Guizhong Zhinan — Chen Xubai's Manual of Inner Alchemy
This is a two-book manual of neidan (inner alchemy) attributed to Chen Chongsu (陳沖素), styled Xubaizi ("Master Empty-White"), of the Yuan dynasty (1271–1368). The Daozang's own catalogue headnote admits that little is known of the author's life, and even wonders whether he is the same person as the better-documented alchemist Chen Zhixu — a question this translation leaves open, as the source does. The text is preserved in the Zhengtong Daozang (the Ming-dynasty printing of the Daoist Canon, completed 1445), in the Dongzhen section's category of methods, and was also collected in the later Qing-dynasty Chongkan Daozang Jiyao.
Book One moves through nine short chapters, each built from a terse prose instruction interleaved with verse — quatrains of the author's own and quotations from earlier masters of the alchemical tradition (Zhang Boduan, Bai Yuchan, Ma Danyang, and others) — tracing the path from stilling thought, through locating the body's "furnace and cauldron," to the shedding of the embryo and the merging of spirit with the void. Book Two turns to direct prose exposition of what it calls the "three essentials" of inner alchemy: the Mysterious Female, the Medicine, and the Fire Phases, closing with the author's own afterword.
A note on one term. The text's title turns on guizhong (規中), literally "within the compass" — 規 being a draftsman's compass for drawing circles, so that the phrase names an inward center circumscribed by an unseen circle, a term the author draws from the ancient Cantong qi. This translation keeps the phrase literal throughout, as "the center within the compass," rather than smoothing it into a single English abstraction, since the text itself plays on the pun between this compass (規) and the "guide" (指南, literally "pointing south," itself an old word for a compass) of its own title.
Translated for the Good Works Library directly from the classical Chinese of the Daoist Canon, which is printed in full below the translation. We know of no complete published English translation of this text; see the colophon below for what was checked.
Translation
Book One
First: Stilling Thought
(When essence is full, one does not think of sex; when qi is full, one does not think of food.)
Ears keen, eyes clear — a man's own body,
the Great Potter's Wheel endowed it; he is not poor.
Only by probing the Moon's Cave does he come to know the thing;
only by grasping Heaven's Root does he begin to know the man.
When Qian meets Xun, behold the Moon's Cave;
where Earth meets Thunder, see Heaven's Root.
Heaven's Root and the Moon's Cave, coming and going at ease —
in all Thirty-six Palaces it is spring.
When a thought arises, be aware of it at once; once aware, it is gone. The wondrous gate of cultivation lies in this alone. This method has nothing more to it: it teaches one to refine one's thoughts. If a single hair's-breadth remains unspent, where will you find the trail to follow?
Now "no-thought" does not mean being like earth, stone, grass, or tree — an insensate lump without feeling. Rather, the thought of no-thought is called right mindfulness. When right mindfulness stands before you, turn the light around and shine it back: let spirit govern qi, let qi return to spirit. When spirit congeals and qi binds fast, mercury and lead are formed.
Firmly seize the horse of intention, chain the monkey of the heart;
slowly, steadily, apply the work of refining mercury and lead.
The Great Way teaches one first to still thought —
if thought does not stop, the work is all in vain.
Second: Gathering the Medicine
When the heart-mind moves, spirit does not enter qi (nourish the heart-mind in silence); when the body moves, qi does not enter spirit (congeal spirit and forget the body). Now, to gather the medicine is to gather the medicine within the body. The medicine within the body (spirit, qi, and essence) — the method of gathering it is called collecting body and mind, storing away spirit and qi. When the heart-mind does not move, spirit and qi are whole; then one may settle the furnace and set up the cauldron, and boil and refine the divine elixir.
Third: Recognizing the Furnace and Cauldron
The Mysterious Female: The Perfected submerges in the deep abyss, floats and drifts, guarding the center within the compass.
Now the Mysterious Female is white like silk floss, joined like a ring; a space one inch and two-tenths across, and holds within it the essential purity of the whole body.
If you would have the valley spirit live long and never die,
you must rely on the Mysterious Female to establish the root and base.
Once the true essence has returned to the Chamber of Gold,
a single bright pearl will never again depart.
Fourth: Inserting the Medicine and Raising the Fire
Heart and Kidneys: spirit is the fire; qi is the medicine.
Take the solid center from the position of Kan,
and transmute the yin within the belly of the Li palace.
From this, the body is transformed into the vigor of Qian,
and hidden submersion or soaring flight, all follow from the heart-mind.
Fifth: The Mating of Kan and Li
Pursue the two qi along the Yellow Road; gather the three natures in the Primal Palace. The lead-dragon rises, the mercury-tiger descends — drive the two things together, and do not let them loose.
Now the mating of Kan and Li is also called the Lesser Celestial Circuit. It is witnessed within the hundred days of establishing the foundation: water and fire rise and fall within the central palace, yin and yang mix and merge within the elixir cauldron; clouds gather and rain scatters, qi binds and spirit congeals — when you see this, it is the proof.
The Perfected Ziyang said:
Once dragon and tiger meet, they cling to one another in longing;
once Kan and Li couple, the embryo is at once formed.
A double handful, warm and flowing, is the marrow of Heaven and Earth —
set your intent to seek it out, and sip it in.
Sixth: The Mating of Qian and Kun
Upper Gate (the Niwan).
Center (the Yellow Court) (the Central Palace).
Lower Gate (fire rising from within) — broadly the same as the other diagrams.
Within, there is a time of mating; without, there is also a mating —
the Three Passes open through, and no labor is needed.
From the elixir field all the way to the crown of the Niwan,
the river chariot circles freely, hundreds of times over.
Master Langran said:
Through the spine's double pass, up through the crown gate —
of all the paths of cultivation, this one is foremost.
Swallow again and again the divine water of the Flowery Pond;
the Primal Lord of the Purple Residence rushes straight upward.
Constantly let the qi surge through and pierce every joint,
and naturally the essence will be full and the valley spirit will abide.
On the day you gain the road into the vast empty sky,
you must be grateful to the one who first showed you the way.
Now the mating of Qian and Kun is also called the Greater Celestial Circuit; it is witnessed after the mating of Kan and Li, for the medicine has already been born, and it is here that it emerges. An old formula says: "Li rises from beneath Kan; Dui is born within the cauldron." Li is fire; Kan is water; Dui is metal; metal is the medicine. What this teaching means is that one raises the fire within the water, to refine the medicine within the cauldron. Zhuangzi said: "Within water there is fire; from this the great clod is formed." Yuchan said: "A single point of true yang is born within Kan, and fills in what is lacking in the palace of Li; creation and transformation make no sound — fire arises within water, and the wonder lies in the Void-and-Danger acupoint." The Perfected Danyang said: "When fire breaks forth within water, the scene of the resting heart-mind; when blossoms open within snow, the spring of extinguished intention." Such is the proof and verification of it.
At this time, the spine is like a turning wheel, the four limbs like mountain stone, the two kidneys like boiling soup, the bladder hot as fire. Within a single breath, the workings of Heaven stir of themselves — moving gently, rising silently. With the faintest touch of intention, settle the breath, answering the pivot and hinge of creation and transformation; then metal and wood merge and blend of themselves, water and fire rise and fall of themselves. Suddenly a single point, large as a millet-pearl, falls into the midst of the Yellow Court. Still using the working of gathering lead and casting in mercury, within a hundred days one forms a single day's elixir.
At this time, body and heart-mind are merged into one, equal to the empty void. One no longer knows the body as oneself, or oneself as the body; nor does one know spirit as qi, or qi as spirit. Such creation and transformation is neither contemplation nor deliberate action — it is spontaneously so, and one does not even know why it is so. The Chapter on Returning to the Mandate says:
The mud-snake at the well's bottom dances the willow branch;
through the window the bright moon shines on plum and pear.
In the night, the primal chaos tumbles down to earth —
the ten thousand forms, thick and manifold, all unknown.
Seventh: Gathering the Fire Phases
(Qian: Above it props up heaven, below it props up earth. This very thing is the cauldron and the vessel. Once you know where to put your hand, the work becomes easy.)
Zi (new moon) / Zi — hexagram Fu (Return): guard the treasury, do not yet act. Initial nine: "The submerged dragon; do not act." (One yang is born; one should hold to stillness. Let intention be sincere, let the heart-mind be settled. The dragon's virtue lies hidden in submersion; do not advance rashly.)
Chou / Chou — hexagram Lin (Approach): advance the fire, take up position. Nine at the second: "The dragon appears in the field." (Fan the wind of Xun, turn the work of the fire; in an instant the cauldron is filled with red. The dragon appears in the field, its light fills the whole void.)
Yin / Yin — hexagram Tai (Peace): add fire, hold the wall. Nine at the third: "All day long vigorous, vigorous." (Heaven and earth intercourse, yin and yang made equal; mercury eight ounces, lead half a pound. The fair maiden gathers in her sleeves; the infant looks up and follows.)
Mao (first-quarter moon) / Mao — hexagram Dazhuang (Great Strength): bathe in the deep abyss. Nine at the fourth: "Now leaping, now in the deep." (Fire governs fire, metal conquers wood; at this time one should bathe. Now leaping, now in the deep — hold to sincerity, be watchful when alone.)
Chen / Chen — hexagram Guai (Resolution). Nine at the fifth: "The flying dragon is in the heavens."
Si / Si — hexagram Qian (pure yang, the Creative). Highest nine: "The dragon that has overreached has cause for regret."
Wu / Wu — hexagram Gou (Coming to Meet). First six.
Wei / Wei — hexagram Dun (Retreat). Six at the second.
Shen / Shen — hexagram Pi (Standstill). Six at the third.
You / You — hexagram Guan (Contemplation). Six at the fourth. (Mercury wants to fly, lead wants to flee — at this time one must guard carefully. Take the bottomless sack, and bind fast its mouth.)
Xu / Xu — hexagram Bo (Splitting Apart): withdraw the fire, return to position. Six at the fifth: "Yellow lower garment; great good fortune." (Empty the heart-mind, fill the belly; hold to stillness and await the yang's return. In an instant of motion, the number of the whole celestial circuit is complete.)
Hai / Hai — hexagram Kun (the Receptive): wild battle, guard stillness. Highest six: "Dragons do battle in the wilds." (The massed yang is stripped away; the light of the elixir is complete; the utmost essence congeals; the primal qi comes to rest. Gather it in and dwell at the center — yellow lower garment, great good fortune.)
Nurturing the Fire: Once yin is hidden away, yang is born once more. At this point you must guard against it — should you meet with the wild battle, "their blood is black and yellow."
Eighth: The Yang Spirit Sheds the Embryo
Overturn the cauldron, kick over the furnace — the work is complete, and the mysterious pearl is born. Return to the root, restore the mandate; hold fast to the origin, and go back to the void.
Three hundred days of fire; a thousand days of the embryo. The heart-mind leaves the body, suddenly going, suddenly coming. Looking back at the old bones, they are but a heap of dung and earth. For ten paces, a hundred paces, one must take the utmost care.
The child is young and small, not yet grown into a person;
it must rely on the kindness of father and mother, who raise and nourish it.
After nine years and three, all human affairs are done —
it ranges freely through Heaven and Earth, no longer bound to its parents.
Ninth: Forgetting Spirit, Merging with the Void
To have a spirit outside the body is still nothing extraordinary; only when the empty void is shattered to powder does the whole body stand revealed.
Of the Most High's mysterious gate, few there are who know it;
mystery upon mystery — in the end it is no different from suchness itself.
Take the sun and moon and return them to their primal image;
leap free of the carriage-frame and behold the Great Void.
When refining reaches the point where form and spirit are both wondrous,
then at last you know the time before your father and mother were ever born.
Who is it that transmits this news?
The wordless Master told it to me.
The Perfected Zhang, in the tune "Undoing the Girdle-Pendant":
The yang spirit leaves the body, dim and deep, dark and hidden.
In an instant it wanders through all Three Isles.
Once its coming and going are fully mastered, restrain it,
and seek out some further mystery and wonder.
Merge with true emptiness — then the whole matter of the void is done.
— End of Book One —
Book Two
The Three Essentials of Inner Alchemy
Inner alchemy has three essentials: the Mysterious Female, the Medicine, and the Fire Phases. The scriptures and treatises on the elixir pluck out riddling words for these — "yellow silk, young wife" — and readers are left bewildered by them. I will now speak plainly and at length, laying it bare for all the world; though my words run on in detail, my intent is only to make it clear. Word for word, these are the true instructions, shown as if heart and liver were laid open to view. I will let slip the hidden mechanism of creation and transformation, and thread through the very marrow of yin and yang — the secret that has gone untransmitted from ancient times to now lies entirely here. When the whale has swallowed the whole sea dry, the branch of coral stands revealed.
Diagram of the Mysterious Female
Before the primal chaos was born, the chaos itself was round;
the news within it cannot be passed on in words.
Split open the aperture, and within the aperture is another aperture;
tread through Heaven, and within Heaven is another Heaven beyond Heaven.
Only when the Dipper's handle turns backward does its image appear;
only when the starlight turns and shines back does one become immortal.
The morning you fish up the moon from the heart of the pool,
you will see clean through the wall-facing meditation of the barbarian monk.
Diagram of the Medicine
On the peak of the Mountain of Five Aggregates, much white snow lies;
deep within the white clouds, the medicine's sprout is fragrant.
The Buddha King of Awe-Inspiring Sound plants it in season;
the Celestial Worthy of Primordial Beginning bends down to till it.
The stone maiden rides a dragon to seek the rain-ripened fruit;
the wooden man mounts a tiger to pluck the frost-touched greens.
Rich or poor, it makes no difference — every household has it;
gather it and bring it home, and it weighs, together, one pound.
Diagram of the Fire Phases
The rankless Perfected refines the Great Elixir;
a long sword leaned against the sky presses close with its chill.
In the jade furnace, fire tempers the Celestial Worthy's very marrow;
in the golden cauldron, boiling water cooks the Buddha-patriarch's liver.
Through a hundred graduations of cold and warm, precision is kept amid the labor;
the six line-positions, civil and martial, are watched in stillness.
Should anyone ask after the true cauldron and furnace —
how could it be apart from this very lump of red flesh, here and now?
The Mysterious Female
The Wuzhen pian says: "If you would have the valley spirit live long and never die, you must rely on the Mysterious Female to establish the root and base. Once the true essence has returned to the Chamber of Gold, a single bright pearl will never again depart." Now there is a single aperture within the body called the Mysterious Female. It receives qi and thereby gives life; it is in truth the residence of spirit, the place where the Three Origins gather, with no distinction among them. Essence, spirit, hun-soul, and po-soul all meet at this one point. It is the root by which the golden elixir returns, the place where the immortals congeal and form the sagely embryo.
The ancients called it: the stem of the Supreme Ultimate, the handle of what precedes Heaven, the ancestor of the void and nothingness, the root of primal chaos, the valley of the great emptiness, the source of creation and transformation, the aperture of returning to the root, the pass of restoring the mandate, the gate of Wu and Ji, the chamber of Geng and Xin, the door of Jia and Yi, the southwestern quarter, the place of the true one, the chamber of the central yellow, the residence of the cinnabar origin, the altar of guarding the one, the crescent-moon furnace, the cinnabar cauldron, the cavern of dragon and tiger, the dwelling of the Yellow Dame, the lead furnace and earthen crucible, the divine water of the Flowery Pond, the divine chamber of the Sovereign One, the Vermilion Palace of the Numinous Terrace — all of these are one and the same place.
Yet if you seek it within the body, it is not the mouth, not the nose; not the heart, not the kidneys; not the liver, not the lungs; not the spleen, not the stomach; not the navel-wheel; not the tailbone gate; not the bladder; not the anus; not the single point midway between the two kidneys; not the point one inch and three-tenths below the navel; not the Bright Hall or the Niwan; not the Pass of the Barrier Origin or the Sea of Qi. Where, then, is it? I say: my own wondrous instruction calls it the center within the compass. When a single intention does not scatter, the embryo-immortal is formed.
The Token says: "The Perfected submerges in the deep abyss, floats and drifts, guarding the center within the compass." This is the place.
Laozi said: "Many words exhaust their reckoning; better to hold to the center." It lies precisely beneath Qian and above Kun, west of Zhen and east of Dui — the region where Kan and Li, water and fire, mate and couple. It is the exact center of Heaven and Earth within the single body of a person; the Eight Vessels and Nine Apertures, the channels and networks, all converge and gather toward it. An empty, idle aperture, a millet-pearl suspended in space — it does not stand by relying on form, but lives only by embodying the Way. It seems to exist, seems not to exist; as if gone, as if present; without inside, without outside — within it, Heaven and Earth themselves. The yellow center penetrates all pattern; the true position dwells within the body.
The Classic of Documents says: "Be discerning, be undivided; hold fast to the mean."
The Duren jing says: "At the center, order the Five Qi; blend and merge the hundred spirits." Elder Cui called it "piercing through the tailbone gate and reaching the Niwan"; Chunyang called it "tracing all the way back to the very beginning, when the body first received its qi."
Pingshu said: "I urge you to trace all the way back to the place where the body was born" — this is the very place from which primal qi arises, from which the true breath first stirs. Hence Yuchan also called it "the place where a thought first moves." If a cultivator of the elixir does not understand this aperture, the true breath will not settle, and spirit's transformation will have no foundation. Moreover, this one aperture is born before Heaven, and joined after Heaven; the qi of before and after are together one primal chaos. Deep and dim, obscure and dark — within it there is essence; hazy and indistinct — within it there is a thing. But this thing is no ordinary thing, and this essence is no ordinary essence. Heaven obtains it and thereby is clear; Earth obtains it and thereby is at peace; man obtains it and thereby is numinous.
The Perfected Tan said: "Attain the gate of vast qi, and thereby return to your root; know the pouch of the primal spirit, and thereby sheathe its light. Guard it as a clam guards its inside; store it as a rock stores its interior — thereby it becomes the chamber of pearl and jade." All of these are true teachings. Yet this one aperture has no edge or border, and further has no inside or outside. If you seek it by physical form or visible image, you will fall into grave error.
Hence it is said: it cannot be grasped by resorting to non-action; it cannot be given shape by resorting to deliberate action; it cannot be fixed by resorting to contemplation; it cannot be pinned down by resorting to conscious holding. The sages' images and figures, as they appear in the elixir scriptures — some call it a lofty mound rising within mystery, shaped like the flask of Penglai, its gate closed and hidden, spirit circulating within it. Some call it shaped like a hen's egg, black and white supporting one another, an inch in breadth at the start, and after a full term of ten months, breaking free of its shell. Some call it white as bleached silk, joined like a ring, an inch and two-tenths square, holding within it the essential purity of the whole body.
These make plain the essentials of the Mysterious Pass, and reveal the working of creation and transformation. But students who do not probe its mystery nor fathom its depth, when they set to work, simply hold to it as if it were the flask of Penglai, preserve it as if it were the hen's egg, imagine it as if it were the linked ring — taking the image as the thing itself, taking the shape as the thing itself, grasping what is provisional as if it were real, and thereby lodging their spirit in delusion. Is this not a very grave error? One must understand: the single aperture of the Mysterious Pass, the gate of the Mysterious Female, is only what the immortals have used, for want of anything better, to point toward the foundation of creation and transformation.
Yuchan said: "It seems to exist, yet is not so — apart from your own body, where else could you settle it?" Yet in it, substance and function, weight and balance, are in themselves no different — just as Qian and Kun take Heaven and Earth as their model, and Li and Kan embody the sun and moon.
The Token says: "Where primal chaos joins together, the beginning plants its root and base; laboring to nourish the outer bounds, spirit congeals to form the body." Thus spirit and qi have somewhere to draw from, and hun and po do not scatter in disorder; turn the light around and shine it back, and at once it returns — never departing, even for a moment, always present here.
A verse says: "Laboring at the outer bounds, the body rests on emptiness; simply let the primal spirit dwell within. Breath goes out, breath comes in, without a single break — the whole embryo is accomplished, joined again to the primal beginning." The meaning of the Mysterious Female is complete in this — and yet let us discuss it further.
Xinglin said: "The single aperture of the Mysterious Pass is the crucial crossroads of the Three Passes; once it stirs, lightly and of a sudden, the divine water flows of itself." And also: "The place below the heart and above the kidneys, west of the liver and center-left of the lungs — it is neither the intestines nor the stomach; a single qi flows through it of its own accord."
Now it is said that the single aperture of the Mysterious Pass, the gate of the Mysterious Female, lies at the exact center of Heaven and Earth within the one body of a person, and that creation and transformation truly converge and fit together here. I have examined these sayings closely, and on the whole they are fine and clear — yet they still fall short of pointing directly at it. Heaven does not begrudge the Way its transmission among men.
The Most High, in his compassion, will surely not be stingy or withhold. I therefore dare to let slip Heaven's secret in full, to point out the exact meaning of the Mysterious Pass, transgressing the prohibition to pass it on, so that flesh and bone may be joined as one. When a cultivator of immortality sees it, all at once it becomes clear; the heart-mind grasps it in silent understanding, and practices it in secret, and every line of it answers true. Wherever this book resides, spirit-beings will guard and protect it. But if one's karmic burden is heavy and one's blessings are thin, and one has no destined bond with the Way, then even should one happen by chance upon this instruction, or even see it directly, one will suddenly disbelieve it — no more than writing shown to the blind, or bells and drums sounded for the deaf. Mystery upon mystery — how could such a one ever know it? Its secret words say:
A substance an inch across, blending the Three Powers together — it lies above the kidneys and below the heart, somewhere dimly within; it is called the Mysterious Pass. It cannot be guarded with a mind that has intention; it cannot be sought with a mind that has no intention. Guard it with intention, and in the end you will never possess it; seek it without intention, and in the end you will see only its absence. How, then, can it be done? By letting the will be undivided, so that it congeals into spirit. Simply clarify the heart-mind, cut off all deliberation, regulate the breath until it is even, and keep a still and constant illumination, never letting it grow dull or scatter. Wait until the qi is calm and harmonious, and the Perfected enters stillness.
Within this stillness, contemplate the inner scene: the moment intention arrives, its first sign already sprouts, and you feel a single breath rising from the center within the compass — blurred and continuous, indistinct and surging. Hold it with sincerity, listen to it with the heart-mind. The six roots settle into stillness, the embryonic breath grows dense and congealed, neither held shut nor counted, but let entirely to itself. At the extreme of stillness it exhales, like a fish in a spring pond; at the extreme of motion it inhales, like the hundred insects in hibernation. Rich mingling, opening and closing — its wonder is without end.
After a little while of this, you must forget the qi and merge with spirit, returning wholly to primal chaos: carry emptiness to its utmost, hold stillness to its fullest, so that the heart-mind stirs no thought, comes and goes nowhere, exits and enters nowhere — clear and still, abiding forever. This is what is called "the Perfected breathes from the heels" — "heels" meaning that the breath goes deep, deep down. Spirit and qi intermingle and respond to one another: this is the sign of it.
What was said before — the place from which primal qi arises, the place from which true breath first stirs — is precisely where intention arrives, and there creation and transformation are seen. Where this breath arises is exactly the Mysterious Pass: not high, not low; not left, not right; not before, not behind; neither leaning one way nor the other — it is the exact center of Heaven and Earth within the one body of a person, and it is exactly this place. Gathering and taking place happens here; mating and coupling happens here; boiling and refining happens here; bathing happens here; warm nurturing happens here; the forming of the embryo happens here. The shedding of the embryo and spirit's transformation — none of it is anywhere but here.
Now if this is not made plain and spoken openly, students will surely guess wildly at its meaning — either overshooting it or falling short. The Perfected Ziyang said: "Though your wisdom surpass Yan Hui and Min Ziqian, without meeting an enlightened master, do not force a guess. It is only because the elixir scriptures give no oral instruction that they leave you nowhere to form the numinous embryo."
Yet this aperture opens with yang and withdraws with yin; it has, in itself, no fixed shape. When intention arrives, it opens; its opening and closing have their times. Within a hundred days one establishes the foundation and nurtures the mother of qi to completion; the empty chamber gives birth to whiteness, and one sees it of itself. Long ago the Yellow Emperor spent three months in inward contemplation — this was that very Way.
Below the navel, in the region between the intestines and stomach, lies what is called the gate of Fengdu, the underworld, the bureau of the Nine Shades — where yin filth accumulates and knots together, and true yang does not dwell. Hence in the various methods of Lingbao refinement and salvation, this is what is meant by "the dark pass" in contemplative visualization — how could it be the place of cultivation? Let students think on this earnestly.
The Medicine
An old song says: "May I ask, what is it that makes this body mine? It is nothing apart from essence, qi, and primal spirit. I will now speak plainly the principle of the body's birth: a single mysterious pearl is its true kin." Now spirit, qi, and essence are the three grades of the highest medicine. Refine essence into qi; refine qi into spirit; refine spirit to merge with the Way — this is the essential instruction of the Sevenfold Return and Ninefold Reversion.
Red lead and black mercury; wood's sap and metal's essence; cinnabar and quicksilver; white metal and black tin; the Metal Elder and the Yellow Dame; the Li maiden and the Kan youth; the grey tortoise and the red snake; the fire-dragon and the water-tiger; white snow and yellow sprout; the intercourse-pear and the fire-jujube; the golden crow and the jade hare; the Qian horse and the Kun ox; the sun's essence and the moon's radiance; heaven's hun and earth's po; the lead of the water region; the mercury of the golden cauldron; the metal within water; the wood within fire; yang within yin, yin within yang; the white within black; the female hidden within the male — the names differ, many and various, but all are figures of speech.
What, then, is meant by the medicine? I say: the essential work of the elixir lies in the Mysterious Female. To establish the Mysterious Female, first make firm the root and base; and the root of the root is the primal essence. Essence is itself what primal qi transforms into — hence essence and qi are one and the same. When primal spirit dwells within this, then the three are gathered into one.
Xinglin said: "The ten thousand things are born and then die; the primal spirit dies and is born again. Let spirit return within qi, and the way of the elixir accomplishes itself." Shi Jianwu said: "Qi is the medicine that adds to one's years; the heart-mind is the spirit that directs the qi. If you know the master that circulates the qi, you have already attained to being an immortal."
If essence grows empty, qi is exhausted; when qi is exhausted, spirit wanders off. The Yijing says: "Essence and qi make up a thing; the wandering hun becomes change." To wish, after this, to return to the root — is that not difficult indeed?
Master Yuxi said: "Take the primal qi not yet transformed from primal essence, and transmute it further; carried to its utmost, spirit becomes spirit indeed — possessed of light and brightness, changing beyond all reckoning. This is what is called spirit." All of this makes plain the medicine within the body; it is not spoken of by borrowing from anything outside.
And yet the producing of the medicine has its river-source; the gathering of the medicine has its season; the preparing of the medicine has its rule and measure; the inserting of the medicine has its creation and transformation; the refining of the medicine has its work of fire.
Long ago I heard from my teacher: "In the southwestern region, the earth is named the Yellow Court; hazy and indistinct, there is a thing there; dim and obscure, there is essence there. Clear and plain, it is a single flavor — the metal within the water; simply set your intent toward the Flowery Pond, and seek it there." This is the river-source of producing the medicine.
Lower the curtain of the eyelids, close the mouth's aperture; stem desire, regulate the breath; leave form behind, discard cleverness — approaching the condition of sitting in oblivion. I urge you: all day long, be silent as if a fool, and refine to completion a single wish-fulfilling pearl. This is the season of gathering the medicine.
Before Heaven and Earth existed, there was a rootless numinous herb. By a single act of will and measure, it is produced into the utmost treasure. The Great Way is never apart from the square inch of the heart; the work must be minute and careful, and carried out with steady practice. This is the rule and measure of preparing the medicine.
Mind within no mind, thought within no thought — fix your attention on the center within the compass, and blend it all into a single qi. It is also said: "Breath upon breath, unbroken and continuous; whether walking or sitting, it grows ever more clear." This is the creation and transformation of inserting the medicine.
Pure and still is the medicine's substance; secret intention forms it into a pill. Through all twelve double-hours, thoughtless fire does the cooking. In the golden cauldron let the water always be kept warm; in the jade furnace, do not let the fire grow cold. This is the work of fire in refining the medicine.
On the whole, the Mysterious Female is the origin of yin and yang, the dwelling of spirit and qi. Spirit and qi are the medicine of nature and destiny, the root of embryonic breathing, the ancestor of respiration, the way of sinking the root deep and making firm the stem.
The embryo is the chamber that stores spirit; the breath is the origin that transforms the embryo. The embryo is born because of the breath; the breath abides because of the embryo. Without the breath, the embryo cannot form; without spirit, the breath has no master.
Consider: before a person is born, all is blank and vast emptiness. When father and mother's essences unite, the first sign appears; a single point first congeals, purely nature and destiny together. After three months of primal chaos, the Mysterious Female is established. Once the Mysterious Female is established, it is tied like the stem of a melon; the infant in the womb secretly draws on its mother's qi — when the mother exhales, it exhales; when the mother inhales, it inhales. In all its stirrings and movements, inner and outer respond to one another, though it knows nothing, understands nothing, is aware of nothing, comprehends nothing. Heaven's qi is a vast blur, Earth's qi a vast murk — only a single breath exists there.
When the term is reached and birth comes, Heaven and Earth themselves seem to overturn; startled, the person's caul breaks — as if one had lost one's footing on the summit of Mount Tai — head hanging down, feet thrust out, forced out into the world, crying out in a great voice. At that instant its breath is forgotten, and thereafter it follows only its own nature and feeling — the two are no longer joined together. What is more, chaos floods the heart-mind, cunning plays with the eyes, love drives the emotions, desire transforms the nature — and the once-whole heavenly innocence scatters and becomes the ten thousand things, every one of them. The single breath of the embryo is never again held onto.
The immortals, in teaching people to refine essence, always aim to return to the root, to restore the beginning: to give new birth to the five viscera, to establish the bodily frame anew, to bring substance out of no substance, and to form the sagely embryo. Their instruction says: "Concentrate the qi and bring it to softness — can you be like an infant?" Remove impurity, still thought, quiet the heart-mind, guard the One; let no outward thought enter, let no inward thought escape; all day long be as if in primal chaos, as if still in the mother's womb. Let spirit settle so as to meet with qi; let qi harmonize so as to join with spirit. Spirit, joined to qi, congeals; qi, joined to spirit, abides. In the field of still repose, in the hazy land of nothing whatsoever, the heavenly heart-mind grows dim and deep, and attention gathers on the single aperture — as a hen broods her egg, as a fish rests in water. Exhale to the root, inhale to the stem: continuous, as if barely there — this is, once again, to guard the single breath within the embryo.
Guard it without guarding; the true breath abides of itself. Faint, as if it were nothing at all — though the heart-mind attends to the heart-mind, it has nowhere fixed to dwell. Within the dim obscurity, one simply senses, in the midst of the great emptiness, a single numinous point as the master of creation and transformation. When the season arrives, the wondrous principle reveals itself of its own accord — moving gently, rising silently. With the faintest touch of intention, settle the qi, answering the pivot and hinge of creation and transformation; then metal and wood merge and blend of themselves, water and fire rise and fall of themselves. Suddenly a single point, large as a millet-pearl, falls into the midst of the Yellow Court. This is the working of gathering lead and mercury: within a single day, a single day's elixir is formed.
The Chapter on Returning to the Mandate says: "In the night, the primal chaos tumbles down to earth — the ten thousand forms, thick and manifold, all unknown." At this time, the body is merged into one with the empty void; one no longer knows spirit as qi, nor qi as spirit. Such creation and transformation, again, is not contemplation — it is entirely the way of what is spontaneously so, and even I do not know why it is so, yet it is so.
Once the medicine is born, the fire then emerges from it. On the whole, when the medicine is born, in its lesser aspect it may be matched to the creation and transformation of Kan and Li; in its greater aspect it may be joined to the working of Qian and Kun. The meaning of the golden elixir is, in this, let out entirely, with nothing further held back — how could the minor methods of side paths ever be spoken of in the same breath?
If you do not believe me, and instead abandon the Mysterious Female to establish your foundation, and set aside spirit and qi to seek the medicine elsewhere, not knowing the spontaneous embryonic breath, and recklessly carry out the fire phases — abandoning the root to chase the branch, pursuing what is false and losing what is true — then Heaven will cut short your allotted years, and there is nothing more I can do for you.
The Fire Phases
An old song says: "The sages transmit the medicine but do not transmit the fire; from ancient times, few have known the fire phases." Now what does "not transmitted" mean? It is not that it is kept secret and withheld. Rather: at the time of gathering, it is called the medicine, but within the medicine there is already fire; at the time of refining, it is called the fire, but within the fire there is already the medicine. If one can know the medicine, one thereby grasps the fire — then the elixir within stillness is formed, and there is a knowing that needs no transmission at all.
A verse says: "The medicine holds yin within yang; the fire phases hold yang within yin. Grasp the meaning of yin and yang, and the fire phases are made plain in a single place." This is the sense of it. Later people, confused by the alchemical books, are unable to awaken at once. Hearing of the twenty-four qi-periods, the seventy-two pentads, the twenty-eight lodges, the sixty-four hexagrams, the twelve planetary fields, the conjunction of sun and moon, the rising and falling of the sea's tides, the samadhi of long life, the civil text and martial arms, and the like — they insist on tracing out exhaustively what counts as fire and what counts as its phase, exhausting their whole lives in the effort, fixing on every kind of outward image. Though they may attain the truth of the medicine, they remain bewildered and dare not carry out the refining — never realizing that the true fire has, in itself, no phases, and the great medicine is not to be reckoned by the ounce.
Yuchan said: "Fire has its root in the southern trigram Li, which belongs to the heart. The heart is spirit; spirit is precisely fire; qi is precisely the medicine. To refine the medicine with fire and form the elixir is precisely to master qi with spirit and accomplish the Way." This teaching is as plain as this, as direct as this — and yet those without an immortal's bones from the start mock it as empty talk, and let it slip past unheeded, right before their eyes. It is truly to be lamented.
Yet the essential oral instruction on the fire phases must, above all, be sought within the true breath. For breath arises from the heart-mind; when the heart-mind is still, the breath is regulated; breath after breath returns to the root — this is the mother of the golden elixir. What the Heart-Seal Scripture calls "turning the wind and blending it together, and in a hundred days the work becomes numinous" — this is it. What the Ruyao jing calls "raise the wind of Xun, circulate the fire of Kun, enter the Yellow Chamber, and form the utmost treasure" — this is it. What Old Man Haichan called "opening and closing the authority of Qian and Kun's creation and transformation, tempering in a single furnace the true sun and moon" — this is it.
What is meant by "the Perfected submerges in the deep abyss, floats and drifts, guarding the center within the compass"? One must master qi with spirit, and settle the breath with qi; the bellows opens and closes, yin and yang rise and fall, breath goes out and comes in — let it all follow its own nature. Concentrate the qi to softness, hold the light in silence; whether walking, standing, sitting, or lying down, let it be continuous, as if barely there, like a woman carrying a child in her womb, like a young dragon nurturing its pearl. Gather it gradually, refine it gradually; let it congeal gradually, bind fast gradually. The work grows pure and whole, forged into a single piece; and between motion and stillness, one must all the more read the rhythm.
Thought must not be allowed to arise — if thought arises, the fire flares up. Intention must not be allowed to scatter — if intention scatters, the fire grows cold. Simply see to it that there is neither excess nor deficiency, that what is held and what is let go strikes the mean; let spirit embrace qi, let qi embrace spirit, let a single intention be harmonious and mild, wrapping around the primal chaos. This is called the unbroken succession of the fire's seed, the elixir cauldron kept ever warm, without a single breath's interruption, without the least hair's-breadth of deviation.
Refine it thus for a quarter-hour, and that quarter-hour is its own celestial circuit; refine it thus for a double-hour, and that double-hour is its own celestial circuit; refine it thus for a day, and that day is its own celestial circuit. Refine it for a hundred days, and this is called establishing the foundation; refine it until ten months have passed, and this is called the embryo-immortal. Even as far as the primal sea's yang being born, fire arising within water, Heaven and Earth cycling round, Qian and Kun turning over and back — none of it ever departs from the single breath. How much more so what is called bathing and warm nurturing, advancing and withdrawing, drawing out and adding in — all of it secretly conforms to the workings of Heaven, silently tallies with creation and transformation, and admits of no effort of one's own.
Hence it is said: though the fire has its phases, one need not hold to any small mechanism or contrivance. I myself know no method of Zi, Wu, Mao, You; no season of dark moon, bright moon, first quarter, or new moon; no distinction of winter solstice and summer solstice; no separation of yin-fire and yang-tally; no teaching that among the twelve double-hours only one counts; no instruction that within three hundred days only half a day matters; nor is it a matter of gathering and compressing years, months, days, and hours. If one must speak of its time, then any of the twelve branches, wherever intention arrives, will serve; if one must speak of its wonder, then the work of a single quarter-hour already holds within it the turning of a whole year's seasons.
Simply let spirit and breath rest in what is natural — this is the exact teaching of the former masters. Day and night unfold themselves, Zhun and Meng follow their own nature — why toil so hard, watching for the fire's phases? This is the settled judgment of the former masters. Ah! The meaning of "the sages transmit the medicine but do not transmit the fire" is entirely contained in this.
A verse says: "Why should the student toil so hard to seek a master? What lets slip Heaven's secret is only this book. Wear through iron shoes and find it nowhere — then get it, and it costs no effort at all."
Afterword
Spirit has no fixed place; the Changes have no fixed substance. Now what is called the single aperture of the Mysterious Pass is nothing more than a single method: to let spirit know qi, to let qi return to spirit, to turn the light around and shine it back, to gather in one's stray thoughts. This is what Master Yuxi meant by "taking the rectified heart-mind and sincere intention as the central pillar." And what is called the medicine and the fire phases are likewise nothing but figures of speech. For the essential point of the Great Way is this: whatever belongs to conscious knowing and deliberate intention is all mistaken. One need only recognize the single master of creation and transformation within one's own body. Consider, then: which of all this is truly "I"? If one can know this, taking stillness as the root and settledness as the foundation, then in a single turn, in the space of an instant, the workings of Heaven stir of themselves: without seeking the center within the compass, one is at the center within the compass; without seeking embryonic breath, one has embryonic breath of itself; the medicine is not sought, yet is born of itself; the fire is not sought, yet emerges of itself — none of it but the wondrous working of what is spontaneously so. How could this ever wait upon contemplation and conscious holding, upon wearing out the self and toiling the body, upon the heart-mind's knowing and the intention's doing, before it could be called the Way? Having reached this point, one may well forget all further words. What do those with clear eyes make of this?
Written by the Free and Unfettered Wayfarer, Xubaizi, Chen Chongsu, of Wuyi, the Grotto-Heaven of Ascending to the Perfected and of Mysterious Transformation.
Colophon
This Good Works Translation was prepared for the Meditation and Inner Alchemy shelf of the Good Works Library. It was translated independently from the classical Chinese text printed below. The text's own two-book division (卷上/卷下) is kept as "Book One" and "Book Two"; the nine numbered chapters of Book One and the section headings of Book Two are kept as the text's own headings. Verse — quatrains and other short poems quoted throughout, whether the author's own or drawn from earlier masters — is set as verse with line breaks preserved; the twelve-branch fire-phase table in Book One, Chapter Seven, which correlates the double-hours, lunar phases, hexagrams, and Yijing line-texts in a compressed tabular form in the original, is rendered as a labeled list rather than reproduced as a literal table, to keep it readable, but every element of the original — branch, hexagram, line-text, and interlinear comment — is translated and kept in its original order.
Before the claims above were written, a genuine translation-status check was performed: the two local reference bibliographies of Daoist texts in Western translation (Komjathy's Daoist Texts in Translation and the 2023 Purple Cloud update) were searched for this text's Chinese title, its author's name, and its pinyin title, and returned no entry. Two further web searches were run, for the Chinese title and for the pinyin title together with "English translation." These surfaced only secondary mentions of the text as an example within general discussions of Song–Yuan inner-alchemy literature, and no dedicated published English translation. A live web search of this kind cannot rule out that a translation exists in a journal or book this search did not surface, so no firstness claim is made: we know of no complete published English translation of this text at the time of preparation.
A note on two points of difficulty. The phrase 黃絹幼婦 ("yellow silk, young wife"), which opens Book Two, is a classical Chinese riddle — each pair of characters conceals another character, and the four together traditionally spell out a phrase meaning "wondrously fine words." It is kept literal in the translation, in the spirit of the source's own riddling diction, rather than unpacked into its solution. The fire-phase table in Book One, Chapter Seven, is compressed almost to the point of shorthand in the original — some cells carry a bracketed note and some do not, and one bracket in the source is left visibly empty (丑﹝﹞); this translation follows the source's own gaps rather than filling them in.
Prepared for the Good Work Library by the Tianmu Anglican Church with AI-assisted translation and editorial work.
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Source Text: 規中指南
Classical Chinese text of the Daoist Canon, in the Chinese Wikisource transcription. Presented complete for reference, study, and verification alongside the English translation above. 〔 〕 marks small-type interlinear notes as formatted in the transcription.
陳虛白規中指南
經名﹕陳虛白《規中指南》。元陳沖素撰。坤素生平不詳﹐疑卽陳致虛。二卷。底本出處﹕《正統道藏》洞眞部方法類。本作品亦收錄於《重刊道藏輯要》。
卷上
止念第一
﹝精滿不思色﹐炁滿不思食﹞
耳目聰明男子身﹐洪鈞賦予不爲貧。
因探月窟方知物﹐爲攝天根始識人。
乾遇巽時觀月窟﹐地逢雷處見天根。
天根月窟閒來往﹐三十六宮都是春。
念起卽覺﹐覺之卽無﹐修行妙門﹐惟在此已。此法無多子﹐教人煉念頭﹐一毫如未盡﹐何處覓蹤由。
夫無念者﹐非同土石艸木﹐塊然無情也。蓋無念之念﹐謂之正念。正念現前﹐回光返照﹐使神禦炁﹐使炁歸神﹐神凝炁結﹐乃成汞鉛。
牢擒意馬鎖心猿﹐慢著工夫煉汞鉛。
大道教人先止念﹐念頭不住亦徒然。
采藥第二
心動則神不入炁﹝默然養心﹞﹐身動則炁不入神﹝凝神忘形﹞。夫采藥者﹐采身中之藥物也。身中之藥者﹐﹝神炁精也﹞采之之法謂之收拾身心﹐斂藏神炁。心不動則神炁完﹐乃安鑪立鼎﹐烹煉神丹。
識鑪鼎第三
玄牝﹕眞人潛深淵﹐浮游守規中。
夫玄牝﹐其白如綿﹐其連如環﹐縱廣一寸二分﹐包一身之精粹。
要得谷神長不死﹐須憑玄牝立根基。
眞精旣返黃金室﹐一顆明珠永不離。
入藥起火第四
心腎﹕神是火﹐炁是藥。
取將坎位中心實﹐點化離宮腹裏陰﹐
從此變成乾健體﹐潛藏飛躍盡由心。
坎離交姤第五
追二炁於黃道﹐會三性於元宮。鉛龍升﹐汞虎降﹐驅二物﹐勿縱放。
夫坎離交姤﹐亦謂之小周天﹐在立基百日之內見之﹐水火升降於中宮﹐陰陽混合於丹鼎﹐雲收雨散﹐炁結神凝﹐見此驗矣。
紫陽眞人曰﹕
龍虎一交相眷戀﹐坎離方姤便成胎。
溶溶一掬乾坤髓﹐著意求他啜取來。
乾坤交姤第六
上闕﹝泥丸﹞
中﹝黃庭﹞﹝中宮﹞
下闕﹝永中起火﹞大略與別圖同
內亦交時外亦交﹐三關通透不須勞。
丹田直至泥丸頂﹐自在河車幾百遭。
朗然子曰﹕
夾脊雙關透頂門﹐修行徑路此爲尊。
華池神水頻吞咽﹐紫府元君直上奔。
常使炁沖關節透﹐自然精滿谷神存。
一朝得到長空路﹐須感當初指教人。
夫乾坤交姤﹐亦謂之大周天﹐在坎離交姤之後見之。蓋藥旣生矣﹐於斯出焉。古訣曰﹕離從坎下起﹐兌在鼎中生。離者火也﹐坎者水也﹐兌者金也﹐金者藥也。是說也﹐乃起水中之火﹐以煉鼎中之藥。莊子云﹕水中有火﹐乃成大塊。玉蟾云﹕一點眞陽生坎內﹐塡卻離宮之闕﹐造化無聲﹐水中起火﹐妙在虛危穴。丹陽眞人云﹕水中火發休心景﹐雪裏花開滅意春。其證驗如此。夾脊如車輪﹐四肢如山石﹐兩腎如湯煎﹐膀胱如火熱﹐一息之間﹐天機自動﹐輕輕然運﹐默默然舉﹐微以意而定息﹐應造化之樞機﹐則金木自然混融﹐水火自然升降﹐忽然一點大如黍珠﹐落於黃庭之中﹐仍用采鉛投汞之機﹐百日之內﹐結一日之丹也。當此之時﹐身心混然﹐與虛空等﹐不知身之爲我﹐我之爲身﹐亦不知神之爲炁﹐炁之爲神﹐似此造化﹐非存想﹐非作爲﹐自然而然﹐亦不知其所以然也。《復命篇》曰﹕井底泥蛇舞柘枝﹐窗間明月照梅梨。夜來混沌攧落地﹐萬象森羅總不知。
攢簇火候第七
﹝乾﹞﹝上柱天﹐下柱地﹐只这个﹐是鼎器﹐旣知下手﹐工夫容易。﹞
子﹝朔﹞子﹝復﹞守藏勿用。初九。潛龍勿用﹝一陽生﹐宜守靜﹐意要誠﹐心要定。龍德潛藏﹐勿宜輕進。﹞
丑﹝﹞丑﹝臨﹞進火得位。九二。見龍在田﹝鼓巽風﹐運火功﹐剎那間﹐滿鼎紅。見龍在田﹐光徧虛空。﹞
寅﹝﹞寅﹝泰﹞加火守城。九三。終日乾乾﹝天地交﹐陰陽均﹐汞八兩﹐鉛半斤。奼女歙袂﹐嬰兒仰從。﹞
卯﹝上弦﹞卯﹝大壯﹞沐浴重淵。九四。或躍在淵﹝火制火﹐金克木﹐到斯時﹐宜沐浴。或躍在淵﹐存誠謹獨。﹞
辰﹝﹞辰﹝夬﹞九五。飛龍在天。
巳﹝﹞巳﹝乾﹞上九。亢龍有悔。
午﹝﹞午﹝姤﹞初六
未﹝﹞未﹝遁﹞六二
申﹝﹞申﹝否﹞六三
酉﹝﹞酉﹝觀﹞六四﹝汞要飛﹐鉛要走﹐至斯時﹐宜謹守。把沒底囊﹐括結其口。﹞
戌﹝﹞戌﹝剝﹞退火復位六五黃裳元吉﹝虛其心﹐實其腹﹐宜守靜﹐待陽復。動一剎間﹐周天數足。﹞
亥﹝﹞亥﹝坤﹞野戰守靜上六龍戰於野﹝羣陽剝﹐丹光畢﹐至精凝﹐元炁息。收拾居中﹐黃裳元吉。﹞
養火﹕
陰旣藏﹐再生陽﹐到這里﹐要隄防﹐若逢野戰﹐其血玄黃。
陽神脫胎第八
掀倒鼎﹐踢翻鑪﹐功滿也﹐產玄珠。歸根復命﹐抱本還虛。
三百日火﹐一千日胎﹐其心離身﹐忽去忽來。回視舊骸﹐一堆糞土﹐十步百步﹐切宜照顧。
孩兒幼小未成人﹐須藉爺娘養育恩。
九載三年人事盡﹐縱橫天地不由親。
忘神合虛第九
身外有神﹐猶未奇特﹐虛空粉碎﹐方露全身。
太上玄門知者少﹐玄玄元不異如如。
提將日月歸元象﹐跳出扶輿見太虛。
煉到形神俱妙處﹐遂知父母未生初。
這些消息誰傳授﹐沒口先生說與吾。
張眞人解佩令﹕
陽神離體﹐冥冥窈窈。剎那間﹐遊徧三島。出入純熟﹐按捺住﹐別尋玄妙。合眞空﹐虛無事了。
陳虛白規中指南卷上竟
陳虛白規中指南卷下
內丹三要
內丹之要有三﹐曰玄牝﹑藥物﹑火候。丹經子書﹕摘爲隱語﹐黃絹幼婦﹐讀者惑之。愚今滿口饒舌﹐直爲天下說破﹐言𨿽覼縷﹐意在發明﹐字字眞訣﹐肺腑相視﹐漏泄造化之機緘﹐貫串陰陽之骨髓﹐古今不傳之祕﹐盡在是矣。鯨吞海水盡﹐露出珊瑚枝。
玄牝圖
詩曰﹕
混沌生前混沌圓﹐个中消息不容傳。
擘開竅內竅中竅﹐踏破天中天外天。
斗柄逆旋方有象﹐台光返照始成仙。
一朝撈得潭心月﹐覷破胡僧面壁禪。
藥物圖
詩曰﹕
五蘊山頭多白雪﹐白雲深處藥苗芬。
威音王佛隨時種﹐元始天尊下手耘。
石女騎龍探雨實﹐木人駕虎摘霜蕓。
不論貧富家家有﹐采得歸來共一斤。
火候圖
詩曰﹕
無位眞人煉大丹﹐倚空長劍逼人寒。
玉鑪火煆天尊髓﹐金鼎湯煎佛祖肝。
百刻寒溫忙裏準﹐六爻文武靜中看。
有人要問眞鑪鼎﹐豈離而今赤肉團。
玄牝
《悟眞篇》云﹕要得谷神長不死﹐須憑玄牝立根基﹐眞精旣返黃金室﹐一顆明珠永不離。夫身中一竅﹐名曰玄牝﹐受炁以生﹐實爲神府﹐三元所聚﹐更無分別﹐精神魂魄﹐會於此穴﹐乃金丹返還之根﹐神仙凝結聖胎之地也。古人謂之太極之蒂﹑先天之柄﹐虛無之宗﹐混沌之根﹑太虛之谷﹑造化之源﹑歸根竅﹑復命關﹑戊己門﹑庚辛室﹑甲乙戶﹑西南鄕﹑眞一處﹑中黃房﹑丹元府﹑守一壇，偃月鑪﹑硃砂鼎﹑龍虎穴﹑黃婆舍﹑鉛鑪土釜，神水華池﹑帝一神室﹑靈臺絳宮﹐皆一處也。然在身中而求之﹐非口非鼻﹐非心非腎﹐非肝非肺﹐非脾非胃﹐非臍輪﹐非尾閭﹐非膀胱﹐非谷道﹐非兩腎中間一穴﹐非臍下一寸三分﹐非明堂泥丸﹐非關元炁海。然則何處﹖曰﹕我的妙訣﹐名曰規中﹐一意不散﹐結成胎仙。
《契》云﹕眞人潛深淵﹐浮游守規中。此其所也。
《老子》曰﹕多言數窮﹐不如守中。正在乾之下﹐坤之上﹐震之西﹐兌之東﹐坎離水火交姤之鄕。人一身天地之正中﹐八脈九竅﹐經絡聯輳﹐虛閒一穴﹐空懸黍珠﹐不依形而立﹐惟體道以生。似有似無﹐若亡若存﹐無內無外﹐中有乾坤﹐黃中通理﹐正位居體。
《書》曰﹕惟精惟一﹐允執厥中。
《度人經》曰﹕中理五炁﹐混合百神。崔公謂之貫尾閭通泥丸﹐純陽謂之窮取生身受炁初。
平叔曰﹕勸君窮取生身處﹐此元炁之所由生﹐眞息之所由起﹐故玉蟾又謂之念頭動處。修丹之士﹐不明此竅﹐則眞息不住﹐神化無基。且此一竅﹐先天而生﹐後天而接﹐先後二炁﹐總爲混沌。杳杳冥冥﹐其中有精﹐恍恍惚惚﹐其中有物﹐物非常物﹐精非常精也。天得之以淸﹐地得之以寧﹐人得之以靈。
譚眞人曰﹕得灝炁之門﹐所以歸其根﹔知元神之囊﹐所以韜其光。若蚌內守﹐若石中藏﹐所以爲珠玉之房。皆眞旨也。然此一竅﹐亦無邊傍﹐更無內外。若以形體色象求之﹐則又成大錯謬矣。故曰﹕不可執於無爲﹐不可形於有作﹐不可泥於存想﹐不可著於持守。聖人法象﹐見於丹經。或謂之玄中高起﹐狀似蓬壺﹐關閉微密﹐神運其中。或謂之狀如雞子﹐黑白相扶﹐縱廣一寸﹐以爲始初﹐彌歷十月﹐脫出其胞。或謂之其白如練﹐其連如環﹐方廣一寸二分﹐包一身之精粹。此明示玄關之要﹐顯露造化之機。學者不探其玄﹐不賾其奧﹐用工之時﹐便守之以爲蓬壺﹐存之以爲雞子﹐想之以爲連環﹐模樣如此﹐形狀如此﹐執有爲有﹐存神入妄﹐豈不大謬邪。要知玄關一竅﹐玄牝之門﹐乃神仙聊指造化之基爾。
玉蟾曰﹕似有而非﹐除卻自身安頓何處去﹖然其中體用權衡﹐本自不殊﹐如以乾坤法天地﹐離坎體日月是也。
《契》云﹕混沌處相接﹐權輿樹根基﹐經營養鄞鄂﹐凝神以成軀。則神炁有所取﹐魂魄不致散亂﹐回光返照便歸來﹐造次弗離常在此。詩曰﹕經營鄞鄂體虛無﹐便把元神裏面居﹐息往息來無間斷﹐全胎成就合元初。玄牝之旨﹐備於斯矣﹐抑又論之。
杏林云﹕一孔玄關竅﹐三關要路頭﹐忽然輕運動﹐神水自然流。又曰﹕心下腎上處﹐肝西肺左中﹐非腸非胃府﹐一炁自流通。
今曰玄關一竅﹐玄牝之門﹐在人一身天地之正中﹐造化固脗合乎此。愚嘗審思其說﹐大略精明﹐猶未的爲直指。天不愛道流傳人間。
太上慈悲﹐必不固吝。愚敢淨盡漏泄天機﹐指出玄關的的大意﹐冒禁相付﹐使骨肉相合。修仙之士﹐一見豁然﹐心領神會﹐密而行之﹐句句相應。是書在處﹐神物護持。若業重福薄﹐與道無緣﹐自然邂逅斯訣﹐𨿽及見之﹐忽而不信﹐亦不過瞽之文章﹑聾之鐘鼓耳。玄之又玄﹐彼烏知之。其密語曰﹕
徑寸之質﹐以混三才﹐在腎之上心之下﹐彷彿其內﹐謂之玄關﹐不可以有心守﹐不可以無心求﹐以有心守之﹐終莫之有﹐以無心求之﹐終見其無。若何可也﹖蓋用志不分﹐乃凝於神﹐但澄心絕慮﹐調息令勻﹐寂然常照﹐勿使昏散﹐候炁安和﹐眞人入定。於此定中﹐觀照內景﹐才若意到﹐其兆卽萌﹐便覺一息從規中起﹐混混續續﹐兀兀騰騰﹐存之以誠﹐聽之以心﹐六根安定﹐胎息凝凝﹐不閉不數﹐任其自如﹐靜極而噓﹐如春沼魚﹐動極而噏﹐如百虫蟄﹐氤氳開闔﹐其妙無窮。如此少時﹐便須忘炁合神﹐一歸混沌﹐致虛之極﹐守靜之篤﹐心不動念﹐無來無去﹐不出不入﹐湛然常住﹐是謂眞人之息以踵﹐踵者﹐其息深深之義﹐神炁交感﹐此其候也。前所謂元炁之所由生﹐眞息之所由起﹐此意到處﹐便見造化﹐此息起處﹐便是玄關﹐非高非下﹐非左非右﹐不前不後﹐不偏不倚﹐人一身天地之正中﹐正此處也。采取在此﹐交姤在此﹐烹煉在此﹐沐浴在此﹐溫養在此﹐結胎在此﹐脫胎神化﹐無不在此。
今若不明說破﹐學者必妄意猜度﹐非太過則不及矣。紫陽眞人曰﹕饒君聰慧過顏閔﹐不遇明師莫彊猜。只爲丹經無口訣﹐教君無處結靈胎。然此竅陽舒陰慘﹐本無正形﹐意到卽開﹐開合有時﹐百日立基﹐養成炁母﹐虛室生白﹐自然見之。昔黃帝三月內觀﹐蓋此道也。自臍以下﹐腸胃之間﹐謂之酆都戶地獄﹐九幽都司﹐陰穢積結﹐眞陽不居。故靈寶煉度諸法﹐存想此謂幽關﹐豈修煉之所哉。學者誠思之。
藥物
古歌曰﹕借問因何是我身﹐不離精炁與元神﹐我今說破生身理﹐一粒玄珠是的親﹐夫神與炁精﹐三品上藥﹐煉精化炁﹐煉炁成神﹐煉神合道﹐此七返九還之要訣也。
紅鉛黑汞﹐木液金精﹑硃砂水銀﹑白金黑錫﹑金翁黃婆﹑離女坎男﹑蒼龜赤蛇﹑火龍水虎﹑白雪黃芽﹑交梨火棗﹐金烏玉兔﹑乾馬坤牛﹑日精月華﹑天魂地魄﹑水鄕鉛﹑金鼎汞﹑水中金﹑火中木﹐陰中陽﹐陽中陰﹑黑中白﹑雄裏雌﹐異名眾多﹐皆譬諭也。
然則何謂之藥物﹖曰﹕修丹之要﹐在乎玄牝﹐欲立玄牝﹐先固本根﹐本根之本﹐元精是也。精卽元炁所化﹐故精炁一也。以元神居之﹐則三者聚於一矣。
杏林曰﹕萬物生復死﹐元神死復生﹐以神歸炁內﹐丹道自然成。施肩吾曰﹕炁是添年藥﹐心爲使炁神﹐若知行炁主﹐便是得仙人。若精虛則炁竭﹐炁竭則神遊。《易》曰﹕精炁爲物﹐遊魂爲變。欲復歸根﹐不亦難乎﹖玉溪子曰﹕以元精未化之元炁而點化之﹐至神則神﹐有光明而變化莫測矣﹐名曰神。是皆明身中之藥物﹐非假外物而言之也。
然而產藥有川源﹐采藥有時節﹐制藥有法度﹐入藥有造化﹐煉藥有火功。吾曩聞之師曰﹕西南之鄕﹐土名黃庭﹐恍惚有物﹐杳冥有精﹐分明一味水中金﹐但向華池著意尋﹐此產藥之川源也。
垂簾塞兌﹐窒欲調息﹐離形去智﹐幾於坐忘﹐勸君終日默如愚﹐煉成一顆如意珠﹐此采藥之時節也。
天地之先﹐無根靈艸﹐一意制度﹐產成至寶﹐大道不離方寸地﹐工夫細密有行持﹐此制藥之法度也。
心中無心﹐念中無念﹐注意規中﹐混融一炁。又云﹕息息綿綿無間斷﹐行行坐坐轉分明。此入藥之造化也。
淸靜藥材﹐密意爲丸﹐十二時中﹐無念火煎。金鼎常令湯用暖﹐玉鑪不要火教寒。此煉藥之火功也。
大抵玄牝爲陰陽之原﹐神炁之宅。神炁爲性命之藥﹐胎息之根﹐呼吸之祖﹐深根固蒂之道。胎者藏神之府﹐息者化胎之元﹐胎因息生﹐息因胎住﹐胎不得息不成﹐息不得神無主。若夫人之未生﹐漠然太虛﹐父母媾精﹐其兆始見﹐一點初凝﹐純是性命﹐混沌三月﹐玄牝立焉。玄牝旣立﹐繫如瓜蒂﹐嬰兒在胎﹐暗注母炁﹐母呼亦呼﹐母吸亦吸﹐凡百動盪﹐內外相感﹐何識何知﹐何明何曉﹐天之炁混混﹐地之炁沌沌﹐但有一息存焉。及期而育﹐天地翻覆﹐人驚胞破﹐如行太山巓失足之狀﹐頭懸足撐而出之﹐大叫一聲﹐其息卽忘﹐故隨性情﹐不可俱也。況亂以沃其心﹐巧以玩其目﹐愛以率其情﹐欲以化其性﹐渾然天眞﹐散之而爲萬物者皆是矣﹐胎之一息﹐無復再守。神仙教人煉精﹐必欲返其本﹐復其初﹐重生五臟﹐再立形骸﹐無質生質﹐結成聖胎。其訣曰﹕專炁致柔﹐能如嬰兒乎。除垢止念﹐靜心守一﹐外想不入﹐內想不出﹐終日混沌﹐如在母腹﹐神定以會乎炁﹐炁和以合乎神﹐神卽炁而凝﹐炁卽神而住﹐於寂然休歇之場﹐恍兮無何有之鄕﹐天心冥冥﹐注意一竅﹐如雞抱卵﹐似魚在水﹐呼至於根﹐吸至於蒂﹐綿綿若存﹐再守胎中之一息也。
守無所守﹐眞息自住﹐泯然若無﹐𨿽心於心﹐無所存住﹐杳冥之內﹐但覺太虛之中﹐一靈爲造化之主宰。時節若至﹐妙理自彰﹐輕輕然運﹐默默然舉﹐微以意而定炁﹐應造化之樞機﹐則金木自然混融﹐水火自然升降﹐忽然一點大如黍珠﹐落於黃庭之中。此乃采鉛汞之機﹐爲一日之內﹐結一日之丹。
《復命篇》曰﹕「夜來混沌攧落地﹐萬象森羅總不知」。當此之時﹐身中混融﹐與虛空等﹐亦不知神之爲炁﹐亦不知炁之爲神﹐似此造化﹐亦非存想﹐是皆自然之道﹐吾亦不知其所以然而然。藥旣生矣﹐火斯出焉。大抵藥之生也﹐小則可以配坎離之造化﹐大則可以同乾坤之運用﹐金丹之旨﹐又於此泄無餘蘊矣﹐豈旁門小法所可同語哉﹗若不吾信﹐捨玄牝而立根基﹐外神炁而求藥物﹐不知自然之胎息﹐而妄行火候﹐棄本趨末﹐逐妄迷眞﹐天奪其算﹐吾未如之何也已矣。
火候
古歌曰﹕聖人傳藥不傳火﹐從來火候少人知。夫何謂不傳﹖非祕不傳也。蓋采時謂之藥﹐藥之中有火焉。煉時謂之火﹐火之中有藥焉。能知藥而取火﹐則定裏之丹成﹐自有不待傳而知者已。
詩曰﹕藥物陽內陰﹐火候陰內陽﹐會得陰陽旨﹐火候一處詳。此其義也﹐後人惑於丹書﹐不能頓悟﹐聞有二十四炁﹑七十二候﹑二十八宿﹑六十四卦﹑十二分野﹑日月合璧﹑海潮升降﹑長生三昧﹑陽文陰武等說﹐必欲窮究何者爲火﹑何者爲候﹐極心一生﹐種種著相﹐𨿽得藥物之眞﹐懵然不敢烹煉﹐殊不知眞火本無候﹐大藥不計斤。玉蟾云﹕火本南方離卦屬心。心者神也﹐神卽火也﹐炁卽藥也﹐以火煉藥而成丹者﹐卽是以神馭炁而成道也。其說如此分明﹐如此直捷﹐夙無仙骨﹐諷爲虛言﹐當面蹉過﹐深可嘆惜。然火候口訣之要﹐尢當於眞息中求之。蓋息從心起﹐心靜息調﹐息息歸根﹐金丹之母。《心印經》曰「回風混合﹐百日功靈」者此也﹐《入藥鏡》所謂「起巽風﹐運坤火﹐入黃房﹐成至寶」者此也﹔海蟾翁所謂「開闔乾坤造化權﹐煆煉一鑪眞日月」者此也。
何謂「眞人潛深淵﹐浮游守規中」﹖必以神馭炁﹐以炁定息﹐橐籥之開闔﹐陰陽之升降﹐呼吸出入﹐任其自然﹐專炁致柔﹐含光默默﹐行住坐臥﹐綿綿若存﹐如婦人之懷孕﹐如小龍之養珠﹐漸采漸煉﹐漸凝漸結﹐功夫純粹﹐打成一片﹐動靜之間﹐更宜消息。念不可起﹐念起則火炎﹐意不可散﹐意散則火冷﹐但使其無過不及﹐操捨得中﹐神抱於炁﹐炁抱於神﹐一意沖和﹐包裹混沌﹐斯謂火種相續﹐丹鼎常溫﹐無一息之間斷﹐無毫髮之差殊。如是煉之一刻﹐一刻之周天也﹔如是煉之一時﹐一時之周天也﹔如是煉之一日﹐一日之周天也。煉之百日﹐謂之立基﹔煉至十月﹐謂之胎仙。以至元海陽生﹐水中火起﹐天地循環﹐乾坤反復﹐亦皆不離一息﹐況所謂沐浴溫養﹐進退抽添﹐其中密合天機﹐潛符造化﹐而不容吾力焉。故曰﹕火𨿽有候﹐不須持些子機關。我自知無子午卯酉之法﹐無晦明弦朔之節﹐無冬至夏至之分﹐無陰火陽符之別﹐無十二時中只一時之說﹐無三百日內在半日之訣﹐亦不在攢簇年月日時之說。若言其時﹐則十二辰意所到皆可爲﹔若言其妙﹐則一刻之工夫﹐自有一年之節候。但安神息在天然﹐此先師之的說也﹐晝夜屯蒙法自然﹐何用孜孜看火候﹐此先師之確論也。噫﹗聖人傳藥不傳火之旨﹐盡於斯矣。詩曰﹕學人何必苦求師﹐泄漏天機只此書。踏破鐵鞋無覓處﹐得來全不費工夫。
後序
神無方﹑易無體。夫所謂玄關一竅者﹐不過使神識炁﹐使炁歸神﹐回光返照﹐收拾念頭之一法耳﹐玉溪子曰「以正心誠意爲中心柱子」者是也。夫所謂藥物火候者﹐亦皆譬諭耳。蓋大道之要﹐凡屬心知意爲者﹐皆非也﹐但要知人身中一个主宰造化底。且道如今何者爲我﹐若能知此﹐以靜爲本﹐以定爲基﹐一斡旋﹐頃刻天機自動﹐不規中而自規中﹐不胎息而自胎息﹐藥不求而自生﹐火不求而自出﹐莫非自然妙用。豈待乎存思持守﹑苦己勞形﹐心知之﹐意爲之﹐然後爲道哉。究竟到此可以忘言矣。明眼者以爲如何。
武夷昇眞玄化洞天眞放道人虛白子陳沖素序。
陳虛白規中指南卷下竟
Source Colophon
The Chinese text follows the Chinese Wikisource transcription of the Daoist Canon edition of this text (article 規中指南, revision of 26 March 2026), inspected from a witness copy captured on 8 August 2026. Chinese Wikisource transcriptions are published under CC BY-SA 4.0 and the GFDL; the text itself is ancient and in the public domain. The wiki header and license templates have been removed; the text is otherwise complete and unaltered.
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