Qi --- 氣 --- the Breath That Became All Things
A Supplement to Chapter 34
A RECORD OF ALL THINGS UNDER HEAVEN
As gathered from the oldest accounts that remain
PROLOGUE --- CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
On the Matter of Qi --- 氣 --- the Breath That Became All Things
It is called Qi --- 氣.
The character has three forms.
The oldest form is 气.
It consists of three wavy horizontal lines.
This form appears in Shang dynasty --- 商朝 --- Shang Chao --- oracle bone script --- 甲骨文 --- jiaguwen.
It appears in Zhou dynasty --- 周朝 --- Zhou Chao --- bronzeware script.
It appears in Qin dynasty --- 秦朝 --- Qin Chao --- small seal script.
The three wavy lines depict rising vapor --- 雲氣 --- yunqi --- cloud breath.
The second form is 氣.
This is the traditional full character.
It combines the vapor graph 气 with the character for rice --- 米 --- mi.
This combination represents steam rising from cooking rice.
The Shuowen Jiezi --- 說文解字 --- the first Chinese dictionary of characters --- compiled by Xu Shen --- 許慎 --- in 121 CE --- states this explicitly.
Steam rising from rice as it cooks.
This is the visual origin of the character.
Rice feeds the body. Steam is the breath of that feeding. Qi is what sustains life.
The third form is 炁.
This rare form is used specifically in Daoist --- 道家 --- Daojia --- talisman writing --- 符咒 --- fuzhou.
It combines the vapor graph 气 with the character for fire --- 灬 --- the four dots beneath indicating flame.
Scholar Sarah Allan identifies this form as a prototypical image of clouds produced by sun on water.
Or steam produced by water vaporized by fire.
In Daoist usage the character 炁 specifically denotes primordial qi --- Xiantian Qi --- 先天氣 --- the pre-heaven innate vital force.
This is distinguished from acquired post-heaven qi --- Houtian Qi --- 後天氣 --- the qi accumulated after birth.
Three characters. Three angles on the same principle.
The oldest depicts vapor.
The middle depicts nourishment transformed.
The rarest depicts fire meeting water.
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On what Qi means.
Qi is not one thing.
It has never been one thing.
The unabridged Chinese dictionary Hanyu Da Cidian --- 漢語大詞典 --- records twenty-three distinct meanings for Qi.
It means air.
It means breath.
It means vapor.
It means gas.
It means vital energy.
It means life force.
It means material energy.
It means the substance of which all things are made.
It means weather --- 天氣 --- tianqi --- the qi of heaven.
It means anger --- 生氣 --- shengqi --- rising qi.
It means morale --- 士氣 --- shiqi --- the qi of soldiers.
It means atmosphere --- the mood of a place or situation.
It means the invisible force that flows through living bodies along specific pathways.
All of these are the same word.
This is not confusion.
This is precision.
The word Qi describes the understanding that breath, energy, substance, weather, emotion, and vitality are not separate things.
They are different manifestations of one underlying phenomenon.
The ancient Chinese did not separate them because they did not believe they were separate.
This belief is the foundation of all Chinese thought about the world.
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On the written character and its possible origin.
Some scholars propose that the word Qi may have originated from a term referring to the mist that arose from heated sacrificial offerings.
This proposal comes from the scholars Philip J. Ivanhoe and Bryan W. Van Norden.
The heated offering produced visible vapor.
The vapor rose toward heaven.
The vapor was the medium through which the living communicated with the dead.
The word for that medium became the word for vital force itself.
This proposal is not universally accepted.
It is recorded here.
The connection between Qi and the ancestral offering is consistent with the earliest contexts in which the character appears.
The Shang dynasty --- 商朝 --- is the earliest confirmed use of the character.
The Shang practiced ritual sacrifice extensively.
Their oracle bone inscriptions record the offerings made to ancestors.
The vapor of the sacrifice may be the origin of the character.
The record does not confirm this.
It records the proposal and notes its consistency.
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On the oldest written meditation text. The Xingqi Jade Inscription --- 行氣銘 --- Xingqi Ming.
There exists a dodecagonal --- twelve-sided --- block of jade from the Warring States period --- 戰國時代 --- Zhanguo Shidai.
It bears an inscription of forty-five characters written in seal script --- 篆書 --- zhuanshu.
The inscription is titled Xingqi --- 行氣 --- Circulating Qi.
Xing --- 行 --- means to move. To travel. To circulate.
Together --- 行氣 --- Circulating Qi.
The inscription describes the stages of breath cultivation --- 氣功 --- qigong.
It reads, in translation: When one inhales so that one swallows the qi, qi is gathered.
As qi has gathered, it expands.
As qi has expanded, it goes downward.
As qi goes downward, it settles.
As qi is settled, it solidifies.
As qi is solidified, it sprouts.
As qi sprouts, it grows.
As qi grows, it is returned.
As qi returns, it ascends to heaven.
This is the complete sequence inscribed on the jade.
The dating of the inscription is debated.
Joseph Needham --- 李約瑟 --- the British scientist and historian of Chinese science --- estimated a date earlier than 400 BCE.
Other scholars estimate it to the mid-fourth century BCE.
If the earlier date is correct it is the oldest known written text on breath cultivation in China.
Older than the Neiye.
Older than the Zhuangzi.
Older than the Tao Te Ching in its current form.
The inscription demonstrates that the practice of cultivating Qi through controlled breath was already systematized before it was written about in any surviving philosophical text.
The practice preceded the theory.
The body knew what the mind had not yet recorded.
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On Qi in the Neiye --- 內業 --- the oldest received Daoist text.
The Neiye --- 內業 --- means Inward Training.
Nei --- 內 --- means inner. Internal.
Ye --- 業 --- means work. Disciplined effort. Achievement.
Together --- 內業 --- Inner Work. Inward Training.
It is chapter forty-nine of the Guanzi --- 管子 --- a large compilation of philosophical texts attributed to the statesman Guan Zhong --- 管仲.
The Neiye itself dates to approximately 350 to 300 BCE.
It is composed of 1,622 characters.
It is written in rhymed prose.
Professor Angus Charles Graham --- 葛瑞漢 --- a Welsh sinologist who taught classical Chinese at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London --- called the Neiye possibly the oldest mystical text in China.
Professor Harold D. Roth described it as a manual on the theory and practice of meditation that contains the earliest references to breath control and the earliest discussion of the physiological basis of self-cultivation in the Chinese tradition.
The text describes three interconnected vital forces as the foundation of human existence.
The first is Qi --- 氣 --- vital breath. Vital energy.
The second is Jing --- 精 --- vital essence. The refined substance of life.
The third is Shen --- 神 --- spirit. The luminous animating intelligence.
Together these three are called the Three Treasures --- 三寶 --- San Bao --- in later Daoist tradition.
The Neiye states: when the mind is tranquil and the vital breath is regular --- 心靜氣理 --- xin jing qi li --- the Way can thereby be halted.
The Way has no fixed position.
It abides within the excellent mind.
The text instructs the practitioner to relax the Qi and expand it.
The body becomes calm.
The mind becomes still.
The practitioner maintains the One --- 守一 --- shou yi.
This state allows the Dao to arrive and settle within the person.
The Neiye does not mention yin and yang.
It does not mention the Five Elements.
It does not offer social commentary.
It is only concerned with the cultivation of Qi within the individual body.
This makes it a unique document among all early Chinese philosophical texts.
It preceded the Daodejing in its systematic treatment of Qi cultivation.
It likely influenced the Daodejing directly.
It was composed at the Jixia Academy --- 稷下學宮 --- Jixia Xuegong --- in the state of Qi --- 齊 --- active approximately 345 to 285 BCE.
The Jixia Academy hosted scholars from all philosophical schools.
Mencius is believed to have participated in its scholarly circles.
The ideas of the Neiye passed into Confucian thought through this contact.
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On Qi in the Zhuangzi --- 莊子.
The Zhuangzi --- 莊子 --- is the second foundational text of Daoism after the Tao Te Ching.
It was compiled in the late Warring States and early Han periods.
The inner chapters are attributed to Zhuang Zhou --- 莊周 --- who lived approximately 369 to 286 BCE.
The Zhuangzi contains the most extensive and systematic early account of Qi as a cosmological principle.
The text states: the universe exhales its Qi, and it is named wind.
Wind is the Qi of the Earth.
The text states: human beings are born because of the accumulation of Qi.
When Qi accumulates there is life.
When Qi disperses there is death.
There is one Qi that connects and pervades everything in the world.
This statement contains the entire Daoist understanding of Qi in four lines.
Qi is not created.
Qi is not destroyed.
It accumulates into forms.
It disperses from forms.
The forms are temporary.
The Qi is permanent.
The Zhuangzi also records the cosmological sequence by which Qi separated into heaven and earth.
The pervading essence of heaven and earth becomes yin and yang.
The concentrated essences of yin and yang become the four seasons.
The dispersed essences of the four seasons become the myriad creatures.
The hot Qi of yang in accumulating produces fire.
The essence of the fire Qi becomes the sun.
The cold Qi of yin in accumulating produces water.
The essence of the water Qi becomes the moon.
The essences produced by the interplay of sun and moon become the stars and the planets.
This is the Zhuangzi's account of how Qi became the visible cosmos.
The Zhuangzi also describes a state of cultivated emptiness in which Qi flows without obstruction.
The text instructs: unify your attention.
Rather than listen with the ear, listen with the heart.
Rather than listen with the heart, listen with the Qi.
Listening stops at the ear.
The heart stills at following circumstances.
Qi is void --- it is all-encompassing.
Only the Way amasses the void.
So the void is the fasting of the heart.
This practice is called xinzhai --- 心齋 --- the fasting of the heart.
It is one of the central meditation techniques of Daoist practice.
The Zhuangzi also contains the famous story of Zhuangzi's reaction to his wife's death.
When she died he was initially grieved.
Then he reflected.
He said: before she was born there was a time when she had no form.
Not only no form but no Qi.
In the midst of the undifferentiated and mingling something changed.
There was Qi.
The Qi changed and there was form.
The form changed and there was life.
Now it has changed again and she is dead.
This is like the turning of the four seasons.
She is lying peacefully in a vast room.
If I were to follow after her wailing and sobbing, it would show that I don't understand anything about fate.
He stopped weeping.
He sang.
This story is the clearest expression of the Daoist understanding of Qi and death in all of classical Chinese literature.
Death is not an ending.
Death is the dispersal of an accumulation.
The Qi continues.
Only the form changes.
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On Qi in the Tao Te Ching --- 道德經 --- Daode Jing.
The Tao Te Ching --- 道德經 --- is attributed to Laozi --- 老子.
Its current form dates to the Warring States period.
It contains 81 chapters.
It mentions Qi in several key passages.
Chapter Forty-Two states: the Tao gives birth to one.
One gives birth to two.
Two gives birth to three.
Three gives birth to the ten thousand things.
The ten thousand things bear yin and embrace yang.
They are harmonized through the blending of Qi --- 沖氣以為和 --- chong qi yi wei he.
Chong --- 沖 --- means a surging, rushing quality. The clash and blend of opposites.
He --- 和 --- means harmony. Balance.
The ten thousand things exist in their present forms because yin qi and yang qi have surged together and found momentary balance.
Every thing that exists is this temporary balance.
Chapter Ten asks: can you concentrate your Qi and achieve the suppleness of a newborn child?
The newborn child has the most concentrated and undamaged Qi.
It cries all day without growing hoarse.
Its harmony is perfect.
Knowing harmony is called constancy.
Knowing constancy is called illumination.
Chapter Fifty-Five connects the concentration of Qi to vitality.
The one who contains perfect virtue is like a newborn.
Poisonous insects will not sting it.
Fierce animals will not seize it.
Birds of prey will not strike it.
Its bones are weak and its muscles are soft but its grip is firm.
It does not yet know the union of male and female yet its organ stands erect.
Its vital essence is at its fullest.
It wails all day and does not grow hoarse.
Its harmony is at its fullest.
In the Tao Te Ching the cultivation of Qi is not described as a practice.
It is described as a natural state that has not yet been lost.
The infant has it.
Adults have depleted it through desire, exertion, and distraction.
The sage recovers it.
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On Qi in the Huainanzi --- 淮南子.
The Huainanzi --- 淮南子 --- was compiled under Liu An --- 劉安 --- Prince of Huainan --- around 139 BCE.
It contains the most detailed cosmological account of Qi in the early Han dynasty literature.
The text states: before heaven and earth took form there was a vast undifferentiated substance.
This substance is called Qi.
The Qi separated.
The clear and light portions floated upward.
They accumulated and became heaven --- 天 --- tian.
The heavy and turbid portions sank downward.
They accumulated and became earth --- 地 --- di.
Heaven formed first because clear Qi is easy to collect.
Earth formed later because turbid Qi is difficult to consolidate.
Heaven formed before earth.
This is the cosmological record.
The Huainanzi also states that the pervading essence of heaven and earth became yin and yang.
Yin and yang interacted and produced the four seasons.
The four seasons scattered their essences and produced the myriad things.
The hot Qi of yang accumulated and produced fire.
The essence of fire Qi became the sun.
The cold Qi of yin accumulated and produced water.
The essence of water Qi became the moon.
The Huainanzi further records that human beings are generated by the earth below while receiving their generating impulse from heaven above.
Heaven and earth blend their Qi and the result is called humankind.
This statement appears also in the Huangdi Neijing --- 黃帝內經.
The human body is the place where heaven Qi and earth Qi meet.
The human body is a cosmos in miniature.
Heaven has the sun and moon.
People have two eyes.
Earth has nine regions.
People have nine orifices.
Heaven has wind and rain.
People have joy and anger.
Heaven has thunder and lightning.
People have the voice and sound.
Heaven has the four seasons.
People have the four limbs.
Heaven has the five tones.
People have the five depots.
The year has 365 days.
The body has 360 joints.
This is the doctrine of correlative cosmology --- 感應 --- ganying.
The cosmos and the body correspond.
They correspond because they are made of the same Qi.
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On Qi in Mencius --- 孟子 --- and the concept of Haoran Zhi Qi --- 浩然之氣.
Mencius --- 孟子 --- lived approximately 372 to 289 BCE.
He was the most important Confucian philosopher after Confucius himself.
He described a specific form of Qi that had not been named before.
He called it Haoran Zhi Qi --- 浩然之氣.
Hao --- 浩 --- means vast. Expansive. Flood-like in scale.
Ran --- 然 --- is a particle expressing quality or manner.
Zhi --- 之 --- is a possessive particle.
Qi --- 氣 --- vital energy.
Together --- 浩然之氣 --- the vast, flood-like Qi.
In English it is most commonly translated as flood-like Qi or moral energy.
Mencius stated that this Qi is difficult to describe.
It is supremely vast and supremely firm.
If nourished by straightforward means and not harmed, it fills the space between heaven and earth.
It is produced by accumulated righteous action --- 義 --- yi.
It is not seized from without by a single act of righteousness.
It accumulates over time through consistent moral conduct.
When it is present the person acts with moral courage.
The person does not shrink from what is right even at personal cost.
This is not physical energy.
This is not cosmic vapor.
This is righteousness made into a force that fills the body.
Mencius stated that this Qi can be damaged by inconsistent action.
If a person acts rightly and then acts wrongly the accumulated Haoran Zhi Qi diminishes.
If a person tries to force its growth --- to rush its development --- it also diminishes.
There is a famous story in Mencius about a farmer who pulled at his rice shoots to make them grow faster.
He returned home exhausted and told his family the crops had grown.
His sons ran to the field.
The shoots were all withered.
Forcing the growth of Haoran Zhi Qi produces the same result.
Mencius said: he who does not know how to nourish his flood-like Qi will find it starved.
He who forces its development will find it destroyed.
Scholar Harold Roth has argued that Mencius drew directly from the Neiye when developing this concept.
Both texts date to the mid-fourth century BCE.
Both use the word Haoran to describe a harmonizing vital energy.
Both were connected to the intellectual environment of the Jixia Academy.
The Confucian school and the proto-Daoist school shared a common understanding of Qi.
They differed only in how they cultivated it.
The Daoists cultivated Qi through stillness.
Mencius cultivated it through righteous action.
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On Qi in the Huangdi Neijing --- 黃帝內經 --- the Yellow Emperor's Classic of Medicine.
The Huangdi Neijing --- 黃帝內經 --- is the foundational text of traditional Chinese medicine.
Huang --- 黃 --- means yellow.
Di --- 帝 --- means emperor. Deity.
Nei --- 內 --- means inner. Internal.
Jing --- 經 --- means classic. Canon.
Together --- 黃帝內經 --- the Inner Classic of the Yellow Emperor.
It is compiled in two parts.
The first part is the Suwen --- 素問 --- Plain Questions.
The second part is the Lingshu --- 靈樞 --- Spiritual Pivot.
The text is probably compiled in the first century BCE, drawing from earlier traditions.
It is attributed to the legendary Yellow Emperor --- Huangdi --- 黃帝 --- who is said to have lived around 2697 to 2597 BCE.
It is presented as a dialogue between the Yellow Emperor and his physician ministers.
The Huangdi Neijing is the first text to systematically map the pathways through which Qi flows within the human body.
These pathways are called Jingmai --- 經脈 --- the Meridians.
There are twelve primary meridians --- 十二正經 --- Shier Zhengjing.
Each is associated with one of the twelve major organs.
The Lung meridian.
The Large Intestine meridian.
The Stomach meridian.
The Spleen meridian.
The Heart meridian.
The Small Intestine meridian.
The Bladder meridian.
The Kidney meridian.
The Pericardium meridian.
The Triple Burner meridian --- 三焦 --- Sanjiao.
The Gallbladder meridian.
The Liver meridian.
The twelve meridians are bilaterally symmetrical.
There are twenty-four channels in total within the body.
They connect in a fixed sequence.
Qi circulates through all twelve channels in a twenty-four hour period.
Ying Qi --- 營氣 --- Nutritive Qi --- spends two hours in each channel.
During those two hours the corresponding organ is nourished.
In addition to the twelve primary meridians there are eight extraordinary channels --- 奇經八脈 --- Qi Jing Ba Mai.
The Huangdi Neijing also records the first description of acupuncture points --- 穴位 --- xuewei.
These are specific locations on the body where Qi gathers and can be accessed.
There are 365 primary acupuncture points.
This number corresponds to the days of the year.
The body mirrors the year.
The year mirrors the body.
Both are expressions of the same Qi.
The Huangdi Neijing states: humans are generated by the earth below while receiving their generating impulse from heaven above.
Heaven and earth blend their Qi.
The result is called humankind.
The text also states: the east gives birth to wind.
Wind gives birth to the wood element.
Wood gives birth to the sour flavor.
The sour flavor gives birth to the liver.
The liver gives birth to the tendon.
The tendon gives birth to the heart.
This chain of correspondences is called correlative cosmology.
Every element of the cosmos is linked to every other element through Qi.
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On the eight types of Qi in traditional Chinese medicine.
Traditional Chinese medicine --- 中醫 --- Zhongyi --- recognizes eight primary types of Qi in the human body.
Each has a distinct origin and function.
The first is Yuan Qi --- 元氣 --- Original Qi.
Yuan --- 元 --- means original. Primordial. The first.
Yuan Qi is inherited from the parents at the moment of conception.
It is stored in the Kidneys --- 腎 --- Shen.
Specifically it is stored at the Gate of Vitality --- Ming Men --- 命門 --- located between the two kidneys at the level of the second lumbar vertebra.
Yuan Qi is the foundation of all other forms of Qi.
It is fixed in quantity at birth.
It cannot be replenished.
It can only be conserved or depleted.
It is distributed throughout the body by the Triple Burner --- San Jiao --- 三焦.
The Nan Jing --- 難經 --- Classic of Difficulties --- states in Chapter Sixty-Six: the Original Qi is the Motive Force --- Dong Qi --- 動氣 --- situated between the two kidneys.
It is life-giving.
It is the root of the twelve channels.
The Triple Burner causes the Original Qi to differentiate for its different uses around the body.
The second is Gu Qi --- 穀氣 --- Food Qi.
Gu --- 穀 --- means grain. Food.
Gu Qi is extracted from food by the Spleen --- 脾 --- Pi --- and the Stomach --- 胃 --- Wei.
It is the first stage of Qi transformation within the body.
It is not yet usable.
It must rise from the middle of the body to the chest.
There it combines with air and is transformed.
The third is Zong Qi --- 宗氣 --- Gathering Qi.
Zong --- 宗 --- means ancestral. Gathering. The source from which others derive.
Zong Qi is formed when Gu Qi from food combines with clean air --- Qing Qi --- 清氣 --- taken in by the Lungs.
It accumulates in the chest.
The chest is called the Sea of Qi --- 氣海 --- Qi Hai.
Zong Qi governs respiration.
It controls speech.
It governs the strength of the voice.
It supports the heartbeat.
Weakness of Zong Qi produces shallow breathing, a weak voice, and cold hands.
The fourth is Zhen Qi --- 真氣 --- True Qi.
Zhen --- 真 --- means true. Genuine. The real and final form.
Zhen Qi is the final stage of transformation.
It is produced when Zong Qi is further refined with the assistance of Yuan Qi.
Zhen Qi is the Qi that actually circulates through the twelve meridians.
It divides into two forms.
Ying Qi --- 營氣 --- Nutritive Qi --- which flows inside the meridians.
Wei Qi --- 衛氣 --- Defensive Qi --- which flows outside the meridians.
The fifth is Ying Qi --- 營氣 --- Nutritive Qi.
Ying --- 營 --- means nourishing. Sustaining. Building.
Ying Qi flows within the blood vessels and the meridians.
It nourishes all organs and tissues.
It is activated when an acupuncture needle is inserted into an acupuncture point.
It spends two hours in each of the twelve primary channels in a twenty-four hour cycle.
It is closely associated with blood --- 血 --- xue.
In the vessels it supports the function of blood.
In the meridians it sustains the organs.
The sixth is Wei Qi --- 衛氣 --- Defensive Qi.
Wei --- 衛 --- means to defend. To protect. To guard.
Wei Qi is the body's primary defense against external pathogens.
It circulates outside the meridians.
It flows between the skin and the muscles.
During the day it circulates on the exterior of the body.
During the night it moves inward.
It governs the opening and closing of the pores.
It regulates body temperature.
It protects against wind, cold, heat, and dampness.
Weakness of Wei Qi produces frequent illness, inability to adapt to temperature change, and disordered sweating.
The seventh is Zheng Qi --- 正氣 --- Upright Qi.
Zheng --- 正 --- means upright. Correct. In proper alignment.
Zheng Qi is the overall rightness and strength of the body's Qi.
It represents the sum of all Qi working in harmony.
When Zheng Qi is strong the body resists illness.
When Zheng Qi is weak the body is vulnerable.
In Chinese medicine the statement: where Zheng Qi resides, no evil can enter --- 正氣存內,邪不可干 --- zhengqi cun nei, xie bu ke gan --- is a fundamental principle of health.
The eighth is Xie Qi --- 邪氣 --- Pathogenic Qi.
Xie --- 邪 --- means evil. Deviant. That which disturbs right order.
Xie Qi refers to external pathogenic forces.
Wind --- 風 --- Feng.
Cold --- 寒 --- Han.
Heat --- 暑 --- Shu.
Dampness --- 濕 --- Shi.
Dryness --- 燥 --- Zao.
Fire --- 火 --- Huo.
These six are called the Six Pathogens --- 六邪 --- Liu Xie.
They enter the body when the body's own Qi is insufficient to resist them.
They disrupt the natural flow of Qi and produce disease.
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On Qi in Neo-Confucian philosophy. Zhang Zai --- 張載 --- and the Great Vacuity --- 太虛 --- Taixu.
Zhang Zai --- 張載 --- lived from 1020 to 1077 CE during the Song dynasty --- 宋朝 --- Song Chao.
He was one of the founding thinkers of the Neo-Confucian movement.
He developed the most systematic philosophical account of Qi in Chinese intellectual history.
His primary work is the Zhengmeng --- 正蒙 --- Correcting the Ignorant.
Zhang Zai's fundamental claim is this: the basic elementary component of the universe and all beings is Qi.
He called the Qi in its fully dispersed, undifferentiated state the Great Vacuity --- Taixu --- 太虛.
Taixu appears empty.
Taixu is not empty.
It is Qi in its most rarefied form.
He stated: the Supreme Emptiness of necessity consists of vital energy.
Vital energy of necessity integrates to become the myriad things.
The myriad things of necessity disintegrate and return to the Supreme Emptiness.
Qi is never created and never destroyed.
The same Qi goes through a continuous process of condensation and dispersion.
Zhang Zai compared this to water.
Water in liquid form and water frozen as ice are still the same substance.
Condensed Qi that forms visible things and dispersed Qi that forms the invisible void are still the same substance.
Condensation is the yin force of Qi.
Dispersion is the yang force of Qi.
What appears to be creation is Qi condensing.
What appears to be destruction is Qi dispersing.
The Qi continues.
Zhang Zai expressed the consequence of this understanding in the Western Inscription --- Ximing --- 西銘.
He wrote: that which fills the universe I regard as my body.
That which directs the universe I consider as my nature.
All people are my brothers and sisters.
All things are my companions.
Even those who are tired, infirm, crippled, or sick --- those who have no brothers or children, wives or husbands --- are all my brothers who are in distress and have no one to turn to.
This is the ethical consequence of the cosmological claim.
If all things are made of the same Qi then all things are one body.
To harm another is to harm oneself.
To care for another is to care for oneself.
Zhang Zai's theory was criticized by Zhu Xi --- 朱熹 --- who lived from 1130 to 1200 CE.
Zhu Xi argued that Qi alone was insufficient to explain the workings of the universe.
There must also be Li --- 理 --- principle.
Li is the pattern according to which Qi condenses and disperses.
Li provides the blueprint.
Qi provides the substance.
Everything that exists is Li expressed through Qi.
Zhu Xi's synthesis of Li and Qi became the orthodox metaphysical framework of Chinese civilization for six hundred years.
It governed the interpretation of the Confucian classics in the imperial examination system from 1313 CE until the beginning of the twentieth century.
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On the analogs of Qi in other civilizations.
The concept of Qi has parallels in other ancient traditions.
In ancient India it is called Prana --- प्राण.
Prana means breath. Life force.
It flows through channels called Nadis.
It is cultivated through the practice of Pranayama --- breath control --- in yoga.
In ancient Greece it is called Pneuma --- πνεῦμα.
Pneuma means breath. Wind. Spirit.
The Stoic philosophers identified Pneuma as the active principle that gives form and coherence to all things.
In ancient Greece it is also related to the concept of Humours --- 體液 --- tiyi --- the four bodily fluids.
Blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile.
An imbalance of humours produced disease.
This is structurally similar to the Chinese concept of Qi imbalance producing disease.
In Japan the same concept is called Ki --- 気.
In Korea it is called Gi --- 기.
In Vietnam it is called Khi --- khí.
All derive from the Chinese character.
All preserve the core meaning of vital breath and life force.
The Japanese word Genki --- 元気 --- meaning healthy, energetic, or well --- derives directly from Yuan Qi --- 元氣 --- Original Qi.
The concept has traveled from ancient Chinese philosophy into daily usage in modern Japanese.
When a Japanese person asks a friend: are you well --- Ogenki desu ka --- 元気ですか --- they are asking: how is your Original Qi.
The cosmological concept has become a greeting.
This is how thoroughly Qi has penetrated the civilization that first named it.
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On Qi and the five functions it performs in the cosmos and in the body.
The classical texts identify five functions that Qi performs.
These functions apply both to the cosmos and to the body within it.
The first function is Propelling --- 推動 --- tuidong.
Qi drives all movement.
The movement of the stars.
The movement of the seasons.
The beating of the heart.
The movement of food through the body.
The movement of thoughts through the mind.
Without Qi nothing moves.
The second function is Warming --- 溫煦 --- wenxu.
Qi produces warmth.
The warmth of the sun is the Yang Qi of heaven.
The warmth of the human body is the Yang Qi within.
When Yang Qi is insufficient the body becomes cold.
When Yang Qi is excessive the body becomes feverish.
The third function is Defending --- 防禦 --- fangyu.
Qi protects the surface of the body against external pathogens.
This is the function of Wei Qi --- Defensive Qi.
It also protects the interior by maintaining the integrity of organs and meridians.
The fourth function is Transforming --- 氣化 --- qihua.
Qi transforms one thing into another.
Food is transformed into Gu Qi.
Gu Qi is transformed into Zong Qi.
Zong Qi is transformed into Zhen Qi.
Zhen Qi is transformed into blood and body fluids.
The body is a continuous series of Qi transformations.
At the cosmic scale Qi transformed from undivided into yin and yang.
From yin and yang into the five elements.
From the five elements into the myriad things.
The fifth function is Containing --- 固攝 --- gushe.
Qi holds things in their proper places.
It keeps blood within the vessels.
It keeps organs in their correct positions.
It keeps fluids from leaking out of the body inappropriately.
When this function is impaired blood escapes the vessels and produces hemorrhage.
Organs prolapse.
Sweat, urine, and fluids cannot be retained.
---
On what Qi represents.
Qi represents the Chinese answer to the question: what are things made of.
Western philosophy answered this question with atoms.
Discrete, indivisible units of matter.
The Chinese answer was Qi.
Not discrete units.
A continuous, undivided substance that takes different forms depending on how it accumulates.
The sinologist Angus Graham wrote: Qi is adapted to cosmology as the universal fluid, active as Yang and passive as Yin, out of which all things condense and into which they dissolve.
A rock is condensed Qi.
A thought is dispersed Qi.
A gust of wind is Qi moving.
A human body is Qi temporarily gathered into a particular form.
When that gathering disperses the Qi does not cease.
It returns to the Great Vacuity.
It is ready to condense again.
Into what form it will condense next cannot be known.
This is not mysticism.
This is a coherent account of the world in which nothing is ever created and nothing is ever destroyed.
Things only change form.
The form changes.
The Qi continues.
It has always continued.
It will always continue.
This record has reached its end.
The Qi of the reader continues.
End of Supplement