QI? NATURAL?

 By Phillip Starr

For many decades now, there has been an ongoing argument regarding the “mysterious” force that is often referred to as “qi.” Americans first heard of it when it was introduced (via taijiquan) by the martial arts media of the time. Since then, there has been a plethora of “masters” who, for a nominal fee (of course) will demonstrate or teach hungry Westerners about the ”secrets” of this inscrutable concept. The result has been that many people refuse to believe that such a thing exists and they go about practicing their (internal) martial disciplines without concerning themselves with the subject.

Much of the problem is that they don’t understand the actual word/concept in terms of the Chinese language. As the renowned scholar, Samuel Hayakawa, told us, “We are limited in our thinking (and ability to understand certain concepts) by our language.” The word “qi” doesn’t fully translate very well into English and the (Chinese) meaning of it, and how it’s used in their culture, is not well-understood in the West.

The old character (not the new “simplified” Chinese character) for qi -氣 - is made from two radicals; One is the character for rice, which is placed inside a radical that refers to clouds, vapor, etc. So it represents boiling rice and the steam rising above it. This is why I like the older form of Chinese characters; the new “simplified” method may make them easier to memorize and write, but much of the meaning (of the original radicals) is lost.

The word for energy (one of the words for it) is huoli. The first radical, huo, means “live” as in the concept of “alive.” Li refers to a force/power of some kind. Thus, “live force/power.” The concept of qi refers not only to vapors, but also to a sort of “life energy.” It is that which makes us alive (it dissipates at death). We can build a complete human being – or any other creature, for that matter – but try as we might, we cannot make it alive. No qi, no life.

That said, qi is not a “thing”, like a stone or even water. It cannot be easily seen, measured, or held in the hand. Like love and other similar concepts, we cannot see or measure it but we can easily see its effects. Most forms of energy occur naturally, as the result of combining certain things. Without these “ingredients”, the energy will not exist. Wind depends on certain conditions existing at the same time, and so on. We say that wind is a “natural-occurring” energy but in reality, certain “ingredients” must be brought to the fore first. The same is true of qi. Qi itself, is, in fact, a naturally-occurring form of energy.