Centering Merits When Yin And Yang Join

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Inner Alchemy
Terms of Inner Alchemy
Mind , Spiritual Nature and Bodily Life
Essential Matter , Vital Breath and Spirit
Great Reversion Elixir
Small Reversion Elixir
Integrated Cultivation of Spiritual Nature and Bodily Life
Three Flowers Condensing onto the Head
Transporting through the Three Vehicles
Meeting of the Three Parts
Refining the Mind through the Nine Cauldrons
Intercourse of Dragon and Tiger
Refinement of Essential Matter into Vital Breath
Refinement of Vital Breath into Spirit
Refinement of Spirit Back to Emptiness

Refinement of Emptiness into Dao
Reversing Kan with Li
Centering Merits When Yin And Yang Join
The Five Vital Breaths Oriented to the Origin
Rebirth from the Original Fetus and Bones
Basic Cultivation
Self-Refinement
Harmonizing the Breath
Obtaining the Elixir Drug
Collecting Elixir Drugs
Fire Phases
To Increase Fire
To Reduce Fire
To Nourish in Warmth
Bathing
Unfixed Zi Phase
River Chariot
Mysterious Pearls
Passages and Cavities
Cosmic Orbit
Feminine Alchemy
Cutting the Red Dragon
Refining the Form through the Supreme Yin
Body of Original Chastity

“Centering Merits When Yin And Yang Join ” ( 合符行中 Hefu Xingzhong ) is a term of the science of the Golden Elixir ( 金丹 Jindan ). This term first appeared in the Three Ways Unified and Normalized of the Book of Changes ( 周易參同契 Zhouyi Cantongqi ). There is a phrase in the book, “centering merits when Yin And Yang join between the last day of a lunar month and the first day of the next one”. What’s important is the expression “when Yin And Yang join”, which signifies the combination of the two halves of a talisman. Then what does “centering merits” mean? Here “centering” implies the central place of earth, and the whole phrase means centralizing the inner vital breath in imitation of the fusion of the sun and the moon. It is also necessary to understand the expression “between the last day of a lunar month and the first day of the next one”. It refers to the time when Yin turns into Yang at midnight of the 30th day of the first lunar month. In the alchemical context, a day replaces a month. This expression therefore refers to the time “between the hour of Hai and the hour of Zi of a day”. The hour of Hai indicates ultimate Yin while the hour of Zi indicates the beginning of the birth of Yang. Hence the time “between the hour of Hai and the hour of Zi” is the moment of a day at which Yin changes into Yang. In the practice of Inner Alchemy ( 內丹 Neidan ), one should Collect Elixir Drugs ( 采藥 Caiyao ) and Increase Fire ( 進火 Jinhuo ) at this time. “Centering Merits When Yin And Yang Join” represents the doctrine of “Keeping to the Middle” ( 守中 Shouzhong ) elucidated in The Book of Dao and its Virtue ( 道德經 Daodejing ) by Laozi.