Difference between revisions of "Golden Light Shooting into the Azure"

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(Created page with 'The story was originally mentioned in the poem Snow ''of the Collection of Highest Clarity'' ( 《上清集‧詠雪》 Shangqingji Yongxue ) by Bai Yuchan, who wrote in the ...')
 
 
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The story was originally mentioned in the poem Snow ''of the Collection of Highest Clarity'' ( 《上清集‧詠雪》 Shangqingji Yongxue ) by [[Bai Yuchan]], who wrote in the poem: "when the green maiden brews snow at the breast, snow is the fermented rice and dew changed into wine ". In this story, the "green maiden' referred to a young lady in green dress. In later periods, Daoism borrowed this term to imply 'mercury in the elixir'. In the ''Orthodox Commentary on Realizing Perfection'' ( 《悟真篇正義》 Wuzhenpian Zhengyi ), Dong Dening, a scholar of the Qing dynasty, explained: "the image of the li trigram is a maiden, and the color of wood is green. The two factors produce the image of 'mercury in the elixir' because the elixir belongs to 'li-fire' and mercury belongs to 'zheng-wood' in the trigram figures." In this regard, the 'green maiden' had become a symbol of inner alchemy. There is no doubt Bai Yuchan was very familiar with it. Moreover, through combining different images, he gave the 'green maiden' deeper implications.
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This story was first recorded in the ''Secret Guidelines of the Alchemical Scripture of Golden Light Shooting into the Azure'' ( 《金華沖碧丹經秘旨》 Jinhua Congbi Danjing Mizhi ). Originally, 'golden light' referred to Mt. Jinghua in Zhejiang, the spot where Huang Chuping, an immortal, achieved his cultivation. According to some documents, immortal Huang became a shepherd at the age of fifteen. Then, a Daoist took him to Mt. Jinghua, teaching him the knowledge of cultivation and Daoist dietetics. It was said that since then, he could make himself invisible, or transform stone into sheep. Just because of him, the term 'golden light' entered the lexicon of inner alchemy, referring to one of the elixirs. In later periods, on the basis of materials from Bai Yuchan and Nan Yuanbai, Meng Xu, a patriarch of the Southern Lineage of the Golden Elixir Sect ( 金丹派南宗 Jindanpai Nanzong ), compiled the ''Secret Guidelines of the Alchemical Scripture of Golden Light Shooting into the Azure'', which included documents about external alchemy and poetry about its magic power, which, in this case, were represented respectively by 'golden light' and 'shooting into the azure'.
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People may have different images and experiences about snow. In [[Bai Yuchan]]'s mind, snow was a reminder of wine drunk in cold weather. In the poem, Bai conferred multiple associations on the image of the green maiden. Firstly, it stood for green mountains covered with white snow, an image reminiscent of a maiden with snow in her arms, like a fertile and energetic young lady. In her arms, snow melts just as wine brews in a jar.
 
 
[[zh:金華衝碧]]
 
[[zh:金華衝碧]]

Latest revision as of 10:37, 24 August 2009

This story was first recorded in the Secret Guidelines of the Alchemical Scripture of Golden Light Shooting into the Azure ( 《金華沖碧丹經秘旨》 Jinhua Congbi Danjing Mizhi ). Originally, 'golden light' referred to Mt. Jinghua in Zhejiang, the spot where Huang Chuping, an immortal, achieved his cultivation. According to some documents, immortal Huang became a shepherd at the age of fifteen. Then, a Daoist took him to Mt. Jinghua, teaching him the knowledge of cultivation and Daoist dietetics. It was said that since then, he could make himself invisible, or transform stone into sheep. Just because of him, the term 'golden light' entered the lexicon of inner alchemy, referring to one of the elixirs. In later periods, on the basis of materials from Bai Yuchan and Nan Yuanbai, Meng Xu, a patriarch of the Southern Lineage of the Golden Elixir Sect ( 金丹派南宗 Jindanpai Nanzong ), compiled the Secret Guidelines of the Alchemical Scripture of Golden Light Shooting into the Azure, which included documents about external alchemy and poetry about its magic power, which, in this case, were represented respectively by 'golden light' and 'shooting into the azure'.

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