A Casual Talk on the Zhouyi Cantong Qi (18): Turning from the Dao, Guarding the Lost Path—Exiting the Correct, Entering the Crooked Trail

White lead powder thrown into fire—its color ruined, it reverts to lead. Ice and snow meeting warm water—dissolving, they become the Great Mystery. Metal takes cinnabar as master, blending in harmony with mercury. Changes arise from their truth; beginning and end causally depend on each other. To make one who lies down and ingests an immortal, one should use like kinds: to plant grain use grain seed; to hatch a chick use its egg. Completing by kind is natural; things are accomplished through easy smelting. Can fish eyes become pearls? Can mugwort become tea trees? Those of like kind follow one another; contrary affairs cannot form treasure. Swallows and sparrows do not birth phoenixes; foxes and rabbits do not nurse horses. Water does not flow upward when flaming; fire does not moisten downward when stirred. In these times there are many scholars, of lofty brilliance and fine talent. Meeting without encountering, they waste the fire and lose their resources. Leaning on the text to explain, recklessly making claims. Threads have no cause or affinity; measurement loses its hold. Digging and refining Qiang gallstone, mica, and alum stone; burning sulfur with Yuzhang, stuck in mutual smelting. Forging five-stone copper under the bellows, using it as auxiliary pivot. Mixed natures of different kinds—how could they dwell in one body? A thousand attempts must meet ten thousand failures; hoping to be clever, one becomes a fool. From youth to white-haired old age, midway growing doubtful. Turning from the Dao, guarding the lost path—exiting the correct, entering the crooked trail. Peeking through a tube cannot see broadly; hard to measure what is to come.

White lead powder (hufen), in chemical terms, is basic lead carbonate. Similar to arsenic trioxide, it also has its own unique effects: it can kill cancer cells, directly exterminate parasites, and check bleeding and mucus secretion.

But it is toxic; overdose causes gastroenteritis and induces systemic poisoning. Long-term external use allows it to be absorbed through the skin and accumulate in the body, causing chronic poisoning such as abdominal pain, constipation, and anemia.

So except when there is a special medical need, it is not used.

In Chinese history, during the pre-Qin era, it was once used as a cosmetic for women—effective for lightening the complexion—but later it was no longer used.

In modern times it was also used in paint products; because both production and application easily lead to lead poisoning, in recent years it has been replaced by titanium dioxide.

The ancient method for making white lead powder was to melt a hundred jin of lead, then shave it into thin sheets, roll them into cylinders, and place them in a wooden zeng steamer. Below the steamer and in the middle of the steamer, place a bottle of vinegar each; seal the outside with salt-mud, and paper over the steamer's seams tightly. Heat continuously with the force of about four liang of charcoal. After seven days, open the wooden lid, and one can see a layer of frost-powder covering the lead sheets; sweep the powder into a water vat. The lead that has not yet frosted is put back into the steamer, and heated again for seven days by the original method, then swept again—until the lead is used up. The remaining residue can serve as raw material for making red lead.

In this process of making white lead powder, it is not fired with a strong flame but gently warmed with a gentle fire; only thus is white lead powder formed. If a strong fire is used, the basic lead carbonate upon heating decomposes again into lead oxide and carbon dioxide.

And lead oxide heated with carbon becomes carbon dioxide and lead again—hence "its color ruined, it reverts to lead." From the modern view, this is actually a chemical reaction process.

Ice and snow meeting warm water again melt into water—from the modern view this is a process of physical change. "Metal takes cinnabar as master, blending in harmony with mercury"—this means gold will dissolve into mercury.

"Changes arise from their truth; beginning and end causally depend on each other"—this means that in external alchemy, whatever changes occur are themselves in accord with principle, not random transformations.

So Perfected Wei teaches: if one wants to become a true external-alchemy refiner, one must understand that the transformation of substances must follow the principle of their kinds.

For example, to plant seedlings one uses grain; to hatch chicks one has the hen sit on the eggs. Sort things into their kinds. Model on the natural, and only then can one grasp the wondrous changes within.

Fish eyes cannot serve as pearls; mugwort cannot serve as tea trees. Only like kinds can be transformed; otherwise it cannot succeed.

Swallows and sparrows cannot birth phoenixes; foxes and rabbits cannot nurse horses. Water does not flow upward; fire when stirred does not go downward like water.

However, in this world there are many scholars who, though of high talent and intelligence, spend great wealth yet gain nothing—because they do not understand these principles. Most either rigidly apply the texts, or recklessly make claims according to their own ideas. The result is that nothing makes sense and there are no threads to follow; their grasp of proportional dosages is entirely confused.

So they go dig out and refine Qiang gallstone, mica, alum, and magnetite; burn sulfur with Yuzhang; or refine with clay and mercury; or randomly combine the five stones—these are all miscellaneous things; how could they ever come together?

The result is that after all the tossing about, the only outcome is failure. From youth they refine elixir until their hair turns white; then midway they grow suspicious of whether any of this is real—and so they simply take the crooked path too, and go about deceiving others.

All of this is because of insufficient knowledge—they cannot grasp the essentials.

Although this chapter speaks of external elixir refining, the principle actually applies to all the various arts.

In the present age there are actually many who teach people to cultivate the Dao of the elixir, yet have not understood its principles; they themselves also cultivate randomly, and end up achieving nothing themselves. So they themselves begin to doubt whether the Dao of the elixir even exists. Some also simply take the crooked path—opening training classes everywhere, teaching methods that they themselves are also thoroughly confused about.

Even the Zhouyi Cantong Qi itself is now randomly interpreted by some people. Like the books commonly seen on the market, to those outside the threshold the language seems plain, easy to understand, and quite reasonable. Yet in fact, with even a little professional astronomical or numerological knowledge, one can see the mass of absurdities within them.

To twist Perfected Wei's original intention in this way—can it not be called a regrettable thing?