Customer Reviews

The Tao of Yiquan: The Method of Awareness in the Martial Arts

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

 

 

This book is definitely a must read for all persons who wish to learn the science of internal martial arts.

The book nicely explains how the internal Taoist practices evolved from the Indian martial and yogic arts. The text weaves together the history and practices of these arts like a novel, bringing us to the creation Xingyiquan. From there we are introduced to the masters of Xingyi and to the founder of Yiquan: Wang Xingzhai. Again, the text reads like a novel as we progress through the life and adventures of Wang Xingzhai. Using Wang's own writings, the author clearly describes how Wang reached his conclusions and developed his art. Mr. Diepersloot then take us through the chronology of how he and his teachers all arrived to the art of Yiquan. This gives the book its greatest power: creditability. We learn from the experiences of the author and five masters on how and why this art works.

There is a wealth of technical information in this book and many awareness/movement drills. Unfortunately, the material is over the head of anyone who has not experienced the sensations described by the author. However, this is exactly the type of material a person needs to read before doing this practice. It should then be forgotten until the practioneer feels it for themselves. In other words this material trains you subconsciously to obtain the desired objectives. Then all that is required is hours and hours of practice.

The book is very grounded in the physical practice of Yiquan. There is a small, but very good discussion about empty force, as it applies to interpersonal energetics. The author offers very good, seasoned insight into this controversial subject.

The book clearly illustrates how this practice changes personal perspective, physical body dynamics, energy and way of living. But there is a lot that the author leaves for personal discovery. In conclusion this is the best book I have ever seen on this subject. It will most likely become a classic that will be recommended to students for decades to come.

This book captures the essence of Yi Quan (or "I Chuan"), translated as as "Intention Boxing". Yi Quan fighters use their mind to direct their Chi or internal power (instead of raw muscular power) into their fighting moves. It is not surprising why Yi Quan has gained prominence in various parts of the world.

This book is the second of Mr. Diepersloot's series that focuses on Yi Quan's stationary standing practices and internal power generation techniques to harness and direct the Chi into various parts of the body. As a means for improving one's health, Yi Quan provides an excellent and easy-to-perform set of exercises to pump healing energy into the channels and organs of the body. As a means for developing self-defense skills, Yi Quan offers a unique training methodology that develops power, speed, and technique through "movement in stillness" and "stillness in movement". Unfortunately, this is the only comprehensive book in the english language that captures the fine points of this exceptional martial art. Every martial artist's bookshelf is incomplete without this book.

Yi Quan or I Chuan is a fighting method developed by Master Wang Xiang Zhai, one of the top Hsing-I Chuan lineage disciples of the great Master Guo Yun-Shen. It is said that it is only Master Wang who learned all of the internal martial arts secrets known only to Master Guo. After years of further research, Master Wang formulated this unique fighting style. This book distills Master Wang's wealth of internal martial arts wisdom for the benefit of the earnest student. The topics on the standing exercises alone is worth ten times the price of this book.

For many years, Mr. Diepersloot has learned, practiced, and shared his knowledge about the internal secrets of the internal arts to his students. He is a hands-on expert in the field who speaks from experience. I highly recommend this book.

Sorry, a pretty bad book. Much of the information on Yiquan presented in this book is from second and third hand oral sources. Better information on Yiquan, its practice, its history and its founder can be found on various Yiquan websites. This is odd because Yiquan, and its theoretical and historical roots, is probably the best documented of any of the internal martial arts - at least in Chinese. In all the Chinese text, as well as among serious practitioners I have encountered, the meditative aspects are incidental to its effectiveness as a fighting art and discipline of efficient movement. Much of this gets distorted from the author's re-telling of his teachers' re-tellings of the art's origins and principles. The book concentrates far too much on the meditative tradition and the author's meditative journey to self-discovery over actual martial application and essence. After making the art such a central part of his life, the author should have at least ventured a short trip to China to see how Yiquan is actually practiced outside the Bay Area. Yiquan is widely practiced - and growing - in China and has always been billed as a scientifically objective study into what works, even today producing respectable free-fighting contenders. Given the poor quality of layout, graphics and prose, the book maybe should have scored a bit lower than the one star I gave it. The one good thing about the book is it is the only English-language "book" to introduce Yiquan. As said before, good translations of the masters, as well as much better and accurate information on Yiquan is available on the web.

The text is informative but not really instructional (i.e able to practice with the book) and the illustrations are done using a B&W computer generated 3D mannequin, making it hard to see exactly what's going on. Still, if you're interested in yiquan, it's a welcome addition.

I can only copy here what I already wrote about the other Diepersloot's book.
That's really a good book.
Good for absolutely beginner as well as for experts. It explains theory (without any mystics) and how to develop skills. Very deep, simple and consistently step-by-step approach. It tells you how a joint (just to give an example) should be used and how to work to consistently achieve that skill. The best think I appreciate of this book is about "how to do" and "how to develop" sensitivity (with clear examples and the work to do) on both your body, the external environment, rooting, push hands .......
You can use this book as beginner to just start your journey on I just can copy what I already wrote for the other Internal Martial Arts as well as to get insight from it on improving your study and to help your pupils advancement with the exposed exercises.
I read this book some years ago and I have to admit it greatly influenced my practice, knowledge and skills.
I highly recommend this book (as well as the other Diepersloot's book) it absolutely will not a waste of money.
I really have to thanks Jan for writing these books and to apologize for waiting so much to review them.

as this is the only book available in the Engish language,other than wang xuanjues dacheng quan, it is mandatory reading.the first part of the book on the history of yiquan and the writings of master wang xiangzhai are very good but i have reservations about some of the training methods.the author starts okay with the section on pile standing but then seems to loose his way when he gets to ji jizhuang.the author makes no mention of the amount of tension required or the mental use of external objects get whole body tension.his description of shili far too complicated.again there is little mention of the use of mental images-the soul of yiquan.i was surprised that he used wang xuanjues description of fali rather than using his own description.i know fali is hard to describe but the authors own description would have been better than a secondhand account.with the right teacher yiquan is far simpler than this book would have you believe but having said that it is good to see a book on yiquan published in the English language...

As a student and teacher of both Chinese and Japanese martial arts for many years I found this book useful and interesting, although I agree that the author could have spent more time discussing how to achieve and cultivate internal energy in addition to the discussion of the more ethereal spiritual aspects of the art. In that regard I agree with Quinn that Yi Quan's superior combative aspect is what has created its increasing popularity, and the author could have delved more into that, but then there are also a lot of other books out there, such as those by Robert W. Smith and others, that already show the physical and mechanical aspects of the art. Obviously the author's intention was to produce a more advanced book discussing the philosophical principles as well, and I think he deserves some credit for that.

Overall, then, a good book, especially in regard to Yi Quan's history and its many technical, philosophical aspects, but if you want more of a how-to book you'll need to look elsewhere, or better yet, get some of the excellent videos that are now available on the internal boxing styles.

I have purchased many books on the subject of internal martial arts, specifically in the Xing Yi, Ba Gua, Tai Ji and Yi Quan. Yi Quan is an elusive subject, with very few chinese texts translated. This book provides a refreshing look at the history and sources of these arts. The book is a great read simply for its profoundness. Its not loaded with abstract thoughts on the subject of Yi Quan. It does a great justice to this seemingly lost art.

I found this book pretty good, as well as easy to read. It can easily be a "how to" book for a starting yi quan practitioner. I mean, the practice is basically based on standing meditation the Universal Pole and its variations. Also, t was intersting to know about mr. Diepersloot's teachers and their respective approaches.

p.s. don't have to pay this crazy amount. Just go to JD website.

A lot of intellectuallized verbiage, but no real substance on how to train for internal strength, or how to use it for effective martial applications.
On the other hand, it introduces some of the personalities of the Yi Quan world, and gives some relevant historical background on Wang XiangZhai.