Wednesday, December 30, 2009

The Tao of Tai Chi Chuan and The Tao of Meditation by Jou Tsung Hwa (周宗樺)

Arguably the best book around on the topic of Tàijíquán (太極拳), "The Dao of Tai Chi Chuan" (太極拳之道) is both concise and deep. Its companion "The Tao of Meditation" (靜坐開悟之道) share the same characteristics. The approach is through principles, rather than routines, and the explanations given open the doors for further research. Some of the texts and terms mentioned by Master Jou Tsung Hwa (周宗樺) in the book make reference to ancient and classic works that few other authors dare to approach.
There exists a third volume, called "The Tao of I Ching", which for me seems less interesting, as much in it is quite redundant with other books on the same topic.
Master Jou Tsung Hwa (周宗樺) is one of the exponents of the first generations that brought Tàijíquán (太極拳) to the west, and a major Internal Martial Arts community and festival was initiated by him in the U.S.

The Brief Summary of Tàijíquán (太極約言) by Yáng Jiànhóu (楊健候)

太極約言

輕則靈,靈則動,動則變,變則化。

楊健候
"Light then agile, agile then mobile, mobile then variable, variable then neutralize."

From the book Tai Chi Secrets of the Yang Style (太極拳楊氏先哲秘要) by Master Yang Jwing Ming (楊俊敏).

Classical Chinese Texts

The best source of raw chinese classical texts with well-accepted translations is on the Chinese Text Project web site. Along with the texts, it is possible to find a number of tools for cross-reference, a dictionnary for classical chinese and a well managed forum.

On-line Chinese-English Dictionary

MDBG Chinese-English dictionary
One of the basic tools for the exercise of reading the chinese sources on Internal Martial Arts is to have a good dictionnary. Besides two printed dictionaries, I use the MDBG Chinese-English dictionary, which is quite good already and is evolving really fast.