Collected Texts on Female Alchemy女丹合编
- Also known as
- Selected and Annotated Collected Texts on Female Alchemy, Female Golden Elixir
- Author / transmission
- He Longxiang
- Period
- Late Qing · Compiled by He Longxiang, published at Erxian Nunnery, Chengdu, in the thirty-second year of Guangxu (1906).
- Canon division
- Outside the Canon
- Collected in
- Outside the Canon (included in Daoist Texts outside the Canon, vol. 11)
- Category
- Alchemical Texts
- Fascicles
- 1 volume (more than ten items)
Synopsis
The Collected Texts on Female Alchemy is an anthology assembled by He Longxiang in the late Qing bringing together texts on female internal-alchemical cultivation, including the Dharma Words of the Primordial Sovereign Sun Bu'er, the Wondrous Scripture of Kunning, the Correct Methods of Women's Practice, Ten Rules of the Queen Mother of the West on the Correct Path of Female Cultivation, the Precious Raft of Niwan Patriarch Li's Lineage of Dual Cultivation for Women, Ten Rules of Female Alchemy, and Distinguishing the Similarities and Differences between Male and Female Alchemical Practice, over a dozen titles in all, most originating from Ming–Qing spirit-writing altars and alchemists. "Female alchemy" takes "slaying the Red Dragon" (stopping menstruation) as the essential foundation-laying practice, holds that the breast (the Central Altar point) is the woman's cinnabar field, and that since the female nature belongs to yin and softness, "nourishing the blood and refining the form" comes first, after which practice converges with male alchemy in refining qi into spirit. This collection is the most concentrated body of material for the study of the Daoist tradition of female cultivation, reflecting the theorization of gender difference in Qing-dynasty alchemy, and is also an important document for the religious history of women.
Key Ideas
- Slaying the Red Dragon: transforming blood into qi
- The Central Altar point as the woman's cinnabar field
- Similarities and differences between male and female alchemical practice
- Ming–Qing spirit-writing altars and the scriptures of female alchemy
Structure
A collective printing of over a dozen texts on female alchemy.
Editions
- Guangxu-era Erxian Nunnery edition
- Daoist Texts outside the Canon, vol. 11
- Xiao Tianshi's special volume on female alchemy in the Essence of the Daoist Canon
- Dong Peiwen (ed.), The Immortal Way of Female Alchemy
Translations
- Studies and partial English translations by Elena Valussi; Catherine Despeux, Immortelles de la Chine ancienne (1990)
Full Text & Online Resources
Related scriptures
Dharma Words of the Primordial Sovereign Sun Bu'er, Awakening to Reality (Wuzhen pian)Related figures
He Longxiang, Sun Bu'er- Elena Valussi, 'Female Alchemy and Paratext', Nan Nü 10, 2008
- Catherine Despeux, Immortelles de la Chine ancienne, 1990
- 胡孚琛主编《中华道教大辞典》