By VAHVA Fitness on June 16, 2020

Jiang Yu Shan explaining the origins of ancient Qigong and the types of soft Qigong. Excerpts from a recent 2-hour Yoga vs. Qigong video call.

Jiang Yu Shan has lived a colourful life and a great deal of it is still a mystery for a lot of people.

For example, there are people who doubt he is able to speak fluent Chinese or whether he has actually lived decades in Taiwan. Here you can find him speaking fluent Chinese in a Taiwanese TV show for almost half an hour straight. 

Jiang Yu Shan is a well-traveled individual and he also lived in India for 6 months. He originally went there for a trip to study meditation and Hanuman (The Indian monkey god) but an acquaintance of his stole his purse and he got stuck in India with no money.

Understand, this all happened 20 years ago when traveling wasn't as easy as it is today with Google Maps, internet connection and widely spoken English language. Moreover, both Taiwan and India were nothing like today at the time.

In India, Jiang Yu Shan ended up massaging people on the street to earn money until his family from Germany managed to wire transfer some money to him so he could leave the country.

However, the 6 months in India weren't in vain. You would be surprised how much Jiang Yu Shan knows about the real Indian and Tibetan yoga – the original yoga that has been lost in the West.

You see, both yoga and qigong come from the same ancient source for the most part. Bodhidharma who was considered a warrior prince brought qigong to Shaolin temple somewhere around 5-6th centuries. 

Now, the ancient qigong and yoga share lots of similarities (for example Jiang Yu Shan mentioned that the chakras of yoga are the same as the acupuncture points in qigong) but in many ways they are also different.

Yoga and qigong can be considered separate branches from the same tree. However, over the thousand or more years they have morphed into their own unique methods of training.

In the full video call, Jiang Yu Shan explained that Indian yogis often talk about the same thing as qigong masters but in a flowery way. This makes the wisdom very hard to understand unless you are a master level yogi yourself.

The Chinese, as a very masculine culture, made everything very clear and simple to the point with clear examples and practical applications. This is where qigong can help yogis understand yoga a lot better.

For us, this is also the biggest benefit of qigong – as a method it's very functional and practical with easy-to-see benefits and results. In qigong, everything is done standing up and there's nothing extreme about anything.

In yoga, it's common to make the body overly flexible which actually makes the body more prone to injuries when tested in harsher conditions. Also, many postures and positions have no practical purpose whatsoever.

It's also good to understand that the modern forms of yoga have very little to do with the ancient knowledge. The master Jiang was very critical of the modern forms of yoga where "the less clothes you wear, the more fans you will get".

The ancient yogis achieved spectacular things in the realm of physical development which is why it's sad to see that many modern forms of yoga have become a form of disrespect and a way to abuse the students (Bikram documentary).

In the ancient yoga, there were 6 shaktis (powers) every real yogi needed to have. In the Western yoga the yoga teachers don't even know what they are.

The grandmaster Jiang Yu Shan has a deep understanding of ancient qigong and yoga but also the occult knowledge of Sufism (Islamic mysticism) among many other things.

We go through all of this in the full video call with the master which we already uploaded exclusively to the Facebook group of WarriorNeigong.com (for the members only).

The video call is nearly 2 hours long and we touch on countless topics from the origins of yoga/qigong to why you no longer can find real Shaolin kung fu inside the Shaolin temple.

Other topics include: enlightenment (scam or real?), longevity, 6 shaktis (powers) all yogis need to have and of course more about Jiang's travels in India.

We will be uploading several short clips of the call to YouTube. This is the first one where we go through the types and benefits of soft qigong.

In the West, if you go to a qigong class you will mostly learn the soft movement qigong with very basic instructions regarding breathing. Regarding the actual benefits and the framework (meridians, acupuncture points etc.) they have little knowledge about.

There are lots of other types of Qigong as well and for different purposes. Here are the common types:

In the new Health & Fighting Qigong course we practice the soft movement qigong (Buddhist Qigong Form) and hard movement qigong (Lohan Gong Form).

The hard forms of qigong are almost nonexistent in the Western world and very hard to find. However, Jiang Yu Shan's soft qigong forms are also very unique and not the common (yi jin jing or baduan jin) forms you can find from qigong classes.

The hard qigong can only be found from "the martial arts qigong" also known as the fighting qigong. Not all qigong masters today are martial artists (although originally most of them were) which is why their knowledge is lacking.

These hard forms of qigong were designed to strengthen the mind and body for combat. The purpose was to improve the performance and vitality of the body (testosterone and other fighting related hormones).

Recommended:

- The Lost Art of Warrior Monk Neigong

- The Strongest Mother Fist of Ancient Shaolin Temple

We have done Lohan Gong for quite some time now and the effects are something special to say the least. We talk more about the benefits in this video.

Jiang Yu Shan also emphasized the fact that a proper qigong teacher or a master should be able to explain the benefits and results of each form and individual movement.

Many of these forms activate the meridians of the body. Meridians are one of the ways the Chinese medicine understands the body. Basically, different movements stimulate the body's hormonal systems, mind and muscle/tendons/fascia in a very unique way. 

Although Western science does not agree with their explanations (mostly because they don't understand the framework behind it) and maybe not all of it is 100% correct, the ancient masters got a lot of things right.

We are no longer huge fans of Western medicine. Over the years we have realized that although Western medicine works, it's not good for the body unless you have a very acute problem.

You can get permanent results with the ancient wisdom of qigong or yoga without becoming dependent on someone else's prescription. You really have the power to heal yourself and sometimes in miraculous ways.

And what these ancient methods are? Breathing. Fasting. Cold therapy. Exercise forms. Mantras. Herbs.

We have successfully used these methods and so have countless of others. Moreover, over the last decade the Western studies have found them to be incredibly effective as well.

And the best part? You only need to learn the methods once and you will have a toolset to treat yourself for the rest of your life.

The second option? Become dependent on expensive prescription pills and injections that come with a host of side effects.

We have already chosen the first option and consider the second option really the last resort. 

VAHVA Fitness