Healing and wellbeing Martial Arts (Qigong)

Out in the moonlight, the weary peasants could wind down and relax. And it was then that they
became aware of something moving around inside their bodies -something that felt a little like
steam. This steam could move up or down, and in different places such as the legs or arms; it also
seemed to be related to their breathing and to the mind. The people noted all these various feelings
and eventually discovered that each person had a centre, just below the navel, which made the rest of
the body warm and strong. They called this centre 'Dantien'.
With continued observation they found that the flow of the steam could make the body warm and
was related to the spirit -spirit in the sense of a feeling of wellbeing rather than in the religious sense
of the word. Gradually they discovered a network of channels crossing the body, linking the internal
organs. Distributed along these channels were certain points which affected the way the steam
flowed through the body. Thus energy (Qi) and the system of acupuncture points and channels were
discovered, and people found that touching and massaging the points could heal a variety of
problems.
Movement and breathing of various kinds to create heat were thus perceived as ways of healing
physical ailments from very early times, long before the formulation of medicines. Throughout the
centuries Chinese sages and philosophers have written of the beneficial effects of this treatment.
The Yellow Emperor's Canon of Internal Medicine, an ancient text of 722-721 BC which is known
in Chinese as the Huangdi Neijing, contains the following passage:
“People live in the centre [of China, along the Yellow River]. The area is damp, therefore
suffering from tiredness, depression and hot and cold illness [similar to today's ME -myalgic
encephalomyelitis or post-viral syndrome] is common. The curing method is Daoyin [breathing
techniques] and Angiao [stretching].”
Even earlier than this, about four thousand years ago, the people of this region are known to have
danced to rid themselves of damp and arthritis. Dancing made them hot, and the heat expelled the
Chapter 1
The Origins of Qigong
Part One
Background and Ideas
damp and poison from their veins and joints.
The movements and breathing patterns of animals were also regarded as valuable examples to
follow. In his book Chunway Chu, written around 600 BC and dealing with the subject of breathing,
Zhuang Zi said: 'Breathing techniques can improve metabolism; moving like a bear and a bird will
result in longevity.'
During the Three Kingdoms Period (from 280-220 BC), a famous Chinese doctor, Hwa Tou, created
'Five Animal Play'. He understood how wild animals lived and how they moved to maintain their
bodies' balance and he saw how people, living under the system of society, had lost this natural
ability. 'Five Animal Play' was designed to help people relearn this skill in order to cure illness and
strengthen the body. Hwa Tou explained that when you raised your arms above your head, as if they
were the horns of a deer, it stimulated the Qi circulation of the liver; when you stretched your arms
out like a bird spreading its wings, it was good for the heart and relieving tension; rubbing and
slapping yourself and moving like a monkey was good for the spleen; stretching your arms out in
front of you while exhaling, like a tiger, was good for releasing the tension in the lungs; and bending
forwards like the bear was good for the back and the kidneys. Hwa T ou used the names of animals
because it made the exercises easier to remember and by using wild animals, instead of domestic
ones, he made the exercises sound exhilarating.
All these movements help the Qi flow aJong the channels, strengthening the body and promoting
vitality. They also balance the circulation and stimulate the internal organs.
The famous seventh-century BC philosopher Lao Zi advised people to relax their hearts (meaning
their chests) and to firm their stomachs, by which he meant that they should concentrate their minds
on the centre (Dantien, as mentioned above).
And so these techniques continued to be used, with great effect, for hundreds of years. In the
twentieth century, while Western medicine was relying heavily on new drugs, improved surgical
techniques and so on, this ancient and proven method of healing was still highly valued in the East.
During the revolution of 1911, when China ceased to be ruled by emperors, Jiang Weigiao's Yin Shi
Zi Sitting Still Exercises became very popular in Shanghai. Nor, to begin with, did .advent of
Communism in 1949 affect the high regard in which Qigong was held. The first Qigong therapy
clinic was established at Tangshan in Heibei Province in 1955, and another was set up two years
later in Shanghai. That Qigong was taken seriously even in official quarters is evidenced by the fact
that in 1959 the Ministry for PubIic Health held the First National Meeting for the Exchange of
Qigong Experiences at Beidihe in Heibei Province; it was attended by some sixty-four groups from
seventeen provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions from within a country as large as the
USA.