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Glossary
- I (yi)
- Will, intent, intention, mind, and projecting mind. In the chi world of China, “I” (pronounced yee) denotes the specific aspect of mind that projects. If a person sees something and wants to acquire or move toward the object of their intentions (be it concrete or mental), that person mobilizes the “I,” and after an infinitesimal gap moves into action.
- I Ching
Also known as yi jing. The Book of Changes. This 5000-year-old book is considered to be the classic Taoist text about the nature of change and how change occurs. The I Ching encompasses eight trigrams that embody the eight primal chi energies of which the universe is composed, according to Taoist thought. The eight expand to sixty-four by detailing how each of the individual trigrams impacts, mitigates, and expands the others when they are mixed. Ba gua chang is a mind/body/spirit practice that seeks to have an individual experience within his or her own being what the I Ching communicates intellectually.
- I chu dzuo (yi chu zuo, i ch'u tso)
- A basic chi cultivation method where one uses the “I” to create a mental picture (visualization), which then indirectly moves chi through the human body according to the classic Chinese principle: The “I” leads or moves the chi.
- I Chuan
- Also known as Da Cheng Chuan. A style of hsing-i that is based upon eight standing postures rather than on the classical movements of hsing-i. I Chuan was developed by combining classical hsing-i with ba gua footwork, western boxing, and Buddhist chi gung.
- Iaido
- Japanese martial art of the sword; practiced with actual samurai swords.
- Inner-dissolving process
- A basic Taoist chi (nei gung) practice for releasing energy blocked anywhere within a person; used primarily to heal and strengthen an individual’s emotional, mental, and psychic aspects.
- Internal arts
Also known as nei jia or nei chia. Those energy arts in China that are concerned with cultivating meditation, the internal chi, and the inner aspects of a person’s being rather than only his or her quantifiable external manifestations in the physical world.
- Internal martial arts
Also known as nei jia quan or nei chia ch’uan. Those fighting systems that base their power on cultivating chi, the mind, total relaxation, longevity, and meditation rather than the purely physical means of the external martial arts. Although there are internal aspects to some of the external Shaolin martial arts, in China the term “internal martial arts” usually refers to the three Taoist martial arts of tai chi chuan, hsing-i chuan, and ba gua chang.
- Iron shirt chi gung
- Classically one of the many terms used for the ability to take heavy physical blows without pain or injury, as though you were wearing a protective shirt of iron.
