Xia Zongyu’s Guide to the Yin Fu Jing 黄帝阴符经讲义 夏宗禹撰

Titled "Composed by Xia Zongyu of Yongjia, the Hermit of Cloud Peak".

Xia Zongyu is identical to Xia Yuanding, an Internal Alchemy scholar of the Southern Song Dynasty, who once annotated three works: the Yinfu Jing, the Wu Zhen Pian (Awakening to Reality), and the Ren Yao Jing (Mirror of Human and Elixir).

This book is a combined compilation of Xia Yuanding’s three-volume Lectures on the Yinfu Jing and one-volume Tu Shuo (Illustrations with Explanations), totaling four volumes. It is included in the Yujue (Jade Secrets) category of The Dongzhen Section in The Daozang.

The first three volumes adopt the over-400-character version of the Yinfu Jing and provide sentence-by-sentence explanations, all interpreting the scripture’s meanings through the theories of cultivating life and nature in Internal Alchemy. The fourth volume, Tu Shuo, includes illustrations such as the Diagram of the Sage’s Merit of Sun and Moon, the Diagram of Myriad Phenomena in Wonderful Vessels, the Diagram of the Unity of Three Religions, the Diagram of Innate and Acquired Nature, and the Diagram of the Generation of the Five Elements. Each illustration is followed by a corresponding explanation clarifying its meaning.

All theories in the book are based on the Southern School of the Golden Elixir (Jindan School), advocating the thought of the unity of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism. It expounds on the Dao of cosmic generation and the principles of Internal Alchemy cultivation. Appended at the end of the book are texts such as the Preface to the Jian Zhu (Annotations) on the Ru Yao Jing by Cloud Peak, the Continued Notes by Cloud Peak, the Author’s Preface by Cloud Peak, and Wang Jiuwan’s Postscript, which briefly recount Xia Yuanding’s life and his annotation of the Ru Yao Jing.