“人之生，氣之聚也。聚則為生，散則為死。”
Human life is a gathering of qi. When it gathers, there is life; when it disperses, there is death.
— Zhuangzi 莊子, Chapter 22

Introduction

The concept of qi (氣) is one of the most enduring ideas in Chinese intellectual history. Unfortunately, it is also one of the most misunderstood from the western point of view.

From its origins as “breath” or “vapor” in the late Zhou period, qi developed into a cosmological substrate, physiological principle, and spiritual technology. This article traces its evolution through classical sources — including the Zhuangzi, Huainanzi, and Huangdi Neijing — and modern scholarship, examining how this concept adapted across medical, philosophical, martial, and scientific discourses.

1. Etymology and Early Usage: From Breath to Ontology

The character for Qi (氣) originally referred to steam or vapor rising from cooked rice — a striking image of invisible yet material energy. ¹ Some bone manuscript fragments used the character in reference to weather patterns and changes. In Warring States manuscripts, the term designated both air/breath and a more abstract, dynamic substance permeating the cosmos.

Zhuangzi emphasizes qi as the gathering of life-force; its dispersal equals death.²

In early natural philosophy, qi was neither spirit nor pure matter. It prefigured later notions of pneuma, energy, or fields, yet retained its own ontological framework, rooted in transformations and flows rather than static substances. Qi, however differs from Greek pneuma or Indian prāṇa in its cosmological centrality. It is not a secondary life-principle but the medium from which all things emerge. In my lectures, I have proposed that qi could be thought of as the fundamental substrate of the universe, of which matter and energy are but two forms of qi.

The traditional character for qi shows rice grain within a container, with steam flowing above it.

2. Cosmological Foundations: Qi Between Dao and Form

During the late Warring States and early Han periods, qi became central to Naturalist (陰陽家) and Correlative cosmologies. It functioned as the intermediary between Dao (道) and form.

“道始於虛無，而虛無生氣，氣生陰陽。”
Dao begins in the Great Emptiness; from the Great Emptiness arises qi; from qi arise yin and yang.
— Huainanzi 淮南子, “Yuandao” 原道³

In this framework:

• Dao is the ineffable source.
• Qi is the first differentiation, giving rise to yin and yang.
• The Five Phases (五行) articulate subsequent transformations.

Qi also infused political and ethical discourse: the ruler’s 德 (de, virtue) was said to harmonize the realm’s qi, linking cosmic balance to good governance. This is important later when medical texts began comparing a state and it’s governance to a human body and the maintenance of good health.

3. Medical Systematization: Qi in the Huangdi Neijing

The Huangdi Neijing (黃帝內經) marks a major turning point: qi is formalized into a systematic medical framework. Here, qi underlies both anatomy (via meridians) and function (through circulation, defense, and nourishment).

“凡此十二經脈者，人之所以生，病之所以成，人之所以治，病之所以起也。”
“These twelve channels are what make human life possible, the causes of disease, the means of treatment, and the places where disease arises.”
— Lingshu 靈樞, Chapter 10⁴

The text even specifies different kinds of qi.

• 元氣 (yuan qi): congenital/original qi
• 營氣 (ying qi): nutritive qi
• 衛氣 (wei qi): defensive qi
• 宗氣 (zong qi): ancestral qi

Illness is not localized, but emerges from imbalances or blockages in qi. Acupuncture, moxibustion, and herbal therapy are conceptualized as regulatory interventions in these flows.

4. Daoist Alchemy and Spiritual Transformation

Daoist inner cultivation (內丹 neidan) elevated qi beyond physiology to a medium of spiritual refinement. Practitioners sought to transmute jing 精 → qi 氣 → shen 神, ultimately returning to Dao.

• Breath regulation (調息)
• Energy refinement and circulation
• Alignment with cosmological rhythms

“得一以清，積氣以靜。”
“Attain the One to become pure; accumulate qi to achieve stillness.”
— Cantong qi 參同契⁵

5. Martial Arts, Geomancy, and Everyday Qi

By the Ming and Qing periods, qi became embedded in martial disciplines such as Tai Chi Chuan (太極拳), Xingyiquan (形意拳), and Baguazhang (八卦掌). Qi was trained to develop internal strength (內勁), emphasizing rootedness, fluidity, and energy emission (fa jin 發勁). Beyond the body, qi animated geomantic practices (風水) and ritual cosmology, structuring how people understood landscapes, architecture, and health as part of one energetic continuum.

6. Encounter with Western Science and Modern Reconfigurations

The 19th–20th centuries brought qi into contact with Western culture and medicine. Translators rendered qi as “vital force,” “pneuma,” or “energy,” but these equivalents often flattened its metaphysical depth. Some reformers (e.g., Yu Yan 俞硯) advocated eliminating qi discourse as unscientific.⁶ Others proposed syncretic models, linking qi with bioelectricity, neurophysiology, or functional regulation. Modern research sometimes frames qi metaphorically through psychoneuroimmunology or homeostasis, exploring how traditional frameworks may align with systems biology.

7. Conclusion: Qi as Conceptual Interface

Qi’s intellectual history is characterized by continuity through transformation: pre-Qin cosmology (vapor/breath), Han medicine (functional physiology), Daoist alchemy (inner refinement), and modernity (metaphor and interface with science). Rather than a static category, qi is best seen as a relational and processual concept — a framework that links microcosm and macrocosm, body and cosmos, past and present.

1. Boltz, William G. The Origin and Early Development of the Chinese Writing System. New Haven: American Oriental Society, 1994, pp. 210–211. ↩︎
2. Zhuangzi 莊子, Chapter 22. Guo Qingfan 郭慶藩 (ed.), Zhuangzi Jishi 莊子集釋. Beijing: Zhonghua Shuju, 1961, p. 750. ↩︎
3. Huainanzi 淮南子, Chapter 1 (“Yuandao” 原道). Liu Wendian 劉文典 (ed.), Huainan Honglie Jijie 淮南鴻烈集解. Beijing: Zhonghua Shuju, 1989, p. 5. ↩︎
4. Huangdi Neijing Lingshu, Chapter 10. Ma Jixing 馬繼興 (ed.), Huangdi Neijing Jiaozhu Bingyi (1992), vol. 1, p. 122 ↩︎
5. Cantong qi 參同契, attributed to Wei Boyang 魏伯陽 (Eastern Han). Pregadio, Fabrizio, The Seal of the Unity of the Three: A Study and Translation of the Cantong qi. Mountain View: Golden Elixir Press, 2011, p. 102. ↩︎
6. Andrews, Bridie J. The Making of Modern Chinese Medicine, 1850–1960. Vancouver: UBC Press, 2014, pp. 78–83. See also: Unschuld, Paul U. Medicine in China: A History of Ideas. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985; Sivin, Nathan. Traditional Medicine in Contemporary China. Ann Arbor: Center for Chinese Studies, 1987; Kuriyama, Shigehisa. The Expressiveness of the Body and the Divergence of Greek and Chinese Medicine. New York: Zone Books, 1999. ↩︎