Travel World guide

This Book is a Treasure for Kung-Fu Artist. Many Technique’s,Styles and History of Kung-Fu Sytems are covered that have never been Taught some also not know to Western Civilization.

Up until now this masterful training manual of the Bagua form has been reserved for the Chinese only. Now Kent Howard has brought it to the English-speaking world as only he can. Anyone who is interested in the martial arts will consider this book a must for their collection. The book is packed with photos that bring the form to life. Thanks Kent for the gift of this great martial arts masterpiece.

Not only does this book talk about fighting skills It’s like a History book. So if someone studied nothing, after reading this book they would have a clear understanding of internal and external martial arts. I also read his sword book which is also a GREAT book. This book is great for people already on the Martial Arts road and a Beautilful book for those just starting out. It’s a must read.

This is really three books in one, and is quite lengthy and packed with a lot of information at 368 pages. The book is good for intermediate students in the internal martial arts of Xingyi, Baguazhang and Tai chi, who have been practicing one of these styles for a number of years, are now in the phase of “finding the hidden treasures” in their art, and who would like some exposure to the other neijia styles. The book is not a “how to” and assumes that the reader has some understanding of internal power, whole body movement, and chi flow. The first third of the book is a survey of the history and lineage of the three major styles of internal gongfu, plus a brief outline of tongbei quan and baji quan. Nothing new or controversial here, but fairly comprehensive and a good reference on lineages. The second third of the book is a survey of basic techniques, palms, moves, and steps from the various styles. It can’t be comprehensive, given that the authors are discussing five different styles, but it points out the main techniques, how they overlap from style to style, and is intended as sort of a basic tool kit for internal gongfu. In that sense I think the authors succeeded quite well and a close reading will provide one or three good insights for nearly all neijia practitioners. The final third of the book is dedicated to a form developed by Lu Shengli that borrows from these major neijia styles with a discussion of the applications of all of the moves in the form. Now the standard disclaimer with martial arts books is that you can’t learn a form from a book; however, given that the book is attempting a synthesis of the major styles, and the form is the ultimate demonstration of that synthesis, the presentation of the form is a bit disappointing here. As discussed by other reviewers, the third section of the book regarding the form is the weakest section of the book. The description of the movements is well done, however the form itself is very poorly illustrated which is a shame. The photos are taken outside so there are no reference points to use in the background, the footwork is not well documented or described, Master Shengli is dressed in a traditional large robe such that his palms are hidden many times, and the pictures are small and difficult to view clearly. If all of the pictures were sized like those on page 271, it would be different but in most cases the pictures are just too small and unclear even with a hand lens. However the written descriptions are better than average, and the applications are shown……. so you can reverse engineer the form with patience and practice, and of course use your own style and principles to develop a parallel series of forms along the line of the form presented.

I would like to congratulate Zhang Yun and Susan Darley on the translation, editing, and writing, which is a main reason for my 4 stars, as the writing here is far better than 90% of the martial arts books out there.

Just got my copy recently and can’t put it down. This book takes a lot of the mystery out of the internal martial arts equation and explains principles and training methods in an easy to understand manner. This book is really a good resource for understanding your training. Of course, one always needs a good teacher to find the right path, but this book goes a long way in helping to bridge the gap. Lots of good pictures and detailed instruction too.

It is a good book, but it takes a long time to figure out what they are talking about. Don’t get me wrong, it is a valid piece, but it is for someone who is already familiar with the Chinese internal arts. Not a price but for your money, you might want to go with something else.

I agree with the other reviewers that this is an excellent book. I’ve collected a lot of material on Bagua Zhang over the years, but unfortunately many of the forms described in these books are quite beautiful, but far too complex to practice without a teacher. Wang Shujin’s first form, the one described in this book, is elegant and classical without being so difficult that a dedicated student couldn’t benefit from working through the moves. Kent Howard, the translator, also has uploaded eight or ten videos on YouTube.com which can help a student see the form in motion. Well done! I hope to see more material about Bagua Zhang from this translator. Students interested in this subject should also consider books by Robert W. Smith, Yang Jwing-Ming, John P. Painter, and Bruce K. Frantzis, which contain valuable material beyond the form.

All students and fans of the Chinese Internal Martial Arts will appreciate this fine book. Kent Howard has given us a great gift by sharing this work with all aficionados of the Internal Arts.
Anyone that may have come across Robert Smith’s wonderful books on Chinese Boxing and its “Internal Arts” will know this man. Furthermore, those who already know of Baguazhang and special publications like Dan Miller’s “Pa Kua Chang Journal” will enjoy this book. Check the blurbs by Dan Miller and Bruce “Kumar” Frantzis – you will not be disappointed – this is a scholarly work.

I would agrre with Magellans review, in addition I would say that no book covers it all and there is some interesting history here which will make for great disagreements for years to come amongst the experts but I think much of it possibly comes through Wang Pei Sheng who is the real gem of this book. He was there amongst the tigers and I’ve heard before he fought he would ask the person which style he would like him to use to beat them with. The history of Wudang technique was good because it is and always has been cloudy. Its true that there could be more information on Taiji but all three including Bagua and Hsingi are treated equally. I believe the author has deep knowledge and this is just the tip of the iceburg I will put it with my other favorites.

L.A. Kane’s summary of the contents is pretty complete.

“…. The book begins with some fascinating history, principle, and background information about xingyi quan, taiji quan, and bagua zhang. There is a bit about tongbei quan and baji quan too,… then goes into the fundamentals of punching, elbow strikes, shoulder strikes, hip strikes, knee strikes, kicking, body alignment, and movement. The next section covers some basic applications and a good discussion of pushing hands (tui shou) and energy release (fa jin). The next section demonstrates a sixteen-posture form along with its applications. The final section goes in-depth into executing applications, important things like assessing an opponent, range, timing, direction, movement, and protecting your vital areas. There is a tiny portion about real fighting at the very end, but it is nowhere near complete or all encompassing… There is, however, a lot of great material about fighting applications from the various forms. If that is what you are looking for, you’ve found an excellent resource in this tome. …”

All I can add to his discussion is that the book also includes a good discussion of standing meditation postures used in Xingyi and Yichuan; and that the translators manasge to get across the author’s sincere desire to pass on and underscore those points of practice that the writer found most useful in decades of practicing the internal styles.

My one big reservation is that however clearly the form is described, that section of the book needs far more photos of each movement. That so much care went into the text, it’s a shame the authors didn’t (couldn’t) reinforce important points with more photos.

Otherwise The book is loaded with useful information for beginning and intermediate students. I am no expert (and I only skimmed much of the historical material) but I find the points of practice very interesting and very helpful.

To answer LA Kane’s critic about the books scope I’d like to suggest checking out Tim Cartmell’s books and videotapes on combat applications of postures in the internal style forms. For a sense of Cartmell’s writing, and point of view, check out the entry on him in the book “Nei Jia Quan : Internal Martial Arts Teachers” or Cartmell’s book, “Effortless Combat Throws”.

This is one of the few books on neijia I would recommend on arts that are difficult at best to learn live. The detail on basic training is excellent, something that many western “experts” talk about but seldom “eat the bitter”.
The historical info is probably oral transmission from Wang Pei Sheng who trained with a who’s who of Beijing teachers. Would have preferred to see a tape of the form. Getting it from a book without previous experience with these styles is not likely. Nevertheless, the basic training detail and interesting history make it worth the price. I have never met the author but have heard of him from friends in Beijing who say he is the real deal.
The reviewer below “from Beijing” who disliked it might go discuss the “laughable” techniques with the author(who is listed as really living in Beijing} and report back to us.

This is a great addition to the all-too-few English language translations of classic Chinese martial Arts texts. It’s extremely valuable for practitioners to be able to read the actual writings of the great masters and to see original photos of them demonstrating their arts. Well done!

Thank you Kent for translating one of the great Bagua master’s text. My teacher T.T. Tchoung was a friend and student of the Great Master Wang. This books clears up many questions. In addition a great part of this book is Kent’s clarification on the documented history of Bagua.
Super

This is an excellent book on several of the internal arts, and even goes into some other styles most people have probably never heard of, such as liu he ba fa, but it’s not a good book for a beginner. If you’re an intermediate student, this book will be fine, but for a rank beginner I think it would be too difficult. But even after a year of good training, this book might be okay (but the person would have to work pretty hard, though).

That having been said, there’s a lot of good information here, both about internal arts philosophy and their approach as well as about more practical techniques. internal principles get discussed in detail, and there is a nice presentation of the 16 form set, one I didn’t know, and I know a lot of Chinese forms at this point, both in tai chi and kung fu. But the internal martial arts are far more diverse and broader than many people know, and no one can know everything.

Someone commented that the writing wasn’t that good, but I disagree. That had to do more with translating more literally from the Chinese into English, so the writing actually sounds in many ways more Chinese rather than like professional written English. And I have no problem with that, having studied a little Mandarin in college.

I agree with Lawrence Kane’s earlier review that material on actual combat techniques should have been included, and that the title is therefore misleading. Tai chi, for example, does have knife defense techniques that are rarely seen, and tai chi knife techniques also. (Note that I’m not referring to the tai chi “knife” form, which actually means the broadsword or saber, but smaller knives). But realistically, that would require another book just by itself.

I really enjoyed this book, speaking as someone who has studied tai chi for over 20 years, and also I’ve had some exposure to ba gua, which I wish I could have had more of, along with hsing i. But perhaps some day I’ll be able to do that. In the meantime, this book helped fill some of the gaps in my own knowledge and I can recommend it to anyone wanting to learn more about the subject.

By the way, Bruce Kumar Frantzis’s book on the internal martial arts is also excellent and I can recommend that too, as well. There is now a new edition of the book out as well.

Mr Lu’s volume, “Combat techniques of Taiji, Xingyi, and Bagua: Principles and practices of Internal Martial Arts” (hereafter CT)gives a short history and explanation of the three internal styles of Chinese martial arts, and then goes on to tackle the practical side of it all: how to achieve results with your training.

It is all presented in plain English, and mr Lu also provides the Chinese names (and most of the time also the characters)of the concepts or people he is describing. It is a fairly complete book (well, trying to be anyway. See below), covering most aspects of internal martial arts. Also it is well illustrated with many pictures.

By far the best thing about the CT is, that it describes the martial sides of the internal arts. Especially taijis use as a “legitimate” martial art is fading far too fast, so it’s good to see a new book that promotes the martial side of internal martial arts.

Sadly there is a number of problems with CT. Firstly and most importantly, the history section of the book is very, very far from good. Mr Lu presents one version as being the truest without giving any evidence supporting his theories (or for that matter disproving the other versions). He simply claims that his presentation is the most widely accepted in China. Which is plainly wrong. For example does most Chinese works on taiji NOT recognize Zhang Sanfeng as the creator of taiji. He also claims that Chen Fake’s gongfu to this day is being regarded as being “not taiji”, which again is not the truth. Nobody in China denies that Chen Fake’s taiji was taiji. The list continues.

Also he gives no bibliography and no sources, which makes it impossible for the reader to make his own assesments on the material. We have to take mr Lu’s word for it (seeing it is a translation from Chinese, he is excused to a certain extent. In general Chinese book (even scientific volumes) doesn’t have bibliographies).

Furthermore, the official Chinese transcription system, pinyin, is used most of the time, but not always, which is a bit confusing.

Lastly, I agree with another reviewer who remarked that CT tries to cover to much ground. Another 100 or so pages of background info on chinese philosophy and concepts might have been very helpful. The sixteen posture form portion of the book might have been traded for more info on philosophy, as it is of very little interest to the reader. Mr Lu often uses terms that are either not explained or are a bit “fuzzy”, as it were, meaning-wise. This again adds to the feeling of inaccuracy that prevails through the book.

2,5 stars

This is simply the best book of it’s kind. There are few tomes as in depth as this one and even taking its subjects separately it is still far more detailed than many so called specialized titles. In regards to Mr.Lawrence Kane – author of Surviving Armed Assaults, The Way of Kata, and Martial Arts Instruction , whereas I sympathize somewhat with him the fact is that many of the Internal arts have moves that could and would and have blocked a knife (not from making contact with the blade duh!) or a gun etc. and rendered the attacker neutral or worse. Put a short rubber baton or knife in your sparring opponents hands and you will see the beauty of the moves and applications that are already there. But as most masters agree on the most gifted martial artists are those who blessedly never have to fight but if they do they will do so righteously and without hatred. Buy this book. Read it. Absorb it.

Kent Howard’s careful translation and thoughtful presentation make this explication of Wang’s Ba Kua an invaluable contribution to the area of Chinese Martial Arts and Culture. While living in Taiwan to study the internal styles from 1975 – 1977 and having participated in translations of Sun Lu-tang and Sun Hsi-kun’s texts on the subject I know first hand the challenges of first rate translation of this complex subject. With advanced degress in Asian Studies and Clinical Psychology and over 30 years of practice in the arts of Tai Chi, Pa Kua, Wing Chun and William Paul’s system of Non-Violent Self Defense and Restraint I am also quite aware of the dedication and discipline required to produce this kind of high quality work.

Kent combines all the above and has given us the fullest and clearest presentation of Wang’s Pa Kua available. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

This is a very good book on the subject by an author that clearly has extensive experience and knowledge on the subjects. He present a unique form which combines key aspects of three arts

I’ve been practicing Internal Martial Arts for twenty years now, & been teaching for 15, including taiji (Yang), bagua (Fu Chen-Sung), & hsing-i (mishmash). I’ve had this Manual in the original Chinese for nearly all that time– & have found it absolutely Essential, even when I couldn’t read a word. How is that? b/c with Wang, you can learn quite a bit just by studying his pictures(!!)

For example: [esp in the 'Palm Change' pictures, Chapter 8]:
Wang’s energy is very whole-&-total, or what Sun Lu-Tang called the “I-Ch’i”: there isn’t a single picture where Wang’s lacking energy in any limb. Further, his root is extraordinary; you can see how his legs extend at least 3′ or more into the ground; esp. in the later palm-change postures, it’s like looking at an iceberg: most of Wang is below the ground. Even better, he is physically demonstrating the internal principle Fu Zhongwen translates as “an intangible and lively energy lifts the crown of the head” (or in other words, his shen energy is located in his upper dan-tien, while his ch’i energy is coalesced in his lower dan-tien). And yes his eyes are very bright, but his energetic balance is sublime: he never ‘emits’ from his eyes more than he extends downwards, thru his root. That is very rare to see demonstrated in my experience from training with several different (famous) Teachers, & even more rare to see it published in photos like these. This is the kind of thing that was once very carefully guarded as an ‘Inner Door Secret’; top practitioners showed that level of skill behind closed doors only, & definitely didn’t let (just) anyone photograph them doing it…

But for me? My favorite part are his ‘big hands’… many practitioners, esp those doing Iron Palm, are able to generate lots of energy in their palms… but that comes at the expense of other parts of their bodies, often their legs, etc. So you see ‘big hands on a small body’, or ‘lollipop arms’ if you will. But not Wang– he has Big Hands connected to a Big Full body, with a Huge Root. Wow.

So you get ALL of that with the pictures… & now you get to read the actual text as well!!

Plus don’t overlook the ‘Basic Principles’ section; similar ideas &/or ‘Secrets’ have been written in several other manuals, but this version has some very subtle distinctions which are crucial. For instance, the ’6-Combinations’ description is very elegant, and the ‘pull-up anus’ (ie ‘ding’) emphasizes “lightly contracting” (rather than forcibly exerting– a very important distinction, helping you avoid lots of maladies…).

Incredible book, & now an incredible translation. We owe a massive debt to Kent Howard and Chen Hsiao-Yen. THANK-YOU, SO MUCH!!!!

It s a great gift of Knowledge. Most people don’t know there is different types of Tai Chi.

The initial part is very interesting as a philosophic overview of internal styles. The author gives a very clear description of the reason for the different styles and their approach to fighting.

The next part the author goes into basic hand palm and kicking techniques. Such that any one that has had Kung Fu should already know.

Then the author goes into detail on the gungfu or standing practices. His explanations of the techniques and what you should be doing internally are very detailed and interesting.

So far I thought this book was targeted towards beginners.

The last part of the 16 forms appears to be targeted towards intermediate to advanced practitioners. The forms are fairly sophisticated and did not have the detail of explanation that the previous sections had. Thus one would have had to have previous training to understand this section of the book. Also the author does not tell from which style each form is derived from or related to.

I would have rather seen less forms, perhaps 2 that are representive and that demonstrate the aspects of that styly with more detailed explainations relative to the perspective style.

This small volume is really one of my new favorite works on Baguazhang. It has the qualities of being both brief and enjoyable. I think the best way I can express my enjoyment of the book is like this: it is short enough that I read the entire thing in Barnes and Noble, but interesting enough that I still bought a copy anyway.

As a practitioner of xingyichuan, I found the book a useful reference resource to add to my martial arts library.

This is a reasonably comprehensive and very interesting read. While the focus is on Chinese arts, practitioners of Japanese styles (like myself) can learn a lot from it too. The illustrations and photos are excellent, truly reinforcing the materials. The writing isn’t first rate, a bit hard to wade through in places due to the translation no doubt, but it’s more than adequate to communicate the essential materials.

The book begins with some fascinating history, principle, and background information about xingyi quan, taiji quan, and bagua zhang. There is a bit about tongbei quan and baji quan too, two styles I’d never heard of before. It then goes into the fundamentals of punching, elbow strikes, shoulder strikes, hip strikes, knee strikes, kicking, body alignment, and movement. The next section covers some basic applications and a good discussion of pushing hands (tui shou) and energy release (fa jin). The next section demonstrates a sixteen-posture form along with its applications. The final section goes in-depth into executing applications, important things like assessing an opponent, range, timing, direction, movement, and protecting your vital areas. There is a tiny portion about real fighting at the very end, but it is nowhere near complete or all encompassing.

Consequently, the title is a bit misleading. Combat implies fighting for your life on a battlefield, back alley, or similar situation. There really is very little about the nature of real fighting (as opposed to training, sparring, or tandem drills) in this book. There is absolutely nothing about important combat issues such as awareness, avoidance, escaping an ambush, evasion, escape, de-escalation, creating witnesses, navigating the legal system, trauma triage, weapons, or any other fundamental aspect of self-defense. There is, however, a lot of great material about fighting applications from the various forms. If that is what you are looking for, you’ve found an excellent resource in this tome.

Great book; misleading title. Recommended for practitioners of Chinese and Japanese arts alike.

Lawrence Kane
Author of Blinded by the Night, among other titles

This book is well written, but the photos are too small and the combat applications, if any, are not for modern times. There is a lot to be learned, but John Painter’s books are the best for street combat and easy to follow with larger photos and diagrams.

I belong to the Bujinkan Martial art School, and I teach Ninjutsu and Tai-chi. I have interest in Bagua, and try to read everything I can about it. I also practice it a little bit, but since my main focus is Ninjutsu and Tai-chi I am just really being inspired by this beautiful and deep martial art.
This book is important because it is written by a real master of Bagua. It is relatively short and give the basic of the art, but the gist of the book to my mind are the pictures of the author, Master Shujin Wang, performing postures of the Single and Double Palm.
Publishing this book is a fine initiative, I hope that more translations of the deep aspects of the art will be done, and released in the near future.