Customer Reviews

Scholar Boxer: Cháng Nâizhou's Theory of Internal Martial Arts and the Evolution of Taijiquan

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When North Atlantic Books published Ben Lo's "Essence of Tai Chi Chuan" in the early 1980's, the book was seen as a sure failure. Who would care about these poetic and obscure teachings from a strange looking martial art? Over 20 years, and many thousands of copies later it is seen as one of the most important first steps in opening up the western world to Tai Chi, and the Chinese internal martial arts.

Marnix Wells's new book on Chang Naizhou, the Scholar Boxer, is the next such book. For those interested in the theory, history and practice of the internal martial arts, this book is going to blow your mind.

Now that the history of Tai Chi and the other internal martial arts have been investigated, translated and published in English, a certain baseline of knowledge has been established here in the west. Readers who have pondered the developments over the last few decades are ready for the revelations that Scholar Boxer brings forth. Fascinating insights into history, energy cultivation and combative practices await the reader.

This book is ahead of it's time, similar to when the "Essence of Tai Chi Chuan" first came out. In due time however, this book will be seen as the first that truly cracked open the next level of insight into the internal martial arts. This book has taken martial arts translation to a whole new level.

Now westerners, instead of debating abstruse theories of history, can more fruitfully spend their reading time discovering how boxers in the 1700's ACTUALLY wrote, taught and practiced. Now all the theory can be informed by actual fact. By looking at a book published during the formative years of todays internal styles we can gain a whole new level of insight.

I hope todays readers spend a lot of time investigating the teachings that are revealed in this book. I believe that many people will be able to improve their practice with a taste of authentic Chinese internal martial arts knowledge.

Thanks to Marnix Wells for his exhaustive efforts in researching and translating this amazing book.

-Jess O'Brien

To give you some background, I have 22+ years of experience in martial arts, including 9+ years in internal martial arts training-- the latter with a classically-oriented teacher with a direct lineage back to Yang Cheng-fu. In addition, I have an MD, and my specialty focuses on kinesiological analysis. I'm pretty familiar with biomechanics/anatomy. So, despite all that, this was a very esoteric book, not easily grasped.

Professor Wells' translation is extremely literal, and his interpretation possibly over-technical as another reviewer has stated. The organizational form is basically this: in sentence-to-paragraph level amounts, Wells provides a fairly literal translation of Master Chang's text. Then, Wells sprinkles in his own interpretation as to what Master Chang was trying to say, and tries to supply analagous concepts from the Tai Chi Classics and other known historical texts. Professor Wells appears extremely well-read in the related literature, as well as well-versed in Tai Chi/internal martial arts concepts.

There is, however, plenty of room from the step of translation to interpretation. Wells' interpretation are very strongly rooted in physiology and anatomy. If Master Chang's intent was to convey artistry and symbolic imagery, then it has been lost, certainly. But somehow, I didn't get the impression that this was significantly the case. The translations, if accurate, were fairly spartan and had a literal feel to them. From reading the English versions, I didn't get the sense that poetry was being excluded. Therefore, Wells' interpretation were equally utilitarian. I interpreted this to mean that Master Chang was trying to convey a very real sense of his martial art with the available vocabulary of the time and location, without resorting to metaphor (perhaps with the understanding that metaphor can potentially create confusion!).

Despite this tendency towards simplicity, the literal translation was somewhat inaccessible. Even with Wells' helpful notes to the effect of "Sunny is referring to extensor muscles and shady is referring to flexors..." and others, I could not easily grasp or understand IN DETAIL what Master Chang was trying to instruct his reader to do more of or less of, or whatever.

It didn't help that-- and this is important for potential readers-- Master Chang's martial art style IS NOT TAI CHI (at least not a version that I know-- and I've seen enough Wu, Hoa Wu, Chen, Yang, and Sun to easily distinguish them). Wells spends a good deal of pages detailing the history of Chang's martial art (a compendium of a good number of styles as was not atypical for the era). Nor is it any Bagua style that I am familiar with, nor even a Hsing-I system that I know of. The importance of this is that there is very little frame of reference for a practitioner to draw on. One must discern the "energy" and intent of the postures from shady/sunny analogies and pencil-like drawings. Not an easy task-- and Chang's art is different enough from the more common internal styles popular today-- that getting anything out of this book for my training was extremely difficult.

In summary, a nice history of an (historically) important text from medieval China. Written with a significant academic bent, including signiicant references and annotations-- in a style befitting an academic paper. But not easily grasped, nor accessible. I did not spend the time poring over each line of text, trying to grasp what Master Chang was referring to, playing with each posture, experimenting with various energies, until I understood. I think that's the level of reading that would be required to get anything significant out of this book. Maybe when I'm better at this, when there's nothing else to read that might be of benefit. But for now, this one goes on the shelf, and maybe I may refer to it in bits and pieces as something strikes me. But if there's that much to be had from this translation, it will take a LONG time to discern it, IMO.

This is a book for serious internal neijia practitioners only and presents what I would call internal martial art code or the koans of internal neijia power. Like Tai Chi Classics by Waysun Liao, or the translation of Yang Ban-hou in Secrets of the Yang Style by Yang Jwing-Ming, this is written in code and is not a "how to" book. These books are good for reference and for confirming what you are learning, and for crystallizing your knowledge, but not for teaching or basic learning. Its the book that you go to when you have one of those "aha" moments and you see that the information was there in front of you all of the time. If you re-read the classics like this every few years, each time another piece falls into place and over the years your depth of knowledge grows as you walk the path.

One one hand, this book is unprecedented and amazing. The historical significance of a documented understanding of the internal martial arts that predates all of the modern lineages is truly groundbreaking. Chang admits he had no one teacher that gave him the 'internal transmission' for his 'miraculous gongfu.' He seems to have pooled together everything he had available to him: some external martial forms, some qigong meditation practices, an understanding of Chinese classical literature, and most importantly, genuine common sense. This book does great service towards dismantling the dogmatic authority of anyone who says it can only be done one way.

On the other hand, the translation is exceedingly awkward and almost unintelligable in parts. I appreciate Marnix's effort towards approaching the translation in a different way. He translates word for word, keeping the same word order, and gives nothing extra towards elaboration of meaning. If you have already translated some Chinese, this may work for you. But if not, good luck. Also, he tends to miss the subtlety of the Chinese poetic approach, looking instead for literal and mechanical explanations of Chinese qualitative terms. For example, he tries to reduce the relationship between yin and yang qi in the acupuncture channels to the use of force in the extensor and flexor muscles. While this is part of the meaning, it is limiting. He should follow Chang's advice to beware of being 'partial or leaning' in any one direction at the expense of another. This unfortunate academic technique reduces this potentially profound text into a bunch of technical notes and historical anecdotes.

However, for anyone serious in their study of internal dynamics in the martial arts, this book should not be missed. The detailed introductory notes are worth the price of admission alone. Just take the translation with a grain of salt, as they say. Don't stop pushing and seeking. Survey the entire crowd of brave heroes and stay rooted in the central breath of common sense. Let's just hope this is a first draft, and more clarity will be brought to this work in the future.

This book presents some really good study material. Especially if you consider yourself a student of the internal martial arts. There plenty of history, the roots of Tai Ji, accompanied by the aphorisms that have been helping the students to progress on this exciting path.

I love this book. I have actually read it twice since purchasing it 2 years ago. Sorry of the late review.

I must start off by stating that you definitely need familiarity with neijia, before attempting to tackle this book. A complete beginner will get nothing of value, save for some historical references, and links to Chenjiao (Chen village, source of Taiji Quan.)

The text is a translation of Chang Naizhou's manual of internal boxing, his theories of internal cultivation, proper use of qi, and application of jing. While using principles quite similar to Taiji Quan, Chang's art is quite different. However, it does provide valuable historical references, and gives the reader a better understanding of Taiji Quan's source, influences, and similarity to various Shaolin arts. No serious scholar of Taiji Quan should overlook this gem.