Mystical systems
Qi (Chi)
Direct answer
Qi (Chi): Qi is the Chinese word for breath, air or vapour, and in Chinese medicine, qigong and the martial arts the vital force held to flow through the body.
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At a glance
- Also called
- chi energy, what is qi, ki energy, qi in chinese medicine
- Found in
- Mystical Systems
- Related
- Dantian, Baduanjin, Tai Chi Chuan, Taoism
Qi is the Chinese word for breath, air or vapour, and in Chinese medicine, qigong and the martial arts the vital force held to flow through the body.
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What is qi in Chinese thought?
Qi first of all means breath, air and vapour. Chinese thought extended the word to the stuff and movement of everything: weather is qi, the energy of food is qi, a person's vigour is qi. In medicine it is described as flowing through the body along channels, and illness is explained as its blockage or lack.
Qigong and tai chi are described by their teachers as ways of gathering and moving qi. No instrument has found a substance or energy that matches the description, and the house reports qi as the tradition's own word for what a practitioner feels and directs with attention.
On the tree of the hidden arts: Yoga, qigong, tai chi.
What sets Qi (Chi) apart
Qi resists translation because Chinese thought never divided matter from energy in the way the word energy assumes. The same qi condenses into things and thins into breath and weather. The character in its full form is usually explained as vapour rising from cooking rice: something real but hard to hold. In medicine it is paired with blood, and in the body arts it is said to follow the attention, which is why instructions for moving qi are instructions for where to put the mind.
- Plain meaning: breath, air, vapour, steam
- Spellings: qi in pinyin; chi or ch'i in older books; ki in Japanese
- Medical source: the Inner Classic of the Yellow Emperor, about the first century BCE
- Its paths: twelve main channels in the medical tradition, often called meridians
- Maxim: where the mind goes, the qi follows
Often mistaken for something else: Prana is the Indian word for the breath as life-force and belongs to yoga; qi is the Chinese word and belongs to medicine, qigong and the martial arts. The two ideas grew up apart.
The story behind Qi (Chi)
The philosopher Mencius, in the fourth century BCE, wrote of nourishing a flood-like qi through right conduct. The Inner Classic of the Yellow Emperor, compiled around the first century BCE, made qi and its channels the basis of Chinese medicine. The older Western spelling is ch'i or chi, and the Japanese form of the word is ki, as in aikido and reiki.
Why Qi (Chi) matters
Almost every instruction in qigong and tai chi is phrased in terms of qi, so the word has to be understood before the teaching can be.
How to read Qi (Chi)
Practitioners speak of qi rising, sinking, gathering or being blocked, as a way to describe sensation, posture and breath.
Qi (Chi) in practice: an example
A tai chi teacher who says "sink the qi" is asking a student to relax the chest and let the weight settle low.
Where readings of Qi (Chi) go wrong
Qi is a traditional idea and not a measured force; no claim that someone can sense or mend another person's qi has stood up to testing.
Sources and editorial method
This entry summarizes the tradition in the Almanac's own words; where no source is listed, it is an editorial summary rather than a primary text, and symbolic readings are named as the tradition's, not as fact.
- Source
- The Great Almanac Dictionary
- Category
- Mystical Systems
- Aliases
- qi meaning, chi energy, what is qi, ki energy, qi in chinese medicine
- Last updated
- 2026-09-26
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Common questions
What is qi in Chinese thought?
In Chinese it means breath, air or vapour. In medicine, qigong and the martial arts it means the vital force that is said to move through the body along channels.
Is qi the same as the chi in tai chi?
No. The chi of tai chi is a different Chinese word, ji, meaning ultimate. Qi, breath, is written with another character, though old spellings make the two look alike.
Has qi been measured?
No. Nothing matching the traditional description has been detected. Researchers who study qigong measure its effects as they would those of any gentle exercise.
