Grease of Dragons

Sublimate the Medicine again as in the previous method. To test it, add to it some Grease of Dragons longgao ze), and make it into pills the size of small beans.Place them over an intense fire and blow the fire with a bellows. Gold will form in the time it takes to have a meal. 

Second Elixir Divine Tally (shenfu). The section on the Second Elixir is divided into three parts that describe methods for making the Divine Tally and two other elixirs. All three methods are based on mercury, which according to the Secret Instructions initially should be refined nine times in order to expel its toxicity. In the first part of the method, the crucible is luted first with the Mud of the Six-and-One, then with a mud of oyster shells and red clay. Mercury is heated in nine cycles of one day each, and the crucible turned upside down at every cycle. The product of the sublimation is collected, added to carp s gall, and sublimated nine more times then it is added to Grease of Dragons to obtain the Divine Tally. This elixir can be heated in nine further cycles with the Mysterious and Yellow to obtain the Yellow of the Elixir Flower (danhua zhi huang), or can be added to mercury to obtain a Reverted Elixir huandan). ... 

To compound it, take one pound of gold by the old scales. Also use Grease of Dragons of the Mysterious Light (xuanming longgao). Stone within the... 

If the Medicine has not been fixed by the fire, it must be sublimated again. Add it to Liquor of the Mysterious Water xuanshui ye) and to Grease of Dragons (longgao ze). Mix to make the compound moist, and put it again [5 a] in the red earthenware crucible of the Mysterious and Yellow xuan-huang chitu fu). Seal the joints as in the initial method. Sublimate the compound over an intense fire for thirty-six days, and the Medicine will form after altogether seventy-two days. 

Let the crucible cool, and open it. Collect the elixir by brushing it [with a feather], and add to it some carp gall liyu dan). [6a] Then smear and seal the crucible once more as before, and sublimate the elixir again, nine times above and nine times below. Let the crucible cool, and open it. Collect the elixir by brushing it [with a feather], and add to it some Grease of Dragons. This is the Divine Tally. 

On the use of carp gall with mercury see below, p. 177. The Secret Instructions, 20.iib, replaces Grease of Dragons with Grease of Western Dragons and, as we have seen above, explains this term as meaning dew collected on mulberry trees. 

Commenting on a line of the Songs on the Nine Elixirs, the Liquid Pearl, 1.13b, says here If in componnding the Divine Medicines of the Nine Elixirs the sublimated essence does not obtain the Grease of Dragons, the Medicines will lack divine properties. ... 

NOTE According to another method, if you add Grease of Dragons to this Medicine, and heat it for nine days and nine nights, it will form real gold.)... 

Extinguish the fire, let the crucible cool for one day and open it. The Medicine will have entirely sublimated and will adhere to the upper crucible. It will be like frost and snow. Brush it with a feather to collect it, and add to it some Grease of Dragons, making pills the size of small beans. 

The Seventh Elixir is called Soft Elixir (roudan). Use three pounds of mercury. Add vinegar to the Mysterious and Yellow, and make them into a mud. Smear with it a crucible, making it three-tenths of an inch thick both inside and outside. Place the mercury in the crucible. Close the crucible with another crucible, smear the joints with the Mud of the Six-and-One, and let it dry for ten days. Then heat it for thirty-six days, as in the method of the great Flower of Cinnabar. Extinguish the fire, let the crucible cool for one day and open it. Brush it with a feather to collect what adheres to the upper crucible, and add to it some Grease of Dragons. 

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