To Reduce Fire

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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

"To Reduce Fire"( 退符 tuifu ) is a term of the science of the Golden Elixir ( 金丹 jindan ). "Tui Fu", namely, "to reduce fire", is a way of controlling the Fire Phases ( 火候 huohou ) in opposition "Increasing Fire" ( 進火 jinhuo ). In the science of the Golden Elixir, "Fu" refers to the signs of the Hexagrammantic Lines ( 卦爻 guoyao ). Alchemists take the twelve Trigrams of Waxing and Waning ( 消息卦 xiaoxi gua ) (i.e., Fu, Lin, Tai, Dazhuang, Guai, Qian, Gou, Dun, Pi, Guan, Bo and Kun) in the Book of Changes ( 周易 zhouyi ) to be the indicators of changes in the Yin and Yang natures of Fire Phases. These twelve trigrams represent the principle of the increase and decrease of Yin and Yang. Among them, for the first six trigrams, Yang increases and Yin decreases; while for the last six trigrams, Yin increases and Yang decreases. Alchemists match the twelve trigrams with the twelve Terrestrial Branches ( 地支 dizhi ) to show the changes in Yin and Yang in the process of controlling Fire Phases. "To increase fire" is denoted by the first six trigrams, while "to decrease fire" is denoted by the last six trigrams; the former starts at the Zi hour, while the latter starts at the Wu hour. Yang decreases and Yin Increases after the Wu hour, so one should take care to make Yin dominate. But for Inner Alchemy, the hours of Zi and Wu are also flexible. What counts is not the fixed time, but the internal feelings of one’s own mind and spirit after the true breath activates. To understand "decreasing fire", one must pay attention to this point.