Great Compendium of the Golden Elixir 金丹大成集

Composed by Xiao Tingzhi during the late Song Dynasty.

Completed at the end of the Song Dynasty, it consists of five scrolls and is included in Ten Books of Cultivating Perfection (Xiuzhen Shi Shu), categorized under the Methods Category of the The Dongzhen Section within the Taoist Canon (The Daozang).

Another surviving version is included in Essentials of the Taoist Canon (Daozang Jiyao).

Great Compendium of the Golden Elixir

As a collection of poems and prose on Internal Alchemy (Neidan), the book first presents diagrams such as Wuji (Ultimate Void), Wuxin (No-Mind), Xuan Pin (Profound Vulva), Ji Ji (Already Completed Trigram Combination), He Che (River Cart), Zhou Tian Huo Hou (Circumpolar Heaven Fire Timing), and Da Yan Shu (Great Expansion Number). Each diagram is followed by a treatise, aiming to illustrate alchemical principles and practices through visual aids.

Next are works such as Treatise on the Golden Fluid Return Elixir and Questions and Answers on the Golden Elixir, which elaborate on the study of Internal Alchemy. Additionally, there are over one hundred poems and ci-poems, most of which eulogize the Golden Elixir.

The author Xiao Tingzhi was a direct descendant of Zhang Boduan’s teachings and a disciple of Peng Si. His alchemical method belongs to the Pure Cultivation school of the Southern School, characterized roughly by the dual cultivation of life (ming) and nature (xing), prioritizing life before nature, and integrating Chan Buddhism and Taoism. It was also influenced by Neo-Confucianism of the Northern and Southern Song Dynasties. For example, the book opens with the Wuji Diagram, which is the Taiji Diagram of Zhou Dunyi from the Northern Song Dynasty. Its discussions cite Zhou’s Explanation of the Taiji Diagram and remarks by Zhang Shi from the Southern Song Dynasty to expound the principle of regression and return in Internal Alchemy.