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| The meaning of Qi in Chinese martial arts |
The problem begins with a simple fact:
Qi does not always mean the same thing.
The term appears throughout Chinese culture—in philosophy, traditional medicine, martial arts, calligraphy, painting and many other fields. Its meaning changes according to historical period, context, speaker and purpose.
This becomes particularly important in martial arts.
When two practitioners discuss Qi, they may use exactly the same word while referring to completely different things. One may be talking about a traditional concept of vital force. Another may be describing breathing, structure and coordinated movement. A third may use Qi to describe an internal sensation experienced during practice.
And sometimes Qi is simply used because neither teacher nor student has a better explanation for what is happening.
Before discussing whether Qi is “real,” therefore, we should ask a much more useful question:
What does the speaker actually mean by Qi?
Qi as a Traditional Concept
Probably the best-known interpretation of Qi in the West is “life force” or “vital energy.”
These translations are useful, but incomplete.
Qi is deeply embedded in traditional Chinese philosophy and medicine, where it developed meanings that do not correspond neatly to a single concept in modern Western languages.
Depending on the context, Qi has been translated in numerous ways: vital force, material force, breath, vapor, energy, and other terms.
None captures every historical use.
This is partly because traditional Chinese concepts developed within intellectual frameworks different from those of modern Western science. Trying to force Qi into a modern category such as “energy” can therefore create more confusion than clarity.
When an old Chinese text discusses Qi, we should first try to understand what Qi meant within that particular text and historical tradition, rather than immediately translating it into the terminology of modern physics or biology.
In this context, Qi is a traditional Chinese concept.
Whether modern science can identify physical mechanisms behind particular practices associated with Qi is a separate question.
Qi as an Explanation of Body Mechanics
There is another use of Qi commonly encountered in martial arts.
A teacher may use the word while explaining qualities that can also be discussed through body mechanics.
Good skeletal alignment allows forces to travel through the body efficiently.
Coordination allows different parts of the body to contribute to a movement rather than working against each other.
Correct timing of muscular contraction and relaxation can improve speed and power.
Breathing can influence muscular tension, movement and stability.
Balance, posture, timing and efficient force transfer all contribute to martial performance.
Within a traditional martial-arts vocabulary, a practitioner may describe the resulting quality as Qi.
A modern coach might describe many aspects of the same movement using terms such as structure, coordination, kinetic chains, balance, muscular recruitment or force transmission.
This does not necessarily mean that Qi “is” biomechanics.
That would simply replace one overly broad definition with another.
It means that some physical phenomena traditionally discussed using the language of Qi can also be investigated through biomechanics and physiology.
That distinction is important.
Qi as a Description of Internal Experience
There is another category that should not be ignored.
Martial training produces subjective physical sensations.
During breathing exercises, standing practice, forms, Qigong or other types of training, practitioners may experience warmth, pressure, heaviness, lightness, tingling, expansion, changes in muscular tension or unusual awareness of different parts of the body.
These experiences are real as experiences.
Different traditions may interpret them differently.
A traditional practitioner might describe some of these sensations as the movement or accumulation of Qi.
A modern physiological explanation might investigate breathing, circulation, muscular tension, attention, sensory perception and nervous-system activity.
Those explanations do not necessarily answer exactly the same question.
The important thing is not to confuse the experience with the explanation of the experience.
Feeling something unusual during training establishes that you experienced a sensation.
It does not, by itself, establish what caused it.
Qi as a Substitute for Explanation
This brings us to a less flattering use of the word.
Sometimes Qi explains nothing at all.
A student asks:
“Why does this movement generate power?”
The answer is:
“Because of Qi.”
The student asks how Qi produces the power.
The answer becomes:
“You need to practice longer before you can understand.”
This can create an explanation that cannot be examined.
Sometimes the teacher may understand the movement perfectly well but lack the vocabulary to explain it. Traditional martial arts were historically transmitted through physical demonstration, correction and repetition rather than modern scientific terminology.
That should not automatically be interpreted as ignorance.
But sometimes neither teacher nor student actually knows why something works.
In those situations, Qi can become a word used to cover a gap in understanding.
This is where critical thinking becomes important.
Replacing “I don't know” with “Qi” does not increase our knowledge.
Sometimes “I don't know” is the better answer.
Several Meanings Can Exist at the Same Time
Reality is rarely as clean as these categories suggest.
A teacher may use Qi traditionally while simultaneously describing something with a clear physical component.
A practitioner may interpret a subjective sensation through traditional Chinese theory.
A martial artist may use traditional terminology when teaching within his lineage and biomechanical terminology when explaining the same exercise to someone from a different background.
These categories can overlap.
That is precisely why arguments about Qi often go nowhere.
One person says:
“Qi is real.”
Another responds:
“Qi doesn't exist.”
But they may never establish what either person means by the word.
They are apparently arguing about the same thing while actually discussing different concepts.
Traditional Language and Modern Science
I don't believe we need to choose between blindly accepting traditional explanations and throwing traditional terminology away.
Both extremes lose something.
Traditional terminology preserves information about how generations of practitioners understood and transmitted their arts.
Modern biomechanics, physiology and other sciences give us tools that earlier generations did not possess for investigating what happens inside the human body.
These approaches should not be confused, but they can be compared.
If a traditional exercise claims to improve force production, we can investigate force production.
If breathing supposedly changes physical performance, we can investigate breathing and performance.
If particular postures supposedly change balance or stability, those effects can be tested.
What we should avoid is taking a traditional word such as Qi and simply replacing it with a modern scientific word without demonstrating that the two concepts actually correspond.
Saying:
“Qi is energy.”
doesn't solve the problem.
Neither does:
“Qi is fascia.”
or:
“Qi is biomechanics.”
Those may describe aspects of particular practices, but none provides a universal definition of Qi.
Context Comes First
After many years of practicing Chinese martial arts, I have found the most useful approach to Qi surprisingly simple.
When someone talks about Qi, don't immediately ask:
“Do I believe in Qi?”
Ask:
“What does Qi mean here?”
Is the person discussing a traditional philosophical concept?
Traditional Chinese medicine?
Breathing?
Body mechanics?
A subjective training sensation?
A particular martial-arts teaching method?
Or is Qi simply being used where a clearer explanation is unavailable?
Only after establishing the context can a meaningful discussion begin.
That is why asking whether Qi is “real” without defining the term is often the wrong question.
Qi is a word with a long history and many contexts.
Understanding those contexts is much more useful than arguing over a single definition that may never have existed.
And when we encounter something we still cannot explain, there is nothing wrong with saying:
We don't know yet.
That is not disrespect for tradition.
It is where investigation begins.
Sources and Further Reading
Kohn, Livia. Chinese Healing Exercises: The Tradition of Daoyin. University of Hawai‘i Press, 2008.
Yuasa, Yasuo. The Body, Self-Cultivation, and Ki-Energy. State University of New York Press, 1993.
Sivin, Nathan. Traditional Medicine in Contemporary China. Center for Chinese Studies, University of Michigan, 1987.
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. “Metaphysics in Chinese Philosophy.” Discussion of qi (氣), li (理), and the changing meanings of qi within Chinese philosophical traditions.
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/chinese-metaphysics/
Jahnke, Roger; Larkey, Linda; Rogers, Carol; Etnier, Jennifer; Lin, Fang. “A Comprehensive Review of Health Benefits of Qigong and Tai Chi.” American Journal of Health Promotion, 24(6), 2010, e1–e25.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20594090/
Ng, Bobby H. P.; Tsang, Hector W. H. “Psychophysiological Outcomes of Health Qigong for Chronic Conditions: A Systematic Review.” Psychophysiology, 46(2), 2009, 257–269.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19170945/
So, Wendy Wing Yan; Cai, Shuhe; Yau, Suk Yu; Tsang, Hector Wing Hong. “The Neurophysiological and Psychological Mechanisms of Qigong as a Treatment for Depression: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.” Frontiers in Psychiatry, 10, 2019.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31824346/