UNDER CONSTRUCTION

History of our Qi-Gong style

The Roots of Traditional Qi-Gong
Qi (Chi) is the Chinese character for air, breath, life-force, or life-essence. Gong (Kung) is the character for effort, work, or labor. Thus, Qi-Gong (or Chi-Kung ) essentially translates into “the work of harvesting one’s own life energy.”
Traditional Chinese medicine theorizes that when a person’s qi is strong and flows freely in the body, good health is maintained; when a person has weak qi, or their qi is blocked, this person will experience illness or disease. Qi-Gong helps to build strong qi and keeps it flowing freely in the body for increased health and vitality. As a person’s internal power grows, so does his/her ability to gain positive control over personal health, and at higher levels, to use internal power for the healing of others.
There are numerous styles of Qi-Gong being practiced today; however, there exist effectively three traditional reasons for the practice: health, martial arts, and spirituality.
Health:
Proper Qi-Gong exercise will greatly improve the overall health of the practitioner; some elementary Qi-Gong styles have been invented to address specific health problems, such as indigestion, insomnia, migraines, etc.
Martial Arts:
Martial artists have used Qi-Gong to harness their “internal power” in complementing their pugilistic arts.
Spirituality:
Chinese Buddhists and Taoists have Qi-Gong methods designed for the purpose of experiencing religious enlightenment, or the Tao.
Once shrouded in a veil of mystery and secrecy, Qi-Gong practice is currently experiencing a change from traditional attitudes. Expert Qi-Gong instruction was formerly accessible only within small potions of the Chinese community; the individual masters also carefully guarded their particular style and passed their arts to the few devoted students of their school. This traditional attitude has changed in the modern era, as China experienced a boom in Qi-Gong practice in the early part of the 1980’s. Qi-Gong practice became open and popular as people began to practice Qi-Gong en masse at local parks.
Centers of traditional Chinese medicine also began experimenting with Qi-Gong clinics. The surge of Qi-Gong popularity is the result of an interest in Qi-Gong’s ability to not only act as a form of preventive health care, but also to cure people of certain ailments.
Those interested in further reading about Qi-Gong in China may wish to read Encounters with Qi by David Eisenberg, M.D. and Healing and the Mind by Bill Moyers.
However, we caution our students to consult with a Qi-Gong instructor before attempting to learn any Qi-Gong techniques from books or other media.

Capital Qi-Gong

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The history of Capital Qi-Gong has its roots in the Chinese martial arts. The “external” styles of the Chinese martial arts have recognized for centuries that a high level of qi development is the means for vast internal and external power. However, few practioners achieved the desired level of development even after years of effort.
It is in resolving this problem for the martial arts practitioner that a revolutionary approach was developed by Dr. Yu Peng Si, physician and Qi-Gong master.
Dr. Yu Peng Si was the head of the dermatology division of Shanghai’s Number One People’s Hospital as well as a professor at Shanghai’s Number One Medical College. He also studied under the famous xing yi quan master Wang Xiang Zhai, who had developed an innovative “formless” version of xing yi quan which Wang labeled “yi quan” (also called dacheng quan).
A devout Buddhist, Dr. Yu combined the standing meditative postures and physical exercises of yi quan with the qi-channel opening methods of Tibetan Lamas. The resulting achievement was the formation of a highly successful system for teaching qi cultivation, which yielded one of the most elevated forms of Qi-Gong: The ability to project strong Qi at a distance. This ability is called Kong Jing or "empty force" .
Dr. Yu and his wife, Madam Ou-Yang Min came to the United States in 1981 to participate in a QiGong study at Stanford University. After Dr. Yu died in 1983, Madam Ou-Yang stayed in San Francisco where she still continues to teach Qi-Gong. This is the QiGong lineage of our school’s head instructor, Mr. Shuren Ma.
Mr. Ma, the nephew of Dr. Yu and Madam Ou-Yang, started his Qi-Gong practice in China in 1955, when he was 5 years old. Now a Qi-Gong master with over 40 years experience, Mr. Ma proudly brings us this art through Capital Qi-Gong.
Our Qi-Gong meditation style, the heart of our training program, can be defined as a “purifying internal experience”, during which an individual learns to relax and be natural in the process of building qi. This means that a student of qi does not merely relax the body musculature, but relaxes both mind and body -- what we refer to as the whole body. This meditation is called “internal” because the process originates from within and its effects emanate outward to benefit the whole body. It is considered “purifying” because we attempt to clear our minds and cleanse our bodies of blockages; we also call this “natural” or “nature’s way.” This kind of internal exercise yields good health, balance, body wholeness, and improved qi.
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