Unofficial History of Fanghu (Lu Xixing)方壶外史

Also known as

Lu Xixing's Unofficial History of Fanghu, Treatise on the Surface of Mystery (included)

Author / transmission

Lu Xixing

Period

Ming · A compilation of the writings of Lu Xixing (1520–c. 1606), printed during the Wanli reign, comprising fifteen works.

Canon division

Outside the Canon

Collected in

Outside the Canon (included in vol. 5 of Daoist Texts outside the Canon)

Category

Alchemical Texts

Fascicles

8 scrolls, 15 items

Synopsis

The Fanghu waishi (Unofficial History of Fanghu) is the collected writings of Lu Xixing (styled Qianxu), founder of the Eastern Lineage of internal alchemy in the Ming, comprising fifteen works, among them the Xuanfu lun, the Jindan jiuzheng pian (Setting Right the Golden Elixir), the Jindan dazhi tu (Chart of the Great Purport of the Golden Elixir), the Qipo lun (Refuting Seven Heterodoxies), the Laozi xuanlan (Mysterious Survey of the Laozi), the Cantong qi kouyi (Oral Meaning of the Cantong qi), the Wuzhen pian xiaoxu (Short Preface to the Wuzhen pian), the Zhouyi cantong qi ceshu (Fathoming Commentary on the Zhouyi cantong qi) and the Wushang yuhuang xinyin miaojing ceshu (Fathoming Commentary on the Jade Emperor's Mind Seal Scripture). Lu Xixing claimed to have received alchemical methods revealed to him by Lü Dongbin and upheld the dual cultivation of nature and life with "paired yin-yang cultivation" as its essential, holding that "the way of the golden elixir must draw upon the same kind." His Xuanfu lun, in twenty chapters, expounds the principles of nature and life, the vessel and cauldron, the medicines and fire phasing, and is the theoretical programme of the Eastern Lineage; the Qipo lun refutes the heterodox paths. Versed in Confucianism and Buddhism alike, Lu Xixing annotated the Laozi, the Zhuangzi and the Śūraṅgama Sūtra, and is regarded as one of the most deeply learned of Ming internal alchemists; his doctrine of paired yin-yang cultivation influenced the Western Lineage of Li Xiyue in the Qing.

Key Ideas

• Paired yin-yang cultivation; the golden elixir must draw upon the same kind
• The Xuanfu lun: nature and life, the vessel and cauldron, the medicines and fire phasing
• The Qipo lun refutes the heterodox paths
• An alchemist and scholar versed in all Three Teachings

Structure

Eight juan, containing fifteen treatises and commentaries.

Editions

• Wanli block-print edition
• Daoist Texts outside the Canon, vol. 5

Full Text & Online Resources

• Wikipedia: Lu Xixing
• CTEXT search

Related scriptures

Related figures