Great Essentials of the Golden Elixir金丹大要
- Also known as
- Shangyangzi Jindan Dayao (Shangyangzi's [Chen Zhixu's] Great Essentials of the Golden Elixir)
- Author / transmission
- Chen Zhixu
- Period
- Yuan · Written by Chen Zhixu (1290–?), completed between the Zhishun and Yuantong eras of the Yuan (c. 1331–1335).
- Canon division
- Taixuan Section
- Collected in
- Zhengtong Daozang, Taixuan Section (with the Jindan dayao tu, the Jindan dayao liexian zhi and the Jindan dayao xianpai appended)
- Category
- Alchemical Texts
- Fascicles
- In sixteen scrolls (with an appended scroll of illustrations, a scroll of Immortals' Accounts, and a scroll on the Immortal Lineages).
Synopsis
The Jindan dayao (Great Essentials of the Golden Elixir) is the monumental work in which the Yuan internal alchemist Chen Zhixu (styled Shangyangzi) systematically summed up neidan theory, and is also the representative work of the "union of the Southern and Northern Lineages." Chen Zhixu received the transmission of the Quanzhen Northern Lineage and also obtained the alchemy of the Southern Lineage, and so in this book he honours both Zhang Boduan and Wang Chongyang, upholding the dual cultivation of nature and life and taking the "pre-celestial One Qi" as the mother of the elixir. The work discusses, by way of dialogue, discursive essay and diagram, the Dao and its virtue, essence, breath and spirit, the cauldron and furnace, the medicines, fire phasing, the reverted elixir and the shedding of the embryo, citing the Cantong qi, the Wuzhen pian and the classics of the Three Teachings; appended to it are the Jindan dayao tu, the Jindan dayao liexian zhi and the Jindan dayao xianpai, which sketch the genealogy of transmission from Zhong and Lü through the Southern Lineage to the Northern Lineage. Its alchemy advocates paired yin-yang cultivation (there is a doctrine of husband and wife) and has been much disputed by later ages; but as the great synthesis of Yuan neidan theory it exerted an enormous influence on Ming and Qing alchemists. Chen Zhixu also wrote commentaries on the Cantong qi, the Wuzhen pian and the Duren jing.
Key Ideas
- The pre-celestial One Qi as the mother of the elixir
- Union of the Southern and Northern Lineages; dual cultivation of nature and life
- Systematic exposition of the cauldron and furnace, the medicines and fire phasing
- The genealogy of transmission from Zhong and Lü through the Southern and Northern Lineages
Structure
A main text in sixteen juan (divided into discussions of the Dao, discussions of method, dialogues and so on), with diagrams, the Liexian zhi and the Xianpai appended.
Editions
- Zhengtong Daozang edition
- Daozang jiyao edition
Full Text & Online Resources
Related scriptures
Zhouyi cantong qi (The Seal of the Unity of the Three), Awakening to Reality (Wuzhen pian), Anthology of Central HarmonyRelated figures
Chen Zhixu, Zhang Boduan, Wang Chongyang- 任继愈主编《道藏提要》
- 卿希泰主编《中国道教史》第三卷
- 胡孚琛主编《中华道教大辞典》