2006-04-22 Interesting but not practical...

There are, fortunately, an increasing number of books on early Chinese martial arts available today. This one provides an interesting perspective on martial arts book publishing from early, wood-block illustrated volumes of the 16th century to the spate of 1920s guides, with a nice discussion of the background society.

My reservation is from the point of view of a practitioner, not a historian and this book provides nothing in the way of practical detail. Fair enough, it doesn't claim to and delivers, in a well produced and illustrated volume, what it says on the cover. Since many people will want a practical guide, I only give it three stars. For scholars and historians, it should get more.

The authors give a good insight into the change in attitude towards these arts by the authorities and society in general, such as their later presentation as primarily health exercises rather than for real combat use and the type of people who taught these methods (more or less on a par with today's night club bouncers!)

The other doubt I have is that the author is of the 'rational' (= reductionist) school of martial arts, dismissing any real link between internal schools and philosophical principles such as the Five Elements or Yi Ching. He is clearly in favour of sweat and hard knocks, even for taiji! Arguably, the most famous taijiquan teacher known in the West is Cheng Manching, who quite clearly (from his writings and those of his students) did make such a link, describing taiji as the embodiment of the Dao.

So, it is a bit of a flaw, in my view, that this book only mentions Cheng in passing. It would have been interesting to have some commentary on his works as published in China and Taiwan, and (another theme of the authors) his influence in transmitting taiji and it's philosophy to the West (and, indeed, what influence he had in Taiwan.) Similarly, some of Robert W Smith's early works were the first introduction to genuine internal arts in English but receive little mention.

If you are a practitioner looking for a detailed guide, this is not it - check the same publishers for translations of more practical works. If you want background and a well-researched perspective on the history of martial arts publishing, then you will find this an interesting reference. Not agreeing with the authors' personal take is actually quite a good stimulus to clarifying ones own ideas!

Incidentally, we are still waiting for a full biography of Cheng, surely a book in itself?