The concept of qì (氣) has multiple associations that can be understood from an absolute perspective, including the macrocosmic unseen workings of the universe, to the relative microcosmic experience of qi as the sensation of energetic movement. Many academics and students of East Asian Medicine have viewed the concept of qi as being mysterious and elusive because of this paradox between its absolute and relative aspects. However, the most useful translation of qi is energy. This definition works on both the absolute and relative levels, as qi can literally mean everything, as everything that can be perceived in the world is energy, as we know from advanced physics. And, qi is also specifically a type of energy that imparts a felt sensation with apprehendable qualities and movement patterns.
Many ancient cultures demonstrated knowledge of the universe being composed of energy millennia before validation with the theories of quantum physics. Vedic scriptures, which are thought to be at least 7,000 years old, contain an equation for calculating the speed of light and pi π, include a heliocentric understanding of the cosmos, and understood the earth as being round. These records also include the foundational view that everything in the world, whether perceived through the human mind as material or immaterial, is energy and resonates as vibration or frequency.
In Chinese history, this same understanding was explicitly stated in the Daoist text, the Lièzǐ (列子) from the Warring States period (475-221 BCE), which describes the conversion of immaterial qi (energy) into formed qi (matter):
夫有形者生於无形。則天地安從生？故曰：有太易，有太初，有太始，有太素。太易者，未見氣也；太初者，氣之始也；太始者，形之始也；太素者，質之始也。氣形質具而未相離，故曰渾淪。
That which has form arises from the formless. Were heaven and earth at rest before being born? Gù says: there are [five stages]: Tàiyì, Tàichū, Tàishǐ, [and] Tàisù. Tàiyì does not appear as qi; Tàichū is qi’s beginning; Tàishǐ is form’s beginning; Tàisù is matter’s beginning. Qi is the instrument that manifests matter, and the two are not [really] separate from one another. Therefore, it is said that everything has its order [like ripples flowing out on the surface of water].(1)
淪 lún is translated above as something that has an order that progresses seamlessly like ripples on the surface of water. This is based on the etymology of 淪, which is a combination of a water radical, 氵shuǐ, paired with 侖 lún, which means a logical sequence or order, imparting the meaning of an ordered sequence that follows along like waves or ripples in water. Interestingly, Albert Einstein similarly likened the electromagnetic fields that make up the fabric of the universe, including both space itself as well as the perceptible fields, to the surface of the sea (Rovelli, 2016).
Relevant to the practice of eastern medicine, qi is the energy that imparts the perception of movement in the body as sensation and flow. It includes the subtle energy that runs along the pathways that the Chinese referred to as 經 jīng, which is often translated into English as “meridians” or “channels.” 經 is a picture of threads running in a vertical pattern on a loom (the warp of the fabric), the same way that these main meridians run down the human body to and from the head and feet. The character also has a more esoteric meaning in the component, 巠 jīng, which is the image of water flowing underground, and is a character used in geomancy to depict underground waterways or the subtle electromagnetic currents that flow along the earth's surface, known as ley lines. Ley lines were used in ancient times to map out the sites of the villages where people lived. The early Chinese viewed the human body as a reflection of nature and natural landscapes and thus, the meridians and channels were likened to the underground waterways and lines of energy that similarly run underneath the earth's soil.
There are many different types of qi in the human body, the most overt being that which is able to be measured and understood by modern science, which largely falls under the categories of electromagnetic and biochemical energy. The extent to which a human being is aware of these types of movements, is dependent on whether the sensation is enough to trigger conscious perception. However, sensation mostly operates in the background in the body without cognitive acknowledgement, just as background noise can occur without notice until something triggers its conscious attention. In addition to the qi that can be scientifically measured, there is qi that cannot be measured, but can be felt and perceived directly using the body, and this type falls under the category of subtle energy. Most people are completely unaware of this type of energy, but people with sensitive nervous systems, or training in energy work, can feel this type of energy. The human body is capable of interpreting subtle energies with precision and nuanced complexity, in a way that is not reproducible by scientific equipment. The third type of qi is that which exists, but cannot be measured by modern science, nor perceived by the instrument of the human body. This third type of qi is beyond discussion.
The traditional character for qi, 氣, consists of two pictographs that are combined, the first pictograph, 气 qì, is said to be vapors rising up to form clouds, and the second pictograph, 米mǐ, is an image of rice, as well as the image of the eight directions, a symbol used to depict the basic movements of qi in relation to time. When the two components of vapors and rice are put together, the character imparts the meaning of the transformative process that occurs during the process of cooking rice, as well as the process that occurs as a result of digesting rice after it has been eaten—both of which involve turning a material substance into energy (i.e. the transformation of water into steam in the cooking pot, or the transformation of rice into biochemical energy, or "food qi" (谷氣 gǔqì) in the body). The same process can also go in the other direction, where energy influences the formation of material substance.
It is important to note that the character for qi did not originally contain the rice component (and neither does the simplified character in modern times), showing an emphasis on movement, rather than form. Originally, the character looked more like the pictograph for the number three 三 , but with two larger lines on the exterior sides and a shorter line in between (Figure 1 below). From a Chinese etymological perspective, the three horizontal lines in characters represent the larger ideas of heaven-humanity-earth, which correspond in the human body to the three treasures, jīng-qì-shén (精氣神), which represents various stages in an energy conversion cycle. 精 jīng refers to anything that has the potential to be transformed into qi, and thus represents something in its most unrefined state. 神 shén, is that which can be transformed from qi, and represents something in its most refined state. The three levels of jīng-qì-shén (精氣神) correspond to the larger tripartite concept of heaven-human-earth (tiānréndì 天人地). The character for qi was modified in the Seal Script later on to include lines extending up above and down below, illustrating the basic rising and descending movements of qi dynamics and the relationship of qi to the larger concepts of the heavens and earth. With the lines extending above and below, this imparts the idea that some qi is more yang and therefore naturally ascends toward the heavens, some qi is more yin and therefore naturally descends to earth, and other qi is relatively neutral and does not strongly deviate in either direction. The change in the Seal Script character from the original three lines also likely served the purely pragmatic purpose of distinguishing the character from that of the number three, 三 sān.
Figure 1: Variations of 气/氣 qì Pictographs from Sears, 2022
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References
Rovelli, C., Carnell, S., & Segre, E. (2016). Seven brief lessons on physics (First American edition). Riverhead Books.
Sears, R. (2022). Chinese etymology. https://hanziyuan.net/#about
Citation
Juniper, Evren. “What is Qi?.” Universal Qi, 2022, https://www.universalqi.org/post/what-is-qi.
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