Gùqì huánshén jiǔzhuǎn qióngdān lùn 固氣還神九轉瓊丹論
Treatises on the Mutation of the Spirit through Keeping the Qì Firm and on the Nine-Times-Transmuted Precious Elixir
About the work
A thirteen-folio Wǔdài (907–960) pre-Sòng inner-alchemical treatise, comprising two texts — the Gùqì huánshén lùn 固氣還神論 (1a–2b) and the Jiǔzhuǎn qióngdān lùn 九轉瓊丹論 (3a–13b), the latter with a running commentary apparently by the same author.
Prefaces
No prefaces in the source. The texts open directly into the discursive treatise form and carry no author preface or transmission colophon.
Abstract
Dated by Schipper (Schipper & Verellen, Taoist Canon 1: 364, DZ 418) to the Wǔdài, possibly of slightly earlier Táng origin. The first treatise (Gùqì huánshén lùn, 1a–2b) argues that one should preserve the “essence” (i.e. semen, jīng 精) not simply by refraining from ejaculation but by recycling the semen inside the body through the huánjīng 還精 technique advocated in the Huángtíng jīng (KR5b0015, KR5b0016). The term gùqì 固氣 (“keeping the qì firm”) is defined in the presumably-Táng Tàiqīng Wáng Lǎo kǒuchuán fǎ 太清王老口傳法 (preserved in Yúnjí qīqiān 62.20a) as “avoiding ejaculation.”
The second treatise (Jiǔzhuǎn qióngdān lùn) advocates spiritual alchemy above laboratory alchemy, using the term dānfǎ 丹法 for the former; the later standard term nèidān 內丹 does not yet occur in the text — a negative dating indicator consistent with pre-Sòng composition. The vocabulary recalls the Zhōuyì cāntóng qì 周易參同契 and related works. Both the source materials and the argumentative style suggest a pre-Sòng date, confirming the Wǔdài placement.
The text is a significant intermediate witness to the transition between Táng spiritual-alchemical thought and the mature Sòng nèidān tradition.
Translations and research
- Skar, Lowell, and Fabrizio Pregadio. “Inner Alchemy (Nèidān).” In Daoism Handbook, edited by Livia Kohn, 464–497. Leiden: Brill, 2000.
- Pregadio, Fabrizio. The Encyclopedia of Taoism. London: Routledge, 2008 (on gùqì and huánjīng).
- Schipper, Kristofer, and Franciscus Verellen, eds. The Taoist Canon: A Historical Companion to the Daozang. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004, 1:364 (DZ 418).