The Qi Sample Platter: Qi Across the World
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Qi is often seen as a supernatural concept that is unique to the Eastern world.
If you end up in conversation with a group of Chinese Medicine people, you may hear them using qi to describe intangible aspects of everyday life, i.e. the Qi of their house plant, or ‘using Qi’ to guide their choice of croissant.
There are many misconceptions of Qi, and yet, everyone seems to have their own understanding of the topic. Much of this comes down to who your teachers are.
In large part this is due to the huge number of schools of thought, family-lineages, and cultural differences in understanding the concept of Qi.
The modern ‘Traditional Chinese Medicine’ came out of the Communist revolution of China.
During the rise of the Communists, the regime forced the family-lineages to either give their secrets to the government or die. This swept many family-lineages of medicine and martial arts into the dark. Some families were able to continue their lineages underground, only passing their secrets on to their closest students. Others fled the country and continued their lineages outside of China. This makes the new standard of ‘Traditional Chinese Medicine’ a very small bubble within the wider universe of Chinese Medicine knowledge.
All of this is to say, Qi in Traditional Chinese Medicine comes from a specific source that has been synthesized from a very diverse mixture of lineages. To better understand what Qi is, it is important to gather multiple perspectives so that we can arrive at a deeper and more complex understanding.
In my own journey to understand Qi, I’ve started to wonder if Eastern philosophy is the only source of knowledge on Qi.
It turns out, there are hundreds of cultures that have very their own understandings of Qi.
In this article we will look at Qi from a handful of these cultures including:
1. China-Qi
2. Druids-Awen
3. Egypt-Ka
4. Hebrew-Ruah Elohim
5. Hawai’i-Mana
6. India-Prana
7. Japan-Ki
1. China-Qi
“There must be some primal force, but it is impossible to locate. I believe it exists, but cannot see it. I see its results, I can even feel it, but it has no form.” (Zhuang Zi, Inner Chapters, Fourth Century B.C.E.)
Qi (氣) is described as the steam that rises off cooked rice. It is simultaneously immaterial and material, physical and energetic, ephemeral and solid.
In Chinese philosophy, nothing must be fully material or fully immaterial.
There is space in this perspective to allow things to be in the middle. It’s difficult for us that are ingrained in Western philosophy, that believes in a clear separation between physical and non-physical, to understand that this is a product of our view rather than a decisive fact.
In Chinese cosmology, the living universe is seen as an integrated whole. Qi animates all beings and joins them together into a network of connections called Dao(道) ‘The Way.’ In this network, there are no boundaries between human beings and the rest of the world.
The two pillars of Chinese philosophy are Confucianism and Taoism. Confucianism explores the network of Qi in social and moral values, and in the hierarchical system of the heavens and earth. Taoism focuses more on the Qi dynamics within the human body and its interaction with the natural world.
“As Zhuangzi, one of the founding fathers of Taoism, argues, ‘man owes his life to a condensation of Qi. As it long as it condenses, there is life; as soon as it disperses, death occurs.”
This is seen in the Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) understanding of Qi.
Humans exist at the meeting of Heaven and Earth. This makes it important for humans to understand the interaction of the Qi of the Earth as well as the Heavens. This is seen in the qi of the food we eat, the water we drink, the land that we live in. Equally important is the Heavenly qi of weather, astrology, and time.
Astrology, the stars and time that we are born under, affects the broad strokes direction of our lives.
The weather has a more immediate effect on our daily lives. The functions of weather and our adaptation to it creates many common pathologies.
The Qi of time is a major aspect of the Mantic Arts, and has been condensed into the Tong Shu, the ‘All knowing Book.’ It is a calendrical study of the effects of time on the day in question.
The Tong Shu is one of the oldest and most widely printed books in history, it describes the Qi nodes, astrological representations, and auspicious activities of the day. Many people dismiss this book as overly superstitious, while others defend its importance for its understanding of the influence of time (Heaven) on the activities of Humans.
Understanding the changing Qi of time with the Tong Shu allows for us to adjust our behaviors to make the most out of our day, without pushing against the unproductive aspects of the day.
For Earth, Feng Shui is the adjustment of local environmental qi with humans to optimize their living conditions. Feng Shui has been called ‘environmental acupuncture’ for its ability to encourage the flow of Qi and adjust the environment to benefit the health of the individuals in the environment.
Now that you have a taste of what Qi is in the Chinese perspective, lets see what the rest of the world says.
2. Druid-Awen
Modern Druidry is a resurgence of a pre-historic, 3rd century BC, Celtic-British Isle religion.
Druids were the priests and judges of the pre-Christian European world. They worshipped the natural world and studied astronomy. Stone Circles, such as Stone Hedge, are attributed to Druidic practices. Druid may have come from a Celtic word meaning “knower of the oak tree.”
Druidry has their flavor of Qi called Awen.
Awen is ‘an awareness, not just on a physical and mental level but on a soul deep level — an awareness of the entirety of existence, of life itself. It is seeing the threads that connect us all.”
Other sources for modern Druidic beliefs describe Awen as a unique purpose that everyone must discover, ‘find and follow your own Awen.’
Another source says that Awen is a word in the Welsh language that means ‘inspiration’ or ‘essence.’ This is the ‘breath of the divine’ that constantly flows around us that Druids seek to connect with to replenish their energy.
The theme of wind and breath ties together many of the upcoming cultural models of Qi. The all-pervading aspect of wind, its influence on the physical world while maintaining its immaterial nature, is universal across cultures.
3. Egypt-Ka
The hieroglyph Ka is the aspect of men and gods that is connected to the creative life force.
The open arms of the hieroglyph symbolize the transmission of Ka from parent to child, from the gods to humans. The Ka force is believed to be split across the aspects of a human life such as: fame, life span, seeing, hearing, and knowing.
These aspects are independent from and continue after the life of the individual.
Ka differentiates a living person from a dead one. Ka begins with birth and was depicted in Ancient Egyptian artwork as a slightly smaller figure alongside the living person.
When the person died, their Ka continued to exist, and needed food. This is why pharaohs tombs contained food offerings or had pictures of food engraved on the walls. The Ka was said to disappear if the physical body fully decomposed, which explains the Egyptian practice of mummification.
This is the first hereditary version of Qi in this list, it shares this distinction with the Hawaiian Mana (#5).
4. Hebrew-Ruah Elohim
Ruah Elohim is translated as ‘wind, breath, or spirit of God.’
Ruah on its own means wind. This adds the ever-present nature of wind to the aspect of God in the Judaic tradition.
The combination of wind with God changes the word Ruah from ‘wind’ to ‘creative activity’ or ‘active power.’ This pairs with the Judaic belief of God creating reality, therefore Ruah Elohim becomes the force by which God creates. This creative aspect is similar to the Indian Prana (#6).
In people, Ruah is the breath, the animating energy that makes us alive. This is identical to every other idea of Qi addressed in this article, with the added element of a deity. Chinese philosophy has its own deities, but most philosophical aspects of their worldview are free of the god conversation.
The Hebrew-Judaic tradition has evolved in parallel with the Jewish covenant with their God. Due to this, it’s impossible to separate the language from the religion. Regardless, we have another example of breath or wind as Qi.
5. Hawai’i-Mana
Mana is the life energy that flows through all things in our world, including humans and our environment.
It is thought that persons, places, or things can possess Mana, depending on their alignment with Hawaiian social standards. Respecting, increasing, and protecting mana from pollution, created many of the rules and norms in Hawaiian society.
The social standard contained in Pono, which includes meaningful work, good relationships, and the service you lend to your community, allows a person to gather mana.
There are two traditional avenues to accumulate mana: birth or warfare. Either of these paths yield influence and authority.
Ku, the Hawaiian God of War, offers mana through violence. Lono, the Hawaiian God of Peace and Fertility, offers mana through sexual relationships.
Mana also has a hereditary component. Descendants of individuals that accumulated a lot of Mana become apart of a lineage of increased respect and authority. Some lineages of great Mana trace their genealogy back to the ancestral gods.
In some Polynesian languages, Mana literally translates to ‘thunder, storm, or wind.’
Again we have this idea of an ever-present force that is neither fully material or immaterial, a part of the spiritual world but felt in the material world.
The social focus of Mana is shared with the Japanese-Ki (#7).
6. India-Prana
“All that exists in the three worlds rests in the control of prana. As a mother protects her children, O prana, protect us and give us splendor and wisdom. — Prashna Upanishad 2.13”
Prana in Sanskrit is translated as ‘primary energy’ and sometimes as ‘breath.’
Prana is understood as a multi-level concept. At its ground floor, it is the physical breath. Practices such as pranayama are exercises to control the breath and promote health or meditation.
As you move up the Prana high-rise, it becomes the form of energy that makes up the entire universe. It is not only what makes up the universe, but also the original creative power behind the universe.
There is a lot of crossovers in the spheres of TCM and Ayurvedic medicine. The lands of India and China share a lot of intellectual cross-pollination. Qi and Prana are very similar, but are not interchangeable.
A major difference in the two traditions is the topic of creation.
In the India-Prana view, the universe was created via Prana from a god or gods. In the China-Qi view, the universe is continuous and has no beginning or end, therefore there is no need for a creator.
The aspect of breath in creation is shared with the Hebrew Ruah Elohim (#4) and Druid-Awen (#2).
7. Japan-Ki
Japan and China are geographically close but philosophically worlds apart.
In China, Qi is rooted in Taoism, in Japan, Ki is rooted in Buddhism. The cultivation of Ki in Japan is heavily geared towards the Buddhist ideals of escaping the delusions of our world and obtaining enlightenment.
While Japan has its own history and tradition of medicine and martial arts that utilize Ki, their focus on understanding Ki departed from being physically focused, to socially focused.
Ki is understood to be the relationship between the energetic inner quality of an individual and their outer activity of ‘demanding and reaching.’
In this context, Ki is the relationships between a subject and the world around them, and the relationships between people. This leads into the importance of social norms in traditional Japanese society.
The focus on social bonds is similar to Hawaiian Mana (#5).
Conclusion
“The Greek pneuma, like the Chinese concept of Qi, was a complex idea that blended spiritual and material aspects of the vital essence of life into a comprehensive description of that without which life itself could not exist…” Yu Huan Zhang & Ken Rose, A Brief History of Qi
What did we learn from these different cultures and their ideas around Qi?
Most cultures have the breath as a centrally important piece of the human physical/spiritual life. Several cultures include their gods, creating an ever-present experience of their deities. Other cultures focus on the social bonds that tie together the human world, making social bonds the breath of the group.
There is no right or wrong in this conversation, only different perspectives on similar ideas.
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