Xuanhuang Yellow

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. ... 

When you want to make the Divine Elixirs, you should always first prepare the Mysterious and Yellow xuanhuang). 

This is the Yellow of the Elixir Flower (danhua zhi huang) some call it Liquor of the Mysterious and Yellow xuanhuang zhi ye), and others Talisman of Heaven and Earth tiandi zhi fu). 

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. ... 

Its color is partly black and partly purple, as though it has hues of the five colors. Take one pound or more of mercury. Cover an earthenware crucible with Elower of Mysterious and Yellow xuanhuang hua), making it three-tenths of an inch thick both inside and outside. 

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