Mystical systems
Qigong
Direct answer
Qigong is the modern Chinese name for a large family of exercises that join slow movement, posture, breathing and attention, said to gather and move the body's qi.
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At a glance
- Also called
- chi kung, qi gong
- Found in
- Mystical Systems
- Related
- Qi (Chi), Baduanjin, Dantian, Tai Chi Chuan
Qigong is the modern Chinese name for a large family of exercises that join slow movement, posture, breathing and attention, said to gather and move the body's qi.
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What does qigong mean?
Qigong is written with two characters: qi, breath or vital force, and gong, skill won by steady work. It covers hundreds of routines, from gentle sets done standing or seated, such as the Eight Pieces of Brocade, to long periods of still standing and to quiet breathing practice lying down. What they share is slowness, a relaxed upright frame and attention kept on breath and movement.
The practices are old and the umbrella name is not. Before the twentieth century these exercises were called daoyin, nourishing life, or inner work, and belonged to physicians, Daoists, Buddhists and martial artists in turn. Teachers explain the effects through qi; researchers study qigong as light exercise joined to relaxation.
On the tree of the hidden arts: Yoga, qigong, tai chi.
What sets Qigong apart
Qigong is defined less by any one movement than by a recipe of three adjustments made together: the posture, the breath and the attention. That is how a seated breathing method and a set of standing stretches can carry the same name. The label itself is an administrative coinage of Communist China's health service, chosen in part because it sounded practical and free of religion, and it was then stretched to cover Daoist, Buddhist, medical and martial practices of very different origin.
- Characters: qi, breath or vital force, and gong, skill earned by work
- Name fixed: 1950s; Liu Guizhen, The Practice of Qigong Therapy, 1957
- Older names: daoyin, yangsheng (nourishing life), neigong (inner work)
- Three adjustments: body, breath and mind regulated together
- State standard sets: four health qigong sets promoted by the state sports authority from 2003
- Evidence: modest benefits typical of gentle exercise; qi itself unmeasured
Often mistaken for something else: Tai chi chuan is a martial art with long forms and partner work; qigong is the wider family of health and meditative exercises, most of them short sets repeated in place.
The story behind Qigong
The word in its present sense was fixed in the 1950s, when the official Liu Guizhen taught breathing and posture exercises at state sanatoria in Tangshan and Beidaihe and published The Practice of Qigong Therapy in 1957. Public practice was suppressed during the Cultural Revolution and returned in the 1980s in a mass craze the Chinese press called qigong fever. After the ban on Falun Gong in 1999 the state regulated the field, and from 2003 the state sports authority promoted four standard sets under the name health qigong.
Why Qigong matters
The name gathers practices of very different ages and purposes under one label, so knowing its recent date keeps a reader from taking every claim made for it as old.
How to read Qigong
People take it up as a daily routine of twenty minutes or so, alone or in a group, for ease of movement, steadier breathing and a settled mind.
Qigong in practice: an example
A beginner in a park class might learn one set of eight movements and repeat it each morning for a season before adding anything.
Where readings of Qigong go wrong
Trials are often small and unevenly designed, and it stands beside medical care, never in its place. Forced breathing practice has made some people unwell.
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
- what is qigong, qigong meaning, chi kung, qi gong, qigong exercises
- Last updated
- 2026-09-26
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Common questions
What does qigong mean?
Qi is breath or vital force and gong is skill gained through patient work, so the word means something like breath skill or work with qi. As a name for the whole family of exercises it dates from the 1950s.
Is qigong the same as tai chi?
No. Tai chi chuan is a martial art with long linked forms and partner training. Qigong is a broader family of health and meditation exercises, usually simpler and repeated on the spot. Many tai chi schools teach some qigong as preparation.
What does research say about qigong?
Reviews of trials report modest gains in balance, mood and blood pressure among older adults, comparable to other gentle exercise. Many of the studies are small, and none has measured qi itself.
