The Master, Part 3

The Healing Art of Qi Gong : Ancient Wisdom from a Modern Master
By Master Hong Liu, Paul Perry

(Page 3 of 4)

That would usually be the extent of Master Kwan's comments. He knew the power of the government and was very careful to keep information to himself about the people he treated. He had spent a few years in prison for practicing Qi Gong during the Cultural Revolution and would probably have been there still if my mother had not intervened.

He broke this rule of silence only once, and that was to tell about the time he treated the man who had imprisoned him.

He told me this story one night as we drank tea in the living room of our house in Shanghai. We were sitting quietly when he began to chuckle to himself. I ignored it at first, thinking that he was laughing at a private joke. When he laughed a few more times, however, I broke down and intruded.

"What is so funny?" I asked.

"I am just remembering the time I treated the man who put me in jail," he said.

The man was the governor of Guangdong, a very large province in the south of China. He had been among the officials who carried out the orders that all of the traditional physicians be rounded up and imprisoned. Chairman Mao's wife felt that any form of tradition detracted from her husband's communistic goals and ordered that all such practitioners be sent to "reeducation" camps. Master Kwan had spent two years in such a camp. Now the man who had ordered his imprisonment just a few years ago was asking that the master provide for his health.

Master Kwan was very pleasant as he was ushered into the governor's office. He concealed his dislike of this man behind a warm smile and friendly greeting. After looking at him for a moment to do a remote diagnosis, Master Kwan told the governor that he had a blockage in his kidney meridian.

"Because this problem is in your back, I need you to take off your shirt," he said.

The governor did so willingly.

Master Kwan looked at the governor more closely.

"Now you need to take off your pants."

The governor did this as well.

Master Kwan had the governor move out from behind his desk and sit in a chair that was in the middle of the room. Then Master Kwan sat in a chair across from him and removed his shoes.

"Lean back," said Master Kwan. When he did as he was told, the master raised one foot and held it against the nose of the governor. Then he rubbed the toes in a circular motion until the governor shuddered.

Of course this was no treatment. Master Kwan told me that it was his way of teaching the governor humiliation, the sort the master had suffered at the hands of government officials like this governor. But the governor did not know this. He was humiliated by the foot in his face, but had to accept it. After all, was this not the Qi Gong master's way of giving him Qi?

When the "treatment" was over, Master Kwan told the governor that he could put his clothing back on.

"How many more times do you have to do that until I am well?" the governor asked.

Master Kwan thought a moment. "At least five times," he replied." We must do the exact same thing five more times."

But the extent of the necessary treatment presented a problem, said Master Kwan. For his visit to the governor, Master Kwan had been registered into an ordinary hotel, thinking that treatment would take only one day. For an extended visit, he would require much nicer accommodations, preferably like those found in foreign hotels. "If I don't stay in comfortable quarters"-Master Kwan shrugged- "my Qi weakens."

When he told this to the governor, the politician called his assistant on the telephone. A few telephone calls later, and Master Kwan was registered in the presidential suite of the best hotel in Canton, the capital of Guangdong.

"We have you checked in for five days," the assistant told him.

"There must be some mistake," said Master Kwan, addressing the assistant and the governor. "I did say five treatments. But the treatments are once a week."

For more than a month, Master Kwan lived like a king in the presidential suite. Once a week he was picked up by a driver in a government car and taken to the governor's office, where he unceremoniously pressed his foot into the face of the man who had once put him in jail.

The most ironic thing was this: After five weeks of such treatment, the governor was healed. He felt so much better that he sang the praises of the master to other provincial governors. Now, said Master Kwan, he was being invited to care for other governors.

He had only one requirement: To stick his foot in their faces, the governors had to arrange for him to stay five weeks at the presidential suite of a local hotel.

"Revenge has been very kind to me," he said with a laugh.

One time Master Kwan showed up at our house and was very excited. He had been asked to come down from the mountain by the Chinese Sports Federation. Some international table tennis competitions were just a few weeks away and one of the top competitors had a recurrence of a shoulder and back injury that would prevent him from competing.

This would be a disaster for the Chinese. This athlete was the one great hope for a medal at these games. If he was not able to at least compete, the Chinese would lose face in the international athletic community.

The Sports Federation was now in a panic. When the athlete's pain first began, they thought it would just go away if he took it easy. As it worsened, however, they became increasingly nervous. They sent him to Western-trained medical doctors in Beijing who gave him injections of cortisone and painkillers so he would not miss too much practice. Now the pain was so bad that painkillers did not help. The doctors became nervous and began asking their colleagues about alternative solutions. That was when Master Kwan was suggested.

It was a great honor to be asked to treat an athlete, and Master Kwan knew it. The Sports Federation was so respectful of the master that its officials had agreed to bring this athlete to Shanghai if the master would come up from his mountain home near Canton. Master Kwan was very excited when he showed up at our house. He laughed and talked about the sports injuries he had treated, as he waited for the athletes to arrive. This athlete's problem was typical of table tennis players, who make so many repetitive moves that they strain their joints and spine. Master Kwan had healed such problems before. However, to cure such a well-known athlete would indeed be an honor.

About the Author

Master Hong Liu became a medical doctor in China with a specialty in the treatment of cancer and an advanced degree in herbal medicine, and he is one of only a small number of Qi Gong masters in the world. He trained for thirty years with renowned Taoist and Shaolin masters, including eight years under the Qi Gong Master Kwan, and treated high-ranking Communist Party members in China. Master Liu served as a distinguished professor of Qi Gong at the Emperor's college of Traditinal Oriental Medicine in Santa Monica and Samra University of Oriental Medicine in Los Angeles, and currently maintains professional offices in suburban Los Angeles.

Paul Perry is the coauthor of three bestselling books, including Saved by the Light. He lives in Scottsdale, Arizona.