What is Qigong?
How does it relate to Tai Chi Chuan? What benefits does the practice of Qigong provide? These are some of the questions that we will explore in this post.
Qigong is an ancient Chinese health care system that is over 4000 years old (Wikipedia 2016). It integrates physical postures, breathing techniques and focused intention (National Qigong Association 2016). Qigong (氣功 in Chinese) is translated as “energy practice”. Qi (pronounced “chēē” in English) is the vital energy or life force that makes something alive. The difference between a living person and leather bag containing all the chemicals found in the human body is qi. Having qi makes you alive. Without qi, you die. Gong (pronounced “gŭng” in English) means practice, but carries the connotation of diligent practice, also implying mastery.
Many different activities fall under the term qigong, but they all have the goal of enhancing your qi. Notice I did not say increasing your chi (more about why later in this post). There are innumerable variations of energy practices – probably literally thousands. This can cause a student some confusion because one set of qigong exercises can be practiced in several different variations, depending on the teacher and how they learned it. For example, the Eight Pieces of Brocade or the Eight Brocades is a common energy practice. It consists of eight exercises, but the order in which they are performed may change, or the exercises themselves may vary, yet all the variations are called the same thing!
Types of Qigong
Overall, various energy practices can be classified into Medical/Healing Qigong, Spiritual Qigong, and Martial Qigong. The goals of each are pretty self-evident from the classification. Most people practice the Medical/Healing type of qigong; primarily to improve or maintain their own health. However, diligent practice of this type of energy practice lets practitioners help to heal others, not just themselves. Spiritual Qigong has enlightenment as its primary goal. Martial Qigong aims to improve one’s martial abilities. To achieve the highest levels of proficiency in these various areas takes many years of practice. While at the lower levels of proficiency, there is considerable overlap between types of qigong, as one’s proficiency increases, they diverge. Most advanced practitioners specialize in one branch because of the time demands necessary to become proficient in more than one branch.
One common theme among the various branches of qigong is to “enhance” your qi. Why do I say enhance? Because, practice of qigong will improve your sensitivity and let you feel your qi move throughout your body. Some say it increases the amount qi in your body. Others say that you are born with a fixed amount of qi, which you are simply trying to conserve and purify. At this time, there is no way to know whether energy practices increase the amount of qi in your body, or simply makes you more aware of the qi already present (which could seem like an increase).
Tai Chi Chuan as Qigong
Tai Chi Chuan began as a martial art, but it also is a form of energy practice with significant health benefits. It is the health benefits that most current Tai Chi Chuan practitioners seek. How can a martial art also be good for your health? It all depends on how it is practiced. Practicing the various forms are all good for one’s health. I would even include weapons forms, which many people would consider extremely martial, as being healthful. The slow gentle movements combined with the breathing and focused intention that are part of Tai Chi Chuan forms, are characteristic of all types of qigong. These movements and breathing help to move your chi by slowly opening energy gates and releasing blockages that prevent the chi from flowing. Some postures in the forms align the internal organs, thereby helping the organs be more efficient – cloud hands is particularly noted for this.
Obviously, Tai Chi Chuan is only one type of energy practice. Other practices were developed strictly for health purposes. Examples of these would be the Eight Brocades (Ba Duan Jin, 八段錦) or Yi Jin Jing (易筋經). Regular practice of either the Eight Brocades or the Yi Jin Jing improves overall health, and flexibility. The Yi Jin Jing (which translates to Marrow/Tendon Changing Classic) is more specifically for improving flexibility, but it also helps improve/maintain health. On the other hand, the Eight Brocades is more specifically for health improvement/maintenance, but also improves flexibility.
Qigong in my classes
In my classes, the Eight Brocades is often used as a warm-up prior to starting the Yang style form. Sometimes we will also do the Yi Jin Jing as part of the warm-ups. (Note: If you are interested in the sequence of my classes click here.) The Tai Chi for Arthritis/Health class that I teach has its own warm-up set that can also be practiced as qigong. Practice of these as a warm-up or stretching exercise only takes a few minutes. Practicing them as a true qigong takes longer and we simply don’t have time to do so in class. However, the student can certainly practice them as qigong on their own time.
Works Cited
National Qigong Association. 2016. What is Qigong? March 6. http://nqa.org/about-nqa/what-is-qigong/.
Wikipedia. 2016. Qigong. March 13. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qigong#cite_note-YJM2-10.
© Jay Soderberg, March 13 2016, Updated November 19, 2017