Download or read book The World Upside Down written by Isabelle Robinet and published by . This book was released on 2011-07 with total page 129 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book contains four essays on Internal Alchemy (Neidan) by Isabelle Robinet, originally published in French and translated here for the first time into English. The essays are concerned with the alchemical principle of "inversion"; the devices used by the alchemists to "give form to the Formless by the word, and thus manifest the authentic and absolute Dao"; the symbolic function of numbers in Taoism and in Internal Alchemy; and the original meanings of the terms "External Elixir" (waidan) and "Internal Elixir" (neidan). Table of Contents Acknowledgements, vii 1. The World Upside Down in Taoist Internal Alchemy, 1 2. The Alchemical Language, or the Effort to Say the Contradictory, 17 3. Role and Meaning of Numbers in Taoist Cosmology and Alchemy, 45 4. On the Meaning of the Terms Waidan and Neidan, 75 Tables and Pictures, 103 Appendix: Works by Isabelle Robinet, 113 Glossary of Chinese Characters, 117 Works Quoted, 123