Liquid Pearl

Scripture of the Liquid Pearl in Nine Cycles and of the Nine Elixirs of the Divine Immortals Jiuzhuan liuzhu shenxian jiudan jing)... 

The following descriptions of each method are based on the directions given in the Scripture of the Nine Elixirs, the Secret Instructions, and the Scripture of the Liquid Pearl. 

Seventh Elixir Soft Elixir (roudan). The single ingredient of the Seventh Elixir is mercury, which is heated in four cycles of nine days each according to the Nine Elixirs, or for twenty days according to the Liquid Pearl. The crucible is luted with a mud of Mysterious and Yellow and with the Mud of the Six-and-One. If lead is added to the Soft Elixir, it forms gold. 

Ninth Elixir Cold Elixir (handan). The Ninth Elixir is made with realgar, orpiment, laminar malachite, arsenolite, and magnetite. The crucible is luted with a layer of Mysterious and Yellow, a layer of Mud of the Six-and-One, and a layer of worm excreta and yellow soil (huangtu). The ingredients are placed in the crucible with the Liquid Pearl liuzhu, i.e., the Mysterious and Yellow) and are heated for nine days. 

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. 

The Liquid Pearl, i.5b-6a, avoids the offering of animal products it does not mention eggs and carp, and replaces dried ox meat with several fragrant cakes. ... 

The Explanations ( Jie ) in the Liquid Pearl, 1.4b, has one and a half peck. It adds that in the districts of Xingyang, Henan, and Lu-oyang, and in the commandery of Yingchuan, an earthenware crucible costs at most fourteen or fifteen coins (qian). The three districts are in present-day Henan, while Yingchuan is in nearby northwestern Anhui. 

Real Powder is a secret name of cinnabar. In the Liquid Pearl, 1.4b, the ingredient of this elixir is called Vermilion Child zhu er), an abbreviated form of Vermilion Child Who Descends on the Mound (jiangling zhu er), which the Shiyao erya (Synonymic Dictionary of the Materia Medica ... 

The sentence in brackets, which is missing in the received version of the Nine Elixirs, is found in the Explanations of the Liquid Pearl, 1.5a. The omission in the Nine Elixirs is certainly due to a copying error the text says here that heating takes thirty-six days, and adds below that if the whole process has to be repeated, it would require seventy-two days altogether. The summary in the Baopu zi, 4.74, also has thirty-six days. On the heating method in the Taiqing texts see pp. 105-7. 

On the langgan, a mythical tree that grows on Mount Kunlun, see above, p. 59. In the directions given by the Liquid Pearl, i.2a-b, the elixir should be collected with the feather of a three-year-old chicken. A method for opening the crucible is found in the Jiudan jingjue, 20.16a-b see above, p. 107. 

Their appearance will be similar to gold. They will also resemble shooting stars, the purple and scarlet Liquid Pearl liuzhu), and the five-colored Mysterious and Yellow. Gather and collect the Essence and Flower with an iron spoon. You will obtain ten pounds, which you should transmute in nine cycles [with the Divine Tally]. 

The Liquid Pearl, i.8a, has Cinnabar-Yellow Flower (danhuang zhi hua) for Yellow of the Elixir Flower. ... 

The Perfected say that the Essence of Cinnabar (dansha jing) should be transmuted into the Liquid Pearl (liuzhu) and into Frost and Snow (shuang-xue), and that the Essence of Lead (qianjing) should be transmuted into a Reverted Elixir and into the Yellow and White (huangbai). 

Liquid Pearl here is a synonym for mercury obtained by refining cinnabar see Shiyao erya, i.ib. The terms Frost and Snow too are part of several secret names for refined mercury. Yellow and White usually denotes gold and silver, and the reason for its mention in relation to the Essence of Lead is unclear to me. In a description of the method for making the Mysterious and Yellow, the Jiudan jingjue, 12.1b, has White Snow (baixue) instead of Yellow and White this reading may be preferable. 

On the shangbu hour see above, p. 165. The variant pointed out by the editor of the Nine Elixirs corresponds to the reading of the Liquid Pearl, 1.9b. 

On the Liquor of the Mysterious Water see above, p. 169. The Secret Instructions, I2b-i3a, describes a preliminary step [After you prepare the Mysterious and Yellow,] add to it some Water of the Mysterious and Yellow in Nine Cycles of the Liquid Pearl (liuzhu jiuzhuan xuanhuang shut). . . and make it into a mud. Heat it in a vessel until it becomes scarlet then add to it some Liquor of the Mysterious Water. ... 

Instead of eighty days, the Liquid Pearl, i.iob, has eighty-one days, which is likely to be the correct reading. 

Here, too, the Liquid Pearl, 1.7a, has eighty-one days for eighty days. The method for transmuting the Mysterious and Yellow into gold is the same as that given above for the transmutation of the Flower of Cinnabar. 

This variant corresponds to the text of the Liquid Pearl, i.iib. 

The sublimated essence is the elixir. The Nine Elixirs has, in this instance alone, jingfei the Liquid Pearl, i.iib, gives the correct reading. 

The last two sentences are not fonnd in the Liquid Pearl, which has instead You will find the Dao and will transcend the generations [of mortals], the hundred diseases will leave your body and you will obtain a life free from death (1.12a). Leftovers of the Count of the River is the same as Leftover Fishes of the Count of the River, which according to an earlier passage in this section of the Nine Elixirs is a name for carp gall. 

The Three Corpses and the Nine Worms are freqnently mentioned in Daoist texts as representations of the agents that cause death. The last sentence translated above also is not fonnd in the Liquid Pearl, which instead explicates the relation between mercnry, worms, and carp gall, saying Worms and the fish gall are Essences of Yin, and mercury is the Essence of Yang. Therefore Yin can control zhi) Yang, and thus the Medicine becomes fixed (fu) and does not dare to escape. The Perfected, the Divine Men, and the immortals keep this method secret, and it cannot be transmitted (1.12a). 

The directions given in the note correspond in part to those found in the Liquid Pearl, 1.13b. Flower of Mysterious and Yellow is the same as Mysterious and Yellow see p. 185 below. 

The Yellow Powder is a powder of Mysterious and Yellow see Liquid Pearl, 1.13 a. 

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. ... 

The Liquid Pearl, 1.13b, adds It is not gods or demons, but the Medicine that makes this possible. ... 

After ingest it, the Liquid Pearl, 1.15b, adds lying inside a cave. ... 

The editor s note seems to imply that, according to a version of the Nine Elixirs available to him, the elixir should be ingested with the blood of a chick. Instead, the Liquid Pearl, z.ib, has divine chick for chick, and renders this sentence as follows By ingesting a speck [of this elixir], a divine chick will immediately fly ten thousand miles away as an immortal, passing over rivers and seas. By ingesting it for thirty days, it will be able to fly. The growth of wings is a metaphor for the achievement of immortality. 

In the list of ingredients given in the Liquid Pearl, 2.2a, cinnabar from Ba and cinnabar from Yue (present-day Sichuan and Zhejiang, respectively) are considered as two different substances, and arsenolite is not mentioned. 

The Liquid Pearl, z.zb, adds If you have intercourse with women, the practices will never be accomplished. ... 

The Liquid Pearl, 2.3b-4b, gives this method twice, with some diverging details. 

The Ninth Elixir is called Cold Elixir (handan). Regularly use a red earthenware crucible. As in the method for compounding the Flower of Cinnabar, lute it with the Mud of the Six-and-One. Make the crucible three-tenths of an inch thick both inside and outside, and let it dry. Take one pound each of Imperial Man (realgar). Imperial Woman (orpiment), laminar malachite, arsenolite, and magnetite, and pound them separately until they become powder-like. [14a] As in the method of the Flower of Cinnabar, first coat the crucible of the Six-and-One with the Mysterious and Yellow. Then place in it one pound of Liquid Pearl, and cover it with the Imperial Man, the Imperial Woman, the laminar malachite, the arsenolite, and the magnetite. 

The Liquid Pearl, 2.4b, has quicksilver for Liquid Pearl, but the substance meant here should be the Liquid Pearl obtained from the Mysterious and Yellow (see above, pp. 171-72). As we have seen, the Mysterious and Yellow is often placed at the bottom of the crucible in the methods of the Nine Elixirs. 

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