On Huang Yuanji's Inner Alchemy Theory

As a famous scholar on Inner Alchemy in the end of the Qing Dynasty, Huang Yuanji viewed the Dao as the Congenital breath, and consequently, the essence of cultivation as cultivation of the Congenital breath in human body. According to Huang. After a man's birth, the Congenital breath was transformed into the congenital meta-mind and the congenital meta-breath. Therefore, the cultivation of Inner Alchemy was to make the congenital meta-breath surface and blend with the congenital meta-mind.According to Huang Yuanji, in his cultivation of Inner Alchemy, a man ought to carry out a principle of " the congenital meta-mind show itself and the mind stand back", which highlighted the control over human desire. In order to achieve it, Huang introduced a method of "making the congenital meta-mind concentrate on Xu and making the congenital meta-breath accord with Mo ". He also put equal emphasis on a man's body life and his inner nature as well as the combined cultivation of the two, which, according to Master Huang, should be carried through every moment of the whole day in the cultivation process. Based on above-mentioned ideas, Master Huang argued, the cultivation of a man's inner nature ought to be achieved by containment of human desire, whereas the cultivation of his bodily life achieved by the exploration for his nature of tranquility.In Huang Yuanji's theory, Mysterious passes in human body was the gate to the congenital breath, and, accordingly, the gate to the ultimate integration of the nature and human being.In his books, Huang Yuanji also viewed the congenital breath as the highest medicine. He thought there were two kinds of fire in cultivating inner alchemy, namely, the heavenly fire and the earthly fire. Accoring to Master Huang, sometimes, fire was the medicine itself.Obviously, Huang Yuanji viewed the whole process of cultivation of Inner Alchemy as the interaction of the meta-mind and the meta-breath, which constituted the main character of his Inner Alchemy theroy and relevant practice.