Luting mud

Mista es in Ge Hong s summary ma e it impossible to reconstruct the chemical processes involved in the compounding of the Flower of Cinnabar without recourse to the received text of the Nine Elixirs. Ge Hong actually does not provide the method of the Flower of Cinnabar—or of any of the Nine Elixirs—but only an inaccurate list of the ingredients of the luting mud.i ... 

MUD — Mud, Lute, or Slime, is properly a species of Mortar, composed of different substances, which artists make use of to harden or encrust glass vessels, so that they may the better resist the action of fire. Lute also serves to join the orifices of two vessels, or their communicating beaks, to prevent the spirits when passing from one to another, or therein circulating, from escaping and becoming dissipated in the air. 

Divine Mud (shenni). In the methods of the Nine Elixirs, this mud is made of alum (fanshi), Turkestan salt (rongyan), lake salt (luxian), arsenolite yu-shi), oyster shells (muli), red clay (chishi zhi), and talc (huashi). The seven ingredients are pounded, heated for nine days and nights in an iron vessel, pounded again, sieved, and then soaked in a Flowery Pond (huachi). The crucible is luted first with this mud, then with the mud of Mysterious and Yellow, and finally is left to dry in the sun for ten daysd ... 

According to the received text of the Nine Elixirs, the main steps of each method are the following. The ingredients (see Table 4) are placed in an earthenware crucible, which is closed with another overturned crucible." The vessel is luted with the Mud of the Six-and-One and a mud of Mysterious and Yellow after it has dried, it is placed on the fire. At the end of the required number of days it is left to cool and is then opened. The elixir is collected with a chicken feather and is added to other substances. In some instances, it is said to be ready in other instances, it must be placed in the crucible and heated again. If the essence of the ingredients does not coagulate under the upper part of the crucible, the entire process should be repeated. 

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). ... 

Fifth Elixir Elixir in Pellets (erdan). The ingredients of the Fifth Elixir are mercury, realgar, and hematite. The crucible is luted with the Mud of the Six-and-One and a mud of Mysterious and Yellow, and is heated in two cycles of nine days each. 

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. 

According to the method for making Amber Pills from the Golden Liquor, boil the Golden Liquor with quicksilver for thirty days. Fill an earthenware bowl [with the quicksilver] and lute it with the Mud of the Six-and-One. Place it over a raging fire and heat it. In sixty double hours its whole content will transmute itself into an elixir. Ingest this elixir in pills the size of small beans, and you will become an immortal. Take a speck of it with a spatula, add one pound of quicksilver, and it will form silver. Baopu zi, 4-83)... 

If you add yellow clay to the Golden Liquor, place them in a bowl luted with the Mud of the Six-and-One, and heat the bowl over an intense fire, its whole contents will form gold. This is the first half of the procedure. If you heat this gold longer, it will transmute itself into an elixir. By ingesting this elixir in pills of the size of small beans, you will be able to enter a famous mountain or a great river and become an Immortal of Earth (dixian). If you powder a speck of this elixir into quicksilver, it will immediately become silver if you add one ounce of this silver to one pound of lead, it will all become silver. (Baopu zi, 4.83)... 

On the Mud of the Six-and-One see above. Chapter 4. Donghai is in present-day Shandong. The Taiqing jinye shendan jing, 1.15a, explains Observe the earthenware crucible and make the desired amount [of mud], so that it will be enough for luting the crucible. ... 

When you start [compounding the elixirs], use this mud to lute a red earthenware crucible (chitu fu) holding eight or nine pints, or at most one peck. 

The Third Divine Elixir is called Divine Elixir (shendan). First lute a double red earthenware crucible with the Mud of the Six-and-One, making it three-tenths of an inch thick both inside and outside. Then take oyster shells, red clay, and magnetite (cishi). 

You should pound these seven substances in separate vessels until they become powder-like. Then, with the pound of quicksilver on its own beneath, place them one on top of one other in the crucible. Close the crucible with another, lute it hermetically with Mud of the Six-and-One added to vinegar, and let it dry for ten days. 

According to the Secret Instructions, 20.14b, the inner part of the crucible must first be luted with a mud of Mysterious and Yellow. 

Then take one pound of Imperial Man (realgar), pound it until it becomes powder-like, and cover the mercury with it. Then take one pound of Leftovers of the Food of Yu Yu yuliang, hematite), pound it until it becomes powder-like, and cover the Imperial Man with it. Close the crucible with another crucible of the Six-and-One, seal the joints luting them with the Mud of the Six-and-One, and let it dry. 

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. 

Boil two pounds of quicksilver in this Gold Water (jinshui), and quickly pour some pure vinegar (chun kujiu) onto it. The vinegar will stay apart from the quicksilver without mixing with it. [3a] Calcine [duan) them over an intense fire for thirty days, until the quicksilver takes on a purple color. Fill with it a yellow earthenware bowl (huangtu ou), [and lute it] [3 b] with the Mud of the Six-and-One. 

You can use [this mud] to lute the inner part of the yellow earthenware bowl for a thickness of three-tenths of an inch, or up to half an inch. Leave the bowl under the sun, and use it when it is perfectly dry. [4a] From dawn to sunset its entire contents will transmute themselves into an elixir, called Reverted Elixir (huandan). Take a speck of it with a spatula, and it will form the Yellow and White (huangbai). 

When this is completed, mix the six ingredients with hundred-day vinegar (kujiu), making them like mud. Pound this mud again ten thousand times. When this is completed, lute with it a double earthenware crucible (shangxia tufu) both inside and outside, for a thickness of three-tenths of an inch. Let the crucible dry in the shade in a room. 

When this is completed, lute it again under a tenuous sunshine for a thickness of three-tenths of an inch, and let it dry for ten days as before. Apply the mud altogether three times, so that the inner and the outer parts are one and three-tenths inches thick. Always examine the mud while it is drying. 

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