Principles of the Balanced Cultivation of Nature and Life (Xingming guizhi)性命圭旨

Also known as

Xingming Shuangxiu Wanshen Guizhi (Dual Cultivation of Nature and Life: Principles Guiding the Myriad Spirits)

Author / transmission

Yin Zhenren Gaodi (尹真人高第, Eminent Disciples of the Perfected Yin) (anonymous)

Period

Ming · Attributed to 'a leading disciple of the Perfected Yin'; first printed in the forty-third year of the Wanli reign (1615), though actually composed in the mid-to-late Ming.

Canon division

Outside the Canon

Collected in

Outside the Canon (included in the Bi collection of the Daozang Jiyao; not included in the Zhengtong Daozang)

Category

Alchemical Texts

Fascicles

In four collections (Yuan, Heng, Li, and Zhen — the Four Cardinal Virtues of the Book of Changes).

Synopsis

Principles of the Balanced Cultivation of Nature and Life (Xingming guizhi) is the most widely circulated illustrated work of Ming-dynasty Internal Alchemy, attributed to 'a leading disciple of the Perfected Yin' and divided into four collections named Origination, Development, Advantage, and Constancy (Yuan, Heng, Li, Zhen). The Origination collection is a general exposition, using a large number of diagrams (the Discourse on the Great Dao, the Discourse on Nature and Life, the Discourse on Death and Life, the Discourse on the Deviant and the Correct, the Chart of the Three Sages, the Chart of Universal Illumination, the Chart of Timely Illumination, the Chart of Inner Illumination, and others) to clarify the principle of the dual cultivation of nature and life, holding that 'nature and life must both be cultivated, with nature cultivated first and life afterward'; the Development, Advantage, and Constancy collections then set out, in turn, the 'Nine-Section Oral Formula': nourishing the original source, stabilizing the spirit at the ancestral aperture, hibernating and storing qi at the qi cavity, the joint arising of Heaven and Man, the intercourse of Qian and Kun, the numinous elixir entering the cauldron, the appearance of the infant, the transfer of the spirit to the inner chamber, and the fundamental substance's return to emptiness, illustrated with over fifty accompanying diagrams that blend the teachings of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism, combining text and image in equal measure. Because of its systematic and intuitive presentation, it became a bestselling introductory text on Internal Alchemy from the Ming and Qing onward, exerting particularly great influence on folk qigong, though it has also often been criticized for indiscriminately mixing the Three Teachings.

Key Ideas

• The dual cultivation of nature and life, with nature cultivated first
• The complete sequence of the Nine-Section Oral Formula
• Illustrated diagrams explaining the Internal Alchemy view of the body
• The unity of the Three Teachings

Structure

Four collections: the Origination collection contains the general exposition and diagrams; the Development collection covers sections one to three of the oral formula; the Advantage collection covers sections four to six; and the Constancy collection covers sections seven to nine.

Editions

• The Wanli-era Di'e Tang woodblock edition
• The Daozang Jiyao edition
• The Shanghai Guji Chubanshe facsimile edition
• Fu Fengying's annotated translation of Xingming guizhi (Zhonghua Book Company, 2012)

Translations

• Partial study by Daniel Burton-Rose; French-language study by Catherine Despeux

Full Text & Online Resources

• Wikipedia: Xingming guizhi
• CTEXT (Chinese Text Project) search

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