The importance of multicultural art education has been addressed by art educators over the past 15 years. Art educators maintain that art is capable of empowering mutual respect and appreciation for people, objects, and ideas among diverse groups. Although many educators/teachers use non-Western artworks or artifacts to enrich their art programs, they are often challenged to seek contextual information about these foreign objects in order to appropriately present them in the classroom. As in most societies, East Asian art has been created in the name of aesthetic enjoyment, religious faith, utilitarian necessity, and spiritual enlightenment (Chung, 2003; Suzuki, 1957). In addition to satisfying the aesthetic senses, a number of East Asian cultural and aesthetic traditions have been influenced by spiritual philosophies developed in or introduced to early China and Japan, including Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism. Deriving from Daoism, the chi concept has exerted a significant influence on sociopolitical, economic, cultural, and aesthetic practices in East Asian societies for many centuries. A contextual approach to understanding traditional East Asian brushwork (calligraphy and ink paintings) should explore the spiritual nature involved in their creation and appreciation. Specifically, students need to be shown how the relationship between aesthetic practice and spirituality has guided many generations of traditional calligraphers and ink painters in East Asian. This article illuminates the relationship between aesthetic practice and spirituality by exploring the significance of chi in traditional East Asian brushwork. Understanding the significance of chi in traditional East Asian brushwork and the chi-based concepts of preparation ritual, living bone structure, harmony and balance, body-mind unification, and the aesthetics of simplicity and the ordinary will assist art educators in their classroom discussions. (Contains 4 figures and 6 endnotes.)