Chi Gong: The Ancient Chinese Way to Health
Paul Dong and Aristide H. Esser
Berkeley, Calif.: Blue Snake Books, c2008
R 613.71489 DON

Originating from China, chi gong is a form of exercise that incorporates breathing and slow fluid movements to help circulate qi (energy flow) throughout the body to improve one's health.

Excerpt from Chi gong: The Ancient Chinese Way to Health (p. 12-13):

"Purportedly, chi gong training can activate and generate all the bodily energies, of which bioelectrical energy is most readily measured. However, traditional Chinese science, as we have shown before, considers chi an organised fundamental energy substance with many presently unmeasurable aspects. For instance, a superior chi gong master, by directing chi to the head, can break a block of marble by running into it headfirst; by directing chi to the body, the master can resist the penetration of iron spikes under pressure. And it is claimed that the willfully manipulated movement of chi within the body of a chi gong master massages the internal organs, breaking down the congestions, clearing the blood vessels, and adjusting physiological functions so as to provide resistance to illness and ensure health. Unfortunately, none of these results of mastery of internal chi can be measured.

"When chi gong training reaches a higher level, some special and peculiar functions of the human body are brought into play (super-sensitive persons with specially sensitive meridians or energy passageways may reach this stage more quickly). In this case the trainee will not only be able to issue external chi, but will be able to see auras around people and practice telepathy or other exceptional human functions, as the Chinese call psychic powers.

"It can be seen that chi gong has many implications for medicine and for the maintenance of good health. What about its application in martial arts, or wu shu? Here chi gong can have serious consequences. In wu shu, dim mak (Cantonese), or dim yue, a kind of rapidly applied hard chi gong, can be fatal. This 'touch of death' involves using a fingertip to apply chi at another person's acupuncture points, and this may cause instant numbness or loss of consciousness. Depending on the force and place of application, injuries or death may result. If the master merely wants to teach someone a lesson and applies it lightly, the victim will recover within fifteen minutes. If the master applies it heavily, the victim may be seriously maimed or even killed. Such action combines chi gong with wu shu and the force of application is controlled by the power of the will. Of course, when shooting at the acupoint, timing and split-second action are required. Such manipulative skills are not easy to master and are said to require more than ten years of practice. Dim mak is impressively powerful, but it requires physical contact. Another type of chi gong, called fa sheh gong (projecting art), can cause death without body contact, even from a distance of ten feet. It resembles the effect of photon guns in science fiction or lasers in modern physics."

Other relevant titles:

Qigong fever: body, science, and utopia in China
David A. Palmer
New York: Columbia University Press, c2007
R 613.7148 PAL

Breathing spaces: qigong, psychiatry, and healing in China
Nancy N. Chen
New York; Chichester: Columbia University Press, 2003
R 613.71 CHE

(All books are available in the open shelves at Level 7 of the Lee Kong Chian Reference Library)

Written by Sharon Teng
Reference Librarian
National Library Singapore

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