The Quest for Essence and Laws: Qi

The third important concept in reflections on the origin of the world is Qi.

The earliest philological explanation of the word Qi is found in Xu Shen's Explanation on Chinese Characters: "Qi ( ) [pictographic]: cloud." Inspired by this definition, we could imagine that Qi can be formed by natural and human activities, such as cloud, steam, heat from the firing of products, and smoke from the offering of sacrifices. The concept thus formed can definitely be traced back to very early times, such as the New Stone Age. In other words, the concept of Qi came into existence much earlier than the word Qi, which was invented relatively late because Qi was neither so substantial nor so useful as the Five Elements.

As early as in the Western Zhou Dynasty, there were attempts at explaining how things come into being and change in terms of Qi, such as Bo Yangfu's view on earthquakes and Yi He's discussion of diseases. The ideas of "two kinds of Qi" and "six kinds of Qi" became widespread during the Spring and Autumn Period, e.g.

The six kinds of Qi are yin, yang, wind, rain, darkness, and brightness. (The V year of the Reign of Duke Zhao, Zuo Zhuan)

During the Warring States Period, the concept of Qi was very widely used, and many scholars and philosophical schools had come to regard Qi as the origin of life and everything else in the universe. Guan Zi said, "The essence (of life) is what is essential to Qi." (Guan Zi, Inner Business) Chuang Tzu said, "Human life is a concentration of Qi. Concentration brings life, and dispersion results in death." (Chuang Tzu, Knowledge Rambling in the North)

The development of the idea of Qi reached a summit during the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220), when Wang Chong proposed his theory of primordial Qi (yuanqi). Specifically speaking, this theory contains the following ideas. First, everything in the world is generated by Qi. As Wang Chong put it,

All things are generated of their own accord when the Qi of Heaven and the Qi of Earth meet. (Critical Essays, Nature)

The genesis of everything depends on primordial Qi. (On Toxins)

Second, Qi is a natural thing. Wang Chong said, "Heaven and Earth are nature that contains Qi." (Discourses on Heaven) By that it is meant that Qi has no consciousness.

Why is it that "heaven is natural and does nothing"? Because it is made up of Qi, which is simple and quiet, and devoid of desire, action or event. (Nature)

In emphasizing the natural property of Qi, Wang Chong was denying theological teleology. He also said,

All those which have blood and veins have life in them, and all living things will die - that is known for sure. Heaven and earth have no life, and therefore do not die; the same is true of yin and yang. (The Void of Dao)

That is to say, as concentrations of Qi, human and matter are as sure to die as they are born, whereas Qi exists forever, neither living nor dying, as a physical element. It can be said that Wang Chong's theory of primordial Qi brought the theory of Qi as the origin of the world to the greatest height possible.

The idea of Qi developed to another summit during the Song Dynasty, when it rose from a theory of origin to an ontological theory. For hundreds of years afterwards, the ontological theory of Qi was gradually improved by a number of eminent scholars such as Zhang Zai and Wang Fuzhi.

Zhang Zai of the Northern Song Dynasty was the pioneer of the ontological theory of Qi. In his opinion, the entire world, which includes both everything with forms and the formless "great void" (taixu), is unified in Qi. His thought boils down to the idea that the great void is Qi. He said,

The Great Void cannot exist without Qi, which is bound to concentrate to form all things in the world, which in turn are bound to disperse into the Great Void. (Correcting the Unenlightened, The Supreme Harmony)

The Great Void, which is formless, is the noumenon of Qi. The concentration and dispersion of Qi are the objective manifestations of change, (ditto)

As we can see, this ontological theory of Qi differs from the theory of Qi as the origin of the

world in that it is not inclined toward the genesis of the universe; it also differs from the ontological theory of Dao or Li in that it emphasizes the materiality of the noumenon. In opposition to the views on void, nothingness and emptiness in Buddhism and Taoism, Zhang Zai argued for the substantiality of the "great void," or Qi. As he put it,

Knowing that the Great Void is made up of Qi, we know that there is no such thing as "nothingness." (ditto)

As a physical entity, Qi can only concentrate or disperse, or be with or without form, with no distinction between life and death, or between existence and nonexistence. Additionally, Zhang Zai's discussions also contain the idea on the eternity of matter.

Since then, the ontological theory of Qi has been developed and improved by many thinkers, notably by Wang Fuzhi, who lived during the transition from the Ming to the Qing Dynasty (1368-1911). His improvements boil down to three ideas. Firstly, Qi is spatially infinite. He said,

Qi pervades the world, but it is so subtle and formless that we see void instead of Qi. (Commentaries on Zhang Zai's Correcting the Unenlightened, The Supreme Harmony)

The yin Qi and the yang Qi permeate the Great Void, in which there is nothing else, (ditto)

Here "pervades the world" and "permeate the Great Void" are exactly descriptions of infinity. What Wang Fuzhi did improve the ontological theory of Qi by leaving no room for anything beyond Qi, such as Dao or Li. Secondly, regarding the views expressed by Commentaries on Book of Change and Zhu Xi on Dao vs. Qi and physical vs. metaphysical, Wang Fuzhi emphasized that "Dao means the Dao of Qi." (External Commentaries on Book of Change, Xi Ci T), which actually gives a strong support to the theory on the supremacy of Qi. Thirdly, furthermore, to avoid the understanding of Qi as something concrete as much as possible, Wang Fuzhi generalized the concept on a higher philosophical level, which includes categories like "actual existence" (shiyou), "inherent existence" (guyou), and "sincerity" (shi), e.g.

Sincerity means actuality; actual existence means inherent existence. (Elaborations on the Book of Documents, Great Plan III)

The term "existence" as used by Wang Fuzhi here is of the same status and significance as the term "nothingness" in the ontological theory of Dao, both representing a high degree of abstraction.