Qi gong, also known as chi kung is a series of movements, meditation, breathing and mind control designed to improve the flow of chi energy in the practitioner. Loosely translated as 'energy work' The roots of qi gong are hard to pin down. The Chinese have known about chi for 5000 years. Around 1000 BC a Daoist monk named Lao Zi wrote a treatise called the 'Dao De Jing' (Classic on the virtue of the Dao) which suggested various ways of enhancing chi, including breath training. According to some, qi gong was brought to a Taoists temple in china by an Indian Buddhist called Bodhidarma. However most people appear to believe that it is native to China first formalised by Hau Tuo a 3rd century BC doctor. From there it was taken up by assorted monks and loosely divided into Buddhist, Hindu and Taoist schools. Various offshoots appeared concentrating on different aspects of qu gong and it continued in much this vein until the Chinese Cultural Revolution (1965-76) when it was suppressed by the ruling Communist Party. In about 1978 it started to make a comeback. In the 1980s there was an upsurge of interest in qi gong not only in China but it also started filtering into the west. Today, more than 200 million people practice qi gong every day.
Rather than saying that qi gong is a method of strengthening the mind and body, qi gong practitioners contend that mind and body are really aspects of the same thing and that it is an artificial division. The practice of qi gong reinforces this idea and attempts to reintegrate the two. There are many different approaches to chi gong each with a different emphasis. Soaring (or flying) Crane qi gong involves a complicated half hour form similar in appearance to tai chi. Fragrant qi gong is a far more gentle approach ideally suited to those who can't move as well. Medical qi gong whilst originally used to deal with problems with chi blockages or stagnation is now popularly used by those after a better understanding of chi. Iron shirt qi gong is probably the most martial form and practitioners can sometimes be seen breaking chop sticks on their throats or performing similar stunts. There are literally thousands of qi gong forms, some associated with different schools of kung fu, some are associated with various religious persuasions but most have simply become and end in their own right.
In general, when you go to a qi gong class you will be introduced to a number of yoga like postures in which you will be taught to concentrate on your breathing and the flow of chi throughout your body. Some of these postures can be done sitting or lying down. Later they might be joined together into short exercises. These exercises can be performed in any order and are repeated up to six times. There are also some 'walking meditation' exercises with many forms.
Although most people do qi gong as a form of exercise and meditation it has long been held to have medical benefits and some studies are now being published that support this claim. In 1996 a clinical trial at the pain management center at the Jersey Medical School in Newark, New Jersey. In this study 26 patients with long term localised pain were divided into two groups. One group was taught valid qi gong and 'qi emission' from a qi gong master, the other was given a similar set of instructions and 'placebo qi emissions' by a sham master. After 10 weeks 91% of the genuine qi gong masters students reported that their pain had lessened as opposed to 36% of the control group. A Ph.D. dissertation on the use of qi gong to deal with painful menstruation by Wen Jiang at the University of Illinois interviewed Seventy-one women aged 24 to 47 who had been practicing qi gong for over 6 months. Before they started qi gong just over half (50.7%) of the women experienced severe or very severe pain during menstruation. After they had been doing qi gong for 6 months the pain had become manageable in every single case. Before starting qi gong exercises only 23.9% of the women reported no noticeable pain during menstruation. This figure shot up to 77.5% after they had learnt qi gong.