Shuangxiu (雙修) denotes the "joint cultivation" of xing ("inner nature") and ming ("vital force"), which is the objective of Neidan schools (Esposito 2008: 906).

Although the Xingming guizhi promulgates the shuangxiu (雙修, "joint cultivation") of xing and ming, it does not attach much importance to physiological practices and emphasizes the spiritual aspects of inner transformation (Darga 2008: 1107).

(Little 2000: 348) Compare the translation equivalents of gui and zhi: Guī (圭) The Qing scholar You Tong's preface to the 1670 Xingming guizhi says this gui (圭) character, composed of tu (土, "earth; soil; land") doubled, is a pun for the Inner Alchemical huangting (黃庭, Yellow Court), see the Yellow Court Classic (Needham and Lu 1983: 231, referring to the word's "Neo-Confucian cloak").

Scholars have translated the Chinese title Xingming guizhi in many ways: These translations generally follow accepted philosophical meanings of xing (e.g., inner, human, spiritual nature) and ming (life, lifespan, vitality); while diverging on how to render gui (jade, talismanic, authoritative, superior, or untranslated) and zhi (pointers [指], decrees, directions, principles).

The origins of the Xingming guizhi are obscure, but since it quotes several Ming dynasty writers, such as Luo Hongxian (1504-1564), it can be dated to the late 16th century (Little 2000: 349).

The 1739 History of Ming (juan 257) records that Gao Di (高第) received a jinshi degree in 1589 and opposed the eunuch dictator Wei Zhongxian (Skar 2002: 198).

The wide-ranging Xingming guizhi is praised by the historians of Chinese science Joseph Needham and Lu Gwei-djen as, "a treatise of substantial size which might be regarded as the Summa of physiological alchemy [neidan]."

The Xingming guizhi text is divided into four ji (集, "collections of writings; books"): Yuan (元, "primary"), Heng (亨, "go smoothly"), Li (利, "benefit") and Zhen (貞, "loyal"), which is a Classical Chinese allusion to the first sentence of the Yijing commentary on Hexagram 1 Qian (乾, "force; creative"): "The Creative works sublime success, furthering through perseverance" [乾元亨利貞].

All four books contain tu (圖, "illustrations; diagrams; charts") accompanied by short texts, frequently in the form of rhymed poems (Darga 2008: 1107).

One of the main concerns of the Xingming guizhi is to lead the adept through the multitude of alchemical methods and writings to the core of the true path of neidan.

Its ideas are mainly based on Zhang Boduan's (張伯端, 987?-1082) Wuzhen pian (Folios on Awakening to Reality / Perfection) and Li Daochun's (李道純, fl.

Despite the Xingming guizhi's detailed coverage of Daoist Internal Alchemy, such as a "wonderful list of the chief varieties of the 'three thousand six hundred' techniques [pangmen (旁門, lit.

John Dudgeon (1895) mistook the text for a manual of gymnastics, while Richard Wilhelm and Carl Jung (1931) used it "iconographically without much understanding" (Needham and Lu 1983: 231).

In waidan Outer Alchemy, the ding laboratory cauldron was originally used to heat elixir ingredients, while in later neidan Outer Alchemy, Daoist practitioners semantically extended the word to mean the metaphorical cauldron allegedly located in the lower dantian of the human body, wherein an adept cultivated the Three Treasures of Jing ("Essence"), Qi ("Breath"), and Shen ("Spirit").

In the top right inscription, the word wulou (無漏, "not leaking"; or [Buddhist] "passionless", from Sanskrit anāsrava) refers to that which "normally 'leaks out' through the sense-organs and other parts of the body" (Needham and Lu 1983: 252) The "Illustration of the Marriage of the Dragon and the Tiger" (tr.

The crescent shown on the meditator's abdomen represents the alchemical reaction vessel in the lower dantian ("cinnabar field; energy center") (Little 2000: 348).

However, the 1615 first edition Xingming guizhi more complexly pictured the crescent above a rectangle and a ding crucible in the lower dantian (see Wellcome Collection under External links).

The back Illustration of Reverse Illumination shows the vertebral column, which is flanked by the (anatomically misplaced) "kidneys" in the lower back; which are respectively labeled as longhuo (龍火, "dragon fire") on the right, a symbol of yang energy within the yin side of the body, and hushui (虎水, "tiger water") on the left, a symbol of yin energy within the yang side of the body.

This location is associated with the ancient Daoist sexual theory of male avoidance of ejaculation, called Huanjing bunao (還精補腦, "returning the semen to replenish the brain"); Daoist physiologists imagined that unejaculated jing (精, " semen; [medical] essence of life") could rise up the spine into the brain in order increase health and longevity (cf.