The Celestial Flight Powder Chronicle 灵飞散传信录

Compiled by Qi Tui of the Tang Dynasty.

It was recorded both in Secret Catalog and Bibliography of Arts and Literature in Comprehensive Records during the Southern Song Dynasty.

Consisting of one volume, it is included in the Methods category of the Dongshen Section in The Daozang.

This book is also collected in Volume 74 of Yunji Qiqian (Seven Slips of the Cloud Satchel).

A preface written by Qi Tui in the seventh year of the Yuanhe reign (812 AD) precedes the book. He claims that his friend Jun Yi discovered a scroll in the former residence of Li Bi, the late Minister of the Secretariat: "Entitled Supreme Pure True Scripture, upon opening it, it turned out to be the volume of Lingfei Powder Formula." The author copied this formula from Jun Yi and compiled it into a book.

The book details the method of making "Lingfei Powder" (Numinous Flying Powder). Roughly, nine medicinal ingredients—including mica, Poria cocos, dried Rehmannia glutinosa, Platycladus orientalis seeds, stalactite, Cinnamon twig, Dipsacus asperoides, Atractylodes macrocephala, and chrysanthemum—are processed and sieved. Then, the powder is mixed with asparagus juice to form pills; after steaming, the pills are dried in the sun and ground into fine powder, which is then mixed with white honey and pounded two hundred times to form pills the size of paulownia seeds.

It is claimed that taking seven pills a day, and after three courses of administration, one’s hair will not turn white, teeth will not fall out, one can survive without eating and feeling hungry, and live for hundreds of years. It also states: "Whoever makes and takes this Lingfei Powder will double their strength in three days, have vigorous blood circulation in five days, feel light in the body in seven days, have a radiant complexion in ten days, and become wiser and more intelligent; in fifteen days, they can work without feeling exhausted and walk as fast as a horse; in twenty days, their strength will be unparalleled; in thirty-five days, they can see in the dark."

At the end of the book, two appendices are included: Method for Processing Mica and Secret Essentials of Health Preservation presented by Hermit Sun. The formulation and health-preserving concepts in the book are closely related to the theoretical system of Five Elements in Taoism, embodying the integration of traditional Chinese medicine and Taoist health preservation.