Someone asked about 衛氣 Weiqi.

[kevin_wallbridge]

http://thetaobums.com/topic/30436-bk-frantzis-taoist-energy-bodies/ This is the thread where this began.

 

為氣 Weiqi is a subdivision of the 氣 Qi as described in Chinese medicine. It is discussed in the Huangdi Neijing, the seminal text of Chinese medicine. It is paired with and contrasted to the 營氣 Yingqi. They are usually described together simply as 營衛 Yingwei. There is much discussion of Weiqi in Qigong circles because of its role on the periphery of the self. It gets brought into discussions of self-protection, auras, 发氣 Faqi, iron-body, and many other topics. Of course it is hugely important in Chinese medicine.

 

In modern discourse 營衛 are usually distinguished as “nutritive Qi” and “defensive Qi” respectively and this is just fine for most usages. If we go into a deep analysis of the etymology we can actually see that both words originate in the language of the military of the 戰國 Warring States period (prior to the second century BCE). 營 Ying describes the military encampment where soldiers would have their mess tents, first aid stations, blacksmiths and armourers as well as comfort women. Its the place where the necessities to maintain the struggle could be acquired, hence its association to nutrition. 衛 is based on the soldiers wearing light leather who would walk around the encampment as pickets and sentries. The early-warning system.

 

When these ideas are integrated into the body we see them as divisions within the 氣 Qi. Broadly when we speak of 氣 we usually mean the 真氣 Zhenqi, sometimes rendered in English as the “true Qi.” This is simply the first differentiation of the 氣 after we have processed the external influences of food (谷氣) and inhaled air (空氣) from here blood 血 differentiates and then the remainder is stored as 精 essence. Often when we are talking about 氣 without defining which 氣 we mean, it is the 真氣 that is implied, and in this way it can be seen as the totality of the relationship between 精神 body and mind.

 

In medicine this is usually not detailed enough to be useful for treatment so we frequently look at more isolated manifestations of 氣 within the systems of the body. So we may talk about 肝氣 liver Qi or 胃氣 stomach Qi. As well we can break down the 真氣 into functional layers that go from quite energetic and immaterial to very material and substantial. This is the spectrum of 衛氣營血 Wei Qi Ying Xue, or defensive Qi, regular Qi, nutritive Qi and blood (often simply called the 四分 the four divisions, after the 四分辨証 four division diagnostic method). I think this kind of breakdown causes those untrained in Chinese medicine to get a little side-tracked and to see the various layers as being more separated than connected and to miss that it is all just 氣 and that we are talking about a continuum within the 氣, not separate kinds of energy bodies.

 

The four levels are also often broken apart into 氣血 and 營衛, where most of the time in clinical practice it is the Qi and blood that are the focus with the nutritive and defensive Qi only being used to describe very specific disease circumstances. Which finally, via a tortured route, returns us to the beginning. This only provides us with context to begin a discussion, yet this is long enough so I will stop here and come back later to look at these ideas in more detail.

Edited July 29, 2013 by kevin_wallbridge

[ChiDragon]

衛 is based on the soldiers wearing light leather who would walk around the encampment as pickets and sentries. The early-warning system.

 

 

I think you mean 衛兵 as a guard wearing a protective jacket.

In TCM, 衛氣 is a guarding system inside the human body.

In western medicine, 衛氣 is equivalent to the immune system guarding against antigen.

Edited July 28, 2013 by ChiDragon

[BaguaKicksAss]

Kevin, I recommend putting a link in the original thread to this one so folks can find it .

[kevin_wallbridge]

 

I think you mean 衛兵 as a guard wearing a protective jacket.

 

 

Close, not quite 衛兵 wei bing, but its related to what I'm talking about.

 

韋 Wei is tanned leather, this character is based on an ancient image of two people stretching something between them, probably the stretching rack. In some of its earliest usages are things like 韎 mei an archaic word that describes the particular type of leather buckskin used by light infantry troops, or 韜 tao which once meant the leather of a scabbard and later tactics or military acumen. There are also several words used about archers that are no longer used at all.

 

So when 韋 is placed between 行 it doesn't mean the soldiers who walk around in leather, it means the job that they are doing. 衛兵 may refer to those soldiers, but 衛 is their function. Do you see the difference?

 

When we consider function there are aspects that are like the immune system though much more of the biomedically defined immune response would fall into the realm of the 營 Ying. Surface barriers would fall into the realm of 衛 but the humoral, chemical barriers and natural killer cells are more the realm of 營. This brings us back to the point that 營衛 form a pair of interrelated aspects of the Qi. Interesting, don't you think?

[ChiDragon]

Close, not quite 衛兵 wei bing, but its related to what I'm talking about.

 

So when 韋 is placed between 行 it doesn't mean the soldiers who walk around in leather, it means the job that they are doing. 衛兵 may refer to those soldiers, but 衛 is their function. Do you see the difference?

 

Yes, what you said are true. 衛 means to protect; to guard. Thus it is the function of the soldiers or guards(衛兵). It is analogous to the white blood cells in the immune system. The white blood cells was referred as the soldiers in the human immune system. The soldier story was made to be interesting for the kids for easy understanding.

Edited August 1, 2013 by ChiDragon

[Phoenix3]

Is it the wei qi which travels the ren and du channels?

 

Is the wei qi found on the skin, or above it? I’m interested in Reiki and I think the Rei Ki (energy located just under the skin) is the Wei qi, am I right?

Edited April 16, 2018 by Phoenix3

[Zhongyongdaoist]

30 minutes ago, Phoenix3 said:

Is it the wei qi which travels the ren and du channels?

 

The simple answer is no, weiqi has nothing to do with the "Qi" that is circulated in the Microcosmic Orbit and such practices.  Weiqi and the other qis that are mentioned in this discussion are all "post natal" qis and related to the functions of the body.  Unfortunately the exact qi phenomena that is involve in the Microcosmic Orbit, are not easy to describe, but they are rooted in the prenatal jing, qi and shen and their development through meditation, and it can't be easily described in a single post.  Charles Luk's Taoist Yoga text describes most of what is involved, but it is not an easy text to understand.  However the one thing that is abundantly clear in it is that you do not start with circulating energy, you start by deep meditation in which you become aware of your original Shen.  No original Shen, no real circulation.  Forget about qi and work on deep meditation.  Sit and Forget.

[Wu Ming Jen]

There are three Qi in the body:  Wei Qi – defensive Qi, Yin Qi – nourishment Qi, and Zhong Qi – which protects the heart and lungs.

 

The first movement of Shen Dian is to collect Qi.  You see yourself as inside an eggshell.  Go beyond your imagination and beyond the ordinary five senses of sensing, knowing, seeing and feeling.  Try to see you internal body, go to the ethereal body.  Clean out toxins in the ethereal body by washing out the body with fresh Qi – put the “dirty” energy into the earth.  The Aura or “Chang” or field is the ethereal body.  The Qi Chang + me is Qi is Tao.

 

To heal you create a better internal environment.  Bring in fresh energy, fresh “water” to cleanse and push toxic cells or energy.  Refined oxygen is the killer of bad cells, it makes order in the cells.  Increasing oxygen in the blood improves the immune system.

[Aetherous]

20 hours ago, Zhongyongdaoist said:

The simple answer is no, weiqi has nothing to do with the "Qi" that is circulated in the Microcosmic Orbit and such practices.  Weiqi and the other qis that are mentioned in this discussion are all "post natal" qis and related to the functions of the body.

 

What's the complex answer?

I think a more complex answer is warranted because: there's the aspect of the production of wei qi being from Kidney yang (yuan qi), the fact that we feel warmth and an increase in exterior qi (our aura) when we do neigong, the fact that it's a yin and yang qiao mai issue when wei qi isn't properly entering the interior at night, that the 8 extra vessels are said to act as reservoirs for excess postheaven qi, etc...

[Phoenix3]

On 17/04/2018 at 1:42 AM, Wu Ming Jen said:

There are three Qi in the body:  Wei Qi – defensive Qi, Yin Qi – nourishment Qi, and Zhong Qi – which protects the heart and lungs.

 

Interesting. Do you know of any reputable or ancient books (which have an english translation of course) which talk about these three qi in detail? Thank you very much!

Edited April 18, 2018 by Phoenix3

[Wu Ming Jen]

Yes, years of practice and hard work You will know these three chi then you can write a book in english. We can read about riding a bike but we need to get on the bike and ride to truly know what is written about bike riding.