What Is Qi?
Dr. Justin Shin is an acupuncturist practicing in San Francisco, CA. A leader in the field of Integrative Medicine, Dr. Shin was the 1st acupuncture student at UCSF as an intern. He is now a medical resident at Highland Hospital (Oakland, CA) in the Integrative Medicine Department within Internal Medicine. He is a passionate... more
Have you ever gone to an acupuncturist, or watched Kung Fu Panda, or heard of the word 'Qi' in a passing conversation? Ever wondered what that term means? Well I will help you understand where the word 'Qi' came from, and what it means today.
The word Qi has been known in the English language as "energy". Acupuncturists would usually define a patient or symptom when there is a disturbance in this energy. What acupuncturists are known to do, is to manipulate and move Qi. I personally believe this is partially true, but there is a bigger puzzle piece missing.
Quick history on Qi
First, we must understand the history behind the Chinese character of Qi. Chinese characters never mean just one word. There is a story being told with each character. When you look at the character of Qi (see attachment), this symbol means 2 main things. The character below the horizontal line (lower radical) that looks like "X-marks the spot", represents a rice grain bursting open. The character above this "X-marks the spot" character represents a vapor of steam rising up into the air. So, a direct translation of Qi based off the Chinese character, is rice grain bursting open and cooking with heat causing a vapor of steam to rise into the air. This essentially means that rice + heat + steam = Qi.
The Chinese classical texts state: "Qi arises from a combination of food from the Spleen/Stomach and air from the Lungs".
Now, if the above statement was true, would you agree that the air you breathe is a product of the same air that you breathe out? Perhaps.
In fact, breath is from an old English word meaning steam. And do you know what word stems from the old English word for breath? Spirit.
From the Latin word for breath or inspiration (air), the word SPIRIT is developed. Usually, when we hear the word spirit we think of a ghost, or some ethereal, energetic being that may not be seen as a physical manifestation. This is what the Western civilization has us thinking about the definition of the word spirit.
You might say, medically, spirit is defined as 'the difference between life and death'. The spirit is a non-physical part of a person which is the seat of emotions and character...basically the soul.
If you watch any cartoons, when the last breath is left from the body through the mouth, a little 'ghost' may pop out indicated death. When a human being breathes their last breath, nothing material has changed, but everything has been lost.
So what? How does this apply to medicine and health?
Can western medicine detect life? When you go get a lab test, MRI, CT scan, pathology report; all of these tests make western medicine, but they have zero ability to tell whether someone had just died or not.
The only 2 tests that can detect whether someone is alive or not is the ECG/EKG reports. These measurements look at the electrical energy moving around the heart. So, you may redefine the word spirit to: "the ENERGETIC difference between life and death."
This is as far western medicine will go into the word spirit. If you look into any western medical text, you will never see the word 'spirit' in the index.
Bringing it altogether
We learned that Qi is not just energy, but it is also the spirit of the body. Spirit is not a ghost, but it is the ethereal, powerful and energetic aspect of each human being. Why do you think animals and some humans just know when someone is different, or is about to lose their soul, or already lost their soul?
We even see Qi evident in basic science taught to all scientists in their schools. Do you remember this formula?
C6H12O6 + 6O2 = 6CO2 + 6H2O + energy
This formula shows the process of the body burning sugar (rice) with oxygen from the air in the mitochondria of our bodies, creates energy called ATP. ATP is a substance that drives all the energetic processes in our body. You COULD call this Qi. Maybe.
Stay tuned
If you enjoyed this reading, please stay tuned for my next post about how this may tie into embryology (the development of the human fetus within a mother's womb).
References
Keown, Daniel (2018). The Uncharted Body: The new textbook of medicine.
Keown, Daniel (2014). The Spark in the Machine. Singing dragon. 1st edition.
