Qīngwēi dānjué 清微丹訣
Instructions for the Practice of Inner Alchemy of the Qīngwēi School
Anonymous late-Sòng or Yuán nèidān 內丹 manual of the Qīngwēi 清微 ritual school, ten folios, preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng 正統道藏 (DZ 0278 / CT 278 = TC 278), 洞真部 眾術類.
About the work
A short ten-folio compendium of nèidān instructions tailored to the requirements of the Qīngwēi 清微 school of léifǎ 雷法 (Thunder Rites). Organized in named “chapters” (zhāng 章): “Hidden Truth Joining the Way” (1, on the three medicines jīngqìshén 精氣神, the discipline of “smelting essence into qì, qì into spirit, spirit conjoined with the Way”); “Practice in the Chamber” (2, on the locus of the Cinnabar-Field); “Mounting the Altar to Summon and Combine” (3, on liturgical preparation); “Putting the Power to Use” (4, citing the Léiyuān zhēnrén 雷囦真人 on the bodily signs that accompany the working of the rite — heat in the ears giving rise to wind, blackness in the eyes to cloud, abdominal trembling to thunder, sweat to rain, dizziness to fire); a section on “Sitting Practice and the Method of Sleep”; and further short doctrinal chapters. The Qīngwēi founder Huáng Shùnshēn 黃舜申 (hào Léiyuān 雷淵, fl. 1224–1287) is quoted on 3b.
Prefaces
No preface in the source. The text opens directly with the first chapter, headed Qīngwēi yǐnzhēn héDào zhāng 清微隱真合道章第一: “The Three Treasures of the supreme medicine are shén 神, qì 氣, and jīng 精. To preserve essence is to generate qì; to refine qì is to generate spirit. When the body refines its spirit, then form may be retained and held in this world — for form is the dwelling of shén and qì. Hence in him whose body is at peace, his essence is firm; essence firm, his qì is full; qì full, his spirit is whole; spirit whole, he lives long.”
Abstract
Kristofer Schipper, in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004) 2:1104 (§3.B.7, The Qīngwēi School), identifies the work as a short and accessible meditative guide of a “very general and simple nature,” in particular as preparation for officiants ascending the altar (líntán 臨壇) in liturgical service. The text clearly explains the principal points concerning the body and supplies on 8b a diagram of the inner structure (Figure 55 in the Taoist Canon). Huáng Shùnshēn 黃舜申, the school’s founder (active 1224–1287), is quoted on 3b, supplying a terminus post quem; the work is therefore later than the early thirteenth century, and was probably composed within Huáng’s lineage in the late thirteenth century. The frontmatter brackets composition between the start of Huáng’s mature activity (1224) and ca. 1300.
Translations and research
No full translation. Standard scholarly entry: Kristofer Schipper, “Qingwei danjue,” in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §3.B.7, 1104. On the Qīngwēi school: Lowell Skar, “Administering Thunder: A Thirteenth-Century Memorial Deliberating the Thunder Rites,” Cahiers d’Extrême-Asie 9 (1996), 159–202; Floriàn C. Reiter, Basic Conditions of Taoist Thunder Magic (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2007).
Links
- Kanseki Repository KR5a0290
- Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 2 §3.B.7, 1104.