Taixi Jing Zhu — attributed to Master Huanzhen (Huanzhen Xiansheng)

This short text pairs the brief root scripture known as the Taixi Jing (胎息經, "Scripture on Embryonic Breathing") with a line-by-line commentary, catalogued in the Daoist Canon as DZ 130. The commentary is traditionally attributed to a Master Huanzhen (幻真先生), said to have been active around the eighth century CE, though little else is known of him with certainty. An appended verse piece, the Taixi Ming ("Inscription on Embryonic Breathing"), closes the text.

"Embryonic breathing" (taixi 胎息) names the practice of stilling the breath until it resembles the unborn condition of an embryo in the womb — a state in which spirit (shen) and qi are not yet separated into distinct functions, and life is sustained without the coming and going of ordinary respiration. The root scripture is terse, almost riddling; the commentary unpacks each line, drawing on the Scripture of the Western Ascent and a text called the Xuangang ("Mysterious Bond"), and explains technical terms such as the "Mysterious Female" (xuanpin 玄牝) — here glossed not as the mouth and nose, but as the lower Elixir Field itself, three inches below the navel.

Translated for the Good Works Library directly from the classical Chinese of the Daoist Canon, printed in full below the translation. A published English translation of this text exists (see the colophon); this Good Works Translation was made independently from the Chinese and does not draw on it.

Translation

The embryo is formed within the stilled breath;

Three inches below the navel is the Sea of Qi — also called the lower Elixir Field, also called the Mysterious Female. People commonly take the mouth and nose to be the Mysterious Female, but this is wrong: the mouth and nose are only the gate through which the Mysterious Female's breath goes out and comes in. For "mysterious" is water, and "female" is mother. When a person's yin and yang qi respond to one another, they knot together in the water-mother: in three months the embryo is knotted, and in ten months the bodily form is complete and able to give birth to a person. Those who cultivate the Way constantly settle their qi below the navel and guard their spirit within the body; when spirit and qi unite, the mysterious embryo is born. Once the mysterious embryo is knotted, it gives birth to a body of itself — this is the inner elixir, the way of not dying.

qi rests within the embryo once it exists.

Spirit is the child of qi, and qi is the mother of spirit; spirit and qi follow each other as form follows shadow. Once the mother-embryo is knotted, the spirit-child rests of itself, and the primordial qi does not scatter.

When qi enters and comes into the body, this is called life; when spirit departs and leaves the body, this is called death.

The Scripture of the Western Ascent says: "The body is the lodging of the spirit; the spirit is the master of the body." When the master is calm and still, the spirit dwells within it; when the master is restless and agitated, the spirit departs from it. If the spirit departs and the qi scatters, how could life be preserved? Thus a person's ears, eyes, hands, and feet cannot move of themselves — they must all borrow the spirit to govern them. Those who study the Way and nourish life constantly hold fast their spirit, making it the master; once the master does not depart, how could the dwelling ever collapse?

Knowing that spirit and qi can bring long life, firmly hold to emptiness and non-being in order to nourish spirit and qi.

A scripture of the Way says: "My destiny rests with me; it does not rest with Heaven and Earth." What Heaven and Earth grieve over is that people cannot know the utmost Way, or, knowing it, cannot practice it. One who knows need only empty the mind and cut off deliberation, preserve the qi and nourish the essence, refuse to be dragged along by desire for the outer world, and nourish spirit and qi in tranquil plainness — and the Way of long life is thereby complete.

When spirit moves, qi moves; when spirit stays, qi stays.

This is what is meant by saying that intention is the horse of qi — their movement and rest follow each other. To keep the primordial qi from leaving the Mysterious Female, one must first hold fast the utmost spirit; when the spirit does not leave the body, the qi likewise does not scatter, and one is naturally full within, feeling neither hunger nor thirst.

If you wish for long life, let spirit and qi pour into each other.

"Pouring into each other" means that spirit and qi do not part from one another. The Mysterious Bond says: "If the smallest trace of yin qi is not extinguished, one does not become a ghost; if the finest strand of yin qi is not exhausted, one does not become an immortal." The primordial qi is the yang qi; the qi of food is the yin qi. By constantly reducing food and moderating desire, one causes the primordial qi to circulate within; when the primordial qi grows strong, the yin qi naturally dissolves. When yang is strong and yin is weak, the hundred illnesses do not arise, the spirit is at peace and the body at ease, and long life may be hoped for.

When the mind does not stir thought, there is no coming and no going, no going out and no coming in — it naturally abides forever.

Spirit and qi, while still in the mother's womb, are originally a single substance. Once born, they are dragged along by desire for the outer world and never for a single breath return to their root. If a person understands this Way, and constantly extinguishes emotion and thought, not letting the spirit go out and come in, coming and going, and does not forget this — then in time, through long practice, the spirit will naturally abide.

Practice this diligently — this is the true path of the Way.

The Way of cultivating the real is complete and entire in this. Yet the words of the sages should not be treated lightly! Generally, after applying effort in embryonic breathing, once the joints open through and the pores relax and loosen, one should draw in qi ever so faintly through the nose, letting it follow out through the four limbs and the hundred pores of the skin, going out and not returning. When the next breath of qi arrives, one only draws it in and does not breathe it out. Take the utmost care to go slowly and gently — though it is said to draw in without breathing out, what is drawn in does not even reach the throat, but disperses faintly of itself. In this way the inner qi, too, flows downward and spreads.

Inscription on Embryonic Breathing

Thirty-six swallowings —
one swallowing comes first.
Exhale ever so finely;
inhale ever so softly.
Seated or otherwise, do the same;
walking or standing, remain at ease.
Guard against noise and clamor;
avoid rank and fishy food.
Its borrowed name is "embryonic breathing";
in truth it is called the inner elixir.
It does not merely cure illness —
it surely extends the years.
Practice it long and long,
and your name will be entered among the ranks of the highest immortals.

Colophon

This Good Works Translation was prepared for the Meditation and Inner Alchemy shelf of the Good Works Library. The English was translated independently from the classical Chinese text printed below. The source alternates unmarked lines of the root Taixi Jing scripture with prose commentary; the translation follows this by setting each root-scripture line in bold before the commentary that follows it, and by setting the appended Taixi Ming as verse with its line breaks kept.

A genuine translation-status check was performed before the claim below was written. The local bibliography of Daoist texts in English translation (Komjathy, Daoist Texts in Translation) records this text — Taixi jing zhu 胎息經註, DZ 130, attributed to a certain Huanzhen xiansheng (fl. 8th c. CE?) — as translated by Jane Huang in The Primordial Breath: An Ancient Chinese Way of Prolonging Life through Breath Control, Volume 1 (Torrance, Calif.: Original Books, 1987), pp. 43–47. A second local reference bibliography of Daoist texts in Western languages was also checked and did not add further translations of this specific text. Given this clear record, no live web search was run. Because a published English translation is known to exist, no claim of firstness is made here; this Good Works Translation was made directly and independently from the Chinese source printed below and did not consult, and does not reproduce, Huang's translation.

A note on terms. Xuanpin (玄牝), literally "mysterious female" or "dark female," is kept partly untranslated on first use and glossed as the commentary itself glosses it — as the lower Elixir Field below the navel, not the mouth and nose. One phrase near the end of the commentary — "the inner qi, too, flows downward and spreads" (內炁亦下流散矣) — is terse enough that its exact physiological sense is not fully certain; it has been rendered as literally as English allows rather than smoothed into a guess.

Prepared for the Good Work Library by the Tianmu Anglican Church with AI-assisted translation and editorial work.

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Source Text: 胎息經註

Classical Chinese text of the Daoist Canon, in the Chinese Wikisource transcription. Presented complete for reference, study, and verification alongside the English translation above.

胎從伏氣中結，

〔臍下三寸為氣海，亦為下丹田，亦為玄牝。世人多以口鼻為玄牝，非也。口鼻即玄牝出入之門。蓋玄者水也，牝者母也。世人以陰陽炁相感，結於水母，三月胎結，十月形體具而能生人。修道者，常伏其炁於臍下，守其神於身內，神炁相合而生玄胎，玄胎既結，乃自生身，即為內丹，不死之道也。〕

氣從有胎中息。

〔神為炁子，炁為神母，神炁相逐，如形與影。胎母既結，即神子自息，即元炁不散。〕

氣入身來為之生，神去離形為之死。

〔《西昇經》云：身者神之舍，神者身之主也。主人安靜，神即居之；主人躁動，神即去之。神去炁散，安可得生？是以人耳目手足，皆不能自運，必假神以禦之。學道養生之人，常拘其神以為神主，主既不去，宅豈崩壞也。〕

知神氣可以長生，固守虛無以養神氣。

〔道經云：我命在我，不在天地。天地所患人不能知至道，能知而不能行。知者但能虛心絕慮，保炁養精，不為外境愛欲所牽，恬淡以養神炁，即長生之道畢矣。〕

神行即炁行，神住即炁住。

〔所謂意是炁馬，行止相隨，欲使元炁不離玄牝，即先拘守至神，神不離身，炁亦不散，自然內實，不飢不渴也。〕

若欲長生，神氣相注。

〔相注者，即是神炁不相離。《玄綱》云：錙銖陰炁不滅不為鬼，纖毫陰炁不盡不為仙。元炁即陽炁也，食炁即陰炁也，常減食節欲，使元炁內運，元炁若壯，即陰炁自消；陽壯陰衰則百病不作，神安體悅，可覬長生矣。〕

心不動念，無來無去，不出不入，自然常住。

〔神之與炁，在母腹中本是一體之物，及生下為外境愛欲所牽，未嘗一息暫歸於本。人知此道，常泯絕情念，勿使神之出入去來，能不忘，久而習之，神自住矣。〕

勤而行之，是真道路。

〔修真之道，備盡於斯。然聖人之言，不可妄乎！凡胎息用功後，關節開通，毛髮疏暢，即但鼻中微微引炁，相從四支百毛孔中出，往而不返也。後炁續到，但引之而不吐也。切切於徐徐，雖云引而不吐，所引亦不入於喉中，微微而散。如此，內炁亦下流散矣。〕

胎息銘

三十六咽，一咽為先。
吐唯細細，納唯綿綿。
坐外亦爾，行立坦然。
戒於喧雜，忌以腥羶。
假名胎息，實曰內丹。
非只治病，决定延年。
久久行之，名列上仙。

Source Colophon

The Chinese text follows the Chinese Wikisource transcription of the Daoist Canon edition of this text (article 胎息經註, revision of 9 May 2023), 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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