In traditional
Chinese culture,
qì (also
chi or
ch'i) is an active principle forming part of any living thing.
[1][2][3] Qi is frequently translated as "life energy", "life force", or "
energy flow".
Qi is the central underlying principle in traditional Chinese
medicine and
martial arts. The literal
translation of "
qi" is "breath", "air", or "gas".
Concepts similar to
qi can be found in many cultures, for example,
prana in
Vedantic philosophy,
mana in Hawaiian culture,
lüng in Tibetan Buddhism, and
Vital energy in Western philosophy. Some elements of
qi can be understood in the term
energy when used by writers and practitioners of various esoteric forms of spirituality and
alternative medicine. Elements of the
qi concept can also be found in Western popular culture, for example "
The Force" in
Star Wars.
[4] Notions in the West of
energeia,
élan vital, or "
vitalism" are purported to be similar.
The
etymological explanation for the form of the
qi logogram (or
chi) in the traditional form
氣 is "
steam (
气) rising from
rice (
米) as it cooks". The earliest way of writing
qi consisted of 3 wavy lines, used to represent one's breath seen on a cold day. A later version, 气, identical to the present-day simplified character, is a stylized version of those same 3 lines. For some reason, early writers of Chinese found it desirable to substitute for 气 a cognate character that originally meant to feed other people in a social context such as providing food for guests.
[citation needed] Appropriately, that character combined the 3-line
qi character with the character for rice. So 气 plus 米 formed 氣, and that is the
Traditional Chinese character still used today (the
oracle bone character, the
seal script character and the modern "school standard" or
Kǎi shū characters in the box at the right show 3 stages of the evolution of this character).
References to concepts analogous to the
qi taken to be the life-process or flow of energy that sustains living beings are found in many belief systems, especially in
Asia. Philosophical conceptions of
qi from the earliest records of
Chinese philosophy (5th century BCE) correspond to Western notions of
humours and the ancient Hindu
yogic concept of
prana ("life force" in
Sanskrit). The earliest description of "force" in the current sense of vital energy is found in the
Vedas of ancient India (circa 1500–1000 BCE),
[7] and from the writings of the Chinese philosopher
Mencius (4th century BCE). Historically, the
Huangdi Neijing/"
The Yellow Emperor's Classic of Medicine" (circa 2nd century BCE) is credited with first establishing the pathways through which
qi circulates in the human body.
[8][9]
| “ | Within the framework of Chinese thought, no notion may attain such a degree of abstraction from empirical data as to correspond perfectly to one of our modern universal concepts. Nevertheless, the term qi comes as close as possible to constituting a generic designation equivalent to our word "energy". When Chinese thinkers are unwilling or unable to fix the quality of an energetic phenomenon, the character qi (氣) inevitably flows from their brushes. | ” |
|
The ancient Chinese described it as "life force". They believed
qi permeated everything and linked their surroundings together. They likened it to the flow of energy around and through the body, forming a cohesive and functioning unit.
[citation needed] By understanding its rhythm and flow they believed they could guide exercises and treatments to provide stability and longevity.
[citation needed]Although the concept of
qi has been important within many Chinese philosophies, over the centuries the descriptions of
qi have varied and have sometimes been in conflict.
[citation needed] Until China came into contact with Western scientific and philosophical ideas, they had not categorized all things in terms of matter and energy.
[citation needed] Qi and
li (理: "pattern") were 'fundamental' categories similar to matter and energy.
[citation needed]Fairly early on, some Chinese thinkers began to believe that there were different fractions of
qi and that the coarsest and heaviest fractions of
qi formed solids, lighter fractions formed liquids, and the most ethereal fractions were the "lifebreath" that animates living beings.
[11]Yuán qì is a notion of innate or pre-natal
qi to distinguish it from acquired
qi that a person may develop over the course of their lifetime.
The earliest texts that speak of
qi give some indications of how the concept developed. The
philosopher Mo Di used the word
qi to refer to noxious vapors that would in due time arise from a corpse were it not buried at a sufficient depth.
[12] He reported that early civilized humans learned how to live in houses to protect their
qi from the moisture that had troubled them when they lived in caves.
[13] He also associated maintaining one's
qi with providing oneself adequate nutrition.
[14] In regard to another kind of
qi, he recorded how some people performed a kind of prognostication by observing the
qi(clouds) in the sky.
[15]In the
Analects of
Confucius, compiled from the notes of his students sometime after his death in 479 B.C.,
qi could mean "breath",
[16] and combining it with the Chinese word for
blood (making 血氣,
xue-
qi, blood and breath), the concept could be used to account for motivational characteristics.
| “ | The [morally] noble man guards himself against 3 things. When he is young, his xue-qi has not yet stabilized, so he guards himself against sexual passion. When he reaches his prime, his xue-qi is not easily subdued, so he guards himself against combativeness. When he reaches old age, his xue-qi is already depleted, so he guards himself against acquisitiveness. | ” |
—Confucius, Analects, 16:7 |
Mencius described a kind of
qi that might be characterized as an individual's vital energies. This
qi was necessary to activity, and it could be controlled by a well-integrated willpower.
[17] When properly nurtured, this
qi was said to be capable of extending beyond the human body to reach throughout the
universe.
[17] It could also be augmented by means of careful exercise of one's moral capacities.
[17] On the other hand, the
qi of an individual could be degraded by adverse external forces that succeed in operating on that individual.
[18] Not only human beings and animals were believed to have
qi.
Zhuangzi indicated that
wind is the
qi of the
Earth.
[19] Moreover, cosmic
yin and yang "are the greatest of
qi."
[20] He described
qi as "issuing forth" and creating profound effects.
[21] He said "Human beings are born [because of] the accumulation of
qi. When it accumulates there is life. When it dissipates there is death... There is one
qi that connects and pervades everything in the world."
[22]Another passage traces life to intercourse between Heaven and Earth: "The highest Yin is the most restrained. The highest Yang is the most exuberant. The restrained comes forth from Heaven. The exuberant issues forth from Earth. The two intertwine and penetrate forming a harmony, and [as a result] things are born."
[23]"The
Guanzi essay
Neiye 內業 (Inward training) is the oldest received writing on the subject of the cultivation of vapor
[qi] and
meditation techniques. The essay was probably composed at the Jixia Academy in Qi in the late fourth century B.C."
[24]Xun Zi, another Confucian scholar of the
Jixia Academy, followed in later years. At 9:69/127, Xun Zi says, "Fire and water have
qi but do not have life. Grasses and trees have life but do not have perceptivity. Fowl and beasts have perceptivity but do not have
yi (sense of right and wrong, duty, justice). Men have
qi, life, perceptivity, and
yi." Chinese people at such an early time had no concept of
radiant energy, but they were aware that one can be heated by a
campfire from a distance away from the fire. They accounted for this phenomenon by claiming "
qi" radiated from fire. At 18:62/122, he also uses "
qi" to refer to the vital forces of the body that decline with advanced age.
Among the animals, the
gibbon and the
crane were considered experts at inhaling the
qi. The Confucian scholar
Dong Zhongshu (ca. 150 BC) wrote in
Luxuriant Dew of the Spring and Autumn Annals:
[25] "The gibbon resembles a macaque, but he is larger, and his color is black. His forearms being long, he lives eight hundred years, because he is expert in controlling his breathing." ("猿似猴。大而黑。長前臂。所以壽八百。好引氣也。")
Heaven (seen here as the ultimate source of all being) falls (duo 墮, i.e., descends into proto-immanence) as the formless. Fleeting, fluttering, penetrating, amorphous it is, and so it is called the Supreme Luminary. The dao begins in the Void Brightening. The Void Brightening produces the universe (yu-zhou). The universe produces qi. Qi has bounds. The clear, yang [qi] was ethereal and so formed heaven. The heavy, turbid [qi] was congealed and impeded and so formed earth. The conjunction of the clear, yang [qi] was fluid and easy. The conjunction of the heavy, turbid [qi] was strained and difficult. So heaven was formed first and earth was made fast later. The pervading essence (xi-jing) of heaven and earth becomes yin and yang. The concentrated (zhuan) essences of yin and yang become the four seasons. The dispersed (san) essences of the four seasons become the myriad creatures. The hot qi of yang in accumulating produces fire. The essence (jing) of the fire-qi becomes the sun. The cold qi of yin in accumulating produces water. The essence of the water-qibecomes the moon. The essences produced by coitus (yin) of the sun and moon become the stars and celestial markpoints (chen, planets).
—Huai-nan-zi, 3:1a/19
There have been a number of studies of
qi, especially in the sense used by traditional Chinese medicine and acupuncture. These studies have often been problematic and hard to compare to each other due to lack of common nomenclature.
[33] Some studies claim to have been able to measure
qi, or the effects of manipulating
qi (such as through acupuncture),
[citation needed] but the proposed existence of
qi has also been questioned within the scientific community.
[citation needed]A
United States National Institutes of Health consensus statement on acupuncture in 1997 noted that concepts such as
qi "are difficult to reconcile with contemporary biomedical information."
[34]In 2007 "Network", a newsletter published by the MD Anderson Cancer Center at the
University of Texas to discuss "topics of interest to cancer patients", published an article covering the concepts where
qi is believed to be effective and research into possible benefits for cancer patients.
[35] A review of clinical trials investigating the use of internal
qigong for
pain management found no convincing evidence that it was effective.
Qìgōng (气功 or 氣功) is a practice involving coordinated breathing, movement, and awareness, traditionally viewed as a practice to cultivate and balance
qi. With roots in traditional Chinese
medicine,
philosophy, and
martial arts,
qigong is now practiced worldwide for exercise, healing, meditation, and training for martial arts. Typically a
qigong practice involves rhythmic breathing coordinated with slow stylized movement, a calm
mindful state, and visualization of guiding
qi
Qi is a
didactic concept in many
Chinese,
Korean and
Japanese martial arts. Martial
qigong is a feature of both
internal and
external training systems in
China[41] and other
East Asiancultures.
[42] The most notable of the
qi-focused "internal"
force (jin) martial arts are
Baguazhang,
Xing Yi Quan,
T'ai Chi Ch'uan,
Snake Kung Fu,
Southern Dragon Kung Fu,
Aikido,
Aikijujutsu,
Kyūdō,
Hapkido,
jian and
katana swordplay,
Luohan Quan,
Shaolin Kung Fu,
Liu He Ba Fa,
Buddhist Style, and some forms of
Karate,
Tae Kwon Do and
Silat.
Demonstrations of
qi or
ki are popular in some
martial arts and may include the immovable body, the unraisable body, the unbendable arm and other feats of power. All, or some, of these feats can alternatively be explained using
biomechanics and physics.
