Wu Zhen Pian (悟真篇) · Volume 1

序

Preface.

嗟夫！人身難得，光陰易遷，罔測修短，安逃業報？不自及早省悟，惟只甘分待終，若臨歧一念有差，立墮三塗惡趣，則動經塵劫，無有出期。當此之時，雖悔何及？故老釋以性命學開方便之門，教人修種，以逃生死。釋氏以空寂為宗，若頓悟圓通，則直超彼岸；如有習漏未盡，則尚徇於有生。老氏以煉養為真，若得其樞要，則立躋聖位；如其未明本性，則猶滯於幻形。

Alas! A human body is hard to obtain, time flows away easily, the length of life cannot be foretold, and how can one escape the retribution of karma? If one does not awaken early on one's own, and is content simply to wait for the end in one's allotted station, then should a single thought go wrong at the fork of the road at death, one falls at once into the three evil paths and passes through dust-like kalpas with no date for emerging. By then, even if one regrets it, how could it be in time? Therefore Laozi and Shakya opened a gate of expedient means through the study of nature and life, teaching people to cultivate and plant, so as to escape birth and death. The Buddhists take emptiness and stillness as their tenet; if one can attain sudden awakening and complete penetration, one leaps straight to the other shore; but if the habits of outflow are not yet exhausted, one is still entangled in the realm of birth. The Daoists take refining and nourishing as the truth; if one obtains its pivot, one rises at once to the sage's rank; but if one has not yet understood one's nature, one is still stuck in an illusory form.

其次，《周易》有窮理盡性至命之辭，魯語有毋意必固我之說，此又仲尼極臻乎性命之奧也。然其言之常略，而不至於詳者，何也？蓋欲序正人倫，施仁義禮樂有為之教。故於無為之道，未嘗顯言。但以命術寓諸《易》象，以性法混諸微言耳。至於《莊子》推窮物累逍遙之性，《孟子》善養浩然之氣，皆切幾之矣。

Next, the Book of Changes has the words "exhaust principle, fully realize nature, and arrive at the decree (life)", and the Analects has the saying "no conjecturing, no insisting, no obstinacy, no egotism"; these are again the utmost reach of Confucius into the depths of nature and life. Yet his words are often brief and do not go to full detail. Why? Because he wished to set human relations in order and carry out the conditioned teaching of benevolence, righteousness, ritual, and music, and so he did not openly speak of the Way of non-action (not deliberate action, which does not mean doing nothing at all) (Laozi uses the word Dao to refer to the origin and mode of operation of all things, which itself cannot be named). He only lodged the art of life in the images of the Changes and mixed the method of nature into subtle words. As for the Zhuangzi, which investigates the burdens of things to the end and speaks of the nature of free wandering, and Mencius, who was good at nourishing his flood-like qi (the flowing stuff that constitutes and pervades all things), they come very close.

迨夫漢魏伯陽引《易》道陰陽交姤之體，作《參同契》以明大丹之作用，唐忠國師於語錄首敘老莊言，以顯至道之本末，如此豈非教雖分三，道乃歸一。奈何後世黃緇之流，各自專門，互相非是，致使三家旨要迷沒邪歧，不能混而同歸矣！且今人以道門尚於修命，而不知修命之法，理出兩端，有易遇而難成者，有難遇而易成者。如煉五芽之氣，服七耀之光，注想按摩，納清吐濁，唸經持咒，噀水叱符，叩齒集神，休妻絕粒，存神閉息，運眉間之思，補腦還精，習房中之術，以致服鍊金石草木之類，皆易遇難成者。已上諸法，於修身之道，率皆滅裂，故施功雖多，而求效莫驗。若勤心苦志，日夕修持，止可避病，免其非橫。一旦不行，則前功漸棄。此乃遷延歲月，必難成功。慾望一得永得，還嬰返老，變化飛昇，不亦難乎？深可痛傷！蓋近世修行之徒，妄有執著，不悟妙法之真，卻怨神仙謾語。殊不知成道者，皆因鍊金丹而得。恐洩天機，遂託名數事而名。其中惟閉息一法，如能忘機息慮，即與二乘坐禪相同。若勤而行之，可以入定出神。奈何精神屬陰，宅舍難固，不免常用遷徒之法。既未得金汞返還之道，又豈能回骨換陽，白日而昇天哉？

When it came to Wei Boyang of the Han dynasty, who drew on the substance of yin and yang intermingling in the Way of the Changes and composed the Cantong qi to illuminate the working of the great elixir, and National Teacher Zhong of the Tang, who at the head of his recorded sayings set out the words of Laozi and Zhuangzi to show the root and branch of the supreme Way: is this not a case where the teaching is divided into three schools but the Way returns to one place? Unfortunately, in later ages the yellow-capped Daoists and the black-robed Buddhists each specialized in their own and attacked one another, so that the essential purport of the three schools was lost on crooked byways and could not be blended and brought back together! Moreover, people today think the Daoist gate only esteems cultivating life, yet they do not know that the methods of cultivating life divide in principle into two kinds: those easy to come across but hard to accomplish, and those hard to come across but easy to accomplish. Refining the qi of the five sprouts, taking the light of the seven luminaries, visualization and massage, drawing in the clear and expelling the turbid, chanting scriptures and holding mantras, spraying water and chanting at talismans, clicking the teeth to gather the spirit, leaving one's wife and giving up grain, holding the spirit and stopping the breath, turning the thoughts between the brows, replenishing the brain and returning the essence, practicing the arts of the bedchamber, even taking and refining minerals, herbs, and woods: all of these are easy to come across and hard to accomplish. These methods are, in the main, broken and incomplete as ways of cultivating the body, and so though the effort is great, seeking results brings no confirmation. If one works with diligent heart and bitter will, practicing day and night, one can only avoid illness and escape unjust disasters. Once one stops practicing, the earlier work is gradually thrown away. This is merely dragging out the years, and it is bound to be hard to succeed. To wish to obtain it once and keep it forever, to return to infancy from old age, to transform and rise to heaven in broad daylight, is that not also very difficult? It is deeply to be lamented! Practitioners of recent times cling wildly to their views and do not awaken to the true place of the wondrous method, but instead complain that the immortals speak empty words. They do not know that all who have accomplished the Way obtained it through refining the golden elixir. Fearing to leak heaven's secrets, they borrowed many names to speak of it. Among them there is only the method of stopping the breath; if one can forget scheming and still the thoughts, it is the same as the seated meditation of the two vehicles. If one practices it diligently, one can enter samadhi and send the spirit out. But the spirit belongs to yin and its dwelling is hard to make firm, so one cannot avoid constantly resorting to the method of moving house (the source text has a variant character here; the standard character is meant). Since one has not yet obtained the way of returning gold and mercury, how could one replace the bones and change into yang, and ascend to heaven in broad daylight?

夫鍊金液還丹者，則難遇易成，須要洞曉陰陽，深達造化，方能追二氣於黃道，會三性於元宮，攢簇五行，和合四象，龍吟虎嘯，夫唱婦隨，玉鼎湯煎，金爐火熾，始得玄珠成象，太乙歸真。都來片餉工夫，永保無窮逸樂。至若防危慮險，慎於運用抽添，養正持盈，要在守雌抱一。自然返陽生之氣，剝陰殺之形。節氣既周，脫胎神化，名題仙籍，位號真人，此乃大丈夫功成名遂之時也。今之學者，有取鉛汞為二氣，指臟腑為五行，分心腎為坎離，以肝肺為龍虎，用神氣為子母，執津液為鉛汞，不識沉浮，寧分主客，何異認他財為己物，呼別姓為親兒，又豈知金木相剋之幽微，陰陽互用之奧妙？是皆日月失道，鉛汞異爐，欲結還丹，不亦難乎？僕幼親善道，涉躐三教經書，以至刑法書算、醫卜戰陣、天文地理、吉凶死生之術，靡不留心詳究。惟金丹一法，閱盡群經及諸家歌詩論契，皆雲日魂月魄，庚虎甲龍，水銀丹砂，白金黑錫，離坎男女，能成金液還丹。終不言真鉛、真汞是何物也。又不說火候法度，溫養指歸。加以後世迷徒恣其臆說，將先聖典教妄行箋註，乖訛萬狀。不惟紊亂仙經，抑亦惑誤後學。

As for those who refine the liquid gold and reverted elixir, it is hard to meet but easy to accomplish. One must thoroughly understand yin and yang and deeply penetrate creation and transformation, and only then can one chase the two qi to the yellow path, gather the three natures at the original palace, cluster the five phases and harmonize the four images; the dragon chants and the tiger roars, the husband sings and the wife follows, in the jade cauldron the broth is simmering and in the golden furnace the fire is blazing. (The names used in this work, such as lead, mercury, dragon and tiger, cauldron and furnace, and the infant and the maiden, are all names that inner-alchemy writers borrow from the drugs and vessels of outer alchemy to refer to the essence, qi, and spirit within the body and the parts where they are refined and nourished; they do not literally refer to minerals or drugs.) Only then does the dark pearl take form and the Great Unity return to the true. It all takes only a moment, and one possesses boundless ease forever. As for guarding against danger and anticipating peril, prudence lies in the use of withdrawing and adding; nourishing the right and holding the full depends on keeping to the female and embracing the One. Naturally (ziran, "so of itself, naturally so", not "Nature" as the natural world) the qi of returning yang is restored, and the form of yin killing is stripped away. When the seasonal periods have been fully run through, one sheds the womb and transforms in spirit, one's name is inscribed in the register of immortals, and one's rank is called a true person; this is the time when a great man's work is accomplished and his name made. Among today's learners, some take lead and mercury to be the two qi, point to the viscera as the five phases, divide the heart and kidneys into kan and li, take the liver and lungs as dragon and tiger, use spirit and qi as mother and child, and hold saliva to be lead and mercury; not recognizing what sinks and what floats, how could they distinguish guest from host? How is this different from taking another's property as one's own, or calling a child of another surname one's own son? And how could they know the subtlety of metal and wood restraining each other, or the mystery of yin and yang being used by each other? All this is because the sun and moon have lost their road and lead and mercury are not in the same furnace; to wish to form the reverted elixir like this, is it not also very difficult? From youth I drew near to the good path and read widely in the scriptures of the three teachings, as well as legal writings, arithmetic, medicine, divination, military formations, astronomy, geography, and the arts of fortune and misfortune, life and death; there was none I did not study in detail. Only on the single method of the golden elixir, I read all the scriptures and the songs, poems, treatises, and tallies of the various schools, and they all speak of the sun's hun and the moon's po, the geng tiger and the jia dragon, quicksilver and cinnabar, white gold and black tin, the li and kan male and female, as able to accomplish the liquid gold and reverted elixir, but from start to finish they never say what true lead and true mercury actually are, nor do they speak of the measure of the fire phases or the destination of warm nourishment. Moreover, deluded followers of later ages indulge their own guesses and annotate the canons of the former sages at will, with errors of ten thousand kinds, not only throwing the immortal scriptures into confusion but also deluding and misleading later learners.

僕以至人未遇，口訣難逢，遂至寢食不安，精神憔悴。雖詢求遍於海嶽，諸益盡於賢愚，皆莫能通曉真宗，開照心腑。後至熙寧己酉歲，因隨龍圖陸公入成都，以夙志不回，初誠愈恪，遂感真人，授金丹藥物火候之訣。其言甚簡，其要不繁，可謂指流知源，語一悟百，霧開日瑩，塵盡鑑明，校之仙經，若合符契。因謂世之學仙者，十有八九；而達其真要者，未聞一二。

Because I had not yet met a perfected person and the oral instructions were hard to come by, I reached the point where I could neither sleep nor eat in peace, and my spirit grew haggard. Though I inquired all across the seas and mountains and sought instruction from the wise and the foolish alike, none could make me understand the true lineage or illuminate my heart. Later, in the year jiyou of the Xining era, because I followed the Longtu academician Lord Lu into Chengdu, my long-held aspiration did not turn back and my original sincerity grew more reverent; thereupon I received from a perfected person the transmission of the oral instructions on the drugs and fire phases of the golden elixir. His words were brief and the essentials not many; one might say that pointing at the stream, one knows the source, and hearing one, one awakens to a hundred. The mist lifted and the sun was bright; the dust was gone and the mirror was clear; when I compared it against the immortal scriptures, it matched like two halves of a tally. It made me lament that of those in the world who study immortality, eight or nine out of ten are many, but I have never heard of even one or two who penetrate the true essentials.

僕既遇真詮，安敢隱默，罄所得，成律詩九九八十一首，號曰《悟真篇》。內七言四韻一十六首，以表二八之數；絕句六十四首，按《周易》諸卦；五言一首，以象太一之奇；續添西江月一十二首，以同歲律。其如鼎器尊卑、藥物斤兩、火候進退、主客後先、存亡有無、吉凶悔吝，悉備其中矣。及乎篇集既成之後，又覺其中惟談養命固形之術，而於本源真覺之性有所未究，遂玩佛書及《傳燈錄》，至於祖師有擊竹而悟者，乃形於歌頌、詩曲、雜言三十二首，今附之卷末，庶幾達本明性之道，盡於此矣。

Having met the true explanation, how dared I hide it in silence? I wrote down all I had obtained and made regulated poems, nine times nine, eighty-one in all, and called them Wuzhen pian (Awakening to Perfection). Among them, the sixteen poems of seven characters and four rhymes are meant to represent the number two eights; the sixty-four quatrains follow the hexagrams of the Book of Changes; the one poem of five characters is meant to resemble the odd number of the Great Unity; and the twelve poems to the Xijiang yue tune, added afterward, are meant to match the pitches of the year. As for the honor and lowliness of the cauldron and vessels, the weights of the drugs, the advance and retreat of the fire phases, the order of host and guest, presence and absence, fortune and misfortune, regret and humiliation, all are fully set down within. After the collection was complete, I again felt that it spoke only of the arts of nourishing life and fixing the form, and had not examined the nature of the original true awareness, so I savored the Buddhist books and the Chuandeng lu, down to those patriarchs who awakened at the sound of a striking bamboo, and gave form to thirty-two pieces in hymns, poems, songs, and miscellaneous verses; they are now appended at the end of the volume, in the hope that the way of reaching the root and clarifying nature is all here.

所期同志覽之，則見末而悟本，舍妄以從真。

What I hope is that fellow seekers, on seeing it, will perceive the root from the branch tip, and abandon the false to follow the true.

七言四韻一十六首

Sixteen poems of seven characters and four rhymes.

（以表二八一斤之數）

(Used to represent the number two eights making one jin.)

不求大道出迷途，縱負賢才豈丈夫。百歲光陰石火爍，一生身世水泡浮。

If one does not seek the Great Way to come out of delusion, then even if one has worthy talents, how can one count as a real man? A hundred years of time are like a spark from flint, and a lifetime is like a bubble floating on water,

只貪名利求榮顯，不覺形容暗悴枯。試問堆金等山嶽，無常買得不來無。

only craving fame and profit and seeking glory, not noticing that the face is quietly withering and wasting. Try asking: if heaped-up gold equaled a mountain, could it buy off impermanence so that it would not come?

人生雖有百年期，夭壽窮通莫預知。昨日街頭猶走馬，今朝棺內己眠屍。

Though a human life has a limit of a hundred years, early death or long life, hardship or success, cannot be foreseen. Yesterday a horse was still trotting in the street; this morning a corpse is already lying in a coffin (the source text has a variant character here; the standard character is meant),

妻財拋下非君有，罪業將行難自欺。大藥不求爭得遇，遇之不煉是愚痴。

the wife and wealth you leave behind were never yours, and your sins will follow you, impossible to deceive yourself about. If you do not seek the great medicine, how can you meet it; if you meet it and do not refine it, that is simply foolishness.

學仙須是學天仙，惟有金舟最的端。二物會時情性合，五行全處虎龍蟠。

One who studies immortality must study heavenly immortality, and only the golden elixir is truly the real thing (the source text has a variant character here; the standard character is meant). When the two things meet, their natures and feelings accord, and where the five phases are complete the tiger and dragon coil around each other,

本因戌己為媒娉，遂使夫妻鎮合歡。只候功成朝玉闕，九霞光裡駕祥鎣。

originally with wu and ji acting as matchmaker (the source text has a variant character here; the standard character is meant), so that husband and wife are joined in lasting joy. One only waits until the work is complete to have an audience at the Jade Gate, riding an auspicious luan phoenix amid the light of nine rosy clouds (the source text has a variant character here; the standard character is meant).

三五一都三個字，古今明者實然稀。東三南二同成五，北一西方四共之。

Three, five, and one are just three characters, yet few in all of past and present truly understand them. Three in the east and two in the south together make five, and the one in the north joins the four in the west to make it,

戌己自居生數五，三家相見結嬰兒。嬰兒是一含真炁，十月胎圓入聖基。

Wu and ji by themselves occupy the generative number five; when the three families meet, they form an infant. The infant is the One, containing true qi (a variant form of the character for qi, used by inner-alchemy writers to mark a level that is not breathing through the mouth and nose); in ten months the womb is complete, and one enters the foundation of sages.

草木陰陽亦兩齊，若還缺一不芳菲。初開綠葉陽先倡，次發紅花陰後隨。

The yin and yang of plants and trees are also complete on both sides; if one side is missing, they do not bloom fragrantly. At first green leaves open, with yang leading the way; afterward red flowers emerge, with yin following behind,

常道只斯為日用，真源返覆有誰知。報言學道諸君子，不識陰陽莫亂為。

the common way takes this only as daily use, but who knows the returning and turning of the true source? I tell you, gentlemen who study the Way: if you do not recognize yin and yang, do not act at random.

陽裡陰精質不剛，獨修一物轉贏尪。勞形按引皆非道，服氣餐霞總是狂。

The yin essence within yang is not firm in substance, and cultivating one thing alone only leaves one frailer and weaker. Wearying the body with guiding and stretching exercises is not the Way, and taking in qi and dining on rosy clouds is all folly,

舉世漫求鉛汞伏，何時得見虎龍降。勸君窮取生身處，返本還源是藥王。

The whole world seeks in vain to subdue lead and mercury; when will anyone see the tiger and dragon descend? I urge you to investigate fully the place from which they are obtained and born; returning to the root and the source is the king of medicines.

人人本有長生藥，自是迷徒枉擺拋。甘露降時天地合，黃芽生處坎離交。

Everyone originally has the medicine of long life, but deluded followers simply throw it away. When sweet dew descends, heaven and earth join; where the yellow sprout grows, kan and li intermingle,

井蛙應謂無龍窟，籬鵲爭知有鳳巢。丹熟自然金滿屋，何須尋草學燒茅。

The frog in the well can only say there is no dragon's cave; how could the magpie by the fence know there is a phoenix nest? When the elixir is ripe, a house full of yellow gold comes naturally; why go searching for herbs and learn to burn thatch?

休煉三黃及四神，若尋眾草便非真。陰陽得類歸交感，二八相當自合親。

Do not refine the three yellows and the four spirits; if you go looking among the various herbs, it is not the true thing. When yin and yang find their own kind they return to mutual response, two eights match, and naturally they join as kin,

潭底日紅陰怪滅。山頭月白藥苗新。時人要識真鉛汞，不是凡砂及水銀。

At the bottom of the pool the sun is red, and the yin monsters are wiped out; on the mountaintop the moon is white, and the medicine sprouts are fresh. People of the day wish to know true lead and mercury: they are not common cinnabar and quicksilver.

此法真中妙更真，都緣我獨異於人。自知顛倒由離坎，誰識浮沉定主賓。

In this method, within the true there is further a wondrous true, all because I alone differ from others. I know for myself that the inversion is due to li and kan; who recognizes floating and sinking, and fixes host and guest?

金鼎欲留朱里汞，玉池先下水中銀。神功運火非終旦，現出深潭月一輪。

The golden cauldron wishes to hold the mercury within the cinnabar, and the jade pool first puts down the silver within the water. The spiritual work of moving the fire does not even take a whole night, and a wheel of moon appears in the deep pool.

要知產藥川源處，月在西南是本鄉。鉛遇癸生須急採，金逢望遠不堪嘗。

If you want to know the source where the medicine is produced, the moon in the southwest is its native place. Lead meeting gui must be gathered urgently; gold meeting the full moon cannot be tasted,

送歸土釜牢封固，次入流珠廝配當。藥重二斤須二八，調停火候托陰陽。

Send it back to the earthen cauldron and seal it firmly, then add the flowing pearl to match it. The medicine weighs two jin and must be two eights; adjust the fire phases by relying on yin and yang.

虎躍龍騰風浪粗，中央正位產玄珠。果生枝上終期熟，子在胞中豈有殊。

The tiger leaps and the dragon soars, wind and waves are rough, and in the central correct position the dark pearl is produced. The fruit growing on the branch will ripen in the end; how is a child in the womb any different?

南北宗源翻卦象，晨昏火候合天樞。須知大隱居廛市，何必深山守靜孤。

The sources of south and north overturn the hexagram images, and the fire phases of dawn and dusk accord with the celestial pivot. Know that the great recluse lives in the marketplace; why go deep into the mountains to guard a lonely stillness?

不識玄中顛倒顛，爭知火裡好栽蓮。牽將白虎歸家養，產個明珠似月圓。

If one does not recognize the inversion within the inversion in the mystery, how can one know that lotuses are well planted in fire? Lead the white tiger home and raise it, and it produces a bright pearl round as the moon,

謾守藥爐看火候，但安神息任天然。群陰剝盡丹成熟，跳出樊籠壽萬年。

Merely sitting by the medicine furnace watching the fire phases, one only settles the spirit and breath and lets nature take its course. When the many yin are stripped away, the elixir ripens; one leaps out of the cage and lives ten thousand years.

黃芽白雪不難尋，達者須憑德行深。四象五行全藉土，三元八卦豈離壬。

The yellow sprout and white snow are not hard to find, and one who penetrates must rely on depth of de (the portion that the Way gives and obtains in people and things, not "virtue" in the sense of moral preaching). The four images and five phases all depend on earth, and the three origins and eight trigrams how could they leave ren,

煉成靈寶大難識，消盡陰魔鬼莫侵。欲向人間留秘訣，未逢一個是知音。

The numinous treasure, once refined, is the hardest to recognize; when the yin demons are wiped out, even ghosts cannot encroach. I wish to leave the secret instruction in the human world, but I have not yet met a single person who understands.

好把真鉛著意尋，莫教容易度光陰。但將地魄擒朱汞，自有天魂制水金。

Be sure to seek true lead with intent, and do not let time pass by easily. Use only the earthly po to seize the cinnabar mercury, and naturally the heavenly hun will restrain the water and metal,

可謂道高龍虎伏，堪言德重鬼神欽。已知壽永齊天地，煩惱無由更上心。

One may say that when the Way is high, the dragon and tiger are subdued, and when de is weighty, ghosts and spirits show respect. Once you know your life span equals heaven and earth, worry has no way to climb into your heart again.

不識真鉛正祖宗，萬般作用枉施功。休妻謾遣陰陽隔，絕粒徒教腸胃空。

If you do not recognize the true ancestor of true lead, all manner of practices are wasted effort. Leaving one's wife merely cuts off yin and yang, and giving up grain merely empties the intestines and stomach,

草木陰陽皆滓質，雲霞日月屬檬隴。更饒吐納並存想，總與金丹事不同。

The yin and yang of grasses and trees are all dregs in substance, and rosy clouds and sun and moon belong to the hazy and dim (the source text has a variant character here; the standard character is meant). Even if you add breathing exercises and visualization, they are in the end different from the matter of the golden elixir.

萬卷丹經語總同，金舟只此是根宗。依他坤位生成體，種在乾家交感官。

Ten thousand volumes of elixir scriptures all say the same words, and the golden elixir is just this, the root and lineage (the source text has a variant character here; the standard character is meant). Following the substance generated in the kun position, plant it in the palace of qian where they mingle,

莫怪天機都洩漏，只緣學者盡愚蒙。若能了得詩中意，立見三清太上翁。

Do not blame heaven's secrets for being fully leaked; it is only because learners are all benighted and ignorant. If you can understand the meaning in these poems, at once you will see the Elder of the Three Pure Ones.