Zen & Tao Poetic 3 - Can Tong Qi 30

參同契30章

關關雎鳩，在河之洲，窈窕淑女，君子好逑。雄不獨處，雌不孤居。玄武龜蛇，蟠虯相扶，以明牝牡，意當相須。假使二女共室，顏色甚姝，蘇秦通言，張儀結媒，發辨利舌，奮舒美辭，推心調諧，合為夫妻，弊髮腐齒，終不相知。若藥物非種，名類不同，分劑參差，失其綱紀，雖黃帝臨爐，太乙執火，八公擣煉，淮南調合，立宇崇壇，玉為階陛，麟脯鳳腊，把籍長跪，禱祀神祗，請哀諸鬼，沐浴齋戒，冀有所望，亦猶和膠補釜，以磠塗瘡，去冷加冰，除熱用湯，飛龜舞蛇，愈見乖張。

As I mentioned in some previous posts, Can Tong Qi is a poetic text, it has a lot of references to many classic Chinese texts, imagery, allusion and symbols. In this chapter, the author begins with stanzas taken from a famous romantic love poem borrowed from Classic of Poetry, and it reads as:

"The courting cries of the fishhawks
by the center river greens
Like every fair lady
crying for attention of every eligible male"

And the context continues with the key message:

"Male does not live alone, nor female dwells in solitude"

The author's artistic imagery follows:

"Like the mythical snake-tortoise two as one
Or Dragons intermingle inseparably as one
Both male and female are essential parts
A focused mind is required to make them join"

Our author continued with his debate using aesthetics:

"Assuming two beautiful ladies co-habit in one room
With most persuasive talker to convince
The most successful middleman to tie the string of vow
With convincing sweet talks and heart-to-heart matching
and become a couple
Till the day their hairs fell and their teeth decayed
No outcome can be achieved"

When applied to Neidan practice, our author here gave his advice, so he continued as follows:

"If the ingredients are not of the right type, of the wrong category or in the wrong combination, diverts from the straight rules and discipline, then even if
the Supreme Emperor supervises the alchemical process
Tao itself manages the fire
the eight wise men operate the refining
Famous magician HuaiNan does the mixing
Under a spacious building and a towering alter
Above a jade platform
Offering meats of male unicorn and female phoenix
Lengthy Kneeing and praying upon classic texts
Asking favor from all the gods
Crying help from all evil spirits
Cleanse oneself and do fasting
Wishing to deliver what is being asked for,
It is going to fail like gluing a broken pot
or fail like trying to heal an infection with Salty liquorice
Use ice to warm up
Use hot soup to cool down
As ridiculous as flying tortoise and dancing snake."

My dear readers, this is an example of the poetic of Can TongQi as expressed in its chapter 30.