The Ritual Sequence

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).  

To receive the methods of the Nine Elixirs, the disciple throws golden figurines of a man and a fish into an east-flowing stream as tokens of his oath (shi) The same rite is performed to receive the method of the Golden Liquor  

The Scripture of the Golden Liquor says Throw a golden figurine of a man weighing eight ounces into an east-flowing stream, and utter an oath after drinking some blood. Only then you may receive the oral instructions. Baopu zi, 4.83) 

Hemp fabric and silk are also offered to receive the Scripture of Great Clarity. Its commentary says  

The Reverted Elixir in Nine Cycles enjoins the master who transmits the scriptures to donate part of the received tokens to his own master, give another part as alms, and use the rest as ritual objects, never taking advantage of them for personal benefit.  

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The ritual sequence described above is reconstructed based on details found in different Taiqing texts. While the Scripture of the Nine Elixirs is the source that provides the most complete account, the other texts mention only some of the ritual steps that should be performed. The single texts, however, give coherent details, and the differences that exist among them are less substantial than the details of the techniques that they describe. These techniques, which represent the central part of the process performed by the Taiqing adept, are examined in the next chapter. 

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. ... 

There then followed two additional sequences, one a "warrior initiation rite," and the other an unnamed primitive-Christian ritual that "accomplished the salvation" of the patient and "made [him] whole." In all episodes, participation... 

Episode The sequences of behaviour that constitute meaningful units of everyday interaction may be organised differently (such as drinking rounds or farewell rituals) prompting social challenges... 

Palumbi (2008 153) suggests that the two individuals lying on top of the tomb itself, chose attributed high status because of costuming, were victims of a coup, killed and tossed onto the tomb on their way home from the burial now that their protector was dead. Appealing as this scenario might be, it would seem to be obviated by the sequence outlined here if they were the product of a coup that took place some time later, one might ask why the tomb was exposed, for in other instances where this was the case, commemorative rituals were in evidence. 

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