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E-SCORE PDF VERSION
气
About Quì
This very important character in Chinese, it is the air, the breath, the energy, 氣 in traditional writing: the oldest notion of this word that we know probably meant the steam escaping from the cooking rice. The character then consisted of breath 气 above 米 rice.
This is an essential concept in Chinese culture which means a fundamental substance forming and animating the universe and the life. In this spiritual approach, “qi” encompasses the whole universe and connects beings between themselves; in a living organism, it circulates within the body through meridians that all intersect in the "energy center" Seika Tanden in Japan and Dantian in China. Therefore, it is present in all manifestations of the nature.
The concept of Qi has no precise equivalent in the Occident. However, we can note many similarities with the Greek concept of “pneuma” (breath), and in the same vein with the concept of mind, in Latin "spiritus" (derived from spirare = blow), which means breath, wind. An Indian concept comes close: the “prana”.
Traditional Chinese painting is often referred to the “Qi”: "it must be achieved to transmit the Qi of our body in the paint by focusing and passing through our arms, then our hands and finally the brush and shed it in the image ". The movement which is done to paint, like in calligraphy, is flexible and fluid, unfettered. It's the same principle in martial arts to varying degrees.
Similarly, to give life to the sound - old people would say "animate it with breath" - one could say that we need to consecrate a very important place to vacuum, hope to express the very soul of the music.
