Jin Dan Si Bai Zi (金丹四百字) · Volume 2

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.