Mastering Yang Style Taijiquan is the first English translation of Fu Zhongwen's esteemed handbook on the art of taijiquan. The book's superbly detailed form instructions are based upon Fu's more than twenty years of first-hand study as a disciple of the eminent Yang Chengfu. The historic line-art drawings that accompany the text were renderd frm photos taken of Yang Chengfu's form. Together, the drawings and form instructions constitute some of the best documentaton that we have of the traditional zYang Style Taijiquan form as taught by Master Yang Chengfu.

Other important features of this book include:

Fu Zhongwen's elucidation of moving points of concentration, termed jindian, in the Grasp Sparrow's Tail sequence of the form.
Succinct descriptioins of Fixed-Step Push Hands, Active-Step Push Hands, and Dalu practice.
Careful new translations of the five core 'Taiji Classics.'
The translator's close investigation into the language of the 'Taiji Classics,' revealing the grounding of Taiji theory in abiding philosophical themes.

Louis Swaim lives and practices in Oakland, california. He has also translated an earlier taijiquan manual, Yang Chengfu: The Essence and Applications of Taijiquan (North Atlantic Books, 2005). He received his master's degree in Chinese history, Mandarin, and Classical Chinese at U.C. Berkeley, and did additional language study at the Inter-University Program for Chinese Language Studies. He has been a taijiquan practitioner for over thirty years.

Contents

Translator's introduction
Mastering yang style taijiquan
Fu Zhongwen's preface
Gu Liuxin's 'An introduction to yang style taijiquan'
Chapter one Taijiquan essentials
Yang Chengfu's 'A discussion of taijiquan practice'
Yang Chengfu's 'The ten essentials of taijiquan theory'
Chapter Two Yang style taijiquan illustrated
The names and order of yang styel taijiquan postures
A few points of explanation regarding the illustrations
Yang style taijiquan illustrated (form instructions and important points)
Chapter Three Yang style taijiquan push hands
Fixed-step push hands (ding bu tuishou)
Active-step push hands (huo bu tuishou)
Dalu
Appendix Taijiquan classics
Translator's notes to the classics
'The taijiquan treatise'
'Song of the thirteen postures'
'The mental elucidatin of the thirteen postures'
'The taijiquan classic'
'The song of push hands'
Glossary
Bibliography

Complete detailed exposition of long form Yang style.
Uses line drawings to illustrate movements.
Photographs of tai chi masters.
Best suited to someone previously acquainted with Yang style.

(Regrettably I will never come close to mastering any style of taijijuan but hope to complete the full sequence with a rough imitation).

Fu Zhongwen's, a disciple of Yang Chengfu, detailed description of Yang Style traditional form execution. As well as detailed Tui Shou description.
A classic on the Yang Style form execution. It is written by a student of Yang Chengfu – a legendary Yang master of the XX century. It describes in detail every movement from the “long” Yang form, giving the full name, precise movement description, important points and possible mistakes. Besides it gives once again The ten Taiji essentials and clear dynamics of taiji basic movements: Grasp Sparrow’s Tail. There is explanation for basic Tui Shou with fixed feet position and active feet position. Can be useful to find correspondences with 42 movements form which is motly composed with Yang movements. By the way the postures in the pictures are not so high.