氣

• Atmospheric: Literal vapor, steam, mist, or haze. Includes air, wind, and the atmospheric quality (such as humidity or pressure) of a location.
• Physiological: Breath and respiration. In medical or alchemical contexts, refers to "vital energy" or the animating force circulating through the body.
• Cosmological: The primordial substance or energetic substrate of the universe; the basic material from which all matter condenses or dissipates.
• Affective/Psychological: A person’s temperament, mood, or "air." Often describes a state experienced as physical pressure (e.g., anger "rising").

Primarily functions as a noun. In compounds, it can function as a qualifier denoting the quality or nature of a thing (e.g., "spirited" or "atmospheric").

• 氣 vs. 神 (shén) and 靈 (líng): While often glossed as "spirit," 氣 is material or substrate-based (energy/gas), whereas 神 and 靈 typically refer to consciousness, divinity, or numinous essence.
• Materiality: Even in metaphysical contexts, 氣 retains the quality of being a "substance" rather than a purely abstract concept.

• Variants: The forms 氣 and 气 were fluid in historical practice and are generally functionally interchangeable.
• Simplified variant: 气 (U+6C14).
• Additional variant: U+7081.