A tai chi chuan practitioner for over 20 years, Lee covers the history and philosophy of the art, general principles of movement, the solo exercises, push-hands sparring, applications, tai chi weapons and more. Fully illustrated.

Mr. Lee's introduction to the underlying philosophy and practice of Tai Chi help provide a very good foundation for the beginner and advanced student alike. This foundation should be applicable regardless of the style of Tai Chi you seek to learn. I've seen such an introduction in only one other text, Wen Shan Huang's Fundamental's of Tai Chi Ch'uan. Although I did not use this book to learn the Long Yang form, my teacher, fellow students and I have used it as a study guide in learning the Tai Chi Sword, Tai Chi Broadsword (knife), and the Two person 'Eight-Eight'. We have other texts, and use this as a good comparison text. Also, though we do not use ranking in our school, Mr. Lee reviews a workable ranking system for the schools that prefer such classification.

This is the only one book I know, you can really learn by your self Tai Chi step by step, I've been exersicing it by 30 years.
When I begun, in Chile, my country the Tai Chi was unknown. This book made it possible for me to catch the Tai Chi.

Contents

I Tai chi chuan
a A brief history
b The concept of yin-yang
c The meaning and relationship of tai chi to chuan
d Tai chi chuan and yoga
e Meditation, the first basic essential element
f Health, the second basic essental element
g Self-defense, the third basic essential element
h Meditation, health and self-defense: contradictory and incompatible?
i Meditation and self-defense: practice and integration
j Chi
II General principles and rules
a Psycho-physical relationship = the eleven key points (mind-body relationship)
b Physical principles and rules: balance and body mechanics
c Breathing methods and rules
III Tai chi chuan's solo exercises
a The approaches to practice
b Philosophical significance
c Tai chi's eighty-two: The long yang
d Tai chi's twenty-four: The short yang
IV Translations from the Chinese
a Rules of practice
b Rules of the body
c Ten essential points
V The art of join-stick-push hands
a Introduction
b General principles and rules
c Section One: the simple basic practice method forms of teh art of join-stick-push hands with fixed steps
d Section two: The four hands application of teh techniques of push up, pull back, press forward and push of the art of join-stick-push hands with fixed steps
e Section Three: The four hands application of the technques of push up, pull back, press forward and push of the art of join-stick-push hands with active steps
f Section Four: Ta Lu-Long pull back in a fixed pattern or great repulse in a random pattern
VI The application: Tai Chi's eighty-eight
a Introduction
b General principles and rules
c The names and the order of the eighty-eight forms
VII Tai chi weapons
a Introduction
b Tai chi sword
c Tai chi broadsword (Knife)
VIII The master-pupil relationship
IX Tai chi chuan: Experiences and lessons
a Experiences
b Lessons
X The grading system of the Yang School of Tai Chi Chuan
a The nine levels: Tai chi crest
a Curriculum
Bibliography