Art of the Alchemical Vessel 全真坐钵捷法
Paul PengArt of the Alchemical Vessel
Author unknown.
Judging from its content, it was presumably written by a disciple of a Quanzhen Taoist priest during the Jin and Yuan dynasties.
It consists of one volume and is included in the Zhengyi Section of The Daozang.
Art of the Alchemical Vessel
The term “Zuobo” mentioned in this text refers to the meditation and concentration practice of The Quanzhen Dao followers.
This practice requires group meditation for one hundred days every winter, several times a day at fixed schedules, so accurate time calculation is necessary.
The author holds that the water clocks used at that time were inconsistent with ancient methods and had errors in timekeeping, so he compiled this text to introduce the correct standards.
The book contains four chapters: The Method of Making the Water Vessel, The Method of Operating the Water Clock, The Method of Making Timing Chips, and The Method of Adjustment.
These chapters explain simple ways to make a water clock and calibrate the time.
It is appended with Determining the Rising and Setting of the Sun, which uses the Twelve Earthly Branches and hexagram images to form odes for measuring the time and direction of the sun’s rising and setting in the twelve months.
There is also the Diagram of the Nine-Yang True Man, which matches the Twelve Earthly Branches, the Twelve Message Hexagrams, and the twelve months to judge the waxing and waning of the moon.
Although this text was compiled for Quanzhen practitioners’ Zuobo meditation, the ancient timekeeping tools and methods described in it can also provide references for researchers of the history of science and technology.
