Western Alchemy School

The Western School of Alchemy was founded by Li Hanxu during the Xianfeng period of the Qing Dynasty. A native of Leshan, Sichuan, Li claimed to have encountered Lü Dongbin and Zhang Sanfeng on Mount Emei, where he obtained the secret essentials of alchemical methods and attained enlightenment in the sixth year of the Xianfeng reign (1856). Like the Eastern School, the Western School asserts direct transmission from Patriarch Lü, establishing its own independent lineage in Taoist orthodoxy.

Li Hanxu compiled Lu Xixing's Records of Daoist Affinities and Bin Weng's Autobiography into Miracles of the Sea Mountain Immortals and revised Chronology of Patriarch Lü, positioning himself as the reincarnation of Lu Xixing and inheriting his alchemical techniques. However, as Li had also studied Zhang Sanfeng's alchemical methods and integrated them with the Taoist arts of Zhongli Quan and Lü Dongbin, his school differed from the Eastern School. He divided spiritual cultivation (xinggong) into nine levels of mind refinement and physical cultivation (minggong) into four stages, advocating that alchemical practice should begin with purity and tranquility, followed by dual cultivation of yin and yang.

Li Hanxu authored works such as Secret of the Three Vehicles, Discourse on Daoist Pivot Points, Nine-Level Mind Refinement, Thirteen Classics of the Supreme Elder, Elucidation of the Later Heaven, and Wenzhong Scripture.