  The relationship of the quark model to the known chiral properties of QCD is
a longstanding problem in the interpretation of low energy QCD. In particular,
how can the pion be viewed as both a collective Goldstone boson quasiparticle
and as a valence quark antiquark bound state where universal hyperfine
interactions govern spin splittings in the same way as in the heavy quark
systems. We address this issue in a simplified model which; however, reproduces
all features of QCD relevant to this problem. A comparison of the many-body
solution to our model and the constituent quark model demonstrates that the
quark model is sufficiently flexible to describe meson hyperfine splitting
provided proper renormalization conditions and correct degrees of freedom are
employed consistently.
