The Valley Spirit Verses Daoist Classic 谷神篇

Composed by Lin Yuan, titled Xuanchaozi, in the Yuan Dynasty. It consists of two scrolls and is included in the Methods Category of the Dongzhen Section within the The Daozang.

There is a preface written by the author in the 8th year of the Dade reign period (1304) at the beginning of the book, in which he claims to have met a profound sage who instructed him on the essentials of Taoist cultivation. He then perused numerous scriptures, consulted various theories, and compiled this manuscript over time.

The Valley Spirit Verses

As a collection of poems and prose, it contains three treatises, twenty-five poems titled Poems on the Great Elixir of Returning Alchemy, fifty-three poems titled Poems on the Practice of Fire Timing, six ci-poems to the tune of Shuidiaogetou (Prelude to Water Melody), with four alchemical diagrams appended at the end. All the works expound the methods of Internal Alchemy (Neidan).

Its doctrine regards primordial Qi as the foundational basis of life for heaven, earth and humans, and the very root of human existence. It holds that only by despising fame and fortune, refining Qi and cultivating the elixir to preserve the body for longevity and rejuvenation can humans attain "the foremost art of perfecting one’s life".

It belittles Mencius and Zhuangzi for their ignorance of the true unity of primordial Qi; it argues that Buddhists cultivate nature but neglect life, and their practice of sitting in meditation to study Chan is merely the way of ghost immortals. The book places special emphasis on preserving life and attaining longevity in the mortal world, denouncing Buddhism’s teachings of accumulating merits to seek a better afterlife as "empty words and heretical views".

Its exclusive reverence for primordial Qi and staunch advocacy of longevity in the present life are extremely rare among alchemical texts of the Yuan Dynasty.