Twelve Daoist Books (Liu Yiming)道书十二种

Also known as

Wuyuanzi's Twelve Daoist Books, Compass

Author / transmission

Liu Yiming

Period

Qing · Works of Liu Yiming, collectively printed in 1819 (the twenty-fourth year of Jiaqing) at Qiyun Mountain, Jinxian, Gansu; later editions added further content (actually comprising over twenty titles).

Canon division

Outside the Canon

Collected in

Outside the Canon (included in Daoist Texts outside the Canon, vol. 8)

Category

Alchemical Texts

Fascicles

Twelve items (the standard edition includes Elucidating the Truth of the Book of Changes, Elucidating the Truth of the Confucian Book of Changes, Direct Pointers to the Cantong qi, Direct Pointers to Awakening to Reality, Commentary on the Yinfu jing, Direct Explanation of the Song of Knocking at the Yao-Lines, Commentary on the Hundred-Character Stele, Debating Difficulties in the Cultivation of Perfection, Later Debates on the Cultivation of Perfection, Eight Methods of the Chamber of Spirit, Nine Essentials of the Cultivation of Perfection, Dispelling Doubts on Symbolic Language, Text for Passing Through the Barrier, The Original Purport of the Journey to the West, and Collection of Understanding the Heart, among others)

Synopsis

Twelve Daoist Books is the collected works of Liu Yiming, eleventh-generation patriarch of the Longmen Lineage in the Qing dynasty. Though named "twelve," the standard edition actually contains over twenty titles, including commentaries on classics such as the Zhouyi cantong qi, the Wuzhen pian, the Yinfu jing, the Book of Changes, the Qingjing jing, and the Qiaoyao ge and Baizi bei (Direct Pointers to the Cantong qi, Direct Pointers to Awakening to Reality, Elucidating the Truth of the Book of Changes, and others), as well as his own treatises Discerning Difficulties in the Cultivation of Perfection, Nine Essentials for the Cultivation of Perfection, Eight Methods of the Spirit Chamber, Dispelling Doubts on Images and Words, and Text on Passing the Barriers, and even The Original Purport of Journey to the West, which interprets Journey to the West through alchemy. Liu Yiming took "the dual cultivation of nature and life" and "the pre-celestial true and unitary qi" as his central principles, holding that one must break free of attachment to forms and, through the centered and correct way, return to the pre-celestial; he stressed that cultivation must begin with "passing the barriers" (breaking through fifty checkpoints such as fame, gain, and worldly attachment) and with distinguishing heterodox paths. His writings are clear and accessible in style and rigorously systematic, and are regarded as the most complete theoretical synthesis of Qing-dynasty internal alchemy, exerting great influence on Quanzhen Daoism in the northwest and on Republican-era Immortality Studies.

Key Ideas

• The pre-celestial true and unitary qi is the Golden Elixir
• Dual cultivation of nature and life, returning to the centered and correct
• Passing the barriers: breaking through the fifty checkpoints
• Distinguishing heterodox paths, dispelling attachment to images and words
• Interpreting the Book of Changes and Journey to the West through alchemy

Structure

A collective printing of multiple works, without unified chapter numbering.

Editions

• Jiaqing-era Qiyun Mountain edition
• Guangxu-era reprint from Huguo Nunnery, Changde Prefecture, Hunan
• Daoist Texts outside the Canon, vol. 8
• Yuzhe et al. (annot.), Twelve Daoist Books (Shumu Wenxian Chubanshe, 1996)

Translations

• Various selections translated by Thomas Cleary (The Inner Teachings of Taoism, etc.)

Full Text & Online Resources

• Wikipedia: Liu Yiming
• CTEXT search

Related scriptures

Related figures