The Seal of the Unity of the Three — Vol. 2 - The Golden Elixir

Introduction 9
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notes that quote comparable passages from Western alchemical
literature. The translators understood and explicated the Cantong qi
as an alchemical text concerned with Waidan (External Alchemy).
The English version by the above-mentioned Zhou Shiyi, entitled
The Kinship of the Three (1988), is based on Wu’s and Davis’ work. It
improves its source in many ways, but frequently makes recourse to
extended paraphrases in order to represent the text as exclusively
concerned with Neidan. 10 Zhou’s work is based on Peng Xiao’s
redaction, and includes a Chinese-English glossary of technical terms.
Richard Bertschinger’s rendering of the so-called “Ancient
Text” (“Guwen”) of the Cantong qi, published as The Secret of
Everlasting Life (1994), is a remarkable achievement, although it often
departs from the original Chinese in order to translate the text into
rhyming poetry. Bertschinger includes notes translated or summarized
from the above-mentioned “Zhouyi cantong qi jiangjie” by Fang Xu,
and selections from the commentaries by Zhu Xi, Yu Yan, and Chen
Zhixu. 11
The Cantong qi was also translated and annotated into Japanese
by Suzuki Yoshijirō 鈴 木 由 次 郎 , the eminent Japanese scholar of the
Book of Changes. His work, entitled Shūeki sandōkei 周 易 參 同 契
(Zhouyi cantong qi, 1977), is one of the finest contributions to the
study of the Cantong qi. Based on an undated Korean edition of Yu
Yan’s redaction, and influenced to some degree by Yu Yan’s commentary,
it includes the original Chinese text, a Japanese literal
translation, annotations on terms and verses, collation notes, and
excellent explications of each section. 12
10
To give one example, verses 1:5–6 (which may be translated quite literally
as “Female and male, these four trigrams / function as a bellows and its
nozzles” 牝 牡 四 卦 、 以 為 橐 籥 ) are rendered as: “The microcosm of man’s
body might be likened to the Chinese double-acting piston bellows. The other
four trigrams, male and female, symbolise the cylinder of the bellows with
Qian and Kun as its two valves” (p. 7).
11
Bertschinger’s translation is based on Ma Yizhen’s 馬 一 貞 Chongjiao
Guwen cantong qi 重 校 古 文 參 同 契 (1840), which is a reedition of Yao
Ruxun’s 姚 汝 循 Guwen cantong qi 古 文 參 同 契 (first published ca. 1575,
and republished in 1820). Yao Ruxun, followed by Ma Yizhen, rearranges
parts of Chen Zhixu’s commentary according to the ordering of the
“Guwen” version of the Cantong qi. I am grateful to Mr Bertschinger for
providing me with details about his work and the edition he translated.
12
Suzuki’s work was posthumously published in 1977. The unfinished
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