 274n3. The source of Kongs attributions may be Siku quanshu
tiyao.
34
See, e.g., Huang Yuji, Qianqing Tang shumu, 439.
35
Kong Linghong, SongMing daojiao sixiang yanjiu, 274n3.
36
Kong Linghong, SongMing daojiao sixiang yanjiu, 274n3.
37
Van der Loon, Taoist Books in the Libraries of the Sung Period, 58.
689
A1b, Shangyangzi jindan dayao tu. 1 juan. DZ 1068.

A1c, Shangyangzi jindan dayao liexian zhi. 1 juan. DZ 1069.
A1d, Shangyangzi jindan dayao xianpai. 1 juan. DZ 1070.
A2, Taishang dongxuan lingbao wuliang duren shangpin miaojing zhujie, 3 juan. DZ
91.
A4, Wuzhen pian sanzhu. 5 juan. DZ 142.
C2. Chongkan Daozang jiyao

)$. 4th ed.,38 compiled in 1906 at the
Hermitage of the Two Transcendents Erxian An , Qingyang Gong
, Chengdu, by He Longxiang &+, Peng Hanran #, and Yan Yonghe %
. The rst ed. was compiled by Peng Dingqiu 16451719, and the second ed.
by Jiang Yupu "
17551819 sometime between 1796 and 1819.39
Includes:
A1, Jindan dayao. 3 ce.
A3, Zhouyi Cantong qi fenzhang zhu. 3 juan.
A4, Ziyang Zhenren Wuzhen pian sanzhu.
C3. Jindan zhengli daquan . Compiled by Songyue Zhuren ',

a.k.a. Zhu Mushen ,40 or by another account, by Hanchanzi of Purple
Aurora Mountain (*!$.41 Latest internal preface by Qian
38
Hu Fuchen, Zhonghua daojiao da cidian, s.v. Daozang jiyao )$, 230; and Zhu Yueli, Daojing zonglun, 32728.
The texts in the original compilation of Daozang jiyao were all drawn from the Daozang Zhengtong Daozang,
likely also including Wanli xu Daozang. Thus the two works by Chen probably would have been in this original
compilation, though they might have been dierent editions of Chens works than the Daozang editions, as we see
in the Chongkan Daozang jiyao, the 1906 version of Daozang jiyao.
39
Qing Xitai, et al., Zhonuo daojiao shi, 4:45465; Esposito, Daoism in the Qing 16441911, 63435.
40
41
690
Daohua +&", dated 1442.42

Includes:
A1, Jindan dayao. 10 juan.
B3, Zhouyi cantong qi fenzhang zhu. 3 juan.43 This edition is photoreproduced in
C21, Zangwai daoshu, 9:23071.
C15, Zhuzhen xuanao jicheng, 9 juan, which contains B1, Xianfo tongyuan juan 8.
Editions:
C3.1. 1538 Zhou Fan woodblock ed. ('-. 42 juan, 24 ce, 4
han. Held by National Central Library of Taiwan, Library of the Chinese
Academy of Sciences Beijing, Fudan University Library, Huadong Normal
University Library, Tianjin City Library, National Library of China ).
Reproduced in C21, Zangwai daoshu, vol. 9.
Reproduced in Siku quanshu cunmu congshu
,, ser. 3 Zibu

, vol. 260 Jinan: QiLu shushe, 1997.
C3.2. Ming woodblock ed. . 42 juan. Held by Imperial Palace Musuem
Taipei, Institute of Natural Sciences of the Chinese Academy of
Sciences, Shaanxi Chinese Medicine Research Institute, Suzhou City
Library.
Several Daoshu quanji editions see C20 below.
C4. Daoyan wuzhong &*. Composed by Tao Susi ! . 18th c. of Guiji $
42
Zhou Fans preface found in both 1538 and Ming editions says that he received this collection in twentyfour
volumes ben from a friend, then printed it himself in 1538. We cannot know how much earlier than 1538 the
collection was compiled. Skar, Golden Elixir Alchemy, 205, suggests that the text was in fact compiled soon after
1442, as a Daoist answer to the NeoConfucian Xingli daquan of 1417, though this is unproven.
43
A 1 juan commentary to the Jindan sibai zi a text attributed to Zhang Boduan is appended to this Cantong qi
commentary
#%; the author of the Jindan sibai zi commentary is not known, and there
is no special reason to link the commentary to Chen Zhixu.
691
F. Preface dated 1718 -?.44 Edition printed during the Kangxi reign
period by the Hall of Remnant Scriptures /-?L<+.45
Includes:
A1, Jindan dayao. 1 juan.
Editions:
Daoyan wuzhong is listed in Zhonuo congshu zonglu, but not found in any
library catalogue.
Photoreproduced in C21, Zangwai daoshu, vol. 10.
C5. Daozang jinghua =PB7. Compiled by Xiao Tianshi K 190986. Taipei:

Ziyou chubanshe, 195679.
Includes:
A1, Jindan dayao. 2+ juan. In ser. 8, no. 3, 181320.46
44
Zhu Yueli, Daojing zonglun, 332, lists three editions: a 1700 selfengraved edition from Wondrous Lotus Studio
-?IO, the Hall of Remnant Scriptures edition see above, and an 1800 punctuated
reprint from Oceanus Hall >DR+$*N.
Zhu gives an alternate title, Daoyan neiwai wuzhong milu = A(M, which sounds much like Daoyan
neiwai mijue quanshu, an unrelated work.
45
Zhonuo congshu zonglu, 1:817.
46
The title page of the edition of Jindan dayao reproduced in Daozang jinghua says a secret book, essential reading
for cultivating perfection xiuzhen bidu miben %&S'. Was Xiuzhen bidu miben then the title of a collection
this text was taken from, or just a subtitle added to Jindan dayao?
The recto pagemargins of the text say photoreproduced at the Mountain Villa of the Azure Parasol Tree @
.1C, and the verso margins say distributed by the Studio for Seeking the Ancients O6. These
were Shanghai publishing institutions active in the early twentieth century. In postfaces attached to the text,
mentions of the year wuwu
p. 306, which occurred in 1918, and the jiayin day, three days after Double
Yang 99 ,$9" p. 308, which occurred in 1920, suggest a date of 1920 or later. The postfaces are
signed by Ranchanzi 5Q of Cishui : in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province.
There is a preface to the text by Tao Susi 3)0 of Guiji ;F dated 1718 -?. The preface says that
Tao has compiled Jindan dayao together with another unrelated text, Xuanfu lun, by Lu Qianxu 2E8 Lu Xixing
2#, 15201601. According to the list of contents of Daoyan wuzhong cf. Zhonuo congshu zonglu, 1:817, Jindan
dayao is the fth text in the collection, and the fourth text is Jindan jiuzheng pian xuanfu lun !4GHJ 1
j., by Lu Xixing. This suggests that the edition of Jindan dayao in Daozang jinghua is a later recension of the
Daoyan wuzhong edition. Comparison of wording of the Daoyan wuzhong and Daozang Jinghua editions conrms
this.
The Daoyan wuzhong edition of Jindan dayao, reproduced in Zangwai daoshu, 10:12549, is in one juan, while the
same material in the later Biwu shanzhuang recension has been divided into two juan plus two other appendices
of material from other works Huiming jing and Zhouyi Cantong qi fenzhang zhu.
692
A1e, Daode jing zhuanyu Daode jing gujin ben kaozheng ed.
. 1 juan. In ser. 13, no. 2.
A4a.1, Sizhu Wuzhen pian. 3 juan. In ser. 6, no. 1.
A8, Huolong jue. In ser. 11, no. 2.
C6. Daofan zhengzong wujing sishu daquan . 28 juan. MidMing
printing.47
Includes:
A1, Jindan dayao miaoyong . 10 juan.
A3, Cantong qi zhujie. 3 juan.
A4, Wuzhen pian sanzhu. 3 juan.
B1, Xianfo tongyuan.
Held by Imperial Palace Musuem Taipei
; Gest Library, Princeton University
incomplete copy of 14 juan.
.
C7. Doga jikji dokyo kyng . Compiled in Korea by Shin Donbok

16921779
. Material drawn from Daoshu quanji C20 below
and other
sources.48
Includes:
A1, Jindan dayao.
Editions:
Edition with typed Chinese characters, in National Central Library, Korea.
C8. Zhonghua daozang . Zhang Jiyu , gen. ed. 48 vols. Beijing: Huaxia
47
Taiwan gongcang shanben shumu shuming suoyin, 2:1349. Ch Wanli, Catalogue of Chinese Rare Books in the Gest
Coection, 399.
48
Jung Jaeseo, Daoism in Korea, 8056.
693
chubanshe, 2004. All texts based on Zhengtong daozang eds. alone, excepting A3,
Zhouyi Cantong qi fenzhang zhu, which is based on the Daozang jiyao ed., with
Zangwai daoshus Jindan zhengli daquan ed. used for collation.
Includes:
A1, Jindan dayao. 16 juan. 27:52094.
A1a, Xiulian xuzhi. 1 juan. 27:60814.
A1b, Shangyangzi jindan dayao tu. 1 juan. 27:59599.
A1c, Shangyangzi jindan dayao liexian zhi. 1 juan. 27:6003.
A1d, Shangyangzi jindan dayao xianpai. 1 juan. 27:6047.
A2, Taishang dongxuan lingbao wuliang duren shangpin miaojing zhujie, 3 juan. DZ
91. 3:61565.
A3, Zhouyi Cantong qi fenzhang zhu. 3 juan. 16:20246.
A4, Wuzhen pian sanzhu. 5 juan. DZ 142. 19:40054.
C9. Zhonuo qigong jingdian . Wu Guangrong

, gen. ed. 11 vols.
Beijing: Renmin tiyu chubanshe, 1990. Text of Jindan dayao based on Chongkan
daozang jiyao ed. alone.
Includes:
A1, Jindan dayao.
C10. Jindan jicheng . Dongfang xiudao wenku , 3. Xu Zhaoren

, gen. ed. Beijing: Zhongguo renmin daxue chubanshe, 1988. Text of Jindan
dayao based on Shanzhuang ed. alone.
Includes:
A1, Jindan dayao.
694
C11. Guwen cantong qi

. Compiled ( by Yang Shen !
, with preface
dated 1546. Woodblock edition by the Prefect of Daming Prefecture presentday

Hebei , Yao Ruxun , from East of the Yangtze River present
day Anhui . Ming dyn..49
Also entitled:
Cantong qi jingwen fenjie jie
#"$.50
Includes:
A3b, Cantong qi jingwen fenjie jie. 3 juan.
A3c, Cantong qi jianzhu fenjie jie. 3 juan.
A3d, Cantong qi san xianglei. 2 juan.
Edition held by:
Peking University Library entitled Cantong qi jingwen fenjie jie; Shanghai
Library; Library of the Imperial Palace Musuem Beijing.
C12. Sanzhu wuzhen pian '. With handwritten comments and punctuation
by Fu Jinquan &). 1876 recarved woodblock edition by the Alpine
Studio of Purple Excellence %.51
Includes:
A3, Zhouyi Cantong qi. 3 juan. I.e., Zhouyi cantong qi fenzhang zhu.
A4, Wuzhen pian. 3 juan. I.e., Wuzhen pian sanzhu.
Edition held by:
This Sanzhu wuzhen pian collection is listed in Zhonuo congshu guanglu, but
49
Yang Haiqing and Chen Zhanghuang, Zhonuo congshu guanglu, 66869. I add information gained from
consulting the Peking University Library copy.
50
51
Yang Haiqing and Chen Zhanghuang, Zhonuo congshu guanglu, 669.
695
not found in any library catalogue.
C13. Qinding Siku quanshu

. Wenyuan Ge & ed., 1776. Reprinted as
Siku quanshu zhenben

.
Includes:
A3, Zhouyi Cantong qi fenzhang zhu. 3 juan.
B2, Chongxiu Gexiang xinshu. 2 juan.
C14. Yihua yuanzong . Edited by Gao Shiming . Ming dyn. .
Preface dated 1624.
Includes:
A4, Wuzhen pian sanzhu. 3 juan.
Editions:
1624 ed. with 50 juan in 24 ce.52 Held by National Central Library Taiwan .
1624 ed., supplemented and repaired in 1642
%#
, with 53 texts and 60 juan in 24 ce and 4 han.53 Held by Chinese
Academy of Sciences.
C15. Zhuzhen xuanao jicheng ("!. 9 juan. Edited by Zhu Zaiwei $ .
Ming dyn. .54 Also said to have been edited and printed by Hanchanzi )'
.55
Also entitled:
52
53
Zhonuo kexueyuan tushuguan cang zhongwen guji shanben shumu, 347.
54
Li Xueqin and L Wenyu, Siku da cidian, s.v. Zhuzhen xuanao jicheng ("!, 2321; Guojia tushuguan
shanben shuzhi chugao, zibu, 3:298.
55
Luo Weiguo and Hu Ping, Guji banben tiji suoyin, 53.
696
Zhuzhen yuanao jicheng )#!. 10 juan.56

Includes:
B1, Xianfo tongyuan. 1 juan.
Collected in:
C3, Jindan zhengli daquan in C20, Daoshu quanji.
C16. Daoyan neiwai mijue quanshu %

. 6 juan. Edited by Peng Haogu,
from a ravine in Xiling ,
. 1599.
Includes:
A1f, Panhuo ge. 1 juan. Photoreproduced in C21, Zangwai daoshu, 6:200.
A2, Taishang dongxuan lingbao wuliang duren shangpin miaojing, Chen Zhixu jiezhu.
2 juan. Photoreproduced in C21, Zangwai daoshu, 6:2455.
Editions:
C16.1. Mingdyn. woodblock ed. from the Hall of Brocadeofwritings +
.57
C16.2. Wanlireignperiod ed. engraved by Wu Mianxue * and
collated by Huang Zhicai of Xinan, styled Liangfu $"-
.58 Held by National Central Library Taiwan, HarvardYenching
Library.
Photoreproduced in Zangwai daoshu, 6:1371.
C17. Gujin tushu jicheng '!. 1706. Edited by Chen Menglei (& 1651
1741.
56
Luo Weiguo and Hu Ping, Guji banben tiji suoyin, 53; Guoli zhongyang tushuguan shanben shumu, 84042.
57
Yang Haiqing and Chen Zhanghuang, Zhonuo congshu guanglu, 66566.
58
Guojia tushuguan shanben shuzhi chugao, zibu, 3:293; Zhonuo guji shanben shumu, zibu, 6:93a.
697
Includes:59
A1f, Panhuo ge.
C18. Qunxian zhuyu jicheng .

Includes:
A1f, Panhuo ge.
Collected in:
C20, Daoshu quanji.
C19. Jiugong Shan zhi . Compiled by Fu Xieding in 1878, perhaps
based on previous editions by Wang Jiaofeng . 156773, and of ca. 1644
62 and 173696. Printed in Hubei Province in 1882.
Includes:
A1g, Yu Jiugong Biyangzi Che Langu.
A1h, Jiaotai An shuo shi Che Kezhao.
A1i, Jiaotai An ji.
A1j, Yu Luo Dongyun shu.
C20. Daoshu quanji

. Compiled by Yan Hezhou .
Includes:
C3, Jindan zhengli daquan
which includes A1, Jindan dayao; C3,
Zhouyi cantong qi fenzhang zhu; and C15, Zhuzhen xuanao jicheng which
59
Chen Jiaoyou, Changchun daojiao yuanliu, 168, says that the Daojiao jinggong bu of Gujin tushu
jicheng reprints Wuzhen pian sanzhu in toto, but this is an abbreviated reprint: it includes only the Wuzhen pian text
and the commentary ascribed to Xue Daoguang, without the other two commentaries by Lu Ziye and Chen
Zhixu.
698
includes B1, Xianfo tongyuan.

C18, Qunxian zhuyu jicheng $
which includes A1f, Panhuo ge.
Editions:
C20.1. Ming ed. .60 Incomplete copy of 6 texts and 12 juan.61 Held by
Hunan Provincial Library.
C20.2. 1591 ed. printed by Mr. Yan of Jinling #+ - .
One copy with 87 juan in 26 ce, one copy with 82 juan in 24 ce.62 Complete
work should be 94 juan.63 Held by National Central Library Taiwan,
Nanjing Library ???.
C20.3. Early Qing ed. supplemented and printed by Zhou Zaiyan
*% . 95 juan in 40 ce.64 Held by National Central Library Taiwan.
C20.4. 1591 ed. repaired by Zhou Zaiyan in 1682 #+ (
. 94 juan.65 Held by Shandong Provincial Musuem,
HarvardYenching Library Rare Book T 1921 3582.
C20.5. 1591 ed. supplemented and repaired at Songxiu Tang "% . 83
juan in 24 ce.66 Held by National Central Library Taiwan.
C20.6. Ming woodblock ed. supplemented and repaired at the Hall of Great
Works in Jinling during the Kangxi reign period 16621723 (
60
Zhu Yueli, Daojing zonglun, 333, lists two earlier editions of Daoshu quanji: a 1538 edition by Zhou Fan '&
. , and a 1540 edition from Tang Jiyuns Hall for Amassing the Superb, of the Forest of Books in Jinling
'& )!, . Could the undated Ming edition be one of these?
I suspect that Zhu is simply wrong here. No library catalogue lists these editions, and 1538 Zhou Fan ed.
ought to refer to Jindan zhengli daquan, which is part of Daoshu quanji, rather than to Daoshu quanji itself.
61
Chang Shuzhi and Li Longru, Hunan sheng guji shanben shumu, 296.
62
Zhonuo congshu zonglu, 1:817; Guoli zhongyang tushuguan shanben shumu, 844.
63
Zhonuo guji shanben shumu, zibu, 6:77ab.
64
Guojia tushuguan shanben shuzhi chugao, zibu, 3:302; Guoli zhongyang tushuguan shanben shumu, 846.
65
66
699
. Incomplete copy with 12 texts in 12 ce.67 Held by

Peking University Library.
C20.7. 80 juan ed. mentioned by Geng Wenguang . Qingdyn..68
C20.8. Daoshu quanji. Photoreproduced ed. Beijing: Zhongguo shudian, 1990.
Held by: widely available.
C20.9. Daoshu quanji 1591 ed. printed by Mr. Yan of Jinling, copy from
Nanjing Library. Reproduced in Xuxiu siku quanshu , vol.
1295 Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, 199599. Held by: widely
available.
C21. Zangwai daoshu . Chengdu: Bashu shushe, 199294.

Includes:
Photoreproduction of C3, 1538 Zhou Fan Jindan zhengli daquan ed. of A1,
Jindan dayao. 10 juan.69 9:1131.
Photoreproduction of C4, Daoyan wuzhong ed. of A1, Jindan dayao. 1 juan.70
10:12549.
Photoreproduction of C16, Daoyan neiwai mijue quanshu ed. of A1f, Panhuo ge. 1
juan. 6:2002.
Photoreproduction of C16, Daoyan neiwai mijue quanshu ed. of A2, Taishang
dongxuan lingbao wuliang duren shangpin miaojing. 2 juan. 6:2455.
67
Beijing daxue tushuguan cang guji shanben shumu, 352. Only twelve texts remain in this edition, including Jindan
dayao Jindan zhengli daquan ed. and Zhouyi cantong qi fenzhang zhu.
68
Geng Wenguang, Wanjuan Jinghua Lou cangshu ji, 911.
69
Close examination conrms that the copy reproduced in Zangwai daoshu is indeed the 1538 Zhou Fan
woodblock ed. of Jindan zhengli daquan
.
70
The Zangwai daoshu editors do not explain which editions are being reproduced, or their provenance. Yet we
may conclude that the edition reproduced in Zangwai daoshu is the Daoyan wuzhong ed.
In the list of contents of Daoyan wuzhong in Zhonuo congshu zonglu, 1:817, the rst text listed is Zhouyi cantong
qi maiwang 3 j., the second text listed is Wuzhen pian yuezhu 3 j., and the fth is Jindan dayao 1 j.. The rst three
texts in Zangwai daoshu, vol. 10, are Zhouyi cantong qi maiwang 3 j., Wuzhen pian yuezhu 3 j., and Jindan dayao 1 j..
Therefore, we may conclude that the editors of Zangwai daoshu selectively reproduced these three texts from
Daoyan wuzhong, and did not reproduce the other two texts in Daoyan wuzhong.
700
Photoreproduction of C3, 1538 Zhou Fan Jindan zhengli daquan ed. of A3,
Zhouyi cantong qi fenzhang zhu. 3 juan. 9:22071.
Photoreproduction of Jiyizi dingpi daoshu sizhong ed. of A3a, Dingpi Shangyangzi
yuanzhu cantong qi. 3 juan. 11:74489.
Photoreproduction of Jiyizi dingpi daoshu sizhong ed. of A4a, Dingpi sanzhu
Wuzhen pian. 2 juan. 11:790859.
701
Appendix 2, Text Criticism of Jindan dayao

1, The Various Editions of Jindan dayao
Our knowledge of Chen Zhixu and his disciples is based largely on Chens writings,
although a few additional biographical facts and legends can also be found in local
histories and other late sources. Because our knowledge of Chen is based on his
writings, we must ascertain the reliability of the texts of his writings in their
surviving editions before we use these texts to develop a portrait of Chen or analyze
his teachings.
Sorting out the editions of Chens writings turns out to be a complicated
matter. Chens main text, Jindan dayao
, exists in eight known premodern
fulllength editions, as well as multiple shorter excerpts. In addition to Jindan dayao,
each of Chens three other extant textshis commentaries on Duren jing ,
Zhouyi cantong qi , and Wuzhen pian also exist in multiple
versions. This is a testament to the interest taken in Chen Zhixus writings by later
Daoists and other readers, and thus of the signicance of Chens oeuvre in the
history of Daoism.
The text of Jindan dayao varies considerably across these editions, in a number
of ways. The titles of juan chapters and other sections vary from one edition to
another; and within a single edition, the heading as listed in the table of contents and
as printed in the text may also vary. The wording varies across the editions to the
extent that any random passage of text the length of a rectoverso page will often
have about ten variations in wording. The placement of sections within a juan can
vary between editions. Most signicantly, no two editions include exactly the same
sections. I argue below that every surviving edition except one has deleted sections
from the fullest, original edition of Jindan dayao. Until we have undertaken a critical
inventory and comparison of editions, the authenticity of about 20 percent of the
702
text in its fullest version will be open to question.

An exhaustive list of editions and copies of the works of Chen Zhixu and his
master Zhao Youqin can be found in appendix 1 to the dissertation. In this
appendix 2, I will discuss each of the editions of Chens major text, Jindan dayao. I list
four early premodern editions of Jindan dayao, four less important premodern
editions, and three modern typeset editions. The four premodern editions are all
important for my study, because all four of them are necessary for preparing a full
critical edition of the text, and proving the authenticity of all of its sections. I have
prepared a critical edition of Jindan dayao, but do not include it as part of the
dissertation, because this would swell the dissertation by hundreds of pages.
1.1, Extant Editions of Jindan dayao
1.1.1, Daozang edition. The
edition of Jindan dayao most wellknown to scholars of
Daoism today is found in Zhengtong daozang .1 The woodblocks for Zhengtong
daozang were cut in 1444,2 but the Zhengtong daozang was not widely available to
readers before the 1920s, when it was rst photoreproduced in Shanghai.3 Before this
reprint, the Zhengtong daozang was held by only several dozen Daoist monasteries. So
the Daozang edition may not have been much used by premodern readers.
1.1.2, Zhengli edition.
In the Ming and Qing dynasties, the edition of Jindan
dayao most widely known to readers was the edition in the sixteenthcentury Ming
dynasty collections Jindan zhengli daquan
and Daoshu quanji
.4
Jindan zhengli daquan circulated both as an independent compilation and as part of
1
DZ 1067, HY 1059, han 73638 of the Hanfen Lou edition.
The original woodblocks for the Zhengtong daozang were cut in 1444, but some blocks may have been recut at
various later times when reprints were made, such as in 1598 van der Loon, Taoist Books in the Libraries of the Sung
Period, 58. There is nothing to suggest that the blocks for any of Chens works in the Zhengtong daozang were recut
after 1444, however.
3
The Hanfen Lou printing house in Shanghai photoreproduced and printed the Zhengtong daozang
between 1923 and 1926. Later editions of the Zhengtong daozang by Yiwen Yinshuguan of Taipei in
1977, Xinwenfeng chuban gongsi of Taipei in 1977, Ch bun Shuppansha of Kyoto in
1986, and a consortium of three Mainland publishers in 1988, are all direct reproductions of the Hanfen Lou
edition.
Jindan zhengli daquan was probably rst printed in 1538 although its latest internal preface was dated 1442, and
Daoshu quanji was probably rst printed in 1591. Daoshu quanji was a larger book of 94 or 95 juan, incorporating
Jindan zhengli daquan and other texts, fortysix individual works in all. The 1538 Zhou Fan woodblock edition
of Jindan dayao from Jindan zhengli daquan is photoreproduced in Zangwai daoshu, volume 9.
703
the larger Daoshu quanji. Ten copies of Jindan zhengli daquan and eight copies of
Daoshu quanji can be found among the libraries of Taiwan and Mainland China, which
suggests that these collections were relatively widely available.5 I have determined
that the Daoshu quanji edition of Jindan dayao is identical to the Zhengli edition of
Jindan dayao, therefore I have not bothered to use Daoshu quanji for purposes of
collating Jindan dayao.
1.1.3, Jiyao edition.
Jindan dayao is contained in Chongkan daozang jiyao
, a Daoist collection recompiled in 1906, reprinted in 1985, and widely

available in photoreproduced editions.6 Chongkan daozang jiyao of 1906 is the fourth
edition of Daozang jiyao.7 The rst edition was compiled sometime between 1796 and
1820. Because all the texts in this rst edition were taken from the Ming Daoist
Canon i.e., from Zhengtong daozang plus Wanli xu daozang , it was called
Daozang jiyao, or Coected Essentials of the Daoist Canon. In the second and third
editions of unknown date, ninetysix texts from outside the Ming Daoist Canon were
added, and in the fourth edition of 1906, a further eighteen texts were added.
Because the rst edition of Daozang jiyao was essentially just an abridgement of
Zhengtong daozang, and both of these collections contain Jindan dayao, one would
assume that the edition of Jindan dayao in Chongkan daozang jiyao is simply a copy of
the edition in Zhengtong daozang, but this is not the case! The edition of Jindan dayao
in Chongkan daozang jiyao comes from a completely di erent liation. Because earlier
editions of Daozang jiyao are not available for reference,8 we cannot know in which
edition the di erent liation of Jindan dayao was introduced into Daozang jiyao.
5
If one examines the Taiwanese and Mainland union catalogues of rare books such as Taiwan gongcang shanben
shumu shuming suoyin or Zhonuo guji shanben shumu, one will see that eight or ten surviving copies of a work is a
relatively large amount, suggesting that the original amount of copies produced was also large.
Actually, Chens commentaries to the Zhouyi cantong qi and Wuzhen pian were much more widely read than his
Jindan dayao ever was.
6
Editions by Xinwenfeng chuban gongsi and Jilin chubanshe

are direct reproductions of the 1985
reprint by Erxian An . Erxian An was once a separate temple, but is now a court within Qingyang Gong
in Chengdu. The 1985 Erxian An reprint uses the original 1906 woodblocks, though a few woodblocks had to
be repaired; Ren Jiyu, Chongyin Daozang jiyao xu. Jindan dayao is ce 13 of the Ang collection in the Erxian
An reprint, and 16:69757086 in the Xinwengfeng reprint.
Zhu Yueli, Daojing zonglun, 32728; Esposito, Daoism in the Qing 16441911, 63435.
Earlier editions of Daozang jiyao are not mentioned in any library catalogue of rare books, although it is likely
that a set exists in Chengdu, either in the provincial library, university library, or Qingyang Gong. The printers at
Erxian An must have used it to cut the woodblocks for the fourth edition in 1906.
704
1.1.4, Shandong edition. The
fourth important edition of Jindan dayao is
represented by a single copy in the Shandong Provincial Museum

, in
Jinan . This edition has not been reproduced or included in any collection. I
personally examined the Museums copy in June, 2004, and ascertained that it is
printed from Mingdynasty woodblocks, as I will discuss below.
The four early editions above are sucient to produce a critical edition of Jindan
dayao, but I will also introduce the remaining four premodern editions and three
modern editions.
1.1.5, Wuzhong edition.
Daoyan wuzhong is a short collection of ve
Daoist texts, with a preface dated 1718. Daoyan wuzhong is listed in bibliographical
works, but not found in any library catalogue that I have seen. However, the editors
of Zangwai daoshu did have access to a copy of this work, and there is a
photoreproduction of the Wuzhong edition of Jindan dayao in Zangwai daoshu.9 The
Wuzhong edition is highly abbreviated, containing only three juan of the original ten
juan Jindan dayao, which would amount to 25 percent of the text, if these three juan in
the Wuzhong edition were unabridged. But the material in the Wuzhong edition is
further abridged, with about 30 percent of the words and sentences cut from the
text. So the Wuzhong edition contains about 18 percent of the material found in the
most complete edition of Jindan dayao. I have noted some patterns to the Wuzhong
redactors choice of material to abridge, which I mention in footnote 255 on page 636
above.
1.1.6, Shanzhuang edition. This
edition is reproduced in Daozang jinghua, a
104volume series of extracanonical Daoist texts published in postWar Taiwan.10

The edition in Daozang jinghua is actually a photoreproduction of an earlier
photoreproduction. The earlier photoreproduction was produced circa 1920 by the
Shanghai publishing institutions Biwu Shanzhuang Mountain Villa of the
Azure Parasol Tree and Qiugu Zhai Studio for Seeking the Ancients. The
Shanghai publishers do not name the original source of their reproduction or if they
9
10
In Daozang jinghua, ser. 8, no. 3.
705
did, this has been deleted from the Daozang jinghua reproduction
. The Shanzhuang
edition includes a preface by Tao Susi dated 1718, suggesting that this is a
reproduction from a copy of Daoyan wuzhong. Comparison of the Shanzhuang and
Wuzhong editions reveals that the Shanzhuang edition is indeed based on the
Wuzhong edition, but with many further emendations. The Shanzhuang edition is
valuable for the study of later uses of Jindan dayao, but of no value for studying Chen
Zhixus original work.
1.1.7, Daofan edition. An
abbreviated edition of Jindan dayao is found in the
midMing collection Daofan zhengzong wujing sishu daquan .

Not much is known about this collection. According to an account of the copy held
by Princeton University, the Jindan dayao edition is entitled Jindan dayao miaoyong
.11 Miaoyong is the title of juan 3 of the original edition, but the Jindan dayao
miaoyong text in the Daofan edition contains juan 3 through 8, and 10. Daofan
zhengzong wujing sishu daquan seems to have been devoted largely or even exclusively
to the works of Chen Zhixu and his master Zhao Youqin.12 I argue below that the
Daofan edition of Jindan dayao is derived from the Zhengli edition in Daoshu quanji,
which would make it irrelevant to my study of Chen Zhixus original work.
1.1.8, Doga edition. The
Korean Daoist collection Doga jikji dokyo kyng
is mentioned in the article on Daoism in Korea in Daoism Handbook.13

The Doga edition of Jindan dayao is probably also derived from the Zhengli edition in
Daoshu quanji see below in the section on text criticism
.
1.1.9, Four modern editions. The
daozang
latest edition of the Daoist Canon, Zhonghua
, published in 2004, contains typeset and punctuated editions of
all of Chens works. The edition of Jindan dayao in Zhonghua daozang is based solely on
the Zhengtong daozang edition.14 In 1988, a typeset and punctuated edition of Jindan
11
Ch Wanli, Catalogue of Chinese Rare Books in the Gest Coection, 399.
12
The Princeton copy contains only four books: Jindan dayao miaoyong, Cantong qi zhujie
, and Wuzhen
pian sanzhu by Chen Zhixu, and Xianfo tongyuan
by Zhao Youqin. Ch says that this copy is
incomplete, but it is not clear whether he means that the front matter or individual pages are missing, or that
whole texts may be missing; Ch Wanli, Catalogue of Chinese Rare Books in the Gest Coection, 399.
13
14
Zhonghua daozang, 27:52094.
706
dayao was published in the series Dongfang xiudao wenku !. This edition
is based solely on the Shanzhuang edition from Daozang jinghua. The 1990 series
Zhonuo qigong jingdian
also contains a typeset and punctuated
edition of Jindan dayao, based solely on the Jiyao edition.15 The punctuation makes
these editions valuable for reference.
An electronic version of Jindan dayao can be found online. It is based on the
Zhengli and Daozang editions. As a critical edition it leaves much to be desired, but
because it is searchable, it is of inestimable value for anyone analyzing the contents
of Jindan dayao. An electronic version of the Zhonghua daozang edition may also be
available in the future.
1.2, The Dating of the UrText
I argue that Chen Zhixu rst wrote Jindan dayao in 1331, with further expanded
editions in 1336, and 1343 or later.
The text includes a section entitled Preface to the Daode jing, which has a
colophon dated 1331:
Respectfully prefaced on the third day after the MidAutumn Festival of the
xinwei year of the Zhishun reign period = Sept. 21, 1331 by the Master
of Highest Yang of the Purple Empyrean, Chen Zhixu, known as Guanwu.
"$ #16
The date of this colophon does not by itself prove that the entire text was
published in this year it could be the date of the short piece on the Daode jing only
and not the whole of Jindan dayao, but this year of publication may be inferred from
other statements. In the preface to his Duren jing commentary, Chen writes that he
composed commentaries to the Daode jing and Jingang jing, and wrote Jindan dayao:
Because I had the fortune to meet teachers and perfected beings, they bestowed
me with the secrets of the ringsigns of the great recycled elixir of metallous
humor. I wanted to make the people of this generation completely familiar with
this dao. Therefore I wrote commentaries on the Daode jing and Jingang jing, and
expounded Jindan dayao.
15
Zhonuo qigong jingdian, JinYuan juan , 2:1147.
16
DZ 1067, Shangyangzi Jindan dayao 2.7b67. This is in juan 2 in the Ming Daozang edition, which corresponds to
juan 1 in the Zhengli and Jiyao editions.
707
04/#% 7& $216.).3

-- 17
This suggests that Chen saw the composition of the Daode jing commentary and
Jindan dayao as part of a single eort, perhaps not widely separated from each other
in years.
Better evidence for dating the composition of Jindan dayao to 1331 is supplied
by two other passages. Chen received his alchemical transmission from his master
Zhao Youqin in 1329. Chen writes in his hagiography of Zhao Youqin:
In the autumn of the jisi year
1329, while lodging in Hengyang
Hunan
Province,
Zhao gave the complete transmission of the wondrous dao of the
golden elixir to Shangyangzi
i.e., Chen himself.
'5* .#*
18
Elsewhere, Chen writes that he produced Jindan dayao two years after Zhaos
transmission of 1329:
I wandered through the human realm, enjoying the karmic benet of the merit
amassed by my ancestors, and the pity and blessing of Heaven and Earth. At the
age of forty, I undeservedly received the correct dao from my teacher
Zhao
Youqin. After this I furthermore encountered the Old Teacher from Mt.
Qingcheng, who personally transmitted the goldenelixir principles of the one
precosmic qi and the kan moon and li sun, and the secrets of timing the re by
subtracting or adding
fuelhe bestowed all
his teachings without reserve.
Now, ever since I respectfully received
the teachings, I have been trembling
with alarm day and night for fear that I should not live up to my vows
to my
teachers, and betray my own aspirationsmy aspirations to liberate myself as
much as possible from all of the shallow learning, spiritual delements, and
creaturely ignorance19 of my past, and have a long existence changwei as a
man of leisure between Heaven and Earth.
But as for
lling my sack with elixir material, I knew not how to proceed
wangcuo " . For two years I visited companions and sought friends, with the
intention of jiang ! bringing together my aair. Then I did not dare keep
the
teachings a secret: I burned incense and made my report to Heaven, informed
the holy teachers, the Seven Perfected, and the Five Patriarchs,20 and thereupon,
17
DZ 91, Taishang dongxuan lingbao wuliang duren shangpin miaojing zhujie, preface, 4a68.
18
DZ 1069, Shangyangzi jindan dayao liexian zhi 8b5. This is in an appendix to Jindan dayao in the Daozang, but part
of juan 8 in the Zhengli and Jiyao editions.
19
This is Buddhist terminology: spiritual delements are fannao ,( Skt. klea and creaturely ignorance is
yeshi +8 Skt. karmajtilakaa . Karmajtilakaa refers to the basic ignorance possessed by sentient beings
which either contributes to the round of conditioned arising according to classical Buddhist teachings , or
directly stimulates the basic mind benxin ; Foguang da cidian, s.v. yeshi +8, 55034.
20
Holy teachers probably refers to Chens personal lineage. Seven Perfected could refer to seven masters in
708
drawing upon the various elixir scriptures of the ranks of transcendents, wrote
this Jindan dayao.
Ho'cU9n&GkS
r(#2P] f
DgAC+Pu$R1?);`~!NV[]
m{Zv86iQpyJ:_YZBaK
xhwFb@E&rMq
,E3>\7z
Xd/4=Yt.5jVlL0^"}PTU
%|-*?I21
The key information in this passage is that, after receiving a transmission from Zhao
Youqin, Chen met the Qingcheng Master, then spent two years visiting companions
before nally setting himself to compose Jindan dayao.22 I argue that these two
years were two years after meeting Zhao Youqin, rather than two years after meeting
the Qingcheng Master, with an unknown amount of time between meeting Zhao
Youqin and the Qingcheng Master if in fact Chen ever did meet a Qingcheng
master .23 This would date the composition of the rst version of Jindan dayao to 1331.
I am skeptical that Chen ever met a Qingcheng Master at all; at least if he did, he
met this master aer composing his rst version of Jindan dayao, despite what the
passage just cited is saying. My argument for the composition of Jindan dayao in 1331
requires presenting and arguing for a full picture of Chen Zhixus career, which I
have done above in chapter 1.
So, I argue that Chen Zhixu nished a rst version of Jindan dayao in 1331. Yet
the text begins with two prefaces by Chens disciples Ming Suchan <W and
Ouyang Tianshu s. Ming Suchan was a Daoist residing at Mt. Jiugong O,
in presentday Tongshan e County, Hubei. His preface mentions that he rst met
Chen in 1335:
At the occasion ji of the fth summer month of the yihai year
between May
23 and June 20, 1335, I met my teacher, the Perfected Person of Highest Yang of
the Southern Lineage of the Golden Elixir, or to seven masters in the Northern Lineage i.e., Quanzhen Daoism .
The same goes for Five Patriarchsboth Southern and Northern Lineages had their sets. Because the lineage
presented by his hagiography DZ 1069, Shangyangzi jindan dayao liexian zhi, originally in Jindan dayao, j. 8 includes
ve Quanzhen patriarchs, seven Quanzhen masters, and then his own line, when he says Seven Perfected and
Five Patriarchs here, Chen is probably referring only to Quanzhen gures.
21
22
On pages 44648 chap. 5, 3.1.2 above, I argue that these companions would be both male patrons and female
partners.
23
On pages 6365 chap. 2, 4.2.1 above, I argue that Chen may never have met such a person.
709
the Crimson Palace of the Purple Empyrean, within the Squarejug Heaven.24
"0.$*4+#,%)
.25
Ouyang Tianshu was a Daoist residing at Mt. Lu 5 in presentday Jiangxi. His
preface is dated 1336:
Lineal disciple Ouyang Tianshu of Mt. Lu bows his head and writes this preface
in the twelfth lunar month of the yihai year,26 the rst year of the Zhiyuan reign
period
between Jan. 15 and Feb. 12, 1336.
8/(7-&5 * 1,6!.27
So it appears that a version of Jindan dayao was produced in the winter of 1336, in
Jiangxi. Perhaps Chen was already planning this publication by the summer of 1335,
when Ming Suchans preface was written, but publication did not take place until the
winter of 1336. Chens publication eort may have received nancial support from a
wealthy patron, as was the case with the publication of his commentary on the
Wuzhen pian DZ 142 . Chens Wuzhen pian commentary includes a preface by Chens
disciple Zhang Shihong ', who was a highranking o cial, claims responsibility
for the text, and must have subsidized its publication.
This account I am oeringof a rst edition of the text rst produced in
1331, followed by a second edition in 1336is supported by two other passages, in
which Chen speaks of traveling about for three or four years, carrying Jindan dayao
and seeking worthy disciples. The rst passage is from Chens epistle to his disciple
Pan Taichu 2.
From the moment I was able to encounter an Ultimate Man
or Men, and
receive transmission of the great dao under oath, I immediately planned to
complete my aairs
of selfcultivation. But because my merit and karmic
conditions28 were not yet established, therefore yongshi I searched through
the various transcendent scriptures, seeking out the unusual and plucking the
best
passages, and compiled these as Jindan dayao.
After the book was completed, no matter where I was staying, whenever I
passed by a wellknown mountain or
any of the various walled towns, wherever I
24
This is a building at Mt. Jiugong: the Pavilion of the Jug Heaven Hutian zhi Ting ) ; Fu Xieding,
Jiugong Shan zhi 9.13a9 7:235 .
25
DZ 1067, Shangyangzi jindan dayao, preface, 1a10b1.
26
Shyu
& means twelfth lunar month, danmeng 8/ means yi , and dayuanxian (7 means hai ; Hanyu
da cidian, s.v. shuyue &, danmeng 8/, dayuanxian (7.
27
DZ 1067, Shangyangzi jindan dayao, preface, 5a57.
28
Gong yuan 3 could also be translated eorts and fortune.
710
was at I made friends. I lowered my head and my heart stooped my dignity to

enlighten and guide the people of the times, and entice them to enter this dao.
For the past three or four years, those seeking my teachings have been many, yet
in the end I have not met anyone who used great force to put forth sincere
e
orts.
p,n-hZl1[q^C9+|!%#L5~jg
?su/(GMT(JKW]4o&~I8
/|0O cwa*l ':5FUU<!6)
b+vaF29
The second passage is from an epistle written to Chens disciples Ouyang Yutian z
d"$ and Zhou Caochuang >V`.
. . . Then I composed Jindan dayao in ten juan. After the book was completed, I
furthermore worried that if people of the times did not receive oral transmission,
how could they enlighten themselves by simply using the book ! Thereupon I
stumbled about in a rush,30 carrying my book under my arm. I stooped myself to
seek others disciples . Whenever there was a person who could be beckoned or
grabbed, I always bent my head and stooped over bending down to their level ,
with words of praise and warnings to repent, hoping they would enter upon this
dao. Sometimes people would berate me, and I would hide and forbear it for a
time. Gaining by chance the appreciation zhi E of one or two men, I would
then bring upon myself the slander of a thousand or ten thousand.
/GM
=T(JyHYer),Qm#T
A5_)DSF\0OP7{Ra*lB
k}@,2X;E1:i31
In the rst passage, Chen speaks of completing Jindan dayao, traveling about, and
making contact with other seekers for three or four years. This suggests that this
passage was composed in around 1334 or 1335, and could have been included in an
edition of 1336. In the second passage, he speaks of traveling about, carrying his
book, to seek disciples. He writes, After the book was completed, I furthermore
worried that if people of the times did not receive oral transmission, how could they
enlighten themselves?, which suggests that the rst edition of the book was not a
solitary manuscript copy kept by Chen and unknown to other readers, but was
passing through the hands of readers out in the world, readers to whom Chen wished
to o
er oral instruction to complement the written text of Jindan dayao.
29
30
Qiejue must be a variant of jiejue t, for which Hanyu dacidian has fN.3x with the
appearance of tumbling and falling while walking with hurried steps; Hanyu dacidian s.v. jiejue t.
31
711
Yet there are yet other epistles which contain dates as late as 1341 the xinsi
year of the Zhizheng reign period 32 or 1343 the guiwei year of the
Zhizheng reign period 33. The latest internal date in Jindan dayao is 1343. If
all of these letters were actually written by Chen Zhixu and I will argue below that
they were, then the most complete early edition of Jindan dayao was produced in
1343 or later, most likely still during Chens lifetime. I argue that this would be a third
edition of the urtext of Jindan dayao. The rst edition was produced in 1331, the
second in 1336, and the third after 1343.
1.3, The Filiations of the Jindan dayao Editions
In this section I will argue for a scheme dividing the eight premodern editions of
Jindan dayao into four liations, represented in the following chart:

Filiation 1
Ur-text

Filiation 2
Filiation 3

Filiation 4
Fig. 1, Filiations of Jindan dayao.
The distance of the various editions from the urtext represent

evolutionary distance, i.e., the amount of editing of the recension, rather than
distance in time. The dates of the editions are as follows. Arguments concerning
liation and dating will follow.
Urtext.
First edition: authors preface of 1331.

Second edition: disciples preface of 1336.
Third edition: latest date mentioned internally is 1343.
Filiation 1.
32
33
Jindan dayao, Zhengli ed., 6.36b7 not in DZ 1067 ed..

Jindan dayao, Zhengli ed., 6.55a9 not in DZ 1067 ed..
712
Daozang edition: cut and printed in 1444 or 1445.

Shandong edition: cut in Ming dynasty.
Filiation 2.
Zhengli edition: preface of 1538.

Jiyao edition:
First edition: compiled before 1820.
Second and third editions: published between 1820 and 1906.
Fourth edition: cut in 1906, repaired and reprinted in 1985.
Filiation 3.
Daofan edition: cut and printed in midMing dynasty? Or post1591?

Doga edition: compiled in the decades before 1780?
Filiation 4.
Wuzhong edition: preface of 1718.

Shanzhuang edition: cut late in the Qing dynasty? Reprinted ca. 1920.
In comparing editions, identifying liations, and preparing a critical edition of Chen
Zhixus text, I have set for myself three points of analysis, and three tasks.
The rst point of analysis is the wording of individual passages and sentences.
There are endless variations between editions in the wording of individual sentences,
but this rarely changes the overall import of the passages in question. The value of
comparing editions at this level of detail lies not in establishing the urtexts wording
of individual sentences, but rather in comparing the wording of the same sentence in
dierent editions, in order to see which editions are more similar to each other, and
separate out the editions into dierent liations.
The second point of analysis is the inclusion and exclusion of whole sections
of text in dierent editions. No two extant editions of Jindan dayao contain exactly
the same sections. In order to analyze Chen Zhixus teachings, we must know which
materials we should be analyzing, which materials are authentic. It is of vital
importance to establish which sections belong to the urtext, and which are later
additions I will argue below that all of the sections belong to the urtext, and none
are later additions. The necessity of establishing which sections belong to the urtext
is the most important reason for comparing extant editions and preparing a critical
edition at all.
The third point of analysis is the variations in how the textual material is
divided into sections within the dierent editions, the variant sequences of the
sections, and the variant titles of the sections.
713
In preparing a critical edition, I also have three tasks. The rst task is to
choose a base text from among the extant editions. The base text would ideally
both be the earliest edition, and an edition readily available in a reprint collection of
Daoist materials. Then I compare the base text against each of the other editions,
and analyze the variations to see which variant is more likely to be closer to the ur
text. When there is a variant wording or passage in one of the other editions that
seems to be the work of a later editor, or when I cannot tell whether the variant in
the base text or the variant in another edition seems earlier, I simply mark the
variation with a footnotethis is the second task. When the variant in one of the
other editions is more likely to be closer to the urtext, I change the basetext
reading in the critical edition, and mark this with a footnotethis is the third task.
The main point of this text critical work is to identify which materials
represent Chen Zhixus original teachingsbasically, to say whether the Daozang
edition is the best base text, and whether the sections of material found in the other
three early editions but not in the Daozang edition ought to be added back into the
Daozang edition.
1.4, Choosing the Daozang Edition as the Base Text
Because the Daozang edition is the most familiar and readily available edition, we
would hope that it would be the most appropriate base text. I have chosen the
Daozang edition as base text because it is the most familiar edition, and because there
are indications that the wording in the Daozang edition is closer to the urtext. The
Shandong edition is not available for scholars, and I was not allowed to copy it, so it
cannot be used as base text. So the choice is between the Daozang, Zhengli, and Jiyao
editions.
In comparing editions, there are three points of comparison: wording,
sections included, and section sequence and titles. In terms of sections included,
section sequence, and section titles, the Daozang edition is out of step with the other
three editions, and I will argue that we should not follow the Daozang edition on
these points. However, I argue that the wording in the Daozang edition is relatively
714
closer to the urtext, though not always. Because the Daozangedition material that I
am calling relatively early material constitutes about 80 percent of the most
complete version of Jindan dayao, and the sections not in the Daozang edition
constitute only 20 percent, I take the Daozang edition as base text.
1.5, Establishing Filiations 1 and 2
I am calling the Daozang and Shandong editions liation 1, and the Zhengli and Jiyao
editions liation 2. The Zhengli and Jiyao editions share the same wording most of
the time, making them much closer to one another than to any other edition. The
same holds true for the Daozang and Shandong editions, although I have not been
able to compare these two editions to the same extent. To use the analogy of a family
tree, the Daozang and Shandong editions would be siblings in one family of
editions, the Zhengli and Jiyao editions would be siblings in another family, and the
two sets of siblings would be related to each other as cousins, descended from
earlier, lost ancestral editions.
Lets take for example the rst two double pages of juan 2 i.e., the rst two
pages of juan 2 according to the Daozang edition. Comparing the four early editions
the Daozang, Shandong, Zhengli, and Jiyao editions, we nd twenty points of variance
in this twopage passage. I do not address dierences in textual divisions or section
headings here.
Twelve variants that support a division into Daozang/Shandong and Zhengli/Jiyao
liations.
The character lian occurs thrice in this passage in the Daozang edition. Both
the Zhengli and Jiyao editions use the variant lian here, while the Shandong
edition uses lian .
The character xie occurs ve times in this passage in the Daozang edition; the
Zhengli and Jiyao editions use the variant xie , while the Shandong edition uses
xie .
Of the fourteen occurrences of the character qi in the Daozang edition, in two
cases the Zhengli and Jiyao editions use the variant qi , while the Daozang and
Shandong editions use qi .
At one point, the Zhengli and Jiyao editions lack ruo where the Daozang and
Shandong editions have
.
At one point, both Zhengli and Jiyao editions have ben instead of mu in
715

, which is clearly an error. The Daozang and Shandong
editions have mu .
Two variants where the Daozang edition stands alone, and the Shandong edition is
closer to the Jiyao/Zhengli liation.
At two points, the Shandong edition shares a variant with the Zhengli and Jiyao
editionsusing zang # instead zang ", and zao instead of zao .
Six variants found in only one of the editions.
At one point, the Zhengli edition alone adds wei !!.

At two points, the Jiyao edition alone replaces wei with the variant wei .
At one point the Jiyao edition alone replaces wei with qi in

.
At two points, the Shandong edition contains phrases not found in other
editions: adding , and printing !
instead of .
One might have expected comparing character variants like this a trivial exercise, but
it is clearly helpful here for demonstrating the existence of two dierent liations, a
Daozang/Shandong liation, and a Zhengli/Jiyao liation. Having done a great amount
of such comparison, I can vouch that this is a representative sample. Having
established this division into two liations, I must also note that Shandong edition
does resemble the Zhengli/Jiyao liation more than the Daozang edition a minority of
the time. I will argue below that combining the Shandong and Zhengli editions gives
us the best picture of the urtext of Jindan dayao, yet the Daozang edition may still be
our base text. We could never rely on Shandong and Zhengli editions alone to
produce a critical edition: idiosyncratic errors exist in each of the four editions, so all
must be consulted while making a critical edition.
1.6, Which Extant Edition Is Earliest?
Which of the four editions is relatively close to the urtext of Jindan dayao? First let
me justify why I ought to pose this question at all. Some critics would say that in past
generations of scholarship, the search for pure origins has had pernicious eects on
our understandings of tradition or culture. Yet I insist that, in order to study the
teachings of Chen Zhixu, it is necessary to read his words as he wrote them, i.e., to
get as close to the urtext as possible. This is not to say that later alterations to the
716
text should always be seen as corruptions of a pure original text. Often these
alterations are simple corruptions, or absentminded improvements by a later copyist
which simplify or standardize the wording of a passage. But sometimes these
alterations appear to be meaningful emendations, expressing the teachings of later
editors. Such meaningful later alterations can be material for a diachronic study of
inner alchemy I have briey mentioned examples of this in section 3.4.3 of chapter 6
above .
If we want to know the teachings of Chen Zhixu himself, we should try to
ascertain the wording and form of his original texts. If we want to know how Chen
Zhixus teachings were understood by later tradition, we should pay attention to
emendations to his texts by later editors, and pay attention to which passages in his
texts were quoted in later compilations. These are two di
erent subjects of study
Chen Zhixus original teachings, and these teachings as appropriated by later teachers
which ought to be distinguished clearly in a historical study such as this
dissertation.
I will argue that, of the three early editions accessible to scholars the
Daozang, Zhengli, and Jiyao editions , the wording of the Daozang is evolutionarily
speaking, relatively earliest. The wording in the Shandong edition is probably later
than that of the Daozang edition, but the Shandong edition is not accessible. The
wording of the Zhengli and Jiyao editions are evolutionarily later than the Daozang
edition, but it is not clear whether the Zhengli edition is earlier than the Jiyao edition,
or vice versa.
1.7, The Wording of the Daozang Edition and Zhengli/Jiyao Filiation
Which of the four editions is earliest, i.e., relatively closest to the urtext of Jindan
dayao? I argue that the wording of the Daozang edition is closer to the urtext than is
the wording of the Zhengli/Jiyao liation. The Daozang edition is from the earliest
extant printed copy, printed on woodblocks cut earlier than the woodblocks of any
other edition, but this does not prove that the Daozang edition is the closest to the
urtext, because other editions appearing later in time may actually come from
717
earlier or more evolutionarily primitive liations, i.e., lineages of texts into which
fewer changes have been introduced. A quick comparison of the sectional divisions in
the sixteenjuan Daozang edition with the description of the tenjuan original edition
reveals that the Daozang edition has already been altered quite a lot, and in this
respect is further from the urtext than the Mingdynasty Shandong and Zhengli
editions, which retain the original tenjuan structure.
For many variants, the Daozang edition and Zhengli/Jiyao liation oer equally
possible readingsin most cases, there is no telling which variant is closer to the
original version. Yet in some cases there are indications that the variant in the
Daozang edition is closer to the original.
Most telling are cases in which the reading in the Zhengli/ Jiyao recension has
been improved over the Daozang/original recension. The following six examples are
cases in which it appears that an original, more di cult reading has been improved
upon. Many more such cases could be drawn from my critical edition of Jindan
dayao.
Where the Daozang and Shandong editions have

34
Wishing to lift up a nger
in order to see the moon, or opening up a buvessel to
understand Heaventhis is also an aid, . . .
the Zhengli edition has zhibiao sign or mark instead of biaozhi lift up a
nger .
Zhibiao is a more familiar compound,35 but biaozhi is probably the
original wording. I have also found the compound biaozhi in a Chan etext.36 I argue
that the original version of Jindan dayao had the odd locution biaozhi , which was
improved by a later editor in the Zhengli/ Jiyao recension, who replaced it with the
familiar compound zhibiao . I argue that the more di cult reading in the
Daozang/ Shandong recension is evidence that this recension is closer to the original
version of the text.
34
DZ 1067 ed., preface, 3b23; Zhengli ed., preface, 2b103a1. The Jiyao ed. omits this section with the two
disciples prefaces.
35
Cf. Hanyu da cidian, s.v. biao .
36
Cf. T 2016, Zongjing lu , 48:918b1.
718
Where the Daozang edition has

!-)%3,8
37
I enjoy the karmic benet of the merit amassed by my ancestors, and Heaven and
Earth have pitied and blessed me . . .
instead of bijin 8

, the Zhengli edition has jiejin
and the Jiyao edition has aijin
.
Bijin 8
is a known compound, meaning bestow out of pity.38 It seems to
be a rare compound, however. I argue that the editors of the Zhengli and Jiyao
recensions did not recognize this compound, and ignorantly replaced the character.
.#/ 6+9' $*39
In the Huangting neijing
* jing it is written: . . . the perfected persons lead
you by the hand as you climb the mountain, where you make a blood oath using
liquid elixir. Now you can proclaim that you possess golden writs and phosphors
i.e., corporeal spirits of jade, . . .
the Zhengli and Jiyao editions have yujian 4 instead of yujing *.
This makes the phrase more parallel, producing a more regular rhyme scheme
shan / dan // jian / xuan, but it alters the original Huangting neijing jing quotation,
which has jing *, not jian 4. I argue that a later editor in the Zhengli/Jiyao recension
improved this passage with checking the original text of the Huangting neijing jing.
$ "720&1(40
I wrote this book, calling it Jindan dayao, in order to make amends for my past
regrets, and produce a wisdom eye for future people, . . .
the Zhengli and Jiyao editions have shuang huiyan 51( a pair of wisdom eyes
instead of zhi huiyan &1( a single wisdom eye.
A pair of wisdom eyes is an error: the wisdom eye ought to be a single
third eye in the forehead, not a pair of marvelous eyes. The Daozang edition
preserves the original meaning, while the Zhengli/Jiyao recension loses the meaning
37
DZ 1067 ed., 1.2b67; Zhengli ed., 1.2a10; Jiyao ed. 1.2a89. Variant in Shandong edition not seen.
38
Cf. Hanyu da cidian, s.v. bi 8.
39
DZ 1067 ed., 1.7b57; Zhengli ed., 1.6b1; Jiyao ed., 1.5b910. Variant in Shandong edition not seen.
40
DZ 1067 ed., 1.11a56; Zhengli ed., 1.9a78; Jiyao ed., 1.8a89. Variant in Shandong edition not seen.
719
by improving it.
In this case, the critical edition must also use the Zhengli/Jiyao recension to
correct the Daozang recension: the Daozang edition has xu * continue instead of
shu + make amends; xu would make no sense!
'!
"& %
#
) ( $' 41
As for the way in which the Dao creates things, it gives birth to qi of things by
causing its qi to pervade. Furthermore, it nurtures Heaven, Earth, and the
myriad things by means of endowing them with qi. There is nothing which gives
birth to itself, unproduced by qi.
Now, what I mean by qi is actually not the inhalations and exhalations of
Heaven and Earth, or that which comes and goes in the nose and mouth. If you
want to know the name of this qi, you must complete the inner and outer dao . . .
the Zhengli and Jiyao editions have
'!
"& %
#
)($'
As for the way in which the Dao creates things, it gives birth to qi
by causing
Qi to pervade. Furthermore, it nurtures Qi by endowing with qi . Among
Heaven, Earth, and the myriad things, there is nothing which gives birth to itself,
unproduced by Qi .
Now, what I mean by Qi is actually not the inhalations and exhalations of
Heaven and Earth, or that which comes and goes in the nose and mouth. If you
want to know the name of this Qi , you must complete the inner and outer
dao . . .
The Zhengli/Jiyao recension changes qi
to Qi four times, adds Qi once, and
appears to change the punctuation. Although the two character forms
and are
often assumed to be interchangeable, I have noted that in some inner alchemical

texts, has the distinct meaning of yuanqi
, or cosmic qi, within the body or
the macrocosm. In the passage above, it clearly means the sacred qi produced
through alchemical practice, not profane qiasvapor.
It is far more likely that the Zhengli/Jiyao recension has selectively emended of
qi
to Qi in order to add new meaning to the passage than that the Daozang
recension has blindly converted Qi to qi
. This is more evidence that the
Daozang recension is earlier.

41
DZ 1067 ed., 2.1b92a2; Zhengli ed., 1.12a710; Jiyao ed., 1.10b57. Variant in Shandong edition not seen.
720
In the passage

. . . habitual use of stick blows
and shouts, as many things
42 as there are grains
of sand in the Ganges River, etc.
. The buddhadharma is always like this: youve
seen your inherent nature
and become awakened, you peer at it day and night,
with
great impetus and great application . . .
where the Daozang recension has

. . . as many things
as there are grains of sand in the Ganges River, etc.
. The
buddhadharma is always like this . . .
the Zhengli/Jiyao recension has

. . . grains of sand in the Ganges River. The innumerable buddhadharmas are
always like this . . .43
I doubt the Zhengli/Jiyao recension contains the original wording. To maintain
parallelism, Henghe sha or Henghe sha wuliang ought to be a
fourcharacter phrase like Henghe shaliang . Elsewhere the Daozang edition
does have a similar phrase, .44
I argue that the above six comparisons of variations between the wording of
the Daozang edition and the Zhengli/Jiyao recension strongly suggest that there has
been more active editorial intervention in the Zhengli/Jiyao recension than in the
Daozang edition in these cases. We may further assume that this is the case
throughout these editions, and not just in these specic passages. There are many
hundreds of variations between these two recensions which are harder to judge; in
these many cases, we must follow one edition on principle. Based on the six cases
discussed above, I take the Daozang edition as base text for my study of Jindan dayao,
and prefer the reading of the Daozang edition in most individual cases.
The Daozang edition is corrupt in that it does not include many sections of
text, as I will argue below, but there are also many cases in which the variant in the
42
These things numbering as many as the grains of sand in the Ganges are usually kalpas, worldsystems, or
buddhas. Thus the idiom is used equally to refer to great expanses of space or of time.
43
DZ 1067 ed., 2.3b89; Zhengli ed., 1.13b810; Jiyao ed., 1.12a23. Variant in Shandong edition not seen.
44
DZ 1067 ed., 2.7b108a1. The Zhengli 1.17a5 and Jiyao 1.14b10 editions have Huanhe in Henan Province
instead of Henghe . Variant in Shandong edition not seen.
721
Zhengli/Jiyao recension is preferable to the variant in the Daozang edition. I will list
four examples of this below.
)-
I say, among the things, Heaven and human beings are the most numinous . . .
the Zhengli edition has
) #-45
I say, now, among the myriad things, human beings are the most numinous . . .
Among the myriad things, human beings are the most numinous is a very common
aphorism, rst appearing in the Book of Documents Shujing
$ . The wording in the
Daozang edition must be garbled.

%",'46
A sage never speaks vacuouslyeach syllable is an iron man . . .
the Zhengli/Jiyao recension has tie luohan ,*' iron arhat , a common idiom in
Chan Buddhist texts, instead of tiehan ,' iron man , which would be an unfamiliar
term. The character luo * has dropped out in the Daozang recension, and this must
be corrected using the Zhengli/Jiyao recension.
Where the Zhengli and Jiyao editions have
(&
!+(47
That which is more numerous than the grains of sand in the Ganges Riverthis
is called Dao. The Ganges River is a western border. On this river, for forty li,48 the sand is as ne as
our. This is an analogy for a large number . . .
identifying part of the passage as an interlinear note, the Daozang edition does not
use smaller characters for the note, making it look like part of the regular text. We
must correct the Daozangedition base text using the Zhengli/Jiyao recension.
There are several other variants in this passage. The Daozang edition has xi zhi
jie , but I prefer xifang jie
as in the Zhengli/Jiyao recension. The
45
DZ 1067 ed., preface, 4b1; Zhengli ed., preface, 3b56; not in Jiyao ed.; Shandong edition not seen.
46
DZ 1067 ed., 2.4a34; Zhengli ed., 1.14a3; Jiyao ed., 1.12a6.; Shandong edition not seen.
47
DZ 1067 ed., 2.7b108a2; Zhengli ed., 1.17a56; Jiyao ed., 1.14b10.; Shandong edition not seen.
48
Alternatively, this river is forty li in length.
722
Zhengli/Jiyao recension has Huanhe , but I prefer Henghe as in the Daozang
edition. The Zhengli/Jiyao recension has ci shu zhi duozhe
, but I prefer bi
shu zhi duozhe as in the Daozang edition.
The Zhengli/Jiyao recension has
49
Now, as for spirits, they are said to be marvelously present in the myriad
things;50 they are generated from the physical form.51
In the Zhengli/Jiyao recension there is a paragraph break here. The Daozang edition
has tian instead of fu , but this must be an error. Fu marks the paragraph
break: there are three such paragraph breaks in this chapter, one each for
Essence jing , Pneuma qi , and Spirit shen . The Daozang edition has
lost these three paragraph breaks, and here the copyist or editor has misunderstood
the marker fu. The base text must follow the Zhengli/Jiyao recension. The Shandong
edition also agrees with the Zhengli/Jiyao recension.
In the above four cases, I have adjudged the variant in the Daozang edition to
be an error, and have preferred the variant in the Zhengli/Jiyao recension. If the
Daozang edition is wrong nearly as often as the Zhengli/Jiyao recension, how can I
argue that the Daozang edition is closer to the urtext of Jindan dayao? Of course, in
the case of most variants, neither recension is obviously wrong or right. The dierence
is that, in the four cases above, the Daozang edition contains an error by a copyist or
an unwitting editor, while in the six cases discussed previously, we see the active hand
of an editor at work in the Zhengli/Jiyao recension. Thus, in the multitude of other
cases when we cannot tell which variant is closer to the urtext simply by looking, we
may assume that a rationallooking editorial change could occur more easily than a
rationallooking scribal error. Thus, it is more likely that the rationallooking Zhengli/
Jiyao variant comes from an editorial alteration than that the Daozang variant comes
from an error. Thus, the Zhengli/Jiyao recension contains more alterations than the
Daozang recension, and we may choose the latter as base text, and prefer the variants
49
DZ 1067 ed., 4.4a8; Zhengli ed., 2.9a9; Jiyao ed., 1.25b5; Shandong edition checked, page number not noted.
50
This echoes the line in part 2 of the Shuogua appendix to the Yijing; Rutt, The
Book of Changes Zhouyi, 446.
51
This echoes shen yi xing sheng , in DZ 13, Gaoshang Yuhuang xinyin jing 1a9.
723
in the latter when we cannot otherwise judge between the variants.

Although we prefer the wording of the Daozang edition in most cases, this
edition is also missing large chunks of material. I will argue below that this material
is genuine, and should be added to the base text, drawing on the Zhengli and Jiyao
editions. I will argue that the organization of the Daozang edition is a later change as
well.
1.8, Comparing the Shandong Edition with the Daozang Edition
Although I only closely examined a limited sample of the Shandong edition, I saw
enough material to be able to locate the Shandong edition in the liation chart see
above.
1.8.1, Dating the Shandong edition.
First, I can prove the date of the text.
Although the Shandong Provincial Museum dates the text to the second Zhiyuan
reign period 133540,52 I found proof that the woodblocks for the Shandong
edition were cut during the Ming dynasty. There is a colophon at the very end of the
text:
Printed at the behest of Tao Zhongfu53 of the Red Cli of old Huang zhou
,
Grand Master for Proper Consultation,54 Governor Assisting in Administration,55
and Eminent Gentleman of the Hall for the
Preservation of Harmony,56 the
Divine Empyrean, and Assisting the Administration of
the Regulations.
,
"'*$!
#-
This colophon proves that the book is a Mingdynasty edition. The title Governor
52
This date was assigned by a former Shandong librarian, Wang Xiantang + 18961960, who rescued the
Shandong provincial collection during World War II. Wangs biography can be found in Wang Shaoceng and Sha
Jiasun, Shandong cangshu jia shi, 33540.
53
I could not nd this name in Zang Lihe, Zhonuo gujin renming da cidian. From an online search, it appears that
a Chu Huang Tao Zhongfu # composed a book on divination entited Liuren shenke jin koujue
%. The Huang in this citation, and the Guhuang in the colophon above, must both refer to
Huangzhou in presentday Hubei a.k.a. Chu . There is indeed a Red Cli at Huangzhou. This Red Cli is
likely also the red wall immortalized in Su Shis 10371101 two fupoems entitled Chibi fu (&.
54
Hucker, A Dictionary of Ocial Titles in Imperial China, #417. Zhengyi Dafu ,
was a prestige title used
from the Sui to the Ming dynasties. In the Yuan and Ming dynasties, it was used for rank 3a zheng sanpin .
55
Hucker, A Dictionary of Ocial Titles in Imperial China, #7528. Zizhi Yin " was a merit title awarded to
favored rank 3a ocials in the Ming dynasty.
56
Baohe ! here almost certainly refers to the Baohe Dian , a unit of the Institute of Academicians
Xueshi Yuan ), staed with rank 3a ocials Hucker, A Dictionary of Ocial Titles in Imperial China, #4478.
724
Assisting in Administration Zizhi Yin only existed during the Ming dynasty.
I have not been able to determine the equivalent merit title for rank 3a during the
Yuan dynasty, but according to Hucker, the Yuan merit title would likely have borne
the sux wei Commandant .57 This colophon would not have been repeated in
reeditions of a text, so it refers to the copy in hand, not an older copy that the
printers were working from. I could not date the edition to any specic period
within the Ming dynasty. The characters were printed clearly, so the copy was printed
on blocks that were not worn down: the printing was probably not much later than
the engraving of the blocks. The paper was not yellowed, so it would be reasonable to
date the printing and engraving to the late Ming rather than to the early Ming.
The Shandong edition is made up of eight volumes ce in two cases han
. There is a possibility that ce 14 in han 1 are from a di
erent printing than ce 58
in han 2. The two factors that suggest this are: the table of contents in ce 1 does not
match the contents of han 2, and Chen Zhixus list of personal titles as printed at the
head of each of ce 58 is slightly di
erent from Chen Zhixus titles as printed in ce 14
an extra choronym, Jinluo , is added . Because the colophon is in han 2 ce 8 ,
there is a possibility that han 2 is a Mingdynasty printing, but han 1 is not. But I
suspect that the two han were originally produced as a setthey look identical in
every other respect. The table of contents is faulty in many ways, so the fact that it
does not match han 2 proves nothing. And the engraving job contains other
inconsistencies, such as the variation of character sizes within a single page, so it is
not unlikely that the engravers simply began to engrave Chen Zhixus name
di
erently while engraving ce 58.
1.8.2, The Shandong edition is later than the Daozang edition.
The Daozang
edition is from an earlier printed copy than the Shandong edition, but this alone does
not prove that the Daozang edition is closer to the urtext. There is evidence,
however, that the Shandong edition is evolutionarily later in some passages than
the other three editions. In the limited section of the Shandong edition that I was
able to analyze in detailthe rst disciples preface by Ming Suchan , plus juan 2
57
Hucker, A Dictionary of Ocial Titles in Imperial China, 67.
725
equivalent to juan 34 in the Daozang editionI noted thirteen variations unique to
the Shandong edition. Two of these cases seem to be copyists errors, and one case is
a variant character. The other ten cases all involve phrases or isolated characters
found only in the Shandong edition. There are two explanations for these variations
found only in the Shandong edition: either they are editorial interpolations to the
Shandong edition, or all three of the other editions deleted the same passages which
would be extremely unlikely.
The Shandong and Daozang editions make up a single liationthere is no
doubt of that. In the limited section of the Shandong edition that I was able to
scrutinize, regarding variants in wording, the Shandong and Daozang editions concur
for almost two hundred of the variants, while the Shandong edition and Zhengli/ Jiyao
recension concur for fewer than two dozen of the variants.
Because the Shandong edition is slightly closer to the Zhengli/Jiyao recension
than the Daozang edition is, the Daozang, Zhengli, and Jiyao editions could not have
dropped the same passages due to having a common ancestral edition. Nor would
they have randomly dropped the same passages. The answer must be that these
passages were interpolated into the Shandong edition. I would argue that the
Shandong edition is therefore probably evolutionarily later than the Daozang
edition throughout, and not just at these isolated points.
1.8.3, Sections missing from the Daozang edition ought to be replaced.
The
Shandong and Daozang editions belong to the same liationI established this based
on their many similarities in wording. Yet many sections found in the Shandong
edition, as well as other editions, are not found in the Daozang edition. The Daozang
edition is probably the earliest edition, both temporally and evolutionarily. So, we
must answer the following question: has the Daozang edition deleted these sections,
or were these sections interpolated in the later editions? My answer is that the
Daozang edition has deleted these sections. In gure 2 below, the sections missing
from the Daozang edition are represented by the thicker line:
726

Intermediary
edition A
Ur-text

Intermediary
edition B
Filiation 2
Filiation 1
Fig. 2, Major liations 1 and 2
First, let me establish that these hypothetical intermediary editions must have
existed. There must have been an intermediary edition A preceding the Daozang
and Shandong editions, because these two editions are close enough to have come
from the same parent edition, yet each one contains a number of its own variants,
meaning that neither edition derives directly from the other. The Shandong edition
is like the Daozang edition, not because it is a direct descendent of the Daozang
edition, but because they are both recensions based on a common source,
Intermediary Edition A. I will say the same for the Zhengli and Jiyao editions when
I discuss them more briey below. Because the missing sections are found on both
sides of the divide between Filiation 1 and Filiation 2, the missing sections must have
existed in both Intermediary Editions A and B. It is extremely unlikely that the
missing sections existed in Intermediary Edition B, but not Intermediary Edition A,
and that the editor of the Shandong edition copied them over from the Zhengli
edition, or some other text in Filiation 2. If the editor of the Shandong edition used
the Zhengli edition for one section, he would have used the Zhengli edition for all
sections. But he did not use the Zhengli edition, so he must have used Intermediary
Edition A, and Intermediary Edition A must have contained the missing sections.
Therefore, the sections are as genuine as anything else in the text. Actually, I have
not found anything spurious in any of the editions as long as a sentence, nothing
longer than isolated characters and phrases. Therefore, the critical edition must add
these sections back in.
I must also address the possibility that the Daozang edition is related to Chen
Zhixus second edition of 1335, and the sections not found in the Daozang edition or
its appendices are from a third edition of 1343 or later. This would be suggested by
727
the intriguing fact that all of the mentions of dates after 1335 within any version of
the text occur in sections not found in the Daozang edition. But if my argument
above stands, the Daozang edition could not possibly be Chen Zhixus second edition
of 1335because of the similarities in wording between the Shandong and Daozang
editions, the split into Filiations 1 and 2 occurred before the Shandong and Daozang
editions were published. Also, the Daozang edition could not be an exact copy of any
of Chen Zhixus original editions anyway, because the odd textual organization of the
Daozang edition sixteen juan, with some material moved from within the text to
form the appendices DZ 106870 is quite di
erent from the textual organization
described within the text itself ten juan, including the material found in DZ 106870
as juan 8 .
1.9, Of the Zhengli and Jiyao Editions, Which Is Earlier?
Of the Zhengli and Jiyao editions, which is closer to the urtext? Does one derive
from the other? The Zhengli edition is from an earlier woodblock 1538 than the Jiyao
edition rst published ca. 1800, fourth edition of 1906 , but this does not answer the
question, since the Jiyao edition could easily have come from an earlier recension.
The two editions sometimes have individual idiosyncratic wordings, diverging from
one other and from the mainstream wording shared by every edition, yet both texts
have roughly the same number of such divergences. Recall my analysis on page 716
above of the variations within a twopage section: at one point the Zhengli edition
contained an extra character not found in the Jiyao edition. Also recall my discussion
on page 719 above of three editions variants on the compound bijin . In my
critical edition I have found almost twenty such cases per juan proving that both
Zhengli and Jiyao editions are redactions of a common source edition, Intermediary
Edition B, and that neither one of the two editions derives from the other.
The Zhengli edition is truer to the urtext in some structural ways, preserving
a tenjuan structure, and including two sections missing from the Jiyao edition. The
wording of the Zhengli edition may be truer to the urtext slightly more frequently
than the Jiyao edition, but the Jiyao edition is also truer often enough that both
728
editions are of value in preparing a critical edition, and ought to be checked against
each other.
1.10, Filiation 3: Daofan and Doga Editions
The editions of Jindan dayao in the midMing Daoist collection Daofan zhengzong
wujing sishu daquan and the eighteenthcentury Korean
Daoist collection Doga jikji dokyo kyng
probably derive from the
Zhengli edition. I have not been able to examine either of these editions, but I can
infer their liation from descriptions of them in secondary sources.
The identity of the texts collected in Daofan zhengzong wujing sishu daquan
suggest that this collection is based on the Daoshu quanji collection. In addition to
three texts by Chen Zhixu, the Daofan collection also contains the text Xianfo
tongyuan , by Zhao Youqin. Xianfo tongyuan was widely available only as part
of the Daoshu quanji collection. The Daoshu quanji collection also contained the
Zhengli edition of Jindan dayao. Therefore I infer that the edition of Jindan dayao
collected in the Daofan zhengzong wujing sishu daquan collection was also the Zhengli
edition as found in Daoshu quanji.
In his article on Daoism in Korea in Daoism Handbook,58 Jung Jaeseo states
that the Doga jikji dokyo kyng collection is based on texts from Daoshu quanji.
Therefore the edition of Jindan dayao in Doga jikji dokyo kyng must be the same
edition found in Daoshu quanji, i.e., the Zhengli edition. As I mentioned on page 704
above, I consider the independent Zhengli edition and the Daoshu quanjis Zhengli
edition to be identical.
1.11, Filiation 4: Wuzhong and Shanzhuang Editions
The Wuzhong edition is a muchedited and abbreviated redaction of the Zhengli/Jiyao
liation. As I mentioned on page 705 above, it contains about 18 percent of the
material in the most complete version of Jindan dayao. I have analyzed juan 2 of the
Wuzhong edition in detail, and determined that the Wuzhong edition is slightly closer
58
729
to the Jiyao edition than to the Zhengli edition. Within juan 2 of the Wuzhong edition,
I found eight cases in which a character variant is found only in the Wuzhong and
Jiyao editions. I found no cases in which a character variant is found only in the
Wuzhong and Zhengli editions, or Wuzhong and Daozang editions.
The Shanzhuang edition from Daozang jinghua reproduces the abbreviated
Wuzhong edition, with many further emendations of its own. Whereas the Wuzhong
edition added almost fty new emendations to juan 2, the Shanzhuang edition
includes most of these, and adds almost 150 further emendations of its own, evidence
of a hyperactive editorial hand.
2, The Contents of the Various Editions of Jindan dayao

2.1, The General Organization of Jindan dayao: Chapter Titles
Jindan dayao originally had ten chapters juan , each divided into multiple sections
zhang . In his original preface, Chen Zhixu discusses and explains the tenjuan
structure of Jindan dayao:59
The Master of Highest Yang says: Therefore, Jindan dayao has ten juan:
The rst juan, Void and Nonexistence, has three sections to symbolize the
three powers sancai .60
The second juan, The Highest Pharmaca, has one section to embody the
dharmabody.
The third juan, Marvelous Application, has nine sections, to actualize the nine
recyclings.
The fourth juan, What One Ought to Know, has seven sections to verify by
producing the seven returns.
The fth juan, Accumulating E
ort, has poems and songs, to distinguish the
perverse from the correct.
The sixth juan, Accumulating Practice, has prefatory discourses, to cause non
existence to mark itself with emblems.
The seventh juan, Initiating Perfection, has questions and answers, to touch
59
DZ 1067 ed., 1.11a8b6; Zhengli ed., 1.9a10b6; deleted from Jiyao edition; Shandong edition not seen.
60
The sancai are Heaven, Earth, and humanity.
730
and attract the many sentient beings.

The eighth juan, Cultivating Perfection,
has charts and emblems: showing
them can oer conrmation.
The ninth juan, Overleaping the Bounds,
has imitations of the ancientsthe
highest vehicle.
The tenth juan, Transcending the Ancestors, measures out the ancients, to
help
the reader manifest inherent enlightenment and become a buddha.
I2"13+4+EA?F +
T?W.(+%?US+J/?
V0+QLN)+>#&P*ADF
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Chen choses this sequence of titles to approximate the sequential stages of
inneralchemical cultivation, moving from introducing the three basic ingredients
juan 2 , to more detailed instructions juan 34 , to building up ones cultivation juan
56 , to achieving perfection juan 78 , and to ultimate transcendence juan 910 .
The title of juan 1, Void and Nonexistence does not obviously t this sequence,
but the title of this rst chapter may have a separate cosmogonic signicance
instead: Daoist texts almost always begin by mentioning a cosmogony.
2.2, The General Organization of Jindan dayao: Contents of the Chapters
Although I have pointed out that logical sequence of chapter titles, I do not mean to
imply that the content of the Jindan dayao has this same logical sequence. The
content of the text is more heterogeneous. For example, Chens discourses and
addresses in the second half of the Jindan dayao often discuss the same technical
matters as the technical sections in the rst half of the Jindan dayao. Here is my
description of the contents of the text:
0. Prefaces Xu & , written by two disciples.
1. Void and Nonexistence Xuwu EA : general comments appropriate for an
introduction, including a preface to Jindan dayao, a preface to the Daode jing, and a
discussion of chapter 1 of the Daode jing.
2. The Highest Pharmaca Shangyao T : on essence, pneuma, and spirit jing,
qi, shen O8: .
3. Marvelous Application Miaoyong % : on aspects of inneralchemical
practice, such as the elixir, the ingredients, the caldron, and so on.
731
4. What One Ought to Know Xuzhi 4!

: about dierent stages in the
process.
5. Accumulating Eort Jigong @
: exhortatory poems and Daode jing
commentary.
6. Accumulating Practice Leixing -
: epistles to disciples.
7. Initiating Perfection Fazhen 0)
: essays on various topics.
8. Cultivating Perfection Xiuzhen .)
: charts and visual aids.
9. Overleaping the Bounds Yuege 1(
: Chan Buddhist discourses.
10. Transcending the Ancestors Chaozong 2
: more Chan Buddhist
discourses.
While there the sequence of chapter titles has a logical order stages of progress in
alchemical cultivation
, it is more dicult to discern a logic to the sequence of actual
chaptercontents.
One notable thing is that the nal two chapters are devoted to Chan Buddhist
topics. I think that this is signicantI think that, to this extent, the structure of
Jindan dayao is modeled on the structure of the inneralchemical classic Wuzhen pian.
Fukui Fumimasa has noted that Wuzhen pian originally contained a nal section on
Chan Buddhist teachings, but that this section was lost from all editions of Wuzhen
pian in the Zhengtong daozang except for the edition within DZ 263, Xiuzhen shishu.61
Fukui notes that Zhang Boduan +; states in his original preface to Wuzhen pian
that he added the Buddhist material as an afterthought, so that his book would have
more discussion of cultivating ones inherent nature xing
to complement its
lengthy discussion of cultivating ones life endowment ming
.
When I had already nished gathering the chapters, I felt that I had merely
discussed nurturing the lifeendowment and stabilizing the physical form therein,
and my discussion of original, perfect awareness was lacking to a certain extent.
Thereupon I reviewed Buddhist books and lamp histories, including stories
about patriarchs who achieved enlightenment upon hearing the striking of
bamboo. I have shaped this into thirtytwo stanzas of song, poetry, and
miscellaneous discourse, and now I append this to the end of the scrolls.

<3$#D,=>/ 6)D
8E' 5?A *%B&" :97C
61
Fukui, Goshin hen no k sei ni tuite, 32. Fukui thinks that later Daoist editors deleted the Chan section at the
end of Wuzhen pian in order to suppress the Buddhist aspect of Zhang Boduans teachings. This may be true, but
many of Zhang Boduans heirs, Chen Zhixu included, loved Buddhism as much as Zhang Boduan did, if not more.
732

62
Daoists have often said that Daoist teachings emphasize lifeendowment ming, i.e.,
body , while Buddhist teachings emphasize inherent nature xing, i.e., mind . The
structure of Chen Zhixus work, with Chan Buddhist teachings at the end, may be
modeled on the structure of Wuzhen pian. Furthermore, the structure of both works
reects a common doctrinal structure of xian ming, hou xing one
cultivates ming rst, and xing afterward . Contemporary Chinese scholars often point
out that Zhang Boduan taught xian ming hou xing, and use this to distinguish Zhangs
heirs in the Southern Lineage Jindan Nanzong from the Northern
Lineage Jindan Beizong , i.e., Quanzhen Daoism , which teaches xian xing
hou ming.63 I have discussed this in section 3.4.2 of chapter 4.
2.3, The Organization of Jindan dayao in the Dierent Editions
The four early editions of Jindan dayao di
er greatly in the way they are divided into
chapters and sections. The Daozang edition is divided into sixteen juan, the Zhengli
and Shandong editions are divided into ten juan, and the Jiyao edition is not divided
into juan at all.64 The Zhengtong daozang furthermore contains three additional texts
related to Jindan dayao: DZ 1068, Shangyangzi jindan dayao tu, DZ 1069 Shangyangzi
jindan dayao liexian zhi, and DZ 1070 Shangyangzi jindan dayao xianpai. These texts
originally belonged in juan 8 in the original version of Jindan dayao, but have been
extracted and made into appendices to the Daozang edition. They can be found in
juan 8 in the other three early editions.65 As we saw on pages 73031 above, the
original version of Jindan dayao had ten chapters, and juan 8 originally included
charts, so we can say that the structure of the Daozang edition with sixteen juan plus
appendices is the work of a later editor as is threece structure of the Jiyao edition .
In my critical edition, I usually prefer the wording of the Daozang edition, but prefer
the tenjuan structure of the Zhengli and Shandong editions.
62
DZ 142, Ziyang zhenren Wuzhen pian sanzhu, preface, 11b812a2.
63
Cf., for example, Ren Jiyu, Zhonuo daojiao shi, 1st ed., 511, 54647.
64
I cite the Daozang and Zhengli editions by juan and page number, but the Jiyao edition by volume ce and
page number.
65
Or the equivalent location in ce 3 of the Jiyao edition.
733
2.4, The Segments Missing from the Daozang Edition

What is missing from DZ 1067, the Daozang edition of Jindan dayao? I have identied
ten segments of missing material. Most of these segments are lacking in the Daozang
edition alone, though the Jiyao and Shandong editions also lack sections, and only
the Zhengli edition is complete. It is important to determine why these segments are
missing from the Daozang edition. It is important to determine if these omissions
were due to purposeful editorial censoring of passages related to sexual alchemy, for
example, or due to careless copying. I will argue that the majority of missing
segments were omitted due to careless copying.
These missing segments are of three types: 1 passages omitted from within
sections, 2 whole sections omitted, and 3 whole sections moved out of the main
text and made into separate appendices.
I argue that the omission of eight of these eleven segments happened
inadvertently while the Daozang edition was being prepared: whole pages were lost
from whatever source edition the editor, copyist, or engraver was copying from.66
The other three missing segments cannot be explained this way.
2.4.1, Missing segment 1.
This is a segment from juan 3, beginning at 5.11a1 in
the Daozang edition.67 According to my calculation based on the Zhengli and Jiyao
editions, the missing Daozang passage would have been 899 characters in length. My
hypothesis is that these 899 characters should be equivalent to a whole number of
pages. How can we know how many pages in length in the lost source edition this
899character missing passage would be? We can only speculate how many characters
there were per line, and how many lines per page, in the lost source edition. Here is a
chart comparing the four early editions:
66
The omissions could conceivably have rst occurred in an immediate parent text of the Daozang edition,
standing between Intermediate Edition A and the Daozang edition, but this need not concern us.
67
In juan 3 according to the original tenjuan structure of Jindan dayao. This is in juan 5 in the sixteenjuan
Daozang edition.
734
Daozang edition
17 graphs per line
5 lines per recto or verso68
Zhengli edition
21 graphs per line
10 lines per recto or verso
Jiyao edition
24 graphs per line
Shandong edition
20 graphs per line
It is my hypothesis that there were twenty characters per line in the lost source
edition that the Daozang edition was copied from. I make this hypothesis based on
my counts of missing characters in this and other omitted segments: choosing twenty
characters per line, like the Shandong edition, yields a good result, and is as good a
choice as any. If the lost source edition had twenty characters per line, 899 characters
would amount to almost exactly69 fortyve missing lines. If there were ve lines per
page, this would be exactly nine pages; if there were ten lines per page, this would be
four and a half pages. It is easy to imagine nine pages dropping out somewhere, but
not easy to imagine four and a half pages dropping out. To explain the omission of
this segment 1, we would have to assume ve lines per page in the lost source edition,
but because I would have expected ten lines per page, I am only partly convinced
myself. Fortunately, my argument works in the other cases: the other missing
segments are multiples of ten lines in length, not ve like this one.
2.4.2, Missing segments 24.
The next three missing segments are actually
one segment which I divide into three:

2 the end of the section Marvelous Application of FireTiming Huohou
miaoyong zhang diliu
;
3 the whole of the section Marvelous Application of Reverting the
Elixir Huandan miaoyong zhang diqi
; and
4 the beginning of the section Marvelous Application of TopsyTurvy
ness Diandao miaoyong zhang diba
.
The whole missing segment begins at 6.6b9 in the Daozang edition. It certainly looks
like a careless copyists error: the Daozang edition splices two halfsentences together
very awkwardly. Where the Zhengli and Jiyao editions have
68
All modern photoreproductions of the Zhengtong daozang have ten lines per recto or verso page, but this is a
change made by the printers of the Hanfen Lou edition. If you look at a photograph of a copy from the original
set, you will see that each recto or verso page has only ve lines.
69
899 / 20 = 44.95. There is some leeway in charactercounts, so 44.95 45. Some woodblock books do not have a
perfect number of characters per line: the Shandong edition, for example, has twenty characters on most lines,
but twentyone on some lines.
735
4 @E-;?HH.K
4
G1FB70
A+ #82
. . . ca. 1500character passage in between . . .

M3,.9 :(76:/! =5!@">
CJ'<0(D$,71
the Daozang edition has
4 LE-;?HH.K
4
@">CJ'<0(D$
In the Daozang edition, 4
5!
=5 has become the oddlynamed 4
5. This strongly suggests an unintentional lacuna. If the omission of this

segment was due to missing pages in a hypothetical source edition, then both the
beginning and the end of the omission ought to occur at the end of a page in that
lost source edition. My calculations are not so helpful in conrming that this lacuna
occurred due to lost pages: the lacuna would begin on the 372nd line 37.2 pages:
missing a multiple of ten by two lines and the lacuna would be seventytwo lines in
length 7.2 pages: again missing by two lines.
2.4.3, Missing segments 56.
The sections Five A airs of the Golden
Elixir Jindan wushi -& and To Dingyangzi Yu Dingyangzi I*=, which
would occur after 9.12a2 in the Daozang edition, together come to ninetyeight lines,
about ten pages in the hypothetical source edition. It could be due to lost pages.
The section To Guyangzi, Zhou Yuzhong Yu
Guyangzi, Zhou Yunzhong I%=), which would occur after 12.10b5 in the
Daozang edition, is 971 characters plus one title line, almost exactly ve pages in the
hypothetical source edition. It could also be due to lost pages.
This is the most signicant omission in the Daozang
edition, the omission of the nal thirteen epistolary essays by Chen Zhixu to his
disciples. According to my calculations, this section would be exactly seventyve
pages in length in the hypothetical source edition. Yet seventyve pages would
probably not all have t within a single booklet ce: this would be long enough for
three or four booklets. So my pagecounting method does not prove anything for
70
Zhengli ed., 3.18b2; Jiyao ed., 1.45a9.
71
Zhengli ed., 3.22a10; Jiyao ed., 1.48b7.
736
such a long passage. I have argued above that this most important section must have
existed in the parent edition of the Daozang edition.
This segment, which would begin at 13.2a4 in the
Daozang edition, is 399 characters in length, almost exactly two pages in the
hypothetical source edition. It could also be due to lost pages.
This is the material moved from juan 8 in the
original version of Jindan dayao to form the appendices DZ 1068, Shangyangzi jindan
dayao tu, DZ 1069 Shangyangzi jindan dayao liexian zhi, and DZ 1070 Shangyangzi jindan
dayao xianpai. The editor of the Daozang edition clearly rearranged the material, but I
cannot discover any special explanation for this editorial choice, except that this
material is dierent from the rest of Jindan dayao, which otherwise consists of
discourses, not charts or ritual records.
This is a short sevenandahalf line section
entitled Rite for Celebrating the Birthdays of the Two Transcendents Zhong and
L ZhongL erxian qingdan yi
, which would begin at DZ 1070,
Shangyangzi jindan dayao xianpai, 3a. I cannot explain why this section was dropped,
except that the Daozang editor might have thought it redundant. It rehearses the
biographies of Zhongli Quan and L Dongbin, which are found also in more detail in
DZ 1069 Shangyangzi jindan dayao liexian zhi. I have translated this section on page
143 above.
2.4.9, Conclusions regarding missing segments.
My hypothesis about missing
pages from a lost source edition with twenty characters per line and ve or ten lines
per page could not be denitively proven, but it is still suggestive. Of the eleven
missing segments, segments 5, 6, 7, and 9 seem to have been omitted due to lost
pages. My calculations regarding segments 14 were inconclusive, but these omissions
could possibly still be due to lost pages, if there were some factor making my
calculations slightly o. Segments 23 are clearly an inadvertent lacuna, not a case of
intentional censoring. Segment 10 seems to have been rearranged for thematic
reasons. I cannot say why segments 9 and 11 are missing. Segment 9, the epistolary
essays, is the most important missing passage. I have proven above that it ought to
737
exist in the Daozang recension, but I have not been able to explain its absence here.
2.5, Discrepancies in the Other Editions
I have argued that the Daozang edition is more distant from the original edition in
structure, though closer to it in wording. Each of the other editions depart
structurally from the hypothetical original edition as well. Here I must mention a
few of the more obvious omissions and distortions, which are relevant when
comparing these various editions.
The Zhengli and Shandong editions contain tables of contents, which often
depart from the texts themselves. In dozens of cases, in both Zhengli and Shandong
editions, the title as listed in the table of contents is di
erent in wording than the
title as found in the text. It seems that the person who prepared the table of
contents was not the same person who edited the text, and may not even have read
the text. In a few cases, the Zhengli and Shandong tables of contents contain the
exact same errors in wording, such as the section Caiyao miaoyong zhang
in the table of contents ought to be Caiqu , or the section Huanfan
miaoyong zhang in the table of contents ought to be Huandan .
This suggests either that there was some direct crossover between the two editions,
or that the same errors were perpetuated in liations 1 and 2 from the common
ancestor and editor of the Daozang edition deleted this table of contents .
The Shandong edition has further discrepancies: in the table of contents,
some sections found in the text are not listed in the table of contents;72 and some
sections not found in the text are still listed in the table of contents.73 These may be
further examples of a sloppy table of contents, or may be evidence that the second
bookbox han of the Shandong edition came from a di
erent edition.74
Juan 5 and 8 seem to have been unstable, with greater structural variation
over the four early editions. The sequence of sections in juan 5 varies between the
four editions, and much of juan 5 is missing from the Daozang edition. The title of
72
The section Yu Nanyangzi Deng Yanghao

, and all of the subsections in juan 8.
73
The sections ZhongL erxian qingdan yi and Xianpai yuanliu .
74
See page 725 above.
738
juan 8, which according to internal evidence ought to be Cultivating

Perfection Xiuzhen ,75 varies between the four editions. The Shandong edition
lacks the section on hagiography Xianpai yuanliu in juan 8, and has
moved the section on lineage Xianpai to the head of the text. Also recall
that juan 8 has been turned into three appendices in the Daozang edition. I can point
out that these two juan were structurally unstable, but cannot speculate why.
75
See page 731 above.
739
Bibliography of Works Cited

A1.1. Works in the Ming Daoist Canon
DZ 13, Gaoshang Yuhuang xinyin jing 1'K. 1 juan. S. Song dyn. 11271279?
DZ 18, Taishang xuhuang tianzun sishijiu zhang jing C'
>=K. 1 juan.
PostTangdynasty?
DZ 19, Taishang shengxuan xiaozai huming miaojing -aK. 1 juan. Tang
dynasty 618907.
DZ 31, Huangdi yinfu jing G$<8K. 1 juan. 8th c.?
DZ 32, Hunyuan yangfu jing 5F8K. 1 juan. Tang or Song dynasties?
DZ 87, Yuanshi wuliang duren shangpin miaojing sizhu @E%#KD.
Compiled by Chen Jingyuan ;? 102494. 4 juan. 1067.
DZ 89, Yuanshi wuliang duren shangpin miaojing tongyi @E%#K:L.
Commentary by Zhang Yuchu 3! 13611410. 4 juan. Before 1410.
DZ 90, Yuanshi wuliang duren shangpin miao jing neiyi @E%#KL.
Commentary by Xiao Yingsou XY*. 5 juan. 1226.
DZ 91, Taishang dongxuan lingbao wuliang duren shangpin miaojing zhujie &b_
@E%#K N. Commentary by Chen Zhixu ;)C 12901343+. 3
juan. 1336. Found in multiple collections: see A2 in dissertation appendix 1.
DZ 103, Yuqing wuji zongzhen wenchang dadong xianjing zhu 4@J[. &
K. By Wei Qi VA . 1309. 10 juan. 1309.
DZ 109, Huangdi yinfu jing jiangyi G$<8K\L. Commentary by Xia Yuanding +
Q byname Xia Zongyu +(, . 1227. 4 juan. 1227.
DZ 135, Cui Gong ruyao jing zhujie 2 ]^DN. Ascribed to Cui Xifan IT .
940. Commentary by Wang Daoyuan O6 Wang Jie c, . 1392, or 133180.
Ca. 1392 or 133180.
DZ 137, Qingtian ge zhushi "
RD`. By Qiu Chuji 9W 11481227. Commentary
by Wang Daoyuan O6 Wang Jie c, . 1392 or 133180. 1 juan. Ca. 1392 or
133180.
DZ 141, Ziyang Zhenren Wuzhen pian zhushu BF.,.UD7. Original by Zhang
Boduan 3S 984/871082/84, or 10761155. Commentary by Weng Baoguang
/M . 1173, transmitted chuan H by Chen Daling ;Pb . ca. 1174, sub
commentary shu 7 by Dai Qizong Z0 . 1335. 8 juan. 1173 and 1335.
740
DZ 142, Ziyang Zhenren Wuzhen pian sanzhu HM636cL. Original by Zhang

Boduan. Commentary by Xue Daoguang mX d. 1191
actually by Weng
Baoguang 9V, . 1173
, Lu Shu D] byname Ziye B, . S. Song 1127
1279?
, and Chen Zhixu C-K 12901343+
. 5 juan. After 1331. Found in multiple
collections: see A4 in dissertation appendix 1.
DZ 143, Ziyang Zhenren Wuzhen zhizhi xiangshuo sansheng miyao HM636#(W`
07.. Original by Zhang Boduan. Commentary by Weng Baoguang 9V
. 1173
, subcommentary shu @
by Dai Qizong k: . 1335
. 1 juan. Ca. 1173
and 1335.
DZ 144, Ziyang Zhenren Wuzhen pian shiyi HM636)i. By Zhang Boduan.
Edited by Weng Baoguang 9V . 1173
. 1 juan. 1075 ?
; ca. 1173. Also as
Chanzong gesong l ^Y in DZ 263, Xiuzhen shishu 30.1a12a
DZ 145, Wuzhen pian zhushi 36cLv. Original by Zhang Boduan. Commentary by
Weng Baoguang 9V . 1173
. 3 juan. Ca. 1173.
DZ 146, Ziyang zhenren wuzhen pian jiangyi HM636cnU. Original by Zhang
Boduan. Commentary by Xia Yuanding 2Z byname Xia Zongyu 2 ,, .
122027
. 7 juan. 1227.
DZ 149, Xiuzhen taiji hunyuan tu 16
R?\. By Xiao Daocun hX. 1 juan. N.
Song 9601127
.
DZ 150, Xiuzhen taiji hunyuan zhixuan tu 16
R?(\. 1 juan. N. Song 960
1127
, before 1154.
DZ 151, Jinye huandan yinzheng tu %=pt\. By Longmeizi j+. 1 juan. 1222.
DZ 167, Dongxuan lingbao zhenling weiye tu *wu6wQ\. Edited by Tao
Hongjing FGd 452536
, collated and edited jiaoding 5/
by Lqiu
Fangyaun g a . 893
. 1 juan. Ca. 500; before 893.
DZ 171, Qingwei xianpu >Ps. Transmitted chuan O
by Huang Shunshen NI
. 122487
, edited by Chen Cai C$ . 1293
. 1 juan. 1293.
DZ 174, Jinlian zhengzong xianyuan xiangzhuan %e S[O. Compiled by Liu
Tiansu b 8 and Xie Xichan or. 1 juan. 1326.
DZ 179, Taiwei lingshu ziwen xianji zhenji shangjing
Pw4HT. 1 juan. E.
Jin dynasty 317420
.
DZ 225, Taishang jiuyao xinyin miaojing
.T. Ascribed to ;! Zhang
Guo Zhang Guolao ;!, Tang dyn.
. 1 juan. N. Song dynasty 9601127
?
DZ 226, Ziyuan Jun shoudao chuanxin fa H<XO". Commentary ascribed to
Yin Changsheng E&. 1 juan. Late Tang ca. 850907
.
DZ 235, Danjing jilun TRf. 1 juan. S. Song 11271279
?
DZ 240, Yuqing jinsi qinghua miwen jinbao neilian danjue >%x'J7%uq
A. A.k.a. Qinghua miwen. Ascribed to Zhang Boduan ;_ 984/871082/84, or
10761155
. 3 juan. After 1350?
741
DZ 243, Chen Xubai guizhong zhinan HNE-*. By Chen Chongsu H$:

byname Xubai N. 2 juan. Yuan 12791368.
DZ 244, Dadan zhizhi )-. Ascribed to Qiu Chuji Db 11481227. 2 juan.
Early Yuan 12501300?
DZ 245, Yuxizi danjing zhiyao eW-2. By Li Jianyi #g& . 1264. 3 juan.
1264; printed 1354.
DZ 247, Huizhen ji V7Q. By Wang Jichang '. 5 juan. 14th c.?
DZ 248, Qizhen ji >7Q. By Liu Zhiyuan _"A . 1364, or 1304?. 3 juan. Ca. 1364
1304?.
DZ 249, Zhonghe ji %Q. By Li Daochun #Z; . 12881306. 6 juan. 1306.
DZ 255, Taiwei lingshu ziwen lanan huadan shenzhen shang jing Un6KBoM
97W. 1 juan. E. Jin dynasty 317420.
DZ 263, Xiuzhen shishu 376. 60 juan. Compiled ca. 1340?
DZ 263, juan 1416: ZhongL chuandao ji fSZQ. N. Song dynasty 9601127?
Also as Chuandao pian SZ`, in DZ 1017, Daoshu, juan 3941. Also in Daoshu
quanji, Daozang jiyao, Daozang jinghua, and Daozang jinghua lu.
DZ 270, Pomi zhengdao ge 8<Z[. Ascribed to Zhongli Quan jhk. 1 juan. Ca.
1070.
DZ 276, Xiyi zhimi lun (\-<a. By Niu Daochun Z?. 1 juan. 1299.
DZ 278, Qingwei danjue @UF. 1 juan. 15th c.?
DZ 294, Liexian zhuan S. Ascribed to Liu Xiang _ 776
. 2 juan. Later
Han 25220
?
DZ 296, Lishi zhenxian tidao tongjian c7mZGl. By Zhao Daoyi ^Z .
1294. 53 juan. 1294.
DZ 300, Tao Huayang yinju neizhuan. By Jia Song YT . late Tang?. 3 juan. Late Tang
ca. 850907?
DZ 305, Chunyang dijun shenhua miaotong ji ;P,9
Shanshi 1L5 . 1324. 7 juan. After 1310.
G/. Edited by Miao
DZ 331, Taishang huangting neijing yujing R4

JW. 1 juan. E. Jin dynasty 317
420.
DZ 332, Taishang huangting waijing yujing R4JW. 1 juan. Before 255.
DZ 361, Taishang dongxuan lingbao bawei zhaolong miaojing .ni+d
2 juan. 5th c.
W.
DZ 388, Taishang lingbao wufu xu ni C!. 3 juan. E. Jin dynasty 317420.
DZ 399, Taishang dongxuan lingbao tianzun shuo jiuku miaojing zhujie .niI
]=0 WOX. Commentary by Dongyangzi .P, Mr. L . 1 juan. Song
Yuan dynasties 9601368?
742
DZ 403, Huangting neiwaijing jing jie R8 JX\. Commentary by Jiang

Shenxiu fV5. 1 juan. Tang dynasty 618907.
DZ 448, Xishan Xu Zhenjun bashiyi hua lu E;j. Edited by Shi Cen
0. 3 juan. Ca. 1250.
DZ 450, Taiji Ge Xiangong zhuan W[
S. By Tan Sixian rT. 1 juan. Printed
1377 or 1437.
DZ 548, Taiji jilian neifa WCo *. By Zheng Sixiao g/! 12411318. 3 juan.
Before 1318; preface of 1406.
DZ 555, Gaoshang yuegong Taiyin Yuanjun Xiaodao Xianwang lingbao jingming huangsu shu
>7 GûsB'R<9. By Fu Feiqing I46. 10 juan.
Yuan dynasty 12791368.
DZ 568, Lingbao guikong jue usp,D, by Zhao Yizhen b$; d. 1382. 1 juan.
Before 1382.
DZ 620, Taishang Laojun shuo chang qingjing miao jing a?@lX. 1 juan.
Early Tang ca. 618750.
DZ 639, Huangtian Shangqing Jinque Dijun lingshu ziwen shang jing 2@-q.
u9MX. 1 juan. E. Jin 317420.
DZ 641, Taishang Laojun neiguan jing vX. 1 juan. Early Tang ca. 618750.
DZ 660, Hunyuan bajing zhenjing AJ;X. 5 juan. Song dynasty? 11001150?.
DZ 667, Wushang miaodao wenshi zhenjing K^#;X. 1 juan. 12th c.
DZ 687, Daode zhenjing sanjie ê;X\. By Deng Yi hk . 1298. 4 juan. 1298.
DZ 725, Daode zhenjing guangsheng yi ê;XdZY. Commentary by Du Guangting
8 850933. 50 juan. 901.
DZ 726, Xisheng jing jizhu (XQP. Commentaries compiled by Chen Jingyuan F
J 102494. 6 juan. Before 1094.
DZ 770, Hunyuan shengji AZ3. Compiled by Xie Shouhao nw . 1191. 9
juan. Preface of 1193; postSong edition.
DZ 774, Youlong zhuan LmS. By Jia Shanxiang ]NO . 10861100. 6 juan. 1086
1100.
DZ 782, Dadi Dongtian tuji `1_=. By Deng Mu h+ 12471306. 3 juan.
Befofre 1306.
DZ 793, Taiqing daode xianhua yi @êtc. 1 juan. Ming dynasty 13181644.
DZ 824, Songshan Taiwu Xiansheng qi jing U K:X. Equivalent to DZ 828,
Huanzhen Xiansheng funa yuanqi jue ;) :D, and to Huanzhen
Xiansheng funa yuanqi jue ;) :D, in DZ 1032, Yunji qiqian, j. 60.
Ascribed to a half dozen di erent gures. 1 or 2 juan. Ca. 770825?
DZ 838, Yangxing yanming lu i&%"j. Ascribed to Tao Hongjing HJ 456536.
743
2 juan. Late Tang dynasty?

DZ 851, Sanyuan yanshou canzan shu I,['. Edited by Li Pengfei ^%
1222?. 5 juan. 1291.
DZ 878, Zituan danjing 8GB. 1 juan. S. Song, after 1180 1180s1279.
DZ 885, Huangdi jiuding shendan jingjue =!F)B0. Juan 1, Han dynasty 206
220 ; juan 220, ca. 64983.
DZ 904, Jinbi wuxianglei cantong qi L#], . Ascribed to Yin Changsheng
3. 1 juan. Five Dynasties or Song dynasty, after 947.
DZ 905, Cantong qi wuxiang lei miyao , #]*$. Original ascribed to Wei
Boyang Z; trad. b. 107, . 14667. Submitted by Lu Tianji U
b . 1111
17. 1 juan. Ca. 111117.
DZ 921, Zhigui ji "Y<. By Wu Wu or &. 1 juan. Ca. 1163.
DZ 926, Da huandan zhaojian X?`. 1 juan. 962.
DZ 954, Taishang hunyuan zhenlu -(V. 1 juan. Ca. 7th8th c.?
DZ 956, Zhongnan Shan Shuojing Tai lidai zhenxian beiji /OBNS( A+.
Zhu Xiangxin : . 1279. 1 juan. Ca. 12801300.
DZ 962, Wudang fudi zongzhen ji @MW(V. By Liu Daoming PE . 1286
91. 3 juan. 1291; 1301.
DZ 999, Zhouyi cantong qi. Original ascribed to Wei Boyang Z; trad. b. 107, .
14667. Commentary ascribed to Yin Changsheng 3. 3 juan. 700.
DZ 1000, Zhouyi Cantong qi zhu ,
juan. After 1210.
9. Original ascribed to Wei Boyang. 3
DZ 1001, Zhouyi Cantong qi kaoyi , .. Original ascribed to Wei Boyang.
Commentary by Zhu Xi T 11301200. 3 juan. 1198.
DZ 1002, Zhouyi cantong qi fenzhang tongzhen yi , 41(C. Original
ascribed to Wei Boyang. Commentary by Peng Xiao 5R d. 955. 3 juan. 947.
DZ 1003, Zhouyi Cantong qi dingqi ge mingjian tu , FQJ\H. Original
ascribed to Wei Boyang. Commentary by Peng Xiao. 3 juan. 947.
DZ 1004, Zhouyi Cantong qi zhu ,
juan. Ca. 700.
9. Original ascribed to Wei Boyang. 2
DZ 1005, Zhouyi Cantong qi fahui , 76. Original ascribed to Wei Boyang.
Commentary by Yu Yan c 1253/81314. 9 juan. 1284.
DZ 1006, Zhouyi Cantong qi shiyi ,
Commentary by Yu Yan. 1 juan. 1281.
_K. Original ascribed to Wei Boyang.
DZ 1007, Zhouyi cantong qi jie , D. Original ascribed to Wei Boyang.

Commentary by Chen Xianwei 2a>. 3 juan. 1234.
DZ 1008, Zhouyi cantong qi ,
. Original ascribed to Wei Boyang.

744
Commentary by Chu Huagu S;
. 3 juan. Ca. 110050?
DZ 1076, Suiji yinghua lu RPT Q. By He Daoquan E, edited by Gu

Daoxuan DE. 2 juan. 1401.
DZ 1016, Zhengao 2K. Edited by Tao Hongjing 452536. 20 juan. 499.
DZ 1017, Daoshu EM. Edited by Zeng Zao :^ . 113163. 42 juan. 1136.
DZ 1032, Yunji qiqian ?][. Edited by Zhang Junfang 5% . 100825. 122
juan. 1019.
DZ 1034, Taixuan baodian
Z!. 3 juan. Song dynasty 9601279?
DZ 1057, Danyang Zhenren yulu =2JQ. By Ma Danyang 3= 112383. 1
juan. 12th c.
DZ 1066, Xuanzong zhizhi wanfa tonui #(+C&X. By Mu Changchao '4
1 . 1294, edited by Huang Benren A. 7 juan. 1294.
DZ 1067, Shangyangzi Jindan dayao =*.. By Chen Zhixu 8-< 1290
1343+. 16 juan originally 10 juan. 1331, 1336, 1343. Found in multiple collections:
see A1 in dissertation appendix 1.
DZ 1068, Shangyangzi Jindan dayao tu =*.F. 1 juan. See DZ 1067. A1b in
dissertation appendix 1.
DZ 1069, Shangyangzi Jindan dayao liexian zhi =*.I. 1 juan. See DZ
1067. A1c in dissertation appendix 1.
DZ 1070, Shangyangzi Jindan dayao xianpai =*.,. 1 juan. See DZ 1067.
A1d in dissertation appendix 1.
DZ 1071, Yuanyangzi fayu 0=&J. By Zhao Yizhen L$2 d. 1382. 2 juan. Before
1382.
DZ 1074, Huanzhen ji V2>. By Wang Daoyuan E6 Wang Jie \, . 1392 or
133180, preface by Zhang Yuchu. 3 juan. 1392.
DZ 1075, Daoxuan pian EN. By Wang Daoyuan. 1 juan. Ca. 1392 or 133180.
DZ 1077, Xiulian xuzhi /W@). 1 juan. See DZ 1067. A1a in dissertation appendix
1.
DZ 1081, Jindan sibai zi * . Ascribed to Zhang Boduan 5G 984/87
1082/84, or 10761155, by Bai Yuchan? Y . 11941229, commentary by
Huang Ziru A. 1 juan. 1241 or before.
DZ 1088, Huandan fuming pian V9"N. Ascribed to Xue Shi U byname
Daoguang E, 10781191. 1 juan. 1126.
DZ 1090, Cuixu pian H<N. Ascribed to Chen Nan 8B d. 1213; or . 1217. 1 juan.
Before 1213, or ca. 1217.
DZ 1096, Chen Xiansheng neidan jue 87. By Chen Pu 8O Tang dynasty of
Five Dynasties. 1 juan. After 1078.
745
DZ 1098, Neidan huanyuan jue

rM. 1 juan. N. Song dynasty 9601127.
DZ 1100, Minghe yuyin h{n:. Edited by Peng Zhizhong P7 . 9 juan. Ca. 1341
67.
DZ 1110, Jingming zhongxiao quanshu J,*%>. By Huang Yuanji V 1271
1325. 6 juan. 1327.
DZ 1123, Yiqie jing yinyi miaomen youqi [:\$2D. Compiled by Shi Chong
E. 1 juan. 71213.
DZ 1125, Dongxuan lingbao sandong fengdao kejie yingshi 5~v5'b6&q(.
Ascribed to Jinming Qizhen 1,@. 6 juan. Ca. 618750.
DZ 1139, Sandong zhunang 5?|. Wang Xuanhe w- . ca. 680. 10 juan. Ca.
680.
DZ 1144, Ziran ji !RU. 1 juan. 14th c.?
DZ 1156, Chongyang Zhenren jinguan yusuo jue 9T@1usM. Ascribed to Wang
Chongyang 9T 111270. 1 juan. Yuan dynasty 12791368?
DZ 1158, Chongyang zhenren shou Danyang ershisi jue 9T@G
TM. By
Wang Chongyang. 1 juan. 12th c.
DZ 1165, Xianchuan waike mifang W6C. By Yang Qingsou ZH;, edited by
Zhao Yizhen g)@ d. 1382 and Liu Yuanran iIR 13511431. 12 juan. Before
1378; 1395.
DZ 1185, Baopuzi neipian +
l. By Ge Hong _4 284344. 20 juan. 320.
DZ 1189, Yindan neipian N

l. By Zhu Dongtian B5 . 1350. 1 juan. Ca. 1350.
DZ 1191, Michuan Zhengyang Zhenren lingbao bifa AWT@~vK.. Ascribed to
Zhongli Quan zt}, with L Yan " as tranmitter. 3 juan. N. Song dynasty
9601127.
DZ 1192, Dahui Jingci Miaole Tianzun shuo fude wusheng jing QpX$kOfdj
^[. 1 juan. From Song or Yuan dynasties 9681368?
DZ 1205, Santian neijie jing a[. By Mr. Xu = . 42178. 2 juan. Ca. 421
78.
DZ 1220, Daofa huiyuan b.Y. 268 juan. Ca. 13821644.
DZ 1232, Daomen shigui b2L. By Zhang Yuchu F0 13591410. 1 juan. Before
1410.
DZ 1249, Sanshidai Tianshi Xujing Zhenjun yulu <Sc@#eo. By Zhang
Jixian Fx 10921126, edited by Zhang Yuchu F0 13591410. 7 juan.
Before 1126; 1395.
DZ 1256, Zhuzhen zhizhi yulu @/3eo. Edited by Xuanquanzi . 2 juan.
Late 13th c.
DZ 1257, Qunxian yaolu cuanji ]8eyU. Edited by Dong Jinchun `m. 2 juan.
746
15th c.?
DZ 1258, Zhuzhen neidan jiyao X6 J/. Edited by Xuanquanzi . 3 juan.
Late 13th c.
DZ 1307, Haiqiong Bai Zhenren yulu 5_6UZ. By Bai Yuchan ` . 1194
1229
, edited by Peng Si EB, Xie Xiandao ]dQ, Lin Boqian %\, and She
Guxi NS. 4 juan. 1220s?, 1251, 1302.
DZ 1309, Haiqiong chuandao ji 5_KQJ. By Bai Yuchan ` . 11941229
,
edited by Hong Zhichang ,&<. 1 juan. After 1218.
DZ 1311, Xianquan ji 2+J, by Zhang Yuchu =' 13591410
. 12 juan. 1407.
DZ 1382, Shangqing jiudan shanghua taijing zhongji jing ?.T8M. 1
juan. E. Jin dynasty 317420
.
DZ 1437, Taishang Laojun kaitian jing HM. Ascribed to Zhang Pan =e. 1
juan. Ca. 220589.
DZ 1460, Taishang Dongxuan jizhong jing -[@M. 1 juan. Tang dynasty 618
907
.
DZ 1463, Han Tianshi shijia R30. By Zhang Zhengchang =< d. 1377
,
edited by Zhang Guoxiang =;A . 1607
. 4 juan. Before 1377; 1607.
A1.2. Daoist Primary Works Not in the Ming Daoist Canon,

and Works on Sexual Cultivation
Bai Yuchan Zhenren quanji `6J. By Bai Yuchan ` . 11941229
,
edited by Peng Si EB, reedited by He Jigao b9. Rev. ed. 1594. In Daozang
jinghua, ser. 10, no. 2.
Baopuzi neipian jiaoshi " W4a. By Ge Hong O, 284344
, edited by Wang
Ming $. Rev. ed. Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1985.
Caizhen jiyao >6Y/. Ascribed to Zhang Sanfeng =1. In Sanfeng danjue, in Jiyizi
daoshu shiqi zhong, edited by Fu Jinquan D(V 17651845; or, 17961850
. Ca.
1825. In Zangwai daoshu, 11:34452. Translated as Secret Principles of Gathering
the True Essence in Art of the Bedchamber, by Douglas Wile, 17888.
Cantong qi fenjie mijie :)
L7P. Original ascribed to Wei Boyang Î trad.
b. 107, . 14667
. Commentaries compiled by L Huilian FC . 1879
. 15
juan. 1879. In Zangwai daoshu, 25:26335.
Cantong qi chanyou :)c*. A.k.a. Zhouyi !# Cantong qi chanyou. Original
ascribed to Wei Boyang. Commentary by Zhu Yuanyu . 1669
. 1669. In
Daozang jiyao, Xu G coll., ce 12; Zangwai daoshu, 6:420518 from Daotong
747
dacheng, by Wang Qihuo

; Daozang jinghua, ser. 3, no. 3.
Cantong qi maiwang K<JO. A.k.a. Zhouyi 24 Cantong qi maiwang. Original
ascribed to Wei Boyang. Commentary by Tao Susi SHR . 170011
. In Daoyan
wuzhong, edited by idem. 3 juan. 1701. In Zangwai daoshu, 10:165. Also reprinted
by Fuzhen shuju VFE* of Chengdu Rongcheng b;
in 1915 as Zhouyi
Cantong qi maiwang, with added subcommentary zengpi f+
by Yuxizi [, in
Zengpi Daoyan wuzhong, a rare book see Meng Naichang and Meng Qingxuan,
Wangu danjing wang, 416
.
Cantong zhizhi K7>. Original ascribed to Wei Boyang. Commentary by Liu
Yiming e5 17341821
. In Daoshu shier zhong, by idem. 8 juan. 1799. In Zangwai
daoshu, 8:261326.
Chifeng sui 0dy. Compiled by Zhou Ljing 2g^ . Ming dyn.
. 3 juan. Prefaces
of 1578, 1579. In Zangwai daoshu, 9:73171; also in Daozang jinghua, ser. 14, no. 4.
Translated by Catherine Despeux in La Moee du Phnix Rouge.
Chunyang Yanzheng Fuyou Dijun jiji zhenjing IX`(G='?qF\. Attributed
to L Dongbin &Ac. 1598. In Erotic Color Prints of the Ming Period, edited by van
Gulik, vol. 2. Translated as The Classic of Perfect Union in Art of the Bedchamber,
by Douglas Wile, 13336.
Dacheng jieyao NB. By Xuanzhongzi Zhu Wenbin ! M. 1920s? In
Wudao zhenji, Xu Zhaoren, gen. ed; also in Xiuxian baodian Cv1, published by
Wang Dehuai h_ Taipei, 2003
; also in Yongcheng yinshu guan Ep
edition, 3 ce reprint, Chengdu: Qingyang gong, ca. 2004
.
Dadao lun ]n. Ascribed to Zhang Sanfeng L, by Wang Xiling? .ox 1664
1724
, commentary by Li Xiyue ,$ 180656
. In Zhang Sanfeng Xiansheng
quanji LY, edited by Wang Xiling. Before 1724. In Daozang jiyao, Bi
Q coll., ce 5 the same is reproduced in Zangwai daoshu, 5:46570
; also in
Daojiao wupai danfa jingxuan, edited by Wang Mu, 3:45580.
Danting Wuzhen pian :DFj. Original by Zhang Boduan L%a 984/871082/84,
or 10761155
. Commentary by Lu Danting t : 160784
, MS copied by Fu
Shan T. Before 1685. In Daozang jinghua, ser. 13, no. 5.
Daode jing gujin ben kaozheng ]h\#. Ming dynasty? In Daozang jinghua,
ser. 13, vol. 2. A1e.1 in dissertation appendix 1.
Daode jing zhushi ]h\6w. By Li Xiyue ,$ 180656

. In Wuqiubei Zhai Laozi
jicheng chubian W-Ur"Y 8k, compiled by Yan Lingfeng uz b.
1904
. 1 juan. 1840.
Daofan zhengzong wujing sishu daquan ]i3
\E. 28 juan. MidMing
printing. C6 in dissertation appendix 1.
Daomen gongke ]9m. A.k.a. Qingwei hongfan PZ)i daomen gongke. By Liu
Shouyuan @ . 181315
. In Daozang jiyao, Zhang coll., ce 1. 1 juan. Ca.
181315?
Daoqiao tan ]sl. By Li Xiyue ,$ 180656
. From Daoyan shiwu zhong ]/
748

U a.k.a. Shoushen qieyao ,, by idem. Before 1856. In Zangwai daoshu,
26:60625 1937, as edited by Chen Yingning ?mR, 18801969; also in Daozang
jinghua, ser. 2, no. 5 as edited by Chen Yingning.
Daoshu quanji P1J. Compiled by Yan Hezhou bk). Ming dynasty 1591?.
Found in multiple collections: see C20 in dissertation appendix 1.
Daoshu shier zhong P1U. By Liu Yiming Z$ 17341821. 30 or 46 juan. 1819.
Reproduced partially in various collections the texts in Zangwai daoshu are from
an 1880 ed. of Daoshu shier zhong.
Daoshu yiguan zhenji yijian lu P1=2]#fa. Compiled by Fu Jinquan C&Y
17651845; or, 17961850. In Jiyizi dingpi daoshu sizhong. 12 juan. 1813. In Zangwai
daoshu, 11:395541; also in Wudao zhenji, Xu Zhaoren, gen. ed.
Daotong dacheng P9. Compiled by Wang Qihuo 8d 190016. 10 texts
zhong U. 1900. Reproduced partially in Zangwai daoshu.
Daoyan neiwai mijue quanshu P3;1. Edited by Peng Haogu D .
15861600. 6 juan. C16 in dissertation appendix 1.
Daoyan wuzhong P
U. By Tao Susi A4: . 170011. 11 juan. 1718. Reproduced
partially in Zangwai daoshu. C4 in dissertation appendix 1.
Daoyuan jingwei ge PLWKS. By Liu Mingrui ZM. In Panchanzi daoshu sanzhong
*jP1U, by idem. 1 juan. 1889.
Daozang jinghua PgWF. Compiled by Wenshan Dunsou l/ Xiao Tianshi _
, 190986. 17 series. Taipei: Ziyou chubanshe, 195679. C5 in dissertation
appendix 1.
Daozang jinghua lu PgWFa. Compiled by Shouyizi Ding Fubao T',
18741952. 100 texts zhong U in 10 coll. Shanghai: Yixue shuju h\1, 1922?
Reprint, Hangzhou: Zhejiang guji chubanshe, 1989.
Daozang jiyao Pg`,. Full title: Chongkan - Daozang jiyao. Compiled by He
Longxiang Hcn, Peng Hanran DÊ, and Yan Yonghe b". 1906. 531 juan
in 35 han !. Reprint, Chengdu: Erxian An, 1985. C2 in dissertation appendix 1.
Dingpi Shangyangzi yuanzhu Cantong qi BI.%6(. Original ascribed to
Wei Boyang iI trad. b. 107, . 14667. Original commentary by Xue
Daoguang eP d. 1191 actually by Weng Baoguang 5N, . 1173, Lu Shu
@Q byname Ziye >, . S. Song 11271279 ?, and Chen Zhixu ?+G 1290
1343+. Subcommentary by Fu Jinquan C&Y 17651845; or, 17961850. In Jiyizi
dingpi daoshu sizhong, by idem. 3 juan. 1841. In Zangwai daoshu, 11:74489. A3a in
Dingpi shijin shi BO&. Original ascribed to Xu Xun <X 23992/374?.
Commentary by Fu Jinquan. In Jiyizi dingpi daoshu sizhong, by idem. 1 juan. In
Dingpi Sanzhu Wuzhen pian B%02[. Original by Zhang Boduan 7V
984/871082/84, or 10761155. Commentary by Fu Jinquan. In Jiyizi dingpi daoshu
749
sizhong, by idem. 2 juan. Ca. 1841. Reproduced in Zangwai daoshu, 11:790859. Also
in Daozang jinghua, ser. 6, no. 1. A4a in dissertation appendix 1. Sanzhu wuzhen
pian =,.N, a rare book printed in 1876, C12 in dissertation appendix 1, may
be another edition of Dingpi Sanzhu wuzhen pian.
Diyuan zhenjue
.5. Attributed to Bai Yuchan Y . 11941229 . 1 juan.
Before 1229. In Zangwai daoshu 6:35866 from Daoyan neiwai mijue quanshu,
Daoyan wai sect. ; also in Daozang jinghua, ser. 11, no. 2.
Doga jikji dokyo kyng I+$'SDF. Compiled by Shin Donbok ;: 1692
1779 . C7 in dissertation appendix 1.
Dongxuanzi ). By Dongxuanzi. In Shuangmei yingan congshu W<[U-,
compiled by Ye Dehui GMQ, 1903 from Ishinp V , compiled by Tamba
Yasuyori #0T, 984 . 1 juan. Han dynasty 206
220 ? Reprinted in
Shuangmei yingan congshu Hainan: Hainan guoji xinwen chuban zhongxin, 1995 ,
7995. Translated as Tung Hsan Tzu in Art of the Bedchamber, by Douglas Wile,
10813.
Fanghu waishi 8. By Lu Xixing 7( 1520ca. 1601 . 16 texts zhong J . Ca.
1570s. In Daozang jinghua, ser. 2, no. 8; also reproduced partially in Zangwai daoshu.
Fangzhong lianji jieyao !C1*. Compiled by Zhu Quan Z 13781448 .
Before 1448.
Guben Zhouyi Cantong qi jizhu "/&?=. Original ascribed to Wei Boyang
X> trad. b. 107, . 14667 . Compiled and with commentary by Qiu Zhaoao
\ 16381717 . 1+2+1 juan. 1710. In Daozang jinghua, ser. 13, no. 1; also in Can
Wu jizhu, commentary and supplements by Zhijizi Qiu Zhaoao , compiled by
Putuanzi.
Guangchengzi shule L32. Commentary by Wang Wenlu E . 156382 . 1
juan. 1563. In Zangwai daoshu, 3:7048 from Bailing xueshan 6R, by idem ;
also in Daozang jinghua, ser. 14, no. 5.
Guwen Cantong qi /&. Original ascribed to Wei Boyang X> trad. b. 107,
. 14667 . Compiled by Yang Shen BA 14881559 . Preface of 1546. C11 in
Guwen Cantong qi /&. Original ascribed to Wei Boyang. Commentary by
Peng Haogu 9 . 15861600 . In Guwen Cantong qi xuanjie, in Daoyan neiwai
mijue quanshu Daoyan wai sect. , by idem. 1599. In Zangwai daoshu, 6:23854.
Guwen Cantong qi jianzhu /&K=. Original ascribed to Wei Boyang.
Commentary by Peng Haogu. In Guwen Cantong qi xuanjie, in Daoyan neiwai mijue
quanshu Daoyan wai sect. , by idem. 1599. In Zangwai daoshu, 6:25470.
Guwen Cantong qi jijie /&?H. Edited by Jiang Yibiao P4 . 1614 . 2+1
juan. 1614. In Congshu jicheng U-?, chubian %O, Wang Yunwu @, gen.
ed. Beiping: Shangwu yinshu guan, 1939 .
Guwen Cantong qi xuanjie /&H. Original ascribed to Wei Boyang. By Peng
Haogu. In Daoyan neiwai mijue quanshu Daoyan wai sect. , by idem. 1599. In
750

Guwen Zhouyi Cantong qi zhu $'>/*. Original ascribed to Wei Boyang. By
Yuan Renlin =
). 8 juan. 16th17th c. In Baibu congshu jicheng Fh:R.
Huainan Honglie jijie B.gR[. By Liu Wendian a #, collated and punctuated
by Feng Yi SP and Qiao Hua KN. Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1989.
Huayang jinxian zhenglun NQ-id. A.k.a. Jinxian zhenglun. By Liu Huayang 2N
Q 1736?
. 1 juan. Prefaces of 1790, 1791, 1792, 1824, 1846. In Zangwai daoshu,
5:91972.
Huiming jing b%Y. By Liu Huayang 2NQ 1736?
. 1794. In Zangwai daoshu, 5:876
918; also in Daozang jinghua, ser. 2, no. 1.
Huixin neiji VR. By Liu Yiming a( 17341821
. In Huixin ji VR, in
Daoshu shier zhong, by idem. 2 juan. 1801. In Zangwai daoshu, 8:63070.
Jindan dayao - 6. By Chen Zhixu G5O 12901343+
. 1331, 1336, 1343 or after.
Found in multiple collections: see A1 in dissertation appendix 1.
Jindan jieyao - X6. Ascribed to Zhang Sanfeng @8. In Sanfeng danjue, in Jiyizi
daoshu shiqi zhong, edited by Fu Jinquan J-` 17651845; or, 17961850
. Ca.
1825. In Zangwai daoshu, 11:33643. Translated as Summary of the Golden Elixir
in Art of the Bedchamber, by Douglas Wile, 16878.
Jindan jiuzheng pian - Mc. By Lu Xixing H1 1520ca. 1601
. In Fanghu
waishi, juan 8. 1570s?; ca. 1678. In Zangwai daoshu, 5:36871.
Jindan miaojue - E. By Jiyangzi fQ Huang Xianzhou T3. Qing dynasty
16441911
. In Daozang jinghua, ser. 4, no. 5.
Jindan yaojue - 6E. By Wu Shouyang Q 15741640/44; or 1550ca. 1635
.
Before 1635/44. In Daozang jiyao, Bi D coll., ce 3. the same is reproduced in
Zangwai daoshu, 5:85666
; also in Daozang jinghua lu, coll. 8, no. 6.
Jindan zhenchuan - <U. By Sun Ruzhong 7& b. 1574, . 1612
, commentary by
Zhang Chonglie @?;, subcommentary by Li Kan !L. 1 juan. 1616. As Dingpi
I Jindan zhenchuan, in Zangwai daoshu, 25:45963, and Zangwai daoshu, 11:860
76 these are from two dierent editions of Jiyizi dingpi daoshu sizhong
.
Jindan zhengli daquan - C. Compiled by Zhu Mushen W. 42 juan.
Preface of 1442. Found in multiple collections: see C3 in dissertation appendix 1.
Jinhua zhizhi ngong zhengfa -N,0+. A.k.a. Ngong zhengfa. Revealed by L
Dongbin 4_. 1880. In Ndan jicui, edited by Tao Bingfu, 45870; also in Nzi
danfa huibian, edited by Putuanzi and Zhang Liqiong, 11123.
Jishi quanshu Wuzhen zhinan f:9<0.. Original by Zhang Boduan @^
984/871082/84, or 10761155
. Commentary by Wang Qixian "Ae 16221722
and Wang Qisheng "AZ. In Jishi quanshu f:, a rare book.

Jiyizi daoshu shiqi zhong f\:]. By Fu Jinquan J-` 17651845; or,
17961850
. 40 juan. Ca. 1825.
751
Jiuceng lianxin VM. A.k.a. Renyuan dadao jiuceng lianxin wenzhong jing Q
VM?N, or Xuntu lu C@Z, or Jiuceng lian wenzhong jing VM?N, or
Jiuceng lianxin fa VM1. By Li Xiyue )% 180656. 1 juan. Before 1856.
In Daozang jinghua, ser. 2, no. 4.
Kunyuan jing -N. In Dacheng jieyao Wudao zhenji ed., 22426; Xiuxian baodian ed.,
9799; not in Yongcheng yinshu guan ed.?; also in Nzi danfa huibian, ed. Putuanzi
and Zhang Liqiong, 21719.
Laozi bianhua jing $
cN. S. 2295. 1 juan. Ca. 185. In Zangwai daoshu, 21:13.
Laozi xianger zhu $
LT0. A.k.a. Laozi Daode jing QWN xianger zhu. In Zhonghua
daozang, 9:16984. Critical edition in Rao Zongyi b.[, ed., Laozi xianger zhu
jiaozheng $
LT08` Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, 1991. Translation
and commentary in Bokenkamp, Early Daoist Scriptures, 29148.
Liewei nzhen shige & ;PS. In Daotong dacheng, by Wang Qihuo. 1 juan. 1900.
In Zangwai daoshu, 6:71926.
Nei jindan xinfa 21. A.k.a. Nei jindan xinfa mizhi <#. Edited by Wu
Shouyang !G 15741640/44; or 1550ca. 1635. In Daozang jinghua, ser. 4, no. 7.
Neilian jindan xinfa M21. In WuLiu zhengzong, compiled by Wu Yijiang, 412
54. Also as Nei jindan xinfa mizhi 21<# in Daozang jinghua, ser. 4, no. 7.
Ndan shize 4. Ascribed to Qinglie Gufo of Mt. Huazang D]=9'. In
Zangwai daoshu, 26:45564 from Ndan hebian Y, edited by He Longxiang
F\f, . 1906; also in Ndan jicui, edited by Tao Bingfu, 1752; also in Nzi
danfa huibian, edited by Putuanzi and Zhang Liqiong, 12439.
N jindan 2. By Zhenyizi ;
. 1892. 2 juan. 1892. In Zangwai daoshu,
26:41827 from Ndan hebian, edited by He Longxiang; also in Ndan jicui, edited
by Tao Bingfu, 57122; also in Nzi danfa huibian, edited by Putuanzi and Zhang
Liqiong, 143210.
Qizhen yinguo zhuan ;/J also reprinted as Qizhen zhuan ;J or Beipai qizhen
xiudao shizhuan 5;7QJ. By Huang Yongliang I3 . 1893. 2 juan.
1893. In Zangwai daoshu, 35:433507.
Qunxian zhuyu jicheng O:H". In Daoshu quanji. C18 in dissertation appendix
1.
Ruyao jing _a. Ascribed to Cui Xifan K(X . 940. Commentary by Wang
Daoyuan Q> Wang Jie d, . 1392 or 133180, Peng Haogu B , Li
Panlong )^\. In Daoyan neiwai mijue quanshu Daoyan nei sect., by idem. Ca.
1392 or 133180; before 1600; 1900. In Zangwai daoshu, 6:12835 from Daoyan
neiwai mijue quanshu; also in Zangwai daoshu, 6:669703 as Ruyao jing wuzhu E,
from Daotong dacheng, by Wang Qihuo.
Sanche mizhi ,<#. By Li Xiyue )% 180656. In Daoyan shiwu zhong Q*
U a.k.a. Shoushen qieyao !+6. Before 1856. In Zangwai daoshu, 26:62636
as edited by Chen Yingning AeR, 18801969; also in Daozang jinghua, ser. 2,
752
no. 5 as edited by Chen Yingning

.
Sanfeng danjue ?Q also as Q
. In Jiyizi daoshu shiqi zhong, by Fu Jinquan
R:g 17651845; or, 17961850
. 1 juan. Ca. 1825. In Zangwai daoshu, 11:32252.
Shesheng zongyao "w>. By Hong Ji ;I . 1638
. 9 juan. Preface of 1638.
Reproduced in a volume entited Bencao gangmu; Zunsheng bajian; Meichuang milu;
Shesheng zongyao; Miaoyi Zhai yixue zhengyin zhongzi bian; L Chunyang fangshu
mijue ; Fuke yuchi; Miben zhongzi jindan; Yilin ce Gc$t"bplDu
"w>.y|q (am-FY6PDQJ=!Da
:5U, Zhongguo gudai jinshu wenku H[B@ Hohhot:
Yuanfang chubanshe, 2001
.
Song Bai Zhenren Yuchan quanji /#C!~'Z. Material by or ascribed to Bai
Yuchan #!~ . 11941229
. Preface by Xiao Tianshi r% 190986
. Taipei:
Song Bai Zhenren Yuchan quanji jiyin weiyuanhui, 1976.
Sun fang E. In Shuangmei yingan congshu }TzB, compiled by Ye Dehui
]io, 1903 from Ishinp |, compiled by Tamba Yasuyori 8Ks, 984
. 1
juan. Han dynasty 206 220
? Reprinted in Shuangmei yingan congshu
Hainan: Hainan guoji xinwen chuban zhongxin, 1995
, 3549. Translated as
Prescriptions of Su N in Art of the Bedchamber, by Douglas Wile, 94100.
Sun jing E\. In Shuangmei yingan congshu, compiled by Ye Dehui, 1903 from
Ishinp , compiled by Tamba Yasuyori, 984
. 1 juan. Han dynasty 206 220
?
Reprinted in Shuangmei yingan congshu, 534. Translated as The Classic of Su N
in Art of the Bedchamber, by Douglas Wile, 8593.
Sun miaolun . In Erotic Color Prints of the Ming Period, edited by van Gulik,
vol. 2. Translated as The Wondrous Discourse of Sun in Art of the Bedchamber,
by Douglas Wile, 12233.
Taishang bashiyi hua tushuo
è. Printed after 1524. Yoshioka Yoshitoyo
calls this the Hangzhou ed. 7*. See A6 in dissertation appendix 1.
Taishang shisan jing zhushi

\W. Commentary by Li Xiyue 0, 1806
56
. In Daoyan shiwu zhong ^2a a.k.a. Shoushen qieyao )3>
. Before
1856. Daozang jinghua, ser. 2, no. 4.
Taiyi jinhua zongzhi :V4+. Ascribed to L Dongbin -<f. 1 juan. Earliest
ed., 1775. In Zangwai daoshu, 10:32843 1834, from Gushu yinlou cangshu Bxj
{B, compiled by Min Yide XL, 17581837
; also in Daozang jinghua, ser. 13,
no. 3.
Tianle ji kZ. By Xu Songyao A_S d. 1941
. Printed in 2000. Available on
various websites.
Tianxian zhengli zhilun N9n, by Wu Shouyang &)Y 15741640/44; or
1550ca. 1635
. 161522; 1639. As Tianxian zhengli zhilun zengzhu hW, in Daozang
jiyao Bi O coll., ce 4 the same is reproduced in Zangwai daoshu, 5:777832
; also
in Daozang jinghua, ser. 1, no. 7.
Tizhen shanren zhenjue yulu C CQdu. By Wang Qihuo 1Mv . 190016
.
753
191516; printed in 1980. Available on various websites.

Tonuan wen. By Liu Yiming A! 17341821. In Daoshu shier zhong, by idem. 2 juan.
1812. In Zangwai daoshu, 8:20860; also in Daozang jinghua, ser. 2, no. 6.
Wu Zhenren dandao jiupian ,=B, a.k.a. Xianfo hezong yulu ?E.
There are two dierent texts called Xianfo hezong yulu: a commonly cited one,
and this one. By Wu Shouyang 9 15741640/44; or 1550ca. 1635. 1 juan.
After 1622. In Daozang jiyao, Bi / coll., ce 4 the same is reproduced in
Zangwai daoshu, 5:86674; also in Daozang jinghua, ser. 1, no. 7; also in Daozang
jinghua lu, coll. 8, no. 8.
Wugen shu 6+D. Ascribed to Zhang Sanfeng .). In Sanfeng danjue, in Jiyizi
daoshu shiqi zhong, edited by Fu Jinquan 3$@ 17651845; or, 17961850. Ca.
1825. In Zangwai daoshu, 11:33436. Translated as The Rootless Tree in Art of the
Bedchamber, by Douglas Wile, 18891.
Wugen shu ci zhujie 6+D87<. Original ascribed to Zhang Sanfeng. Commentary
by Liu Yiming A! 17341821, subcommentary by Li Xiyue 180656.
Before 1856. In Daozang jinghua, ser. 8, no. 3.
Wupian lingwen BH. Ascribed to Wang Chongyang (9 111270. 1 juan.
Ming dynasty 13681644? In Daozang jiyao, Bi ' coll., ce 5 the same is
reproduced in Zangwai daoshu, 25:66976.
Wuqiubei Zhai Laozi jicheng chubian 64F:#C. Compiled by Yan
Lingfeng GH b. 1904. 160 ce . Taipei: Yiwen yinshuguan, 1965. A1e.2 in
Wuzhen pian *,B. Original by Zhang Boduan .> 984/871082/84, or 1076
1155. Commentary by Peng Haogu 5 . 15861600. In Daoyan neiwai mijue
quanshu Daoyan wai sect., edited by idem. Ca. 15971600. In Zangwai daoshu,
6:31953.
Wuzhen pian jizhu *,B:7. Original by Zhang Boduan. Compiled and with
commentary by Qiu Zhaoao
I 16381717. 1+3+1 juan. 1703. In Daozang
jinghua, ser. 6, no. 1; also in CanWu jizhu, commentary and supplements by Zhijizi
Qiu Zhaoao, compiled by Putuanzi.
Wuzhen pian sizhu *,B7. Original by Zhang Boduan. Compiled and with
commentary by Peng Haogu 5 . 15861600. 2 juan. 1599. Rare book.
A4.14 in dissertation appendix 1.
Wuzhen pian xiaoxu *,B. Original by Zhang Boduan. Commentary by Lu
Xixing 1% 1520ca. 1601. In Fanghu waishi, by idem. Ca. 157080. In Zangwai
daoshu, 5:31837; also in Daozang jinghua ser. 2, no. 8; also in Daojiao wupai danfa
jingxuan, edited by Wang Mu, 3:157233.
Wuzhen pian yuezhu *,B&". Original by Zhang Boduan. Commentary by Tao Susi
2-0 . 170011. In Daoyan wuzhong, by idem. 3 juan. 1711. In Zangwai daoshu,
10:66124.
Wuzhen pian zhengyi *,B;. Original by Zhang Boduan. Commentary by Dong
754
Dening @IE . 1788. 3 juan. 1788. In Daozang jinghua, ser. 1, no. 4; also in
Daozang jinghua lu, coll. 7, no. 5.
Wuzhen zhizhi ,/%'. Original by Zhang Boduan. Commentary by Liu Yiming H
# 17341821. In Daoshu shier zhong, by idem. 4 juan. 1799. In Zangwai daoshu,
8:327402; also in Daojiao wupai danfa jingxuan, edited by Wang Mu, 5:310595.
Xianfo hezong yulu FQ. By Wu Shouyang < 15741640/44; or 1550ca.
1635. 6 juan. 1630. In Daozang jiyao, Bi 6 coll., ce 1 the same is reproduced in
Zangwai daoshu, 5:639776; also in Daojiao wupai danfa jingxuan, edited by Wang
Mu, 4:92522.
Xianfo tongyuan =. By Zhao Youqin G; 1271before 1331/6?. 10 juan
originally 81 juan. Preface of 1337. Found in multiple collections: see B1 in
Xingming fajue mingzhi !$7#'. By Zhao Bichen GTD 1860after 1933. 16
juan. Preface of 1933. In Zangwai daoshu, 26:1133.
Xingming guizhi !. Full title: Xingming shuangxiu wanshen guizhi !W+>0
. 4 sections Yuan , Heng , Li , Zhen *. Preface 1615; exp. ed. has
preface of 1669. In Zangwai daoshu, 9:50695; also in Daozang jinghua, ser. 1, no. 5;
also in Daozang jinghua lu, coll. 7, no. 7.
Xingming yaozhi !). By Wang Qihuo 5R . 190016. Ca. 1900. In Daozang
jinghua, ser. 3, no. 6.
Xiuzhen biannan +/ZX. A.k.a. +/OX. By Liu Yiming H# 17341821. In
Zhinan zhen '&2, in Daoshu shier zhong, by idem. 1 juan. 1798. In Zangwai daoshu,
8:46792.
Xiyou zhenquan B/A. By Chen Shibin 8[. 100 chaps. hui . 1696. Available
on various websites, including Loujin ge.
Xuanfu lun KL. By Lu Xixing 9( 1520ca. 1601. In Fanghu waishi, by idem.
1567. In Zangwai daoshu, 5:35967; also in Daozang jinghua ser. 2, no. 8
Xuanji zhijiang N%S. Original ascribed to Zhang Sanfeng 4, by Wang
Xiling? PY 16641724, commentary by Li Xiyue 180656. In Zhang
Sanfeng Xiansheng quanji, edited by Wang Xiling. Before 1724. In Daozang jiyao, Bi
6 coll., ce 5 the same is reproduced in Zangwai daoshu, 5:47079; also in
Daojiao wupai danfa jingxuan, edited by Wang Mu, 3:481526.
Xuanyao pian )J. Original ascribed to Zhang Sanfeng, by Wang Xiling?,
commentary by Li Xiyue. In Zhang Sanfeng Xiansheng quanji, edited by Wang
Xiling. 2 juan. Before 1724. In Daozang jiyao, Bi 6 coll., ce 5 the same is
Yihua yuanzong . Edited by Gao Shiming 3-# . Ming dyn.. Preface of
1624. Found in multiple editions: see C14 in dissertation appendix 1.
Yufang mijue "17. By Chonghezi Zhang Ding 4C. In Shuangmei yingan
congshu W:\U., compiled by Ye Dehui ?IM, 1903 from Ishinp V
,
755
compiled by Tamba Yasuyori *D, 984. 1 juan. Han dynasty 206 220
? Reprinted in Shuangmei yingan congshu Hainan: Hainan guoji xinwen chuban
zhongxin, 1995, 5174. Translated as Secrets of the Jade Chamber in Art of the
Bedchamber, by Douglas Wile, 1028.
Yufang zhiyao #&. By Chonghezi Zhang Ding. In Shuangmei yingan congshu,
compiled by Ye Dehui, 1903 from Ishinp, compiled by Tamba Yasuyori, 984.
Han dynasty 206 220 ? Reprinted in Shuangmei yingan congshu Hainan:
Hainan guoji xinwen chuban zhongxin, 1995, 7578. Translated as Essentials of
the Jade Chamber in Art of the Bedchamber, by Douglas Wile, 99101.
Zhang Sanfeng Xiansheng quanji +7. Original ascribed to Zhang Sanfeng,
edited by Wang Xiling EI 16641724, commentary by Li Xiyue
180656. Before 1724. In Daozang jiyao, Bi . coll., ce 5 the same is
Zhouyi Cantong qi ceshu )"3/. Original ascribed to Wei Boyang F6
trad. b. 107, . 14667. Commentary by Lu Xixing 2$ 1520ca. 1601. 1569.
In Zangwai daoshu, 5:25586; and Daozang jinghua, ser. 2, no. 8; and Daojiao wupai
danfa jingxuan, edited by Wang Mu, 3:33156 all three from Fanghu waishi, by
idem; also in Zangwai daoshu, 6:51967 from Daotong dacheng, by Wang Qihuo.
Zhouyi Cantong qi fenzhang zhu. Original ascribed to Wei Boyang. Commentary by
Chen Zhixu 1%5 12901343+. 3 juan. Found in multiple collections: see A3 in
Zhouyi Cantong qi kouyi )":. Original ascribed to Wei Boyang.
Commentary by Lu Xixing 2$ 1520ca. 1601. 1573. In Zangwai daoshu, 5:287
317, and Daozang jinghua, ser. 2, no. 8 both from Fanghu waishi, by idem; also in
Zangwai daoshu, 6:568614 from Daotong dacheng, by Wang Qihuo.
Zhouyi Cantong qi shule )"/-. Original ascribed to Wei Boyang.
Commentary by Wang Wenlu 9 . 156382. 1 juan. 1582. In Zangwai daoshu,
9:596600 from Bailing xueshan 0C, by idem; also in Daozang jinghua, ser. 8,
no. 4, and ser. 14, no. 5.
Zhouyi cantong qi zhengyi )":. Original ascribed to Wei Boyang.
Commentary by Dong Dening ;?= . 1788. 1788. In Daozang jinghua, ser. 1,
no. 2; also in Daozang jinghua lu, coll. 6, no. 4.
Zhuzhen xuanao jicheng @( 87. Edited by Zhu Zaiwei < . Ming dyn.. 9
juan. In Jindan zhengli daquan. C15 in dissertation appendix 1.
Zijin Guangyao Daxian xiuzhen yanyi 4!H
'(>:. By Deng Xixian BA.
1594. In Erotic Color Prints of the Ming Period, edited by van Gulik, vol. 2. Translated
as Exposition of Cultivating the True Essence in Art of the Bedchamber, by
Douglas Wile, 13645.
Ziqing zhixuan ji 4,# 7. By Bai Yuchan G . 11941229, compiled by
Dong Dening ;?= . 1788. 1 juan. Ca. 11941229; ca. 1788. In Daozang jinghua,
ser. 1, no. 4; also in Daozang jinghua lu, coll. 7, no. 4.
756
Ziyang Zhenren Wuzhen pian chanyou JR989ix.. Original by Zhang Boduan

@a 984/871082/84, or 10761155. Commentary by Zhu Yuanyu .
1669. Ca. 1669. In Daozang jiyao, Kui , coll., ce 3; also in Daozang jinghua, ser.
3, no. 4.
A2. Buddhist Works

T 235, Jingang bore boluomi jing '5<1%scY. Translated by Kum raj
va ^hs
in 407. 1 juan.
T 293, Da fan uang fo huayan jing
fLvY. Translated by Prajna <1 ca. 796
98. 40 juan.
T 945, Da foding rulai miyin xiudeng liaoyi zhu pusa wanxing shou lengyan jing E
>4tZjKrX2VvY i.e., rangama stra. Translated by
Banlamidi <*c- in 705. 10 juan.
T 1789, Lengqieaboduoluo baojing zhujie V)PswYN[. By Zongle
Ruqi . Preface of 1378. 8 juan.
z and
T 1791, Zhu dasheng ru lengqie jing $3VY. By Baochen w. Ca. Song
dynasty. 10 juan.
T 1857, Baozang lun wqk. Attributed to Seng Zhao _b, but composed ca. 8th c. 1
juan.
T 1988, Yunmen Kuangzhen Chanshi guanglu T( 9p7fm. Words of Yunmen
Kuangzhen, compiled by Shoujian =. Preface of 1076. 3 juan.
T 1999, Mian heshang yulu >M!dm. Words of Mian, compiled by Chongyue ?
n, Liaowu 8 or Chongyue Liaowu, et al. Preface of 1188. 1 juan.
T 2003, Foguo Yuanwu Chanshi Biyan lu #{8p7`ym. Compiled and with
commentary by Yuanwu Keqin {8U. 1125. 10 juan.
T 2005, Wumen guan I(u. Compiled and with commentary by Wumen Huikai I
(gQ. 1249. 1 juan.
T 2006, Rentian yanmu C. By Zhizhao H0. Ca. Song dynasty. 6 juan.
T 2007, Platform Stra Nanzong dunjiao zuishang dacheng mohe bore boluomi jing Liuzu
Huineng Dashi yu Shaozhou Dafan Si shifa tan jing + ]AF3hO<1%s
cY:G;7"eB/&lY. Dunhuang MS of ca. 83060. 1 juan.
T 2008, Platform Stra Liuzu Dashi fabao tan jing :7&woY. Published by
Zongbao w. 1291. 1 juan.
T 2015, Chan yuan zhuquan jidu xu pWj\SD. By Guifeng Zongmi 6
780841. 4 juan.
757
>
T 2016, Zongjing lu pi. By Yongming Yanshou "[. 961. 100 juan.

T 2035, Fozu tongji 4B5. By Zhipan d. Ca. S. Song dynasty. 54 juan.
T 2036, Fozu lidai tongzai 4fCU. By Nianchang ;. After 1333. 22 juan.
T 2076, Jingde chuandeng lu HbNgi. By Daoyuan V,. 1004. 30 juan.
T 2116, Bianwei lu u6i. By Xiangmai Am. 1291. 5 juan.
T 2859, Huiyuan waizhuan FaN. 1 juan.
ZZ 1307, Wansong Laoren pingchang Tiantong Jue Heshang niangu qingyi lu R#L7
Js!e3i. Words of Zhengjue s, with commentary by Xingxiu
. 1280. 2 juan.
ZZ 1318, Xukan guzun suyu yao t E:`+. Compiled by Shiming -". Ca. Song
dynasty. 6 juan.
ZZ 1343, Baojue Zuxin Chanshi yulu qs4 l-ì. Words of Baojue Zuxin 1025
1100. 1 juan.
ZZ 1583, Xudeng zhengtong tgB. Compiled by Biean Xingtong <
juan.
B. 1691. 42
Wudeng huiyuan gO. Compiled by Puji Gk. Ca. S. Song dynasty. 20 juan.
Reprint collated with punctuation by Su Yuanlei r@W. 3 vols. Beijing:
Zhonghua shuju, 1997.
Zutang ji 48M. Compiled by Chan masters Jing j and Yun S. 952. 20 juan.
B. Other PreModern Works in Chinese

Cao Yin >9 16581712. Lianting shumu P&1. Ca. 1700? In Liaohai congshu h2
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Fu Xieding Jn[, ed. Jiugong Shan zhi 6". 14 juan. 1882. Reprinted in
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Gao Ru ?g. Baichuan shuzhi 9". 1540. Reprint, Shanghai: Gudian wenxue
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Geng Wenguang = 1830?. Wanjuan Jinghua Lou cangshu ji W%Ôcr9>.
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Li Wei #f, et al., comps. Zhejiang tongzhi <E". 173536. 283 juan. Reprint,
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jieyao and Daoshu yiguan zhenji yijian lu.

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Wm. Clarke Hudson

Dept. of Religious Studies
434 9248884
University of Virginia
wch4b@virginia.edu
Halsey Hall, P.O. Box 400126
Charlottesville, VA 229044126
Education
Indiana University, Bloomington, 2007
Doctor of Philosophy in Religious Studies
Ph.D. minor in Chinese
Dissertation: Spreading the Dao, Managing Mastership, and Performing
Salvation: The Life and Alchemical Teachings of Chen Zhixu
Committee: Robert Campany advisor, Stephen Bokenkamp, John McRae, Lynn
Struve
Examination Fields: Comparative Religion Alchemy, Daoism, Chinese
Buddhism
Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, China, 19978
Nondegree graduate study
Studied the history of Daoism with the scholars of the Daoism section of the
Institute of World Religions

Stanford University, 1996
Master of Arts in Religious Studies
Studied East Asian Buddhism and Comparative Religious Ethics
Advisor: Carl Bielefeldt
University of Chicago, 19934
GraduateStudentatLarge nondegree graduate study
Studied Mandarin Chinese
University of Chicago, 1993
Bachelor of Arts in English Literature, General Honors
Areas of Research and Teaching Expertise
Daoism
Chan Buddhism
Chinese Religions
East Asian Buddhism
History of Buddhism
Religions of the East
Comparative Religion
Theories and Methods in Religious Studies
Religion and Social Thought

Classical Chinese Language
Teaching Experience
University of Virginia
Acting Assistant Professor, Department of Religious Studies, 2007
Carleton College
Visiting Instructor, Department of Religion, 20067
Indiana University, Bloomington
Visiting Lecturer, Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, 20056
Instructor lecturer, Department of Religious Studies, summers of 2002, 2003,
2005
Associate Instructor teaching assistant, Department of Religious Studies, 2000
2002
Peking University , Beijing, China
Foreign Expert , Department of English, 19967
Other Positions Held
Assistant Editor, Journal of Chinese Religions, East Asian Studies Center, Indiana
University, Bloomington, 20022005
Subscriptions Manager, Journal of Chinese Religions and Buddhist Literature, 1999
2002
Awards
Greenburg Albee Fellowship, College of Arts and Sciences, Indiana University,
20032004 supporting research in the humanities in the areas of interfaith
understanding and comparative religion
Associate Instructor, Department of Religious Studies, 20002002
Foreign Language and Area Study FLAS Fellowship, East Asian Studies Center,
19992000
B. Sullivan Fellowship, Department of Religious Studies, 19981999
Publications
Reciting Scriptures to Move the Spirits. In Early Medieval China: A Sourcebook.
forthcoming in 2008 or 2009.
Xiandai dongxifang zongjiao de xing nengliang kexue: Yi 1930 Shanghai yu
Weiyena wei li 1930

The science of sexual energy in modern religion, East and West, with 1930s
Shanghai and Vienna as examples. Tianwen forthcoming in 2008.
Daoism. In Encyclopedia of Sex and Gender, Fedwa MaltiDouglas, ed. in chief. New
York: Macmillan, 2007. 2000 words.
Review of The Daoist Monastic Manual by Livia Kohn. Religion 37 2007: 24648.
English translation of preface and table of contents. In Zhonuo Daojiao kaogu

Archaeology of Daoism in China , by Zhang Xunliao and Bai
Bin . 3 vols. Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 2006.
Buddhist Meditation: East Asian Buddhist Meditation. In Encyclopedia of Religion,
Lindsay Jones, ed. in chief, 2:12905. 2nd ed. New York: Macmillan, 2005. 4300
words.
Book note on Hualin , vols. 12. Journal of Chinese Religions 30 2002 : 21214.
Book note on Daojiao shenxian xinyang yanjiu , edited by Sichuan
daxue zongjiao yanjiu suo . Journal of Chinese Religions 30
2002 : 211.
Review of Buddhism in America by Richard Hughes Seager, and Luminous Passage: The
Practice and Study of Buddhism in America by Charles S. Prebish. BuddhistChristian
Studies 22 2002 : 21721.
Conference Papers
Medieval Daoist Polemics and the Production of Di
erence and Unity. In the
panel Chinas Isms: Studies in the Production of Di
erence and Unity, for the
Critical Theory and Discourses on Religion Group, and the Cultural History of
the Study of Religion Consultation, American Academy of Religion Annual
Meeting, San Diego, Nov. 19, 2007.
The Science of Sexual Energy in Modern Chinese Qigong/Religion. In the panel
Science and Chinese Traditions, History of Religions panel for 2007 Midwest
American Academy of Religion MAAR Annual Meeting, River Forest, Illinois,
March 31, 2007.
The Ancestors, Births, and Lives of Yao Daoist Manuscripts. In the panel Daoist
Images of the Gods for the Chinese Religions Group, American Academy of
Religion Annual Meeting, Washington, D.C., November 20, 2006.
The Friends and Enemies of a Sexual Alchemist. 2006 Indiana University
Religious Studies Interdisciplinary Graduate Symposium, Embodying Volatile
Borderlands: Religion, Gender and Sexuality , Bloomington, Indiana, March 2,
2006.
The Inner Alchemist as Chan Master. Fourteenth Annual Graduate Student
Conference on East Asia, Columbia University, New York, February 5, 2005.
Myth in Neidan Discourse, with a Focus on the Jindan dayao. International
Conference on Daoism, Chengdu, Sichuan, China, June 2004.
Variations of the Deied Laozi in Medieval Daoism. Sacred Texts panel for 2004
Midwest American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting, Chicago, March 2004.
The Charts of the True Forms of the Five Marchmounts : What Are They
and What Are They For? 2000 Midwest Conference on Asian A
airs MCAA
Annual Meeting, Bloomington, Indiana, October 2000.
Professional Memberships
American Academy of Religion
Association for Asian Studies
Society for the Study of Chinese Religions
Languages
Mandarin Chinese, Classical Chinese, French, Japanese, German
Chinese Contacts
Prof. Wang Zongyu , Department of Philosophy, Peking University
Wang Ka and Prof. Ma Xisha , Daoism research section of the
Institute of World Religions at the Academy of Social Sciences CASS in Beijing
Prof. Liu Yi %
, Capital Normal University &', Beijing
Profs. Chen Xia !( and Zhang Qin ", Sichuan University, Institute of Daoism
and Religious Culture #$
Prof. Bai Bin , Dept. of Archaeology, Sichuan University
Ven. Li Hechun , Qingyang Temple , Chengdu, Sichuan Daoist
monk
Ven. Shi Zizhuo ), Xiangguang Monastery , Chiayi, Taiwan Buddhist
nun
References
Prof. Robert Campany, School of Religion, University of Southern California, ACB
130, Los Angeles, CA 900891481
Prof. Stephen Bokenkamp, School of International Letters and Cultures, Arizona
State University, P.O. Box 870202, Tempe, AZ 852870202
Dr. John R. McRae, Katakuramachi 3501327, Hachioji, Tokyo, Japan 1920914

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SPREADING THE DAO, MANAGING MASTERSHIP,

AND PERFORMING SALVATION:

Wm. Clarke Hudson

Submitted to the faculty of the University Graduate School

UMI Number: 3297123

All rights reserved

Accepted by the Graduate Faculty, Indiana University, in partial

October 18, 2007

This work is dedicated to .

Wm. Clarke Hudson

2.2. Studies of Sexual Alchemy 15

Chapter 2. Chen Zhixus Biography,

4. Chens Two Masters: Zhao Youqin and the Qingcheng Master 60

5. A Period of Preparation, 132931 65

7.2. Quanzhen Daoism in Chens Time and Place 85

7.3. Chens Immediate Lineage 89

7.4. Chens Eective and Extended Lineages in DZ 1070 94

7.5. Conclusion on the Issue of Chens Quanzhen Aliation 102

8.2. MasterPatron Relationships 115

8.3. Literati association 126

Chapter 3. A Conict View of Daoist Mastership 161

1.1.3. Sexual cultivators 166

1.2. The Field of Competition within Chens Teachings 174

Chapter 4. What Is Inner Alchemy? 210

Part 1. Toward a Denition of Inner Alchemy 214

Part 2. An Extended Discussion: Inner Alchemy in Forty Thousand Words 228

1.3. Roots in alchemy 230

2. The Social Contexts of Inner Alchemy 238

3. Ontological Registers, and Language 246

3.2. The register of the mesocosm of signs 254

4. Psychophysiological Elements 283

4.2. The dao of the golden elixir 283

4.10. Monitoring progress by cycles, responses, or inner vision 311

4.12. Stimulating and enlightening the inte

4.18. Perfecting inherent nature and life endowment 324

5. Symbolic Elements 328

6. Allegorical or Visionary Elements 343

6.2. The mediation of the ye ow dame in the center 348

Chapter 5. Chen Zhixus Path to Alchemical Salvation 367

1.7. Prostitutes 386

1.10. Apologetic statements 397

1.11. Conclusion 400

2.2. The History of Sexual Cultivation 407

2.3. Ideal Types and Procedures of Cultivation 413

2.3.2. Type 2: Quasialchemical huanjing bunao 416

2.3.5. Type 4: Lateimperial goldenelixir sexual alchemy 424

2.4. Comparison 428

3.2.2.4. Gathering the outer pharmacon: physiological aspects 480

3.2.3. Fusing the pharmaca 493

3.3.2. Firing periods huohou 504

4. Chens Adaptations of His Alchemical Dao 532

4.2. NeoConfucian Sexual Alchemy 545

Chapter 6. Chens Legacy in the Ming and Qing Dynasties 557

1. Quantitative Overview 560

1.1. The Printings of Chens Texts 560

2.2. Sixteenth Century 571

2.3. Seventeenth Century 579

2.4. Eighteenth Century 583

2.5. Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries 591

2.5.1. The Western Lineage of inner alchemy 591

3. Tracing Themes in Chen Zhixus Legacy 597

3.2. Polemics by Two LayDaoist Literati 609

3.3. Lu Xixing: Adopting and Extending Chens Dao 624

3.4. Literati Alchemists of the KangxiYongzhen Period 628

7.3. Chens Immediate Lineage 89

7.4. Chens Eective and Extended Lineages in DZ 1070 94

7.5. Conclusion on the Issue of Chens Quanzhen Aliation 102

4.2. The dao of the golden elixir 283

6.2. The mediation of the yeow dame in the center 348

2.3.2. Type 2: Quasialchemical huanjing bunao 416

2.3.5. Type 4: Lateimperial goldenelixir sexual alchemy 424

3.3.2. Firing periods huohou 504

2.5.1. The Western Lineage of inner alchemy 591

1.9. Of the Zhengli and Jiyao Editions, Which Is Earlier? 728

DZ 1067, Shangyangzi jindan dayao 16.11b47.

value and meaning in these texts too. This dissertation reects my e

Swidler, Talk of Love, 17779.

Ricoeur, Hermeneutics and the Human Sciences, 14243.

As in the work of Maurice MerleauPonty, Thomas Csordas, et al.

teachings. While Li combines lifenurturing yangsheng and inneralchemical

Cf. Li Yuanguo, Daojiao qigong yangsheng xue, 114, 14546, 191.

according to which the MingQing period must necessarily be viewed as a time of

Akioka, Roku Seish no naitan shis; Ikai, J Samp no bchjutsu.

that it obviously provokes in its usersmasters or adepts.42

Robinet, Introduction l alchimie intrieure taoste, 78.

Berling, The Syncretic Religion of Lin Chaoen, 11637.

Robinet, Introduction l alchimie intrieure taoste, 4850.

Pregadio, In Memoriam Isabelle Robinet, 19322000, xi.

religion among nonWestern peoples.69

Saler, Conceptualizing Religion, 199200.

The religiousmarket perspective I have

Urban, The Torment of Secrecy, 23539.

Campany, Secrecy and Display, 29394.

Swidler, Talk of Love, 17779.