Tàishàng jiǔyào xīnyìn miàojīng 太上九要心印妙經
Marvellous Book of the Heart-Seal of the Nine Essentials of the Most High
attributed to 張果老 (Zhāng Guǒlǎo, the Táng immortal), nine folios (one juǎn), preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng 正統道藏 (DZ 0225 / CT 225 = TC 225), 洞真部 方法類. The attribution is pseudepigraphic; the work is a Northern-Sòng neidan treatise of the ZhōngLǚ 鍾呂 type.
About the work
A short neidan treatise in nine sections, framed as the “Nine Essentials” (jiǔyào 九要) of the Highest Way and arranged around the jiǔzhuǎn 九轉 (“Nine Transmutations”) of the inner elixir. As the preface explains, the nine sections correspond to the nine phases of the Nine-Times-Transmuted Elixir (jiǔzhuǎn dàdān 九轉大丹); the term xīnyìn 心印 (“heart-seal”) refers to the spiritual transmission by which the disciple comes to a direct, sudden understanding of the workings of the universe. The nine sections — Zhēn yī mìyào 真一祕要, Tuóyuè mìyào 橐籥祕要, Sānwǔ yī shūyào 三五一樞要, Sānyī jīyào 三一機要, Rìhún yuèpò zhēnyào 日魂月魄真要, Rìyòng wǔxíng díyào 日用五行的要, Qīfǎn huándān jiǎnyào 七返還丹簡要, Bāguà cháoyuán tǒngyào 八卦朝元統要, and Jiǔhuán yīqì zǒngyào 九還一氣總要 — discuss in turn the cultivation of the Real One and the Three Ones, the bellows of heart-and-kidneys, respiratory technique, fire-phasing (huǒhòu 火候), the cosmological correspondence of kǎnlí 坎離 / qiánkūn 乾坤 / lónghǔ 龍虎, embryonic respiration (tāixí 胎息), and the cyclical “return to origin” (huán yuán 還元). Throughout, the priority is given to internal alchemy: external fires can refine the five metals and nourish the body via the five grains, but only the inner fire (nèihuǒ 內火) can refine the elixir.
Prefaces
The preface is signed xiānrén Zhāng Guǒlǎo shù 仙人張果老述 (“composed by the Immortal Zhāng Guǒlǎo”). It opens: “The Nine Essentials: ‘essential’ here means jīyào 機要 (pivotal essence). They correspond to the Nine Transmutations of the Great Elixir, hence the Way is divided into nine chapters and the Method made manifest through nine gates. The nine gates accord in principle, every chapter returns to the root. Even one who has not received personal instruction from a master, having grasped these essentials, has it as if from his master’s own teaching. He who has them sits and acquires the Heavenly Pivot; he who awakens to them takes them as the heart-seal. He who follows them in practice — being among desires yet without desire, dwelling in the dust yet beyond it — establishes the nine gates and returns to the source of the two principles. Let the gentleman who studies the Way attend to them in detail. First the preface sets out their function; next the essentials apply to the substance; with substance and function joined, nature and life-destiny are made complete.”
Abstract
Farzeen Baldrian-Hussein, in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004) 2:809–810 (§3.A.4, Neidan and Yangsheng), describes the work as a short neidan treatise attributed to 張果老 (eighth century) but containing technical terms current in ZhōngLǚ 鍾呂 school texts of the Northern Sòng (960–1127) — sānhuǒ 三火, sānyáng 三陽, liànshén hédào 鍊神合道 (compare Xīshān qúnxiān huìzhēn jì 西山群仙會真記 4.2b, 9b; 5.8b). The author seems to have been inspired by [[KR5a0660|DZ 660 Hùnyuán bājǐng zhēnjīng]] (compare 3.4b–5b of that text with the opening of the present work). The treatise also uses expressions from the Yīnfú jīng 陰符經 such as fùguó ānmín 富國安民 and qiángbīng zhànshèng 強兵戰勝, and shénxiān bàoyī 神仙抱一 (3b). The use of xīnyìn 心印 as a key term and the citation in the closing section (7b) of Bódhídharma show clear Chán-Buddhist influence, of the kind perceptible in tāixí 胎息 (embryonic respiration) treatises since the Táng. The Tōngzhì 通志 Yìwén lüè 藝文略 5.20b (VDL 93) lists a now-lost Xīnyìn tāixí tuōkě miàodào jué 心印胎息脫殼妙道訣 in one juǎn, plausibly related to the present work. Frontmatter dates 1000–1200 to bracket the Northern-Sòng ZhōngLǚ milieu.
Translations and research
No full translation. Standard scholarly entry: Farzeen Baldrian-Hussein, “Taishang jiuyao xinyin miaojing,” in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §3.A.4, 809–810. On Zhōng-Lǚ inner alchemy: Isabelle Robinet, “Original Contributions of Neidan to Taoism and Chinese Thought,” in Livia Kohn ed., Taoist Meditation and Longevity Techniques (Ann Arbor: Center for Chinese Studies, 1989), 297–330; Farzeen Baldrian-Hussein, Procédés secrets du joyau magique: traité d’alchimie taoïste du XIe siècle (Paris: Les Deux Océans, 1984); Livia Kohn, Daoism Handbook (Leiden: Brill, 2000), ch. 18. On Zhāng Guǒlǎo as alchemical persona: Paul W. Kroll, “Verses from on High: The Ascent of Tʼai-shan,” T’oung Pao 69 (1983): 223–260.
Links
- Kanseki Repository KR5a0226
- Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §3.A.4, 809–810.