Rebirth from the Original Fetus and Bones

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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

“Rebirth from the Original Fetus and Bones ” ( 脫胎換骨 Tuotai Huangu ) is a term used in Daoist Inner Alchemy ( 內丹 Neidan ). It means that having attained the Dao through cultivation, a mortal can get rid of his mortal fetus and bones and gain a sacred fetus and bones. In Inner Alchemy, this state indicates that one obtains inner elixirs and transforms his nature. According to Daoism, the combination of the numeral three, which represents wood in the east, with the numeral two, which represents fire in the south, and the combination of the numeral four, which represents gold in the west, with the numeral one, which represents water in the north, both make the numeral five. Together with the numeral five that represents earth in the center, the three “fives” converge to the center. It is called “three families meet to produce a baby”. Hence the practitioner accomplishes his alchemical cultivation and deviates from his mortal nature. These two conditions are the prerequisite for achieving immortality. The expression “rebirth from the original fetus” was already found in the commentaries on The Three Ways Unified and Normalized of the Book of Changes ( 周易參同契 Zhouyi Cantongqi ) in the Song dynasty. For example, Chen Xianwei says, “when one is reborn from the original fetus, his body shines as sunrays light up dust through bright windows.” The term “Rebirth from the Original Fetus and Bones” also had an influence on literature afterwards. For instance, chapter 104 in The Dream of the Red Mansion ( 紅樓夢 Hongloumeng ) says, “all those who become immortals make it either in his bodily form or by shucking off his body.” Here “shucking off his body” means the practitioner shucks off his mortal body so that his true body ascends immortality. This Daoist idiom is used in Chinese culture to signify one thing is emerges from the womb of another thing.