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Thomas Cleary – The Taoist Classics
The Manuals of Taoist Sexual Practise – Ten Questions 10

When Wang Qi made an appearance at court, King Zhao of Qin asked him about the Way in these terms: "I hear you ingest yin for active strength, and collect energy for vitality and clarity. What should I do to prolong my life?"

Wang Qi replied, "You must face the sun and the moon and collect their vital lights. Eat pine and cedar nuts, and drink the milk of running beasts. By these means you can fend off age and restore robustness, glowing with health. Avoid fire during the summer months, using a solar mirror to cook. Then the mind will be intelligent and bright.

"As for the way to engage in sexual intercourse, calmness makes for strength. Make the mind as calm as water, conserve the spiritual dew within. Knock at the jade door with the jade rod, the mind neither too tense nor too loose. You can tell what is best by how the woman sighs in response. Collect the spiritual mist, drink the celestial broth, sending them to the internal organs in order to store them deeply.

"Breathe gently in the mornings, and your energy and body will be firm . . . , vitality will be stable and long lasting. Peace of mind is attained within, the higher and lower thrive, the internal organs are stable, the complexion is lustrous. Life lasts as long as sun and moon, and you become a flower of heaven and earth."

King Zhao said, "Good."