CHAPTER 3 The science of Qi

We have seen above how the practice of Shiatsu has been influenced both by its Chinese roots and its Japanese development up to the present day. The unbroken tradition of Chinese medicine enshrined in the ancient texts from 220 BCE onward reveals an understanding of the forces which move our universe. Although they are often described allusively, in their essence they correspond to the laws of modern physics. The science of Qi, unlike Western science, cannot be proved by repeated experiments under controlled conditions. The nature of Qi itself and the principles that create it are by definition continually changing and cannot be artificially controlled.* This Eastern science is derived from contemplation and observation of the processes of change within the universe rather than minute investigation of the material world; it sees the bigger picture, without contradicting the principles of physics, or, in the case of Shiatsu, biology, (whose principles are, in any case, those of physics).

In order to understand the scientific principles involved in the practice of Shiatsu we need to look at the basics of Chinese medicine as part of the wider sphere of Chinese philosophy and culture.

Yin, Yang and Qi (Ki in Japanese)

The foundation of Chinese scientific thought is embodied in the theory of Yin and Yang, which is first recorded in the writings of Zōu (305–240 BCE). The ancient Chinese character for Yin represents clouds over a hillside, while that for Yang shows the sun and its rays, and they are often compared to the shady side and the sunny side of a hill. Although Yin and Yang are often described in terms of opposites, in fact they occur together as a relationship or process, and the characters reflect this; there can be no shade without sun. Between them Yin and Yang engender not only the world of phenomena but its continually changing nature; they are rooted in each other, they mutually transform each other and wax and wane in relationship with each other.

Yin and Yang in their play together create Qi, and as they are inseparable from each other they continually play and are thus continually indistinguishable from the play of Qi.

Generally speaking, Yin and Yang are just one Qi. When Yin Qi circulates forcefully it becomes Yang. When Yang Qi congeals and consolidates it becomes Yin. This is not to say, however, that these two are contrary matters

(Zhu Xi, 1130–1200 CE; Zhang & Rose 2001)

The Chinese word Qi, for which there is no satisfactory translation, has the sense of something both insubstantial and physically palpable, a subtle energy which can condense into substance. The Chinese character contains the radicals for both ‘steam’ and ‘rice’. In its refined forms Qi moves and flows almost invisibly, like steam. In its denser manifestations it slows or coalesces into form, as indicated by the ‘rice’ radical. Qi is therefore as much a part of our emotional states as our physical ones, as much a part of the social movements that sweep through humankind as the wind that moves the clouds through the sky or the clouds themselves. We could describe it as an infinite spectrum of vibrational frequencies which creates and pervades all phenomena, whether material or insubstantial, whether animate or inanimate, whether physical or in the realm of feeling, linking them into an interconnected and ever-changing pattern. In the words of a 19th century missionary:

The Chinese look upon nature not as a dead inanimate fabric but as a living, breathing organism. They see a golden chain of spirited life running through every form of existence and binding together, as in one living body, everything that subsists in heaven above or earth below.

(Eitel 1867)

This same idea is expressed in Western terms thus by James Oschman, PhD:

A basic discovery in quantum physics is that, at the subatomic level, no particles exist except in relationship to others. What we call objects are in fact points of correlation in an unbroken and interconnected network of events, motions, relations and energies – the continuum of nature. Subatomic particles and all matter made from them, including our cells, tissues and bodies, are patterns of activity rather than things. There is no thing that exists by itself. Living nature and the universe as a whole form a seamless dynamic web of interrelated and intercalated parts and rhythmic processes. No fundamental unit or most important part can be isolated.

(Oschmann 2003, p. 168)

Returning to Yin and Yang, we have seen how they are not static opposing pairs, but an inseparable, ever-changing flow of relationship between two principles, and this flow between them is creative; it results in, indeed consists of, the animating flow of Qi. This principle is the root of Chinese science, and it has its parallel in Western physics. Yin is receptive, Yang is active; if we take these two polarities as expressing negative and positive charge, then we have something we can recognize. The dynamics of Yin and Yang and their relationship to Qi can be interpreted as the relationship between positive and negative charge in creating electric current, or as the relationship between positive and negative poles in creating a magnetic field. The celebrated writer on Chinese science, Joseph Needham, writes thus on the invention in China of the magnetic compass:

In a way, the whole idea of the Tao was the idea of a field of force. All things oriented themselves according to it, without having to be instructed to do so, and without the application of mechanical compulsion. The same idea springs to the mind, as will shortly be seen, in connection with the hexagrams of the I Ching, Yang and Yin, Chhien and Khun, acting as the positive and negative poles respectively of a cosmic field of force. Is it so surprising, therefore, that it should have been in China that men stumbled upon what was in very deed the field of force of their own planet?

(Needham 1975, p. 293)

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