Cheng Hsin: The Principles of Effortless Power [Paperback]

Peter Ralston (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 29, 1999

Every once in a while you find a high impact book. Something that awakens something deep within and lasts forever. This is the one. It is a book that you can pick up time and time again and always gets something new out of it, or something deeper than you. Cheng Hsin is the best introduction for beginners to the internal practice of fighting. It is a seminal work that draws on T'ai Chi Ch'uan, Aikido, and Pa Kua Chang and was written by the first Westerner ever to win the world championship in a full-contact martial arts tournament.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The Principles of Effortless Power is one of the most profound books ever written about the martial arts. It has completely changed my thinking about my own art, Aikido. Every time I read the book, it opens up entirely new areas of inquiry, possibility, and realization."
-John Stone, Aikido in America

"What Peter Ralston does remarkably well is to clarify what the classics have been trying to tell us, and to offer concrete direction on how to continue growing and become better in the internal arts. You can't fix Cheng Hsin on the wall with a pin, because, as you try, you realize that Cheng Hsin is the wall, and the pin, and the action, and the intent."
-Frank LaManna, T'ai Chin Journal

About the Author

Peter Ralston was raised in Asia and began studying martial arts at the age of nine. By the age of nineteen he was a black belt in Judo and Jujitsu (Nidan), black belt in Karate (Shodan), had been Sumo champion at his high school in Japan, Judo and fencing champion at the University of California at Berkeley, and had demonstrated proficiency in Kempo, Chuan Fa, and Northern Sil Lum Kung Fu. Later he studied Tai Chi Chuan, Hsing I Chuan, Pa Kua Chang, Aikido, Japanese and Chinese fencing, and western boxing.

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: North Atlantic Books; 2 edition (January 29, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1556433026
• ISBN-13: 978-1556433023
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.6 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #127,883 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful introspective look into internal martial arts, September 16, 2003

By 

V. K. Lin (Eugene, OR United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Cheng Hsin: The Principles of Effortless Power (Paperback)

The difficulty with understanding internal alchemy,internal power, qi, is that even in the original Chinese, the language is highly symbolic. Ideograms (Chinese characters) can have different meanings in different contexts. Combine that with the Chinese penchant for exaggerating and analogizing things, and any translation of original Chinese texts must be taken with a grain of salt. At the very least, a deep understanding of the context is required in addition to fluency in the language.

For those of us with primarily Western backgrounds, Peter Ralston's book Cheng Hsin is wonderful. He relies more on personal experience, takes quotes from the classics to support his narrative, to define what he feels is the key to understanding the internal martial arts-- specifically, effortless power.

Although some of his sentences are complicated, and take several readings to completely understand, this is forgivable. Finding the precise words in English to convey his meaning is a difficult task, and Ralston does so effectively-- albeit not simply with respect to grammar.

What Ralston does is break down all those esoteric principles you've read and or learned from studying internal martial arts-- be it Tai Chi, Ba Gua, Hsing-I, or others-- and put them in understandable, and IMO, realistic terms. There is no actual spirit here, or internal energy, simply awareness, understanding, consciousness, and biomechanics. To me, a wonderful, realistic interpretation that makes sense from a Western standpoint.

Having ongoing formal training in this area, I can tell you that unlike other reviewers, I found this book delightful. It corroborated all the teachings that I had gathered from my instructor and guest intructors and readings, and put it in another perspective, adding increased insight.

In many respects, it IS a step-by-step guidebook for developing improved structure, internal awareness-- and better yet, there is no quasi-mythical/symbolic gobbledygook to confuse you! To native medieval Chinese, references to earth power and qi may have been intuitively obvious, but I have been trying to understand these terms from a Western point of view. Ralston makes a great stab at it-- right or wrong-- he strips out the spiritual per se-- and gives us something to really focus on and work on. Yes, he talks about consciousness and focus and awareness and being, but anyone who has worked in meditation or internal arts will instantly grasp what he means. Ralston does a nice job of DEFINING what he means when he uses these words.

When the world-famous Chinese master says to you "Move your qi here..." and you say... "Okay, what do you mean by qi, and how exactly should I move it?" You get different answers from different masters... many high-level masters downplay qi. Ralston eliminates that all together. This is what he discovered, this is how he interprets it. Fantastic.

Now, the only question is whether he's missing something or not...

A must read. If I had my own school, this is the one book so far that I would make mandatory...

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Cheng Hsin for fighting, playing, living., August 7, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Cheng Hsin: The Principles of Effortless Power (Paperback)

Ralston is hardly the first fighter to realize there is more to be gained from internal martial arts than the ability to knock people down effectively, but few if any have written as effectively or honestly about the connection between the principles that make internal martial arts work and the exploration of one's own physical and conscious being. Ralston's Cheng Hsin cannot be 'explained' by a book any more than internal martial art can be learned from a book, but Ralston offers the reader both concrete, valuable advice on training, and a way for the reader to begin his or her own study of the connection between internal martial arts and ontology. The book is dense; the dedicated student will find multiple readings rewarding.

Also recommended: William C.C. Chen, _Body Mechanics of Tai Chi Chuan_. Tai Chi pugilism straight-up, from a consummate teacher and master of the art.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is a book that can change how you live your life, August 17, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Cheng Hsin: The Principles of Effortless Power (Paperback)

Every once in a while you find a high impact book. Something that awakens something deep within and lasts forever. This is the one. It is a book that you can pick up time and time again and always gets something new out of it, or something deeper than you ever did before. It is written by a man who is one of the most courageous I have ever met, some one who dared to venture into experiences we might dream about and others that we might never have considered possible. It is about fundamental ways of being, of connecting with principles - a source - that somehow we find ourselves disconnected from, and to the degree that we are disconnected, disempowereed, distressed, even suffering (though we may not acknowledge it). This book is about the effortless joy and freedom and power in our humanity that is available to us all, right here, right now, in every moment. Peter Ralston has made a huge diffence in my life. Allow him into yours.