Liu Xiyue's 劉希岳 988 Taixuan langranzi jindao shi 太玄朗然子進道詩 (Master Taixuan Langran's Poems on Advancing in the Dao) has the earliest mention of both the terms neidan and waidan. It occurs in Du Guangting's 901 Daode zhenjing guangshengyi 道德真經廣聖義 (Explications Expanding on the Sages on the Daodejing), which is quoted in the 978 Taiping guangji. The date for the earliest use of the term waidan is unclear. Pregadio concludes that the semantic field of the word dan evolves from a root-meaning of "essence", and its connotations include "the reality, principle, or true nature of an entity or its essential part, and by extension, the cognate notions of oneness, authenticity, sincerity, lack of artifice, simplicity, and concentration." The sinologist and expert on Chinese alchemy Fabrizio Pregadio lists four generally accepted meanings of dan: "The color cinnabar, scarlet, or light scarlet", "The mineral cinnabar, defined as 'a red stone formed by the combination of quicksilver and sulphur'", "Sincerity (corresponding to danxin 丹心)", and "An essence obtained by the refining of a medicinal substance a refined medicinal substance, the so-called medicine of the seekers of immortality for avoiding aging and death a term often used for matters concerning the immortal". The antonym of wài is nèi 內 meaning 'inside inner internal', and the term wàidān 外丹 'external elixir/alchemy' was coined in connection with the complementary term nèidān 'internal elixir/alchemy'. The Chinese compound wàidān combines the common word wài 外 'outside exterior external' with dān 丹 'cinnabar vermillion elixir alchemy'. The practice of waidan external alchemy originated in the early Han dynasty (206 BCE–220 CE), grew in popularity until the Tang (618–907), when neidan began and several emperors died from alchemical elixir poisoning, and gradually declined until the Ming dynasty (1368–1644). ![]() The later branch of esoteric neidan 'inner alchemy', which borrowed doctrines and vocabulary from exoteric waidan, is based on allegorically producing elixirs within the practitioner's body, through Daoist meditation, diet, and physiological practices. Waidan, translated as ' external alchemy' or ' external elixir', is the early branch of Chinese alchemy that focuses upon compounding elixirs of immortality by heating minerals, metals, and other natural substances in a luted crucible. Chinese woodblock illustration of a waidan alchemical refining furnace, 1856 Waike tushuo 外科圖説 (Illustrated Manual of External Medicine)
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