A Short Introduction to Chinese Alchemy
Fabrizio Pregadio
Stanford 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 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 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 that developed until the fifteenth 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, Farzeen 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 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 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 and Yang. Their re-union gives birth to the cosmos. When the process is completed, the cosmos is subject to the laws of cosmology. The adept's task is to retrace this process backwards. 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 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), 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, 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 on lead (Yin) and mercury (Yang). In external 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, chunyang) with which each being is fundamentally endowed, but is obscured (i.e., transmuted into 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 the Yin principle contained within Yang) is extracted and newly added to sulphur (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 of Yin, but, again, represents 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 on two corresponding points along an ascensional 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).
History
External alchemy. 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 jiuding shendan jing) and other texts dating from the first centuries CE, cinnabar is never the main ingredient of an elixir, and the lead-mercury 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 materia. The elixir can finally be transmuted into alchemical gold projecting a minute quantity of the native metal on it.
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.
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-.
Inner alchemy. While the Tang period is sometimes defined as the "golden age" of external alchemy, it also marked the stage of transition to inner alchemy. Among the forerunners of inner alchemy is the Shangqing (Supreme Purity) tradition of Taoism (see Tao 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.