Jindan Zhengzong — Attributed to Hu Huncheng, Song Dynasty

This is a treatise on inner alchemy (neidan) from the Song dynasty (960–1279), attributed to a certain Hu Huncheng (胡混成), of whom nothing else is reliably known, and preserved in the Zhengtong Daozang, the Ming-dynasty printed edition of the Daoist Canon (1445). It survives as a short prose treatise followed by a dozen-odd four-line mnemonic verses, one for each stage of the work.

Hu Huncheng writes against the "thousand chapters, ten thousand scrolls" of alchemical writing that, in his view, obscure the Way rather than reveal it, and sets out instead what he calls its proper order: establishing the cauldron-furnace, gathering the medicine, and carrying out the firing-phases — the three pillars of inner-alchemical theory, in which the practitioner's own body becomes the site of a wholly interior, incorporeal alchemy. He frames the teaching within an autobiographical account of his own long search, and of an encounter, one day beside a winding river, with an unnamed and silent Daoist who set the entire method out in the sand with a staff, in barely a hundred characters, before vanishing across the water.

A note on one key term: 玄關一竅 (xuanguan yi qiao), "the single aperture of the Mysterious Pass," is this text's name for the ungraspable, non-physical point in the body where the work is carried out — described here as older than the body itself, present before birth, and lodged nowhere any anatomy could locate it. This translation keeps "the Mysterious Pass" throughout as the standing English name for that same site.

Translated for the Good Works Library directly from the classical Chinese of the Daoist Canon, printed in full below the translation. We know of no published English translation of this text, though a live web search could not be completed to confirm this at the time of preparation.

Translation

Before Heaven and Earth had yet been divided, there was only Chaos, one and undivided. After Chaos was bored open, yin and yang were born. What received the yang qi, light and clear, rose to become Heaven; what received the yin qi, heavy and turbid, sank to become Earth; and what received the fullness of both yin and yang qi together, standing between the two, became Man. Once the positions of these Three Powers were fixed, Prior Heaven and Latter Heaven divided.

I would say that Prior Heaven is pure yang, the single root; Latter Heaven is pure yin, the ten thousand differentiations. Indeed, the Sovereign on High sent down an inner moral nature, and so there came to be Man; the endowment of nature and the receiving of destiny are alike bestowed by the Great Unity, which holds the real within it. The ancestral qi of Prior Heaven is utterly empty, utterly numinous, single in its essence, single in itself, pure and unmixed, central and correct — by it, anyone may become an immortal, anyone may become a sage; the wise and the foolish alike receive it the same at the very beginning. What people fail to understand is that, apart from this single mote of pure-yang ancestral qi of Prior Heaven, everything else received from Heaven — the so-called essence, spirit, hun-soul, po-soul, and intention; the heart, liver, spleen, lungs, and kidneys; the essence, saliva, tears, and spittle; the bodily fluids; the ear, mouth, nose, tongue, and voice; down to the hundred bones and nine openings, the nails, the hair, the skin, the whole body in its four limbs, from crown to heel — all of this is wrought by the pure-yin transformations of Latter Heaven, a provisional union of the four great elements.

The ancestral qi of Prior Heaven is dim and hazy, deep and dark. Within it there is something, yet that something is not a thing. Within it there is essence, yet that essence is not an essence. It seems to be there and seems not to be; it is as if lost and as if kept; approach it and it cannot be seen; seek it and it cannot be grasped. In its greatness it has no outside, embracing the ten thousand images; in its smallness it has no inside, not admitting a single thread — this is the qi. One should know that within the human body there is, of itself, a single point, a place of utter emptiness, where this is kept: the single aperture of the Mysterious Pass. Whoever attains it becomes an immortal; whoever loses it becomes a lowly ghost. Yet those who attain it are not one or two in a thousand, while those who lose it are hundreds of thousands upon hundreds of thousands. And why? Because people of the world cannot keep and guard this one mote of the ancestral qi of Prior Heaven, and again and again let it slip into loss. Not knowing that all the transformations of Latter Heaven are empty and illusory, they forget, along with it, the primal essence, the primal qi, and the Primal Spirit — and so their Prior Heaven is buried within their Latter Heaven.

Then the Three Corpse-spirits attack from within, the Nine Worms gnaw at the essence, the Six Thieves steal the very form, the Seven Emotions wear away the spirit, and the Five Desires disturb the heart-mind; the ten thousand things teem and swarm, the ten thousand workings dazzle and confuse. The eye looks on colors, the ear listens to sounds, the mouth savors flavors, and the mind clings to whatever it meets, at once seized by the thought of it. Once there is desire for what is outside, the impulse enters through the opening, and having entered within, it stirs the heart-mind; feeling stirs within, and it cannot but shake the spirit. Once the essence is spent, it cannot but wear away the qi; once the qi is worn away, form and spirit begin to part. Dazed and deluded, given over to anxious thought and passion, wearied by the press of affairs, the essence falls into disorder and the spirit scatters, and the ancestral qi of Prior Heaven disperses day by day, whirling and drifting into Latter Heaven — into the domain of birth and death.

Our patriarch of the Way, the Most High Lord Lao, took pity on this, and so there first arose the great Way of the Golden Elixir, teaching people the doctrine of return. To return is to return to the root; to go back is to go back to the source: nothing more than turning Latter Heaven back and restoring Prior Heaven. From the moment the name "Golden Elixir" was established, the Way of the Golden Elixir became manifest, and books on the Golden Elixir appeared. I would say, for my part, that the Golden Elixir is empty and without being, and the great Way is not a being either — being arises out of non-being, and non-being arises out of being: that is the great Way of the Golden Elixir. And since it is neither non-being nor being, are the so-called cauldron-vessel and firing-phases, then, truly real, or are they not? Or are they merely borrowed images and figures, set forth to make the great Way plain — for the two characters "Golden" and "Elixir" already carry an image in themselves. The thought is this: to cast gold, there must be a furnace and cauldron; to cultivate the elixir, there must be a numinous medicine; to refine the medicine, there must be firing-phases — and only after this were these names first established.

Now, as for the method of refining outer elixirs: one must first gather the medicinal substances of the Five Metals and Eight Minerals; next set up the potter's crucible-cauldron for smelting; next use the true fire kindled by drilling wood, after the manner of the ancient Fire-Master; and, refining and forging according to the method, once it succeeds, one may bring the dead back to life, turn old age back to youth, transform the foul and rotten into the wondrous, and touch rubble into gold and treasure. Only then does one know that the Way of refining the inner elixir does not differ from this by a hair's breadth. If the tallies match: gathering the ancestral qi of Prior Heaven as the medicine, guarding the single aperture of the Mysterious Pass as the cauldron-furnace, and taking the marvelous function of the Primal Spirit as the firing-phases — forging by the day and refining by the month, decocting by the hour and boiling by the moment — then, when in time it succeeds, one may cast off the mortal frame and exchange the bones, transcend the ordinary and enter sagehood, ride the luan-bird and the crane soaring to the nine heavens, ascend Kunlun and roam the eight bounds. The essentials of the great Way come to no more than this.

But the alchemical writings of later ages — a thousand chapters, ten thousand scrolls, long songs and short verses — again and again fail to point directly at the true root of the One's transformation, and at the proper sequence of the work of setting one's hand to it; they are nothing but borrowed images and constructed forms, using one thing to hint at another. How does this differ from talking of emptiness while sitting on nothing, or telling a dream within a dream? Whoever seeks their efficacy grasps at wind. Where they do not fall into the Buddhist doctrine of empty stillness, they drift instead into the crooked byways of deviant schools — turned upside down, thrown into confusion, branching and twining without end — so that the student who seeks the stream cannot find its source, and whoever would enter the gate cannot learn the path; the more they mislead those who come after, the more confusion grows. And so the Way of the Golden Elixir fell into ruin.

Speaking, then, of the medicine, one might say: Qian and Kun, Kan and Li; yin and yang, water and fire; cinnabar-sand and mercury, lead and silver; the father's essence and the mother's blood; the sap of wood and the essence of metal; cinnabar and quicksilver; the raven's essence and the hare's marrow; the sun's hun-soul and the moon's po-soul; the Green Dragon and the White Tiger; the Dark Tortoise and the Crimson Serpent; the paired pear and the fire-date; male and female, black and white; the Infant and the Comely Maid — as various as these names are, they are all merely different names for the one medicine. How could there be, apart from the ancestral qi of Prior Heaven, any further thing that could truly be called "the medicine"?

Speaking of the cauldron-furnace, one might say: the Numinous Furnace, the Cinnabar Cave, the Penglai Flask, the Numinous Chamber, the Jade Furnace, the Golden Cauldron, the Yellow Chamber, the Central Palace, the Yellow Dame, Wu-and-Ji, the Bright Hall, the Empty Valley, the knife-tip measure, the Mysterious Qi, the outlying bounds — as various as these are, they are all merely different names for the cauldron-furnace. How could there be, apart from the single aperture of the Mysterious Pass, any further thing that could truly be called "the cauldron-furnace"?

Speaking of the firing-phases, one might say: reckoning the celestial circuit, measuring the tidal phases, following the hexagram lines, using the civil and martial fires, aligning with the dark moon and the new moon, fixing the first and last quarters, understanding the extracting and adding, alternating advance and retreat, working the bellows, weighing by the pound and ounce, embodying punishment and virtue, attending to the bathing, dividing the Two and the Five, carrying out the gestation and return — as various as these are, they are all merely different names for the firing-phases. How could there be, apart from the marvelous function of the Primal Spirit, any further thing that could truly be called "the firing-phases"?

Now I will not imitate the sayings of earlier men in order to deceive those who come after; rather, pointing directly at the true origin of the great Way of the Golden Elixir, I will say plainly that it must have its proper order: first, establishing the cauldron-furnace; second, gathering the medicine; third, carrying out the firing-phases. Beyond these three, I dare not add or take away anything further.

What is meant by establishing the cauldron-furnace? Simply guarding the single aperture of the Mysterious Pass. This aperture is hidden within the chaos of Prior Heaven, resting within the space between being and non-being, having and not-having. Before one's father and mother had yet given life to this body, this aperture already existed; and once this aperture existed, this body existed — what is called "that which is born together with life itself." Above, it is not in Heaven; below, it is not in Earth; in the middle, it is not in Man — it is the place where the primal, empty-suspended jewel hangs. It is a place five zhang removed from the earth, neither left nor right, neither above nor below, neither being nor non-being, neither within nor without. Above, it opens through the Crimson Palace and penetrates the Muddy Pellet; below, it joins the Elixir Field and reaches down to the Yellow Springs; the Ren Channel runs through it down into the hollow, while the Yellow Path passes through its very center. This is the sacred ground where the medicine is gathered.

What is meant by gathering the medicine? Simply preserving that single mote of the pure-yang ancestral qi of Prior Heaven. This qi is born before all form and image, and gathers within the Limitless and the Great Ultimate; before one's father and mother had yet given life, the seed-essences of the Two and the Five marvelously joined and coalesced. Before this body existed, this qi already existed; and once this qi existed, this body existed. This qi, reaching everywhere, circulates through the Six Vacancies: the body is formed by it, the heart-mind is made numinous by it, the ear and eye are made keen and clear by it, the Primal Spirit is set in motion by it, and by it all things are transformed and born. Dispersed, it merges into an undivided whole; gathered, it coalesces into the medicine — and this is the great medicine for refining the Golden Elixir.

What is meant by carrying out the firing-phases? Simply following the marvelous circulation of the Primal Spirit's qi, the natural way of its coming and going. This fire is born within the dim haze of the true essence, and steams through the four limbs and the whole body; fundamentally it has no form — how, then, could it have fixed phases? For when the Primal Spirit disperses it becomes qi, and when it gathers it becomes fire; gathering and dispersing in turn, rising and descending in turn, circling back and forth, flowing without cease, moving together with the seasons and reaching its limit together with the seasons.

As for compressing the year into the month, the month into the day, the day into the hour, the hour into the quarter; the twelve branches — Zi, Wu, Mao, You, Chen, Xu, Chou, Wei, Yin, Shen, Si, Hai; the morning hexagram Zhun and the evening hexagram Meng; beginning with Fu and ending with Bo; running through the sixty-four hexagrams, the twenty-four solar terms, the seventy-two pentads, the twenty-eight lodges, and the three hundred and sixty-five degrees of the celestial circuit, all taken as the firing-phases — one fails to realize that in the time before Chaos had yet divided, how could there have been years, months, days, or hours, the stems and branches of the calendar? How, then, could such things serve to calculate it?

In truth, the true fire is simply the operation of the Primal Spirit, and the Primal Spirit is simply the marvelous function of the true fire. True fire follows the true breath; the true breath refines the true qi; the true qi transforms into the true essence; the true essence returns to the Mysterious Pass; the Primal Spirit gives rise to the true fire; the true gold coalesces into the elixir. The outflow and inflow of the true breath are simply the advance and retreat of the true fire; the advance and retreat of the true fire are simply the extracting and adding of the civil and martial fires — all of it rooted in what is natural of itself. From the beginning this was never a matter of forced compression and reckoning; one should know that it arises of itself, following the thought. If it should catch like fire ranging across a plain, it cannot then be approached — how, then, could it possibly be beaten out? For this is no longer the true fire of Prior Heaven, but only the common fire of Latter Heaven.

Now, the practitioner who cultivates the elixir must first thoroughly understand the workings of these three things, and deeply grasp their root. Where the eye meets it, the Way is present; the heart-mind receives it, the intention awakens to it; knowing it with true knowing, seeing it with true seeing — only once not a hair's breadth of obstruction remains congealed in the breast can one then set one's hand to the work and establish the foundation.

And at the very start of setting one's hand to establishing the foundation, one must first cut off and extinguish every deluded thought, depart from every deluded notion, be bold in diligence, free of all attachment and taint, forgetting both self and things; focus the qi until it turns supple, turn the light around to shine within, empty the heart-mind and fill the belly; dim and silent, preserving non-being while guarding being, as if lost and as if kept; refine oneself in stillness and settledness, until one's own heart-mind is like still water without a ripple, like the great emptiness without a cloud, reaching the state of utter stillness, unmoving.

Only then, within a single turning of the Mysterious Pass, borrowing the state of before one's father and mother gave one birth, does one settle and fix the true breath and the true qi, so that the qi does not part from the breath, nor the breath from the qi, joining them into a single place; what is within does not go out, what is without does not come in; they move back and forth, up and down, within the one aperture, continuous as though barely there — just as before one was born within the mother's womb, when the single mote of the ancestral qi of Prior Heaven, merged and blended, boundless and vast, was warm as spring and mellow as wine, its sweetness held within and spreading through the four limbs, filling the whole body. What the four limbs make plain without speaking is this: sought by sight, it has no image; sought by search, it has no form — yet there is not one moment, not one instant, when it is absent from the Mysterious Pass. Once one has reached this point, the medicine returns to the cauldron-furnace, and the firing-phases may then proceed.

And so, following the natural, marvelous function of the Primal Spirit, the true fire in its operation circles and turns outside the Mysterious Pass, forging and refining little by little, coalescing little by little. As true accumulation lengthens over the days, as the effort arrives and the achievement deepens, growing from small to great, from subtle to manifest, the Mysterious Pearl takes on its image, and the embryo is formed into sagehood. All of this happens of itself, naturally so, without knowing why it is so; it becomes spirit-like of itself, without knowing why it is spirit-like — just as a child is stored within its mother's womb, breathing in and out, swallowing the flowing qi of the Great Harmony and the Void, until it forms a body as indestructible as diamond, and at last, after ten months, the embryo is complete and gives birth to an infant. This is the same condition I myself knew, before my own birth, within my mother's womb.

After this, one applies diligently the work of gentle warming and nourishing, focusing the qi until it turns supple, holding this always in mind, whether moving or still, speaking or silent, never departing from it even for a moment. Once the warming and nourishing are sufficient, the embryo is cast off and returns to emptiness. And so one raises up and breaks through the Primal Murk, chisels open Chaos, and the original face is at last revealed — a body beyond this body. Only at this point does one know what is meant by "great, and transforming" — that is called sagehood; and what is meant by "beyond all knowing" — that is called spirit. One has attained the One, and in it, the ten thousand things are complete.

In my youth I studied the Confucian classics; grown, I came to admire the methods of the Way, and for long years I set my heart upon the great Way of the Golden Elixir. Walking, standing, sitting, lying down, in dream and in waking, at meals and at rest, I never once forgot it, not for the space of a single breath. Yet though I sought out and consulted the cultivators of realized truth in my own day, again and again they only pointed me to sayings already set down by men of former times, rotten words on paper, with which they beguiled and confused one another. How does this differ from borrowing hearing from the deaf, or asking the way from the blind?

I turned, then, and questioned this in my own heart-mind, telling myself that if I went home and sought it there, I would have teachers enough. Yet the more I sought, the less I found; the more I cultivated, the less it was confirmed. Only then did I understand: without a teacher nothing is transmitted, without a teacher no one is delivered — and I had spent my years for nothing, with no success in the end.

Later, on a journey crossing the Huai and the Zhe, I lodged for a time at Guangling. In an idle hour I climbed a ruined city wall, wandering and gazing in every direction, taking in the mountains and rivers. I thought wistfully of never having met Chi Songzi and Wangqiao; I sighed with regret at never having encountered Zhongli and Lü; and I felt, in a daze, as though I had lost something. That night I dreamed a divine being spoke to me of a fish's return, and my heart and spirit were left uneasy because of it. After some days, I went by way of Baisha, and in the middle of the road I suddenly met a Daoist, ice-clear and jade-smooth, with eyes of deep blue and the face of a child, of an appearance marvelous and rare, transcendent and set apart from the crowd — one who seemed not to belong to this dusty world.

I bowed at once and stepped forward to ask his name, but he did not answer. I kowtowed a second time, and then he drew out a fan and showed it to me: on it, as best I could make out, were written the two words "No Words." I understood then that the master had attained the marvel of wordlessness, and I began to suspect that he was no ordinary man. From that day I followed him wherever he went, keeping the observances due a disciple, hoping only that a single word from him might awaken me. When he went out I walked beside him; when he came in I rested with him. This continued for a hundred days, and though I repeatedly ventured to ask him, he never once answered with a single word.

Then one day he bade me go with him out through the eastern gate. We passed the old market of Baisha and came to a place empty of people, where he had us sit together at the edge of the Winding River, upon the level sand. Pointing to the water as a pledge, he drew with his staff upon the sand, and gave me the essential teaching of the great Way of the Golden Elixir — from beginning to end no more than a hundred-odd characters, yet setting out in full the work of the cauldron-furnace, the medicine, and the firing-phases, and the marvel of their proper order, fine and complete, with nothing left unsaid. He said: "The Way's instruments are now complete." Then he bade me record what I had witnessed of it. This I grasped in but a brief space, and then he swept it away again.

I bowed my head and prostrated myself before him a second time, but the master paid me no more heed; he boarded a small boat, crossed to the far shore, and flew off — I do not know, in truth, where he went. To this day I have never learned his name. How, then, could I know that he was not a disciple of Chi Songzi and Wangqiao, of Zhongli and Lü themselves?

Only after I had received this heart-mind transmission from my master did I come to realize what had gone before: that I had been cultivating blindly and refining blindly, wasting my labor for nothing — how does this differ from drilling water to get fire, or notching the side of a boat to find a sword dropped overboard? Was this not difficult indeed!

My master's sworn words were that whoever lightly divulged them would be censured; and so I have not dared to commit them fully to writing. Instead I have set forth my own understanding, gathering up my master's words together with a few short verses, and have written this treatise, calling it The Orthodox Lineage of the Golden Elixir, to show to those of like mind. This is not because I wish to seek recognition from others, but because I mean to hand it down to the present age.

As for the reader: some will call right what is right, and call not-right what is not-right; others will call right what is not-right, or call not-right what is right. To call so what is so, and not-so what is not-so — that comes close to it! I myself know only its rights and wrongs, its so's and not-so's; yet perhaps there is something to be gained here nonetheless — and so I have set it down in writing.

A Dozen-Odd Short Verses

The Cauldron-Vessel — the single aperture of the Mysterious Pass

Born before Heaven and Earth,
it does not depend on form to stand.
Suspended in empty Chaos,
within it the Great Ultimate is stored.

The Medicine — the ancestral qi of Prior Heaven

The ancestral qi of Prior Heaven,
a single mote of true essence.
This alone is the numinous medicine,
root and stem generating each other.

The Firing-Phases — the marvelous function of the Primal Spirit

The Primal Spirit transforms into qi,
filling and circling through the four limbs.
Naturally advancing and withdrawing,
ending, and beginning again.

Establishing the Foundation

Focus the qi until it turns supple;
in silence, the work is achieved.
Embrace the primal, guard the One;
apply the effort a hundred days.

Gathering the Medicine

Gather the essence, focus the spirit;
search from the numinous pass.
Penetrate the mystery, enter the marvel;
store it within the single aperture.

Forging and Refining

Forge and refine the coming and going of spirit and qi,
following their own nature;
water and fire flow and turn —
hour by hour decocted, moment by moment refined.

Extracting and Adding

Neither increase nor decrease in the extracting and adding;
at noon, the sun then declines.
Moving and resting each in season;
when the moon is full, it wanes.

Forming the Embryo

Essence, qi, and spirit
meet with the true fire;
merging, blending, vast and full —
in a brief moment they coalesce.

Bathing

The divine water dissolves and flows;
within and without, free of dust.
It waters the primal womb,
nourishing and raising the numinous sprout.

The Embryo Complete

True cultivation gathers over long days;
the effort arrives, the achievement deepens.
In ten months the embryo is complete;
the cauldron is filled with yellow gold.

Warming and Nourishing

Walking, standing, sitting, lying down —
continuous, as though barely there.
Embracing the male, guarding the female;
mindful of this, ever mindful of this.

Casting Off the Embryo

Raising up, breaking through the Primal Murk —
a body beyond this body.
Chiseling open Chaos —
transcending the mundane, entering sagehood.

Colophon

This Good Works Translation was prepared for the Meditation and Inner Alchemy shelf of the Good Works Library. The English was translated independently from the classical Chinese text printed below. The source is continuous prose — an opening treatise followed by three catalogues of synonyms and a further sequence of short expository paragraphs and an autobiographical account — followed by twelve short labeled quatrains; the paragraphing of the Wikisource transcription is kept for the prose, and the twelve verses are set off individually under their own labels, translated exactly as the source labels them.

Before the claim above was written, a genuine translation-status check was performed. The two local bibliographies of Daoist texts in Western translation kept by the library — Komjathy's Daoist Texts in Translation and the 2023 Purple Cloud update — were searched under the Chinese title, the pinyin title, and the author's name, and record no listing for this text or for Hu Huncheng. A live web search could not be completed at the time of preparation. To our knowledge, based on what could be checked, we know of no published English translation of the Jindan Zhengzong; we state this as the limit of our knowledge, not as a certainty.

Two further honesty notes. First, on terms: 先天 (xiantian, "Prior Heaven") and 後天 (houtian, "Latter Heaven") name this text's central pair — the innate, undifferentiated endowment each person carries from before birth, and the differentiated, mortal apparatus of body and emotion built up after it — and are kept as a fixed pair throughout, capitalized as proper names. Second, on the text itself: the Wikisource transcription is unusually rough, with numerous apparent single-character misreadings scattered through it — common confusions such as 人/入, 日/曰, and 白/自, alongside rarer ones (蔔 where context demands 下; 婉女 for the standard alchemical term 姹女, "the Comely Maid"; 還婆 for the standard idiom 還童, "return to youth"; 鼎滬 for 鼎爐, "cauldron-furnace," spelled correctly elsewhere in the same text; 超凡聖 for 超凡入聖, confirmed complete in the text's own closing verse). Four occurrences of an isolated 口 that break otherwise grammatical sentences are treated as a stray mark standing for a period, rather than translated as the word "mouth." Each of these was rendered by its evident contextual sense, consistent with parallel phrasing elsewhere in this text or with the classical allusions the passage draws on (the Yijing's "when the sun is at its height, it declines"; the Shangshu's image of fire ranging across a plain, which cannot be approached). A handful of short passages resisted confident reconstruction and are rendered as the most reasonable sense obtainable: two items in the list of alternate names for the firing-phases ("working the bellows," "carrying out the gestation and return"); one item in the list of names for the cauldron-furnace ("the outlying bounds"); the account of a fan the author says was shown to him, inscribed, as best reconstructed from the sentence that follows it, with the words "No Words"; and the sentence describing how briefly the master's teaching was grasped before the sand it was written on was swept away. None of these affect the text's overall doctrine, which is otherwise plain throughout.

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

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Source Text: 金丹正宗

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

天地未判之先，一混沌而已。混沌既鑿之後，陰陽生焉．得陽氣輕清而上者為天，得陰氣重濁而蔔者為地，得陰陽二氣之全而中者為人，三才之位一定而先天後天分矣。竊謂先天者，純陽也，一本也：後天者，純陰也，萬殊也。原夫上帝降衷而為人；賦性受命皆稟太乙含真。先天祖氣，至虛至靈，惟精惟一，純粹中正，皆可神仙，皆可聖賢，無智無愚一同初得，殊不知所得天者，舍一點純陽先天祖氣之外，所謂精神魂魄意：心、肝、脾、肺、腎，精、津、涕、唾，液，耳、口、鼻、舌、聲，以至百骸九竅，爪發皮膚，一身四體，自頂至蹱，皆從後天純陰造化，四大假合而成者也。先天祖氣，恍恍惚惚，杳杳冥冥。其中有物，有物而非物。其中有精，有精而非精。似有似無，若亡若存，即之而不可見，求之而不可得，其大無外包含萬象，其小無內，一絲不容是氣，當知人身中，自有一穴至虛之地，以存之玄關一竅是也。得之者為神仙，失之者為蔔鬼。蓋得之者未聞一二，失之者百千萬也．奈何！世人不能保守一點先天祖氣，往往皆流於失矣。不知後天造化均是虛妄，於是元精元氣元神亦忘，其先天著於後天矣。或者三屍內攻，九蟲蝕精，六賊即盜形，七情耗神，五欲柳擾心，凡物芸芸，萬機眩惑。目觀彩色，耳聽聲音，口嗜滋味，隨其所有，即著其想。有好於外，機從口人，既人於內、所動其心，情動於中，必搖其神。既泄其精，必耗其氣。既耗其氣，形神始離。恍惚幻妄，優思感情，事物勞形，精亂神散，先天之祖氣日散而轉轉流蕩十後天，生死之域矣。我道祖太上老君憫之，始有金丹大道教人以返還之說。返者返本也。還者還源也。返其後天而複還先天而已矣。自金丹之名立而金丹之道著，而金丹之書出焉。余竊謂金丹虛無，大道非有，有中生無，無中生有者，金丹大道。且非無而非有，而所謂鼎器火候者，果有耶？果無耶？抑亦假法象以明大道，蓋由金丹二字有象之故。意為鑄金必有爐鼎，修丹必有靈藥，煉藥必有火候，而後此名始立矣。今夫修煉外丹之法，必先聚五金八石之藥物，次立陶冶上釜之鼎器，次用燧人鑽木之真火，依法緞煉及其成功，可以回生起死，返老還婆，化臭腐為神抵，點瓦礫為金寶，方知修煉內丹之道毫釐不差。若合符節，聚先天祖氣為藥物，守玄關一竅為鼎滬，以元神妙用為火候，日緞月煉，時烹刻煮。及時成功，可以脫胎換骨，超凡聖，跨鶯鶴而沖九霄，登昆侖而遊八極，大道之要不過如斯。後世丹書千篇萬卷，長歌短句往往不直指真一造化之本根，下手工夫之次序，無非假像設形，借彼喻此，何異空底談空，夢中說夢，求其功效，茫如捕風。其間不失於釋氏空寂之論，則流於傍門曲徑之僻，顛倒錯亂，枝蔓條折；欲使學者尋其流而莫究其源，欲人其門而莫知其徑，誤後人惑也滋甚，於是金丹之道廢矣．

且即藥物而論之日：乾坤坎離，陰陽水火，砂汞鉛銀，父精母血，木液金精，丹砂水銀，烏精兔髓，日魂月魄，青龍白虎，玄龜赤蛇，交梨火棗，雌雄黑白、嬰兒婉女，若是之不一者，皆藥物之異名也。豈先天祖氣之外，複有所謂藥物者耶？

即鼎爐而論之曰：神爐、丹穴、蓬壺、神室、玉爐、金鼎、黃房、中宮、黃婆、戊己、明堂、虛穀、刀圭、玄氣、郊鄂，若是不一者即鼎滬之異名也。豈玄關一竅之外，複有所謂鼎滬者也？

即火候而論之日：推周天，測潮候，按卦爻，用文武，准晦朔，定玄望，明抽添，互進退，鼓囊俞，秤斤兩，體刑德，事沐浴，分二五，行娠複，若是之不一者皆火候之異名也。豈元神妙用之外，複有所謂火候者耶？

今餘不效前人之說，以欺後人，即直指金丹大道之本原而言之，必有其次序。曰立鼎爐，二聚藥物，三行火候，三者之外餘不敢複有增損．

立鼎護者何？即守玄關一竅，是竅藏於先大混沌之中，聽於無有有無之內。父母未生此身即有此竅。既有此竅即有此身，所謂與生俱生者也。上不在天，下不在地，中不在人，即元始空懸寶珠之地。去地五丈之所，不左不右，不上不下，非有非無，非內非外，上通絳宮而透泥丸，下接丹田而致黃泉，仁徹下空，而黃道中通焉。此即聚藥物之聖地也。

聚藥物者何？謂存一點先天純陽祖氣。是氣生於無形無象之先，聚於無極太極之內，父母未生，二五之精，妙合而凝，未有此身，即有此氣，既有此氣，即有此身，此氣達行，周流六虛，形以之而成，心以之而靈，耳目以之而聰明，元神以之而運行，以之而化生。散之則混融無間，聚之則凝結成藥，此即修煉金丹之大藥。

行火候者何？順元神妙周之氣，自然往來之道，是火發生於真精恍惚之中，薰蒸於四體一身之內，本無形焉，安有候焉口蓋元神散則成氣，聚則成火，一聚一散，一升一降，迴圈往來，周流不息，與時偕行，與時偕極也。其於簇年歸月，簇月歸日，簇日歸時，簇時歸刻，子、午、卯、酉、辰、戌、丑、未、寅、申、已、亥、朝屯暮蒙、始複終剝，周曆六十四卦，二十四氣、七十二候，二十八宿，周天三百六十五度以為候。殊不知混沌未分之時，安有年月日時，甲癸子亥，又若何而推測？大抵真火即是元神之運行，元神即真火之妙用。真火隨真息，真息煉真氣，真氣化真精，真精歸玄關，元神發真火，真金結成丹。真息之出人即真火之進退，真火之進退即文武之抽添，皆本自然。初非攢簇義當知隨念而生。若燎于原，弗可響邇，其優可撲滅乎？即非先天之真火，乃後天之凡火也。

今夫修丹之士，必先洞明此共者之機關，深識此三者之根本。目擊道存，心領意悟，知以真知，見以真見，未有一毫凝滯於胸中，然後可以下手用工夫立基矣。且如下手立基之始，必先斷滅一切妄念、離諸妄想，勇於精進，無染著，物我兩忘，專氣致柔，迴光返照，虛心實腹，昏昏默默，存無守有，若亡若存，精習靜定，使吾心如止水無波，太空無雲，至寂然不動之境，然後于玄關一轉之中，假父母未生以前工夫存定，真息真氣，使氣不離息，息不離氣，合為一處，內者不出，外者不入，上下往來於一竅之中，綿綿若存，如在母胞胎未生之前，一點先天祖氣，混融磅礴，溫然如春，醇然如醉，美在其中，而暢於四肢，充於四體。四體不言而喻者，見之無象，求之無形，無一時一刻不在於玄關。至此則藥物歸於鼎爐而火候可行矣。如是則順元神妙用自然，運行之真火，周流旋轉于玄關之外，漸漸鍛煉，漸漸凝結。真積日久，力到功深，自小至大，從微至著，玄珠成象，結胎成聖。是皆自然而然不知其所以然，自神而神不知其所以神，還如子藏母腹，隨呼隨吸，咽沖虛太和之氣，成金剛不壞之體，以至胎圓十月，化生嬰兒與我。未生以前，在母胎中一般氣象，然後勤加溫養之功，專氣致柔，念茲在茲，動靜語默，造次不離，溫養既足，脫胎歸空．於是擎破鴻蒙，鑿開混沌，現出本來面目，身外有身，至此方知大而化之之謂聖，不可知之之謂神，得一而畢萬矣。

余幼習儒書，長慕道之法，有志金丹大道久矣。行住坐臥，夢寐飲食之間，未始一息忘焉。雖參訪當世修真之士，往往皆指前人已陳之說，紙上腐朽之言，以相扇惑。何異借聽於聾，問道於菩？子遂乃質於心，自謂，歸而求之有餘師矣。愈求愈不足，愈修愈不驗，方知無師不傳，無師不度，虛費歲月，卒無成功．後因渡淮浙，寓跡廣淩，乘暇登廢城，仿徨四顧，曆覽山川。緬想松喬之不遇，慨恨鐘呂之未逢，恍然若有所失。夜夢神人語以魚返，心神為之不寧者，累日遂假道白砂，而中途忽遇一道人，冰清玉潤，碧目童顏，豐神秀異，超然不群，似非塵中人物。餘遂禮而前間其姓名，而不答，再二叩首乃出扇相視，仁書無言子，乃知先生得無言之妙，抑疑某為異人。自是日與從游，執弟子之禮，蓋冀其一言以點化也。出則偕行，入則同息，若是者百日，雖累啟請而終無一言於答。一日命予同出東關，過白砂舊市，至無人之境，乃命同坐曲江之濱，平沙之上，指水為盟，以杖畫沙，受金丹大道之旨，首尾不過百餘字，備述鼎爐、藥物、火候之功夫，次序之妙，纖而無餘蘊。日：道具足矣口履命予記其證驗，得之片銅，遂複掃去。余頓首再拜于前，先生亦不顧，遂登小舟渡彼岸，飛行而去，不知果何之也口然予終不知其姓名，又安知非喬松鐘呂之徒？子自得師心傳之後，方悟在先，盲修瞎煉，虛費功夫，何異鑽水取火，刻舟求劍也？不亦難乎！吾師之言誓，以輕泄者有譴，故不敢形卜文。輒出己見，總括師言附以短句，著此篇目，曰金丹正宗，以示同志。蓋非欲求知於人，而將以流傳於當世也。觀者，何可其可，或不可其不可。其不可其可，或可其不可口然其然不然，其不然其庶乎！予知其可不可，然不然，或者其有得焉，於是乎書。

短句十幾首

鼎器（即玄關一竅）

先天地生，不依形立。混沌空懸，中藏太極。

藥物（即先天祖氣）

先天祖氣，一點真精。便是靈藥，根蒂相生。

火候（即元神妙用）

元神化氣，充週四體。

自然進退，終而複始。

立基專氣致柔，默默成功，

抱元守一，用功百日。

聚藥聚精會神，探自靈關，

通玄入妙，藏於一竅．

鍛煉神氣往來，順其白然，

水火流轉．時烹刻煉。

抽添不增不減，日中則尺，

動靜以時。月盈則虧。

結胎精氣與神，真火相見，

混融磅礴。片時凝結。

沐浴神水溶液，內外無塵，

灌溉元胞，長養靈苗。

胎圓

真積日久，

力到功深。

十月胎圓

滿鼎黃金．

溫養行住坐臥，綿綿若存，

抱雄守雌。念茲在茲。

脫胎擎破鴻蒙，身外有身，

鑿開混沌。超凡入聖。

Source Colophon

The Chinese text follows the Chinese Wikisource transcription of the Zhengtong Daozang edition of this text (article 金丹正宗, revision of 5 May 2017), 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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