secret pdf link to 2012 book on Taoism in China
2nd century BCE - teaching to "ingest" or "imbibe" yang qi from the Universe (instead of yin qi from food)....
Quegu shiqi fang (Methods to Abstain from Grain and Eat Qi
Since life and death are measured in proportion to the heavenly and earthly vapors, the restoration of life means regulation of these vapors. This principle gave rise to the macrobiotic hygiene practiced in ancient China. Associated with earth, the grain produces the yin vapor. So, the longevity-seeking individual is advised to eliminate the consumption of grain—the earthly product that leads to decay—by practicing the austere purifying dietetic known as “eliminating the grain” (bi gu ). He is urged to “eat vapor” (shi qi ), the product of heaven, by practicing breath culti-vation.95 The goal is to let out the stale yin vapor and supply the body with fresh and invigorating yang vapor.96 “The essence of ultivating vapor is to exit from death and enter into life (zhi qi zhi jing, chu si ru sheng , ).”97
Book of the Yellow Court - Neidan alchemy pdf
Lead (true lead = white tiger) is Metal within Water (black lead)
Mercury is Silver within Fire
So
taihe zhi jingqi If you wish to fill your belly, first empty the mind.
So the lead and mercury combine to create gold and silver as the "double reversal" of the elixir.
OK back to the Oxford Professor on Classical Chinese Medicine:
The understanding of a life giving natural world also underlies the notion of healing by transference of Primordial [yuan] qi, if we take into consideration how Primordial qi is restored during meditation. In the Primordial state, the qigong healer becomes one with the universe, and Primordial [yuan] qi in his Cinnabar Field (dantien) is thereby restored.
The classical text sources of qigong
WARRING STATES AND HAN DYNASTY (475 B.C. – 220 A.D.)The earliest exclusive texts that deal with the meditative practices and the gymnastic exercises are the recent archaeological text discoveries.
Circulating Qi Inscription
Xingqi ming 行氣銘 (475 B.C. – 206 B.C.), scholars consider this text to be from the earlier Warring States Period. This is the earliest available text on the meditative practice solely. It appears to be an esoteric text, short but complete. According to Li Ling’s study, the text is identified as a complete “Rendu Channeling Micro-orbit Qi Gong 任督二脈小周天氣功,” and the much later concept of upper and lower dantian 丹田 was also indicated in the text. (Li, 342-346)
Gymnastic Book
Yinshu 引書 (186 B.C.) is a gymnastic text, a detailed manuscript that includes five sections of health and longevity related techniques. (Li, 359-368)
Gymnastic Chart
Daoyin tu 導引圖 (168 B.C.) is a colored manuscript that shows forty-four moments in a series of sketches accompanied by commentaries on their therapeutic features. (Li, 356-359)
Abstaining from Cereals and Consuming Qi
Quegu shiqi 卻穀食氣 (168 B.C.), the text is a detailed manual of fasting from cereals, taking herbs, and consuming of Qi (breathing practice) techniques. The manual indicates the breathing methods and the herb formulas clearly in several sections: the time of breathing in the day; the volumes of breathing each practice; the qi should be avoided for breathing practice in each season; the qi should be avoided for practice in the day; the six type of beneficial qi of nature; (Li, 346-353)
THREE STATES, SIX DYNASTIES, AND SUI DYNASTY (221–617)
After the Han dynasty, the most obtainable texts have been transmitted in the Taoist Cannon, or Daozang 道藏, which was edited in the Ming dynasty (1368-1644).
Methods for a Lasting Life of the Persons of Greatest Purity
Taiqing zhenren looming jue 太清真人絡命訣, from the 3rd or 4th century.
The manual emphasizes the techniques of visualization of the spirits of body by means of visualizing the Five Beasts (cun wushou 存五獸) and traveling through the Viscera (lizang 歷臟). (DZ 2:871)
Exposition of the Tao
Xiandao jing 顯道經. 3rd century.
This is an ancient manual of Tending Life practices that focuses on Fasting (duangu 斷穀). (DZ 18:644)
Treatise of Great Purity on Gymnastics and Nurturing Vitality
Taiqing daoyin yangsheng jing 太清導引養生經 from the 4th century.
This work consists of a collection of gymnastics and breathing techniques, including those of Daolin (i.e., Zhi Dun 支遁, 314-366), representing the schools of various immortals of antiquity (Chisong zi 赤松子, Ningfeng zi 寧封子, Pengzu 彭祖, Wang Ziqiao 王子喬). (DZ 18:401)
Precious Book of the Exterior Landscape of the Yellow Court
Taishang huangting waijing yujing 太上黃庭外景玉經. Before AD 255.
This is the original Huangting jing, the oldest copy of the present text is made by Wang Xizi 王羲之 (303-379). (DZ 5:913)
Records Concerning Tending Life and the Prolonging of Life
Yangxing Yanming lu 養性延命錄. Attributed to Tao Hingjing 陶弘景 (456-536).
This is a collection of instructions for healthy living, food, and breathing exercises for meditative healing, gymnastics and sexual therapy. The respiratory techniques including liuqi jue, 六氣訣, or “the oral transmission of the six type of (therapeutic) breaths” was introduced in this work, which follows the sound of the words xu 噓, he 呵, xi 呬, chui 吹, hu 呼, xi 嘻, each sound has a therapeutic effect associated with one of the five inner organs. (DZ 18:474)
Treatise on Tiantai Sitting Meditation for Beginners
Xiao zhi guan 小止觀 by Tiantai Zhiyi’s 天臺智顗 (538-597)
This work is fundamentally Chinese Buddhist, especially Chan/Zen Buddhist, meditation manual. The concepts and techniques such as tiaoshen 調身, or regulating and positioning the body, taioxi 調息, or regulating and focusing on the breathing,tiaoxin 調心, or regulating and empty the heart/mind; and the concept of the characteristics of breathing patterns, such as feng 風, or rasping and noisy, chuan 喘, or restricted and choppy,qi 氣, xi 息, fine and deep, were borrowed by Taoist and other meditative practices, which still play the fundamental role in the modern Qi Gong practices. (Fang, 357)
TANG DYNASTY (618-907)
Master Hidden in the Havens
Tianyin zi 天隱子 6 fols. By Sima Chengzhen 司馬承禎 or Bai Yunzi 白雲子 (647-735).
This manual deals exclusively with the meditative practices through five stages to attain liberation or awakening. Fasting, faith, and nourishing/cultivating qi attain the first stage. At the second stage, one empties the mind by retreating in the light-conditioned room, and at the third stage, one fixes the spirits by the heart/mind (xin) visualization on the body through knowledge. Next comes the stage of seated meditation, “sitting and forgetting” (zuowang 坐忘) through which one attains tranquility and finally forgetfulness both of oneself and one’s surroundings. The last stage leads to the spirit of deliverance, the One, or immortality. (DZ 21:699)
Treatise of Sitting and Forgetting
Zuowang lun 坐忘論.
The expression zuowang has become synonymous with meditation. This manual is attributed to Sima Chengzhen. The same terms denote the fourth and next to the last stage of the spirit, or “liberation through concentration.” (DZ 22:891)
Commentary on the Book of Fetus Breathing
Taixi jingzhu 胎息經註. Commentary by Huanzhen Xiansheng 幻真先生 (late ninth century?).
This commentary explains that the practice of fetus breathing enables one to keep the Primordial Qi (yuan qi 元氣) and the spirits (shen 神) within the body and thus to attain immortality. (DZ 2:868)
Master Huanzhen’s Oral Transmission of Consuming Primordial Qi
Huanzhen Xianshen Funeiyuanqi jue 幻真先生服內元氣訣.
The contents of this work can be grouped under three sections; dietary and general recommendations, the fetus breathing Embryonic, and respiratory techniques including liuqi jue, 六氣訣, or “the oral transmission of the six types of (therapeutic) breaths.” (DZ 18:440)
Most High Scripture on Fetus Breathing and Tending Life
Taishang yangsheng taixi qijing 太上養生胎息氣經.
This manual emphasizes the Shangqing techniques for the absorption of astral concretions, corresponding to the viscera and to particular periods of the calendar cycle. Each of the viscera and periods is put in correlation with a specific type of expiration. (DZ 18:401)
Inscription on Concentrating the spirit and Refining Breath
Cunshen lianqi ming 存神練氣銘 Attributed to Sun Simo 孫思邈.
The text is divided into three parts: a general introduction on breathing practices, in four-character verse; five preliminary steps for attaining the Tao; and seven subsequent grades for the advanced adept. (DZ 18:458)
Chart on the Procedures for Increasing and Decreasing the Six Receptacles and Five Viscera According the Inner Landscape of the yellow Court
Huangting neijing wuzang liufu buxie tu 黃庭內經五臟六腑補瀉圖. By Hu Yin 胡愔, 848?
This is an illustrated treatise on the Five Viscera and their corresponding directions, animals, and qi; therapeutic breath-swallowing, seasonal taboos, and gymnastics. (DZ 6:686)
Chart on the Four Qi for Conserving the Health
Siqi shesheng tu 四氣攝生圖. Late Tang.
This work describes and depicts the viscera and their functions, linking them to the seasons and to the rules to be observed to keep in harmony with their changes. (DZ 17:224)
Book of the Hidden Period and Causal Body of the Yellow Court
Huangting dunjia yuanshen jing 黃庭遁甲緣身經. Tang dynasty.
This work combines the meditation and invocation practice of the Book of Yellow Court, the inner landscape and dunjia method, which consists of writing Talisman of the Causal Body of the Six Jia (liujia yuanshen fu 六甲緣身符) and swallowing it. The repertory technique of liuqi jue, 六氣訣, or “the oral transmission of the six type of (therapeutic) breaths” was elaborated with descriptions of the Six Receptacles and Five Viscera in the work. This is a typical Taoist esoteric practice involving magical talisman. (DZ 18:706)
Scripture of the Most High for the Protection of Life through the Elimination of the Three Corpses and the Nine Warms
Taishang chusanshi jiuchong baosheng jing 太上除三尸九虫保生經. Late Tang Dynasty?
This manual presents the agents of decay and death as well as various apotropaic and medical methods and breathing methods for expelling them. The three corpses are identified as demons of human and animal morphology, the nine warms are given shapes similar to insects and germs, which has led scholars to propose that the existence of harmful bacteria was known to the Chinese of the time. (DZ 18:697)
Copy of Diagrams of Attested Method for the Cultivation of Perfection
Xiuzhen liyan chaotu 修真歷驗鈔圖. Tang dynasty.
This inner alchemy manual describes the formation of an elixir, which under natural conditions would require 4,300 years. The alchemist, however, using the yin and yang components of his body as ingredients, accelerates this process within himself. The procedure emphasizes emptying and fixing hear/mind. The diagram illustrates changes and transformations. (DZ 3:110)
SONG DYNASTY (960-1279)
Essays on the Awakening to Truth
Wuzhen pian 悟真篇, by the “Southern Patriarch” Zhang Boduan 張伯端 (984-1028); commentaries by Ye Shibiao 葉士表 (dated 1161), and Yuan Gongfu 遠公輔 (dated 1202).
This is one of the most important Taoist works with many commentaries. Written in the same obscure fashion as the famous Zhouyi cantong qi 周易參同契 , the manual is open to manifold interpretations, namely the facet of I Ching, neidan, and sexual techniques. Moreover, each master, to express his own ideas, could use it. Like almost all the Taoist classics, the concise or poem style writings were used as individual koujue 口訣 (oral transmission) for close up teacher-student lineage transmissions, which pose an impossible task for (the outsider) scholars and practitioners alike to reply. (DZ 4:605)
Alchemical Formula for the Inner Purification of the Gold Treasure; Secret Writings from the Golden Box of the Jade Purity, transmitted by the Immortal Qinghua
Yuqing jinsi qinghua biwen jinbao neilian danjue 玉清金笥青華祕文金寶內練丹訣, by Zhang Boduan.
This text explains in detail inner alchemical theory and practice using pseudo-philosophical terminology. The main emphasis is on “circulation of the inner light,” and the “fire timing” or the various breathing topics. (DZ 4:362)
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