Culture Arena
China · Religion & Belief · Normal
Which Daoist concept, called neidan and contrasted with waidan (which sought to create an immortality elixir from minerals), uses meditation, breathing and visualisation to transform the body's internal energies?
Answer: Inner alchemy — Neidan (inner alchemy) reinterprets the laboratory furnace and ingredients as metaphors for the body and its energies, aiming to produce a 'golden embryo' of immortality through internal cultivation rather than ingesting toxic mercury and lead compounds.
- A External alchemy
- B Five elements harmonisation
- C Inner alchemy ✓
- D Primordial breath cultivation
Neidan (inner alchemy) reinterprets the laboratory furnace and ingredients as metaphors for the body and its energies, aiming to produce a 'golden embryo' of immortality through internal cultivation rather than ingesting toxic mercury and lead compounds.