Ceremony of transmission

The Nine Elixirs, which is translated below in Chapter 9, is one of the few extant sources to give details on the entire ritual sequence of the alchemical practice, from the ceremony of transmission to the ingestion of the elixirs. It consists of three main parts, respectively concerned with (i) an introduction about the revelation of the scripture, the benefits of the alchemical medicines, and various ritual rules (2) the methods for making two preliminary compounds, called Mysterious and Yellow (xuanhuang) and Mud of the Six-and-One (liuyi ni) and (3) the methods and properties of the Nine Elixirs, which are nine separate preparations—an adept is not required to make and ingest all of them, but only one—related to each other by the main phases of their compounding and by the benefits that they grant. ... 

The ceremony of transmission described in the Taiqing sources is similar to rites documented in early Daoist texts. The adept must swear a covenant (meng) and establish a bond (yue, a word that in other contexts denotes a legal contract) with his master, and provide tokens [xin) that prove his commitment to receiving the texts and instructions and to keeping them secret. At the end of the rite, he and his master ratify their reciprocal obligation by smearing their mouths with blood, which is sometimes replaced by cinnabar (a further example of the symbolic association between the color red and the notions of sincerity and loyalty that we have discussed in the previous chapter). ... 

The ceremony of transmission also marks the disciple s commitment to not revealing the teachings and texts he has received. The passage quoted above from the commentary to the Scripture of Great Clarity continues by describing the penalties administered for improper transmission ... 

The seat (zuo) is the place where the divinity comes to observe the ceremony. The Jiudan iingjue, 20.3a, gives directions for setting up a seat for the Great One (Taiyi) see above, p. 82. After Lay the Scripture of the Elixirs, the Liquid Pearl, 1.3b, adds and the tokens for the covenant (mengxin zhi wu). On the ceremony of transmission in other Taiqing texts and on the preliminary purification practices see above. Chapter 5. 

This chapter, concerned with the transmission of doctrines and methods, is devoted to the preliminaries to the alchemical wor . Since the writings of the literati rushu M s ) do not contain methods for becoming an immortal, a sovereign should search for them. The methods alone, however, are not enough one should also receive both the written and the oral instructions wenjue and koujue P1 ). The main part of this chapter describes the ceremony of transmission of the Scripture of Great Clarity, of one unidenti-hed text, and of three lost wor s attributed to Hugang zi... 

Illustrated Instructions on the Powders of the Five Metals). This text seems to have been based on methods for ma ing alloys of any two of the Five Metals (gold, silver, copper, tin, and iron), and for compounding each of the Five Metals with mercury and each of the Three Yellows (sanhuang H i.e., realgar, orpiment, and arsenic). The Jiudan jingjue quotes methods for ma ing three types of mercury and three types of lead. Another passage concerns the ceremony of transmission. ... 

Methods of the Thirty-six Aqueous Solutions Sanshiliu shuifa) Passages concerning the ceremony of transmission, the Medicine for Expelling the Demons quegui yao the preparation of the crucible, the Mysteri-... 

On the ceremony of transmission of the Scripture of Great Clarity and the talismans reproduced in this and other chapters of the commentary see above. Chapter 5. On Hugang zi see below in the present appendix. 

The Wanjin jue is cited in the Suishu, 34.1048. For the method of the Flowery Pond see Jiudan jingjue, 17.6b. The passage on the ceremony of transmission is on 3.6a-b. Here Hugang zi, under the name Huqiu, appears as the master of Ge Hong s granduncle, Ge Xuan. 

The transmission ceremony of the Scripture of the Nine Elixirs reproduces the rite celebrated at the beginning of human history by the Yellow Emperor, when he transmitted the text to the Mysterious Master (Xuanzi). After the disciple makes an oath, the master receives tokens from him, and asks the Mysterious Woman (Xuannii, the deity who gave the scripture to... 

The transmission from the Mysterious Woman to the Yellow Emperor marks the moment when the Nine Elixirs leaves the heavens and enters the human world, while the transmission from the Yellow Emperor to the Mysterious Master is the first instance of its transmission on earth. The ceremony celebrated at that time, described in the Nine Elixirs, is the model of the rite of transmission performed between master and disciple after the text became accessible to human beings. 

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