If you want the good stuff you gotta ask for the right stuff.
For books I would recommend The Way of Qi Gong by Ken Cohen, it is fairly popular but a good digest from a westerner who learned traditionally. There are tons of resources available, although obviously if you can find a more versed teacher is good. I really only know the rudiments.
In particular you will see a ton of a 'gate' systems. These are similar to the idea of chakras but instead are usually considered more to be on the surface than internal. (An astute observer may notice they often line up with the external vortices extending out from the chakra cores though.) This follows along the idea of energy meridians like all chinese medicine. (In Yoga, pertaining to chakras, these energy lines are called
nadi.)
The number of points and gates vary, but they're all based on the traditional meridian system.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/ar...0110600143
Another useful thought that many are not aware of is the traditional view that chi/ki/qi flows with the blood and while the energy moves along the meridians is correlates with the actual qi moving along the blood channels similar to the way electricity doesn't actually go 'inside' a wire but rather uses it as a guide to travel along.
Another key element to Qi Gong is working with the 3 Dantian. This is actually one of the most fundamental Qi Gong visualization practices and to understand it is important to get the most of Qi Gong.
https://taichibasics.com/three-dantians/
You see, Qi is only one of the three primary parts of energy working and corresponds to the Middle Dantian of the body, also the breath. Below that in the Lower Dantian (where the root chakra is) is an energy they call Jing which is equivalent to the 'vital energy' of the Ra Material and is considered exactly that in qi gong as well. In the Upper Dantian of the head you have Shen which is like 'divine energy' or related to spirit and consciousness.
In the conception of qi gong, Shen is not generated but rather is produced from Jing by circulating it with Qi, through breathing and the like. This is by bringing the Shen down and circulating.
The Chinese character for Qi actually reveals a deep understanding in Qi Gong.
What is depicted here is actually a steaming pot of rice. Steam is actually what corresponds with the idea of Qi in the cycle between the Dantian. You have the rice which is the Earth element, contained in the Metal element (since Chinese tradition uses the Wuxing, 5 element system). Below it is the Wood element. You have Shen which is the element of Fire, and Water in this case actually corresponds with both the mixture of the rice and the steam. The steam in this sense is considered a combination of Fire and Water.
There is a bit of an interesting note here that in old Western esoteric tradition Water and Earth were often coupled up as a single element, both as a way to obscure secrets and as a hint to their intertwined nature. Fluids and Solids.
So you have your set up here. The exercise of Qi Gong is to bring the Shen down (usually visualizing coming down the front), this Fire is set to the Wood element and this ignites the flames and boils the water (this is seen as drawing energy in to the Lower Dantian and concentrating it). As this energy concentrates, and movement begins to go through the system from it. You begin to feel the 'steam' or the movement of Qi moving up from the Lower to the Upper, like steam rising. Then, when it rises to the top, it condenses in to a Shen cloud and returns down to the Lower to transmute again. Actually, when you bring Shen down it becomes Jing, as the Lower Dantian becomes charged to overflowing it rises up as Qi and this cycle 'cooks' the rice, or does the work upon the Earth.
Remember when you breath in deep you are 'drawing in the fire'. It can be seen in one sense that the steam is a synthesis of the rice and the water acted upon by the fire, the catalyst.
These can all be seen as parallels to the idea of a Hermetically Sealed vessel working upon the Azoth or First Matter and transmuting it. In short, it is Chinese alchemy. Another useful note here, you can't use too much heat, or you burn your rice. Likewise, the old advice of the alchemists is that you must use continuous, steady heat. "Soft heat". An idea here that transmutation comes with gradual change and too much or too little doesn't produce the gold. Balance, as in all things.
Happy cooking.