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What is qi (chi)?
(C) musings by C. Izzard

(What isn't qi?)

Some people have the image of tai chi practitioners universally cultivating their 'qi' - being totally zoned out, peaceful warriors who are able to perform mystical feats - be that throwing someone halfway across the room by their 'qi' alone - or being able to harmonise the energy in the atmosphere of a place or person - and to perform unimaginably amazing feats by concentrating their 'qi' - or even felling someone with some kind of magical 'death touch' through dim mak.

Such confusing images and myths are an ammalgamation of many things, including Hollywood and the Chinese film industry and the New Age movement of the 60's (the latter of which blended Qi gong techniques with tai chi movements).  That said all these things are alluding to aspects within the art that do exist but have been either aggrandised or taken solely to be the whole of the art and therefore are missing other vital elements - most notably the ability to 'ground' such lofty ideals with truly rooted, earthy energy!  i.e. how can it be proven?

So we may ask: Is 'qi' real?  The answer is a resounding yes - but what is crucial, is to see clearly that a lot of our problems in understanding 'qi' come from the fact that there is no direct translation for it from Chinese to Western language and maybe even thought/concept.  It is also something to be respected and given its proper place.

Tai chi practitioners do cultivate their energy - and one of the most important points to know is that there is no one amorphous 'qi' in TCM theory - but a beautiful array that in TCM Theory has a mind-bending complexity in its manifestations/types coming out of the undifferentiated 'wu' state before yin and yang manifest.  In that case, all of life, the entire universe is just as 'special' as your 'qi' - to overly focus or want to focus on your 'qi' can pull you out of balance.  One of the simplest ways of understanding bodily energy is to get to grips with your jing, qi and shen. 

Tai Chi Form and practice is immensely relaxing, and has beneficial affect upon the central nervous system.  However, just as with any art or skill worth learning - anyone who has experienced trying to learn the Form will tell you how far they feel from being 'peaceful warriors' - instead they just get angry with themselves and frustrated.  Learning to stay with it despite feeling so agitated is important to progression.

A lot of what people in the West think of 'tai chi' is actually more like chi kung, (Qi gong) and the idea that we can harmonise with the cosmos, or balance a person or atmosphere in a place with this 'qi' blurs the identities. In many ways it overlays chi kung's identity too heavily onto the art of 'supreme ultimate fist' - however this is not to say that tai chi is devoid of the harmonising and balancing effects within the practitioner and their life - for it is there within the art, it has an internal alchemy all of its own.  The intent of the practitioner, their sensitivity and awareness all come into play and varies from day to day.  As an example of this, we may not directly focus on the 'qi or 'dan tien' in a class, but nonetheless, after going through a warm-up or part of the short form; many students, unprompted by any teacher, will appear flushed, reporting a buzzing sensation, tingling in their hands, and either they or others can feel an intense heat or magnetic like sensation around their hands; yet we have not deliberately focused on just that as an ultimate goal of the art.  We include it, but not to exclusion.  For it is not the 'start' or 'end' goal of tai chi though it may be for some.  In addition to this, with a rounded syllabus, 'good' tai chi will include chi kung and nei kung.

Which leaves the question of dim mak.  Dim mak - probably 'immortalised' in the film: 'Kill Bill Vol 2' with the 'Five Point Palm Exploding Heart Technique' (though also appearing in films like 'Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon') - the death touch, and techniques like it that claim there exists a secret body of knowledge with techniques that attack pressure points and meridians, said to incapacitate or sometimes cause immediate or even delayed death to an opponent; can be translated as 'press artery' and again is related to Traditional Chinese Medicine and acupuncture knowledge. Dim can mean: 'a/to point/dot' and mak means: 'a hole/vital point' or 'to bore a hole.'  Dim mak can be used in closing or gripping pulses, veins and arteries, via locking, gripping and twisting with a view to setting up for another technique; but it can only be used in close quarters, and requires such accuracy that most would never be able to do it.  The author of this article can say from experience of accupressure and tai chi classes that certain points on the body are vulnerable - nerve plexuses, tendons and cavities/certain areas of the body - that when pressed or hit in a very precise way can be excruciatingly painful and temporarily incapacitating.  On this basis, it is perhaps understandable that every Chinese martial art has techniques involving force being applied to a small point.


What is the 'chi' of 'tai chi'?

The 'chi' in the name of 'tai chi chuan' is also not the 'qi' character in Chinese that represents 'vital energy.'  'Tai chi' here translates as 'Supreme Pole' or 'Supreme Ultimate' - 'chi' meaning: 'extreme/pole/utmost/top.'

So what really can we say about 'Qi'?

The roots of the word 'qi' are a pictograph - the Qing Dynasty scholar Duan Yu Cai noted the character had the 'shape of the rising clouds' - depicting the mists that rise to form clouds.  The character retained this form until (1066 BCE-770BCE), when it was first altered - however its meaning remained the same.  The oldest depiction of qi pertains to the crucial understanding about qi -  it cannot always be seen, yet through its transformation or movement and change - it can be sensed, experienced and understood.  In many ways this change-through movement or something that carries essence/transports, is important to gaining insight into qi.  Whilst 'everything is qi' is in essence true - it is a common mistake to diminish your sense of what qi is - its depth and breadth of manifestation can be totally omitted if we reduce our understanding of qi as this one-type of energy.  To say there is only one qi is a bit like saying there is only one food.  You could argue that whilst there are lots of different types of food - all come from the same energy source in the greater scheme of things - and this is true both of food and qi!  Yet if we are to have a clearer insight into qi, keeping ourselves to this amorphous 'wu chi' as the definition of all qi leaves a lot of room for misunderstanding and misrepresentation.  Keeping sight of this 'something' that is like rising clouds, that moves, transforms and pervades all - yet manifests distinctly and vitalises is key.

Looking further at the eytmology of the word 'qi' may help us.  The character evolved in form.  The Great Dictionary of Chinese Characters has another three meanings: 1) to give, 2) to beg and 3) to take or save. As it underwent changes in form it acquired further meaning - blending elements of other similar words.  The most significant was 'breathing in and out' - yet in the jia gu wen - the oracle bone inscriptions, it didn't have this meaning, instead it meant 'to beg for, to arrive' and 'the end.'

Its association with breathing followed the Yin and Zhou periods (i.e. The Yu Pian/Jade Chapter give 'qi' as 'xi' - 'breathe', in the Book of Rites (Li Ji) in the Zhou period it means 'breathing in and out')  Therefore a different way of writing 'qi' developed and was used to depict 'breath.'

Its also important to know there's a phenomenon of Chinese language that when two characters have a resemblance in shape/sound and/or meaning, they sometimes stand for one another - e.g., this happened with 'qi' and another word 'xi' (shee) - to give nourishment/to give rice.  Through their association a sense of nourishment was added to 'qi' - the radical for 'rice' was added to the inside of the the character for 'qi' - thus we now have a cloud-like vapour associated with essential nutritional substance.

It continued to evolve further - suffice it to say that by the second Century C.E., 'qi' had developed elaborate meanings, including its use in medicine and the yang sheng  scrolls- where it became 'jing qi' (essence), 'shen qi' (spirit) 'xue qi' (blood), 'qi xue' (qi and blood), 'zhao qi '(vitality) and 'shi qi ' (to eat qi) etc., (though its use in medicine  and cultivation will have probably been woven long before - so pervasive is the sense of 'qi' in all life)

The classic Tao Te Ching mentions 'qi' three times (chapter 10, 42 and 55).

There are now 23 definitions of the word 'qi' - so it is true to say qi is many things.  If someone asks 'does qigong generate qi' - what would be the correct answer?  It would be  appropriate to say 'depending on what you mean by qi and how you do it - yes it can improve vital energy'

In the broadest sense it is an essential, connective, transformative component of life - and what many people refer to as 'qi' is vital energy.  There are many things that go to make your vitality, that enliven, move and transport however most people seem to refer only to a 'wu chi'  - a hazy sense of a some mystical, beneficent force.

It is one and many things simultaneously, yet in discussing 'qi' all anyone can say is - it may help if you keep an openness to further understanding qi in all its manifestations; for there is wisdom in sorting things out and knowing a thing by its true name.