The Yellow Court Scripture, vol. 1

PRAISE

The Yellow Court Scripture, in both its outer and inner forms, is essential reading for understanding meditative visualizations in Daoism as well as its rituals and pantheon. It illuminates just how theory and methods are organized and effective. Livia Kohn’s translation is greatly appreciated. She presents not only the texts, complete with Chinese characters, but also the main commentaries that make these otherwise very difficult works a great deal more accessible.

—Catherine Despeux, INALCO, France

This spectacular translation of a key Daoist meditation texts from the 3^rd and 4^th-centuries CE, in their inner version credited to the woman Daoist Wei Huacun (251-334), offers distinctive new materials and amazing information that further illuminates the link between the classical texts, such as the Daodejing, and the historical developments of Daoist schools. The work opens a new dimension in the study of Daoist body cosmology, centering on the Yellow Court, the core energy center of the human body. It also expands our appreciation of Daoist self-divinization and its multifaceted ways of reaching to perfect health, extensive longevity, clear insights, omniscience, and eternal life.

—Robin R. Wang, Professor of Philosophy, Loyola Marymount University

THE AUTHOR

Livia Kohn, Ph.D., is Professor Emerita of Religion and East Asian Studies at Boston University. The author or editor of close to sixty books (including the annual Journal of Daoist Studies), she spent ten years in Kyoto doing research. She now serves as the executive editor of Three Pines Press, runs international conferences and workshops, and guides study tours to Japan.

INTRODUCTION (First Part)

The Huangting jing 黃庭經(Yellow Court Scripture) comes in two major versions, an “outer” and an “inner” text, formally called the Huangting wai/ neijing jing 黃庭外/內景經(The Outer/Inner Lights Scripture of the Yellow Court, hereafter called Waijing and Neijing, respectively).^¹ Both are written in lines of seven characters: the Waijing consists of 1358 words in 194 lines, divided alternatively into three parts—either of equal length or with a shorter second section—or 24 divisions; the Neijing has 3312 words in 473 lines, presented in 36 verses of uneven length.^²

Both are revealed works, the Waijing claiming its source as Lord Lao 老君, the divinized Laozi, while the Neijing associates itself with the Lord of Jade Morning Light (Yuchen jun 玉晨君), an early deity of the school of Highest Clarity (Shangqing 上清). They are rather mysterious and poetic in content, describing the human body in terms of energies and spirits, chambers and palaces. Without giving specific instructions, they suggest visualization and energy circulation to maintain these internal powers intact to enhance life, increase longevity, and reach for immortality.^³ Both texts, moreover, carry celestial power in themselves and have been chanted since they first appeared.

While both were present in the 4^th century CE, early documents referred to either one only as Huangting jing, without specifying “inner” or “outer.” Once the division arose, as scholars generally agree, the appellation “inner” came to indicate to a more esoteric and intricate work, while “outer” signaled a more generally accessible and exoteric variant (Robinet 1993, 56).

The relative date and mutual relationship between the two versions have been the subject of extended debates, going back several centuries.^⁴ Today, some scholars see the Neijing as the original and more esoteric text and the Waijing as a generalized summary for non-initiates.^⁵ Others take the Waijing to be the more ancient and primary work and understand the Neijing as a later expansion, a more subtle and detailed presentation.^⁶ Yet others remain neutral and just note that the issue has yet to be resolved.^⁷

Recent research suggests that the second position covers the more likely scenario. An extensive and meticulous analysis of the rhyme structure of both texts shows clearly that the language of the Waijing ranges from the Western Han to the Three Kingdoms, with the 2^nd century of the Eastern Han as its most likely date of origin. The Neijing, in contrast, is about a hundred years later, most appropriately dated to the Wei-Jin or the 3^rd to 4^th centuries (Yu 2000, 11; Schipper in SV 96).

The Huangting jing 黃庭經(Yellow Court Scripture) comes in two major versions, an “outer” and an “inner” text, formally called the Huangting wai/ neijing jing 黃庭外/內景經(The Outer/Inner Lights Scripture of the Yellow Court, hereafter called Waijing and Neijing, respectively).^¹ Both are written in lines of seven characters: the Waijing consists of 1358 words in 194 lines, divided alternatively into three parts—either of equal length or with a shorter second section—or 24 divisions; the Neijing has 3312 words in 473 lines, presented in 36 verses of uneven length.^²

The Waijing

The earliest appearance of the term “Yellow Court” as part of Daoist body cosmology is in the Laozi ming 老子銘 (Inscription for Laozi) by Bian Shao 邊邵.^⁸ Dated to 24 September 165, it contains a record of the imperial sacrifices to the divinized Laozi undertaken by Emperor Huan at the sage’s birthplace in Bozhou亳州and begins with a summary of the facts known about the ancient philosopher, then praises Laozi as the central deity of the cosmos. He was born from primordial energy, came down to earth to establish culture and save humanity, to eventually ascend back into the heavenly realm as an immortal.It says:

Laozi joins the movements of the sun and the moon, is at one with the five planets. He freely comes and goes from the elixir field; easily travels up and down the Yellow Court. He rejects ordinary customs, conceals his light, and hides himself. Embracing the prime, he transforms like a spirit and breathes the essence of perfection. (Kohn 1998a, 41)

This places the notion of internal cultivation, the presence of the Yellow Court among the energy centers of the human body, as well as a close link to Lord Lao clearly into the mid-2^nd century CE.

Probably from the same period is a passage in the Liexian zhuan 列仙傳 (Immortals’ Biographies, DZ 294, SV 114), a text that is officially associated with the Han erudite Liu Xiang 劉向 (77-6 BCE), but was compiled later. Here, the biography of Zhu Huang 朱璜notes his recitation of Lord Lao’s Huangting jing as a key practice of immortality (2.21a; Kaltenmark 1988, 177), indicating the presence of the work in a culture of textual veneration and spiritual self-cultivation.^⁹

Another early mention of the term and also of the practice of recitation occurs in the Laozi bianhua jing 老子變化經 (Scripture of the Transformations of Laozi), a Dunhuang manuscript (S. 2295) dated to around 185.^¹⁰ It gives expression to the beliefs of a popular messianic cult, located in southwest China, where the Celestial Masters were also active at the same time. Besides expressing Laozi’s identity with Dao and his powers before and during creation, it contains a description of his repeated descents as the teacher of dynasties. It transforms his birth under the Zhou into a supernatural event, involving a pregnancy of seventy-two years and numerous marvelous signs of sagely physiognomy, and elevates the Daode jing to the status of revealed scripture (Kohn 1998a, 12). Laozi says,

I go through death and come back to life, circulate freely through the four seas, time and again emerge from the Yellow Court, pass through history and go beyond [ ], step on the Three Sovereigns, and support the Three Terraces [constellation]. I wear clothes but am essentially formless; ignorant, I rest in unknowing. (Lines 72-73)

Here the Yellow Court is a more cosmic entity, related to the center. A later passage outlines the three core energies of the cosmos, linking the color yellow with the center: “Life qi is on the left, source qi is on the right, and the center contains yellow qi” (Line 87).

In addition, the Bianhua jing has Laozi admonish his followers to chant the Daode jing ten thousand times continuously, after which they can know him personally. Combined with good relations between fathers and sons, abstention from alcohol, and assiduous self-cultivation, the practice will ensure good fortune and freedom from disease as well as control over the spirits (Lines 79-83). It is essential to rest in calm and stillness, remain in nonaction and free from desires—all values strongly emphasized in the Waijing (Xu 1990, 24) and also essential to Celestial Masters practice.

Another 2^nd-century document that echoes the Waijing even more closely is the Laozi zhongjing 老子中經 (Central Scripture of Laozi, DZ 1168, SV 92-94; YQ 18-19), also known as Zhugong yuli 珠宮玉曆 (Jade Calendar of the Pearly Palace) and in the Huanting jing cited as Yuli jing 玉曆經 (Jade Calendar Scripture).^¹¹ The text consists of fifty-five sections in two scrolls that provide instructions on visualization, breathing techniques, healing exercises, as well as sexual and other methods. Spoken by Lord Lao, who refers to himself in the first person, it is called “central” because it claims to form part of the Daode jing, which divides into upper and lower sections (Schipper 1995, 118; Puett 2010a, 239).

Predicting a coming apocalypse, the text outlines the various gods of the universe, who all emanate from the Great One (Taiyi 太一), and places them both in the world and in the human body. In outlook, it presents a Han cosmological vision that is also expressed in the diviners’ compass (shi 式) and sacrificial structure of the dynasty.^¹² In practice, it continues the tradition of self-divinization, present since the 4^th century BCE, that works through exerting control over the spirits and keeping them in the body by concentrating energy and refining essence, the central method at the core of the Huangting jing (Puett 2010a, 226; see also Puett 2002; 2005; 2010b).

The Yellow Court in this text is the residence of Laozi who appears under the title Yellow Lord Lao of Central Ultimate (Huanglao zhongji jun 黃老中極君) and is identified as the core deity among all the stars and the Dipper. His female aspect, or queen, is a jade maiden called Mysterious Radiance of Great Yin (Taiyin xuanguang yunü 太陰玄光玉女). Wearing robes of yellow cloudy energy, they join to give birth to the immortal embryo.

To activate the pair, adepts visualize a sun and moon in their chests underneath their nipples, from which a yellow essence and a red energy radiate. These vapors then rise up to enter the Scarlet Palace in the heart and sink down to the Yellow Court in the abdomen. Filling these internal halls, the energies mingle and coagulate to form the immortal embryo, which grows gradually and becomes visible as an infant facing south, in the position of the ruler. As he is nurtured on the yellow essence and red energy still oozing from the adept’s internal sun and moon, all illnesses are driven out and the myriad disasters are allayed (ch. 1, sect. 11; YQ 18.7ab).

Other passages, too, mention the Yellow Court in conjunction with the Scarlet Palace and the Purple Chamber, indicating the spiritual dimensions of the spleen, heart, and kidneys that manifest in yellow, red, and black, respectively (1.3, 2.36, 2.37). In addition, it states that as “the Great One enters the Yellow Court, he fills the Great Storehouse [stomach] and nourishes the Infant” (1.17), the practitioner’s immortal alter ego (see Pregadio 2006). Beyond that, the text acknowledges a Perfected and a Jade Maiden of the Yellow Court, placing them in the center of the body (1.27, 2.30). While wider in overall scope (Robinet in Pregadio 2008, 78-79), the cosmology here matches that presented in the Waijing, where the Yellow Court is also in the center, connected to the heart and kidneys, then called the Dark Towers, and which equally relies on the system of the five phases as it became dominant in the Han dynasty.

Also at the core of practices described in the third chapter of the Lingbao wufuxu 靈寶五符序 (Explanation of the Five Talismans of Numinous Treasure, DZ 388, SV 232-33) (Lagerwey 2004, 141), which incidentally cites the Laozi zhongjing several times (Schipper 1995, 118),^¹³ this thinking finds further expression in the Taiping jing 太平經(Scripture of Great Peace, DZ 1101, SV 277-80; ed. Wang 1979). Another work of the Eastern Han, this too outlines the positions and movements of the spirits in the body in conjunction with five-phases cosmology.^¹⁴ All this places the Waijing in a late Han context.

1 The texts appear in DZ 332 and 331 (SV 96-97, 184-85). A comprehensive edition with concordance is found in Schipper 1975. Previous renditions include Saso 1995; Olson 2017 for the Waijing; Archangelis and Lanying 2010; Hwang 2015 for the Neijing. There are also translations in German (Homann 1975) and French (Carré 1999).

2 Yang 1995, 68; Yu 2000, 2; Mehdi in Lai 2021, 485, 489.

3 Maspero 1971, 531; Needham et al. 1983, 85; Schipper 1994, 136; Strickmann 1996, 121; Robinet 1993, 84-85; Baldrian-Hussein 2004, 193.

4 The earliest discussion is by the Song scholar Ouyang Xiu 歐陽修 (1007-1072), who places the Waijing first. He is later followed by the Qing exegetes Yang Renfang 楊任芳and Yejun Mizhai zhuren 鄴郡敉齋主人 (19^th c). The position that the Neijing is earlier and takes priority was first proposed by the Qing scholars Dong Dening 董德寧and Jiang Guozuo 蔣國祚 (18^th c). (Li 1988, 39; Xu 1998, 98; Yang 1995, 68-69).

5 Wang 1984 [1948], 332; Yoshioka 1955, 212, 228; Kaltenmark 1967, 118; Homann 1971, 23; Chen 1980; Qing 1988, 352; 1994, 60-63; Xu 1990, 21; Xu 1998, 99.

6 Maspero 1971 [1937], 489; 1981, 372; Schipper 1975, 11; in SV 96, 185; Chen 1980, 25; Li 1988, 40; Yang 1995, 70; Gong 1997, 1:72; 1998, 89; Bokenkamp 1997, 164n32; Li 1988, 15; 1989, 344; 1995, 105; Yang 1999, 289; Yu 2000, 15; Li 2010b, 111; Zhang 2018, 27.

7 Robinet 1984, 2:255; 1993, 56, 59, 237n20; in Pregadio 2008, 511-13; Zhu 1996, 296; Kim 1999, 250; Baldrian-Hussein 2004, 191; Cai 2006, 134; Cao 2009, 184; Yang 2010, 165-66; Mehdi in Lai 2021, 48.

8 Yang 1995, 75; Yu 2001, 11. For more on the inscription, see Yoshioka 1959, 21-31;Seidel 1969a, 37, 121-28;Kusuyama 1979, 303-15;Maspero 1981, 394; Neswald 2009, 29.

9 Li 1988, 39; Yang 1995, 70; Yu 2000, 11; Baldrian-Hussein 2004, 192; Schipper 1975, 11; in SV, 96; Wang 2010, 166.

10 The text is dated on the basis of internal evidence (Laozi’s last appearance happens in 155), but its current edition goes back to the year 612. The manuscript is reprinted in Seidel 1969a, 131-36 and can also be found online at https://www.newton.com. tw/wiki-老子變化經. A French translation appears in Seidel 1969a, 60-73. See also Robinet 1997, 51-52; Gao 1920.

11 On the text, see Schipper 1979; 1995; Kohn in Pregadio 2008, 624-25; Neswald 2009, 30-32; Huang 2010, 62-63; 2012, 28-29.

12 Schipper 1995, 117; Lagerwey 2004, 165; Robinet in Pregadio 2008, 83; Puett 2010a, 242. On the compass, see Harper 1978; Kalinowski 1983. For more on early visualizations, see Pregadio 2006; Raz 2007.

13 The Wufuxu materials go back to the 2^nd century and match the cosmology of the apocrypha (Kaltenmark 1982, 10; Schipper 1995, 118-19; Yamada 1989). For more on the text and the dietary practices outlined in the second chapter, see Arthur 2013.

14 The Taiping jing was revealed to Gan Ji 干吉by the Yellow Lord Lao 黃老君around the year 140 CE. It was presented to Emperor Xun (r. 125-144) and memorialized to Emperor Huan in 166. Lost after the defeat of the Yellow Turban rebellion, it was reconstituted under Highest Clarity auspices by Zhou Zhixiang 周志享and presented to Emperor Xuan of the Chen (r. 568-582). For a study and translation, see Hendrischke 2006. Its relation to the Huangting jing is noted in Robinet 1993, 64-66; in Pregadio 2008, 81; Cao 2009, 185; Zhang 2018, 26.

SAMPLE TRANSLATION

1 作道優游深獨居

To practice Dao, wander widely, deeply live in solitude.

To practice Dao, you should enter an oratory. Reach out to your womb, refine your physical form, and revert essence and spirit.

* * *

Seclude your body, hide your physical form, and sever all ties with the ordinary world. Harbor qi and nourish essence, and your face will be glossy like cinnabar pearls.

2 扶養性命守虛無

Support inner nature, nourish destiny, maintain emptiness and nonbeing.

Emptiness and nonbeing constitute naturalness. Maintain Dao, nourish physical form, and cultivate alignment, and naturalness never leaves your body.

* * *

Decisively relinquishing all forebears and ancestors, avoid the ordinary world and live in seclusion. The Director of Destiny settles the registers. To be removed from the ledgers of the dead, change your name and alter your surname. In this manner, you can firmly maintain emptiness and nonbeing.

3 恬淡無為 [自樂] 向思慮

Quiet and bland, in nonaction [naturally joyful], attend to thoughts and worries.

Serene and bland, clear and pure, nourish the spirits and cherish your physical organism. Get ten thousand miles away from harm, and you will be free from thoughts and worries.

* * *

Serene and bland, in full obscurity, rejoice in Dao and maintain poverty. Don’t engage in memories or worries, and you reach a state completely free from trouble.

4 羽翼已成 [具] 正扶疏 [骨]

Feathered wings already complete [formed], rightly support their spread [your bones].

As the study of Dao nears completion, body and organism get lighter and lift up. Vague and obscure, it is as if you had fur and feathers. When this happens, you lift up and ascend. Hence the text speaks of supporting their spread.

* * *

Cultivating Dao and practicing benevolence, the physical organism soars and the flesh gets lighter. When Dao is complete and potency achieved, a chariot of clouds comes to receive you. Jade maidens supporting its axle, it rises up and ascends to Great Clarity. You do not sprout fur or feathers.

5 長生久視乃飛去

Reach long life and eternal vision:^¹ take off flying.^²

Attaining Dao, you do not die; going beyond the world, you live forever. Then, in bright daylight, your spirit soul flies off and enters Great Clarity.

* * *

Always alive for ten thousand generations, you become close friends with the One. Jade maidens pick mushrooms and sprouts to chew on. Ingesting them, you immediately sprout fur and feathers. The Highest Spirit issues a summons and you fly off to enter the azure ocean.

6 五行參差同根節 [帶]

The five phases, joined and separate, merge at root and joints [belt].

The five organs pattern themselves on the five phases, at times moving up, at times moving down. Joined and separate, the merge into oneness at the esophagus.

* * *

The five colors soar and rise, at times joined, at times separate. Merged in chaos,^³ they cannot be distinguished, but together they bring forth the root and stalk.

7 三五合氣要 [其] 本一

The three and the five merge their qi in [their] original oneness.^⁴

Above and below, the three and the five join into oneness in the chamber. When the three and the five are destroyed, they revert to oneness.

* * *

Three times five makes fifteen. In their very center, the two friends are hidden. They come and go to form the three yang. Full of mysterious potency, they are subtle and wondrous. Their shape is like a dragon. When you see this, laugh softly to yourself and never tell a living soul.

8 誰與共之斗日月

All support them: Dipper, sun, and moon.

The left eye is the sun: the chief father rules within. The right eye is the moon: the chief mother rules within. The Dipper is the constellation of the seven stars. They are also called the seven regulators.

* * *

The female resides at the North Culmen; the male resides in the Southern Palace. The perfected are not far off but close by inside the Dipper. The three luminants shine forth everywhere, heaven and earth observe each other. If you want to attain the One, ask the two lads.

9 抱玉懷珠和子室

Embrace jade, clasp the pearl: harmonize your parlor.

Rough and irregular like jade, scattered widely like rocks, guide the qi and hold it in tightly. Your thoughts are like a string of pearls.

* * *

Glittering like jade, strung like pearls, balance and harmonize [qi] in your parlor and chamber, floating along forever with the generations.

10 子能知之萬事畢

If you can know all this, the myriad affairs are done.^⁵

Cultivating Dao and maintaining the One, you absorb qi and extend your

years, turn your destiny around and become a spirit immortal. Then the myriad affairs are done.

* * *

The One is the greatest of spirits, at the root of heaven and earth and the source of people’s original destiny. If you can know this, the myriad affairs are naturally done.

11 子自有之持勿失

You naturally have it: hold on and never lose it.

Close in essence and naturally maintain it. Keep envisioning the Infant.

* * *

Each and every person has the One. Having the One but not knowing how to maintain simplicity, they lose their base and root in favor of receiving wealth and treasures. The wise attain it and make it their friend.

12 即得 [欲] 不死入金室

Then you attain [desire] no-death as you enter the golden parlor.

To cultivate Dao, by all means enter the parlor of the nine divisions and return to the womb to refine the physical form. Cultivate and regulate the perfect qi, mysterious and white. Serenely close off and seal the three passes, and no wayward qi will arise.

* * *

Then you enter the three-inch space to create the golden parlor in the Grotto Chamber. Connecting to the Dark Towers, I change my physical form into a perfected. The perfected then resides in the Elixir Field.

1 This expression goes back to Daode jing 59,

2 These five lines are highly poetic and outline the core program of the text:

To practice Dao, wander widely, deeply live in solitude.

Support inner nature, nourish destiny, maintain emptiness and nonbeing.

Quiet and bland, in nonaction, attend to thoughts and worries.

Feathered wings already complete, rightly support their spread:

Reach long life and eternal vision:take off flying.

3 Isabelle Robinet translates the phrase hunhe 混合as “unitive fusion” (1993, 105).

4 According to the pantheon of the Dadong jing, these are the Five Spirits and Three Ones, representatives of the five directions and three elixir fields (Robinet 1993, 101).

5 This closely echoes Zhuangzi 12.