The great Qi debate
October 1st, 2007Since it is doing the rounds on the other shiatsu blog sites (here at Tony’s blog and here at Tracy’s blog), I’ll throw in my tuppence worth on the subject.
One way to think about Qi is as the capacity of a system to do what it is meant to do. In a sense, Qi should always be qualified with a subject. If you hear or see the word Qi, ask yourself “the Qi of what?”. For example, the Qi of a person is not really some nebulous “life energy”, but it is the capacity of that person to do what a person should do; to live, breathe, eat, sleep, think, work, play and interact with the world around him.
In the theoretical framework of TCM or shiatsu, we often talk about the Zhang Fu or Organs. We might talk about the Liver (maybe you’ve heard your shiatsu therapist say you have Liver Qi Stagnation). One of the primary functions of the Liver is to harmonise the emotions. So, when we talk about Qi of the Liver, we are really talking about the ability of the Liver to do its job. So the Qi of the Liver is, in part, the potential or ability of the Liver to make sure that we react with the appropriate emotion, and the appropriate amount of that emotion in any given situation.
If we look at Qi this way, it isn’t some nebulous “energy” or “life force”, it is very real and tangible, something we can grasp and explain without fobbing people off on some mystical idea.
