Page 560 - The Encyclopedia of Taoism v1_A-L

520 THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF TAOISM A-L

mentaries to the Cantong qi (Zhouyi cantong qi zhu f,'lJ ~ $- [P] ~ r±; ca. 700; CT
1004) highlights methods attributed to him. The corpus associated with this
legendary master, therefore, likely reflects a local tradition that came to affect
the whole development of Chinese alchemy.
Fabrizio PREGADIO

m Chen Guofu 1983,303-9; Qing Xitai 1994, I: 234-35; Pregadio I99I, 567-68;
Zhao Kuanghua 1985a

* waidan

Huimingjing

Scripture of Wisdom and Life

The Huimingjing was written by the Chan monk *Liu Huayang (1735--99) in
1794. One edition (part. trans. Wilhelm R. 1929) was published by Zhanran
Huizhen zi iH m ~ ~ . {- in 1921 together with the * Taiyi jinhua zongzhi; another
(trans. Wong Eva 1998) had been published earlier in the Wu-Liu xianzong ffi i'YP
{ill * (The Wu-Liu Lineage of Immortality; 1897) together with Liu'sjinxian
zhenglun ~ 1[]1 M ~~IJ (Essay on the Verification of Golden Immortality) and
two works by *Wu Shouyang. In fact, the spiritual foundation of this text is
strictly linked to the *Wu-Liu school. Eclectic in character, it draws on the
*neidan traditions of the Song and Yuan periods, joining them with Chan and
Huayan Ijl iJi Buddhism and presenting them in a readily comprehensible
language.
The Huimingjing opens with Liu Huayang's preface, which contains notes
on his life. The main text can be divided into two parts, including altogether
sixteen sections (the index in the Wu-Liu xianzong, however, lists twenty sec-
tions). The first part, consisting of the first eight sections, contains a set of eight
illustrations on the neidan practice with explanations, while the second part
presents various related theories. As Liu states in the first section, he describes
the teachings of the Huayan jing ¥fi\'H~ (Avata1]tsaka-sutra) and the Taoist
classics in pictorial form in order to help adepts understand the true meaning
of cultivating mind and body. In content, the Huimingjing is close to the Ming
and Qing alchemical texts that relate the formation of the spiritual embryo to
the process of human life-gestation, childhood, and adulthood-followed
by the reversal of this process. This is accompanied by detailed descriptions