by the Master Who Penetrates Mystery (通玄先生)
The Song of the Mysterious Pearl (玄珠歌) is a thirty-stanza neidan poem attributed to 通玄先生 (Master Who Penetrates Mystery), preserved in the Zhengtong Daozang (DZ 0573, Dongxuan section, Various Arts division). The "mysterious pearl" — drawn from the Zhuangzi parable in which Huang Di loses his pearl, and finds that only "Nothing" can recover it — here becomes the crystallized union of original spirit (元神) and original essence (元精), the supreme medicine of internal alchemy. In alternating registers of warning and aspiration, the poem maps the seeker's path: the pearl is naturally present in every person but easily scattered by desire; gathered, refined, and crystallized, it becomes the vehicle of transcendence.
Gather the mysterious pearl — ten thousand evils dissolve,
the Way-walker at last becomes perfectly clear and void.
Heaven's talisman reveals the true golden practice;
all is written in the Three Books of Carefree Wandering.
Palace towers and terraces display the body of the Way;
not dwelling at life's root, opposing the great furnace,
the original spirit scatters and flees — the withered court remains.
Cast the mysterious pearl away, and not one thing is left.
The dusty mind cannot see the heaven within the body;
vainly revering spirit-forms, you seek immortality.
The mysterious pearl is naturally there — you don't know where.
In what year will you surrender and enter the cinnabar field?
Relying too much on cleverness, forcing right and wrong —
even hearing the essence of the teaching, you still go against it.
If only you would not let the treasure of long life escape,
crystallized into the mysterious pearl, it would pierce Purple Tenuity.
Vainly seeking clay figures and painted images,
idly reading scriptures — how can the Way be achieved?
Naturally there is a priceless treasure: the mysterious pearl.
When will you awaken and arrest the spirit-essence?
Light and darkness share one source — people do not know.
If you could understand this, you would be profoundly wondrous.
The mysterious pearl is certainly the master who holds the light,
forever dwelling in the true palace, the moon-soul pool.
At the cliff-stream's edge, setting the spirit's mechanism —
knowing how to grasp the golden pass and close life's gate,
in order to win the mysterious pearl and garrison the spirit-house:
wherever the one truth walks, a radiance shines.
The original truth scatters and runs — it cannot be sealed.
Accumulated poisons run rampant, destroying the hundred spirits.
Open wide to the mysterious pearl, the peerless treasure.
Drunk in birth and death — when will you wake?
In the sea of harmonious impulse, the original essence is nurtured.
Within it is the mysterious pearl, and lifespan is perfected.
Without refining, without crystallizing — all desires cast away.
How about suddenly illuminating the dark places?
Understanding how the spirit-breath circulates, the body hides treasure.
Going against the Way, you immediately lose the truth.
If you encounter the mysterious pearl and crystallize the middle way,
you will naturally achieve it, and don the golden veil.
Common emotions accumulate and foul the heavenly gate.
How could you know the mysterious pearl, the root of nature and life?
Don't let it wander away from the place of its birth.
At that moment, be pure and clear, free from confusion.
The mysterious pearl vibrates, shattering the demon host.
Shining on life's gate, white and black are distinguished.
After cultivating inward practice with steadfast resolve,
the Way accomplished, you'll finally know the Lord of Nine Heavens.
Wishing to gather the mysterious pearl — sun and moon race on.
First you must kindle the fire and master the spirit-root.
Through ten thousand turnings in return to source, the golden essence crystallizes.
This is the first gate for ascending as a perfected one.
The mysterious pearl always dwells in the inner chamber.
Sun and moon melt together into the undivided Great Void.
Truth dispatches jade rings as they transform with the liquid —
the radiance unceasing illuminates the spirit's dwelling.
The mysterious pearl and jade tree have their root-seedling.
Where water meets sky, they are forever unwithering.
The true fire holds emptiness like the red sun.
The golden flower crystallizes the soul — the six-time tide.
Early you must cook and obtain the solar butter.
Having consumed it, the original spirit will never wither.
If you want the form to transcend and transform to golden bones,
the mysterious pearl within holds the clarified essence.
Carefree, always drinking the moon-soul's nectar,
irrigating the spirit-root — virtue and Way renewed.
The treasure preserved, dust gone, the radiance does not scatter.
The mysterious pearl illuminates the body of five perceptions.
Going and coming, in and out, returning to infancy —
moving with or against the flow irregularly brings disaster.
Fully possessing the mysterious pearl, unified in one place,
through the teacher's pointing, dwelling at the cinnabar terrace.
The mysterious pearl beats out the Dharma's thunder.
Rain fills the inner pool, transforming to eight jade-jewels.
From this, the radiance penetrates through to the heavens above.
Riding the five clouds, carried to Penglai and Yingzhou.
Applying the mind to ten thousand things — affairs proliferate.
How much better to return to the source and look within.
Grasp the mysterious pearl and the bones transform.
The form transcends the Blue Empyrean, riding the golden phoenix.
At ease, day and night never rushing —
aided by the mysterious pearl, one gate opens.
All worldly toil and dust swept clean, sun and moon divide.
Directly exchanging for the supreme treasure, entering Kunlun.
Through the teacher's secret transmission, suddenly no contention.
Withdrawing from the mysterious pass, one path brightens.
Heavenly music sounds even now without ceasing.
The mysterious pearl bearing full fruit — the red dragon comes to greet.
Examining the radiance, eight paths divide.
Understanding how to swallow the true fire, the body burns within.
The mysterious pearl opens into the realm of the Three Purities.
After completion, driving together on five-colored clouds.
Not yet awakened to the true source — startled in confusion —
letting the mind follow desire, indulging the Three Worms.
Wherever the mysterious pearl arrives, nothing can taint it.
The treasure fills the jade pool, reaching Upper Clarity.
Once the mysterious pearl is attained, never again contention.
Not leaving the cinnabar source, the precious crystallization is complete.
Through turning and washing, clarifying — circular like the moon.
At the right moment, pure clarity: the inner pearl luminous.
When the mysterious pearl is lost, you fall into a wasteland,
wandering through rebirth, confused in the rolling and unrolling.
If the soul-forms crystallize like sun and moon,
the body, one with heaven and earth, merges with pure emptiness.
The mysterious pearl crystallizes the soul, surging all at once,
carried into the jade tower's highest palace.
Just as moonlight can rise and disappear,
naturally rising light, entering into the clouds.
In former times, how many people moved through this practice —
only taking the ordinary form and suddenly emerging from dust.
Ten thousand heavenly xian practiced this very art.
The mysterious pearl shining: the one primordial truth.
Following the teacher's pointing, the solar light follows.
Understanding how to hold the mysterious pearl, transforming into the feathered robe.
Merit fulfilled, the supreme Way attained.
Before ascending the cloud-path, no one knows.
Carefree in writing, displaying emptiness and non-being —
not leaving the field of the body, pointing to the body of the Way.
Within, the secret divides into upper, middle, lower.
Trace the tracks, exhaust the Way: the mysterious pearl is found.
Colophon
Song of the Mysterious Pearl (玄珠歌), attributed to 通玄先生 (Tōngxuán Xiānshēng, "Master Who Penetrates Mystery"). Source: DZ 0573 in the Zhengtong Daozang (正統道藏, compiled 1445 CE), Dongxuan section (洞玄部), Various Arts division (眾術類). Kanripo reference: KR5b0278. Hualin Fang edition (HFL), transcribed in the Mandoku project (2015). No published English translation exists. This translation is independently derived from the Classical Chinese by Vāyu (iron-age Translator, life 09), 2026-04-25. No reference English consulted. Key terms preserved: 玄珠 (mysterious pearl), 元神 (original spirit), 元精 (original essence), 丹田 (cinnabar field), 紫微 (Purple Tenuity), 三清 (Three Purities), 上清 (Upper Clarity), 三彭 (Three Worms — internal demons of Daoist physiology), 蟾光 (moonlight, literally "toad-light" — the toad is the moon's resident spirit). The "mysterious pearl" draws on the Zhuangzi Ch. 12 parable of Huang Di's lost pearl, recovered only by "Nothing" (象罔): in neidan, it is the crystallized union of original spirit and original essence, the medicine of immortality.
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Source Text
玄珠歌
通玄先生譔
解棌玄珠萬惡除
盡今得道人清虚
乾符顯出真金行
備在逍遙三卷書
宫闕樓臺表道軀
不留命本敵洪罏
元神散走枯庭在
抛盡玄珠一物無
塵心不識體中天
空敬靈儀擬覓仙
自有玄珠不知處
何年歸命入丹田
多恃聦明强是非
縱聞法要亦相違
若能不出長生寳
結作玄珠透紫微
謾求土塑及丹青
空看經文道豈成
自有玄珠無價寳
幾時覺悟駐神精
明暗同源人不知
若能曉了自幽竒
玄珠定是含光主
永住真宫月魄池
落崖溪畔整神機
解把金關閉命扉
爲得玄珠鎮靈府
一真行處一光輝
元真散走不能扄
積毒縦橫壞百靈
豁盡玄珠無上寳
醉中生死幾時醒
冲和海裏育元精
中有玄珠壽命成
不鍊不凝抛欲盡
何如黑處頓教明
解通神息體藏珍
與道相違便失真
若遇玄珠結中道
自然成就化金巾
凡情積濁汚天門
豈識玄珠性命根
生處莫今流浪去
當時清淨不迷昏
玄珠振動破魔群
照著生門白黑分
向裏修持堅固後
道成方識九霄君
欲採玄珠日月奔
先須火發制靈根
朝元萬過金精結
此是登真第一門
玄珠常處洞房居
日月融來渾太虚
真遣瓊環隨液化
光明不絶照神廬
玄珠玉樹有根苗
水際連天永不凋
真火含虛如赤日
金華結魄六時潮
早須烹取太陽酥
喫著元神永不枯
若要形超化金骨
玄珠向裏有醍醐
逍遙常飲月魂津
灌溉靈根道徳新
留寳去塵光不散
玄珠照耀五通身
往來出入改嬰孩
順逆參差致禍災
盡有玄珠同一處
因師與指住丹臺
玄珠鼓吹法雷霆
雨滿中池變八瓊
從此光明徹天上
五雲行駕到蓬瀛
用心萬種事多端
何似歸元向裏觀
捉得玄珠令換骨
形超碧落駕金鸞
安閑日夜不曽奔
襄有玄珠開一門
蕩盡塵勞分日月
直交至寳入崑崙
因師傳袐頓無爭
抽却玄關一道明
天樂至今聲不絶
玄珠果滿赤龍迎
點檢光芒八道分
解吞真火體中焚
玄珠開決三清界
待了齊驅五色雲
未悟真元恍惚驚
任心貪欲恣三彭
玄珠到處無能染
寳滿瓊池逹上清
玄珠得了永無爭
不岀丹元結寳成
因轉淘澄輪似月
尋當清淨顆中明
玄珠失却落坵墟
流浪輪廻錯卷舒
魂魄若凝如日月
體同天地合清虛
玄珠結魄一時冲
送入瓊樓最上宫
恰似蟾光能出沒
自然輕舉入雲中
從前搬運幾多人
只把凡形頓出塵
千萬天仙行此術
玄珠照耀一元眞
因師指動日光隨
解把玄珠化羽衣
功滿得成無上道
未登雲路沒人知
逍遙著述顯虛無
不出身田指道軀
内祕分爲上中下
尋蹤盡道得玄珠
Source Colophon
玄珠歌 (Xuān Zhū Gē). Source: Zhengtong Daozang (正統道藏), DZ 0573, compiled 1445 CE. Section: 洞玄部眾術類 (Dongxuan, Various Arts). Canonical edition: 三家本 (Three-House edition), 1988, fascicle 10, pp. 679 ff. Kanripo/Mandoku ID: KR5b0278 (HFL = Hualin Fang edition). The text is accompanied in the same fascicle by 玄珠心鏡註 (Commentary on the Heart-Mirror of the Mysterious Pearl), which is a separate work not included here. Public domain (text dated before 1445 CE; Daozang compilation 1445 CE, >100 years).
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