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

1. Tang Dynasty and Five Dynasties 119
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無 、 皆 云 『 參 同 契 』 中 卷 是 也 、 深 屬 淺 見 矣 。
Formerly, the True Man Wei Boyang transmitted to Chunyu Shutong
the Cantong qi and the “Old Songs” by Xu Congshi, who came from
Qingzhou (Shandong). When Wei Boyang compounded the Elixir, he
wrote this Wu xianglei. Later he departed, mounting into the clouds, but
ordered his disciples to inscribe [this book] in “seal characters” (dazhuan).
None of the various editions [of the Cantong qi] includes [this book],
and they all state that [the original Wu xianglei] is the second chapter
of the Cantong qi. This is indeed a very shallow view. 23
The passage continues by saying that while the Wu xianglei that is
found in the present-day Cantong qi deals with other matters, the
Biyao “is concerned with the different categories [of ingredients], and
with the treatment of the Three Yellows (sanhuang 三 黃 , i.e., sulphur,
realgar, and orpiment) and the Two Treasures (erbao 二 寶 , i.e., lead
and mercury).”
However, neither sulphur nor realgar and orpiment are part of the
discourse of the Cantong qi, which, as a matter of fact, blames those
alchemist who “roast sulphur above camphor wood” (36:14), and then
enjoins: “Dispose of realgar!” (87:19). The same is true of the main
part of the Biyao, which is devoted to establishing correspondences
between twenty or so pairs of mineral and other ingredients, one of
which is Yin and the other is Yang: for example, cinnabar and mercury;
realgar and orpiment; sulphur and magnetite; litharge and tin;
brass and mercury; and salt and iron. 24 These and several other
23
Cantong qi wu xianglei biyao, 1b. The study by Ho and Needham,
“Theories of Categories in Early Mediaeval Chinese Alchemy”, p. 178,
contains a different translation of this passage that does not deliver its main
point. The passage is fully understandable only in the light of the controversies
about the authorship of the Cantong qi (see The Seal, vol. 1, pp. 9–11).
Before the entire Cantong qi was attributed to Wei Boyang, one of the views
about its origins made Xu Congshi the author of the first chapter, and Wei
Boyang the author of the second chapter, which consisted of explanations on
the first one and was entitled Wu xianglei. See Zhouyi cantong qi (CT 999),
preface, 1a. This work is approximately contemporary with the main text
found in the Biyao.
24
See table II, p. 200, in Ho and Needham, “Theories of Categories”; and
table 120 in Needham, Science and Civilisation in China, V.4:320.
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