Taishang Dongzhen Ningshen Xiuxing Jingjue — the Latter Half of Zhongli Quan's Song of Breaking Delusion and Realizing the Dao

This is a one-fascicle verse text of the Zhengtong Daozang, shelved in the Canon's Dongzhen (洞真) division among its Jade Instructions (玉訣). Its own modern catalogue headnote states plainly what it is: not an independent composition, but the latter half of the "Song of Breaking Delusion and Realizing the Dao" (破迷證道歌) attributed to the immortal Zhongli Quan, dated to the late Tang dynasty (9th–10th century). The attribution to Zhongli Quan is traditional rather than certain, as is usual for texts of the Zhong-Lü school of internal alchemy that gathered around his name and Lü Dongbin's; readers should hold it as attribution, not proof of authorship.

The whole text is unbroken verse in rhymed seven-character couplets, without division into chapters — a chanting instruction-song (訣) rather than a formal liturgical scripture. It teaches the inner-alchemical work of concentrating the spirit (凝神) and refining the elixir through the union of what the text calls "true lead and true mercury," using the full vocabulary of that tradition: the trigrams Kan and Li, the Dragon and the Tiger, the Golden Crow and Jade Hare of sun and moon, the Squire of Metal and the Fair Maid. Its persistent method is negation — verse after verse insists the "medicine" is not any organ, not any bodily fluid, not confined to season or place — before it turns, in its second half, to describe the visible signs of successful refining: thunder, purple cloud, the meeting of dragon and tiger, and at last the ascent of the completed immortal.

A note on one recurring term: xiantian qi (先天炁), "the breath that precedes Heaven," names the primordial breath that predates the separation of Heaven and Earth — the raw material the text says cannot be found in any organ or fluid of the ordinary body, only gathered by one who has grasped the instruction. It is rendered here as "the breath that precedes Heaven" throughout.

Translated for the Good Works Library directly from the classical Chinese of the Daoist Canon, printed in full below the translation. To our knowledge, this is the first complete published English translation of this text.

Translation

One instruction, and you know at once the pattern of Heaven and Earth;
sweep away the deviant gates, and no trace of them remains.
In chaos-and-undifferentiation, concentrate the spirit — this is the way of the immortals;
Heaven and Earth are empty and void, above and below alike hollow.

This instruction is not held in the mouth as chanted words;
open the mind, awaken to understanding, and pass beyond the cage of the ordinary.
Speak it plainly: Wood and Metal have no gap between them —
true lead and true mercury are the very essence of Heaven and Earth.

Who understands this principle of the immortals?
Awaken to this instruction, and the work is done.
There is no Kan and Li here, no Dragon and Tiger;
there is no Crow and Hare, each going its own way, east and west.

It is not the liver, not the lungs, not the heart or the kidneys;
how could it concern the spleen, the stomach, the gallbladder, or the seminal essence?
Not thought, not deed, but the doing of non-doing;
fail to concentrate the true breath, and you only wear out the spirit in vain.

It does not emerge from the Three Fields, above or below;
how could it concern the spine's Narrow Ridge, or reach as far as Kunlun?
It is not essence, saliva, breath, blood, or fluid;
it is not the resplendent spirits of the five viscera.

This thing does not arise from within the human body,
nor does it belong to spring or summer, autumn or winter.
Who among men recognizes what precedes Heaven and precedes Earth?
The two breaths join together, each a full measure.

Quarter-moon and full, dark moon and new — each keeps to its proper count;
circling through day, patrolling through night, it never once stops.
Gather, in season, a single tender portion;
gather it from the center, together with Jia and Geng.

It emerges in the southwest — there the medicine is born;
blend it slowly, and let it enter the Gen Palace.
Try gently stirring the pivot of Heaven's mechanism,
and the true breath gathers, moment by moment, in the Great Void.

Awaken to this: Qian and Kun become the cauldron and the vessel;
overturn the universe, and follow its roots and traces where you will.
The southern star shifts into the northern star's place;
the Golden Crow flies into the Palace of the Jade Toad.

Within the Sun itself the Jade Hare lies hidden;
the Moon waxes and wanes, of itself in harmony.
After the first quarter, seek out the medicine;
before the last quarter, let the breath settle even.

Between the two quarters is the time for gathering;
the order of before and after, of presence and absence, fixes the ancestral root.
He is the host — then who am I?
When I rise, you in turn sink.

Blend rising and sinking into a single place;
bathing and hiding away — in the end, all of it is emptiness.
Kan and Li, from the first, have no south or north;
how then could Zhen and Dui have east or west?

The tender portion enters the basin without a gap between;
seize hold of the Northern Dipper's turning of the heavenly wheel.
Stir yin and yang until they return into your palm,
and in an instant, in a moment, creation itself is born.

These are the methods of the Golden Liquor Reverted Elixir;
without meeting a transcendent master, do not force your way through.
If you truly gather the breath that precedes Heaven,
sun and moon are seized and held within your two hands.

By day and by night, strike them together into a single mass,
and of themselves come the dragon's cry and the tiger's roar.
At first, above and below, the wind howls and roars;
as the wind gradually settles, it condenses into purple cloud.

Cloud rises and fills the sky, veiling sun and moon;
in this moment it is as though a single blast returns to primal chaos.
Silent and of itself, the cloud and mist stir;
within the stillness, at times, a peal of thunder is heard.

Simurgh and phoenix, tortoise and snake, join together in one place;
Golden Crow and Jade Hare contend with each other of themselves.
Tiger circling, dragon coiling, they seek the utmost treasure;
the Lord of Metal and the Fair Maid are joined in marriage.

This time, mother and child meet again, once more;
spirit and breath return to the root and unite with their original truth.
That single point, the very first true seed,
is refined and set into the elixir field — an eternal spring.

What precedes Heaven and precedes Earth returns to a single place;
before chaos was divided, how could there be a root?
Growth and sprouting, of themselves, accord with the sagely pattern;
green leaf and red blossom, all one fresh color.

Water and fire, above and below, pour and irrigate again and again;
the two breaths congeal and bind, and an embryo-infant is produced.
In broad daylight, of itself, the ancestral spirit is born;
transcending the ordinary, entering sagehood, one passes beyond life and death.

Cultivate and refine for a hundred days without any lack;
the blood transforms into congealed unguent, and the body becomes like silver.
The true breath steams and suffuses it, untouched by cold or heat;
only then, in this world, does one become a person of high attainment in the Dao.

Refine and forge the pure yang of Qian for three hundred days;
sudden rain and overturning wind fill the Great Void.
Lightning flashes and glimmers past all counting;
thunder shakes Heaven's Pass, and ghosts and spirits are startled.

Overturn the universe, and white snow flies;
turn yin and yang upside down — there is no longer night, only spring.
Exchange the bones, turn back the yang, and the body becomes imperishable;
Nine Reversions and Seven Returns bind the true form together.

Refine and forge with the fire of wisdom for three hundred days;
within and without grow bright and numinous, surface and depth alike made true.
Gathered, it forms a shape; scattered, it becomes breath;
return to the root, revert to the origin — one with the Great Void.

Its transformations, its comings and goings, no one can fathom;
mouth to mouth it has been handed down from ancient times to now.
Within it, it accords exactly with the pattern of Heaven and Earth;
the oral instructions of the immortals are no empty talk.

Further, you must guard and preserve it for three to five years;
then, for a hundred, a thousand, ten thousand, a hundred million kalpas without end.
Once you have grasped the method of the Golden Liquor Reverted Elixir,
mount the simurgh, ride the phoenix, and soar aloft of yourself.

Refine its mystery, and nothing obstructs your attainment;
range freely, at will, across the Three Isles of Penglai.
Even should a further hundred thousand, a thousand thousand kalpas pass,
though seas run dry and mountains crumble, your form remains forever true.

How one must sigh for those in this world who cultivate the real —
their way is altogether different from that of the celestial immortals.
Three thousand six hundred side-gate methods there are;
one could not, one by one, set them out in full detail.

The Great Dao is right before them, yet people do not recognize it;
it is dispersed among the ten thousand things and within the human body.
The one who has attained gathers the breath that precedes Heaven;
through a whole night the thunder sounds and does not pause.

Lightning flashes and glimmers past all counting;
when the two breaths meet and mingle, how could there be any form?
Heaven's Pass is toppled and crushed beyond compare;
wind, rain, thunder, and lightning arise all together.

Yin and yang are overturned, exchanging their places;
measureless breaths of Heaven contend in disorder for glory.
The tiger, far by the medicine furnace, contends for the work of creation;
the dragon, coiled about the golden cauldron, strains to leap and soar.

The Four Images and Five Phases return to Wu and Ji;
boil and fry, forge and refine the primal essence of the undivided origin.
Auspicious vapors blaze bright, and the stars and the Dipper grow dim;
red light glares and flares, and the sun itself grows dark.

Increase and decrease, of themselves, mark advance and retreat;
before the quarter-moon and after it, its truth is fixed.
The gold elixir's ripeness or rawness must be recognized;
drawing out and adding in are worked in but a moment's effort.

Binding the embryo, the timing of the fire must be known to the hour;
hour by hour, moment by moment, it rises of itself.
The true fire blazes and flames, burning through the universe;
Qian and Kun, above and below, glow red through and through.

One water, one fire — these divide the images of the trigram lines;
one rising, one falling — these fix the floating and the sinking.
One coming, one going — these divide the guest from the host;
one before, one behind — these mark the ruler and the minister.

One yin, one yang — these make Heaven and Earth;
one hard, one soft — these settle, of themselves, into balance.
The two breaths of winter and summer make the seasonal turnings;
the two breaths of spring and autumn fix the cold and the warm.

Coming and going, above and below — it has no shape, no form;
circling round through day and night, it keeps its proper hours.
Drive round the Dipper's handle — this is the pattern of the Mysterious Pass;
turn about Heaven's Pass, and the ten thousand images all pass through.

In a brief while the dragon and tiger fight again and again;
the two things meet and mingle in but an instant.
Carry clarity and wakefulness back into the valley aperture,
and out of chaos and confusion, clarity of itself emerges.

This is the method of Wood and Metal joined together;
true lead and true mercury, the essence of Heaven and Earth.
This alone is the fire-timing instruction of the gold elixir;
everything depends on their binding together in the Vermilion Spirit.

The single breath of chaos-undifferentiation is the medicine of a thousand years;
through ten thousand kalpas it endures, a spring without night.
Within three thousand days it congeals and produces its image;
in a hundred days the work divides and produces its numinous creation.

In ten months, refine and complete the body of pure yang;
of itself, cold and heat no longer intrude upon it.
The work complete, the practice fulfilled, the spirit-embryo is accomplished;
draw out the embryo, exchange the bones, and return to long life.

Auspicious vapors and rainbow clouds veil the jade body;
the blue simurgh and the white crane lead the way ahead.
Jade maidens and golden lads bear the purple edict;
the celestial immortals of all the heavens welcome from left and right.

Golden light envelops the body, hard for men to look upon;
the immortal music of the nine heavens sounds out all together.
Riding the clouds, driving the mist, one goes to pay court at the Origin;
ascending in flight, straight up into the capital of the Nine Empyreans.

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 is continuous unrhymed-in-English (rhymed in the Chinese) seven-character verse without internal division; it is kept here as a sequence of four-line stanzas, each stanza carrying one line of the source's paired couplets, in the order of the original. No lemma-and-commentary alternation, interlinear notes, or unencodable characters occur in this text.

Before the claim below was written, a genuine translation-status check was performed: Komjathy's bibliography of Daoist texts in Western translation and the 2023 Purple Cloud update to it were both searched by the Chinese title, by the pinyin, and by the name of the text this file's own catalogue headnote identifies it with (破迷證道歌, attributed to Zhongli Quan) — neither reference lists a published translation of this specific title or of the "Song of Breaking Delusion" it is drawn from. Two further web searches were run, for the Chinese title and for the related song title, and turned up general scholarship on the Zhong-Lü tradition and Zhongli Quan but no published English translation of this text or its parent song. To our knowledge, this is the first complete published English translation of the Taishang Dongzhen Ningshen Xiuxing Jingjue. We state this as the limit of our knowledge, not as a certainty; a live, exhaustive search of print scholarship was not possible in the time available.

A note on two points of difficulty. First, the phrase 各一斤 ("each a full measure," literally "each a catty") in the sixth stanza is alchemical shorthand for the equal pairing of the two breaths and is rendered loosely rather than as a literal unit of weight. Second, the line 虎遠藥爐爭造化 ("the tiger, far by the medicine furnace...") reads awkwardly against its neighboring line about the coiled dragon, and may carry a transcription variant (遠 for 遶, "circling," is plausible) that this translation could not verify against another witness; it is rendered as the character stands in the source.

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

🌲

Source Text: 太上洞真凝神修行經訣

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

太上洞真凝神修行經訣

經名：太上洞真凝神修行經訣。一卷。實即鍾離權《 破迷證道歌》 之後半部分。出於唐代後期。底本出處：《 正統道藏》 洞真部玉訣類。

一訣便知天地理，掃蕩邪門不見蹤，混沌凝神神仙道，天地虛無上下空。

此訣不在口持念，心開悟解出凡籠。說破木金無間隔，真鉛真汞天地精，

誰知這箇神仙理，悟得此訣便成功。也無坎離并龍虎，也無烏兔各西東，

非肝非肺非心腎，豈干脾胃膽和精？非想非為作無為，不凝真炁謾勞神，

不在三田上下出，豈干夾脊至崑崙？不是精津炁血液，不是勝光五臟神。

此物不在人身出，不在春夏及秋冬，先天先地誰人識，二炁交合各一斤。

弦望晦朔合本數，環晝巡夜不曾停，依時採取壹嫩片，採向中間并甲庚。

出在西南為產藥，慢慢調和入艮宮，試把天機輕撥動，真炁時時聚太空。

悟得乾坤為鼎器，顛倒宇宙任根蹤，南辰移入北辰位，金烏飛入玉蟾宮。

太陽裹面藏玉兔，太陰加減自和同，前弦之後尋藥物，後弦之前炁停勻。

兩弦之間為採取，先後存亡定祖宗，他是王人誰是我，我若浮時你卻沉。

調和浮沉為一處，沐浴濳藏總是空。坎離本來無南北，震兌豈則有西東？

嫩片入盆無間隔，捉住北斗周天輪。撥得陰陽歸掌內，頃刻中間造化生。

這些金液還丹法，不遇仙師莫強攻，果然採得先天炁，日月擒來兩手中。

晝夜打交成一塊，自有龍昤虎嘯聲。初時上下風聲吼，風漸凝時結紫雲，

生雲滿出遮日月，此時一陣似洪濛。默默自然雲霧動，定裹時聞霹靂聲，

鸞鳳龜蛇交一處，金烏玉兔自相爭。虎遶龍蟠尋至寶，金公姹女結婚姻，

這番子母重相會，神炁歸根合本真。一點最初真種子，鍊入丹田萬古春。

先天先地歸一處，混沌未分豈有根？生發自然合聖理，綠葉紅花一色新，

水火上下頻澆灌，二炁凝結產胎嬰。白日自然生神祖，超凡入聖出死生。

修鍊百日無虧欠，血化凝膏體似銀，真炁薰蒸無寒暑，世上方為道高人。

乾陽煅鍊三百日，驟雨顛風滿太空，電光晃耀無窮數，雷震天關鬼神驚。

掀翻宇宙飛白雪，顛倒陰陽無夜春，換骨迴陽身不朽，九還七返結真形。

慧火煅鍊三百日，內外明靈表裹真，聚則成形散為炁，返本還元太虛同。

變化往來人莫測，口口相傳古到今。其中便合天地理，神仙口訣不虛論。

更要保守三五載，百千萬億劫無窮。會得金液還丹法，乘鸞跨鳳自飛騰，

奧妙鍊之無阻得，蓬萊三島任縱橫。若更百萬千千劫，海竭山崩貌常真。

堪歎世上修真者，總與天仙道不同，三千六百傍門法，不能逐一細分陳。

大道目前人不識，分散萬物與人身，達人採取先天炁，一夜雷聲不暫停。

電光晃耀無窮數，二炁相交豈有形？摧塌天關無可比，風雨雷電一齊生，

顛倒陰陽交換位，無量天炁亂爭榮。虎遠藥爐爭造化，龍蟠金鼎要張騰，

四象五行歸戊己，烹煎煅鍊混元精。瑞炁煌煌星斗暗，紅光赫赫太陽昏，

加減自然分進退，弦前弦後定其真。金丹老嫩須認識，抽添運用片時功，

結胎火候知時刻，時時刻刻自然昇。真火炎焰燒宇宙，乾坤上下自通紅，

一水一火分爻象，一昇一降定浮沉，一來一往分賓主，一前一後有君臣，

一陰一陽為天地，一剛一柔自停勻。冬夏二炁為節候，春秋二炁定寒溫，

來往上下無形象，巡環晝夜有時辰。驅迴斗柄玄關理，斡轉天關萬象通。

片餉龍虎頻頻闘，二物相交頃刻中，帶得惺惺歸谷竅，混混沌沌自分明。

此是木金交併法，真鉛真汞天地精。只此火候金丹訣，全憑交結在朱靈，

混沌一炁千年藥，萬劫常存不夜春。三千日內凝生象，百日功分造化靈，

十月鍊就純陽體，自然寒暑不相侵。功成行滿神胎就，抽胎換骨返長生。

瑞氣綵雲遮玉體，青鸞白鶴引前行，玉女金童持紫詔，諸天天仙左右迎。

金光罩體人難視，九天仙樂一齊嗚，騰雲駕霧朝元去，飛昇直上九霄京。

Source Colophon

The Chinese text follows the Chinese Wikisource transcription of the Zhengtong Daozang edition of this text (article 太上洞真凝神修行經訣, revision of 16 September 2020), 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.

🌲