04 What is Vital Yuanqi?

Although we cannot see or touch vital yuanqi, in the herbal medicine field, for several thousand years, we always believe in the existence of vital yuanqi. Buddhism, Taoism, and Chinese Kung-fu all practice qigong, which is the practice of the control of vital yuanqi. In the past hundred years, many scientists have tried to find evidence of the existence of yuanqi in anatomy, dissecting the human body and searching for yuanqi along the meridians, but nothing was found.

It is reasonable to expect Science will find this vital yuanqi. They have found cells, right? The fact is that Science cannot find it, so how did the ancient Chinese find it?

Some people are strong and some people are weak, what are the differences?

Why are there differences in body constitutions? What are the controlling factors?

The ancient Chinese thought about these and concluded that vital yuanqi exists. It is produced when a person is born and changes with human activities. If it is strong, a person is healthy, and if it is gone, a person will die.

05 Compare Vital Yuanqi with Electricity

If this is still hard to understand, let’s use an analogy. What is the most indispensable thing in modern life? It is electricity. Our body is like our home, and our organs are equivalent to the electrical appliances in the home. Our body needs vital yuanqi to function, so what does the electrical appliance need to function normally? The answer is: the electrical appliances need electricity for operations, and they have to be stable, and sufficient electricity.

Can we see electricity? Of course not. Electricity exists in wires and is transmitted to electrical appliances that need electricity through connected wires. Electricity has different voltages, and the same is true for our vital yuanqi. If the voltage is unstable, some electrical appliances will not start normally. If our body lacks vital yuanqi, then some of our organs will definitely not work properly.

Electricity is transmitted to electrical appliances through wires, but we cannot see it. Just like yuanqi, it runs in an orderly manner called meridians in the human body, but we cannot see it either.

Let’s take the heart as an example. Symptoms such as palpitations, premature beats, etc. are actually caused by insufficient vital yuanqi, which cannot maintain the normal functioning of the heart. Because the heart is one of the most important organs, it needs more vital yuanqi. So when the vital yuanqi is insufficient, other organs can still maintain normal function, but the heart will have some minor problems.

Similarly, in the home situation, the microwave oven may still work, but the refrigerator has quit working, because the refrigerator needs more stable electricity.

When we see that the refrigerator stops working but other appliances are working normally, we usually think that the refrigerator must be broken and we need to find a repairman to fix it. An experienced repairman will first measure the voltage to see if it is enough for the refrigerator. If the voltage is normal, the repairman will then check the refrigerator. This means that he is a good repairman.

If the repairman dismantles the refrigerator as soon as he enters the door and finds that the motor is not rotating, he needs to replace the motor. As a result, the motor still does not work after the replacement, because it is not the refrigerator that is broken, but the voltage is not enough. So it is useless to replace the motor. But we don’t understand it either. The refrigerator does not rotate because we see it with our eyes. Most of us believe that seeing is believing, so we will listen to the repairman and replace the motor.

06 Is Surgery the Only Option?

This is similar to meeting a mediocre and an excellent medical doctor. Many times we can only see the surface phenomena. We say that there are some problems with the heart, such as mitral and tricuspid valve regurgitation, blood reflux, heart failure, or even arteriosclerosis, etc. After going to the hospital for examination, the doctor will take the test results and tell the patient that the blood vessels here are blocked by more than 70% and that stent surgery is needed. When the patient looks at the imaging film and finds that there is indeed blockage, he or she will ask for surgery to be arranged immediately.

However, what is the reason for the blockage of the blood vessels? This is because the spleen and stomach’s ability to transport and transform is reduced, and the liver’s function of dispersing and excreting is insufficient, which leads to a reduced ability to excrete waste. The most fundamental reason is insufficient vital yuanqi, which causes the organs to not function normally. Therefore, the fundamental cause of these problems is not a problem with the heart, but a lack of vital yuanqi.

The problem is, we tend to believe what we can see with our own eyes. We can see that the blood vessels are clogged with imaging, but we cannot see the existence of vital yuanqi, so we go with what we can see, and go for surgery.

Then we use surgery to unclog our blood vessels, and we take large doses of supplements of calcium, iron, zinc, vitamin E, and other nutrients that the heart needs. But we must know that these nutrients exist in our daily food, so why do we need to use purified medicine to supplement them?

It is because our spleen-stomach subsystem is operating under par, and it is unable to absorb the nutrients from our foods to provide our body the needed nutrients and yuanqi for its operation. Therefore, we have been emphasizing the importance of strengthening the spleen and stomach.

The human body is a whole. If one hair moves, the whole body moves. All organs are interrelated. It is not that if we have a headache, we treat the head, and if we have a pain in our feet, we treat our feet, and if our blood vessels are blocked, we put in a stent.

Unblocking blood vessels is a function that the body should have. When we use medicines and surgery to clear blood vessels without repairing the inborn functions, we will need to rely on medicines and external forces forever. Over time, the medicines will also cause damage to the liver and kidneys. We need to solve the problems from the root, not superficially.

We cannot define health solely by various examination indicators, because indicators are only part of the verification of whether we are healthy. We need to dig deep into the most fundamental reasons and make comprehensive judgments on our health. Just like the unstable voltage causing the refrigerator to stop working, we cannot just repair the refrigerator without paying attention to the voltage. If we just repair the refrigerator, it will never work properly.

With the gathering of vital yuanqi, a person will keep on living. With the dispersing of vital yuanqi, a person will die. With an abundance of vital yuanqi, a person will be strong and healthy. With insufficient vital yuanqi, a person will be sick.

In traditional herbal medicine, vital yuanqi is the most important thing. The root cause of many of our diseases is insufficient vital yuanqi, so it is very important to strengthen the spleen-stomach subsystem to replenish vital-yuanqi.

07 Brief Summary

Just remember this: If you want to be healthy without illness, you must have abundant vital yuanqi, and you must make sure that the vital yuanqi is not blocked when it circulates throughout your body.

You gain abundant vital yuanqi from the nutrients in the foods that you eat, so, in order to have sufficient vital yuanqi for your activities, you must have a healthy spleen-stomach subsystem that digests, absorbs, and converts nutrients into vital yuanqi.
Once you feel that your vital yuanqi is blocked in its circulation, you must employ some techniques that will help to unblock the meridians.

08 What’s Next?

We all know that the six evil spirits begin to harm our body from the time we are born. In the next issue, we will take a look at how the evil spirits damage our health step by step. Stay tuned.

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