A brief history of Qi: the case for an ancient microcosmic orbit alchemy tradition

A Brief History of Qi
Hang Yu Huan & Ken Rose

The earliest character for qi was also the character for 3. "The great Qing Dynasty scholar Duan Yu Cai noted that the character for qi originally had the "shape of rising clouds." In the pictographic system of ancient Chinese writing, the shape was [character for 3]. The roots of qi are thus firmly planted in an ethereal soil. The ancient character depicted the mists that rise to form clouds. The character retained this form and meaning until the Zhou Dynasty (1066 B.C.E-770 B.C.E.) when it was first altered, probably to distinguish it from the character for the number 3, san1. The first change in the shape of the character qi underwent was the addition of a curved stroke to the left-most end of the top-most of the 3 lines that composed the original form. The original meaning of the work remained unchanged, however, despite this change in the way it was written. . .

Inherent in this oldest meaning is the essence of the mystery of qi:

 "IT CANNOT ALWAYS BE SEEN, BUT THROUGH ITS CHANGES, ITS PRESENCE CAN BE SENSED, EXPERIENCED, AND UNDERSTOOD." PP. 3-4

You can further read how the character continued to change

"By the 2nd century C.E., the word qi had alread taken on an elaborate set of meanings related to vitality and life-sustaining substances and processes, while retaining its underlying sense of connective and transformative impetus. In the medical scrolls discovered in Ma wang Dui in Hunan, Changsha, in southeastern China, the word qi appears in several phrases containing such meanings. In the scrolls concerning yang sheng or the cultivation of health and long life, we find jing qi (essence) shen qi (spirit), xue qi (blood), qi xue (qi and blood) zhao qi (vitality) and shi qi (to eat qi). A close examination of the meanings of these terms reveals the breadth and depth of the uses that had alread become associated with the concept of qi BEFORE THE BEGINNING OF THE FIRST MILLENNIUM C.E.. P. 6.

 1) The Literary Traditions of Qi: Etymologies; Definitions; Ancient Texts; Modern Writers; Concepts in Other Cultures
2) The Qi of the Philosophers: Ancient Cosmology & Ontology; Natural Phenomena & Basis of Social Structures; Qi & Dao; Qi of Kong Zi, Meng Zi & the Confucian School; Qi in Western Philosophy;
3) Qi in the Arts: yi Qi He Cheng; Dance of Qi; Qi in the Education & Training of Artists; Charm of Qi; Understanding Qi -Perception & Appreciation of Art
4) Qi in Medicine: Concept of Qi; Differentiation in A&P; Qi in Diagnostics & Therapeutics; Nourishing & Treating Qi for Healthy & Longevity; Theoretical Tools to Identify & use Qi in TCM
5) Qi Gong: Ancient Roots & Practices; Aims of Practitioners; Search for Internal Elixir; Real & the Fake
6) Qi in Martial Arts: Qi Power; Gung Fu; External & Internal; Masters & Secrets; Tai Chi
7) Qi in Daily Life: Qi in Modern Chinese Language; Familiar Experiences & Expressions; Qi & the Chinese World View; Future of Qi

So now we turn to yesterday's text:

 



 And so we can see the secret of alchemy in this text - the yang qi has to descend down the front and the yin qi has to rise up the back...