The Chinese expression nei gong (lit. nei: interior, gong: work) covers a wide range of internal practices of Taoist tradition, associated with internal martial arts (neijia quan), mainly xingyi quan, bagua zhang and of course taiji quan.

Nei gong brings together breathing exercises and meditation, as well as a wide range of bodily practices, both dynamic and static, focusing on warming up and softening (ji ben gong), relaxing (song shen wu fa) , postures (zhan zhuang) and energy (qi gong).

Nei gong is part of Taoist alchemical practices, which consist of carrying out an internal transformation of the practitioner, i.e. a progression from the crude to the subtle: from jing (the substance, the physical body in the broad sense) to qi (the energy, vital breath) and shen (consciousness, spirit)*. These exercises, in addition to catalyzing this transformation, can also serve more immediate purposes, ranging from health, physical and mental, to martial and spiritual.

*Jing, qi and shen constitute the Three Treasures (san bao), a central concept in the Taoist tradition.