Christian leaders from mainland China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Singapore weigh in on the ancient Chinese practice—which includes tai chi—and its physical and divine connotations.
In the 1980s the practice of Qi Gong became widespread in China, with more than 60 million practitioners at one point, according to Pew Research Center’s study on religion in the country.
Today Qi Gong practitioners can be found all around the world, from the US and Canada to Europe and South Korea.
Qi Gong incorporates a mix of meditation and breathing exercises accompanied by a series of languid movements or static postures. The Chinese character for qi (气) refers to energy or life force, while gong (功) refers to cultivating a skill.
The practice was touted by Chinese officials and scientists for its health benefits and was not regarded as a religion or a superstition but as a “precious scientific heritage,” Pew researchers said.
However, Qi Gong is not free of religious meaning and is imbued with Buddhist and Daoist (Taoist) influences, argues Hsiao Guang (a pseudonym), a former Qi Gong master from China who converted to Christianity and wrote a book, first published in simplified Chinese in 1998, that examined the practice’s cultural, social, and spiritual roots.
Buddhist Qi Gong practitioners, for instance, are able to reach a point where they desire nothing, while Daoist Qi Gong practitioners aim to achieve the highest state of enlightenment so that they will never die, he wrote.
Qi Gong is also commonly considered a form of traditional Chinese medicine since it is used to promote healing. And it serves as the foundation for tai chi and other types of martial arts, where practitioners are often trained to concentrate on building qi (or chi) in particular muscles to increase strength and resistance.
Yet for all the popularity Qi Gong has enjoyed through the years, it has not escaped controversy. The …