Hu Fuchen
Inner alchemists through the ages were mostly highly educated intellectuals, and in their practice of inner alchemy (neidan) they created a rich body of theory. Here we give an outline of the theory of inner alchemy, together with some necessary development and deepening.
1. The Theory of the Body's Three Treasures in Prior and Later Heaven
Inner alchemy calls essence, qi, and spirit the body's “Three Treasures,” and divides them into prior heaven and later heaven. Prior heaven refers to what, viewed from the initial state of nature and human society, is formless, in a state of natural instinct, functional, and beyond the limits of time and space. Later heaven refers to what, viewed from the actual state of the material world and secular society, has form, is artificial and substantial, and conforms to the material law of increasing entropy.
Essence, qi, and spirit are three levels of the elements of human life. They are divided into prior heaven and later heaven, and they can also transform into one another. Later-heaven essence refers to the semen ejaculated during sexual intercourse; in a broad sense it also includes the many hormones secreted within the body.
Prior-heaven essence arises naturally and instinctively in a state of non-action (wuwei), and is also called original essence, essence-origin, or true essence. It refers mainly to a person's spontaneous sexual function when not stimulated by lustful thoughts; in a broad sense it also includes the natural functions of the endocrine, reproductive, circulatory, and other systems that stimulate vitality.
Later-heaven qi refers to the qi of breathing. Prior-heaven qi is original qi or true qi, written with a different character for qi (it comes from refining essence into qi and stands for essence and qi congealed into one); it refers to the functioning of the body's life activity and is expressed as a highly ordered flow of energy and physical vitality. Later-heaven spirit is the spirit of thinking and deliberation, called the conscious spirit; prior-heaven spirit is called the primordial spirit (it comes from refining qi into spirit and is the result of qi and spirit congealing), a state of extreme lucidity without thought. Essence, qi, and spirit are also the medicines for cultivating inner alchemy.
2. The Principle of Inner Alchemy: Following Produces Humans, Reversing Leads to Becoming an Immortal
According to the Taoist theories of the creation and evolution of the universe and the formation of the human body, the universe and human life both arise from the Tao. From its state of emptiness and nothingness, the Tao gives rise to the primordial one qi of prior heaven (also called the “true qi of Taiyi”), and from the one qi arise the two natures of yin and yang. From the meeting and interplay of yin and yang arise the three great elements of matter, energy, and information, and the three primal elements then evolve into the teeming world of the myriad things. This is the cosmic scheme of evolution in Laozi's Tao Te Ching: “The Tao gives birth to one, one gives birth to two, two gives birth to three, and three gives birth to the myriad things.”
The formation of a human being also corresponds to the scheme of cosmic creation. When father and mother, yin and yang, unite, the primordial prior-heaven true qi of Taiyi in the universe is drawn into the mother's womb, forming the embryonic origin in which nature and life are lodged. When the ten months are complete, the fetus is fully formed and leaves the mother's womb; with the cry of birth, the ancestral qi of prior heaven is cut off and later-heaven qi arises. Thereafter, every 32 months, 64 zhu of original qi are produced, passing from the Fu hexagram and the Lin hexagram to the Qian hexagram at age 16, when 384 zhu of original qi have been obtained and the body is pure yang. When the parents first unite, in a hazy state, they form one qi, producing a fetus whose body is not yet formed and whose spirit and qi are not yet distinguished, in a state of primal chaos—this is the “first change” of the human way. From the formation of heart and kidneys and the first separation of spirit and qi, to the completion of the embryo at ten months and the birth of the infant, is the “second change” of the human way. From the newborn to the youth of 16, when the yang essence matures and is about to be discharged and desire first sprouts, is the “third change” of the human way. After that, the conscious spirit takes charge and desire harms the body; every 96 months one yin arises, passing from the Gou hexagram at 24 through the Dun hexagram at 32, the Pi hexagram (40), the Guan hexagram (48), and the Bo hexagram (56), to the Kun hexagram at 64, when original qi is exhausted.
The cultivation of inner alchemy is a work of reversal in the human body: the art of returning from the Kun hexagram to the Qian hexagram, from old age to youth. The basic principle of inner alchemy is that both the evolution of the universe and human life can be thought through in reverse. Following the ordinary course produces humans and things; reversing it, one cultivates immortality. Inner alchemists use “cultivation through the three passes” to halt the entropic effect in the body. Through the immortal art of the first pass, “refining essence into qi,” essence is entirely transformed so that only qi and spirit remain—a process of “three returning to two.” Then the immortal art of the middle pass, “refining qi into spirit,” is a process of “two returning to one,” and finally the immortal art of the upper pass, “refining spirit to return to emptiness,” returns to the Tao of emptiness and nothingness. In this way the body, moving in the reverse direction, returns from the “third change” to the “second change,” and from the “second change” to the “first change,” all the way to the Tao of emptiness and nothingness; then the inner elixir is achieved.
3. The Theory of the Tao of Emptiness and the One Qi of Prior Heaven
Inner alchemy pursues a state of long life without death, of eternal indestructibility. Yet according to the laws of natural science, whatever is produced must ultimately perish; only emptiness and nothingness neither arise nor perish. So returning to the Tao of emptiness and nothingness became the goal of inner alchemy.
The True Words for Chanting the Tao (Changdao Zhenyan) says: “The essential of the Tao is nothing but emptiness; emptiness contains all phenomena. The world may be destroyed, but emptiness alone is not destroyed. The Taoist scriptures say: when body and spirit are both wondrous, one merges with the Tao in truth. The Tao is nothing other than emptiness. When body and spirit are both wondrous, body and spirit are both empty.” Inner alchemy holds that before the universe was created, there was only emptiness and nothingness. When the universe was created, the Tao of emptiness and nothingness gave rise to the primordial one qi of prior heaven (the “true qi of Taiyi”). This one qi of prior heaven is regarded as the vital impulse behind the movement of all things in the universe and the source of the movement of life. Therefore the alchemical methods of both the yin-yang dual cultivation school and the pure solitary cultivation school aim at drawing in the one qi of prior heaven.
We surmise that the one qi of prior heaven is probably the initial information from before the Big Bang, the origin of the universe before time and space unfolded, the most fundamental inner rhythm of nature. Order is hidden in the initial universe, and there exists a source of information that produces a universal cosmic rhythm. By a technique of attuning the body's rhythms to the cosmic rhythm, inner alchemists fully stimulate the body's essence, qi, spirit, and other elements, interact with the origin of nature at the quantum level, and draw into the body this initial information still remaining in the universe. Only by attuning the body to the inner rhythms of nature, merging body and mind with the chaotic universe, and returning to the initial prior-heaven state can inner alchemists accord with the natural original nature of the universe and enter the realm of the Tao.
4. The Theory of Three Levels of Consciousness
From our research on inner alchemy, we have found that the organs of human consciousness include not only the cerebral cortex but also the thalamus, the reticular formation, and even the heart. The ancient Chinese physicians' views that the heart governs the spirit, the liver produces planning, the gallbladder governs decision, and the kidneys produce skill were well founded.
That is to say, at the bodily level, thought and emotion are based on a complex physiological system of the brain and internal organs that constrain one another. The body's endocrine hormones and the essence, qi, and spirit of later and prior heaven also form a system and can influence and transform one another.
The essence, qi, and spirit of the body's life activity correspond precisely to the three effects of heat, force, and light in physical and chemical motion; all are forms in which life activity exists, and the most crucial of them is spirit. The human psyche also has structure; it is an order of processes. Consciousness is the highest form of life activity and can condense into a highly ordered object with ultrastructure. Both the conscious and the unconscious activities of the human psychological system are important psychological functions bestowed by nature in the course of human evolution; unconscious activity is by no means an insignificant natural phenomenon but a deep consciousness, an important potential by which humans transform nature and society. The physiological mechanism of conscious activity lies mainly in the cerebral cortex, and that of unconscious activity in the reticular formation and thalamus of the brain.
As humans evolved, the cerebral cortex became ever more developed and the extent of the reticular formation relatively smaller, but its nuclei grew ever more complex and differentiated, and the deep consciousness showed its regulating role ever more clearly. We can conclude that human consciousness is divided into three interrelated levels: ordinary consciousness (everyday cognition and thinking), the subconscious (desires hidden in the depths of the psyche), and primal consciousness (inherited instinctive consciousness).
Ordinary consciousness is the rational thinking at the surface of the psyche, which inner alchemists call the “conscious spirit”; it includes a series of psychological processes such as perception, judgment, and reasoning. In inner alchemy practice, the activity of the conscious spirit is divided into right thoughts and wrong thoughts (that is, stray thoughts, wandering thoughts, deluded thoughts, and the like that hinder entering stillness). The inner alchemist must exclude wrong thoughts and gather right thoughts (the thought of keeping the mind on the dantian (elixir field) and of returning to the root and restoring life), concentrating the power of intention to penetrate into the deep consciousness, increasing the controllability of ordinary consciousness, so that it is condensed and elevated in the form of the power of intention. The subconscious is a nonrational level of consciousness, including childhood memories that are usually hard to notice (especially stimuli from the period of psychological immaturity) and the imprints of hidden life desires, sexual desire, psychological trauma, and so on.
Major stimuli in daily life often pass through the surface of ordinary consciousness and leave traces in the subconscious. These subconscious imprints in turn powerfully influence people's surface psychological processes from behind the scenes. The archetypes of the subconscious can be deciphered from dreams, hallucinations, inspiration, intuition, mental illness, and other psychological states; the bad moods, foul emotions, demonic realms, hallucinations, and so on that appear in inner alchemy practice are all mischief of the subconscious. Inner alchemy practice must purify the subconscious, cleansing oneself of the imprints entered since the fetal period, and encode the program of elixir refining into the subconscious by certain means (such as thoroughly studying the alchemical scriptures, firmly remembering the master's transmission, memorizing formulas, silently reciting incantations, and repeated training).
This coded program of elixir refining in the subconscious is the “true intention,” called the “Yellow Matron” who brings essence, qi, spirit, and the other elements of life together to combine and interact. In inner alchemy cultivation, the subconscious can gradually become personified and condense into the “yin spirit.”
The yin spirit is the personified subconscious. It can leave the body like the body in a dream and has extraordinary human potentials such as remote sensing, clairvoyance, and precognition. The deepest level of the human psyche is “primal consciousness,” called the “primordial spirit” in inner alchemy. When inner alchemy is cultivated to the point where primal consciousness appears, there is a psychological state of extreme lucidity without any thought. This shows that primal consciousness is a level of consciousness one layer deeper than the subconscious, equivalent to what the Buddhist Yogacara school calls the alaya-vijnana (storehouse consciousness); alchemists also call it the “single point of numinous clarity” at the origin of the universe and the human body. It is an inherited instinctive consciousness. Primal consciousness is an undeveloped store of information inherited in the brain through the long course of biological evolution; it holds the wisdom and abilities that once existed in the history of biological evolution and is the true “self” of the person, which is why alchemists call it the “master.” Through development and condensation in the work on the human body, primal consciousness can gradually become personified as the “yang spirit.”
Almost all alchemists have shown from their own experience that the yang spirit is the condensed body of the primordial spirit, with a mature personality; it is a self with form and appearance, can exist outside the body, and has tremendous spiritual powers that break through the barriers of time and space. Alchemists call the physical body the “form body” and the yang spirit the “Dharma body,” also called the body beyond the body. Bringing forth the yang spirit is a major goal of the inner-alchemy work on the human body and also the thorniest problem in the study of inner alchemy.
In fact, inner alchemy is a systems engineering project that condenses ordinary consciousness, purifies the subconscious, and develops primal consciousness. Only when natural science can fully explain the mysteries of the human brain and nerves will it be possible to make a breakthrough on the empirical level.
5. The Art of Taking from Kan to Fill Li
Inner alchemy holds that the later-heaven trigrams Kan and Li result from the exchange of the middle yin and yang lines of the prior-heaven trigrams Qian and Kun. The Record of the Fishing Village (Yuzhuang Lu) says: “In the Prior-Heaven Bagua (the arrangement of the Eight Trigrams), Qian is in the south and Kun in the north. After the intercourse of man and woman, the body of Qian is broken and becomes Li, and the body of Kun is filled and becomes Kan. So in the Later-Heaven Bagua, Li is in the south and Kan in the north: Li takes the place of Qian and Kan the place of Kun.”
Inner alchemy seeks to return from later heaven to prior heaven, turning Li into Qian and Kan into Kun. So elixir cultivation requires drawing the yang line back out of the Kan trigram and filling it into the place of the yin line in the Li trigram, restoring it to the pure-yang body of the prior-heaven Qian trigram. Inner alchemists call this “taking from Kan to fill Li.”
In the yin-yang dual cultivation method, the Li and Kan trigrams are code names for man and woman. It means using the true yin in the man's Li vessel (also called true mercury, mercury within cinnabar, the dragon emerging from the fire) to draw in the true yang in the woman's Kan door (also called true lead, metal within water, the tiger born in the water), so that yin and yang unite and form the elixir.
In the method of pure solitary cultivation, the Li and Kan trigrams are code names for heart and kidneys, or Li stands for the heart-spirit and Kan for original qi and true essence. So the art of taking from Kan to fill Li, in the Microcosmic Orbit, refers to the heart's fluid descending and the kidneys' qi ascending, also called returning the essence to replenish the brain; in the Macrocosmic Orbit, it refers to dissolving yin and refining yang so that qi is settled and spirit pure, also called extracting lead to add mercury. Awakening to Perfection (Wuzhen Pian) says, “Take the solid center of the Kan position and transform the yin within the belly of the Li palace. From then on it becomes the strong body of Qian; its transformations and leaps all come from the mind,” regarding the art of taking from Kan to fill Li as the basic practice of inner alchemy.
What alchemists call “taking from Kan to fill Li,” “extracting lead to add mercury,” “returning the essence to replenish the brain,” and “the communication of heart and kidneys” is, in modern language, really a matter of starting from the self-regulation of the body's sex hormones and endocrine system and restoring the youthful vigor of the brain by strengthening sexual function. More precisely, it means starting from adjusting the endocrine system to improve the condition of the whole nervous system, coordinating the negative feedback mechanism between the gonads and the thalamus, and advancing from physiological harmony to psychological harmony and the development of human potential.
Taoist medicine already had the idea that tonifying the kidneys strengthens the brain; inner alchemy further emphasizes the connection between the kidneys (in Chinese medicine, the kidneys include the functions of the whole endocrine and reproductive systems and are called “the root of prior heaven”) and the brain, including the nervous system and the psychological level.
In the immortal art of the first pass in inner alchemy, essence is the foundation, qi the motive power, and spirit the master. In a state of deep stillness, the endocrine secretions of the gonads, pineal gland, and pituitary gland stimulate one another, bringing the whole body, physiologically and psychologically, to a new level of harmony and order. This is the effect of taking from Kan to fill Li.
The Seal of the Unity of the Three (Cantong Qi) says: “Three, five, and one—the utmost essence of heaven and earth. It can be given by oral formula but is hard to transmit in writing.” Awakening to Perfection says: “Three, five, one—just three words; those who have understood them, past and present, are truly few.” The “Short Preface to Awakening to Perfection” in the Fanghu Waishi says: “Three, five, and one—the utmost essence of heaven and earth; the dragon emerges from fire, the tiger is born in water; the two things meet in joy and both return to the central palace; the three families meet, conceive the embryo, and form the infant.” These words are called the secret of the alchemists.
In fact, water-metal and wood-mercury combining through true intention (earth) to form the elixir also means taking from Kan to fill Li. The five qi of heart, liver, spleen, lungs, and kidneys paying court to the origin, and the three flowers of essence, qi, and spirit gathering at the crown, are all nothing more than drawing in the one qi of prior heaven and congealing it with the primordial spirit to form the elixir.
6. The Theory of the Passes and Apertures of the Black, Red, and Yellow Paths
Alchemists hold that there are three main channels through which true qi circulates in the body: one called the red path, the Conception Vessel; one called the black path, the Governing Vessel; and one called the yellow path, the central channel. Divulging Heaven's Secrets (Xie Tianji) records Min Xiaogen as saying: “In the alchemists' ordering of qi there are originally two paths—red, black—and yellow. Red is the Conception Vessel, the path in front, the road along which heart qi travels. The heart's color is red, hence the red path. Red by nature flames upward, so the method must restrain it and make it descend; then the heart is cool and the kidneys warm. Black is the Governing Vessel, the path behind, the road along which kidney qi travels. The kidneys' color is black, hence the black path. Black by nature moistens downward, so the method must restrain it and make it rise; then the marrow moves and the spirit is at peace. These two paths are where essence and qi come out, by which people and things all live; so the method labels them ‘the human way,’ as alchemists and physicians describe in detail. Yellow is the yellow center; its path lies in the seam between red and black, located in front of the spine and behind the heart. Its virtue governs the two qi, and it is the master of opening and closing; its realm is utterly empty and silent, so what passes through and dwells there admits only prior heaven. The forming and perfecting of the immortal embryo all take place in this realm; though there are three separate fields, they are in truth a single thread, so the method labels it ‘the immortal way.’”
Alchemists call the red and black paths the human way; they accommodate the circulation of both prior-heaven and later-heaven essence and qi. The black path has the Three Passes—Weilü (the Tailbone Pass), Jiaji (the Spine Pass), and Yuzhen (the Jade Pillow Pass)—and only after passing through them does one enter the Niwan Palace. The red path has the three apertures of the upper, middle, and lower fields, as well as key points such as the Heavenly Gate (between the eyebrows), the Twelve-Storied Tower (the trachea), the Crimson Palace, the Yellow Court, and the Gate of Life (the navel).
The yellow path admits only prior-heaven true essence and original qi and is called the immortal way. It enters at the Xuwei point (also called Yinqiao), passes through the central yellow, and reaches straight to the crown bone (the skull cap, the fontanel). The Yinqiao point is the heavenly pass of the yellow path and concerns a person's life and death, so it is also called the aperture of life and death and the pass of restoring life. For true qi to return to the yellow path, it must be purely prior-heaven; otherwise the clear and turbid become mixed, easily giving rise to the disorders of “breaking into the yellow” and “turmoil in the yellow.” The fontanel skull cap is where the body's living qi congeals; above, it corresponds to the Stabilizing Star (located at the center of the sky, the middle of the five planets, higher than the sun, moon, and stars). Alchemists call it the “human stabilizer,” and its radiance is called the “intention pearl,” which can guard and protect the infant (the immature yang spirit).
7. The Theory of the Single Aperture of the Mysterious Pass
The single aperture of the Mysterious Pass is the alchemists' secret. It also has other names: the mysterious aperture, the mysterious female, the gate of the mysterious female, the cave of emptiness and nothingness, the Crescent Moon Furnace, the southwestern land, the gate of Wu and Ji, the valley spirit, and the root of heaven and earth.
Because of different transmissions from their masters, alchemists understand the single aperture of the Mysterious Pass differently; some say it has no fixed location and others that it has one. Yet surveying the alchemical scriptures, we can establish its characteristics: this aperture is not within the body, nor outside the body; it is also within the body, and also outside the body; there is no physical object in which to find it and no place to point to. The alchemical books say: “This aperture does not cling to the illusory body, nor does it leave the illusory body. Not clinging to the illusory body, it is not any object with form; not leaving the illusory body, it cannot be sought outside the body.” “To fix it on the body is wrong; to leave this body and seek outside is also wrong. Stuck on the body, one clings to form; stuck on the outside, one clings to things.”
This aperture comes wholly from emptiness and nothingness, is born from emptiness and nothingness, is sought in primal chaos, and is obtained in empty stillness. Alchemists say, “The one qi of prior heaven comes from emptiness and nothingness.” To recognize the Mysterious Pass, one must trace back to the beginning when the body was born and received qi, and seek the ancestor of the opening and closing of Qian and Kun, the root where yin and yang embrace each other. This aperture appears when the work matures and the moment comes; when the time arrives, the spirit knows it. When the mechanism is set off it is revealed; when the mechanism rests it is hidden. It can only be obtained without intent and cannot be sought with intent.
The True Words for Chanting the Tao says: “The Mysterious Pass is when all phenomena are silent and not a single thought forms; suddenly there is a feeling, and there is nothing it does not penetrate; suddenly there is awareness, and there is nothing it does not illuminate—this moment is the Mysterious Pass.” Li Daochun took the single word “center” as the Mysterious Pass, which the alchemist must grasp intuitively.
The single aperture of the Mysterious Pass has no substance but has function. When the alchemist's body and mind are still and settled, the heart limpid and clear, in utmost emptiness and profound stillness, at the point where the true mechanism responds wondrously—about to move but not yet moving, not yet issued yet suddenly issuing—the Mysterious Pass will naturally be seen. When this aperture opens, all apertures open: the 84,000 pores and 360 joints of the whole body burst open at once, all the vessels flow freely, spirit and qi surge, the prior-heaven medicine is transformed and produced along with it, and the immortal art of inner alchemy can then proceed naturally.
8. The “Three Essentials” of Inner Alchemy
Medicine, cauldron and furnace, and fire timing are the “three essentials” of inner alchemy. The Guide to Keeping to the Center (Guizhong Zhinan) says: “The medicines within the body are spirit, qi, and essence.” Alchemists first refine later-heaven essence, qi, and spirit to prompt the arising of the prior-heaven medicine. When essence and qi first arise they are called the “outer medicine”; the outer medicine first arises and is then gathered. When the living Zi hour arrives, the newly arisen original essence is also called the “small medicine” or the “true seed”; gathered into the furnace, it gives rise to the “inner medicine,” so the inner medicine is gathered first and arises afterward, and is prior-heaven essence and qi. Refined and transformed through the Microcosmic Orbit, it becomes the “great medicine,” also called the elixir mother.
In refining the elixir, intention is the “fire” and breathing the “wind”; fire timing refers to the degree to which intention and breath are applied. Rapid application is called the martial fire, gentle application the civil fire, and pausing the blowing is called bathing. The subtlety of fire timing lies in the use of true intention: if intention is applied tightly, the fire is scorching; if loosely, the water is cold. Alchemists use the twelve waxing and waning hexagrams to represent the fire timing of the twelve double hours, distinguishing advancing the yang fire and withdrawing the yin tally, and they calculate the number of breaths by the zhu and liang weights of the hexagram lines. The double hours used in inner-alchemy fire timing are those of the small heaven and earth that is the human body; they are really code names for the positions and phenomena of the medicine moving within the body. In the practice of the Microcosmic Orbit, when the small medicine arises and the penis rises of itself without thought, this is the “living Zi hour”; in the practice of the Macrocosmic Orbit, when the great medicine arises with the phenomenon of the six roots trembling, this is the “true Zi hour.” In the yin-yang school's method, the timing of gathering the medicine is the untransmitted secret of fire timing, hence the saying, “The sages transmit the medicine but not the fire.”
In the method of the pure school, spirit is the fire and qi the medicine; when spirit and qi embrace each other and all is left to nature, the medicine and fire timing are both contained within.
The cauldron and furnace are where the alchemist refines the medicine: the place where the medicine starts and stops is the furnace, and the place to which it rises is the cauldron. The pure school distinguishes a great cauldron and furnace from a small one. Refining essence into qi uses the great cauldron and furnace, with the cauldron in the Niwan Palace and the furnace in the lower dantian; refining qi into spirit uses the small cauldron and furnace, with the cauldron in the Yellow Court, the central palace, and the furnace in the qi cavity of the lower field. The yin-yang school's method takes the woman as the vessel, and further distinguishes the later-heaven vessel, prior-heaven vessel, golden vessel, jade vessel, and water vessel.
In short, the yin-yang alchemical method takes a young girl as the vessel, the tiangui (menstrual flow) as the medicine, and Geng and Jia as the fire timing. The lower vehicle takes body and mind as the cauldron and furnace, essence and qi as the medicine, heart and kidneys as water and fire, and year, month, day, and hour as the timing of the fire. The middle vehicle takes Qian and Kun as the vessel, Kan and Li as water and fire, the crow and the hare as the medicine, and the cold and heat of a year as the fire timing. The upper vehicle takes heaven and earth as the cauldron and furnace, sun and moon as water and fire, nature and emotion as dragon and tiger, and refining thoughts with the mind as the fire timing. And there is the supreme vehicle, the most perfect wondrous Way, which takes the Great Void as the cauldron, the Supreme Ultimate as the furnace, clarity and stillness as the elixir's foundation, non-action as the elixir mother, nature and life as lead and mercury, concentration and wisdom as water and fire, cleansing the heart and washing away cares as bathing, the center as the Mysterious Pass, seeing one's nature as congealing, fusing nature and life into one as the completion of the elixir, and shattering empty space as final completion.
In fact, the methods of inner alchemy are knowledge accumulated by students of immortality over thousands of years of struggle against death. The ideas of inner alchemy either created the art of “adding oil and extending life” from the new life obtained by grafting an old tree, or created the “living dead” practice, in which menstruation stops and the pulse halts, from the hibernation of warm-blooded animals (such as bears); others, such as tortoise breathing, the snake shedding its skin, and the infant's firm grip, all became concrete images that students of immortality imitated.
(Hu Fuchen, born in 1945, holds a doctorate in philosophy and is a research fellow at the Institute of Philosophy of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.)