Review: Eight Ways Chi Gong

Eight Ways Chi Gong
by Sara and Michael Stenson
Abiquiu Press

$18 US

72 pages, paperback

This slender book is a great supplement to individual or group instruction in a set of eight chi gong exercises from the Cheng Man-Ching taiji lineage. The introductory section outlines the origins of chi gong and these particular exercises, as well as the principles of taiji movement, without an over emphasis on Chinese words or jargon more familiar to intermediate or advanced taiji practitioners. 

True to its stated intent, the soft-spoken language and presentation are well suited to older students interested in gentle movements to improve their mobility and balance.  Each exercise is nicely presented with a movement visualization, exercise description with accompanying drawings and the specific value or benefit of that exercise.  The description notes potential movement errors for beginners to avoid while encouraging exploration of what may be unfamiliar movements. 

Can individuals with no prior chi gong or taiji experience pick up this book and do the exercises without a teacher's guidance? Naturally, personal instruction improves the likelihood of both incorporating them into daily life as well as averting poor execution of the movements.  However, it is possible, I think, to gain some benefit from learning the exercises without hands-on instruction if a qualified teacher isn't available. While aimed at beginners with no taiji training, more experienced taiji players may find a quick read stimulates physical and/or mental explorations of a daily practice that has become routine and habitual.

    —Cheryl Powers

    Cheryl Powers is the associate director of Great River T'ai Chi Ch'uan in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Book Review: In the Presence of Cheng Man-Ch'ing

 

In the Presence of Cheng Man-Ch'ing: 
My Life and Lessons with the Master of Five Excellences
by William C. Phillips
Hardcover, 236 pages
Floating World Press, 2020, $24.95
ISBN: 978-0648283126

 Professor Cheng Man-ch'ing (Zheng Manqing, 1902–1975) was a noted painter, writer, herbal doctor, and taijiquan teacher. His last decade was spent in New York City. This brought him into contact with numerous young American martial artists, such as Bill Phillips, the author of this delightful memoir. Phillips, now the head of Patience T'ai Chi, describes the setting of the mid-to-late 1960s, during which numbers of skilled karate, judo, aikido, and taekwondo practitioners, after hearing about Cheng, came to study with him. Even skeptics left impressed.

In this book, we sit at Philips' side listening to Cheng's spontaneous insights about taiji. We hear the formal lectures on Laozi, Confucianism, health, morals, and art. We witness the public and the private encounters, the snapshots of Chinatown of fifty years ago. While much of the book is about Cheng Man-ch'ing and the ideas he imparted, it is told through Phillips' own life course: growing as a martial artist, seeking out a master teacher, maturing and attaining insight with age, and, following Cheng's model of sharing knowledge, becoming a teacher.

Phillips' book joins the ranks of memoirs written by direct students of Professor Cheng Man-ch'ing; in particular Wolfe Lowenthal and Robert W. Smith. All of these paint a picture of a skillful practitioner, revered by many, yet very human.

Bill Phillips does not spare himself in this look back. One year, he willingly took on the task of driving Cheng and his assistants to class, even though it was far out of his way. On one trip to the studio, Cheng and assistant conversed in Chinese, and Phillips heard his name and the word "kung fu" (gongfu) mentioned.

Naturally, I got excited. Was he preparing to tell me a secret of kungfu? Was that to be my reward for driving him? Did I know something about kung fu that he was praising? So I quickly and impolitely interrupted and asked. I was told that [Professor Cheng] had said that I should use more discipline in my driving. What about the words kung fu that I had heard, I eagerly wondered out loud. The answer was: it means discipline, as when American martial artists say, "He studies the art," and we know they are referring to a martial art, when Chinese refer to "discipline," they are referring sometimes to a specific discipline—martial art. However, in this case Professor was not. He was referring to the lack of self-discipline in my driving. I was hitting far too many potholes as I drove. My chest feell, my ego deflated.... It was the first time, but not the last time that I embarrassed myself in front of the Professor.

Those who studied with Cheng often point out that Cheng did not keep secrets. Phillips explains,

I think that many of those people [who doubted Cheng] were too stiff and strong to get a lot of what he was trying to explain. Of course, those who could not seem to get it with their first effort, rahter than redouble their efforst, chose to think there must be a secret he was not sharing.

Taiji people from all styles will enjoy this view of one of the leading taiji figures of the late twentieth century. Those of Cheng's direct lineage will gain more insight into his teachings and the great impact he had on a wide variety of students.

Book Review: The Tao of Tai Chi: The Making of a New Science by Bill Douglas

The Tao of Tai Chi: The Making of a New Science

Bill Douglas
SmartTaichi Publishing, 2016
Paperback, 246 pp
US$19.95
ISBN 978-1537117935

The Tao of Tai Chi is a very informative, personal, and eclectic book perched on the “boundary” between science and spirituality. Half philosophy, half autobiography, the book gives insights into one man’s journey with taiji (tai chi).

Author Bill Douglas is known to many as the founder of World Tai Chi and Qigong Day, which began in 1999.
For those who are curious about the event’s origin and founder, this book will introduce the thinking and motivation behind this labor of love that has helped spread taiji around the world. Douglas is also author of widely selling The Complete Idiots Guide to T’ai Chi and Qigong (Alpha, 2012).

The Tao of Tai Ch is written more as a conversation with the author. In essence, it is organized as a flow of topics, eschewing standard book formating and page numbers.

Blending of practice into daily life is a given for Douglas. Going to the supermarket becomes a lesson in letting go and seeing the beauty of the universe:

“If I rush into a supermarket I am in a Yang state of mind. I am on a mission with a set of tasks I must perform, holding them, sometimes squeezing them in my heart and mind. However, when I sit in my car before entering the store and ‘breathe’ and ‘let go,’ and fall into that Yin state where my mind lets go of mental control (and my knowing awareness allows the light of the universe, the lightness of the universe, to expand through it), then my spine and nervous system’s sensory awareness lets go of trying to feel or trying not to feel....

“I feel the cool air conditioner on my face as I walk through the doors of the supermarket,. I see the extraordinary beauty of the eggplant’s purple majesty, succulent and massive in its glory. The golden yellow of bananas and peppers, the smells of fruits and flowers...

“I still get things I need done, but it is a completely different reality now.”

This is an inspirational book suited for all readers.

Review: Concepts for Taiji Partner Training-Dalu: The Four-Corner Push-Hands Training Method

Concepts for Taiji Partner Training-Dalu: The Four-Corner Push-Hands Training Method by Stephen Goodson and Billy Fox
CreateSpace, 2015
paperback, 68 pp
US$25
ISBN 978-1508941224

This slim, succinct volume, Concepts for Taiji Partner Training-Dalu, presents a moving-step sequence related to the “Four Corners” section of solo taiji practice. Dalu, or “Great Rollback,” serves as a complement to typical Tuishou (Push Hands). Tuishou relies on Ward-off, Rollback, Press, and Push, and is most often done with fixed steps. On the other hand, Dalu encompasses Split, Pull, Shoulder, Rollback, and uses moving steps.

After some introductory material, the authors present the solo practice of Dalu, and then its two-person practice. These are followed by application in the form of tifang (uprooting) and “The Game” of how to play with Dalu. Practice and theory are nicely blended, and throughout the book, adherence to the taiji principle of softness is emphasized. “The two-person exercises are akin to practicing tennis with a friend, rather than competing in a tennis match with an opponent.... The cooperative spirit cannot be overstated; competition changes the exercise into a crude wrestling match, which is useless, and your training will be in vain” The authors acknowledge their debt in these concepts and techniques to their teacher Robert Smith, a leading student of Cheng Man-ch’ing (Zheng Manqing).

Concepts for Taiji Partner Training-Dalu is nicely formatted, with clear photography, descriptions, footcharts, and reference materials. It is clearly enough written so that newcomers to Dalu practice will benefit, and those who are more experienced will certainly gain new insights.

Books and Media Received Fall 2015

The Mind Inside Tai Chi: Sustaining a Joyful Heart by Henry Zhuang (YMAA 2015)
Taichi: The Story of a Chinese Master in America by Marc Meyer (Booklocker 2014). A novel about a Chinese-American family and their immigrant uncle, and the martial arts.
The Nature of Daoist Meditation by Robert James Coons (Tambuli 2015)
I Ching: The Book of Change by David Hinton (Farrar, Straus and Giroux 2015). A unique rendering of the divination classic by an experienced translator. See our full review at Contemplating I Ching.
I Ching: The Essential Translation of the Ancient Chinese Oracle and Book of Wisdom (Penguin Classics 2015)
The Qing Dynasty and Traditional Chinese Culture by Richard J. Smith (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers 2015)

New Taiji Anthologies on Chen Style, Zheng Manqing, Taiji for Health

The Journal of Asian Martial Arts has created several taiji-related anthologies bundling its articles on a number of topics of interest, all available as ebooks at Via Media. These articles represent the accumulation of two decades of publication by leading researchers and practitioners in the field.
ChengMan-ch'ing and Tai Chi: Echoes in the Hall of Happiness, by Barbara Davis, Donald Davis, Michael DeMarco, T. G. LaFredo, Lawrence L. Mann, Russ Mason, Robert W. Smith, and Nigel Sutton.	T'ai Chi & Qigong for Your Health: Historical and Scientific Foundations by Michael DeMarco, M.A., Arieh Lev Breslow, M.A., S. Kachur, B.M.R. (P.T), R.N. Carleton, M.A. & G. , Kenneth S. Cohen, M.A., M.S.Th., C.J. Rhoads, D.Ed., M.Ed., Duane Crider, Ph.D.

Chen T’ai Chi: Traditional Instructions from the Chen Village, Vol. 2 by Adam Wallace, Michael A. DeMarco, M.A. & A. Edwin Matthews, Yaron Seidman, L.Ac., Michael Rosario Graycar and Rachel Tomlinson, M.Ed, Bosco Seung-Chul Baek, B.S.

Chen T’ai Chi: Traditional Instructions from the Chen Village, Vol. 1, by Dietmar Stubenbaum, Wong Jiaxiang; Michael DeMarco, M.A., Trans., Miriam O’Conner, M.A., Stephan Berwick, M.A., Asr Cordes, David Gaffney, B.A.

Media Reviews: New Book on Cheng Man-ch'ing's Taijiquan

Wisdom of the Masters: Insights into Cheng Man Ching's Art
Nigel Sutton
Tambuli Media, 2014
176 pages
ISBN-10: 0692250913

Cheng Man-ch'ing and his teachings are the subject of this new book from Nigel Sutton. The book is based on Sutton's encounters with the Malaysian branch of Cheng Man-ch'ing's tradition: Lau Kim Hong, Lee Bei Lei, Zhou Mu Tu, Ho Ah San, Tan Ching Ning, Dr. Fong Fung Tong, Wu Chiang Hsing and Koh Ah Tee. The focus is on practice of taijiquan as a martial art and neigong. The interviewees are of a calibre and age that allows for some deep reflections, insights on practice and teaching, melding taiji with spiritual practices, taiji as a "Dao," role of lineage, and many other topics, including the relationship of gongfu to years of practice, and the relationship to aging. 
 Reminiscent of Robert Smith's Masters and Methods, the book is conversational in tone, and explores the meaning of, and extreme dedication to taijiquan for these men's lives, with many insights into practice, regardless of the reader's lineage.

Media Review: Harvard Medical School Guide to Tai Chi

Harvard Medical School Guide to Tai Chi: 12 Weeks to a Healthy Body, Strong Heart & Sharp Mind, by Peter Wayne and Mark Fuerst (Shambhala, 2013). US$16.95.
This book is a very nice comprehensive look at t'ai chi ch'uan (taijiquan) for the general public as well as experienced practitioners. History, philosophy, and practice are discussed, and a short form is presented with clear instructions.
A particularly outstanding feature is the lengthy discussion of how tai chi can be used to help maintain good health, and how it can be used as part of treatment plans for various illness. Doctors and other medical practitioners will appreciate the well-annotated information. Attention is given to integrating tai chi into daily life and into other sports.

New Books and Media

Celestial Healing: Energy, Mind and Spirit in Traditional Medicines of China, and East and Southeast Asia by Marc S. Micozzi, MD, PhD, with Kevin Ergil, MA, MS, LAc (Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture, Qi, and Qi Gong), Laurel S. Gabler, BA, MSc (Thai Medicine) and Kerry Palanjian, BA, MBA (Shiatsu).
  "Historically, the influence of Chinese medical traditions, thought to be revealed from divine sources, extended East to Korea and Japan and as far South as Indochina, the Malay Peninsula and the Indonesian Archipelago. As the distinct medical traditions of these regions encountered the ancient medicine of mainland China, they absorbed and transformed them based on their own indigenous healing practices, and herbal and plant resources. In Celestial Healing, Dr. Marc Micozzi has made the fascinating history and ingenious practice of these ancient traditions accessible to the Western reader."

Theory and Practice of Taiji Qigong by Chris Jarmey, Lotus Publishing, 2011
"Taiji Qigong is an easy-to-learn system of energy-enhancing exercises, which coordinates movement with breathing and inner concentration. If practiced regularly, it will give you more energy, improve health and help prevent illness. Taiji Qigong is widely practiced throughout the Far East and increasingly throughout the Western world. Research indicates that Qigong relaxes the muscles and nervous system (so improving the function of the body systems) and benefits posture, balance and flexibility of joints. This book acts as an in-depth instruction manual for the practice of the 18 Stances of Taiji Qigong (Taiji Qigong Shibashi), which is widely practiced throughout the Far East and increasingly throughout the Western world. Many of the exercises are loosely based on the movements and stances of Taiji Quan. The book covers: the theory and practice of Qi and Qigong; the general principles of Qigong practice, and the 18 Movements of Taiji Qigong."

"The late Chris Jarmey MCSP DS MRSS taught shiatsu, qigong, bodywork therapy and anatomy, and founded the European Shiatsu School. He was the author of many books on anatomy and bodywork."

New Tai Chi Books

Taijiquan and the Search for the Little Old Chinese Man is a mixture of ethnography and memoir. The book examines how identity is constructed through the practice of an art---in this case, taijiquan. At times seeming like Mark Salzman's Iron and Silk meets Margaret Mead's Coming of Age in Samoa, the book covers author Adam Frank's study of taijiquan in the US and China with Pang Tianzhu, among others. The author is Professor of Asian Studies at Honors College at the University of Central Arkansas.



Cheng Man-ch'ing (Zheng Manqing), taiji master and artist, was a practicing doctor of traditional Chinese medicine from the 1930s on. Cheng's Insights on Women's Medicine (女科心法 Nu'ke xinfa) has been translated by Douglas Wile, (Sweet Ch'i Press; order through Redwing Books). Cheng wrote several books about Chinese medicine on topics related to women's health, cancer, and orthopedics, as well as newspaper columns on meditation and tai chi. His books on medicine discuss theory, application, and prescriptions, and have interesting anecdotes about cases.

New Books--August 2009

Two books on taijiquan:
The Complete Taiji Dao: The Art of the Chinese Saber by Zhang Yun (Blue Snake Books). "The dao, a single-edged sword with a curved blade, is one of the most popular weapons in traditional Chinese martial arts. The art of Taiji Dao is a set of skills for using the dao, derived from the popular martial art Taijiquan. One of the most important aspects of Taijiquan practice."

The Philosophy of Tai Chi Chuan: Wisdom from Confucius, Lao Tzu, and Other Great Thinkers by Freya Boedicker and Martin Boedicker(Blue Snake Books) "The essence of Tai Chi Chuan lies in the rich philosophy of ancient China. While most Tai Chi practitioners are aware of the value that studying Chinese philosophy can bring to their practice, it is often difficult to pick out those texts that are most relevant to Tai Chi...."

Two new books from Three Pines Press focus on Daoism:
Beyond the Daode jing: Twofold Mystery in Tang Daoism by Friederike Assandri
"Developing at a time of intense interaction and debate among Daoists and Buddhists, Twofold Mystery integrates many originally Buddhist concepts into a Daoist theory of salvation based on, yet going beyond, the Daode jing. Heir to the philosophical tradition of Dark Learning or Mystery Study as well as to Daoist devotional and immortality schools of the Six Dynasties, Twofold Mystery is key to understanding medieval Daoist thought."
Internal Alchemy: Self, Society and the Quest for Immortality book coverInternal Alchemy: Self, Society, and the Quest for Immortality edited by Livia Kohn and Robin R. Wang
"Internal alchemy (neidan) has been the dominant system of Daoist spiritual practice since the Song dynasty, when it was defined as the complex integration of multiple forms of Daoist self-cultivation. Its practitioners transform body energies into subtle levels of spirit and pure cosmic being, hoping to find illumination by returning to the fundamental order of the cosmos and in the process reconcile physiological training with intellectual speculation."