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The Golden Elixir > Taoist Alchemy > Texts > Awakening to Reality: Poem 7

Awakening to Reality (Wuzhen pian)

Fabrizio Pregadio

Translations reproduced form Awakening to Reality: The "Regulated Verses" of the Wuzhen pian, a Taoist Classic of Internal Alchemy (Golden Elixir Press, 2009).

Poem 7

Notes on Poem 7

This poem concerns an essential aspect of internal alchemy: the collection of True Yang, which is the initial ingredient of the Elixir. As soon as one comes upon True Yang--which in fact is continuously regenerated within the postcelestial domain, even though it is hidden from it--one should store it safely and let it join with one's True Yin, the fundamentally pure consciousness that underlies the cognitive mind.

The symbolism of the first half of this poem is complex. The Medicine is True Yang. In the postcelestial domain (the world in which we live), True Yang is contained within Yin, and is represented by the unbroken line within Kan . This line is the One Breath that Kun receives from Qian as they unceasingly stay joined with one another. On the one hand, therefore, the One Breath is hidden from the world (being concealed within Kan ), but on the other hand, it is constantly regenerated by Kun . Since Kun, in the postcelestial domain, is positioned at the southwest (see table 7) Zhang Boduan says that "the place where the Medicine is born is just at the southwest," and calls this the "native village" of True Yang.

These lines essentially repeat the concepts presented in the first two lines. True Yang here is represented by Lead. Gui is one of the two celestial stems associated with Water (see table 4); it stands, in particular, for the postcelestial aspect of Water, i.e., Kan . In other words, Zhang Boduan says that Lead, or True Yang, should be collected as soon as it is born within Kun . In the cycle of the lunar month, Yang culminates on the fifteenth day and then declines; therefore the full moon illustrates the symbolic "time" by which the collection of True Yang should happen.

The term "earthenware crucible" (tufu) derives from external alchemy. In internal alchemy, it denotes the lower Cinnabar Field (dantian). The word tu, translated as "earthenware," is also the term for Soil, which among the five agents represents the center. This explains why, in line 2 of Poem 5, Zhang Boduan refers to the lower Cinnabar Field saying: "in the correct position of the Center the Mysterious Pearl is born."

The Flowing Pearl (liuzhu) is True Mercury, which generates the Elixir when it joins True Lead. This term is an abbreviation of Flowing Pearl of Great Yang (taiyang liuzhu), which denotes True Yin within Yang. See the note to Poem 12, lines 3-4.

The expression "two eights" has two meanings in Neidan. First, in the traditional Chinese weight system, one pound (jin) corresponds to sixteen ounces (liang). The symbolic "pound" of Elixir, therefore, is made of eight ounces of Lead and eight ounces of Mercury. The second meaning is more complex and is related to the "fire times" based on the lunar cycle. The waxing quarter of the Moon occurs at the middle of the first half of the month, eight days after the black Moon (novilune); the waning quarter occurs at the middle of the second half of the month, eight days after the full Moon (plenilune). Therefore the waxing (Yang) and waning (Yin) quarters of the Moon -- which actually appear in the night sky as "halves" rather than "quarters" -- are both represented by the number 8, and constitute the "two eights." Since line 7 mentions the weight of "one pound," and line 8 states that one should "regulate and adjust the fire times relying on Yin and Yang," both meanings of the expression "two eights" are relevant to the present poem.

Commentary by Liu Yiming

[Commentary on lines 1-2: "You should know that the source of the stream, the place where the Medicine is born, is just at the southwest -- that is its native village."]

The southwest is direction of Kun , the land in which Fu is reborn after the last day of the month, and in which Yin culminates and generates Yang.⁽¹⁾ In the human being, it is the time of the initial movement after quiescence culminates. This movement is the time of the emergence of the Great Medicine.

However, this movement is not the movement of emotions and desires arising from external stimuli; and it is not the movement of thoughts and ideas arising from the internal mind. It is the movement of innate knowledge of the celestial mind, the movement of the true knowledge of the mind of the Dao.

This innate knowledge of the celestial mind, this true knowledge of the mind of the Dao, can make one transcend the ordinary and enter sainthood,⁽²⁾ rise from death and return to life; therefore they are represented by the image of the Medicine. At the time in which quiescence culminates and the ten thousand conditions are at rest, the innate knowledge of the celestial mind and the true knowledge of the mind of the Dao have a particle of radiance that reveals their origin; therefore they are represented by the image of the birth of the Medicine. The innate knowledge of the celestial mind and the true knowledge of the mind of the Dao are the white within the black; their movement is generated from quiescence, just like the source of a stream; therefore they are represented by the image of the source of a stream where the Medicine is born.

(1) As shown by its graphical representation, the hexagram Fu (lit., "Return") stands for the rebirth of the Yang principle after the obscuration of Yin, represented in turn by Kun .

(2) On this expression see above the note Poem 14, line 8.

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