History of qigong
Qigong, the Chinese practice of aligning breath, movement, and awareness for exercise, healing, and martial arts training, has a history that extends back more than 4,000 years. Contemporary qigong is a complex accretion of the ancient Chinese meditative practice xingqior "circulating qi" and the gymnastic breathing exercise daoyin or "guiding and pulling", with roots in the I Ching and occult arts; philosophical traditions of Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism, traditional Chinese medicine and martial arts; along with influences of contemporary concepts of health, science, meditation, and exercise. Origins and ancient history Archeological evidence suggests that the first forms of qigong can be linked to ancient shamanic meditative practice and gymnastic exercises. For example, a nearly 7000-year-old Neolithic vessel depicts a priest-shaman () in the essential posture of meditative practice and gymnastic exercise of early qigong. Shamanic rituals and ideas eventually evolved and formalized into Taoist beliefs and were incorporated into the field of traditional Chinese medicine. Roots in traditional medicine, philosophy, and martial arts According to the traditional Chinese medical community, the origin of qigong is commonly attributed to the legendary Yellow Emperor (2696–2598 BCE) and the classic Huangdi Neijing book of internal medicine. One Chinese Scholar suggested that Confucius and Mencius as the founders of the "Scholar qigong tradition", because in their writings, they alluded to the concepts of qi training as methods of moral training, while he admitted that the references are not clear. In the Taoist tradition, the writings of Laozi and Zhuang Zhou are regarded by some as describing both meditative cultivation and physical exercises as means to extend one's lifespan, and to access higher realms of existence. The Taoist inner alchemical cultivation around the Song dynasty continued those Taoist traditions. The Mawangdui Silk Texts (168 BCE) shows a series of daoyin exercises that bears physical resemblance to some of the health exercises being practiced today. Buddhism, originating in India and having its source in the Hindu culture, developed an extensive system of meditation and physical cultivation similar to yoga to help the practitioner achieve enlightenment, awakening one to one's true self. When Buddhism was transmitted to China, some of those practices were assimilated and eventually modified by the indigenous culture. The resulting transformation was the start of the Chinese Buddhist qigong tradition. Meditative practice was emphasized and a series of qigong exercises known as the Yijin Jing ("Muscle/Tendon Change Classic") was attributed to Bodhidharma. The Chinese martial arts community eventually identify the Yijing Jing as one of the secret training methods in Shaolin martial arts. Chinese martial arts practitioners, influenced by all the different elements within Chinese society, adapted and modified qigong theory with the goal of improving their fighting abilities. Many Chinese martial arts paid homage to Taoism or Buddhism by claiming them as their original source. For example, tai chi is often described as being Taoist in origin. Shaolin martial arts is named after the famous Buddhist Shaolin temple. The exchange of ideas between those different segments within Chinese society created rich, complex, and