The Nei P'ien of Ko Hung: The Definitive Ancient Chinese Guide to Alchemy, Medicine & Spiritual Religion in 4th Century China
Before modern science, before modern medicine — there was Ko Hung.
Written in A.D. 320, The Nei P'ien is one of the most remarkable documents in the entire history of human civilization. Its author, the brilliant scholar-mystic Ko Hung (葛洪), was at once a master alchemist, a physician, a Taoist philosopher, and a visionary — a man centuries ahead of his time who dared to systematize the unsystematizable: the ancient Chinese pursuit of immortality itself.
This is not a book for the casual reader. This is a complete encyclopedia of hidden knowledge — covering the transmutation of metals, the preparation of elixirs, the cultivation of spiritual power, the warding off of demons, and the ultimate refinement of the human soul. Translated with rare scholarly precision by James R. Ware, this edition brings one of China's greatest and most overlooked masterpieces into the English-speaking world for the first time.
Inside these pages you will discover:
- 🔥 The secrets of Taoist outer alchemy (waidan) and the quest for the golden elixir
- 🌿 Ancient medical and herbal knowledge that predates Western science by over a millennium
- 🧿 Ritual practices for protection, spiritual cultivation, and transcendence
- 📜 A rare window into the religious and philosophical world of 4th century China
For scholars of Taoism, historians of science, practitioners of Chinese medicine, and all seekers of ancient wisdom — this is an irreplaceable treasure.
"The Tao that can be spoken is not the eternal Tao — but Ko Hung came closer than anyone to speaking it."
