For us Chinese, the word “vital energy” must not be unfamiliar, but what exactly is vital energy, what is the role of vital energy, and how do people get vital energy? For most people may be completely confused, and even for the vast majority of Chinese medicine practitioners are also confused to understand. It is difficult to say directly what Yuan Qi is. Our Chinese ancestors were very clever, they often used analogies to explain a thing. Today I will borrow a familiar calculator to explain what Yuan Qi is and its role, form of existence and channels of acquisition. The calculators we use in our working lives almost always come with a small solar panel and additionally require the use of #5 or #7 batteries. If we cover the solar panel and remove the battery, all the hardware of the calculator is intact at that point, but it will not work. The calculator will only work if we put the batteries back in or allow the solar panel to absorb enough sunlight and convert it into electricity. This electrical energy that enables the calculator to work is what we can understand as meta-energy. The electrical energy for the calculator is generated through two channels: one is the chemical reaction in the battery, and the other is through the solar panel that absorbs light energy and converts it into electrical energy. The battery, which can be understood as our kidneys, stores electrical energy in it until the solar panel gives it the converted electrical energy, which it has in itself. According to Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), it is the essence of the father and the blood of the mother given by our parents when we are not born, which we call innate vital energy. But after we are born, our parents can no longer provide us with vital energy. The innate vital energy ensures that we are born and survive, but the vital energy we need to grow afterwards is something we need to take in ourselves. Whether it is electricity from batteries or electricity generated by solar panels, in addition to meeting the needs of the normal operation of the calculator, the remaining electricity is stored by the battery, so is it stored in the form of electricity in the battery? The answer is no, because it is energy, it can not exist independently, need a carrier, that is, in the form of compounds. So we Chinese medicine that the kidneys store vital energy, in what form of storage? It is in the form of essence, and this “essence” can be readily converted into the energy that the body needs. Solar panels are like people’s spleen and stomach, which is the most important channel for people to obtain vital energy later in life. Think about it, the ability of solar panels to work properly depends on two aspects: first, whether they can absorb sunlight, and second, whether they have the ability to convert solar energy into electricity. The analogy to human beings is the ability of human beings to eat and the ability to convert this food into water and grain essence. The difference between human beings and solar panels is that solar panels require no other energy for this series of work, while the human spleen and stomach need to rely on the warming and warming effect of the kidneys to digest water and grains. Through the analogy of the calculator, we understand that there are two most important channels for human beings to obtain vital energy: one is to rely on the innate vital energy of the father’s essence and mother’s blood. This channel is disconnected from the moment we are separated from our mother’s body, and the other is by eating and then transforming the food into water, grain and essence, which is ultimately transformed into vital energy. Regardless of how it is obtained, it is collected by the kidneys in the form of kidney essence. From the time we are born, eating becomes very important. Regarding the importance of this aspect, we can borrow a sentence from the Nei Jing: “When the grain enters the stomach, the veins and channels are opened, and the blood and qi flow.” This saying is actually very easy to understand, we eat food, and then the stomach converts the food into water and grain essence, and then sparing part to the spleen, by the spleen sparing part to the lungs, the lungs with oxygen and energy sparing part to the whole body. If the energy provided by the water and grain essence is not enough, we have to transfer the kidney essence, and if the water and grain essence not only meets our normal needs but also has a surplus, it will be collected by the kidneys. The human body is very smart, usually only provide energy to maintain normal life, excess energy are stored in the form of “essence” in the kidneys. It is like a mother who is frugal and saves her extra money, but when the family encounters problems and needs money, she can take it out and use it. I once saw a report about a mother who instantly rushed to catch a child in the distance when she saw that the child was about to fall from a building. This is the result of the essence stored in the kidneys coming out in large quantities for a short period of time due to the needs of the body. This is called “the storing of vital essence that rises up in response to an urgent need. The vital energy is the basis for our survival. Usually stored in the body is like our savings, when needed can be taken out to use; is also like a unit stationed in the body, the defense of the body, once the aggressor, this unit will quickly make counterattacks, this is the “Wei external and solid” (from the Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Internal Medicine). This and Western medicine talk about the human body immunity is almost the same. Through the content of the above it is not difficult to understand Chinese medicine acupuncture, massage and other methods of treatment of disease are through the stimulation of the body, pumping the energy to achieve. The human body will mobilize the vital energy to attack all foreign objects, not only foreign, but also internal foreign objects, such as self-generated tumors, stones, surgically implanted steel nails and so on. I was once told by an attending hepatobiliary surgeon that some patients with gallstones had expelled the stones from their bodies through their bowels before they had undergone surgery, and that the largest stone expelled from the body was 5 centimeters! This is due to the stimulation of the stone, a foreign body, so that the body continues to pump the vital energy to produce an exclusionary reaction to the stone, until the stone is discharged. You can imagine how powerful the Yuan Qi is. We will also be able to better understand the role of Yuan Qi. While being able to maintain the normal functioning of the body, it also protects the body with its exclusion function. Of course, those who are able to eliminate stones through themselves must be patients with higher physical fitness, who usually have a large store of Yuan Qi and have enough ability to eliminate them. Those who usually have weaker bodies, their Yuan Qi is only able to maintain their usual living needs, or even worse, they can’t even fulfill their normal living needs. Their ability of elimination reaction will be weaker, and when the body has lesions, although they draw Yuan Qi to eliminate the lesions, after all, they do not have enough Yuan Qi, and they cannot eliminate the lesions themselves to restore the body, or even, they will be occupied by the lesions part of the body. In this case, we need the help of traditional Chinese medicine, through the use of traditional Chinese medicine to restore the body’s vitality, and then discharged the lesions. It is as if a troop will naturally counterattack when attacked, but its own strength is insufficient or the quality of its soldiers is low, so it often needs reinforcements in order to win the battle. In the final analysis, the vital energy is the basis of our physical health. What Chinese medicine does is simply to restore the body’s sunken and weakened functions, so that the body has the ability to obtain more vital energy, so that there is enough of it to drive out the disease and evil. This is very different from Western medicine, which very often does take away the result of the lesion, but the cause of the lesion is still there, so there will be a recurrence of the stone after surgery. Through the above discussion, we basically understand what Yuan Qi is, the basic role of Yuan Qi and the channels of Yuan Qi. It is not difficult for us to see that Yuan Qi is extremely important to our body. While we understand what are the channels through which Yuan Qi is obtained, we also understand the importance of protecting these channels. In our daily life, we should eat less cold food, especially ice cream, cold drinks and so on, which young people love to eat, and protect our spleen and stomach, and pay more attention to it, especially for girls, not to diet and lose weight. In this way we can constantly intake of vital energy to protect our quality of life. At the same time, we can also store enough vital energy, when the disease comes, have enough ability to fight it, to ensure the health of the body.