Great Clarity

CONTENTS List of Illustrations, vi List of Tables, vii Conventions, viii Preface, xi Introduction, 1 Part One: THE HEAVEN OF GREAT CLARITY AND ITS REVELATIONS 1 The Early History of Chinese Alchemy and the Way of the Great Clarity, 33 2 The Heaven of Great Clarity, 53 3 The Great Clarity Corpus, 82 Part Two: THE ELIXIRS OF THE GREAT CLARITY 4 The Crucible and the Elixir, 104 5 The Ritual Sequence, 124 6 The Medicines of Great Clarity, 156 Part Three: A HISTORY OF THE GREAT CLARITY 7 Gods, Demons, and Elixirs: Alchemy in Fourth-Century Jiangnan, 191 8 The Way of the Great Clarity and Daoism in the Six Dynasties, 218 Part Four: TEXTS OF THE GREAT CLARITY 9 Scripture of The Nine Elixirs, 244 10 Scripture of the Golden Liquor, 288 11 Scripture of the Reverted Elixir in Nine Cycles, 294 Part Five: THE LEGACY OF THE GREAT CLARITY 12 The Later History of Chinese Alchemy and the Decline of the Great Clarity, 306 Appendixes A Dates of Texts in the Waidan Corpus, 340 B Additional Notes on Great Clarity and Related Texts, 346 C Additional Notes on the Commentary to the Scripture of the Nine Elixirs, 363 Glossary, 389 Works Quoted, 405 Index