A Short Introduction to Chinese Alchemy Alchemy Fabrizio Pregadio Stanford University, University, Department of Religious Studies Adapted from the unedited ms. of an entry in Encyclopedia of the History of Science, Technology and Medicine in Non-Western Non-Western Countries, ed. Helaine Selin (Dordrecht, 1996). Background
In China as elsewhere, alchemy is a doctrine aiming to afford an understanding of the principles underlying the formation and functioning func tioning of the cosmos. The adept rises through the hierarchy of the constituents of being by "exhausting" (Chin. jin or liao, two words also denoting "thorough knowledge") the nature and properties of each stage. He overcomes the limits of individual existence, and ascends to higher states of being; he becomes, in Chinese terms, a zhenren or True Man. Historical and literary sources (including poetry) provide many important details, but the majority of Chinese alchemical sources is found in the Daozang (Taoist Canon), the largest collection of Taoist texts. One fifth of its about 1,500 texts are closely related to the various alchemical traditions tra ditions that developed until the fifteenth f ifteenth century, when the extant Canon was compiled and printed. Later texts are included in the Daozang jiyao (Essentials of the Taoist Canon) and other smaller collections. Modern study of the Chinese alchemical literature began in the twentieth century, after the Canon was reprinted and made widely available in several reprints. Among the most important contributions in Western languages are those of Joseph Needham, Nathan Sivin, Ho Peng Yoke, Yoke, Farzeen Baldrian-Hussein, Baldrian- Hussein, and Isabelle Robinet. [See a selected bibliography at the end of this essay, and an annotated bibliography elsewhere in this website.] Although the underlying doctrines remained unchanged, Chinese alchemy went through a complex and not yet entirely understood development along its twenty centuries of documented history. The two main traditions are conventionally known as waidan or "external alchemy" and neidan or "inner alchemy." The former, which arose earlier, is based on the compounding of elixirs through throu gh the manipulation of natural substances. Its texts consist of recipes, along with descriptions of ingredients, ritual rules, and passages concerned with the cosmological associations of minerals and metals, instruments, and operations. Inner alchemy -- which is often referred to as the " Way of the Golden Elixir" ( jindan jindan zhi dao) -- developed as an independent discipline around the end of the Six Dynasties (third-sixth centuries). It borrows part of its vocabulary from its earlier counterpart, but aims to produce an elixir -- equated with transcendental knowledge -within the alchemist's person.
Chinese alchemy has always been closely related to the teachings that find their main expression in the early doctrinal texts of Taoism, especially the Laozi and the Zhuangzi. The cosmos as we know it is conceived of as the final stage in a series of spontaneous transmutations stemming from original Non-being. This process entails the apparent separation of primeval Unity into the two complementary principles, Yin Yin and Yang. Yang. Their re-union gives birth to the cosmos. When the process is completed, the cosmos is subject to the laws of cosmology. cosmology. The adept's task is to retrace this process pr ocess backwards. Alchemy, Alchemy, whether "external" or "inner," provides a support to do this, leading one to the point when, as some texts put it, "Heaven spontaneously reveals its secrets." Its practice must be performed under the close c lose supervision of a master, who provides the "oral instructions" (koujue) necessary to an understanding of the processes that the adept performs with minerals and metals, or undergoes within himself. Doctrines
In order to transcend space and time -- the two main features of the cosmos -- the alchemist must take extreme care of their correspondences to the work he performs. Space is delimited and protected by talismans ( fu fu), and the laboratory (danwu, lit. "chamber of the elixirs") and instruments are properly oriented. According to some texts, the heating of the elixir must conform to minutely defined time cycles. This system, known as "fire times" (huohou), allows an adept to perform in a relatively short time the same work that Nature would achieve in thousands of years -- in other words, to accelerate the rhythms of Nature. Bringing time to its end, or tracing it back to its beginning, is equivalent. In either case time is transcended, transcende d, and the alchemist gains access to timelessness. The same is with space: its centre, where the alchemist places himself and his work, is a point devoid of dimension. From this spaceless and timeless point he is able to move along the axis that connects the higher and lower levels of being. Among a variety of procedures that the sources describe in an often allusive way, and in a language rich in metaphors and secret names, two stand out for their recurrence and importance. The first is based b ased on lead (Yin) and mercury (Yang). (Yang). In external alchemy, alchemy, these two substances are refined and joined in a compound whose properties are compared to the condition of original Oneness. In inner alchemy, lead is a cover name for the knowledge of the Dao (Pure Yang, Yang, chunyang ) with which each being is fundamentally endowed, but is obscured o bscured (i.e., transmuted into Yin) Yin) in the conditioned state. Mercury, on the other hand, represents the individual mind. The second most important method, which is proper to external alchemy, is centered on cinnabar (Yang). The mercury contained within cinnabar (representing (re presenting the Yin Yin principle contained within Yang) Yang) is extracted and an d newly added to sulphur s ulphur (Yang). (Yang). This process, typically performed nine times, finally yields an elixir embodying the luminous qualities of Pure Yang. This Yang is not the complementary opposite op posite of Yin, but, again, represents represen ts the One before its separation into the two complementary principles. The final object of external and inner alchemy is represented as the preparation of an elixir usually defined as huandan (lit., "Reverted Elixir"). This expression, recurring in
Chinese alchemy has always been closely related to the teachings that find their main expression in the early doctrinal texts of Taoism, especially the Laozi and the Zhuangzi. The cosmos as we know it is conceived of as the final stage in a series of spontaneous transmutations stemming from original Non-being. This process entails the apparent separation of primeval Unity into the two complementary principles, Yin Yin and Yang. Yang. Their re-union gives birth to the cosmos. When the process is completed, the cosmos is subject to the laws of cosmology. cosmology. The adept's task is to retrace this process pr ocess backwards. Alchemy, Alchemy, whether "external" or "inner," provides a support to do this, leading one to the point when, as some texts put it, "Heaven spontaneously reveals its secrets." Its practice must be performed under the close c lose supervision of a master, who provides the "oral instructions" (koujue) necessary to an understanding of the processes that the adept performs with minerals and metals, or undergoes within himself. Doctrines
In order to transcend space and time -- the two main features of the cosmos -- the alchemist must take extreme care of their correspondences to the work he performs. Space is delimited and protected by talismans ( fu fu), and the laboratory (danwu, lit. "chamber of the elixirs") and instruments are properly oriented. According to some texts, the heating of the elixir must conform to minutely defined time cycles. This system, known as "fire times" (huohou), allows an adept to perform in a relatively short time the same work that Nature would achieve in thousands of years -- in other words, to accelerate the rhythms of Nature. Bringing time to its end, or tracing it back to its beginning, is equivalent. In either case time is transcended, transcende d, and the alchemist gains access to timelessness. The same is with space: its centre, where the alchemist places himself and his work, is a point devoid of dimension. From this spaceless and timeless point he is able to move along the axis that connects the higher and lower levels of being. Among a variety of procedures that the sources describe in an often allusive way, and in a language rich in metaphors and secret names, two stand out for their recurrence and importance. The first is based b ased on lead (Yin) and mercury (Yang). (Yang). In external alchemy, alchemy, these two substances are refined and joined in a compound whose properties are compared to the condition of original Oneness. In inner alchemy, lead is a cover name for the knowledge of the Dao (Pure Yang, Yang, chunyang ) with which each being is fundamentally endowed, but is obscured o bscured (i.e., transmuted into Yin) Yin) in the conditioned state. Mercury, on the other hand, represents the individual mind. The second most important method, which is proper to external alchemy, is centered on cinnabar (Yang). The mercury contained within cinnabar (representing (re presenting the Yin Yin principle contained within Yang) Yang) is extracted and an d newly added to sulphur s ulphur (Yang). (Yang). This process, typically performed nine times, finally yields an elixir embodying the luminous qualities of Pure Yang. This Yang is not the complementary opposite op posite of Yin, but, again, represents represen ts the One before its separation into the two complementary principles. The final object of external and inner alchemy is represented as the preparation of an elixir usually defined as huandan (lit., "Reverted Elixir"). This expression, recurring in
the whole literature, originally denotes an elixir obtained by bringing the ingredients back to their original condition through repeated cyclical operations -- an operation comparable to the process that the adept performs within himself with the support of the alchemical practice. The word dan ("elixir") also denotes cinnabar, suggesting that the process begins and ends end s on two corresponding points along an ascensional ascen sional spiral. This synonymy also shows the role of cinnabar as a central symbol in external alchemy. In inner alchemy, the central role of cinnabar is taken up by lead, which represents original Oneness and is a synonym of "gold" ( jin jin). History
The extant waidan sources suggest that the two main methods outlined above acquired progressive importance in the history of the discipline. In the Scripture of the Nine Elixirs ( Huangdi Huangdi jiuding shendan jing ) and other texts dating from the first centuries CE, cinnabar is never the main ingredient of an elixir, and the leadmercury compound -- sometimes replaced by refined lead alone -- is only used either to make a mud that is spread on the crucible to prevent it from breaking when it is heated, or is placed at the bottom of the crucible together with other ingredients. In the methods of the Nine Elixirs, the ingredients undergo cycles of refining in a hermetically sealed crucible. This process consists in a backward re-enactment of cosmogony that brings the ingredients to a state of prima prima materia. The elixir can finally be transmuted into alchemical gold projecting a minute quantity of the native metal on it. External alchemy.
Important details on the early phase of Chinese alchemy are also found in portions of the Baopu zi neipian, written around 320 CE. Its descriptions of processes that can be compared with extant sources are, however, often abridged and sometimes inaccurate. During the Tang dynasty, the waidan tradition reached one of its peaks with Chen Shaowei (beginning of the eighth century), whose work describes the preparation of an elixir obtained by the refining of cinnabar. Each cycle yields a "gold" that can be ingested, or used as an ingredient in the next cycle. In the second part of the process, the final product of the first part is used as an ingredient of a huandan. Among the representative texts of this period are several collections of recipes, of which one of the most important was compiled by Sun Simo. Simo. The first half of the Tang dynasty also marked the climax of contacts between China and the Arabic world. These exchanges may be at the origin of the mediaeval word alchymia, one of whose suggested etymologies is from middle Chinese kiem-yak (the approximate pronunciation of mod. jinye or "Golden Liquor") with the addition of the Arabic prefix al-. Tang period is sometimes so metimes defined as the "golden "g olden age" of Inner alchemy. While the Tang external alchemy, it also marked the stage of transition to inner alchemy alche my.. Among the forerunners of inner alchemy is the Shangqing (Supreme Purity) tradition of Taoism (see Tao Hongjing Hongjing). ). Based on revelations of the late fourth century, this school attributed
particular importance to meditation, but also included the compounding of elixirs among its practices. The relevant sources exhibit the earliest traces of the interiorizazion of alchemy. Among the texts used in this school is the Huangting jing (Scripture of the Yellow Court), a meditation manual often quoted in later neidan texts. The shift from external to inner alchemy, sometimes regarded as due only to the multiplication of cases of elixir poisoning, or to the influence of Buddhism, requires further study to be properly evaluated. The very incidence and relevance of cases of accidental poisoning (which claimed their toll even among emperors) suggests that external alchemy had lost, at least in some milieux, its soteriological character, and that its practices had become known outside legitimate forms of transmission. Some masters may, therefore, have transmitted their doctrine modifying the supports used for the practice. In inner alchemy, the adept's entire person performs the role that natural substances and instruments play in external alchemy. In doing so, this discipline avails itself -- in ways and degrees that vary among different subtraditions -- of traditional Chinese doctrines based on the analogies between macrocosm and microcosm, of earlier native contemplative and meditative disciplines, and of notions shared with Buddhism. In Song and Yuan times, the history of neidan identifies itself with the lines of transmission known as Southern Lineage (nanzong ) and Northern Lineage (beizong , usually known as Quanzhen). The respective initiators were Zhang Boduan (eleventh century) and Wang Chongyang (1112--1170). Both lineages placed emphasis on the cultivation of xing and ming , which constitute two central notions of inner alchemy. Xing refers to one's original nature, whose properties, transcending individuality, are identical to those of Emptiness and Non-being. Ming denotes the "imprint," as it is, that each individual entity receives upon being generated, and which may or may not be actualized in life (this word also means "destiny" or "life," but neither translation covers all the implications in a neidan context). The Northern and Southern lineages, and subtraditions within them, were distinguished by the relative emphasis given to either element. The textual foundation of the Southern Lineage was provided by the Zhouyi cantong qi (Token for Joining the Three According to the Book of Changes) and the Wuzhen pian (Awakening to Reality), a work in poetry by Zhang Boduan. During the Ming and Qing dynasties the neidan tradition is known to have divided into several schools, but their history and teachings are still barely appreciated. One of the last greatest known masters of this discipline was Liu Yiming (eighteenth century), who in his works propounded an entirely spiritual interpretation of the scriptural sources of his tradition. Selected Bibliography Baldrian-Hussein , Farzeen. Procédés Secrets du Joyau Magique. Traité d'Alchimie Taoïste du XIe siècle. Paris: Les Deux Océans, 1984.
Eliade , Mircea. The Forge and the Crucible. Second ed., Chicago and London:
University of Chicago Press, 1978. See the chapter entitled "Chinese Alchemy." Ho Peng Yoke. Li, Qi and Shu: An Introduction to Science and Civilization in China.
Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 1985. See the chapter entitled "Chinese Alchemy." Needham, Joseph, et al. Science and Civilisation in China, vol. V, parts 2-5. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1974, 1976, 1980, 1983. For a short summary of some sections concerning waidan see Joseph Needham, "Alchemy and Early Chemistry in China," in The Frontiers of Human Knowledge, ed. Torgny T. Segerstedt, Uppsala: Uppsala Universitet, 1978, pp. 171-181. Pregadio, Fabrizio. Great Clarity: Daoism and Alchemy in Early Medieval China.
Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2006. [Table of contents.] Pregadio, Fabrizio. "The Elixirs
of Immortality." In Daoism Handbook , ed. Livia Kohn,
165-95. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 2000. Pregadio, Fabrizio, and Lowell Skar. "Inner Alchemy." In Daoism Handbook , ed. Livia
Kohn, 464-97. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 2000. Robinet , Isabelle. Introduction à l'alchimie intérieure taoïste. De l'unité et de la multiplicité. Paris: Les Éditions du Cerf, 1995. Robinet , Isabelle. "Original Contributions of Neidan to Taoism and Chinese Thought." In Taoist Meditation and Longevity Techniques. Ed. Livia Kohn in cooperation with
Yoshinobu Sakade. Ann Arbor: Center for Chinese Studies, The University of Michigan, 1989, pp. 297-330. Schipper , Kristofer, and Wang Hsiu-huei. "Progressive and Regressive Time Cycles in Taoist Ritual." In Time, Science, and Society in China and the West (The Study of Time,
V). Ed. J.T. Fraser, N. Lawrence, and F.C. Haber. Amherst: The University of Massachusetts, 1986, pp. 185-205. Sivin, Nathan. Chinese Alchemy: Preliminary Studies. Cambridge
(Mass.): Harvard
University Press, 1968. Sivin, Nathan. "Research on the History of Chinese Alchemy." In Alchemy Revisited. Proceedings of the International Conference on the History of Alchemy at the University of Groningen, 17-19 April 1989. Ed. Z.R.W.M. von Martels. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1990, pp.
3-20. Sivin, Nathan. "The Theoretical Background of Elixir Alchemy." In Joseph Needham et al., Science and Civilisation in China, vol. V: Chemistry and Chemical Technology, part 4: Spagyrical Discovery and Invention: Apparatus, Theories and Gifts. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1980, pp. 210-305. [Online version] See also the shorter version published earlier, but incorporating results of later research, entitled "Chinese Alchemy and the Manipulation of Time," Isis 67: 513-527, 1976. Human beings receive this Golden Elixir from Heaven. . . . Golden Elixir is another name for one's fundamental nature, formed out of primeval inchoateness. There is no other Golden Elixir outside one's fundamental nature. Every human being has this Golden Elixir complete in himself: it is entirely realized in everybody. It is neither more in a sage, nor less in an ordinary person. It is the seed of Immortals and Buddhas, and the root of worthies and sages. Liu Yiming, Wuzhen zhizhi, chapter 1 Chinese alchemy is based on doctrinal principles, first set out in the founding texts of Taoism, concerning the relation between the domains of the Absolute and the relative, or the Dao and the "ten thousand things" (wanwu). Its teachings and practices focus on the idea of the elixir, frequently referred to as the Golden Elixir ( jindan), the Reverted Elixir (huandan), or the Medicine ( yao). Lexical analysis shows that the semantic field of the term dan (elixir) evolves from a root-meaning of "essence"; its connotations include the reality, principle, or true nature of an entity, or its most basic and significant element or property. The purport of alchemy as a doctrine is to illustrate the nature of this underlying "true principle" and to explicate its relation to change and multiplicity. In the associated practices, compounding the elixir has two primary meanings. In the first sense, the elixir is obtained by heating its ingredients in a crucible. This practice, as well as the branch of alchemy that is associated with it, is known as waidan, or "external alchemy" (literally, "outer elixir"). In the second sense, the ingredients of the elixir are the primary components of the cosmos and the human being, and the entire process takes place within the practitioner. This second form of practice (which incorporates some aspects of Taoist meditation methods and of physiological techniques of self-cultivation), as well as the corresponding branch of the alchemical tradition, is known as neidan, or "inner alchemy" (literally, "inner elixir"). The Chinese alchemical tradition has therefore three main aspects, namely a doctrinal level and two paradigmatic forms of practice, respectively based on the refining of an "outer" or an "inner" elixir. The Elixir in "External Alchemy"
Although the first allusions to alchemy in China date from the second century BCE, the combination of doctrines and practices involving the compounding of an elixir, which is necessary to define alchemy as such and to distinguish it from proto-chemistry, is not clearly attested to in extant sources until the third century CE. The first identifiable tradition, known as Taiqing (Great Clarity), developed from that time in Jiangnan, the region south of the lower Yangzi River that was also crucial for the history of Taoism during the Six Dynasties (third to sixth centuries). The Taiqing scriptures consist of descriptions of methods for compounding elixirs and of benefits gained from their
performance and contain virtually no statements regarding their doctrinal foundations. The emphasis given to certain aspects of the practice and the terminology used in those descriptions, however, show that the central act of the alchemical process consists in causing matter to revert to its state of "essence" ( jing ), or prima materia. The main role in this task is played by the crucible, whose function is to provide a medium equivalent to the inchoate state (hundun) prior to the formation of the cosmos. In that medium, under the action of fire, the ingredients of the elixir are transmuted, or "reverted" (huan), to their original state. A seventh-century commentary to one of the Taiqing scriptures equates this refined matter with the "essence" that, as stated in the Daode jing (Scripture of the Way and its Virtue), gives birth to the world of multiplicity: "Indistinct! Vague! But within it there is something. Dark! Obscure! But within it there is an essence." In the Taiqing texts, compounding the elixir constitutes the central part of a larger process consisting of several stages, each of which is marked by the performance of rites and ceremonies. Receiving the scriptures and the oral instructions, building the laboratory, kindling the fire, and ingesting the elixir all require offering pledges to one's master and to the gods, observing rules on seclusion and purification, performing ceremonies to delimit and protect the ritual area, and making invocations to the highest deities. Ingesting the elixir is said to confer transcendence and admission into the celestial bureaucracy. Additionally the elixir grants healing from illnesses and protection from demons, spirits, and several other disturbances. To provide these supplementary benefits, the elixir does not need to be ingested and may simply be kept in one's hand or carried at one's belt as a powerful apotropaic talisman. The methods of the Taiqing texts are characterized by the use of a large number of ingredients. Sources attached to later waidan traditions instead describe different varieties of a single exemplary method, consisting of the refining of mercury (Yin) from cinnabar (Yang), its addition to sulphur (Yang), and its further refining. This process, typically repeated seven or nine times, yields an elixir that is deemed to embody the qualities of Pure Yang (chunyang ), that is, the state of Oneness before its differentiation into Yin and Yang. The Role of Cosmology
The doctrinal aspects of alchemy are the main focus of many sources dating from the Tang period (seventh to tenth centuries) onward. These sources formulate their teachings and practices by borrowing the language and the abstract emblems of correlative cosmology, a comprehensive system designed to explicate the nature and properties of different domains--primarily the cosmos and the human being--and the relations that occur among them. The main work that reflects these changes and provides them with textual authority is the Zhouyi cantong qi (Token for Joining the Three According to the Book of Changes; the "three" mentioned in the title are, according to some commentaries, Taoism, cosmology, and alchemy). Virtually the entire alchemical tradition from the Tang period onward acknowledges this text as its most important scriptural source. Despite this, the Cantong qi does not primarily deal with either waidan or neidan and only occasionally alludes to both of them. Its main purpose is to illustrate the non-duality of
the Dao and the cosmos; the task of explicating the details of this doctrinal view, and of applying it to waidan and neidan, is left to the commentaries and to a large number of related texts. The emblems of correlative cosmology--typically arranged in patterns that include Yin and Yang, the Five Agents (wuxing ), the eight trigrams and the sixty-four hexagrams of the Book of Changes (Yijing ), and so forth--play two main roles closely related to each other. First, they illustrate the relation between unity, duality, and the various other stages of the propagation of Original Pneuma ( yuanqi) into the "ten thousand things." In this function, cosmological emblems serve to show how space, time, multiplicity, and change are related to the spacelessness, timelessness, non-duality, and constancy of the Dao. For instance, the Cantong qi describes the Five Agents (which define, in particular, the main spatial and temporal coordinates of the cosmos) as unfolding from the center, which contains them all, runs through them, and "endows them with its efficacy." In their second role, the emblems of the cosmological system are used to formulate the relation of the alchemical practice to the doctrinal principles. For instance, the trigrams of the Book of Changes illustrate how the alchemical process consists in extracting the pre-cosmic True Yin ( zhenyin) and True Yang ( zhenyang ) from Yang and Yin as they appear in the cosmos, respectively, and in joining them to produce an elixir that represents their original oneness. In the traditions based on the Cantong qi, alchemy is primarily a figurative language to represent doctrinal principles. The waidan process loses its ritual features, and the compounding of the elixir is based on two emblematic metals, mercury and lead. The refined states of these metals--respectively obtained from cinnabar and from native lead-represent Yin and Yang in their original, pre-cosmic state, and their conjunction produces an elixir whose properties are said to be equivalent to Pure Yang. The central role played by cosmology in these waidan traditions is reflected in two works related to the Cantong qi, which respectively state that "compounding the Great Elixir is not a matter of ingredients, but always of the Five Agents," and even that "you do not use ingredients, you use the Five Agents." Doctrines and Practices of "Inner Alchemy"
Besides a new variety of waidan, the Cantong qi also influenced the formation of neidan, whose earliest extant texts date from the first half of the eighth century. The authors of several neidan treatises refer to their teachings as the Way of the Golden Elixir ( jindan zhi dao). Their doctrines essentially consist of a reformulation of those enunciated in the early Taoist texts, integrated with language and images drawn from the system of correlative cosmology according to the model provided by the Cantong qi. The respective functions of these two major components of the alchemical discourse are clearly distinguished in the doctrinal treatises. Their authors point out that the alchemical teachings can only be understood in the light of those of the Daode jing (which they consider to be "the origin of the Way of the Golden Elixir") and that correlative cosmology provides "images" ( xiang ) that serve, as stated by Li Daochun (fl. 1288-92), "to give form to the Formless by the word, and thus manifest the true and absolute Dao"
( Zhonghe ji, chapter 3). The alchemical discourse therefore has its roots in metaphysical principles; it uses the language and images of correlative cosmology to explicate the nature of the cosmos and its ultimate unity with the absolute principle that generates and regulates it. Its final purpose, however, is to transcend the cosmic domain, so that the use of images and metaphors involves explaining their relative value and temporary function. The status attributed to doctrines and practices reflects this view. Some authors emphasize that the inner elixir is possessed by every human being and is a representation of one's own innate realized state. Liu Yiming (1734-1821) expresses this notion as follows: "Human beings receive this Golden Elixir from Heaven. . . . Golden Elixir is another name for one's fundamental nature, formed out of primeval inchoateness (huncheng , a term derived from the Daode jing ). There is no other Golden Elixir outside one's fundamental nature. Every human being has this Golden Elixir complete in oneself: it is entirely achieved in everybody. It is neither more in a sage, nor less in an ordinary person. It is the seed of Immortals and Buddhas, and the root of worthies and sages" (Wuzhen zhizhi, chapter 1). Borrowing terms from the Cantong qi, which in turn draws them from the Daode jing , Liu Yiming calls "superior virtue" ( shangde) the immediate realization of the original "celestial reality" (tianzhen), which is never affected by the change and impermanence that dominate in the cosmos, and "inferior virtue" ( xiade) the performance of the alchemical process in order to "return to the Dao." He states, however, that the latter way, when it achieves fruition, "becomes a road leading to the same goal as superior virtue" (Cantong zhizhi, "Jing," chapter 2). While the neidan practices are codified in ways that differ, sometimes noticeably, from each other, the notion of "inversion" (ni) is common to all of them. In the most common codification, the practice is framed as the reintegration of each of the primary components of being, namely essence, pneuma, and spirit (jing , qi, and shen), into the one that precedes it in the ontological hierarchy, culminating in the "reversion" (huan) to the state of Non-Being (wu) or Emptiness (kong ). The typical formulation of this process is "refining essence and transmuting it into pneuma," "refining pneuma and transmuting it into spirit," and "refining spirit and returning to Emptiness." Li Daochun relates these stages to the passage of the Daode jing that states: "The Dao generates the One, the One generates the Two, the Two generate the Three, the Three generate the ten thousand things." According to this passage, the Dao first generates Oneness, which harbors the complementary principles of Yin and Yang. After Yin and Yang differentiate from each other, they rejoin and generate the "Three," which represents the One at the level of the particular entities. The "ten thousand things" are the totality of the entities produced by the continuous reiteration of this process. In Li Daochun's explication, the three stages of the neidan practice consist in reverting from the "ten thousand things" to Emptiness, or the Dao. In this way, the gradual process that characterizes inner alchemy as a practice is equivalent to the instantaneous realization of the non-duality of the Absolute and the relative. Just as waidan draws many of its basic methods from pharmacology, so neidan too shares a significant portion of its notions and methods with classical Chinese medicine and with other bodies of practices, such as meditation and the methods for "nourishing life"
( yangsheng ). What distinguishes alchemy from these related traditions is its unique view of the elixir as a material or immaterial entity that represents the original state of being and the attainment of that state.
The Scripture of the Nine Elixirs Fabrizio Pregadio Stanford University, Department of Religious Studies Based on parts of "The Book of the Nine Elixirs and Its Tradition," in Chûgoku kodai kagakushi ron [Studies on the history of ancient Chinese science], ed. Yamada Keiji and Tanaka Tan, 2: 543-639 (Kyoto: Kyôto Daigaku Jinbun Kagaku Kenkyûjo, 1991). The Text
The Taoist Canon preserves two versions of the Scripture of the Nine Elixirs. The more important one forms the first chapter of the Instructions on the Scripture of the Divine Elixirs of the Nine Tripods of the Yellow Emperor ( Huangdi jiuding shendan jingjue; CT 885). It is followed by a commentary in nineteen chapters (hereafter referred to as Instructions) compiled in the latter half of the seventh century. The second version is incorporated as one of two main textual layers in the Scripture of the Liquid Pearl in Nine Cycles, and of the Nine Elixirs of the Divine Immortals ( Jiuzhuan liuzhu shenxian jiudan jing ; CT 952, hereafter Scripture of the Liquid Pearl ), a work not later than the beginning of the Tang period. Most divergences between the two versions amount to minor details. With the Scripture of Great Clarity (Taiqing jing ) and the Scripture of the Golden Liquor ( Jinye jing ), the Scripture of the Nine Elixirs is the main text belonging the early corpus of the Taiqing (Great Clarity) tradition of Chinese alchemy. This tradition developed during the Six Dynasties (third to six centuries CE) in Jiangnan, the region south of the lower Yangzi River. The Revelation
The Scripture of the Nine Elixirs opens with passages on its own divine origins. Its present text is said to be the earthly version of a scripture originally kept in Heaven, and transmitted from divinity to divinity before it was written down in a form fit for human beings. Its practices were revealed by the Mysterious Woman (Xuannü) to the Yellow Emperor (Huangdi), and then handed down by the Yellow Emperor to the Mysterious Master (Xuanzi). The Instructions (2.1a-b) add that, before its revelation, the text was called "Superior Scripture of the Nine Methods of the Princess of the Primordial Dao of the Nine Heavens" ("Jiutian Yuandao jun jiuding zhi shangjing"). The Princess of the Primordial Dao -- or Primordial Princess (Yuanjun), as she is called in other passages of the Instructions -- is also connected with the revelation of the Scripture of Great Clarity (Taiqing jing ) and the Scripture of the Golden Liquor ( Jinye jing ), the
two other texts belonging to the early Taiqing corpus. In both instances, she appears as teacher of Laozi, to whom she reveals those texts. The revelation of these scriptures is therefore due to two divine couples, each formed by a female and a male figure: the Primordial Princess and Laozi on one hand, and the Mysterious Woman and the Yellow Emperor on the other. The relationship between the two male and the two female figures is also similar. Laozi (or Laojun, Laozi in his divine aspect) and the Yellow Emperor are in some ways two aspects of the same divine being: the former is on the non-temporal level what the latter is in the human time, where he is placed at the beginning of history. A similar relationship occurs between the Primordial Princess and the Mysterious Woman: the Primordial Princess is associated with the heavenly version of the Scripture of the Nine Elixirs -- not destined to human beings and therefore differently titled -- while the Mysterious Woman is connected to the transmission of the text to the Yellow Emperor, in its current form and with its current title. As for the Yellow Emperor, he is not the originator of the doctrines and practices expounded in the Scripture of the Nine Elixirs, but only a medium in their transmission. This feature is common to other texts. The Yellow Emperor is not a master: several sources represent him as receiving teachings from such divine or semi-divine beings as the Mysterious Woman, the Pure Woman (Su-nü, who taught him the sexual practices), Guangcheng zi (his instructor in the Zhuangzi), and Qi Bo (the "Celestial Master" who educates him in the medical arts). These myths describe the moment in which teachings that do not have a historical origin enter human history. Through the advice he received from these and other divine or semi-divine beings, the Yellow Emperor became the model sovereign who searches for teachings to perfect his method of government. The Instructions refer several times to the Yellow Emperor's quest, at the end of which he devoted himself to alchemical practices and rose to Heaven. "In ancient times, the Yellow Emperor ascended Mount Wangwu (Wangwu shan, in present-day Henan) and received scriptures on the elixirs; he climbed Mount Kongtong (Kongtong shan, Gansu) and questioned Guangcheng zi; to search for the Dao and the doctrines of Nourishing Life ( yangsheng ) he listened to the teachings of the Mysterious Woman and the Pure Woman; and to scrutinize the divine and the supernatural he wrote down the words of the Baize. Thus he obtained a thorough knowledge of the Dao and the real, and a deep discernment of the mysterious and the secret. Then he sublimated and fixed the Elixir in Nine Cycles ( jiuzhuan) at the foot of Mount Jing (Jingshan, Henan), and transmuted the Liquid Pearl (liuzhu) on the Lake of the Tripod (Dinghu, also in Henan)." ( Instructions, 5.2a; similar passages are in 3.1a, 3.3a, and 4.2a. The Baize is a mythical animal that gave the Yellow Emperor teachings about the shapes of the harmful spirits.) The final sentence of this passage elaborates on the myth that acted as trait d'union between the Yellow Emperor and alchemy -- his casting of a tripod on Mount Jing (Honan), and his subsequent ascension to Heaven. The reference to the tripod, an emblem
of imperial power in ancient China, may have later suggested the choice of the Scripture of the Divine Elixirs of the Nine Tripods as textual support for providing alchemical instructions to an emperor. The Scripture of the Nine Elixirs Through the Seventh Century
While something can be glimpsed about the divine origins of the Scripture of the Nine Elixirs, virtually all we know about its date and early transmission is what is told by Ge Hong (283-343). According to a passage in his Baopu zi neipian (Inner Chapters of the Book of The Master Who Embraces Simplicity), the text already circulated by the beginning of the third century: "A long time ago, while Zuo Yuanfang (i.e., Zuo Ci) was devoting himself to meditation practices on Mount Tianzhu (Tianzhu shan, in present-day Anhui), a divine being transmitted to him the scriptures of the immortals on the Golden Elixirs. It was the time of the disorders at the end of the Han dynasty, and as Zuo had no opportunity to compound those elixirs, he escaped to the east of the [Changjiang] River with the intent of settling on a famous mountain to devote himself to that Way. My granduncle, the Immortal Lord (Xiangong, i.e., Ge Xuan), received from him those texts, namely the Scripture of the Elixirs of Great Clarity in three scrolls, the Scripture of the Elixirs of the Nine Tripods in one scroll, and the Scripture of the Elixir of the Golden Liquor also in one scroll. My master, Zheng [Yin], was a disciple of my granduncle, and in turn received those texts from him. But his family was poor, and he lacked the means to buy the ingredients. I served him for a long time as a disciple. Then I built an altar (tan) on the Maji mountains (in present-day Jiangxi) and, after swearing a covenant, I received those texts with oral instructions that cannot be written down." ( Baopu zi neipian, 4.12) Exactly to what extent the two received versions of the Scripture of the Nine Elixirs reproduce the original scripture is impossible to know. Both, however, correspond to the quotations and summaries given by Ge Hong in his work (4.14-15). This suggests that the two versions in the Taoist Canon are at least substantially authentic. Little else is known about the history of the text until the seventh century. While there is no reason to doubt Ge Hong's words as far as Ge Xuan and Zheng Yin are concerned, the supposed beginner of his line of transmission, Zuo Ci, is as shadowy a figure as most other ancient fangshi ("masters of methods"). Hagiographic sources make him into a master who lived at the court of Cao Cao (155-220), and was proficient in the divinatory arts, had the gift of metamorphosis and could control gods and spirits. Ge Hong's mention of Shandong and Jiangdong as the areas in which the text originated and was later transmitted, respectively, is confirmed by later evidence. In the early sixth century, for instance, the Nine Elixirs were among the alchemical methods that Tao
Hongjing (456-536) considered practising; his choice finally fell on a different method, as he deemed the text he possessed not to be clear enough. Doctrines, Rituals, and Techniques
The alchemical work of the Scripture of the Nine Elixirs begins with the purification practices ( zhai). No details are given about them, but it is said that they involve ablutions (muyü) and should be performed before receiving the methods, before buying the ingredients, and before compounding the elixirs. The practice takes place in seclusion and outside profane space. Its sacred character is emphasized by interdictions: ". . . do not pass by filth and dirt, and by houses where mourning is being observed, or inhabited by women of marriageable age. . . . Beware of intercourse with common and dull people. Do not let the envious, those who talk too much, and those who do not have faith in this Way hear or know about it." After the purification practices are accomplished, the adept may receive the text and the oral instructions. The required ceremony is described in the Scripture of the Nine Elixirs as "Rules for the Transmission" (chuanfa). The disciple throws tokens of transmission -golden figurines of a man and a fish -- into an eastward-flowing stream; the master arranges a seat for the Mysterious Woman, and waits for a sign of her consent. Then the disciple exits from profane time, choosing one of the days listed in the text as auspicious to begin the compounding. Another ceremony marks the kindling of the fire. The adept invokes the Princess of the Great Dao (Dadao jun, another name of the Primordial Princess), Lord Lao (Laojun), and the Lord of the Great Harmony (Taihe jun). He asks them to let the practice be successful, and let him become an Accomplished Man ( zhiren) and have audience at the Purple Palace (Zigong), in the constellation of the Big Dipper. The making of the elixirs begins with the preparation of two preliminary compounds, called Mysterious and Yellow ( xuanhuang ) and Mud of the Six-and-One (liuyi ni). The Mysterious and Yellow takes its name from the qualities attributed to Heaven (the "Mysterious") and Earth (the "Yellow"). The locus classicus for this term is in the Wenyan (Explanation of the Sentences) commentary in the Yijing (Book of Changes), 3: "Mysterious and Yellow means the mingling ( za) of Heaven and Earth: Heaven is the Mysterious, and Earth is the Yellow." The importance of this compound in the practices of the Nine Elixirs is also shown by its correlation with the names of the divine beings who transmitted and received the scripture -- the Mysterious Woman, the Yellow Emperor, and the Mysterious Master. The two principles of Yin and Yang in their pure state are represented by the essences of lead and mercury, liberated by heating the native substances. In the texts on the Nine Elixirs this compound is used either to lute the crucible together with the Mud of the Six-and-One, or as a layer inside the crucible with
the other ingredients of the elixirs. In either case, through the Mysterious and Yellow the crucible incorporates the essences of Heaven and Earth. At the centre of the practice is the crucible ( fu), formed by two superposed clay vessels. As stated in the Instructions (7.4b-5a), failure in the preparation of the elixirs is due to mistakes made when preparing the vessel. The luting compound is so important as to be sometimes called Divine Mud ( shenni). In the Scripture of the Nine Elixirs, where it is obtained from seven ingredients, and in many other texts its name is Mud of the Six-andOne. The Instructions say that "six and one is seven: the sages keep this secret, and therefore call it Six-and-One," adding that the compound has this name even if it is obtained by a different number of ingredients (7.5a). The name and function of the Mud of the Six-and-One become clearer in the light of the doctrines that underlie the alchemical practices. The alchemical work leads an adept to timelessness by reversing the stages of the cosmogonic process, which in turn represent different stages in the hierarchy of the states of Non-being and Being. Using different images and idioms, some early texts describe or allude to this process as taking place in seven stages. Directly pointing to the intent of these descriptions, a well-known passage of the Zhuangzi (chapter 2) outlines the process in reverse, starting from the phase preceding manifestation and receding to its most remote inception: [7] There is a beginning. [6] There is a time before the beginning. [5] There is a time before the time before the beginning. [4] There is existence. [3] There is nonexistence. [2] There is a time before nonexistence. [1] There is a time before the time before nonexistence. The same passage forms the basis of a more elaborate description in the Huainan zi (chapter 2). Another famous passage of the Zhuangzi (chapter 7) represents the same process by a different imagery. The seven stages are portrayed there as seven openings pierced in the body of Emperor Hundun ("Chaos"), causing his death that corresponds to the cosmologic state of differentiation (the "Ten Thousand Things," wanwu). Closing, as it were, the seven openings that provoked the death of Emperor Hundun, the ingredients of the Mud of the Six-and-One allow the alchemical process to take place in conditions similar to those preceding the cosmologic state of differentiation. This makes it possible for the pure essences of the substances placed in the crucible to liberate themselves through the action of fire, and ascend, collecting under the upper half of the vessel. The elixir, or "Sublimated Essence" ( feijing ), is matter liberated from the action of time. In the Instructions, it is equated to the "essence" which, as is said in the Daode jing , is at the center of the Dao and is the seed of its self-manifestation. The elixir, therefore, is a symbolic token of the essence from which the formless Dao generates the world of form.
The steps followed to compound each of the Nine Elixirs are essentially the same. The ingredients are first placed in the crucible, closed with another overturned crucible. The vessel is luted with the Mud of the Six-and-One, and with a mud of Mysterious and Yellow. It is then left to dry, and is placed on the fire. In two cases the text says that the vessel should be turned upside down several times during the heating, so that the Sublimated Essence may circulate. At the end of the required number of days, the crucible is left to cool, and is opened. The Sublimated Essence will have risen under the upper part of the vessel. It is carefully collected with a feather, and is added to other substances. In some instances it is placed in the crucible and heated again; in others it can be directly ingested. In the case of the First Elixir -- and presumably in all the others -- if the Essence has not condensed the whole process should be repeated. The elixir is ingested at dawn, facing the sun. Some of the Nine Elixirs can be transmuted into alchemical gold; the purpose of this transmutation, as stated in the section concerning the First Elixir, is to make sure that the Sublimated Essence has been correctly prepared. The accomplishment of the alchemical process grants eternity, luminescence, mastery of the elements, and control over gods and spirits. The Commentary
The sentences "Your subject remarks . . ." (chen an) or "Your subject has heard . . . " (chen wen), which introduce several dozen paragraphs, suggest that the Instructions on the Scripture of the Nine Elixirs compiled for an emperor. Other details support this assumption. The sovereign's quest for the dao is a major subject of the second chapter -the first of the Instructions proper -- and is touched on elsewhere (see in particular 2.5a8a and 3.1a-2b). The contemporary Emperor's beneficial action on the world is also mentioned (2.6b, 8.4b-5a, 14.2a-b and 15.5b). In a passage stating that the commentary is written in a plain language to ease its comprehension (11.4b), the author adopts a formula -- gongfeng or "respectfully offered" -- often used in addressing a ruler. Quotations of texts, mentions of personal and place names, use of measures of weight and volume, and respect of tabooed characters all point to Gaozong of the Tang (r. 649-683). The chief criterion that inspired the anonymous compiler of the Instructions is a magnification of the major themes of the Scripture of the Nine Elixirs. Quotations from other works enabled him to create a treatise that includes large amounts of materials not directly concerning the Nine Elixirs. The commentary can be divided into two main parts. The main topics of the first part are the divine origins of the Scripture ( j. 2), the ritual aspects of the alchemical practice (transmission of teachings and texts, choice of the appropriate time, and establishment of the sacred space, j. 3-5), and the general principles that govern the alchemical work ( j. 6 and 10). Substantial portions of these chapters are quoted from Ge Hong's Baopu zi neipian. The second part of the commentary concerns the actual compounding of the elixirs. It includes methods for preparing and luting the crucible ( j. 7), making aqueous solutions of
various minerals ( j. 8 and part of 19), and compounding the Mysterious and Yellow ( xuanhuang ) and the Flowery Pond (huachi, an acetic bath; j. 17). Several chapters are devoted to about two dozen substances and their use in elixirs ( j. 9, 11-16, 18, and part of 19). The descriptions of minerals come almost entirely from Tao Hongjing's Bencao jing jizhu (Collected Commentaries on the Canonical Pharmacopoeia). The main identifiable sources of the methods are some works attributed to Hugang zi, an alchemist perhaps entirely legendary whose name is associated with several lost texts. The final chapter of the commentary includes "Secret Instructions" on the Scripture of the Nine Elixirs, enumerates taboos and interdictions, and gives directions for opening the crucible, testing the elixirs, and ingesting them.
The Early History of the Zhouyi cantong qi Fabrizio Pregadio Stanford University, Department of Religious Studies Adapted from an appendix in "The Representation of Time in the Zhouyi cantong qi," in Cahiers d'Extrême-Asie 8 (1995): 155-73. Yu Fan and the "Studies on the Book of Changes"
The authorship of the Zhouyi cantong qi (Token for Joining the Three According to the Book of Changes) is traditionally attributed to Wei Boyang, a legendary character said to come from the Shangyu commandery of Guiji in present-day Zhejiang. According to the common account, Xu Congshi, a native of Qingzhou in present-day Shandong, was the first to receive the text and wrote on it a commentary. At the time of Emperor Huan of the Later Han (r. 146-167), Wei Boyang transmitted his work together with Xu's commentary to Chunyu Shutong, who also came from Shangyu and began to circulate the scripture. While some accounts of Chunyu Shutong, as we shall see, reflect the relation of the Cantong qi to the apocrypha, its association with the Han "Studies of the Changes" ( yixue) is manifest in the work of the last great representative of this tradition, Yu Fan (164-233). A descendent of the lineage that included Meng Xi (fl. 69 BCE) and Jing Fang (77-37 BCE), the two main Former Han exegetes of the Changes, Yu Fan is the first author whose work shows acquaintance with the Cantong qi. In a gloss on the character yi ("change") in the Jingdian shiwen (Lexicon of the Classics; early seventh century), he is ascribed with a reference to a sentence ("Sun and Moon make change") also found in the received text of the Cantong qi. The ambiguous wording of the gloss even leaves room for the possibility that Yu Fan wrote the earliest known independent commentary on the Cantong qi. The gloss has two possible readings: (1) "Yu Fan's commentary to the Cantong qi says that this character is formed by the graph 'sun' with the graph 'moon' below it."
(2) "[According to] Yu Fan's commentary [to the Changes,] the Cantong qi says that this character is formed by the graph 'sun' with the graph 'moon' below it." Jingdian shiwen (Lexicon of the Classics), 2.1a.
The punctuation implicit in the first reading, "Yu Fan's commentary on the Cantong qi says . . . ," fits the pattern of quotations in the Jingdian shiwen. There is no mention of such a commentary in bibliographic sources, but a reference to it in one of the two Tang exegeses of the Cantong qi supports this reading. Other evidence on Yu Fan's familiarity with the Cantong qi may have been located by Suzuki Yoshijirô (1963: 602-3), who suggested that Yu Fan drew on zhang 13-15 for a passage of his commentary on the Book of Changes. For the mention of a commentary to the Cantong qi attributed to Yu Fan see Zhouyi cantong qi (CT 999), 3.11a. Here and below, the numbers of zhang (sections) refer to Peng Xiao's redaction.
The Cantong qi and the Apocrypha
The Shuowen jiezi, a dictionary dating from the year 100 CE, attributes the same sentence alluded to by Yu Fan to a "secret text" or some "secret texts" (bishu), an apparent reference to the apocrypha (weishu. Shuowen jiezi [Explication of the signs and analysis of the characters], 9B.18a. See the
exhaustive discussion in Wang Ming 1984: 242-48.
While this sentence does not prove either that the original Cantong qi was an apocryphon attached to the Book of Changes, or that its original version dated from before the end of the first century, it is the first of several pointers to the background that the Cantong qi shares with the apocrypha. The three-character title following the name of the parent Classic, which the Cantong qi has in common with most weishu (Wang Liqi 1984), is only the most conspicuous indication in this regard. The word qi ("token"), which is also frequent in the titles of apocryphal texts, belongs to a group of near synonyms that, as Anna Seidel remarked, "assimilates the apocrypha to contracts" between Heaven and man (1983: 309). Like fu ( symbolon, tally), qi sometimes designates an object, bestowed by Heaven either directly or through the mediation of a master, which grants the potentiality to communicate with Heaven. The Cantong qi is one these objects: it is said to contain no method for the compounding of elixirs, but to be itself the elixir. In the words of an early Song text, the Longhu huandan jue, "for the Reverted Elixir (huandan) there is no formula; the Jinbi jing and the Cantong qi are its formulae" (1.1a; see Sivin 1980: 249). The Jinbi jing is preserved as the Jindan jinbi qiantong jue in j. 73 of the Yunji qiqian (ca. 1025; CT 1032). It is shorter paraphrase of the Cantong qi, marked by a tendency to replace the Cantong qi imagery with a language closer to that of alchemy. During the Song period, the Jinbi jing was re-edited and presented as the "ancient text" of the
Longhu jing (Scripture of the Dragon and Tiger), which according to several accounts
was the scripture that originally provided inspiration to Wei Boyang.
Connections of the Cantong qi with the apocrypha are also intimated by at least two passages in the received text. A description of the transcendence acquired by the adept ( zhang 28) concludes with the line "he will obtain the Script and receive the Chart," one of several analogous expressions that in the apocrypha designate the mandate granted by Heaven to a sovereign. In a wording similar to the one found in the Cantong qi, this expression appears in the Qianzuo du, an apocryphon on the Book of Changes. Yasui and Nakamura 1981: 48. In later times, the same expression defined the Taoist ceremony of transmission; see Seidel 1983: 308-9.
In another passage ( zhang 11), the Cantong qi mentions Confucius and alludes to the initial sentences of the Classics that the apocrypha were attached to. Both features, which would hardly be expected if the Cantong qi had originated as an alchemical text, fit the context of the apocrypha, sometimes deemed to have been written by Confucius long before their supposed re-emergence in Han times. A further, more ambiguous indication is a pun in the final section, where some characters can be rearranged to form the phrase "composed by Wei Boyang." Similar cryptograms were both a pastime of Han literati and a technique of divination documented in the apocrypha and elsewhere, but the final portions of the Cantong qi are among those most likely to have been added after the Han. Wang Ming 1984: 247-48, discusses this passage and provides other examples drawn from apocryphal texts.
Chunyu Shutong
The tradition concerning Chunyu Shutong's role in the composition and transmission of the Cantong qi provides a clearer focus for the evidence examined above. Unlike Wei Boyang, Chunyu Shutong is a historical character, whose connections to prognostication point to a milieu close to that which produced the apocrypha. The most elaborate account concerning him is found in Tao Hongjing's (456-536) Zhengao (Declarations of the Perfected), where he appears in a section devoted to the bureaucracy of the otherworld. According to this narrative, Chunyu was proficient in numerology ( shushu) and used to ingest pills of sesame seeds and deer bamboo. At the time of Emperor Huan he was District Magistrate of Xuzhou (in present-day Jiangsu). Later, Emperor Ling (r. 168-189) appointed him General-in-Chief, but he declined the summons and went to Wu, where he received the Hongjing dan jing (Scripture of the Elixir of the Rainbow Luminosity) from the immortal Huiche zi. Tao Hongjing's own notes quote a short passage on Chunyu Shutong's life as coming from the Cantong qi, which may have appeared in a lost preface to the text or in one of its early versions. Chunyu is depicted there as a disciple of Xu Congshi, from whom he learned the art of prognostication.
Zhengao [Declarations of the Perfected; ca. 500 CE], 12.8a-b.
Chunyu Shutong's connections to the science of prediction are amplified in other works that relate his divinatory feats and make him an expert on the Book of Changes and the apocrypha. His dealings with both divination and alchemy acquire meaning in the light of the affiliations between the two disciplines, which apply the same cosmological system in different directions. Sources on Chunyu Shutong's connections to divination are collated in Yu Jiaxi 1958: 10.1211-14. See also Wang Ming 1984: 242 n. 1.
The Cantong qi in the Six Dynasties
Although some scholars have suggested that the present-day Cantong qi was reconstructed during the Tang period (seventh-ninth centuries), there is sufficient evidence to suggest that the text was not lost after the Han period, but actually circulated in southeastern China. The Six Dynasties authors who mention the Cantong qi -- Jiang Yan (444-505), Tao Hongjing (456-536), Yan Zhitui (531-91), and possibly Ge Hong (283-343) -- either came from or were closely associated with Jiangnan, the region south of the lower Yangtze River. At that time, Jiangnan preserved a branch of the Han "Studies on the Changes" and the lore of the apocryphal texts (Strickmann 1981: 98-103). This suggests that the Jiangnan-based lineage of Yu Fan was instrumental in the preservation and transmission of the Cantong qi. The spread of alchemical practices in this area also made it an ideal soil for its transformation into a treatise on the elixirs. The little-known tradition represented by Hugang zi may have been among those that used the Cantong qi as scriptural authority. The now fragmentary body of writings associated with this legendary alchemist contained the earliest alchemical texts largely based on metals, including lead and mercury (the two main emblematic substances in the Cantong qi). Traditions that associate Hugang zi either with Wei Boyang or with Ge Hong's line of transmission suggest a southern origin for these texts, and in the first case point to links with the Cantong qi. Early Tang Works on the Cantong qi
A confirmation of the links between the Cantong qi and the lineage associated with Hugang zi comes from the two- juan anonymous commentary to the Cantong qi ( Zhouyi cantong qi, CT 1004), which highlights methods attributed to Hugang zi. As Chen Guofu first suggested (1983: 377-78), this commentary dates from around 700 CE. A quotation from the preface of this commentary in two cognate Tang texts, to which Meng Naichang called attention (1993: 28-29), supports this indication, as also do the mentions of personal names in the commentary and the substitutions of tabooed characters. The Cantong qi reached its present form by the early eighth century, as shown by the two- juan anonymous commentary, by the textually cognate commentary attributed to Yin Changsheng (CT 999), and by Liu Zhigu's (before 661-after 742) Riyue xuanshu lun (Essay on the Sun and the Moon, the Mysterious Axis). Liu Zhigu provides a synopsis of
the Cantong qi and its first neidan interpretation. In doing so, he quotes passages found in all the three juan, or pian, of the received version. Peng Xiao's Commentary
In the Five Dynasties, Peng Xiao (?-955) submitted the text of the Cantong qi to a substantial rearrangement. Comparison of his text with the two Tang redactions shows that the variants he introduced consist, together with the division into sections ( zhang ), in several inversions and relocations of lines, and in a large number of substitutions of single words. The exact extent of these variations, however, is difficult to ascertain. This is shown in a postface written in 1208 by the astronomer Bao Huanzhi (fl. 1207-1210), which is only preserved in the Daozang edition of Peng Xiao's commentary (CT 1003). In this valuable document, which has not yet received the attention it deserves, Bao praised the redaction by Peng Xiao as the best available at his time, but noted that it was not exempt from errors, and that its divisions into sections were not always accurate. Due to later alterations, moreover, the copy preserved in the Imperial Library -- which Bao must have had access to when he worked at court -- differed from the other versions circulating by his time. Bao then goes on to remark that before him the text had been revised by Zheng Huan, but his edition included many errors. Later, he adds, Zhu Xi (1130-1200) established a better text in his Zhouyi cantong qi kaoyi (CT 1001), but his divisions into sections, as well as his commentaries, were occasionally faulty. Bao Huanzhi's preface is found in Zhouyi cantong qi dingqi ge mingjing tu (The "Song of the Tripod" and the "Chart of the Bright Mirror" of the Zhouyi cantong qi; CT 1003), 6b8a.
This prompted Bao Huanzhi to collate as many editions as possible of the Fenzhang tong zhenyi, and produce what he believed would be a critical edition. For the main text of the Cantong qi he based himself on Zhu Xi's redaction, while for Peng Xiao's own notes he relied on Zheng Huan's edition. He followed, however, other editions when they agreed with each other against Zhu Xi and Zheng Huan. Another rule that informed his work was to leave the main text unaltered when a passage differed from a quotation of the same passage within the commentary. Based on two examples that Bao himself provides of his alterations, Peng Xiao's original text was definitely closer to the Tang text of the Cantong qi than it is now. Being substantially the same as the one in the Daozang , all other available editions of the Fenzhang tong zhenyi are based on Bao Huanzhi's revision, and none preserves the original text established by Peng Xiao. Further evidence of alterations is provided by a quotation from the lost commentary by Zhang Sui, who lived one century after Peng Xiao (CT 1003: 1a). The Fenzhang tong zhenyi, nevertheless, maintains its standing as a watershed between the earlier and the later redactions of the Cantong qi, for many of which it served as textual basis. Works Quoted
Sources
Jingdian shiwen [Lexicon of the Classics; early seventh century]. Baojing tang ed., 1791. Longhu huandan jue [Instructions on the Reverted Elixir of the Dragon and the Tiger;
early Song]. CT 909. Shuowen jiezi [Explication of the signs and analysis of the characters; 100 CE]. Ed. of
1873. Zhengao [Declarations of the Perfected; ca. 500 CE]. CT 1016. Zhouyi cantong qi [Token for Joining the Three According to the Book of Changes]. CT
999. [Commentary attributed to Yin Changsheng.] Zhouyi cantong qi dingqi ge mingjing tu [The "Song of the Tripod" and the "Chart of the Bright Mirror" of the Zhouyi cantong qi]. CT 1003. Studies
Meng Naichang. 1993. Zhouyi cantong qi kaobian [An inquiry into the Zhouyi cantong qi]. Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe. Seidel, Anna. 1983. "Imperial Treasures and Taoist Sacraments: Taoist Roots in the Apocrypha." In Michel Strickmann, ed., Tantric and Taoist Studies in Honour of Rolf A. Stein, II: 291-371. Bruxelles: Institute Belge des Hautes Études Chinoises. Sivin, Nathan. 1980. "The Theoretical Background of Elixir Alchemy." In Joseph Needham, Ho Ping-yü, Lu Gwei-Djen, and Nathan Sivin, Science and Civilisation in China, vol. V: Chemistry and Chemical Technology, part 4: Apparatus, Theories and Gifts, 210-305. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Strickmann, Michel. 1981. Le Taoïsme du Mao Chan: Chronique d'une révélation. Paris: Collège de France, Institut des Hautes Études Chinoises. Suzuki Yoshijirô. 1963. Kan Eki kenkyû [A study of the Book of Changes in the Han period]. Revised ed., Tokyo: Meitoku shuppansha. Wang Liqi. 1984. "Chenwei wulun" [Five essays on the apocrypha]. In Yasui Kôzan, ed., Shin'i shisô no sôgôteki kenkyû [Collected studies on the thought of the apocrypha], 37994. Tokyo: Kokusho kankôkai. Wang Ming. 1984. "Zhouyi cantong qi kaozheng" [An examination of the Cantong qi]. In Daojia he daojiao sixiang yanjiu [Studies on Taoist thought], 241-92. Beijing: Zhongguo shehui kexue chubanshe. First published in Guoli zhongyang yanjiuyuan lishi yuyan yanjiusuo jikan 19 (1948): 325-66.
Yasui Kôzan and Nakamura Shôhachi, eds. 1981. Isho shûsei [Complete collection of apocryphal texts]. Vol. 1A. Tokyo: Meitoku Shuppansha. Yu Jiaxi. 1958. Siku tiyao bianzheng [Critical review of the descriptive notes in the Complete Texts of the Four Repositories]. Beijing: Zhonghua shuju.
Commentaries to the Zhouyi cantong qi in the Taoist Canon Fabrizio Pregadio Stanford University, Department of Religious Studies Adapted from Zhouyi cantong qi: Dal Libro dei Mutamenti all'Elisir d'Oro (Venezia: Cafoscarina, 1996), pp. 21-33. 1. The Anonymous Waidan Commentary
While Peng Xiao's commentary of 947 CE is often indicated as the earliest extant exegesis of the Cantong qi, Chen Guofu was the first scholar to suggest that the anonymous waidan commentary In the Daozang (Taoist Canon; CT 1004) dates from between the end of the seventh and the middle of the eighth century (Chen Guofu 1983: 377-78). Its two juan correspond to the first juan of Peng Xiao's redaction, but the preface describes the text as divided into three parts; the last is the "Five Categories" ("Wu xianglei"), which is said to consist of explications on the first two parts. This shows that the commentary originally included the entire text of the Cantong qi. Zhouyi cantong qi zhu (CT 1004), 1.2a. That this work once contained the whole Cantong qi is also shown by a note in 1.20a, where a sentence found in the third and last juan, or pian, of the present version (in Peng Xiao's zh. 89) is quoted as coming from the "last pian."
In addition to citations of place names officially adopted between 686 and 760, on which Chen Guofu has based his dating, other details support his suggestion. No text or author quoted in the commentary can be assigned a date as late as the Tang period. The evidence of tabooed characters is not unequivocal, but words that formed the personal names of Taizong (r. 626-49) and Gaozong (r. 649-83) are often found to be avoided or replaced. Meng Naichang (1993: 28-29) has provided another substantial indication, pointing out that a sentence in the preface is quoted in two Tang texts. Two out of five occurrences of shi (part of the personal name of Taizong) are replaced with su in the main text (1.42a and 2.31a; they are not replaced in 2.21a, 2.26a and 2.30a). Both characters, however, appear in the commentary (1.42b, 2.6a-8a passim, 16b, 2.22b, 2.26a, 2.29a, 2.30a, 2.31a). One of three occurrences of zhi (part of the personal name of Gaozong) is replaced with li in the main text (1.34b). In the two other cases (2.26b and 2.36a), zhi appears in the compound daozhi, a frequent mistake for daoye "to pound (a mineral substance)" in the received versions of alchemical and pharmacological texts. The same is true for its synonym yanzhi in the commentary (1.35a), a variant for
yanye. This would leave only one occurrence of zhi in the whole commentary (also in 1.35a). In contradiction with any clear pattern, however, this redaction of the Cantong qi has zhi (2.26b) in a sentence where other redactions read either fei or zhi.
Taken together, the available evidence suggests that the anonymous two- juan commentary dates from around 700 CE. The contents of the commentary support this dating. The work interprets several passages of the Cantong qi as dealing with a leadmercury compound called Elixir of Correct Yang (zhengyang dan ). It also describes methods of other elixirs, and provides instructions on the furnace and other instruments. The anonymous author summarizes one of the lead-mercury recipes and the method of the luting mud for the crucible from the Scripture of the Nine Elixirs . Acquaintance with the corpus of writings attributed to Hugang zi, dating to the Six Dynasties, is reflected in a quotation of the Wujin fen tujue (Illustrated Instructions on the Powders of the Five Metals) and a mention of the Nine-cycled Essence of Lead, the method of which was found in another work of that corpus. These references, selected out of several others, suggest that the anonymous commentary may be a late product of the southern waidan traditions centered around the Cantong qi in the Six Dynasties. One of the clearest statements on the Elixir of Correct Yang is in 1.16b-17a; see also 1.13a ("Gold is the Elixir of Correct Yang"), 2.6a, and 2.34b-35b. For other elixir recipes see, for example, 2.24b-25a, and on the furnace 2.2b. For the lead-mercury recipe see the passage in 2.12b-13a, which concerns the Liquid Pearl ( liuzhu) or Talisman of Heaven and Earth ( tiandi zhi fu). The method of this elixir is in Huangdi jiuding shendan jingjue (CT 885) 1.6a. On the luting mud see 2.3a, and Huangdi jiuding shendan jingjue 1.3b-4a. The Scripture of the Nine Elixirs is also mentioned in 2.45a. The Wujin fen tujue is quoted as Wujin jue in 2.24a, and the Essence of Lead is mentioned in 2.12b.
2. The Yin Changsheng Commentary
Not long before or after 700 CE, another anonymous author wrote the second Tang exegesis of the Cantong qi preserved in the Taoist Canon. Attributed to the immortal Yin Changsheng, this work (CT 999) is distinguished by a close cosmological interpretation, but incidental references to actual practices show that it originated in a waidan context. It quotes several times the Yisi zhan (Divinations of the yisi Year) by the early Tang cosmologist, Li Chunfeng (fl. 633-65). As no source later than this is mentioned in the whole text, Chen Guofu (1983: 377) suggested that the commentary must date from the seventh century. The only feature in disagreement with this dating is the presence of the "Song of the Tripod" in a separate section at the end of the text, for according to a statement by Peng Xiao, this was an innovation resulting from his own editorial work. References to waidan practices include, for instance, drawing images of the deities of the four directions on the four sides of the furnace (1.10a, and 1.35b for the image of the vermilion bird); ingesting a small quantity of the elixir (1.32b); and refining lead into "white lead" ( fen, for hufen; 1.37a). For quotations of the Yisi zhan see 1.22b, 1.23a, 1.24a, 1.25b, and 2.2b. Peng Xiao's statement on the "Song of the Tripod" is in his Zhouyi cantong qi dingqi ge mingjing tu (CT 1003), 1a.
Nonetheless, other definite evidence points to a Tang date. In particular, the text follows the pattern of the anonymous waidan commentary in either replacing or leaving unaltered
characters forming the personal names of Taizong and Gaozong. These correspondences are part of the textual kinship of the two works. Taking as a unit the smallest sections in which the text of the Cantong qi can be divided -- its individual sentences -- the Yin Changsheng and the anonymous waidan redaction differ altogether about two hundred times from the text established by Peng Xiao. Of these variants, slightly more than one third are shared by both works. In a significant portion of the other instances the Yin Changsheng and the anonymous redaction vary from each other in minor details. As shown by Meng Naichang (1993: 5-30), moreover, quotations from the Cantong qi in Tang works correspond to the readings of the two Tang redactions. As shown below, the received editions of Peng Xiao's redaction include readings drawn from Zhu Xi's redaction. This, however, does not conflict with the present argument, since the two Tang redactions agree with each other whether or not Peng Xiao's readings are derived from Zhu Xi.
3. The Commentary by Peng Xiao and the Anonymous Neidan Commentary
A native of Yongkang in present-day Sichuan, Peng Xiao (zi Xiuchuan, hao Zhenyi zi, ?955) changed his original surname, Cheng, into Peng out of reverence for the immortal Pengzu. His identification with this paragon of antiquity, who practiced self-cultivation without disregard for official duties, is not due to chance, for Peng Xiao served the Shu dynasty as Magistrate of the Jintang district, and was later appointed Vice Director of the Ministry of Rites and Military Supervisor of the Shu Prefecture. In addition to the Zhouyi cantong qi fenzhang tong zhenyi (Real Meaning of the Zhouyi cantong qi, with an Arrangement into Paragraphs; CT 1002), his works include the extant Huandan neixiang jin yaoshi (Golden Key to the Inner Images of the Reverted Elixir) and a lost commentary to the Yinfu jing (Scripture of the Hidden Accordance). His exegesis of the Cantong qi was held in high esteem within the Southern lineage (Nanzong) of Song Taoism, as shown, for instance, by frequent quotations in commentaries to the Wuzhen pian associated with that lineage. Its circulation was also aided by an edition printed by Wang Gang around 1250. The above information on Peng Xiao is collected from his biographies in the Sandong qunxian lu (CT 1248), 12.21b-22a, and the Lishi zhenxian tidao tongjian (CT 296), 43.7b-8a (under "Cheng Xiao"). No details about Peng Xiao's lineage are available. The Golden Key is preserved in the Yunji qiqian, 70.1a-14a. On Wang Gang see Song shi (History of the Song Dynasty), 408.12304-09; his edition is mentioned in Zhizhai shulu jieti (Catalogue of Books at the Zhizhai Studio, with Explanatory Notes), 12.345-346.
Peng Xiao submitted the text of the Cantong qi to a substantial rearrangement. According to his preface, he divided it into ninety zhang , corresponding to the number 9 emblematic of Great Yang, and placed the "Song of the Tripod" in a separate pian, matching the number emblematic 1 of Water (the Agent related to lead and to original Oneness). To the third and final juan of his commentary he appended the "Chart of the Bright Mirror" ("Mingjing tu"), a chart complete with explanatory notes that illustrates several cosmological devices used in the Cantong qi. In the Daozang edition, a postface indicating that the commentary was completed in 947 CE is printed with the "Song of the
Tripod," the "Eulogium," and the "Chart of the Bright Mirror" as a separate work entitled Zhouyi cantong qi dingqi ge mingjing tu (CT 1003). Both Peng Xiao's preface and the other extant editions of the Fenzhang tong zhenyi show that the two Daozang texts formed originally a single work. On the "Chart of the Bright Mirror" see Needham and Lu 1983: 55-59. See also the illustration and description of a similar chart drawn by Yu Yan in 1248 CE.
Peng Xiao does not mention the version of the Cantong qi at the basis of his redaction, but the text in the Yin Changsheng commentary must have been among those that served to the purpose. In his postface, he quotes a sentence from the preface to that commentary, which he must, therefore, have been acquainted with. Zhouyi cantong qi dingqi ge mingjing tu (CT 1003), 12b, quoting from Zhouyi cantong qi
(CT 999), preface, 3b. The re-edition by Bao Huanzhi
Comparison of Peng Xiao's text with the two Tang redactions shows that the variants he introduced consist, along with the division into zhang , of inversions and relocations of lines, and of a large number of substitutions of single words. The exact extent of these variations, however, is difficult to ascertain. This is implied in a postface written in 1208 by the astronomer Bao Huanzhi (fl. 1207-1210), which is preserved only in the Daozang edition. Zhouyi cantong qi dingqi ge mingjing tu, 6b-8a. The postface is found at the end of Peng Xiao's commentary to the Cantong qi, immediately before the "Chart of the Bright
Mirror."
In this valuable document, which has not yet received the attention it deserves, Bao praised the redaction by Peng Xiao as the best available at his time, but noted that it was not exempt from errors, and that its divisions into zhang were not always accurate. Due to later alterations, moreover, the copy preserved in the Imperial Library -- which Bao must have had access to when he worked at court -- differed from the other versions circulating by his time. Bao then goes on to remark that before him the text was revised by Zheng Huan, but his edition included many errors. Later Zhu Xi established a better text, but his divisions into zhang , as well as his commentaries, were occasionally faulty. This prompted Bao to collate as many editions as possible of the Fenzhang tong zhenyi, and produce what he believed would be a critical edition. As long as Bao Huanzhi consistently followed the criteria he himself laid down, the result was a complete blunder. For the main text of the Cantong qi he based himself on Zhu Xi's redaction, while for Peng Xiao's own notes he relied on Zheng Huan's edition. He followed, however, other editions when they agreed with each other against Zhu Xi and Zheng Huan. Another rule that informed his work was to leave the main text unaltered when a passage differed from the quotation of the same passage within the commentary. Based on two examples that Bao provides of his alterations, Peng Xiao's original text was
closer to the Yin Changsheng redaction -- i.e., to the Tang text of the Cantong qi -- than it is now. Bao gives two examples, relating to a line of zh. 2, and a line of zh. 63. In both cases, the sentences quoted in the commentary are virtually identical to those found in the Yin Changsheng redaction, while in the main text they are the same as those found in Zhu Xi's redaction.
Being substantially the same as the one in the Daozang , all other editions of the Fenzhang tong zhenyi are based on Bao Huanzhi's revision, and none preserves the original text established by Peng Xiao. Further evidence of alterations is provided by a quotation from the lost commentary by Zhang Sui, who lived one century after Peng Xiao. Zhouyi cantong qi dingqi ge mingjing tu, 1a. Zhang Sui's commentary is listed for the first time in the Junzhai dushi zhi (Reading notes from the Junzhai Studio), 16.754, which places his floruit in the Huangyou period (1049-1054) of the Song dynasty. Other passages are quoted in Ziyang zhenren wuzhen pian zhushu (CT 141), 3.10a and 7.10b. See also the Xiuzhen shishu commentary to the Wuzhen pian (CT 263), 26.6a and 26.7a.
The anonymous neidan commentary
The Fenzhang tong zhenyi, nonetheless, maintains its standing as a watershed between the earlier and the later redactions, for most of which it served as textual basis. The most closely related text is the one found in an anonymous neidan commentary, the Zhouyi cantong qi zhu (Commentary of the Zhouyi cantong qi; CT 1000). This work, preserved only in the Daozang and obviously written after Bao Huanzhi's alterations, follows the Fenzhang tong zhenyi so faithfully that it may serve to verify the accuracy of the Daozang edition of Peng Xiao's work. 4. The Commentary by Zhu Xi and the Commentary by Chu Yong
The most famous commentary of the Cantong qi outside the Taoist tradition is that by Zhu Xi (1130-1200). His Zhouyi cantong qi kaoyi (A Critical Investigation of the Zhouyi cantong qi; CT 1001) is the first of several works, written through the Qing period, testifying to the attention paid to this text by Neo-Confucians. Quotations in the Yixue qimeng (Instructing the Young in the Studies on the Changes), which bears a preface dated 1186, show that Zhu Xi's active interest in the Cantong qi arose in the last decades of his life. As he had done for the Yixue qimeng , for his composition of the Kaoyi he benefited from the advice of his friend and disciple Cai Yuanding (1135-98), an Yijing expert with whom he corresponded regularly on details of interpretation. The final version of the commentary certainly owes much to Cai, who closely examined the text with Zhu Xi in early 1197. The work was completed shortly thereafter, between the end of 1197 and the beginning of 1198. Zhuzi yulei (Classified Sayings of Zhu Xi), 107.2670; also quoted in Zhouyi cantong qi [kaoyi] (CT 1001), 3.8a-b. For more details on the genesis of Zhu Xi's commentary see
Azuma 1984, especially pp. 176-78. See also the bibliographic note in Wong Shiu Hon 1978.
The Kaoyi is also -- at least in principle, as we will see shortly -- the earliest extant exegesis based on a critical examination of different editions of the text. As Zhu Xi states in a postface, his redaction was inspired by the disappointing state of the text, due to alterations introduced throughout its history. Upon completing his work, Zhu Xi acknowledges that in the Cantong qi "there are still many dubious and obscure points." His appraisal of the high literary quality and difficulty of the text is recurrently quoted in later works: "The text of the Cantong qi is exquisite. It must have been written by a capable author of the Later Han. Its lexicon is grounded on ancient works, but being beyond the understanding of modern men, it has been interpreted in senseless ways." Zhuzi yulei, 125.3002; also in Zhouyi cantong qi [kaoyi], preface, 2b-3a.
The interpretation offered in the Kaoyi is primarily cosmological. The most detailed remarks are those on passages related to the system of the Book of Changes, often to the neglect of the alchemical import of the text. On the other hand, the junctures at which Zhu Xi inserted his comments are often more accurate than the divisions into zhang made by Peng Xiao. Zhu Xi does not state which editions of the Cantong qi provided the basis of his work. Textual comparison suggests that he relied on Peng Xiao, but accepted many readings of the Yin Changsheng redaction. He apparently introduced variants of his own, while others are shared with the Tang anonymous commentary in two- juan. The contours of this picture, however, are blurred both by Bao Huanzhi's remaniement of Peng Xiao's work, and by the presence of variants presumably derived from editions no longer extant. Among the sources that Zhu Xi may have used are the lost commentary by Yuan Shu (1131-1205), to which he wrote a colophon in 1197, and two other editions, which he refers to as the "Ji edition" and the "Qiu edition" with no other details. The colophon to the commentary by Yuan Shu -- the author of the Tongjian jishi benmo (Events in the Comprehensive Mirror Arranged in Chronological Order) -- is in Zhu Wengong wenji (Collected Writings of Zhu Xi), 84.31a-b. The "Ji" and the "Qiu" editions are mentioned in a letter to Cai Yuanding found in the "Xuji" section of the same work, 3.8a-b. Zhu Xi also quotes an anonymous commentary on 1.13b of his Kaoyi. The re-edition by Huang Ruijie
The Kaoyi was edited in the first half of the fourteenth century by Huang Ruijie ( zi Guangle, fl. 1335), who included it in his Zhuzi chengshu, an early collection of Zhu Xi's works. Huang himself provided an undated preface, and notes consisting of his own comments and of relevant quotations from other works of Zhu Xi. In addition to the Kaoyi, Huang knew Peng Xiao's commentary through the re-edition by Bao Huanzhi, whom he quotes in his preface and in a note attached to Zhu Xi's commentary. Apparently all editions of the Kaoyi include Huang Ruijie's additions, and therefore ultimately derive from his Zhuzi chengshu.
Zhouyi cantong qi [kaoyi ], preface, 1b, and 1.5a, respectively.
In clear contrast with its title, and with Zhu Xi's own statements in the postface, the commentary contains only a handful of critical notes. In other works, moreover, Zhu Xi points out variants and suggests emendations that are ignored in the Kaoyi. The case is strong enough to assume that an indefinite number of critical notes were expunged either by Huang Ruijie, or by someone before him. A confirmation in this regard is provided by Yu Yan, who, writing fifty years before Huang, states that he found it superfluous to duplicate variants already pointed out by Zhu Xi in his commentary -- hardly a necessary remark if the critical apparatus in the Kaoyi had been as exiguous as it is in the received version. On the emendations not found in the Kaoyi see the examples collected in Azuma 1984: 178-79 and note 10 (p. 189). Azuma, who does not mention Huang Ruijie and his editorial work, suggest that the postface may not be authentic. The small number of critical notes in the Kaoyi was also noticed by the editors of the Siku quanshu zongmu (General Catalogue of the Complete Works of the Four Repositories), 146.1294. Yu Yan's remark is in his Zhouyi cantong qi shiyi (CT 1006), preface, 3b. The commentary by Chu Yong
The Zhouyi cantong qi kaoyi did not enjoy any particular prestige within the Taoist tradition, but its text served as basis for the Zhouyi cantong qi zhu (Commentary of the Zhouyi cantong qi; CT 1008) by Chu Yong ( zi Wenqing, hao Huagu; early thirteenth century), whose work is preserved only in the Daozang . This neidan work, which bears no preface or postface, and includes an "Eulogium" ("Zan"), is distinguished by short, straightforward annotations, and by a sentence placed at the end of almost every zhang to summarize its central meaning. The text of the Cantong qi is clearly based on the Kaoyi. Chu Yong introduced some variants of his own, while most of the others are shared with Yin Changsheng edition, which Chu may have consulted independently from Zhu Xi's work. Chu Yong's is also known for his poetry and for a work entitled the Quyi shuo (Elucidations for Dispersing Doubts). See Siku quanshu zongmu, 121.1046.
5. The Commentary by Chen Xianwei
The Song edition of the Cantong qi most difficult to locate in the genealogy is the one established by Chen Xianwei ( zi Zongdao, hao Baoyi zi, ?-after 1254). The author was a native of Yangzhou (Jiangsu) and a daoshi of the Yousheng guan (Abbey of the Helping Saint) in Lin'an (Zhejiang). His Zhouyi cantong qi jie (Explication of the Zhouyi cantong qi; CT 1007) is one of three works preserved from a larger production, along with a commentary on the Guanyin zi (Book of Master Yin, the Guardian of the Pass; CT 728), completed and printed in 1254, and an undated edition of the Shenxian yangsheng bishu (Secret Arts of the Divine Immortals for Nourishing Life; CT 948), a heterogeneous collection of waidan methods and herbal recipes that includes early materials.
The Cantong qi jie bears an author's preface dated 1234. All we know about its background is found in a preface by Zheng Boqian (zi Jieqing), who was a lay disciple of Chen Xianwei and a teacher at the Prefectural School in Quzhou (mod. Zhejiang). According to this note, also dated 1234, Chen Xianwei first received alchemical teachings in 1223. Shortly thereafter he obtained the transmission of the Cantong qi, and retired for several years to study it. Zheng Boqian mentions three other works by his master, all of which are lost. Their titles are Lisheng pian (Essay on Establishing Sainthood), Xianwei zhiyan (Words Streaming from the Heart of Chen Xianwei) and Baoyi zi shu (Writings of the Master Who Embraces The One). Chen Xianwei refers once to the Lisheng pian in his Cantong qi commentary, 3.5a. Zheng Boqian is also known for an extant exegesis of the Zhouli entitled Taiping jingguo zhishu; see Siku quanshu zongmu (General Catalogue of the Complete Works of the Four Repositories), 19.151-152.
The commentary was printed in 1234 by Wang Yi, another lay disciple who also subsidized the publication of the Guanyin zi commentary. In all the received editions, Wang Yi's postface comes before a second colophon, dated 1245, written by a follower from Tiantai who had received the Cantong qi jie from Chen Xianwei. It is unlikely that either this follower or Wang Yi is the author of the section entitled "Cantong qi zhaiwei" ("Pointing out the Subtleties of the Cantong qi"), which follows the "Song of the Tripod" in the Daozang edition of the Cantong qi jie. This section, made of comments on the portion of text corresponding to part of zh. 36 and the whole zh. 37 in Peng Xiao's redaction, criticizes not only the interpretations given by Peng Xiao and Chu Yong, but also the interpretation given by Chen Xianwei himself. The Cantong qi jie is based on the text established by Peng Xiao, but no clear pattern emerges from its variants. This text includes several unique readings, while some of the variants suggest that Chen Xianwei may also have used the text found in the Yin Changsheng commentary, as well as Zhu Xi's Kaoyi. Titles of texts and personal names mentioned in the commentary do not offer any clues as to its sources. 6. The Commentary and the Textual Notes by Yu Yan
Although Yu Yan ( zi Yuwu; hao Quanyang zi, Linwu shanren, and Shijian daoren; 12581314), a native of present-day Suzhou, is sometimes said to have developed his interest in inner alchemy late in life, he wrote his Zhouyi cantong qi fahui (Clarification of the Zhouyi cantong qi; CT 1005) when he was in his middle twenties. By that time, according to his own statement, the commentary had already gone through three or four drafts. Zhouyi cantong qi shiyi (CT 1006), preface, 3b.
In addition to the exegesis of the Cantong qi, Yu Yan's works in the Taoist Canon include undated commentaries to the Yinfu jing (CT 125) and the Qinyuan chun (Spring at the Qin Garden; CT 136); the Xuanpin zhi men fu (Rhapsody on the Gate of the Mysterious
Female; CT 1010); and a work on the system of the Book of Changes entitled Yiwai biezhuan (The Separate Transmission of the Changes; CT 1009; preface dated 1284). The Yinfu jing commentary was written after the Fahui, as Yu Yan omits interpretation of a point saying (7b) that it is already discussed in his work on the Cantong qi. The commentary to the Spring at the Qin Garden (an alchemical poem attributed to Lü Dongbin) also dates from after 1284, as shown by Yu Yan's own postface, 3b-4a. After this postface is a note by Yu Zhongwen, who edited a lost collection of his father's works entitled Xuanxue zhengzong (Correct Principles of the Study of the Mysteries).
A full commentary on the Changes entitled Zhouyi jishuo (Collected Elucidations on the Book of Changes ) is among his other extant works. While the Jishuo gives an interpretation of the Book of Changes based on Zhu Xi's exegesis, Yu Yan points out in his preface to the Yiwai biezhuan that this work deals with the application of the system of the Changes to alchemy. In the Biezhuan, in fact, a series of charts illustrating the relation between the xiantian and the houtian is followed by passages of the Book of Changes, commented by way of quotations from the Cantong qi and other alchemical texts. On the Jishuo and the Biezhuan see Zhan Shichuang 1989: 83-96.
The Zhouyi cantong qi fahui was completed in 1284, the same year Yu Yan in which signed the preface of his Biezhuan. The first printed edition was honored by a preface by the thirty-eighth Celestial Master, Zhang Yucai (?-1316), written in 1310. Several editions that are readily available, or on which bibliographic information can be obtained by catalogues of Qing libraries, also include undated prefaces by Ruan Dengbing and by the eminent commentator of the Laozi, Du Daojian (1237-1318). The textual notes to the commentary were collected by Yu Yan in a final section of his work, separately printed in the Taoist Canon as Zhouyi cantong qi shiyi (Explication of Doubtful Points in the Zhouyi cantong qi; CT 1006). The Shiyi provides important details on the way Yu Yan established his redaction. Having remarked about the mistakes found in the redactions by Peng Xiao, Chen Xianwei, and other authors, Yu Yan goes on to say that he based his text on a "Shu edition," a "Yue edition," a "Ji edition" and on more than one unnamed Tang editions. Zhouyi cantong qi shiyi, preface, 3b.
Although these indications are vague, the mention of Tang editions among Yu Yan's sources is worthy of note. Most variants pointed out in the Shiyi as coming from the "old text" of the Cantong qi correspond to the readings of one or both the Tang redactions preserved in the Taoist Canon. Yu Yan's references to them as found in the "old text" is a further proof of the early date of the two Tang redactions. The other variants reported in the Shiyi are usually not attributed to specific authors or editions. Comparison of these notes and of Yu Yan's text to the other Daozang editions shows, nonetheless, that the Fahui is largely based on Zhu Xi's redaction.
The Zhouyi cantong qi fahui is firmly rooted in the textual legacy of the Southern and Northern lineages of Song Taoism. The works quoted most often in the commentary are those of the Southern lineage, including the Wuzhen pian, the Huandan fuming pian (Essay on Returning to One's Destiny by the Reverted Elixir; CT 1088) by Xue Daoguang (?-1191), the Cuixu pian (Essay by the Master of Emerald Emptiness; CT 1090) by Chen Niwan (?-1213), and the Jindan dacheng ji (Collection on the Great Achievement of the Golden Elixir) by Xiao Tingzhi (fl. 1260; now found in the Xiuzhen shishu or Ten Books on the Cultivation of Reality, CT 263). The Northern lineage is represented by works of its founder, Wang Chunyang (1112-1170), and its patriarchs, including Ma Danyang (1123-1183) and Qiu Changchun (1143-1227). In addition to these, Yu Yan draws from such works as the Yinfu jing , the Huangting jing (Scripture of the Yellow Court), the Ruyao jing (Mirror for Compounding the Medicine), and altogether no less than one hundred or so other texts. Works Quoted Sources
Junzhai dushi zhi [Reading Notes from the Junzhai Studio]. Chao Gongwu, 1151. Shanghai guji chubanshe ed., Junzhai dushu zhi jiaozheng (Shanghai, 1990). Siku quanshu zongmu [General Catalogue of the Complete Works of the Four Repositories]. Zhejiang edition, 1795. Repr. Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1983. Song shi [History of the Song Dynasty]. Zhonghua shuju ed. (Beijing, 1977). Zhizhai shulu jieti [Catalogue of Books at the Zhizhai Studio, with Explanatory Notes].
Chen Zhensun, ca. 1240. Ed. by Wang Xianqian (1842-1918). Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, 1987. Zhu Wengong wenji [Collected Writings of Zhu Xi]. Sibu congkan ed. Zhuzi yulei [Classified Sayings of Zhu Xi]. Zhonghua shuju ed. (Beijing, 1986). Studies
Azuma Jûji. 1984. "Shu Ki Shûeki sandôkei kôi ni tsuite" [On Zhu Xi's Zhouyi cantong qi kaoyi ]. Nippon Chûgoku Gakkai-hô 36: 175-90. Chen Guofu. 1983. Daozang yuanliu xukao [Further studies on the origins and development of the Taoist Canon]. Taipei: Mingwen shuju. Meng Naichang. 1993. Zhouyi cantong qi kaobian [An inquiry into the Zhouyi cantong qi]. Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe.
Needham, Joseph, and Lu Gwei-Djen. 1983. Science and Civilisation in China, vol. V: Chemistry and Chemical Technology, part 5: Spagyrical Discovery and Invention: Physiological Alchemy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Wong Shiu Hon. 1978. "Chou-i ts'an-t'ung ch'i chu." In Etienne Balasz and Yves Hervouet, eds., A Sung Bibliography (Bibliographie des Sung), 369-70. Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press. Zhan Shichuang. 1989. Nansong Jin Yuan de daojiao [Taoism in the Southern Song, Jin and Yuan periods]. Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe.
Tao Hongjing (456-536) Fabrizio Pregadio Stanford University, Department of Religious Studies Adapted from the unedited ms. of an article in Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology and Medicine in Non-Western Countries, ed. Helaine Selin (Dordrecht, 1996). The Taoist master, alchemist, and pharmacologist Tao Hongjing was born in 456 near present-day Nanjing. He served in various positions at the courts of the Liu Song and Qi dynasties until 492. In that year he retired on Mount Mao (Maoshan), the early seat of Shangqing or Highest Clarity, a Taoist tradition based on meditation and visualisation techniques (see Robinet 1993). The retreat he built on the mountain remained the centre of his activities until his death in 536. After his initiation into Taoism around 485, Tao set himself to recover the original manuscripts, dating from slightly more than one century before, that contained the revelations at the basis of the Shangqing tradition. Tao authenticated and edited those manuscripts, and wrote extended commentaries on them. This undertaking resulted in two works completed in ca. 500, the Zhengao (Declarations of the Perfected) and the Dengzhen yinjue (Concealed Instructions on the Ascent to Perfection, only partially preserved). These and other works make Tao Hongjing into the first systematizer of Shangqing Taoism, of which he became the ninth patriarch. During his retirement on Mount Mao, Tao Hongjing also worked on the Bencao jing jizhu (Collected Commentaries to the Canonical Pharmacopoeia), a commentary on the earliest known Chinese pharmacopoeia, the Shennong bencao (Canonical Pharmacopoeia of the Divine Husbandman). The original text contained notes on 365 drugs. To these Tao added 365 more, taken from a corpus of writings that he refers to as "Separate Records of Eminent Physicians." Tao's arrangement of the materia medica was innovative. He divided the drugs into six broad categories (minerals, plants, mammals, etc.), and retained the three traditional classes of the Shennong bencao only as subdivisions within each section. In a further group he classified the "drugs that have a name but are no longer used [in pharmacology]." Tao's commentary discusses the nomenclature, notes changes in
the geographical distribution, and identifies varieties; it also includes references to the Taoist "Scriptures of the Immortals" ( xianjing ) and to alchemical practices. With the exception of a manuscript of the preface found at Dunhuang, the Bencao jing jizhu is lost as an independent text, but has been reconstructed based on quotations in later sources. (See Needham 1986: 308-321; Unschuld 1986: 28-43.) Since the establishment of the Liang dynasty in 502, Tao enjoyed the favour of Emperor Wu (r. 502-549), on whom he exerted remarkable influence. Shortly later, he began to devote himself to alchemical practices under imperial patronage. His main biographical source, written in the Tang period, has left a vivid account of these endeavours (see Strickmann 1981). Along with scriptural sources they testify the importance of alchemy within the Shangqing tradition, which represents the first known instance of close links between alchemy and an established Taoist movement. References
Needham, Joseph. 1986. Science and Civilisation in China, vol. VI: Biology and Botanical Technology, part 1: Botany. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Robinet, Isabelle. 1993. Taoist Meditation: The Mao-shan Tradition of Great Purity. Albany: State University of New York Press. Strickmann, Michel. 1981. "On the Alchemy of T'ao Hung-ching." In Holmes Welch and Anna Seidel, eds., Facets of Taoism: Essays in Chinese Religion, 123-192. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. Unschuld, Paul. 1986. Medicine in China: A History of Pharmaceutics. Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University
Sun Simo (seventh century) Fabrizio Pregadio Stanford University, Department of Religious Studies Adapted from the unedited ms. of an article in Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology and Medicine in Non-Western Countries, ed. Helaine Selin (Dordrecht, 1996). The Chinese physician and medical author Sun Simo (alternative reading: Sun Simiao) was a native of Huayan, in present-day Shaanxi. His biography is so much a composite of fact and legend that it is impossible to either substantiate or invalidate his traditional dates (581-682). From official, autobiographical, and hagiographical sources it emerges that he retired at an early age on Mount Taibai (Taibai shan), not far from his birthplace. He repeatedly declined imperial summons and official titles, but was almost certainly in Emperor Gaozong's retinue from 659 to 674, when he retired on account of illness. He seems to have spent part of his life in Sichuan, which may explain why many legends that
concern him are located in that area. After his death he has been venerated as Yaowang or "King of Medicine" in temples dedicated to him. Sun Simo is the author of two of the most important Chinese medical compilations, the Qianjin fang (Prescriptions Worth a Thousand), also known as Beiji qianjing yaofang (Important Prescriptions Worth a Thousand, for Urgent Need), and the Qianjing yifang (Revised Prescriptions Worth a Thousand). The former, in thirty chapters, was completed soon after the middle of the seventh century (apparently in 652). The latter, also in thirty chapters, dates from the late seventh century. Both works are preserved in editions derived from versions published in the eleventh century, when they were edited to be used as textbooks in the Imperial Academy of Medicine. In these texts, Sun provides an extended compendium of traditional medical knowledge, arranged in sections dealing with such subjects as pharmacology, aetiology, gynecology, paediatrics, dietetics, acupuncture, moxibustion, and specific diseases. Both texts include a wide selection of prescriptions (about 5,300 in the Yaofang , about 2,000 in the Yifang ). (See Despeux 1987; Unschuld 1985: 42-45, 303-304.) Among many points of interests in these compilations, three deserve special mention. The first is the priority that Sun Simo accords to gynecology and paediatrics, the two branches of medicine which he deals first in both works. The second is the importance given to medical ethics, reflected in this well known passage from the first chapter of the Qianjin yaofang : "When someone comes to look for help, a doctor should not question rank or wealth, age or beauty, nor should he have personal feelings towards that person, his race, or his mental capacities. He should treat all his patients as equal, as though they were his own closest relatives." The influence of Sun's medical ethics spread beyond China, reaching Korea and Japan through quotations of relevant passages in texts of these two countries. A third aspect is Sun's relationship to Taoism and Buddhism. The nature of his involvement with the Way of the Celestial Masters (Tianshi Dao, the main liturgical tradition of Taoism) is debated. In the two chapters entitled "Book of Interdictions" ("Jinjing") of the Qianjin yifang , Sun quotes formulas used in exorcist rituals by the Celestial Masters. This raises the issue of how he obtained access to them. His interest in Taoism is also reflected in the chapter on "Nourishing the Vital Principle" ("Yangxing"), and in another extant text on physiological disciplines which is attributed to him, the Sheyang zhenzhong fang (Pillow Book of Methods for Preserving and Nourishing Life). (See Engelhart 1989.) Another source pointing to Sun's relationship to Taoism is the Taiqing danjing yaojue (Essential Instructions from the Scripture on the Elixirs of the Great Purity). This text -available in an excellent English translation (Sivin 1968) -- consists in a collection of alchemical methods derived from the Six Dynasties compilations centered around the now-lost Taiqing jing or Scripture of Great Clarity, one of the main early alchemical canons. Although Sun's authorship cannot be definitively proved, we know from his own witness that he was involved in the compounding of elixirs around 610 CE. Among the
medical disorders which he experienced, of which he left a first-hand account in his medical works, is intoxication due to elixir ingestion. (See Sivin 1967.) In addition to Taoism, recent research (Sakade 1992) has pointed out Sun Simiao's close connection with Buddhism. For example, Sun refers to Indian massage techniques, and mentions methods for the treatment of beriberi from works edited by Buddhist monks. He also introduced meditation in his medical practice, possibly under the influence of Tiantai disciplines. Moreover, the above-mentioned "Jinjing" section of the Qianjing yifang includes incantatory formulas in Sanskrit. The main factor behind these Buddhist elements may have been Sun's interest in the doctrines of the Huayan school. References
Despeux, Catherine. 1987. Préscriptions d'acuponcture valant milles onces d'or . Paris: Guy Trédaniel. Translation of the chapter on acupuncture of the Qianjing fang . Engelhart, Ute. 1989. "Qi for Life: Longevity in the Tang." In Taoist Meditation and Longevity Techniques, ed. Livia Kohn in collaboration with Yoshinobu Sakade. Ann Arbor: Center For Chinese Studies, University of Michigan, 263-296. Includes an extended summary of the Sheyang zhenzhong fang . Sakade Yoshinobu. 1992. "Sun Simiao et le Bouddhisme." Kansai Daigaku bungaku ronshû 42.1: 81-98. Sivin, Nathan. 1967. "A Seventh-Century Chinese Medical Case History." Bulletin of the History of Medicine 41: 267-273. Sivin, Nathan. 1968. Chinese Alchemy: Preliminary Studies. Cambridge (Mass.): Harvard University Press. Includes a biographical study of Sun Simo and an annotated translation of the Taiqing danjing yaojue. Unschuld, Paul. 1985. Medicine in China: A History of Ideas. Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press. See pp. 42-45, 303-304.
Chinese Alchemy: An Annotated Bibliography Fabrizio Pregadio Stanford University, Department of Religious Studies Updated version of "Chinese Alchemy: An Annotated Bibliography of Works in Western Languages," Monumenta Serica 44 (1996): 439-476. Contents
