Attributed to Zhōnglí Quán (鍾離權), the Perfected One of Radiant Yang — one of the Eight Immortals and a founding patriarch of Quanzhen inner alchemy. Composed as a continuous stream of seven-character regulated verse, the poem first exposes the true alchemical principle — the pre-celestial qi that exists in the body beyond all ordinary categories — then guides the practitioner through the lunar phases of gathering, merging, and hundred-day refinement. The second half catalogues the three thousand and six hundred false methods that will never achieve immortality. The poem closes with the apotheosis of one who has received a true teacher's transmission: the pure-yang body perfected, white-day ascension to the celestial palaces. Full Chinese title: 破迷正道歌 (Pòmí Zhèngdào Gē — Song of Breaking Delusion and Returning to the True Way). DZ 0270 / KR5a0282. First English translation.
Without a heaven-fated covenant between us,
how could I share the heavenly mechanism's key with you?
A half-phrase, a fragment — no many words —
ten thousand immortal scriptures: one utterance connects them all.
One key, and you know what lies beyond heaven;
sweep away all side-gates, leave no trace.
If I lay this principle plain — the immortal Way —
heaven and earth are empty, above and below: void.
Spell it out: wood and metal have no gap between them.
True lead, true mercury — do they have a form?
Who truly knows this principle of the heavenly mechanism?
Grasp it, and sun and moon gallop high.
There is no kan and li, no dragon and tiger;
no golden crow and jade rabbit going east and west.
Not liver, not lung, not heart, not kidney —
nothing to do with spleen, stomach, gallbladder, and essence.
Not thought, not contemplation, not intentional act —
not in the three fields, upper, lower, or between.
What has it to do with the spine-channel up to Kunlun?
Not essence, not saliva, not qi, not blood.
Not the bladder spirits, not the five-organ gods —
yet this thing abides within the human body,
moving through the four seasons, spring through winter.
Before heaven, before earth — who can recognize it?
Two things blended together weigh one jin.
First quarter, full, dark, new moon — count to the true numbers.
Cycling through day and night, never empty —
gather in season, discern the young from the ripe.
In a breath of time, east-wood and west-metal join,
emerging only at the southwest, in its native station.
Slowly harmonize it, guide it into the Gen palace;
lightly stir the heavenly mechanism.
True qi gathers in the great emptiness, moment to moment;
win heaven and earth to serve as the alchemical vessel.
Overturn the cosmos, move freely in all directions —
the southern stars shift into the northern stars' place.
The golden crow flies into the jade toad's palace;
within the great sun, the jade rabbit hides.
The great yin waxes and wanes, self-harmonizing —
after the first quarter, seek the medicinal substance.
Before the last quarter, let qi rest in balance;
between the two quarters is the time of gathering.
Before and after: fix and settle the Ancestor and the Source.
He is host when his time comes; I am the guest.
When I rise, you in turn sink —
tune the rising and sinking back to one place.
In the bathing-phase, submerged, concealed — all is emptiness.
Li and kan, at their root, have no south or north.
Do zhen and dui actually lie in east and west?
If you meet an immortal who points out the key directly,
seize the Dipper-handle as it wheels through heaven —
gather yin and yang into the hollow of your hand.
In an instant, ten thousand things are born.
This is the key to the golden liquid and the returning elixir —
without meeting a true immortal teacher, do not force your way.
But if you truly gather the pre-heaven qi —
Sun and moon are captured in your two hands;
day and night strike together and become one mass.
The dragon hums and the tiger laughs, naturally —
at first, wind roars above and below.
Gradually condensing, gradually crystalizing: purple clouds arise;
clouds fill the mountains, veiling sun and moon.
At this moment everything seems like haze —
silently, naturally, clouds and mist begin to stir.
In stillness you sometimes hear thunder crack —
the purple phoenix and the dark rabbit meet at one point.
The golden crow and jade rabbit contend with each other;
tiger circles, dragon coils, seeking the supreme treasure.
Metal Elder and the Enchanted Maiden are joined in wedlock;
this time, mother and child meet within each other.
Spirit and qi return to the root, uniting with original truth —
one point: the first, the truest seed —
enters the cinnabar field: spring for ten thousand ages.
Before-heaven, before-earth: all return to one place.
In undivided chaos, what trace could there be?
Birth and growth arise naturally, aligned with the sage's principle.
When the occasion comes, the red flower blooms fresh and bright.
Water and fire, above and below, irrigate of themselves;
the two qi intertwine and bring forth the embryonic infant.
Naturally, in broad daylight, the divine image is born.
Naturally one transcends the ordinary and exits birth and death —
truly, through those hundred days, guard against danger.
Blood transforms to cream; the body becomes like silver.
Truly, through those hundred days, let there be no loss.
Jade cream flows and moistens, giving rise to luminosity;
true qi steams and permeates — neither cold nor hot.
One may become a person of the unsurpassed Way.
Blazing, blazing refinement through three hundred days.
Sudden rain and toppling winds fill the great void;
lightning blazes and flares beyond counting.
Thunder shakes heaven's gate — ghosts and spirits are startled;
the cosmos is overturned, white snow flies.
Seize heaven and earth reversed — spring that knows no night.
Bones transformed, yang returned: the body does not decay.
Nine revolutions, seven returns: transformation into the true form.
All that labor accomplished in ten months.
Inner and outer, luminously empty; surface and depth, genuinely true.
Gathered it becomes form; scattered it becomes qi.
Return to the root, return to the source: one with the Great Void.
Transformation and return — no person can fathom it.
Patriarch to patriarch, transmitted from ancient to present —
one principle, aligning with the principle of heaven and earth.
The immortals' oral teachings are not empty words.
If you hold and preserve this for one or two years —
through hundreds of thousands of millions of kalpas without end —
mastering the gold-liquid, form-seeding method,
riding the phoenix-crane, striding the white crane, you ascend freely.
Exiting existence, entering non-being: no obstruction.
The three islands of Penglai lie open in every direction.
Even through ten thousand years and hundreds of thousands of kalpas,
when the sea becomes mulberry field, still the same countenance.
How pitiable, the numberless seekers of immortality —
All of them walking ways that differ from the Heavenly Immortal's Way,
all of them confused and fixed by the wild fox's spittle.
How can one listen to ghost-words and goblin-speech?
Wandering cloud-like through the four seas, probing the profound —
all of it is crooked striving, the merit of minor techniques.
The deluded and stubborn are hard to teach;
still: one blind leading a crowd of the blind.
Those who eat pine and take herbal medicines —
how will they cut the root of birth and death?
Those who forget the body to cultivate fixed breathing —
how will the hundred vessels all return to their source?
Those who breathe and visualize the cinnabar field —
the embryo-immortal's learning will never be achieved.
Those who take the stilling of breath as "pre-heaven" —
they reach old age with nothing: also emptiness.
Those who take the mouth and nose as the Mystic Gate —
like a full net trying to catch the wind.
Those who take the thinking-mind as the "square inch" —
how will they return to the source and see their ancestor?
Then those who accumulate essence as their lead and mercury —
this is altogether different from the golden elixir's matter.
Those who hold qi and spirit as the child-and-mother pair
are ten thousand li from the Heavenly Immortal's attainment.
Those who open the crown for their cultivation and nourishment —
waste their effort and wear the spirit in vain.
Then those who contract the turtle and refine the nipples —
this is exactly the crooked gate's minor technique.
Then those who circulate qi as their fire-timing —
nine years, three years: they mislead people.
Sealing the breath at the nostrils, swallowing primordial qi —
drawing in crooked winds until the belly rumbles.
Even if one recognizes the mind and sees one's nature —
in the end one becomes only a yin spirit.
So many idle gates and doorways —
laboring and straining, stirring the skeleton's form for nothing.
Stopping thought, subduing mind, calling it purity —
in the end it is dead emptiness.
Day and night practicing the midnight-noon breathing method —
does heaven-and-earth have bad hours?
Solitary practice: sealed breath with visualizations,
fixing the tongue-root as the Red Dragon;
cycling through the heavenly hexagram patterns;
planting at the crown to make the Yellow Court;
pointing to the kidneys as the source of creation,
fixing the coccyx as the root of life;
swallowing water and fire to restore the origin;
gathering supplement by absorbing yin essence;
looking up to heaven to inhale the sun and moon,
claiming the earth-soul is the heaven-soul;
swallowing saliva as the source of creation;
cutting the five flavors, calling it true cultivation;
one meal for day and night, calling it daily practice —
the body emaciated and gaunt, like a ghost's shape.
Bending, arching, prostrating to knock on the jade gate;
embracing the origin, guarding the one, circling both eyes;
hunching the shoulders, contracting the neck, visualizing the spine;
circulating the flowing pearl, contemplating the great yin;
writing talismans and reciting spells;
tearing contracts, parting rings, studying invisibility;
massage with the six-character breathing formula.
Gazing at stars, bowing to the Dipper, enduring all hardships;
inhaling the clear, exhaling the turbid, calling this the elixir's ground;
tightening the Yang Gate, fire ascending,
blazing heat penetrating the whole body —
calling this the root of the Celestial True Great Way.
Reading, chanting, praising, holding registers and ritual books;
setting up altars, presenting offerings, hoping to ascend.
Three thousand, six hundred side-gate methods —
not one recognizes the spontaneous being's day and night.
If fate brings you to an illuminated teacher who points the way,
in an instant, creation is born.
One qi circulates without obstruction,
spread through ten thousand things and the human body.
The adept who gathers the pre-heaven qi —
through the entire night, thunder never ceases.
Flashing lightning: boundless, beyond counting.
When the two qi intertwine, what form could they have?
The crashing of heaven's gate — nothing comparable.
Thunder, lightning, wind, and rain arise all at once;
turning and overturning, positions exchange.
Immeasurable fire-qi rages and surges wildly;
tiger circles the medicine furnace, contending for creative power;
dragon coils the golden cauldron, yearning to ascend.
The four images and five phases all return to the earth-center.
Smelting and refining the golden liquid: the mixed-origin crystal.
Ten thousand clusters of purple cloud enfold the Northern Sea;
a thousand channels, a hundred vessels, striking Kunlun.
True qi blazes bright: the stars and Dipper grow dim.
Red light blazes: the great sun itself grows dark.
Increase and decrease, naturally dividing advance from retreat;
first quarter, last quarter — confirm the true timing.
The elixir-head, old or young, must also be discerned.
Drawing out and adding in, applied in a single moment;
embryo-formation and fire-timing have their exact moments.
True fire blazes and blazes, burning the cosmos;
heaven and earth, above and below, glow entirely crimson.
One water, one fire, dividing the line-images;
one rises, one descends — naturally buoyant and sinking;
one comes, one goes — distinguishing guest from host;
one before, one after — ruler and minister.
One yin, one yang: this is heaven and earth.
One hard, one soft: naturally in balance.
The two solstices of winter and summer mark the seasons;
the two equinoxes of spring and autumn fix cold and warm.
Coming and going, up and down: no fixed image.
Cycling through day and night — there are exact hours.
Without the earth-ancestor's transmitted teaching,
how could one know the Great Way's instant-work?
Drive back the Dipper's handle: the principle of the Mystery Gate.
Rotate heaven's gate: the ten thousand images open wide.
In a moment, dragon and tiger battle again and again;
the two things merge and unite in an instant.
When the scarlet elixir is seized, all is turbid and blended;
all undivided chaos, nothing yet made clear.
This is the moment of wood-and-metal joining and merging —
true lead, true mercury: the crystal of heaven and earth.
This and only this is the golden elixir's fire-timing secret;
it all depends on the joining and crystalizing in the Yellow Court.
The mixed-origin single qi: medicine for a thousand years.
Through ten thousand kalpas, ever present — spring without night.
Within three thousand ke-intervals, the infant's image appears;
a hundred days of work, and creative power becomes numinous.
Ten months of refinement produce the pure-yang body;
naturally, cold and heat no longer intrude.
Auspicious qi and colored clouds enfold the five forms.
Phoenix-cranes dance in pairs before you, welcoming.
Jade maidens in pairs hold the purple edict;
the title is formally conferred: "Perfected One."
Golden light envelops the body — mortal eyes cannot see it.
Disciplined, dignified, majestic, moving left and right.
Immortal cranes escort you as you go to present yourself to the Origin;
in broad daylight you ascend and visit the High Capital.
Colophon
Song of Breaking Delusion (破迷正道歌, Pòmí Zhèngdào Gē)
Good Works Translation from Classical Chinese. Translated by Tulku Rupa of the New Tianmu Anglican Church, April 2026, from the Kanripo digital edition KR5a0282 (Zhengtong Daozang DZ 0270), Handwritten manuscript reference edition (HFL).
This is the first English translation of the 破迷正道歌. No previous English translation of this poem exists. The text is attributed to Zhōnglí Quán (鍾離權), the Perfected One of Radiant Yang (正陽真人), one of the Eight Immortals and a foundational patriarch of the Quanzhen inner alchemy lineage. It appears in the Zhengtong Daozang (1445) as a single scroll in the Cavern Perfection section, Esoteric Arts (洞真部眾術類) classification.
Blood Rule statement: This translation was independently derived from the Classical Chinese source text as staged in Kanripo KR5a0282 (Zhengtong Daozang, Hanfen Lodge reference edition). No English translation exists for this text and no reference was consulted. The Chinese was read directly from the Mandoku-format digital edition; page-break markers (⟨pb:...⟩) and paragraph-end markers (¶) were stripped during transcription. Translation follows the seven-character verse (七言歌行) structure of the original; English line-pairs correspond to Chinese couplets throughout.
Textual notes: The Mandoku edition uses several archaic Daozang variant characters. Readings: 㑹 = 會 (converge/understand), 炁 = 氣 (qi, vital breath), 岀 = 出 (exit), 眞 = 真 (true), 嫰 = 嫩 (young/tender), 熌 = 閃 (flash). The attribution line reads 正陽真人鍾離述 — "expounded by Zhongli, the Perfected One of Radiant Yang." The final line 破迷正道歌 repeating the title is a scribal colophon common to single-scroll Daozang texts and is not translated.
Key terminology: 丹田 (dāntián) — the cinnabar fields, inner alchemy cultivation centers; 火候 (huǒhòu) — fire-timing, the precise management of alchemical temperature and phase; 先天炁 (xiāntiānqì) — pre-heaven qi, the primordial vital energy before cosmological differentiation; 坎離 (kǎn/lí) — Water and Fire trigrams, the yin-yang poles of inner alchemy; 龍虎 (lóng/hǔ) — dragon and tiger, symbolic names for mercury (dragon) and lead (tiger), the two foundational substances; 嬰兒 (yīng'ér) — the embryonic infant, the adept's fully gestated inner body; 純陽體 (chún yáng tǐ) — the pure-yang body, the fully realized immortal form. The long section enumerating false methods is a polemical genre common in Zhongli's attributed texts — distinguishing the true transmission from three thousand six hundred side-path practices.
Scribed for the Good Work Library by Tulku Rupa, Translator-03, April 2026.
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Source Text: 破迷正道歌
Classical Chinese source text from Kanripo KR5a0282 (Zhengtong Daozang DZ 0270), Hanfen Lodge edition (HFL). Mandoku format; page-break markers and paragraph-end markers stripped. Archaic variant characters preserved as in the source.
正陽真人鍾離述
若非符契天缘事故把天機訣輿君片言半句無多字萬卷仙經一語通
一訣便知天外事掃盡旁門不見蹤若言此理神仙道天地虚無上下空
說破木金無間隔真鉛真汞豈有形誰知這箇天機理便㑹日月得髙奔
也無坎離并龍虎也無烏兎各西東非肝非肺非心腎不干脾胃膽和精
非思非想非爲作不在三田上下中豈干夾脊至崑崙不是精津炁血液
不是膀胱五臓神此物在人身中出四時春夏及秋冬先天先地誰人識
二物相和重一斤弦望晦朔合本數循環畫夜不曽空依時採取知老嫰
片餉之間併甲庚只在西南産本位慢慢調和入艮宮試把天機輕撥動
真炁時時聚太空謀得乾坤爲鼎器顛倒宇宙任縱橫南辰移入北辰位
金鳥飛入玉蟾宮太陽裏面藏玉兎太隂加減自和同前弦之後尋藥物
後弦之前炁停匀兩弦之間爲採取先後存定祖和宗他是主時賔是我
我若浮時你却沉調得浮沉歸一處沐浴潜藏總是空離坎本來無南北
震兊豈則在西東若遇神仙親指訣捉住北斗周天輪撮得隂陽歸掌内
頃刻之間萬物生這些金液還丹訣不遇仙師莫强攻果然採得先天炁
日月擒來兩手中晝夜打交成一塊自有龍吟虎笑聲初時上下風聲吼
漸凝漸結紫雲生雲滿山中遮日月此時一陣似朦朧默默自然雲霧動
定裏時聞霹靂聲紫鳯烏兔交一處金烏玉兎自相爭虎繞龍蟠尋至寳
金公姹女結婚姻這畨子母裏相㑹神炁歸根合本真一點最初真種子
入得丹田萬古春先天先地歸一處混沌未分豈有痕生發自然合聖理
緣來紅花一色新上下水火自澆灌二炁交結産胎嬰自然白日生神象
自有超凡出死生果然百日防危險血化爲膏體似銀果然百日無虧失
玉膏流潤生光明真炁薰蒸無寒暑可爲無上道髙人炎炎鍛鍊三百日
驟雨顛風滿太空電光晃耀無躬數雷震天關鬼神驚掀翻宇宙飛白雪
倒捉乾坤不夜春換骨回陽身不朽九還七返化真形辛苦都來十箇月
内外虛明表裏真聚則成形散則炁返本還元太虛同變化往來人莫測
祖祖相傳古到今一理便合天地理神仙口訣不爲虚更若保守一二載
百千萬億劫無窮㑹得金液種形法乗鸞跨鶴自飛騰岀有入無無阻礙
蓬萊三島任縱橫若更萬年百千劫海變桑田貌亦同堪嗟無限學仙者
總是天仙道不同俱被野狐涎昩定鬼言妖語怎生聽雲遊四海叅玄妙
盡是邪鬥小法功愚迷執强難敎化依然一盲引衆盲有如飡松并服餌
如何脫免死生根有如忘形習定息如何百脉盡歸宗有如呼吸想丹田
到底胎仙學未成有如息氣爲先天至老無成也是空有如口鼻爲玄牝
恰似滿綱去包風有如思心爲方寸怎得歸元見祖宗更有積精爲鉛汞
轉與金丹事不同有執氣神爲子母亦隔天仙萬里程有如開頂爲鍊養
枉施功力謾勞神更有縮龜并鍊乳正是邪門小法功更有行炁爲火候
九載三年悞了人鼻頭閉息服元炁引得邪風肚裏鳴假若識心并見性
到頭终久做隂靈知他多少閑門戸勞漉空動骷髏形止念降心爲清淨
下梢終久是頑空晝夜專行子午法天地豈有惡時辰孤修閉息行存想
執定舌根做赤龍更有周夭行卦象更有種頂作黄庭更有指腎爲造化
執定尾閭爲命根更有還元服水火更有採補吸婬精更有仰天吸日月
便道地魄是天魂更有咂津爲造化斷除五味是修真晝夜一飡為日用
身體尫羸似鬼形曲身偃仰叩玉户抱元守一運雙睛竦肩縮項思脊骨
搬運流珠想太隂更有書符并念咒破劵分環學隱形按摩吁呵六字訣
瞻星禮斗受辛勤入清吐濁爲丹本陽關緊勒火飛騰炎炎遍身通透熱
呼作天真大道根看讀念讃持科籙設壇拜醮望飛騰三千六百傍門法
不識隨形晝夜人有緣遭遇眀師指頃刻之間造化生一炁循環無阻礙
散在萬物與人身達人採得先天炁一夜雷聲不暫停電光熌熌無窮數
二炁相交豈有形摧塌天關無可比雷電風雨一齊生顛倒顛時交換位
無量火炁亂崢嶸虎繞藥罏爭造化龍蟠金鼎要飛騰四象五行歸戊己
烹鍊金液混元晶萬朶紫雲籠北海千條百脉撞崑崙真炁輝輝星斗暗
紅光赫赫太陽昏加減自然分進退前弦後弦定其真丹頭老嫰須亦認
抽添運用片時中結胎火候有時刻真火炎炎燒宇宙乾坤上下盡通紅
一水一火分爻象一升一降自浮沉一來一去分賔主一前一後有君臣
一隂一陽爲天地一剛一柔自均匀冬夏二至為節候春秋二分定寒温
往來上下無形象循環晝夜有時辰若非土祖相傳訣豈知大道片時功
驅回斗柄玄關理斡轉天關萬象通片餉龍虎頻頻闘二物交合頃刻中
擒得猩猩俱鶻突混混沌沌未分明此時木金交併法真鉛眞汞天地晶
只此火候金丹訣全憑交結在黄庭混元一炁千年藥萬劫常存不夜春
三千刻内嬰兒象百日功夫造化靈十月鍊成純陽體自然寒暑不來侵
瑞氣彩雲遮五體鸞鶴對舞面前迎玉女雙雙持紫詔名曰方號喚眞人
金光罩體人難視節制儀威左右行仙鶴接引朝元去白日飛昇謁上京
破迷正道歌
Source Colophon
Source: 破迷正道歌 (Pòmí Zhèngdào Gē), attributed to Zhōnglí Quán, Perfected One of Radiant Yang (正陽真人鍾離). Zhengtong Daozang (正統道藏, compiled 1445), DZ 0270 / KR5a0282. Classification: Cavern Perfection section, Esoteric Arts division (洞真部眾術類). One scroll. Kanripo digital edition: KR5a0282, Hanfen Lodge reference edition (三家本, 1988), vol. 4, p. 916.
Textual basis: Mandoku-format digital text from Kanripo (kanripo.org), representing the Zhengtong Daozang Hanfen Lodge standard edition. The Mandoku format uses ¶ for display line-breaks and ⟨pb:⟩ for page-transitions; these have been stripped in the source text above, with the Chinese text presented as continuous running verse.
License: Public domain (Zhengtong Daozang, 1445; digital edition under standard academic access terms).
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