Male and female have been co-existed since long time ago. However, the percentage of male that achieved success in Daoism has been much higher than that of female. Why?

There are many reasons. Some of them are: In ancient China, men were free to travel around. Women had to stay at home and were not allowed to go out. This restricted them from finding a mentor. There were quite a number of books in training for men but hardly any for women. Men went to school and could read; women were in general illiterate. Even if there were books for women and they could read and allowed to travel and find a mentor, the percentage of those that succeeded would still be lower than that of men. This is because there are some intrinsic problems with female's training. Some of the problems were: quite often women did not know the value. For those who were aware of the value, they did not want to give up their usual life. For some that did give up their normal life and joined a Daoism temple, there was no drive for improvement. Some did not know there are differences in training between men and women. Some wrongly assumed that the position of "dan tian" in the body for man is the same as that for woman. Some did not realize that "chop the red dragon" is the most fundamental for female training. <Note: "chop the red dragon" is a jargon in Daoism meaning stop the female period. > Some were so proud of themselves and considered that they could "chop the red dragon" without guidance from a mentor. Some died because of inappropriate training in "qi". Some did not know the difference in the sequence of training between male and female. Some gave up half way. Some thought that they already got to the final stage when they were only half way through. Some did not even try.

All these problems hinder the chance of success. For achieving result, one must know the way. There are 3 aspects: (1) character, (2) body characteristic and (3) method for training. For instance, male is "yang"; "yang" is clear. Female is "yin"; "yin" is opaque. The characters of male are hot/hard, fast, complex and those of female are soft, slow, simple/pure. Male is active and could cause loss in "qi". Female is calm/still and could restrict the flow of "qi." It is difficult to calm the "qi" of male. It is easy for female to store the "qi." This is the difference in character. The life of male is at "qi xue" whereas for female it is in the breast. The most important essence for man is sperm which is white and hence called "white tiger". For female, blood is most important and is called red dragon. While the male sperm is "yang," there is "yin" in it. While the blood of female is "yin," there is "yang" in it. There are lots of "qi" in the sperm but not so much "qi" in the female blood. This is the difference in body characteristic. Male should first train basic essence and then external quality. Female should first train external quality then basic essence. When male can stop ejaculation, it is called "taming the white tiger." When female can stop her period it is called "chop the red dragon." Male should achieve reverse flow of sperm and female's blood should return to the heart.

For female with irregular period, she should improve her blood, improve connection of the "meridians", and strengthen the internal organs so that the period is back to normal. Only then, she could start the training in chop the red dragon. When the red dragon is chopped, the training for external quality is accomplished. At this stage, the female body becomes pure "yang" from "yin" and opaque. From then onward, she should keep up with training in Neidan/Meditation. <Note: The training method is the same as that for male. Please refer to the article on Meditation. >