Wu Qin Xi (五 禽戏）- or Five Animal Frolic can be regarded as the earliest form of Medical Qigong in Chinese history, dating back to Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220). The beginning of Wu Qin Xi was attributed the famous Chinese Physician and Surgeon Hua Tuo (110-207) who had great skills as a surgeon, acupuncturist, herbalist and had knowledge of human anatomy. He is also belived to be the first person in the world to have developed the use of anaesthesia.

Besides treating his patients when they were ill, Hua Tuo was also keen to recommend physicial exercises for people as a method of rehabilitation, recovery, and most importantly for prevention. Wu Qin Xi is a set of Daoyin(deep strentching) and Tu Na (deep breathing) exercise imitating the actions of animalas based on the habits of the tiger, deer, bear, monkey and bird. Although the profile and value of Wu Qin Xi remained high through the history of China and within the Chinese population around the world, the lack of illustrated documents that survived the turbulent changes of China and indeed the world, means that many different version of Wu Qin Xi is inevitable.

Wu Qin Xi in dvd below is demonstrated and explained by Professor Yu Dinghai from ShangHai Chinese Medicine University.