王船山所創作之《愚鼓詞》，係以樂歌形式，表述其個人情懷及內丹思想； 歸屬道情體裁，係藉由詩詞手法表達，多用隱語及譬喻手法出之。因並非嚴整內丹學論述之作，故另須參看其《楚辭通釋》中〈遠遊〉之注解，船山認為屈原〈遠遊〉所述，若詳以王子喬仙術，及後世魏伯陽、張伯端，白玉蟾之內丹養生功法予以詮釋，均無不吻合。此與《愚鼓詞》之丹法道情，正可互相參證。船山身世遭遇有似屈原，從其作品中尋繹煉性保命之術，與安身避世之方。船山從其師友習得內丹丹法，調理身心；並藉此有用之身，融釋三教，注釋經典，實踐其重開六經生面的理想。《愚鼓詞》之內容，分為《前愚鼓樂》和《後愚鼓樂》，副題分別賦予夢授、譯夢二詞予以抒證，全文寓含船山報國之夢，及寄託未來中華文化重光之願想， 而其內容多就丹法，以文學手法加以譬況，其間深沈蘊藉之美，值得加以探尋。 “Fool-Drum Lyrics” composed by Chuan-Shan Wang expressed Wang’s feelings and his ideas of Taoist internal alchemy. “Fool-Drum Lyrics” was in Tao-Lyric Form and lots of metaphors in it. It was not a serious essay, and should be read with Wang’s another book “Interpretation of Chu-Lyrics” because the Chapter ‘Travel Away’ in “Chu-Lyrics” was seen as key reference of Taoist internal alchemy by later scholars. Wang’s life experiences was very much similar to that of “Chu-Lyrics”s author Qu-Yuan. They both sought for Taoist internal alchemy to protect their own lives in their chaos times. Chuan-Shan Wang described the content of Taoist internal alchemy with literature metaphors in “Fool-Drum Lyrics”. And the book was divided into pre-Fool-Drum and post-Fool-Drum, and the secondary title were ‘Grant Dream’ and ‘Interpret Dream’ separately. It meant that Chuan-Shan Wang always had dreams to the revival of his nationhood.
