Jade Emperor's Mind Seal Scripture高上玉皇心印妙经

Also known as

Xinyin jing (Mind Seal Scripture), Yuhuang Xinyin jing (Jade Emperor's Mind Seal Scripture), Xinyin Miaojing (Wondrous Mind Seal Scripture)

Author / transmission

Anonymous

Period

Song · Probably dates from the Northern to Southern Song, contemporary with the rise of the cult of the Jade Emperor and of internal alchemy.

Canon division

Dongzhen Section, Original Texts (Benwen) category

Collected in

Zhengtong Daozang, Dongzhen Section, Original Texts category

Category

Alchemical Texts

Fascicles

In one scroll, fifty lines of four characters each, two hundred characters total.

Synopsis

The Xinyin jing (Mind Seal Scripture) consists of two hundred characters in tetrasyllabic verse, and is Daoism's most concise summary outline of internal alchemy; the Quanzhen school includes it in the morning liturgy recited daily. The text opens with "the three superior medicines are spirit, qi, and essence," expounding the essentials of cultivating the three — preserving essence, nourishing qi, and guarding spirit — in a state "dim and hazy, deep and obscure." It states that "when the circulating breath is blended, the achievement is complete in a hundred days" and "once attained, it is attained forever"; one who recites it ten thousand times and silently grasps its meaning can make "the universe rest in the palm of the hand, and the myriad transformations arise from the body." Its formulation of the Three Treasures of essence, qi, and spirit and of the hundred-day foundation-laying practice is regarded by later generations as a programmatic text of internal alchemy theory; commentaries exist by Yuanyangzi and, in the Qing, Liu Yiming. Because it is attributed to the Jade Emperor's own words, it is placed in the Dongzhen Section.

Key Ideas

• The three superior medicines: spirit, qi and essence
• Preserving the void and guarding the existent; blending the circulating breath
• Once attained, attained forever; the body becomes naturally light
• Hundred-day foundation-laying

Structure

One scroll, fifty lines, two hundred characters.

Editions

• Zhengtong Daozang edition
• Quanzhen Daily Liturgy edition
• Daozang jiyao edition

Commentaries

• Liu Yiming's Commentary on the Xinyin jing
• Commentary by Yuanyangzi

Translations

• English translation by Eva Wong
• English translation by Livia Kohn

Full Text & Online Resources

• Wikipedia: Xinyin jing
• CTEXT search

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