Ode to Primordial Alchemy Daoist Classic 擒玄赋

The author is unknown.

Judging from the content and wording, it was presumably composed during the Song Dynasty.

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

This text discusses Internal Alchemy (Neidan), divided into nine sections: Returning Elixir, Dao Generates One, Origin of the Dao, Dragon and Tiger, Autumn Stone, River Chariot, Five Elements, Embryonic Breathing, and Seizing the Mechanism. It elaborates on the origin of Internal Alchemy, its alchemical substances, the timing of collection, and the essentials of refinement.

Ode to Primordial Alchemy

It asserts that the Golden Elixir takes spirit and Qi (Vital Energy) as its foundation—resolving dragon and tiger through the Zhen ☳ and Dui ☱ trigrams, matching water and fire to the Zi (11pm-1am) and Wu (11am-1pm) hours, studying ascent and descent through the Eight Trigrams, and investigating mutual generation and restriction through the Five Elements. It relies on the Yellow Lord for matching and on gold and white substances for function. Practitioners must firmly safeguard spirit and energy, wholeheartedly uphold the mother-son relationship (of alchemical ingredients), maintain the middle primal center, embrace the unified Qi, return to the root and revert to the origin. After completing the Nine Cycles of cultivation, one can live a long life in the world, reverse aging to regain youth, and even ascend to immortality.