Ideas across traditions · meditation · Chinese
neidan
Works in 0 traditions beyond Chinese attest this concept, on 0 cited pages. Translators have rendered it as “internal alchemy”, “inner alchemy”, “inner elixir”, “internal elixir” and 1 other ways; a link through a rendering is marked as such, because another translator chose differently.
Also under: 內丹 · “internal alchemy” · “inner alchemy” · “inner elixir” · “internal elixir” · “dandao”
In other traditions
Ordered by the earliest work in each tradition that attests the concept. Within a tradition, works run from earliest to latest by conventional composition date.
No work outside Chinese on the four maps attests this concept behind the evidence gate.
At home in Chinese
- 150 CEZhouyi Cantong Qi (Token for the Kinship of the Three)same word and a translator’s rendering
- Dandao — Way of the Elixirpeople, the world is at peace. When one cultivates the self by exhausting the heart and establishing one's destiny, theCollected Explanations of the Ancient-Text Cantong qi, 1781, p. 97 · flagged as a term by the translator
- Dandao — Way of the Elixirintersect, there is no eclipse. Now, Master Wei the author Wei Boyang uses these two celestial bodies to illustrate theElucidation of the Seal of the Unity of the Three, 1782, p. 161 · flagged as a term by the translator
- Dandao — Alchemical Waynd Shen are the ancestors of yin and yang, the gates through which all things emerge and enter. Speaking in terms of theElucidation of the Kinship of the Three, Unknown, p. 33 · flagged as a term by the translator
- 700 CEZhouyi Cantong qi (related precursor text)same word and a translator’s rendering
- Dandao — Way of the Elixirintersect, there is no eclipse. Now, Master Wei the author Wei Boyang uses these two celestial bodies to illustrate theElucidation of the Seal of the Unity of the Three, 1782, p. 161 · flagged as a term by the translator
- dandaois catalog. This book uses the water, fire, Yin, and Yang found within the human body to explain the "Way of the Elixir"Elucidation of the Seal of the Unity of the Three, Unknown, p. 3 · original word kept by the translator
- dandaoMoon has "Twelve Pipes" original: "shier guan" . Six pipes are Yin, and six pipes are Yang. In the "Path of the Elixir"Collected Explanations of the Ancient Text of the Kinship of the Three, 1782, p. 125 · original word kept by the translator
- 1615Xingming Guizhi (Priceless Mirror of Human Nature and Life)same word and a translator’s rendering
- 1615Xingming Guizhi (Aims of Nature and Life)same word and a translator’s rendering
Evidence gate. A work is listed only where a translator marked the word as a term with a gloss, or kept the original word beside the English, on at least one page of a held edition. Vocabulary lists and keywords alone do not count: in a Greek vocabulary list ἡσυχία is the ordinary word for quiet. Up to 3 pages are shown per work, preferring those with a gloss. The vocabulary was built 2026-09-11; the graph on 2026-09-13.