What is Jing energy? Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) defines Jing energy or essence (tsing, ching) as ancestral energy. When your Jing essence is depleted, you die. But can halt the ways you deplete and waste Jing energy. And methods exist to help you preserve and often even rebuild Jing energy. But employing the methods comes from best understanding the answer to the question: What really is Jing energy?
What is Jing energy? Jing isn’t the same as chi (qi) or vital energy.
Qi (chi) is the TCM term we use to identify vital energy and its five different aspects. TCM’s Theory of the Five Elements (Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water) explains qi. TCM defines qi as a circulating life force. Chi forms the basis of much Chinese philosophy and TCM.
Both cosmic views of Taoism(1) and TCM see qi the same way. They see it as the invisible life force regulating the universe, all activities on the planet, and the inner workings of the physical body.
But both disciplines also consider much more when it comes to energy. They very much consider an entire trilogy of interdependent energy forces known as the Three Treasures.
In TCM, Jing essence, chi, and shen compose the Three Treasures of interdependent energy forces.
There’s no clear definition for each of these in English but the closest notions are:
Jing is essence.
Chi is vitality and/or energy
Shen is mind and/or spirit.
All three interrelate. Without Jing essence, neither chi nor shen can exist.
A strong qi or vital energy strengthens Jing energy and vice-versa. Both cooperate to maintain a strong and healthy body, but shen works to assist them as well.
The mind is master of the body’s functions. A centered shen keeps Jing energy strong and it activates chi.
Strive for the ideal of sane mind in a sane body to achieve all three in balance. You will win the ultimate prize of the Three Treasures.
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What is Jing energy? It’s an inherited energetic essence you received prenatally from your parents.
You derive Jing essence from your father's sperm and mother's ovum. It’s source qi energy which is different from the qi (chi) we commonly understand.
Jing is the root of yin and yang energies. As life code it impels our development through life.
In Chinese medical theory, Jing or essence is the origin of the entire body… Jing transforms into the first energy in the body: source qi. It also transforms into the first channel: the Chong channel.(2) From an energetic and channel perspective, the Chong channel is the unfolding of the genetic and destiny code contained in Jing. —David Twicken in Eight Extraordinary Channels - Qi Jing Ba Mai: A Handbook for Clinical Practice and Nei Dan Inner Meditation
Jing and the self—your core nature—intertwine with each other to form a oneness.
After receiving Jing energy prenatally you continue to accumulate it after birth. We call this postnatal Jing energy.
You’ll derive postnatal Jing energy throughout your life from food, water, and oxygen. But you can also deplete your Jing essence as a result of environmental and social conditions.
The lifestyle choices you make directly bear on your vitality. These choices constantly repeated enter the Jing and take root as part of your body’s constitution.
Do you regularly subject yourself to substance abuse, pollution and toxins, for example? All these can directly deplete your Jing essence.
What is Jing energy? It’s the foundation of the body and an essence centered in the kidneys.
The kidneys house the Jing essence.
With weak kidneys you have weak Jing energy. Then coping with even the simplest of tasks becomes difficult.
In our blog on the kidney as root of life, regeneration and vitality, we wrote:
[Kidney] provides us with a reservoir of energy we can tap into to regain self-assurance, trust, and faith in surviving our challenges in life.
Strong kidneys make us better able to work efficiently for long periods of time. We focus more sharply for greater productivity.
But weak kidneys do exactly the opposite. We lose endurance and physical strength. Fear and anxiety can grip and prevent us from productivity if we don’t take care of our kidneys.
TCM tells us we store our core vital energy—qi—in the kidneys. Therefore when you strengthen your kidneys and keep them in balance, you regenerate your body. You prolong youth and vitality.
The kidneys contain your blueprint for health. They are the body’s most important receptacles of Jing energy which TCM also calls the “Root of Life.” Yin and yang energies of your body system find their root in the kidneys.
What is Jing energy? It’s the foundation of sexual energy and conception.
Recall that we discussed above that we derive Jing essence from our father's sperm and our mother's ovum.
Women lose a certain amount of Jing essence when giving birth and losing blood during menses.
The good news for women is that menopause arrives to limit Jing energy loss. Women’s bodies innately know to commence menopause so they can preserve blood and Jing essence for a healthier longer life.
But when men wastefully ejaculate they lose more and more Jing essence.
Men can limit loss of Jing caused by ejaculation by practicing the Tao of sex. This is a tantric teaching instructing men to injaculate to recycle Jing essence. And it doesn’t prevent orgasm.
Taoist and other spiritual masters have long known about the practice of injaculation. In the near 100-year old book, Life and Teaching of the Masters of the Far East, a Himalayan Master says this about the practice:
When one has been awakened so that he will conserve all the life forces and let them be distributed to the nerves in the natural way, then let them go coursing along the nerves to every atom of the body, without deforming it with thoughts of sex-lust or passion, the exhilaration will be permanent and the sensation will far transcend that of sex…
If man could understand that this life fluid is many times more vital than a corresponding amount of pure blood, he would conserve instead of dissipate it. But he shuts his eyes to this fact (he may be entirely ignorant of it) and goes on, either in blindness or ignorance, until the Reaper arrives. Then a wail goes up, for he does not admire the harvest.
Both Lao Tzu and Confucius recognized China’s founding father, the Yellow Emporer Huang Ti a foremost practitioner of Taoism (around 2700 BC). In the book, The Tao of Health, Sex and Longevity, author Daniel Reid writes about the Yellow Emporer:
He is credited with having discovered the secret of immortality through the subtle blending of male and female essence during sexual intercourse and the transmutation of the resulting ‘elixir’ into pure energy and spirit.
Image of the Yellow Emporer's harem generated at Midjourney by the author
The Yellow Emporer kept a harem of 1200 women for frequent coupling but he followed the tenets of the Tao of Yin and Yang during sexual intercourse. He didn’t see it as yin energy vs. yang energy. He blended the two as they should be, yin and yang working in concert to balance each other.
Contrary to the yang masculine impulse, he practiced restraint so his female partner could enjoy her full measure of pleasure.
Huang Ti observed his partner’s responses in the “flowery battlefield” of sex and held reverence for the sexual act itself. He knew that sex is internal and injaculation is only achieved by harmonizing yin (inner/quiet) and yang (outer/active) energies.
Here Jing essence transforms into pure energy.
The Yellow Emperor consulted with three women on sexual matters: the Plain Girl, the Mysterious Girl and the Rainbow Girl. He learned a great deal from these conversations about the Tao of Yin and Yang Energies.
According to author Reid, their recorded conversations in The Classic of the Plain Girl provide:
…a gold mine of original material on ancient Taoist techniques in which sexual energy is skillfully utilized to bolster health and prolong life.
The Yellow Emperor died at 111 after a lifetime of disciplined sexual encounters with his massive harem.
What is Jing energy? It’s key to the free flow of lower belly sacral chakra energy.
For both men and women, the lower belly sacral chakra, located just below the navel, is the body’s natural center of balance and movement and source of the body’s vitality.
When energy flows freely through the sacral chakra, you feel strong, alive and full of vitality. In other words, you feel your Jing energy alive and well within your body.
When the goal is orgasm and orgasm alone, we close our sacral chakra and inhibit sexual energy flow. We most often achieve the goal of orgasm but at the cost of Jing essence.
Every metabolic activity of the body consumes Jing energy. When we’re young, we have Jing essence in excess. It’s that abundance of Jing energy that gives us with the vitality and immunity of youth.
When we advance in age, unless we practice Jing essence preservation, we no longer have excess Jing energy. This forces our bodies to draw on Jing energy reserves in the kidneys.
Progressive loss of Jing essence leads to weakness and aging.
What is Jing energy? It’s an internal force that directly responds to how we live our lives.
When you live in harmony with the five energetic seasons and elements of TCM you can strengthen your chi and preserve Jing energy.
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You can rebuild a certain amount of Jing essence with mindful (qi gong and meditation) and lifestyle choices (acupuncture and sexual practices).
The following seven ways to preserve your essence prove the answer to the question, “What is Jing energy?”
Eat in harmony with the energetic season. Subscribe for our newsletters. When each energetic season stars, we send best eating and other lifestyle tips for the seasons and element. But to start, make sure you consume a balance of flavors: pungent, sweet, sour, bitter and salty.
Get proper sleep to recharge the body. Sleep in alignment with the sun’s rising and setting. When you subscribe to our e-newsletter, we’ll also send you sleeping tips according to TCM for each season.
Balance work with rest. It creates a vigorous healthy life. If you provoke imbalance in either work or rest, it can lead to sickness.
Exercise to a healthy normal degree. Exercise will help you store Jing essence.
Avoid drug and excessive alcohol use both of which deplete Jing essence.
If you’re a sexually very active man, investigate the tantric practice of preserving your semen. Guard against losing life essence through excessive sexual activity.
Meditate every day for at least fifteen minutes. It disintegrates the stress that depletes Jing essence.
Tao is the primal power that forges all phenomena in the universe, from the infinite the the infinitesimal. Invisible yet ever present, Tao permeates the world with the very breath of life, and those who learn how to harmonize themselves with Tao may harness that power to enhance and prolong their own lives. —Daniel P. Reid in The Tao of Health, Sex and Longevity: A Modern Practical Approach to the Ancient Way
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Endnotes:
Taoism is a Chinese philosophy based on the writings of Lao-tzu (fl. 6th century BC), advocating humility and religious piety.
Chong circulates Jing essence. It’s one of the eight psychic or extraordinary channels that influence the body according to Taoism and TCM. Chong’s energetic properties include the unfolding of yin and yang. You connect with and experience your prenatal nature through the Chong medium.
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Sources:
Reid, Daniel P. The Tao of Health, Sex and Longevity: A Modern Practical Approach to the Ancient Way. Simon & Schuster, 2014.
Anand, Margot. The New Art of Sexual Ecstasy: Following the Path of Sacred Sexuality. Thorsons, 2003.
Life and Teaching of the Masters of the Far East, Vol. 1. DeVorss & Company, 1935.
Twicken, David. Eight Extraordinary Channels - Qi Jing Ba Mai: A Handbook for Clinical Practice and Nei Dan Inner Meditation. United Kingdom, Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2013.
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Main image by samsara at Getty Images via Canva