Lingbao Zhongzhen Dan Jue — from the Numinous Treasure Tradition of the Daoist Canon
This is a formulary of the Daoist Canon (Daozang), preserved under the title Lingbao Zhongzhen Dan Jue, "Elixir Instructions of the Assembled Perfected, [Belonging to] the Numinous Treasure [Tradition]." Its date is not stated in the text itself; internal references to Mount Taibai, to Sichuan saltpeter, to Suzhou, and to the alchemical classic Cantong qi suggest a Tang- or Song-period compilation of older laboratory lore, but this translation makes no firm claim beyond that. Despite its Lingbao title, the text is not a liturgical scripture: it is a working formulary of waidan, "outer alchemy" — the physical compounding of mineral and metallic drugs — collected from what its preface calls an old man's secret transmission and the instructions of "the Eight Lords" (八公), the legendary patrons of the alchemical arts.
The text opens with a preface and formula for a "Return-the-Soul Elixir" (還魂丹), a resuscitative and anti-paralytic medicine compounded of gold foil, cinnabar, realgar, stalactite, ox bezoar, and a long list of minerals and herbs, said to revive the newly dead and cure wind-stroke. Seven further formulas follow — for a Purple-Gold Cinnabar Elixir, a Gold-Millet transmutation, a three-stage "Feathered River Chariot," a Golden Flower and Yellow Sprout, a method called "Almost-Lord White," a Nine-Times-Refined Lead, and a Spirit-Transformation Gold Elixir — each a sequence of weighings, grindings, sealings, and long firings by which lead, mercury, cinnabar, realgar, and other minerals are carried through repeated cycles toward a stable, gold-colored medicine. The prose is technical throughout: recipe, procedure, and dosage, with one passage cast as a mnemonic verse glossed by its own prose commentary.
A note on one term. Fu huo (伏火), literally "subdued by fire," is the waidan term for a mineral drug — most often mercury, sulfur, or arsenic compounds — that has been carried through fire until its toxicity is tamed and it can safely be compounded further or ingested; it recurs through this text as a technical marker of a completed stage, and is rendered here as "fire-subdued."
Translated for the Good Works Library directly from the classical Chinese printed in full below. To our knowledge, this is the first complete published English translation of the Lingbao Zhongzhen Dan Jue.
Translation
The Elixir for Recalling the Departed Soul, with Preface
Human life is endowed from the Five Phases and constrained by the Five Constants; thus it is injured by the Five Flavors and assailed by the Eight Winds. From the drinking of milk in infancy to old age, there is none who does not, in the end, lose life on account of wind.
Some eat too much and become overfull; some miss meals and go hungry; some drink and gulp too much; some go parched for want of water; some eat salty and sour things; some sip bitter and pungent things; some fear heat and face the wind; some hate cold and huddle by fire; some gaze at the moon in the courtyard; some brave the cold beneath trees; some pierce and injure their skin and flesh; some bruise and hurt their limbs; some at times eat drying medicines; some at times drink watery gruels; some for long cut themselves off from the bedchamber; some daily indulge to excess — and from this, wind runs to the hundred orifices, poison gathers in the four limbs, so that hands and feet no longer obey, and speech grows halting and slurred.
Some feel pain boring into the marrow of the bones; some suffer numbness invading the skin; some itch as badly as from insect bites; some grow stiff and numb as iron or stone; some produce much phlegm, forget easily, are quick to anger, whose blood and pulse fail to move, whose flesh turns dry and wasted; some lie long abed and can barely rise to sit for a moment; some swell emptily in the head and face, alive yet as if dead; some, with no complaint of illness at all, die suddenly and violently. In men the wind spreads outward through the body; in women wind follows the blood. There has never been one who did not lose life on account of wind.
People of the world cannot cure this wind; they only attack it internally with medicine. But when the wind lies within the five viscera and six bowels, amid the four limbs and hundred vessels, how could decoctions and potions of that sort ever drive it out? Suppose one is treated by physicians who apply medicine wrongly — even with the Classic of Difficulties and the Basic Questions in hand, even with three generations of perfect medical skill, if one wishes to dispel a deep, lingering illness, can this truly be achieved?
I dwelt long on Mount Taibai, carrying illness for several years; ten thousand medicines were tried, yet scarcely any had effect. Later an old man gave me this medicine. Taking five pills in all, my illness was gradually cleared away. I bowed my head to Heaven and begged for the method of this medicine; he consented to transmit it, on the oath that it not be lightly given. I therefore recorded it and kept it close by me, and placed it in the numinous chamber. Those of later generations who obtain it should revere it. Let none transmit it lightly, bringing calamity and blame upon themselves. But follow the method in refining it, and why should one fear it will not prove efficacious?
Now the roasted medicine controls the calcined medicine; the calcined medicine controls the boiled medicine; the boiled medicine controls the raw medicine; the raw medicine directs the boiled medicine; the boiled medicine directs the raw medicine; the raw medicine directs the roasted medicine; the roasted medicine directs the calcined medicine — each in turn controlling the other, each in turn directing the other. Ruler and minister are both present; father and son are wholly complete. Thus in the end yin and yang are both attained, each having its own thread. The yang medicine controls the yin, so as to draw out the yin; the yin medicine controls the yang, so as to draw out the yang.
This medicine alone cannot make one a spirit-immortal, but whoever obtains it need only take a dose the size of a bean, and within the span of his allotted life he will forever be free of illness. If one already suffers from wind-illness, or from bruising injury to the limbs and joints, unable to move for five or ten years, one need only take a single pill according to the method, and it will take effect at once. In severe cases, no more than ten pills are needed.
If a person has died suddenly, so long as the region over the heart has not yet gone cold, take one pill, mix another with vinegar, and rub it into the navel more than a thousand times. Warmth should gradually spread from the four sides of the navel; once the eyes open, give one pill in hot vinegar — as soon as it passes the mouth, the person revives. Whatever the wind-illness, however many years and months it has reached back, this medicine is divinely effective; its power cannot be fully recorded. Each pill is the size of a mustard seed; dry it in the sun daily and store it.
For any sick person, regardless of how long the illness has lasted: first give half a liang of Red Snow powder, or Tongzhong San tea. If the wind-obstruction is very severe, give a full liang. After a good while, follow with hot tea, causing the patient to purge two or three times. According to the method, pour ginger-and-bean broth and give one pill. Have another person's warm hands rub the afflicted place, in turn, for a good while, until the heat penetrates through; one should then feel something in the flesh like fire, running to the place of pain — and the suffering will vanish on the spot. For those who, for one or two hundred days or within a year, have been unable to leave their bed from wind-illness: after taking one pill they can walk at once, just as if they had never been ill.
In the most severe cases, after each purging dose, take one pill of the medicine; then rest three to five days, then as before take Red Snow — purge first, then take the elixir pill. But no more than ten or twenty pills a day should be taken, and recovery to normal will follow. For those with old bruising injuries of many years, who ache whenever the weather turns overcast and cannot move — this is especially effective; only one or two pills should be used.
For those who take much of this medicine, once the illness is cured, its power will settle beneath the sole of the foot — the left foot for men, the right for women. Whenever there is suffering, raise the intent and think of the medicine, and by intention alone it will arrive. This medicine is divinely effective; its power cannot be fathomed by ordinary wit. Its method follows below.
Gold foil, twenty-four sheets. Bright cinnabar, one liang one fen, ground fine as flour, boiled three days in lye of wheat-bran ash, then rinsed and weighed. Realgar, three large fen, ground fine as flour, boiled three days in vinegar, then rinsed and weighed. Stalactite paste, three large fen, ground fine as flour, boiled three days in wine, then rinsed and weighed. Ox bezoar, musk, [a substance whose name is uncertain in this copy], tiger bone, and dragon's teeth — of the above, four large fen each, ground fine as flour, used raw. Actinolite, magnetite, amethyst quartz, native copper, and a long-grained stone — of the above, three large fen each. Polygala root, morinda root, figwort root, black snake, and epimedium — of the above, five large fen each. Costus root, nutmeg, deer antler in the shape of a dried persimmon, and cinnamon bark — of the above, six large fen each. Corydalis tuber and a further substance whose name is uncertain — three large fen each.
Take the sulfur, realgar, cinnabar, and native copper — four substances — and place them together in one flask. Cover and pad them with gold foil; do not seal the mouth. Roast over fire for three days, keeping the fire always three inches from the flask, and not letting it grow too hot. Also take the actinolite, magnetite, amethyst quartz, and long-grained stone — four substances — and place them together in another flask. Cover and pad with gold foil; bury the flask halfway in ash, leaving the mouth open, and calcine three days. On the first day keep the fire two inches from the flask; on the second day, one inch; on the third, cluster the fire close about it, and by night calcine it until glowing red through, so that no fire-poison remains.
Take ten liang of stalactite and grind it with a jade pestle for seven days, until it is like flour, then stop. Store it in a bag of boiled silk, tie it fast at the neck, and suspend it in a pot; boil it in two dou of water, decocting down to one dou. From this, take three ge of the stalactite-water and grind rhinoceros horn in it a thousand strokes; store this water apart, to be used later when the honey-locust kernel is added. Take the remaining stalactite-water and decoct in it the polygala and the other four herbs above, adding five large fen of vitex fruit, crushed, boiling all together until the water reaches seven sheng; strain out the dregs and use it. Take this water again and decoct costus root and the other three ingredients, down to four sheng; strain. Take this decoction once more and boil pinellia — roasted, washed by tossing, and pinched open — and dong quai, finely cut, one large liang of each, decocting down to three sheng; strain and let settle until clear. Then take one sheng of rehmannia juice, one sheng of ash-free wine, and one sheng of a young boy's urine; combine these three with the three sheng of decoction, for six sheng in all. In a clean vessel, simmer over gentle-then-strong fire until reduced to one sheng; then add all the mineral and metallic medicines, stirring without pause, until it becomes like thin gruel. Remove from the fire and add the powdered raw drugs — ox bezoar and the other four — stirring thoroughly until perfectly even. Then add the honey-locust kernel, its seeds fried, the kernels beaten out and pounded to powder, six large fen weighed out, and borneol, two fen, ground in a basin fine as flour, together with the ground rhinoceros-horn liquid — put all into a mortar and have a strong man grind it three thousand strokes, until very thick. Roll it into pills the size of mustard seeds; they must not be made larger.
The efficacy of this medicine is second to none in all creation. Divide it afterward into three large portions, arranged like the character 品 [three parts stacked], and take one portion at a time. Also add one large liang of refined mirabilite, reserved for this purpose as "coffin-breaking" mirabilite — fine Sichuan mirabilite with sharp, jagged crystals will serve. Refine it over fire in a crucible until its liquid is entirely gone, take it as powder, and add it to the medicine. If someone has died suddenly, whatever the appearance of the illness, so long as the limbs have not yet stiffened, one may force the jaw and let one pill dissolved in hot vinegar drip in; once it passes the throat the person revives — of ten so treated, eight or nine are saved. The pills for this use should be the size of a mung bean. The remaining details of the medicine all follow the versified formula below.
Sulfur and cinnabar, with copper between, lie uppermost —
the first four mineral drugs go into the flask in this order, roasted by fire as instructed.
Magnetite rises, the long-grained stone ranged, the purple leads —
the last four mineral drugs go into the flask in this order, calcined by fire as instructed.
Gold above and below, three sheets, and two in the middle —
in calcining the drugs, gold foil is laid three sheets above and below, two in the middle, separating the mineral drugs.
Amethyst is calcined, copper is roasted, three days each throughout —
for those using amethyst quartz, the flask is calcined; for those using native copper, the flask is roasted; each for one day only.
Stalactite is decocted, four and five return to one —
decocting means boiling down; the twenty drugs above are boiled with stalactite in two dou of water, down to one dou — this is "returning to one."
Taking the one, eleven refinements are still needed —
take again the dou of stalactite-water previously boiled, and decoct in it the eleven herbal drugs — hence it is called "eleven refinements."
Boil through three watches until it must come out —
that is, boil down to three sheng.
Rehmannia, wine, and a boy's urine join as one —
rehmannia, boy's urine, and wine — these three.
When fire and stone return to the quiet chamber —
this means removing from the fire and adding the mineral drugs.
Wait until it is thick as the flesh of five raw things —
this means the flesh-drugs are blended into the body; the "five raw" are the five ingredients led by ox bezoar.
Set three ge apart amid the water; outside, a thousand strokes turn the rhinoceros —
this means grinding the rhinoceros horn in the stalactite-water.
(A discrepancy between "three days each" in the verse and "one day only" in its own gloss stands in the source as received, and is kept honestly rather than silently resolved.)
Method for the Purple-Gold Cinnabar Elixir
Finest Chenjin bright cinnabar, half a jin. Malachite, three liang. Leaf realgar or orpiment, two liang.
Take all of the above and, with an iron blade, break them into pieces the size of honey-locust seeds. Take a flask able to hold one sheng, and boil the three substances together in brine for three seven-day periods, keeping it always at a fish-eye simmer, never letting it boil over. Take out one grain of the cinnabar, wash it, and hold it to the light: when it shows a golden color, stop; if a reddish-black halo remains, boil seven days more. Take it out, let it dry, then bake it further over the fire to drive out the dark discoloration, and place it in the storage vessel.
Salt-flower, two jin. Saltpeter, one liang.
Take these and burn them in a flask until they form a liquid; pound fine, burn again, and grind to a fine powder. Pack this to form a storage vessel; lay down one layer of the malachite-and-realgar, and fill and pack it level with the salt-powder, leaving about three fen short of the mouth. Seal with cloth, cap it with a ground tile, seal it fast with "six-one mud," and smear the seams shut. Nourish with four liang of fire for seven days; six liang of fire for four seven-day periods; half a jin of fire for two seven-day periods; then calcine with three jin of fire. When it has cooled, place it in a bamboo tube with cow's milk, steam it three times wrapped in black-bean rice, soak it three days in cold spring water, then remove it from the rice and steam out the dark discoloration. Grind it fine, and form pills with mulberry-bark juice, the size of millet grains. Taken three pills a day with wine, it cures thirty-six kinds of one-sided wind-paralysis, wind-madness of the sinews and bones, bow-leg wind, kidney-organ wind-heat, poison-wind, and dissolves every kind of cold wind. Taken long, it transforms the skin and hair, lengthens the years, and lightens the body — its efficacy cannot be fully recorded.
Take only four liang, and as before place it in the storage vessel: first spread the malachite-realgar, then lay refined cinnabar and raw cinnabar in alternating layers until the four liang of raw cinnabar is used up; then refined cinnabar again, then malachite-realgar, then cover with storage-vessel powder. Seal as before and nourish with fire for forty-nine days. When finished, repeat again and again in this way, always with four liang, to serve as the "mother" for further batches.
Method for Transmuting Gold-and-Emerald Cinnabar into Gold-Millet Grains
It cures every kind of wind, extends the years, preserves the countenance, cures the ten thousand ailments, and also transmutes into treasure.
The method: first make a ball of mud, using red lead, white clay, tile-powder, and salt-efflorescence worked with vinegar; form its core in wax, allowing not the least crack. Dry it in the shade, open a hole at the side, remove the wax, and fire it again. Take fine bright cinnabar, grind and pound it to powder, roll it in paper, and pour it in; mix a large earthworm into the ball-mud, pound the mud to a pulp, and seal the hole with it. When dry, forge an iron ring, set the ball within an iron cauldron, and pour molten lead in to a depth of about two inches above it. Nourish it with bran-husk fire, keeping the lead always soft as the sign to watch for. Continue thus a hundred and twenty days, then increase the fire and take it out. Cool it further on the ground, breaking off the fire, and when it has cooled, take it out: the medicine will resemble a bluish-purple spiral shell; discard any black powder found within as unfit.
Divide the medicine in half; store one half in a green inner tube, steam it five times in cow's milk, changing the milk three times — the milk-skin thus produced can treat skin blemishes. Take it out and bury it in an earthen pit for three nights. Grind it fine and form pills with millet-rice, the size of millet grains. At forty years of age, one pill a day; at fifty, two; at sixty, three. Its potency differs by degree, and it must not be taken to excess. It cures every kind of wind, extends the years, preserves the countenance, and improves a darkened complexion.
Grind the remainder fine; in a crucible, with one liang of fine yellow alum, layer it above and below the cinnabar powder, seal the top fast, and when dry, nourish it in ash-fire for forty-nine days. Temper it with strong fire, and when cooled and opened, it will all have become gold-millet grains. Take a portion the size of a rat's tail, of true "geng" metal, and first melt it in the crucible, then drop in three or four grains of the millet: it will at once transmute into the true substance of the West. Keep the furnace at three large liang of fire; take this and set the ball in the cauldron, judged by its size at the time, with the ball's hole facing upward, placed within the lead cauldron.
Method of the Feathered-Transformation River Chariot
Bright cinnabar, four liang, selected to the size of honey-locust seeds. Guazhou yellow alum, half a liang.
Take these and mix them with three-year-old rice vinegar, grinding fine as mud; wrap the cinnabar with this piece by piece, and let it dry. Separately take half a liang of fine geng-metal of the West, beat it into thin sheets, cut it into small pieces, and wrap the cinnabar with these as well. Then take one liang of fine Wudu realgar and one liang of malachite, grind fine, and decoct with the vinegar-mud above until glue-like; form the realgar-malachite into small cakes and use these to wrap the cinnabar once more. When dry, work spirit-vinegar into a glue-paste and wrap it entirely once again; set it aside to dry fully.
Use pure lead to make the storage vessel; the arrangement of the lead follows its own method, unclear at one point in this copy. Refine it three times more, and after three refinings pound and sieve it as the method prescribes. Take six liang of lead-silver alloy and beat it into a lidded box. The box's mating rims must fit exactly, the depth below and the breadth above measured to the fen. Spread pure lead on the bottom of the box, about two fen deep; arrange the cinnabar like lotus seeds; cover again with pure lead, spread more cinnabar, and so on, layer upon layer, until finished; then cover with pure lead to fill the box. Bind it first with a silver band, seal it fast with six-one mud, and let it dry.
Take five jin of salt-efflorescence, refine it twice over with saltpeter, pound it fine and sift it; take an iron cauldron able to hold the box, somewhat larger than it, and pack the salt-efflorescence in solidly around the box — this forms the outer vessel. Fill and hold it with salt, cover it, pierce it through with an iron rod, seal it fast, and let it dry. Dig an earthen furnace-pit one foot six inches deep and one foot four inches wide; burn with horse-dung fire and bran-husk fire for forty-nine days. Open the cauldron and pry loose the vessel with the iron rod: if the silver box has turned golden, remove the fire and take it out. If not, burn seven days more. When cooled, open the box, strip off the yellow-alum-and-realgar coating, and set it aside; take one grain of it, grind it fine, and with two liang of mercury in a pan over gentle fire, sprinkle in a portion the size of half a small bean — it will dry and forge into treasure. Treasure this, and do not use it lightly: this is called the First Turning.
Separately take twelve liang of bright cinnabar, grind it to powder, and mix it with the fire-subdued cinnabar above. As before, decoct in good vinegar and knead it into a ball; take an inner vessel as before, pound and sieve fine to build it. Take the yellow-alum-and-realgar coating stripped off earlier, grind it fine and spread it on the bottom; set in the cinnabar ball, cover with the lid, and fill up with storage-vessel powder. Seal as before, and when dry, place it in the cauldron. Line a separate furnace with mud, add half a jin of straw-ash, nourish with fire for a hundred and twenty days, then temper with strong fire. Remove it from the furnace and take out the medicine: as before it should have become fine geng-metal of the West. This is called the Second Turning, the Purple-Gold River Chariot.
If one wishes to take it as food, first draw out its poison by soaking it a full month in cold spring water, then steam it in milk; form pills with mulberry-bark juice, the size of millet grains. It extends the years and cures the ten thousand ailments; only one pill a day should be taken. If one takes an entire liang with utmost sincerity of will, one's years will reach five sexagenary cycles. This must be kept a divine secret; should it by chance be lightly disclosed and transmitted to one without the Way, that person will suffer calamity for it.
Separately take one jin of bright cinnabar, grind it fine, and mix it with the drugs above; take a tile cauldron able to hold the medicine, and pack the mixed cinnabar to form an outer vessel. Take the fire-subdued cinnabar from before, grind it fine, mix it with vinegar into a paste, and coat the inside of the vessel; when dry, add eight liang of mercury, and with two liang of fire, place it in the furnace and nourish it a hundred and twenty days: it becomes purple gold. It is not fit for ordinary use; one should first carry it to a famous mountain, announce it to the Mysterious Most High, and inscribe one's name in the immortal registers. Store it in the "spirit chamber"; when it is to be used, set it in ashes, add six liang of mercury, and use two liang of fire. Nourish it for one full cycle, and it becomes true fine geng-metal of the West. This is called the Third Turning, the Spirit-Chamber River Chariot.
Method of the Golden Flower and Yellow Sprout
Raw silver sprout, half a jin. Raw mercury, half a jin.
Melt the silver sprout together with the mercury so that they merge, taking the form of a silver paste. If there is a shortfall, add moist silver to bring it to the full measure. Take a fine oil-tight flask able to hold two jin, and use it to store the medicine, leaving generous room within; seal the whole flask fast, level the top, and set it so that it can be turned over and righted again. Take a second, larger flask able to hold the first inside it, to serve as the outer vessel; do not seal this one fast, but simply set a cover loosely over its mouth.
Set it upon three supporting pegs, and build a furnace of mud packed with hemp fiber, in three sections, in the image of the Three Powers of Heaven, Earth, and Man. In the middle tier set three pegs crosswise; below, open two doors, one front and one back — the front door, the larger, four inches high; the back door, the smaller, about an inch and a half. Beneath the furnace lay the fire in three lengths, each four inches, always kept covered with ash. When feeding the fire, set the charcoal at the center; charcoal balls serve even better. Light the fire first in the eleventh month, and continue so for some ten months; within the year, sixty days must be kept at a strong fire, somewhat greater than usual.
Above, set a basin to cover it, with one gap left open, about an inch across. From midnight on, the medicine-flask's top faces upward; after noon it is turned top-down; at the next midnight it is turned again as before — the inner flask is turned, the outer one is not. After turning it must be covered again. The furnace's upper tier, shaped like a rice-steamer, has its star-gap covered with a sheet of paper from midnight on, removed when the time comes. If the fire's timing is thus kept regular and does not lose its measure — sealed once by day and once by night — then by the fifth month it will be complete. Weigh it, check for any shortfall and add accordingly; when the mercury reaches its full measure it forms a single mass — this is called "taking form."
Break open the flask and take it out; pound, grind, and wash it fine, elutriate it in water, and dry it fully in the sun. Then, as before, add new mercury, about a third of the total, press the medicine level — without sealing it fast this time — and nourish it with fire as before for a full month; take it out again, wash, dry, and nourish it further as before. When ten months in all are complete, the medicine will show flecks of transmuted cinnabar upon it — the medicine's essence, emerging atop its "mother womb"; about half a jin of it, brownish in color, will already be fire-subdued. Collect it in a separate vessel; burn it out fully with sixty days of strong fire, and it emerges an extraordinary red, its fire-poison expelled. Taken as food, it can lengthen the years and add to life; its efficacy cannot be fully described.
When the fire has reached its full ten months and grows strong, the medicine will turn to liquid; a gentle fire must then nourish it further, restoring it as before. As for the medicine's original "mother," add half a jin of raw mercury as before and nourish it a month; it will again emerge atop the "mother," still brownish, and may be nourished for up to a year. Collect this and it becomes of worldly use, fire-subdued, soft and white. If worldly use is wanted, it may be augmented month by month. If mercury is added nine times over, and it is nourished to a full jin, it becomes wondrous beyond measure, enduring forever with the world, and cures the ten thousand ailments besides. It is said that this is the Nine-Cauldron Elixir, whose completion leads to ascension. The Cantong qi calls it the Golden Flower; some also call it the Outer Elixir. This is a most secret instruction; only one or two men of Suzhou ever obtained it, and it must not be lightly disclosed.
The Method of "Almost-Lord White"
The Most High, taking pity on scholars in poverty and hardship, and on superior men who had not yet met their fortune, set this down and gave it a name, to aid practitioners of the art; therefore this recipe is made known.
White Tiger, thirty liang. Mysterious Essence of Great Yin, twelve liang. Alum stone, twelve liang. White lead powder, eight liang.
Take the first three, pound and grind them to powder, and mix them with the fourth into a paste. First knead eight liang of wax into the shape of an egg. Coat the wax egg all over with the medicinal paste, then cover it with sweet clay all around, to a thickness of about half an inch. Open a small hole at the top, about the size of a bean. Dry it in the sun, then burn away the wax with fire; place the aforesaid "Dark Warrior" into the hole, and seal the hole again fast with the medicinal paste. Then refine it over gentle fire for sixty-three days; when the Dark Warrior has fully dried, its color will be like silver — this is called "silver essence."
Take one liang of this subdued essence and put it into a jin of refined copper: it will entirely turn to paste — this is called the method of "subduing." If the substance is not fire-subdued, then whatever copper or iron it is put into will lose its proper order, and subduing will not be achieved. The Eight Lords call this method "Almost-Lord"; "White" is another name for the Dark Warrior. Once subdued, the substance is able to enter other metals — yet it is not fit to be taken as food. Why is this? Because this is a method of transmutation only, not the true and mysterious gate of immortality. "Almost" refers to mercury and lead; what "can whiten" is this transmutation and subduing — hence the Eight Lords name it "Almost-Lord White." There is also a method of boiling it in oil and vinegar, given in a separate recipe.
Method for the Nine-Times-Refined Lead
The formula: use ten jin of lead and one jin of mercury; melt them in a vessel over gentle fire, and with an iron spoon skim off the black scum until it is entirely gone. Each time, pour the lead out onto the ground, then return it to the vessel and melt it again; do this nine times in all. Then add the mercury, and boil it over fierce fire until it turns the color of blue-green sand; if it scatters, sprinkle it with bran-vinegar, and it will turn to blue-green sand.
Make vinegar ready in an iron vessel, pour the sand into it, and grind it with an iron spoon until fully worked. Add more vinegar and simmer; take the lead-yellow out onto a tile and let it dry. Take juice of yellow-ox dung — or a gruel of small and large barley will also do — and mix it with the boiled blue-green sand to form a ball the size of an egg, or shape it into a cake, and dry it in the sun (one version says: in the shade). Over a roasting-furnace fire, arrange bellows-bags and blow to extract the lead-essence — this is called lead-cinnabar. Its nature is moist and soft; simmer it further in the vessel until fully worked, and its color turns entirely red. Take it out of the vinegar again, grind it until fully worked, let it settle on a tile until dry, and simmer it in the vessel until worked, turning purple.
In a separate vessel, take one sheng of good wine, add two liang of red salt, and mix them in the wine; take the purple-colored elixir and pour it all at once into the wine. Let it cool, and take it out. This is called the "Nine-Times-Returned Lead." Nine is the elixir's name; it is called the Nine-Turnings Purple Lead Elixir.
Method of the Spirit-Transformation Gold Elixir
Brine essence, three liang. Mountain-pool rock salt, two liang, likewise ground fine as flour. Fire-subdued northern sulfur, one jin, of the translucent grade, ground to powder.
Take these three and mix them together evenly. Take an iron box; grind fine incense-ink with rice vinegar and coat the inside of the box thickly three times over, and let it dry. Put the three drugs into the box, and press it over a gentle fire to heat it, until the drugs turn to liquid and the northern brine's dark color is entirely expelled; then stop the fire and let it congeal and cool. Take four liang of saltpeter, grind it fine, pack it firmly into the base of the box, seal it on top with dry paper, and let the base dry. Then place it into the cauldron, sealing it fast with the proper luting-mud, made of crow-gate hematite of a cockscomb color, together with left-facing oyster shell and red halloysite clay — three substances, each pounded fine, mixed into fire-subdued northern brine and blended evenly; pound this in a mortar upward of a thousand strokes, and use it to seal the box fast all around its rim and base, aiming above all for firmness and tightness. Fasten the box shut on top with an iron latch, taking care that it is tight.
When it has dried in the shade, take about three jin of lead, melt it to liquid in a crucible, and with a small iron ladle spoon it around the four sides of the box's base until evenly coated; then melt more lead and gradually pour it into the cauldron, until the cauldron is full to two inches above the box. Having chosen the day, begin the fire at midnight: at first six liang, adding one liang each day, until sixty days are complete. When the cauldron has cooled and settled, chisel away the black lead with a small iron chisel, open the box, and take out the medicine — it will be truly the color of gold. Put it into a mortar and grind it fine.
Northern brine-salt, three liang, of the white translucent grade. Yellow beeswax, one and a half fen, melted to liquid and mixed evenly with the brine-salt.
Form this into a ball and wrap it in paper. Fry a peck of weathered lime; take a tile pot, pack half the lime firmly into it, hollow out a pit within, set the wrapped ball inside, and cover with the other half of lime, packed firm as before. Begin with three jin of fire and nourish it, gradually increasing to five or seven jin; turn it once during each of the "three fu" periods of high summer, and calcine with ten jin of fire until glowing red throughout. When the fire is spent, let it cool, take it out, and store it in a bag of raw silk.
Dig an earthen pit able to hold five or seven sheng, fill it with water, and when the water has soaked fully into the ground, set a fine tile bowl within the pit; lay a rod crosswise above it, and hang the bag of brine-salt suspended over the bowl. Cover it with an inverted tile basin, and pack damp earth all around so that nothing escapes; through the three fu periods it will entirely turn to water. Take this water and use it to blend the two drugs above.
Finest geng-metal, ten liang. Mercury, fifty liang.
Store these in one jar, kept constantly warm over fire; heat the geng-metal until red, drop it into the mercury, and stir with a willow spatula until it is entirely dissolved. Take three jin of "numinous flower," and grind it together with the gold-paste until very fine; put it into a large pan and level it evenly. Cover the pan with a fitted basin, seal it fast with mud all around, and heat with a slow fire so that the mercury sublimes upward, until it is entirely gone. Then pour hot decoction over the collected "flower," until its salt-taste is entirely gone. Dry the geng-metal powder on a tray in the sun, then grind it fine and add it to the medicine.
Realgar, eight liang, of the cockscomb-colored grade, ground to powder. Orpiment, eight liang, of the translucent leaf grade, ground to powder. Western salt-efflorescence, four liang, ground to powder. Gold powder, ten liang.
Grind these five drugs fine as powder. Change to a fresh box, following the method exactly as before: coat the inside thickly three times with fine incense-ink ground in rice vinegar, and when dry, put in the drugs, and press the box over a gentle fire so that the drugs turn to liquid. Following the method exactly as before, take four liang of saltpeter, grind it fine, pack it into the base of the box, seal the base with fine dry paper, seal the box's lid fast, and place it in the cauldron. Seal the base fast with the luting-mud as before, fasten the top with an iron latch, and let it dry in the shade. Following the method exactly as before, first take three jin of lead, melt it in a crucible, spoon it around the four sides of the box's base with an iron ladle, then melt more lead and gradually fill the cauldron, up to two inches above the box. Choose the day and begin the fire at midnight, following the timing as before: starting at six liang and adding one liang each day, until sixty days are complete.
When the cauldron and box have cooled and settled, chisel away the black lead with an iron chisel and take out the box; the medicine should have turned a purple-gold color. Take one portion and grind it fine in a mortar: it can transmute one jin of mercury, at once becoming purple-sheened yellow gold. This is not something the human world possesses; it is a secret transmission of the divine immortals. If it is to aid the Way, one must know when one has enough.
Mercury, one jin. The medicine, one portion.
Take a new iron crucible, set the medicine atop the mercury within it, cover with a tea bowl, and seal it fast as instructed. Set the crucible over the fire, and listen closely for a dripping sound within; then quench the crucible's base in water. Repeat this some ten times or more, and the mercury will be fully subdued, roasting into something like black-lead sand. Put it separately into a crucible and melt it down: it will become purple-sheened refined gold. Its further transformations cannot be fully set down.
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 work is prose throughout except for one short passage of mnemonic verse with its own prose commentary, which is set as verse with the commentary following each line as instructed in the source; the recipe portions, which name substances and weights in running prose without punctuation of their own in the manuscript, have been broken into sentences by ingredient for readability, following the sense of the text rather than adding or omitting any content.
Before the claim below was written, a translation-status check was performed: the local bibliographies of Daoist texts in Western-language translation (Komjathy's Daoist Texts in Translation and the 2023 update of the Purple Cloud survey of Daoist texts in Western languages) were searched by Chinese title, by pinyin, and by variant titles, and returned no entry for this text. Two further web searches, for the Chinese title and for the pinyin title together with "English translation," returned no published translation of this specific work; the closest related material found was Livia Kohn's translation of the unrelated Zhong-Lü corpus, which does not include this text. To our knowledge, this is the first complete published English translation of the Lingbao Zhongzhen Dan Jue. This is stated as the limit of our knowledge, not as a certainty.
A note on the text's condition and its technical vocabulary. This is a working alchemical formulary, dense with mineral, herbal, and apparatus names, many of them period trade-names rather than modern pharmacological terms; the translation renders them as literally and consistently as the sense allows. A small number of terms in the Wikisource transcription appear corrupted or garbled — apparent transcription or scanning errors rather than marks original to the text — including several ingredient names in the opening formula's materia list (rendered here, where the intended substance could not be confidently identified, as "a substance whose name is uncertain in this copy"), a fragment of illegible text in the description of arranging lead in the "Feathered-Transformation River Chariot" method, and one internal inconsistency between a mnemonic verse and its own prose gloss over the length of a firing, which is preserved and flagged in the translation rather than silently resolved. None of these affect the overall sense or completeness of the text; all are noted honestly rather than smoothed over.
Prepared for the Good Work Library by the Tianmu Anglican Church with AI-assisted translation and editorial work.
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Source Text: 靈寶眾真丹訣
Classical Chinese text of the Daoist Canon, in the Chinese Wikisource transcription. Presented complete for reference, study, and verification alongside the English translation above.
還魂丹法並序
夫人生稟於五行，拘於五常，則為五味之所賊，八風之所攻。爰自飲乳，至於耄年，莫不因風而喪命。或多食而過飽，或失食而饑，或飲啜大多，或乾渴乏水，或食鹹醋，或啜酸辛，或畏熱當風，或惡寒親火，或庭前看月，或樹下乘凍，或刺損肌膚，或撲傷支體，或時餐燥藥，或時啜水漿，或久絕屏幃，或日多施泄，自此風趨百竅，毒聚四肢，遂使手足不隨，言詞賽澀。或痛鑽骨髓，或痺襲皮膚，或癢甚蟲螟，或頑如鐵石，或多痰唾，健忘，好瞋，血脈不行，肉色乾瘦；或久安床枕，起坐須臾；或頭面虛腫，雖活如死；或總無疾苦，卒暴而亡。男即熙引其風，女即
風隨其血，未有不因風而喪命者也。世人不能治其風，但以藥攻其內，安有風在五臟六腑之中，四支百脈之問，而湯飲之類，曷能去乎。假令相疾而醫，用藥乖誤，雖《難經》、《素問》，三世十全，欲去沉綿，其可得也。
余久居太白，抱疾數年，萬藥皆施，略不能效。後有一翁，遺余此藥，服都五粒，疾乃徐除。稽顆叩天，求其藥法，然肯傳授，為誓不輕。余故錄於身右，置諸靈室，後人得之者，宜敬之。無或輕傳，自貽殃咎。但依法修鍊，何慮不神。
夫炙藥制燒藥，燒藥制煮藥，煮藥制生藥，生藥使煮藥，煮藥使生藥，生藥使炙藥，炙藥使燒藥，遞互相制，遞互相使，君臣俱具，父子固全。後遂得陰陽，各有其緒。陽藥制陰，以引其陰。陰藥制陽，而引其陽。此藥但不能制致神仙，得之者但服一豆許，則壽限之內，永無疾矣。如己患風疾，及撲傷肢節，十年五年，運動不得者，但依法服之一粒，便效。重者不過十粒。有人卒亡者，但心頭未冷，取藥一粒，以醋調一粒，摩臍中一千餘下，當從臍四面漸煖，待眼開後，熱醋下一粒，入口即活。但是風疾，不拘年月探遠，神驗，不能具載其功力。每丸如芥子大，日曝令乾，收之。凡疾人，不問年月遠近。先以紅雪，或通中散茶，下半兩。如或風澀甚者，即服一兩，良久，以熱茶投之，令患病人瀉三兩行，依法潑薑豆湯，下一粒，當以他人熱手，更互摩之患處，良久熱徹，即當覺肉有物如火，走至痛處，所苦當時已失矣。一二百日及一年內，風疾下床不得者，服一粒後，當時便可行步，一如不患人。至重者，每服瀉後，服藥一粒，後歇三五日問，依前服紅雪，先瀉後服丹藥，但每日服不過一二十粒，平復如故。打撲傷損多年者，天陰即疼痛，動不得 者，尤驗，只可一兩粒。服此藥多者，疾愈後，藥力當伏腳心下，男左女右。但有所苦，發心念藥，隨意則至。此藥神驗，功效非智能測，其法如後。
金薄 二＋四片 光明砂 一兩一分，研如麵。以禱麥灰汁煮三日淘取秤雄黃三大分，研如麵，醋煮三日，淘取秤 石庭脂 三大分，研如麵，酒煮三日，淘取秤 牛黃 麝香 脰腦臍 虎骨龍齒 已上各四大分，研如麵，生用 陽起石 磁毛石 紫石英 自然銅 長理石 已上各三大分 遠志 巴戟 玄參 烏她 仙靈脾 已上各五大分 青木香 肉豆蔥 鹿茸 如乾柿者 肉桂 已上各六大分 延胡索木律 各三大分
右將石流黃、雄黃、朱砂、自然銅四味，同入一瓶子，用金薄覆籍，不固口，以火炙三日，火常去瓶子三寸，不得甚熱。又將陽起石、磁毛石、紫石英、長理石四味，同入一瓶子內，以金薄覆籍，灰埋瓶子一半，歇口燒三日，第一日火去瓶子二寸，第二日火去瓶子一寸，第三日以火簇瓶子，至夜火煆通赤，無火毒。
右將鍾乳十兩，以玉礎研七日，如麵即住。用熟絹袋子貯，繫定頭邊，懸於鍋中，煮以水二斗，煎取一斗，內取鍾乳水，三合研生犀一千下，將此水別收貯。候入皂莢仁時，同研用。又將其餘鍾乳水，煎前遠志等五味，仍加蔓荊子五大分，拍碎同煮，令水至七升，去滓用。又取此藥水，煎青木香等四味，至四升，去滓。又取藥汁煎半夏 炙以揚洗了捏破。 當歸 細到 。二味，各一大兩，煎至三升，去滓澄沘淨。又用地黃汁一升，無灰酒一升，童子小便一升，此三味與煎藥汁三升，都許六升，於淨器中，文武火養成煎，候至一升，即下諸般金石藥，攪勿住手，待如稀粥，即去火，下牛黃等五味生藥末，熟攪令極勻，即下皂莢仁 炒其子，打取仁。杵為末，秤取六大分。 龍腦二分， 於盆內研如麵，入藥中。 並所研犀角汁，同入於乳缽中，令壯士研三千下，候極稠，丸如芥子大，不得大。此藥功效造化無殊。又此藥就後分為三大分，如品字，取一口即一分也。又加鍊了芒硝一大兩，差為破棺丹芒硝，即上好蜀硝，有鋒錯者即得也。於跳子內，火上鍊令汁盡，取為末，入於藥中。或有暴亡，不問疾狀，但肢體未變者，可破棺打齒，熱醋滴下一粒。過得咽喉即活，十救八九。其丸如蒙豆大，餘藥並依歌訣。
流黃砂隔銅居上，即前四味石藥依此次第入瓶中，依法用火炙。磁起長排紫作頭。即後四味石藥，依此次第入瓶中，依法用火燒。金上下三中各二，煆前藥，用金薄，上下各三片，中心各兩片隔定石藥。紫燒銅炙滿三休。用紫石英者，瓶子即燒之。用自然銅者。瓶子即炙之。各一日止。乳烹四五同歸一，烹即煎也。用鍾乳煎前二十味，以二斗水，煎至一斗，是歸一也。取一仍須十一修。再將前煎者鍾乳水一斗，煎草藥十一味，故云十一修也。煎到三時還要出，即煎至三升也。地和童酒一時句。地黃、童子小便，酒三味是也。若火石歸安靜室，是去火入石藥也。待如肌肉五生稠。肌肉和入體也，五生即牛黃五味是也。別盛三合中問水，外邊千下轉犀牛。此即用鍾乳水磨犀也。
紫金丹砂法
上好辰錦光明砂 半斤 曾青 三兩 葉子雄 雌 黃 二兩 右已上並用鐵鑰匙，打如皂莢子大。取一瓶子可受一升者，以三般物，以鹽膽煮之三七日，常如魚眼沸，不得令溢。取一顆砂出，以水洗，向明看之，如金色即止。如有赤黑暈，更煮七日，將出待乾，更於火上，炕出陰黑了，入櫃。
盥花 二斤 硝石 一兩
右已上於瓶中燒成汁了，搗碎，更燒了，細為末，築成櫃了，即下曾雌一重了，以鹽末填築平，去口三分已來，封之以布，磨瓦子蓋頭，用六一泥固濟，泯抹令斷縫。訖以四兩火，養七日。六兩火，養四七日。半斤火，養二七日。三斤火煆。待玲出，以黃牛乳，於竹筒盛，用黑豆飯蒸三遍，入寒泉三日，更去飯上，蒸出陰黑。細研，以楮汁為丸，丸如黍米大。每日三丸，酒下，治三十六種風偏，治筋骨風狂，風角弓風，腎藏風熱，毒風，一切冷風並消。久服肌膚毛髮皆變，延年益壽，身輕，其功不能備錄。只可取四兩，依前入櫃，先布曾雌，即以熟砂、生砂層層鋪盡，四兩生砂了，以熟砂，次曾雌，即以櫃末蓋之，依前固濟，養火四十九日。畢，重重依此，長以四兩，將為母也。
金碧丹砂變金粟子法
治一切風，延齡駐顏，治萬病，兼化寶。
法曰：先將泥毬子，泥用黃丹、白土、瓦末、盥、醋沒，用蠟為胎，不得令有微隙。陰乾，傍邊安孔，去蠟更燒過。即取好光明砂，研搗為末，以紙卷灌入了，以一大蚯蚓和毬子泥，搗泥令爛，卻固濟孔子。待乾，更打一鐵環子，安於鐵鼎子中安置，鎔鉛汁入鼎中，其上可二寸已來。即以糠火養，長令鉛軟為候。如此一百二十日，加火，取出。更於地上，以火斷過，候玲出之，其藥如青紫螺子，揀取黑末不中。分藥一半，以青內筒貯，用牛乳蒸五遍，三度換乳，乳皮堪療奸贈。取出，入地坑子中，三宿。細研，以粟米飯為丸，丸如粟米大。年四十，日一丸。年五十，日二丸。年六十，日三丸。其功力更別，不得多服。治一切風，延齡駐顏，治黑益顏色。餘者細末，於甘鍋中，用好黃礬一兩，以砂末上下布蓋，固濟頭乾了，灰火中養四十九日。以大火緞，候玲開，皆成金粟子。取鼠尾一寫，輸三兩，用半分真庚者，先於甘鍋內鎔引輸，乃下三四粒子粟，便化為真，真西方也。鑪長用火三大兩，將此去鼎中盛毬子，一切臨時，取毬子大小，其毬孔頭向上，安在鉛鼎之中。
羽化河車法
光明砂 四兩 ，棟取如皂莢子大 瓜州黃礬 半兩
右已上，取三年米醋拌細，研如泥，將用一一裹其朱砂，待乾。別取上色西方庚半兩，打作薄，剪作小片子，更裹砂了。然後取武都上色雄黃一兩，曾青一兩，細研，以左味煎似膠調，將雄青末捻成小餅子，將裹前砂，待乾，搗靈醋為膠泥，更裹一重總了，直放待乾。用真鉛為櫃，排鉛 8lJ 有法。更燒三遍，三遍須搗篩如法。取鉛銀六兩，打作合子。其合子須相受處口，拒深 下二寸四分，深廣上一寸二分，亦然。即取真鉛鋪於合底，可二分，即排砂如蓮子樣，更以真鉛蓋，更鋪砂，重重取盡了，即以真鉛蓋卻取滿合，卻先打銀束子束定，六一泥固濟，待乾。五斤盥，用硝石鍊過兩度了，細搗羅，取鐵鼎可容得，前合稍寬者。實其盥，搗於陷合處，是為外櫃，以鹽填持了蓋卻，鐵筋貫定固濟，待乾。掘一地鑪，深一尺六寸，闊一尺四寸，以馬通火、糠火，燒四十九日。開鼎，以鐵筋撥盛櫃，看銀合櫃變為金色，即去火取出。如未，更燒七日取出，待玲開合，剝下黃礬及雄青，留著取一粒，細研，水銀二兩於鐺中，微火取藥，半小豆大，糝上便乾鍛成寶。且惜莫用，此為第一轉。
別取光明砂十二兩，研碎，和前伏火砂同研。依前用好醋煎搜成團，取前內櫃。細搗羅築為櫃。即取前剝下黃礬，細研鋪底了，安砂團，更以蓋子上了，便著櫃末填滿，依前法固濟，待乾入鼎，別泥鑪，著草灰半斤，火養一百二十日，以大火煆，出鑪取藥，如前當成上色西方，此名第二轉紫金河車。
若要伏食，出毒，入寒泉一月日，卻以乳蒸，用楮汁為丸，丸如粟米大，延齡，治萬病，每日服只可一丸。若志心盡一兩，壽年五甲子。神祕不得，偶然輕泄，傳無道之人，受其殃。
別取光明砂一斤，細研，以左味拌，取一甍鼎子可貯得藥者，將拌砂築成外櫃，將前伏了砂，細研醋調泥櫃內，乾了，著汞八兩，以二兩火，入鑪養一百二十日，成紫金。不宜用，先將投名山，告上玄，書名仙籍也。其神室收取，要用時坐於灰中，著汞六兩，用二兩火。養一伏時，真上色西方也。此名第三轉神室河車。
金華黃芽法
生銀芽 半斤 生汞 半斤
右鎔芽與汞相入，狀若銀膏。如欠，將濕銀添滿本數，即取湖南通油瓶子上好者，受得二斤者，令貯得前藥，令其裹面寬轉，即通身固濟之，令頭平，使要返覆安之。更取一瓶大於前者，可貯得上瓶，為外櫃，不固濟，權著物蓋頭。即放三釘上，以諍泥用麻筋作鑪，鑪須三段作者，象三才。中層著三釘橫安，亦得下開二門，前後著二門，前面大門，高四寸。後面小門，可一寸半。其鑪下火可三截，長四寸，常著灰蓋上。如進火時，但炭上安中心即得，用炭團更好。其火還從十一月發火，如此可十月後，一年內須六十日武火，似大些些子。其上須著一盆覆之，開一星露，可大一寸，從半夜子時，其藥瓶頂向上，午後轉上卻下，至夜半依前轉，轉內瓶，外者不轉。轉了更須覆蓋。鑪上一層，其鑪似飯形，其上星露，從半夜將片紙掩之，至時除之。如是火候調順，不失節度，即是晝夜各一封，至五月足，秤看欠添，汞滿應數，成為一塊，謂之成形。即破瓶取之，搗研淘令細，水飛曝盡令乾。更依前入新汞，可三分之一，按藥令平，不用固濟，依前火侯，養待一月滿，更出淘洗畢，待乾，更養通前。都滿十月，其藥上有點化朱砂，此是藥精，出母胎上，可半斤，作褐色，已伏火也。收取別器貯，六十日武火燒畢，出赤色奇絕，出火毒，服食可長年益壽，其藥不可具論。其火得十月足，火似大，便化作液。更須緩火養，更得依舊，其藥本母，依前生汞半斤，養一月，更出母面上，還似褐色，養可一年。收前件藥，便作世利，伏火也，爛白。如要世利，可月月添之。若得九度添汞，養之一斤，神妙，與世長存，兼治萬病。云此是九鼎丹，功成上升。《 參同契》 云是金華，曾云是外丹。此甚祕訣，蘇臺一兩人得之，不得輕泄耳。
幾公白法
太上憫學士之困窮，上士之未遇，述之為號，以助術人，故顯此方。
白虎 三＋兩 太陰玄精 十二兩 礬石 十二兩 胡粉 八兩
右三物搗研成粉，以左味和為泥。先捏蠟八兩，作鸚子形。即以藥泥塗蠟鸚子上，令遍。以甘土泥藥上，令周雨，泥令厚半寸許。頂上開一小孔子，如豆顆許。然後曝乾，火燒去蠟，安前
玄武於孔中，還以藥泥固鸚子孔中，其還以藥泥固，然後緩火，鍊七九日，玄武俱乾，其色如銀，此名銀精。取此伏精一兩，入熟銅一斤，盡化為泥，名制伏之法。若藥物不伏火，入銅鐵俱失紀綱，即不成制伏。八公號幾公，白者是玄武之別名。伏了之物，能入也。即不任服食者，何也。此是變轉之法，非真玄妙之門。幾白者，是汞鉛。能白者，此變伏。故八公號日幾公白也。更有油醋煮之法，具別方。
九轉鍊鉛法
訣用鉛十斤，汞一斤，以器微火鎔之，用鐵匙掠取其黑皮，直令盡。每一遍傾在地上，復器中鎔之，凡如此九遍訖。即下汞，即用猛火熬作青砂色，如散即糠醋灑之，即變為青砂矣。更於一鐵器中成醋，傾砂醋中訖，用鐵匙研令熟。又醋烹添，取鉛黃於瓦上，令乾，取黃牛糞汁，並小大麥緬亦得，和所熬青砂作團，如鸚子大，或作餅，日曝乾。一本云：陰乾。於燎鑪火上，排鞘袋吹取鉛精，名鉛丹。其性濡，更著器熬令至熟，其色盡赤，又出醋中研令至熟，澄著瓦上使乾，於器中熬令熟，紫色。又別以一器，取好酒一升，下赤鹽二兩，和投酒中相得，即取紫色丹。一時寫著酒中，待玲出之，此即名九還鉛。九為丹名，日九轉紫鉛丹也。
神化金丹法
亭汁 三兩 山池石鹽 二兩，亦研細如緬 伏火北硫黃 一斤通明者，研如粉
右三味藥，並同相和令勻。便取鐵合，用米醋研上好香墨，濃塗鐵合內三遍，候乾。便入此三味藥於合內，以文火逼合令熱，候藥化為汁，出盡北亭陰黑，住火候凝玲。便用硝石四兩，細研如粉，入於合足內實按，上以枯紙封定，合足，候乾，方入於鼎內，用法泥固濟。其法泥用鴉門代赭，如鸚冠色者，左顧牡蠣、赤石脂等三味，各細搗研如粉，入伏火北亭汁，勻和，入臼內杵一千以來，方用固濟相合，并足周迴，唯務堅密為妙。合鼎上用鐵關關定，切在緊密。候陰乾，便取鉛三斤以來，於跳子鎔化作汁，用小鐵杓子抄於合足四面，候勻遍，又更消鎔鉛汁，漸漸灌於鼎內，直至鼎滿合上二寸以來，便選成合日夜半子時起火，初六兩，日加一兩，至六十日滿足。候藥鼎玲定，用小鐵鑿子鑿去黑鉛，開合取藥，真如金色。便入於乳缽內，細研如粉。
北亭砂 三兩白明者 以黃蠟 一分半，鎔作汁，拌北亭令勻
右作一團子，以紙裹。炒風化石灰一斗，用一甍罐，先將一半風化入於罐內實築，內剜一坑子，安北亭於內，上又將一半風化蓋，准前實築。初用火三斤，以來養，漸漸加火至五七斤，三伏時一弄，十斤火煆通赤。火盡候玲，取出，用生絹袋子內盛。又掘一地坑子，可受五七升，滿添水，候濕盡水，安一細甍碗於坑子內，上橫一杖子，懸釣北亭袋子於碗上，更用一瓦盆子合蓋，周迴用濕土擁盆子，勿透黑，三伏時並化為水。取此水，拌調前件二味藥。
上好庚 一十兩 汞 五十兩
右貯於一罐內，常用火煖，將庚燒令赤，投於汞內，用柳篦攪，化盡為度，用靈花三斤，與金泥同研唯細，便入一大鐺內，令勻平，上用勘一盆子蓋鐺，以泥固濟，周迴令密，慢慢火，卻令汞飛上，以汞盡為度，次用煎湯沃盛花，候盥味盡為度。其庚粉於盤內，日曝乾，後細研，入在藥內。
雄黃 八兩，如鸚冠色者，研如粉 雌黃 八兩，通明葉子者，研如粉 戎盥 四兩，研如粉 金粉 十兩
右五味藥，並細研如粉。別換鼎，合一依前法，用米醋濃研香墨，勻塗合內三遍，乾後，入藥於合內，還用文火逼合，令藥作汁。一依前法，用硝石四兩，細研如粉，安在合足內實按，以緬枯紙封定合足，便固濟合蓋，入於鼎內，准前法泥固濟合足，合上用鐵關關定，候陰乾。一依前法，先取鉛三斤，於姚子內鎔作汁，以鐵杓抄在合足四面相，次更鎔鉛汁，漸漸滿鼎內、至合上二寸以來，一依前法，選成合日夜半子時起火，火候准前，初起六兩，日加一兩，至六十日滿足。候鼎合玲定，用鐵鑿去黑鉛，取合，其藥當作紫金色。每一分於乳缽內細研，可制汞一斤，立成紫磨黃金。此非人世所有，是神仙祕授，若於助道，須知足乎。
汞 一斤 藥 一分
右於新鐵跳子內，藥置汞上，用茶碗子蓋，固濟如法，安跳子於火上，專聽裹面滴滴聲，即將跳子於水內淬底。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 靈寶眾真丹訣, revision of 12 July 2009), 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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