Lü Dongbin's Hundred-Character Stele吕祖百字碑

Also known as

Hundred-Character Stele, Hundred-Character Inscription, Song of Knocking at the Yao-Lines (appendix)

Author / transmission

Lü Dongbin

Period

Late Tang to Song · Attributed to Lü Dongbin; earliest quoted in Song- and Yuan-dynasty alchemical texts, and carved on stelae at Lüzu shrines throughout the country in the Ming and Qing.

Canon division

Outside the Canon

Collected in

Outside the canon (included in the Complete Works of Patriarch Lü, the Essentials of the Daoist Canon, and the Twelve Daoist Books)

Category

Alchemical Texts

Fascicles

Twenty lines of five-character verse, one hundred characters

Synopsis

Lü Dongbin's Hundred-Character Stele (Baizi bei) is a twenty-line pentasyllabic alchemical formula attributed to Lü Dongbin: 'Nurture qi, forgetting words, and hold fast; subdue the mind through non-doing while doing. In motion and stillness know the ancestral source; when there is nothing to do, what more is there to seek. The constant truth must respond to things; in responding to things, do not be confused. Unconfused, the nature naturally abides; the nature abiding, the qi naturally returns. The qi returning, the elixir naturally forms; within the vessel, Kan and Li unite. Yin and yang arise and return; universal transformation comes with a single clap of thunder. White clouds gather at the crown; sweet dew sprinkles upon Sumeru. Drink for yourself the wine of long life; in free and easy wandering, who can know it. Sit and listen to the stringless tune, and clearly comprehend the workings of creation. Altogether these twenty lines are truly a ladder to Heaven.' In extremely concise language it sums up the refining of the self, the forming of the elixir, the celestial circuit, and the return to emptiness, and is one of the most widely circulated formulas for beginners in internal alchemy; it is transmitted alongside the Qiaoyao ge (a long heptasyllabic song on alchemical method and human life), likewise attributed to Patriarch Lü. Commentaries include one attributed to Zhang Sanfeng of the Ming and Liu Yiming's Commentary on the Hundred-Character Stele of the Qing; Quanzhen temples frequently have it carved on stelae.

Key Ideas

• Nurture the qi, forget words, and subdue the mind through non-doing
• The nature abiding, the qi naturally returns; the qi returning, the elixir forms
• The union of Kan and Li, yin and yang arising and returning
• An extremely concise formula for internal alchemy

Structure

Twenty lines of pentasyllabic verse.

Editions

• Edition in the Complete Works of Patriarch Lü
• 'Commentary on the Hundred-Character Stele' in the Twelve Daoist Books
• Stele inscriptions at Lüzu temples throughout the country

Commentaries

• Commentary attributed to Zhang Sanfeng
• Liu Yiming's Commentary on the Hundred-Character Stele

Translations

• English translation by Thomas Cleary
• English translation by Eva Wong

Full Text & Online Resources

• Wikipedia: Lü Dongbin
• CTEXT Search

Related scriptures

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