The Book of the Hidden Agreement: A Taoist Text on the Harmony between Heaven and Humanity

espite its brevity, the Yinfu jing, or Book of the Hidden Agreement, is one of the most obscure and difficult Taoist texts. Traditionally attributed to the Yellow Emperor (Huangdi, one of mythical founders of Chinese civilization, and the foremost in the eyes of the Taoists), it dates from between the late sixth and the eighth century. Later texts of Neidan (Internal Alchemy) have often placed the Yinfu jing with the Daode jing (Book of the Way and Its Virtue) and the Cantong qi (The Seal of the Unity of the Three) at the origins of their teachings. Within Neidan, the text is especially well-known for its idea of “stealing the mechanism” (daoji), which Neidan adepts understand as meaning the inversion of the process that leads from the precelestial to the postcelestial domains. The commentary translated here is by Yu Yan (born in Suzhou, 1258–1314), a learned and prolific author of independent works and commentaries to earlier texts. Part of his works examine the Book of Changes (Yijing) and Chinese cosmology, while others are concerned with Neidan. This ebook contains a complete translation of the Yinfu jing with Yu Yan’s commentary.