Zhēn yuán miào dào yào lüè 真元妙道要略
Essential Summary of the True-Origin Wondrous Way
attributed to 鄭隱 (Zhèng Yǐn)
A Five-Dynasties Daoist alchemical summary notable for containing one of the earliest explicit references in Chinese sources to an incendiary mixture of saltpetre, sulfur, and realgar (xiāo shí 硝石 + liú huáng 硫黃 + xióng huáng 雄黃) — cited by later historians of technology as a proto-form of gunpowder (huǒ yào 火藥). The passage warns alchemists against the dangerous combustion that results when these substances are mixed and ignited — an empirical observation that the text treats as a cautionary pitfall of elixir-making. Preserved as DZ 924 / CT 924 (Dòngshén bù, Zhòng shù lèi 洞神部眾術類).
Dating. Five Dynasties. Dynasty: 五代.
Translations and research
- Needham, Joseph, with Ho Ping-Yü, Lu Gwei-Djen, and Wang Ling. Science and Civilisation in China, vol. V.7 (Military Technology: The Gunpowder Epic). Cambridge UP, 1986. Discusses the Zhēn yuán miào dào yào lüè passage as a key early source for the pre-history of gunpowder.