The Jade Chamber Scripture 玉室经
Paul PengThe Jade Chamber Scripture
Originally attributed to "Li Chengzhi of Caohun, Dezhou" (Dezhou Caohun Li Chengzhi Shu), little is known about his life.
Judging from the content of the scripture, it was presumably composed during the Song Dynasty.
Consisting of one scroll, it is included in the Tai Xuan Section within the Taoist Canon (The Daozang).
The Jade Chamber Scripture
This text discusses Internal Alchemy (Neidan) through trigram symbols, divided into thirteen chapters: Precepts, Cauldron and Furnace, Sun and Moon, Four Symbols, Cultivating the Yellow Sprout (a key alchemical substance), Discourse on Sun and Moon, Wind and Rain, Wu and Ji (Central Earth), Blessings and Disasters, Qian and Kun (Heaven and Earth), Entering the Chamber, and Penetrating the Mysterious. Each chapter is quite concise and obscure in meaning.
Generally, it expounds the principles of Internal Alchemy by metaphorizing Qian-Kun (heaven and earth) as Yin and Yang, and Kan-Li (trigrams of water and fire) as the sun and moon. It asserts that when Yin and Yang harmonize in mutual prosperity, the Yellow Sprout is produced in the Three Cinnabar Fields, symbolizing the Three Powers of heaven, earth, and humanity.
