Taiqing Yuandao Zhenjing — Transmitted from the Most High Lord Lao

The True Scripture of the Primal Way of Great Clarity is a Tang-dynasty Daoist treatise on the cultivation of breath, preserved in the Daoist Canon, where it is catalogued as DZ 1423. Its preface and closing record trace a chain of transmission running from the Most High Lord Lao, through the celestial officials Tao Datong of East Mountain and Fan Dajun of the Southern Bureau, down to a certain Meng, called "the Banished Immortal," who received the teaching by word of mouth in the wuxu year of the Kaiyuan era — 738 CE. Meng in turn transmitted it orally to one Wang Xuwu, who set it down in the three scrolls printed below.

The scripture is written as continuous prose rather than verse or liturgy — a teacher's direct instruction rather than a hymn. Its subject is a single practice: the deliberate slowing of the breath (減息, "diminishing the breath") until it all but stops, paired with a technique of holding and retaining the body's qi (住炁). The text sets this practice above four lesser breath techniques common in its day — breathing through the nose and mouth, infusing qi, swallowing qi, circulating qi — because, it insists, only this one restores the "primal qi" that ordinary desire and distraction squander. A closing supplementary record appends a table of penalties, in days of life deducted, for the lapses of temper, drink, hunger, and fatigue that beset a practitioner who must live out the practice, as the text says, "amid the dusty world," rather than withdrawn to a mountain retreat.

A note on one word: yuán 元, "primal," names both the practice's object — 元炁, the primal qi a person is born with and must not squander — and the text's own title. The translation keeps "primal" as its constant rendering throughout, rather than varying it for elegance, so a reader can follow the word as the single thread the text keeps pulling.

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

Translation

Preface

The Primal Way is the supreme Way of the Mysterious Origin, the secret of the heart-mind of Huang and Lao. In the years of Yuanhe, the Banished Immortal Meng descended into the world. Both of the parents who bore him had accumulated utmost sincerity and rich purity, and the Banished Immortal himself was, from birth, deeply compassionate and filial. He first moved the Great Pervading Lord Tao of East Mountain to respond to him, who showed him the transformation of life and death and thereby charged him to hold fast to the root and base — for the root and base is the Primal Way itself. Next he moved the Great Lord Fan of the Southern Bureau to respond, who descended to him in the wuxu year and orally transmitted this scripture. And so it records the great pivots and essentials entire, pointing directly to the way of long life and lasting vision — for, as the Yellow Court says, the utmost Way brings no trouble.

Scroll One

The Primal Way is the unsurpassed Way of the Most High Lord Lao. Lord Lao's own Way has three grades — upper, middle, and lower. The Way of the Yellow Court also has three — upper, middle, and lower. And every other Way likewise has its three grades, all of them ranking lower still. Lord Lao's middle grade compares with the Yellow Court's upper grade; every other Way ranks lower again by comparison. The Primal Way itself has three grades, and this scripture is the very highest among them — hence it is called the Unsurpassed Primal Way.

This Way stands utmost and high: empty non-being, mysterious and subtle, tranquil and without striving, its every motion in accord with what is so of itself. For this reason students find it hard to draw near. Unless one is a superior adept of lofty capacity who comes in time to a mysterious awakening, one cannot study it; unless one is watchful and fearful of death and reaches earnestly toward life, one cannot study it. Among those who practice the middle and lower Ways, many admire the higher path and strive after it, yet find this Way hard to match — and so for long it has not descended into the world. But when a superior adept of lofty capacity practices it single-mindedly, measureless attainment comes of itself: measureless emptiness and calm, measureless penetration and ease, measureless free contentment.

Moreover, every other Way has its lineage of masters to serve, and all of them set out clear penalties for transgression; this Way has no such lineage of masters to serve, and therefore has no penalties. Every other Way requires that one choose a mountain and dwell in quiet, or else find some separate place, a thatched hermitage, before it can be practiced — otherwise harm follows. Only this Way can be accomplished amid the dusty world.

The Scripture says: "Drawing breath in through the nose and expelling it through the mouth can dispel floating chill and hollow heat, but it cannot thereby gather the primal qi. Infusing qi can open the hundred passes and govern the ten thousand ills, but it is not the nurturing of qi that restores the primal. Swallowing qi can relieve hunger and weakness, but it is not natural replenishment and accumulation. Circulating qi can moisten the vessels and freshen the skin, but it is not the constant Way." This Way is the Way of returning to the root and reverting to one's life — hence it is called the Primal Way. Such things as the hardening of the sinews and the replenishing of the marrow, the firm guarding of the five viscera, the clarifying and freeing of the Mud Pellet, the settling of the cinnabar spirit in its dwelling, the six [senses] no longer intruding, the three [souls] no longer straying, the last fine impurities entirely removed, the true qi wandering free and easy, soaring through the Great Void and flourishing in Jade Clarity, ascending at last to become a Perfected Lord — all of this is the fruit of this Way.

Scroll Two

Humankind is the most spiritually gifted of the ten thousand things, born together with heaven and earth at the very inception of the Void, taking bodily form as the primal qi congealed. Once the bodily form was established, the spirits of the Ten Heavens descended into it and became the human spirit, and so a person was able to become a person. Since humankind was born together with heaven and earth at the inception of the Void, it ought by rights to share an equal span of years with heaven and earth. Yet today heaven and earth endure long, while people cannot long survive. Why is this?

It is because heaven and earth are able to remain tranquil and gentle, never shifting from their original nature; they hold constantly to the Void, remaining still and unlabored, and so attain the Way of what is so of itself — their primal qi does not disperse. People cannot long survive because, once born, they give rise to false thoughts and shift from their original nature; they do not hold fast to what is so of itself, do not guard their root, and bring toil upon themselves, forever seeking to add to their own advantage — and so their primal qi disperses and is spent, and they cannot long survive. Because the six thieves arise in falseness — the eye falsely looking, the ear falsely listening, the nose falsely smelling out fragrance and stench, the mouth falsely speaking and the eye growing dim, the body falsely toiling in labor, the mind falsely turning over thoughts — in the end a person never returns to the root. Hence it is said: return to the root, and one may exist forever and live long.

Now the Way of True Oneness, by which one may exist forever and return to the root, is nothing other than the restoration of the primal qi to its own root. And the Way of restoring the primal qi is nothing other than this: stillness and quiet. If one is able constantly to return the heart-mind to stillness and quiet, the primal qi will of itself be restored. The method for restoring the primal qi should take the diminishing of the breath as its constant sign: as the wellspring of the heart-mind grows still and quiet, the breath gradually diminishes. Diminish the breath by half, and the years of one's life increase by half; proceeding from diminished breath all the way to no breath at all, the primal is restored and the root regained, and then one may go on dwelling in the world.

Ordinary people take having breath as their constant state. The sage takes having no breath as constant: in motion there is breath, in stillness there is none. Thus having breath and having none both rest at ease within the sage. The adept of the Primal Way should constantly take having-no-breath as the norm and having-breath as false, no-breath as right and having-breath as wrong; nurturing qi in stillness and quiet, the three numina rejoice and the three hun-souls grow at ease — spirit and soul in joyful harmony, and the primal qi restores itself.

The Way of the Yellow Court has thirty-six cautions, with responses running from the first through the thirty-sixth, and that constitutes only half the achievement. Every other Way likewise calls for many cautions and many responses. This Unsurpassed Way alone brings the achievement to completion with a single caution and three responses. The single caution is this: be wary of ceasing the practice. If one does not cease, one may reach the Primal Way. The three responses are the three turnings of intent, each turning spanning a hundred days.

The first turning of intent answers within a hundred days: whether occupied or at leisure, one becomes able to diminish the breath — this is the first turning of intent. At the start, the practice halts whenever there is business to attend to, and is possible only when there is none; but as one continues, worldly cares diminish and cease, and emptiness and calm increase day by day. This is the first turning's response, and a small achievement is complete.

The second turning of intent answers within two hundred days: the breath halts of itself, unbidden — this is the second turning of intent. By this point one no longer craves the taste of grain, and feels no great hunger or thirst. This is the second turning's response, and a middling achievement is complete.

The third turning of intent answers within three hundred days: the breath settles of itself, motionless — this is the third turning of intent. By this point hunger and thirst no longer come, cold and heat no longer invade, one's name is struck forever from the registers of death, and one's years equal those of heaven and earth. This is the third turning's response. In all, using thirty-one full cycles, the great achievement is complete.

The Great Lord said: "That whether occupied or at leisure one is able to diminish the breath — this is the sprouting of the achievement. That whether occupied or at leisure one is able to diminish the breath — this is the primal qi gradually being restored. That the breath halts of itself, unbidden — this is the primal qi about to settle. That the breath settles of itself, motionless — this is the primal qi returning to the root and coming to rest."

The Great Lord said: "From diminished breath one proceeds to no breath; from no breath one proceeds to stability. This stability neither grasps nor discards — it is the stability of no striving, not the stability of forced fixation. One who attains this stability finds that yin and yang harmonize of themselves, the four seasons fall away of themselves, the primal qi fills of itself, and the host of spirits come to roost of themselves — and one becomes able to penetrate the mysterious and profound. Thus when yin and yang harmonize, the hundred organs give rise to no affliction; when the four seasons fall away, there is no discomfort of heat or cold; when the primal qi is full, there is no hunger or thirst; when the host of spirits roost within, soldiers and tigers cannot do harm; and when wisdom penetrates the mysterious and profound, the ten thousand affairs do not arise to trouble one."

The Great Lord said: "That a person's thoughts are never unified is because the primal qi is scattered. When the achievement of this Way is complete, nothing stirs falsely: whatever stirs is never other than good, whatever is put to use is never other than fitting. Hence nothing is used that is not fitting, and nothing stirs that is not rightly used. And so there are stirrings of goodness, stirrings of wisdom, stirrings of penetration — all of them simply what is so of itself. And there is no stirring left of joy, anger, desire, contention, grief, fear, love, or hatred."

The Great Lord said: "Long life is nothing other than the wholeness of spirit, the wholeness of qi, and the wholeness of the bodily form — that is all. As for the wholeness of spirit: one delights in emptiness and non-being, takes joy in clarity and stillness; the qi grows still and harmonious, and the spirit becomes whole of itself. The primal qi accumulates and fills; the bodily form and the spirit endure forever. When spirit and qi are both whole, the whole form ascends and one becomes immortal."

The Scripture on Retaining Qi Together with Practicing Merit says: "To regulate the qi and diminish the breath — its achievement is such as this. But to retain the qi together with practicing merit doubles it again." To retain the qi: one watches for spirit and qi to grow calm and content, and thereupon retains it; carried to its utmost, this makes one full cycle. One who is able may perform five or six such cycles before the cock's crow, gradually increasing to ten. Practicing the way of diminished breath in this manner, the achievement doubles in speed. Be wary of great bursts of exhaling and inhaling — at first one cannot avoid them, but let one be wary of such bursts; in the end both should grow subtle.

The Great Lord said: "Retaining the qi can open the hundred passes, loosen what is hardened and stagnant, govern the ten thousand ailments, and guide the primal qi. When the hundred passes are open, ailments thereby diminish; wherever the primal qi passes, the pathways of fluid flow and pour; and wherever the primal qi and its fluids reach, that place will never decay. This is called golden marrow and jade bones — long life, and immortality."

The Great Lord said: "Diminishing the breath and retaining the qi both take no-breath and settled qi as their completion. Practice diminishing the breath alone, and the achievement is slow; practice retaining the qi exclusively, and it is hard to reach no-breath. But open the hundred passes while also diminishing the breath, and the primal qi readily fills and accumulates — the achievement doubles."

Scroll Three

Only the headings of its opening chapters are shown here; their text itself is not seen. When the Way is accomplished and one is about to ascend, only then may it be seen. Auspicious is its reward for merit: for a single measure of achievement, its reward is ten thousandfold — comparable, roughly, to the Nine Bestowals of Lord Mao. And this being the highest Way, its reward is a hundred times that again. Let the student of the Primal Way spare no diligence!

The opening headings of the lower scroll number some several dozen chapters, but later sages recorded only five of them: the Reward of Achievement, first; the Reward of Resolve, second; the Reward of Non-Retreat, third; the Reward of Non-Recklessness, fourth; the Reward of Needing No Renunciation, fifth.

A Further Record of the Primal Way

The Primal Way is nothing other than this: what must be guarded against is ceasing — and if one does not cease, the ten thousand faults find nowhere to take hold. An adept living amid the dusty world may find it hard to practice without interruption, and there will be times of pause; within such pauses one must not fail to be watchful. What follows here is a record of cautions, spoken for the sake of those who pause only for a while.

A heavy gasp; two, and it becomes a minor lapse — three days of it deducts thirty days. (Fifteen heavy gasps make one minor lapse.) A major lapse deducts sixty days. (Three heavy gasps make one major lapse.)

One fit of anger deducts ten days.
One bout of light drunkenness deducts fifty days.
One bout of heavy drunkenness deducts a hundred days.
One spell of grief deducts ten days.
One flash of hatred deducts twenty days.
One fright deducts seven days.
One rage deducts thirty days.
One hunger deducts three days.
One surfeit deducts five days.
One transgression of desire deducts fifty days.
One shock deducts ten days.
One exertion and one weariness each deduct five days.

Beyond these: transgressing dietary taboos; excess of cold or heat; exposure to wind and damp; disorder in one's rising and resting; scattered, disordered speech; vexed and restless brooding — all of these harm the primal qi, and a deduction follows according to the gravity of the offense. Whenever a deduction for transgression is spoken of, it is always deducted from one's true achievement. Let the adept of the Primal Way be deeply watchful of these things.

The primal qi is hard to accumulate and easy to disperse; the body's joints and passes are easily closed and hard to open. The retaining of qi must never be broken off; what has been gained should be deeply cherished.

This scripture, carried as a bloodline from the Most High Lord Lao since high antiquity, was handed down through nineteen persons and then ceased, for all nineteen had already ascended to the rank of immortal, their station honored to the utmost, and the scripture itself was not left behind in the world. In the wuxu year of the Kaiyuan era of the Tang, the Great Lord Fan of the Southern Bureau orally transmitted it to the Banished Immortal Meng; the Banished Immortal Meng in turn passed it by word of mouth to Wang Xuwu, and Xuwu set it down in three chapters, gathering and setting forth the pivotal essentials of the Primal Way.

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 scripture's preface, three scrolls, and closing supplementary record are rendered as continuous prose, following the source's own paragraph divisions, with English paragraph breaks introduced within its longer passages for readability; no sentence has been cut or reordered. The closing table of penalties, which runs as unbroken prose in the source, is set out as a list in the translation for clarity.

Before the claim below was written, a genuine translation-status check was performed. Komjathy's Daoist Texts in Translation and the 2023 Purple Cloud survey of Daoist texts in Western languages were both searched under the scripture's Chinese title, its pinyin romanization, and the bare term Yuandao; neither records an entry for this text. Three web searches were run, under the Chinese title, its romanization, and the Daoist Canon's classification terms for it; they returned Chinese-language reference material only — Wikisource, Baidu Baike, the Daoist Canon database at daoinfo.org, and the Chinese Text Project — and no English translation, complete or partial, of any kind. To our knowledge, this is the first complete published English translation of the Taiqing Yuandao Zhenjing. We state this as the limit of our search, not as a certainty.

A note on terms. The text works with two related but distinct words that risk collapsing into a single English word: xī 息, the literal breath drawn in and out, translated throughout as "breath"; and qì 炁/氣, the vital energy that breathing both expresses and depletes, kept as the loanword "qi." The scripture's whole method — "diminishing the breath" (減息) to "retain the qi" (住炁) — depends on the reader being able to tell the two apart. Two bare numbers in Scroll One ("the six no longer intrude, the three no longer stray") are given bracketed glosses, [senses] and [souls], since the text itself names both groups explicitly a little further on, as the six thieves (六賊) and the three hun-souls (三魂); no other word has been added to the translation this way. A few further passages resist full confidence: a short penalty table near the end of the closing record is compressed enough, and its two glosses sit in enough tension with each other — fifteen heavy breaths are said to make a "minor lapse," but only three make a "major" one — that it may reflect some loss in transcription; it is rendered as literally as the Chinese allows. A parallel list of the six wayward senses names the eye twice and never names the tongue; this too is translated exactly as it stands. And a closing figure, "thirty-one full cycles," does not obviously sum from the hundred-, two-hundred-, and three-hundred-day stages named just before it; it is likewise given as the text has it.

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

🌲

Source Text: 太清元道真經

Classical Chinese text of the Daoist Canon, in the Chinese Wikisource transcription. Presented complete for reference, study, and verification alongside the English translation above. 〔 〕 marks small-type interlinear notes as formatted in the transcription.

太清元道真經序

元道者，玄元之上道，黃老之心秘也。元和中，孟謫仙降世，其胎親皆積至誠醇厚，謫仙又至慈敦孝，先感東山陶大通君，先示死生之變，因命執本根焉。本根即元道也。次感南統樊大君，戊戌歲降之，口授此經。故皆大紀樞要，直指長生久視之道，蓋《黃庭》云至道不煩矣。

太清元道真經卷上

元道者，太上老君之无上道也。老君道有三，上、中、下也。黃庭道有三，上、中、下也。又諸道各有三，皆其次也。老君中道與黃庭上道比，諸道又次比之。元道有三，此經又其最上者，故曰无上元道也。此道至高，虛无玄妙，澹泊无為，動合自然，故學者難親焉。若非上士機高候然玄悟，不可學也；非謹懼於死、攀向於生者，不可學也。諸中道、下道多慕上而行者，此道難合，故久不降焉。若機高上士，特然行之，則自得无量也，謂虛恬无量，通易无量，暢適无量也。又諸道皆有師奉，皆明犯罰，此道无諸師奉，故无罰也。諸道皆須擇山處靜，或別處草庵乃可行之，不然有損，唯此道可塵世成之。經日：鼻引口吐，可去浮寒虛熱，不可排積元炁也。注氣可以通百關，理萬病，非養炁復元也。嚥炁可以救飢劣，非自然充積也。行炁可以潤脉悅膚，非常道也。此道歸根復命之道，故曰元道。如堅筋補髓，固護五藏，清利泥丸，安住丹靈，六不妄入，三不妄出，纖濁盡去，真氣倘佯，騰太虛蔚玉清，上為真君者，皆此道也。

太清元道真經卷中

人者，萬物之中至靈者也，與天地同生於虛无之始，因元炁結而成形。形體既立，十天之神降入身中，為人神，故能成人也。既與天地同生於虛无之始，則合與天地齊壽。今天地則能長久，人不能長存者，何也？蓋天地能安靜和柔，不移於本性，常守虛无，湛然不勞，得自然之道，元炁不散故也。人不能長存者，緣生妄想，移於本性，不執自然，不守其根，自取其勞，又常求自益，故元炁消散，弗得長存也。因六賊妄生，目妄視，耳妄聽，鼻妄香臭，口妄言目昧，身妄作役，意妄思慮，故終不歸根也。故曰歸根，則可以永存而長生也。夫真一之道，可以永存歸根者，復元炁之本也。復元炁之道，非他也，湛寂而已。人能常歸心湛寂，則元炁自然而復也。復元炁之法，應常以減息為候，心源湛寂，其息漸減。減半息增半壽，從減息至无息，則復元歸根矣，乃可住世。凡人以有息為常。聖人以无息為常，動而有息，靜而无息。故有息无息，自在也。元道之士，常宜以无息為常，有息為妄，无息為是，有息為非，湛然養炁，三靈歡然，三魂暢然，神魂歡暢，則元炁自復矣。黃庭道三十六慎，一應至三十六應，乃為半功。又諸道應慎皆多，此无上道總一慎三應則成功也。一慎者，慎其休止耳。不休止則可至元道。三應者，三轉意也。每一轉意一百日。第一轉意應一百日，有事无事皆可減息，為第一轉意，謂初則有事止，无事乃可，行是則塵慮息減，虛恬日增，為第一轉應也，小功成矣。第二轉意應二百日，忽忽自止，為第二轉意也。至是則不嗜穀昧，无大飢渴，為第二轉應也，中功成矣。第三轉意應三百日，兀然自住，為第三轉意也。至是則飢渴不至，寒暑不侵，死籍永除，天地齊壽，為第三轉應矣，通用三十一周，曰大功成矣。

大君曰：有事无事，皆可減者，功萌也。有事无事，皆可減者，元炁漸復也。忽忽自止者，元炁將定也。兀然自住者，元炁歸根而定也。

大君曰：從減息至无息，從无息至定。此定不取不捨，无為之定，非執定之定。如得此定者，陰陽自調，四時自離，元炁自滿，衆神自棲，能通玄奧。故陰陽調則百府不生，四時離則无喧涼寒暑，元炁滿則无飢渴，衆神棲則兵虎不能害，慧通玄奧則萬事不生。

大君曰：人之思慮不一者，元炁散也。此道功成，无妄發動，所發无不善，所用无不中，故非中不用，非用不發，故有善發、慧發、通發，皆自然而然也。故无喜怒欲爭、哀懼愛惡之發也。

大君曰：長生非他也，神全、炁全、形全而已矣。神全者，樂虛无，喜清靜，湛然炁和，而神自全矣。元炁充積，形神永存矣。神炁皆全，故舉形而仙焉。《住炁兼行功經》曰：調炁減息，其功若是，住炁兼行功又倍之。住炁者，候神炁安恬，因而住之，至極為一通，每能雞鳴前可行五六通，漸加至十通，如此行減息之道，功倍速矣。慎吐引大奔，初不能兔，且慎奔吐，終宜俱微。

大君曰：住炁可以通百關，開堅滯，理萬疾，導元炁。百關通則疾減之，元炁隨所通則津路流注，元炁津液所及之處，則永不壞矣，則謂之金髓玉骨，長生而仙。

大君曰：減息住炁，皆以无息定炁為成功。若獨行減息則功遲，專行住炁則難以至无息，若通百關而兼減息，則元炁成易充盈，其功倍矣。

太清元道真經卷下

但示其首篇之目，不見其文，道成將舉乃可見矣。吉其報功耳，其功一其報萬，大約如茅君九錫。此乃上道，又百倍之。學元道者，无辭勤矣。下卷首目約數十篇，後聖所紀者五篇而已。功報一，志報二，不退報三，不妄報四，不須捨報五。

元道別錄：

元道无他，所慎休止，而不休止，萬非无所措矣。塵世士或難常行，時有休止，休止之中不可不慎。今錄戒慎於後，為暫休止者言矣。

慎一大息二
小乏三日減三十日。〔十五大息為一小乏。〕
大乏減六十日。〔三大息為一大乏。〕
一忿減十日。
一小醉減五十日。
一大醉減百日。
一哀減十日。
一嗔減二十日。
一懼減七日。
一怒減三十日。
一飢減三日。
一飽減五日。
一犯慾減五十日。
一驚減十日。
一勞一倦皆減五日。

又飲食觸忌，寒熱過差，風濕所及，起居失節，言語散雜，思慮煩躁，此皆損元炁，隨所觸犯輕重所減凡言犯減者，皆減其實功耳。元道之士深宜慎之。

元炁難積而易散，關節易閉而難通，住炁固不可絕，所得深宜愛惜。此經從太古太上老君傳血脉，相付一十九人而絕，皆已登仙位，品居尊極，其經不留世。至唐開元戊戌歲，南統樊大君口授孟謫仙，孟謫仙又口傳王虛无，虛无為立三篇，參述元道之機要焉。

Source Colophon

The Chinese text follows the Chinese Wikisource transcription of the Daoist Canon edition of this text (article 太清元道真經, revision of 13 March 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.

🌲