Fundamentals of Qigong Health Preservation
The modern term "qigong" encompasses ancient practices such as "tu na" (breathing exercises), "dao yin" (guiding and pulling), "cun shen" (mental visualization), "jing gong" (static exercises), "dong gong" (dynamic exercises), "nei gong" (internal skills), "wai gong" (external skills), "xiu lian" (cultivation), "zuo zuo" (sitting meditation), "ru ding" (deep concentration), "zuo chan" (Zen meditation), "jing zuo yangsheng" (calm sitting for health), "xiu shen yang xing" (self-cultivation), "huxi yangsheng" (breathing for health), and even certain martial arts like Tai Chi, provided they are based on internal skills.
Qigong is divided into dynamic and static categories—dynamic being external skills, static being internal skills. External skills are grounded in internal skills; stillness gives rise to motion. As the saying goes: "Train inner essence, qi, and spirit internally; train muscles, bones, and skin externally." When inner essence, qi, and spirit are abundant, muscles and bones become strong. Static qigong is not truly still—it is "externally still, internally active," representing a special state of bodily movement. As Wang Fuzhi put it: "Stillness is still motion, not immobility." Stillness nurtures spirit, primarily through regulated breathing; motion trains the body, primarily through physical movement. Whether static or dynamic, qigong relies on the three fundamental techniques: regulating the mind, regulating breath, and regulating posture—equivalent to focusing intention, controlling respiration, and maintaining proper form. Stillness generates yin, motion generates yang. Combining both, with the "three adjustments" integrated, achieves yin-yang harmony and promotes disease prevention and longevity. As Tao Hongjing wrote in Yangxing Yanming Lu (Records of Nurturing Life and Extending Years): "Being able to move and still, one can live long." From this, we see that qigong is a physical and mental exercise for disease prevention and longevity, guided by TCM health preservation theory. It connects with modern preventive medicine, psychosomatic medicine, sports medicine, natural medicine, geriatrics, and athletics, etc. By self-regulating intention, breathing, and body posture, it adjusts internal organ functions, strengthens self-stabilizing mechanisms, and thus achieves the goal of curing diseases and prolonging life.