Master Tse’s Qigong Dao #6

Gong功

What does “Gong功” mean? Translated simply, it means “Work”, however let’s look at the Chinese character for Gong. It is made of two parts. One part 工 Gong, same pronunciation, means work. This is only work and includes any kind of works. The other part is力, pronunciates “ Li “and this means “Strength”. By strength we do not mean just physical strength but mental as well. So the two parts together mean that Gong is the kind of work that requires skill.

Qigong Dao 6Often we hear the term Kung Fu or Gong Fu功夫. This Kung/Gong is the same character and so together with them mean to work with skill. “Fu夫 “means “Man”, so all together it means a man with skill. This is Kung Fu and it needs skill which takes time to develop. So someone who has any kind of good skill we say they have good Kung Fu. It does not necessarily mean martial arts. It can be skill in cooking, driving or any kind of skill that is impressive. This is good Kung Fu.

Gong together with Qi is Qigong氣功. It means that the Qi needs work, which require skill. So if we want more Qi we need to work on it. This is Qigong.

Michael Tse

5 replies
  1. Orla Laurie
    Orla Laurie says:

    Thank you Sigong for giving us this information. As John said above it makes the meaning of the word more clear and this gives it more weight, a deeper understanding. All your efforts to share are much appreciated.

    Kind regards
    Orla Laurie

    Reply
  2. Ingrid Stellmacher
    Ingrid Stellmacher says:

    Good to have this knowledged distilled in such a clear and simple way. How lucky we are to have this explained. And an interesting way to gain a small grasp of some of the chinese characters too. Very cool…

    Thank you!

    Reply
  3. Saskia v. Heusden
    Saskia v. Heusden says:

    Kung Fu, so it is any form for good skill. That is great to hear for as far as I know here in the west we only connect it with martial arts. The explanation of the characters is interesting too. Now I start looking if I can recognise parts of it in other combinations. It inspires and makes me to want to learn more, also about the writing of characters. Thank you for always finding ways to stimulate growing of knowledge. Thought full greetings from Saskia, Norway.

    Reply

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