Text and Teacher in the Transmission of Alchemical Knowledge: Wu Wu and His Works

In the transmission of alchemical knowledge, alchemical practi-tioners have always been perplexed by the dilemma that they have the responsibility to transmit the Way but at the same time should not divulge the Way to unworthy recipients. In this paper, I show that Wu Wu 吳悮 (c. twelfth century), different from most of his contemporaries who stress the role of the teacher in the revelation of key points or secret instructions, puts more emphasis on the texts. For him, the teacher’s function is to impart the right text. The Way of divine immortals can be achieved through the mastery of principles that can be grasped from the texts. Although ancient sages compiled the alchemical texts to make the Way known to everyone, only the virtuous can comprehend the principles of the Way underlying in the scriptures. Hence, there is no need to worry that the Way is divulged to unworthy people. Thus the transmission dilemma does not present a problem for Wu Wu.