Customer Reviews

The Taijiquan Classics: An Annotated Translation

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I think that this book is a must-read for anyone who loves taijiquan, or who is intrigued with China. It's a wonderful exploration of the T'ai Chi Ch'uan Classics. It has a wealth of detail and new discoveries about taiji history. Chen Weiming's comments to the Taijiquan Classics are incredibly valuable and the additional notes of the author gave me a whole new perspective. Barbara Davis, the author and translator, has done a great job of making this information accessible and an enjoyable read. The serious reader will want to dig into the plentiful footnotes and references, as well as the original text in Chinese in the back. I wish I'd had this book when I started studying twenty years ago!

While reading the book I noticed way too much of the author's take about TCC in what I would have liked to be a presentation source material.

And, I have large misgivings about this take, 2 examples follow.

Using such generics as 'energy' to correspond to specifics such as chi or jin is not acceptable.

Not differentiating between physical structures such as the yao and the chi organ ming men is another blunder.

I'll finish reading it, in time, I hope, but the original joy of reading a new book is gone for me.

David L.

This is a great translation of a important foundational works of Taijiquan. Barbara does a great job of ensuring complete understanding of the underlying concepts.