ch’i Chinese term for ether, air, corporeal vital energy, and the ‘atmosphere’ of a season, person, event, or work. Ch’i can be dense/impure or limpid/pure, warm/rising/active or cool/settling/still. The brave brim with ch’i; a coward lacks it. Ch’i rises with excitement or health and sinks with depression or illness. Ch’i became a concept coordinate with li (pattern), being the medium in which li is embedded and through which it can be experienced. Ch’i serves a role akin to ‘matter’ in Western thought, but being ‘lively’ and ‘flowing,’ it generated a distinct and different set of questions. P.J.I.