Customer Reviews

Chi Kung: Taoist Secrets of Fitness and Longevity

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This book describes the philosophy and the practice of Wild Goose Chi Gung in a very clear and specific way that lay people can understand. She clearly describes the hand and other movements, the points of the meridians and the positions of Wild Goose Chi Gung. I highly recommend this book.

This is not, thankfully, another generic book on "chi practice". Author Wen Mei Yu Introduces us to and instructs us in a very specific form of Chi Kung: Wild Goose Chi Kung. Yu was a student of Madam Yan Mei Jun, the legendary grandmaster of this popular and complex school of energy cultivation.

Every necessary topic is covered in this volume, including history (photos of Grandmaster Yan Mei Jun are included), philosophy (this is a Taoist school), Theory (very detailed, many diagrams with explanations), and of course the COMPLETE 64 movement Wild Goose form.

A note on the instructional photographs in this volume: every technique is illustrated by several photographs. The pictures do an excellent job of communicating direction, movement, posture, et cetera. Yu also takes the time with more complex techniques to show common mistakes practitioners should avoid. This is probably one of the best books on physical chi practice out there. I found it to be thorough but not cluttered. Every piece of information fit, and the author's descriptions and explanations were easlily understood in the context of traditional belief and practice.

*Update: This review was originally published in 2004. As of 2011 Wen Mei Yu has retired and is no longer available for teaching.*

I've met and studied with the author, Wen Mei Yu, and she is the real thing. We are lucky to have this book, especially in English. She teaches here in Los Angeles and also does healing work for cancer patients at UCLA.

The first half of the book gives a concise review of the basics of chinese energy work and esoteric Taoism. It is laid out in a matter of fact way without any fantasizing or superstitious sillyness.

The second half of the book is a methodical training manual for a powerful chi gung form. Regular practice, even without a teacher, yields results to the capacity of the student. This may be the best way to really learn to experience the flow and feeling of "chi" if you don't have access to a master guide to help.

Highly recommended.

Let's be short and to the point: To date, this is the best available book on Wild Goose Qigong. Wen Mei Yu's set of three accompanying videos, sold through her website, are also of the highest standard and all I wish is that other "masters" flaunting videos put forth the same production quality.

Excellent material, very well written, with detailed instructions. It covers the basic knowledge about Qi Gong, explaining the energetic system (channels, meridians, points, centers, etc) and every excercise is explained also in the energetic purpose, something often missing in the written material on Qi Gong, where some authors pretend to clarify but always keep too much for themselves.
This is not the case.
the only critic I can do is that sometimes the breathing pattern is not explained, but anyone with basic or intermediate knowledge on Qi gong can intuitively find the correct breath.
A must!! I recommend it.
Horacio Di Renzo