总共分成了练气、先天、入道,道成、圣境、仙人、永生,这七个境界。 Plz help me translate this Chinese text to English. Thanks in advance. If possible make the name of the cultivation realms more accurate.
Probably something like this: In total, it is divided into seven realms: 1. Qi Training 2. Inborn 3. Entering Dao 4. Becoming Dao 5. Saint 6. Immortal 7. Eternal Life
Qi Refinement Precelestial Entering the Dao Dao Attainment Sacred Realm Transcendent Eternal Life Note on "precelestial" 先天: this means "before heaven" and refers to the Dao in its undifferentiated state, before the Dao split into heaven and earth. So it refers to primal qi 元氣, the qi of the undifferentiated Dao. That's what adepts are trying to refine their qi into, into its more pure, primordial state. The 練 in 練氣 doesn't mean "training", it means refinement. It's metalworking terminology (note its variants 鍊 and 煉), removing impurities from metal, or as in the first variant, 練, which is boiled raw silk that is soft and white. So the adept is removing impurities from their qi. The last one could be "immortal", but aside from the fact that #6 is usually (but misleadingly) translated as "immortal", I would also argue that "not dying" is not 100% the same thing as "eternal life", though it's not wrong to translate it as immoral. The Chinese literally means eternal life though, so why not translate it that way?