This term suggests cultivating one's moral spirit and improving one's physical

and mental well-being to achieve the best state of mind during literary creation

in order to write excellent works. "Cultivating qi (气)" has three implications: 1)

in the pre-Qin period Mencius emphasized that the virtuous and the capable

should foster a "righteous qi" conducive to moral cultivation; 2) A Comparative

Study of Different Schools of Learning by Wang Chong of the Eastern Han

Dynasty has a chapter entitled "Treatise on Cultivating Qi," which emphasizes

qi cultivation primarily in regards to maintaining good health; 3) Liu Xie of the

Southern Dynasties, in The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons, drew upon

the foregoing ideas and suggested maintaining good physical condition and

a free, composed mental state in the initial phase of literary creation, while

opposing excessive mental exertion. "Cultivating qi" subsequently became an

important term in the lexicon of literary psychology.