Qi
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Qi is an essential concept in the Chinese culture, It can be translated as energy that arises from movement and transformation and energy that generates movement and transformation.
It is not visible nor tangible but we can feel it, either physically or emotionally, as we come into contact with it. However most of the time we are not aware of it, unless we are trained to or brought-up with the knowledge of its existence as this is the case in China.
This sinogram has a very interesting dynamic as it is at the same time a ideographic and pictographic symbologram or an “ideopictosymbologram” representing the process of cooking rice generating steam rising over it, the transformation of the uncooked rice into cooked rice providing energy. Food transforms into energy and food itself is energy, steam itself is energy and so is transformation. It is a whole inseparable interactive phenomenon. Rice is solid and Yin, Steam is volatile and Yang and the the transformation bringing everything together is Qi.
It can be translated as a whole bunch of other similar meanings…In a piece of art it is the quality, the unique potential by which it brings-up special emotions as we admire it, Qi often refers to the “spirit” of a place, a building, or a location.
In TCM, Qi in the body has the following functions: warming, transporting, transforming, holding, raising and protecting.
Connect to Qi with Yoga
In Yoga, a sequence of movements synchronised with the breath are performed, and then one can feel more energised! Qi helps to maintain balance within our body, connecting it with our mind and spirit. If lucky, not remain on the body level, yoga can take one on a higher level of consciousness, to experience connectedness with the world, or with the universe!
Connect to Qi with Tea.
Tea connects people together. Tea calms the spirit but also lifts it by lowering the stress hormone (cortisol) and helps to harmonise health throughout its multiple other properties. Drinking tea brings a feeling of being more focused, happy, warm and full of energy! Let’s drink tea and explore its spirit!
Connect to Qi with Chinese Characters
Let’s take the character for Qi as an example:
It represents steam floating in the air and originally it meant energy but later in the historic evolution of the character, the sinogram mi-rice was added to complete the steam and reinforcing its meaning (energy). It became a combined graphic form with “steam + rice”, this happened because the single “stem graphic form was getting confused with other meanings relative to “air”. Many characters have undergone such evolution because, one of the reason was that as the language expanded, many characters had their meaning extended… a single character bearing several meanings could be confusing! So their graphic form was eventually modified to distinguish them and end the confusion!
lQi, this Character is extremely meaningful: steam coming-out of cooking rice meaning Qi-energy. It it the energy that one gets when having a nice bowl of steam rice, and by extension, the “energy” in general.
Characters are well balanced graphic sets of strokes, arranged perfectly to fit in a square shape. This is the energetic dimension of the Chinese script! Meaning is interlinked with form and each character is an inspiring art form.
If you’re interested in learning and exploring the Chinese Language with me please send me a message or give me a call.