Yangsheng Qigong and Jing-Qi-Shen
Those who practice and circulate qi, and many modern yangsheng scientists, set great store by jing-qi-shen (essence-qi-spirit) — calling these the three treasures of the human body. As the saying goes: "Heaven has three treasures, sun-moon-stars; Earth has three treasures, water-fire-wind; the human has three treasures, shen, qi, jing." For yangsheng practice, jing-qi-shen is paramount.
To practice qigong, one must first speak of qi. Qigong that does not speak of or practice qi — what gong is that? Where does qi come from? It is a deep and subtle question, and a major topic that modern science is still pursuing.
Qi has a material basis. The growth, development, motion, and change of the ten-thousand things in the cosmos all rest on the action of qi. The activity of human life is likewise sustained by qi. Ming's Zhang Jingyue wrote in Leijing: "The way of life-and-transformation takes qi as root; the ten-thousand things of Heaven and Earth all rise by it… The life of the human depends wholly on this qi." From the embryonic stage, qi sprouts: the fetus draws inner respiration from the mother, absorbing nourishment, growth, and development — relying on the ancestral qi (jing-qi) of the mother, the former-Heaven. Once the fetus is mature and the cord is cut, it draws on its own respiratory regulation, completing the breathing through the help of heaven-qi, the great atmosphere. That breathing is the qi's active function and the start of latter-Heaven life. Although after birth the child inherits the former-Heaven ancestral qi and the gift of heaven-qi, and begins active breathing, the qi as life-force must be unceasingly maintained by the nourishment of latter-Heaven food and drink. It is no accident that the first signal of the newborn is to cry — waa — to vibrate the lung network and start respiration; the second is to suck (the breast). The stomach begins its reception and nourishes latter-Heaven life.
Qi has no fixed shape, is invisible and intangible, yet is a substance that can spread freely. Breath, respiration — all are qi. In the body, qi flows: up and down, inside and out, exterior and interior, nowhere absent — born of the former-Heaven and received from the latter-Heaven. Hence former-Heaven ancestral qi (jing-qi), latter-Heaven grain-qi (stomach-qi).
The qi of the body is also called true qi (zhen-qi). The Lingshu · Treatise on Needling-Festivals and True Evils says: "The true qi is what is received from Heaven, blending with grain-qi to fill the body." So zhen-qi is received from former-Heaven, joined by the great qi of Heaven and the qi of food and drink — and has the function of filling and nourishing the whole body. Because its distribution and action differ, it bears various names. Leijing: "True qi is original qi (yuan-qi). The qi in Heaven enters through the nose, the throat governs. The qi in food enters through the mouth, the pharynx governs. Gathered before birth, it is the former-Heaven qi; formed after birth, it is the latter-Heaven qi. Qi in the yang aspect is yang-qi; qi in the yin aspect is yin-qi; qi in the exterior is wei-qi; qi in the interior is ying-qi; qi in the spleen is filling-qi; qi in the stomach is stomach-qi; qi in the upper jiao is ancestral qi (zong-qi); qi in the middle jiao is middle-qi; qi in the lower jiao is yuan-yin and yuan-yang qi." So the source is one, but the distribution and action differ. True qi is the root of all the qi, and may also be called upright qi (zheng-qi, as against evil-qi). True qi is the root of life; what qigong trains is the true qi.
Yuan-qi (original qi) above includes yuan-yin and yuan-yang. Received from former-Heaven, it is the transformation of former-Heaven essence; it relies on latter-Heaven nourishment to be unceasingly engendered. The Nanjing · Question 36 says: "The Gate of Life is the lodging of all spirits and essences, the seat to which yuan-qi attaches." It means: the Gate of Life (mingmen) is where the body's whole essence-qi and spirit-qi reside, and where yuan-qi attaches. So yuan-qi and Mingmen are tightly linked. Mingmen means the key gate of life; it stores the former-Heaven qi and is the source of the body's transformation, the root of life. Ming's Zhang Jingyue: "Mingmen is the root of yuan-qi, the lodging of water and fire. The yin-qi of the five zang cannot be nourished without it; the yang-qi of the five zang cannot be lifted without it." The fire of Mingmen embodies kidney-yang (yuan-yang) function; the water embodies kidney-yin (yuan-yin) substance. Hence Mingmen is the lodging of water and fire. The fire of Mingmen (kidney-yuan-yang) includes what modern medicine calls adrenocortical function. Mingmen sits at the moving qi between the two kidneys; its acupoint belongs to the Du channel, in the depression below the 14th vertebra, level with the shenque on the Ren channel.
Mingmen is most important in the body. The kidney rules water and stores essence — the place of yuan-yin (substance); Mingmen rules fire and stirs upward — the place of yuan-yang (function). Yuan-yin is the true water of former-Heaven; yuan-yang the true fire of former-Heaven. They stand in yin-yang mutual rooting, water-fire mutual aid; only by their interaction is true yuan-qi produced. True yuan-qi is the body's life-force and the wellspring of life-transformation. Relatively, yuan-yang is more important: as long as a measure of yang-qi remains, one does not die; the law of decline is always to lose yin first, then yang. The Nanjing · Question 8 says: "The twelve channels all belong to the source of life-qi. The source of life-qi is the root of the twelve channels — the moving qi between the kidneys, root of the five zang and six fu, the foundation of the twelve channels, the gate of respiration, the source of the three jiao. Another name: spirit-that-guards-against-evil. So qi is the root of the human; if the root is cut, stem and leaf wither."
This passage says: all the twelve channels belong to the source of life-qi; the source of life-qi is the root of the twelve channels — namely the moving qi between the two kidneys; it is the base of the five zang and six fu, the root of the twelve channels, the pivot of inhalation and exhalation, the source of the three-jiao qi-transformation, and may be called the spirit-that-guards-against-evil. The source of life-qi is the wellspring of life-force; moving qi between the kidneys is the life-qi stored between the two kidneys, the dynamic produced by the mutual aid of true water and true fire; gate of respiration is the pivot governing the opening and closing of inhalation and exhalation, a critical gate. Mingmen has the power to draw the lung-qi down and lift the lung-qi up; when inhalation cannot reach the kidney, that is a severe sign — the pathomechanism of kidney failing to receive qi, presenting as panting on exertion, more exhalation than inhalation, breath unable to sustain — an extreme hypoxic state. In qigong practice, the up-down extension between upper chest and lower abdomen is most marked. Nanjing · Question 4: "Exhale to heart and lung; inhale to kidney and liver" — speaks of just this. The source of the three-jiao refers to the wellspring of three-jiao qi-transformation, borrowing the heat of Mingmen. San-jiao is a fu particular to TCM theory and a very important organ. Jiao means focal point, with fire and heat-energy, having the actions of evaporation, transmission, regulation, and transformation. San-jiao is divided into upper, middle, and lower jiao in the chest and abdomen; it is the road by which food and drink enter and exit; its channel runs through the shanzhong and links with the heart-envelope, governing the body's qi-transformation, with the function of unblocking the water-pathway. In maintaining fluid-balance, it is a key organ — one of the six fu. Because its scope is large and touches the function of every zang-fu, it is divided into upper, middle, and lower. The middle-jiao is roughly the zhongwan; above the zhongwan is upper-jiao; below is lower-jiao. As a whole, San-jiao commands all the qi — that is, it exerts qi-transformation throughout the body, and it can do so by the dynamic of Mingmen's true fire. What is qihua (qi-transformation)? Broadly, the qi-and-transformation of yin and yang that brings forth the ten-thousand things. In the body, the physiological motion of qi-machine — the function of the zang-fu, the distribution of qi and blood, the flow of the channels. And specifically used for certain organs' particular functions: e.g., san-jiao qi-transformation for fluid regulation, bladder qi-transformation for urination. Suwen · Lingmi Disclosure: "The bladder… when there is qi-transformation, the urine can issue." — speaks of the bladder's qi-transformation. The spirit-that-guards-against-evil means defense against evil-invasion; spirit here is the body's ability to defend against external invasion. When kidney-qi is full and Mingmen-fire is vigorous, true qi is held within, and the outer evils cannot invade. The qi of qi is the root of the human means true qi — the root of life. Lose the root and stem and leaf wither: if the root is cut, stem and leaf wither. In qigong practice, the constant focus is on this — true qi. The fundamental aim of qigong's circulation of qi is to strengthen the body's true qi, to bring longevity. So the Suwen · Treatise on the Innate Truth of High Antiquity says: "Thus they accord with the Dao, and so reach a hundred years with movement undiminished." This is being in accord with the Dao of yangsheng; master yangsheng and one can reach a hundred years; without it, fifty and movement all withers.
So in the body, qi mainly refers to true qi. Above, the lung's respiration meets heaven-qi through the nose; below, Mingmen (the kidney's true-yang fire) draws respiration — completing the whole respiratory cycle of inner and outer true qi. This whole-body respiratory dynamic is the root of life. The qigong of yangsheng is to stir and strengthen this dynamic of true qi.
The Suwen · Treatise on the Innate Truth of High Antiquity says: "Breathe the essence-qi, stand alone and guard the spirit, the flesh as one — and so one's years cover Heaven and Earth." These lines set out the way to long life by qi practice. Breathe means breathing exercises for qi cultivation; essence-qi is the true qi above — also called yuan-qi or original qi, born of former-Heaven and sustained by latter-Heaven, the root of life-force, springing from the kidney (Mingmen). True qi is received from former-Heaven and depends on the latter-Heaven. Essence-qi may also be called right qi (zheng-qi); here it broadly means the body's fine substance (yin) and its function (yang). Stand alone and guard the spirit, the flesh as one — and so one's years cover Heaven and Earth means that inner breathing-qi practice and outer body-and-muscle stay always in unity, so the lifespan is especially long and one fulfills the Heaven-allotted years. There is also: "In calm, empty stillness, the true qi follows; the spirit guards within — whence then can illness come?" Calm, empty stillness means the heart is settled, quiet, free of greedy thought and fear of gain-and-loss. Quiet yangsheng makes qi flourish, true qi full, and the spirit able to guard within; disease has no way to invade.
So qi is of utmost importance in the body. The body's qi nourishes the person — called right qi (zheng-qi) — and is the true qi of life-force above. Pathogens are called evil qi (xie-qi); inner emotional shifts can also be called evil qi. Such evil qi harms. Suwen · Lost Treatise on Needling Methods: "When right qi is held within, evil cannot invade." Suwen · Treatise on Evaluating Heat-Disease: "Where evil gathers, the qi is bound to be deficient." That is: when the right qi is full within, outer evils cannot invade and disturb; that evils invade and disturb is because right qi is first deficient — the outer cause (evil) works through the inner cause (right qi). The first is right qi held within, undisturbed by evil; the second is right qi first deficient, then beset by evil. It is the contradiction of right qi and evil qi — either right qi conquers evil, or evil conquers right qi; the decisive factor is the strength of the right qi.
Take the thought-activity and disease: their relation is close. Mental over-stimulation can disturb normal bodily activity and bring on illness. Suwen · Great Treatise on Yin-Yang Correspondence: "Anger injures the liver; joy injures the heart; thought injures the spleen; sorrow injures the lung; fear injures the kidney." Suwen · Treatise on Pain: "All disease arises from qi: anger sends qi up; joy slackens qi; sorrow consumes qi; fear sends qi down… fright disorders qi… thought knots qi." These are pathological shifts from the seven emotions (joy, anger, sorrow, thought, grief, fear, fright) injuring inwardly. All things give stimulus and rouse emotional motion; under ordinary conditions the zang regulate it without harm; beyond a certain measure, they bring on illness. Spiritual cultivation, in qi-practice and daily life, is therefore vital. Suwen · Treatise on the Innate Truth of High Antiquity: "Outside, not toil the form on tasks; inside, no troubles of thought; take cheer and ease as duty; take self-content as merit; the body not worn, the spirit not scattered — also a hundred years." This means: regulate desire, not fantasize, keep an open and cheerful breast, so as not to disturb normal physiology — then long life is reachable, even a hundred years. Suwen · Treatise on the Communion with Heaven of Living Qi also says: "Clear and still, then the muscles close-bar, and even great wind and toxin cannot harm." It says: with quiet thought and right qi held within, one can prevent inner causes (seven emotions) from stimulating, and the li of the skin is the better at warding off the outer evil — even with outer stimulation, illness does not arise.
Food and rest are also closely tied to health. Suwen · Treatise on the Innate Truth of High Antiquity: "Eat and drink in measure, rise and rest in regularity, do not toil recklessly — so the form and spirit are together, fulfilling Heaven-allotted years, passing a hundred and departing." And: "To take wine as drink, to take recklessness as the rule, to enter chamber drunk and so exhaust essence with lust, to scatter the true and not know how to hold the full, not to nurture spirit in season — bent on instant pleasure, contrary to the joy of life, with irregular rising and resting — so half-a-hundred and one is withered." The Neijing repeatedly stresses that for life-span, the care of essence, qi, and spirit is paramount. The passage shows that life and rest must keep regular rhythm for health. Wanton drink and lust, indulgence without regulation — these bring on illness and premature decline.
We have seen that the ancients who attended to yangsheng set great store by nurturing jing-qi-shen, calling them the three treasures of the body. Jing is the dynamic from the union of former-Heaven ancestral qi, the essence-qi of food, and the inhaled great qi (the clear qi of Heaven). Jing and qi are the chief material basis of all physiological activity; shen is the embodiment (expression) of all spiritual and thought activity. Their relations are tight; the three are an indivisible whole. The Lingshu · Origin Spirit: "The five zang are what store essence; they cannot be harmed — once harmed, they lose their hold and there is yin-deficiency; yin-deficient and there is no qi; without qi, death." From this one sees how close jing and qi are: no essence, no qi; no qi, death. Lingshu · The Origin Storehouses: "The human's blood, qi, essence, spirit are what nourish life and complete the lifespan — they spread through the body and protect life, the root substance to hold life." The Suwen · Treatise on the Innate Truth of High Antiquity: "Gather essence to complete spirit" — that is, set aside the scattered, gather thought; only with gathered essence can spirit be complete. So jing and shen are close.
From the Neijing one sees the relation of jing-qi-shen: their flourishing and decline, their being and absence, all bear on life and death. So they must be cherished. The yangsheng practitioner and qigong-er ultimately train this. The Neijing is rich on this. Suwen · Great Treatise on Yin-Yang Correspondence: "Essence transforms to qi" (essence brings forth the life-dynamic); and in the same chapter: "Qi returns to essence" (qi can fill and transform back to essence; without the dynamic of qi, essence has nothing to arise from). Suwen · Treatise on the Shift of Essence and Change of Qi: "He who keeps the spirit flourishes; he who loses the spirit dies." So gather essence and one can complete spirit. Jing-qi-shen — three: bound to life. They exist together, perish together.
One sees, then, that jing-qi-shen are tightly tied: qi arises from jing; jing is engendered by qi; only with essence-and-qi full can shen shine. Gather essence and one can complete spirit. No spirit means qi deficient; qi deficient means essence scant. Jing is the body's most important life-substance; it and qi are equally vital.
The Laozi Xiang'er Note says: "The ancient transcendent gave his essence to live; today the man loses his essence to die — a great truth." — showing jing's vital role in life. The Laozi Xiang'er Note is an early Daoist classic, a commentary on the Laozi's five-thousand-word text; according to Tang Xuanzong Li Longji and the late-Tang Daoist Du Guangting, it is by Zhang Ling, founder of the Five-Pecks-of-Rice Dao in late Han. Today's text comes from the Mogao Caves at Dunhuang. The book begins by speaking of the importance of jing, the foundation of qi-and-gong practice. Eastern Han Wang Chong: "That by which the human lives is essence and qi." So fullness of essence-qi is the root of life. (Wang Chong, of Shangyu in Eastern Han, courtesy-name Zhongren, deeply read in the Hundred Schools, author of the eighty-five-chapter Lunheng.)
From ancient times to today, the practitioners have always stressed moderate desire to preserve essence — especially strict with beginners; in the first hundred days, sexual release is forbidden. Why such stress? Because, by yangsheng and TCM theory, jing is the vital substance of growth, development, and life. Broadly, it covers all the fluid substance from blood, body fluids, and latter-Heaven food and drink; narrowly, it means the generative essence of man and woman — the wellspring of former-Heaven life. The trainee, in the first stage of foundation-laying, must especially attend to this; the first step is practice essence into qi — if essence is not full, with what to practice qi or transform qi? The second step is practice qi into spirit; the third, practice spirit into emptiness. Through the regulation of body, heart, and breath, and other specific means, one reaches dispelling-illness and life-extension. If one does not heed moderate desire to preserve essence and lets it leak, essence cannot be full, qi cannot be filled, spirit cannot flourish — early decline is the result. Even practice will be in vain, even harmful. That is why the ancients required the beginner to refrain a hundred days. For long-practiced yangsheng practitioners too, moderate desire to preserve essence is to be observed; otherwise the work cannot deepen. To truly reach practice spirit into emptiness, return essence to nourish the brain, enter the higher stage, attain return-to-childhood — that is, like a child, without sexual demand — most never reach this stage; for practice requires great suffering. When bitterness yields to sweetness, joy without end, joy within — only those who have practiced to such depth can know.
To say moderate desire to preserve essence is not absolute abstinence. Absolute abstinence is unphysiological, and impossible for those of shallow foundation. When essence is full it overflows naturally; without a degree of practice essence into qi, it leaks of itself. Absolute abstinence brings yin-yang imbalance. For young or middle-aged married practitioners, over-stressing abstinence brings unease, mental burden, disturbance of practice — some even break off. Further, it can harm marital affection; if extended periods of abstinence are needed, husband and wife should discuss and agree. Their cooperation will improve practice and bring both happiness. So those who would yangsheng and practice must self-regulate sexual activity properly — neither overindulge nor totally abstain; both moderate to preserve and properly harmonize. The general spirit is moderate, not abstain; the point is in moderate. Moderate to preserve deepens the practice. Otherwise, essence injured too far, where will qi come from? So essence and qi are often discussed together — the reason lies here.
Essence and qi in the body are paramount. Laozi Xiang'er Note: "The body is the cart of essence; essence falling away, the cart must carry on. With spirit complete and qi coming, carrying and bearing the body — to fulfill this work, do not depart from the One." The body is likened to the essence-cart; essence-qi must be nourished, and to do so one cannot leave the One. The contemporaneous Taiping Jing (the Yu Ji god-book, the Daoist Taiping Jing — in ten sections, ten heavenly stems jia–gui, each section seventeen scrolls) explains: "One is essence, one is spirit, one is qi. The three together are in one place… Together they regulate each other. So one who would live long should cherish qi, honor spirit, value essence." It explains the One of the Xiang'er Note: essence, qi, and spirit are three-in-one, mutually useful, inseparable. To attain longevity, one cherishes essence-qi-shen; exist together, perish together. Likening the body to the essence-cart, to run it well requires the practice of qi — so essence-qi-shen can the better regulate each other. This says: jing, having fallen to the body —*
(Source text continues in the original on cuiyueli.com; the cuiyueli.com source appears truncated mid-sentence at this point.)