Essentials for Achieving the Study of Immortality (Chen Yingning)仙学必成（陈撄宁仙学著作）
- Also known as
- Essentials for Achieving the Study of Immortality, Lecture Notes on the Scripture of the Yellow Court, Chen Yingning's Essentials of Immortality Studies
- Author / transmission
- Chen Yingning
- Period
- Republican Era · Chen Yingning (1880–1969) published these works progressively in the 1930s and 1940s in the Yangshan Banyuekan (扬善半月刊) and the Xiandao Yuebao (仙道月报) in Shanghai; the Essentials for Achieving the Study of Immortality took shape around 1945.
- Canon division
- Outside the Canon
- Collected in
- Outside the Canon (a modern work)
- Category
- Alchemical Texts
- Fascicles
- Various works: Lectures on the Scripture of the Yellow Court, Annotated Verses on the Sequence of Sun Bu'er's Female Practice of Internal Alchemy, A Vernacular Commentary on the Song of the Great Dao from the Numinous Source, Essentials for Achieving the Study of Immortality, Methods of Quiescent Practice for Healing and Recuperation, and others
Synopsis
Chen Yingning, an advocate of “Immortality Studies” (Xianxue) during the Republican era and later president of the Chinese Taoist Association, used modern language to organize the traditional study of internal alchemy in his writings, arguing that Xianxue was an empirical discipline independent of religion, emphasizing “weight on experiment, not on empty talk,” and holding that one should first cultivate quiet-sitting practice before discussing alchemical method, drawing on the Wu–Liu school, Huang Yuanji, the Zhouyi cantong qi, and Awakening to Reality, while taking pure cultivation as orthodox. His Huangting Jing Jiangyi (黄庭经讲义, Lectures on the Scripture of the Yellow Court) explains the Scripture of the Yellow Court through entries such as “the Yellow Court,” “the cinnabar field,” “breath,” and “bodily fluids”; the Lingyuan Dadao Ge Baihua Zhujie (灵源大道歌白话注解, Vernacular Commentary on the Song of the Great Dao from the Numinous Source) and the Sun Bu'er Nügong Neidan Cidi Shi Zhu (孙不二女功内丹次第诗注, Annotated Verses on the Sequential Stages of Female Internal Alchemy of Sun Bu'er) explain female alchemical pure cultivation in the vernacular; the Essentials for Achieving the Study of Immortality is a comprehensive introductory guide; and in his later years the Jinggong Liaoyang Fa (静功疗养法, Method of Quiet-Sitting Therapy) promoted seated meditation in the form of medical regimen. Chen Yingning's writings mark the modern transformation of Daoist internal-alchemy studies in the twentieth century, and have exerted great influence on contemporary research into qigong and internal alchemy.
Key Ideas
- Xianxue as an independent, empirical discipline
- Quiet-sitting practice as the foundation, pure cultivation as orthodox
- Explaining traditional alchemical scriptures in the vernacular
- The modern organization of female alchemical practice
- The modern transformation of internal-alchemy studies
Structure
A number of separate treatises and lecture texts.
Editions
- Original publication in the Yangshan Banyuekan and the Xiandao Yuebao
- Chen Yingning Xianxue Jingyao (陈撄宁仙学精要, Essentials of Chen Yingning's Immortality Studies) (Religious Culture Publishing House)
- Daojiao yu Yangsheng (道教与养生, Daoism and the Nourishing of Life) (Huawen Publishing House, 1989)
Translations
- Discussed in Xun Liu, Daoist Modern (2009)
Full Text & Online Resources
Related scriptures
Scripture of the Yellow Court: Inner Effulgences, Song of the Great Dao from the Numinous Source, Dharma Words of the Primordial Sovereign Sun Bu'er, Recorded Sayings from the Hall of Joyful CultivationRelated figures
Chen Yingning- Xun Liu, Daoist Modern: Innovation, Lay Practice, and the Community of Inner Alchemy in Republican Shanghai, 2009
- 《陈撄宁仙学精要》
- 维基百科「陈撄宁」条