The Heaven of Great Clarity
The Heaven of Great Clarity
The alchemical doctrines and practices are deemed not to have originated in the human world; instead, they enter the world through a divine revelation, or through the transcription of scriptures originally kept in heaven. The history of this heaven—of what has been written about it in different times and in different contexts—reveals many details on the nature of the Taiqing tradition. This chapter examines some aspects of this history: the use of the word taiqing to denote an inner spiritual state; the features of the heaven of Great Clarity mentioned in several Taiqing and Daoist sources; and the destiny that this heaven faced when it lost its status as the highest celestial realm.
Keywords: Chinese alchemy, Taiqing scriptures, alchemical doctrines, Daoist doctrines
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