Ying'er 嬰兒 ①

This page is excerpted from F. Pregadio, Dictionary of Taoist Internal Alchemy (Brill, 2025).

Translation

Infant; child.

Note: This term has two main senses in Neidan. In the first sense, ying’er or “infant” is the alchemical embryo after its gestation and delivery. In this function, it is an image of Unity, having being conceived through the conjunction of True Yin and True Yang. In the second sense, ying’er is the “young boy” or the “boy,” an image of True Yang. In this function, he is the counterpart of the chanü 姹女, the “lovely maid” or “ girl,” who is an image of True Yin. These two different senses are distinguished in the present entry and in the entry ying'er 嬰兒 ②. — This entry also contains an example for the equivalent term er 兒 “child.”

▣ The alchemical embryo after its “delivery.” An image of Unity (yi); the Elixir.

⦿ WZP LS 14: The Infant is the One holding True Breath (zhenqi); in ten months the embryo is complete — this is the foundation for entering sainthood. 嬰兒是一含真氣，十月胎圓入聖基。

⦿ ZHJ 3: “Infant” is a different name of True Unity (zhenyi). It is “the Great One holding the True.” 嬰兒是真一之異名，太一含真也。

⦿ XZBN: Is this infant the same infant that we mean when we speak of “the Infant and the Lovely Maid (chanü)”? . . . They are different. The infant (or: young boy) that we mean when we speak of “the Infant and the Lovely Maid” is the Yang within Kan ☵, the precelestial Breath (xiantian zhi qi) stored within the postcelestial (houtian). The infant that we mean when we speak of the Embryo of Sainthood (shengtai) is the precelestial Breath that comes from within empty Non-Being (xuwu). 嬰兒，即嬰兒姹女之嬰兒乎？. . . 此有分別。嬰兒姹女之嬰兒，乃坎中之陽，後天中所藏先天之氣。聖胎之嬰兒，是先天之氣，自虛無中來。

▣ An image of the Original Spirit (yuanshen) attained through the Neidan practice.

⦿ JDDY 6: Thus we know that form (xing) transmutes itself into Breath (qi), and Breath transmutes itself into Spirit (shen). This Spirit is called the Infant, and is also called the Yang Spirit (yangshen). 則知形化為氣，氣化為神，是曰嬰兒，是曰陽神。

⦿ MW 1: The Child is the Original Spirit. 兒者，元神也。

▣ The return to Unity represented as the conjunction of the “Three Fives” (sanwu) or the “three families” (sanjia).

⦿ WZP LS 14: When the three families visit one another, the Infant coalesces. 三家相見結嬰兒。Comm. Liu Yiming: By joining the four images in harmony (hehe sixiang) and by gathering the five agents (cuancu wuxing), then Nature (xing), Emotions (qing), Essence (jing), Breath (qi), and Spirit (shen) coagulate and coalesce with one another. This is why [the Wuzhen pian] says, “The three families visit one another.” . . . It is called Infant, precelestial One Breath (xiantian yiqi), Embryo of Sainthood (shengtai), and Golden Elixir (jindan). 和合四象，攢簇五行，則性、情、精、氣、神凝結。. . . 是云「三家相見。」. . . 名曰嬰兒，又曰先天一氣，又曰聖胎，又曰金丹。

⦿ ZHJ 3: When mind (xin), body (shen), and Intention (yi) become one thing, the three families visit one another and coagulate the Infant. All of this is called “the merging of the three fives” (sanwu hunrong). 心身意打成一片，三家相見結嬰兒，總謂之三五混融也。

Pages that mention this term

• Yangshen 陽神 (← links)