What is Qi?

The concept of qi can be confusing. It has been defined, among others, as breath, energy, and life force.

Chinese medicine has terms like yin qi, yang qi, organ qi, meridian qi, pre or post heaven qi, original, or yuan qi, central or zhong qi, protective, or wai qi, nutritive, or ying qi, and those are just some of the common ones.

In the Chinese language, weather is tian qi or sky qi, to get angry is sheng qi, hot and spicy food has re qi, delicious dishes prepared quickly in a wok that is red hot has wok qi, and that is not something easily obtainable in restaurants here. 

There’s really no end to it. It seems like everything is qi. 

So, is everything qi? 

I would like to offer a heuristic definition of qi. ‘Heuristic’ is a fancy word that means ‘enabling someone to discover or learn something for themselves.’ 

So the definition of qi that I’m going to offer may help you discover or learn something. But let’s add one more thing before discovering and learning, and that is  is experience. So this definition is intended to help you experience, discover, and learn something. 

So here it is:

Qi is the process of interaction, development, and change according to a set of principles.  The way it works is universal: it applies to all phenomena, from the creation and movements of the galaxies to human affairs. In other words, everything is the result of qi action and transformation. 

Now you may ask: what then are the principles that govern qi action. Well, they are the Yin Yang and 5 element theories.

I know some of this may sound rather abstract but happily this is where Qigong comes in. With Qigong, we can experience. discover, and learn about how Qi works.

Thank you for tuning in! And why not sign up now to come to tomorrow’s Qigong workshop? 

See you there!