Zhēnxiān bìchuán huǒhòu fǎ 真仙祕傳火候法
The True Immortal’s Secret Transmission of Fire-Phasing Techniques
Anonymous late-Sòng Daoist nèidān 內丹 (“inner alchemy”) manual, nine folios, preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng 正統道藏 (DZ 0274 / CT 274 = TC 273), 洞真部 眾術類.
About the work
A nine-folio undated late-Sòng work on the huǒhòu 火候 (“fire phases”) of nèidān 內丹 cultivation, in two sections. The first section (1a–4a) frames the doctrine of the three internal fires (sān mèi zhēnhuǒ 三昧真火: heart as ruling fire = upper mèi, kidney as minister fire = middle mèi, bladder as commoner fire = lower mèi) gathered to fire and dispersed to qì; the day-and-night circulation of the seventy-two heaven-degrees over fifteen liǎng 兩 of zhū 銖; and the practical schedule of “100 days down 5 liǎng / 200 days down 10 / 300 days down 15,” structured by Lǚ Dòngbīn’s “single fire-wheel nourishing the Yellow Dame” and Liú Hǎichán’s “if no fire is set, the Dragon will fly off.” The second section (4a–9a), titled with the assertion-style of “Fāngbiàn zhēnrén 方便真人,” continues with practical instructions on running the fire-phases to the rhythms of the cosmic calendar — beginning fire-cultivation on the jiǎzǐ 甲子 day of the eleventh month, mounting through fùguà 復卦, completing nine cyclic transformations into the Golden Elixir.
Prefaces
No preface in the source; the text opens directly with the discussion of the three internal fires.
Abstract
Farzeen Baldrian-Hussein, in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004) 2:808–809 (§3.A.4, Nèidān and Yǎngshēng), identifies the work as a late Sòng compilation drawing on (now-lost) texts such as the Xiūzhēn zhǐxuán piān 修真指玄篇 (preserved in [[KR5c1017|DZ 1017 Dàoshū]] 19), the Jīndān nìjǐn piān 金丹逆錦篇 (DZ 1017 23), and Dàozàng-preserved works including [[KR5a0247|DZ 246 Xīshān qúnxiān huìzhēn jì]] (DZ 1017 38) and [[KR5a1191|DZ 1191 Bìchuán Zhèngyáng zhēnrén Língbǎo bìfǎ]] (DZ 1017 42). The latter work appears to have suggested the title’s bìchuán 祕傳 / 秘傳 (“secretly transmitted”) formula. Since several of the works on which the text rests are of twelfth-century date, composition is necessarily later, hence the late Sòng (1200–1279) bracket. The second section comprises declarations of a certain Fāngbiàn zhēnrén 方便真人 (otherwise unattested).
Translations and research
No full translation. Standard scholarly entry: Farzeen Baldrian-Hussein, “Zhenxian bichuan huohou fa,” in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §3.A.4, 808–809. On huǒhòu practice in nèidān: Farzeen Baldrian-Hussein, Procédés secrets du joyau magique (Paris 1984); 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 KR5a0286
- Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §3.A.4, 808–809.