Jing (Essence) and the Three Treasures: Jing, Qi and Shen

What this page covers

Jing, qi and shen are often called the "three treasures" of Chinese medicine. They are traditional concepts, not measured substances. This page explains them in their own terms, then separates that from what modern research has actually tested. Evidence labels used: traditional use only, preclinical, insufficient evidence.

The three treasures in traditional terms

Practitioner publications describe the three as follows.

The phrase "three treasures" is also used in Daoist writing, and the way each term is explained varies by text, school and period. A single tidy definition does not exist, so treat any short summary as a simplification.

Jing: essence

In the traditional account, jing comes from two sources: what a person inherits from their parents and what they gain through daily life, mainly air, food and water. It is said to guide growth and development and, working with qi, to help protect against harmful outside influences. [1]

Jing is described as stored mainly in the Kidney system, called Shen-Jing or "kidney essence". That "Kidney" is a role in the traditional framework of zang-fu organs, not the kidney organ studied in anatomy. See zang-fu organs. The same paper lists excess sexual intercourse, chronic disease and aging as things said to cause "kidney essence deficiency". [2] These are the tradition's explanations, not findings from trials.

Qi and shen

Qi is described as a vital force that warms the body. [1] Its own page is What Is Qi?. Shen is translated as spirit, the mental and spiritual side of a person, and some sources say blood contains it. [1] Emotions are treated on The Seven Emotions.

Has research tested these ideas?

Mostly no. Jing, qi and shen are not defined in a way a laboratory can measure, so trials cannot test "jing" directly. What exists are proposals that translate a concept into biology:

• A stem-cell comparison. A 2019 hypothesis paper from a Shanghai hospital institute proposed that kidney essence expresses the idea of "origin and regeneration" and might be a counterpart of stem cells. The authors argued that Chinese herbs said to nourish kidney essence had been shown to affect stem-cell growth and differentiation, and suggested better stem-cell modulators might be found among them. [2] This is a preclinical idea and a proposal, not proof that the two are the same, and it does not show that any herb restores "essence" in people.
• Whole-system reviews. NCCIH (US) summarizes that parts of TCM such as acupuncture and tai chi may help quality of life and some pain conditions, while studies of Chinese herbal products have been of poor quality, so no firm conclusions can be drawn about their effectiveness. [3] None of that tests jing itself.

Label for the concept as a medical explanation: traditional use only. Label for the claim that a product "replenishes jing" or "restores essence": marketing claim; insufficient evidence.

Reading product claims

Supplements and herbal products sometimes say they "build jing" or "protect your essence". Traditional frameworks like this do not translate into a health outcome that a label may promise. Ask what outcome was measured, in whom, against what comparison. Our guide to qi and balance claims explains how to check such statements, and Frameworks vs Biomedical Explanations explains why the two languages should not be mixed.