Great Clarity: Daoism and Alchemy in Early Medieval China
Fabrizio Pregadio
xviii+368 pp
Stanford University Press, 2006
ISBN 0804751773

 

This is the first book to examine extensively the religious aspects of Chinese alchemy. Its main focus is the relation of alchemy to the Daoist traditions of the early medieval period (third to sixth centuries). It shows how alchemy contributed to and was tightly integrated into the elaborate body of doctrines and practices that Daoists built at that time, from which Daoism as we know it today evolved. The book also clarifies the origins of Chinese alchemy and the respective roles of alchemy and meditation in self-cultivation practices. It contains full translations of three important medieval texts, all of them accompanied by running commentaries, making available for the first time in English the gist of the early Chinese alchemical corpus.

The Introduction and Chapter 1 are freely available. If you are affiliated with Stanford University, you can read the entire book online.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
List of Tables
Conventions
Preface

Introduction

Part One: THE HEAVEN OF GREAT CLARITY AND ITS REVELATIONS
    1  The Early History of Chinese Alchemy and the Way of the Great Clarity
    2  The Heaven of Great Clarity
    3  The Great Clarity Corpus

Part Two: THE ELIXIRS OF THE GREAT CLARITY
    4  The Crucible and the Elixir
    5  The Ritual Sequence
    6  The Medicines of Great Clarity

Part Three: A HISTORY OF THE GREAT CLARITY
    7  Gods, Demons, and Elixirs: Alchemy in Fourth-Century Jiangnan
    8  The Way of the Great Clarity and Daoism in the Six Dynasties

Part Four: TEXTS OF THE GREAT CLARITY
    9  Scripture of The Nine Elixirs
    10  Scripture of the Golden Liquor
    11  Scripture of the Reverted Elixir in Nine Cycles

Part Five: THE LEGACY OF THE GREAT CLARITY
    12  The Later History of Chinese Alchemy and the Decline of the Great Clarity

Appendixes
    A  Dates of Texts in the Waidan Corpus
    B  Additional Notes on Great Clarity and Related Texts
    C  Additional Notes on the Commentary to the Scripture of the Nine Elixirs

Notes
Glossary
Works Quoted
Index