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-and-One. 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 2.5a-8a 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.