Manual of Inner Alchemy & Life 爱清子至命篇

Composed by Wang Qingsheng, a Taoist priest of the Song Dynasty.

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

A preface by the author, dated the Yiyou year of the Chunyou reign (1249 CE), is included at the beginning. He claims to have compiled this book based on the golden elixir mnemonics taught by a supreme person. The entire work is divided into four parts.

Manual of Inner Alchemy & Life

Part One, Zhiming Pian (On Attaining Life's Essence), cites several poems from Zhang Boduan’s Wu Zhen Pian (Awakening to Truth), explaining the sequential steps of Internal Alchemy (Neidan) such as setting up the cauldron and tripod, principles of fire timing, "field battle" and "city defense" (alchemical metaphors), meditation retreats, and transcendence. It is also appended with diagrams including the Innate and Acquired Four Symbols Diagram, Cauldron and Tripod Establishment Diagram, Tally Arrangement and Fire Advancement Diagram, and Nine Revolutions Success Diagram.

Part Two, Rendao Shi (Poems on Entering the Dao), consists of nineteen seven-character quatrains. It laments: "Fame and merit in the mortal world are like a bubble on water—who can retain them for a hundred years?" and urges people to seek the true Dao. It also denounces those who claim to be pure and empty yet lack true understanding, as well as scoundrels obsessed with deviant practices of Yin absorption.

Part Three, Annotations on Qinyuanchun, provides line-by-line annotations on Lü Dongbin’s ci-poem Qinyuanchun (Spring in a Pleasure Garden). It regards filial piety, fraternity, loyalty, forgiveness, wisdom, spirit, ritual, righteousness, benevolence, and trust as the Ten Good Deeds, reflecting the ethical concepts of the Southern School of the Golden Elixir Sect.

Part Four, Annotations on the True Form Mantra of the Big Dipper, is quite brief. It states that the "true form" refers to the mind-spirit—stillness is nature (xing) and movement is emotion. Even for sages and ordinary beings, this mind-spirit remains clear and indestructible, hence being "true".