Anthology of Zhongli Quan's Transmission of the Dao to Lü Dongbin钟吕传道集

Also known as

Zhong-Lü Chuandao Ji (Record of the Transmission of the Dao from Zhongli Quan to Lü Dongbin), Zhenxian Chuandao Ji (Anthology of the Perfected Immortals' Transmission of the Dao)

Author / transmission

Shi Jianwu

Period

Late Tang and Five Dynasties · Attributed to Shi Jianwu (though the "Perfected Huayang" Shi Jianwu is traditionally held to be a Tang-dynasty figure, the attribution is in fact a pseudonym used by someone of the Five Dynasties to Northern Song period); composed around the 10th century.

Canon division

Dongzhen Section, Methods (Fangfa) category (Ten Books on the Cultivation of Perfection edition)

Collected in

Zhengtong Daozang, Dongzhen Section, Methods category, in the Xiuzhen shishu, scrolls 14 to 16

Category

Alchemical Texts

Fascicles

In three scrolls, eighteen discourses.

Synopsis

The Zhonglü chuandao ji (Anthology of Zhongli Quan's Transmission of the Dao to Lü Dongbin) systematically expounds the theory of internal alchemy in the form of questions and answers between master Zhongli Quan and disciple Lü Dongbin, and is the founding work of the Zhong–Lü Golden Elixir tradition. The whole work comprises eighteen discourses — True Immortals, the Great Dao, Heaven and Earth, Sun and Moon, the Four Seasons, the Five Phases, Water and Fire, Dragon and Tiger, Elixir Medicines, Lead and Mercury, Withdrawing and Adding, the River Chariot, the Reverted Elixir, Refining the Form, Court Audience at the Origin, Inner Observation, Demonic Trials, and Verification — proceeding from cosmology and the waxing and waning of yin and yang in the body to the complete procedure of medicinal substances, fire phasing, the celestial circuit, refining form into qi, and refining qi into spirit. It distinguishes five ranks of immortals — ghost immortal, human immortal, earthly immortal, divine immortal and celestial immortal — and asserts that internal alchemy surpasses minor techniques of side paths. With its standardized terminology and complete system, this work was honored in common by both the Southern and Northern Lineages of Song–Yuan internal alchemy, and together with the Lingbao bifa and the Xishan qunxian huizhen ji is known as the three books of Zhong–Lü elixir methods.

Key Ideas

• The five ranks of immortals: ghost, human, earthly, divine and celestial immortals
• The coupling of dragon and tiger, the withdrawing and adding of lead and mercury, the turning of the River Chariot
• Refining form into qi, refining qi into spirit, refining spirit to merge with the Dao
• Systematizing internal-alchemy theory in question-and-answer form

Structure

Three scrolls, eighteen discourses.

Editions

• Xiuzhen shishu edition (Zhengtong Daozang)
• Daozang jiyao edition
• Lüzu quanshu edition

Translations

• Eva Wong, The Tao of Health, Longevity, and Immortality (2000)

Full Text & Online Resources

• Wikipedia: Zhonglü chuandao ji
• CTEXT search

Related scriptures

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