Quaestions: by C^'un-yan-tzu, on Secret Writings of the Cinnabar Classic
Answers: by C^eng-yan-tzu
1. Purity-Silence-Classic: movement & tranquillity
2. Grotto-Hall & Purple Store-House
3. Mud-ball = Sea of Blood, 1 of 9 white rooms
4. Yin-cinnabar = silver of lead; Yan-cinnabar = dragon [kerukeion ?] of mercury
5. 8 Extractions = 9 Stages, grow:
1st breath, 2nd blood, 3rd blood vessels, 4th flesh, 5th marrow, 6th tendons, 7th bones, 8th hair, 9th form
6. Returned Cinnabar:
eyen black, skin fat, bones jade, intestines tendons, white eyebrows, golden surrounding (aura ?)
7. Lead outside dark, inside white [like gun.a-s of S`iva]; Mercury outside green-blue, inside red, having 4 aspects: glazed jade, water reaching Central Palace, c^in-liquor with sand, yeh-liquor with breath of gall
8. water from peaks of mountains and fire [Vad.ava ?] from bottom of sea; mercury from the Tiered Tower and lead from the 9 Heavens. congeal in Central Palace into egg-shaped vermillion tangerines = the Sacred Embryo
9. year, month, day, hour: the 3 Methuselahs are guarding the Storehouse of Potency
10. fire in my heart, god called Wide-mouthed Jar of Heaven and Earth, and Tripod of Yin and Yan. fire = Breath of Realized Unity of the Lower Prime, below the navel
11. smelt in Wide-mouthed Jar a medicine; cover
12. Purple Smoke. the 3 Unadorned ascend & descend inside & outside
13. snake = 4 (seasons); rat = 2 (sun & moon)
14. Palace of the Grotto-Room, inside jade mountain: god White Prime in the room Purple Summit
15. Government Hall: god Central Prime
16. Great Supreme possesseth the Praeserve-Three-and-Guard-One Method: center of the gods = the Red, yellow, and Dark Tripods of the Central Palace
17. crooked heart > greed > attachments > vexations. the god is irritated
18. "nature" in the Great Void, coming & going of form
19. "the gods" = Real Breath of Supreme Unity of the Palace of Supreme Darkness. they number 36,000. [their aspects, when:] praesent, breath; dispersed, clouds & mist; named, form; come forth, an immortal; entering, reality. above them, the Three Primes; below them, the 10,000 things
20. form hath 6 apertures: when the passes of life are blocked, the passes of death are open
21. Golden Liquor & Red Breath
22. Divine Water
23. Flower-Pond
24. Yellow Sprout in the Central Palace
25. Green-Blue Dragon
26. White Tiger
27. Vermillion Bird in south
28. Obscure Warrior in north
29. Barb-shaped Constellation
30. Yellow Old Woman
31. Metal Old man [Talos ?]
32. Young Woman and the Infants
33. respirations: hsu:, ho, hsi, hu, hsi*, szu, c^'ui, c^iao
34. inner & outer Trigrams
35. Caelestial Storehouse = Refectory = Gate of the Throat = Earth-Door
36. Iron Ox
37. Tiered Tower = Jade Tower
38. Chaos containeth things; obscurity containeth essence. P'o-Souls of the Tiger; Golden Crow of the Sun. Hun-Souls of the Dragon; Jade Hare in the Moon
39. Golden Crow; Jade Hare
40. 5 Sacred Mountains: T'ai, Hen, Hua, C^'an, Sun. 5 Lakes. 6 ministerial boards. 9 bends in River. Yan-tzu, Huan-ho, Huai-River, C^i-River = the 4 Seas.
41. body= the state; heart = the king; breath = the prime minister; spleen = the great officer; lungs = administrator of the imperial purse; kidneys = the Faithful Wife; liver = the Board of Finances; gall = the Board of Rites; stomach = the Board of War; bladder = the Board of Justice; Sea of Essence = the Board of Works
42. dragon. Primordial Breath. Storehouse of Obscurity. a ring [Jo,rmungand = Midgards-orm ?]. Its breath = a red silk thread. father of the gods.
43. Tiger. real breath of the 5 Cereals. Root of the Life-Mandate. mother of the gods.
44. tranquillity = nature. real breath of the 5 Cereals > blood > yeh-liquor > nature (of the gods)
45. movement = life-mandate. from inside the Primordial Sea, Breath of Realized Prime > essence + source of potency = gods not peaceful [i.e., not tranquil, instead in movement]
46. "root"
47. the 3 Ponds: Jade Pond, Caelestial Pond, Central Pond
48. the 9 Palaces = 9 Rooms in framework of 8 layers: 4 female [cf. Yoruba female palace-guards] & 5 male guards
49. the 3 Barriers: mouth = Barrier of Heaven; hands = barrier of Man; feet = Barrier of Earth. Mudball = Upper Barrier; Deep-Red palace = Middle Barrier; Lower prime = Lower Barrier. canals to the 9 Apertures desirable to seal
50. Man hath Heaven and Earth: distance of 84,000 leagues (li) between heaven and earth, comparable to 8 inches (ts'un) + 4 tenths of inch (fen) in human body
51. Solstices & Aequinoctes
52. the 5 Permutations cause the existence of rebels (the 5 Robbers)
53. 5 days are pentad; 3 pentads are 1/2 month
54. forcing the Yan-Barrier: enter the house, adopt sitting position
55. liquors in Storehouse of Life-Mandate; breath in Yellow Hall. stored blood > pearls > mercury > sand > cinnabar
56. Yellow Hall, like an egg and like a weight-stone
57. Yellow Old Woman "is not the Yellow Hall"
58. the Penetrating Fire is without shape: at a distance, one cannot get hold of it; when nigh, one cannot let it go -- "There is no name for it."
59. the Golden yeh-liquor refineth form; form & spirit mysteriously unite with Tao & with reality
60. the external 8 Trigrams
61. the spine hath 3 barriers: Jade Barrier, Middle Barrier, Lower Barrrier
62. Great Tao can be likened to an echo. Divine Breath = real nature
63. malignant spirits (mo) disturb one who is cultivating reality
64. "method [exorcism] to ward off" malignant spirits
65. wind, clouds, rain, mist, hoar-frost, snow, and the red clouds
66. the body of man possesseth numbers: the seat of honor, its gold is 192 c^u (weight of 100 grains of millet); likewise for its silver; Yan and Yin likewise: 64 hexagrams total [64 * 6 =] 384 lines of the hexagrams. 1 fen & 4 c^u = fire of Yin-Yan
67. White Breath is unrestrained fire, like Tooth of White Horse
68. Vermillion Mercury = Feet of the Red Dragon = Young Woman = Li-Girl = Green Terrace. marrow of the Red Phoenix. flowing into Flower Pond is Divine Water
69. Infants = Alien Lead = Metal Radiance = Metal Essence = Root of Potency = Jade Vase = Jade Brazier = Tortoise of the North-Sea
70. 9 cyclic mutations. 7 cycles of 7 Luminaries
71. Metal Tripod is covered with bottom of the Flower Canopy. Metal Flower
72. Divine Radiance
73. Constant Horse & Restless Horse. The monkey is the thoughts of the heart.
74. Constant Ox = Iron Ox
75. the 6 Thieves
76. the 3 Carts: Great Ox Cart, Spotted Deer Cart, River Cart = Breath of Realized Unity of the Reservoir. Fire Cart
77. the Grottoes of the P'en-lai-Islands
78. the Rivulets
79. the 3 Corpses
80. the 2 Sources : "Their size is that of a needle-point."
81. "When in one's dreams one has licentious relations with" the spirits, then the gods (s^en*) are moistened -- "If one has carnal wishes," then the body (s^en**) is moistened.
NISABA, Volume Four. Pai Wen P'ien or the Hundred Questions. Transl. by Rolf Homann. E. J. Brill, Leiden, 1976. pp. 7 to 33