The Root of Chinese Qigong. Jwing-Ming Yang

2-2. From the Han Dynasty to the Beginning of the Liang Dynasty (206 B.C.-502 A.D.)( )

      Because many Han emperors were intelligent and wise, the Han dynasty was a glorious and peaceful period. It was during the Eastern Han dynasty (c. 58 A.D., ) that Buddhism was imported to China from India. The Han emperor became a sincere Buddhist; Buddhism soon spread and became very popular. Many Buddhist meditation and Qigong practices, which had been practiced in India for thousands of years, were absorbed into the Chinese culture. The Buddhist temples taught many Qigong practices, especially the still meditation of Chan (Zen)(), which marked a new era of Chinese Qigong. Much of the deeper Qigong theory and practices which had been developed in India were brought to China. Unfortunately, since the training was directed at attaining Buddhahood, the training practices and theory were recorded in the Buddhist bibles and kept secret. For hundreds of years the religious Qigong training was never taught to laymen. Only in this century has it been available to the general populace.

      Not long after Buddhism had been imported into China, a Daoist by the name of Zhang, Dao-Ling () combined the traditional Daoist principles with Buddhism and created a religion called Dao Jiao (). Many of the meditation methods were a combination of the principles and training methods of both sources.

      Since Tibet had developed its own branch of Buddhism with its own training system and methods of attaining Buddhahood, Tibetan Buddhists were also invited to China to preach. In time, their practices were also absorbed.

      It was in this period that the traditional Chinese Qigong practitioners finally had a chance to compare their arts with the religious Qigong practices imported mainly from India. While the scholarly and medical Qigong had been concerned with maintaining and improving health, the newly imported religious Qigong was concerned with far more. Contemporary documents and Qigong styles show clearly that the religious practitioners trained their Qi to a much deeper level, working with many internal functions of the body, and strove to obtain control of their bodies, minds, and spirits with the goal of escaping from the cycle of reincarnation.

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      While the Qigong practices and meditations were being passed down secretly within the monasteries, traditional scholars and physicians continued their Qigong research. During the Jin dynasty () in the 3rd century A.D., a famous physician named Hua Tuo () used acupuncture for anesthesia in surgery. The Daoist Jun Qian () used the movements of animals to create the Wu Qin Xi (Five Animal Sports, ), which taught people how to increase their Qi circulation through specific movements (some say that the Wu Qin Xi was created by Hua Tuo). Also, in this period a physician named Ge Hong () mentioned using the mind to lead and increase Qi in his book Bao Pu Zi (). Sometime in the period of 420 to 581 A.D. Tao, Hong-Jing () compiled the Yang Shen Yan Ming Lu (Records of Nourishing the Body and Extending Life, ), which showed many Qigong techniques.

      Characteristics of Qigong during this period were:

      1. There were three schools of religious Qigong which influenced and dominated the Qigong practice in this period. These are Indian Buddhism, Tibetan Buddhism, and Daoism.

      2. Almost all of the religious Qigong practices were kept secret within the monasteries.

      3. Religious Qigong training worked to escape from the cycle of reincarnation.

      4. Relatively speaking, religious Qigong theory is deeper than the theory of the nonreligious Qigong, and the training is harder.

      5. Qi circulation theory was better understood by this time, so the Qigong sets created in this period seem to be more efficient than the older sets.

2-3. From the Liang Dynasty to the End of the Qing Dynasty (502-1911 A.D.)( )

      During the Liang dynasty (502-557 A.D., ) the emperor invited a Buddhist monk named Da Mo (), who was once an Indian prince, to preach Buddhism in China. The emperor decided he did not like Da Mo’s Buddhist theory, so the monk withdrew to the Shaolin Temple (). When Da Mo arrived, he saw that the priests were weak and sickly, so he shut himself away to ponder the problem. He emerged after nine years of seclusion and wrote two classics: Yi Jin Jing (Muscle/Tendon Changing Classic, ) and Xi Sui Jing (Marrow/Brain Washing Classic, ). The Muscle/Tendon Changing Classic taught the priests how to gain health and change their physical bodies from weak to strong. The Marrow/Brain Washing Classic taught the priests how to use Qi to clean the bone marrow and strengthen the blood and immune system, as well as how to energize the brain and attain enlightenment. Because the Marrow/Brain Washing Classic was harder to understand and practice, the training methods were passed down secretly to only a very few disciples in each generation.

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      After the priests practiced the Muscle/Tendon Changing exercises, they found that not only did they improve their health, but they also greatly increased their strength. When this training was integrated into the martial arts forms, it increased the effectiveness of their techniques. In addition to this martial Qigong training, the Shaolin priests also created five animal styles of Gongfu which imitated the way different animals fight. The animals imitated were the tiger, leopard, dragon, snake, and crane.

      Outside of the monastery, the development of Qigong continued during the Sui and Tang dynasties (581-907 A.D., ). Chao, Yuan-Fang () compiled the Zhu Bing Yuan Hou Lun (Thesis on the Origins and Symptoms of Various Diseases, ), which is a veritable encyclopedia of Qigong methods, listing 260 different ways of increasing the Qi flow. The Qian Jin Fang (Thousand Gold Prescriptions, ) by Sun, Si-Mao () described the method of leading Qi, and also described the use of the Six Sounds. The Buddhists and Daoists had already been using the Six Sounds to regulate Qi in the internal organs for some time. Sun Si-Mao also introduced a massage system called Lao Zi’s 49 Massage Techniques.