Inner Chapters of the Baopuzi 抱朴子内篇

Written by Ge Hong, also known as Baopuzi, a Taoist scholar of the Jin Dynasty.

It consists of twenty volumes and is included in the Taiqing (Supreme Purity) section of the Daozang (Daoist Canon).

There are also incomplete Dunhuang manuscripts and a Song Dynasty printed edition collected by Liaoning Library. The entire book is divided into twenty chapters. In his preface, the author stated that this book "discusses matters such as immortality elixirs and prescriptions, ghosts and monsters transformations, life cultivation and longevity promotion, as well as warding off evil and obtaining blessings, and it belongs to Taoism". The book fully elaborates on various esoteric techniques including golden elixir alchemy, transmutation of base metals into gold and silver, grain avoidance, qi inhalation, daoyin exercises, visualization meditation, sexual cultivation, medicinal ingestion, health maintenance, shape-shifting, talismans and incantations. Its core tenet regards the mysterious Dao as the foundation of the universe, with the ultimate goal of refining and consuming elixirs to cultivate life and attain immortality. It strongly demonstrates the possibility of achieving immortality through cultivation, criticizes sorcery and heretical Taoism, and proposes a path to immortality that takes elixir ingestion as the primary method and other Taoist practices as supplementary approaches. It is a classic work that epitomizes the immortal Taoism of the Wei and Jin dynasties. Chapters such as Golden Elixir and Gold and Silver Transmutation record ancient alchemical prescriptions and operational methods in detail, serving as precious materials for the study of alchemy. The chapter Xialan (Extensive Reading) catalogs hundreds of early Taoist scriptures and talisman charts, which can also provide reference for researchers of Taoist history. This book exerted a profound influence on the development of later Laozi-derived Taoism, and there are many surviving versions.

Baopuzi Neipian Jiaoshi (Collated Annotations on the Inner Chapters of Baopuzi), compiled by Wang Ming, a modern scholar, is the finest annotated edition.