M11 · LESSONS 100–102

Module 11 · Medicine, Self-Cultivation, and Folk Religion (Lessons 100–102)

Lesson 100 · Five Phases and Six Qi#

Learning goals#

• Understand the basic structure of the Five Phases and Six Qi model.
• Derive the annual movement, governing qi, and terrestrial qi under the course's rules.

Lesson#

The Five Phases and Six Qi (wuyun liuqi) is an annual model in the “Qi Circulation” chapters of the Huangdi Neijing. “Five Movements” derives a phase from the year's Heavenly Stem; “Six Qi” assigns one of six climate-like categories from its Earthly Branch. The annual phase is called the “great movement.” “Governing Heaven” (sitian) is the guest qi said in the model to govern the first half of a year; “terrestrial qi” (zaiquan) is its counterpart for the second half. This is a historical medical cosmology that connects calendar time, climate, and bodily response. Reproducing its chart does not make it a modern weather forecast or a diagnosis.

First derive the movement from the year stem: Jia/Ji → Earth; Yi/Geng → Metal; Bing/Xin → Water; Ding/Ren → Wood; Wu/Gui → Fire. Under the standard convention, yang stems are “excess” and yin stems “deficient.” Then derive Governing Heaven and terrestrial qi from the year branch. For a Wu year, the course table assigns Lesser Yin Minister Fire Governing Heaven and Yangming Dryness Metal as terrestrial qi. These are separate steps: the stem gives the movement, the branch gives the qi pairing.

The six fixed “host qi” stages begin at Great Cold and proceed through Wind Wood, Minister Fire, Sovereign Fire, Damp Earth, Dryness Metal, and Cold Water. The movement-qi chapters' textual layers and Wang Bing's role in arranging or supplementing the Neijing are questions of textual history; avoid reducing all seven chapters to a simple single-author claim. The “Heavenly Origin” chapter is available in the Chinese text of the Neijing.

For 2026 Bing-Wu, Bing belongs to the yang stems and Bing/Xin transform to Water, so the course model gives Water movement in excess; Wu gives Lesser Yin Minister Fire Governing Heaven and Yangming Dryness Metal as terrestrial qi. This only reconstructs the tradition's rule. It does not establish that a particular region will be hot, dry, or disease-prone. A climate test needs a preregistered region, dates, temperature or precipitation measure, threshold, and full record of misses. Personal health decisions require clinical evidence.

Year branch	Governing Heaven	Terrestrial qi (zaiquan)
Zi / Wu	Lesser Yin Minister Fire	Yangming Dryness Metal
Chou / Wei	Greater Yin Damp Earth	Greater Yang Cold Water
Yin / Shen	Lesser Yang Minister Fire	Reverting Yin Wind Wood
Mao / You	Yangming Dryness Metal	Lesser Yin Minister Fire
Chen / Xu	Greater Yang Cold Water	Greater Yin Damp Earth
Si / Hai	Reverting Yin Wind Wood	Lesser Yang Minister Fire

Practice#

1. Derive the movement and two qi for your birth year.
2. Derive the same for 2028 Wu-Shen.
3. Compare last year's model with actual local weather, defining the region and measure before looking for a match.

Check your understanding#

1. What movement and excess/deficiency label does a Bing year receive?
2. What governs Heaven in a Mao or You year?
3. Who is traditionally said to have supplemented the Neijing's “Seven Movement-Qi Chapters”?

Answers: 1. Water movement, excess. 2. Yangming Dryness Metal. 3. Wang Bing, according to a common but textually qualified account. Practice 2: Wu gives Fire movement in excess; Shen gives Lesser Yang Minister Fire Governing Heaven and Reverting Yin Wind Wood as terrestrial qi.

Lesson 101 · Inner Alchemy and Health Practices#

Learning goals#

• Trace the transition from external alchemy to inner-alchemy discourse without treating it as a sudden replacement.
• Read key inner-alchemy terms as textual symbols.

Lesson#

External alchemy used minerals, furnaces, and ingestion as objects of practice. Inner-alchemy writings increasingly used the body and mind as a symbolic language for refinement. This was not a single historical switch: different practices coexisted, and inner-alchemy discourse developed over time, especially from the Tang and Song periods. Mineral poisoning is part of the history of some ingestive practices, but external alchemy was not uniform. Inner-alchemy texts are not modern physiology.

Read their vocabulary in context. “Furnace and cauldron” are alchemical metaphors; “medicine” refers to what the text treats as a key refining material or inner element; “fire timing” (huohou) concerns regulated stages and timing; “lead and mercury” name interacting elements whose referents vary among authors. The Cantong qi (“Token for Joining the Three”) uses Qian and Kun (traditionally Heaven and Earth), Kan and Li (Water and Fire), and lunar phases to organize its discourse. Commentators differ in how they map these symbols onto practice. The Wuzhen pian (“Awakening to Reality”) is traditionally regarded as an important text of the Southern School of inner alchemy. The school's name is a later classification, not a label for every practitioner in southern China. The Cantong qi is traditionally attributed to Wei Boyang, but authorship, textual layers, and dating remain debated; “Zhong-Lü lineage” is a Daoist transmission narrative connecting Zhongli Quan and Lü Dongbin, not an uncontested historical genealogy.

The phrase “refine essence into qi, refine qi into spirit, refine spirit and return to emptiness” describes traditional stages of cultivation, not measurable physiological markers. Baduanjin is a set of traditional stretching and movement practices; one can record movements, duration, and bodily sensations. Possible exercise effects and cosmological claims about longevity or transforming “essence and qi” are separate evidence questions. The inner-alchemy concept of jingqi does not map to a single modern physiological variable.

Practice#

1. Find a passage in the Cantong qi that refers to the twelve growth hexagrams or najia.
2. If you practice Baduanjin, record movements, duration, and sensations without interpreting them as changes in “essence and qi.” Stop if uncomfortable.
3. Explain the three-stage phrase in your own words as a textual doctrine.

Check your understanding#

1. Which work is sometimes called the “king of alchemical classics”?
2. Which text is representative of the Southern School?
3. What do Kan and Li signify in the Cantong qi's traditional imagery?

Answers: 1. The Cantong qi. 2. The Wuzhen pian. 3. Water and Fire; later readings may assign further meanings.

Lesson 102 · Daoism, Talismans, and Folk Religion#

Learning goals#

• Distinguish Daoist philosophy from organized Daoist religion and its lineages.
• Observe divination rituals and understand “diffused religion” as an analytic concept.

Lesson#

“Daoism” can refer to philosophical traditions discussing the Dao and governance since the pre-Qin period; Daoist religion is a religious tradition with scriptures, deities, institutions, and ritual. They influenced one another but are not synonyms. Talismans (fulu) are written ritual documents used in rites of blessing or protection. Zhaijiao are Daoist liturgies involving an altar, scripture recitation, and offerings. The Celestial Masters and later Zhengyi traditions are often associated with talismans, liturgy, and household clergy; Quanzhen arose in the Jin dynasty and is associated with monastic practice and inner alchemy. Zhang Daoling and Wang Chongyang are founders in traditional narratives, while institutional formation took longer.

Lot divination (qiuqian) draws a numbered stick and interprets its text. Moon-block divination (zhi jiao) tosses a pair of crescent-shaped blocks and reads the convex/flat sides; one flat and one convex side is commonly called a “holy cup” (shengbei) within local practice. Date selection uses an almanac or divinatory rules. To describe the ritual, record the question, physical actions, cup result, interpreter, and participants' response. Reducing a rite to a binary random experiment can miss how worshippers understand communication with a deity and make a shared decision. Under the simplified assumption that each of two blocks lands flat or convex with equal, independent chances, one flat and one convex has two arrangements out of four, or 1/2. Real objects and throws need not meet those assumptions.

In Religion in Chinese Society (1961), C. K. Yang distinguished institutional religion from “diffused religion,” practices embedded in family, lineage, and daily social institutions. The concept can illuminate the overlap of custom and religious practice, but it is not a universal description of every place or era. Study specific participants and local histories rather than flattening “elite” and “popular” practice into two uniform groups. See the bibliographic record for Religion in Chinese Society.

Practice#

1. Visit or research a temple ritual and document the steps of lot or moon-block divination.
2. Use the idea of diffused religion to analyze one family custom, noting where the concept fits and where it does not.
3. Calculate the simplified chance of a “holy cup” and state its assumptions.

Check your understanding#

1. Who is traditionally associated with the founding of Quanzhen?
2. What is one flat and one convex moon-block result called?
3. Who proposed the concept of diffused religion?

Answers: 1. Wang Chongyang in the Jin dynasty. 2. A holy cup (shengbei). 3. C. K. Yang. Practice 3: 1/2 under the equal, independent two-sided model.