Page 396 - The Encyclopedia of Taoism v1_A-L

DI AN H UA 357

fourth-century hagiography of Wei Huacun (Robinet 1984, 2: 399- 405), belong
either to the Celestial Masters (*Tianshi dao) or to local traditions earlier than
Shangqing.
Quotations of lost passages of the Dengzhen yinjue in other works include
Tao Hongjing's discussions on drugs, recipes, and other methods originally
attached to Shangqing hagiographies, some of which are not extant else-
where.
Isabelle ROBINET
III Cedzich 1987; Ishii Masako 1980, 283- 309; Ofuchi Ninji 1997, 427- 56; Ofuchi
Ninji and Ishii Masako 1988, 50-53 (list of texts cited); Robinet 1984, 2: 347- 51;
Seidel 1988
* Tao Hongjing; Shangqing

dianhua

"projection"

In Western alchemy, the term "projection" denotes the process by which a
small quantity of elixir confers its properties to any substance which is added
to it. This notion corresponds to the Chinese term dianhua, where hua indi-
cates "transmutation" and dian literally means "one dot," hence "to transmute
by means of a small quantity." Several *waidan texts mention this term and
the corresponding process of transmutation, stating for instance that a small
amount of elixir converts a larger amount of base substances into gold or
silver. Early sources often describe this transmutation as evidence that the
elixir has been achieved.
Later alchemists, associated with both waidan and *neidan, expanded the
notion of dianhua by taking dian to mean the "particle" of precosmic Original
Pneuma (*yuanqi) that circulates in the cosmos along the cycles of time. This
particle is represented by the unbroken line (- ) of the *Yijing, and its cycles
of ascent and descent are illustrated by the twelve "primary hexagrams" (bigua
,I:l*i~; see *huohou) which reproduce a complete time sequence (in particular,
the twelve double hours of the day, and the twelve months of the year). Al-
chemists mark the rhythm of their practice according to those cycles, using
the twelve hexagrams to establish the pattern of the firing process in waidan
(see *huohou), and of the refinement of the primary components of the person
in neidan (see *zhoutian). This allows them to return the ingredients of the