Origins of Qigong
Lee de Jager
6/11/20261 min read
Qi Gong is essentially one of the earliest forms of Chinese exercise, with roots stretching back thousands of years, long before anyone thought to charge monthly membership fees. A written reference appears in The Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Medicine (Huangdi, 1972), dated to around 3000 BC. It suggests that through practising Qi Gong, sages lived to the remarkably ripe age of 120 without losing their vitality.
When broken down, the word Qi Gong is fairly straightforward: qi refers to energy or breath, while gong means movement, or effort. Together, they form a name that sounds mysterious but is actually quite practical.
So, Qi Gong can be understood as “working with breath” or cultivating energy, which is a lovely way of saying it helps you do something useful with all that invisible life force.
Qi Gong helps guide vital energy, or the breath that animates both body and mind, through posture, breathing, and gentle movement. In doing so, it supports balance within the body and strengthens positive energy to counter negative influences. This reflects a principle from the Neijing: “When the body is filled with positive energy through the practice of Qi Gong, pathogenic energy cannot affect it.” In other words, Qi Gong’s preventive power comes from keeping your inner resources strong, calm, and less likely to be caught off guard by rogue emails.