Jin Dan Si Bai Zi (金丹四百字)

真土擒真鉛

Use true earth to seize true lead. (The terms in this text, lead, mercury, dragon and tiger, tripod and furnace, infant and Maiden, are names borrowed by inner alchemists from the drugs and vessels of outer alchemy to refer to the essence, qi and spirit within the body and the places where they are cultivated; they do not mean actual minerals or metals.)

真鉛製真汞

Then use true lead to subdue true mercury,

鉛汞歸真土

Until lead and mercury both return to true earth,

身心寂不動

And body and mind grow still and unmoving.

虛無發下雪

Out of emptiness white snow comes drifting down,

寂靜發黃芽

Within stillness the yellow sprout is born,

玉爐火溫溫

The fire in the jade furnace is gentle, never fierce,

鼎上飛紫霞

And above the tripod purple mist rises and soars.

華池蓮花開

In the Flower Pool lotuses bloom,

神水金波靜

The golden waves of the divine water lie clear and calm,

夜深月正明

Deep in the night the bright moon hangs in mid-sky,

天地一輪鏡

And between heaven and earth all is like one bright mirror.

硃砂煉陽氣

With cinnabar one refines the yang qi,

水銀烹金精

With quicksilver one cooks out the golden essence;

金精與陽氣

What are called the golden essence and the yang qi

硃砂而水銀

Are in truth nothing but these two, cinnabar and quicksilver.

日魂玉兔脂

The soul of the sun is like the fat of the Jade Rabbit,

月魄金烏髓

The spirit of the moon is like the marrow of the Golden Crow,

掇來歸鼎中

Gather them in and bring them back into the tripod,

化作一泓水

And they turn into a single pool of clear water.

藥物生玄竅

The medicine is born from the mysterious aperture,

火候發陽爐

The fire phase is set in motion beneath the yang furnace,

龍虎交會時

Just when the dragon and the tiger meet,

寶鼎產玄珠

The precious tripod yields the mysterious pearl.

此竅非凡物

This aperture is no ordinary thing,

乾坤共合成

It is formed by Qian and Kun together,

名為神氣穴

Its name is the Cavity of Spirit and Qi,

內有坎離精

And within it are held the essences of the two trigrams Kan and Li.

木汞一點紅

Mercury, which belongs to wood, is one point of red,

金鉛三斤黑

Lead, which belongs to metal, is three pounds of black,

鉛汞結丹砂

Lead and mercury congeal into cinnabar,

恥恥紫金色

And show a radiant purple-gold color. (The base text reads "chi chi," an error for "he he" (radiant); it should read "radiant purple-gold color.")

家園景物麗

In the home garden the scenery is bright and lovely,

風雨正春時

Wind and rain come in the very season of spring,

犁鋤不廢力

If one plows and hoes without sparing effort,

大地皆黃金

Gold will grow all over the ground.

真鉛生於坎

True lead is born within the Kan trigram,

其用在離宮

Yet its function lies in the Li palace,

以黑而變紅

Changing from black into red,

一鼎雲氣濃

And over a single tripod the clouds of qi grow thick.

真汞產於離

True mercury is produced within the Li trigram,

其用卻在坎

Yet its function lies instead in the Kan palace,

奼女過南園

The Maiden walks across the southern garden,

手持玉橄欖

Holding a jade olive in her hand.

震兌非東西

Zhen and Dui are not truly in the east and west,

坎離不南北

Nor are Kan and Li truly in the south and north,

斗柄運周天

The handle of the Big Dipper turns through a full circuit of the heavens,

要人會攢蔟

And one must know how to gather them together and bring them close.

火候不須時

In regulating the fire one need not cling to the hours of the clock,

冬至豈在子

For how could the winter solstice be fixed at the zi hour?

及其沐浴法

As for the practice of bathing,

卯酉時虛比

The mao and you hours are likewise only figures of speech set up for comparison.

烏肝與兔髓

The liver of the crow and the marrow of the rabbit,

擒來歸一處

Seize them and bring them back together in one place,

一粒復一粒

One grain after another,

從微而至著

Accumulating from the faint until it becomes plain to see.

混沌包虛空

Chaos wraps around emptiness,

虛空括三界

And emptiness in turn encompasses the three realms,

及尋其根源

But when you search out its source,

一粒如黍大

It is no bigger than a single grain of millet.

天地交真液

Heaven and earth join to make the true fluid,

日月含真精

The sun and moon hold within them the true essence,

會得坎離基

Once you grasp the foundation of the two trigrams Kan and Li,

三界歸一身

The three realms all come down to this one body.

龍從東海來

The dragon rises from the Eastern Sea,

虎向西山起

The tiger leaps up from the Western Mountain,

兩獸戰一場

The two fierce beasts fight it out,

化作天地隨

And heaven and earth are transformed and born along with them.

金花開汞葉

The golden flower puts forth the leaves of mercury,

玉蒂長鉛枝

The jade calyx grows the branches of lead,

坎離不曾閒

Kan and Li have not rested for a single moment,

乾坤今幾時

And how much time has passed by now for Qian and Kun?

沐浴防危險

In the work of bathing, guard against danger,

抽添自謹持

In drawing off lead and adding mercury, you must keep watch over yourself with care,

都來三萬刻

Reckoned up it comes to thirty thousand ke of work,

差失恐豪釐

And the fear is of going wrong by a single hair's breadth. (The base text reads "hao li" with the wrong character for "hao" (hair's breadth); the character used is an error for the correct one.)

夫婦交會時

Just when husband and wife come together,

洞房雲雨作

Clouds and rain arise in the bridal chamber,

一載生個兒

After a year a child is born,

個個會騎鶴

And every one of them rides off on an immortal crane.