Discourse on Returning to Gold 还金述

Composed by Tao zhi, a Taoist priest of the late Tang and Five Dynasties periods.

Both the Secret Catalogue of the Southern Song Dynasty and the Comprehensive Records of Literature·Bibliographic Survey catalog The Art of Reversion to Gold in one scroll by Tao zhi, which refers to this very work.

The existing version is included in the Various Arts category of The Dongshen Section in The Daozang, and it is also compiled in Volume Seventy of the Seven Bamboo Slips of the Cloud Satchel.

The text is divided into three parts: Upper, Middle and Lower. It expounds the way of the Reverted Elixir by drawing on the principles of Yin and Yang and the Five Elements. Its essential tenet states that the mutual generation and restriction of the Five Elements embody the operation of Yin and Yang: "Through their mutual generation and subjugation, waxing and waning in succession, all things take shape in harmony with the four seasons of heaven and earth."

The way of elixir refining is also inseparable from the principles of the creation and transformation of all things. Hence it is said that when the Five Elements are complete, Yin and Yang function, all things come into being, and the Reverted Elixir is achieved. The text further claims that cinnabar and mercury, the ingredients used in elixir refining, are derived from lead, just as human emotions and nature are endowed by the primordial Qi. Cinnabar and mercury, emotions and nature correspond to dragon and tiger, metal and water, heaven and earth, female and male—all are different names for the same origin, for "these two phenomena are inherently one and the same substance". This single substance is lead, and it is also the primordial Qi.

Thus the text states: "Cinnabar and mercury within lead are like emotions and nature within humans"; "Therefore, cinnabar and mercury are the emotions and nature of lead; the primordial Qi is the foundation of humans." Subduing mercury with gold to form the Reverted Elixir is analogous to reconciling emotions with nature, cultivating nature to align with the true self, and returning to one’s original state. It is evident that this text expounds the way of External Alchemy by employing the terminology of Internal Alchemy.