Dongyuanzi Inner Alchemy Manual 洞元子内丹诀

Composed by Dongyuanzi, a Taoist priest of the Song Dynasty.

It is recorded in General Records·Bibliographic Outline (Tongzhi·Yiwen Lue). Consisting of one scroll, it is included in the Tai Xuan Section within the Taoist Canon (The Daozang).

Dongyuanzi Inner Alchemy Manual

A preface by the author precedes the book, outlining the essentials of Internal Alchemy (Neidan). It asserts that those seeking immortality must first refine their physical form—when the form is complete, the spirit is complete. Cultivating Qi (Vital Energy) requires first preserving essence and consolidating spirit, while keeping away from lust. It also denounces sexual techniques (yunu zhi shu) as heretical and methods of "escaping the body" as disruptive to the spirit.

The author argues that practitioners must first uphold benevolence, righteousness, loyalty, and trustworthiness, practice kindness and charity, abandon jealousy, stay away from greed and harm, abhor evil and embrace goodness, and accumulate hidden merits over time—then positive virtues will naturally flourish. The main text is divided into twenty-one chapters, including Chapter on Xuanyuan (Mysterious Origin), Chapter on Kan Palace (Water Trigram Palace), Chapter on Li Palace (Fire Trigram Palace), Chapter on Jiji (Completion Trigram), and Chapter on Weiji (Incompletion Trigram). Each chapter contains discourses and five-character or seven-character poems.

Generally, the entire book explains Internal Alchemy through the theory of Yin and Yang and the trigram symbols of the I Ching (Zhouyi). It regards the interaction of one Yin and one Yang as the Great Dao, and true lead and true mercury as the alchemical medicines. From gathering the alchemical medicine and returning it to the cauldron, to the union of Yin and Yang (jiaogou) and attainment of completion (jiji), to bathing (muyu) and escaping the mortal coil (tuotai), the entire process adheres to the principles of Yin and Yang mutually generating and constraining each other, follows the degree of waxing and waning through the interaction of the Eight Trigrams, and conforms to the rhythm of change, advancement, and retreat in the Dao of the I Ching.

Uniquely, the book only cites the I Ching and does not reference the alchemical instructions of previous scholars.