To introduce my predestined relationship with Qigong and Health Qigong, I have to start from two different "encounters". I encountered Qigong for the first time in 1964 when I was 16 years old. My father was the general secretary of the General Council of Trade Unions of Japan one of the national labor union federations in Japan. He received a letter of invitation to visit China from All-China Federation of Trade Union. At that time, he was still ill, so I followed my father to China and accompanied him to get rehabilitation in Dalian and at that time, I was only a senior high school student.  

To help his body recover as soon as possible, he not only accepted professional medical treatment, but also studied the method of self-rehabilitation. At the very beginning, my father studied Tai Chi. It was because he was a beginner and he couldn't remember the movements at all. His clumsy movements were funny and did not bring significant effect on his disease. Since then I knew that Tai Chi had no obvious effect on the body of my father, but I began to learn it, and it began to have a large influence on me.

Later, a master taught us to sit silently. The exercise ends with us sitting silently to wait for the beginning of exercise. This was the first time that I knew the quiet course. As introduced by the master, this method was extraordinary, and it was created by Chuang Tzu. Although there was no explanation, and what we did was just sitting, I experienced a cheerful mood very quickly.

Before long, my father and I visited Hangzhou Workers Nursing Home to learn from Mr. Chen Yingning. Mr. Chen was the president of Chinese Taoist Association, devoted to extracting contents that were beneficial for the modern people from the collected Taoist scriptures and explaining the profound contents in simple terms. Although we only learned for a short period of time, I was proud of being a student of Mr. Chen Yingning. Afterwards, the Cultural Revolution occurred in China, the Chinese Taoist Association was dismissed and I lost contact with Mr. Chen. I grew up following the teachings of Mr. Chen and six years later, Mr. Chen passed away at the age of 91.

June of this year is the 50th anniversary for me as a student of Mr. Chen Yingning. I obtained the mimeographed teaching materials that were used by Mr. Chen in 1960s from Mr. Yan Hai of the People's Sports Publishing House. Now, I finally can systematically learn the quiet course of Mr. Chen. In February, I heard an excellent lecture given by Mr. Lou Yulie on Traditional Chinese Culture and Health Qigong on the first training class for the responsible persons of member units of the International Health Qigong Federation I couldn't help thinking that if only I had a chance to introduce the quiet course that I learned from Mr. Chen Yingning 50 years ago.

The above is my story with Qigong.

Next, I will introduce my encounter with Health Qigong.

I guess you must be interested in the first time that I encountered Health Qigong. In 2000, I visited Feng Lida, the former vice president of Navy General Hospital. She told me that "Now the development of Qigong - Health Qigong will come out. It would be better to let Mr. Huang Ying, the chief officer responsible, introduce it to you."

Ms. Feng Lida is an old family friend. Her father, Mr. Feng Yuxiang, was a nationalist party patriotic general supporting Mao Zedong, and her mother, Li Dequan, was the first minister of the Ministry of Health of the People's Republic of China. In 1954, Ms. Li Dequan had a humanitarian visit in Japan with the relics of Japanese lost in China. She was also the first Chinese person to visit Japan post war. My father, Takano Minoru, as the secretary general of the Japanese General Council, was responsible for the reception. My father spent a long time in jail because of opposing the war of aggression against China during the World War II. After the war, he became the leader of Japanese Trade Unions. He opposed the United States forces in Japan and supported China and Korea in the Korea War. My father and the Japanese Trade Unions had a great influence at that time. The union which was established under the assistance of American developed into a force against the United States. As a Japanese saying goes, "it supposes to cultivate a chicken, but it turns out to be a duck." Therefore, my father was the best candidate to establish relationship with Chinese government. Because of this, I knew Ms. Feng Lida very early. When speaking to the elder generation, we feel more kind and friendly.

Ms. Feng Lida introduced Director Huang Ying to me. He served in the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League of China. He is quick on the trigger and had a modest attitude. We talked for a long time from the office of Feng Lida to a tearoom of antique beauty. He said that the title name of Ba Duan Jin is Daoyin, so it must have a name that matches with its characteristics when it is promoted to the world. The name should not only reflect the common features of the same movement, but also highlight its advantages. The word "Ba Chang (Drawing Out)" was not often used back then. Finally, the word "Qian La (Traction)" was used in the teaching materials of Ba Duan Jin. I was amazed at the preciseness of Director Huang Ying. I met him again several times afterwards. He was also invited to my two days Qigong forum held in Beijing.

Director Huang Ying introduced me to Ms. Zhou Lishang, the senior editor of People's Sports Publishing House and one of the principals of the research group of Health Qigong, and Mr. Zou Jijun, the Deputy Director of Qigong Center. My conversation with Mr. Zou Jijun was not a kind one, but more like a debate. Huang Ying often joked that "have you finished the debate?" Of course, the intense discussion deepened the mutual understanding between me and Zou Jijun, and we still keep have a good relationship till this very day.

It is sad that Director Huang Ying was diagnosed with cancer in 2003 and passed away several months later. In 2008, the Deputy Dean Feng Lida also passed away. If Director Huang Ying was still alive, he would be overjoyed to witness the prosperity of Health Qigong.

I briefly introduced my encounter with Qigong and Health Qigong. The first encounter happened 50 years ago, and the second around thirteen or fourteen years ago. I can say I live a life with Qigong, and I feel happy. I am grateful for my friends who have contributed their life to the development of Qigong, and for my colleagues who make unremitting endeavor for the development of Qigong. I hope I can embrace a new era for Qigong together with all my fellow colleagues.

(By Takasi Tumura)