Whats Qi?
The Chinese, as many other cultures and some religious doctrines, believe everything in the universe has its own field of energy. All one has to do is look to Kirlian photography to see reported evidence of its existence. The Chinese call this energy Qi (also Chi, ch’i). As blood circulates throughout the body, carried by vessels and capillaries, so is Qi circulated throughout the body, carried by a series of twelve major channels (Ching), eight vessels (Mei), and numerous smaller channels (Lou), Through this system, Qi is carried to every organ and to every cell and any stagnation, or block, of this circulation causes illness. If the flow of Qi is completely stopped, the result is death. Two wonderful sources for further exploration of Qi and its circulation are Ted J. Kaptchuk’s The Web That Has No Weaver: Understanding Chinese Medicine (Congdon & Weed: Chicago, 1983) and Da Liu’s T’ai Chi Ch’uan and Meditation (Schocken Books: New York, 1986).
