Taoism and Alchemy: External and Internal in Ge Hong’s Alchemy

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The problem of shift from external alchemy (wai dan) to internal alchemy (nei dan) is one of the most important for understanding of the history of Daoism as well as for elucidation of some crucial questions of the history of science in China. Briefly speaking it can be summarized that the practices of the inner alchemy (such as visualization, breathing control, different types of contemplation, etc.) much older than the techniques of the laboratory alchemy (and moreover, they compose the very core of the mainstream of the Daoist practical methods and techniques). Nevertheless, those techniques and methods obtained their systematic unity of a coherent whole only borrowing the technical language, terminology and theoretical background of the external alchemy.

The Six Dynasties (Liu chao) period is of extreme importance here. First of all, it was a time of the maturity of the external alchemy when it flourished among the Daoists of all branches and trends. Secondly, in this epoch there appeared the first signs of the beginning of the formation of the inner alchemical tradition in the midst of the laboratory alchemy of wai dan.

This aim of this paper is to present some evidences of the process of transition from the external to internal alchemy on the materials of Ge Hong’s «Baopuzi nei pian» It is interesting that this classical and well known work is mostly treated as purely dedicated to the external alchemy. It is certainly true but only to some extent. And it is moreover interesting and demonstrative that even in such practical and experience oriented work as Baopuzi nei pian (henceforth, BPZNP)  the sprouts of the inner alchemical attitudes and approaches found their way of expression.The most interesting for our purpose part of BPZNP is, certainly, its

Chapter 18 Di zhen, or «Earthly Truth». The contents of this chapter may be summarized as following.

1. Metaphysics of the Dao. Dao (the Way as the first cosmological and / or ontological principle) was described here not only as Xuan yi, the hidden and unrevealed substance (analogical functionally to Deus Absconditus of the theistic apophatic mysticism) but also as the self revealing principle of Zhen yi, immanent to the very nature of the given empirically existing things. If the Hidden Mysterious Dao has no form, or image, the manifested Dao of the True One has image of its own. It can be supposed (though Ge Hong does not write it explicitly) that signs of the presence of the True One can be found in every thing and being as «signatures» of Dao (probably, the specific presence of the True One in some substances making them to be spiritualized,  ling, or shen); this spirituality in its turn makes such substances to be suitable for the preparing of different elixirs. Briefly speaking, it is but a kind of especially subtle pnuema qi. (or ch'i)

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(presented to the 9th International Conference on the History of Science in East Asia, Singapore, August 23rd-27th, 1999)

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