'Qi' Explained: Ancient, Mystic Superpower?

You may have heard of Qi before. It appears in discussions surrounding acupuncture, Tai Chi, cupping, and traditional Chinese Medicine. But it also appears in martial arts media as a superpower. So what is qi?

00:00 Introduction
02:00 Qi and Cosmology
04:29 Mutual Resonance
05:15 Qi and the Body
10:29 Inner Alchemy
11:49 Outer Alchemy
15:04 Qi in 21st c.

Select footage and images courtesy of Getty

[DetournementArc]

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.

[MusicalRaichu]

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)

[ashurean]

I swear, we as a species just recreate the same ideas over and over again with little localized quirks

[GrimrDirge]

Fun fact, my grandpa Roger Estes was the first non-chinese person to earn the title of QiGong Master.

[HeisenbergFam]

1:41 battling while flying through the air in forest is most Chinese movie trope to witness

[morinoko]

Grew up in a family of Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioners. This subject is so dear to my heart, loved the video! ☯💚

[__-fstg]

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.

[yesfinallygot]

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.

[kweassa]

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!!

[chris_troiano]

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.

[markoshun]

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.

[eliplayz]

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.

[TesserId]

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.

[PharmDRx]

I freaking love this channel. Keep up the good work!

[He-Who-Died]

I am starting to really love this YouTube channel and it's videos.

[kunderemp]

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.

[jackthefrog]

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

[nomadvyt]

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!

[winnebagus]

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.

[cyborgchicken]

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