On 1998 Oct 15 (Thu) 12:01am (PDT),
Phuc Tram <songoku@CrystalTokyo.com> wrote:

On Thu, 15 Oct 1998, TJ Hamilton wrote:

Yet written with the same kanji. . . .

Chi (or Qi, as in Qi Qong or TaiQi/Taichi) is the Chinese form.
Ki is the Japanese form.

Due to various levels of simplification of Chinese characters in
different countries, the Japanese character and the Chinese characters
are actually written differently nowadays.

The Wade-Giles transliteration of this character is "ch'i".  The
apostrophe is important as it indicates that the "ch" sound is
aspirated, that is, pronounced with a puff of air.  Thus, it sounds
like a "ch" sound.  This is transliterated in pinyin as "qi."

The syllable transliterated in Wade-Giles as "chi" is pronounced without
a puff of air, and thus sounds like "jee."  This is transliterated in
pinyin as "ji."  Many times, people unfamilar with Wade-Giles will drop
the apostrophes, unaware that they are making it impossible to determine
how the word should be pronounced.

I believe the first thing Phuc Tram is refering to is "qi gong," and
I assume that "qong" is a typo.

The second thing he refers to should not be written with a "q" in it.
It would be written "tai chi ch'uan" in Wade-Giles (commonly abbreviated
"tai chi") and "tai ji quan" in pinyin (and abbreviated "tai ji.")  The
second character neither looks nor sounds anything like the character in
question.  The name means something like "extreme ultimate fist."

-- Randall M! Gee, Keeper of Gummi Wisdom
(gee@math.berkeley.edu)