Ancient-Text Dragon-Tiger Exegesis 古文龙虎经注疏

Authored by Wang Dao in the Southern Song Dynasty, this work was roughly completed in the twelfth year of the Chunxi reign period.

It had already been cataloged in Chen Zhensun’s Bibliographic Notes on the Straight Study. The present version, divided into three volumes, is included in the Taixuan Section of The Daozang. According to textual research conducted by modern scholar Wang Ming, the Ancient Text of the Dragon-Tiger Scripture was forged by Taoist priests in the late Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties period, falsely claimed to be the source text for Wei Boyang’s composition of the Cantong Qi. However, Wang Dao, the author of this annotated commentary, asserted that the handed-down versions of the Ancient Text of the Dragon-Tiger Scripture contained numerous errors. Thus, he revised the text based on the authentic version passed down by his master, divided it into thirty-three chapters with corresponding annotations, and verified its meanings by cross-referencing the Cantong Qi.

The annotations divide the scripture into thirty-three chapters, arguing that practitioners of alchemy should seek out sacred mountains, select blessed locations, build alchemy chambers, construct star altars, set up furnaces and tripods, and establish tripod rooms. They should also collaborate with sincere fellow practitioners and uphold the fundamental principles of cultivation. Rooted in the theoretical system of Taoism, the work elaborates on inner alchemy in disguise of external alchemy terminology. The author strongly emphasizes that the "genuine lead" and "genuine mercury" mentioned in the text do not refer to metals, minerals, nitre, frost, or liquid essences, nor do they denote yin elixir or the techniques of sitting meditation and visualization. Instead, they refer to drawing on the essence of the yin principle and attracting the qi of the yang principle, a concept closely associated with the five elements theory in traditional Taoist culture. By merging the yin and yang essences within the spiritual chamber, practitioners are believed to form the golden elixir of immortality.

At the end of the book, two diagrams are appended: the Diagram of the Cyclic Heavenly Fire Tempering Process and the Diagram of the Interaction Between Metal and Fire to Generate the Elixir, which illustrate the practice of "the movement and stillness of the dragon and tiger, and the alchemical work of metal, wood, and fire"—a cultivation method of harmonizing yin and yang advocated by internal alchemists.