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Tracing the origins of Qigong fever: Mao Zedong, Jiang Weiqiao, quiet sitting, and the jingluo system, 1914–1958

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 August 2026

Shanshan Gao Open the ORCID record for Shanshan Gao [Opens in a new window]
Shanshan Gao*
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Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridge , Free School Lane, Cambridge, UK
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Email: sg2258@cam.ac.uk
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Abstract

This paper traces the origins of qigong fever by locating Mao Zedong’s early practice of quiet sitting in 1916 within an intellectual lineage linking Jiang Weiqiao, Yang Changji, and Mao’s classmates. Deeply rooted in the Neo-Confucian tradition of self-cultivation and the circulation of jingluo, Jiang’s quiet sitting method was reinterpreted through Japanese hygienic languages during the Republican period, and later reframed in terms of Pavlovian neurophysiology in Maoist China. In 1954, Jiang’s claim that his long-term qigong practice had verified the existence of jingluo coincided with Mao’s renewed support for Chinese medicine. By legitimising the existence of jingluo through qigong practice, the circulatory jingluo system was codified into national Chinese medicine textbooks as the discipline’s core theoretical foundation, thereby laying the institutional and epistemic groundwork for the post-Mao qigong fever.

Keywords

Chinese medicineJiang WeiqiaojingluoMao ZedongqigongQuiet sitting

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Medical History , Volume 70 , Issue 4 , October 2026 , pp. 635 - 650
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This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution and reproduction, provided the original article is properly cited.
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Introduction

Qigong (breath training), renowned for its emphasis on meditative quiet sitting ( jingzuo ) and/or coordinated bodily movements, emerged as ‘the most widespread form of popular religiosity in post-Mao urban China’.Footnote 1 While indigenous dynamic practices of ‘guiding and pulling to circulate qi’ ( daoyin xingqi ) and sexual cultivation ( fangzhong ) – performed in standing, kneeling, or lying postures – date back to the Warring States period (475–221 BCE), the static practice of cross-legged quiet sitting traces its origins to Indian Buddhist meditation ( dhyāna ). This seated contemplative mode of self-cultivation was introduced to China during the Eastern Han period (25–220 CE) through Buddhist scriptures translated from Central Asia.Footnote 2 With the institutional formation of Daoism in the second century CE, Daoist practitioners gradually integrated indigenous theories of yin–yang and five phases ( wuxing ), together with techniques of qi circulation and sexual cultivation, into the Buddhist discipline of quiet sitting. This synthesis eventually crystallized into the distinct Daoist traditions of visualization meditation ( cunsi ), which flourished in fourth-century Shangqing practice, and internal alchemy ( neidan ), which matured during the Tang and Song dynasties.Footnote 3 In the syncretic intellectual landscape of the Song dynasty (960–1279), Confucian thinkers integrated Buddhist quiet sitting and Daoist internal alchemy into a distinct Neo-Confucian mode of self-cultivation. In this context, quiet sitting referred to a seated practice of physical stillness, regulated breathing, and mental concentration intended to cultivate the heart-mind ( xin ) and qi. Footnote 4

Scholars such as Nancy N. Chen and David A. Palmer have traced the origins of qigong from 1949 onward.Footnote 5 This paper, however, locates its roots further back to Mao Zedong’s (1893–1976) early practice of quiet sitting in 1916. Palmer and many Chinese scholars have overlooked Mao’s engagement with this practice, taking his critical remarks on Jiang Weiqiao’s (1873–1958) Yinshizi’s Method of Quiet Sitting in his 1917 essay ‘A Study of Physical Cultivation’ as evidence against his participation.Footnote 6 However, this paper argues that Mao’s critique should not be interpreted as a rejection of quiet sitting, but rather as a reflection of familiarity and intellectual engagement. This research demonstrates that Mao’s involvement in quiet sitting was shaped by the influence of his teacher and future father-in-law, Yang Changji (1871–1920), and was shared among close classmates, including Cai Hesen (1895–1931) and Zhang Kundi (1890–1930). The key evidence supporting this argument is drawn from the biography of Mao written by his friend and classmate Xiao San (1896–1983).

Understanding Mao as a qigong practitioner in his youth is crucial to comprehending the health policies of the Chinese Red Army, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and the People’s Republic of China (PRC) under his leadership, particularly their endorsement of Chinese medicine and the respect accorded to its practitioners, especially those specialising in qigong and acupuncture. This background helps explain why qigong practitioners and acupuncturists played a central role in formulating Chinese medicine’s basic theories and national textbooks between 1954 and 1958, ultimately resulting in the dominance of the circulatory jingluo (channels and network vessels) system within what is now known as ‘Traditional’ Chinese Medicine (TCM).Footnote 7 A key figure in shaping this development was Jiang Weiqiao, a leading advocate of quiet sitting during both the Republican period and the early PRC.

In 1954, Jiang claimed that his long-term qigong practice had verified the existence of jingluo. This assertion, alongside Mao Zedong’s own encounters with quiet sitting and the lure of scientifically validating the existence of the jingluo system, led Mao to view Chinese medicine as a ‘great treasure house’ with the capacity to redefine the foundations of modern biomedicine. Mao’s endorsement fuelled nationwide research into the nature of jingluo, the extensive utilisation of acupuncture anaesthesia during the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976), and the subsequent surge of qigong fever that swept across the nation in its aftermath. By tracing the historical connections between Mao Zedong and Jiang Weiqiao, qigong and jingluo, this paper invites a critical reassessment of how political leadership, bureaucratic appointments, and nationalist ambition reshaped the nature of Chinese medicine.

Jiang Weiqiao and Yinshizi’s Method of Quiet Sitting

The modern fascination with qigong can be attributed to its deep historical roots in Song Dynasty China, when Neo-Confucianism assimilated concepts and terminologies from Buddhism and Daoism and came to be widely embraced by literati and elites. Neo-Confucian scholars adopted ‘quiet sitting to purify the heart-mind’ and ‘sitting-in-forgetfulness’ practices, originally derived from Buddhism and Daoism religious traditions, into their daily routines as means of self-cultivation. Both Jiang Weiqiao and Mao Zedong were educated in Neo-Confucian thought in their youth and were shaped by its emphasis on qi and quiet sitting. In their respective efforts to modernise China and construct a scientifically grounded national identity, both figures sought to revive and reformulate traditional Chinese self-cultivation practices as a vital component of national revitalisation.

In his self-compiled chronological biography, Jiang Weiqiao described himself as frail and frequently ill from a young age, attributing his debilitated condition to the harmful effects of habitual masturbation.Footnote 8 After years of ineffective medical consultations and treatments, around the age of eighteen (1890–1891), his father, who was well-versed in the Book of Changes ( Yijing ) and skilled in divination, introduced him to texts on the Neo-Confucian heart-mind cultivation and the internal practice of Microcosmic Orbit, as recorded in the Collected Explanations of Medical Prescriptions ( Yifang jijie ), authored by the Qing dynasty Neo-Confucian physician Wang Ang (1615–1695). Upon reading these works, Jiang reported experiencing a sudden sense of enlightenment and began practising the method, which led to what he described as ‘a marked improvement in my health’.Footnote 9

The Microcosmic Orbit is a classical Daoist internal alchemy quiet sitting technique that directs concentrated awareness through a continuous circuit along the body’s two central vessels ( mai ). The Du (Governing) vessel ascends the spine from the perineum to the crown of the head, while the Ren (Controlling) vessel descends along the front of the body from the mouth down to the perineum, together forming a closed midline loop of circulation, as documented in the Collected Explanations of Medical Prescriptions:

To begin, still the thoughts, allowing body and mind to become clear and calm. Sit facing east in a cross-legged posture, breathing gently and steadily, form the samādhi mudrā below the navel. Knock the teeth thirty-six times to gather the body’s spirit. Perform the ‘Red Dragon Stirs the Sea’ (stirring the tongue within the mouth) thirty-six times both internally and externally. Rotate the eyes in coordination with the direction of the tongue’s movement.

Press the tongue against the upper palate, quiet the heart-mind, and count breaths. After completing three hundred and sixty [inhalation-exhalation] cycles, wait for the divine water (saliva) to accumulate in the mouth, then stir it several times. Then, using the ‘four-character formula’, begin at the Ren vessel by contracting the anus, then move focus to the tailbone. With concentrated intent, direct awareness upward along the spinal nodes towards the Middle Gate, gradually accelerating the pace.

With eyes closed and gazing upward, inhale through the nose without exhaling. Propel the awareness past the Jade Pillow (occipital bone), with a slight forward motion of the eyes, move the focus directly to Kunlun (crown of the head). Descend via the Magpie Bridge (tongue), divide the saliva, downward through the Chonglou (trachea), entering the Li Palace (heart), and finally reaching the Qihai (Kan Palace, also known as Dantian at the lower abdomen).

Pause briefly, then repeat the entire process three times. The saliva in the mouth should be swallowed in three separate portions. This technique is also known as Reversing the Heavenly River’s Flow.Footnote 10

In the above method for unblocking the Ren–Du vessels, the key element is not qi but rather saliva, or essence (including sperm); this helps explain why Jiang adopted the practice to address the frailty he attributed to habitual masturbation. Beginning at the age of twenty-eight (1900), Jiang committed himself earnestly to the practice of Microcosmic Orbit.Footnote 11 After eighty-five consecutive days of uninterrupted practice, he reported sensing the circulation of his Ren–Du vessels, accompanied by episodes of spermatorrhoea occurring every other day. From that point onward, he sustained an unbroken commitment to this quiet sitting method.Footnote 12

In 1902, Jiang relocated to Shanghai, where he joined the Commercial Press and undertook the translation of Japanese textbooks. On 2 July 1913, he began reading Okada Tokujirō’s (1872–1920) Okada’s Method of Quiet Sitting. The next day, he recorded in his diary: ‘I plan to integrate our nation’s quiet sitting method with Okada’s Method of Quiet Sitting to author a new book’.Footnote 13 He titled this new work under his alternative name, Yinshizi. Yinshizi’s Method of Quiet Sitting was issued by the Commercial Press in October 1914.Footnote 14 In his 1917 preface, Jiang traced the ancient origins of quiet sitting and reflected on its precarious status in modern China:

The method of quiet sitting corresponds to internal cultivation in ancient times. In antiquity, the arts of health preservation comprised both external and internal cultivation. While medical treatments such as pharmacological remedies and acupuncture were employed to address diseases after their onset, health preservation focused on preventing disease before it occurred through the combination of external physical exercise and internal meditative cultivation.

Over time, however, the authentic transmission of cultivation methods was lost. Practitioners of external cultivation often lacked refinement and education, while internal cultivation became the domain of Daoist adepts, who conflated their methods with esoteric doctrines including yin–yang, five phases, kan and li palaces, and alchemical substances lead and mercury. Consequently, these methods became enveloped in mysticism and fell into disrepute among the educated elite.

In writing this book, I have dispelled the mystical and esoteric connotations traditionally associated with quiet sitting, instead offering explanations grounded in psychology and physiology. Every statement is based on personal experience and empirical observation. Regarding the correct method of breathing, I have also incorporated aspects of Okada’s teachings.Footnote 15

Jiang’s teaching centres on two fundamental principles: (1) the correct method of sitting, and (2) the correct method of breathing. During the Republican era, many Japanese publications were translated and published in China under the names of Chinese translators or publishers, often with limited or no acknowledgement of the original sources.Footnote 16 Chi-Yang Liao suggests that Jiang’s Yinshizi’s Method of Quiet Sitting was one such case, essentially a Chinese reinterpretation of Okada’s Method of Quiet Sitting. Hsiu-fen Chen further highlights the striking similarities between the two works, particularly in their sitting postures, breathing techniques, as well as the books’ content and stylistic presentation.Footnote 17 By modernising and legitimising traditional self-cultivation practices through the language and authority of contemporary science, Yinshizi’s Method of Quiet Sitting achieved considerable popularity in China, evidenced by twelve reprints between 1914 and 1918, followed by five additional reprints of a revised edition between 1933 and 1941. Leveraging the success of this book, Jiang emerged as a leading authority on quiet sitting in Republican China, especially within educational and intellectual circles.

Beginning in 1916, Jiang assumed the position of policy advisor at the Ministry of Education. During this period, his vigorous promotion of quiet sitting gained significant traction among student communities, ranging from elite institutions like Peking University to numerous normal and secondary schools, especially in provinces such as Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Hunan. The influence was especially pronounced in Hunan. At Changjun Middle School, for example, all students were required to perform deep breathing exercises during the first morning assembly. At the Hunan Provincial First Normal School, where Yang Changji taught and Mao Zedong studied from 1914 to 1918, quiet sitting was taught in self-cultivation classes. Mao had previously attended the Hunan Provincial Fourth Normal School from spring 1913 to spring 1914, where the practice of quiet sitting and deep breathing was likewise implemented. Chen Runlin (1879–1946), who served as both principal and freshman class instructor during Mao’s time at the school, was a strong proponent of quiet sitting among students.Footnote 18

Jiang converted to Buddhism and began studying under Dixian (1858–1932) in 1915. From this point onward, he adopted the Tiantai Buddhist meditation method of samatha-vipassanā (calming and contemplation), drawing on canonical Buddhist texts including Beginner’s Zhiguan ( Tongmeng zhiguan ) and Stages of Meditation in the Perfection of Dhyāna ( Shichan boluomi cidi famen ). In 1922, Jiang compiled and published the Supplement to Yinshizi’s Method of Quiet Sitting ( Yinshizi jingzuofa xubian ), which was reprinted four times within the first year and five additional reprints between 1933 and 1941.Footnote 19

In 1926, Jiang turned to the study of the Eighteen Methods of Shingon Buddhism, one of the major esoteric schools of Buddhism in Japan, under the guidance of Ācārya Chisong (1894–1972). Following this shift, he redirected his meditative focus to the Central Palace, a locus situated at the intersection of the chest and abdomen. As Jiang reported:

Within just a few days [of practicing the Eighteen Methods], my body underwent profound changes, and I succeeded in opening up (achieving unobstructed circulation through) the six vessels: Yangqiao (Yang Springing), Yinqiao (Yin Springing), Yangwei (Yang Linking), Yinwei (Yin Linking), Chong (Thoroughfare), and Dai (Girdling).Footnote 20

These six vessels, together with the Ren and Du, comprise the Eight Extraordinary Vessels within the jingluo system. Although Jiang’s first publication dismissed earlier Chinese quiet sitting texts as ‘entire pages saturated with discourses on yin–yang and five phases’,Footnote 21 each stage of his quiet sitting practice ultimately came to align closely with traditional medical concepts, including the Microcosmic Orbit (Ren–Du circulation) and the remaining six Extraordinary Vessels, all situated within the jingluo framework and grounded on the yin–yang and five phases theories.

In addition to his 1914 Yinshizi’s Method of Quiet Sitting, Jiang collated, revised, or wrote prefaces for multiple Japanese works on quiet sitting translated into Chinese and published between 1916 and 1920 by the Commercial Press, where he was employed. These included a Chinese edition of Okada’s Method of Quiet Sitting, which he translated himself.Footnote 22 Together, these publications helped generate a quiet sitting fever in Republican China, which in turn gave rise to numerous original works by indigenous practitionersFootnote 23 and the establishment of several hospitals, sanatoriums, and clinics in the 1920s and 1930s that utilised quiet sitting as a therapeutic method for conditions such as spermatorrhoea, erectile dysfunction, and functional gastric discomfort.Footnote 24 The popularity of quiet sitting also contributed to the rise of redemptive societies in Republican China, most notably the Tongshan and Tiande societies.Footnote 25

Mao Zedong’s practice of quiet sitting

Jiang Weiqiao and his Yinshizi’s Method of Quiet Sitting exerted a profound influence on the young Mao Zedong, primarily through Mao’s teacher and future father-in-law, Yang Changji, a devoted practitioner of quiet sitting. From February 1914 until Yang’s death in January 1920, Mao studied under him with deep dedication. While teaching ethics and self-cultivation at the Hunan Provincial First Normal School, Yang profoundly shaped young Mao’s intellectual outlook and way of life. After Yang was appointed professor at Peking University in 1918, he helped Mao secure a position at the university library and allowed him to live in his home.Footnote 26 Following Yang’s death, Mao married his daughter, Yang Kaihui (1901–1930), in the winter of 1920. In his 1936 interview with Edgar Snow (1905–1972), Mao reflected on his youth, admitting that he ‘was then an idealist’.Footnote 27 He acknowledged the deep influence of his mentor Yang Changji, who ‘was an idealist with high moral character’, and ‘made the strongest impression’ on him during his formative years.Footnote 28 Mao described Yang as ‘magnanimous and profound, utterly beyond comparison’, and frequently visited his residence to seek instruction.Footnote 29 Li Rui (1917–2019), who later examined Mao’s notebooks written under Yang’s supervision, remarked that he ‘found it difficult to distinguish between Mao’s own ideas and those of Professor Yang, the two seemed to meld into one’.Footnote 30

Although Yang engaged deeply with Western ethical theories and spent ten years studying in Japan and Europe, his intellectual identity remained firmly grounded in the Neo-Confucian tradition.Footnote 31 Owing to his profound reverence for Neo-Confucianism and perhaps also to his poor health, he was both a devoted practitioner and an ardent advocate of quiet sitting.Footnote 32 A close examination of Yang’s private diaries from five different yearsFootnote 33 reveals ten explicit references to the practice of ‘quiet sitting’ and ‘deep breathing’, underscoring their importance in his daily regimen.Footnote 34 During his tenure as professor of ethics at First Normal, Yang adopted a selected and translated version of Friedrich Paulsen’s System der Ethik (System of Ethics) as his course textbook,Footnote 35 but rendered ‘ethics’ as ‘self-cultivation’, a choice that reflected the Neo-Confucian moral lexicon.Footnote 36 Yang’s ethics curriculum extended beyond Western moral philosophy to incorporate traditional Chinese self-cultivation practices, among which quiet sitting occupied a foundational place.

In his diary entries from November 1914, one month after the publication of Jiang’s widely acclaimed Yinshizi’s Method of Quiet Sitting, Yang composed two reflective questions under the thematic heading ‘Issues of Self-Cultivation’, titled ‘The Benefits of Quiet Sitting’ and ‘The Methods of Quiet Sitting’.Footnote 37 In addition, he demonstrated a keen interest in hygiene and physical training methods introduced from Japan and Europe, such as fasting, cold-water bathing, and various forms of physical exercise.Footnote 38 This intellectual disposition likely explains Yang’s appreciation of Jiang’s method of quiet sitting, which integrated modern scientific discourse and techniques with Neo-Confucian self-cultivation. While teaching at First Normal, Yang insisted that ‘every morning, during the first student assembly, all students should be instructed to practice deep breathing’. He further recorded in his diary: ‘During the experimentations over the past few days, it was observed that very few students were able to keep their mouths sealed. Henceforth, it should be strongly advocated that the mouth ought to be kept closed’.Footnote 39 The author infers that these ‘experimentations’ most likely involved deep breathing or quiet sitting exercises. The emphasis on deep breathing during quiet sitting, particularly the instruction that ‘the mouth ought to be kept closed’, was precisely one of the core principles in Yinshizi’s Method of Quiet Sitting. Footnote 40

From the fall term of 1917 through the first term of 1918, Mao enrolled in Yang’s course on self-cultivation. During this period, he diligently studied the assigned textbook and produced over 12,000 characters of detailed annotations and commentaries.Footnote 41 Mao’s essay, titled ‘The Energy of the Heart-mind’,Footnote 42 earned high praise from Yang, who, as Mao later recalled, ‘from his idealist viewpoint, he gave me a mark of 100 for it’.Footnote 43 On September 16, 1917, Mao further elaborated his theory of ‘Heart-mind Energy’ in discussions with his close friends and classmates Cai Hesen and Zhang Kundi, asserting that ‘when one’s heart-mind energy and physical strength are united in action, there is no task that cannot be accomplished’.Footnote 44 Under Yang’s influence, Mao and his companions adopted a Neo-Confucian lifestyle, upholding the principle of ‘preserving the heavenly li and extinguishing human desires’. Mao claimed to have no interest in romantic relationships, and members of his inner circle avoided discussing trivial or personal matters. Instead, Mao and his friends ‘preferred to talk only of great matters—the nature of man, of human society, of China, the world, and the universe!’Footnote 45

According to Mao’s friend and classmate Xiao San, quiet sitting occupied an important place in the Neo-Confucian way of life that the young Mao Zedong embraced:

Mr. Yang Huaizhong’sFootnote 46 influence on his students extended beyond the classroom, it shaped their lifestyle and disciplined way of life. […] He abstained from breakfast, practised deep breathing, advocated quiet sitting, and took cold-water baths throughout the year without pause, even in winter. Passionate youths like Mao Zedong, Cai Hesen, and others followed his example. For roughly one or two years, they too refrained from eating breakfast. During one summer vacation, Mao, Cai, and their comrade Zhang Kundi lived together at the Aiwan Pavilion on Mount Yuelu, across the river from Changsha, where they studied, rested, and cultivated. […] There, every early morning, they would practice quiet sitting on the mountain, followed by cold-water baths in the pond or river. They maintained this regimen after returning to school, persisting into November despite the onset of winter. […] On that mountain, against this backdrop, Mao Zedong and his comrades followed a daily routine devoted entirely to physical exercise, quiet sitting, reading books and newspapers, discussion, and contemplation.Footnote 47

As the first biography of Mao authored by a Chinese writer after Edgar Snow’s Red Star Over China, Xiao’s account was widely regarded as both reliable and authentic. A close friend and classmate of Mao during his youth, Xiao drew not only on his personal recollections but also on interviews with individuals who had known Mao in his early years, thereby lending his record of Mao’s quiet sitting a considerable degree of historical credibility.Footnote 48 The present article argues that the above episode of Mao, Cai, and Zhang’s practice of quiet sitting most likely took place during the latter half of 1916.Footnote 49 Wang Guangxia (1894–?), who studied alongside Cai at the Hunan Higher Normal School from 1915 to 1917 and shared a dormitory with him, was himself an enthusiast of quiet sitting. He later recalled Cai’s unwavering dedication to the practice during that period:

Thus, he purchased a copy of Yinshizi’s Method of Quiet Sitting and practised quiet sitting three times a day: morning, noon, and evening. No matter how hectic or pressing the circumstances, he never once broke this routine.Footnote 50

Zhang Kundi’s diary also recorded Cai Hesen’s daily routine during the summer vacation of 1917 in Changsha:

Rising at 4:30 a.m., he would climb to the summit of Mount Tianma to practice quiet sitting and physical exercise until 9:00 a.m., before descending. […] After lunch, around 4:00 p.m., he would either engage in quiet sitting, physical exercise, or take a walk.Footnote 51

Given that Cai was a devoted practitioner of Jiang’s Yinshizi’s Method of Quiet Sitting, it is reasonable to infer that Mao likewise adopted Jiang’s method when practising quiet sitting together with Cai and Zhang in 1916.

Xiao San’s recollections of Mao’s quiet sitting practice first appeared in his serialised article ‘Comrade Mao Zedong’s Youth’, published between 1946 and 1947 in the CCP’s Jin–Cha–Ji Border Region.Footnote 52 The work was later issued as standalone volumes in November 1947.Footnote 53 During this period, the dynamics of the second phase of the Chinese Civil War (1945–1949) were shifting rapidly in the CCP’s favour, as Communist control expanded swiftly across newly occupied regions, particularly in Northeast and North China. This created an urgent demand for printed materials that could serve propagandistic purposes. In response, Xiao’s memoirs of Mao were compiled into at least seventeen separate publications between 1947 and 1949, reprinted multiple times, and widely circulated.Footnote 54 The present study examined and compared six versions of Xiao’s biography of Mao published before 1950, in which the accounts describing Mao’s quiet sitting practice remain consistent in detail.Footnote 55 In contrast, all three editions published after 1950 deleted the narrative of Mao’s quiet sitting practice entirely.Footnote 56

Mao Zedong’s advocacy of physical cultivation

Influenced by Yang Changji, who advocated an integrated approach combining internal quiet sitting with external physical exercise, and developed his own regimen under the name Seven-Section Cultivation ( qiduan gong ), both Mao Zedong and Cai Hesen engaged earnestly in practices that combined bodily movement with deep breathing and meditative focus. In April 1917, with Yang’s editorial support and recommendation, Mao published his first article, ‘A Study of Physical Cultivation’, in New Youth ( Xin qingnian ). In this essay, Mao invoked the well-known Yinshizi’s Method of Quiet Sitting as a counterpoint to his own proposed regimen, the Six-Section Physical Exercise ( liuduan yundong ), critiquing traditional sedentary meditation while articulating a dynamic vision of physical cultivation.

He began the article with the declaration: ‘The nation’s strength is in decline, the martial spirit has waned, and the physical constitution of the people grows increasingly frail and delicate’.Footnote 57 He then introduced physical cultivation as the Western counterpart to the Chinese way of health preservation,Footnote 58 setting forth his own theory of physical cultivation in contrast to the quietist traditions of Neo-Confucian thinkers Zhu Xi (1130–1200) and Lu Jiuyuan (1139–1193), as well as to the contemporary influence of Jiang Weiqiao’s teachings:

Master Zhu emphasised reverence ( jing ), while Master Lu emphasised stillness ( jing ). Stillness means remaining unmoving; reverence, though not involving motion, is likewise a state of stillness. As Laozi remarked, ‘Inaction is supreme’, and the Buddha too pursued tranquillity and stillness. Hence, the practice of quiet sitting has long been esteemed by the followers of Masters Zhu and Lu.

Recently, however, a figure known as ‘Yinshizi’ has been promoting a method of quiet sitting, extolling its miraculous efficacy and claiming that physical exercise is harmful to the body. While this may represent one possible path of self-cultivation, I do not presume to follow it myself. In my humble view, the essence of the universe lies in movement. When this universal principle is applied to human beings, it becomes what I call physical cultivation.Footnote 59

He went on to lament his own frail constitution, explaining that this sense of inadequacy had led him to the study of hygiene and health preservation methods:

As human beings, we possess nothing but this body, this physical form containing our viscera and luo (network vessels). Though the methods of health preservation are many, their ultimate aim is simply to ensure the unobstructed circulation of xuemai (blood vessels).

During physical exercise, the heart-mind should be wholly focused on the bodily movement, eliminating all stray and distracting thoughts. Attention should be directed to the unobstructed circulation of xuemai , the contraction and relaxation of muscles, the articulation of joints, and the rhythmic flow of breath.Footnote 60

Mao further likened his theory of physical cultivation to Zhu Xi’s teaching, bridging bodily practice and meditative focus:

Zhu Xi discussed the principle of maintaining single-mindedness without distraction, stating that one should concentrate solely on eating while eating, and solely on dressing while dressing. The same principle applies to physical exercise: one should devote one’s full, undivided attention to the movements themselves.

Having engaged in various forms of exercise, I found that they emphasised only external movements while neglecting the cultivation of the heart-mind. Therefore, I drew upon the strengths of each and devised a regimen of my own.Footnote 61

Mao named his regimen the Six-Section Physical Exercise, as it consisted of six parts:

  1. 1. Hand exercise, sitting position: (…).

  2. 2. Foot exercise, sitting position: (…).

  3. 3. Trunk exercise, standing position: (…).

  4. 4. Head exercise, sitting position: (…)

    1. 3) Massage with the hands (…)

    2. 4) Free exercise. While keeping the general position of the head still, focus the mind to initiate movement of the skin and lower jaw, repeat five times.

  5. 5. Striking exercise, free-form position: (…).

  6. 6. Harmonising exercise, free-form position: (…)

    1. 2) Deep breathing, repeat three times.Footnote 62

Mao’s nomenclature for the Six-Section Physical Exercise was likely inspired by Yang’s Seven-Section Cultivation, as well as by Cai’s consistent practice of the Eight-Section Brocade ( baduan jin ),Footnote 63 a health cultivation practice combined quiet sitting with massage that originated in the Song dynasty in its civil sitting form (known as the wen baduan ) and later evolved into a martial standing routine ( wu baduan ) that enjoyed widespread popularity from the late Qing through the Republican period.Footnote 64 Following this lineage, although the main theme of Mao’s writings was to emphasise the importance of physical cultivation, thereby devaluing quiet sitting, his conception of exercise nonetheless diverged significantly from modern Western paradigms. Instead, Mao’s regimen remained deeply rooted in Neo-Confucian self-cultivation, combining an emphasis on meditative focus, heart-mind and viscera–luo theory, and the unobstructed circulation of xuemai , with traditional practices such as seated exercises, massage, intentional movement guided by mental concentration, and deep breathing. Mao’s advocacy of integrating meditative focus with coordinated bodily movements later served as a blueprint for the development of qigong in Maoist China.

Mao’s emphasis on luo and xuemai Footnote 65 did not derive from Jiang’s Yinshizi’s Method of Quiet Sitting, which borrowed heavily from modern scientific discourses and therefore avoided explicit reference to traditional Chinese medical concepts. Rather, Mao’s focus on ensuring the unobstructed circulation of xuemai was in fact more traditionally grounded than Jiang’s teachings in the 1910s and relied more directly on the classical jingluo system. This divergence may offer another reason for Mao’s dissatisfaction with Jiang’s quiet sitting method. Mao’s conception blended the traditional understanding of luo and mai with the anatomical notion of blood vessels, an interpretation that aligns closely with evidence from early mai manuscripts excavated since the 1970s from Mawangdui, Zhangjiashan, and Laoguanshan,Footnote 66 as well as with the transmitted jingluo classics Zhenjiu jiayijing , Huangdi neijing taisu , and Lingshu . All of these transmitted sources stated explicitly that ‘the mai receives the blood and distributes it’, indicating that the term was understood in the sense of blood vessels.Footnote 67 By contrast, during the Republican period, under the influence of Japanese acupuncture research, the mainstream reinterpretation of jingluo increasingly identified them with the nervous system rather than with blood vessels.Footnote 68

During his 1936 conversation with Edgar Snow, Mao reflected with satisfaction on the physical cultivation of his youth, emphasising the enduring benefits it had brought him in terms of physical strength, discipline, and resilience:

We slept in the open when frost was already falling and even in November swam in the cold rivers. All this went on under the title of ‘body training’. Perhaps it helped much to build the physique which I was to need so badly later on in my many marches back and forth across South China, and on the Long March from Kiangsi to the Northwest.Footnote 69

As the rising red star of the Communist movement, Mao chose not to disclose his quiet sitting practice to the American journalist. Yet he continued to engage with various forms of traditional health preservation throughout his later life. Notably, he adhered to the routine of ‘washing feet before sleep’, a regimen originally advocated by his fellow townsman Zeng Guofan (1811–1872) and consistently maintained by Jiang Weiqiao, from which Mao himself claimed to have ‘derived considerable benefit’.Footnote 70 During the Yan’an period, Mao’s close associates Xie Juezai (1884–1971) and Xu Fanting (1893–1947) were also consistent practitioners of quiet sitting or meditation.Footnote 71 In 1942, Mao received acupuncture, herbal remedies, and massage treatments for joint pain developed during the Long March (1934–1936). Among his physicians at that time was Lu Zhijun (1911–1999), who later became a leading advocate of acupuncture and qigong therapy in Maoist China. Benefiting from his close relationship with Mao, Lu served as the long-standing director of the China Academy of Chinese Medicine (1954–1978) and survived multiple political campaigns from the 1950s to the 1970s.Footnote 72 According to Li Zhisui’s (1919–1995) memoir of Mao’s post-1949 life, Mao believed that ‘smoking is also a deep breathing exercise’, engaged in Daoist sexual cultivation practices, and asked his young companions to read the Classic of the Pure Woman ( Sunu jing ), an early Chinese text on sexual cultivation, ‘in preparation for their trysts’.Footnote 73 In sexual cultivation, the intercourse of woman and man is understood as the harmonisation of yin–yang, water–fire, essence– qi , dragon–tiger, kan – li , mercury–lead, mouth–perineum, and the Ren – Du vessels, reflecting the Microcosmic Orbit principles underlying the practice of quiet sitting as well.

Qigong as evidence for Jingluo

During the Long March and the second phase of the Chinese Civil War, the CCP’s army incorporated acupuncture into its medical repertoire for treating battlefield injuries and providing general healthcare. Influenced by Japanese acupuncture theories, which argued that ‘without eliminating the jingluo framework from acupuncture, it is difficult for acupuncture to attain scientific validity’, CCP acupuncturists Lu Zhijun and Zhu Lian (1909–1978) avoided employing the traditional jingluo framework in their clinical practice, instead equating jingluo with the nervous system.Footnote 74 Beginning in 1948, in the CCP’s Southern Hebei Administrative Office, where Lu Zhijun worked from 1945 to 1947, Liu Guizhen (1920–1983) combined a local Inner-Nourishing Cultivation ( neiyang gong ) with the method of quiet sitting, thereby creating what later came to be known as qigong .Footnote 75

In the early years of the PRC, the close Sino-Soviet relationship played a pivotal role in shaping national development.Footnote 76 The outbreak of the Korean War (1950–1953) further deepened China’s dependence on the Soviet Union, sparking a nationwide trend of ‘Sovietization’. Soviet Pavlovian neuropathology and neurophysiology emerged as the dominant theoretical framework within Chinese medical science. Acupuncture, recast as part of China’s cultural heritage that could be explained through Pavlovian theory and endorsed by Soviet medical experts, gained strong political and institutional support.Footnote 77 In 1953, following the Korean War armistice, the death of Joseph Stalin (1878–1953), the preliminary completion of economic recovery, and the political purge of Gao Gang (1905–1954) and his subordinates, particularly within the Ministry of Health, Mao shifted his attention to the medical field. As a nationalistic Communist,Footnote 78 Mao sought to elevate the global status of Chinese medicine. On 4 June 1954, Mao ordered the establishment of a national research institute for Chinese medicine and directed ‘Western-trained physicians should study Chinese medicine’.Footnote 79

Under these circumstances, in October 1954, Jiang’s Yinshizi’s Method of Quiet Sitting, both the main and supplementary volumes, became the first Republican-era qigong works to be reprinted in the PRC.Footnote 80 The first newly compiled qigong book published in the PRC was Jiang’s Yinshizi’s Discussion on Quiet Sitting and Hygiene Experiments (Yinshizi jingzuo weisheng shiyantan ), interpreted in terms of Pavlovian theory, and published in October and December 1954 by two different presses.Footnote 81 In this book, Jiang reflected that ‘Because I had long cultivated the practice of quiet sitting, the central vessel running from the perineum to the crown of the head had already been opened’.Footnote 82 He further claimed:

Up to the present, another thirty-six years have passed [since the publication of Yinshizi’s Method of Quiet Sitting] (I am now eighty-two), and I have accumulated considerable experience, confirming the pathways of the Eight Extraordinary Vessels, which can serve as valuable references for both medical treatment and disease prevention.Footnote 83

Jiang’s verification of jingluo provided precisely the kind of evidence addressing the perceived lack of scientific grounding in Chinese medicine, an issue frequently raised by Western-trained physicians, and it arrived at a moment when such support was urgently needed for Mao’s ‘Western-trained physicians should study Chinese medicine’ campaign, officially launched nationwide in November 1954.Footnote 84

On 15 April 1955, during a dinner with Zhu Lian, Mao expressed his expectation that ‘the study of acupuncture will have an enormous impact on the reform of medical theory’. The author suggests that what Mao placed his confidence in was the uncovering of acupuncture’s theoretical basis, specifically the substantiation of the existence of jingluo , which had the potential to reconstruct the foundations of modern biomedicine. After offering a toast for ‘Long live acupuncture’, Mao added, ‘Do not assume that acupuncture is some backward folk remedy. Acupuncture is not backward; it is scientific, and in the future, countries all over the world will utilise it’.Footnote 85 In May 1955, Cheng Danan (1899–1957), Principal of the Jiangsu Provincial School for Advanced Studies in Chinese Medicine ( Jiangsusheng zhongyi jinxiu xuexiao ), whom Mao had personally received and praised in December 1954 as ‘a highly renowned acupuncturist’, began urging the teachers and students at his school to initiate the study of jingluo theory.Footnote 86 Like Jiang Weiqiao, Cheng also suffered from spermatorrhoea, was a devoted practitioner of qigong, and had previously practised quiet sitting cultivation at the Tongshan Society, an association well known to Jiang and visited by him.Footnote 87 After the founding of the PRC, however, Cheng had aligned himself closely with Zhu Lian and Ivan Pavlov, avoiding any reference to jingluo in both his own teaching and in his school’s curriculum until this turning point. Under Cheng’s leadership, jingluo theory began to be incorporated into his school’s acupuncture curriculum beginning in May 1955.Footnote 88

On 19 December 1955, the China Academy of Chinese Medicine was established, where acupuncturists Lu Zhijun served as director and Zhu Lian as deputy director. In its inauguration ceremony, Liu Guizhen’s qigong research team was formally acknowledged and commended for its major contributions to the nation’s medical heritage.Footnote 89 Beginning in March 1956, Jiang began teaching qigong at several institutions.Footnote 90 From that point until shortly before his death in 1958, numerous high-ranking Party members received qigong therapy from him. In his post-1949 teachings, Jiang promoted not only quiet sitting but also external physical exercise, such as Tai Chi.Footnote 91 In July and August 1956, he was invited to present his qigong method at the China Academy of Chinese Medicine and Liu Guizhen’s Beidaihe Qigong Sanatorium.Footnote 92 In these lectures, Jiang introduced his achievement of unobstructed circulation through the Ren–Du vessels, ‘a continuous cycle flowing from back to front’, as well as the opening of the Eight Extraordinary Vessels. His lecture at the Academy was subsequently published in the Journal of Chinese Medicine ( Zhongyi zazhi ) and later issued by the People’s Health Publishing House.Footnote 93

In February 1956 and again in January 1957, Cheng proposed that jingluo ‘constitutes one of the fundamental theories of Chinese medicine’, and should therefore be studied and researched.Footnote 94 In early 1957, jingluo theory was incorporated for the first time into a Chinese medicine textbook compiled by Cheng’s school.Footnote 95 This volume later served as the prototype for the first national Chinese medicine textbook, An Introduction to Traditional Chinese Medicine ( Zhongyixue gailun ), published in Beijing in September 1958 and adopted as compulsory reading for Western-trained physicians, Chinese medicine practitioners, and acupuncturists nationwide.Footnote 96 In April 1957, Cheng further argued that the origins of jingluo might lie in qigong practice:

The discovery of jingluo may well have originated from qigong . This is because, in the course of practising qigong , one can personally experience the sensation of opening the Ren and Du vessels. Once these vessels are opened, the practitioner is able to strengthen the body, prolong life, and treat illness. Thus, the integration of jingluo with medical practice is entirely natural. At the same time, since jingluo corresponds to physiological phenomena manifested during qigong practice, what ‘mystery’ or ‘superstition’ is there to speak of? The invention of acupuncture arose from accumulated experiential struggles against illness in daily life, and at the beginning, it could not possibly have been guided by any established theoretical framework. Only by gradually correlating jingluo phenomena with clinical experience did practitioners progressively develop and establish a complete and systematic jingluo theory to serve as the theoretical foundation for practice.Footnote 97

Based on Cheng’s diary, the author argues that Cheng himself never succeeded in opening his jingluo through qigong practice. Jiang, for his part, claimed only to have opened his Eight Extraordinary Vessels, never the twelve primary jing or the fifteen luo that constitute the principal jingluo system described in the transmitted acupuncture classics, including Nan jing , Zhenjiu jiayi jing , Huangdi nei jing taisu, Suwen, and Lingshu. Moreover, the excavated mai manuscripts contain no references to the Eight Extraordinary Vessels, and in all of the transmitted texts listed above, the flow of the Eight Extraordinary Vessels is depicted as centripetal, therefore cannot form the continuous circulatory pathway envisioned in the Microcosmic Orbit.

However imprecise these claims of jingluo ‘verification’ may have been, the jingluo system was incorporated into acupuncture textbooks and firmly established as the discipline’s core theoretical foundation. Beginning in 1957, it became institutionalised as a foundational epistemological pillar of Chinese medicine through the construction of basic theory textbooks, a process led primarily by Neo-Confucian scholar-physicians, acupuncturists, and qigong practitioners, particularly those based in Shanghai and Jiangsu.Footnote 98 With the onset of the Great Leap Forward (late 1957–early 1960), national experimental research on the physiological nature of jingluo was launched. This research later facilitated the widespread application of acupuncture anaesthesia during the Cultural Revolution, which in turn sparked an ‘acupuncture fever’ in Euro-American countries following Henry Kissinger’s 1971 visit to China, and ultimately contributed to the nationwide rise of qigong fever in the post-Mao era.Footnote 99

Conclusion

Long overlooked, Mao Zedong’s engagement with quiet sitting was not a youthful eccentricity but part of a broader culture of meditative practice shared by many contemporary elites, including Jiang Weiqiao, Yang Changji, Cai Hesen, Zhang Kundi, Xie Juezai, Xu Fanting, and Cheng Danan. By reconstructing this intellectual lineage, this article demonstrates that qigong fever was not a sudden post-Mao phenomenon. Rather, it was the cumulative outcome of a long and layered history in which Buddhist meditation, Daoist internal alchemy and sexual cultivation, Neo-Confucian self-cultivation and health preservation, and especially the Microcosmic Orbit circulation of the Ren–Du vessels intersected, were reinterpreted through modern foreign scientific discourses, and were ultimately consolidated in the 1950s through the state-supported verification, legitimation, and institutionalization of jingluo theory. These developments collectively shaped the historical transformation of jingluo from blood vessels to the nervous system, and finally to pathways of qi, thereby laying the epistemic groundwork for the qigong fever.

Qigong, whether in the form of meditative quiet sitting or coordinated bodily movements, historically circulated among Buddhist, Daoist, and Neo-Confucian elites, and never formed part of the therapeutic repertoire through which grassroots herbalists, acupuncturists, and other low-ranking healers, most of whom practised in rural areas, earned their livelihoods. In the 1950s as well, those who received qigong therapy from Jiang Weiqiao, Liu Guizhen, and other qigong masters were almost exclusively privileged CCP officials. Owing to the long-standing social division separating qigong practitioners from ordinary laypeople, including the vast majority of Chinese medicine practitioners and acupuncturists, the two groups had virtually no points of contact prior to the post-Mao reforms.

In Maoist China, Chinese medicine practitioners and acupuncturists were elevated to positions of authority and tasked with instructing biomedicine doctors. The construction of Chinese medicine’s basic theories came to be dominated by Neo-Confucian physicians, acupuncturists, and qigong practitioners, and was built upon the epistemological foundations of the circulatory jingluo system. Through successive political movements from the 1950s to the end of the Cultural Revolution, jingluo theory came to be widely accepted by the Chinese population as scientific truth. In the post-Mao reform era, qigong, once an elite and politically privileged practice, became accessible to the general public and rapidly gained nationwide popularity.

Declaration of conflicting interests

The author declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

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60 Ibid., 74–5.

61 Ibid., 75–6.

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65 Given the limitations of the available evidence, it remains unclear why Mao emphasised luo and xuemai while making no explicit reference to jing (channels). One possible explanation is that the character jing also carries the meaning of ‘classics’, a term with associations that Mao, as a revolutionary, may have found ideologically unappealing. Moreover, jing is homophonous with terms denoting reverence, stillness, and quiet sitting, the very dispositions he was criticising in the article.

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81 Also titled Chinese Methods of Medical Treatment and Disease Prevention, see Jiang Weiqiao and Zhang Zanchen (eds), Yinshizi jingzuo weisheng shiyantan (yiming zhongguo yiliao yufangfa) (Shanghai: Shanghai caiyun yuxie youyinshe, 1954). Jiang Weiqiao and Zhang Zanchen (eds), Yinshizi jingzuo weisheng shiyantan (yiming zhongguo yiliao yufangfa) (Shanghai: Shanghai zhongyi shuju, 1954).

82 Jiang Weiqiao and Zhang Zanchen, Yinshizi jingzuo weisheng shiyantan, 41.

83 Ibid., 2.

84 Zhonggong zhongyang, ‘Zhonggong zhongyang pizhuan zongyang wenwei dangzu guanyu gaijin zhongyi gongzuo wenti de baogao (1954.11.23)’, in Zhonghua renmin gongheguo weishengbu zhongyisi (ed.), Zhongyi gongzuo wenjian huibian (1949–1983) (Beijing: Zhonghua renmin gongheguo weishengbu zhongyisi, 1985), 43.

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88 Cheng, op. cit. (note 86), 1980.

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91 Jiang Weiqiao, Zhongguo de huxi xijing yangshengfa (qigong fangzhi fa) (Shanghai: Shanghai weisheng chubanshe, 1956), 9.

92 Jiang, op. cit. (note 90), 4135.

93 Jiang Weiqiao, ‘Tantan qigong zhiliaofa’, Zhongyi zazhi, 10 (1956), 557–9. Jiang Weiqiao and Liu Guizhen, Zhongyi zhiliao jingyan xuanji: qigong liaofa (Beijing: Renmin weisheng chubanshe, 1958), 1, 7, 8. Jiang, op. cit. (note 90), 4142–52.

94 Cheng Danan, ‘Jingluo de chubu renshi’, Zhonghua yixue zazhi, 42, 2 (1956), 134–7. Cheng Danan, ‘Guanyu zhenjiujie yinggai shouxian xuexi yanjiu jingluo xueshuo de yijian’, Zhongyi zazhi, 1 (1957), 24–5.

95 Jiangsusheng zhongyi xuexiao, Zhongguo yixue gailun (Nanjing: Jiangsusheng zhongyi xuexiao, 1957).

96 Nanjing zhongyi xueyuan, Zhongyixue gailun (Beijing: Renmin weisheng chubanshe, 1958).

97 Cheng Danan, ‘Jingluo wenti buneng cong jiepou de jiaodu qu lijie’, Zhongyi zazhi, 4 (1957), 200.

98 Gao, op. cit. (note 7), 93–217.

99 Xianshi yixue kexue yanjiusuo zhenjiu mazui yanjiushi, Zhenjiu mazui (Xian: Xian renmin chubanshe, 1959), 1.