Page 571 - The Encyclopedia of Taoism v1_A-L

530 THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF TAOISM A-L

the Yang force. "Since the heat of the flame thus stands for the active forces,
the recreation of the cosmic process depends upon the binding of fire by time"
(Sivin 1980, 266). As the movement of the Sun steers time and brings about
change in beings and things, so the variation of heating by an alchemist fol-
lows the progress of time and brings about the creation and transformation
of the elixir.
In *waidan, fire phasing is performed in various ways, but essentially by
varying the distance of fire from the vessel, the amount of fuel, or the dura-
tion of the heating time, and also by alternating the process of cooling and
heating. The heating device and the whole procedure represent the dynamic
and cyclic interaction of fundamental cosmic forces, such as the daily, monthly,
and yearly phases of Yin and Yang.
Time is represented by numbers, trigrams, or hexagrams. Numbers are quali-
tatively chosen according to their cosmological meaning, and applied quantita-
tively as measures. Moreover, purely numerical equivalences in the ratio of one
time unit to another make them interchangeable and permit time to be scaled
in the alchemical procedure. For example, one lunar month of 30 days, having
360 "double hours" (shi B;y), is equivalent to one year, having 360 days.
Trigrams and hexagrams similarly allow the alchemist to reduce time and
reproduce the sinusoidal movement of the cosmic forces. In texts related to
the *Zhouyi cantong qi, for instance, the time phases are represented by the
twelve "sovereign hexagrams" (bigua ,!l¥=:f~; see table 13), a cosmological device
whose origins have been mentioned above, but which is usually associated
with the late Han cosmologist, Yu Fan Jj; 111 (164-233 CE). In their progressive
arrangement, starting with fit 1~ ~~, the unbroken lines in the first six hexa-
grams flow upward followed by the broken lines in the other six hexagrams,
reproducing the alternate growth of Yin and Yang throughout the year. Each
hexagram corresponds to a stage of heating. ''As those rhythms bring miner-
als to perfection within the earth's womb, so they transmute the ingredients
into an elixir in the alchemical laboratory" (Pregadio 2000,185).

KlM Daeyeol
IQ] Chen Guofu 1983, 88-90; Pregadio 1995; Pregadio 2000, 184-85; Sivin 1976;
Sivin 1980, 231-79; Suzuki Yoshijiro 1974, 165-207, 624-31
~ Yijing; waidan; COSMOLOGY

2. Neidan
In *neidan, fire phasing constitutes the rhythm of the inner alchemical work:
the Art of Measure. Through it, the alchemist knows how to measure the
ingredients (yaowu ~ ~), when to increase or decrease the Fire, and so on.