Explorations in Daoism: Medicine and Alchemy in Literature

250 Pages·2007·3.15 MB·English

by  Ho Peng Yoke

Explorations in Daoism
Explorations in Daoism brings together an extraordinary compendium of data on
alchemical knowledge in China, describing the methods used for dating important
alchemical texts in the Daoist Canon, and reconstructing and translating a number of
alchemical texts that exist only in fragments scattered throughout the Canon, as well as in
pharmacopoeia and other compendia. Such techniques, explained here for the first time,
formed a vital part of the groundwork that went into writing the alchemical sections of
Joseph Needham’s Science and Civilisation in China series.
Written by a leading scholar in the field, the book provides a clear guide for students
and scholars about the methods required for dating and reconstituting texts, while also
looking beyond the Daoist Canon to demonstrate how Chinese pharmacopoeia contain
much information on early chemistry. This book will appeal to those interested in
Chinese alchemy, the history of science, Daoism and Chinese history.
Ho Peng Yoke has published widely on Chinese alchemy, astronomy, divination and
mathematics. He occupied senior academic positions in Singapore, Malaysia, Australia
and Hong Kong before becoming the Director of the Needham Research Institute in
1990. On his retirement at the end of 2001 he became its Emeritus Director. He is an
academician of the Australian Academy of the Humanities, Academia Sinica and the
International Euro-Asia Academy of Science.
Needham Research Institute Series
Series Editor: Christopher Cullen
Joseph Needham’s Science and Civilisation in China series began publication in the
1950s. At first it was seen as a piece of brilliant but isolated pioneering. However, at the
beginning of the twenty-first century, it is clear that Needham’s work has succeeded in
creating a vibrant new intellectual field in the West. The books in this series cover topics
relating broadly to the practice of science, technology and medicine in East Asia,
including China, Japan, Korea and Vietnam. The emphasis is on traditional forms of
knowledge and practice, but without excluding modern studies which connect their topics
with their historical and cultural context.
Celestial Lancets
A history and rationale of acupuncture and moxa
Lu Gwei-Djen and Joseph Needham With a new introduction by Vivienne Lo
A Chinese Physician
Wang Ji and the Stone Mountain medical case histories
Joanna Grant
Chinese Mathematical Astrology
Reaching out to the stars
Ho Peng Yoke
Medieval Chinese Medicine
The Dunhuang medical manuscripts
Edited by Vivienne Lo and Christopher Cullen
Chinese Medicine in Early Communist China, 1945–1963
Medicine of revolution
Kim Taylor
Explorations in Daoism
Medicine and alchemy in literature
Ho Peng Yoke
Explorations in Daoism
Medicine and alchemy in literature

Ho Peng Yoke, Ph.D., D.Sc., D.Litt. (Hon.) Edin.
Emeritus Director, Needham Research Institute, Cambridge

Edited by
John P.C.Moffett and Cho Sungwu,

with a foreword by T.H.Barrett
Professor of East Asian History,
School of Oriental and African Studies,
University of London

LONDON AND NEW YORK
First published 2007
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX 14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2007.
“To purchase your own copy of this or any of
Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks
please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.”
© 2007 Ho Peng Yoke
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced
or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means,
now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording,
or in any information storage or retrieval system, without
permission in writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Ho, Peng Yoke, 1926– Explorations in
Daoism: medicine and alchemy in literature/by Ho Peng Yoke. p. cm.—(Needham
Research Institute series) Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Taoism.
2. Alchemy—Religious aspects—Taoism. 3. Alchemy in literature.
I. Title. BL1923.H62 2006 540′.1′12–dc22 2006019818
ISBN 0-203-96680-5 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN10: 0-415-40460-6 (hbk)
ISBN10: 0-203-96680-5 (ebk)
ISBN13: 978-0-415-40460-0 (hbk)
ISBN13: 978-0-203-96680-8 (ebk)
Dedicated to the memory of
Emeritus Professor Yabuuti Kiyosi (1906–2000)

Contents

List of figures x
Foreword, by xii

T.H.Barrett
Preface xx
Acknowledgements xxiv
A brief note on Chinese romanisation xxvi
List of abbreviations xxviii

1 Introduction 1
A brief account of historical trends of Daoist alchemical writings 1
The Daoist Canon 3
Chinese pharmacopoeia 4
Identification of minerals and plants 5
Technical terms in Chinese alchemy 6
2 On the dating of Daoist alchemical texts 9
Methodology 10
Dating the Cantongqi wuxianglei miyao 14
Dating the Chunyang Lü Zhenren yaoshizhi (The Immortal 18

Lü Dongbin’s Book on Preparation of Drugs and Minerals)
Dating the Xuanyuan Huangdi shuijing yaofa (Medicinal 30

Methods from the Aqueous Manual of Xuanyuan, the Yellow Emperor)
3 Danfang jianyuan (Mirror of Alchemical Processes—a Source Book) 33

and Danfang jingyuan (Mirror of the Alchemical Laboratory)
Collation and translation of Dugu Tao’s Danfang jianyuan (Mirror 34

of Alchemical Processes—a Source Book)
Danfang jianyuan (in english translation) with collations 38
Danfang jianyuan: juan 1 38
Danfang jianyuan: juan 2 48
Danfang jianyuan: juan 3 54
Partial restoration, translation and collation of Danfang jingyuan 65

(Mirror of the Alchemical Laboratory)
4 Partial restoration, collation and translation of lost alchemical texts 78
The last curtain on Chinese alchemy: Gengxin yuce (Precious 78

Secrets of the Realm of Geng and Xie, i.e. metals and minerals)
Translation of restored fragmentary text of the Gengxin yuce 81
Dijingtu (Earth Mirror Charts), a lost manual on mining and 88

geobotanical prospecting
Zaohua zhinan (Guide to the Creation of Things) 96
Waidan bencao (Pharmacopoeia of Operative Alchemy) 102
Three versions of Baozanglun (Discourse on the Precious Treasury 107

of the Earth)
Qingxiazi’s Dantailu (Discourse on the Alchemical Laboratory) 112
5 General discussions 117
‘Sympathy’ and ‘like-attracts-like’ in magic 117
Natural transmutation and transfiguration 118
Fictitious plants and animals 120
Metal indicators and geobotanical prospecting 121
Classifications of alchemical and medicinal substances 122
Development of Chinese alchemy 123
Intercultural contact 125
Appendix beyond the Daoist Canon: proto-chemistry in the pharmacopoeia 130

I:
Appendix extracts from al-Bīrūnī’s pharmacopoeia with added commentaries 147

II:
Table I: a glossary of common Chinese alchemical terms 156
Table II: plant names and properties in Chunyang Lü Zhenren yaoshizhi and 158

Xuanyuan Huangdi shuijing yaofa
Table III: Chinese dynasties 178
Notes 167
Bibliography 178
Index 192