Inner Alchemy of the Golden Essence 金晶论

The author is unknown. Judging from its content, it was presumably composed during the Northern Song Dynasty.

Consisting of one scroll, it is included in the Methods Category of the Dongzhen Section within the Daoist Canon (The Daozang).

Inner Alchemy of the Golden Essence

The book is divided into three chapters (Upper, Middle, and Lower), expounding the Dao of Internal Alchemy. The so-called "Golden Essence" (Jinjing) refers to the essence of the sun and moon, which is also lead and mercury. It asserts that this substance exists within the human body, serving as the fundamental root of life—the upright Qi of the lower cinnabar field. It is also named "Cinnabar Girl" (Chanu), and alternatively "Jade Fluid" (Yuye). The Golden Essence ascends to the Li Palace (pericardium, corresponding to fire in the Eight Trigrams), enters the Flower Pond (Huachi, the upper palate), and transforms into bodily fluids; it descends to the cinnabar field to become blood, which then penetrates the bones to form marrow. When marrow is abundant, the body is strong; when marrow is exhausted, life ends.

To seek immortality, one must return essence to nourish the brain—securing the Golden Essence firmly to prevent its loss, gathering it at the proper time, refining it with alchemical fire, and transporting it to the kidney palace via the River Chariot (Heche, the circulation of Qi along the governor vessel). In this way, it naturally becomes a great medicine named "Seven-Return Spirit Cinnabar" (Qifan Lingsha), which can prolong life, and even elevate one to sainthood, transcending mortality. At the end of the text, eleven poems titled The Song of True and False Gold, Lead, Mercury, Dragon, and Tiger in the Golden Elixir and Great Medicine are appended, reaffirming the core arguments of the preceding discourse.