Fu 符 (Talisman), Healing, and Internal Alchemy
神上
與藥
氣三
精品
ShangYaoSanPin ShenYuQiJing
The Greatest Medicine has three varieties, which are Shen, Qi, and Jing
– YuHuangXinYinMiaoJing 玉皇心印妙經
1. The Fu 符 Concept
Of all my inner cultivation experiences, the most powerful practices are Fu 符, Chinese Talisman. The Chinese character Fu 符 means identity, symbol, omen, charm, tally, incantations, talisman, icon, documents, in alignment with, match, verification, or in accord with. In ancient China, special bronze casted tiger Fu (that split down the middle) were often used as secret tools for relaying passwords or for confirmation and verification between messages from a king and his highest ranking general.
In the Chinese Wu 巫 (shamanic) and Daoist traditions, Fu can be translated as talisman, charm, or omen. There are countless Fu, and all are Qi 炁 (vital life energy) and Shen 神 (spiritual energy) energized diagrams, symbols, or Chinese characters used to channel specific energies in order to create a harmonious Qi field for Fengshui, healing, or internal alchemical transformation.
2. My Personal Study of Fu
I was born and raised in a remote fishing village on the south-east coast of China. Fu, or talisman were always an important part of our lives. If you walk into most homes in my village, you will still see each family has a special Fu painted on the girder (the main load-bearing beam of the house), which offers protection for the house and for the family, as well as other various Fu on the family alter, for various individualized purposes. I grew up seeing the local shaman use Fu to help people recover from illnesses. I still vividly remember when my mother brought me to a shaman when I had fish bone stuck in my throat, and how I recovered immediately after he treated me with his Fu.
Amazed by the healing results of Fu from my childhood observations, over the past four+ decades, I have since dedicated myself studying Fu. During late 1980s and early 1990s, I made many, many trips to SiChuan 四川 province in southwest China to study Fu, Chinese medicine, Qigong, and martial arts with one of my masters, Grandmaster YuWenCai 于文才, then lineage holder of EMei ZhenGong 峨眉真功, the EMei Sage Style Qigong School. In the EMei school, the lineage master traditionally teaches the talisman system to only a limited number of students throughout his or her entire life. Although other EMei Qigong and martial arts forms may be taught openly and without restriction, this most revered system is carefully guarded. I was fortunate to be able to learn the entire EMei ZhenGong Fu system.
3. Activate Fu Function
In both Chinese shamanic and Daoist traditions, it has been very common to use Fu, (Chinese talisman) for healing and during your personal cultivation practice. For instance, another of my masters, Grandmaster Pei XiRong 裴錫榮, then lineage holder of the WuDang 武當 Internal Alchemy lineage, made Fu during special occasions to help empower the energies of his direct disciples.
Please be aware that a Fu does not work if it is made by a person who has not had the correct training. A Fu is just like your smart phone, without activating the sim card and connecting with the internet system, it becomes something empty that you can look at but essentially has no real use. In order to create a functional Fu, we have to learn how to activate it.
According to the EMei ZhenGong tradition, here are the three steps necessary to activate a Fu:
1) Learn how to draw the Fu and its cultivation method from an authentic lineage teacher
2) Draw and practice with the Fu for an unbroken 49 days
3) Verify! Use your Fu to see if it is working yet. If it is functional, it means you have activated the Fu and you can use it to help yourself and others. If it does not work yet, it means you failed to activate the Fu, in which case you have to repeat step 2 again and again until your Fu becomes functional.
You can use a fully functioning Fu for healing and for accelerating your internal alchemy process. In both healing and internal alchemy practice, we must CaiDaYao采大藥 – collect the Great Medicine. In the next section, I would like to share with you the concept about the Great Medicine, which in large part is cited from my book, Shamanic Tiger Qigong (Singing Dragon, 2019).
4. Yao 藥 – The Greatest Medicine
You may find that the ancient concept of medicine is drastically different from the modern one. We can begin to understand these differences by studying the symbolic meanings of Yao 藥, the traditional Chinese character for medicine. Yao 藥 is made of two Chinese characters: 艸 (Cao) and 樂 (with two pronunciations, Yue or Le). Cao means grass, Jing 精 (essence), herbal medicine, and new life energy. If you imagine an ordinary weed, you will connect with the power of strong life energy. People spend a lot of resources trying to make their gardens and farm fields free of weeds, but it is an endless process—they eventually come back! I am continually amazed by the strong life-Qi of grass every time I see green color peeking out from under snow and ice here in Sweden.
Yue 樂 means music, Qi, and harmony. Harmony is derived from the resonance of sacred sounds. Harmony is also the connection and response of different entities. In other words, the energy created by resonating in harmony with the universe is the original medicine.[1] Le 樂 means joy, peace, and uplifted spirit. The original character for 樂 is , which creates an image of silk strings atop a piece of wood. This is the image of the GuQin 古琴, or the ancient Chinese musical instrument (similar to a zither). I believe that everyone has had the experience of being deeply moved by music that generates feelings of great joy within. Thinking about this, you will have a sense for why the same character for music (Yue 樂) means both harmony and joyful peace.
Is the ancient concept of medicine the combination of grass and a musical instrument? Yes! From a Daoist perspective, medicine is anything or activity that generates in you the three qualities: a) strong life energy/vitalized Qi; b) emotional balance; c) uplifted, joyful spirit. It is this concept of medicine that we carry into our healing and internal alchemy practices.
In our tradition, the trinity structure of the body is Jing 精, Qi 氣, and Shen 神. Ancient Wu 巫 (Shaman) discovered that Jing, Qi, and Shen were the best and most important medicines in the world. Jing, our essential energy, is related with our physical body and carries the life energy. Qi, our vital energy, is related with our breathing and delivers harmony. Shen, our spiritual energy, is where the spirit of our bodies is found and is also linked with the state of our minds and our connection with joy. As the ancients found, our own best medicine resides within our bodies, and applying a functional Fu and/or practicing a Fu Qigong form is one of the best ways access and utilize our Jing, Qi, and Shen.
As a life-long Daoist practitioner and a teacher of Daoist cultivation arts for over 30 years, I have witnessed many people who moved quickly towards recovery from various and sometimes very severe illnesses through a strong dedication to their daily Fu and Qigong practices. This does not mean that daily Qigong cultivation practice will prevent death or will always result in miraculous cures. It does mean that through dedicated practice you can change the direction of your own karma by helping you live a healthier, happier, and higher quality life.
In the next section, I will introduce LongFu 龍符, the Dragon Talisman from the EMei ZhenGong school to help you understand your own best medicine – the one which already resides within you. Much of the following section comes from my book chapter, DAOIST COSMOLOGY -- Imagery and Internal Alchemy (chapter 15 of Transformative Imagery, edited by Leslie Davenport. London: Singing Dragon, 2016).
5. LongFu 龍符 – Dragon Talisman
In Daoist mythology Long 龍, the Chinese dragon, is the rainmaker and master of transformation. Here is a brief description of the symbolism of the Chinese dragon, as discussed in my book Fire Dragon Meridian Qigong (co-written with my wife, published by Singing Dragon in 2012):
Dragon represents power, life energy, transformation, communication, connection, freedom, and the universal way. According to Chinese mythology, dragon is the rainmaker, has magic powers that allow it to change natural formations, and can easily fly between Heaven and Earth. Dragon can penetrate through rock with ease, as dragon makes its home in the rock, just as fish live in water and human beings live in air. If we want to find a dragon, we simply look to the sky. Confucius disclosed the way to seek the dragon in one of his Ten Wings of Yijing, WenYan 文言:
YunCongLong 雲從龍 Clouds follow the dragon
The clouds are like the dragons’ “groupies,” and observing the clouds helps us learn the rich symbolic meaning of dragon on deeper and deeper levels (Wu, Z. and Taylor Wu, K. 2012).
According to Chinese myth, the dragon draws in water from the earth, rides the clouds up to heaven, and sprays the water from its mouth to make rain. Too little or too much rain is an indication of disharmony between human beings and nature. A sick or angry dragon may make no rain or too much rain, while a peaceful dragon makes the perfect amount of rain and maintains harmony within the heaven, earth, and human being trinity. It is human behavior that influences the dragon’s rainmaking. For instance, we may make the dragon sick by polluting the air or make the dragon angry by our methods of mass deforestation. Daoists believe that human beings must respect and follow the way of nature in order for a peaceful dragon to maintain world balance.
The influence the dragon has on the world is similar to the influence that a person living in or out of resonance with harmonious DaoQi 道炁 has on the world. When we are like the imbalanced dragon, we may find ourselves living in a state of reactivity, in constant upset with ourselves, our family, and our environment, or we may experience illness: this can be a disaster! However, when we are like the peaceful dragon, we resonate with DaoQi and experience a sense of oneness and well-being, feeling at ease and connection with ourselves and the world at large.
A peaceful dragon is essential for a harmonious external world—and creating a peaceful dragon within is one of the greatest benefits of having Daoist healing and internal cultivation practices. The primary goals of our Dragon Talisman and its Qigong practice is to transform Jing to Qi and Qi to Shen. Practitioners can use power of the Dragon Talisman to help support this metamorphosis.
6. Practice!
Now, let us turn our attentions to our bodies and try to taste the power of the Dragon Talisman. Please return to Fig.4 LongFu for a few moments and gaze at the image. Then, relax your eyelids and your body and adjust your breathing to be slow, smooth, deep, and even. At the same time, imagine sunlight radiating from the image and filling your whole body with light. Spend several minutes (minimum of 20 would be ideal) bathing your body, breath, and mind in the sunlight of the Fu before opening your eyes again.
If you could find the motivation to make the Dragon Talisman and its Qigong practice a part of your daily life, you will undoubtedly come to feel that you are experiencing a higher quality life!
For detailed guidance on how to use the Dragon Talisman for healing and internal alchemy transformation, please join me for my online offering of the Dragon Talisman Qigong on November 5, 2022.
[1] Zhongxian Wu. Dancing and Drumming – Feeling the Rhythm of Qigong, Calligraphy, and Wu (Shamanism), Qi The Journal of Traditional Eastern Health & Fitness, Winter 2003-2004
Thank you for the lesson Master Wu!