Waidan

Waidan
Seal script for wàidān 外丹
Chinese name
Chinese外丹
Literal meaningoutside cinnabar
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyinwàidān
Bopomofoㄨㄞˋㄉㄢ
Gwoyeu Romatzyhwaydan
Wade–Gileswai-tan
IPAuaitan
Yue: Cantonese
Jyutpingngoi6daan6
Southern Min
Hokkien POJgōatan
Middle Chinese
Middle ChineseŋuɑiH-tɑn
Old Chinese
Baxter–Sagart (2014)[ŋ]ʷˤa[t]-s-tˤan
Korean name
Hangul외단
Hanja外丹
Transcriptions
Revised Romanizationoedan
McCune–Reischaueroedan
Japanese name
Kanji外丹
Hiraganaがいたん
Transcriptions
Revised Hepburngaitan
Chinese woodblock illustration of a waidan alchemical refining furnace, 1856 Waike tushuo 外科圖説 (Illustrated Manual of External Medicine)

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. The later branch of esoteric neidan 'inner alchemy', which borrowed doctrines and vocabulary from exoteric waidan, is based on allegorically producing elixirs within the endocrine or hormonal system of the practitioner's body,[1] through Daoist meditation, diet, and physiological practices. 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).

  1. ^ Beans, Donald (2009). Integrative Endocrinology. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 9781135252083.