How Mao Made Qi Gong Mechanical

TL;DR:

In the 1950s–70s, the Chinese Communist Party transformed Qi Gong from a deeply emotional and holistic practice into a simplified health exercise. Ancient ideas about energy, emotion, and spiritual growth were stripped away. In their place, Qi Gong was rebuilt to look scientific, modern, and mechanical—something that fit both Mao’s vision of progress and the Western model of medicine. This helped the practice survive, but at a cost.

Introduction: The Old Meets the New

Qi Gong is an ancient Chinese art that blends movement, breath, and meditation to improve health and develop inner energy. For thousands of years, it was tied to Daoist and Buddhist practices, emotional healing, and even martial training. It was a living, breathing art—one that worked not just on the body, but on the spirit and emotions.

But in the mid-20th century, that began to change.

After the Chinese Communist Party took power in 1949, everything from religion to medicine had to be re-examined. Mao Zedong wanted to build a modern, scientific China. That meant traditional practices like Qi Gong had to be rewritten to look more like Western medicine—mechanical, rational, and measurable.

Liu Guizhen and the Birth of Modern Qi Gong

One of the key figures in this transformation was Liu Guizhen (刘贵珍), a doctor at Beidaihe Sanatorium. In the early 1950s, Liu used traditional breath and movement exercises to recover from a personal illness. He became convinced that these methods could help others too.

But if he wanted the government to support it, he had to clean it up. No religion. No energy healing. No mystical ideas.

So he gave the practice a new name: Qi Gong (气功), meaning “energy work” or “breath skill.” He helped remove the old spiritual language and began building medical-style programs to use in hospitals and clinics.

📚 Source: Palmer, David A. (2007). Qigong Fever: Body, Science and Utopia in China. Columbia University Press.

This was the beginning of standardized, state-approved Qi Gong—and the start of a long process of reshaping it to fit the Communist vision.

What Was Removed: Spiritual, Secret, and Subtle

To make Qi Gong acceptable under Mao, the government stripped away many of its original parts.

❌ Religious and Spiritual Language

Old texts talked about inner alchemy, energy channels, immortality, and divine forces. These were seen as superstition and were banned from official programs.

📚 Palmer (2007) notes that anything suggesting transcendence or metaphysical ideas was replaced with neutral, therapeutic terms.

❌ Lineage and Secret Teachings

In traditional schools, Qi Gong was taught in secret from master to student. That didn’t work in a socialist society built on equality. Private lineages were shut down or forced to go public.

📚 Chen (2003) describes how traditional teachers had to “sanitize” their language or face political punishment.

❌ Energy Healing and “Magic” Techniques

Practices like Fa Qi (Qi emission) and psychic-style sensing were labeled as dangerous or fraudulent. They didn’t fit the new scientific model and were considered cult-like.

📚 Palmer (2007) explains how public healing demonstrations drew suspicion and were eventually discouraged or banned.

❌ Deep Meditation and Altered States

Advanced meditation that led to visions or trance states was treated as mental illness. These experiences didn’t fit the mechanical model and were even treated with psychiatric drugs in some cases.

📚 Chen (2003) writes about how hospitals sometimes diagnosed intense meditators as delusional or dissociative.

More Than Six Sounds: The Emotional Core Was Cut

One of the biggest losses was the emotional depth of traditional Qi Gong.

Yes, some people know about the Six Healing Sounds or Five Element emotions (like anger linked to the liver or grief to the lungs), but these are just one school among many. Across Daoist, Buddhist, and folk traditions, emotional work was core to internal development.

• Movements were designed to transform emotions, not just relax you.

• Sounds, breath, and intention helped clear energy blockages tied to trauma or imbalance.

• Emotions were seen as energetic realities, not just moods.

But under Communist reform, that was too messy—too subjective. So emotions were reframed:

• From inner transformation to stress management.

• From energy flow to nervous system regulation.

📚 Chen (2003) notes that emotional Qi Gong was reduced to vague ideas like “mood regulation” or “tension relief.”

Turning Qi Gong Into a Machine

At the root of all these changes was a larger goal: to make China appear modern and scientific, both to its own people and the rest of the world.

Western science tends to see the body as a machine—with systems that can be mapped, measured, and fixed. So Mao’s China re-engineered Qi Gong to match that worldview.

• Qi became something like oxygen or nerve energy.

• The body was described using mechanical metaphors: pumps, wires, circuits.

• Practice goals became medical: lower blood pressure, improve circulation, reduce fatigue.

This helped Qi Gong survive politically. It became a kind of “Chinese yoga” or physical therapy. But the holistic, poetic, and spiritual heart of Qi Gong was buried under a layer of gears and switches.

📚 Palmer (2007) calls this shift “a translation of ancient subtle practices into mechanical health routines.”