Encomium on the Divine Elixir靈丹贊
我夢飛上丹霄廷。帝呼使前語丁寧。授我神藥曄而赬。臣拜而受兩手擎。圓光流轉搖目請。臣戇不識是何名。帝曰九鼎之雲英。飛丹紅華爲弟兄。外包八石內金精。稟氣甲丙結魄庚。憫爾下界勞其形。九竅焦涸六疾萌。恐爾營衛從此傾。終與草木同凋零。汝速呑此如含餳。使汝顔色還孩嬰。我蹇而屯帝所令。胡爲寵我以長生。此是天賜不可輕。服之當先浴蘭香。豈惟已我狂如酲。豈獨使我心和平。會將齒髮鬪籛彭。腦滿骨輕雙鬢靑。兩腋翩翩生羽翎。挾以雙鳳駕霞軿。飛昇上界揖仙靈。下視人世戲焦螟。
In a dream I flew up to the courtyard of the crimson heavens. The Celestial Emperor called me forward and spoke to me earnestly, and gave me a divine medicine, gleaming and red, which your servant bowed and received, holding it up in both hands. A round light flowed and turned about and dazzled my eyes, so I asked, 「Your servant is dull and does not know what this is called.」 The Celestial Emperor said: 「It is the cloud-blossom (雲英) of the nine cauldrons. Flying cinnabar and the red flower are brothers to it; without, it is wrapped in the eight minerals, and within it is the essence of gold. It took its breath from gap (甲) and byeong (丙) and bound its soul at gyeong (庚). I pity you that in the world below you labour your body, so that your nine orifices are parched and dry and the six sicknesses sprout in you. I fear that your nourishing and defending breath (營衛) will fail from this time on, and that you will at last wither and fall with the grass and the trees. Swallow this quickly, as though you held barley syrup in your mouth, and let the colour of your face turn back to a child's.」 I am lame and blocked in my fortunes, yet the Celestial Emperor commands me — why does he favour me with long life? This is Heaven's own gift and cannot be lightly held, so before eating it I shall first bathe in the scent of orchids. How should it only stop my madness, as sobering stops drunkenness? How should it only bring my heart to peace? I shall soon rival Jian Keng (籛鏗) and Pengzu in my teeth and hair, my brain full and my bones light, the hair at both my temples dark. Feathers will sprout fluttering from both my armpits, and with a pair of phoenixes under my arms I shall drive a chariot of sunset cloud, fly up into the world above and bow to the immortals, and look down on the world of men as on a jiaoming (焦螟), and make sport of it.