Page 565 - The Encyclopedia of Taoism v1_A-L

HUNYUAN SHENGJI

(shan LlJ) to "water" (shui ;t). This shows that Kunlun and hundun are the
same closed center of the world.
In some Taoist cosmogonies, the stage of hundun comes relatively late, after
the five precosmic geneses called Five Greats (wutai 11. j(; see *COSMOGONY).
Here, hundun indicates the state in which pneuma (*qi), form (*xing), and
matter (zhi 'el> have already begun to exist but are still merged as one. This
view, found in two Han "weft texts" (weishu ~¥.; see *TAOISM AND THE
APOCRYPHA), was also incorporated in *Liezi 1 (Graham 1960, 18-19) and de-
veloped in many other Taoist texts. Elsewhere, hundun denotes a state when
the Three Pneumas (sanqi -.:~), called Mysterious (xuan ~), Original (yuan
5I:), and Inaugural (shi ~€1), are still merged.
*Neidan texts repeatedly allude to hundun. Alchemists begin their work by
"opening" or "boring" hundun; in other words, they begin from the Origin,
infusing its transcendent element of precosmic light into the cosmos in order
to reshape it. From a physiological point of view, hundun is the beginning of
embryonic life, the moment when the embryo receives the pneuma; in alchemi-
cal terms, it is the time when alchemical Lead and Mercury are still merged
with each other. Hundun is the elixir, the number I, and the Original Pneuma
(*yuanqi). As the Center, it is a synonym of the tripod and furnace (*dinglu)
and of the Embryo of Sainthood (*shengtai). Thus, hundun is the origin, the
center, and the end.

Isabelle ROBINET
W Eberhard 1968, 280, 363-64, 438-43, 445; Girardot 1978a; Girardot I978b;
Girardot 1983; Ikeda Tomohisa 1995
* COSMOGONY; TAOISM AND CHINESE MYTHOLOGY

Hunyuan shengji

Saintly Chronicle of Chaotic Origin

The Hunyuar.. shengji (CT 770) is a hagiography of Laozi, written by Xie
Shouhao ilM'i' I¥J! (I134-I2I2; Qing Xitai 1994, I: 332) and dated I19I. The author
came from Yongjia * iJ'f; (Zhejiang) and was a classical scholar who became
an active Taoist at the *Yulong wanshou gong (Palace of the Ten-thousand-
fold Longevity of Jade Beneficence) on the Western Hills (*Xishan, Jiangxi)
in his later years. He apparently closely identified with his hagiographic
work, sporting "hair and beard white and hoary, so that many people said he