On the Cantong Qi (17): Their Arsenic, Our Honey

Jusheng still prolongs life; the reverted elixir can be taken into the mouth. The nature of metal does not decay, and therefore it is the treasure of all things. The adepts subdue and eat it, and their lifespan becomes long. Earth roams through the four seasons, keeps its boundaries and maintains its rules. Metal sand enters the five viscera, dispersing like mist in wind and rain. It steams and permeates the four limbs, and the countenance becomes bright and lovely. White hair all turns black; fallen teeth grow back where they were. The old man becomes young again, and the aged woman becomes a maiden. The form is transformed and one escapes worldly calamities; such a person is called a True Person. The "Materia Medica Revered Origins" (Bencao Chongyuan) says: Jusheng is also called Hu Ma, and also Goushi. It originally came from the Hu lands, hence the name Hu Ma. Ju means great. It originally grew in the Hu land of Dayuan, so it is also called Jusheng; among the eight grains, only this one is finest. Kou Zong said: Hu Ma is precisely today's large sesame; only that produced in the Hu lands is plump and large, hence the name Hu Ma, also called Jusheng. The more common name for Jusheng is sesame. According to the records, its flavor and nature are sweet and neutral, and non-toxic. It treats injury to the center and wasting weakness, supplements the five viscera, benefits qi and strength, lengthens the muscles, and fills the marrow and brain. Long-term consumption makes the body light and free from aging. The preparation of sesame is quite particular. There are many sesame products nowadays, but most are wasteful, and so the effects are poor. The ancients said that regularly eating sesame pills blended with honey could turn white hair black; some people tried making and eating them, but the results were not good. This is because little attention is paid to the materials. For sesame to be prepared properly, it must first undergo nine steaming and nine sun-drying; only then can its efficacy be brought to the utmost. As for the honey used for blending, one must seek out authentic native honey from the countryside—best is not to buy commercial finished products from the supermarket. Because commercial honey in processing often uses high temperatures, this actually destroys the constituents of the honey. Moreover, many vendors, to cut costs, dilute the honey with sugar water or add starch; naturally, eating it produces no effect or only a weak effect. As for the many items sold online claiming to be nine-steamed and nine-sun-dried sesame—some may truly be genuine, but since one cannot control quality, it is best to make it oneself by hand. Precisely because sesame has many tangible effects and can prolong life and years, the passage here says that even Jusheng can still prolong life; if it is the reverted elixir, it would of course be still more effective. What effect is that? The nature of metal does not rot or decay, and so it is the treasure of all things. If alchemical practitioners subdue and eat it into themselves, their lifespan becomes long. Here the text says "subdue-and-eat" (fu shi), rather than merely "take medicine" (fu shi of a different kind), because subdue-eating is done in concert with using qi to "eat"—it is not simple eating. The key explanation of subdue-eating lies in the line: "Earth roams through the four seasons, keeping its boundaries and maintaining its rules." One must know that Wuxu earth (Wu and Ji earth) has no fixed form or image; it roams in the four seasons—that is, in the final month of each season. Within each season, the first month is called Zhong, the second Meng, and the last Ji. All Ji-months belong to earth, and they are distributed among the five directions: in the east it is Chen earth, in the south Wei earth, in the west Xu earth, in the north Chou earth. Chou earth is the tomb of metal and pairs with Zi water. Chen earth is the tomb of water and pairs with You metal. Xu earth is the storehouse of fire and pairs with Mao wood. Wei earth is the tomb of wood and pairs with Wu fire. That which pairs with water gains metal; that which pairs with metal gains water; that which pairs with wood gains fire; that which pairs with fire gains wood. Wood is three of the east; fire is two of the south; they inter-tomb and pair to obtain. Water is one of the north; metal is four of the west; they inter-tomb and pair to obtain. Thus east-three and south-two together make five; north-one and west-four together make five. The heavenly stems obtain this, and the earthly branches likewise obtain it; heaven and earth both gather the five phases together, and so transformation returns to heaven and earth. This is precisely "keeping its boundaries and maintaining its rules." The metal sand thus obtained can enter within the five viscera, disperse through the four limbs, steam and permeate the hundred apertures, and spread over the whole body like mist. Because the nature of metal does not decay, it can confer this undecaying quality upon the human body; thus the flesh body is nourished, the skin becomes smooth, the complexion becomes vital, white hair turns black, fallen teeth grow new ones again, the elderly regain a youthful appearance, and aged women become young maidens again. And when the form has been thoroughly transformed, one is freed from worldly calamities, and may thus be called a True Person. As stated earlier, this is really about "refining the form" (lian xing). However, Master Wei was a great master of external alchemy, so the method of transforming form could well be achieved through superior external alchemical techniques. There are many historical records of external alchemy's form-transformation arts, and most were written by famous persons, so they are largely trustworthy. For example, in Shen Kuo's "Dream Pool Essays" (Mengxi Bitan) from the Song dynasty, the Astronomer Royal Shen Kuo recorded what he personally witnessed: "Attendant Official Chen Yun, while serving as Liquor Supervisor in Quzhou, was already old, with balding hair and missing teeth. A visitor came to see him, calling himself Sun Xiling, dressed in extremely ragged clothes. He gave Yun a knife-edge pill of medicine and told him to rub it on his teeth. Yun did not quite believe it. One free day, he took some and rubbed it on his upper teeth; after several rubs it felt good. When he returned home, his family saw him and all laughed, saying: 'Why did you dye your mustache with ink?' Yun was startled and looked in the mirror—his upper mustache was black as lacquer. He hastily removed his headcloth and saw that the hair on his bare head had already grown several inches; and the lost teeth also seemed faintly to be growing back. When I (Shen Kuo) saw Yun, he was over seventy, with hair and upper mustache entirely black, only the lower beard white." First, this tells of an official named Chen Yun who held the post of liquor supervisor in Quzhou. He was very old, balding, and had lost all his teeth. A raggedly dressed man named Sun Xiling gave him some medicine and told him to apply it to his teeth. Chen Yun did not really believe it; yet one idle day he took some and tried it on. Later, when he went home, his family saw him and laughed, asking why he had dyed his mustache with ink. Chen Yun was very astonished and hurried to a mirror. He found his upper mustache had turned black. Hastily removing his headcloth, he discovered that not only was all his hair black, but it had also grown several inches, and even his lost teeth were faintly beginning to grow back. When I (Shen Kuo) met Chen Yun, he was over seventy; his hair and upper mustache were entirely black, and only his lower beard was white. In the eyes of most people in the past, the ancients described many incredible things. Yet with the progress of modern science, many ancient claims are actually being slowly corroborated. For example, people have long criticized external alchemy for using arsenic; then shallow and ignorant persons have widely spread the claim that external alchemy is poisonous and has killed who knows how many people. The examples usually cited with pleasure are the emperors of the Tang and Ming dynasties—yet these do not withstand careful scrutiny. In fact, Tang emperors did not live long to begin with; on average most died before fifty. Removing those who died from court power struggles and one who overdosed on spring medicines, the remaining emperors who did not take elixirs also mostly died young; while the four who lived long all took elixir medicines. From a modern viewpoint, the reason Tang emperors took elixirs may have been that the Li family had a hereditary disease causing short lifespans—yet those who took elixirs actually lived clearly longer than average. As for Ming emperors, almost all took spring medicines, not proper elixir medicines. Although arsenic is toxic, recent modern research has found that arsenic can cause cancer, yet it can also cure cancer. Its mechanism of action is very peculiar: it can induce differentiation and apoptosis in leukemia cells. Here arsenic plays the role of causing unhealthy cells to die. If we expand this line of thinking under modern understanding, external alchemy may well exploit this point. Because any protein in the human body can undergo deformity; many illnesses result from massive deformity of proteins within the body, rather than from some toxic chemical reaction. And arsenic happens to have this effect—it can clear these deformed proteins from the human body. Moreover, external alchemy does not only contain arsenic, but many other components as well. If science progresses further and can further prove that some of them can promote the synthesis and regeneration of new proteins, a better explanation for external alchemy will be possible. It is only a pity that external alchemy has long been lost. Any renewed study would certainly require large amounts of manpower, funding, and material resources—conditions that are very difficult to meet in the modern era. Therefore, for modern cultivation practice, the better strategy is still to conscientiously train form-refining methods. Though they come more slowly, they save money, and the life-prolonging effect of long practice is still remarkable.