The Six Healing Sounds (Liu Zi Jue) · The Complete Reference to Each Sound, Organ, Practice and Lineage

The Six Healing Sounds, Liu Zi Jue (六字訣, the "six-character formula"), are a Chinese Qigong breathing practice in which six sounds are exhaled slowly, each paired in Traditional Chinese Medicine with an organ system: Xu with the liver, He with the heart, Hu with the spleen, Si with the lungs, Chui with the kidneys and Xi with the triple burner. First recorded by the Daoist scholar Tao Hongjing around the sixth century, the practice gained its movements in the Ming dynasty and became one of China's four standard Health Qigong forms in 2003. The free printable Six Healing Sounds chart sets all six sounds, with their organs, elements, seasons and emotions, on one page.

Most of us already know one of these sounds. The long sigh at the end of a hard day, the slow breath blown out before a difficult conversation: the body has its own ways of letting go. The Six Healing Sounds grew from noticing that the out-breath can take more than one shape, and from giving each shape a home in the body. Tao Hongjing put it simply: there is one way to breathe in, and six ways to breathe out.

This entry in the Global Spiritual Studies Qigong Library sets out what the tradition says about each sound, how it is voiced, the movement that accompanies it in the standard form, and exactly where the main lineages differ. It closes with what the research has found and the teachers who carry organ-focused Qigong today.

A short history

The earliest surviving record of the six sounds is in the Yangxing Yanming Lu, a collection on nurturing the mind and prolonging life compiled by Tao Hongjing (456 to 536), a leading figure of the Shangqing school of Daoism who was also versed in Chinese medicine. In his account the sounds are purely a breathing method: six ways of exhaling, with no movement at all.

The practice did not stay still. A 2020 history in the journal SAGE Open, by Juan Shi, Rou-Jia Wang and Feng-yan Wang, traces three stages: the creation of the sounds as a breathing regimen; a long transition in which the practice took on a meditative character and the relationship between each sound and its organ was redrawn; and a formalisation in which breath, attention and movement were brought together. Along the way, in the Song dynasty, Zou Pu'an wrote a treatise devoted to the six-character breathing method, and in the Ming dynasty writers including Hu Wenhuan and Gao Lian began to pair the sounds with movements of the body.

The version most widely taught today is Health Qigong Liu Zi Jue, one of four forms, alongside the Eight Brocades, the Five Animal Frolics and the Yi Jin Jing, that the Chinese Health Qigong Association introduced in 2003 under China's General Administration of Sport. It keeps the six sounds, fixes their order beginning with the liver, and gives each a simple standing movement. Most research trials use this form, which is why it anchors the table below. It is one version among several, and later in this guide we set it beside the others.

The Six Healing Sounds at a glance

The six sounds in the order of the 2003 standard form, with the organ pair, element, season, colour and emotion that Traditional Chinese Medicine places beside each, and the movement that accompanies the sound in that form. The first five follow the Five Elements; the sixth, for the triple burner, stands a little outside that scheme.

Sounds, characters and organ purposes follow Wikipedia's Liu Zi Jue article; some editions write the lung sound 呬. Element, season, colour and emotion are the Five Element correspondences of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Movements are summarised from the 2003 standard form as described in published trials, and vary in detail between teachers. Pronunciation cues are approximate; He is also written Ke or voiced "haa".

3 pages

Free printable chart

The Six Healing Sounds and Five Organs

The whole practice on three pages, for the wall, the mat or your phone.

What’s inside
✓	All six sounds with their characters, how to voice each one, and the organ, element, season and emotion the tradition pairs with it
✓	The five steps of a traditional round, from settling upright to six slow, soft repetitions
✓	The full Five Element table: organ pairs, seasons, colours, emotions, sense organs and tissues
✓	Where Daisy Lee's Tibetan tones differ from the Chinese six sounds

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The six sounds one by one

Each sound below follows the same pattern: what the tradition says about its organ, how the sound is shaped, the movement that goes with it in the standard form, and one way practitioners use it. The organ language is Traditional Chinese Medicine's, which describes functional systems of qi rather than anatomy.

Xu · the liver sound

In Traditional Chinese Medicine the liver belongs to Wood and to spring, and its work is to keep qi flowing smoothly through the body, the way a good gardener keeps water moving through a field. Its emotion is anger, and Wikipedia's Liu Zi Jue entry gives the purpose of Xu as levelling the liver qi. The sound is a soft, sustained "shoo", the lips slightly parted and the breath leaving slowly, like air escaping from a tyre that is in no hurry to empty. Nothing is pushed. In the standard form each palm in turn reaches diagonally forward on the out-breath, then returns to the waist. Practitioners often reach for Xu when frustration has nowhere useful to go: a few long "shoo" breaths at the end of a tense day, they say, let the jaw and the ribs soften. In the tradition's terms, that is anger given a slow and harmless way out.

He · the heart sound

The heart is the sovereign of the organs in Chinese medicine. It belongs to Fire and to summer, governs the blood and vessels, and houses the shen, often translated as mind or spirit. Its emotion is joy, and what the tradition sees as troubling the heart is joy in excess: overexcitement, restlessness, a mind that will not settle. He, sometimes written Ke or voiced "haa", is an open, breathy "huh", like a warm sigh with the mouth relaxed and the throat wide. In the standard form the knees soften as the hands rise before the chest, turn palms down and press slowly downward on the out-breath. Practitioners describe He as a settling sound. After an overstimulated day, or when thoughts are racing towards bedtime, a few slow He breaths are said to bring the warmth down out of the head and back into the body. The tradition calls this supplementing the heart qi.

Hu · the spleen sound

The spleen and stomach belong to Earth and to late summer, the ripe pause between growing and harvest. In Chinese medicine the spleen transforms food and drink into qi and blood and carries them where they are needed, and it is said to be weakened by damp and by overthinking. Hu is a deep, round "hoo", the lips shaped as if about to whistle, the sound rising from low in the belly rather than from the throat. In the standard form the hands rest in front of the abdomen, then open forward in a rounded arc, as though holding a large ball, and draw back as the breath finishes. Practitioners often turn to Hu when they notice they have been going round in circles, turning the same worry over and over. A slow "hoo", they find, brings attention down from the head into the centre of the body. The tradition calls it cultivating the spleen qi.

Si · the lung sound

The lungs belong to Metal and to autumn, the season of letting go. Chinese medicine says they govern qi and respiration, and it places grief with them, which many people find makes immediate sense: grief lives in the chest and catches in the breath. Si is a thin, even "sss", the teeth almost closed and the tip of the tongue resting just behind them, so that the breath leaves slowly through a narrow gap. Some editions write the character 呬 rather than 嘶, and most lineages agree on the sound itself. In the standard form the hands rise to the chest and the palms push gently forward as the sound is voiced. Practitioners describe Si as a sound that makes room for sadness without being swept away by it. There is something about a long, controlled out-breath that lets feeling move without flooding. The tradition calls it supplementing the lung qi.

Chui · the kidney sound

The kidneys belong to Water and to winter. In Chinese medicine they store jing, the essence behind growth, reproduction and ageing, and they are the root of yin and yang for the other organs. Their emotion is fear; in health, the tradition says, the same energy shows up as will and determination. Chui is a blowing sound, "chway", made as if blowing out a candle with the lips gently rounded. Wikipedia notes that while the other sounds are usually sustained, this one may be voiced more quickly and forcefully, though most teachers still keep it soft. In the standard form the hands move from in front of the belly around the sides of the waist, then press slowly down as the knees bend. Practitioners describe Chui as grounding. When anxiety pulls everything upward into the chest and shoulders, the downward movement and the blown breath seem to settle them back into the legs and feet.

Xi · the triple burner sound

The sixth sound belongs to no single organ. The triple burner, San Jiao, is Chinese medicine's name for the three spaces of the trunk and the way qi and fluids move through them: an upper burner around the heart and lungs, a middle burner around the stomach, spleen and liver, and a lower burner around the kidneys and bladder. It has no Western anatomical equivalent, and even within the tradition its nature has long been debated. Xi is a light, smiling "shee", the corners of the mouth lifted as though about to laugh; the character itself means mirthful. In the standard form the hands rise from the belly to head height, open outward and then float slowly down. Most lineages place Xi last, and practitioners describe it as a smoothing sound, evening out the whole trunk after the five organ sounds, the way you might smooth a sheet after making a bed.

How to practise

You do not need any experience to begin, and there is no wrong way to start. What follows is the common outline shared by most lineages, offered as a place to begin rather than a set of rules.

Posture. Stand with your feet about hip-width apart, knees soft, shoulders easy, the crown of the head lifting as though a thread drew it gently up. Or sit near the front of a steady chair with your feet flat on the floor and your back upright but not stiff. Both are traditional; the standard form is taught standing, and many teachers offer the sounds seated.

Breath. Breathe in quietly through the nose. Breathe out through the mouth on the sound, slowly and evenly, without squeezing the last of the air out. Between sounds, take a natural breath or two and let the body settle. If the breath itself is new territory, the library's entry on Qigong breathing covers the gentle belly breathing most forms build on.

Order. Choose one lineage's order and keep to it. The standard form runs liver, heart, spleen, lungs, kidneys, then the triple burner. Look closely and you will see that the first five follow the generating cycle of the Five Elements: Wood feeds Fire, Fire makes Earth, Earth bears Metal, Metal gathers Water. Mantak Chia's order follows the seasons from autumn instead.

Repetitions. Research trials of the standard form commonly use three repetitions of each sound before moving to the next, about fifteen minutes in all. Many teachers suggest three to six. Fewer, slower breaths are better than many hurried ones.

Voiced or silent. Health Qigong teaching describes three stages: voicing the sound aloud to learn its shape, then voicing it only slightly, then breathing it out silently, the mouth still shaping the sound. Beginners usually start aloud, softly. The sound is never meant to be loud. If you feel light-headed at any point, stop, breathe normally and rest.

A ten-minute session

If you would like to try the whole cycle, here is one gentle way through it. Take it as an invitation, and adjust anything that does not suit your body today.

1. Arrive (about one minute). Stand or sit. Feel your feet on the floor. Let three ordinary breaths come and go without changing them.
2. The five organ sounds (about six minutes). Voice Xu, He, Hu, Si and Chui in turn, three slow breaths each, with or without the movements. Take a quiet breath between sounds. If it helps, picture the organ, or the season, as you exhale.
3. Xi (about one minute). Three light, smiling breaths for the whole trunk, the hands rising and floating down if you are using the movements.
4. Rest (about two minutes). Place your hands over the lower belly and breathe without sound. Notice what has changed, and what has not. Both are worth knowing.

The lineages, and why versions differ

If you have compared two videos of the Six Healing Sounds and found that they disagree, you have not misunderstood anything. There is no single version. The sounds have been practised for some fifteen centuries across many schools, and even the pairing of sounds with organs was redrawn during the practice's long transition, as the SAGE Open history describes. Here are the versions you are most likely to meet.

Health Qigong order and movements from the 2003 standard form as described in published trials; Mantak Chia's order, sounds and postures from his own site, which describes the kidney sound as a candle-blowing "whooo" while many of his students write it "choo"; Robert Peng's sounds from his course description.

No single version is "correct". They share the idea of six breaths for the organ systems and most of the pairings, and they differ in order, spelling, posture and detail. That is how living traditions tend to look from the outside. If you learn from a teacher, follow their version. If you practise alone, choose one and stay with it long enough for it to become familiar.

Six Healing Sounds and Tibetan tones

If you have come here from Daisy Lee's teaching, you will have met a different set of sounds. In her Radiant Lotus Women's Qigong she teaches Tibetan sound-healing tones, four of which are named in her public course descriptions: ONG, AHH, LU and MEE. They belong to a separate tradition and are not the Chinese Liu Zi Jue under another name. The Daisy Lee profile explains her system and its lineage. What the two traditions share is the organ-and-emotion map of Traditional Chinese Medicine, which the library's entry on Qigong for the organs sets out organ by organ.

What the research says

Liu Zi Jue has been studied most in one setting: rehabilitation for people with stable chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Two meta-analyses of randomised trials, by Xiao and colleagues (BMC Complementary Medicine and Therapies, 2020, 14 trials, 920 patients; PMC7557061) and Gao and colleagues (Medicine, 2021, 16 trials, 1,039 patients; PMC8519198), found that practising Liu Zi Jue alongside usual care was associated with better lung function, walking distance and quality of life in stable COPD. Both describe much of the underlying evidence as low in quality, drawn from small trials with a risk of bias, and nearly all the trials in the second review were published in Chinese.

That is the honest scope: evidence for this specific practice as an add-on in COPD rehabilitation, alongside medical care. It is not evidence about healthy people, about any individual organ, or about the Tibetan tones some teachers use.

For Qigong more broadly, a 2013 systematic review and meta-analysis found Qigong was associated with reduced symptoms of depression and anxiety compared with usual care, while calling for better-quality trials (PMC3557628), and a 2024 systematic review found it helpful for stress, anxiety and depression, noting how much the studies varied (PMC11641396). The US National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health describes tai chi and Qigong as generally safe, with minor aches possible, and notes that Qigong has been studied less than tai chi (NCCIH).

Keep the chart where you practise

The free printable chart puts the reference table from this page on paper: all six sounds with their pronunciation cues, organ pairs, elements, seasons, colours and emotions, and a short note on practising gently. Many people find it easiest to learn the sounds with the chart propped up beside them for the first few weeks. More about it is on the Six Healing Sounds chart page.

Printable · 3 pages

Keep the six sounds where you practise

Every sound, organ and practice step on one printable chart.

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Where to learn

The Six Healing Sounds are easiest to learn from a person. Many tai chi and Qigong clubs teach the Health Qigong Liu Zi Jue form, and a teacher can show you in a few minutes what a paragraph cannot: how soft the sound is meant to be, and how little effort the movements need.

Among the teachers in the Qigong Library, Master Faye Li Yip teaches exactly this form. The founder of the Deyin Taijiquan Institute in the UK and co-founder of the British Health Qigong Association, she teaches the Chinese Liu Zi Jue as a Health Qigong form, in the standard order: Xu for the liver, Her for the heart, Hoo for the spleen, Si for the lungs, Chui for the kidneys and Xi for the San Jiao, each with its own mouth shape, breath and accompanying movement. Her spellings Her and Hoo are the sounds this page writes He and Hu. Her seven-module course, Revitalize & Restore Healthy Energy With Qigong's 6 Healing Sounds, gives one module to each sound and a seventh to the whole sequence, which she calls the journey of the six healing sounds. Her profile in the library sets out her lineage and the other Health Qigong forms she teaches, and her institute's YouTube channel carries her Liu Zi Jue.

If what draws you is the wider art of working with the organs and the feelings the tradition places in them, Daisy Lee is the teacher to know. She is a 59th-generation lineage holder of Hua Tuo's Five Animal Qigong, was named 2020 Qigong Master of the Year by the World Qigong Congress, and teaches an organ-focused form called Zang Fu Gong. In her own sound work she uses Tibetan tones rather than the Six Healing Sounds, and her organ practice follows the same Five Element map of organs and emotions, and her free session teaches two Zang Fu Gong practices, one for the liver and one for the lungs. The complete guide to her Zang Fu Gong course walks through the session and all seven modules.

If you would rather begin from a feeling than from a sound, the Organ-Emotion Finder takes you from an emotion to the organ, element, season and healing sound the tradition associates with it.

Frequently asked questions

Six sounds, one breath at a time · a practice that asks only that you breathe out a little more slowly than usual.