Qigong

For the artist, see Qigong (artist).
Qigong
Qigong practitioners at World Tai Chi and Qigong Day event in Manhattan, New York City, USA.
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Qigong, chi kung, or chi gung (气功 or 氣功) (pronounced "chee-gung") is a practice of aligning breath, movement, and awareness for exercise, healing, and meditation.[1] With roots in Chinese medicine, martial arts, and philosophy, qigong is traditionally viewed as a practice to balance qi (chi) or what has been translated as "intrinsic life energy."[2] Typically a qigong practice involves rhythmic breathing, coordinated with slow stylized repetition of fluid movement, and a calm mindful state.[3] Qigong is now practiced throughout China and worldwide, and is considered by some to be exercise, and by others to be a type of alternative medicine or meditative practice.[4] From a philosophical perspective qigong is believed to help develop human potential, allow access to higher realms of awareness, and awaken one's "true nature."[5]

Contents

What is qigong?

Etymology

Main article: Qi

Qigong (Pinyin), ch'i kung (Wade-Giles), and chi gung (Yale) are English words for two Chinese characters: qì (氣) and gōng (功).

Qi (or chi) is usually translated as life energy, lifeforce, or energy flow, and definitions often involve breath, air, gas, or relationship between matter, energy, and spirit.[6] Qi is the central underlying principle in traditional Chinese medicine and martial arts. Gong (or kung) is often translated as work or practice, and definitions include skill, mastery, merit, achievement, service, result, or accomplishment. (see online Chinese language tools)

The two words are combined to describe systems to cultivate and balance life energy, especially for health.[1]

History

Main article: Qigong history

With roots in ancient Chinese culture dating back more than 4,000 years, a wide variety of qigong forms have developed within different segments of Chinese society:[7] in traditional Chinese medicine for preventive and curative functions,[8] in Confucianism to promote longevity and improve moral character,[1] in Taoism and Buddhism as part of meditative practice,[5] and in Chinese martial arts to enhance fighting abilities.[9][10] Traditionally, knowledge about qigong was passed from adept master to student in elite unbroken lineages, typically with secretive and esoteric traditions of training and oral-mind transmission.[11]

Starting in the 1940s and the 1950s, the Chinese government tried to integrate disparate qigong approaches into one coherent system, with the intention of establishing a firm scientific basis for qigong practice, and as part of the political philosophy of the Great Leap Forward (1958–1963) and the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976). This attempt is considered by some sinologists as the start of the modern or scientific interpretation of qigong.[12][13][14] Along with t'ai chi, qigong was popularized as daily morning exercise practiced en masse throughout China.

Through the forces of migration of the Chinese diaspora, tourism in China, and globalization, the practice of qigong has spread from the Chinese community to the world. Today, millions of people around the world practice qigong and believe in the benefits of qigong to varying degrees. Similar to its historical origin, those interested in qigong come from diverse backgrounds and practice it for different reasons, including for exercise, preventive medicine, self-healing, self-cultivation, meditation, and martial arts training.

Training methods

Qigong is not just a set of breathing exercises, but rather comprises a large variety of physical and mental training methods based on Chinese philosophy.[15] While implementation details vary, all qigong forms can be characterized as a mix of four types of training: dynamic, static, meditative, and activities requiring external aids.

T'ai chi ch'uan vs qigong

Main article: T'ai chi ch'uan

T'ai chi ch'uan (tàijíquán, 太极拳), or simply tai chi, is often translated as "supreme boxing" or "supreme balancing", and is a popular system of internal (Nèijiā 內家) martial arts focused on spiritual, mental, and qi-related aspects of practice and characterized by complex stylized movements.[16][27] The Chinese character 极 , jí or chi, means "final" or "extreme", in contrast with 氣, qì or chi, which means "life energy". While some scholars and practitioners consider tai chi to be a type of qigong,[28] the two are more commonly distinguished as separate but closely related practices, with qigong playing an important role in training for tai chi, and with many tai chi movements performed as part of qigong practice.

Tai chi is performed slowly for health, meditation, and martial arts training, and quickly for self defense. Practice consists of a sequence of movements that emphasize fluid motion, an erect spine, abdominal breathing, natural range of motion over the center of gravity, calm focus, and attention to philosophy and aesthetics. Tai chi can be practiced individually or as "pushing hands" with a partner.

Application

People practice qigong for many different reasons, including for exercise and recreation, prevention and self-healing, meditation and self-cultivation, and training for martial arts.

Alternative medical systems
Acupuncture · Anthroposophic medicine · Herbalism · Homeopathy · Naturopathy · Orthopathy · Osteopathy/Chiropractic
Traditional medicine
Chinese · Mongolian · Tibetan · Unani · Siddha · Ayurveda
NCCAM classifications
Whole medical systems · Mind-body interventions · Biologically based therapies · Manipulative therapy · Energy therapies
See also
Alternative medicine · Glossary · People

Health

As a form of gentle exercise, qigong is composed of movements that are typically repeated, strengthening and stretching the body, increasing fluid movement (blood, synovial, and lymph), enhancing balance and proprioception, and building awareness of how the body moves through space.[3] In recent years a large number of books and videos have been published that focus primarily on qigong as exercise and associated health benefits.

As a healing art, qigong practitioners focus on prevention and self-healing, traditionally viewed as balancing the body's energy meridians and enhancing the intrinsic capacity of the body to heal.[8] Qigong has been used extensively in China as part of traditional Chinese medicine, and is included in the curriculum of Chinese Universities.[29] Throughout the world qigong is now recognized as a form of complementary and alternative medicine,[30][31][32] with positive effects on diverse ailments.[33][34]

In 2003, the Chinese Health Qigong Association,[35] a member of the All-China Sports Federation, officially recognized four health qigong exercises:

Meditation and self-cultivation

Qigong is practiced for meditation and self-cultivation as part of various philosophical and spiritual traditions. As meditation, qigong is a means to still the mind and enter a state of consciousness that brings serenity, clarity, and bliss.[5] Many practitioners find qigong, with its gentle focused movement, to be more accessible than seated meditation.[4]

Qigong for self-cultivation can be classified in terms of traditional Chinese philosophy:

Martial arts training

The practice of qigong is an important component in Chinese martial arts.[5] Focus on qi is considered to be a source of power as well as the foundation of the internal style of martial arts (Neijia). T'ai chi ch'uan, Xing yi, and Baguazhang are representative of the types of Chinese martial arts that rely on the concept of qi as the foundation. [45] Extraordinary feats of martial arts prowess, such as the ability to withstand heavy strikes (Iron Shirt, 鐵衫) [46] and the ability to break hard objects (Iron Palm, 铁掌) [47] [48] are abilities attributed to qigong training.

Theory

Traditional view

Main article: Qi

Traditionally, the central focus of qigong practice is to cultivate and balance qi as it affects mind (心), body (身), and spirit (靈).[7][49] In Chinese philosophy, the concept of qi as a form of pervasive life energy includes original qi that a person has at birth, and qi a person acquires from air, water, food, sunlight, and interaction with the environment.[50][51] A person is believed to become ill or die when qi becomes diminished or unbalanced. Health is believed to be returned by rebuilding qi, eliminating qi blockages, and correcting qi imbalances.

Main article: Traditional Chinese medicine

Traditional Chinese medicine focuses on tracing and correcting underlying disharmony, in terms of deficiency and excess, using the complementary and opposing forces of yin and yang, to create a balanced flow of qi. Qi is believed to be cultivated and stored in three main dantian energy centers and to travel through the body along twelve main meridians, with numerous smaller branches and tributaries. The main meridians correspond to twelve main organs (Zàng fǔ). Qi is balanced in terms of yin and yang in the context of the traditional system of Five Phases (Wu xing 五行).[7][8] These traditional concepts do not translate readily to modern science and medicine.

Principles

Whether viewed from the perspective of exercise, health, philosophy, or martial arts training, several main principles emerge concerning the practice of qigong:[1][3][4]

Additional principles:

Advanced goals:

The most advanced practice is generally considered to be with little or no motion.

Contemporary view

Similar to the subject of efficacy of Traditional Chinese medicine, the chasm between the Eastern tradition of qi and the Western scientific viewpoints is not insurmountable if the analysis is limited to the effect of qigong practice on biological processes without demanding a material interpretation of qi. There is convincing argument to view the concept of qi as a metaphor for biological processes.[52][53]

The basis of qigong can also be explained in terms of contemporary views of health, science, meditation, and exercise, and using medical concepts such as stress management, [54] [55] biofeedback,[30] [56] autogenic training,[57] and neurology.[58] [59]

Health benefits

Claims and medical research

Qigong has been purported to enhance health and well-being with many benefits, including improving cardiovascular function, healing specific acute diseases, and increasing longevity.[1] Many of these claims are supported only by anecdotal evidence, traditional lore, and teachings in master/student lineages.[11] Research examining health benefits of qigong is increasing but still only a limited number of studies meet accepted medical and scientific standards of randomized controlled trials (RCT). In a 2010 comprehensive review of qigong and tai chi,[34] a literature search of peer-reviewed journals in medical databases for the period of 1993-2007 found a total of seventy-seven RCT studies that examined the benefits of qigong and Tai chi practice. The effects can be broadly grouped into nine categories:

The review concluded that qigong practice played a positive role in each category. While many of these studies showed positive benefits of qigong practice, many of the same studies showed similar effects with ordinary physical exercise. This suggests that qigong may be effective primarily as gentle physical exercise.

Mental health

Various claims have been made that qigong can benefit or exacerbate mental health conditions,[34][60] including claims of improved mood, decreased stress reaction, and decreased anxiety and depression. Most medical studies have only examined psychological factors as secondary goals, however some studies have shown significant benefits such as decrease in cortisol levels, a chemical hormone produced by the body to manage stress.[34] There are also claims that in some cases the practice of qigong can result in a mental condition known as Zou huo ru mo (走火入魔) or "qigong deviation" (氣功偏差), which, among other symptoms, can lead to a perception of an uncontrolled flow of qi in the body during or after practice.[61][62][63]

Main article: Zou huo ru mo (medicine)

Controversy

There is little controversy concerning the benefit of qigong when the definition of qigong is limited to a series of physical movements and a set of relaxation exercises. Conflict has arisen when the claims made by proponents of qigong border on the supernatural.[61][64]

Some researchers have labeled the subject matter of qigong as a pseudoscience.[65] In addition, some claim that the origin and nature of qigong practice has led to misconceptions and misuses,[66] including psychiatric problems[14] and the formation of cults[61]

Skepticism towards qigong is also applied to the field of Traditional Chinese medicine, and extended to the broader subject of alternative medicine. The basic problem is that the information available from those fields does not fit scientific acceptability or medical interpretation. [65][66][67][68] [69] [70] Skeptics contend that most of the benefits derived from Alternative medicine are, at best, derived from a placebo effect.[71] [72]

The main arguments from the view of skeptics against the correlation between qigong practices and health-related results are:

Shifting views of qigong

Traditionally, qigong training has been esoteric and secretive, with knowledge passed from adept master to student in lineages that maintain their own unique detailed interpretations and methods.[11]  Over the centuries, a diverse spectrum of qigong forms developed in different segments of Chinese society,[9] with emphasis on meditative practice by scholars, and gymnastic or dynamic practice by the working masses.[81]  Disparate approaches to qigong were merged as part of the cultural change that occurred as China modernized.[12]  In contemporary China, the emphasis of qigong practice has shifted away from traditional philosophy, spiritual attainment, and folklore, and increasingly to health benefits, traditional medicine and martial arts applications, and a scientific perspective.[61][62]

Qigong is now practiced by millions worldwide, primarily for its health benefits, though many practitioners have also adopted traditional philosophical, medical, or martial arts perspectives, and even use the long history of qigong as evidence of its effectiveness.[4][7]

See also

References

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