Liu Yafei 劉亞非

Chinese Name: 劉亞非

Simplified Chinese: 刘亚非

Pinyin: Liú Yàfēi

Born: 1955

Nationality: Chinese

Education: Tianjin College of Traditional Chinese Medicine

Occupations: Traditional Chinese medicine physician, medical qigong specialist, author, researcher, hospital administrator, and international teacher

Known for: Developing the modern moving curriculum of Neiyanggong, continuing Liu Guizhen’s medical qigong tradition, and spreading Neiyanggong internationally

Principal Institution: Hebei Medical Qigong Hospital, also known as Hebei Rehabilitation Hospital

Overview

Liu Yafei is one of the principal modern inheritors and developers of Neiyanggong, or Internal Nourishing Exercise.

Her father, Liu Guizhen, helped bring Neiyanggong into the state medical system during the 1950s. Liu Yafei continued that work after his death in 1983.

Her contributions include:

Liu Yafei represents a second generation of institutional medical qigong. Liu Guizhen transformed a rural cultivation method into a modern clinical practice. Liu Yafei expanded that clinical practice into a larger educational and therapeutic system.

Early Life

Liu Yafei was born in 1955, during the period when her father’s work first received national recognition.

Her childhood coincided with the development of the Tangshan and Beidaihe qigong institutions. She grew up around physicians, qigong practitioners, patients, Taijiquan teachers, rehabilitation specialists, and medical researchers.

She began practicing Neiyanggong under her father’s guidance while young. Sources also state that she practiced moving qigong and Taijiquan.

Her early experience was shaped by the political disruption of her father’s work.

In 1965, Liu Guizhen was removed from his position because of his association with Zhou Qianchuan. During the Cultural Revolution, he was denounced, expelled from the Communist Party, sent for labor reform, and separated from the medical qigong institutions he had helped establish.

Liu Yafei therefore experienced both sides of state-supported qigong:

Liu Guizhen was rehabilitated and returned to Beidaihe in 1980. Liu Yafei was then able to work with him during the final years of his life.

She graduated from the Tianjin College of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Her medical education gave her a formal foundation in Chinese medical theory, diagnosis, clinical practice, and therapeutic methods.

Martial Arts Background

Liu Yafei is primarily a medical qigong practitioner rather than a martial artist.

Biographical sources report that she practiced Taijiquan from childhood. This is plausible given the presence of prominent Taijiquan teachers at Beidaihe, including Li Jingwu.

No reliable evidence establishes a formal martial arts lineage, rank, or competitive background for Liu Yafei.

Her movement training uses principles also found in Chinese martial arts:

These shared principles reflect the overlap between qigong, Taijiquan, rehabilitation, and Chinese physical culture. They do not make Neiyanggong a martial art.

Teachers and Lineage

Liu Guizhen 劉貴珍, Liu Yafei’s father and principal teacher.

Liu Guizhen introduced Neiyanggong into modern clinical medicine, promoted “qigong” as a general category, helped establish the Beidaihe Qigong Sanatorium, and published Qigong Therapy Practice.

He trained Liu Yafei in Neiyanggong and worked with her during the early development of the expanded system.

Liu Duzhou 劉渡舟, Liu Guizhen’s teacher and the principal source of the rural Hebei Neiyanggong transmission.

Liu Yafei did not receive her principal instruction directly from Liu Duzhou. He is her lineage ancestor through her father.

This Liu Duzhou, born in 1890 and deceased in 1972, should not automatically be confused with the famous Chinese medicine scholar who shared the same name.

Institutional teachers and colleagues

Liu Yafei studied within the medical community created around Beidaihe. This environment included:

Her work should therefore be understood as both a family transmission and an institutional medical development.

Neiyanggong lineage

The simplified transmission is:

Some sources identify Liu Yafei as a seventh-generation inheritor. This numbering depends on accepting a longer traditional lineage predating Liu Duzhou.

The early generations are not documented as securely as the twentieth-century transmission.

Career and Major Events

Medical education

Liu Yafei studied at the Tianjin College of Traditional Chinese Medicine.

Her education distinguished her from the earlier generation of rural practitioners. She approached qigong as a trained Chinese medicine clinician as well as a lineage practitioner.

Return of medical qigong

Liu Guizhen was rehabilitated in 1980 and returned to the Beidaihe institution.

Liu Yafei worked under his guidance as medical qigong resumed its place within Chinese medicine. Father and daughter participated in the second major organization of Neiyanggong.

This work began transforming Neiyanggong from a predominantly static method into a combined static and moving system.

Death of Liu Guizhen

Liu Guizhen died from cancer in December 1983.

After his death, Liu Yafei committed herself to preserving and completing the work he had begun.

She continued studying the inherited static methods while developing moving exercises based on Chinese medicine, qigong principles, clinical experience, spinal movement, breathing, and mental regulation.

Beidaihe Qigong Rehabilitation Hospital

Liu Yafei held several positions at the Beidaihe institution, including:

She also held the professional title of chief physician of traditional Chinese medicine.

National professional leadership

Liu Yafei served as vice president of the Chinese Medical Qigong Association.

She became a leader of the nationally recognized key academic discipline of Chinese medical qigong.

She also served as honorary director of the association’s Medical Qigong Professional Committee and later as an adviser to the Chinese Medical Qigong Association.

1991: Japan

Liu Yafei’s documented international teaching activity can be traced to at least 1991.

She attended a publication event in Tokyo connected with the Japanese edition of her father’s Qigong Therapy Practice. The event introduced the Beidaihe medical qigong tradition to a wider Japanese audience.

Japan subsequently became an important center for Neiyanggong training and organization.

International expansion

Liu Yafei taught in countries including:

Her teaching contributed to the formation of Neiyanggong schools, associations, therapeutic programs, and teacher-training networks.

European transmission became particularly important. German-language books and instructional videos made a substantial portion of her system available outside China.

2015: Medical qigong transmission project

The Hebei Medical Qigong Hospital launched a formal medical qigong inheritance project in 2015.

The project sought to preserve Neiyanggong through structured education, professional instruction, clinical use, and documented transmission.

2018: Liu Yafei Neiyanggong Transmission Studio

The hospital established the Liu Yafei Neiyanggong Transmission Studio in 2018.

The studio trains teachers and medical personnel and provides a formal institutional line of succession.

The hospital also made Neiyanggong required training for newly employed staff. Employees practiced together each morning, helping maintain the art as a living institutional discipline rather than an archival method. Chinese Medical Qigong Association

2020–2021: Pandemic-era teaching

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Liu Yafei developed or presented a Neiyanggong practice called the Method for Supplementing Primordial Qi, Regulating the Lungs, and Expelling Turbidity.

She taught the method through an international online lecture translated into French and Spanish.

This program should be understood as supportive health and respiratory exercise. It should not be described as a demonstrated cure or replacement for medical treatment.

Continuing work

Liu Yafei has continued teaching Neiyanggong in China and internationally.

As of 2023, she remained active as an honorary hospital leader, Chinese medicine physician, lecturer, and adviser to the Chinese Medical Qigong Association. Community training report

Teachings and Methods

The expanded Neiyanggong system

Liu Yafei organized Neiyanggong into three broad levels:

Each level may contain:

Not every portion of the advanced curriculum has been published or taught internationally.

The Three Regulations

Liu Yafei’s teaching follows the medical qigong model of integrating:

The three should operate together rather than as unrelated exercises.

Static Neiyanggong

The static curriculum preserves the principal characteristics of Liu Guizhen’s system.

These include:

Static exercises can be adapted according to the practitioner’s strength and medical condition.

Gathering, Dispersing, Relaxing, and Quieting Method, 聚散松靜法

This is a principal static exercise taught by Liu Yafei. The method uses attention, relaxation, and internal awareness to alternate between gathering and dispersing sensations or mental focus.

Its purpose is to reduce unnecessary tension, settle mental activity, and establish the relaxed state required for later breathing and movement training.

Beginning moving Neiyanggong

The beginning moving exercises introduce coordinated movement, breathing, attention, balance, and basic spinal mobility.

They are designed to be accessible to patients and general practitioners.

Common themes include:

Intermediate moving Neiyanggong

The intermediate moving method is commonly called:

Yijin Xingqi Fa, 易筋行氣法, Method for Transforming the Sinews and Moving Qi.

This level uses more developed spinal and joint movement.

It includes:

The method aims to integrate the spine with the extremities rather than move each joint in isolation.

Soft breathing

Ruan Huxi Fa, 軟呼吸法, Soft Breathing Method.

This is also described as a yin-nourishing method.

It emphasizes gentle, extended, and relaxed respiration coordinated with movement.

Hard breathing

Ying Huxi Fa, 硬呼吸法, Hard Breathing Method.

This is also described as a yang-supplementing method.

It may use more pronounced inhalation, breath suspension, muscular coordination, or focused issuing.

“Hard” does not mean uncontrolled straining. Excessive breath retention or pressure can be inappropriate for some patients.

Condition-specific methods

Liu Yafei developed or helped organize specialized practices for particular clinical needs.

These include methods addressing:

These methods combine general Neiyanggong principles with targeted movement and medical theory.

Yinian Daoyin Gong

意念導引功, Intention-Guided Daoyin Exercise.

This method uses mental guidance and physical movement to address musculoskeletal and functional problems.

Liu Yafei coauthored a work concerning its use for cervical spondylosis.

Women’s Qigong

Liu Yafei developed and taught exercises directed toward women’s health.

These methods use movement, breathing, self-massage, and Chinese medical concepts related to menstruation, reproductive health, hormonal change, and aging.

Clinical claims should be assessed condition by condition rather than assuming that one women’s qigong method treats every gynecological disorder.

Health-preservation massage

Liu Yafei has also taught self-massage exercises for general health maintenance.

These include work directed toward:

The exercises overlap with the Baojiangong tradition developed at Beidaihe.

Individualized prescription

Liu Yafei maintains the clinical principle that exercises should be selected according to the practitioner’s condition.

Relevant factors include:

The complete clinical model therefore involves more than copying a standardized movement sequence.

Students and Influence

Liu Yafei Neiyanggong Transmission Studio

The transmission studio established in 2018 provides a formal institutional mechanism for training successors.

It conducts teacher training, apprenticeship ceremonies, clinical instruction, group practice, and the production of educational materials.

Hebei Medical Qigong Hospital staff

Hospital physicians, therapists, nurses, and instructors form an important body of institutional students.

Their transmission differs from the traditional model centered on one private disciple. Neiyanggong is preserved through a medical institution, professional courses, and collective practice.

International students

Liu Yafei has trained students from more than twenty countries and regions.

Important international centers developed in:

International students established schools and associations and integrated Neiyanggong into wellness education, complementary medicine, physiotherapy, and Chinese medicine programs.

France

French students and organizations have maintained a particularly active relationship with Beidaihe.

Groups regularly travel to the Hebei Medical Qigong Hospital for instruction in Neiyanggong and Chinese medical theory.

Germany

German transmission has included public courses, teacher training, therapeutic instruction, books, and videos.

Some programs have received limited recognition within German health education and insurance-supported preventive exercise. The exact reimbursement conditions depend on the provider, certification, and insurance policy.

Japan

Japanese publication and training began during the early international expansion of Neiyanggong.

Associations in several Japanese cities developed sustained relationships with the Beidaihe tradition.

Influence on modern Neiyanggong

Liu Yafei’s greatest technical contribution was developing a complete moving component.

Before this expansion, the publicly known Liu Guizhen method concentrated heavily on static posture, respiratory training, silent phrases, and mental regulation.

Liu Yafei created a system in which moving and static methods reinforce each other.

Legends and Controversies

Did Liu Yafei create Neiyanggong? No. Neiyanggong existed before Liu Yafei and before Liu Guizhen. Her contribution was to inherit, reorganize, expand, and transmit the modern medical system. She is best described as a major developer of modern Neiyanggong, particularly its moving curriculum.

Authorship of the moving system

Some accounts state that Liu Yafei created the moving exercises after her father’s death.

Other sources state that Liu Guizhen and Liu Yafei began the second reorganization together and that she completed and expanded the moving curriculum later.

The second description is more precise.

The project began during Liu Guizhen’s final years. Liu Yafei became its principal developer and transmitter after 1983.

Seventh-generation status

Liu Yafei is commonly identified as a seventh-generation Neiyanggong inheritor.

The twentieth-century succession from Liu Duzhou to Liu Guizhen and then Liu Yafei is reasonably clear.

The complete multigenerational genealogy before Liu Duzhou is less securely documented.

“Seventh generation” should therefore be presented as the lineage’s traditional numbering.

Clinical evidence

Institutional sources report beneficial results for digestive disorders, cervical problems, diabetes, insomnia, chest obstruction, hypertension, depression, and other conditions.

The phrase “clinical observation” can describe several types of evidence, ranging from case reports to controlled research.

Claims should be evaluated according to the design of each study:

Historical or institutional reports should not automatically be treated as randomized clinical trials.

Traditional theory and modern physiology

Liu Yafei explains Neiyanggong through Chinese medical concepts such as:

She also uses language concerning nervous-system regulation, respiration, circulation, digestion, and immunity.

These explanatory systems should not be silently treated as interchangeable. A traditional Chinese medical explanation and a modern biomedical mechanism require different forms of evidence.

COVID-19 claims

Liu Yafei taught a respiratory-support exercise during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The method may offer gentle movement, relaxation, breathing practice, and support during recovery.

It should not be described as preventing infection, eliminating the virus, or replacing vaccination and medical care without strong direct evidence.

Institutional authority

Liu Yafei holds authority through family transmission, Chinese medical education, clinical work, professional associations, and the Hebei institution.

This makes her an important source for the modern Neiyanggong curriculum.

It does not mean that every historical claim or therapeutic interpretation should be accepted without examination.

Legacy

Liu Yafei preserved Neiyanggong during a period when many traditional practices were being standardized, commercialized, altered, or lost.

Her legacy has several dimensions.

Technical development

She transformed modern Neiyanggong into a progressive system combining static and moving training.

Clinical continuity

She maintained the system’s identity as medical qigong rather than repositioning it primarily as religion, martial arts, paranormal ability, or mass-performance exercise.

Institutional preservation

She helped keep Neiyanggong rooted in the hospital founded through her father’s work.

International transmission

Her books, videos, seminars, and teacher-training programs established lasting communities outside China.

Women’s participation

As a female physician and lineage leader, she became one of the most visible women in modern medical qigong.

Historical continuity

Her career connects three periods:

Liu Yafei’s work demonstrates that a traditional practice can survive through active revision. The Neiyanggong she teaches is neither an unchanged ancient artifact nor an entirely modern invention.

It is a layered system containing rural transmission, Liu Guizhen’s 1950s medical reconstruction, Liu Yafei’s moving curriculum, Chinese medical interpretation, rehabilitation methods, and international teaching experience.

Related Encyclopedia Entries

Liu Guizhen

Liu Duzhou

Zhang Tiange

Li Jingwu

Neiyanggong

Qiangzhuanggong

Baojiangong

Yijin Xingqi Fa

Yinian Daoyin Gong

Women’s Qigong

Medical Qigong

Scientific Qigong

Qigong

Daoyin

Tuna

Yangsheng

Internal Training

Chinese Medicine

Chinese Physical Culture

The Three Regulations

Qigong Fever

Cultural Revolution

Beidaihe Qigong Sanatorium

Hebei Medical Qigong Hospital

Liu Yafei Neiyanggong Transmission Studio

Qigong Therapy Practice

Qigong and the Politics of Breath

Dustin Shane Bunnell

References