Welcome to another blog focused on discussing some fundamental concepts from traditional Chinese medicine! Today we will provide a brief introduction to one of the most well known and misunderstood concepts from Chinese Medicine: the concept of "qi."
Many Acupuncturists and Qi Gong practitioners would simply say that Qi is “energy.” The reason that I avoid this interpretation is that it just replaces one mysterious concept with another. What is energy? “Energy” is a term that will mean one thing to an athlete, another to a chemical engineer, and yet another to a meditator or Reiki practitioner. A great amount of confusion has come directly out of using this term “energy” so broadly, and in so many different contexts. So rather than switch one mystery for another, I will attempt to give the traditional context for the term Qi.
Traditional Chinese thought orders our reality “by the numbers.” The first is, perhaps a little obviously, the number one. This points to the concept that the universe is considered as a whole, and that all within it is a part of that whole. The second is the level of two: this is the concept of Yin/Yang. Yin/yang recognizes all of the “dualistic” concepts we have: up/down, light/dark, movement/stillness, positive/negative and so on. Out of these polar opposites, the three is born. Three is considered to be the level of both qi and human beings. Like the electrical flow between the positive and negative poles of a battery, qi is all of the movement, interaction and happenings between the yin and yang poles of the universe.
From the above, we can understand that at the most fundamental level, qi refers to the movement and operation of life and existence. This includes things we consider physical phenomena, such as the pull between opposite poles of a magnet, the light from a light bulb, breathing, digestion, the sound of a song and the warmth of an embrace. Also included in the concept of Qi are the subtle flows of vitality within and throughout the body that animate and give vitality to our being, subtle flows that we currently lack the ability to physically measure or easily quantify.
It is foundational to an accurate understanding of Qi that all of the above are included. If we look only at the physically measurable, or only at the subtle, then we are not seeing the full picture. In traditional Chinese medical theory, Qi is the interaction and operation of the movement between all dualities, including physical and non-physical (yin and yang). Also vital to remember is that even though Qi is at the level of the three, it is still held within the broader and all-inclusive concept of oneness.