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Microcosmic Orbit
In the Lesser Heavenly Circuit of Daoist internal alchemy, attention is led up the spine along the Du vessel and down the front along the Ren vessel. The diagram names its stations, the three passes of the back, the crown, the magpie bridge and the three fields of the elixir, and traces the circuit station by station.
A diagram of a teaching, for study. It gives no instruction for practice.
Xiao zhoutian 小周天 · the lesser heavenly circuit
Up the back, down the front
The figure sits facing left. The circuit rises from the perineum along the Du vessel through the three passes of the back to the crown and comes down the brow to the palate; the Ren vessel takes it from the mouth down the front through the fields of the elixir.
The stations in order
Once round the circuit
The two vessels
Their courses in the classics
- Du vessel督脈dūmài, the Governing Vessel
- Nanjing 28: it rises from the point at the lower extremity, runs within the spine up to Fengfu at the nape and enters the brain. The point courses carry it on over the crown and down the midline of the forehead and nose to Yinjiao at the upper gum.
- Ren vessel任脈rènmài, the Conception Vessel
- Nanjing 28: it rises from below Zhongji in the lower belly, up the inside of the abdomen past Guanyuan to the throat. The point courses run it from Huiyin at the perineum to Chengjiang below the lower lip.
The classics give the courses of the two vessels, which both run upward; the circuit drawn here, up the Du and down the Ren and joined at the mouth, is that of the neidan teachings.
The tradition
The Lesser Heavenly Circuit, xiao zhoutian 小周天, called the Microcosmic Orbit in English and the Lesser Mandala in some recent teaching, is a practice of Daoist internal alchemy. Attention, and with it the qi, is led round a loop: up the spine along the Du vessel and down the front along the Ren vessel, the two midline vessels whose courses the Nanjing describes.
Neidan writing names the gates of the ascent, the three passes on the back, Weilü, Jiaji and Yuzhen, and the three fields of the elixir that the descent returns through. Later schemes make the lesser circuit the work of the first stage, refining essence into qi, before the greater circuit of the stages beyond it.
Reading the instrument
- The figure sits in profile, facing left, so the back is on the right. The gold line is the Du vessel, up the back and over the head to the palate; the pale line is the Ren vessel, from the mouth down the front. That is the direction most teachings give. Diamonds mark the three passes, circles the three fields.
- Choose a station on the figure or in the list to read its name, where the teaching places it, and its part in the circuit. Back and Next move station by station; Trace runs the circuit once round and can be stopped at any point.
- Positions are drawn for clarity, not as point locations. Nothing here is an instruction for practice.
Where it descends from
- Nanjing (Classic of Difficult Issues), difficulty 28
- The courses of the Du vessel, rising from the lower extremity along the spine into the brain, and the Ren vessel, rising from below Zhongji up the belly to the throat.
- Shisi jing fahui (Hua Shou, 1341)
- The points of the fourteen channels in order: the Du vessel from Changqiang at the tailbone over the crown and down the face to Yinjiao at the upper gum, the Ren vessel from Huiyin up the front to Chengjiang below the lower lip.
- Neijing tu (Chart of the Inner Warp)
- The stele of 1886 at the White Cloud Temple in Beijing, which draws the body as a landscape, with the spine rising from the water-wheel at its base past the passes to the head.
- Benebell Wen, A Taoist Secret to Cultivating Personal Power
- A modern account of the Lesser Mandala in English, with the Du and Ren route and the Three Treasures.
What this does not claim
This is a diagram of a teaching, for study. It gives no breathing, holding or posture instructions, and it is not medical guidance. Lineages differ on the stations, the direction (some also teach the reverse, down the back and up the front) and whether the circuit should be practised without a teacher. Stop any practice that brings pain, dizziness or distress, and consult a qualified practitioner.