Inner Alchemy of the Green Void 翠虚篇

Composed by Chen Nan, a Taoist priest of the Song Dynasty.

Consisting of one scroll, it is included in the Tai Xuan Section within the Taoist Canon (The Daozang).

Inner Alchemy of the Green Void

This book collects poems and prose by Chen Nan, including three long mnemonic ballads: Ziting Jing (Scripture of the Purple Court), Dadao Ge (Ballad of the Great Dao), and Luofu Cuixu Yin (Chant of Emerald Emptiness at Luofu Mountain); one short essay Danci Guiyi Lun (Treatise on the Alchemical Foundation Returning to Unity); one hundred alchemical poems Jindan Shijue (Poetic Mnemonics of the Golden Elixir); and three ci-poems. All works discuss Internal Alchemy (Neidan).

Among them, Ziting Jing expounds that the essence of alchemical scriptures lies solely in lead and mercury, asserting "a mu (a unit of area) within the body is one’s homeland". By refining essence into Qi (Vital Energy) and condensing Qi into spirit, one can attain spiritual penetration through non-action. Dadao Ge mainly elaborates that "true Yin and true Yang are the true Dao". Luofu Cuixu Yin denounces practices such as sexual cultivation with women and Qi absorption meditation, arguing that the key to the Golden Elixir lies in the two characters "lead and mercury". It takes the Great Void as the cauldron and tripod, and the crow and hare (metaphors for lead and mercury, i.e., sun and moon) as the alchemical medicines, regardless of the separation between metal and wood or the parent-child relationship of dragon and tiger—this alone is the true Dao.

Danci Guiyi Lun focuses on the idea that "the One" is the foundation of the Golden Elixir. It holds that "Yin and Yang constitute the Dao", and the Dao is the Golden Elixir itself. Terms in alchemical texts such as soul and ethereal soul, dragon and tiger, lead and mercury, Kan ☵ and Li ☲, infant and maid all refer to one thing: Yin and Yang. Technical terms like the Altar of Upholding the One, the Gate of Wu and Ji, the Mysterious Gateway Orifice, the Gate of Xuan Pin (Profound Vulva), and the Lead Furnace and Earth Cauldron all denote the same location. Meanwhile, the Zhou Tian (Circumpolar Heaven) trigram numbers and the hours of day and night merely refer to the transformations of Qi and essence flowing throughout the body.

Jindan Shijue and the three ci-poems all elaborate on the essentials of Internal Alchemy. Taking innate Qi as the "head of the elixir", they argue that the key to refining the elixir lies in extracting Kan ☵ (water trigram) to fill Li ☲ (fire trigram), as stated in a verse: "Only take the essence of Kan to dot the acupoint of Li; pure Qian ☰ (heaven trigram) can attract Feiqiong (a celestial maiden, symbolizing immortality)."

All the alchemical mnemonics above discard complicated names and point directly to the mysterious essentials, with detailed descriptions of the experiences and effects of Internal Alchemy cultivation. As an important work of the Southern School of the Golden Elixir Sect in the Song Dynasty, it exerted considerable influence on later generations.