The Alchemical Lexicon Daoist Text 石药尔雅
Paul PengThe Alchemical Lexicon
Compiled by Mei Biao of the Tang Dynasty.
It was roughly completed in the Bingxu year of the Yuanhe reign period (806 AD).
It was recorded in both General Catalog of Chongwen Library and Bibliography of Arts and Literature in Comprehensive Records of the Song Dynasty.
The Alchemical Lexicon
Consisting of one volume, it is included in the Methods category of the Dongshen Section in The Daozang.
This book is a glossary of terms related to Taoism external alchemy. Following the writing style of Erya (a classic Chinese lexicon), the author lists the names of various metallic and mineral medicines, elixirs, alchemical methods and alchemical texts, with annotations on their alternative names and aliases. The purpose is to "make it slightly easier for the confused to look up, and not difficult for practitioners to recite". The original book is divided into six chapters.
- The first chapter is Explaining the Cryptonyms of Various Medicines, which records more than sixty names of metallic and mineral medicines such as mercury, cinnabar, gold and silver, as well as more than a hundred names of animal and plant medicines such as aconite root, monkshood lateral root, ox gallbladder and lard, with annotations on their alternative names and aliases.
- The second chapter is Listing the Names of Elixirs That Can Be Refined with Existing Methods, which enumerates more than seventy names of elixirs such as Taiyi Golden Elixir, all of which can be refined with available techniques.
- The third chapter is Explaining the Alternative Names and Aliases of Various Elixirs, which contains more than twenty names of elixirs such as Soul-Summoning Elixir, with annotations on their alternative names and aliases.
- The fourth chapter is Enumerating the Names of Alchemical Scriptures, Biographies, Songs and Formulas, which records more than a hundred titles of external alchemical texts such as Scripture of Supreme Purity and Qingxiazi's Formula.
- The fifth chapter is Presenting the Names of Medicines Refined in Various Alchemical Classics, which includes more than a hundred names of alchemical methods such as the Yellow Chariot Fire-Subduing Method, the Scarlet Sparrow Talisman Crafting Method and the Realgar Refining Method.
- The sixth chapter is Discussing the Famous Elixirs of the Great Immortals with No Surviving Methods, which lists more than twenty names of elixirs such as the Yellow Emperor's Nine-Cauldron Elixir and the Great Immortal's Cloud-Ascending Elixir. These are claimed to be effective elixirs ingested by ancient immortals, yet their refining methods and ingredients are unknown to the world.
This book holds significant reference value for the study of ancient Taoist alchemy.
