What is the Taoist text known as 'The Secret of the Golden Flower'?

What is the Taoist text known as “The Secret of the Golden Flower”? It is Taiyi Jinhua Zongzhi, a Chinese title commonly translated as “The Secret of the Golden Flower.”

The work is a text of neidan, or Taoist internal alchemy, focused on meditation, mental concentration, and the cultivation of inner spiritual energy. Its “golden flower” is generally treated as symbolic language for awakened awareness rather than a literal plant or object.

The text is associated with spirit-writing communities in the early Qing period, with surviving evidence pointing to compositions or transmissions in the late seventeenth century. It later became important in Longmen Taoist circles. A famous Western reception began with Richard Wilhelm’s German translation in 1929, followed by Carl Jung’s commentary and an English edition in 1931.

A common mix-up is treating it as an ancient text from the Zhou or Han period. Although it draws on older Taoist and inner-alchemical ideas, the surviving work is generally connected with Qing-era religious communities and multiple textual versions.