Category Archives: three treasures

qi – energy (the breath)

Posted on by
Reply

Qi 氣 is usually translated as energy, it can also be translated as ‘the breath’. It is that which powers movement and transformations, both within us and without. The Chinese character shows a grain of rice opening 米, with vapour or cloud above it 气. Some take it to show the rice bursting open in a pot of hot water; others see it as a sprouting grain with roots descending and sprouts reaching up, either way it shows the potential of movement and energy contained within grains available to us via the assimilation of food. The vapour above it gives us the sense of a refined substance, gentle as a cloud, warming like steam from a broth. There are many types of qi in traditional Chinese thought, however these are only subdivisions of the great qi that is the energetic entirety of the universe. Indeed matter or form 形 (xing) was understood as an expression of qi, something we know understand to be true, thanks to particle physics.

jing – essence

Posted on by
Reply

Jing 精, is an illusive substance stored in the Kidneys. It is not as solid as blood, but more solid than qi (energy). It is like DNA, a blueprint we inherit from our parents. When someone is full of jing they have great power, when one becomes deficient in jing there is fatigue, lack of concentration, forgetfulness and a general disorder in health. Jing can be burnt by the body as a rich fuel when fatigued, malnourished or stressed. It is maintained or cultivated through gentle exercise, fresh air and good food. Women spend jing when creating a baby. Men spend jing in ejaculation, hence occasionally it is translated as semen, however this is not a complete translation as you can see. Essence is a good enough parallel, so we can stick with that for the moment.

shen – spirit

Posted on by
Reply

The Spirits or shen 神 are five fold. The hun 魂 are anchored in the Liver, they are etherial with a tendency to rise up; they give us our dreams and deal with planning. The po 魄 are our animal soul or instinct, they have a tendency to descend and are stored in the lung. The yi 意 is the intention. The yi is stored in the spleen and dwells in the blood. In Chinese thought the yi acts as the facilitator of action, when a thought arrises in the heart it is conducted through the blood to the site of action by the yi 意. The fourth spirit (in no particular order) is the zhi 志. We translate this as ‘the will’. This spirit lives in the kidneys, it is the enduring movement of the heart toward a goal, like a plant that constantly orients itself toward the light. Finally there is the shen 神, which fly like a flock of birds in the heart. When the heart is calm they gently soar within, and the individual radiates contentment and good health. As you can see, shen refers to both the collective spirits of all the organs or Officials and those that live in the heart. Leading us to believe that the radiance of the spirits, or good health, can only be attained by the balancing of all the spirits.