List of Illustrations and Figures

Translators' Preface

Foreword to the English Edition


Introduction


Chronological Table


Chapter 1. General Perspectives


I. The Book, Cosmic Creator and the Alliance with the Gods
1. The Ching Reveals the Laws of the World
2. The Ching as the Foundation of the World
3. The Ching: a Token of Power that Certifies and Enlists Divine Protection


II. Talismans and Invocations: Summoning the Gods
Talismans and Invocations: Fu and Chu


III. Auxiliary and Preparatory Exercises


IV. The Figure of the Saint and the Spiritual Hierarchy


V. The Creative Imagination and the Intermediary World


Chapter 2. The Book of the Yellow Court


I. General Introduction


II. Visualization of the Viscera
1. Interior Vision
2. The Viscera as Living Symbols
3. The T'ai-p'ing ching as Predecessor
4. The Huang-t'ing ching: Viscera in the Book of the Yellow Court
5. The Inheritors and the Therapeutic Tendency
6. The Cosmic Dimension of the Viscera
7. The Center of the Body: The Spleen
8. The Fertile Abysses of the Body
The Kidneys and the Lower Cinnabar Field
The Gate of Destiny, Ming-men
The Origin of the Barrier, Kuan-yüan


III. The Circulation of Breath and Essence
1. Breath or Ch'i: Aerial Yang Principle of the Body
2. Essence or Ching: Moist Yin Principle of the Body
3. The Sexual Seed
4. The Nourishing Saliva


IV. Conclusion


Chapter 3. The Book of Great Profundity


I. Introduction


II. The Gods of the Body


III. Unitive Fusion through the Whirlwind
1. Unitive Fusion, Hun-ho
2. The Whirlwind, Hui-feng


Chapter 4. The One, "Preserving the One," and the Three-Ones


I. Unity: Void, Origin, and Chaos


II. Preserving the One, Shou-i


III. The Su-ling ching: The Three and the Nine
1. "Preserving the One," and the Three-Ones
2. The Nine Palaces


IV. The Tz'u-i ching (Scripture of the Feminine One) and the T'ai-tan yin-shu (Secret Book of the Supreme Cinnabar)
1. Tz'u-i, The Feminine One
2. T'ai-i, The Supreme One


Chapter 5. Overcoming Obstacles and the Certainty of the Final Outcome


I. The Embryonic Knots
II. The Promise of Immortality


Chapter 6. The Metamorphoses


I Creative Metamorphoses and the Perpetual Mutations of Life
II. The Changing Faces of Truth
III. Metamorphoses of the Gods
IV. Moving and Wandering
V. Magical Metamorphoses and Reproduction
VI. Metamorphoses of the Taoists
VII. Invisibility: Light and Darkness
VIII. Liberating Mutation and Blessed Dissolution


Chapter 7. Distant Excursions: Ranging Through the Universe


I. Mystical Flights, Fabulous Excursions, and Spiritual Quests
II. Cosmic Exhalations, Fresh Sprouts, and Essential Nourishments
III. The Penetrating Gaze; Vision of the Poles, Mountains, and Seas; and the Universe's Homage


Chapter 8. Flight to the Stars


I. The Couple Sun-Moon
1. Meditation Practices: The Sidereal March, Nourishments of Light, and Flight to the Stars
2. The Hierogamic Transposition of Attributes: Alternation and the Coincidence of Opposites
3. The Pivot and the Infinite Center
4. The Bath of Fire and Water; Sovereignty
5. The Nourishment of Light and the Fusion with the Stars


II The Planets and the Bushel
1. Description
2. Meditation Practices: The Mantle of Stars, Heavenly Couch, and the Mesh of the Network
3. The Center Above
4. The Bushel and the Supreme One, T'ai-i
5. The North: Matrix of Transformations
6. The Divided Center: North-South and Death-Life, the Hells, Order and Division
7. The Polar Darkness
8. Gateway and Step; the Dance


Afterword to the English Edition


Notes


Selected Bibliography


Texts Cited


Glossary of Chinese Terms


Glossary of Proper Names


Index