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Libra Esoterica

The Zhong-Lü system of internal alchemy

by Livia Kohn

  • First published:
  • 21st century
  • Languages: Chinese, English

This book contains a translation and in-depth study of two major texts of internal alchemy, attributed to two well-known immortals, Zhongli Quan and Lü Dongbin, founders of the so-called Zhong Lü tradition, which presents the first major formal structuring of internal alchemy and goes back to the 12th century. The first text entitled "Transmission of the Dao from Zhongli to Lü," provides keys to understanding energetic transmutation with particular steps and methods corresponding to the mechanism of the universe. It provides the basis of all of internal alchemy. The second text is the "Conclusive Methods of Numinous Treasure," written in a more symbolic language and focusing more on specific practices. In addition to the translations, the book describes with simple clarity the major conceptions of cosmology, transmutations systems and key practices. These practices are accessible to all and these two texts which specialists had nod previously paid attention enough, are likely to become essential writings for anyone interested in the history of internal alchemy and for any practitioner of Daoism — -

Provenance

Why this book is in the catalog

Included because retained bibliographic metadata links this work to Alchemy and Hermeticism and Asian esoteric and internal traditions.

  • Retained metadata contains “Alchemy” in the title, “Alchemy” in the description, “Alchemy” in the subject metadata, and 1 additional metadata match(es).

    • Alchemy· in title
    • Alchemy· in description
    • Alchemy· in subject
    • Alchemy· in edition title
  • Controlled discovery queries from harvard matched “Taoism”. Retained metadata contains “Taoism” in the subject metadata.

    • Taoism· via Harvard LibraryCloud
    • Taoism· in subject

Membership records how this book met the catalog’s discovery criteria — relevance to a tradition, not a judgment of the book’s claims.

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Editions

One edition cataloged here.

Harvard LibraryCloud bibliographic record

262 pages ; 23 cm

2020Three Pines PressChinese, English
  • 9781931483445
  • 1931483442
Catalog record

Subjects

9 subject headings

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Cataloged from

Catalog id
harvard:99155554283603941
Edition coverage
Harvard source record
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