道法自然
魏伯陽
Father of the Furnace & Elixir
Era · Eastern Han, fl. c. 147–167 CE
Father of the Furnace & Elixir
Author of the Zhouyi Cantong Qi — the 'Kinship of the Three' — which fused the Book of Changes, the Laozi and the practice of alchemy into a single system. Every tradition of Chinese alchemy, outer or inner, traces its ancestry to this book.
Era · Eastern Han, fl. c. 147–167 CE
History · 史记
Wei Boyang, of the later Han, wrote the Zhouyi Cantong Qi — the king of alchemical books — the first systematic treatise on alchemy and the text that founded the entire furnace-and-crucible tradition. His method is synthesis: he welds together the imagery of the Zhouyi, the philosophy of Huang-Lao, and the laboratory practice of the crucible into one system, arguing that all three are a single way.
Ge Hong's Shenxian Zhuan and Baopuzi preserve his legend: he entered the mountains with three disciples and a white dog to compound the great elixir — and the dog became the test subject of the unfinished pill.
The great elixir was completed; Wei Boyang fed it to the white dog, and the dog died. Perhaps the pill is not ready, he said — and ate it himself, and died. Two disciples left the mountain; the third stayed and wept over the bodies. Wei Boyang rose, called the dog back to life, and ascended with the faithful disciple. The pill was perfect; the test was of hearts.
The Cantong Qi's thesis: the imagery of the Zhouyi, the way of Huang-Lao, and the fire of the crucible are three names of one art. Master and disciple meet, yin and yang meet — only then can the elixir be completed.
周易參同契
His own work — the founding text of the alchemical tradition, commented upon for eighteen centuries.
神仙傳
Ge Hong's collection preserving the legend of the dog, the pill and the test of hearts.
抱朴子·內篇
Cites Wei Boyang as an authority of the golden-elixir lineage.