Zhong Gong (中功) is a spiritual movement based on qigong founded in 1987 by Zhang Hongbao. The full name (中华养生益智功) translates to "China Health Care and Wisdom Enhancement Practice." The system distinguished itself from other forms of qigong by its strong emphasis on commercialisation, and a targeted strategy that aimed to build a national commercial organisation in China in the 1990s.
Zhong Gong achieved national prominence during the 'qigong fever' that gripped China during the Deng Xiaoping era. The denomination included a nationwide network of schools and healing centres based on Zhang's form of qigong before being outlawed by Chinese authorities in 1999, and Zhang's flight from China to evade multiple charges of rape from his subordinates. Zhang Hongbao claimed in 2003 to have about 38 million followers, and even Jiang Zemin allegedly believed in the curative power of Zhong Gong's message.
After China declared Zhong Gong an illegal organisation, all its assets and those of the 3,000 entitles constituting the Unicorn Group were confiscated, its 600 principals arrested. Zhong Gong wilted away thanks to once the organisation was no longer able to transmit the material and social benefits which were motivational drivers for its followers. After a warrant for the arrest of leader Zhang Hongbao was issued, he fled to the United States and applied for political asylum—he gained Protective resident status in U.S. on 13 June 2001. Zhang died in a car accident in July 2006.
History and development
In the aftermath of the 1989 Tiananmen Square demonstrations, Zhang Hongbao retreated to a remote base area in Sichuan, where he reorganised his followers as employees of a web of private enterprises owned by a parent firm, the Qilin Group.
During the early 1990s, Zhong Gong became the most popular of the various qigong schools, but rumours concerning Zhong Gong started to surface. As controversy about Zhong Gong increased, Falun Gong gained in popularity, eventually superseding Zhong Gong as the largest movement of its kind.
Its commercial activities were incorporated in China as the Unicorn Group (麒麟集团), a collectively ownership enterprise. In Mainland China, it had numerous operations, branches, and staff. There were six subordinate divisions, including Qigong training, healthy living, travel, education, medical.
Political scientist Patricia M. Thornton at the University of Oxford lists Zhong Gong as an example of a cybersect, due to the group's reliance internet for text distribution, recruitment and information-sharing among adherents.
Beliefs and teachings
Palmer, citing Ji Yi, said Zhang developed a style of Qigong which was based on automation, physics, relativity, bionics, and with distinctive use of mechanical engineering jargon, and founded Zhong Gong in 1987, launching it on the auspicious date of 8 August 1987.
Zhong Gong is based on the "qilin culture" (麒麟文化), created by Zhang in 1987 which, as he claimed in 2000, is "an obvious challenge to Marxism and the CCP's one-party rule". According to Zhang's 'spirit-matter dialectics', both spirit and matter have objective existence and can transform into the other under certain circumstances. In 1992, based on the ancient theories of yin and yang, Zhang extrapolated his universal law of motion according to which all objects or matter can subdivide into 'Yin' or 'Yang', predicting anything or act which contravened it would bring eventual disaster. He asserted Marxist property right theory and the derived Communist Party aim to eliminate private property were in conflict with his laws. In 1993, Zhang advanced his theories of 'promotion-restriction-inhibition-transformation' derived from the Five elements. In 1998, Zhang put forward a moral code which he referred to as "eight virtues and eight calls".
Qilin culture
'Qilin Culture' philosophy was developed by Zhang Hongbao, the master of Zhong Gong, and proclaimed during public lectures in Beijing.
According to a well-known account by Ji Yi, a journalist and enthusiastic qigong practitioner himself, "the qilin combines in a single body the essence of different species of living beings: the dragon's head, the pig's nose, the serpent's scales, the deer's body, the tiger's back, the bear's thighs, the ox's hooves and the lion's tail."