玄妙先天道,自然性体空。悟真圆光现,慧命上昆仑。
金丹乾坤大,礼意善养功。虚灵清静意,留得万古春。
玄妙先天道, (Xuánmiào xiāntiān dào,)
How Mysterious – How Wonderful! - the Pre-natal Dao (Way).
自然性体空。(Zìrán xìng tǐ kōng.)
Nature – Bodily Essence – All ‘Empty’ from Beginning to End.
悟真圆光现,(Wù zhēn yuánguāng xiàn,)
Enlightened Reality – Bright and Round – Here and Now,
慧命上昆仑。(Huì mìng shàng kūnlún.)
Profound Wisdom – Purified Destiny – Ascend Like the Kunlun Mountains.
金丹乾坤大,(Jīn dān qiánkūn dà,)
Golden Energy-Centre Self-Cultivation - If Only the Universe Was So Great!
礼意善养功。(Lǐ yì shàn yǎng gōng.)
Correct Ritual and Profound Intention – Goodness Strengthens Self-Cultivation.
虚灵清静意, (Xū líng qīngjìng yì,)
Profoundly Empty Spirit – Still and Pure Perception,
留得万古春。(Xū liú dé wàngǔ chūn.)
Profound Emptiness Contains All Things – As if Reflected in An Ancient (Eternal) Spring.
Qianfeng (Thousand-Peaks) Pre-Natal School, is also known as the ‘inner alchemy’ (内丹 - Nei Dan) lineage. This is considered part of the ‘Philosophical’ Daoist tradition – rather than the ‘Religious’ Daoist tradition. The Qianfeng (千峰) School was created by its Founding Patriarch - Zhao Bichen (赵避尘) - in the late Qing Dynasty. Zhao Bichen’s Daoist Lineage (transmission) name was ‘Yizi’ (一子). When in his later years, Zhao Bichen was also known as ‘Qianfeng Venerable Old Man’ (千峰老人 - Qian Feng Lao Ren). He was born in Changping County, Beijing, in the tenth year of the reign of Emperor Xianfeng (咸丰) during the Qing Dynasty (1860). When a child (during the reign of Emperor Guangxiu [光绪]) - Zhao Bichen suffered from a medical ailment that involved him suffering from haematochezia (i.e., ‘blood in the stools’). This illness was completely ‘cured’ through Daoist self-cultivation. A reliable biography of Zhao Bichen’s early life can be read in the Chinese-language text entitled ‘Namo School Energy-Centre (Self-Cultivation) Law Genuine Transmission’ (南无派丹法真传 - Na Mo Pai Dan Fa Zhen Chuan). Later, in the 3rd lunar-month of the 21st year of the Reign of Emperor Guangxu (April - 1895), Zhao Bichen went to the Jinshan (金山) - or ‘Gold Mountain Temple’ - to pay homage to Ch’an Master Liao Kong (了空禅师 - Liao Kong Ch’an Shi) - who was also an acknowledged Master of the Daoist tradition and an authentic Daoist lineage inheritor. Zhao Bichen was accepted as an ‘inner’ disciple and received full-instruction in the Daoist tradition as passed-on by ‘Liu Huayang’ (柳华阳) - also known as the ‘Wu Liu’ (伍柳) School. Twenty-five yeas later, Master Liao Kong ‘transmitted’ the full and complete ‘Wu Liu’ lineage to Master Zhao Bichen in 1920 – following this event in Beijing – Master Zhao Bichen - after receiving ‘permission’ from Master Liao Kong - started accepting disciples and teaching in his own right. Zhao Bichen started referring to his lineage as the ‘Qianfeng’ (Thousand Peaks) School around 1937 – named after a range of mountains in the Beijing area. In his manual entitled ‘The Secret Cultivation of Essential Nature and Eternal Life’ (性命法诀明指 - Xing Ming Fa Jue Ming Zhi) – translated in 1970 by Charles Luk, and published in English as ‘Taoist Yoga’ - Zhao Bichen clearly explains the ‘Sixteen Steps’ that he uses within the Qianfeng School to propagate robust health and longevity. The Qianfeng School exists to in modern China and is led by the great grandson of Zhao Bichen – Zhao Ming Wang (赵明旺) - the acknowledged Lineage Head of the Qianfeng School in Beijing, whose family and Training Hall is still in the old house that Zhao Bichen used to inhabit during his lifetime.