From The China Show, Qi is "air" and daqi [big air] is the atmosphere. From Google Translate, Qi is "gas". It's also a name, as I've had a Dr Chi in the past.
I'll tell you what an actual Shaolin Buddhist monk said; Qi Gong is simply controlling your breathe while doing anything. Breathe control and mindfulness is certainly difficult when doing martial arts of any kind. There ya go, solved it. Also, karma simply means action in Sanskrit. So paying for your karma is simply cause and effect. You do a thing and there's some kind of reaction/consequence/outcome/effect.
Between Qi/Ki getting exaggerated to anime superpowers, to the term Mana going from a Pacific island term for Charisma to Magic Juice, to ancient records that listed magic pretty casually next to just, literacy and craftsmanship; it's kinda fascinating that modern pop culture seems to impress these clear delineations between the mundane and the fantastic that seem pretty new & arbitrary.
It's particularly funny (or just wrong) when this attitude is applied to Daoist concepts, since Daoism by its nature resists easy definition or delineation. One of the core concepts, at least as I read it, is that the systemic interactions of the universe are far too complex and synergistic to ever be fully mapped out.
@ its a good trope for anime because it makes progress and skill levels easily quantifiable. Its over 9000! its totally arbitrary but you instantly get the idea that its a high number and gets the point across that the dude got a lot stronger.
at least in something like DnD, Western fantasy really doesn't like to mix magic into mundane warriors, whereas wuxia/xianxia/anime it's expected for basically everyone to get mystical powers or do superhuman things
In Japanese, ki is used in lots of expressions. a few examples: "attaches to your ki" = notice it "your ki goes ahead" = appeals to you "pulls your ki" = get distracted "becomes your ki" = catches your attention positively (interest) or negatively (concern)
You should have included the actual phrases. The first is _ki o tsukeru_ 「気をつける」. It is often used as a warning. _Ki o tsukette_ = "Be careful/watch out". The last is _ki ni naru_ 「気に成る」. I'm not completely sure what the second is, but it's likely _ki ni iru_ 「気に入る」. However, that would be more accurately translated as "enters your ki". Its use is often very similar to _ki ni naru_ , but another common variation of it is the adjectival pattern _o-ki-ni-iri_ = "my favorite/preferred". The third might be either _ki o sorasu_ 「気をそらす」= "divert your ki", or perhaps _ki ga chiru_ 「気が散る」= "ki gets scattered". My _o-ki-ni-iri_ Japanese word has always been _genki_ 「元気」= "the original/source ki", which you will hear literally all the time. It's most common use is usually very simple, just the question-answer pair: _Genki desu ka? - Hai, genki desu_ . = "Are you full of ki? - Yes, I am." Essentially "How ya doin'? - Fine." But depending on context _genki_ can have a range of nuance from ok, to happy, to healthy, to vigorous, to high-spirited. It is also an encouragement: _Genki dashite_ ! = release your ki = cheer up". In any case, to say that "ki" is used a lot is an understatement. There is an entire book I bought a long time ago, _Communicating With Ki_ , that has over a hundred pages of idioms using the phrase. Most of them fall into three basic patterns: "Ki ga " (using ki as an intransitive subject), "ki o " (using ki as a transitive object), and compound words using it like _genki_ and _byōki_ (sick ki = illness). It's been a long time since I've picked it up. I think I need to sit down and really read/study it. [edited for additions and formatting]
Another aspect of qi that Western societies have vague familiarity with is feng shui. I’m sure there wasn’t time to address it sufficiently in this video, but it seems super relevant. The environmental/architectural applications of qi is something I’m curious about.
I'd say the easiest way to understand "氣" despite the many different ways different sources explain it, is, ironically, and amusingly, using the concept of Star Wars' "Force" and looking how that changed over the years. "Qi," originally means just 'energy' but not in the modern nuanace of how understand 'energy' .. like electric or kinetic or nuclear etc. It (originally) does not contain the modern nuance in how it's supposed to be a "life energy" or anything like that. It's simply 'energy' in the sense of how the ancients perceived it to be. When you look at one major word that uses the letter "氣" there is "空氣 = air." Literally, "energy of the emptiness." The way ancient people understood it that around us, is not a void, but something invisible. Of course they had no idea of atmosphereic molecules and stuff, so they surmised there is an invisible 'force/energy' of something that surrounds us. When we can't take it in we suffocate and die. When that force/energy moves it becomes wind. When that energy/force violently erupts it causes a great sound and creates thunder. And then it forms clouds, and turns into water, into rain. From that, the concept of "氣" was formed to explain something invisible that surrounds us, and makes things happen, and flows and changes. This basic concept then develops to a more metaphysical and mystical form of understanding the world in its continugoulsy FLOWING and CHANGING form of the Wuxing(五行). Textual evidence shows that around the time of Confucius (6th century BCE) the people already considered it an 'ancient knowledge' and attributes the origins of the concept of the Wuxing to Shang (商) Dynasty. (17th century BCE ~ 11th century). So, the cocept of "氣" was already ancient to the ancients. It is something invisible that surrounds us, flows, and makes things change, and everything has it. The heavens send its 氣 to the Earth, the Earth's 氣 effects the people and nature on it, people and living things breathe it in to live, when they die it leaves their body... there is no one word translation possible to this, other than... (lol).. that's right. It's the "Force" in Star Wars! And by the above explanations it's the original, cryptic explanation of "Force" in the Orginal Trilogy, and not something that has been exploited into all different types of depictions as you see in sequel/prequels or EU material. The explanation of Obi Wan and Yoda, just in that original trilogy, ironically, matches the understanding of 氣 best, because it's what Lucas was literally inspired by when he created his movie. But then, you see that concept of Froce being changed and transformed into all sorts of fantastic superpowers that seem to go over the top as derivative fictional works pile up. In the Original Trilogy the Force was an energy that surrounds us, and flows, and something the Jedi can harness to fight, to be aware, for good. As more fictional works come out, the person that harnesses that Force can fly, can shoot lightning bolts, move starships, become invulnerable to light sabers and blaster bolts, form a shield, gets exaggerated to all sorts of crazy stuff. And that process, also ironically, EXACTLY MATCHES the change of the concept of 氣 over history. As the concept of 氣 starts affecting taoist mystics, their understanding of it becomes more like "magic power" rather than a philosophical understanding of it. Much the same, ancient Eastern medicine also becomes more and more engrossed in trying to explain human conditions through the concept of 氣 rather than taking it philosophically, so it becomes more and more mystical and esoteric. And in fields like martial arts, people begin to explain efficient and precise movements of your body to cause greater effect, as a flow of 氣 in your body, which then, as the times go by people start mystifying it to think "氣 must be some sort of superduper energy inside us, so if we use it we can have superpowers." Study on how the concept of the Force changed with in the Star Wars fiction, literally, matches how the concept of 氣 changed to from a understanding on metaphysical reality the ancient people surmised, into some kind of fantasized super magic energy!!
ironically, that original concept of energy is pretty similar to the modern scientific understanding of energy. Everything is energy. The difference between energy and matter is purely it's level of movement, lower amounts of movement makes matter physically solid and denser, and higher levels of movement transforms matter physically through it's physical stages(solid, liquid, vapor, gas, plasma) the last physical stage being pure energy. the different types of energy(heat, electricity and etc.) are just the transformations of matter ocorring during movement(electricity being genetared by electrons and protons moving between conductive materials after the orginal matter of the electrons and protons moved in some way, and heat also being generated by movement, pretty much the same for every kind of energy)
To be fair, something that didn´t come through in this video: external alchemy seems to preceed internal alchemy if we look at the dating of the respective works and masters that are associated with both and the fact that a lot of terminology for internal alchemy borrow outer alchemy terminology that refers to actual objects of the alchemical process like cinnabar, lead, tripod and so on. So to call outer alchemy a shortcut to inner alchemy is probably not true, except if you refer to a more modern pop culture understanding like in Xianxia cultivation stories maybe.
outer alchemy (external/body cultivation) is usually treated as worse in xianxia works lol. it has faster early results but caps out early and is quickly superseded by internal cultivation. external cultivation requires a huge amount of constant training, whereas internal cultivation is luck, talent, and comprehension.
@@tbishop4961 true, though it is related. elixir cultivation (outer alchemy) is also usually seen as supplemental as well. the vid mentions it's still about consuming it for immortality, less so converting lead to gold
I took a meditation class as an elective senior year in high school. We did many mediation stuff in it (obviously), doing Qigong exercises as a class towards the end of the semester. I don’t believe in it, but regardless, it still made me feel calm.
body movement, in general, will make you feel better. Being present and feeling how your body is moving is why yoga is so beneficial for people. Qigong is kind of just "lower effort" yoga.
Increasing blood flow to your muscles, controlling your breathing and heart rate, and mental calm are all benefits you can receive from yoga, qigong, tai chi, etc, but for reasons we understand much more exactly nowadays.
@@CRneu It's similar but different to Yoga, in particular because of the guided intention that you should have when you do Qigong. I don't believe in some mystical Qi, but the intention does make a big difference in the sensation and the result of the practice, mainly because it affects how you move physically on an internal level.
As a martial artist and having tried several exercise, I notice that Qi might described several different phenomenon. It might refer to breath. It might refer to momentum (or kinetic energy). And it might also refer to the physical balance of the body. Of course it might refer to something else. That's why Qi is best to be left untranslated because it might interpreted to different things depend on the context and the audience.
The best way to explain the concept of Qi is to look at the ideogram. It has the radical of vapor in a pot and the radical of rice. In summary the Vapor is transforming the rice into something different. That's QI
That has never made sense to me. How can the steam from hot rice be conceptually more important than the fire burning underneath the pot and transforming the cooking water into steam? (Fire burning under things is an actual component/radical of some characters.) The answer is that the ideogram itself is pictorial, i.e. only descriptive in the graphical and not metaphorical sense. The oldest, original version of the character is actually the current "simplified" version 气 that referred to clouds and vapour in the general. The "(uncooked) rice" element was added to it at around 200 B.C. as if to deictically point to a particular emanation of the concept.
First, it isn’t an ideogram. Second, that’s not the original form of the character. THIRD, one cannot take a complex philosophical concept and reduce it to “what character look like tho”.
I studied under a Zen Master who taught martial arts, and he notably used the term "mind energy" in place of chi. This "mind energy" is instead something produced by clarity of mind and having benefit over the function of thought and action. In using this replacement concept, it removes the problem that chi has in claiming to be something like a physical energy. And, he never claimed it flowed or followed meridians like chi.
@@He-Who-Died It's Polynesian. I think it entered nerd culture through the fantasy novel "The Magic Goes Away" and some tabletop RPGs adopted using it instead of spell slots or magic points.
I love the strat of making videos correlating with major video game releases (Zelda last time and Street Fighter this time) to capitalize on the buzz. Super smart way of getting your content out to a wider audience to see how awesome your videos are!
Quarks.... a type of elementary particle and a fundamental constituent of matter. All commonly observable matter is composed of up quarks, down quarks and electrons. Quarks have various intrinsic properties, including electric charge, mass, color charge, and spin.
Another fun fact, the Tai Chi you see being practiced in the park by old people used to be a form of Chinese Folk wrestling very similar to Judo or Irish Collar and Elbow wrestling.... Just that many of its combat applications were lost due to the era of Humiliation and political turmoil that plagued China during the 20th century where Chinese martial arts for combat were banned or suppressed.... Today Tai Chi as a combat art is extremely rare, but there are some Chinese martial arts masters like those from the Chen family that still practice the combat and wrestling aspects of Tai Chi a long with the more meditative aspects... Some Tai Chi techniques have also found their way into a Chinese Wrestling art called Shuai Jiao which is said to be one of the oldest Chinese martial arts styles, apparently having just over a 2000 year history
In my Taichi/qigong classes, I had to redefine qi to accept it as something real. It’s often referred to as a mysterious force or even magical force. Instead I saw it as a model for inter-connectivity. An analogy. If a martial artist was ‘focusing qi’, he was using all the joints and systems to create power. Not that a special force was created, but that the whole body was being used like a whip. Imagining qi energy going from my feet all through the body to my hands was a very effective model. And made sense to me.
IMO it’s a very “scientific” concept when applied even within many historical ways, as it cut through highly imprecise ancient understandings of physics to give people a comprehension of the world and people as made up of the same sort of stuff, it emphasizes interconnective cause and effect in very beautiful ways, and helped people understand the abstract notion of “energy” as including various forms contained within various mediums and that it can migrate between them. Applied certain ways, Chi is a very poetic conception of very real physics. And who knows, maybe the elements that seem more “magical” to us could gain some empirical backing in the future. We are still learning a lot about both human biology (i.e. aging on the cellular level) and physics (i.e. the relationships of entropy and time and cause+effect)
This sort of reinterpretation could prevent one from getting the full experience, however. There *are* sensations you can get that are absolutely local and have nothing to do with biomechanics. Much of the benefits can come from interacting with these sensations. Trying to pin the concept down on a single concrete phenomenon could be limiting, because it's probable the premodern individuals who came up with the concept were conflating multiple otherwise unrelated phenomena.
@@somexp12 Well, if it involves a vague, undetectable, indeterminate ‘force’, I can’t get the full experience anyway because I don’t believe it exists. Trying to believe, or rather suspend disbelief, was just distracting. I don’t have absolutely local sensations and not sure how it could be determined they had nothing to do with biomechanics. For clarity, I’m not sure of the definition of biomechanics, but unless it includes the nervous system, blood, fluids, facia, chemistry, electrical elements, etc. I would need a bigger concept. Now I’m remembering, my model was much simpler and easy to just go with.
@Mark A lot of qigong teachers will advise against deliberate visualization or imagination. Instead, you're feeling for sensations, which they'll label "qi." These sensations may be whatever they actually are, but they're real in the sense that they are concretely felt, not simply imagined or visualized. Same as of you see a mirage. The oasis you saw might not have been real, but the experience of seeing it absolutely was. If your task was to do something in response to the mirage, you might fail at this if you're telling yourself that only accurate sensations count.
@@somexp12 Well, it’s not like I was debunking qi in the middle of a class/session, it’s more that I needed a way to smoothly incorporate instructions and expectations to get the most out of it. I thoroughly enjoyed and benefitted. Still do. I didn’t determine qi is just a myth and abandon it, I found a way for qi to still be mysterious and real. I don’t know exactly how all the parts work together to create the feelings, etc., but the model of interconnectivity and synergy was a framework I can accept. Importantly, I no longer needed to try to convince myself there’s an underlying undetectable ‘force’. Once I know it’s a mirage, I don’t need to tell myself anything, I just no longer see it as anything else.
some of you know and love 🙂 with eye widening expression - pure gold it's small things like this, that make you so likable and add to your videos this casual feel of listening to a real person
I like the minimum sound effects and music and excessive cuts. The editing is clean and the start and end of ideas are sudden but with finale. Excellent, engaging work.
If you find the depiction of qi in wuxia films entertaining, you should check out the Jiangshi movies that were a fad in Hong Kong cinema of the 1980s and 90s. They revolve around the Jiangshi, a sort of vampire-like monster that sustains itself by draining qi from the living. A 1985 film that in English is usually called "Mr. Vampire" is my personal favorite and spawned a series of sequels, the fourth installment of which contains a fight scene with one of the most hilarious applications of Daoism I've ever seen.
10:12 - 12:00 summed up by SsethTzeentach: “Chinese internal alchemy where instead of a cauldron you use your body. Instead of reagents you use your qi, to form a golden core. Think of a philosopher’s stone except backwards that’s what a golden core is. Instead of drinking the elixir of life we are the elixir of life.” -SsethTzeentach Amazing Cultivation Simulator Review | CCP™ Edition™
Im starting to learn the difference between daoism, buddhism, and hinduism. This new found knowledge is propelling me to dive deeper into not just educating myself, but gaining practical knowledge to transform my life, like gaining discipline in practicing various forms of physical(martial) arts and spiritual arts. Thank you
Thanks. I was aware of much of what you said, but your sayingf it in a different, and more systematic way than what I previously was exposed to helped me understand it better
Kung Fu Panda represented the period of Chinese history where gunpowder is invented and so the dawn of industrial & military modernization, and science is putting severe strain on ancient wisdoms and beliefs. But equally ancient martial art teachings remain valuable to illustrate how the human spirit can conquer fear, weakness and pain.... We are still the same Mk.1 humans. The stories we STILL tell are designed to inspire us to strive for improvement, greatness. So for me the chi is no different to the Force say, mediclaurians are mitochondria after all. We just use different names for the same concepts. When we're facing an insurmountable challenge, we NEED a story of supernatural strength of some kind, especially a connection to the universe (or God or Gods), and described in a spiritual context with all the trappings of mysticism and ritual. We need it to survive and thrive.
I like this because honestly, humans have no way to exert the force needed to do kamehameha’s. Our body wouldn’t take such radiation heat at all so for the force would be a more believable thing, as much as I want to shoot ki blast, I don’t think our body’s would be able to exists after pushing out everything we have to our sides to melt us as we shoot it outwards
Idk if it's rlly up your alley but I'd be cool if you did a video over the spiritual use of psychedelics as sacraments and the history of their use in different traditions.
Back in the height of my Qi training, I once thought I saw waves of white light running down my right arm. I was a Mortal Kombat kid, so I'm only now realizing how accurate Street Fighter nailed it. Heh. Cool.
Something cool I found out from Ramsey Dewey (youtuber who is a MMA coach who runs a gym in Shanghai, China) The movements in Tai Chi are originally supposed to be wrestling grips and movements. Look at traditional tai chi movements and look at wrestlers practicing hand pummeling and collar ties.
Qi translates perfectly into English as the word "energy". Of course there will be different associations across cultures, but at its core the term is used to mean a lot of very different and contradictory things, both in chinese as "Qi" and in english as "energy". Without more context it is a pretty useless word, but it does translate almost perfectly into english. I think the misunderstanding comes from assuming that there exists a coherent understanding of Qi within chinese culture, but there is just as much ambiguity as with any english use of the word energy.
@@hedgehog3180 Not sure what exactly you mean by 'takes from that and uses it in a metaphorical sense' but I would wager less than 1% of English speakers would even be able to comprehend such a definition if it was given to them, let alone to 'take from it metaphorically'. I was speaking to the ordinary colloquial usage of the word that is all but entirely uninformed by scientific rigor.
Breath (Chi) is used ro facilitate Vital Energy/Sexual Energy (Ching) into Spirit (Shen). Most references of Chi in our world are more accurately defined by Shen. This physical process undoubtedly led backwards to the construction of the Eastern creation thought process. I highly recommend the book Tai Chi Chuan and Meditation by Da Liu as it will immediately clear up many misunderstandings on this topic. The fact that "Tai Chi" is actually Taiji for starters.
"Tai Chi" drives me nuts. In Wade-Giles it's almost correct, but should be "T'ai Chi" - which is, in Wade-Giles, pronounced like Pinyin Taiji. That apostrophe is critical! Without it, "T" is pronounced "D" (Tao => Dao). But Tai Chi is used for the same reason Peking Duck is on menus: People who don't know anything about the topic recognize it.
@@GfPfi true enough. But T'ai Chi/Tai Chi, whatever. It doesn't even begin to explain Taijichuan as it pertains to; The Golden Pill Heavenly Circulations Turning the Wheel of Law Mao Yu Orbit All of which should be well understood before even beginning to broach the subject of this video.
Fascinating video and topic! Though I am slightly disappointed at the lack of love for my beloved Turtle Destruction Wave and all the other fancy tricks found in Dragon Ball :(
I would say, Qi is akin to energy. Matter is comprised of “bundled” energy known as quanta that can be converted into various forms of matter in quantum physics. The ultimate source of the vacuum energy is still a mystery, however. 😊
it's actually kind of funny to me how much of this i knew just from consuming wuxia and xianxia media. as a westerner going in there was a lot of context i was missing that this filled in.
I've noticed when a lot of people hear about qigong or east Asian martial arts, what often comes to mind for them is wuxia or similar media. They seem to often not be aware that wuxia exagerrates and adds stuff or sometimes changes stuff. It's done for entertainment purposes like what a lot of American media does. Or they think of the martial arts craze in the US from a few decades ago which unfortunately involved a lot of frauds.
As for the topic of chi theft in the sexual act, there's a pretty interesting fictional book about it called "Confessions of a Chinese Courtesan" by Sing Miao
What I think is fascinating is that our scientific understanding of the origins of reality still has very strong parallels to many of the teachings of old. Just, instead of having the superstitious elements like essence, chaos, and deities, we now know them as energy, entropy, and the (probably) unified force. Cosmology as we know it is literally an origin story myth with the only difference being it was told to us by the universe itself instead of by our ancestors.
Qi sounds exactly like Tejas in Hinduism 🕉. As just the animating power of the soul. The same animating power that is supposed to do general life things like: • Keep you alive • Keep all other organisms alive • Power your intelligence • Cause fatigue, sleepiness, involuntary procrastination, burnout when reserves run low • Occasionally do fancy soul related powers when used in enough quantity, while directed, when it becomes strong enough to have macroscopic effects. A fairly simple concept, once you understand what it is.
@@bocoom Shakti is very similar. Tejas is like energy stored, and shakti like force (when tejas is used). Honestly, the ambiguity of Qi is probably caused by single Chinese characters 🀄 being very ambiguous in general. Chinese tends to use 2 characters for a clear term most of the time. So the other Qis are probably not literally Qi, but close enough for the two vague terms to point to 1 clear one.
@@andreigabrielion9575 Prana doesn't describe what is exhausted. Prana is like the power ⚡ given by the nuclear ⚛ power plant, powering up your kitchen appliances like your toaster. Qi/Tejas is like the Fuel rods of nuclear ⚛ power plant being depleted. Well, there is the difference that your Qi/Tejas *eventually* regenerates over a long period of time, if you don't overstain yourself. Though, it is still a good analogy.
The 11th Century Confucian thinker Zhang Zai (Wade-Giles: Chang Tsai) developed an entire philosophy based on _qi._ This video could have mentioned and discussed him. Fritjof Capra also compared _qi_ to the quantum field in his _The Tao of Physics._ Capra based this comparison on his reading of Zhang Zai.
It's actually pretty frustrating that the most rigorous theoretical analyses came from people like Zhang Zai, the Cheng brothers and Zhu Xi, but people tend to gloss over them like they never existed, even though their influence on Chinese intellectual and spiritual life (particularly that of Zhu Xi) has been pretty significant as a whole.
气 can either be translated as "vapour" or "energy". The original pictogram shows steam rising from cooked rice. It's actually very straightforward, but scientists tend to baulk at 气 being used as a translation for energy, so they used the word 能量 as an alternative instead. 能量 would also be more accurate, since energy doesn't just appear only in steam.
Even breathing itself can grant almost superpowers. Wim Hof can sit in an ice bath for 2 hours by mastering breathing techniques. The kiai shout in karate has been shown to increase striking power.
While not active now since my aortic aneurysm.. Qigong training changed my massage practice for the better.. I always feel bad for the acupuncturist whom just says they had a term in qigong.. I would never go to them.. Qigong is what makes the practice of being a healer or to help facilitate healing in someone else. Also qigong kept me alive after a severe ascending aortic aneurysm. Facts. Not fiction.
One of the main reasons emperors kept taking elixirs even though it killed their predecessors is that many believed that the symptoms of mercury poisoning were literally the manifestations of becoming a being of pure qi
This religion has always fascinated me, I legitimately do not understand how anyone believes in it. I understand all religions demand a huge amount of fate, but most mainstream modern religions demand fate for things that are ultimately impossible to prove. Daoism makes insane claims about the abilities and benefits these practices can give you, abilities and benefits that, surely, people would quickly notice weren't granted. So it really intrigues me how it has remained a mainstream religion for so long.
You should look up Pentecostalism, then: claims of miracle healing, speaking dead languages, snake handling, prophecy, and probably other equally odd-- and as easily debunked-- powers.
Oh an if you want the moves of tai chi to make more sense, imagine they are all weary heavy armor while wielding a massive sword or polearm. Cutting with a sword requires constant contact and friction, like striking a match does. Thus the smooth forms of tai chi are made to maximize contact of a swords edge, with the target it aims to cut.
The Kung Fu instructor I studied under had a very different explanation for the origins of Tai Chi than what you list here. He says it was developed after the Boxer Rebellion, when martial arts were banned due to them having been used by the losing revolutionaries. Tai Chi was developed as basically a slowed down, disguised form of Kung Fu that would allow people to still train while appearing only to be doing simple exercises.
I don't think it has ever been showen to do anything other than leave red marks in clinical trials, it's also somewhat dangerous since it invovles heating glass with an open flame.
I expect I won’t be the only one with a band with that name. However I have done a lot of chi development. I trained in Yang Main which is a king fu style with a focus on rapid chi development.
Hey Andrew, have you considered changing the end card for your videos? RUclips hasn't had annotations that would turn those icons into links for years now.
Note: I'm not eating anymore chis/qis from now on. Tai chi has no relation to chi/qi but is really Taiji. It's so fitting the people using or getting rid of too much chi are called "Chi-nese." What do you call Tai chi/taiji + Chigong/Qigong, certainly not "tai chi/qi gong" due to the two chi in Tai chi and chi gong are two different Chinese characters which had different meanings and two different pronunciations when spoken in non-Mandarin dialects.
Even though you see in dictionaries the idea of qi translated with all the concept mentioned, none of these concept are translated as either characters for qi. The ideas you mentioned moreover are imported from 19th century European esoterics, s.a. biomagnetism, hypnosis.
Many people are looking for a system of belief that is as far as possible from traditional Western religions but still manages to fulfills its function in giving meaning and sense to life. Asian philosophies, usually badly tranlated and partly/entirely misinterpreted, are ideal for this.
8:50 Cupping in the western world is not necessarily based on Qi. It can be, and has been, used in physical therapy for breaking up "clumps" of tissue that have been damaged or otherwise become less efficient at moving. It is basically an alternative way to massage tissue. It is particularly good for smooth muscles, tendons, and ligaments that are no longer sliding past each other in the way they are supposed to move. And, cupping has been shown to aid in the restoration of proper blood circulation. I've had it done to me as part of my recovery from various injuries. Not once was the word "Qi" used by the doctor to describe what was being done to help my body.
What do they believe happens to your Qi after death? Does it transform from life-energy into death-energy and stay with them in the afterlife? That would be cool.
I think your choice of pronunciation is to the point since it's sort of neutral to all sino-sphere cultures. We have im/iunn in Hokkien, yam/yeong in Cantonese, im/iong in Hakka, am/duong in Vietnamese, and in/yo in Japanese
The description of Qi, especially pertaining to it connecting and flowing through all existence, sounds very similar to prana. I suspect this isn't a coincidence, but I've never looked into it. Yoga, qigong, tai chi, and reiki all seem to operate on similar principles, manipulating and correcting the flow of energy in your body.
It's not a superpower, but I have seen Tai-Chi martial practice in which a slight push would send the student clear across the floor. In fact, the practice partner was trained to crouch low to the ground so as to not fall down when sliding across the floor. In the body you can also feel it circulating. It feels like a combination of water flowing and electricity, but it's also very normal.
What I'd want to know is what these Daoist medical practices actually did or what effects they actually had that lead people to believe they worked. The only thing I can think of is that science as a practice (at least as we know it today) was so underdeveloped that something that didn't actively harm you was indistinguishable from actual medicine (and that's putting aside the placebo effect).
I have heard there is an acupuncture spot around your shoulder where it is very easy to pierce a lung. Figuring out how to do the control experiment for acupuncture took some cleverness - basically they covered the needle with a cup, and either poked you with it, or actually inserted it, so it felt the same.
I mean you more or less have it figured out. Human intuitions are just terrible for figuring stuff out about the world since we have so many psychological pitfalls. Therefore before the development of science people just simply got things wrong all the time without noticing. And without science there was basically no way of verifying anyone's claims so of course lies spread like wildfire especially if they promised something amazing like eternal life or gold. Modern science is essentially a very complicated system that serves to check our worst impulses, which is why it's hard to do, humans did not naturally evolve to be scientific. Another factor is also technology, information and communication technology like the printing press, faster ships, the train and so on did a lot to help science spread and develop as it created large networks that could debate and exhange ideas. And then there are also social factors like science seemingly needing a certain level of societal wealth to develop. We can go even further and speculate that perhaps the warlike nature of European history also created a demand for innovation but at that point we're crossing into speculation.
Qi is an ancient term for the energy that comes from nutrients of food/drinks in your stomach. So no, its not a magic force, but it has a lot of daily practices, & benefit.
In martial arts context… think of the hydraulic force produced by water pressure when it fills up the hose used by firefighters and imagine if the pressure comes your way. That’s one way of how Qi works.
Is there a god of qi/ki/chi? What if you make videos about specific deities, demons, spirits, and other such beings people believe in along with the powers they have? Can you make a video about Sumerian mythology?
I felt my chi in a meditative trance one time. It was strange. I did not believe it existed prior to this experience. It felt like electricity was running up my arms. If you want to get there, I recommend practicing gratitude and compassion for all things , including your body and empathy for “God” or the universe if you prefer.
Thank you to Wondrium for sponsoring today’s video! Signup for your FREE trial to Wondrium here: ow.ly/HCzg50O5nF4
From The China Show, Qi is "air" and daqi [big air] is the atmosphere. From Google Translate, Qi is "gas". It's also a name, as I've had a Dr Chi in the past.
Chi is basically the emergent harmony of any given system. That's literally all it is.
I'll tell you what an actual Shaolin Buddhist monk said; Qi Gong is simply controlling your breathe while doing anything. Breathe control and mindfulness is certainly difficult when doing martial arts of any kind. There ya go, solved it. Also, karma simply means action in Sanskrit. So paying for your karma is simply cause and effect. You do a thing and there's some kind of reaction/consequence/outcome/effect.
you ever done something like this vid on the Druids ? also.. Gday
Can you make a video about the 8 siddhis there basically powers that yougis from india use.
Between Qi/Ki getting exaggerated to anime superpowers, to the term Mana going from a Pacific island term for Charisma to Magic Juice, to ancient records that listed magic pretty casually next to just, literacy and craftsmanship; it's kinda fascinating that modern pop culture seems to impress these clear delineations between the mundane and the fantastic that seem pretty new & arbitrary.
It's particularly funny (or just wrong) when this attitude is applied to Daoist concepts, since Daoism by its nature resists easy definition or delineation. One of the core concepts, at least as I read it, is that the systemic interactions of the universe are far too complex and synergistic to ever be fully mapped out.
Qi it's a great cinematic element
@ its a good trope for anime because it makes progress and skill levels easily quantifiable. Its over 9000! its totally arbitrary but you instantly get the idea that its a high number and gets the point across that the dude got a lot stronger.
at least in something like DnD, Western fantasy really doesn't like to mix magic into mundane warriors, whereas wuxia/xianxia/anime it's expected for basically everyone to get mystical powers or do superhuman things
It's the modern idea of Cartesian duelism, the body/mind division.
In Japanese, ki is used in lots of expressions. a few examples:
"attaches to your ki" = notice it
"your ki goes ahead" = appeals to you
"pulls your ki" = get distracted
"becomes your ki" = catches your attention positively (interest) or negatively (concern)
Awesome, thanks for sharing. I'm surprised I've never heard anyone talk about this
Interesting that all these examples you have here are psychological or mental rather than spiritual or paranormal.
@@He-Who-Died that's right. might suggest that the western distinction between them maybe doesn't exist in the east.
You should have included the actual phrases.
The first is _ki o tsukeru_ 「気をつける」. It is often used as a warning. _Ki o tsukette_ = "Be careful/watch out".
The last is _ki ni naru_ 「気に成る」.
I'm not completely sure what the second is, but it's likely _ki ni iru_ 「気に入る」. However, that would be more accurately translated as "enters your ki". Its use is often very similar to _ki ni naru_ , but another common variation of it is the adjectival pattern _o-ki-ni-iri_ = "my favorite/preferred".
The third might be either _ki o sorasu_ 「気をそらす」= "divert your ki", or perhaps _ki ga chiru_ 「気が散る」= "ki gets scattered".
My _o-ki-ni-iri_ Japanese word has always been _genki_ 「元気」= "the original/source ki", which you will hear literally all the time. It's most common use is usually very simple, just the question-answer pair: _Genki desu ka? - Hai, genki desu_ . = "Are you full of ki? - Yes, I am." Essentially "How ya doin'? - Fine." But depending on context _genki_ can have a range of nuance from ok, to happy, to healthy, to vigorous, to high-spirited. It is also an encouragement: _Genki dashite_ ! = release your ki = cheer up".
In any case, to say that "ki" is used a lot is an understatement. There is an entire book I bought a long time ago, _Communicating With Ki_ , that has over a hundred pages of idioms using the phrase. Most of them fall into three basic patterns: "Ki ga " (using ki as an intransitive subject), "ki o " (using ki as a transitive object), and compound words using it like _genki_ and _byōki_ (sick ki = illness).
It's been a long time since I've picked it up. I think I need to sit down and really read/study it.
[edited for additions and formatting]
@@He-Who-Died i get your point but they wouldn't say there is a clear distinction
Grew up in a family of Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioners. This subject is so dear to my heart, loved the video! ☯💚
Another aspect of qi that Western societies have vague familiarity with is feng shui. I’m sure there wasn’t time to address it sufficiently in this video, but it seems super relevant. The environmental/architectural applications of qi is something I’m curious about.
I'd say the easiest way to understand "氣" despite the many different ways different sources explain it, is, ironically, and amusingly, using the concept of Star Wars' "Force" and looking how that changed over the years.
"Qi," originally means just 'energy' but not in the modern nuanace of how understand 'energy' .. like electric or kinetic or nuclear etc. It (originally) does not contain the modern nuance in how it's supposed to be a "life energy" or anything like that. It's simply 'energy' in the sense of how the ancients perceived it to be. When you look at one major word that uses the letter "氣" there is "空氣 = air." Literally, "energy of the emptiness."
The way ancient people understood it that around us, is not a void, but something invisible. Of course they had no idea of atmosphereic molecules and stuff, so they surmised there is an invisible 'force/energy' of something that surrounds us. When we can't take it in we suffocate and die. When that force/energy moves it becomes wind. When that energy/force violently erupts it causes a great sound and creates thunder. And then it forms clouds, and turns into water, into rain.
From that, the concept of "氣" was formed to explain something invisible that surrounds us, and makes things happen, and flows and changes. This basic concept then develops to a more metaphysical and mystical form of understanding the world in its continugoulsy FLOWING and CHANGING form of the Wuxing(五行). Textual evidence shows that around the time of Confucius (6th century BCE) the people already considered it an 'ancient knowledge' and attributes the origins of the concept of the Wuxing to Shang (商) Dynasty. (17th century BCE ~ 11th century).
So, the cocept of "氣" was already ancient to the ancients. It is something invisible that surrounds us, flows, and makes things change, and everything has it. The heavens send its 氣 to the Earth, the Earth's 氣 effects the people and nature on it, people and living things breathe it in to live, when they die it leaves their body... there is no one word translation possible to this, other than...
(lol).. that's right. It's the "Force" in Star Wars! And by the above explanations it's the original, cryptic explanation of "Force" in the Orginal Trilogy, and not something that has been exploited into all different types of depictions as you see in sequel/prequels or EU material. The explanation of Obi Wan and Yoda, just in that original trilogy, ironically, matches the understanding of 氣 best, because it's what Lucas was literally inspired by when he created his movie.
But then, you see that concept of Froce being changed and transformed into all sorts of fantastic superpowers that seem to go over the top as derivative fictional works pile up. In the Original Trilogy the Force was an energy that surrounds us, and flows, and something the Jedi can harness to fight, to be aware, for good. As more fictional works come out, the person that harnesses that Force can fly, can shoot lightning bolts, move starships, become invulnerable to light sabers and blaster bolts, form a shield, gets exaggerated to all sorts of crazy stuff.
And that process, also ironically, EXACTLY MATCHES the change of the concept of 氣 over history. As the concept of 氣 starts affecting taoist mystics, their understanding of it becomes more like "magic power" rather than a philosophical understanding of it. Much the same, ancient Eastern medicine also becomes more and more engrossed in trying to explain human conditions through the concept of 氣 rather than taking it philosophically, so it becomes more and more mystical and esoteric. And in fields like martial arts, people begin to explain efficient and precise movements of your body to cause greater effect, as a flow of 氣 in your body, which then, as the times go by people start mystifying it to think "氣 must be some sort of superduper energy inside us, so if we use it we can have superpowers."
Study on how the concept of the Force changed with in the Star Wars fiction, literally, matches how the concept of 氣 changed to from a understanding on metaphysical reality the ancient people surmised, into some kind of fantasized super magic energy!!
Very insightful comment👍👍
That's a great analysis!
Thanks for writing a blog article in a RUclips comment.
ironically, that original concept of energy is pretty similar to the modern scientific understanding of energy. Everything is energy. The difference between energy and matter is purely it's level of movement, lower amounts of movement makes matter physically solid and denser, and higher levels of movement transforms matter physically through it's physical stages(solid, liquid, vapor, gas, plasma) the last physical stage being pure energy. the different types of energy(heat, electricity and etc.) are just the transformations of matter ocorring during movement(electricity being genetared by electrons and protons moving between conductive materials after the orginal matter of the electrons and protons moved in some way, and heat also being generated by movement, pretty much the same for every kind of energy)
@@MGM-fp8gs Gets even more meta when you start going down into the realm of quarks, bosons and quantums. We are all just made of stardust.
To be fair, something that didn´t come through in this video: external alchemy seems to preceed internal alchemy if we look at the dating of the respective works and masters that are associated with both and the fact that a lot of terminology for internal alchemy borrow outer alchemy terminology that refers to actual objects of the alchemical process like cinnabar, lead, tripod and so on.
So to call outer alchemy a shortcut to inner alchemy is probably not true, except if you refer to a more modern pop culture understanding like in Xianxia cultivation stories maybe.
outer alchemy (external/body cultivation) is usually treated as worse in xianxia works lol. it has faster early results but caps out early and is quickly superseded by internal cultivation. external cultivation requires a huge amount of constant training, whereas internal cultivation is luck, talent, and comprehension.
@kori228 he isn't talking about external development of the human body, rather actual alchemical change of lead to gold for example
@@tbishop4961 true, though it is related. elixir cultivation (outer alchemy) is also usually seen as supplemental as well. the vid mentions it's still about consuming it for immortality, less so converting lead to gold
#spiritualchills speaks more about qi itselff
@@kori228 evergreen jade and soul pills "half a loaf" w Jackie chan
I took a meditation class as an elective senior year in high school. We did many mediation stuff in it (obviously), doing Qigong exercises as a class towards the end of the semester. I don’t believe in it, but regardless, it still made me feel calm.
yes one year of watered down breathing/moving exercises is the same as years of cultivated intention ruclips.net/video/ZR29rCLhD6o/видео.html
body movement, in general, will make you feel better. Being present and feeling how your body is moving is why yoga is so beneficial for people. Qigong is kind of just "lower effort" yoga.
Was this view as religious practice?
Increasing blood flow to your muscles, controlling your breathing and heart rate, and mental calm are all benefits you can receive from yoga, qigong, tai chi, etc, but for reasons we understand much more exactly nowadays.
@@CRneu It's similar but different to Yoga, in particular because of the guided intention that you should have when you do Qigong. I don't believe in some mystical Qi, but the intention does make a big difference in the sensation and the result of the practice, mainly because it affects how you move physically on an internal level.
As a martial artist and having tried several exercise, I notice that Qi might described several different phenomenon. It might refer to breath. It might refer to momentum (or kinetic energy). And it might also refer to the physical balance of the body. Of course it might refer to something else.
That's why Qi is best to be left untranslated because it might interpreted to different things depend on the context and the audience.
1:41 battling while flying through the air in forest is most Chinese movie trope to witness
I freaking love this channel. Keep up the good work!
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Dm me you won a prize 🎉..
Showing the chinese character for qi would have been nice. In cantonese it's pronounced "hei" and basically means breath/air most of the time.
But he did show it in the beginning
@@conho4898 Yeah it was brief, i missed it. Thanks.
I am starting to really love this RUclips channel and it's videos.
Bot
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Fun fact, my grandpa Roger Estes was the first non-chinese person to earn the title of QiGong Master.
Badass
That’s lit
Reference to this, proof?
Qi flex
Very cool 😎
The best way to explain the concept of Qi is to look at the ideogram. It has the radical of vapor in a pot and the radical of rice. In summary the Vapor is transforming the rice into something different. That's QI
That has never made sense to me. How can the steam from hot rice be conceptually more important than the fire burning underneath the pot and transforming the cooking water into steam? (Fire burning under things is an actual component/radical of some characters.)
The answer is that the ideogram itself is pictorial, i.e. only descriptive in the graphical and not metaphorical sense. The oldest, original version of the character is actually the current "simplified" version 气 that referred to clouds and vapour in the general. The "(uncooked) rice" element was added to it at around 200 B.C. as if to deictically point to a particular emanation of the concept.
First, it isn’t an ideogram.
Second, that’s not the original form of the character.
THIRD, one cannot take a complex philosophical concept and reduce it to “what character look like tho”.
I studied under a Zen Master who taught martial arts, and he notably used the term "mind energy" in place of chi. This "mind energy" is instead something produced by clarity of mind and having benefit over the function of thought and action. In using this replacement concept, it removes the problem that chi has in claiming to be something like a physical energy. And, he never claimed it flowed or followed meridians like chi.
Probably talking about Yi or "intent". Yi-shi is intent mind.
I find it interesting how in video games chi, mana, and magic have become interchangeable even though they have separate historical origins.
How can I find the historical origins of mana?
@@He-Who-Died It's Polynesian. I think it entered nerd culture through the fantasy novel "The Magic Goes Away" and some tabletop RPGs adopted using it instead of spell slots or magic points.
@@He-Who-Died mana comes from the Torah
@@He-Who-Died There's already another RfB video on it. Just search for mana in the channel.
@@He-Who-Died There is a previous video here that covered the concept of mana. It was maybe a couple of years back.
I love the strat of making videos correlating with major video game releases (Zelda last time and Street Fighter this time) to capitalize on the buzz. Super smart way of getting your content out to a wider audience to see how awesome your videos are!
Hopefully the next video will be about the pagen/druid, eco-extremist terrorists from Final Fantasy VII 🗡
I swear, we as a species just recreate the same ideas over and over again with little localized quirks
Quarks....
a type of elementary particle and a fundamental constituent of matter. All commonly observable matter is composed of up quarks, down quarks and electrons. Quarks have various intrinsic properties, including electric charge, mass, color charge, and spin.
Another fun fact, the Tai Chi you see being practiced in the park by old people used to be a form of Chinese Folk wrestling very similar to Judo or Irish Collar and Elbow wrestling.... Just that many of its combat applications were lost due to the era of Humiliation and political turmoil that plagued China during the 20th century where Chinese martial arts for combat were banned or suppressed.... Today Tai Chi as a combat art is extremely rare, but there are some Chinese martial arts masters like those from the Chen family that still practice the combat and wrestling aspects of Tai Chi a long with the more meditative aspects... Some Tai Chi techniques have also found their way into a Chinese Wrestling art called Shuai Jiao which is said to be one of the oldest Chinese martial arts styles, apparently having just over a 2000 year history
In my Taichi/qigong classes, I had to redefine qi to accept it as something real. It’s often referred to as a mysterious force or even magical force.
Instead I saw it as a model for inter-connectivity. An analogy.
If a martial artist was ‘focusing qi’, he was using all the joints and systems to create power. Not that a special force was created, but that the whole body was being used like a whip. Imagining qi energy going from my feet all through the body to my hands was a very effective model. And made sense to me.
IMO it’s a very “scientific” concept when applied even within many historical ways, as it cut through highly imprecise ancient understandings of physics to give people a comprehension of the world and people as made up of the same sort of stuff, it emphasizes interconnective cause and effect in very beautiful ways, and helped people understand the abstract notion of “energy” as including various forms contained within various mediums and that it can migrate between them. Applied certain ways, Chi is a very poetic conception of very real physics. And who knows, maybe the elements that seem more “magical” to us could gain some empirical backing in the future. We are still learning a lot about both human biology (i.e. aging on the cellular level) and physics (i.e. the relationships of entropy and time and cause+effect)
This sort of reinterpretation could prevent one from getting the full experience, however. There *are* sensations you can get that are absolutely local and have nothing to do with biomechanics. Much of the benefits can come from interacting with these sensations. Trying to pin the concept down on a single concrete phenomenon could be limiting, because it's probable the premodern individuals who came up with the concept were conflating multiple otherwise unrelated phenomena.
@@somexp12 Well, if it involves a vague, undetectable, indeterminate ‘force’, I can’t get the full experience anyway because I don’t believe it exists. Trying to believe, or rather suspend disbelief, was just distracting.
I don’t have absolutely local sensations and not sure how it could be determined they had nothing to do with biomechanics.
For clarity, I’m not sure of the definition of biomechanics, but unless it includes the nervous system, blood, fluids, facia, chemistry, electrical elements, etc. I would need a bigger concept.
Now I’m remembering, my model was much simpler and easy to just go with.
@Mark A lot of qigong teachers will advise against deliberate visualization or imagination. Instead, you're feeling for sensations, which they'll label "qi." These sensations may be whatever they actually are, but they're real in the sense that they are concretely felt, not simply imagined or visualized.
Same as of you see a mirage. The oasis you saw might not have been real, but the experience of seeing it absolutely was. If your task was to do something in response to the mirage, you might fail at this if you're telling yourself that only accurate sensations count.
@@somexp12 Well, it’s not like I was debunking qi in the middle of a class/session, it’s more that I needed a way to smoothly incorporate instructions and expectations to get the most out of it. I thoroughly enjoyed and benefitted. Still do.
I didn’t determine qi is just a myth and abandon it, I found a way for qi to still be mysterious and real. I don’t know exactly how all the parts work together to create the feelings, etc., but the model of interconnectivity and synergy was a framework I can accept. Importantly, I no longer needed to try to convince myself there’s an underlying undetectable ‘force’.
Once I know it’s a mirage, I don’t need to tell myself anything, I just no longer see it as anything else.
some of you know and love 🙂
with eye widening expression - pure gold
it's small things like this, that make you so likable and add to your videos this casual feel of listening to a real person
I like the minimum sound effects and music and excessive cuts. The editing is clean and the start and end of ideas are sudden but with finale. Excellent, engaging work.
If you find the depiction of qi in wuxia films entertaining, you should check out the Jiangshi movies that were a fad in Hong Kong cinema of the 1980s and 90s. They revolve around the Jiangshi, a sort of vampire-like monster that sustains itself by draining qi from the living. A 1985 film that in English is usually called "Mr. Vampire" is my personal favorite and spawned a series of sequels, the fourth installment of which contains a fight scene with one of the most hilarious applications of Daoism I've ever seen.
I assume you have to know some details of daoist practice to get the jokes
I love how they neutralize the hopping zombie vampires with pieces of paper with little spells on them.
Lam ching ying is still to this day one of my favorite Hong Kong actors. His role in painted faces and the prodigal son are fantastic
I’ve been interested in this things for some time. First time I have heard them brought together in this way. Was very enlightening.
#spiritualchills speaks more about qi itselfl
10:12 - 12:00 summed up by SsethTzeentach: “Chinese internal alchemy where instead of a cauldron you use your body. Instead of reagents you use your qi, to form a golden core. Think of a philosopher’s stone except backwards that’s what a golden core is. Instead of drinking the elixir of life we are the elixir of life.”
-SsethTzeentach Amazing Cultivation Simulator Review | CCP™ Edition™
I think Ki's current popularity in anime can be traced back to Fist of the North Star, with Dragon Ball further popularizing it.
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As well as in some DC and Marvel super heroes.
Im starting to learn the difference between daoism, buddhism, and hinduism. This new found knowledge is propelling me to dive deeper into not just educating myself, but gaining practical knowledge to transform my life, like gaining discipline in practicing various forms of physical(martial) arts and spiritual arts. Thank you
Thanks. I was aware of much of what you said, but your sayingf it in a different, and more systematic way than what I previously was exposed to helped me understand it better
Kung Fu Panda represented the period of Chinese history where gunpowder is invented and so the dawn of industrial & military modernization, and science is putting severe strain on ancient wisdoms and beliefs.
But equally ancient martial art teachings remain valuable to illustrate how the human spirit can conquer fear, weakness and pain.... We are still the same Mk.1 humans.
The stories we STILL tell are designed to inspire us to strive for improvement, greatness.
So for me the chi is no different to the Force say, mediclaurians are mitochondria after all. We just use different names for the same concepts.
When we're facing an insurmountable challenge, we NEED a story of supernatural strength of some kind, especially a connection to the universe (or God or Gods), and described in a spiritual context with all the trappings of mysticism and ritual. We need it to survive and thrive.
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Dm me you won a prize 🎉.
I like this because honestly, humans have no way to exert the force needed to do kamehameha’s. Our body wouldn’t take such radiation heat at all so for the force would be a more believable thing, as much as I want to shoot ki blast, I don’t think our body’s would be able to exists after pushing out everything we have to our sides to melt us as we shoot it outwards
Whatever you may feel about religion, remember that this is the earliest form of science.
Idk if it's rlly up your alley but I'd be cool if you did a video over the spiritual use of psychedelics as sacraments and the history of their use in different traditions.
I'd love to see you do an episode on the Greek Eleusinian Mysteries.
Back in the height of my Qi training, I once thought I saw waves of white light running down my right arm.
I was a Mortal Kombat kid, so I'm only now realizing how accurate Street Fighter nailed it.
Heh. Cool.
Something cool I found out from Ramsey Dewey (youtuber who is a MMA coach who runs a gym in Shanghai, China)
The movements in Tai Chi are originally supposed to be wrestling grips and movements.
Look at traditional tai chi movements and look at wrestlers practicing hand pummeling and collar ties.
Qi translates perfectly into English as the word "energy". Of course there will be different associations across cultures, but at its core the term is used to mean a lot of very different and contradictory things, both in chinese as "Qi" and in english as "energy". Without more context it is a pretty useless word, but it does translate almost perfectly into english. I think the misunderstanding comes from assuming that there exists a coherent understanding of Qi within chinese culture, but there is just as much ambiguity as with any english use of the word energy.
Well energy does have a very precise scientific definition and most modern English usage takes from that and uses it in a metaphorical sense.
@@hedgehog3180 Not sure what exactly you mean by 'takes from that and uses it in a metaphorical sense' but I would wager less than 1% of English speakers would even be able to comprehend such a definition if it was given to them, let alone to 'take from it metaphorically'. I was speaking to the ordinary colloquial usage of the word that is all but entirely uninformed by scientific rigor.
Thank you for trying to clarify this rather difficult to grok concept. 🙏
Breath (Chi) is used ro facilitate Vital Energy/Sexual Energy (Ching) into Spirit (Shen).
Most references of Chi in our world are more accurately defined by Shen.
This physical process undoubtedly led backwards to the construction of the Eastern creation thought process.
I highly recommend the book Tai Chi Chuan and Meditation by Da Liu as it will immediately clear up many misunderstandings on this topic.
The fact that "Tai Chi" is actually Taiji for starters.
"Tai Chi" drives me nuts. In Wade-Giles it's almost correct, but should be "T'ai Chi" - which is, in Wade-Giles, pronounced like Pinyin Taiji. That apostrophe is critical! Without it, "T" is pronounced "D" (Tao => Dao). But Tai Chi is used for the same reason Peking Duck is on menus: People who don't know anything about the topic recognize it.
@@GfPfi true enough. But T'ai Chi/Tai Chi, whatever. It doesn't even begin to explain Taijichuan as it pertains to;
The Golden Pill
Heavenly Circulations
Turning the Wheel of Law
Mao Yu Orbit
All of which should be well understood before even beginning to broach the subject of this video.
Fascinating video and topic! Though I am slightly disappointed at the lack of love for my beloved Turtle Destruction Wave and all the other fancy tricks found in Dragon Ball :(
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This is peak content 💪🔥
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Well, this provides a lot of useful context for those cultivation stories I always read.
I would say, Qi is akin to energy. Matter is comprised of “bundled” energy known as quanta that can be converted into various forms of matter in quantum physics. The ultimate source of the vacuum energy is still a mystery, however. 😊
I find it interesting that, recently, we discovered that an electron from one point A can affect the electron from point B from great distances.
it's actually kind of funny to me how much of this i knew just from consuming wuxia and xianxia media. as a westerner going in there was a lot of context i was missing that this filled in.
It's extra confusing because these novels often parody tropes of the genre instead of playing them straight
And people say that entertainment is a waste of time!
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I've noticed when a lot of people hear about qigong or east Asian martial arts, what often comes to mind for them is wuxia or similar media. They seem to often not be aware that wuxia exagerrates and adds stuff or sometimes changes stuff. It's done for entertainment purposes like what a lot of American media does. Or they think of the martial arts craze in the US from a few decades ago which unfortunately involved a lot of frauds.
At 74, I have learnt something new, more than before. ☯️
Overall this is a good presentation on an extremely complex topic.
As for the topic of chi theft in the sexual act, there's a pretty interesting fictional book about it called "Confessions of a Chinese Courtesan" by Sing Miao
What I think is fascinating is that our scientific understanding of the origins of reality still has very strong parallels to many of the teachings of old. Just, instead of having the superstitious elements like essence, chaos, and deities, we now know them as energy, entropy, and the (probably) unified force. Cosmology as we know it is literally an origin story myth with the only difference being it was told to us by the universe itself instead of by our ancestors.
Qi sounds exactly like Tejas in Hinduism 🕉. As just the animating power of the soul.
The same animating power that is supposed to do general life things like:
• Keep you alive
• Keep all other organisms alive
• Power your intelligence
• Cause fatigue, sleepiness, involuntary procrastination, burnout when reserves run low
• Occasionally do fancy soul related powers when used in enough quantity, while directed, when it becomes strong enough to have macroscopic effects.
A fairly simple concept, once you understand what it is.
I thought it was called "shakti"
@@bocoom Shakti is very similar.
Tejas is like energy stored, and shakti like force (when tejas is used).
Honestly, the ambiguity of Qi is probably caused by single Chinese characters 🀄 being very ambiguous in general. Chinese tends to use 2 characters for a clear term most of the time.
So the other Qis are probably not literally Qi, but close enough for the two vague terms to point to 1 clear one.
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Isn't prana closer to qi?
@@andreigabrielion9575 Prana doesn't describe what is exhausted.
Prana is like the power ⚡ given by the nuclear ⚛ power plant, powering up your kitchen appliances like your toaster.
Qi/Tejas is like the Fuel rods of nuclear ⚛ power plant being depleted.
Well, there is the difference that your Qi/Tejas *eventually* regenerates over a long period of time, if you don't overstain yourself. Though, it is still a good analogy.
Us Americans are so good at taking in parts of concepts and practices we enjoy and leaving out the rest.
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It would have been genuinely funny if this was an in depth analysis of Qi wireless charging and it's history.
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Dm me you won a prize 🎉..
The 11th Century Confucian thinker Zhang Zai (Wade-Giles: Chang Tsai) developed an entire philosophy based on _qi._ This video could have mentioned and discussed him.
Fritjof Capra also compared _qi_ to the quantum field in his _The Tao of Physics._ Capra based this comparison on his reading of Zhang Zai.
It's actually pretty frustrating that the most rigorous theoretical analyses came from people like Zhang Zai, the Cheng brothers and Zhu Xi, but people tend to gloss over them like they never existed, even though their influence on Chinese intellectual and spiritual life (particularly that of Zhu Xi) has been pretty significant as a whole.
Zhang Zai 的中文是什么？谢谢
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@@slomo4672 張載.
brilliant coverage as always
Can you do a video on fundamentalism? Specifically Christian Fundamentalism?
气 can either be translated as "vapour" or "energy". The original pictogram shows steam rising from cooked rice. It's actually very straightforward, but scientists tend to baulk at 气 being used as a translation for energy, so they used the word 能量 as an alternative instead. 能量 would also be more accurate, since energy doesn't just appear only in steam.
Even breathing itself can grant almost superpowers. Wim Hof can sit in an ice bath for 2 hours by mastering breathing techniques. The kiai shout in karate has been shown to increase striking power.
Love your videos! Thanks for another great one 🫶🥰
While not active now since my aortic aneurysm.. Qigong training changed my massage practice for the better.. I always feel bad for the acupuncturist whom just says they had a term in qigong.. I would never go to them.. Qigong is what makes the practice of being a healer or to help facilitate healing in someone else. Also qigong kept me alive after a severe ascending aortic aneurysm. Facts. Not fiction.
The "hum" is the best translation I've heard so far, "breath" is a goodin too
Great video, I am a big fan of what you do…
…excepting your taste in band names.
One of the main reasons emperors kept taking elixirs even though it killed their predecessors is that many believed that the symptoms of mercury poisoning were literally the manifestations of becoming a being of pure qi
This religion has always fascinated me, I legitimately do not understand how anyone believes in it.
I understand all religions demand a huge amount of fate, but most mainstream modern religions demand fate for things that are ultimately impossible to prove. Daoism makes insane claims about the abilities and benefits these practices can give you, abilities and benefits that, surely, people would quickly notice weren't granted. So it really intrigues me how it has remained a mainstream religion for so long.
You should look up Pentecostalism, then: claims of miracle healing, speaking dead languages, snake handling, prophecy, and probably other equally odd-- and as easily debunked-- powers.
My Sensei used to say. It takes two fools to misunderstand Ki..one to Ask 'What is Ki?' The other to answer his question with words.
Oh an if you want the moves of tai chi to make more sense, imagine they are all weary heavy armor while wielding a massive sword or polearm. Cutting with a sword requires constant contact and friction, like striking a match does. Thus the smooth forms of tai chi are made to maximize contact of a swords edge, with the target it aims to cut.
Never thought about it that way, thanks!
I do love mushrooms. You’re right about knowing and loving magic mushrooms. Hmm. It’s a lovely day too… for qi.
I love how all of my favorite religion channels have “good band name” moments
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Dm me you won a prize 🎉
The Kung Fu instructor I studied under had a very different explanation for the origins of Tai Chi than what you list here. He says it was developed after the Boxer Rebellion, when martial arts were banned due to them having been used by the losing revolutionaries. Tai Chi was developed as basically a slowed down, disguised form of Kung Fu that would allow people to still train while appearing only to be doing simple exercises.
Really liked the pacing of this video!
I kidna like "spirit" as a short-hand translation of Qi/Ki, it's something inmaterial, but that causes movement or creates intention.
Cupping is also present in western folk medicine and has been used by licensed physicians as well. I'm guessing it works on the lymphatic system.
no, it works on the brain, as in, believed in and promoted by idiots who think the earth is only 6000 years old
I don't think it has ever been showen to do anything other than leave red marks in clinical trials, it's also somewhat dangerous since it invovles heating glass with an open flame.
"Sexual Vampires- which would be a great name for a band if you're looking for one."
I see what you did there 😎👉👉
I expect I won’t be the only one with a band with that name. However I have done a lot of chi development. I trained in Yang Main which is a king fu style with a focus on rapid chi development.
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"Jackie Chan Adventures" introduced me to the concept of Qi
Hey Andrew, have you considered changing the end card for your videos? RUclips hasn't had annotations that would turn those icons into links for years now.
Yeah I’ve been meaning to do that, but keeps slipping off my priority list
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Dm me you won a prize 🎉.
So disappointed that you didn't show how to throw a ki fireball for real.
I would love to see a fight scene with two sloths, both masters of taichi, slowly fighting their epic battle.
Literally went from watching Street Fighter 6 matches to this vid (and been a follower lol)
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Dm me you won a prize 🎉..
Note: I'm not eating anymore chis/qis from now on. Tai chi has no relation to chi/qi but is really Taiji. It's so fitting the people using or getting rid of too much chi are called "Chi-nese." What do you call Tai chi/taiji + Chigong/Qigong, certainly not "tai chi/qi gong" due to the two chi in Tai chi and chi gong are two different Chinese characters which had different meanings and two different pronunciations when spoken in non-Mandarin dialects.
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Even though you see in dictionaries the idea of qi translated with all the concept mentioned, none of these concept are translated as either characters for qi. The ideas you mentioned moreover are imported from 19th century European esoterics, s.a. biomagnetism, hypnosis.
Many people are looking for a system of belief that is as far as possible from traditional Western religions but still manages to fulfills its function in giving meaning and sense to life. Asian philosophies, usually badly tranlated and partly/entirely misinterpreted, are ideal for this.
It's still weird how little people connect energy blasts in anime and Japanese games with Chinese wuxia and chi in general
The Bene Gesserit clearly mastered "Inner Alchemy".
Not only is Dr Andrew a fan of Zelda, but also a fighting game player
My RUclips hero
Mostly Smash Brothers, but there's a place in my heart for Street Fighter II back from the SNES days.
or just looking at what current videogames are trending in the algorithm
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Dm me you won a prize 🎉..
Sir, you need to watch some of the star wars movies. When Yoda describes how the force works, it is almost exactly the way you describe qi.
8:50 Cupping in the western world is not necessarily based on Qi.
It can be, and has been, used in physical therapy for breaking up "clumps" of tissue that have been damaged or otherwise become less efficient at moving. It is basically an alternative way to massage tissue. It is particularly good for smooth muscles, tendons, and ligaments that are no longer sliding past each other in the way they are supposed to move. And, cupping has been shown to aid in the restoration of proper blood circulation.
I've had it done to me as part of my recovery from various injuries. Not once was the word "Qi" used by the doctor to describe what was being done to help my body.
Qi/Ki/Chi also known in Coptic as *Ka* is a SPIRITUAL energy which manifests in human body as physical 'Vital Energy'
What do they believe happens to your Qi after death?
Does it transform from life-energy into death-energy and stay with them in the afterlife? That would be cool.
Once had a problem with a computer scientist who did not understand qi.
I was really hoping this would be a collab somehow with the British panel show, QI.
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Dm me you won a prize 🎉..
I think your choice of pronunciation is to the point since it's sort of neutral to all sino-sphere cultures. We have im/iunn in Hokkien, yam/yeong in Cantonese, im/iong in Hakka, am/duong in Vietnamese, and in/yo in Japanese
The description of Qi, especially pertaining to it connecting and flowing through all existence, sounds very similar to prana. I suspect this isn't a coincidence, but I've never looked into it. Yoga, qigong, tai chi, and reiki all seem to operate on similar principles, manipulating and correcting the flow of energy in your body.
It's not a superpower, but I have seen Tai-Chi martial practice in which a slight push would send the student clear across the floor. In fact, the practice partner was trained to crouch low to the ground so as to not fall down when sliding across the floor. In the body you can also feel it circulating. It feels like a combination of water flowing and electricity, but it's also very normal.
What I'd want to know is what these Daoist medical practices actually did or what effects they actually had that lead people to believe they worked. The only thing I can think of is that science as a practice (at least as we know it today) was so underdeveloped that something that didn't actively harm you was indistinguishable from actual medicine (and that's putting aside the placebo effect).
I have heard there is an acupuncture spot around your shoulder where it is very easy to pierce a lung.
Figuring out how to do the control experiment for acupuncture took some cleverness - basically they covered the needle with a cup, and either poked you with it, or actually inserted it, so it felt the same.
I mean you more or less have it figured out. Human intuitions are just terrible for figuring stuff out about the world since we have so many psychological pitfalls. Therefore before the development of science people just simply got things wrong all the time without noticing. And without science there was basically no way of verifying anyone's claims so of course lies spread like wildfire especially if they promised something amazing like eternal life or gold. Modern science is essentially a very complicated system that serves to check our worst impulses, which is why it's hard to do, humans did not naturally evolve to be scientific.
Another factor is also technology, information and communication technology like the printing press, faster ships, the train and so on did a lot to help science spread and develop as it created large networks that could debate and exhange ideas. And then there are also social factors like science seemingly needing a certain level of societal wealth to develop. We can go even further and speculate that perhaps the warlike nature of European history also created a demand for innovation but at that point we're crossing into speculation.
The "magic mushrooms" in these texts are usually Ganoderma Lucidum (Reishi) which is said to have an effect on the Shen.
Qi is an ancient term for the energy that comes from nutrients of food/drinks in your stomach. So no, its not a magic force, but it has a lot of daily practices, & benefit.
In martial arts context… think of the hydraulic force produced by water pressure when it fills up the hose used by firefighters and imagine if the pressure comes your way. That’s one way of how Qi works.
100 percent, this is correct
You still didn't show me how to do a Kamehameha wave
As i know,
best Western concept
that almost perfectly matches Qi in meaning
is called Od,
discovered by Reichenbach.
Is there a god of qi/ki/chi?
What if you make videos about specific deities, demons, spirits, and other such beings people believe in along with the powers they have?
Can you make a video about Sumerian mythology?
It's your metabolism and how you interact in the world around you.
I felt my chi in a meditative trance one time. It was strange. I did not believe it existed prior to this experience. It felt like electricity was running up my arms. If you want to get there, I recommend practicing gratitude and compassion for all things , including your body and empathy for “God” or the universe if you prefer.