Talks on the Aperture of the Dao & Secret Purport of the Three Vehicles道窍谈·三车秘旨

Also known as

Talks on the Aperture of the Dao, Secret Purport of the Three Vehicles, Li Hanxu's Talks on the Aperture of the Dao

Author / transmission

Li Xiyue

Period

Qing · Written by Li Xiyue (1806–1856), roughly between the late Daoguang and early Xianfeng eras, printed during the Guangxu era.

Canon division

Outside the Canon

Collected in

Outside the Canon (included in volume 26 of the Daoist Texts outside the Canon)

Category

Alchemical Texts

Fascicles

Talks on the Aperture of the Dao, 1 scroll, 24 chapters; Secret Purport of the Three Vehicles, 1 scroll

Synopsis

Talks on the Aperture of the Dao and the Secret Purport of the Three Vehicles are the representative works of Li Xiyue (sobriquet Hanxu), founder of the Western Lineage of Qing internal alchemy. The twenty-four chapters of Talks on the Aperture of the Dao discuss the alchemical “aperture” (the Mysterious Pass), the “medicines,” the cauldron and tripod, Fire Phasing, the pre-celestial and post-celestial, and the alchemical method of the Human Vehicle, holding that one should “refine oneself amid the dust of the world, and nurture oneself in the quiet chamber,” and taking the single aperture of the Mysterious Pass as the mechanism by which the pre-celestial One Qi is set in motion; the Secret Purport of the Three Vehicles is devoted specifically to the “Three Chariots” (the three stages of the circulation of the River Chariot: the Lesser River Chariot, the Greater River Chariot, and the Purple River Chariot) and their correspondence to refining essence into qi, refining qi into spirit, and refining spirit to return to emptiness, with an appended series of chapters on the “Method for Gathering In the Mind.” Li Xiyue claimed to have received transmission from Lü Dongbin and Zhang Sanfeng on Mount Emei; his alchemical method combines dual cultivation and pure cultivation, forming the Western Lineage, which is paired with Lu Xixing's Eastern Lineage. Both works are written in clear and flowing prose and are important texts of late-Qing internal-alchemical theory.

Key Ideas

• The single aperture of the Mysterious Pass as the mechanism of the pre-celestial One Qi
• Refining oneself amid the dust of the world, nurturing oneself in the quiet chamber
• The Three Chariots: the Lesser, Greater, and Purple River Chariots
• The alchemical system of the Western Lineage

Structure

Talks on the Aperture of the Dao in twenty-four chapters; the Secret Purport of the Three Vehicles in one scroll with an appended Method for Gathering In the Mind.

Editions

• Guangxu-era block-printed edition
• Volume 26 of the Daoist Texts outside the Canon
• Edition in the Daozang Jinghua (道藏精华, Essence of the Daoist Canon)

Full Text & Online Resources

• Wikipedia: Li Xiyue
• CTEXT search

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