Under appreciated Tang dynasty masters of internal elixir, part one: Zhang Guo

This ongoing series of short pieces is meant to highlight writers and documents in the internal alchemy meditation genre who have not had much exposure in the English language discussion of Daoism. Many of this masters left behind ideas about practice which were seminal in the construction of what would become the internal elixir school’s of the Southern and Northern lineages, which together are seen to be the genuine origin from which all Nei Dan takes its root from. Although early writings about internal alchemy are often terse and less perfectly organized than later instantiations of the school, it is important to recognize that the key precepts of the practice have roots that trace back to the earliest schools of Daoism, and that in order to understand classical nei dan, we should look at more primitive forms of the art to serve as a means to understand how the theory was established.
The most popular Tang dynasty writer in the school was Lu Dongbin, but other authors, some well known, and some who remained anonymous also contributed hugely to the development of Daoist meditation practices.

In this post we will look at Zhang Guo, who was a Tang dynasty priest whose dates are unknown. Aside from making a highly detailed commentary on the Jade Emperor Hidden Talisman Classic, he also wrote his own document called Tai Shang Discusses Nine Points of The Subtle Heart Inscription. This document sets out to categorize what Zhang felt were the nine major points which must be mastered in order to achieve internal alchemy and become immortal.
Below is a selection from the document, featuring the entire first point, which is based on the theory of “Real oneness.”

夫真一者,纯而无杂谓之真,浩劫长存谓之一。
On the topic of the real one:
full and without contamination is what is called real,
vast and long lasting is called one.
太上曰:天得一,以日月星辰长清;地得一,以珠玉珍长宁;人得一,以神气精长存。
Thus spake Taishang: the heaven’s grasping oneness makes the sun, moon, and stars, and constellations, forever clear. The earth grasped as one makes the pearls, jade, and treasures forever quiet. People grasped as one means the spirit, breath and essence are forever stored.
一者,本也,本乃道之体,道 本无体,强名曰体。
One is the root, the root is the body of the Dao, the Dao’s root has no body, so the strongest name available is spoken as body.
有体之体,乃非真体,无体之体,日用不亏矣!
The body of that which has a body is not the real body, the body without a body is that which may be used daily with no deficit,
真体者,真一是也,真乃人之神,一者人之气。
The real body is the real one, real thus relates to people’s spirits, one is people’s breath.
长以神抱于气,气抱于神,神气相抱,固于气 海,造化神龟,乃人之命也。
Maintaining the spirit holding the breath and the breath holding the spirit, the spirit and breath holding one another, the core will be in the ocean of energy (lower Dantian area), natural change will be born of the spiritual turtle, which is thus called the life of humanity.
神乃人之性也,性者南方赤蛇,命乃北方黑龟,其龟蛇相缠,二气相吞,贯通一气,流行上下,无所不通,真抱元守一之道也。
The spirit is thus the nature of humanity, nature is the red snake of the south, life is thus the black turtle of the north, the turtle and the snake wind around one another, and the two energies are swallowed into one another, they rise and penetrate as one Qi, travelling around from top to bottom, without anywhere that is not connected. The real holds the original, that is protected as the one Dao.

For those familiar with Zhang ziyang’s Song dynasty book “Understanding Reality” you will see that this document sets out many of the key precepts of meditation that is discussed there. Just as religious and philosophical documents such as the Clarity and Quiet classic and Numinous Treasure Classic are essential to understanding Daoism, so are early documents such as this one by Zhang Guo. It is my hope that this and upcoming posts on this topic will be of use to those making a study of internal alchemy and Daoist meditation.

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