White Cloud Immortal Herb Songs 白云仙人灵草歌

The compiler is unknown.

Judging from its content, it was probably compiled between the Tang Dynasty and the Song Dynasty.

It was recorded in Bibliography of Arts and Literature in Comprehensive Records.

White Cloud Immortal Herb Songs

The existing version in The Daozang consists of one volume, included in the Methods category of the Dongshen Section.

This book is a herbal pharmacopoeia. It collects fifty-four types of herbal medicines, listing their names, appearances, producing areas, main therapeutic diseases, and the efficacy of using these herbs to subdue cinnabar and mineral medicines. For example, the first entry, "Dadao Cao (Path-Achieving Grass)", has a note: "Purple flowers, green stems and leaves"; accompanied by a poem: "How to refine mercury? Do not abandon the Song of Spiritual Herbs. Though cinnabar is known for its goodness, Dadao Cao is most frequently used"; and a final note: "This single herb can transform into cinnabar grains." Another example is "Qingjin Cao (Green Gold Grass)", with a note: "Yellow flowers, green leaves"; and a poem: "Long have I heard of spiritual herbs, none surpass Qingjin Cao. With green leaves and tender branches, those who ingest it never grow old"; the final note states: "This herb grows by the water's edge, specializing in curing malignant sores." The other entries follow a similar format. According to the poem at the end of the book: "The seventy-two herbs all possess spiritual power, each subduing cinnabar and connecting to the divine", it can be inferred that the original book should have contained seventy-two entries, but the existing version in The Daozang is incomplete.