Imperative Doctrines for Innate Nature and Life Force is an ancient book, author unknown. The book illustrates and elaborates the inner refining theory and practice of Taoism, and related topics, The Three Holy Figures at the beginning in the book talks about the theory in terms of Buddhism and Confuciusnism, a clear sign of three religions syncretism. In a whole, it comes down to the Taoist theory. Legend has it that this book derived from the bands by disciples of Yin, who was the disciple of Lao Tzu. Yu Yongning, before Shenzong Emperor of Ming Dynasty (1615), attributed the origin of the book in such way: “There was a man called Wu Siming got the copy Imperative Doctrines for Innate Nature and Life Force from court historian Xin Tang, and it was heard the disciple of Yin wrote this book.’ Included in the book are Taiji Diagram by Confucians Zhou Dunyi, the Buddhist Goddess of Mercy of Secret Mantra, Soaring Figure of Taoism and so on. It is a nice reference for people who want to study the theory and methods on Taoism inner refining in Yuan and Ming Dynasty. Here we include all figures for this book for reference.
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