What is Qigong? An introduction

Author: Raymond Hackland · Last reviewed: 18 October 2026 · Reading time: about 12 minutes

In short

• What this is: Qigong (气功, traditional 氣功, qìgōng) is usually translated as “breath work” or “qi work”. It is a modern umbrella name for Chinese practices that combine posture or movement, breathing and attention. This article explains where the word comes from, how Qigong was shaped in 1950s China, what happened during the “Qigong boom” of the 1980s and 1990s, and how today’s officially standardised “Health Qigong” forms, including Liu Zi Jue, came about. It opens our Qigong series.
• What the evidence says: The practices are old: breathing and stretching exercises (daoyin) are documented from the 2nd century BCE. The umbrella term is young: historians date its general use to the years after 1949. The standard forms most people learn today were compiled from 2001 onwards. Research on specific forms exists, but much of it is small or methodologically limited.
• What it means for your practice: “Qigong” is not one ancient method with one origin. It is a 20th-century name for many older practices, some medical, some martial, some religious. Knowing that history helps you understand what a teacher means by the word, and keeps claims about it honest.

What tradition says

Label for this section: Tradition only (documented history), unless marked otherwise.

The word. Qi (气, traditional 氣, qì) means breath, air or vital energy; gong (功, gōng) means work, or skill achieved through practice. Together, Qigong means something like “skill with the breath” or “work with qi”. As with neigong, “internal work”, the practices are much older than the word; our article What is neigong? An introduction traces those older roots in more detail.

Old practices with other names. For most of Chinese history, people did not say “Qigong”. They used words such as daoyin (导引, traditional 導引, dǎoyǐn, “guiding and pulling”), a Daoist method of nourishing life, and tuna (吐纳, 吐納, tǔnà), breathing out the stale and breathing in the fresh [1]. Daoyin is already named in the Daoist classic Zhuangzi (chapter 15) [2]. A silk chart from tomb 3 at Mawangdui, sealed in 168 BCE, shows 44 figures doing such exercises [3]. The historian Livia Kohn traces daoyin from early medical manuscripts of the Han dynasty to modern Qigong and calls it the forerunner of Qigong [4]. According to the historian David Palmer, before 1949 such body cultivation techniques were widely practised in monastic, medical, literati and sectarian circles, but there was no movement that aimed to unite all practitioners [5].

Earlier, occasional uses of the word. The word itself is not completely new. Palmer writes that it appeared in “a handful of books in the first half of the 20th century and earlier”, but was seldom used and had not acquired its modern meaning [5]. The historians Utiraruto Otehode and Benjamin Penny, summarising a 1983 account by Ma Jiren, give examples: a chapter titled 氣功補輯 (“Supplementary notes on Qigong”) in a late Qing book, the Yuanhe pian (元和篇); a use in martial arts circles, where Qigong meant roughly the same as lianqi (练气, 練氣, “refining qi”); and a use among Daoists for yangqi (养气, 養氣, “nourishing qi”). A 1934 book with Qigong liaofa (“Qigong therapy”) in its title is also cited, but attempts to find a copy have failed [6]. So the word existed here and there; what was new in the 1950s was its use as a name for a whole field.

The 1950s: Qigong becomes a medical category. According to Palmer, modern Qigong was founded by the Party cadre Liu Guizhen (刘贵珍, 劉貴珍) in southern Hebei in the late 1940s. Liu had learned a breathing technique from a traditional teacher during an illness; his superiors asked him to do clinical research on it, and he and his colleagues chose the name Qigong for the methods. Only after 1949 did it become a general term [5]. Otehode and Penny describe the next steps in detail [6]:

• A medical team in Hebei studied neiyanggong (内养功, “inner nourishing work”), the method Liu had learned. Doctors proposed different names; the team leader, Huang Yueting, suggested Qigong, because qi could stand both for oxygen in Western medicine and for “primordial qi” (元气, yuánqì) in Chinese medicine.
• The characters were not fixed at first: the Tangshan Qigong Sanatorium’s official stamp read 氣工, not 氣功. The change to 氣功 probably happened around 1954 or 1955. In 1955 Liu Guizhen published the first academic article on Qigong therapy, using 氣功.
• “Qigong therapy” (气功疗法, qìgōng liáofǎ) was a generic term coined in the 1950s for two practices, neiyanggong and qiangzhuanggong (强壮功, “strengthening work”), used in medical institutions for chronic conditions such as neurasthenia, stomach ulcers and tuberculosis. This describes how Qigong was used then, not evidence that it worked.
• From 1956 several Qigong sanatoriums were founded. Liu Guizhen was the first head of the Beidaihe Qigong Sanatorium (北戴河气功疗养院), which from March 1959 issued a journal called Qigong. In 1959 it hosted a national exchange meeting attended by doctors of Chinese medicine and by Buddhist, Daoist and martial arts representatives.

Two points matter here. First, Otehode and Penny show that the 1950s practices were reworked: terms seen as “feudal”, “superstitious” or “religious” were dropped and replaced by medical theory. Liu Guizhen and the Daoist scholar Chen Yingning both stressed that Qigong therapy was something new [6]. Second, writers of the time gave this new therapy a long pedigree by tracing it back to the Huangdi neijing, the classic of Chinese medicine [6]. So “Qigong is thousands of years old” is partly true of the practices and partly a 1950s way of framing them.

Note on dates. Palmer dates the choice of the name to the late 1940s and its general use to the years after 1949 [5]. Otehode and Penny show how “Qigong therapy” became a generic name in the 1950s and how the characters were settled, probably around 1954 or 1955; another account dates the decision on the characters to 1953 [6]. We therefore say, as in our neigong introduction: the name was chosen in the late 1940s, became a general term after 1949, and spread as “Qigong therapy” in the 1950s.

Setback and revival. In the mid-1960s Liu Guizhen was punished in a political case, and during the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976) Qigong was denounced as “feudal superstition”: the Tangshan sanatorium was closed in 1969, and Qigong books at Beidaihe were burned [5, 6]. Liu was rehabilitated in 1980 and died in December 1983 [6]. Meanwhile, from the early 1970s the artist Guo Lin was teaching her “New Qigong Therapy” in Beijing’s parks, turning the clinic practice of the 1950s into a mass activity in public spaces [5].

The Qigong boom, 1980s to 1990s. What followed is known as “Qigong fever” (气功热, qìgōng rè). Palmer writes that at its peak the movement attracted over 100 million practitioners [5]; the historian David Ownby speaks of “hundreds of millions” of people drawn to Qigong over a roughly 20-year period [7]. Their accounts include these features:

• In 1978 a researcher in Shanghai announced that he had found the material basis of “external qi” (外气, wàiqì), said to be sent by Qigong masters to others. Qigong came to be seen as a science in its own right, and in early 1986 a semi-official national Qigong science body was founded [5].
• Charismatic masters such as Yan Xin and Zhang Hongbao built nationwide organisations, sold manuals and gave talks in sports stadiums. Claims of paranormal powers and of miracles were part of the boom [5, 7].
• Critics in the scientific community called much of this pseudoscience or suggestion, and the press reported cases of fraud and of practitioners harmed by trance practices. By the mid-1990s the movement was faltering [5, 7].

The end of the boom. In 1992 Li Hongzhi founded Falun Gong, a movement that grew out of Qigong. After a large protest by its followers in Beijing on 25 April 1999, the government banned Falun Gong, and most other large Qigong organisations were then banned or dismantled [5, 7]. Ownby writes that the protest marked the end of the Qigong boom [7]. Historians give different figures for the size of the protest, so we leave the numbers out.

A fresh start: Health Qigong (健身气功). The state then created a new, regulated framework. On 5 June 2001 the Health Qigong Management Center of the General Administration of Sport of China was founded [8]. A retrospective by Lü Shiming in China Sports Daily, republished by the sports administration, says the center found “more than 600 kinds” of Qigong in circulation, “of very uneven quality”, and decided to compile new sets based on traditional methods [8]. The term jianshen Qigong (健身气功, jiànshēn qìgōng), “fitness Qigong” or “Health Qigong”, is defined by the center as a traditional national sport that combines body movement, breathing and mental regulation [9]. It is officially listed as the 62nd sport of the General Administration of Sport [10].

• 2003: four newly compiled sets were launched and promoted nationwide: Yijinjing (易筋经, “Sinew-changing classic”), Wuqinxi (五禽戏, “Five animals’ play”), Liu Zi Jue (六字诀, “Six-character formula”) and Baduanjin (八段锦, “Eight-section brocade”) [9]. In October 2003 a national meeting in Beijing launched the trial promotion of all four [8]. Our article on the history of Liu Zi Jue tells this part of the story for the six sounds.
• 2004: the Chinese Health Qigong Association (中国健身气功协会) was founded in Beijing with the approval of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, as a national association for the promotion, popularisation and research of Health Qigong [11]. The 2003 sets were compiled by the Management Center [11, 24], founded in 2001 [8]; the Association was founded in 2004 [11], and many English-language sources credit the form to it [25].
• 2009/2010: five more sets followed: Taiji yangsheng zhang (太极养生杖, taiji staff), Daoyin yangsheng gong shi’er fa (导引养生功十二法, twelve daoyin exercises), Shi’er duan jin (十二段锦, twelve-section brocade), Mawangdui daoyin shu (马王堆导引术, Mawangdui daoyin exercises) and Dawu (大舞, “great dance”). In May 2009 the center reported that four universities were still compiling them and that they would be launched in the second half of the year [22]; national training courses for them began in 2010 [23]. That is why official sources give 2009 [9] or 2010 [12] for this step.
• 2020 and 2026: in 2020 the center published a list of approved forms, warning against self-styled “Qigong masters” who promise to dispel misfortune and illness [10]. In August 2026 an updated list was published with 13 forms for general practice and 4 competition versions, 17 sets in total [13].

Medical, martial, Daoist, Buddhist, Confucian. Label: Tradition only (a modern classification). Modern books on Qigong often divide it into five traditions or schools: medical, Daoist, Buddhist, Confucian and martial. One example is Chinese Medical Qigong, edited by Liu Tianjun, the English translation of the textbook of medical Qigong used at Chinese universities of traditional medicine: it introduces the “major qigong traditions/schools” and treats medical Qigong alongside Daoist, Buddhist, Confucian and martial arts Qigong [14]. The teacher Yang Jwing-Ming uses four overlapping groups: medical Qigong, scholar Qigong (meditation for a calm mind), religious Qigong (aimed at enlightenment) and martial Qigong, and he notes that one practice can combine aspects of all four [15]. These are useful maps, not historical categories: the strands were named and sorted this way in the 20th century, and the practices themselves have always crossed the borders, as Palmer’s list of monastic, medical, literati and sectarian circles suggests [5].

What science says

Label for this section: Early evidence (Qigong research) · Tradition only (qi, triple burner).

Researchers don’t study “Qigong” in general; they study specific practices, such as tai chi or Liu Zi Jue, and measure outcomes such as walking distance, breathlessness or blood pressure. What slow breathing itself does in the body is a separate and much better studied question; our article Slow breathing and heart rate variability explains it. Clinical research on Liu Zi Jue is mostly small trials in people with chronic lung disease, and the review authors point to methodological weaknesses [16]. We summarise this research in “Qigong and tai chi: what systematic reviews say”. If you have a health condition, our article Breathing practices: who should be careful is a good place to start.

Qi and the triple burner are traditional concepts. Research neither confirms nor refutes them, and they are probably not testable as stated. That is no reason to dismiss them: they are the language in which the tradition describes its own practice.

Where popular claims go beyond the evidence

Label for this section: Speculative.

• “Qigong is 5,000 years old.” The practices behind it are documented from the 2nd century BCE [3], but the name was chosen only in the late 1940s and became a general term after 1949 [5, 6]. The long pedigree was partly written in the 1950s [6].
• “Qigong masters can project their qi into other people, even at a distance.” “External qi” was a central claim of the Qigong boom [5]. At the time, many researchers attributed the effects to psychological suggestion [5]. We know of no reliable evidence that such a force exists.
• “The official forms are the original ancient forms.” The Health Qigong sets were newly compiled from 2001 onwards, drawing on older methods [8, 9]. They are carefully researched modern versions, not restorations of a single original.
• “Qigong is one thing.” Medical, martial, Daoist, Buddhist and Confucian strands, therapy clinics, mass park practice and state-standardised sport all go by the same name [5, 6, 14, 15].

How this relates to the Six Healing Sounds, Qigong and neigong

Label for this section: Tradition only (documented history and traditional concepts).

Liu Zi Jue shows the whole story in miniature. It is a breathing method in the daoyin tradition, first recorded long before anyone said “Qigong”, and since 2003 one of the four Health Qigong sets [9]. Practitioners often also call it neigong, because it works with breath and attention from the inside; our neigong introduction explains how the two words overlap. Our article on the history of Liu Zi Jue follows how its sounds and their organ pairings changed over the centuries.

A breath formula, not a sound formula. Zhang Mingliang and Ma Ling write that Liu Zi Jue “is a breath formula, not a sound formula” (是气诀不是声诀). They distinguish breathing out with voice from breathing out without voice, and say that the overall aim is “breathing out without sound” (吐气不出声) [17].

The sixth sound, xi, and the triple burner. In the 2003 form, xi (嘻) goes with the triple burner, sanjiao (三焦, sānjiāo), and is practised last, to regulate the triple burner, which, according to Zhang and Ma, governs the qi of the whole body [17]. In Chinese medicine the triple burner is one of the six fu organs (六腑) [1]. The Nanjing (“Classic of Difficult Issues”) says twice, in difficulties 25 and 38, that it “has a name but no form” (有名而無形) [18]. The Lingshu, chapter 18, describes the three burners by their pathways and sums them up as “the upper burner is like mist, the middle burner like steeping liquid, the lower burner like a drainage ditch” [19]. Following a modern dictionary: the upper burner is the chest, above the diaphragm; the middle burner the upper abdomen, between diaphragm and navel; the lower burner the lower abdomen, below the navel [1].

Burners and dantians are different ideas. The three dantians, the “elixir fields” of Daoist meditation and alchemy, are a separate concept. In the Baopuzi they lie below the navel, below the heart, and inside the head behind the point between the eyebrows [20]; other authors put the middle one at the centre of the chest [21]. Classically, burners and dantians are not the same thing. Some teachers today connect them in practice; that is a modern teaching choice, not the classical understanding.

How I practise the sounds. In my practice, all six sounds are breathed out through the mouth. They are “voiced through the breath”, not sung. I share xi as the sound of the triple burner and of the whole body, as the 2003 form does. The classical texts give the triple burner no emotion. I work with xi as a movement “from fragmented to harmony”, which is my own reading from practice (🔵 Tradition only · 🟣 Lived experience). I do not emphasise the link to the gallbladder or to wood that some texts give xi (Zhang and Ma also mention it [17]). Over time, my sessions work towards a silent exhalation. In the music, I use the frequencies from the main site (396 to 963 Hz, known as Solfeggio numbers) simply as musical tones, which aren’t in the scale of standard 440 Hz concert tuning; we make no claims about their effects. All of this describes how I share the practice, not a rule of the classical texts.

Resonance Heritage Qi is a personal, music-assisted practice inspired by Liu Zi Jue: connected to it, not a replacement for the traditional form or for study with a teacher of that tradition. If you want to learn a Health Qigong set or another Qigong form properly, look for a qualified teacher of that form.

Where this journey goes next

This article opens our Qigong series. Planned next articles:

• The making of modern Qigong: Liu Guizhen, Tangshan and Beidaihe
• Qigong fever: the boom of the 1980s and 1990s and how it ended
• Health Qigong: how China’s standard forms were made
• Baduanjin, the Eight-Section Brocade: the history of a form
• Wuqinxi, the Five Animals’ Play: from legend to the 2003 form
• Yijinjing, the Sinew-Changing Classic: texts, legends and the modern set
• The Six Roots of Qigong
• Learning Qigong today: how to choose a form, a teacher and trustworthy information

Sources

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2. Zhuangzi 莊子, chapter 15, 刻意 (Keyi). Chinese text, Wikisource edition, accessed 18 October 2026. https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/莊子/刻意
3. Komjathy L, 2024. Caption List of the Dǎoyǐn tú 導引圖 (Illustrations of Guided Stretching). Center for Daoist Studies, posted 15 July 2024. https://louiskomjathy.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/DaoyintuCaptionList_Komjathy.pdf
4. Kohn L, 2008. Chinese Healing Exercises: The Tradition of Daoyin. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press. https://uhpress.hawaii.edu/title/chinese-healing-exercises-the-tradition-of-daoyin/
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11. Xinhua, 20 May 2004. 促进健身气功健康发展 中国健身气功协会成立 (Chinese Health Qigong Association founded). Republished by the Health Qigong Management Center, 27 May 2004. https://www.sport.gov.cn/qgzx/n5401/c666481/content.html
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22. Health Qigong Management Center, General Administration of Sport of China, 2009. 五种健身气功新功法正在编创中 (Five new Health Qigong forms being compiled; news, 26 May 2009). https://www.sport.gov.cn/qgzx/n5401/c666432/content.html
23. Li Xueying 李雪颖, 2017. 全国健身气功站点联赛增设新功法比赛 以赛促练 推动普及 (National Health Qigong league adds competitions for the new forms). Health Qigong Management Center, 28 November 2017. https://www.sport.gov.cn/qgzx/n5401/c836864/content.html
24. Health Qigong Management Center, General Administration of Sport of China (ed.), 2003. 健身气功·六字诀 (Health Qigong Liu Zi Jue). Beijing: People’s Sports Publishing House (人民体育出版社). ISBN 9787500924326. Catalogue record: http://www.queshu.com/book/11392322/
25. Chinese Health Qigong Association, 2021 (earlier edition 2008). Liu Zi Jue: Six Sounds Approach to Qigong Breathing Exercises. London: Singing Dragon. ISBN 9781839971990. Publisher page: https://uk.singingdragon.com/products/liu-zi-jue

Source quality note: [2], [18], [19] and [20] are primary Chinese texts, read in Wikisource editions; the translations are our own working translations. [1] is an official dictionary and gives modern definitions, not historical evidence. [3], [4], [5], [6], [7] and [21] are scholarly sources; [4] is checked through the publisher’s description only, and [5] through the author’s pre-publication version. [8] to [13], [17], [22] and [23] are published or republished by the Health Qigong Management Center or the General Administration of Sport of China, so they represent an official view of the history; [11] is a Xinhua report and [17] is written by Zhang Mingliang and Ma Ling. [24] is a catalogue record of the 2003 book, which we have not seen; [25] is checked through the publisher’s page only. [14] is a university textbook, checked through the publisher’s page and its published table of contents only; we have not read the chapters themselves. [15] is a teacher’s own account of his classification. [16] is cited only for the state of clinical research.