Wang Xian Bin’s（王賢賓）“A Detailed Explanation of Intent Qi Gong”（意氣功詳)

By Brian L. Kennedy and Elizabeth Nai Jia Guo

Modern day book stores, both in the United States and in Taiwan, often display a wide variety of books teaching different systems of qi gong; methods to develop and strengthen qi. But this is not a new situation, there have been books written on qi gong for centuries in China. A good example of an older qi gong book is “A Detailed Explanation of Intent Qi Gong,” which was published in Tienjin in 1931. The book is divided into three main parts. The first discusses the origin of this form of qi gong, the second examines the specific practice, and the third looks at the benefits of this type of qi gong.

The book’s author, Wang Xian Bin, was born in 1856. He learned this form of qi gong when he was 14 years old from his teacher’s friend, a man named Feng Peng Ju. Feng was 83 at the time and, according to Wang, “was very spirited and lively.” In the book Wang emphasizes how this qi gong had improved his health. He wrote that at the time of publication he had been practicing this qi gong for over 60 years and was in very good health. The author says he wrote this book to thank Feng and to benefit others.

The program itself is fairly straightforward. It takes ten minutes to do. During the first two minutes, the practitioner gets the qi warmed up by visualizing it as a small ball within their body. The next six minutes are devoted to circulating this “qi ball” around to 64 points in the body that are illustrated and clearly identified. The last two minutes is devoted to cooling down the qi. You sit naturally with your fingers interlaced, palms up and towards your stomach, and thumbs touching. The author mentions that this form of qi gong relies on the use of “intent” and “visualization”.

By way of testimonial, the author mentions that General Yue Fei of the Song dynasty learned this form of qi gong. General Yue is said to have studied in a temple and learned this qi gong from a Buddhist monk. The author goes on to say however that this practice is “Dao Jia” (Daoist school) and he mentions that this practice allows Daoist adepts to develop or become “dan” (as in dan tien), which is his way of saying, to become great Daoist adepts. The phrase he uses, literally word for word, is “cook qi to make pill” The “pill” being the “dan”.

One thing that is interesting about this book is that the author Wang is shown doing this meditation while seated on a stool. For many people any of the floor meditation postures, half or full lotus, seems to put considerable strain on the knees and may not be so healthy in the long run. Daoist have often conducted their seated meditation practices from a seated position on a stool or bench.

The other interesting thing is, at least for me, I would find it a wee bit hard to get the “qi ball” around to all the multitude of spots listed in the diagrams; all within the timeframe of 6 minutes.

The book is a very interesting example of a Republican Era (1911-1949) qi gong self training manual. The book has been reprinted by Lion Books of Taiwan and is available in the U.S. from Plum Publishers. No English translation has been done that we are aware of.

See images from the book on the links below:

Image 1 – Front View of Yue Fei’s Channels Diagram

Image 2 – Rear View of Yue Fei’s Channels Diagram

Image 3 – Photo of the Seated Qi Gong Practice Posture