Shenxian Fuer Danshi Xingyao Fa — Compiled by Master Jingli

This is a manual of waidan, "external alchemy" — the branch of Daoist practice that compounds cinnabar, realgar, lead, mercury, and mineral stones into medicines meant to be swallowed, rather than the later neidan practice of cultivating an inner elixir through breath and visualization alone. It survives in the Daoist Canon under the compilership of a "Master Jingli" (京里先生) about whom nothing further is confirmed; its date is not established here, though its recipe-manual form, its attributions to figures such as the Yellow Emperor, Dongfang Shuo, and the immortal Ma Mingsheng, and its affinities with the alchemical literature collected in the Canon place it within that broad tradition of early medieval Chinese external alchemy. No Daozang catalogue number is confirmed for it in the sources consulted for this translation.

The text is a long series of named recipes in plain technical prose: for cinnabar (丹砂) prepared and ingested in a dozen different ways, for realgar (雄黃) refined by fire and wine, and finally for an extended discourse on eating mineral stone itself, with its own botanical and legendary digressions on the herbs burnet root and wujia used to prepare it. Each recipe gives ingredients, method, dosage, and the promised effect, from curing illness to communing with spirits to full transcendence. The translation keeps this recipe form throughout: ingredients, then method, then effect, exactly as the source presents them.

A note on one recurring term: 丹砂 (dānshā), rendered "cinnabar" throughout, is the mercury sulfide mineral at the center of Chinese external alchemy, prized both as a pigment and — swallowed in enormous quantities across this text — as the central substance of the elixir of immortality; readers should understand every ingestion recipe below as describing a practice modern medicine regards as poisonous, presented here exactly as the source presents it, without comment.

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

Translation

The Yellow Emperor's One-Substance Method for Ingesting the Elixir

Take one catty of fine cinnabar — a single substance makes the medicine. In a pure and clean place, first fast for seven days. On the shaded side of a high mountain, gather cinnabar according to the method given below, pound it thoroughly and sift it fine, and place it in a bronze basin. Take nine sheng of clear old wine, combine it with the cinnabar in the basin, and stir — let no one see this, or the spirits will not enter into it. On entering the altar, begin by the eastern gate, then the southern gate, then the western gate, then the northern gate. Present the medicine at the center. For three full days stir it; from the third day to the fifth, stir it again; to the seventh, stir it again; from the seventh to the ninth, return and stir again from the third day, up to the fifth, as before. After twenty days the medicine dries and may be rolled into pills; if it is not yet dry when rolled, repeat the method as before. In overcast or rainy weather, always cover it with the bronze basin; when it can be rolled into pills, the work is done. Roll the pills to the size of a small bean. Swallow three pills a day. In fifty days the understanding and intent become bright and clear. Taken continuously for nine years, one is in communion with Heaven and Earth. In three thousand four hundred and twenty-four days the Way is fully accomplished, and all that is sought is fully gained. This is the Vermilion Radiance Spirit Elixir, the essence of the cinnabar substance. Forbidden to those who have taken moxa or the needle, and to those who go near a household with a woman newly nursing — it will no longer be numinous for them.

The Divine Transcendents' Elixir-Ingestion

Take good, firm cinnabar and grain-fruit — two substances in all; the amount of cinnabar is at one's discretion. Pound it thoroughly until it falls fine under the pestle. Wring the fruit to take its juice, and mix it with the cinnabar until it is like mud. Put it into a bronze tube and pack it in; seal it firm and let it dry. Set an inverted tile-vessel alone in the steaming-rice, stand the tube upright in it among the rice, and pack dried silkworm-droppings into the rice, pressing it firm, not more than four inches deep. Cover it over with dry earth to fill the space, set the rice-steamer on the cauldron, and seal the joint with white-clay mortar. Cook it over a fierce fire for three days and three nights; the medicine may then be taken out — it should be glue-like. Break off a piece the size of a small bean; put it once in the mouth and it dissolves at once. Take it three times a day. In one year the body grows light and the eyes bright, and the many illnesses are driven off. Taken for two years, ghosts and spirits will of themselves come to pay court. Taken for three years, one's essence communes with sun and moon. If one is able to keep taking it always, parrots cry out among the clouds and dogs bark in Heaven above. The fruit should be true, deep red-and-white in color.

Lightening the Body and Increasing the Qi: Three-Substance Cinnabar Ingestion

Cinnabar the size of hemp-seed, one catty; fine large jujubes, one dou; strong clear wine, one dou. Three substances in all. Pound the cinnabar fine and pass it through silk. Put the wine into a bronze vessel and put the cinnabar into it; stir until well combined. Set it over charcoal, three or four inches from the flame, and as it comes to a simmer stir it repeatedly, letting none settle to the bottom. Take the jujubes, boil them in two dou of water, wring out the skins and pits, and keep only the juice. Add this little by little into the cinnabar, never letting the liquid run out, until it is entirely reduced to a paste like malt-syrup. Take it out and store it in a jar. Each evening, swallow one pill the size of a jujube-pit. Taken for twenty days, one notices the effect oneself. In thirty days, illness is cured, the body grows light, the complexion darkens and improves, fallen teeth grow back, the hair turns black, and the spirit quickens.

The Divine Transcendents' Three-Substance Elixir-Ingestion

Cinnabar, three catties; lead, three catties; fruit-juice, nine sheng. Three substances in all. Take six sheng of the juice apart and use it in pounding the cinnabar, until the six sheng are used up. Then add the lead and pound it together with the cinnabar until the lead can no longer be seen. Then take the remaining three sheng of juice, thin the mixture and blend it in, and put it in a bronze vessel. Cover it with an earthenware vessel, set it in the rice, and steam it for three days and three nights, burning mulberry-wood for fuel. The lead is entirely transmuted and drawn along as the cinnabar's follower. Roll it by hand into pills the size of a small bean. Take three pills; taken for twenty days it shows its effect. Taken for three years, one ascends to Heaven. In pounding the cinnabar and lead, keep a bright fire and set it beneath the sun, letting it blaze — this is the method.

The Divine Transcendents' Four-Substance Elixir-Ingestion

Cinnabar, five catties; fine honey, three sheng; paper-mulberry fruit that is true deep red; clear wine. Four substances in all: pound them together. Wring the paper-mulberry fruit to take its juice and steep the cinnabar in it, drying it in the sun, then steeping it again — the more thoroughly it is steeped and worked, the better. Put it into a large bamboo tube and steam it beneath the cinnabar for three days and three nights, then it may be taken out. Put it into a bronze tube and boil it over a water-bath; add strong clear wine until well steeped, then add the honey and boil it for three days and three nights, until it is like malt-syrup and does not stick to the hand — then it is ready. Take it in pieces the size of a jujube, twice a day. In a hundred days, transcendent beings come to wait upon you. Taken for a year, Jade Maidens come to welcome you, and you ascend and become a Perfected Person.

The Perfected Person's Refining and Ingestion of Cinnabar

Cinnabar, one catty, ground to powder and sifted through heavy silk until utterly fine. Pour over it strong wine that has never touched water, and stir it until it is like sealing-clay. Put it in a bronze basin and set it in a high place — do not let a woman see it. Sun-dry it; as it dries and shrinks of itself with each turning, pour on more wine, always keeping it like mud. If there is overcast rain or strong wind, cover it and put it away where no one will see it; when the sky clears, bring it out again to dry in the sun. Continue thus until the full three dou of wine are used up and the medicine is complete. Dry it in the sun continuously for thirty days; it should turn purple, and when grasped it does not soil the hand, but draws out like malt-syrup. If it still sticks to the hand, it cannot yet be rolled into pills. By this method one ordinarily refines three catties at a time, enough to last three years. If three catties of cinnabar are used, use nine dou of wine, and dry it in a large basin. Before refining, first bathe with orchid and angelica, and fast for seven days; let no woman come near the medicine. When about to take it, fast again for five days and bathe, and only then take it. The pills should be the size of a hemp-seed. Always at daybreak swallow three pills. Taken for one day, the Three Corpses come out. Taken for five or six days, all the ailments of the heart and belly show their signs and depart. In a year, white eyebrows turn black again. Add one pill each year, up to nine pills, and there stop. Taken for three years, spirit-people arrive. A woman in a robe of purple gauze will come bearing a tray of food; accept it and eat it, and do not be afraid of ill-favored persons. The ten thousand things will all come and place their spirits at your service. It is named the Highest; it is also called Ke, and also called Xu. These three substances can command the ten thousand things — the ten thousand things can be summoned by them. They can enter into metal, wood, water, fire, and earth, and metal, wood, water, fire, and earth will take on their form, as needed on every side; there is nothing they cannot be applied to. To summon the spirits, abstain from the five pungent herbs, raw vegetables, raw fish, and dog meat; do not go near the bedchamber; avoid sunrise and noon. Taken for a year, spirit-brightness is seen within a thousand li. Taken for three years, it is seen beyond three thousand li; the years of life are extended day by day; one sees from outside to within, and from the east wall to the west wall — one becomes a Perfected Person. This recipe was received by Wang Ji, a man of Yong, from Ma Mingsheng of Shu. Ma Mingsheng received it from Wangzi Qiao; Wangzi Qiao received it from Master Chisong; Master Chisong received it from Xianmen Zigao; Xianmen Zigao received it from Master Zuo of the Horse. This method is kept secret and is not lightly transmitted. Qin Zixu took it and it proved effective; the orchid and angelica are used for their fragrance. As for what is called metal, wood, water, fire, and earth: applied to wood it becomes wood, applied to metal it becomes metal, and so with the rest.

Another Elixir-Ingestion

Cinnabar, one catty, thoroughly pounded and passed through a sieve. Strong bitter vinegar, three sheng; pure lacquer, two sheng — combine until well blended, and boil over a low fire until it can be rolled into pills the size of hemp-seed. Take two pills, twice a day. In forty days all the hundred ailments of the belly are cured, and the Three Corpses all depart. Taken for a hundred days, flesh and body become firm and strong. Taken for a thousand days, the Arbiter of Fate strikes one's name from the register of death, and one is kept safe together with Heaven; facing sun and moon, one changes form and alters shape, transforming without constancy, and at noon casts no shadow.

Another Elixir-Ingestion

True cinnabar, one catty; rhubarb, six liang. Steam the rhubarb in a cauldron until it has gone through two full cycles, then work it, grinding it fine. Combine it with the cinnabar and mix well; seal it in a tube. Shave the tube thin, and using two cauldrons, boil it again for two more full cycles, and the medicine is then complete. Take it out into a mortar and pound it a thousand strokes. One dose is half a qian, three times a day, always taken before meals — it is marvelously effective. It governs symptomatic disease, dispels foul black fluid, and cures drinking-water ailments; all illnesses of heart and belly are cured by it, and it also treats consumption. Pounded two thousand strokes, it is even better. For an illness of three years' standing, a full course of the dose will cure it. Follow this method according to whether the illness is long-standing or recent. The reason for using two cauldrons is the fear that the liquid will be tainted, so as to keep it clear. Also, dried bamboo of any kind, without preference, may be used.

Han Zhong's Elixir-Ingestion

Cinnabar, ten catties, prepared. Take paper-mulberry fruit that is true deep red, wring out its juice, and steep the cinnabar in it — the more times it is steeped, up to a hundred, the better. Put it in a bamboo tube and steam it beneath the cinnabar for three days and three nights, then take it out. Put it in a bronze vessel and boil it over a water-bath, using just enough fine clear wine. Add three sheng of honey and boil it for three days and three nights, until it is like malt-syrup and does not soil the hand. Eat pieces the size of a jujube-pit, twice a day. In one year, Jade Maidens come to welcome you, and you become a Perfected Person. Divine transcendents and Perfected Persons who take this in full measure, with their merit fulfilled in nine years, will find the time arriving of itself, their spirit-powers complete, and they are fit to ascend to the Golden Gate and the Jade Capital.

Nine Radiances Mutually Engendering: The Spirit Elixir's Dose

Take spirit-cinnabar that is true vermilion, ten liang, and mercury, ten liang; put both in a bronze vessel. In one large bronze vessel, hold lead and tin, one catty each. Set the vessel of vermilion and mercury upon the lead and tin; above, keep the fire low, below, let the fire grow somewhat fierce, so that the tin and the rest all melt and blend with the mercury, and it then transforms into vermilion cinnabar — the medicine is thereby made. Take the elixir so prepared; at clear dawn, facing the sun, take one dose the size of a spatula-tip with well-water gathered at dawn, once a day. By this one may fly up to Heaven, or sink into the earth at will. Eating this for a thousand days, Jade Maidens come of themselves, a cloud-chariot arrives to receive you, and the Great One converses with you face to face. Take care to avoid women; do not have intercourse; also avoid contact with the impure and inauspicious — the dead in mourning, and women who have recently given birth or are nursing; nor may you touch hands with them or come into contact with them. Contact defiles the spirits; defiled spirits will not extend one's years, and the path of transcendence is thwarted.

Ingesting Flowing Cinnabar

"Flowing cinnabar" is simply cinnabar itself. Pound and grind it in a bronze mortar, thoroughness being the standard. Three catties make one dose, sufficient to be excellent for a hundred days. Take five dou of clear wine and steep in it one sheng each of large and small peppercorns; after a suitable time strain out the dregs, and mix the liquid with the "flowing pearl" until it is like a broth. Put it in a bronze vessel, set it over the fire, and stir it repeatedly until the liquid is used up, adding more of the wine-and-medicine liquid to the flowing pearl, until it can be drawn out several feet long, like a thread — then the medicine is complete. Always at dawn, facing the sun, take one pill the size of a small red bean, three times a day, before meals. Taken for a hundred days, all illness departs and one's years equal those of Heaven and Earth. The "large pepper" spoken of here is Sichuan pepper; the "small pepper" is Qin pepper. It also treats severe wind-illness, with great effect.

Ingesting Yue Cinnabar

True Yue cinnabar, one catty; grind it together with strong clear wine until well blended. Boil it over a water-bath for three days and three nights, stirring it without the hand ever resting, until it can be drawn out; then roll it into pills the size of a large bean. Take one pill, twice a day. It dispels the hundred illnesses and settles the spirit within the belly; taken long, it extends the years.

Another: Ingesting Yue Cinnabar

Yue cinnabar, one catty; strong clear wine, three dou. Grind the cinnabar fine, put it in a bronze crock, pour in the strong clear wine and stir. Set it over boiling water and cook it, always stirring leftward, for a full three days and three nights, until it can be drawn out; then roll it into pills the size of a large bean. Take one pill, twice a day. It gives the skin a jade luster, turns white hair black again, makes fallen teeth grow back, and removes wrinkles from the face.

Ingesting Sun-Dried Cinnabar

Take fine essence-grade cinnabar, in any quantity, ground fine under the pestle, and put it in a bronze vessel. Mix it with white honey until it is like mud; seal the mouth tightly and completely, and lacquer the joints, taking every care to make it airtight within. In the following year, on this same day, it will be complete; bring it out and dry it in the sun. Mix it with honey and roll it into pills the size of a large bean. Take one pill, twice a day. It dispels the hundred illnesses. Taken over a long time, it extends the years and leads to transcendence.

Ingesting Wild-Goose-Belly Cinnabar

Cinnabar, three catties, ground and sifted fine, and put in a double bag of fine silk. Insert it into the belly of a wild goose, and sew the belly closed. Steam it beneath millet, burning mulberry-wood, for three days and three nights, then take it out. Roll it into pills with white honey, the size of a large bean. Take two pills, three times a day. It dispels the ten thousand illnesses; it grants the transcendent life and extends the years.

Chicken-Egg Cinnabar

Take hens and cocks that are pure white; raise them separately and obtain their eggs. Crack open an egg and pour out the yolk and white; take cinnabar sifted fine through a fine sieve, mix it in, and put it back into this egg. Seal the opening tightly with wax, and let the same white hen brood upon the egg together with her own. When the chick hatches, the medicine is complete. Mix it with honey and take pills the size of a large bean, two pills, three times a day. Taken long, it grants long life and extends the years.

The Divine Transcendents' Refining and Ingestion of Reverted Cinnabar

Cinnabar, one liang; Qin silver, one catty. Two substances in all. Take the Qin silver and put it in a bronze basin; dry it in the sun during the fifth and sixth months. Pound coarse cinnabar to powder and put it in with the silver; stir it with the ring-pommel of a large knife, from the meal-hour to the evening meal-hour, and it is entirely transformed into cinnabar. Take this cinnabar and put it into a tube of Danyang bronze; cover it, and seal the tube with a paste of dog's hair and clay, two inches thick; dry it in the sun. Cook it over a fire of horse-dung fuel for nine days and nine nights, then take it out. Store it in a bag of plain white silk and put it into the belly of a bird, and sew it closed. Boil the bird; when it is cooked, take the medicine out. Roll it into pills the size of hemp-seed. At dawn, facing the sun, swallow one pill, and drink it down with well-water gathered at dawn, three times a day. Taken for a hundred days, one begins dimly to see the spirits. In two hundred days, the body grows light and all one's afflictions are healed. In three hundred days, one is able to rise and ride upon the clouds. This is called the Ladled Flowing Pearl.

The Divine Transcendents' Ingestion of Great Yellow Cinnabar

Great Yellow Cinnabar, twelve liang; mercury, two catties four liang. Two substances in all. Moisten them thoroughly with strong wine and stir them well. In high summer, at the hour of si, put the mixture into a bronze melting-vessel and expose it to the sun. As the sun shines full upon the vessel's mouth, stir it; in about the time it takes to cook two dou of rice, it changes into cinnabar. Steep and blend it again with strong wine, mixing and stirring, and it changes back into silver. Expose it to the sun again; in about the same time, it changes into cinnabar. Blend it with wine as before and expose it to the sun; it changes into silver. Expose it again; in about the same time, blend it with wine and expose it as before, and it changes into cinnabar. On a summer day at the hour of si, work it by the same method as before. In all, three changes make it silver, and a fourth makes it cinnabar — this is then the Spirit Elixir. Always work and stir it at a quiet hour on a day of the ruling and assisting stars, with the sun directly overhead, facing south toward the sun. Hence it is said: "The mother brings forth yang, and stands in the noon quarter." It is titled the Sovereign of Chu, and named the Flower of the Flowing Pearl, also called Flowing Sulphur. Transformed, it becomes the Spirit Elixir, also called Red Salt. This is the essence of the ten thousand things, and it grants a person transcendence. Taken for a year, one is filled within and glossy without; the face and eyes gain radiance; white hair blackens day by day; fallen teeth grow back. Taken for two years, one passes freely through the Gate of Heaven and sees spirit-beings at one's side. Taken for three years, one rides the clouds and drives dragons, and becomes a Perfected Person.

The Divine Transcendents' Ingestion of Ba Cinnabar

Take Ba cinnabar, one catty, and Rong rock-salt, six liang. Grind and combine them, put them in a bronze vessel, and cover it with a bowl for three days. Steep it in half a dou of strong wine overnight, then pour off and discard the clear liquid on top. If, on tasting, the saltiness is not yet gone, steep it again overnight in another half-dou of wine, until the saltiness is used up entirely. Mix it with white honey, and steam it in the center of three dou of polished rice, cooking it for three days and three nights, and the medicine is done. Take it in doses the size of a small bean, one pill, facing the sun, washed down with well-water gathered at dawn. It halts the years and prevents aging.

The Perfected Person Shanzi's Elixir-Ingestion

First dig into the ground three feet deep to make a firing-pit. Make a paste of yellow clay and coat it inside and out, three inches thick, until it is thoroughly hard and dry, with no cracks. Set in it a one-shi iron cauldron, and coat it again with clay. Put six or seven dou of water into the cauldron; then take a three-dou earthenware cauldron and set it atop the iron cauldron. Put one catty of refined cinnabar into the earthenware cauldron; take five sheng of mulberry-root juice and mix it with the cinnabar until well blended. Cover it with another earthenware cauldron; seal the joints of the earthenware cauldrons, and the joint with the iron cauldron, all with yellow clay, making them entirely firm and tight, so that no vapor can escape. Burn mulberry-wood, adjusting the fire so it never grows too great, letting the water in the cauldron gradually boil up but never letting it dry away entirely. When this is finished, seal it at once with honey-paste. After three days and three nights, open the upper earthenware cauldron, pour five sheng of clear wine over the medicine, and stir until well blended. Seal it tightly as before, and after another three days and three nights, take it out. Put it in a bronze vessel, add five sheng of white honey, and stir until well blended. Float the bronze vessel on a water-bath over the cauldron and boil it over a low fire for three days and three nights, stirring until it can be rolled into pills, and then stop. In nine days and nine nights in all the medicine is complete. Take it in pills the size of hemp-seed, two pills, twice a day, adding one more pill each day. When ten days are complete, return to two pills as at the start, and take it thus as a regular practice. In thirty days the body grows light; in sixty days ears and eyes grow keen; in a hundred days the hundred illnesses are healed; in two hundred days the mind constantly longs to fly; in three years it grants a person freedom from death, ending only together with Heaven and Earth.

The Divine Transcendents' Disease-Curing, Life-Extending, Age-Reversing Elixir

Cinnabar, one catty, thoroughly pounded and refined fine. Pure lacquer, two sheng; white honey, one sheng; good bitter vinegar, three sheng. Four substances in all: combine them in a bronze vessel and boil over a low fire, stirring repeatedly, until it is fragrant and cooked and can be rolled into pills. Take one pill the size of hemp-seed; the flesh and body grow firm and strong, and in forty days illness is dispelled. Taken for a hundred days, the Three Corpses depart of themselves. Taken for a thousand days, the host of evil influences cannot interfere; one flies and transforms at will, reaching any place without difficulty, changing one's appearance and form, passing in and out unquestioned, standing at noon and casting no shadow. This is the most secret of the transcendent teachings and is not to be lightly transmitted. While taking this medicine, abstain from dog meat, raw fish, and all sour and pungent foods. In making this medicine, seek a pure and quiet place and stay alone; let no more than two people together see it being made, or the medicine will not succeed.

The Divine Transcendents' Ingestion of Realgar

The treasure of Heaven and Earth is stored at the central pole, and is called orpiment. Orpiment, after a thousand years, transforms into realgar. Realgar, after a thousand years, transforms into yellow gold. To ingest yellow gold is called becoming a Perfected Person. But the guarding-method for ingesting gold is subtle and hard to accomplish. For lightening the body and increasing the qi, nothing surpasses realgar. The method for ingesting realgar: take one catty of the fine kind, grind it to powder, and blend it in a bronze vessel with three sheng of strong wine. Boil it over white charcoal on a low flame until it barely simmers — do not let it cook too hard — until it has the consistency of glue. Take two sheng of good lacquer, wring it thoroughly to remove the dregs, and add it in; stir until well combined and the medicine is complete. Roll it into pills the size of a large bean. Always steep one pill before eating and swallow down its juice; take it three times a day. In ten days, one already knows all illness is healed. In twenty days the medicine reaches to the skin over the whole body down to the feet, and one moves about with a dark luster, called a Perfected Person; in cold weather one is warm, in hot weather one is cool. Taken for a hundred days, the intestines grow rich and full, the skin and sinews grow firm, the bones grow strong, ears and eyes grow keen, and one is free of all afflictions. After three hundred days, swallow it in doses the size of millet-grain, three pills a day, and keep this as a regular practice.

Realgar should be that from Wudu, prized for its yang-color. The yang-colored kind — that which is truly bright and fine — take one catty and grind it until utterly fine. Mercury, half a catty; mica, six liang: grind both until fine. Combine and mix in three sheng of white honey. Fill a hollow tube, shave it thin, and cap its mouth, binding it with a peg. Set it beneath millet grain; in five days and five nights it is done — take it out and put it in water, drawing it out like floss, so that it no longer soils the hand and does not stick to grass or earth when set down. Swallow it daily, one pill the size of a large bean, and take it as a regular practice; it keeps one safe together with Heaven and Earth. Do not transmit it lightly.

Take realgar of true yang-red color, fine and bright, in any quantity, and put it in a cauldron; cover it with another cauldron and seal the joint, letting nothing escape. First line it with dog's hair as padding, then apply talc and red stone-fat mixed together, coated with water three parts thick, and let it dry — the upper cauldron need not be coated. Make an iron fork-stand to hold the cauldron aloft, five inches off the ground, and burn reed-stalks for fuel. Make three balls of clay and set them on the cauldron; when they dry, set another ball atop, and continue thus until all three balls are used. When it has cooled it may be opened; brush it out with a parrot's feather. Take fat dog intestine, put the medicine inside, tie both ends, and put it in a bronze vessel; cover it again, place it inside a bowl, pack yellow earth over it, and steam it for one day and one night. Add another length of intestine and steam for three days and three nights in all, using three lengths of intestine, until it can be drawn out. Roll it into pills the size of a crossbow-pellet. Take one pill, and then one may drink the Jade Nectar.

Another: The Divine Transcendents' Ingestion of Realgar

The Perfected Persons' Realgar Ingestion is worth a thousand pieces of gold; taken, it makes one's years boundless together with Heaven and Earth. It can be drawn out three feet long. The method of preparation: fine realgar, one catty, put in a bamboo tube, with a larger tube fitted over it doubly. Combine white honey, six liang, mica powder, five liang, and mercury, eight and a half liang, and put them in the tube; seal and coat it well, letting nothing escape. Set it in the center of millet grain and steam it for five days and five nights. Take it out, put it in water, and rinse it out like a cloth — the medicine is then complete. Take it in doses the size of a crossbow-pellet, once a day.

Another: Ingesting Realgar to Cure Illness, Repel Poison, and Extend Life

Take realgar, one catty, pound it to powder together with a further measure, and mica, six liang; pound and combine them, mix in three sheng of white honey, and combine everything. Put it in a bamboo tube, shave it thin, bind it with a peg, and cover its mouth. Steam it in millet grain for five days and five nights, and it is complete. Put it in water and draw it out like floss, so it does not soil the hand and does not stick to grass or earth when set down — then it is done. Take one dose the size of a large bean, and take it as a regular practice; it lasts a person out together with Heaven and Earth, grants transcendence and passage beyond the world, and communes with the spirits and the numinous — above, one becomes an envoy of the Great One; below, one subdues the hundred ghosts and commands them at will.

The Great One's Divine Two-Substance Ingestion of Mercury and Realgar

Realgar, one catty; mercury, one catty. Two substances in all. First take the realgar, prepare it, put it into the rice, and steam it for three days and three nights. Then combine it with the mercury, pounding them together until well blended. Put it in a bronze vessel, set it into the rice, packing in five dou of millet, and steam it above with mulberry-wood fuel until the vapor stops rising. After a short while, steam it again; repeat this fifteen times in all, until it becomes liquid, and then take it out. Add it over charcoal to melt it into liquid, take it out and set it on warm earth, then put it over charcoal again; as before, the medicine should turn purple. Take one spatula-measure of the powder together with one catty of lead, and the substance is obtained. To take it, mix it with white honey into pills the size of millet grain, and swallow one pill a day. Taken for ten days, damp ground outside cannot harm one, and the hundred ghosts dare not oppose one. Taken for twenty days, one communes with the spirits and the numinous, and the Way is fulfilled. Taken for a hundred days, one becomes an envoy of the Great One. Taken for three years, one's years become boundless together with Heaven and Earth; one commands ghosts and spirits at will, rises lightly above the clouds, vast and boundless, leaping among the clouds, ascending to have audience with the Sovereign of Heaven, and is ranked among the transcendent beings. This is handed down among the Perfected; the ignorant are only bewildered by it.

Dongfang Shuo's Ingestion of Realgar

Realgar, in any quantity, ground fine. Take a fat duck, remove its entrails, and put the realgar into its belly. Steam it for three days and three nights, packing sand over it. Take it in doses the size of a jujube-pit, twice a day — most excellent.

The Divine Transcendents' Ingestion of Chicken-Egg Realgar

Realgar, one catty, ground to powder. Take fresh new-laid chicken eggs, blend together yolk and white, and mix it in. Put it in a bronze skillet, cover it with another skillet, and seal the joint. Keep the fire low enough that a hand may bear it, and let it burn continuously for three days and nights without letting the fire go out. When it has cooled, open it, skim off the scum on top; the clear substance beneath should bubble like mercury. When cold it hardens; warmed by human breath it softens again. From one catty, ten liang are obtained. Store it in a bamboo tube and do not let it be exposed to the wind. Take it in doses the size of hemp-seed. It gives the skin a jade luster, and is warm in winter, cool in summer, and drives off all cold-vapors.

The Divine Transcendents' Life-Extending One-Substance Ingestion of Realgar

Realgar, three catties. One substance only. Grind and put it into a cauldron; seal the joint with dog's hair and clay coating, letting nothing escape, evenly half an inch thick; let it dry. Set it among millet grain and burn reed-stalks beneath it. Make one ball of clay and place it on top, to serve as an indicator: when the ball dries it can be taken as done — brush it off and collect what has risen. Take fat pig's intestine, fill it with the medicine, tie off both ends, set it among the steaming millet, and steam for one day. Coat one length of intestine with good fat and wrap it over the medicine again; after one day add another layer of intestine — three days and three nights in all, using three lengths of intestine — and the medicine becomes complete and white. It can then be drawn out like floss. Roll it into pills the size of a crossbow-pellet. Swallow it, and it extends the years and wards off aging.

The Divine Transcendents' Ingestion of Realgar to Summon Jade Maidens

Simply take realgar the color of a parrot's crest, pound it thoroughly and grind it fine, and combine it with refined pine resin. Take one dose a day, the size of a crossbow-pellet. By the tenth day, the hidden corpse-parasites, the Three Worms, come down from the belly, and blemishes on the face are all cleared. Taken for twenty days, the hundred illnesses are dispelled and ears and eyes grow keen. Store the medicine, and take one dose a day, two pills the size of a small bean. In a hundred days, the Ever-Yang Maiden comes. In two hundred days, the Blue-Waisted Plain Maiden comes, her form like jade, adorned with yellow — a mark like a large millet-grain on her nose, or on her philtrum — she is a true Jade Maiden. If she wishes to become one's wife, do not yet take her as wife; say instead: "I am but a creature of flesh, rank and unclean — how should such a one as I deserve your coming?" The Jade Maiden will say: "I saw you taking the spirit-medicine, your essence and qi rising up in communion with the Grotto-Heavens, and Heaven therefore sent me to become your wife." Then say to the Jade Maiden: "I have heard that in Heaven above there is the Splendor Pool and orchid-scented wine — might I be given to taste it?" The Jade Maiden will fetch and bring it for the man; once he has drunk it, he may then take her as wife. From that time on, he dwells forever with the Jade Maiden, riding a chariot of feathered splendor, wandering above the nine heavens, turning and returning within the six directions. Take the medicine without ceasing, and one is kept safe together with Heaven and Earth. Take care never to lend one's clothing or footwear to another, for the medicine's essence always longs to fly and scatter. In making this medicine, fast for a hundred days.

The Divine Transcendents' Wine-Refined Realgar

Realgar, one catty, thoroughly pounded and sifted fine. Steep it in five sheng of clear wine and put it in a vessel; after a suitable interval, bind it and set it up facing the stove-fixture. Once the cauldron is set, coat it thinly, and place a bronze basin over the cauldron so the water does not exceed three or four inches; coat the joint with red clay, letting nothing escape. Burn mulberry-wood; when the water in the cauldron is used up, replenish it at once. When the medicine's liquid is used up, replenish it with five sheng of wine each time. Altogether use two dou and five sheng in this way, adjusting the fire suitably, cooking it until it can be rolled into pills, and then stop. For realgar, never use too fierce a fire — a fierce fire drives it off, and the medicine will not succeed. When compounding the medicine, first fast for seven days in a pure, clean place, and let no one see it being made. When the medicine is done, eat two doses the size of a small bean; always take the medicine washed down with water. In a hundred days it penetrates to the marrow, and the Three Worms and hidden corpse-parasites in the belly all depart; the heart opens and the eyes grow clear, and one gains an awesome bearing. Entering water, one wards off river-dragons; entering the mountains, one wards off tigers and wolves; entering the army, one wards off the five weapons. No one dares stand against one who takes realgar.

The Divine Transcendents' Refined Ingestion of White Realgar

First make a double-walled earthen furnace, five inches wide, one foot long, shaped like a bell, with charcoal packed within. Take realgar and place it at the mouth of the furnace, five or six catties, the amount at one's discretion. Below, set a wooden vessel to catch the runoff, sealing it in place; build the furnace up to a height of one foot five or six inches, and burn it over a fierce fire, gradually adding more charcoal. After a suitable time, the realgar all descends and scatters into the trough-catchment, pure white like rice grain; given long enough it hardens completely and can then be prepared. Roll it into pills the size of a small bean with honey. Once a day, facing the sun, swallow one pill; it wards off the hundred evils and every kind of ill-omened thing. Repeating the refining process ten times over makes it still better, and it grants a person communion with the spirits and the numinous.

The Divine Transcendents' Recipe for Refining and Ingesting White Realgar, to Extend Life, Prevent Aging, Preserve the Essence and Spirit, Govern the Hun and Po Souls, and Repel the Hundred Illnesses

Take fifty catties of realgar; it should be held in an iron tube, the tube two feet two inches long, four inches across at the center, three and a half inches wide at the base, five fen thick. Mix bathing-lye with mirabilite and coat the inside of the tube, three fen thick, and let it dry. Crush the realgar coarse and put it inside. Make an iron sieve-plate pierced with over a hundred holes, like a smoking-sieve, and cover the mouth of the tube with it. Take an iron trough and fill it with sesame oil; bury it in the ground halfway, tie a great rope through its center, and use it to cover the trough. Take the realgar tube and turn it upside-down over the emptiness above the trough, and seal the joint with sealing-clay, making it firm and immovable. Burn it directly with charcoal fire — build small figures around it as markers — the charcoal furnace set seven or eight inches from the tube. When the tube glows a reddish-purple-yellow, the realgar melts and descends into the oil, forming strands over a foot long, or shorter ones seven or eight inches; gather these and pack the tube again by the same method as before. After about fifty repetitions, the color becomes a true red-and-white like jade; dry it, break it up, and crush it coarse. Put it in the tube again, but replace the oil with white wine, and repeat the refining process as above. After about fifty more repetitions, crush it coarse again, and combine it with one dou of the mineral called Great One's Surplus Grain, mixing thoroughly, and refine it again by the method above. Replace the wine with fat and honey, and refine it again by the same method. After about thirty repetitions with the honey, the medicine is complete, a true white, refined like a foodstuff. Ordinarily drink it daily, five pills the size of Chinese parasol-tree seeds. Taken for ten days, the Three Worms are all dissolved away. Taken powdered for a month, the hun and po souls are guarded within. Taken for a hundred days, the hundred illnesses are all dispelled and the body grows light and agile. Taken for a year, the skin sheds like a snake's, and neither cold nor heat can harm one, nor can malevolent ghosts bring calamity. Taken for a long time, the dose is gradually reduced of itself, until in the end only one pill is taken. The Former Teacher said: to prepare this medicine, first fast and purify oneself, and let no woman see it being made, for fear that her monthly courses might come and violate the prohibition. This prohibition is the most urgent of all, and must be most carefully observed.

The Divine Transcendents' Ingestion of Stone

Master White Stone received from the Perfected Person of Eastern Florescence the method of boiling stone, by which one attains transcendence and transforms one's shape in ten thousand ways. In one who eats stone, it causes the hundred illnesses to be cured, all scars and blemishes to vanish, the intestines to grow rich and the organs fragrant, the six viscera to be well-regulated, the bones to grow hard and the qi upright, the face and body to gain a jade luster, the hun and po souls to be softened and refined, and the Three Corpses to be destroyed. Now stone is the father and mother of gold and jade. It serves to make firm the bone-marrow fluid and to congeal and harmonize the blood vessels, and it is also of the same kind as fine jade. It can firm the teeth, brighten the eyes, and turn white hair black again. The essence of gold, jade, and stone is like sesame oil — it is the oil of the sesame plant. Fine jade is the congealed sap of gold and jade, just as peach-gum is the flowing sap of the peach tree. The ancients who took sesame-plant preparations found the effect on their years swift. Drinking sesame oil need not be better than taking sesame-plant powder. Peach-bark yields gum which, prepared by transcendent art, when taken as peach-lozenges works more slowly than the loose powder. Things have a coarse form yet must be governed by method; they are subtle and hard to grasp — is not boiling stone, compared to ingesting jade, just like this? In brief, the way of eating stone rarely fails to succeed; the way of eating jade is precious but requires everything to be complete. The reason is this: a medicine that is hard to obtain is hard to sustain; hard to sustain, it does not last long; hard to obtain, one cannot devote oneself to it wholly. Success and failure always turn on this alone. How could it compare to eating stone, which one may find and understand wherever one sets foot? How could it compare to using medicinal herbs, when the great marshes are full of nothing but common weeds? For this reason the method of stone can be sought out along an accessible path, while the recipe for water-jade is rare and hard to complete in full.

Few people of the east obtain transcendence through cinnabar — why is this? The elixir method requires two substances, Rong bathing-salt and zeng-salt, which are not produced in the eastern lands; so the method cannot be completed there, and if it cannot be completed the medicine cannot succeed, and if it does not succeed there is no cinnabar-transcendence. It is not that there is no cinnabar-transcendence at all there, only that those who gain benefit from cinnabar are few. Few people of the north obtain transcendence through stone — why is this? Those who boil stone require two substances, burnet root and wujia root, which do not grow in the north. Not growing there, they are hard to obtain; hard to obtain, the stone cannot be prepared for eating; and so the north has few stone-transcendents.

Thus when Yin Gongdu heard Meng Chuozi and Dong Shizhou speaking together, they said: "Better to have a handful of wujia root than a cartload of gold and jade. Better to have one catty of burnet root than a bright pearl beyond price." Now these two men were transcendents who had gained the Way through eating stone; they were forever troubled that these two substances could not be obtained, and so they said they would not exchange them for gold, jade, or pearls. When Gongdu heard their words, he secretly understood their meaning in his heart, and asked to know the reason for using these substances. He asked again and again without ceasing, and only after a long while were they willing to tell him the recipe for boiling stone. It is also called "Ding Tanzi." "If you wish to attain deathlessness, you must eat Ding Tanzi. If you wish to be free of care, you must carry burnet-root ash." Gongdu was deeply moved, and together with his fellow students and several tens of disciples and household members, he devoted himself entirely to seeking out and buying this medicine, boiling the stone and eating it, and all of them attained the transcendent Way. In their later years they went together into the Taihe Mountains of Nanyang, for that region abounds in fine stones. It was for this reason that Gongdu composed a prophecy-verse, saying: "Gold-salt and jade-tablet, swallow the cinnabar-child — for a thousand autumns, ten thousand years, become a heavenly transcendent. Why sit and hastily turn to mud and dust?" The "cinnabar-child to be swallowed" is Ding Tanzi. This is spoken in riddling and veiled language. Wujia is also called the "mother of gold-salt"; burnet root is also called the "father of jade-tablet." The northern Qiang people call fermented beans "zha," so this means "jade-beans." Only gold-salt and jade-beans can be used to boil Ding Tanzi. Hence when Sovereign Shun ascended Mount Cangwu he said: "Those fragrant herbs of gold and jade, by which I take my rest in the true Way" — these are wujia and burnet root. And so the Perfected Person of the Western Citadel, Wang of Mount Wangwu, used to say: "How does one sustain long life? Why not eat stone, and keep gold-salt-mother on hand? How does one attain long life? Why not eat stone, and use jade-bean-father?" This too speaks of the method of boiling stone.

Now wujia is the essence-star of Heaven's Five Chariots; in metal it corresponds to the Five Lakes, in man it corresponds to the Five Virtues, in position it corresponds to the Five Directions, in substance it corresponds to the Five Affairs. Thus when its blue-green essence enters the stem, there is the fluid of the East; when its white qi enters the joints, there is the sap of the West; when its red qi enters the flower, there is the radiance of the South; when its dark essence enters the root, there is the dregs of the North; when its yellow vapor enters the bark, there is the numinous power of the Center. The Five Spirits settle and give life, mutually assisting and nurturing to completion; one who uses it becomes a Perfected transcendent, and one who takes it returns to infancy. Duke Ding of Lu's mother took only wujia wine, and thereby attained deathlessness; as she approached the time to withdraw from yang existence, she feigned death, and the people of her time never realized the truth of it. Zhang Zisheng Zhongyang, and Wang Shucai Ziyan of Jianshi, and others, took the wine together with married life, and attained a lifespan of three hundred years, with twenty children. Generation after generation there have been those who took wujia wine or powder and gained extended life and deathlessness beyond counting — how much more so when this is joined with eating stone as well! Since the north lacks both these substances, and mountains rich in fine stone are also few there, only Luhun, Baodu, Qingtian, and Beimu — a few mountains — have white stone; all the rest are nothing but coarse great slabs of rock, huge peaks piled massively, none of which can readily be broken up, and their taste besides is unpleasant, like eating earth — these are called "coarse-grained stones," or "earth-stones." Taking them only staves off hunger and grants no further benefit. Now in eating stone generally, one wants stone of fine, close grain, entirely natural, with no cracked or broken form. Stone of the five colors is exceptionally fine, sweet as flesh itself. Purple-blue stone tastes like dried meat; white stone tastes like cooked rice; yellow stone tastes like taro; jade-green stone is slightly pungent; verdant stone tastes like persimmon. The Perfected greatly prize these, using the five-colored stones for their excursions and feasts, and also storing them as provisions. That each of the five colors has its own distinct flavor is truly a wonder.

Burnet root holds within it the virtue of lesser yin, and receives without the qi of great yang; below it belongs to the spirits of Wu and Ji, and above it receives the essence of Mars. Its seed is truly black like a fermented bean, an image of yin; its leaf is red like a banner, of the kind of yang. Though it stands in mist and dew, its seed is never wetted — the qi of great yang within it is abundant. It grows in level marshes and puts forth blossoms, sustained by their moisture. Within and without it nurtures the two qi of yin and yang, and embraces in its outward form the utmost virtue of water and fire; thus it can melt jade and dissolve stone, breaking what is hard and overcoming what is difficult. The people of Yue sometimes call it "mother of fermented beans"; some roast its black seeds over fire and put them among stones to season food and give it fragrance. One may also boil its root to make a drink, which has a savor like tea. Boil the root and take its liquid to brew wine; it cures illnesses of the eight winds and damp numbness, with proven effect. Split wujia stems, boil them and take the liquid, add it to steamed rice, and ferment it into wine together; it is excellent, and taken regularly it cures the hundred illnesses, makes one resist aging, keeps the hair from turning white, and strengthens the center. One may also select the root and ferment it in the same way, no different from using the stem, only somewhat superior. The root and stem-bark of wujia may also be made into a powder; taken, it wards off illness and halts aging, though the afflicted themselves are often unable to take it for long.

Wujia root, ten catties, gathered on the seventh day of the seventh month; the ninth day of the seventh month may also be used, as may any day marked gengwu or renwu. The seventeenth, nineteenth, or a jiaxu or jiashen day may also be used. Dig it facing the sun; roots that run southward, or that go straight down, are the finer ones. The person digging the medicine should first fast for a day and a night, bathe, and burn incense, and at that time must not tell others that he is digging medicine, nor pass through anything unclean. Once gathered, dry it in the shade for a hundred days; store it in a cloth bag — a good one — wash it clean, put it into the bag, and then dry it in the shade. Avoid letting women, parrots, or dogs see it; take great care that it not be seen.

Burnet root, ten catties, gathered on the seventh day of the seventh month; the ninth day may also be used, as may a dingmao, guimao, or jimao day, or the ninth day itself — all are suitable. Dig it with one's back to the sunlight; roots running southward or going straight down are best. The digger should fast, exactly as in the method for digging wujia. Dry it in the shade for a hundred days, likewise avoiding anything unclean. One may also put these two substances each in an earthen cauldron and burn them to ash. When about to use them, take one square-inch spoonful of each. Where these two substances are unavailable, sweet-flag and fragrant leaves, or southward-running roots of other kinds, may generally be used to boil stone. For these two medicines it is only necessary to keep them in equal measure, enough to fill the earthen cauldron — it need not be ten catties of root exactly. Dried in the shade and taken out after a hundred days is best; past two hundred days they are no longer fit for use.

One should use two earthen cauldrons; take cattail and pear-bark together with hair, mixed with white clay — the white clay should be sifted fine — and blend it with bitter vinegar into a paste. Coat both earthen cauldrons, inside and outside, several times over with this paste, until the outer coat is one inch three fen thick and the inner coat seven fen thick; where it cracks, seal it again, working it until it is fine and smooth. Cut the wujia and burnet roots into pieces about four or five fen square, like the thickness of a bamboo tally. Blend them in equal proportion, then cover the earthen cauldron and seal the two joints tightly with clay. Dry it in the shade for nine days; where it cracks, coat it with clay again. When this is finished, set it up resting on a support, and then burn it with firewood for seven days and seven nights, using in all about three hundred bundles of firewood. The firewood should all be dry and clean — do not use old, stale wood. When the seven days are complete, let it cool for three days, then open it and inspect: the ash should have turned a true purple-blue color, and the medicine is then complete. If it has not yet turned purple-blue, burn it for another seven days, without pause even at night. When the seven days are done, let it cool again for three days, and it will invariably be complete by then. The fire should be built up on all four sides to heat the cauldron. At first keep the fire low; if the seven days are not yet finished and the firewood runs out, add more; if a further seven days finish and firewood remains, use it all up. A bundle of firewood should be about half an armspan around and five feet long, reckoned by rough estimate as the standard. One may also build the fire beneath a roofed shelter. Unless someone shares your purpose, do not let them come and watch, nor let them learn the name of this numinous medicine. Name its ash "purple ash." Name the medicine "true white"; pound it ten thousand strokes and store it in a separate vessel. Ash that comes out red is not usable.

As for the tested batch: pound and inspect it by eye — if there are fine cracks, seal the cracks again with clay at once, and do not let them crack further. Burn it with firewood, day and night, for seven days; open and inspect it — if the color is entirely blue-green throughout, it is ready. If it is not yet blue-green, coat it with clay again and burn it for seven more days; let it cool for one day, and inspect it again — if still not blue-green, burn it again as before, taking a blue-green color as the sign of success. Store each preparation in its own separate vessel. Also take fine, purely white "named medicine," in any quantity, and pound it a thousand strokes; soak it in mica-water until it becomes a paste. Store this and the other two substances, each properly prepared, each in its own separate vessel. When about to use them, take white pebbles from flowing water, the size of peaches or plums, and break them until finely shattered — the finer the better. Take one dou of these stone fragments and put them in a cooking vessel; cover them with water to a depth of three or four inches above. Take one square-inch spoonful each of the three medicines, put them in, and stir. Cook it over a fierce fire, prodding it repeatedly with an implement; when the water among the stones is used up, add more; when it is cooked, the prodding-implement will sink in easily, in a state like cooked taro, and one may eat it to satisfaction in place of grain. If scallion, salt, fermented beans, or meat are added at one's discretion, it becomes still finer.

Zhang Taixuan led more than twenty disciples into the Luhun Mountains and ate this for over thirty years, and all of them grew robust and strong. Only when the world beneath Heaven was at peace did they come forth again. Where a red earthen cauldron is unavailable, a red pottery vessel or red jar may equally be used. All should first fast for twenty-one days, and kindle the fire in a secluded place — only at the time of cooking need there be no further avoidance of impurity.

Another Method

Simply take wujia and burnet roots, dry them in the shade, and burn them to ash in the cauldron by the method above. When the ash is complete, use three square-inch spoonfuls to cook one dou of stone until done; there is no need for the "named medicine" or the mica-water.

Another Method for Boiling Stone

Always on the seventh day of the seventh month, take burnet root, in any quantity, dry it in the shade for a hundred days, and burn it to ash. Then take fresh root as well, and pound it together with the ash, ten thousand strokes — three parts ash to one part powdered fresh root — and combine them. To prepare two or three dou of stone, steep the stone in water to a depth of three inches above it, stir the medicine-powder into the water, then build a fire and boil it through several rounds of bubbling, until it is soft as a cooked dish and may be eaten to satisfaction. One may also boil it with scallion and salted fermented beans as with meat — this is what is called the transcendents' Stone-Taro Broth.

The Perfected Persons' Ingestion of Stone

Take stones the size of a parrot's egg, blue-white, fine-grained and glossy like fat, ten of them; put them in a bronze vessel and steep them in one dou of liquid. Add burnet-root ash the size of a parrot's egg, and cook it in the time it takes to steam one shi of rice, and it is done. Pound wood-jade the size of a goose egg and boil it in as well; cook it for the time of steaming one shi of rice, then test it with chopsticks — when it is soft like cooked taro it may be eaten. Burn both the root and leaf of burnet root to ash for use. As for the "wood-jade," this is cinnamon bark; some call it "tube-mother cinnamon."

Entering the Mountains to Take Stone and Abstain from Grain

Take stones of three colors, round like sparrow eggs, three sevens — twenty-one in all. When about to take the stones, first keep the body warm; at clear dawn swallow seven blue stones, at midday swallow seven red stones, at dusk swallow seven white stones. Abstain entirely from grain. When ten days are complete, make a broth of mallow seed, strain out the ginger, and drink half a sheng of the liquid; shortly after, the stones will pass through. Wash the stones clean, and take them again the following day. First make a thin rice gruel and drink only its clear liquid for two days, then one may eat solid food again. Wash the same stones and take them again; abstain from food a further fifteen days, then again bring them down with mallow-seed broth as before, and again drink only the clear gruel-liquid for five days. Wash the same stones once more and take them again; one may then abstain from food for a hundred days. Again bring them down with mallow-seed broth, drink the gruel-liquid, and after ten days of eating one may take the same stones again and abstain for a year. After a year, one may continue up to ten thousand days. Always wash and take the same stones; when thirsty, drink only water, and eat nothing else. Taken for two years, one is able to travel six hundred li in a day; the complexion improves, and one communes with the spirits and the numinous.

The Divine Transcendents' Raising of the Body

Take stone-powder and put it in cold water; after a short while the water grows hot as if boiling, and one may drink it, as though drinking jade-powder. Taken regularly, it enables one to rise lightly and travel over water and through mountains at will. Where stone-powder resides, its qi alone rises up: when Heaven rains, it rises dry above; when Heaven is dry, it rises warm above — this is the transcendent counterpart of the Great One in this world. A scripture says: "Where stone has a jade-white color, whether in mountain or marsh, the earth-qi there must have a source of fine springs. Drinking the water of such a spring, one communes fully with the spirits and the numinous."

The Divine Transcendents' Ingestion of Stalactite

Stalactite is sweet in flavor, non-toxic, and warming. It is also called "Elder Kong's Milk." It governs brightening the eyes, lowering the qi, and increasing the essence. To take stalactite, pound it and pass it through a sieve; take it washed down freely with wine, or with water if no wine is at hand. Taken for a hundred days, it grants communion with the spirits and the numinous. Taken long, it dispels the hundred illnesses, and one can bear cold and does not hunger. In taking stalactite, one should obtain the drip-tip itself — pieces two inches long down to one inch, that snap at the lightest touch, are the finest. As the manual on it says: "Elder Kong's crude nodules are not as good as the drip-tip."

The Divine Transcendents' Ingestion of Red Stone-Fat

Red stone-fat is sour in flavor, non-toxic. White stone-fat is sweet, non-toxic, neutral. Black stone-fat is salty, non-toxic, neutral. Yellow stone-fat is bitter, non-toxic, neutral. Blue-green stone-fat is sour, non-toxic, neutral. All of these are medicines for nourishing the nature and extending the years.

Refining the Five Stone-Fats

Pound them to powder and put them in water; grind until they are like fine, clean sand, with the muddy sediment settling below. Take what floats above. Repeat this fifteen times, then dry it. Take three ge a day; one abstains from grain without hunger, the body grows light and the qi increases, and one bears wind and cold well. In taking it, one should fast and purify the mind with full attention; if one cannot fast, one should not take it lightly, for if this medicine fails to be assimilated, it harms a person. If the medicine fails to be assimilated, boil hemp-seed, take its juice, and bring five sheng of it to a boil, and it will resolve. If no hemp-seed is at hand, boil down one catty of rich mutton fat and drink it — this is also good. The Five Stones are hard to obtain, and one must be careful with them.

The Divine Transcendents' Ingestion of Purple Fluorite

Purple fluorite is pungent and warming in flavor, non-toxic. Taken regularly, purple fluorite grants a lifespan of three hundred years; held in the mouth, it prevents hunger and thirst.

…quench it within the vessel. Repeated in this way a dozen or so times, the mercury becomes fixed, fried until it is like black lead-sand pellets; put it separately into a crucible on the melting-wheel, and it becomes purple-refined gold. As for its full transformations, they cannot all be recorded here.

Colophon

This Good Works Translation was prepared for the Daoist shelf of the Good Works Library. The English was translated independently from the classical Chinese text printed below. The source is a series of named alchemical recipes in technical prose, and the translation keeps that recipe form throughout — ingredients, then method, then dosage and effect — reproducing the text's own section titles as headings and its paragraph order exactly. Where a passage runs on without its own heading (the long essay on eating stone in particular), that continuity is kept as continuous prose under the nearest preceding heading, exactly as the source presents it.

Before the claim below was written, a translation-status check was performed: the two standard local bibliographies of Daoist texts in Western-language translation (Komjathy's Daoist Texts in Translation and the 2023 Purple Cloud survey of the same) were searched under this title's Chinese characters, its pinyin, and its component terms, and neither records an entry for this text. Two web searches were then run, for the Chinese title and for a romanized form of the title, together with "English translation." Neither search surfaced a published translation; one search returned only a page from the Chinese Text Project reproducing the source text itself, with no translation attached. To our knowledge, this is the text's first complete published English translation. We state this as the limit of our knowledge, not as a certainty.

A note on a few hard passages. The source is a working technical manual and its transcription carries several rough spots that this translation has rendered as best it can rather than smoothing over: a character in the first recipe ("束門," "the bound gate") most likely stands for 東門, "the eastern gate," and is translated accordingly; a character rendered elsewhere as "猜肉" is translated as "dog meat," matching the 狗肉/犬肉 the context calls for; a section on realgar-ingestion gives an ingredient measure ("二傾半斤") that does not parse cleanly in the source and has been rendered loosely as "a further measure"; one recipe calls the animal a goose (鴈) and elsewhere, in the same recipe, a crow or magpie (鴉) — the translation follows the source's own inconsistency rather than silently correcting it, and renders the bird generically as "a bird" where the terms conflict; and the manuscript breaks off mid-sentence at its very end, its opening clause already lost before the words "quench it within the vessel" — the translation begins there because the source does.

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

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Source Text: 神仙服餌丹石行藥法

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

神仙服餌丹石行藥法 :京里先生撰

黃帝一物餌丹法

善丹一斤，凡一物作藥，於潔諍處，先齋七日，於高山避陰頭，按後法取丹砂，熟檮篷之，置銅盤中，醇酒上清九升，合丹砂於盤中，攪之，勿令人見，神不相入。入壇始從束門入，復南門入，復西門入，復北門入。奉藥中央，滿三日攪之，從三至五，復攪之，至七復攪之，從七至九，復還從三攪之，至五如前法。二十日藥乾可丸，丸之未乾，復如前法。即陰雨常以銅盤覆之，可丸為度。丸如小豆大，日吞三丸，五十日智意精明。服積九歲，與天地通。三千四百二十四日，道畢成，所求盡得。朱光神丹，砂物精也。禁灸刺、過生乳家，令不復神。

神仙餌丹

好定牢丹砂、穀實，凡二物，丹砂多少自在，熟檮令下槌檮。穀實絞取汁，以和丹，令如泥，納銅筒中盛之，固以乾，瓦反單置飯中，立筒單中，乾蠶沙著飯中，堅按之，不滿四寸。所以乾土覆其上令滿，飯置釜上，白堊泥其會，猛火炊之，三日三夜，可出藥，當膠。捩破如大豆者，一納口中即消，日三服之，一年身輕目明，眾病除去。服之二年，鬼神自朝。服之三年，與日月通精。能常服之，鸚嗚雲中，狗吠天上，穀實欲得正赤白者。

輕身益氣三物餌丹砂

丹砂如麻者一斤，好大棗一斗，醇清酒一斗。凡三物，丹砂檮下，絹捷，取酒盛銅物中，丹納其中，攪令相得，居炭，去火三四寸，沸數攪之，無令著底。取大棗，以水二斗煮之，絞去皮核，但取其汁。稍稍納丹中，無令絕汁，盡成如飴。出之，盛瓶中，日一暮吞如棗一丸，服之二十日，自知。三十日，病愈輕身，益黑，齒落更生，黑髮生神矣。

神仙三物餌丹

丹砂三斤，鉛三斤，穀汁九升。凡三物，穀汁分取六升，用檮丹砂，盡六升止。乃納鉛合檮之，令鉛不見。復以三升穀汁，瘦之合和，盛銅器中，覆以瓦器納飯中，蒸之三日三夜，當炊桑薪。此鉛皆還，為丹引之從，手丸之，大如小豆。三丸，服之二十日，有效。服之三年，升天，檮砂鉛，當耿火置日下，令熾為法。

神仙四物餌丹

丹砂五斤，好蜜三升，楮實正赤者，清酒。凡四物檮，楮實絞取汁，以沒丹砂，曝令乾，復沒之，能滿搜益善。納大竹筒中，蒸之砂下，三日三夜，可出。納銅筒中，湯煎之，納醇清酒漬足，納蜜煎之三日三夜，如飴不汙手， 可矣。服之如棗，日再服之，百日，仙人相候。服之一年，玉女迎之，上為真人矣。

真人鍊餌丹砂

丹砂一斤治末，重絹篷之令靡靡，以醇酒不見水者，沃丹砂，攪之令如封泥狀，盛以銅盤中，置高上處，勿令婦人見之，曝之，身自起居數耗燥，復沃之，常當令如泥。若陰雨疾風，覆藏之無人處，天晏出曝之。如是盡酒三斗而成，長曝之三十日，當紫色，握之，不汙手，引之如飴。若令著手，未可丸也。法常鍊三斤，可支三年。若用三斤丹者，用酒九斗，曝之大盤中。欲鍊時，當先沐蘭芷，齋戒七日，無婦女過近藥旁也。將欲服時，復齋戒五日，沐浴，乃服之。藥丸大如麻子。常以平旦吞三丸，服之一日，三蟲出。服之五日，六日，心腹諸病皆有徵出。一年，皓眉更黑。歲加一丸，至九丸止。服之三年，神人至焉。當有婦人衣紫羅衣，持案食來，受而食之，勿畏惡人也。萬物皆來，給使其神。名為上，一名可，一名須。此三物能使萬物，萬物可致也。可以入金木水火土，金木水火土當為其狀。如左右須。無所不施。欲致神，禁食五辛、生菜生魚、堵狗肉，無近房室，避日出日中。服之一年，神明見千里內。服之三年，見三千里外，壽日延，從外見內，從垣東見垣西，為真人矣。此方雍人王基，受之蜀馬明生。馬明生受王子喬，王子喬受赤松子，赤松子受羨門子高，羨門子高受馬左師。此法祕不妄傳也。秦子虛服之，以有驗矣，蘭芷取其香也。所謂金木水火土者，著木為木也，著金為金也。

又餌丹

丹砂一斤。熟檮下徒。醇苦酒三升，淳漆二升，合令相得，於微火上煎之，令可丸，如麻子。服二丸，日再，四十日腹中百病盡愈，三尸皆去。服之百日，肌體堅強，服之千日，司命削死籍，與天相保，日月相望，改形易狀，變化無常，日中無影。

又餌丹

真丹一斤，大黃六兩。釜蒸大黃，令再期乃治之，下細提。並丹合和，封筒中，削筒令其薄，用以兩釜，更煮之再期，藥乃成。出著臼中，儔千杵。一服半錢，日三，常先食服之，神良。主症病，除惡黑飲水，心腹有病皆愈，又治虛勞。二千杵，大善。得病三年，滿劑乃愈。隨病遠近，以此為法。所以兩釜者，恐沾湯令清耳。又竹生槁，無在為可用耳。

韓眾餌丹

丹十斤，治之。楮實正赤者，絞取汁搜之，能百沒益善。盛竹筒中，蒸砂下，三日三夜出，置銅器中，湯煎之，脂華清酒才足。食蜜三升，煎之三日三夜，狀如飴，不汙手，食如棗核。日再服，一歲，玉女來迎，為真人矣。神仙真人服食皆足，功滿九年，時將以至，神通具足，應得上登金闕玉京耳。

神丹刀圭九光相生

用神丹砂為真朱者十兩，水銀十兩，皆著銅器中，以一大銅器，盛鉛錫各一斤，以朱銀器著鉛鍚，上微火者，下稍猛其火，令錫等皆鎔和銀，便化為丹朱，乃成藥。取所餌丹，清旦向日，井華水服一刀圭，日一，可以飛升，可以陸沉。食此千日，玉女自至，雲車來　　迎，太一．對言。慎避女人，不得交情，並汙穢辱死喪、產乳之婦，及亦不得交手犯觸，觸則辱神，辱神則不得延年，仙道乖矣。

餌流丹

流丹即丹砂也。以銅臼檮之研之，熟為度。三斤為劑，百日美。清酒五斗，以五斗酒，漬大小椒各一升，卒時去滓，以汁和流珠，令如湯狀。盛以銅器。加火上，數攪之，令汁盡，益酒藥流珠，可以長數尺，如絲狀，可藥成。常平旦向日，服如赤小豆大，一丸，日三。先食，服之百日，病盡去，壽與天地齊。所謂大椒者，蜀椒也。小椒，秦椒也。又治大風，甚良。

餌越丹

真越丹一斤，醇清酒合研令相得，於湯上煎之，三日三夜，攪之手不得息，令可引，乃丸如大豆，服一丸，日再，除百病，腹中安神，久服延年。

又餌越丹

越丹一斤，醇清酒三斗，細磨丹，盛銅瓷中，以醇清酒灌攪之，置沸湯上煎，常左轉攪，滿三日三夜，可引，乃丸之如大豆。服一丸，日再，令人玉澤，白髮更黑，齒落更生，並除面皺。

餌日曝丹

丹砂精者，多少自在，治下細槌，納銅器中，以白蜜和泥，密蓋其口堅完，漆其際，務使密內。明年此日出成，曝令乾，和以蜜丸，如大豆，服一丸，日再服之，除百病。長服，延年神仙。

餌鴈腹丹

丹砂三斤，治下篷，盛以重練囊，納鴈腹中，縫腹令合，蒸黍米下，炊以桑薪，三日三夜出之，丸以白蜜，服如大豆，二丸，日三，除萬病，神仙延年。

鷄子丹

取鷄雌雄純白者，別養得其卵，叩出黃白，取丹砂下細簁和，以此卵中，蠟密封其口，還令白鷄合子伏之，鶵出藥成，和以蜜，服如大豆，二丸，日三，久服長生延年。

神仙鍊餌還丹

丹砂一兩，秦銀一斤。凡二物，取秦銀置銅盤中，用五六月曝之，檮大丹砂末之，置銀中，以大刀環攪之，從食至哺時，盡為丹矣。取丹置丹陽銅筒中，蓋覆之，以狗毛泥塗筒上，厚二寸，曝乾之。以馬通火炊之，九日九夜出。盛以白素囊，置鴉腹中，縫之。煮鴈，鴈熟出之，丸如麻子，平旦向日。吞一丸，以井華水飲之，日三，服之百日，髣髴見神。二百日。身輕，所苦悉愈。三百日，舉能凌雲，此名汋流珠。

神仙餌大黃丹

大黃丹十二兩，水銀二斤四兩。凡二物，以醇酒搜令淹淹，熟攪之。盛夏日加巳時，納銅銷中，曝之。日照明堂，攪之，如熟二斗米，頃變為丹。以醇酒漬和之，合浥以攪，復化為銀。曝之，如熟二斗米，頃化為丹。以酒和，如前法曝之，化為銀。曝之，如熟二斗米，頃酒和，如前曝之，化為丹。夏日加巳，為之如前法。凡三為銀，四為丹，是乃為神丹。常以王相日晏靜時，以日正上南向日，攪治之，故曰：母生陽，立午鄉。號曰楚皇，名日流珠之英，一名流黃。變為神丹，一名赤鹽。此萬物之精也，令人神仙。服之一年，中充外澤，面目有光，白髮日黑，齒墮復生。服之二年，出入天門，旁見神人。服之三年，乘雲駕龍，為真人矣。

神仙餌巴丹

取巴丹一斤，戎鹽六兩，治合置銅器中，甌覆之三日，以醇酒半斗，漬一宿，澄去上清。嘗鹹未盡，復以酒半斗，漬之一宿，鹹盡用之。白蜜和，蒸之三斗粳米，中央炊之，三日三夜，藥熟。如餌服如小豆一丸，向日，以井華水服之，住年不老。

真人山子餌丹

先鑿地入三尺為寵，以黃土作泥，表裹塗之，厚三寸，極令堅燥，勿使有坼。以安一石鐵釜，復泥治之。以水六七斗著釜中，更取三斗土釜，著鐵釜上，以盛鍊丹一斤，納土釜中，取桑根汁五升和丹，令相得，復以一土釜覆其上，以黃土泥，泥土釜際，及鐵釜際，皆令堅密，勿使氣泄。炊以桑薪、調適其火，勿令大佛，稍稍發溢釜中水，勿令汁盡。訖輒蜜塗之，三日三夜，發上土釜，以清酒五升沃藥中，攪令相得，密塗之，如前復三日三夜出，著銅器中，納白蜜五升，攪令相得。以銅器浮著釜湯上，微火煎之，三日三夜，攪令可丸便止。凡九日九夜藥成，服如麻子，二丸，日再。日加一丸，滿十日，復從二丸如初，以為常服之。三十日身輕，六十日耳目聰明，百日百病愈，二百日意常欲飛，三年令人不死，與天地相畢。

神仙治病延年返老丹

丹砂一斤，熟檮下細提精。淳漆二升，白蜜一升，好苦酒三升。凡四物合著銅器中，微火上煎之，數攪之，香熟可丸，服如麻子一丸，肌體堅強，四十日病除。服之百日，三尸自去。服之千日，眾邪不干，飛行變化，所至不難，改易形容，出入無問，立日中無影，神仙最祕不傳。服藥禁食猜肉生魚，及諸酸辛。作此藥法，欲得清靜獨處，莫過二人共合見者，令藥不成。

神仙餌雄黃

天地之寶，藏於中極，命日雌黃。雌黃千歲，化為雄黃。雄黃千歲，化為黃金。服食黃金，命曰真人。餌金之衛，微妙難成。輕身益氣，莫過雄黃。餌雄黃法，用好者一斤，治之如粉，以醇酒三升，和之銅器中，白炭上煎之，微火令小沸，勿使大熟，其狀如膠。以好漆二升，熟絞去滓，投著其中，攪令和合藥成，丸如大豆，常先食漬一丸，咽其汁，日三服，十日即知病悉愈。二十日身皮膚至足，藥黑市行，命日真人，時寒則溫，時熱則凍。服之百日，腸中肥厚，皮膚堅筋，骨強，耳目聰明，無眾患，三百日以後，吞如黍粟大，日三丸，以為常也。

雄黃當得武都者，取其陽色。陽色者，正鮮好者，一斤，治令極靡。水銀半斤，雲母六兩，治之皆令靡。白蜜三升合和：盛以的筒：薄削之．＇蓋其口約以臬，黍米下計，五日五夜即卉以置水中，縯之如綿，即不汙人手，在地草土不著。日吞如大豆一丸，常服之，與天地相保，勿妄傳也。

雄黃正陽赤好鮮者，多少自在，置釜中，以一釜覆之，塗其際，無令泄。先以犬毛為替，乃用滑石，赤石脂合和，以水塗厚三分，乾，用上釜不須塗也。為鐵叉，令釜居上，去地五寸，炊以葦薪，以土為三丸，以置釜上，乾之，復置一丸著其上，如是盡三丸止。寒可發，以鸚羽拂取，以肥猜胴腸入藥，結兩頭，置銅器中，復蓋之，加甌中，裝黃土其上，蒸之一日一夜，復加一胴，三日三夜盡三胴，可引，丸大如彈丸，服一丸，乃可飲玉漿。

又神仙餌雄黃

真人餌雄黃，價直千金，服之與天地無極。可引，長三尺。治之法，好雄黃一斤，盛以竹筒，復以大筒重合，以白蜜六兩，雲母粉五兩，水銀八兩半，合置筒中，善封塗，無令泄。置黍米中央，蒸之五日五夜，出置水中，濯之如巾，即成餌矣。服如彈丸，日一。

又餌雄黃治病辟毒延年

用雄黃一斤，檮合如粉二傾半斤，雲母六兩，檮合，令和白蜜三升，皆合和，盛以竹筒，薄削之，約以臬，蓋其口，蒸之黍米中，五日五夜，即成。以置水中，引之如綿，即不汙人手，在地草土不著，成也。服如大豆者一枚，常服之，與天地相畢，神仙度世，與神明通，上為太一使，下伏百鬼，任使之。

太一仙二物餌水銀雄黃

雄黃一斤，水銀一斤，凡二物，先取雄黃治，納飯中，蒸之三日三夜。乃與水銀，令檮合相得，納銅物中，置飯中，裝黍米五斗，其上炊以桑薪，氣出止。須臾復上，如前十五上，當為水，乃出。加炭上消為水，出置溫土上，復加炭上，如前藥當紫色。取一刀圭粉，一斤鉛，即得物矣。欲服之，和以白蜜，大如黍粟，日一吞一丸。服之一十日，外濕地不能傷，百鬼不敢當。服之二十日，與神明通，道畢矣。服之百日，為太一使。服之三年，與天地無極，役使鬼神，凌雲輕舉，忽荒無垠，騰躍雲問，上謁天皇，列為仙人。真人相傳，愚者惑焉。

東方朔餌雄黃

多少自在，細治，肥鴨去腸臟，納雄黃腹中，蒸三日三夜，裝沙其上，服如棗核，日再，尤妙。

神仙餌鷄子雄黃

雄黃一斤，治之令如粉。取生新鷄子黃白和之，置銅銚中，以一銚覆上，封塗其際，微火令手可捫，燒然盡三日夜，勿令火絕。寒乃發之，掠去上滓，清者在下，當湧湧如水銀，寒則堅，得人氣復軟。錄一斤，得十兩，盛以竹筒，勿使見風。服如麻子，使人玉澤潤色，冬則能溫，夏則能凍，辟除諸寒氣

延年神仙一物餌雄黃

雄黃三斤。凡一物，治置去釜中，會塗以狗毛，泥塗其會，無令泄，均厚半寸，今乾。置黍米中，炊以葦薪。丸一丸泥，置其上，以為候。丸燥可下，掃取上著。取肥豬胴腸盛藥，約其兩端，置炊黍中，蒸之一日。以好膏塗一胴腸，裹加藥上，一日復重腸，凡三日三夜，用腸三枚，藥成白。如餌可引，丸如彈丸，吞之即延年不老矣。

神仙餌雄黃致玉女

但取雄黃鸚冠色者，熟檮下細徒，和以成鍊松脂，日一服一枚，如彈丸。至十日，腹中伏尸三蟲下，面野皆除。服之二十日，百病除，耳目聰明。臧藥，日一服如小豆二枚，百日，束常陽女來。二百日，青腰素女形如玉來，以黃為飾，如大黍米，在鼻上，或在人中，是真玉女也。欲為人婦，且勿妻也。自稱肉人腥躁不潔諍，何宜當來乎。玉女曰：吾見子服神藥，精氣上通洞天，天故使我來為子婦。因謂玉女曰：吾聞天上有華池酒蘭湯，寧可得嘗之乎。玉女為人取持來，得而飲之，乃用為婦。自是之後，長與玉女，載華羽之車，徘徊九天之上，展轉六合之中。服之勿止，與天地相保，戒勿以衣服及屐履借人，藥精常欲飛揚，作此藥齋百日。

神仙酒鍊雄黃

雄黃一斤，熟檮下細筏。清酒五升漬之，置器中，卒時作束向鼇，安釜已畢，薄塗之，以銅盤加釜上，令水不及三四寸，以赤土塗其際，勿令泄。炊之以桑薪，釜中水盡，輒復益之。藥汁盡，以酒五升當五益之。合為二斗五升，調適其火，炊之可丸乃止。雄黃莫過大猛火，猛火飛去，藥不成也。合藥時當先齋戒七日，清淨處，勿令人見之。藥成，食如小豆者，二枚，常送藥，以水服之，百日入髓，腹中三蟲伏尸皆去，心開目明，使人有威武，入水辟蛟龍，入山辟虎狼，入軍辟五兵。服雄黃者，人不敢當之。

神仙鍊餌白雄黃

先為土重鑪，廣五寸，長尺為鈴，中問裝炭，其中取雄黃，則置其門，五六斤多少自在。以木飯盛玄龍汁，承其下，并塗之，高尺五六寸，猛火炊之，火稍益炭，卒時雄黃皆下，灑於槽拘中，正白如米，久久堅絕，可治也。以蜜丸大如小豆，日一向日，吞一丸，即辟百邪諸凶之屬，能十反互之益良，令人通神明。

神仙延年不老保精神制魂魄卻百病鍊餌白雄黃方

以雄黃五十斤，當盛以鐵筒，筒長二尺二寸，中徑四寸，底廣三寸半，厚五分。以盥和朴硝，泥直筒中，厚三分，乾之。吹咀雄黃，納其中，以鐵為箄，穿之百餘孔，如薰篩狀，覆箄筒口，以鐵跳盛以麻油，埋地中通半，取大繩擊穿其中央，以蓋跳上。取雄黃倒覆空上，以六一泥塗其會，令堅不動。徑以炭火燒之，作小偶圖形，炭爐去筒七八寸，然其中筒赤紫色黃，即消下入油中，長尺餘，短者七八寸，復取裝之如前法。凡五十上下，色正赤白如玉，乾折吹咀，盛以筒中，去油，代以白酒，亦互之如上法。復五十上下，復吹咀之，合太一餘糧一斗，并合和令相得，互之如前法。去酒，代以肪蜜，互之如前法。入蜜三十上下，可藥成正白，臬如餌。常日飲如梧實，五丸。服之一旬，三蟲皆消。靡散服一月，魂魄內守。服之百日，百病皆除，身體輕便。服之一年，皮膚蛇蛻，寒溫不能傷，賊鬼不能殃。久服之，稍稍自少，後服一丸耳。先師言欲養此藥，先齋戒潔掙，無令婦人見之．也，恐有月經往來，觸禁。禁此最急，不可不慎。

神仙服食餌石

白石先生所受東華真人煮石之法，以致神仙，變形萬化。食石者，使，人百病除愈，痕瘢皆滅，腸厚藏香，六腑調適，骨堅氣正，面體玉澤，魂魄柔鍊，三尸消滅。夫石者，蓋金玉之父母也。將以鎮固骨液，凝和血脈，又亦是瓊瑤之類也。將能堅齒明目，髮白反黑矣。金玉石之精焉，猶麻油也，亦巨勝之膏也。瓊瑤乃金玉之凝津焉，猶桃膠亦桃樹之流液也。古人有服巨勝者，而速驗於延年。飲麻油，乃不必愈於巨勝散矣。桃皮有膠，成於神仙，餌桃檔更遲後於散屑也。物有廳而必治，妙而難會，煮石之於服玉，其如是耶。簡夫食石之道，鮮有不合。食玉之道，貴而觀全。所以然者，藥難得則難恆也。難恆則不久，難得則不專。成敗之者，恆由於此耳。豈若食石者，觸地而必曉哉。豈若用藥者，大澤之中皆凡草乎。由是能石之衛徑而可尋，水玉之方希而叵具也。東方人得丹仙者少，何故耶。丹法用戎盥、曾鹹二物，非東地所生，故法不具，不具則藥不成。不成則無丹仙矣。非都無丹仙者，得丹益者鮮也。北方得石仙者少，何故耶。煮石者用地榆、五茄二物，北方所不生也。不生則難得，難得則石不可食，是故北方少石仙也。故尹公度聞孟綽子、董士周，共相與言日：寧得一把五茄，不用金玉一車。寧得一斤地榆，不用明月寶珠。按此二人是服石得仙也。常患二物不可得，故言不用金玉與明珠矣。公度聞其語，意中密悟，乃請問用此物之故。首問不已，久許時乃告之煮石方也。一名丁歎子。子欲得不死，當食丁歎子。子欲無憂懷，當帶地榆灰。公度乃慨然，與同學者，及弟子家中數十人，專索市此藥，並煮石而食之，皆得仙道。晚共相將入南陽太和山中，多好石子故也。是以公度作．讖日：金鹽玉札子丹吞，千秋萬歲為天仙。何為急坐成泥塵，子丹吞者丁歎子也。究言及語迴隱之耳。五茄一名金鹽母。地榆一名玉札父。北羌人呼豉為札，當言玉豉也。唯有金鹽玉豉，可用煮丁歎子耳。故帝舜登蒼梧山曰：厥金玉之香草，朕用偃息正道，此五茄、地榆耳。是以西城真人王屋山王常言：何以支長久，何不食石，畜金盥母。何以得長壽，何不食石，用玉豉父。此亦道煮石之衛耳。蓋五茄者，天五車之星精也，金應五湖，人應五德，位應五方，物應五事。故青精入莖，則有東方之液。白氣入節，則有西方之津。赤氣入華，則有南方之光。玄精入根，則有北方之粕。黃煙入皮，則有戊己之靈。五神鎮生，相輔育成，用之者真仙，服之者反嬰焉。魯定公母單服五茄酒，以致不死。臨隱去陽，故託死，時人自莫之悟耳。張子聲仲陽、建始王叔才子世彥等，服酒而房室，得壽三百年，有子二十人。 世世有得服五茄酒散，而獲延年不死者，不可勝數矣，而況兼之以食石乎。北方既無二藥，而好石之山亦少，唯陸渾、抱犢、青天、貝母數山，為有白石者耳，其餘皆廳大盤石，巨峰累固，皆不可卒破壞，味又不美，如食土狀，謂此廳理石為土石者也。服之亦辟饑而已，無所延益矣。夫凡食石，欲得細理緬緬，專是自然，無有破缺之形者也。五色石子絕美，如肉同甘。紫青石子，有如檔脯，白石子如飯味，黃石子如芋味，碧石子小辛，綠石如捺味，真人多貴，以遊宴五色石，亦以貯棵。凡五色各一種味，真為奇矣。

地榆者，內有少陰之德，外稟太陽之氣，下屬戊已之神，上受熒惑之精，其實正黑如豉，陰之象也。其葉赤如旗，陽之類也。霧露而實不濡，太陽之氣盛也。類生平澤而結葩，憑之潤也。內外育陰陽之二氣，表襄包水火之至德，所以鑠玉爛石，摧堅伐難矣。越人或呼為豉母，有以火炙其黑子，著石中，以調食令香也。又煮其根，以作飲，亦如茗氣。煮其根取汁，以釀酒，治八風濕痺之病，有效。判五茄莖，煮之取．汁，以納夠米，合釀之成酒，既美，常服之，治百病，令人耐老，髮不白，強中。選其根，亦可釀，與莖不異，但當有勝耳。五茄根及莖皮，亦可散，服辟疾病，住老，患人自不能久服耳。

五茄根十斤，以七月七日採取，亦可用七月九日，諸以庚午、壬午日，皆可採。亦可用十七日、十九日、甲戌甲申日，向日掘之，得南行根及直下根，益佳。掘藥人先齋一日一夕，沐浴燒香，其時又不得語他人云，掘藥及履諸掩穢也。取訖陰乾百日，以布囊盛之，佳好，諍洗，納囊中，乃陰乾。忌女人鸚犬，慎勿令見之。

地榆根十斤，以七月七日採，亦可九日採，用丁卯、癸卯、己卯及九日，皆好，背日光掘之，得南行及直下根佳。掘者齋戒，一如掘五茄法。陰乾百日，亦是忌掩穢。亦可以此二物，各著一土釜中，燒之成灰。臨用時，各投一方寸匕。無此二物，多用蘇及香葉，南行根，皆可以煮石。此二藥唯令分等，令土釜足相容受而已，不必根十斤也。陰乾出百日，乃佳。過二百日不復中用。當用兩土釜，以蒲梨及毛和白土，白土當篩擇令細，苦酒和為泥，兩土釜內外數過上泥，令外厚一寸三分，內厚七分，坼又塞之，取令蜜細。切五茄、地榆根，方四五分許，如竹答厚薄也。令和調分等，乃蓋上土釜，密泥兩際會，陰乾九日，坼復泥之。畢以安著臂上，乃以薪火燒之，七日七夕，計當用三百束樵。樵皆令燥淨，無用故薪。七日限訖，寒之三日，乃發視之，灰正當作紫青色，藥成也。若故不作紫青色者，更火之七日，不以夜也。七日訖，復寒之三日，無不成者。皆當四面發火，以燒釜。初先微火，若七日未竟，而樵盡，增樵也。增七日已竟，而樵剩者盡樵也。樵束大圍半長五尺，計隱商為率。亦可於屋下發火。自非同志，勿令臨見，及知其靈藥之名。名其灰為紫灰也。名藥正白，檮萬杵，別器盛之。色赤者不可用。牝桂卒驗者，檮目視之有細坼，隨復泥其坼，勿復坼也。燒之以薪火，晝夜七日，發視色皆青者，可也。未青者，復泥燒之七日，復寒之一日，發視未青，復燒如前，以色青為效也。各異器盛之。又取好名藥純白者，多少在意，檮之千杵，以雲母水淹之令泥，泥爾正三物，各異器藏之。欲用時，取流水中白石子，大如桃李者，打令中破甚細者，良。用之一斗石子，以著煮器中，水淹之，令上有三四寸水。取三藥各重一方寸匕，投中攪之，猛火煮之，以物數數刺，視石子水盡，復益，熟則刺之入也，狀如煮芋，可飽食取足，以當穀。有蔥盥豉及肉者，在意所加，益美耳。

張太玄將弟子二十餘人，於陸渾山中，食此三十餘年，皆肥丁。天下太平，乃出。無赤土釜者，赤緬赤瓶皆可用。皆先齋戒二十一日，於密處起火，唯煮時不復汙穢耳。

又法

直取五茄地榆根，陰乾，上釜中灰之如上法。灰成，以三方寸匕，煮一斗石便熟，不須名藥雲母水也。

又煮石

常以七月七日，取地榆根，多少自在，陰乾百日，燒之為灰。復取生者，與灰合檮萬下，灰三分，檮生者末一分，合之。欲為石二斗，若三斗漬石，水出石三寸，所用藥粉水中攪之，然火煮之數沸，而爛如餌，可食取飽。亦可與蔥及盥豉煮如肉，所謂仙人石芋羹也。

真人服食餌石

取石大如鸚子，青白細澤如脂者，十枚，納銅器中，漬汁一斗，納地榆灰，大如鸚子者，炊一石米，頃成。檮木玉大如鵝子，復煮之。炊一石米，頃以箸刺之，熟如芋可食。地榆根葉並燒作灰，用之木玉者，桂也。或云筒母桂。

入山服石絕糧

取三色石，大如雀卵圓兜者，三七二十一枚。欲服石時，先懷溫，清旦吞青石七枚，日中吞赤石七枚，日暮吞白石七枚。絕穀滿十日，作葵子湯，薑去滓，服汁半升，須臾石即下矣。掙洗石，後日復服。先作碎米粥，清飲之二日，可食。復洗故石服之，復絕食十五日，復作葵湯下之，如前復食粥清，可五日，復洗故石服之，可絕食百日。復作葵湯下之，又服粥清，可食十日，復服故石，可絕一年。一年之後，可至萬日。常洗故石服之，渴飲水，不食餘物。服石二年，日能行六百里，顏色轉好，與神明通。

神仙舉形

取石粉置寒水中，少頃水熱如湯，可飲之。如飲玉粉。常服之可以輕舉，涉水導山，可以去矣。石粉所居者，氣獨上出。，天雨上乾，天燥上溫，太一副世仙。經日：石有玉白，或在山澤地氣，必有美泉之源。飲此泉水，皆通於神明。

神仙服食石鍾乳

石鍾乳，味甘，無毒，溫。一名孔公乳，主明目，下氣益精。故服食石鍾乳，檮下篩，服之，恣口酒送，無酒水送之。服百日，通神明。久服，除百病，堪寒不饑。服鍾乳，當得其乳頭，高二

寸，已下一寸，才觸便折，為好。其房曰：孔公孽，不如乳頭也。

神仙服食餌赤石脂

赤石脂，味酸，無毒。白石脂，味甘，無毒，平。黑石脂，味鹹，無毒，平。黃石脂，味苦，無毒，平。青石脂，味酸，無毒，平。皆養性長年藥也。

鍊五石脂

檮末納水中，研之令靡微淨沙狀，其泥石在下。取其上者。如此十五過，乾之。日服三合，絕穀不饑，身輕益氣，耐風寒。服之當精意齋戒，不能齋戒，不可輕服。此藥不化，害人。藥不化，煮大麻子，得其汁令熟五升則下矣。若無麻子服，煎肥羊脂一斤，飲之亦善。五石難得，當謹慎之。

神仙服食紫石英

紫石英，味辛溫，無毒。服食紫石英，壽三百歲，含之不饑渴。

內淬底。如此十數度，其汞已伏，炒如黑鉛砂子，別入甘鍋銷輪，當為紫磨金。其於變化，不可具載。

Source Colophon

The Chinese text follows the Chinese Wikisource transcription of the Daoist Canon edition of this text (article 神仙服餌丹石行藥法, revision of 24 September 2018), 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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