Recherche sur l'alchimie intérieure (neidan) : L'école Zhenyuan

Abstract

Internal alchemy (neidan) must be distinguished from operative alchemy (waidan) and from the various techniques of breath- circulation. Internal alchemy borrows from operative alchemy its use of the Yijing and of certain chemical terms, but it does not seek to produce any chemical substance; rather, it transfers the alchemical goal of synthesis into the realm of breath and meditation techniques and philosophy. The nine texts to be examined here belong to the teaching of the True Origin (Zhenyuan), a school whose history remains obscure. This tradition traces its origins back to Ge Hong and to operative alchemy. The texts also refer to the Yinfu jing and the Cantongqi. Numerous borrowings from the Shangqing literature also occur, among them the term zhenyuan itself. This is hardly surprising, as the Shangqing incorporation of chemical recipes and breathing techniques may be considered to be the impulse at the origin of internal alchemy. But the synthetic drive behind the Zhenyuan texts goes beyond purely Taoist sources: -correspondences are established between Taoist and Buddhist notions (wu and you, for example); -the zhenyuan the "true origin," is identified with both Mencius' haoran zhi qi and the Taoist yuanqi; -elements from Taoist neiguan, "internal contemplation," and from medical texts are incorporated in the Zhenyuan synthesis, as are Buddho-Confucian notions of morality inherited from Taoist Lingbao scriptures. The texts devote considerable space to cosmogenetic speculation and seek to synthesize Laotzian metaphysics, notions of Taiji, Qian, and Kun, and the Taoist concept of primordial breath as the link between the one and the many, via the mechanisms of its circulation in the macro- and microcosms. It is in the context of this speculation that one of the texts presents the Taiji diagram that plays so important a role in Sung Neo-Confucianism. Most of the oppositions characteristic of other neidan texts are also to be found in the texts of the Zhenyuan school— water and fire, lead and mercury, etc. — as is the contrast between ordinary people who "follow" the natural course of things and engender children and those who "master" this course and engender their immortal self. Also noteworthy is the characteristic neidan emphasis on "double cultivation" of the physical and the mental. Most important, however, is the symbolic use of alchemical terminology: the "true crucible" is identified with the Big Dipper, the "true mercury" with the sun, and the "true cinnabar " or lead, with the moon; these heavenly bodies are in turn linked to the hun and po souls in the human body. The union of these elements is to be effected according to a calendar divided into twelve sections represented by hexagrams. In short, the Zhenyuan school gives us yet another example of the Taoist genius for synthesis. At the same time, it has its own unique characteristics linking it to the Shangqing and Yijing traditions.