Cuī gōng rùyào jìng zhùjiě 崔公入藥鏡註解
Commentary on Master Cuī’s Mirror on the Admixture of Ingredients
by 崔希範 (原歌) and 王玠 (註解, ca. 1331)
About the work
A sixteen-folio nèidān 內丹 (“inner alchemy”) commentary by the Yuán-dynasty master Wáng Jiè 王玠 (hào Hùnránzǐ 混然子, fl. 1331–1380) on the short eighty-two-line three-character Rùyào jìng 入藥鏡 (“Mirror on the Admixture of Ingredients”) attributed to a certain Master Cuī, preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng 正統道藏 (DZ 0135 / CT 135 = TC 134), 洞真部 玉訣類. Wáng adds an interlinear gloss every four lines, unpacking the concealed nèidān code (pre-cosmic qì as the elixir-mother, post-cosmic qì as the fire-phases; the burning-off of yīn dross to leave only yáng) in the vocabulary of the Southern Lineage.
Prefaces
Wáng Jiè’s preface opens the volume. He declares that the learning of the immortals is not open to common men: only those of great root, great vessel, and clear vision can undertake it. The ancients who attained the Way are as few as the horn of the qilin; the many students are like the hairs on an ox. Its essence is simply to refine nature and vital destiny (xìng 性 / mìng 命), returning to the source: one draws the pre-heavenly qì as elixir-mother, revolves the post-heavenly qì as fire-phases, and by the fire of the spirit one makes the jīn shén 金神 imperishable. Observing that the extant lineages dispute and fail to agree with the correct transmission of the ancient masters, Wáng finds that Master Cuī’s eighty-two lines alone express the core concisely. Relying on his teacher’s oral instruction, he has therefore appended a gloss after every four lines. Signed 脩江混然子.
Abstract
The root Rùyào jìng circulates in several distinct forms, as noted by Farzeen Baldrian-Hussein in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004) 2:843–844 (§3.A.4, Nèidān and Yǎngshēng): (i) a Táng five-character Jīnbì qiántōng rùyào huǒjìng jí 金碧潛通入藥火鏡集 in one juan, attributed to Cuī Xuánzhēn 崔玄真 of Mínshān 岷山 (fl. Tiānbǎo era 742–756; see Xīn Tángshū, Yìwén zhì); (ii) a Tiānyuán rùyào jìng 天元入藥鏡 linked to Lǚ Dòngbīn 呂洞賓, dated 940, originally a manual for sexual practice; (iii) a Buddhist-flavored Rùyào jìng shàngpiān 入藥鏡上篇 in [[KR5c1017|DZ 1017 Dàoshū]] 37; (iv) the present three-character version, glossed by Wáng Jiè ca. 1331. The eighty-two-line poem glossed here is also quoted in [[KR5c0900|DZ 900 Dānfáng xūzhī]] 12a (preface 1163) and in a number of later nèidān compilations. The frontmatter brackets composition notBefore 1325 / notAfter 1340.
Translations and research
No full translation. Standard scholarly entry: Farzeen Baldrian-Hussein, “Cui gong ruyao jing zhujie,” in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §3.A.4, 843–844. On Wáng Jiè see Isabelle Robinet, “Original Contributions of Neidan to Taoism and Chinese Thought,” in Livia Kohn ed., Taoist Meditation and Longevity Techniques (Ann Arbor, 1989), 297–330.
Links
- Kanseki Repository KR5a0136
- Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §3.A.4, 843–844.