The Western School 西派

The Western School is an important school of internal alchemy cultivation in Taoism.

It was founded during the Jiaqing and Xianfeng periods of the Qing Dynasty. Its founder was Li Xiyue (originally named Li Yuanzhi), styled Hanxu and known as Tuanyang. He was a native of Changyi Mountain in Leshan, Sichuan.

He claimed to have encountered Zhang Sanfeng, practiced the alchemical methods of the Sanfeng School, and compiled The Complete Works of Zhang Sanfeng. Later, he met Ancestor Lü Chunyang in a Buddhist monastery, obtained the true teachings, and achieved the path to immortality.

He founded the Western School to distinguish it from the Eastern School in the Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions. The characteristic of its alchemical methods lies in the combined use of quietness and Yin-Yang principles. The school's alchemy is basically divided into two steps: the first step focuses on quietness and naturalness, and the second step emphasizes the mutual application of Yin and Yang. Quietness and naturalness are the basic practices of alchemy. Li Xiyue said: "The heart is the master of the whole body, and the spirit is the highest among the three grades. Only the heart and the spirit, being two yet one... must be distinguished. Laozi said: The human spirit loves clarity, but the heart disturbs it; the human heart loves stillness, but desires pull it. Therefore, if one often dispels desires, the heart will naturally be still; if one clarifies the heart, the spirit will naturally be clear. Lu Qianxu said: 'The method of regulating breathing begins with regulating the heart; the method of concentrating the spirit begins with regulating breathing.' This is the ladder for sages, immortals, and Buddhas, and the path for us to enter virtue. Those who start to learn the Dao must gather their thoughts and return to stillness, maintaining this state in walking, standing, sitting, and lying down, so that guarding stillness can be sincere. For where there are thoughts, there is a deluded heart; where there are no thoughts, there is a true heart. If one can collect thoughts in daily life and return them to their resting place, they can then concentrate on the moment and strengthen the foundation of entering samadhi" (Discussions on the Secrets of the Dao).

This clearly regards calming the mind through stillness as the initial practice of alchemy. Based on this, he proposed a nine-level method for refining the heart. Li believed that if the practice of refining the heart through quietness is done well, water will naturally be clear, fire will naturally ignite, spirit will naturally unite, qi will naturally gather, wind will naturally be balanced, the vehicle will naturally move, extraction will naturally occur, supplementation will naturally happen, and withdrawal will naturally take place. Once quietness and naturalness are achieved, one must "rely on like entities to supplement the true body," that is, practice the method of Yin-Yang dual cultivation. He said: "In internal refinement of the self, one uses the lead of the other to refine one's own mercury, making them mutually generate and restrain; in internal nourishment of the self, one also uses the lead of the other to nourish one's own mercury, making them mutually support and abide" (Discussions on the Secrets of the Dao).

The lead of the other is Yang lead, which is external medicine; one's own mercury is Yin mercury, which is internal medicine. Therefore, extraction and refinement mean "gathering the Yang lead of the other to refine the qi of one's own child pearl." Like the Eastern School, the Western School also restricts the Yin-Yang dual cultivation method to middle-aged and elderly men and women with damaged bodies. Because their original essence has leaked, their essence, qi, and spirit have fallen into the post-heavenly state, and they cannot have both lead and mercury within themselves, so they seek them from others. Children, with their innate state unbroken, are self-sufficient and can achieve the immortal embryo only through pure cultivation. The Yin-Yang dual cultivation method of the Western School is also a method of qi and spirit communion, different from the lower-level muddy water alchemy. As Zhang Sanfeng said in The Rootless Tree: "Indulging in lust loses the treasure of longevity; wine and meat pass through the intestines, but the Dao lies in the heart."

The practices of this school have many levels and appear cumbersome and complex. For example, foundation building is divided into minor foundation building and major foundation building; refining the self is divided into internal refinement and external refinement; foundation building also includes a level of nourishing the self, which is further divided into self-nourishment and mutual nourishment, and it is invented that internal nourishment of the self and external refinement of the self are the core inherited formulas; the method of refining the heart is divided into nine levels, medicines into three levels, and cultivation into five stages. Therefore, it is not as clear and simple as the Eastern School, making it harder for people to grasp. The Western School has a nine-character lineage for transmission: "Xi Dao Tong, Da Jiang Dong, Hai Tian Kong" (The Western Dao connects, the great river flows east, the sea and sky are empty).

The main works of the Western School include: Li Xiyue's Discussions on the Secrets of the Dao, Secret Essentials of the Three Vehicles, Nine-Level Method for Refining the Heart, A Series of Narratives on the Post-Heavenly, Annotations on the Daoist Feelings in The Rootless Tree, The Scripture of Wenzhong, The Thirteen Classics of the Supreme Lord; Wang Qihuan's Essentials of Nature and Life, Heart Method Outside the Teaching; Ke Huaijing's On Nourishing Life, etc.