Vital Energy (Qi Gong)

Qi Gong, as an art of healing and health preservation, dates back to the Tang Yao period, some twenty centuries B.C.E. Dancing and body movements, and various ways of breathing, exhalation, and exclamation were recognized as ways to read-just some functions of the human body and treat diseases.

Medical scholars throughout Chinese history, beginning with the Qin dynasty (200 B.C.E.), have written about Qi and body movements. In the Song and Yuan dynasties (900–1300 C.E.), Taoist and Buddhist priests introduced the importance of cultivating the Tantian (inner elixir). Since 1978, Qi Gong masters have popularized such practice for health preservation and disease prevention.

One of the characteristics of Qi Gong is to allow practitioners to cultivate their demeanor and stamina to enable them to engage in strenuous activities. Another is to cultivate the ability of practitioners to transmit Qi to patients through needles or their hands. Patients are also taught to undertake Qi exercises to maintain health. There are dynamic exercises involving multiple movements of limbs and the body and static exercises that call for simple postures with mind concentration and breathing exercise. After symptoms and signs are analyzed, Qi doctors prescribe specific therapies for problems. Inappropriate Qi therapies can be harmful and Qi exercises need to be adapted and individualized to each person's needs and situation.